Hi all! I am new to this site and fairly new to prepping. I have some basic emergency outdoor prepared equipment that will go a long way to constructing a BOB. I am trying to get through the mistified view some have on prepping who see it as a world is ending senario. I wish to become prepared for any situation I may come into contact with when it come to survival. I am 21 and I am a college student who works part time. This means I am on a tight budget. But I want to prep for reality. I know the status of this country, I hope for the best but I need to prepare for the worst. I need to prepare so that I may protact those that I love. I am looking for any and all advice that may help me as I truely start.
Welcome Citizen, I'm also new here in the past couple of weeks. I too have to filter out the world-ending-stuff so I know what you mean. But even though I don't share those beliefs, I think it important that all of us who think in terms of being prepared, share what we know and have learned. I began "homesteading" back in 1972 in response to the oil embargoes and a recognition of our vulnerability. I actually became more concerned and educated about public panic when Johnny Carson of the Tonight Show did a monologue that began with something like "say, have you heard of the latest shortage? ...... It's toilet paper!" He went on to make a pretty funny story but of course, it was all a made up JOKE. Next day after work, I went into a Safeway store and found an entire isle was stripped bare of every last roll of toilet paper (the opposite side was filled with tissue boxes!). My take away from that was that I wanted to make sure I was never in line for necessities when others needed (wanted) them too. So for things I considered vital, I gradually built up a reserve stock at home - a few months worth of those things I preferred not to be without. Of course, I also began gardening, canning, and gathering tools but most importantly, I was gathering the knowledge of how and what to do to take care of myself and others.
In the almost 40 years since I began, I've lived through those oil embargoes, inflation rates of 15 to 20%, a flash flood killing 145 people followed by months of recovery, outages due to ice storms, wind storms, and floods. Never have I felt the need to grab up supplies and ammo and fight to defend my stash. In all my experience, I have never seen circumstances move in that direction. Instead, people generally pull together and help out others as best as they can and share what they have. I see vastly more heroes than villains. Humans are social (i.e. herding) animals and cooperation is built into our DNA. But so is self preservation. I have weapons and ammo, have hunted for food, have even pulled a gun once to stop a guy beating a woman, but prepping for a Mad Max type of world seems way beyond the realities I've seen or expect. Still, I appreciate those on the forum who have weapons expertise and advice because I have a hole or two in my system that I need to fill - eventually, as a low priority in my view. My greatest concerns are a subduction zone earthquake off the west coast similar to Japan's recent experience and the associated disruption of infrastructure, a global pandemic with a virulent H5N1 or similar strain, requiring extended "social distancing", and a deflationary depression which I see in our near future. To deal with all of these circumstances, one needs knowledge, skills, supplies, and the ability to be self reliant and willingness to share and help others. It is hard to help others if your own needs are great so the first thing to do it to make sure you can care for you and yours, so you are freed up to help out your community. Together we stand, divided we fall. Information for all those "preparations" can be found here, freely shared by people of different values and belief systems, but who share a common view that being prepared for uncertain times, is important.
