Practical Prepping Protocol even if Poor

The knowledge that fats/oils are necessary for survival is why I began planting olive trees 12-14 years ago. An uninterruptible source of oil was the goal.

I harvest the olives every year and process for oil. It is incredibly time-consuming and labor intensive, but the end result is worthwhile.

A friend of mines grandfather was a 'chemist' (re he compounded pharmceuticals as per Dr's orders). WHen Wall Street carshed, the first time. He came home and promptly ripped up his families kitchen garden and started planting flower bulbs and such. He knew, that even when times were dim, people would spend a bit of their little income on a flower to brighten their meagre dinner tables. He was correct. He had money, pharmacists don't tend to go broke, enough to pay for food for the table. ANd made a tidy profit off his backyard flower garden when in season.

Never underestimate the powers of beauty, nor stupidity.

Welp, this morning I went to the grocery store for the first time in 3 months

No paper towels what-so-ever...but what really surprised me was an almost empty sugar aisle! Maybe three 10 pound bags and about five 4 pound bags.

I hadn't heard of a sugar shortage...and it was all generic sugar. No brand names at all.

Sugar shortage has been happening but it's getting worse.




Look up IceAgeFarmer on YT
Nov 17th
Won't let me imbed vid :(

Dang, was just at the store this morning and didn't even think about looking at the sugar. I had been picking 10 lbs up a week... probably have enough to last a good while.

I have been picking up extra supplies of the sort that disappeared in the last lockdown, as well as taking advantage of BOGO sales to refresh my medicine chest.

What are your OTC medications that you keep on hand? To start with I keep:

Aspirin - pain reliever
Ibuprofen - pain reliever
Naproxen sodium - pain reliever
Acetaminophen - pain reliever
Diphenhydramine - allergy relief and sleep aid
Antidiarrheal
Nyquil - The new formula doesn't work nearly as well.
Theraflu
Pseudoephedrine - the stuff that you have to show ID for.
Antacids
Cough drops
Hydrocortisone cream
Hydrogen peroxide
Rubbing alcohol
Hibiclens
Povidone iodine scrub
Vicks Vaporub - mentholated gunk for cough.
Calamine lotion - for poison ivy

Other things that I'm thinking of:
Desitin - zinc oxide cream, commonly used for diaper rash
A&D cream
Antibiotic cream

Obviously I'm missing some things so I'd welcome suggestions!

Baking supplies have been touch and go here for a while (flour, sugar, yeast). Yeast in particular has been unobtainable at local stores for months. I was able to order a large package online, so we are in good shape.

Maybe the NyQuil doesn't work as well due to the current level of stress we are under? ;)

I stock all of the OTC items on your list. I have several kits packed out. One in each vehicle, one in the house, the shop, etc. They are also stocked with more trauma-related items (tourniquets, quick-clot, pressure bandages, gauze, etc.) Even some IV and suture supplies.

One item I might suggest for OTC is bismuth tablets. Like Pepto-Bismol in chewable tablet form. Helpful for upset stomach/nausea as well as being a milder Antidiarrheal than some of the others.

Bismuth/peptobisol is going on my list for certain! Thanks for your observations!

Some suggestions:
Muscle rub for strained muscles
Electrolyte tablets
Castor oil
Mineral oil
Essential oils
Colloidal silver
Aloe vera
Witch hazel
Betadine

I have found the bismuth tablets very handy to have around. If I take loperamide (Immodium), it binds me up for days. The bismuth is less...aggressive.

It is pretty cheap, too.

Observed and taken into consideration! Which essential oils do you recommend?

I'll keep an eye out for bismuth then. My strategy until now has been to have loperamide on hand. Its not like I have to deal with diarrhea on a regular basis, I am just thinking ahead to a situation where this might be a problem.

Clove for tooth pain
Lavender for sleep, anxiety
Clary sage for astringent and circulation
Sweet Orange for anxiety
Peppermint for headache
Rosemary boosts the immune system
Eucalyptus for fungus, bacteria, ticks, insects
Tea tree for dandruff, coughs, colds, skin
Lemongrass oil is antibacterial, anti-fungal, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, insect repellent
Cinnamon for colds

You need a carrier oil for mixing your essentials with I like apricot oil, grapeseed or jojoba. But here is some info:

[link to www.healthline.com (secure)]

There are lots of resources on the internet for oils. I have some books that list symptoms and tell you which oil to use. Just like any other prepping, buy a little at a time as you can afford it. I have seen them at Walmart now, also I pick them up at Marshall's, TJ Maxx, etc.

I also order blends from this place. They run great sales and the oils are high quality and last a long time.

[link to barefut.com (secure)]

I do also have plenty of loperamide. In an extreme situation (dehyradtion) it could save your life.

Started to collect various herbal teas.

Lemongrass
Spearmint
Green
Chamomile
Ginger
Linden

Also keep a good supply of Apple Cider Vinegar
Honey

Oh and don't forget the Garlic!!

Last Edited by KTee on 07/02/2020 11:18 PM

Plenty of things to think about here. I use lemongrass oil in front of my air conditioner for shear giggles but didn't think about the health benefits. I use tangerine and frankincense oils too.

Thanks for the backup! I don't mind having more than one solution to a problem (you saw my list for pain relievers, right?) I just want to be able to give the right item for the right ailment if I can.

Early morning bump to see who else has a suggestion!

I posted this in a different thread.

But, this $4 device could save your life.

A Sillcock key.

[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

If you are stranded and need to walk home, this device will open the outdoor hose spigot on any commercial building.

Would be VERY handy in a lights out scenario using it on a multi-story building. Lot's of water trapped in pipes no-one else would be able to open.

I have one in my get home bag at all times.

Water is life.



.

Excellant advice!~ Thank you for the reminder.

This is before the covid19 worries....

Six months ago

[link to youtu.be (secure)]

Oops. Wrong tab.

Pooka , you are loved.

What a wonderful, kind thing to say! I needed that, really I did, and I bless you for it!

Love you, as well - have since I first saw your "name" lo these many eons ago! After that I came to tremendously enjoy your posts in all sorts of threads, and that hasn't changed. It's just really, really special that you post here, too!!

Yes, it is, and thank you for posting this - a life saver to many. Picture trying to walk out of any city - any city at all, from New York to Gatlinburg to Gettysburg to Los Angeles. Dying, quite literally, for water. You are saving lives, Wyatte Smith!

Bless you, dear sweet KTee~ You are a precious human being and much loved!!

People, please stack up KTee's green karma big time - she spent all she had on us!!

You are wise to accumulate what you would need in case you had to leave your primary residence, and keeping it stored away from that residence. Wise, gf~~! Are you having luck in finding items like the pot-bellied stove?

Everything is going "hard to find" over time - and some of us junkies just cannot be without sugar. If I don't get my sweets fix - oh dear - not good for the neighborhood!

People, the world is going sour even as we type. Many wise souls expect China to attack us, in the fall at the latest. Unfortunately, we don't have to wait to observe them coming - a great many of them are already here, and more keep coming. They just want us all dead so they can have everything but the citizens. At some point I would anticipate them using the warfare form which kills living things and does no harm at all to infrastructure or buildings, homes, businesses. They become rid of us, as desired, and have everything move-in ready.

Before we get to war, we have famine - deliberate famine, best I can understand. NWO plans, you know. Got to get rid of most of us. Starvation, a sweet liddle shot guaranteed to prevent - what? - well, survival, mostly. Delivered by our military in the fall. No, thank you.

We have extremes of covid coming - and to make matters worse, we have so many refusing to believe it exists, refusing masks, refusing any form of carefulness or prevention, putting a tremendous burden on those of us who are at high risk as well as everyone else including, now, children and young people. Wearing a mask saves the wearer far less than it saves those around the possibly-infected non-wearer. It is now ordered in my state that everyone wear a mask in public. I had to do a little shopping today and who was wearing a mask? Me. Some others. Everyone? Not a chance. So anyone breathing around me without a mask placed a heavy risk on my health. They don't care.

Everybody saw today and yesterday the news that covid-19 is likely airborne? Unpopular news, I know.

Curious why almost nobody wears gloves. I consider them as important as masks - everything is touched before we get to it - ugh - how many in this country wash their hands after using the bathroom? Very few. Since that is the only time we wash our hands during the work day, usually, imagine what is on those hands! Ew - quick change of subject.

So as usual I'm watching, researching, listening, considering, and nothing sounds wonderful except that more and more seem to be coming to faith in God, for which I am very grateful. The rest is all downturning in haste.

Went to my favorite discount grocery this evening, the place I always shop for groceries and other items. They've had a lot of meat for weeks and months. Haven't been there in a week or two and tonight - wow! The meat displays were showing very little! Mostly empty spaces. They've had a tremendous amount of chicken but today - nope. Fortunately I wasn't looking for meat.

Rice and beans are back in stock - large bags and small. The large bags are always pinto beans and plain white rice. Smaller bags of black beans, mixed soup beans, all kinds of beans. Several kinds of rice in various sizes.

No Vitamin e but finally they do have Vitamin C in stock again, and some multivitamins, as well as a number of other individual supplements, but never the ones which have been mentioned on the news or online as helpful with covid. Those disappear almost instantaneously.

Quite a lot of fresh fruit and other produce on the tables and shelves, and frozen foods. Dog food sure has gone up! Purchased bathroom tissue and paper towels. Just recently there was a limit of two but no limits today. I only bought one each anyway - just building up further supply. Found hand sanitizer with no alcohol - can't recall the active ingredient. Will try to remember to look when I bring it in from the car.

Personal aside - received reports today from recent x-rays of my lower back, hip, knee. Back report contains words like severe, greatly, etc. Big bad changes. Hip is unfortunate but much of the pain there and in the leg is referred from the back. Knee is also bad. We are having some fun now! LOL It's been agonizing for months - standing and walking are very, very painful and even sitting doesn't go well. I've fallen three times so far this year, and have to have fire dept come help me up as both shoulders are bone on bone so I cannot get myself up. Incredibly hard on the pride as well as the body. Broke my arm in one fall. So the point is, when I go shopping, which is very, very rarely because of virus separation and because of health issues, it's a very hard time. I do what I can, which isn't much at one time. Today I managed the discount grocery and Dollar Tree because I had to get drain cleaner there - would not want to run out of that when things are again unavailable - that would not be good at all, would it? Only one dollar and the stuff really works! Picked up four or five, to have enough to last for a while. Continuing the aside - when I check out from the grocery store, I have them use their own bags and bag the frig and frozen items separate from the rest, because I am doing very well to get even that little bit into the house. The rest stays in the car until I am up to bringing it in, often a little at a time over some days. That's why I can't tell you right now the active ingredient in the alcohol-free hand sanitizer.

On with news - there isn't any good of which I am aware. It's all warnings from people who know whereof they speak. If you do not follow Ice Age Farmer, please join his yt channel, if not his Patreon as well. Have a look at his video for today, 7/6/20. He knows what we need to know about food supplies - or actually the lack of food supplies. Adapt 2030 is another excellent channel to follow for the same reason.

Too much happening, again, to remember all at once. China, India, Israel, Hong Kong, the Koreas - everyone with a chip on their shoulder, real or imagined. So many countries up in arms now, and there are more than I recalled just then.

Speaking of children, which we weren't, we don't seem to know the facts about whether children are actually being rescued from DUMBS - do any of you know?

I suppose we have to talk about the insanity in our own nation - especially over the past couple weeks. We have democrat mayors who are allowing their cities to go to worse than the dogs - the damage done to the culture there as well as to the conservative people and shops and businesses - undarnedbelievable. Disband the police, hmm? Pure idiocy - we need more, not less. Reparation? I don't think so. Give up our own property to them? No, not happening. They have been given whole countries of their very own - remember Liberia? And what do they do with what is given to them? Yes, exactly. So give them more? No! They can work just like the rest of us, just like those who came to this country and built it and made lives for themselves and wealth for their children. Many black people owned black slaves, as well - start there with a question about reparations and property.

Now they are grouping up with weapons. This is not acceptable as the point is only to harm us, not to be a part of this society, not to make things better for everyone, not to remove the evil from the land and create safety and joy. No, the point is just to cause pain and trouble. I do not understand why - why anyone would want to make trouble, pain, destruction, misery for anyone. However, that is indeed the apparent intention.

Of course there is more going on, and will be getting worse as that seems the season we are forced to endure - but we have the option to do our best to take care of ourselves and each other. Our first need is to be prepared with water and food. Many "experts" now understand that people need to stay home, not "bug out" unless they can go now, or have gone, to a better location than their usual home.

Oh - forgot - the disease in rabbits in the southwest. Wonder if that is deliberate as is the wasting disease in the central US for all meat animals like elk, deer, etc.

Shop now, please. Read earlier today, don't recall where, of a woman who decided she is going to use her preps now. Huge mistake. NO NO NO - we need to be gaining ground, not losing it! Please continue gathering, while you are also gardening. Be looking out for seed sources - people will be harvesting now, and will be willing to trade some of their seeds for what you aren gathering, and you may find them available - keep searching online - eBay is one good source of heirloom seeds. Keep trying, keep collecting seeds.

Remember that we will need to be aware of security for our growing things - more as time goes by - and by next year this may be critical. Seriously consider hydroponics - if you are not set up and cannot afford a big system, go for Kratky method. That's what I am doing. Just collect buckets, which is easy to do, and the nutrients you will need for the water. Research this system and make your plans. Hydroponics works indoors - so you can grow in your barn, garage, kitchen, livingroom, any place, with that being increased security and safety. If anybody can get to your growing food, they will eat their fill, and then out of pure ugliness will destroy the rest so nobody else can eat, including the owner.

I was happy to see the discussion of OTC meds to have on hand - please also remember warm bedding and clothing and footwear for the grand solar minimum.

Consider all the inexpensive and readily-available means for home security today. Wherever you plan to remain during this mess we have, consider driveway alarms, cameras, motion-activated lights. Use solar lights everywhere you can, enhancing visibility as much as possible and making your place less desirable to attempt to enter. I found on Amazon a bar for the sliding glass door that has an alarm on it. There are also window alarms very inexpensive there. So many options for every budget - please look for things you can readily afford without taking money from water and preps, to make you feel safer and more secure today and in what is to come.

This is the first video of a series, found in another thread, which certainly seems worth watching - we will no doubt HATE everything we learn, but it's the season for that, isn't it? Nothing about our world is as it should be at this time. What are we going to do about it? Perhaps we need to talk.

God bless each one of you here - you have been such blessings to me, and undoubtedly to a great many others. Please do all you can to survive what's coming, to protect your families, and to regather here, when life settles a bit into something resembling sanity. Love to you all.

Last Edited by Pooka on 07/07/2020 08:06 AM

I went to the store a few days ago. It is a store I usually avoid (nation's largest retailer) but I needed a few things and didn't want to wait for other stores to open.

Groceries and paper goods were well-stocked, but other sections of the store had bare shelves. Clothing, housewares, etc. had many empty spots.

I guess when nearly everything comes from China, it will have an effect on inventory. Just an observation.

(Such blush)

I am sorry that I don’t venture out often anymore.... so much anger out there.

Your thread is extremely important. It was honor to be around when you created it.

It is a good observation.... you should see the bike section....

When things run low...start thinking alternatives!

Say sugar is out...there are jams, syrups, karo, candy, peaches packed in heavy syrup, pie compote, etc.

If steak & chicken are running low...there is hot dogs, sausage, spam, canned salmon, tuna, chili (no beans), peanut butter, etc.

It may not be exactly what you wanted...but it's close enough.