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I'm a prepper, he's a prepper, she's a prepper...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Revengeofthenerds, Aug 15, 2014.

  1. Parker

    Parker
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    these people are crazy, but it does shock me how a lot of people don't have first-aid kits or working flashlights. especially the flashlights because their phones have a flashlight app. i've bought a few cheap packs of batteries i keep just in case for shit and make sure my flashlight works. could use a few more canned goods, but pretty sure i'd be "freeing" food from stores after a few days.
     
  2. Rush-O-Matic

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    2, 4 & 10

    focus:what do you do to prep, and why?

    living in the deeper south, i face two realities when winter storms are predicted:
    - people rush to the grocery store and act like idiots, buying up all the milk and water
    - if the storm does hit, the local road crews / governments don't have the equipment or skill to make the roads passable

    also, i live awy from the city and about 15 miles from the nearest grocery store. so, i like to be realistically prepared for a few days without power or access to stores. i'm not really prepared in the same way for the zombie apocalypse, so i will just have to hope my ammo holds out. (it should.) the water, i get, but i never have figured out why everybody buys up the milk. we also get thunderstorms in the summer that potentially knock out power, too.

    anyway, i always make sure i have several cans of spaghetti o's, beef ravioli and some green beans. it's cheap and easy, and i can eat them every now and then to rotate the stock. i also alway make sure i keep a few meal bars, bottled water, firewood and propane to last a few days. i have a well and a generator, too. so, i'm probably always good for about a week before i'd have to head out and start scavenging / hunting / stealing.
     
  3. ODEN

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    here's a little prepper lesson for you urban and suburbanites: do you know how to open a can without a can opener? i know it's silly you say, i can just go to youtube and....well, what if you wait until there is no youtube around and you need to open a can? maybe this little video will keep you alive one extra day before the zombies eat your recently chef boyardee-infested brain.

    so here you go. you learned something that may save you one day
     
  4. Nettdata

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    there's another, lesser preferred method, as relayed to me by one of my developers yesterday.

    we were talking about cooking, and he said he tried to make soup once when he was a bachelor. the can said "heat on stove", so he put the can of soup on the stove element. not in a pot, not even open/vented... the fully sealed can of soup went on the stove element. he went back to the other room to watch tv when, about 5 minutes later, he heard a huge "blam!". go figure, but it blew up and covered the kitchen with soup.

    i called bullshit, stating that nobody could be that fucking stupid.

    another developer chimed in and said, "nope, that really happened... it made him a bachelor legend around here. and rumour had it he might have been a little high at the time".

    needless to say the guy is a brilliant developer, but has absolutely no idea how to cook or fend for himself in the kitchen. he went from having his mother do everything for him to having a wife who did the same.

    crazy.
     
  5. toddamus

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    so when the apocalypse comes, i'm raiding his house first.

    maybe a lot of hoarding, i mean prepping, is just being ocd and buying supplies and the like compulsively.
     
  6. bewildered

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    maybe it's a woman thing related to nesting or an obsession with having a comfy home with all my needs covered, but we do have things to survive through minor disasters pretty well. i have a fully stocked kitchen. i buy groceries on a weekly basis but there are always dry and canned goods in there, plus a freezer full of misc vegetables and meat, not to mention the couple of cases of mres in the closet. water might be an issue but if we know the disaster is coming (hurricanes and other storms), that is an easy thing to acquire. and now that i am reading this thread, i feel like we should have a 5 gallon jug in the closet for just in case.

    we have home defense covered. we also have some ham radio equipment that we inherited from his grandfather, though i think we are missing a few important pieces...that is something we're always on the look out for. hunting and fishing equipment: check. i have a really good box of first aid equipment under the bathroom sink that i put together. those mini kits are stupid and overpriced so i got a big plastic box and filled it up with gauze, baindaids, alcohol, peroxide, antibiotic cream, otc pain meds, antihistamines, etc. flashlights: yes. i just want to know what idiot really does not own a flashlight.

    plus, i like to think i am not a complete dumbass. we have reasonable roughing it (that's what she said) skills.


    as for the alt focus: i think that prepper show is stupid. there really isn't much of a reason to live in metal boxcars stacked up into a housing shape and then spending every dime of your money and minute of your time canning shit just in case this country falls completely apart. i feel like knowledge and life skills are a much better defense against the fall of our world as we know it. it takes someone who is legitimately paranoid to live the lifestyle of the prepper. besides, what good is your life now if you spend all your time living like that? i'd rather live a life i enjoy now and deal with shit that has an infinitesimally small chance of happening as it comes.
     
  7. Roxanne

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    i'm slowly getting closer to the farm folk. soon, they will accept me as one of their own. then i'm going to convert to mormonism and make my way down to brigham young, open a little homestead there. once the apocalypse hits, that will be the most fortified place in the whole of america. thousands and thousands of mormons with fully stocked gun cases, basements full of bullets and a god-issued tenet to always be prepared for the end of days?

    it's a foolproof plan. see you suckers in hell. oh wait no i won't, because i'm getting a paradise planet!
     
  8. Hoosiermess

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    i'm not a prepper and i usually don't keep enough food around for more than a few days. what i do is stock up when i go. a lot of the time i shop at a sam's club so i buy shit paper (the good stuff), cleaners, trash bags, frozen food, deoderant, canned soup, fresh meat in bulk. if shit goes bad after a trip to sam's i'm good for a while.

    i just bought my house and while i haven't lost power often i am thinking a generator would be pretty awesome in the next couple years.
     
  9. manbehindthecurtain

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    this scares the shit out of me because chances are if anything goes terribly wrong like a terrorist attack or major surprise event, my family will be scattered. my kids go to daycare and my wife work 30 miles apart with our house in the middle. we live in a near suburb of philly and would not fare well given the huge population density. i don't keep guns in the house because of my kids, and i would only use it in event of a zombie apocolypse.

    if someone nuked nyc tomorrow my shit is ruined and wouldn't be able to get to my kids in time to do anything productive before everything just falls apart. even if i got to the daycare am i going to walk with an infant and two year old closer to my house which is closer to the city? nope we are immediate refugees with no way on contacting other family or even my wife.

    nope. anything like that happens and i'm done. sucks to think about so hopefully it never happens.

    in event of a snow storm or hurricane - well thankfully we have the news to know it's coming and can prepare a day or two in advance.
     
  10. IPUTPENISINBEWILDERD

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    if i've learned anything from day z, it's that it's much easier to stab people in the back and steal their supplies. hoarding is for chumps.

    i'll end up thriving as the leader of a band of marauders and make channing tatum my fuck slave.
     
  11. dewercs

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    in case of what ever world ending event is coming i am mostly stockpiling ammo since it would be hell living in the middle of nowhere with my wife i have decided it would be better just to stay at my house.
    my first order of business would be to rob the costco that is very close to my house, then i would start smoking meat, if i was without electricity, that would feed me for quite a while.
     
  12. The Dread Pirate

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    i used to laugh at preppers and people who raided the grocery store every time a snowstorm or hurricane came. after work sent me to usar school, i did a complete 180 on the subject. some of the stories that came out of katrina and sandy are scary as shit.

    in my jeep i keep a camelbak bfm (and a spare gallon of water to fill it) that allows me to be self-sufficient for about 72 hours. it's less about surviving the zombie apocalypse as it is "what if i'm out when something happens and i can't go home for a couple days."

    the contents: non-perishable food, jeans, long and short sleeve t-shirt, light/medium jacket, belt, socks, hiking boots, flashlights x2, glock 19, holster, glock 17 mags x6, pocket knife, leatherman, mechanix's gloves, hat, and a couple other things that i forget. there's also a small med pouch attached that can handle a fairly serious injury for the first hour or two (gloves, tourniquets, bandages, clotting agent, iv stuff, needle decompression stuff).

    it's heavy as fuck (60 lbs.); i doubt i'd want to take everything if i had to walk a good distance and it kinda assumes my car still works. basically, if something happens my plan is to mind my own goddamn business and go home since my house has enough food, alcohol, and firearms to supply a small post-apocalyptic militia.
     
  13. AFHokie

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    be careful what kind of non-perishable food you keep in your vehicle...a can of beans will last forever in your pantry at home, but after a summer baking inside a vehicle...not so much.
     
  14. Stealth

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    living in australia where gun ownership is restricted, i have thought from time to time in "investing" in a couple of machetes; just in case. the advantage being that machetes are much quieter than guns and never run out of ammo.
     
  15. AFHokie

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    in response to a rep/karma i received regarding emergency food in your car. like canned food, mre's are not a good choice. they are a wetpack food and higher temperatures drastically reduce their shelf life. with how high temperatures can get inside a car during the summer.

    the graph shows how long they'll last at a given temperature. notice at a constant 120 degrees they'll last about a month. i wouldn't expect an mre to last one summer season.

    [​IMG]

    i wouldn't keep any food for an extended period in your car that's not freeze dried or powdered. however, suvivor food industries makes the emergency rations put in lifeboats, etc. it's definitely not gourmet, but it's food that's designed to last in temperature extremes. one 3600 calorie pack is $7. not as tasty, but cheaper than most freeze dried food you'll find in you're local rei, etc and it'll survive storage in the trunk of your car.
     
  16. Nettdata

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    that bar graph made my brain hurt... who the fuck uses a bar graph for this kind of data?