If many of us here are wrong and Y2K isn't bad in the first few weeks of 2000, how long do you plan to have a wait and see attitude?

For me, I expect a (local) 5-7, ie recession to depression. However, I am stocking up food and preparing for heat - planning for off grid as best we can. Even if things seem ok at first, I worry about the longer term effects, the death by a thousand cuts scenario.

By this I mean, suppose that where you live, the electric stays on, the phones and banks work, life is not wonderful (lots of people out of work), but it hasn't hit you personally. Now, you've got a basement full of food (much of it not your favorites) and useful items and you know that the local food bank/soup kitchen is having a hard time keeping up with the demand. However, you also know that the ripple effect is still happening, plants are closing, the price of gas is rising, rationing is being discussed and other places in the world are chaotic (like Russia now). How long will you sit tight, thinking that you may yet need that stored food, how long 'til you feel secure in your job, how long before you quit worrying about the slide from a 5 or 7 to a 10 (or more)?

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 21, 1999

Answers

From the postings on this forum, I think many Yourdonites will keep their "independece supplies" regardless of the Y2K outcome. There have been a lot of "never again vulnerable" comments.

-- Lois Knorr (knorr@attcanada.net), March 21, 1999.

Lois, I think you're right. I know that I, for one, will be much more inclined to ensure that we're always well stocked up, even in the unlikely event of a Y2K bump in the road.

However, if we are not severely affected by Y2K and others around us are, I plan to donate a good portion of my saved food to food banks. I won't do that, though, before I can be reasonably sure that I won't need it for my family and friends. I think that by June of 2000, there should be enough information available to make that decision.

I am storing my food with the idea that it will be used within two years. I've chosen to buy food that will last that long (protected from pests) without oxygen absorbers, etc. However, my family's ordinary consumption of rice, pasta, beans and canned goods will not be sufficient to use up all our supplies before out dating becomes a concern. I won't let that food rot! If (as I have begun to hope) we get off fairly lightly here in Alberta (5-7), and if hubby's and my jobs are as recession proof as they have been in the past, I will use my stash to help those who are less fortunate.

I've chosen June because I think that will be long enough to gather information from round the globe and to get some idea about the severity of the ripple effect. Do you think June is long enough to wait? Too long? What's your reasoning?

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 21, 1999.

I'm buying "good" food for eight people/one year, and rice -just rice, can be boiled- for fifteen people/one year. The rice will probably be removed in July, if things stabilise. But until everything is fine, I won't give up my rice and my canned tuna and so on. If things have stabilised by September 2000 and I find myself on a flight to Harvard, then I'll have a survival backpack containing condensed food.

But I don't think I'm EVER going to drop all precautions. I think I'm always going to have a certain amount of resources in gold or silver, a gun and some condensed, long-life food.

--Leo

-- Leo (lchampion@ozemail.com.au), March 21, 1999.

Nothing will go to the Goodwill. If nothing happens me and my children won't have to grocery shop for a long, long time. May donate the SPAM though.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 21, 1999.

We'll never give it all up. I have wanted a back stock for years. Now we have that cushion. We DO have quite a bit that is already earmarked for charity. Charity close to home (neighbors) if it gets bad, further afield if not. In fact, we already have the mission picked out thet will get the excess.

-- art welling (artw@lancnews.infi.net), March 21, 1999.

When I speak to people about Y2K I always remind them of the tornado that went through out town and that the nearest grocery was closed for a week, that a near by town was without municipal water for 3 months, the fact that employment is never guaranteed. We should always have a supply of essentials: food, heat, water etc. on hand.

Now that it's set up, I hope that our pantry will always have a couple of months of food--just in case.

-- Kay (jkbrooks@bellsouth.net), March 21, 1999.

I don't plan on giving ANY of my food or stored preparations away, mainly because I haven't bought anything I can't/won't/would rather not use. My preps, with only a few exceptions, are what we normally use. The exceptions are; the diesel fuel for the genset (I'll dis- connect from the utility company at times just enough to keep my electric bill at a minimum), the several hundred pounds of wheat and corn (I'll feed it to the chickens we normally keep, though not as many as we have now), and inordinately large amounts of dried beans (we use these normally, but will take us YEARS to use up in normal times).

Am I selfish? I don't think so; the reason we bought so much in the first place was so we would have some to share with those who didn't prepare.

Gerald

-- Gerald R. Cox (grcox@internetwork.net), March 21, 1999.

The Winter of 2000-2001 will be difficult. Food will be a premium for many years. If you have it, do not give it up. This may become obvious before too long.

-- hope dimming (as the facts@roll.in), March 21, 1999.

Leo,

Don't count on being allowed to keep that gun....if you know what I mean.

-- Eye On Y2K (bugscaresme@mellinium.com), March 21, 1999.

We'll be eating our way throuh our supplies immediately. I agree with Tricia that by early summer 2000 we should have a fair inkling where this thing is headed, sliding downhill or stabilizing. We plan to always have some food supply (at least two weeks to a month) of canned and dry goods available instead of the apple and a bottle of water that I used to keep around here. If we get too sick of rice and beans, I will thin the crop by donating some of it to the local soup kitchen as well as anything that I don't think we can eat before it goes bad.

-- Ramp Rat (Aviation_R_us@noname.nocity), March 21, 1999.

Tricia:

Keep your food. When the Great Depression slams the American economy and paralyzes the other world's nations, food will become very, very valuable.

A moderator on another forum pondered whether we were stocking up for the wrong event. He thinks that these preparations will be needed far beyond Y2K, when world outrage explodes into fierce wars with massive starvation and deaths.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 21, 1999.

AS TO THE GRASSHOPPERS MORE WORRIED ABOUT WHICH VIDIO IS IN AT BLOCKBUSTER ON FRIDAYS, THAN PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE EVENTS THAT MAY TRANSPIRE, I SAY "F--- THE GRASSHOPPERS", AND I WILL PROTECT MY FOOD AND MY FAMILY!

-- A.B. Busyant (theant@hishouse.com), March 21, 1999.

I wouldn't think of donating anything throughout 2000. At a minimum, the world is going to be very unstable.

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), March 21, 1999.

I don't plan on having anything around that we wouldn't want to use/eat anyway, so don't plan on having anything to donate. Besides, the proper way to do "storage foods" is to rotate your supplies, which is what we do. We always have extra around as we live in the mountains and it can get rough weatherwise here. Then, if bad weather hits, we're broke or we get company, we've got food on hand. We just rotate stored stuff into the "active" pantry pretty much. And then replace it. It's really a good idea, I think to try to have food around that your family is used to eating and likes. How miserable to be in the midst of storms, disasters, whatever, chowing down on rice and beans for 3 months straight. Yes, it will keep you alive, but if you can do better, do it.

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), March 21, 1999.

i plan on giving to the neighbors.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), March 22, 1999.