Are you better prepared today than for Y2K? Original post 9/22/05

[HeliumAvid]

I am just wondering,

OK, I will start.

I have not added much to my foodstuffs except to rotate, my water is a little lower but I can redeploy the 300gal water bladders before the pressure drops. I am way less dependent on fossil fuels which is good, 2.5KW of solar on the roof is comforting (except if we get a lot of earthquake damage). I have better cars but more computers in them, not sure if that is better. Firearms is better, cooking devices are way better, TP is less All in all I am a notch above pre Y2K, but unsure if I am ready for an instant change over.

I had to use night lighting on a recent outing and discovered that the batts in the lamp were dead and 8 D cells are hard to find in the bug out bag. I did have two smaller flashlights which did the trick, but I did learn something... BUY MORE BATTERIES!!!! I even got hit with that one on the last china trip and the digital camera..

So what about you? Are you still working at prepping?

Helium

 

[CGTech]

Oh, yes. Still more to do. Just waiting for the income tax to come back!

 

[eXe]

Way WAY more prepped now than pre y2k

 

[alpha]

More ammo, more food, more seed, more literature and meds etc. Even the shelter is better - buried it deeper by two feet of earth to increase shielding. I think that Y2K was an upset stomach... the coming events will be more like Plague!

 

[Seabird]

Way better prepared. Way.

Got TP covered.

The solar powered battery chargers are great.

I even moved so as to be in a better place since Y2K. (Am I obsessed?)

The hurricanes have helped me to refine my preps. But TB2K has been wonderful, as well.


Never done, however. I am a single mom, so I shant be armed (except for my prayers. ) Guess I won't know what I forgot until it's too late, eh? But this board has helped in that area. Thanks to Dennis, and all of you.


Seabird

 

[Giblin]

I thought I was all set for Y2K. I had my family of 9 stocked for 6 months. I gave Y2K emergency boxes for Christmas for friends and family. I was sooo proud until God put me in my place with a 5 day ice storm. Many of my plans failed! I had to re think my family's situation. We have since moved with little of the storage space we had, but the kids have moved out! I have been watching many of the ideas on this board planning and using the space we have to the maximum. I'm really concerned about the flu epidemic and the energy crunch. Stocking up on meds and trying to plan ahead for Y3K.
Gib

 

[BREWER]

Brewer

After Isabell rolled into town 9/18/04, and we were w/o electricity for ten days, and I lost so many of my lagers[they have to be kept cool ~35F in an unpasturized state in a keg if they are not bottled] and two refrigerators and freezers full of food; the 15Kw generator went in. Not as big as Dennis's, but all hooked up and ready to go. I had to put on a new roof [actually two--the first 'new roof' failed ,but that is another story], added insulation to the attic and four double pane replacement windows on the west wall(s) in the living area to cut down on the AC/heating bills. I ordered more food from Waltons--mostly TVP, and dehydrated dairy[eggs, cheese, butter and milk] in the mylar 6 gal. buckets. And did I fail to mention a lot more beer...highly hopped and high alcohol. Forget born-on-dating. It is an advertising promotional...then again who would stock up on commercial lagers when homebrewed ales will 'stand-up' to greater temp swings? In most cases a well made 'homebrew' will last for years, and like wine improve with age with proper care [as one should do with a wine] i.e. out of the light in a basement. I made more wine and mead, too. It is rare to find someone in an emergency that is not w/o a brew and would gladly assist in a task for a cool one at the end of the day!

 

[macten_1]

I've added a lot of ammo, 2 35 gal. water barrels, more food, a quality first aid kit, an AquaRain 200 and the single biggest improvement was quitting my job in a large city.....

 

[Roxann]

Prepping has become a way of life. On food preps, I have enough for about 18
months to two years. I probably had that amount for Y2k. I know now that food
preps are not the only type of preps that I need. I did not think about the other
areas that much for Y2k. Therefore, I now have alternative heat sources ,
water sources as well as light sources. I am currently working in the areas
of defense and alternative energy sources.

Will I ever be fully prepped? No! I don't think that is possible. However, every
new bit of knowledge that I pick up puts me just a little bit more a head.
I intend to stay that way. Does anyone else feel that knowledge
is a type of prep?

 

[mountain_huckleberry]

Way less prepared here........Too many life changes.... and fewer resources.

 

[Nona]

Yes, very much so thanks to all the posters on tb2K.

Thanks much.

 

[WVtreehanger]

Got more stuff but more importantly gained more knowledge of how to do things and now look at things with a prep perspective.

 

[Intergator]

I would like to think I am better prepared - but the truth is I'm not. Y2K was a defined event with a definitive date of occurrence and a pretty reasonable set of consequences if it did occur. I was prepped for economic and technological collapse and all that would be a direct result of EVERYONE in the world being in the same boat (except maybe some remote tribe living in the Amazon jungle). You know - get out of the cities, get a generator, plant some food, plenty guns and ammo, stock up on gas, propane, candles, canned goods, etc. When the rollover happened and the power stayed on (I watched live TV and was amazed when the lights stayed on around the world) the naysayers had a field day and a lot of people felt foolish and became complacent. What the naysayers (and some preppers) didn't realize is that Y2K would have happened if not for the efforts of programmers for a couple of years prior to 2000 of updating the code to accept 4 digit dates. Anyway I get the distinct impression that there are far fewer people that are prepared for disaster or disruption since then. I personally am prepared for a couple of months off the grid and no gas, food, etc. But now we don't have a definitive disaster defined to prep for. There are plenty of potential disasters waiting to happen but each one would have vastly different consequences. I would think that to prep the best you can would get you through a local disaster but if we had an economic meltdown or a nuclear exchange or a natural disaster (asteroid hitting or pole shift etc) then your survival would be luck of the draw. Roving gangs of looters and murderers would eventually break through your defenses if they were hungry enough. And don't forget FEMA and the EOs allowing the govt. (if they aren't all hiding in their bunkers) to confiscate virtually everything. Generators, gardens , wells, and canned goods won't protect against nukes, biologicals or chemicals. If I sound pessimistic it's because I'm thinking of reality. I believe survival will be purely dependent on the will of GOD. Think about human nature. If you live a little way out of town and have everything you think you need to last a couple of years, don't think for a minute that you will have a Little House On The Prairie existence because you will have to defend your life every day for the rest of your life or until you succumb. The only way I can think of to survive is for like minded folks to get together and form an enclave that is strong enough to withstand a hungry mob. However, if you do it before anything happens (and that's when you need to) then the govt. comes in and blows you away. What to do? So my idea is to prep for a local disaster and pray that if an asteroid hits it lands on Russia or China.

 

[old bear]

We have eaten up a lot of our stored food, and instead of having 300 gallons of treated gas on hand, I think we have about 30 gallons now. We said that we were just using up the food and gas so as to "rotate" it, but we never replaced it. Other wise about the same.

 

[meg]

we are prepared in different ways....my mom is sort of on board, she bought a ?katydyne? water purifier with a replacement cartridge that will purify about 30k gal of water.......so that's nice....we figured we'd share that ......we will prolly bring what we have there if we have to..........load it all in trailer and go over.......i don't know for sure about that...but she has a pool which is a nice resource for water (provided it's not a nuke event and we can get outside)
i have bought bottled water and put water away in 2l bottles.......dh says i can get dehydrated food this summer........i'm psyched about that....we did a little more prepping after 9/11 and i'm trying to add a little at a time....
oh, re: the batteries..........get the rechargeable ones and get solar chargers.......we got some for 12 volt from harbor freight...dh has 3 of them.....
anyway i'm lateral in preps, better in some areas, not so in others.....workin' on it though...i'm feeling internal pressure, like the shoe is getting ready to drop again.....
glad to know others are too!!

 

[patb]

Less prepped, but have lots of lists. I donated a lot of about to expire stuff to the local food bank. I learned I had a lot of food stuffs that we would never have eaten in a million years, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Getting back up to speed a little at a time and being lots more careful about what I get.
Have lots of basics in the camping, fishing, hunting mode that we have always had. Genny needs to be gone through as we have had occasion to use it several times. Just medium size, but it does what we need.
Seems like prepping is always on my mind, though. Sounds like the title of a song, doesn't it?

Patricia

 

[Taz]

Well....when you are having to live half the time in an RV and half the time in a home, its hard. But we try. I am not sure if the house or the RV is the best place to be when TSHTF. Depends on what the Sh*% is, I guess.
But I continue to make bread even in the RV so I have a Vittle Vault that holds 50 lbs of flour down underneath. I have a large toat with medical supplies. I keep all my medical books on board and plenty of food and soap, etc. We have propane genny and 90 gal fresh water tank on board. We also have tools, Thyro-block, a nuke alert, tons of various antibiotics. We have a roll of very heavy plastic and lots of duct tape for windows. We have internet and TV satellite on the roof top. I even carry one of those GARDENS IN A CAN. But I think one of the most valuable things we have are 3 copies of a SURVIVAL list I made, and if possible at the first awareness of some kind of attack, we head for the nearest WalMart with our lists. I take care of the food buying and Chubby Hubby takes care of the truck and trailer needs and tops off the diesel. Then we decide to hunker or hit the road. If we are home in Fl we hunker unless its impossible to do so due to gas, bioterror, nuclear, whatever. And yes we are well armed at all times.

Taz

 

[Seabird]

Well....when you are having to live half the time in an RV and half the time in a home, its hard. But we try. I am not sure if the house or the RV is the best place to be when TSHTF. Depends on what the Sh*% is, I guess.
But I continue to make bread even in the RV so I have a Vittle Vault that holds 50 lbs of flour down underneath. I have a large toat with medical supplies. I keep all my medical books on board and plenty of food and soap, etc. We have propane genny and 90 gal fresh water tank on board. We also have tools, Thyro-block, a nuke alert, tons of various antibiotics. We have a roll of very heavy plastic and lots of duct tape for windows. We have internet and TV satellite on the roof top. I even carry one of those GARDENS IN A CAN. But I think one of the most valuable things we have are 3 copies of a SURVIVAL list I made, and if possible at the first awareness of some kind of attack, we head for the nearest WalMart with our lists. I take care of the food buying and Chubby Hubby takes care of the truck and trailer needs and tops off the diesel. Then we decide to hunker or hit the road. If we are home in Fl we hunker unless its impossible to do so due to gas, bioterror, nuclear, whatever. And yes we are well armed at all times.

Taz

Wow, Taz... believe it or not, your situation is enviable. I would love to be set up in a mobile home, ready to move to safer ground should it be necessary. Seabird

 

[lynnie]

Moved............

bigger woodstove...........


well with a handpump............


from suburbs to fairly rural..............


more stuff.


But it took a year at least to feel like we had friends and neighbors replacing the ones we left behind.

 

[theoutlands]

ldyh says, "HELL yes!!" lol We bought 4 acres of land and are 4 yrs thru a 10-yr finance. We have goats, chickens, and rabbits.

THAT is enough to beat the trailer-park we *were* in in 1999!

 

[Jesse]

Evening!

I chose "other," so I'll explain a little.

In some ways we are much better prepared and in other ways less so. As the Bible says (Ecclesiastes chapter 9), "And I returned to see that the swift do not have the race, nor the mighty ones the battle... for time and unforeseen occurrence befalls us all."

We have had some health setbacks, and a few other things which aren't great, but OTOH we live in a wonderful place geographically (no bunker or off the charts preps in that vein though), know HOW to "make it" (God Willing), and most of all - we are at peace.

So, yes and no. But it doesn't matter.

FWIW - Jesse.

 

[Deena in GA]

I voted better as overall we are definitely better prepared, mostly with knowledge and skills acquired since y2k. Yes, knowledge and skills are very much preps. We have as much or more food - with more on the way. More books that would be applicable, larger gardens, more fruit trees and berries, another source of water, more defense, more wood stored up, etc. The only thing we're not up to speed on is toilet paper. We try to keep a one year supply but are down to probably about six months. Prepping is a neverending thing..........

 

[NBCsurvivor]

Way less prepared here........Too many life changes.... and fewer resources.

Ditto.

 

[BugoutBear]

Oh hell yeah, no question.

Edited to Add: The SHTF party is at my house when it finally goes down......

 

[TJA]

Well considering that my sum total of preparations for Y2K was bringing home a 5 gal water bottle from an office up the hallway that had closed and moved out, It's pretty save to say I'm much better prepared now. Although I've still got a very, very long way to go.

 

[LilRose8]

Y2K went by without me noticing much.....I was in the middle of a cross country move and caring for my father in law who had Alzheimers. I think the most I did was get some cash from the bank and a few gallons of water.
NOW, I am making up for lost time........lots of food preps, hubby has the weapons set, BOBs and thyroid blocker....lots of water but not enough, water filter, camping gear just in case.....about the only things we don't have yet are alternative energy and heating, and solar battery chargers.....I am waiting to move to the country soon and will then work on gardens and heat etc.
Actually there are LOTS of things we don't have but I have made a good start in the few months I have been here on TBK!

 

[ejagno]

Y2K wasn't a grave concern of mine however I did withdraw all available cash beforehand cause with or without electricity I am not that trusting of financial institutions. LOL

I stated other. My reason being is that I began prepping out of necessity from a personal injury that took away my freedom to drive. It only took one day of waiting 11 hours for a ride to the store during a "female emergency" that gave me the obsession to NEVER EVER BE WITHOUT AGAIN. That day drained me of every penny I had saved, converted a 14 x 12 carport into a well insulated storeroom, taught myself to can, dehydrate and preserve everything, bought 2 large freezers and 2 refrigerators for my storeroom and every single item from tampons to toothpicks to last every member of my family for 1 year. DH lost his job and we literally wanted for nothing. Eight years later I got my driving priviledges back and soon became complacent about my storage. After all, I could just run to the store 3 miles from home. Then came 9-11 and that tragedy has kept me going ever since. But the real motivation comes from the incredible savings I've reaped, the knowledge I've gained and the security of knowing that no matter what happens I did my best to take care of my family.

 

[Camasjune]

I didn't prepare for Y2K. I was already prepped for storms, earthquakes and mudslides. I moved into my homestead in 1999. I am better prepared now than I was then because my fruit trees are producing, the garden is somewhat established and the livestock are doing well, none of which I had in 1999.

 

[Jumpy Frog]

Much better . A lot more $$$ to use and a DW that is just as suportive as can be. Pre-Y2k, We were starving College kids expecting our eldest and I was trying to make a homegrown business work. Now I have an awesome career, she has a great small biz, and our 2 boys are really in tune with prepping. The family loves the drills, hiking, camping, range days, etc. This year is more long-term foods, Diesel Geney, extend the garden, and talk the DW into canning......again.

 

[WalknTrot]

Besides another five years of experience....

Hand pump on the well
More options for backup heat
Better vegetable gardening system
More "camping" gear and associated fuels
Good young flock of layers
Way better neighbors

 

[mystic]

Still prepped but things have changed for the better.

Left southern california for central arizona.

Now live within 1/4 mile of year round running water and 1/2 mile from national forest with abundant game and wild foods.

Also have secured a 4wd bug out vehicle as there is always a chance of forest fires here.

Am in much better prep condition today.

Mystic

 

[momof23goats]

got every thing on this homestead that I need to run it and us for a long time.we now have our own dairy. [small herd of dairy goats], hesn, woodstoves, including a wood cookstove. so we have it undercontrol. have tons of preps. SO we are ready, each morning I get up and wonder, will was it to day? I real that something is going to happen really soon.

 

[mt4design]

way less prepped too. many changes...many reasons.

Mike

 

[ittybit]

"House" situation is far better because I was able to complete the dwelling between 2000 and 2001. Have been 'working down' my perishable inventories with a plan to restock quickly pre-TSHTF. But still have 800# wheat, 800# popcorn, etc. 100# caned hams. Basics that will fuel you as you put in a garden, hunt game, trade for goods.

I am assembling a blacksmithing outfit. Did my first welding the other day with a very basic wire welder. Generator still going strong 'cuz we live off the grid and have been that way since Mid 2001. Wood Boiler going great guns, using about 4 1/2 cord in a pretty ineffecient outfit (to be tightened up later) and have 10 cord of very dry wood under cover.

Will commence gardening seriously this spring. Including planting blue berry bushes, Raspberry canes, etc.

 

[BV141]

Way better planned, way better armed and stocked with all relavent supplies needed.
Better supplies, cars and a bug out plan.

It has been good to see prices fall on night vision equipment and higher quality portable radio.

HOWEVER, unlike the evening of Y2K where I was standing in the doorway with my 33 day old son,
I now have 3 kids (youngest is 3.5 months old.)

I have to be better prepared!

(Must say I had GREAT neighbor's and if the SHTF I could count on them with my wife and child for Y2K. New neighbors are way too mobile; never see them.)

The oldest is just of age to start having him help me!

However, I'll never know my weakness' until the time comes.

bv

 

[Theophilus]

Better prepared. Larger generator, more supplies, garden, more food in storage [depending on how many kids mirgrate back home].

Bought five acres, large pond --- more debt [that one makes me pause -- tho I have a contingency plan]

More faith and a sense of resilience in the care and providence of God and more deeply committed to understand His unchanging purposes.

 

[buttie]

I found the Lord, can't get better prepped then that!!!

 

[Jeanne51]

Less prepared, we used up a lot of the Y2K stuff.

 

[sssarawolf]

better

Beeter prepared in some ways, but not in otheres, both dh and I have been talking this over today. We think we need to do better.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

I thought this thread looked familiar.

The Hagan family went into Y2K better prepared than we'd ever been before and we're better prepared now than we were then. We found Dun Hagan in 2001 and that's been one of our best preps of all.

.....Alan.