SB-What If The Collapse Never Comes

I have a lot of thoughts on this. Self sufficiency is never wasted. Have I made mistakes.... yes.

But ultimately its about self sufficiency not 'prepping' . So have I wasted my life prepping? No, I've done interesting projects, I didn't spend all my time and money drinking in a bar or doing cocktail hour. It gives my life focus.

All of my financial decisions are focused on long term 'survival' not day to day decisions like 'what would be fun now'.

Every life need a focus. The choices are about where you focus. Immediate gratification or long term. There isnt anything wrong with instant gratification and living in the moment, been there, done that. And at the end of the day I find thinking long term and running all my decisions thru a lense called 'prepping' to be more satisfying long term. I get a sense of satisfaction from growing plants and canning. From fiddling with my garden to make it more efficient with less work and grow more medicinal 'weeds' like plantain or purslane.

1) 'Prepping' is for me long term focus that gives my life more purpose than 'putting away for retirement' (we all know how that downturns easily in a down market and doesn't grow back very fast)
2) Its a lifestyle that, for me, is fun. Gives me pre-made goals. 72 hour, 30 day 90 day 1 year goals. with lots of choices for how I achieve those goals. (I can't say enough about goal setting so I will post more on that later)
3) The types of things you can 'prep' for are endless so you never actually finish this and therefore its a great hobby. (as opposed to finger painting or something with no practical end use)
4) At the end of the day you have something to show for a life well spent. (garden, storage, great people you meet)

So if collapse never comes. I will be very, very happy. (quite frankly I love electricity and hot running water) and my life has been well spent no matter what happens.

 

As much as I enjoy fantasizing about a few people in my neighborhood crawling through the snow in threadbare clothes begging for crusts of bread while their home is burned by looters, if that day never comes to pass I'm jolly well fine with it. I have a passionate love affair with things like electricity, central heat, and antibiotics, not to mention an endless and varied supply of dark chocolate. Outhouses hold little appeal for me, and I find nothing romantic about wiping my ass with leaves.

I get a grin from prepping because my brain has to have a project to work on at all times. If it weren't occupied with figuring out how to turn a tornado shelter into a nuclear fallout bunker or how to hide guns in plain sight or get out of town in the dark without anyone spotting me, I'd be working out the details of how to crack safes and bypass security systems. Planning for a collapse or crisis of any kind keeps me out of trouble in more ways than one.

 

"No single society truly lasts forever. Indeed, it may seem so if only looked at in the respect of a single lifetime, but over the course of history we have learned that all societies eventually crumble."

Exactly. Rome fell, Egypt fell, you name it, it fell, why are we so special? Of course everyone looks at me as if I'm insane and nothing will change. Look at it like this: The "official" US national debt is !8 TRILLION dollars. That is what the gov't will ADMIT to, so the actual figure is three or four times that. But hey, it's OK, ONLY thirteen TRILLION is actually owed, the other five trillion is money the gov't loaned to itself, so we don't actually "owe" that money, or only to "ourselves" (to the gov't, or more accurately, to the people who actually pay taxes). So why is 18 TRILLION any big deal? Well let's see.

That is more money than is in the whole world. Yes, it every ruble, penny, yuan, rupee, dollar, pound, whatever form of money was taken away from every person on Earth and used to pay off the debt, it STILL would NOT be enough! It would still be a few trillion short! If you go to the national parks, there is a sign that reads "UN Eco zone". Or something to the effect that China now owns it, to keep them buying T bills, or some other sign that the US public no longer owns/controls it. China now owns HI. They own most of the copper/gold mines in the US. They own GM (paid for it in CASH! All 48 million dollars worth and assumed all debt. Do you think when - not if - the US goes to war with China that GM will be there to help or just a smoking pile of rubble?).

There are NO steel mills in the US (actually I could just stop there) that can produce the steel needed to build navy ships. What the US uses now is imported from China. That means no new ships when the ones we have now are sunk. The "reserve fleet" can not be put "on line" in less than ten years, if at all. Most are floating hulks stripped bare or have sunk where they were left.

There are NO primary lead smelters in the US (that means we either import new lead or recycle the old lead. Meaning no ammo).

Coal mines and factories using coal are being put out of business, that means no cheap fuel. Higher fuel prices.

Wind power? It takes as much oil to build a wind generator that you see out in the fields as the wind power will generate in the ten years the tower last (google it).

The US keeps importing more and more people (or allowing more illegals in) who ship money to other countries, so it is not spent here to help OUR economy. The illegals cause crime, bankrupt hospitals and suck up social services (ever been to ANY food bank? Emergency room? Gov't welfare office? Wall to wall illegals and moslems and others) that are paid for by the US tax payer who usually gets nothing out of it.

Building prisons is the ONLY growth industry in the US! That's right, THROWING PEOPLE IN PRISON is the ONLY industry that is making money hand over fist in the US right now! Criminalizing honest people (look at the ag business, MILK, straight from the cow can not be sold! If it is pasteurized and whatever, if it doesn't have MAN MADE vitamins and only God knows what ADDED, it has to be sold as "imitation" milk! Chickens and eggs not sold by the big sellers are about in the same boat. Selling chickens or rabbits off the farm? Go to prison!) or selling children (google it) to prisons for profit to be split between the judge and the prison.

Politicos are suppose to be "public servants" but act like public owners. Been to a city council meeting lately? Been pulled over by a cop? Been in front of a judge?

Now tell me again how "we" can not go the way of every other civilization in history and everything is wonderful.

 

Auto insurance....

 

Great job at summarizing what prepping can mean to anyone whether a beginner, expert with his/her own off-the-grid ranch, or somewhere in between. If only I could have half the skills and know-how of some of the members of the Monkey Tree. That would be formidable, indeed. The things I have prepped for relate to where I live, the hurricanes I and my family have endured, and seeing how crude, and potentially violent, some folks get when they can't find gasoline for generators and vehicles.

I don't know if anyone has said this before on this site about prepping, but I've come to look at all the varied things to learn, acquire, set-up, and fabricate that involve an individual's vision of prepping as an overall process that is a life journey, and not a destination with an end result (though there are goals to accomplish along the way). An end result would be an event (fill in the blank) in which we are all forced to utilize all the resources and efforts within our ability for an undetermined amount of time. That, too, would be quite formidable, and something I would not relish.

 

I think the best move I ever made was heating with wood. It would cost us thousands of dollars to rebuild this house to make it energy efficient . I would basically have to bulldoze it and start over. The cost to heat it today with Electric heat would average 600.00 a month and we would be penalized by our power company for using so much electricity. No natural gas here yet so I would be at the mercy of propane. Average 450.00 so either one times 7 months is between 3500 and 4500 dollars per year. This year I got all my wood for one 20.00 dollar federal permit. I also had a guy give me two cords of dead oak already cut. Took me two weeks to cut , split, haul and stack it all. I paid myself about 1700.00 each week in a sense. If I have to I can cut the wood on my property for about 10 years worth and I am surrounded by thousands of acres of federal oak forests. I use about 100 dollars in chainsaw parts, gas and oil for a years worth of wood. so my cost for this year was 120.00 cash and two weeks work. I could buy the same 7 cords at 169.00 per cord delivered. About 1200.00 . Wood is by far the best choice for us here.

 

If the collapse never comes I will be grateful that the world was spared much hardship and death.

I will also be grateful that I have become more self reliant and learned things I would have never otherwise and that I became greater for it.

My greatest wish is that I will never be able to say "I told you so".

 

I've never experienced a collapse and I hope I never do.

However, nature has given me quite a few educational experiences with no electricity and no well for water. So far the longest was a little over 2 weeks; an ice storm that made my backyard look as if they filmed a battle scene from Braveheart there...

In 2000 nature covered the ground with 36" of snow with all the predictable results. Typically, a snow in down east NC is maybe an inch or so. Everyone rushes outside to take a picture of their house and usually it is gone that afternoon. Imagine, 36" in a town where the county doesn't own snow removal equipment.

A neighbor knocked on the door and asked if she could borrow a metal pot as all her cookware was glass which doesn't work well on a gas grill. Sure and come on in.. She said it is so nice and warm in here. We have the fireplace and 2 kerosene heaters running.
We fed her a warm meal and loaned her a coffee pot we used for camping and a metal pot.

Occasionally when I read these type of threads; I wonder if she learned anything from the experience??

 

Well the SHTF or TEOTWAWKI isn't always the collapse of the world. Have a house fire? Lose everything? You are not far from either or both of the "end of the world", or at least as YOU knew it. I had a minor kitchen fire and the city used that as an excuse to evict me (yes, I was a pain in their rear and it was revenge) and I was homeless. Lost HUNDREDS of books, many over 150 years old, not to mention furniture and who knows what all when my brother got his hands on power of attorney for my mother and sold the place out from under me after I fixed it back up and I was forced to move NOW so his wife could get her hands on the money! TEOTWAWKI takes different forms, that was one for me.

 

I have learned a ton in last five years since I've started preparing. I do not regret any if it. This yearI've started learning bushcraft and medical skills and next year i hope to start a small greenhouse and grow some food. I have friends who have just seen the light and its as if they've realized they've had there head stuck in the sand for a while

 

What if I die before I can retire did I waste all the money, what if I never have a house fire did I waste all that money. No I bought piece of mind.

 

Hopefully we ALL are ensuring that we pass down everything that we have learned to our kids, grand-kids and great grand-kids.

 

Well the National Debt hit $25 trillion according to the radio this morning. CONgress just told Obummer he has a blank check for the next year with NO opposition in CONgress at all. Iran now has $100 billion instead of the $50 bil we were told they were going to have access to. Cruz was the "big" winner at the Iowa caucus. Now tell me again that "there will be no SHTF/TEOTWAWKI in our life times"!

 

If we learn from past history, all great nations eventually fall. Its a fact of life. Prepping is not a waste of time. We rotate stock and do not waste supplies. I like being as self suffient as possible and teaching my kids survival skills. Hopefully nothing will happen during my life time, but if my hubby lost his job, we would be prepared. If economic collapse, we are prepared. If shtf, we are prepared. The prepared will survive. Those who haven't will die off and struggle til it happens. My kids futures depend on readiness for all things.

 

a big town in my state was hit by storm a week ago. trees on houses, streets, utility lines. they've closed schools for the next month because there is no electricity to the schools. wires are still on the ground under trees..
many people still can't leave their houses. roads are blocked. it is 20 something degrees there as I type this.
--
on a localized basis the shtf. there was no ice nor snow. in this town. just blown down trees.
stores that have electricity won't do a transaction because their internet is down, therefore their cash registers won't record the sale... grocery stores were without power for at least overnight...( a few had generators.. very few)
they had to toss all meats and many veggies.

those that were prepared are appreciating the preps.

 

I look at this simply.

I'd much rather be a disappoint pessimist than a horrified optimist.

Bad things can happen and do - all too often it seems. I'd just rather not participate.
Being prepared allows me to now live for less as we shop for sale items and buy in bulk while on sale.
Being prepared allows me to sleep well at night. (well, being debt free helps with that)
Being prepared means the loss of this current job is just another event, not a disaster.
Being prepared and being debt adverse is a way of life - a choice. And by making that (those) choices, I have other, additional choices open to me.

 

Change IS the constant of the universe .
Preparedness is never futile .