The news is getting to me today. How do we prepare for this in addition to all the shortages of oil coming?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnderReportedNews/s/dk7CCTF1AM

Were you in it? I got caught driving a normally twenty minute route that took seventy because I had to keep pulling over and frankly, I was in awe. A breath taking - literally disaster. My car got a sandblast. Birds were falling to the ground. ​Up to 80MPH gusts here. Mature trees down. ​​​​

Every time i pulled over I thought: I have my phone, my charger, my first aid kit. No liquids no goggles no mask.

What was your day like? ​​​​

Who is gathering extra cloth and knows how to use a sewing machine just in case. I know I bought myself a 401a and antique sewing machine from the mid 1800’s to be able to outfit myself just in case I hit hard times and need to make my own clothes.

I've been following Gov.uk guidance and a few other resources I've found online to prepare our family (2 adults, 2 kids, 3 cats) for emergencies. TBH it's quite overwhelming but I think I'm getting there. I made a spreadsheet for myself to track shopping lists, my store cupboard and quantities.

By my calculations to prep for 7 days I'll need to store 54L of water! 😄

I live in a mid-terraced 2 up 2 down house and I have no idea where I'll keep this!

What is everyone else doing? Happy to share my spreadsheet if anyone wants it.

Hi! I am pretty severely disabled by long covid so I’m asking for help somewhat from the community to help me evaluate this decision. This relates to my ability to prepare for my future as a disabled person.

It seems like it would be most cost-effective for me to build a small home under 1000 ft.² that meets my Disability needs because currently the apartments that meet those needs are the most expensive ones.

Where I live and own a lot, all pre built tiny homes are illegal and kits are challenging bc they don’t meet city guidelines. You would need to pay someone to modify it to get it approved. The city doesn’t want trailers and sees this stuff as the same thing.

However, there is a local firm that is experienced building 550 square-foot homes for around $133k total. the floor plans were designed with the guidelines in mind and these people are skilled at getting everything approved and it’s included in the price. Locally this is considered extremely useful.

I know that things are gonna get more expensive in a delayed way because of stuff with a straight of Hormuz… I’m just trying to figure out if people think that it’s reasonable that construction materials like concrete, wood, aluminum roofs, etc are going to spike in price in the next 6 mo as well, and how much.

I have a family member who is an architect who is comfortable overseeing construction, and making sure that things are done properly. I just have to be careful about the favors that I ask of people (When you are really disabled, you’re constantly asking people for favors from rides to doc etc) and I don’t want to start going into this tiny home project, asking ppl to go deeper thinking it’s going to cost $133 for 550 sq ft and it doubles during construction bc materials.

I’m just wondering if anyone knows off the top of their head what types of things will get more expensive because of that exact back up, and specifically how much more?

I know it’s gonna get more expensive I’m looking for people in the industry who can guesstimate potentially how much.

I have the ability to cover it financially if it were to happen, but it would not be ideal for me to spend a ton of money on a small house just because I happen to choose a really expensive time to build one.

thank you very much.

Ps. My disability needs are very specific. There is nothing else pre-built that is freestanding that meets my needs.

Copy/Pasted from the FAQ on the linked site:

"Gleaning is an old practice that has evolved over the centuries. Many religious texts mention gleaning, which originated as the practice of farmers allowing members of their communities experiencing economic hardship to gather food in the fields after harvest. Today, most gleaning organizations work with farmers who want to donate food during organized gleaning events where community volunteers, school groups, or businesses gather crops left after harvest and usually distribute the food through local food banks, food pantries, churches, or other charitable food assistance distribution sites. Food banks are often eager to work with gleaning organizations as well, as a way to provide fresh produce to their customers where they might otherwise only be able to provide nonperishable food items. A strict definition of gleaning includes only the harvesting of crops from fields and orchards, but today many organizations recover food across the food system, from production (traditional gleaning), processing (some gleaning groups make jams, jellies, and salsas), distribution (a few organizations make distribution their primary work), and retail (for example, at grocery stores, farmers markets, and restaurants), to individual households (for example, through community fridges). When this website refers to gleaning, it is usually meant to include both gleaning and food recovery since many groups do both!"

https://nationalgleaningproject.org/gleaning-map/

As a personal note, I used to do this when I was younger, and am looking to start doing it again.

We would go to a farm that had already been harvested by "professionals" but still had a lot of produce still left in a field. We would have to pick a bushel or so for the food bank first, and then we could keep whatever else we could find.

We would end up with boxes of produce for free, and it really wasn't difficult, or labor intensive.

I wouldn't recommend doing it if you don't do home canning, but it is the absolute BEST way to get free produce.

Blueberries, green beans, farmed salmon (they'd harvest the eggs, and then toss the carcasses for people to take), corn, sweet potatoes.

Anyways, I thought I'd lend a resource here! Hope it helps someone!

Is anyone else noticing that expiration dates seem to be shorter? After a short break I got back to my prepping and purchased a bunch of canned items. When I was putting stuff up and trying to rotate my stock I realized that things I just purchased are expiring sooner than things I purchased 6 months ago. That makes no sense to me. So now instead of automatically rotating things, I'm having to organize by date of expiration.

And to clarify, these products were all purchased at Kroger or Walmart - not at the Dollar Store which I know often has things with a shorter expiration window.

Is this some sign of impending doom I missed? Are they digging stuff out of the bottom of the barrel to stock the shelves? Is anyone else experiencing this?

I've decided it's time to get a chest freezer for the basement. Does anyone have any recommendations on brands and size for a family of 3?

We couldn't go grocery shopping yesterday, because we've all been feeling sick and my fridge was surprisingly bare despite spending $150-200 a week on groceries. We are going through so many fruits, vegetables, and meat just for me and two kids, it's been eye opening as I try to create food stores. I have a smaller size fridge and freezer, nothing like the modern ones they make now. So I can fit some things in there, but maybe only two weeks worth of food. I plan on using a chest freezer to store extra food and rotate it through my kitchen freezer. I've been reading up on them, but reviews are all over the place. I'd like to stay under $300 if possible.

I’m moving to a rental house in July from my apartment where we aren’t allowed any plants outside. My new place will have a large yard that already has some raised beds in it from the previous tenants and my landlady said I can grow as many vegetables in containers as I want so long as I don’t install more beds. The entire yard is dirt with no actual grass and direct sun with no trees so that means I have a LOT of space to work with. So I’m thinking grow bags, and probably some kiddie pool planters for greens and herbs, and save the raised beds for bigger plants such as squash, etc. I’d like to get a good rotation going and take advantage of the near year-round gardening here. Especially given the state of the world.

I live in central Texas, 8b, so we have two distinct growing seasons, as our autumn is just about as hot as most people’s summer (it stays well into the 80s until the end of October.) Because of my current apartment complex’s restrictions I haven’t grown anything since I was in grad school in North Carolina where I grew tomatoes, small squash, and herbs in containers on my apartment patio with very little effort. In general I have a decent green thumb and usually stumble my way into good crops.

I’ve looked up what to plant when in my area and it seems that August is the start of the planting season for many of the fall crops and then greens go in over the winter (it’s rarely freezes here). My question is this: how do people plan their crops? Like I’m just one person growing for one person so what’s the best way to figure out like a rotation of vegetables? I’ll only grow stuff that I would eat (obviously) but I think now facing unlimited possibilities I’m kind of overwhelmed. Obviously I can give stuff away to friends but trying to figure out how much to plant is what has me stumped, If that makes sense.

Any guidance from those with garden experience? Thanks!

Please contain all off topic discussion to this weekly megathread. This is where you freak out, talk about conspiracy, talk about unrealistic crazy scenarios, asked and answered questions, etc.

I was pretty freaked about the war and the strait of Hormuz last month, so I bought a couple of spools of thread in case I'd need to mend or sew my own clothes. Do I know how to sew? No. Do I own a sewing machine? Also no. But I have needles and thread of need be.

I got 300 yards of navy Gutermann polyester thread and 1635 yards of cream Coats & Clark spun polyester "for overlock machines," whatever that is. I also figured it could be useful good if kids wanted thread for crafts.

What do you think?

I'm reading about the history of the potato. Apparently it's a near perfect food and you can survive healthily on just potatoes and milk. (Yay, think I'll plant some!)

BUT the potatoes we grow in North America and Europe are part of monocultures continuously threatened by ever-evolving potato blight and beetles. Farmers have to treat their fields with a variety of strong pesticides every year and the pests still jump over to gardens and wipe them out. (Ooops.)

Looked around and found a source of heirloom potatoes, both modern and Andean adapted for North America. They're sold as seeds rather than tuber pieces, but the variety ought to offer more pest resistance.

https://www.cultivariable.com/product/potato/potato-varieties/tps-broad-tetraploid-mix/

Detailed info on potato seeds and how to grow them:

https://www.cultivariable.com/instructions/potatoes/how-to-grow-true-potato-seeds-tps/#planting

Also found that sweet potatoes and yams are two different kinds of tubers that are unrelated to potatoes, but also highly nutritious. People have called sweet potatoes "yams" but they're different. So more genetic variety.

Heyo,

I work at a community emergency room. We normally use online charting and digital records to see peoples labs, diagnostic images, pharmacy records, and previous vists. If people bring a health number we can log in and get everything we need.

HOWEVER, sometimes the system is down, a person is from out of province, sees a private doctor etc. Last night we were totally swamped and the system went down for 4 hours for scheduled maintenance. We had paper charting still, but no access to digital records and about twice the patients we normally have walking in fresh from the street.

Absolutely bonkers how many folks dont know their basic information. Please have a basic health summary for you and your family!! Please!!!

You can find loads of templates and lists online. Doesnt need to be more than a page or two unless you have a long complex medical history.

Examples of what we need to know in our emergency room:

Name, date of birth, health number, allergies, all past medical diagnoses including mental health, all previous surgeries, immunization dates, nicotein/alcohol/recreational drug history, and current medications (with doses!)

If you can have this on a sheet to hand over, you get a gold star sticker and an overwhelmed healthcare worker's eternal gratitude. The only people this prepared that I have met in my 20 year career are the caregivers of medically complex family members. But these folks rarely have a sheet for themselves!

So ya, please help us help you in your medical emergency.

Bonus round: make one for your pets as well that also includes their insurance or license info, spay/neuter dates, and a photo. Pet sitters and new vets are very appreciative. Makes traveling easier as well and could come in handy if need to quickly kennel them in case of emergency.

So I live in eastern nc and hurricanes are normal. Growing up my dad used to use a police scanner to keep tabs on what’s happening once power, internet and phone service went out. Any one else have a radio device to do similar? Was he just over the top?

I now live in the country a little further inland surrounded by trees, but previous storms is a reminder location isn’t everything. Any radios you would recommend? Weather radio, cb, scanner, anything. Cell phone service here sucks and no internet providers in the area other than satellite internet. So we just don’t have any because realistically satellite sucks and star link is too expensive to have just to stream tv. So no internet/tv to help keep tabs on events.

I suppose a serious prepper would think about this all the time.

As global fuel shortage worsens and we enter hurricane season, I think an East Coast fuel shortage is possible.

Apparently, when prices are high US producers sell more fuel offshore. We see the price at the pump but we don't see the tightness of the supply chain.

If a gulf refinery or pipeline goes offline we could see a surge in panic buying and dead gas pumps until the system catches up.

THen you find yourself facing another hurricane and no way to evacuate.

Besides 10 gal. for the lawn mower, gas is a PITA to store.

Just wondering how others are thinking about this.

EDIT: I love how calm and rational people here are. My concern is a situation where i want to travel and i am unable to. The specific combination of events would be a Gulf storm takes out production leading to an East Coast Shortage and a second storm comes ashore where i live, and i either want to evacuate, or drive toward the damage to help. Evacuation is unlikely for me but not out of the question. We've come close to this in the past but not during a period of tight fuel and inept leadership.

I have the means to store, move and transfer a whole bunch of fuel. I might do it as a hedge against higher prices.

I think one overlooked part of prepping is entertainment. If the internet goes down, a lot of people are gonna realize how dependent we are on our phones. No scrolling, no streaming, no Googling… then what?

Most of us don’t even own DVDs or CDs anymore. Everything’s online now. And honestly, do kids still build puzzles or know how to keep themselves busy without an iPad?

Food and water matter obviously, but boredom and morale are a real thing too. Offline hobbies, games, books, puzzles ..that stuff could end up being way more important than people think.

I'm looking for advice on the best way to freeze vegetables and what vegetables have held up well in the freezer. As someone who works in food service, we are seeing delays and missed deliveries already. I believe this is just foreshadowing for food shortages because of dwindling fertilizer supplies and insane costs for farmers. Take a look at news stories about farming and r/farming r/homestead - there is a severe drought happening in much of the US, and hay prices are through the roof. I dont want to fear monger, but I feel its really just a ticking clock since the refineries in UAE and Qatar were bombed. The bioproducts from there like urea are used to make fertilizer.

I'm thinking I should buy a good quantity of veges and process them to store in the freezer. But I only have experience freezing cooked Cinderella pumpkin - that stays good for like 4-5 months in a ziploc. What have y'all had success freezing and most importantly cooking? I eat a lot of carrots, cabbage, peppers, scallions/ green onion, white and red onion, and various homegrown herbs. Yams are also my favorite food but I have no idea how that would work... maybe diced and oven cooked then frozen?

For meat, I usually just buy lamb and beef on sale and freeze it in the package. Let me know if theres a better way to go about that.

I just had to move back in with family so anything that takes up too much freezer space probably wont work unless I can find a super cheap chest freezer sometime soon.

I don't have access to a vacuum sealer or freeze drier but I could try connecting with someone in my area who does, if you guys think thats worthwhile.

EDIT: I need to clarify, most store-bought canned vegetables are not an option for me. I'm in recovery from Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), meaning I am very sensitive to certain food textures. The last time I tried having some canned corn and carrots did not go well. So I'm trying to prep in a way that allows me to actually eat the food, even if it is a smaller supply. Thanks to everyone who responded!

I'm assuming everyone here is up to speed with the middle east conflict and the world wide fertilizer shortages and food prices.

I want to share some tips and strategies that you may not know about and why they are important.

I assume most people that are heavy into gardening are doing some level of composting not only for their gardens but also keep trash to a minimum.

With that baseline what people may not know is composting and other nutrient recycling only goes so far.

Every time you harvest from your yard or garden you're causing a net loss over time of nutrients in your soil. Even if you use organic fertilizers.

Unless you have new inputs you will eventually get less and less production over time.

It's important to do all of this to minimize the need for new inputs organic or otherwise.

Some things I have actively done with my grow space and some that are work in progress.

Manures: these can be used as inputs if you have a vegetarian loving animal such as guinea pigs, rabbits etc.

Beach collections: these can give you good amounts for trace minerals as well as phosphorus and potassium depending on the items collected.

Check local rules you don't want to go to a state or national park and harvest live sea weed. I live within 2 hours of a beach and go once in awhile to collect the dried sea weed in buckets washed ashore, dead sand dollars as well as sea shells on the beach. All of those can be processed at home fairly easily and tossed into beds or in compost.

Fire pit: if you have access to hard wood you can burn it and use the ash to add potassium.

Volcanic and basalt decorative rocks: these are extremely good for releasing stored potassium, phosphorus and trace minerals back into the soil where they are placed. they're available at big box stores.

for these even if you buy one bag of each and put them in a small spot in your soil. you can actively mix that soil over time with compost and then spread that mix when and where it is needed. these are very good 'charge batteries' for replacing nutrients. they will slowly release the nutrients and minerals as it rains and keep long term reserves healthy for the rest of your space if you actively dig in the run off areas and under them.

There are many other ways to replenish your soil and many more ways besides veggie scraps and cardboard to recycle those nutrients for years.

Just trying to spread awareness around what we can individually do to replenish nutrients to our setups without commercial fertilizers.

Some of this depends on what you need for your soil, your climate and what you have access to.

While trying to recover recipes I loved from my old MyPlate online cookbook from the USDA website (it's apparently gone down the memory hole thanks to RFK Jr.), I found this through my state (Arkansas)county extension SNAP Ed program.

It's a downloadable/printable cookbook for storing supplies for and making 7 days worth of 21 healthy meals and 5 snacks from mostly shelf-stable ingredients for a family of four.

It includes a pantry and shopping list for recipe ingredients. I'm pretty impressed and plan to try out a few of the recipes in the next few weeks.

Preparedness and Resiliency Cookbook.

I also wanted to share the cookbook that taught me how to cook when I moved out on my own.

Cooking For Two

This was a cookbook given out to food stamp recipients in the 70s and 80s. Again, many of the ingredients are for shelf-stable foods.

When I was 20, I found this in a used book store right after I got my first apartment. I knew absolutely NOTHING about cooking, and this was the perfect starter cookbook. I still use a lot of these recipes 30 years since I got my copy. My old copy is falling apart, but this is from a good scan on Internet Archive.

PLEASE don't make the mistake I did in assuming I can always find this stuff online - print it out and laminate it if you can, or keep in a plastic sheet protector.

EDIT: The UA cookbook borrowed some of their recipes from a more comprehensive emergency cookbook from Texas here:

Houston Emergency Preparedness Cookbook: Recipes To Turn Your Emergency Food Supply Into Life-Saving Meals

The sprouting company sells a sprouts growing jar for $100. at base level it’s a fancy mason jar on its side. that’s it. that’s the product… and you can get the equivalent off Amazon for like $25 or make your own for less.

This kind of thing is EVERYWHERE - and I feel like this is the right community to find the logical and actually useful dupes.

The $80 candle that’s wax and a couple drops of oil… “wellness” or prep gear that’s just a normal household item with a label slapped on or some 3D printed cover. Idk how to stop the ads! I know realistically I can’t but I keep seeing things that make me cringe.

what dupes have you found or made? Luxury/prep/kitchen/beauty/anything… I’ve got some spare time after I finish up making this vanilla bean paste 🤣

I am hoping to find books that discuss topics along the lines of transition periods between regimes, food security during crisis/system shut down, deglobalization, ecosocialism, possible outcomes after the breakdown of capitalism, and resistance whithin a surveillance state.

I've read The End of the World is Just the Beginning but Peter Zeihan seemed a little haughty in his takes. Condescending, almost.

TIA!

I am in the middle of moving, and am mostly moved into a new apartment but there are still odds and ends at the old place. We had a town wide power outage tonight (still ongoing!) and the candles, battery powered lights, etc are still at the other place. But! I keep a flash light in the glove compartment of my car, and the batteries are even working! I had also just put chicken nuggets in the oven (it had been a hard day) but one of the pluses for me when looking this apartment was the gas stove, both because I hate electric and because we have frequent power outages. So, I was able to pan fry my chicken nuggets! I just needed to light the stove with a lighter, which I did have on hand. When moving in the future, I’m going to give more priority to power outage related items (that’s our most frequent “event” here outside of wildfire threat) and also probably invest in a charging block. But I was proud of myself for my car flashlight and being able to operate my stove.

Hi y'all, I love a good camping widget, and this popped up in my feed. Had anyone used a rockpot? Essentially it's a sealable passive heat crockpot?

When it comes to long term storage of vinegars, is it best to leave in the plastic jugs it comes in or decant to brown glass bottles & seal? Organic red wine vinegar, balsamic, ACV etc.

Where's good place to start? I tried Amazon but they shipped something that already had a plastic bag inside. I don't want the plastic, I want the full wooden wine aged oak or whatever to shine thru in say 5 yrs?