Doomsday Preppers or just being prepared

Saw an episode of the new show Doomsday Preppers today. It made me wonder a few things.
1. WHY would you show anyone in the country what you are doing to prepare for disaster. Namely, if you were stockpiling food or supplies? Granted some of these preppers were actually preparing to defend their food and resources but still, if I'm your neighbor, I'm gonna come knockin'.

2. What have any of you here done, to prepare for disaster or changes in our economy or environment?

Personally, we have stockpiled half a years worth of vegetables but only because we grow a garden and supplement these items with store bought perishables. We could last quite a while on just the vegetables but we would have to head out to hunt. We live in a very un-populated area and could easily walk to the woods to hunt for game and we have firearms, ammunition, and bow hunting supplies.
We also live in Northern Michigan were we have a ready supply for snow for water or bathing almost 3/4ths of the year. We are 2 blocks from a small lake. Most of our neighbors have at least supplementary wood heat furnaces.
I tend to make sure we have all medications that we will need for at least a month's worth. Don't ask me why I do this in particular. I'm a little OC but I'm not strictly planning for a disaster.
If we did loose power or gas we would be in some trouble in regards to heat. I would LIKE to get a wood boiler to at least supplement our gas boiler and reduce our everyday gas heating costs anyway but it's not a huge necessity right now.
We have a large water storage barrel that is about 3 or 4 feet tall. We have not filled it but we always could to store and treat water for potable uses. We initially got this barrel to turn it into a rainwater collection for watering our produce and flowers. We just haven't gotten around to that project yet.
We have a generator but did not purchase it strictly for doomsday prepping. We got it when we moved into this house. As we bought the house it did not have an electrical panel. The previous owners had managed to bypass the electric meter and were stealing the electricity, so when they were foreclosed on, the city came in and ripped everything out. We did not live close enough to work on the new house while staying at our old home so we spent a month living in our new house without electricity. It was in August so at least we did not need heat. We had the generator for power tools and we had functioning water utilities but we used kerosene lamps, candles, and played board games or read books when we weren't working or unpacking. We went to bed when it was dark and we cooked on our grill. I had a pyrex percolator coffee pot that I warmed on the grill in the mornings for our coffee. We know we can make it in summertime without electricity. We might even be able to make it in winter as long as we had gasoline for the generator to operate the boiler pump at intervals.

What if any needs have you thought about or feel it's necessary to ALWAYS have on hand?

 

I'm so unprepared I better hope for a quick death.

 

I have about 9 days' supply of food, a stock of powerful LED torches and batteries, and enough good quality fleeces and duvets to see me through a bad English winter without electricity. Cooking - I'd be in trouble. No fire burning in my neck of he woods .. actually, it's illegal (smoke pollution laws), so there are no working coal fires.

 

The best DP'ers would never tell. Those people are just showing off and they will be the first to be killed for their supplies. Its not only what you have collected but what skills have you acquired to help you survive.

 

Right now I have enough food and water for maybe 2-3 weeks. I can't really store anymore supplies because I'm still sharing a house with a roommate. When I get my own house though this year I will store more. Living in the Pacific Northwest it's important to be prepared for earthquakes and the occasional snow and ice storm. We also have volcanoes. We just had a big snow/ice event that knocked out power to much of the region for close to a week. Without power many gas stations were not functional and people had to drive around searching for gas. I saw the forecast and filled my tank up before the snow arrived, but in the future I would like to start storing fuel.

I do have firearms/ammunition, but aside from a mad max type scenario, I doubt they would see much use.

That being said, during the recent icestorm burglars in other cities were driving around and breaking into homes that people had deserted because they didn't have power. These homes were ripe for the picking, even if they had security systems, without power those systems were useless.

 

I only have 48 bottles of water that will probably kill me anyway due to the microbial pathogens that most certainly live inside.

I am arrogant maybe, but I find it to be egotistical and paranoid to over-prep for any impending doom. I am simply not that important in evolutionary terms to make a big fuss.

 

Walt said it best: "Stockpiling food and SKS rifles was cutting into my steak and bourbon money."

...

Seriously, the single best resource you can stockpile is the goodwill of your friends and neighbors.

Nobody survives a shitty situation by themselves. Hurricane Katrina versus Fukushima Aftermath.

 

And a dog. But I'm allergic to dogs.

 

Might as well vote yourself off the island with a Krylon-camo'd WASR right now.

You can't don the single-sleeve leather jacket without a blue heeler at your side.

 

You can boil the water or use water treatment drops + some flavoring to mask the taste.

 

We have plenty of water stored in the house and if a major disaster occurs, I can live off my body fat for quite awhile. If it lasts longer than a few weeks though, I'm fucked.

 

I don't stock up on purpose, but the last couple of hurricanes/storms haven't left me without, and my power was off for over a week one time. Didn't run out of anything I needed, so I guess I'm lucky.

 

i have taken some mild steps towards preparing my home nad family for tough times, but not for fear of doomsday... no way to tell when thats coming, and the best thing you can do is get your soul right, cuz even if you arnt religious, karma is hard theory to argue...

that being said the steps i have taken are more to protect my family and our basic needs in the event that the economy or our nation become so fucked that we start turning on each other collectively. and i agree, im not very significant in the grand scheme of things, but you never know what role you or one of your family members might play in a trying series of events. i still beleive valor is a crucial quality that could be lurking in the heart of anyone. might not be me, might not be you, but it could be both of us...

 

This thread is a definite eye-opener.

I'm almost out of beer.