SHTF Groups

[Great-Kazoo]

I base a lot on comfort level, Trust falls in to this category. There are some i would suggest if needed to swing by IF things became worse, politics aside as the comfort level trumps their poly thoughts.
Mountains are out for running to. Get behind a dually with 5th wheel that busted an axle and your up shit's creek. Never mind how good physical shape you're in it's the others in the group i doubt are going to start humping gear over the peaks vs driving to them. Combine this with a short grow season vs the plains and your food sustainability once game animals become thinned, gets limited.

Power outages, natural disasters are always a possibility and having a good phone tree/ lines of communication is a must have for anyone.
Are there some i would include that are not too gun savvy, absolutely as their skill set trumps gun knowledge.

[Skully]

Do ALL of your friends act like this? And is it when you bring it up in a group setting, or individually? There's a "group think" thing that often happens with people together, where one scoffing can be enough to make them all do it. I'd suggest you bring it up individually, then you're more apt to get a real read on who's with you and who isn't. Those that aren't can be ignored when it comes to prepping, and in fact, I'd never bring it up with them again - as those'll be the guys who'll remember your comments, and want to come mooch off you if SHTF.

For those that you identify that are of a like mind, cultivate them gradually. It may only be one or two at first, but eventually you may develop a network of like-minded individuals, which is more than you have today.

Well a little prequel, 7 years ago when I was single I had my good friends that were into the same things; guns, four wheeling, camping etc. we talked, but nothing serious at the time. Got married, had kids, those friends moved on as well even to different states, now I have little time and my friends now are usually co-workers. I work in Human Services, so most of them are liberals other than my Behavior Analyst friend who is definitely conservative. He hated Obama and got a lot of flak for being in human services and not supporting him.................


I talk to my wife who believes in my ideas and is with me being prepared for anything.

I just need to find time to make new friends in like mind, and go from there. If not, prepare my family and then if SHTF look for you guys........

[Sawin]

Well a little prequel, 7 years ago when I was single I had my good friends that were in to the same things; guns four wheeling, camping etc. we talked but nothing serious. Got married, had kids, those friends moved on to different states, now I have little time my friends are usually co-workers. I work in Human Services, so most of them are liberals other than my Behavior Analyst friend who is definitely conservative.


I talk to my wife who believes in my ideas and is with me and being prepared for anything.

I just need to find time to make new friends in like mind, and go from there. If not prepare my family and then if SHTF look for you guys........

Sounds like you and I are pretty much in the same situation. I think we've found a good place to meet helpful folks. Shoot me a PM sometime if you'd like to meet up. I live in Broomfield too.

[HoneyBadger]

Some of my current friends, if I ever mentioned random shit talk about this stuff they always make fun of me saying I am acting like one of those paranoid dooms-dayers.

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?

[Great-Kazoo]

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?

Never needed to "get her on board" She has always been a gun friendly lady, who i think is still pissed after she found out i had been dipping in to ammo she thought was hers.Ask the board members who have had the opportunity meeting her. Her favorite saying is
"Without ammo all you have is an expensive paddle"

[HoneyBadger]

Never needed to "get her on board" She has always been a gun friendly lady"

My wife is fine with guns and is a decent shot (still working on that!) but she isn't really into prepping or preparedness. The prepping is more what I was asking about, especially because of the time and money involved in properly prepping.

[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.

[cofi]

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?

use your preps.... instead of buying a 1lb sack of flour say "hey we go through a lot of this lets get that 25lb bag" start buying doubles of the canned stuff you cook that way your rotating through your stock. also if shtf your not stuck eating plain garbonzo beans wondering why you bought all this food youve never cooked with before

[Buckaroobonsai]

For me it was easy. We were together during the L.A. riots and Northridge Earthquake. Civil unrest. Looting. Half the city on fire. No utilities for days. All businesses closed. Nothing opens your eyes like reality.

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?