Stocking Up, Putting Back, Prepping = Paranoia?

[justinwrites]

I'm comfortable with be "paranoid" I suppose. If a disaster happens, we've seen proof in living color, it takes a minimum of 3 days for help to come. You have two choices, bug out or bug in. Well, I suppose starve/dehydrate is a third option. Katrina was a wonderful teachable moment for my wife. Now I have am minimum of 72 hours per person of portable food and cooking fuel and the capacity to have as much clean water from my well (with a manual pump) as I can reasonably store or carry. But bugging out for me would mean a lot of really bad stuff is happening really close. So I am prepared to spend roughly a week without services at the moment. Would I like to be more prepared? You betcha.

 

[Farmfresh]

How about the friends who are starting to realize it but instead of being a bit more prepared....they keep tending their decorative landscaping and say, in perfect seriousness, "We'll be coming over to your house if and when...."

There will only be room for my family, who all roll up their sleeves and get right to work. In fact, we exhaust each other because there is an unspoken contest to outwork whoever you are working next to.

Kind of started freaking me out a bit the last few days. We had this big garage sale at my house and had lots of folks "admire" my front yard gardens. I am glad they think it is pretty and I hope it makes them plant their own, but I sat there thinking about how many more zombies now know that I have food and gave myself the willies. My main hope is that they will go to the movies or sit in front of the tube this weekend and all of those memories will be gone from their shallow little minds.

Another odd and also relevant item from the garage sale. LOTS and I do mean LOTS of people came by and asked us if we have any guns? "Do you have any guns for sale? How about bows or knives?" My standard answer was "Oh we don't use guns around here. I always have used either a baseball bat or a tire iron in the past and we have never had anyone able to try their luck a second time. "

I understand people wanting to buy weapons, but not from me. Be darned if I am going to give strangers information like that. Next they will be asking "Do you hide a key to the front door someplace? If so where?"

 

[Farmfresh]

I reminded her about two recent local events that kept store closed for a couple of weeks, and suggested that she might consider keeping a little bit extra on hand for her children and herself. Her reply was "Because I'm not paranoid".

It doesn't matter if you call it stocking up, putting back, prepping for a SHTF situation, or just common sense, there are some people who have been conditioned to look at you as crazy or even evil for doing so. I believe that a large portion of the first world public has been so insulated and spoiled, that they have no comprehension of how rare and fragile our "on demand" lifestyle is, or how easily we can lose it. I'm afraid that a lot of people are in for a rude awakening. YMMV

We have already had a couple of different situations where our pantry has been VERY important to us.

We had a severe ice storm that took out the power lines for 10 days one time and 3 days another. Our skills and stores saw us through smoothly.

Currently I am unable to work because of my health. It relaxes me to know that things like toothpaste, soaps, meat, staple items like oil, rice, beans and eggs won't need to be purchased for a good long time.

I am proud to be paranoid!

 

[abifae]

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[freemotion]

Isn't that why you keep some sprouting seeds and a few pieces of screen to put on some wide mouth jars around?

You'd think I'd have thought of that, since I sprout every day for my critters! DOH! *smacks forehead*

People sprout sunflower seeds for eating, right? I've sprouted them for the goats but not for me.

 

[abifae]

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[Icu4dzs]

Friends, all
The implications of this string are mind boggling and terrifying. The story of the 20-something bimbo buying soda and junk food and criticizing your "buying habits" only amplifies the concern for the Zombie mentality that will emanate from the folks exactly like her. I would have loved to know if she was paying for the junk food she was buying with food stamps or welfare cash. The fact that the ACLU said it was "unconstitutional" to give vouchers to welfare recipients instead of cash only goes to prove the point that the ACLU and its subsets are in cahoots with the drug trade rather than being concerned for the needs of society as a whole.

If you had told her you were buying food for a "soup kitchen" I'll bet she would have had a smart aleck comment for that too.

This is the essence of being self-sufficient. You don't depend on others for any more of your living than is absolutely necessary. Did you ever notice that folks in the "old days" pictures were for the most part not overweight? I remember thinking that after looking at some pictures of my town many years ago. None of them were fat. Most were either skinny or underweight. WHY? Did they have McDonalds at every corner? Nope. They didn't have cars and didn't have multiples of multiples of everything. Most were lucky to have one of a few things. What has happened is that we have become, as my dad would say, "spoiled brats" who expect everything given to us rather than work and save. Yes, save. I read an article (having to do with the current financial crisis that is just beginning to show its ugly head) that many Americans have only put away $29,000 dollars toward retirement. OK, how far do you think that is going to go when coffee is $16 a can? Hmmm, maybe pinto beans at $1/lb might be a good idea right now, huh? I know some folks will cringe when I say this but I got a 50 lb bag of wheat gluten some time ago so the bread flour would work better...which it does. My wheat is still un processed as is my corn. Soy beans (I know, there are some out there who think they are the devil's spawn) but having them is just another way of being certain that things are not going down the drain for you.

In the immortal words of Siegmund Freud "paranoid people have enemies, too" I love it when people call you names and rationalize it with their own brand of stupidity rather than consider another way to look at something. Frankly, like many of you have said, "they just think they'll come to your door if anything happens" and frankly my friends, they won't want to take "no" for an answer when they come and THEY WILL BE ARMED! Anyone who doubts that is in need of some re-conditioning in the brain-housing group.

The fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper is the reason we are in this mess now. The liberals all want to feed the grasshoppers ad infinitum and have thus engendered 5 or more generations of them. Now they "expect" it and feel they are "entitled" to it. What happened to "worked for it"? Well, for them it never happened.

So now here we are today. Our country just got slammed with a miserable solution to the desire to spend more money than we have because there are still folks out there who will work for things so they want to take it from them. On top of that, we have just suffered a major embarrassment in that we have lost our AAA financial rating. If any of you had done that to the company for whom you work, what are the chances of you "keeping your job" past the day it was announced? Hello, is anyone out there paying attention to what they have done to us in Washington? They are destroying us from within. That has been their plan all along and now it is coming to fruition. Wake up America. Use the most effective weapon you have ever had...the vote and get these idiots out of there before they do any more irreparable damage. It isn't funny any more folks. They have destroyed us financially and they haven't finished yet. But wait, coffee is only $16 a 28 ounce can. It isn't that bad yet now is it? I have a feeling the "rush" to prepare is about to start. don't be on the streets when that 20-something bimbo wants food for her children. Hey K0xxx, I'll bet she was overweight, huh? Fits the profile.

Why do we have so much heart disease in this country? Diet. Why do we have so much high cholesterol in this country? Diet. Why do we have so much gout in this country? Diet. Is anyone connecting the dots in America other than the few folks here on this forum? I may not be "politically correct" on a lot of issues and frankly I don't WANT to be. I was taught that "if you always tell the truth, you only have to remember one story."

So here it is folks. Batten down the hatches and rig for high seas! There's a storm acommin' and it won't be over for quite a while.

Meantime, I'll just do what I do and let folks think I am "paranoid". It keeps them away from me.

YMMV

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PRIORITY: FLASH

//BT//
Trim sends urgently

 

[k15n1]

If you feel paranoid, read an annual report of any publically traded company. They all contain frank assessments of the risks to their business. It's RATIONAL to think about what could go wrong.

Some people might obsess a bit, but it's hard to come up with a rule for how much of a stockpile is enough and how much is too much. I started thinking about it in terms of cost per square foot of storage space, but that's a bust because most of us live in really big homes (by international standards) so storage space is cheap. I think the limit may have to do with the shelf life of various items, which sets the limit because of the need to rotate the stock. Doesn't apply to some things, like properly stored wheat. But there's no point in having more than a year or two of home-canned items. I'm striking a balance based on the immediately available storage space that I can use without introducing new legislation and lobbying for the 2/3rds majority that it takes to make big changes around the house.

 

[TanksHill]

I really want to leave Ca.

I know my family would be much better off.

But for now I just smile and tell people I have homesteading hobbies.


What doesn't everyone grow corn next to their driveway?

G

 

[R2D2]

It's nothing more than Denial.The woman Mark encountered while he was stockng up, is not uncommon nor surprising.They believe somehow uncle sam will save the day and that we can't possibly run our of food or have an economic crash.I agree with you all saying many are in for a very rude and painful awakening. It's coming faster than they know.