What makes someone a REAL prepper?

[Sourdough]

So much fun here!





I'm with both of you. This would never have been me.

You never really know what you will "DO", till it is vividly real. And the option "But I DON'T Want to choose" is simply not an option. You will choose.

I am the eldest's of many children, and sadly vividly remember my mother's personal trap. By the late 50's she had six children, and likely carrying another child. I would have been roughly 13 y/o then.

We were often without food, for days. Mother would go to the church we attended and ask for $3.00 or $4.00 to buy food for her children.

Long story short. Pastor Bob would have sex with my mother and her children were fed with $3.50. There is so much more to this account, but I am weeping and will stop.

The point is a mother will do anything to keep her children alive.

 

[elkhound]

Sounds like you need a hand crank radio.........perhaps a Lifestraw too.

lifestraw etc. they are fine i am sure...i admit i have one or three...untested mind you....but for me i carry a regular handpump ceramic filter with a long hose....why...because i know places to get water if i was hiding you can get water from during times of drought..the water flows under a bed of huge boulders...it can be gotten from side in a spot or two....but when its dry it not there...but under the rocks you can hear water flowing fast and hard...you aint moving the rocks but you can drop a hose down through it to get water.

p.s. edit...theres a bunch of developed springs in my are in mtns. both along roads and back in forest from old times. these were clean and flowing during helene hurricane that contaminated our big water ways for months.

water under this boulder field. it runs a good ways down the mtn ridge under this strip of rock

 

[elkhound]

You never really know what you will "DO", till it is vividly real. And the option "But I DON'T Want to choose" is simply not an option. You will choose.

I am the eldest's of many children, and sadly vividly remember my mother's personal trap. By the late 50's she had six children, and likely carrying another child. I would have been roughly 13 y/o then.

We were often without food, for days. Mother would go to the church we attended and ask for $3.00 or $4.00 to buy food for her children.

Long story short. Pastor Bob would have sex with my mother and her children were fed with $3.50. There is so much more to this account, but I am weeping and will stop.

The point is a mother will do anything to keep her children alive.

like the many mothers in 'people of the deer' book when tribe was trying to save themselves from starvation traveling hundreds of miles through wilderness and it came to point they carried smallest of children and ones couldnt walk and keep up perished....i cant even imagine the toll it took to make that decision or the aftermath of it either....seeing those people get to go back and visit in film you could see the mixed emotions of happiness of 'home' and pain of what happened.

i imagine trail of tears and many more such events by all peoples down through time has similar stories most of us cant imagine.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I agree 100%.

However, when I'm talking about "post-apocalypse survival" I am talking about survival after society has collapsed and people are totally on their own. I do not think many will survive that for long. Four to seven years is way overly optimistic IMHO. I won't survive that long. I don't think you will either. You will probably survive longer than I will though. You being younger than me (I believe that is true) will probably have a bigger effect on your survivability than a difference in our prepping levels. Our different prep levels will matter, but not as much as the age difference. Even if I had some of the preps that you do, I probably couldn't lift them to put them to use. So there's that.

I'm surprised no one seems to have picked up on this statement "women are no where near as capable as men"

WOW lets see you give birth then.....

The lifestyle envisioned for after crap hits the fan is a big nothing burger to me. Been there and done that and it is not a big scary monster under my bed. It is hard work though and I stock pile to avoid some of it. Ten years worth should ease the burden substantially.

Who ever said women are not as capable as men, I dare to laugh in their face. You know nothing and that attitude is going to bite you in the arse one day if it hasn't all ready; just one know it all to another.

 

[Hardcalibres]

lifestraw etc. they are fine i am sure...i admit i have one or three...untested mind you....but for me i carry a regular handpump ceramic filter with a long hose....why...because i know places to get water if i was hiding you can get water from during times of drought..the water flows under a bed of huge boulders...it can be gotten from side in a spot or two....but when its dry it not there...but under the rocks you can hear water flowing fast and hard...you aint moving the rocks but you can drop a hose down through it to get water.

p.s. edit...theres a bunch of developed springs in my are in mtns. both along roads and back in forest from old times. these were clean and flowing during helene hurricane that contaminated our big water ways for months.

water under this boulder field. it runs a good ways down the mtn ridge under this strip of rock

View attachment 172557

Actually......the internet has again failed us.....I was posting that "tongue in cheek".

I am not a fan of handcrank radios or lifestraws.
Handcrank radios are a one trick pony......

My radios all run on rechargeable batteries......that I charge with foldable solar panels and those batteries can be used in an infinite number of other devices.

My water filters are:

1. Sawyer minis (which are way better than lifestraws because they can be back flushed and used inline on a water bladder or gravity system)
2. Katadyn pockets
3. Pure Hydration inlines
4. MSR inlines
5. Katadyn gravity

Lifestraws get blocked (and then are useless) and they can't be used to filter water to carry, store or cook with.

 

[elkhound]

Actually......the internet has again failed us.....I was posting that "tongue in cheek".

I am not a fan of handcrank radios or lifestraws.
Handcrank radios are a one trick pony......

My radios all run on rechargeable batteries......that I charge with foldable solar panels and those batteries can be used in an infinite number of other devices.

My water filters are:

1. Sawyer minis (which are way better than lifestraws because they can be back flushed and used inline on a water bladder or gravity system)
2. Katadyn pockets
3. Pure Hydration inlines
4. MSR inlines
5. Katadyn gravity

Lifestraws get blocked (and then are useless) and they can't be used to filter water to carry, store or cook with.

the internet didnt fail...i sorta failed you...i figured/knew ya was joking why i said no news is good news and my sierra cup thing...lol...then my mind went sideways thinking about water and getting water and places and things and a was blabing away thinking and typing up a post....blah blah blah....msr for me in rucksack.

 

[Pearl]

You never really know what you will "DO", till it is vividly real. And the option "But I DON'T Want to choose" is simply not an option. You will choose.

I am the eldest's of many children, and sadly vividly remember my mother's personal trap. By the late 50's she had six children, and likely carrying another child. I would have been roughly 13 y/o then.

We were often without food, for days. Mother would go to the church we attended and ask for $3.00 or $4.00 to buy food for her children.

Long story short. Pastor Bob would have sex with my mother and her children were fed with $3.50. There is so much more to this account, but I am weeping and will stop.

The point is a mother will do anything to keep her children alive.

I am truly sorry your mother went through that! I chose NOT to have children!!

 

[SLADE]

That"s why we have food stamps. We forget the corruption of the past a time when you had to didde some scumbag just to get by.

 

[Magus]

If only people would put as much time and effort in preparing for their eternity as they do for continuing their life on earth, the world would be a better place.

It has occurred to me that in general preppers live for change. I hate it myself, I am sick of my existence, but I'm too stubborn and really too chicken$hit to tap out. at least that's what I tell myself, maybe I'll know the truth of it all someday.
I sometimes wonder why I bother, My life is a joke, I have no land, my kid is 2000 miles away and I'm the last of my family, I guess I do it because I was born doing it.

 

[Weedygarden]

You never really know what you will "DO", till it is vividly real. And the option "But I DON'T Want to choose" is simply not an option. You will choose.

I am the eldest's of many children, and sadly vividly remember my mother's personal trap. By the late 50's she had six children, and likely carrying another child. I would have been roughly 13 y/o then.

We were often without food, for days. Mother would go to the church we attended and ask for $3.00 or $4.00 to buy food for her children.

Long story short. Pastor Bob would have sex with my mother and her children were fed with $3.50. There is so much more to this account, but I am weeping and will stop.

The point is a mother will do anything to keep her children alive.

I am so sorry that this happened.

Women have had to struggle too many times because of their children. I am not saying that life has been easy for all men, I just know that the burden of taking care of their children ultimately has fallen on mothers. I know that not all women who are mothers have done their best. I read too many reddit stories about women who have greatly failed.

Who ever said women are not as capable as men, I dare to laugh in their face. You know nothing and that attitude is going to bite you in the arse one day if it hasn't all ready; just one know it all to another.

I absolutely agree with you. This could be a thread of its own, and I have thought of it often. I just haven't figured out how to start a thread that doesn't start WW III. It could go several different ways. I don't want to start that kind of hate and division here.

 

[elkhound]

i know we talk sensitive subjects at times...but speaking of women and rape etc.. i encourage all women to carry a sidearm and be proficient with it....and long guns. Women often take the brunt of wars and conflicts and much more in form of rape. In Yugoslav wars...there were several i seen a history thing in one city alone over 10k women had been raped.During ww2 it was estimated something like 1million women got raped in europe or something like that.

Theres a documentary out by DW titled Women as spoils of war and i not watched it...but seen first 15 minutes of it...hard watch...plus theres lots of old footage of ww2 after math and how survivors treated collaborators...even women beating other women and marching them off to be hung and beaten...when wars official end the fighting doesnt stop..its awhile before violence ends.

I knew a vietnam vet...a man...he was a POW... he told exactly what was done to him and all the others...each day one of them was picked and taken to middle of court yard and tied across a tall table bent over at it and all the guards rapped them. Next day another victim was done same way.

One thing to is dont be fast about running out to meet your liberators.They may be just as bad...all armies raped women in europe and was well documented that even u.s. troops did so....war is hell...pure hell and more...

Find a good hiding spot and stay put,use a firearm well and knives and other tools as well.

sorry yall to post such a doomy post...it reality of shtf situations....i want all to be as safe and secure as possible and aware....even if its a bit taboo subject.

 

[poltiregist]

i know we talk sensitive subjects at times...but speaking of women and rape etc.. i encourage all women to carry a sidearm and be proficient with it....and long guns. Women often take the brunt of wars and conflicts and much more in form of rape. In Yugoslav wars...there were several i seen a history thing in one city alone over 10k women had been raped.During ww2 it was estimated something like 1million women got raped in europe or something like that.

Theres a documentary out by DW titled Women as spoils of war and i not watched it...but seen first 15 minutes of it...hard watch...plus theres lots of old footage of ww2 after math and how survivors treated collaborators...even women beating other women and marching them off to be hung and beaten...when wars official end the fighting doesnt stop..its awhile before violence ends.

I knew a vietnam vet...a man...he was a POW... he told exactly what was done to him and all the others...each day one of them was picked and taken to middle of court yard and tied across a tall table bent over at it and all the guards rapped them. Next day another victim was done same way.

One thing to is dont be fast about running out to meet your liberators.They may be just as bad...all armies raped women in europe and was well documented that even u.s. troops did so....war is hell...pure hell and more...

Find a good hiding spot and stay put,use a firearm well and knives and other tools as well.

sorry yall to post such a doomy post...it reality of shtf situations....i want all to be as safe and secure as possible and aware....even if its a bit taboo subject.

The subject discussed here and the fact that I prep for others which includes women - is why I bought an airplane for evacuating the women if it becomes necessary . I don't have adequate knowledge on flying aircraft but I have a grandson that has his aircraft license and we have another in our group in training . This thread title " what makes someone a real prepper ? " This is an example . Simply getting prepared to abandoned ones family running out the door with a bug out bag , is not in my opinion much of a prepper nor person .

 

[Weedygarden]

i know we talk sensitive subjects at times...but speaking of women and rape etc.. i encourage all women to carry a sidearm and be proficient with it....and long guns. Women often take the brunt of wars and conflicts and much more in form of rape. In Yugoslav wars...there were several i seen a history thing in one city alone over 10k women had been raped.During ww2 it was estimated something like 1million women got raped in europe or something like that.

Theres a documentary out by DW titled Women as spoils of war and i not watched it...but seen first 15 minutes of it...hard watch...plus theres lots of old footage of ww2 after math and how survivors treated collaborators...even women beating other women and marching them off to be hung and beaten...when wars official end the fighting doesnt stop..its awhile before violence ends.

I knew a vietnam vet...a man...he was a POW... he told exactly what was done to him and all the others...each day one of them was picked and taken to middle of court yard and tied across a tall table bent over at it and all the guards rapped them. Next day another victim was done same way.

One thing to is dont be fast about running out to meet your liberators.They may be just as bad...all armies raped women in europe and was well documented that even u.s. troops did so....war is hell...pure hell and more...

Find a good hiding spot and stay put,use a firearm well and knives and other tools as well.

sorry yall to post such a doomy post...it reality of shtf situations....i want all to be as safe and secure as possible and aware....even if its a bit taboo subject.

I am pretty sure that I have told about an older couple that I knew and did respite care for the husband who was dying from cancer, 40 + years ago. They were Yugoslavian. She told about during the war, she was in the kitchen making potato pancakes while her much more attractive sister was doing something else. In came soldiers. Sister was taken to the bedroom while the woman I knew was told to keep making potato pancakes for soldiers. She said the soldiers stood in line with their business out, waiting for their turn. She was not very attractive and had eyes that did not focus forward. She was grateful that day that she was not as attractive.

 

[Weedygarden]

I knew a vietnam vet...a man...he was a POW... he told exactly what was done to him and all the others...each day one of them was picked and taken to middle of court yard and tied across a tall table bent over at it and all the guards rapped them. Next day another victim was done same way.

Too often, rape of men during wars happens. It is the ultimate in humiliation for both men and women. For men in particular, it is often not spoken about nor acknowledged. I have known men who were raped. Young men, years ago, out protesting this or that, and then arrested, were thrown into cells with men who were happy to have their way with them.

Benghazi was certainly a place where rape happened, adding to the horrific allowance of the O administration and HC who just watched, rather than doing something to stop the whole thing.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men