Share your knowledge & learn from experts

Because prepping and community go hand in hand

My EDC – what am i missing

TP_X5 - June 22, 2020

I need a holster, a belt, sunglasses, maybe some tactical shoes? Prefer made in USA, of course.

My wife and I have been talking about “doing something else” for a couple years (she quit her job, mine seems to be reaching a natural point of exit). The time seems to be ripe for actually following-through! I have convinced her we should add hobby farm/homestead to the mix.

Assumptions…

1. Want to move north. Like, New England. Would consider upstate NY part of the acceptable geography.

2. One of us will continue to work for income, benefits, etc.

3. We have a 6 year old. No homeschooling. So, proximity to town/schools, etc. is still going to be important. (i.e. not too remote)

4. I enjoy, but have no allusions about adopting, the mythology displayed on all those Alaska shows (I’m pretty grounded as to the reality of small farm operations)

Questions…

1. Any tips on finding a property? Anything specific to look for (or not) up north?

2. We aren’t young… I mean, we’re young enough to have a 6 year old but we’re not 20 or 30 somethings. Does our age matter in terms of actual labor required? In terms of finding a property that is “turnkey” vs “needs work”?

3. Any key indicators to look for? Anything you wish you’d known before? Or that you would do differently?

4 How ridiculous an idea is it? Dick Proenneke is good inspiration, for the challenge he took on as a middle-aged person. But to be clear, we are definitely not going all remote-cabin-in-the-woods.

AdviceSkills

What were your best COVID-19 preps?

Josh CentersContributor - June 21, 2020

We’ve had threads on prepping mistakes learned from COVID-19, but I’m curious about what you did right? As for me, I’m pretty happy that I:

Moved to a small farm outside the city limits with arable land and other natural resources Raised chickens, even if they aren’t laying as well as they once did Stocked up on disinfectants, toilet paper, and paper towels *just* before the panic-buying started Had a 3M respirator on hand Started a small salad garden in early March. We haven’t been to a store in three months, but we’ve had fresh salads a couple of times per week. Already worked from home and homeschooled my children Read More

Hello world! Why we’re launching a forum

The Prepared - June 21, 2020

Hello! For the first post in the new Prepared forum, we wanted to say welcome and share our thoughts on why we’ve created “yet another survival forum” and some plans for the future.

Most importantly: No company can “build” a community. Only people can do that. So while we’ll keep the lights on and the spam out, it’s up to you — the rational people out there who want to see a better preparedness forum — to create the kind of party you want to hang out at. Step up!

Part of why we started The Prepared in the first place was because existing social forums/groups weren’t the best way for people (especially beginners) to get routine information.

Other forums/groups are too often polluted with repetitive questions like “should I buy a Lifestraw?” or “how do I get started?”, for example.

That kind of information is better kept in a linkable, well-researched, and professionally-written article that you can actually trust (unlike the random comments you’d get elsewhere). That’s why we started with the permanent reviews and guides in the main part of this website — and we’re still ramping up that investment even more.

Discussion forums are better for open discussions — things that aren’t easily captured in a single broad article or video.

Put another way: articles are great for building the roots, trunk, and main branches of a tree, while community discussions fill in the spaces with smaller branches and leaves.

So we think of articles and community discussions as a one-two punch. Each one is valuable on its own, but together, they help more people learn more stuff in the best way possible.

Raising the bar on moderation and quality

Another common problem in online prepper groups is the noise and nastiness that comes from bickering about hot-button topics like politics and other generally bad behavior.

Many of you have been asking us to launch this forum just so that you had a nice place to hang out that wasn’t ruined by that noise.

So that’s another reason why this forum exists: not to censor, but to create a place where anyone can talk about prepping — not where preppers can talk about anything.

Even though this is still a young project with a small team, through the support of community donations we’ve been able to hire a community moderator to show how serious we are about making this the best place on the web for meaningful preparedness conversations.

You can read more about our moderation policies and goals here: https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/community-rules-moderation-policies-and-faq/

What kinds of people and topics will be here?

There’s no way our staff can know everything about prepping, keep up with the latest gear, write about every personal scenario you might be facing, and so on. That’s where you come in.

Thankfully there are so many knowledgeable and helpful people in this community! Thank you to everyone who’s offered to contribute to developing the main knowledge base on this website.

We hope this forum is not only a place for people to learn, but also to share:

If you bought a product and want to share your thoughts, do it! If you grew up fishing in a harsh climate and have advice that general fishing guides might skip, share it! Curious about how to power a CPAP machine while off-grid in the Pacific Northwest where solar exposure isn’t great? Ask! Do you work in a relevant job (such as a power plant engineer) and want to explain the weak points in the system? Preach it! Crafted a neat DIY 3-D printed project? Show it!

Not only will excellent posts and comments be rewarded, people who are either verified experts or show they are great community members will get extra labeling so you have more context about the people you interact with here.

We’ve also hired writers that were found in the community and/or will give credit for any information that helps improve the main knowledge base.

We’re so excited to hang out with and learn from you! Cheers,

The Prepared Team

Services to help you prep?

David Krueger - June 21, 2020

Are there any existing companies that exist to help people prep?

AdviceMeta

What to expect when buying a quarter of beef

Olly Wright - June 13, 2020

New guy here.

Dan Rose - June 12, 2020

Hi people I am a new guy here my name is Dan. I live in a small apartment with my mom and cat no kids. I live in a rural area of NE Indiana. I am into prepping but only can do so much since I live in an apartment. I have building some preps. I want to setup some defense. My mom is against firearms and my apartment rules are to. I do have my Indiana CCW permit. I am stuck on what to do next for setups.

Advice

Avoiding freezer burn when storing meat

Jay ValenciaContributor - June 10, 2020

My smart wife grabbed a chest freezer a few months ago before they all sold out. So we’re starting to store meat for the long term, which I’ve never really done before. The few times I did, the meat would get freezer burn not long after. Maybe a few weeks. Not all of it would be ruined but enough that I didn’t make long term storage a habit.

But I get the sense that I’ve been doing something wrong if so many preppers are keeping meat for months. What do you recommend to avoid this?

Advice

Good guide from WHO for making your own hand sanitizer

Dragoon - June 9, 2020

I read the blog post about the Force Of Nature machine that makes disinfectant at home. So I started googling for similar gadgets that could make hand sanitizer. There are a ton of low-effort posts around the web because of covid. Found this one from WHO which seems to be trustworthy and easy, thought I’d share (PDF):

https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Guide_to_Local_Production.pdf

Skills

Video series on butchering a hog

Paulino Martin - June 5, 2020

Found these videos on Reddit that show how to butcher a hog at home. Not for the faint of heart but it’s something worth knowing how to do the right way. Especially if the meat shortages are going to last a while.

I couldn’t figure out how to put one of the videos here but they’re all on the page if you scroll.

https://www.rusticmillingandcraft.com/blog/categories/home-butcher-educational-videos

Skills

Does anyone have any experience with the Kelly Kettle Trekker stove?

Haus Monkey - May 29, 2020

I’ve come across the Kelly Kettle Trekker for the first time today. Has anyone ever used one, or have any experience with it whatsoever? Here’s a link: https://www.kellykettleusa.com/trekker-small-stainless-steel-kelly-kettle

From what I gather, the Kelly stoves are those kind of fast-boil stoves that use wood, twigs, an almost anything to burn. The Trekker is interesting to me because it seems like a combination of a Firebox-style camping stove, and a boiler pot. In a kit. Like a wood burning JetBoil if it makes sense.

Any insights, thoughts, or experiences with it would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Gear

Phone apps to save power in a crunch?

Liz Klein - May 26, 2020

I have a newish Samsung and was wondering if anyone knows of a good app to increase the battery life? In an emergency situation where I would need to use it for longer, I would love to be able to squeeze more out of the battery. I’ve looked up a few and I think there are built in settings but does anyone know of a good one that I should try?

Advice

How do you feel about “we care” COVID advertisements?

Conrad B - May 25, 2020

How do you feel about the way brands are making ads for a COVID-19 world? I’ve seen the words “we are all in this together” at least 800 times in the last week. Something has been bothering me about this and I can’t decide if it’s icky, genuine or just smart marketing.

Here’s a supercut of examples that show how similar they are:

And an example from a website:

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