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Monday, February 21, 2011

Is it worth warning people?

This weekend I stopped over at a friends house and told them that from some financial analyst emails I had received, some stories in the news, and some items found on the internet, I told them that it looked like we could be in for a bad spring, and possibly lasting a while. I asked how they were doing on stocking up basic food items and such. Now I have been telling them for at least 2 years if not longer that they need to do some of this stuff, we do get hit with the occasional hurricane that can shut down everything you can get to for days. I was also going to help them get a garden started last year, they both have health issues and need to eat a lot better than they do (McDonalds, frozen french fries, frozen chicken strips and soda are their four basic food groups). I helped them pick out heirloom seeds online, told them to what they needed to deal with their health issues, or at least help with it, and how to order seeds or go pick them up locally. They never bought a single pack of seeds. So I was not too surprised when she said they had done nothing. :(

After going into more depth on the current state of affairs, I could see panic start to set in. I told them they needed to start now, today, not next month or next week but now if they wanted to be able to do any good. They've already missed the cheap food which could have let them buy more.

When I asked what they were going to do, she looked kind of deer in headlights, thought a bit, then said they would come to my house. The terrifying thing is she was serious :eek::eek: Her husband was kind of quick to say "I think you would be shot if you showed up and tried to take his food". This shocked her even more, especially when I confirmed this. I can't afford to stock for the neighborhood, and they have 6 people, 3 generations living in that house. I am stocked for the 4 of us, and would like to extend our supply to last longer than it does.

These are good friends, but I'm not starving with them if it came to that. Now I wonder if I should never have mentioned it over these years to them. I think they would be better off not knowing how close they are to disaster from any ripple in their life. If nothing happens they could continue being happily ignorant, if it does - well at least they were blissful up until whatever.

I checked on my parents and they are good to go, but still always adding.

I've also talked to my brothers and sisters, but for the most part they don't listen. I'm wondering how far I should go with trying to persuade them.
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3 comments:

  1. One thing I do is to listen and try to find out what they are interested in. Some people will grow a garden but they won't store food. Some think guns are a good idea, some like silver coins, some will put together a 72 hour kit.

    Yet others will work for political change, for example, a balanced budget, which would help avert hyper-inflation.

    Figure out what part of preparedness they will do and help them with that.

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  2. I don't discuss it with anyone other than DH. Once I get more organized, I hope to separate supplies and keep them in different locations. Because even though I love DH dearly, I know he'd be out sharing food if there were severe shortages without hope of resolving soon (unlike temporary things like hurricanes).

    So having the pantries he's aware of lightly stocked would be helpful for me, because he'd see with his own eyes as supplies dwindled. Also, if anyone visited, I'd make it a point to grab something out of the pantry for whatever reason, so they'd see it was sparse.

    I guess it's like keeping 10-20 dollars in a fake wallet in your purse or pocket, while hiding the real wallet under your clothing.

    Your friends would probably hit you up if shortages occurred - feed them from your "public" littler stash, letting them see it. I bet they stop coming around as often as they see it emptying.

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  3. I know from years of experience that it can get very discouraging trying to inform people that they should get prepared. Even within my own family there is disagreement. I have three adult sons each with a family of their own and they totally refuse to accept the possibility of hard times ahead.

    I have offered free classes in the past and the turn out was exceptionally poor and in some cases nil. I guess it all goes back to the old saying that, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.”

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