Secret Life of a Leftist Doomsday Prepper

[YankeeTarheel]

I have though about ways to manage risks in my life and have taken steps to better manage them but I am not a prepper. I hate the idea of betting against civilization.

I get that. I keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. I don't expect a kitchen fire. But I don't keep 17 fire extinguishers in the kitchen.

[K9s]

I have though about ways to manage risks in my life and have taken steps to better manage them but I am not a prepper. I hate the idea of betting against civilization.

I get that. I keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. I don't expect a kitchen fire. But I don't keep 17 fire extinguishers in the kitchen.

Maybe you should get a bigger kitchen?

[K9s]

I have though about ways to manage risks in my life and have taken steps to better manage them but I am not a prepper. I hate the idea of betting against civilization.

It is more about being prepared for weather issues (or sudden unemployment) or being able to help others during weather or other problems.

[YankeeTarheel]

I have though about ways to manage risks in my life and have taken steps to better manage them but I am not a prepper. I hate the idea of betting against civilization.

I get that. I keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. I don't expect a kitchen fire. But I don't keep 17 fire extinguishers in the kitchen.

Maybe you should get a bigger kitchen?

Been there, done that! (you shoulda seen it 20 years ago--tiny!)

[lurker]

get skills. make yourself useful, to yourself and others.

[max129]

Eris said:

LOL! I also have a slide rule.

The Few. The Proud. The Geeks.

In my case, it is plural slides rules. And that is what I used hard for 4 years at University and then 5 in the Military. When I went into the Marines, 4 function calculators were about $1,000. When I got out, you could buy a full function Scientific Calculator for $30. But the two environments in which I worked, field surgical suites and military helicopters, both prohibited any electronics in the interior at that time. And I was wicked quick with a slip stick, so I ran all the drug dosage numbers for a MAST unit and a SAR unit for 5 years. And when the wrong dosage of IV Potassium can kill, you don't screw up. So I do think of my ability to do serious engineering completely free of electronics a decent survival skill. Even today, no matter how complex the problem, I do first order approximations on everything to make sure no one has gotten the right answer off by a decimal point (or several of them). I am about triple Malcom Galdwell's mastery level of 10,000 hours with pre-electronic era math tools.

I do have 30 days of freeze dried food and 30 days of water. But I have only enough medical supplies to do one small surgery or a couple broken bones. True self sufficiency is way out of reach as a practical matter IMO. If there is a serious long term shutdown, I doubt I would survive long without a bit of luck. I will be 70 years old in a few years; at some point one realizes that hard survival is as much physical as mental. I totally acknowledge that the most important survival tools is between one's right and left ears. But one must also have the physical stamina, good vision and overall good health required to deal with a much tougher and likely more dangerous life.

If I were to survive in a long term shutdown, I am pretty sure it would be based on my engineering skills and tools. I have the aforementioned slide rules, several sets of old school math tables (they cover everything), a couple of copies of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics as well as a decent reference set for pre-industrial drugs. I have a small, but well covered cache of seeds for everything from congestive heart failure to diabetes (and while the dosages are a problem, powered Foxglove and French Lilac, as well as the other 20 types of plant seeds I have, really do work with high efficacy.) All the seeds are in a big inert jar full of Nitrogen gas.

If all this seems kooky, well to each their own. I have invested the least amount of effort and resource for the maximal yield and the lowest footprint. Very long term storage and ultra low maintenance is part of my SHTF model. Everything I own for such an eventuality fits comfortably in a few mid sized boxes.

As for ammunition stockpiling, yeah I have a few thousand rounds. But think of the statistics of the matter. Other than hunting for game (which would be a joke anywhere I live), if one thinks they are stockpiling ammo for dozens or hundreds of actual firefights, think again. The average well-trained soldier gets wounded or killed within the first 5 enemy engagements. Yes modern stats are better, but only with all the electronic support and mechanized armaments. One would have to be the very quick or the very dead if there are lots of firefights in one's future. My best option is to be perceived as too valuable alive (engineering and field medicine) to be out on patrol.

My wife is a jeweler with cool tools - many of them non electric. Just for fun, I got the specs and schematics for a few simple surgical instruments. She was able to make serviceable models of 3 instruments in a long weekend. We would make a good team in a bad future, but we would need a strong community that wanted our skills and resources.

So put me in the very cautious camp of "a bad future is certainly possible, and I am prepared a bit, but I hope to hell nothing like that ever happens."

[YankeeTarheel]

get skills. make yourself useful, to yourself and others.

Hmm. I can build a house, replace a cellphone or ipad screen, splice a rope, microwave-scramble an egg, and fix a sewing machine. I oughta be good for somethin'.

[featureless]

I have my dad's slide rule from his college days in a box somewhere. I don't count its use among my skills.

[lurker]

i have one here somewhere, actually knew how to use it. and some paper tape and punch cards, too. pocket calculators were just becoming a thing during my senior year in HS. rich kids had them.

[lurker]

I oughta be good for somethin'.

everyone's good for something. i don't advocate cannibalism, but when purina is gone, we'll need to feed the guard dogs somehow.

[K9s]

I oughta be good for somethin'.

everyone's good for something. i don't advocate cannibalism, but when purina is gone, we'll need to feed the guard dogs somehow.

Just make sure the poor dogs don't choke on the MAGA hats. Safety first!

[Eris]

The right-wingers tend to focus on ammo and weapons too much. When they realize they have almost no water, they will become desperate and bold. The first week is always the most dangerous.

Their approach seems to be that they want to be able to steal food and medicine from those who have it.

[K9s]

The right-wingers tend to focus on ammo and weapons too much. When they realize they have almost no water, they will become desperate and bold. The first week is always the most dangerous.

Their approach seems to be that they want to be able to steal food and medicine from those who have it.

I think some of them just haven't thought it through. Others probably plan to grab whatever they want (loot, steal) at the time.

If you haven't been through something like that, it could be easy to think a plan like that would work out well. It is like the keyboard commandos who talk about picking up ammo strewn on the streets of the fill-in-the-blank apocalypse. These things occur in stages. Police and then national guard would be on the streets guarding banks (not groceries). Poor people, especially those with infants and small children, are usually the most in need and the least able to prepare. Stay home and save yourself and anyone you can save. After the first week, things will calm down (or get out of control). We really should be studying Venezuela right now for good lessons (hint: refugees rarely do well).

[lurker]

The right-wingers tend to focus on ammo and weapons too much. When they realize they have almost no water, they will become desperate and bold. The first week is always the most dangerous.

Their approach seems to be that they want to be able to steal food and medicine from those who have it.

they say it's to fight off improvident lefty commies who neglected to hoard and are coming to steal their stockpile. i think it's just an overblown rambo/diehard fantasy.

[YankeeTarheel]

I oughta be good for somethin'.

everyone's good for something. i don't advocate cannibalism, but when purina is gone, we'll need to feed the guard dogs somehow.

Just make sure the poor dogs don't choke on the MAGA hats. Safety first!

And all the crappy, toxin-loaded fat can't be good for them....

[K9s]

The right-wingers tend to focus on ammo and weapons too much. When they realize they have almost no water, they will become desperate and bold. The first week is always the most dangerous.

Their approach seems to be that they want to be able to steal food and medicine from those who have it.

they say it's to fight off improvident lefty commies who neglected to hoard and are coming to steal their stockpile. i think it's just an overblown rambo/diehard fantasy.

They say they would be fighting off other unprepared, hungry gangs of looters. More likely, they would fighting thirst and hunger and standing in line for water and rations. In an emergency like that, the police and military are in control. It never looks like the movies.

[YankeeTarheel]

Watched Mad Max and Book of Eli movies too many times.

[Marlene]

Remember, bronze, we know who you are.

[K9s]

Watched Mad Max and Book of Eli movies too many times.

And zombie movies, I guess.

Whatever the emergency situation, it can be a lot scarier than movies but contains a whole lot more boredom and waiting than people realize.

[Eris]

Watched Mad Max and Book of Eli movies too many times.

And zombie movies, I guess.

Whatever the emergency situation, it can be a lot scarier than movies but contains a whole lot more boredom and waiting than people realize.

Zombie movies taught me that I can kill them with a cricket bat, or the old Winchester rifle on the wall at the pub.

[K9s]

Watched Mad Max and Book of Eli movies too many times.

And zombie movies, I guess.

Whatever the emergency situation, it can be a lot scarier than movies but contains a whole lot more boredom and waiting than people realize.

Zombie movies taught me that I can kill them with a cricket bat, or the old Winchester rifle on the wall at the pub.

That WAS a great movie!

[YankeeTarheel]

I must admit that the only zombie "movie" I think I've ever seen is GOT, which isn't a movie, of course.

[lurker]

you have missed out. zombie movies were the perfect vehicle for cheap metaphors. what could be scarier than humanity reduced to its most basic urges?
night of the living dead (the original, classic with an african american protagonist, filmed in back and white, thinly veiled allegory for american race relations)
dawn of the dead, day of the dead, and many others. campy gore-fests with quick references to consumerism, etc. i lost interest after the shopping mall one. plus, they were having to get gorier and gorier, to keep the audiences from sating. "send... more... paramedics".

[K9s]

I couldn't sit through a whole zombie movie until I saw Zombieland. Then Sean of the Dead. That is my limit, but I loved them.

[YankeeTarheel]

Well, there were The Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz--they were hilarious! Do they count as Zombie movies?