Preps of shame?

SeaBee - June 5, 2020

So, I was loading three empty 5 gallon gasoline jerry cans into the back of my Toyo last night, strategically pre-placed so that, should I need to GTFOH, I can quickly double my range with 15 gallons of extra fuel from the corner station before we slip away towards the horizon as NYC goes all Snake Plissken in my rearview. Amaze-balls, right?

But then I had this thought, “Um, maybe this is overkill? Or even misguided? Am I killing too much gear space for potentially unneeded fuel? Am I just dumb?”

And then I had this idea for some chuckles in the middle of all this insanity. Hence, this thread.

So, what has been a prep of shame for you? Something you thought was initially unbelievably amazing but, upon reflection, feels, um, not so great. Let’s keep it light, funny and sharing some good-natured fun at our own expense, despite all our best, logistical intentions. 

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Mine all tend to be overthinking day packs and EDC stuff.

An example, I am an avid backpacker but no one else in my family is. For a large family reunion they all decided they were going to climb a double black diamond hiking/climbing trail. When I drilled them about proper footwear, water, food, gear, etc, I was told I was over-reacting.

So your girl here ended up doing the entire hike carrying enough extra emergency gear for four people because I was terrified that if SHTF we would all die due to lack of prep.

Looking back this was a bit over dramatic of me but I did get to peacock strut about a bit when it turned into a torrential downpour and I was the only one with waterproof shoes and a rainfly on my bag…which meant I got to carry even MORE stuff on the way down. :/

 

Been there too. I got the stink eye when asking everyone to bring water on a ‘short hike’.  Then, I was only one with food/snacks on that hike everyone else then appreciated.  At least I didn’t need to pack it out.  I brought too much other stuff as well though so the smugness included sorness 🙂

 

I bought everything in camo when I first started 🤦‍♂️

 

Kryptek for teh winz…..😂

 

I actually laughed out loud.

When you join the military at 18 y/o camo stuff, once you get into prepping, isn’t nearly as exciting.

 

I bought a pre-made “earthquake bag” thinking it was a good deal before reading any sites like this and realizing the contents were kind of sad.

Then I went the black-tactical bag route for building my own before realizing how much I’d stick out like a sore thumb in a crowd.

Live and learn…

 

I did the exact same thing for my first earthquake prep. I bought a bag from the Red Cross and promptly forgot all about it, plus I never even learned the skills to put the items to use.

I think I got lazy because I married a nurse and figured “ah, it’s ok, she’ll take care of any small injuries” until I recently realized “wait a minute, what if she’s the one that gets injured?!?”

 

I was the one with a Rambo knife which is hilarious as I’m a 145lb/5.5″ man and couldn’t even walk with that knife constantly banging on my legs or getting dangerously close to my family jewels lol

 

I bought a lot of beans. Turns out my wife doesn’t like beans all that much. So we still have a lot of beans.

Lesson here is to try to get food you actually like haha.

 

Maybe your wife doesn’t like it when you eat beans haha! 😆

 

I wanted to have a gallon of water per day, per person for 14 days for my family. Four people so about 60 gallons.
I mentioned it to my wife and said for less than a couple of hundred bucks we could have a good safety net of water in case of an earthquake, so she agreed.
When the Aquatainers came in the mail I didn’t realize how big they would be. I quickly hid half of them in the shed and put the other half in the livingroom. When my wife and daughter saw them they had a huge laugh like I knew they would. It looked pretty ridiculous. I didn’t bother to tell them it was only half of what I bought.

 

That would have been buying ready made first aid kits. Zippers would break down, tweezers would be made of plastic and bend when used, no tourniquets, etc…

 

What is with those plastic tweezers?  They look like they’re from a kiddie doctor play kit.

 

But they’re be awesome for winning at “Operation”! LOL

 

I think I’m still in this camp as I’m a sucker for compartments and labels.  🙂  Upgrading them now…

 

My sister, brother-in-law, and their three children came to live with me on my land almost a decade ago, and they were convinced (dreams and such) that the end was near.  I let them talk me into buying a couple thousand dollars in various staple foods (mostly rice, beans, and dried fruits).  Needless to say, I’m STILL trying to finish it all off.  I am amazed at how long some things can store though!  I guess everything can be a lesson!

 

Mine would be packing too much toilet paper in my bag. Like entire rolls of it. Yup, you read that right: plural.

 

When we moved to rural property 7 years ago, we tried to do way too much all at once. Keep in mind that both my wife and I had lived our entire lives in suburbia until this point, and the place we bought needed a ton of work (it had been unoccupied for 2 years, with the associated vandalism and theft). We got 2 more dogs (puppies), 8 “barn” cats from the local shelter, rabbits, chickens, ducks, guineas, we tried pigs, goats, sheep. We built 12 very large raised garden beds, we got a greenhouse, and we planted an orchard.

We made a lot of mistakes, and were overwhelmed. We had to let several things go, and go back to taking baby steps. It is true you learn from your mistakes.

 

I have so many glass jars. This has been an issue my whole adult life. I’ve moved all those jars 6 times in 10 years.

But finally! I have a need for them… right?!

 

Oh my gosh same. I have a whole shelf of empty jars in my pantry right now. I use (some of) them all the time, but why do I ever think I need to buy more?

 

Jars are like potato chips!

I like storing dry goods in them for everyday use too. But I try to reuse store product jars for that. ie: pickles, pasta sauce.

The bulk of my jars came from Grandparents garage attic. They had to have been up there for 30 years. Work as well as they ever did. 🙂

I’ve decided to only purchase wide mouth quart and the pints from this year on. The WMP are perfect for our family and I can fit my hands in them to clean. I have tiny hands, so I can’t imagine others…

 

LOL!  I remember a plethora in the basement when I grew up – we canned yearly from a garden.  And strangely, I can’t find quart jars anywhere right now.  So maybe not so crazy?  I remember being thrilled that certain pasta sauce brand actually used mason jars, then was bummed when they customized to a smaller size.  Now I wish I would have saved more of those customized smaller sized ones.

 

Related, but not: Can The Prepared please give @SeaBee some sort of Escape from New York badge just for that “…as NYC goes all Snake Plissken in my rearview” comment? Please.

 

Haha, love it. We’re making badges soon, but in the meantime, here’s lookin’ at you SeaBee:

 

Honestly, I’m holding out for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome badges, but I appreciate the nod.

 

Hmmm… For me it was when I bought winter clothes for my BOB, and bought stuff as if I were going to be hiking in the Arctic, rather than clothes that would be adequate for 99% of the conditions I’d be likely to see in my part of the country (USDA zone 7).

Say, were you actually a SeaBee? I was in NMCB 23 from ’88-’95.

 

I have a 2.5 year old and when we do a clothing switch out for his edw, I have to do the same in the BOBs. It’s a pain.

 

No, not a true CB: a high school injury negated access to the service for me, but I come from pretty established teams and LEO stock. Probably for the best that I couldn’t enlist.

I did the same when first learning how to hike/climb in winter. Got all kitted up and about 500 feet into the hike my buddy looks at me and says, “Holy shit you are sweating bro”. Trigger wind. Trigger near-hypothermic.  These lessons often teach themselves.

 

Not a true SeaBee? Well, nobody’s perfect. 🙂

LOL! I’ve definitely been there (over dressing for cold weather). The thing that bugs me though is that I already knew better when I bought that stuff for my BOB. I still don’t know what I was thinking.

 

My first handgun was a Taurus M94 9-shot revolver, because my only firearm experience was with a Ruger 10/22 (which is an excellent first firearm) and I was pinching pennies pretty hard at that stage in my life.
Even the salesman at the counter said I should buy something else.  But, of course, I thought I had it under control because I read a Guns & Ammo article where the reviewer shot a rabbit with it on a horse back trip, yada, yada….

Biggest POS I’ve ever tried to fling projectiles from in my life.  A sling shot would have been more effective.  Half the screws rattled loose after firing each cylinder.  At 3 feet I was lucky to hit a paper plate half the time (same with any other experienced shooter I could talk into trying it).  Worst gun ever, totally disrupted my confidence and progress as a shooter.  I would have had to throw it a target to have a reasonable chance of hitting it.  And multiple trips back to the company didn’t fix it, either.

“Buy once, cry once.”

 

A couple years ago, I bought a LifeStraw Family water filter because I live in a hurricane-prone area — I lived through Hurricane Katrina — and was worried about access to clean drinking water. Since that time, I haven’t had cause to use the filter, so it’s been sitting in its bag, collecting dust, and I periodically felt a bit sheepish about having bought it, wondering if it was really necessary.

I don’t wonder so much about that nowadays.

 

Good point. I bet there’s a lot of dusty old stuff that people are now relieved to have around.