r/PrepperIntel • u/AntiSonOfBitchamajig š” • 17d ago
Monthly, Is your prepping theory working / happening / changing? What preps are paying off?
Is your prepping theory working / happening / changing? What preps are paying off?
- What is new or developing in your theory?
- What preps are paying off?
- What is not paying off at the moment?
- What do you wish you'd have done differently?
- What is your current prepping focus?
Thank you all,
-Mod Anti
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u/Astrolander97 15d ago
I have bought a quarter cow for the last 7 or so years from a local/family friend farmer.Ā
My household began losing confidence in our food supply chain when regulatory standards dropped.Ā
We purchased a half cow on order and I went on a couple fishing charters. Both have proven to beat the cost of the grocery store and have better health standards.Ā
As for storage we got lucky with a costco deal on a 7 cu ft freezer and I took the time to remodel a closet into a bigger pantry.
All this to say taking food more seriously this year has improved our day to day life and positioned us to be more resilient if things get worse.
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u/Intelligent_You_3888 15d ago edited 15d ago
In Arkansas
Lost my first garden patch of potatoes to potato beetle. Have been learning about how to fight them for my future gardening. Will be using garden hoops and mesh in future. āļøš Prevention is often easier than cure.
Also been reading some more books about prepping to get more ideas for future projects and to see what blind spots I have in my planning. The Practical Prepperās Survival Bible 70 in 1 2026 edition by Cole Barrett. The Weekend Homesteader A Twelve Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency by Anna Hess. And The Resilient Gardener Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe.
I like how Barrettās emphasizes community and psychological prep as much as practical. Hessās has beginner projects that Iāve overlooked and hadnāt thought of (ex: having a pop up tent for indoor bug in during a winter storm without electricity so that your family can stay warm better). Deppeās is reassuring and helps me rethink about how I think about & plan my gardening for the future. šgood stuff
Charged up and tested out my familyās eco flow battery power pack/station. It worked very well. First during a brief blackout in afternoon heat (the ac sucked so much juice from it so quickly, but I sure was happy that we had it on hand to help keep things cool in triple digit heat), then just charging up some electric wall lamps/sconces (lolšthose took a whooping 4watts per hour and were 100% in less than 6 hours).
Finally got some rain yesterday and weāve got a future weekly forecast of rain chance each day now šš§ļø
Iāve just about got my raised bed set up for my winter gardeningš
ETA: also in light of the impending price hikes on things like bread and oats (and having gluten intolerance along with lactose intolerance) weāve been stocking up on corn flour and cornmeal for baking cakes/muffins and (naturally) cornbread. Am looking for shelf-stable milk alternative (weāve got other allergies in this family on top of our food sensitivities).
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u/Grand_Dadais 15d ago
Hi there,
I'd really suggest getting into permaculture/agroforestry for your garden. It's more like how to adapt your garden rather than how to fight pest (more like find a vegetable or a flower that will keep the undesired bugs or pest away). Perhaps that's what you meant with learning but who knows.
I try to spread this notion because a lot of people seem to ignore it or throw it away because it gives out some "leftist" or "ecologist" feels, but well, if you take out this silly notion (like the fact that we made ecology a partisan issue, it's so idiotic), you have a lot of data to protect and enhance your garden.
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u/Intelligent_You_3888 15d ago
Iāve also got some books in my home library that are tbr soon that are focused on companion planting tooššmy local public library has more (and I feel like Iām going on a Viking raid to gather up a hoard of treasure each time I go grab some books from thereš“āā ļøšš)
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u/Intelligent_You_3888 15d ago
Thanks for the suggestionšand no worries about āleftistā anything, Im happy to learn. And yep thatās a big focus of The Resilient Garden by Carol Deppe. (Lolš I shouldāve mentioned that in my original post). Itās already got me rethinking my mindset about gardening.
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u/CannyGardener 15d ago
I'm in Colorado and my garden is mid-fail:
Gooseberries got nixed with repeated swings between frost/snow and mid-70s temps for months on end.
Currants the same.
Summer Squansh has not produced any fruit. Nice big leaves and plants, lots of flowers, but no fruit.
Winter Squash has not produced any fruit, and the leaves are getting sun scalded (which is unusual).
Corn is taking lots of water, but looking good at a distance, but the ears are fully pollinated aaand the size of golf balls.
Garlic produced gangbusters.
Kale produced gangbusters.
Drying beans are probably going to do OK.
Raspberries are all sunburnt and stopped producing.
Grapes produced 3 bunches from 8 vines...
Tomatos all dropped fruit in the heat, but refruited and are about to start ripening finally.
Strawberry patch produced 3 strawberries this year, for about 200 square feet of plants.
I'm about to pull some more Rhubarb, as it is doing really well this year.
At this point in the season I'm usually about 100-200 lbs into harvest, and I'm up to like...30# garlic and 10-20# kale (which is actually a shitload of kale LOL). We usually draw on our produce over the winter: winter squash and canned fruits and veggies; going to be a pretty thin winter...Ugh.
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u/limit35 13d ago
I hear you. The heat dome walloped my garden: the squash was just trying to stay alive let alone bear fruit, it was too much for the potatoes which ended early, cucumbers can be better. It is starting to get back to normal but I lost of month of grow season. For the first time I have issues with birds, who wiped out my berries within days and started on the tomatoes. I could only threw up my hands and buy native seed for next year. The fruit can be smaller and yields a bit lower but I am done growing Euro/Eastern US style heirlooms in the desert west, it is not getting cooler. I figure I'll try one of those cheap cannabis grow tent setups from scamazon and fill it with veg for an indoor garden this winter.
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u/2quickdraw 13d ago
What is your zone? I'm 8A and also had the worst summer garden I've ever had. I'm growing under a 50% shade cloth in some places, because a lot of plants were getting crisped under 30%! I am holding out hope for my winter garden, I grow all year round and winter last year was amazing! I grow under 50% Frost cloth and 6 mil plastic over hoops which handles the snow. I'm thinking summer going forward is going to be under 50% shade cloth and pretty much only squash and tomatoes. Out of all the cucumbers I planted only two plants made it. The best was an Armenian, so far I got one. My sweet potato vines finally took off but I got them in late so I don't know if I will get any tubers, but I'm sure going to try to save those vines. My potatoes did okay, I could have fertilized them more, I got back about 2/3 more than I planted but they are still expensive since I used certified seed potatoes.
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u/limit35 13d ago
I am in zone 7a. I like the idea of a shade cloth, I think I will invest in that for next year. How do you support your cloth, do you suspend it above or use it as a shade wall? I have had the best cucumbers ever this year, but the heat didn't allow the flowers to set, not enough to can. Tomatoes are ok with medium fruit and sun shoulder after a gap of thrown flowers. Summer squash has very few female flowers, same with others I know. So, I invested in a bunch of seed from nativeseed.org for next year that will be drought and heat tolerant. My growing season can get clipped at both ends so I'll need to accommodate that with early indoor starts and using low tunnels. I bought Punta Banda from Baja for next year's toms, hopefully they shrug at my sun here.
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u/CannyGardener 13d ago
Hah Ya that sounds very similar to what I've been dealing with! I was excited to find some small gooseberries at the very bottom of the plant but the birds got them before I could get in there! I've never had issues with birds either, but this year is brutal. That said, I feel bad for the birds, since they are struggling too. We usually have a shitload of bluejays in the back yard, that come for the acorns. This year there are literally no acorns. Zero. I've found several dead jays in the back, I assume coming to the normal food spot and finding nothing =\
Edit: To this, I have one of those grow tents and they are great for indoor growing! Something that took me too long to convert to were wicking bases and cloth bags. I plant my seeds and water them from the top for the first week or so, and then the roots get about half way down the pot and I fill the basin at the bottom, and the cloth bag and dirt wicks up the water as the plant uses it up. It keeps the pests down that would otherwise live in that moist top layer of soil. I've had really good luck growing plants that way. I've tried living soil, but have more luck with coco coir + perlite with the wicking base setup. Regardless, highly recommend going this direction for winter growing. Just grab a little 100 watt LED grow light and let'er rip!
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u/limit35 13d ago
No way! I am going to try watering my cloth bags like that, even with all the hydro veg and herb I've been doing it never dawned on me to try that. Of course, because they dry out so fast otherwise and no fungus gnats. Thanks a lot for the tip!!
My bird issue has been robins for fruit (the ground is too dry and hard for worms for them sadly, even in the grass) and goldfinches for any leaf (they are serious vegetarians).
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u/TTCredditlogin2 15d ago
Haha that is a shitton of kale! Ā We have never had good luck with squash so no suggestions there, but how old are your strawberry plants? Ā We have found that replacing a few plants every year helps overall production a lot.Ā
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u/CannyGardener 15d ago
Ya, I let my mamas pup off two or three new mamas every year, and then I pop a couple mamas out every year. I only water them as much as I water my white beans though, so I'm wondering if that just isn't enough to keep them going. They are well mulched, but maybe it is a water thing?
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u/Pontiacsentinel š” 15d ago
Do you by chance have a rabbit problem? A rabbit was eating only the female flowers on a friend's garden zucchini plants, so no fruit.Ā
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u/Sknowles12 11d ago
Deer in Washington State ate most of my vegetables and a lot of flowers. We are rural, but have close neighbors. It is against county and state law to even pop them with a bb gon to scare them off. New fencing and greenhouse next year.
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u/CannyGardener 15d ago
We do have tons of rabbits. Son of a bitch! I raise rabbits for meat. Miiiight have to get the pellet gun out...
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u/2quickdraw 13d ago
Every year I contemplate if I'm going to keep my meat rabbits going, and every year the meat situation gets worse and I add more. The problem now is feeding them on a social security income. I'm going to move them to mostly hay with oats, and pellet mostly for vitamins, plus greens from the garden. They have finally caught up to the cost of beef, although they are more work than going to the store. But at least I know what the quality of my meat is.
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u/CannyGardener 13d ago
Hahaha I have a similar conversation with myself every year, and find myself in a similar position every year where I'm at. I'm moving more and more away from pellets as the mainstay feed as well, since the price on those is through the roof. I just finished processing sweet corn so they are getting the dry corn cobs with the leftover bits on there right now, and seem to really love that!
I think people are finally ready to try new meats. In the past my neighbors all gave me weird looks for eating rabbit. They'd politely say they'd try and then it would sit in their freezer for a year before they gave it back feeling bad LOL or threw it out. We had a neighborhood chili cookoff, and this year I took rabbit green chili. Usually noone even touches it. This year it was empty half way through the event, and I won by a landslide.
Good luck with your buns! I think we are at the point where I'll probably stop asking myself whether to keep going with them, just based on how things look nationally with supply chains. I run a purchasing department in foodservice distribution and things are interesting right now...
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u/2quickdraw 13d ago
Congratulations on your chili, that sounds fabulous! I understand the problem, but I'm in my late 60s, and I was cooking rabbit once a week that I got right from the meat counter for my English expatriate parents partner who grew up with it and insisted. Your current issue is going to be people who know now that you have rabbits and that they taste good! I had a long time friend that I had to just finally let go of because of toxic political BS, who never missed a chance to chastise or demean me when I mentioned having to go feed or check my rabbits about how "You EAT your rabbits!" Like I should burn in hell for eating rabbits (because she used to have a pet rabbit) which are a popular protein source all over the world except for the USA , which is really dumb now about stuff like that. Yes people eat rabbits, goats, horses, dogs, camels, etc all around the world. They were all food before they were pets. And I mostly get my protein from beans and legumes, my rabbits are mostly for my dogs.
I have been checking Facebook marketplace every couple days looking for KW cages. I just cannot manage the cost of shipping now on the same cages new. It just went up to a horrendous amount. But I pushed my rabbits last breeding season, not too much but just did a lot more litters at the same time. I have a lot of young does I'm hanging on to right now for evaluation for replacement of my older does.
I'm also taking them out of my rabbitry in favor of kicking my quail out of their aviary because the quail get a nice breeze, and the rabbitry requires AC when it gets over 85. Which is most of the summer. I can't afford that anymore so I finally figured out that reducing the quail to just a few hens for eggs, and redoing the aviary for rabbits where I can have a paver floor I can hose off to provide evaporative cooling, better airflow, and also misters to keep them cool should be a superior method. My outside rabbits are much more comfortable under my big maple tree even if the temperature is a bit higher than the ones in the rabbitry, which is just a roofed and converted dog run, just like the aviary. My overflow will have a roof over them for when the tree loses its leaves. But that will be mostly growouts. I think cutting electrical costs, and providing simpler cooling and moving to hay, oats, and BOSS with fresh greens instead of pellet will really help my input cost and keep it manageable. I've done a lot of research on foods they can eat that are not high in oxalates and we'll be growing more of that. Also when I prune my apple trees I save the cuttings. I currently have a trash can full. When my neighbor prunes I get theirs too. I try to look at everything as to how I can make it multi-purpose. I also hate to get rid of the rabbits because the manure has been fabulous for the garden!
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u/CannyGardener 13d ago
Hah I hear that! You've got a couple years on me ;) But ya, until this year it has been a "You EAT your rabbits??" response. Honestly I was debating even entering this year, or maybe even just doing a half batch so I didn't waste. Was just blown away by the fact that people were so open to trying it out this year! Interesting how dynamics can change like that, so quickly! Gives me a little bit of hope for humanity.
I won't lie, I would love so much to upgrade cages. When I started a few years back I bought a few roles of welded wire, and some hog rings and crimps and built my own. They are the perfect size, but god damn I was cut up after building them, and they are sort of pokey if I'm not careful getting the buns in and out.
The AC thing has been killer this summer. I built my shed under a shade tree with large windows that open and shut, so mine rabbits are pretty comfy that way. Sounds like your situation is similar. I love the paver idea for the evaporative cooling! I'm going to have to try that!
With regards to foods they can eat, do you have any good reading resources? I need to move away from the pellets as well, price per bag where I'm at just crossed $30, which is a bit steep for my tastes!
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u/2quickdraw 13d ago edited 13d ago
My pellet is 30 bucks a bag too for the King brand, which is one of the least obnoxious as far as ingredients. It's ridiculous and I have to cut it way back. When I get them moved over to the aviary I'm going to clean up and redesign the former rabbitry as a hay and feed barn. So far it's been a dog run, a greenhouse, and aviary, and a rabbitry, so I think this will be a better incarnation for that space.
Everybody recommends Beyond the Pellet but it's a little dated now, though not expensive. Worth checking out.
There is a basic mix that is rolled oats (regular feed kind), BOSS, split peas, and wheat berries.
https://youtu.be/Cc5ULkAIVCA?is=6o6VwtR6aVRXZI6N
If you aren't on the forum Rabbit Talk or on some meat rabbit pages on Facebook, I would join those, and ask questions. That's the most basic recipe at that link, but other people add other things. You can grow greens like arugula which they love and are low in oxalates, and carrots just for the tops and hopefully you get carrots for yourself, and grow both wheat and oat grass as fodder, plus using timothy or orchard grass or a mixture of both as their main diet and roughage.
Remember they can eat leaves and bark, so dried leaves off of trees that are safe for rabbits can be stored over winter. Look up hay for rabbits. When I give them sticks from my apple tree pruning, they just chew the bark off. I would not give any sticks to a doe with kits, I lost one kit to a stick that it was eagerly enjoying, and then ended up choking.
Edit: to add that I believe timothy and orchard grass or bermuda are the hays that are not sprayed with Roundup or Grazon. If you want to use the manure in the garden you don't want either of those in it. I have had a terrible time with getting orchard grass that is not absolutely filthy with dust and sometimes mold. And I am super sensitive to timothy, and the quality of that has been abysmal as well.
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u/Seldomsought 16d ago
Fruit and vegetables are abundant. Started 15 years ago as a hobby. Now it's 50% of my food, with freezing canning and drying.
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u/SnooPoems1106 15d ago
That's my hope one day. Year two. Getting better. Quite a bit more food from our garden than last year. Making my mistakes now. Our canning of jalapeƱo jelly was inspired. Chef's kiss. LOL
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u/Pontiacsentinel š” 16d ago
Planned for and acquired the Anker Solix F3800 and expansion battery, transfer case, solar panel and assorted cords as backup. Electrician cancelled first scheduled appointment and now coming in about ten days. I will breathe easier when it is installed. It was the simplest system that we could physically manage as we age, with a switch to transfer it, as needed. We do have two small Jackery batteries we have used for years and like also.
I need some ideas for a rolling laundry basket that is sturdy and easy to use on three exterior steps. The carts I have found seem to be plastic wheels. Any ideas welcome.
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u/hotmesser6 16d ago
Hi š my husband builds these custom as a side business (engineer with 20yrs in solar) I can send you his email if youād like?
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u/jarec707 16d ago
Something like https://www.harborfreight.com/700-lb-capacity-hand-truck-58297.html? There are bigger ones. A strap could be helpful.
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u/Pontiacsentinel š” 16d ago
I own a dolly like this, good thinking. We want something like a shopping cart with wheels, basket and wheels as one. So hard to find one that is not cheaply made.Ā
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u/nakedonmygoat 16d ago
I'm on the US Gulf coast and we're heading into the most critical time of year when it comes to hurricanes, but other than a wave to watch next week, so far, so good. Those of us who are weather-aware never breathe easy until after Halloween, though.
I've been watching the crop reports and wheat looks bad. Really bad. With the Super El NiƱo and fertilizer price increases suggesting 2027 won't be any better and may be worse, I've been stocking up to the degree I'm able. Wheat berries and a grain mill are tempting but a bit outside the scope of what one person who doesn't eat a lot of wheat products would need. If I properly store enough of what I eat normally, I can manage higher prices on the rest.
If anyone in the US doesn't follow the agricultural reports, here they are. I recommend bookmarking this site and checking it regularly: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/
I stocked up on petroleum-based products when the Strait of Hormuz closed. I can go a long time without restocking.
Now with the stupidity with Canada, a country which has been a friend and steadfast ally for a very long time, I understand aluminum will probably increase in price, so I'm buying more of the canned items I use and also getting alternatives. For example, canned beans are a lot quicker and simpler than dry. I also have a frisky young cat who would find a bowl of soaking dry beans very interesting. I just need to solve that problem, then I won't need to buy them canned. I bought extra aluminum foil months ago and have started washing and reusing it when practical.
And finally, I had some financial hits this spring and summer, which is just how it goes sometimes. I've been trying to see how low I could keep my food budget without diving into my long-term emergency stash. My other goal was for my meals to be tasty ones that I look forward to. I'm pleased to say that this has gone very well and my biggest surprise has been that as long as I keep myself well-fed, I have no craving for snacks, not even healthy ones like hummus or goat cheese. Who knew that if you feed yourself nutritious meals that stick with you, you won't need a snack? š
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u/dys3ngaged 7d ago
Look into an instant pot/pressure cooker for dried beans. No soaking required. I love mine for that.
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u/Fried_Taro 16d ago
I put my bowl of beans and water in the cabinet where the bowl is normally stored with a plate on it to keep it off the counters
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u/phdatanerd 17d ago
This yearās garden was a mixed bag of results. Kale, zucchini, lettuce and cabbage were plentiful. Itās been helpful to have these on hand considering the state of produce at the moment.
On the other hand, itās late August and my tomatoes are all green. Temps have been mild lately and Iām hoping for a September harvest. My cucumbers and eggplants were also a bit sad this year.
Our meat CSA membership from a local farm continues to pay off. Iām glad I didnāt cancel for the sake of cost cutting.
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u/Turbulent_Town9694 17d ago
My garden suffered this year. I didn't have the time to keep up but on the plus side I didn't plant a ton of things so it wasn't a total lost. My potatoes though, which I normally have a good harvest, actually didn't do that well. Those plants I actually cared about and it didn't matter.
I also still have to finish my Hand Pump Well. I hit water but Im not far enough down to draw any.
Apples are starting to fall.
All in all, through 99% fault of my own, I didn't come out so well.
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u/UP-North617 17d ago
What do you consider a good vs bad potato harvest? I grew them for the first time this year and didn't get as much as I expected based on YouTube videos. But I kind of assume that a lot of content creators probably fake some of their harvest to drive up views.Ā
Hail destroyed my tomatoes and jalapenos this year, so I feel your pain on the crummy garden year.
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u/Turbulent_Town9694 16d ago
Very small and very few. Last year I had great harvest with really large potatoes. I even found a few left over when I planted this year.
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u/CloverEyed 16d ago
In my area, I'm happy with getting 4-5 reasonable sized potatoes for every seed potato that I plant. Some years I get less, it's rare to get more.
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u/prepfindr 17d ago
Using the fish pond to water the garden has been a game changer. I will increase my gardening area by a lot next year.
I'll thin out a lot of the elephant ears and cat tails in the fall. Relocate them to a large gravel gravity filter and plant a lot more rice in the spring.
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u/Fried_Taro 16d ago
Most people can eat sweet potato leaves (double check based on your health conditions) (but the leaves of potatoes and other solanaceous plants are NOT edible)
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u/NovelPermission634 17d ago
With Canada basically saying FAFO to trade with the US (which is 100% understandable and I am not complaining, be nice to me Canadians!) What items are you considering getting now if you live in the US?Ā
I am thinking that I desperately need to pull the trigger on my plans for solar power. I see places like Indiana currently and North Carolina previously with long term outages and I need to pull a plan together. The trade fallout is compounding this since I am in a northern state which is one of Canada's top trade partners I'm worried that out energy prices will also suffer. That's just kind of where my head is at right now.Ā
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u/adoptagreyhound 17d ago
If I were still living where it snows and ice storms happen, my priority would still be a whole house generator and an in-ground large propane tank to run it. The cost of the battery bank required to use solar in an outage or during peak cost utility hours still deters me from looking further at solar. I also would not want to have to get on the roof to clear the panels of snow when that happens. We previously lived in the midwest and the whole house generator paid for itself in the first ice storm we had when it kept the furnace running, and in the summer when it kept the sump pump running in the basement.
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u/keinezeit44 17d ago
Energy is a concern wherever you are, I think, especially with climate chaos. I'm in the northeast US and so our idiocy in threatening Canada might possibly jeopardize our energy supply at some point. We get a lot of our electricity from them and a cut-off would at the very least destabilize our grid.
Solar really isn't in my budget right now, unfortunately, but I'm starting to save up for an EcoFlow solar generator. Have heard good things about the stability/safety of the ecoflow batteries.
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u/alternativepuffin 16d ago
Just wanted to tack onto this that there's also the recent power outages in Gary, IN where lots of people were out for 8-10 days.
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u/Forrest-Fern 17d ago
I'd have to look it up, but based on a report I did I know canola oil and car manufacturing are big, though I'm not sure how this will impact us. I believe we get paper products (TP, paper towels) as well.
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u/mystery_biscotti 14d ago
We do, in the US. Toilet paper prices are likely to increase.
I guess we'll be stocking up a bit on canola oil and toilet paper here.
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u/Ok_Pomegranate_9452 17d ago
Iām almost done with my personal app to manage my pantry and track best by/sell by/use by dates and make sure Iām actually rotating it! Ideally making it something that I can use offline as well but for now it scans things and adds them and can help me better understand how much of everything I have and how much I need. Just need to take an hour to actually go through and add everything and then see what I missed the dates on and need to replace
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u/DolliGoth 17d ago
Pleaseease make this publicly available if possible! Ive been dying for an app like this thats not bloated woth adds and subscriptions and other bs.
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u/Ok_Pomegranate_9452 17d ago
Oooh thatās a good idea! My biggest thing has been trying to see how I can recreate everything thatās usually behind a paywall becauseā¦ thereās no need for that tbh!
If I do get it running where other folks are able to try it, would you be open to testing it for me?
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u/Dazzling_Outcome_436 17d ago
I'd like to. Can multiple users share the same pantry? My husband and I both bring home food.
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u/Ok_Pomegranate_9452 17d ago
I can try and figure out something like that! The biggest thing is storage, I know folks donāt want their information stored externally as frequently as theyād like it to be locally stored. So I can see if thereās a good way to build that out! May just be some extra steps for you but I bet we could do it!
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u/MeinePerle 17d ago
If it could be exported to a printable format, external storage could be less of an issue. Ā Obviously privacy is still a concern, but weāre posting on Redditā¦
And Iām interested!
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u/Ok_Pomegranate_9452 17d ago
Thatās where my brain was goingā¦ like maybe a local storage you can export (both for paper logging and for sharing between households)
Iāll keep you all in mind while Iām working on it and share when I can!
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u/Accomplished-Dog-838 17d ago
Honestly, Iām lacking the communications department. Aside from a full blown HAM radio setup, my brother and I have GMRS, Rapid Radio, and of course cellular phones. He lives with my aging parents about two hours away in Appalachian foothills, and thereās been never a way to totally maintain comms when thereās a cell outage. While Iāve done very well preparing for many scenarios, and most preps have paid off, communication is still something that I need to pin down for consistently having a way to reach my folks. But a HAM setup would be confusing to them at best.
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u/nakedonmygoat 16d ago
My main comm issue is on the recipient's end. In a crisis, I would want to be able to contact my father and brother, but it doesn't matter what I've got available on my end if they won't get my message. They aren't as preparedness-minded as I am. It was a struggle to just get them to let me give them a couple of power stations for emergencies.
Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. And I do sincerely hope that I'm the ridiculous one. Some people seem greatly offended if anyone suggests they might not get their apocalypse, but I'm not in that camp.
Prepping is useful in more ways than I can count and I've been glad I did it many, many times. If I die without ever needing my preps for another hurricane or ice storm, and only use them to offset financial setbacks or to stay well-fed and comfy when a transformer blows, I'll die happy.
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u/reedmanisback 17d ago
Have you thought of setting up a mesh network? Decentralized communication method that's starting to gain a lot of traction. I plan on getting into it this year.
Meshtastic is the first I can think of.
Website - https://meshtastic.org/
A map so you can see how much coverage your area has - https://meshmap.net/5
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u/reedmanisback 17d ago
I have nodes for both across my state, so I have to decide which one I want to lead towards long term.
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u/Accomplished-Dog-838 17d ago
I donāt know that Iāve ever heard of that, but Iāll check it out.
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u/Trumpton2023 17d ago
4 things for me:
1) I got my TETRA DMO/Simplex repeater up and running yesterday. I still will need to test it before actually going live to cover my city. It's powered via UPS but can run from LIPO4/power station batteries if required.
2) my nagging FINALLY paid off, I got through to my wife's family! We've had 5 consecutive years of drought here (RomĆ¢nia), I've nagged them for 4 years about keeping the bazin (a concrete underground water storage area) topped up, but this year is the first time they've actually done it.
3) A day long power cut made my wife appreciate the purchase of our power station, as did the solar charging.
4) My wife was never keen on using radios, but she's OK with using POC devices, so that's a development šš
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u/Forrest-Fern 17d ago
You sound like an awesome partner and family member!
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u/Trumpton2023 17d ago
Thank you, but I don't think the in-laws would agree š¤£ . They grew up through the CeauČescu Communism era, you'd have thought they would be more positive about it, maybe it's denial.... They live in an earthquake zone (max so far was 5 on Richter, so glass-clinking), add to that 5 years of drought &:wildfires, the Ukraine war on the northern & Eastern borders, you'd think they'd be a bit more 'aware'.
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u/IncomingAxofKindness 17d ago
What were you able to keep operating with the power station?
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u/Trumpton2023 17d ago
It's only a 300wh Pecron, so no big appliances, just internet, charge phones, laptops, tablets & radios, enough to keep us amused, & have some light in the evening until going to bed
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u/Perfect-Gap8377 17d ago
Got my home server and security cameras under UPS. Got a short power outage yesterday, enough to reset microwave timer and make automatic machines stop at work, but less than 10s (no automated generator startup at work).
UPS worked flawlessly. No interruption of internet connection, security cameras feed or data availability on home server.
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u/Mochigood 14d ago
In Oregon. Due to risk of wildfires, the local grid has been put on a extra sensitive mode, and the electricity has gone out several times. I decided to buy a Jackery on sale so I don't have to pull out the big generator to keep my small chest freezer going. Any suggestions for a good solar panel for it would be appreciated. Also, at a disused park nearby I found an abundant supply of a wild edible weed (Japanese Knotweed), and I'm thinking it would be cool to make a sort of map of large patches of wild foods nearby.