Maybe I'm crazy

I live alone, my family is better than 1500 miles away. Trying to get there in a sitx would probably not be possible. I have a girlfriend who kinda rolls her eyes whenever I take about making preperations for survival. And another friend who is married that says He and his wife are stocking some food. So, since survival is better in a group than alone, I am stocking enough food and some equipment for all of them. I'm already at the point i have more food than my vehicle can carry. I've got a good selection so there isn't any menu boredom, (ie serving the same thing for a week). Though I don't know if they understand now, it won't be three squares a day, they will then. I know the character of the group and i would trust them with my life.

Am I crazy or are some others here making preperations for others not in the family or in an already established, tight knit group?

I make no assumptions about who will be there and who won't. There are those I want with me but I know that on that day not only will I be having my worst day to date, everybody I know and love will be too. Sounds like we have a like mind. I never could even pack anywhere without extra utensils and food in case I needed to share. I didn't always eat well as a child and I'll turn no one away from food. Not for them to be a glutton but to survive. My charity does have limits.

Not at all you're not going crazy.

Myself and a friend are actually building completely self sustainable off grid homes in the mountains of Australia and we are also going to stock pile big time as well.

We've approached the topic with numerous family and friends and as you said we also get the usual eye roll as well. The thing is what have you got to lose? There are two scenarios 1. Things turn bad and you will be counting your lucky stars that you have yourself set up 2. Not much happens 2012 passes there's no war? well you can eat the food , donate it a food shelter or in our case sell a nice Eco home and may even make a profit!!

Also have a look at this a former head global srtategist also recommends to prepare for the worst.


His message: Listen to markets, learn from history and prepare for the worst.

www.bloomberg.com...

Even survival gizmo's you can sell on e-bay if they don't become of any use after the coming shift.

People always look for reassurance in others when making big decisions, unfortunately there is only one person who can make this decision , follow your gut feeling ...... you're family will be thanking you when stuff turns bad.

Cheers SKYFREAK

If you feel you need to "prepair" for a survival event then mostlikely you are insane. You're being paranoid, you're imagining something that you then preform actions assuming that is how the "survival event" will play out.

You can't prepair for a unknown survival event. You can only be prepaired personally.

This takes little more then a plan for every eventuality.

Thank you for the reassurance, Semper, jvpskyfreak.

I kept going reading the threads and it seemed most of the posters had survival groups. (friends , family, that are actively invovled in preperations)

If nothing happens jvpskyfreak, i can retire in 10 years , buy a piece of land in the mountains and live off what i have stocked.

Don't bit the hand that feeds you, unless you like a knuckle sandwich.

I would rather be prepared and not need it, than starve to death because everyone around me said I was being paranoid.

Those that are telling you that you are crazy will be the first ones knocking on your door when the SHTF. Those are the ones you need to be worried about. They know what you have and what you are prepared for. They are the ones that will be running to you and asking you to save their unprepared arses.

Those are the ones you need to be prepared to deal with in sit X.

I can deal with my enemies but God please save me from my friends.

Think about it.

wupy

Then i am insane, i don't mind though because i am in good company. Joesph in Eygpt under Pharaoh stocked grain for the seven years of famine.

True that you can't see every event that could occur Incarenated, but i would rather prepare just in case.

Good point mrwupy.

I don't plan on being where anyone can knock on my door.

I'll be bugging out.

And if those people i mentioning in the OP want to stay, then I'm on my own.

A three month supply should be a good start.Don't forget pets,unless your pets are emergency food!Also should plan what to do when your "friends"who roll their eyes at the mention of survival or putting food back show up on your door going"Hey Buddy"

I doubt that you are crazy because you take the time to ask yourself if you are crazy, crazy answer right..

My wife and I are as prepared as we can be 45 days worth of food and 45 days worth of water these could be stretched out to 90 days provided we were staying put but the food stash is good for 1400-1800 calories a day if were are staying put we could do 700 calories a day and make it last 90 days water would be another issue but there are creeks all over where we live and we have several purifiers and you can always boil water right right..

I have snares and traps for game as well as a gun or two and an air gun for small game why waste bullets when you don't have to right.

we pretty much have bugging out covered as well but food is more difficult to obtain when you have no buffer I think in the case of bug out we would pillage what we could unless we were traveling by vehicle and then we could take what we have stored..

we also have about 3-4 years worth of seeds for planting a 10 acre garden stored in a climate controlled environment here in the house all of my ammo is here to along with packs of desiccant that I change every 3-6 months depending on the weather..

better to be prepared so when you walk past the guy that called you crazy starving to death laying on the ground, you have the energy to laugh at him..

Respectfully
GEO

Nope not crazy at all.

I have enought supplies for 10 people for about 2 weeks on full rations, maybe 4 if we really stretch and further than that if we can slavage canned goods etc.

Potable water is a bigger concern IMHO so I keep 200 gallons and several filtration systems as well.

I figure my family, my elderly neighbor and a few others and have the means to defend my stuff and run a small medical infirmary for the neighborhood.

reply to post by Noah-What


Not crazy Noah. Sitting on one's hands and/or just waiting for someone or something to save you would be crazy.

Good on you for developing a support system.

Some advice regarding your food supply. Do what prudent sailors do with canned goods. Get an indelible marker and write what's in those cans and the purchase or 'pull' date of the contents on the tops and/or bottoms of the cans. The glue that holds those pretty labels on is water soluble and the labels will fall off should they be exposed to the elements or just sit long enough in a damp environment. They may be high and dry and safe and sound at present, but should you have to go mobile or... who knows why they might get saturated? Murphy's law applies here. Ensure you know what is available when the time comes to need to know. You'd hate having to guess which cans provide protein and which cans don't.

I'd also suggest that marking the cans with contents and dates will remind you to rotate your stock. There's no reason in the world you have to eat expired foodstuffs if you pull and replace items 'tiring' with fresh on a reasonable schedule. Eat the stuff now that you wouldn't want to face up to in a year or two.

This process also helps to keep an inventory in mind of what you have and don't have. It also will help you prioritize those items to grab if you have to go mobile in a hurry, grabbing the highest priority items depending on your mode of transport at the time. You might even consider a symbol on the can tops (as well as content) for priority. Either P for protein, F for fructose, C for carbs, W for water/milk, etc., or priority 1, 2, 3 etc.

Got can openers? Handy? Get several more. The old military surplus TL29s are awesome. Gnawing your way into a can of peaches isn't a pretty sight and most knife excavations will waste more contents than you'd like to see gone if you're in a survival situation.

Pack things a few times just to see what can go where, how much you can realistically carry over long distances, etc. You can't count on cars going very far at all should the proverbial 'poop' hit the fan.

You can still purchase "canned" water. It is still available and used by die-hard blue water sailors and survival conscious folk. Sounds like your filtration systems are a good avenue though, as long as they are manual types. Can't count on cars or grid supplied electricity in these equations in my estimation.

Not to go all paranoid on you ... Hide some of your larder. Bury it, stick it behind the darkest/ickiest place in the basement, under the bed...whatever. Just enough to hold you over for a couple of days at least. There's a good chance of lawlessness by the 'have nots' against the (even if only meager) 'haves' should horrible events occur. There's a good chance of groups - or even the existing power base (govt, troops, community leadership) confiscating known larders for the greater good. Your planning for 10 people would be very much appreciated by 100 people, although not 100 people of your choice.

Keep up the good work and keep thinking. I'd be proud to be your neighbor.

It's a shame we have to think in these terms. Oh heck, let's not even go there.

Haven't gotten around to an avatar or signature yet, but the signature will be;

"Silent friends are only good as pallbearers."

Peace all.

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Irascible Tractor]

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Irascible Tractor]

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Irascible Tractor]

People,

You *KNOW* this site is monitored by TPTB. Why in the world would you talk about any provisions/plans you have? Sure, encourage others to stockpile arms/food/water, but DO NOT TELL ANYONE THAT YOU/FRIENDS/FAMILY/THAT STRANGE GUY ACROSS THE STREET IS DOING SO!

I agree ^^
If you bring the issue of survival up in a conversation, you will know immediately where they stand just on reaction alone. If they get all weird on you or laugh, you should just let it drop and change the subject. This way those who laugh are less likely to remember a small question when it hits the fan. If you get a nibble of interest, carefully feel them out, you may have a new buddy to talk to.

I try not to tell anyone of my plans. I think for me it is better to decide the conditions than rely on others. I can see neighbors or coworkers just showing up on the doorstep 6 hours into a sitx begging. It reminds me of the twilight zone episode where everyone ragged on the guy building a shelter in his yard, up until the air raid siren wailed. His bunker way big enough for his family but the whole neighborhood wanted in. In the end they ripped him out when in a moment of weakness he opened the door to one guy. The irony was that the alarm went off in error and the neighbors had to deal with the effects of hysteria.

My aim is to be prepared quietly and find like minds here to share with.
It may sound selfish, but there are no rules in a panic state.

Funny you brought that up, I almost never get scared of anything nor live in fear, pretty free soul and very expressive! Recently even I'm starting to think about preparing myself for emergency for a few reasons, one, I know something big is going to happen and the way governments lie to us so much these days I know it can't be good, but most interesting is that as of few months ago I noticed many adds on tv about "how to prepare yourself for an emergency up to months" I've seen these adds few times and sponsored by Canadian Government. I think they're trying to prepare us for something that hey know will happen... all this threat to Iran.. Iraq, Afghanistan... I'm starting to get worried for WW3.

There is a fine line between sanity and insanity. For every person you can ask they will all tell you something different. And give you different degrees on just how crazy someone is..

Personally I feel its just fine to keep some extra supplies handy. Why if something where to happen, that gets you out of the normal cycle. I bet you would be happy you had that prepared..

Yet if you go overboard on you're suppiles and what not then maybe you are a bit crazed paranoid person..

We are not to be the judge of you. Only you know if what you are doing is crazy!! Ask yourself, are you doing this within reason?
Are you using fear to bump people into your thinking?

Or are you just simply using the mind given to you to make a choice that you want to live a little longer if something happens..

Starving to death sure doesnt sound pretty.. And the whole idea of death is pretty much what drives us to do some crazy things..

So in ending.. I would ask yourself.. What I am doing is it within reason..
And then that barks the question what is within reason..
Well this could go on and on like a child asking why the sky is blue.. There is always a why, after why..

I'll just go where they tell me to go. To one of the "freedom camps", or let one of the White Vans (WV) put me out of my misery.

I think that while it might be rational to stock more provisions than you personally need for a survival situation. However, honestly, it's my opinion that doing any significant amount of work in preparation for some unknown, extreme scenario might border a little on the paranoid.

There's a difference between having a few canned goods and a working flashlight ready in the back of your closet in case of a big earthquake and stocking a huge amount of provisions in preparation for a huge, society-disrupting catastrophe. To me, what you're doing just seems one step closer to quitting your job, shaving your head, heading up into the mountains and prepping an old mine or something for Armageddon.

And actually, if your goal is to survive in such a way after a major catastrophe, then it would make more sense for you to just chuck it all and move now. If your need for the comfort and social interaction of a city is so much less than your need to feel secure and survive some as yet unforeseen calamity, you might as well just go up to the mountains now and not wait. Beat the rush.

I keep thinking of the Monty Python hermit sketch, where all the hermits living in caves up in the hills chat and gossip and have a basically "normal" society, even though they're hermits. That was a good one.

reply to post by Noah-What


You may be well prepared for an unexpected life or death situation so your efforts aren't being wasted.

"Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark." Richard C. Cushing

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Pagani]

I'm ready, and have been now for about 6 months. I did it over time. I have my personal Gloom and Doom Room, as I call it. I've got enough for one year, depending on how many others I'm going to have to help. Obviously, one could never be ready for everything, but I feel you should be bug out ready, and hunker down ready.

Actually, it was kind of fun trying to figure out what I didn't have, buying things only when I could afford them. I set everything aside, and deemed it untouchable. Not one other soul has seen my GADR.

I said this before, ask yourself this question. How are you going to feel, if a major event comes into play, and everyone runs to Wal Mart, and starts emptying the place out? And, the first thing you say to yourself is: "I knew it, I knew it and now I'm screwed." Now you have let your family down. How are you going to feel when you find yourself separated from your family, stuck in a FEMA camp? By the time the event goes down, you are way to late.

There is a certain amount of comfort that comes from doing your best to prep for the future. You have nothing to loose. I don't make a habit of broadcasting what I'm doing. I actually like people thinking I R a little wacko, 'cause I'm crazy like a fox.

Learn a skill that could be helpful to a group. I learned canning as a very helpful skill. You may have a few people farming, and need your skill to preserve food for the winter. If you are interested, here is how I started.

canningusa.com