Prep of The Day Thread

Just got Back from Hudson Market Basket. Very large panic. Two lines foaming around to the back. Today is one of our shopping days and it took us over an hour. Cashiers doing a great job but people panic with large amounts or two carts full. One woman spent over $400. You can blame the media for most of this BS.
 
Went to a mom and pop farm type stand and while it was busy there, plenty of stuff including the steak tips I went for. Drove by BJ's on the way home (Woburn) and it was crazy. Traffic just to get near the building, let along in the lot.
 
Rainy day home maintenance. I changed the large whole house water filter & smaller ones at the under the sink for drinking.
Septic guy comes Monday for an early spring pump out. I picked up a quart of local honey @ the local health food store after returning home with 4 full propane tanks & a 28 Lb. box of prime dry aged vein in sirloin ends.
 
Rainy day home maintenance. I changed the large whole house water filter & smaller ones at the under the sink for drinking.
... picked up a quart of local honey @ the local health food store after returning home with 4 full propane tanks ...
Was just thinking about doing the water filter, and propane is on my shopping list for today, along with gas for the Coleman. Neighbor has bees, and we just bought honey from them. More to come.

had to refill my emergency dark chocolate stash. good thing it came in yesterday!
Good idea! Also chocolate chips.
 
I think there needs to be more emphasis on LOGISTICS.
-where are you located?
-what is the fastest escape route?
-how will you escape? your car? is reliable? do you have enough gas? where will you go?
-how much time to you need to evacuate with your current setup?

I live next to a fresh-water source AND we have well water. Im also deep in the woods with multiple upper-level decks with good vantage points. My home situation is pretty good, but I do think about an escape plan. Currently, no ideas.
Forget the escape route and concentrate on hunkering down, get to know other neighbors who are prepping and formulate a plan, so I'm told.
Gotten a lot of good ideas from this thread so I want to share the end of a long-developing project (mostly taste-testing). People discuss an emergent WROL/SHTF situation and the advantages of bug in (keep the majority of your resources near) vs bug out (get to safety). Neither is likely but I don't want to neglect the possibility of either. I’ve been thinking about how to arrange for both at once for max versatility. Today potential bug-out food and water are settled.

This is $260 for 40,000 cal across four boxes, 28lbs total weight, $65 each in the end. You can dump them in a bug-out bag, load the tray in a car, or dispense individual containers. Cases with o-ring seals will stop wrapper smells from attracting predators if out in the woods. These little tags on the boxes are not for security but tamper evidence so you can tell at a glance that nothing was taken from inventory.

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Next I need to print inventory cards with macronutrient info and item expiration dates (if I get motivated/quarantined). Thought about putting a multi-tool like a Leatherman Style CS (scissors, bottle opener, knife, screwdriver, tweezers) but that’s another $27 (42%) in the price per kit. Water filtration is another kit in the same kind of ammo can:

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But that water filtration is only necessary if running out of stored/treated water. Grab a few AquaBricks for the road and you're good, just watching your vehicle's weight capacity. Large tanks are cheaper per gallon stored but can't be thrown in a car or dispensed to others without separate containers and returning to the 500-lb stationary water tank. Spigot attachment from the same brand not pictured here.

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With these ammo can trays I'm setting up the last-resort food and water for bug-in or five minute's notice bug-out/distributing scenarios. Everything was from Amazon, so once supply chains recover you could scale up and create/customize a set as fast as it ships to you.
 
I think there needs to be more emphasis on LOGISTICS.
-where are you located?
-what is the fastest escape route?
-how will you escape? your car? is reliable? do you have enough gas? where will you go?
-how much time to you need to evacuate with your current setup?

I live next to a fresh-water source AND we have well water. Im also deep in the woods with multiple upper-level decks with good vantage points. My home situation is pretty good, but I do think about an escape plan. Currently, no ideas.
I do have bug out locations throughout the country, with friends or family. The key would be to get there before the "event" and hope the "event" isn't worse in the other location.
As for the COVID-19 event, we are sheltering in place. Our escape plan, if necessary, sends us to Northern Vermont, miles from people other than a select few.
 
Thomas Labs no longer carrying fish antibiotics?

The entire bird/fish antibiotic line was visible when I checked around 2 wks ago. Now a Google search for fish mox shows the link but the page redirects. If sold out I imagine they would simply say so.
 
We did chickens for a couple of years and really enjoyed the fresh eggs. We let ours run around the yard during the day (hopefully to eat ticks) and locked them up at night.

Just curious how this worked. Did you see a tick reduction as a result?
 
For those of you who have or are thinking of using your Coleman stoves lantern, service and start them now. I did about a month or more back and found a few minor problems, the lanterns leaked around the caps cause of dry seals.
I replaced them and they are back up to snuff. Im not planning on using the lanterns inside the house as I have solar lights inside and don't need to bring another heat/fire source into my house.

I have a few small .Mil stoves that are perfect for what they are intended for to boil water or cook food fast. They are the m1950 style stoves and I got all but one working but again needed to be serviced cause of sitting in storage.
I plan on using the one really good one I have to boil water for coffee and it will perk a great cup as I have used to before while I was camping, again no simmer or low heat on these stoves just a hot fast flame to boil water was what the military wanted for the GI's in the field.
 
Any quick tips for a homeowner with limited space to get a little victory garden started? Are those separate above ground bags/cubes a bad idea? They seem like a good idea in a lot of respects, one of which being the ability to move them into the garage if needed.
 
Just curious how this worked. Did you see a tick reduction as a result?

I feel like it had some impact. They are little eating machines. I read an article on ticks that referenced a study implying that ticks are very sensitive to vibration. They can detect a nearby animal and rush toward the source of vibration and climb up on blades of grass and weeds to hitch a ride.
 
Any quick tips for a homeowner with limited space to get a little victory garden started? Are those separate above ground bags/cubes a bad idea? They seem like a good idea in a lot of respects, one of which being the ability to move them into the garage if needed.
Raised beds are handy and effective but not very portable if you need to relocate them. It depends on what you want to grow and how much root depth you need. You can grow a lot with container gardening. My father in law grows lots of tomatoes in five gallon buckets. The benefit for beds or containers is that you can put good soil and compost in them instead of relying on your soil conditions.
 
Any quick tips for a homeowner with limited space to get a little victory garden started? Are those separate above ground bags/cubes a bad idea? They seem like a good idea in a lot of respects, one of which being the ability to move them into the garage if needed.

You can grow potatoes in food grade 5 gallon buckets and each bucket can yield around 3-4lbs, I plan on starting them in buckets maybe next week cause they really can't see temps below 45* and just move them indoors at night. I did them a few years back in the back yard and they are low semi low Maint but need a lot of water.
I already have the yellow spuds making shoots on my window's inside the house, there are simple videos on how to do it. I am by far not a green thumb guy, normally what I grow kinda works but this year I am going to be stepping that up.
 
We have frozen potatoes, but fresh vegetables like carrots, cukes, tomatoes and maybe beans(?) would be nice. Would also be nice to have right up against the back of the house - plenty of light, less wildlife.
 
Any quick tips for a homeowner with limited space to get a little victory garden started? Are those separate above ground bags/cubes a bad idea? They seem like a good idea in a lot of respects, one of which being the ability to move them into the garage if needed.

I did a "square foot" Garden for many years, before work got in the way and I let it go - worked awesome and took up very little space overall
Tons of online information (and yes, a forum even)

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This thing is going to last months. Containment is going to fail to a large degree. except for those following extreme protocols. You should have already have thought forward and planned for what to do when your household becomes infected. I have little doubt mine will.

Its been known well for weeks that pneumonia is a likely outcome for severe cases. Its been known that there is going to be a shortage of antibiotics and critical meds being held hostage by China. You should have already planned for that. It has been forecasted that hospitals and ICU capacity will be overrun, leaving many unable to get things like oxygen therapy. So why are you still so focused on food? That should have been taken care of long ago.

You need to be thinking through all of the worst case scenarios, add your assessment of reality, and how fast things can advance (hint: we are entering exponential growth phase), and try to stay ahead of the masses. Worst Cases: One week and most businesses will have cut way back and you need to work from home if possible. Two weeks and the supply chain is wiped out, cases have skyrocketed and most non-essential businesses could be closed. Layoffs accelerate and no income for hourly workers. Three weeks and nobody is going anywhere without being fully suited up, and medical facilities will be overwhelmed. Market is at 50% of its highs. Bank holiday anyone? Brown outs? How well have you planned?


The seabrook area is going to get another 800+/- people from all over the country in the next 2 weeks for the refueling outage at the nuclear plant. Not looking forward to that and being stuck in close quarters with those people.
Have not heard about this. Got any more information or links?

Just curious how this worked. Did you see a tick reduction as a result?
No ticks, just lots of chicken turds. No more bare feet.


For those of you who have or are thinking of using your Coleman stoves lantern, service and start them now. I did about a month or more back and found a few minor problems, the lanterns leaked around the caps cause of dry seals.
I replaced them and they are back up to snuff. Im not planning on using the lanterns inside the house as I have solar lights inside and don't need to bring another heat/fire source into my house.

I have a few small .Mil stoves that are perfect for what they are intended for to boil water or cook food fast. They are the m1950 style stoves....
Thanks for the reminder on the Colemans. I need to do that to my stove, and maybe will do the inlaws' 2 (their "good one", and their "old one").

For that "m1950 style", you mean this?
 
The seabrook nuclear plant is doing a normal refuel outage starting early april. While they are shut down they do a ton of work that can only be done when the reactor is off. It brings in nearly a thousand extra people for a month or so. Can't find a link, it isn't really a big news story because it happens every 18 months and is pretty routine.
 
Raised beds are handy and effective but not very portable if you need to relocate them. It depends on what you want to grow and how much root depth you need. You can grow a lot with container gardening. My father in law grows lots of tomatoes in five gallon buckets. The benefit for beds or containers is that you can put good soil and compost in them instead of relying on your soil conditions.

The deficiencies of raised beds and containers are, you need to water more often and soil temps are not as stable and can rise to untenable temps for some plants.
Both work, but require tending and monitoring.
 
The eldest daughter didn't fall too far away from the tree. Got the call last night that she couldn't find food and whatever else at the store. She will be by later today to do some grocery shopping.

Does Not Compute Does Not Compute Does Not Compute.
 
The deficiencies of raised beds and containers are, you need to water more often and soil temps are not as stable and can rise to untenable temps for some plants.
Both work, but require tending and monitoring.
Doesn't seem to bother plants in the South and it seems you can control adding what you want in the way of fertilizers. IDK I'm just assuming. I have five raised beds but never had the best of luck, I think it;s the soil. Like to change it out for some good loam.
 
Doesn't seem to bother plants in the South and it seems you can control adding what you want in the way of fertilizers. IDK I'm just assuming. I have five raised beds but never had the best of luck, I think it;s the soil. Like to change it out for some good loam.

I live in southern Kentucky and the summer sun can be intense. If a raised bed is not deep enough, ( 18 inches ) it will dry out quickly and the soil temps will rise rapidly. It's much worse for buckets. They have to be moved to partial shade and watered two or three times a day whereas the ground stays at a more even temperature and depending on the soil make up, holds a lot more water.
I plant in wood chip compost and only have to water the transplants a couple of times initially then let nature take over. The compost holds a lot of water and eliminates the need to water daily.
 
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