Prepping « Robin Writes

This is an old WWI reference for, well, SHTF. I was doing a search last week because sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s happening or what might happen, and naturally I want to be prepared. Duh, right?

My husband and I have discussed this a lot—no one really wants to leave his home if it’s not necessary. It’s not just leaving your home and your “stuff,” even though we’re actually prepared for that, but it’s also leaving your lifestyle and all the other things that comprise it. Things like school and work and business and friends and even family.

One of the first hits on my search was Survival Mom’s blog, one which I frequently read anyway, and she provided some great insight and a list of GOOD reasons:

Empty store shelves

Banking issues

Looters

Overloaded emergency services

Utility problems

Increased violence

Power grid failure

30% drop in the Dow

War

Rioting in three or more major cities

Pandemic

Martial law

Any of these, let alone more than one, could be a good time to GOOD, if you get my meaning. And honestly, this list helps—go read her blog for more details and a few additional reasons.

Some of these things are or could be related. For instance, if the market takes a dive, there could be a run on banks; if the grid, any of the three in the US, fails, there are going to be massive power outages.

The problem is that any of these things could happen, and some, particularly lately, are much more likely. This is why you have to pay attention and keep an eye on things. No more of that “I don’t watch the news, it’s too depressing.”

You’ll be a sight more depressed if you’re clueless about what may or may not be happening.

Of course, some of this depends on your location. We live in a large metro area, suburban, and it takes nearly 30 minutes to actually get out of “town.” We might leave a tad sooner than others, plus, we have somewhere to actually go.

So I’ll leave you with this:

Pay attention

Have a bug out location to go to—one that you have permission to use, one that you’re prepared to use and able to get to.

Leave if you have to; you can always come back if things aren’t so bad after all, and anyway, it could be good practice for the real thing.

As I said last week, there’s lots of talk online and on news channels about “something big” coming in September. Sure, it could just be rumor, but I, for one, don’t want to wait and find out too late.

The market is going down, down, down. If you—like me—aren’t an investor, why should you be worried? Well, I don’t pretend to know all the ramifications, but you can Google it; the main reason, though, is that this is an indicator of economic health.

You know, economics: prices and value and cost. Hey, give me a break; I’m trying to keep it simple. Also, I don’t have enough coffee in me yet to make a lot of sense of this.

The point is that, sooner or later, this effects the prices you’re charged for goods like food, gas, and other products.

Now would be a good time to step your prepping.

And that’s exactly what we did this past weekend: convenience foods, staples, water, etc. And gasoline. Probably a few more things this coming week.

You all know we’re planning to GOOD next spring. We’ve changed the timetable for that too . . .

I decided there were some things that I didn’t want to leave behind, if it came to that, and so I started packing. We’ve gone through two rooms so far, packing and moving things that we likely won’t need between now and spring—so if we have to GOOD sooner, we won’t have such a loss.

But keep in mind a few things:

We’re moving just a few hours away;

We have a place to go to;

It’s not like we could never return, if we needed to or wanted to do so.

I’m not expecting a major apocalyptic event that levels our house or burns down the metro area, although I guess things could get very scary here. I’m not expecting to have to LIAH, but if we did, we’d be pretty well set as far as clothes and personal items and so forth.

Remember, if you have to LIAH, you’re going to be limited in what you can take with you. In our case, we’d grab all the food we could, important papers and cash, phones, wallets, and pets. Not necessarily in that order, in case you’re worried about Fido.

The other thing that has me concerned is, again, the market. Falling shares could mean a run on banks or a banking system snafu. Or credit cards shutting down. It’s been suggested that one withdraw cash in the next couple days, just in case.

That is, after all, what preppers do—look at the just-in-case scenarios.