- May 4, 2000
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For the love of all that is holy, please no politics in this thread. I know some are just chomping at the bit to turn this into a left vs. right argument, but this thread is for people and what steps they have taken to being self-sufficient (if they choose to do so) for a period of time if SHTF in a particular region.
After the myriad of issues the U.S. has faced over recent memory (e.g. storms, natural disasters, war, drought, social unrest, Covid, ransomware shutting down gas distribution on the East Coast, water contamination, etc.)
For me, since I grew up pretty poor and went significant periods of time without food, had power, heat, and water disconnected, when I set out on my own (and especially after we had kids), I began to keep extra essentials at home. I also learned first-hand the hard way that with the significant power outages down here, without having a generator, all that chest freezer and main fridge items all went bad and were thrown away (probably I had to throw out around $600 worth of food).
Up until now, I never have gone to the level doomsday preppers, or even what Mormons (are supposed to do), which for me has had me always have at least:
- 2 weeks of non-perishable food
- 2 weeks of drinking water
-Large portable generator (along with extra oil) with enough LP to run for at least a week if ran 24/7
-Chest freezer
-About two weeks worth of charcoal, along with a gas grill that can use the LP tanks on hand.
-Flashlights, lanterns, around a dozen large wax candles, battery power banks for things like cell phones, and multiple kits of rechargeable batteries.
-I keep things for our cars like coolant, brake fluid, oil and air filters, along with at least enough motor oil for an oil change on all four cars,
-Enough heavy clothing / boots / blankets to keep warm in winter.
-Several oil filled radiators that could be run off the generator if needed.
-A first aid kit along with essential things like Pepto, aspirin, Aleve, allergy / sinus medication, and prescription medications to be ok for at least a month.
-Two bags of dry dog food for the puppies.
Some things I'm looking at adjusting going forward based on some near direct hits from hurricanes over the last several years, which caused extended power outages. We also lost power for about a week when a strong thunderstorm had "straight-line winds" took down many power lines (because they runs their lines under trees) across pretty the whole state of NC. We had to wait for electrical crews to come up from states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama since it was such a large mess to get cleaned up.
I think going forward from here on out, I'm going to change some things up a bit though. For example, once I get some additional shelves in our garage up soon, I will:
-Take the non-perishable food supplies to a 30 day supply
-Take the drinking water up to a 30 day supply, and supplement it with some bottled Gatorade / Propel, and a little bit of soda / energy drinks.
-I'll be looking at possibly storing some non-ethanol gas here for emergency vehicle needs since the whole ransomware thing almost had us where my wife was close to not being able to get to her hospital because gas was sold out everywhere for multiple days. The problems is, there are not many stations down here who sell that, and I'd likely have to drive about an hour outside of area to country type station.
-I might buy a few more LP tanks for powering the generator out to being able to be powered for 2 weeks if powered 24/7. Thankfully it can last up to 10 years, so that's why I use it over gasoline.
-Keeping a 6 pack of 50/50 oil gas premixed so that I can run things like a chainsaw and leaf blower.
Whew, that was a lot to think through this late.
After the myriad of issues the U.S. has faced over recent memory (e.g. storms, natural disasters, war, drought, social unrest, Covid, ransomware shutting down gas distribution on the East Coast, water contamination, etc.)
For me, since I grew up pretty poor and went significant periods of time without food, had power, heat, and water disconnected, when I set out on my own (and especially after we had kids), I began to keep extra essentials at home. I also learned first-hand the hard way that with the significant power outages down here, without having a generator, all that chest freezer and main fridge items all went bad and were thrown away (probably I had to throw out around $600 worth of food).
Up until now, I never have gone to the level doomsday preppers, or even what Mormons (are supposed to do), which for me has had me always have at least:
- 2 weeks of non-perishable food
- 2 weeks of drinking water
-Large portable generator (along with extra oil) with enough LP to run for at least a week if ran 24/7
-Chest freezer
-About two weeks worth of charcoal, along with a gas grill that can use the LP tanks on hand.
-Flashlights, lanterns, around a dozen large wax candles, battery power banks for things like cell phones, and multiple kits of rechargeable batteries.
-I keep things for our cars like coolant, brake fluid, oil and air filters, along with at least enough motor oil for an oil change on all four cars,
-Enough heavy clothing / boots / blankets to keep warm in winter.
-Several oil filled radiators that could be run off the generator if needed.
-A first aid kit along with essential things like Pepto, aspirin, Aleve, allergy / sinus medication, and prescription medications to be ok for at least a month.
-Two bags of dry dog food for the puppies.
Some things I'm looking at adjusting going forward based on some near direct hits from hurricanes over the last several years, which caused extended power outages. We also lost power for about a week when a strong thunderstorm had "straight-line winds" took down many power lines (because they runs their lines under trees) across pretty the whole state of NC. We had to wait for electrical crews to come up from states like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama since it was such a large mess to get cleaned up.
I think going forward from here on out, I'm going to change some things up a bit though. For example, once I get some additional shelves in our garage up soon, I will:
-Take the non-perishable food supplies to a 30 day supply
-Take the drinking water up to a 30 day supply, and supplement it with some bottled Gatorade / Propel, and a little bit of soda / energy drinks.
-I'll be looking at possibly storing some non-ethanol gas here for emergency vehicle needs since the whole ransomware thing almost had us where my wife was close to not being able to get to her hospital because gas was sold out everywhere for multiple days. The problems is, there are not many stations down here who sell that, and I'd likely have to drive about an hour outside of area to country type station.
-I might buy a few more LP tanks for powering the generator out to being able to be powered for 2 weeks if powered 24/7. Thankfully it can last up to 10 years, so that's why I use it over gasoline.
-Keeping a 6 pack of 50/50 oil gas premixed so that I can run things like a chainsaw and leaf blower.
Whew, that was a lot to think through this late.
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