Who is Ready for Fallout?

This is not meant for the political side of the conversation. Rather I am looking to have a conversation around readiness and or preppers getting ready?

By no means am I a prepper. Yet we've striven to make steps towards being ready for short periods of natural disasters. In other words, we would have no problem last week a week. Where I have struggled to get my family onboard is water. Every time I add water at home, I can't get them to leave it alone. Talk about frustrating. I'll add 5 gallons of water. Next thing I know we are down to 1 gallon. I need a closet I can lock to put the water into.

Defense I've been slowly building. I have a mix of handguns and rifles. Right now I am looking for a 12 gauge shotgun to add to the mix. Along with 500 rounds of ammo. As far as I am concerned you can never have enough ammo. The price has become so prohibitive these days, but you just have to suck it up and keep adding.


Jason from RI

 

So a gallon of water = what??

Sorry, I am not a Pepper, I have enough guns that I can possibly defend my family if someone kicked thru my back door...If a tank pulls down my driveway, I can unload a bunch of 223 into it until it turns me into dust!

 

No guns or ammo here. But I have 2000 gallons of water! Five or 10 gallons of water will quench thirst for a day or two. You might want to think about how to go bigger.

 

I'm not a prepper either but am definitely prepared for most "stuff".

If you put water in a 55 gallon drum or IBC tote then no one will touch it unless it's absolutely necessary because it's to painful to get it out. Out here we don't have standing water so water storage is important. If I lived somewhere else where water was easy to come by, then filtration would be the main focus. Food would be the next concern.

Guns and ammo are fun, but in reality an actual shootout would probably last a few minutes at the most if it's you against the world. In a prolonged survival situation the best defense against the masses would be distance from major urban areas and the ability to keep your family hydrated and fed. Every gun has a purpose but sometimes bigger is not always better. A suppressed .22lr rifle is an amazing, amazing, tool. Shotguns also have their place, but that means you're close up and personal, probably want to try and reach out and touch someone well before that. Knowing if someone is in the shadows on the property lines gives you the element of surprise that will always turn the tables in your favor.

Ammo is always cheap in between election years, especially when an R is in office. Stock up really well then, sell when the D is in. Use the proceeds to build a new house, buy a new car with cash, or restock the next election cycle!

Just my 2c, worth what ya paid for it.

 

A drone can put a bomb on your SIM card. How do you prep for that?

 

Don't have a sim card??

 

Well,you better get one then

 

Airborne contaminants like radioactive fallout, chemicals, and pathogens are tough to deal with. Stocking up on water, food, weapons, etc. is comparatively easy.
We're tried to prepare our basement to accommodate our family of 4 with energy, food, water, facilities, security, etc. but the air sealing is really challenging.
I look at as a 3nd reason to work on air-sealing our house other than energy conservation and pest entry control (dammed stink bugs!).

 

Interesting days ahead... ... we're as stocked up as possible... for us. Not expecting too much BS here in rural Maine... but, ya never know.

 

This is what I need to learn. Hopefully, we'll not lose water. We do have a well on our property. 2000 gallons, do you have a tank underground?

 

Consider investing in some home security upgrades if you haven't done so. Good lighting and cameras will keep most people honest. Grow what food you can and definitely consider 55 gallon food grade barrels for water.

 

I have two 1000 gallon tanks, above ground, in the pumphouse. The well feeds them, and I have a separate pump pulling off of them for our water needs. The tanks are a few feet higher than the house, and will gravity feed the faucets to the house without power. All can be run from my generator as well. The pumphouse is insulated, of course.

Because all of our water needs are coming off the tanks, the water in the tanks never gets stale. I also have a water level alarm to let us know if the tanks are not filling properly.

 

This is a pretty good video about water In the past, I was less concerned about water than food as i figured that it rained often enough in the northeast that I could collect water from downspouts or nearby streams. This past summer showed that weeks without rain could put us in a hurt locker. That said, i think living in a desert, water would be of more importance while in the north, with a short growing season, food storage might be more important.. This article talks about the need for food, water and a means to defend it. You Must Be Able to Survive 90 Days There are other articles on that website.

 

I assume that because we have a deep well and backup power that's capable of running the submersible pump that we're good as far as water. I hope that's a good assumption.
We also store about 3k gal. of rainwater for irrigation and fire fighting.

 

Hand pump well (if no power), but we'd need some water to get it primed.....so wife made sure we have that covered.
Enough food for as long as it takes for the zombies to come. As long as the hoards don't overwhelm us, we'll do ok.
My understanding is that we can do w/o food for quite a while, but would die after just a handful of days w/o water.
Of course we have enough wood to keep warm, and the stove to cook on if we lose power.

 

We like to tell ourselves we live in a civilized society, but come a real crisis situation all bets are off. Stockpile all the food, water, firearms and ammunition you want but realistically not many would last long-term. I'd be fine for a couple weeks at BEST. Let's say a certain side doesn't get their way and starts throwing temper tantrums on a mass scale. Hordes of wild eyed political pseudo-religious zealots pour into neighborhoods looking for houses with American flags out front to throw Molotov cocktails at. What are you going to do? We're a nation that's been cooped up all year, stressed out and teetering on the edge of a precipice. We've been reduced to a battle of two different ideologies, and both see the other side as insidiously evil. I don't think any amount of prepping could prep someone for something on this scale. How the heck did we get here anyway?

 

For those in rural areas, with wells, who are concerned about water... you might look into Simple Pump. It's a hand pump that can be installed next to your homes' water line (in the well casing). They even have a system that uses your existing water line, that can pump directly into your home system. We installed one at our cabin and it's worked well for 9 years so far.

www.simplepump.com

 

"How the heck did we get here?"

Ever increasing levels of "self" in our culture.

From "hippies" to "cable TV" to the "internet" (you can prove your "self" right by simply watching your "values" repeated back).

Look at the common evolution of faith to "I believe and so saved" ("self" is saved).

 

That's a lot to wrap your mind around the more you think about it. I thought it was a bastardization of collectivism that brought us here the whole time. Everyone living in an echo chamber, hearing their own values parroted back to them and perceiving others and their beliefs in a grossly distorted way.