The Preppers Next Door - why we prepare.

 This article was inspired by a New Zealand Geographic article written by Tom Doig titled The Preppers Next Door. The link to his full article is here - The preppers next door | New Zealand Geographic (nzgeo.com) and it's well worth a read.

It got me thinking that it could make an interesting article if I was to write about what started my journey - on the road to becoming a dedicated prepper.

I belong to and facilitate/help to guide a group of around 20 preppers from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We are at various stages in our preparedness journey with some having a lot of experience, who have been prepping for years, and others who only came onboard during the recent Covid pandemic response.

In my case, my eyes were first opened to the need to be prepared yourself rather than to rely on the authorities when I saw the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 and how the people were pretty much left to fend for themselves, with those who did get taken into badly prepared and ill equipped FEMA emergency centres being subjected to rape, theft and other acts of violence.

However, it wasn't until the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 (that my eldest son got caught up in) that I realized that New Zealand authorities were about as far behind the 8 ball as their American counterparts. This was the point at which I decided that it would be sensible to put together some emergency supplies and a bug out bag/grab bag/go bag (it goes by so many different names) to pick up on the way out of the door if we needed to evacuate.

It was also around this time that I came across the National Geographic TV series "Doomsday Preppers" which I found to be compelling viewing. Unfortunately, most of the Preppers that the series featured were chosen in order to make "entertaining TV" rather than to disseminate useful information.  This naturally gave the prepping lifestyle a bad name, making them look like unhinged, gun toting rednecks. Even so, I was able to distinguish between useful information and TV spectacle particularly when reputable preppers like Dave Kobler aka "Southern Prepper 1" had their turn. Dave has his own YouTube channel as Southern Prepper 1 and it is well worth a look, as he has posted a wealth of information since he began on YouTube in 2010. He is a prepper who believes in the importance of community and has a military background with several overseas tours of duty under his belt and, in my opinion, integrity. He knows what he's talking about and has a level head.  A link to his channel on YouTube is here - (108) southernprepper1 - YouTube

Getting back to the Christchurch earthquakes - and also the Kaikura quake of 2016 - it became clear that the authorities were always slow off the mark and most of the early disaster relief work was done by the people on the ground who were affected by the quakes themselves. The Christchurch Student Army are a good example of that. If you look up Christchurch Student Army on Google it will come up with this - "The Student Volunteer Army (SVA) is a New Zealand student movement born from a Facebook page started following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The network has no military affiliation and is focused on facilitating community action through youth engagement, preparing for disasters, and service. The clubs and volunteers are supported by the Volunteer Army Foundation (VAF)."

I'm pleased to say that my son and his friends were there with shovels, shifting mud, silt and other debris after the Christchurch quakes.

My primary reason for prepping was as a way to prepare my family to survive and thrive in a natural disaster situation - be it an earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood, super storm, drought or wildfire event. Also, under the natural disaster heading, you could include things like EMP's (electromagnetic pulse such as occurs during solar flares) and impact events such as a meteorite or other space junk impact. We are situated near Hastings in Hawke's Bay on New Zealand's north island's east coast. This puts us in close proximity to the Hikurangi Subduction zone, which is a slow slip fault line that has been tagged by experts in the field as being able to produce a quake with a potential 8 or 9 plus on the Richter Scale - something like the one at Fukushima Japan in 2011 that not only produced a massive 9.0 quake but also an equally massive tsunami, the result being over 18,000 deaths, the wiping of entire towns off the map, and the failure of a nuclear power plant - Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear Meltdown....the holy trinity of prepping! 

Another major fault line here in New Zealand - which is overdue a big earthquake event - is the Alpine fault which runs up the west coast of the south island beneath the southern Alps. Being on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, New Zealand is vulnerable to earthquakes which has earned it the nickname of "The Shakey Isles" and is why earthquakes are my premier reason for being a prepper.

The Covid pandemic of 2020 onwards (or the NZ Government response to said pandemic) was the next event that made my list of why I prepare. Initially the pandemic was made out to be far more deadly than it turned out to be with fearmongering on state media broadcasts depicting people in China dropping dead in the streets. In the end it was little worse than the flu for people who were in general good health and didn't have any other existing medical conditions. The government response though demonstrated to me the ways that authorities can overreach their level of control over NZ citizens. Anyone who questioned the official line or refused to take the experimental shot in the arm was deemed to be a threat to the public and was shunned or threatened with loss of income if they didn't comply. So called vaccination passports meant that the unvaccinated were not allowed into certain businesses and travel restrictions were also imposed on them - giving the status of 2nd class citizens. I myself was branded a conspiracy theorist even though the majority of the things that I warned people about have actually, in retrospect, been proven to be true. 

Anyway...don't get me started on a rant. Let's just say that government overreach made my list. My concern being that if this is how they operate for a flu pandemic, what lengths are they capable of going to for something that is genuinely more serious? 

The disarming of citizens thanks to the Christchurch Mosque shootings of 2019 have added another level of governmental control. An unarmed citizenry being far easier to push around that those who are armed.

The current Geo-Political situations in several parts of the world - Russia/Ukraine, China/Taiwan, Israel/Iran/Palestine, several events on the African continent are all reasons why the potential for an escalation to World War 3 - or anything that could result in a foreign invasion of our shores - could make it onto people's reasons to prepare list. But I also prepare for less spectacular events, but no less devastating on a personal level, such as ill health, job loss, change in lifestyle or anything else that can affect our financial stability/income.

I have first-hand experience of this as I have had gradual declining mobility due to having an arthritic hip joint. My level of mobility declined over a period of several years, limiting my ability to work, tend my garden, go for walks or cycle. Thankfully in July 2023 I had surgery for a full hip replacement and have regained full mobility in that hip joint. However, my other hip is also deteriorating so I am hoping to get that one fixed as well. This is why I now consider overall health and wellbeing to be my most important prep. Without your health and full mobility, you're going to struggle in a SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan) event. Everything I now do is aimed at reaching my full potential heath wise.

Whilst a Zombie Apocalypse is not on my list of reasons to prepare, I must just mention that if you are really prepared for such an event, then you're pretty much covered for all other events. I say this only half joking.

So, what have I done - or I should say what have we done - over the last 10 or more years to prepare for the events I have mentioned above?

The best way to prepare is to follow the Prepping Pillars mentioned in my earlier posts, beginning with water. We have a supply of drinking water in our prepper store of about 150 litres - in a combination of 15 litre and 5 litre plastic containers - which we change every 6 months to be sure of freshness. We also have around 4,000 litres of rainwater collected off our roof, which can be used to water the gardens or can be made suitable for drinking by filtering, boiling or chemical treatment. We have an individual personal filter each and also a benchtop water filter purchased from Waters Co NZ. - New Zealand's Best Water Filter Systems | Water Filtration System (waters.co.nz) - We do not get any kickbacks for any of the products that I mention in this article by the way. I just recommend items that we have tried, tested and found to be of a good quality.

Next thing is Food. We have a prepper pantry of tinned and dried foods that will see us through a 6 month period, plus jars of produce that we have canned/bottled ourselves from what we have grown in our extensive vegetable garden. And of course we have fresh vegetables and fruit seasonally from the garden. Having lost some of this produce due to the recent adverse weather conditions we are now developing more raised bed gardens and also building and using more planter boxes. We currently have 14 raised bed gardens, 10 planter boxes and over 30 fruit and nut trees but will continue to add to this. We don't produce any meat or eggs on site, but do have a local supplier for eggs and raw organic milk (that we have made into yogurt and cheese) and we also have a couple of local sources for venison and beef. Much of the dried grains and veg that we store have been vacuum sealed to add to their shelf life. You don't have to spend a fortune on a vacuum sealer - ours was bought from Kmart for less than $80. The link is here - Vacuum Food Sealer Machine - Kmart

Shelter is next and a tent makes a good emergency shelter if you need to bug out. Again, you don't have to spend a fortune in order to buy an adequate tent, but a really good quality tent can cost a small fortune. We have bought a couple of cheapies - again from Kmart. One being a 4-person dome tent for less than $50, and a better quality 6-person cabin style tent for less than $160. Link to the 6-person tent is here - 6 Person Instant Tent - Kmart I must emphasize that you do get what you pay for, and the quality of these tents is not superb compared to far more expensive ones, BUT in an emergency situation they will suffice, and you will be happy to have them rather than have to camp out completely exposed to the elements. Kmart can be a great place for preppers on a budget to get their bases covered quickly and cheaply. The cheap items can be replaced further down the line if or when money permits. Some items though will stand the test of time and show you that cheap doesn't always equal poor quality.

Heat and Cooking. Most preppers try to cover their basic needs multiple ways, so that if something is lost, fails, or wears out, they have other things that can be used in their place. For cooking we have an LPG powered gas BBQ, but we also have the option of a wood fueled BBQ, a wood fueled "Rocket" stove and butane fueled camping stoves. The butane camp stoves are what we used mostly during the recent cyclone, when we lost electrical power for 7 days. They are cheap to buy, very user friendly and relatively safe to use indoors and out. (see my previous post "Cyclone Gabrielle - Prepping - What worked and what didn't"). These stoves can be bought from any number of places and the prices vary widely. As far as I can tell, at the moment, one of the best bargains is at Bunnings Warehouse. These Gasmate butane stoves used to be priced around the $20 mark, but since the cyclone and also because of inflation you will struggle to get them for under $30 except at Bunnings Warehouse $28.50, Mitre10 who stock their number 8 brand stove for $29 and Kmart who stock a similar quality Campmaster stove for $29.00. The butane cannisters rage in price depending on where you buy them and the price is in constant flux due to supply and demand. The last lot we bought at Bunnings were $6.00 for a pack of 4 - just a couple of months ago, but these have jumped up to $7.24 at the time of writing this. Likewise K.Mart used to sell a 3 pack for $4.50 but this has jumped to $5.50. They are still affordable options for short term events.

It's also important to have several methods of lighting fires or creating an initial spark at your disposal - such as, matches, lighters, flint and steel, ferro-rods, magnesium fire starters, magnifying glass etc. We also have the materials to make a solar oven - but since we have yet to make and test it, I can't comment further at this time. 

Lighting - any number of options are available to you for emergency lighting, with glow-sticks, candles, torches, headlamps, solar lamps, oil lanterns, gas lanterns, various LED lighting systems - and more. We have a number of these, but found that during the cyclone the Powertech Solar Recharge LED Light Kit that we bought from Jaycar New Zealand - link here - Solar Recharge LED Light Kit | Jaycar Electronics New Zealand was great for our needs. You get a small but adequate solar panel, a portable power station with 2 LED work lights which are very bright - plus 3 x LED lights, each on 5 metres of wire that can be plugged into the unit to light up 3 separate rooms or light up 3 areas of a large room. These are not as bright as the work lights, but will provide enough illumination for you to see to do most tasks, and if you sit close to them, they are also suitable for reading with. At various times I have seen these advertised at anything between $89 and $120 at Jaycar. Currently they are on sale for $99.90 so I may buy another set as a back-up. You can charge the power bank up using solar or from the mains.

With regard to communications - we have yet to come up with an ideal replacement for the ubiquitous cell phone as far as coverage goes. We have purchased UHF transceiver radios from both Jaycar and Supercheap Autos in the past. But at the time of writing, neither has anything on special that I can recommend. A few years ago we bought a pair of 2Watt Oricom brand UHF walkie talkies from Supercheap, for less than $150, that work ok over short distances and more recently a pair of 5Watt Digitech walkie talkies from Jaycar - on special at that time for $399.00 - which cover a wider range but are still pretty much local use only, "line of sight" radios. A 5Watt CB UHF base station with a roof mounted aerial will give us a better range. Ideally a Ham Radio and licence is the way to go for serious Preppers. This will allow you to both receive and transmit locally and around the world, but the cost of equipment can run into the thousands of dollars, so for now this is not an option for us. At the very least I would suggest you have a basic AM/FM/Short Wave radio which works on batteries or other non-mains source of power.

Sanitation or what to do with human waste in a SHTF event is a major health issue. Short term you may look at getting a chemical camping toilet. We have one but have never used it - preferring instead to use a composting toilet. A lot of people are put off by the idea of a composting toilet, but when done correctly, it is an easy and healthy alternative - with little to no smell. A basic "Boom Bucket" can be had for less than $40 at Supercheap Auto - link here - Portable Toilet Bucket with Seat Lid | Supercheap Auto New Zealand

There are plenty of articles and books available online about how to make a composting toilet and how to make best use of the "humanure" compost. Use Google or DuckDuckGo to search for free PDF files.

First Aid kits - I normally don't recommend buying pre-made first aid kits, but prefer instead to build my own over several months and years, using commercially available items along with homemade natural remedies. However, I lent my car to my son and daughter-in-law recently and wanted a basic first aid kit to put into the car's glovebox, so that they would have something in case they needed it. I found a fairly good pre-made kit at Chemist Warehouse - link here - Buy Chemist Warehouse D3 First Aid Kit Online at Chemist Warehouse® for just under $35.00 that I thought was quite a good deal. I added some basic painkillers to the kit and some salve. 

Security is next on the list and can be a bone of contention for some people who are beginning their journey in the world of disaster preparedness. Some folk due to either religious or personal beliefs say that they could never use force, particularly lethal force on another person even in defence of themselves or other family members. I respect that, but at the same time they need to acknowledge that they are no longer prepping for their family but are saying that they are willing to act as a free source of food and equipment for the first bunch of home invaders after a SHTF event. This may sound callous of me but I'm just stating a fact. Unless you are willing (even reluctantly) to physically protect your family, yourself and your possessions by using whatever force is required at the time, you're wasting your time in preparing to survive a true long term SHTF event. You'll be OK for short term events where law and order are still operating but in a long term, major SHTF event where law and order has crumbled and there is no rule of law, you had better be prepared to pick up something that you can use as a weapon to defend you and yours. Firearms would probably be your best bet - IF you have or can obtain a firearms licence. But if that is not an option look for other lethal weapons that don't need to be registered with the authorities - for example bows and arrows, crossbows and the like. Similar to firearms these can be used to keep people who would do you harm at a distance. Otherwise, other weapons can be used at close range - arm's length - a variety of melee weapons could be considered ranging from the lethal to none-lethal. A spear, axe, hatchet, tomahawk, machete/scrub cutter, any other long bladed knife, a baseball bat, pick axe handle, a hammer, crowbar/prybar.... this list is only limited by your imagination and your willingness, or lack of, to get up close and personal with your attackers.

Here in New Zealand commercially produced pepper spray/bear spray is illegal and so not available but you could make your own using Carolina Reaper or Dragon's Breath chili/capsicum and design your own method of delivering the resultant spray into the face of your attacker. Do a search on YouTube for inspiration. Similarly, tasers are not available to the public here in NZ, but again take a look online for ways to make your own.....but please be careful. Air rifles and pistols are also an option for defence and may be enough to drive off a halfhearted attack but any determined attacker, unless you are very lucky with your aim and hit a vital spot, will not be put down or stopped by a .177 or .22 pellet.

Just a disclaimer here - I am NOT advocating for violence to be used under normal conditions, only in a post SHTF "without rule of law" situation where your life or that of a loved one is at stake. Under normal circumstances the best option, if at all possible, is to remove yourself and your family away from danger/confrontation to a prearranged safe room in your home, barricade yourselves in and phone the police. (I have to put this in for legal reasons).

Other considerations are Transport, Power and Finances.

Do you have another means of transport other than your car/motorcycle or other petrol/diesel powered vehicle?  Will your budget allow for a battery powered car, or an e-bike? Do you have the space and the knowledge to keep and ride a horse? At the very least buy a basic bicycle for your emergency means of getting from A to B, or a hand-cart to take the weight of your possessions if your only option is to walk to a safer location.

Power - these days we are used to all the benefits and comfort of a 24/7 supply of electricity from the power grid straight to our homes. BUT what if that power supply is unavailable - for a few hours, a few days or months on end? What will you do? Will you adapt to life without electricity, or do you have an alternate source of power? Most people who get into alternative power opt for a whole home solar power system - either stand alone or linked to the grid. If you go the way of linking it to the grid, make sure to have a back-up battery bank as well, otherwise when the grid goes down, so will your system. Of course the short coming for solar is a low power supply on cloudy/overcast/rainy days, so another option to accompany your solar array would be a good idea. This could be in the form of a wind turbine, hydro (if you have a water source nearby with a natural fall), a petrol/diesel/LPG powered generator (as long as you have the fuel to run it on). There are other less known alternatives such as engineering a wood gasifier - there are also a number of suppressed methods of providing power - do your own research online as I can't vouch, hand on heart, for any of them as I haven't tried them myself.

Finances - again for this please do your own research - I am not a financial adviser so can't say which is the best option for you. A lot of preppers swear by precious metals - Gold and Silver mostly, along with jewelry in some cases. E-money such as Bitcoin is another popular choice although I have concerns about what happens to your wealth in Bitcoin if the power goes down or the account gets hacked? Short term, post SHTF cash will be king and will be able to be used in shops and between individuals to buy supplies when electronic transfers of cash - cards/eftpos etc. can't be used. So definitely try to amass a supply of cash that you can keep in a secure place on your property - away from the conventional banking system. But in a prolonged grid down situation, once people understand that the old way of doing things has ended and cash isn't worth the paper (or plastic) that it's printed on, it will cease to be an option and perhaps the bartering of one object for another, or your labour for an item or someone else's labour will become the way to trade. Other options such as individual communities' own version of cash could work but needs a large degree of trust that the new promissory notes will be honoured  - something that may be stretched rather thin post SHFT.

Other than the specific equipment that I have mentioned, the sky is the limit when it comes to being prepared and the Prepper Gear that you collect is limited only by your budget and your imagination. I would suggest you have some protective clothing and a respirator of some sort. You don't need to go for the full NATO style gasmask and NBC filters but if you can afford to, they are nice to have.

Our world seems to be becoming more unstable both politically and economically, so now has never been a better time to start preparing. Follow the Pillars of Prepping and you won't go far wrong. Join a Prepper Group for a good way to get advice and share ideas....for mutual assistance and for safety in numbers.

Good luck, stay safe, be prepared - but do not get sucked in by all the "fear porn" that the media push.

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