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Mmmmmmm. Sounds yummy! Will do!

We are putting in blueberries and peaches....can one make blueberry or peach wine?

I am stockpiling tea, sugar, bullet, and flour.....why? Cause I think just about everyone down south we be perfectly happy living on venizon, biscuits, and sweet tea! As far as alcohol goes I am sure putting some up would be a smart idea. I also think that perhaps learning how to make it would be wise as well. Thinking wine here y'all....don't want the feds to bust down my door.

I have had back pain off nd on here and there. It can be terrible. Best hong I have found for it is some sort of alcohol. I go with baileys or snapps, but that is cause I only like "girly" drinks.

I will have to check out he fish antibiotics.

Rex B wrote:

mamabearCali wrote: If it is a chronic condition, such as a financial melt down then I doubt anyone will come around to clear out neighborhoods.

They might come around, but they won't be government employees.

This is true. That is why I have bullets too to go long with my powdered whole milk and my flour. I think if you are looking at marauding gangs you are going to need neighborhood militias (at least in the suburbs)--or they will simply take out one house at a time and burn the houses as they go. If your are a country prepper your best bet might be to hide and not be seen, but that might be hard if you are having to garden and take care of animals. You can't prepare for everything, and in a true TEOTWAWKI surviving will be a combination of luck and preparedness.

bnc wrote:So with your house full of canned food, MREs, clean water, generators, and crank radios, what do you do when the authorities come by the clear the neighborhood?

Depends on the situation. If it is a Cat 5 hurricane---and that would be AMAZING considering I live 150 miles inland---, or a forest fire, or a rising flood (another amazing feat considering where we live). We grab the kids, bug out bags, computer tower, wedding albums, throw it all in our 12 passenger van and head out of harms way but preferably not on the major roads. I am not dying for my cans of beans. These are short term plagues and are acute not chronic conditions.

If it is a chronic condition, such as a financial melt down then I doubt anyone will come around to clear out neighborhoods. If they did they would just be laughed at.

Lets hear it for classes from strange places. My DH (who is not by any stretch a prepper) was given a saftey course at work--mostly dealing with hurricanes. He came home bemoaning how unprepared we were. Unbeknownst to him I had been prepparing and then showed him that no we were not as unprepared as he though. We still need a few thinks (hand crank/transitor radio), but we had food, water, and minor medical supplies he did not know were there. We would not be perfectly happy--but we would not be hungry either.

He is a little bit more on board with prepping now, so that class was helpful to my situation too! I do not have to prep in silence quite so much.

Having kids adds a whole other dimension to the situation.

I had heard, but have not tried this myself, that clorox bleach can be in minute amounts (16 drops per gallon of water) to disinfect water of biological contaminants. That does not do anything for sediment/chemical contaminants but it is a start.

So say you had a water barrel that collected water off the roof of your home (shingles roof). If you clean said water of living contaminants is that water now safe to consume?

Don't forget even on the 3 day to 2 weeks situation there are some skills that you should pick up along the way in addition to some cans of food. #1 Do you know how to cook over a fire? #2 Do you know how to cook at all (many people can't so much as make a tortilla on their own)? #3 Do you know how to wash dishes by hand (stupid question, but some people don't) #4 Do you know how to make a light source. Nights get very lonely without some light and after a few days your candles may run out and your flashlight may die. There is a very simple way to make an oil lamp from used olive oil, a piece of denim, a wire, and a wide mouth jar. It burns clean and bright and uses very little oil. I burned one for 3 hours this summer during a thunderstorm and use like 1/16 of a cup of oil. #5 Do you know some basic first aid? #6 Do you know how to control a camp fire? There are more but I digress.

So by all means set aside some canned goods and some easy mac. But don't skrimp on the skills. They are important in difficult times as well.

USA1 wrote: Sorry, but if TAM's not home, your next on my list.

I'll be the guy on horseback being chased by Zombies, so don't shoot.


On second thought, I'll probably just hunker down here.

Alright you can come--you got a-lot of land to cross before you get here (bout 1500 miles), just be willing to stand a post to defend my tomato plants against marauding deer/rabbits.

USA1 wrote:

KC5AV wrote:I can't resist.

http://www.dilbert.com/2011-07-31/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm going to TAM's house. He was suspiciously short in his one and only post.

It is a long walk to my house here in VA from TX and we will have enough problems with the mass exodus out of DC and northern VA, so I thank you for not coming here.

Well I see it as three different levels.

Short term problem (hurricanes/storms/power outages). This is mostly supply based with a few skills thrown in. It is area specific to what may come your way. I see this as being able to hole up in your home from 3 days to 2 weeks without great discomfort. Think cannned goods, flashlights, lanterns, some water stored up, and for the winter an alternative source of heat. This is the limit of what most of us (please God) will face in our lifetime, and there is a good chance that we will face this at some point. If you live at the coast a bug out plan might be in order, if you live where tornadoes are prevalent a storm cellar would be appropriate. A firearm and ammunition would not go amiss

Medium Range--I think of this as a more economic problem or a fuel distribution problem or a localized terrorist attack--a problem that might last somewhere from a month to a 6 months. This is where some skills like gardening, foraging, and hunting come into hand. You are now looking at more long term foods like wheat (flour), salt, sugar, powdered milk. To augment those with canned foods. Depending on the situation you might need a water collection/purification knowledge. There is much more of course but you get the idea.

Then there is the end of the world as we know it. This is where you have (God forbid) a total restructuring of society and heaven only knows what you will need to make it through that. This is serious stuff and prepping for this can be unending and uncertain at best. This is where you really have to think and prioritize what you are going to do. You need food. You need water. You need shelter. You need heat in the winter. You need protection from theives, and bandits. But it is a possibility that whatever you have for protection the three headed gov't that remains will try to keep you from using--so having a quiet method of taking game/driving off intruders (think primitive weapons) might be advantageous. You need a method of dealing with waste that is not deadly. If you have a serious medical condition there are considerations for that. You are going to need support because no one person can stand up all night watching the tomato and corn crop to keep thieves out and then work at the oven in the morning. This is scary stuff and I truly hope I never ever see this. This could and would take years to sort out and would cost 1000's of lives at a minimum.

Just smart to me. Same reason I carry a weapon--sure there is a 99% chance I will never ever ever have to use it or even draw it, but if I should ever need it I want it to be there. Same with prepping the chances of things going to a hot place in a handbasket are minimal, but if they do I want to be sure that we could ride out a rough and scary time for a while. But yes, we do stay on the D and L because even our spouses look at us with a bit of "you're nuts!" However I will say that if we lose power and water for a few days he will be the first to be thankful that his pretty wife thought ahead a little.