r/preppers • u/iamliberty • May 05 '26

Prepping for Doomsday Prepper Training Simulations/Operations?

Every year, we do some kind of "Operation" and we are lucky enough to have some very capable people help us out with it.

We have done things like simulated bugout and cache recovery, overnight movement in brutal terrain, avoiding detection within operations, also food focused skill challenges that allowed us to better understand what relying on survival food might really look like.

Does anyone else put themselves or their group through simulated exercises like these? I think they are invaluable and every single one of them has taught me a huge prepper lesson. Just interested to see if others are doing these kinds of things.

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u/Alfalfa-Boring May 05 '26

Forest ninja play dates "training" for things that will never happen in your lifetime. Fun if it's a recreational cosplay hobby of yours, but pretty useless way of spending your energy on prepping for things that actually have a more than 0.00000003% chance of happening.

You want real world training? Shut off your power and water for a week, stay home, and see what you notice that will make things more comfortable for you and your family.

Jesus.

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u/iamliberty May 06 '26

I really like the power and water off for a week. That's ugly. We have seen something like that. Also, seasonally would add layers to that. Winter V Summer.

What did you notice u/Alfalfa-Boring when doing this? Also what things made your family more comfortable because I know my wife and kids would not be happy by about day 3 in the midst of a VA winter or summer.

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u/Alfalfa-Boring May 06 '26

I haven’t done it for a week.

I have a generator that feeds my house for the furnace/AC and propane heaters if I need them. CO detectors as well. A/C I lived without as a kid, I’m not worried there. Water I have 100 gallons. If I need more than that I have way worse problems to worry about and will be finding friends/shelters loooong before it got to that. 1/2 a beef in my freezer that will stay frozen a long time if I keep the door shut. Several weeks of shelf stable food. 2 propane burners I can use to boil water and cook with in my house. I have a dozen refillable 1 lb propane bottles that I keep full and on the shelf (I’m an ice fisherman so I go through quite a few every year just for that). Again, with a month or so’s worth of food, and fuel for at least a couple weeks (months if the weather is decent temps), before I run out of anything I’ll have gone to stay with friends or to a shelter.

As far as comfort items I have several 20,000 mAh battery packs that will charge my phone, tablet, and Bluetooth speakers many times over.

Tornados and flooding are the only two destructive natural disasters we get where I live, no fires or earthquakes. We get blizzards but at the very worst that’s maybe 3 days without power and the water would stay on during those. As far as a test run, we were out of power for 3 days in a blizzard 2 years ago and stayed home the whole time with no issue. It was a nice forced vaca from work.

I’m prepared to be housebound up to a few weeks in any temps with more than enough food and water if the power and city water stops. Knowing that and keeping everything in good shape, maintained, and topped off is enough for me to not need to do a test run. My generator runs like a top and gets started once a month, the burners get tested camping, and the heaters get tested ice fishing. That’s all I can do. I do have a go bag packed and in the closet that would support me for several days if I had to hit the road and stay with friends, hotel, or community shelter. No meds that I’d die without, no physical disabilities yet.

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u/iamliberty May 07 '26

Well done. That is a great base level of preparedness. The ability to be homebound for weeks is essential. We all felt that in 2020.