# help with the miss'



## Wquon (May 9, 2013)

hi, ive been tryint to prep for a few years now but cannot seem to get the wife on board. mainly the only thing i have asked of her deals with food storage. i grew up in a relativley poor household where we made monthly trips to walmart for the staples of our diet & had a chicken, rabbits & a garden. its been a long while since then & id like to get back to that (maybe every 2 weeks for the walmart trip lol). 

i eat almost anything but my wife & daughter have a sensitive pallet ( & are very grumpy when theyre hungry). 
over the years ive introduce my wife to variouse ideas that i think could work for us & some of them she seems enthused about but never ending up goin past a weeks worth of storage. from different cookbooks,Wendy Dewitt,analyticalsurvival & canning/preserving i cant get her motivated to store food. once i get back home i think she would do good to have a community to help us get a firmer start thats my last option. 

recently i spoke with her on getting some actual staples for our meals (were all over the plave on eating & go to the store more than once a week).

could anyone help me out because i know food & water storage is one of the basic principles to prepping.


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

It's not easy especially if there is nothing to motivate a person to do so. Try from a different angle like the fact that it is healthier and it's great for losing weight. Try and do some of the projects as a family like canning and gardening. I'm not Mormon but I found some great classes at the local Mormon church on canning and food preservation.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

I got lucky because I basically married a clone of Laura Ingalls Wilder. So there was no convincing to do.

You might want to try the financial angle. I have noticed our food expenses were cut by at least a third since we have been actively prepping. Beyond that maybe start with some small things that provide an immediate return such as cheese making or sausage making. Not only is it really fun to do, but homemade cheese and sausage taste far better than anything you can buy in the store.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Texas is tornado and hurricane country depending on what part of the state you live in. My wife started giving me much less grief after I explained that if a tornado hits and takes out power, it could be a while before the stores reopen.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

Start with a food dehydrator. It is kind of fun and if your wife and daughter like healthy snacks - dried apples, berries and peaches are great. Home dehydrating is a lot cheaper than buying store bought and better for you. As Inor pointed out the money angle is a great way to point out the sensible reasons for buying in bulk. If she is a reader try getting a few of the shtf books - Lights Out comes to mind. At last resort (when you get back home) just start filling up the storage space you have with food and water and when she says she needs to go to the store for whatever - bring that item out.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

MrsInor said:


> Start with a food dehydrator. It is kind of fun and if your wife and daughter like healthy snacks - dried apples, berries and peaches are great. Home dehydrating is a lot cheaper than buying store bought and better for you. As Inor pointed out the money angle is a great way to point out the sensible reasons for buying in bulk. If she is a reader try getting a few of the shtf books - Lights Out comes to mind. At last resort (when you get back home) *just start filling up the storage space you have with food and water and when she says she needs to go to the store for whatever - bring that item out*.


That too also worked for me. ::clapping:: She hates running out.


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## punch (Nov 6, 2012)

Howdy from TEXAS!
I got a jump start on prepping in the food dept. after Katrina. The National Guard handed out MRE"S water, ice, tarps and gasoline. Even put it in your truck so you didn't have to get out. I kept coming back day after day even after I had what most people consider well stocked. You may want to start simple with canned goods. After eating MRE"S for a week you will quickly find there are tasty MRE's and far too many tasteless MRE's. A can of pork and beans, chili or chicken soup would be a welcome change in the menu. Of course if you get hungry enough you will eat most any thing. How keen is your mrs's to roasting veggies? I was digging up potatoes and picking quash and it all grilled up nicely. I also joined a site/newsletter called "mylitter.com" Its run by a gal in the Woodlands named Tiffany who was once feature on one of those extreme coupon reality shows. I haven't bought $300.00 worth of groceries for a nickel yet but I have save a substanicial amount on groceries and snagged a lot of free stuff from heads up emails she sends out. Remember, you can never have enough water and have filter.treatment solutions for water as well. Good luck and welcome to the Forum!


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## punch (Nov 6, 2012)

inceptor said:


> Texas is tornado and hurricane country depending on what part of the state you live in. My wife started giving me much less grief after I explained that if a tornado hits and takes out power, it could be a while before the stores reopen.


After hurrican Rita, I primiive camped and watched over my property for three weeks until power was restored. (family stayed with relatives in Austin) But you are so right Sir. After 2 weeks I was looking forward to a fresh cup of coffee and a donut. I had plenty of food, I just ran out of coffee.

punch


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Dear OP,

My dear wife grew up in a life of luxury. Her father, a great man I admired very much, was very successful in his business endeavors. She was the last child, seriously spoiled monetarily, and she is accustomed to eating out, often and well. When I owned my own business that was easy and I didn't balk at it - should have - but didn't. When I lost the business and she was suddenly married to a "failure" in business I thought we might part ways - I worried about it but she remained true, faithful and loving. She even gets pissed if I use that "failure" word. Since then I've done research projects, investigative work, and odd jobs here and there but its going on 4 years now since I've had reliable and steady income. In that time I learned the hard way about "SHTF" though not my natural disaster. I just went from living on $120k a year to $36k a year. Since I could not find a new career I focused on making $36k as comfortable as possible. I expanded the farm land on my dads property which increased the lease payments to us and our income a little. That was done by myself, with an old tractor, a few thousand square feet at a time until the acres added up. I also began earnest gardening and we now buy no vegetables at all. I learned to butcher my own deer which are plentiful on my property and we enjoy a lot of red meat thanks to it. I'm still not raising chickens and should because its one thing we buy a lot of. In a nutt shell I focused on prepping and didn't bother her with it. Being home I changed our diet from dinning out for $30 to a meal of veggies, rice, (or pasta) and chicken or deer. She noticed but didn't complain and now even likes it better. We rarely eat out anymore. She notices the financial benefit of it too - we easily expended a $1000 a month in dining out years ago. 

My advise to you is take control of those things you need to in order to validate and expand preps without her input. Change the diet. Reduce your food costs. Garden if you can.

About 18 months ago my wife lost a bet on something significant and was compelled in her defeat to read "One Second After." That got her reconizing my preps and thanking me for them.


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## Wquon (May 9, 2013)

thanks. 36k is awsome, i dont think ive ever made over 15k in a year.


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## Wquon (May 9, 2013)

grew up in AR & know how that is, some of the best times weve had as a family is when the powers been out for a few days lol (never for weeks at a time fortunatly). thank you


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## Wquon (May 9, 2013)

she said she'll give it a try... for us, shes burned out on fruits. i like me some banana chips


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

It is awesome except when you've enjoyed 120k for a decade plus.

And of course didn't really worry about anything then so my preps were limited to the firearms I bought, expanded on and trained with. In the last year of my business I "knew" and preparations started big time. I recall the statement about a political campaign. You can always get more volunteers, always raise more money, and always come up with new terms / messages but you can't buy more time.



Wquon said:


> thanks. 36k is awsome, i dont think ive ever made over 15k in a year.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

Wquon said:


> hi, ive been tryint to prep for a few years now but cannot seem to get the wife on board....


Ask her if she'd rather help get your supplies in NOW rather than wait til AFTER the riots start..

Typical forecast for all cities anywhere in the world-


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

If you have children, ask her how she will answer the kids when they want to know why there isn't any food or water after the first few days. Ask her how she will deal with the death of her children when they die of dehydration. Prepping is "real life insurance".


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## Infidel (Dec 22, 2012)

paraquack said:


> If you have children, ask her how she will answer the kids when they want to know why there isn't any food or water after the first few days. Ask her how she will deal with the death of her children when they die of dehydration. Prepping is "real life insurance".


While it might work, I wouldn't recommend this idea that is unless you like sleeping on the couch after she says you accused her of not caring about the well being of her children. I like the idea of using the financial aspects of buying in bulk. Also the natural disaster end of prepping may be the way to go if your area is prone to weather events. My wife is still getting used to the idea of me prepping. Since I'm not stockpiling food at this point it hasn't really affected her yet. Unfortunately my house is too small to store a vast amounts of food, we generally keep about 2 weeks worth of food on hand at any one time, this should get us through any weather event that may hit us here. If we know something's coming we may put in a bit extra. I also keep a bit of gasoline on hand to run the generator until I can get out and get more (a few days worth generally).

-Infidel


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I would never suggest that any mother doesn't care about the well being of her children, but we all know that there are plenty who don't think about it that light and some who consider their children a pain the arse, and only have them for the government handouts they garner. You should know be know how to deal with your wife. Either she gets the idea or do it the hard way and you sleep on the couch for a few days to a week. Personally, I sit her down, take her hands in mine, look her in the eye, explain to her how much you love her and the children. Tell her concerned you are for everybody's well being, and how much better you'd feel if she bought a little extra food, maybe 1 day's worth, each time she went shopping. This food would go into your emergency storage. If that doesn't work, then you have to tippy toe around her and do what you have to do without her knowing about it. Then when you get caught, you end up on the couch again. No easy way, unless you have a wife who gets it.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

paraquack said:


> If you have children, ask her how she will answer the kids when they want to know why there isn't any food or water after the first few days. Ask her how she will deal with the death of her children when they die of dehydration. Prepping is "real life insurance".


LOL, that should set you on your way to a divorce.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

Rational communication, in an honest and open setting, one on one is the best way to discuss any matter with your wife. 
Begin by saying, "I feel vulnerable and unable to provide for you and the children in an emergency because I don't have a months supply of food on hand."
Then talk about the "what if's" - Natural disaster, getting laid off or fired, Korea launching an EMP and taking down power, food shortages, etc. 
Listen to what she says and repeat her words back to her to show that you understand and EMPATHIZE with her. Repeat how you FEEL like you are not doing your job as a provider. Work it out. She may not want to think about something going seriously wrong so let her know that you can do it but you want her to know so you don't have to lie about it and sneak around.

It won't go that smoothly (or it would surprise me if it did) but being honest and letting her know that you don't want to sneak around behind her back will help. She will trust you more and trust that you are doing this for her and the kids.

Paul - minister and counsellor


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

inceptor said:


> LOL, that should set you on your way to a divorce.


I'm not saying be a hard a_s about it but, if a discussion like that is going to cause a divorce, why did you marry her???? If she is really reacts that way, then she must be in one hell of a state of denial. I've met a couple of people where one spouse believes prepping is necessary and the other thinks it's a waste of time and money. One family worked it out, and the other will probably be knocking on my door. I'm am truly sorry if anyone takes offense to my opinion. But think of it as an intervention. Besides, if the husband and wife can't come to terms, how are you going to answer your children when they ask you, why didn't you make mommy put food and stuff away for us, so we weren't starving! 
If it's really that bad, it sounds to me like like you guys and your spouses don't have the ability to really communicate with each other. If that's true, well, you got more serious problems than to prep or not to prep. Prepping is "real life insurance".


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

PaulS said:


> Rational communication, in an honest and open setting, one on one is the best way to discuss any matter with your wife.
> Begin by saying, "I feel vulnerable and unable to provide for you and the children in an emergency because I don't have a months supply of food on hand."
> Then talk about the "what if's" - Natural disaster, getting laid off or fired, Korea launching an EMP and taking down power, food shortages, etc.
> Listen to what she says and repeat her words back to her to show that you understand and EMPATHIZE with her. Repeat how you FEEL like you are not doing your job as a provider. Work it out. She may not want to think about something going seriously wrong so let her know that you can do it but you want her to know so you don't have to lie about it and sneak around.
> ...


You're good, real good! But what if she is still in denial?


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

I know you weren't being malicious. Different women will react differently. I also know the direct approach doesn't always work. 

My wife believes bad things happen to other people and she doesn't want to think about it. I did get her to agree to beefing up our on hand supplies and now she likes knowing if we are out of something in the kitchen, we may have more in the back. The rest of it she wants no part of. This is my job. So, I work at protecting my family. I'm the only one left on my side but I know her sister and at least on nephew will be knocking when things get bad. It's my job to prep for that.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I guess I should and I do count my blessings. Having a wife who understands and agrees is half the battle. I assume you get to pay for the others that will come knocking. I have a similar predicament with wife's family.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

paraquack said:


> I guess I should and I do count my blessings. Having a wife who understands and agrees is half the battle. I assume you get to pay for the others that will come knocking. I have a similar predicament with wife's family.


Yeah but I'm ok with that.

Glad to hear your wife is on board.

I gotta tell ya though, my wife was a serious anti-gunner until after we got married. Long story short, we were in the middle of BFE and we thought someone was going to rob us. I pulled out a gun I had stashed and set it on my lap. A look of relief settled over her and she has been ok with my guns ever since. She says it's my job to protect her. I will take care of her family too, no problem.

ETA: We are about as opposite as you can get but even 25 yrs later, we still are the best of friends. Never thought anyone could put up with me that long.


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## Kidzthinkimahoarder (Feb 11, 2013)

I guess I'm a hardass, cause I didn't tend to be too sympathetic as to how my spouse felt about my prepping habit. I started and he got on board. End of story. It's not like prepping is a waste of money, even if we don't have a SHTF type situation in the near future, if you were to loose a job, be hit with a sickness, or a weather type event, it is nice to be prepared and not have that to worry how your'e going to buy groceries, muchless pay the bills.

The fact is, on your budget I would advise getting a garden underway if not already started. If you don't know how to garden, start small and use whatever is handy, such as 5 gallon buckets to start some plants such as tomatoes, peppers, even a squash plant or two.

Buy some chickens, you have meat, eggs and fertilizer handy there. Rabbits will provide meat and fertilizer as well...

If she won't can garden items, then learn yourself and just do it. She may even become curious as to what your doing and get involved that way.

Also, start buying cheap items such as rice, beans and ramen noodles as a starter to atleast get some stock built up. Also learn what items have multi-uses to them. Don't buy 5 different items when 1 will do all.

Find you an area to start your stockpile, I went around my house and pretty much organized everything, made a mental note of what I had, what I needed and to my surprise I was already started on my way before I knew it. 

You don't want to be ugly about it, or sneaky. Just tell her you think it's a good idea, and what reasons you feel its right... that you would like her support.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

Perhaps a lot of women refuse to prepare for an Apocalypse because they think that by prepping, they're inviting it to happen?


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

My wife is very intelligent, is an RN, administrator of a 66 bed assisted living facility and mostly thinks I'm crazy. She was on board for Y2K but when that fizzled she just puts up with me now. She cooks a lot from scratch and I pay attention to what she uses and watch the stores. When what she uses goes on sale I stock up on it.

After a while she made suggestions of what I should and shouldn't buy, so she picks up the perishable things and I keep on top of the staples. She still isn't fully on board but we really so save a bunch on money on food so she puts up with me.

The food part is easy, more serious preps I just do them, it's my job to be prepared and protect the family, as long as the bills are paid at the end of the month she is ok with it. Deep down I think she sees what is coming but the normalcy bias keeps her from considering it.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

NORMALCY BIAS!
I haven't heard anyone use that term since I was putting on "survival" classes back in the late seventies.
Let's make sure the term means the same thing to both of us.

The refusal of the mind to accept something as possible that has never happened to us?

Is that about the same as your understanding?


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Ripon said:


> It is awesome except when you've enjoyed 120k for a decade plus.
> 
> And of course didn't really worry about anything then so my preps were limited to the firearms I bought, expanded on and trained with. In the last year of my business I "knew" and preparations started big time. I recall the statement about a political campaign. You can always get more volunteers, always raise more money, and always come up with new terms / messages but you can't buy more time.


Maybe I read your post wrong and if so, please forgive me.

You ran a successful business for more than 10 years. That is something to be *VERY *proud of. Yeah, maybe you got caught in the cross-fire of a bad economy, or maybe you just made a bad decision. So what? Your still made it well past the magical "5 years" that is the waypoint for determining whether somebody is serious or an "also ran". That means you have more than a few gray cells that are cooperating.

Based on your post in this thread and others, I do pray that you are just taking a step back to prepare your next business plan, because we need as many producers as we can get.

I apologize if this post is out line.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Thank you, it's a nice comment, but the business had to close and I will always feel responsible. I couldn't control the economy but I could have built in reserves to last longer and maybe get thru it. It was ironic that about 18 months before we did a new lease and the owner of the property said no to our offer to buy the space. Again I couldn't control it, but had I moved then to a space I could have bought then I'd l,ikely still be in business. Hindsight is 20/20 right. My dear wife would probably shoot me if I said I wanted to go into business again. Though I have not worked steadily since then and that bothers her a great deal. She appreciated we are prepped, and that we have everything we need, but those wants that we use to enjoy are creeping in.

The only way I truly imagine being back in commerce is if SHTF and I will use our property to produce as much as I can. We will need people, but we will likely create 30,000 gallons of bio diesel a year, and crops for eating. If SHTF and we all bugged out or in I'd like to be a serious producer which means seller as well.



Inor said:


> Maybe I read your post wrong and if so, please forgive me.
> 
> You ran a successful business for more than 10 years. That is something to be *VERY *proud of. Yeah, maybe you got caught in the cross-fire of a bad economy, or maybe you just made a bad decision. So what? Your still made it well past the magical "5 years" that is the waypoint for determining whether somebody is serious or an "also ran". That means you have more than a few gray cells that are cooperating.
> 
> ...


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## longrider (Mar 25, 2013)

I do like a lot of what you all are saying. I think that the men are making a mistake in saying that it is "Thier job" to provide for the family. You and your wives are *Partners*. You are both responsible. My Manfriend/best friend is soooo resistant to prepping. He only just agreed to letting me keep some stores at his farm. I chip away at him all the time. He laughs and says "I'll just come to you, if I get hungry". The reality is, that I live in a mobile home. If a tornado hit, I would lose everything I have at this point. Except my horses. I put it to him that way, and that is when he gave in and agreed to have "some" prepps at his farm. But PaulS I will do the sit-down, face to face, eye to eye with him. Let him know how worried I am. He's a compassionate man. I think he will eventually agree, but might not participate. He told me last week he's tired of hearing about preps. I do need to rein back a bit, in prep talk. Like others suggested; just go ahead and do it.

I make decent money, and it suprised me how much I was blowing on frivolous stuff. I got into prepping by watching "American Preppers' and it really got me thinking. Now I have about 1 1/2 month's supply for my son, my friend and I. Every time I grocery shop I spend at least $20.00 extra. This last month I ran into a windfall and spent about $300.00 on extra food, ammo, and other things, like the SEAL knife. I think I'm well on my way, but will continue.

I appreciate all the advice here. You guys are really thoughtful, and your wives are lucky that you care so much. Hence, all the "likes" I clicked.

Prep on, Friends.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

longrider said:


> I do like a lot of what you all are saying. I think that the men are making a mistake in saying that it is "Thier job" to provide for the family. You and your wives are *Partners*. You are both responsible. ..................
> I appreciate all the advice here. You guys are really thoughtful, and your wives are lucky that you care so much. Hence, all the "likes" I clicked.
> 
> Prep on, Friends.


I am truly Blessed. My wife and I are a team. Where she is strong, I am weak, and vice versa.
I am the builder of barns and sheds and stables. The fixer of mechanical devices.
She is the medical aid team for the animals. She is the tiller and grower of the vegetable plot. The baker of bread.
I am still gainfully employed and commute into the city, her full time job is farmer.
We have been "prepping" for more than two decades, it's just the way we live and always have.
We do not have extra money, no stocks and bonds, no gold and silver; we have no fancy things like big screen TV's, smart phones, flashy clothes or flashy cars. No swimming pool out behind our double-wide trailer.
But that's OK, not having the so-called material things. Because, like Dolly Parton sang in her song Coat Of Many Colors, "you're only poor if you choose to be."


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## IngaLisa (Jan 31, 2013)

I have always been what is now known as a 'prepper'. My husband liked to save money, so buying in bulk was fine with him that we had extra food in the basement. I have purposely always lived in a rural area with a well, as soon as I could buy a home, in the country, I did. I have remained steadfastly opposed to moving into town. Period.

In the last few months, hubby has become more of an ardent prepper. He bought weapons, and we bought a lot of things to keep our household running if we don't have electricity. H7N9 scared him. We did some prepping around 9/11 too, but this flu thing is making more sense to him. We don't have much money either. We live on a pension which will stop if something goes wrong, but we do have food stored, and a spit of land to raise food on. We could crudely survive here. Any one who wants to take something from us, will have to get past our defenses. It won't be just hubby and me here. I still think I am meaner than he is. I am more protective.

Have the 'Miss' watch the pandemic docudrama I posted on the H7N9 Avian Flu thread, and also, 'After Armageddon' which the History Channel put out, which simulates a pandemic scenario.

Even then, she may be like some of my family members who say, "I don't want to survive Armageddon." Well, to that I say, I have seen a lot of people die in my profession. It isn't pretty. When you are old, sick and tired, it is part of the natural cycle of life. When you are 2, 8, 15, 35, 49 or even 65, it's not so 'eh'. When confronted with the possibility of their demise, people will do anything to save themselves. If I can avoid death happening to my family prematurely, as well as myself, I would. If I become a burden to my family, then fine, let me die. It isn't the death that bothers me, it is the dying that comes before hand. 

Eventually, the Armageddon phase stops, and the world will regain balance, and life can begin anew for survivors. I would like to see my children and grandchildren be among those who survive to build anew.

I prep for THEM. I feel a bit like Moses, I will be too old to enter any future Promised Land, but if I can get my family thru 10 years in the desert, maybe they can take it from there and rebuild a new world someday and I can die in peace then. I doubt that all mankind will perish in any disaster scenario. It will be up to the next generations to rebuild a better world next time around. I want my people, my family, my genes in to have a stake in that. I guess that is basic instinct survival at its most primitive. I would work with any one willing to work hard to assure their own survival and that of their families as well. I would build a community of survivors. You need that to survive. 

Prepping is way more than hiding in a bunker. You have to know what to do when you get out, and there before you lies a sparsely but aggressively inhabited hostile planet you don't recognize. That mess is what you have to turn into the Promised Land.


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## StarPD45 (Nov 13, 2012)

"It isn't the death that bothers me, it is the dying that comes before hand." 

I think you have hit it square on the head. That probably scares more people than the actual end of life.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

rice paddy daddy said:


> I am truly Blessed. My wife and I are a team. Where she is strong, I am weak, and vice versa.
> I am the builder, the fixer of mechanical devices.


The same here.

ETA: My job is also to protect the family.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

inceptor said:


> The same here.
> 
> ETA: My job is also to protect the family.


She does drive a bigger truck than me. Chevy Silverado Crew Cab 4X4 2500 Heavy Duty diesel. She needs it to pull the horse trailer.
And while I did provide the basic instruction, she does have her own shotgun and 38 caliber revolver. I bought her that when she began having trouble pulling the slide on my Colt 45 Auto.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

longrider said:


> ...My Manfriend/best friend is soooo resistant to prepping.....He only just agreed to letting me keep some stores at his farm...I live in a mobile home...


If I had a ladyfriend on a farm I'd seriously think about negotiating to go live with her if she had a spare room because a farm would be like a fortified little kingdom in a SHTF world, well clear of cities with plenty of elbow room to do crops and shoot bunnies for food, and space to sink a simple bunker out back.


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## Hardknocks24 (Nov 8, 2012)

I give up trying to sway my wife into prepping. So I been doing it on my own. I start every payday by getting things on check list that I need . Then the things I wish if only 20. Dollars on need and little less on wants . My family just ignore what's going on in the world.so I have preped them bug out bags. They think the garden is for me to relax . But husband been sneaky in what he plants. What they don't know won't hurt them . I know they will be taken care of.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

longrider said:


> You and your wives are *Partners*.


"wives"?!? I can barely manage one Mrs Inor, what the hell would I do with two (or God forbid more)?!?! :-D

P.S. I am pretty sure your manfriend and RPD know *EXACTLY *what I am talking about.

P.S.S. I am guessing IngaLisa's husband is in the same boat as well.


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## IngaLisa (Jan 31, 2013)

I have told hubby, should I precede him in death, he should feel free to remarry. He says to me, "After 40 years of marriage, why in the hell would I want to do THAT again?' He has a warped sense of humor, which I tolerate.

If it were not for me, there would be no prepping going on. He is onboard now, because we bought a few guns and he liked those, so, he indulged me on some of the farmstead preps. He got into buying the food in bulk because he did feel we were unprepared but also because it is cheaper. He would much rather be out fly fishing, playing tennis, biking, going to movies, eating out, or any other recreational stuff he could think of rather than gardening or tending to chickens. Maybe he is right, but he FINALLY gets what I am doing. I try to strike a balance, live in both worlds, to do those other things that we enjoy, because that seems to me, the best way to do it all the way around.

Besides prepping, I am active in conservation movements. Without a decent ecosystem, we won't have anywhere to 'bug out' too. Take a look at the fracking maps of the US and world. Overlay the drought maps onto this. Look at rising sea levels. Consider that mining is spreading ferociously, including the seemingly benign frac sand mining. Mountaintop removal is going on in many places, including Wisconsin, which only has big hills known as the Driftless Region, the beautiful Black Hills of SD that I think we all believe are sacred and the Ozark Mountains rich in history. When they are done sand mining, the water tables will be so low, and the top soil gone. There will be no farming there any more The beauty of the area will be gone with hills reduced to nothing. Then the mining companies leave. Then there are vast areas of land where CAFOs use to dispose of their manure and the cities spread their waste and industrial sludge on the land. It wasn't bad enough that they apply it to the land, now they want to send it airborne thru huge irrigation rigs! Spraying dung thru the air for us to breathe. There will not be adequate wildlife to hunt. Sure, maybe in the vastness of Alaska, or some corner of Montana where they have managed not to frack, but I am seeing few places I would want to even buy some acreage. 

This is scary.

Some of these activities take place UNDER land that we as private citizens own, but have no rights to. It's Manifest Destiny, but, it is corporations taking what should rightfully belong to those of us who own the land, either privately or publicly. We are being exploited, and we need to wake up before it is too late, and there are no more swamps or sloughs to get by in, no more forests to hunt, fish or trap in, or even plains to graze animals on, because they have dried up and desertified. We may find our own wells polluted because some oil company ran horizontal pipes from their property or a neighboring property with a lease, and those pipes are under our own land. For what? So we can export this natural gas to China? Yep, that is where it is going. Our 'domestic' energy is being exported.

I am not sure, when the time comes to 'bug out' that rural areas will be as easy to survive in as we hope them to be. Soil is dead. Water is terribly polluted and becoming more scarce by the day. Water removed for fracking NEVER re-enters the evaporative cycle again. Millions of gallons of FRESH water per fracking per well are gone forever, and that is affecting rain patterns. It is causing a lack of rain. It is emptying aquifers that take thousands if not millions of years to refill in a normal evaporative cycle. We don't have normal evaporative cycles any more.

Billions of gallons of manure full of antibiotics and other drugs are dumped on farmland to be eaten by wild creatures which then brew up all kinds of resistant germs to pass on to us, billions and billions of us. Science admits, current agriculture is contributing to the rise of new microorganism that threaten mankind, and the animals that sustain us.

The global economy as it stands, is not sustainable. Whether the disaster comes as economic failure, or environmental failure or pandemic, it is all due to the pressure of this unsustainable economy of 'growth'. 

Preppers know how to live off the land, I hope we can still have land that is fit to live off of.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

IngaLisa said:


> ...some of my family members who say, "I don't want to survive Armageddon"...


I do..
A post-apocalypse world can't be any worse than the messed up, rat-racing over-populated one we already live in!
This is the final scene in the final episode of Survivors (1970's), they've managed to get a power station running but some people prefer the spiritual serenity of the new post-apoc world and switch off the electric lights at 6:45 because they like candles better-


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## Rambo Moe (May 9, 2013)

Let her know the good feelings she will get from doing this.

Tell her the safety she'll feel, knowing you two are prepared for anything.

Tell her how much fun she will have, working on a project with you.

Or just get started yourself, and let her see in a few weeks the benefits of having such a supply on hand.

:grin:


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