Do you know a Doomsday Prepper?

[Christopher Robin]

Originally Posted by SaraJayne

Actually, watching DoomsDay Preppers makes me feel completely sane and not the least bit paranoid.

LOL, I get the same effect reading the DIS Boards.

[SaraJayne]

Originally Posted by christopher robin

lol, i get the same effect reading the dis boards.

lol

[shelwoj]

Originally Posted by TXinmyheart

Ever since Katrina, and after reading One Second After, our family has been slowly been building systems to allow for a sustainable lifestyle off the grid.

One Second After was a riveting book. It made me look at my power outage preparations in a whole different light.

[Colleen27]

Originally Posted by SaraJayne

Actually, watching DoomsDay Preppers makes me feel completely sane and not the least bit paranoid.

I tell my husband that we watch because the folks on that show make me look so very reasonable. All I want is a big ol' garden, an itsy bitsy backyard orchard, rain barrels... Nothing extreme.

[DopeyDame]

Happy Anti-doomsday Day!

http://astrosociety.org/get-involved/anti-doomsday-day/

[SaraJayne]

Originally Posted by Colleen27

I tell my husband that we watch because the folks on that show make me look so very reasonable. All I want is a big ol' garden, an itsy bitsy backyard orchard, rain barrels... Nothing extreme.

I know that may be a bit TIC, but really, most rural people used to have big gardens, small fruit trees and rain barrels, when you had to be more self-reliant.

[Sorsha]

Nope, we are not at all. I usually have about 2 weeks of food in the pantry/freezer - if we ate efficiently AND it was winter so I could put the freezer food in coolers outside when the power went out. I usually have a couple of cases of bottled water, because the kids like to drink it. We usually have 2 bottles of propane for the BBQ, so we could cook till those ran out. I have up to 3 months of prescriptions meds, because that's how KMart fills the generics, but you can't refill controlled substances until you are close to running out, so I'd be out of those pretty quickly too. We have candles, but no matches, because we use the click-style lighter to light them! DH has 3 guns, one hunting, one .22, and one BB, but no ammo in the house at all except a box of BBs because that's the only one he ever shoots regularily when he goes out to shoot cans in the woods with his buddies. He also has a compound bow and arrows, but it would probably need re-strung as he hasn't used it in years.

As for the "living in the woods, off the land" end of the world scenario - oh HECK no!! My idea of "roughing it" is a motorhome in a campground with flush toilets and paved walkways. I am NOT camping-out material. I would stay in my own bed till the house fell down around me.

We do have one set of friends - more acquaintances really - who are serious preppers. They have enough wood for the woodstove for three years at least, a whole menagerie of animals including chickens for eggs, goats for milk, and pigs that they raise for meat. Each year they slaughter, cut up, and freeze all the pigs and lots of the chickens, and they hunt for ALL the rest of their meat. She can make goat cheese and butter, they drink goat milk, and they grow a garden and can everything. She makes her own bread, and last I heard, was experimenting with pasta. I think the only things they actually buy are flour, rice, baking supplies (salt, baking powder, etc) and dry grain cereals. Her husband owns so many guns and so much ammo that I think even he has lost track. They are serious anti-UN, anti-government paranoid "the black helicopters are watching us" types, and they homeschool their kids, so the kids believe the same thing. DISCLAIMER: I have no problems with homeschoolers, but it is kind of sad when a kid can lecture on the evils of the UN but can't tell me what 9 X 2 is.

I would like to say that these people are extreme, but in my area, they aren't. They are more the norm and think that WE are foolish and unprepared. That's Ok though, I firmly believe I have nothing to fear but random weather events, and I am Ok with those.

[lucas]

Originally Posted by DopeyDame

Happy Anti-doomsday Day!

http://astrosociety.org/get-involved/anti-doomsday-day/

Thanks for the link. I am going to show it to my co-worker who is taking off work on 12/20 and 12/21 because she wants to be at home when the world ends.

[Colleen27]

Originally Posted by SaraJayne

I know that may be a bit TIC, but really, most rural people used to have big gardens, small fruit trees and rain barrels, when you had to be more self-reliant.

Totally TIC. We live in a small town and around here most people do have at least some of those things (and did before they became trendy/green, back in the days when you hung laundry to save money not to save the earth! ). Our location would probably be our biggest asset in a "doomsday" situation - a small, close-knit town with lots of old school rural types who know how to "get by" without a lot of modern conveniences. That's something that has come to annoy me about the Doomsday Preppers show - with the exception of a couple segments in the first season they all seem to be focusing on isolationist, me-against-the-world methods rather than community building, and I don't think any amount of stockpiled ammo can replace having friends/neighbors/family watching out for each other.

[beaucoup]

Originally Posted by SaraJayne

Actually, watching DoomsDay Preppers makes me feel completely sane and not the least bit paranoid.

Think about it. when it happens, THOSE are the people that will be left. Do you want to be left on Earth with them? Ummmm, NO!

[3boymthr]

I have a relative whom I think is a prepper, stockpile of weapons, ammo, wife cans, they grow their own food and they also make their own furniture, do their own home repairs, etc. But then again, they live in the land of the free and that seems to be a way of life for everyone who lives there.

Originally Posted by Albort

i have small kit prepared... i do have some odd things in there that emergency kits usually dont have...

aka throwing knifes and throwing axes... :P
Too poor for a handgun.

Yes, but when they run out of ammo (and unless they have the skill and tools to make their own, they WILL run out) you'll still have a usable weapon.

[pumpkinmomma]

Originally Posted by 3boymthr

I have a relative whom I think is a prepper, stockpile of weapons, ammo, wife cans, they grow their own food and they also make their own furniture, do their own home repairs, etc. But then again, they live in the land of the free and that seems to be a way of life for everyone who lives there.



Yes, but when they run out of ammo (and unless they have the skill and tools to make their own, they WILL run out) you'll still have a usable weapon.

Wife cans?????

[3boymthr]

Originally Posted by pumpkinmomma

Wife cans?????

oops wife is in to canning

[Imzadi]

Originally Posted by pumpkinmomma

Wife cans?????

That's another form of duplicating the wife when no twin is available.

[Imzadi]

Originally Posted by beaucoup

Think about it. when it happens, THOSE are the people that will be left. Do you want to be left on Earth with them? Ummmm, NO!

Beau, can I come and hang out in your bunker? I know you said I could friend you on FB. Since I don't do FB, I couldn't do that. But, I'll eat some of your canned goods if that's alright?