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Reply to: (Official discussion) Best lantern Posted 2 weeks ago

While at Costco this week I saw a 2 pack of Duracell 1000 lumen lanterns that looked like a good home based – leave on the shelf and forget about it prep. You can also charge your cell phone off of it. They were being sold for $23 at Costco, but if you don’t have a membership, they are $31 on Amazon.

Reply to: An observation on prepping in 2022 Posted 2 months ago

Six wood burning stoves! That sounds awesome. Do you have any tips on maintaining them? What are you able to do yourself and what do you need to hire out a professional for?

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted 2 months ago

It sounds like you shouldn’t have had to be the middleman yourself for coordinating payments. Such a headache! Sure glad you are finally getting some progress on everything though.

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted 2 months ago

Wow… just wow! I have some major sympathy for you and your family right now. You’ve had more challenges in the past few months than I’ve had in my entire lifetime. It’s only natural and okay for you to say you are struggling. But for you to be here now casually telling us about it and being on a prepping website to learn how to avoid such situations in the future is truly awe inspiring for me. Sadie, you are a hero to me. If this is a touchy subject, please don’t respond and I’ll understand. But I’d like to learn more about that so called contractor that has been a pill for you so I can avoid such a situation in the future. So he said he would be able to get working right away, he gutted the upstairs and has since not done anything else? Has he just ghosted you and won’t communicate or is he just coming up with excuses? Did you sign any contract that says work should be done by a certain time? Are you going to try and sue in small claims court for him being a weasel? Guy sounds like a down right scum bag taking your money, doing half a job, and leaving you guys with half a house. Also one more thing, you say that your vehicle was totaled by the tornado and you have an unplanned car payment now. Is that because insurance didn’t cover your car or didn’t cover enough of it? I wish your family the best of luck this next year. I have learned many things from your trials and it looks like you have as well.

Reply to: How are you doing? Times are stressful, keep an eye on how you are handling things Posted 2 months ago

My fish hook in a mint can isn’t going to get me through this!? There goes my SHTF strategy!!! Sound words of wisdom Pops, do what you can now to be resilient and tomorrow do a little bit more.

Reply to: Happy Fathers Day! What has your dad taught you? Posted 2 months ago

Your dad just taught me some new things as well. The average time of a thunderstorm is important to know if you are out hiking and for how long you should expect to seek shelter. Or if you are at home, how long you have to unplug the TV from the wall to prevent a surge from frying it. The 3 degrees for every thousand feet is also important for road trips or hikes to know how to dress.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, May 27, 2022 Posted 3 months ago

So my answer to you would be, “Carry as much as possible for you.” Split it up and have access to many nearby instead of being the lone person with a backpack filled of tourniquets. Put two on the baby stroller, one in the diaper bag, one on your belt, and two in the car. Some events like a day at the gun range would allow you to pack more, such as an entire dufflebag of first aid gear. You are able to do this because carrying packs to the gun range doesn’t seem weird or out of place, and your risk of accidentally getting shot is higher.

Reply to: Winter 2021/22 energy outlook – expect increased prices Posted October 22, 2021

I take it that a barrel of gasoline is like a 55 gallon drum?? That is a lot of gasoline. Now looking at that chart it says the US has like 220 million barrels of gasoline in reserve. A million is a huge number, now think of 220 of those million!! That’s a very small amount compared to what we use and need, but I am just trying to wrap my mind around the sheer volume, storage, and logistics behind 220 million barrels!! That is a rational plan to buy an extra gas can and propane bottle when you see supply starting to dip or prices rise.

Reply to: Fine line between prepping and hoarding, regarding household capacity Posted October 22, 2021

You can share this study with your husband that was ordered by the US department of defense who had a large stockpile of medications and they wanted to know if they had to throw things out at the expiration date or if they would still keep their potency afterwards. The FDA conducted the study and found that most medications will remain fairly potent (88% remained potent 1 year after the expiration date, with most being potent 5 years after and some 20 years) far after their expiration date. Very few were actually harmful after the expiration date.

Reply to: How to defend against marauders after a disaster Posted October 14, 2021

There are a couple strategies you can implement to have less smoke come out of your chimney and thus less of a signal that someone is there. +Having your house too insulated can have your fire struggle to obtain enough air. You can install a outside air supply vent into the fireplace or open a window in the room and see if the smoke level outside of the house goes down. +Just like the above step, running a bathroom or kitchen exhaust fan or a furnace blower fan will cause negative pressure inside the house and not allow the fire to draft properly, and thus create more smoke. +When the temperature difference between outside and inside is greater, you have less smoke. If it’s not too cold out and around the same temperature inside your house, then there will be more smoke. Try throwing on some layers of clothing for those moderate days and keep the fire for the really cold days. +Do not burn green wood, wet wood, or synthetic materials. These will smoke. Only burn dry and clean wood, possibly paper without too much ink. +Have your chimney cleaned every year.

Reply to: Review: Ertupe rechargeable hand warmer and power bank Posted September 28, 2021

Nice review Robert. That would be a good stocking stuffer this Christmas.

Reply to: “Tamper resistant” door lock Posted September 28, 2021

I admire you keeping to the law. Even if you didn’t, there is such a slim slim chance you would ever get in trouble. They aren’t going around and doing inspections. But you are a good citizen and doing what society has agreed upon. Pepper gel would be a good option, maybe one in every room. Baseball bat next to the bed is a common tool as well. If I was in your shoes, I would carry a pistol on my person at all times inside of the house since you can’t strategically place them for convenience any more. But most of all, I would increase your overall security of your house. Lowering your chances of having to fend off intruders by hardening your house as much as possible.

Reply to: “Tamper resistant” door lock Posted September 28, 2021

Do you have a picture of said linen closet and door?? That would help me greatly to think of ideas for you. Is this law to keep guns out of the hands of children?? Hope that it does some good and saves lives and not just make it harder for people to defend their homes.

Reply to: Selfish selfish selfish UK panic buying Posted September 27, 2021

You have it right, another crisis another day. I like to be somewhat prepared so that I am not forced to be out there panic buying with the hoards of others.

Reply to: Selfish selfish selfish UK panic buying Posted September 27, 2021

You probably saw the news over here about the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack the East Coast had. People were panic buying then and even filling up trash bags with gasoline that were leaking profusely as they filled them and then they just set them in the back of their truck bed!! Makes no sense to us on lookers, but people were in a real right state of panic and feeling that if they don’t get any they can now, it will be gone later. There was some shortages and panic buying for a week or two there but then things got restored and probably 99.5% of people are just filling up as normal and don’t have any fuel reserves. My point is that this is artificial, and this is temporary. It won’t draw out for months, and my guess is that things will be sorted out in a few weeks.

Reply to: September is National Preparedness Month – Share your preparedness tips here! Posted September 13, 2021

Thank you bob, bill, and bigwig on your recommendations. I have added it to my prepping and emergency supplies wish list. Mrs. Sir Henry will thank you as well when she isn’t showering with ice water in a bucket.

Reply to: September is National Preparedness Month – Share your preparedness tips here! Posted September 13, 2021

I would have thought that Mr. Buddy would make propane powered shower and not a battery powered one, so that is surprising. I will look into Mr. Buddy showers though, so thank you for your response. Good luck in your meeting.

Reply to: September is National Preparedness Month – Share your preparedness tips here! Posted September 13, 2021

Here is a tip – try eating that mountain house meal that you bought for your emergency food storage. Do you know how to and have everything to prepare it?? How does it taste?? How does your body handle that kind of food for 1-3 weeks straight?? I’d rather work the kinks out now and not when the bombs are dropping outside and I’m bunkered down in my house with nothing else to eat.

Reply to: September is National Preparedness Month – Share your preparedness tips here! Posted September 13, 2021

Could you share some links to the battery powered portable shower and bucket water heater that you bought?? I would like to add those to my supplies.

Reply to: Ideas on carrying ID in your bug out bag Posted September 13, 2021

I don’t think having your identity being stolen or misused is a huge concern here. Keep your expired or copy of identification in your bag which is safe inside your house. Having your ID stolen out of your bug out bag while inside your house is just as likely as if it was stolen from your desk drawer or in a safe. Nothing really to worry about. Now the risk increases as you bug out and you take your bag with you. Leaving your bag with your ID near your camp or in an evacuation center is what you need to worry about, but not really. If you are bugging out, just take your ID out of your bag and place in your pocket on your person. Then if your entire bag gets swiped, you don’t have to worry about identity theft or misuse. Same goes with anything valuable or important in your bag. If you had a few gold bullion coins in your bug out bag to act as bartering items, you would put those on your person if needing to separate from your bag right?? I would follow Bill’s advice over in the other topic about getting your bug out bag stolen, and keep your bag on you at all times or within eye shot. But keep valuables on you if needing to separate from the bag.

Do you shoot with both eyes open??