For all of the valuable and intelligent information that I have found here.  My wife and I have just recently started putting up a few preps here and there (well mostly me but she does support it).  I've been shocked to see just how many preps I have been able to put up over the last two months.  Right now we have enough put away to support our family of five for 3 to 4 weeks but that is a far cry from 3 to 4 DAYS we used to operate on.  It's amazing how the mind works...it seems I'm always on the look out for potential prep items for low cost.  I've had my eye on some 3 day survival kits at Costo for some time.  Today I looked at them again and they were down to $4.95 each.  I picked up one and will going back for four more tomorrow.  The zippered case it came in was worth the cost but it also contained 5 year shelf life water and nutrition bar.  I've added a few items to it and it's going in the truck in my ghb.  So thank you all for the knowledge that you have shared....my family is much better off for it.  

I would like to ditto the above comment. Thank you for your knowlege and the time you all take to post it. How much influence do you have over the lurkers? I just moved to Idaho this month because of the topics found here!

as is mine.  

there's a whole lot of wisdom in here, and I've benefitted from it greatly.  

Absolutely puts you in a different mindset. Just remember to take it slow and don't burn yourself out!

We've seen quite a few posts about forgeting to still live and enjoy life while keeping a prepared mindset.

Keep up the good work and kudos to the wife for supporting you

IN before the quote
Welcome to the SF

Quoted:
Prepare for the most likely first and the least likely last.

So you ask; what is the most likely event?

Quoted:
Start by thinking back over the last 20 years of your life and what emergencies you faced. Things like:

flood
loss of employment
fire
tornado
blizzard
loss of electricity
car died out on the road (happened to me tonight 15 miles out of town - 15 degrees and very windy out)
etc.

these are things that will probably happen again. take steps to deal with those problems first.

SF Current events—ongoing or happened within the last 6 months to SF members:
1 SFer recovering from a week in the hospital
3 SF members that are recovering from job loss.
2 SF members have vehicles disabled by auto crashes over Christmas

SF History—has been posted in SF since I found the SF:
homes lost to fire posted here in SF
4 or more BOVs totaled by accident
5 now 7 or more new little SFers born
2 or more little Sfers on the way—ya’ll better tell us when these kids are delivered.
Visits to the ER due to infection, injury, and insect sting allergy
5 or more hurricanes

Do you have a plan for;
fire?
severe weather?
pregnancy?
job loss?
vehicle loss?

How should you live your life now that you are a survivalist?

Quoted:
Live like "it" will never happen, prep like "it" will.

Who’s who of the SF (please forgive me if I don’t spell all the names perfectly)
Frank Squid—posts occasionally one of the founders or the founder of SF
TomJefferson(TJ)—top moderator of SF and poster SF family.  TJ is a great source of wisdom and stories.
Paul—suburban SFing and expedition offroading.
Halffast—author of some well known fiction
Feral—homesteading or farming.
frozenny—financial survival.
Protus—apartment survivalism and outdoor skills
die-tryin(dt or DT)—poster BOV of  SF
Ops—lived SF for decades, poster SF family
1bigbunker—builds houses
Ferfal308—he’s living through a collapse in another country
biere—general knowledge
donne3—mom to a bunch of SFers
CJan_NH—generator use and the poster AR15 spare parts kit

There are others, but I have not caught the above posters posting trash or foolishness.

Acronym translator;
SF—this survival forum
BOB—Bug Out Bag; also BHB—Bug Home Bag
BOV—Bug Out vehicle
IMHO—In My Humble Opinion
YMMV—Your Mileage May Vary

Welcome to the SF

Every new prepper is a benefit to all the others. One less desperate mouth to feed in an emergency.


welcome!

So since I don't post here much, I will take this space to Thank the SF regulars. I appreciate what you do and I read what you write. You know who you are, but I would like to name a few of you for a special thank you, because of something useful that helped me personally. Listed as I remembered you, not in order of importance.

TJ
Feral
rusteerooster
ops
douglasmorris99
PA22-400
Die-tryin
FordGuy
protus
waldo
halffast
batmanacw
CJan_NH
Dedhorse
uncool
tayous1
Taft
Badlatitude
donne3
HardShell

I know I've forgotten a few.