[SilverLining]

I’ve always been a food prepper on a lighter scale-a year or so worth. Then I moved an hour away from a big store (Wally World or the like) and decided I’d start buying up things that I use on a 3 month scale which lead to six months which lead to…. You get the picture.

I don’t have the skills for the “ boom boom” as you call it but I do have a start in the supplies. Working on the skills.

A more direct answer to your question… after reading, “One Second After and series”. The situations set forth in those books seem DOABLE & PROFITABLE for the powers that be.

Welcome to the Freesteading community. I look forward to learning from your experiences.

[LocalPrepper]

Skills are good but I love food more…LOL Keep going!

[CarlHopf]

My grandmother . Lived through the Depression. Always cooking,.always canning. I thought I was a “big boy” when I was old enough to take the cucumbers she grew and made pickles and took them to the basement for storage. Ow the “big boy” is storing rice and beans. When I had a house, my wife thought I was “crazy” because I insisted on a deep pantry like mom and grandma.

Who is laughing now?

[CarlHopf]

In 2008, I was in a bar after work. That criminal Obama was talking. The guy next tor said “lots of words, but where are we going? Lots of words means down the shitter.”

[Hanidu-Acres]

It’s how I grew up, beyond the reach of civilization. Being prepared could be the difference between life and death.

[LocalPrepper]

Many don’t grow up that way. I grew up poor, but didn’t know it. You are lucky.

[BiggKidd]

Cub scouts / boy scouts After realizing at such a young age how much better it is to be prepared than not prepared it became a way of life. Take camping trips for example it’s lot better to have a case of TP than no TP . Over simplified but I’m sure the message comes across.

[LocalPrepper]

Yeah, its funny but no one really thinks about wiping their butts until there is no TP. 😄

[BiGi]

I remember corn cob wipes as a child at my grandparents outhouse….

[Wolfcreek]

We started homesteading 5 years ago but the prepping part didn’t start until about 2 years ago. This year’s garden is gonna be a big deal cause…to me it’s gonna show me the holes that I need to fix.

[LocalPrepper]

Correct. It will also show you what you can do as well.😉

[Summerhat-n-Chicks]

I actually didn’t start with prepping, but simply wanted to change my lifestyle for my husband and I. It all started in ‘16 when both, my husband (diverticulitis) and dad (cancer) got sick. As I did more and more research how to heal both problems, I found out that food is the biggest culprit. I started small and one thing lead to another. That same time, Merkel had opened the floodgates to Europe and I learned everything I could geopolitically and by the end of ‘17, I knew things were going down hill and in’18 I got my chickens and turned into a prepper. I also grew up on a homestead,

[LocalPrepper]

This is a growing trend.

[JerseyGiantChick]

Because of our history, parents told me to learn as much as possible, work as hard as able and prepare all you can. Always had a feeling history repeats itself, because some people just will not lurn and the evil people. But some how I still pray I am wrong with everything going on for so long and is now no more hiding but in plain sight.

My husband is still talking like it is not there and what can you do about it, preparing is not needed yet trust on politicians and it will be ok. Told him you do that but do not expect that from me, I will do everything that is needed for my family. Just do not expect any luxury from me, if you do not prepare with me.

Everyday doing something, as much as can be done. Follow God and be the best person, by doing good and teaching what I can give.

[NonaLee]

I have always had food insecurity as a child living below poverty and as an adult with no real world skills I also ended up homeless. I have been seriously building on my supplies since mid 90’s when we started to have a little more $. It is now harder since we downsized over 1000 sq feet of controlled atmosphere. I may have 40 acres, but no root cellar and not much storage.

[LocalPrepper]

I have a similar storage issue.

[Grumpy_G]

Raised poor, frugal, cheap, whatever you want to call it, so the mindset was always on the back burner. Got out of the service and worked for an IT company doing Y2K remediation. Thanks to the efforts of companies like the one I worked for, it ended up being a big nothing burger. Talking to the coders prior to that, though, it could have been a big disastrous deal; no one knew for sure how bad it could have been. It made me realize A) exactly how fragile modern American society is and B) exactly how uncertain things can be. It started the process that led to where we are today.

[LocalPrepper]

I like your perspective.

[Grumpy_G]

Thanks you, sir. Take all the black swan scenarios, financial collapse scenarios, personal tragedy scenarios, etc, they all have one thing in common. Whether society ceases to exist, or you can’t pay the utility bill because you are out of a job, or any place on the spectrum in between that commonality is loss, or break down of the infrastructure that makes modern life possible. We are not immune to personal loss, or history. The only questions that are left hanging out there are “When” and “to what extent”. What we as individuals and community do, we do as insurance against the day we find out.

[Susquehanna-Homestead]

Prepping came as a natural extension of homesteading. However, I really stepped up my game when Covid started.

[LocalPrepper]

👍

[ChamberlinFamilyFarms]

I don’t call it prepping I call it independent

[LocalPrepper]

GoodStuff™

[KramitDreams]

For me it was my great grandparents. They lived thru the depression and my mom lived with them for a while so when I came it was just the way I was raised. They taught my mom and my mom taught me and my grandma gave me all her canning supplies when their health started to decline. They lived two yrs off their canning stores before my great grandma had to move in with my grandparents. They always had a garden and grew peach trees from seed. I just grew up picking beans, selling sweet corn, showing hogs, and canning green beans. Im the 4th generation of canners. It was just our way of life and being the oldest grand child, I listened to my great grandparents stories then my grandparents. I was blessed to grow up with all that wisdom of lots of grandparents. I miss them so much! That’s me in the wagon ❤

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  KramitDreams.

[KramitDreams]

My great grandpa was a genius too and he only went to 6th grade in school but he made all his own tools and knew how to do so many things except write his name, my grandma his wife would sign his name😉

[JD-in-GA]

Tornadoes and Hurricanes. They come around every year. It sort of dominoed from there.

[Prucillamealybug]

So many influences.

[HCrunner]

I’m the youngest of 7 children. My oldest sibling was born in 1947 and I was born in 1974. Yes, my mom was nearly 47 and my dad was nearly 48 when I was born. My nieces and nephews are all roughly my age. Anyway, my parents were born in 1926 and 1927 lived through the first Great Depression, my dad was drafted at 18 and was on a boat for the Japanese land invasion when they dropped the bomb. He was re-routed to Korea where he was a lineman. My mom, her siblings and parents and my dad’s family all lived through rationing with the little red tokens, and coupons for shoes, sugar, flour, etc., etc., etc. As a child in the mid 70’s, the 80’s, and graduating high school in the 1990’s, I was well versed in home cooking, canning and putting back food, gardening, reusing anything from butter tubs, plastic bags, tin foil, flour sacks, and I learned all about using antique tools and how sturdy and valuable they are.

At this stage in my life experience, I am beyond grateful for everything I learned including old fashioned values and morals.

So prepping came very easy. I have sensed this coming for a long time and I have been prepping long before I considered it prepping. I just thought I was doing what my parents did, just a bit more lead and brass in what we’re putting back.

[KramitDreams]

Cool story❤

[HCrunner]

Thanks. Who would have thought we would see these days? I am grateful my parents have passed, they would be truly heartbroken.

[MulberryGardens-Christina]

I think I started some habits of prepping 15 years ago when my husband and I were working on getting out of debt… reusing as much as I could, buying in bulk, couponing to save money… ended up with large stashes of things very cheaply. Other lessons we learned in Africa 10ish years ago… be content and make do with what you have, but when you find something useful that is available buy it now bc you don’t know when or if you’ll see it again! And we ate very basic meals for the most part that I cooked on a little gas stove in an outdoor kitchen. We washed clothes by hand… when I started prepping I thought back to what the basics were that we needed all the time in those situations.

I didn’t move beyond those habits until we moved back to my family farm in 2020.