Active New Top (30 days) Compact Card The economy Steve Martin - January 10, 2023 Just a heads up. I have 2 people in my family who are over-the-road truck drivers for one of the big carriers and both have been sitting still waiting on load assignments for the last 4 days in different parts of the country. Just 3 months ago, they were being pushed to the maximum on hours because they couldn’t keep up with demand…but nearly over night, demand evaporated. There’s an economic storm coming and the “experts” seem to be divided/unaware about it. Read More 5 3 News for week of 2023-01-02 (all current event convos go here) Gideon ParkerStaff - January 10, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 3 34 News Anyone else wondering if recent substation attacks are “white hat” efforts to accelerate/prioritize grid hardening? Rearden - January 7, 2023 These actions, regardless of the true intentions, are hardly costless alarm sounding exercises. Hence the quotations around “white hat” here. Do these actions help place grid hardening (and prepping more generally) more on the front burner? I think many people here would agree that some type of long-term grid down situation is one of the worst reasonably plausible scenarios. And as has also been discussed in here recently, another very bad state of affairs is massively underprepared neighborhoods / communities, which can effectively undermine your own preparation (unless you’re extremely isolated/ well fortified?). Thoughts? Read More 1 13 News for week of 2022-12-26 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 3 13 News News for week of 2022-12-19 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 4 25 News Foraging for cooking fuel and haybox bean soup Barb LeeContributor - December 30, 2022 Everywhere I look I see fuel! I went foraging for fuel for my new EcoZoom rocket stove a couple of days ago. I hauled in a long, skinny maple branch that had fallen a couple years ago in an ice storm. Brought it into the shop and cut it into 1 ft lengths with hubby’s miter saw, then split (as best I could) the thicker end into kindling. Everything’s wet from the recent rain so I hauled my treasure into the house to dry out (there is no part of the house that is off limits to my projects!) I got the brilliant idea that the rocket stove and the hay box were a match made in heaven. Since I needed something more challenging to cook with both, I decided to make a pot of bean soup. It took 30 minutes to bring the room temperature ingredients and cold ham hocks to a boil from the time I started the fire in the stove. About 8 quarts. Rushed the pot to the haybox (which was about 40 degrees to start!) and let the soup cook for three hours. It was 165 degrees. At that point I needed to add veggies, so I prepared the food, started the stove again, dumped the veggies in the pot and heated it to boiling again before putting the pot back in the box. It’ll simmer for another hour or two to cook the veggies. So, except for a flick of the lighter, there was zero energy cost to slow cook a giant pot of bean soup. (don’t remind me about using the miter saw! LOL!) And I barely skimmed the top few sticks off the top of the fuel box. There are worse things than tending a fire on a cool, cloudy Fall day. Edit to add: After two more hours in the haybox, the carrots and celery were cooked al dente, the beans were perfect and the ham hock meat was falling off the bone. This is really a delicious recipe and the “alternative” cooking devices did not disappoint! Read More 2 7 Skills Crampons (ice traction for your feet) matthew.Contributor - December 29, 2022 I’ve been meaning to write a post about crampons, and how I believe they are an important prep for anyone living in an area with the potential for ice storms. Seeing that a significant chunk of North America is blanketed with snow and ice at the moment, now seems like a good time to discuss. If you’ve ever experienced a significant ice storm, you know it shuts down everything. Simply walking from your front door to the sidewalk can be dangerous. An ice storm can paralyze an entire city or region – forget driving, you’ll struggle to simply walk. If you don’t believe me, I suspect you’ve never experienced a true ice storm (lucky you!). Sadly, I live in an area that gets them routeinly. They are not fun, but far more manageable if you have a good pair of crampons. Crampons are a traction device that attach to your shoes and allow you grip and navigate the otherwise impassable icy world. They work very much like the chains you’d put on your tires, so you’ll want to identify and size the shoes/boots you’d planning on wearing when using them before you make your purchase. Crampons come in differing designs ranging from purely urban use to climbing a glacier. Your choice will largely be dictated by your environment, especially how hilly it might be. Navigating ice on a flat surface is one thing, navigating it on an incline something completely else. I am a particular fan of the Ice Trekkers Diamond Grip crampons. They are a medium-duty crampon that are well made and good for varying conditions. I use them when I’m walking my dog or going for a winter hike, and paired with my Vasque Breeze winter hiking boots they make me feel secure whether I’m walking down a sidewalk or up the side of a mountain. There are lighter-duty models out there as well which are significantly easier to attach/remove from your boots. If you struggle with hand strength you might consider one of the rigid/flat-bottomed ice cleat models that are solely designed for urban use. If you plan on using your crampons for winter hiking/ ice climbing only, get a heavy-duty model, but don’t expect to be able to walk on a sidewalk with them. One additional note- crampons are a lot like tire traction chains. They take a beating when you use them, and they will eventually break. Like chains, I think crampons are definitely worth spending a few extra bucks on. Read More 15 10 Just another reason to be prepared! Steve Martin - December 26, 2022 News story this morning out of North Carolina where a massive power outage hit….deliberately caused by gunfire. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/intentional-vandalism-leaves-40-000-without-power-in-n-c/ar-AA14SalO Read More 8 19 News 90% dead at the end of a year after complete grid loss - December 24, 2022 It only takes two 5 kiloton nukes in orbit at particular places to blow the entire U.S. grid. The U.S. death toll at the end of a year without electricity is the high end estimate. Some crucial parts for our grid are no longer made in the U.S. 1. Reliable protein source you raise yourself. Cuy. Floor to ceiling shelves, plywood boxes, wire tops. Got the idea from a family in Peru. 2. Water. A well. In some urban environments you can hand drill a well…. if you know how. There are you tube videos that will show you how. I bought a hand pump from a local hardware store for 64 bucks. 3. Tools to grow food. 4. Protection. You can learn about what else you need by thinking about what you will need. For cooking…. Folding hand grills over cinder block stoves fueled by dried wood for me. Can also boil water.. Read More 2 12 Do you know who the enemy might be? Steve Martin - December 24, 2022 Under the “situational awareness” heading, is knowing who to watch and who to trust in our preparations for anticipated emergencies and dealing with them afterwards. During the recent political unrest, I had a local who was a member of a certain fringe group and he was bold enough to put a huge sign in his front yard advocating changes to our government he was demanding, and on a particular day in January, he made a trip to DC to express his opinion. He’s one I’ll keep an eye on if things go from bad to worse. I am also aware of a neighbor who has that ” if the SHTF I’ll just use my firepower to take whatever I need from everyone else” attitude. Another one I’ll keep an eye on. Be aware of the extremist in your midst, not paranoid but aware, BEFORE the SHTF. They might be a potential problem when the time comes, or an ally. I tend to be too suspicious of others motives….a hazard of having spent some time in military intel: everyone is up to something, you just have to figure out what it is and if it’s good or bad. Read More 3 5 Advice Help me decide on a portable generator. Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb? Steve Martin - December 22, 2022 Alright I’m ready to pull the trigger on a new electric start 11000 watt portable generator…but I have to choose one over the other of two possibilities. #1 is elect start, fuel injected so no carb to worry about…but is only gasoline powered. #2 is same brand, same wattage but with typical carb and is tri fuel…gasoline, nat gas or propane. So there’s trade offs. The tri fuel version is also $200 cheaper. I did the generac whole house estimate which came back at $10, 790. YIKES! There will still be some electrical contractor expense as I’ll get them to put in that sub panel so I can plug this portable in. I have a nearly new generac 3500 watt portable I’ll be selling so I can recoup part of the purchase price. So….which would YOU consider? Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb? I have a torn rotator cuff with damage so pull starting ANYTHING is out of the question now. So I’ll be selling the new chain saw, weedeater and generator. Read More 2 4 AdviceGear Developing a fireless oven for retained heat baking and roasting Barb LeeContributor - December 21, 2022 The fireless oven is an extension of the haybox concept, except it strives to roast and bake via heat-radiating substances instead of boiling everything in a relatively large quantity of water. In the 1910s, the heat radiating substance was soapstone. Several months ago, I bought two soapstone fire bricks to experiment with but for prepping purposes, I didn’t have a sensible method of heating the bricks. That seems to have changed with the “free energy” rocket stove. This morning with the outdoor temperature at 40F degrees and sunshine, I wrapped a room temperature soapstone brick (about 1 1/4″ thickness) in aluminum foil to prevent soot buildup and placed it on the cold rocket stove. The 1913 book, The Fireless Cook Book by Margaret Jones Mitchell advises to heat new soapstone radiators slowly the first time, after which they are safe to heat more rapidly, so I built my little fire up in the stove accordingly. The test to know when your soapstone brick is ready for baking is to sprinkle a wee bit of flour on the surface. When the flour begins to brown, the brick is hot enough. This occurred in 25 minutes of lighting the first twigs and gradually building the fire. The top surface of the brick registered about 469F degrees. The energy cost to heat the brick was zero. Possible downside is that you have to feed small fuel into the stove fairly continuously. For me, that was amusement, not a downside. Finishing this project won’t be particularly cheap as unlike the haybox or Wonder Bag, the insulation has to be non-combustible. So for that I’ll go with ceramic wool furnace insulation, but it’ll take me awhile to get where I can actually bake with bricks! I must say I am motivated! One last note. We have a cooking option that Ms Mitchell did not – Reynolds Oven Roasting Bags. I put a 3lb chuck roast and veggies in a bag and submerged it in a large quantity of boiling water to make a pot roast in the haybox the other day. The roast cooked in its own undiluted juices and came out perfect. I checked the safety of the bags. No toxic chemicals are released into the food from the nylon Reynolds bags. Read More 4 5 Skills News for week of 2022-12-12 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - December 19, 2022 This is the replacement for the twice-weekly news roundups I stopped publishing last week. Instead of all the content coming from me, we’ll instead make a blank forum thread like this every Monday, and then anyone can chip in the news and thoughts they have. We’ll keep this weekly thread going for as long as ya’ll find it useful. Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 6 25 News Smoking some fish. Yum! RedneckContributor - December 19, 2022 Smoking meat is a great way to preserve it. It also is extremely tasty. Today I smoked some sockeye salmon and some black cod (sablefish). Both are high in those healthy fish oils and are really healthy to eat. Both are my favorite fish to eat using all sorts of techniques, but today we are smoking to have as an appetizer for a family get together tomorrow. I’ve had a small electric smoker for many years. It uses very little wood and makes smoking a breeze. First I brined the fish using 2 parts brown sugar to one part kosher salt. I then drizzle on some maple syrup. I brine for about 5 hours or so, rinse off the fish well, pat dry and place on drying racks in the refrigerator overnight. Putting in the refrigerator for a few hours allows the pellicle to form. Pellicle is a thin, sticky film that forms on the surface of the meat. The sweet smoke sticks to this pellicle and gives a much better smoked flavor than cooking without creating it. I smoked for about 4 hours until the internal temp of the thickest part reached 140 degrees. Today I used some alder wood and some apple branches from the orchard. Brining the fish adds some flavor but it mainly pulls moisture out of the fish. This way you don’t end up with mushy smoked fish. Read More 3 3 Skills Invincibility points Adriaan - December 16, 2022 I just read that in Ukraine they have set up what they call “invincibility points” where people can go for hot water, electricity etc. I like the concept. In the winter I often think it would make me feel safer if I had another little building where I could go live for a while if something catastrophic should happen to my house. I was wondering if anyone would like to talk about this and maybe share ideas? It would have to be low-budget 🙂 Read More 2 2 Prepper podcast recommendations, please JBinAZ - December 14, 2022 About to have a three day road-trip. Anyone know of and can recommend some good prepping podcasts to listen to? TIA Read More 2 1 Advice Off-grid cabin/land purchase CouchTomato - December 14, 2022 Hi all! My husband and I are in the research phase before purchasing some land/acreage for an off-grid cabin. Can anyone recommend good resources on how to evaluate the land prior to purchase, or what to know before building a cabin? We’re focusing generally on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, planning on well/septic with solar (and have varying degrees of familiarity with those systems), and do not plan on living in the cabin full-time. We know just enough to suspect there’s a lot we DON’T know, thus the extensive research before a potentially expensive mistake. Those of you who have done this – any words of wisdom? Thanks! Read More 14 33 Advice Testing 8 methods to make the best cotton ball and vaseline fire starter Jay ValenciaContributor - December 13, 2022 Last year I saw a forum post by Matt Black about a new way to combine vaseline and cotton balls to make an even longer lasting fire starter. His post encouraged me to test my own DIY fire starters and I found out that they all were pretty much garbage and useless. Over a year later I finally am going to take the time to get some decent fire starters for my kits. I wanted to test out various methods of creating vaseline cotton balls that I have seen online and find out what would be the best method for my long term strategy. Here’s the various methods I wanted to test. As you read this, place your bets on what method you think will be the best and then read the results and see if you were right. #1- A bare cotton ball straight from the pack. #2- A bare cotton ball that has been unrolled to create more surface area. #3- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over ¾ of the ball. The thought process here is that the uncovered ¼ would give you a clean area to grab and a place to catch a spark. #4- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over the entire ball. #5- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over the entire ball and then was dipped into a bowl of flour to prevent the outside from getting all vaseliney, making it cleaner to handle. #6- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over the entire ball and then was dunked under water to see the waterproof ability of this fire starting method. #7- Following the strategy of Matt Black and melting petroleum jelly and then dipping the cotton ball briefly into the jar of melted vaseline. #8- Same as #7, but instead of a quick dunk this one was completely soaked until it could no longer hold any petroleum jelly. I went outside with this tray of cotton balls and used a ferro rod to try and light them. It was a fairly windy day so the cotton balls were really put to the test on their ability. I started a timer once the cotton ball caught flame and then stopped it when the flame was entirely extinguished. + or – 5 seconds to each time below due to human ability of having to strike the fire and then move my hand to my watch to start the timer. Here are the results: #1- Bare cotton ball – took 5 strikes of the ferro rod to catch it on fire. It burned for 30 seconds #2- Unraveled bare cotton ball – took 5 strikes of the ferro rod to catch it on fire. It burned for 30 seconds. #3- ¾ covered ball – took 3 strikes to light and burned for 3 minutes. #4- Fully covered ball – Couldn’t get started after 10 strikes. Opened up the ball and exposed the dry cotton inside which then caught a spark. Burned for 3:45 minutes. #5- Flour covered ball – The flour did help keep from sticking to fingers but after 10 strikes it wouldn’t light. Had to open it up and my fingers got all petroleum jellyish anyways. So flouring your cotton balls didn’t help much after all. The burning flour didn’t smell good, but the cotton ball dipped in flour lasted for 4 minutes. #6- Wet vaseline ball – Poured an entire 12oz water bottle over it. Was too wet and wouldn’t light even when opened up and held over a flame of a lighter for 10 seconds. This shows that the vaseline doesn’t make these waterproof and you need to keep your tinder dry. #7- Ball quickly dipped into melted vaseline – By far the best by a long shot! It wouldn’t catch a spark from a ferro rod until it was opened up and exposed to the dry cotton inside but once it caught, it burned incredibly strongly and brightly for 9 minutes! Even if you don’t need the full 9 minutes of burn time, the force and strength of the flame was 4X that of the #4 fully covered ball. #8- Ball completely soaked into melted vaseline – Vaseline will not light if held to an open flame, making it a very safe fire starting method. #8 was so completely soaked through that it was more petroleum jelly than it was cotton ball. Even being held over the raging flame of cotton ball #7 for 10 seconds, #8 would not light at all. If your cotton balls become too soaked, they will not work. The clear winner was #7, the ball quickly dipped into melted vaseline. To melt the vaseline, I used Matt Black’s double boiler method. I placed a used and cleaned out soup can into a pot of boiling water and scooped a couple spoonfuls of vaseline into it. I placed the quickly dipped cotton balls onto a sheet of wax paper to allow them to dry and harden back to room temperature. Another benefit of this quick dip method is that the cotton balls are actually less sticky than ones where you just smear it on the outside, which is a complaint people have about making these. I used about ⅓ of the 3.75oz container of vaseline to run all of the above tests, with a majority of that third going to the melted vaseline balls #7 and #8. Doing this melting method isn’t the most “fuel efficient” and uses more vaseline, but it does produce significantly better results. The jar of vaseline was $1 and the 400 jumbo cotton balls were $2. This is an extremely cheap fire starting method and I highly recommend taking the extra time to melt the vaseline and quickly dip the cotton balls in it. How do you store your vaseline cotton balls? Many people recommend using old prescription pill bottles but I like using small snack sized ziploc bags. It allows for a lighter, more compressed storage, and even more waterproof than a pill bottle. Another idea I had was to unroll a cotton ball into a strip, like #2, and smear the cotton strip with vaseline. I then cut up a clear drinking straw, crimped the end and sealed it with a lick of a lighter. ½ of a vaseline coated cotton ball is able to fit inside of a ⅓ straw. I thought this method would be nice to throw in an EDC pouch or have a very small fire starter anywhere you want. The straw keeps it waterproof and protected. Hope this all was helpful to someone. Read More 26 34 Gear Decided to keep my bicycle…. - December 13, 2022 It can get me to bayous for fishing. Read More 1 2 Looking for recommendations on an air mattress Bigwig - December 12, 2022 Any recommendations on an air mattress? I wanted to get one or two queen size with an built-in pump to be used for the occasional emergency use or guest. Read More 4 6 Shelf-stable pantry meals for snobs hbic - December 12, 2022 there are lots of lists online of meals that you can make from your emergency or long-term food storage, but a lot of them cover the same, uh, familiar American ground. i thought we could brainstorm some more exciting ideas for eating out of your emergency pantry. I’ll start off with a couple on my list: Meatless mapo tofu — (silken tofu in aseptic packages is shelf stable!) Soondubu jjigae (soft tofu kimchi stew) Masoor (red lentil) dal — red lentils cook so fast what do y’all make out of your pantry? Read More 15 5 What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping? Steve Martin - December 12, 2022 I’m curious about what caused you to begin your journey to being prepared. For me, it really started in 1962….We lived in the Washington DC suburbs and most of our neighbors were government types or military. The trouble brewing in Cuba was only a secret to the rest of the country. Amongst federal employees, they knew something was afoot, maybe just not how serious is was about to become. Washington DC was ringed by Nike & Nike-Hercules missile sites….and the one near our home was 1 of only 2 who had nuclear payloads in those missiles, designed to shoot down incoming Russian missiles. ( although no one knew it then) One afternoon, we were driving home when we passed by the Lorton Nike Missile Site…and all of the missiles were erected and pointed skyward. We had never seen that before. We went on home and my dad turned on the tv and we heard like most others in the US, just how close we were to launch. My dad threw a bunch of our camping gear into the pickup and we headed to our normal camp grounds SW of Washington in the Shenandoah National Park. We stayed there until the trouble was over.(We bugged out!) I don’t remember exactly how long, I was only 8 at the time, but it was several days. I do remember the park being totally full and the new arrivals were sent off to camp in the “overflow area”. Little did we know then that we were camped next to a primary target not far away. The Greenbriar Hotel and Mount Weather…which was still very much a secret. The Cuban Missile Crisis is what spurred me into later becoming a prepper. By 1978, I had 6 weeks of supplies stored away but still living in DC area. The DC area used to have air raid siren tests once a month and the gov. would hold practice evacuations via helicopter a couple times a year….I lived within sight of the Pentagon….and the choppers would come right over the house during the practices. So survival was frequently on my mind as a young man and a couple years in Army Intel didn’t do anything to slow that down. So what’s your excuse? 9/11? Today’s troubles in Ukraine? Banking collapse? Read More 15 34 Meta How do you prioritize gear purchases? Anyone have an organized system? Forager - December 12, 2022 So here’s my problem: While I’m not at all new to prepping, I’m fairly new to the opportunity for online shopping (just got my first credit card during the pandemic) and I’m realizing that my old “system” of making impulse purchases every time I see cool gear I want, is not going to cut it anymore;) I used to mostly buy prepping gear at flea markets, yard sales, second hand stores, so I basically just bought stuff in the order I found it, rather than in order of how likely we were to need it, how life-or-death that need could be, or anything of that nature. Now I keep seeing things I want (mostly on this forum, btw) that are all just a click away, and I’m realizing I need to make some sort of list of things I want and what order to purchase them in. I’m not talking about things like food storage or tools we use in daily life (groceries and homesteading expenses have their own budgets) but all the fun prepping gear I want “just in case” which is coming out of my fairly small “personal hobbies” budget. Do any of you keep such a list? And if so, is it organized purely by how much you want each item, checking things off from the top of the list as you can afford them, regardless of other factors? Or is price factored in somehow? For example I might want a $400 item more than any one $40 item, but if purchasing it first means holding off on ten different $40 items, the decision becomes more complicated. At the same time, I don’t want to endlessly boot the most expensive items to the end of the list, if they’re something really useful or fun. What system do others use? Read More 7 29 < Prev 1 2 3 … 12 13 14 … 59 60 61 Next > Recently Active How to sew and repair a leather glove - 6 days agoMoooooooo…Can you rec a powdered milk? - 6 days agoLight weight backpacking gear and techniques - 6 days agoNews for the Week 12-16-24 - 6 days agoNews for the Week 2024-11-18 - 1 month ago RULES This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics: 1. Be nice to each other. 2. Stay focused on prepping. 3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments. 4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc. 5. Debate ideas, not people. FILTER Show all Advice Gear Meta News Scenarios Skills

The economy

Steve Martin - January 10, 2023

Just a heads up. I have 2 people in my family who are over-the-road truck drivers for one of the big carriers and both have been sitting still waiting on load assignments for the last 4 days in different parts of the country. Just 3 months ago, they were being pushed to the maximum on hours because they couldn’t keep up with demand…but nearly over night, demand evaporated. There’s an economic storm coming and the “experts” seem to be divided/unaware about it. 

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News for week of 2023-01-02 (all current event convos go here)

Gideon ParkerStaff - January 10, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

Read More

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News

Anyone else wondering if recent substation attacks are “white hat” efforts to accelerate/prioritize grid hardening?

Rearden - January 7, 2023

These actions, regardless of the true intentions, are hardly costless alarm sounding exercises. Hence the quotations around “white hat” here. 

Do these actions help place grid hardening (and prepping more generally) more on the front burner?

I think many people here would agree that some type of long-term grid down situation is one of the worst reasonably plausible scenarios.

And as has also been discussed in here recently, another very bad state of affairs is massively underprepared neighborhoods / communities, which can effectively undermine your own preparation (unless you’re extremely isolated/ well fortified?). 

Thoughts?

Read More

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News for week of 2022-12-26 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

Read More

3

13

News

News for week of 2022-12-19 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

Read More

4

25

News

Foraging for cooking fuel and haybox bean soup

Barb LeeContributor - December 30, 2022

Everywhere I look I see fuel!

I went foraging for fuel for my new EcoZoom rocket stove a couple of days ago.  I hauled in a long, skinny maple branch that had fallen a couple years ago in an ice storm.  Brought it into the shop and cut it into 1 ft lengths with hubby’s miter saw, then split (as best I could) the thicker end into kindling.  Everything’s wet from the recent rain so I hauled my treasure into the house to dry out (there is no part of the house that is off limits to my projects!)

I got the brilliant idea that the rocket stove and the hay box were a match made in heaven.  Since I needed something more challenging to cook with both, I decided to make a pot of bean soup.

It took 30 minutes to bring the room temperature ingredients and cold ham hocks to a boil from the time I started the fire in the stove.  About 8 quarts.  Rushed the pot to the haybox (which was about 40 degrees to start!) and let the soup cook for three hours. It was 165 degrees. At that point I needed to add veggies, so I prepared the food, started the stove again, dumped the veggies in the pot and heated it to boiling again before putting the pot back in the box. It’ll simmer for another hour or two to cook the veggies.

So, except for a flick of the lighter, there was zero energy cost to slow cook a giant pot of bean soup.  (don’t remind me about using the miter saw!  LOL!) And I barely skimmed the top few sticks off the top of the fuel box.

There are worse things than tending a fire on a cool, cloudy Fall day.

Edit to add:   After two more hours in the haybox, the carrots and celery were cooked al dente, the beans were perfect and the ham hock meat was falling off the bone.  This is really a delicious recipe and the “alternative” cooking devices did not disappoint!

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Skills

Crampons (ice traction for your feet)

matthew.Contributor - December 29, 2022

I’ve been meaning to write a post about crampons, and how I believe they are an important prep for anyone living in an area with the potential for ice storms.  Seeing that a significant chunk of North America is blanketed with snow and ice at the moment, now seems like a good time to discuss.

If you’ve ever experienced a significant ice storm, you know it shuts down everything.  Simply walking from your front door to the sidewalk can be dangerous.  An ice storm can paralyze an entire city or region – forget driving, you’ll struggle to simply walk.  If you don’t believe me, I suspect you’ve never experienced a true ice storm (lucky you!).  Sadly, I live in an area that gets them routeinly.  They are not fun, but far more manageable if you have a good pair of crampons.

Crampons are a traction device that attach to your shoes and allow you grip and navigate the otherwise impassable icy world.  They work very much like the chains you’d put on your tires, so you’ll want to identify and size the shoes/boots you’d planning on wearing when using them before you make your purchase.  

Crampons come in differing designs ranging from purely urban use to climbing a glacier.  Your choice will largely be dictated by your environment, especially how hilly it might be.  Navigating ice on a flat surface is one thing, navigating it on an incline something completely else.

I am a particular fan of the Ice Trekkers Diamond Grip crampons. They are a medium-duty crampon that are well made and good for varying conditions.  I use them when I’m walking my dog or going for a winter hike, and paired with my Vasque Breeze winter hiking boots they make me feel secure whether I’m walking down a sidewalk or up the side of a mountain.  There are lighter-duty models out there as well which are significantly easier to attach/remove from your boots. If you struggle with hand strength you might consider one of the rigid/flat-bottomed ice cleat models that are solely designed for urban use.  If you plan on using your crampons for winter hiking/ ice climbing only, get a heavy-duty model, but don’t expect to be able to walk on a sidewalk with them.

One additional note- crampons are a lot like tire traction chains.  They take a beating when you use them, and they will eventually break.  Like chains, I think crampons are definitely worth spending a few extra bucks on.

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Just another reason to be prepared!

Steve Martin - December 26, 2022

News story this morning out of North Carolina where a massive power outage hit….deliberately caused by gunfire. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/intentional-vandalism-leaves-40-000-without-power-in-n-c/ar-AA14SalO

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News

90% dead at the end of a year after complete grid loss

- December 24, 2022

It only takes two 5 kiloton nukes in orbit at particular places to blow the entire U.S. grid.

The U.S. death toll at the end of a year without electricity is the high end estimate.

Some crucial parts for our grid are no longer made in the U.S.

1. Reliable protein source you raise yourself. Cuy. Floor to ceiling shelves, plywood boxes, wire tops. Got the idea from a family in Peru.

2. Water. A well. In some urban environments you can hand drill a well…. if you know how. There are you tube videos that will show you how. I bought a hand pump from a local hardware store for 64 bucks.

3. Tools to grow food.

4. Protection.

You can learn about what else you need by thinking about what you will need.

For cooking…. Folding hand grills over cinder block stoves fueled by dried wood for me. Can also boil water..

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Do you know who the enemy might be?

Steve Martin - December 24, 2022

Under the “situational awareness” heading, is knowing who to watch and who to trust in our preparations for anticipated emergencies and dealing with them afterwards. During the recent political unrest, I had a local who was a member of a certain fringe group and he was bold enough to put a huge sign in his front yard advocating changes to our government he was demanding, and on a particular day in January, he made a trip to DC to express his opinion. He’s one I’ll keep an eye on if things go from bad to worse. I am also aware of a neighbor who has that ” if the SHTF I’ll just use my firepower to take whatever I need from everyone else” attitude. Another one I’ll keep an eye on. Be aware of the extremist in your midst, not paranoid but aware, BEFORE the SHTF. They might be a potential problem when the time comes, or an ally. I tend to be too suspicious of others motives….a hazard of having spent some time in military intel: everyone is up to something, you just have to figure out what it is and if it’s good or bad.

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Advice

Help me decide on a portable generator. Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb?

Steve Martin - December 22, 2022

Alright I’m ready to pull the trigger on a new electric start 11000 watt portable generator…but I have to choose one over the other of two possibilities. #1 is elect start, fuel injected so no carb to worry about…but is only gasoline powered. #2 is same brand, same wattage but with typical carb and is tri fuel…gasoline, nat gas or propane. So there’s trade offs. The tri fuel version is also $200 cheaper. I did the generac whole house estimate which came back at $10, 790. YIKES! There will still be some electrical contractor expense as I’ll get them to put in that sub panel so I can plug this portable in. I have a nearly new generac 3500 watt portable I’ll be selling so I can recoup part of the purchase price. So….which would YOU consider? Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb? I have a torn rotator cuff with damage so pull starting ANYTHING is out of the question now. So I’ll be selling the new chain saw, weedeater and generator. 

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AdviceGear

Developing a fireless oven for retained heat baking and roasting

Barb LeeContributor - December 21, 2022

The fireless oven is an extension of the haybox concept, except it strives to roast and bake via heat-radiating substances instead of boiling everything in a relatively large quantity of water.  In the 1910s, the heat radiating substance was soapstone.

Several months ago, I bought two soapstone fire bricks to experiment with but for prepping purposes, I didn’t have a sensible method of heating the bricks. That seems to have changed with the “free energy” rocket stove.

This morning with the outdoor temperature at 40F degrees and sunshine, I wrapped a room temperature soapstone brick (about 1 1/4″ thickness) in aluminum foil to prevent soot buildup and placed it on the cold rocket stove.

The 1913 book, The Fireless Cook Book by Margaret Jones Mitchell advises to heat new soapstone radiators slowly the first time, after which they are safe to heat more rapidly, so I built my little fire up in the stove accordingly.

The test to know when your soapstone brick is ready for baking is to sprinkle a wee bit of flour on the surface.  When the flour begins to brown, the brick is hot enough.

This occurred in 25 minutes of lighting the first twigs and gradually building the fire.  The top surface of the brick registered about 469F degrees.

The energy cost to heat the brick was zero. Possible downside is that you have to feed small fuel into the stove fairly continuously.  For me, that was amusement, not a downside.

Finishing this project won’t be particularly cheap as unlike the haybox or Wonder Bag, the insulation has to be non-combustible.  So for that I’ll go with ceramic wool furnace insulation, but it’ll take me awhile to get where I can actually bake with bricks!  I must say I am motivated!

One last note.  We have a cooking option that Ms Mitchell did not – Reynolds Oven Roasting Bags.  I put a 3lb chuck roast and veggies in a bag and submerged it in a large quantity of boiling water to make a pot roast in the haybox the other day.  The roast cooked in its own undiluted juices and came out perfect.

I checked the safety of the bags.  No toxic chemicals are released into the food from the nylon Reynolds bags.

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Skills

News for week of 2022-12-12 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - December 19, 2022

This is the replacement for the twice-weekly news roundups I stopped publishing last week. Instead of all the content coming from me, we’ll instead make a blank forum thread like this every Monday, and then anyone can chip in the news and thoughts they have. We’ll keep this weekly thread going for as long as ya’ll find it useful.

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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News

Smoking some fish. Yum!

RedneckContributor - December 19, 2022

Smoking meat is a great way to preserve it.  It also is extremely tasty.  Today I smoked some sockeye salmon and some black cod (sablefish).  Both are high in those healthy fish oils and are really healthy to eat.  Both are my favorite fish to eat using all sorts of techniques, but today we are smoking to have as an appetizer for a family get together tomorrow.

I’ve had a small electric smoker for many years.  It uses very little wood and makes smoking a breeze.  First I brined the fish using 2 parts brown sugar to one part kosher salt.  I then drizzle on some maple syrup.  I brine for about 5 hours or so, rinse off the fish well, pat dry and place on drying racks in the refrigerator overnight.  Putting in the refrigerator for a few hours allows the pellicle to form.  Pellicle is a thin, sticky film that forms on the surface of the meat.  The sweet smoke sticks to this pellicle and gives a much better smoked flavor than cooking without creating it.  I smoked for about 4 hours until the internal temp of the thickest part reached 140 degrees.  Today I used some alder wood and some apple branches from the orchard.

Brining the fish adds some flavor but it mainly pulls moisture out of the fish.  This way you don’t end up with mushy smoked fish.

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Skills

Invincibility points

Adriaan - December 16, 2022

I just read that in Ukraine they have set up what they call “invincibility points” where people can go for hot water, electricity etc. I like the concept. In the winter I often think it would make me feel safer if I had another little building where I could go live for a while if something catastrophic should happen to my house. I was wondering if anyone would like to talk about this and maybe share ideas? It would have to be low-budget 🙂

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Prepper podcast recommendations, please

JBinAZ - December 14, 2022

About to have a three day road-trip. Anyone know of and can recommend some good prepping podcasts to listen to? TIA

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Advice

Off-grid cabin/land purchase

CouchTomato - December 14, 2022

Hi all!  My husband and I are in the research phase before purchasing some land/acreage for an off-grid cabin.  Can anyone recommend good resources on how to evaluate the land prior to purchase, or what to know before building a cabin? We’re focusing generally on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, planning on well/septic with solar (and have varying degrees of familiarity with those systems), and do not plan on living in the cabin full-time. We know just enough to suspect there’s a lot we DON’T know, thus the extensive research before a potentially expensive mistake.  Those of you who have done this – any words of wisdom?  Thanks!  

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Advice

Testing 8 methods to make the best cotton ball and vaseline fire starter

Jay ValenciaContributor - December 13, 2022

Last year I saw a forum post by Matt Black about a new way to combine vaseline and cotton balls to make an even longer lasting fire starter. His post encouraged me to test my own DIY fire starters and I found out that they all were pretty much garbage and useless. Over a year later I finally am going to take the time to get some decent fire starters for my kits. 

I wanted to test out various methods of creating vaseline cotton balls that I have seen online and find out what would be the best method for my long term strategy.

Here’s the various methods I wanted to test. As you read this, place your bets on what method you think will be the best and then read the results and see if you were right.

#1- A bare cotton ball straight from the pack.

#2- A bare cotton ball that has been unrolled to create more surface area.

#3- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over ¾ of the ball. The thought process here is that the uncovered ¼ would give you a clean area to grab and a place to catch a spark.

#4- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over the entire ball.

#5- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over the entire ball and then was dipped into a bowl of flour to prevent the outside from getting all vaseliney, making it cleaner to handle.

#6- A cotton ball that had petroleum jelly smeared over the entire ball and then was dunked under water to see the waterproof ability of this fire starting method.

#7- Following the strategy of Matt Black and melting petroleum jelly and then dipping the cotton ball briefly into the jar of melted vaseline.

#8- Same as #7, but instead of a quick dunk this one was completely soaked until it could no longer hold any petroleum jelly.

I went outside with this tray of cotton balls and used a ferro rod to try and light them. It was a fairly windy day so the cotton balls were really put to the test on their ability. I started a timer once the cotton ball caught flame and then stopped it when the flame was entirely extinguished. + or – 5 seconds to each time below due to human ability of having to strike the fire and then move my hand to my watch to start the timer. 

Here are the results:

#1- Bare cotton ball – took 5 strikes of the ferro rod to catch it on fire. It burned for 30 seconds

#2- Unraveled bare cotton ball – took 5 strikes of the ferro rod to catch it on fire. It burned for 30 seconds.

#3- ¾ covered ball – took 3 strikes to light and burned for 3 minutes.

#4- Fully covered ball – Couldn’t get started after 10 strikes. Opened up the ball and exposed the dry cotton inside which then caught a spark. Burned for 3:45 minutes.

#5- Flour covered ball – The flour did help keep from sticking to fingers but after 10 strikes it wouldn’t light. Had to open it up and my fingers got all petroleum jellyish anyways. So flouring your cotton balls didn’t help much after all. The burning flour didn’t smell good, but the cotton ball dipped in flour lasted for 4 minutes.

#6- Wet vaseline ball – Poured an entire 12oz water bottle over it. Was too wet and wouldn’t light even when opened up and held over a flame of a lighter for 10 seconds. This shows that the vaseline doesn’t make these waterproof and you need to keep your tinder dry.

#7- Ball quickly dipped into melted vaseline – By far the best by a long shot! It wouldn’t catch a spark from a ferro rod until it was opened up and exposed to the dry cotton inside but once it caught, it burned incredibly strongly and brightly for 9 minutes! Even if you don’t need the full 9 minutes of burn time, the force and strength of the flame was 4X that of the #4 fully covered ball.

#8- Ball completely soaked into melted vaseline – Vaseline will not light if held to an open flame, making it a very safe fire starting method. #8 was so completely soaked through that it was more petroleum jelly than it was cotton ball. Even being held over the raging flame of cotton ball #7 for 10 seconds, #8 would not light at all. If your cotton balls become too soaked, they will not work.

The clear winner was #7, the ball quickly dipped into melted vaseline. 

To melt the vaseline, I used Matt Black’s double boiler method. I placed a used and cleaned out soup can into a pot of boiling water and scooped a couple spoonfuls of vaseline into it. I placed the quickly dipped cotton balls onto a sheet of wax paper to allow them to dry and harden back to room temperature. Another benefit of this quick dip method is that the cotton balls are actually less sticky than ones where you just smear it on the outside, which is a complaint people have about making these.

 I used about ⅓ of the 3.75oz container of vaseline to run all of the above tests, with a majority of that third going to the melted vaseline balls #7 and #8. Doing this melting method isn’t the most “fuel efficient” and uses more vaseline, but it does produce significantly better results. The jar of vaseline was $1 and the 400 jumbo cotton balls were $2. This is an extremely cheap fire starting method and I highly recommend taking the extra time to melt the vaseline and quickly dip the cotton balls in it.

How do you store your vaseline cotton balls?

Many people recommend using old prescription pill bottles but I like using small snack sized ziploc bags. It allows for a lighter, more compressed storage, and even more waterproof than a pill bottle.

Another idea I had was to unroll a cotton ball into a strip, like #2, and smear the cotton strip with vaseline. I then cut up a clear drinking straw, crimped the end and sealed it with a lick of a lighter. ½ of a vaseline coated cotton ball is able to fit inside of a ⅓ straw. I thought this method would be nice to throw in an EDC pouch or have a very small fire starter anywhere you want. The straw keeps it waterproof and protected.

Hope this all was helpful to someone.

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Gear

Decided to keep my bicycle….

- December 13, 2022

It can get me to bayous for fishing.

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Looking for recommendations on an air mattress

Bigwig - December 12, 2022

Any recommendations on an air mattress?  I wanted to get one or two queen size with an built-in pump to be used for the occasional emergency use or guest.

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Shelf-stable pantry meals for snobs

hbic - December 12, 2022

there are lots of lists online of meals that you can make from your emergency or long-term food storage, but a lot of them cover the same, uh, familiar American ground. i thought we could brainstorm some more exciting ideas for eating out of your emergency pantry. I’ll start off with a couple on my list:

Meatless mapo tofu — (silken tofu in aseptic packages is shelf stable!)

Soondubu jjigae (soft tofu kimchi stew)

Masoor (red lentil) dal — red lentils cook so fast

what do y’all make out of your pantry?

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What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping?

Steve Martin - December 12, 2022

I’m curious about what caused you to begin your journey to being prepared. For me, it really started in 1962….We lived in the Washington DC suburbs and most of our neighbors were government types or military. The trouble brewing in Cuba was only a secret to the rest of the country. Amongst federal employees, they knew something was afoot, maybe just not how serious is was about to become. Washington DC was ringed by Nike & Nike-Hercules missile sites….and the one near our home was 1 of only 2 who had nuclear payloads in those missiles, designed to shoot down incoming Russian missiles. ( although no one knew it then) One afternoon, we were driving home when we passed by the Lorton Nike Missile Site…and all of the missiles were erected and pointed skyward. We had never seen that before. We went on home and my dad turned on the tv and we heard like most others in the US, just how close we were to launch. My dad threw a bunch of our camping gear into the pickup and we headed to our normal camp grounds SW of Washington in the Shenandoah National Park. We stayed there until the trouble was over.(We bugged out!) I don’t remember exactly how long, I was only 8 at the time, but it was several days. I do remember the park being totally full and the new arrivals were sent off to camp in the “overflow area”. Little did we know then that we were camped next to a primary target not far away. The Greenbriar Hotel and Mount Weather…which was still very much a secret. The Cuban Missile Crisis is what spurred me into later becoming a prepper. By 1978, I had 6 weeks of supplies stored away but still living in DC area. The DC area used to have air raid siren tests once a month and the gov. would hold practice evacuations via helicopter a couple times a year….I lived within sight of the Pentagon….and the choppers would come right over the house during the practices. So survival was frequently on my mind as a young man and a couple years in Army Intel didn’t do anything to slow that down. So what’s your excuse? 9/11? Today’s troubles in Ukraine? Banking collapse? 

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Meta

How do you prioritize gear purchases? Anyone have an organized system?

Forager - December 12, 2022

So here’s my problem:  While I’m not at all new to prepping, I’m fairly new to the opportunity for online shopping (just got my first credit card during the pandemic) and I’m realizing that my old “system” of making impulse purchases every time I see cool gear I want, is not going to cut it anymore;)

I used to mostly buy prepping gear at flea markets, yard sales, second hand stores, so I basically just bought stuff in the order I found it, rather than in order of how likely we were to need it, how life-or-death that need could be, or anything of that nature. 

Now I keep seeing things I want (mostly on this forum, btw) that are all just a click away, and I’m realizing I need to make some sort of list of things I want and what order to purchase them in.  I’m not talking about things like food storage or tools we use in daily life (groceries and homesteading expenses have their own budgets) but all the fun prepping gear I want “just in case” which is coming out of my fairly small “personal hobbies” budget.

Do any of you keep such a list?  And if so, is it organized purely by how much you want each item, checking things off from the top of the list as you can afford them, regardless of other factors?  Or is price factored in somehow?  For example I might want a $400 item more than any one $40 item, but if purchasing it first means holding off on ten different $40 items, the decision becomes more complicated.  At the same time, I don’t want to endlessly boot the most expensive items to the end of the list, if they’re something really useful or fun. 

What system do others use?

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