PREPPING ... who was already doing it?

As a long term inadvertent prepper (it was never for 'emergencies', it was always for low cost self-sufficiency), it's been interesting to watch the folk who usually sneer at our lifestyle, rethinking their entire lives. Thought it might be fun to swap stories

 

I started a week almost two before the crazy, but all I did was double my stocks, some things I trippled like hand sanitizer, anti bacterial wipes, toilet paper & tissues. I'm glad I did because I went shopping yesterday and the tissues, paper towel & toilet paper isle was completely empty.

I was laughed at of course... at the time.

 

We always kept a few weeks worth of food on hand, but added to it for Y2K and have maintained a large stash ever since. It became my wife’s hobby and I didn’t really pay too much attention until we moved and I had to load it all into my trailer. The canned goods alone is right at 5500#. I know because I pulled my trailer through the scales at a truck stop. Medical supplies and ammunition isn’t a problem either.

 

If you were a real prepper you'd be off the grid. Instead, you are posting here. You're a wanna be prepper...and Burt laughs at your kind.



Sponsored by the Burt for President Committee.

 

I keep a roughly one month supply of foodstuffs and water, but I absolutely refuse to break into it now while food supply chains are completely uninterrupted and functioning normally. Hoarders gonna hoard, I guess though. TP was in short supply but for various reasons I keep around twenty packs of paper napkins from the .99 cent store that can be used in an emergency. My wife closed her salon for awhile, and my job told me to stay out of the office when I'm not seeing patients, so we're binging on TV, drinking wine in the afternoon, and gettin' busy at night. I imagine many are doing the same and we are apt to see a spike in births nine months from now. We can name them "Coronials".

 

It's not so much that I'm a prepper; I live in California and because of the threat of quakes ALWAYS have some stock handy for emergencies - although I put a lil extra in my stock after the July 4th quakes last year.

 

Let them sneer.

There's a lot of benefits to growing and hunting your own food and being prepared for emergencies. To me it's just common sense. If we were forced to do so my wife and I could live weeks off the grid and still enjoy all the comforts of civilized living - food, running water, electricity, heat/air conditioning, communication with the outside world, you name it. When the CoronApocalypse started up there was no reason for us to panic and get into the middle of the breakdown of civilization at Costco and Sam's Club.

Oh, and tonight we're having a delicious leek soup for dinner that I made from the vegetables and herbs we grew in our own garden (or potager for all you effete latte-sipping champagne socialists out there who despise physical labor and hate getting dirt under your pretty fingernails).

 

Living in a hurricane zone, prepping is just normal. We always have to be prepared to go without power for a few days, so we have plenty of food, water and other supplies. The toilet paper thing was purely incidental. My wife demands one specific brand of toilet paper, so I'm always alert for it to go on sale. When it does, I stock up, so we've got plenty of TP to survive the worst taco Tuesdays or Chili contests. After the dollar collapses and the only currency is bullets and TP, I'll be rich!

 

This story is what convinced me to get my **** in gear in regards to this virus. I am thankful that it did because I managed to avoid the worst of the panic purchasing.

https://www.livescience.com/preparing-for-coronavirus-is-civic-duty.html

And it was written less than 3 weeks ago. Crazy ****.

 

I have about a year's supply of freeze dried food stored, and even about 3 months worth of toilet paper stored. (I had this before Corona.) I can heat my house with wood. I have a couple of oil lamps to provide some light and enough fuel to last for a couple of months maybe. Guns and plenty of ammo as well.

 

My family has been prepping, if you want to call it that, for generations. I only know as far back as my great grandmother, but she ran a little country store from her homestead, she would stock up on supplies for her extended family and the local farming community. This was long before the "just in time" modern supply chain.

As a kid it was instilled upon me to always be prepared, we must have enough food and supplies to take us through to the next year, that included feed for all of the livestock.

We used those emergency supplies too, the Columbus day storm in Oregon, several years we were snowed in, and a coupe of times when dad was out of a job or was injured.

But I am not a prepper, those folks are silly.

 

I'm ready for anything.

You should see my Jeep.

Only thing I'm missing is blades on the wheels.

 

I live in earthquake country so I have several months of supplies on hand. I never want my family fighting for scraps waiting for the government to help.

A few months ago, my niece moved in with her 1 1/2 year old. The only thing I ran short on was baby wipes.

 

Just don't buy any guns.

No one needs those.

 

Potager sounds fruity.

 

I wanna see your Jeep

 

Yeah, if it weren't for my son and daughter-in-law visiting for a couple weeks permanently moving in, I'd be set for a lot longer than I am - but I'll get by somehow.

 

If you are independently prepared and do not require any care or resources that means someone else can get that care or those resources -- everything is finite and there's only so much to go around.

 

I've been buying a few extra canned or dry goods (on sale) every time i go the the grocery for years. Have plenty. Toilet paper was never on my radar. Purely on luck, I ran out and bought a bulk pack just before the crazy hit. Once that runs out, I now have plenty of paper towels

I stocked up on ammo every time the left started pushing for more gun control. So I had a lot before that unfortunate boating accident...

 

Then you are, most assuredly, part of the problem.

 

What problem?

 

Hoarding is hoarding whether it's ammo or TP.

 

You clearly didn't learn anything from the grasshopper and the ant fable.

Stockpiling supplies, of any kind, when they are plentiful is simply preparing. Buying an inordinate amount of goods during a crises and short supplies is hoarding.

 

Seriously? You were telling everybody to be prepared at the same time you were getting prepared yourself? Not that any advice you were putting on this forum was bad, preparation is very important, I everybody should be prepared, but to tell people what to do when you just figured it out yourself is full of red flags. Yes be prepared, always try to get out in front of a catastrophe, but being prepared isn’t a hack, it isn’t something you can accomplish in a couple of weeks. Being prepared is a state of mind, it is a campaign. Being that you just recently figured this out doesn’t make you someone in a position to give advice. Not that you have bad advice, you did pretty well, but still.

 

Are you suggesting other people dont have enough ammo because I bought too much?