Watching Anderson on tv when he did a show on being prepared. He asked the audience to raise their hand if they were prepared. Most people in the audience raised their hands. He only made it to the first person before he gave up. He asked them what they had to make sure they were prepared. The woman's answer - "I have a flash light".

Bet most Canadians think along the same lines.

Watching Anderson on tv when he did a show on being prepared. He asked the audience to raise their hand if they were prepared. Most people in the audience raised their hands. He only made it to the first person before he gave up. He asked them what they had to make sure they were prepared. The woman's answer - "I have a flash light".

Bet most Canadians think along the same lines.

HAHA, ya I remember that one too!
And he got that response AFTER showing them the earthquake room and having all sorts of "experts" explain that you need 3 days of food, water, etc.
Kinda reminds me of a teacher who asks little Johnny what she just said and gets a response of "uh? I dunno!"

Prepping if you look at it is much like a religion. You have those who don’t believe in prepping, (atheists), the “10 year stockpile, come near my place and I’ll shoot” (fanatics). The agnostics “I believe it could happen, but don’t think that it will.” The Sheep, “God and Government will protect us”, The Sheppard promoters, “We will show you the way to greener fields” The priest “Behold and prepare, for the end is near” The Saints, “We have enough to support our community”. Then we have the rest of us That are believers, practice what we preach and help each other to the best of our ability. Amen

Prepping if you look at it is much like a religion. You have those who don’t believe in prepping, (atheists), the “10 year stockpile, come near my place and I’ll shoot” (fanatics). The agnostics “I believe it could happen, but don’t think that it will.” The Sheep, “God and Government will protect us”, The Sheppard promoters, “We will show you the way to greener fields” The priest “Behold and prepare, for the end is near” The Saints, “We have enough to support our community”. Then we have the rest of us That are believers, practice what we preach and help each other to the best of our ability. Amen

Sad but True...Good analogy Ranger2012

Keep Safe - Twenty3rdPsalm

Here is a question?? What do you do when trying to teach family and friends the benefits of preparing for a WCS and they laugh and tell you they are coming to your house? Our responses have been something like this... To heck you are! With what are you planning to come to our house with? Etc.
I am not a greedy person, but if there truly was a WCS, why should our small family have to sacrifice most of our wants to ensure that we are prepared? So that all of the people we know who go vacationing and partying can come to our home with empty hands. These are people with significantly larger disposable incomes than us expecting us to take care of them... This has to be one of the most frustrating parts of teaching others about preparedness! Do you have any ideas what to say to these people? We are at a loss...

Tell them to read this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper

campingmom,

Great question. It has been asked before and the opinions range from stringing barb wire to keep "them" out, to moving without notice to showing that you are a better person than they are and offering hospitality.

HOWEVER, they is no free ride.

It would be best for the whole group dynamic if "they" contributed now, so they have something later. This can be cash, gold, silver, automobiles, fuel, food, bulk wheat, oats, rice, beans, medical supplies, RV's, Solar Power systems, generators, tools, equipment, camping gear, folding cots, BBQ's, Propane, Ammo, ETC.

Now, if they have identified you as the go to person, that also makes you the boss. If they want to stay, they have to do as you say. Sweat equity comes to mind. If you need something built, they can build it.

Do these relatives and friends have skills you may need?? Medical?? Engineering?? Construction?? Security/Protection?? Farming?? Logging?? Fishing?? Hunting?? ETC. Are they useful?? Can having them there be more than eating your food faster??

Remember, for a long-term survival situation you need manpower. There are the food prep needs, the medical needs, the repair the homestead needs, planting more food and watering and havesting needs and then the 24/7 security needs. How long can 3 people do all of that?? These are some hard questions. You have to sleep sometime.

In the big picture, start networking with like-minded folks, now. If, these folks who worry you think they are in for a free-ride. Politely, say you are more than welcome at my hide-away in a WCS, but if they expect to eat, they may want to have some food stored at their place or maybe at your place, if you have the space to spare.

Of course, you could always ask them if they remember the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf???? There is a moral in that story. Maybe they will be able to connect the dots??

I am not sure if that helped at all.

Mountainman.

Re: What do you do when trying to teach family and friends the benefits of preparing for a WCS and they laugh and tell you they are coming to your house?

Campingmom, depending on my mood and who I'm speaking with, I use one of four responses:

1) "Sure, you and everyone else we know! Come on out and we'll all starve together!"

2) "Sure, come on out! I can always use another farm hand, that manure won't shovel itself. When you're done mucking out the barn you can pluck a chicken for supper."

3) "Yes, I have prepared for people like you who will no longer be able to look after themselves. You will get a hot meal, five .22 rounds, a lighter and my best wishes."

4) "Anyone who shows up at my door must have a six month's supply of food for each family member and a thousand rounds of ammunition."

YMMV

Prepping if you look at it is much like a religion. You have those who don’t believe in prepping, (atheists), the “10 year stockpile, come near my place and I’ll shoot” (fanatics). The agnostics “I believe it could happen, but don’t think that it will.” The Sheep, “God and Government will protect us”, The Sheppard promoters, “We will show you the way to greener fields” The priest “Behold and prepare, for the end is near” The Saints, “We have enough to support our community”. Then we have the rest of us That are believers, practice what we preach and help each other to the best of our ability. Amen

Well put, but I have to laugh at the religion analogy as I'm a atheist, and a prepper. I'm a creature of logic, I've seen disaster so I prep. I'm not going to be the "It can't happen to me, so why bother" sort.

There seems to be some sort of blinders that most people wear, they think that bad stuff only happens to other people. That it won't happen to them.
Sh** happens, it can happen to anyone. So be prepared

A week ago we had a minor interruption in power due to an ice storm here in SE Ontario. Power was out for 6-8 hrs. I was called to 3 peoples houses to help get their generators started and you guessed it not one had gas in the tanks. Now the sad part. 2 of them said "no problem I'll just slip down to the gas station and get some" DUH!! Power outage! Just shows people go through the motions of prepping but have no concept of what's going on or what to do when a emergency hits.

I agree....where there is smoke there is fire.
When one source tells you to get ready is one thing, but when pretty much every federal, provincial and municipal agency including NGO's is singing from the song sheet....take notice. Either something is coming or our governments and NGO's are not equipped to help in the event of disaster, or need a lot of time to mobilize the resources.
Just a thought.

I think the SARS epidemic and its connected secondary admin disaster response did a lot to wake up some of the people at the Federal level. While 9/11 got the security and authoritarian types a butt puckering, it was the SARS mishandling that seemd to have the most ripple effects across the NGO and EMO community.

I was doing work within that Fed community and saw the sudden change in attitude. Ironically I was proposing a national pandemic management system at the time, and the Feds not three weeks before (John McCallum personally) had called it unnecessary and alarmist. After SARS killed people and the damage was done, the minister would no longer return either my calls or emails. I have to say I was not impressed with the man as an individual, not as a MP or as a thinking person. He did very little to help the EMO community in general, who were still underfunded and understaffed at most provincial and federal offices, even after 9/11. Senator Colin Kenny on the other hand was far more forward thinking, and was a supporter of some of the work I did.

Unfortunately the lessons learned from 9/11 and SARs seem to have largely lost steam. It is rather stupid that our provincial and federal government have gone back to being Reactive instead of Proactive, but thats the authoritarian model of Stephen Harpers conservatives for you. Some aspects of disaster response in this country have turned into a cash cow for NGO managers and their associated buddies, so the whole disaster response community has become highly politicized to the point of being stagnant. I understand that JEPP funding for EMO based organizations is set to be cut to childish levels again this year, so that too will not help. Personally I would rather they take the money they spend on advertising and sink it into a Municipal Emergency Equipment fund similar to JEPP, but for small towns only.

The EMO mentality in Canada is more about authority and control then it is about social needs. The overall thinking in EMO circles is that the social response is to be left to questionable NGOs like the Red Cross, or underfunded agencies like the Salvation Army and local HAM radio clubs, Social Services Depts, etc. With that kind of thinking they are hoping that within 72hrs they can regain control of the population and of law and order breakdowns. Anything lasting longer then that will no doubt be the Army's responsiblity.

In short......it's someone elses job.

Here is a question?? What do you do when trying to teach family and friends the benefits of preparing for a WCS and they laugh and tell you they are coming to your house? Our responses have been something like this... To heck you are! With what are you planning to come to our house with? Etc.

One thing I found be a good idea is bring up the topic of preparedness while out camping. When sitting around the camp fire ask people how they would cope if they had to do this for a month, six months, or a whole year. Because after a bad storm, epidemic, or economic failure they might easily end up in a survivor camp or just hiding out in a remote location that way.

It puts the seed of thought into their heads really quickly. Ask them how they would cope without an experienced outdoors person like yourself for example, as a guide.

A week ago we had a minor interruption in power due to an ice storm here in SE Ontario. Power was out for 6-8 hrs. I was called to 3 peoples houses to help get their generators started and you guessed it not one had gas in the tanks. Now the sad part. 2 of them said "no problem I'll just slip down to the gas station and get some" DUH!! Power outage! Just shows people go through the motions of prepping but have no concept of what's going on or what to do when a emergency hits.

Well here you are not allowed to store more then a jerry can of gasoline on your premises anymore. Kind of makes having generators useless, and to a degree illegal.

Thanks for sharing your insight on EMO. I'm not surprised.

I found that last sentence of your post interesting and went to have a look at the actual regulations for fuel storage. I found regulations for Ontario here: http://www.firesafetycouncil.com/english/pubsafet/gasoline.htm

Here's the important part:

Gasoline is a Class 1 flammable liquid. If it is being stored in the actual residence or dwelling unit, then Article 4.2.4.5. restricts the quantity that can be stored to not more than 10 L. If it is being stored in a garage or shed attached to a dwelling unit, then Article 4.2.4.6. restricts the quantity that can be stored to not more than 30 L.

The Fire Code does not have any requirements for the quantity of gasoline that can be stored in a garage or shed associated with a residence and is not attached to the dwelling unit. If you plan to store gasoline in such a structure, we recommend that it be located not less than 3m from any other building or property line.

ONTARIO REGULATION 213/07 is for some confusing to read. Basically it states that you can store up to 10L in your home (something I would NEVER do) and up to 30L in an attached garage or shed.

So that begs the question is you breaking the law when you put your car with a full tank of gas in your attached garage? Hardly.

Now as has been stated The Fire Code does not have any requirements for the amount of gas that can be stored in a garage or shed that is not attached to the dwelling unit. So in a detached shed or garage you may store as much as you like. Keep in mind that there may be local bylaws that further restrict this amount so check with your municipality.

When storing gas use common sense. Don’t store it in your house, even though you can. Store it in outbuildings away from your main dwelling and away from the neighbours. Ensure that there are no sources if ignition in the area. Always have an appropriate fire extinguisher handy. If fire does break out vacate the area and call the fire department. It is highly unlikely that you would be able to put out ANY gasoline fire you would just be putting yourself at risk so get out of there. The sooner the fire department is called the sooner they can stop the fire spreading to other buildings.