Prepping

[Oldbloke]

Na, I don't mean like some of the crazies in US.

But, if you live in a flood prone or bush fire area perhaps are you prepping? Given what's happening in US, perhaps we all should.

We are in the burbs but plenty of tank water, tucker, (rice, pasta, cans etc) 3 bottles of LPG, solar powered car fridge, beer,

But no power for main fridge freezer.
No spare diesel.

Plan on salting some venison off the next deer.

Reckon we would be fine for a week or two.


What are you doing?

[Lazarus]

Ammo, lots and lots

[Oldbloke]

Ammo, lots and lots

sooo, you are one of those immigrants that crossed into the US from an asylum.

[Larry]

I am a prepper more by tying to save money and in the event of natural disasters. For Instance my family eats a lot of rice so when it is on special like 1/2 price specials a 10kg bag goes from $38 to $19 I buy 12 bags. It lasts way longer than it takes us to eat . We rely on water tanks. There have been breakages both real and some bad practice management . I now have a very robust system that provide double what we need and can be isolated in case of any contamination and moved between tanks in case of breakages. like being melted in a fire (has happened) Concrete tank was fine

[bigrich]

With the internet crash that saw airlines, banks and a lot of other businesses unable to trade, prepping doesn’t seem like crazy town stuff. Think about it , why attack and bomb a country when weaponising cyber attacks that take out the banks and essential services would destabilise a country from within. How long do you think starving city dwellers would keep their humanity and not resort to gangs and lord of the flies mentality. Far fetched maybe, impossible?
Anything is possible, this modern world that relies on the internet running everything is a house of cards. Through out history civilisation rises and falls, there’s no reason to think this modern society is immune just because we have electricity and computers. At any rate stockpiling when stuff is cheap is smart. I’ve been getting whole rumps from my local IGA for $9.99 a kilo. My freezer is full.

[on_one_wheel]

What's happening in the US OB ?

Spot on BR , house of cards indeed

Yes we should be prepared, look at the chaos a new strain of a mild cold caused, now imagine what will happen when China, Taiwan, NK, US, England, Australia and every other Tom Dick and Harry start exchanging military consumables.
It's going to be completely out of control within 24 hours when our entitled bunch of spoilt bratt population discover bank accounts mysteriously show $00.00 , their phones stop working and are told "your currency will not / can not be accepted, your Here's your food vouchers, here's your rationed allocation "

It's not a matter of IF

Even little hiccups like " we've got no internet " cause issues.

Some people only keep enough food for a day or two, they shop every night for their dinner preparation, they don't completely fill and keep their fuel tanks full, they don't hold any cash and keep nothing of intrinsic value other than a spare roll of toilet paper

What did covid teah China?
What do they have brewing in Wuhan that is seriously devastating.
They've already said "if China is dragged into a war, it'll be a war like we've never seen before "

My bet.... It'll be biological, chemical, financial, internet, shipping, communication and weapons of every kind, They've already tested the waters on every front.

[Oldbloke]

With the internet crash that saw airlines, banks and a lot of other businesses unable to trade, prepping doesn’t seem like crazy town stuff. Think about it , why attack and bomb a country when weaponising cyber attacks that take out the banks and essential services would destabilise a country from within. How long do you think starving city dwellers would keep their humanity and not resort to gangs and lord of the flies mentality. Far fetched maybe, impossible?
Anything is possible, this modern world that relies on the internet running everything is a house of cards. Through out history civilisation rises and falls, there’s no reason to think this modern society is immune just because we have electricity and computers. At any rate stockpiling when stuff is cheap is smart. I’ve been getting whole rumps from my local IGA for $9.99 a kilo. My freezer is full.

Some good points there BR.
Yes, we tend to buy extra food stuff if it's cheap.

On.one.wheel tho comment has been made in another thread that if Trump wins it will go to sh1t. If Biden wins the Trump supporters will go crazy, but bigger than last time. Sooo, be prepared for the fall out.

[Lazarus]

With the internet crash that saw airlines, banks and a lot of other businesses unable to trade, prepping doesn’t seem like crazy town stuff. Think about it , why attack and bomb a country when weaponising cyber attacks that take out the banks and essential services would destabilise a country from within. How long do you think starving city dwellers would keep their humanity and not resort to gangs and lord of the flies mentality. Far fetched maybe, impossible?
Anything is possible, this modern world that relies on the internet running everything is a house of cards. Through out history civilisation rises and falls, there’s no reason to think this modern society is immune just because we have electricity and computers. At any rate stockpiling when stuff is cheap is smart. I’ve been getting whole rumps from my local IGA for $9.99 a kilo. My freezer is full.

Some good points there BR.
Yes, we tend to buy extra food stuff if it's cheap.

On.one.wheel tho comment has been made in another thread that if Trump wins it will go to sh1t. If Biden wins the Trump supporters will go crazy, but bigger than last time. Sooo, be prepared for the fall out.

Lose/lose situation OB.

I read a report from 7 news this morning, announcing that Obama had "turned on " Biden as well now.

They couldn't just say that someone else was trying to talk some sense into him, they have to sensationalise everything.
Commercial news networks just love a beat up

[Oldbloke]

With the internet crash that saw airlines, banks and a lot of other businesses unable to trade, prepping doesn’t seem like crazy town stuff. Think about it , why attack and bomb a country when weaponising cyber attacks that take out the banks and essential services would destabilise a country from within. How long do you think starving city dwellers would keep their humanity and not resort to gangs and lord of the flies mentality. Far fetched maybe, impossible?
Anything is possible, this modern world that relies on the internet running everything is a house of cards. Through out history civilisation rises and falls, there’s no reason to think this modern society is immune just because we have electricity and computers. At any rate stockpiling when stuff is cheap is smart. I’ve been getting whole rumps from my local IGA for $9.99 a kilo. My freezer is full.

Some good points there BR.
Yes, we tend to buy extra food stuff if it's cheap.

On.one.wheel tho comment has been made in another thread that if Trump wins it will go to sh1t. If Biden wins the Trump supporters will go crazy, but bigger than last time. Sooo, be prepared for the fall out.

Lose/lose situation OB.

I read a report from 7 news this morning, announcing that Obama had "turned on " Biden as well now.

They couldn't just say that someone else was trying to talk some sense into him, they have to sensationalise everything.
Commercial news networks just love a beat up

Yes, sensationalise everything.

But I agree, either way for us it won't be great.

But, I'm all sorted for the zombies. Not sure if I can reload the cases fast enough tho.

[on_one_wheel]

On.one.wheel tho comment has been made in another thread that if Trump wins it will go to sh1t. If Biden wins the Trump supporters will go crazy, but bigger than last time. Sooo, be prepared for the fall out.

Yeah riots are possible, nothing a bunch of tear gass and some water cannons, rubber bullets won't quench but I still can't see the issue with trump winning, I think the woke brigade is crying about the sky falling in however it didn't when Trump was in power last time, up until Covid our economy's were going extremely well... perhaps too well ?
The riot on the Capital .... s**t we've seen more carnage at football matches than that, but somehow the riot was "serious" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_N ... he%20pitch.
Perhaps he'll piss China off a little too much next time, Perhaps given how our retarded system of management is, were well overdue for a hot war to reset the ballance for another 80 years regardless of who's running the show?

[Larry]

With the internet crash that saw airlines, banks and a lot of other businesses unable to trade, prepping doesn’t seem like crazy town stuff. Think about it , why attack and bomb a country when weaponising cyber attacks that take out the banks and essential services would destabilise a country from within. How long do you think starving city dwellers would keep their humanity and not resort to gangs and lord of the flies mentality. Far fetched maybe, impossible?
Anything is possible, this modern world that relies on the internet running everything is a house of cards. Through out history civilisation rises and falls, there’s no reason to think this modern society is immune just because we have electricity and computers. At any rate stockpiling when stuff is cheap is smart. I’ve been getting whole rumps from my local IGA for $9.99 a kilo. My freezer is full.

Really that IT glitch while affecting probably one of the biggest softwares Purchasing and cash register machines was nothing compared to what could happen in the next year. We have already seen the effect of increased solar flares this year they are meant to continue until 2025. One like back in the day would be modern day life stopping.

The 2009 bushfires have brought home the need to be able to fend for yourself for several weeks.

[Lazarus]

On.one.wheel tho comment has been made in another thread that if Trump wins it will go to sh1t. If Biden wins the Trump supporters will go crazy, but bigger than last time. Sooo, be prepared for the fall out.

Yeah riots are possible, nothing a bunch of tear gass and some water cannons, rubber bullets won't quench but I still can't see the issue with trump winning, I think the woke brigade is crying about the sky falling in however it didn't when Trump was in power last time, up until Covid our economy's were going extremely well... perhaps too well ?
The riot on the Capital .... s**t we've seen more carnage at football matches than that, but somehow the riot was "serious" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_N ... he%20pitch.
Perhaps he'll piss China off a little too much next time, Perhaps given how our retarded system of management is, were well overdue for a hot war to reset the ballance for another 80 years regardless of who's running the show?

A couple of points OOW

As to the state of the economy when trump was in, that was before putin threw everything into chaos with his invasion.
Like it or not, we are in a different era now than 2020, a return to the old feudal tradition of strongman, nationalist and populist leaders, leaders who feel for the lowest common denominator and push it for all it's worth.
They all seem to run from the same playbook, pick a minority to demonise, with the Nazis it was Jews, with Hanson it's Asians, with trump it's pretty much anyone born outside the US, but Latin Americans and Muslims in particular.
The Project 2025 plans for personal loyalty pledges also shows a disturbing totalitarian tendency.

The worry for those of us who look past the sensationalism, is the flow on effects of his return.
One of the reasons we've had the 80yrs of relative peace you reference, is the established order that he wants to overthrow and dismantle.
Not one supporter of his has been able to tell me with what he plans to replace it, Project 2025 is apparently the answer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

Perhaps the established order could do with a tune up, but having one leader unilaterally just rip sh!t up, is ludicrously dangerous.
I've heard many of his supporters praising his volatile unpredictability, but world leaders like unpredictability about as much as a barbed wire enema.
So do major investors.


As to your riot example, two totally different contexts, and context is paramount.

There's a world of difference between a panic stampede at a sporting fixture, regardless of the death toll, and a deliberate, armed attack on the seat of government of the most powerful nation on the planet, with the avowed intent of killing senior government figures and overturning, by force, a legal election.
But I'm sure you know that already.

[Larry]

I was really surprised and a bit shocked when he announced that even people born in the US and considered citizens would have the citizenship revoked.

What will be the new rules both parents must have been born? Grandparents must have be born. Its crazy and would affect my US citizenship. He doesn't think through the ramifications of what seems like a small but good idea. Look at abortion it has put the Kibosh on IVF.

[Oldbloke]

I was really surprised and a bit shocked when he announced that even people born in the US and considered citizens would have the citizenship revoked.

What will be the new rules both parents must have been born? Grandparents must have be born. Its crazy and would affect my US citizenship. He doesn't think through the ramifications of what seems like a small but good idea. Look at abortion it has put the Kibosh on IVF.

Correct.
Just lies and anything that suits his agenda.

Truck loads died of covid because it suited him.

[Lazarus]

I was really surprised and a bit shocked when he announced that even people born in the US and considered citizens would have the citizenship revoked.

What will be the new rules both parents must have been born? Grandparents must have be born. Its crazy and would affect my US citizenship. He doesn't think through the ramifications of what seems like a small but good idea. Look at abortion it has put the Kibosh on IVF.

Blut und Boden 2.0 Larry

[Oldbloke]

Thread has in the EG tradition gone down a slippery slope, sideways.

[Lazarus]

Thread has in the EG tradition gone down a slippery slope, sideways.

Here you go then OB

1000022500_optimized.png (132.71 KiB) Viewed 22115 times

Don't know what's going on with Granny's gun, AI might have been on the pipe

[Oldbloke]

Thread has in the EG tradition gone down a slippery slope, sideways.

Here you go then OB

1000022500_optimized.png

Don't know what's going on with Granny's gun, AI might have been on the pipe

Fuk that's funny.

[wrenchman]

I would not say I am but when COVID hit I had lots of canned goods and other stuff on hand and it didn't affect me to bad I think of it as covering your bases In case some thing happen I even keep a few bags of flower around for bread making .
I do live in a area of the country were bad weather can shut down the country for a while

[Jorlcrin]

I am a prepper more by tying to save money and in the event of natural disasters. For Instance my family eats a lot of rice so when it is on special like 1/2 price specials a 10kg bag goes from $38 to $19 I buy 12 bags. It lasts way longer than it takes us to eat . We rely on water tanks. There have been breakages both real and some bad practice management . I now have a very robust system that provide double what we need and can be isolated in case of any contamination and moved between tanks in case of breakages. like being melted in a fire (has happened) Concrete tank was fine

We recently had an empty poly tank burn to the ground; no idea they were that flammable!

A lot of the short-term prepping discussed above, is what remote rural properties do as a normal year.
Crap Power reliability, Bushfires, Boggy Roads, etc etc.
So, a lot of Prepping is done as a matter of course:-
Dry Staples, Canned Goods, Meat, Bulk Diesel, and even get a veggie garden going when possible.
Firebreaks around the homestead, and along key fences and infrastructure.

Water (especially rainwater) is precious, and you can never have too much stored.
As Larry suggests, having things like water (and diesel) stored in multiple tanks, rather than one sole one, to reduce the loss from some sort of disaster.
Get some of that water tank steriliser stuff(made by Davey?), and treat the tanks to ensure the bird-poop on the roof hasnt started a little colony of something.
We also run all our house rainwater through a big filter system; not fine enough to stop Guardia, but seems to work okay nonetheless.
Spares; Tyres, Pumps, Pipe fittings, etc etc etc.
Heck; the crap power the past 2 years, we now keep a new fridge, freezer and dishwasher, and household pressure pump boxed down in the back shed; beside the 2 standby gensets..
In effect, we work to being able to be self-sufficient for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, though how prepared we are varies through the year.
Storm/Flood season(where roads could be cut for weeks at a time) are when you want to be ready to go.
My Landcruiser ute wore a firefighting setup on it for about 5 months this last summer.
Given we have a bore pipeline not far from the house, I'd love to set up a Solar Reverse-Osmosis system, and just start it quietly filling tanks while we dont need it.
But too much money to consider at the moment; on the list, though.

Most of our approach focuses on having a Plan B in the event of a failure, and a plan C if the failure is heavily utilised.
If we thought there was an 'end of days' type of event coming, then I'd say it wouldnt take much for us to massage some of our storage options to scale them up.
Probably sourcing diesel into the future would be my biggest challenge; love to have the option to grow something that can be used as a diesel alternative.

But I dont think we are even close to surviving more than 3-6 months at best, and even that long would be a challenge at the moment.
Wish I had the resources to extend this out, but it's in the too-hard basket at present.

[bladeracer]

I've sort of always had a "prepper" mindset. If I need batteries, I don't buy what I need, I buy a bulk pack that will last years. Same with tools, gloves, boots, shirts, socks, trousers - when I find something I like I buy bulk. I have two spare new engines on-hand in case the water pump ever dies (it's been into the dam three times so far and keeps on going, just flushed it out with diesel and rebuilt the carb each time), and two rebuild kits that I haven't used yet. We have a 240V water pump at the house to pump the tanks up to the dam when they get too full, but that would also require taking the generator out to run it in the paddocks to fill the cow troughs every day.

We use very little fuel on the farm in a year, probably something like 350 litres of petrol to run the water pumps and chainsaws, and maybe 250 litres of diesel for the tractor and ute to collect firewood, run the cows to market and collecting/distributing hay to the paddocks. But in a situation of catastrophe I doubt we'd be taking cows anywhere, we'd be keeping them for our own meat. We rarely drive in the paddocks preferring to walk whenever possible. We put the hay in plastic tubs and drag them through the paddocks like sleds.

Our cooking and heating is from firewood from our own paddocks, a large part of our lives revolves around clearing trees and collecting, splitting and stacking firewood. Rose and her mum drink tea so they have a back-up electric kettle, and last summer Rose bought a cooktop thingie that only gets hot when you put a ferrous pot on it as a back-up for cooking and to save lighting the stove when it's 45C outside. The wetback stove is 63 years old this year and had to have the wetback replaced about 30 years ago due to rust.

We collect our rainwater of course, which is the only thing I drink nowadays - in the past year I've had one glass of tap water when we were visiting Albury, otherwise I have home rainwater hanging off my belt every day. We don't filter or treat our water at all. We have four water dams for the cows across the three properties. The lowest point of the house block has always been swampy so I think we should put a dam down there since the cows can only go in there for a few months of the year anyway and it would allow us to pump water up to the top dam if we had to.

We have a 6kW solar/battery storage system on the house which runs everything just fine. I wouldn't expect the battery to last more than 15 or 20 years and we don't have a spare as it cost about $20k. We have twenty panels on the roof, which I would expect to last about the same, and we don't have spares of those either. The system is in its fifth year now but hasn't shown any measurable signs of slowing down yet.

We have a decent veggie garden and orchard, I don't eat much outside of meat, bread, cheese and fruit, really not big on veggies, Rose and her mum love them though. The oranges are only a week or two away I think. I doubt we grow enough fruit and veg to feed ourselves for a year but we do grow quite a lot. Rose makes the bread. We have chickens and have been getting more eggs than we can eat lately so have been giving them to friends.

We put four cows in the freezers last year and can see the bottom of them now so need to fill them again. I need to get out hunting real soon to try to get some venison.

Na, I don't mean like some of the crazies in US.

But, if you live in a flood prone or bush fire area perhaps are you prepping? Given what's happening in US, perhaps we all should.

We are in the burbs but plenty of tank water, tucker, (rice, pasta, cans etc) 3 bottles of LPG, solar powered car fridge, beer,

But no power for main fridge freezer.
No spare diesel.

Plan on salting some venison off the next deer.

Reckon we would be fine for a week or two.


What are you doing?

[animalpest]

I am buying toilet paper

[Oldbloke]

I am buying toilet paper

your a winner.

[Bugman]

The way the world, politics, and many people are behaving, I will be prepping by stocking up on PREParation H!

[Oldbloke]

We aren't yanks and don't live in earth quake zones nor do we live in Africa where every second country is at war.

But as mentioned a couple of times, I think it just pays to have a few extra supplies of the staples on hand, esp if they are cheap buy up. Just like reloading components.
Generators, not sure, but we have a car fridge we can run off solar, sort of covers that. A freezer will be ok for 2 days I think, depending on weather.

[bigrich]

We aren't yanks and don't live in earth quake zones nor do we live in Africa where every second country is at war.

But as mentioned a couple of times, I think it just pays to have a few extra supplies of the staples on hand, esp if they are cheap buy up. Just like reloading components.
Generators, not sure, but we have a car fridge we can run off solar, sort of covers that. A freezer will be ok for 2 days I think, depending on weather.

a solar panel to run my 60 litre "kings" car fridge is a great idea, i'll have to get onto that
at home i'm on the large gas bottles for my hot water and gas stove . i'll NEVER go back to a electric stove , gas is great

[Lazarus]

We aren't yanks and don't live in earth quake zones nor do we live in Africa where every second country is at war.

But as mentioned a couple of times, I think it just pays to have a few extra supplies of the staples on hand, esp if they are cheap buy up. Just like reloading components.
Generators, not sure, but we have a car fridge we can run off solar, sort of covers that. A freezer will be ok for 2 days I think, depending on weather.

a solar panel to run my 60 litre "kings" car fridge is a great idea, i'll have to get onto that
at home i'm on the large gas bottles for my hot water and gas stove . i'll NEVER go back to a electric stove , gas is great

When I moved from one side of the property to the other 15yrs ago the old house I took over had a massive(for one person) 250lt 48kw water heater.
I had no intention of running that just for me, so rather than blow a couple of grand on an "infinity" system, I bought 2 caravan/camping type instant heaters and installed them in line.
In summer, I only need one, in winter when the inlet water doesn't get much above 7 or 8°, I use both, one to preheat and the other to bring it up to shower temp.
These run on 9kg bottles, $44 for 2 filled bottles lasts about 3 months.
Beats hell out of paying today's power prices

[Lazarus]

Perhaps another idea would be to learn to use a bow, for those of us who can't.

This girl wouldn't go hungry.
I don't care how many "takes" she needed to get it, I'd have trouble hitting the fence.

https://youtube.com/shorts/XJGepd8FI44? ... A-SiIYMRgK

[bigpete]

Even better,learn to make and use a bow ,atlatl, and sling. Learn how to make primitive fire and identify wild foods and medicine's.
I went down the modern prepping path years ago and its all good till you can no longer get the items

[Lazarus]

Even better,learn to make and use a bow ,atlatl, and sling. Learn how to make primitive fire and identify wild foods and medicine's.
I went down the modern prepping path years ago and its all good till you can no longer get the items

True, most preppers seem to rely on supplies of manufactured goods rather than learning how to start from scratch.
Probably a symptom of busy life rather than laziness