Preppers, could they be right?

squatting dog said:
While I definitely have a prepper mindset, (dehydrated food, guns, ammo, barter materials, close friends with the same mindset etc.), I'm also a realist and since we're only here for a short time anyways and you never know when your time is up, I live with the motto "do it today, for nobody knows if there is a tomorrow". For that reason, I went out yesterday and bought the wife a Harley trike. :)
I chose to enjoy life, not sit in a hidden bunker and hope for an apocalypse.
Click to expand...
Your wife is very fortunate, what a fabulous gift.
 

My wife and I used to be preppers in our 20's (in the 1970's). Had a well that could be pumped by hand or with a wind mill, with an 1100 gallon underground holding tank that was gravity feed to the house. Raised chickens, milk goats, turkeys, and a steer. Raised and put up a big garden. Had fruit trees. Had an acre of alfalfa, an acre of wheat, an acre of oats, and an acre of barley. Had a root cellar. Heated exclusively with wood. Always had at least 2 year's supply of firewood put up, had peddle power necessary transportation, backup propane fuel, kerosine lamps, a camper we could live in, and enough toilet paper packed away for a year, etc etc.
Now I live a suburban life, and if the need for all that prepper preparation ever materializes, I'm prepared to just die gracefully. Although we both deeply grieve not having the country life style.
 

After going through the Arctic Blast that we had here in Texas last year, I did a few extra preparations....I bought extra power packs, a generator and started extra food storage...trying to think ahead if this happens again, but to me there is a limit to this 'be prepared business', when it crosses over into extremism, I will not go there.
 
Jackie23 said:
After going through the Arctic Blast that we had here in Texas last year, I did a few extra preparations....I bought extra power packs, a generator and started extra food storage...trying to think ahead if this happens again, but to me there is a limit to this 'be prepared business', when it crosses over into extremism, I will not go there.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Our family (mom--not dad who doesn't want to think about anything disruptive, my brother and I) are all thinking of months to a year preparedness. Though I think law enforcement would break down quickly and civil disorder would be horrible within months. I don't want to live in that world ...but I'm not sure how leaving it would go....

The discussion about Lucifer's Hammer above got me reading about past meteor/comet hits to Earth which led to reading about Apophis which will orbit very close to Earth in 2029. The asteroid Apophis was first sighted in 2004; early on it was thought to be a possible direct threat to Earth. Now astronomers are saying it'll only come within 20,000ish miles which is within range of communication satellites.

NASA's Apophis page: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/apophis/in-depth/

.
 
Last edited:
TooMuchMuktuk said:
My wife and I used to be preppers in our 20's (in the 1970's). Had a well that could be pumped by hand or with a wind mill, with an 1100 gallon underground holding tank that was gravity feed to the house. Raised chickens, milk goats, turkeys, and a steer. Raised and put up a big garden. Had fruit trees. Had an acre of alfalfa, an acre of wheat, an acre of oats, and an acre of barley. Had a root cellar. Heated exclusively with wood. Always had at least 2 year's supply of firewood put up, had peddle power necessary transportation, backup propane fuel, kerosine lamps, a camper we could live in, and enough toilet paper packed away for a year, etc etc.
Now I live a suburban life, and if the need for all that prepper preparation ever materializes, I'm prepared to just die gracefully. Although we both deeply grieve not having the country life style.
Click to expand...
Wow! Serious prepper life sounds like it demands A LOT of focus and manual labor.
Jackie23 said:
After going through the Arctic Blast that we had here in Texas last year, I did a few extra preparations....I bought extra power packs, a generator and started extra food storage...trying to think ahead if this happens again, but to me there is a limit to this 'be prepared business', when it crosses over into extremism, I will not go there.
Click to expand...
Power packs? Are you referring to those gizmos that can charge cellphones and other devices or something else?
 
StarSong said:
Did you see this? Eeek!
https://science.nasa.gov/carrington-class-cme-narrowly-misses-earth
Click to expand...

My brother was was working with satellite ag applications then and his company watched the solar storm threat closely. There are so many things that have and will someday happen again ...asteroids, earthquakes, solar flares. The only question is when which may be hundreds of years from now and we're worrying needlessly for our lifetimes. Thing is they will happen again and it's prudent to keep that in mind and teach younger family members to as well. Even several weeks of food, water and means to stay warm could keep us going until there's help and out of shelters and long queues when help arrives.
 
Last edited:
I can understand the idea of prepping on a variety of levels, such as independence, preparedness, self sufficiency, lifestyle, etc.

I am confused as to why so many would advertise their preparedness. I mean if it hits the fan, they would have great need for the ammo and not just the unprepared, but envious fellow preppers. I guess I am thinking that being prepared and staying mum about it, would be the optimum condition.
 
Harry Le Hermit said:
I can understand the idea of prepping on a variety of levels, such as independence, preparedness, self sufficiency, lifestyle, etc.

I am confused as to why so many would advertise their preparedness. I mean if it hits the fan, they would have great need for the ammo and not just the unprepared, but envious fellow preppers. I guess I am thinking that being prepared and staying mum about it, would be the optimum condition.
Click to expand...
Yes and the smart ones keep mum about their preps.
 
AnnieA said:
My brother was was working with satellite ag applications then and his company watched the solar storm threat closely. There are so many things that have and will someday happen again ...asteroids, earthquakes, solar flares. The only question is when which may be hundreds of years from now and we're worrying needlessly for our lifetimes. Thing is they will happen again and it's prudent to keep that in mind and teach younger family members to as well. Even several weeks of food, water and means to stay warm could keep us going until there's help and out of long queues when help arrives.
Click to expand...
That's why I'd never invest in MREs, freeze dried or dehydrated foods (besides fruit), or other foods we don't normally eat. We cycle through what we have and rotate our stock. If it's needed for an emergency, it's there. If not, my backup just makes my trips to the grocery stores a less pressing matter.
Becky1951 said:
Yes and the smart ones keep mum about their preps.
Click to expand...
Very true. Our kids know about our food and water stashes. Neighbors and others do not.
 
Not a full blown Prepper, just someone who thinks about being prepared.
Started when we lived in California and suffered from a couple of Earthquakes.
Most of us 'Seniors' understand the need to keep a stockpile of supplies, just the way we were taught.

We have the normal stuff put away to survive shortages due to weather and other events.

I've always owned a generator for power outages, just something every home owner should have. JMHO.

Have a good friend that is really into Prepping, so it's easy for us to pick a present for them around Christmas time.
 
StarSong said:
Wow! Serious prepper life sounds like it demands A LOT of focus and manual labor.

Power packs? Are you referring to those gizmos that can charge cellphones and other devices or something else?
Click to expand...
At that time we didn't think in terms of being preppers. We were just doing everything we could to become as independent from public utilities and services as possible. And yes, that kind of life style is extremely labor intensive. My wife and I were just talking about that the other day, and with raising two children, building a house, doing all our own mechanical work, having full time jobs and being actively involved in church activities, we basically worked and slept and that's about it, for 20 years. But we were building a life. In hind sight, those were the best years of our lives.
 
TooMuchMuktuk said:
At that time we didn't think in terms of being preppers. We were just doing everything we could to become as independent from public utilities and services as possible. And yes, that kind of life style is extremely labor intensive. My wife and I were just talking about that the other day, and with raising two children, building a house, doing all our own mechanical work, having full time jobs and being actively involved in church activities, we basically worked and slept and that's about it, for 20 years. But we were building a life. In hind sight, those were the best years of our lives.
Click to expand...
I have been in an intentional community for about 30 years. We do/did most all of what you all did except we were a lot lazier. :) Occasionally we worked all day but most of the time it was half or 3/4's. Anyway I was curious if there were current groups forming through our hard economic times, in spite of Covid. On the Intentional Communities website I searched for "preppers" and got 877 matches. They are all a little different in what they do, and how the are organized, If interested you can explore lots of different kind of prepper communities...

Community Search​

preppers

https://www.ic.org/directory/find/?search=preppers
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top