PREPPING ... who was already doing it?

It's a lot of work, yes. Basically a full time job.

 

We were never 'prepping' for anything. We've always done it because we basically don't like being dependent on an infrastructure we have no control over, and because we always wanted to spend as little money as possible .. so that we could work fewer hours (or not work at all).

 

I have an area fenced. I have enough room for 2 head of beef. I would have to import hay. If the SHTF I would love a large Herford to eat. Much less labor intensive over time.

 

I have heard that each head of cattle requires, on average, an acre of grazing land. Is this true?

 

If it is good ground. You can raise one in your garage if you keep it fed and clean.

 

Cattle are more than content to stay at the fence all day waiting to be fed.

 

You got the wrong impression.

Preppers are cannon fodder for The Horde and will buy survivalists the time they need to set up shop and repel the The Horde, and then get on with the business of living.

 

The easiest and cheapest approach is meat-free. Once you 'need' meat in your diet, keeping yourself alive is much harder.

 

I've acquired some food stores for emergencies. I haven't really done much else yet.

 

You are entitled to your opinion. But I think livestock is easier than growing produce. I do have a small herd of goats and they require less work than my garden and I don't till. I don't eat my goats but if I had to I got fresh meat. With a garden you have planting and stringing. You also ha e picking in the hot Alabama sun. If you feel eating meat is a barbarous activity and cruel I respect your choice.

 

Very good thread about a Bosnian during the war and how they survived. A lot of prepper knowledge in this:

https://archive.ph/moMKQ#selection-239.0-239.43

 

We don't know in advance which sort of disaster is going to hit us.

There's a bunch of different types. No matter where you are, you are vulnerable. Prepping won't help a bit if you're within several hundred miles of the Yellowstone caldera. If an Antarctic glacier lets go all to once, if you're near the coast, odds are you're toast. I'm miles from the coast, and on a hill. But I'd need to get some number of hundreds of miles away from the coast. Doubt I'd make it, everyone else would be doing the same thing, the roads would prob get clogged. Mainers are a bit more polite than most Americans, but panic can get the best of you.

You can't 'prep' for everything. In fact, the effectiveness of prepping depends largely on luck.

Back in the 70s there were a bunch of Rambo wannabees that built cabins deep in the woods, because civilisation was gonna collapse. They slunk back to the real world a few years later. That was about the same time personal computers were becoming a thing...

Take COVID as an example, it hit rural areas after a while. Rural areas have been plagued by the closing of hospitals and clinics for decades. Need a ventilator fast? Back then you would have been SOL... Btw, Biden's programs are throwing money at rural health care, trying to keep them going.

If you look at history, when the poop hit the fan, sometimes you got the poop. If the region dries out, you move. If invaders kill everyone, you push up flowers. It seems sometimes like life is always recovering from the last disaster.

Bon chance, mon ami...

 

We have been prepping for years. We're in pretty good shape overall. And we love meat. We aren't into sacrificing so much to stay alive that staying alive isn't worth the effort.

 

We're not strict vegetarians. We don't eat much meat just because it's so freaking expensive. And because it has such a short shelf life, and because it has to be handled and stored so carefully (which makes it even more expensive - refridgeration etc). We run one small refridgerator for a family of five. It's about 5" tall and 1.5" wide, and is ultra efficient. Uses very little electricity. We keep only dairy, treats, and some delicate produce (grapes, celery, etc) in it. We pick most of our vegetables and fruit as we need them, so no need to refridgerate. We don't buy soda, juices, or anything else which would need refridgeration.

When we do eat meat, it's bought and consumed on the same day. It's an ocassional indulgence, for the moment. If we're in a coastal location we fish daily - but again, caught and eaten same day. No storage needed.

 

You get used to it. We've eaten only small amounts of meat for thirty years. Seems normal to us at this point, and certainly no sacrifice. We can enjoy meat free meals just as much (sometimes more!). The brilliance of being able to create a tasty meal without recourse to refridgeration, supermarket, money, or grid powered equipment .. goes a long way to making food taste pretty darned good . Nothing better than a self-caught wild fish, cooked over wood with your home grown vegetables!

 

We don't eat a lot of meat either. Because it is so expensive. I have a few small pools and raise fish in them. Haven't eaten any yet. I have a couple meals in there.

 

We take a different approach. We have three large freezers that we keep stocked with ribeyes, et al. Since we've just gone totally solar, we'll be able to keep the freezers functional through almost anything. We're meat eaters. Our food grazes. We don't.

 

To each their own. We preferred to take a different route. We planned our lives from my wife becoming an attorney and CPA to my being an engineer. We planned along the way so we could enjoy the comforts of modern society and not have to live our lives in a "Survivor" reality-show mode. Depending on how bad the coming chaos is, we should be able to maintain our lifestyle quite well. At worst we're ok for about three years and by then I'm sure we'll have found other solutions. But its not just about "survival"... its about maintaining a good quality of life too.

 

I had a huge setback. Divorce forced me to sell my house, peach and pecan trees, and my chickens. I'm living in suburbia with my brother. My stuff is in a storage rental unit, but I have big plans. I've saved a bunch of money($50k last year alone) and am looking to buy 5-6 acres in the country. Once I buy the land with a VA loan, I should still have enough money to build a barndominium for me and at least one of my adult sons. I plan to include rainwater storage and solar power from my metal roof, fruit and nut trees, gardening, a homemade solar dehydrator, and chickens. The plans I'm drawing will have 1200 sf shop and 1200 sq living with another 700-800 sf loft. I already have a ton of woodworking tools and a huge venue nearby to sell goods. (woodworking products, honey, and dehydrated food)

It sucks to be starting over alone, but I have friends nearby with construction, gardening, and livestock experience. One of my sons worked on a ranch for a few years and my youngest is a diesel mechanic. It will take a few years to get the house built and for the trees to be mature enough to provide any fruit. I need to find a used tractor that my son can rebuild. I should research making my own diesel fuel for my tractor and Jeep someday. My wife was slowing me down besides cheating on me. Once I get the place, I should be able to ramp up pretty quickly.

 

I really like those barndominiums. I'll never have one because my wife would never allow it, but for a single guy it sounds perfect.

 

The beauty of it is that it is almost maintenance free. I will do much of the work myself and after I move in, I can take my time making custom fixtures in my shop. 2000sf home and 1200sf shop in a 40x60 building.

The shop lets me work year round for all kinds of projects like bee boxes, dehydrators, equipment maintenance, countertops, custom light fixtures, iron pipe curtain rods, towel holders, planter boxes, etc......

 

In 2023, prepping is a whole world. Its a long term thing now. The cavalry won't be coming to the rescue if the economy collapses, violent gangs take over, total chaos ensues or.. in the worst case... nuke war breaks out. This isn't about getting past a hurricane... its about the collapse of civilization. Money wiil be useless. The only currency will be barter items you can eat, drink, shoot or screw.