Shhhh.... Don't tell anyone ... I'm a "Prepper"

Preppers and Survivalists have taken a hit since the tragedy in Connecticut.  In light of that, I thought I should explain my personal thoughts on "prepping".

I'm a "SHTF" (Shit Hit The Fan) kind of prepper. I think Hurricane Sandy is a good example of SHTF. In our area Rainier might decide to go boom or a we could have a nasty earthquake or ice storm that could leave us without power and no way of getting out of our home to obtain food or alternate shelter. We need to be ready to "Shelter in Place" to survive that kind of scenario.  There could be a forest fire (as there were so many last summer; one not far from here). We need to be prepared to "Bug Out" if our home were in jeopardy.


I am a "Survivalist", but I'm not a "stockpiling tons of food and munitions in preparation for "TEOTWAWKI" (The End Of The World As We Know It)" kind of survivalist". I believe that TEOTWAWKI has already happened; about 100 years ago when we started spewing crap into the atmosphere, polluted the oceans and cut down the rain forests.  As Jake Sully explained to Eywa in James Cameron's brilliant movie, "Avatar" ... "They poisoned their Mother."  I believe that all we can do now is learn to survive in a world that is going to become much warmer much faster than it ever has before (Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization reached the Environmental Point of No Return?)  I don't think stockpiling food (other than enough to get you past a SHFT event) and large quantities of munitions is going to help ... we're in this for the long haul.  Our children and, even more so, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to reap what we have sown.  I think it is our duty to develop and teach them the skills that will help them survive it.  We need to learn to make do with less, get back to basics, become self sufficient and form communities that can help each other.

I'm working on a series of blog posts about preparedness and survival.  Some will be SHTF kind of preparing and others will be about "Surviving TEOTWAWKI"  (actually I've been doing that all along ... gardening ... frugal, seasonal recipes ... hearth side cooking ... those are all part of my plan for surviving). Today I'd like to give you a short photo essay on our generator set up, part of our SHTF preparedness ...

The area where we live is prone to ice storms and heavy, wet snowfalls that often take out the power ... sometimes for more than a week.  We have two generators, actually.  A gas powered one for a backup and our primary generator ...

This sits out on our back porch and is fairly well "theft proofed". It is hard wired into the house ... this is the electrical panel on the other side of the wall ...

All I have to do is flip one switch and push a button and the house is on backup power that will run the furnace, the refrigerator and freezers, the well pump and provides power to several outlets in the house.  Since we heat the house with our wood fireplace in the winter we would probably not need to run the furnace, so I figure our fuel supply for the generator will last us quite a while ...

... a 500 gallon propane tank.

Have you thought about backup power in case of a long term power outage?  Would a system like this work for you?  I hope this will get you thinking about it ...

Enjoy!