From Zero To Basic Preparations In Six Months
I wrote a previous post about how I became a neo-survivalist, but I’d like to briefly mention why I started prepping. The reality is that I’ve been skeptical on the economy for a few years. In 2008, I became very bearish on the overall economic future of America and the more I’ve learned over the years, the more I’ve realized it’s probably worse than I originally thought. The real tipping point was learning things like the fragility of supply chains which can easily lead to food shortages. Additionally, learning about the fragility of society when it comes to crime, disorder, and violence. I figured I needed some basic preparations in case things went somewhat haywire.
There were essentially three main areas that needed to be addressed. A fourth, financial preparations, was already on my mind and I had already taken steps in that area. The three that I needed to start focusing on was defense, food, and water. Six months ago, I started this process.
Defense
I didn’t own a gun and I’ve only shot a few firearms in my life. It was time to get a gun and learn how to shoot. I took a basic handgun class that allowed me to get my concealed weapons permit in the state of Florida. The class was great and basically went over all the laws and situations where you can defend yourself (very valuable information). Since I had some experience with the Beretta PX4 Storm 9mm handgun, I decided to purchase it. While there might be better options or better priced options, I decided to go with what I knew. After all, I just felt like I needed to get started rather than agonizing over the perfect gun. The gun is great and I’ve shot enough rounds now to be moderately skilled with it – enough to defend myself. Next up, probably a shotgun and soon.
Food
In order to start a food supply, I decided to buy some Value Buckets from the Ready Store of some staples. It’s not the best priced storage items, but I needed to get an anchor of my food supply. I’ve also supplemented it with several #10 cans of various items. All of these items have a 20+ year shelf life so you can very easily get a six month supply of food that last 20 years. Now, that is insurance.
Water
I’ve bought a good amount of water purification tablets and also about 12 gallons of stored water – while this wouldn’t last long, it is a nice thing to have in addition to many water sources available (water heater, my neighbor’s pool, etc.). My next purchase probably before any other item will be a water filter which is a definite must.
The three items of defense, food, and water are by no means “checked off” but you can see how a newbie to the survivalist game can go from nothing to some basic preps to where I can handle some moderate disruptions to life. In terms of taking it to the next level, there are many things to acquire and many things to learn. It is a journey. Underrated in this entire journey are the skills and general knowledge that you pick up once your mindset changes on this topic. You start to see mundane tasks differently, you start to want to learn how to do more things and increase your abilities on basic things in life.
Moving forward, I will probably continue to accumulate food supplies, a water filter, and additional firearms (Mossberg shotgun is likely). Another item that I’ve been continuously on the hunt for is a generator. Living in Florida with hurricane risk, a generator is a pretty good item to have. I’m constantly trolling craigslist for such an item. I’d like to read a few books on various topics and potentially get some basic medical training. As always, I will continue to update you on my journey in hopes that it helps someone else in a similar situation.
The Beretta PX4 Storm in 9mm is an excellent choice for a self defense arm. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of people that will tell you that the 9mm isn’t enough, but, if you use some open hollow points with it, the knockdown is pretty good. The same bullet diameter and velocity was good enough for the police for at least 40 years. Though I have in the past recommended the starting point being a shotgun it has the disadvantage of not being portable. Post SHTF the shotgun is the important piece, Pre-SHTF the Beretta is probably the more flexible gun. Your shotgun find is excellent. The Remington 870 and the Mossberg 500 are both Military and Police standards. But, don’t rule out the Winchester 1300 and some of the H&R or NEF singles and backups.
In my firearms article I covered what I needed on my moderately rural 30 acre patch of green. In a urban or suburban situation the need for utility firearms is probably nearly non-existent while there is the increased need for self defense that goes way up.
As far as food goes, I started looking at everything we were eating. I found that much of it was non-perishable. 1 year ago I put up some shelves and started buying extra. I’ve been greatly influenced by the store-what-you-eat / eat-what-you-store advocates for a couple reasons. Mainly economics. Not only does it give you a food supply, it does it fairly quickly and financially its very easy on you. It disadvantage is that is a management problem. You don’t have to worry about managing your supply of survival food. It just pretty much sits there.
I’ve got some of that, but mostly, I store what I eat.
On generators: Years ago (during the Y2K scare) I decided that I needed a genny. I wanted something as small as possible for the fuel efficiency but big enough to run my well pump. I ended up with a Honda 3500. I even got the electric start option (a $400 option. A waste! Hondas are so easy to start, my 8 year old daughter could cold start it!) The generator was very expensive but a good investment. At the time it was $2100. I wired it in so I could throw my mains and put 220 right back on my distribution buss. Runs my well pump easy. I replaced the 4800 watt elements in my 40gal water heater with 2600 watt elements (only 1 runs at a time) and I’m set. I’ve used it a few times. Its a valuable asset when things go down. There are many more cheaper alternatives now. If you want to be fully “generatored” I recommend getting a very small one of the inverter type – 1000 to 3000 watts and then a larger one for big power, 5000 or larger. This give you maximum flexibility to run electronics and lights with the smaller efficiency one for longer intervals and gives you a high powered on for big things like well pumps, heaters, dryers or ovens.
Good luck with your choices.