Practical Prepping Protocol even if Poor

You should see my hair right now...I look like something out of an 80's rock band

I had 2 and I gave 1 to my nephew. I still haven't used the other because I don't go inside any place...only go for a walk or a drive.

Minnesota is really good about that! Pretty much go anywhere you want just stay away from others & everything is cool.

I force myself to go out for a drive every day just to keep a PMA.

My preps are holding up better than expected...although I'm going thru too many paper towels...I just pulled out a roll of TP for blowing my nose rather than using paper towels for it.

Use your preps wisely!

I was talking with my sis & she started to break down crying over the virus situation...I had to give her a pep talk.

We need to be strong for your kids & their kids & just make it thru this! We need to get outside even if we don't feel like it to keep our PMA (positive mental attitude).

We have more than enough to eat even though it might not be exactly WHAT we want to eat...so there isn't that much to bitch about at this point.

She felt better & I felt like a football coach :D

Last Edited by Mental Case on 04/28/2020 01:07 AM

Yup...pillow or insulation or fire starter or a floatation device. My mom told me when she was little they would gather cattails & turn them in to make the soldiers life jackets during WW2.

I'm doing goodly. But I never imagined I'd be going thru a SHTF scenario with a kitty.

I never owned a cat...never wanted to...but she showed up in my back yard starving to death & asking me for help...what could I do?

From another thread, which deserves posting here:



Wise plan, if done very carefully. That just might be the saving of us, even of us preppers, if we are extremely careful to do it properly. Protein ready for the eating - and protein is only the first food they are after. More to follow.

I like your idea, Intrazel. My blueberries are beginning to blossom - what a wonderful dedication for them this year. Will also have boysenberries and raspberries - all in containers. Perhaps boysenberries would be best to dedicate to the project.

Thank you, Intrazel - you may have saved people who read your post and think on it!

Indeed - there was nothing else you could do, and goodness knows how many reasons she chose you. Obviously she knew something you didn't.

So now you are stocked with lots of kitty food and litter?

For dogs, the dry food goes rancid fairly fast so they need canned food in the stockpile, not dry. Don't know if that is true for cat food, but worth checking out.

Did you have her spayed, or are you planning on being a grandpa?

Made me drop my jaw. I had no idea! Wonder how well it worked. Where did they do this?

Very, very well done! Is she a prepper also? What you said is the truth - when we sit and obsess on a thing, it grows huger and huger. If we get up and do something, the object of our obsession grows smaller. Going outside is healthy - fresh air is healthy. Sunshine is healthy.

Is she growing any food? We all have to be, to the extent of our possibilities. In the ground, in containers, in hydroponics - we have to grow food to have food to eat. If we only depend on our preps, what happens when they run out? They will not last indefinitely, so we need to get heirloom seeds and be growing everyting we can. Get potatoes and plant them for a big bang for the buck - they are nutrient-dense and calorie dense, and easy to grow, so that's one food to start with. Get the seeds, get to planting.

Keeping busy with her gardening will lift her spirits, too.

Paper towels are far too hard on human skin for nose blowing. Also expensive for the purpose. Purchase tissues for nose blowing so you are not using up paper towels or bathroom tissue. Best way to save those preps.

Doesn't sound like you are gardening - what do you plan to eat when your preps are gone? All that will be possible is to accept the gubmint's offer of food, which will come at a price - your weapons, your report on your neighbors, something and of course accepting the vaccine.

There is a person with both youtube and Patreon channels who has inside information on many things. She recently said that the "food" the starving will be offered is comprised of a small bit of lab-grown "meat" and an even smaller bit of something made of bugs. Her name is Celeste Bishop Solum, if you want to look her up. Formerly employed by fema, among other situations.

Gardening really is necessary- tell us why you aren't, if you wouldn't mind.

You went inside to buy mustard!

Good to see your post and know what's up with you.

I am trying to plant food. Been working in that direction for a while. Frustrating when it all has to be in buckets, but I am making progress. Discovered last week the hydroponic method called Kratky. I've always been interested in hydroponics, but the equipment was too expensive and required too much work not in my wheelhouse, like water pipes, wiring, etc. Kratky doesn't require any of that. Check it out, people! Thus I will be able to grow during winter as well, long as we have power for the shop lights to light.

We also have to consider security of our food because the hungry will be coming for it. Using the Kratky method, I have set up an arrangement in my kitchen, where there is a south southwest facing sliding glass door, thus getting all the afternoon and evening sun. All that food will be inside, where I can defend it, or try. I will try to grow there in winter, as well, but tomatoes and maybe the rest of it will have to be in the garage under a light. I'm also growing a lot more outside. For example, already have two five-gallon buckets growing potatoes and peas. Bought thin bamboo five feet sticks and placed four per bucket, tying them together at the top to make something for the peas to climb. Planting squash and lots of greens out there in buckets too, and trying melons again.

I've been trying, like you, to get to projects that need doing. My health has been misbehaving so everything is going far too slowly and painfully. Frustrating. The spirit is more than willing, but the flesh is so darned weak! If I could just get the planting done, I'll feel so much relieved. We have to grow our own, and by fall and winter that will become very obvious. Wish everybody in this country knew to be planting somethings, somewhere, somehow.

We have to stock protein as that is the first food they are making "disappear" as it is the most necessary for human bodies. I was very fortunate late last summer and early fall on chicken sales. My freezer is stuffed, and a lot of it is chicken that was .99/lb, like skinless, boneless breasts. Still have a ham there from a year ago or so, and a couple beef roasts and some other meat. I am focusing now on canned meats like canned chicken, and have purchased some oddities like a couple cans kippers, couple salad shrimp, just odd protein sources that will help on taste fatigue.

I'm really concerned about food now. For a while I believed that a year's worth would suffice. I no longer think that. Even with my health and age, I'd rather have three years, but no time now to accumulate, probably, since MSP [main stream people] are now aware and will be buying the stores out. In fact, I think we all need to shop before the end of this month, meaning in the next couple days, before the first of the month shoppers buy it all with their news of food shortages.

Again, I'm very glad you posted and brought us up to date! Bless you! Hope you remain well and well-prepared.

I just saw a miracle-grow commercial on TV...

Start your victory garden

Yeah, but that was a convenience store with only 1 other customer at the time...and we kept our distance.

Then after about 2 days I found a bigger bottle of mustard in the cupboard so I did it for nuffin :/

Doesn't sound like you are gardening - what do you plan to eat when your preps are gone?

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I'm prepping the soil but we're still getting close to freezing at night.

I'm torn between corn again or making the great wall of tomatoes...Haven't decided yet.

Tons of Tomatoes would be good...but having an extra 15,000 corn seeds could be quite profitable if we have crisis upon crisis this summer.

What to do...what to do

Hmmmm...maybe I should plant corn...after all it is heirloom FLOUR CORN that I'm planting...

Thread: Are we seeing a flour shortage? Can you get hold of any?

How is everybodies preps holding up?

Are you going to make changes when you restock?

I found out that my comfort foods are more important that I realized for keeping a PMA! And when it comes to snacks...I need more salty & less sweet.

I knew bread would be a problem but I found my bread making machine & that's been a great help! I keep learning tricks to make the bread better.

I'm not out of paper towels by a long shot...but I wish I would have had more. Same with paper plates.

Current preps are holding up pretty well. Clearing out drawers that have old clothing in them that are barely worn and replacing with canned goods. The room around our bed is stacked with more canned stuff & boxed pasta. Have 2 more 20 lb bags of rice to vacuum seal(waiting for the seal bag delivery)
I will have to start baking my own bread. Have learned how to make No-Knead Artisan Bread pretty good. Practice makes perfect :)

Finally found TP today before our current stock ran out.. so our world is good lol

Would I change anything? Not really. We have all the foods we like to eat and hoping to be able to keep getting healthy food. We just know that it will never be enuf should the shelves "Really" be bare.

Can I see a show of hands...

Who did not have "hair cut" on their prep list?

(MC raises hand) :(

My wife has been cutting my hair for decades and I've been known to trim her hair on occasion. It's a handy thing to be able to do. Now I've never tried cutting my own hair.

Chicago...I think they called the life vest the "may west". For pilots.

I found one of my FAVORITE prep's!

Canned salmon on a ritz cracker and a little sprinkle of salt.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

Just dump the salmon in a solo cup...put a sammich baggie on top & into the fridge...A delightful spoonful is waiting for you any time of the day or night!

Why plant only one thing? You will need to eat, right? How about some of everything you like? Greens, of course, are necessary for health. Winter squash keeps all winter with no canning/freezing/drying. Cucumbers and lettuce and everything you like in salad. Oats - one of the best possible nutrients. Potatoes - both white and orange - biggest bang for the buck in nutrients and calories. So many things. Just plant everything you like to eat, and pray for a great harvest!

Ooooh - that sounds so good it sounds like right now yummy! So healthy, too - anti-inflammatory, and an excellent source of the essential oils we will need.

Oh, and plant some beans, as well. All kinds. Brown and white and red and crowder and black-eyed - beans keep well, will fill you well, grow easily, and next year you saved some from this year to plant again!

Heirloom seeds always - have I said it often enough? A bajillion times oughta do it, right? Heirloom seeds only.

So I need to get more canned salmon and sockeye and every version of it. So very good!

Miracle Grow will kill your soil. It's bad, bad stuff - don't do it! Go only with natural things - persuade somebody with rabbits to share what's under their hutches - they have more than they want, trust me. Get a couple truckloads of chicken manure and let it set over winter for next year. Get the good stuff - not petrochemical crap. Please.

People, the food shortage is not, in my estimation, temporary. We have too many things close to firing and none of them will mean well-stocked grocery shops.

Most of the refrigerated trailers that ship cold foods like lettuce, meat, cheese, etc, are stuck in China. Can't move them empty, can't bring anything in them from China - that leaves very few operating in the US. Bad for grocery deliveries.

China and the US are saber-rattling, but this time not so gently, and not sounding hopeful. Pray against war, and for a peaceful disconnection. Pray nobody goes for the EMP option. Bad for grocery deliveries.

Covid isn't going away any time soon - bad for the health of food production workers. Bad for grocery deliveries.

Then we ramp up to elections, if we get that far. Whether we do or no, bad for grocery deliveries.

Some believe we are right next to a civil war here. Bad for grocery deliveries.

We have entered the mini ice age, so growing food is going to be far more difficult, and we will be hungrier and colder. And wetter, whether rain, snow, or both. Grow everything you can this summer and pray for a great harvest, because by the next growing season, there may not be one. Bad for grocery deliveries.

See - that's probably only the short list - as much as I can handle at one time without shedding a tear and looking for a store that's open.

Just consider, people - this isn't a short-term issue we are talking about. Remember, china bought 38% of our farm and ranchlands - do you honestly believe we will ever see a bite of food from those lands? Knowing they are starving over there? Bad for grocery deliveries.

We have lived our normal. We are now moving toward our new normal, and no way to predict how long til we land there - on the new normal, I mean. Our great grandchildren might see it as adults.

As long as we have been at this thread, I can't imagine you folks feel like it's only a bad season and we will be back to normal next month or next winter. Boy, do I wish it were so! I'm too old to deal with this much "stuff" - and not healthy enough to have any right to expect even another ten years. But here I am, poking and prodding those brave enough to come to this thread, bugging you all about heirloom seeds and minimum four gallons water per day and grow everything you can grow, TODAY!

If this saves one family, one group, even three people - well, I've enjoyed it. Got sick enough last Thursday I thought I was gonna die, and almost wish I could. Don't know what it was but of course you know what I thought it could be. However, since I am almost normal [or as close to normal as I can claim to be] today, it obviously wasn't that. So now I feel a great urgency for all of you. YOU and YOU and yes, YOU - get with it, John and Jill and James and Judy! Prepare. Grow. Plant. Purchase, make, make do, do without. Do all the things!

Watch Ice Age Farmer, Adapt 2030, Alaska Prepper - these fellows know stuff - and it might sound crazy, but keep watching, learning, researching,finding your own information. It's oh so very much not crazy.

Okay, now I've made you all feel guilty and bad and worried - my work here is done.

GO PLANT!!!

KTee, do not throw out any warm clothing - you will need it. And everybody needs wool blankets, as well. I have a fondness for hot water bottles. Get at least one non-electric water purifier - the big ones that do at least a gallon at a time. Get extra filters for it.

Did you-all know that after a few years your heirloom seeds will "learn" how to grow in your soil and climate conditions? Amazing!

I'm recently into the Kratky method of hydroponics - they will produce food inside. Oh, that reminds me - security. People will be hungry, and will be after your gardens and crops. Worst of it is, they won't stop when they've eaten their fill. They will trash the rest of it so nobody gets it. That's one of the advantages to hydroponics, and Kratky doesn't require plumbing, power, anything but light. Grow things in your windows, your sliding glass door - that's my plan- in your garage under shop lights - also my plan. They are safer there, and you can be growing most things all year long. Buy buckets from the same sources you have been getting, if you have followed my suggestions, water buckets.

Okay, so maybe my work isn't quite done yet. NOW GO GROW!!!

All that in a 15 foot square? Me no think so.

I did start planting today though...basil, habenaro, tobasco, ceyanne, and 3 tomato plants so far.

Then I saw that tomorrow night it's going to get down to 36 :(

Say goodbye to the basil :(

I decided on the great wall of tomatoes

I have a ton of dry pasta, garlic is growing...and chives...So tomatoes, basil, and thyme should give me the most to eat.

And hot peppers to make salsa with. (better grow some cilantro too).

Last Edited by Mental Case on 05/05/2020 07:16 PM