Stocking Up, Putting Back, Prepping = Paranoia?

[Justme]

It's all about marketing. They collect zip codes and phone numbers to learn where people are coming from and made find an area for a new store. They track goods to see the type of things people buy and in what combinations and how much at a time. I don't like it generally but there's not much I can do about and and do appreciate the "payment" I get for allowing them to do it in the coupons and cents off. I've also been sent several notices of recalls from Costco based on items I purchased. So that one was a good thing.

About how the ads change depending on what is written here, yes that's another marketing trick. Personally I don't see the ads because of the blocking I have set up.

Basically if you want to stay hidden now days do nothing electronic and never come above ground. I cannot live that way so I have to accept the fact that my privacy is not really all that private.

 

[Joel_BC]

Back to the topic in the main subject line... Never a bad idea to do some prepping. A neighborhood in my general region was devastated yesterday by a big landslide. Numerous homes destroyed, four people missing, power out, home/homestead water supply systems damaged in some cases.

http://www.vancouversun.com/residents+await+word+families+path+mountain+slide/6925183/story.html

A second slide (smaller) occurred, too. A few more houses were damaged. Thankfully, no more missing-presumed-dead people, though. Obviously, their highway (a "secondary highway" at the best of times) is cut in two and disfunctional for a certain stretch.

This catastrophe is pretty small by comparison with the hurricanes the southeast US gets, at times - or with a tsunami in Japan. But it does underline how being prepared can bee really important for people in a place that deals with disaster. All reports say that neighbors are helping neighbors, and gov't agencies responded quickly.

 

[moolie]

Back to the topic in the main subject line... Never a bad idea to do some prepping. A neighborhood in my general region was devastated yesterday by a big landslide. Numerous homes destroyed, four people missing, power out, home/homestead water supply systems damaged in some cases.

http://www.vancouversun.com/residents+await+word+families+path+mountain+slide/6925183/story.html

A second slide (smaller) occurred, too. A few more houses were damaged. Thankfully, no more missing-presumed-dead people, though. Obviously, their highway (a "secondary highway" at the best of times) is cut in two and disfunctional for a certain stretch.

This catastrophe is pretty small by comparison with the hurricanes the southeast US gets, at times - or with a tsunami in Japan. But it does underline how being prepared can bee really important for people in a place that deals with disaster. All reports say that neighbors are helping neighbors, and gov't agencies responded quickly.

Saw a news story on this earlier today, so very sad--I hope they find the missing people

We just drove through Sicamous and over the Roger's Pass yesterday on the way home from visiting with family in the Okanagan, and there is still much evidence from all the recent flooding that did so much damage along Mara lake, and the mudslides that closed the pass a few times earlier this spring.

Totally agree with you on the value of preparing for what one can prepare for. In the case of yesterday's mudslide near Kaslo, it sounds as though there's no way they could have prepared for/avoided it, but it is so very nice to hear from someone closer to the situation that the neighbors immediately pitched in to help. I know the same was true in Sicamous, but the "bottled water available at the community hall" notices we saw all over town really tell the tale--things are not yet back to normal there. And for those who still have to deal with the aftermath of the May 2011 wildfires in Slave Lake AB, many still don't have homes and won't for a long while yet.

 

[opiemaster]

I have been stocking up for as long as I can remember, something instilled in me by my late mother who was a real country girl. She could shoot a squirrel out of a tree with her .22 pistol! And hit it in the head!! She is the one who realy tought her 3 sons to survive, hunt fish and put back. She came from a VERY poor family in N.W. Missouri.
I try to make my wife understand these things, but she just goes along. When we lost power for a week 6 years ago, we needed for nothing and were still very comfy with our wood stove oil lamps and plenty of good food to eat.
we now live in a small comunity on a series of small lakes. Most people here somewhat S.S. there are they few though that as stated before only look a couple days ahead and would rather buy a case of coke than a case of beans.
I have been stoking up on black powder for my black powder guns. All you need is some wheel weights to make the bullets.
Use them for hunting, cartridge guns for defense if necessary.:/

 

[Joel_BC]

Totally agree with you on the value of preparing for what one can prepare for. In the case of yesterday's mudslide near Kaslo, it sounds as though there's no way they could have prepared for/avoided it, but it is so very nice to hear from someone closer to the situation that the neighbors immediately pitched in to help. I know the same was true in Sicamous, but the "bottled water available at the community hall" notices we saw all over town really tell the tale--things are not yet back to normal there.

Yeah, you can't prevent these disasters by any sort of personal/household prep, but (barring a direct hit on your house) the prep you have in place can obviously be helpful. The kind of preparations that have been discussed here - and which you, Moolie, have posted so well on - are clearly valuable. Those people in Johnson's Landing are dealing with power out, highway out (in some cases), rural water-source out, etc.

 

[raro]

I like writer Amy Dacysin (however you spell it!)'s term "The pantry principle." For hundreds of years, people had pantries for storage. It wasn't considered hoarding or stockpiling, it was considered common sense.
And as to taking food or supplies off the shelves from others, how silly is that?! The government tells us that a way out of recessions is to spend, spend, spend, so why should anyone care if we buy a case of food?!
I find that the wealthier the area, the less likely people are to stock up. They just don't believe it will happen to them. Sad, really. I live in an area that is in the top 10 wealthiest counties in the US. People around here turn up their noses when I talk about wanting to build a solar oven. My own brother refuses to eat eggs from my chickens because "they look weird." He would rather buy 2-month old, nutritionally depleted eggs from the grocery store.
Being self sufficient around here can be pretty lonely, but I wouldn't change my lifestyle for anything.

 

[Bettacreek]

Personally, on the shelf-cleaning, I just think it's somewhat self-centered. I don't know how else to put it. If the power goes out and we have stocks at home, why on earth would we rush to the store to clean out the store, when someone else might have three little kids who NEED that food? Yes, sure, the parents should've been prepared, but who are we to say "welp, sorry, that idiot didn't prep, so those babies should suffer"? If it's an extended outage, then really, YOU weren't prepared either if you have to rush to the store to purchase a bunch of food stocks either. :/ How would you and your family like to be written off because you needed something and couldn't get it because Joe Blake over there around the corner has three hundred cans of black beans he just wiped off the shelf, along with everything else? Just my opinion.

 

[terri9630]

When there is an emergency I DO go shopping. Partly because I want my neighbors to think I'm "like them" but during an emergency the local women and childrens shelter is going to need supplies. So does the homeless shelter. Kills 2 birds with one stone. Makes it look like I'm as unprepared as every one else and gives food to those that need it. Domestic violence always goes up during emergencies, so the need in the W&C shelter goes up with it.

 

[the funny farm6]

i have a very hard time thinking of a shtf senario. yes i am getting things stocked for my family. (i realized how important this could be last winter when we got 28 inches of snow with over 3 ft drifts and we couldnt go any farther than the end of the driveway and the snow plows didnt come by till 9 days after) we were fine- it did get kinda low, but we made it just fine.

but in an extended time, if the people who are looking for food and hungry show up on my doorstep, will i feed them? my heart says yes, but my mind says no. i have been warring with this in my mind for several months now. does anyone else thought about this problem?

 

[BarredBuff]

I have thought about it and have no answer....