where's everyone at?

[frustratedearthmother]

Tortoise wins!

 

[tortoise]

For as long as I've been around here, I should have some more skillz. And maybe done some emergency preps?

I joined shortly after moving in with my boyfriend. Married him. Moved to a farm. Got some livestock. **I did learn how to can** so that's something.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's progress! And, I'm sure you've learned a lot more than you think you've learned.

 

[Joel_BC]

I've been reading through a lot of old threads and it seems there used to be many more active members. where did they all go? have they already bugged out? living off grid on a mountain somewhere? what happened?

I don't have any analytics about membership or postings. There were a lot of folks posting here prior to Dec 2012. (yes, that’s quite a while ago now) I joined somewhat before that time. There was a feeling at that time that maybe some big event, a possible cataclysm, was coming up. Many people wanted to get good info, from this and other sites, about how to prepare for that.

Some people were here more for general self-reliance & homestead info-trading, since we were not very apprehensive about a 2013 upheaval. I’m Canadian, and it seems to me that sort of apprehension arises less readily in the Land of the Maple Leaf.

I noticed that some members seemed to drift away when a ginormous, widespread calamity (or “shift”) didn’t happen. Anyhow, there were, and still are, others who are members here who simply live in the country, enjoy it, and appreciate communicating with others of our general feather. Also, I think, some members here live in a city, town, or suburb and grow food, do DIY, and so on.

Of course, this is just my personal take on the situation. Others here may see it very differently.

I do have a few thoughts on what might make membership expand again… not sure how practical my thoughts are. I’ll leave it at the above…

 

[NH Homesteader]

I think ideas on expanding membership would be gladly accepted if you want to share. It does appear, from reading old threads, that this forum was more "prepper" based back then than it is now. Different folks I guess!

 

[Chic Rustler]

a year or so ago I started hearing all this stuff about "jade hello.
I had always laughed about the y2k and 2012 nonsense. but I'm a Texan and this was in my back yard. then I started reading things on fema camps and preparations. fema is real. and they have preparations for wide spread illnesses, disease outbreak, biological attack. it's only responsible for a country to habe these plans in place.


is it as evil as the internet says? I doubt it. but I do like to think we have emergency plans in place.

now, of coarse I bought it all. hook line and sinker. I started freaking out. watching videos on prepping, got started prepping, and then got really into bushcraft/survival. I was so freaked out all the time. I just knew I had to get my family to the mountains because jade helm was coming and they were going to round us up and put us in fema death camps.

it wasn't until I was driving down the road on a busy street and seen it. a humvee pulling a trailer downtown with a huge cannon barrel sticking up from it. my heart stopped. adrenaline kicked in. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I knew I had to race to get the kids from school, get our bug out bags and head for the hills. I already had the route planned and I floored it. as I passed the black hummer that was pulling an industrial smoker for a bbq stand at 50 miles an hour I realized I may need to stop reading everything the internet has to say and relax a little.


now I have moved just outside of town, started a few little hobbies in hopes of curving the food bill and I quite most of that stuff. but I do keep a months worth of food, some water, and plenty of supplies for losing power. I also keep an emergency kit in the wife's car for first aid and other little things. we keep go bags for everyone in the family ready to go as well. not much, just a little food, water, and clothes and stuff. just in case of a natural disaster as FEMA recommends all people do. some may call this prepping, but it's just being responsible.



I don't know where I was going with all that. lol. or how it ties into the conversation

 

[Mini Horses]

I live within 50 miles of the worlds largest Naval base...and 200 miles from DC. My personal thought is that IF THEY DARE attack I certainly live with THE BEST detection systems known because of the protection aspect of this area. That does not mean I am not prepared, simply that there will be a hit to end all or defenses to negate much of the attack.

I enjoy this website because it allows those who just want to be able to provide for themselves a like minded group to enjoy their success, failure, new ideas without issue. Life often takes people in other directions for a short time or longer. Not a deal buster. LOTS of useful, helpful info from people here.

 

[NH Homesteader]

See you are the opposite of me. I am in an area that I feel is safer because it doesn't make sense to attack here... There's not enough people to bother with us!

My husband handles all the prepping worries in our house. I work towards being self sustainable, to the extent that anyone can really be, and he can sort out the what if's. I don't stress about it. There are plenty of other things I stress about, but prepping is not one of them!

My stepdad has been trying to get a food stash (canned goods mostly). My mom keeps going and raiding it and using all his food. It makes him so mad, lol. It's hilarious.

 

[tortoise]

Now that you mention it, when I joined this was a heavy prepper forum. SHTF acronym was all over the forum back then, as was the humorous euphemism "zombie" for all possible enemies in an unimaginable situation. There were conflicts about what scenarios to prep for, etc.

I stay out of drama (I watch with fascination and popcorn when I'm lucky enough for the opportunity), but there was some bully activity. I stopped posting for a while because there was a member who overflowed with negativity.

Quite a few people "sold out", for whatever circumstances they had to leave their homesteading projects and move to more urban places. I wish they'd stick around or come back, livestock is not necessary to participate here!

 

[baymule]

I'm a bit of a prepper, but I don't take it to extreme. I like to keep plenty of food on hand and LOTS of toilet paper!