The Beginnings of Prepping

In the "Preppers" series on NatGeo, most of the preppers there are prepping for one scenario or another.   It is always good to have some scenario in mind, to give yourself a foundation for brainstorming.  (Hmmm, if "this" happens, then I will need what?)

I have seen exactly one who said he was prepping for anything unexpected that might come along.  The bottom line, though, is that most of them are prepping for some disaster that probably will  never come, and the primary focus of the NatGeo video seems to be to make them look like a nut job. Never mind that prepping for any scenario will make surviving any other scenario more likely.

Myself, I use an extended electrical power outage as my baseline.  In my area, gas pumps would not work, the cash registers and other stuff at all the supermarkets would not work, city gas would go out in a few days, and it would not be too long before people would be roaming the streets looking for something to take home. 

Right now, nothing is looking like it will happen in the next few months, but remember, prepping is something you do when there is no threat. (And that automatically makes you some kind of nut job.)

At an influenza related blog
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/search?q=Prepare
I found some ethical advice that mirrors some of why I first started prepping.

 . . .  individuals and families who can afford it should do their best to prepare for any disaster. The paper notes, the more initiative the general public exercises in stockpiling several weeks' worth of food, water, paper goods, batteries medicines, and other needed supplies, the less vulnerable they will be to a break in the supply chain.

It is important for leaders to communicate to the middle class and the wealthy that it is their responsibility to prepare for self-sufficiency in order to free up scarce supplies and allow first responders to direct their attention towards those too poor or vulnerable to prepare themselves.

The Smallest Ideas.  Buy what you use but just buy it ahead of when you need it. Pick something different each month, especially if it is "on sale" and buy a case of it.
(I call this micro prepping)

Buy cotton goods now, for future use.  Cotton, and most cotton goods are at the lowest prices they have been in years.  And they are not likely to go any lower, but will probably see many years of higher prices.

Gold won't be of any use in a real shtf scenario, I remember one guy who lived through a real long term disaster, and he said gold would get you nothing worthwhile, but it would probably get you killed.

When I first began prepping, it was sort of half hazard.  I wrote a bug out plan, I stored some water, and some food.  Some medicine.  I acquired some battery powered radios.  As time went by, I realized I needed to make the plan more well thought out, so I broke my planning system into five areas of thought.

1  writing a system of plans
2  material acquisitions
3  developing a plan for staying informed after disaster 
4  determining what can be used as trading stock during or after a disaster
5  Shopping lists

At this point I started browsing web sites and forums to gather ideas and began to write out all of my plans and procedures and add some friends into the planning and preparing.  So far, the cooperation isn't working too well because most of my friends are either way ahead of me, or way behind. 

The lesson here, though, is that prepping isn't something done in a week or a year, it is a road we either travel on, or we don't.