In this blog, we’ll cover 5 strategies you can implement today to help you on your preparedness journey even when finances are tight. These easy-to-follow, practical steps will help you to get more from your preps. At the end of the blog, we’ll also provide you with a quick list of twenty tips and tricks for prepping with limited funds, along with 2 downloadable free guides to help get you started. So definitely stick around for that. Let’s be honest; getting serious about preparedness can be expensive. With a recession that’s all but certain at this point, how can you practically prepare when finances are tight and will very likely get even tighter in the coming months and years? We’ll explain how. So let’s jump in.STEP 1: DECIDE YOUR TIMELINEAsk 100 preppers how long they should be prepared for, and you’ll get a lot of different answers. Most will lean toward being prepared for longer periods of time. But the starting point I always encourage is 3 days of preparedness, namely having food on hand that doesn’t require refrigeration and also water. Once you’ve got enough food and water on hand, we would encourage you to stretch that to a 3-week supply. Just 3-weeks will get you through almost every natural disaster that has occurred in the history of the United States. Now, 3 months would be even better. That would help carry you through disasters we have never seen before. We’re increasingly seeing once-in-a-generation storms and events on a more regular basis, along with attacks on our infrastructure and challenges with Russia and China that seem to compound daily, so I would strongly encourage you to shoot for a minimum of 3 months of preparedness. Once you achieve 3 months of preparedness, a year becomes much more obtainable as you’re mostly there…it’s just a matter of scaling up your food. You are also beginning to hopefully learn ways to incorporate these preps into your daily life, such as eating what you store and storing what you eat. We’ll talk about that a little later.The point here is to decide your target: how long do you want to be prepared for? 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or more? Once you make that decision, it’s time to move to the next step.STEP 2: FOCUS ON THE PILLARSSo now that we have a timeframe we’re aiming for, let’s focus on the core pillars of prepping. Where do you begin? Here’s our encouragement to you: when starting out, focus on the essential pillars of food, water, energy, medicine, knowledge, and thriftiness. Those last two we will touch upon those a little later. With food, start slow. When you go to the store, buy one extra can of soup, tuna or meat, chili, or vegetables, and set that can aside. Look at the expiration date on the can to get the product with the most extended shelf-life. Canned foods can allow you to build a food reserve for when you have to bug in. If you see a sale, check the expiration to make sure it isn’t old already but maybe buy two or more cans or even a case. Take advantage of deals. The important thing about canned food is that you should only buy what you can eat. It’s easy to look at these items at the store and purchase food you’ve never eaten before. We don’t recommend that. Also, pick up soups and vegetables. While they may not be calorically dense, they’ll provide a welcome variety and a sense of comfort to you in your time of greatest need. Beyond just canned food, look to dry goods like hard beans, lentils, rice, amaranth, barley, popcorn, and other hard grains and cereals. They can be stored easily on your shelf for extended periods of time. Start off by focusing on food. If there’s a disaster, food will be the most highly sought-after commodity that is not easily obtained once the stores are cleaned out.Next, focus on the second pillar, which is water. Start here, and later, as your budget permits, upgrade to storage containers. When we personally started years ago, we went for 5-gallon water storage containers we could put in our closets and, over time, we moved up to 55-gallon drums we have stored in our garage. It didn’t happen overnight; quite the contrary. But our budget helped guide me.Also, have the means to filter, treat, or boil your water to purify it and make it drinkable. Water is so critical to survival that you can only survive around 3-days without it. As for the other pillars of energy and medicine, you must assess your needs and requirements here. If you have equipment or medication that you need or your life and health would be in jeopardy, you genuinely need to secure the medicine and energy you need to at least keep yourself safe for 3-days. Regarding medicine, everyone is at a different place with this issue. We would encourage you to learn how to store as much as you need to survive as is legally possible. We know the medical community is increasingly making it harder for people to keep much of an inventory on hand personally, but we would encourage you to chat with your physician about this.Focus on the pillars of food, water, medicine, and energy, when getting started, and you will likely be just fine. We’ve got blogs covering each of these subjects.STEP 3: MAKE A BUDGET & PLANNow that we’ve determined a timeline and priorities, it’s time to build a budget and start planning. A budget makes all the difference when money is tight, as it defines every dollar that goes out and informs you on how much you can spend on your preps. We’ve spoken about finances many times on the channel, and my own journey of getting my finances squared away. We know the challenges and the freedom that comes with having a budget that can be followed. When we got serious about our finances, we used Dave Ramsey’s book, financial peace, which really helped us understand ways to stick with a budget. Maybe there’s another financial guru you like, but the key is to form a budget and follow it. Trust me, it made a big difference.Also, check out our free Recession Proofing guide, which is a great way to harden yourself off from economic downturns fiscally that covers practical approaches to saving money, so I encourage you to start there. Then look at the Introductory Prepper’s Guide to form a plan to get moving. Forming a budget, using our recession-proof guide, and then following our introductory prepper’s guide will get you started.STEP 4: CHANGE THE WAY YOU LIVE & EATYou need to learn to prepare and cook the food that you’re storing. Eat what you store and store what you eat. And with spring right around the corner, we would highly encourage you to start a garden, no matter how large or small. When we started gardening, we had no idea what we were doing, and we’re still learning. But that’s the key: We are learning. We still probably kill more plants than we keep alive, but we’re better than we were the day we started. Now, sometimes we bring in bumper crops of some vegetables, and we learn about the low-yielding plants and find out why they produce so little. We realize we can’t survive solely by growing my food if everything were to fall apart. As we’ve been covering on the channel lately, we are working on garden setups for small spaces. We’ve already done several blogs on this and will be doing more in the coming weeks. When springtime hits, we’ll start showing you how to practically implement the approaches we’ve outlined by showing you the setups we’ll be making on our back patio. Our point here is that we can’t wait until disaster strikes and then instantly be the expert on all things. We recognized long ago that we needed to change how we lived and incorporate knowledge, skills, and thriftiness into my daily practices. That mindset doesn’t require me to spend even a penny of my money, but it will be my most valuable resource after a disaster.Finally, change the way you are living your life. If you’re sitting on the couch, get up if you can. Go for a walk, hike, or exercise. If you have a sedentary life at all, this is the day you need to change that. Get up and stretch. Increased physical activity leads to physical and physiological changes in your body’s chemistry. It can change your perspective and help you build a survivor’s mentality. More importantly, moving around more and getting healthy doesn’t have to cost you a dime. STEP 5: TURN OFF THE LIGHTS & GO CAMPINGOnce you have low-budget prepped for a few months, it’s time for a trial run to understand your preps and harden yourself off to adversity. Go ahead and run the emergency evacuation drill for your family. Flip the power off at the main breaker to your house for the weekend, document what you would do, and assess what you may have overlooked. Plan an overnight camping trip or pitch a tent in your backyard with just your bug-out gear. Understand the difference between the survival movies Hollywood feeds us and what it really takes to survive for a day or three without the luxuries and comforts we have in abundance and barely consider.Your practice session doesn’t have to be that dramatic. It can simply be turning to your food and water preps and committing to eat and drink only those for three days. That simple exercise will teach you volumes about your supplies and the gaps in them. The practice will allow you to replace your preps with greater purpose and intent. Turning to your food preps like this every so often will save you the money you can apply to your future preps, replace existing supplies, or get the new supplies you now realize you need. The key is putting your resources, knowledge, and skills into practice.You don’t have to be perfect. In fact, you want to fail here and there to understand where the gaps in your preps are. This is about putting forth a little effort periodically. This is where the transformation into the prepper you decided and committed to being earlier occurs. This is where the change occurs– with every effort and every bit of practice.20 QUICK TIPSMuch of what we already discussed here are things you can start doing today at little to no expense. Decide what you want to prepare for, get or build a personal plan, take advantage of our free guides, build your core preps slowly over time, change the way you live and eat now, and then put it all into practice. All of those can be done with even the most limited of funds, but we also want to leave you with 20 quick tips for prepping with little to no budget. Over the years of doing this, as you might imagine, we get quite a few tips and tricks sent to us. We cover many of these in other blogs on this site, or you can find best practices with a few simple internet searches.Here they are, super quickly:
Use BPA-free unused soda or water bottles for water, rice, bean, or grain storage.
Grow and eat something, even if that’s just sprouts on the window sill.
Cook your own food, so you learn and save money.
Dehydrate food.
Learn to forage, hunt, or fish in your local area, then process and eat what you gather.
Invest in a good map and learn to read a compass.
Build a bugout or everyday carry bag.
Build your pantry one can at a time.
Build a great first aid kit one item at a time.
Repair, recycle, and reuse containers, anything and everything.
Get rechargeable batteries and devices, and a means to charge them without central power.
Learn to save seeds and start a windowsill garden.
Form a buying co-op to get more for less and split it up.
Buy one bag of rice, dry beans, and a few Ramen with each trip to the store.
Buy one extra canned good and one bag of pasta per trip to the store.
Don’t throw out gently used trainers or sneakers. Put them in your bug-out bag stuffed with extra socks.
Buy zip ties, bungee cords, a paracord, and a tarp. They’re amazingly useful.
Stock up on garbage bags and wet wipes.
Have emergency mylar blankets in your bags.
Pack new small games for kids and a deck of cards.
That’s just a quick list of ideas in no particular order. As we said, you can get thousands more preps in place with little or no money. The reason we’re doing a blog like this now is that we really think we have limited time to prepare for the challenges we face in the future. The world isn’t going to be sunshine and roses tomorrow. You may feel that way as well. Hard times ahead are inevitable, and the decisions you make now, the preps you put in place now, will help to see you through those challenges. No matter your budget or circumstance, you can develop a prepping mindset and begin your prepping journey with us today.As always, stay safe out there.
* My worst-case scenario is that I’m out of town, and there is a disaster, and I have to walk home. Each week, I spend one day in San Diego. I know there is NO WAY I am going to walk home from San Diego in high heels. So, I keep a pair of tennis shoes in the car – both cars, actually. I tuck them in with the spare tire. I did not buy NEW shoes for that purpose, but when I DID get new tennis shoes, I put the old ones in the car. Just a suggestion.
* AND, it wouldn’t hurt to put an extra pair of socks in your 72-hour kit. Boy scouts know that you should put on dry socks at night.
* Just a note from someone working in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Home Storage Center: “I’m serving a Service Mission at our Bishops Storehouse and know that we haven’t had baking powder for many months, just not available. I was told by the manager that SLC (Salt Lake City) doesn’t even have any, so if you find it in the grocery stores, you might want to get some for storage.”
* I watched another City Prepping video last week. Kris mentioned that aluminum has been hard to get. Somehow production got behind during COVID and has a hard time catching up. He said that we might find shortages of canned goods because of it but that fresh foods could still be plentiful. You should seriously consider having some way to preserve food. I suggest starting with a dehydrator. I have mushrooms in my dehydrator right now. (I bought some for a salad and don’t want to waste the leftovers.) I also suggest a canner. Water-bath canners are pretty cheap (under $25) and can be used to can tomatoes and fruit. Pressure canners can range from $100-$500.
There are lots of videos about using a pressure canner. If you live in So. Cal, I will come to your house and help you learn!!!
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
** Have you noticed an increase in the cost of lettuce? I guess the market has been hit because of lettuce disease and bad weather. I don’t buy lettuce anymore, so this doesn’t affect me. I can’t believe how easy it is to grow. Almost foolproof! I bought a “greens” class: Leafy Greens Container Garden Course – THE LIVING FARM $49. If you watch, these classes sometimes go on sale. I think I paid about $35. Anyway, here is what I learned:
These lettuce beds are sitting on my patio table in the backyard. They have holes in the bottom and are up on blocks so that the water will drain. I’m growing bib lettuce, red lettuce, and green lettuce. Do you see the empty container? I planted this container about 2 weeks ago, and the baby plants are just coming up. I try to rotate the containers so that I always have lettuce. You can see the plastic tub in the front on the left is falling apart. I find that each tub only lasts about a year. The sun and elements make the plastic very brittle.
I mix fertilizer in the beds each time I plant, and I don’t worry about it while they are growing. I battle aphids and spray for them each week, whether I see them or not. Pretty much–if the sun is shining–you have aphids!!! In the warm weather, I have to watch for those little white butterflies because they lay green worms that really like lettuce. I probably don’t need 7 tubs of lettuce. I usually end up sharing a gallon bag of lettuce with whoever knocks on my door the day I pick it.
Six weeks. Plant now and harvest in about 6 weeks. Then you can continue to harvest for another 8-12 weeks, depending on the weather. It’s such a bargain! And fresh lettuce has WAAAAAY more nutrients than store-bought iceberg lettuce (which is mostly water!).
AND lettuce doesn’t mind the occasional freeze. It just bounces right back!!!
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: pasta
THIS WEEK – until Wednesday… Albertsons has American Beauty Pasta for $1.00 each. That’s a pretty good deal, and I haven’t seen it that low in a while. Pasta will last for several years. You can put it in an airtight container with oxygen absorbers. You can put it in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then just iron the bags closed. You can vacuum seal the pasta in its original packaging. I just snip a very tiny hole in the package so that the air can be vacuumed out. I made a dish last week that called for 4 c. cooked pasta and suggested that 2 c. uncooked pasta would be about the equivalent. I used 2 heaping c. pasta, and I ended up with at least 8 c. pasta!!!! I used 4 c. for the recipe and the rest the next night with some homemade alfredo sauce.
With the price of natural gas going sky high, we have been using this downstairs in the family room. We turn off the heat to the whole house and use this. It heats the entire downstairs!!! If you keep an eye out and occasionally look at the Estate Sales in your area, you can pick up propane tanks for pretty cheap.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Spaghetti Sauce
For YEARS I just bought spaghetti sauce like 99.9% of the world! But…. then I found this recipe, and I have used it ever since. It makes a ton of sauce, so I freeze the rest in zip-lock bags. I tried canning it once, and I didn’t like the texture, so I just don’t anymore. I will confess that I canned it, meat and all, and maybe that was the problem. Maybe canning the sauce WITHOUT the meat would work.
All the fresh vegetables called for I substitute with dehydrated veggies: carrots, onion, and green pepper. Add whatever meat you want. I like the combination of ground beef and sausage.
1 lb. ground beef 1 lb. sausage Brown and drain. 1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes undrained. If I’m out of these, I use diced tomatoes and just blend them a little with an immersion blender. 1 med green pepper, chopped 1 med onion chopped 1 c. chopped carrots 1 c. water 1 8-oz. can of tomato sauce 1 6-oz can tomato paste 1 TB brown sugar 1 TB Italian seasoning 2 cloves garlic minced 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper Slow cook for 8-10 hr. on low OR simmer for 2-3 hr. You want to make sure the dehydrated vegetables are completely rehydrated and look fresh!!!
Stroganoff 1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained (I like to use my canned ground beef for this) 1 clove minced garlic (remember, you can get dehydrated garlic. Just use a small bowl to reconstitute by filling it with water and letting the garlic sit in there for 15-20 min.) 1/2 onion diced – you can also use dehydrated onion here Saute onion and garlic with beef. 1 TB flour – add and mix 1 can Consume Soup – add (You could also use beef broth) 1 tsp salt 1 TB paprika dash cayenne pepper – We are NOT spicy lovers here, so consider this optional 1/2 c. sour cream – Stir in until thick. Simmer 10 min.
Serve over noodles.
For the sour cream… you can get this.
That makes it a totally self-sufficient meal!!!
Chicken Tetrazzini 2 1/2 lb. chicken, cut in pieces and browned. I just use canned chicken 1 jar mushrooms I use dehydrated mushrooms 1 16-oz jar alfredo sauce. Interesting story: I just opened a jar of Alfredo Sauce from 2013. Yep…10 years old. It looked good. It was disgusting! LOL 1/4 c. chicken broth 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp nutmeg Simmer for 1-2 hours or cook in a slow cooker for 5-6 hours. Cook 10 oz. linguini. Drain. Stir 2/3 c. grated parmesan cheese Top with chopped parsley. (Sometimes I have this, and sometimes not.)
** One of my readers (oooooh, that sounds fancy, doesn’t it?) sent me these links for an egg replacement.
It will not make scrambled eggs or angel food cake. See the description at the link below. She has used this egg substitute to make waffles using the Krusteaz mix, and it works just fine.
I went to the site to see exactly what was in it. It contains things like potato starch, tapioca flour, and cream of tartar….. Read all their directions and exclusions. But still, in a pinch…. 113 eggs for under $6 might be something to think about. (I didn’t think for long. I bought two bags.)
** Here is one of Kris’ videos from his City Prepping website. I ran across it on another website that I frequent. It’s really well done. If you haven’t seen it recently, it’s all about bug-out bags. How to Build Bug Out Bags for a Family 2023 (Plus Critical Items To Take) – YouTubeHe has great suggestions. Remember that YOUR 72-hour kit (recommended by EVERY government agency) will be unique to you, depending on location, your carrying ability, your needs, and your budget. He has links for EVERYTHING if you are interested. He is awesome! I have two bags for Craig and me. I keep them in the car.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
Even though it’s been cold and rainy, here in sunny So. Cal. we can garden right through the winter. It was a gorgeous 72˚ today. I was out watering my broccoli and saw this:
Upon further inspection, I saw dozens and dozens of these:
Not quite sure, but pretty sure they are baby snails. They were on the sides of all the pots, up under the rims, on the plants themselves, EVERYWHERE!!!! I scraped them off the pots, moved ALL the pots to look under them, dug them out of the holes in the bottom of the pots, moved all the pots onto the grass, swept them up and dumped them in the trash. Then set out snail bait (Sluggo Plus) in the pots and around the pots. Really? This picture is actually Day 2….. somehow missed these yesterday.
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: emergency candles
We took a short trip to see kids up in Sacramento. As we were visiting, our son got a phone call from his significant other that their power had just gone out. Could he please come home and get out the generator? He lives on 5 acres in a fairly rural area with lots of trees and wild animals. This is actually a pretty common occurrence for them. It’s no secret that the State of California has NOT maintained its power grid very well. Other parts of the country face loss of power from hurricanes, tornados, and storms.
This site has a great chart for comparing low-range generators, which will power the barest essentials, mid-range that will take care of most of your needs, and high-range, which will run almost everything you’ll need. Portable Generator Comparison Chart.
If you are interested in going the solar or dual fuel route, check out Kris’ video- Best Solar Generator for 2022 (The Ultimate Guide). Even if you don’t go that route, there’s a free downloadable spreadsheet linked from that, which will allow you to calculate your electricity needs after an emergency.
MISC PURCHASE: vinegar
There are a lot of reasons why storing a bottle or two of vinegar is a good idea. BTW, it never goes bad.
Relieve the itch from poison ivy or insect bites by applying vinegar with a cotton ball or directly to the affected area.
Soothe a jellyfish sting by dousing the area with vinegar.
A quick dose of vinegar on a burn will prevent blistering.
Apply directly to the skin as an antiseptic for cuts and abrasions. Use a washcloth soaked in vinegar and place all over your sunburns. It takes out the sting.
Mix equal parts honey and apple cider vinegar to soothe a sore throat.
Soak your favorite dried beans in water with apple cider vinegar added overnight then rinse completely to lessen the gas they create.
A little vinegar in the water will keep egg whites from running out if cracked when boiling.
Clean and deodorize plastic coolers with vinegar and water.
You can put vinegar in a spray bottle and squirt, to your heart’s delight, all the weeds and destroy them naturally without harming underground water.
Use 1/4 – 1/2 c. in your wash. Not only does it brighten whites, but it also attacks harmful mold and mildew.
Clean sticky or gummy scissors by wiping them with distilled white vinegar, then dry them.
Wipe or spray your car windows in winter with a mix of e parts vinegar and one part water, and it will help keep frost at bay.
Bothered by fruit flies? Set out a bowl of apple cider vinegar with three drops of dish soap in it. The fruit flies will be attracted by the scent and sink and drown in the mix.
Rub some distilled white vinegar into the sweat stains of a shirt, then launder as usual.
DO NOT USE on granite or marble countertops because it can ruin the sealant. Also, do NOT use it on hardwood floors, cell phones, or computer screens.
Did you know you can make your own vinegar?
MAKING VINEGAR
I) Sterilize the container by filling it with boiling water and letting it stand for 5 minutes. Pour the water out and add the peelings. Cover the peels with distilled water.
II) Cover with cloth. Secure it carefully so that insects and dirt can’t get in there.
III) The cloth allows the natural bacteria and wild yeast in the air to colonize in the vinegar, which in turn causes it to ferment. Stir once a day to make sure that the ferment is mixing with the rest of the liquid.
IV) After a few weeks, you will start noticing a vinegary odor. Allow the vinegar to continue to ferment until you have the intensity that you want.
V) At this point, you can strain through a clean cheesecloth and bottle. Store in a cool, dark place. This homemade vinegar can be used as any other vinegar. Each ingredient you use will cause it to have a different flavor. For example, we all know what apple cider vinegar tastes like, but peach vinegar has a much different taste, fruitier and more mellow. Experiment with different combinations and ingredients to see which you like the best. If you are using as an antibiotic / antiseptic, then flavor doesn’t matter. Unless your stinky bum scent is trying to be camouflaged in your BOA…LOL
Fruits that can be Vinergarized:
Raspberries, apples, strawberries, blueberries, pears, unsprayed rose petals, ginger root, onion, dill, garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, hot peppers, lavender, cilantro, peppercorns, citrus peel, and pineapple.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Chicken Tortellini Soup Serves 4-6
Doesn’t this look good! I made this two days ago and it was delicious. I bought frozen tortellini and only used 1/2 of the bag. I bought fresh spinach. I used 1 chicken breast. I was out of carrots, so I used my dehydrated carrots, dehydrated celery, and dehydrated onions. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! I also made Copycat Red Lobster’s cheese biscuits! I like them because you use melted butter and don’t have to cut in shortening.
In a soup pot 1 TB olive oil 3 large carrots peeled and sliced 2 celery stalks, sliced 1/2 onion, diced Sauté vegetables in the oil about 4-5 min. (Here’s where it fell apart for me because I had no fresh vegetables. So I just started with the chicken broth and dumped in all the dehydrated vegetables to let them simmer. Look at the picture again and you can’t tell those carrots were ever dry and shriveled.)
6 c. chicken broth 2 tsp Italian seasoning 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 t. minced garlic (I HAVE dehydrated garlic, but I usually use the garlic already minced in the jars) 1/4 tsp pepper 2 raw boneless, skinless chicken breasts – just put them whole into the water with the vegetables (I actually used 1 1/2 breasts and when I was done I had lots left over.)
Let simmer 10-15 min until vegetables and chicken are cooked. (So after 15 min, my dehydrated vegetables were still looking shriveled. I let it simmer, covered, for about 45 min, and even added additional water 1/2 way through to replace what had boiled away.) Remove the chicken to a bowl and shred with two forks. Add back into the soup. (I just eyeballed how much I wanted — I have at least 1/2 left over) 2 1/2 c. cheese tortellini (about 1/2 of the bag) 1 c. fresh spinach (Cooked spinach is not my favorite, but you can’t taste it and I figure it adds nutrients) Let simmer another 5 minutes or so to cook the tortellini and spinach. This would make a great crock-pot meal. Just add the tortellini and spinach about 20 min before serving.
Brownie Cookies What is NOT to love about that? The Cookie Rookie has a bunch of recipes like this: M&M Brownie Cookies, S’more Brownie Cookies (Craig calls them Smurf Cookies hee hee) etc.
But these looked especially gooey and good. BUT, when I went to make them, the recipe calls for 1 pound chopped semisweet chocolate. Now I “have” chocolate chips, but I wondered if I could somehow use cocoa for this. So I looked it up. Better Homes & Gardens has a whole page on how to switch back and forth. Have chocolate chips, but the recipe calls for cocoa? Have cocoa, but need semi-sweet chocolate, or bitter chocolate? Cocoa stores longer for sure. I went with this one: 1 oz. semisweet chocolate = 1 TB cocoa powder + 2 tsp sugar + 2 tsp shortening. How to Substitute Chocolate Pieces for Cocoa Powder in Any Recipe.
This recipe asks for 16 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate. I used 1 c. cocoa, 2/3 c. sugar, 2/3 c. shortening To this, I added 1/4 c. salted butter I heated it in the microwave and stirred until smooth.
In a mixing bowl: 4 eggs 1 1/2 c. sugar Mix on medium speed. Then add 1 tsp vanilla and mix. Pour in melted chocolate and mix till combined. 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder Mix in. Gently fold in 12 oz. milk chocolate chips. Pour batter in a large bowl and cover. Freeze for 1 hour.
Bake on parchment paper, 350˚. Scoop about 2 TB in a ball about 2 inches apart. Bake 10 min or until the cookies crack on top and appear dry on the edges. Let cool 10 min.
CopyCat Cheddar Biscuits from Red Lobster I shared this about 3 years ago. I made these to go with the soup above. So good! I had all the ingredients, just needed cheese. Okay, I had that too!
6-7 biscuits 1 c. flour 2 TB sugar 1/2 TB baking powder 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp salt Mix 1/2 c. milk 1/4 c. melted butter Add and stir till just moist 1 c. cheese (I used colby jack because that’s what I had) Drop by 1/4 c. on parchment
Bake 450˚ for 10-12 min. When they come out, brush with 1/4 c. melted butter and 1/4 tsp garlic salt. Brush on immediately.
For 14-15 biscuits 2 c. flour 2 TB sugar 1 TB baking powder 1 tsp garlic powder 3/4 tsp salt Mix 1 c. milk 1/2 c. melted butter Stir just until mixed 2 c. grated cheese Brush with butter and garlic salt when done. 450˚ 10-12 min.
** I went shopping on Wednesday, and it was the first time since 2020 I noticed items missing. AND, when I went to buy Miracle Whip, the price of a quart of reduced-fat Miracle Whip was almost $9!!!! Yikes! for a jar!!!! I was reluctant to buy the store brand because I wasn’t sure how it would change the taste of the salad dressing I was making. So, I paid nearly $5 for “regular fat” dressing! LOL
** Since we are at the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be appropriate to include a list of “what should you store.” BASIC MINIMUM FOOD STORAGE The first list is a “what will keep you alive” list. After that, on the same document is the “supplemental” list of what to add to the first list if you would like more than a starvation diet. Most people who store food AND rotate food have two separate categories of food that they store. First is the food they eat every day: pasta, soups, sugar, flour, peanut butter, and oatmeal. Second is the long-term storage that they can put away and not think about: wheat, dry beans, rice, etc. An ideal situation is a combination of both. If the store shelves are suddenly empty (2020), you have what you need for a few weeks and don’t suddenly have to break out the wheat grinder. I think we have all come to realize how “unstable” the marketplace can be. Having a supply of food is NOT hoarding, it is “laying up in store” for hard times to come. It is “providing” for your family.
** How long can you store a cake mix? Does it go bad? Certainly storing a mix is easier than storing all the ingredients. But cake mixes have leavenings, and those DO have an expiration. This is a good article that answers all those questions. Does cake mix go bad – easy guide with tips (Short answer: it DOES expire)
BUT…… what about brownie mixes? Huh? They DON’T have leavenings. ???????
** Someone asked me about powdered eggs. Okay, yes, you can get powdered eggs. Don’t get Freeze-dried scrambled eggs. A #10 can of those will only give you 8-10 servings. You want dehydrated whole egg powder. But as the cost of eggs has risen…the cost of powdered eggs has risen as well. This #10 can contains about 72 eggs and is $62.24, down from $115!!! Augason Farms Dried Whole Egg Product 2 lbs 1 oz ( pack of 1) : Grocery & Gourmet Food This works out to $.87 per egg. Eggs at Stater Brothers were $8.89 for 18 which is only $.50 per egg. Every few weeks I check the cost of these cans. I’m waiting until they get down in the $25 range. Who knows if THAT will ever happen!!!
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
**FINALLY found the link I’d been searching for!!!
I “did” plant my celery this week. I “do” have carrots that are already coming up. I have NOT planted any spinach yet, I should do that! And, even though the chart says to wait for January….. I went ahead and planted my tomatoes and peppers. I already have broccoli coming up. I want to get some cauliflower going as well.
My husband is NOT a fan or the seeds taking up room on the kitchen counter. But, until they are sprouted, I like to keep them in the warm house. After that, they can go outside during the day to be in the sun. Taking them in and out, in and out is a real pain! But, if left inside, they get spindly and will die. They need several hours of sun and a good breeze to develop strong stems. You CAN do this indoors, in a basement, or spare room, or garage IF you have a nice bright light and a table and a fan. Wouldn’t I LOVE that? But, you make do with what you have, and right now, I have counter space.
Consider growing (or trying to grow) something!!! Ok, preferably something you can eat. Plant lettuce today and you can be eating fresh lettuce in just 4 weeks.
Snow on the ground? Consider planting some broccoli, cauliflower, or cabbage starts indoors. They will be ready to go outside in 6-8 weeks.
** Oh my gosh! I just went outside and found hundreds of these little round things (they look like small sea shells). They were stuck to the sides of the black 5 gallon pots, and under the pots, and EVERYWHERE! I think they are baby snails. Ewwww!!!! Nothing to do but try and clean them up. I scraped them off the pots, moved all the pots and swept under them and used a dust pan to throw them in the trash. The more I looked, the more I found. Then, I sprinkled snail bait EVERYWHERE!!! I feel like I’ve diverted a major disaster. LOL
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: milk, 2 #10 cans, or about 5 pounds
You can get #10 cans of milk at a Church Home Storage Center. Find a Home Storage Center WE can get them at our local Winco. I DO know that the cost of milk IS going up after Jan 1, so plan accordingly.
IF you have milk that is more than 15 years old, it’s time to open that can and have a look-see. If it smells and looks good, then use it up. The SNEAKY way to do that is make up a quart, stick it in the fridge, and when your gallon of “store” milk gets about 1/2 way low, just add in the non-fat powdered milk. NO ONE will know!
MISC: pet food
Whatever food you buy for your pet, just have a back-up. I buy cat food in 3-pound bags. I try to keep three on the shelf (okay in the garage). When I open one, I buy one to replace it. It’s NOT a year’s supply, but it will get us through a few weeks.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Southwest Chicken My husband and I have this ongoing discussion about whether he can actually tell the difference in taste between black beans, pinto beans, and red beans…… because I can’t. So, for variety, I try to use all three. This recipe uses black beans.
Place 4 boneless chicken breasts in a skillet. 1 c. picante sauce – pour over 2 package taco seasoning – sprinkle over 2 c. water – pour over everything. Put on a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. 2 c. Minute rice, uncooked. I SELDOM cook with Minute Rice, but it works well here. 1 c. drained and rinsed black beans – stir in 1 c. cheddar cheese – sprinkle on top. Cover and cook an additional 5 minutes.
My notes: Because it’s just the two of us, I usually use 1 1/2 chicken breasts cut into big chunks. This recipe is so easy — no chopping, or pre-frying.
Veggie Tot Pie I don’t often cook vegetarian meals. We’re MEAT eaters over here. BUT, this looked good. It’s from the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook. She explains that “One beauty of this recipe is that you can mix or sub in whatever frozen vegetables you like.”
Use an ovenproof skillet so you can pop it right into the oven. 1 TB butter 1/2 c. frozen diced onion Sauté the onions in the butter 1 c. frozen green beans 1 c. frozen butternut squash chunks 1/2 c. frozen roasted corn 1/2 c. frozen peas 1 4-oz jar pimientos, drained (I’m not a huge fan) 1 TB garlic paste or 2 garlic cloves, grated Cook the veggies for 10 min, stirring often to heat them through 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup 1 can Cream of Celery soup Add the soups and 1 can water. Stir as the mixture heats and begins to bubble, about 5 min. Salt and pepper to taste Tumeric – just a pinch 1 32-oz. bag of frozen tater tots Arrange the tater tots on top, completely covering the sauce. Bake at 450˚ for about 30 min. Chopped fresh parsley – sprinkle on to garnish.
Tuscan Chicken Soup Here is another one from Rhee Drummond. This one uses cannellini beans. It has hearty chunks of chicken and tomatoes, but it has toasted sourdough bread at the bottom of each bowl of soup. 8 thick slices sourdough bread – lay them on a baking sheet.
Drizzle generously with olive oil. Bake 425˚ until golden and crisp and set aside.
In a soup pot or Dutch oven, heat 2 TB butter and 2 TB olive oil 3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs diced 2 yellow onion finely diced 2 garlic cloves minced Add to hot oil/butter mix and cook until chicken is fully cooked, about 5 min. 2 TB tomato paste 1 28-oz can tomato puree 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes 1 can cannellini beans drained 4 c. chicken broth 2 tsp chopped fresh oregano leaves or 1 tsp dried 2 TB honey Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min to combine flavors 1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained Add to the soup salt and pepper
To serve: tear the bread into large chunks and place in the bottom of the soup bowl. Ladle the soup over the bread, letting the chunks stick up on the surface.
Top with Parmesan shavings and drizzle with olive oil.
* I think I probably planted the cucumbers WAAAAY too early. They sprouted in a week and are 4 inches tall already!! Not sure I can keep them in the house till Spring! The tomatoes finally sprouted. They
are about 2 in. tall. After the coming week of clouds and rain, I hope I can get them out in the sun. If you have ever grown celery from seed, you’ll know they are very tiny!!! It takes a LONG time for them to be ready to plant outdoors, which is good. Here is a picture of my tiny celery starts.
The peppers FINALLY sprouted. It was over 2 weeks of waiting.
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: sauces
Time to pick up 3-4 additional bottles/jars of spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, tomato sauce, or whatever you add to pasta for a meal. Our primary presidency gifted the teachers with a box of spaghetti and a jar of sauce. Yay! Free meal!!! Thank you, thank you!
We have one with our camping gear, BUT if you off-road or camp out in the wild, I can think of a dozen reasons why you need this. Even just getting caught in the mud, digging out a fire pit, or needing to dig a latrine because of a lack of facilities, this would be a good item to have. And, cheaper than lunch at McDonalds!!!
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Someone on FB asked “What can I do with the leftover syrup in a jar or can after the fruit is gone?” Here were some of the answers:
* Boil to reduce and use it as syrup on pancakes or french toast. (This seems like too much work for me. Hahaha) * Use it in cake mixes to replace the water called for. (Not sure I want my chocolate cake to taste like peaches, but maybe a white cake? When was the last time I even made a cake? * A LOT of people said to use it to sweeten ice tea, but since I don’t DRINK ice tea…… * A spoon or two in oatmeal or yogurt. Now THIS sounds like a good idea! * Mix with sparkling water for a nice treat. I like THIS idea too. * Use as a marinade for chicken. A MARVELOUS idea!!!
* Chili for 4-5 people I haven’t posted a chili recipe for at least two weeks, so here is another one. If you have canned ground beef (I do), this is extra easy. I imagine you could also substitute canned roast beef. This looks so good, I think I’ll put it on this week’s menu. 1 pound ground beef 1/2 c. chopped green sweet pepper (1 small) 1/2 c. chopped onion (1 medium) 4 cloves garlic, minced In a 3 quart saucepan, cook and stir ground beef, sweet pepper, onion and garlic. Drain off fat. 1 15-oz. can tomato sauce (At first I thought it was one hundred and fifteen oz. of tomato sauce. Dang!) 1 can red kidney beans, undrained 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained 2-3 tsp chili powder (or adjust for your taste) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed 1/4 tsp ground black pepper Simmer covered for 20 min. Top with cheese, chopped onion, sour cream, whatever!!!
Three-Can Black Bean Soup This recipe is from “The Prepper’s Cookbook” by Tess Pennington 1 can whole kernel corn, undrained 1 can black beans undrained 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes undrained 1 TB chili powder 3 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1 TB dried onion flakes 2 TB chicken bouillon 1 TB dried parsley salt and pepper to taste Add all ingredients to a 16-qt. pot. Bring to a boil and reduce and simmer 20-30 min. Optional: Stir in coarsely chopped cilantro Can serve with crumbled tortilla chips sprinkled on top.
Creamy Corn Chowder 1 can whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed 1 can creamed corn, undrained 2 c. milk, or 2/3 instant nonfat milk mixed with 2 c. water 2/3 c. instant mashed potato flakes salt and pepper
In a 4-qt saucepan, combine both kinds of corn and milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to low and simmer, uncovered for 5 min. Stir in the instant mashed potato flakes, a little bit at a time, until the chowder is as thick as you want it.
“I prep, actually, for my neighborhood. I know a lot of people that are not prepping and sometimes, because they can’t afford it and so I buy extra food so that when the food runs low or out, I can serve food to my neighbors and be a blessing to them and show them God’s love.”
I have been prepping for years. The first thing that I found that has helped me is, over the last few years, buying a little bit more food at a time at a much lower price than it is now. I prep, actually, for my neighborhood. I know a lot of people that are not prepping and sometimes, because they can’t afford it and so I buy extra food so that when the food runs low or out, I can serve food to my neighbors and be a blessing to them and show them God’s love.
I’ve been teaching survival skills and self-defense to teenagers for years. We go on camping trips six or seven times a year. One thing that we do is even have prepping in our camping van. There is one of everything in there that we might need, and I found that almost every trip, we forgot to bring something–sometimes a key ingredient for what we need to do. However, because we already have backup stuff, it doesn’t hinder us at all. Other times the kids are brought out into the woods with only knife matches and water, and they have to survive for 3 days. It brings them to a place of self-sufficiency and great confidence that they’re going to be okay.
We also respond to emergencies in our community and feed people and support agencies like the fire department when they’re out on the line for days. This teaches the kids to be generous and kind.
I’ve also found that from time to time, our family gets sick all at the same time. And nobody wants to go to the store because we’re not feeling that well. All I have to do is go over to my prep room and get whatever we need. Whether it’s dry goods or canned goods, even toilet paper, and paper towels. It all comes in handy and gives us a sense of security and peace. It also helps us to avoid getting out in public and making others sick, which is very important to us.
Dr. Bass
-Edited for content and length. Names changed to protect identities.
We often think prepping is a solitary activity. After all, the more we try to involve people, the more frustrated we sometimes get that others don’t appreciate our sense of urgency. Prepping is always stronger when we involve our community, family, friends, and future generations. If history teaches us anything, it is that disasters strike everyone eventually.
Consider your community when you prep. What will you do if people come knocking on your door? Here’s a video we did about that very subject:
“It’s amazing how helpless some people are and oblivious. People in an area known for blizzards, with a blizzard in the forecast, were driving around without winter jackets and survival gear. They didn’t have shovels or blankets in the car. The roads became impassable and gridlocked. People panicked, and some people froze to death. The government essentially told people, “You’re on your own. We can’t help you”. Emergency services couldn’t get through to everyone.“
I live in a suburb just south of Buffalo, New York. Obviously, we are used to snow. We live in what’s called the lake effect snow belt, and getting 150 inches of snow in a year is not unheard of.
In November 2022, we got a freak storm that broke the NY state record for most snow in a 48-hour period. It was snowing at 6 inches per hour for about 40 hours. We got 80 inches of snow. Yes, 80 inches!
People were snowed in for about 4-5 days. It was physically impossible to leave your house because the snow was so thick and heavy. They needed payloaders to come to dig out the streets. The municipal town plows couldn’t overcome it. All in all, since it was mostly focused on the suburbs, nothing unusual happened, people were used to it, and everyone behaved. Some neighbors ignored their snow and let it pile up and needed to be dug out by tractors. Others, like myself, spent a considerable amount of effort to keep up with the snow and keep the driveway clear.
Fast forward about 1 month. We got a widespread blizzard hitting all of the region. The city of Buffalo and all its suburbs got hit. There was 4 days’ notice of the storm coming, and yet 40+ people died, and there was mass looting in the city. Yes, you heard that correctly.
It’s amazing how helpless some people are and oblivious. People in an area known for blizzards, with a blizzard in the forecast, were driving around without winter jackets and survival gear. They didn’t have shovels or blankets in the car. The roads became impassable and gridlocked. People panicked, and some people froze to death. The government essentially told people, “You’re on your own. We can’t help you”. Emergency services couldn’t get through to everyone.
In my observations, situations like this bring out the best and worst in people. Many people sheltered others and helped their fellow man. For every good deed, there was probably a person looking to exploit the situation. As soon as the government broke, and even though everyone knew things would be back to normal in a couple of days law and order broke down, and looting began. Many stores in the city were looted and destroyed.People weren’t looting for food or essentials. It’s the same story of looting for beer, cigarettes, TVs, etc. They did it because they could and thought they could get away with it.
It once again proves what many of us think, the unprepared and unthinking are all around us. Most everything can be avoided by just simply thinking and planning ahead and being prepared. Unprepared and evil people are sometimes your biggest threat
-Edited for content and length. Names changed to protect identities.
After any disaster, you have organizations that struggle to help, ordinary people stepping up in big ways to help others, and you have opportunists. Disasters bring out the best in some and the worst in others. For every story of looting, there’s a story of someone going above and beyond to rescue others and keep them from certain death.
Prepping provides you the opportunity to be ready for the disasters you face. It also puts you in a position to help others. You might even save a life or two along the way.
If you do think you might one day be snowed in your home, please take a look at our videos on surviving a winter power outage.
“And then the worst happened. My daughter fell off an icy rock into the river and got wet. Fortunately, she was smart and unclipped her backpack, so she wasn’t dragged under and drowned.”
We planned an 18-mile hike in NH to summit one of the 4000-footers in this area. We have been working on climbing all 48 of them. The weather called for snow in the evening and heavy snow overnight into the next day. We were confident in our abilities to finish the 18 miles before the heavy snow set in, but as always, I prepared for the worst-case scenario. It was only supposed to be a day hike.
Still, given the winter conditions, I packed us a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, extra clothing, and a small stove to make hot food along with all of our typical gear like first aid kits, water filtration, map, and a rescue harness for the dog in case she needed to be carried out. We set off and made great time to the summit of the peak. We were feeling good and ready to really move on the way out. Because our spirits were high, we didn’t pay enough attention on the way off the summit and took a wrong turn. The trail we were on led us down an extremely steep former rock slide covered in ice. It was unsafe to descend but unsafe to go back up again, so we made the critical error to keep going slowly and not backtrack. It cost us WAY too much time. We got off the mountain and had an 8-mile trek back to the car, which should have been fast and much easier.
Unfortunately, the predicted weather came in early, and freezing fog rolled in as darkness came. We were prepared with headlamps and backup batteries for them, but the fog illuminated in our headlamps and made it almost impossible to see. We got off the trail and lost it entirely with the fast-falling snow obscuring the trail AND our tracks. We decided to make our way to the river and follow it as we knew it would lead us to our car, which was parked at a bridge, or to the road where we could find our way back to the car.
We hiked miles up and down cliffs and dense brush in snow up to our hips, breaking a trail for our dog. At every river crossing, we needed to carry her over because the rocks were icing over, and it was flowing fast. And then the worst happened. My daughter fell off an icy rock into the river and got wet. Fortunately, she was smart and unclipped her backpack, so she wasn’t dragged under and drowned.
Our situation was rapidly becoming dire as the temps were plummeting, and she was wet, and I knew hypothermia was not far off. I decided at that moment that we were spending the night. I stripped her down as she was shivering too hard to do it for herself, put her into a sleeping bag with the dog, and started boiling water to warm her up. I ran around ripping all the branches off the pine trees to insulate us from the cold and made us a bed with them. We huddled under the sleeping bag shivering all night in all of our layers on pine branches and a sleeping pad with a large plastic contractor bag spread over our sleeping bag to keep us dry. In the morning, we made our way out at first light when we could see, and the weather had broken. We were just 3 miles from the car.
I learned on this trip that my teenage daughter is far more competent than I give her credit for. Her wilderness knowledge, navigation skills, and calm demeanor helped me stay calm in the face of this situation. I’m proud of us for “over-preparing” because it literally saved our lives. We didn’t have any cell reception, and we would have quite literally probably frozen to death had we not been prepared. We’ve changed the way we hike now, and I never leave the house without two emergency blankets in each pack, one for under me and one for over me, in addition to the sleeping pad and sleeping bag. Just those emergency blankets can help insulate you a tiny bit more.
We also are saving for a GPS device in case of emergencies like this. There was no cell reception where we were, and we saw only two hikers all day long, so we had no way of being rescued. We were truly on our own with no way of getting help, and with even the mistakes we made, I’m proud that I’m’ able to share the story today because it means we survived.
Morgan, Ava (16), Penny (the dog)
-Edited for content and length. Names changed to protect identities.
Prepping is also about preparedness. It’s a mindset that helps you know what to do when unexpected disasters strike. In this story, a mom and daughter knew what to do when Mother Nature changed their winter hike into a night they needed to survive.
As the weather becomes more extreme, in many cases, it’s always beneficial to have the right equipment to survive it, whether you are outdoors or in your home.
It is unconscionable that someone designing a critical piece of security infrastructure would design the system in such a way that it does not fail safe” — Jamie Zawinski.Our infrastructure systems are being assaulted daily by various manmade and natural threats. These critical yet fragile systems we rely upon each and every day, without even realizing their importance until the grid goes down, are, for a lack of better words: under attack. It’s no longer a question of when one of these systems will fail in your area, but it has become a question of how long once it fails and how many other systems will be impacted. With each new dramatic failing, we are only learning how delicate and intricately laced these systems are. In this blog, we will take a quick look at what our infrastructure systems truly are, assess some of the weak points, highlight a few of the high-profile attacks that have been in the headlines, and, more importantly, answer the question: what you can do today to keep yourself and your family from being a victim and how to survive if the grid goes down for a prolonged period of time. We used that word “survive” intentionally as most don’t realize that if the grid were to go down for an extensive amount of time in your region, the results would be catastrophic for many. If you read any blog this year through to the end, we hope it is this one as there’s a lot we’ll try to cover quickly.WHAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE?We banter about the word infrastructure quite a bit, but many need to realize the full extent and meaning of the phrase. It’s a very general phrase applied to a vast range of structures and services. The exact definition is the “basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.” It seems simple, but let’s take a deeper look at it for a moment.When Russia-linked cyber-criminal ransomware attackers locked down the Colonial Pipeline for four days in May of 2021, they squeezed off the vital flow of fuel, which resulted in runs on gas to the point that filling stations ran dry. It led to a shutdown of nearly half of the gasoline and jet fuel supply delivered to the East Coast. Planes were grounded. Deliveries were stopped. Some manufacturers even had to temporarily slow production to keep products from overfilling their warehouses. This was an infrastructure attack.Also, in 2021, a hacker breached a water treatment plant computer in Oldsmar, Florida, and boosted the level of sodium hydroxide in the water supply to 100 times higher than average. Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners. In this case, an operator at the plant witnessed the remote hacking and fixed the problem. Also, alarms testing for that specific chemical irregularity would have been tripped at some point if they weren’t hacked as well. But what if other sensors were hacked and spoofed, and no operator was at their terminal physically monitoring this?What of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals that water treatment plants don’t routinely check for? There are PPCPs, pharmaceutical and personal care products that range from carcinogenic chemo drugs to fentanyl to Prozac to polonium-210. There are simply too many chemicals to test for, and most water treatment plants solely focus on ammonia, Ph, fluoride, chlorine, bacterial levels, and a few others. As one cybersecurity professional said, “If you could imagine a community center run by two old guys who are plumbers, that’s your average water plant.” Many of the 50,000-plus drinking water facilities in the United States, particularly rural locations, are nonprofit entities with barely any staff, especially not much of a cybersecurity IT department. Water is an infrastructure system, and it’s as vulnerable as the rest, from chemical contamination to busted pipelines or pumping stations.Roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, subways, and all public transportation are part of our infrastructure. Communication and computer networks are too. These are all types of infrastructure, from cell phones to human resources online pay systems. Banking and financial systems are infrastructures. Our food production chains are a form of infrastructure, as well. Even recreational facilities are considered infrastructure. It’s a wide range of tightly woven systems we rely upon every day, and we seldom realize how dependent we are upon them until the roads are impassable, the light switch or tap doesn’t work, our paychecks don’t hit our bank account on payday, or we can’t find eggs in the store anymore.CONSTANT ATTACKSThe most recent headline-grabbing incident of an infrastructure attack was the Moore County, North Carolina substation attack on December 3rd, 2022. The Moore power substation was severely damaged by gunfire at around 7 PM. Shell casings were recovered at the scene. A second substation in West End was damaged by gunfire just a little later. Thousands were left without power in winter weather. Authorities enacted an immediate curfew, and all citizens were required to be in their homes by the curfew between 9 PM and 5 AM. We realize many things from this attack. First is obvious our critical infrastructure systems are poorly hardened off from those that would seek to do damage to them. Second, we collectively realized this attack wasn’t the first of its kind. According to one report, there were over 100 physical and cyber attacks on electric utility equipment just in the first half of last year. Just the month before, power companies in Oregon and Washington reported “physical attacks on substations, using hand tools, arson, firearms and metal chains possibly in response to an online call for attacks on critical infrastructure. In recent attacks, criminal actors bypassed security by cutting the fence links, lighting nearby fires, shooting equipment from a distance, or throwing objects over the fence and onto equipment.” Make no mistake about it. Our infrastructure is under attack every moment of every day, but who is responsible? Are these well-trained elite saboteurs who have infiltrated from other countries? Are they domestic terrorists? Are they amateurs out for a good time? Are they neo-Nazis, accelerationists, anarchists, or socialists? The answer is yes, no, or maybe, depending upon which specific incident you are referring to.This willful desire “for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, and other social processes in order to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformation, otherwise known as ‘acceleration’”. The philosophy calls for any hacking or infrastructure attacks that would reap chaos and sow a lack of faith in our systems, confusion, and violence. As I said earlier, who is responsible depends on the specific case because there are quite a few domestic actors to which we could ascribe blame, and only a select few have ever been caught or prosecuted.In May of last year, vandals who thought they were being funny, shot a water tower. The resulting leak streamed roughly 180,000 gallons of water onto the GENERAC generator and ground below. Just that one bullet cost the tiny town of Kingsland, Arkansas, almost $10,000 in repairs and lost resources. That may seem small, but it’s a substantial chunk of change for a town with a population of only 344. While this wasn’t a huge event, it underscores how vulnerable these systems really are. Any flat land with a town on it probably also has a water tower to provide pressure and keep the water flowing to homes. Most of those are susceptible to being brought offline with a single bullet.There’s a foreign threat, as well. This usually comes in the form of state-sponsored cyber attacks where ransomware locks out control of systems until a multi-million dollar price is extorted. Even then, there are no guarantees. However, it is just as easy for foreign entities to take advantage of the civil divisions and physically attack our infrastructure, knowing that Americans will continue to turn on each other to point the finger of blame. Some foreign governments and terrorist organizations may have already adapted this strategy, knowing that while we shout out accusations of culpability, any criminal or counter-espionage investigations won’t be effective, and they will remain undetected.It’s also known that media coverage of these events sparks copycat occurrences, so we may see an increase in them this year. We rarely see the number of suicides in the United States unless it is a notable celebrity because attention to it provides some with the idea, and reporting suicides statistically increases them. How many people saw what happened in North Carolina and wondered if they could do the same in their county? Not all of your neighbors harbor good intentions. Just as we are evaluating how vulnerable these systems really are so we can individually harden ourselves off from them, someone is probably watching this and wondering how they might attack these systems. Is there an agent of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation watching the US news and formulating a covert operation right now? We just don’t know because the list of potential and actual actors is too great.If that wasn’t enough of a threat, we also realize how old and outdated many of our infrastructure systems are because of extreme weather events and other natural disasters. The failure to insulate equipment in Texas led to almost the entire state being without power in 2021. High winds in California frequently result in live wires sparking deadly wildfires that have wiped out whole communities in mere minutes. Rodents chewing on wires in an electric box in Waterton Canyon, Colorado sparked a wildfire that was, fortunately, contained. In Boulder, Colorado, sparks from a powerline were the cause of a massive wildfire that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes in mere minutes and left many citizens running for their lives. You may have also heard of the pump system failing in Jackson, Mississippi, forcing a boil order that lasted for weeks. That type of municipal water problem instigated by excessive rains and flood water overwhelming antiquated and poorly maintained systems or flourishing bacterial blooms is more common than anyone wants to believe. Boil orders across the country have exponentially increased year after year. WHAT CAN YOU DO?As individuals, we have two choices. We can spend all our time assigning blame though we may lack all the actual facts and details, or we can accept that these systems WILL fail and chart a personal course that will allow us to navigate a future where these systems may be down for days, weeks, months, or forever. As a prepper, the first step is to assess your power needs. We did a blog over a year ago where we tried to explain this as practically as possible. There are several options on the market for backup power ranging from several hundred dollars such as a standard gas or propane generator up to whole home solar and battery backup systems and we’ve covered them all on the channel before.The second step is to secure your food and water requirements for each person and pet in your household for no less than two weeks and preferably 3-months. Most in this community aim for 1 year of backup food. While that may seem daunting, it’s far easier than you might think. FEMA recommends an absolute minimum of 3 days’ supply, but we think that is not nearly enough in an age of polycrisis and new compounding catastrophes. 3-days is just a bare minimum, but most people don’t even have that in their pantries, cupboards, and refrigerators. Most people will be desperate for food by the time dinner time arrives after any disaster. Grocery stores, at best, only have a few days’ food supplies for the communities they serve and will be completely depleted of food within the first few hours. We have all seen empty store shelves and buying limits on everything from meat to toilet paper to baby formula to eggs just in the last few years. It’s time to wake up and understand how vulnerable this infrastructure of food chain systems is.Additionally, you need to have the means to purify, filter, and treat water to make it drinkable. If you anticipate water systems failing for any period longer than a few weeks, you should also know how to collect, harvest, and treat water from the wild. Many seasoned preppers still don’t prep water supplies, which is a huge oversight. You may be able to hobble along without power for a while. You may be able to suffer through hunger pains or forage enough food sustenance to survive the aftermath of a disaster, but without clean drinking water, you will be dead in about three days. Please give that the seriousness in your prepping that it deserves.America is under constant attack. Our infrastructure systems are being assaulted daily by various manmade and natural threats. It’s no longer a question of when one of these systems will fail in your area, but it has become a question of how long once it fails and how many other systems will be impacted. With each new dramatic failing, we are only learning how delicate and intricately laced these systems are. You can either be a victim of the failing–a statistic–or you can take steps today to evaluate your level of dependency and secure resources and means to ensure the three core preps of energy, food, and water. This doesn’t have to be a fear-crippling situation for you, and we’re not here to stoke the doom and gloom so apparent to us all.Instead, we are providing you with honest, well-thought-out solutions in the form of multiple blogs. Please take charge of your future today by reading those blogs and implementing some prepping practices you will find there. If you have already been prepping for a while, read these blogs with a keen eye on any vulnerabilities in your current preps. Do you have enough food, water, and energy? If you have a story where you faced an infrastructure disaster and made it through because of your preps, consider sending your story to story@cityprepping.com, and we may change your name and edit it to share with our community what you learned and what you did to survive.As always, stay safe out there.
7 Popular Methods to Grow Gardens in Small Spaces and Apartments (pt4)“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself” – May Sarton.In this 4th blog in our ongoing series covering gardening in apartments and small spaces, we’re going to give a very high-level overview of some of the popular methods to help you understand your options. We will cover each in more detail in future blogs showing the exact steps you’ll need to follow, but this will serve as a great starting point to give you some ideas. For now, we want to survey the range of options available. Even then, we won’t be able to cover them all, but rather we’ll look at what we have found to be the most popular and easiest to implement when starting out. Consider this a first look for further contemplation as you plan your garden. Let’s explore the possibilities…GROWING METHODSVERTICAL GARDENINGA vertical garden is a vertically suspended system that takes advantage of back walls, western walls, and to some extent, cross beams. They range from soil systems like repurposed hanging shoe racks and bottle systems filled with soil and dripping into each other to hydroponic PVC systems, grow towers, stacked pots, and hanging planters. The primary considerations are weight and shading. You want your vertical system to allow light for other plants. You want it to squeeze the last light rays and maximize your growing space. This is why you put these on your western wall or back wall, so they don’t block light for other plants. Living green walls can thrive for harvest after harvest and keep you in an abundance of food throughout your growing season.Hanging gardens or pots also may only shade the plants below for a period of the daytime. Many plants don’t need or want full sun, so placing hanging plants above can protect plants below when done strategically. Balcony and deck railings are also a great use of space, but these can also block light to growing areas. Placing them on the western side will result in them receiving the early sunlight the plants need but subdued light, probably after noon. When you think about your outdoor garden, think about it both horizontally and vertically. Here’s a question to ask yourself, though. Can you bring that vertical garden indoors? One of your walls might be perfect for a growing wall. Looking at a wall of living green can have a calming effect on a person, all the while providing you with a more pest-free gardening experience and easy access to your food regardless of the season. Many people use indoor grow towers and hydroponic systems for this very reason.HYDROPONICSHydroponics is the technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil and can include an aggregate substrate or growing media, such as vermiculite, coconut coir, or perlite. These systems range from grow towers to grow walls, from small farmers to hobbyists to large commercial enterprises. This is one of the few options for some northern regions because of such a short growing season. The problems with this method are providing nutrients, preventing algae or gnats, the system’s weight, the electricity needed to circulate water, and the need to provide supplemental light. These systems can range from windowsill setups to towers to whole walls and can be deployed outdoors and indoors.Purchasing a ready-made system can be phenomenally expensive. With a bit of craftiness, you can build your own, which we will do in a later video. Building your own is the route most people take because the cost is still so high. Fortunately, the materials are much cheaper today than in years past. The prices of PVC may have gone up, but the price of grow lights and growing media like vermiculite, coconut coir, or expanded clay have all gone down. Thanks to the home growers of cannabis and tomatoes, you will find many more hydroponic stores in your area and probably a few deals on used equipment on your local exchange. One grow tower of lettuce and kale planted over several weeks will provide you with more greens than a person can possibly eat by themself. Keep that in mind as you plan your setup. Maybe it is an opportunity to trade or partner with others. When you think of hydroponic, vertical growing in your space, consider the range of options available to you to maximize your space and yield. AQUAPONICSFor the slightly more daring, there is aquaponics—this couples aquaculture with hydroponics. You produce fish for protein which in turn makes nutrients for the plants. Automatic recirculating systems do not require much monitoring or measuring, as they, when functioning correctly, create a symbiotic relationship between the plants and fish. The fish benefit from the filtered and oxygenated water. The plants benefit from the waste materials of the fish. Modern versions of these setups can be deployed outdoors, even in a small patio space. Many viewers sent us pictures of their systems in their garages or backyards– some elaborate and some simple additions circulated off their fish tanks with some basic pumps.It is not a new science. Hydroculture was used quite extensively by the Aztecs. The Chinese used loach, swamp eels, carp, and pond snails in their rice patties. Aquaponics was developed everywhere plants were cultivated alongside bodies of water teeming with life. It’s more like we humans learned what mother nature was naturally doing and tried to capture and contain some little piece of that process. Typically the plants grow right on top of the water. Your chief concerns with this method are the creatures, the water, and the weight of the water. Tilapia breed fast. Just one female will typically produce about 200-1000 eggs per spawn, and she’ll spawn every 4-5 weeks. That’s a lot of population control you have to think about. Something like koi or other carp won’t breed as fast, but they also aren’t your first choice for consumption either. Minnows, guppies, or goldfish might breed and produce quickly if conditions are right, but if you plan on eating the fish for protein, you probably would have to get pretty creative.Feeding those fish and keeping them healthy can also be a challenge. That amount of water is a challenge too. Some apartments allow tanks up to 25 gallons while others limit it to 2 gallons. Some have no restrictions at all. Leaks can do damage, and a gallon of water is 8 and 1/3 pounds. So, while the method is fantastic and, in many ways, self-sustaining, it comes with more than a few considerations. AEROPONICSAeroponics is a plant-cultivation technique in which the roots hang suspended in the air while a nutrient solution is delivered to them in the form of a fine mist. It grows plants in the air or mist environment without soil or an aggregate medium. These have become very popular for window sill and small kitchen counter setups, but the method is also used in large-scale operations and even by NASA in space. The basic principle of aeroponic growing is to grow plants suspended in a closed or semi-closed environment by spraying the plant’s dangling roots and lower stem with an atomized or sprayed nutrient-rich water solution of 5–50 micrometers micro-droplets.Some of the drawbacks of this method are the constant mist needed and the electrical requirements for producing that mist. Roots are very sensitive parts of plants and do not like air exposure. Also, the humid, misty environment can result in an infestation of bugs if the system isn’t carefully closed off from outside exposure. Sealing it off too completely can require the grower also to have to manage oxygen and CO2 levels in the system. There is also a need for supplemental grow lights. Because of these concerns, the aeroponic method is often combined with aspects of hydroponics, and other grow materials. There are low and high-pressure versions of this method that range from small to massive commercial versions.If you have a little bit of scientist and a little bit of engineer in you, this can be very rewarding. We have seen everything from lettuce to potatoes grown in this manner. There’s much to learn with this method.CONTAINER GARDENINGMost of us will take a hard pass on the complicated science-heavy methods of the techniques we mentioned earlier in favor of good, old-fashioned soil and containers. This will range from potted plants to stacked garden towers. The growing medium is soil or potting soil. If you plan to garden this way, realize that your soil can quickly be depleted of nutrients. You will need to supplement the nutrients with either fertilizer or compost materials. You are also susceptible to fungus and infestations: however, having an abundance of direct sunlight reduces the possibility of these. You also have to realize that these containers will have weight. You want containers that are within the bounds of your area’s maximum load.Containers also need to drain somewhere. Will they run off into a plant saucer or trough? As we demonstrated in our sweet potato video, a self-wicking system will allow you to control water levels while also getting vital nutrients directly to the root system. With any container system, you’re taking a piece of the Earth and containing it to serve your needs. That brings with it some challenges, but it also brings plenty of rewards. Controlling and coaxing the environment you create to get maximum results can be rewarding and can provide you with an abundance of living food. Read the blog in this series on soil before going this route. We know a video on soil doesn’t sound very exciting, but we promise you we put in a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight into that topic to make it as concise as possible and give you what you need to be successful. Do check that out.GROW TENTSIf you want total control over the environment, you can use an indoor grow tent or repurpose a room or closet. The challenges with this method are weight, light, temperature regulation, and air circulation. Plants need air, just like we do, so they don’t suffocate. There is a lot to control and regulate in this type of setup. The advantage is that you are not confined to the whims of weather or the shortened sunlight of some seasons. You can grow year-round with UV-A, B, and C bulbs over your plants.What you grow is only known to you, so there is less chance nosy neighbor or a homeowner’s association will complain. Naturally, your electrical requirements will go up, and you must move a lot of equipment and materials in and out of your house and grow area. While these are great solutions for smaller but continual yields, they require more attention to detail and a dedicated and unmovable space. Also, without adequate ventilation to the outside, your home can take on a very earthy smell depending upon your growing materials and plant choices. Still, this method has been successful for small-space cultivation in apartments and dorm rooms worldwide.BAG & STRAWBALEIf you are dealing with an outdoor space, it’s not uncommon for people to plant directly into a straw bale with dirt added into the top center or slits in a bag of commercial soil or potting soil. You must have drainage for both methods to keep your grow medium from turning into a big rotting mess. With the straw bale method, you are counting on some decomposition of the straw to provide nutrients to the plant. These can be breeding grounds for bugs too. That’s the reason we only suggest this method for outside small grow areas. We do have a straw bale, so we will probably do a future video demonstrating this technique. For now, just realize that it is an option many people use.The potato tower we demonstrated in an earlier video is a variation that combines both these methods in a wire frame. Attention to drainage is a concern, and the weight of the materials is a concern. It has to be placed for the optimal sun. With any container or vertical system, the ability to move or rotate it on wheels is always beneficial.As you consider these different methods in your grow space, consider the light, weight, water, space, and container. Let that guide your decisions on what you grow. When you know what you want to grow, consider the size of a successful, mature plant. If you plant a sweet potato in a small pot, you will get a great vine, but any sweet potato won’t make even a side dish for a meal. If you plant corn, a typical corn plant can be anywhere from five feet to 12 feet tall, and it wants its roots to go an average of 6 feet deep. Do you have enough height for that, or will it block out all your other plants? Is there enough width to accommodate that root that wants to run so deep? Can the plants you are growing be planted tightly together, or do they need significant spacing from each other? You can tweak some of these requirements by giving plants their own containers. Also, consider the light and water requirements of your plants. With any of these various growing methods, different plants may require supplementation of light, nutrients, or more or less water than other plants.Likely, you will want to combine several methods for your area to maximize your growing capabilities. There are other methods of growing that we don’t cover here because of time, but we wanted to give you a quick overview of the seven most common methods. We will explore some of them in far greater, hands-on detail in future blogs as we establish my three growing areas. Others, we will let you explore further. If you have a method we didn’t cover here, please share it in the comments below.As always, stay safe out there.
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Ask 100 preppers how long they should be prepared for, and you’ll get a lot of different answers. Most will lean toward being prepared for longer periods of time. But the starting point I always encourage is 3 days of preparedness, namely having food on hand that doesn’t require refrigeration and also water. Once you’ve got enough food and water on hand, we would encourage you to stretch that to a 3-week supply. Just 3-weeks will get you through almost every natural disaster that has occurred in the history of the United States. Now, 3 months would be even better. That would help carry you through disasters we have never seen before. We’re increasingly seeing once-in-a-generation storms and events on a more regular basis, along with attacks on our infrastructure and challenges with Russia and China that seem to compound daily, so I would strongly encourage you to shoot for a minimum of 3 months of preparedness. Once you achieve 3 months of preparedness, a year becomes much more obtainable as you’re mostly there…it’s just a matter of scaling up your food. You are also beginning to hopefully learn ways to incorporate these preps into your daily life, such as eating what you store and storing what you eat. We’ll talk about that a little later.
The point here is to decide your target: how long do you want to be prepared for? 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or more? Once you make that decision, it’s time to move to the next step.
STEP 2: FOCUS ON THE PILLARS
So now that we have a timeframe we’re aiming for, let’s focus on the core pillars of prepping. Where do you begin? Here’s our encouragement to you: when starting out, focus on the essential pillars of food, water, energy, medicine, knowledge, and thriftiness. Those last two we will touch upon those a little later. With food, start slow. When you go to the store, buy one extra can of soup, tuna or meat, chili, or vegetables, and set that can aside. Look at the expiration date on the can to get the product with the most extended shelf-life. Canned foods can allow you to build a food reserve for when you have to bug in. If you see a sale, check the expiration to make sure it isn’t old already but maybe buy two or more cans or even a case. Take advantage of deals.
The important thing about canned food is that you should only buy what you can eat. It’s easy to look at these items at the store and purchase food you’ve never eaten before. We don’t recommend that. Also, pick up soups and vegetables. While they may not be calorically dense, they’ll provide a welcome variety and a sense of comfort to you in your time of greatest need.
Beyond just canned food, look to dry goods like hard beans, lentils, rice, amaranth, barley, popcorn, and other hard grains and cereals. They can be stored easily on your shelf for extended periods of time. Start off by focusing on food. If there’s a disaster, food will be the most highly sought-after commodity that is not easily obtained once the stores are cleaned out.
Next, focus on the second pillar, which is water. Start here, and later, as your budget permits, upgrade to storage containers. When we personally started years ago, we went for 5-gallon water storage containers we could put in our closets and, over time, we moved up to 55-gallon drums we have stored in our garage. It didn’t happen overnight; quite the contrary. But our budget helped guide me.
Also, have the means to filter, treat, or boil your water to purify it and make it drinkable. Water is so critical to survival that you can only survive around 3-days without it.
As for the other pillars of energy and medicine, you must assess your needs and requirements here. If you have equipment or medication that you need or your life and health would be in jeopardy, you genuinely need to secure the medicine and energy you need to at least keep yourself safe for 3-days. Regarding medicine, everyone is at a different place with this issue. We would encourage you to learn how to store as much as you need to survive as is legally possible. We know the medical community is increasingly making it harder for people to keep much of an inventory on hand personally, but we would encourage you to chat with your physician about this.
Focus on the pillars of food, water, medicine, and energy, when getting started, and you will likely be just fine. We’ve got blogs covering each of these subjects.
STEP 3: MAKE A BUDGET & PLAN
Now that we’ve determined a timeline and priorities, it’s time to build a budget and start planning. A budget makes all the difference when money is tight, as it defines every dollar that goes out and informs you on how much you can spend on your preps. We’ve spoken about finances many times on the channel, and my own journey of getting my finances squared away. We know the challenges and the freedom that comes with having a budget that can be followed. When we got serious about our finances, we used Dave Ramsey’s book, financial peace, which really helped us understand ways to stick with a budget. Maybe there’s another financial guru you like, but the key is to form a budget and follow it. Trust me, it made a big difference.
Also, check out our free Recession Proofing guide, which is a great way to harden yourself off from economic downturns fiscally that covers practical approaches to saving money, so I encourage you to start there. Then look at the Introductory Prepper’s Guide to form a plan to get moving. Forming a budget, using our recession-proof guide, and then following our introductory prepper’s guide will get you started.
STEP 4: CHANGE THE WAY YOU LIVE & EAT
You need to learn to prepare and cook the food that you’re storing. Eat what you store and store what you eat. And with spring right around the corner, we would highly encourage you to start a garden, no matter how large or small. When we started gardening, we had no idea what we were doing, and we’re still learning. But that’s the key: We are learning. We still probably kill more plants than we keep alive, but we’re better than we were the day we started. Now, sometimes we bring in bumper crops of some vegetables, and we learn about the low-yielding plants and find out why they produce so little. We realize we can’t survive solely by growing my food if everything were to fall apart. As we’ve been covering on the channel lately, we are working on garden setups for small spaces. We’ve already done several blogs on this and will be doing more in the coming weeks. When springtime hits, we’ll start showing you how to practically implement the approaches we’ve outlined by showing you the setups we’ll be making on our back patio.
Our point here is that we can’t wait until disaster strikes and then instantly be the expert on all things. We recognized long ago that we needed to change how we lived and incorporate knowledge, skills, and thriftiness into my daily practices. That mindset doesn’t require me to spend even a penny of my money, but it will be my most valuable resource after a disaster.
Finally, change the way you are living your life. If you’re sitting on the couch, get up if you can. Go for a walk, hike, or exercise. If you have a sedentary life at all, this is the day you need to change that. Get up and stretch. Increased physical activity leads to physical and physiological changes in your body’s chemistry. It can change your perspective and help you build a survivor’s mentality. More importantly, moving around more and getting healthy doesn’t have to cost you a dime.
STEP 5: TURN OFF THE LIGHTS & GO CAMPING
Once you have low-budget prepped for a few months, it’s time for a trial run to understand your preps and harden yourself off to adversity. Go ahead and run the emergency evacuation drill for your family. Flip the power off at the main breaker to your house for the weekend, document what you would do, and assess what you may have overlooked. Plan an overnight camping trip or pitch a tent in your backyard with just your bug-out gear. Understand the difference between the survival movies Hollywood feeds us and what it really takes to survive for a day or three without the luxuries and comforts we have in abundance and barely consider.
Your practice session doesn’t have to be that dramatic. It can simply be turning to your food and water preps and committing to eat and drink only those for three days. That simple exercise will teach you volumes about your supplies and the gaps in them. The practice will allow you to replace your preps with greater purpose and intent. Turning to your food preps like this every so often will save you the money you can apply to your future preps, replace existing supplies, or get the new supplies you now realize you need. The key is putting your resources, knowledge, and skills into practice.
You don’t have to be perfect. In fact, you want to fail here and there to understand where the gaps in your preps are. This is about putting forth a little effort periodically. This is where the transformation into the prepper you decided and committed to being earlier occurs. This is where the change occurs– with every effort and every bit of practice.
20 QUICK TIPS
Much of what we already discussed here are things you can start doing today at little to no expense. Decide what you want to prepare for, get or build a personal plan, take advantage of our free guides, build your core preps slowly over time, change the way you live and eat now, and then put it all into practice. All of those can be done with even the most limited of funds, but we also want to leave you with 20 quick tips for prepping with little to no budget. Over the years of doing this, as you might imagine, we get quite a few tips and tricks sent to us. We cover many of these in other blogs on this site, or you can find best practices with a few simple internet searches.
Here they are, super quickly:
Hi Everyone,
23 Quart Pressure Canner Cooker for Canning & Cooker with Gauge Steaming Rack Auto Lock Handle for Stewing Pressure Cooking
blocks so that the water will drain. I’m growing bib lettuce, red lettuce, and green lettuce. Do you see the empty container? I planted this container about 2 weeks ago, and the baby plants are just coming up. I try to rotate the containers so that I always have lettuce. You can see the plastic tub in the front on the left is falling apart. I find that each tub only lasts about a year. The sun and elements make the plastic very brittle. 
THIS WEEK – until Wednesday… Albertsons has American Beauty Pasta for $1.00 each. That’s a pretty good deal, and I haven’t seen it that low in a while. Pasta will last for several years. You can put it in an airtight container with oxygen absorbers. You can put it in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then just iron the bags closed. You can vacuum seal the pasta in its original packaging. I just snip a very tiny hole in the package so that the air can be vacuumed out. I made a dish last week that called for 4 c. cooked pasta and suggested that 2 c. uncooked pasta would be about the equivalent. I used 2 heaping c. pasta, and I ended up with at least 8 c. pasta!!!! I used 4 c. for the recipe and the rest the next night with some homemade alfredo sauce. 
THIS is a really handy thing: 
It will not make scrambled eggs or angel food cake. See the description at the link below. 
Losing electricity is something you CAN prepare for. When it happens is NOT the time to worry about it. If you cannot afford a generator, maybe you can start a “fund” and put a little money aside every week. In the meantime, how about some emergency candles? 
without harming underground water.
both. If the store shelves are suddenly empty (2020), you have what you need for a few weeks and don’t suddenly have to break out the wheat grinder. I think we have all come to realize how “unstable” the marketplace can be. Having a supply of food is NOT hoarding, it is “laying up in store” for hard times to come. It is “providing” for your family.
My husband is NOT a fan or the seeds taking up room on the kitchen counter. But, until they are sprouted, I like to keep them in the warm house. After that, they can go outside during the day to be in the sun. Taking them in and out, in and out is a real pain! But, if left inside, they get spindly and will die. They need several hours of sun and a good breeze to develop strong stems. You CAN do this indoors, in a basement, or spare room, or garage IF you have a nice bright light and a table and a fan. Wouldn’t I LOVE that? But, you make do with what you have, and right now, I have counter space. 
our local Winco. I DO know that the cost of milk IS going up after Jan 1, so plan accordingly.
are about 2 in. tall. After the coming week of clouds and rain, I hope I can get them out in the sun. If you have ever grown celery from seed, you’ll know they are very tiny!!! It takes a LONG time for them to be ready to plant outdoors, which is good. Here is a picture of my tiny celery starts.
I have been prepping for years. The first thing that I found that has helped me is, over the last few years, buying a little bit more food at a time at a much lower price than it is now. I prep, actually, for my neighborhood. I know a lot of people that are not prepping and sometimes, because they can’t afford it and so I buy extra food so that when the food runs low or out, I can serve food to my neighbors and be a blessing to them and show them God’s love.
everything in there that we might need, and I found that almost every trip, we forgot to bring something–sometimes a key ingredient for what we need to do. However, because we already have backup stuff, it doesn’t hinder us at all. Other times the kids are brought out into the woods with only knife matches and water, and they have to survive for 3 days. It brings them to a place of self-sufficiency and great confidence that they’re going to be okay.
I’ve also found that from time to time, our family gets sick all at the same time. And nobody wants to go to the store because we’re not feeling that well. All I have to do is go over to my prep room and get whatever we need. Whether it’s dry goods or canned goods, even toilet paper, and paper towels. It all comes in handy and gives us a sense of security and peace. It also helps us to avoid getting out in public and making others sick, which is very important to us.
I live in a suburb just south of Buffalo, New York. Obviously, we are used to snow. We live in what’s called the lake effect snow belt, and getting 150 inches of snow in a year is not unheard of. 
so thick and heavy. They needed payloaders to come to dig out the streets. The municipal town plows couldn’t overcome it. All in all, since it was mostly focused on the suburbs, nothing unusual happened, people were used to it, and everyone behaved. Some neighbors ignored their snow and let it pile up and needed to be dug out by tractors. Others, like myself, spent a considerable amount of effort to keep up with the snow and keep the driveway clear.
It’s amazing how helpless some people are and oblivious. People in an area known for blizzards, with a blizzard in the forecast, were driving around without winter jackets and survival gear. They didn’t have shovels or blankets in the car. The roads became impassable and gridlocked. People panicked, and some people froze to death. The government essentially told people, “You’re on your own. We can’t help you”. Emergency services couldn’t get through to everyone.
We planned an 18-mile hike in NH to summit one of the 4000-footers in this area. We have been working on climbing all 48 of them. The weather called for snow in the evening and heavy snow overnight into the next day. We were confident in our abilities to finish the 18 miles before the heavy snow set in, but as always, I prepared for the worst-case scenario. It was only supposed to be a day hike.
We banter about the word infrastructure quite a bit, but many need to realize the full extent and meaning of the phrase. It’s a very general phrase applied to a vast range of structures and services. The exact definition is the “basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.” It seems simple, but let’s take a deeper look at it for a moment.
The most recent headline-grabbing incident of an infrastructure attack was the Moore County, North Carolina substation attack on December 3rd, 2022. The Moore power substation was severely damaged by gunfire at around 7 PM. Shell casings were recovered at the scene. A second substation in West End was damaged by gunfire just a little later. Thousands were left without power in winter weather. Authorities enacted an immediate curfew, and all citizens were required to be in their homes by the curfew between 9 PM and 5 AM. 
As individuals, we have two choices. We can spend all our time assigning blame though we may lack all the actual facts and details, or we can accept that these systems WILL fail and chart a personal course that will allow us to navigate a future where these systems may be down for days, weeks, months, or forever. 
A vertical garden is a vertically suspended system that takes advantage of back walls, western walls, and to some extent, cross beams. They range from soil systems like repurposed hanging shoe racks and bottle systems filled with soil and dripping into each other to hydroponic PVC systems, grow towers, stacked pots, and hanging planters. The primary considerations are weight and shading. You want your vertical system to allow light for other plants. You want it to squeeze the last light rays and maximize your growing space. This is why you put these on your western wall or back wall, so they don’t block light for other plants. Living green walls can thrive for harvest after harvest and keep you in an abundance of food throughout your growing season.
Hydroponics is the technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil and can include an aggregate substrate or growing media, such as vermiculite, coconut coir, or perlite. These systems range from grow towers to grow walls, from small farmers to hobbyists to large commercial enterprises. This is one of the few options for some northern regions because of such a short growing season. The problems with this method are providing nutrients, preventing algae or gnats, the system’s weight, the electricity needed to circulate water, and the need to provide supplemental light. These systems can range from windowsill setups to towers to whole walls and can be deployed outdoors and indoors.
For the slightly more daring, there is aquaponics—this couples aquaculture with hydroponics. You produce fish for protein which in turn makes nutrients for the plants. Automatic recirculating systems do not require much monitoring or measuring, as they, when functioning correctly, create a symbiotic relationship between the plants and fish. The fish benefit from the filtered and oxygenated water. The plants benefit from the waste materials of the fish. Modern versions of these setups can be deployed outdoors, even in a small patio space. Many viewers sent us pictures of their systems in their garages or backyards– some elaborate and some simple additions circulated off their fish tanks with some basic pumps.
Aeroponics is a plant-cultivation technique in which the roots hang suspended in the air while a nutrient solution is delivered to them in the form of a fine mist. It grows plants in the air or mist environment without soil or an aggregate medium. These have become very popular for window sill and small kitchen counter setups, but the method is also used in large-scale operations and even by NASA in space. The basic principle of aeroponic growing is to grow plants suspended in a closed or semi-closed environment by spraying the plant’s dangling roots and lower stem with an atomized or sprayed nutrient-rich water solution of 5–50 micrometers micro-droplets.
Most of us will take a hard pass on the complicated science-heavy methods of the techniques we mentioned earlier in favor of good, old-fashioned soil and containers. This will range from potted plants to stacked garden towers. The growing medium is soil or potting soil. If you plan to garden this way, realize that your soil can quickly be depleted of nutrients. You will need to supplement the nutrients with either fertilizer or compost materials. You are also susceptible to fungus and infestations: however, having an abundance of direct sunlight reduces the possibility of these. You also have to realize that these containers will have weight. You want containers that are within the bounds of your area’s maximum load.
If you want total control over the environment, you can use an indoor grow tent or repurpose a room or closet. The challenges with this method are weight, light, temperature regulation, and air circulation. Plants need air, just like we do, so they don’t suffocate. There is a lot to control and regulate in this type of setup. The advantage is that you are not confined to the whims of weather or the shortened sunlight of some seasons. You can grow year-round with UV-A, B, and C bulbs over your plants.
If you are dealing with an outdoor space, it’s not uncommon for people to plant directly into a straw bale with dirt added into the top center or slits in a bag of commercial soil or potting soil. You must have drainage for both methods to keep your grow medium from turning into a big rotting mess. With the straw bale method, you are counting on some decomposition of the straw to provide nutrients to the plant. These can be breeding grounds for bugs too. That’s the reason we only suggest this method for outside small grow areas. We do have a straw bale, so we will probably do a future video demonstrating this technique. For now, just realize that it is an option many people use.