Prepare for HOW long????

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How long would you want to be prepared for in the event of a 9-10? A year? Ten years? Fifty years?

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), October 24, 1999

Answers

The challenge with a 9-10 is to be able to secure water, food and other necessities repeatably across a number of years. This is not because everyone will be dead (except you, presumably) -- it applies just as well, in many respects, to a depression situation.

Where Y2K is unique is that pieces of the supply chain (e.g., oil, wastewater, nuclear or chemical contamination) could be rendered useless in YOUR locality/region for a significant period of time short of forever.

Preparing in this way is not just about money but imagination and the willingness to learn skills.

Moreover, preparation doesn't go out of style on 12/31/99. A "9" or "10" will devolve into reality over months, maybe even over a year or two. Keep prepping.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), October 24, 1999.


Recently I reread "Lucifer's Hammer", a terrific sci/fi novel concerning a meteor and the destruction of our culture. The most interesting part of the book was the formation of cooperatives in the aftermath. I found some striking similarites to what we would be faced if, indeed, y2k turns out to be a 9/10. For me there is no individual preparations that I could do to withstand a 9/10 with a 10 year time span. I know that I would need to be part of a cooperative system. To that end, I hope I would have some kind of resources that would be beneficial to some kind of community. I'm an experienced OR nurse and that would be a plus in bargaining my way into an established enclave. I have nonhybrid seeds that maybe I could use to up the ante. I'm planning on having a Katadyn water system and maybe I could set up a bartering system with that. I have no plans to bug out because I'm where I would be bugging out to. I have neighbors and fellow townspeople who are very active GI's despite the "there,there,there; everything will be just fine", head pats from our elected town officials. I live in an area of the rural Northeast where there is a healthy population of people off the grid, off the "paycheck", who raise goats,lamas,chickens, who make moccasins, goat cheese, and sweaters. We have salmon farms and mussel farms. I'm hoping that our already strong history of barter and exchange will become stonger with the coming strom. jan

-- Jan Cunningham (janhame@midcoast.com), October 24, 1999.

For a 9-10 scenario, you need to be considering your environment, your community and the natural resources of your environment in terms of creating a self-sustaining local economy.

"Stockpiling" takes on a different meaning, because you think more in terms of tools and information that you will need to accomplish that goal.

For example, you wouldn't be thinking about how much rice you can squeeze into your attic and hiding places, but rather, asking "What staple can I grow here that can sustain me/us?"

Instead of getting that new Clancy novel for Y2K reading, you'd make sure you have the Foxfire books... OK, OK, I know you need some "fun" reading, too.

And if your job won't likely be around after next year, you'd be thinking about an alternative source of income (even if it's to be barter income).

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), October 24, 1999.


How long to prepare for

-- (just@being.helpful), October 24, 1999.

My preps are done--50 years for 2 people. I have a room chock full of Hostess HoHos and Twinkies. They last forever, I'm OK Jack.

-- (prepping@schlepping.crazy), October 29, 1999.


I don't like thinking much about long term failures (grin); it ups the cost of preps considerably. In terms of keeping my aladdin lamp and my improved katadyn water filtration system going, I figure each year of planning would add a few hundred more dollars in spare parts, filter elements, and coconut carbon. On the other hand, I guess I'd have read all the books I'd need to have read by the first year as well as found a water source that does not require elaborate chem. filtration. Seeds are cheap enough, but my lack of experience may translate into years of failure (forgetting about the weather for a moment) and so I might have to obtain years and years of expensive dehydrated foods-- unless I was in a community that had nearby farmers with 30 or more years of experience. And then, there is a question of long term self defense.

Of course, if I hadn't bugged out, it is likely that me and mine won't make it. I'm trying to accept such a possible fate as graciously as I can. How about you?

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 29, 1999.


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