Posted on 06/16/2012 7:52:37 AM PDT by blam
I think the writer doesn’t give enough credit to those who’ve thought about preparing but haven’t done much.
Someone who has at least thought about the eventuality and done some research is still miles ahead of someone who refuses to admit there are problems.
I’m lucky I grew up in a tiny town with my grandparents and great grandparents within a block or two. I knew what a victory garden was by the time I was 5 years old. I learned to fix things rather than throw them away. I learned to be frugal and to keep food on hand.
On a side note. Speaking of prepper shows on TV, the show about Mountain men is probably more helpful than the prepper shows. Those guys live it every day.
Thanks. Great post.
I dislike the expression “SHTF”, because if you think about it, it is just a small part of a very big list of scenarios from “just annoying”, through “pestiferous” and “expensive”, as well as “hazardous” and “dangerous”, to “evacuation and refugee” and “fight for your lives”.
Overlaying this is the “disaster timetable”, which can be from an unpleasant weekend to a couple of decades. Part of which is the problem being “chronic” or “acute”, “intermittent” or “constant”, “stick it out” or “beat feet”. And the ever popular “live with it and move on”.
To make things even more entertaining is the equation of the problem in itself + government + others in the same boat who are not helpful. Call them “multiplying factors in making the problem worse.”
Having a well that isn’t dependent on electricity is no small trick.
Want to try putting in a holding pond?
Good luck!
The EPA will kick you off of “their” new found “wetlands”.....
bttt
Grandpa was either a hell of a shot, was taking small deer, or was willing to stalk a bleeding out deer for days.
Well done. Thanks! Emailed it on.
However, you can put in a holding TANK and use gravity feed for the times when there is no electricity.
Fortunately I have water at just a couple of feet and you can buy a hand pump for under $100, and a good one for around $200
Good article - brings back memories and knowing many farmers up this way are still living frugally, with an eye to the future. I got a kick out of the comments where others mentioned, among other skills, how the old timers made Chow Chow relish. I have the recipe for that from my grandmother and it’s the BEST relish ever. Got to plan on making more this fall.
Original prepper (our grandparents) ping.
I posted this article then went for a two mile vigorous walk with my dogs (my Golden Retriever is named Goldie) and during that walk I thought of this article and remembered that the wife of the guy who owned the small dairy that my dad ran (We didn't call it managing then) would send my brother and I out into the countryside around the farm to pick wild herbs for the pickles that she made...I can remember only two of the four herbs that we picked, bay leaves and fennel. Those were the days...we ate our morning cereal with pure cream from the dairy and pecans from the orchard.
We grew most of the food for the cows and ourselves there on that farm. (It's a sub-division now, The Highlands or some such)
Preppers’ PING!
/johnny
A few thoughts on items to stockpile.
Bars of soap. I know you can make soap from fat and lye. This is what made me think of stockpiling soap. Good to have, good trading material, the perfect gift for spouse or sweetheart if the emergency lasts a long time.
Canned salmon. Shelf life several years — check the date on the can.
Lumber. Some 2X4s, some larger dimension lumber. Nails, lag bolts. Some sheets of plywood. A roll of heavy plastic. Maybe sandbags. Obviously this depends on your living situation, storage space, whether you’re in hurricane country, whether you expect shelter-in-place or get-out-of-Dodge.
Check up on Eustis in North Carolina...He actually runs a school at his homesite. It is only a few miles outside of Boone, NC.
He has two BA’s from Appalachian State University and his family are Phd’s...He is definitely not destitute and has money to do as he pleases.
The show the other night showed him deer hunting and wounding an animal because as he said his rifle mis-fired....A mis-fire means the rifle did not discharge yet he wounded the animal. He said that his helper sighted the rifle in wrong. If this is true, he is a fool for hunting with a rifle that he himself did not properly sight-in.
This segment of the show is way over dramatized for entertainment purposes. The guy in Alaska is more realistic, yet even he isn’t in as deep trouble as the show predicates because there is a cameraman or crew with him at all times.
Mostly entertainment for those who haven’t experienced much of the outdoors.
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