Define "Prepper"

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by offgrittyt, Feb 14, 2020.


  1. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    Okay, it took some doin and nobody will talk to me anymore but I had to stick to my guns when splainin to y'all that no person is an island and ultimately *all of present day humanity can at best define themselves as Minimal Gridlings instead of Off Gridders because somehow, someway, sometime whether we are connected to the power grid or not, we all use something that comes from the grid.

    I think, however, that those who are Preppers just by natural default of how they are, (and you know how you are), will put up a much tougher fight if I tried to call them Prepper Lites.

    Am I a prepper, you may or may not ask or even care?
    Despite the fact that **98% of the people in North America have things like an indoor flush, refrigeration, commercial power, (I have none of those), and do not harvest themselves what they use to heat with like I do, means I suppose that I am prepared to cover some of my own basics, (yes I have a garden and yes I would shoot a porcupine if I had to survive but hope I never have to even though I hear they are good eatin).
    I suppose I would define myself as a preppy without trying to be, which makes me a preppy light compared to some of the folks in here that do make the effort above and beyond and have some incredible extreme survival skills, strategies and experience.

    Okay, if any of my minimal griddy sisters and brothers want to share their definition of Prepper, please feel free to, and I'll bite my tongue.

    Respectfully Yours,
    OG


    *Note: Possible exceptions being people living in the wild who are yet to be discovered by the outside world and those who have been discovered by the outside world but they covered themselves in pigs blood and ran around naked yelling and hucking spears at the Huey that was just tying to land and whip a little first world nirvana upon them.
    **Note: I don't know if 98% is an accurate number, for all I know it could be 99.999999999%.

    IMG_20200126_152504.



    IMG_20200209_084453. IMG_20200208_080207.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2020
  2. techsar

    techsar Monkey+++

    You seem to be searching for absolute values, when there is no clear-cut definition of the term prepper.

    Generally, a prepper prepares for...and that is where things get murky. Someone living on a mountaintop is not likely to prepare for a tsunami much as a person on the gulf coast isn't too likely to stock up for a blizzard.

    Same thing with your no man is an island theme. Sure, some don't care for social interaction as much as others...but then you run into needing to deal with others for supplies, for example. Big difference.

    Yes, I have an indoor toilet...because I don't want to deal with cottonmouths, brown recluses and other less than desirable creatures that tend to inhabit outhouses around here...I also have solar panels, but mine are hooked up and working every day.

    Prepping is an individual journey that has many paths, some of which intersect, some very divergent, and some that are just plain silly (IMHO) in their destinations...but it is the choice that something needs to be done to survive that is the defining act.
     
  3. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    I am a survivor...... I prep daily for what may come.
    Survival of those prepared, for what may come in their AO, is what we strive for continually.
    Labels..... :blah:
     
  4. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    I do not believe the label fits anymore as those who endeavor to be prepared differ so much based upon their perception of what may come tempered by current events and their local. Obviously, those in the Southwest must take alternative measures to be secure and prepared compared to someone living in the Pacific Northwest. I guess the basic precept of being prepared as in the Boy Scout Model would aptly define a prepper, today.
     
  5. mysterymet

    mysterymet Monkey+++

    You do what you can, with what you have, for what you think will come. Depending of life circumstances people prepare for hard times in different ways. Someone with medical conditions will stock things others might not. Some people might live in the woods while others live in small towns or even cities. We do what we can. I am not willing to give up my entire life to prep because then would my life really be worth living? YMMV.
     
  6. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    "I'm a prepper, he's a prepper, she's a prepper, wouldn't you like to be a prepper, too?"

    Prepping is what you call it when the little light bulb goes on and you realize the fragility of the modern world and how many single points of failure can upset the apple cart. Eventually you realize that the best you can do is to live a lifestyle that's less dependent on conveniences.

    I look to my grandmother who raised her children during the depression (granddad had passed away) for inspiration and think back to details of visits when I was a kid. She simply kept living the way she did on the farm and had strategies she developed during the Depression to ensure the availability of food. To her things like running water, indoor toilets, and electricity were wonderful conveniences but thing she grew up without.

    I do "prep" for certain contingencies, but it's really IMO 90% lifestyle.
     
  7. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    great-depression-horticulture.
    Grandma and Grandpa were the OG preppers.
     
  8. Illini Warrior

    Illini Warrior Illini Warrior

    definition is simple as hell >> someone who maintains a mental state of being prepared ......
     
    offgrittyt, Merkun, Alf60 and 2 others like this.
  9. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++

    Abso-bleeping-lutely!
    My grand parents still had a two-holer fifty feet from the kitchen door, a pitcher hand pump over the kitchen sink, a huge garden, chickens, goats, two milkers, a "summer kitchen" for the canning work, and Grandpa made everything he possibly could, including water tight wooden buckets and barrels. When I reached my teens my parents paid for indoor plumping including a walk-in shower since they were getting a bit critchety. Their term, not mine. They never did get a TV, although they did have an ancient Philco console radio that I'd fix for them as needed. (Where I initially picked up electronics skills).
    The power failed one Xmas while I was visiting for a week, in the middle of a blizzard, (upstate NY mountains), and we hardly noticed. Woodstove was still warm, and light came from the kero railway lanterns they'd always keep handy. The only rough part was venturing to the the "facilities" at -20F with a 30 kt wind.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2020
  10. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Some of us Prep'ers prepare in different ways... For AlaskaChick & I it was how we were raised... Our Prep’er Roots go back multiple generations... We were taught as children by the examples of our Parents... Back in 1948 when my father was having a house built for his family, my mother wanted a “Root Celler” to keep her preps in... Se he designed a Concrete Front Porch on the house that contained a Bomb Shelter in the middle of it... The Contractor was told that “Momma wants a Root Cellar” and so they built it into the house plans... It was big enough that the whole family, could hole up in it for days and just live off what was stored on the shelves... I was to young to know what it was, till I was Jr High School, but I can remember getting it ready for occupation in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, with my father... My mother canned every fall, and we ate good all winter, easily... AlaskaChick grew up in a similar household... We raised our children in that same way, and tradition... It is a Good Way, and Tradition, and our children embrace it in their families...
     
  11. Oddcaliber

    Oddcaliber Monkey+++

    I was labeled a survivalist before the term prepper existed! It's all a state of mind in how you live. My preps are vastly different from others here but there is some commonly. Water, food, shelter and the list goes on. I may not be ready for everything but I can hold my own.
     
    chelloveck, offgrittyt and oldawg like this.
  12. FTM2 Tartar

    FTM2 Tartar On Hiatus Banned

    I think "prepper" is just a yuppie who's learned that his "upwardnesse" was bringing him down...
     
    offgrittyt likes this.
  13. Bandit99

    Bandit99 Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

    I dislike the term 'Prepper' as it sort of pigeon-hole's one as some nutcase survivalist. I think being prudent and preparing is simply a mindset and you're either ready for hard times or your not. I live in the country and everyone around here could be considered a prepper but, in truth, it's simply country living.
     
  14. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++


    It's nothing more than embracing the Boy Scouts motto as a life style.
     
    offgrittyt, chelloveck and Bandit99 like this.
  15. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    I refuse to be a victim of circumstance.

    as in

    I'd much rather be a disappointed pessimist than a horrified optimist.
     
  16. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    That looks so much like my grandma's garden it isn't even funny.
     
  17. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    I have to think that the OP has discovered, once again, that definitions differ by context. When you call me a prepper, I won't even look sideways. Won't answer any questions about my preps, either.
     
  18. oldman11

    oldman11 Monkey+++

    My grandparents told of keeping milk down in the well to keep it cold and from ruining. Those were the simple days
    [flag]
    .
     
  19. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    Hi tech .. while it is certainly anyone's right to choose to focus energy and resources as they wish, it would fer sure be not the most wise allocation of effort to be prepared for blizzards when living in Florida but to each his or her own!

    When I used the phrase, "No man is an Island", I was not referring not to the social connotation, rather, I was referring to the many goods and services provided by others that we buy or trade for in life.

    I don't love the outhouse option per se, but between paying hefty property taxes, (nearly 2/3rd of which go to a single, illegal "public" entity), and funding all the other fixins of a homestead while trying to find ways to generate income, the progress towards an indoor flush is steady but slow but will happen one fine day. Till then, I run a very clean and proper loo and I agree with you about poisonous critters and such making an outdoor loo less than a desirable situation.

    I'm glad you have solar panels, do you know people that have them just for decoration?

    The loo path February 14, 2020. It's not as bad as it looks, when it's ten or twenty below outside, it's five degrees warmer in the loo.
    IMG_20200214_123411.
     
  20. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    THAT is what um talkin bout, WTG.
     
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