Author Topic: Attitude about prepping  (Read 1106 times)

John Galt 1

Attitude about prepping
« on: October 11, 2019, 09:52:40 PM »
Ask anybody and almost all will agree that's it's a smart thing to be prepared for a few weeks of grid down or social unrest.        But so few people actually learn the skills and develop the stockpiles of food and water ect. to get by even a few weeks.

Back when I traveled full time I carried a very basic GHB and had a months food at the house.       Later in life I had more free time and took being prepared for my family a little more seriously.      Now days I'm back to long hours 5-6 days a week with work, more family responsibilities, and finding that prepping is a  little less important in my life.     Still glad that I have those basic preps and maintain them but with so little free time after work and family I don't have the time or energy to move my skills and preps forward.

Over the years chatting online and in person with people who prep I've noticed that preppers are almost always either semi-retired or have a lighter workload (family and employment).

Any thoughts about prepping urge vs free time?
Talk is cheap, Actions count.

RWS

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Re: Attitude about prepping
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2019, 07:22:06 AM »
All my life, even when I was young, I wanted to be self sufficient.  I lived in town on a 1 acre lot and had a vegetable garden and fruit trees.  I realized right quick that the location was not secure enough for me.  I bought acreage in the country that was all woods, cut a hole in it and built a new house.  I was in my thirties with two children (boys).
They did not even know what a footer was when we started to build.  I wanted solar hot water and solar electric in y new house (1987) but could not afford it.  I just ran out of money.  I managed a minimum solar water heating system and installed a cast iron wood stove in the living room.  In the stove ai installed a SST tank (pressure code stamp) in the fire box.  Now I could heat water when the weather was cloudy and at night.  I coupled that with a large 190 gal solar hot water tank.  You can see why I ran out of money for a solar electric system.  Anyway solar electric in 1987 was not very good but I pre-wired the house to accept solar or generator.  It was 15 years later before I started solar electric on my house.
I guess what I am trying to say is that prepping is a process.  As we get older we are and should be further down the road to being prepared.  I consider myself a stage 5 prepper which fits with my helping my NC friend take his house off grid.

Starlady

Re: Attitude about prepping
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2019, 10:08:23 AM »
Two thoughts on that.

I think we go through stages - where prepping is almost an obsession, then it settles down some and finally it becomes a lifestyle habit or you lose it altogether.  My obsession comes back during election years or major disaster events that might affect me locally, but then retreats back to just being a normal part of life.   I.e., if I see a sale on something that will store well, I'll buy it and I still try to learn a new skill once a year - in something that interests me.  (Making soap, learning to graft plants, etc).  Otherwise, I garden & raise poultry mostly because I love it.  Like RWS, it's just something I've wanted to do since I was 12. I jokingly say I'm a Pioneer Girl.   Even working in the corp world, I always had a small garden where I could, learned to shoot and I read up on some skills, had some storage but not a lot due to marriage, family, etc.   I read/listen to books a lot (and rarely prepping books), knit, sew, shop with friends, do church, etc.  I have little interest in movies or tv - that's just been me.

Second, I think it's a matter of priorities.  Sometimes, priorities change importance in your life.  A big house, a cruise, an illness, a vacay to somewhere just because you always wanted to SEE it...and that eats up  prep money.  It's not a bad thing necessarily, IMO prepping shouldn't be a 24/7 thing just a regular part of your life if possible.  If not, then maybe shifting that priority up for a few months a year is all one needs.  You don't give up YOU to be a prepper, but I've found the things I've learned about possibilities has changed me a bit.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein

8greenbeans

Re: Attitude about prepping
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2019, 09:45:14 PM »
I prep as a lifestyle but I also work some pretty hardcore hours away from home and I'm nowhere near being retired in spite of having 5 Grandbeans (still have 20+ years to go). Hubby's hours are even worse so now it's just me carrying the burden of completing projects and "shopping" for preps on top of working. We still have two kids at home (one technically should be on his own but with no car and no license, he may as well be 12 again) along with my dad and my cousin.

I grew up prepping. It is a part of who I am. Though because I could (where my dad couldn't) I shifted focus to self-sufficiency after I separated from the military. MrBeans was/is all about "living like our grandparents did with their homesteads" but is "anti-prepping." (Though that's slowly changing.)

I'm similar to Starlady though in that there are certain things that make me ramp up where most of the time I'm just living the lifestyle.

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
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