Helping your buddy who just got it

My take is the first thing, and the most important thing for your buddy to do is to get his head right. Knee jerk buying of anything without sitting down and thinking about the possiblities is not preparing, it is delaying the disaster. Without the proper attitude you're screwed no matter how many beans or bullets you might put away. Much like you dress for the cold in layers, you get yourself prepared for hard times in layers. 3 months to get ready? He might be able to warehouse a whole lot of stuff, but ready? I think not. The great news is he is at least thinking in terms of taking care of himself, and that is to be commended.
Teach him to ask the question--What If?

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"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

Thanks everyone. There are some awesome suggestions in here.

I took the guy to lunch today and had a talk with him. I told him that it sounds like he is acting out of fear and that if he is then he needs to move past that. I talked to him a little bit about how my wife and I got started with "being independent" no matter what happens around us. I suggested better ways of dealing with the food and water issue.

He admitted at the end that his wife is completely freaking out and has broke down crying afraid that the world is going to go into a depression, he will lose his job, and they will starve. His wife was not born here - she is from the Middle East and she apparently saw some nasty stuff as a child. She has never seen America hit hard economic times before and all the doom and gloom talk in the media is scaring this woman to tears. He is reacting off that. It makes more sense now.

His wife wants the weapons because she says she has seen how people get when everything in the life they know disappears in a matter of days. She has seen how people get when they have no food and no way to get more. So it is the wife who is saying they have to buy food immediately and buy weapons to guard it. He gets it and is trying to do as she wants but he doesn't have a clue where to start.

Another guy at work and I are taking him to a gun show on Saturday and have given him links to books, videos, and website to read before he buys the food. He said he will do the homework and wait until next week to buy the food.

Well that makes sense. Why doesn't he do a Sam's/costco run and lay in a nice supply of beans and rice and cooking oil right away? That would soothe his wife and give him something to build on.

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

If he is city folk, it might be good to talk to him about learning gardening or farming on a small scale. All of us here have stuff put by, but when it runs out is when the real challenge will come into play. A good book, like back to basics has a bit of info about everything. plus a very small investment in some seeds, canning jars and lids etc.
I am prepped like crazy, but I am always adding and using, so the stuff gets rotated and used.
I am also trying to learn some new skills, like knitting. I hope to learn how to make socks this winter, and I have been picking up inexpensive yarn at garage sales and such to practice on. If you have to make what you use, its good to have a basic idea
I suppose its like the "teach a man to fish and you feed him for his life" situation

That's a good idea. The Costco is on the way back from the gun show and I think I am allowed to take a visitor on my membership.

I think a gun show and a trip to Costco in the same day will really open his eyes and make him feel like this is something he can handle.
How about a copy of Storey's Basic Skills, Encyclideida of Country Living, or When Technology Fails, to read this winter? And a subscription to Backwoods Home.

Good luck to him.
Shelly

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You can't soar with eagles in a turkey pen.

He (they) have to do some of the homework also. If you tell them what to get, but they don't know how to use it or cook with it, it will be useless.
They can get info from you, but also from books, magazines and on the web.
And, before you load up with stuff from Costco, he needs to figure out what they usually eat at home. If his wife makes her former country's meals, it may be quite different from what others would want.
He needs a crash course, but everything is so individualized when it comes to food...they need to store what they are used to eating.

He might want to get a few chickens and rabbits to get some basic experience with raising livestock. Also, if he gets a small travel trailer, you could give him some more intensive training on weekends.

I wouldn't be too quick to write your friend off as a member of your group. Even if he doesn't know anything now about livestock and gardening, he must have some kind useful skills. Even a couple extra pairs of eyes to keep watch would be very useful. It doesn't take that much knowledge to clean out a barn. I would invite but make it clear that he will probably end up doing some of the more unpleasant jobs. In return he will be fed and be among friends.

I would also advise him to think about his wife's emotional situation. What can he do to help her calm down and put things in perspective, so she can make a realistic assessment of the risks and prep sensibly for them? She may need some kind of counseling to work a bit on what she's seen in the past, etc. She may need to take a look at where she's getting her information from, and whether it's a sensationalist source. (No watching Nancy Grace type shows, or if she does, a bit of statistics to help her put things into perspective.) Almost sounds like a bit of PTSD, maybe.

I think the Costco run is a great idea to begin with, to show her he has recognized her concerns and is willing to take prepping seriously. I think he's much better off with beans and rice and peanut butter and such than the other stuff, especially if he chooses food they will actually eat whether or not there is a crisis.

Explaining the idea of building your skills would be good, as having hobbies can take your mind of things as well as being useful, and some of it can be things they work on together. Sewing, cooking w/preps and w/o electricity, camping as a family, gardening, building things, learning first aid.


Some discussions about her greatest fears (and possibly the bad stuff she'd seen as a younger woman) can help them work out what would make her feel safe.

Just knowing that he is there for her, and that they can work together to solve problems and "make it work" in tough situations can be a huge help emotionally.

I am a little worried about the guns, though, given their lack of experience, her emotional state, and their suburban location. I'd encourage them BOTH to learn as much as possible about firearms before purchasing any. Perhaps a local hunting safety course they could do together would be a good start.

Send the wife to Costco, super Walmart, Kroger, Safeway. She knows what to buy to survive : rice, oil, flour, canned milk, lentils, tomatoes, hot sauce and whatever she needs to cook with. Also hit the local ethnic grocery so she can get the salt cod, bulghur, olives, spices and special ingredients she likes to us and are comfort foods for her. Get 5 gallon buckets with lids or Rubbermaid(accept no substitute) tubs to store the bagged goods.

Get the stuff they like to eat that doesn't need refrigeration - get a three month supply. And get a couple sets of heavy wire shelves or metal pantry cupboards to store it in the garage or basement. Get a camp stove and lots of its fuel. Get real cooking gear, eg cast iron, if she is using pyrex pans on a glasstop electric stove.

Some of the Mountain House is kinda OK. The dog will reject some of them. Get a sampler package and eat it for three days - with a well stocked medicine cabinet. Most of the storage food packages have been developed by and for the LDS culture which is a different diet than most American are accustomed to : pinto bean fudge, lemon wheat salad,cheese made from dry milk, popped wheat, sweet pintobean pie, peanut butter chewies,no coffee, no tea, and can you say more beans, dry milk and wheat ?

STORE WHAT YOU WILL HAPPILY EAT.

End of sermon. - Dry Run

"Buy salt herring." -Gretchen 1632

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Madness takes its tolllease have exact change.

Update - we sent over a "sample care package" yesterday - things we stock so that the wife can try cooking with them and decide what to get. It went with a price list and where to get it along with an offer to invite her on our next run.

He went ahead and ordered one order of food just so they have something on hand now while they start getting prepped.

We are heading to the gun show at 10 am. He is focusing on getting a good pump 12 gauge (he has picked the 870 or a Winchester 1300), 1 good deer rifle with scope in common caliber, a Ruger 10/22, and a good handgun in common caliber. He is thinking .45 in handgun but I have him at least considering wheelguns too. We are ALL looking for good deals on ammo. Should be a fun trip.

He has also placed a big order to Amazon to get educated.

I have also passed on the all this advice and the panic is now gone when I talk to them. Thank you everyone for your input and great advice.

I have heard it said that during the Great Depression, only 25% of the people were out of work. That might reassure her: when we talk about hard times we are talking about something much less grim!

Then, yes, it DOES make a lady feel more secure to have food put by! I know that my sister asked for a years worth of food before her husband started a new business! And, just in case, she should NOT talk about it to the neighbors, who will mention it to their friends, who will mention it to their families.... etc. If she wants to slip a friend a little rice later that is her own business, but, for right now she should not talk about it! Let any thugs believe they have no food!

Oh, yes. A true story from the last depression.

My Grandfather was a teacher. His wages were cut several times because he was paid with taxes, and there wasn't as much.

Eventually, he decided that he should move to California because it was getting hard to feed his kids. He started a business there, that limped along but kept the family poor. He gardened, my Mother raised chickens, the boys hunted, and times were hard.

That was the usual way of the last Depression: no howling mobs, just worry, hard work, and poverty.

My OTHER Grandfather went out every day looking for casual day work. On the way home, he would stop by the fishing ships and buy-at a greatly discounted price- some fish that had not sold that day. They were even POORER, but, he raised 6 kids and a wife that way!

People made out. It was hard, but they made out.