this is neat to think about all the luxuries that we expect as a part of our everyday lives and truly think about our "needs". generally challening our depency issues is also great. but, I still think that if this is what your spending your time doing you might also want to start stocking up on therapy appointments.

I am one of those people who always has the bandaid, the advil, the eyedrops, the phone numbers - and people always come to me to get what they need. I'll take being prepared over the alternative.

She seems much healthier, but does still gently remind me of the George character from Six Feet Under.

she's going waaay past the band-aid & phone numbers. She's cooking every day with powdered milk "so it won't be strange" and has multiple extra rooms in her house devoted to supplies. She's not just prepared, she's obsessed with preparedness. I think she's secretly praying for disaster so she can tell everyone "I told you so" (and so her main hobby in life won't have been a waste).

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks she's off. I agree with Erica; she's praying for disaster so she can trot out her superiority.

I find it odd that she's got all this stuff, but she's not dug a well: the stream isn't self-contained, which means that the family's drinking water could be contaminated, and there goes all that paranoia down the drain. Literally.

She seems to be obsessed. Be prepared is one thing, but few people stockpile 6 months of food. AZkathy, do you have 6 months of food for 4 people? Do you use powdered milk regularly?

The poor kids...

Nope, no 6 month food supply here. I was just saying I agree with the principal in general, lots of people aren't prepared enough to get through a movie, much less a disaster.

that poor family- this level of preparation for disaster has to have a negative effect on happiness & sanity...

I am not sure it is a worthwhile effort. You may be able to stockpile sufficient food and supplies for your immediate family, but what do you do when your starving neighbors ask you to share? Coldly turn them away? Share and end up with insufficient food for yourself? And what about those (including some of your neighbors) who will at some point be willing to kill you for your supplies? Do you kill them first? Do you hand over your supplies?

Unless you are a total survivalist, with the weaponry, the bunker, and the will to use lethal force to defend your supplies, this seems like a no-win idea.

I agree that it is a good thing to be prepared for anything, but I also think being OVERLY prepared is a little paranoid.

I consider being prepared a way of thinking. A state of mind, if you will. Knowing how to start a fire, snare some food, what is edible in the forest, how to survive in the wild, etc etc etc... THAT is being prepared.

If a major disaster happens, I don't think that cooking regular meals in my solar oven is going to be on the top of my priority list. And, frankly, I'm not one to mess with the ways of the world... if a disaster happens and it is some way of telling us (humanity) to put our lives in check, then I'm going to take that cue and change my lifestyle... not bake cookies and serve them up with a nice cold glass of powdered milk.
(because I'm feeling very 90's today)... PUH-LEASE!

Leave it to Beaver meets the Twilight Zone.

I think that if society or life as we know it were to get to the point where we would need supplies and a solar oven, there would be so much bedlam and utter chaos that your rations would really have no bearing. You would probably be too busy trying to keep looters, rioters and other nasties from invading your home.

"Dear Lord! They just instituted marshall law!"

"I'll make cookies!"

Scary

This is how rescue workers in war-torn countries prepare for imminent crisis: Fill the bathtub with water, have a radio on hand with batteries, and make sure you have a six-pack of beer.

I think it is awesome!

(BTW, she isn't using "multiple extra rooms" for the storage- just closets and crawlspaces and the basement. The one extra room that was mentioned has extra beds and sewing supplies - basically a pumped up craft/guest room.)

When my husband lost his job a few years ago, I was grateful that we had food storage. It was one less thing to worry about during a lean time for us.

There are all sorts of calamities that fall short of looters and martial law and the end of the world. It's not all or nothing.

And there are worse things than powdered milk...not many, but some. ;)

I should be more prepared than I am. The problem is space and shelf-life. We've tried storing water . . . too much room is needed. We bought battery-operated lights. Not a lot of light if you like to read and the batteries don't last very long. Tried storing food . . . again space issues. So far, I haven't managed to even put together a decent first aid kit so guess I'll just have to take my chances and watch weather reports during snow season so I can at least have enough food to last a couple of days until we get plowed out!

I try to have a week or so of reserve canned food in case I fall ill, and don't want to be a burden... but this is extreme, and I agree with Torgny, the main hazard if the kaka REALLY hit the fan would be other people - other people, armed and desperate, with starving children of their own.

I've met people like this online - one woman who was convinced she'd feed her family come the ole apocalypse with a square yard of earth - it was always, ALWAYS about her feeling superior. Being the only prepared survivor of the fall, in a nation of feckless fools, has got to be the ultimate ego trip.

And - there's no nice way to say this - I just can't believe this mindset is good for her kids to be around.

I plan to resort to cannibalism, so at least I'll be eating what I shoot! :o)

The only preparedness item you need is a gun. With that, you can get everything else you need. :)

This lady is definitely over-the-top and obsessed. Also, I think that survival in an urban environment would require different tactics than it would out in the country. I could stand to be more prepared than I am, but I don't have the space, time, or cash to go crazy like this. At least she got a book deal out of it.

@mopar

Don't forget a supermarket shopping cart when you go scavenging for food with your son while going down south.

Torgny, I was raised as a Mormon, and in Sunday services, folks discussed their beliefs that outsiders had lists of local Mormons and would attack their homes in case of a national emergency, so multiple weapons & ammo were just as important as food & water.

Frankly, if we had a nuclear attack, I'd rather die quickly.

hurricane dolly just blew past my home last week and while my parents and I prepared only lightly with ice, canned food, water, buying extra dog&cat food luckily our neighborhood wasn't affected with flooding(but some areas did)

But since I've lived in South Texas and anyone near a coastal area near hurricanes I think we all know how crazy it can get at grocery stores during an impending hurricane/natural disaster.

“In a time of crisis you want to start the day with a good breakfast” - finally, a religion I can get behind.

i love torgny's questions.

my mom lives probably a ten minute drive from this lady's house. i asked her if she knew her. she said, "no, but I will now!"

this lady had better be prepared for the ultimate onslaught: her NEIGHBORS when the apocalypse begins!

For the last year, I've been stocking up on 2-3 weeks of food. We moved to an island with one exit road and one power line. It isn't uncommon for us to lose power for a few days, or occasionally have the exit to the island blocked by downed trees.

One plus was that our town had a large barn fire recently and we were able to make enough sandwiches with our stored and frozen supplies to feed hungry emergency workers.

That said, I think six months is a little overzealous. Most disasters are sorted out in a fraction of that time.

one word:
paranoia

I stock up a few weeks worth of food. For all my freeloding friends who used to craash my house in the Hamptons. Now I just rent it for the summer, and now nolonger need to stockpile!!! You never know when you get hungry freeloaders for weeks vs civil unrest!

madampince, isn't Emergency Preparedness, with 6 months of food storage, practically Mormon doctrine? My LDS friend explained it as preparation for the apocalypse, and it was something Church-mandated essentially. She was one of 7 kids. I saw their stockpile. Impressive to say the least.

She's preparing for "flood or a nuclear or bioterrorist attack"? - well for starters all the food in those cardboard packets in that cupboard will be useless if flood water gets anywhere near them! - I won't even start on how six months worth of oats wont help them if there is a nuclear or bioterrorist attack - she doesn't mention stockpiling medicines!!

and she quotes 9/11 - how exactly would having 6 months of food supplies in your home have helped the people who died in the Twin Towers?

Being prepared for things that are LIKELY to happen to YOU is a great idea - make sure that if you drive in bad weather your car has snow chains and you have blankets with you etc - having extra supplies to last you a week or so if there are transport strikes, for instance, is good sense - but six months of supplies is paranoia - what happens to you when the six months is up??? - most big disasters that affect peoples homes are hurricanes/tornadoes/flooding/fires - in which case your supplies will be lost anyway

Great idea for a book deal though! - she'll make a fortune from this - all for a layout of $3K!!

I think having some supplies on hand is common sense, but I also agree with the people who mention concern over the ensuing chaos after a disaster; if something major happens, there will be much more to worry about than food supplies; think of the chaos after Katrina.

Last night I finished reading "The Road," by Cormac McCarthy. Maybe she read it too.

There are always those who go whole hog over their obsession of choice (organization, budgeting, small space living)--in the best scenario, they get to make a living sharing their knowledge and passion with others, while we get to think about more modest ways we can modify our life.

I think she's taken it to an extreme, but then again it makes sense to be prepared enough to manage for a week or two in case of a flood, blizzard or hurricane. It's amazing how life can change when you don't have power in the blazing heat for two weeks after a hurricane. You'll see average people with good incomes and intact homes lining up after natural disasters like beggars on the streets for water and food. As a society in general we have enough to worry about taking care of people that can't help themselves or who have had a catastrophic loss to have the rest of the middle class population lining up.

I'd say 2 weeks of supplies is reasonable, plus a survival reference book with first aid instructions, etc. just in case. One of the main benefits is that if you are somewhat prepared, then you can focus on recovery (like clearing trees or fixing damage to your house) faster than if you have to go stand in a line for 8 hours to get basic supplies.

We had a bad ice storm this past winter and I was without electricity and phone for 5 days. Even cell phone service was very spotty. I'm much more prepared now. Read "The Long Emergency" by James Howard Kunstler. That book will make you think she's on to something.

6 months of food?

Most people should be able access a stocked grocery store within 2 weeks to a month after an "emergency."

I lived through Hurricane Andrew and even after THAT mess, I was at a BK drive-thru in a week's time.

Eh, people come up with all kinds of ways to deal with the fact that you have no control over the world, and in the big scheme of things, this is a pretty benign way. Is it rational? Not really, but it's a heck of a lot less scary than the weapons stockpilers. And it even has the benefit of getting people to do a few of the smaller preparedness things they really do need to do (I need a tornado kit for my Indiana basement -- candles, matches, water, blankets, first aid kit).

As as to messing up their kids. Oh come on! They'll just shrug and think, well, this is the way mom is a little bit crazy. Kids come through much worse just fine.