Thank you!

@Redneck, what dual fuel generator do you have?

Joshua Sheats, who hosts Radical Personal Finance, did a life insurance series a number of years ago. Joshua used to sell life insurance. The episodes are technical but accessible. (Although the show has kind of declined in quality in recent years, those episodes are excellent.) One note on your comment about being healthy: companies are screening people now. The only way to purchase cheap health insurance is to purchase before you are unhealthy or need it. My dad died of a terminal disease three years before his term life insurance policy expired, and it was such a relief for my mom. That pushed me to buy some to cover my life.

This is awesome. I finished reading that same book last week and have similar goals for next year. Cheers!

Good comment, @Pops. I’d like to add that most of the built environment in the United States is predicated on the assumption (whether conscious or not) that we’ll always have access to cheap energy, especially gasoline. Most neighborhoods are not walkable, often by design, and most places of commerce have been separated from residential areas, again often by design, since at least the 1960s. Rising energy costs are likely to have a lot of unexpected second- and third-order effects that we’re just now seeing begin. I suspect a lot of people who were on the borderline of being “middle class” (I prefer “middle income,” but that’s less common) are about to cross the line into the “formerly middle class.” One of my favorite blog posts on the topic: Peak Oil, Yes and No

@MrsPrep So it’s easy to become overwhelmed with too much information when first starting. I’ll keep this short and to the point. Having a specific disaster in mind helps you prioritize and make decisions. My baseline scenario is a two-week power outage. Yours might be different based on your location and circumstances. Keep it realistic. Food and water are good places to start regardless of the specific disaster you choose. Buy a little extra of what you eat every time you shop and develop a deep pantry. A few five-gallon water containers or Water Bricks are a good start. Get to know your neighbors if you don’t already. If you develop good relationships with them now, you’ll be able to rely on them when you need to. Avoid the end-of-the-world scenarios when you are just starting. They’re not going to help you think and plan rationally for the most common scenarios. Focus on the most likely scenarios first. A few bloggers have a commonsense outlook and sound advice: Basic Preparedness: A Down and Dirty Primer https://web.archive.org/web/20150313222934/http://granolashotgun.com/2014/10/01/emergency-preperation-wherever-you-live/ (Sadly, this one is an archived link rather than a live one, but it is what it is.) Good luck!

@Redneck I’m in a 1970s-era suburb in the Midwest. Our yard slopes pretty badly, so we’re somewhat space constrained, although we’re looking to change that next year. This fall and winter, I’m reading a permaculture book for inspiration, so we are going to make due with what we have. Currently, we have three 6 x 4′ raised beds, one with a trellis, as well as some 5-gallon buckets for container gardening. We have mounds of peppers (my favorite), including bell peppers, jalapenos, Cajun Belles, and two or three other varieties that I pick when my wife tells me. We have some enormous green onions in that bed, too. In another bed, we have tomatoes, basil, and cilantro. It has been a good year for tomatoes. In the third bed, we have cucumbers, peas, beans, pumpkins, and lettuce. (We planted again in fall this year for the first time and had some good lettuce.) Your place is an absolute gem. I’ve been watching a few rural property sites for about three or four years now, and none of them has anything like what you have. Mostly, they’re woods and overgrown fields with half-rotted cabins. Yours looks like you really care about the place. Kudos.

I have nothing constructive to add, but I love the thread and pictures (especially the latter). We have a garden, but nothing like what you have going. Very nice.

Lots of factors could be at play, but if you manage to isolate the differences to just grain weight, there is a very good chance that the twist of the rifling in your barrel just prefers the lighter bullets. Example: My friend’s 5.56 is a 1-in-7 twist and does not care for the 45-grain or even 55-grain bullets, but it likes 62-grain bullets and loves 77-grain.

Granola Shotgun has a lot of interesting information about housing and preparedness (they’re linked in the author’s mind) to consider. https://www.granolashotgun.com/ Couple of the author’s repeated pieces of advice: Buy some place walkable Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood that you can afford.

I am really surprised how often this is not discussed or mentioned in forums. It’s such an important part of people’s lives that maybe they just overlook it. Anyway, I prefer contacts when I am working at my office and living at home with access to clean running water and clean towels. When I am backpacking or camping, I usually opt for glasses. They have drawbacks, but keeping my hands clean enough to touch my eye when camping or backpacking is a concern.

This is reasonable analysis, Josh. Thanks.

Lumber and hardware prices have risen drastically. A friend of mine makes chairs, and the price of his materials has doubled (at least) since last spring. Lots of new subdivisions are under construction in the exurbs, and people are adding onto their existing houses as well.

I wouldn’t invite someone whom I don’t know well into my home. Just talking with people outside and getting to know them without discussing preps is a pretty good idea, though, in my opinion.

Oooh. Nice topic. How about getting to know one’s neighbors?