Any Preppers Here?

Anybody prepping for that natural disaster, EMP, banking collapse, or zombiepocalypse?

I don't like to call myself a 'Prepper' because of the negative connotation of the crazy guys on TV, but I certainly believe in being prepared. I'm realistically concerned about a long-term loss of power from natural disasters, ice storms, and the like; not so much the zombies. :mrgreen:

I like to keep a good portion of food on-hand, for instance, and fall is the time of year when I restock the supplies for those possible winter disasters after having "eaten down" the stockpile over the summer. By the time I'm done, I should have somewhere around 3 months worth of food for four people - a bit longer if we've stretched it to the rice&beans only endpoint. Of course I have water and water purification methods on hand for longer timeframes than that, as well.

Since the cold is our biggest potential enemy here, I also have a way to heat our house with kerosene and store a couple weeks of fuel for it. Along those same lines, I have lanterns and fuel as well as more primitive methods to cook all that food above if we lose power and/or natural gas.

I build short-term kits for our cars with things like water/food, a heat source, warm clothes, an emergency alkaline cellphone charger, etc.

Anybody else do anything like this?

No. Besides having the essentials in case of more immediate emergencies (water, food, flashlight, batteries, etc), I'm not worried about a future that I can't clearly foresee.

Can't say we do to that extent. We have two creeks and a spring in our property so water isn't an issue. As for food: if there's a disaster that takes more than a few weeks/ months to resolve we have enough land (and a stock pile of seeds) to grow our own.

Not so much. At any given time, we would have plenty of food for a few weeks. Not necessarily a balanced diet, but we wouldn't go hungry. We have about 10 acres and lots of deer so, even though I don't care much for venison and hubby isn't a deer hunter, he does hunt and I'm pretty sure we would be ok. We have a wood burning fireplace and easily enough wood cut to keep us warm through a winter. Water isn't a problem here either. What I would be missing is fresh produce. I don't keep much in the way of frozen or canned vegetables any time of year.

In the car I always have a blanket. If the weather is horrible, there isn't anywhere I have to go that can't wait a few days.

This is a good reminder to make sure we have batteries for the flashlights. And we have soap - so at least we'll be clean. After we heat our water on the fireplace hearth.

I try to keep a couple of weeks worth of non-perishable food (besides beans and rice) in addition to what is in the freezer. Nothing major. We're in the city, and next to a nursing home, so our power will be on right behind the hospitals.

After 9-11, I bought a supply of dried vegetables, flour, sugar, rice and other items that I keep in one of our freezers. We have our own meat, fresh milk and eggs. I don't think of myself as a prepper, but I wanted to have some supplies on hand. Most of our great grandparents would be called preppers today, because they cured their own meat and canned their own fruit and veggies, enough to last the winter.

lsg said:

After 9-11, I bought a supply of dried vegetables, flour, sugar, rice and other items that I keep in one of our freezers. We have our own meat, fresh milk and eggs. I don't think of myself as a prepper, but I wanted to have some supplies on hand. Most of our great grandparents would be called preppers today, because they cured their own meat and canned their own fruit and veggies, enough to last the winter.

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That's pretty much where I'm at, too.

I think that's a great idea. I've toyed with the idea of picking up those buckets of dried food from Costco.

Does it count that I have enough soap to last 5 generations through any sort of disaster?

See when I hear prepper I think of the loony people who build hidden bunkers in out of the way woods - with lethal traps all over the place. They stockpile enough food and supplies for a decade - and plan to repel looters.

What you are talking about is just being prepared.

The "prepper = looney and dangerous" is pretty much how I think too. Some of the folks who identify strongly with the prepper lifestyle are disturbing -- especially the Posse Comitatus types. We've got a few of those living around here in northeast Iowa, and I will do all I can to avoid being around them.

As far being able to grow, can, dry, and freeze my own food for the next year or two -- preppers don't have any corner on that knowledge; it's pretty normal for how people in my world live. I personally don't choose to hunt game, but I'm accurate with a rifle or shotgun and know I could hunt for food if I had to. My DH hunts, and I have no problems butchering and processing what he kills.

Our house is heated with electricity and a big woodstove. Someday I'd like to install enough photovoltaic to run the well pump to cover in case a bad storm takes out the power -- we're in the boonies, so unlike Susie, I know we'd be on the bottom of the priority list for restoring power. A creek borders our property, but I can tell you from experience that it's no fun to chop ice to get water, especially since we have horses.

I think the Mormons have a good idea. (I am not Mormon, btw.) So because of their history of persecution in the USA they are sensitive about food security and being prepared for cataclysms in general. They are encouraged to put food by "just in case" and, until recently, they had dedicated commercial-scale canneries to help people do this (see: http://prepared-housewives.com/lds-cannery-locations-questions-answers/)....

But more importantly they encourage people to live in mutually-supportive communities. That is the kind of prep I believe in. I reside in a very culturally diverse, urban center that is walkable and where people really get to know each other. If I were in a neighborhood where I could not depend on my neighbors and they could not depend on me then I would be in real trouble...but also I try to keep some extra canned goods and containers of water around. Because, well, why not?

The Efficacious Gentleman said:

Does it count that I have enough soap to last 5 generations through any sort of disaster?

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Great! does that make me a prepper too? (Along with a lot of people on this forum no doubt!).

The US prepper show has just come on TV on Oz.
I was amazed. I had no idea some people prepared for a cataclysmic event like that in the US. We live in a tiny village with one powerlines in which often fails so we have a tiny generator - enough for the fridge and a couple of lights.
I truly hope no event ever happens that anyone in the US has to use their stores.

The Efficacious Gentleman said:

Does it count that I have enough soap to last 5 generations through any sort of disaster?

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You might could also turn that into currency at Burning Man.

There are still Mormon canneries around. I've looked into them :blush: but have not gone that far with prep yet.

I do things like buy a 50lb bag of rice (for $17 from a restaurant supply store, I don't know why everybody doesn't have this...), a couple dozen cans of ravioli from Aldi, dried beans, oatmeal, summer sausage, etc.

Along with just keeping a larger supply of the food we're actively eating. That is, if we normally eat one can of corn a week I don't keep just one can. I keep six cans, eating from the front and replacing to the rear - and I still only buy one can a week. Multiply that by pasta, canned chicken/tuna, other vegetables and whathaveyou and I could probably feed us ten days just from the kitchen without going into long-term storage in the garage.

I have a small supply of freeze-dried stuff - about 3 days. It's somewhat expensive but it's primary utility is that it can be prepared with nothing more than hot water. And then I have some life boat rations, which are little vac-sealed packs that remind you of a no-bake cookie except lemon-flavored. They manage to pack 3600 Calories into a 20ish oz block that is shelf-stable for 5 years. I put these in the car kits, primarily, as they are quite expensive (about $8/each) and not that appetizing.

The Efficacious Gentleman said:

Does it count that I have enough soap to last 5 generations through any sort of disaster?

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Yes that counts :crazy: eventually everyone will need soap

I've got just about enough food for 4 days in my house. I have a wood burning fireplace but only enough wood for about 3 days of steady fires if the power went out in winter (electric furnace). On the upside I collect oil lamps so I'll have light, and I have a propane camp stove so I can cook my 4 days worth of food. And I keep a giant thing of water in the garage for toilet flushing, although now that they forced us to go on the public sewer and I had to get a grinder pump, that could be a problem with no electricity to run the pump. Still, it would be a few days before the grinder pump got too full, without showers and all. And I do have a Berkey water filter for my well water (which silted up after they installed the sewer - go figure) so I can get water anywhere in case of emergency.

After going through three hurricanes in two years, I make sure to have a few weeks of food on hand and plenty of water for the household. I wouldn't bother with the fancy pre packaged SHTF stuff, you won't like most of it and it'll go bad anyway. One thing I did learn is to keep comfort (junk) food around because craving chocolate makes the day go wayyyyy slower . Whatever you do, only keep food you'll actually eat. No sense in 12 cans of corn and you like peas better!

If I was able to grow anything in mass quantites I'd can and preserve, but it's not cost efficent to buy here. I do stock up on toilet paper (and we won't mention soap) because THAT does not have an easy substitute...so there's several months of that on hand!

To each his own I say....but only having a few days of food on hand just leaves you open to problems where I live!

BrewerGeorge said:

There are still Mormon canneries around. I've looked into them :blush: but have not gone that far with prep yet.

I do things like buy a 50lb bag of rice (for $17 from a restaurant supply store, I don't know why everybody doesn't have this...), a couple dozen cans of ravioli from Aldi, dried beans, oatmeal, summer sausage, etc.

Along with just keeping a larger supply of the food we're actively eating. That is, if we normally eat one can of corn a week I don't keep just one can. I keep six cans, eating from the front and replacing to the rear - and I still only buy one can a week. Multiply that by pasta, canned chicken/tuna, other vegetables and whathaveyou and I could probably feed us ten days just from the kitchen without going into long-term storage in the garage.

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We keep quantities on hand in the kitchen the same way. The garage has a freezer full as well as a 50 gallon drum of wheat, 5 gallon buckets of beans, rice, oats, honey, molasses. My parents are Mormon and they also have what is called a bishop's store. All of our supplies were bought there at a very low cost. We plant a large garden most years and can or freeze what we don't use. We planted a number of fruit trees this year so in a couple years I should be able to can pears, peaches and applesauce without having to buy the fruit. We also dehydrate some things. Venison jerky gets made most years and my kids love fruit leather.

Fresh mullein leaves are the best TP direct from nature. Buttonweed leaves are second best.

Mullein didn't grow around the seed-corn fields I detasseled in the summers when I was high school and college age. We had to make do with buttonweed.

TMI, yeah, I know. :mrgreen: