MTFCA Forum

He was hoping to find someone who will fall for survivalist sales pitch.
If it were me, I would have added " as well as my well-stocked pantry in my bunker I have hand grenades and a howitzer"

And that ladies & gentlemen is the difference between preppers & the prepped.
Craig.

The salesman may have been a scoundrel, for sure. Or not. Who knows? FWIW, the only thing that will last 25 years is freeze-dried food and frankly you don't need much because after living on just that for a few weeks, you won't care if you survive or not, assuming the excess sodium doesn't kill you outright.

Mormon families are pretty much mandated to keep 3 months of food stored for their families. The horror! Someone who will not immediately become dependent on charity or the government in the event of job loss or tragedy!

Trust me when I say that a full pantry the size of a small coat closet, stocked with random spur of the moment purchased boxes of pasta and canned corned beef hash is not a thought-out system of food storage. If you think it is, try living on your random pantry items for a week or two and come back to continue the debate.

If you're unserious about this subject (and more than 99% of people are), then it's easy to scoff, but there are a hell of a lot of hurricane survivors who could have been feeding themselves and/or their neighbors rather than hiking to a FEMA tent or Samaritan's Purse and requiring a handout on day 1 if they had taken just a modicum of responsibility for themselves and their families. Not everyone lost their house, but a bunch of them lost access to basic necessities, and in doing so, required dollars, time, and risk to life of OTHER PEOPLE to come to their rescue, when all they lacked was some food and toilet paper. Those mule trains were not hauling new homes, they were hauling food and basic necessities which should have already been on hand. God Bless them, but by and large, they should never have been needed. Regardless of (insert your disaster here) the reality of it is, that you're about 3 missed meals away from potentially terrible consequences. As a side note, ask yourself how it was that so many of those folks living in the mountains of NC did NOT overwhelm what remained of their community "down below". Living in a gated, planned community in a city of 2 million, is not "safety" during a disaster. Self reliance is safety.

Just because we as a nation have not suffered privation in decades, does not mean it cannot happen in the blink of an eye. The closer you are to a store, the less likely you are to believe anything can happen to YOU. Myself, I'd bet at least 1/2 of my neighbors could easily go through a winter and never leave their property. Life is a series of choices, and Recency bias will kill a lot of people someday, sooner or later.

There are "Preppers" on TV who are either totally nuts, or are made to look totally nuts for a bunch of money, and then there are folks who have taken responsibility for their own lives and families. Call them what you wish, but do not confuse the two.

Finally, if you think that the government will take care of you or treat you fairly when you need it, ask an American Indian how that worked out.

AMEN to all that.

Just an observation, ruminating on a snow day at the beach.
I'm not really sure how it came to be that the concept of preppers gained such negative connotation. OK, everything has its extremes, but as a general concept it is generally ridiculed. The basis being our society operates in a JIT, instant gratification, everything you want is minutes away or can be shipped to your door in 24hrs manner. I know very few who have more than 2 or 3 days tops of provisions. What's changed? Self reliance, personal responsibility, and basic levels of preparedness not only don't exist, but are ridiculed....replaced with trust in dependency, and inability to assess, or mitigate, risk.
As for me, living in Hurricane country, having experienced Michael in '18, where food, gas, water, etc wasnt available for 2 to 8 weeks or more depending on where you were, FEMA and their MRE's didn't arrive until week 3...there were a LOT of people wailing "when are we gonna be rescued?". Oh the stories I could tell. Most have no clue or ability to even conceptualize basic preparedness. What seems simple logic to me is foreign to many.
I don't consider myself a "prepper"...but.... I AM prepared, and survived very well without need!! In fact, those wholly unprepared and in need depended on me.
Just think of critical item #1...water. When your tap runs dry, or is compromised, and the store is closed and no bottled water in sight, what's your plan then? How long will 2-3 days of food last ya? 2 to 8 weeks?
Preparedness shouldn't be a point of ridicule, and society in general would be better embracing the concept back in their lexicon. A serious disaster can occur anywhere, anytime. It's not rocket science, nor does it require any expansive storage....it's really just more an issue of having some common sense and forethought than anything else.
Or, you can be complacent in the belief somebody is responsible to save you...but ask yourself how long you can wait....

There are people in power all over this world who wish for other people to be dependent upon them, or to think they are dependent on them.
An extreme example of this is North Korea. But you don't have to go far at all to find such people in positions of power. They exist at every level of authority, which is the last place they ought to be.

The more people who make thoughtful and rational preparations for disruptions, the more resources will be available for those who cannot make such preparations, and for those who will not. It is important to maintain people in public office who are competent and who operate in good faith so as to have available effective and rational public response resources, so far as it is possible and practical to do so. In any major disruption, local or regional, you are your first responder, and if you have resources on hand, you can reduce the stress on yourself and yours, and perhaps also be in a position to offer assistance to others in need, while reducing the burden on public relief resources.

There is a big difference between being prepared and moving to a compound in a remote area and surrounding it with booby traps. The Mormons keep a year's supply of emergency rations in their homes "just in case." I don't store that much but having some staples on hand makes sense. In Michigan we don't have hurricanes or many of the other disasters that make the news but we have had blizzards that left us isolated at home for a few days, sometimes without power. In wintertime I also carry some supplies in our cars in case we get stranded somewhere.

I have a regular survival kit that I carry in the airplane when traveling over remote areas. Over three decades of flying search and rescue missions has taught me respect for how quickly things can go bad and the need to be prepared. Being prepared doesn't make you weird, it means you're smart and not ignoring the realities of our existence.

I guess the bottom line is, help is coming, but you've got to be prepared to take care of yourself until they do. Depending upon how widespread the disaster is, you may be waiting a long time.

I wonder whether there are dehydrated eggs? Right now we need a years supply!
Norm

Here you go Norm
https://www.beprepared.com/collections/ ... g%20Powder

Norman Kling wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 8:06 pm

I wonder whether there are dehydrated eggs? Right now we need a years supply!
Norm

You can make your own but you need eggs first...LOL
Oh, there are a number of You-Tube videos on how to do it, some are good...others not so much.

Powdered chicken toes?