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We do not have a TV in our home. I have gotten the impression from online forums that 'prepper' has become a negative phrase meaning crazy person.
When I see 'preppers' most of them live off-grid and strive for self-sufficiency. Perhaps the mainstream media now considers that to be crazy. I am not sure.
It was designed to make preppers appear to be crazy (because that is what sells), and that is where the public gets their idea of what we are all about. No one in the MSM cares how much damage they do, as long as they can make someone out to be stupid, and rake in the dollars, doing it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigpaul
if someone is not mainstream as in going with the herd then they are considered extreme or crazy.
its all about controlling the masses.
It was designed to make preppers appear to be crazy (because that is what sells), and that is where the public gets their idea of what we are all about. No one in the MSM cares how much damage they do, as long as they can make someone out to be stupid, and rake in the dollars, doing it.
That is a huge factor.
its all about control, make someone out to be crazy or stupid and maybe they will conform to what TPTB want them to do.
difference between sheeple and non sheeple, the prepared and the unprepared.
I've never been involved with preppers or any of that type, I was just raised and live on a remote ranch. We've always provided our own food and heat for instance, we've always had to build our own houses and buildings, run water, do most of our own mechanic work, just the way we live out here.
What I saw in this article was something we've seen in my area lately, folks moving from cities to the country to get away from the crime and disaster of urban politics.
Some do pretty good, most don't because they simply don't understand the amount of work and how you're chained to the place by having to care for your stock and crops. Living rural and self sufficient isn't like having a 9-5 job in an office where if you don't show up because you're sick, it doesn't matter, but if you try to stay in bed on a ranch, your stock doesn't get fed, if there's a problem with a calving, if you aren't checking on your cows you could lose both cow and calf. being sick a day can have expensive consequences.
I don't blame these folks for moving to a more civilized and safer place, but it's too bad most of them have no background or knowledge of how to live like that.
If there is a collapse of some kind, the ones moving rural at least have resources and they can learn, and having a head start on the process is just to their good. Not a perfect solution for everybody, but it could help some. They should just know that starting from scratch is labor intensive and very expensive and learning how to live like that takes time.
The only real issue I had with the article is where they talk about putting all the production into a warehouse where it's shared out equally. That has never worked. The folks that don't put in any effort are still fed, those that work hard don't see any benefits from their work since they're just subsidizing the useless people. The pilgrims started out that way, and it wasn't long until they converted to a more capitalistic, work or starve type model.
I've never been involved with preppers or any of that type, I was just raised and live on a remote ranch. We've always provided our own food and heat for instance, we've always had to build our own houses and buildings, run water, do most of our own mechanic work, just the way we live out here.
What I saw in this article was something we've seen in my area lately, folks moving from cities to the country to get away from the crime and disaster of urban politics.
....
In my book, anyone who always deliberately keeps enough stuff on hand to weather two weeks or more, without going to the market, is a prepper. Many of them keep enough for a few months, and that is OK. But if your whole life revolves around that, maybe not.
Ranchers, farmers and homesteaders (self sufficient kind) are a step above preppers.
And any stripe of marxist is a step below sheeple.
In my book, anyone who always deliberately keeps enough stuff on hand to weather two weeks or more, without going to the market, is a prepper. Many of them keep enough for a few months, and that is OK. But if your whole life revolves around that, maybe not.
Ranchers, farmers and homesteaders (self sufficient kind) are a step above preppers.
And any stripe of marxist is a step below sheeple.
Two weeks? No, around here we always do one-year worth.
In my area, the first harvest is maple. While the ground is covered in a blanket of snow we set about putting taps in trees. As the temperatures warm, we tend each tap and haul the sap in to be boiled. Most of my mature maples are in the river floodplain. Accessing those maples requires walking on ice. As the temps warm the ice gets brittle. A few times I have punched through the ice into the river water beneath. Walking on snowshoes, while carrying a backpack loaded with sap, I suddenly find myself in river water up to my armpits [usually when falling through ice my arms catch me] then the process begins of trying to climb up onto the ice while paying attention to avoid losing my snowshoes.
During maple season I only need one-year worth of maple.
After the maple harvest wait another few weeks then the fiddleheads begin coming up. I have about 10 acres where fiddleheads grow. We only want 50 pounds of fiddleheads, we freeze them, and enjoy one pound of fiddleheads each week, year-round. I try to harvest one-year worth of fiddleheads each spring.
Each thing that I harvest, I can only harvest once a year, so with each harvest I need to put up one-year worth.
If you miss fiddleheads this year, then you will go without for a year, as they are only available during a brief 2 week period. It is during that brief period that you must harvest all that you will need during the next year.
I have a small apple orchard. When they are ripe we host a big event, when people come and help pick apples. Then as a group we crush and press apples for fresh cider, and everyone who comes can take home a gallon of fresh cider. Any cider that remains here, I ferment and bottle. Our only opportunity to get apple [whole, cider, or sauce] is at that time of year. What we put up at that time must last us for one year.
I do not understand how you could harvest every 2 weeks.
Two weeks? No, around here we always do one-year worth.
In my area, the first harvest is maple. While the ground is covered in a blanket of snow we set about putting taps in trees. As the temperatures warm, we tend each tap and haul the sap in to be boiled. Most of my mature maples are in the river floodplain. Accessing those maples requires walking on ice. As the temps warm the ice gets brittle. A few times I have punched through the ice into the river water beneath. Walking on snowshoes, while carrying a backpack loaded with sap, I suddenly find myself in river water up to my armpits [usually when falling through ice my arms catch me] then the process begins of trying to climb up onto the ice while paying attention to avoid losing my snowshoes.
During maple season I only need one-year worth of maple.
After the maple harvest wait another few weeks then the fiddleheads begin coming up. I have about 10 acres where fiddleheads grow. We only want 50 pounds of fiddleheads, we freeze them, and enjoy one pound of fiddleheads each week, year-round. I try to harvest one-year worth of fiddleheads each spring.
Each thing that I harvest, I can only harvest once a year, so with each harvest I need to put up one-year worth.
If you miss fiddleheads this year, then you will go without for a year, as they are only available during a brief 2 week period. It is during that brief period that you must harvest all that you will need during the next year.
I have a small apple orchard. When they are ripe we host a big event, when people come and help pick apples. Then as a group we crush and press apples for fresh cider, and everyone who comes can take home a gallon of fresh cider. Any cider that remains here, I ferment and bottle. Our only opportunity to get apple [whole, cider, or sauce] is at that time of year. What we put up at that time must last us for one year.
I do not understand how you could harvest every 2 weeks.
Agreed. I only butcher a beef once a year, but just for me, it pretty much lasts for the year.
In my book, anyone who always deliberately keeps enough stuff on hand to weather two weeks or more, without going to the market, is a prepper. Many of them keep enough for a few months, and that is OK. But if your whole life revolves around that, maybe not.
Ranchers, farmers and homesteaders (self sufficient kind) are a step above preppers.
And any stripe of marxist is a step below sheeple.
2 weeks? that might be okay for minor inconveniences but not for anything major.
If you only ever had 2 weeks' worth of food stored, that would mean you must be growing in a scheme that produces fresh food every two weeks.
I can not do that.
I keep hearing of some mythical place where you can harvest every week all year round, but I have never seen such a place.
2 weeks worth of food would be enough here for minor things like power cuts but thats about all.
we can grow a lot here as its a mild climate but we still gets frosts and ice and the occasional snow dusting.
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