Prepping for backpackers

It would help if you were to define the time duration and quality of life one would expect that would define you as being “prepared.” Feel free to be specific.

If my power goes off, I have no water. I store water. I stock up food. I’m well prepared to live outside. I’m prepared, but not a prepper. I figure when *HTF, my power will be off. I have a barnful of fertilizer anyway. Along with a few eggs. Not gonna eat my dogs. Probably the other way around. They keep tasting my hands. On the other hand, that rooster keeps asking for it.

We were hardcore preppers on the island. But you had to be – power outages were far too often. We have 2 tanks of water, 1100 gallons total, for watering crops, flushing toilets, and for the animals. We could purify it. We had propane field appliances, and even our water heater was one. We lived rural. And in case of earthquake, we could have been cut off from the mainland for a long time. We even had 2 pressure tanks for our well. A generator that was hard-wired. Since our island was so long (55 miles) I was always ready to walk home if needed – because 2 separate quake zones crossed the island, one 2 miles from our home.

Here, at our new place, I do not have outdoor water done yet. I also don’t have livestock here. Our power stays on here. Wind doesn’t do it here.

I have gotten lazy in ways. Yet we always have drinking water on hand. We don’t drink our well water. It is clean but freakishly hard. We have to have all our pipes redone (we knew this going in) and have a water softening system installed. I have a Berkey filter I run the dogs’ water through. I drink spring water; I am not testing my kidneys with it.  We do have a generator for the well. I’d drink if I had to. Through the Berky, however…..

But part of me has slid. I honestly don’t worry so much here…if SHTF, it will be bad here. We are not far from a certain fort…in Maryland. We are direct out of DC. The hoards will try to overrun Virginia and head over the mountains into West Virginia. Prepping here is simply different. Range time is more important. Cough.

I mean….I could go deeper into what I think about personal protection and all, but I will wander off here and say this: I feel safe in WV, where I did not on the mainland in western Washington. In a crisis though, everyone needs to be responsible for themselves.

Our 2006 Ford Van is our bugout bag.  It has about a week of food in it, and about 12-15 gallons of water, along with a lot of backpacking gear.

After that…

My self protection has always been being half crazy and not letting on to which half. Unless you have endless rounds, nothing’s going to save you long term. When the doomsday clock ticks, you’ll have no more choice than you have now.

I do keep my truck stocked. Four hundred watts of solar, a wood stove, warm clothes, and all my camping gear. Canned goods and recently freeze dried meals to get me through a few weeks. Birds in the barn providing plenty of eggs with meat in the winter. Roosters to restart the flock. I’m not a prepper. I’ve just been broke a lot and like to be prepared, especially for the snowy days.

I started this prepping thread a few years ago and it got a lot of replies. https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/bug-out-bag-for-uncertain-times/

I do like J Scott’s first reply.  If you are prepping for post nuclear war, you are probably unclear on the side effects….

I have two weeks of food and water in case of a mega earthquake.  As suggested by “them”

Maybe a better response to possible nuclear war is political – support politicians that you think are less likely to support a nuclear war.  It’s difficult to figure out which politicians that would be

Philip, I am looking at about one month with the food and water on hand for two of us eating “normally”. Two months with rationing and me hauling water with my e-mountain bike. It gets charged from my 220 watt solar blanket s does my Li Fe Po BLUETTI battery  so no worries there.

Here in the Las Vegas valley it’s worry about an earthquake as there are fault lines crossing the valley.  All homes here are built to a US earthquake code. In a “BIG ONE” we can make it until things get somewhat sorted out. I worry that I’d have to start loaning my firearms to neighbors for a “Neighborhood Watch” to keep looters away. A scenario like that is not fun with setting watch hours and hoping no looters slipped by and did home invasions.

Sarah, I have yer 1st book, You taught me how to save money on food and have tasty backpacking meals. And your view of not feeling safe in Washington is how I feel about ‘Vegas. People get very strange in dire circumstances.

But yeah, if its a nuclear “exchange” I’ll assume the nuclear war position: Bend over and kiss yer a$$ good bye.

Writing from minus 40F, and with yesterday marking the 23rd day of below minus 15F, being prepared is a no brainer. Gotta have extra water on hand, lighting, fire starting necessities, plenty of warm clothing, and food you can eat without cooking or that you can find creative ways to heat it, like on the woodstove. With skinny spruces laden with snow hanging over the power lines, an outage is always expected. Folks with propane stoves can’t cook right now, all frozen up. Of course, Alaska depends a great deal on barges bringing food up from western Washington ports, so an earthquake there could knock out our ability to get shipments.

Growing up with Depression-era parents, I learned a lot of frugal ways. If the shtf I imagine we’d all just get more creative and enterprising about everything we do, conserving instead of discarding. And even more important is the social network you have that can back you up in tough times, imo. Trust, reciprocity, compassion and loyalty are in my mind more critical than firepower or hoarding or trying to be “every man for himself” minded.

Earthquakes are like surfing. Ride them out.

All my neighbors are well armed. It’s not uncommon to walk out on a Saturday and hear rapid fire from automatic weapons from the range down the road. I count the money as they fire. The owner went out to lunch one day and a relative rammed a truck into his wearhouse and stole his collection with plans to sell them to the gangs in Pueblo. Luckily they were caught.