Doomsday Preppers

Ive seen episodes that were devoted to a guy who was making his own diesel for some rather bizarre rig. We make our own diesel for use in our drill rigs an I was "comparing s many notes as I could". It appeared that, from an entertainment standpoint, I guess the producers weren't too interested in getting detailed. But our diesel recipes seem to derive a cleaner grade fuel without a lot of left over glycerine.

My parents were of the WWII and MAcCArthy era" and my dad was a soldier who fought in Burma in WWII. SO between the war and their lives as kids in the depression, a well stocked larder an water supply wasn't too unrealistic. My folks had a new stone home rncher that had a subdivided basement into several rooms that were useable as storage nd actual living space "When the atom bomb hit"
My last memories of the family home were of how my dad converted the "bomb rooms" into a workshop and "gift wrapping area" for my mom and a hunting and fishing (Pre-:man cave" space). and a farly large "REc Room" with a pool table and a ping pong table and a neat corner fireplace. (It was our family's Christmas Hangout-)
The basement was actually larger in area thatn the main house so it was kinda weird in the outer rooms which were always artificially lit.

When I saw "Preppers" Outside of the really bizarre ones with "radiation filters" and these long corrugated steel entrance ways. Our family home could have been considered an early ( albeit waaay more civilized) prepper home.
We had about 5 acres nd dad and I were rel grdeners n beekeepers.
We lived fairly rurally and he ownd a contiguous 40+ acres as a large woodlot and farm field. This he considered to be an emergency source for food and water should "The big one" hit us and we were relly protected by our blast shielding school desks.
Most of the preppers Id seen on our cable trailers hour each had unique separate fears from which they were protecting their families.

Most all involved high power rifles. We too had plenty of shotguns and several pistols nd a couple 222's and one bigass 30 06. an a Weatherby
Since my dad was a retired WWII and korea Sgt Major in infantry, he was obsessed with cleaning our guns. We would clean guns often whether they needed it or not, so, in that respect, I empathized with the kids who were learning about gun care and respect.

I grew up in an age of real paranoia in which our neighbors an we often discussed respective "contingencies".
However, were we to think it over, if my dad wasnt a real metal chested military guy, the neighborhood would have broken down into raiding parties had a real emergency broken out.
I once wrote short story for a local newspaperabout our "Upscale bomb shelter" and when we sold the house, they fmily that bought it based partly on that article. In retrospect, I shoulda canned the article because I think many potential buyers were "Creeped out" by the nature of the outer basement rooms. (They were, after all, covered by concrete sheeting with brace lolly columns in the center of each room. Yu could box em, paint em colors, or cover em with shelving (all of which my folks did) But they still looked like institutional rooms.

My dad wasn't as weird as one or two of the show "stars".

I am watching another episode now and the one main thing I can deduce is that these people have way too much disposable income...

The "preparers" are invariably living in rural areas. I've seen a few episodes elsewhere, not where I live. I think the whole premise is based on having a "black swan" event occur during one's lifetime. Not favorable odds. It then would reflect a lot of wasted time spent preparing. Plus, the government would have martial law likely at the point of society's devolvement. There are other reality shows on cable. All titilate with showing sub-cultures to those that live in mainstream society, in my opinion. However, for those raising a family, and living in strip-mall America, the desire to protect against some upheaval in food deliveries, etc. is likely on many people's minds. In effect, our pleasant lives are really tenuous. Something else to get depressed about.

Back in the 1950's there were those that built/bought bomb shelters, since some believed we'd get nuked. Many children at schools had air raid drills, hiding under desks, and then in hallways, all in preparation for sneak attacks. Very scary for grade schoolers.

I know a couple of facebook people - people I went to high school with and who seemed normal then - who are rather deep into prepping. I noticed about one of them is also devoutly religious and posts many things that seem as though she may live in an abiding, horrific fear every moment of her life. It's rally sad to me. I haven't asked her about it and never will, but she has alluded to having a month of food, water purifiers, guns, rifles; she's taken gun lessons and survival lessons.

She's also posted stuff about desperately and impatiently awaiting "Christ's return."

Odd aside - she's a lesbian. She is always so sweet in all of our interactions. It makes me so sad for her that she's so afraid.

I have a pretty close friend who's a Mormon, and she keeps required supply of foodstuffs in storage. The storage unit is in San Antonio and is managed by the church.

During Hurricane Katrina, the Mormons responded before anyone else with supplies for the citizens of the area. Apparantly even before the government. They just loaded up trucks and drove down there.

My friend believes she's living in the End Times, but she isn't upset about it, and lives a happy well rounded life, both personally and professionally.

I'm an old-time Girl Scout living in Cali, so in addition to your basic home healthcare/accident kit - we have three days of canned stuff, a generator, water purifier, and other items in a thing called a Go Bag. We also have some weird flashlight that you shake to operate...

http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/get_prepared/supplies.shtml

I used to have guns and ammo. Worried about the kids when they were little, so got rid of them. Might get a couple more.

I don't think it's healthy to go overboard in planning for disasters....but it's not healthy not to do *some* planning either.

The really big disasters that could happen will be so far beyond my control I see no point even considering them. Nobody in se Texas has a bomb shelter or even a basement. I have no weapons beyond a few objects that could be clubs and a few kitchen knives. No place for long term storage. No way to get water when it's cut off. I'm a so screwed.

I've put together a Bug Out Bag, filled with what I would consider necessaries for 72 hours for my family of 4. It's a "oh crap, lets go!" bag.

What I have not done is fill a larder or store water for emergency use. I live in the middle of town and I think getting away from civilization and the accompanying panic is more important as I know places to go and properly prepared I know I can rely on my experience as an Eagle Scout to help fill in the voids. SO, bag contains the tools I need to do that.

It would be nice to live further away from town, but circumstances make that difficult. But, we live 2 miles from an Air Force Base that holds the North East Air Defense Radars systems (NEADS) and should a nuclear war start pretty sure my area is toast.

I feel good vs zombies though.

Best prepper/survivalist forum I've seen is PrepperForums Net, there's a great friendly atmosphere and i post there regularly under the name 'Lucky Jim'.
I've never watched Doomsday Preppers myself yet, but they sometimes talk about it-
http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/forum.php

In my opinion, many of these people would be totally fearful, if they didn't "prepare." It is the preparing that ameliorates the fear, in my opinion.

I believe that the rest of us are looked upon as the grasshopper in the fable of the grasshopper and the ant.