Is any of your gear/supplies unrealistic?

I ask because my girlfriend and i were chatting the other day about stocking up on stuff. I do, she does not. We live apart at the moment.

It was the subject of water that started it all off. I mentioned that i have a large amount of water stored for emergencies, mainly in those 5 litre bottles you get from the supermarket, but i have enough to last me and the kids a good few weeks if anything happened.

So my GF says, "Whats likely to happen?"

So i ran through a couple of the more likely scenarios that could happen around my area, to which she replied, "And when was the last time that happened?".

I had to admit, never. Any water problems had always been dealt with quickly, or at least a few hours. I can't get snowed or flooded in here.

I know many prepare for the more dramatic scenarios, but thats a lot of gear to be cluttering up your house if it's unrealistic to keep it.

The conversation kind of left me thinking she had a point, then again i still stock up because IF anything should happen, i want us looked after.

I live in the UK. A small village, semi rural and nothing exciting ever happens here unless you create it yourself lol.

I just wondered if anyone ever makes you doubt what you are doing when it comes to preparedness?

My GF is great btw, and knows i'm just someone who likes being prepared if i can, so i won't be trading her for any gung-ho replacement quite yet lol.

CX.

[edit on 30/7/09 by CX]

reply to post by CX


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/081455524170.jpg[/atsimg]
It's just too darn big to carry around...

reply to post by warrenb


Lol

Now that i could use for a few people around here.

CX.

Really depends on your location and assumed "comfort level" after TSHTF, and your reasonable expectations of local conditions.

I am of the opinion that any scenario will take at least a couple weeks to manifest a worse case, meaning power will be spotty or out, so no water from the tap, and delivery of foodstuffs will soon follow. Worse case would be having this happen in winter, and chaos and riots would soon occur in cities.

My worst case expectation is that I will need to be totally self sufficient and mobile for 6 months maximum, though mobile is a relative term given that fuel may be hard to find.
If any scenario lasts 6 months in the cold part of the year, Darwin will take care of the weak and unprepared, and things will become much easier to forage for after. We are talking survival here, so 6 months of food is rather easy, if quite boring.
Beans, rice, and ramen noodles, dried veggies and protein, multi-vitamins to make up what is missing, and a water purifier or tablets.

I am fortunate enough to have a very small camp trailer to stuff things in, and can haul about 2 months worth of propane tanks, giving me enough time to construct a small semi permanent shelter even in the dead of winter, as I can come in out of the cold when necessary.

I am assuming the primary goal to be away from those who didn't prepare, as looking warm and fed in a starving city would most likely not be a good thing.

There is never any harm in being prepared. My brother is on city water, in the middle of Tallahassee, FL (capital of FL) and he was on a boil order for over 2 weeks. They could not drink, bath, or shower with their city water because of a contaminated city well!

Sun activity or an EM pulse could shut off power for an extended time and you will run out of water!

War, Famine, Economic collapse and many other very real possibilities could make your preps necessary.

As long as you are not sacrificing your current finances or safety in favor of emergency planning, then no harm is done, so why not prepare?

Hi again CX, i bumped into your thread completely by happenstance. I think you are wise to be prepared. No-one has mentioned a weapon of any kind. I would strongly suggest having something. Are you allowed shotguns in UK? If so get one and several boxes of buckshot. If you cannot have a firearm then any kind of edged weapon with some reach, perhaps a short sword or pike.

Miscellaneous

Water, water filter and food with a long shelf life.
Extra medicines
Oil lamps and lots of oil +spare wicks
Get up to date on dental work and optical exams
Alternate heating source (woodstove, kero or propane)
Games, books and cards for entertainment.

That covers the basics, best of luck to you and your gf. I'm almost finished with my first article. Will u2u when it's out. thx. dave (asktheanimals)

Originally posted by warrenb
[It's just too darn big to carry around...

Ok I have three questions for you Warren

1) What state do you live in (I want to stay at least 20 miles from your place)
2) What kind of license does that take?
3) where do I get one?

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Hi again CX, i bumped into your thread completely by happenstance. I think you are wise to be prepared. No-one has mentioned a weapon of any kind. I would strongly suggest having something. Are you allowed shotguns in UK? If so get one and several boxes of buckshot. If you cannot have a firearm then any kind of edged weapon with some reach, perhaps a short sword or pike.

I believe we are allowed shotguns, but i'm not sure of the laws on them.

Air rifles are ok, and so far we are still allowed crossbows, but it's worth getting them now if you haven't already, as you can bet your life they will be off the menu soon.

Looking forward to the article.

CX.

"When was the last time that happened?"

The next time somebody asks you that, direct them to this article:

www.cracked.com...

The first thing they mention is about dinosaurs. The rest are about things that happened to people. Of particular interest, imho, are the Spanish Flu and the Toba Event.

reply to post by CX


I'd suggest you talk with you g/f about natural or human-created (but still ordinary) disasters. Click on this link and then scroll down to global incident map and global disaster map on the bottom right. How often have these things happened? If you look at JUST these two maps, they happen ALL the time, all over the world, including the UK.

Your area can experience fires, there are UK Earthquakes, potential power outages, as mentioned, CME or other solar/magnetic events, weather events -- all of which have the potential for affecting water sources.

If you power went out right this moment for, say, a week, how many people around you could scavenge a water source, particularly a safe and potable clean water source? What if the H1N1 pandemic doesn't attenuate and reemerges in the fall as a baddie that causes people to isolate themselves?

then, after you all have talked about normal sources, there are a myriad of societally-induced as well as additional less probable things that can happen.

Not saying that the following is the case with your girlfriend...... Sometimes people seem to want to make fun of the reasons for preparations, rather than having to take responsibility for themselves and make preparations. I think it's an uncomfortable for some folks to think about...... people don't want to even consider that things will not go on as they always have, but even that is a misnomer: Human history is not static -- it's always in flux.

There's no right way to do it as we can all craft our preps to fit our situation and anticipated situations, but, IMO, the wrong way is to do nothing. That road only leads to being a liability in the actual situation.

Being prepared doesn't have to consume our lives, nor cause us to want to crawl into a hole or cave and stay there. We are humans; we want to LIVE! Maybe the two of you can start a little container garden with open-pollinated seeds, and have fun with it, learning how to preserve the seeds of your homegrown produce.

P.S. -- back to your OP question -- No, the only absolutely unreasonable gear (for me) is that which I don't have and might need.

Where I live in the Caribbean is small, remote, and much of what is accessible and common in much of the world is not so here. I stock a lot of fasteners -- screws and nails mostly, but other things like jacketed cable, hinges, etc. these are all things I will eventually use.

Same goes for the stocked and rotated foods. We have several thousand gallons of water in concrete cisterns, and a well, so the amount of actual stored water inside the house is less than a dozen gallons.

Water filtration matters. I like the Big Berkey. I've learned to make coconut flour and bread from same. I've learned to make a decent wine from local fruits and can distill it into a *cough* medicinal concentrate. I think we can go a long way with learning to use the natural resources within our environments. For example, according to this source, summer and winter purslane often grow wild in the UK. I would think about identifying the plant, and where you can find it.

You just never know, right?

cheers

It never hurts to be prepared, being in the UK, I had the same discussion with my wife , but she sort of said " why worry about it, we'd probably be the first to be wiped out " .
She's right of course, I have stocked a bit of dried foodstuffs, pasta , rice and soups in the garage above the door , so if anyone breaks in they won't see it. also my BOB is above the door, it has a few tools in , stove , lighters , knives torches etc.
There are many situations ranging from the mundane , atomic or bio attack to the zany , zombie infestation and asteroid impact. each as feasible to the next.
Most people see a disaster movie and think that will happen next, but more likely the simple things, like ecnomic collapse ( starting now sort of) and that would affect the price of food, so why not buy lots now , and if it doesn't kick off big time, you'll save a bit on food, and if it does you'll at least have food.

Never hurts to be prepared as I stated earlier but if you plan for every eventuality then you'll be classed as paranoid and you'll see danger everywhere and lose your mind.
Relax and just stockpile things you can use tomorrow or next week, but have a supply put aside for next month just incase, stock rotation is handy as well.
Its all well and good preparing but like the wife said earlier , you may be the first to fall.

Originally posted by DataWraith
I have stocked a bit of dried foodstuffs, pasta , rice and soups in the garage above the door , so if anyone breaks in they won't see it. also my BOB is above the door, it has a few tools in , stove , lighters , knives torches etc.

I will now make that my first place to check in every garage.

As for superfluous kit I'm not quite certain on that yet. I've been going through a weight saving exercise and most of the "throw-out" is packaging. I have reduced my clothing (ie now only 2 pairs of trousers, not three)

The SAS handbook could be left out if I could memorise it...

reply to post by Nirgal

The SAS handbook could be left out if I could memorise it...

Memorize for efficiancy, but don't leave it out! What if you are incapacitated and your group is left to save you? What if you just 'forget' during high-stress, dehydration, or illness?