Hi Everyone,
NOTES:
NOTES:
* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been encouraging its members to be prepared for over 70 years. Did you know that no matter what the church does or says, only about 15% of the members are prepared? That said, it is probably higher than the general population. I hope now that we’ve lived through a sample of what could happen, and with the increased emphasis on preparedness, more families will get serious about it.
* Here is a good link for growing peppers. Pepper Growing Tips – Complete Gardening Guide on How to Grow Peppers // Grow More Peppers per Plant is one to help you avoid mistakes.
Pepper Growing Mistakes – How to Avoid or Fix Them…How to Grow Peppers. I like this gardener because he’s in California. I’m not sure where, but there are palm trees in his yard.
* We’ve talked some about toiletries this month. Here is what one author has to say: “If during an evacuation, you are exposed to mud, sewage, or other forms of pollution, it is a necessity to be able to get clean as soon as possible. Of course, you can survive without a daily bath, but sores and irritation form rapidly without proper hygiene. Being able to brush your teeth, wash your face, comb your hair, and even wash your body with a wet washcloth will prevent the spread of disease and irritation.” (Salsbury, Barbara, It’s Time To Plan Not Panic, 75-76)
* Have you ever brushed your teeth with baking soda? I have. It works well to clean teeth. Rinse the brush with hydrogen peroxide. This prevents plaque and gum disease.
LONG TERM FOCUS: Eggs & Butter
There are ways to store eggs, including refrigerating long-term and freezing. If you buy eggs from the store, they have been washed, and you will need to apply a coat of mineral oil (I think I used olive oil). These eggs can be kept in a cool place for several months. I kept mine in the fridge for about 9 months, and they were perfectly good.
You can also freeze eggs. When used in baking, you can’t tell the difference. Some people don’t like the taste of thawed frozen eggs. Others don’t mind. I’ve not tried it, but this article will give you lots of information. 30+ Ways to Preserve Eggs
Did you know that you can get dehydrated butter? Augason Farms Butter Powder 2 lbs 4 oz No. 10 Can. You can also “can” butter. People have been doing it for years, but it is NOT approved. I have some butter that I canned, and it is sitting on my shelf as we speak. There are also substitutes for butter. Need a Substitute for Butter? Try These 8 Options. Basically, these options are Coconut oil, vegetable shortening (especially butter flavored), Vegan butter (made from coconut oil and cashews), olive oil (can be used in a 1:1 ratio for melted butter in a pinch), Greek Yogurt, applesauce, avocado, pumpkin puree. Of all these choices, the powdered butter will store the longest – shortening next.
SHORT TERM FOCUS: Cinnamon
What do peanut butter, jam, and honey have in common? Toast, of course. And who doesn’t like cinnamon sugar sprinkled on toast? So, this week, pick up an extra-large jar of cinnamon. Or, if you shop at Winco, they have baggies of spices back in the bulk section. You can store it in a glass jar.
72-HOUR KIT FOCUS: Baggies
Place a few baggies in your kits. They will come in handy for everything!
MISCELLANEOUS FOCUS: Babies
We’ve spent the month talking about shampoo, bars of soap, hair ties, combs, NIX. Let’s just take a minute to think about how we could prepare for babies’ needs. You should consider getting cloth diapers and plastic pants. In addition, you might want to get an extra tube of Desitin or a similar product. In the OLD days, there was no such thing as “baby wipes.” We just used washrags. When they were soiled, we put them (and the diapers) into a diaper pail (just a large plastic container) with a little bleach water in it. When it was time to wash the diapers, we drained off the water and put everything in the washing machine. This would also work if you needed an emergency substitute for toilet paper. Realistically, storing a year’s supply of diapers is not practical.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
All today’s recipes are from Cooking With Home Storage by Peggy Layton
Using unflavored gelatin as a substitute for eggs.
Before starting to mix cookies, cake, or something else, place 3 TB cold water in a mixing bowl and sprinkle 2 tsp gelatin in. Mix thoroughly. Add 1/2 c. boiling water and stir to dissolve. While preparing the batter for the cookies, cake, etc., place the eggs in the freezer to cool the water. When the recipe calls for an egg, take it from the freezer and beat it until frothy. Then add to the batter.
Fudge Cake
2 c. flour
6 TB cocoa powder
1/4 c. dehydrated eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
Sift together dry ingredients, including the egg powder.
1 1/3 c. water
3/4 c. vegetable oil
Add the water and oil. Mix well. Bake in a greased cake pan for 40 min at 350 degrees.
Fudge Frosting
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 TB butter powder
2 c. milk
Add all ingredients to a saucepan. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Cool slightly and add:
1 tsp vanilla
Zucchini Creole
1 lb zucchini squash, peeled and sliced in 1/2 inch rounds.
1 can diced tomatoes – Add to zucchini
3 slices bacon, browned and crumbled – add
1 diced onion
salt and pepper
Add to a greased baking dish and bake for 45 minutes at 350.
Remember to get your “Five Storage Items” when you go to the store this week.
Marti
Clenched fists, raised voices, pacing or fidgeting, the rooster stance with chest out and arms protruding away from the body, fingers or hands pushing or violating proximal personal boundaries, these are all signs that a person has reached or is nearing a point of hostility. When the alarm response occurs in a body, there are an estimated fourteen hundred chemical reactions in the body. The chemicals released into the body are primal. Chemicals like adrenaline are meant to heighten our focused awareness, elevate heart rate, prime our muscles, and get us ready for fighting or fleeing the situation. Or, maybe a little of both. The aggressor has these chemicals flowing, and you do too naturally in response. Some of these chemicals slow the energy going to the higher reasoning areas of the brain because they are meant to filter out our surroundings and zero in on the specific threat we face. You may become unaware of things happening far away and get almost tunnel vision and lightning focus on your aggressor. Keeping calm and keeping your higher reasoning brain in step with your reactive brain will equip you to navigate the situation appropriately.
If your response is to become defensive immediately, you will not be able to de-escalate the situation. If you clench your fists or poke your finger in the face of the aggressor, the situation will likely get more intense. If you use words that disvalue the other person’s communication, motivations, or beliefs, you will escalate the situation. First, watch the position of your hands. One method is palms up with both hands in front of you as you talk. This is the giving position. It isn’t vulnerable as much as it is empathetic. The aggressor does not feel further threatened, though you have your hands in front of you should you need to defend yourself. Talking with your hands in the stop position with your fingers up and the palms facing the individual unconsciously tell the aggressor to stop. This position can also escalate the situation depending upon the defiance level and intent of the aggressor. Do not keep your hands in your pocket or behind your back, as the unconscious perception that you are hiding something could fuel an escalation.
Most people really just want the opportunity to be heard. Even if you disagree with the person’s position, expressing your understanding of their position and why they may feel a particular way is the first step to resolving or diffusing the conflict. To accomplish this, you have to make an earnest attempt to hear the person and understand what they are honestly saying. You must not be condescending in your response, regardless of how contrarian or absurd the person’s argument or conflict may seem. Instead, try saying, “If I hear you correctly, you are saying that…” and then do your best to summarize the person’s main points. They may want to clarify, but their contemplation of your summary may be enough to knock them out of their overheated primal mind and into their more rational mind. Their elaborations may be off-topic. This will mean that either their frustrations are deep-rooted and complex or they may be a little mentally off-kilter. This method of listening and summarizing is called Rogerian argument or Rogerian rhetoric. It is a form of argumentative reasoning that aims to establish a middle ground between parties with opposing viewpoints or goals. Psychotherapist Carl Rogers initially defined it, and it has been used countless times to instantly take the wind out of an argument’s sails.
Being aware of the bubble of space around a person is a clear indicator of whether the situation can swiftly escalate further. We all have a comfort zone around us, and we all have an awareness of other people’s comfort zones. When someone doesn’t seem to be aware of your comfort zone, or they are in your face and too close for comfort, as they say, your option should be raising your hand in the gentle stop motion and taking a step back. If the person continues, or they still seem to be unaware of your proxemic space, it may indicate that the person is off-kilter a bit, to put it nicely. One of the first signs of evident mental instability is that the person is unaware of other people’s personal space.
A tornado ripping through the center of your small town isn’t going to lead to a complete breakdown of social order. Emergency services are usually still available around the perimeter of the disaster zone, and there’s an excellent chance your neighbor who was unaffected by the disaster isn’t going to allow someone to just walk away with your big screen TV or arms full of your possessions. I know I wouldn’t hesitate to stop and question someone leaving my neighborhood with what is clearly someone else’s valuables under their arms. I don’t even have to know you personally as a neighbor to extend that courtesy to you. Tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, floods, these all tend to be of your regional variety. There is an established zone of destruction, and the rest of the world is safe. The larger the area, the more likely it is that the social fabric may unravel. An examination of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provides insight into how this occurs.
Looting takes two primary forms. First, there are opportunistic people with bad intent to begin with. These are those who, seeing that police services are elsewhere deployed and roads are nearly impassable, will smash the windows and doors of shoe shops, grocery stores, electronic stores, and so forth. Basically, if a person is grabbing a TV out of a store when the power is out, that’s this type of opportunistic person. The second main group is composed of the unprepared. They are more of your desperate variety, but their actions may be just as inexcusable. Having no food or water reserves on hand or it being wiped out in the cataclysmic event, this second group of people must loot or steal to survive. Still lacking long-term planning skills, they grab what they can, even if it sustains them only for the moment. Looting has a zone, as well.
In the social sciences, there is a hypothesis known as the Hawthorne effect or observer effect. That is the concept that people change their behavior based upon their being watched or their perception that they may be under observation. An astute observer can see this every day from the toddler who grabs something she knows she isn’t allowed because she doesn’t believe her mother is watching to the grown adult who runs the yellow or red light if they are confident there are no police around to write a ticket. The extent of the lawlessness in the disaster area is based upon people’s sense that their actions are unjustifiable to the observer. If someone knows the police will not be coming for at least an hour, that person is more likely to commit a crime. If the person knows police won’t come around for days and days if at all, the likelihood is increased again. If the person in a disaster knows that their crime will likely go unnoticed and without consequence or proof in the future, then the likelihood of committing the crime increases even further. Impunity and lack of accountability can prompt individuals who may be inclined towards criminal activity into acting upon those repressed impulses.
As I pointed out earlier, there are two distinct types of fires threatening the peace, the fires created by the opportunistic and those created by those acting out of necessity. Both fires are tempered by the perceptions of relief and rescue efforts. If help is on the way, peace is more likely to be maintained. If there is no hope on the horizon, the self-centered motivations that would lead to looting, stealing, robbery, and other crimes and even human rights violations will overtake many people’s rational thinking. If you are trapped by rising floodwaters on the roof of your one-story house, for instance, do you care about whether it is proper and legal for you to float over to your neighbor’s two-story house and punch a hole into his house?
Obviously, with COVID-19, one of the first shortages to be realized and addressed was Personal Protection Equipment or PPE. In the early days of COVID, around March of 2020, we were only beginning to understand how SARS-COV-2 was spread. Once the need for PPE was realized, and the virus rose from a few cases in other countries to a global pandemic, the supply of PPE went from just enough to woefully insufficient. Manufacturers worldwide were tapped to increase supply. This is an example of sudden demand outpacing inventory.
As businesses shifted their models to more electronic and paperless transactions, in-person transactions decreased during lockdowns. People saved money and spent less, fearing a more significant economic decline, and the actual supply of coinage decreased. There is an adequate supply of coins in the economy, but the slowed pace of circulation has resulted in reduced quantities where they are needed. The Mint only adds about 17% of new coins to the market. Most of the coins are recycled from retail transactions and recirculated. The impact of COVID-19 resulted in the disruption of the supply chains and circulating supplies of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. This is an example of how close to the bone supply and distribution models have gotten in the name of greater efficiency.
Ketchup packets seem like an odd shortage until you contemplate the reasons. Typically, a percentage of people went through the drive-thru, and the rest dined in the restaurant. When take-out and drive-thru were the only options because of COVID restrictions, the supply of ketchup packets shriveled up as needs forced demand went up.
The great toilet paper shortages of 2020 were primarily from people panicking and buying all the available supplies. Somewhere, someone is sitting on a lifetime supply. 2021, however, brought some new hiccups. The behemoth Evergreen container ship and the flotilla of backed-up cargo ships trying to transit the Suez Canal also blocked up the wood pulp cargo on its way to paper manufacturers. Significant disruptions to the pulp trade could impact toilet paper supplies if producers don’t have sufficient inventories. Brazil accounts for about one-third of all the global supply of hardwood pulp. Toilet paper is typically made to order because it takes up so much room. Storing large quantities is not profitable, so the industry typically has only a few months of inventory on hand. The vast majority of toilet paper consumed by Americans is made in North America. But about 10 percent of the giant rolls of paper are used to make the rolls that end up in American bathrooms come from China and India. So, while TP isn’t yet in short supply, the perception that it could be coupled with some supply chain problems could result in dramatic price increases and scarcity. You might not want to get rid of your lifetime supply of TP just yet.
As kids went to school online and talked their parents into buying them the PS5, and parents started working from home during the pandemic, the demand for semiconductors and personal computers, and electronics skyrocketed. Demand for electronics, shifting business models, including outsourcing production, and effects from a trade war resulted in chips being in short supply while demand remains high. Manufacturers have had to slow production, and this chip shortage affects everything from your laptop to mobile phones to appliances to the car you want to buy. Expect demand and prices to remain high while supply and production output remains low. This is an example of economies shifting priorities.
COVID-snarled supply chains and greater demand from consumers have resulted in low inventories and astronomical prices for lumber. The cost of plywood is up an incredible 250% in just a year, and the kink in the system doesn’t look to be resolving itself anytime soon. When a sheet of plywood hovers at a cost just below $100, the cost of construction and housing go up to balance out the equation. Those costs, of course, get passed on to you–the consumer.
Early in the pandemic, people found themselves without a gym and spending more time at home. They dusted off old bicycles or purchased new ones to not lose their minds indoors from cabin fever. The supply quickly disappeared, and new bikes soared in price over 120%. Bicycle repair shops servicing old bikes experienced a backlog of repairs. The supply disruption still hasn’t found an equilibrium.
As beverage consumption moved away from restaurant kegs and fountain drinks to home consumption, the current supplies of canned goods quickly shrank. Raw materials in transit have also slowed, though production has ramped up. Also, the number of people cooking and trying recipes during the pandemic has increased and led to a surge in canning. Jar sales went up 600%, and supplies disappeared. Here, too, manufacturing had to shift priorities and ramp up production at a time when the shipment of raw materials was also challenging. A seemingly insignificant consequence of this shortage was that Burger King had to delay the rollout of one of its sandwiches because they couldn’t get the jars for the pickles they needed for the sandwich. No big deal, right? I point it out here, though, because I think it’s essential to understand how one shortage can ripple out across an economy and affect multiple other products.
Products are shipped from manufacturers to distributors in shipping containers. 90% of goods worldwide are shipped in those big metal boxes on cargo ships, trains, and trucks. That’s great, but what about that shipping container– the big steel wrapper all that product arrived at your country inside of? Somehow that has to get back to the manufacturing country to be reused. Still, it isn’t exactly profitable to ship empty containers, and there aren’t many products going the other direction. When the Evergreen container ship was stuck in the Suez Canal, manufacturers in many countries had to halt production because they didn’t have containers in which to ship their products.
Americans turned to comfort food to stave off the big bummer of being locked down. This brought America’s cold storage stock of chicken wings to its lowest point in over a decade. Chicken nuggets are mainly made in China, and the flow of meat from that country hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. A continuing trade war has compounded this. The whole meat distribution system is truly a little odd. We may produce the meat in the U.S., ship it to China for processing, then back to consumers here. That’s far from the farm-to-table model. You can see this problem when you pick up meat from your grocery store meat department. Have you noticed the label that says your steak was processed either in Canada, Mexico, or the United States? To me, that’s rather scary that they can’t tell me the source of one steak.
If you don’t know the story of the Little Red Hen, it is an old English tale about a red hen who finds some wheat seeds one day in the barnyard. She asks other barnyard animals to help her plant them, later thresh the wheat, grind them to flour, and finally bake them into bread. The three animals she asks, the type of which varies by the telling of the story but usually a sleepy cat, greedy pig, and lazy dog or rat, all refuse to help her. She has to learn the skills of growing the wheat, grinding it to flour, and baking all while managing her chicks. She asks the animals to help her at every step along the way, but they refuse. When she asks her final question, “Who will help me eat the bread?” Of course, all those lazy barnyard animals are the first in line to volunteer. Her response is basically, “Nope. I’ll eat it, and my chicks will eat it.” And, she sends the freeloading lazy and greedy barnyard animals on their way. It’s a quaint little allegory about using resources, learning, hard work, and perseverance and not allowing yourself to be taken advantage of by others.
Disasters can be loosely categorized by their affected zone, intensity, and aftermath. If a tornado, for instance, rips through your neighboring town and knocks out your power, you can determine the impact that might have on your community’s first responders, power grid, and other services. As it was a localized destructive event, you can reasonably assume that your shelter was spared and that it isn’t likely to happen in another hour, day, or week. It could, but it isn’t expected. So, based on this localized destructive disaster, do you sit on your resources? Do you hoard them when your neighbor in the next town over is suffering, or do you loan him your tent and a few supplies?
Just as you assess the disaster’s affected zone, intensity, and aftermath, you should also evaluate the disaster’s duration. An 8.0 earthquake will have aftershocks that could be 7.0 or higher. Each earthquake series lessens in intensity over time. If a hurricane strikes, but you can see from the weather maps that a second and more intense hurricane is approaching, you may not want to be opening your doors. If civil unrest is growing from a city’s epicenter and moving out towards your direction or getting random in pockets all over the place, it doesn’t make sense to risk revealing your preps.
One of the essential criteria for helping people during or after a disaster is the person themselves. There’s a pretty clearly defined order to the people. If you imagine a circle with you in the center, each layer out in order would be your family, friends, then neighbors, acquaintances, strangers, then outsiders, and foreigners. I would never turn away family, but I probably wouldn’t have a problem telling an acquaintance to pound sand if the extent of the disaster and duration were great. Even then, though, I’d probably send them off with a little care package to increase their odds of survival. That’s just me, though. Right or wrong and family aside, we are more inclined to care for a friend or neighbor than we are that person in the next town or country over. If civil unrest is flaring up and growing in intensity and breadth of area, I am likely to call my buddy who may be near the region or in the region to see if they need anything like food or ammo. I might also advise them to top off their water supply or give them other advice. I can assure you, though, I wouldn’t be calling some random person in the area and checking up on them. 
Just as you assess the breadth and length of a disaster and the person at your doorstep, you have to also consider the conditions. That’s a broad term. When you evaluate the disaster and the person you are considering, the first definition of the word “condition” is “the state of something with regard to its appearance, quality, or working order.” Here we are looking at the second listed definition of conditions: “the circumstances affecting the way in which people live or work, especially with regard to their safety or well-being.” The fact is that desperation can come to anyone after a disaster. Can you do absolutely nothing when the mother with a small child lay bleeding and injured at your doorstep? That’s not a choice I would want to make, but I can assure you I will assess the conditions of that mother and child’s chances of survival, and I will do what I can without surrendering my and my family’s chances of survival.
Your survival is your first priority. You have meticulously and prudently planned for the predicament everyone finds themself in at that moment. You have to maintain your safety through the disaster. You have to ensure your supplies and preps will last you through the entire disaster phase and well into a full recovery. There are specific rules to follow to increase your OPSEC.
First, here’s a brief lesson on what an earthquake is, so we can go into this fully understanding what we are up against. An earthquake is defined as “a sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth’s crust or volcanic action. ” Basically, where two large volumes of land or rock meet each other, a fracture zone occurs. This is referred to as a fault line. Faults allow the two large blocks of rock to move relative to each other. Sometimes this movement is in very small and unnoticed smooth sliding. Sometimes they stick or hang up a bit for a period, build pressure, and then release in a more significant movement as the rock on one side of the fault suddenly slips with respect to the other. The resulting dramatic movement of even a few inches or feet can result in an earthquake.
But what of the destruction at each level? The Modified Mercalli Intensity scale defines this well. It correlates to the Richter scale but measures the intensity and resultant aftermath. It has twelve levels. At levels one and two, it isn’t felt except under the most optimal conditions. Level three may be felt by a few people not engaged in movement and on the upper floors of buildings. Level four is light and can be felt by many indoors. Dishes may rattle. It may sound like a truck driving by or striking a building. Lev–el five and above is felt by everyone in the area. At level five, some damage to dishes, objects, and windows may occur. Level six, defined as strong, can actually move heavy furniture and will cause slight damage. 
So, you must prepare for any known fault line you are in proximity to or living above or near. You should also prepare if you are within a few hundred miles of one of these zones. An extreme quake on one of these known fault lines could result in damage and destruction hundreds of miles away. A giant earthquake on Missouri’s New Madrid fault, for instance, could be felt as far away as the East coast, so it is in your best interest to be prepared for the big one. Here is the quick list of known faults and seismic zones that could have the most significant potential for a sizable earthquake in our lifetimes.
The San Andreas fault is well known because it has consistently produced greater than magnitude 6.0 quakes
The Cascadia Subduction Zone starts off Mendocino, California, and runs off the coast of northern California, Oregon, and Washington to the north end of Vancouver Island, Canada. Being way out there in the Pacific might make you feel safe. You will have a false sense of security if you do feel safe. Here, instead of moving sideways, the North American plate is sliding over the top of the Pacific Plate. The Pacific Plate is being forced under the North American Plate and turned eventually into magma while pushing up the Olympic Mountains and the Cascades. This is a millions of years process that is in continual motion. So long as that goes smoothly, there’s just an occasional earthquake. When it gets stuck or hung up and then suddenly corrects, massive earthquakes, tsunamis, and even volcanic activity can occur. 
It’s easy to forget about Alaska and its earthquakes because they’re so far up North, not connected to the contiguous United States, sparsely populated, and they have several earthquakes every day. It’s worth mentioning here because it is so active and so violent. Like with the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the Pacific Plate is actively sliding under the North American Plate. Magnitude 7, 8, and 9 earthquakes are typical every year along the Aleutian Islands. 
The Wasatch f ault is located in central Utah and southeast Idaho, along the Basin and Range Province’s eastern edge. 
In the United States’ western regions, earthquake fault lines can stretch for hundreds of miles, and many fault lines often feed into or buttress against more prominent fault lines. However, in the central and eastern United States, faults are clustered together to create seismic zones and are deeper within the Earth. Though the New Madrid fault is still well known, other seismic zones could release their energy at any time when the conditions are right. Today, a magnitude seven would destroy many bridges and structures. This area’s structures are not designed with modern earthquake-resistant methods like shear walls, cross braces, diaphragms, and moment-resisting frames. Not much is known about these fault areas because they are deep within the Earth. What is known is that they aren’t dormant, and they have the potential for a 7.0 or greater at any time that could impact a vast region.
Moving even further East is the East Tennessee Se ismic Zone. The source of seismic activity in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone is not well known. The zone is located far from the North American continent’s edge and represents a mid-continent or intraplate earthquake zone. The known faults are generally ancient, and no known active faults reach the surface. While those are not big earthquakes and are not likely to cause dramatic damage, seismologists warn that earthquakes as large as 7.5 are possible. Also, they seem to be occurring with greater frequency and regularity, which brings us to our final fault zone–the yet undiscovered fault zone.
Unknown fault zones could soon be awakened by man made activity. This could explain some of the heightened activity in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone. If you have ever seen up close a fault line deep in the earth, you would see that many are identifiable by the super fine sand that runs along them. This is because millions of years of slow grinding have created that fine sand. When we humans engage in fracking by pumping millions of gallons of fluids into the Earth, we may wash that fault line buffer away, which results in some slipping. Also, when we pull too much from aquifers, we decrease the downward pressure on the plate that is under the aquifer. This can result in the plate rising ever so slightly and impacting other tectonic movements. 
Garlic is a staple found in just about every home. The foundation of many flavor combinations, garlic has many health benefits. People have been using garlic medicinally since ancient times. It helps boost your immune system and prevent colds, lower cholesterol, and lower blood pressure. There are many ways to incorporate the healing power of garlic. Try something new, like infusing garlic in honey. The garlic will ferment, adding beneficial probiotics to the mixture. It is great for colds and the flu.
Type the phrase “how to beat inflation” into any search engine. Most of the advice will be for investing and picking up assets that will outpace the dollar’s devaluation. For preppers, though, our concerns are different. They are rooted in the practical, physical world. While I will address some aspects of investing near the end of this video, the first real practical solution to hedge against inflation is to tend to your own home. This is a broad category, so I’ll address each part of what I mean by the term individually.
At the ground level, I am personally doing several things at the moment. First, I am greatly expanding my garden. Creating food security should be very important to you. Even if you are an apartment dweller, you should be harvesting some food sources that you are growing– sprouts, herbs, mushrooms, or patio planters. The key here is to learn. I am also raising chickens to increase my food independence. I am adding to my food reserves through long-term storage of a year’s supply of food and the use of a dehydrator and a freeze dryer. You should make your food preps your number one priority as the cost of food is continuing to climb. I have started a precipitation collection system, so any rainfall in southern California isn’t wasted. I am investing in solar panels with backup batteries for my home to free myself a little more from the energy grid. The price of electricity increases 8% annually where I live and my break even point for my solar system will be in 5 and ½ years. I’m even going to be experimenting in a future video with Biogas to create a sustainable fuel supply.
So when we were all locked down, did you make any changes to your life, or did you just watch more television? Perhaps, you found City Prepping and were introduced to the way, but have you implemented any of the strategies? The fact is that governments can fail, economies can collapse, money can be reduced to less value than the paper it is written on and used as kindling. One thing that can never be taken from you is your knowledge and skills. And, those are two different things.
I mentioned earlier I’m not a financial advisor. Like you, I study to figure out how best to allocate my resources. I do know that in an emergency, suddenly, some things of value become less valuable. Items of little value can become incredibly valuable and in short supply. If the just-in-time system fails, how much would the price of a pound of flour or sugar skyrocket when the existing shelf supply is gobbled up, hoarded, and not replenished?