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Because of the fire and CO problems, and the problem of continued kerosene supplies during emergencies, I think kerosene lanterns and kerosene should be stashed out in the shed and not used unless you run out of all other light sources.
Lighting is one thing that is best to prep for with modern devices. One should have mainly LED lanterns and flashlights, along with many rechargeable batteries. The batteries should be recharged by solar and wind devices, or perhaps even a micro-powerplant running off a dammed creek.
The LED "reading" lamps that are totally self-contained and have a small solar panel on them work really well, too. Charge by day, light by night.
For me, "country living" was being remote enough to farm or play my guitar real loud without worrying about neighbors, but no more than 1 hour to a city with robust service and no more than 2 hours to first class service. It was pretty hard to find with the expansion of exurbs gobbling up all the peripheral lands around cities and suburbs, but I eventually did (and my screen name is not reflective of where its located).
People who think that cities are hellholes on the verge of Mad Max are- to a man or woman- paranoid types who haven't experienced much in this life. Country living is nice, though. Its not an either-or proposition.
This is exactly what I have been trying to say. We considered living in some pretty remote areas but decided that within an hour/hour and a half to a decent sized large town/small city would be perfect. Just the right balance of doctors, services, culture and options but still an pretty rural where home is. Still looking for that place though
Have considered going back to Florida on the account that one can have that, be close to beach and other activities, grow tons of food year round and still have access to tons of public lands.
No, I am challenging your notion of probability of the events you are preparing for. You are the one who called people (in the cities) who do not prepare - sheep. I am the one who still says that most people will prepare for what is likely. If that was not the case and everyone prepared for "black swan" events - there would be no "black swan" events since everyone would be ready for them and these events would not be so interesting
Most people will prepare for what is likely in their area, barring the ones that are too poor and the ones that are too stupid (there are always those but they are NOT a majority).
I mean, I can understand someone living in Florida or Gulf Coast preparing for the aftermath of a hurricane. I can understand someone living in the North/North-East preparing for the aftermath of a blizzard or someone living in the Midwest/North preparing for the aftermath of an ice-storm. These have all happened and will happen again - hence preparing for them sounds pretty logical to me - these are hardly black swan events. and these days modern meteorology can predict them with at least a few days lead-in time However, even the extent of those preparations need not be large - enough water, food, blankets etc. for 4-7 days is most likely what is necessary. In the cities things get restored pretty quickly and apartments do tend to run smaller so you cannot normally dedicate much space to 30-days worth of supplies, not to mention that you can't really store gasoline or a generator or much propane in an apartment. If you are out in the country and far enough from services - you most likely already have a stocked pantry, a generator and sufficient fuel since you live far away from a city and shopping happens once a month - by definition you are prepared as a side-effect of your location and lifestyle (and no, you are not smarter than the "sheep" - you just don't have the convenience of being able to walk up to or drive up to the grocery store willy-nilly).
I consider anyone not wanting to take care of oneself in a disaster and having to only rely on the feds for support to be a sheep. which just happens to be most of the people living in the cities.
I consider anyone not wanting to take care of oneself in a disaster and having to only rely on the feds for support to be a sheep. which just happens to be most of the people living in the cities.
I suppose that says much more about you than it does about the people you are denigrating
I suppose that says much more about you than it does about the people you are denigrating
nope, it does not say anything about me at all. except for the fact that some people will never help provide any help for themselves at all, even if it is to save themselves.
fact is, I am not denigrating anyone at all, but it looks like you are.
I am challenging your notion of probability of the events you are preparing for.
I can understand someone living in Florida or Gulf Coast preparing for the aftermath of a hurricane. I can understand someone living in the North/North-East preparing for the aftermath of a blizzard or someone living in the Midwest/North preparing for the aftermath of an ice-storm. These have all happened and will happen again - hence preparing for them sounds pretty logical to me - these are hardly black swan events. and these days modern meteorology can predict them with at least a few days lead-in time However, even the extent of those preparations need not be large .
Just because all you can "understand" are weather events, does not mean that those are the only dangers out there. Perhaps some of us think that you (and many others) have become too complacent and reliant upon the normal, orderly pattern as we know it, to continue. It may, it may not. Whatever I have stored, is NOT because "the city is an hour away" and is too inconvenient to go often. I have deep - very deep - storage for vastly different reasons than the time it takes to get to some city.
It has been my recent observation that you are attempting to bully posters who state that they are preparing for something more serious than a weather event. You challenge them to reveal what that 'something' might be and the reasons why they think so, then proceed to belittle them for believing as they do. That is very un-gentlemanly behavior. This is, after all, the SS&P forum, not the "meteorological preparedness" forum.
Do try to be courteous to those who think differently than you do.
Just because all you can "understand" are weather events, does not mean that those are the only dangers out there. Perhaps some of us think that you (and many others) have become too complacent and reliant upon the normal, orderly pattern as we know it, to continue. It may, it may not. Whatever I have stored, is NOT because "the city is an hour away" and is too inconvenient to go often. I have deep - very deep - storage for vastly different reasons than the time it takes to get to some city.
It has been my recent observation that you are attempting to bully posters who state that they are preparing for something more serious than a weather event. You challenge them to reveal what that 'something' might be and the reasons why they think so, then proceed to belittle them for believing as they do. That is very un-gentlemanly behavior. This is, after all, the SS&P forum, not the "meteorological preparedness" forum.
Do try to be courteous to those who think differently than you do.
Brother, "store" your breath. It's a waste of energy with this one.
Just because all you can "understand" are weather events, does not mean that those are the only dangers out there. Perhaps some of us think that you (and many others) have become too complacent and reliant upon the normal, orderly pattern as we know it, to continue. It may, it may not. Whatever I have stored, is NOT because "the city is an hour away" and is too inconvenient to go often. I have deep - very deep - storage for vastly different reasons than the time it takes to get to some city.
It has been my recent observation that you are attempting to bully posters who state that they are preparing for something more serious than a weather event. You challenge them to reveal what that 'something' might be and the reasons why they think so, then proceed to belittle them for believing as they do. That is very un-gentlemanly behavior. This is, after all, the SS&P forum, not the "meteorological preparedness" forum.
Do try to be courteous to those who think differently than you do.
Maybe. However, it is also very ungentlemanly to call people sheep and laugh at them for not sharing what you are preparing for. It has happened numerous times on this forum. Many times also the rural/country people have been glorified but we all know many rural/country people are backwards and frankly, stupid in so many occasions and many times they are smart in so many occasions, just like their city brethren. Why? 'Cause people are people. I know a lot of rural people who do not prep, do not tend gardens and shop in town. I have said that many times and nobody acknowledges that, all they keep saying is that the city people are stupid sheep.
Anyways, if it is not weather, come out and publicly state what it is you are preparing for - reveal to us your deepest fears about society and let's see what motivates YOU.
I am stating that total collapse of society is NOT on MY list and that everyone who is preparing for EMP attacks, zombie apocalypse, the total electrical grid grinding into a halt all of a sudden, the total food and water delivery system and infrastructure falling apart, the country breaking apart due to some unknown catastrophe - is plumb crazy and that chances of any of these events are so close to nil that they are probably immeasurable. So, after that I hope I am still allowed to say things to you and that if I only prepare for weather events I still qualify to have an opinion and to challenge other opinions on events I listed above?
There may be be some things that are more realistic than others. Even rich city people prepare, for example, for a possible financial hardship cause by systemic problems. They do that by diversifying their holdings - stocks, bonds, real-estate, ETFs and yes, physical gold, silver and jewelry. They also have home insurance policies (unlike you the big prepper) . However, I doubt they store water and food and ammo - they know how hopeless it is to do that IF what you are preparing for is societal collapse due to a financial system collapse.
If however you are going to prepare for a weather induced catastrophe, it is worth storing food and water - but let's then talk about where you live. We had one poster from Britain come in forcefully, talk about sheep but then it turns out that he could not really point out any examples of weather induced starvation and death from lack of water in Britain recorded, ever. So, yes, I will point that out, esp. if someone is coming in already with an attitude of "people are stupid, I am smart". At the end it turned out he was worried about "blacks, moslems and eastern europeans" taking over his country? Don't know how storing food and water would have helped that.
I know many people here get bothered by being challenged, after all, they come in and expect a pat on the back and "show me yours, I will show you mine" type of a conversation where they can all validate each other. My purposes for being here are different: a) it is to learn and b) it is to dispel all the myths and challenge people to actually THINK of what is most important when prepping. For example, most people come in and they jus want to learn about the basics, they just want to be better prepared than they are now. Then they get told about all this crazy stuff that very quickly deviates into niche things that only "professional preppers" go for. However, if you actually want to have LESS city sheep - improving their individual preparedness levels by 1 extra step from where they are now (at least have SOME water and snacks in the pantry) will reduce the number of problems after a catastrophe by way more than advising them to have bug-out locations, generators, gasoline storage tanks, 8 weapons and 10,000 rounds of 9mm and .22 ('cause you know, they are the easiest to find and Obama is about to seise them all), so on and so on.
Anyways, thanks for your assessment but I think you have missed it by a far shot.
Lordy
P.S. Do get that home insurance policy - you don't look serious when you laugh at people who do not prep but then it turns out you have no basic "exit" if your house burns down. I know it is not nice to be "open for discussion" when it is you who is being discussed, it is much nicer when you can just get to label everyone else as sheep...
Last edited by LordyLordy; 02-23-2015 at 07:31 AM..
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