Took my panic down a few notches after reading this. That said, I’ve done many of the same things although I feel very alone in my pursuits. My family members think I’ve gone a bit “overboard” in my understanding of the problems we have and are going to face. This is frustrating mostly because I truly have spent so much time and energy researching and thinking about my own ideas of what is actually going on. I’m not a fortune teller but I am a critical thinker ( 53 and missed most of the educational indoctrination). I’ve put the work in and I’m acting on my own research and trusting in my instincts. They have always been a friend to me even when I wished they were wrong. Glad to have forums your writings. Enjoying reading them and passing them along. Especially loved the video of the flash mob you attached. Best to you and thank you.
Imagine being me, having an old Cherokee grandfather telling me what was coming since I was little enough to remember his words. At 56, I feel like much of the rest of the word is finally catching up and I’m not the rare oddball alone anymore. It’s unfortunate this is what’s it’s taken to arrive there and it breaks my heart to know that if people had actually listened instead of laughed, we wouldn’t be here today.
Many of the things mentioned, including buying books in paperback. Many for pleasure, but many also for life skills if the Internet ever went down. My husband thinks I’m nuts, but I don’t mind.
I HATE e-books. I spend enough time on screens! I liked this video, too. I don't need to buy most of them (such as the process-based books), but identification and reference guides are a great idea, IMO.
A generator is next on my list. My cistern is gravity fed to the cottage (500 gallons) but from the spring/pump house the water is pumped about 180' up the side of the mountain to the cistern. If that goes out, I'd be very bummed.
I have a recurve bow with small game thumpers, but I'm thinking about getting a gun for deer. Growing up, my family moved to northern MN, my dad fed deer and wouldn't hunt them, but we'd get deer that were hit by cars and then inspected by the DNR (it was really cold, so spoiling wasn't a factor - lol) for free and process those. The whole idea of killing one is kinda tough for me, but they are plentiful.
Dehydrators are the bomb! When it's a good year, there are lots of morels, lions mane, and reishi -dehydrating makes storing them convienent and easy to grind if you want to add them to a spice mix. Also, tomatoes and peppers because those are my spouse's favorites. Tomato sauce, herbed salts, pestos, and fermented garlic, carrots, and peppers round out our preserves. We have an amazing local group that supports local farmers with meat, veg, goat cheese, live plants, etc. and I used to love volunteering there (and did during the pandemic) UNTIL they required 'full vaccination and masks.' Living in the rural mountains of NC that stuck in my craw - and I told them so - and now support my favorite producers directly.
My fave! I've had to move my basil further into the garden because the goats would rub their heads on them and smash them or eat them through the fence! They have great taste.
I'm going to be digging up my lawn and planting vegetables - potatoes, carrots, peas, beans etc. I've planted plum and pear trees, as well as black and redcurrant bushes. I'd like to get chickens but not sure I'd have the space. I'm stocking up on flour, bread flour, yeast, pasta, rice, tins of beans, baked beans, soups, quinoa (full protein). Unfortunately, money is already tight so not going to be able to get fully kitted out but will do my best. I have also bought candles, matches, and have a gas camping stove. Source local suppliers for milk etc.
You may want to think about a solar oven. I forgot to mention this! I just purchased one. The reviews on these things are pretty good. You just have to be patient, but in an apocalypse scenario it might be the easiest way to cook things for awhile.
One more thought. I need to dig also because I don't have a ton of compost lying around. However, if I did, I'd do the no dig method! This is what I did in NZ. I made cheap raised beds filled with compost after smothering the lawn and it was the best garden I ever had. Tremendously productive.
Thanks for the reminder about a dehydrator! It is my next biggish purchase. I too am storing dry food & planning a small raised bed garden. I am surrounded by deer here in the Hill Country, so I think that part of my emergency food supply is covered for now.
In the OU group, someone asked a looooong while back about my dehydrator and the brand name honestly slipped me til now. It's not mine, it's a friend's, but it's a Cosori. It works great. I love it.
I am thinking about picking off some rabbits this summer with a BB gun if I happen to see any while weeding in the evening. I probably won't be any good at this, but fried rabbit is pretty good.
Mar 12, 2022·edited Mar 12, 2022Liked by Monica Hughes PhD
I love the idea of having more dehydrated whole foods.
I always have a couple of weeks of food due to being on the Gulf Coast (hurricanes) and some reserve butane canisters with a portable butane stove, but haven't been best about storing more than a week's worth of potable water per person if we were to lose electricity and running water.
I'm really looking forward to moving out of an apartment and into the next place so I can have at least something of a yard...
I hear you! I felt as if I could grow almost all my veg in New Zealand. My garden was a dream. The swiss chard I grew there was like the size of the rhubarb in the "alley property bitch" video and I didn't need to do a damn thing!!
A garden is more difficult in North America without more work, IMO. Lots of pets and herbivores.
I do think dehydrating many veg is the way to go. I won't can a thing except possibly pickles. Many vegetables such as greens and corn freeze well, in my experience. The issue there is freezer space and a continuous power supply.
I live in an RV and apart from moving the silly thing from place to place I love how few resources I use in this thing.
It would be bad for me in an RV if a nuke went off. I do need to get some water stored in my friend's basement in case a nuke goes off. heh.
Oh! And if you have no idea what I'm talking about with "alley property" rhubarb, this is the video. Get ready to laugh your ass off. Not safe for work or for childrens' ears. haha
In the UK I grow tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn, peppers, carrots, onions, asparagus, french beans & runner beans. Black desert grapes soon. By far my most productive crop is the runner bean, around 1kg a week at peak from 3 plants and a full half freezer by end of season. In the 1990s I worked with heritage varieties at the Henry Doubleday Research Association for a time, and you can't beat the flavour of some heritage varieties of potato & carrots etc. You can still buy seed. Hope this helps!
"Research in the 1970s by John Jeavons and the Ecology Action Organisation found that 4000 square feet (about 370 square metres) of growing space was enough land to sustain one person on a vegetarian diet for a year, with about another 4000 square feet (370 square metres) for access paths and storage – so that’s a plot around 80 feet x 100 feet (24m x 30m)."
I started prepping in a serious way at the very beginning of the scamdemic. I was deeply suspicious, having been an NIH patient + my kids and I had earned $ participating in several studies there over the years. I didn’t believe any of it. My boys were seriously injured by their first vaccines. As soon as Trump announced OpWarpSpeed, I knew my “reactionary” parents had been right all along. I’m in my sixties. I started looking for rural properties, and rolled out of DC literally on Jan 6. During the BLM riots, it looked to me like Washington DC was devolving into a kind of Blade Runner dystopia. Like my parents had in their retirement, I wanted to head for the hills. I’m still not done remodeling the semi-rural house I bought hundreds of miles from my own family. I’m vacuum sealing ten 5lb bags of organic flour tomorrow. I’ve got two full garage freezers, and my little homestead garden produced more food than I could preserve last year. I still need to buy a couple solar generators. I have a Little Buddy heater. Three families near me relocated here from large cities within days of my arrival. We are ALL refugees. I think that’s the big thing. I’ve been buying books for years. I have VHS tapes and DVDs and their machines. I have stored medical supplies. The home visit nurses I know have been prepping for years. That really got me thinking, and it was long before vaxx mandates that they seemed to know things were getting very serious. There are a lot of new homesteaders in my area. The natives are only concerned that we’ve brought our liberal politics with us—then they’re concerned that we’re too conservative. They always kept chickens, and hunt. I do find I have much more in common with the city escapees though. More cynicism from having been in the Belly of the Beast, as it were. I ventured to attend a meeting at my local Catholic church and met several other former DC folks. More than I ever met at my old parish in twenty years. We all agreed that our woundedness was a product of surviving the lockdowns and the riots and having to act as if the riots were “worthwhile” and not inherently contradicted by the Covid narrative. Much talk of parallels with concentration camp escapees who exhibit odd psych symptoms. The experience turned us all into preppers. I spent hours today on inventorying my food supply, calculating how much more I need, realistically, vs how much capital I can afford to trade for food. What if digital currency is instituted? Won’t I need cash stashed? Or metals? Or booze? I already ferment dairy kefir and sourdough. I can make any juice into wine but never drink. I have a weapon, but live where no one locks their doors! (Maybe because we’re all armed?) I have two canners. I bought jars at top dollar the past two years and the work has paid off. I need a grain mill. And a small chicken run, but currently get my eggs from a neighbor in her 80s. When I moved in last year I realized I had been subconsciously preparing myself for this. I’ve been filtering my water with a Burkey knock off for years. My parents were children of the Great Depression and taught us a lot of survival skills—how to close a wound with a needle and thread for instance. How to collect water when there is none. How to cook, grow, sew, mend, use tools, shoot a gun, fix a car, read the sky for changing weather. Identify plants, make tinctures, make toothpaste. And— How to pray.
“I’ve got two full garage freezers, and my little homestead garden produced more food than I could preserve last year. I still need to buy a couple solar generators. “
Not sure what you plan to run with these. May I suggest a gasoline generator? I don’t think it’s possible to run your freezers on solar generators. The biggest I’ve seen could only charge a laptop about 12 times. It’s just not a lot of power.
“I have VHS tapes and DVDs and their machines.”
Same. heh. I never got rid of the old stuff.
“The natives are only concerned that we’ve brought our liberal politics with us—then they’re concerned that we’re too conservative. “
haha. I just tell them, “I don’t vote.” And it’s the truth. Sometimes this bothers them more. LOL.
I spent a lot of time growing up with my grandparents and great-grandparents. The greats were born around 1907 and the grands in 1932, so they all went through the Great Depression. We always grew a garden every summer when I was a kid. I liked sewing (my machine skills are not good) and I am not completely hopeless with tools.
In fact, I believe I will update this post to include a pic of me in the garden at a young age.
We bought a 125 gallon rain barrel from a small local manufacturer. It's connected up to the gutter downspout and fills up every one inch of rain or so.
I am very confused about what size inverter to get. The high wattage ones are so expensive but the less wattage ones don't generate much power. What do you recommend? I was looking at the Jackery brand.
Are you looking for an inverter or a generator? Go through all your electrical devices that you consider "can't live without" Add up how much electrical power they use - look for the watts. You will need an inverter that is one and a half times the number for the item that uses the most power. Get an inverter that covers that number plus at least half again. If you are using sensitive electronics, invest in a true sine inverter. True sine inverters give you a consistent amount of electricity, so you don't have to worry about poser surges or brown outs. Generator sizes are along the same lines. I hope my explanation is understandable. Let me know if you need better clarification.
Here on Waiheke Island we have a good garden and fruit trees.Potatoes,tomatoes,beans,cauliflower,broccoli etc. Also have limes and lemons, apple trees and olives. First lockdown taught us how to catch fish of the beach. There are rabbits and pheasants we haven't got into yet. Plenty of water from solar bore. So not ideal but we can survive for quite a while off the land. Lots of dried food downstairs in the bunker as well.Not expecting to use it at present but certainly taking precautions and preparations which we never even contemplated 3 years ago. Planning was about our next overseas trip...
WAIHEKE! You just made me very homesick. It sounds fab! <3 You are making me think I should have stayed. ;) I was over in Bucklands Beach. Last year on New Year's Day I sailed over in my dinghy from Bucklands to Motuihe for a 2 night camping trip. Fun adventure. I also sailed from Maraetai to Waiheke the previous year, and on my way I saw the big huge Steinlager yacht that sits down in the Viaduct. That is a beautiful day I'll never forget as long as I live.
Learn to forage your local area. Know how to make in ground distillation filter for water or collect it in other ways. Get lifestraws and water purification tablets.
I just attended a Ham radio class and got a Ham radio. We learnt about which frequencies you can use to communicate with other people in our group without a license (but only works up to about a mile or two). You can get a license which opens up more frequencies and higher power so you can reach people further away but you have to take a test which apparently is quite easy to pass.
Cool! :) That may be a bit beyond my ken, but I have a good friend in NZ who has a giant ham radio on top of his house and talks to people all over the world. A very neat thing!
I'm just learning myself. I thought it could be useful in case the internet/telecommunications go down to both listen in and communicate.
Also good to have spare gas canisters for the BBQ. I think of things like that as we live in EQ country. We have a huge water butt in the garden for that reason. Plus we have a dog so have to think of stocking up on dog food too. We have a chest freezer that may stay cool for a bit if electricity goes off. A group near me is doing nitrogen packing of food for long term storage - not tried it myself. My husband likes to get stuff at costco so we have lots of cans of tuna and sardines for our EQ/emergency kit.
“While I think the nature of the post-political West is to prefer cultural and economic assimilation to military solutions, they also have a lot of munitions and they command substantial armies, and it's inconceivable they misjudge the situation and do something really stupid, like escalate to direct military confrontation with Russia.” INconceivable or conceivable? I think Eugyppius must mean “conceivable”.
Took my panic down a few notches after reading this. That said, I’ve done many of the same things although I feel very alone in my pursuits. My family members think I’ve gone a bit “overboard” in my understanding of the problems we have and are going to face. This is frustrating mostly because I truly have spent so much time and energy researching and thinking about my own ideas of what is actually going on. I’m not a fortune teller but I am a critical thinker ( 53 and missed most of the educational indoctrination). I’ve put the work in and I’m acting on my own research and trusting in my instincts. They have always been a friend to me even when I wished they were wrong. Glad to have forums your writings. Enjoying reading them and passing them along. Especially loved the video of the flash mob you attached. Best to you and thank you.
Feels weird to be talking seriously about such things. For years I thought preppers were a bit over the top.
Imagine being me, having an old Cherokee grandfather telling me what was coming since I was little enough to remember his words. At 56, I feel like much of the rest of the word is finally catching up and I’m not the rare oddball alone anymore. It’s unfortunate this is what’s it’s taken to arrive there and it breaks my heart to know that if people had actually listened instead of laughed, we wouldn’t be here today.
Many of the things mentioned, including buying books in paperback. Many for pleasure, but many also for life skills if the Internet ever went down. My husband thinks I’m nuts, but I don’t mind.
I HATE e-books. I spend enough time on screens! I liked this video, too. I don't need to buy most of them (such as the process-based books), but identification and reference guides are a great idea, IMO.
https://odysee.com/@cabintalk:5/books-i-recommend-for-homesteading-or:d
A generator is next on my list. My cistern is gravity fed to the cottage (500 gallons) but from the spring/pump house the water is pumped about 180' up the side of the mountain to the cistern. If that goes out, I'd be very bummed.
I have a recurve bow with small game thumpers, but I'm thinking about getting a gun for deer. Growing up, my family moved to northern MN, my dad fed deer and wouldn't hunt them, but we'd get deer that were hit by cars and then inspected by the DNR (it was really cold, so spoiling wasn't a factor - lol) for free and process those. The whole idea of killing one is kinda tough for me, but they are plentiful.
Dehydrators are the bomb! When it's a good year, there are lots of morels, lions mane, and reishi -dehydrating makes storing them convienent and easy to grind if you want to add them to a spice mix. Also, tomatoes and peppers because those are my spouse's favorites. Tomato sauce, herbed salts, pestos, and fermented garlic, carrots, and peppers round out our preserves. We have an amazing local group that supports local farmers with meat, veg, goat cheese, live plants, etc. and I used to love volunteering there (and did during the pandemic) UNTIL they required 'full vaccination and masks.' Living in the rural mountains of NC that stuck in my craw - and I told them so - and now support my favorite producers directly.
Pesto! Of course. :)
My fave! I've had to move my basil further into the garden because the goats would rub their heads on them and smash them or eat them through the fence! They have great taste.
I'm going to be digging up my lawn and planting vegetables - potatoes, carrots, peas, beans etc. I've planted plum and pear trees, as well as black and redcurrant bushes. I'd like to get chickens but not sure I'd have the space. I'm stocking up on flour, bread flour, yeast, pasta, rice, tins of beans, baked beans, soups, quinoa (full protein). Unfortunately, money is already tight so not going to be able to get fully kitted out but will do my best. I have also bought candles, matches, and have a gas camping stove. Source local suppliers for milk etc.
You may want to think about a solar oven. I forgot to mention this! I just purchased one. The reviews on these things are pretty good. You just have to be patient, but in an apocalypse scenario it might be the easiest way to cook things for awhile.
There are 2 issues for preparing much stored food: water and energy to cook. A solar oven answers one.
One more thought. I need to dig also because I don't have a ton of compost lying around. However, if I did, I'd do the no dig method! This is what I did in NZ. I made cheap raised beds filled with compost after smothering the lawn and it was the best garden I ever had. Tremendously productive.
About the chickens, look up Joel Salatin & his Polyface Farm. He has a book about raising chickens and rabbits on a sliding scale, including in an apartment. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1733686622/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thanks for the reminder about a dehydrator! It is my next biggish purchase. I too am storing dry food & planning a small raised bed garden. I am surrounded by deer here in the Hill Country, so I think that part of my emergency food supply is covered for now.
In the OU group, someone asked a looooong while back about my dehydrator and the brand name honestly slipped me til now. It's not mine, it's a friend's, but it's a Cosori. It works great. I love it.
I am thinking about picking off some rabbits this summer with a BB gun if I happen to see any while weeding in the evening. I probably won't be any good at this, but fried rabbit is pretty good.
Get a co2 pellet gun. The slug is slightly larger than a BB & is more accurate. It can be a self defense item in some circumstances.
Thanks for the tip! :D
I also recommend the Cosori dehydrator. Sweet potato jerky for my dog, beef jerky, dried herbs, dried squash chips etc are delicious.
Thanks Alix - I will order the Cosori tomorrow.
OU group?
Sorry, "Operation Uplift" - I think Rebecca is in this group. See Mathew Crawford's newsletter.
Land, with a well, far from the city. Guns and ammo. Tools for turning trees into firewood. Seeds.
I love the idea of having more dehydrated whole foods.
I always have a couple of weeks of food due to being on the Gulf Coast (hurricanes) and some reserve butane canisters with a portable butane stove, but haven't been best about storing more than a week's worth of potable water per person if we were to lose electricity and running water.
I'm really looking forward to moving out of an apartment and into the next place so I can have at least something of a yard...
I hear you! I felt as if I could grow almost all my veg in New Zealand. My garden was a dream. The swiss chard I grew there was like the size of the rhubarb in the "alley property bitch" video and I didn't need to do a damn thing!!
A garden is more difficult in North America without more work, IMO. Lots of pets and herbivores.
I do think dehydrating many veg is the way to go. I won't can a thing except possibly pickles. Many vegetables such as greens and corn freeze well, in my experience. The issue there is freezer space and a continuous power supply.
I live in an RV and apart from moving the silly thing from place to place I love how few resources I use in this thing.
It would be bad for me in an RV if a nuke went off. I do need to get some water stored in my friend's basement in case a nuke goes off. heh.
Oh! And if you have no idea what I'm talking about with "alley property" rhubarb, this is the video. Get ready to laugh your ass off. Not safe for work or for childrens' ears. haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkAOsEiIwUE
Sweet Jesus.
"Don't call me sweetheart, honey bun!" hahahahah!
In the UK I grow tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn, peppers, carrots, onions, asparagus, french beans & runner beans. Black desert grapes soon. By far my most productive crop is the runner bean, around 1kg a week at peak from 3 plants and a full half freezer by end of season. In the 1990s I worked with heritage varieties at the Henry Doubleday Research Association for a time, and you can't beat the flavour of some heritage varieties of potato & carrots etc. You can still buy seed. Hope this helps!
https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl
* * *
"Research in the 1970s by John Jeavons and the Ecology Action Organisation found that 4000 square feet (about 370 square metres) of growing space was enough land to sustain one person on a vegetarian diet for a year, with about another 4000 square feet (370 square metres) for access paths and storage – so that’s a plot around 80 feet x 100 feet (24m x 30m)."
https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/growing-enough-food-to-feed-a-family/
Vegetables in containers
Planting vegetables in containers is a versatile way of growing edible crops in the garden, particularly where space is limited.
Suitable for...
The following vegetables lend themselves well to container cultivation:
Beetroot, Broad beans, Carrots, Dwarf French beans, Herbs, Peas, Potatoes, Radishes, Rocket, Runner beans, Chillies & Peppers, Salad leaves, Salad onions, Salad turnips, Tomatoes.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/containers
I started prepping in a serious way at the very beginning of the scamdemic. I was deeply suspicious, having been an NIH patient + my kids and I had earned $ participating in several studies there over the years. I didn’t believe any of it. My boys were seriously injured by their first vaccines. As soon as Trump announced OpWarpSpeed, I knew my “reactionary” parents had been right all along. I’m in my sixties. I started looking for rural properties, and rolled out of DC literally on Jan 6. During the BLM riots, it looked to me like Washington DC was devolving into a kind of Blade Runner dystopia. Like my parents had in their retirement, I wanted to head for the hills. I’m still not done remodeling the semi-rural house I bought hundreds of miles from my own family. I’m vacuum sealing ten 5lb bags of organic flour tomorrow. I’ve got two full garage freezers, and my little homestead garden produced more food than I could preserve last year. I still need to buy a couple solar generators. I have a Little Buddy heater. Three families near me relocated here from large cities within days of my arrival. We are ALL refugees. I think that’s the big thing. I’ve been buying books for years. I have VHS tapes and DVDs and their machines. I have stored medical supplies. The home visit nurses I know have been prepping for years. That really got me thinking, and it was long before vaxx mandates that they seemed to know things were getting very serious. There are a lot of new homesteaders in my area. The natives are only concerned that we’ve brought our liberal politics with us—then they’re concerned that we’re too conservative. They always kept chickens, and hunt. I do find I have much more in common with the city escapees though. More cynicism from having been in the Belly of the Beast, as it were. I ventured to attend a meeting at my local Catholic church and met several other former DC folks. More than I ever met at my old parish in twenty years. We all agreed that our woundedness was a product of surviving the lockdowns and the riots and having to act as if the riots were “worthwhile” and not inherently contradicted by the Covid narrative. Much talk of parallels with concentration camp escapees who exhibit odd psych symptoms. The experience turned us all into preppers. I spent hours today on inventorying my food supply, calculating how much more I need, realistically, vs how much capital I can afford to trade for food. What if digital currency is instituted? Won’t I need cash stashed? Or metals? Or booze? I already ferment dairy kefir and sourdough. I can make any juice into wine but never drink. I have a weapon, but live where no one locks their doors! (Maybe because we’re all armed?) I have two canners. I bought jars at top dollar the past two years and the work has paid off. I need a grain mill. And a small chicken run, but currently get my eggs from a neighbor in her 80s. When I moved in last year I realized I had been subconsciously preparing myself for this. I’ve been filtering my water with a Burkey knock off for years. My parents were children of the Great Depression and taught us a lot of survival skills—how to close a wound with a needle and thread for instance. How to collect water when there is none. How to cook, grow, sew, mend, use tools, shoot a gun, fix a car, read the sky for changing weather. Identify plants, make tinctures, make toothpaste. And— How to pray.
Lovely comment. Thanks for dropping by. :)
“I’ve got two full garage freezers, and my little homestead garden produced more food than I could preserve last year. I still need to buy a couple solar generators. “
Not sure what you plan to run with these. May I suggest a gasoline generator? I don’t think it’s possible to run your freezers on solar generators. The biggest I’ve seen could only charge a laptop about 12 times. It’s just not a lot of power.
“I have VHS tapes and DVDs and their machines.”
Same. heh. I never got rid of the old stuff.
“The natives are only concerned that we’ve brought our liberal politics with us—then they’re concerned that we’re too conservative. “
haha. I just tell them, “I don’t vote.” And it’s the truth. Sometimes this bothers them more. LOL.
I spent a lot of time growing up with my grandparents and great-grandparents. The greats were born around 1907 and the grands in 1932, so they all went through the Great Depression. We always grew a garden every summer when I was a kid. I liked sewing (my machine skills are not good) and I am not completely hopeless with tools.
In fact, I believe I will update this post to include a pic of me in the garden at a young age.
We bought a 125 gallon rain barrel from a small local manufacturer. It's connected up to the gutter downspout and fills up every one inch of rain or so.
That is cool! :)
I am very confused about what size inverter to get. The high wattage ones are so expensive but the less wattage ones don't generate much power. What do you recommend? I was looking at the Jackery brand.
I just want it for charging devices like my computer and cell phone, so a 100W inverter is plenty.
Are you looking for an inverter or a generator? Go through all your electrical devices that you consider "can't live without" Add up how much electrical power they use - look for the watts. You will need an inverter that is one and a half times the number for the item that uses the most power. Get an inverter that covers that number plus at least half again. If you are using sensitive electronics, invest in a true sine inverter. True sine inverters give you a consistent amount of electricity, so you don't have to worry about poser surges or brown outs. Generator sizes are along the same lines. I hope my explanation is understandable. Let me know if you need better clarification.
Here on Waiheke Island we have a good garden and fruit trees.Potatoes,tomatoes,beans,cauliflower,broccoli etc. Also have limes and lemons, apple trees and olives. First lockdown taught us how to catch fish of the beach. There are rabbits and pheasants we haven't got into yet. Plenty of water from solar bore. So not ideal but we can survive for quite a while off the land. Lots of dried food downstairs in the bunker as well.Not expecting to use it at present but certainly taking precautions and preparations which we never even contemplated 3 years ago. Planning was about our next overseas trip...
WAIHEKE! You just made me very homesick. It sounds fab! <3 You are making me think I should have stayed. ;) I was over in Bucklands Beach. Last year on New Year's Day I sailed over in my dinghy from Bucklands to Motuihe for a 2 night camping trip. Fun adventure. I also sailed from Maraetai to Waiheke the previous year, and on my way I saw the big huge Steinlager yacht that sits down in the Viaduct. That is a beautiful day I'll never forget as long as I live.
We had a good discussion on prepping here.
https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/preppers/comments?s=w
Learn to forage your local area. Know how to make in ground distillation filter for water or collect it in other ways. Get lifestraws and water purification tablets.
I just attended a Ham radio class and got a Ham radio. We learnt about which frequencies you can use to communicate with other people in our group without a license (but only works up to about a mile or two). You can get a license which opens up more frequencies and higher power so you can reach people further away but you have to take a test which apparently is quite easy to pass.
Cool! :) That may be a bit beyond my ken, but I have a good friend in NZ who has a giant ham radio on top of his house and talks to people all over the world. A very neat thing!
I'm just learning myself. I thought it could be useful in case the internet/telecommunications go down to both listen in and communicate.
Also good to have spare gas canisters for the BBQ. I think of things like that as we live in EQ country. We have a huge water butt in the garden for that reason. Plus we have a dog so have to think of stocking up on dog food too. We have a chest freezer that may stay cool for a bit if electricity goes off. A group near me is doing nitrogen packing of food for long term storage - not tried it myself. My husband likes to get stuff at costco so we have lots of cans of tuna and sardines for our EQ/emergency kit.
“While I think the nature of the post-political West is to prefer cultural and economic assimilation to military solutions, they also have a lot of munitions and they command substantial armies, and it's inconceivable they misjudge the situation and do something really stupid, like escalate to direct military confrontation with Russia.” INconceivable or conceivable? I think Eugyppius must mean “conceivable”.
Likely correct.
On this note, I enjoyed this piece: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/memespace-egregores-and-nuclear-war?s=r
And this thread: https://twitter.com/jackmurphylive/status/1500907386667773958