Rachel96
Active Member
Hi! Is this the right place to introduce myself?
I'm not sure I'd consider myself a prepper, but... Well, I think maybe I sort of am. Culturally. Not that anyone in my family would consider themselves preppers.
I should explain. Um... I live in an area where at least half of us are off-grid, the rest of us don't have mains for at least something, an ever-increasing percentage of us own generators (it's currently around 30%, but we're expecting a boom in generator-ownership over the next few months), where everyone has a vegetable garden, chickens, and probably some sort of larger creature, where the government runs ads on television telling us to "be prepared when disaster comes again", and where community groups meet monthly at generator-equipped town halls to discuss the state of community preparedness, share ideas, and get the local council and government in on it all...
Here's the situation. Three times in the last as many months, the area has gone long periods (two days to a week each time) without electricity. That's not just "no electricity" like the city people laugh about when they hear it, but it's no running water and no functioning sewage system as well. After twelve hours, it's also no telecommunications. Hence the sudden surge in generator-ownership, because about 40% of the community is now like, "We're own our own, we have to fend for ourselves, no-one is going to help next time this happens."
There's a bit of a storm expected today and you should see the paranoia on the local social media...
All this is on top of a culture that already has "bushfire readiness" ingrained so deeply into it that every schoolchild knows where the local community hub is and fully expects every summer to see their house burnt down. Although that could just be the over-sensitive ones like me. Thirty-seven years ago, the local area was razed to the ground. When the government wants us to listen, they play footage of that on the television: Bushfires will happen again - Hills
So, well... I'm not convinced about the need to prep for the end-of-the-world disaster thing, but we've got highly likely, smaller-scale disasters here we prep for, so I'm interested in seeing some of the ideas people come up with. I already saw those large water bag things someone mentioned on another thread... We already have a couple of drums of accessible water but discovered that that will get us through a day or two, not a week, and we need more. Tanks don't have taps on them here, which surprised everyone, so water in the tank became useless very quickly.
And I suppose my main problem at the moment is that I'm moving away for uni, so I'm worried about how my disabled mother might cope in a blackout or especially bushfire if there's no-one in the house... My father had gone away one a business trip last time, so there's the possibility of her being several days alone in the house... Although the community preparedness group has given us strict words about checking on "at risk and alone neighbours" in such a situation, so I'm hopeful one of the neighbours would be around to look in.
Anyway, I've already talked to much. And got off-topic and ranted a couple of times. I only just realised there's a prepper section here on CF, and to be honest, until the last month I wouldn't even have considered myself remotely a prepper, but I look forward to seeing some of the things you do.
I'm not sure I'd consider myself a prepper, but... Well, I think maybe I sort of am. Culturally. Not that anyone in my family would consider themselves preppers.
I should explain. Um... I live in an area where at least half of us are off-grid, the rest of us don't have mains for at least something, an ever-increasing percentage of us own generators (it's currently around 30%, but we're expecting a boom in generator-ownership over the next few months), where everyone has a vegetable garden, chickens, and probably some sort of larger creature, where the government runs ads on television telling us to "be prepared when disaster comes again", and where community groups meet monthly at generator-equipped town halls to discuss the state of community preparedness, share ideas, and get the local council and government in on it all...
Here's the situation. Three times in the last as many months, the area has gone long periods (two days to a week each time) without electricity. That's not just "no electricity" like the city people laugh about when they hear it, but it's no running water and no functioning sewage system as well. After twelve hours, it's also no telecommunications. Hence the sudden surge in generator-ownership, because about 40% of the community is now like, "We're own our own, we have to fend for ourselves, no-one is going to help next time this happens."
There's a bit of a storm expected today and you should see the paranoia on the local social media...
All this is on top of a culture that already has "bushfire readiness" ingrained so deeply into it that every schoolchild knows where the local community hub is and fully expects every summer to see their house burnt down. Although that could just be the over-sensitive ones like me. Thirty-seven years ago, the local area was razed to the ground. When the government wants us to listen, they play footage of that on the television: Bushfires will happen again - Hills
So, well... I'm not convinced about the need to prep for the end-of-the-world disaster thing, but we've got highly likely, smaller-scale disasters here we prep for, so I'm interested in seeing some of the ideas people come up with. I already saw those large water bag things someone mentioned on another thread... We already have a couple of drums of accessible water but discovered that that will get us through a day or two, not a week, and we need more. Tanks don't have taps on them here, which surprised everyone, so water in the tank became useless very quickly.
And I suppose my main problem at the moment is that I'm moving away for uni, so I'm worried about how my disabled mother might cope in a blackout or especially bushfire if there's no-one in the house... My father had gone away one a business trip last time, so there's the possibility of her being several days alone in the house... Although the community preparedness group has given us strict words about checking on "at risk and alone neighbours" in such a situation, so I'm hopeful one of the neighbours would be around to look in.
Anyway, I've already talked to much. And got off-topic and ranted a couple of times. I only just realised there's a prepper section here on CF, and to be honest, until the last month I wouldn't even have considered myself remotely a prepper, but I look forward to seeing some of the things you do.
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