Prepper Tips Welcome

[David64]

Me of all people forgot to mention fishing gear. If you live within a reasonable distance from a lake, stream or river, invest in some basic gear.

You can get fairly decent quality rod and reel combos at Wal Mart for 25 - $30 and with some care, they'll last quite a long time. Ask local fisherman which bait or lure is most effective. Don't worry about asking too many questions. Trust me, if you ask one of us about fishing we'll spill a lifetime of knowledge for as long as you care to listen.

[quintessentone]

That's why I said "if you live in an area that usually has wind". Some places have almost constant strong winds, some never have wind.

Well I watched vids of two dudes who thought they had wind but after they installed the units, fiddled with them endlessly, they found the wind they thought they had was weaker diverted wind from eddies caused by buildings and trees. So I just wanted to elaborate on that before anyone here spends their time and money without understanding all the nuances of wind movements and strength in partially built up areas or areas that are heavily treed.

[quintessentone]

Splitting wood - we've been doing it all wrong.




Fast forward to Mark 8:00 -

[quintessentone]

Wind and/or solar generation is essential, the mix depending on local conditions, not expensive if you start small and add on later.  Any power generation will need storage and the battery tech LiFePo is huge step forward.  Six 100w PV panels on roof top of a 20x10 ft shed and 4 x 100 Ah batteries can power a large chest freezer and all your devices battery chargers 24/7/365.

Edit to add.... I made block ice in gallon plastic bottles for all my neighbors during our last big hurricane outage... It would great for barter in a shtf situation.

Those block ice gallon plastic bottles would work great to cool interior spaces or specific areas such as under your bed sheets, when not needed for drinking water or valuable containers - the more bottles for bigger spaces. Here are some cooling ideas that the ancient peoples living in hot climates used 4,000 years ago and some newer ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=051qcV9kack&t=35s (not sure why this is unavailable)

Basically cut a hole in the side of a bucket, cut a hole in the top of the lid, take off the front of a small fan, insert fan blades only into top hole the duct tape it in place, in side hole duct tape some sort of hose (expandable dryer hose), add frozen water water bottles inside bucket, place end dryer hose under bed sheet, plug in. Be cool.

Simple ways to cool a room.




How to use fans properly to cool down living spaces (include wet towels in front of windows, with fans and porous clay pots or pans of wet activated charcoal - even better)

[ArMaP]

How to use fans properly to cool down living spaces (include wet towels in front of windows, with fans and porous clay pots or pans of wet activated charcoal - even better)

Clay pots are great, my grandmother had a couple of those. She was from the South of Portugal, an area that gets too hot in Summer.

[quintessentone]

I think it's cool that you want to learn these skills, even if the s does not htf. It builds self confidence and you learn fun things some of which become hobbies or alternate means of earning.
When we started with growing vegetables and herbs, it was laughable but now my wife is pretty damn good at it. Same with preserving foods and my alt power service gig I have now.  What else ya gonna do with your spare time, drink and watch tv?

A good portion of my spare time is pursuing knowledge because I have a busy and hungry brain that needs feeding. Soon I will begin gardening and experimenting with certain long-forgotten medicinal plants to see if they can handle my cold climate. Thank goodness I have an interesting library of a collection of books spanning decades, which I never tire of rereading from time to time - should the internet be lost forever they will be my food for the mind.

It is cool, isn't it? The self-confidence for me will come with being properly armed for protection and being able to keep my family alive and hopefully well for as long as possible. Self-sufficiency gives me a sense of security as well.

I can't believe how easy it is to preserve foods and/or how to select foods that will basically last forever in storage. I have started making medicines in alcohol, but now that I have to face the reality that a bugout scenario may be required, now I will have to dehydrate plant materials and make a medicine bag and pemmican (ancient energy bar) or a variant thereof, if I have to bugout.

[quintessentone]

Me of all people forgot to mention fishing gear. If you live within a reasonable distance from a lake, stream or river, invest in some basic gear.

You can get fairly decent quality rod and reel combos at Wal Mart for 25 - $30 and with some care, they'll last quite a long time. Ask local fisherman which bait or lure is most effective. Don't worry about asking too many questions. Trust me, if you ask one of us about fishing we'll spill a lifetime of knowledge for as long as you care to listen.

My partner has all the fishing gear and at one point I was buying or collecting? lures that looked tasty to see whether or not fish would think so too, and they did. lol

Aren't minnows the bait that is most effective?

Do you have a recipe to make your own bait using common kitchen ingredients? I have lots of cans of tuna and sardines in storage, could they be used as bait or at least to rub on bait for a scent?

I wonder how long it would take to overfish a small lake if community members are all fishing it for their daily meals.

[quintessentone]

Clay pots are great, my grandmother had a couple of those. She was from the South of Portugal, an area that gets too hot in Summer.

The same clay pot system is also used for storing fruit and veggies (not meat and not dairy) for longer periods. Just cover the top and keep the pots out of the hot sun.

I once asked my now deceased mother if she could choose any world country to visit which one would it be, she said Portugal. I really like the wines from there and sometimes I imagine myself there sipping wine and enjoying the ocean breezes.

[David64]

My partner has all the fishing gear and at one point I was buying or collecting? lures that looked tasty to see whether or not fish would think so too, and they did. lol

Aren't minnows the bait that is most effective?

Do you have a recipe to make your own bait using common kitchen ingredients? I have lots of cans of tuna and sardines in storage, could they be used as bait or at least to rub on bait for a scent?

I wonder how long it would take to overfish a small lake if community members are all fishing it for their daily meals.

 As far as bait...minnows { dead or alive } worms, grubs, crickets, grasshoppers, crawfish or just about any insect in your area can be used as bait. I've fished with a dead bumblebee I found on the ground.
Every man made lure is designed to mimic their natural food source, so if you can get the real thing, most times you'll have better luck than with artificial.

[Hypntick]

I think it's cool that you want to learn these skills, even if the s does not htf. It builds self confidence and you learn fun things some of which become hobbies or alternate means of earning.
When we started with growing vegetables and herbs, it was laughable but now my wife is pretty damn good at it. Same with preserving foods and my alt power service gig I have now.  What else ya gonna do with your spare time, drink and watch tv?

Prepping is especially valuable for a number of situations. In the community that I'm a part of, we're not prepping for the end of the world, we're prepping for Tuesday. You could lose your job, sure would be nice not to have to worry about food. You could have an event like Helene blow through, having power is a lot nicer than not having it. Heck, a lot of those folks couldn't drink the water for weeks, having stored water or a means to purify what you can get is invaluable. Blizzard coming your way? You don't have to be one of the crazies who are at the grocery store last minute, trying to make milk sandwiches. If you have trees on your property, when's the last time you ran your chainsaw (if you have one)? I had to cut four trees off my driveway during the last major storm.

Physical fitness and keeping healthy (as much as you can control), that's prepping right there. Having a decently sized stack of cash in the house and even more in a savings account, all prepping. Not everything is a world-ending event; sometimes shit just happens.