Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

I was just wondering if I was the only weirdo woman into disaster preparedness??? I figure homesteading is about being self reliant, and kinda goes in hand with being prepared for whatever may happen. I have been trying lately to built my emergency stock of items, and am dedicating $20/payday to stockpile certain foods. I have 2 small 6'x10' garden plots in my backyard which isnt much but I am trying to learn to successfully garden. Its super hot here and I'm still learning what to plant when, hopefully I get to a point where I can not buy certain things at the grocery store anymore. I can jams/jellies, tomatoes, and pickle certain veggies, make cold process soap. I have a slingshot with metal balls, a longbow (hubby got me last Christmas) and for now just target practicing in hopes of one day hunting. I try to make things from scratch and use only basic & multipurpose things around the house so I can stockpile only those items (baking soda, vinegar, castile soap, etc). We live in a subdivision so cant have livestock but I would love to have a few chickens, ducks, and maybe a goat or 2 for milk. And a mini fruit orchard! Hubby isnt on board with this, he doesnt complain much but he doesnt understand my need to be prepared. He feels having a big saving account is being prepared. I feel when crap hits the fan, that money is gonna be good for wiping butts :giggle: But even for small things like power failures, or say the stove dies on us, I want to know I can take care of my family without those things.

So am I the only one that has clothes hanging in the top half of her closet and cases of dehydrated/freeze dried food in the bottom??? :lostit:

Nope, not the only one. I try to make sure that everything I use is usable over an open fire if needed, & always have a grab & go emergency bag. We keep dried food, waterproof matches, water purifying tablets, emergency blankets, fire starters, one of those foldable saws, a utility knife & utensils. That bag is kept with a hiking pack that has a copy of most of our important documents & a small tent.
My friends think I'm a total nutjob.

Re: Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

:giggle:
Sweet! What's your address? I might need to load the kids up an head over if there is ever a disaster! LOL

I have thought about doing this...but have never gotten around to pursuing it. I think its a really good idea. What kind of stuff do you stock pile and how much per person?

Re: Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

Nope, there are a few hanging around. There have been several threads in OT on disaster preparedness- mostly labeled doomsday preppers because of the show. We working on a stockpile, but spend most of our time learning self sufficiency. I dedicate $10 a week to food storage and dh has his own envelope dedicated for equipment- hunting, gardening, heating, etc.

Re: Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

I dedicated $50 a paycheck to disaster preparedness. I also coupon to cut costs and my food budget is a tad higher for a 3 person household as well because of this. I have 72 hour kits for everyone in the family and a backpack in the back of my jeep for two people. I also have a bug out house that houses about 20 people on 300 acres. I need to actually start moving my items down to that house because that is where we will go for ANY emergency. If an EMP strikes while I do have a tractor that would run and we could hook a tailor up to it I would rather everything just be down there. My only worry is the house is near a coyote trail and we have had issues with Mexicans on the property before. I would be totally screwed if they broke into it and stole all our items. I don't prepare for just one thing (like that show shows people doing). My stockpile came in REALLY handy when I was between jobs.

I stockpile EVERYTHING you could imagine.

Edited to add:

I stockpile a year-2yrs worth of nearly everything imaginable. Coupons have helped cut the costs A LOT. I got a lot of my guidelines from here http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/

I try to get my family into stockpiling. While my FIL KIND of does it..my SIL doesn't. SO I basically do it for all of them nearly. Or buy more and then make them buy the extra LOL. If SHTF they like to joke wih me they are coming to my house (well..bug out location). While I tell them they are more then welcome at my house they better bring food. Although I can't stop them from coming to the bug out location since we all own it. I am working on getting them more into stockpiling though. I stock a bit extra of items that have a 30+ year shelf life but on the shorter stuff I just can't.

Re: Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

I haven't been able to stockpile much, given that we just rent and move a lot due to my soon-to-be ex husband hunting us down. :banghead: I do make sure that I will have everything to survive a month or 2 "on the run" in a scenario where we won't be able to buy food/water type things. Making sure I have cash stashed somewhere is what I'm working on again, I used to always keep $2,000 in a convenient place to grab it. My goal is to be able to pick up and go within 15 minutes, and we're getting there. :)
I think the bug out house sounds like a really good idea, like the pp has. That sounds so cool!
I had no idea there was a show about this stuff either, guess I live under a rock! :giggle:

Re: Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

Yeah NatGeo has a show called Doomsday Preppers and there is another one called Meet the Preppers but it on a different channel. We want a vacation cabin aka bug out house too. We're heading to a campground in May that is a few hours away and were going to look around there for some property where we can build a cabin. The area isn't too highly populated. Because we have gotten into homesteading stuff we could easily stay where we are forever, but the area is more populated then we'd like.

I think you could have left the Mexican part out.

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Why? if that's who is trespassing on her land...I'm sure she doesn't mean just any Mexicans but lots of ranchers lives are in danger from illegal Mexican immigrants crossing their land and shooting at anyone who gets in the way of their very illegal journey. I'm sure she would have specified Russians or even Germans if that had been her experience...but it isnt.

Re: Does this forum include disaster preparedness?
 

why? That's who is trespassing on my land, that is who has held a gun to mine and my daughters face, that is who i am having issues with. If it was Russians, Canadians or Germans I would have pointed them out as well. I pointed out a general population by their name. At least I didn't call them the W word which is offensive.