Any other "preppers"?

[74novaman]

Nope, I trust that the fed gov and FEMA have my best interests in mind and trust the almight govt to protect and care for me in any and all situations.

[chasfm11]

Some guy or gal @_PatJohnson_ explains EMP hardening a little bit, MOVs (Metal Oxide Varistors), Faraday Cages, coiling cords to create capacitance, throwing away cheap powerstrips etc etc https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23PrepperTalk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On Twitter search #Preppertalk

I just did that to see what it's about ... not that I am one or know anything about it... just heard the term the 1st time on this thread

I never thought about EMP effects on car electronics and hardening those, guess I'd be stranded like in the movies when alien space ships fly over and cars die

You might consider reading "One Second After" It is less about the science and more about the effects.

I attended another seminar yesterday. I'm not in any way affiliated with this vendor (I'm not even a customer yet) but I was impressed by what they offer.

http://www.shelfreliance.com/online-catalog#/46/

Their prices seem reasonable and they have chicken that is good for 25 years (unopened, 1 year opened). Their representative opened many of their product cans and made a variety of dishes from them including chicken salad, soup and just plain vegetables. She also served a comparison cup with dehydrated pineapple and their freeze dried pineapple. The difference in taste was amazing. I want to try some of their foods for the RV.

[USA1]

Nope, I trust that the fed gov and FEMA have my best interests in mind and trust the almight govt to protect and care for me in any and all situations.

That reminds me. A couple of days after Ike hit, there was an announcement that FEMA was sending a truck to pass out ice and water at a local grocery store parking lot, so we thought we'd go and get some.

We, and about a thousand other people show up but there's no FEMA truck. Finally someone comes by and informs the crowd that there was a last minute change and it has been moved to another location.

By the time we get over there, all the ice and water was gone. That day confirmed that I couldn't depend on outside help in a time of need.

[RPB]

Nationwide Standardized Amateur Radio Prepper Frequencies
http://www.catastrophenetwork.org/?p=440" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[LSUTiger]

Who cares who else is prepping? Just do it. Stuff happening is inevitable IMHO.

My wife and family think Im crazy thats why Im not sharing my stash of toilet paper when the stuff is hitting fan blades, WROL, TEOTWAWKI happens.

[knotquiteawake]

I want to get started on prepping. What are some resources or first steps? We've probably got about 1-2 weeks worth of food usually in the pantry at all times but beyond that we don't have much else. Heck, all i've got for ammo is what I carry plus one reload for the dresser revolver.

[RPB]

I want to get started on prepping. What are some resources or first steps? We've probably got about 1-2 weeks worth of food usually in the pantry at all times but beyond that we don't have much else. Heck, all i've got for ammo is what I carry plus one reload for the dresser revolver.

Good place where I learned of other websites which have info is monitoring guys on
https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23PrepperTalk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

good place to start
Creator of #PrepperTalk
http://www.survivorjane.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://twitter.com/#!/SurvivorJane" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some #PrepperTalk guys have some interesting self sufficient houses.

Prepping isn't just for Zombies, but for floods/hurricanes/earthquakes/drought/wildfires whatever

[youtube][/youtube]

[chasfm11]

I want to get started on prepping. What are some resources or first steps? We've probably got about 1-2 weeks worth of food usually in the pantry at all times but beyond that we don't have much else. Heck, all i've got for ammo is what I carry plus one reload for the dresser revolver.

I'm not a prepper. Maybe I'm a wanna be. Anyway, Here are a couple of suggestions from a presentation that I attended this summer.

1. Read "One Second After" and "Last Light" which are two different takes on TEOTWAWKI scenarios. While both are fiction, they brought the whole idea of emergency preparedness into a different light for me. Their methods of dealing with the catastrophes are very different.
2. Read some of the blogs about the real disasters. Katrina and the Alabama tornado for starters. Key in on what happens 48 hours to several weeks after the disasters.
3. Decide what what kind of disasters you want to prep for and how you want to handle them. The first decision is stay or go, and it is often dictated by the type of disaster. If go, what do you need to take? The FEMA and other gov websites have some great ideas. If stay, how crippled will your resources be? No electric? No water? No/limited food resupply?
4. A constant theme across the fiction and real life stories is the degree and speed with which society breaks down after a disaster. The solution is neighbors banding together. This would be a great time to get to know your neighbors better and see if anyone else is interested. It only takes a few. A neighborhood watch is a good way to start.

An interesting graphic from the seminar that I attended showed a triangle. One point of the triangle was "stuff" (emergency food, backup generators, etc). One of the other points was mental preparedness. The third point was training. The message was the preparedness is two thirds about thinking and physically being ready and one third about having stuff. No battle plan survives the first few seconds of conflict and no emergency plan is going to do much better. The idea is to develop a detailed plan which gives you a way to structure your thinking. Then, when the disaster actually strikes, you have a better mindset to be able to be adaptive to the circumstances that you and your family are facing. An example: you have less than 5 minutes to get out of your house to flee from a wildfire, etc. What do you need and can you retrieve it in that time?. In most cases, a bug out bag, with a compass and flint and steel is not what you'll want.

Personally, I decided to start with short planning horizons. How could we survive for 75 hours without electric and food supply. Then, I moved it to a week and then a month. Those are for the "stay" situations. For the "go" ones, you have to make some assumptions about the length of time away and the conditions. Anyway, it is an interesting mental exercise.

Just my $.02 worth.

P.S. I'm taking my Amateur Radio Technician test on 11/10. Ham radio appears to be a great asset in a widespread emergency.

[RPB]

I remember Hurricane Carla when my dad had to work (phone company) and mom and us kids went to the shelter and we had bedding, food, drinks, lanterns. etc because mom was prepared .... no one else was ... and the girls my age (about 6 years old) wanted some muffins and food we had. I was the "man of the hour" No matter how good lookin YOU were, all the girls hung around me the next several days.

Ham is fun too. I need to get the license, I have lots of receiving equip radios from 0 KHz (after I modified an Icom to get lower freqs to hear the grass grow prior to an earthquake) to microwave already.

[Scott in Houston]

I consider myself a closet prepper. I don't discuss it much because of the stigma, etc.

I figured I could share here with other like-minded folks.
For those considering getting into it...

Here are a few links. They're time sensitive because they're sales.

First:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/categ ... Id=1340121" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sams right now has the 30 day (for family of 4) for $150.

Also, this:

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Federal- ... 088478.uts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

$300 for 1000 rounds at Cabela's... sale.


Lastly, get a generator, drugs (for medicinal use and not marijuana! either) and water. That's 80% of the battle.


In addition to common stuff, I have lots of ammo. I even have a bit of ammo for guns I don't own. Good trade value at worst case. :)

[RPB]

Yeah it's funny the "stigma"

So I don't claim to be a prepper much less a survivalist

I just say I'm trying to be ready in case of a hurricane/flood/tornado/volcano/Democrat President in 2012 ... (select appropriate ones depending who asks)

Funny, my Uncle had a tornado shelter installed in his back yard and during a tornado he had lots of neighbors trying to get in, though they didn't turn their music down a week earlier when he asked, they claimed to be friends all of a sudden.... he told them where they could buy their own shelter.

[74novaman]

Bump.

I'm certainly not ready for the end of the world yet...but I'd be pretty self sufficient in a local disaster.

Wife and I normally go grocery shopping weekly (fruits and veggies have this funny tendency to go bad). This week we've been busy,tired, name your excuse. Had no trouble making meals and being perfectly happy for another week. (and honestly could have gone another month, but there was no reason to do so)

Just a reminder that you don't have to be ready for zombies or the apocalypse for a bit of planning when it comes to food to pay off.

[Dave2]

I just say I'm trying to be ready in case of a hurricane/flood/tornado/volcano/Democrat President in 2012 ... (select appropriate ones depending who asks)

Heh, funny you should mention that last one... My parents, who live near San Francisco, went over to some friends' house so they could all watch the Bush-Gore election results together, and during a tense moment the husband declared, "If Al Gore wins I'm moving to Montana and starting a militia!" Next time I'm out there, I'll have to ask him if he has the same plans in the case of a second Obama term.

[knotquiteawake]

Since seeing this thread last month I've done some prepping. I've got just over a weeks worth of water, extra batteries/flashlights, and tested the camp stove to make sure it's working. We usually have a weeks worth or more of canned goods so for now we're not doing any food prepping for now.

[chasfm11]

Bump.

I'm certainly not ready for the end of the world yet...but I'd be pretty self sufficient in a local disaster.

Wife and I normally go grocery shopping weekly (fruits and veggies have this funny tendency to go bad). This week we've been busy,tired, name your excuse. Had no trouble making meals and being perfectly happy for another week. (and honestly could have gone another month, but there was no reason to do so)

Just a reminder that you don't have to be ready for zombies or the apocalypse for a bit of planning when it comes to food to pay off.

Agreed but any untested plan is likely to have holes in it. For example:

- the person who taught the first emergency planning session that I attended recommended a "flip the breaker weekend." He suggested throwing the main electrical breaker to your house on a Friday night and living through the weekend as you would in an emergency. The good news is that if things don't go well, you can always turn the breaker back on to deal with it but you get a real dry run of what it would be like if you couldn't.

- like you, we buy things ahead as much as we can. I've started monitoring things like fruits and vegetables to see what a "refresh" rate would have to be to keep us eating as we do today through an emergency. My criteria now is to make it 14 days. In parts of our food supply, we could go for 30 days if we could keep our refrigerators working. But right now, we couldn't make it to the 14 target with everything. Fixing that problem will probably show us how to get to 30 days, my next target.

I find the story of the tornado shelter from a previous post interesting. Having read "Last Light" and "One Second After", I have a real dilemma about how to deal with a sudden group of "friends" "Last Light" takes a Christian approach to helping others, even when the means to do so is very limited. "One Second After" chronicles situations where some believe that using force to relieve others of their preparations is the necessary. Both talk about the re-establishment of civil order as the only path to survival in a protracted emergency situation. Given the overall approach tone of our society today, I'm not sure how easy it would be manage a 30 emergency regardless of how well prepared you are. After the Alabama tornado, areas surrounding the actual disaster sites had civil unrest problems within 48 hours. There is obviously more to this topic than simply having enough food.