Wouldn't you like to be a prepper, too?

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Danno77

Minister of Fire
Oct 27, 2008
5,008
Hamilton, IL
If there has been a discussion on this, I missed it. Do we have anybody here who feels they are a prepper? A doomsday prepper? a readiness freak, etc etc?

If so, how far have you gone to be ready for [whatever]?

Right now I'm at a point that in 20 minutes I could have my entire family and provisions/supplies in a vehicle headed to an undisclosed location where we could survive without aid for about a week comfortably.

I could also bug-in in case the event was a massive weather related event, probably for the same amount of time.

I think I might even be able to take out a few zombies if i had to...

Anyway, I'm a big fan of having 3 days worth of supplies around in case of a natural disaster that would require red cross or government aid, etc. I think that's a smart thing to do. I kinda enjoy the mental gymnastics required to consider the "other" possibilities, too, but I highly doubt any economic collapse is gonna happen in my lifetime, as well as some of the other proposed disasters that have been discussed on some of those new reality TV shows.

discuss.
 
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I have enough firewood, pellets, and ammo for 3 yrs......

I have enough food for a week or 4 (if we have electric and freezer continues to work).

I have enough beer for 3 days :( (I really should stock up).

I have thought lightly about it..... But no real planes. I have watched the show. DOOMSDAY PREPPERS....!!!

Moral of my story. I will continue to cut firewood, stock up on pellets, and drink beer ;) J/K. :)
 
Book him Danno;) My plan is to be air dropped at DD's house. Thanks for the heads up Mad Dog, I will tuck a case or two of beer under my arms:cool:
 
No, but I feel a bit ahead of folks that don't have stoves if a blizzard hits and the power is out for a few days.
 
Three out of the last five winters we have had to live here for over a week without power and not being able to get out of that 900 foot road I call a driveway down to the main road. Probably ten times in the last 20 years. I just prepare to be a broken down old fart that can't get to the road. Before long that will be a fact on a nice day.

Several years ago at an auction I bought a firefighter's airpak because I had to fight a grease fire in the kitchen the year before. The auctioneer said, when he was selling it, that everybody should have one in case of a biological attack so that they could live 30 minutes longer than everybody around them.
 
Beer is food.
I am well stocked up.

A couple of years after we moved in here we got snowed in big time. I was the first one to bust out. I called all of the neighbors and got their beer orders and brought the "supplies" back from the store. Most were heating with wood back then. I am the only one that still does.
 
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I am about 50 lbs. overweight, my theory is i will last longer without food, does that count?
 
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Personally I like to fly by the seat of my pants....;)
except when it comes to beer...and one other thing I will not mention.::-)
 
We have a closet above the fridge ( not cabinets) and it is kept rather full .
Two weeks of soup, stew, spaghetti sauce and tuna, etc. easy.

Outdoor grill made for charcoal, but I've used wood.

We'd get by.
 
Only thought about it but mostly not relevant based on our lifestyle. None of the following are a problem: heat with wood, no electricity required; gravity septic system; live on a lake, water always available to fill toilet tanks, wash, etc., and can boil or use bleach to purify for potable; buy food in quantity when on sale, normal is enough on hand to last weeks; live in a rural area and keep 20+ gallons of gasoline on hand, rotated in a 45 gallon supply with 5 gallon containers, so gasoline for generator for quite a long while to keep the frig/freezer good while perishable food used up; always have extra batteries and candles on hand; and have on hand suitable rapid onset lead poisoning devices to supplement everything else.

Now, I'm not overweight, and if the house is destroyed, slim chance, but no problem here too. No one lives forever, so I don't care if sooner rather than later. Dylan Thomas and I might not agree: "Do not go gentle into that good night."
 
I know which of my neighbors I can easily subdue and confiscate their food/suppkies....is that what you mean?;)
 
Since we live in the country and only shop every two weeks anyways . . . we have plenty of food on hand in the pantry and freezer. I figure while there would not be a whole lot of variety and I would have to resort to eating some of my less desirable food I could easily go four or five weeks just on what is in the pantry.

Water . . . stream and lake nearby if needed. When we were without power for 14 days due to the Ice Storm of '97 we melted snow for cooking/flushing toilets. A bit time consuming, but it works.

Heat . . . got a woodstove. 'Nuff said.

Beer . . . I don't drink beer, so I guess I'm covered there.

Zombies . . . Hmmm . . . this could be a problem as I don't have much of a stockpile of shotgun shells . . . and I'm fat with short legs so I won't be able to outrun them. ;)

On a serious note . . . I'm not really much of a doomsdayer . . . but I figure living in the country in Maine there is always a chance you could be without power for a while or not be able to get out to restock . . . being prepared was nothing I really have thought about on a conscious level . . . it's just a way of life and something I've always done since going into the "city" to go grocery shopping has always meant a bit of a drive and a chunk of time used up.
 
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Three out of the last five winters we have had to live here for over a week without power and not being able to get out of that 900 foot road I call a driveway down to the main road. Probably ten times in the last 20 years. I just prepare to be a broken down old fart that can't get to the road. Before long that will be a fact on a nice day.

Several years ago at an auction I bought a firefighter's airpak because I had to fight a grease fire in the kitchen the year before. The auctioneer said, when he was selling it, that everybody should have one in case of a biological attack so that they could live 30 minutes longer than everybody around them.

You and Michael Mann. Now, all you need is a rope ladder. Maybe a cyanide pill too, "just in case".
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180504/Michael-Marin-took-cyanide-died-guilty-arson.html

I have my trusty 800 watt Harbor Freight generator, which I started up yesterday and which runs like a top.
 
I could feed a small Lithuanian army for two weeks. Hundreds of bottles of wine. Large beer selection and a properly stocked humidor. The ability to heat and pump water and heat the home. The ability to hunt/gather/catch food.

If I am gonna die, I am gonna die fat, drunk and happy.
 
A couple of years after we moved in here we got snowed in big time. I was the first one to bust out. I called all of the neighbors and got their beer orders and brought the "supplies" back from the store. Most were heating with wood back then. I am the only one that still does.

Reminds me of a particular winter back in the 60's. Nothing was moving much. We even had to shovel to get out of our house as the snow was up to the roof. Some neighbors got together and took a couple toboggans and headed to the nearest bar. Our township at that time was dry so no beer to be found in stores. It didn't stop these guys from going 3 miles for the beer. Took them all night and they drank most of it before they got back....


We could probably manage for a couple weeks without any major problems.
 
No super conscious thought about being a prepper.
We do keep the pantry stocked and only go shopping every 4-6 weeks (about 70 miles round trip), so there's always extra food in the house. We could actually wait longer, but get a little house-a-phobic.
If we don't have power, the fridge and freezer won't do us much good after the first day or so, but there's extra food there too.
Zombies don't scare me, I hear they can't run well. Oh wait, I don't either. Hmmm.
Wood stove, duh.
Don't drink......anymore.>> A hangover that starts after one beer or shot is telling me something that I should listen to.
Longest we've been w/o power was about 36 hrs. a couple years ago. Hand pumping water from the well by the garden got a little old, but doable. In the snow, uphill, both ways, w/o shoes........n/m, different story.:cool:
 
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We have enough food for a couple of weeks, for the really severe doomsday I have a bottle of Jack Daniels and a shotgun for the final exit.
 
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I've watched that show "doomsday bunkers" and it’s a little scary. It's all a matter of what you think your worst case scenario is.

Zombie apocalypse: Guess it could happen, got enough ammo for multiple head shots, firewood for a couple of years. How do zombies fare in the winter?

Nuclear holocaust: I’m driving to ground zero, end of problem.

Hurricane or snow storm knocks out power for a week or more: Wait… I did that last year.

Ice storm knocks out power for week or more in freezing temps: That’s the one I worry about. Last year was only an inconvenience since it was September and October, but if it’s in January and 10 degrees out, then there is a problem. As I said I’ve got firewood for 2-3 years. Two generators big and little and enough gas to run them for a week or two depending and the mix. Little one runs 10 hours on a gallon of gas and is enough to run the furnace and circ pumps, big one can run everything else just not for ever. Food, usually enough on hand to go a week and another week or so on what’s in the freezer. After that I’ve got 2 weeks of MRE’s.

The long and short of it is, I don’t think civilization is going to fall, so mostly I plan for natural disasters. Not to say that there couldn’t be some civil unrest but I’m not about to crawl in a hole and pull it in after me.
 
My wife loves to shop for food. We have enough to hold out for a few weeks easy. That's fine by me, we too have week long power outages. And if we get a very big quake, it could be longer. Of course this is assuming the house holds up and we can still get at the food.
 
It's not too much of a problem around here, (knock on wood), but wild fires have been a problem with the dry weather. I guess you could prepare for that too if you had a sufficient clear land around your place with metal roof. Not sure what else.
 
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