Let's talk prepping...

I've always looked at storing food and water as a buffer to going out into the community after a national catastrophe to get food.

Most people(including myself) usually go to the supermarket a couple times a week, and if something devastating happens, it will be a while until stores can re stock their shelves.

I think having a good supply of food and water would really help a family survive at least for a while until maybe things become somewhat normal again.

Check out "hurricane katrina walmart" on youtube and multiply that chaos x a thousand nation wide if something similar would to happen

 

Oh this is gonna be a good one to follow. I'm of the knowledge is power group but I'm also a gear junky as well. Not sure where that puts me. Hell, if I had a few extra grand I'd wanna be set up like those folks on tv but in real life I'll just have to get by with me brains and what I have on hand.

 

People that prep for a hypothetical apocalypse like that often do so at the expense of their tangible, real lives... which I really don't understand.

I somewhat prep for man-made or natural disasters, but there are people out there that put an immense amount of time and money into prepping at the expense of actually enjoying their lives. To me, that's just not worth it. Why preserve a life that's not really worth preserving in the first place?

Prep using common sense, prep for the more likely scenarios... it's mostly just common sense. But those out there that rack up debt and everything in the name of prepping take it a little too far, IMO.

 

When I eventually have kids, I'll do the same for them that was done for me: I'll take them camping, teach them how to conduct themselves in an emergency, etc. I'll have enough supplies to get us through some of the more likely disasters, e.g. a tornado, flood, etc. Common sense stuff, right? Even FEMA tells us we should have those things on hand and provides instructions on how to build bug out bags. But when it really comes down to it, if I can take $200 and spend it on enough food to last my family a couple extra weeks in an apocalypse where we're doomed anyway or spend it on baseball registration for my future son or a girl scout trip for my future daughter, I'll choose the latter options 10 out of 10 times.

IMO, it's just common sense to be prepared. But preparing for the unknown doesn't just include nuclear war, pandemics, etc. It also includes planning for retirement, college tuition for my future children, hospital bills, etc.

Oh, and those seem much more likely to me

 

My grandparents were "preppers", I guess. They lived thru the depression, world wars, shortages etc., and they kept extra food on hand. They were prepared for power outages caused by downed power lines by ice or storm, tornadoes etc. Their habits didn't scare me in the least. They just found through life experience that it was prudent to prepare for the unexpected. That can be as simple and mundane as a truckers strike, gas shortages, job loss, crop failures, health issues, economy shifts.

Can't afford to prepare? Can you buy two extra cans of vegetables a week? Pick up an extra pack of toilet paper a month? Buy a cheap oil lamp and a few candles? Camping gear works fine in an emergency. You don't need a bunker to accumulate enough food and stored water to last a week, or a month. Be creative with your storage. I found some mil-surp helo gyro transport cases that are light plastic and stack tightly. I can put four in a three foot by three foot space like a closet. I forget how many cases of bottled spring water fit under my bed, but it is a bunch.

 

I agree, it can be taken to the extreme. For example, i have a friend , who when we talk on the phone, sounds like the next catastrophe is only hours away. It's quite exhausting sometimes to listen to all the conspiracy links to this and that lol!

The same friend even ordered enough "storable food" to fill an entire small bedroom. I had to laugh when he said it was delivered by a big truck, with a lift gate, on pallets etc...It's a bunch of grain and whatnot to make bread etc... not sure what it all was, but it was very laughable, because i KNOW the guy wouldn't know what to do with it to actually make bread. He has since talked about getting a "bread maker" LOL

 

When i watch those shows all i can think of is WOW. Most of those folks act as if its paranoia mixed in with hording. Some just hope for something to happen so they can test there own skills and EQ. What ever they hope for is not going to be as exciting as they think and in real life the hero would die. Bury your self under ground is same as digging your own grave and laying in there. There is a reason why for thousands of years being kicked out of tribe meant death. No matter how tough anyone thinks they are. Break a leg get sick and you are dead. What would any of you on this forum would do. You have your family along in the woods cold tired and starving. you come across a bunker full of food and water. They posted signs that says that anyone in sight would be shoot. What would you do??? With your family in mind??? Be honest about it. I know what i would do.
As for me I think of a major earthquake. I want to have enough food and water for 3 months. I figure that it might take that long to get food and water back in the city, In a major quake of 7.5 and up. I know for a fact that if a nighbore came in asking for food for his kids my mom would give it. Its the kind of a person she is. I dont mean she would give all she has but if she can spare some then she would. Had a late 70s customer a long time ago. she Grow up on a farm in Kansas. She used to talk to my mom alot. listening to her stories I could see why the two of them could spend hours talking. I know she would do same thing my mom would. Knowing that lady I would feel perfect having to survive with her at the side. She has more common sence and understanding of life. Then many folks do watching all those movies sitting on the net all day or walking around gun shows looking what gun to buy for there bunker. As for me i would help people out as well but i would always look behind me just cause of living in a big city you better do. Its not how much food you got stored but your attiude toward life and interaction with people around you that would save you. Life is meant to be lived not just survived day to day. Minnesotapride you got the right way of thinking I agree with you 1000%. There is a better chance that I would need to prepare for my future retirement then survive a nuclear war.
sorry for the long rant

 

You never know where an ice storm or a tornado or some other natural disaster will occur. It is (imo) important to have a plan and the basics of survival covered. Water, canned food, flashlights, batteries, maybe a gun and ammo for hunting and protection all good ideas.
In the event of a man made emergency or "dooms day" where there was no law and security was an issue, a huge stockpile of food and other goods in need might make you a target for thieves and looters. Travel light, shot gun, knife, five or six bic lighters. Try and have the skills and the knowledge to gather what ever you need along the way to a safe zone.

 

This hits on one of my biggest pet peves about them. They're totally convinced that holeing up somewhere with their guns is a better plan then actually interacting with other people. Sure there could be roving bands of zombie bikers that you may have to protect yourself against but most of the people are going to be people trying to rebuild. You look at any natural disaster and the best solution is always to work together. Not to bury yourself in a bunker with 3 years of food. Humans thrive when they work together period. There's preparing for disasters and such and then there's people that are just down right crazy and have gone off the deep end. People like Codgers grandparents are just prudent people in my book. Others who are convinced that the world is coming to an end and are preparing for it with a significant investment of time and money are wackadoos IMO.

My opinion is everyone should have some food, some water and some minor gear(radio and basic camping gear works). Good survival skills, good interpersonal skills(group dynamics) and a positive mental attitude will take care of everything else.

 

Well take the extremes of the collectors on this site and not that different. How many folks sport 300+ blades while mumbling something about SHTF, or guns, ect - I think hobbies can transgress into obsessions relatively easy and they represent an attempt at escape from real world life. This is incredibly common in society and I wouldn't really go out of my way to point out the preppers as somehow different or more mental than anybody else. Take extreme golfers - yeah that idiot who gets up at 4:30 am, three business days a week to get his tee off time and has the $1000 clubs and crocodile skin bag to match them. Now take the more normal, yet every bit as extreme, consumerism of the every day North American. This extreme consumerism (folks pouring over the weekly advertisements to see what new deal on the latest electronic gidget, or new phone or new IPAD, folks who routinely buy everything on credit so they can have it now etc.) is considered norm only because it is highly encouraged by market forces and peer groups. Extreme preppers spend their time and money on flawed things with a flawed argument and pass these problematic behaviors to their kids. Extreme consumers, the more common psychological problem in society, spend their money on flawed things (in hopes it that new purchase will put their needs to rest) with a flawed argument and pas these problematic behaviors to their kids.

Judge not, lest thee be judged I say.

 

I've watched the doomsday preppers too. The one thing they seem to forget is to live as simply as you can. Take the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. There isn't much you can do to them, because they can make do with practically nothing. I've read that you can walk through a Bushman's camp and never know it. An extreme example I know, but the idea of living simply, say at the level people lived on in 1900. If you can do it, you would probably do pretty well. Knowledge helps a lot too.

 

Preppers, sounds craftier than survivalists.