Is "preparedness" a state of mind?

[Laurentius]

I would think that a certain form of obsessive or cult like prepping could easily lead to a state of mind of over assurance that you will survive in a crisis. That kind of over confidence is equally as dangerous a state of mind to thinking that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

 

[DariqWosh]

Preparedness starts as a mindset—it’s that constant 'what if?' scan that rewires how you see risks and resources. But without daily rehearsals and tested gear, it’s just anxiety dressed in camo.

 

[TeeDee]

I would think that a certain form of obsessive or cult like prepping could easily lead to a state of mind of over assurance that you will survive in a crisis. That kind of over confidence is equally as dangerous a state of mind to thinking that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

Preparedness starts as a mindset—it’s that constant 'what if?' scan that rewires how you see risks and resources. But without daily rehearsals and tested gear, it’s just anxiety dressed in camo.

So with regards to how much time and effort is invested or spent into 'healthy' - is this mindset the inverse of Normalcy Bias ?

Which doesn't quite answer where it may come from as route source.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Years ago, on Blade Forums, I think it was Don Rearic observed that guys that stock pile food, gear and weapons and practiced survival techniques, would not have book shelves screwed to walls or an anti-slip mat in the shower.

 

[DariqWosh]

So with regards to how much time and effort is invested or spent into 'healthy' - is this mindset the inverse of Normalcy Bias ?

Which doesn't quite answer where it may come from as route source.

healthy preparedness isn’t the absence of Normalcy Bias, but the constant recalibration between complacency and overconfidence. True resilience lives in that tension: questioning your gear’s limits during drills while accepting that no plan survives first contact with chaos.

In my mind it makes sense, I guess?

 

[Laurentius]

The overly optimistic will start off to climb Snowdon in a pair of shorts and sandals, if the weather stays fine they will probably be alright. The sensibly cautious will be wearing suitable footwear and be carrying an extra layer of waterproof clothing and plenty of water, they know the score. The paranoid will be overdressed and carrying a tent and a weeks supply of rations, they will never get to the top as they will be worn out long before they get anywhere near.

 

[Aristotle]

"Be prepared"

....but do not be overly-encumbered and spend your whole life on it.

If "Prepping" is your hobby, and basically an end in itself, just admit it.

The best "preparation" for life is to look after your health, keep yourself in reasonably good physical condition and capable of looking after/helping/rescuing yourself and others.

"Be Strong to Be Useful"

Have a bit of non-perishable food, lanterns, torches in useful places, don't wait until you run out of consumables before buying more.

Over the years, learn to be self-reliant, resilient and practice useful "life" skills.

Be capable of operating if the power, mobile network or internet(!) goes off.

Be the useful person that people ask for help.

 

[Broch]

Coincidently, we've just had a 1.5 hour power cut (no idea why, there are no storms or anything near us). We've just got back from a trek so coffee made on the Jetboil seemed normal

 

[Pattree]

Coincidentally

That is our hedge at the top of the picture.



Lost Wi-Fi for the day. Couldn’t talk to you guys but otherwise no problems. People who wanted to contact visited or called family.
I have no idea whether having a family system is called “preparedness” but we have each others backs.

Currently operating without fiber optics, around ASDL speeds - just takes patience.

 

[TeeDee]

For those of you ( and this is a chance to flex and feel smug ) that have taken steps to get a back up genny or bottled gas or PV battery etc
How easy is it for you to have the power system put online?

ie Is it a question of grabbing the genny from the barn/shed and manually plugging in leads and topping up the fuel and then away you go ? or is it more automated than that ? automatic start without any interaction from oneself and you can carry on watching antique roadshow without getting out of your chair?

If the latter -how easy to achieve? Key words for an electrician to understand etc

 

[Chris]

Coincidentally
View attachment 95926
That is our hedge at the top of the picture.

View attachment 95927

Lost Wi-Fi for the day. Couldn’t talk to you guys but otherwise no problems. People who wanted to contact visited or called family.
I have no idea whether having a family system is called “preparedness” but we have each others backs.

Currently operating without fiber optics, around ASDL speeds - just takes patience.

Can’t park there, mate!

Hope everyone was OK and your fibre optics get a hasty repair.

 

[Broch]

For those of you ( and this is a chance to flex and feel smug ) that have taken steps to get a back up genny or bottled gas or PV battery etc
How easy is it for you to have the power system put online?

ie Is it a question of grabbing the genny from the barn/shed and manually plugging in leads and topping up the fuel and then away you go ? or is it more automated than that ? automatic start without any interaction from oneself and you can carry on watching antique roadshow without getting out of your chair?

If the latter -how easy to achieve? Key words for an electrician to understand etc

Manual system. The genny is under a bench at the back of the garage with a permanent exhaust pipe through the wall. It's the furthest distance from the house and we can barely hear it when running. I have to disconnect the mains power input to the house (to protect anyone working on the line) before plugging it in to a 13kw line to supply the house. That gives us our water back, the capability of running the heating pump, and the ability to boil kettles etc. The genny is 5.5kw so would not support our full cooking hob and ovens (the wok ring alone is 7kw) but we have other ways of cooking.

I only have a low voltage DC solar system at the moment, but with LED lighting, that's more than enough for an 'emergency'.

Considering my company designed and marketed automated power monitoring, switching, and control systems that all may seem a bit strange but it satisfies our needs and is simple to run.

 

[Toddy]

I think that's such a practical look at it. It's enough and it's simple to run/maintain.

We can get by with a lot less than we use everyday, but safe water, the roof sound, feet dry, enough power one way or t'other to run enough electrics for phones, etc., dinner sorted, and life goes on.

My life is very suburban now. I have an M&S supermarket, a Tesco, within five minutes walk, if I go to ten, then I have another three, if twenty then there's everything from Sainsbury's to B&M's and Asda.
Yet I still keep a pantry and I live surrounded by trees and I forage and prep and store in season.

I think it is a mindset. I think it's a healthy mindset..

 

[GreyCat]

For those of you ( and this is a chance to flex and feel smug ) that have taken steps to get a back up genny or bottled gas or PV battery etc
How easy is it for you to have the power system put online?

ie Is it a question of grabbing the genny from the barn/shed and manually plugging in leads and topping up the fuel and then away you go ? or is it more automated than that ? automatic start without any interaction from oneself and you can carry on watching antique roadshow without getting out of your chair?

If the latter -how easy to achieve? Key words for an electrician to understand etc

Changeover switch with external input socket. We had one put in when the new place was rewired, pretty standard around here and low extra cost when done during a rewire so worth doing whilst we were at it- as a bit of future-proofing. (Shouldn't be plugging a gennie into house circuits without a proper changeover switch as it can electrocute the people repairing the lines). Gennie would plug into an external blue plug type socket. It's a manual thing in our case.

Short-term connectivity backup is Ecoflow to power the Starlink. Just a case of moving the Starlink plug from the wall to the Ecoflow.

GC

 

[Broch]

(Shouldn't be plugging a gennie into house circuits without a proper changeover switch as it can electrocute the people repairing the lines).

That is very true, and, if it was an automated system it is a legal requirement (we also built kit to do just that). However, the fear of the out-of-phase mains coming back on and damaging the genny and other connected equipment is enough to make sure we isolate the incoming mains carefully

 

[British Red]

Changeover switch with external input socket. We had one put in when the new place was rewired, pretty standard around here and low extra cost when done during a rewire so worth doing whilst we were at it- as a bit of future-proofing. (Shouldn't be plugging a gennie into house circuits without a proper changeover switch as it can electrocute the people repairing the lines). Gennie would plug into an external blue plug type socket. It's a manual thing in our case.

Short-term connectivity backup is Ecoflow to power the Starlink. Just a case of moving the Starlink plug from the wall to the Ecoflow.

GC

That's pretty much our setup too. Manual transfer switch

Electricity changeover switch by British Red, on Flickr

In our case these days we would use a power station to run the house. These provide 4kW & are solar charged. If necessary they can be recharged by the propane generator in Winter or we can connect the generator directly but at night we don't want generator noise

 

[Falstaff]

Have any of you who live in remoter places considered or experienced issues like fuel theft? (gas bottles, heating oil, generators, stored petrol/diesel).
Some of the farms and isolated houses around here have in recent past. It's a common perception in a prepping scenario that this would happen, but I don't think we have to wait for that scenario for it to happen.

 

[Broch]

Not so far; we don't even lock the cars or sheds etc. But it is an increasing concern. I have CCTV but that's only a deterrent I know. When TSHTF I'll raise and lock the cattle grid one has to cross to get into this place - a bit like a draw-bridge

To steal my genny they'd have to clear my garage first - good luck with that

 

[GreyCat]

Have any of you who live in remoter places considered or experienced issues like fuel theft? (gas bottles, heating oil, generators, stored petrol/diesel).
Some of the farms and isolated houses around here have in recent past. It's a common perception in a prepping scenario that this would happen, but I don't think we have to wait for that scenario for it to happen.

Certainly considered it. Oil theft is a particular issue in rural areas, but we're not on oil, we're on mains gas as we are within enough distance of the main regional main that they put a spur on when it was installed. We lock stuff up here at least as well as we did in the previous place in a town.

There's anough nosy neighbours on our road that people are noticed if they are out of place, and the gates are locked at night to deter casual snooping. Hedges full of holly, hawthorn and bramble are a good natural boundary, and there's deep ditch/streams/bog around the other 3 sides of the garden. It's also not too far out of the main village, the road has streetlights (there's one outside the gate), so the area is illuminated.

As with @Broch they would also have to clear out the shed to find my gennie.... it's currently buried in a pile of moving boxes which mainly contain stuff which needs disposal, once the proportion of "keep" stuff has been sifted out!

Arguably, very rural properties can actually be more vulnerable, no neighbours = no witnesses and potentially a lot more left unlocked.

GC

 

[Woody girl]

We have just suffered our third power cut in a week. So far they have been at night, so I'm not sure how long they lasted, but I woke this morning with my electric bedside clock , radio flashing yet again. This will tell me that it's been 1 hr or however long since the power was restored. Not a big problem realy, I just have to reset the clock, but...my friend has her own pumped water supply, and chatting to her today, she was telling me she had to go to her bottled water stash, as the pump wasn't working, and the tap was dry. I suggested she got a solar power generator, well I'm not technically minded, so I couldn't recommend one, but can anyone here give a recommendation as to what she should be looking at, size wise, (to power the pump)⁷ and which would be the cheapest but most reliable make.(plus solar panel)
I don't know her set up, but info so that her husband can start to look at things without having to wade through tons of information from various companies and try to figure out what they need. That seems to be their sticking point. What exactly should they be looking at. Thanks