I posted on this subject here . The twitter link that I posted there has theories for who is responsible and possible motives. I’ve got some experience with grid connecting commercial scale renewables to the grid. IMO, experience has led me to believe that the only security solution here is an aggressive decentralization of our grid into thousands of smaller units that are capable of “islanding” by themselves. Since the current entities controlling the grid ($$$$) will resist losing control of things, I think the only thing that will force change is a major grid problem unfortunately. Resistance to change, regulatory capture, the fact that many electric components are manufactured offshore (like high voltage transformers with multiple years waiting times),etc. Utilities would really prefer you stay connected to the grid and paying them monthly, and you know all that grid hardening costs $$$ and cuts into shareholder profits. If you don’t like this scenario, I would encourage you to contact your elected officials with suggestions for the solutions that you would like to see. I’m kind of concerned that our grid repair parts might be withheld from us in the event of a grid problem. Back to prepping. Sorry about the rant. Short term,anything you can do to be more self sufficient with electrical stuff is always a good idea. From, being able to recharge your phone and small items to being able to keep the the critical items in your home (Refrigerator, furnace, freezer ) going in the event of a long grid outage (ice storm or something else). A lot of my posts on the forum are on this topic, so that might be of interest. Plus the forum mods have a lot of good how to articles , along with many other quality posts by forum members.

Hi folks, I’ve been occupied elsewhere for a while. I didn’t check the links here yet…  Found a twitter thread about this issue. He’s also a good cyber guy.  He points out what is close to the substation in NC.  Important things next to other substation failures as well it seems. https://twitter.com/JoshuaSteinman/status/1600917754831204353  Kinda related, but this battery company is on my list to learn more about. It’s been a while since I saw this, my memory isn’t real fresh. Supposed new battery tech for households…couldn’t raise funding . Sold to chinese, but morphed into utility scale. Supposedly going for a restart in the states. Kinda makes me grumpy when no funding is available for residential scale, but apparently plenty of money to switch to utility scale 🙂 . I’ve been meaning to research this company some more. https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1114964240/new-battery-technology-china-vanadium  

Well, even some of the most cautious – conservative grain commentators are nervous, from U of Illinois . They are calling for tilling up conservation acres in the states and Europe. Iowa PBS has an ag market show with various grain marketers on each week. One of the recent ones has been wildly bullish (higher prices ) for several months. She also speaks to the “just in time” supply chain issues that have gotten us where we are. Macro policy issues… https://www.iowapbs.org/mtom/story/40069/market-plus-sue-martin

I live in a pretty low population area , so I probably can’t offer the best advice. I’m already at my bug out location unless I am traveling. But we have dirt bikes that might be better able to navigate traffic issues, and carry more supplies. we also have an atv with a box for hauling stuff. 

quality post

I’m no expert on oil exports – imports , but I think some lower quality oil is refined into things like diesel fuel, and higher quality oil – gasoline. So when you see someone on the news say “all we need is to restart this pipeline”, well… Someone here is probably sharper than I on fuel issues. I’m a farmer . As pops says on grain, I don’t know if we’ll run out , but I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years of farming. fc stone guy We already have big crop problems in South America. Western grain belt in the states is in drought, but that can change before spring. World grain stocks are at an all time low I think. Ag is is suffering supply chain issues in Fertilizer, chemicals, tires, repair parts, etc. I had to change to a different corn variety recently , because it wasn’t going to make it here in time (seed companies have global operations). The wheels aren’t coming off yet, but even with higher grain prices, input costs have sky rocketed over last year, so who knows about next year… If you browse around the agriculture websites, traders in grain and fertilizer, there is a lot more info to be had.

Looks like it might be started. twitter link And Jon Stokes comments on twitter market disruptions ahead 

I’m guessing the ccp already can identify through tech who the preppers are and will be out to collect your stuff if they take over 🙂 .   

Bill, Here’s some speculation on the buying spree. China might know what’s coming in Ukraine? Like i said…speculation. twitter twitter link

yes, browsing around social media , it seems that is the reaction we’ll see here as well. 

any regional conflict will cause supply problems with corn , wheat, iron, steel, and also fertilizer. If you read commodity end users and traders online , I think they are suffering from heart burn. 

Well said ! My message would be similar .

My area is pretty rural, any supermarket shortages seem to be temporary currently. One of the nice things about my area is the development of several farmers and processors entering the retail meat sales space. Or I could simply ask one of my neighbors when they would have an animal available for butchering. Processors here are so backlogged that farmers might have to wait several months to deliver an animal though. We’re OK for supply in the freezer, but will add when the budget allows .  

well… I added these links because I thought they gave some additional info to  Bill’s  Post.  If you want to understand me , many of my past posts encourage people to get involved in public policy, so we don’t have to deal with a bunch of folks who haven’t prepped, and  so elected officials don’t think they can decide how much prepping we can do, or maybe think they can start rationing things 🙂  . 

All good choices here.  Nice that you are doing this. I spent time on the board of directors for a state environmental group, Not all envrio groups are supportive of the local energy policy that would be beneficial to preppers. It takes some time to sort out which ones, but worth it. I’d be happy to visit with staff about some of my experiences if there is interest.  

another link, its a sub tweet in the “more ag info” link above , specifically discussing china’s efforts to aquire protein. https://twitter.com/man_integrated/status/1195050562728943619 same writer has a substack. https://fortisanalysis.substack.com/p/belt-and-road-comes-to-the-heartland Harvest is done and I have more time for researching stuff :).

rumors today that they bought more Hmm, can’t find a link right now, but I read recently that China has excellent sat capability for monitoring crop conditions around the world . South America is currently having drought and excess rain issues… here’s more info, more ag info here https://mercurial.substack.com/p/the-secret-chinese-company-eating these last links paint a pretty gloomy picture, so if that’s not what you want to read… Frankly , I hope he’s wrong, because I operate better in a more optimistic space. https://worldedge.substack.com/p/the-nova-swan-concept another couple https://worldedge.substack.com/p/daily-briefing-hiking-day sorry, I’m bumping this a little late but thought this stuff might be of interest.

Paul Gipe at windworks.org knows wind as good as anyone. Here is his small wind turbine section. http://www.wind-works.org/cms/index.php?id=17 I’m pretty rusty on micro size turbines. Most of the ones that I’m familiar with (3 to 10 kilowatt)  will over produce  KWHs compared to your current KWH usage

I probably missed your examples. I’ll have to browse your post history when i have more time.

So monopolies bad? If you haven’t already, research the rural utilities service part of usda for further frustrations. IMO, current electric and grid monopolies are developing those entities to maximize their”guaranteed  return on investment”, not what makes sense for the future. We’re dealing with a century old grid and utility model that increasing doesn’t make sense when nearly anyone can generate their own electricity these days.