There is a little prep going on

I was watching this documentary thingy about doomsday preppers the other day. While over the years from a perspective of Dutchies prepping for doomsday always seemed a bit like for the quicky ones, with this whole pandemic thing it all came a little closer again, and it was possible to see how fragile the whole balance of the ecosystem of humanity is.

I got triggered again a little bit to think about what and when if the whole thing collapses

Ho-michielsen


Now the funny thing ofcourse is when I was living in the Caribbean in a hurricane prone zone, we actually did quite good in prepping. Prepping is having considerations about drinking water, long preservable food, money and a getaway bag.

Or ever earlier. When I was living in the US as a kid we always used to have hurricane excersizes in school, and we would have a bag of rescue stuff in the closet in school for when the whole building would collaps. Not a bad thing when living in areas where stuff regularly happens if you ask me.

Holland

When you live in Holland all of these things just feel light years away. In general the weather doesn't harrass you too much, electricity is stable and it doesn't feel normally like we will be in some sort of war on short term. But still something is itchy.



Pixabay


I guess the itch already came a little bit when the pandemic was hitting last year. I was I think one of the first persons here in Holland who was stocking up for a bit. This wasn't really because I thought that the supermarkets would be entirely empty, but more that I didn't feel that comfortable going to a supermarket with a lot of people in there while this pandemic was taking off.

Remember, this was when we though that covid was more like ebola kind of thing. So I stocked up. Not in a hurricane kind of of way with only canned food, because the idea was that with a pandemic nothing would happen to your electricity.

When I take a good critical look at how the status is now if tomorrow something would occur, I must honestly admit that I would be dead within 5 days I guess. Not because I would have toiletpaper, because actually that isn't one of the real problems when you live near water.

Pixabay


But in terms of canned food and cooking. And when electricity would fail, my electrical stove would not make me anything. In the Caribbean we had gas tanks for cooking. A lot of hassle with changing them every now and then, but super awesome during disasters because you will always have an option to cook on (consering you filled up your gas with a fresh bottle which would last a couple of months).Also my electrical fridge would fail and I really don't have a big stock of cans over here.

In terms of water, in Holland we rely so damn much on water coming out of the faucet that it was only until a couple weeks back when there was work on the water here in the area and there was no running water, that I realized I didn't even have something to give to the dog. Not 1 single bottle, because the water here is normally so good. Oopsie.

Money

And even something simple like cash. The nice thing about Holland is that we almost run entirely cashless, swiping everything with the card or even with the NFC chip of the phones. But what happens when the electricity is down and non of this works.

Bottom line: the ecosystem is fragile, and the pandemic did wake me up a little bit that it doesn't hurt to stock up for somethings. Still, if 'the Waling Dead' situation would occur, I would still be one of the first ones to die on the spot I guess with no survival skills, but for a couple of days being self reliant....It is not too bad to think about.

Having a water filter to clean rain water or water from the canal. A couple of cans of food and maybe a small camping gas stove. Or some chopped wood to build a fire with. Just preparing a bit for when stuff fails.

What have you done to prep in your area?