My Family are zombies!

[DREAMSCAPE]

I have been lurking in the zs shadows for some time now and its been my observation that some people including some posting on this thread ,are here less to share ideas & educate yourselves and others on prepping than you are to rudely quote rules and poke fun at newbies who aren't yet privy to your lingo! You know who you are! You should let the mods do the job that was intended for ..THEM.. not you !And If you have the irresistible need to be involved in zs policy enforcement than please do so buy politely explaining to newbies what they've done wrong instead of immediately chastising them for their indiscretions ! Try being good zs ambassadors as opposed to being holier that thou douches!! .... Been wanting to say that for awhile now !!

Try taking your own advice! I think that we were trying to explain things to a newcomer. I haven't read anyone calling the newcomer names in this thread. I have read people offering sincere advice about getting skeptical family members on board, and honest attempts to explain why using "zombie" as an epithet for real people is a touchy subject - thus helping a newcomer get privy to our lingo. Noone called anyone a douche - until your post. Perhaps older posters ought to be more diplomatic in offering criticism, but I also think that it would behoove newcomers to accept polite criticism with a bit of grace instead of calling people hall monitors or getting butthurt about it.

" I haven't read anyone calling the newcomer names in this thread" perhaps not on this thread but it happens often and by some of this treads posters,and not in the " offering sincere advice' format you suggested! usually when a correction is issued from a non moderator it comes in the form of ....zombies?...really? we dont dehumanize people by calling them sheep,people,or zombies read the rules! not in the polite moderated form of explaining why its unacceptable! Its not the "polite criticism" you mentioned i have issues with its the inside jokes and some what less than cordial comments made by older members i was referring to ! And as for my saying douche its not like i singled anyone out by saying something like" squinty your acting like a douche because" !!! i was in fact just telling people in general to act more diplomatic & less like douches!!

[Chantrea]

OK. I am giving this thread, against my better judgement, one more chance to get back on the rails. If it doesn't, then I'm going to lock and bury it.

I empathize with your annoyance that you have to avoid certain topics here, as well as certain ways of talking about people that you dislike/have disdain for/are frustrated with. Again, I'd like to remind you that there are MANY survivalist sites where instead of eyerolling over rules, people are more than happy to help you flame your family members for not having guns or 2 tons of toilet paper, where you can even talk about shooting people or whatever you'd like to do. When your eyes just can't bear their rolling any more, for pete's sake, take it over there and let it go in an environment where people like it and want that.

You'll notice though that ZS has a pretty broad demographic, which is somewhat unusual. Believe it or not, that just may be because we enforce at least some measure of respectful conversation. I don't like people jumping on newbies either, and try to head that off when I can, but to be blunt if you're going to cry that other people should have a thicker skin and let you call people people or zombies or imply that they're whatever--well, turnabout is fair play. IF you have not even bothered to read the rules (and let's face it MOST people don't at first--I didn't when I first came here either, are you kidding me?) then maybe you need to have a thick skin for correction if it comes from a less PC source like a mod. I try to be polite even when I'm not feeling it (to various degrees of success); regular members will do their best (or not), but they didn't agree to do that like I did.

If you want to start a complaint thread about how horrible and mean it is that you can't call people zombies (or whatever attempt to substitute for 'people', breaking the rules while nobody notices), you want to make fun of whoever you want whenever you want, and/or how dare anyone say anything to you about it unless it's in a manner you like, why not go do it on ask ZS? Or the OT board. Or send a group email to the mods. But the family prep subforum is not the appropriate place to talk about how you just don't have enough eyes to get all the eyerollery out of you when it comes to the rules.

[Doctorr Fabulous]

...snippity snip snip...why not go do it on ask ZS? Or the OT board. Or send a group email to the mods...

Word. Or PM the poster who you think was out of line.

OT: My folks recently (within the last month or so) started prepping on a broader scale. They lived through several bad hurricane seasons since moving to FL, but insisted on being last-minute Walmart preppers, running out and buying stuff when the storm got close and relying on a generator to keep the refrigerator running. The biggest battle was solved when I convinced Mama Doc to look into local disaster aid groups (CERT being one) and she came back form a CERT introduction with ideas about storing non-refrigerated foods, keeping a stock of supplies that would last the whole house 2 weeks, and augmenting the power grid with solar, both to offset energy costs and to provide power to charge cellphones and run a hotplate if the grid went down.

Bam. She Who Must Be Obeyed took Papa Doc by the ring and marched down to Big Box Store Inc. (LLC) to look at bulk buys of what i would call a two-weeks kit. Now Papa Doc has taken an interest in hunting, mentioned trapping, and lost 75+ pounds upon realizing that he could no longer survive 3 days of manual labor to clear the driveway.

It's gotta happen slowly, and sometimes you have to approach the problem from a different angle. Do not shut off the power, point out that "if you had prepped, you wouldn't be in this situation" and keep your superiority complex in check. Instead, help out, make sure they know that you cannot support them, and offer to show them how to do things if they ask.

[nathat]

I'll just say I love my wife.

Me: "Hey baby, I think we should buy XXX, because Xxx."

Her: "Ok"

I'm just waiting for her to tell me I have enough guns already, and I need to sale one before buying another.

[duodecima]

I'll just say I love my wife.

Me: "Hey baby, I think we should buy XXX, because Xxx."

Her: "Ok".

yeah, this is one of the reasons I love prepper-tolerant husband. I do occaisonally have to address "Where are you going to keep that?" and he has been known to sigh when I come back from a stock - up run, but he then proceeds to help get the groceries out of the car. Mom thinks I'm nuts but she's known that for years, and she loves that I am Never Out of anything she's looking for when she visits.

[Silent Kube]

Yeah, my girlfriend is a South Dakota native and remembers being snowed in for days at a time so she's pretty accepting of my prepping. She also grew up in some pretty tight times so she's actively involved in us being more self sufficient. Plus she's a bit of a hippie. Of course not so much that she doesn't like guns. Lol

[Rebel Pariah]

I need to find me a significant other, especially one that is on board with this stuff.

[togonkd2]

I need to find me a significant other, especially one that is on board with this stuff.

Yeah I guess I got lucky with the guy I found... He loves everything I am into ... He understands the stock pile of water and canned food, He likes to camp, and likes to hunt. He can even worm his own hook and take a fish off that hook.
He can pull my draw on my compound and listened to me when I taught him how to swing a machete.
He also isnt quiet when he thinks something is impractical.
He stands right next to me and even gives his 2 cents whenever I am looking at a new gun...
I think its because he knows he will get the chance to shoot them as well.

I wonder if Match . com or any other dating site would have a
Zombie hunter/ Self Sufficient preference on their BIO check lists to help a single ZS member out.

[Rebel Pariah]

why don't we just start ZombieSquad-Singles.com

[KentsOkay]

why don't we just start ZombieSquad-Singles.com

In saying it sounds like a good idea before the L&B

[Rebel Pariah]

wait... what did I say to get this locked?

[Doctorr Fabulous]

I need to find me a significant other, especially one that is on board with this stuff.

Yeah I guess I got lucky with the guy I found... He loves everything I am into ... He understands the stock pile of water and canned food, He likes to camp, and likes to hunt. He can even worm his own hook and take a fish off that hook.
He can pull my draw on my compound and listened to me when I taught him how to swing a machete.
He also isnt quiet when he thinks something is impractical.
He stands right next to me and even gives his 2 cents whenever I am looking at a new gun...
I think its because he knows he will get the chance to shoot them as well.

I wonder if Match . com or any other dating site would have a
Zombie hunter/ Self Sufficient preference on their BIO check lists to help a single ZS member out.

You got a winner there, you lucky bastard. Hmmm...zombie themed dating site...DIBS ON THE PATENT! Now off to start registering domain names...www.undyinglove.com? love at first bite?

Moving on from my terrible sense of humor, I do like the idea of prepping for your family, even if they don't know about it. I would say the hard part if you are going to prep "Oh snap!" boxes for them, would be making sure they know how to use anything that's unfamiliar.

[Rebel Pariah]

I would say the hard part if you are going to prep "Oh snap!" boxes for them, would be making sure they know how to use anything that's unfamiliar.

this has crossed my mind,

I have yet to build any kind of BOB's for the rest of my family, just starting to chug away at household preps, food\water,

a wild card in the mix is, I live with my grandmother taking care of her, if shtf I will obviously have her with me, however my mother and step dad live about half a block away, whether I can convince them to come here pr not I am not sure,

if I do make my mom and step dad a BOB, it will likely be VERY basic,
Couple Bottles of water
SOS Ration Bars
Decent Led flashlight
Poncho

[bigerny]

Just a word of caution here, in passing: It's totally up to each of you, mind you.... but if you broadcast around town and your friends that you have x amount of beans and rice, so many pounds of salted meat and such... and they don't prep... where do you think they will all come when the shtf? And, not to mention, that all your friends and neighbors might not be so friendly or neighborly when they haven't eaten for two days. PErsonally, I like to keep vague on exact amounts of things, unless A: I intend to share them out with all comers, or B: the info will be kept with in my group. Just my 2 cents.

On the subject of preaching the prep word to others:
When a guys wife is screaming at him because the kids are hungry,not heaven or hell will stop him from finding a source of food.He will remember you.
If you won't give it up willingly,word will go out that your holding.He will bring friends.It won't matter that you only have enough for you own,because his matter more.

He'll probably have a gun around the house and knows where you live.You put a target on your families back,all because you wanted to wake people up to a possible need.

Perp what you need quietly,and if the need does comes up you can share(if your so inclined)carefully.
Just be careful who you talk to.

There is great virtue in STFU.

[airballrad]

There is great virtue in STFU.

This is true. And yet:

Our goal is to educate the public about the importance of personal preparedness and self reliance, to increase its readiness to respond to disasters such as Earthquakes, Floods, Terrorism or Zombie Outbreaks.

The trick is to balance OPSEC with making people aware. If Neighbor Jimmy got on board and made his own preparations he's not only not coming for yours, he's helping the community be stronger. One household alone is not going to fare well in a sea of have-nots if the SHTF.

[duodecima]

Just a word of caution here, in passing: It's totally up to each of you, mind you.... but if you broadcast around town and your friends that you have x amount of beans and rice, so many pounds of salted meat and such... and they don't prep... where do you think they will all come when the shtf? And, not to mention, that all your friends and neighbors might not be so friendly or neighborly when they haven't eaten for two days. PErsonally, I like to keep vague on exact amounts of things, unless A: I intend to share them out with all comers, or B: the info will be kept with in my group. Just my 2 cents.

On the subject of preaching the prep word to others:
When a guys wife is screaming at him because the kids are hungry,not heaven or hell will stop him from finding a source of food.He will remember you.
If you won't give it up willingly,word will go out that your holding.He will bring friends.It won't matter that you only have enough for you own,because his matter more.

He'll probably have a gun around the house and knows where you live.You put a target on your families back,all because you wanted to wake people up to a possible need.

Perp what you need quietly,and if the need does comes up you can share(if your so inclined)carefully.
Just be careful who you talk to.

There is great virtue in STFU.

I don't say you're wrong, but I think people will figure it out when my kids don't look like skeletons, so there'll be trouble anyway.

If enough people are prepared, if the community is more prepared, there will be less trouble. Can't work on that without talking about it, so that's the way I decided to go. I understand why other people don't.

[Pilsung]

"My family are zombies!" Can understand the frustration. The normalcy bias is very strong in human beings, and just refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a SHTF scenario, or worse yet a PAW one, might be a defense mechanism for some people. Because let's face it, once you gaze into that abyss, it also gazes into you and it's not a pleasant feeling. I had a distant relative, back in the 1980s, that was consumed with end-of-the-world beliefs and seemed to be obsessed with finding every bit of information he could to validate that obsession. The guy was incapable of holding a normal conversation without somehow bringing up the need to be prepared for the coming apocalypse. A definite Debbie Downer depressive personality that people avoided if at all possible. BTW, he died of a heart attack at age 42, and all his stockpiled guns, ammo, MREs, etc. went to perfect strangers at an estate sale. Not sure what the morale of the story is, but to me his was a misspent life.

My wife, at best, is along for the ride, though she tolerates my preparedness efforts because she agrees in principle that we need to cover the basics. She's watching the Walking Dead with me, but only out of a sense of obligation and is still resistant to "going overboard."

[MacAttack]

I like the Rubber Maid tote idea.

You may never get someone to prep like some people around here but you can get them ready for a natural disaster pretty easy. Just ask if they are ready for a tornado or flood? I've even seen the rubber made idea used in Homes and Gardens. They through in all the normal stuff from personal papers to blankets. Tell them that you would rather spend 5 minutes tossing the totes into the car and hitting the read than running around for those 5 minutes looking for everything then not even getting everything in the car in the end.
Tell them that they don't need to be a prepper like you but it would be good if they were at least prepared for themselves and their family.

For your own household each person gets their own tote. As you buy preps you evenly fill each tote.

Start off small at first.
Prep for the small emergencies first.
Like a one day power outage in good weather. What will you need for each person? Something for light at night. You already have a roof, food and cloths. Some way to heat the dinner. Though that is not really needed if everyone is OK eating cold canned goods. The water is good but not hot.

Next. What about a three day power outage? Everything in the fridge just went bad. Do you have some dried instant milk if you think you might need it? Canned goods and dried goods are fine for now. Some way to cook food and heat water?

Now toss in the idea its COLD out. Do you have a way to stay warm? No necessarily heat the whole house but a way to separate off one room and keep it warm. Even body heat works a little if the insulation is good.

Don't go wild trying to do everything at once. One scenario a month is fine to start. Do the most likely first. By the time a year has passed you'll have just about everything covered except living totally off the grid.

If you working slowly and a little at a time the rest of the family might not notice so much and get surprised at the volume or things being accumulated for their benefit.

If you add into camping or hiking as a family hobby your halfway home. You might even be able to get other family and friends into it also. Just invite them out for the day at first then add in the idea of an overnight. If they like it point out just how cheap it is to get started.

If you can throw in hunting then a firearm just fallows along.
Though I do not believe that having a firearm is necessary to being a good prepper. I do think its a good idea for personal defense. But I can live with others not liking firearms and heading down that route. As long as they can live with me having them.

[Orphancow]

I was having tons of trouble getting my wife on board as well, kinda still am. She says I'm partially nuts partially realistic and is beginning to come around since the birth or our first daughter. Since that little beauty came into the world I have stepped up my planning and in doing so I have obviously had to explain myself to others.
So I have learned to keep things simple when explaining my concerns. In the simplest terms I can, I always say "regardless of your PAW beliefs or zombie outbreak opinion, if you simply prep for the natural disaster scenario, you effectively prep yourself for almost anything. Nobody wants to listen to a fanatical on nuclear weapons, govt conspiracies, etc.

Do not show paranoia, instead play on the logical when explaining the importance of prepping to friends and family.

[Pilsung]

Orphan cow said, "Since that little beauty came into the world I have stepped up my planning and in doing so I have obviously had to explain myself to others."

Amen to that. Ensuring the protection and survival of my beautiful young children forces me to try to keep my priorities in order. That's the one bit of leverage I have with my wife, as well, though I get frustrated when she does things like goes out and buys them hiking boots from Payless instead of footwear that is going to hold up to hard use. Yes, I realize kids quickly outgrow footwear, and that quality boots are expensive, but cheap Chinese-made hiking boots that will quickly fall apart are a very poor preparedness investment. Grrrr.....

Recently, at a gunshow, I saw this kid (21, apparent emotional age 13) loading up on AK mags. I jokingly asked if he was getting ready for the Zombie Apocalypse and he just said, real deadpan, he expects "the world to go to $hit next year (2012)." He also made it clear he welcomed the coming chaos. I suspect there's a lot out there like him, bored stupid with their lives, having bleak prospects for a meaningful job, relationships or existence, or wanting to put their demented WoW fantasies into action - who knows. I sure as hell don't view people like him as potential allies come the PAW. The only "preppers" I would want anything to do with are those who "hope for the best but prepare for the worst" i.e. are acting out of an honorable desire to protect and sustain their families, loved ones, and deserving neighbors, and do what they can to keep the social fabric from coming completely undone, but hope desperately that things will never come to that.

[Orphancow]

I'll just say I love my wife.

Me: "Hey baby, I think we should buy XXX, because Xxx."

Her: "Ok"

I'm just waiting for her to tell me I have enough guns already, and I need to sale one before buying another.

This is my wife to the T.

[zobmiedown]

My arguements ended last year when we had to evacuate for a week due to the wild fires we had here. Suddenlly all of my prepacked gear loaded on the trailer and in the trucks. We (my wife and I as the kids were actually at her parents house) evacuated the whole house in less than 24 hours to include all atv's dogs horses firearms ammo and essential items and kids dressers and moved it all to her brothers house which was out of the fire danger zone. We did leave all the big furniture and things that were nonimportant. We ended up spending a week there before we could reenter out house. All of my prior prep work paid off and suddenly the family to include her parents and brother realized hey that would have been way worse. And in the end I got a week long vacation sitting on the alter of vindication sipping cold beer listening to the nay sayers appoligize.

[Rebel Pariah]

And in the end I got a week long vacation sitting on the alter of vindication sipping cold beer listening to the nay sayers appoligize.

Not cool

[Manovv]

Have you thought of a trade in? Perhaps new models with less millage and better accessories?

I don't think anyone will accept such trade in