Preparedness vs. this chat line

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

I come back to this venue to lurk occasionally, but frankly, I just don't have the time. I have literally taken the advice to plan for the worst and pray for the best. I have executed my plan and I believe I am ready for any event. It has been an exhausting 2 years. It took me about 6 months to gather sufficient information in order for me to make an assessment of y2k. Then it took me another 8 months to plan my preparations, and gratefully now I feel somewhat confident that my preparation is all that I can humanely do. I still have a busy practice to maintain.

I would like to know if every regular GI on this forum is as well prepared? If not, why not? If you have not made all your preparations, how can you keep coming to this forum?

I will continue to look in occasionally, but frankly, I have no control over what happens in the millenium, be it a world war, stock market crash, or y2k all of which, IMHO, are highly probable.

To those Newbies, make your personal assessment, you do not need validation from others. This is a life decision for you. Make it. If you choose to do nothing, so be it. If you choose to really prepare for the worst, it is a large undertaking with the clock ticking on you to as well as the computers.

To those oldtimers (only in length of time on this forum), I guess you are truly prepared since you have so much time to devote here. A wonderful sense of calm certainly comes over us.

Finally, for those of you that are purchasing a retreat/recreational property/rural whatever I would like to share this. On Sunday my neighbour, a retired pastor, had us over for brunch. I gave him my opinion on y2k--nobody knows, but this is my personal assessment. When I was done, all he had to say was that he would be ok in his present location. All our neighbours heat with wood although electricity is installed. Some have satellite T.V., but the bottom line is that y2k could come and go and these people would not miss a beat. Y2k is a non issue with them, they could not be more prepared. I have no need to speak with any of them, but if the worst happens, I have enough non hybrid vegetable seeds for the entire community.

In my preparations, I have noted short supplies. I have ordered 3 grain grinders and not received one. I could not order an Alladin kerosene lamp and I still do not know if they are available. I took other alternatives. As more and more people plan for the worst, the potential for panic grows. Your choices by waiting to execute your plan, will greatly diminish.

I can now devote my time to my vocation once again. I do it with a renewed vigor since I have done everything that I possibly can in preparation. It is a wonderful experience to go through this. For the first time in my 54 years I am looking beyond tomorrow. My wife who I put through one terrible year now says the decisions that I made in the last 6 months were the best of our lives. We have gotten on with the task of getting the most out of each day.

I wish all of you the best, but please, humor me and make a decision and stick with it.

I would have put in my own address, but 6 months ago I posted and got lots of unsolicited email and I just don't have time for some of the nonsense I received.

-- Rick (iam@prepare.com), April 21, 1999

Answers

Rick, life is on hold for us because we're still trying to sell our house and move to a more secure neighborhood. We shall either sell or take the house off the market in about 50 days, maybe less. In the meantime, we have food stashed at a friend's house (can't let prospective buyers see all that stuff!) and food and supplies (including a small solar array and a rainwater barrels) stashed in a climate-controlled storage room. I have also planted a minimum amount of veegetables and will be ordering seed for next year about the middle of the summer.

Whether we sell or stay, I shall disappear from this forum for some time after the day we make the decision in order to properly prepare and finalize some of the preps. Until then I hope I can help forumites and myself by posting useful and practical information on surviving without the usual conveniences. I also enjoy communing with like-minded people--who are rare to non-existent in this neck of the woods.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 21, 1999.


I admit that I am still on my way to being prepared. Some things require installation by professionals and scheduling must wait on them. Some things require funds that must be saved. Some things require better timing (like stocking up on fuel - not a good time with prices through the ceiling in California.) Some things require better weather - like gardening.

I agree about the issue with certain supplies. I ordered early on many things that now need to be assembled. I don't want to wait on that too long, because I know that I may find I am missing a critical piece that must be ordered.

The shortage did cause some carts before the horse. Seasonal things like chicks and fruit trees went like wildfire here as soon as they were in the store. Although I was able to get what I wanted, I am now scrambling to plant before blossom and to build a coop before the chicks feather out.

I am employed and commute, and am also a single parent, so that has been a strain. There are only so many sunny hours to work outside. There are only about 52 weekends in a year of full days to work on preparations. Thinking about such a short time window hoovers as urgency in the backgound.

So why am I here? I am exhausted and come here to re-create through fellowship and get inspiration and brainstorming ideas. I also come to get re-motivated. The "spin" can get to you at times and inertia calls like a siren from the rocks. Sustaining intense efforts for long periods of time is stressful. I find the forum energizing and stimulating. It helps to keep me going. Right now my pressure canner is processing and I can't go to bed until it is finished. So I came here.

-- sleepless (sleepless@gettingthere.com), April 21, 1999.


Rick -

nice to hear of your success! All the best. For those of us operating on a timed schedule (to say nothing of a budget) it's nice to see someone who didn't have to worry about all that, and who thus has finished early. Most of the rest of us here will continue running the race right up to the last...

should be an interesting finish,

all the best -

Arlin Adams

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 21, 1999.


Rick, congrats to you on being 'Y2K ready'. Oh, to know your peace. But hey, I'm working on it like many others here. The reason that I came here originally is because I read Mr Yourdon's book, Timebomb 2000, have been active on some other Y2K discussion forums, and wanted to see what folks here have to say regarding the subject. What I find mostly is people arguing way more than is constructive, but at least the level of education and computer knowledge seems higher (in most posts anyway). I'm not finished with my preparations yet. I work three jobs, have a little girl, and am in the middle of my paramedic internship. That doesn't leave a lot of hours in the day and I find most of my free time between midnight and 3 AM; so I come here. Hey, what else is there to do? Sleep? I can't. I'm afraid I'll miss something. I feel like I'm close to where I want to be in my preparedness level. The ideas are just waiting for the funds.

-- A.P. (grim2k@hotmail.com), April 21, 1999.

Last night (Tues.) I left work at our family business, and should have stopped at church to check on rehearsal music for Wed. practice for tonight. I decided to bring another twenty bags of groceries to my parents basement a block away from my house. I made summer vacation reservations for the Cape (C. Cod) tonight= three nights instead of two weeks, for obvious financial reasons- preparations. At 46 I get a bit tired at night, so I turn to this forum for a bit of togetherness with those who mostly GI. Life goes on. Business, church, wife and family, preparations half done, and you folks to help me keep going on. Yes,faith also- not paranoia, but a calm determination to press on. Probably will be as done with prep as I can be by July. Warm wishes to all.

-- churchorganist (musicswede@webtv.net), April 21, 1999.


Congratulations, Rick, on your preparations. We've made the decision but like O.G. we're still in no man's land for another 2 weeks. Work during the day preparing to move and come to the forums early and late for news, inspiration, motivation, ect.

Once we get moved in early May, from Florida to the Midwest, our preparations will be in earnest. Luckily, preps are being made there and have been for the past 6 months. Hopefully we will be able to complete our purchases by June-July. From then on the preps will be ongoing as life on a farm or farmette or whatever you want to call it, are always ongoing, as there is always something to add, repair, improve upon, ect.

I will dearly miss the people on this board who have become like family but hope to be able to lurk on someone else's computer once in a while just to keep up. Yeah, no electric for awhile!

God Bless You All in our uncertain future and help you with your preparations.

-- sue (deco100@aol.com), April 21, 1999.


Yes...life DOES go on. And surprise, surprise....it will continue to go on after Jan first. It may not go on the way we would like it to go, but it will go on. Its kind of like a comeuppance I got some years back. I was thinking of going back to Medical school and then decided I would be too old when I finished. A friend looked at me and said, "what year would that be"? I told him, and he said," if you don't go back, how old will you be?" Hmmmnnn!! My husband and I are among the fortunate. It tooks us about 5 minutes to GI. I think that is because we have lived in the wilds of the Cascade Mtns and also Alaska where plane or boat was only way in or out. You damned well better have your "stash" for the winter in before "freeze up". We now live in central Florida but we brought all our skills and equipment with us. All I had to buy was some food stuffs, and first aid supplies, lamp oil, and we splurged on a 40 kw generator. Oh yes...hubby replenished his ammo stocks and since he has over 30 guns crammed into the gun safe, we didn't need to buy any of those. We both know how to use them if we have to. But God help us, I hope it never comes to that. We also have a good cash reserve. I wish you all had the problems that we have....which are zilch! But I must say, that if you don't know how to survive without WalMart and Kroegars, then you need to buy some "how to books". I have a ton of them from the 70s and I still scan through them now and then. Another thing I woud say is DON'T BUY LIVESTOCK if you have no experience. If you have experience, you will know not to buy. Its costly to feed animals. Yesterday I bought two bales of alfalfa. These are 67# bales and while I feed 8 mini donkeys and one old retired pack mule, but a couple of slices a day, we feed local nutritionless grass hay as a filler and 5 gals of whole dried corn a day. A 65# bale of hay was $10.40. A non milking goat that has forage, will require 2 lbs per day of good hay like alfalfa. A lactating (milking ) goat will require 4#/day plus 4 to 6 pound6 of grain per day, depending on milk output. Thats a 16% protein grain which will run about $0.09 to .15 per pound, depending upon where you live. So you do the calculations and you will find that you can buy powdered milk alot cheaper. If you are experienced with livestock, you are ok. But y2k is not the time to learn about animals and their costs and care. I do, however, recommend chickens. You have to take care of them and protect them from the elements and predators. But an idiot can do that. One doesn't usually have vet bills with chickens. You don't have kidding or calving problems. You don't have mastitis problems, you don't have to vaccinate or trim feet or open and drain abcesses or call the vet because you don't know how to go in and turn that breech birth, etc, etc, etc.

Keep it simple or you are apt to lose it all.

Taz.

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), April 21, 1999.


Taz,

Thank you for the excellent advice regarding the need for experience with animals. I don't believe I have read anything else here on the subject that describes the difficulties as well. Especially the last: "you could lose it all" Thanks.

-- Elbow Grease (Elbow_Grease@AutoShop.com), April 21, 1999.


How true Taz, we did it all in the 70's and learned the hard way but there was plenty of time to learn back then. Sorta like we paid our dues back then and maybe it will pay off now with interest ! Well, make some things easier anyway. Wish I'd kept all my old books but have been gradually replacing them and now have all the old Mothers back too(The Mother Earth News).

-- sue (deco100@aol.com), April 21, 1999.

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