Are you prepared?
Do you have water stored? How do you plan to get water in an emergency?
Do you have a stockpile of medicine at your house?
Do you have a stockpile of medicine at your house?
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| "Just what are you up to?" How do you deal with your own Gladys Kravitz? |
Hubby Dear was asked these very questions recently. The lady is one of those people who will come to see him for a specific reason and spend the next 45 minutes talking about weather, the state of her daughter's uterus, the price of corn, and everything BUT the reason for her visit. She has asked him preparedness-related questions before, but this time she was persistent. She had been watching Doomsday Preppers and it filled her with burning questions including whether her well would still work if Texas was suddenly pushed up to where Canada is today. (Yes, she was really scared about that!)
Hubby Dear remained very general, telling the lady that, yes, we are prepared for basic emergencies like ice storms but we don't have a stockpile of medicine. Both of these are true statements (for the moment - the stockpile of medicine will be forthcoming!), but he certainly could have divulged more information had he chosen to do so. It is possible that this lady and her family could be potential prepper allies, but we simply don't know them well enough to gauge their intentions. Could it be that they were sizing up a potential target for looting post-SHTF? Could it be that I am overly paranoid? ;)
How would you respond to something like this? Do you let your freak flag fly? Or do you keep your prepping secret for OPSEC's sake?
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Other than the people who live in my house, I've only shared details about my prepping with 2 or 3 trusted friends. But living in the Pacific Northwest, being prepared for a natural disaster is completely normal (and even expected!), so most of my prepping wouldn't raise an eyebrow anyway! Lots of people remember Mt St Helens blowing up in 1980 and not being able to drive to the grocery store because the volcanic ash in the air overwhelmed their car's air filters. My mom, and my sister's family (who live about 100 miles from me), have both been completely flooded out of their homes twice in the last decade. We have windstorms & landslides often enough to lose power at least a few times a year, even in the city or suburbs, and earthquakes often enough to remind us that we do live on (and near) some pretty scary faultlines. Plus we have a pretty sizable Mormon population, so having lots of food storage is considered very normal too. So if people ask me about prepping topics, I answer them as if they're asking for tips about preparing for our local natural disasters -- because just about anyone who's lived in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years or more would be answering them the same way!
ReplyDeleteI just looked at the scouting calendar and noticed a woman I know by face and name but no deeper is teaching the boys "preparedness." I called her up and began an intricate song and dance, trying to see what she "knew." She started out by saying it was going to be about being aware in parking lots. Then she talked for a bit about tornadoes and power outages. She began to falter. I told her my dad had recently watched a show called "Doomsday Preppers" and it had people who lived in a POD bunker. She faltered... anyway at some point in her backtracking I said, "It's not like an EMP is going to go off over Kansas and wipe out the grid or anything." Finally we started talking tentatively about Mylar and all the other prepper lingo, how we can't wait for the kids to go to sleep so we can see what Survival Blog posted that day. How you can order the Emergency Essentials boxes to come blank. (I think I learned that here!) Anyway it was an exciting exercise in OPSEC with a great ending- a woman I know is a prepper like me! My first local find!
ReplyDeleteJeanne S - Interesting how preparedness is seen in different parts of the country.
ReplyDeleteMama4x - That is so cool that you found a local prepper buddy! I'm impressed at how you segued into revealing your prepper-hood.
Just my mother and mother in law know. Though more people know about our storm shelter and security cameras because we recently built the home and people saw it in the basement during our home tour. We keep a lot of food on hand because we "live so far from town if there's a power outage, we'll be last on the fixit list and on a dead end road, so when there are trees down we cant' get out." We have actually been trapped twice in 2 years due to fallen trees!
ReplyDeleteWe are a military family, recently into prepping, so we are pretty open with the "co-workers" about it. People would be amazed to know that while plenty of military folks hunt/fish/camp/stockpile weapons, few are into personal disaster preparedness, despite having been first hand aid givers in big disasters (like in Japan where my husband supported the earthquake/tsunami disaster). I just use the example of Japan as a conversation starter for how easily transportation/shipping/vital services can be disrupted, leaving many people without much food to support their families.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we have Mormon friends who were a bit surprised when I started to talk to them about food storage (I guess we ARE storing, and they AREN'T!). We're also from the Pacific Northwest and I agree with Jeanne that "prepping" is totally normal there, but it's called being self-sufficent!
BTW, I had no idea how close our blog titles were when I started mine last year! But I am still a beginner blog and have had a hard time writing regularly. I like yours!