Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[C-Mag]

The other side have their own alternative to community: tribalism. Listen to what some of the heathen community and neotribalists are saying.

I will, thanks for the tip.

As far as storing sugar. That's a great one!
My dad was born in 1930, he's told me many times the 2 things that were always in short supply were sugar and tires.

Survival is a balance sale. The more skills and knowledge you have, the fewer resources you need. So unless you are Ishi, you better have some resources. This is why I think most bugout to the hills with my backpack plans are ludicrous. Having the ability to produce out weighs the ability to hoard.

This is where we swing back from 'Prepping' to something far more meaningful. Self-Reliance. Having a green house and a garden with well developed soils, knowing your planting and growing patterns are great skills to have and it helps out with all those things I wrote up in my Case for Self-Reliance.

Let me ask this question. Who right now is growing some kind of food ? I'm not doing a lot right now, but I do have some lettuce and herbs growing in a small bay window. If you aren't, why in the hell not ? If you have decorative plants in your house, why not have edible ones ?

[Speaker to Animals]

Focus on bicycle tires too, as well as patches and tools needed to repair bikes.

[Speaker to Animals]

Let me ask this question. Who right now is growing some kind of food ? I'm not doing a lot right now, but I do have some lettuce and herbs growing in a small bay window. If you aren't, why in the hell not ? If you have decorative plants in your house, why not have edible ones ?

My problem is that I currently own a condo. Not much food growing is possible outside of a hobby.

[boethius]

Paying off debt in anticipation of a societal collapse is about the dumbest piece of advice routinely given.

Which basket would you rather have 1 second before the EMP/nukes/zombies/plague destroys society:

Basket A
$50,000 in maxed out credit cards / consumer debt
$50,000 in silver coins, guns, off road vehicles, tools, laser eye surgery, dental work (get those teeth perfect before your cannibal days), etc.

Basket B
No consumer debt.
No metals, guns, tools, shitty eyesight, rotten teeth, etc.

[C-Mag]

Let me ask this question. Who right now is growing some kind of food ? I'm not doing a lot right now, but I do have some lettuce and herbs growing in a small bay window. If you aren't, why in the hell not ? If you have decorative plants in your house, why not have edible ones ?

My problem is that I currently own a condo. Not much food growing is possible outside of a hobby.

This is where I think people go wrong. I can't, because of XYZ. If you are serious about planning for this, you better jettison the CAN'T mindset right now. It's not about feeding yourself right now. It's about building skills. Growing shit is not automatic folks, it takes skill and knowledge to grow something you can actually harvest. This is where so many 'Preppers' are fucking bat shit crazy. And I'm not saying it's you Doc.

They think because they have stuff, they will survive. I've got 100 years of heirloom seeds stored. Big frickin deal. You don't just drop them in any old patch of dirt and it turns into a Thanksgiving Day feast. It takes time to learn how to grow stuff. I'm saying if you are serious. You should start improving your skills now. Again, lots of benefits to this fro everyone outside of waiting for the Zombies to come.

[C-Mag]

Paying off debt in anticipation of a societal collapse is about the dumbest piece of advice routinely given.

Which basket would you rather have 1 second before the EMP/nukes/zombies/plague destroys society:

Basket A
$50,000 in maxed out credit cards / consumer debt
$50,000 in silver coins, guns, off road vehicles, tools, laser eye surgery, dental work (get those teeth perfect before your cannibal days), etc.

Basket B
No consumer debt.
No metals, guns, tools, shitty eyesight, rotten teeth, etc.

Yeah, given that scenario, I take B every time.
I built homes for Y2Kers complete with safe rooms, generators, larders and root cellars. I watched as some of these people basically bankrupted themselves to watch the magic hour come and go.

History tells us that crisis events and periods happen. Being ready to survive that well is not crazy. Making a particular potential event your entire life is crazy. Flexibility and diversification of assets and skills makes far more sense.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Paying off debt in anticipation of a societal collapse is about the dumbest piece of advice routinely given.

Which basket would you rather have 1 second before the EMP/nukes/zombies/plague destroys society:

Basket A
$50,000 in maxed out credit cards / consumer debt
$50,000 in silver coins, guns, off road vehicles, tools, laser eye surgery, dental work (get those teeth perfect before your cannibal days), etc.

Basket B
No consumer debt.
No metals, guns, tools, shitty eyesight, rotten teeth, etc.

This is not a strategy, unless you have some special knowledge of when that event is coming. In which case, you're an asshat for not warning the rest of us.

[boethius]

Paying off debt in anticipation of a societal collapse is about the dumbest piece of advice routinely given.

Which basket would you rather have 1 second before the EMP/nukes/zombies/plague destroys society:

Basket A
$50,000 in maxed out credit cards / consumer debt
$50,000 in silver coins, guns, off road vehicles, tools, laser eye surgery, dental work (get those teeth perfect before your cannibal days), etc.

Basket B
No consumer debt.
No metals, guns, tools, shitty eyesight, rotten teeth, etc.

Yeah, given that scenario, I take B every time.
I built homes for Y2Kers complete with safe rooms, generators, larders and root cellars. I watched as some of these people basically bankrupted themselves to watch the magic hour come and go.

History tells us that crisis events and periods happen. Being ready to survive that well is not crazy. Making a particular potential event your entire life is crazy. Flexibility and diversification of assets and skills makes far more sense.

I agree with you.

I guess where I come from is I'll visit these sites where these people's entire philosophy is that the collapse is imminent. But then they tell you, "Payoff all your credit cards".

Why?

In fact, even if the world doesn't collapse, don't pay your fucking credit cards unless you really want good credit. Stop paying your cards, and in 6 months they will call you up and offer you a settlement at 35 cents on the dollar, payable over 3 months. Or offer to close the account and let you payoff at 0 percent over 5 years. All you have to do is claim a "hardship" (which can be anything, really--they just need to fill in the blank on their computer to make the deal happen). Yes, your credit will be shit. But if you're in debt, you don't want good credit anyways---you are clearly not responsible with it.

If you want to go to an all-cash lifestyle, there's no reason to payoff unsecured debt in full. Stop making payments and settle with them at dimes on the dollar later on.

[boethius]

This is not a strategy, unless you have some special knowledge of when that event is coming. In which case, you're an asshat for not warning the rest of us.

At 6'2" and well-built, you can share a bunker with me any day, big boy.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Let me ask this question. Who right now is growing some kind of food ? I'm not doing a lot right now, but I do have some lettuce and herbs growing in a small bay window. If you aren't, why in the hell not ? If you have decorative plants in your house, why not have edible ones ?

I have about a quarter-acre of clay soil that I've worked into a large family garden. We've gotten quite good at preserving, making sauces, and pickling.

Next step up for me is to get enough land to house some small animals - chickens/goats/etc. A friend of mine has rabbits in a giant hanging 'hutch' in the garage. He says he gets about 25% of the family meat supply from them.