Everything we know, everything that we consider prepper knowledge, came from someone figuring it out or "adapting". A lot of people died off in the great depression, others figured out how to survive. Same thing happened with those Pilgrims. Same thing has happened with nearly every civilization. Natural selection will take some, otherwise will improvise and overcome.
How dark are you willing to go in your preparedness efforts?
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Everything we know, everything that we consider prepper knowledge, came from someone figuring it out or "adapting". A lot of people died off in the great depression, others figured out how to survive. Same thing happened with those Pilgrims. Same thing has happened with nearly every civilization. Natural selection will take some, otherwise will improvise and overcome.
yes sure some people survived every civilisations collapse or else none of us would be here.
I don't believe there will be many who survive TEOTWAWKI too much knowledge of the old ways has been lost, mobile phone wont grow food, and they wont give information once the internet is down, most 21st century people don't have a clue, it is said that in Britain we are 4 generations removed from the land. if someone cant grow their own food then they wont be around for long.
I don't believe there will be many who survive TEOTWAWKI too much knowledge of the old ways has been lost, mobile phone wont grow food, and they wont give information once the internet is down, most 21st century people don't have a clue, it is said that in Britain we are 4 generations removed from the land. if someone cant grow their own food then they wont be around for long.
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Britain will be a mess. It saw that during wartimes. Now it's more populated with people with their phones in their face.
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Yep, just their luck the Natives helped them survive. As Sentry said, part of it is preparing, and a big part is luck.
I think that anyone who is willing to consider the idea of preparedness and to do somethings about it is going to probably be better off for a day, week, month, or year longer, than those who did little or nothing. Of course there are the manipulators, the controlling type, the aggressive type who think they will take what someone else put together, and many of them will take it or get it, one way or another.
And then there are the narcissistic know-it-all types who are always looking down their noses at what and how others are preparing or just doing in life. "I know better and you are mostly losers," seems to come across from some.
But..........people can't grasp that maybe, just maybe.
No one is coming to help them. In the back of peoples mind is, "I have prepped enough, this is reasonable and prudent, and anyway the Red Cross, or the National Guard, or the Church, or FEMA or Homeland Security, or My Insurance Company, maybe a nice person will save me and fix everything up".
There are some (Very few) who spend their life where no one is coming to save them, "No One". When a person goes six months alone in the wilderness, with zero human contact, and no one even knows where there are in the wilderness, they day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, second to second, exist in a reality that few ever know. Their awareness of everything is different, "Everything". Even time and space is different.
We are born into and exist in a man fabricated un-natural environment. And everyday on the planet some people are thrown into a harsh survival reality. Strip the fabricated reality away and humans are naked, hungry, exhausted, and everything on earth is trying to kill them and maybe eat them.
Take a good look around, really look.........everything is a fabricated man made reality. Food, clothing, shelter......it is all man made un-natural fake reality. If born into and conditioned to that reality..........if any one small part is disrupted, and there is no one to fix it......????
No one is coming to help them. In the back of peoples mind is, "I have prepped enough, this is reasonable and prudent, and anyway the Red Cross, or the National Guard, or the Church, or FEMA or Homeland Security, or My Insurance Company, maybe a nice person will save me and fix everything up".
There are some (Very few) who spend their life where no one is coming to save them, "No One". When a person goes six months alone in the wilderness, with zero human contact, and no one even knows where there are in the wilderness, they day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, second to second, exist in a reality that few ever know. Their awareness of everything is different, "Everything". Even time and space is different.
We are born into and exist in a man fabricated un-natural environment. And everyday on the planet some people are thrown into a harsh survival reality. Strip the fabricated reality away and humans are naked, hungry, exhausted, and everything on earth is trying to kill them and maybe eat them.
Take a good look around, really look.........everything is a fabricated man made reality. Food, clothing, shelter......it is all man made un-natural fake reality. If born into and conditioned to that reality..........if any one small part is disrupted, and there is no one to fix it......????
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Why would someone spend their life stuck in the maybe? Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and live the best life you can is a far better choice.
Florida just had a hurricane and @havasu and a whole lot of others went down to help. In fact I am trying to remember the last time there was a massive world changing cataclysmic event where no one rendered aid of any kind. Pompeii maybe? Which was around 80AD if I remember correctly. Of course there were many people in Florida who had already taken it on themselves to be prepared and didn't need any assistance.
Florida just had a hurricane and @havasu and a whole lot of others went down to help. In fact I am trying to remember the last time there was a massive world changing cataclysmic event where no one rendered aid of any kind. Pompeii maybe? Which was around 80AD if I remember correctly. Of course there were many people in Florida who had already taken it on themselves to be prepared and didn't need any assistance.
I kind of figure on a three month survival period. If things are not starting to improve appreciably by then, I'm not so sure I'd want to stick around much longer. But I can't say that for sure until I'm actually in that situation (and I hope that never comes to be). I would want to stay around longer for my children, but one of them has now moved far away and I would be of no use. Couldn't get there in a SHTF situation. The other one is still close (two day's trek on foot).
I can't imagine myself initiating any aggressive action to try and get supplies when mine ran out. I would just choose to die quietly in that case. But I would defend what I have from assault/theft to the ultimate extreme. Don't know if I could bring myself to eat BBQ'ed assailant, but I'd at least grill 'em up to feed the dog.
I can't imagine myself initiating any aggressive action to try and get supplies when mine ran out. I would just choose to die quietly in that case. But I would defend what I have from assault/theft to the ultimate extreme. Don't know if I could bring myself to eat BBQ'ed assailant, but I'd at least grill 'em up to feed the dog.
My goals have changed as I've aged. While I still prep for short-term emergencies for myself and my wife (short-term being 90 days or less), my long-term preps are more focused on supplementing what my local kids are putting together for their families. I have no illusions about the odds for older folks in a long term SHTF scenario.
Taken as a whole concept, I think that is great advise. It is exactly how I live.
There is only one problem.
Preppers do this part....."Hope for the best, and live the best life you can".
Preppers don't do this part.........."Prepare for the worst".
And that was/is the point of the article you referenced.
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Prepping costs money. And the first rule of prepping is "Prep for in case Nothing happens."
You can never be done prepping no matter how much money you spend. So everyone has to do what they are comfortable with and save enough money so you and your family are covered in case nothing happens.
You can never be done prepping no matter how much money you spend. So everyone has to do what they are comfortable with and save enough money so you and your family are covered in case nothing happens.
We must have different definitions of the worst. To me it's a major critical incident that completely interrupts normal life. Which is what pretty much every prepper I know is ready for or working toward being ready for. From your posts it seems you mean the complete annihilation of all life on the planet. Which I am also prepared for, just spiritually.
No......that is not accurate. Actually I think we prepare for the same type events. I prep from the belief that "NO ONE" is coming to help or assist me. I also assume that the duration will be fairly long, possible years.
Given that I only go to town for supplies once a year, it would be silly for me to think in terms of two month long events, or even seven month events, if I have a year of supplies.
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I'm not prepping for this or that event or for a fixed time period, i'm prepping for the end of whatever sort of lifestyle anyone thinks of as NORMAL, no not the end of life, just a different sort of life, one more natural and closer to nature than a 21st century lifestyle that's for sure.
it appears that some people are only prepping until their supplies run out? why is that?
I look at it like this, my supplies are only to SUPPLEMENT when I cant get fresh, maybe bad weather, or winter when no animals and no plants, or its just not safe to go outside-the hunker down period.
but my survival wont stop when my supplies run out, that's when skills and knowledge will be needed even more.
it appears that some people are only prepping until their supplies run out? why is that?
I look at it like this, my supplies are only to SUPPLEMENT when I cant get fresh, maybe bad weather, or winter when no animals and no plants, or its just not safe to go outside-the hunker down period.
but my survival wont stop when my supplies run out, that's when skills and knowledge will be needed even more.
yes, you got that right, and those sorts of people will not survive, they don't know how to.
that's why I don't think the survival rate will be very high at least not in Britain, too many snowflakes and sheeple.
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^^^ This has been my modus operandi and well-worn soapbox for decades. And, it has been my lifestyle for so long that when the SHTF it will not take much to transition to hardcore Hard Times mode.
exactly, but few Brit preppers can understand my purpose as most are of the short term event variety.
I have been called paranoid many times and banned from several British forums because of my "controversial " views.
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Well, that's not surprising because you are far ahead of their range of comprehension, and because you're a visionary who dares to point out the frightful things they'd rather not see.
I have gotten the same treatment often enough that I'm beginning to grow tired of trying to persuade people to wake up to the idea that they need to do more than prepare to weather short-lived disasters where the community is all Kumbaya-like, and all the good feels are aired on the media. And let's not forget all the televised stories of how folks got together to help each other, and ain't it grand and all? That is why many people base any future serious SHTF on such notions.
That's why I sometimes relate my personal SHTF experiences including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and various other kinds of nastiness to illustrate that the unthinkable can happen to anyone at any time. But at the same time, I try to offer insight on coping skills that I used, which might prove useful to others down the road.
Sometimes I get shot down pretty badly for the effort. Other times, a few may actually wake up to the fact that things may not go as planned for them and that they'd better get up to speed...or fall off the track.
many have it all planned out and they cant even do mental processes of what if.....nothing goes as planned ever.
one biggie....what if your area becomes unlivable for years and you have to leave.cant get people to just do mental exercises of...
i am a refugee now.
there are two events I refer to in Britain to show how things can go bad fast, although both were short lived.
one is the "Fuel Protest" of 2007 when the oil refineries were blockaded by farmers and truckers complaining of the fuel prices at the pumps, this was announced in advance but did most people take any notice? the hell they did! the first they knew about it was when the filling stations ran dry and the supermarket shelves started emptying, this was within 24-36 hours, still nobody died and it was back to normal the next week.
the second was the "London Riots" of August 2011 after the Police shot and killed a minor London gangster this was confined to London and a couple of northern cities and amounted to some shop looting and arson, the Police lost control of the streets and had to retreat, they didn't regain control for a couple of days until they were reinforced by Police from the provinces then order was restored, that was 5 days of mayhem from 6-11August.
as I say neither of these were long term but they could have been, but for most citizens they are now ancient history and of no consequence, how little people learn!!
one is the "Fuel Protest" of 2007 when the oil refineries were blockaded by farmers and truckers complaining of the fuel prices at the pumps, this was announced in advance but did most people take any notice? the hell they did! the first they knew about it was when the filling stations ran dry and the supermarket shelves started emptying, this was within 24-36 hours, still nobody died and it was back to normal the next week.
the second was the "London Riots" of August 2011 after the Police shot and killed a minor London gangster this was confined to London and a couple of northern cities and amounted to some shop looting and arson, the Police lost control of the streets and had to retreat, they didn't regain control for a couple of days until they were reinforced by Police from the provinces then order was restored, that was 5 days of mayhem from 6-11August.
as I say neither of these were long term but they could have been, but for most citizens they are now ancient history and of no consequence, how little people learn!!
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To answer the question of how dark I am willing to go in my preparedness efforts:
Some of my deepest preps are all in my head.
I will not hesitate to defend myself, but I also realize that someday I may be overreached and outnumbered.
A mindset that I use to keep from overreacting out of desperation is realizing that no matter how bad things get--even if I were to go to prison for my religious beliefs, or if I was captured by cannibal zombies, and about to die--it's all temporary! (The only thing that is not temporary, is eternity itself, which is something that I actually look forward to. I don’t dread it because I am spiritually strong and have goals that go beyond the elementary things of this old system of things.)
To go along with that line of thought is never forgetting that obstacles are nothing more than those terrible things I see when I take my eyes off the goal. As a dear friend once told me, "If your goal is clear and true and right, then challenges are just things to be surmounted."
One of the things that will help me with that is remembering the caution behind Friedrich Nietzsche's words: "...when you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
Some Holocaust survivors also understood this truth and used it to rise above seemingly hopeless conditions. How? By focusing on the right things, and only that. One of the many take-away points I learned from their accounts: I don’t want to give up precious real estate in my head by allowing evil or hurtful things to dominate all of my thinking ability, especially if I am surrounded by them. This lesson applied well to not only big issues in my life but also in dealing with difficult people and dire situations.
There are many accounts of concentration camp survivors who shared some common threads: a strong belief in something greater than themselves, focusing on helping others and keeping integrity intact. They overcame the evil with good (even if the good was not evident to anyone but themselves). That mindset didn't drastically change circumstances, but they were not consumed with bitterness, rage, and despair as many of their comrades were. Instead, they maintained a measure of joy in the bleakest of situations and survived with their minds intact.
Having this kind of mindset will come in handy if everything around me has gone to hell and I am wondering aloud what I am doing sitting in this basket...
Some of my deepest preps are all in my head.
I will not hesitate to defend myself, but I also realize that someday I may be overreached and outnumbered.
A mindset that I use to keep from overreacting out of desperation is realizing that no matter how bad things get--even if I were to go to prison for my religious beliefs, or if I was captured by cannibal zombies, and about to die--it's all temporary! (The only thing that is not temporary, is eternity itself, which is something that I actually look forward to. I don’t dread it because I am spiritually strong and have goals that go beyond the elementary things of this old system of things.)
To go along with that line of thought is never forgetting that obstacles are nothing more than those terrible things I see when I take my eyes off the goal. As a dear friend once told me, "If your goal is clear and true and right, then challenges are just things to be surmounted."
One of the things that will help me with that is remembering the caution behind Friedrich Nietzsche's words: "...when you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
Some Holocaust survivors also understood this truth and used it to rise above seemingly hopeless conditions. How? By focusing on the right things, and only that. One of the many take-away points I learned from their accounts: I don’t want to give up precious real estate in my head by allowing evil or hurtful things to dominate all of my thinking ability, especially if I am surrounded by them. This lesson applied well to not only big issues in my life but also in dealing with difficult people and dire situations.
There are many accounts of concentration camp survivors who shared some common threads: a strong belief in something greater than themselves, focusing on helping others and keeping integrity intact. They overcame the evil with good (even if the good was not evident to anyone but themselves). That mindset didn't drastically change circumstances, but they were not consumed with bitterness, rage, and despair as many of their comrades were. Instead, they maintained a measure of joy in the bleakest of situations and survived with their minds intact.
Having this kind of mindset will come in handy if everything around me has gone to hell and I am wondering aloud what I am doing sitting in this basket...
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post collapse living is about 3 things:
SELF reliance
SELF sufficiency
SELF preservation
if you cant make it, repair it or scavenge it you wont have it.
there will be no welfare, no state aid, no outside help, your on your own, your survival is up to one person...YOU!!
the more people that get this into their thick sculls the more survivors there will be, if they don't then there will be more dead bodies than living people.
SELF reliance
SELF sufficiency
SELF preservation
if you cant make it, repair it or scavenge it you wont have it.
there will be no welfare, no state aid, no outside help, your on your own, your survival is up to one person...YOU!!
the more people that get this into their thick sculls the more survivors there will be, if they don't then there will be more dead bodies than living people.
I think that we will all "get by with a little help from our friends." I will have some skill or something that someone needs and vice versa. Yes, we need to be self reliant but that doesn't mean that we can't do better for ourselves by do for others and having them help us. Giving and receiving help is fine as long as it is a two way street.
What is long term? It seems that a years worth of electricity is thinking long term but I expect to live longer than that. Twenty years is a long term, but both my biological parents are still alive, my grandparents lived to between 91 and 95, my aunt is 97, and a great aunt lived to 102. Could I live another 30 years? Not likely but possible. That doesn't even sound like fun but we don't get to choose. Right now a lot of my prepping is going towards making my life easier like snow removal equipment.
What is long term? It seems that a years worth of electricity is thinking long term but I expect to live longer than that. Twenty years is a long term, but both my biological parents are still alive, my grandparents lived to between 91 and 95, my aunt is 97, and a great aunt lived to 102. Could I live another 30 years? Not likely but possible. That doesn't even sound like fun but we don't get to choose. Right now a lot of my prepping is going towards making my life easier like snow removal equipment.
relying on other people for our survival post SHTF is a mugs game, sure if someone is only prepping for small events of short term variation then it might just work, but only just.
in the big one if someone cant do stuff for themselves don't expect help from others because they'll be too busy trying to look after their families to worry about you.
many people just don't get this.
in the big one if someone cant do stuff for themselves don't expect help from others because they'll be too busy trying to look after their families to worry about you.
many people just don't get this.
I gave up years ago on what other people do or don't do to survive after shtf., And trying to educate them.
I came to realize that it's a waste of my energy.
So for many years, I have concentrated only on myself and my wife.
By doing this I'm prepared for long term and short term. Perfect ? No.
Ain't bugging out , I'm prepared as can be..
Forget about what other people do or think.
If some family is in position to assist ....fine...if not ...I don't care.
Jim
I came to realize that it's a waste of my energy.
So for many years, I have concentrated only on myself and my wife.
By doing this I'm prepared for long term and short term. Perfect ? No.
Ain't bugging out , I'm prepared as can be..
Forget about what other people do or think.
If some family is in position to assist ....fine...if not ...I don't care.
Jim
exactly Jim, I started online because I thought maybe, just maybe, I could help other people see the light about being prepared, but for the most part I have been ridiculed sometimes abuse is more the term I would use.
I have tried to form groups that might help out when disaster struck, sort of MAG type groups, but they all fell apart either before they got off the ground or within a year as people moved on.
that is why I have the attitudes towards other people that I do, that and the way I was brought up as an only child.
nowadays its just me and the wife preparing for TEOTWAWKI and if we have to survive alone and on our own merits then so be it.
I have tried to form groups that might help out when disaster struck, sort of MAG type groups, but they all fell apart either before they got off the ground or within a year as people moved on.
that is why I have the attitudes towards other people that I do, that and the way I was brought up as an only child.
nowadays its just me and the wife preparing for TEOTWAWKI and if we have to survive alone and on our own merits then so be it.
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Also, when we are trying to educate other people, we are showing our own hand. When people say they will come to us, they will! Surely, if we have prepared in any way, we are better off than they are. There are many people in the world who see others as having more and being able to take care of them as well.I gave up years ago on what other people do or don't do to survive after shtf., And trying to educate them.
I came to realize that it's a waste of my energy.
Jim
Look at other aspects of your life. I cannot be the only person who has encountered people who think because I do for me, I can do for them. Because I sew, I can repair this or that for them. One woman was sure I could make up a bunch of cloth diapers for her. I did not. I might have if she had been a real friend. She was not. She was a self entitled princess user.
So if I have prepared, sure, I can take care of them. Being a self sufficient person seems to make others think that includes them. Not in my life, except my immediate family and some limited way with other family.
I am just practical. I am not as young as I used to be. We store about a year of food. There are literately a thousand elk around us for meat. I have foraged for many years and we could use that for a very minor supplement to our stored supplies. We have plenty of seeds on hand all the time and have had many gardens through the years. Where we live now a garden is very iffy. This year we never planted because we were still getting killing frosts towards the end of June. This morning the birdbath was frozen solid. We heat and cook with gas. We have enough gas on hand for 2+ years.
This area has been in a drought for many years. I do have a very good water catchment system but I found it does work unless it rains
.
My wife takes many meds. She maybe has 3-4 months worth on hand. If they ran out her quality of life would certainly go down.
We have a well and a generator to run the well. With just occasional use we could get by for possibly a year on the fuel we have here. There is a permanent stream about a quarter mile+ away. Way too far to be of any use.
We could in theory survive for a year. After that we would have to re-supply.
For me it is hard to see a likely event that would not allow us to re-supply within a year. Yes, I know all about every possible event but history shows none of those have happened in the last hundred plus years. None of us know the future. Here we just do what is practical.
This area has been in a drought for many years. I do have a very good water catchment system but I found it does work unless it rains
. My wife takes many meds. She maybe has 3-4 months worth on hand. If they ran out her quality of life would certainly go down.
We have a well and a generator to run the well. With just occasional use we could get by for possibly a year on the fuel we have here. There is a permanent stream about a quarter mile+ away. Way too far to be of any use.
We could in theory survive for a year. After that we would have to re-supply.
For me it is hard to see a likely event that would not allow us to re-supply within a year. Yes, I know all about every possible event but history shows none of those have happened in the last hundred plus years. None of us know the future. Here we just do what is practical.
Prepping is always ongoing but the goals change over time. I am 62 but my body is more like 80 due to a lot of abuse and trauma. I hold no fear of death (I know my eternal destiny), my closers kids and grandkids are 5 hour highways drive away, my other set is a 5 hour flight away, so if it is TEOTWAWKI I probably won’t be much help to them. They currently think that my preps are just one of dad’s idiosyncrasies but there are glimmers of light. If things get bad maybe one set can make it here. I’m in a good Community that mostly pulls together when things gets hard (proven in blizzards, floods, forest fires and ten day power failures). The community works harder than anyplace I have ever lived to teach things like food security (grow it, gather it, preserve it). Most have some level of self sufficiency (a good percentage heat with wood, most hunt, fish, camp etc, most garden to some degree). I will do the best I can with what I have.
The good Lord has numbered my days, but I will invest what He gives me to the max.
The good Lord has numbered my days, but I will invest what He gives me to the max.
I am older than some on here and other forums and I am a lot older than others, but apart from psoriasis which is a nuisance but not life threatening my health is a lot better than some people 20 years or more younger.
I live in a country where 2 out of every 3 are Obese and 1 in every 16 is Diabetic, I am neither.
I reckon I can live a lot longer than most and I have lived off grid and so has my wife(separately) so we know what to do when "the balloon goes up", more than most in our country.
there is so much lack of knowledge about prepping and survival here but everyone carries a mobile phone and spends much of 24/7 online on things like Facebook and Twitter.
I live in a country where 2 out of every 3 are Obese and 1 in every 16 is Diabetic, I am neither.
I reckon I can live a lot longer than most and I have lived off grid and so has my wife(separately) so we know what to do when "the balloon goes up", more than most in our country.
there is so much lack of knowledge about prepping and survival here but everyone carries a mobile phone and spends much of 24/7 online on things like Facebook and Twitter.
