Posted on 10/07/2012 2:50:25 AM PDT by djf
We often have threads that quote recommendations of others about things you should do to prepare. Those threads usually focus on food, water, medicinal items, bug out preparations, etc.
So I think it would be interesting to find out what FReepers themselves are doing. Combined, we are probably one of the most intelligent, experienced, honest, and practical group on the planet.
Without further adieu! In the last two days I:
Bought 3 food grade 5 gallon buckets Bought enough oatmeal to fill one, which amounted to 18 lbs. Bought a 5 lb bag of tobacco (I'm a smoker, I admit it, but if SHTF, tobacco will be priceless) In my garden, I had a number of radish plants that went to seed, so I spent about an hour collecting radish seed pods.
So post away on what preps you are making. Hopefully, we can give ideas and help out people who are curious about what to do!
Bill Mauldin grew up in the mountains of NM, near Cloudcroft/Ruidoso.
He wrote a book about it, titled "A Sort of a Saga".
In it, he relates a time when a flood isolated his family and several others from town for a few days.
Tobacco was widely used, and ran out.
I don't recall the details, but it didn't go well.
We find its better to stash the stuff you actually eat all the time. Then it naturaly rotates before date expiration. Plus if the SHTF one of the few pleasures in life will be dinner. :))
Ping.
Try this:
Shut off your home electricity, water, gas. Cut up the credit/debit/ATM cards.
Now carry on for a month.
No, it’s not far-fetched. It’s how humanity functioned for most of history. Most cellphone weilders today couldn’t make it.
Exactly.
How many could make leather? Or even candles?
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. Prepping is insurance against whatever might come our way be it any of the above, a job loss or other income sapping event, war, a tornado, illness or transportation problem preventing you from making it to the store, etc. It doesn't have to be a national emergency but a personal one that could cause you to break into your storage. In a drought situation, your water might go dry or if your electric pump broke, you'd have water stored so you'd be able to drink, bathe and use the toilet.
Do you carry a spare in case you have a flat? What if you never had a flat? Would someone laugh and say they told you so?
Okay then, just some routine preparations for any kind of extended “rainy day”.
Just like to make sure all is well with the BABEs (bolt action beast eliminators).
Plus, heck of a lot more fun then canning chickens....
Besides, prepping for any event tends to be helpful for any other event.
My extreme weather preps also work pretty good for an extended urban zombie situation. ;)
/johnny
“Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.”
So, even the December 21, 2012 Mayan calendar thing??? That one seems a little too ancient and obsolete for taking too seriously.
Corn Cob Wine recipe:
http://tastyplanner.com/recipes/corn-cob-wine
Corn Cob Jelly recipe:
http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/how-to-make-corn-cob-jelly/
I just ordered my annual order of 10 lbs of green coffee beans. I get a great Costa-Rican Tres Rios Magnolia for a good price in bulk, and won't buy coffee again until next year. I've been doing that for over 15 years.
Is that prepping? Or just getting excellent coffee for a great price? It does leave me prepared for a year on coffee, either way.
/johnny
Short-Term (1-2 years) - canned goods and items from the supermarket. Ammo for my hand-guns and rifles, paper goods, a water conservation system (2 dozen blue barrels and a rain-catcher system),learning how to can and dehydrate anything that will last and vacuum sealing or dry-canning that which I dehydrate. I also purchased some just add water meals packaged for convenience. I'm thinking that these meals will get me through the first few weeks/months when everyone is still in a state of shock and trying to figure out the best way to do things. Non-Hybrid or heirloom garden seeds, enough for 3 years of crops) and gardening items (fertilizer, roto-tiller and materials to build the beds). All of this was accumulated over the course of a year.
Mid-Term (2-3 years)Some of the same items as in short-term storage but not so many store purchased canned items - more dried beans, rice, pasta, 3 year supply of hard red wheat, wheat grinder, etc. More dehydrated convenience foods, etc. By this time my garden should have been producing and I am putting by some of those items to add to my food storage. Again, more ammo for guns, more paper goods and freeze dried food items.
Long-Term (3-4 years) More of the same as above.
I've also included a good stash of vitamins and minerals, a still for making alcohol from composted yard and garden waste, a converter for my car so that it can run on the alcohol, I've got solar panels that can run appliances and recharge cell phones, solar oven for cooking. Several years ago I put in a dozen fruit trees, 2 avocado trees and some pecan trees. I've had several seasons of fruit and nuts from them all. I'm fortunate that at this time I'm healthy and don't take prescription medicines, but have stocked up on rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, vinegar and and lots of other commonly used otc items. I also have a bicycle, extra tires and parts, a hand operated air pump, extra oil & filters for the car, extra water filters for my water filtration system along with bleach, bleach tablets, I have a 4 bedroom home and the ability to use a alcohol/gas run generator in order to run a/c units and refrigeration units. I have had 5/8" plexiglass panels placed over all my windows as storm windows and to make the house harder to access from the outside. I have had the glass in my storm doors replaced with lexan for the same reason.
I do something every day to try to make myself ready. Several of us in my prepper group are taking first-aid classes in the next few weeks.
Frugal candles - Save up all those nubs of used candles. Melt them down and pour the wax into an empty creamer carton or frozen juice container or a hole in wet sand, etc. Fashion a new wick or place a broken taper candle (with its wick) in your container. Tear the paper carton away when hardened.
As much as I admire all the prep some are doing, I am both a realist and a bit of a pessimist. We live in a suburb of Philadelphia, close enough to be walking distance from some “not so good” areas if thugs were so motivated. Daughter & son-in-law (with baby on the way) live with us. Elderly mom & her DH nearby, they’d have to be taken along. No basement, no real storage other than a garage that is not accessible from inside, small cars, not a lot of discretionary income. No guns (thinking about it but haven’t made the move, yet) We have a pool for water to flush toilets and such, but not for drinking.
If things go really bad, we’d already be in a bad place, logistically, and would have to get out, if possible. Probably would go to my brother-in-laws first, as he has multiple guns and knows how to fend for himself (hunter, outdoorsy, wouldn’t hesitate to shoot in a hostile situation). I do have a lot of seeds & can garden/can stuff, but large amounts not realistically portable.
Praying it never comes to more than thinking on it :)
“It does leave me prepared for a year on coffee, either way.”
You got that right! That’s one commodity I’ll always have plenty of.
I rarely pay full price for anything I can shop comparatively for.
If I have to, I can hold out for 4-6 months. Beyond that, I might have to get more creative depending on the circumstances.
I live on a small cruising sailboat, so I’m simply preparing for a long trip.
In the interim, I’m working on my fitness and keeping the dialogue open with other people in the local boating community who are stocking up for a crisis. I teach a community martial arts class that some young men attend. Not too focused on firearms, other than a .22, shooting for the pot. Really, not too much more than what would be involved preparing for a long cruise. Extra fishing gear, hand tools, tarps, lines and wire, perhaps.
Boat people tend to come together in a crisis.
Changed bullet weight?
Yes it is difficult in an area like yours, pool will work for a while, do you have anything to purify the water with, storage to bring some inside? Without water folks die in a few days, without clean water folks get sick and die. Toilets will only work as long as sanitation system works, then you have to worry about sewage backing up, and what to do with waste. It is a daunting task, good luck
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