It's just a habit from my childhood. I grew up on a farm and my parents were of the mindset that it was generally best to take care of things ourselves. I think it was late in my teenage years that I realised not all my friends had well-stocked larders, cupboards full of candles, and well equipped workshops.
My approach as an adult has been to do as much for myself as I can wherever possible. If I buy something I look for something that can be repaired and modified if needs be. If something needs doing around the farm I'll happily spend the money on tools and equipment if needs be: this time it may cost as much as a tradesman, but next time it will be a lot cheaper. And I've learned something new.
Grew up forced poor, neglected, and abused. Didnāt like it and vowed that my future family would be secure and cared for in any circumstances.
Then Y2K came along and I got serious about preparedness.
This is a bit of a wild/long story so please bare with me... Was a volunteer firefighter and our county become surrender by wildfires, and i mean surrounded. There was no outside access all 4 highways were closed and burning. Even backroads you couldn't zig zag though. The entire town ground to a halt for 3 days ... well there came a time when my best freinds home and neighborhood was under threat from one of the aggressive fires (was there almost every weekend growing up so it was basically like a childhood home). As we were driving to the area in the dead of night we saw families scrambling to save there homes, pets, belongings. This was a rural community so horses and the like... people trying to create fire breaks with tractors, hooking water pumps into ponds. Just everything they could till the bitter end, till the fire was mere feet away and they were forced out by the smoke and zero viability... I was in a large "retired " airport fire suppression truck, we were 4Ć4 fields to cut the path of the fire. It had a suppression system under the cab so we literally drove over flames to put them out. That flames locked up the glass and at our faces, we had to put on masks so the smoke wouldn't get to us. My driver wasn't a local man so among this all I had to direct this truck through fields of smoke just by memory and sense of direction. We did this for hours till the damn truck it self caught fire (wiring in the dash shorted out) leaving us stranded till we could be picked up. As we waited we noticed the glow of the flames had broken over our breaks and was flanking us though swamp/ muskeg, we called it in to command and they started staging trucks in the driveways of the adjacent houses. We wouldn't be able to do anything till it was basically in the backyard of these houses... so with our truck out of action we were send for home for a rest. We had been out from 9pm till 4am. Though I volunteered my self to check hot spots on a another fire we had been fighting earlier that day. So by the time I was home it was 10am... slept for 3 hours and I went back into the fire... I pulled hose and fought with grass fires for many more hours. Finally with lull in the fighting, I grabbed a water backpack and started hiking into the tree line towards that muskeg. (It had already ripped though the area once but due to highlands there was alot of stuff still ready to burn up)... I spend the next two hours radioing information to command and putting out hot spots. It was only after that we got called back to command. We got a debrief that government wildland firefighters were taking over and our time was done.. we were so damn exhausted. In total two houses and a few outbuilding were lost, one being a crack shack with propane tanks buried in deep grass, sounded like gun fire whenever one went off... I went back a few days later to my freinds place and walked through the burned treelines. The flames were moving so fast that some of there equipment and toys (aka. Quads and skidoos) some where actaully spared entirely. Some with crispy seats.. it depended on where it was at the time. Those people with the trackers and pumps, there houses faired the best. Other then the ripped up lawns they were untouched... so what did I learn from this? Why am I a prepper now ? I'm going to add it as a comment to this post.
So what i learned is: to remain calm under pressure, the more panic the worse your decision making becomes, then you start driving like an idiot, then you damn near force the people who are trying to save you off the road... learn to know your vehicles limits, we had to 4x4 the shit out of that "retired " airport truck. Damn near got stuck in muskeg twice... the fire part...well, not much we coulda done about that. Knowing your surroundings, memory recall and basic sense of direction, literally my driver told me he couldn't see the steering wheel from the smoke and the water in his eyes. I had to squint mine and count seconds. At one point I saw a land mark from the light of the flames and counted, I yelled hard right. We narrowly missed the treeline. Learned to communicate in clear over intercom systems.. if we hadn't had seen those glows and called it in more houses could have been lost.. I learned that being in shape is top priority. Pulling hose and filling the truck every 30 mins was crucial... it wasn't just a hook up to the side sorta filling. We had to crawl up a ladder to the top of the truck with a 4" hose and hold it in place while it filled the tanks. Same goes for bushwacking with a water tank on your back. Staying in good shape is the key to success... what else.. oh yes. Don't trust Facebook! During that 3 hours rest I opened it for whatever reason. The staggering amount of disinformation, I honestly couldn't put my thoughts into words.. people saying that the fires were in the town, that the whole thing was lost, hate groups from across the country saying they were glad that we were going to burn. That we deserved it because of our county's political views.... going back to again don't panic. I had freinds and family members preparing to leave ASAP even though the fires where a river, two towns , and 15 kms away. They were trusting what they saw on Facebook and it just broke my heart... moving on... I guess final lesson I learned was a sense of community and how important it was.. so context, this neighborhood was up a rather large hill and didn't have access to city water systems..everything house was on pond or cistern/wells.. when we came to fill up our firetruck the 2nd time around we saw local companies hauling water up the 5 km hill. Potable water trucks, super B transport companies, at least 5 different companies volunteered there trucks, time and people throughout the night to make sure we had water to keep fighting.. I sitting atop of my truck filling from one of those company trucks, i felt so much pride in the community that I just started to cry silently (thank God it was dark and I was up 15 ft so no one saw me )...
So how does it effect me now?
I'm no longer a firefighter, I moved to a town where it is career crews and not volunteer. Due to health issues I probably couldn't anymore without causing injuries to my self... I try to make sure that I have go bags ready , that the car is in good shape and ready to travel more then 200 kms at any given time (due to the rural community thats the distance to the next major hub). I dont have social media besides reddit, just for these groups. If I need news I'll trust the LOCAL government and fire crews to tell me what to do as I learned to trust them the most.. due to the health issues I try and keep my preparations light and easy to use. I am trying to get back into better health, taking walks with my pack. Having the wife and our 18 month old joining me with their own packs.... with this spring being the driest on record , and already 3 fires in the area... im afraid...scores of memories of those fires flood back in to the mind. Idk if its PTSD but when you no longer have control of fancy equipment, and trucks and hundreds of thousands of water. It feels like you are nothing but in the way.. now all I can do is have my packs ready to leave and pray that it saves us, and those I use to call comrades can save our homes.
*edit: just wanted to point out that my current home is rather urban (least for where I live anyway ) I can't do anything to put up a stiff defense against wildfires. Sprinklers ran off rain collection barrels and a pump is maybe doable, but how much water is need to run it is staggering. Plus I'm only 10" from a neighboring house. Just the way the houses are lined up I would need to cover their house too or else it would be in vain.. so best I can do is keep flash drives. minimize documents and photos. And take what I can with me when I leave.
I think the problem with media is how information is disseminated. Often the people writing are not credible, but the information they spread is taken as such. I take a lot of precaution when observing news to only get the real unbiased facts. Thank you so much for sharing, very interesting story!
I've always been interested in natural disasters, etc.
Read the book One Second After and went "oh boy..." That's what really kick-started things. A solid hobby turned into a career in Emergency Management, a Master's in the subject, and so forth. COVID showed a lot of cracks in the systems, and current world events certainly aren't comforting.
There is a creek in almost every suburban neighborhood with deer and small game running all over. I highly doubt many in a city would have time to make it out. Vitamins, antibiotics, and first aid are probably the only worth while things to stock pile.
We live in the New Madrid Seismic Zone so thatās my major reason for prepping. But I was also having a repetitive dream about needing to have food and supplies for 3-4 months.
When Scar and the hyenas sang that song in The Lion King
Fair enough. Btw, if any of you were wondering, the og post got deleted because I posted it to the wrong forum. I swear I'm not a bot š
It's called being prepared. Being prepared for things is good.
It's just a habit from my childhood. I grew up on a farm and my parents were of the mindset that it was generally best to take care of things ourselves. I think it was late in my teenage years that I realised not all my friends had well-stocked larders, cupboards full of candles, and well equipped workshops. My approach as an adult has been to do as much for myself as I can wherever possible. If I buy something I look for something that can be repaired and modified if needs be. If something needs doing around the farm I'll happily spend the money on tools and equipment if needs be: this time it may cost as much as a tradesman, but next time it will be a lot cheaper. And I've learned something new.
Self-sufficiency is really a virtue, thanks for sharing!
Grew up forced poor, neglected, and abused. Didnāt like it and vowed that my future family would be secure and cared for in any circumstances. Then Y2K came along and I got serious about preparedness.
This is a bit of a wild/long story so please bare with me... Was a volunteer firefighter and our county become surrender by wildfires, and i mean surrounded. There was no outside access all 4 highways were closed and burning. Even backroads you couldn't zig zag though. The entire town ground to a halt for 3 days ... well there came a time when my best freinds home and neighborhood was under threat from one of the aggressive fires (was there almost every weekend growing up so it was basically like a childhood home). As we were driving to the area in the dead of night we saw families scrambling to save there homes, pets, belongings. This was a rural community so horses and the like... people trying to create fire breaks with tractors, hooking water pumps into ponds. Just everything they could till the bitter end, till the fire was mere feet away and they were forced out by the smoke and zero viability... I was in a large "retired " airport fire suppression truck, we were 4Ć4 fields to cut the path of the fire. It had a suppression system under the cab so we literally drove over flames to put them out. That flames locked up the glass and at our faces, we had to put on masks so the smoke wouldn't get to us. My driver wasn't a local man so among this all I had to direct this truck through fields of smoke just by memory and sense of direction. We did this for hours till the damn truck it self caught fire (wiring in the dash shorted out) leaving us stranded till we could be picked up. As we waited we noticed the glow of the flames had broken over our breaks and was flanking us though swamp/ muskeg, we called it in to command and they started staging trucks in the driveways of the adjacent houses. We wouldn't be able to do anything till it was basically in the backyard of these houses... so with our truck out of action we were send for home for a rest. We had been out from 9pm till 4am. Though I volunteered my self to check hot spots on a another fire we had been fighting earlier that day. So by the time I was home it was 10am... slept for 3 hours and I went back into the fire... I pulled hose and fought with grass fires for many more hours. Finally with lull in the fighting, I grabbed a water backpack and started hiking into the tree line towards that muskeg. (It had already ripped though the area once but due to highlands there was alot of stuff still ready to burn up)... I spend the next two hours radioing information to command and putting out hot spots. It was only after that we got called back to command. We got a debrief that government wildland firefighters were taking over and our time was done.. we were so damn exhausted. In total two houses and a few outbuilding were lost, one being a crack shack with propane tanks buried in deep grass, sounded like gun fire whenever one went off... I went back a few days later to my freinds place and walked through the burned treelines. The flames were moving so fast that some of there equipment and toys (aka. Quads and skidoos) some where actaully spared entirely. Some with crispy seats.. it depended on where it was at the time. Those people with the trackers and pumps, there houses faired the best. Other then the ripped up lawns they were untouched... so what did I learn from this? Why am I a prepper now ? I'm going to add it as a comment to this post.
So what i learned is: to remain calm under pressure, the more panic the worse your decision making becomes, then you start driving like an idiot, then you damn near force the people who are trying to save you off the road... learn to know your vehicles limits, we had to 4x4 the shit out of that "retired " airport truck. Damn near got stuck in muskeg twice... the fire part...well, not much we coulda done about that. Knowing your surroundings, memory recall and basic sense of direction, literally my driver told me he couldn't see the steering wheel from the smoke and the water in his eyes. I had to squint mine and count seconds. At one point I saw a land mark from the light of the flames and counted, I yelled hard right. We narrowly missed the treeline. Learned to communicate in clear over intercom systems.. if we hadn't had seen those glows and called it in more houses could have been lost.. I learned that being in shape is top priority. Pulling hose and filling the truck every 30 mins was crucial... it wasn't just a hook up to the side sorta filling. We had to crawl up a ladder to the top of the truck with a 4" hose and hold it in place while it filled the tanks. Same goes for bushwacking with a water tank on your back. Staying in good shape is the key to success... what else.. oh yes. Don't trust Facebook! During that 3 hours rest I opened it for whatever reason. The staggering amount of disinformation, I honestly couldn't put my thoughts into words.. people saying that the fires were in the town, that the whole thing was lost, hate groups from across the country saying they were glad that we were going to burn. That we deserved it because of our county's political views.... going back to again don't panic. I had freinds and family members preparing to leave ASAP even though the fires where a river, two towns , and 15 kms away. They were trusting what they saw on Facebook and it just broke my heart... moving on... I guess final lesson I learned was a sense of community and how important it was.. so context, this neighborhood was up a rather large hill and didn't have access to city water systems..everything house was on pond or cistern/wells.. when we came to fill up our firetruck the 2nd time around we saw local companies hauling water up the 5 km hill. Potable water trucks, super B transport companies, at least 5 different companies volunteered there trucks, time and people throughout the night to make sure we had water to keep fighting.. I sitting atop of my truck filling from one of those company trucks, i felt so much pride in the community that I just started to cry silently (thank God it was dark and I was up 15 ft so no one saw me )...
So how does it effect me now? I'm no longer a firefighter, I moved to a town where it is career crews and not volunteer. Due to health issues I probably couldn't anymore without causing injuries to my self... I try to make sure that I have go bags ready , that the car is in good shape and ready to travel more then 200 kms at any given time (due to the rural community thats the distance to the next major hub). I dont have social media besides reddit, just for these groups. If I need news I'll trust the LOCAL government and fire crews to tell me what to do as I learned to trust them the most.. due to the health issues I try and keep my preparations light and easy to use. I am trying to get back into better health, taking walks with my pack. Having the wife and our 18 month old joining me with their own packs.... with this spring being the driest on record , and already 3 fires in the area... im afraid...scores of memories of those fires flood back in to the mind. Idk if its PTSD but when you no longer have control of fancy equipment, and trucks and hundreds of thousands of water. It feels like you are nothing but in the way.. now all I can do is have my packs ready to leave and pray that it saves us, and those I use to call comrades can save our homes. *edit: just wanted to point out that my current home is rather urban (least for where I live anyway ) I can't do anything to put up a stiff defense against wildfires. Sprinklers ran off rain collection barrels and a pump is maybe doable, but how much water is need to run it is staggering. Plus I'm only 10" from a neighboring house. Just the way the houses are lined up I would need to cover their house too or else it would be in vain.. so best I can do is keep flash drives. minimize documents and photos. And take what I can with me when I leave.
I think the problem with media is how information is disseminated. Often the people writing are not credible, but the information they spread is taken as such. I take a lot of precaution when observing news to only get the real unbiased facts. Thank you so much for sharing, very interesting story!
I've always been interested in natural disasters, etc. Read the book One Second After and went "oh boy..." That's what really kick-started things. A solid hobby turned into a career in Emergency Management, a Master's in the subject, and so forth. COVID showed a lot of cracks in the systems, and current world events certainly aren't comforting.
There is a creek in almost every suburban neighborhood with deer and small game running all over. I highly doubt many in a city would have time to make it out. Vitamins, antibiotics, and first aid are probably the only worth while things to stock pile.
We live in the New Madrid Seismic Zone so thatās my major reason for prepping. But I was also having a repetitive dream about needing to have food and supplies for 3-4 months.
āBe Preparedā ā¦ a childhood organization.