how old were you when you started prepping

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by KAS, May 29, 2013.


  1. KAS

    KAS Monkey+++

    me 31 before that i was just a junk collector ,,,
    were your parents preppers
    are you just home steaders
     
  2. peanut

    peanut Monkey+

    My father was in the military and I remember always having a years worth of canned food and the gas tank always being on full. I thought he was crazy. I saw the wisdom in his ways and started prepping when I was about 34, although I went through nursing school with prepping in the back of my mind at 28.
     
  3. KAS

    KAS Monkey+++

    good responce i appreciate it
     
  4. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    depends on your definition of "prepping". I have been a hunter since i was a small child, and I was raised to be as self-reliant as possible. The idea of stockpiling anything beyond the needs of the season or two is fairly new.
     
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  5. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    I remember making a backpack of things I would need in an emergency after a Cub-Scout meeting when I was probably 9 or 10 and keeping it in my closet for almost six months before my parents found it (first bug-out bag). They caught me changing out the clothes for the next season and kinda wigged out. They thought I had plans to run away or something.

    We were Mormon growing up so we we tried to have the year's supply but that wasn't always the case. I've since left the church but won't go into that here. Still a lot of good that came from the upbringing including the general preparedness attitude.

    It wasn't until about five years ago that I started really feeling the need to "get my house in order" as it were...that would be 35 for me. Too much at stake with the wife and kids.
     
  6. Sapper John

    Sapper John Analog Monkey in a Digital World

    For me it has been all my life. My parents and Grandparents learned some harsh lessons during the Great Depression.They passed down the desire to be independant as possible and to depend on no one but ourselves.
     
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  7. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    Started working 40+ years ago to be capable of building, installing, repairing, maintaining, etc. all my critical equipment whether that be a house, car, refrigerator, tv, fan, whatever. I went after tools, some spare parts, and experience to the near total exclusion of ever paying any one to service my or my parents stuff. Even pursued in high school through grad school jobs in various repairs shops from TVs to pro audio gear to bicycles to small engines and motorbikes. I have in recent years actually paid someone to fix a few things because I didn't have time and that was a big struggle mentally. The wife said I "grew" through doing that. (yeah right!)

    Got into food storage in the late 80's and tied it in with my outdoor sports but then stagnated with it. Got serious about it again a couple years ago. Was into firearms preps modestly in the 80's with some key purchases before a couple bans but upped my game another level a few years ago. So, the bottom line is my prepping has come in stages and phases but has some long roots and still a good ways to go in some areas.

    AT
     
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  8. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    3-4 years ago I started to get worried and decided I needed to take steps to protect my family just in case. I have learned so much. I do find that sometimes I get into a panic and think I need to just go out and buy everything needed. That overwhelming panic of what if tomorrow is the day that SHTF yet I am not ready is awful. So I am a newbie but every week I can reflect and say I did this, putting things aside and learning is now just a way of life.
     
  9. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Sapper John I also have reflected back on what my Grandma used to do. I remember her stack of used aluminum foil and have started myself wiping it off and reusing until it rips. I got all of her old recipes and discovered that they were all simple but hardy dishes. Cream sauce was flour, water, butter plus salt and pepper. I come from a rural upbringing but left it all behind for the city life. I notice when I go home I look to see how prepared they are. I found it interesting that they basically live the prepper life but it is how they are, not something they do.
     
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  10. Tracy

    Tracy Insatiably Curious Moderator Founding Member

    Birth.
    What you consider Survival Skills (being prepared), I might just call Livin' Life.
    [bateye]
     
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  11. Pax Mentis

    Pax Mentis Philosopher King |RIP 11-4-2017

    My dad taught a philosophy of being ready to deal with anything that might come your way.

    My parents raised most of my siblings in the 30's and 40's.

    Pretty much all my life...started consciously stashing stuff and changing my lifestyle in my 30s.
     
  12. Mechwolf

    Mechwolf Monkey+

    I was in the military for 8 years and boy scouts before that. I have always had some basic "prepper" skills. I did not get serious into the lifestyle until about a year and a half ago.Things started to really weigh on my mind the way things are going in this country and the world.I'm 41 now so I was a little late to the party.
     
  13. Mountainman

    Mountainman Großes Mitglied Site Supporter+++

    Started into it 14 years ago and increased dramatically after joining The Monkey in 07'.
     
  14. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    My Prep'ing started the Day I was born.... My family didn't call it Prep'ing, it was just the way our family conducted business, going back four generations. Now with My Grandkids, it is six Generations. When my father built the house I grew up in, He designed in a room, under the Font Porch, was concrete on ALL sides, Top & Floor, and was about 10'X12' It has a Steel Door that sealed, and a Filtered Air Intake, from outside. The builder asked the Old Man, a number of times what that room was for, and he just said, "Build it like the Plans say, and don't worry about it." This was in 1947, and that is where Mom had her Pantry, with her Canned and Dry Food Storage. They had their bulk Grains, and Staples, store in a separate part of the Basement. The Old Man has a separate flue built into the chimney, that terminated in a Coffee Can, that was for a Wood Stove. The Wood Stove he purchased out of the Sears Catalog, and came in a Crate, with all the Stove piping, to connect to the flue. We always had two cords of dry firewood, stored out in the back yard, for the two fireplaces, and that Wood Stove. One day, when I was about 5 years old, the Old Man came home with 50 Cases of Civil Defense Canned Water, he scored when the closed the local CD Shelter. When I married, part of my Parents Wedding Present was my 1/6th of the Family Preps. I didn't collect them right off as I only live 2 miles away, for 10 years. When my parents sold that house, after he retired, I did retrieve my Preps, including the CD Water, and the Wood Stove, still in the crate. When I moved to Alaska, all that stuff moved with us, and when I built our Beach Cabin, that Wood Stove finally got installed, some 45 years later. It heats the Beach Cabin just fine, and there is plenty of Firewood, down there to keep the place heated for decades. My wife's family, has very similar lifestyles, and Preps. although it seems that her siblings haven't really taken to Prep'ing, like they should. I am sure that will bite them, down the road, but they will not be coming clear up here looking for handouts.... ......
     
  15. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I'm going to start next week.
     
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  16. oldawg

    oldawg Monkey+++

    Grew up on a dryland farm. Didn't know it was "prepping"
     
  17. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    I didn't think much about it til recently. I grew up thinking of my folks as ancient hippies. They taught me lots of stuff before it had a name or popular following. Looking back, they were more like early preppers.

    I've been following their example since I was 11 or so.

    HD
     
  18. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    Age 2. Getting rode in a wheelbarrow to help as my lil hands could in the garden. When you grow up a poor country boy you learn to buy cheap & stock the cabinets deep. Cuz might be a long time before its on sale again or you might not have the money then. An you learn how to build what you need yourself. You also learn how to do without!
     
  19. -06

    -06 Monkey+++

    Like some others I grew up on a dirt poor farm. We ate what we produced and we produced what we ate other than chocolate occasionally, sugar that we traded farm goods for, and a few other "necessities". We put up many gallons of lard, cured our meats, canned our produce, dried fruits, raised chickens, drank our own milk, made our butter, trapped rabbits, shot squirrels, fished, and swapped some of this for stuff we could not grow. Growing up I learned how to weld, repair equipment, do most any construction job, run machines and repair them using what we had. Have never not had something stored for a rainy day/days. Have become a self reliant old fart that does not like free loaders sucking our nation dry and stealing money that I worked for---and those who elect/re-elect scum who support their habits.
     
  20. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I'll put it this way...I had a bug out bag when I was in High School. That was twenty years ago.
     
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