I just purchased two oil lamps that I am super happy with along with extra fuel for them. They produce so much light I was stunned. They also last about 5 evenings burning about 4 hours each night before needing refilled. The oil doesn’t seem to ever really expire either if stored correctly.

I am using them regularly for evening lighting to get used to using them and I really enjoy the light they give off.

Both are brass and sturdy with only the glass lamp part but brass base where the oil is stored. The one is smaller and is made to carry around the house as needed.

They seem like a great addition and safer than candles. I obviously have fire extinguishers around the house though just in case.

Just wondering if there is anything I should do in particular to store tvp, textured vegetable protein. It is dried, so I don't think will appeal to bugs, other critters.

I was thinking if I get the 50lb bag, to just buy some 5 gallon buckets and put them in there, just dumped right in.

I can't see why any more precautions need to be taken, as it will be used in under a year, and shouldn't have any critters on it like agricultural products.

Thoughts?

Freezing rain the past 24 hours has caused havoc across Ontario. Will take days to restore power and downed trees.

What amazes me though is how many people failed to listen to the well publicized warnings. Lineups for gas, no heat, no electricity etc. Very easy to keep 10 gallons of gas on hand for a few days of generator useage.

Listening to warnings is free and easy prepping!

I feel like this is extreme prepping, but my husband has insanely high blood pressure, and so does my frequently visiting dad. Is it worth it? I think it is, but I also live rurally.

I know CPR/BLS…

Let’s say I’m going to Mauritius (an island country) to visit a friend. I’m there and then I get news that a long term SHTF world changing event has hit the USA making travel back to USA, or any country impossible due to this event.

What could I do to survive this situation as a foreigner, would going back home even be possible? As a traveler this situation worries me.

Contents of my bag. 60 alkaline batteries, 2 lanterns, flashlights and headlamps , 2 quarts of water, 2 water filters and set of purification tablets,7200 calories of ration bars, matches, 6 tea lights candles, road atlas of USA, compass and basic med kit, walkies, battery fan. Other things I keep outside the bag is a 250 watt hour jump starter and extra charging cables.

Hi! New pepper here. I have unofficially maintained a deep pantry for years and would like to start to build out my long term stockpile. I have been reading and researching about foods that can be stored in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, but am stressed about the less than 10% moisture thing.

How do I know if the rice is dry enough for example. Everything I read says white rice can be stored this way, but then I google average moisture content of white rice is around 12%. Do you have to do something to dry the rice more? Is the 12% wrong? Am I overthinking this?

Should I just stop stressing about this and buy from a company that has prepackaged products? And if so, what are reliable sources?

TLDR: I don’t want to accidentally kill myself with botulism and am not sure how to proceed with long term food storage.

We are exploring the idea of building a house. While considering the various design features, I was exploring different pre-fab bunker companies. However, I’m curious about the possibility of building a relatively small cellar under my basement - is this possible/practical?

My idea is to have an 10x12 concrete room poured with the overall foundation about 8-10 feet below the basement floor. I’d have an unfinished closet concealed by a Murphy door with a concrete steps leading down to it. Possibly a secondary ladder exit out of a manhole in the yard.

IF this is possible, what considerations are there for sump, air, plumbing etc. that I should build into the plans?

I was opening a #10 can of flour today with what I thought was a good hand crank opener from costco. It kept going off the can so I had to realign it several times. This caused the metal to open unevenly and created tiny metal shards. I’m now throwing out all of this flour vs sifting and using a magnet for shards because it’s too dangerous to eat.

How do you avoid this? Is the opener just dull or something?

Looking to get a 6x8 above ground storm shelter installed in the garage with a 6 foot storage bench in the back. What are some of the extra items you found to make it just a little nicer? I'm looking at maybe a fan/light combo generic survival stuff and what not. I'm thinking of maybe adding a large padded seat for the top of the bench and attaching it with Velcro.

I'm curious what you guys use to manage your preps and contigency planning along with SOPs and intel?

I've used many tools but started using Obsidian a while back and boy has it helped identify flaws and weak points as well as strong points in my planning.

Definitely recommend looking into it.

Even found a way to have a full offline version of my vault that can be mobile-accessed which means a solar charger and phone would be enough to access literal TBs of data given the right setup.

My favourite thing about it is it's the only tool that cleary shows a visual map of links between different community members or bits of intel, or even interdependencies between plans or skills and resources.

Alright folks, the title essentially says it all.

For the purpose of over-landing and extended camping during a bug out scenario. (I know bugging out is not ideal, but for my situation that’s what has to be done).

In your opinion, which brand has the best solar generator and why? (Looking for personal experiences or 2nd hand anecdotes)

Goal Zero has a lot of great marketing, but I have also heard that there products break down fast and don’t last as long as others. And I heard there warranty and customer service was also garbage.

Is that anyone’s experience??

I am just starting to research but haven’t heard as much about Anker and wanted to ask the community and see what folks thought before making a big purchase. (Been saving for a while)

I am thinking for an easy test kit for over-landing, something in the 15-2000W range.

Then thinking something in the 6-8000W range for bugging out and helping set up a base camp of sorts.

Thank you for everyone’s time and help and I am excited and curious to see what people say.

P.S. If someone already answered the questions or had a mega thread please feel free to link or redirect me, thanks!!

Home Depot does a deal of the day on their website and today's (3/28) deals are on power generation, and home security.

It includes some ryobi generators, Anker solar generators, gun safes, security cameras, and door locks. If you go to their website it's on the main page on the right side.

So, I am pretty new to prepping, although I have always had bug out bags and water on hand, having lived in NZ or Los Angeles most of my adult life where earthquakes are a real threat. I have a powdered oat milk company that sold out of stock last year between the hurricanes and ever since then I've really taken my own prepping a lot more seriously. I think about fuel and water all the time and have done more bulk buying of food that I ever have. Does anyone else find it oddly enjoyable and almost like a hobby? Getting on here and hearing about what everyone else is doing and how they are thinking of things, and building up my own supplies and systems has become one of my favorite past times :)

Tonight I planted grape vines along my back fence and unplugged from the electric and water grids to see how long I can go. It has taken several years and lots of money and effort to get here.

Sometimes we look at others and their accomplishments and feel overwhelmed, but keep plugging along. You'll get there. I'm still on my journey. I want to learn to preserve the things I'll grow in my garden this year. I need to organize my pantry and supplies. There are always things to improve. Keep working at it. Over time, you'll get there.

I do it for the peace of mind, and my preps sometime come in handy, which feels really good. What's your motivation? How far have you come, and what's next on your preparedness list? When did it pay off for you?

Probably not too many have watched these short films unless you are a documentary nerd, reenactor or into living history.

But there is a lot of information available for preppers also.

On washing clothing by hand with lye water, making soap making paper, making garden rakes with green wood, how to cut trees sustainably so the same tree grows year after year.

A lot of information if you know a bit about history. The one about washing clothes had making lye water, talked about the linen being off-white and what it was still dirty and needed a good soak and pounding to get white. And if you know how linen is made, you know they are referring to the chaff still stuck in the twist of the yarn that must be broken out of the weave. How history and stories were shared as the women worked

They show up on my fakebook a lot but also in other places. I'm sure you can hunt them down.

Eugenio Monesma Documentaries

I just received 2 24lb bags of wheat berries and unknowingly set them on a surface with oil on it overnight. When I picked them up to move them I found oil stains. It has seeped through the inner bag. Are they compost now? The grains move around. I can’t know what has and hasn’t touched the oil. How does the oil affect storage? I’m so bummed.

Hey guys! I'm curious to hear your opinion on signal flares. How essential do you think they are in an emergency, and is it worth stockpiling them for the long term?

Provided a bug-in scenario, you'll have your preps..but what if they've spoiled or they have to be contributed to the community? What if they're "collected" by a NG Unit for the greater good? Are you really gonna start blasting when 6 Humvees with M60's and an RQ9 roll up with your family home? A lot of people think they'll just collect their rations and become farmers when shtf. "I've got seeds, I'll just garden my backyard!"...but it's important to realize how many nutrients it takes to grow food on a large scale in a small space. You can stow away fertilizer but how long will that last you? What about your neighbors? It's best to start composting now to supplement your nutrient needs and learn the process of keeping a tight cycle of nutrients. Learn to garden and start COMPOSTING today. The Lone Wolf fantasies are fun but when shtf, communities pull together and succeed. The real power-house when shtf is the guy that shows up to farm the boulevards and backyards. There will be pain and bloodshed but agrarian collectivism will return.

Hi everyone, Bug Out Bags have been documented to death I think. But all BOB lists are all about bushcraft, camping and hunting gear in an 60 liter backpack called “72 hour sustainment” or something along those lines. Plus, in case one has to BO, where do you want to walk? You can do maybe 3 miles per hour. I mean it is different for everyone and every scenario. When organizing my BOB the list is totally different. If I have to bug out, i do not expect to return in the near future but would much rather resettle in a different location or even country.

For this scenario I am packing it as follows: a) Irreplaceable personal items like diaries, memories, hard drives b) value dens items like currency and so on c) Documents like Diplomas, passport, certificates, property documents d) Personal Protection Equipment e) Camping gear so sustain me and my fam on the way f) wear most valuable but also weather resistant clothes g) get all of this in my car and GTFO

I think about all of this because it contains items from everyday life. So in stead of a grab bag I would store all of the items close together with the planned bag and be ready in several minutes.

What do you consider a realistic BOB?

I've searched in the wiki and done a general search without an answer. I was wondering if anyone had a suggestions on how to keep an inventory of your prep supplies (especially food). I've started an excel spreadsheet with category, food item, packaging, amount/weight/servings, expiration, but I'm wondering if there's a better way to do this. I don't want to reinvent the wheel if someone else can point me to an easier way to keep track of what I have? Thanks for any help you can offer. EDIT: Thank you all. I've received some fantastic suggestions here! I appreciate you helping me out. I'm going to check out a lot of these and see what seems to work best for my situation.

While media is bolstering the 72 hour preparedness concept, I am going through the strategy and it details and highlights a lot of areas including from a personal, to large societal preparedness in terms infrastructure (such as hospital etc.) to topics such migration, technology, climate and other. They mention a lot of things and stop short of SHTF scenarios. I am impressed that they managed to settle on this and now it's going to become actionable (like they want states to take higher ownership of preparedness, they want to teach this stuff in school and so forth). Europe is waking up, maybe to late, either way, guys there is no going back from here. :)

Friend lost water for a couple days after a main burst. Any recommendations for a water testing kit for a creek and a well on property? Curious of portability if something was to shut mine off for long enough. Have the filters and chemical purification. Just want to be on the safe side.

My town has some train tracks that are used most days and it’s one of the more likely threats if one were to derail and spill something dangerous. One line runs about 1/4 mile from my home.

I live inland in the south, no major industry, nuclear plant about 20 miles and cardboard box manufacturer about 25 miles.

Wanted to have a mask with proper filters on hand to wear while evacuating.

I’m sure there are all sort of nasty chemicals that get carried, but what are the more common ones or ones that might need a unique filter?

Hi all. After 5 days no water it’s starting to return, should be back to normal this evening.

I’ve learned so much! Water vanishes fast. Stores sell out fast. Water companies supply the minimum. Neighbours are not prepared.

I have now ordered 3x 150 litre water butts for toilets and emergency use, filters to filter if needed, and have 5x5 gallon jugs coming to store water. I have space for more but will stay at that amount for now. I also have 30-ish 2 litre bottles left from my shopping trips this week.

Side note but also decided to install solar on the garage roof with a 4kwh battery.

Thanks for all the ideas and help, it was all useful. We got through fine but if I didn’t go hunting we’d have been in trouble. Next time things should be simpler - and on that note we’ve been told water will be out again next week but just for 12 hours.