Author SHTF Anthology 1, 2 & 3 and of Co-Author of SHTF Survival Boot Camp
I usually answer readers’ questions in my articles. Sometimes people openly ask something. More often I answer folks’ questions in terms that I try to bring some reality from my perspective and my experiences. This is in a field where people are shoveling each other (in Preppersphere) with ridiculous ideas and opinions that do not have too much connection with reality.
I think we had pretty interesting months behind us or year, and I would not say it is the end of it. It is more like the end of one stage, and who knows what exactly is waiting for us in the coming years?
Well, we as preppers should have at least some idea of what is coming ahead, lets see now what we realized, accomplished, concluded, survived, or call it what you like in this past year.
Maybe it is time now for me to ask some questions here, and please try to give me your honest answers, let’s see where we at now, or more precisely where you are at now.
So…
Your expectations
- In the last year what was your biggest “AHA” (mentally) moment, taking into consideration situation (pandemic, economy, politics…) around you ?
- At the beginning of the pandemic, what did you expect situation to look like in few months? How and in what way it was it different from your expectations?
- What was your biggest prepping philosophy that you believed in for years it would work but it did not work? What was your biggest surprise failure?
JIM COBB: I think my biggest surprise failure, if you can call it that, was seeing just how many people fought tooth and nail against the pandemic, insisting it didn’t exist. I’d always hoped that, when faced with something like this, folks would catch on quick and take steps in the right direction. Unfortunately, far too many waited far too long to take those steps and were left scrambling, trying to catch up.
At the beginning, we (the prepper community) were hearing all sorts of horror stories from China, but it was impossible to discern what was real and what was just rumor. When infections started showing up here in the US, we still didn’t know just how bad it might get. I, and many others, felt it had the capability to get REALLY ugly before it was going to get better. I was right and wrong. It wasn’t a collapse in any real sense, but it was pretty bad for lots of folks, simply due to how the pandemic was handled.
The biggest AHA moment was seeing just how many people struggled financially after being out of work for just a week or two. It wasn’t a blinding surprise, more that it drove home that I’d been right all along by stressing financial preparedness in my writing and teaching.
DALE GOODWIN: Biggest Aha Moment. This past year have been one that preppers have been hypothesizing for years. As 2020 unfolded, planning for “what if” turned into planning for “what now” and these days were left feeling like “what’s next”.
My AHA moment came in the beginning months of 2021 when I realized that prepping had gone from something we do just in case, to something that was becoming 100% necessary. While the pandemic wasn’t as bad as it could have been, the overbearing response from the powers that be have set us up for a huge fall. This could literally be the calm before the storm.
My Expectations for the Pandemic: As with most people, when this pandemic was in its infancy, I had no idea how it was going to unfold. I saw pictures of Chinese trucks spraying clouds of disinfectant in the streets and thought I was watching something from Alex Jones.
My first clue that this was going to be something bigger than expected was that our world leaders were shooting darts blindfolded and had no idea what was going on. Either that or they knew exactly what was going on, just not how it was going to unfold. That’s a conspiracy for another day.
What I didn’t expect from this pandemic was the overbearing response, and the willingness of most of the population to blindly follow these elected officials that seemed to be making things us as they went along. As we have so many times throughout history, we have given up liberty in exchange for perceived security.
This is not to say that the pandemic shouldn’t have been taken seriously, because it should have been. What it showed was how little some people use their critical thinking skills, and how easily some people will be led to the slaughter. I don’t think this was an intentional test to see how people would react, but if you don’t think they are taking notes you’re fooling yourself.
My Biggest Failure (Weakness Uncovered): One of the bigger challenges for preppers is inventory and rotation. While I do a fairly good job on keeping track of everything, complacency kicked me in the butt. During the good times it’s easy to justify waiting to restock the batteries, food storage, or God forbid, the toilet paper.
When the realization came that this was going to be bigger than most people thought, all the little things I had been putting off became one big thing. I was still more prepared than most people, but not to the point that I wanted to be. More accurately, I wasn’t at the point that I told myself I was.
FRED LIKEN: At the beginning my biggest realization was how everyone acted differently very quickly. If that would have continued I feel it would have been full blow SHTF much faster then I would have thought.
I originally thought everything would stop for maybe 60 days, then things would start back up the way they were. I didn’t think originally it would have gone on as long as it did, and It’s still going on.
I’ve always prepped for a catastrophe disruption of the supply lines, because it covers the most bases. In reality you can only cover so many bases. There is always things that come up and that you didn’t think of. While I had a certain amount of things covered. There still were holes in both my preps and plans.
DAISY LUTHER: My Biggest Aha Moment: I was in Europe shortly before the pandemic began and had flown to Canada for my father-in-law’s funeral in January. I had planned to stay a few weeks and visit with my kids before heading back to my gallivanting. Before January was over, I was getting reports out of China that made me say, no, this is it. This is the pandemic I’ve been writing about for years. I postponed my flight and went to stay with my younger daughter who had a spare room in Virginia.
The moment I got to Virginia, I rebuilt a stockpile as fast as I could. (I’d divvied up the original stockpile among family members before leaving.) By early February, we were set for a 6-month haul assuming utilities stayed on.
My Expectations: People initially rolled their eyes and said I was blowing everything out of proportion but something told me, no, I was not. Even though I was expecting it, I was shocked when people finally decided in March, oh, crap, this is for real, how fast they cleared the shelves like a horde of locusts. (And I was super glad I went with my gut and bought stuff in February.)
My Biggest Surprise Failure: For years, I had the big house full of supplies, the garden, even a farm for a while. I had decided to jet off on a one-way ticket to Europe just in time for a global pandemic, so I wasn’t as prepped as I would have liked to have been. This being said, I got prepped FAST and I would not trade my travel experiences for the pile of supplies I parted with beforehand.
Reality
- What, if anything, did you discover about your close friends and family in hard times? Did they act as you expected and hoped?
- Did the place where you are now living work out good, or as you hoped? What is your biggest realization about the place where you are (apartment-house, street-town) concerning the bad times around you?
- Did your feelings/expectation/opinion about government/system change since the beginning of the hard times and in what way?
- Based on your opinion now, what is the single (physical) prepping item that you found most useful to have in last year?
JIM COBB: I’ll be honest in that the pandemic and related issues didn’t directly impact my lifestyle to a large degree. If the last 18 months or so have taught me anything, it is that my preferred lifestyle is apparently called “quarantine.” I work from home, so there was no shutdown for me of any type. In fact, I was busier than ever, due to media interviews and such.
As for family and friends, some of them did just fine and others struggled. I had some people close to me get very sick, but I was very blessed in that none of them perished. We were well-stocked with food and other supplies, though we did venture out here and there to pick up a few other things, simply because we had the ability to do so.
The single-most useful prep for us was our financial position. We have very little debt, due to working our butts off to reduce what we owed over the last 12 years or so. That coupled with savings put us in a great position to last however long it took before things got back to some semblance of normalcy.
DALE GOODWIN: Friends & Family. Because I have an online presence most of my friends and family know about my prepping. Because I take a realistic approach to preparedness (not the Alex Jones approach) many of my friends and family looked to me for guidance.
I was pleasantly surprised that many of them had a plan, but just wanted some reassurance from me that they were doing the right things. While I was happy to give my advice, I also made a point of letting them know that waiting until the last minute was a bad idea. It’s like waiting until Christmas eve to do your shopping.
My Location. A while back my wife and I chose to move away from the city to a semi-rural location for exactly this reason. Putting distance between myself and large population centers has always been one of my top priorities. It’s much easier watching something unfold on the news than watching it happen right outside my front door.
Government Expectations. I’m not sure if I have a distrust of government because I’m a prepper, or if I’m a prepper because of my distrust for government. Either way, their overbearing response to the pandemic was no surprise. What is surprising however (a little bit) is their eagerness to make everyone slaves to the system. Even more concerning is everyone’s eagerness to become slaves to the system. A system that is closer to the edge than ever before.
Most Useful Prepping Item. My single most important prepping item was (and is) my wife haha. She is a registered nurse and in the beginning stages of the pandemic the last thing I wanted to do was go to a hospital. This also means that we have the first aid supplies and medications that I alone may not have thought about.
FRED LIKEN: Most of the people I know basically went and did their own thing. Some prepped harder, some complained, some seemed oblivious. It was the first time however some people I’m friends with turned on me for being ahead of the game. I was checking if they were ok or needed anything and I was called a fear monger or worse.
As far as where we are, it worked out fairly well in my opinion. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had some conversations with our neighbors and we agreed to consolidate and work together if needed. It was one bright spot in all of this.
As far as .gov goes, it just confirmed in my mind that they are both incompetent and dishonest at all levels. If a massive SHTF would be on the way, I doubt they would even tell us.
This isn’t very flashy for a prepping item, but we have excellent internet service. It’s high speed and very dependable. This kept everyone busy and entertained. This was very important during lockdowns and quarantines. It also was a solid source of information. I could keep up on things both local and national and react accordingly, because I had solid internet. It also provided a way to order things that may have been needed without going out. I believe now that the government will do anything to keep the internet running. It kept the masses in check to a certain degree.
DAISY LUTHER: Friends and Family: My immediate family – my daughters – were awesome and behaved in exactly the way we had trained for all those years for emergencies. I was really proud of them for thinking of solutions to different shortages and managing their situations as well as possible. One girl was in Canada and the other was the one with whom I stayed. Other family members and friends were rather disappointing. You know the sector of people who utterly refused to accept a pandemic occurred? Yeah, those folks. Some even accused me of scamming people because I wrote about the pandemic and what was occurring. They’re definitely not invited to the bunker.
I was also shocked about how many preppers who literally have pandemic preparedness supplies stashed away refused to believe there was a pandemic. I was like, “WHAT? THIS IS THE SUPERBOWL FOR PREPPERS. WE WERE RIGHT!”
My location: It SUCKED. I stayed with my youngest daughter in her inexpensive apartment in a not-so-great neighborhood in a city. Certainly not a place I would have chosen to lockdown. But at the same time, it gave me confidence. We were able to harden that little apartment, set up our own homemade alarms, create a fatal funnel for potential intruders, and make it work. We had to do some outside-the-box thinking but I believe in a more dire emergency, we’ll be awfully glad we have that skill.
The Government: They sucked even more than I expected them to. From one lie after another to a series of control grabs, it was a clusterfuck that began with Trump and has only worsened with Biden. Let’s be honest. They didn’t know what to do any more than the general populace did. Perhaps if President Trump had been able to shut down our borders when he first wanted to, it could have been better contained but the CDC and the WHO and Congress – it was one idiotic thing after another. If anything, it just solidified my scorn for the government and assured me I can never rely on them for anything.
My Most Useful Prepping Item: I would never have thought of it as a prepping item before, but my job. Running my business online allowed me plenty of time to research and I had very little interruption in income. I would also have to say my ability to analyze a situation – I know that’s not a physical item but I’m so thankful I listened to my gut and didn’t get trapped overseas during the original lockdown.
Your victories and mistakes
- Did your survival “philosophy” work well in the last year? What would you change now there?
- In what items or plans do you now think you wasted money based on situation in last year?
JIM COBB: I think the only thing I really wasted money on was on buying too much snack food, LOL. Like so many others, snacking became an all-too-common pastime. Other than that, we didn’t really spend any more money than we would have otherwise, I don’t think.
Overall, the plans we had in place accomplished what they were supposed to accomplish. The only changes I’d make would be to help some people close to me be better prepared for something like this in the future.
DALE GOODWIN: My Survival Philosophy. My prepping philosophy has always been to stay vigilant, gather important information, and stockpile supplies when times are good. The events of the past year have almost been a “test run” for when things do get bad. One quote from Benjamin Franklin that rings more true than ever is “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
FRED LIKEN: Mostly our survival philosophy worked. The one thing that we failed on was asking people who we thought were more prepared if they needed anything or help. This backfired and we were called names. If the situation lasted any longer or got worse those people may have become threats. We realize this now and are more low key and have a smaller group of trusted people.
As far as money wasted, we have food that we have put up, but most requires some preparation. This doesn’t always work. If people are sick or working to keep things going, they may not be able to prepare food or have time. So we are looking at having more ready to eat food with little or no preparation put up.
DAISY LUTHER: Survival Philosophy: I’ve always been an optimist who believes “this too shall pass.” It passed like a kidney stone for some of us, but we’ve gotten through it. I had to re-emphasize the importance of privacy with certain family members who could have really run into trouble had they talked about the supplies that we had. I’m always looking for the work-around, for the lesson, and this was plentiful.
I don’t feel like we were wasteful at all. We bought food we eat to put back and continued to visit the grocery store and eat fresh food throughout most of the lockdown. We still have a pretty hefty supply of items that we purchased back a year ago February that we rotate into our pantries. I’m honestly not unhappy with a single purchase.
How have you changed?
Can you describe how last year change you (if you did) based on :
- your survival philosophy
- your life plans for future
- your overall opinion about people around you?
JIM COBB: My overall philosophy regarding prepping and survival remains unchanged. If anything, the last year has strengthened my opinions in many areas. My life plans for the future are largely unchanged as well.
DALE GOODWIN: What’s Changed. The past year hasn’t necessarily changed my preparedness plans or how I go about them, but rather my sense of urgency. It appears a number of different scenarios could unfold in the coming years, and the pandemic (or future pandemic) is not my main concern.
The past year has shown me how volatile people and the government are. While I’m not surprised by how people are reacting, it’s a little surreal watching things unfold in real time. Our government has done a fantastic job of pitting people against each other, so when the time comes, we will be fighting each other rather than them. As we are right now, and as we have been for some time.
FRED LIKEN: My philosophy has changed, I’m much more low-key now. My life plans are simple, live one day at a time and leave good advice and information behind when I’m gone. That’s part of the reason for my YouTube channel. People are people, I do like people, but I’m not as trusting after the last year.
DAISY LUTHER: My philosophy itself hasn’t changed. Over the past couple of years, I deliberately downsized and became more mobile. This was helpful in a lot of ways – I was able to go help my younger daughter financially when her job closed down due to the lockdowns. I learned that I can build a heck of a stockpile FAST for about $500. I value toilet paper even more than before.
I still intend to remain somewhat mobile but I’m staying in North America so I can get to my family members more easily if need be. The freedom of movement has been a bonus. I’ve spent the past 9 months in a place with very little sickness, few restrictions, and plenty of supplies. My increased adaptability has been nothing but an asset.
People? Man, a lot of people really, truly SUCK. I was sickened by the selfish behavior displayed by those who became fearful. The very ones who told me I was a lunatic at first for saying this was a potential pandemic became the most militant about masks, vaccines, and lockdowns. I saw the sense of entitlement skyrocket. I watched as social media literally brainwashed our young people into being utterly terrified.
Bonus Question
Please try to answer the questions above after taking some time thinking about each one.
Bonus question would be answered after answering all questions above, and after carefully reading your own answers:
- What do you expect in the next 12 months?
JIM COBB: I don’t like to get into predictions. I know many in the prepper community are putting forth all manner of dire warnings about financial collapse and what not. As I often am, I’m just over here on the side quietly encouraging people to get their ducks in a row, simply because nobody knows what the future might bring. Work on becoming as self-reliant as possible. Form connections with those around you who can benefit you and vice versa. Use your head for more than just a hat rack and apply a judicious amount of logic and common sense to everything you read and hear. Above all – don’t be afraid to live your life.
Bio: Jim Cobb is the author of ten books about emergency preparedness. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide magazines. He is also a regular contributor to American Survival Guide and other niche publications. The best way to connect with him is on Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/jim.cobb.739/ — or by email to [email protected].
DALE GOODWIN: During my decade-plus of prepping I have never had the sense of urgency I have now. It seems as though everything is on the table. An economic crisis, pandemic, civil unrest, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and war (civil or otherwise) could all happen in the next year.
While it may seem unlikely that all of these happen in the next year of so, any one of these could lead to a domino effect causing secondary and tertiary disasters. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if this downward slide all started in the next year or so.
I personally think this is all intentional and the government is purposefully trying to crash the economy to bring on The Great Reset or something similar. This probably wouldn’t mean a Mad Max type society, but the transition to this “new normal” would bring with it many growing pains. Civil unrest and hyperinflation being my main concerns.
Bio: Dale runs the Survivalist Prepper website with his wife Lisa and more recently does a weekly live YouTube show with Brian Duff of Mind4Survival called The Survival Preppers. Dale also has The Bug Out Location membership website that offers a number of prepping courses, and a community to learn and expand your preparedness knowledge.
Survivalist Prepper: https://survivalistprepper.net/
The Bug Out Location: https://thebugoutlocation.com/
The Survival Preppers (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtm1nJt8BvBE7cVSDmjeKMA
FRED LIKEN: I expect things to continue on this slow downward spiral. I am concerned that if another event does happen everything will be worse the last year. Everyone has experienced a little bit of SHTF now. So people will be worse and more panicked then before and that makes for a higher potential for a larger SHTF next time. MR
Bio: Fred Liken is just an average guy that grew up on old time preparedness. A lot of old skills are relative to modern preparedness. Fred shares these skills, techniques, memories and mix them with modern preparedness on his channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCo95iU0xxbk_Eo6y4lc7Alw
DAISY LUTHER: I don’t have a crystal ball, but my analysis is that we are just in the early stages of this. Right now lockdowns are lifting and everyone is running around celebrating. But we just watched how quickly and easily an entire nation could be deceived when “just two weeks to flatten the curve” turned into a year. We’ve seen regularly increasing civil unrest from all sides, and I’ve sadly watched many people who used to be friends with one another turn into enemies over differing viewpoints.
I expect further collateral damage economically and further civil unrest. My hope is that one thing which comes from this is a greater sense of self-reliance. I was delighted to see people making their sourdough starters, cooking from scratch, and gardening. Not all revolutions are bad.
Bio: Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She publishes content about current events, preparedness, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. On her new website, The Frugalite, she shares thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
Conclusion
Thanks. Please, readers, share your own answers to these questions in the comments.
My biggest “Aha” moment was how unprepared I was mentally for the pandemic. I had preps as far as physical needs taken care of, but I was unknowingly unprepared to deal with the “surreal” feelings and inclination toward “denial” of the severity of the situation. Going into a grocery store and seeing empty shelves caused me a lot of stress. I would literally feel the hairs stand up on my arms and the back of my neck as I visited the stores that were cleaned out of basic needs, even though my own basic needs had been prepared for. How does one prepare for it? I don’t know. I knew something like this was coming, and thought that I was prepared, but got sideswiped by my own emotional response.
At the start of this I was unemployed and had been for nearly three years. I was just finishing up a two year degree. The extra money in my unemployment check went straight to supplies.
When March hit my significant other who had been reluctant about prepping had a change of heart and now supported it. She didn’t look at me like I was nuts when we went to the grocery store and I bought up every can of canned meat, or I bought canned veggies we rarely used. She even told her sister that she was waiting for me to tell her “I told you so”.
We were already sitting on nearly a years worth of food in the freezers. We added another small freezer and filled it as well.
Over the past year I’ve filled in some minor holes in my preps. I’ve gone from 6 months of daily supplies to at least a year. I’ve upgraded some of my supplies to better or lighter versions.
I’ve seen some of the people in my circle go from thinking I was a bit nuts to being on board at a much higher level. One friend’s daughter – early 30s – told me she wanted to build a bunker on the family farm.
She and I compared notes knowing that the family farm is where everyone will end up. We went over food supplies, etc.
Overall while this has been hard things have worked out well. My group is better prepared than ever, people now don’t just talk about it as something that might happen but as something that will happen. And I’ve found a great job with as much job security as is possible. I’ll continue to prepare and update plans as needed.
This is an excellent article and prompted a great deal of self evaluation. My conclusion
was my wife and I had most of our bases covered. Sadly, my biggest take away seems to coincide with many of the contributors, human failures. Friends and family who had always viewed us as strange because of our prepper lifestyle became completely hostile. So as the article recommends keep your circle small and trustworthy.
-“AHA” (mentally) moment
My “AHA!” moment was 3FEB2020, after watching what was going on in China, that day I called the ball, and doubled up on supplies (we already have a well stock pantry, but assessed panic buying coming in the next few weeks) and looked for holes in our preps.
-At the beginning of the pandemic, what did you expect situation . . .
Had no idea what it would look like. Hope for the best, expect the worst. Actually, it was pretty anti-climatic. Once the work from home, lockdowns began, almost all the vehicle stopped, it got pretty quiet. Life goes on, on the farm: dogs still need walked, livestock still need watered and fed. I could still go into town for things, just had to wear a mask.
-What, if anything, did you discover about your close friends and family in hard times?
We looked out for our elderly neighbors, if we were going into town, we would call them and ask if they needed anything or pick up a Rx. We had friends up, standing around at 6ft for about the first half hour, then seeing the futility of it, said, “whatever.” Only had one friend who went high and right and would not come out of the house, or have anyone over unless the social distance was outside, her masked up and she stood more like 12 feet from us. Eventually she relaxed as more data came out. Most everyone, once they got used to it, liked working from home.
-Did the place where you are now living work out good, or as you hoped?
In a word, yes. Seeing as how we still had snow on the ground, no MZBs came raiding.
-Did your feelings/expectation/opinion about government/system change . . .
The government at all levels showed their gross ineptitude and some continue to do so. They cannot be relied upon, and this only demonstrated how much we need to be self-reliant. Watching the disruption to various JIT/BAU systems show how fragile that system really is. IF this had been a more fatal pandemic where 5-7% of people across all age groups were dropping like flies, our JIT/BAU system would of failed. We saw the disruptions of the meat packing industry, shortages, rationing and rising prices of meat as a result.
-Based on your opinion now, what is the single (physical) prepping item that you found most useful to have in last year?
Having enough land/space to be able to take the dogs out for long walks, connect with nature.
-Did your survival “philosophy” work well in the last year?
I think our philosophy worked well. Did not panic, remained calm, objective, assessed the situation as it unfolded. I might of gotten hogs.
Dont think we really wasted any money. As always we measured “wants” vs “needs” so nothing really changed for us.
-your survival philosophy
Continue to work toward being as self-reliant as possible, it is a continuing work in progress.
-your life plans for future
Get out of all debt.
-your overall opinion about people around you?
They are good people. They tend not to panic. They are pragmatic.
-What do you expect in the next 12 months?
It is hard to make predictions, especially about the future.
I would like to think we re-open, get back to so called normal as much as we can. Although I did read an NYT article about some people were planning on continuing to wear masks, even if they are vaccinated, one gentleman even saying he would for the next 5 years. That anti-gun kid, declared he would rather wear a mask (even though he is vaccinated) to make sure no one mistakes him for a “conservative.”
Some of our illustrious leaders seemed to be drunk with power as they forced their will on citizens with mask mandates, social distancing rules, closure of bars or alcohol stores at hours seemingly picked at random with no real rational. IF there was another out-break, or mutation, like to think citizens would tell these petty over bearing tyrants to pound sand. Or at least wait for the data to show us what the reality is, follow the real science, and not cave into panic and fear or some political agenda.
The government is not helpful because they most assuredly used the supposed pandemic to further their Globalist agenda. I am still not so sure it was a true pandemic. They used a PCR test that tests for ANY Corona virus and upped the cycles to look like more people had it. Then the cycles are lowered to look like their MRNA, spike protein jabs work. Nope, not buying that it was really a pandemic. Yes, people got sick and sadly some died of the new type of Wuhan lab created virus but not all who got sick and died actually had THAT virus and the numbers were greatly inflated. It was/is a scamdemic used to control the sheep. It was still a SHTF scenario for sure and there will be more to come as the Globalist work toward the New World Order. The Vaxports they want everyone to have is a precursor to the mark of the beast where one will not buy nor sell without the mark. God’s Word cannot lie.
Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, NOT the government. And now is not the time to stop preparing physically.
100%
Bingo. You nailed it!
Finally! Someone who is awake! I totally agree.
I clearly remember hearing from Daisy and others about this virus coming out of China. I initially thought it would be isolated, something like ebola. But, after doing more reading, I told my kids “this has the potential to be no joke.”
I feel incredibly grateful that my kids remained employed throughout the pandemic. My daughter was in NYC, she is a copywriter for a health/beauty/hair company. The company sent everyone to work at home in early March, and they may never go back to their Manhattan office. She decided to move back to SoCal a few months into the pandemic. My son is a plumber with LAUSD. They stayed home for two or three months, paid their regular salary the entire time, and went back to work (empty school buildings still need a lot of attention). Just incredibly, incredibly grateful.
I feel my preps were pretty good. If anything, I had too much in some categories and am using them down (my goal is a one year supply). I keep a large garden. If anything, a fail was a lower than optimal seed supply. I stocked up in February after winning a gift certificate from one of the local nurseries, but I would have been unhappy just weeks later after finding the supplies down. I am going to remedy this by buying more than I need earlier in the season. Seed starting supplies, too.
My biggest realization is that the five acres I own is woefully the wrong property for my needs. We need to have a good sized lot because, along with a vegetable garden, we have an antenna farm (lol). But, the weather here in north Colorado Springs is abysmal. The winter snows and cold are one thing, but we live in the hail capital of the universe. Many tears have been shed after seeing my garden ripped to shreds by the hail. We did building a structure topped with hail netting to help with that this year.
Also, we are way too far away from family here. We have friends we’ve met over time, but time marches on, we are well into our senior years, and it makes no sense to be here by ourselves. I am trying to figure out how to remedy that.
Interesting Article.
As for me and my family, nothing really changed, other than dealing with bothersome regulations like lockdowns and masks. We have a reasonably good supply of stuff on hand and took a wait and see approach. Considering that we probably had it. in December of 2019. it was not that big of a deal.
What surprised me was the amount of Fear the media was able to stir up and how many Preppers bought the BS “science”, they spewed.
Right now we are finally learning that the virus probably did originate in the Wuhan lab.( though everyone denied it and many still are).
That the latest in multiple studies has again said that Masks have no affect on viral infection prevention. Assuming that they are using the proper mask protocol ( which was never explained to the public or used). This applies not only to Covid 19, but to most other diseases.
That the PCR tests were inaccurate and giving lots of false positives, which the CDC finally admitted to.
That this, along with improper cause of Death certifications, ( car accidents and gun shots were Covid 19 deaths) greatly increased the Covid 19 death toll, causing more fear.
That Ivermectin is a valid treatment for Covid 19, only the US Medical community refuses to recognize it as such.
The latest study stating that; Naturally occurring immunity to Covid 19, will last for years and maybe for Life!
It is also expected to work against most variants of Covid 19, as opposed to the Vaccine which will needs booster shots and will not protect you against Covid 19, ( “breakthrough” cases) or variants.
That Covid 19 was in the US as early as November of 2019, possibly earlier.
That Covid 19 is does not live on surfaces very long, so all the wiping down of everything, was a waste of time,( and that most people do not know how to use a disinfectant properly).
The list goes on and on, as do the lies.
What did I learn? and what would I do different?
I learned the most people are Fearful, that far to many people trust the Media, Government and the Medical community to tell the Truth.
So I learned not to trust most people, as fearful people are irrational and panicky. Which will get you killed by their craziness and actions. I further learned that far to many Preppers fall into the above category.
My only hope is that after this is over, that they will get smart and not be so Fearful or so easily deceived by TPTB.
Because of this site, I got ahead of the crush at the stores and felt really well-prepared. Still, each week I chose a theme to stock in more depth – seeds for planting, seeds for sprouting, vegetables, canned meals, canned fruits, snack foods. I got a kick out of the comment about stocking too many “stress” foods–candy, cookies, etc… Normally we don’t eat much of that, but I now have a well-stocked supply that we haven’t eaten 🙁 Good for the waistline, not so good for pocket book! Also, whether you believe it was a pandemic or not, the supply chain and health care impacts were the same as if it were.
The one casualty of this whole thing is my trust in local and federal government. These bureaucrats get paid to assess risks and mitigations and in most cases they failed. Now I know that any circumstance, any disaster, any difficulty can be politicized.
Get this–our state has announced that if you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear masks in public. A friend, who was in line at the grocery store and was chatting with the woman in front of her and asked “if you’re fully vaccinated, why are you still wearing a mask?” The woman’s answer? “Because I don’t want people to think I’m a Trumper!” Oy Vey!
I’ll have to say we were lucky. My son and his family happened to be staying with us while looking to purchase a house. My daughter had a newborn in February and he ended up in NICU. That was our most trying time. None of us really went out to eat or bars or movies before this so locking down wasn’t hard. As far as supplies we were pretty well off. When the toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning stuff went off the shelf we didn’t panic. The one thing I continue to fuss at myself for is not stocking up on masks. As many survivalist that I read, and all of them including mask and sanitizer as major prep items, I failed on that one. Had the sanitizer but not the mask. Not a problem now but was a pain at the time. My forward progress in prepping has increased a little. As far as the government is concerned, I take everything they say with a grain of salt, in the end they won’t be around to help our citizens, only themselves. Which has been that way forever, so nothing new on that front. I hope more people learned some lessons from this and are better prepared next time, and there will be a next time.
Daisy,
You might want to delete my post. Mike Adams (Natural News) just got a communique from the government. He was threatened to take down his podcast abut the vaccine . The agent did say that he wasn’t getting the “you know what” but the current presidential administration was ordered from above to achieve a 70% rate of taking the “you-know’what”. Part of the threat was loss of his domain name. So its censorship on this subject. We are being silenced. I don’t want this to happen to you on my account.
Not much changed for me. I saw the writing on the wall and order a bunch of mixes from King Arthur Flour and dry goods from Vitacost in case I could not go shopping back in January 2020. I normally order bulk from Homestead Heritage in Waco for grains that last a year. I still have a lot of what I ordered because I was not really locked down in my county. I only shop once a month since the closes HEB is 100 miles away. HEB did not bother me when I went shopping in San Angelo or San Antonio without a mask. I never brought a mask during the whole lock down. I go days or weeks without leaving my property. My husband is the one who drives the five miles to check mail a few times a week. I always have a year worth of preps on hand because I buy bulk. I buy a whole cow every other year. I have chickens, ducks and poultry for eggs. I even went without buying TP for more than six months. Even then it was not a dire need. Fuel is the one prep I need to work on or reduce my need for. More animal feed would be a must too. I am off grid so if I don’t have power then it is my fault. I have a private well also. My homestead is still a work in progress. I want to be more self sufficient. I really miss my dairy goats and fresh milk.
I too used to raise live stock, but feed prices are out of site, so i sold out, cant afford to feed my OWN raised animals,, its almost twice the cost of just buying the food i needed, BUT when the food is gone, raising your own is GREAT, BUT,, when ya cant feed your live stock? your all gonna starve.. just my 2 cents. long time small rancher/manasery worker. lol farm lifer
I don’t know if it will be too labor intensive for your situation but growing fodder (sprouted grains: barley/black sunflower, wheat, possible coastal*never considered) might help you to be more independent with animal feeds. It’s much healthier too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BhKGBdTfH0
Paper products, who knew? Luckily, as a prepper, we had plenty of TP and in February of 2020 we stocked up on everything! I don’t feel comfortable without having at least a couple warehouse store “bales” of it in our storage area.
We bought our current place, 20 acres in central Florida, in 2018. My plans of growing veggies and fruit were tossed by the wayside due to a medical emergency that took over two years to come back from. However, we always keep a well stocked food storage area so we were doing well. Now I need to figure out how to beat the bugs to my gardens.
We live pretty far from the nearest large city and the people here have impressed me with their helpfulness. Also, we discovered the amazing meat market in our small town and they always had meat. Fresh veggies were easy to find at farm stands. And everyone has chickens.
My husband has always worked virtually and our son, a college math instructor, was able to work virtually as well. With the theme parks shut down, our area was hit very hard with unemployment. We were very fortunate, personally.
Now that I am better I know we need to organize our supplies and fill in the gaps! Who knows what is on the horizon?
Daisy,
My biggest “Aha” moments came when I realized you had a larger number of other contributors consistently posting. Also that you dropped “pistol packing” from your bio. I realize your sojourn in Mexico may have contributed to that, and also maybe a desire to take a “lower profile”. Comment?
I spent the last 2 years in Europe and Mexico so had to stop the gun-toting for a while 🙂 I’ll be back at it again soon!
Good to hear. Stay safe and healthy!
I was afraid that I was going to become a agoraphobic…a person afraid to leave the house.
I would have to give myself pep talks sometimes just to get out the door and into the car. Once I was in the car I was fine.
Totally surprised me. Still worried about my mental health. Scared how quickly I went down the rabbit hole.
My wife and I are retired, and have been preppers for many years. The only thing we were short of (not completely out of) was disinfecting wipes. We have plenty of N95 masks, food, water, etc., etc. of supplies for day to day living.
The things that concern me most are:
1. Climate change is causing droughts in the western part of the country, which will affect food supply for all of us.
2. A year of almost lost education for many children, which will be difficult if not impossible to make up. This will lead to shortages of skilled workers in the future, as well as people who are more susceptible to media propaganda.
3. I didn’t see the ammo shortage coming, although I have enough for my needs.
4. Our country has become more polarized politically, with republicans passing laws to make it more difficult for many people to vote.
5. Our national electrical grid is vulnerable to attack, similar to the Colonial pipe line attack. I don’t see our private or public systems doing much to avert further attacks. Our financial institutions are also vulnerable.
6. As my wife says, “It’s a good time to be old.” The major upheavals that are coming, probably won’t affect us.
In January I just had a gut feeling, I pulled some of house deposit money out the bank , did a heap of shopping, went to three different supermarkets, had food supplies delivered to my parents , adult sons house (he’s in a shared house which is Tricky) I got push back as I knew I would so I ended up just asking if I could store food at their houses as I was redoing my pantry . I had a wish list that I’d been working on for years. I gave in and got the solar generator & more water filters. A couple if weeks later panic buying hit. We also had quite a few power outages & contaminated water supply that took a week to fix. As we live in Australia water has always been high on the prep list. My location absolutely sucked, people turned so quickly . A year on and I’m in my own house in a rural area and in another lockdown now . Although my son & parents are far away. I know they are prepped & have got this.
FANTASTIC ARTICLE! Thank you for this!
I work in a grocery store therefore was considered ‘essential’. So even tho we had stuff stored, I had an advantage. Didn’t need a lot, but was able to get what was wanted or needed in most cases.
DH had mostly been on board with my prepping before this. Even if he thought some of the things I read/said were ‘overboard’. But when it all went down, and I had already been ramping things up, he was like ‘woah’. He no longer questions my decisions.
Like Daisy mentions in her interview on Endgame, you don’t just move into an area and ‘fit it’ immediately. We have lived here 15 years. This past year has shown a group of neighbors become closer and more helpful to each other. Not that I have shared everything we have or know. Cuz there is that ‘one guy’. But I know who we can rely on and who we cannot trust.
My AHA moment? How selfish scared ppl are. This was during the TP debacle. I tried to reason with a person to leave some for the next person. And they went all ballistic on me. I backed away, realizing there was no reasoning with them. Made me sad.
My biggest AHA Moment was when my youngest daughter & husband who usually looks at me like I’ve lost my mind when I talk about prepping or anything related was taking notice during the pandemic/lockdown.
She’s a teacher and started doing virtual school from home. They weren’t all that prepared but did manage to secure food and supplies needed or go without. In fact my daughter was very persistent to go in search of whatever was needed and was resourceful. I do think it was a temporary wake up and just like during 911 a lot of folks were temporarily awake to the craziness that can happen then go back to sleep. As I continue to prepare I do so with keeping in mind my kids and grandkids being here at some point and in need of food and supplies.
As far as expectations of what I thought things would be like I’m not sure I had any.
I’ve been preparing for some time for things that could happen and i figured this was one of those times.
Since I have been preparing for sometime I didn’t have too many real hiccups to deal with.
There are always loopholes in my preparations I need to close and the sooner the better but I didn’t go without. More than anything I see the need to continue to be better prepared. I live in town. with quite a bit of property around my house and with a few interesting neighbors near. One neighbor seems to announce to the world we have a lot to come take, sport a big RV and have food deliveries constantly. Another brags about his guns while the city tells them to clean out their house and yard if they want to keep living there. For the most part right now everyone stays to themselves. I have had a few conversations with the later and make it a point to state I live on a fixed income with very little. I purposely don’t make my house look like it’s uppity or has much to offer.
I do think being sure I’m secure here where I live is a high priority. Besides having the dogs, having cameras with alarms and well able to protect myself with firearms is important. I’m also in the process of putting up a privacy fence on my land in the back and very thorny bushes that aren’t nice to scale.
I’m pretty much am at home with the three dogs, working on preps, baking, gardening, canning, drying food or whatever is needed, working on my website and attempting to get people on social media to engage about anything in regard to preparedness these days.
I’ve continued to see the government as untrustworthy and not to be relied on when things go bad.
This last year is no exception and the government continues to show it’s true colors.
Probably what helped me most over this last year is that I didn’t need to go anywhere in search of food and water, encounter people battling over TP and what was on the near empty shelves of the grocery stores because I had what I needed at home and for the animals. Shoot even dog food was a hot item for a time. If worse came to worse I can make the dogs food and they’d not complain one bit if they missed some kibbles for awhile but it hasn’t been necessary. I try hard to be frugal and not waste money on every shiny thing out there for preppers. Instead, I’d rather keep working on food/water storage and work on determining if can harvest the water below ground on my property for a hand pump and more rain barrels.
One thing I want to see change in my survival plan is connecting with more people that are trustworthy in a physical sense. I have met someone when we exchanged plant starters a few weeks ago. Her and her husband are very much into prepping and of a like mind. Only time will tell if they are folks to get better connected with. Also connected with a woman 30 minutes from me and may be another good person to connect with. I’d prefer not to be a lone ranger and have a few on my team so to speak.
Since at this time my family isn’t really on board for being prepared and so much division and hate even with people, it seems important to have a few people trustworthy to be called on or to call on me.
I don’t know what this coming year will bring. Only time will tell but I don’t see things getting much better in the world around us, things could fall apart even more and could be rapidly. Being prepared and self reliant is all the more necessary.
I appreciate the questions and this has been thought provoking. I’m all the more convinced in order to thrive and not just survive in fear it’s sooo important to keep closing any holes in preps and be ready for anything.
I had covid April and May 2020. Its been a year and I’m still recuperating. I was well stocked up and have usually not gone out for as much as 6 weeks at a time. I’ve tried to replace what we used up as we go along. I still could go for many months at a time if necessary.
We’ve finally gotten the pick up truck repaired. That guarantees more at home time for a while. Still hitting the supplies as Iightly as possible possible. Finding new ways to stretch what we have. It’s good practice.
I’m aIso trippeling the garden and adding a lot of new sources of fruit. Also I’m very close to installing the new solar array. It’s all been a lot of work, being careful, and patient, but it’s paying off. I’ll be drying and canning produce. By choice I don’t have a freezer.
I almost copied and pasted what 1stMarineJarHead wrote.
I had a nearly identical experience with a couple of exceptions–some good, some disappointing.
My people circle didn’t stay as calm as I would have expected and hoped–maybe the fear of illness derailed them? But they did ask me a lot more specific questions, and the questions were respectful…although there was an awful lot of “that’s not what the guy on YToooobe said I should do.” Well, then just do what he said and let me get on with my day.
I also had to avoid certain conversations completely with a number of people I really care about. ( I have a finger pulse oximeter and the FLCCC protocol printed out with Ivermectin etc. , as well as a close family member who is a gifted herbalist.) My views simply unhinged some people and it all came down to who they chose to believe as this progressed.
One other thing–staying home/losing my job gave me time to do a deeper dive into some preps I never had time to do before. For instance, I bought an EMP gasket for the Faraday garbage can and repacked it, loaded documents onto the old cell phone we keep in the Faraday, learned more about the Ham radios stored in there as well.
@L M Bach,
Glad to hear you were able to make the most of your “down” time.
One follow on question comes to mind while I was standing on a hill overlooking the road and noting the lack of vehicle traffic: Had this been a truly deadly pandemic of say the 5-7% (or more) mortality rate across all age groups, and the JIT/BAU system failed, is this what it would be like?
For some reason, the book The Road comes to mind, but with everyone pushing their carts, all kitted up in not battle gear but hazmat suits to whatever extent they can, and social distancing.
That Dale Goodwin ‘what if’ — ‘what now’ — ‘what’s next’ quote? Consider that sucker stolen! Good thoughts and advice from everyone, thank you.
Looking back at March, 2020, I think my expectation was that this virus would do a lot of damage in many ways because of the way people react in fear. My DH is not with me on all the preparing, so when he was mystified that the shelves were bare at Wallyworld, I was calm. I did not need to fear because I don’t live in fear like he thinks I do: I’m prepared.
My surprise was all the rioting last summer, people looking for any excuse to Express anger for their selfishness and lack of puurpose. I expected this once food shortages were a real issue, but not that soon.
I learned that the food I normally eat was on hand and could easily sustain me. The DH lives on instant items (his choice) requiring regular trips to the store, like English muffins, pizza, tortillas, noodles and ricearoni… yes, all carbs. He would have a greater adjustment if those items were no longer available.
My biggest failure was that I couldn’t find things easily. I’m running out of room so I don’t know where everything is because it’s stashed everywhere. I Must change that- working on it.
I have done my best to get prepared medically, but after multiple stress fractures in both feet for DH and me, and other injuries and illnesses, I had to realize that I cannot hike 10-20 miles to bug out from home even wrapping my feet with surgical tape. If our fortress is attacked and overwhelmed, it just might be time for this 71 year old to say goodbye.
My opinion of people around me has not changed. I know who I could count on and who I still need to avoid or confront. Those that I had approached through a preppers seminar at our place, who chose not to prepare 3 years ago, became more aware of the need just by watching the news. They chose to be on their own.
The next 12 months I believe will show more fear and disenchantment with the status quo, by the unprepared, distracted, entitled ones; especially with the thousands of border crossers some of which are despicable characters.
I expect to carry all the time, and increase my S/A. My stash is fine. I will focus this year more on security at home and when traveling.
Thanks for the article (and the droves of info- I read lots in the last year)
A couple things I noticed:
1. Even if I know someone who is a ‘prepper’ different prepper mindsets create extremely different results. ie – in about March last year I made a comment about buying a thermos cook and carry (non-electric off grid crock pot) and said how they could be difficult to find or prices could jump. The person I was talking to commented: “What good is a thermos in TEoTWAKI”
. . (First of all if I go to the effort to heat something once – I find it very useful to keep it warm) but also – I wasn’t prepping for TEOTWAWKI – as soon as the Italians cancelled their mardi gras I knew this was going global and the lockdowns/shut downs and etc was all coming. Then as soon as the trump administration passed the first huge stimulus I knew the inflation would eventually come. I wasn’t prepping for a big SHTF just a situation like living through soviet occupied poland.. or perhaps like living through rations in WWII in the UK.. I found even people i knew, and had known for life who considered themselves preppers were happily willing to tell me the things i considered preparing for were absurd and how I was going about it was foolish..
Second- since I was preparing to find myself in some situation like living in soviet occupied poland where supplies weren’t much available and government overreach was wide (and where possibly our money or economy would crash) I realized it became important for me to prep and be so confident in my ability to provide and Thrive through that type of situation so that my kids wouldn’t even notice.
I have small children and I didn’t want them stressed or worried. I want it to be such a boring peice of news that they don’t even remmeber it .. (or perhaps they will remember when people wore masks for a while) I found a video of Rachel Coleman explaining the corona virus in a way that made it seem no different than a kids video of a teacher explaning what an insect is. That way they knew the word and had some small child understanding that when adults said coronavirus it was just a normal word to hear..
I also felt strongly compelled to prep for them. Kids can go through 2 sizes a year.. and I wanted to cover a couple years for them. So we ordered shoes a few sizes up. And a couple pair of jeans, good socks, and underware, and something warm for them. They don’t have a full wardrobe on hand – but some basics that they will have sturdy shoes – even if the supply chain breaks (or china stops making shoes) etc. I didn’t buy guns and deeply intense mad max stuff – just useful, purposeful “every needed thing” Stuff that if we found our selves in a venezuela (columbian, belaruse, Lebanon Etc) type situation – it would be comforting that my children will be comfortable and covered.
one more thing- my spouse sort of allowed me to buy extra groceries but didn’t see a big need for it a year ago. Now he has repeatedly thanked me for getting us prepared. He worked a ton of over time last year and he has said there is no way he could have found the time to figure things out, and make a plan and get things prepared to take care of our family. He is now mentally on board with the idea; but he needed me to do the legwork. It works for both of us; but I am very grateful that we think along the same lines these days.
I started this once and somehow erased it, so again-
Hello Selco, Just want you to know I appreciate all you do. My DH is one of the vulnerable people so I was careful with sanitation.
At one point he was hospitalized with a life threatening illness (not covid) and had to be airlifted to a large city and I could not be with him. Didn’t expect that. He is still regaining strength. Also had a tooth break and noo dentist- he had closed the office temporarily. Now I keep a dental repair kit for temporary repairs.
As far as having enough preps we mostly did well. I didn’t get everything done I wanted to but got some things done and organized that I had been putting off.
I want to get a well in with an old fashioned manual pump this year and also work on more solar panels.
Mentally did fine. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that stabilizes me. I prayed Psalm 91 over my household and did not worry about getting covid. Now I think it was really blown up way out of proportion. I am amazed at the people I see wearing a mask outside when there is no one else anywhere else is near them.
Don’t think I wasted much money- maybe too many snacks also but cooked a lot more. I will be working on planting more this year because I believe things are going to get much worse. The lying and corruption of the polititians and the media and their actions are causing things to change rapidly. Its hard to make life plans. What happens next may be something we don’t see coming til its here but it won’t be good. I didn’t expect the pandemic. I’ve realized I have some normalcy bias when things are happening even though I know in my head its expected.
Seems like things are changing at a high rate of speed. I think it will get to a point where people won’t take it anymore.
I feel that I am an adaptable person and have skills that will be useful to others. As for other people, the ones I am close to and associate with most often behaved very well. We have various skills that the others don’t have so are fairly well rounded as a group. We are in a small town in the boonies. If we were traveling away from home when something major happened it would be more difficult and we do travel so have to consider that.
I do know of people (not the rioter types) fighting over toilet paper in the parking lot of a store.
Very important to keep our spiritual house in order.
Daisy, if you’re reading this, your picture with the flowers is beautiful.
Selco, I’m sorry about your back. I can relate to it. I saw you guys on the endgame and it was very interesting. Don’t feel I learned a lot because I’ve been doing and reading about prepping for a long time and thanks to you guys for it.
I’m sure I forgot some things I would have said but oh well, time to go to bed.
‘t
I was amazed at how quickly people were ready to turn on each other! Fairly early on some were reporting to police that people were parking at a local hiking trail and NOT WEARING MASKS! I witnessed one person close to me upset at the neighbors for having a party in their backyard- not for noise, but not wearing masks!
The biggest thing I learned was how the government and media love to push FEAR on the masses. People believe what they’re told and don’t question. I know plenty of good people who were scared into getting this damn vax! They are part of a medical experiment and have no idea what the risks are.
More than ever I saw the governments of the world are all In cahoots with each other. They worked in lock step carrying out their plan of control. Both Left and Right were in on it, yet they managed to get us fighting amongst ourselves.
This was all very interesting to watch and experience. I’m thankful I’ve been prepping for several years so this wasn’t a big disruption. I’m not where I want to be but I learned a lot.
This is far from over.
My moment was how people fell for this hook line and sinker! The interviewees here fell for the propaganda. I learned, actually had my beliefs confirmed, that the government(s) were lying to their citizens in preparation for other events that they would trigger so they can reset the system. They openly state as much now.
In June 2021, MSM and the government are still pushing the Wuhan virus. They next release may be deadlier, but that would be part of the plan. They have made many in the USA dependent on government assistance.