Posted on 04/21/2009 5:45:18 PM PDT by appleseed
FORT WORTH — Jack Spirko owns a media company, is married to a nurse and has a son in college. He has two dogs and lives in a nice house with a pool in a diversified neighborhood in suburban Arlington, Texas.
Spirko, 36, considers himself an average guy with a normal life.
But for the past few years, Spirko has been stockpiling food, water, gas, guns and ammunition. He also has a load of red wine, Starbucks coffee and deodorant stashed away.
“I refer to myself as a modern survivalist, which means I don’t do without,” Spirko explained. “I have a nice TV; I have nice furniture. We are not living in the sticks, but I take all of these things very seriously.”
Spirko, an Army veteran and self-described “stark-raving-mad Libertarian,” is part of a growing movement of people who are preparing for a disaster natural, economic or man-made. Referred to as “modern survivalists” or “preppers,” they are taking steps to protect and provide for their families should something bad happen.
Theirs is a different breed of survivalist, far from the right-wing militants or religious extremists who hole up in bunkers, live off the land and wait for the apocalypse.
Preppers are regular people with regular jobs who decided after Sept. 11, after Hurricane Katrina or when their 401(k)s tanked that they can’t rely on someone else to help them if something goes awry.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
"Diversified neighborhood" - what a wonderful thought as long as everything is fine and everyone is getting along. Probably not a good place to be if and when the poop hits the fan.
www.beprepared.com is a good source.
guess we’re all right-wing-extremists now.
I like this one
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/
It’s bright and happy, so the kiddies don’t get scared when they read it.
http://www.berkeywaterfilterstore.com/
I got one of these, a little expensive but you can filter water right out of the river or lake. It’s portable too.
better prepared than not....
I was watching one of the scientific channels last night and they were talking about activated charcoal, the filtering chemical in these devices.
They showed a table (possibly a tea...) spoon and stated that it had as much surface area as a football field.
Amazing...
Ping
Not much of a survivalist if he lets the nosy newspaper reporter know all the details of his stash.
I figured the red wine was for drinking, the starbucks was for trade with people who had no clue as to the value of anything, and the deodorant was so he could have his pick of the remaining chicks.
give survivalblog.com a look if you haven’t already. lots of great info there. I just finished JWR’s new book and it is a great read.
Take a listen to the man’s podcasts and you’ll realize how off the mark your comment is.
I was building solar stills and survival caches back in 1985. American survival guide was the magazine to read back then when it came to this kind of stuff. That magazine died off at the newsstands but was resurrected online aunder the name “Modern Survival”. It can be found here: http://www.modernsurvival.net/
Lots of good info for “preppers”.
I’m with Jack BTW. What’s the point of surviving without red wine? :)
Now that he’s revealed his name, where he lives and what he has.....well, now his neighbors will know where to go “shopping.”
He’d be smarter to go about his prepping with his mouth shut.
VirginiaMom
“Diversified neighborhood”
That diversity crap is not what it is cracked up to be!!!
Let me tell you! Rude horrible neighbors,(and assorted ankle biters)who care nothing about consideration. From loud junk music to same ankle biters throwing rocks at cars, golf balls at garage doors, neighbors decorative lava rocks at cars, tearing down guttering, etc....
So, the “moving to the sticks” is a good thing.
My new neighbors will be out of range of baseballs and shot guns. But not rifle range. /S
Thanks so much for the link. What a great resource!
Another great resource. Thank you.
Many people who live in rural areas do these things as a matter of course. When you can your produce, you can a year’s worth of whatever, prepare a year’s worth of meat, etc.
This isn’t survivalist mentality as much as it is common sense. Stuff happens. Be prepared.
I would add: learn to do things. Knit, crochet, fix things, grow things, etc. Learn to sew.
Before the Industrial Revolution, women spent more time on laundry and clothes than anything else - more than food preparation - it took up something like 40% of their week.
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