# Why did you start prepping?



## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

What initially made you start? Was it just something you grew up with? Did something happen that you were "caught out" by and you decided never again? Did someone talk you into it? Or you slowly came to an awareness that things weren't good with the world?

And how did you start? What was your first move? What mistakes did you make?

Just curious


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

I became a prepper by accident. I was born on a farm where you just are automatically a prepper. For this, I am thankful.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Y2K made me first start thinking about "what if the stores don't have food?" although my stocking up was kind of uninformed and non-sustainable. But at least I realized that we were too dependent on getting to the grocery store and tried to provide a couple of months of food for the family.

By 2001 I was starting to stock cases of commercially canned foods and bought a couple of water barrels. I started canning and growing a garden in 2003, and by 2007 when we bought this farm I was seriously into trying to be more self sufficient. 

Until I found this message board, I'd never given a thought to EMPs, unsafe food supplies, pandemics, hyper-inflation or societal unrest, :runforhills: but I'm grateful for finding a community that educates me, supports what I'm doing, gives great advice and keeps me going when I get burned out.


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## BoldViolet (Feb 5, 2009)

My husband always had a light-hearted obsession with zombies.

One day, when I was ribbing him about it for the umpteenth time, he finally got through to me. "It's an illustration of what could really be - replace the zombies with hungry people."

And then he explained how stores didn't keep much food in them, and that we were really one trucking strike away from a food riot.

...and then he handed me "One Second After," and that book single-handedly changed my world. Now I'm more of a prepper than he ever was.


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

Tradition. My parents (and their parents and grandparents, etc. before them) were farmers/homesteaders/preppers so I just grew up that way and carried on in the tradition. I stressed the importance of it and raised my own children in the tradition and now they too are raising their children in the tradition.

.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

grew up on a self sufficient farm with grandparents who brainwashed me.....lol...i thought everyone had 3 freezers full at all time and 1,000's of jars of home canned goods.

my first memories are pre kindergarten age going to milk the cow with grandaddy and standing in chair at counter to help granny fill jars with maters to can.


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## Surge223 (Jun 27, 2008)

Y2K is what first got me going. After that, a few tornadoes and a massive ice storm kept me prepping.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

It was just what I learned as growing up. When the trees had peaches, you put them all up in jars. When the chickens were laying too heavy to eat all the eggs, you made noodles and froze them. You put up everything to last until the next growing season. And they also kept plenty of flour, sugar, salt, salves, soaps, etc on the shelves too. You just learn this from your family.


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## Sandhills (Jun 15, 2004)

Hearing stories of the depression from my grandparents and aunts and uncles when I was young got me started thinking about it. Also, growing up in an ag community.
Then my Grandmother got me started canning jams and jellies and then had me progress to other things as a young woman. She also taught me how to shop sales and use coupons to save money.
When we moved to Nebraska I learned to be prepared for snow/ice storms. I have an older neighbor to thank for those lessons. 
When Hurricane Katrina hit, our local grocery store had trouble getting things like coffee  and bananas :nanner: and other tropical fruits. Also, a few of the local gas stations had trouble getting fuel. What an eye opener :shocked: when you live that far away from a natural disaster.


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## Ambereyes (Sep 6, 2004)

Grew up on a South Texas ranch, we never had any choice but to prep to survive. My Mom a legal Mexican immigrant who got her citizenship and a college degree. She was one of those people who could feed us very well on only what we produced. Didn't have fancy things but we ate well, it is just a way of life for us.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

hoggie said:


> What initially made you start?


First, I started canning because I was purging all artificial / chemical ingredients from my families diet.
Then I discovered the internet!!
I stared baking bread from scratch (like grinding my own wheat, scratch)
Then I found a couple of sites (backwoods home was the first!) that talked about 'being prepared'.
It made sense.
I love my children more than the next breath I draw...we live in tornado alley.....and we are way the heck out in the country and during a blizzard, we are hosed!!
Have a healthy distrust of the clowns in charge of my country.....
It seems very natural to want to be prepared.



> Was it just something you grew up with?


My dad was born in 39. Grew up with nothing to eat...and 6 brothers and sisters older than he, that were equally hungry. We did have 'extras' but it wasn't on the same scale as what I do.



> Did something happen that you were "caught out" by and you decided never again?


Ahhhh. The old, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice? Shame on me".
Yes, I am in the midst of this....and learning!!



> Did someone talk you into it? Or you slowly came to an awareness that things weren't good with the world?


Honestly, Backwoods Home's site was/is filled with some AMAZING folks and they were SOOOOO very helpful and then when I came here a few years ago, same thing. Amazing helpful folks.



> And how did you start? What was your first move? What mistakes did you make?
> 
> Just curious


www.foodstoragemadeeasy.com
That's when I got organized! Great tips on how to get started, and organized.
Mistakes? Letting stupid carp derail me.
Right now my 'pantry' is in such disarray, and I am running low / out of a lot of items. 
Focus is key.


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

Seeing SARS appear then spread for a while, then H5N1 influenza do some species jumping got me to buy into the idea of a serious SIP (for many months) as a prepping strategy for any serious airborne pandemic situation. Following that thinking along as we started setting things aside and considering necessary skills and strategies, I could see the fragility of JIT inventory delivery systems in food, medicine, fuels, etc, and once you open that ball of worms up and the idea of true "collapse" comes through, well, there's a lot of prepping needed just to have family flexibility on one's own terms for even six months after any of a number of systemic emergencies developing.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

I was another one who grew up in a farm family that canned and froze what was grown in the summer so we ate well in the winter. Had milk cows and beef cattle, an orchard and a big garden, a huge pantry full of home canned food and a couple big freezers full of beef and produce. My parents grew up during the Depression and remembered lean times even after WWII, so even though we didn't have much money, we had plenty of food on hand.

As an adult, I remember living on very little money, but I stocked a pantry from the time I moved out on my own at 18. When I was a single mom, going to school and having to depend on food stamps temporarily, I was amazed at how much money the government thought it took to feed a family! That was back when you used paper food stamps, and by the time I graduated and got a job, I had over $1000 in food stamps stored up - we ate for another 6 months, including stocking up, to use up the last of them.

I always wanted to live the homesteading life and escaped the city as quickly as I could. I found Countryside Magazine, Backwoods Home, and Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. Then came Y2K, and more serious prepping just in case. I was thankful that nothing happened, and bought lots of other peoples' supplies at garage sales the next few summers. Eventually, I came to the internet and found HT and a few other forums. They opened my eyes even wider to how fragile our infrastructure is in the US and how easily we could be thrown back into "the dark ages". 

Not so much different than many others on here, I suppose.... Have I mentioned how much I appreciate this community here on HT and especially on S&EP? It's nice to come to a forum where making a sawdust toilet, using cloth instead of paper TP, and storing rain water for a "rainy day" is the NORM!


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Why - 
I've lost everything twice. 
So I have over compensated with things that mean something to me.
Along the way I learned of Y2K from the company I was working for - and how to keep that from being what it could have been.

And surviving is a many faceted topic and there are many paths to the various survivals - just the 'usual' one is the one most people think of - but there is so much more.

So, I do what I can, and still believe it's mostly just being like our ancestors on the farm as much as we can where we are - doing that, most of the things we are concerned about cannot cause too big of a kink in our living life fully.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I not really a "prepper". My Grandparents and Mom+ brothers escaped from a camp in Russia went to Germany starving and then came here. I heard many storys. Grandma canned foraged food from the woods grandpa fished, my sis and I learned alot from them. Gma had an awsome pantry. In the 70's I was a "back to the lander" in a cabin, really hungry sometimes. Now, I'm a "homesteader" with many miles under my belt. I'm just really oldfashioned when it comes to the way I am comfortable liveing. I've belived sinse I was a child, that I lived as a man and rode the range in Montana in another life. Guess thats why this lifestyle feels right to me.


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

Y2K rattled me but I didn't have children so I just crossed my fingers and figured whatever happens will just happen. It was years later before I thought about it again. 

When DD1 was born I had to fight nurses off who constantly came into the room to whisk her away for silly reasons. Hearing tests, for me to get some sleep, vaccines ... and I had this overwhelming need to never set her down. After a really crappy birth experience I decided I would start researching vaccines after we got home. 

That led me to learn about the immune system and from there I began to read about how to properly nourish a baby. That led to learning to raise chickens, then to kill chickens, and then a natural springboard into living in a self sufficient way. It was like peeling an onion; the more I peeled away the more I learned and the more I wanted to learn! 

Then, after Hurricane Ike I watched a woman go bananas while we were all standing in line for gas. The station ran out of gas before she got to the pump and all I could think was that I didn't want to fight off people like her if there was a chance there was no food at the grocery store. Couple that with reading about women having to give their kids away during the depression and I knew I would do everything possible to keep my kids fed and safe. 

So far my biggest mistake is stashing wheat. We don't eat that much wheat and I don't want to survive on wheat when TSHTF. If I had known then what I know now about wheat I would have just skipped it altogether. But the smartest thing I did a few years ago was drive about a 75 mile radius buying up canning jars. I have a *LOT*!


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I started when my daughter was born. She has an intolerance to chemicals in her food. Preservatives, food colorings and such.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

I never became one. I simply grew up in a rural environment during the 1970s with kerosene lamps kept on standby as we had low reliability REA electric service and a 10 by 15 foot pantry because we had OPEC courtesy of Henry Kissinger and Jimmy Carter courtesy of Gerald Ford to contend with.

When I moved out on my own I carried a lamp and the pantry concept with me to my first apartment . Over the years I have upgraded from the kerosene lamp however my pantry has remained about the same.

I remember first reading Howard Ruff as I evaluated potential investment strategies and laughing my butt off when I got to his chapter describing the concept of a Mormon pantry and how it was valuable to pursuing an investment strategy because the pantry he described was the same type as I had grown up with and at the time had in the kitchen cabinets and storage closet of my apartment.


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## Ozarks Tom (May 27, 2011)

I've always been a numbers man. For many years I've watched our country spend money it didn't have, and would never have. Several years ago we decided it was time to cut loose from the herd, and look to ourselves for security beyond dollars. Tons of mistakes, wasted time and money, but learning from it all. 

Thanks HT & especially SE&P for our continuing education.


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## Cheryl in SD (Apr 22, 2005)

I grew up watching my grandma growing & stocking everything she could. We often had limited supplies but we made do. Then I read Down The Hole and preping clicked. Now it's a way of life.


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## farmersonja (Mar 9, 2013)

I don't consider myself a hardcore prepper, just a lady with a growing distrust of the system all around me. I guess my first contact was with food. My mother got sick with an incurable cancer that usually strikes children. I was also trying to lose some weight at the time. So I started doing more and more research about food. And what I found out about hormones and GMOs horrified me. I became convinced that this is why people are getting sick more often and children are hitting puberty earlier. And then I lost my mom. Food has become my obsession. I will not let my husband and I become victims of bad food. The rest has just come as an offshoot of that obsession. I realized how little it would take for something to happen and shut things down around here. I remember what happened during the new years flood of 1997. We have just been evolving our plans from there.:shrug:


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## justincase (Jul 16, 2011)

oh my! my sotry leaves alot to be desired compared to yours. my story is a lil commical actually. I thought I was prepared cuz I am in hurricane area. But one day while my youngest was a lil baby our water (city) went down so it had No water to make a bottle. But my neighbor came to the rescue. Then I was without power and no heat with baby,power was restored just in time.still gave not much thoughts about it. One night I was up very late on the computer and was looking at something on youtube and I linked to other things. I ran across yankee prepper video . Got me thinking. Then saw Patriot nurse 5 waves of death. I got scared. I started to think about being lil in the 70s odd even gas days. parents burnt candles to save electric. Grandma grew up in the depression. Next day called her and asked her about how she grew up. Got me thinking. Bakc on youtube I went and got more afraid. Started to prep for a hurricane. Then started to prep for whatever. Not having an idea at all to what I was prepping for really. Then the economy started to really tank and fast. I started to really watch the news , kinda hard to do when ya have a lil toddler but I knew I had to do something. Got hubby soemwhat onboard. We purchase mres.we hit the lotto with food grade containers at a yard sale. Bought used canning jars at a yard sale. Bought about 50 pounds of sugar at a yard sale. Farmer was selling his hime and bought drums for water. started a garden which had yet to produce anything cuz we do not know how to grow in this area but we are trying really hard. Wwe have a propane fireplace and kerosene heater for back up. We have a wood stove but no money to buy the pipe at this time. what is the dumbest thing I have done while prepping, waiting too long and not dedicationg all the time i need to to get done what i need to. I also had hubby dig a hole for a bunker which we did not realize how highthe water table is here ( we are yankees in the south) he got about 5 feet deep and about 14 foot wide but uit filled with water from the bottom....dumbest thing. the other thing that we did was not can enough of what we have, if power goes down we could loose alot of food. I need to learn how to can meat and make it taste good.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

Oh my, such wonderful stories. Mine doesn't run very smoothly, really I came to this mindset in bits and pieces. I was raised in the city with all of the trappings and none of the experience of those raised on a farm. It all started...

Back in the mid to late 70's, we had quite a blizzard. I wasn't fearful as I was always excited by weather, but DH did have to make an emergency run to the grocery just as it was hitting. I was so worried while he was gone, that I decided to keep "a few things on hand for just in case". At the time, it was usually just some powdered milk and canned meat/fish that I would purchase in the fall.

Then I started reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series to my 3 little ones for bedtime stories. We bought the companion cookbook and I started cooking like they used to, hasty pudding, cornmeal mush, apple dumplings, etc. That somehow made me realize that if I didn't learn to can, my kids would never even see that as a possibility if they ever needed it. Learning to can made me feel as if I had finally found my niche, it felt like I was doing what I was always meant to do.

Then dh died and I needed to devote time and energy to being the breadwinner of the family (and I missed how proud he was of me), so canning sort of fell by the wayside. I never sold or gave away any of my jars or equipment, so I must have known that I would return. 

And I returned with a vengeance! -right after 9/11. I was travelling out west at the time, mostly camping, some hotel stays. Two days of standstill showed me how little grocery stores kept on hand, and that led to me thinking "What on earth would everyone do if this lasted for a long time?" I can't speak for everyone, but this someone knew that it was time to get back to food preservation and storage in earnest. The things I have learned and the things I have accomplished have grown exponentially ever since. After 20+ years on my own, I have remarried resulting in 8 grown kids between us. I have enough canning jars to help offspring get started if the interest arises, and consequently, I preserve now with the idea that we could really have a houseful in in emergency. But the best thing to come out of all of this.........two of my three kids have begun their own preparedness programs.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

justincase said:


> oh my! my sotry leaves alot to be desired compared to yours. my story is a lil commical actually. I thought I was prepared cuz I am in hurricane area. But one day while my youngest was a lil baby our water (city) went down so it had No water to make a bottle. But my neighbor came to the rescue. Then I was without power and no heat with baby,power was restored just in time.still gave not much thoughts about it. One night I was up very late on the computer and was looking at something on youtube and I linked to other things. I ran across yankee prepper video . Got me thinking. Then saw Patriot nurse 5 waves of death. I got scared. I started to think about being lil in the 70s odd even gas days. parents burnt candles to save electric. Grandma grew up in the depression. Next day called her and asked her about how she grew up. Got me thinking. Bakc on youtube I went and got more afraid. Started to prep for a hurricane. Then started to prep for whatever. Not having an idea at all to what I was prepping for really. Then the economy started to really tank and fast. I started to really watch the news , kinda hard to do when ya have a lil toddler but I knew I had to do something. Got hubby soemwhat onboard. We purchase mres.we hit the lotto with food grade containers at a yard sale. Bought used canning jars at a yard sale. Bought about 50 pounds of sugar at a yard sale. Farmer was selling his hime and bought drums for water. started a garden which had yet to produce anything cuz we do not know how to grow in this area but we are trying really hard. Wwe have a propane fireplace and kerosene heater for back up. We have a wood stove but no money to buy the pipe at this time. what is the dumbest thing I have done while prepping, waiting too long and not dedicationg all the time i need to to get done what i need to. I also had hubby dig a hole for a bunker which we did not realize how highthe water table is here ( we are yankees in the south) he got about 5 feet deep and about 14 foot wide but uit filled with water from the bottom....dumbest thing. the other thing that we did was not can enough of what we have, if power goes down we could loose alot of food. I need to learn how to can meat and make it taste good.


The bunker wasn't a dumb idea. You were just a bit confused. You were actually looking for an emergency supply of water and found it!


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## flowergurl (Feb 27, 2007)

I grew up on a farm. We grew, canned, froze most of our own food.
We went to the store after things like coffee, sugar and the like. 
We ate many things from the wild and they tasted great.
I want to make sure my family has enough food to eat. Soon as I retire we're going to find us a little place out in the country.


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## OnlyMe (Oct 10, 2010)

I'm a native New Englander and my parents kept up a good panty. I was taught from a young age to always have pasta, tuna, peanut butter, and soup on hand to be prepared for weather events - especially blizzards. I assumed everyone did. My parents drilled into me the need for an emergency bag in my car ~ again, I assumed everyone did. In these regards, I never knew life any other way.

Fast forward to my adult years. 9/11 hit home particularly since I traveled to NYC often for work. What if I was there that day? How would I have gotten out of the City? Walking home was not an option - I didn't have any delusions about that.

We wanted a change in lifestyle and we decided to move to a small town. I wanted to be a good housewife for my husband and keeping up a home that could meet our needs became my mission. I'm now a devoted deal seeker and coupon user to keep our home well stocked in a frugal way. We enjoy the solitude of being in the woods & happily take on the tasks of doing and learning as much as possible even if it's often by trial and error.

As for mistakes, we've had our share, two of our most memorable:
During a power outage, a generator running on the deck will vibrate the grille causing the lid to crash down on one's fingers. Great pain & a few not-so-ladylike words will follow. 

While the pile of firewood looks nice off in the distance, hiking out for wood for the fireplace (no power thus no other source of heat) in a foot of snow isn't nearly as enjoyable as it appears in a Norman Rockwell painting. A wood pile should be much more accessible.


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

I grew up in a frugal German-descendant household. Never thought of it as prepping--more as just the way you live. You bought stuff when it was on sale to save money. Dad grew up part of his life rural. Was a FFA kid. As soon as the house was built, he put in a garden. A large one--he had a wife, three kids, a mother-in-law and a dog to feed. Mom learned to can when we visited friends in Ohio. Then came the freezer once the garden doubled in size. Living in N'oreaster territory, we were always prepared for storms.


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## unregistered168043 (Sep 9, 2011)

Slow awareness that either things weren't good in the world or I was simply not cut out for a conventional life and job ( probably a little of both ).


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## ms_gal (Sep 22, 2012)

I grew up in southern Mississippi. My mother and grandmother always kept a well-stocked pantry, so having food on hand was normal to me. It wasn't until after Hurricane Katrina that my husband and I decided that we needed to be better prepared in general. It was amazing the amount of chaos that was created when the power was out for a couple of days and grocery stores were running out of goods. People were very aggressive over trying to purchase bread and ice. Others were fighting (literally soothing each other) over gas at the pumps. We were fine during that time, but it really opened our eyes about how fragile our country is. So, we started prepping at that time to put away closer to a years supply of food and toiletries. Over the last several years, we bought gas tanks so we can keep our own supply of fuel. We put in a wood burning fireplace. Gardening and food preservation became important. We also added some chickens to our property and a milk cow. We try to teach our kids about the importance of taking care of themselves and not being dependant on others. Hopefully when they are grown and answering the question of how they became preppers, they will say, "That is just how we were raised."


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## farmersonja (Mar 9, 2013)

I would like to say that i was raised to watch what is going on around me, but I wasn't. born in Los Angeles to a very citified family. I only really started prepping about 2 years ago.


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## scooter (Mar 31, 2008)

My parent's always had a garden and Mom canned. There were 5 of us kids to feed. They would talk about the Depression and also about when certain foods were rationed during WWII.

I married a farmer and living out in the country you always have to be prepared, you just never know when there will be extra people at meal time, or a storm moving in, you just can't drop everything and run to the grocery store.

I was a prepper before it was given a name.


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

I became a "prepper" by accident too. I am not sure I am really a "prepper" but some folks might say so. 

I was raised on a farm and we always had canned goods and most everything "stored" up for later. I supposed that gave me a "back ground" lesson with prepping.

Then Hurricane Hugo (1989) came along and we lived in Charleston, SC at the time. (big mistake but that's beside the point now) I manged to get to the grocery store and got what I thought we needed (me and husband and baby son). We went 200 miles away to Grandma's house to be safer and upon return, found the stores wiped out. No food, no water, no gas, no nothing. We did not have electricity for three weeks. We had to call family for help and they hauled water, food, etc. to us. 

I learned fast. I was not going to run out of water nor food again.

Took me eleven years but I moved us out of that "heck hole" of a town and moved to the country. The grocery store is an hour away, uphill both ways, and thus, I starting stocking up so I did not have to go to the store.

Maybe I started prepping 'cause I am lazy! That's it. I am lazy. I *HATE* going to the store and so, we go as little as possible. In order to still have what we need, we stock up, plan ahead and sometimes do without.

I don't call it "prepping". To me it is just what works for us and is common sense. Its more fun going on a hike or working in the garden than standing in line at the grocery store!


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## RomeGrower (Feb 27, 2013)

This may amuse some of you, but I have never been able to locate the United States as a supreme power in the Bible prophecies about the end times. Since I'm a believer that tells me something drastic has to change the status quo in the world. Our family does not want to be at the mercy of everyone else when we can do so much to be prepared to take care of ourselves. We are buying food ahead, building our gardens to grow our own food and looking for other ways to be more self sustainable over time.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I am not a prepper , I am a old boy scout who has lived the laws and motto BE PREPARED


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

9-11 Made me realize, just how fragile our existance really is.
Our food and water supply were aparently, weakly garded.
Anthrax was being mailed all over the place, etc.
I told myself.....Shame on me, if I don't take care of this and start canning, etc.


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## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

meanwhile said:


> I became a "prepper" by accident too. I am not sure I am really a "prepper" but some folks might say so.
> 
> I was raised on a farm and we always had canned goods and most everything "stored" up for later. I supposed that gave me a "back ground" lesson with prepping.
> 
> ...


It's not laziness to not want to spend 3 hours of your day and gas going to the grocery store ! : ) And the gas, and the traffic and just dealing with other people, egads! I also live an hour from an affordable grocery store, 1/2 hour from a pricey one and I hate the drive so that was my impetus for canning and stocking up. 

But honestly, I have always felt better when I have lots of food, toilet paper, batteries and candles on hand. Even when I lived in the city in my early 20's I had a stocked kitchen just in case. This site and Backwoods Home Magazine is helping me get better organized about it. I had overlooked a lot of little things. I now have a serious first aid kit instead of a mish mash of stuff. 

I am still at the stage of stocking for 3 months, then I'll get to 6. Notice I said stocking up, still not used to the prepper terminology. My mother always stocked up on everything!


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## mpennington (Dec 15, 2012)

My parents were young adults during the depression. I grew up in a post WWII, tornado alley household that had the mind set of use it up, make do, or do without. Dad could build and fix just about anything. Mom always had a pantry. My sister and I didn't know that our family didn't have a lot of money. Mom worked, but took off one month in the summer and one in the winter to sew all of our clothes. She had a natural flair and we were best dressed in our homemade clothes. We always had plenty to eat. Walked everywhere as Dad couldn't afford a car until my sister and I were in junior high and wouldn't buy "on credit." 

My husband grew up very poor and hungry in rural Louisiana. Neighbors helped feed his family during some very lean years. He is a lot like my Dad, can build or fix anything. With our combined backgrounds, we have always wanted to have something put by for lean times and to be able to help others. 

I began stocking up more than an extra large pantry in the late 70's. I wrote Cornell University for a copy of Clive and Janet McCay's booklet, "The Cornell Bread Book." My husband grew up with "wonder bread" and I was looking for a way to enrich a white bread - he's since come along on the 100% whole grain band wagon. Along with the booklet, Cornell included a pamplet and some spreadsheets with suggestions on how and when to purchase sale items. We began purchasing case lots when prices would drop and have continued through the years.

Living in the gulf coast has also helped spur us to have weeks/months/a year worth of supplies and alternate energy sources. We've been through Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Issac.

I've put up jellies and jams for years, but only began dehydrating when Katrina blew everything off our large pear trees and I needed a way to save a lot of fruit quickly. Discovered that I loved it and and have the dehydrator going several times a week now - and hundreds of jars full of fruits and vegetables. Found Homesteading Today last November when I was searching for pressure canning information. I'm learning so much and appreciate everyone's willingness to answer questions and offer advice.


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## saunD (Mar 18, 2013)

Here is a couple great articles that we found on home preparedness that really helped us out in getting ourselves ready and fortified for any storms to come!

http://www.norwall.com/blog/news-and-updates/emergency-preparedness/

http://www.norwall.com/blog/information-and-links/home-generators-for-disaster-preparedness/

Norwall PowerSystems also writes some other great articles that are very to the point and up to date. We signed up for their newsletter and the great info keep rolling in  ... Hope this helps !!


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## teachermom44 (Feb 8, 2012)

I read a book. :ashamed:One Second After. That got me started searching the web and so on and so forth.


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## bourbonred (Feb 27, 2008)

2001, 9-11 made me realize that our government can't protect us from attack. 2005, Katrina made me realize that our government can't take care of us in an emergency. The crash of 2008 made me realize that the government can't be depended on to handle my financial affairs properly.


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## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

I grew up watching Grandma and mother gardening, canning, freezing and buying things ahead when on sale. Lived rural- we didn't have a 2nd car and didn't run into town unless we had too- $$ was tight, when Dad was laid off- but mom always had food for us. Never heard of prepping...but upon reading about it I realised I already knew how. Y2K fears made me think, then 9-11 really made me think and the lifestyle I grew up around kicked in and prepping felt very natural to me. I live in a home built by post depression people- who lived the homsteading life. We raised dairygoats, meat goats and I educated myself ( I am always digging, reading, learning). In some ways,I've moved way beyond Grandma and mother and they are proud.


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## evacpack (Nov 19, 2012)

My mother always kept the larder well-stocked, and we never went without. There was always a spirit of making do and mending, and my parents both grew a variety of veggies in the garden. The neighbours thought my Dad had lost his marbles actually when he dug up the entire front lawn (quite a size...) and planted the whole thing with potatoes!

As a young adult and parent I didn't think much about it, but that all changed when we were stranded in South Wales a few years ago due to a petrol strike. Old ladies fighting over the last bag of flour, people shoving each other out of the way over the last bag of crisps - whilst we stayed tucked up and warm at my wife's aunt's, and ate her food storage. Since then we've gradually built up and built up until now, where if it hit the fan, I think we'd actually stand a pretty good chance 

Rich


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Always grew up in a house with "food on hand". Mom learned many things from her great-grandmother and was sure to show them to me. I remember he making lye soap once just so I knew it could be done. We talked about how to eat different "wild" animals even though we lived in a big city and only ate meat from a store. So I grew up with a sense that "it can be done".

Then...sitting in the hospital watching the ice storm move in while waiting to be released with our newborn son my mind grabbed on to prepping. Never again did I want to have to take my son out in such bad weather just because we were short of something. Since household was "my job" as a stay at home mom, I had time to watch for deals, stock up on sale, etc. DH never mentioned it, since I was the one watching the money he just "let me go". Move ahead 9 or 10 yrs and we are living in Europe....with no preps. Never in my life had I felt so "naked". Never before in my life did I HAVE to go shopping every 7-10 days to feed my family. After a year+ of that I brought up the subject with my DH....very slowly. Hinting around it a bit for weeks, as I was afraid to be brushed off as a "kook".....like my dad thinks of my mom's stash of food in the basement. Well, it worked. I wasn't branded a "kook" and he was on board. We spent the rest of our time in Europe studying, researching and learning so when we got home we hit the ground running (verses just me studying and researching - which I started long before our move to Europe).

The household is still my "job" but he'll help in any task I need - build shelves, can rotators, water barrel racks, etc. He takes on other aspects of prepping....from protection, to "things" not food related. We both see it from a different angle....which is really helpful in bouncing ideas around.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

DH and I started storing food and fuel when we lived atop the mountain. Getting snowed in was a yearly event. Then when I moved to the desert the economic situation got hold of my imagination so I started storing food just like my grandmother did during the depression.


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## Jmbooker1 (Dec 8, 2012)

RomeGrower..I think what you have said makes sense. Sometime last fall I received a "message" per say that told me to start being diligent about saving food, planing a garden, learning new things. No I didn't hear voices in my head but the message was pretty strong and I feel that I must comply.


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## cjennmom (Sep 4, 2010)

I don't know how much of a prepper I actually am, but I do believe in getting things done ahead of time and I buy in bulk too. I wasn't lucky enough to have been raised on a farm or where any other than decorative planting was done, but the aunts my mother and I lived with (my grandmother's sisters) had both lived through the Depression and the younger of the two had gone to the Midwest for a while and married a Mormon - they didn't 'do' waste much and there was almosty a year's worth of canned and frozen food around in the basement. Unfortunately, I can't do much about growing my own food - I live in an urban area, don't have a yard, and my 'farming strength' runs to animal husbandry rather than a green thumb.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

I was raised on a farm and our household was always prepared for things. Once I grew up, I moved to the city and began to slide into easy city living. Just in time trips to the grocery store and filling up the gas tank when the needle was on E, were the norm for us for a few years. 

On Labor Day in 1998, our area was hit with a derecho that brought down lots of trees. Homes and powerlines were damaged and there was almost no way to travel to get any supplies. Lots of people lost refrigerators and freezers full of food, but not us! We lost about $12 worth... We just didn't have that much perishable food because we tended to grocery shop almost every day.

We were luckier than most. The aftermath of the storm was extremely cold at night. We hadn't yet ordered any firewood for the winter. We had a brick fireplace and with so many trees down, there was plenty of wood! Of course it was all green and even dead branches were soaked from the storm. We also didn't own a chainsaw! The best that I could do was to go outside with a laundry basket to retrieve some smaller branches that we could break and bring them into the house to dry. We ended up paying a guy that was going door to door with a chainsaw $20 to cut up some larger branches that were dead and had fallen during the storm.

Power was out for about a week and we were lucky to have plenty of candles and candle holders. We didn't have them for preparedness sake, but because I just love candles. We had a few flashlights, but no extra batteries and my old prepaid cell phone only had 8 minutes remaining and almost no battery life on it.

We ended up with overnight guests because the storm hit at 1 am and there were downed lines on the porch of our rental house next door. My brother in law was the tenant at the time and he was just returning from NYC with some friends when the storm hit. He couldn't go home and they couldn't get off of our street once the trees fell. 

Our guest bedroom was a wreck because I'd been redecorating it and I'd just finished painting it a few hours earlier. Brother in law ended up sleeping on the couch and his friends slept in the kids' room. Hubby, the kids and I had a horrific night trying to sleep in our full-sized bed.

That experience, along with all of the other negatives that came later in the week, was enough to put us back on the path of preparedness. Never again will we be so unprepared!


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## steadfree (Mar 10, 2010)

19yo became a Marine and then a FF/PM so it was everyday format to be prepared..but had this nagging that I wasnt at home. but like most sheeple we dont listen or take advantage of good advice. 9-11 really hit home for the fire service--better preparedness became important in our area. even then i didn't have the time--full time ff/pm and working my landscape business. I think what really got my attention was the NYC power grid failure and the pics of people walking out of NYC(i was on vacation without power)..so got back and thought about how would my family fair. around 2007 I started feeling the economy pressure--sold business and started prepping. it wasnt acceptable by my family until we had a July storm that left us without power for 6 days--we faired very well and the family began to believe. we are on septic and well--so it was the event that put this into our mainstream...
My final comment that reached the wife---we have Car ins, house ins, health ins, life ins--with hopes that we don't have to use them-but it gives you peace knowing it is there in case of emergency, so prepping should be considered Disaster insurance--cause none of those other policies are going to feed us, bring us water, cook our food--after we lose power, dollar collapse, etc. 
I feel that this way of life also lines up with my being raised by my depression era grandparents--so many lifeskills that we have lost--values, argarians knowledge, etc.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

I was raised to always grow a big garden and put up enough veggies for 2 years. Then when DH and I started our business and paychecks only came every 12 weeks or so and we could never tell when we were going to have a longer lay out and go 16 weeks without a check I started prepping for that. After experiencing Katrina and seeing people go crazy for stuff I was very thankful for my prepping ways. The only thing I ran low on was charcole but of course we had plenty of fire wood to use to cook. After that I started focusing on prepping medical supplies and long term storage of seeds and food.


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## wendygoerl (Apr 30, 2005)

When you hear "prepper" you think food and sundries. I'm not that sort of prepper. I'm an INFORMATION prepper. I guess it started when I got interested in subjects (cybernetics, amusement parks, calligraphy) that weren't well represented at my local library or bookstorers. Then I saw many of my favorite library reads (Draft Horse Primer, several art books, many of my favorite science-fiction authors) in the sell-offs. Then I noticed how fast computers were changing, and thought about how hard it would be to find "dated" information if I needed it. Ditto for "outdated" technologies like cassette players and film cameras (I've been photographing our Simplex at work--each time I thread up, I wonder if it will be the last, because Hollywood wants to be 100% digital--so some digital-only projector geek in the future might have some kind of a guide if he has some need to show an old 35mm film). And did I mention that even now, the internet is something I only get to 90 min. a day, and if I want to look up something when the library's closed, it better be in my personal library, cause that's the only place I can look for it? Not to mention most of the books printed in the 20th century were out-of-print before digital copies came in to their own, but are still under copyright, meaning they're not available on-line. that's a lot of documentation of the greatest changes history have ever seen in danger of being lost forever, thanks to short-sighted publishers guarding their IP!


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## elbob (May 27, 2011)

Never knew any other way. Of course it wasn't called prepping. As far back as I can remember there were tons of homegrown canned food in the basement, hams and shoulders in the smoke house and a root cellar for potatoes and similar veggies. 

It has to do with being independent and self reliant i.e., FREE. It was a shame and considered lazy if you didn't take care of your own plus those who suffered loss and couldn't care for themselves. If we didn't who would? The government? :nanner:


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## BoldViolet (Feb 5, 2009)

Look at all these new members!  Welcome!


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2013)

hoggie said:


> What initially made you start? Was it just something you grew up with?


I grew up with it. We called it "stocking up", and "being prepared". It made sense to continue the tradition, since it saved our butts a few times. Actually a lot of times.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

Boy, I'm old. Many folks who answered mentioned starting kind of recently, but I've been doing this, well, forever. My parents dealt with the lack of everything during the depression, and we have always had a garden. Then when my kids were little, we had an annual abundance of items that had to be stored until the next annual abundance. When the garden was ripe, it had to be preserved until the next opportunity; when the wild berries were ripe, take advantage. When we harvested a 1200 pound moose or hundreds of pounds of salmon (we were in Alaska for 25 years) or it was low tide and we hauled up buckets of clams and crab, we had to prepare and preserve that food for the months we couldn't get more.

Also, when the volcanos exploded and filled the air with detritus so that the planes couldn't deliver TP or lettuce to the stores, even those independent Alaskans got excited! 

We were poor, poverty level poor in a place with high expenses, but I fed everyone very well. And when we moved south, it made me feel rich beyond explanation when I could see rows of beautiful full jars of fruit on the shelves, available to us no matter what else happened. 

Now we have enough land that I raise our own meat & veggies and fruit is also available locally. My kids have kids, and they all know to expect to help pick, prepare, raise and butcher. And it's satisfying and fun, even though it's also hard work. Wealth is relative, and abundant available food is one of the best measures.

(Besides, we're all misers and a $2.89 jar of pickle relish costs less than 40 cents to can ourselves!!)
Kit


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

I was raised in a household where mom, grandma and great grandma always gardened and canned. It's 'normal' to us as a couple now to garden, can and gather up in the summer, in preparation for 'winter'.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

I never knew there was a name for what I did til I came here! Being self sufficient and learning how to do what must be done just seemed challenging and fun. The older farm families were the only ones I knew who seemed to do things with a sense of balance so I watched and learned. I have trouble understanding working for money so I can give the money to someone else to get what I need , I would rather try to meet my needs myself. 
It makes sense to have what you might need available like hardware and spare parts. I like growing what I need and preserving it for when I cant grow it.


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## edjewcollins (Jun 20, 2003)

The inevitable fiscal collapse of the United States of America. Before that, I was a zombie like the rest.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I started prepping because natural disasters HAPPEN!

I go to prepping websites because, when I spent 3 days without power after an ice storm, I realized that I was nowhere NEAR as ready as I thought I was! How many times a day does a person want to eat canned tuna?!?!?


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

I don't like the term "prepping". To me that's a clothing style and has nothing to do with being "prepared". I keep it simple and I call it stocking up and being ready. It's a way of life and doesn't have to cost a fortune. 

And one thing you rarely hear is that people are practicing rationing. I think you could have a massive stock of water, food and supplies, but if you don't know how to ration then those won't last long and you're in trouble.

And you can't put all your eggs in one basket. You have to be able to move quickly and a 100+ glass canning jars aren't going with you if you have to vacate the premises due to fire or chemical leaks, or sinkholes and landslides. Earth changes don't ask permission to happen.

That bug out bag might be the only link left of your former life. Give it some focused attention now.


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