My reality regarding TEOTWAWKI.

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backlash

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After reading Ladylocus's thread about sustainability I started thinking about my families life in a true end of the world situation.
I thought about what will happen to me and my family and the reality is we will be among some of the first to die off. We'll probably make it for a couple of months but not much longer and those months are going to be extremely difficult.
My brother will not last without his dialysis. A couple of weeks maybe.
My wife and I are older and have our own medical issues. We both take meds daily for various things like high BP, and diabetes, plus other ailments. Survival of the fittest is the rule.
We aren't in a position to store food for 6 months, much less years. It's just not realistic. Space is one issue.
We have a well and I can get water.
Growing a garden is a long term undertaking.
Bottom line we are prepared for a short term event, a few weeks or a few months but long term it's just not going to happen.
So what is your reality?
 
We are in the same boat, Backlash. We at least have the room for long term storage so we have more stock. My health is good, but my wife and son both rely on maintenance medication, which would be life threatening if they didn't have it. In a real TEOTWAWKI situation we wouldn't be the first to go, but we wouldn't be too far behind.
 
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@backlash , I'd bet you are not alone with health concerns and issues. There are many who have skills and knowledge, but without the current medical support, many would already be gone.

I am not on any medications, but I am feeling my age. My back injury from when I was 19 bothers me every day. I am fairly well stocked up on food, but no matter how much food we have, it will never be enough. If I were living in the country, growing fields of food, I'd feel more secure.
 
I hear what you're sayin'. 3 years ago I'd have a very different answer. I got my first batch of emergency food and gear in the 90's, been at this a while and I've prepared very well. a great many options and layers of preps.

But now I have very elderly parents who can't take care of themselves. Even with them a month in the reasonable comfort of an old mine shaft would be doable, physically but not mentally. They can't handle stress... like the stress of trying to ship a package back, simple things. They get confused very easily which causes more stress.

So, now I'm here for the duration. Or until that is no longer required...

It's good to take a hard look at our current situation. Most of us here in the forum have been preppers for decades, before there was the word "preppers". As preppers we're always looking outwards. Need to spend more time looking inwards.
 
I'll last till the last drop of Tequila........Then I am Wolf or Grizzly poop.
 
As preppers we're always looking outwards. Need to spend more time looking inwards.
That would make a fine "signature" for someone. (Me like it)
 
I am not yet close to the age were I have lost physical usefulness.
However I believe no matter how old you are, everyone has at least one good fight left in them.

Why not make it the one, where you defend either your children, or if childless, that wonderful young couple that reminds you of how your kids would have been, if you had some?

Also an older person who consumes less food but can provide night guard duty (as long as either their hearing or their vision is still at 8/10ths) can be very valuable, freeing up young folks so they can do labor during the day.

Whether in SHTF you have 2 months or two years, you will have a chance to be a force for good.
 
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I'll be around till the last morsel of food has been eaten, or the last rounds of ammo can be counted on 1 hand, or the last firefight over the expired mac and cheese didn't end in my favor.. How long will that be? I don't know, depends on the nature of the disaster.
 
I only hope that any SHTF event would start at the onset of winter. That would significantly aid in our survivability. We could hunker down all winter to give the world a chance to sort things out. This would significantly reduce the odds of anyone from the city a long ways away being able to walk all the way out here.
 
I started planning and getting prepared 40 years ago for long term.

I'm at Long term.

No more planning needed.

We're as good as it's gonna be. Long term don't exist for us anymore.

Jim

We are too, Jim. We will continue to add to our stores, but long term is 10 to fifteen years tops, We're not going anywhere, so if our home ends up being the Alamo so be it.
 
I have prepped for the short term, not for the long term. I define short term as, "things will get better". The long term as, "No, they won't".

I personally would not want to be a long term survivor. I see no point to it. No pleasure in it. No need for it. But to each their own.

I would want to survive a hurricane, a forest fire, a tornado, a flood, an earthquake, and things like that. I would not want to survive into a Mad Max type of life. Or an A Boy and His Dog life. Or a Soylent Green life. Or a Silent Running life. Or a The Quiet Earth life.

Growing your own crops, raising or hunting your own meat, digging for your water, forging your own tools, generating your own power - that's great if you're doing it by choice or after an emergency for a reasonably short time period, but if you are forced to do it long term just to survive ... not a life I want to try to scrape by in. Being totally on your own, no supplies other than what you make yourself, would not be a picnic. So I'm not going to prep for that.
 
We've been prepping for over 30 years, first short term stuff, then longer term provisioning.

But looking at it today, without additional medical supplies coming in the wife would be done in about 4 weeks...

Based on our food storage and the provisioning I have in place, I could last several years beyond that, unless I became injured....

An any case it would not be pleasant.....
 
We are well stocked, but I'm getting old. I never give up, though. And I mean never. That has to count for something.

I ain't curling up into a ball and quitting.
It's not in my makeup or nature.

I have my bedrock faith, and spine and a will made of iron and who knows how many days God has allotted me.
I'll fight the good fight until HE calls me home.
 
I'm not going to just roll over and give up but the reality is we won't survive long. I will use all my ammo.
I guess it all depends on how many rounds you ration yourself to per day, lets see 100 rounds per day, say 100 rounds per pound, each foot locker weights .... Never mind but I think before it's all over @phideaux and I will be looking for a good way to keep score.....
 
Great thread. I think I am sorta uncomfortable because we are renting at the moment and not in a location where I want to be forever. As far as the area we live in, we are in a little more fortunate location, but I would be more at ease if we could find a place of our own. We are both healthy though we are no longer spring chickens and feel it some days. We will go down fighting - even if it's a short fight 🤪 We all have our own thoughts on preps, but I try to focus on basics first - keep it simple - even though it's far from simple. I try to gain the skills to make my own whatever it is.
That said, we both have elderly parents. Hubby's sister is on anti-seizure meds. Other friends and family etc. Our mental/emotional condition is left up to God.
 
I'm in great shape for almost 53 , got everything covered wife has health issues due to the jab. Which I'm refusing. Wife and I are at the bugout location. The sooner our adult children get here the better. A few trusted brothers and their families will hopefully make it here as well. Some of them are the backup location. Depending on which way the wind blows. That's the one thing none of know. We're always wargaming hypothetically scenarios. As well. God knows the hour of our end. Not us so I plan to leave this world on my feet fighting the good fight. Like the 57th regiment of Foot against Napoleon. The Die Hard Regiment.
 
I take it your preps are for military conflict? Or am I misunderstanding that reference?
No I am a Retired Marine , grew up on a real working farm. And we now have a hobby farm/ homestead and I hunt and fish alot. Do I have skills yes. Am I armed yes , do I think the world is going to crap yes. Am I going to go looking for trouble NO. But the zombies will likely still show up eventually no matter what one does. So plan accordingly.
 
No I am a Retired Marine , grew up on a real working farm. And we now have a hobby farm/ homestead and I hunt and fish alot. Do I have skills yes. Am I armed yes , do I think the world is going to crap yes. Am I going to go looking for trouble NO. But the zombies will likely still show up eventually no matter what one does. So plan accordingly.

Thank you for your service.
 
I commented in the other thread and won't repeat too much of that here. My wife, though tough as a nail and healthy as a horse has a very rare medical condition and requires a dumb little pill in rare supply to live. There is no natural substitute. She will be dead a few days after those pills run out. We have stockpiled those little pills as much as the system allows, but there are limits. These will run out years before our preps would. We are both fine with this reality if that makes sense. No use fretting over what you can't change and we trust in our Creator to guide us. The wife is my earth bound moderator and she keeps me between the ditches. I am not too sure how I will respond to that if in SHTF. I really don't know.

We have stockpiled lots of preps and some wise folks on this forum have educated me on caches. I am distributing some supplies to these caches just in case. Between my preps and what is available that nature provides, we should hold out supply wise. I don't know if I alone could keep the zombie hordes off my property, so there is that. However, my location might by me time and would certainly mitigate this threat. But not completely. My two son's live a long ways away in the area around Anchorage, and I don't see them making it to my place if they aren't already here. The roads will be closed naturally and some of the communities will likely not let you pass. Terrain features make going off road a near death sentence along that route. If forced into the wood, I should do okay for a bit. I have fall back positions where I could survive a bit. But either the weather, an injury or my age would at some point do me in. I am getting older and age will get me a long time before my supplies run out. In true SHTF, what the military calls DNBI, or Disease and Non-Battle Injury will likely be the culprit of my demise. That or the lack of will or purpose after loosing my wife. Again, how would one know how one would respond to events like this? History shows some adapt and some don't.

It won't be fun, it won't be easy, and it will suck beyond compare. Not being able to embrace the suck will do most in, and most of us really know how we will manage that, or how they will respond when all of their loved ones are gone.
 
No I am a Retired Marine , grew up on a real working farm.
Ah, got it. I am armed for defense too, but against looters, criminals, vagrants, etc. Not the military. If the military (ours or somebody else's!) were to come for me, I'd probably be dead in half a microsecond if that's what they wanted to happen.
 

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