Prepping. Would you be ready?

Our personal prepping includes not just food & water but cash,ammo, etc
ANYTHING you would need for a set period of time.
We like to have prepping supplies to cover a couple of months. This would cover us & help out any friend or relative needing help.

Also it would be a much smoother transition to any type of disaster if we all thought this way - neighbors looking out for neighbors.
Planning ahead & positive thinking. Two powerful things

Prepping for what, the trapperman fantasy end of the world?

whats going to happen how long should i prep

don't think you can ever be fully ready

but you can ease the transition , while the world seems to be going crazy for the next big snow storm or whatever your like no Biggy , we are comfortable for a while.

the other thing is skills , you can buy stuff , but you have to experience and hone skills.

if your budget is tight skills , learn all you can

your motto should be "Eat what you store , Store what you eat."

I recently heard it called "Deep pantry " the concept is the same base most of your regular meal on staple ingredients then stock those deep and rotate
Eat what you store , Store what you eat means the same thing , staple ingredients you eat regular and make in to your regular meals , store it and eat from your stores to have good rotation.

skills , tools , consumables
level up to things you can produce yourself like having a garden and canning and freezing

even if raccoon isn't your favorite try it , see how you can make it , there are millions of them out there for the taking and being a trapper I bet you know how to do that.
I tried coon once , my family is a hard no on that at this time , but I know how to get it done.

I am by no means a hard core prepper , just like to be comfortable for days or weeks while the world does it's crazy and calms back down.

something ! snow storm, personal illness , job loss , power outage do to storm , Supply chain issues.

work the stuff that is most likely first , too many people focus on the dooms day stuff , the gear , skills and supplies are largely the same

always start with 72 hours

work up and out from 72 to what ever you feel is prudent

my family is from an island in the great lakes , just pretend you live on an island and you can only leave once a week or once a month for re-supply.

when there is no convenience store you stock the over the counter meds to take care of most of the common stuff at home.

GREENCOUNTYPETE gets the concept

Its dangerous to assume "it cant happen here". Maybe it will maybe it wont, but it pays to be prepared. The world has gone insane so anything is possible. Its a good time to be debt free and have some supplies on hand. Food in the pantry is like money in the bank...

Clean water. All the food, ammo and cash won't help if you die of thirst.

You don't need to be a prepper to be prepared. It's nice to feel that if something did happen (electrical outage, storm, flooding, or something worse, heaven forbid) you would be self-sufficient. I believe many on this board fit that mold.

We had an unprecedented flood here last June that closed the only 2 roads in or out. We were only locked in for a couple days but having everything we could possibly need for a few weeks made it seem more like an adventure than anything.

Search for and read some of Bud's posts after the hurricane. First hand experience in a really bad situation. Lack of sleep and mental state were huge factors.

Yep my brother was in lake charles and if he hadn't had cash in the gun safe he wouldn't have been able to fuel to run his generator. He sealed off the kitchen and put a window air conditioner from his shed in the kitchen window. Cooked for 2 weeks on his bbq grill.All you really need is the banks to lose internet and your money is tied up and cash will rule.

Living on a ranch we could easily go a couple months without anything from the outside world.plenty of fuel on hand, enough generators to run everything, solar wells, pantry and freezers never low not to mention all the food walking around on the hoof. Horses and a buggy if we don't want to waste fuel driving. Not much to worry about in the way of needs here. Now if you had to relocate for safety reasons you would want a plan b

It doesn't need to be an end of the world scenario. Where I live a big earthquake could put you in a situation where you need to rely solely on yourself for an extended period of time.

The jokers just keep coming it feels like Texas being invaded by Cali lately they will run their course like the rest have.

A good supply of ammo will keep you safer than no ammo.

Nope! Me and my family would be screwed for sure. I’d try my best though.

We are preparing to expand the garden from 5200sqft, to 7000sqft this year. We already grow the majority of our vegetables from April-November. We are looking forward to trying to grow a years supply of vegetables this year. Plenty of canning supplies, re-use lids to make them go further. Save seeds, produce our own fruit/vegetables, raise 2 forms of meat and hunt too. I'm a big fan of "meal sized animals" like rabbits and chickens. If electric is gone, there is less waste. Always try to keep our gas tanks topped off, and fill up/rotate gas we have stored. Not really a dooms day prepper, but really just preparing for anything. It has come in handy more than once.

Some people wait for FEMA to save them most country folks just take care of things themselves is a big difference.

Been through many ice storms where we don't have electricity for days sometimes a week or more depending on where u live in this state. When town loses electricity its the famers/ ranchers who bring generators into town to keep groceries and gas available to the people. Having every thing you need to keep a chain saw running for an extended time would make surviving without electricity much easier.

Extreme preppers crack me up. So many goofballs on Youtube for instance telling people to spend stupid amounts of money for imaginary issues that will most likely never occur. "Buy this, do this", it's insane!
I'm all for preparing for storms and stuff like that but come on people!

Hmm you did take history in school right ? Some good examples in very recent history. People in NA are soft, and the thought that it cant happen here is widespread. Its not true though. That chinese balloon could have had an EMP on it. Sooner or later something bad is going to happen on a large scale. We are way over due. Might be natural or it might be an attack of some kind but its going to happen.

That volcano in Alaska is rumbling lately and it has the potential to shut down the entire west coast. Iran is on the brink of having nukes and China is getting ready to invade Taiwan. What could possibly go wrong....

If someone or something brought down the power grid or the internet this country would short circuit. Look how people acted when they got scared of running out of TP

If covid would have been as deadly as they pretended at the start and this country really had to lock down things could get real serious fast. As it was we had people coming from much larger towns at least 45 miles away to our small town grocery store because they heard we had stuff that was getting in short supply in bigger towns and cities.

if your cutting wood after the event , your a year behind , best to have it in a shed ready to burn

this of course means you have the stove in the house and keep the chimney clean also.

standing dead ash is your friend when you need burn it today wood , just watch out for the widow makers and rot at the stump.

There's two general scenarios.

Survive a few days to a few weeks after a storm event, or SHTF. If the second, you had better have numbers on your side. Its going to get ugly and get ugly quick.

We don't normally burn wood at our house and sheds are full of other stuff we use regularly. We do have piles of old hedge posts we have pulled out and lots of dead trees if needed in an emergency though.

We are lucky. literally millions of square miles of wilderness in every direction. My shtf plan is to simply move to the trapline.

That comment about the chainsaw is something I never thought about and is one of the best pieces of prepping advice I've heard. Sure, you can cut wood with hand saws and axes but a chainsaw sure would make it easier and not much required to prep for that.

I'd guess you'd say I'm a moderate prepper. I don't have everything I'd like to have, but have most everything I NEED to have.

Few years back we got a snow/ice/rain storm. Everyone laughs about the south shutting down over an inch of snow, but it is true. When I got to the end of our long driveway, I found our county road a solid sheet of ice, with water on top of the ice. The only way you could drive was by keeping at least two tires on the shoulder. Drove up to the main state highway thinking it would be better but if anything it was worse. I turned around and went home. Heard later there was no point in going anywhere anyways as ALL the stores were closed... from grocery stores to gas stations to Dollar Generals.

But we were fine. We heat and cook with propane. We have a big propane tank we fill our smaller bottles off of. I have plenty of oil lamps (including an Aladdin) and Coleman lamps and stoves. I have fully stacked pantries and freezers. Probably enough food to last a year but the lack of variety would get old after several months. We have a wood burner, it's an old one and not in use right now but could be set up fairly easily if the need arose. Also both propane and wood grills for cooking and plenty of cast iron if I needed to cook over a fire for some reason. I only store about 10 gallons of water, but we have a pond that never goes dry and I have the knowledge and needed components to create a filter for it that would make the water potable.

But I'm glad this post came up because it reminded me of some things I need to buy... more lamp oil, white gas, and those chainsaw supplies.

Yes, I am ready to be caught up in the air with Jesus! I am prepped. Are all you that got all this stuff on hand for some fear inducing event?

One thing to think about for anyone use solar and lithium batteries is they don't charge under 32 degrees. We lost power here for 5 days and my parents would get enough solar power to operate a couple hours a day . They had to switch to genorators.

Sometimes God needs us to stay and do his work down here. Therefore I'll do as Noah and be prepared.

Hopefully that once your predictions come true, we won't be faced with shortcomings? Are they arresting the thousands of politicians yet that this comes up?
(its well past the new year you mentioned)

Anyhow, my freezer is never empty and I always keep fuel so I'm good for a couple months at least without any supplement.

you can definitely buy bar oil ahead it keeps fine for years just keep a year or two out

2 stroke oil also keeps fine buy it on sale and have a couple years worth

gas is the hang up , the canned fuels do last up to 2 years but are expensive, but really just having few 5 gallon cans stored all the time doesn't really cost you much more than the cans do. a good funnel is nice also.
you fill the truck from the cans then go refill the cans when you go to town for gas rotate once a month , 3-4 5 gallon cans would run a chain saw for a long time or a generator for a few days.

our big storms have mostly come with strait line winds that cause a lot of tree damage , we had one a few years ago longest our power has ever been out it was out to all of town. as soon as it was light I could see nearly every street around us was blocked , I fired up may saw and started cutting a lot of my neighbors did the same , the town sent the big end loader to push the stuff we had cut off the roads you could drive almost ever where by 9 and they opened up the brush dump and it was like a parade of trucks bringing piles of brush in all afternoon

the reason the power was out all day I know not a big hardship ,was because the number of trees down over the drops to houses , very few transmission lines were damaged so as soon as all the houses were cut loose that had the service pulled form the house by down limbs , the grid was back up it was also a localized event and other near by municipalities send their power trucks to help.
Wisconsin is an interesting place , a lot of small towns started their own power company over a century ago and still have them that is what we have as to a number of towns around us.



a syphon hose to raid your vehicle which you always keep over half.

no your never going to be prepared for a true SHTF but you can sure take the stress out of a lot of the little shtf moments

this winter we had a predicted ice storm , people were getting worried about, school was canceled for 2 days , people at my wife's work were asking off so they didn't have to take the attendance hit when they couldn't get to work.

my wife asked if we needed to do anything , nope , refilled the gas can already , and moved 3 days wood inside , toss another log on the fire and make a pot of coffee. nice to relax when it seems like so many are stressing.

The main thing is to be prepared to defend and protect your home and the immediate area. If you can't do that it will be imminent that you will be overran soon....once the unprepared mobs discover your holdout.

what is prepping? not sure but I think I heard about that somewhere...

When you normally wipe yourself with your hand you have no worries.

I had plenty of toilet paper during the "pandemic. It's my preferred method. lol

Last year I bought a second propane for the grill just to have a spare, I don't think that is being a prepper, but it could help. The water tower on the hill next to my subdivision could last a while, but probably only a week if no electric power. A 55 gallon drum in my garden shed is full of trap stakes, but could be used for water storage. Thinking ahead about SHTF scenarios isn't being a prepper, my daughter had food for two months at the start of the pandemic, that was just good planning, and like Pete she rotates her food stocks.

At least you have a good supply of Selfies ! Bet ya wont run out of them.

If you don’t have a plan you’re planning on others to carry your weight that might not work out well for ya.

What does the dsa stand for on your profile ? democratic socialists of America ?

Dip……..

Been a few years so we are due to lose electricity for a week or so. I keep a small generator but its just to run freezers and fridge for an hour every morning. Remove what you need for the day and put it in an ice chest. Shut the doors on freezers and fridge and dont reopen till tomorrow morning. Run the generator an hour and shut it back down. We use lanterns for light. recharge cell phones in the pick up.

a little cash is definitely a good idea. plenty of groceries is too. you gotta eat. so why not save buying in bulk. keep plenty of canned stuff on hand. stuff you eat anyway. rotate it and resupply. no different than saving money. you hoard back a little money for the unexpected. do the same with food.

keep a little ammo on hand. you need to kill a chicken killing coon and just a few months ago you could not run down to the gas station and buy a box of 22 ammo.

its just common sense to keep a few things on hand.

You gotta laugh when the unprepared guy thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. LMAO

If the possum catch the last week of cat season is any indication of their population, I want be going hungry any time soon.

Unless all your neighbors are eating them too

made me think i should get that generator i have been putting off for yrs.

Gotta be some real hungry razor-backs to eat up all those greasy possums, but if we're talking coon....That's different!

Got a river in the backyard in that case. Reckon if they weren't biting you could practice cranking them up.

There ya go, a person could put up a lot of nutritous meat between fish, coon, deer, squirrel, ducks, turkey, frog legs, crawdads, rabbit & beaver.

Beaver was one of the most important sources of food in NA for a lot of people back in the day and could be again if it came to that.

55 gallon barrel of curing salt would be a nice thing to have.

Good idea. Lots of things it can be used for.

any of you guys wanna buy a cow i got cows

I did just run out of salt well sort of I have been buying a 5 pound box as I use one to keep one in the pantry
I need to get some bulk again , I got a good price on 50 pounds a while back maybe 2016 , it stores very well in quart mason jars in the panty

If you wanna prep for whats coming stock up on Preparation H.

You coming to the States! J/K

Concerned about your future is not should not be ignored.

maybe extra spicy beaver chilly

it burns! it burns!

" When the disaster is upon us,,the time to prepare has past "

If I can ride out the storm from home, I would last basically indefinitely. The pantry, root cellar, and freezer would keep a family fed for a year and the cattle reproduce faster than I could butcher but the loss of electricity over an extended period would create some not so fun times.

I have made it a point to have all kinds of old school tools, equipment, and skills but I have often thought of salvaging a walk in cooler or cooler and a freezer from a convenience store of grocery store fire when I work them. If you had a set up like that with either a roof top HVAC unit on propane or nat gas, plus a reefer on diesel for back up I would think you have a good chance of outlasting most.

If I had to abandon the homestead, it would be a lot more difficult, I think.

Oh, and LMBO at the girls who poke fun at anyone being prepared. I would say they are probably descendants of the folks that made fun of Noah building the Ark, but those folks don't have descendants.

Green County aviation fuel has a 5 year shelf life. It's what I run at 32 to1 mixed in all of my 2 cycle equipment. I never have gumed up carbs

We grow a large garden and can. We raise rabbits, chickens and dairy goats. We supply 7 famines a year with fresh products with weekend deliveries. I have traps, guns, ammo, tools and skills. But without power and water will still have a rough time if over a week.

I have been wanting one of the largest harvest right freeze dryers. Seal our produce and finished cooking, eggs, and milk, in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and inro food grade buckets and they will be 25 year shelf life and be lighter than caned goods to carry. It requires electricity but if I have a garden season or two I could get a lot of months of food preparation.

I have been looking at whole house generators thar run off lp. But thet 500 gal lp tank woul only last a week and half if full.

Transportation and communication will be important. Gas could get into short supply, rationed or unavailable. Roads Mya not be passable with down trees, washed out roads, or roads closed with abandoned vehicles. So may not be passable or even if they are they may not be safe for travel . People will be hungry scared and basically wild animals. So to get from point a to be staying off the roads may be the best choice. That most likely means on foot or if you are lucky horses. I'm moving towards getting a few horses currently.


Ham radio will be a good source of communication and if I ever return time with everything else I will look into and learn about that.

As stated it could be something as simple as a storm, earth quake, or rven a job loss. No matter how prepared you think you are will be things you over look or come up. But having a few basics covered is a good piece of mind and will help you if an emergency happens.
I know when I had a job loss 20 yeaes ago not having to buy food for several months eases some of the financial strain.

Also don't over looked medical. From first aid to having extra needed prescriptions on hand. That also includes female products for the ladeys in your family.
.
Start small and build tell you get to your personal comfort level. For some that will be a bunker with years of supplies for others it will be 3 days of food in the house.

As long as there are people looking for food to eat, there will be food to eat.

Is that light meat or dark meat?

I want to be sure I have enough marinara or alfredo sauce stocked away.

Don't forget to put back a few jugs of your favorite "beverage" there Lefty.I always make sure I have a few jugs on "standby"

Better stock both red and white.

Av gas lasts a lot longer than 5 years. So does regular gas if its stored out of the sun. I've used regular gas with no issues that had been in a drum stored inside for 12 years. I store a lot of fuel for my lodge and trapline business. Its all stored in drums out of direct sunlight. AV gas will last a lot longer than reg fuel.

I like to think I’m pretty well prepared. Hygiene, sanitation and prescriptions are very important and overlooked by most. Getting home is also overlooked. If something happens or you get stranded a get home bag is a life saver. I don’t go anywhere without one.

We're ready for whatever comes our way.

We will survive.

A good supply of corn cobs serves two purposes. Keeps good hygiene and when recycled they provide some BTU's in the wood stove. A case of wet wipes just for emergencies when you feel like you were in the saddle too long that day.

We are covered pretty well with pantry goods, dry beans, salted meat, lots of bobcat and beaver meat at the ready. Salt, Sugar and dried milk along with a good supply of bottled water. Buckwheat, Wheat Flour and yeast will keep a trapper going with fiber for quite a while.

thinking about actual refrigeration needs
how much can you do with how little

if you can pick your time to butcher and wait for sub 40*f weather you need none , just a place in the shade to hang
when you can't pick your time to butcher because you have an injured animal , I found a 8 foot chest freezer works fairly well the last cow I had to put down had issue calving and the calf dead and still inside mostly the vet couldn't get it out for a reasonable sum of money and the butcher wouldn't take her in that state.
it was 90*f and right after a nasty thunderstorm had passed , it was hot and humid at least hot by WI standards.
guessing she was 12-1400# standing
got her in that freezer on a big sheet of plastic sheeting and she cooled fine
the ideal thing would be to have racks built so that you could lay each 1/4 not touching the next and wrap each 1/4 in a clean cotton sheet then lay it in and have a small fan to circulate air
as far as cost , availability and use all the time 8 foot chest freezers have a lot of uses

you really don't need to get freezing , just sub 40 , long enough to cool the meat through is all you need

I was recently reading about a dried meat that doesn't even require you get it chilled first
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltong
start cutting right away and make strips they are rolled in the salt and spice then hung on something as simple as a fence wire to dry in the sun
it would definitely help to have a very dry climate like south Africa where this was a traditional method of drying meat.

once fully dry it really only needs to stay dry to keep a year

I have never tried Biltong but have done jerky and left a bag of it in the console of my van from one deer season to the next and it was perfectly fine even with staying in the hot van all summer once it is dry it only needs to stay dry

on a much more common north American meat preservation , my grandma and great aunt and great uncle who all grew up on an island in the great lakes there dad was a commercial fisherman so they ate a lot of chubs ,white fish and whitefish livers while they were catching they raised a few pigs and shot deer. yes spring deer also , they canned the meat as stews to keep lots of ready to eat meals , they talk about shelves on every wall of the cellar , the shelves no longer there the cellar is about 15x20 feet and was dug after the house had been built which makes for some interesting walls they dug inside the original foundation kept the house supported then put up new walls.

hundreds of jars is what they said

all hot water bath which I know is a no-no in modern canning , but the youngest one of them to die was 79 and he had cancer my grandma made 95 and my great aunt turns 90 this year so it must not have been too much of an issue.

You can pour a half can of sea-foam into a 5 gallon can of 91 octane gasoline and I'll bet it will be good in 10 years if left out of the heat and sun.

4 sure...because they will take what the preppers have stored up.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

good to know

I don't really have a good way to store longer than a few months and other things are going to run out at or before a few months.
there is a limit to the time money and effort one can afford to put into being ready.

I may look into AV gas we have a small grass strip air port near by that I think has fuel. but mostly I just buy 91 octane E-free at the pump and store it in poly cans with ez-pour hard caps or spouts

most of my stuff calls for a 50 to 1 so that is what I have been mixing

Yep

You’re gonna starve to death thinking like that.

lol

Pete- relying on cold weather this far south in Texas is the opposite of a plan, unfortunately. For drying or smoking meat, we might have a big advantage. This is an idea I need to play around with a gain some skillz.

If things got real bad, I would see myself as the cummunity butcher shop with several big butcher job and distributions a month. Maybe it would be like a weekly farmers market type meeting (bartered for other goods probably). That is when a big walk in off the grid would really shine.

Tony- there are a few things you'd want to stalk up on. Either that or learn to take your corn from a jar like they do on Rocky Top LOL

someone explain this prepping thing to me, please..

Marty what part of it do you want explained?

50 to 1 works just like running your car a quart low on oil work according to my local saw shop that ports and jets saw. I think the 50 to 1 is an epa thing but may be.wrong 32 to one and it's lubed better. Ave gas also has lead so lubricates better. You may need to tune your carb to run it. It burns cooler and you won't stink Iike you have been running a 2 stroke after running with it. Off to go burn some now in my old 361.

I have apples to make hard cider.Other fruits and berries to make wine.

Being able to make alcohol would be priceless.

Just picked up a bunch of these! Now I’m good on water!

I think having a barometer is important to help with weather forecasting. We have both a battery operated and a hand crank weather radio but if there's no one there to update the message having a barometer will come in handy.

Not a prepper by any means, but I have used this thing A LOT! Saving money with it and backing up in addition to making great meals for camping, fishing, etc.

it is a new-er name for having your house in order

keeping the supplies you need day to day
some cash
some tools
some water
some food
some skills

they might have used to call this common sense

everything our ancestors did when the convenience store and urgent care/ER weren't a 5-10 minute drive 24/7

one thing a lot of people actually overlook is having your documents in order
birth certificates , ss cards , insurance documents , trusts , wills , medical power of attorney
having all that in a portable yet secure place and in plastic bags inside the storage you use
having copies , much easier now when you can easily have your own phot copier at your house , no a copy isn't the original but it gives you all the info you need to get new originals , contact info for the agents , policy numbers ect...

I was talking with a lady who's aunt and uncle had a tornado they had all their stuff organized but in a small fire safe , the neighbors did find the fire safe and returned it to them the next day as they were all going through debris

they had a lot of wet documents she took them to her house and laid them out on every flat surface she had to get them dry , had to peel them apart very carefully

I worked for a place that the office burned , it was over the shop and it was a crazy hot fire , melt the heads of the big air compressor to a puddle on the floor hot , the fire resistant file cabinets that didn't break open when they fell through the floor everything was mostly in tact , some singed edges spent weeks photo copying things
a Manilla envelope or card stock folder inside a 2 gallon zip lock bag seems to be about the best , things in plastic like owners manuals that came with equipment the plastic melted but the folder or envelope kept it from ruining the documents in side. no air means no fire , think about trying to burn a catalog in a fire the middle where the pages are tight to each other doesn't want to burn.

having a set of those important documents where you shelter is not a bad idea.

So who doesnt have all that stuff and more at their trapping cabins all the time?

not everyone lives in the back woods and has a trapping cabin...but you know that.

it appears at least
81% of Canadians

and

80% of Americans

probably much more than that

What size is yours? I got an email and they now have one that can do 32lb but it's 5k. My consern is how it will hold up. Long term.

I can sure see how it would be nice to have, but I question the money savings. Can you elaborate ? Friend has one, seems to use a lot of electricity.

You mean 80% on here dont trap? lol.

Then your best bet to prepare would be to move from La La Land.

well I was specifically using the percent of people who live urban in both countries

there are for sure people rural with no supplies or skills either

there might be a few in urban areas with some level of it

as for people who have trapping cabins probably much lower than that , I am in farm country , fields and little patches of woods and creeks and swamps for a long ways , but very few cabins .

do most of my trapping within 200 yards of barns often closer

Youll be the first ones to croak.

Move North..You will then be prepared naturally at all times.

Do a lot of research before you pull the trigger on that unit. A friend bought one. He's gone through three pumps now so it sits on his counter collecting dust...

Maybe , but that kind of event is very unlikely , I would love to move north well not into Canada always wanted to but my family is in WI
the much more normal events are tornados , storms , and stuff we have quite well covered.

no point in worrying too much , do what you can do

farm country is nice , I get downer beef and plenty of firewood to cut , some stuff to trap and farms that want nuances animals gone.
I have places to shoot and hunt and fish.
wife isn't opposed to moving when the last of the kids is out of school. we might go a bit farther north but it will be in WI