Survivalist, Prepper or Housewife?

Discussion in 'Off Grid Living' started by Motomom34, Mar 7, 2015.


  1. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    While we may throw around the labels of survivalist or prepper, maybe we should really be saying housewife. Basically what we may think is a new movement of thinking basically it is just an old way coming back in style. Ms. Grossman a.k.a Granny Miller wrote the article below. It is well worth reading.

    The rest of the article can be found by following the link. Survivalist, Prepper or Housewife? - Granny Miller

    She closes the article with:
     
  2. Pax Mentis

    Pax Mentis Philosopher King |RIP 11-4-2017

    Well...I think that a part of what she says is true...and a lot is true for her. Then there is the opinion and judgement upon those who look at things differently.

    Among those who could live without the many facets of "the grid", this woman may be the very opposite end of the spectrum from me. I have no wish to live a simpler life. I am very happy with my TV (though it doesn't actually show "TV" any more...because I found something newer and better), my computer, microwave oven, coffeemaker and all of the other trappings of a 21st century life (well, except "smart phones"...it's hard to be smarter than many things these days, but I'd really like to keep my phone dumber than me for a couple more years at least)...I'm old enough to have grown to adulthood in the magic pre 1970 period of which she speaks, and I would rather not even go back that far in efficiency and creature comforts. I certainly would prefer not to back to the 20s and 30s, much less a return to the "conveniences" of the 1800s.

    I am a prepper...and I was a prepper before I new I was. Since my spellchecker just tagged "prepper" as misspelled, apparently I am one but can't spell it. Anyway, I want to live as well and comfortably as I can with what is available at the time. If the things that make life easy should go away for ANY reason, I want to live as well and easily as I can given those circumstances. I can use (and have) hand tools, but will use power tools as long as I can. I can cook on a wood fire, but I would rather have more and easier control when I can. Also, I prepare to make those things available to myself without an outside source of the power to make them run...but I will take advantage of that grid as long as it stands.

    To me, "prepper" just means a person who prepares, I am not sure what the problem is for her with the term. I really don't understand her wish to bypass the comforts that modern convenience can furnish and I am guessing from her disdain for the likes of me, that she has no better understanding of me. Possibly her point is that one doesn't need to prepare if they just live a simpler lifestyle now. I guess I just don't get the advantage of giving up things so you won't have to worry about losing them.

    Now if she is talking about the ever growing ranks of professional preppers...those who quote inside info financial collapse and sell you gold and silver at 40% over spot or LTS food at outrageous markups or write articles about how you just can't be prepared without the latest tacti-goodie...we might find some common ground. However, when it comes down to it I am all about the free market and sport a caveat emptor tattoo...I just don't have to like you if you gouge people after you scare them.

    I don't know what's going to happen and hope I can just go on for the rest of my life enjoying all of the things that 2015 and on have to offer. I prepare for being without just about anything I like to have...regardless of how I might end up without it.

    Anyway...that's Pax's rant for a Saturday night about 3 scotches in.

    [peep]
     
    ydderf, STANGF150, kellory and 4 others like this.
  3. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    I grew up a much simpler life than I live now. We had a large garden which we canned all excess, we raised rabbits and a couple of pigs, and we bartered for egg's and chickens with our neighbor. I worked for my dad's best friend on the ranch and brought home sides of beef pre-cut and dropped into our large freezer... we had three of them. We also had a root cellar, that we used for many of our stores, which is the way most of us operated in our community. My mother was an excellent cook that could prepare any pastry one could hope for, and cook up a fresh cut deer steak, cut up on her dining room table. I dream for the simpler day in our society.. though now days it seems to be more bought in to, vs earned. What does that really mean for us right now for the most part.. not much. But for me, it is a goal to get back to a more basic lifestyle.
     
  4. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    @PaxMentis your ability to write so concisely 3 scotches in amazes me, I personally would be drooling on the keyboard. I do agree with your statement on people fear mongering, selling people gadgets and making a killing on a growing fear. My thoughts on the tech advancement and our comforts is the question; are they hurting us or helping us? Example: GPS- People are relying on a computer to tell them how to get to their destination or when to turn left. I have seen it suggested on here that it is important to have maps in your preps. With the younger crowd who rely so heavily on a computer to tell them how to get to their destination,t these people do not develop a sense of direction. It may be making their lives easier but GPS IMO is not making them smarter.

    I recall the night we got our first microwave. We put a potato in and we all stood in awe. My step-dad told us to step back and get away radiation so the family stood across the kitchen watching the magical microwave beam the potato. Yes the microwave has put ease into our life being able to zap food in a matter of minutes but the zapping is killing the nutrients (yes, this statement is debated). So something that could be adding ease into our lives maybe hurting us, thus we have to get our nutrition out of a bottle labeled multivitamin.

    As for the labels I will admit I get a certain picture in my mind when I hear them. With survivalist I picture a Rambo type with major fire power, pallets of ammo getting ready for war and loves eating grubs. A prepper is someone who I picture having stored goods, many of the gadgets, reads up on the how to's yet are not part of their life, tucked away for just in case. The housewife/ homesteader is someone who lives the life that the prepper is preparing for. They don't have 4 rakes stored away in case SHTF, they have one and know how to repair it. (Also there is he who will not be named that is who he is, no label accepted).

    I think it is the labels. Assumptions and preconceived perception accompany labels. Because I am white I now get a label from some that I am a cracker yet that label is something I refuse to accept. Like Granny Miller ended her article- I’m not a survivalist or a prepper. I’m a traditional housewife. I think she is rejecting the labels.

     
  5. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    AlaskaChick likes to say, "Living is the Bush of Alaska, doesn't mean that you must live in the Stone Age." "Yes, we have flush toilets, Real Phones, SAT Tv, and SAT Internet, but we still collect our water off the Steel Roof of the Cabin, and Generate ALL our own Power. We both come from "Prep'er" style Families, going back 4 generations. We were both brought up, to depend on our own, and Family Resources, and learned Skillsets, as children.
     
  6. azrancher

    azrancher Monkey +++

    I admit we are not preppers like our Mom's were, my mom had bunches of caned goods stored away (bomb shelter era), I just cleaned out my MIL's house, and I guess my wife told her we were prepping, I told my MIL from all the cans of food she had in her pantry, that she was a prepper too!
     
    Tully Mars and Motomom34 like this.
  7. Pax Mentis

    Pax Mentis Philosopher King |RIP 11-4-2017

    Thanks...but I tend to forget what I set out to say and sometimes repeat myself....
    [boozingbuddies]
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  8. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    I'm a Prepper, but I'm not really a Prepper. At least not so much as I am an old Style Countryboy. Not to be confused with the new style "Hey I jacked the truck my daddy got me up & listen to the pop style country music so I'm Country" kind. I grow sum my food, buy more of it. I can & freeze veggies, fruits, & meats. Consumables I buy cheap, & stack deep. Buying on sale in the brands I prefer. So I'm not really Prepper so much as Country, following in the traditions set by my mother & her mother. The skills I've learned are not so much to use if the world ends, but help me do things I need to do from time to time.
     
  9. Kingfish

    Kingfish Self Reliant

    I am a survivalist not a prepper. I am enjoying the lack of bills due to going back in time not forward. Forward cost more . The old ways cost less but mean you have to feed the animals not buy the meat, cut the wood not buy the gas. Grow and can the veggies not buy them. I have very few modern loves. I like old guitars, fishing, hunting and just sitting in the sun and enjoying the outdoors. I am returning to an age of self reliance. The less I need from others the better I feel. I am a control freak. I like it better when I AM IN CONTROL.
     
    oldawg, BTPost, kellory and 1 other person like this.
  10. Leeuhhh

    Leeuhhh Monkey

    I feel the same way kingfish does. I just want things simple. My grandma always told me I was an old soul. I do function a lot as a "housewife" right now just because I am renting and still working towards owning my own property, etc..however I have a home business so I can raise my three girls myself (I'm a single mom), I make most of our food from scratch, grow what I can, I am very good with money. I line dry our clothes and cloth diapered all three girls. I make them play outside and let them get dirty so they won't be grossed out when they have chores to do around our future property. I am working towards being more of a "survivalist" with my own land and home because I want the girls to grow up knowing what they are capable of and develop real life skills in case they grow up and feel dissatisfied/ unfulfilled working for someone else.

    I'm not really sure where I was going with all that lol! Interesting article.
     
    Sapper John, tulianr and Motomom34 like this.
  11. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    @Leeuhhh I would like to ask a question, however you do NOT have to answer, but it is something to think about..... If you plan to move to a small Farm, or Rural, when your girls reach double Digits, are you going to teach them to Hunt? Are you already proficient with the Tools of a Hunter? Are you going to teach them to Butcher, what they hunt, and do you have those SkillSets, already? How about Fishing? Same questions.... Protein usually comes from these pursuits, and the SkillSets involved, need to be taught, to be successful, in filling out that part of the Food Locker.
     
  12. AxesAreBetter

    AxesAreBetter Monkey+++

    From the Living History perspective, prepping and survivalist kind of stuff was just a byproduct of trying to survive in "period correct" fashion.
     
    Motomom34 and Leeuhhh like this.
  13. Leeuhhh

    Leeuhhh Monkey

    I have never been hunting! I need to find someone to teach me, but yes I would teach them. We breed rabbits that get sold for meat right now, and talk about where meat comes from (not just the meat aisle of the store), so that they will hopefully be in the right mindset when we are doing things ourself. They started learning to fish last summer! They did great.
     
  14. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    If you get the opportunity, plant a couple of Apple Trees near your cabin.... In a few years, they will be producing fruit, which will bring in the local Deer & Elk, right to your Front Yard. That can turn Hunting, into Harvesting, in a BIG hurry... I am sure, that one of our NW based Monkeys, who is an accomplished Hunter, would be very Happy to educate you, in the dressing of Game, for the chance at an Elk, or Buck.
     
    Leeuhhh likes this.
  15. Leeuhhh

    Leeuhhh Monkey

    Took a look around the property today and I think fruit trees are a great idea after I get some more brush cleared out.
     
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