In the days of my parents youth and again in my youth it was common practice to grow your garden and get your canning & cold room storage of potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots etc. finished to eat over the winter months...it was not looked upon as being quirky or strange. Stores used to be a last resort not a first choice for your food supply, breads were made at home, cloth diapers and hankies were used...the world has become far to reliant on stores for their supplies. It should not be difficult to share with your family/friends that you are being frugal in a costly world and have decided to be more self-reliant and to eat healthier foods you have grown and processed yourself. It is sad that people feel they need to hide this, like we are on drugs or something, when this is nothing to hide! Don't let the media (that puts a whole different spin on things and makes simple preparation look crazy) make you hide the fact that you have a desire to see that you and your loved ones are safe under every circumstance you can! That is what should be a given! The government tells everyone now to prepare for an emergency and have a plan in place...preparing for the event of a longer emergency is not a bad thing. My extended family act like a herd of ostriches, but every year we can jams, jelly, tomatoes and other vegetables, apples and other fruits, we can pudding and grow gardens...those items will come in handy if something happened even if they don't think anything will. I carry an extra bottle of oil, a jug of water for the radiator if needed, a jack and spare tire, some cloths, a fan belt, and some other supplies in the vehicle incase they are needed and nobody says a word about the state of my mental health becasue I do that...nothing should be said about food storage or having important documents in a bag with extra clothes incase you need to leave your home. It almost makes me angry that there is such a negative response to what I consider common sense.

Buggie....Advice as well as caution. You ask about how to tell your family and friends... First I would be very careful who in your family you tell..and even moreso with friends. Each person you tell you are prepping and developing food and security stores will be about 5 to 10 extra people in the lon term. Each tells one trusted friend and so on and so on. You have to be very security conscious and play your cards VERY close to your chest. It really isn't out of fear of ridicule that we are private... it is for safety and security of ourselves, our families and our preps.

I agree to everything that you said, but in my eyes the things you have talked about are indeed simple preps, that everyone should do. Simple skills like gardening and basic vehicle maintenance are important everywhere, especially in our economy.

My main concerns are with larger and somewhat more extreme preps. Things like bug out bags, bugout locations, self defence, and longterm food storage are things that some would call "pointless". I feel that the difference between prepper mentality and that of the everyday public is "I hope that nothing will happen... But ill prepare just in case" where the public is "nothing will happen" or "if it does, someone else will help me". This difference in mentality is what I fear. How do I ease the transition of changing my loved ones mentality?

Buggie,

Where do you start.........try here.

http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-eng.aspx

Down load the guide in PDF. Have your family read or read the guide to your family. Looks like they have added a video, maybe watch that too, as a family. Preview all materials first.
If you think they will have an adverse reaction to the term "prepper", use emergency preparedness. It may sound more professional and official. Starting with the government website reinforces the official and legitimate natural of being prepared. Start with having a 72 hour kit for each member of the family. The guide tells you this. As time goes on, tell your family you take this seriously and have continued to learn more about being prepared. You have found a source of information that has put you in contact with other like-minded individuals. They also believe in having their families prepared for natural disasters. By this point your family should be onboard, in theory.

Once you cross the line to meeting up with other like-minded folks, this should seem the natural progression for your family. Sit down as a family and start working out your family emergency preparedness plan. Include everyone in your household. If they are included, they will want to be a part and will take this more seriously. If you can plan to be alone as a family for 72 hours from a tornado you can adapt to any number of other possibilities.

As has been developing on this Forum, bugging in is the preferred method because you are closest to your supplies and what is familiar. Having a plan to bugout or Get Out Of Dodge, is part of your total family plan. You live with 1 million other citizens in your city. In a SHTF scenario, even nice old Cowtown will turn ugly. Long term bugging in will be an unpleasant experience. However, the more prepared you and your family are the better you will fair. Start now, be ready as soon as you can.

Keep posting. YOU are progressing well in these few hours that you have been coming to the Forum.

Cheers,

Mountainman.

Thank you mountainman, once again good advice. I will definatley check out the guide and print it off (never know when we could lose the internet lol). I think the gist of what you are saying is to do it in small steps. I think that makes sense for sure. Sort of like, plant the seeds, and see what grows. For all I know, maybe I have a couple of closet preppers in my family! that would explain why they are so calm about the state of the world.

@JAB: i agree about maintaining a low profile as far as friends and family are concerned, however there is a small circle that i feel must be made aware... if not of my prepping plans, then at least of the need to prep. I feel as though at this point in my life, the majority of prepping that I will be doing can be kept in relative secret except from the 1 or 2 people closest to me. I do however feel the need to try and include them in my plans so that at the very least, if they are not willing to prep on their own, then they will at least know what to do if the SHTF were to happen. Even if they feel it is farfetched, something may trigger in their minds that "oh... wait, I remember... Buggie can help me".

Now i know that that can be a positive thing or a negative one, depending on the type of person they are, and if they would breach security of my preps. I think that is good advice to specially chose who I include, and to keep my circle as small as possible. And then even those who I choose to include, must be made to understand that this isnt dinner conversation material, or something to joke about. The time may come when we have to choose between friends... and the last thing I want to do is have everyone we know show up to my location looking for help, and have to turn them away, or worse.

Why not just call it becoming Self Sufficient, be done with it, later call it Prepping?
Say your getting back to the basics, do not tell anyone you do not need to that you set anything aside, prep, etc.
good luck

Buggie, almost everyone in Alberta is aware that small scale disasters can happen. The Government of Alberta's be prepared website now says 72 hours (3 days) or more, instead of the old be ready for 72 hours. Summer storms happen, winter storms occur, trains derail with H2S cars on the tracks, with your training you are aware that things don't always go as people anticipate. A pot left on the stove can have you out of your home for hours, days or weeks if you have a fire, and people need to be ready to pick up the pieces of their lives. The best way of giving yourself piece of mind is to be as ready as you can be for the things that you believe could happen. I am certain that family members and others around you would understand in those terms, maybe not on a global scale but on a small d disaster. In Edmonton during the 1987 tornado, we didn't have telephones, roads were closed, emergency vehicles were going to help those most in need, and the rest of us waited it out. I got a dial tone on our phone if I waited up to 15 minutes. Reminding people that having water, food and the basics to take care of yourself is a duty we all have to free up resources for those who are in the centre of the disaster. It is a small leap from being prepared for the small inconveniences to the major disasters and by then they may feel as you do.

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