Home Survival

[ChadTower]

Here the most likely immediate disaster is a blizzard. First priority, in the blizzard, is heating the home. Sadly most houses here are not designed to heat without electricity in one form or another. My house is like that. There is just no reasonable way to put in a wood stove. Believe me, I've tried. My furnace is oil fired but still the controls and blower are electric. That is really my biggest hole in terms of emergency preparedness.

[catspa]

Originally Posted by ChadTower

That is really my biggest hole in terms of emergency preparedness.

Chad, can you obtain a generator and power it yourself?

I have grouped my essential electric load onto one circuit that I can power with my small (by most people's standards) generator. I run it an hour in the morning and an hour at night to conserve fuel, and do things that need electricity during that time (so if you see a whole bunch of my posts at 0700 and another cluster at 1900, my power is probly out).

I'm not heating with it though, got a woodstove for that. Mostly it keeps my freezers from thawing.

Parker

[LeadOperator]

I went through this thread twice...there's a lot of different opinions in here about a very touchy subject.
If y'all don't mind, I'd like to throw in my 2 cents worth.
I'll be a "hunker down" type if the Big Shoe ever drops (whichever shoe that is). I live in the country a few miles from a small town. We live on a dead end road...one way in, one way out. I have some good neighbors, and a few not so good.
I WILL NOT be counting on any of them.
I'm sure they're good people, and I'll help in any way that I can, but push comes to shove, they are not family or "blood". When you are faced with a "me or thee" situation..."me" will win out every time. Sorry...just the way it is.
Now. That's not to say that I will go out of my way to hunt people down. But I will protect me and mine. By whatever means required.
As far as basic supplies on hand...we have a few months of food put away, not near enough in my opinion. We have a lot of water put up and several ways to aquire more. We don't have an infinite supply.
I try to keep some medical supplies on hand, including prescription meds. Wife and I both take certain meds that will be an issue (me more than her) if the grid goes down for more than 3 months.
We've stocked up on TP, soap, cleaners, and various other hygiene items.
We have an RV with a generator, but it will only be good as long as the fuel holds out.
Are firearms a neccessity? Absolutely, but no more than any other tool in my tool box.
There would be opportunities to gather game from nearby, until its all been hunted out. And it would be. All resources are eventually finite, although many folks don't believe that. There's just too many woodsy ol' boys in my area.
That being said, a weapon will be neccessary for defending the homestead, bad as I hate to say it. I have a feeling that if it all falls apart, and I mean ALL, it will be quite some time before society regains it foothold.
There won't be much, if ANY help from a government agency (take your pick which one...and think Katrina). We will be on our own for a while, I'm afraid.
I believe that my main responsibility will be to protect my family, teach them what they will need to know if anything happens to me, and try to maintain a homestead in such a manner that they would be able to weather the storm even if I weren't there.