Posted on 12/06/2012 4:56:30 PM PST by Kartographer
Do you ever get the feeling that you’ll never be fully prepared? That it’s impossible to reach the level of preparedness you feel others may have or that you’d like to attain? Well you’re not alone. Lots of preppers have had those same thoughts. But don’t let it freeze you up and keep you from trying or send you to the depths of prepper despair. There are a few truths about preparedness that everyone should know.
(Excerpt) Read more at foodstorageandsurvival.com ...
Great resources. Thanks for posting.
That’s ok. I rather watch old reruns of ‘Firefly’. NOW THAT’S Entertainment!
A short but sad story my FRiend.
A week ago woke up to the power off. Happens here all the time so no big deal right?
Even though I have a hundred flashlights I couldn’t find a one. All the candles we have? They were hiding somewhere.
Went out to start the generator and found out I have left the gas turned on and had lost two gallons into the soil.
Finally got gas in generator but could not find an extension cord to run into the house. Finally found one, got the coffee going and—————the lights came back on.
Oh yeah. I’m real prepared.
(I won’t tell anyone about the time I shot my water hose thinking it was a snake)
Well, I have concentrated mostly on better preparations for tornadoes and electrical outages which are not unusual here in Missouri.
With the high price of gasoline and the crash of 2008, it was so reminiscent of the kick off to the great inflation era, that I doubled down on aquiring all the food we normally purchase, in addition to taking some cash and investing to create a hedge against the loss of purchasing power.
A concern over the safety of our food supply with infectious or poisonous things/pesticides, as well as concern over ability to be able to continue purchasing the food we need led me to gardening for real vs a hobby of just a few items.
I found some books that detail plans for several ways to provide complete nutrition based on less acreage than commercial methods need. I have begun exploring not only canning, but dehydration, root cellars, seed saving etc.
I have no doubts that we can do it. I was talking about a cistern we had at Granny’s when I was a child and wishing we had one. Hubby made fun. Last summer’s drought demonstrated that our current rain barrel catchement was not sufficient. Now he would like a cistern too.
Due to cost, we decided to buy a pool on sale at summer’s end to hold about 5000 gallons to use on the garden. Now that Obama is re-elected, I feel that we are more likely than not to experience a collapse similar to Argentina, so am more concerned about the #1 item potable water.
I really really want to have the well water available for drinking short, medium, and long term just in case. For most situations we just fill up additional buckets to drain the lines and consider the water heater as the next line of defense. In the 46 years, we have never even had to use the water from the hot water heater.
So I would like a simple switch that would allow the pump to run off a generator, or solar powered inverter or something. Hubby says he can rig something up easy if we need it long term, but what if he’s stranded somewhere and can’t get back?
Or maybe a way to install a manual pump, but again we need to go with the cheapest option, and simplest if I am to get Hubby to take action. I would be happy to live off grid and not have electric bills to pay.LOL.
I think in a financial crisis, our biggest threat is losing the house, since we are still paying on the mortgage. We both get small social security checks, but Hubby has a decent pension. So I am still thinking about the options there. So the first 2 items on my list can’t be crossed off and are not as prepped as I would like.
But when it comes to food, I am feeling pretty good so far.
Our backyard is full of Fruit and Nut Trees, berry bushes, grape vines, persimmon tree, and lots of wild edibles in addition to strawberry patch and other garden spaces.
Some of the neighbors are great others not great, but better than those in our other options. Plus our children and grand children are here, and house would not be too crowded if they all moved in.
So yeh, it does seem that one thing leads to another, and prepping always has just a few more items to explore. LOL.
If you’re wearing only leather britches and caning your green beans, that could be S&M.
“A short but sad story my FRiend.....”
That was YOU? Hey - I think I live right next to you!!!
LOL
Could be my friend..Could be
Speaking of water wells. When I was a kid, “they” decided there were too many not so good eating fish in the river so “they” spent who knows how many tax dollars to poison the not so good fish. I still remember watching the helicopters dumping whatever chemical it was. Well, duuuuuh, both the good and not so good fish ALL died. People were swarming around grabbing the fish as they drifted to the top of the water and taking them home to eat.... Crazy. You get one guess about the water wells near the river. My family was worried about our well so went a friend’s well that was deeper than ours to get water. Of course, here’s another duuuuuuuh. The poison had spread into the ground water and depth doesn’t mean anything so we all got sicker than dogs. Everyone was sick so no one could help us and we didn’t have any water to drink to help flush the poison out. Thank goodness for the stash of tp and home canned chili. It was years before I could stomach chili again but I’m getting a bit nauseated just thinking about it. Sure, the EPA would go bonkers over such practices these days but I don’t put it past some in our current government or the terrorist groups they pander to to pull carp like this.
Well, the situation could be very dire indeed for someone that had absolutely no prep and was stuck in the city in some high rise apartment building.
However, out here in flyover country, where lots of people have homes beyond city sewers and water services, it is a better scenario.
As to electricity, my grandparents lived without when they were growing up. Unless you are on oxygen 24/7 or some other situation, it is not a necessity except for the well pump, and that can be prepped for in several ways as can the oxygen generator.
Would it be missed? Yes. I would miss it for running the refrigerator and having ice cubes available. I would miss it for the air conditioner and fans. All the other stuff is nice, but I would not miss as much.
So we all go back to living like the pioneers or early 20th century, for a long long long time, that’s ok, we can do it out here in flyover country with our bitter clingers to guns and our religion. We can do it better than many.
You do what you can. But you don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything.
I’d like to build a compound off the grid. Not going to happen unless I win the lotto.
But, in the last 2 years I have gradually stocked up with at least 6 months of non perishable food that does not require refrigeration and the means to cook it without power. I am well prepared defensively and have come a long way in my competence with a variety of home defense “implements”.
I have stockpiled essential medications, prescription and non prescription.
IMO, with any disaster, man made or nature, every week you survive in the initial stages dramatically increases your odds of long term survival. The completely unprepared are going to get weeded out fairly quickly.
However, no matter how well prepared you are, you must look inside yourself and realize there will be very tough and painful decisions ahead. Particularly when the unprepared around you figure out that you are not unprepared.
Fortunately I live in a small town and we are not too close to a major city. More than likely, staying would be a better option than bugging out, especially with some defensive capabilities.
Laz, have you read the two links posted by Kartographer on post no. 12? It’s about prepping if you have an apartment. There might be some suggestions there that would be meaningful to you.
Prepping never ends. I started in 1998. One day, I got a pad and pen and wrote down, from the time I got out of bed, how it would be if I had no power. Bathroom was first, what wouldn’t work and what I had to do to make it work.
I went through the whole day doing that. Then, I stopped to wash some clothes and thought, damn, how am I going to wash clothes? That day was the beginning for me and I set about to find a solution for every problem I had for that day.
As the years went by, new products were developed that were much better than I had, so I would update and get those new, better products. If they weren’t better, just new, I didn’t get them.
We come to today and I’m still updating and storing. So, it never ends for me but with every new can of food or product, it’s a good feeling - it is not a chore, it’s a blessing I have another can of food or another small propane bottle for my outdoor oven or my “safe to use indoors” propane heater.
Where did you get my picture?!
Now you can rig up almost any pot with a lid to distill the water into a cup. Also there is the solar pit method which involves a pit, container, plastic sheet, and rock.
I have actually been looking recently at some distillation apparatus that could be used to make ethanol, but wondering if it could also be used to distill water? Water is still at the top of my long term prep list, and I haven't yet decided on the best solution. The really small still wasn't that expensive. Held 7 gallons of mash and could produce 1 gallon of ethanol per batch. Feds are picky about letting anyone do this though.
We used to distill stuff in Chemistry lab all the time, but I don't remember any of it now, it was too long ago.LOL.
Even in the drought last summer, our central air pulled 5 to 10 gallons of water per day from the air, which we used in the garden. That would provide enough drinkig water for my entire family with some left over though.
Gives me the idea to look at dehumidifiers since it is not likely that central air would be available in a major long term grid down situation. We have already decided to get an inexpensive solar powered inverter to recharge batteries etc, especially if we happen to camp out on our property. However, maybe it would also run a dehumidifier in case we needed to manufacture our own water. Mmmmh. Food for thought? I am thinking it could work. Going to have to look into it a little more.
I don’t get that channel. What was the episode about?
Well, that sounds interesting. Wonder if I can find some schematics to show Hubby? LOL
Steve, I had to leave the house fast with a sick husband, (I wrote about that on one of these threads), and the house was dark and I didn't know where a flashlight was. That was a terrible time and won't happen again. On the floor by my chair where I am sitting right now, is a battery lantern. If the lights go out, I reach down and pick it up and hit the switch and the darkness goes away. Pick the flashlight or lantern you want and put it close to where you always sit so you can get to it without having to get up. Stumbling around in the dark looking for a flashlight is dangerous.
ACCIDENTS: I have friends that live in the Texas hill country. The husband recently had a heart cath and a stent put in, so he's not a healthy individual.
A few days ago, he took cans or something to the recycle place in their county. He uses a camera in his work and it was in the low storage place on the driver's side door. When he got out, his shoe caught in the strap of the camera and he fell flat on his face. He was in a big truck so he fell some distance to the concrete. His chin had a messy cut and his glasses cut places on his face.
Someone called 911 and they x-rayed his ribs and they were bruised but not broken. His chin required stitches. He was just getting over a cold so he wasn't feeling great to start with. His day stopped right there.
Accidents happen so suddenly and nothing is the same immediately after the accident. I think we don't give enough thought to what can happen "accidentally" and what we would do about it if there was no help available.
If no help was available, what would you have done if a member of your family was the one who had this accident and you were the only one to take care of him/her? How will you close the wound on the chin? Since you don't know if there is a broken rib, how do you handle that problem? Remember a broken rib can puncture a chest cavity if the person moves around to cause that to happen if it hasn't already happened.
And, check what is in the storage place of all the doors in your car/truck. Is there anything that could catch a foot and throw the person to the ground?
I keep stumbling on things I need to do. It drives my wife crazy sometimes. We were in a store buying her some cloth and I brought up a couple of magnifying glasses for her to add to her purchases. She asked why. I said to start fires. She said she had put away some matches, I said that after the matches ran out the magnifying glasses would work. The amazing thing is that it is fun and sort of like detective work or solving puzzles.
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