I ask myself this, especially as I’m getting down to crossing off the last handful of items on my big list.  On one hand, it is very nice to have certain things on hand for the occasional ice/heavy snow storm or summer storm power loss. On the other, some things can seem like a waste viewed in terms of the probability of occurrence. I’ve tried to only get things that have a dual use, but isn’t always the case. For example, I bought a small wood burning stove with sidesaddle water heater. If I ever buy some undeveloped land, that can get installed in a cabin. But freeze dried food, that will never get used.

I suppose the goal is to keep certain critical items on hand for a short time frame, but not go hog-wild. MREs and firearms are in that latter category, expensive and not required but seem like a major preoccupation with some people). I’ll add things like gas masks (what’s up with that?), bug out bags, night vision gear, camo, etc. It’s as if this is some paramilitary adventure, versus long-term camping.

Anyway, I am satisfied with what I have and don’t feel the need to do much else. I still need to get a big first aid kit, some bleach powder, protective gear for contagion, and a laundry plunger. That’s it, everything else I have. Frankly, if anything does happen plans will have to be formulated on the fly anyway. I just need the basics . I suppose this is the difference between being OCD/hoarder and prepared, is it enough or irrational acquisition?

I just received the latest issue of the Economist, and this was a featured article:

Preparing for the apocalypse

I will survive

When civilisation collapses, will you be ready?

This is typical of media coverage of any civil defense or preparedness, they go out and interview the most far-out people they can find and represent that as the norm. The title is exactly what anyone should NOT be preparing for. No apocalypse, no collapse of civilization. Civilization will continue, but to assume every aspect of life will go on just as it does now regardless of circumstances is just foolhardy.  I really wish there were no paranoid gun collectors living underground pimping MREs and iodine pills.  It stigmatizes anyone who practices preparedness, regardless of the nature or extent of that activity.

I recognize and understand the statistical unlikelihood of having an emergency, but that’s not to say it will never occur. And, we never know what could happen so it’s not a bad thing to be ready, as long as that doesn’t become an end to itself or interfere with daily living. For instance, years ago we have suffered through several ice storms with extended power outages, and were not doing that well after a few days. If we had had just some of the things we have now, we would have been comfortable versus freezing our asses off, in the dark, and piling food outside to keep it from spoiling.

I can’t talk about any of this in the open, so I can only post on-line using a pseudonym. It would be great to involve my neighbors but I know where that would lead so I don’t. It seems to agitate liberals that preppers are secretive, that it’s somehow selfish versus a reasonable position given the circumstances.

Finally, the thing that really irks me is the gun fetishes. Guns are such a polarizing subject to begin with, then to opine on how it’s going to be Stalingrad every day so you better stock up is just ridiculous. I will touch on firearms one day, but I sincerely believe they are a last resort and in all likelihood not going to used in anger. Thirst/hunger/fatigue will prevent most of the trouble mooted on message boards.

Sure would be nice to have a more balanced view of the movement, I did see that younger people are getting into this but more on a local/group level vs the survivalist. I haven’t seen much coverage but maybe it will become more mainstream one day.

So what would we be doing on Day366? That’s where my thinking led me after running though the minutia of planning, i.e. “oops I just ran out of everything” after surviving whatever it was. I realized that the situation would be analogous to being a homesteader. You get off the trail, go 300 miles into the wilderness with your wagon and set up shop. All you have is what you brought, and what you can grow/hunt/collect.

They key is having access to land. You need at least 1/4 acre to put in enough garden items in quantity to last the year. Most people (me included) live in built up areas and suburbs, so there’s some area but not enough to put in cereal crops and keep animals. Here’s my current plan for subdivision farming, it’s in the initial phase but I think it’s viable:

1. Go vertical.

There are planters that can be set up to grow in multiple layers, that’s needed to maximize the volume of plantable soil.

2. Potatoes.

 Spuds yield well in planters, and would have to be a staple to provide enough calories. I can’t think of any other crop that beats it for yield. They keep well, and propagate from eyes on the parent tuber.

3. Sunflowers.

Hugely important, as they provide nuts and vital oil. This is probably the only practical way to obtain vegetable oil off-grid, and without fats and oil you starve. There are small-scale screw drive oil presses on the ‘Net, they seem to do a good job of extracting the oil and are reasonably priced.  The sunflower plants would need a lot of area, it would be a split between those, a garden, and wheat.

4. Garden.

The usual mixes, planted in said vertical pots. You would need to devote more space to things that can be stored in a root cellar, like onions, carrots, beets, etc. Come winter that’s all that’s available.  My parents had these special wood bushel baskets for that, everything went in there and in the vented crawlspace/basement. I’d need to score baskets, I have nothing like this now.

5. Wheat, corn, and other cereals

I think you’d need some amount of corn and wheat, although I’m skeptical that you’d get enough in to make a large quantity of kernels. It takes a lot of plants to yield, typically 50 bushels/acre. So it looks tough to get enough cereals out of a small plot to live on.

6. Wood.

Technically not farming, but this would be the only way to cook and heat. Harbor Freight makes a $170 cast iron wood stove, that and some 6″ black pipe and I’m set. Have to go cut wood and season it, but we used to do this and I’m very familiar with it. Byproduct is ash, that can be used to make lye and then soap using the sunflower oil.  PITA, but doable.

Well, that’s the extent of the plan. If successful, I’d have the same standard of living of an 1850s Irish peasant, alive but none too happy.  This is what the plan lacks:

• Meat. Need chickens, that would be fabulous. We ran a small poultry farm, so again I know how but I have none on hand.
• Milk/butter/cream. This is pretty much out of the question, without dairy cattle.
• Sugar. Comes from beets and cane, not happening. Maybe bees, but once again I have none.
• Fruit. There’s a possibility for strawberries and blackberries, but they can be hard to start up. Can plant trees but takes years to produce.

I will be trying all these things out in small scale, to see how they work. I researched all of this, it’s just a matter of buying the seeds and a bit of equipment.

I had been thinking about getting some high cap 22 clips, and checked Cabela’s to see if they had stock. Zero. Why? The recent dustup about assult weapons and high capacity magazines. Apparently the threat of these items being outlawed has resulted in the near-total cleanout of all larger mags and assault weapons, and a lot of ammunition.  People are backlogged to buy them, so we have the Law of Unintended Consequences giving us far more of the very thing we didn’t want. By we I mean the current administration and the anti-gun people. I personally think they are of little use but irrelevant to mass shootings. 10 rounds at a whack and an extended mag lever means one could bang out shots more or less continuously, doubtful the slight pause wouild allow anyone to take down the gunman.

It’s just annoying how the real problem got lost, which is no guards at schools and allowing mentally ill people to acquire firearms.  Now there’s going to be a LOT of AR-15s in circulation that would otherwise gone unmade and unsold….just what we needed.