Are you prepared? Trying to be more self sufficient

Its actually easy. Once you get the jar caps and glass weights. Mostly a set it and let it sit for a couple weeks.

 

My mom has always done pickles. She does sweet pickles, bread and butter and dill. I'm lucky if I eat 1 jar of pickles a year.

 

I built her a dehydrating station in the basement last year.

I think her favorites are dehydrated peeps

 

I installed (3) 60 gallon pickle barrels in my crawl space for a rainwater catchment system. We use it for watering the garden and (rarely) pressure washing. There is a pump on the system that needs maintenance after a winter of non-use. I have a small experimental solar power system with 400 watts of panels on the front porch. A 4k generator and some stored fuel, an extra propane tank for the gas grill, and plenty of camping gear.

Our neighborhood is suburban, while I wouldn't call it a MAG, we are tight enough to come together during minor emergencies.

I grew up in a canning household, but did not participate enough to gain the knowledge.

 

You’re apparently well ahead of a lot of people. I’ve been delving into solar a little. Our tiny camper is solar equipped and self sufficient but I’ve been messing with a couple solar generators for here at home. We have a gas generator but I’d like to use the solar ones just to power a mini fridge for the house and my CPAP I sleep with.

 

I have a bit of a 'problem' with batteries. I salvage old computer battery packs and strip the cells out. I have even purchased some LiFePO4 cells and a battery cell spot welder for making battery packs. I have what might be considered an unhealthy number of 18650 cells floating around, and a DC-DC power supply to charge them with, so I can make a battery pack for dang near anything.

I'd like to put solar on my home built 'camper', but for now, the system mostly runs our holiday lighting through the year. It's running on UPS lead acid salvage batteries right now, but the MPPT charger has a profile for LiFePO4.

 

Well for this topic having knowledge on how to make or fix batteries could be very handy.
I’ve considered whole home solar as then a grid down situation wouldn’t concern me with water or heat but would, perhaps, make you a target for everybody else in the neighborhood.
Both generators are Ankers with Lifepo4 I liked the much extended charging cycles

 

This is a great subject. Debating how to be prepared bounces around my head a ton. Already storing some water for drinking, and canned goods, but struggle to find time for more. I think a MAG is on the list next, as well as decentralized communication for said group. Played a bit with meshtastic, but sometimes you just need to talk…

 

Getting into the preparedness lifestyle can be a bit overwhelming. You feel like you are behind and you need to do it all at once which can be stupid expensive. Start slow even if it’s just $20 in extra food everytime you go shopping it’ll add up. Remember Best Buy dates are just that Best Buy dates it doesn’t mean your food is bad. There are many forever foods and some easy ways to make some long term food storage of especially dried goods. Hopefully all here will share. I could go on and on but bed time for me. Happy to talk tomorrow. Many other aspects of preparedness as listed in first post it all depends on how far you are comfortable taking it

 

Before covid hit here in this country I was seeing what was going on in other countries. I'd buy a little extra every time at the grocery store, food, tp and frozen bread dough. When the panic hit we never went without anything.


By the way, great topic

 

Thanks I hope this keeps going.

 

For those of you who have already mentioned a MAG this is something I’ve been very interested in for a while as I realized there’s no way I can do this on my own if need be,
The hard part is finding people you can trust and that’ll trust me that are close enough to be of a bennifit. All this isn’t a topic you just throw out to everybody.
I have some good neighbors a couple seem interested but other than buying guns and a few things don’t do much. Others around me I can tell not interested in prepping at all

 

Cool I’m going to watch this when I get a minute

 

I have great sun exposure, would love a solar roof. Getting ready for a panel upgrade, 100 amp to 200 amp, with generator disconnect. Manly for power outages from storms. Great topic by the way.

 

Kinda off topic, sitting in the waiting room at eye doctors. The sun is shining in and I had a thought. What if every house in the US had a solar roof?

 

It would be less demand on the system I’d think but I’d want storage with it

 

I’d like a solar and/or wind system, but would definitely need storage capacity to get through the night and the low generating/bad weather days.
For water we have a 150-gallon rain collection system, at least 20 gallons of bottled water and the neighbors pool if it gets real bad.

 

Being in shape should be a top prepper objective, but from what I usually see, it unfortunately isn't.

 

My buddy has a solar set up on his camping trailer, storage battery, pretty slick.