Super worried. If it doesn't happen now, it will sooner or later. And it will affect everyone. Whether it's loss of a job, higher food costs, higher energy bills, more costly (and worse) medical care, higher gas prices, or one of the worse things we prepare for - breakdown of society, loss of power, halting of transportation services (like trucks delivering food) or widespread disease - you will be affected.
As far as preparation, I am doing all the things on this blog....paying off every ounce of debt, trying to store junk silver and barter items, storing food - both long term storage and starting a garden and raising livestock, trying to learn new skills, such as basic carpentry and electronics work (to fix broken radios), getting my HAM radio license, making sure proper security is in place, and trying to stay healthy.
That's about it for now. But, yes, definitely worried.
Yep. Me too. My husband thinks I am becoming paranoid in my old age. LOL, always been paranoid. Now I am just old enough that I don't care if people know. My stomach is in knots most times when I really think about the implications. I truly believe most Americans don't think it will get that far because we are Americans and nothing that bad can happen here. These will be the same people who will be hungry and desperate. We are undergoing the same preparations here. I am trying to include a few family members to have a community for the whole safety in numbers idea as well as the skills they have that we do not.
Community is one thing we lack here. Most people here are vagrants, although many know how to do a lot of stuff I don't - like concrete work, metal work, carpentry, operate heavy equipment, etc. The bad thing is I don't think these are the types of people I would want in my community. 99% don't bathe regularly (you can imagine the stink), many steal, many more would steal if food were scarce, and basically are vagrants - they depend on the government to take care of them. They say they are "disabled" but are able to to work doing whatever for cash under the table. They all get food stamps, free healthcare, etc. So, community is something I need to work on. The other thing I am lacking is communications. I have one set of GMRS/FRS radios. I am studying for my HAM license now and will be getting a handheld HAM radio to start with, then setting up a base station later. Aside from the various knowledge standpoint of community members, I would like to have people to train with, as with firearms for defense purposes. The fighting rifle class I went to was great, but that type of training has to be done over and over to keep your skills up. If you get a bunch of people together who know how to shoot, but haven't trained together, someone (good guy) might get shot. And yes, most Americans think nothing will happen. They get up, go to work or school, drink their $4 coffees (as do I on occasion) and come home and never give a second thought to the 3 days worth of food in their cabinets. They never give second thought to the $20,000 of consumer debt they have. They have 1 flashlight in the house with dead batteries. They have no way to obtain clean water. They have no alternative sources of power. They will become desperate and they will do what they have to do to feed their families. Another good reason to have food stored is to hopefully help some of these people. You won't be able to help everyone, but you can hand out some (if you've stored enough yourself). But, if they steal and loot instead of asking, then those are the ones that need to be swiftly dealt with.
I agree whole heartedly. Have you tried to meet folks at a church (if you go) or at a library? Supermarket? You would be surprised the number I meet at the grocery store. (It could be the 3-inch binder full of meticulously organized coupons). We are definitely in the mindset of wanting to help people, but we are just as prepared to deal with people who don't ask. Some of the people out there are scary enough during normal times (like the folks I saw when I picked the husband up from the train), but you definitely don't want to meet them under bad circumstances.
I truly do not understand how people are comfortable with 3 day's worth of groceries in their home. My minimum before I became a prepper was 6 months. (I grew up splitting a can of soup 3 ways for dinner kind of poor - so I am sure that is why) The idea of having debt nauseates me. We don't have a lot, but what we have belongs to us. That is how we sleep at night and how I don't sweat it overly much if there is a lull in my work.
Don't get me started on the whole mortgage crisis thing either. The craziness of some of the decisions so many people made shocked me. Why would anyone who made 30,000 a year believe they could afford a $350,000 house? Math is the same no matter what a contract says....anyway another rant for another day. Have a great one.
I have met several people, but none are close enough by where we could help each other. I will start looking at church. We just started going to this new church and it seems to be awesome. (There aren't many churches in this area that I would consider worth going to....I realize that is probably not a nice thing to say, but it's basically a cultural difference). The grocery stores here are basically vagrants using their food stamps. I know there are some people out there, and I am looking. Look at americanpreppersnetwork.net - its a good website.
As far as church goes, and probably this is a topic for another section, but it's short, so I'll post anyway, I honestly think we are getting closer and closer to it being illegal to worship Christ and with that, Bibles will be illegal. I am getting several cheap Bibles and packing them appropriately and burying them, just so if I have to give mine up, I'll still have one.
I hate debt too and we are trying to get all of ours paid off, including vehicles. If something really does happen, I want to be able to just stop going to work and stay home and not worry about anything. We can barter for things we need, we will have a garden and livestock, we have extra clothes packed away (except for Maddie cause she changes sizes about every 2 weeks), weapons are stored, ammunition is stored, generator, etc. I would like to get either an underground or above ground gas and diesel tank to keep in my yard, maybe 250-500 gallons each. I could go on and on and on about this stuff. I am basically obsessed with prepping. That's all I read about and while I have been off between jobs, I have been trying to finish our house and everything I do with it revolves around organization of supplies, thinking about where to put fruit trees and berry bushes, perimeter security, etc.
Now that we have a permanent address, I have been busy with the same hold the fort scenario. The perimeter of the property is deeply wooded on 3 sides and wide open at the front. The house sits high, so we have a good line of sight.
We are good on the water sources because we have a creek that runs through the back of the property and 3 lakes within a 1 mile radius, but we are in the beginning stages of food growth. The landscape is a bit difficult to work with for growing but is very good for everything else. (Hence the growing vertically) If there is a SHTF scenario, we can easily convert the front land for farming. It gets great sun and is wide and flat. (It's just against the ordinances here to grow in the front)
We finally found a reliable source for old windows for the greenhouse, but construction cannot start until it is actually warm out.
Unfortunately, our livestock preps are going to have to be confined to just chickens at this stage. Thankfully, we have underground space etc. I like where we are in that we have 12 houses in our "neighborhood" and of those 12, 3 are ex-military or current law enforcement. I think we will be able to find at least 1 or 2 who are like minded in the bunch.
My focus now is getting the food growing and setting up space for dehydrating and canning storage. The past 6 months have wreaked havoc on my supplies, and they need replenishing. With my job ended, I have the time to devote to it. Going to the Mexican market on Saturdays has been a great source of information on food storage and practices.
We are also saving to buy a late-model truck. We are looking to get something pre-computer that can be worked on by us and is heavy duty.
That is where we are with things. We are definitely not where we want to be yet, but we are getting there.
Super worried. If it doesn't happen now, it will sooner or later. And it will affect everyone. Whether it's loss of a job, higher food costs, higher energy bills, more costly (and worse) medical care, higher gas prices, or one of the worse things we prepare for - breakdown of society, loss of power, halting of transportation services (like trucks delivering food) or widespread disease - you will be affected.
ReplyDeleteAs far as preparation, I am doing all the things on this blog....paying off every ounce of debt, trying to store junk silver and barter items, storing food - both long term storage and starting a garden and raising livestock, trying to learn new skills, such as basic carpentry and electronics work (to fix broken radios), getting my HAM radio license, making sure proper security is in place, and trying to stay healthy.
That's about it for now. But, yes, definitely worried.
Yep. Me too. My husband thinks I am becoming paranoid in my old age. LOL, always been paranoid. Now I am just old enough that I don't care if people know. My stomach is in knots most times when I really think about the implications. I truly believe most Americans don't think it will get that far because we are Americans and nothing that bad can happen here. These will be the same people who will be hungry and desperate. We are undergoing the same preparations here. I am trying to include a few family members to have a community for the whole safety in numbers idea as well as the skills they have that we do not.
DeleteDefinitely worried on this end.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCommunity is one thing we lack here. Most people here are vagrants, although many know how to do a lot of stuff I don't - like concrete work, metal work, carpentry, operate heavy equipment, etc. The bad thing is I don't think these are the types of people I would want in my community. 99% don't bathe regularly (you can imagine the stink), many steal, many more would steal if food were scarce, and basically are vagrants - they depend on the government to take care of them. They say they are "disabled" but are able to to work doing whatever for cash under the table. They all get food stamps, free healthcare, etc. So, community is something I need to work on. The other thing I am lacking is communications. I have one set of GMRS/FRS radios. I am studying for my HAM license now and will be getting a handheld HAM radio to start with, then setting up a base station later. Aside from the various knowledge standpoint of community members, I would like to have people to train with, as with firearms for defense purposes. The fighting rifle class I went to was great, but that type of training has to be done over and over to keep your skills up. If you get a bunch of people together who know how to shoot, but haven't trained together, someone (good guy) might get shot. And yes, most Americans think nothing will happen. They get up, go to work or school, drink their $4 coffees (as do I on occasion) and come home and never give a second thought to the 3 days worth of food in their cabinets. They never give second thought to the $20,000 of consumer debt they have. They have 1 flashlight in the house with dead batteries. They have no way to obtain clean water. They have no alternative sources of power. They will become desperate and they will do what they have to do to feed their families. Another good reason to have food stored is to hopefully help some of these people. You won't be able to help everyone, but you can hand out some (if you've stored enough yourself). But, if they steal and loot instead of asking, then those are the ones that need to be swiftly dealt with.
ReplyDeleteI agree whole heartedly. Have you tried to meet folks at a church (if you go) or at a library? Supermarket? You would be surprised the number I meet at the grocery store. (It could be the 3-inch binder full of meticulously organized coupons). We are definitely in the mindset of wanting to help people, but we are just as prepared to deal with people who don't ask. Some of the people out there are scary enough during normal times (like the folks I saw when I picked the husband up from the train), but you definitely don't want to meet them under bad circumstances.
DeleteI truly do not understand how people are comfortable with 3 day's worth of groceries in their home. My minimum before I became a prepper was 6 months. (I grew up splitting a can of soup 3 ways for dinner kind of poor - so I am sure that is why) The idea of having debt nauseates me. We don't have a lot, but what we have belongs to us. That is how we sleep at night and how I don't sweat it overly much if there is a lull in my work.
Don't get me started on the whole mortgage crisis thing either. The craziness of some of the decisions so many people made shocked me. Why would anyone who made 30,000 a year believe they could afford a $350,000 house? Math is the same no matter what a contract says....anyway another rant for another day. Have a great one.
I have met several people, but none are close enough by where we could help each other. I will start looking at church. We just started going to this new church and it seems to be awesome. (There aren't many churches in this area that I would consider worth going to....I realize that is probably not a nice thing to say, but it's basically a cultural difference). The grocery stores here are basically vagrants using their food stamps. I know there are some people out there, and I am looking. Look at americanpreppersnetwork.net - its a good website.
ReplyDeleteAs far as church goes, and probably this is a topic for another section, but it's short, so I'll post anyway, I honestly think we are getting closer and closer to it being illegal to worship Christ and with that, Bibles will be illegal. I am getting several cheap Bibles and packing them appropriately and burying them, just so if I have to give mine up, I'll still have one.
I hate debt too and we are trying to get all of ours paid off, including vehicles. If something really does happen, I want to be able to just stop going to work and stay home and not worry about anything. We can barter for things we need, we will have a garden and livestock, we have extra clothes packed away (except for Maddie cause she changes sizes about every 2 weeks), weapons are stored, ammunition is stored, generator, etc. I would like to get either an underground or above ground gas and diesel tank to keep in my yard, maybe 250-500 gallons each. I could go on and on and on about this stuff. I am basically obsessed with prepping. That's all I read about and while I have been off between jobs, I have been trying to finish our house and everything I do with it revolves around organization of supplies, thinking about where to put fruit trees and berry bushes, perimeter security, etc.
Now that we have a permanent address, I have been busy with the same hold the fort scenario. The perimeter of the property is deeply wooded on 3 sides and wide open at the front. The house sits high, so we have a good line of sight.
ReplyDeleteWe are good on the water sources because we have a creek that runs through the back of the property and 3 lakes within a 1 mile radius, but we are in the beginning stages of food growth. The landscape is a bit difficult to work with for growing but is very good for everything else. (Hence the growing vertically) If there is a SHTF scenario, we can easily convert the front land for farming. It gets great sun and is wide and flat. (It's just against the ordinances here to grow in the front)
We finally found a reliable source for old windows for the greenhouse, but construction cannot start until it is actually warm out.
Unfortunately, our livestock preps are going to have to be confined to just chickens at this stage. Thankfully, we have underground space etc. I like where we are in that we have 12 houses in our "neighborhood" and of those 12, 3 are ex-military or current law enforcement. I think we will be able to find at least 1 or 2 who are like minded in the bunch.
My focus now is getting the food growing and setting up space for dehydrating and canning storage. The past 6 months have wreaked havoc on my supplies, and they need replenishing. With my job ended, I have the time to devote to it. Going to the Mexican market on Saturdays has been a great source of information on food storage and practices.
We are also saving to buy a late-model truck. We are looking to get something pre-computer that can be worked on by us and is heavy duty.
That is where we are with things. We are definitely not where we want to be yet, but we are getting there.
I don't think we will ever be where we want to be :)
ReplyDelete