Doomsday Preppers

[Refrigerator]

Exactly Grandpa.

It's not about the END OF THE WORLD - It's not about surviving a hypothetical PLANE CRASH - It's about the SATISFACTION YOU GET knowing you can take care of yourself and/or your family in ANY SITUATION, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.

 

[Michael]

As long as we are talking potential catastrophes, what about a pole shift causing the plates to shift and those areas become inland seas? As a farmer who flood irrigates, it is amazing how a good stream of water can decimate a gopher population.

If the tectonic plates decide to shift drastically enough that you'd have to worry about the formation of an inland sea from that shift, I'd be a lot more concerned about the unbelievably enormous earthquakes and volcanism that would go with that.

These particular gophers would need to worry about the super volcano a little more than flooding.

 

[Refrigerator]

If the tectonic plates decide to shift drastically enough that you'd have to worry about the formation of an inland sea from that shift, I'd be a lot more concerned about the unbelievably enormous earthquakes and volcanism that would go with that.

These particular gophers would need to worry about the super volcano a little more than flooding.

what about Yellowstone? This is a super Volcanoe!!!

 

[huullk]

I saw it I thought it was cool and you just have to ignore the fact that they edit it to make the people paying attention to what's going on in the world sound nuts.

 

[Greatoutdoors]

Exactly Grandpa.

It's not about the END OF THE WORLD - It's not about surviving a hypothetical PLANE CRASH - It's about the SATISFACTION YOU GET knowing you can take care of yourself and/or your family in ANY SITUATION, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.

^^^^ Love this! ^^^
This is our philosophy. Hopefully, nothing worse than a temporary job loss or a big storm coming through will be the worst that ever happens. On the other hand if something does happen I like knowing that we are bulking up on knowledge of how to take care of ourselves and the supplies we need to do it. I don't want to be one of the ones at Walmart fighting over the last rolls of toilet paper or bottles of water!

 

[ChadTower]

I fall into prepper habits in some ways. I don't prep for the gov't to collapse, though. I prep for my own personal world to collapse. What if I lose my job? How long can I string my family along on little or no income? What if we have a 3 week power outage? Will my family be reasonably comfortable or will they fall apart like most people do? I grew up dirt poor. Can I do that now with a family to support? Stuff like that.

I don't keep 6 months of food around. I keep about a month, rotated, just because that's how I live. If we have no electricity for a month? Well, we've done a week a couple times in the past 2 years thanks to a crappy grid, and we were okay. We had no hot water which got old so I built a water heater out of a 55 gal drum, 150 feet of garden hose, and my firepit. That was a good learning experience and it worked well for us. We had running warm water on demand so long as the coals were hot.

The one thing I fear more than anything is an extended power outage during the winter. It gets really cold here in MA and my oil furnace has powered blowers. It can't function without electricity. I looked into having a wood fired backup installed but the house just isn't designed for it. There is no Code way to put a wood stove into my house for under 4k. Now I'm looking into propane as a backup system. That might work but I don't have good insight into the storage requirements yet.

 

[Lamebeaver]

Now that is funny...I never mentioned end of the world as well. I did however post what was published by NASA as preparedness information..

The article you posted was not from NASA, it was from some wacko group claiming their pseudo-science scare tactics were based on NASA reports. When I searched the NASA website, I found no such information. The closest I came was the doomsday article, which refuted claims that we face a serious long-term risk from a CME or solar storm.

 

[Cappy]

This sure has been a great read. It's threads like this that run from funny, to entertaining to much as I hate to admit it educational. Thanks for giving me a read and something other to do in the mornings than morning news. I aint a prepper, I'm a survivor. I keep a few things around for emergencies and have a good country boy network. I have been knocked off the grid for as long as 3 weeks several times including Huricane Rita someone else mentioned earlier. We had no utilities and did just fine. Neighbors chipped in and what we didn't have we took from the bayou country. We delt with heat, looters, roving bands of refugees, etc. You will notice heat is top of my list of gripes? What can I say everything else was minor inconvience. But it sucks to sleep in 85 degree nights with 95% humidity. Funny how until the feces impacts the rotery cooling device ya never know what ya miss the most.

 

[dinosaur]

Well, I liked the part about bombarding us with asteroids from millions of miles away.

This is not as fantasized as it may seem. In the late eighties part of the "Star Wars" initiative involved the possible use of a rail gun built on the moon that could hurl school bus sized rocks with pinpoint accuracy at the Earth. Even after burning through the atmosphere they would still be the size of a couple volkswagens and strike the target in superheated fury that would raise the temperature of the air to about 400 degrees Farenheit in the vicinity of the attack. And the moon is less than a quarter million miles away.

My ideas for survival, of course, are a bit more low-tech. Anything is possible and if I am lucky (or unlucky) enough to survive an initial catastrophic event, my efforts have been toward simplification. I am totally off the grid. My electricity is solar. My heat is from wood. My water falls from the sky although I have other sources. I pump the water into my shower from a six hundred gallon tank, use it in cooking and purify with a solar still or simply boil it before consumption. I have a large garden and do some canning. I also harvest some crops that grow wild. I buy meat from a grocer maybe two or three times a year but don't have to do so. I've raised beeves and might do it again when I can get the calves for next to nothing. But it's much easier to take game and fish. I haven't built my icehouse yet but it's a simple matter. I did most of this to avoid paying the utility companies and make my retirement easier. But I have to admit it will come in handy if any of the weird and imaginative scenarios presented here actually transpire.

 

[ChadTower]

I'm a little bit like dinosaur in philosophy. I value skills more than stocks. I grew up backwoods so I still have some of that in me even though I live in modern suburbia. My goal is to eventually move back to the woods and go back to that style of living. Reduced needs, and preparing ahead of time for them, means freedom.

 

[Lamebeaver]

I am all for being prepared for realistic scenarios and emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. Nothing wrong with being prepared.

What bothers me is folks who spread ridiculous, highly unlikely scenarios with no scientific basis, in order to scare people into buying a bunch of stuff they will never need. Apparently, a lot of folks on this forum are buying into this claptrap.

 

[oldsarge]

I am all for being prepared for realistic scenarios and emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. Nothing wrong with being prepared.

What bothers me is folks who spread ridiculous, highly unlikely scenarios with no scientific basis, in order to scare people into buying a bunch of stuff they will never need. Apparently, a lot of folks on this forum are buying into this claptrap.

I think it's the media that blows this all out of proportion. Labeling people who are self reliant as preppers. I'd love to live comfortably, but when some type of disaster hits and all the creature comforts are gone. I'd feel so much better knowing I have a little something to fall back on.

The world is a much different place. The cold war era had us all on edge waiting for a nuclear strike. It was possible, it could have happened. Now in today world it's not about blowing something up and taking someones land from them. The likelihood of a EMP is much greater. North Korea has long range missiles, along with many other counties. Look what 9-11 did to our nation. It no longer a war of attrition where you try to kill off as many of them as you can. Now it's about creating turmoil in a place and then let the people bring themselves down. An EMP is a very likely scenario, depending on where you live, it will be much worse for some than others.

I really hate labels. First it survivalists, now it's preppers. The media will only show what they think is a good story and often lean to on side or the other to push a point. My hat's off to all you who "Prepare" no matter at what level you do it.

 

[Lamebeaver]

The likelihood of a EMP is much greater. North Korea has long range missiles, along with many other counties. Look what 9-11 did to our nation. It no longer a war of attrition where you try to kill off as many of them as you can. Now it's about creating turmoil in a place and then let the people bring themselves down. An EMP is a very likely scenario, depending on where you live, it will be much worse for some than others.

911 killed a bunch of people and grounded civil aviation for a while. I don’t recall any particular hardships.

As far as concern, read the following article and tell me if you’re still concerned.

The Space Review: The EMP threat: fact, fiction, and response (part 1) (page 1)

Solar flares, EMP, earth shifting on it's axis, monetary collapse, it's all paranoia spread by people out to make a buck and believed and repeated by people who should know better if they thought about it and did their own research instead of just injesting stuff from conspiracy theory websites.

 

[Greatoutdoors]

Something I feel like a lot of people are overlooking is that we are a need it now society. Grocery stores/ gas station etc. get shipments several times a week at a minimum and others get them daily. There was an article on MSNBC a week or two ago about how even a minor disruption to the electrical grid, gas supply etc. means that grocery store shelves will be bare within two days and the stations will have no gas. Having a little of this and a little of that on hand just gives you and yours better odds of survivng come what may.

 

[Refrigerator]

911 killed a bunch of people and grounded civil aviation for a while. I don’t recall any particular hardships.

As far as concern, read the following article and tell me if you’re still concerned.

The Space Review: The EMP threat: fact, fiction, and response (part 1) (page 1)

Solar flares, EMP, earth shifting on it's axis, monetary collapse, it's all paranoia spread by people out to make a buck and believed and repeated by people who should know better if they thought about it and did their own research instead of just injesting stuff from conspiracy theory websites.

you say 911 killed a bunch of people and you don't remember any hardships.... Oh man your really cool. I for one had a really bad hardship as my Uncle and his wife and son were there and lost there lives. You need to read this unless you think this is not happening as well.. Casualties of the September 11 attacks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When this happened for the next 72 hrs I believe the majority of AMERICANS were glued to a TV or Radio, Newspaper...so this in your thinking caused no particular hardships.... Are you a veteran? How many Kids did we send to die or injured fighting in Iraq? I wonder if you know how many... ???

 

[Refrigerator]

your definition of Hardships are not anything as mine... I am a Veteran and proud of this country...Every loss we had is a hardship by the hands of those who want to bring our way of life to a halt...open your heart and stop looking with your eyes...Your hear will tell you the truth...your eyes are blinding your spirit.

 

[Refrigerator]

this happened then and what do you think would happen today?? Maybe a blink of lights and whooohoooo the technology has advanced so much we will have power back up in seconds....get real ....If this happened today...ha I would not want to in a big city.

IPS - Space Weather - Power Failure in Canada During 1989

 

[Refrigerator]

Now if this would happen within my electric grid wholaaa..I would not give it a thought of hardship because I am prepared with everything it will take to feed my family, Dogs, including power and personal protection just in case anyone wanted to take my catch.....and exercise my GOD given right to bear arms... I would be ready...although some might be ready with just a flashlight hoping the toilet would fill back up with fresh water..

Northeast blackout of 2003 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Refrigerator]

Those who prepare are not doing this out of FEAR...I'll remind you this is why we do it..

It's not about the END OF THE WORLD - It's not about surviving a hypothetical PLANE CRASH - It's about the SATISFACTION YOU GET knowing you can take care of yourself and/or your family in ANY SITUATION, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.

 

[Refrigerator]

I would like to inject a question changing the subject a little..
Has anyone heard anything about Russia sending troops along the North Eastern Border of IRAN? Russia Is Massing Troops On Iran's Northern Border And Waiting For A Western Attack