CBC Radio News sent me an email looking for preppers in either Montana or Alberta. If you would be interested in talking with them about prepping, let me know.

Just by the fact that you have made youself well known enough that a television news program would be aware of you is kind of iffy. What you have done, is made yourself into what I refer to as a "talking target". In other words, you have made people aware of who to go to if TSHTF. Not all of those people are going to ask nicely. When you start having to turn away those desperate people who ask nicely, how will they react. Always keep your preparations under the radar and anonymous. Check my post under long term food storage for an example of those who are too public for their own good.

Advance life support paramedic here living in Chilliwack, BC with plans to move to the lower Alberta area in the next few years. Looking for others in lower Alberta who are interested in meeting. Have family of wife, daughter and son, both very young. Have liberterian views of financial responsibility and limited gov't intrusion. We are not the tin foil on the windows type of people, just looking to be common sensibly prepared. Looking for other like minded individuals, groups and families to share info and resources.

Sounds like we have a lot in common. We just bought a business that will be VERY sustainable when SHTF. If youd consider Medicine Hat, PM me.

Question:

Who is 'out'? I teach at the local college, and am pretty unapologetic about sharing my belief that the US economy is the Titanic, and that we're pretty freaking lucky to be here in Alberta, but that you'd be crazy not to take into account the real possibility of a major shutdown of EVERYTHING. We as a family have been making major decisions with this in mind - the fantastic thing is that when you start acting in a way to prepare yourself and your family, your quality of life IMPROVES, even in the current reality.

How so? I have no consumer 'drive' anymore. I don't shop. I replace/reinvest in some items as they run out or I plan for their use long-term, but that's not 'shopping as hunting', that's shopping as in 'layaway'. It's slow. It's such a relief to not feel this drive anymore.

I make friends and sort people out based on who they are and how they contribute, rather than what they have, wear, or drive. People who ask follow-up questions when I smilingly say "Oh, I'm a total doomer" get extra credit. They may not be cool, but man, I love having people around me I can trust and rely on.

We're healthier eating local and unprocessed. Stuffed redcliff greenhouse peppers, with local sausage and lentils. THIS is privation?!?

This way of thinking is a source of clarity, a la Occam's Razor, as far as decisions we have to make. Our oldest starts kindergarten next year, and I was back and forth on whether to send her to a french immersion program, and finally, it struck me: Do I really think that our kids are going to want / be able to find jobs that require french skills here in Medicine Hat? Do we want them to move to Ottawa or even Edmonton? No! So instead, we're going to send her to the school close to our business, and move into that neighbourhood. We want to be focused on building a small community in our small city, and there make a future world that is more than good enough.

So surprisingly, since I drank the doomer koolaid, I'm happier than ever. That's probably the #1 reason I speak so matter of factly about our preparations. (Which are still mainly limited to learning and business preparations as opposed to food/water storage. We plan to move into our 'forever' home in the coming year, and that will kickstart gardening, perhaps chickens and/or a milkgoat and other projects.)

So, anyone else 'out'?

It's great to see others involved. I just found this site today and I hope to visit frequently. We are west of Edmonton about an hour and a half. Nice area, but the best part is getting the solarpanels hooked up. I just need to talk with more folks and share ideas. I look forward to being here.

Muskeg, pm me and we'll talk.

Question: Im out and looking for others in the Hat area to share resources and knowledge.I have been thinking I am going crazy ,as does some of my family.Thankyou to those who have the intelligience to figure out that we need to take action and be prepared for anything.I have alot of skills and knowledge and would like to join with a couple of others to make it easier for all of us who know that we cant be 'SHEEPLE" any longer.Would like to meet and talk with others in the community to get something organized.Must be trustworthy and serious about this.Thanks. PS One skill I dont have is with the computer...as you can tell.Thanks

Who is 'out'? I teach at the local college, and am pretty unapologetic about sharing my belief that the US economy is the Titanic, and that we're pretty freaking lucky to be here in Alberta, but that you'd be crazy not to take into account the real possibility of a major shutdown of EVERYTHING. We as a family have been making major decisions with this in mind - the fantastic thing is that when you start acting in a way to prepare yourself and your family, your quality of life IMPROVES, even in the current reality.

How so? I have no consumer 'drive' anymore. I don't shop. I replace/reinvest in some items as they run out or I plan for their use long-term, but that's not 'shopping as hunting', that's shopping as in 'layaway'. It's slow. It's such a relief to not feel this drive anymore.

I make friends and sort people out based on who they are and how they contribute, rather than what they have, wear, or drive. People who ask follow-up questions when I smilingly say "Oh, I'm a total doomer" get extra credit. They may not be cool, but man, I love having people around me I can trust and rely on.

We're healthier eating local and unprocessed. Stuffed redcliff greenhouse peppers, with local sausage and lentils. THIS is privation?!?

This way of thinking is a source of clarity, a la Occam's Razor, as far as decisions we have to make. Our oldest starts kindergarten next year, and I was back and forth on whether to send her to a french immersion program, and finally, it struck me: Do I really think that our kids are going to want / be able to find jobs that require french skills here in Medicine Hat? Do we want them to move to Ottawa or even Edmonton? No! So instead, we're going to send her to the school close to our business, and move into that neighbourhood. We want to be focused on building a small community in our small city, and there make a future world that is more than good enough.

So surprisingly, since I drank the doomer koolaid, I'm happier than ever. That's probably the #1 reason I speak so matter of factly about our preparations. (Which are still mainly limited to learning and business preparations as opposed to food/water storage. We plan to move into our 'forever' home in the coming year, and that will kickstart gardening, perhaps chickens and/or a milkgoat and other projects.)

So, anyone else 'out'?

Where are you located? Im in Medicine hat and have been looking for an acreage for a long while.I have alot of skills and knowledge.Land and storage facilitily is the primary thing i need to find.I have been preparing for some time.Thanks

Hey, PM me when you have enough access. I really don't want to give away too much info on here. But we're in Medicine Hat, and want to stay in the city, fairly central.

Acreages are great but we're business people, not farmers, so I can't see us being successful. What are your main skills?

I am in central Med hat also...dont necessarily need a acreage,but if things get rough dont want others taking what I have.I have tried to look for properties downtown that have older solid basements and places that would be able to protect family and possesions if it came to that.I know there are those people that think and say "if its going to happen there is nothinng we can do" I dont give up easy and have been a go getter all my life. My main skills are to survive anything that comes my way. We can discuss later.Thanks for your reply and will get back to you when able.Peace to you and yours

Me and my family of 5 are new to the whole wide world of prepping. (but not the idea)looking for like minded people! my prepper work consists of canning foods, OMAC, and stocking. i also crochet (great prepper skill :P) i would also like to see a meeting group set up.
currently i am looking for bulk sales (not costco style more prepper style) stores
also to start a garden but would like some help 🙂
my main goal is to learn to prep on low income.
it's amazing what you can find on kijiji 😀
i feel if we have the support of likeminded people we'll be able to achieve our goal...
i'm also on twitter if you want to chat there

Hi everyone
One more prepper for the list.
I have long considered myself a survivalist, having trained since I was a small boy for wilderness survial. Life happens however and now i have kids, my previous methodolgy for survival is no longer viable. As a result i'm looking at a group effort that supports a family oriented infrastructure. I hope to get a few threads going here focusing on various strategies for albertans. hopefully we can get some insightful dialogue going between posters.

grim

I think a big thing is not to just 'keep going until SHTF' and then bug out.

My hunch is that Alberta is going to normalize in a 'high energy cost' plateau, while the ROC and the US slowly fall apart. Government isn't going to much help, and anyone who relies on an income that comes from outside their community is going to be slowly stretched thinner and thinner.

What I'd like to see is intensified localism. Helping people develop necessary local trades, and turning people onto them. Creating local investment clubs where people don't have 'citibank' in their portfolio, but 'buddy's goat milk coop' instead. Eventually, in the case of hyperinflation, you're going to want your investments to pay out in hard goods - when SHTF and folks are hungry, you're going to be on buddy's short list for who gets the chevre.

The other benefit to helping 'reorient' other folks in your community, is that's one fewer person I need to fear when things get scary. If folks have their gardens together, support local ranchers for meat, and are willing to take whatever bread ends up being our mass-produced thing to feed folks, then we just might not have starvation after all.

Local Bread,

I love that term " intensified localism "
I have no doubt that it will become a necessity in order for people to live with any quality. I find myself in a fortunate location where I can see our community pooling together in a crisis and being quite well off for it. We have local hydro production which lends itself to winter greenhouse operations, crop availability, lumber, clean water and are located near a main wildlife corridor which will provide ample animal proteins in the form of elk and deer.
While its easy to dream of such utopian outcomes, the truth is getting to that has never been a strong point among our species.
The transition period may last years and will be riddled with hardship.
I would love however to sit and talk shop so to speak on how to implement some sort of "reorientation" effort. While I may be a expert in many things, organizing humans without brute force is certainly not my speciality. 🙂
Grim

We're in Medicine Hat, which has greenhouses at Redcliff, and we get a LOT of our electricity from natural gas under the city. I think water is going to be our issue - but we have some good rivers - they just seem really dirty by the time they get to us.

Waterways are navigable still up to the rockies in the west, and all the way to, hmmn, don't really know - at least to Empress, probably as far as Regina in the east.

We've got lots of beans and corn in the fields to the west of us, and lots of meat around us.

For me, step one is developing our sustainable business plan. It's not going to be perfect - mostly hedged against an economic crash as opposed to energy at this point.
Then we buy our house, get our garden started. We lived in Korea for a decade before we had kids, so I want to grow a Korean garden, make Korean foods, and trade them. (Kimchi anyone?)

As far as getting people worked up and organized, I love this stuff. Once people have noticed what we've done with the business I want to start organizing our neighbourhood (we will buy a house near the biz and kids will go to the school behind the biz) into community gardens, etc. We're also in a well defendable area (cliffs on two sides, major streets on two sides). The houses are smaller, ~1950s era, not too extravagant - most have room for decent gardens.

I think getting past the fear and disappointment in the loss of the future you expected to have is the biggest part. Then seeing how good we have it is next. We've got it pretty good, comparitively.

It's great to see others involved. I just found this site today and I hope to visit frequently. We are west of Edmonton about an hour and a half. Nice area, but the best part is getting the solarpanels hooked up. I just need to talk with more folks and share ideas. I look forward to being here.

Muskeg, pm me and we'll talk.

Hey Tazweiss,
I am new and can't pm yet. I looked over your posts, looks good.

As a prepper I trained and researched survival for years. Most of that time I thought that I would probably have to go it alone if TSHTF. All of my preparations were geared toward my own survival and that was my mindset. It was a lucky day when a friend started talking about prepping. Making prepping a community effort was a new concept for me. Now I have a group of friends who are part of my community. While I still encourage learning individual survival skills, community is our best and only chance to rebuild after a collapse.

No man is an island.