Redneck, I didn’t take it as insulting either and think it was a great way to demonstrate varying levels of preparedness. I am rather prepared myself and still consider myself in the elementary school level of prepping (which is 110% fine). And something like graduate school level of prepping is becoming self sufficient, off-grid, etc.. That is a level of preparedness that very few will ever reach, and many never even have to.  It’s like the 80/20 principle talked about here, 20% of the work will take you 80% of the way, and that is great!

I just read The Prepared’s article on EMPs and it said there is a 1-3% chance every year of a coronial mass ejection (Sun EMP) which would knock out the grid. That could be an event where my optimistic outlook gets shut down and would affect not just one particular country, but possibly all the world at once.  I have a better chance of getting hit by an end of the world as we know it Sun EMP than I do of winning the lottery. 

I see your point and you are definitely right on many things. Dispersing food to hundreds of millions would be quite the feat and would take an incredible amount of time and resources to do so. We as elementary school preppers as you call it, I like that term, need to store and prepare to endure however long it takes before help arrives, and be able to get to that help when help does arrive.

I currently store and have tried Datrex before. They definitely have the calories to sustain life in such a small and shelf stable package. What I found interesting from your experiment was that you noticed the nutrient deficiency in your body after eating them for two days. Your concluding thought of including variety to even out the drop of nutritional deficiency is a good idea. How are you feeling being back on a normal diet again?

I’ve heard that 90% of people will die within a year of the grid going down stat before. I know many will die shortly after an event like this happens because our society is so just-in-time shipping dependent, but I truly do not think that 90% will die.  At most maayybbee 20%, and that is a stretch. IF two EMPs hit over a country, knocking out it’s grid, many other countries will notice and immediately take action to help. Maybe I’m an optimist about this, but I believe that people and governments will react and take action to send in supplies, resources, and help. They may not be able to get everything up and going like nothing happened within a few months, but I’m thinking they will give people what they need to keep them alive. I also strongly believe that we as citizens will come together and figure out how to halt the death toll. Community gardens, public clean drinking water depots, and more. Those with reliant medical conditions, those who don’t prep whatsoever and have no stores of food and water in their homes, time of year depending (winter will see many people die from cold), and there will be chaos and killings unfortunately. It won’t be ideal, preppers will have a better chance at surviving, but I think and hope that people will come together and get through something horrible like that. Those are my thoughts, what do you think about them?

Paramount+ has a free 7 day trial and is $5/month after that, I look forward to watching you guys.

I have wanted a Kelly Kettle for years because I’ve seen the potential they have of being super efficient and the ability they have to boil water with only using twigs. How are they to clean, both the fire chamber and the water chamber? Are they durable and sturdy? What size do you find yourself using most often?

I love people who do experiments like this. I just watched the video and by using a WAPI and pasteurizing the water vs getting it to a roaring boil, you use half the fuel. For his pot and stove, his 110 g fuel canister can get 22 pasteurizations on a lot heat setting vs 11 roaring boils on high heat.

I think it’s a common misconception that iodized salt or natural iodine from kelp or seaweed gives some protection. Probably doesn’t do very much.  Thank you for the above chart, I will print one of those off and add it to some of the iOSAT pills I have. It’s easy to remember to just take one pill a day for myself, but if child was with me when I needed to take it, it’s good to know now how much to use.

My weather tracking website of choice is weather.gov. I trust the government, many other weather websites just load up their information, and there are no ads or creepy data selling that I am aware of. There is the full sized website that has images and such, here’s an example of the full Santa Monica CA forecast. But I just noticed at the bottom of the page a text only forecast option. To set it up: Go to weather.gov and plug in your zipcode. Scroll down the page until you see the “Additional Forecasts and Information” section. In there, click the “Text Only Forecast” Bookmark the URL that pops up. You can then click this whenever you want to get a minimal text only 7 day forecast of your area. Here’s an example of that Santa Monica forecast in text only mode. You all have all these great resources for other text only sites but now I have something to contribute!

I’d love “nosy” neighbors like you looking over my stuff, and I’m sure your neighbor is grateful for you too! Don’t assume that they owner knows about it, that someone else has called it in, or feel like you are bothering someone and being nosy. Barb didn’t think any of these things and she saved the day! Another thought that came to mind with this, look for a SUPER loud fire alarm and place those in barns and sheds. I wouldn’t have thought to do that before your post but now am going to. You might not be able to hear it from inside your house, but if you were in the barn or out in the yard, that could be some level of protection you could use.  Store fire extinguishers outside of outbuildings as well.

This is the first I’ve heard about it but it does seem like something to keep an eye on. From the article you linked to: “High-tide floods, also called “nuisance floods,” occur in coastal areas when tides reach about 2 feet (0.6 meters) above the daily average high tide and begin to flood onto streets or seep through storm drains.” “The U.S. experienced more than 600 of these floods in 2019, ….. a new study led by NASA warns that nuisance floods will become a much more frequent occurrence in the U.S. as soon as the 2030s, with a majority of the U.S. coastline expected to see three to four times as many high-tide flood days each year for at least a decade.” It seems with climate change and now this moon wobble, if I had a home or business near the coastline, I would consider moving further inland.  Wobble to me means that the moon will sway closer and further away from the earth in a wobble orbit. I wonder if that means that certain areas or times of the year will see lower tides as well, that could change ports or coral reefs if tides get pulled out and ships can’t get to the dock or coral is exposed.

I just got an email that an old Samsung account of mine was involved in a data breach which might have affected my “name, contact and demographic information, date of birth, and product registration information.” I created this account before I started using a password manager full time so I don’t know exactly what was all affected, but over the past few years whenever I add an new entry into my password manager I also add whatever information I give to that site such as which phone number, address, date of birth, etc… So when it is involved in a data breach like this, at least know what information was exposed. Now I am going to do some detective work and figure out what information Samsung had on me… Thanks for this guide with some helpful tips on what to do. P.S. I don’t like Samsung anymore. I have had a lot of troubles with many of their products for quite some time.

43 eco-terrorists were arrested after breaking glass displays at gas pumps, covering them with spray paint, or gluing themselves to gas stations across London. Just another reason to store gas at home and always keep your tank 1/2 full. If a wave of eco-terrorists go through and destroy the pumps in your city, you might have to drive far away to get gas for a few weeks while they are repaired. Telegraph.co.uk link Reddit video of them doing it

Great idea to share that as a forum post to help others out as well. I’m going to look online for some molds right now, buy them, then try out various recipes and report back.

Great advice and questions. Hope everyone doesn’t mind me writing out some of my responses and thoughts to them so that I can possibly get some further feedback or advice from all you experts. Q: Think how you will stay warm this winter. Do you have a way to heat your home? Do you need a sleeping bag? Do you need backup heat? A: I don’t have a way to heat my home, or a sleeping bag. Besides the ones in that article you linked to, are there any particular bags you all like? Q: Review your insurance coverage. Will you have coverage? What, and how much? Can you call your company to discuss it? If you won’t be covered for ‘extreme’ events, can you shop around? Does that change your life plans? Shopping insurance rates may also be a way to save some money. A: Actually I recently called my insurance company for a check-up to see if I needed to increase my coverage and they said I was all good and I was getting the best deal out there! Go me! Q: Use an umbrella for shade. Do you have other ways of staying cool? A: Fall is upon me soon so I will probably wait until next Spring to order this, but I want to buy popcicle molds and make my own healthier popcicles to cool me down on hot days. Q: Take a break. What are your favourite de-stressing activities? A: A good comedy movie or stand up comedian that makes you laugh a lot really makes me forget my troubles.