I have been predicting worldwide catastrophies for the past 9 years now
How long have you been prepping?
Just wondering how long you guys have been prepping for? I've been into the idea for about 2 1/2 years now.
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I grew up on 100 acres, so have always been one to think preparedness. 9/11 started the serious thinking, have only seriously been prepping the last few years.
Since very young. Father was very independent and self reliant in terms of food and supplies.
I've lived in the country since my first breath so like many others being prepared and self sufficent was just always a way of life for me. I didn't really notice that we were being "Prepared" way back then since all our neighbors and family were just like us I thought everyone grew their own food, hunted, fished, split wood, bred animals...etc.....so I guess when I started my own family the tradition just continued.
I've always lived out in the sticks with not much civilation around. I grew up learning to be self suffient as not much is around and we didn't have a whole lot of money. But since the terroist attacks on 9/11, I have been preparing for the world to end....or what have you.
My whole life. As a child, I spent my time (outside of school) hiking, x-country skiing, camping etc. I have always had "survival" tools - clothing, food, knives, etc. When I was in Jr.High school, I had a bug-out-kit built out of a back pack that always had gear ready for a hike, etc.
I have also had my winter bug-out bag that was taken x-country skiing several times a week.
I have always had a winter prepared-kit in each of my vehicles - and a summer prepared kit that stays in my vehicles - all year around. If it is something that I might need once in a while - it is either beside my front door, in my bedroom or in one of my vehicles. Flash-lights, tools, food, clothing, back-pack at the ready....
I would like to think that I am always prepared.
My grandson is almost 4 now - soon I will be teaching him how to be prepared. I already am taking him for hikes, camping, off-roading - for "fun" - but that is the best way to teach them to be ready for anything.
I have also had my winter bug-out bag that was taken x-country skiing several times a week.
I have always had a winter prepared-kit in each of my vehicles - and a summer prepared kit that stays in my vehicles - all year around. If it is something that I might need once in a while - it is either beside my front door, in my bedroom or in one of my vehicles. Flash-lights, tools, food, clothing, back-pack at the ready....
I would like to think that I am always prepared.
My grandson is almost 4 now - soon I will be teaching him how to be prepared. I already am taking him for hikes, camping, off-roading - for "fun" - but that is the best way to teach them to be ready for anything.
Some religions have been predicting end of the world scenarios for the past 100,000 years.I have been predicting worldwide catastrophies for the past 9 years now
All have been wrong for the past 100,000 years.
Smart money says anyone planning for an 'Apocalypse' is an idiot and wasting time and money.
..............
I was at 3 Mile Island in '79.
I was stationed at a near by military base and had advanced NBC training (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological).
My radiation dose meter read exactly 0 (zero).
If the idiot reporters and anti-nuclear activists would have not tried to trespass on the grounds, then I wouldn't have had anything at all to do besides eat pie and hit on the local girls...
--Didn't see any riots, looting, mass hysteria, eating of babies or anything like that...
Did see neighbors helping neighbors!
I was in Washington State when Mt. St. Helens blew her top in '80.
Military sent me there to help out.
That was a bad on, lot's of ash everywhere getting into everything. The Ash/Pumice covered three states before it was over...
--Didn't see any riots, looting, mass hysteria, eating of babies or anything like that...
Did see neighbors helping neighbors!
My personal close call... 23-Oct-83, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
Early 80's I saw what the Soviet block had done to the people of Afghanistan.
Complete and utter destruction, putting those people back into the stone age.
I can't say much for a government/military/people that would distribute anti-personnel mines disguised as kids toys or use chemical weapons in civilian water wells.
--Didn't see any riots, looting, mass hysteria, eating of babies or anything like that...
Did see neighbors helping neighbors!
Mid 80's I was in Central/South America, again in war effected countries.
Government backed death squads,
Lack of food, bad water, and political corruption.
No shortage of dictators (most US backed).
--Didn't see any riots, looting, mass hysteria, eating of babies or anything like that...
Did see neighbors helping neighbors!
In '89 I saw a local town loose it's entire water pumping/purification system in a flood,
And most of it's electrical infrastructure went along with that flood too.
In '90, that same town got hit by a tornado that just about removed it from the map.
--Didn't see any riots, looting, mass hysteria, eating of babies or anything like that...
Did see neighbors helping neighbors!
Winter/Spring of '92 I learned just how brutal Americans can be to each other.
I was in Whittier, CA, working with Blower Drive Service on the new Screw Blower project for Top fuel cars when around 1-May the Rodney King crap blow wide open.
Summer '92 was Hurricane Andrew.
I had business in the Fla. Keys, and family in south Florida.
Went down with a truck load of generators and other supplies to help out.
--Didn't see any riots, looting, mass hysteria, eating of babies or anything like that...
Did see neighbors helping neighbors!
I'm sure there is a BUNCH more,
Including 11-Sept-01 in New York (World Trade Centers)
And Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that I WASN'T there during, or in the aftermath of..
Anyway, the point is,
I don't see an 'Apocalypse' happening, because I don't see us ALLOWING it to become an 'Apocalypse'!
Natural or man made disasters will come and go, but we simply won't let it become an 'Apocalypse'...
AND,
If a giant meteor hits the earth, or something like the volcanic caldera under Yellowstone pops it's cork, there simply isn't any way to plan for those things effectively!
So what's the point of wasting time, money and effort doing so?!
Do what you like with your time and money, it's a free country...
I've just got better things to do than dwell on what 'MIGHT', on the slimmest of chances, happen...
I'd rather plan for a failed crop by putting away TWO years worth of food from my garden,
I'd rather plan for another FLOOD like we had this spring.
I'd rather plan for a BLIZZARD like we had in '77 and '78 by stocking in some extra fuel and freezing some extra bread and milk for later use...
AND,
I'd rather take action and try to do something (even a small 'something') about the GLOBAL WARMING issue,
The Declining Oil Reserves Issue,
The Population Explosion Problems,
Something I can actually have an effect on, although small, I CAN make a difference!
I've had a BoB since 1970 (7th grade). I probably felt the need because of natural (Hurricane Camille(1969)/Tornadoes) and manmade (Laurel, Ms-14Feb68 train derailment)incidents.
I've been prepping/storing food since 1998.
It's a constantly evolving process as some "likely" threats fade away and "new likely" threats appear, as I have occasionally relocated.
It's now a natural process of normal living. No paranoia, just adding a little extra to the shopping cart, ensuring that we have backup supplies for the next hurricane, nearby hazmat incident, or whatever else man and/or nature throws our way.
I've been prepping/storing food since 1998.
It's a constantly evolving process as some "likely" threats fade away and "new likely" threats appear, as I have occasionally relocated.
It's now a natural process of normal living. No paranoia, just adding a little extra to the shopping cart, ensuring that we have backup supplies for the next hurricane, nearby hazmat incident, or whatever else man and/or nature throws our way.
That is so cute that you take your grandson on hikes and stuff, NaeKid. That is too cute!
Good man.......... I think it's never too early to start the young'uns learning about the outdoors and how to be ready for any situation they may be thrown into one day.My grandson is almost 4 now - soon I will be teaching him how to be prepared. I already am taking him for hikes, camping, off-roading - for "fun" - but that is the best way to teach them to be ready for anything.
Like a few of you, how long I've been prepping depends on your definition. I grew up in a small mountain town in Colorado so my entertainment during the summer was riding my bike in the woods all day long, camping, fishing and shooting BB guns. In 1986 my college roommate had a book Nuclear War: What's in it for you. I picked it up and started reading it. The book was written to scare the pants off of you, but when it talked about the estimated 138 million likely to be killed in the US in an all out exchange, I saw the glass as half full and started thinking about what it would take to be a part of the 40-50% that would survive. I bought a nuclear war survival book (can't recall the title) and started small. First was putting together a couple bolts and wire to make a "key" to get into a manhole cover for shelter as the book suggested. Then I realized all that camping stuff I'd acquired over the years had another purpose.
It wasn't until 1988-91 that I actually started doing things to really up my odds, like becoming an EMT, buying food, and learning to shoot a handgun and high powered rifle. I worked for the Forest Service on a wilderness trail crew, which is where I really learned to survive comfortably under the worst of conditions at 11,500' with the unpredictable Colorado weather. In 1991 I married my first wife who's family was LDS in Utah. I learned a great deal from them and put up the basic four for a year for two people. I also worked as a cop for three years before going back to the Forest Service for another spell. By 1994 my preps were about as good as they were going to get until recently.
I was in DC for training on 9/11/01 and it really didn't have the same effect one might think. Other than buying new filters for the gas masks and bringing one to work, I didn't really look at my cache very seriously. I didn't see terrorism as a threat to our society that the media was trying to portray it as. I still don't, but that's probably best saved for another thread.
Fast forward to the Christmas blizzard in Colorado of 2006. I was trapped in my home with ever-deepening snow piling up for three days and started to look at my cache again, recognizing it needed some attention. Of the hundreds of thousands of calories in those buckets, I didn't have a clue how to use what I had on hand. I went to the local grocery store and the bread, meats, and frozen foods sections were cleaned out in just three days. It was a wake up call at just how vulnerable our food supply really is.
I started by thinking about what I really needed for the most likely events. I beefed up my car kit to be a 72 hour kit on steroids. After that, I started shopping on-line at Emergency Essentials, getting restocked on easy to prep foods like MREs and freeze dried food stuffs. I stocked up on kerosene again and bought a new propane heater. Recently I've rejoined Costco and started putting up rice, pasta and dried mashed potatoes. I need to inventory what I have, old and new, and look at where my weaknesses are. I've taken enough nutrition classes in college to realize that you can starve to death with all the rice in the world available, so I need to work on rounding things out with complimentary and complete proteins.
My real needs right now are to work on greater energy independence (probably solar, possibly wind, definitely more efficiency) as well as continuing to improve my food situation. Long term, I'd like more food independence, too, which means turning more of the yard into garden, learning to can, and getting back into hunting (it's probably been 10 years).
I look forward to getting to know you all better in the coming months. Looks like you've got a great site here.
Mark
It wasn't until 1988-91 that I actually started doing things to really up my odds, like becoming an EMT, buying food, and learning to shoot a handgun and high powered rifle. I worked for the Forest Service on a wilderness trail crew, which is where I really learned to survive comfortably under the worst of conditions at 11,500' with the unpredictable Colorado weather. In 1991 I married my first wife who's family was LDS in Utah. I learned a great deal from them and put up the basic four for a year for two people. I also worked as a cop for three years before going back to the Forest Service for another spell. By 1994 my preps were about as good as they were going to get until recently.
I was in DC for training on 9/11/01 and it really didn't have the same effect one might think. Other than buying new filters for the gas masks and bringing one to work, I didn't really look at my cache very seriously. I didn't see terrorism as a threat to our society that the media was trying to portray it as. I still don't, but that's probably best saved for another thread.
Fast forward to the Christmas blizzard in Colorado of 2006. I was trapped in my home with ever-deepening snow piling up for three days and started to look at my cache again, recognizing it needed some attention. Of the hundreds of thousands of calories in those buckets, I didn't have a clue how to use what I had on hand. I went to the local grocery store and the bread, meats, and frozen foods sections were cleaned out in just three days. It was a wake up call at just how vulnerable our food supply really is.
I started by thinking about what I really needed for the most likely events. I beefed up my car kit to be a 72 hour kit on steroids. After that, I started shopping on-line at Emergency Essentials, getting restocked on easy to prep foods like MREs and freeze dried food stuffs. I stocked up on kerosene again and bought a new propane heater. Recently I've rejoined Costco and started putting up rice, pasta and dried mashed potatoes. I need to inventory what I have, old and new, and look at where my weaknesses are. I've taken enough nutrition classes in college to realize that you can starve to death with all the rice in the world available, so I need to work on rounding things out with complimentary and complete proteins.
My real needs right now are to work on greater energy independence (probably solar, possibly wind, definitely more efficiency) as well as continuing to improve my food situation. Long term, I'd like more food independence, too, which means turning more of the yard into garden, learning to can, and getting back into hunting (it's probably been 10 years).
I look forward to getting to know you all better in the coming months. Looks like you've got a great site here.
Mark
Our grandson loves going camping and such with us. It is an absolute blast (most of the time)That is so cute that you take your grandson on hikes and stuff, NaeKid. That is too cute!
.. and sometimes it is very trying.I put a video of one of our long-weekends together with some hiking, some shooting, quading and Jeeping. Keaton was 2.5 when we were out that time. I haven't had a chance to create online video's of some of our other trips to the woods, lakes, creeks and such.
If you wanna see a bit of our fun together .. click the link:
I've not ever been officially Prepping at all. However I've been " living simply" for most of my life. I started gardening at like 8 or 9 and have had gardens most of my life. I've kept chickens for meat and eggs as much as I could since I was about 10 years old. and I learned to slaughter animals in college as part of the requirement for my degree. So over all I've had more than 30 years of experiences in different aspects of Self sufficiency.
I've tried to build a sort of outdoor preparedness for at least 10 yrs now, but not so good on the home preparedness front. I think this forum will inspire me to get on the ball there.
NaeKid I really like what you said here:
When I first started four wheeling, I did my best to prepare by piling in equipment and spares based on advice from others. And I did all my own mechanic work. Ten years later, I am usually the go-to guy for the critical spare parts when something breaks and since I've been through my truck end to end, I'm way better at fixing it than I used to be. Same would surely apply to various other skills / preparation. I guess I like being self sufficient so fun hobbies to me are ones where I DIY in various forms.
NaeKid I really like what you said here:
From my own experiences, whether it's preparing for hackers to break into your computers, or for IT systems to crash, or Jeeps to break on the 4x4 trail, or other things... real life practice is king. I find it not only hones the equipment but-- way more importantly-- the skills needed (aka training). And all of that is fun.My grandson is almost 4 now - soon I will be teaching him how to be prepared. I already am taking him for hikes, camping, off-roading - for "fun" - but that is the best way to teach them to be ready for anything.
When I first started four wheeling, I did my best to prepare by piling in equipment and spares based on advice from others. And I did all my own mechanic work. Ten years later, I am usually the go-to guy for the critical spare parts when something breaks and since I've been through my truck end to end, I'm way better at fixing it than I used to be. Same would surely apply to various other skills / preparation. I guess I like being self sufficient so fun hobbies to me are ones where I DIY in various forms.
I've been preparing for almost a year now. I started when some investors I know told me about the coming recession. I'm only about halfway done building my survival stash. I hope to have it complete by the end of the first week of January.
Naekid - Keaton is cute. I love how the sippy cup made it into almost every photo.
About 25 years,give or take.or ever since I was 16.I'm 44 now.Just wondering how long you guys have been prepping for? I've been into the idea for about 2 1/2 years now.
Passively, about 10 years... Actively, roughly 3-4 years. At first, my wife practically wanted me committed, but with the way the world changes, she's become very supportive of me. For my birthday, she got several items off my list I hadn't got around to getting. Once, she started backing my efforts, it became a breeze. With mental, physical and material preparation growing daily, I know we'll have no problems at whatever is thrown our way.
Like many here, I've grown up with being prepared. When I was growing up here in the Ozarks, that's just what people did. You had to learn to can if you wanted veggies in the winter. Money was tight, so you learned how to hunt and fish for meat.
I got out of it for a while when I joined the Air Force, but when I moved home and married, I took it up again. There a few jobs that pay enough around here to not do it.
I got out of it for a while when I joined the Air Force, but when I moved home and married, I took it up again. There a few jobs that pay enough around here to not do it.
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