Posted on 04/28/2010 6:13:34 PM PDT by ChocChipCookie
"Candles and wood."
It's Deb Giffin's mantra.
The Manor Township woman doesn't want to give up her dishwasher or her fridge.
But, she said, disaster could strike. Civilization shouldn't count on always having those cushy things. So she's laying away supplies for a rainy day.
She's started to fill the pantry of her suburban home with canned pineapple juice, beans and high-energy snacks.
She has fastened a large kerosene lamp to the wall of her living room. She has hand tools galore, a fireplace and bundles of wood from a home-improvement store.
She has an emergency pack in case she needs to clear out.
"I have flashlights that are the crank style" and don't need batteries, said Giffin, 54.
She also has plenty of company.
Emergency preparedness is growing into an American subculture that some adherants claim is bigger than the tea party movement.
Giffin and others share gardening and survival tips on blogs like The Survival Mom. They belong to groups such as the American Preppers Network, launched 16 months ago by 32-year-old Idaho truck driver Tom Martin.
The thousands of daily hits on americanpreppersnetwork.com will cease, of course, if there's a monster storm or economic collapse. But one goal of prepping is to get society ready for such events.
The message isn't always welcome, as Giffin knows.
"My daughter busts on me about being a doomsday person," Giffin said. Giffin contends she's just being practical.
Either way, the prepper demographic contrasts starkly with the secretive, backwoods bunker survivalists of the 1970s and '80s.
Some preppers are hunters and back-to-the-land types, to be sure. Some live on ranches and farms. But many others reside in cities and suburbs, said Kathy Harrison, a western Massachusetts woman who has written a preparedness guide called "Just in Case."
The prepper world is diverse, embracing concerns about energy use, personal health, overconsumption and waste.
"This is no longer sort of the crazy man out in the cave someplace dining on bats' wings and frogs' eyeballs," Harrison said.
Socking stuff away
Harrison for example, describes herself as a middle-aged woman with "a minivan and a pile of kids" and a backyard swimming pool. "We're just people," she says.
But what makes otherwise ordinary folks start packing away sterile gauze pads and tinned meat?
People who become preppers often already have a self-sufficiency mindset, said Art Markman, a University of Texas cognitive psychologist who tracks the preparedness movement.
Calamities such as Hurricane Katrina and the Wall Street meltdown stoke that impulse because they stir doubt about whether government can handle the mess, Markman wrote in an e-mail.
"When trust erodes," according to Markman, "people want to take over more ... basic responsibilities for themselves. People who feel like they are taking care of their own needs are decreasing the anxiety caused by mistrust."
Hollywood has picked up on the mood with recent post-apocalyptic movies such as "The Road" and "The Book of Eli."
"We're realizing how spoiled we are," Deb Giffin said.
Giffin said self-reliance comes second nature to her because she's a single mother of three, and because she grew up on a remote Berks County farm that lacked indoor plumbing until she was 6.
With five brothers and three sisters, she noted, "I always grew up wanting for something."
Her job in the electric utility industry has shown her the vulnerabilities of the power grid, Giffin added.
Recent stories about solar flares and electromagnetic pulse bombs that could supposedly destroy communications networks have put her more on edge, she said.
Now, she's convincing friends and family to become more independent —slowly.
She said her younger daughter, Jennifer Derr, asked at one point " 'What's a screwdriver?' She does at least check her oil now."
Her older daughter, Leslie Egiziano, created The Maven Club, a local self-help group, Giffin added.
Building a prepper nation is a guiding principle of the movement, according to Martin and Harrison.
They both live in rural areas, grow their own food and could live without the grid indefinitely.
But what if some catastrophe undermines law and order?
Harrison said she has no intention of taking up arms, "Mad Max" style: "I'm the first person in the stew pot, I know that. I can't fend off a gang of mutant zombie bikers."
She won't have to, she added, because her neighbors are already on the same self-reliant page.
Whether this ethic is infinitely adaptable to the nation's neighborhoods is an open question.
Markman lauds backyard chicken raising. And he says personal fitness and health care awareness are especially sensible.
"I think that recognizing that things can go wrong ... is a good thing," he said.
However, he added, "I think that, in general, people underestimate the complexity of really doing everything yourself."
Martin said he has no warm, fuzzy illusions about what would happen if political and economic systems should fail.
"I doubt if you'd get a Utopian society out of it." On the other hand, he said, "if a disaster comes through and nobody's prepared, your instinct cuts in and it's a fight for survival."
That's just the kind of scenerio Giffin wants to avoid, especially for her children.
And so she keeps on socking stuff away. And she keeps on trying to motivate other people to become preppers.
"If something big happens," she said, "I think people are going to have to realize they're going to have to get along a lot better than they are now."
I can’t even find the prices for 4 pound, (not 3 pound) blocks.
One I found was about half the price of a 50 pound block which would make it too expensive to buy 13 of them, plus they seem to be a different composition, (nutrients for deer).
You are correct - 4lb.
One I found was about half the price of a 50 pound block which would make it too expensive to buy 13 of them, plus they seem to be a different composition, (nutrients for deer).
Anything you can get in a 50 lb block, you can get in a 25 lb block or a brick (4 lb.).
All I can tell you is what it generally costs here at the feed store: A block is about $6-$15, and a brick is $1.50-$2.25, depending on the type, season, and general availability... We have livestock, so it is something I deal with all the time.
Here is on-the-ground prices for a feed stores in Wisconsin/Illinois somewheres: http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/062582-white_salt_brick.html>
AVG price:
Block= $6/50lb,
Brick=$2 x 12.5 = $25/50lb (12.5 x 4lb)
Roughly $20 difference for the convenience and utility of the smaller portions IS negligible. It isn't like you are buying pallet loads.
That price sure defeats my purposes as defined in post 74.
“I like the 50 pound blocks because they are so cheap and easy to store, once you have your normal, survival salt stored, then you can add one or two of the 50s as an almost free, deep storage bonus.”
No, it doesn't.
Whatever. knock yourself out, d00d.
I think that I would be the best judge of what defeats my purpose that I described.
I wanted to store 100 pounds of salt in two solid blocks that were easy to store in one place and in little space, at a cost that was close to free, $13.00. as a kind of deep storage bonus on top of what I already thought an adequate amount of survival granulated salt.
Buying 25 separate bricks at a cost of $50.00 was not what I was looking for. I really like the idea of 50 pound blocks, even an apartment dweller could store one of those easily.
I can already buy 1 pound containers of table salt at the store for 39 cents. I also already buy the 4 pound boxes of canning salt at the supermarket at a cheap price.
As I said, knock yourself out.
Well, I did say a STURDY case.
Of course you could aways have two 31 LB cases.
Thank you, Quix! Have saved to “Read it Later” (a nifty add-on for Firefox). :) This will definitely come in handy as hubby and I are re-organizing our camping supplies, and other things this weekend, and making a list as to what things we need to acquire to feel more secure in these trying times.
SOUNDS GOOD. THX THX.
In a long term situation, how are you going to dispose of garbage? If it piles up, it will attract vermin and cause disease.
Preparedness is more than just a list of stuff to have, it's a state of mind.
Thanks for the pings CCC.
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