You might be a Prepper if...

[BonnyLake]

You might be a prepper if…

1.) Every family member gets to push their own cart at the local grocery store.
2.) You view your neighbors’ pool as an emergency source of water.
3.) You have more ammo at home than Walmart has on their shelves.
4.) All your recipes have rice and beans as the main ingredients.
5.) Your favorite radio station is the emergency broadcast channel.
6.) You have 9-1-1 on speed dial.
7.) You have enough heirloom seeds to plant a ten acre garden for ten years.
8.) You have more gasoline in 5 gallon cans than you do in your vehicles.
9.) You have a map marked with all 43 ways to get to your bug-out location.
10.) You have more knives than are on display at Academy Sports and Outdoors.
11.) Your home still has lights when the power is out.
12.) You don’t have trees in your yard because they are now firewood for your stove.
13.) You know more than a hundred ways to use a bandana.
14.) If something breaks, you start looking for your roll of duct tape.
15.) You spend your spare time braiding paracord into lanyards.
16.) Both your dogs have bug-out bags.
17.) Your first aid supplies weigh more than you do.
18.) Your key chain has more gadgets on it than the wife has in the kitchen drawer.
19.) You know which weeds are edible and what they look like and how they taste.
20.) You can start a fire 19 different ways that don’t include using wooden sticks.
21.) You have more cash stashed at home than you have in the bank.
22.) You are in charge of emergency drills at work.
23.) You listen to the prepper podcast because you like hearing your own voice.
24.) Your favorite reading materials are your old copies of “American Survival Guide”.


In keeping with the spirit of the list - feel free to add and make this master list uniquely ours - but no changes or deletions!
http://www.prepper.org/Prepper.asp

Bonny

[TEX]

Have you been spying on me. How did you know so much about me.

[CapeCMom]

That is very funny!

[CapeCMom]

How about:

The most exciting thing that can happen to you is finding a case lot sale of canned vegetables, and buying the entire display.

Watching the little bunny in your neighbors yard brings thoughts of how it would make a delicious lunch someday.

Your girlfriends want to go shopping and then go to lunch-you just want to spend a few hours at Bass Pro Shops.

[patience]

You might be a prepper:

...if a lot of your family Christmas gifts came from the milsurp store.

...if you unload your groceries after dark to keep the neighbors from seeing how much you bought.

...if your doormat says, "DANGER-HIGH VOLTAGE".

...if there are storage places in your house that even your kids don't know about.

...if you plan to spend your tax return money on half a ton of wheat and a grain mill.

...if you sold the big screen TV and hot tub so you could buy a used 4WD with a winch.

...if your co-workers wonder why you carry a heavy backpack to the office.

[Tom]

You know the news three days before it hits the mass media.

You’ve got more than one grain mill.

You have a kerosene lamp in every room.

Your most commonly-used fuel additive is ‘Sta-Bil’, instead of ‘Gumout’.

You fill up when your gas tank is 3/4 full.

You start panicking when you are down to 50 rolls of toilet paper.

You have at least two of every size of Dutch oven, and 20 bags of charcoal, although you have a gas grill.

[midmo]

... you know that deli's will usually give away pickle buckets.

[NCLee]

* Your favorite places to shop are junk yards, flea markets and yard sales.

* If great Grandma or Grandpa used it, you want one just like it.

* You have 47 different ways to make a pot of coffee!! :)

* You know every apple tree, blackberry thicket, and wild plum bush within 5 miles.

* You have an outhouse disguised as a potting shed.

* Save peanut butter jars, #10 cans, 2 liter soda bottles, and tuna cans.

* Have a stash of filled propane cylinders (1#, 20#, and 100#)

* There's a separate dresser drawer dedicated to thermal underwear.

* Can cook a meal, heat a space, and signal an airplane, using only soda/beer cans.

* Make "Leather Britches".

* Know the difference between a bean pot, wash pot, and johnny pot.

* You don't have time for Facebook because you're studying compost on line.

* You have a concealed carry permit.

* Have extra quilts and blankets stashed between the mattress and box springs.

* Grow herbs and vegetables in "flower" beds.

* Hang out at BWH. Spent time reading the archives. First stop in the morning and the last one at night.

Lee

[BonnyLake]

Keep 'em coming :victory:

It's good to laugh at ourselves when it's a serious subject.
When this thread runs out of steam I'll be adding all the new entries to the list and hopefully repost it later in the future.
So if your mind gets to wandering while you're doing a task and want to add more... please do!!


Bonny

[firegirl969]

... you know that deli's will usually give away pickle buckets.

Cute One, midmo!

[firegirl969]

You know you're a prepper if:

you eat your daylilles for supper!

you look forward to the power going out to see how your plans are working!

you enjoy a trip to the outhouse!

you would rather eat home-cooked than fast food!

you know where your food comes from!

you can care-a-less about the latest egg recall cause your eggs came from the henhouse!

you ask the neighbors for their horse manure!

the local walmart thinks you're making moonshine with all that sugar you're buying!

you don't have to go to the store every day to pick up something for dinner!

the items on your Christmas wish list come from Lehmans!

I'll probably think of some more to add later on. Great thread!!!

[Aamylf]

...you save any plastic bag that makes its way into your home
...you're the person buying empy 6 gallon paint cans and gas cans at the yard sale
...the people at Goodwill know you by name
...you know how to darn a sock...and do
...you swoon when your birthday gift from DH is a hand cranked (fill in the blank)
...your neighbors wonder what the heck you do with all the citrus you've gotten permission to pluck from their trees
...you live in a city, but have more than 5 rain barrels...hooked together...with a hidden pipe into your house.
...you didn't say 'huh?" at the original title of this post!

[pcrowder]

1. You mend every article of clothing/bedding/etc that has even the smallest of hole in it, from dish cloths to underwear to cloth diapers to socks and towels, and use what is completely worn out for things like window quilts, cloth napkins, and milk straining/jelly cloths.
2. Your son sends out text msgs (yes, this happened to me!) to all your friends and neighbors telling them that if they see your truck heading down the road at a high rate of speed, to WATCH OUT because "mom's on a misson for Mason Jars at the estate auction, and you better NOT get in her way"!
3. You only buy usable or fixable "antiques", and actually DO use them on a daily or weekly basis.
4. You buy a second wringer washer as a backup to the first wringer washer that is a back up to your modern day washer.
5. People ask what you want for Xmas, and you tell them mason jars, more heavy aprons, another darning egg, or another dairy cow in milk.
6. You have a treadle sewing machine as a back up for your other THREE back up sewing machines which are back ups for your first sewing machine.
7. You have something drying/canning/pickling/jellying almost every day of the week.
8. Instead of buying a few of an item that is marked down on clearance, you buy them ALL, and then lie to the checkout girl when she asks why you are buying so many, and tell her you are gonna give them as Xmas gifts to the relatives, while fully intending to keep them for yourself in your preps!
9. You have self taught yourself every skill you can imagine you might need to use, from shearing sheep to spinning wool to knitting socks to canning/freezing/dehydrating to milking cows and vetting animals to how to build an outhouse, and are always striving to learn more and more.
10. Your bathroom "reading room" doesn't have "normal" magazines in it - it has books and magazines such as BWH, Hobby Farms, Raising Dairy Cows, The Family Cow, Beef Cattle Handbook, Living Without Electricity and Liking it, Root Cellaring, and so on.
11. You watch and rewatch PBS and other documentaries such as "Frontier House" and "Pioneer Quest" with a very critical eye as to what they are doing right and wrong, and how YOU would have done things differently.
12. Instead of giving the relatives some Hickory Farms for Xmas, you give them wind-up emergency flashlights and a new oil lamp.
13. You have a 50# lard can in the basement stuffed with flattened rolls of TP!
14. Instead of giving the mules and horses some apple treats for Xmas, you buy them a good new (used) corn sheller or a good used harness instead, and tell them how lucky they are to have it.
15. You buy winter clothes/blankets used on EBay in June and July, and gardening supplies and incubator parts in January.

[CapeCMom]

Pat, your post about the bathroom cracked me up! In our bathroom we have Guns and Ammo magazine, North American Hunter, and the Northern tool catalog.

[Naughty_Pines]

Al though I am not a true homesteader, all of the lists here sound very plausable. Many of the folks I chat with in the chatroom have mentioned many of the items listed. Praise be to homesteading mentality and actions.

Y'all are great for the country, keep up the great work.
Thank y'all.
Jerry

[BonnyLake]

You all are great.
The funniest part - the list is real and has actually given me a few new ides!

Looks like there could be a thread dedicated to a preppers bathroom reading material alone... :smile:

Bonny

[patience]

-You come home from the landfill/junkyard/Goodwill store with more stuff than you took to it.
-You brag about this.
-You consider a trip to town for parts/ingredients to be an admission of defeat.
-You are at a loss when a conversation turns to what happened on a TV show.
-You are more likely to have dirty fingernails than not.
-You think Macgyver was a rank beginner.
-Your best car is a truck, and it usually has a load in it. And a chainsaw, in case a tree blows down across the road.
-You have more work clothes than dress clothes.
-Your family pictures have farm animals in them.

[CVORNurse]

12. Instead of giving the relatives some Hickory Farms for Xmas, you give them wind-up emergency flashlights and a new oil lamp.


Did that last year. Only it was Eton emergency radios with the rechargable batteries and hand crank.

[NCLee]

Ditto! Did the same thing. Awhile back, we had a major ice storm the first week in December. Gave all the family members a "For The Next Time" gift bag. Had in it an oil lamp & fuel, emergency candles, kitchen matches, flashlight & batteries, and some related stocking stuffers.

Patience, you beat me to talking about fingernails! :lol: And stain-free hands.

Appropriate reading material isn't limited to the bathroom either! It's everywhere I can find a spot to stash it. I've learned that if I go to Tractor Supply, I'm going to come home with something off the magazine/book rack. Just can't resist. The other day it was a copy of Grit, Countryside, and another preserving book - Put 'em Up!. You'd think that after buying them since the 70's I'd have enough by now. Not true. :)

You know you're a prepper, if you

save slivers of bath soap to be turned into liquid hand soap.

buy OTC meds in bulk packs from Sam's Club.

look at used turkey fryer oil and see lye soap.
http://www.grandpappy.info/wclarify.htm

lug back to the house every piece of fatwood spotted in the woods.

know how many ways cattails can be used for food and more.

have recipes for acorn flour and know where to find the acorns.

consider squirrels raiding birdfeeders to be "livestock" rather than cussing them.

lug home $10 laundry sinks from the junk yard to go with TWO washboards currently sitting in the den. Have a junior sized washboard that fits a small bucket.

can't resist Dutch oven liners, large S hooks, short chains, big spoons, long forks, oven racks, andirons, and kid size metal hoes/shovels for rustic campfire cooking. AND

have a full fledged campsite setup in the backyard just for that purpose.

Lee

[pcrowder]

Pat, your post about the bathroom cracked me up! In our bathroom we have Guns and Ammo magazine, North American Hunter, and the Northern tool catalog.

You too? Yeah, our "reading room" is quite diverse!

[gardenmom]

Your best Christmas presents were: a Big Berkey water filter, an Excalibur dehydrator and a Jersey milk cow. Not all in the same year, of course, but banner years nonetheless.
You keep your fingernails cut short because you CANNOT keep them clean.
You make a mental note of where all the edible weeds grow.

[BREEZEMOMMY]

have duct tape in 10 colors.
wrap presents in sunday comics
buy grandkids/kids clothes 3 years ahead of time and from garage sales
keep crutches on hand just in case .
thought of insulating the new store room walls with packs of tp
bought 72roll packs of tp for each bathroom plus a spare 72roll pack just in case .
thinks ammo makes a great stocking stuffer and EASTER basket filler .
bought a shotgun for a 4 year olds birthday present
buy 120 pairs of socks and/or underwear at a time

[Dame]

You buy a cull cow for the winter's dog food.

[midmo]

thought of insulating the new store room walls with packs of tp


hmmmmm... if I didn't have a mouse problem....

[NCLee]

hmmmmm... if I didn't have a mouse problem....

hmmmmmmmm... you, too! :) Weather will be cooler soon and we'll have our annual fall invasion. :eek:

You may be a prepper if you

have mouse traps waiting for the invasion.

On another note, you may be if

you have more than one water bath canner and pressure canner.

you have several manual meat grinders.

you have the manual equivalents of mixers and food processors.

you stash away extra cheese cloth and jelly bags.

you dance a jig at discovering flour sack towels at Sam's Club.

you know all the uses for worn out cotton t-shirts.

you dream the impossible dream of a $1300 grain mill. http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Grain_and_Grain_Mills___Diamant_Grain_Mi ll___525?Args=

Lee

[Aamylf]

Lee,

Thought you'd be lusting after the $800 coffee grinder I saw on line the other day!:sarcastic:

[NCLee]

Don't tell me about it! :fie: :fie: :fie:

I have enough "impossible" dreams already. Please don't add another one, especially coffee related, to the list. Might make me :wacko: for sure.

Lee

[ScrubbieLady]

Ditto! Did the same thing. Awhile back, we had a major ice storm the first week in December. Gave all the family members a "For The Next Time" gift bag. Had in it an oil lamp & fuel, emergency candles, kitchen matches, flashlight & batteries, and some related stocking stuffers.



I like that idea!

[Aamylf]

Lee -- OldCoffeeGrinders.com


(I know, I know. Get thee behind me!)

[NCLee]

I ain't playing wid you no mo! Gonna take my ball and go home!

Lee, don't look at that link! :no: DON'T! STAY AWAY FROM IT! DON'T GO THERE!

You knew I would, didn't you. Now I can't decide if I'm :cry: or have really gone :wacko:


:wink:

Lee

[Pokeberry Mary]

you're actually reading this thread for new ideas.

[BonnyLake]

NCLEE & Aamylf >> this is for you!

You might be a "Suburban-prepper" if....

you regularly take your dog for a walk down the street to the nearest coffee roasters shop, on the day they haapen to be roasting dark columbian beans, and they know you by name... "hey Bonny & Dooley, whats up?", and you stand and blab for awhile (cuz he needs the company, after all - how boring just standing there with a giant wooden paddle stirring those beans as they roast in a giant open kettle over a gas flame) ... and then you resume your walk having "gleaned" a perfectly roasted, still warm, one pound bag of the supreme columbian dark roast freshly made for that weeks sales... (true story - for 3 years :D

yummmmmmm,
Bonny

[midmo]

hmmmmm... if I didn't have a mouse problem....

hmmmmmmmm... you, too! :) Weather will be cooler soon and we'll have our annual fall invasion. :eek:
Lee
I've made my peace with virtually all God's creatures, but me and them nasty, smelly debbils will NEVER see eye to eye. I think the only person who may hate them worse than I is my wife, who (delicate flower be she) will stomp a mouse to death barefoot if there isn't a shovel handy. :fie:

But to stay on topic...
You might be a prepper if:
- you've ever used the words "mylar", "pickle bucket" and "hair straightener" in the same sentence.
- you have all the Foxfire books in PDF form on a tinfoil-wrapped USB drive buried four paces due east of the oak tree stump in the back yard.

[NCLee]

Bonny, I swear I could smell those beans roasting and feel the warmth through the bag as I clutched it against my chest. Dog, what dog? Who's got time to walk a dog on that race home to the coffee grinder?

You're definitely a prepper if you know how mylar, pickle jar, and hair straightener can be used in the same sentence!!! :yes2:

Same thing if you know about the treasures of Foxfire and Carla Emery.

Excuse me, I've gone :wacko: talking about coffee grinders today.

Lee

[pathwayholding]

You dig through you're own garbage looking for "good stuff" that the non-preppers of your house threw away 'cuz they didn't know any better.

You know at least 3 different things you can use an empty toilet paper roll for.

Every document in your computer is printed and bound in carefully labeled binders...gardening, home remedy, disaster...

You've tried to "detach" from your dog/cat just in case you ever have to...uh...you know...

j-

[schapm]

You keep an extra parts kit for every gun in the house.

[Aamylf]

You keep an extra parts kit for every gun in the house.


...you have 'guns' not 'gun' in the house :D...and the car...

[BonnyLake]

...Your kids have the date you got 'em, marked with a sharpie on their bottoms.

[KarenBC]

Same thing if you know about the treasures of Foxfire and Carla Emery.


I still grieve that Carla Emery is gone. She is the one that started me back into this lifestyle. I was "stuck" in a large city, suburb of Vancouver, BC - slowly going further & further in debt and losing touch with myself. Found a copy of her encyclopedia at the library, borrowed it upteen times and then found a used copy of it.

With Carla's book open on the counter I learned to can and make bread, and started to collect things at city garage sales that I might need when the move happened. Took 4 or 5 years - but did get back to a rural lifestyle - been here since 1990.

Love this thread!

[NCLee]

Karen, even though my copy of her encyclopedia is worn, stained, and some of the pages are falling out, I still treasure that book. Seems that the print is almost worn off the pages from reading it so much over the years.

Gave a copy to a neighbor, as a house warming gift, many years ago. They sometimes mention how helpful that book was when they got goats, chickens, and planted a big garden. (They moved from a small town lot to a 50+ acre farm.)

One of my favorite memories of her was when her book became popular enough for her to go on a book tour. Interview with Phil Donahue, on the sidewalk, beside her travel trailer. Wish I could describe how funny it was when he came face to face with the animals. Felt sorry for her for his condensending (sp) manner towards her. I had her book and knew the story of what it took for her to home publish same. Wished I could kick him where it could have counted.

Lee

[TNDadx4]

Wow, a lot of these are so true... lol

You might be a prepper:

...if your co-workers wonder why you carry a heavy backpack to the office.

This one is true, but on more than one occasion, I have pulled something out of my bag that someone at work has needed :)

you're actually reading this thread for new ideas.

Yes. Yes, I am!

...Your kids have the date you got 'em, marked with a sharpie on their bottoms.

This is the first thing our oldest daughter does when we get new boxes and cans, but we write the date on the top.

[patience]

...if you spend more fixing up your old truck than you EVER did on a vacation.

(Just did this.)

...if you look forward to getting a ton of manure put in the back yard.

(Due next week at our place.)

...if your pride and joy is your garden, not your new clothes.

[KarenBC]

...if you spend more fixing up your old truck than you EVER did on a vacation.

(Just did this.)

...if you look forward to getting a ton of manure put in the back yard.

(Due next week at our place.)



This coming week I'm looking after my friend's hobby farm while she's away, in exchange I get the use of her pickup...(I don't have one yet) - so getting a mini tote bag of feed, bringing home tubs of llama manure from friend's place, picking up the culvert I bought at the Restore for $15!...I'm going to have such a fun week - and can definitely get looking forward to a ton of manure for the garden patience!

[Dawgus]

If your house first aid kit is a 1x3x5ft steel cabinet
If you scored a bunch of free MRE's and made yourself and the wife one for dinner
If you have more oil lamps than you have actual electric lamps
If every closet in the house except your bedroom has been converted into a pantry
If you buy matches and coleman fuel every time you go to the hardware store
If your dehydrator and canner run more in a day than your tv does in 6 months
If you get excited that you can buy TP for $10 a case through your wifes work and order 4
If you have a drawer filled with lamp wicks and lantern mantels
If the girl at the register somehow remembered you bought 5 gallons of vinegar LAST week