Preparing for smaller situations that could happen any time

[Maverick]

Prepping isn't about just catastrophic events, it's also about everyday life and situations beyond our control large and small.

 

[Brent S]

Prepping isn't about just catastrophic events, it's also about everyday life and situations beyond our control large and small.

I prep more for life's unexpected events more so than the zombie apocalypse. No one ever plans to get hurt or sick, or loosing a job, or whatever. I guess I look at prepping kind of like a savings account. It's having some resources available when you need it.

 

[bigpaul]

I've done all the unemployed, illness, power cuts, transport difficulties and trade union protests sort of things, many times over and come out the other side, as I suspect many here have also done.
having a stock of food and an emergency fund helps in these sorts of events.

 

[Theawaiting]

Hi
Im new here and are from Denmark. I have been studied religion only Focus om last day which is disaster, third war, nuclear, and for that reason i togouht i could be helpfull here. I know exactly where the nuclear war starts and where IT reachs. And All this is prophcized for 2000 year until yet. Hope You dont get mad at me but just listen to my opinion

Iv tried now for last 10 years to se og All stated prophecy is happening and IT does.

Thats why i also found in more then 4000 old scripts from jews, cristian and islam exactly tells us what is going to happen.

I didnt belive first. But when i found scripts for 1500 years ago speak about islamic state in details, such accurate in action, where they are, when, what they do, event thier leder name is mentioned. I recodnized then wooooooww. That is 100 % acurate today and 1000 other things are also mentioned and happened

Thats why i Was saying i can be helpfull to let you prepper exactly 100% acurate for what is coming.

You can just take my answer as a prepperation for what i sudggest.

For mere.its importent to know the disasters before prepperation

THX for reading my msg.
Sorry for bad english

 

[firewallsrus]

Smaller events got my wife and I into prepping. Since then, each small event is an opportunity to test a part of our preparations.
My parents had out of town visitors who took a niece to the movies not far away. While they were gone, I stopped by for a visit and mentioned a grass fire a few miles distant. As things go here on the prairies, it only took a few minutes for the fire to reach my parents' property and they were forced to evacuate. I had just enough battery life on my cell phone to tell my wife where I was and that fire was approaching fast, then the phone died.

There was no way to contact my wife and explain that we had gotten away for the 20 minutes it took to get to another relative's home. Once there, there was no way to find the out of town visitors and niece who had left the movies by then. The entire neighborhood had been evacuated. After that incident, every household in my family had a local rally point. If you have to leave the house, meet at the northeast corner of the lot, if you have to leave the property, meet up at the home of X. If the disaster is larger (as it was last week in Houston, TX) call X who lives out of state and leave a message so we can find each other.

A tornado ripping through the neighborhood, left my parents exposed because they spent too much time trying to find a working flashlight and an update on the weather. Following that, we provided each household with a "go bag" containing essentials and a list of things like photo copies of ID's, prescriptions, etc.

We have gotten better at predicting some needs ahead of time, but for us, prepping is an ongoing process that constantly loops around to the beginning.

 

[jimLE]

how did things turn out for all of you? including the out of town visitors and niece
it does pay to plan ahead..in which it includes a everyday carry flashlight..

 

[firewallsrus]

Thanks for asking. Things turned out fine other than a lot of unnecessary worry all the way around. We were very lucky.

I can visualize a scenario where the family all gets out of a burning house safely, but the Dad talking to the firemen in the front yard suddenly realizes he hasn't seen his little girl. Not realizing she slipped out the back door and is in the back yard, charges back into the flames and loses his own life.

Lacking a rally point, our out of town guests and niece stood at the edge of the subdivision staring at the impenetrable wall of smoke for a long time before I managed to drive all the way around the no-go zone to find them.

Over the years, we have added to the "go bags". Now each vehicle has a small kit with blanket, flashlight, AM/FM radio, snacks, bottled water, and even a Baofeng programmed with all the local ham repeaters, FRS, GMRS, MURS frequencies (the batteries are kept in an outside pocket of the bag and the Baofeng batteries rotated monthly. We had a couple of ponchos in each vehicle's bag until we happened on an accident and needed to give them to a couple of children. Now we keep a bunch of $0.99 disposable ponchos along with our own.

 

[Gazrok]

Any thoughts?

Do you buy insurance?

How is household prepping ANY different?

 

[firewallsrus]

We buy insurance, have both short and long term investments and outwardly are just like our neighbors. My wife and I feel that the current economy is not sustainable and the course of the future may not be reversible. What we don't know is the timing of things.

Nobody can know with any precision when a disaster is going to strike. Nor can we know which disaster will cascade into collapse. We keep our eyes and ears open, read voraciously, and prepare on as many fronts as we possibly can. That includes the possibility that we'll either be long gone, or too old to care when a collapse happens.

For that reason, yes, we have insurance. Not life insurance though.

 

[Gazrok]

My point being that folks sometimes thing prepping is a bit paranoid...but really, it isn't any different than having insurance. Same idea.

As for life insurance, having been through this twice, it SUCKS to have to come up with thousands when a loved one passes, to take care of things. I will NOT be putting my kids through that. When we go, crap like that will be prepaid for, and already arranged. They won't even have to pick the damn songs to play at the funeral. We don't want them having to do any of it (and frankly, don't trust them to!)....

 

[Maverick]

Death is the most burdensome part of life, best to have all the ducks in a row and get it done early, I'm going to be burned, wife already said she will mix my remains with her cremated dogs, I have a written and video taped will, given the Wife is much younger she can remarry and he can live on the property but won't have legal say unless her and all the kids say otherwise with a 100% consensus. I also had the Wife and kids in front of my attorney and they all signed the will and notarized, anyone that contest the will, will be stricken from it (all signed and notarized) We had a round table discussion and we made the will out together before going to the attorney, nothing was hidden and everyone involved.

No one going to cry over my body or ashes in my case, it's going to be a Wake, a drinking Wake.

 

[Arcticdude]

Death is the most burdensome part of life, best to have all the ducks in a row and get it done early, I'm going to be burned, wife already said she will mix my remains with her cremated dogs, I have a written and video taped will, given the Wife is much younger she can remarry and he can live on the property but won't have legal say unless her and all the kids say otherwise with a 100% consensus. I also had the Wife and kids in front of my attorney and they all signed the will and notarized, anyone that contest the will, will be stricken from it (all signed and notarized) We had a round table discussion and we made the will out together before going to the attorney, nothing was hidden and everyone involved.

No one going to cry over my body or ashes in my case, it's going to be a Wake, a drinking Wake.

This is something that the wife and I need to get serious about doing. We've had some brief discussions with the kids about our wishes, but we do need to get a will drawn up. And possibly a living trust. I also want the have all the arrangements made prior to the big day. We both want to be buried here on the ranch and have a nice spot picked out. My father in-law is already there. My parents want to be buried here too. We plan to leave the ranch to our son (if he wants it) and make some donations to several organizations that are important to us. Ideally I'd like to start giving a lot of my stuff away to the kids as I get older.

 

[Kevin L]

The best thing that you and your wife can do for prepping is to train and educate yourselves.

In my mind, it's not always about stockpiling stuff (although, in the spirit of honest disclosure...I stockpile stuff. My girlfriend suggests--not without justification--that I may be becoming a hoarder).

If you can take classes on repairing small engines, sewing and clothing making, first aid, vet tech, EMT, basic botany and/or animal husbandry, LPN, dental hygienist, and so forth...you will have a barterable skill that will do more for you than any stockpile.

Saving a month's worth of canned food, 150 lbs. of rice and soybeans in mylar bags, a wood-burning stove (bought second-hand) with a few cords of wood, a hand pump well, some basic medical supplies, a few extra boots, maybe 100 gallons of bottled water...you would probably be set for perhaps 95% of any disasters that might come your way.

Such a stockpile is surprisingly cheap if you browse and shop around. Look at thrift stores, buy canned food from the dented section (but avoid rusty cans, and cans that bulge. Cans that bulge like an overfilled balloon may kill you from botulism), follow ads in newspapers with couples that may be getting divoraced so you buy their stuff for a song. Watch for stores that are going out of business. Go to garage sales and flea markets.

And so on.

I could probably create a comprehensive stash for less than a thousand dollars (US) if I took my time and shopped around.

I hope this helps you.

 

[Kevin L]

One thing I just remembered: I'm not sure what gun laws are like where you are, but (and I have many guns) gun ownership for prepping is, perhaps, a little overstated.

If your laws permit, a cheap Moisin nagant rifle with a few hundred rounds of steel ammo and some basic cleaning supplies will go a long way. Such a setup can be had for less than $200.00 ( US).

It won't be as sexy as an M-16 or an AK-47, but a good bolt action rifle with .30-.06 ballistics like the Moisin Nagant will go a long way toward putting food on the table.

Also, note that most snipers use bolt action rifles, and sharp shooting from a distance has its place post shtf.

You can then help yourself to the enemy's stuff.

Note that in WWII, a farmer from Finland took his simple bolt action rifle into the boonies and got over 600 kills against the Russians that invaded his country.

Many of the Afghani Mujahadeen resistance fighters used only bolt action rifles against the Soviets that invaded their country.

Don't fall into the idea that you must have a huge arsenal of expensive (and possibly illegal) guns to make things work for you in a crisis.

 

[Brent S]

This is something that the wife and I need to get serious about doing. We've had some brief discussions with the kids about our wishes, but we do need to get a will drawn up. And possibly a living trust. I also want the have all the arrangements made prior to the big day. We both want to be buried here on the ranch and have a nice spot picked out. My father in-law is already there. My parents want to be buried here too. We plan to leave the ranch to our son (if he wants it) and make some donations to several organizations that are important to us. Ideally I'd like to start giving a lot of my stuff away to the kids as I get older.

I want to be cremated and don't even care what anyone does with the ashes as I won't need them anymore....
As far as your financial arraignments and stuff, it's really important to spell it out exactly as you want. Most people don't die when they expect. Take the little bit of time to write everything down and put it somewhere safe. Better yet, do it with a lawyer, but even a clearly worded sheet of paper will suffice mostimes. It's a good idea to get that notarized though. If you don't have a will the courts will decide who gets what. I'm sure that there are some good judges out there, but most are just very successful lawyers, and we all know what kind of values lawyers have. So basically I don't want them deciding anything for me. If you care about the people in your life, get this thing done.

 

[Silent Earth]

I want to be cremated and don't even care what anyone does with the ashes as I won't need them anymore....

OK Brent but should we wait until you are dead first???

 

[Silent Earth]

One thing I just remembered: I'm not sure what gun laws are like where you are, but (and I have many guns) gun ownership for prepping is, perhaps, a little overstated.

If your laws permit, a cheap Moisin nagant rifle with a few hundred rounds of steel ammo and some basic cleaning supplies will go a long way. Such a setup can be had for less than $200.00 ( US).

It won't be as sexy as an M-16 or an AK-47, but a good bolt action rifle with .30-.06 ballistics like the Moisin Nagant will go a long way toward putting food on the table.

Also, note that most snipers use bolt action rifles, and sharp shooting from a distance has its place post shtf.

You can then help yourself to the enemy's stuff.

Note that in WWII, a farmer from Finland took his simple bolt action rifle into the boonies and got over 600 kills against the Russians that invaded his country.

Many of the Afghani Mujahadeen resistance fighters used only bolt action rifles against the Soviets that invaded their country.

Don't fall into the idea that you must have a huge arsenal of expensive (and possibly illegal) guns to make things work for you in a crisis.

The INDIVIDUAL PREPPER or SURVIVALIST who gets into a gun fight with multiple LEOS, FEDS or others is going to die, The PDW is to help fend off one or two bad guys trying to do you harm. If its more than two you should give ground, shoot and scoot.

 

[Brent S]

OK Brent but should we wait until you are dead first???

Preferably yes, thanks!

 

[Silent Earth]

I remember when individuals and small groups such as the Weavers at Ruby Ridge, The Branch Davidians and those dudes from the Posse Commitatus tried to face off against overwhelming force, where as if they had learned how to bug out and regroup at s safe rendezvous location multiple tragedies could have been avoided. Look at the loon Claude Dallas every time he was coming under pressure he buggered off, he only ever engaged one or two lawmen or rangers at a time. And remember in most cases WE have families to care for so if one of us gets taken out there is very often no one to take over, unlike the gangs, LEOS and Feds. Learn from Insurgents from the US Minutemen, or the Vietcong, or the IRA or Basques or Native Americans etc

 

[Brent S]

I remember when individuals and small groups such as the Weavers at Ruby Ridge, The Branch Davidians and those dudes from the Posse Commitatus tried to face off against overwhelming force, where as if they had learned how to bug out and regroup at s safe rendezvous location multiple tragedies could have been avoided. Look at the loon Claude Dallas every time he was coming under pressure he buggered off, he only ever engaged one or two lawmen or rangers at a time. And remember in most cases WE have families to care for so if one of us gets taken out there is very often no one to take over, unlike the gangs, LEOS and Feds. Learn from Insurgents from the US Minutemen, or the Vietcong, or the IRA or Basques or Native Americans etc

My motto is to advoid as many confrontations as possible in life.