Thanks Buggie. Might not then. Thanks for the warning. lol. Only tv in my house is the kids channel so I am very out of touch with regular programming.

Someones been watching "revolution"

Actually I thought it sounded more like "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse."

There could be several reasons for SHTF. I'd qualify SHTF as a time when societal norms drastically shift or vanish, WROL if you wish. The two I am prepping for are global financial collapse and a Carrington Event CME http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event which is overdue. I'm not sure which will happen first but do know the second would trigger the first for certain.

Concerning the coming global financial collapse, WHEN not IF it happens, folding currency (not real money) won't buy you firewood that will equal the caloric value of burning cash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic_inflation A bag of every day grocery's will have far more value than a fat wallet of currency will hold.

The USA is only one payment default away from having a lower credit rating than Greece. You are probably thinking "OK but that's the US!", then think about this, Canada exports between 70 and 80% of it's goods to the USA in trade. If you own the corner store and 75% of your customers go bankrupt, you are in deep trouble! Yes, the collapse of the US economy will affect YOU. About a month ago the REAL numbers for unemployment in the USA were about 22.5% if you count those who have given up and/or dropped out of the economy. In the USA there are dumpster divers and garbage pickers at dumps dining on restaurant left overs and grocery store 'past due' food. The reason this isn't highly reported is Obama just wouldn't like this rolling into an election. Do you really believe the CPI numbers published as our inflation rate?

The second biggest economy on the planet right now is the black market. Keep that in mind. Bitcoins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoins are growing in value and expanding their use at a rapid rate. This does not bode well for fiat currency.

On to a Carrington Event CME. Last go around of a large CME was in 1989 with the Quebec blackout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm that affected the NE USA messed thing up for a few days. A much larger Carrington Event size CME would effectively wipe out most unprotected electronic devices and electrical systems thus leave us without home electricity for years before new transformers were built and installed to fully restore the grid.

Both of the scenarios above I fear most and I would consider SHTF and there are more but this is what I prep for mostly.

What to prep for is a good question and needs to be concidered to help prep in a suitable way. There are a lot of natural disasters that won't happen close to me, but may effect the world -such as how the volcanos in Ice Land halted air travel throughout the world. We don't have many tornados where I live, no earthquakes, tsunamis and such. It's good to have lots of seeds ready for our return to growing-our-own. But, if there are enough volcanic blasts or a small asteroid that throws stuff into the aptmosphere we may have a time of limited sun.There have been times in history where this has happened and many people who depended on each years harvest were wiped out. I know a lot of preppers are planning on hunting and gathering to get by. Others are planning to plant a good garden. I think this shows why we need to have enough food, of all sorts to keep us healthy for a good year or more. And also if the problems are such that we want to fly under the radar for a while, that is much easier if we don't need to get out to gather supplies. I am not the sort that would make a bunker with all the air exchange and water cleansing to withstand a nuclear blast, but if we needed to lay low in our root cellar to avoid what is happening "above" for a while I want to be ready for that.

An excellent and balanced approach Joy29not. In true prepper form if you do need a bunker you can improvise.

Truth is if we are looking at nuclear war -I'd rather die in the first blast than hide underground for 5 years and crawl out to see how many types of cockroaches are still alive and then slowly die of radiation poisoning anyhow. I am a survivor ( I've lived with lupus for 30 some years and each day is a challenge) but, there are somethings I'll let the younger ones forge ahead through. But, give me a battle I can win and I'll be there.(with my freeze dried strawberries and LDS canned flour)-oh yeah and my gun!

Truth is if we are looking at nuclear war -I'd rather die in the first blast than hide underground for 5 years and crawl out to see how many types of cockroaches are still alive and then slowly die of radiation poisoning anyhow. I am a survivor ( I've lived with lupus for 30 some years and each day is a challenge) but, there are somethings I'll let the younger ones forge ahead through. But, give me a battle I can win and I'll be there.(with my freeze dried strawberries and LDS canned flour)-oh yeah and my gun!

😆 😆

For me, a SHTF situation is not equivelant to the "end of times" scenarios where anarchy reins. SHTF is for me, a tornado blowing through my community, flash flooding, ice storms, unforseen unemployment, personal financial turmoil, critical illness within my immediate family or social group, and the like. For these situations I prepare most diligently. Less so for war brought to our soil, nuclear terrorism, complete financial collapse, and the rest of the end of times scenarios.
So I don't really worry too much about having to fight off hoards of Huns should my personal world go to shit. Most of the world won't even notice or care. I'm also a proponent of "the world goes on", which is to say I don't really think we will see a return to 19th century technology because of world events. I've just returned from holiday in Europe which is actually really enlightening in terms of prepping. One visits cities which have existed for over one or two thousand years, have been sacked many times, and have been dominated by foreign powers many times throughout history, and yet persist. I wonder if our relatively short history here in North Americal has made us all a bit short sighted to the persistance of human civilization and society? A global economic collapse would suck; but would it really mean the end? More of a re-boot I would guess. Without wanting to sound too pragmatic, the rich would still end up being rich, the poor would still be in dire straits, and all of us in the middle class would still be working our arses off to ensure that we did not join the poor.

The idea of having to bug out is really one of absolute last resort for me. I think it terribly unlikely. That does not mean, however, that I won't have a contingency in place should the "terribly unlikely" occure. I just won't commit my life savings or huge effort to that contingency.

Antsy

It's like looking into a smarter, intellectual, virtual, mirror. I couldn't agree more! I think a practical approach to prepping is the best way to ensure long term success. That requires assessing the risks in each individual location and prepping for the most likely. Using history as a guide is a great way to try to prepare for the future as history has a habit of repeating itself.

Watching the news this evening about the XL Foods nonsense. Do you want to know what SHTF means? Over two thousand folks are out of work for a month and are running the Brooks, Alberta food bank dry. Top needs this evening are toiletries and TP. This is it folks... the Sh1t is hitting the fan and you are still asking what it is going to look like. So, is three days food and supply in a bug out bag going to do it if YOU don't get a pay cheque for a month?

If one is unprepared to handle something like the loss of work for a period of a month or more, stop wasting your time worrying about TEOTWAWKI. I'd like to suggest a trip to your favorite grocer this weekend while you can still afford an extra case of canned tuna and a bag of rice.

Frustrated at the futility of it all...

Antsy

Watching the news this evening about the XL Foods nonsense. Do you want to know what SHTF means? Over two thousand folks are out of work for a month and are running the Brooks, Alberta food bank dry. Top needs this evening are toiletries and TP. This is it folks... the Sh1t is hitting the fan and you are still asking what it is going to look like. So, is three days food and supply in a bug out bag going to do it if YOU don't get a pay cheque for a month?

If one is unprepared to handle something like the loss of work for a period of a month or more, stop wasting your time worrying about TEOTWAWKI. I'd like to suggest a trip to your favorite grocer this weekend while you can still afford an extra case of canned tuna and a bag of rice.

Frustrated at the futility of it all...

Antsy

Spot - On. Re - above 3 lines.

If there was ever a prime example of S.about.T.H.T.F.it would be on the east coast of the United States..I have traveled extensively in the area it is supposed to hit..The population is enormous, and the infrastructure is old,and getting run down..[ power and such...] If you want to know when you should be packing for a bug out ...this would be it....If it hits [ and it will] and causes the damage they are so worried about, this storm will be nothing short of cataclysmic... Watch and learn from this one.....And to those people that may read this from that area, take some vacation time and......GET YOUR BUTTS OUT OF THERE.......

If there was ever a prime example of S.about.T.H.T.F.it would be on the east coast of the United States..I have traveled extensively in the area it is supposed to hit..The population is enormous, and the infrastructure is old,and getting run down..[ power and such...] If you want to know when you should be packing for a bug out ...this would be it....If it hits [ and it will] and causes the damage they are so worried about, this storm will be nothing short of cataclysmic... Watch and learn from this one.....And to those people that may read this from that area, take some vacation time and......GET YOUR BUTTS OUT OF THERE.......

45,000 troops are being called into the area to assist

Watching the news this evening about the XL Foods nonsense. Do you want to know what SHTF means? Over two thousand folks are out of work for a month and are running the Brooks, Alberta food bank dry. Top needs this evening are toiletries and TP. This is it folks... the Sh1t is hitting the fan and you are still asking what it is going to look like. So, is three days food and supply in a bug out bag going to do it if YOU don't get a pay cheque for a month?

If one is unprepared to handle something like the loss of work for a period of a month or more, stop wasting your time worrying about TEOTWAWKI. I'd like to suggest a trip to your favorite grocer this weekend while you can still afford an extra case of canned tuna and a bag of rice.

Frustrated at the futility of it all...

Antsy

Spot - On. Re - above 3 lines.

Everyone is back to work now,(some had already quit and moved on though) the next 8 weeks will be very important, JBS may decide during that time to not buy it outright, to maybe ship beef to their other USA plants to be processed there instead (they bought the feedlot) so even though for the moment it looks alright it may not be...we will have to wait and see