hsbaby Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I am probably just being paranoid because I recently read Last Light and am currently reading One Second After ( both about surviving in a post EMP world), but I have been worrying about our families lack of preparedness. if there were a natural disaster, EMP, national terrorist attack, etc., we would be so ill prepared. No food storage, protection, generator, etc. Do any of you plan for this kind of stuff? What do you have in place to get by under these circumstances? Am I the only one insane enough to worry about this:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarcyB Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Nope. While we'd never want to go overboard and put our family in harm now by spending everything we have on preparing, we are gradually working towards being prepared for ANY circumstance, whether major world war or an extended unemployment period of our lives. I really liked One Second After :) Try a few blogs like The Survival Mom for good, helpful, non freak-out information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remudamom Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Yes, we are prepared for something like this to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 (edited) We are actually working towards quite a bit of self-sufficiency. This isn't just for preparedness but just also being good stewards of our world. I highly recommend baby steps. Don't go into debt for it either. We started small, container gardening, tiny plot, cultivating relationships with local organic farmers so we could glean from their knowledge, etc. Over time, we've made it up to raising a couple of pigs for food, larger garden, strawberry patch, asparagus patch, preserving 75% of the fruits, vegetables, and legumes we eat in the post harvest seasons, and wood heating. We aren't off grid and won't go into debt to be that way either. Though we both feel that the US is in rather bad financial straits, we also don't know that anything catastrophic will happen either. So, we just do the best we can, one step at a time. There were several threads on this about a week or two ago. Auntie M and I, reguheert, and several others were posting to those about some of the hobby farming and energy independence that we are slowly working towards. Maybe someone will remember the titles and post them here so you can do a search and look up that information. No panicking...just little improvements as we can over time. Faith Edited January 25, 2011 by FaithManor We've been at it for a while so we are quite a ways along in our process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbaby Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 Nope. While we'd never want to go overboard and put our family in harm now by spending everything we have on preparing, we are gradually working towards being prepared for ANY circumstance, whether major world war or an extended unemployment period of our lives. I really liked One Second After :) Try a few blogs like The Survival Mom for good, helpful, non freak-out information. I'll check that out! The blog I was reading yesterday was a complete freak out blog! I was starting to think we needed a rural hideout:tongue_smilie: I would love a little more realistic advice than purchasing a house and land in the middle of nowhere! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 We have quite a bit of supplies on hand - just for good planning and in case of power outages (they happen here). Dry goods, water, frozen food, etc. Plenty of high quality survival gear since I live with a bunch of rough-camp boy scouts. Also, we are half a step from the real wilderness if necessary. But I admit - if things started looking grim, that young bull moose that keeps trying to eat my maple tree out front would find himself quickly in the freezer. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 (edited) Like FaithManor, we are trying to make little improvements and adjustments to help us become more self-sufficient. We're concerned most with shorter term disasters and low-moderate level financial straits if the economy gets worse. We don't have the means to become totally self-sufficient, so we're just doing what we can. My first step is building up a water supply and that has come about as much because of our gross tasting well water as anxiety about water supplies being cut off or contaminated (more, lol). We're going to try some container gardening and I may do some seed storage. I'd like to read up on that. Building our pantry has always been important to me, but I feel sort of aimless. I have plenty of stuff, but I don't know what I'd DO with it all. LOL I need menus and a *plan* for that aspect of preparedness, and I'd like to be able to plan for 6 months + of food, not counting any fresh veggies that I hope we'd be able to barter for or grow ourselves. Also, when thinking about preparedness, I REALLY want to plan out our homeschooling long-term so that I can be buying ahead (and behind, for our little guy!) so that we have ALL the materials we need for a K-12 education right here in our home. Maybe not every reading book that we'd want, but definitely those included in the curriculum. If there were 6-12 months or more without access to public schools, I'd like to be able to work together with other families to get our kids educated and maybe help out some PS teachers/families in the process. I'd like to have a good supply of camping lanterns, batteries, safe emergency candles, and get more blankets/sleeping bags. All of these things are helpful anyhow, and we camp out at a Christian music festival so it would be an investment. Stocking up on propane for our grill would be a another thing for us to work towards, and maybe another alternative for cooking since our current house has all electric appliances (blah). Those are my thoughts so far. Not alarmist, but definitely thinking about the security of my family. Edited January 25, 2011 by 6packofun change Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Btw, I enjoyed the Last Light series and will look up the other book you mentioned! I like those kinds of stories. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in Austin Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 It is good to be prepared, not panicked. Start with a 72-hour kit. (Google for ideas.) Then work on a 1-3 month supply of everything you need to live comfortably. Don't forget water and paper products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Yes! I forgot to mention that we're stockpiling toilet paper because it's one of those things you ALWAYS need anyhow. LOL I try to take $20 out of every paycheck and stock up on paper products, cleaning products and staples that are on sale to put into our rotation so that we always have more than we need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 It's not paranoid. Where we used to live hurricanes happened. It may not be that there are wide spread outages of power and food supply, but it could be local. We had a couple of hurricanes hit while we lived there (2 within a 3 week period one year :glare:) Grocery stores took a little bit of time to get restocked. It's just a fact. We were fortunate to not be out of power but some people were for up to 3 weeks for a minor hurricane. We also had a lousy water company, old pipes, and we were out of water for 3 days at one point. Since we had saved water in cleaned out juice jugs we didn't need to run to the store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Try a few blogs like The Survival Mom for good, helpful, non freak-out information. Thanks for posting that blog! It looks like a great starting point with lots of info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 We've been through a 2 month national strike (where banks and supermarkets openned 3 hours a day), two days of riots with a news blackout, regular (but not scheduled) water outages and two weeks without power after a hurricane. I've always been a stockpiler by nature, but we didn't really have an elaborate plan in place. I do have at least 2 weeks of canned/shelf-stable food and water (or other beverages) in the pantry. We got through all of this without anyone going hungry or unwiped :D. If worse comes to worst, those Rainbow Resource catalogs have a LOT of pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Am I the only one insane enough to worry about this:) No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarcyB Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 If worse comes to worst, those Rainbow Resource catalogs have a LOT of pages. bwuahahahahahahaha :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m0mmaBuck Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 We are prepared. Not panicked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I am probably just being paranoid because I recently read Last Light and am currently reading One Second After ( both about surviving in a post EMP world), but I have been worrying about our families lack of preparedness. if there were a natural disaster, EMP, national terrorist attack, etc., we would be so ill prepared. No food storage, protection, generator, etc. Do any of you plan for this kind of stuff? What do you have in place to get by under these circumstances? Am I the only one insane enough to worry about this:) LOL, you're not insane. I totally went on a preparedness kick after reading the series. GREAT series, BTW. Anyhoo, I may not be as diligent as I was right after reading it, but I'm not altogether UNprepared like I once was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarcyB Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 which Last Light series is this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbaby Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 Last Light is the first book in a series by Terri Blackstock. I only read the first in the series. One Second After is a novel by William Forschten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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