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The prepper thread


samurai_sarah

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  • 4 weeks later...

I used to be a quasi-prepper when I lived in hurricane country. My patience can handle a month without utilities. Beyond that, people start to get a little stir-crazy and quick with the trigger. I would like to learn some survivalist skills before TEOTWAWKI. I want the knowledge and skill set of a doomsday prepper without the crazy. 

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  • 5 months later...

Aw, I thought this would have more fun things posted.  

I live in an area with tornados and hurricanes....where we could easily lose power for 2wks.  So we do a few things to make life easier in case of bad weather.  #1 on my list is a gas powered stove, so I can have COFFEE!!  We use a french press daily, anyway.  It's also important to me that I can feed the family, and the idea of using a grill during a hurricane downpour....while "exciting"....doesn't seem like it would be enjoyable.  So the gas stove is wonderful to have in power out situations!

I'm also fairly frugal, so I bulk-buy foods from a local azure standard co-op.  I go through spices quickly, and it's by far cheaper to buy them by the lb, vs by the little bottles.  I buy our oatmeal in bulk, too, and like to add it to breads, muffins, cookies, and pancakes.  And we eat a ton of beans, cause I adore cooking mexican foods, so I buy them in larger amounts so we don't run out.  (I hate running out of something I need!)  A normal meal with beans would be me using a quart of beans (which is more than a 1lb bag)....so we can have leftovers the next day.  We love leftovers.  

After two crazy hurricane seasons (obviously yrs ago), and waiting in a HUGE line for the grocery store to open so I could pretend it was black friday...only w canned food, water, and hurricane supplies, I decided I didn't want to deal with that again!  I wanted to already have things ready.  So we have a TON of votive candles (actually leftovers from a family member's wedding reception) and tea lights.  I have a vintage picnic basket on top of my fridge w a weather radio, extra batteries, flashlights, glow sticks for the kids, and a few other things we might need if the power goes out.  I have some oil lamps, too, for if the outage is long term.  I bought a water bob to put in the tub and fill up w water.  And since I can things....we have a bazillionty canning jars we could fill with water, before a storm comes through.  

We have a bit of land, and lots of pets....and while we talked about raising meat animals.....we never quite could handle the killing and eating part!  Hahaha!  We DO have laying hens, and get fresh eggs daily.  We also did *A* garden.  Our summers are insanely busy, and a garden really needs for us to be HOME to do all the work.  And we haven't been able to.  We have a gorgeous place for it, and tons of animal poop to fertilize it....and I hope one day we'll be able to have quieter summers and the time to garden AND put up all that food!!  

I have a lovely pantry, and two upright freezers (one is full of a pig we bought from a family who raised them for butchering).  Finding good deals/the best deals on food is important to me, and I like to stock up well when I find an amazing deal.  Feeding my family = love to me....and to them, lol.  

Anyway, these are some of the things we do/have done to "prep".  If I lived in a place where I might be snowed in for weeks, I'd prep accordingly.  If there were earthquakes by me....those pantey shelves would have a lip over them, and probably a board partway up to keep my jars and cans from toppling.  We have family who live where there have been bad wind storms which knocked out power for weeks....they realized how important getting water from their well was, and they had certain parts of their house wired to hook up to a generator--so they can run the well pump and run their fridge/freezer for enough hrs to keep their food good still.  And possibly to watch a little tv, lol, and charge their phones. 

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Oh - that is such a lovely idea - I have my grandma's picnic basket that I love.   Old, wicker and wonderful.  Bu anytime we picnic, we pack a cooler...  I'm going to fill it with power outage things!   It will be used again.   :)   

Secret prepper here - garden, can, preserve, dehydrate.    My kids just think we have a lot of food because mommy has a strange hobby.   But yes, I'm another who sits smugly while everyone who plans to make French toast during an outage  - milk and bread - runs to the store to clear the shelves.   I also read many TEOTWAWKI books and they always mourn the day they use the last bit of toilet paper and then never mention it again....I have a stash.  Priorities!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I wish I had a TP stash.  I tend to buy a month's worth at a time, cause I hate going to the store.  But, if ever NEEDED, which I hope is NOT the case, I have flannel fabric which could be made into washable squares for homemade toilet paper.  I hope we never need them.  I do use flannel menstrual pads, and like those.  

My kids like that we almost always have favorite things in the pantry.  It liked to have killed my son when we ran out of craisins recently.  My parents have a BJ's membership, and I try to get 10-12, 3# bags of craisins when we visit, or they visit us.  I didn't plan well enough....they loaded us up last Sept, and I didn't bother with more during our Jan and April visits.  Oops.  Ds eats craisins nearly every day....or did till we ran out.  

I make homemade soap....it is a million times better for my dry skin...so I order coconut oil by the big buckets.  I'm also a cheapskate, so 50# of it (organic) is cheaper than the cheap louana stuff at walmart (including shipping and taxes, I pay $1.85/# vs what would end up being $4.80/#).  It.s nice having a seemingly endless supply of coconut oil in the pantry.  I ran out of butter about 3 weeks ago, due to my dd going happy with baking.  Our budget was super-tight for another 10 days, and having coconut oil on hand meant I didn't need to go to the store.  I actually prefer coconut oil (refined, not tasting like coconut) on my popcorn.  And during this time, we found out just how AMAZING our cornbread was cooked in coconut oil + BACON GREASE, vs the normal butter.  (I melt it in the pan in the oven while making the batter, then dump the batter in on top of the melted yumminess, and bake.)  Oh, the bacon grease was TO DIE FOR!  

Yes, I save bacon grease....we use it when we cook eggs, in green beans, in greens, in some bean soups, in homemade refried beans (for bean burritos....yum!), and now in cornbread.  I also buy lard for soap making....and use it in my pies crusts!  Among other uses!  I also use my chicken and tureky carcasses to make bone broth, and can or freeze it, and use it in soups and beans.  Drool!  I save (and ask others to) pork bones....usually from a boston butt or a ham (we give pork chop bones to our dogs).  Everyone makes bbq here, and so I get and keep the bones from them.  I toss them into a pot of beans when I am cooking it....the minerals and flavor leech out in the cooking, and add more nutrition and yumminess to our beans.  A small amt of meat + beans = a whole protein, so when we eat meatless....these bones add what is needed.  

We've learned that good fats help satiate a person, esp if one is eating more vegan or vegetarian type meals, whether for health or financial reasons (ie, meatless meals cause meat is expensive).  But even adding a dollop of coconut oil to a bowl of all veggie soup would help one's tummy feel "full"/satiated, esp if a bread is not served alongside.  So we are generous with our fats when we cook up a pot of bean soup, veggie soup, or chili.  (I often do a meatless chili....just lots of beans, corn, carrots/celery/onions, garlic, green chilis, and spices.  And some type of fat + my bone broth.)

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