What makes someone a REAL prepper?

[Hardcalibres]

done best i could with resources i had...your corral cost more than my home i am sure...lol

I am not a one trick pony.

 

[Swing]

Well, I guess we can have the various prepper definitions, but I'm thinking more prepping to survive. And when I think survive I can think of many different scenes. One of the biggest is being a single mom, with low paying job, two kids and the ex finds ways of not contributing in any way. (Regardless of what a court decrees). And that can also be a single dad with same conditions.

Or someone that cannot out of the house works due to physical abilities or illnesses but keeps a roof, food, etc. With maybe very little if any extra.

Then someone living with older disabled parents, child or significant friend or other. And they are scraping by.


Or any of the above and a tornado, hurricane, once in a 100 year flood comes by and destroys virtually everything and all you have is yourself, and others to pull it back together by your bootstraps.

So, while this Homesteading Forum, is pretty much a prepper forum I see homesteading as prepping to live more simply, recover from what happens in life and keep some decent quality of life. And I've only had a couple of testing times in my life, and I was proud of how I came through them.

And I'd bet at least 99% of the members here have had a testing time and have come through them also. It may not be someone else's definition of a prepper, but prepping is so many things so live up to your version if you can.

 

[Peepaw from Tex]

Dang missed out. Had to work so I can buy non prepper stuff. Food, clothes, medicine, gas, and pay utilities. Thought the discussion was kinda sexist. I could always become a man whore.

 

[dademoss]

IN BEFORE THE LOCK!!

 

[Hardcalibres]

Well, I guess we can have the various prepper definitions, but I'm thinking more prepping to survive. And when I think survive I can think of many different scenes. One of the biggest is being a single mom, with low paying job, two kids and the ex finds ways of not contributing in any way. (Regardless of what a court decrees). And that can also be a single dad with same conditions.

Or someone that cannot out of the house works due to physical abilities or illnesses but keeps a roof, food, etc. With maybe very little if any extra.

Then someone living with older disabled parents, child or significant friend or other. And they are scraping by.


Or any of the above and a tornado, hurricane, once in a 100 year flood comes by and destroys virtually everything and all you have is yourself, and others to pull it back together by your bootstraps.

So, while this Homesteading Forum, is pretty much a prepper forum I see homesteading as prepping to live more simply, recover from what happens in life and keep some decent quality of life. And I've only had a couple of testing times in my life, and I was proud of how I came through them.

And I'd bet at least 99% of the members here have had a testing time and have come through them also. It may not be someone else's definition of a prepper, but prepping is so many things so live up to your version if you can.

I agree.

......and more and more people understand that the US and all Western nations are in decline.........things are getting worse and more challenging all the time.

Cascading failure is here already......and all any of us can do is get as ready as we can for a much more difficult life.

 

[elkhound]

I am not a one trick pony.

you have a herd of them...lol...plus some !

 

[Hardcalibres]

you have a herd of them...lol...plus some !

In the online world, most people are like icebergs.....just a little showing above the waves.........but most of what they are, forever hidden.

 

[elkhound]

In the online world, most people are like icebergs.....just a little showing above the waves.........but most of what they are, forever hidden.

lol...some are iceburgs...others own greenland or are their own ice age!!

 

[OldSchool]

Well one thing for sure, Steve's BS sure gave me a good laugh!!!

I quit reading his posts on page #2

 

[OldSchool]

I'm curious, because a while back, someone stated that we are not preppers here. So I am curious. Do you consider yourself a REAL prepper, and why do you not consider someone else to not be a REAL prepper?

Probably someone with a bad attitude and isn't happy without something to complain about or someone to challenge. I wouldn't worry about it. We're better off without them.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

Well, I guess we can have the various prepper definitions, but I'm thinking more prepping to survive. And when I think survive I can think of many different scenes. One of the biggest is being a single mom, with low paying job, two kids and the ex finds ways of not contributing in any way. (Regardless of what a court decrees). And that can also be a single dad with same conditions.

Or someone that cannot out of the house works due to physical abilities or illnesses but keeps a roof, food, etc. With maybe very little if any extra.

Then someone living with older disabled parents, child or significant friend or other. And they are scraping by.


Or any of the above and a tornado, hurricane, once in a 100 year flood comes by and destroys virtually everything and all you have is yourself, and others to pull it back together by your bootstraps.

So, while this Homesteading Forum, is pretty much a prepper forum I see homesteading as prepping to live more simply, recover from what happens in life and keep some decent quality of life. And I've only had a couple of testing times in my life, and I was proud of how I came through them.

And I'd bet at least 99% of the members here have had a testing time and have come through them also. It may not be someone else's definition of a prepper, but prepping is so many things so live up to your version if you can.

I will build on this post.
Taking the last couple years before retirement to build for a catastrophe, not to dip in the nest egg.
Get everything updated and new before going into retirement.
Looking at a Homesteading lifestyle in retirement and having a couple years to perfect it. Gotta have something to keep active with.
It’s what we have been doing for past couple years.
I have been tested enough times. Snow, ice, fire, mudslides. I am ready, if not i will soon find out and adapt.

 

[OldSchool]

A large

.... I am ready, if not i will soon find out and adapt.

^^This^^

A large part of prepping sucessfully and reaping the rewards if necessary is having the right attitude. If "I will survive the catsrophophe" isn't part of prepping 101.... It should be.

 

[Hardcalibres]

A large

^^This^^

A large part of prepping sucessfully and reaping the rewards if necessary is having the right attitude. If "I will survive the catsrophophe" isn't part of prepping 101.... It should be.

I very much agree.

Quitters never win and winners never quit.

 

[OldSchool]

IN BEFORE THE LOCK!!

It'll be fine if we turn it into a music thread.

 

[Amish Heart]

Good song!

 

[Sourdough]

In the online world, most people are like icebergs.....just a little showing above the waves.........but most of what they are, forever hidden.

I think it is just the opposite.

 

[Proud Prepper]

Despite what feminists try to claim, women are no where near as capable as men and during shtf have consistently relied on men to provide and protect. And it's a fact that absent such a man women have relied on their body to survive.

The world provides PLENTY of evidence as to the truth of those facts.

I believe a man prepper and a woman prepper are better @ prepping If they prepp together. They can also make more peppers!

 

[dademoss]

It'll be fine if we turn it into a music thread.

One of my favorites

 

[Neb]

It'll be fine if we turn it into a music thread.

Revised Battle Hymn of the Republic

Verse 1
A prepper is a person that knows what's going down.
Has a propper pantry preped for trouble coming in the town.
They have thought through issues coming and will not have to drown.
Have bullets by the pound.


Ben

 

[Sourdough]

"EXPERIENCE"

Over and over and over and over daily or weekly or monthly "Living-it".

If you are actually living-it, if you are currently living what others fear they might find themselves compelled to endure, you have the huge advantage.

It is the transition that kills. It is the transition, especially if it is a suddenly compelled transition. You simply can't do better then having survival experience.

 

[OldSchool]

I think it is just the opposite.

Overall I think you're right. But, I have seen online posters portray a life and a person they are not, and I've seen that fact revealed. For people not playing that game it's easier, for some, to be themselves online.

 

[Weedygarden]

for those taking notes..it wasnt @Pearl @elkhound or @Tirediron nor @Sourdough this time.....lol

@Weedygarden birthed this one....lol....tag your it !

Who knew that question would lead to this. And I'm only on page 2 of the responses! Wow! I had no idea this would hit such a nerve.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

A large

^^This^^

A large part of prepping sucessfully and reaping the rewards if necessary is having the right attitude. If "I will survive the catsrophophe" isn't part of prepping 101.... It should be.

Been there. Most of my fire Evacs had hours warning. Last one was 45 minutes to evac.
Didnt have enough time to put down my civilian Phoscheck (pink stuff out of planes)
Been through it enough. My planning can never be perfect

Yeah, i kind take things seriously.

I had dumb az neighbors stay as a helicopter is telling them to get out over loudspeaker. We only have one way in or out. Fire got within 5 foot of their houses.

 

[Canon29]

Anyone can be a prepper or survivalist... it's only when you start defining the context which defines the viability of someone's prepping/survivalism that you start to see who's actually good at it or not.

I think the criteria for a viable survivalist is higher than a prepper in most long term contexts. The biggest difference I believe is in methodology. In the extreme, most philosophical debate between the two titles comes from some sort of societal collapse. That is a very stringent criteria to define viability by.

Right now while society is in session everyone participates in a system that is built on organizationally dependent technology- you take that away and the surplus that allows for such high population plummets... the ones that survive do so by either accumulating enough resources to sustain their current lifestyle in the face of new threats or those who can adapt and embrace a new viable lifestyle. This is where I generally make the distinction between preppers and survivalists. A prepper prepares to sustain a semblence of what was, a survivalist prepares to embrace the new alternative method. Most people are a hybrid of the two.

Think of it like slope (y=mx+b) concerning resources.

Prepping is your y-intercept. Survivalism is your rise/run.

A prepper stockpiles and starts very high on the y axis, over time as resources are used their line slopes down along the x axis to zero- ideally they die before they run out of consumable resources that they cannot produce, or gain some survival skills to stretch that timeframe out as needed.

A survivalist starts a bit lower on the y axis generally (never zero if they can help it) but invests heavily is skills that allow them to create/obtain those resources. their line may have peaks and valleys but overall it's gotta stay somewhere above starvation as time stretches it furthur along the X axis.

Personally, I am more on the extreme end of survivalists- where as im heavily invested in mobile systems and wilderness survival. Yes, I can make/procure my own food, medicine, clothing, and tools in the field to sustain myself. I am not dependent on stationary infrastructure. I've developed my own personal methods/techniques to facilitate those needs in account with the primitivism neccesary to utilize the naturally occurring resources I would be dependent on procuring and refining to keep living. That's very different from folks with literal warehouses full of supplies which I would consider viable preppers in long term scenarios. Neither strategy is without risk.

 

[Sourdough]

Wow! I had no idea this would hit such a nerve.

The nerve you hit it is fear. This subject holds up a mirror that people look away from when passing that mirror.

 

[Neb]

It'll be fine if we turn it into a music thread.

Be a prepper drink Dr Prepper...

Be a prepper too!

Ben

 

[Sourdough]

Everyone wants to survive. And "yet" No one wants to get in the airplane and ride along to my fourth plane crash in deep wilderness Alaska.

I tell "NEW" pilots they need to learn how to crash the plane and survive.

 

[Weedygarden]

I'm out!! I'm laughing SO hard it's hard to breathe!!

What a range of responses!

I have a wet face from laughing so hard. And my stomach hurts.

 

[Hardcalibres]

I think it is just the opposite.

Sure....some are an open book.

Personally I could fill several books with all the stuff I will never discuss on a web forum.

Most people have enough brains to maintain OPSEC and only talk about themselves in a general sense or preferably not at all.

It is not difficult either.......just focus upon concepts/principles and avoid being baited into the "prove it" type challenges/trolling.

People can and should just consider the material/ideas and knowledge being offered, on face value.

Everyone is free to accept it or not.

 

[Pearl]

I believe a man prepper and a woman prepper are better @ prepping If they prepp together. They can also make more peppers!