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Location: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who
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For most Newbie's to the SS&P life it is all about feeling safe and secure.
My main prep focus is on food and food storage.
I'll tell you the truth about food storage that you won't hear anywhere else.
YOU will need to buy a lifetime supply of food and supplies if you produce NONE of your own food and supplies but if you produce ALL of your own food and supplies then you will need to buy NONE of your own food and supplies.
There is a happy medium.
Right now we go off to work and make that big money then trade that money for stuff that makes us feel secure. But there may be a time in the future when making that big money is no longer an option. So we store up the things we think will make us feel secure if the status quo changes. Everybody is different so the things that make me feel secure, 10 broke down farm tractors and lots of seed, might be different from yours, computer equipment to keep watch on your driveway.
If you fail to understand what is happening in your brain and body you will probably succumb to the slick salesman and fear mongers that are ready willing and able to drain your bank account in exchange for a grid tied solar array that requires a home mortgage to buy and a payout of 70 years or a 10 year supply of freeze dried mush.
We in the SS&P community for the most part are preparing for a time when we believe the things we want or need to feel safe and secure will be hard or harder to get. For whatever reason, and there are a bunch, our SS&P community members believe that at a certain point, the things we need or want, will be in short supply, so we store and prepare for that eventual day.
It is about feeling safe, secure, comfortable and happy.
The notion that I need to buy and store things in case the other people stop making the things I need is where the logic breaks down.
I could make everything I need within reason of course.
For years we as a species lived perfectly happy lives eating what grew close by and living off the land.
Oh sure later we invented a Hawken that was flint locked because when you are a long ways away from resupply its good to use natural materials, but it wasn't until recently that everything we consume was made by somebody else, somewhere else.
I am suggesting that we may not need to buy all our stuff because with a little effort we can make, grow, catch, create everything we need plus, in most cases, a considerable surplus.
Once you have the bare essentials of food production and preservation covered (yes every damn thing under the sun) the rest is just hunting, gathering, gardening and living.
We have been doing those things for centuries.
You can probably raise more food than you can store, so if its edible food you are after, buy land and develop it now while everything is cheap and in plentiful supply.
But if the sun doesn't come out for 10 years then that 10 year supply of freeze dried mush will be the best investment you ever made.
So its still a crap shoot but having a little extra beans and rice makes me feel like I have done something to prepare!
You lays your bets and you takes your chances.
Last edited by catz&dogz; 10-06-2019 at 08:02 PM..
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,944,809 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by catz&dogz
YOU will need to buy a lifetime supply of food and supplies if you produce NONE of your own food and supplies but if you produce ALL of your own food and supplies then you will need to buy NONE of your own food and supplies.
Things to store to make you feel secure in uncertain times.
Gold, guns, ammo and food.
I'm old, so I don't need to store much food to cover my lifetime. Too tired to hoe the row anyway.
But you'd better have guns and ammo, or you won't have the food for very long.
My big thing is 4-6 months of emergency funds and a way to defend ourselves. But for basic necessities, my greatest concern (because I've been without and know first hand how important it is even within 12 hours) is WATER. I was in a situation where the water shut down for a few days and stores ran out. I kid you not, you will go to extremes to get water when the system goes down. I've been there. that's my thing. I can go a long time without eating but it's hard to go without water. Pack tend gallons of water at least.
Agree about the water! Unless somebody is stuck in a desert there is no excuse to not have something that falls from the sky and bubbles up from the ground for FREE. It's one of the easiest things to gather and store, it never spoils on it's own, and can be easily transformed back and forth between the 3 states of matter. Survival knowledge has been a topic here lately. If one doesn't have any knowledge, water should be the first topic they cross off their list of things to learn. Water isn't supposed to come from a STORE. All you are really buying are little plastic bottles full of the sadness of knowing it fell from the sky and was trucked hundreds or thousands of miles for absolutely no reason.
Last edited by terracore; 10-11-2019 at 02:07 PM..
Investing in real money (Gold, Silver, Lead(ammo) and food) makes me feel comfortable. Cash will be worth nothing in a bad SHTF scenario. Cash will be usable for a few weeks after the crash until people realize there is no backing or hard value to currency.
During the great depression the dollar was backed by Gold and survived. Today no just support is available.
Agree about the water! Unless somebody is stuck in a desert there is no excuse to not have something that falls from the sky and bubbles up from the ground for FREE. It's one of the easiest things to gather and store, it never spoils on it's own, and can be easily transformed back and forth between the 3 states of matter. Survival knowledge has been a topic here lately. If one doesn't have any knowledge, water should be the first topic they cross off their list of things to learn. Water isn't supposed to come from a STORE. All you are really buying are little plastic bottles full of the sadness of knowing it fell from the sky and was trucked hundreds or thousands of miles for absolutely no reason.
You're in Hawaii, a place that gets tons of rain. I'm in the high prairie and north where most of my annual water comes from snow. Summer can be brutally hot and dry.
I have a good well with a cistern and I'm on solar power, but for redundancy, there's a live spring on my property. Not everyone is set up like me. Water can be very precious depending on where you are.
Food I can grow, hunt or fish for on my ranch. I grow my own beef, I have beehives for honey, lots of wild plants for food and medicine, lots of wild game and very few neighbors.
Firearms are great tools for protection from predators and hunting. I'm a long way from any population centers and most ranchers and farmers around here are pretty self reliant so humans aren't a big concern since it would be pure chance, and I doubt very many zombies would come this far not knowing what's out here.
Water is always a top concern of mine since I need a good supply not just for me but for my stock and garden.
I'm a long way from the tropics, so my challenges are very different.
It's a challenge, but you've crossed it off your list. Good for you.
Although we get 150 inches of rain per year, we do get droughts. All of our water has to be harvested from the sky (wells aren't an option at our elevation). Our primary water supply is a 10,000 gallon tank fed from roof runoff. Our "emergency" tank is 2,000 gallons. We have a few hundred gallons stored elsewhere on the farm, generally where it is consumed (out in the pasture, in the rabbitry, etc) but none of that is really "storage" because they do run dry during extended periods of no rain. We've never had to use the "emergency" tank. I'm not sure our 10,000 gallon tank has ever been less than 1/2 full. But with livestock and gardens it's good to know we have water stored to last many months if necessary, and a few thousand gallons backup in case something happens to primary tank or we have record breaking droughts. Water delivery is always an option if TS hasn't HTF.
Our water system is typical for the area because there is no municipal option. 10,000 gallon catchment systems are pretty much the norm and most of our neighbors have something similar and we can share water among ourselves.
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