Shelves are emptying and now prices are about to jump again. This is the moment your crazy prepper friends tried to warn you about. This is your last chance to prepare for the worst.
Guns and ammo: doesn't have to be fancy. Get something you are comfortable hunting and defending yourself with.
Food: canned goods. Anything that has a shelf life longer than 6 months. Hopefully this won't last longer than a few weeks, but hope is not a game plan. Anticipating the worst is.
Warm clothing and blankets: remember the Texas deep freeze? Plan for that times 10 if you want to make it.
That's all basic stuff you can and should get right now... God bless and protect, Frens... We'll make it.
The Walmarts here are notorious, and have been for years, for not stocking the shelves and leaving expanses of shelves empty for weeks at a time. Suddenly, the past couple of weeks those Walmarts' shelves are full like I haven't seen for years.
Meanwhile, the two grocery chains that aren't national but regional, have had full shelves all along and still do.
Last summer, three local stores, not all Walmarts but all national chains, had huge empty sections in frozen foods all claiming the frozen sections were broken.
I've seen other people saying their Walmarts are stocked better than they have been. Prices are up pretty dramatically on a lot of stuff.
Bottom line - I think this is being manipulated and I think shoppers are being manipulated to buy now that prices have been jacked up.
Not trying to discourage anyone from stocking up. I think this is only going to get worse.
One of my friends back when Covid started and people were standing in line to get into grocery stores said they were getting us used to standing in bread lines.
Adding this - if you think this will last longer than weeks, get some seeds for hardy, easy to grow, nutrition rich plants like kale, mustard, turnips, beans, pumpkins. Keep them in air sealed (Foodsaver) bags if you can.
Adding one more thing. Stocking up protects you some from continued inflation of food prices.
I've been trying to avoid the media like the plague since Nov. 4. That includes the ones that have proven they're not on our side like Fox and Newsmax. I stick to Gateway Pundit, Whatfinger, Blaze and OANN. And here.
We bought a freeze dryer earlier this year, and I felt half-guilty about it thinking it was an extravagance.
Now I wish we had bought the large model. I'm waiting for a load of raw chicken wings for our dog to finish.
We no longer call ourselves vegan because that means whacko Communist lefties who think they are saving the planet drinking Coca Cola and stuffing their gobs with vegan donuts. We are whole food plant based eaters. Been stocking up on lots and lots of dry calories - beans and lentils, whole grains, raw nuts, seeds, and even some whole grain pastas. All that stuff goes in food grade plastic storage containers.
We have some winter greens growing, and I can grow some indoors over the winter if necessary.
We also got a 1/2 cord of wood delivered nearly two weeks ago.
Ooooooo. I've been dehydrating everything all summer. I have a batch of celery and asparagus in there right now. This is just a regular dehydrator, not a super whizbang freeze dryer. Wow. I'm jealous. Don't feel even fractionally guilty!
I love the ease of dehydrating, so much easier than canning and no sweltering kitchen. But if power goes out, it has no effect on the dried items.
The smartest things to stockpile are beans, rice and greens, I think. Going back to the old Recipes for a Small Planet vegetarian cookbook (I'm not a vegetarian but have always like to try new things) are close to complete proteins, especially if you add in some cheese. And they can all be dried so they're easy to store.
You can grow kale outside all winter unless you live at the North Pole. You can also get you a mini hoop house and really keep them going in winter. I grew some one year under a large old fish tank that had cracked. Just prop up one end an inch or so for ventilation.
Half a cord of wood isn't a lot. I hope you can do more. We do all our heating with a pellet stove and a woodstove. Did you see my post about being able to get a permit to cut dead wood if you have a national forest nearby?
If they eat a wide variety of plant foods (eat intelligently), vegans can get complete protein.
In the developed world, it is practically impossible to consume too little protein, unless you are really deficient in calories.
One essential amino acid (not a protein) that vegans cannot get is taurine. Our supplement provides some.
Half a cord of word is a lot for us because of storage space. We have crammed wood into every nook and cranny in our garage and also have a pile of wood sitting out in the weather. We also have a backup generator.
All of our wood sits out in the weather. We throw a tarp over it if it's going to snow but take it off when it clears. We stack some on the back porch or side patio when using the woodstove a lot.
Don't forget a few packs/jugs of water for that just in case moment and a way to provide yourself water in case it is shut off and you have no well, cistern or tank. Also filters and whatever you need to purify some if the need be.
Don't forget your doctor prescriptions and any other medicines for emergencies. Also childrens medicines in case they live with you or nearby. Childrens tylenol, allergy medicine, cold and flu formula and any other they may need. If mom and dad runs out or forgets it, then thank God for grandma and grandpa. And don't forget diapers and baby formula. Those have gotten really expensive.
Also don't forget your pets enough food and water along with any meds your pets may need.
Feminine products for those young ladies in a well stocked cabinet along with grandma or grandpa's depends. Haha. Sorry grandma and grandpa; I'm one too. You know what I mean.
Any other items needed or that you have in your stash that is not mentioned feel free to post it to help out our other friends here on GAW that might want/need to add to their stockpile. God bless us all..
Long-lasting candles!!! I bought 2 packs of three that burn a long time. (On sale for hurricane season a few months ago.) We also have an oil lamp.
Don't forget matches. Always buy matches and candles at the same time. Running out of matches (or lighters) is truly a bummer.
We still have big kitchen matches from before Y2K. I pull one out to test every few months. We still have most of a case.
I also have a magnesium fire starter, a flint and steel file, and a Zippo with extra flints and fluid. There's also magnifying glasses to start fire with the sun, and sticks, rope, wood, and tinder to start fire with friction.
I could use some of those candles. Thanks.
I've even made "meat" candles. Saving grease from cooked meats, strain well, add scent & wick.
Oooohhhhh! I like that idea!
Easy and cheap. Just be sure to strain well. You dont want bits of meat to turn rancid in your candle. I just strain thru a coffee filter.
Most of us can't stockpile medicines but you can ask to get as many as possible switched to 90 day prescriptions. Even if you have water stockpiled, if it looks like all hell's about the break loose, fill your bathtub(s) with water. Then you won't have to use your potable water for washing, flushing toilet, etc.
If you have a well, you need a generator, gas to run the generator and a way to hook it up to your well pump. If you live on an older property with an old hand pump still attached to an old well, don't let some knucklehead disable it (I'm look at you, my sweetie.)
We have frequent power outages here and candles are a great idea but don't give much light. We have oodles of oil lanterns, kerosene, batteries and LED flashlights and lanterns. And matches.
Soap for cleaning yourself, your clothes and your dishes. I have a several bars of cheap Fels-Naptha soap as backup too.
I have some frozen meats but a lot of you seem to be depending on your freezer still working. Make sure you have canned and/or dried foods too.
Amen on the refrigerator and the freezer. I have plenty of canned meats. My problem is my medications because I can only get a month supply at a time. So when my blood pressure shoots up, I'm praying this Garlique and other over the counter herbs that I read about will work.
I also read on here the other day about those outdoor solar lights. I'm thinking about buying up a bunch to charge outside and bring in at night. But I do have 5 hurricane/kerosene lamps, lots of candles and matches and a few flashlights. But if you run out of everything else like lamp oil and candles, those solar lamps would come in mighty handy.
I have the same problem. I'm diabetic and have lung issues. Not much helps diabetes other than maybe banaba and ashwaganda. I have some on hand. Extracts from some mushrooms help with breathing.
Here's some things that help a little with blood pressure, at least that's what they say. Note the warning about talking to your doctor. Won't your doctor give you a 90 day prescription for your bp meds?
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327508#magnesium
Yes, my doctor will give me a 90 day script, but my insurance won't pay for it. I don't know why. I've already tried that once before. Thanks.
Ask the insurance company if they'll pay for a different but equally effective medicine and what that is. There are a lot of hp meds available.
Thanks, I hadn't thought about that.
Rice, beans, pasta, oats, wheat.
I also canned lots of soups esp for the water content.
Love the soups. Great idea.
I’ve spent all day prepping and waiting for the other shoe to drop.
That'll be sometime later, after the first one drops.
Everything you couldn't get during the 2020 first wave of genocide, I went out and stocked up on. Two-year supply of TP, paper towels, rubbing alcohol, Lysol, kleenex, sanitizer...that's basically it. Got canned goods already, horsie paste, and vitamins. Not expecting any major catastrophe, but better safe than sorry.
When you buy sanitizer make sure it's made in the US because some of the ingredients from overseas sanitizer is illegal here in the US. The reason for this is due to health concerns.
We make our own sanitizer with aloe and alcohol.
I would add coconut oil and essential oils: Lavender, Tea-tree, Clove. The coconut oil is so that you can make salve by adding a drop or two of the essentials. If affordable, get fancier and also buy eucalyptus, rosemary and rose, but those are really just feel-good IMO. Eucalyptus is good in the old steam-under-towel sinus treatment and can reduce the itch of mosquitoes. Lavender and rose are the only ones that can be used on babies (diluted) as they are not toxic. To explain: Lavender is antiseptic and heals promoting cell growth. Tea-tree is anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-venom so is an excellent first-aid. Clove is just the thing for toothaches, which you don't want in an apocalypse. Be aware that using clove oil repeatedly kills nerve endings, which is like giving yourself a slow root canal. Usually takes about a week, of thrice daily application of one drop of pure clove oil. However, needs must, when your tooth is driving you insane, and the dentist is demanding a vax passport, or you are sitting in the boonies or whatever. Oh, and rosemary oil is the thing to inhale when you are feeling desperate.
Clove is also an antiparasitic
This thread is a great time to remind everyone that you probably throw out food scraps that can be planted straight into the ground. Examples: The bottom of an onion Bottom of a green onion Base of cabbage Base of bok Choi Base of celery Eye of potato
And many vegetables can be grown while continuously harvesting parts of the same plant. Broccoli for example, you can harvest parts of it and let it keep growing. This is beneficial as the plant doesn’t need to re-grow the roots and base so you can get more broccoli faster.
Because sausage doesn't keep more than a couple months in the freezer without starting to get a stale flavor, I make big batches of this beans and sausage dish that lasts forever in the freezer. One recipe makes 5 or 6 very generous helpings and the whole thing costs $10, or about $2 a serving (even cheaper if you are not a hearty eater or serve with rice)
1.5 lbs dry beans - 1 lb dark kidney and can be mixed with pinto (cheaper) or other beans for variety 1 lb hot italian sausage 1 medium onion, chopped roughly 1 clove garlic, minced 1 large can diced tomatoes chili powder cumin crushed red pepper (opt) salt + pepper
soak beans overnight in a big pot of salted water, then the next day, boil for 1.5 hours or until tender.
Slice sausage links into 6 pieces then cook in heavy cast iron pot in some oil with the garlic. Just until the pink is gone - no need to brown or overcook. They'll cook some more once all the ingredients are in, so they'll get done and if you don't overcook in the beginning, they'll stay tender.
Once sausage is no longer pink, add the chopped onion and the diced tomatoes. Stir, then add 2-3 TBS of chili powder and 2 TBS of cumin (more or less according to your taste, but this is a good starting point). Add 1 TBS of crushed red pepper if you like a little zing. Salt and pepper. Cook and stir for a while, then start adding the beans, moving from the bean pot to the sausage pot with a strainer utensil. Once the beans are all in, stir it up and add water from the bean pot to bring liquid close to top of beans.
Simmer15 or 20 mins. Don't overcook it, because the sausage will lose its flavor and texture.
When serving, sour cream or shredded cheese can be added.
Keeps very well in fridge for a week, and freezes easily, lasting many months without a bad taste if you squeeze all the air out.
This is a very easy pot of food to make for a very reasonable price. I'm doing up a lot of batches which sausage is still around $4 a pound. It's very hearty and filling, even moreso if served over rice.
Be on the lookout for an older freezer with manual defrost. The auto defrost really shortens the edible lifespan of frozen foods. I have my grandparents Coldspot they bought new in 1968.
Good point. I had four old ones I got second hand years ago. Two of them shit the bed this past year, and it's impossible to find used freezers anymore. I have a guy who deals in second hand appliances (saves a fortune - perfectly good dryer cost $100 and has lasted 12 years so far) and he said last year with the lockdown, everybody was buying freezers and he can't find them anymore.
I've never noticed any change in the taste of our sausage even after a couple of years.
We buy bulk, custom blended sausage from an old-time country store in the area. We make patties, spread them on parchment and sheet pans to freeze. After they are frozen, we use the Fresh Saver to vacuum seal them in meal-sized packs.
Vacuum sealing makes all the difference. The packaged bacon I get from the grocery store is vacuum sealed and lasts indefinitely in the freezer. But the sausage is not and I don't have a vacuum sealer, so I cook it into a recipe because it starts to taste a little off after a couple months.
The vacuum sealer is a very good investment. Our current one is a good number of years old. We wore out the previous one.
We had pork chops a couple of days ago that we packaged a year ago. They tasted brand new.
Make sure to drain your beans before cooking after soaking them overnight. They leech toxins (phytohaemagglutinin) and draining will get rid of those.
The toxins also are what cause the gas many associate with bean eating.
What happens if the freezer stops working? How long does it take to reheat?
If you freeze it in quart bags, which is big enough for 1 or 2 servings, it thaws quite easily in a bowl of warm water.
If we are reduced to eating only what we have prepped/grow, then 80% of the population will be dead in just a few weeks.
Everyone here has 10X more food in storage than normies.
To me, this means we won't have to wait months for the outcome. It will be under a few weeks for the whole thing to play out (once it starts).
I think a lot of people have been buying extra food for many months. I haven't seen the kind of stupid, two grocery carts full of toilet paper buying I saw last year. I am seeing that people are buying canning supplies, bulk sized bags of staples like flour and rice, canned meats and vegetables and of course cat food because apparently even the people not buying extra food for themselves are buying massive stockpiles of cat food.
I love to grocery shop and have been slowly filling our pantry and deep freezer. It doesn't hurt to have extra regardless, but now is a trying time.
A few weeks ago my brother and I bought a used handheld/ BB Gun. But we hope we never have to use it?
Like Trump always said peace through STRENGTH
If your aim is good, you can pick off birds and squirrels. You can run off dogs with a BB gun, but it won't help against determined large animals or people. For that, you need a real gun.
Only time will tell...
I don't think anyone here is in any danger of losing their senses or panic buying.
I buy all the time from local farmers because luckily I live in a rural area. I posted a link here a while ago to a local farm where i buy meat. But most of the local farm stands and sellers at farmers' markets are selling a lot of stuff bought from the same factory farms the grocery stores are buying from. I found one here that sells mostly their own products, even they are selling tomatoes now from Florida. One other local farm sells only their own stuff but you can only buy whatever is in season at that moment with long gaps of nothing.
I even considered investing in a CSA but the closest one to me is about 100 miles round trip per week. If you can find one that delivers anywhere close to you, that's a great way to support a local farm. You'll only get vegetables, fruits, eggs and maybe meats in season and they shut down in winter.
If the food supply shuts down, I don't think local farms are necessarily going to be more reliable.
My mother was raised on a farm where Grandpa did all of the heavy work and plowing with his mules. He never owned any farm machinery, or even a car until after my mother was grown. They had no electricity and no running water indoors. They cured their own hams from their own hogs. The one thing Mama hated was hog slaughtering day.
Daddy was a town kid but his parents were country folks raised on farms too. The farm where that Granddaddy was raised has been in the family since the 1750s. Point of all this is we were raised gardening, canning, making things by hand.
We always had a big garden and canned everything, Mom made jars and jars of apple butter in a big old cauldron outside over a fire and stirred with a giant wooden stirring thing. I am a gardening nut, but had no garden this year because of health problems in the spring.
Most of the CSAs around here cater more to the cities and unless you have one close by, it's too far to drive. They seem to be waning. We used to have two near here and another two just across the mountain but they have all gone belly up.
Big hugs to you too. Give me a holler if you need any gardening info, seed sources and so on. Get you some emergency seeds now unless you're growing heirlooms that you can seed save from.
We have small items.running out or few on the shelves but all the stores here in vegas are well stocked.
Although I suspect it's going to happen, I'm in a constant state of denial. You just lit a fire under me and we will stock up. Thanks for the reminder!!!!
QUESTION: I take @10 prescription meds/day for multiple health issues. Is there a way to 'stock up' on them....just in case they get stuck over in China or on some ship out in the ocean? I'm curious as to how others are planning ahead with meds.
Try and have your Doctor write the script for a 90 day supply.