My other half isn't a conscious prepper? He knows about my hobby, and certainly doesn't get mad about it though. At worst, he thinks I occasionally get overzealous. On the other hand, while he doesn't make specific plans for long term future items, there's the seeds there for me to nurture. An emergency kit in the car (including heat source, food, water, warm clothes, shovel etc) isn't 'prepping', its 'prudence' and he won't travel without it. In the kitchen, he's developed a keen interest in 'from scratch' cooking, mostly as a health measure (wants to know what goes into his food) rather than 'what if the grocery stores are bare' take, but I happily showed him how to bake basic bread, and I haven't had to buy a loaf for 2 months. I'm also pretty sure he made off with the cookbook I bought last weekend on how to make cheese...

I think in general, if the stigma of prepping or survivalism is taking it's toll on your ability to get your family involved, try using prudence as an alternative? "Well gee, there was that ice storm in Quebec last winter, and people were stranded on the road for days... maybe we should keep a few things in the trunk?"

So in the guerilla war, I think I'm winning. Give it a try?

.....I checked for all of us Canadians on the site....82 F is almost 28 C 🙂 Thats still bloody hot 😳

28/82 ain't hot. 37C/100F isn't even really hot. I was based in Adelaide and remember riding my motorbike home (with helmet etc on) in 47 degrees C (thats about 117F). I worked out new Alice Springs once in 51C ~124F. But they were both as we say 'a dry heat' which is quite survivable if you keep your liquid intake up.

Now in the North (eg Darwin) they have the dry, and the wet as seasons, Both are only about 33C, but in the wet its 99% humidity, and that knocks you around more than 51C because sweating doesn't cool you down.

Hate humidity.

I takes me 'at off to you Canucks though, how you cope with all that inconvenient white stuff, and those low temperatures has me beat.

To return to topic.

We have a good sized pantry, redundant energy sources (gas and electricity), wife is into old lamps, so backup lighting, we have wood and gas heaters.

But I CAN'T get the wife to think in terms of long term food storage - that is a problem and I have to do some of that 'as a secret'. (Which means i am nowhere near as prepped as I'd like to be).

I too am a secret prepper. My husband is a bit of an ostrich an doesn't want to hear or talk or any up coming disasters. We live in a condo so had to use my noodle as to how and where to put my stash. I bought a large garbage can on wheels and throw all our goodies into it. We are seniors living on the 3rd floor, so if the SHTF and we have to leave we can push the can down the stairs. So far he hasn't asked why there is a garbage can in the computer room LOL.

The time for pretending that it's not happening - IS OVER!!

I am a woman (single mom) with grown kids.
I am an urban prepper and proud of it. No bug out location/plan, but that's okay because I can securely bug in.
Why do I prep? Because you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see what's happening right now.

PAY ATTENTION:

EUROPE IS GOING DOWN IN FLAMES
THE MIDDLE EAST IS ENRAGED
PEOPLE ARE TAKING TO THE STREETS ALL OVER THE WORLD TO PROTEST THE CRIMINAL ELITE
BLOOD IS BEING SHED TOO CLOSE TO HOME
ISREAL IS DETERMINED TO BOMB IRAN
RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE ANGRY WITH THE WESTERN LEADERS
UNEMPLOYMENT IS RAMPANT
FOOD COSTS ARE SOARING DAILY
POLICE ARE BECOMING MILITARIZED AND OPPRESSION IS BEING USED AGAINST THE PEOPLE
BEING ABLE TO CHOOSE WHAT FOODS WE EAT IS BECOMING A CRIME (SEE RAW MILK ISSUE)

ANY QUESTIONS??????

Just registered on this site after watching a prepper tv program on national geographic and googling "ontario preppers" on the web. Have always had a months worth of food in the pantry , and several years ago when we had the big prolonged power outage, just went to the cottage, fished and worked in my garden. Really enjoyed it. After watching the preppers program on tv I tried discussing the topic with my wife, and the more she didn't take it seriously, the more I took it seriously. If there never is a problem it still gives the benefit of being self reliant, and if there is ever a big problem it would seem to be the difference between eating or not eating. Given that I have a small wood stove heated cottage,with flat arable land around it I think that I have the ideal situation for long term survival, but until the SHTF I dont know that I can get my wife to take this idea seriously.
Any ideas on how to get your spouse on board ?

I think that many of us are in the same position. As for me I used the fact that we live in a earthquake zone and read and watched a few shows on the subject.You could bring up the ice storm or blackout as a reason to be prepared. My wife is not fully into prepping but it's something I'm working on. You could also use the fact that prepping does make economical sense - buying on bulk, sales ect. I used that one on my wife and she agrees. Also having the 'in house convenience store' does reduce unnecessary trips to the store saving on gas.
You just have to get her to agree that there is a risk - small but present - that there may be a day where you will have to be self-sustaining for a certain amount of time. A week , a month, maybe a year - ha good luck talking her into that! I still haven't!
Good luck!

I do not get much flack for being prepared,prudent, or whatever you want to call it. But I do not feel like I am actually supported in my believing preparedness is essential. It would be nice to have a common goal with my spouse, but I get that most people are so afraid of the "what ifs" , that they pretend it will never happen.

My spouse is on board as far as being willing to admit that the power might go out for weather related reasons. She is sort of on board about buying in bulk according to what is on sale, because by doing so I could show her that our grocery budget dropped by 25%. Where to put a 6 month supply of boxed cereal is another issue 😉 😆 .

She is not on board at all about discussing how sanitation will be an issue if the toilets can't be flushed and my attempts to talk about alternative measures. So, I plan ahead myself, and have started a binder with print outs of the most pertinent information in case they need to know this and I am not around. Quite possible if I get stuck out of town at work.

Iam becoming more secretive the more prepared I become. Do any of the rest of you notice that?

It is true that you should keep your prepping plans a secret from friends and family that are not on board. You don't want any unwanted guests arriving at your door wanting some of your supplies when the time comes. And if your spouse doesn't agree with the extent of your preps then those details should be kept to yourself. My wife doesn't know whats exactly in all those totes in the garage and she wouldn't really be interested anyways.
Having all the info written down in a binder is a great idea if you get stuck out of town, then, if the time comes, she can open it up and really see all your hard work and appreciate it!!!

I'm glad to learn that I'm not the only one with a reluctant wife. Any time I try to talk to her about it she just replies that she would rather live in the real world.
I've tried to get her to learn some of the very basic but necessary skills but she feels that she doesn't need to know that stuff. I had to finally decide that when TSHTF she's going to enter a very steep learning curve. If she still maintains the "I don't need to know that" attitude, then I'll leave her sitting there when I depart. Several people (including some of her friends) have asked me to lead them in the event of TEOTWAWKI. The group can't afford the liability of someone with her attitude. I love my wife but the decision was necessary even though harsh. My group will all have to depend on each other and having someone who refuses to learn can have a catastrophic impact on everyone.
My wife knows about some of the preparations I've made but she isn't interested, so I haven't let her know about most of them. All I can do is hope that she'll come around when TSHTF. Until then I'll keep working away at it and let her keep her head in the sand.

It took my husband a few months to get on board, at first I think he thought I was a little crazy, it actually annoyed me, untill I signed up for cetain weekend course, passed, then he knew this wasn't just a fly by night hobby I was undertaken. Now he's on board and help's out with supplies..I give him a list each month to get, but it still is all on my shoulders, Im the one who reads the books does the research etc. I have mentioned the topic of prepping to family and friends, but I let them do the talking, and all of them preppers are crazy lol so we are secret preppers.

Billyrubin posed in a comment above me asking " Iam becoming more secretive the more prepared I become. Do any of the rest of you notice that?" With me, yes I feel like a secret agent lol even the way I look at people in the grocery store, at the shopping carts, the way they waste money at fast food restaurants, my whole way of thinking has 100% changed.

I do not get much flack for being prepared,prudent, or whatever you want to call it. But I do not feel like I am actually supported in my believing preparedness is essential. It would be nice to have a common goal with my spouse, but I get that most people are so afraid of the "what ifs" , that they pretend it will never happen.

My spouse is on board as far as being willing to admit that the power might go out for weather related reasons. She is sort of on board about buying in bulk according to what is on sale, because by doing so I could show her that our grocery budget dropped by 25%. Where to put a 6 month supply of boxed cereal is another issue 😉 😆 .

She is not on board at all about discussing how sanitation will be an issue if the toilets can't be flushed and my attempts to talk about alternative measures. So, I plan ahead myself, and have started a binder with print outs of the most pertinent information in case they need to know this and I am not around. Quite possible if I get stuck out of town at work.

Iam becoming more secretive the more prepared I become. Do any of the rest of you notice that?

Absolutely...the closer I get to a year's supply of food, the more I describe my stash as "a bit of stuff on hand".
One way to avoid prying eyes is to not have long term storage food delivered by the case load to your home.
We prefer to go out to Walmart or wherever the deals are and bring it home ourselves.
Unfortunately, the long term stuff like Thrive Food or Mountain House is a handy addition to your preps. The problem being is that the outlets for this stuff are few and far between. Alberta seems to have a good amount of places to go and pick up supplies, but for me in Quebec, delivery would be the only option, so for now I have to avoid it. Instead, I buy peaches, pears, etc on sale in season and home can it. This fall, I intend on getting a pressure canner so that I can store up meat and veggies.
I think that putting together your own preps as opposed to carting all the groceries into the house in front of all your neighbors makes OPSEC sense.
How does everyone else deal with keeping your stash secret from prying eyes?

How does everyone else deal with keeping your stash secret from prying eyes?

Keep it out of site, even in your home. I just had some contractors here doing a job and they were in and out of my garage. I thought after the fact that they definitely saw all the food preps I had on shelves in there and it made me think that I should keep it more hidden. Its ok to have some stuff on shelves - that's normal , but the majority of your preps should be out of site in your home. Time to look into storing stuff in my crawl space ( here on the island we don't have basements!)
As for how to get cart your large amounts of food preps into your house, pack all the stuff into unsuspecting boxes at the grocery store then bring them into your house.

oops I didn't get that quoting thing right....

My plan, at this point would be buy a shipping container stick it in the forest cover it with sand or something, with a secret door. Fill it with food that can handle being frozen and other supplies and never tell a soul, except the people living under my roof. There are some web site where they ship you the containers for I've read any were from 2000 delivered for a 40 footer, I'd get two 20 footers, and put them far from each other, one can be for food and one a bunker.

I believe in never interferring in other people's lives.......but I'm going to bud in here........ To the spouse's, whether you be Man or Woman, please keep hiding your preps. Do you have a trusted friend or family member, have you networked? Can you rent a small storage unit? No, they don't want to accept what you are saying, because that would make it real. They simply choose not to believe. The people I work with will not have anything to do with my discussions on conspiracy or even putting away some water and rice. I don't get it. I don't believe in sneaking, lying, deception of any sort, especially in a marriage, a union of love and trust.......... but their survival counts on you doing these very things, you need to keep ploding ahead in building your supplies. Do you know how to bury your cache? Just picture this...... SHTF, you dig up your supplies that you've hidden as your partner just stares at you. You're calm (because you've prepared) and decisive taking control of your family situation. You load your vehicle, load your stuff, give your family a water bottle and a package of pop tarts any flavour, you pick (comfort food) that you had on top - easy access for the family trip. You get to a location you have picked to set up your retreat. Your family is still in shock. You set up. You light the camp stove for heat and warm drinks before bed. Your family goes to sleep while you stand watch over them. You will hear crying. Your dog sits on your feet, because the dog knows whats going on. The sun rises, your family awakes. Not so much in shock now, they realize that their world has been turned upside down. They look at you "Dad" or "Mom", they say to you "it really was true", then there are tears, and then you get the biggest hugs of your life. It's this end result you need to focus on. Your family is alive, somewhat shaken, and they have a newly awakend respect for you, because you did what you felt you needed to do!! Job well done.

ya i get the same thing from the wife . thats gonna go bad before yo use it , wen are you ever gonna use that ,how manny of those do you need , bla bla bla bla and that is wy ear plugs were invented . she will be happy when it all falls apart and she is eating and many are not . we were watching the movie ice age and the one part whear the doe doe birds said the world is ending and started jumping of the cliff . ya well i got a look and a smirk and that hamster turning that little wheel in that head of hers she was biting her tonghe . but im gonna do what im gonna do . i dont have anything to be ashamed about. i love my family and want to be able to feed and protect them. thats what a good farther or mother is about.