Anybody doing any Prepping??

[rowerwet]

my latest "prepping" is to look into building a wood gas generator to power my generator, and maybe an old car, gas isn't getting any cheaper!

[Roly Nelson]

Prepping reminds me of the goofy folks that were walking around with cardboard signs aound their necks, predicting the end of the world. They were all wrong, then, and they are all wrong now. There is no way that I plan to make any efforts to protect myself for the end of the world, because it ain't gonna happen in the near future. What do I do, when after the big bomb goes off and I open my shelter, to find most of the folks dead and the world not fit to live in. Come on, there ain't any way that anyone expects to exist after such an earth ending experience. Lets just bite the bullet and get fried with the rest of our neighbors, and end the fight who is gonna last the longest. Goodby folks, it's been a great life. By the way, don't bother to raid my grocery stocks, there ain't none, so just die with the rest of us, and forget about trying to be the last living person on earth, who is filled with all of the toxic poison..
Roly, taking off with my teardrop to higher ground.

[Bogo]

I think most of the hype now on prepping is just to make a buck off of peoples fears. For city folk, having a few weeks worth of canned goods in the pantry, keep them rotated, is a good idea, but beyond that, I'm not so sure. For a person living in the country, it is a good idea to have a month or more stored away. A few bad storms in a row can keep you from getting to the grocery store for awhile. If you live on a remote road, stock even more.

As for the end of the world scenarios... Not much you can do. You will need 6 to 10 years of food and supplies to survive a large asteroid strike, super volcano eruption or be lucky enough to be in an area that isn't affected to badly. I would not count on being able to grow any food for the first couple years. Smaller asteroids and VE7 volcanoes, move to an unaffected area, or a year's worth of food would likely do for them. Society's best bet for surviving a big one is to get our eggs in multiple baskets. This means colonizing space and other planets to the point where they don't need anything from earth. At that point, we likely could mine the asteroid into non existence before it hit. Might as well turn a disaster into profit.

The only near total wipe out event in human history is the Toba eruption which reduced the human population down to only 1,000 to 10,000 breading pairs. Humans will survive a Toba or Yellowstone, but our societies likely won't. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory Ooh, looks like due to recent South China Sea core data, they are now questioning the eruption size, and think 2,800 km cubed is a minimum rather than a maximum.

[mombear]

Prepping isn't about just stock piling years worth of food, its about being self reliant. Not needing the scraps that the government hands out after a disaster. Some of the commits show the lack of awareness about this topic.

[DriverOne]

My wife has some friends who joined a preparedness group, which is a lot different from most of the "prepper" mindset. They teach you how to hunt (including processing the meat), what "crops" to grow, and how to live out an emergency without being so inconvenienced by loss of electricity. It turns out, the possibility for people to survive even on a small scale takes more common sense than anything, as is the general gist of this thread.

A box garden can produce enough veggies for canning, and that's if you live in an apartment without land. Potatoes are awesome, ask the Irish. One deer can feed a family of four for a long time, and if you don't tell the kids it's not beef, a lot of them probably won't know.

One of my friends built himself a used-oil heater for his shop, and his neighbors usually bring him their used oil out of convenience. It wouldn't be hard to modify it to heat water, and I believe he's doing that now.

Diesel generators and Webasto heaters are at the top of my list as a trucker. You can run diesel engines off of almost anything! If you make your own biofuel, a byproduct of that is soap!

I have to agree that I prefer country living over urban living. Land is truly a valuable asset. I'm not afraid of rioting or anything out here, but I also don't own anything of real value. I think I like it that way. We have what works for us, and that's all. Just some rambling there.

[mombear]

My daughter lost power, last month, because we encouraged them to be prepared. They had a kerosene heater, and a coleman stove. So they went to the basement and got the heater fired up and lived in the basement for a week. They did have water, by being prepared, they were able be comfortable in their own house, and it was only a minor inconvenience. Had they not had the items they would of had to go to the shelter and with two little ones, I think it would of been miserable.

So prepping is being prepared for the little things that life can be thrown at you. With our aging electrical systems power outage will become more common.

[cdfnchico]

We have been purposeful in our attempt to be prepared for natural disasters and other events that would require us to take care of ourselves...Nothing crazy, but food, fuel and other supplies that will keep our family warm and fed. One thing I have started doing is preparing an older Kindle...that's right! A Kindle! Barring an EMP, a charge will last weeks and charging it can be accomplished via solar. Why? I have started to collect free or low cost Basic How To Books; Canning, Preserving, Butchering, Basic Wiring. Plumbing, How to Drill a Well, Reload Ammo, or Make Soap. Even Field Medicine, for when a doctor is unavailable. All sorts of things that are readily available right now...on the Internet that would be unavailable if widespread power went down. The Kindle will hold thousands of such titles...sorta fun to collect and add to my little library. Hope I never need it, but glad to have it if I do.

[S. Heisley]

We have been purposeful in our attempt to be prepared for natural disasters and other events that would require us to take care of ourselves...Nothing crazy, but food, fuel and other supplies that will keep our family warm and fed. One thing I have started doing is preparing an older Kindle...that's right! A Kindle! Barring an EMP, a charge will last weeks and charging it can be accomplished via solar. Why? I have started to collect free or low cost Basic How To Books; Canning, Preserving, Butchering, Basic Wiring. Plumbing, How to Drill a Well, Reload Ammo, or Make Soap. Even Field Medicine, for when a doctor is unavailable. All sorts of things that are readily available right now...on the Internet that would be unavailable if widespread power went down. The Kindle will hold thousands of such titles...sorta fun to collect and add to my little library. Hope I never need it, but glad to have it if I do.

That's a great idea, Cathy!!!

[Bogo]

One thing I have started doing is preparing an older Kindle...that's right! A Kindle! Barring an EMP, a charge will last weeks and charging it can be accomplished via solar.

Store it and the solar recharging system in a steel box and it'll survive an EMP.

I have a whole collection of those types of books in paper versions.

[mombear]

I would put that kindle and a solar charger in anti-static bags, a wood box and then in either a metal file cabinet or a steel trash can sitting on a concrete slab. I have an old laptop to do the same thing, but it also have a DVD drive in it for a movie or two. We keep our DVD's in a case, I've had fun with epoxy and put a copper mesh over the case and epoxied it, looks cool, I tried to leave room for some of the mesh to touch each other so we have a good seal. Not sure if a EMP will wipe a disk clean but why not have some entertainment for the first couple of days until reality sets in.

An old silverware box with the liner removed makes a very pretty wood box for the kindle and solar panel to go into. You might want to add a few other things like a small calculator, MP3 player, I have a small camera as well, you get the idea. Don't forget to put each item in its own bag and if you can remove all batteries (for the other things)

[cdfnchico]

We purchased this BioLite Stove. Awesome little stove, can be used with grill attachment, etc for actually cooking with very little fuel! but coolest feature is it's ability to charge it's onboard battery using thermoelectricity which can then be used to charge any USB device.http://www.biolitestove.com/

And an awesome collection of Free PDF's on assorted subjects can be found here http://www.preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html#Animals

[marshall0000]

There is zero empirical data that suggests this would be a good idea, so no. Every generation has felt the end is near, and every generation so far has been wrong. Nix the melodrama.

[48Rob]

Perhaps you could be so thoughtful as to explain what you mean by "this" and "melodrama"??

While some people, and entertainment oriented television shows/movies do take the "end of the world" thoughts to an extreme, because you saw it on television doesn't mean the mainstream population feels the same way.
You appear to be grouping all of us into one slot?

Do you feel it is dumb, or stupid to try to be prepared for a power outage by having a flashlight?
By carrying extra water when hiking in the desert?
By having some extra food in your pantry in case there is a blizzard or ice storm that prevents you from driving to the store?

Do you not keep a bottle of aspirin, or the like in your home in case you have an ache or pain?
Do you not purchase enough groceries to get you through the next week or two?

Though you may not care for the title, or want to be thought of as a prepper, we all prepare in one way or another for things we cannot control.

Some believe in and choose to prepare for "the end" the rest of us are simply prepared enough to make our lives more comfortable in case something happens to disrupt it.

Rob

[marshall0000]

[quote="48Rob"]Perhaps you could be so thoughtful as to explain what you mean by "this" and "melodrama"??

While some people, and entertainment oriented television shows/movies do take the "end of the world" thoughts to an extreme, because you saw it on television doesn't mean the mainstream population feels the same way.
You appear to be grouping all of us into one slot?

Do you feel it is dumb, or stupid to try to be prepared for a power outage by having a flashlight?
By carrying extra water when hiking in the desert?
By having some extra food in your pantry in case there is a blizzard or ice storm that prevents you from driving to the store?

Do you not keep a bottle of aspirin, or the like in your home in case you have an ache or pain?
Do you not purchase enough groceries to get you through the next week or two?

Though you may not care for the title, or want to be thought of as a prepper, we all prepare in one way or another for things we cannot control.

Some believe in and choose to prepare for "the end" the rest of us are simply prepared enough to make our lives more comfortable in case something happens to disrupt it.



"This" taken in context would of course be prepping. "Melodrama" would be having your arm amputated instead of applying a band aid on your paper cut because you fear gangrene.

[48Rob]

Marshall,

Thank you for the clarification.

I read your post again, and thought; maybe I missed something?
So I went pack and read all the posts.

What I found was one post with some photos that could possibly be taken as "extreme".
The rest of the posts, not counting those who indicated that to be prepared was foolish, said that they thought the end of the world hype was just that, but to be prepared for a minor disaster, such as a power outage, a snowstorm, a flood, etc. was a wise thing.

Again, no one here has proclaimed that the "end is near", no one here has supported that idea, other than perhaps by watching those entertainment shows on television and boosting their ratings...

So I ask; where is the melodrama of which you speak?
On television, for sure, but here? I don't see it.
What I see here are people wise enough to be able to care for themselves and their families for a few days, or weeks if need be, and who are trying to convince their neighbors and friends of the simple logic behind the idea.

Rob