With all the conflicting information out there about what this virus is capable of and the fact that it is randomly popping up in areas all over the globe now. I think it's pretty safe to say that at this point someone(s) is/are lying about the whole thing.
I also find it hard to believe that the death toll in these African countries only amounts to a few thousand people like they claim. It seems a vast understatement if you ask me, but I am sure the facts will continue to leak out as things progress.
The real question is will the virus continue to progress?
A situation like a worldwide pandemic of death is about the worst case survival scenario one can come up with. Possibly not as bad as global nuclear war or a real zombie apocalypse but worse than most other cases I can think of off the top of my head. Depending on what we find out about the particulars of this virus we may not even be able to survive it by prepping actually and must resign ourselves to either catching it and living through it or hiding away until a vaccine is discovered. If the thing never dies out eventually we are all going to have to re-enter the world.
If hiding out is your plan how long do you think it will take before a cure is discovered, mass produced and then delivered to those of us not at the top of the worldwide food chain?
Do you have the supplies stored to completely shut yourself in for six months? A Year? Longer?
Do you have the mental resolve to isolate yourself for that long or do you begin to go stir crazy if you can't socialize every 2 or 3 days?
Do you have the intestinal fortitude to stay where it is safe even if it means your pets starve?
Do you claim to be self sufficient only as long as the money holds out?
Simple questions but I doubt they have simple answers for any of us and those who have been fooling themselves (and others) will quickly be culled from the herd I imagine.
When the lights go out or the propane tank runs low will you freeze to death now that the gas company no longer picks up the phone or the guy you used to buy your firewood from has fallen ill?
No deliveries. No canned food specials at the local store. Just you and your current preps for months of locked in solitude with only your family for company.
Even then you have to hope someone doesn't come knocking. What ya gonna do when a body suddenly materializes on your front porch over night?
I doubt any of us are completely prepared for such a scenario and I am not saying it's going to happen but it might be best to start asking yourself all these questions right now.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
You said:
ReplyDelete"I also find it hard to believe that the death toll in these African countries only amounts to a few thousand people like they claim. It seems a vast understatement if you ask me, but I am sure the facts will continue to leak out as things progress."
My wife's co-worker went to Sierra Leone 3 weeks ago. He is an infection disease doctor. He was there when the county had a 3 day lock down. In the section that he and his crew searched they found right at a hundred bodies in their homes that had never made it to the clinics. That's just one small section.
Factor that by a whole country and then add 2 more countries. Give it another 3 weeks for the next round to get sick and die, then watch the numbers start going exponential.
Sorry.... I said "county" and I meant "country" that had a 3 day lock down"
DeleteMatt - That makes sense. I just couldn't imagine all the panic and people fleeing the country if there only amounted to a few thousand deaths and that counting all of them from the major three countries it comes from. It must be widespread and out of control and therefore with deaths in the 100 thousands or more by now.
Deleteyo - pioneer p!
ReplyDeletealways sobering questions form you buddy - a lot of people don't plan for "bugging in". we are okay in most aspects as i am sure you are, still, there is always room for improvement and that is a matter of expanding your skills and stores..
cheers pal
Jamby - Well food-wise we here would be alright although it would begin to get a bit boring after a few months. Livestock would be the real issue as we would run out of grain and pet food pretty quick. We have enough pasture to let the sheep graze on their own for a while and enough hay put up already to get by until Summer but they would be missing their grain. We are also nearing the end of our frozen meat as we butcher new Lambs usually in December I would have to do that myself but I can keep the freezers going indefinitely with the solar panels. I almost have enough wood laid back to last the Winter if I only use the stove and not the furnace so got that covered.
DeleteI think for many the hardest part would be keeping themselves locked away though.
PP - the locked away part would not be an issue for us - we actually HATE leaving home and we have so many interesting things to do to the house and the land - we really don't like leaving and only do so when we have to. but so many people can't stand being at home and alone with only their family - it makes me shake my head. me and jam spend a large majority of our time at home and alone with our 3 cats in a crappy little cottage and out roaming our land and working on projects - there's nowhere else we'd rather be. (well, except for the monthly dances that we actually look forward to. those are always a hoot. but heck - we even have our own dance nights here playing youtube videos of old 80's pop songs and early 90's techno. yep, we're absolute nutters. it's amazing that anyone else even can stand us.)
Deleteyour friend,
kymber
kymber - Oh I know you guys wouldn't have a problem I have seen it in your posts. I could stay at home alone for months myself and never go stir crazy. Why nine times out of ten I can't get the alone time I crave anyway. I actually look forward to those Winter storms that trap me here for days as mini vacations.
DeleteNot being able to feed the stray cats that have moved in might drive me crazy though.
Bugging in like that would be hard. I think it would be tricky - how would I pay my large mortgage? As I'd imagine things would have to get pretty bad before they'd stop taking the money out of our account and if you can't leave you can't earn much money from home.
ReplyDeleteSome tough questions in there. I think you'd have to have a a moat around your house to keep someone from wondering in to your property line! No way could you guard it all unless you've been making serious preparations. Also if people were asking for help could you turn them away? I sometimes think this is the bit of prepping people miss out. There's no way I could let my neighbours die around me and sit there smug in my house thinking about how much food I've got stored.
Kev - I try and ask the tough questions over and over. Most prepper blogs it seems these days are nothing more than some extension of social media which there is nothing wrong with that most readers don't really want to confront the tough issues anyway. What chips my a$$ though are the ones that people place some weight in as having merit but are giving feel good advice that will get people killed. You cannot face reality unless you are willing to ask and answer tough questions.
DeleteInt he case of mortgages I am not sure how long it would take for them to catch up to someone if everyone is in the same boat.
Refugees is a tough question and one I admit I have never been able to fully answer for myself let alone for others. An infected body on the porch would be a major issue as well.
Like I said I started this blog to hash out problems, show how I did things and get ideas in return. So I ask the tough questions. I can only hope the serious preppers see it as useful.
It's useful, and some questions I do think about, although I don't see myself as a serious prepper, just someone who is better preppared than most, although I still have LOTS to do - the food we have stored is laughable really, nothing of any amount due to our house being quite small, but that's a silly excuse and one I'm going to try and sort out.
DeleteI think you're right about the prepping forums and blogs, some are just laughable. They think they can shoot away their problems with one hand whilst eating their canned goods in the other. People are storing food they don't eat regularly and reading about skills they haven't practised yet think they can do it. I read a forum once about a guy that had marked up the sizes of his windows on the inside of his shed so if the SHTF then he could take down his shed, cut out the squares and board his windows up! You couldn't make that kind of thing up!
PP - you DO ask the tough questions and all of us appreciate it. for myself and jam, we think we have figured out OUR best plan for whatever entails...but we do not necessarily think it is the best plan for everyone. so we don't try to shove our ideas down anyone else's throats. they are our ideas and they work for us. i am not saying that you are trying to shove any ideas down anyone else's throats but sometimes i feel like you are indirectly trying to call people out. you can't. we stated in our very first blog post that the blog was for us, that we would not get too political, and that our blog was for our enjoyment - first and foremost. the mere fact that we got to meet the people that we have met, including you, from our blog - that's just icing on the cake!
Deletei just want you to understand that not all self-sufficiency type blogs are up to your standards of what you think a self-sufficiency blog should be. but don't discredit them...as all of them have much to teach. love you, ya nutter!
Kev - I know what you are saying my friend. One reason stuff like that irritates me is so often it isn't a mistake on someone's part as much as it is them simply trying to convince themselves really. It backfires when I see someone actually buying the advice and then feeling the silliness can expand. To each their own and all that but what if my neighbor is one who buys into the fairytale?
DeleteAww kymber it isn't so much being up to my standards as it is trying to make one's point. As I said above to each their own of course but if your base cause is to sift through the BS and get to the heart of the matter you have to call out the BS when you see it. I have had more than a few point out when I have gotten a little to emotional about an issue and passed into the realm of fantasy myself. Although some will deny it I have changed my opinion because of their smack downs from time to time.
DeleteIf it looks like I am indirectly referring to someone then I imagine it's cause they are hypocrites or claiming they are something other than what they really are. Which means they are refusing to face reality and worse leading others to the wrong ends. Now if I had anyone specific in mind rest assured I would name them. Fact is any one specific failing I might think of could be found in several places so trying to call someone out on it and not the others would be hard to justify and rude. Still one must generalize to get the point across.
I guess one of the most important things I could say is a collapse will put an end to certain ways of thinking and open up other sacred cows for slaughter. It might be best to identify them when you can.
yo buddy - i knew i could state my case and not get tarred and feathered here. i knew that you would accept my comment, and accept it in the vein that it was meant. i enjoy your calling out the BS but don't like it when you seem to be on the attach. we need you on the side of good....cha know mayn?
Deleteif we are all still around after the collapse, if it happens in our lifetime, we are all going to have to have read each other's blogs, learned as much as we could, and for better or for worse, understood other's points of view...if we are lucky. that's all i am trying to say. and i must admit that you are one of my favourite people to debate things with....because you actually debate. now THAT is saying something.
don't go getting yer head all blowed up from that comment ok? ya wiener? ( oh it NEVER, EVER gets old - bahahahahah!) xoxo
kymber - I am not easily offended nor do I make up reasons to act offended.
DeleteI do imagine that after the collapse we won't be having the internet though :(
No if I really wanted to take aim at anyone I would have been and certainly could have been much more specific and detailed in my criticism.
It would have left no doubt to whom I was referring.
You are not allowed to type the word Blowed up either unless Jamby gives permission :)
Your Internet comment is something else we need to think about. We all rely on it heavily, how much have you got written down or in books. Lately I've been using Google t instead of buying quite so many books (I'm still buying books though) so without it it would be a big resource lost. I think I need to update my written note book!
Deletejamby gave permission - and he also said not to get yer head all blowed up - bahahahah! love you wiener!
DeleteI have a fair library in hardcopy and the wife has printed out and bound a number of stuff for me over the years.
DeleteThe withdrawls from the internet would suck and be especially hard on my son though.
We all know the numbers leaking out are about 10% of reality. I think the mega cities are screwed. Another reason to live in rural America
ReplyDeleteRob - Amen Brother!!!
DeleteWe love being home and hate going to town. I grew up in the 40's when everybody canned everything. People nowadays have to have all the gadgets....we grew up without TV or even phones. (they were rare where we lived). I have made sure that my cats have enough food just like we do. They also hunt on our property. How are we going to demand anything? All the politicians, except for a very, very, few are on the take and just looking out for themselves. The judges have eroded many of our freedoms and we all whine and complain, but the tyranny continues to expand.
ReplyDeleteTewshooz - I will readily admit pet food is a weak link in my preps. Mostly because we keep getting more strays showing up and I have to keep increasing the amount I need to store.
DeleteI think though we are making progress. I posted a while back about the fact that even now I see locals doing things and getting away with stuff that they did for years but then it became illegal. Moving livestock by the roadway is one example. 3 or 4 years ago they would have gotten nailed but as the money runs out the BS enforcement and rights violations cannot be controlled as they once were.
One reason I am the type that preaches for us to keep our ideology and remain on the defensive. We are fighting back just not offensively right now and there is really no need to. The tyrants are defeating themselves. This ebola thing is just one example.
Actually the wife and I just discussed it and decided to pick up another six month supply at the minimum.
DeleteI think my comment about how one or two of them were about roasting size that did it.
P.p Speking just for myself one thing that really scared me is this outbreak has been running loose in West Africa since March and is only growing. That already 6 months that a person in Africa would need to stay away from people. If it follows a somewhat similar patter for growth we could be staying hunkered down all the way into next summer or longer. I doubt many could handle that and I know a few of my "comfort" supplies would run out! Fixing that next week!
ReplyDeleteThis has sure motivated me to upgrade my 1st Aid and sickroom preps!
MASR - As usual you see through the BS and to the core. I like that in a person and it is a prime survival trait.
DeleteThe only hope the Western world has of controlling this thing and something Africa didn't have (I assume) is that we maybe able to jump on the first few cases faster and get it stomped out. Some African village I am guessing didn't have that option.
Sf - Here here. Exactly. This is their one world MUlti-Cult coming back to bite em moment.
ReplyDeleteThe United States Government has a patent on an Enola strain. Don't know it that is the one surfacing now or not. I, too, have upgraded my sickroom supplies, just in case. I am also canning lots of the meat from our steer that is in the freezer. Would hate to lose all that if the power goes out for any length of time. I have sealed up dry cat food for long term storage in mylar bags with 02 absorbers. If push comes to shove, they (the cats) will eat canned hamburger just like us. Just got in a goodly supply of sprouting seeds for emergency greens.
ReplyDeleteTewshooz - Good idea canning the meat. I can keep my freezers going indefinitely with the solar panels and the battery bank I have but I won't be running anything else. We have about five buckets of pet food stored up but really need about twice that what with the new additions in stray barn cats.
DeleteI always try to have a backup plan. Wish we had solar panels, but that is not in the budget right now. We have generators, but that always means lots of fuel to store.
DeleteYes it does which is why I only count on my genny to get me through the unexpected power outages when I have the furnace going. It has to have electric or will more than likely burn its shelf out. Supposedly there is a damper that closes to allow the air to shut off but I don't place a lot of faith in that. I can run the freezers or the furnace on my battery bank but not both and if we get more than about five days of cloudy weather in a row I would have to shut em all down as the batteries would not be charged. If it's Winter chances are I could place most of the frozen stuff outside though for a bit.
DeleteI ran the numbers once and if I remember right to keep my genny going 24 hours a day for a month would take something like 100 gallons of fuel at a low drag. Too expensive for my survival.
Popular post.
ReplyDeleteI'd be more worried about having all three kids at home without an escape for me. Heck, I bought a generator for the winter power outages so that the TV and entertainment center would have juice. The refrigerator would get plugged in as well.
K - I can see your problem and I only had one child that age back in the day. I can't imagine three!!!
DeleteYou reminded me though I need to start up my genny this week.
K: I wonder if a kindle or kindle fire and a small solar panel or two might provide an entertainment option. I want to add a kindle fire because I have no idea how to sanitize a book, but you can wipe a kindle down with an alcohol soaked gauze pad to sanitize it.
DeleteI'm enjoying this post and the discussions it's created.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny we've got some friends that are going to The Gambia in West Africa on honeymoon next month. My wife, who is my voice of reason, said "well we won't be going to see them for a good few months when they get back!". I was thinking it but I didn't think she'd be thinking like that as well. It's nice when we're on the same wave length and I'm not having to persuade her.
Ken, PP always has posts that cause much discussion and include a variety of opinions and whatnot - it's why i call him my brother, and weiner (it Never gets old - bahahahah!). but his points on self-sustaining , femocrats, liberals, etc. are always spot-on. that's why he gets such good discussions going on here. but please, don't be fooled - he really is a Weiner - bahahahahahah! oh PP - i just couldn't help myself!!!!
ReplyDeleteYa ya Trenchie...
Deletelisten you...don't make me have to get out the boots. i mean it, ya wiener. never gets old buddy...and always makes me giggle - bahahahahah!
DeleteWhat is it with the "prepper advice" blogs that they are forever reviewing knives?
ReplyDelete