Discussions
Grid down – How to recognize it early?
15
3
Posted January 17, 2023
Reply to: News for week of 2023-01-09 (all current event convos go here) Posted January 11, 2023
Reply to: Prepping with infants? Posted January 11, 2023

Hi, Kamaria. Welcome! I too have been prepping with an infant. Mine just turned 1 last week. Water is one of the main concerns. Whether breastfeeding (you need to drink water) or formula feeding (reconstituting powder formula needs water), you’ll need to have more water on hand than you would otherwise. We did a mix of breastfeeding and formula. Elsewhere on the forum there are several reviews of water containers if you are looking to purchase some. Diapers – have extra of whatever type you use. We attempted cloth but it didn’t work for us. So we have to consider the extras of trash bags and hand sanitizer in our preps. We do not want to get cholera from baby poops! If you use cloth, do laundry before you run out. As Redneck has said elsewhere on the forum, laundry is a form of prepping. Think about how you will transport the little one if you need to evacuate. My husband has back injuries sustained from playing American football as a child that make it difficult for him to carry our baby in any of the baby wraps or slings. So we keep a stroller stashed in the car and one in the house. As noted by AT, bugging in is almost always the better option with littles; less disruptive to everyone if you can manage it. However, if you have to bug out, consider which friends or neighbors you might be able to bug out to or with. Other people with littles could be a huge help in an emergency and are likely to have items you otherwise might forget: toys to share or bibs and baby foods (if your little one has started solids).

Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Has anyone trained a dog to carting?
12
4
Posted December 19, 2022
Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 29, 2022 Posted August 1, 2022
Reply to: Prepping victories: When has prepping paid off for you? Posted August 1, 2022
Reply to: What’s the likelihood that I will be able to live into my 80’s with the increasing number of disasters? Posted August 1, 2022

I’m only in my early 30s, but my parents taught me that one of the biggest, most important skills that you can have is a cultivating a positive attitude, even when everything feels it is going sideways. Josh Centers wrote a blog post about the stoic perspective a while ago and I encourage you to read (or reread) it. Here’s an example: I used to live in a two-family (outside of St. Louis, they are often called duplexes). I had an elderly neighbor who lived above me. She was always complaining about being old. (Her joints hurt, she couldn’t do as much as she used to, etc) My mother came to visit me. She encountered my neighbor and the neighbor started on her litany of complaints about being old. My mom asked her how old she was. The neighbor was almost a decade younger than my mom but thought my mom was younger than her! Why the difference? Potentially there were some lifestyle choice differences: at the time, my mom was walking several miles a day with three large dogs and gardening and herding her chickens through the yard daily. My neighbor had one small dog she barely walked and a couple raised beds in the backyard. But more than anything it was attitude. My mom knows she’s getting older and it is slowing her down some, which she finds frustrating to an extent, but she’s not going to whine about it and let those negative thoughts fuel her. Instead she focuses on what she can do. She’s given up a lot of sewing because she can’t see as well anymore. In lieu of sewing, she’s building my daughter a scrapbook of memories, collecting pictures and stories, snatches of song, and thoughts from my daughter’s grandparents on both sides, her aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. The quick lesson is that there will always be negatives. There will always be events that don’t turn out the way you hope. But approaching life with a positive “party on” attitude will get you further (and apparently keep you looking younger) than dwelling on what you can’t change. I also love the comment by Watermelon Samurai about being the descendant of survivors already. I think that thought has a lot of hope to it.

Reply to: Prepping victories: When has prepping paid off for you? Posted May 12, 2022

Just a caution about keeping medicines in your car: All over the counter medications are stability tested at controlled room temperature and humidity. So the expiration dates on medications are only valid under those conditions. (Basically the comfortable conditions you expect to find in your house.) Once you place the medications in your car, you’re usually exposing them to accelerated stability conditions (high temperatures). This means the medications degrade faster, sometimes significantly faster. The same applies to medications stored in the bathroom where the danger is usually high humidity. The degradation can be harmless (like a visual change) or it can be dangerous. (Some medications or their inactive ingredients break down into products that are toxic in high quantities). I’ll try not to be too technical, since I work in pharmaceutical quality control and I can blather on. The layperson’s take-away is avoid storing medication in your car if possible. It is better to keep small quantities in your everyday carry (EDC), where the medication is more likely to remain in comfortable environments. If not possible to avoid vehicle storage, rotate out any medications you keep in your car every 30-90 days, discarding anything that has been in your car.

Reply to: What can we learn from the war in Ukraine? Posted March 3, 2022

Interesting that you ask “at what point do you abandon your vehicle?” I have wondered this every time I see long lines of people evacuating, from Ukraine to wildfire evacuations. Is there a time to consider an alternate form of transport? For example, although the car can carry more stuff, we have several bicycles optimized for urban exploration or gravel riding. I have wondered if there is an evacuation in our area (a midsize city), would it be faster to use our bicycles instead? They take up less space than a car and are generally more nimble as well as having the advantage of being able to take routes that are sometimes more direct (cutting through neighborhoods vs. having to drive around them) than what we could accomplish with our car. However, we will never be able to go as far as fast with fully-loaded bicycles vs. a car.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Nov 19, 2021 Posted November 19, 2021
Reply to: Has anyone grown their own luffa? Posted August 1, 2021
Reply to: 🏠 Home buying with preparedness in mind Posted August 1, 2021

Something I haven’t seen mentioned yet that I’m wondering about is caring for relatives. When considering where to buy or live, do you consider where your relatives live, especially those who may require extra assistance in a emergency? For example, my in-laws are now in their mid-60s and 70+. While they are currently still very active people, I know that my father-in-law has suffered several foot and ankle injuries over the last couple years that could make any kind of long distance walking or biking a difficult if not impossible proposition if that were required for an evacuation. On the other side of the coin, do you consider living close to relatives for the skills or preps they would bring to the table? For example, my brother works as a maintenance tech in apartment complexes. He’s essentially a jack of all trades and would be an invaluable help in a emergency, even if he has absolutely no preps of his own.

Reply to: How do I prepare while off at college? Posted August 1, 2021

Hi, Tim, Sorry for the delayed reply. I saw this forum thread pop up weeks ago and read a lot of the responses so I’ll try not to duplicate too much of the good advice that others have already given you. In terms of a car/personal vehicle: I never had one in four years at college. Instead I walked everywhere, on and off campus. Walking gave me the advantage of knowing things that others didn’t, especially how to get places off campus like the city library or the grocery store. I also once had the joy of telling the friend driving he was driving us out of town instead of back to campus. He had gotten turned around in the dark. Knowing your surroundings and how to get places on your own can be at least as valuable as a car. Many people my age (30s) and younger don’t know how to navigate without a GPS. You should also check out public transit in your college town. They often offer discounted tickets or passes for college students and it will help you know the area better and reach more places. Just a final word of warning on the car: Used car prices are insane right now so hold off as long as you can before purchasing something to give the market time to settle down. Used cars have actually gone up in value somehow during the pandemic. In terms of fire alarms: The best piece of advice I received before going to college was to wear pajamas that I didn’t mind being seen in. There’s a lot of late night socializing that happens in college and there’s always some fool who sets off the alarm at 3 am for giggles. Also be prepared to leave your dorm at a moment’s notice. Always keep your keys, ID, and phone close. When I was in the dorm, our doors automatically locked behind us so lots of freshmen got locked out in the first weeks as they forgot their keys. We had a fire alarm go off at 3 am my freshman year and I distinctly remember waking up to my roommate’s death grip on my arm and the alarm blaring over my head. She was freaking out but we grabbed phone, keys, ID, pants (for her), shoes, and we were out the door and down the first flight of stairs before we even heard other people coming out of their rooms. Don’t be afraid to take charge of a situation, especially if your roommate(s) are freaking out. And don’t wait for other people to figure out the situation. In terms of food: This may have already been mentioned but since you may not know your roommate(s), keep a stash of Pedialyte or other rehydration beverage of your choice on hand. Even if you never need it for yourself, it will be invaluable in getting hungover roommate(s) moving in the direction you need them to go in an emergency. Best of luck in your college career! I hope you have a great time with it!

Reply to: Preppers and climate change Posted April 13, 2021
Reply to: Preppers and climate change Posted April 12, 2021

Just a note on that third rail: Speaking as a licensed foster parent, there are some things you should keep in mind before you jump into this work. 1. Foster and adoptive kids aren’t direct replacements for biological children. You aren’t going to parent these kids the way you would parent bio kids. You just aren’t. Foster and adoptive kids come with trauma. Trauma means they are going to push your limits way more than biological kids ever will. These kids have a mental narrative that adults are not to be trusted and they are going to try and force you to fit that mental narrative. (And they are good at it. They’ve probably already done it to 3-4 “homes” before they landed at yours.) And yes, this applies even to the cute little ones. Babies who come into foster care usually come in addicted to opiates or with fetal alcohol syndrome. Helping a baby detox is not for the faint of heart. I don’t take littles but those who do are truly saints and probably have the best support networks of anyone out there. 2. If you don’t want people to know you are a prepper, fostering and adopting is not for you. Either of these routes requires lots of people from the government and other agencies to visit and tour your entire house, including basements, closets, attics, etc. to make sure you don’t have a convicted felon living with you. (I wish I was joking, but that kind of nonsense happens.) As a short list of who you can expect might show up to visit you: social worker, licensing worker, court appointed special advocate (CASA), guardian ad litem (GAL), therapist. Multiple those people by the number of cases you have in your house and add one or two for every year you have the kids until they turn 18 or 21. (Turnover in social workers is massive.) 3. At least in the United States, you will quickly become familiar with the dysfunction of the family court system, where not much has changed since the days of stealing children from “unworthy” parents to “civilize” them in wealthier households. All that being said, I know this is getting long, so I will leave this post on a more positive note. 1. Foster and adoptive kids are wonderful kids who will do all the things that biological kids will do: make you laugh, talk you into silly antics, and tell you about their adventures. 2. Foster and adoptive parents generally form support groups to keep each other relatively sane and you should absolutely join one if you go this route for children. There’s nothing like laughing about the clever use of breaker boxes over pizza to restore your faith in your ability to parent these kids. 3. If you are still interested in fostering or adopting, get licensed to be a respite provider first. Respite providers are essentially state-sanctioned babysitters for foster children. Generally the kids are on their best behavior during respite so you’ll avoid the worst, but you’ll be giving the full-time foster parents a much needed and much appreciated break. As an added bonus, in the United States, you’ll also get a taste of the extremely poor compensation scheme devised by your state for foster parenting.

Reply to: Need to grow food? No time to dig beds? Try a melon pit! Posted April 10, 2021
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Grid down – How to recognize it early?
15
3
Posted January 17, 2023
Has anyone trained a dog to carting?
12
4
Posted December 19, 2022
Reply to: News for week of 2023-01-09 (all current event convos go here) Posted January 11, 2023
Reply to: Prepping with infants? Posted January 11, 2023

Hi, Kamaria. Welcome! I too have been prepping with an infant. Mine just turned 1 last week. Water is one of the main concerns. Whether breastfeeding (you need to drink water) or formula feeding (reconstituting powder formula needs water), you’ll need to have more water on hand than you would otherwise. We did a mix of breastfeeding and formula. Elsewhere on the forum there are several reviews of water containers if you are looking to purchase some. Diapers – have extra of whatever type you use. We attempted cloth but it didn’t work for us. So we have to consider the extras of trash bags and hand sanitizer in our preps. We do not want to get cholera from baby poops! If you use cloth, do laundry before you run out. As Redneck has said elsewhere on the forum, laundry is a form of prepping. Think about how you will transport the little one if you need to evacuate. My husband has back injuries sustained from playing American football as a child that make it difficult for him to carry our baby in any of the baby wraps or slings. So we keep a stroller stashed in the car and one in the house. As noted by AT, bugging in is almost always the better option with littles; less disruptive to everyone if you can manage it. However, if you have to bug out, consider which friends or neighbors you might be able to bug out to or with. Other people with littles could be a huge help in an emergency and are likely to have items you otherwise might forget: toys to share or bibs and baby foods (if your little one has started solids).

Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Posted December 21, 2022
Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 29, 2022 Posted August 1, 2022
Reply to: Prepping victories: When has prepping paid off for you? Posted August 1, 2022
Reply to: What’s the likelihood that I will be able to live into my 80’s with the increasing number of disasters? Posted August 1, 2022

I’m only in my early 30s, but my parents taught me that one of the biggest, most important skills that you can have is a cultivating a positive attitude, even when everything feels it is going sideways. Josh Centers wrote a blog post about the stoic perspective a while ago and I encourage you to read (or reread) it. Here’s an example: I used to live in a two-family (outside of St. Louis, they are often called duplexes). I had an elderly neighbor who lived above me. She was always complaining about being old. (Her joints hurt, she couldn’t do as much as she used to, etc) My mother came to visit me. She encountered my neighbor and the neighbor started on her litany of complaints about being old. My mom asked her how old she was. The neighbor was almost a decade younger than my mom but thought my mom was younger than her! Why the difference? Potentially there were some lifestyle choice differences: at the time, my mom was walking several miles a day with three large dogs and gardening and herding her chickens through the yard daily. My neighbor had one small dog she barely walked and a couple raised beds in the backyard. But more than anything it was attitude. My mom knows she’s getting older and it is slowing her down some, which she finds frustrating to an extent, but she’s not going to whine about it and let those negative thoughts fuel her. Instead she focuses on what she can do. She’s given up a lot of sewing because she can’t see as well anymore. In lieu of sewing, she’s building my daughter a scrapbook of memories, collecting pictures and stories, snatches of song, and thoughts from my daughter’s grandparents on both sides, her aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. The quick lesson is that there will always be negatives. There will always be events that don’t turn out the way you hope. But approaching life with a positive “party on” attitude will get you further (and apparently keep you looking younger) than dwelling on what you can’t change. I also love the comment by Watermelon Samurai about being the descendant of survivors already. I think that thought has a lot of hope to it.

Reply to: Prepping victories: When has prepping paid off for you? Posted May 12, 2022

Just a caution about keeping medicines in your car: All over the counter medications are stability tested at controlled room temperature and humidity. So the expiration dates on medications are only valid under those conditions. (Basically the comfortable conditions you expect to find in your house.) Once you place the medications in your car, you’re usually exposing them to accelerated stability conditions (high temperatures). This means the medications degrade faster, sometimes significantly faster. The same applies to medications stored in the bathroom where the danger is usually high humidity. The degradation can be harmless (like a visual change) or it can be dangerous. (Some medications or their inactive ingredients break down into products that are toxic in high quantities). I’ll try not to be too technical, since I work in pharmaceutical quality control and I can blather on. The layperson’s take-away is avoid storing medication in your car if possible. It is better to keep small quantities in your everyday carry (EDC), where the medication is more likely to remain in comfortable environments. If not possible to avoid vehicle storage, rotate out any medications you keep in your car every 30-90 days, discarding anything that has been in your car.

Reply to: What can we learn from the war in Ukraine? Posted March 3, 2022

Interesting that you ask “at what point do you abandon your vehicle?” I have wondered this every time I see long lines of people evacuating, from Ukraine to wildfire evacuations. Is there a time to consider an alternate form of transport? For example, although the car can carry more stuff, we have several bicycles optimized for urban exploration or gravel riding. I have wondered if there is an evacuation in our area (a midsize city), would it be faster to use our bicycles instead? They take up less space than a car and are generally more nimble as well as having the advantage of being able to take routes that are sometimes more direct (cutting through neighborhoods vs. having to drive around them) than what we could accomplish with our car. However, we will never be able to go as far as fast with fully-loaded bicycles vs. a car.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Nov 19, 2021 Posted November 19, 2021
Reply to: Has anyone grown their own luffa? Posted August 1, 2021
Reply to: 🏠 Home buying with preparedness in mind Posted August 1, 2021

Something I haven’t seen mentioned yet that I’m wondering about is caring for relatives. When considering where to buy or live, do you consider where your relatives live, especially those who may require extra assistance in a emergency? For example, my in-laws are now in their mid-60s and 70+. While they are currently still very active people, I know that my father-in-law has suffered several foot and ankle injuries over the last couple years that could make any kind of long distance walking or biking a difficult if not impossible proposition if that were required for an evacuation. On the other side of the coin, do you consider living close to relatives for the skills or preps they would bring to the table? For example, my brother works as a maintenance tech in apartment complexes. He’s essentially a jack of all trades and would be an invaluable help in a emergency, even if he has absolutely no preps of his own.

Reply to: How do I prepare while off at college? Posted August 1, 2021

Hi, Tim, Sorry for the delayed reply. I saw this forum thread pop up weeks ago and read a lot of the responses so I’ll try not to duplicate too much of the good advice that others have already given you. In terms of a car/personal vehicle: I never had one in four years at college. Instead I walked everywhere, on and off campus. Walking gave me the advantage of knowing things that others didn’t, especially how to get places off campus like the city library or the grocery store. I also once had the joy of telling the friend driving he was driving us out of town instead of back to campus. He had gotten turned around in the dark. Knowing your surroundings and how to get places on your own can be at least as valuable as a car. Many people my age (30s) and younger don’t know how to navigate without a GPS. You should also check out public transit in your college town. They often offer discounted tickets or passes for college students and it will help you know the area better and reach more places. Just a final word of warning on the car: Used car prices are insane right now so hold off as long as you can before purchasing something to give the market time to settle down. Used cars have actually gone up in value somehow during the pandemic. In terms of fire alarms: The best piece of advice I received before going to college was to wear pajamas that I didn’t mind being seen in. There’s a lot of late night socializing that happens in college and there’s always some fool who sets off the alarm at 3 am for giggles. Also be prepared to leave your dorm at a moment’s notice. Always keep your keys, ID, and phone close. When I was in the dorm, our doors automatically locked behind us so lots of freshmen got locked out in the first weeks as they forgot their keys. We had a fire alarm go off at 3 am my freshman year and I distinctly remember waking up to my roommate’s death grip on my arm and the alarm blaring over my head. She was freaking out but we grabbed phone, keys, ID, pants (for her), shoes, and we were out the door and down the first flight of stairs before we even heard other people coming out of their rooms. Don’t be afraid to take charge of a situation, especially if your roommate(s) are freaking out. And don’t wait for other people to figure out the situation. In terms of food: This may have already been mentioned but since you may not know your roommate(s), keep a stash of Pedialyte or other rehydration beverage of your choice on hand. Even if you never need it for yourself, it will be invaluable in getting hungover roommate(s) moving in the direction you need them to go in an emergency. Best of luck in your college career! I hope you have a great time with it!

Reply to: Preppers and climate change Posted April 13, 2021
Reply to: Preppers and climate change Posted April 12, 2021

Just a note on that third rail: Speaking as a licensed foster parent, there are some things you should keep in mind before you jump into this work. 1. Foster and adoptive kids aren’t direct replacements for biological children. You aren’t going to parent these kids the way you would parent bio kids. You just aren’t. Foster and adoptive kids come with trauma. Trauma means they are going to push your limits way more than biological kids ever will. These kids have a mental narrative that adults are not to be trusted and they are going to try and force you to fit that mental narrative. (And they are good at it. They’ve probably already done it to 3-4 “homes” before they landed at yours.) And yes, this applies even to the cute little ones. Babies who come into foster care usually come in addicted to opiates or with fetal alcohol syndrome. Helping a baby detox is not for the faint of heart. I don’t take littles but those who do are truly saints and probably have the best support networks of anyone out there. 2. If you don’t want people to know you are a prepper, fostering and adopting is not for you. Either of these routes requires lots of people from the government and other agencies to visit and tour your entire house, including basements, closets, attics, etc. to make sure you don’t have a convicted felon living with you. (I wish I was joking, but that kind of nonsense happens.) As a short list of who you can expect might show up to visit you: social worker, licensing worker, court appointed special advocate (CASA), guardian ad litem (GAL), therapist. Multiple those people by the number of cases you have in your house and add one or two for every year you have the kids until they turn 18 or 21. (Turnover in social workers is massive.) 3. At least in the United States, you will quickly become familiar with the dysfunction of the family court system, where not much has changed since the days of stealing children from “unworthy” parents to “civilize” them in wealthier households. All that being said, I know this is getting long, so I will leave this post on a more positive note. 1. Foster and adoptive kids are wonderful kids who will do all the things that biological kids will do: make you laugh, talk you into silly antics, and tell you about their adventures. 2. Foster and adoptive parents generally form support groups to keep each other relatively sane and you should absolutely join one if you go this route for children. There’s nothing like laughing about the clever use of breaker boxes over pizza to restore your faith in your ability to parent these kids. 3. If you are still interested in fostering or adopting, get licensed to be a respite provider first. Respite providers are essentially state-sanctioned babysitters for foster children. Generally the kids are on their best behavior during respite so you’ll avoid the worst, but you’ll be giving the full-time foster parents a much needed and much appreciated break. As an added bonus, in the United States, you’ll also get a taste of the extremely poor compensation scheme devised by your state for foster parenting.

Reply to: Need to grow food? No time to dig beds? Try a melon pit! Posted April 10, 2021
Reply to: First Aid for the Squeamish? Posted April 10, 2021

Hi, Jonnie. I have the same issue. Blood, especially the mental image of gushing blood, triggers my flight-fight response. However, I didn’t get either flight or fight in that card draw. I got “play dead” so I have a tendency to dizziness and fainting when I feel threatened. It’s not a helpful response in a health emergency. However, I have been on the first aid team at one workplace and have been continuously licensed in first aid/CPR/AED for over five years. One of the biggest things that helps me is focusing on action steps and blocking out the mental images. For example, instead of allowing myself to dwell on the image of blood gushing from a wound, I force myself to picture a square of gauze and myself pressing the gauze on the wound. I also start mentally or verbally repeating instructions to myself. I assure you in an emergency, the person you are helping will not be particularly concerned by you talking aloud to yourself. What also might help is practicing first aid steps on an uninjured inanimate object. Try using a tourniquet on a teddy bear for example. When you can handle a teddy bear or other dummy without blood, try using wine, red grape juice, or red Kool-Aid to simulate blood. Then start watching the videos other people suggested to desensitize yourself. My final tip is to know yourself (as you clearly already do) and prepare for your own reaction. What helps you snap out of fainting? What will trigger you? I know the smell of blood can trigger me. I also am fully prepared that in an emergency, after the paramedics arrive, I will have to sit in a corner somewhere with my knees up and head down and fight for consciousness after I no longer have tasks to focus me.

Reply to: 10-80-10 survival principle Posted April 6, 2021
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