Author Topic: Something else to consider-becoming the crazy prepper (Read 16218 times)

Kathyp · « **on:** August 30, 2021, 03:17:02 pm »

I debated putting this under an existing heading, but I think it might deserve its own space.

https://dnyuz.com/2021/08/30/the-world-is-still-short-of-everything-get-used-to-it/

One of many articles. Between drought, fires, locust infestation and floods...not to mention the pandemic, things are getting a little scary. We are used to an excess of goods. We should probably be planning for a scarcity of goods.

Being a prepper had gotten a bad rep, but there are things that people can and should do to prepare for shortages (or storms). People don't know how to grow stuff, or kill and prepare things. They don't think about power being off for days or water not coming from the tap.

What prepper things are you doing?

ifixoldhouses · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2021, 03:31:14 pm »

IF I told ya, Everyone would know what I've got

Kathyp · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2021, 04:28:47 pm »

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IF I told ya, Everyone would know what I've got

LOL. We could just describe methods and thoughts rather than specific stashes

The15thMember · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2021, 04:50:20 pm »

Quote from: ifixoldhouses on August 30, 2021, 03:31:14 pm

IF I told ya, Everyone would know what I've got

My thoughts exactly.

My family has been working toward becoming as self-sufficient as possible for some time. We are nowhere near there yet, but we make a little bit of progress every year. We have recently started sampling some meals from those long-term food storage places to see whether we'd like to purchase any. Some of the stuff we have tried is pretty good, and some of it has been very bad.

gww · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2021, 05:35:58 pm »

I sorta prep but for a different type of fear then thinking things are going to go bad. I do it to keep me from having to go back to the store any sooner then absolutely needed. If I can match store prices closely, I will buy things I use every day in six months quantities shipped to me. Like coffee and tobacco and such. For only two people living in one house, I have an ungodly amount of refrigerators and freezers going. Not the same as canned and dried but I do have enough solar to keep most of them going if that is all I tried to do with it. I would get by for a while but think my chickens would struggle cause those suckers can eat.
Cheers
gww

Ben Framed · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2021, 06:21:24 pm »

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The15thMember
My family has been working toward becoming as self-sufficient as possible for some time. We are nowhere near there yet, but we make a little bit of progress every year.

My family did that without knowing anything about prepping just our way of life. lol. We raised 3 hogs a year for country ham, sausage, pork chops etc, fed out at least one yearling beef for our own use, chickens for meat and eggs, ran trotlines for all the fish we would need for the next year, and a load of variety of vegetables from the garden. The food always tasted so good and fresh when properly prepared for the freezer. Might need to go back to the basics simply for the food value?

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The15thMember
We have recently started sampling some meals from those long-term food storage places to see whether we'd like to purchase any. Some of the stuff we have tried is pretty good, and some of it has been very bad.
Modify message

Member have you and your family looked into a freeze dryer? I do not have one but did a little checking and I like the concept.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2021, 06:27:19 pm »

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gww

I do have enough solar to keep most of them going if that is all I tried to do with it.

Gww I do not have solar panels and do not know a thing about them. Being you have been there and done that, do you have any helpful recommendations?

gww · « **Reply #7 on:** August 30, 2021, 07:34:02 pm »

Ben
Probably one of the dumber things I have done though I was bored at the time and it was fun learning about. If you want power when there is no power you can buy, it is really neat and works very well but at a price. If you just want to save a little money on your bill, you might be able to do it if your electric company has rebates and you use them as your battery. But then your power goes down when they go down. A generator would work better for outages under normal situations. If you get a battery big enough to really run stuff, it is a loser all the way compared to what I get electric for in my area. The solar panels do great if you don't have shade and they give no issues. The big charge controllers and inverters are expensive and can go bad in time though mine are still going, but you make yourself the electric company which means any problems are yours.

You will probably not buy enough to cover central air in your house unless you are super rich. I will say this. I can not run my whole house all night but have not lost power since 2013 when our power has went down. I usually know when we lose power cause my tv in the basement goes out cause it is not on the circuit. I could run an extension card but all the other tvs work and my computer keeps going and so I am usually to lazy to care.

We have not had power outages here during that time that last more then just a few hours and so I have been able to just keep trucking like nothing happened. Doesn't seem like my electric bill has went down but I also am a nut and do nothing to conserve in any way but can run a lot of stuff for a short time with no power coming in.

I had built a couple of wind mills and had them up but we don't have wind here and I took them down.. I did think it was interesting building them though and in the right place they would have helped but are much harder to control then solar which is great and easy as you don't have to find a place to put the extra power they make just to control them.

My final position though is that batteries suck and are expensive and in no way can beat what the power company can do unless you build in a place that is impossible to get power lines to.
Cheers
gww

The15thMember · « **Reply #8 on:** August 30, 2021, 07:38:54 pm »

Quote from: Ben Framed on August 30, 2021, 06:21:24 pm

My family did that without knowing anything about prepping just our way of life. lol. We raised 3 hogs a year for country ham, sausage, pork chops etc, fed out at least one yearling beef for our own use, chickens for meat and eggs, ran trotlines for all the fish we would need for the next year, and a load of variety of vegetables from the garden. The food always tasted so good and fresh when properly prepared for the freezer. Might need to go back to the basics simply for the food value?

My mom was listening to a podcast the other day that was discussing this. The one lady was saying how her grandmother wouldn't have viewed anything like this as "prepping", she would have called it "life". We have certainly found out how much better home-raised food tastes, just based on the comparatively little that we do grow ourselves.

Quote from: Ben Framed on August 30, 2021, 06:21:24 pm

Member have you and your family looked into a freeze dryer? I do not have one but did a little checking and I like the concept.

We have, and we are really liking the concept too. It's pretty expensive, but we love the idea that we could freeze dry our own food (which is generally much more delicious than the prepackaged meals we've been sampling). It's pretty expensive and bulky, and we're not sure if we have anywhere we could keep it, but it's something that is appealing to us.

Quote from: Ben Framed on August 30, 2021, 06:27:19 pm

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gww

I do have enough solar to keep most of them going if that is all I tried to do with it.

Gww I do not have solar panels and do not know a thing about them. Being you have been there and done that, do you have any helpful recommendations?

We have also been considering solar, but are unable to do so on our roof due to tree cover, which is making placement of panels a challenge. There is a cleared piece of property adjacent to ours that we could potentially use if we purchased it, but as it is, we're not sure if we could really make it work or not.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #9 on:** August 30, 2021, 07:43:10 pm »

Thanks gww. We don't have much trouble here with electricity going out for usually more than the time you described. Hats off to the electric company. I was thinking more in line for a backup in case of one of those rare times that the power company 'might' go haywire. Hoping it would keep the freezer going until things could be repaired. You are right about batteries too. Have you priced a car battery latey? Wooo..

gww · « **Reply #10 on:** August 30, 2021, 07:51:56 pm »

Ben
In those types of situations I have to believe a generator would work cheapest. Small solar for lights and a radio or something would work good for little used camping areas and such. There is usually no sun on the days that the power goes out and so that means giant battery and giant solar to cover and does not happen often enough to be worth it. Of course this is just my two cents.
Cheers
gww

Ben Framed · « **Reply #11 on:** August 30, 2021, 07:52:18 pm »

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We have, and we are really liking the concept too. It's pretty expensive, but we love the idea that we could freeze dry our own food (which is generally much more delicious than the prepackaged meals we've been sampling). It's pretty expensive and bulky, and we're not sure if we have anywhere we could keep it, but it's something that is appealing to us.

I know what you mean. I watched a couple videos and it looks like they are operated along with a standard vacuum pump. Something like we would use to pull a vacuum on an AC unit for recharging after repairs have been made. I can't seem to find enough basic information to build my own. I suppose mathletics would play a key role in the amount of vacuum needed per cubic square inch of frozen space involved? I do not see any reason, if a person knew the basics of operation and the mathematical formulas needed per such, should not be able to accomplish this goal of building their own? Beside that it should be a cakewalk?

Ben Framed · « **Reply #12 on:** August 30, 2021, 07:58:09 pm »

Quote from: gww on August 30, 2021, 07:51:56 pm

Ben
In those types of situations I have to believe a generator would work cheapest. Small solar for lights and a radio or something would work good for little used camping areas and such. There is usually no sun on the days that the power goes out and so that means giant battery and giant solar to cover and does not happen often enough to be worth it. Of course this is just my two cents.
Cheers
gww

Yes you are right. Simply not worth the trouble for that need. I do have a 5500-6500 generator that I bought from Harbor Freight several years ago. So far haven't needed it for that purpose. Again tribute to a good electric company service.

salvo · « **Reply #13 on:** August 30, 2021, 10:21:44 pm »

Hi Folks,

The simple activity of *canning* now casts shadow on you. This is from Facebook. They're watching. Always watching:

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Sal

gww · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2021, 04:06:02 am »

SAL
in a techno world and people being people, you can find haters on every subject. You look and you might find haters tracking people who have a mole on their right side above their lip. There might be a problem in this world but the problem is probably not canning but more people having a view on everything and others posting everything about their lives to be looked at. Not saying good but just saying look down on the hating even if you have to accept it cause such is the world. Not a thing that is bad enough to justify actions like the Unabomber took against tech. We have computers and people just have to recognize there are idiots out there and ignore them. Doubt the clock can be turned back by any means.

Funny thing thing about hate, nobody lives a perfect life but Jesus and everybody does something that will bother some one else and just cause that some one else is bothered, their being bothered does not add up to a majority of those being bothered. Don't worry be happy.
Cheers
gww

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2021, 07:53:50 am »

Phillip,
I put a 8K solar system on my barn roof. Part of the job was to connect the barn to the house and eliminate a $35 a month meter charge. That helps to make it pay for it. Bee careful buying solar systems that connect to the power grid. Most are designed so that they don?t work if you are running on a generator. They have to have power to turn on. Generators have high harmonics and they are designed not to turn on with a generator. I paid extra for my system to run with a generator. This allows the generator to run at idle with a load that is less than the solar systems output.
Jim Altmiller

Acebird · « **Reply #16 on:** August 31, 2021, 08:28:36 am »

Quote from: Kathyp on August 30, 2021, 03:17:02 pm

What prepper things are you doing?

I have two generators. Both rely on fossil fuel so not really self sufficient. The sensible thing for preppers to do is to get a horse and raise hay for the short term. For the long term you would have to get a male and female. Generators are more prevalent here in FL then where I came from but for emergency you need them more in the north. When a storm hits the short supply runs out quick.

Acebird · « **Reply #17 on:** August 31, 2021, 08:42:24 am »

Quote from: Ben Framed on August 30, 2021, 06:27:19 pm

Being you have been there and done that, do you have any helpful recommendations?

This is so hilarious asking a republican for recommendations on a liberal topic. Without taking a hand out from the government solar power is a net loss even here in FL. You got to scratch your head. DeSantis is giving out government money to his republican supporters for solar power systems. Can you believe the irony?

Ben Framed · « **Reply #18 on:** August 31, 2021, 12:34:15 pm »

Quote from: Acebird on August 31, 2021, 08:42:24 am

Quote from: Ben Framed on August 30, 2021, 06:27:19 pm
Being you have been there and done that, do you have any helpful recommendations?
This is so hilarious asking a republican for recommendations on a liberal topic. Without taking a hand out from the government solar power is a net loss even here in FL. You got to scratch your head. DeSantis is giving out government money to his republican supporters for solar power systems. Can you believe the irony?

I do not think gww being a republican or democrat has anything to do with it. I ask him as one American which is a member here to another American who is a member here.
Stick to the subject.

The15thMember · « **Reply #19 on:** August 31, 2021, 12:59:55 pm »

Does everything HAVE TO become so partisan with you guys?? Prepping has little to do with being Republican or Democrat. Natural disasters and pandemics affect all alike, as does economic depression or governmental collapse. In my opinion this thread is about smart strategies to have in place in case things like this occur, not who has the best policy to prevent them.