Posted on 08/07/2021 5:46:52 AM PDT by Twotone
A crippling ice storm that left Travis Maddox and thousands of other Missouri residents without power in 2007 had an “almost apocalyptic feel to it.”
“No one could move. It just shut the whole region down for two weeks. I wasn’t as prepared as I thought,” said Maddox, a burly man of 43, sporting a long black beard, T-shirt, cargo pants, and baseball cap, while tending his garden.
Those two weeks made Maddox realize that being prepared—“prepping,” as it’s called today—was the key to a life of self-reliance and personal freedom.
As an Eagle Scout, he never forgot the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.
“To me, the ultimate level of prepping is being self-sufficient. You’re still being modern, but you’re in control,” Maddox told The Epoch Times on Aug. 5.
In 2009, Maddox launched his YouTube channel, “The Prepared Homestead,” which now has over 32,000 subscribers.
People, he said, are waking up to the worsening reality of supply chain disruptions and food shortages, and rapid political and social changes that all point toward “a perfect storm” just ahead.
The COVID-19 lockdowns and empty store shelves only served to heighten popular sentiment that the “old normal” is gone, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Hi.
Ice storm, hurricane, earthquake, tornado or the Biteme administration;
Which one is most dangerous?
5.56mm
My wife’s friend has one of those nat gas automatic generators. When she had a blackout, it wouldn’t start.
Turns out you should run it once a month.
I see a lot of talk about generators and such. Wise for the short term, but if fuel price/availability changes for the worst, running them becomes a problem.
Here, we work under guise that both electricity and fuel may become unavailable.
Energy: solar panels for recharging low power items. Got a washing machine motor and a spare bike if things get desperate.
All it takes is a diesel fuel disruption for supermarket shelves to go empty. Or a ‘bank holiday’. Or a ‘greek haircut’ (goggle it).
Also we dont buy food stuffs in bulk. Instead, we have a few shopping items on the list each week, with notes on the calendars on their self life so we know when to use what we have and when to buy more, thus a natural rotation.
Also consider hand tools, hardware items nuts screws bolts etc.
Just mu $0.02
jimjohn - OUT.
Generacs are fine. Why not get the whole-house 10-11KW unit on NG, but then get the conversion kit to run propane, as well. Our unit has saved sooo many times! Had it for over 20 years!
Looked at that one the other day, I may go by again.
IIRC, I probably got their link, from you, years ago. So, thank you, if so!
If the grid goes down, so will pumps that push the NG. So it has some benefits, but is not the end-all solution. Pumping water by manpower is the only way to be sure.
Give me a high hanging curve ball like that and I'll normally hit it out of the park. Not this time. We're not talking about my natural gas.
Excellent point. So will the smell of wood burners like the one I use to heat my home.
Unless one's in a very rural area like I used to be in Michigan's Upper Penninsula (when I say rural, nearest neighbor was 120 acres away at least) being detected should be expected. A defense plan is warranted. As I live in a near rural to suburban area, there's no way I'm going undetected and I don't view where I live as being defensible in the long run.
We’re seeing a carefully developed and carefully excuted plan of public mass hysteria. Not the first time in history, but never as successful on this incredibly large scale.
What is most amazing about this mass hysteria is that the actual threat is amazingly small compared to the hysteria.
Some folks are beginning to figure it out...
“If thing get seriously bad, generators (if they are on) will attract human predators from far and wide....”
And therein lies the problem. Have yet to determine a way to noise-proof those things to practically silent.
Is there a prepping/homesteading ping list? It would seem to dovetail with the ‘outdoorsman’ ping list.
Thanks for reminding me. I started a new prepper thread but forgot to ping the prepper ping list.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3982962/posts
The same goes to having gold and silver on hand. If you go and barter for some food with your gold coins be careful because others are going to assume you have a stash of gold at home. It will make you a target in a TEOTWAWI event.
Precious metals are best as a hedge against inflation and currency devalutions, but not as useful in a TEOTWAWI event.
My son has one and he has his programed to come on automatically once a month for 1/2 hour.
His works great.
Good - lure them in and get them out of the way early.
Homo Sapiens has survived against overwhelming odds both by using force and deceit.
I came from the “deceit” gene pool, but to each his own.
:-)
(From the article) :" “Prepping is something most people did all the time” in bygone years. “Our grandparents were preppers.
I suspect if things continue to worsen, preppers will be made to be the bad guys,” he said.
Our grandparents were not bad guys, they performed "risk assessment" and identified problems before they actually occurred; they anticipated with logic.
There are numerous prepper sites all over the internet, to cover all different lifestyles whether home owner, apartment dwelling, or outdoors camper, or BSA "Boy Scout".
For example : the "SHTF" website, "the woodpile report", "Doomsday Preppers", "The Organic Prepper"; "The Survivalist Board"; "Grand Pappy's Hard Times",
"The Armchair Survivalist Radio"; Ferfal's "The Modern Survivalist"; "SurvivalCrackas", etc. and many more.
Also, we have prepper material and known participants right here on FreeRepublic who practice what they preach, and just do it until it becomes a habit.
Preppers realize that one of the first controls that socialists employ for population control is to control food, water, transportation, and food distribution.
Therefore, one prepares according to "risk management", or identify the problem issue that is most likely to occur.
Some preppers, according to their individual needs and abilities, may choose to remain 'in situ' , while others may be able to move to a different location.
Plan accordingly, according to conditions that exist, or that you think will likely exist in the future (ie.: Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan 'Failsafe'.
That is where the OODA Loop comes into play - prepare now logically,..rather than to react to chaos emotionally.
Anticipate, be aware, make a decision logically, and then act on that decision - that is the OODA loop in action.
Then practice to make sure that your plan can work; for example don't store wheat berries if you don't have a grinder,
don't have a transistor radio if you don't have batteries, don't plan on travel several hundred miles if you only have 1/4 tank of gasoline, etc.
That's when practice will show you where your shortfall may occur; you will learn more from your practice failures than you will from successes, it called a "learning experience".
The OODA loop principles are used for personal development, and are applicable in business, and in the corporate world as well.
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