Post by woodyz on Jun 22, 2013 12:44:02 GMT -7
Just what is SHTF?
I find many people surprised that I practice prepping the way I do. It isn’t just a good thing to do with me, it’s in my blood. So here is an extended story to kind of explain it. However, even if you don’t want to read the Woodyz chronicles, take a look at the last few paragraphs.
I grew up in a household were prepping was a normal everyday activity. My Grandparents were a product of the depression, large extended families, never enough to heat, wear, anything. As a result they acquired and saved everything to the point of hoarding. My mother was the same.
You had to own land even if you didn’t live on it. There was always three months worth of food in the house. If my Grandmother/Mother used a can of peas, she bought two when she replaced it. One deep freezer was never enough, there were always several and as far back as I can remember there was a walk-in freezer in the garage.
There was always a big garden, big as in several acres. Everything in the garden was used, either eaten, frozen, canned or fed to the livestock. And there was always a crop grown every year. The crop was always either used as livestock feed, traded for processed food or traded for livestock food. There was always a hay field, hay was cut as many times as possible every year and stored for livestock feed.
And there was always livestock. Cows, pigs, chickens were butcher, processed, frozen, smoked, salted and consumed. The only animals kept that were not for food, was a good dog or 3, a good cat or 10, and he always had at least 2 mules, and not just because he liked looking at a good mule. The men of that time competed to have the best team of mules and they were for work not just to show off. There might be 26 working tractors on the place but the garden was always plowed with mules
The basement of the house was a root cellar full of hanging, drying and stored food in cans and jars and baskets. But that was just the daily use root cellar. There was an additional root cellar or two at the barn and at the garden. They grew up in the middle of Missouri with floods and tornados, so everything was as flood and tornado proof as possible. Root cellars served as storage and protection from the possibility of a storm.
And everything was rotated, so the oldest was used first. Cans and jars of food were in rows with the newest at the back. The canned goods from last year were moved from the garden root cellar to the house root cellar before the canning started in the summer. Partly to use the oldest, but also to take stock of what was there and what might be in short supply, or had any jars failed, etc.
It wasn’t just food that was stored. There were once 26 working tractors on their farm. But it wasn’t because my Grandfather needed 26 tractors. There were always duplicates of whatever might be needed of equipment, tools parts and pieces. But some of it was because the farmer down the road was having a hard time and you didn’t just give the people from that generation money or even food, they sold you something or traded something to you. And with my grandfather you could always get it back when things got better, heck you could use it whenever you need to until you got back on your feet.
And all of the storing of this and that required a place to store it. So there were always extra buildings needed. My Grandfather was always buying and moving sheds or buildings, once even a 3 bed room house. So he had jacks and trailers and saws. He knew where the structure cut be cut and reconnected, what would need extra bracing when moved, whatever. When he wasn’t moving a building he was building one. Like a barn or a shed or a root cellar. There was always something being built or modified, made better, improved or extended.
And when you had livestock you had to have a pond or tank for water in each pasture, because you rotated the livestock as well. Since you had these bodies of water everywhere you needed to be able to use them to irrigate and they had to be stocked with fish (another meat locker).
Plus a lot of things were from auctions or sales. He never could resist a good deal on this or that, his needing it was very seldom the point in buying it. A tractor with a blown motor was good for parts, he knew someone who needed a mower, or 10 acres or a good milk cow. And he always made a little money of the deal, it was part of the game. He went everywhere and talked to everyone. The auctions were a meeting and a social gathering where you found out what everything was worth (not its cost) and what someone was needing. But he never cheated anyone on a deal, it wasn’t about making money, it was a method of supply and demand and it was expected he get a little extra for his time.
With my wife it was different. Her Grandparents were much the same as mine but on a smaller scale. However her father was a drunk and a bum and they never had enough of anything to last more than three days at a time. I thought everybody kept things for “what if”, she thought everybody had less then what they needed.
The concept of going to the store and buying a months worth of food at a time was odd for her. Since her Father never had enough money to buy anything and they would have to move every week or so because he wouldn’t pay his rent or he would piss off the owner. She was used to moving often and only moving what would fit into a pickup truck in one load in the middle of the night, she couldn’t understand the concept of having anything you didn’t need today.
My hoarding of nails and spare parts and food didn’t compute. My repairing everything instead of throwing it away or leaving it on the side of the road and making due without didn’t compute. My building a chicken house with an extra room for storage made no sense to her.
Running out of milk, or potato’s infuriated me. I couldn’t understand not keeping enough on hand to not run out and trips to the store shouldn’t be needed every day when every other week should be enough. She would go to the store and buy for one at a time. Her concept was that she may have some money now but we would need it tomorrow when I wasn’t working. The concept that someone might keep a job for more that the first payday wasn’t in her memory.
My concept was that having a job and working was a form of prepping. I am learning skills, I am making friends, I am constantly moving up and expanding. The first time I left a job for another to do something different and new, rather than because I had to or for more money she panicked.
It took awhile but we eventually got to an understanding somewhere in between. We never got to where our Grandparents were in keeping “stuff” and we never got to where my Mother was, but we learned to not run out of what we needed and to plan a little in case we experienced a “what if” now known as a “SHTF”.
So just what is SHTF? It is always a surprise to me when I hear or read other peoples concept of the situation, where their understanding of the concept is a lot more complicated than it needs to be. To me, my concept of SHTF exists on some scale like 1 to 5 rather than a single all or nothing situation.
For example a SHTF 1, to me, would be like the starter going out on my truck. It isn’t the end of the world, but it does have a negative impact on my everyday life. And different people prep for it in the manner of their concept of prepping.
I prep for a SHTF 1. And I am betting most of you do as well.
I have the knowledge and skills to fix the problem.
I have the tools and parts or funds to acquire them without compounding the situation.
I have another vehicle to drive, life can go on.
On the other end of my 1 to 5 scale a SHTF 5 is just another situation, and although it is a lot bigger problem in scale and scope it can still be prepped for in much the same manner.
For example a SHTF 5 for me might be a major flood putting where I live and function daily under a foot of water.
It sucks, it disrupts the daily cycle. It affects my ability to live. My needs for water, health/safety, shelter, food and security are impacted.
I think most people think about SHTF in this capacity. Therefore, prepping for SHTF becomes prepping for a major disaster and becomes overwhelming and seems impossible or more likely improbable for the normal pepper to prepare for. But it isn’t.
You prep for a major disaster exactly the same you prep for a minor disruption.
Obtain the knowledge and skills that might be needed BEFORE you need them.
To know what those skills are, you have to have some idea of what you will need.
What could happen?
How could it affect you? What is the scale of the situation to your success/survival?
What would be your needs/actions as a result of each possibility?
(Don’t get bogged down here. The requirements are all the same; Water, health/safety, shelter, food and security. The scale, scope and duration are what is different, not the solution).
Prioritize and focus on the requirements for each need/action.
Make checklists in order of importance so if you don’t get to the last items on the lists they are less important for success/survival.
Make 3 lists as part of your plan based on your checklists and update/maintain the lists frequently.
What do you have?
What do you need/want? (do not have)
Where is (locate) a need/want item and what is your plan and time table to acquire it?
Constantly work the lists and the plans so you know and understand what you need to do to succeed/survive.
That’s it. The number one most important step in survival is knowledge. Not just skill knowledge. You have to know what you have to work with, how to use what you have, how to make due with what you don’t have, and to me number one KNOWLEDGE OF what you HAVE/NEED/CAN DO/ BEFORE YOU NEED TO DO IT.
Prepping is just planning and execution of that plan. Plan for a hard time or a disaster not a zombie attack.
I find many people surprised that I practice prepping the way I do. It isn’t just a good thing to do with me, it’s in my blood. So here is an extended story to kind of explain it. However, even if you don’t want to read the Woodyz chronicles, take a look at the last few paragraphs.
I grew up in a household were prepping was a normal everyday activity. My Grandparents were a product of the depression, large extended families, never enough to heat, wear, anything. As a result they acquired and saved everything to the point of hoarding. My mother was the same.
You had to own land even if you didn’t live on it. There was always three months worth of food in the house. If my Grandmother/Mother used a can of peas, she bought two when she replaced it. One deep freezer was never enough, there were always several and as far back as I can remember there was a walk-in freezer in the garage.
There was always a big garden, big as in several acres. Everything in the garden was used, either eaten, frozen, canned or fed to the livestock. And there was always a crop grown every year. The crop was always either used as livestock feed, traded for processed food or traded for livestock food. There was always a hay field, hay was cut as many times as possible every year and stored for livestock feed.
And there was always livestock. Cows, pigs, chickens were butcher, processed, frozen, smoked, salted and consumed. The only animals kept that were not for food, was a good dog or 3, a good cat or 10, and he always had at least 2 mules, and not just because he liked looking at a good mule. The men of that time competed to have the best team of mules and they were for work not just to show off. There might be 26 working tractors on the place but the garden was always plowed with mules
The basement of the house was a root cellar full of hanging, drying and stored food in cans and jars and baskets. But that was just the daily use root cellar. There was an additional root cellar or two at the barn and at the garden. They grew up in the middle of Missouri with floods and tornados, so everything was as flood and tornado proof as possible. Root cellars served as storage and protection from the possibility of a storm.
And everything was rotated, so the oldest was used first. Cans and jars of food were in rows with the newest at the back. The canned goods from last year were moved from the garden root cellar to the house root cellar before the canning started in the summer. Partly to use the oldest, but also to take stock of what was there and what might be in short supply, or had any jars failed, etc.
It wasn’t just food that was stored. There were once 26 working tractors on their farm. But it wasn’t because my Grandfather needed 26 tractors. There were always duplicates of whatever might be needed of equipment, tools parts and pieces. But some of it was because the farmer down the road was having a hard time and you didn’t just give the people from that generation money or even food, they sold you something or traded something to you. And with my grandfather you could always get it back when things got better, heck you could use it whenever you need to until you got back on your feet.
And all of the storing of this and that required a place to store it. So there were always extra buildings needed. My Grandfather was always buying and moving sheds or buildings, once even a 3 bed room house. So he had jacks and trailers and saws. He knew where the structure cut be cut and reconnected, what would need extra bracing when moved, whatever. When he wasn’t moving a building he was building one. Like a barn or a shed or a root cellar. There was always something being built or modified, made better, improved or extended.
And when you had livestock you had to have a pond or tank for water in each pasture, because you rotated the livestock as well. Since you had these bodies of water everywhere you needed to be able to use them to irrigate and they had to be stocked with fish (another meat locker).
Plus a lot of things were from auctions or sales. He never could resist a good deal on this or that, his needing it was very seldom the point in buying it. A tractor with a blown motor was good for parts, he knew someone who needed a mower, or 10 acres or a good milk cow. And he always made a little money of the deal, it was part of the game. He went everywhere and talked to everyone. The auctions were a meeting and a social gathering where you found out what everything was worth (not its cost) and what someone was needing. But he never cheated anyone on a deal, it wasn’t about making money, it was a method of supply and demand and it was expected he get a little extra for his time.
With my wife it was different. Her Grandparents were much the same as mine but on a smaller scale. However her father was a drunk and a bum and they never had enough of anything to last more than three days at a time. I thought everybody kept things for “what if”, she thought everybody had less then what they needed.
The concept of going to the store and buying a months worth of food at a time was odd for her. Since her Father never had enough money to buy anything and they would have to move every week or so because he wouldn’t pay his rent or he would piss off the owner. She was used to moving often and only moving what would fit into a pickup truck in one load in the middle of the night, she couldn’t understand the concept of having anything you didn’t need today.
My hoarding of nails and spare parts and food didn’t compute. My repairing everything instead of throwing it away or leaving it on the side of the road and making due without didn’t compute. My building a chicken house with an extra room for storage made no sense to her.
Running out of milk, or potato’s infuriated me. I couldn’t understand not keeping enough on hand to not run out and trips to the store shouldn’t be needed every day when every other week should be enough. She would go to the store and buy for one at a time. Her concept was that she may have some money now but we would need it tomorrow when I wasn’t working. The concept that someone might keep a job for more that the first payday wasn’t in her memory.
My concept was that having a job and working was a form of prepping. I am learning skills, I am making friends, I am constantly moving up and expanding. The first time I left a job for another to do something different and new, rather than because I had to or for more money she panicked.
It took awhile but we eventually got to an understanding somewhere in between. We never got to where our Grandparents were in keeping “stuff” and we never got to where my Mother was, but we learned to not run out of what we needed and to plan a little in case we experienced a “what if” now known as a “SHTF”.
So just what is SHTF? It is always a surprise to me when I hear or read other peoples concept of the situation, where their understanding of the concept is a lot more complicated than it needs to be. To me, my concept of SHTF exists on some scale like 1 to 5 rather than a single all or nothing situation.
For example a SHTF 1, to me, would be like the starter going out on my truck. It isn’t the end of the world, but it does have a negative impact on my everyday life. And different people prep for it in the manner of their concept of prepping.
I prep for a SHTF 1. And I am betting most of you do as well.
I have the knowledge and skills to fix the problem.
I have the tools and parts or funds to acquire them without compounding the situation.
I have another vehicle to drive, life can go on.
On the other end of my 1 to 5 scale a SHTF 5 is just another situation, and although it is a lot bigger problem in scale and scope it can still be prepped for in much the same manner.
For example a SHTF 5 for me might be a major flood putting where I live and function daily under a foot of water.
It sucks, it disrupts the daily cycle. It affects my ability to live. My needs for water, health/safety, shelter, food and security are impacted.
I think most people think about SHTF in this capacity. Therefore, prepping for SHTF becomes prepping for a major disaster and becomes overwhelming and seems impossible or more likely improbable for the normal pepper to prepare for. But it isn’t.
You prep for a major disaster exactly the same you prep for a minor disruption.
Obtain the knowledge and skills that might be needed BEFORE you need them.
To know what those skills are, you have to have some idea of what you will need.
What could happen?
How could it affect you? What is the scale of the situation to your success/survival?
What would be your needs/actions as a result of each possibility?
(Don’t get bogged down here. The requirements are all the same; Water, health/safety, shelter, food and security. The scale, scope and duration are what is different, not the solution).
Prioritize and focus on the requirements for each need/action.
Make checklists in order of importance so if you don’t get to the last items on the lists they are less important for success/survival.
Make 3 lists as part of your plan based on your checklists and update/maintain the lists frequently.
What do you have?
What do you need/want? (do not have)
Where is (locate) a need/want item and what is your plan and time table to acquire it?
Constantly work the lists and the plans so you know and understand what you need to do to succeed/survive.
That’s it. The number one most important step in survival is knowledge. Not just skill knowledge. You have to know what you have to work with, how to use what you have, how to make due with what you don’t have, and to me number one KNOWLEDGE OF what you HAVE/NEED/CAN DO/ BEFORE YOU NEED TO DO IT.
Prepping is just planning and execution of that plan. Plan for a hard time or a disaster not a zombie attack.
