Posted on 05/02/2009 2:46:51 PM PDT by appleseed
FORT WORTH, Texas -- 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 don't 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 can't rely on someone else to help them if something goes awry.
"We are normal people just like you," Spirko said. "We just understand that, sometimes, stuff goes wrong."
Donnie, 38, a McKinney resident who is an account executive with an international trade show organization, said Hurricane Katrina opened his eyes. He spent six weeks working as a paramedic in New Orleans.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
Not really - typing speed of 102 wpm makes it rather speedy. You ask me why I’m posting others yet you post me. Oh, the sheer irony of it all.
Confident in “whom” you believe, you mean? Interesting.
I love all these people whom assume so very, very much. I’ve never been quite that cocky.
It’s fine. I DO have a good sense of humor, one of the important attributes required in any dilemma or crisis.
“Confident in “whom” you believe, you mean? Interesting.
“I love all these people whom assume so very, very much. I’ve never been quite that cocky.
Faith is only as good as the Object of your faith.
The Object of my faith is worthy.
Faith isn’t an assumption, unless the Object of your
faith is questionable.
Cockiness implies that your are relying on something in
your own self, as if you have merit on your own. I have
none.
Seeing if I did this ping thing right.
The one I carried for 25+ years got confiscated at an airport checkpoint a few years back. Has a few morse since then and lost those. Now I have a hunred. Gave some out at church today. Surprising how many didn’t know what they were.
got it ......ya done good troop !
Seems to have worked...thanks.
You said it, I didn’t. If you are storing up stuff for Armageddon, on whom are you relying?
Yes I received it. Thanks.
Add me to that list, please.
Since one has to rotate all regular canned and packaged foods, the longer one lives this way, the more it becomes second nature.
As to hoarding: we will often make up a package of still good canned/packaged foods for folks when we know times are tough for them. We just tell them we had to go through our pantry and had this stuff extra. If it is time to donate to the local food pantry, then we take the *extras* there. We find that even if you don’t get paid back by the exact same people, you end up receiving extras from others.
My husband has an Orthodox Skete as a client. The Skete has a patron who owns a high-end produce store. Once a month, the patron delivers boxes of fruit and vegetables and then, we are usually given several bags of whatever they think won’t last for them.
Right now I have 3 heads of kale that came along with other produce and tonight I am trying out a recipe for roasted kale, for the first time.
Other folks will bring us fresh laid eggs or a loaf of home baked bread, maple syrup.....whatever. The sharing is normal, here. I will turn apples into pies and give one back to the people who gave us apples or make dried apples (shred very thin, bake with confectioners sugar until crisp. They last a long time) and give some away. I always have an abundance of dried tomatoes that I give away.
We have an informal group of friends, all with different skill sets and all of us share when we find a source of something useful. If the SHTF, we have agreed that it would be a waste to all stock the same things to the same degree, so we will trade among ourselves, if it comes to that.
It isn’t stocking just for a catastrophe or even a flood or storm. We see inflation already and we have all already experienced times of low income when money has to go for taxes and insurance, first. If food or cleaning supplies or even TP is already in stock, that is money one doesn’t need to spend.
PP,
I am NOT storing up stuff for Armageddon.
Nor did I say that.
Best,
ampu
I too am struggling with the Chistian aspect of preparing. My brother and sister-in-law insist I do not trust God for I am preparing. (They give me the lilies of the field and birds of the air bible guotes). But, I still feel it is God who is putting all of this in my heart at this time so I can help my chldren and grandchildren.
I now have twenty laying hens and two pigs. My next door nephew has a large garden and a well. We are good.
BTW, fresh laid eggs are a wonderful bartering tool.
I have a sister like that. “If you prepare, maybe you’re taking away a blessing that God would have for you.” That’s a crazy way to think, though, since it could apply to just about anything you do. We look at Noah and Joseph as examples. In both, God gave them very clear knowledge of what was to come and directions for preparing. We don’t have that same level of knowledge, wish we did!, but even non-Christians are looking around at the changes in our world and know that something big is happening. A lot of them are “prepping” too.
We’re not “preparing for Armageddon” as one poster on this link stated. (If you know anything about Armageddon, you know there’s nothing to prepare for.) I look at our preparations in a couple of different ways.
#1 it offers a degree of insurance. Both dh and I are self-employed with businesses that have been very up-and-down over the past six months or so. Knowing that I have a few months of groceries and supplies set aside, is reassuring because if our income came to a standstill for a while, we could at least eat and have clean clothes! If there’s one lesson to be learned over the past couple of years, it’s that NO ONE is 100% secure in their employment.
#2 it buys us some time. If a TEOWATKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) event ever happened, or some other sort of disaster, which is far more likely, our supplies would not hold out forever, but they WOULD buy us some time. We wouldn’t be among those scrambling to get to the grocery store to buy the last box of cereal. Eventually, our provisions would run out, but it would take quite a long time to reach that point, and that would give us time to assess our situation and not take action with a panic mindset.
#3 if we have provisions for our family and close friends, we won’t be a drain on whatever assistance might be available via government and charitable agencies. I did learn a big, HUGE, lesson from Katrina. YOU CAN’T DEPEND ON ANYONE IN A CRISIS. You have to be ready to take care of yourself. I won’t be one of those sitting on my roof, figuratively speaking, waiting for someone to come along and help me. The very idea of being that helpless repulses me. I just wasn’t raised with the mindset that I need to be taken care of.
Looking over this, I can’t see anything non-Christian about it. I am trusting in God to provide for us, and setting aside some provisions is part of that. I’ve just been grateful that we’ve had the extra income over the past several months to allow us to do this. That’s not the case with my MIL and SIL/BIL, so I would like to have twice the food we currently have because there’s a good chance we’d have to provide for them as well.
As far as the birds of the air go, God has given them instincts that keep them alive. If they ignored those instincts, they wouldn’t survive very long. I do believe that we need to be careful that we’re not acting out of fear. That’s not the spirit that God has given us. :o) I know of one man who believes that Christians will be on earth throughout the Great Tribulation (I don’t), and he is currently living in almost a cave out in West Texas. Crazy. That’s living in fear, not faith.
Thank you, SO much for your reply. I feel the same way you do, but could not put it into words like you did. If you don’t mind, I am going to share what you said with them. They do not have a right to question my faith just because I feel something is happening and want to keep my family safe. Just like they can quote the birds of the air to me, I can say they were given talents and buried them in the sand. Like you say, it does not mean it needs to be Armageddon or the Tribulation but could be a birth pang type of situation where it is getting closer and closer.
One more piece of advice: once you’ve had your say, keep your mouth shut. If they want information to begin their own preps, they’ll come to you. Also, you don’t need them telling others about their “crazy SIL” and making your house a target in the case of a disaster and desperate, dangerous people begin stealing.
Me too, please.
Okay - and I don’t have a “problem” with people who do, at least personally. However, I do think that hoarding IS unbiblical and some of these people are doing just that. So, let’s leave it at that.
Best to you too.
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