Anyone Else Get Called Paranoid For Prepping

[flounder]

You probably earned the label.  It can be overdone.  Having said that I do keep 50+ gallons of drinking water in the house in case of water issues or emergencies.  I'm not prepping for the end of times, and neither should you...

Yeah everyone does, Its called a water heater or toilet tank..

[turnone]

Yeah everyone does, Its called a water heater or toilet tank..

I mean in 5 gallon easily dispensed drinking water.

[flounder]

I mean in 5 gallon easily dispensed drinking water.

Water heater is pretty easy. Every one of them has a spigot on the bottom.

[redkow97]

My wife thinks i'm paranoid, but indulges me because storing water and ammo is relaively unobtrusive and inexpensive.

 

Even when we have "no food" in the house and badly need to go shopping, there are enough cans of tuna, boxes of rice, etc. to feed my family for a week or more. 

 

that gives me 7-10 days to find other sources of food.  The deer population being what it is in NEO, I'm not worried.  I should learn how to dress a deer though...

 

For water, I keep 3-4 days worth in gallon jugs purely for the sake of convenience.  Melting snow or boiling creek water (within a mile of my house) are viable options in a true long-term emergency.

 

 

Where I think people go beyond "thoughtful" and into "paranoid" is when they start building secondary structures to withstand _________ disaster.  I'm not mentally fit to live in an underground box with my wife, a kid, and two dogs for any length of time, so what's the point? 

 

"super storm" Sandy was an eye-opener for many of my neighbors.  We didn't need my generator for long, but it was on-loan to my parents' and their neighbors for a week thereafter, powering refridgerators and the occasional microwave.

[flounder]

My wife thinks i'm paranoid, but indulges me because storing water and ammo is relaively unobtrusive and inexpensive.

 

Even when we have "no food" in the house and badly need to go shopping, there are enough cans of tuna, boxes of rice, etc. to feed my family for a week or more. 

 

that gives me 7-10 days to find other sources of food.  The deer population being what it is in NEO, I'm not worried.  I should learn how to dress a deer though...

 

For water, I keep 3-4 days worth in gallon jugs purely for the sake of convenience.  Melting snow or boiling creek water (within a mile of my house) are viable options in a true long-term emergency.

 

 

Where I think people go beyond "thoughtful" and into "paranoid" is when they start building secondary structures to withstand _________ disaster.  I'm not mentally fit to live in an underground box with my wife, a kid, and two dogs for any length of time, so what's the point? 

 

"super storm" Sandy was an eye-opener for many of my neighbors.  We didn't need my generator for long, but it was on-loan to my parents' and their neighbors for a week thereafter, powering refridgerators and the occasional microwave.

 

See bold above. You either dont have that much ammo or bought it a while ago when the prices were still good. Hell the cost of ammo now is like storing silver bars

[chevysoldier]

I just bought a nuclear bunker in an undisclosed location.

[Tpoppa]

Pocket pistol, deck of cards, and box of condoms.

 

I'll shoot, win, or fuck what I need to survive.

[redbarron77]

Pocket pistol, deck of cards, and box of condoms.

 

I'll shoot, win, or fuck what I need to survive.

Note to self, when the SHTF, stay away from Tpoppa's place....

[bambam]

Crazy Mike's original post has inspired me to put together a simple provisions kit. The same day I read his post I was trapped in a traffic roadblock for a few hours while the Washington DOT blasted loose rocks off a mountain pass. Thousands of vehicles were stopped, and eventually turned back in the early hours of the morning without easy access to alternative routes. It was a relatively small inconvenience, but I had been on the road for 13 hours and now had to get over some serious mountain passes at the dead of night, so it just started me thinking about what could have gone wrong.

 

Did I mention there was dynamite?

 

And Army tanks!?

 

Speedytriple is certainly a bit off his rocker, but the principle is sound anyway. So thanks Mike.

Edited June 22, 2013 by bambam

[chevysoldier]

My wife was just asking me about having a bug out bag. She was picking out bags the other day at Cabela's she thought would work well and says we need to get some provisions set up. With everything that has been going on the past couple years, and with my limited space I have now, I've neglected or had to put on hold some of my emergency stuff. I'm just glad she and I see eye to eye on it and she feels its as important as I do.

[Bad324]

My fiancé just laughs at me when I stockpile shit. We've got the room in our basement so why not. The thing I have the most of currently is probably toilet paper

[speedytriple]

Bam bam i always keep something in my car for the same reasons. We don't have mnt pass landslides but you never know when you could be stuck or in an emergency situation.

[redkow97]

Recently started watching 2012 episodes of "doomsday preppers" on Netflix.

I think the people featured take things too far, but they are legitimately prepared. What I find "nutty" is their insistence that they know WHAT the disaster will be, and that it's IMMINENT.

Economic collapse or bird flu outbreak - it doesn't drastically effect how one prepares. But some of these people are certain the magnetic poles are going to reverse, but have no plan for any kind of pandemic or civil unrest...

I am learning some things and making note of good ideas - like having plywood pre-cut to size for all my ground level windows. That could save valuable hours in extreme weather, let alone civil unrest.

[Tpoppa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

[Tomcat0403]

I am learning some things and making note of good ideas - like having plywood pre-cut to size for all my ground level windows. That could save valuable hours in extreme weather, let alone civil unrest.

 

Hmm, I like this.

[smccrory]

I have enough food and water to get through a lengthy disruption in services and adequate means to find/kill food if necessary. I am not worried about the government coming for my stuff. If they want it, I'm pretty much fucked anyway. Anybody that thinks differently is not on a first name basis with lucidity. You won't fight off the government with your AR-15, no matter how many pistol grips you've bolted to it. Unless you've bolted a nuclear warhead to that bastard, the odds are heavily stacked against you.

 

I don't generally find fault with anyone else's prepping, but IP's post matches my philosophy almost to a Tee.  I'm prepared for a couple weeks' worth of services disruption and isolated civil unrest, but I'd never be able to fend off a large-scale mob attack or governmental take-over of my property or person without spending my entire savings on an impenetrable bunker, and that's just not worth it to me.  I'd rather spend the mental, emotional, creative, time and monetary investments towards things far more likely to occur, like my kiddo going to college, possibly losing my job or changing careers, having to pay for age-related or accident-related healthcare, retirement, replacement of a vehicle, etc.

 

So I guess the only thing I'd find fault with anyone's prepping, is if they're sacrificing their fundamentals to asymmetrically prepare for less likely events.

[DAC]

I don't find fault with or judge anyone's prepping.  Free country.  Make your own choices.

 

Just pick your risk tolerance and plan that way.  So for a 1 in 100 scenario, you're doing pretty much what SM and IP do.  If you decide 1 in 250, or 1 in 500 is more likely, then you're probably in full on bunker mode.

 

The one thing I don't hear much about is relationship management.  Know your neighbors and your police and firefighter folks.  When stuff minor stuff happens, help out - get out the chainsaw and cut up that fallen tree; help 'em trap that pesky raccoon, etc.  Friends are good to have in long supply when TSHTF.

[Tpoppa]

My planning takes into account the extremely likely scenario that the fan remains shitless.

[2talltim]

I was watching a novelty show the other day about zombies and they show a prepper type woman on there that seriously believed it was going to happen. They showed her safe house, weapons and ammo stash, food, water for 2 years. She is going as far as training her 7 and 10 year old that you always shoot zombies in the head. And this woman was serious, she honestly believed it was going to happen and it terrorized her. 

 

Now to prep for real life thing that could happen i have no problems with that but to think the dead will walk again and godzilla will come out of the ocean those people are nuts.

[madcat6183]

I was watching a novelty show the other day about zombies and they show a prepper type woman on there that seriously believed it was going to happen. They showed her safe house, weapons and ammo stash, food, water for 2 years. She is going as far as training her 7 and 10 year old that you always shoot zombies in the head. And this woman was serious, she honestly believed it was going to happen and it terrorized her. 

 

Now to prep for real life thing that could happen i have no problems with that but to think the dead will walk again and godzilla will come out of the ocean those people are nuts.

So wait, you mean Zombies aren't coming?  WTF

[smccrory]

So wait, you mean Zombies aren't coming?  WTF

 

Yea, that doesn't make sense to me either.  I saw a number of them near polling places yesterday.

[Tpoppa]

I think preppers have a lot in common with germophobes.  Both are trying to protest against some percieved looming danger.  There are common sense levels of each, like handwashing before eating.  But both can become compulsive behaviors.  If you own 50 bottles of hand sanitizer, you may lack the perspective to realize that you've drifted a bit off center.

 

My fan has been shitlesss since 1972.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Tpoppa

[madcat6183]

I think preppers have a lot in common with germophobes.  Both are trying to protest against some percieved looming danger.  There are common sense levels of each, like handwashing before eating.  But both can become compulsive behaviors.  If you own 50 bottles of hand sanitizer, you may lack the perspective to realize that you've drifted a bit off center.

 

My fan has been shitlesss since 1972.

Coworker who sits behind me does the following daily;  Comes into his cube, uses a lysol wipe to wipe everything down, constantly uses hand sanitizer at least a few times an hour, goes to lunch and comes back to use a lysol wipe, before he leaves he uses another lysol wipe.  3 a day, all on his own desk, phone, and cube.  We don't share and no one ever comes to see us or anything like that...

[Josh1234]

Trust me the neighbors don't know what I have. I am no where near a doomsday  prepper. I have enough dried food and water to last the six people in my home about 30 days. I have guns and ammo that I will not disclose to any  neighbor. I also have water filtration good for a sustained time. It is funny that most people would have to run to a store in a emergency for supplies and face the mobs to get them. I keep enough gas on hand to travel or run a genny for awhile. I think that I am gonna keep bulking up on dried foods and water. 

 

 

My fiancé just laughs at me when I stockpile shit. We've got the room in our basement so why not. The thing I have the most of currently is probably toilet paper

 

Toilet paper will actually trade for almost anything else after a few days or a week or two of services disruption  

 

If you want to bulk up on food the easy way... Today on Woot:

http://sport.woot.com/offers/mountain-house-freeze-dried-meal-9pk?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=2cf426dc47-Daily+Digest+-+20141105+-+Woot&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5ca76da11-2cf426dc47-302581405#tracked

 

Freeze dried meal packs for a family!  perfect for a prepper.

 

I'm a firm believer that sooner or later, it'll be disease, climate, economy, terrorists, or one too many links in the foodchain broken.  It has already been local, but sooner or later it'll be near-global.  I don't know how severe it'll be, or how permanent, but I think there's a good chance it'll happen in my lifetime.  Yeah, we all just keep trudging along, "in the system," but I think it's more precarious than it looks. 

 

I think that's the early premise of the movie "Interstellar," which is coming out this Friday.  Famine hits the US/World.  

 

Anyway, I'm not as prepared as I should be, and some of that is because I live in a small condo, and some of that is because I'm lazy, and some of that is because my wife doesn't like guns (or "unnecessary" clutter around the house ).  Frankly... I'm just fascinated with the idea of society turning to shit.

[2talltim]

Coworker who sits behind me does the following daily; Comes into his cube, uses a lysol wipe to wipe everything down, constantly uses hand sanitizer at least a few times an hour, goes to lunch and comes back to use a lysol wipe, before he leaves he uses another lysol wipe. 3 a day, all on his own desk, phone, and cube. We don't share and no one ever comes to see us or anything like that...

And when he does get sick I bet it's a near death experience. I have a germaphob cousin that says "I told you so" when you have a small cold for a few days. But every time she gets sick she's hospitalized and has pneumonia or something else life threatening. Because she has no immune system due to never being exposed to anything. I'll take having a bug a few times a year vs. being in the hospital for days or weeks every couple years.