35 arguments for not prepping

As of today it is estimated that ONLY 1% of the population actually goes to much of any effort to prepare and store up enough of what they need to survive a true calamity. This means a huge majority of the population fails, yes fails, to have much of anything if and WHEN what they need each day to live evaporates quickly. Most people have no clue what life will be like after the grocery stores close

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/life-or-death-choices-35-excuses-that-will-doom-the-non-prepper_05052013

Last year, the area south of us got hit by a big wind storm at the end of June. People in the affected area were w/out power for over a week. Then at the end of October, we got Sandy to the north of us. I'm not sure how long the power was out, but I know most people in both affected areas didn't have a clue as to what to do. Generators sold out of stores quickly, but people found they couldn't afford to run them because of the gas. I think most people have unrealistic thoughts about true emergencies.

Exactly. We were without power for at least a week here during the most miserable temperatures of the summer. It was awful. I thought we were decently "prepared" but we still learned a lot the hard way.

Good article there, Keith.

thanks mm,

I think, as the article suggests, most people choose to not be prepared. The rest of us can only imagine scenarios and try to imagine ourselves being our own superheros. Reality is until you go through something, you really don't know how to handle it, or exactly what you will need. An acquaintance of ours (real flaky flighty sort) quit proclaiming herself a witch and started delving into the prepper fad. She bought empty 55 gallon drums (dozens of them) and filled them all with toothpaste, shampoo, soap, bleach, tobacco products, and seeds bought from discount stores. For three years these drums have been sitting in her unheated garage. She is convinced that she can trade these items for what ever she may need. This is the same person who asked why we need farmers, food comes from stores.

You acqaintance sounds like someone I think I'd try to avoid Keith.

Every time we have a weather emergency I always find new holes in our preps. A few years back we were without power for a week. We did have a generator which we got going and plugged up the freezer and refrigerator. I actually condensed the 2 freezers into the older model that is not self defrosting. All the neighbors watched out for each other and refilled gas tanks on the generators if they died out and we didn't come out soon afterwards to tend to them.

I know that I have to figure out how to store more water now that we took the pool down. We used to use some of that for flushing the toilet when the water would get turned off for pipe repairs in the subdivision. I'll have to check into getting a water barrel to store in the garage. I might also try to find a rain barrel and get it setup in the backyard.

looking into water storage myself, I'm thinking a cistern somewhere around the barn

I used to work for a horse training/riding faculty. The place had a large indoor arena and double row stall barn on one side of that. There was a large gutter system on each half of the barn roof. The short side of the barn (without the stalls) fed into two VERY large stock tanks, one on each barn corner. The opposite side had a roof scrubber set up and then fed into a large concrete cistern buried underground. The water was used to wash horses, water horses and flush stools. Basically like a grey water system. It wouldn't take much to put a water purifier into the system and you would be set.

Thanks FF, thats exactly the design I was looking for!!

You are welcome!