linnugripiblog

You know you're prepping when...

...you return from Target with 31 pounds of cat litter. And you don't own a cat...and you're wondering if that's enough...
..........you ask for a Wheat Grinder for your Birthday to grind the 600lbs of Wheat Berries you already bought. (which I did, and got)
..........your request for a 30th Wedding Anniversary gift is a more powerful Whole House Generator.
..........when your computer breaks down and the electronic guru asks what chip it has and you respond with "Pringles".
.............no one in the family remotely likes Spam or powdered milk but, you buy it anyway, just in case.
.......when you've already done your Christmas shopping for 2006 and 2007, wrapped the gifts, and buried them in the yard.
.........when you have taught your cats how to use the can opener by themselves.
..........when your on a first name basis with all the Fed Ex drivers in your area....
when you leave your Rolex on the coffee table, but hide a can of pork&beans under the bed..
You threaten the kids with grounding for a month if they throw an empty 2 liter in the recycling bin after its taken you years to get them to do it.
Your teenage kid asks for hand sanitizer to keep at school.
You've replaced pictures of you kids for last minute prep lists in your wallet.
You ask for cases of canned food for your birthday.
...you mention Tamiflu blankets to your spouse & they don't ask what colors they come in.
...clearing out old clothing doesn't make you smile because you can hit spring clothing sales but because you can now cram in another two 24 packs of toilet paper.
...you now don't mind if your cats are looking a bit plump. 16 pounds of moggy will feed you for a day more than a thirteen pounder.
...there's an intervention with a drug counseller about to happen at your place but your TEENS are setting it up for YOU - all that talk about Tamiflu, prednisolone, Sambucol & Reversatrol are making them nervous.
...instead of his & her bathrooms, your new 'move up' house & has his & her prep rooms.
......you can name every bean on the grocer shelves and know at least 6 recipes for each
........and all the neighbors are standing outside everyday taking bets on who is getting the delivery.....and you are getting so paranoid about them knowing that you put a lock on the prep room door.
*When you find yourself ecstatic because you have just ordered a new cookbook containing recipes using canned hams, canned salmon and tuna.
*You are terribly disappointed you didn't get a smoker for Valentines Day.
*Buying a smoker whether dh wants one or not.
*Wandering through a sporting goods store and thinking it wouldn't hurt to get two more boxes of shotgun shells.
*When you are debating with yourself if 12 feet of sausage casings is too small an amount.
*Standing in front of your preps and breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Top 10 signs you may be obsessing about Avian Flu.
10. You look for shopping carts with heavy duty shocks.
9. You keep singing "I'm a prepper. She's a prepper. He's a Prepper. They're a prepper. Wouldn't you like to be a prepper, too?"
8. You’ve tried repeatedly to warn Sylvester to stay away from Tweety-bird.
7. You’ve bough a windshield squeegee with a 10 foot handle
6. The stock boys at every supermarket in town know you by your first name, and run when they see you coming.
5. You’ve installed an in-line chlorinator for your lawn sprinkler system.
4. The CurEvents logo is burned into your monitor’s screen
3. If a pandemic doesn’t happen, your backup plan is to use your preps to open a pharmacy.
2. You’ve started telling your spouse that you’re surfing porn sites instead of admitting you’re back on the Flu Clinic again.
And the number one sign you may be obsessing about Avian Flu
1. You can use Orthomyxoviridae and hemagglutinin in the same sentence.

You know you are prepping when you sneak out of the house at 2 AM to empty your car of groceries.

You replace your curtain tie backs with color coordinated bungee cords - they'll come in handy when It's Time
You replace the canopy on your canopy bed with a very thick guage tarp - cuts the drafts & you can now shove more pallets of paper towel & TP on top of the canopy.
Forget furniture made of milk crates & 2x6s - amazing what you've learned to do with water barrels & fabric remnants.
You won't buy any electroncic appliance unless it also comes with a hand crank.
You've trained your Rottweiler to pull a wagon, sled, travois & in a pinch he'll carry your three year old on that long trek to your bug out place.
When buying a dog, your main criteria is how much it will have to eat.
Just In Time means how quickly you hope to learn about a pandemic strain.
You know 4 uses for every item on your multi-functional Leatherman tool. Your teen is smug because he knows at least 5 for each.
You know 7 troutes to your bugout location - including 4 that don't exist but look good on paper.

.......when the doctor calls you for medical advice...

When your dehydrator has permanantly replaced the toaster and coffee pot on the counter
When you know 3 different ways to cook rice and none involves a pot or bowl.
When you plan to spend a Saturday night pre-marking the toilet paper into 2 square sections to get a jump start on your "when we need to ration" list.

Worse than this is bringing home a van full of preps.......taking them into the house spread out over several days AND into the night. Putting them into smaller plastic bags so it doesn't look so much like you just brought home a sheet load of stuff.
........breaking down large boxes of stuff into smaller ones so you don't have to ask for help carrying a heavy weight up the apt. stairs.
........changing labels or removing them from cartons.
........having vendors wrap your order in plain brown paper for delivery by UPS so the snoopy people in the apt complex won't have a clue.

When you buy so much rice the check out lady ask you.How many kids did you adopted from china.

You actually KNOW how to make a medicinal elderberry tincture out of those berries growing in your yard.
You know what Sambucus nigra is.
You debate long and hard a $2000 repair of your dying transmission versus how much more preps $2000 would buy.
You have the plans and knowledge for how to build an outhouse in your backyard.
You've seen Frugal's videos for how to quickly and quietly kill a rabbit with your hands.
You've become a master at using the Babelfish language-translation website for translating foreign news stories the MSM isn't reporting.
You particiapte in lengthy online debates about TEOTWAWKI versus TSHTF

.....when you know your weight in fish pounds in order to take the right number of antibiotics.

When wal mart gives you plaque for employe of the month, and you don't ever work there.

When your son asks, "Hey, Mom, what's all this pasta doing in my dresser drawer?"

....when you buy and eat things you dont really like just for the empty glass jar.

.......When you spend $4300 on LASIK after wearing glasses for 28 years becuase you have a feeling it might be tough to find a decent optometrist before too long.
And you might be a prepper if you have already figured which pet you are going to eat first if you get hungry (Sorry Peanut!) and have actually discussed it with your spouse...

When you hide food plants like lettuce and chard among the ornamental flowers so that roving bands of TEOTWAWKI zombies might not find your veggie garden.

When you grow turnips even though you don't like them to convince other people you don't have any food worth taking.

When you open "any and every" cupboard in your house and cans fall out.

You stop letting the kidlets have friends in... "for fear they will spot your preps"...and tell their parents.

You have 50 cans of Spam and you have never even opened a can of it before.Is it corned beef ???

You have a list on "Word" of last minute preps to be bought WTSHTF.Just print and run.

Your beer fridge is loaded with bottles of Elderberry Vodka.

if you've dumped 15 rubbermaid tubs filled with kids toys, replaced 3/4 of the contents with food preps, threw toys on top of the food and kept them marked as 'toys' to hopefully fool the maruders.

Also, when you buy 12 cans of Vienna sausage when you have no earthly idea what Vienna sasuage is or tastes like.

Your GPS has waypoints programmed in for previously placed caches of "stuff" you may need to pickup if you have to bug-out without your gear.

Your laptop bag carried to work everyday doubles as a Bug-Out-Bag, complete with Poncho/shelter, Leatherman, flashlight, firestarter, Mountain House freeze-dried meals and Gatorade packets.

Your cubicle walls have color-coded maps showing more current spread of Avian Influenza than even the WHO has access to.

You groan when gas goes up ten cents a gallon, but think nothing of dropping $250 for a water filtration system.

You know how many gallons of water you'll get from a half-inch of rain based on the square footage of tarps covering your roof, and you've already rigged the downspout for diversion into 55 gallon barrels.

You know how much unscented liquid bleach a 55 gallon barrel of water requires to render it safe.

. . . .you have more bottled water in your basement than most people have in their backyard pool.
.
....when you find your self making heavy eye contact with the guy at Costco because he has a cart full of only bottled water and toilet paper. You both look away quickly.....

...you have enough toilet paper stored to insulate a small room

...you no longer procrastanate that hair cut, dental cleaning, or eye exam; thinking that this might be the last time you have the chance

...you get misty eyed when you see the stocked shelves at Costco

You have sat in Grocery Outlet's parking lot with a can opener and a fork checking to see if something's worth going back in for a case...or 2...or 3.....

You know your car's GVW, and what bridge you'd better not go over on your way -back- from Cash & Carry....

...when you have two shotguns, one 38 revolver, one 40cal. automatic, a 22 long-rifle automatic with a ten-shot magazine, and roughly 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
And you wonder whether or not you ought to think about buying a weapon.

When shopping you look at expiration dates before the price.

....when you're thrilled that the family doctor doens't laugh you out of the room when you discuss the potential side effects of turmeric and garlic

...when your son asks for the U.S. Army Survival Manual Fm 21-76 for his birthday and you order two copies, one for the both of you

...when same son asks for a Benchmade knife and you not only know exactly which one he's talking about but also ask him if he wants the plain or serrated blade

When you need to check JUST ONE MORE LIST to make sure you haven't forgotten anything.

When you check FC before you do to bed, whenever you wake up in the middle of the night, and first thing when you get up in the morning.

When you already know who Gerberding, Nabarro, Chen, Webster, Osterholm, and Niman are; you don't need first names.

When you buy so much basmati rice at the local Pakistani store that the owner asks if someone is getting married....

when you mention to your husband a few weeks before your birthday that the present you want the most is solar panels....

you know how many dried eggs fit in a number 10 can.

you buy vodka and dont drink it.

when you agree to spend the money on a backyard pool-but only because youre thinking it solves the pesky water storage problem.

when you have a dogeared copy the Encyclopedia of Country Living on the shelf with your cookbooks.

you've actually eaten wheat berries. more than once.

the food bank has you on speed dial.

~when you go to the thrift store and buy every word fill in book they have for .25 cents each because you will need something to do if the power goes out to keep your mind sharp!
~when you happen upon the Friday sale at Amazon.com for TP and order 2 cases then celebrate like it's your birthday when it comes in at the post office and they comment on the large number of packages you have been getting lately!
~you urge you husband to get more ammo for his gun even though you abhor guns and are very uncomfortable even having them around.
~when most of you ILL books from the library are "survival" oriented.
~you freak out when you hubby opens a can of SPAM to eat now...those are your preps for goodness sakes!!!!:yikes:
~you refill your perscriptions early that you have multiple refills on even if you don't need them right now "just in case"
~in the middle of a power outage you carefully watch the candles and measure how much they each burned down within a certain time period so you can calculate how many you are going to need for a 6 month period if necessary! You and your hubby also look at each other and thank God that you did not get rid of all you candles from your wedding ...even though you have been married for 21 years now!!! (yep, just what we were thinking about last night!)
~all your kids have cell phones and know that if mom calls and says
"book it home now! " it means that we are going into quarentine
~you are afraid the neighbors are going to come sneaking around to see exactly what it is you have been stuffing your storage shed with so you make a note to make curtains for the windows even though the preps are all covered.
~you buy a huge bottle of cheap wine and you don't drink!!!!

You're attending your grandchild's Sunday School presentation & you could SWEAR that the little 6 year old girl opening the presentation said: In the beginning, there was the bird..."

. . when you wonder if it's better to cut up the old newspapers into tp sized sheets now or wait until TSHTF.

When you ask your husband for a huge roll of barbed wire to help protect the house for Valentine's Day. When you get this you are happy! And then your birthday present request is for either a milk goat or a security gate at the end of the driveway.

whilst you're looking out the window a bird craps on the glass...
You jump back, then quickly close the window.
Then debate 'clean it off' versus letting the rain wash it off... but worry about small particles that would leave on the window sill.
So you tape up the window.....
...and realize you forgot to add tape to your 'next stock-up trip to the shops' list.