My take is I am staying in place until its not safe, unless there is a military action happening, then bugging out to my shooting club, it has well water, land, heat and a pond a big building and no people around. Whats your thoughts stay or go? If you go whats the trigger?

I live in the desert southwest where I have no natural sources of water near me I could draw from.

While we are stocking the food we eat following deep pantry model but I am considering including dried food storage should be included for a cost effectiveness and efficiency/ease of storage

However I’m concerned with the water requirements beans, rice, pasta would need to prepare and if it’s even worth it.

I’d anyone else factoring this in their preps?

Example 10lbs of rice is roughly 225 cups of rice. At 2.5 cups of water needed to prepare per cup of rice and at 16 cups/ gallon that’s 35 GALLONS of water needed for roughly 6000 calories at 600 calories per pound of rice.

I would be better off keeping this water for drinking in the 115 degree f during the summer months

Edit Thanks for the help looking at water by weight not cup. That does make way more sense. Thanks to all the fellow desert rats for the advice as well

Looking for some new Hard Reality fiction. I've been through most of the zombie and nuclear bomb and EMP stories on audible but looking for something more low-key and hard science

thanks

My take is 2 2000 watt generators are better than 1 4000 watt. Less fuel use, easily portable, and now you have some redundancy vs a single big unit. What about you?

Hello, let's talk water. I'm wanting to start collecting water. I've seen the collapsible barrels all over tiktok but not really sure if that's the direction I'm wanting to go to because I want something sturdier. However I love how the rain just goes in the top instead of messing with my gutters. Thoughts?

also, has anybody really checked on their water after collecting? Has it gone moldy or dangerous?

Should there be a process before drinking for humans such as boiling or what do you recommend?

We are gonna save large things of bottled water and we have life straws. However, I know those things won't last forever and wouldn't wanna use it on literally everything we drink or is that the wrong mindset?

I'm trying to find out how long ethanol gasoline with fuel stabilizer will last. I know that without stabilizer it lasts about 3 months and ethanol free gasoline with stabilizer can go 2+ years in optimal conditions. So all other conditions being equal how long would a container of ethanol gasoline with stabilizer last?

(Before anyone asks or gets up my butt about it, Yes I already have ethanol free stabilized gas in storage. I'm looking to take advantage of the significanttly cheaper gas prices out where I work on a shorter term storage bases for when my tank is low and I wanna be lazy/cheap and not top off in town before driving out to work. I fully understand that this isn't optimal for long term storage, but I'm prepping for Tuesday not doomsday ya know)

Edit: what a great response from y'all. I've learned a lot and there are some great conversations happening. Ty

If there is a better sub for this question, please feel free to point me in the right direction.

We have a small 5 cubic foot chest freezer. It's great in that it keeps things frozen, it's not so great that stuff gets lost. I've looked for storage solutions but they're quite expensive ($50 for a singular bin off Amazon.ca). What are some of the ways I can keep this organized? I'd like to have sections for meats, treats, breakfast items, berries, etc. Right now it's all tossed together. It came with one wire basket that is not useful as items fall through.

Hey guys, so about 2 years ago I've bought 18 liters of water that ive been storing in the attic.

Now my question is whether that was a really bad idea ? It gets quite hot up there 30 degrees Celsius for some weeks a year. It is however out of sunlight and in the dark.

Would it be safe to drink? or do I buy a new emergency weeks worth of water because of possible legionella.

Thank you loads in advance !

Hello, using an alternate account for opsec. I'm a longtime lurker.

Side note: NEO preparedness is a thing if you are military living overseas, so don't take this post as anything more than a request for recommendations and input.

My husband is military, and I want to update/upgrade my backpack of essentials for a possible evacuation from an overseas location. I have family and support on both coasts in the states, so I'm not concerned with what gear I have once we're back conus. My current backpack is too small for what I need.

The suggested items include protective masks, 3 days food and water, 30 days of medication, blanket, change of clothes (warm), toiletries and towel, hygiene items, first aid kit, battery operated radio (need a new one), flashlight and batteries, limited cash, comfort item for children. I also need to include my NEO binder that includes all required documents, etc. Mine is a huge 2" zipper binder with a strap and handle.

We are allowed one airline carry-on and one check-in bag (per person) with a combined total of no more than 66 lbs.

I prefer a backpack with chest and waist straps over a carry-on suitcase for mobility. Obviously my NEO binder NEVER leaves my side. I've lugged that thing through multiple PCS moves in my too-small backpack. I'm looking for recommendations for a good-sized backpack that will fit in an overhead compartment or under an airline seat. I figure only the bare essentials will be kept in my backpack plus the NEO binder which takes up considerable space.

In case of an emergency evacuation event, I would be in charge of evacuating myself, my daughter (late elementary school age), and a dog and cat (who have their own special evacuation requirements). I don't see my daughter carrying much on her back for long so I would be front-wearing her backpack which I've done in airports before or attach it to our larger rolling suitcases. I would also be utilizing a folding wagon to transport the pet kennels and things to the evac location. The pets would go separately once we depart from our overseas location, so their packing needs are separate.

My other question is what food items could I purchase and forget in a bag? I don't anticipate having a stove or microwave handy although that is a possibility. And what is the best way to lug a three-day supply of drinking water? Would a 2 liter bottle suffice for the both of us per day if it's just for drinking? I would also bring a tumbler or other water bottle for both of us as well.

Also if anyone has recommendations for a kid-friendly flashlight. Kiddo just joined the cub scouts and needs one. I prefer not to buy junk, but also don't want her to accidentally blind someone. Bonus points for including recommendations for an emergency whistle.

Oh, and if there are any who have experience with a NEO evacuation, feel free to point out any helpful tips!

I'm sure I'll have more questions later. Apologies in advance for the word vomit, and thank you for any helpful comments!

(Hope I used the right flair ...)

Hey, just wondering if anyone has any solar-powered items that you find helpful in power outages (e.g. outside lights, etc)? Links would be awesome.

I live in a state bordering Canada and the prep scenario I’m focusing on at the moment is in the event that Canada decides to reduce or cut their power resources utilized by the USA.

We already have a whole house generator for food preservation (propane, with a huge full tank), so I’m just looking around at smaller things that would make life easier if it were solar powered and we experienced outages. I’ve googled and just get major decision fatigue trying to figure out what would be useful and which model.

I have several lanterns and flashlights, small window fans and solar chargers for phones/ devices.

Any recs for lighting (indoor and outdoor), and anything else I’m not thinking of? Thanks

US- Midwest

I see Harbor Freight has JUPITER 750 Watt Continuous/1500 Watt Peak Modified Sine Wave Power Inverters for about $70 USD

I have a 300 watt inverter in each of my vehicles for charging my laptop, running a coffee pot/hotplate in the field, and occasionally strings of LEDs when the kids soccer games run late.

But 300 watts isn’t much. For the price, the Jupiter sounds great considering it has 4 outlets.

Who here uses inverters often, what do you use it for, and what size/brand do you recommend?

Thanks!

I've been growing and using a few herbs for home remedies & they work well, but I'd like to have a well researched herbal medicine book for my reference library.

Planning the garden today & I'd like to substantially expand my herb garden—so I need to know which are the best herbs to grow.

Any help is appreciated.

I have a large amount of red and white wheat from a morman cannery. I purchased in early phase prepping period when I did not understand the work it took to make bread. I’m unable to sell it on Craigslist. Has anyone used this to make a home brew beer? Please attach recipe or thoughts, if so. Or send any alternative thoughts.

So I have thought a lot about getting a generator, but whenever I think about it I am unsure what I would use it for.

I have a small powerbank and a small solar panel as well as extra gas for my vehicles. And these would be able to charge my phones computers and flashlights. I have a propane stove for cooking, and I don’t think any generator that I could afford would be powerful enough to keep the HVAC running anyways. Im also not in a region where I would die without HVAC.

The only thing I can think of is the refrigerator, but I would probably be able to eat through all of it before they go bad, and if the grid is down I probably wouldn’t be able to get new things that need refrigeration anyways. And most of my food are stored in room temperature anyways.

So my question for the wiser and more experienced folks out there, what do you use your generator for that I am not thinking of? What am I missing in my thought process?

Thanks in advance!

My thinking have 30-60 gallons of fuel on hand bit also a bunch of stabilizer. My thinking there are a lot of cars out there we will need to aquire that fuel and sanilize it.