Do you ever feel a little guilty for being prepared ?

firewood here is an example of our lifestyle generally. That is a very interesting point. Stacks of firewood is the quintessential mark of cold weather and perhaps general preparedness against the elements. And those these days are both natural and man-made. Being able to heat, cook, and maintain the 'stead independent of the grid (more or less) just makes sense. And that seems unusual in the population at large.

What a great thread. We're about to be faced with some interesting times. I think we'll be challenged morally as well as practically in the not too far future.

I enjoy teasing out the nuances of my thoughts, learning the extremes, and figuring out where I stand, and what my reasoning is. and then adjusting that as needed.

Most cool.

 

Embarrassed because I'm prepared? Hell no, I dont give a flying F what anyone thinks. Most of my neighbors have generators though. Hell, even the seasonal cottage across the street has a standby generator, and their main home is 20 minutes away.

In 6 years, Ive only had to use mine twice. But those two times were a week in total.

 

In Mississippi (Hancock Co), after Katrina, thieves would swap a crappy, but running, mower with a generator at night.

 

We had a major outage in Ashtabula County last week. The substation servicing our area had people and trucks in there 24/7 five days prior, including the weekend. Power was out over a wide area for 6-7 hours, some coming on line, and other areas dropping over that time frame. The solution for the moment is a portable substation.

There has not been a peep in the local paper about the cause, but there are rumors that parts for permanent repair are hard to get. About 4 hrs into the outage I decided to fire up the Yamaha EF2800i, switch the jet pump, that pulls from a storage tank in the basement, to 110v and re-pressurize our tank and cool the fridge back down. I didn't feel like hooking up the 25kw PTO generator at the time, but given the whole situation at the substation, it has been pulled out (funny how stuff Iike that gets buried) and test run. Diesel tanks have been topped off as well as ethanol free fuel cans.

I haven't felt so much as a twinge of guilt. I do have a couple spare generators for close family members who are a bit naive.

 

I was raised with a real DIY / Plan ahead / help others ethos by my parents. Mom is still around and healthy, dad died 10 years ago from a brutal bought with cancer. When he was in the hospital our area got hit with a nasty snow storm, it's still talked about as "Snowtober". 6 trees came down in the yard. The house was without power for a week. I was 27 my brother was 24/5 and I think we were totally unprepared. We were both living elsewhere - not at home - at the time. Friends of ours spent a day cleaning up the yard after the snow melted. I can't remember the time frame, but I do have a distinct memory of walking into my parents home and it felt like it was in the 40's in there. They had a "fire box insert" in the fireplace, and I got that going. Even though I didn't live there I had accumulated somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 cords that I stacked, mostly for visits home but a bit of the winter in mind for that project.

What a detour of a story... but do I feel guilty? I'm not sure it's guilt but I do feel a bit of responsibility to help out when people are in need. I was in need once.

At home I don't think I'm much of a prepper- yet I do have wood on hand in the stacks. I've always been a keep a spare bag/box of dog food / rice / diapers (now) yada yada for when we run low or if we can't get out for a bit. Having a baby didn't change it, it just expanded what I'm ready and prepared for. But there's also this piece of the equation for me that items we use with regularity, i just buy bulk because there's a savings there. We have a generator and I bought a small power bank to run the internet router alone for maybe a day if we needed. (Come to think, I'm adding this just before hitting "post reply" I keep a case of bottled water in the deep freezer for a) if the power goes out I can move a few of the frozen bottles into the refrigerator to help maintain the temp and b) I cycle them in and out of a cooler when we go somewhere to keep my beer cold and c) have a water to drink if it comes to that lol)

This thread gave me a lot to think about. I'm mostly pretty happy with where I'm at with my home, but one big upgrade I'd like to make one day would be a new inverter on my solar array to run it when the power goes out. The specifics are way over my head but essentially a different inverter and a battery back up and I'd be in a good spot.

 

Are these unopened (full) bottles of water? They don't bust? I would think a new/full bottle would bust when it freezes .....

I use some juice type jugs for freezing (about 3/4 full of water) to put in the cooler for trips etc... I like your idea of using some in the fridge, and being able to freeze some full bottles for drinking.

 

That thin plastic flex's plenty enough to not break...we freeze some for "ice" in the cooler in the summer too...its nice because you don't lose valuable space to ice (or waste money buying ice that just ends up being dumped)

 

I've yet to have a bottle break or split open, but some of them do get a little deformed. If you freeze / thaw a bottle some of them lose their shape at the bottom.
So far they're pretty good for repeated freezes.

 

We do the same. Keeps from getting “cooler stew” from the melting ice.

 

Mmmmmm....cooler stew....

 

Yup been there many times camping with the boys.

 

Speaking od plastic breaking, kerosene/lamp oil in their original jugs, will eventually become brittle enough to shatter/ break if dropped.
Perhaps over a longer period of time.
Other than mason jars, I haven’t found an acceptable storage unit.
Sca

 

No I don't feel bad in any way. I admit I'm not prepared in some areas as some, but feel I'm much more prepared than many.

I would like to get a generator but so far have made do without. Since we're on a well when a bad storm is coming, especially a winter storm, we fill our water containers for drinking, cooking, and bathing. I've already brought water up from our creek to flush our toilets. Not ideal and kind of a pain in the rear, but it got the job done.

What gets me is when people make fun of or question our preparedness and stocked supplies. I have a long memory and their comments won't be forgotten.

 

I'm one of those people. Very prepared with a heavy addition of overthinking how this could play out as the situation gets longer. I absolutely do not feel guilty about being prepared and using those preps when others do not have them all the way up to suffering and death. My family is most important.

This thread needs a healthy dose of OPSEC. Operational security. You do not want to be the one house for miles with lights on, bellies full, and smokey chimney when people and their children are dying or think they are going to die. You do not want to be barbecuing food outside when your unprepared neighbor is starving. Not because of guilt but because these people will eventually come to you and expect you to share or they will force you to share or they will just kill you and take your stuff.

You might think, and are correct, that very short term situations won't trigger the desperate people to act poorly and you're right but you don't always know how serious and long term the situation will become until it happens. I too will do some bad things to keep my family from dying. Cow in somebody's pasture, bang, beef on my stove.

So yes, be prepared, but be very discreet and be prepared for the refugees. I am a canner, a firewood hoarder, a water tank storer, generator owner, and maybe even a gun owner. It's easy to prepare to live in your home without utilities or leaving for a few months. It's way harder to prepare for the refugees.

 

Very true.

While this may be true, one should also be prepared to be shot when/if they do this....

 

Correct. My point was that all of us will do what we must to stay alive. The very unprepared will be doing things like that early on in the situation.

As wood hoarders we have to be thinking about how we handle wood thieves. Even a hoarder has to sleep.

 

Yep. It is pretty much impossible to be ready all the time. Especially by yourself, or with low numbers....and it gets harder the longer you have to do it.

 

Best not to flaunt anything, especially in tough times. I hate people asking to borrow stuff, hate asking for it back even more. You don't want to become the supply house or a target for thieves.