SHTF Groups

[Omicron]

Speaking of getting people in the right mindset.... I made a HUGE step with my wife today! We had 2 evacuees staying at our house during the Waldo Canyon fire, and they literally just brought sleeping bags for 2 night and 3 days. (I hope it was eye-opening for them too!) They are gone now, but this morning my wife and I were talking about all the fires, the tropical storm in the south, the heatwave in the midwest, and the winds/power outage affecting much of the Northeast, including Washington DC where MSM is reporting that millions of people could be without power for 3-4 days. During all of this, I kind of jokingly said "Gosh, that sounds like a good reason to stock up on rice and bottled water!" and she replied with "yeah no kidding. Wanna pick some up next time you're at Costco?" For a moment I was floored and didn't know what to say, because she has always been very financially insecure and afraid to spend extra money on ANYTHING, let alone food that we don't need for the week. This is great! I just need to be careful not to go overboard or I'll lose her support in this one really quickly.



For you married fellers out there, are your wives totally onboard with your prepping or bug out plans? If so, how did you do it?

For my wife the epiphany came during hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans flooded and society went to shit down there almost overnight. Runs on stores, looting run rampant, police confiscating guns from people just trying to hunker down and protect their property, people forced into evacuation shelters where crime ran rampant, etc. She realized then just how thin and easily broken down our infrastructure is, and got 90% behind prepping. We've been accumulating supplies ever since.
The one thing we try to lean toward accumulating though is stuff we normally use in every day life, so that we're always rotating our stock. Water was an issue until we figured out a system for rotating through that too.

[hollohas]

For my wife the epiphany came during hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans flooded and society went to shit down there almost overnight. Runs on stores, looting run rampant, police confiscating guns from people just trying to hunker down and protect their property, people forced into evacuation shelters where crime ran rampant, etc. She realized then just how thin and easily broken down our infrastructure is, and got 90% behind prepping. We've been accumulating supplies ever since.
The one thing we try to lean toward accumulating though is stuff we normally use in every day life, so that we're always rotating our stock. Water was an issue until we figured out a system for rotating through that too.

My wife has been slowly coming on board with the idea of stocking up over the last year. However, she has recently been pushed into overdrive because of the fires. Our hometown, Woodland Park, had a tiny bit of trouble getting gas and other things because the main highway was shutdown. Nothing major, but enough to be apparent. We don't live there anymore and it didn't affect us directly but it reminded her that our supply chain is extremely fragile. Now she is making lists too. It's great to have a second set of eyes looking at our prepping priorities. Her organization skills are far superior to mine so her input will be extremely valuable regarding how we can store the things we use everyday.

Example: we drink a lot of milk at my house. A lot. We are currently evaluating different bulk dried milk options for flavor and price. If the price beats what we get milk at the grocery store for, and we like the taste, my home will likely soon only drink milk from powder and then we can justify buying a ton of it.

Our philosophy is "it will cost more tomorrow, so why not buy as much as we can now."

Don't believe this? Google "cost of beef rising" for one example...

Although, the missing piece in our preps is her shooting skills. She is OK with guns and knows the basics but she won't practice.

My "group" consists of my family. We're a bit too spread out to offer support in a major, instant type of SHTF scenario, but we bounce ideas off each other almost daily. If things were to slowly degrade (like a major depression) the family would merge and provide direct and mutual support.

[Wiggity]

My wife has been slowly coming on board with the idea of stocking up over the last year. However, she has recently been pushed into overdrive because of the fires. Our hometown, Woodland Park, had a tiny bit of trouble getting gas and other things because the main highway was shutdown. Nothing major, but enough to be apparent. We don't live there anymore and it didn't affect us directly but it reminded her that our supply chain is extremely fragile. Now she is making lists too. It's great to have a second set of eyes looking at our prepping priorities. Her organization skills are far superior to mine so her input will be extremely valuable regarding how we can store the things we use everyday.

Example: we drink a lot of milk at my house. A lot. We are currently evaluating different bulk dried milk options for flavor and price. If the price beats what we get milk at the grocery store for, and we like the taste, my home will likely soon only drink milk from powder and then we can justify buying a ton of it.

Our philosophy is "it will cost more tomorrow, so why not buy as much as we can now."

Don't believe this? Google "cost of beef rising" for one example...

Although, the missing piece in our preps is her shooting skills. She is OK with guns and knows the basics but she won't practice.

My "group" consists of my family. We're a bit too spread out to offer support in a major, instant type of SHTF scenario, but we bounce ideas off each other almost daily. If things were to slowly degrade (like a major depression) the family would merge and provide direct and mutual support.

As far as not wanting to practice. My GF love if we make it a date, bring picnic food, set up a course, and compete against each other. Try it! unless she just hates shooting.

[Skully]

I have been reading through a lot of the posts in this thread and started to analyze some of the info.

I determined there are different types of SHTF scenarios. Each one might require a little different action.

Each family, couple, or single member of a group need to have the ability to hold their own in case they are separated, but work/strive to get together with their group with several potential meeting spots.

I always thought the best way to survive would be nomadic as a group.

My home is not the perfect setup to be defended easily as many others wouldn't be as well if it came down to it.

Depending on the time of the year the mountains with the 150+ backwoods trails / service roads requiring a major 4 wheel drive might not be able to travel either due to snow. Head south to warmer climate, open areas.

Also thinking in a group dynamic, having certain roles ideally it would be nice to have a doctor or medic, someone who understands how to grow food, etc.