Posted on 04/21/2009 5:45:18 PM PDT by appleseed
FORT WORTH Jack Spirko owns a media company, is married to a nurse and has a son in college. He has two dogs and lives in a nice house with a pool in a diversified neighborhood in suburban Arlington, Texas.
Spirko, 36, considers himself an average guy with a normal life.
But for the past few years, Spirko has been stockpiling food, water, gas, guns and ammunition. He also has a load of red wine, Starbucks coffee and deodorant stashed away.
I refer to myself as a modern survivalist, which means I dont do without, Spirko explained. I have a nice TV; I have nice furniture. We are not living in the sticks, but I take all of these things very seriously.
Spirko, an Army veteran and self-described stark-raving-mad Libertarian, is part of a growing movement of people who are preparing for a disaster natural, economic or man-made. Referred to as modern survivalists or preppers, they are taking steps to protect and provide for their families should something bad happen.
Theirs is a different breed of survivalist, far from the right-wing militants or religious extremists who hole up in bunkers, live off the land and wait for the apocalypse.
Preppers are regular people with regular jobs who decided after Sept. 11, after Hurricane Katrina or when their 401(k)s tanked that they cant rely on someone else to help them if something goes awry.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
For safety, use super saturated potassium iodide. (AKA SSKI)
It can be hard to find, but is totally effective, and leaves the water fairly palatable.
If you can’t find it, go to a compounding pharmacist to have it prepared. a little goes a long way.
bfl
<This isnt survivalist mentality as much as it is common sense. Stuff happens. Be prepared.
Yep. I used to tell this to my girl friends. They already thought I was a little weird for being conservative, and would shake their heads when I mentioned stockpiling stuff for emergencies. What I tried to tell them was that emergencies happen all the time. The power goes off, sometimes for days if its an ice store. People get sick and can’t go to the store. Sometimes you need cash, even in this debt/credit card/ATM society.
As a bunch of single women, most of us didn’t have anyone near we could count on to bring us food, etc. I don’t know why keeping a little stash (we won’t even talk about weapons) of household goods made me the weird one.
among to many items to discuss here, both my immediate ‘G.O.O.D.’ bag, and my retreat locale have air rifles for those squirrels you mentioned. I can’t hit anything with a slingshot, even tho I do have a very nice one as a back up. I agree that cash is going to be needed bad initially and gold is not going to be the save all as some think, but a person or their group had better have some silver, in fractionals on board also. just a few thoughts.
Preppers are regular people with regular jobs who decided after Sept. 11, after Hurricane Katrina or when their 401(k)s tanked that they cant rely on someone else to help them if something goes awry.
Why, I’ve always believed they were called Americans,
cause that is what Americans DO.
pinging you, Do you still have room under the bed?
Laughing.
You remembered!
If anyone wants a reminder of how fragile society is, read “One Second After” by William R. Forstchen. The US, Russia, Japan and S. Korea are hit by EMP weapons.
It’s all downhill from there. Scary.
He had a kid when he was 18?
Hey survivalists....get a typhoid prescription...available at the public health and CVS has them 58 bucks
I’ve lived through a major hurricane, earthquakes, several blizzards, and an 8 day power outage in below zero weather.
Not all in the same place, of course :)
The hurricane was the first disaster I’d ever faced as an adult, and was a real eye opener. I was raised to apply common sense to things, and stocked up when we moved to hurricane country.
Thus, I thought people knew that you were supposed to have a non-electric can opener, for example. And batteries. And water. And food.
Like your friends, most people don’t know it, or won’t admit it to themselves.
I saw people unable to do much of anything in the aftermath. It was sad and frightening.
Thanks. They’ve got a wide spectrum of products there don’t they.
I hope for his sake that he is keeping that gas he has stored well treated with a fuel stabilizer. The current ethanol blend fuels are not nearly as storage-friendly as the old gasoline was.
Bump
Link from the article:
How to can your own butter which lasts for 3+ years.
Cyber warfare (Attck on banking system).
General supplies - Long term storage.
Does your preparedness include a no power option?
Etc...
God’s gift to those who love good food and the outdoors:
Why pay $35+ a pound for these in a grocery store when a little hard work out in the woods is all it takes.
bump to save links.
The Mountain House and Provident Pantry #10 cans can last up to 25 years if stored properly.
No problem.
I started reading some of the survival sites and found them very alarmist. I don’t have a problem with that (I AM alarmed) but I wanted my girls involved, but didn’t want to have them fretting all the time. That site is great.
We got our strawberry and tomato plants yesterday. We’re ready to roll!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.