Recently, one of the big preparedness gurus suggested that his readers plan to re-roof their houses with metal to make it safer to collect rain runoff.
He didn’t say we should consider it if our house needs a new roof, anyhow.
He didn’t say we should consider it if we have all our other preps in order and have $10-20,000 burning a hole in our pockets.
He just said it.
Not only did he say it; he said it in an article directed at preparedness for newbies!
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I recently read a book by a survival consultant. It was filled with useful, interesting, and mostly (IMHO) valid information. I couldn’t point to a single thing in it that’s actually wrong.
But it also had the strangest mix of inclusions and omissions. It had, for instance, an entire chapter on building a bug-out trailer (something hardly anyone will ever do). Yet it spoke barely a word about the special, but everyday, needs of children, pets, old people, and people with chronic illnesses or disabilities.
I ask you: Which is a typical family likely to need most urgently? A specially built trailer or medicine for baby’s earaches? A specially built trailer or food for Fido? A specially built trailer or extra adult diapers for granddad?
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One of the biggest problems getting people to prepare for emergencies or long-term hard times is that once you get beyond “pack a three-day kit” or “be sure to have a week’s worth of food and water on hand,” brains tend to overload.
And all too often, that happens right from the get-go.
Until recently, when commonsense pedlars like “Survival Mom” Lisa Bedford and Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition appeared on the scene, too much preparedness advice was (to sum it up): “Ya gotta have lotsa stuff and lotsa obscure skills and live way off grid in a hardened bunker.”
Presumably with a metal roof. And a bug-out trailer parked next to it.
Even now, unless newbies happen to look in just the right spot for their preparedness advice, they’re going to find themselves stuck between the bureaucracy of Ready.gov and the overwhelming guns-$-gear-$-guts-$-n’stuff approach of a lot of guru guys.
That is changing. Aside from the aforementioned commonsense ladies, people like Todd Walker of Survival Sherpa and M.D. Creekmore of TheSurvivalistBlog.net are doing their best to bring a more human-scale element to preparedness.
Still, the sheer volume of information out there is overwhelming. Can hardly blame n00bs for throwing up their hands and saying, “Nobody can do this without a million bucks, the training of a Navy SEAL, and all the time in the world.”
And not just n00bs, unfortunately. I’m always surprised by how many people hereabouts do little in the way of preparedness, either for short-term emergencies or longer-term hard times.
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Two big things that get lost in the masses of information are: how to establish your own priorities and how to plug away at them without getting overwhelmed by the myriad things you can’t do, can’t afford, or don’t have time for.
Even advice as wonderful, lucid, and practical as Pennington’s “52 Weeks to Preparedness” series (linked above) tends to focus on Ye Olde Overwhelming Lists of Stuff You Need rather than on how to assess your own needs, accept your own limitations, and motivate your own self to keep going.
Much more is needed to help us decide whether we really need to re-roof our houses to collect runoff, or whether we might be better off just filling up a couple of surplus 55-gallon food-grade plastic barrels, or whether we merely need a few water jugs, or (heresy of heresies!) whether maybe we don’t need to store any water at all, but should definitely keep a few portable filters or purifiers on hand.
Much more is needed to help us keep motivated and keep plugging — to remind us that spending $5 extra each week on canned goods will get us farther than looking hopelessly through online catalogs of $2,500 year’s supplies of storage foods that we wouldn’t know how to prepare even if we could — someday! — afford them.
I’m going to do some thinking out loud about both priorities and motivators in the next few days — with a little (or as usual a lot) of help from the World’s Best Comment Section.
Tomorrow: Setting personal priorities.
I’ve been thinking about how long disasters last, setting priorities, and being overwhelmed by too much stuff. I’m in the process of moving and I’m overwhelmed by too much stuff!
Really, how long do disasters last?
A government-sponsered depression like the 1930s or today can last decades; the economic depression known as “the Soviet Union” lasted seventy years. But through these depressions the (black) market keeps working. Even if we end up living in a cardboard box under a bridge the basic necessities of life are still available. A (cheap, nondescript, paid-for) house with a garden (hand tools) would go far to improve one’s lifestyle. No-one but a millionaire can store up enough stuff to be self-sufficient for decades. Besides, the government would confiscate it all.
Natural disasters: recovery begins within weeks. If you live through the actual hurricane/flood/tsunami then your needs will be simple: water/shelter/food/defense for a month would be plenty. Afterwards you reboot your life under the new circumstances.
Personal disasters like illness, loss of job, or death in the family are so individual that each person has to think it through for himself. The best preparation for an event like this is to always live below your means!
Finally, TEOTWAWKI. Trying to plan for this is like a Soviet Commissar trying to plan tractor production. You will be wrong. Not enough information. What can you do to prepare? Become the most useful, helpful, talented, person you can. See if you can think of something every day to help improve someone’s life. Become the kind of person who can look in the mirror and say, “I think I’ll keep you around.”
A guru telling newbies to go out and spend on a metal roof for survival sounds crazy. I can’t defend that. I can say that as someone in the process of building a home and NEEDING a roof, metal roofing makes a whole lot of sense. If you come up with the advantage/disadvantage of roofing types, cost is always the biggie in the metal roofing. This has changed. As oil has gone up so much in recent years, asphalt shingles have risen even faster than metal prices. The cost compared with a traditional shingle roof is actually not THAT bad. When you factor in the advantages: they last (many companies here offer 50 year warranties), they can reduce energy needs by 40% (pretty important if you want to keep a place cool in a SHTF scenario), they hold up (insurance companies offer 35% discounts to homeowners that have metal roofs). Personally, I just like the look of them and it complements the home design better.
In my area had these freakish hail storms these past two years….more than a dozen! The asphalt shingles don’t hold up to the hail storms. The home I am building (finishing) was started 6 years ago, but the couple building it ran out of funds, got divorced and had to auction the 40% completed home. The shingle roof they installed is 5 years old and is so bad, I will be lucky to get another 6 months out of it. A roof is pretty important to the shelter part of bugging in. For me, a metal roof is the only choice that makes sense….of course I am in that position of NEEDING the roof now.
Being able to collect rain water from the roof is just one more benefit. I have plans to build a cistern and collect the rainwater for my garden.
When I’m looking for info on being prepared, I’m looking for things that are fairly easy and simple, that don’t cost tons, that I don’t have to buy books, cds, or subscribe to a website to access the info…only to find out there’s nothing there I a. didn’t already know, or b. is nothing but plain old common sense.
The biggest problem with the whole “prepper” scene is that it’s become a business. I’m tired of having to wade through ads and sales pitches to get to the information, the good meaty bits. So, I don’t bother any more. I just follow my own path, and do my best to have extra supplies on hand for the 3 people, 2 cats, and 1 aging hound under my care.
Add to that, so many of the “preppers” out there selling advice take themselves so seriously! Yikes! Where’s the humor, folks? Some of the blogs I avoid just because the writers need to pull the stick out of their butts…
I’m pretty new to the world of prepping. I slowly got to 3 days of food and water now I’m at 7 days. That took me almost 9 months. I have go bags that are semi full and a medical kit I have been slowly building. For the most part I am pretty lost on what to do next after finishing the go bags… I’m also having a problem with some of the jugs of water sitting on a shelf for six months just start leaking for no reason I can find…
Your blog is once again right on time.
Its not preparedness if its not practiced.
I think the whole of the ‘survival’ culture is a laugh. Just go camping. You’ll learn very quickly what works, what you need to know, and so very much more importantly, what is a big load of heavy extraneous crap. You can start small and dip a toe in at the nearest state kids-n-beaches rv lot, then take it as far as you care to via RV’s, boats, backpacks, or whatever. Once in that mindset, a house during SHTF is just a REALLY nice tent.
“Ya gotta have lotsa stuff and lotsa obscure skills and live way off grid in a hardened bunker.” Sad, but lol.
i am on a fixed income .. i dont have money to have all the bells and wistles .. so i buy a few extra cans each time i shop and i store water in 2 liter soda bottles …i have about 400 bottles filled so far.. and about 1200 cans of food.. it may not last me 2 yrs but at least i have enough to get me thru a winter untill i can raise my own food..
everyone can do something just do what you can and god will help you .. god bless you claire.. thank you for all you do
I retired from the field of audit. 10 yrs ago, corporate financial frauds like Enron and MCI caused Congress to enact Sarbannes-Oxley. For all its other purposes, SOX is a means of measuring control and risk.
SOX was divided into 5 catagories displayed in a pyramid. When using it to assess your own situation, I found employing the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunites and threats) method worked best.
The top, most important is the Control Environment. In prepping, this equates to the physical environment in which you exist, your possessions and preparations, your needs, etc. Next is a Risk Assessment, what can happen and how likely its occurance. 3rd is Control Activities, what you are doing to improve your Control Environment in consideration of the results of your Risk Assessment. Info and communication is fourth. Gauge your need lest ye be overwhelmed by the sheer volume. Remember, its not just what you read and hear, its what you impart to others. Monitoring travels the edges of the pyramid, part of all the other phases. It is a continual process employed to update and upgrade your Control Environment, to enhance your strengths and opportunities and shore up your weaknesses and threats as they are identified.
I’ve used this approach for successful rural, on grid living.
Darn! I posted my response in the tom-toms thread. Excuse the dup if I move it over here.
Woody says;
“Yeah, I’ve thought the same thing about most people’s plans. Lots of people have bugout bags but nowhere to go. They have some nebulous idea of squatting “in the woods” somewhere, never giving any thought to the prospect that someone probably already owns/lives there or just how difficult living in the wild can actually be.”
DH and I are one of those who live in the woods. We built our house in 1996 on 30 acres surrounded by National Forest, 4 miles in from any maintained roads. We see a lot of campers out here and those folks might end up retreating to these familiar surroundings if things go south in Colorado Springs. Thing is, they all have big honking RVs which they park within 10 feet of the forest service ‘roads’. When their gas, propane and water run out, they’ll be up a creek. I doubt they know where the natural springs in the forest are for water. If they see deer, elk and antelope on their visits, I doubt they realize that those food animals will be gone in short order and not be the lavish banquet that they appear to be. Little to nothing that would constitute wild food grows in this particular area at 8500′. It’s all a romantic notion with no basis or substance.
As nature girl points out, most of us have never actually experienced real on-going disaster. I’ve come close a few times, but those situations and events were really just inconveniences in the grand scheme of things and some even qualified as those romanticized situations that produce fond memories.
Being in our BOL, shelter is taken care of as a priority and we do have a metal roof. 😉 . I’m comfortable that we’re good for at least 6 months on food(pets included), meds and water, even accounting for a few friends that I hope would show up here in a crisis. I’ve felt pressured this year to get in extra firewood, so we should be good for at least a bad winter, and living in the forest makes wood totally accessible, assuming I’d be up to cutting with a hand saw and walking it in. DH has always been a gun nut, so we’re good on self-defense, including ammo and reloading supplies. We both have our concealed carry permits and practice regularly.
I think I’m good on skills. We had livestock for about 6 years, before it became more work than reward and we got rid of them, so I’m well versed there. I’ve learned canning and dehydrating. Gardening here at altitude is in the learning curve, but I doubt it’ll ever actually be at a subsistance level. I’ve resisted gadgetry, but do have some basics like a manual wheat grinder with which I’ve practiced quite a bit, and I ordered myself a Global Sun Oven for Christmas. We have a small deer herd that comes in every year for hunting season and winter(I feed them) so if meat ever becomes a desperate need we have a nice apple flavored venison crop, at least until the feed runs out.
So, all said, I think we’re good to go for a really bad winter or something self limiting like a flu pandemic, but couldn’t tell you we’d weather anything beyond that, or want to. And in that regard, we also have a last ditch extreme Mad Max final backup plan consisting of 7 bullets – 5 pets/2 of us. Just what would provoke that plan going into action I really can’t say, but I can see the possibility of life becoming so unbearable that it’s not worth surviving.
Riffing off RickB’s very good comment…
Finally, TEOTWAWKI. Trying to plan for this is like a Soviet Commissar trying to plan tractor production. You will be wrong. Not enough information. What can you do to prepare? Become the most useful, helpful, talented, person you can. See if you can think of something every day to help improve someone’s life. Become the kind of person who can look in the mirror and say, “I think I’ll keep you around.”
No matter how long the disaster lasts or what form it takes, one thing we do know is that the fundamental truths apply. You need food/water/shelter/supplies for special needs. Those things don’t change, and no matter your circumstances most of them can be planned for in advance even on a very small budget.
In addition to the Amazing Lists, I think at least one of the biggest things causing people to fuzz out and go watch Dancing with the Stars is the question of location, and even one recalcitrant family member can make shifting location in advance virtually impossible. Planning for short-term disasters is usually fairly simple because, unless you live in a really ludicrous location like below sea level next to a hurricane-prone coast, “bugging-out” is often the worst thing you can do. Hardening and stocking a Florida house for bad hurricanes, for example, is something millions of people have quietly practiced for many decades and it usually gets them through just fine. The money stays good, supply problems are temporary, and within a few weeks the problems are gone except for repairs. I remember riding out disastrous hurricanes that way when I was a kid, and it was like a scary camping trip – not really bad at all in hindsight, but that was because we were ready for it and so were our neighbors. We knew what we would eat and drink, and we were reasonably sure the roof would stay on, and that was good enough. For short-term disaster, I’m a big proponent of “bugging-in” and that’s usually pretty simple.
In a really long-term disaster, the same preps could lead you into a death trap. So preps don’t start getting really complex until you probe low-probability events like the end of the economy. And in those plans there are three things I believe are terribly important and that don’t get much play among preppers: like-minded neighbors (which I consider VITAL,) alternate modes of supply (and the mindset thereof), and actually being ready to LIVE with those bulk supplies you stored but never tried to use long-term. But first, ultimately, as with buying a house under any circumstances, the three most important considerations are location, location, and location.
So riding out a brief disaster in a city is often (usually?) the best thing to plan. Long-term, cities are the worst place anybody can be. Alternate modes of supply may not be possible and predation may be a real problem. But “bugging out” of a city AT THE TIME OF THE DISASTER, which is what a lot of prepper “gurus” advocate, is just asking to become a statistic. Bugging out should be done well (years!) in advance, and most people aren’t ready to deal with that. Those people should concentrate on short-term preps, and plan to “bug in.”
If having enough stuff to last for a year, or five years, or ten years makes you feel better, and you’ve got the means to acquire it honestly…well, more power to you.
Frankly, to my mind, the need to accumulate _stuff_ for a disaster ends in the week-to-month range. If all commerce is still effectively at a standstill after a month…well, you’re probably not going to live long enough to see it resume, and so the only thing still determined by how much stuff you’ve got stockpiled is how slowly you die.
The answer to “how long can I/we live off what we’ve got” is _always_ going to be “not long enough”. So there are two courses of action to take…despair, or integration.
Despair speaks for itself…I won’t dwell there.
Integration is about figuring out, not what stuff you can store, but what _skills_ you have (or can develop) which are likely to be of value to the community around you in a long-term disaster scenario. Stuff you’re actively using gets used up, while skills you’re actively using get better.
You don’t need to be good at everything…indeed, if you’re trying to be good at everything, you’re probably not going to be good _enough_ at anything.
After all, if civilization falls, the guy with the most stuff is simply the most attractive target for thieves. But the guy whose skills are indispensable to his neighbors will have a ready-made set of co-defenders. 🙂
It’s still important to have some stuff around, of course. Even if the world as we know it never ends, ordinary disasters happen all the time. Floods, blizzards, earthquakes, hurricanes, hail storms…wherever you live, there’s some chronic disaster that’s pretty much _guaranteed_ to happen to your area periodically, and it’d be foolish to be caught unprepared for a short and localized disruption of ordinary life.
But no one, no matter how rich, can possibly hoard enough stuff to last them through the fall of civilization. The survivors of that, if it ever comes, will be the ones who know how to make _themselves_ valuable.
I’d say that in my location, water acquisition is a big priority. And filters would be of limited use.
We are not in an urban area, but it is an area that is not very habitable without technology.
The lack of surface water is a big drawback. Without a windmill or powered pump, you won’t have water. And it doesn’t rain often enough, or in large enough amounts, for that to be a dependable source. So, metal roofs wouldn’t be much help. Yes, solar stills and the like can still provide a minimal amount of water, but how long will the plastic sheeting last under the sun, and in the wind? Not long enough.
Also, cotton doesn’t seem to be an attractive food, and that is what is usually growing in the fields surrounding town (unless it gets hailed out like this year). Sometimes there is sorghum, and corn. Corn is getting more rare here.
There are lots of feedlots and dairies. So, you might imagine beef and milk products could save the day. I’m not counting on it. What is the likelihood that The State would confiscate all the cows and ship them elsewhere- or shoot and bury them “for the public good” in a large-scale disaster? And how long can the cattle survive without a regular influx of feed and water?
There are yucca and prickly pear growing wild and in people’s landscaping. My daughter has been less than enthusiastic about eating them with me. Most of the mesquite trees have been eliminated, so there goes that potential food source. Dove and cats are everywhere, but I’m not sure how long the supply would last in a hunger situation. Probably not long, once people realized they are edible.
So, while hunkering down is a good short-term strategy for me, if a disaster seems to be potentially long-term, I have to get out. I still haven’t figured out where the best bug-out location for me would be. I do have some ideas, though. I need to work on that and keep working on my water stash.
You forgot the “gurus” telling us to acquire the medical skills and supplies of a full fledged EMT/Trauma Surgeon, depending on which guru is pontificating.
I prepare for the end of the world the same as I prepare for bad weather, winter storms, hurricanes etc. Short, medium and long term storage foods, goal is 1 year worth with enough extra to share. Keep enough hand tools on hand to make my own minor household repairs. Keep about a weeks worth of water on hand in various recycled containers. Don’t forget the blue tarps, lots and lots of blue tarps and duct tape.
Good post Claire and I’m looking forward to the rest of them. Interesting reading the comments. Everyone has different ideas, but Joel’s, “You need food/water/shelter/supplies for special needs”, comes the closest to the truth in my estimation. However, having the basics shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to take the rest of your life off. Too many preppers seem to think they will retire after the SHTF. The purpose of your preps is to have the energy to be remain productive and able to live a descent life. If an economy goes to barter than having stuff and skills is very important. So let’s not discount that… unless you intent to lay down and die. One really important thing I learned years ago is that you can construct a scenario in which your preps are not enough and life is not worth living… and this basically comes down to a justification for ignoring the future and buying big screen TVs. Good on you if that’s how you feel. Some people, and this applies to a lot of well fed westerners, really aren’t ready to live in the semi-brave new world with all it’s vagueries/savageries… and instant opportunities. There’s always been a fallacy in the anti-prepping world that is my particular favorite. “If you have food the have nots will take it from you.” Actually this is total BS and I recommend a trip to Africa or Haiti to set you straight. The have nots become predatory but are not exactly filled with the spirit of conquest. In fact hungry people are good to go for about a day… and then they become lethargic and far more interested in saving their energy then taking on a well fed and armed individual or group. A guy I know was in Somalia in the early 90s. He was shocked to find out that all these well armed, Kat chewing Somali thugs only bothered with women who just got their UN food subsidy. They studiously avoided family farms where the farmers had two AKs and three magazines. Very ironic that the thugs picked on the starving, but hey, it’s a matter of opportunity, not a heroic death wish. The other thing I’ve learned (which will stay with me until the day I die) is that those who think they have nothing quickly learn that thugs can find a use for you. Whenever I mention this fact women seem to think that men will end up as slaves and men seem to think that women will be partying with the thugs. To be delicate, no one is immune from being a slave or providing thug entertainment. The bottom line here is that you need to find a way to defend yourself and, unless you plan on being a thug, providing for your own health and welfare. That said, and individual alone is a target by virtue of the impossibility of be awake 24-7. We all need backup.
“That said, and individual alone is a target by virtue of the impossibility of be awake 24-7. We all need backup.”
Those of us who are somewhat anti-social by nature can have a lot of trouble with that. It’s hard to let someone in.
Ellendra, Dogs. Not perfect by a long shot but good none-the-less.
Not counting myself a guru in prepping, I’d still share my approach to it. I took serious interest into camping and especially backpacking-style camping. I buy enough goods to get me comfortably backpacking into the mountains for a week no matter what season, I buy backpacking food (or learn how to cook from a bulk food/grains which doesn’t spoil for reasonable time). I figured out that my house has probably enough water to fill in my hiking water canisters, enough food to last me a few days and if it’s anything serious, I’d be rather be away from the city rather than in it.
If it is not too bad and I can stay at home, that would be a plus. But if one puts too much value into his house, what will he do if he’s forced to leave it? If your food is too heavy to carry it, will you be able to take it out?
Another important aspect of preparedness is being part of community. No matter how well are you prepared, a violent gang can take everything from you and your life as well. An unexpectedly strong flush flood (or fire) can take all your prepared resources away. One need to invest into community of neighbours and friends (hopefully likeminded), to help people in good times in order to have an extra safety net to fall back in case of unexpected.
And obviously a mental aspect of it. Those who put too much tought into having a good shelter and suddently losing it became despared, but soldiers in WW2 were sleeping nights in russian winter without any roof at times. Humans are capable of much more then they feel they are.
A common thought for many: “through the fall of civilization”
If Two Men Go Into the Woods Without a Police Officer, How Many Will Come Out Alive?
http://lewrockwell.com/crovelli/crovelli71.1.html
maybe “civilization” isn’t falling, systems are…. Replaceable systems.
Worth repeating:
“There’s always been a fallacy in the anti-prepping world that is my particular favorite. “If you have food the have nots will take it from you.” Actually this is total BS and I recommend a trip to Africa or Haiti to set you straight. The have nots become predatory but are not exactly filled with the spirit of conquest.” – EN.
“maybe “civilization” isn’t falling, systems are…. Replaceable systems.”
Interesting you should point this out as a friend who’s an agent of the drug war firmly believes they (meaning LE) are the cause of much of the problem. Drug Cartels are a response to heavy handed law enforcement and tend to be more civilized in Juarez than the government. The failing system in Juarez is being replaced.
clark – do the predatory have nots in Africa and Haiti have the same sense of entitlement that the have nots do here?
Important sociological and psychological difference worth considering.
I’m not Clark, but have to point out that the entitled in the West exist as a government scam. They are not usually the hardest working group in the world… and stealing from those who don’t want to be stolen from is very hard work indeed.
Everyone has great comments here….
I’d agree that location should be at the top of the list – out west we have water issues and altitude growing issues but there’s a lot of open land and not as many big cities as there are back east (less masses of people, depending on where you are in the west)….And I agree, unless you know what the end of the world AS WE KNOW IT is gonna be, it’s impossible to completely cover prepping for it….I also agree with the skills, which are easy to move with you if you find yourself having to be on the move….
I read on one of the survival sites (sorry, don’t remember the one or when) that in the event of a big disaster there will automatically be a resulting die off of people no longer getting their medications or having electricity and related things of the health type…That made me think about beefing up all the things in the hygienic category a bit more than I had thought would be needed….Getting sick, or being exposed to things that can get you sick, is one of those things that can blindside the best of prepping intentions….
Thanks for this, Claire…I look forward to all the info this will bring out…..
Of course, in the U.S. it might be the government that comes knocking on your door, gun in hand, asking for “contributions” to provide for those poor and needy entitlementians. It will be strictly voluntary of course, just like paying taxes.
Don’t expect government to go away just because TEOTWAKI has occured.
Interesting article: http://news.yahoo.com/armed-posse-patrols-timber-land-sheriffs-place-085323039.html
Whether they realize it or not, having citizen patrols like that already in place could make for a smoother transition during a collapse.
Lots of good comments here. I guess we have always been “preppers”, keeping a stock of non perishables, growing a garden and canning. We are taking it more seriously because we live in Alaska and a major event can make resupply much harder. The state’s governor has even had things to say about food security. The scary thing to me is that main stream retailers like Costco, Walmart and even Cabelas Are offering “emergency” food packs from a week to a year. I’ll stick with my usual non perishable staples thank you. I wouldn’t want to be the city thug who tried to take the food away from most any of my neighbors. most are prepared for grizzly bears.
Claire, thanks for turning conventional prepper wisdom on its head. 4 out of 5 experts will disagree with this. In my un-expert opinion, you’re dead on! I’m looking forward to more on this series. BTW, thanks for the mention! Commentators here always offer real-world advice.
clark, If Two Men Go Into the Woods Without a Police Officer, How Many Will Come Out Alive?
http://lewrockwell.com/crovelli/crovelli71.1.html
Well worth the read.
Todd,
This still assumes a civilized society, where any and all wants can be satisfied by driving to the store with some money.
Better way to ask it is: “If 2 armed STARVING men go into the field and only see 1 bird all day, who gets to eat?”
ILTim said: “Just go camping. You’ll learn very quickly what works, what you need to know, and so very much more importantly, what is a big load of heavy extraneous crap. You can start small and dip a toe in at the nearest state kids-n-beaches rv lot, ”
I agree completely. I got stuck for a couple months in a small mountain village during the Lebanese civil war in 1975, and a decent array of heavy camping gear plus food and a few other things would have been pretty sufficient. (By heavy camping I mean drive to a prepared site in a truck, not backpacking)
We, and everyone in the village, had gas stoves run off 20# tanks, but when the supply line became unreliable, some people ran out of propane. We cooked on kerosene space heaters. We had steady water, but as was normal in normal times, it was contaminated.
The store/s intermittently ran out of canned and dry food, or were in combat zones, so we ate a LOT of apples because we had lots.
Plenty of propane for a camping stove, water storage, a water filter and some bleach, plenty of dry and canned goods, a good medical kit, and some way to defend it will get you thru most problems. So long as you stock foods you normally eat, the cost of even pretty substantial prepping can be close to zero, especially if you have some camping gear for fun.
The End Of The World As We Know It? THAT takes some serious prepping, but what are the odds of it happening? Can it happen? Of course. We could get hit with EMP or global plague. Prepping for that takes over one’s life, though, and the life of one’s family. Prepping for a month off-grid takes care of 99+% probability, for about 2% of the cost. (And yes, I did pull those numbers out of thin air, but you get the gist.) Prepping is important. So is keeping perspective.
“The End Of The World As We Know It? THAT takes some serious prepping, but what are the odds of it happening? Can it happen? Of course. We could get hit with EMP or global plague. Prepping for that takes over one’s life, though, and the life of one’s family. Prepping for a month off-grid takes care of 99+% probability, for about 2% of the cost. (And yes, I did pull those numbers out of thin air, but you get the gist.) Prepping is important. So is keeping perspective.”
TTB — Great minds. 🙂 I’ve just written part IV to post by Monday. Says pretty much that — though your words are more succinct than mine.
The author of “Two Men Go Into the Woods…” is a jerk to call a policemen ‘hicks eating grits’. I guess he eats polenta and steel-cut oats? And guys who spend the day “hunting” and drinking could be the 1st definition of a hick! Most policemen, like most men in the military, are the sheep-dogs that protect sheep like him from the wolves. Sure those guys felt safe in the back country with their shotguns, but would a woman or even a guy alone been able to feel or be as safe?
I spend lots of time alone (with my dogs) in the woods (no cell service either, GASP!) and I always feel safe. Armed men in the woods are not the problem you seem to think they are. Millions of men and women spend time alone and unsupervised in the woods. You seem to be ruled by irrational fears. I hope you always have a policeman handy to keep you safe from armed men. And may your chains rest lightly upon you.
“would a woman or even a guy alone been able to feel or be as safe?”
Actually, yes. I go in the woods alone (with dogs and gun) nearly every day. I’ve never seen a police officer out there and I’ve never had any illusion that one would protect me from any dangers lurking in the trees.
Also Frances … if you buy the “cops and soldiers are sheep dogs” metaphor, then follow the logic of it. Who do the sheep dogs actually work for and what eventually happens to the sheep?