I caught my first episode of Doomsday Preppers on the NatGeo channel...and I honestly don't know what to think. Part of me regrets not being better prepared for a catastrophic emergency like a pandemic, financial meltdown, natural disaster, or the Miami Heat winning a championship...and the other part of me thinks these doomsday preppers are nothing more than paranoid doofuses with a terminal case of Last Man On Earth syndrome. The most doomsday prepping I have done would be taking a long position in lead and lead delivery systems and buying three packs of VeggieTales branded seeds for the kids to plant this spring. We don't have sleeping bags or a tent, but I think we still have an inflatable raft that The Better Half used to float around in back in high school or something.
Now, I do realize that I should be more prepared, especially since I have kids. I've been looking into those Costco freeze dried food buckets and stuff at Cabelas, but finding places to store gallons of water, canned goods, crossbows, and crates of .223 ammo will be a challenge. I suppose I could get rid of my golf clubs and that angle grinder I bought because I thought an angle grinder was something I should have. It isn't.
We don't even have a proper first aid kit. This one doesn't look too bad, and it even comes with a deck of cards to stave off boredom...but you'd think just trying to survive would be a mighty fine antidote to boredom.
During Doomsday Preppers the phrase 'bug out bag' was used quite a bit. Everyone in the family is supposed to have one, even family pets. We don't have those either. Turns out bug out bags are backpacks filled to the gills with stuff for survivin'. I suppose I could start making our own bug out packs as I actually have some of the stuff listed. Plus, Bamamike in the reviews wasn't all that impressed with the quality of the gear since he can hunt, fish, and gator rassle up some vittles all on his own...which is all fine and dandy until the ATMS DON'T WORK DUE TO A POWER GRID FAILURE. Bamamike needs to rethink his skill set.
So, what the eff am I supposed to be doing here? Do I buy a bucket of freeze dried food, fortify the doors and bolt a semi-automatic rifle to the roof? Do any of you have bug out bags and stockpiles of food...and if so, can we come crash at your place when the world ends? All of this doomsday prepping appears to be a gigantic pain in the ass.
All Women Hate Their Breasts (and their hair)
6 years ago
I've been a "doomsday prepper" since I got married, and doubly so since I've had kids. Not "post-apocalyptic nightmare" doomsday, but sudden super-snowstorm or electric grid failure or other natural/man-made disaster scenario.
ReplyDeleteI figure I've got four weeks of food (canned, dried) and water (bottled, plus a filter/pump device), a couple of decent first-aid kits, a solar/hand-crankable recharging device for portable electronics, a smallish amount of cash in small bills and coins, and camping gear. It would probably take 20 minutes to load into the 4x4 if we had to bug out. And, I've got some building materials (left-overs) in the basement in case I need to fortify the doors and windows on the first floor against zombies.
That and an HK P30, Mossberg 500 and an AR-15 should get you through the initial stages of the decline and fall of the republic of the United States of America.
Or the "hurricane of the millennium" or the "flood of the century" or whatever.
After that, we're screwed.
I used to tease my husband, Brian, because of his interest in survivalism and emergency preparedness. He has an "oh-shit-kit" (a backpack with extra water, non perishable food, a blanket, batteries, a flashlight, rope, etc), non-perishable freeze dried camping food, about eighty flashlights, glow sticks, etc. After the power outage due to the ice storm, I am not teasing him any more.
ReplyDeleteAll things considered, we did pretty well. We had flashlights, we had running water because the muni water plant was running, the roads were passable after Thursday, and we knew we would not starve. Still, there were things that we did not think of until the situation was right on top of us. As project managers say, here are our "lessons learned." :-)
1. Keep cash on hand. When we went looking for gas and other supplies, all debit and credit card machines in our immediate area were down. If we did not find an ATM that was miraculously up, we would not have had access to any money.
2. If you have a gas can, keep it full for chrissake. This was our total "DUH" moment. We went looking for gas in the first place, because we had an empty spare gas can. If you don't keep spare gas, keep your cars at half a tank or more.
3. Keep plenty of batteries, candles, flashlights and matches around.
4. Keep food handy that's easy to cook and has a long shelf life. Chili, soup, canned vegetables, mac n'cheese, pasta.
5. Make sure you have functional, manual kitchen tools. We use a phat electric can opener, and guess what? Our manual can opener was a piece of shit and didn't work. Yeah, we were laughing at ourselves. We picked up a manual can opener when we were out and about filling our empty gas can!
6. Get a mobile phone car charger. Our phones were dead, and if the genny didn't fire up, we would have had to drive someplace (assuming we could drive anywhere) and use a working pay phone. Yeah, good luck with that.
7. If you have a gas stove, total score. You can light the burners and cook, make coffee, heat water, etc. If you don't have one, get a little camp stove and some propane.
8. If your area has a history of blackouts or power outages, consider a generator if you can swing it. You'll spend about $1,500 on the genny, the transfer panel and the electrician, but it is worth every cent.
I saw that headline and immediately thought it said doomsday peppers. I thought you were going to regail us with a tale of going mano a mano with the hottest peppers the world has to offer. I'm a little disappointed.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I tend to take an approach of having enough on hand to survive a few weeks if necessary, but if there is some sort of apocalype I'm not interested in living in a Road Warrior-esque wasteland. When the whole country turns into downtown Detroit, I'll sacrifice myself for the good of humanity.
I just saw this show on NatGeo too. Yeah, my take is; that is far out there! I figure I've made it these 48 years without more than a day or two of difficulty, like a Snowstorm, etc... Statistically I'll live 30 more years, so, if my number is up a little sooner because the world goes to hell in a hand basket, oh well. Of course I don't have kids, but even if I did, I would have limited means to protect them if all hell broke loose, but I just don't have that overwhelming feeling of doom these people display. Also the woman in SLC keeps saying "when the government takes over"... To me that just sounds so so so paranoid. The structure of our economy doesn't work well without everyone at their jobs.also, the government is also the people. they are my neighbors here in suburban DC. They don't have any special protections. farmers running for the hills, almost everyone dies. Turn off the public water systems, the Desert southwest mostly dies. East coast, lots of water... no petroleum or electricity to move food around the country, almost everyone dies. Don't worry; a small portion of humanity should survive. guns? eventually the bullets will run out. Bow and arrow sounds better; easier to make arrows...
ReplyDeleteWhile I understand the premise of "prepping", I think some of their efforts might include some therapy. I don't mean that in a derogatory way; I'm serious. If things go bad, you may live, or not. in a few decades we will all be dead! It's a fact of life! I'm not so sure having buckets of food will save you. I think living like an Indian in a nomadic fashion, surviving off the land is more logical.