A documentary about prepping

I might be interested, but will not have the same things happen that did to the Americans! Their locations were shown, in a couple of incidences and their names published. That will make you a target, have people show up and steal your stuff and generally make your life uncomfortable or down right nasty.

My Wilderness Return journey can be found on my blog, there is a link in my name, or on the personal page. My Prepping is done on the cheap, I am living in my survival vehicle, bug out vehicle and have a main area that I live in, a Bug out location that is my buddy's and wife's property that we are just starting on from scratch, and a secondary bug out location if things hit the fan and I am unable to get to my primary location in a hurry. Do not fee sorry for me, I can afford a sticks and bricks location if I wanted one, but after losing my 2nd house to another wife, I am actually happier in my vehicle, quite comfortable really. The vehicle is still in a state of upgrade work so some is only rough done in, it is my home.

My primary location, I also plan on living there part time this year, in the bush, building a Rocket Mass Heater for warmth and live there full time next winter in my canvas tent.
During the Summer I will be living there part time, due to the location, so working either one week and then one week in the bush or half a week each, will see what happens, as the future unfolds.

Most Preppers meet on the internet, some few meet in person, yesterday met some in the area for the first time. That was a nice change, talking to someone in RL who does not think your crazy. If I could talk to any of my Grandparents about this, they would wonder what the fuss was all about. Only two generations ago, having a supply of food and materials for 2-4 months was the normal state of affairs for most every North American. I believe we the Preppers now are just returning to our roots and dropping some of the pretence of this so called modern consumer driven society. An artificial society created in the 50's to help drive the Economy.

Security for all, must be a clause that is written in the contract!

Hi Wilderness return,

Thank you for your reply!

Of course, I totally understand the risk of talking to a camera when you are preparring. Secrecy is important because prepping is all about security. Got it. So it is fine by me if you want to keep your real identity secret.

For right now, we are in a very early stage of the production. What I really need right now is really to know the basics and a sense of how the community work and your motivations (I think about your last paragraph here, I think you are quite right. I started canning food this year ;).

I would love to get you opinion on the project (what we could do, should do and the basic ethics we should know before going on further), but I don't want to put you in an inconfortable situation. If you want, email me at charles at mc2 dot ca and we could arrange something.

Also, could you tell me the name of the US documentary you've been writting about?

Thanks again!

Charles

Not so worried about the Face thing, it is the location thing.
You could use one of my Nicknames that is Max...
but in OPSEC = Operational Security, location is king !

Anyone who has a brain that is analytical should be a prepper;
snowstorms in Canada last year that stranded hundreds near London Ont.
snow and Ice storms in Ontario & Quebec
power outages
flooding
just to name a few.

Some think the US or Chinese to be working on mind altering bio weapons, or some secretive big pharma company and they will inadvertently spread some drugs or viruses that will cause a form of Zombie-ism. Some think on the Mayan Calendar, some think about Asteroids, comets, rouge planetary and interplanetary stuff, similar to the Huge Asteroid that passed closer to the Earth than the moon only last week. etc etc.

If you think the Government can ride in on a white horse and save you, set you up in a new house and give you food and clothing in a few days, is daydreaming or a Zombie.
I will ask some Americans about the name and get back to you thanks.

Just a hint, this site gets googled and yahooed, so make sure your re post both of your posts, and re-format your email siggy so the auto programs do not get your email
e.g. charles at mc2 dot ca
mine is info at turnerclean dot ca

Here is the info that I got back, you might not like what they have to say, but it is relevant.

“National cable channel is looking for Preppers to stump our expert prepper! We’re paying $1,000.00 to finalists in the casting process.

The show works like this: You’re prepped and ready for ….. something. You tell the show’s expert what you’re ready for, and show him what you’ve got put by. He’ll evaluate, and see if you’ve been able to out-prep the experts!

We know it’s counter-intuitive to ask preppers to go on television, so this isn’t the right opportunity for everyone. While the show can keep participant’s locations secret, faces and voices will be seen.

If you are interested in participating, email suecapsal@aol.com or mreindal@spfseattle.com for details. But hurry! Deadline for interest is Friday July 15! With your participation, we’ll get the audience to at least start thinking about what they should be doing…”

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Giving up too much information to a real interviewer can land you in trouble. I was watching a show called Doomsday Prepper on National Geographic Channel. The people on the show were being interviewed on how they are getting ready for the next disaster.

Watching the show I realized that these people were painting a bull’s eye on their homes (except one family). Wanting to share how they are getting prepared was a good thing but the camera crew screwed up a lot. They showed a couple of neighborhoods with noticeable landmarks. One of them stands out in his tightly packed neighborhood. The others can be found through process of elimination in their immediate area.

Now this is just a hypothetical scenario. A “fake” prepper just finished watching the Doomsday Prepper show. Now, that person is actively looking for them through their websites (two of the interviewees have a blog & a web store). This person will now pose as a magazine or a blog site. He will ask for an interview & these people might say yes. So once on or near their survival supplies, the “fake” prepper will start taking notes on their location, landmarks, & house number.

I know that a lot of you want to be helpful & teach other people how become self-sufficient. You have to be careful on what you say, how you say it, & where you say it. People are always listening. More & more people are getting into becoming self- sufficient. Some people are too lazy & rather take your provisions then save up their own. As for the people I mentioned earlier in that TV show. People will come knocking down their doors to get to their supplies.

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While I enjoyed the show on the National Geographic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMPepJpadbo
there is little to no OPSEC. Also be ready with thick skin cause I pulled them apart with my own evaluations even though many are way beyond me in their preparations. I’m an armchair survivalistback I guess.
For those that take them up on it, good luck and great job getting others onboard!

Have you ever taken a CPR course? Have life, accident or disability insurance? Keep your gas tank above 1/2 full? Buy a little extra when things are on sale? Think ahead to possible contingencies while travelling? Back up your computer? Save money for an emergency fund? Use snow tires?
These are all preparation activities.

Go a bit further and have some extra food in your pantry, know how to do basic household maintenance, have some camping skills and you are ready for a little more.

Follow your municipal preparedness planning guide and you will be very far ahead of most people. If you have actually practiced fire escape plans from your home, have copies of N.B. documents backed up off site, and a 3 day supply of water and food, I bet you are the only one on your street 😉

Now it is not a much bigger step to start looking at how would you heat and cook if the power went off for a day or more? One day, probably not too bad. Two days it gets irritating, and by the third day the grocery shelves are empty of bottled water, batteries, fresh foods. In a large city like Toronto or Montreal, it could get really uncomfortable quickly.

You look at check lists on emergency preparedness sites, including the Govt of Canada one, and see that there is still a whole lot more you can do. You consider your geographical area, the possible risks and think about your personal situation to see what else you might need to work on. Are you or a family member disabled? Have a chronic medical condition? A baby in the family? What will they need to get through a few days? A week? A month?

Maybe you buy some solar powered items, a battery powered radio, you spend a day gathering all those important documents and copy them. You set aside a closet in house to store food and water, you pack a kit for the car.

Like A Wilderness Returns says, only a few decades ago everyone lived like this.

I prep in case of job loss, weather conditions, illness, distance driving for work, inflation, chronic health condition that requires supplies.

This all seems entirely sensible to me, yet when I talk about this to anyone it is met with amusement or outright derision.

I do not advertise what I do anymore.

Hey there Docguy, Wildernessreturn & Billyrubin have done a great job of explaining prepping. Yes, I am close to Montreal and just recently moved away from there to the Laurentian Mountains. I turned my primary bug out location into my home. You see, for me, being prepared means to be as self reliant as possible. Many preppers grow large gardens & raise small animals for food. As a whole, preppers regularly meet online through forums just like this one, however, some groups in a region will arrange for a face to face meetup, as a group, at a local Tim Hortons, or something like that.

I'm not so sure I would be the best person to interview, as I don't really prepare for TEOTWAWKI, so to speak, but more for events such as the ice storm of 98 that left many eastern Canadians without power for days, or even weeks. As a matter of fact, that was the event that got me into being prepared, as at the time, I was like many people and had only a couple days worth of food and no way to keep myself going. Luckily, I was only affected for a couple days, but that really got me thinking.

There are many preppers who do however believe that economic collapse, mass civil unrest, natural disasters, solar flares, or other such events will spark The End Of The World As We Know It. In addition to food & water storage, many preppers will have alternative energy production in the form of solar or wind generators, alternative means to cook, heat, and generally live a somewhat normal life after the poop hits the propeller, so to speak.

I would be happy to speak with you on the phone, and if that goes well, perhaps even meet with you in person. I still work in Montreal and could make myself available sometime next week. I am very active in the prepper community, being an active member of this forum, moderator for the Canadian Preppers Network blog, and host a weekly internet radio show, so my face is already out there. My location, however, would need to remain a secret, as OPSEC is somewhat important to me. I try to educate people on the importance of being prepared, and strive to make the prepper movement a mainstream one. I dislike anything that paints us in a poor light and makes us out to be weirdos or hillbilly survivalist types. This has actually prevented me from participating in previous offers to do interviews for so called documentaries in the past.

Please send me your contact info via private message, and I will try to give you a call sometime this week.

Hello everybody,

First of all, thanks for all the infos! I've read a lot lately on prepping, but your comments helped me to get a more realistic point of view.

I would love to talk to you guys this week or the next. Just a quick chat so we can know each other a little more and for me to explain a little bit more what we would like to do.

Sorry, I don't have much time today! Just wanted you to know I appreciate your posts, it really helped me put some meat around the bones. Now we cross our fingers, but we are pretty confident. I'll get back to you later this week 😉

Hey everyone,

Just to let you know that we have good news! Tv folks seem interested of knowing a little more about Canadian preppers! Got quicker than I dared hope! Again, thanks for your blogs and Infos, it really helped.

Now, I am trying to make my mind around a pretty simple matter: the different steps of prepping. In other words, when you are prepping, what should you do first? As you know, we are thinking to take an unpreppared guy and make him prepared, so where should this guy start?

My guess goes like this:

1) secure food and water in own house
2) Get some alternative energy sources (cooking and heat)
3) prepare a BOB for chief of family, then to other members
4) get some basic survival / first aid / farming skills
5) Have a bug-out location, if not owned, then a least in thought (knowing where to go if Shtf happen).
6) get some more serious skills (self-defense, repair skills, advance survival)

Is this a good list? Would you do something else or in another order?

Thanks in advance

If you read through the forum, you will find lots of info, also there was a posting or two on where to start.

They Guy/Gal should start by, the Ahaw moment or the Wakening moment. Why Prep, why Prepare, for what reason. Have them watch a documentary article on the Ice Storms or the London Winter Highway Blizzard. Really there needs to be a frame of reference for the person/persons to start. Also, a thought does this Guy/Gal have a person who is a Prepper, will he/she travel to meet other prepper, or is it all find out on the internet thing? Will they visit a Friendly old person, Grandparent or other memorable Older Person who will tell them of how it used to be, and give them some directions?
Then
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