Late last month, hubby and I attended PrepFest Columbus. We learned about it on a prepper website we were exploring after finishing Jason Hanson’s Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life: A Former CIA Officer Reveals Safety and Survival Techniques to Keep You and Your Family Protected.
We regularly read books about preparedness, do things like keep our first aid certification through the American Red Cross up-to-date, have preparedness buddies in the area, Scott is a ham radio operator, etc.
We also practice. It is commonly advised that you store one gallon of fresh water per person per day for an emergency. What’s it really like to drink, wash and cook on 1 gallon per person per day? We’re going to test that out this spring over a period of three days.
We also talk quite a bit about our response to a variety of emergencies so that we have a plan and are prepared as a family. What dangers are we most likely to face in our home and workplaces, and what would we do about them?
Let me give you a simple example. American red cross shelters do not provide pillows. Scott knows that comfort is important to me. He’s able to go without creature comforts, me less so. So, we talk about what kind of a small camp pillow would be best to go in my bug out bag should we need to shelter with the American red cross.
We plan now for how to care for our pets in the event of an emergency. We’ve already prioritized traveling with them over being able to pack more “stuff” in our vehicle should we need to evacuate. And no, before you ask, the American Red Cross does not allow pets in its shelters. Will have to cross that bridge when we come to it. We have yet to plan for every eventuality.
But it’s not crazy talk. It’s practical talk.
We aren’t hard-core. We are simply responsible and cautious in a world that presents a range of real dangers.
This was our first prep fest.
We went to workshops on a variety of topics. We learned about using stunguns and pepper spray for self-defense, lock picking, a range of natural disasters, building prepper bags that were a lot more advanced than ours, a little bit about home solar power, and we perused the vendor area.
I hadn’t handled a pistol since my father took me and my brother target shooting when I was about 13. Hubby shows a great deal of interest in obtaining a fire arm; I have put my foot down that I don’t think this is something that’s right for our family. With my history of depression I don’t feel that I would be a responsible gun owner. Not because I would cause a danger to someone else, but because I would be a danger to myself. Some suicide attempts are thought out long in advance, but many are tragedies of opportunity. Many people who attempt suicide don’t put more than 10 to 15 minutes worth of thought into the action. I mean that literally. Studies have shown that suicide can be a truly impulsive act and I don’t want to fall victim to it.
To make hubby happy at the show we stopped at one of the several vendors selling handguns. I told the vendor I didn’t have much experience with guns. He watched me pick one up and gently and respectfully asked me to take my finger off the trigger which was where it naturally fell. And to stop pointing it at him. Oops. Hubby is still trying to get me to go to target shooting with him. We’ll see.
We stopped by the lock picking vendor and both hubby and I successfully picked a lock. I’m not entirely sure how lock picking is a prepper activity, but at least now I can say I learned a new skill.
But I have to say the most interesting thing I learned, I learned in the last 10 minutes that we were there. We had been reading in Jason Hanson’s book about “getting off the X.” That’s his phrase for being ready willing and able to move in the event of an emergency. Move physically. Get up and get going. About being aware of your surroundings at all times and not freezing in the event of an emergency, which can be deadly.
As we were sitting in our last workshop the fire alarm went off. There were maybe 100 people present at that time. With hubby being blind, I sometimes have to do double duty for us. That alarm went off and my guard went up.
Hubby and I exchanged three or four words and we stood up. I waited for the person across the aisle to move their child who was still in a stroller out first and then we proceeded immediately to the exit and left the building.
Many other people did not “get off the X.” I heard people discussing whether the alarm was real, and I saw many people simply not leaving their stands in the vendor area. We were in a large convention center. It was clear from the layout that we were occupying only one portion of the building. It was very realistic to think that an actual fire could’ve broken out in an area of the building that we were not occupying.
A fire is an extremely “practical” type of emergency that everyone should be prepared for. I was a little disappointed that my fellow preppers did not take the alarm more seriously and evacuate more quickly.
Over all, I’m glad we went. I learned some new things, and I met some new people.
Still, there was a culture clash between me and the prepper community. Two other things stuck out for me. One was that camouflage clothing was very popular for both men and women. I see camo as very military oriented, and the military as being very pro government. This group of people seemed quite anti-government or at least not into organized government, and I thought it was strange that there was so much military life reflected there. Hubby thinks perhaps it had more to do with hunting but I saw other military-themed items in the vendor area as well. For the record, I have no problem with government. In fact, I respect it.
The other thing that stuck out for me was a pro-life booth that was collecting signatures on a petition to make abortion illegal. As someone who has been pro-choice my whole life, I found it curious that the pro life movement would find such a comfortable home with the prepper community. Hubby thinks that one is a no-brainer, that preppers tend to simply be more conservative.
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