Vietnam records hottest ever temperature https://www.yahoo.com/news/vietnam-records-hottest-ever-temperature-161500725.html

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-faster-190110352.html

First case of Covid detected in wildlife in California https://www.redbluffdailynews.com/2023/05/08/california-detects-first-case-of-covid-infection-in-wildlife/  –  “We don’t yet know what any of it means.”

Some of the interesting weather news lately https://weather.com/news/weather/video/blowing-dust-makes-eerie-scene-on-iowa-highway https://weather.com/storms/severe/video/severe-threat-also-brings-flooding-concerns-today https://phys.org/news/2023-05-rapid-ice-greenland.html

East Palestine Residents Claims Health Impacted by Norfu Suffix Train Disaster Some residents STILL living in hotels 3 months later.Trainhttps://www.foxnews.com/media/east-palestine-resident-lesions-stomach-pain-shortness-breath-train-derailment

Welcome Corrina,  Ditto to what has been said so far.I would also add on to start spending time investing in learning as much as you can about self-defense and survival skills.  If you can’t do classes, you can read or watch videos/TV movies etc.  What you keep in your brain is something that increases your value and cannot be easily taken from you.  First start with a decent BOB (boogie out bag) which will help get you home or on to your next step.  Water, food, a change of comfortable durable ugly clothes and basic survival stuffs like a knife, can opener, mylar shade, water filter device, plastic bag/s, tarp, rain poncho, basic first aid and some sort of diversion like a deck of cards or groovy toy.  That will fill a small/medium pack.  Practice carrying it and figure out how to lighten your load if it’s too much weight for you.  Assess and adjust your BOB regularly, especially if your food is not freeze dried.  Check that the clothes still fit and are in usable shape, albeit still ugly. Spend time watching and evaluating people and find and embrace the ones who can keep their word and keep their cool.  Know your area’s risk factors and focus on them more than risks that are unlikely in your area.   Be aware of your surroundings at all times.  Find a way to make your prepping fun and satisfying.  Like the PINK bacon fat candles we made last month ;o)..  Just do stuff but don’t stress.  Every time I put up a gallon of water, I feel gratitude that this could mean one more day survival for myself or someone I care about.  Best of luck!!!!ps your could check out Inherited emergency food lot post here….

Amen! <3

Water Restrictions Lifted After Brief Drought Relief https://www.redding.com/story/news/2023/04/26/siskiyou-pulls-back-some-water-restrictions-to-evaluate-future-plan/70151794007/

Shasta County votes to spend millions manually counting ballots, and not all voters are happy

North State CA Moves back to the 19th Century Welcome to the 19th Century: Shasta County Plans to Bring Back Hand-Counted Election Ballots

I would first do some space fugitation to see how much more I could squeeze into our home.  Currently, no room in the house or out buildings does NOT have at least one box of preps.  You’d be amazed at how much you can fit if you let yourself get creative with a Survival Chic Design Theme.   Food Totes or large water containers used as legs for desk tables or shelving, buckets made used for mazes and/or play structures in the kids room and so on.  Because it’s fun to keep prepping out of the closet so to say,  I would also consider making gift boxes for family, friends and neighbors and charities for xmas in April 😉  If I was desperate for $ I would then crunch the #’s to see if it would be worth it to get a small storage space.  If that didn’t make sense $ wise, I would go online amazon etc to get an idea of what stuff is selling for.  Then I would post on Craig’s list, Here, (the prepared) and other Prepper forums and Fakebook groups.  I would specify that the prices I posted did not include shipping and that I would be willing to negotiate with anyone who wanted X amount or more.  If someone asked me how much $ to ship, I would tell them what my zip code was and suggest that THEY calculate approx shipping via USPS or UPS and then get back to me if they were still interested.  I might consider going/calling the local independent sports/mountaineering/camping shops and seeing if they were interested.Good luck! :)))

After success for over a year w. lime eggs, we moved on and now I am super happy with freeze dry eggs.  We scramble and freeze dry raw and re hydration is super easy.  The space save factor from no shell and no liquid is amazing!

https://www.mynspr.org/news/2023-02-24/how-to-survive-a-power-outage-during-this-weeks-storms

The $4.5m a year boss of Norfolk Southern – whose firm got Trump to REPEAL safety rule that might have averted East Palestine chemical crash – lives in $4.2M mansion, owns boat and property empire… as video shows dead fish poisoned by spill. Some are suing to make Norfolk take responsibility for health monitoring of individuals who live in a 30 mile radius of the burn site.  Evacuation was limited to a 2 square mile area and people I know living beyond that area were not notified about the burning at all.  According to a family member 21 miles away they had no notification and are being assured by big government that everything is “OK”As people and animals are getting sick,  locals are find the ok assurance hard to believe. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/ohio/lawsuit-seeks-medical-testing-after-toxic-train-derailment-east-palestine/95-68e4d386-2f40-4760-a535-41e25b0c0c11?fbclid=IwAR1mwMgnmHgTxiqdUOBPoJ7GjioIrFoq08HY0fOFLRU0mn6JsuUzxwRAtxo https://www.axios.com/2023/02/13/what-we-know-about-ohio-train-derailment https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/northeast-ohio/ohio-train-derailment-explosion-concerns-train-derailment-east-palestine-columbiana-county/95-1957b1ff-e6a5-423a-9885-7b710bb74077

When my old hands don’t work for what I want to do, I don’t like that and any job I do is not fun. When it’s not too hot or cold or smokey any chores outside are easy peasy.  Working in an N95 or just moving in over 120* F is a real buzz kill.  Wearing an N95 and moving in high temps is worse. I LOVE to feed and care for the animals and watching them is super fun to me.  Overall I try to be playful and grateful that I get to take care of our land and animals and see the sun rise as I start my day and set as we put up the animals.Nice big sky Redneck! Lucky you! <3 Also love to exercise the dogs….

Is that an functioning fireplace? If that is propane, how does it vent?

As a recovering Catholic (takes more than 12 steps) it’s imprinted in my consciousness to help whenever possible. Located in Rural N. Cal, we are a “destination point” for various friends and family who know that they are welcome here should they need to evacuate due to wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, civil unrest, zombies and so on. I’m still looking for ways to find new allies and this year am going to put it out there to the universe via the internet and am planning on having a neighborhood block party this spring. So, thank you so much for starting this topic!As far as mercy bags, what I did in 2020 and 2021 was mail about 2 dozen “BOB” care packages to varied friends and family. The packages contained a new backpack and some to all of an assortment of : Metal canteen, metal cup or insulated metal cup, a lifesStraw item, water purification pills, iodine pills, bandanas, N95 masks, surgical masks, recycled pill container holding fishing line, fish hooks, waterproof matches & a piece of striKer cardboard, fire making tools, clean new pair of socks, baggies, & garbage bags, warm hat or ear muffs, tiny flashlight, new toothbrush and tiny toothpaste, nail clippers, church key/bottle can opener, small knife or utility knife, deck of cards, small pad and pens, small puzzle/toy, laminated “magic eyes” art piece, band aids, small anti cutie cream, finger cots, latex gloves, other 1st aid items and probably some other stuff I don’t recall at the moment. Last year, 2022, we got a Harvest Rite Freeze Dehydrator. It has upped our prepper game substantially, brought our food waste to close to zero and increased our larder with food we love and plan to eat. We raised 3 pigs last year and with our freezers full of over a quarter ton of pork, I was anxious about electric loss over a long period that could result is wasted meat. We started to cook and freeze dry that meat to share with others as well as stockpile. I jokingly tell people I am planning to “FD” enough meals so that I never have to cook again. Unless I want to haha. So far, I’ve mailed and given away 20 some care packages full of “FD” food we cooked and or processed. Especially since Covid, its been such a Mikva to be able to just hang a bag of goodies on a sick persons door. Amongst the items we’ve FD’d and sent – Puerto Pilbil, pulled pork, pork sausage patties, pork liver dog treats :)), ham, pork and beans, black beans, garbanzo bean humus, pea soup, soup stock, farro chicken soup, barley turkey soup, beef bean Chile, beef goulash, pasta bolognese, gravy, lamb gyro meat, red and green salsas, guacamole, corn tortillas as chips, oatmeal, cream of wheat, shrimp, turkey, chicken, raw milk, breast milk, 1/2 & 1/2, coffee, coleslaw, green beans, sautéed mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, corn, mashed potatoes, potatoes au gratin (COSTCO and they ROCK!!) rice, varied, Indian and Thai meals, barbacoa beef, ice cream sandwiches, pumpkin pie, coconut ganache, pudding, skittles, apples, bananas, berries, mango pineapples, peaches, pears, asian pears, figs, top round, lobster, cheesecake, eggs, I just ordered a big bag of pinto beans to make another huge batch of pork and beans. Also make a killer vegan cuban black beans. So along with FD rice, some chips and salsa and some fruit or ice cream and maybe a small bottle of water, I will have a filling meals vegan or pork based to give to as many people as long as I can. The term mercy bag is much nicer that what I call them which is “Go Away Bags.” Probably more pc too! Anyway, we can soon start to give out some of these meal packs to street folks as well.

Power company charged with manslaughter in Northern California fire deaths https://www.redbluffdailynews.com/2023/02/02/pge-to-face-manslaughter-trial-over-deadly-california-fire-2/

Starting on Thanksgiving, we watch our collection of Xmas movies and tv show episodes. Occasionally, I can convince man thing to try something new to add to the list of again, maybe again or never again. Last year was adventurous and among a few others, we added “ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE” to the again list. A light hearted zombie farce with a musical background.  Even non-musical loving peeps such as myself might find themselves singing along. I hope that I will be able to maintain a light heart sometimes as SHTF…. Omega Man starring Charlton Heston is one of my fav end of world flicks. The tenacity and heart of Heston’s Neville is an inspiring performance. I hope that my preps are up to just a fraction of Nevilles’. The version before w. Vincent Price and after w. Will Smith are also worthwhile. As far as actual prepper learning, the “reality” survival shows like Alone and Naked and Afraid can be quite educational and inspiring. “Doomsday Prepper” is farce like, but, has it’s comic relief. A favorite scene is where this woman who preps in “secret” when her husband goes out, takes the panel off of a door and stuffs food preps inside the door. After this, my bigger half agreed that my prepping had not crossed THAT line and I’m not the biggest whack job out there!!! When I did my 2022 list up of all my preps, it appeared to me that almost everything I did and do are preps. My new Harvest Rite FD adventure and daily tai chi and other workouts, count as “HEALTH/MEDICAL” , building community and working our property falls under “SECURITY”, raising, harvesting and processing food are “FOOD” and watching tv shows and movies counts as “EDUCATION”. So great subject and thanks for helping along my “education.” :0)….. Here’s some other flicks I think are worth watching if you like EOTWAWKI – ContaginAndromida StrainDr. StrangeloveZombielandShawn of the DeadThe Day the Earth Stood StillA Boy and His DogThe PostmanMad Max franchise (NOTNEW ONES!bleh)Planet of the Apes franchiseTestamentInvasion of the Body SnatchersLiving Dead franchiseHunger Games franchiseTerminator franchise12 MonkeysThe Day AfterBird Box finally, some tangental threads/articles from our favorite prepper site – https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/best-survival-tv-shows/ https://theprepared.com/prepping-basics/reviews/tv-shows/