SHTF Gear Discussion

[Randle]

What about a plan for human waste, garbage etc.
Drum liners, A burn barrel , masks so you aren't breathing the smoke from people burning trash everywhere .
Rodent , pest control..
The health problems could be bigger than what am I going to eat

 

[*zap*]

 

[Antarctica]

One thing that came to mind is canning meat. My current setup of keeping the freezers going via a natural gas generator. Should that go down, the meat wouldn’t last obviously. From reading, you need a pressure canner for meat due to the low acidity. Combined with the turkey fryer and propane tank I already have, a meat canning party could take place if I’m unable to keep stuff frozen.

It won't be much of a party. Doing meat in quart size jars is either a 70 or 90 minute (I forget exactly) cook cycle, with at least a 30 minute cool down before you can pull the jars out. I have a fairly large pressure canner (will do 7 quart jars at a time) and it takes some time to process 14 quarts. Also, you don't want a turkey fryer, 'cause you can't turn it down enough. Once the canner is up to temp/pressure, it needs very little flame to keep it going. It doesn't take much and you are blowing all the water out the top, which is not what you want to happen.

As far as trade things, you want stuff that will last. And I try to stick to stuff that I can also use, if need be. Meds expire - even after the ridiculously short expiration dates, and many need to be in a controlled environment. Whiskey is good, but I can't drink that much of it, and anything premium in that situation is a waste of money. People will just want rot gut to get drunk and forget their situation for a bit. So cheap crap like Vodka or grain, etc are probably the way to go. A still is probably not such a bad thing to have, because you can distill just about anything that has sugar in it.

Ammo lasts pretty much forever, the only problem is if you trade it, it can then be used against you.

 

[Dirt Wagon]

I am curious about the shelf life of dip and cigarettes. I don’t use them, but it’s not hard to imagine how much somebody who’s addicted to them and hasn’t had their fix would give you for them. There are guys who wouldn’t go up the mountain to kill a 400” elk screaming at them without their can of dip.

It's not very long, maybe 3-4 months tops before the tobacco dries out. I remember back in the day my parents would keep extra cartons in the freezer to keep them fresh when they bought in bulk. Better off buying 200ml or 375ml bottles of vodka/whisky. Cheaper and already small enough to use as a barter. Chances are if you buy the 1.75L bottles and separate it yourself it'll cause argument that your cutting the product with water.

 

[mcseal2]

I run enough old tractors with AM radios I hear a lot of adds for different survival foods plus gold, silver, etc.

It got me thinking a little but I don't do anything crazy. Like a lot of you I try to just stock a little deeper on things I will use any way. One thing I hadn't seen mentioned unless I just missed it, was fuel stabilizer. With gas today every time I mix fuel for a 2 stroke or fill a small engine I put fuel stabilizer in it. This gas just does not last long in storage. I use that anyway so I have enough for our ranch barrel. 2 stroke oil, chainsaw bar oil, diesel antigel/conditioner, I keep a little extra of those around too. I sold parts at a Case/New Holland dealership for a few years after school and saw antigel sell out before a storm several times.

Other things I keep extra of around include ammo for guns I shoot a lot. I slowed down practicing with 22LR when that shortage hit to keep the couple bricks I had for hunting and pests. When it went back to normal I got some more. I have a bolt action rifle in 7.62x39 for me and the kids to practice with cheap so I got some extra of those too. We buy some extra cans and other storable food when they have sales and rotate it so the oldest stuff gets used first. No big long term stuff, just like to have enough to ride out storms or get by if we decide not to go to town for a while.

I don't look at this as preparing, just basic self reliance. I have a wood stove in the house and wood cut to get by for a while. I can cook on the stove if needed. We get ice storms and power outages, this is just a good way to make that more convenient.

One thing I have thought a lot about is how fragile our food supply really is in a real SHTF event. Without outside fuel, feed, and other resources we could run about 1/7th of the cattle we currently have. That's what the grass alone would handle between warm and cool season grasses. There would be no way to get those cattle to a market without driving them. We do drive our cattle quite a bit and have horses. Handling the cattle wouldn't be an issue, but doing that through country filled with starving people would be impossible. Almost no seed in anyone's bin is heirloom seed, so long term farming wouldn't work. Game populations would be shot out in no time, along with most livestock. Most of the people shooting them would waste a lot of the meat because few know how to preserve it anymore. That's just on the food producing end, not the transportation or distribution of it. There just isn't a way that anything large scale doesn't end with a lot of people starving. Small scale the rest of the country can support the area that is affected like is done now, but if it's big enough things will get very bad very fast.

I spent about $60 on "prepping" a couple years back and got some heirloom seeds to put in the freezer. I will rotate them out in another year or so. I figure that is one thing I don't use that's probably worth having as an insurance policy. The garden could be planted with those instead of the higher producing seeds we normally use. We already have a garden, just as well have extra seeds. A small thing but after thinking of the food supply it makes me feel better.

Only so much a guy can do so I don't get crazy with it. I just don't want to be the person stocking up on bread, milk, and batteries every time the weatherman predicts a few inches of snow or a tornado.

 

[Gatorgrizz27]

It won't be much of a party. Doing meat in quart size jars is either a 70 or 90 minute (I forget exactly) cook cycle, with at least a 30 minute cool down before you can pull the jars out. I have a fairly large pressure canner (will do 7 quart jars at a time) and it takes some time to process 14 quarts. Also, you don't want a turkey fryer, 'cause you can't turn it down enough. Once the canner is up to temp/pressure, it needs very little flame to keep it going. It doesn't take much and you are blowing all the water out the top, which is not what you want to happen.

As far as trade things, you want stuff that will last. And I try to stick to stuff that I can also use, if need be. Meds expire - even after the ridiculously short expiration dates, and many need to be in a controlled environment. Whiskey is good, but I can't drink that much of it, and anything premium in that situation is a waste of money. People will just want rot gut to get drunk and forget their situation for a bit. So cheap crap like Vodka or grain, etc are probably the way to go. A still is probably not such a bad thing to have, because you can distill just about anything that has sugar in it.

Ammo lasts pretty much forever, the only problem is if you trade it, it can then be used against you.

I’d need to do a practice run with the canning, but as long as I have enough propane to do a deep freezer worth of meat it doesn’t really matter how long it takes. Good info about the heat control, my fryer is a cheap one and seems to go really low, but I need to see if it would work or not.

Thought about the ammo, but the only people I’d trust with it in that situation are close friends I’d give it to anyway, unless you’re just passing through and need some gas.

 

[flatlanderhuffandpuff]

Mcseal, you are absolutely right about our food supply chain.

Everything is delivered just in time and not until it is needed. If there was a large scale event that covered a state or more there is no way you could helicopter in enough supplies to keep everyone alive.

I once heard at any point in time we only have enough food in the country to feed ourselves for 3 weeks. I've actually had someone say to me "the government has enough food stored to feed us for a long time" haha. I would say they have enough food to feed themselves for a long long time.

 

[jackreacher]

ive been preparing by getting my fitness up and reading a ton of books. currently reading a bushcraft book. its very interesting. anyone interested heres the free pdf https://ardbark.com/bushcraft-101-a-field-guide-to-the-art-of-wilderness-survival/

 

[kthomas]

What kind of a disaster are we preparing for? Hurricane? Tornadoes? Tsunamis? Earthquakes? Volcanoes? Flash flooding? Another Fauci sponsored gain-of-function research gone wrong? An EMP attack from DRK?

It seems like these discussions always devolve into some sort of fantasy of having to run away from your home and live off the grid for an indetermined amount of time. However, I think most disaster preparations require us to be prepared at home. Yes, you may have to leave for a short period of time in some events, but you will be coming back to your home.

When you do come back to your home (if you even leave), how self-sufficient will you be? Do you have medical supplies? Food? What about power?

I think the smartest thing you can do is stock up on non-perishable food, medical supplies, and having a generator/power bank of some sort if the power is out for a long time. Do all your appliances run on electricity? Or can you cook food with gas/propane? Gas lines can go out to, so be prepared for that.