Stocking Up, Putting Back, Prepping = Paranoia?

[dma1974]

When Katrina happened, all those people sat around, complained about the heat, and demanded the goverment provide for them. Very few if any tried to help themselves.

Statements like this disgust me. So much to be said about this. Whoever posted this, please educate yourself about the innerworkings of this catastrophe. What makes you think nothing like that could ever happen to you? Unfortunately, there will always be people with this mentality. I'm glad they're not afraid to speak up so that I know who to avoid and who not to extend favors to.

 

[terri9630]

When Katrina happened, all those people sat around, complained about the heat, and demanded the goverment provide for them. Very few if any tried to help themselves.

Statements like this disgust me. So much to be said about this. Whoever posted this, please educate yourself about the innerworkings of this catastrophe. What makes you think nothing like that could ever happen to you? Unfortunately, there will always be people with this mentality. I'm glad they're not afraid to speak up so that I know who to avoid and who not to extend favors to.

I happen to believe the same thing. There was plenty of warning. My aunt lived there and she paid a taxi to take her out because she didn't have a car. It cost her a fortune but she took responsibility for her own safety instead of depending on someone else to help her.

 

[dma1974]

When Katrina happened, all those people sat around, complained about the heat, and demanded the goverment provide for them. Very few if any tried to help themselves.

Statements like this disgust me. So much to be said about this. Whoever posted this, please educate yourself about the innerworkings of this catastrophe. What makes you think nothing like that could ever happen to you? Unfortunately, there will always be people with this mentality. I'm glad they're not afraid to speak up so that I know who to avoid and who not to extend favors to.

I happen to believe the same thing. There was plenty of warning. My aunt lived there and she paid a taxi to take her out because she didn't have a car. It cost her a fortune but she took responsibility for her own safety instead of depending on someone else to help her.

As I said, this kind of thing lets me know who to avoid and who not to extend any favors to. Not that you'd ever need them from me.

 

[BusyBlonde]

I have seen unpreparedness in our area, the Piedmont of NC. We had an ice storm a few years ago that knocked out power to some areas for over a week. Even though I lived in an apartment at the time, I had camping equipment (catalytic propane heater, cookstove, etc) and plenty of food and beverages for at least that amount of time. Many people had to find family and friends, or hotels, because they didn't have enough food or any way to heat/cook without electricity. Now that we have a home, we are much more prepared.

People have always made fun of me because I always make sure I have at least 2 of everything I use regularly. After reading many posts here, I am no where near as prepared as some of you, but my goal is to have at least a year's worth of food, put in a woodstove in place of our fireplace, and plant more efficiently to can/freeze/dry much of our own produce. We have chickens, and plan on getting rabbits, goats & a couple beef cattle in the next year.

Am I paranoid? I don't think so. But - should something happen to take us off the grid for even a couple weeks - I can take care of my family, and that's what's important to me.

Thank you all for giving me plenty to think about, and work on!

 

[Theo]

I expect people everywhere are unprepared. It is human nature to avoid thinking about worst case scenarios.

Where I live, we haven't had a bona fide wide spread disaster since about 1962 (or was it '63). That's when a wayward typhoon made landfall in Oregon and made a royal mess of things for most of the population. I think in those days, people tended to hunt, fish and have canned food on hand, so folks got through it ok. Since then we've had bad storms on the coast, and heavy snow falls in the Valley once in a blue moon, but nothing has affected as large a part of the population as the Columbus Day storm did.

Considering all the volcanoes near our populated areas, and the major fault that runs just offshore, we have been very lucky. Formerly we were protected from hurricanes by the jet stream and the cool ocean currents off of our coast; global warming could change that in our lifetime. We have three times the population now too, more people who grew up urban and are not as self sufficient as the old timers.

On a different topic, here's something I would hate to have to live without: nose strips. I've been stocking up by buying twice as many as I need every month. Walmart is the only place with a reasonable price, more's the pity (hate shopping there for all kinds of reasons). I have sufficient food for a year ahead, so now I am stocking up on bar soap, castille soap (good for all kinds of things), laundry detergent and pet food. I just need to find a place to put it all.

 

[Britesea]

yes, we've been having to get very creative about where to put all the extra supplies as well. We don't have the room for a dedicated storage area so we have boxes of jars under the bed, buckets and cans in the closet, shelves of supplies in the utility room and the water tank building, and bags of supplies awaiting more buckets in the dining room. I want to put the buckets under the house, but it's a soft dirt floor and I seem to remember reading that we should raise the buckets up from the floor a bit. We have some broken bricks that I could use as a support for boards- just need to get the boards and right now there's not even an extra nickel in this house. Freebies are hard to find around here-

 

[Theo]

Yeah, with the last kid fixin' to leave home this spring, I've taken the opportunity to really clean house. I've dredged out two upstairs rooms that are currently vacant, and after getting them all nice and tidy, I will turn around and fill them with sacks and buckets. Maybe I'll use spring break to clean out the garage, and use some of the shelving that is currently covered with junk, for their intended use.

I remember my dad stocking up ... he worked at an institution, and he would bring home giant drums full of stuff like corn meal. We'd eat corn meal at every meal. When it started to go rancid, we'd still eat it but with a lot less enthusiasm. Blech. I have a feeling that the urge to stock up is somewhat inherited. Funny, when we cleaned out the house after my mom and dad died, we didn't find stores of stuff. Dad finally stopped preparing ... maybe Y2K was a big disappointment to him. He did have a small generator that he'd bought for the end of the world, but we had to sell it to a guy who ran a construction site, because it was too loud to use in a residential area.

 

[hqueen13]

Too much other crap under my beds and stuffed everywhere else to store food there...

 

[Britesea]

Too much other crap under my beds and stuffed everywhere else to store food there...

I've been slowly weeding out what we really don't need, but it's difficult. I don't need all the clothes I have, and it was easy to get rid of the stuff that doesn't fit anymore; but I hate to give up the extra clothes because eventually the ones I'm using will wear out, and then the extras will come into their own. Same with a lot of other stuff... being a 'prepper' cuts both ways, lol

 

[hqueen13]

being a 'prepper' cuts both ways, lol

Yeah, it does.... It doesn't make life easy that is for sure!!

I just realized that we just got a new loveseat on Freecycle (yay FREE!) and as soon as I can get rid of my sleeper sofa (nobody wants it on freecycle ) I'll be able to put it in the correct place... AND it has SPACE under it! :O Hmmm.... MORE space to STUFF things!

In all seriuosness this house is not organized well, and that makes it tough to manage the space. I have great plans to make some improvements, but I haven't had the time yet. I need to get into the kitchen and get organized, mostly to get RID of some of the crap food that we still have left around here that we just won't eat anymore now that we've changed out diet.

There is always room for improvement!