Is prepping stupid?

[ralfy]

Given high food and oil prices driven by the global financial crisis, peak oil, and effects of global warming and environmental damage, definitely not.

 

[Svnla]

Be prepare and ready is never a bad thing.

 

[velillen]

I like the guy who was showing his sons how to handle guns and shot himself in the thumb and then passed out lol.

Theres been a couple guys with guns that had me going...seriously.

There was the family who made their house out of shipping containers and wanted to show they were "bullet proof"...so they shot them with a 22lr at some distance (like 50-100 yards). No shit that wont go through steel at that range.

There was the two families working together in texas and the one guy shot a muzzle braked gun inside a blind and the concussion screwed up his partner. THe guy who shot the gun before was talking all sorts of BS about how he wants 100 round mags so he can just spray and pray pretty much.

Of course there was the thumb being blown off.

There has been a couple others where you can tell the person shooting was not comfortable AT ALL yet they make them shoot still.


As for being prepared...i try to keep around a months worth of food. Not really planning for a month though. But my "normal" food supply would get me a week. Then it would be split between soups and canned stuff. I dont want to be stuff with just top ramen so i have a varity of stuff. Which if i ate it all would be around a month of stuff. I camp and backpack so i already have that kind of stuff. It is pretty easy and simple to be prepared and i always laugh when people say they wont prepare at all. Seriously a pack of soup, although wont be tasty, doesnt take up much room and can feed 1 person for a week.

 

[IronWing]

This morning, the city shut the water off at my work and I have to take a crap RIGHT NOW. Imagine if it lasted a week. Everyone would be digging holes and crapping in them in the parking lot.

Yeah so earlier this Summer I was on a job site where port-a-jons were in use. Do to an accelerated schedule more workers showed up than expected and the port-a-jons were being taxed. The port-a-jon provider said he had delivered some to the prime's office and that he could move them quickly to the job site to help relieve the overload. We told him to go get them which he did. A couple hours later we get a frantic call from the prime wanting the port-a-jons back. It turned out that they were having their office septic system rebuilt. Oops.

 

[Squisher]

During Sandy we lost it for twelve days.

There are people out there who are "prepping" for the breakdown of civilization, the end of the world, and whatnot, and yes that's pretty stupid.

How many days without power would it take for there to be a breakdown of civilization? People not being able to go to work, people not getting paid, no way to purchase food or water, people only living with cash on hand and using a barter system, I don't think it would take too long before those that were without start taking from those with. And, the world is full of opportunists that might use the overburdened police and fire department to their advantage.

I am not a prepper, but I should be.

 

[nageov3t]

within reason, it's a smart idea.

my "worst case scenario" is getting snowed in because of a blizzard. (in the case of a flood or sustained power outage during the summer, I'd just walk the 3-4 miles up to my parents, who live on higher ground, have a gas-line generator, and easily have months worth of food thanks to my compulsive shopper/extreme couponer dad)

so, in the event that I couldn't leave my house for a sustained period of time, I keep about a weeks worth of dry food and bottled water (not counting whatever may be in my fridge/freezer at any given point in time). after Hurricane Sandy knocked out power for a week, I also bought a solar-powered + hand crank radio/cellphone charger along with half a dozen flashlights (extras to give to my elderly landlady upstairs)

just for the sake of paranoia, whenever there's a big announcement about a hurricane, I also will fill my bathtub/sink/jugs with water, just because there's no real downside.

 

[jagec]

That said, I did put my tankless water heater on a sine wave UPS, so I can have hot water during a power outage, but that would only last a couple of hours.

That's one of the more horrifying things I've ever read.

Having one gallon of water per person per day is recommended. Its for drinking, cooking, cleaning, or whatever. If you wanna keep a family of 4 safe for a whole month thats 120 gallons. If you stock up on those five-gallon containers then you're gonna need an assload of space to store them. Probably more than most people have available in their homes (since many Americans stock up lots of junk in their house).

There's ~60 gallons of potable water in the (tank) water heater if you shut off the power and turn off the incoming supply.

 

[Chaotic42]

How many days without power would it take for there to be a breakdown of civilization? People not being able to go to work, people not getting paid, no way to purchase food or water, people only living with cash on hand and using a barter system, I don't think it would take too long before those that were without start taking from those with. And, the world is full of opportunists that might use the overburdened police and fire department to their advantage.

I am not a prepper, but I should be.

After Katrina there were roving gangs of "militia" (for lack of a better term) trying to keep the peace. I got stopped by one while going for a walk on a rural road. The local radio stations all had prescription medicine trades going and people were generally helpful. Civilization held together fairly well here in Mississippi, but in New Orleans it utterly collapsed.

 

[irishScott]

Mild-moderate prepping is fine IMO, but the "prepper community" seems to be filled with people who are more interested in fulfilling some post-apocalyptic hero fantasy than being legitimately prepared.

For my part I have two crates of civilian MREs that I use for backpacking. Things have near infinite shelf life and have the water-activated heaters for the entrees, so if the zombies did arise and it really came down to it I could ration food for over a month or have 2000+ calories a day for 2 weeks.

Other than that I have my guns, knives, pump-water filter, firestarters, first-aid kit and misc other backpacking supplies. No generator, but I think I'd do rather well if shit hit the fan.

 

[Imp]

For my part I have two crates of civilian MREs that I use for backpacking. Things have near infinite shelf life and have the water-activated heaters for the entrees, so if the zombies did arise and it really came down to it I could ration food for over a month or have 2000+ calories a day for 2 weeks.

Never bought MREs before, what does a typical "Best Before" look like?

 

[jagec]

Never bought MREs before, what does a typical "Best Before" look like?

A week before the manufacture date.

 

[tfinch2]

I do not think it is stupid, but some folks take it a bit overboard in my opinion.

 

[irishScott]

Never bought MREs before, what does a typical "Best Before" look like?

http://www.readymeal.com/shelflifechart.html

But I'm pretty sure those numbers are just so they have something. Everything in each meal is vacuum sealed, and I've eaten some that were well over 60 months and been fine.

 

[jagec]

I actually got a chance to meet 3-4 of the people who appeared on the show at a con, including the guy who blew off his thumb. They each independently said the same thing: the show's producers misrepresented them in some way to make them seem way more extreme and demanded that they take positions that they did not actually believe in. I think each of them did the show because they were trying to promote something, like a book, class, or product.

That doesn't surprise me, but a good general rule to live by is that if someone sticks a camera in your face and asks you to do something dangerous/stupid/disgusting that you don't want to do.....DON'T DO IT!

Unfortunately, most Americans don't follow this rule.

 

[DrPizza]

Other than that I have my guns, knives, pump-water filter, firestarters, first-aid kit and misc other backpacking supplies. No generator, but I think I'd do rather well if shit hit the fan.

I go backpacking and camping fairly often. One thing I've never figured out is the fascination with "firestarters." You can stop at a dollar store and pick up a pack of half a dozen butane lighters. They're amazing at starting fires. I've used other firestarters before, but don't own any, nor have I ever felt the need to carry one.

 

[irishScott]

I go backpacking and camping fairly often. One thing I've never figured out is the fascination with "firestarters." You can stop at a dollar store and pick up a pack of half a dozen butane lighters. They're amazing at starting fires. I've used other firestarters before, but don't own any, nor have I ever felt the need to carry one.

I've got a few just because I was curious. The magnesium rod one actually works pretty well if you can shelter the pile of magnesium shavings from any wind. REI waterproof matches are my go-to fire solution.

 

[shortylickens]

I go backpacking and camping fairly often. One thing I've never figured out is the fascination with "firestarters." You can stop at a dollar store and pick up a pack of half a dozen butane lighters. They're amazing at starting fires. I've used other firestarters before, but don't own any, nor have I ever felt the need to carry one.

Those cheap things break and leak and dont survive harsh environments.
Of course, putting them in a little plastic bag in a survival tin solves all those problems.

 

[irishScott]

Never bought MREs before, what does a typical "Best Before" look like?

Some more detailed info.

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mre-shelf-life.html

Basically the meals are fine, but some of the components (apple sauce, cheese spread, etc) will degrade over time.

 

[lxskllr]

Magnesium blocks are just cool. There's no real reason not to get one since they're so cheap. If you need a reason, they're more bullet proof than an engineered lighter in case things really go south.

 

[shortylickens]

Magnesium blocks are just cool. There's no real reason not to get one since they're so cheap. If you need a reason, they're more bullet proof than an engineered lighter in case things really go south.

zippos and those peanut lighters are pretty damn tough.
Magnesium can crack easily. More often than not its found attached to a bar of iron or steal or aluminum so it wont break.

 

[lxskllr]

zippos and those peanut lighters are pretty damn tough.
Magnesium can crack easily. More often than not its found attached to a bar of iron or steal or aluminum so it wont break.

Mine was just a chunk of magnesium with a flint bar embedded in the side. I wish I knew where it was. I misplaced it somewhere, and haven't seen it in years.

The thing I miss most about not regularly smoking anymore, is not having a Zippo on me. They're useful as a light source, and you can leave the flame burning until it goes out without worrying about it exploding. If the fluid wouldn't evaporate, I'd carry one anyway, smoking or not.

 

[shortylickens]

peanut lighters dont let the fluid evaporate.

 

[preCRT]

Anyone who lives in an area either hit by hurricanes or nor'easters knows the basics:
when a storm is coming you must run out to stock up on certain perishables, namely:
milk, bread, eggs, beer & bananas.

You should already have an ample supply of toilet paper.


Never really understood the milk & eggs part because if you lose power, as frequently happens during either of those 2 types of storms, the milk can spoil & raw eggs aren't going to do you any good. Before Hurricane Irene hit, I did boil up a dozen eggs & ate those while the power was out.


BTW, stocking up on canned goods will be no help if you only have an electric can opener. Surprised at the number of folks who forget to keep a simple manual opener on hand.

 

[lxskllr]

BTW, stocking up on canned goods will be no help if you only have an electric can opener. Surprised at the number of folks who forget to keep a simple manual opener on hand.

Electric can openers suck. I wouldn't own one.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I've never seen an electric can opener in my life. Weird.