[Closed] Doomsday prepping

what can we do?

If we could stop voting for ****s it would be a good start.

Preppers? Just look at how many of these people protested in the states against lockdown, because they needed haircuts 😁

Growing food and building and fixing stuff must be quite rewarding irrespective of doomsday.

Growing food and building and fixing stuff must be quite rewarding irrespective of doomsday.

This is my feeling. I'm sure lots of us do it anyway and do up to a point but I'm thinking of stepping it up I guess.

Preppers? Just look at how many of these people protested in the states against lockdown, because they needed haircuts

It is associated with right wing libertarianism I suppose, and some of those guys are into it just because it's a good excuse to buy guns and play in bunkers, I suspect. But there's also a hippy environmentalist side to it as well.

The joke used to be "get an allotment and buy a gun", and the first part about being a little more self sufficient is probably worthwhile where we can, in environmental terms rather than doomsday scenario.

But not electing dicks who push us towards those extreme longer term risks is the key.

I've just ordered my wife a signed copy of
Ray Mears bushcraft for xmas

Is that prepping?

Mctd The guns for defending your allotment against the long termers

If you do all the prepping, have a nice place, abundant food and supplies but the world is also going crazy, there will be global unrest, lack of food and riots...

Would the crazy % of the 98% of people that don’t prep come straight for you like you are their local supermarket with no intention of using a credit card as they walk out with all your supplies..

How do you solve that?

Got to ask the question post all the looting that has been going on before any food shortages exist...

The not voting in idiots part, how's that going?

I’ve just ordered my wife a signed copy of
Ray Mears bushcraft for xmas

Is that prepping?

Buying xmas presents in October is a bit more extreme than I was thinking of going.

Even if you do prep and go into hiding what do you do when all your food/water/toilet roll runs out? It's alright growing stuff but unless you're in the middle of nowhere it's going to get stolen or what happens if your crop fails? Are you not just delaying the inevitable of your ****ed along with everyone else?

And as Uselesshippy pointed out, make sure you shack up with a barber or hairdresser.

Buying xmas presents in October is a bit more extreme than I was thinking of going.

I don’t know if the whole country goes into tier 3 then beauticians will have to close, a bush craft book will come in handy.

If you want a realistic portrayal of doomsday, read "the road". I'll take the cowards way out cheers.

Good thinking Drac, could be a best seller at this rate 😀

Mctd The guns for defending your allotment against the long termers

I was trying to avoid being accused of being pro-gun 🤣

The Road is a very depressing and harrowing read/watch. Mind you, someone told me recently that Mad Max was set in 2021?

Where is Utopia? Where is Jessica Hyde?

Answer these and you'll be fine.

Mind you, someone told me recently that Mad Max was set in 2021?

It doesn’t have timeline as such it was inspired by 1970s oil crisis, there are hints of it being around 1980s though.

I’ve just ordered my wife a signed copy of
Ray Mears bushcraft for xmas

Make sure you hide your beard trimmer.

As long as there's enough toilet roll we'll be ok...we can adapt to the rest but if toilet roll stocks go low we could enter a code-brown situation. And that ain't pretty. Buy toilet roll and store it in a robot armed perimeter defenced under ground bunker, with an automated replenishment system feeding the throne/ tactical room. We'll get through.

The UK is too small and the population is too dense. US style prepping isn't feasible. I wouldn't want to live through the chaos that would follow genuine social breakdown. It would be awful beyond imagining.

But I've been playing around with becoming more self sufficient in terms of food. Late frosts and potato blight following a wet August were an interesting insight into the anxiety our antecedents must have felt as they watched the weather.
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*orders AK-47 from Kalashnikov.ru*

*heads to Montgomery's place*

You'll have to get past the punji sticks first.

The UK is too small and the population is too dense. US style prepping isn’t feasible. I wouldn’t want to live through the chaos that would follow genuine social breakdown. It would be awful beyond imagining.

But I’ve been playing around with becoming more self sufficient in terms of food. Late frosts and potato blight following a wet August were an interesting insight into the anxiety our antecedents must have felt as they watched the weather.

Yeah I'm not really imagining full societal breakdown TBH but I am thinking things will get more difficult generally, and fine I'll just get a greenhouse then. 🙂

If you look at history though then stable, prosperous societies are definitely not something that can be assumed to carry on forever. We have had a period of unprecedented peace and comfort in Western Europe that won't last forever, it's just a question of how long.

I agree. I'd dug up half the lawn, ordered topsoil, seed potatoes and shuttering for raised beds before lockdown was even declared back in March. Nothing I've seen since has made me more relaxed; greenhouse went in a couple of weeks ago, and I'll be digging up the remaining lawn over the winter. No panic buying, but get a bit excess in each week, so have a good stock of tinned goods, rice, etc.

Learning to grow food.
Learning to fix, mend create.
Don't rely on "the cloud". Local copies private. Not synced and uploaded with Google, apple, etc who will suddenly claim ownership.
Minimise dept.
Minimise fixed out goings.

All these really come under the broad bander of flexibility. Preparing in terms of 6 months of food and ammunition is will in all probability be the wrong type of preparation. Flexibility is it what sees you though.

TheBrick talks sense

Preppers? Just look at how many of these people protested in the states against lockdown, because they needed haircuts

seems like popular meme/trope, but is there actually any evidence of it.

seems unlikely

You need a base to grow food, though, otherwise you're into hunter-gatherer/scavenger/bandit territory.

One thing cultivating a reasonable amount of food over the last six months has brought home to me is the idea that you can go it alone is delusional. Being part of a like minded community would be essential.

Being part of a like minded community would be essential.

It was forgetting that fact that got us in this mess in the first place

I've been watching The Walking Dead for long enough to know what to do. <Wraps barbed wire around baseball bat>

I'm not sure a lack of food to the point of home grown potatoes being useful is anywhere close to what a societal breakdown would look like. Clearly learning to poo without needing bog roll is looking like the first thing on the list.

I’m just wondering whether to go for wood or metal in a baseball bat... one can take nails through, the other is less likely to split.

Decisions, decisions

Time to get some books on gardening in for when the power/ internet goes down!

For a while I was actually thinking about becoming a prepper. I got as far as having enough stuff. I could not get past the amount of arms to defend said stuff.

So it's you +3 neighbours Vs on car of armed bandits- you lose

It's you plus your street Vs 10 cars of bandits- you lose.

It's your entire city vs london- you lose.

Hence why we have countries. There are too many people for us to be in some lawless border land with everyone in castles. Got a castle- clearly you have stuff and a larger/ more powerful group arrives to remove it.

Got enough of you to fight off everyone? Well good luck feeding everyone! Also congratulations you just became a country.

Got enough stuff to survive? How will you hide your house/ fields/ animals?

I found it alot easier to stop reading stories about ecological doom predicting the end of the world due to climate change. It's made the last 20 years much more fun than living in some hidden hut in the middle of nowhere

Given that was the systyem under communism and other oppressive regimes, the mindset certainly hasn't done them any good.

Sets up division, selfishness. IM OK- F YOU mentality.

Don't underestimate the effects of running out of loo roll, it's not to be sniffed at.

Not quite doomsday prepping, but I'm having a house built with a reasonably big plot and planning permission for a big poly tunnel, chickens and bees. We've tried to be frugal with our food bill, but the weekly shop has gone from £50-ish to £75-ish in the last few years - so growing our own / being more self-sufficient is a necessary response to food price increases if we crash-out the EU.

Given that was the systyem under communism and other oppressive regimes

Could you be a little more specific? What ‘system’?

Not quite doomsday prepping, but I’m having a house built with a reasonably big plot and planning permission for a big poly tunnel, chickens and bees. We’ve tried to be frugal with our food bill, but the weekly shop has gone from £50-ish to £75-ish in the last few years – so growing our own / being more self-sufficient is a necessary response to food price increases if we crash-out the EU.

What are you planning to grow?

I once read that 40% of people have a plan for the apocalypse, and that of those, 98% are blokes of a certain age 😀

I shall feast on the oversupply of gammon.

The thing to bear in mind about all these preppers, is they all lost their shit after 2 weeks of mild covid restrictions. Bunker full of guns, a thousand tins of beans but it all means nothing if you can't get a haircut or a tattoo or threaten a liberal.

Personally, I quite like civilisation, and if the cost of survival means sharing a new world with nothing but survivalists, I'll not bother thanks.

Loving this thread.

I think there are levels of emergency, or social collapse that individuals can sensibly prepare for and those they can't.

I liked Brick's take. If we're looking at civilisational collapse, not much you could do. But if its increasing instability there are some things you can future proof for... Things that come to mind:

Thinking about your employment choices - what won't be easily automated? Put some money away, more extreme have some precious metals in case of currency problems.

If you live in an area where there could be disturbance, get a solid door, high fence.

If you live in somewhere flood prone, get some waders, maybe an inflatable. Don't move there if you are moving.

Fuel dump of some petrol in a lock up, end of a big garden.

Get yourself some solar, maybe a power wall, so you've got off grid potential. A wood pile in the garage, or down the side of a house...

Might be worth thinking what adaptations to uncertainty people in LEDCs make in the face of precarious circumstances.

big poly tunnel, chickens and bees.

I like this plan. Giant bee-chicken hybrids buzzing around, fattening themselves up on the flowers.

Prepping gets a bad name mainly due to the fact that the extreme end of it gets the media coverage (right wing Americans with guns)

There are actually some more thoughtful peppers out there, even in the USA - check out https://theprepared.com for an example of a slightly more liberal approach.

A year ago no-one thought for a minute we'd be in the midst of a global pandemic now. If the world can change that much, that quickly, what else could change?

Prepping doesn't have to mean getting ready for the end of the world, it can be as simple as warm clothes and a shovel in the car in winter. First aid training is 'prepping' if you think about it.

Anyway, back to digging my bunker 😉

Spam.
Hot water bottles.

Isn’t hemp supposed to be the new wonder-food? Grows anywhere.

I really don’t get the bog roll thing. If you know what you’re doing one roll can last a year. Just bake it for half a day longer and you’ll have a clean burner every time, no soot, nothing. One sheet to check if you’re the cautious type, but you’ll draw an ace, guaranteed.

Picked 6 buckets of Bramley's at the weekend and got some rechargeable hair trimmers at the end of May (the only pair Argos had in for a month).
Does that count as prepping?

I agree with TheBrick. Whatever specifics you plan for, chances are you'll be wrong. This time last year, how many people were planning for a pandemic? A few experts were warning of it, but it wasn't seriously on the radar.

What are you planning to grow?

I'll leave that to Mrs DB - I'll just be responsible for the digging and construction but expect it will be things like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, beans, peas, carrots. There's a big grow-your-own community where they share produce, seeds, plants and experience.

If you know what you’re doing one roll can last a year. Just bake it for half a day longer and you’ll have a clean burner every time, no soot, nothing. One sheet to check if you’re the cautious type, but you’ll draw an ace, guaranteed.

🙂 Ah yes, the perfect dump.

Every once in a while everyone experiences the perfect Brown Trout. It's rare but a real thing of beauty. You sit down expecting the worst, but what you get is a smooth sliding, fart-less masterpiece that breaks the water with the splash-less grace of an Olympic high-diving champion. You use the toilet tissue to find that it was totally unnecessary. It makes you feel that all is right in the world and that you are in perfect harmony with it.

Back in the 1880s rural reformers used a phrase "three acres and a cow" - this is what they reckoned a family needed to subsist.

You aren't going to be self sufficient by growing stuff in your back garden.

Best way to survive the breakdown of western society is to cook and eat your neighbours before they cook and eat you.

and I’ll be digging up the remaining lawn over the winter

We built our raised beds directly onto the lawn, with a layer of cardboard then the compost. Followed the videos on YouTube by Charles Dowding. Saved a lot of digging!

smooth sliding, fart-less masterpiece that breaks the water with the splash-less grace of an Olympic high-diving champion.

Like an otter off a bank.

Known as a Ghostie round these parts.

I met an Alaskan guy in New Zealand years ago who advised guns and gold. When gold looses its value you better have a big gun or as its UK get an axe and learn to fight. Better still in case of complete breakdown plan a nice suicide as life wont be worth living.

Best way to improve things is to pull together and build strong, sustainable, networked communities.

Bunker mentality is the disease itself offered as the ‘cure’

A problem with this pandemic is further pushing people into ‘virtual‘ bunkers as well as physical ones. And the ‘outlet’ for all that is (for a growing number of the population), again, the internet.

I dont offer the solution, or even a prediction of the future in this: but look to South Africa. Unstable currency, inequality and infastructure problems; whilst maintaining some semblence of western capitalist life.

Securing your home, having stocks of food and drinks in your house, being prepared for the scheduled rolling blackouts is the normal.

Some kind of mass extinction event/complete breakdown of society and I am going with 6 foot of rope. Anything else is merely prolonging a drawn out miserable and painful death.

You aren’t going to be self sufficient by growing stuff in your back garden.

You're going to build skills that will make it easier if needed though.

Best way to improve things is to pull together and build strong, sustainable, networked communities.

Good point but I think I buy in to the theory that humans are only really evolved to live in smaller communities. I don't feel evolved enough for the limitless bounds of the internet!

We built our raised beds directly onto the lawn, with a layer of cardboard then the compost. Followed the videos on YouTube by Charles Dowding. Saved a lot of digging!

Good tip. Thought about raised beds on the remaining lawn, that's tonight's viewing sorted.

I'm a big fan of post apocalyptic fiction and one of my current favourite series (SM Stirling - Emberverse) postulates that, in the event of a complete societal breakdown, the people most likely to survive and thrive are the ones who have the luxury of enough leisure time and resources to currently pursue hobbies that are based on historical pre-industrial trades.

Weavers and leather workers, anglers and gardeners, medieval battle re-enactors and archers.

It's not going to be the preppers who inherit the earth.

It's pinterest

I can bake pretentious bread. Does that count?

Here's how they are constructively responding to the crisis in California :-/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/20/more-than-100000-californians-have-bought-a-gun-in-response-to-covid-19-crisis-report-finds

I like prepper mentality but in moderation - having skills for first aid , some car repair, carpentry, cooking, orienteering and growing food makes sense in my mind. Also most outdoor stuff is very useful in case of power-outs and other smaller crises.

Buying zombie axes, Bruce Lee -skills and big guns is step too far IMO.

I can bake pretentious bread.

Is that a post-post-ironic-age, faux-reverso-classist euphemism for ‘can bake bread’?

those guys are into it just because it’s a good excuse to buy guns and play in bunkers, I

they’re basically fantasising about spree killing. They’re not genuinely driven by self sufficient survival and being the sole hope for future humanity. They get a hard on about taking a last stand and killing anyone and everyone who they think might show an interest in their stockpile of beans.

Is that a post-post-ironic-age, faux-reverso-classist euphemism for ‘can bake bread’?

Last night I made a middle Eastern style sourdough flatbread in my outdoor pizza oven. Does that help paint a picture?

Good point but I think I buy in to the theory that humans are only really evolved to live in smaller communities.

Right now we (in the West) aren’t living in any sized communities (in the real physical, supportive, practical, connected sense)

It’s still basically the nuclear family in little boxes model, with a side-helping of internet bunkerdom where the lonely and disconnected find false ‘belonging’ in rabbit holes of conspiracy cults and tribal, cartoonish, political guff.

Anything else is merely prolonging a drawn out miserable and painful death

ah, the status quo (sounds slightly less depressing)

Sorry for not getting back to you.

Could you be a little more specific? What ‘system’?

Well the answer lies in the reply i added, ie " UNDER COMMUNISM "

So I guess that means under communism, when the state cared less for the peoples needs, and as a result a blackmarket flourished.

So ok for some,but not for everyone.

I found out abut this when working in Romania in 1992.
You cannot get cocacola there and I and a few others do like a coke drink. So we arranged with our translator to go buy so.
It was me that went with our chap to get some.
Journey - North at the Ukrainian border, deep, and i do mean deep, in the forest, and about a 2hour drive along roads that arent roads in any normal sense, and our chap drove the whole way at about 50mph.
I managed to secure 6x 2lt bottles of Pepsi, which I seem to remember cost $200.

It was an interesting house I visited that day, Kalashnikov's aside

Well the answer lies in the reply i added, ie ” UNDER COMMUNISM ”

So I guess that means under communism, when the state cared less for the peoples needs, and as a result a blackmarket flourished.

So ok for some,but not for everyone.

I found out abut this when working in Romania in 1992.
You cannot get cocacola there and I and a few others do like a coke drink. So we arranged with our translator to go buy so.
It was me that went with our chap to get some.
Journey – North at the Ukrainian border, deep, and i do mean deep, in the forest, and about a 2hour drive along roads that arent roads in any normal sense, and our chap drove the whole way at about 50mph.
I managed to secure 6x 2lt bottles of Pepsi, which I seem to remember cost $200.

It was an interesting house I visited that day, Kalashnikov’s aside

Paying for cocacola and being given pepsi is not a world I want to live in

I thought about this (not paying for Coke and getting Pepsi) the other night as I was drifting off to sleep. Human society in developed nations seems to be (when taken as a whole) a permanent race to the bottom.

Individuals can recommend or develop ideals and suggestions for collaborative working (Marx, etc), where a society can thrive and people live well with each other, but then people just come in and mess it up with individualism. Wars happen, people die, technology advances, and repeat. As a world, species and society, we seem more inclined and better adapted to killing each other than actually working together. Even working together seems to be more effective when people frame it as a game or a competition.

Is that how we become extinct? Is the end game, the win, that the species dies?

Get a grip people, even in the 70s with blackouts, paper shortages, rubbish piling up uncollected and something very unpleasant happening to potatoes one year, we all survived. Hell, my old boss's Mum back in Somaliland lived into her 90s (the kids took it turns to buy her diabetes meds in the Middle East in bulk and take them over).

That said I have a nice stock of tinned food and fizzy water in the garage and various powerbanks / windup radios / candles stashed away. And loo roll! And a lot of blankets etc. Space blankets too.

As a 70s kid I know that sometimes things do get messed up - a few supply chain issues might occur - but it's a big world with much better resources now than we had then.

Last night I made a middle Eastern style sourdough flatbread in my outdoor pizza oven. Does that help paint a picture?

I forgot to mention the slow cooker pulled lamb shoulder, toasted pine nuts and Greek yoghurt flavoured with lemon juice and mango powder that it was served with.

Which was nice.