Do your prepping grid up. If you make mistakes, it’s easier to fix them when you still have functioning civilization.
Food:
- Prepper buckets. (patriot food supply and others.) 3 months minimum. 7 years ideal. Maybe you can trade if you have an overstock.
- Store at least a month of regular food, which you’ll rotate through. Practice using your pantry, and see how long you can go between shopping trips before using, half. If something stays in there too long, consider focusing on food you find you actually use.
- Establish a garden.
- Plant fruit trees and berry bushes.
- Learn how to can and jar.
- Compost.
- Get a green house, and find ways to heat it in winter, such as black barrels filled with water.
- Get some sort of animal sourced food, such as egg laying hens.
- Don’t forget pet food. Rev 6 says beasts of the earth is one thing that kills people. Starving pets?
Water collection:
- Rain barrels. You will use a surprising amount of water, especially if you have a garden. Check your utility bill. I have used both wood and plastic. I prefer plastic. It’s less hassle, but you do need to drain them in winter. Wood dries out and leaks if you drain the barrel. You filter the water. You don’t need to worry about outgasing.
- Water Filter.
- Well. A well is better than rain barrels, but this can be an ‘and’, not an ‘or’. Some municipalities will still allow wells for gardens (neither residential nor farming). It’s a technicality. If it’s within 500 feet of a septic tank, it may not be safe. You’ll still want to sterilize and filter in a pinch.
- You need a way to sterilize the water. Chlorine is a solid option. 2 or 3 drops per gallon. You can go a little strong if you have concerns. Remember, you should sterilize, then filter. You can use iodine, peroxide, and even solar ovens to sterilize the water.
Cooling/Power:
make sure you have enough solar for freezers and refrigerators
- You should have a refrigerator and a freezer.
- You should have enough solar power to keep those running for 5 cloudy days in the winter. That’s your minimum.
- Your ideal is enough to run your whole house 5 cloudy days in winter. If you achieve that, you can always cut back in a pinch to keep critical equipment running.
- If you have a well for backup, consider if it is manual or needs power.
- Make sure window screens are in good repair, so you can at least ventilate on hot days, if you don’t have enough to run an air conditoner. Don’t forget air conditioners use a lot of power. A whole house AC may use as much as 10 kilowatts. The only other thing close is electric dryers or electric stoves.
Cooking:
- Cooking grid down is tough. Electric stoves either won’t work, or will add a huge demand to your solar budget. You will need gas, but gas may fail if grid is down long enough or government cuts off gas.
- A charcoal grill might burn some wood.
- Another alternative is assemble rocks in a U pattern and pull a grill from your kitchen stove.
- An indoor wood stove is good. It can cook and heat your home in the winter. It’d be rough to use in the summer.
- Have a source of wood. Either own some trees you can cut down or be able to trade with someone who does.
- Be sure you have a large number of matches. A flint and steel would a renewable fire starter, but I don’t know how to use it. I suspect many reading this don’t either.
medicine:
- Get books on local edible and medicinal wild herbs. Some edibles can double as food. Foraging is an option if things get really hard. It’d be nice to figure that out as a method of training first.
- Make a list of any medications or herbal remedies you might need, and stock up on those.
hunting:
- Rifle. Possibly add a scope.
- Bow and arrow. Bows are fairly quiet. A gold standard would be to figure out how to repair a bow and craft your own arrows.
- Body armor. This is at the bottom of my list. I’ll probably never get it, but if you’re rich, might as well. Things might get rough.
- Traps. Squirrels and rabbits can be eaten to. …plus keep them out of your garden.
- Hutning knife. You need to learn how to skin something.
patrols and communication:
- Talk to neighbors. Make sure they are prepping to. Hopefully, most people around you have a level of preparedness, so you’re a team when it’s tough and not an island. Odds are different people have different skills and resources.
- Short wave radio. This isn’t high priority, but it’s relatively cheap. I’d be nice to keep tabs on what’s happening in the world. I figure short wave is the most apt to still have someone transmitting.
- CB radio or HAM. We may set up a little network of folks to chat with. Several local farms use CB.
- A nice head lamp or lantern. Rechargable batteries should keep for quite awhile if not used. Don’t forget the battery charger. You can keep a stash of non-rechargable as well. They also last awhile if not used.
tools:
- chain saw
- hand saw
- axe, wedge, sledge hammer, hatchet
- grass blade (manual cutting of grass.) You’ll still want to cut some grass grid down. Tall grass invites snakes, bugs, and other pests you don’t want near your home or garden.
- Grind stone