Preppers?

I live in my grandparents old house. Over the years their place has been cut off due to floods and winter storms, so just grew up being prepared to hunker down for days or even weeks. Its not a new concept, our grandparents were always prepared for "hard times", and we should all be too.

I love these answers

Earthkitty I LOVE your mindset. I too live in the country. I am no longer spazzing out about food. I have enough here and the capabilities to grow more. Dad is a gunsmith and a total gun nut. So, we have enough guns and ammo to feel quite safe. The only thing we don't have at this point is a back up power supply, but we are saving, saving, saving to put in a moderate solar set up. We do have a woodstove and plenty of forest if we were in a pinch, which is comforting.

I think ya'll are right. Everyone should be prepared for SOMETHING at all times. I used to think living in the city was the way to go. Everything at convenience. If I ran out, I "ran out" to the store Now that I'm back in the country and see how much just having one milk cow cut the grocery bill... I'm never going back. Putting 40 meat chickens in the freezer and knowing it's there feels great. We canned a bunch of discount beef and made chili and spaghetti sauce and beef stock galore. I have beef on the hoof to be ready this December. I never thought it would feel this great knowing those things.

We have along way to go before I'll feel like I can take on anything that happens, but I also feel comfort knowing my community is small, and for the most part like minded...

Things I would like to stockpile a bit are: Sugar, oils, coffee, tea and some basic hygiene products. Self sufficiency feels great!


If you could get more of something, what would it be?

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

I wouldn't call us preppers. It is a way of life to have what we need season to season, year to year and beyond, during good times. We have what we need and use what we have. We don't have "stuff" hoarded up for bad times....James

We pretty much live like my grandparents and great grandparents lived only we have all the modern day gizmos that we THINK we need. It was a way of life for them. Money was tight and it was the way they had to live. Canning foods came before Walmart Superstores and raising animals to eat came before McDonalds. It's just the way things were done back then and they taught me to live like that. I thank them every day for it.

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I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery

I "prep" in much the way that my grandfather and father did by having enough put back to last at least from end of harvest to the start of the next harvest plus 6 month to a year surplus, however I combine their strategy along with my worm bin set up and indoor BISF greenhouse set up so the surplus factor can decrease greatly at times as I fresh grow year round to a degree.

Yesterday I moved most of the worm stock from 3 worm bins into fresh bedded bins in the greenhouse while harvesting around 20 pounds of potatoes from the bins I moved the worms out of.

As the potato crop depleted the worm cast compost of nitrogen reducing its fertilizer value, I dumped that in five gallon bucket loads outside on the leaf piles as garden soil additive for Spring.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I consider us pretty big time preppers. We have about a years worth of food, medical supplies, etc. But we don't prep for any type of special scenario; we just feel it's our responsibility to be able to take care of ourselves if we had to be totally on our own for any kind of extended period of time, or in times of financial difficulties.

We're not gloom and doom preppers and we're not waiting for nuclear war with bomb shelters, waiting for the sky to fall on us, nor do we doubt God is able to take care of us. We're just ordinary people who won't rely on the government to save us, nor do we feel it's up to others to feed us, and believe God's Word tells us to be prepared to take care of ourselves -- if by some small chance the bottom falls out.

Preppers get a bad rap because it seems the ones people pay attention to are the nut cases. But I would say about 99% of preppers are just like us. Calm, not worrying -- just ready for 'if' something bad comes along; believing it's our responsibility to be open to the fact that bad things can happen to good people.

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"Challenges are what make life interesting -- overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

I think you make a good point, Karen. I think it's become popular, and has gained the name "prepper." For the folks who have always lived that way, or always has things put away just in case, it probably seems a little silly. It's almost become glamorous thanks to the dang t.v. show, "Doomsday Preppers." Some of those people DO come off as nut cases, but some of them seem normal as can be. I am just astounded as to how many folks out there are "preppers" yet so many folks sit back and laugh and think we're the crazy one. I don't get that mentality. Why have nothing, just in case?

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

Sure!

We spent 3 days without electricity, candles flicker too much to read by, and the only canned meat we had was tuna. And no canned beans. The freezer was full but I was afraid to open it: if I let the cold out the meat might thaw. Lastly, the fireplace was not effective enough to keep the pipes from freezing.

On the GOOD side, the chickens kept laying eggs. we had enough wood, and the backyard grill was easy to cook on.

We would be more comfortable if that happened again: we have battery lights and a wide variety of canned meats, soups, and so forth.

Folks *DO* laugh at preppers, but then they also laugh at homesteaders, and commercial farmers rarely seem to get the respect that a businessman deserves. Some folk are weird, is all.

Thats us.

I read a guys post on another forum. he was talking bout getting laid off, but his family had been prepping and were able to feed themselves for over a year out of their food in storage and just a little of this and that from the store.

he said the peace of mind knowing they had plenty to eat and not have to strain the tight budget buying groceries every week was priceless.

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" Do or do not, there is no try. " - Yoda

BINGO!! If my grandad were alive and I brought up the idea of "prepping", he would be confused, because in his day people did for themselves and their neighbors as a way of life.

Slowly, over the past 100 years or so (especially the last 50), people have forgotten what it was like to be self sufficient. It would never occur to many Americans to even think about what they would do should there suddenly be no power company, no grocery store, no gas station.

It flat terrifies me how dependant people in this country are on the cogs in the wheels turning without a hitch. ONE thing pops out of place, and there is a panic.

So I moved my family out of the way, and swore that would never again be me.

Honestly I find it shocking that in the entire history of the world, only NOW is the idea of being prepared one that is a viewpoint of the minority.

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Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

KNOWLEDGE


or maybe brain cells

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Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

Everytime I come up with something I think I need, I try to solve that problem with something I can produce here at home; what could I grow that would fill that gap, or replace that thing?

Sugar - stevia or sugar cane, grow it in the greenhouse or inside your own house, or get a bee hive and use honey instead...honey is my #1 have at all times because I use it for wound healing, sweetener, antibiotic and food

Oils - you can press your own (you likely have a tree on your property that would produce something useable in that way, or you can grow sunflowers which is ridiculously easy), or you can have a dairy beast and use butter

Coffee - I just planted two coffee beans/seeds to see if I can get them to grow, again it is a greenhouse plant, but again there are substitutions that anyone can grow/use like dandelion root or chicory

Tea - anyone anywhere can grow some form of tea, whatever your preference - dehydrate fruit peels for fruity tea, and there are varieties of green and black tea that will grow in the US

Basic hygiene - Not sure which you are talking about here, but other than stockpiling toilet paper (not big on using softened leaves if I don't have to, I have three girls, so my wool sheep and cattails are a must have, ifyouknowwhatI'msaying

Soap, toothpaste, all that kind of thing you can make/grow, and when those things are made at home there are fewer chemicals so they are better for you.

I am ever so slowly trying to remove myself completely from the stupid grocery store, but it is tough. After a lifetime of conditioning, not caving to the convenience is difficult.

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Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if that isn't the point. I do carry a smidge of conspiracy theory in my pocket, and I sometimes think people who are prepared are specifically made fun of in the media so that the lemmings won't catch on. Doomsday Prepper, Amish Mafia, Breaking Amish, Big Love, etc. etc. etc.

AND TPTB try to make these things political. Liberals, hate the gun nut food storing conservatives!! Conservatives, hate the liberal, food growing hippies!!

Repeat anything over and over, and the masses will not only believe it, but parrot it.

If you control the food, you control the people.


/tinfoil

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Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

Just a Redneck Country Boy originally from north Mississippi, doing what a country boy does.

SPIKE

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All things should be done with COMMON SENSE!
All things should be done with RESPECT!
All things have a PROPER time and place!
And most things should be done in MODERATION!

For me, it is:

#1 - No paycheck - This has happened before since we work for a church and count on donations being good.

#2 - Natural disasters - We just went through Sandy. Nuff said.

#3 - Unforseen bills - I can feed my family for quite some time on what we have in the house so that if we had to go without spending money on stuff for a bit, we'd be OK.

#4 - Economy and greater - If things get bad, we'll at least be somewhat ahead of the game.

I think my first reasons for homesteading was the Oil Embargo and my dependence on oil. I moved away from oil/gas for heating and cooking. I minimized my use of electricity, creating ways to exist comfortably without electricity.
I built up my tool set and my skill set to be independent from costly repairs.
I learned to get my firewood supply and do most farm tasks with horses. I cut my firewood with a gasoline powered chainsaw, but have the crosscut saws and the skills to go without the chainsaw. I developed wood working skills, welding skills, electrical skills. I can build a barn, build a house, make a horse shoe and wire a breakerbox. I can time a baler and AI a horse.
I remind myself the secret to prosparity: It isn't how much you make, it is how much you keep that counts most.

I had a homesteading background...grew up that way as a kid. But, I got edumacated, then went to the cities to work. I did fairly well at first, too, as I was in the tech industry. Pulling in close to 6 digits in the 90's.

Then, the dot.com failure hit and I found myself out of work. In a city overrun with techies just like myself competing for anything we could possibly do. Tough times, and not much space to be self-sufficient when I was basically used to living at a desk.

But it rather brought it home in a real way, and solidified it in my mind: I do not want to have to depend upon money to meet my own basic, human needs.

I could not, of course, go immediately back to homesteading...being broke and jobless doesn't equate to buying land and such. However, I also decided then and there that I wasn't limited. I could *learn* to do ANYTHING. Therefore, that is what I did.

Got a job on the line at a braze/weld plant...putting together fuel injectors for surface-to-air missiles. Nope, I will likely NEVER need a fuel injector for a surface-to-air missile on my homestead, but I MAY need to braze something, or weld it. Therefore I was paid to learn a useful skill. Had another job at a place that milled aluminum parts. I moved around, going from blue collar job to blue collar job, occasionally re-entering the white collar world if something looked interesting.

Learned to drive horses by working for a carriage company that did historical tours. Apprenticed myself to a union to learn how to operate heavy equipment and did that for many years.

~smiles~ Worked as an office manager at a plastics plant. How is that useful, you may ask? Well, I happen to know that 85% of the plastics that we used were nothing more than old plastic bottles that were run through a chipper. That was what was used for any article of plastic that was being made that had a dark dye added, and the materials that were run through the chipper were anything from coat hangers to water bottles...and were made into anything from coat hangers to industrial soap jugs. Because of that job, I know that ANYTHING plastic can be chipped up, melted down, and turned into something else in much the same fashion as one would make ceramics. That might be useful knowledge someday.

I am less worried about civilization breaking down as I am with natural disaster striking. Societies have a habit of making themselves functional again in pretty short order. The Roman Empire may have collapsed, but except for a few years of power struggles, the places within the previous Empire basically went on as usual, growing stuff, building stuff, getting married, and having kids, etc., Civilizations have risen and fallen, and sometimes the folks that actually do the work to feed and maintain them notice...but sometimes they don't.

But natural disasters are a bit harder to ignore. If Yellowstone decides that the time is right, or Apophis whacks into us, I hope to have enough warning to decide whether I should stay or if I should go.

And that is another thing....yes, I am still building my homestead, and its design is to keep me and mine content and fed throughout my lifetime. I hope to one day have it completely self-sufficient, and with ALL the bells and whistles to keep me happy, while still having the tools necessary to maintain it if I should need to do so without power. However, if that hunk of land is in a threat zone by either nature or man, I have no compunction about up and leaving it, and everything on it. I cannot fight Mother Nature, the Military, or a decently large force of feral humans, and I am not about to die trying. If it came to that, I would gather up what things I thought I needed/wanted, and have the space/ability to transport, and I would be the heck out of here.

And that is why I spent 6 months working as crew on a Class B sailing ship.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

Caliann,
sounds like you've had quite the life.

I for one do intend to stay on this chunk o' land no matter what. My blood sweat and tears go into this dirt, dagnabbit, and I ain't leavin'! All poor grammar aside, I am not much concerned with mother nature. There is nothing I can do about that other than having enough set aside to stay alive if the power were to go out in January.

World issues on the other hand, I stay very active in. I am still very young, so I assume what I will see in my life time will be eventful. I gotta keep an eye on that, ya know?

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.

~smiles~ I think that the only way that we differ is in the defense of property.

Yes, this place has my blood, sweat and tears in it...and against any reasonable threat, I will defend it.

But I know my limitations. No matter HOW well trained I am (and I am ex-military, so I am pretty well trained), my small family cannot stand up against, say, a company of regular Army, or an armed, large band of civilians. The Branch Davidians had a LOT of firearms, and look what happened to them. There have been any number of families and compounds of people that have attempted to stand up to even local law enforcement, who were well armed...and they lost. Sometimes they lost their lives.

No thank you. I am middle aged, but as long as I am still breathing and functional, I can re-build elsewhere. I may be very sad about the loss of this place, but I can plant more trees, build more fences, get more animals, in some other spot in the world that DOESN'T have some hordes of folks wanting to kill me for it.

But I only have *one* life....if I lose it, well, there is no more homesteading, is there? Not for sure and certain.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

Reasonable as always. I made a comittment to myself several months back. I would either stay on this land forever or die trying. After I got the college age stupids out of my system, something in me clicked. I had the urge to hunker down. Some how last january it all fell into place. I got laid off, mom got sick and I was the only who could take care of her while dad is on the road 2 weeks at a time.

So, I moved back to the sticks and I have building as ferverently as the proverbial ant ever since. It is mostly just me. Dad and boyfriend help when they can, so it is a slow process. However, I feel every success is a step forward. Every bean, corn and squash is one more than yesterday. And, as you may appreciate, every goat is one more pint of milk in the bellies of my family. My social life is nonexistent un less you count baby talking to the goats and chickens. My old friends think I'm crazy and most of the time I am dirty and smell like a barn! Seriously, how does one wash a hand knitted hat? it smells like cow flank. But, ya know, I love it.

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“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as the souls who live under tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson.