Lots going on

[redman2006]

That should make people think more about preparedness. The chemical plant fire and evac, the earthquakes and probable coming eruption on the big Island of Hawaii, the discussion buy the Democrats of a forced gun buy back, the weather that wrecked the winter wheat in Kansas and other states of the American bread basket and the failure of Russia's crop last year to the point of banning exports, the volitility of our current market, the discussion of a trade war with China, and so on and so on.

Everything from long to short term needs are covered by those scenarios.

So, what is everyone doing? Would like to do? Needs to do?

How many are concerned about these subjects vs others?

Any thoughts? I would like to stimulate a little discussion like we used to have about these things.

[Boston_Joe]

The one big thing I would like but haven't yet moved on is going solar. The out of pocket expenses are just too much at present. We could live completely off grid for a while but that will get old real fast. As always I'm looking to build up greater stockpiles of just about everything. Finding the free time and $$$ is always a challenge.

[olfart]

We're doing piecemeal solar. Started with one 100 watt panel and one AGM battery with controller and inverter, now up to three panels and batteries. That's more than enough to run our tankless propane water heater and some lighting for the house, even small appliances.

Our garden is planted but not producing yet. My wife says she is sick of green beans. We have a bunch of them canned and have been trying to thin out some of the older ones.

The goats are producing kids and milk, still trying to get them regulated so they'll produce at somewhat regular intervals. As long as they have a say in when they breed, that's a problem. The latest one to deliver has a huge udder that was tight as a drum before she delivered, but now the 3 kids are eating most of what she produces. In a couple of months I'll separate the kids and start milking her.

Dilly and Veronica.jpg

Here's a little goat porn to show her bag before she delivered.

Dilly Bag.jpg

[southernmom]

Garden Garden Garden. That is mostly what I am up to-expanded to have a larger area for just peas and okra, along with the garden that has everything else. (pole beans squash both winter and summer, fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, cukes, etc.) Have also gotten the medicinal gardens into shape.
I have been concerned about the wheat issue. Trying to expand what we have but bills tend to eat up the extra we get in.

[W.Lynn]

Learning some more on the medicinal herbs and nutrition side of health. When socialists start going nuts, one thing they do is shove socialized (Charlie & Alfie) medicine down everyone's throats.

Eat more celery and peanut butter.

[southernmom]

Learning some more on the medicinal herbs and nutrition side of health. When socialists start going nuts, one thing they do is shove siocialized (Charlie & Alfie) medicine down everyone's throats.

Eat more celery and peanut butter.

2 books-'Herbal Antibiotics' and 'Herbal Antivirals' by Buhner are excellent and well supported. Must haves.

[WhiteBear620]

Anyone who's ever lived in FL has little excuse to not be a prepper, hurricanes with power outages and flooding are almost a yearly thing.

I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff done. Start the garden, get rain barrels together, get the gun stuff better done (more ammo, training, proper gear selection). Just got our roof replaced, not very big survivalist stuff that people like to talk about, but a leaky roof or one that can come off in a storm is a bad thing.
One thing I've been trying to do a lot of work on lately is working on my community. In with one of the local churches, trying to see what we as a church can do to help the community (we did a backpack giveaway last year)
Seeing what the local groups are doing
Trying to get to know my neighbors better, I was blessed with a pretty awesome group of neighbors that are the old school helping each other kind of group, one guy will just go around mowing everyone's grass (so long as they don't mind) once he's mowed his, another is helping with landscape projects, I'm lending manual labor whenever I see something going on since I don't have a trade skill to offer up. Trying to get more gunsmithing tools and learn more, so I can offer that to the rest of the guys as a service; I also make holsters so I told one neighbor to let me know when he wants a free holster for CC since he helped with our cabinets.

[W.Lynn]

The large boy is interested in water barrels, I have a small solar kit I'm going to try to get him into. The small one (as noted in the zombie apocalypse blog entry,) is going to be a rough & ready, all around sort. The daughter has been working on getting her health in order, and as I type this, the RP is going into debt for a much better pickup truck than we already have.

[redman2006]

White bear, do you sell them? What type, and what do you have for patterns? I need a couple myself.

[kickstand]

In reality, we are continuing to do what we started doing back ~2010...putting a little away every chance we get.
What I have GOT to get better at is rotation. I started quietly filling a 5 gallon buckets with rice, dried beans, canned veggies & meat, various cleaning supplies (in their own buckets), etc., and when one got full, I would seal a lid on it, date it, move it to the barn, and start again.
The problem is, once it made it to the barn, it never got rotated back into the pantry. Now I have some buckets of food items in the barn that are dated 2010, and I'm dang near skert to open them to see what time has done to them.

[redman2006]

I need grain and a good way to store and process it. Paying what they want for packaged grain is not happening. Growing up in wheat country, the price for bagged or bucket grain and shipping just goes against the grain. (Yeah, bad pun)

[W.Lynn]

Sealed, I wouldn't be scared - heck, the beans (once soaked,) may even be willing to sprout. Wouldn't have near the success rate of new seed, but a few.

[WhiteBear620]

White bear, do you sell them? What type, and what do you have for patterns? I need a couple myself.

I don't really have any patterns. I've been making my own holsters for around a year, so I just use my own guns all taped up. Made one for the wife's gun belt, she only has an SR22 so there weren't many options (yeah, she needs to upgrade).

DROPHOLSTER.jpg

CONCEALEDHOLSTER.jpg
I messed up on this one with the holes, drilled it but then realized I needed to flatten that area out more with a heat gun. It's for a Shield 9mm. I made it for a lady at church so she didn't really care since the only thing I charged her was materials.

I'd be willing to make some for you if you're local to me or if you need one for a gun I have, I only have a Shield, SR22, and a Hi Point 9mm (roommate's) in the house to work off though.
I really only started it because I got burned on a custom holster order (four months of waiting and two wrong holsters sent to me), so I said screw it and started making my own, saves me some money too.
I'm also considering starting to make slings out of Biothane too, but I'll need to test them and I'd have to check with a company who's design I'm deliberately using before I even consider selling them, they only make theirs out of nylon webbing and only in one size, they said they're not interested in making different variations on it. So maybe I can send them a sample and then pay them royalties on it.

[redman2006]

Nice. I have played with kydex and enjoyed it. My skill level is not so good. My issue has been over thinking attachments.

My wife has an sr22 as well. Good little pistol, and darned few holsters out there. Right now, she uses one of those uncle Mikes Cordura disasters. The style that holds the mags on the front and the front sight acts as a level sucks retention holster. ( won't come out if you need it in a hurry, but falls out when you don't want it to)

She won't upgrade either. She hits what she shoots at with it, does not like recoil, and hates heavy springs for working a slide, so I just left it be. She is happy, and a half dozen 22 on target beats 17 misses with a 45 or 9.

[redman2006]

Here is a question on rotation:

The idea is we have a reserve, so if you build a big enough reserve to cover a major issue, you can't rotate through it all. Some will gradually get old and out of date. How do you handle that?

I know people say store what you eat, but in reality, whole wheeat, large quantities of beans and rice, and so on are not getting eaten in our everyday life, but would be a staple in an emergency.