What are you preparing for?

[okra]

What is it that you are prepping for? Personally, I cannot envisage a total end but what I can envisage is a period when living costs will rise very substantially, when food will become very expensive or scarce for a healthy balanced diet, when energy costs will be unaffordable for many and water may be in short supply.

I can see these things happening in the coming 5-10 years. I don't believe the world economy will recover as cheap oil is long gone.

I am prepping for short term food shortages such as in a fuel crisis preventing the supermarkets re-stocking). Prepping for long term food shortages by growing food, herbs and fruit.

I am cutting down food costs using preservation and storage technologies. Reducing my dependence on mains power with solar and other options. Generally looking for all ways to become as self reliant as possible.

Why are you prepping and what scenario are you prepping for?

 

[okiegirl]

I'm looking at our economic system and the collapse of our money. It happened before, right before the civil war. People had paper money that wasn't worth anything.

I don't really see an all out collapse, I see an increase in the cost of everything. To the point where people are unable to afford utilities, food or fuel. It will be available, but only for those that have money. Many will lose jobs due to a reduction of people buying products. Like a domino effect.

That is one reason we are looking at moving to Colorado. We currently live in Oklahoma and although we have more water in the form of rain here, it gets so hot in the summer, there is no way to get cool. It's easier to warm a small area with our wood burning stove, so a cooler climate would be better for a ss life.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I don't pretend to know what form our hard times will come, but I see a lot of people unsatisfied with our current over-all conditions and a great lack of confidence in administration. A whole lot of mistrust.
I prepare by studying herbology ( to be able to assume responsibility of some of our ailments ), by keeping a well stocked pantry (both purchased supplies and those we have preserved ourself thru drying, canning, fermenting or collecting. I keep small farm animals, 2 dogs to sound alarms, lots of ammo, gardens, an orchard with citrus and a few acres of woodland. I heat my house with a potbelly. I don't rely to much on any one utility and I have back up power for short outages. But if we have to rough it and do completely without power, I hope to be up for the challenge. Don't want to be too dependent on modern technology for anything.
When I buy something, I prefer for it to work by manpower, rather than electricity, gas or whatever else can run the thing.
I need to get a water source toward the back of my property and I'm leaning toward a large water tank, connected to a gutter system on some outside buildings.
My husband likes to read and has proven to have certain SS talents that complement our mutual interests and I'm lucky to come from a family of like minded people.

 

[moolie]

Hi Okra long time no see!

We don't consider ourselves to be "prepping" for anything, but rather living in a prudent and sustainable manner.

Food-wise we stock up in season and when prices are good. We garden and alternately buy the food we can't grow ourselves (meat, eggs, dairy) from small producers at our local year-round farmers markets. Our pantry is pretty robust and varied with canned, dry, root-cellared, and frozen foods. We bake our own bread, make our own yogurt, and do all manner of home-canning (fruit, jam, relishes/chutneys, some veggies, convenience foods like soups/stews/beans/meat). I also "freezer cook" and put up entire meals in our freezer for easy dinner prep.

We do have emergency "preps" in place for natural disasters that can take place where we live, but we're not concerned about the economy or any sort of government collapse.

We live in a Canadian province that has huge oil reserves so my province makes a lot of money off that industry, and it also puts by a lot of money each year (Heritage fund) from that revenue for a time when those reserves are depleted and our province no longer has that income stream.

 

[Joel_BC]

I'm another voice from Canada. The international economic situation is instable and weak. But I've always felt being able to provide food from our land, in conjunction with neighborhood cooperation (trades or barter, sharing, local sales - those sorts of things) was good.

Judging from what people discuss here on SS about prepping, I can conclude that our social situation, in most parts of this country, must be less volatile than in the U.S. We do not tend to expect violence to develop in any widespread way. In our province, the general level of prosperity has fallen somewhat in the last four years with the international financial and unemployment crises that have affected Europe, the U.S., and even East Asia. This condition could deepen, hence it does make sense to know how to do many things for oneself.

Our province has only a fraction of the petroleum resources of Alberta, where moolie lives. While this could seriously affect our province's economy, on the positive side we are home to many visionary technologists who have been trying (and making progress) to develop innovative renewable-energy technologies.

Anyhow, part of my prep is learning more about how to build, rebuild, and repair machines, equipment, buildings, and so on. Replacement of such things - as well as acquisition of motorized toys - can be very costly. Forget the toys! And I'd think that, if covering off food needs becomes trickier, knowing where and how to place priorities in the various domains of home life will be important.

 

[okra]

Thanks for the responses - seems like we are all on a similar path

 

[Corn Woman]

I don't really prep for anything but I do a lot of the same things as moolie, and have done for 30 plus years. It has helped make ends meet when there was no income or very little income to speak of. I do stock a generous supply of various herbs and tinctures for medicinal use as well as growing, canning, dehydrating and freezing as much as I am able. After the years of stocking my pantry I never spend much at the store and the purchases are usually laundry soaps, toothpaste, shampoo and the like.

 

[mrscoyote]

I am not really preparing for an event, though I do believe inflation and the economy is going to get bad. For my family it is a life style change. We lived the military life moving every 3 years for the last 26. So now I am enjoying putting down roots. My goal is to be independent from the commercial food system ( which I believe is poisoning us).
Nancy

 

[FarmerChick]

Only thing I really have preps for is the ice storms we get in winter. I know we will have some power outages. So supplies are on hand definitely for that situation and believe me, I have it covered

Economy. well, I buy frugal. I watch our pennies. I am sure I have emergency money in the house. I am frugal to survive the times and frugal to the point of not wasting so much resources. All done in a general form. I am not a fantic on any of it. Just watch my ps & qs and hopefully we will do fine.

 

[THEFAN]

ZOMBIES!!! Can't prep enough for them. Especially after this last election.