Did the lockdown change your Prepper perspective?

I am not a prepper by even the loosest of standards. I live in Chicago. Small house in urban community. Barely room to keep three pairs of shoes, much less 90 days of My Patriot Supply MREs.

With that said, I've always been a prepper at heart. I have a fascination with living off grid out in the middle of bumblefudge. If I didn't have a wife and kids, I'd definitely be living out this dream, but that ain't my reality right now.

Regardless, I read a lot of prepper fiction. I must have read almost 75 books over the past couple of years. The one common theme in the stories is how quickly things go the hell in society. In experiencing the lock down, I can say that take on things is pretty accurate given the rush I saw at stores, etc.

So here are a couple of things I've noticed and thought about since all this happened.

1) Predicting when the bull excrement hits the fan. I can say that I was somewhat ahead of the curve in that I was able to read some tealeaves and wound up stocking up on supplies a few weeks before everyone else figured out a lockdown was coming. This is critical. Fortunately, I read a lot of alternative media which was largely correct in their assessment.

2) Bugging out. This one is interesting to me. We have a summer home (Martha's Vineyard). One issue that I've seen crop up is many areas where people have second homes have been trying to keep people out by changing AirBnB rules and even preventing the actual seasonal homeowner from coming to the community for fear of bringing virus. Almost changing into a "townies" vs "outsider" type of conflict where the year rounders don't want the seasonal owners.

3) Toilet Paper. I would have never guessed this would be the hot commodity. Note to self.

4) Lockdown. Seeing how quickly government can act to lock sh*t down was kind of scary. I mean having a bug out place won't help much if you can't get to it.

5) Expenses. The lock down has done wonder for my expenses. My Amex bill is 1/4 of what it normally would be. I've never been a big spender, but definitely making me reassess spending habits.

6) Societal Breakdown. I do believe in a different circumstance, we'd quickly see how people turn on each other. You could already see glimmers of it.

Just some rambling thoughts I had after this experience. Curious what others have observed or been thinking about.

I suspect there will be a lot us city slickers looking to move out away from the city when all this is over.

a reply to: Edumakated

We were pretty well stocked up even with TP and Concentrated Sanitizer but it has made me appreciate keeping up my vegetable plot necessities even in Winter. This hit at a time I usually start stocking up on fertilizer and extra soil and prepping my beds for spring planting, so I was only able to get so much before we went into lockdown. Thankfully I had seeds and seed starting stuff as well as compost.

Some places never even got their planting shipments in before we went into lockdown.

a reply to: Edumakated

The wife and I highly suspected something to happen last year. The housing market in our area exploded and we used the opportunity to cash out and move out of town. Just for simple economic purposes we try to stay 2 to 4 weeks up on supplies.

Needless to say, our lifestyle hasn't changed much because of the epidemic.

Even still there are things that have to be considered.

You will need to go to town for something.

Knowing your neighbors for better or worse can be amazingly beneficial.

You simply cant plan for everything, just hope you have enough legs up.

Piece of mind is arguably the most important tool in survival and upheaval.

A few cents to add to your sense

I've never been a prepper in the sense of hoarding. However, I know how to build a fire, make cord from local flora, make a hook for fishing, find local springs, identify edible plants and fungi, hunt, build snares, build shelters, and I'm very familiar with the local terrain especially in a 5 mile radius.

Toilet paper is only an issue of recognizing poison ivy and poison oak. I'm not in a large city, so societal breakdown is pretty minimal. Expenses won't mean much without physical goods or skills.

My wife and I are well armed, trained with firearms, and stocked on ammo. Our only supplies really are knives, plastic sheeting, water filters, and two gas masks with spare filters just in case... And a minimal supply of canned goods just in case.

Not really other than it reinforced 3 things

1) The Feds are utterly useless at best and obstructive mostly with their BS

2) The average citizen is woefully unprepared for anything but business as usual

3) our preparations were spot on

I grab a few cans of food almost every time I go to the grocery store. The cans build up and I slowly build up a safety net. of non perishable food.

Then I use my nebulizer and Silver most days. And keep my dual ion - O3 ozone generator running to kill and remove the viruses from my house.

Alternative ways of treating the Corona virus. I am not a doctor and these are non approved by authorities. I have been dabbling with this stuff for years with good results. You are an adult and can decide for yourself if you want to try these methods.

1. Get an electrode type silver solution generator. Make sure it has a 1 mA current limiter and auto shut off when it reaches about 20 PPM. You can drink as much as 8 ounces per day. ONLY USE DISTILLED WATER AND PURE SILVER. This is like a second immune system that kills single cell organisms on contact. But doesn't hurt you.

2. Get a Nebulizer off of Ebay. Use it to breath the silver solution into your lungs and sinuses.

3. Get an ozone, and ion generator to put O3 into the air in your house or (aircraft). This will shorten the life span of any virus etc. Plus all airborne viruses etc will be charged and will not stay in the air.

4. If you take at least 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day and eat right. Your immune system will be much better at fighting any virus off. You also should take 500mcg of K2 per day when taking that much D3. D3 can cause the body to absorb too much calcium. Without enough K2 this can be harmful.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Edumakated

The wife and I highly suspected something to happen last year. The housing market in our area exploded and we used the opportunity to cash out and move out of town. Just for simple economic purposes we try to stay 2 to 4 weeks up on supplies.

Needless to say, our lifestyle hasn't changed much because of the epidemic.

Even still there are things that have to be considered.

You will need to go to town for something.

Knowing your neighbors for better or worse can be amazingly beneficial.

You simply cant plan for everything, just hope you have enough legs up.

Piece of mind is arguably the most important tool in survival and upheaval.

A few cents to add to your sense

One thing I didn't mention is listening to your gut or instincts. I had talked with my financial planner maybe two or three weeks before market crashed and was kicking around selling quite a bit of securities to just pay our house off entirely. I felt we had a good run with the market and it was near top.

I ignored my instincts.

originally posted by: Identified
a reply to: Edumakated

We were pretty well stocked up even with TP and Concentrated Sanitizer but it has made me appreciate keeping up my vegetable plot necessities even in Winter. This hit at a time I usually start stocking up on fertilizer and extra soil and prepping my beds for spring planting, so I was only able to get so much before we went into lockdown. Thankfully I had seeds and seed starting stuff as well as compost.

Some places never even got their planting shipments in before we went into lockdown.

I was on it this year with my garden. I was ready! I thought this might happen, so I got about 15 bales of peat, 50lb rock dust, 40lbs organic chicken manure, 40 lbs of kelp meal, 2cf pearlite,7 bales of organic straw, and 1 of organic alfalfa. 20 lbs of organic ferts, and a gallon of Alaskan organic fish emulsion. also have about 20,000 or more assorted vegetable seeds

We used to call ourselves survivalists, which, for me was just a continuation of the training and life experiences I grew up with. I grew up in Northern Idaho and there were whole months at a time in which we were snowed in and couldn't get to town except on horseback, and if we did, there was nothing open anyway. Everyone expected it, and therefore prepared for it in their own way. The townies could count on some local business and roads being plowed. Us farm/ranch kids knew we were on our own.

As a young adult, I lived in earthquake country. I still don't like earthquakes for they give you little warning. I always had a "kit" in my car trunk, and more at home. I've always been one to think of the worst case and I mean the VERY worst, and then adjust my thinking in that direction. People say "prepare for the worst and hope for the best", but most just do the latter. You want to win a bet? Ask someone if they can make fire without matches or a lighter. Give them three hours. Most people believe that by having seen something done, they can do it also without having to practice. Making fire isn't so important these days. Still, your time would not necessarily be wasted in learning several methods and practicing them. It's like learning to throw a knife: You can watch dozens of youtube videos, but there is no way around hundreds of hours of actually throwing them if you seek perfection.

I now live in the Caribbean, where it isn't unusual to not get a supply barge for weeks, especially in what is charmingly called "winter". So what do you do? What stuff really matters, and/or is the stuff that really matters between your ears rather than in your pantry? Well, for us (me and my Darlin') it is a meld of both. We have hurricanes here. It would be silly to wait until a hurricane was imminent and then be part of the feeding frenzy at the stores. Right? RIGHT? Get a little extra all year around, put it away. If any item is absolutely mandatory for your life, get LOTS of it. Pretty simple equation. Only stock up on food that you eat. That is difficult for people who only eat fresh food. We only eat fresh fish and seafood, but everything else is as available. The ability to adapt is really powerful. I know the things in my environment I CAN eat, should I have to.

Nothing much has changed for us as a result of Covid-19 or governmental changes, other than I am unemployed now. We don't go out much anyway. Now, if we go out at all, it's on one of three days a week instead of anytime, and I'll be wearing gloves and a mask, and go through a series of self-imposed operations designed to not transfer virus. No virus in, no virus out. One thing has changed and that is I'm making a hell of a lot more coconut oil, and spending more time with the raised-bed garden. May need that stuff soon, too soon to tell.

It has been my ongoing experience that in a time of crisis, two three things are apparent:
1. People are the greatest danger
2. Crisis brings out the best in most, and the worst in others, and once seen, it's something you can never forget about someone, because you know that is their true core, the animal deep inside of us all.
3. You have to find a way to laugh and have fun and live life hard, no matter what is going on. Regret for things wished but not done is the very most painful thing you can carry.

WHOOF! Much deeper than I intended. Bet you won't ask THAT question again.

Thanks for starting this thread because I was wondering this myself.

For the everyday prepper I don't think their perspectives changed much. But this situation gave everyone a run for their money, or 'preps'. Watching this play out, I'm sure a few preppers are editing their prepping lists, mostly to include things they didn't think they would need or thought they had enough of.

For those who don't prep and were making mad dashes for basic supplies and food, I would find it odd that their perspective didn't change, even if a little. If one has a family of dependents, they owe it to their family to take serious consideration and action in preparation of future events.

I believe one of the talk show hosts was talking about a 3 mile long line at a food shelter organization. Three miles. THREE MILES in the USA. Just do a search on the internet. It's heartbreaking. And should be eye opening.

A food bank gave out 1,200 boxes in an hour, but even more people were in line to get one. Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star Published

'Government Needs to Step In': Food Banks Across US Report ...
4 days ago - ... pandemic—increasingly long lines at food banks across the country offered another grim illustration of the financial realities faced by the poor .

Etc...etc.

You owe it to your dependents to take care of them. It doesn't cost a fortune to prepare. Slow and steady brings full tummies and peace of mind. Just do it!

I personally didn't have any issues on my supplies or food which I have mentioned in other posts. For that I am very grateful. Grateful that for all my laziness and procrastination of so many other things, prepping wasn't part of that bad characteristic.

We're 3 weeks in, and frankly this hasn't been the catastrophe most preppers are prepping for, not even close. I'll hold my judgement until this is all done. Let's face it, the game will change dramatically for a lot of folks if/when supply chains start collapsing, which is a very real possibility. Hell, it may not be the virus that does that, either, though the virus (or rather "fighting" the virus) will be used as the provided rationale for the actions that could lead to a serious supply chain disruption.

originally posted by: argentus
You want to win a bet? Ask someone if they can make fire without matches or a lighter. Give them three hours.

I'd take that bet. But something tells me you'd not bet me on something like this.

"Did the lockdown change your Prepper perspective?"

Somewhat, but I've been survival and prepper minded since the late 1970s. I've lived at my bug out location "A" for over 20 years now. Even with that I wasn't totally prepared but I was pretty ready about two weeks before shut down. Then after a couple weeks in, I've gotten even more prepared. My basic problem was organization of resources. I began that last year and slowly did that because I was always working. Now that I'm on "temporary indefinite leave", I've got more time to get more prepared as far as security and other things.

originally posted by: StoutBroux
For those who don't prep and were making mad dashes for basic supplies and food, I would find it odd that their perspective didn't change, even if a little.

Take this for what it's worth, I don't believe in showing my hand on matters of what I do or don't have where survival is concerned. That said, since this began my trips to the grocery stores have been interesting. I'm checking out with things like a jar of capers, onions, and cream cheese for morning bagels and lox (homemade bagels and lox), ginger root and mint for home brewed root beer, and a couple tins of anchovies while watching people around me buying cartloads of ramen, Spam, and rice that should have been bought months ago. The "survival" side of this has left me entirely phlegmatic... the reaction side of this, particularly where the public doe-eyed compliance with the government reaction side, has left me nonplussed to say the least. As suspected for my entire life, the actual art of survival, food, shelter, occupying yourself, etc is the easy part, dealing with the ridiculousness scared and fractured humans subject you to is the kicker.

a reply to: visitedbythem

You are prepared! I had leftovers from last season and always have seeds and I seed collect from my own garden each year. This did make me appreciate being able to call for a soil, manure or woodchip delivery whenever I want. I have a pretty green thumb but the added security of knowing if a crop fails I can buy the fruit or veg at the store is currently something I have to remember might not exist this season .

Also, once pest control and fertilizer items start to dwindle on the shelves it makes farming exponentially more difficult so that's something I am thinking about more. For now I'm golden but in the future I'll pay more attention to these items in my preps.

Everything else I am set for a long time and haven't had to adjust my life much at all during my month long isolation.

This has shown me that living on top of a mountain at the end of a dead end dirt road .in a very rural town that isn't big enough to warrant a high school being considered let alone built..

I am underprepared.

I have a sizeable organic garden, and a neighbor who sells cattle to neighbors for beef, as well as selling milk and eggs..


Guess what I don't have this year, as I've grown complacent with my local agway..

Seed..

Potatoes, cucumbers(pickles), carrots, lettuce, and everything else..

I have a half of a garbage can left of of potatoes from last year I forbid anyone to eat..those are gonna have to be my seeds.

My patches of wintered garlic, asparagus, and onions, and Jerusalem artichokes are going to be mainstays,..

If you can and have the opportunity to buy seed..

DO IT..

Americans called them victory gardens during ww2..

Citizens of the world need a survival garden..

If possible..

You asked...

Respectfully,
~meathead

a reply to: Edumakated

Yes.

I originally joined ATS for the survival forum way back when. This "mini-shtf" slow motion collapse has proved to be a wake-up call on many things.

We had always heard that in a SHTF situation that the shelves would be bare in "days". That is not true, they will be bare in mere "hours". Maybe less in a real fast panic in which the whole population is aware day one.

It was just not groceries. Ammo and firearms flew off the shelves, again, not in a single day but it took awhile for people to become aware of what was going on. That will not be the case in an obvious SHTF situation.

Lesson: Have a stock of "everything" for a possible long term event and don't count on getting anything more than you have in your possession before an event.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Same, my store runs have been for comfort items such as Biscoff cookies, M&Ms, snacks, gingerale, salsa, and similar items that I don't / can't LTS. I don't even go in the store, just order online and have them throw it in the back of the truck at the curbside pick-up.

a reply to: Edumakated

I've always kept a few months of food on hand, along with other essentials. Mostly from a "what if I lose my job or have an emergency" standpoint however, it's something my mother has practiced her entire life and I just picked up on it. Much like yourself, before people starting losing their minds my wife and I went shopping for things that we wouldn't normally buy such as masks, sanitizers, and extra TP. We started shopping in small spurts at the start of February, go and pick up a few things and extra TP, go a few days later to another store same thing, never more than 2 packs aside from the one time we ended up at Publix where they had buy 1 get 1 free on our brand so we picked up 6 packs.

Now I'm currently having a house built to the south of us, outside of city limits, in another state on 10 acres. I wish it would have been done last year so we could get the self sufficiency online of gardens and a fish pond, but nothing we could do about that. So as the house is finished up and we move out, I'll be extending the on-hand food to 6 months, probably do a TP and paper towel purchase on an annual basis, etc.

I did buy a good bit of something else that normally I keep at a reasonable level, that would be ammunition. I'm hoping that nothing comes of all of this and cooler heads prevail, but figured I would prepare for that possibility as well. So really no change in the mentality, just a change in timelines and keeping an eye on emerging risk. I did have some friends that I advised to go ahead and pick up items, and was scoffed at. Oh well, you can lead a horse to water...

a reply to: burdman30ott6

I'd take that bet. But something tells me you'd not bet me on something like this.

You??? HELL no!! You probably carry a walking stick that doubles as a hand drill. Your keychain is probably a bar of flint.

What would make you truly formidable in that wager is your mind, which could devise a dozen different ways depending upon where you were and the materials available. That's the true nature of surviving *Just* like our occipital-bun-wearing ancestors did.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: StoutBroux
For those who don't prep and were making mad dashes for basic supplies and food, I would find it odd that their perspective didn't change, even if a little.

ginger root and mint for home brewed root beer

Smart thinking! I've been wanting to make some homemade strawberry wine lately, to go along with the blackberry, dandelion and grape wine that I already make. I just looked over my stock of empty bottles a few minutes ago and only have enough for a two-gallon batch. I'd been wanting to stock up more on bottles so I could make a full 5-gallon batch, but just haven't been able to lately. You just can't be prepped for every contingency. Projects like you're talking about are great now that we have extra time on our hands.

As to the OP, I haven't been shopping at the store for over a month, and then I only spent less than $5 the last time I did. All these people that keep going back to the store week after week - doesn't that defeat the purpose of stocking up in the first place so you don't have to keep subjecting yourself to potentially infected people? I'm not going back until I feel it's totally safe for ME to do so. You just get to the point in your preps where you have to think you have enough and stick with it.