While Americans still enjoy easy access to basic necessities like food and medicine, the last several years have shown us just how bad things can get when it all hits the fan.
When the country of Greece collapsed in 2012 we highlighted the desperate situation faced by its millions of residents:
With untold billions in private and public sector debt, the situation in Greece (and other debt laden European countries like Spain and Italy) has devolved to such an extent that some EU member nations are mobilizing their military personnel in preparation for full spectrum meltdown across the entire region.
Jobs are so scarce that many have been forced into underground barter economies and family farming to make ends meet. From massive austerity spending cuts that have torn to shreds the government social safety net, to shortages in critical life saving medicines and the near breakdown of the nation’s power grid, Greece is experiencing all of the overt signs of a nation on its last leg.
It’s a story that we have seen time and again throughout history, and one that is once again playing out before our eyes. Though the economic factors that trigger a crisis may be different, the outcome is often the same for the general populace.
We need look no further than the deteriorating situation in Venezuela, where the government has tried everything from currency devaluations and price controls to blaming the country’s malaise on “hoarders” and speculators who purportedly drove up prices. As anger and frustration gripped the country, the government took unprecedented steps to restore order, to no avail:
In 2013, many began to suspect that the outlook for Venezuela was grim when prepping became illegal. The Attorney General of Venezuela, Luisa Ortega Díaz, called on prosecutors to target people who are “hoarding” basic staples with serious sanctions.
Shortly thereafter, grocery stores instituted a fingerprint registry to purchase food and supplies. Families had to register and were allotted a certain amount of supplies to prevent “hoarding.”
Then, just over a year ago, it became even more apparent that the country was falling. when long lines for basic necessities such as laundry soap, diapers, and food became the norm rather than the exception. Thousands of people were standing in line for 5-6 hours in the hopes that they would be able to purchase a few much-needed items.
Now with the collapse of oil prices, which account for a large portion of Venezuela’s exports and are necessary for the country to generate cash flow for trade, things have gotten even worse.
Though we can understand why most Americans have bought into the propaganda that it can’t happen here, because, well, it’s America and we’re the richest nation on Earth, if a serious economic or monetary crisis were to strike, it might look something like this:
Cardboard signs on the door warning of “No bread” have become increasingly common at Venezuelan bakeries.
Venezuela gets 96 percent of its foreign currency from oil exports, and as crude prices have plunged, so have the country’s imports — among them wheat.
The leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro has tightly controlled access to hard currency, and this has affected imports ranging from medicine to toilet paper. Now it is seriously affecting imports of wheat, which Venezuela does not grow.
Add to this the soaring inflation rate — 181 percent in 2015, the world’s highest — and you see why customers are mainly interested in buying basic food items such as bread.
…
“We are truly worried about the wheat mills being paralyzed,” Federation of Flour Workers chief Juan Crespo said.
Five of Venezuela’s 12 wheat mills, which employ some 12,000 people, have closed, Crespo said. The remaining mills employ another 8,000 people.
An industrialist who requested anonymity said there is currently “only enough wheat for the next 12 days.“
So, are we overreacting when we suggest there is a possibility that such events could take place here in America?
If you have your head in the sand and believe that the Ivy-league educated leaders who run our government and financial institutions have everything under control, then the answer is yes. Take the kids to Disney Land. Max out the credit card. Buy a new car. If something goes wrong, they’ll bail us out, right? They have contingency plans for all of this stuff.
If, however, you understand that our insatiable borrowing from foreign creditors, massive job losses, and negative economic growth rate could pose a problem in the near future, then you are well within your rights to “overreact” and prepare some contingency plans of your own.
In fact, if anyone has overreacted, it’s our own government. While you may be considered a domestic terrorist or person of interest for storing food and emergency supplies, it turns out that this is exactly what the Department of Homeland Security has been doing for years. They’ve stockpiled millions of emergency meals, guns and literal tons of ammunition to the tune of over two billion rounds. Moreover, though it is a total impossibility as mentioned above, they have even begun simulating economic collapse scenarios with the U.S. military, including widespread riot control.
Is America destined to go the way of Venezuela?
Someone in the upper echelons of our government thinks so and that’s why the President has already signed executive orders that not only outlaw hoarding of resources like food in a crisis, but give control of said resources, including your body and the labor it is capable of producing, to the government.
So while we totally understand that no crisis on the order of Greece, Venezuela, Argentina, Zimbabwe, or Weimar Germany could ever happen here, we suggest to you, the reader, to do your own due diligence and to keep in mind that all of those emergency supplies being stockpiled by our benevolent leaders are not for you at all.
Also Read:
The Prepper’s Blueprint – A Step By Step Guide To Prepare For Any Disaster
The only thing the government is going to do for us when shit goes down is put us in FEMA camps. The food they have been storing will be used to control the herd.
Anonymous, Thats why you need to be using the time you have left to get you supply’s in order, ahead of the coming SHTF event.
Good idea to stock up. Yeah time has just about run out, but what do we do when the food runs out and things are still madmax out there? A garden can’t supply everything. Animals? Where are we gonna get the corn and hay to feed them? Even if we stock up on ten or more bags of corn for the chickens sooner or later will run out. Need machines to have acres to plow and plant. I worry about how do we survive when the food runs out. Any ideas? It’s a fear of mine.
Eat the rich
The 1% ??? Not enough to go around. Even if you include the 10% who populate the Investment Class. Pigeons will provide meat but for only so long. Dogs and cats ??? Only for so long. Rats will be a delicacy in NYC for those with the stomach tyo eat them.
Nope.
Gotta be somewhere nobody ain’t with an electric dirt bike to take you to where the food is at and bring it back. And you must live close enough to a wilderness area to get to it with the electric dirt bike with a minimum of eyeballs.
Just thinking out loud. Be there to get there. 🙂
If u are real hungry and your stocks ran out after six months or so you can eat rats i guess or mice. Get a bucket,throw some corn or other food in bottom, lean a stik against it, some food near the stick on ground, the mice will climb up the stik and drop into the bucket to eat the corn and can’t jump out. Kill em somehow, roast over a hot fire….yum yum!
Many useful links!! Thank you Daisy for compiling this list!
The Self-Reliance Manifesto: More Than 300 Resources to Guide You on the Path to Radical Freedom
ht tp://www.theorganicprepper.ca/the-self-reliance-manifesto-more-than-300-resources-to-guide-you-on-the-path-to-freedom-03022016
Direct link…
http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/the-self-reliance-manifesto-more-than-300-resources-to-guide-you-on-the-path-to-freedom-03022016
I gather wild rice, duck eggs to dehydrate, and fish from the wild near me, so I’d be glad to give you the 16 mice I trap in the fall!
Aerosmith or Krokus………?
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB81pBEJzIU
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8EZW7-NSNI
Learn about the bounty of wild edibles for your area.
Easy to grow ground cover plants like nastutium, mint, sweet potatoes and raspberries can be a hearty addition to any garden without much maintenance.
…get your um num num on…..
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcrXH0ytIc8
Be safe….rule no.1 cardio…..BA.
This is why i love rice to store cuz in spring summer fall you can harvest some weeds/greens and add em to the rice to eat. I know which ones are edible in my yard. My big pool, the liner ripped, just left it, 2 yrs ago i had one cat tail growing in the bottom of the pool, no water left cept for a few inches, last summer i had like 20 growing in the pool, this summer i will have more, they keep seeding themselves. I just leave em. I don’t use the pool anymore. Can eat em when real young . Eat like corn, boil in water.
Why didn’t you pay to have the pool ripped out? It sounds like you are clueless about the plastic from the liner (along with pool chemicals) leaching into the area. There is no way in hell I would eat anything growing in filth like that.
You mean, like the Learjet leftists like Michelle-Marie Antoinette Obamas uber-luxe vacations? Like the limousine liberals of Hollywierd?
You trolls are hoot.
For the rest of you, google your unfav Hollywierd leftist, say, “Barbra Streisand mansion” or “Michael Moore mansion” then go to images at the top.
It’s not for nothing the Nazis adopted explicitly socialist planks at their very first convention, Munich, Feb. 1920. You ca google those planks easily and read for yourself… except that leftists won’t have the intellectual honesty to do that, either.
You want to eat Hillary and Pelosi? You do have a strong stomach for a liberal 😉
given that they cover about %26 of the total taxes paid, aren’t you already eating the rich..?
Marcus
given that they keep 75% of the income aren’t they eating us?
One of the first things I purchased when my wife and I started preparing, over 10 years ago, was a smaller diesel tractor in order to work my land. Also, I took a job as a farmhand on a hay and cattle farm…talk about excellent on the job experience in use of equipment and farming experience.
My grandmother kept her chickens and rabbits fed through the Depression with dandelions and other weeds. She was a kid, and it was the kids’ job to keep the small animals fed. She’d head out each day with a shoulder bag and walk to school picking anything in the ditches that they could eat. They’d do a big butcher before winter and keep only the breeding groups. Then in the spring, do it all over again.
You don’t need machines to farm. You don’t need massive acres to farm. I grow about 60% of the produce my family eats on around 1/3 an acre. I don’t use a single machine to grow things besides the well, and I can hand pump that if necessary. As it gets worse I am slowly increasing what I grow and how much I put up.
If you raise chickens try planting things like swiss chard, kale, mustard greens, amaranth (for adult birds only), and sunchokes. You can also raise worms, which turn your compost in to bird feed (use the raw plant waste in a worm bin, feed the chickens the worms, use the finished compost to grow more plants).
There are crops for all climates and all elevations. I live in the mountains, my last snow will probably be in March, the last freeze in April or May. I catch an early freeze in August, but then it gets warm again for a month or two. I know this because I keep records. This year I am planting a 55 day dwarf corn called Yukon Sweet Chief, it was bred in Alaska in the 1950’s. It has smaller ears, but I don’t really care as long as it grows.
I also grow carrots, radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, beets, sunchokes, pumpkins, grapes, sunflowers, peas, beans, cantaloupe, green onions, blackberries, garlic, oregano, basil, and all kinds of other things.
The main thing is to get started now. Your first year things will fail. Things you didn’t expect to succeed may produce more than you had hoped. Your radishes may be fine on the first crop but devoured by cabbage moth on the second. But you won’t learn what quirks your land has, until you start growing things in it.
It’s like planting trees. An apple tree takes 3-4 years from being put in the ground till it throws fruit. If you hold off a year, it will still take another 3-4 years before it starts throwing fruit. No way around it. A delay just pushes out how long till you can eat it.
When you don’t have a lot of land you have to find out what can share space without hurting each other. I planted sunchokes with pumpkins. It worked beautifully, the sunchokes provided shade during the 100 degree days, while the pumpkins didn’t harm the underground tubers at all. The garlic is planted right before winter, so doesn’t have much effect on the spring plantings. The green onions keep all winter even with 5 feet of snow on them, as long as they have a cloche draped over them. But then I can’t harvest them until a thaw. I harvested the tomatoes through the season while still green and ripened them in a box with paper towels. I put cloche over the tomato plants and it kept the frost off them through all of October. We ate the last red, uncanned, tomatoes on New Year’s Eve. The first year I learned Romas did better than Beefsteaks here. The third year I learned a mix of Romas and San Marzanos grow and hold the best. Gardening is a continual learning process.
The best way to kill fear is to do something constructive. Work towards a solution. I am terrified the economy is going to crash and my family will be out of work. So I plant things. Then we eat the planted things. Then I can the extra. I picked up a license to fish. I then go out and fish. Then I smoke the fish. I trade excess crops with the neighbor who raises chickens for eggs. It’s not enough to just research how to do something, you have to actually do it. All the way. It’s not scary, it’s empowering. Take it one step at a time. It all adds up. Suddenly you look around and you realize you are cooking a dinner of grilled fish you pulled out of a river, with a side salad that came out of your front yard, and a dessert of ice cream you made in a bucket. It’s a good feeling to have.
GN: great advice. Thank you!
Yeah great post!!!
GardenNut,
Great post! Thank you!
Love this post – yup here my kid is responsible for the chooks. He usually incubates his own eggs & raises a wee batch each spring – so when the time comes to go the natural route he’ll understand the process. Buying in a few fertilised eggs every spring was so we could learn what breed suits our local conditions best while there was still time. He’s learnt to slaughter the boys humanely and without fuss for the pot.
Right now we have a superb whippet so no need to keep rabbits ourselves but will if circumstances mean the local wild life is depleted.
I live in an area where knowledge of wild edibles isn’t a rare thing at all so not sure how that will work in terms of supplementing our garden when times get tough. Suspect there will be bartering of dandelions and elderberries afoot as we try with our neighbours to achieve a balanced diet through foraging.
Hopefully our kids won’t need knowledge like this till their twilight years but I see it as an insurance policy for our bloodlines survival to pass down these old skills that schools ignore. Upskilling our kids helps them avoid fear of the shtf – stupid anxiety induced behavior & illnesses kills more people than conflict in disaster zones. Spending time on this stuff is time not devoted to the latest fashion trends or the BS media programming that does so much harm to developing brains either – always a win for me.
LLM: Brilliant. That sounds like the way I was raised. Bravo!
I don’t know about city people, but I have a horse. I am training her to harness so I can get the garden plowed. I used to have harness goats, but they are too small. Fun to work with though.
B55: I trained horses. It isn’t hard you just have to be patient. I trained 5 purebred QHs. I would handle them for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. If I was doing a lesson the longest I would go was 20 minutes. A lot of training a horse is just showing them new gear and letting them get used to how it feels and how it sounds. It is kinda boring. None of my little young horses ever bucked when I got on them for the first time. I had one filly get scared and she reared up but I slid off over her rear and landed standing up. Then she stood still and looked at me to see if I was okay. Cute as a button!
Just have fun training them. Horses, like dogs, need to feel useful and they like to have a job. Keep us posted on the training and how it goes!
I have a small heard of Goats. They don’t need feed cause they will eat everything. Chickens don’t need corn they will also eat everything including chicken. Plant a good garden and can everything you can. That’s what I am doing. We will be living like people did in the 1800’s. Early to bed early to rise. No TV no internet and probably no Electricity. A Lot of people are not going to make that’s a fact.
Conibear traps and yo-yo reels. Automatic critter gitters for sure.
Jesus fed 5000 with one fish and one leaf of bread.He will do it again if you ask Him.
Shalom
Truth Seeker
Hi Marie,
I don’t use machinery, I have a shovel that I mainly use to plant shrubs and trees. I have a food forest that I am enriching with native berries, greens, and fruit trees that require no care, elderberries, aronia and currants. I have pine nuts but ordered hazelnuts this year. I am building raised beds for blueberries strawberries and vegetables. I have lovage (celery replacement), Jerusalem Artichoke, and asparagus, perennials. Potatoes are easy in towers and produce a lot of calories. I have landrace stuff like bolita beans and tepary beans. This year I will try some wheat, dry corn, spelt.
Just keep trying and partner with family, friend, or neighbor. Good luck to you.
My 3 chickens were fed from my land, but think rabbits produce more meat. I wish for goats but can’t see a way. I’ll miss milk. I wish for pigs. I don’t know squat about farm animals!
I worry too, but dry beans are easy for bulk calories. I will grow sugar beets to test this year, they are easy to process.
Rabbits do produce meat faster but the eggs every day in spring, summer, and most of fall are delicious.
Have you considered some of the miniature breeds? Nigerian Dwarfs average out at around 75 pounds and still produce milk. They’re about the size of a herd dog. I’ve actually been considering mini cows since they take up less land and still produce a very good amount of meat.
Garden nut
I have 5 acres but it is very steep and wooded with pinyon-junipers. Never mind puma bear coyote. I have little forage for goats but like the dwarf ones. Once I put a cabin in and remove the trailerstead, I will probably add French Angora rabbits. I would probably have to pen goats into too small an area and buy food, not practical. If I had heavy underbrush… maybe. Still, at this time I can’t see a way. Right now I am building 24 inch raised beds and making a potager for my spring garden… by May.
Be sure to line the garden beds with something if you live in gopher country. I use weedmat under mine, and it has worked very well so far. And hey, don’t fret about planting in May, I did a round where I planted in mid June and still managed almost a full harvest of everything (mid June, July, August, and part of September gave just shy of 90 days). Although, the pumpkins did have to finish off in the house.
Gardennut
A prior owner put down hundreds of square feet of concrete! Definitely keeping the critters from digging from underneath the raised beds I am putting on top. 24 inches tall, plenty for my vegetable garden. When I get past pure concrete, I will definitely line the bottom. The tall beds keep the rabbits out too… so I am coming out ahead when I thought I was behind.
GardenNut
I haven’t checked out mini cows! I am thinking Nigerian Dwarfs. I plan to keep my hens, for sure. I like chicken, but rabbits produce a lot more meat. If I get the houin the “dead” zone, the trailerstead can be removed for another 1000 square feet of soil and “live” zone. I live in it now, but it covers some of my best soil. Slowly I am about finished paying off the mortgage, and other projects will move faster.
I will check out mini cows.
GardenNut
I checked out the mini cows. I love the whole idea. I have a grassy spot below my house where I plan to try a few grains, I might be able to work that if I take out a tree or two. Junipers, not pinyons. Thank you for the information.
You’re welcome! Best of luck to you if you do go that route! 😀
I think they are trying to warn us, I am serious. Just the other day I heard a PSA about being ready for any kind of emergency. It included talking to your family (children) about what to do in an emergency. Where to meet, who calls who in the chain to let other people know what was going on , even mentioned about having a bug out bag (they called it a go to bag) ready. I shit you not. Put on the radio from FEMA. My jaw dropped when I heard it. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.
I am expecting something big before this coming Nov.
Possibly starting off with a stock market collapse that is set off by the Yuan becoming a viable exchange on the world market beginning at the first of October.
Sometime within the next seven months, we could see a catastrophic event that may, or may not, be completely natural.
The powers have a number of planned events for the world.
Well, 15 minutes ago I just pushed back from the supper table and I’m expecting I’ll be heading for the john to take the Browns to the superbowl in oh ’bout twenty minutes. I betcha I’m more accurate than your prediction.
I expected much better from you.
use the search function here and see the predictions of “imminent collapse” have been going on since at least 2010.
Yes, troubling times are ahead, but the whole “the economy will implode this summer!” stuff is getting.. well… old.
OMG! I am glad you told us that. That’s scary! Wow. What do they know that we don’t?!! I wanted to store flour for bread or flat chapaties which is easier just water, flour and pinch of salt. Then make a ball and roll out like a flat pancake….but flour only lasts for a year. So what do we do? Probably have wheat berries and then grind? Such a chore but is it the only way? How long will flour store? If it’s white and does not go rancid can we keep it for five yrs or no?
Indian chapaties are super easy to make. Once they are rolled out like a round pancake put in fry pan and toast each side till its done. Super easy. Or maybe we should all make hardtack? What’s the receipe? I forget.
Marie
yum
I forgot about chapaties!
all this talk of making bread….hope you got LOTS of water to make it with…..me….i got 4 or 5 years of canned food(with lots of MOISTURE in it), for me and my son….but i suspect it will end up food for a week for a hundred….and i won’t be ONE of ’em.
I’m using our 2012 flour no problems with it.
funny, i just made bread tonight with…..2012 date flour stored in 5 gallon bucket with NO mylar, no NUTHIN’!…just dumped it from bag to bucket and put on lid….but i live in hi-desert, ca….it’s a DRY humor up here…
I keep my white flour in air tight in food grade plastic containers in a dark closet. It is just fine, I took out my labeled “2010” flour two weeks ago.
Whole wheat flour and brown rice I stored the same type containers, but in the freezer for long term, and in the fridge for 6 months.
Flour that is grounded will only store for one year.. it will go rancid.. buy wheat berries and a grinder.. the berries will store in 5 gal buckets for 30 + years in a cool dry place.. so will rice .. salt.. sugar. Buy heirloom seeds and freeze them for storage..learn now how to garden, buy books for references. Buy a dehydrator or use solar heat of the sun to sun dry vegetables.. they store well in mason jars and reconstitute to their normal size when soaked. Grow an orchard.. plant edible landscaping such as berry bushes, figs bushes, gooseberry.. GROW and STOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgIqecROs5M
Some young people music for you wrinkled old bastards.
twerp!
@AE:
…back at ya……….
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Weqdh0OsGk
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIyoIyS_mRA
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9scsSgNNnBE
If it,s too loud, your too old…..BA.
ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvY2oldbaP8
One of the saddest songs ever recorded.
“Sail” has to be one of the most overplayed bits of pop garbage ever. Not sure I’d be hanging my generations hat on that crusty piece of crap…
There will be people dying everywhere due to lack of resources and brutal dictatorial controls anyway.
There are not enough camps to go around for everyone. Said camps just might be a way to keep the really bad people (ie., those that prep, those that fight back, those that protest, self-described Patriots, etc…).
I have said it for three years. 1 to two years of food, ammo, meds, you had had time. I have also told you to form teams. You have had time. I see the shift coming. I work for DHS. You need to get ready and stop arguing with each other and get this done. Form a team… one gets a harvest right, one gets a grain maker, one gets a commercial vac sealer, one gets and American canner, one gets and Excalibur dehydrator, all get some firearms and training, all get med and dental training, all learn to garden and hunt, all get boufeng radios, one gets a repeater, all get proper bug out vehicles. I have done all of this as have many on my team. stop snarking at each other, quite making excuses that you cant afford it, get off your asses and get his done you have VERY LITTLE time. PRAY, PLAN, PREP, FORM TEAMS……. GET THIS DONE. GOD, GROUND, GRUB, GUNS, GROUPS!!!!!!!!!!
There was another article on Zerohedge this week. A man was caught smuggling: he had powdered milk taped to his body. How bad can it get? When people have to smuggle in powdered milk you know things are bad.
How bad are things in the USSA? Plenty of idiots voted for moar free government shit when they voted for Sanders. Once those people make up 51% of the US population we can kiss this country good-fricken-bye.
Hi Philosopher, Sanders will be the real deal.
Vote for Bernie.
We all need a little help sometimes.
An older and uglier version of Pol Pot. We should all buy a 1956 Chevy, put it up on blocks and play chess all day. We could be a banana republic, but under the Glorious Sanders, we would have to import bananas and toilet paper…
to paraphrase a recent movie: like an avocado had sex with an older, whiter version of Lenin..?
“Once those people make up 51% of the US population we can kiss this country good-fricken-bye.”
Ummm, we are already there; 45% pay no taxes and that doesn’t include the illegals. that puts things over 51% easy and electing obama twice was also proof its over.
now, we’re just waiting to see if we become like england, russia, china or venezula.
That 51% that pay no taxes make less than $32,000 a year … BEFORE TAXES. Deduct rent or mortgage, required health care premiums, etc and they have no money for taxes. Those are the working poor.
The truth is, the FEDERALES don’t need our taxes. They can borrow and print the money they need to pay the bills and enrich their friends.
Its a big club but we aren’t in it. If you are not in it, you are a useless eater. 🙂
A recent article in Venezuela said that criminal thugs are stealing vital tractor parts from farms then contacting the owners and offering to sell the parts back to them.
Yes, the bandit’s name was Senor John Deere’.
I think you guys are under reacting Mac
Once the shelves go bare then it is all out game on no holds barred chaos within 72 hrs. You need to have enough supplies to last you and your family at least 2 years.
Go read the story of the Lykov family of Russia. That shows how desperate it is to rough it in the woods
It also shows that with wits and determination it can be done.
So have you got the goods?
I have something better, the great equalizer: a fucking gun to deal with sickos and pervs like you.
Yep, the woods will only provide for the keen hunters for about three months depending upon the location to large populations.
In the rocky mountains where there are plenty of deer/elk, the time frame could go to as much as a year, if…. a group has communed together to keep the grizzlies and mountain lions at bay.
However; the city gangs will go to where the resources are, and once the cities are barren of food, they will haul ass to the mountains with plenty of firepower and plenty of ammo that they have stolen along the way.
We have planned for such and have a contingency plan in place with hundreds of lbs. of wheat,grinder, and wood fired cook stove to bake in. The family has an arsenal to protect it all with.
Man cannot live by bread alone, but with clean mtn. spring water he sure as hell can survive a long time..at least till planting time if the canned goods run out.
With 200 quarts of green beans, we ain’t running out of veggies for quite some time.
But then again, according to the trolls…I could just be making it all up for the sake of a good story. lol.
What the Hell do you mean ” could be?”
That was for all you nut sacks that follow me.
Pissin, no on “follows” you. Again, your delusions of adequacy are showing. They read your tripe and shake their heads. After all, maybe you should just be quiet and be thought stupid rather than opening your mouth and removing all doubt…hmmm?
I worry enough as it is with the citiots who go hunting in my area. These are the good times and many are reckless. People are already buying up small farm animals, and going hunting more as the cost of food has gone up so much. If it is not in the stores, “me first” is going to ruin anything that is wild and start going into our pasture fields at night and carving up tame animals. More than likely the same idiots will only carve a roast or two because they like everyone else has no idea how to butcher an animal properly. And in doing so leave the owners with a rotting waste in the morning. Like my Dad’s story from during the war in Europe how a neighbors cow had her udder cut out at night because the city people thought that it was meat.
City gangs won’t venture far from the cesspool they call home. 10,000 Samalies live in Nashville. 1 hour from HQ. In order for bandits to venture far from shanty town, they’d have to make it through a gauntlet of heavily armed patriots/rednecks/pissed off country boys (all used endearingly) and no way will those Samalie yaya’s be organized. That and the fact that rural areas in general scare the piss outta hood rats and the remaining ilk. So, maybe a month of ravaging the immediate vicinity which gives time to so stated resistance to become fully trigger happy – no bad guys make it further than 10 miles outside Smashville. Basically same with Knoxville-Chatt-Memphis’etc. No worries in Tennessee or Guntucky. Ref bread: Make it easy on yourselves, wheat seed is cheap and easy and can freaking grow ANYWHERE stores forever grinds with alittle effort. Buy a few 50 lbs bags store in large container in corner of garage. Next freaking issue.
Hey 101st,
Just wanted to chime in on the wheat seed…
You don’t want to grind that up for your bread. 🙁
They spray chemicals on it to help germinate when it starts to grow. The one you want is the feed for animals to grind. They don’t put anything on it.
Just don’t want anybody doing anything wrong. 🙂
Untreated. Correct.
One of my best prepping teachers was ex-neighbour. A Somali widow who had made it across 2 continents mostly on foot with 3 small kids in tow after her husband was murdered. I learned so much from her and will always be grateful for her friendship. Don’t underestimate those groups where a significant number of seniors have already experienced shtf. These people are true survivors! My son now spends time with people who lived thru rationing and the Blitz during WW2 in Britain, as part of his home ed history studies – again fab source of tips.
street gangs have long been sending members into the military so don’t assume all will be ignorant untrained yahoos in the event of shtf. When Argentina suffered financial collapse the worst atrocities were reported in rural areas, ditto Zimbabwe. I agree that most won’t make it out of the inner city but those that do will be the ones you really need to regard as potentially VERY dangerous.
yeah “Patriots” was a pretty good book, lol…
We’ll have bread a long time. Got a ton of wheat berries stored in well sealed containers. Can grow corn indefinitely for corn bread.
Corn bread, corn tortillas,
Flour tortillas are easy,, flour, crisco and water, can even do without the crisco and are fine,,, just need a big flat hot rock to cook on if things are real bad,,,
I love those thicker home made flour tortillas with a rustic salsa of tomatoes, hot chillis, onions, and avos,,,mmmm
hey you muthuh from anothuh brothuh, i just picked up all the ingredients tonight to make my salsa tomorrow…green onion(mexican), jalapenos, red and white onions, tomato, tomato sause, garlic salt, crushed red peppers, italian seasoning,….mmmmm….great minds in tune, i say.
If corn is to be a major staple remember to soak it with limewater, or you’ll end up with pellagra.
We have a friend who was a Senior Project Manager for a large Medical Device firm based in MN. This week the “Big Boys” called a meeting of all employees (either in person or by phone) and told them that the whole company was shutting down. The reason given was that the Government regulations were making it impossible to continue.
This company is/was one of the largest maker of Urology products in the U.S.
NO BREAD FOR YOU!
more of that to come.
i will be watching Houston. imo, sometime in the next 3 months; the oil jobs in Houston are going to start being shed at an unbelievable rate, throwing all sorts of Houston and Texas businesses into decline, throwing Texas and then the country into a recession before year end.
Good thing the govt doubled it’s debt to fix freakin’ nothing.
just talked to a friend tonight will be out of his long beach oil-field job at the end of the month…they just can’t make it on 30$ oil.
Friend of mine on the Canadian side of the Bakkan field was done in January.
They just laid off 2000 employees at the mines in my area, and small towns are becoming ghost towns–the grocery stores and gas stations just moved out.
Woogie
Sorry to hear that.
I just read that Sports Authority is closing 140 stores and 2 distribution centers, Texas very hard hit.
Many of my preps revolve around breads and baking, can bake bread in a dutch oven over a fire. My grains can sprout as well as grind, are inexpensive and store forever. Just plain common sense stuff since we have 0 grain production here in the islands.
I’ve grown small patches of wheat….I use winter wheat as a cover crop on my outside garden area, and simply let it go to seed on up in the summer, but it’s a lot of work to thresh/winnow out of the stem heads, then clean enough to use for grinding. Most of the time, I’ll simply throw the whole cut wheat stems in the chicken pen and let them do the work.
Corn is simply so much easier that if it came down to a choice, I’d go with corn.
You can’t live on corn. Poor people in the early 1900s died from pelagra, a vitamin deficiency caused by living on mostly corn.
Make sure you get all your nutrients.
Nixtamalization
You can live on corn, you just have to soak it in limewater first before using it. It also makes the corn grind easier and bake better. Use calcium hydroxide for the lime. Make the limewater, boil the corn in the limewater, steep it, rinse it, grind it, cook with it.
Read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization for an overly scientific breakdown.
The Indians didn’t tell white people about nixtamalization when they told them about corn.
Kula,
How to dry wheat in the climate we live in?
I was also going to try a tobacco crop(for trading).
I have a un-used 28X24 carport to use, but I worry
about humidity problems.
The Wife on her semi-monthly shopping run noted
lots of empty shelves and very increased prices,
are you seeing that? We can still get live lobsters from
NELHA ( $25 for 2-2.5 pounders) more than we could ever eat,
but buying #10 of red beans exhausts the stores entire
inventory for a week or two!
Air freight is still working, but ocean freight isn’t
doing as well.
What I have done to dry it is cut the stalks and hang bunches from the purlins in my packing shed or the greenhouse, isnt ideal but works, is a lot of labor but if the alternative is NONE i willdo what ihave to.
Seeing higher prices, dont really shop a lot, trips to Costco once a month, maybe other market every other week, but dont really buy much,
Kula,
Thanks!
Remember that tobacco seeds need sunlight to germinate. Plant the seeds on top of the dirt. Then transplant after the plants are a few inches high.
We’ve got no bread ‘cos We’ve got no bread.
That’s like… so heavy dudes.
The Groundfridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kYC1u2h8fw
That’s what those of us that grew up in the Midwest call a rootceller. Glad to see old thinking being applied in new ways.
I think it was you (KY Mom)that posted about Wallmart’s sale on Auguson Farm’s Hard Wheat Berries. I want to thank you for that, and after I placed my order it made me think of digging out my grandmother’s old “meat grinder.” It’s hand crank style that attaches to a table, but noticed it had a blade for wheat and even “Nut Butter.” Cast iron, made in the 1920’s – 1930’s and better than anything I could buy today. Thanks so much for that “heads up,” not only did I save $ on preps that I needed, I got to show my kids how to make peanut butter and gave them a link to a beautiful lady that they never had the opportunity to meet.
Side note to Ken – Thank you so much for this website. I learn a lot from the articles each week, and even more from all of the posts in the comments section. For example, I know that if I ever run out of toilet paper NRP is the right guy to barter with.
I have an old meat grinder, did not realize it could be used for grains. I have several blades for different sizes. I will try growing barley and spelt this year. I only have 150# wheat berries and flour. Not enough! A store ordered 100# more but haven’t called. I am growing hard corn this year but plan to nixtamalize all of it since I have lots of corn meal.
I like it KY Mom,
Every house in tornado ally, or even close should have one.
It’ll work along the Hurricane coasts when buried in a mound above high water marks, or take a 10×10 shed stick it in the middle and fill the shed with concrete. The shed to make it look pretty.
Serenabit and Plan twice, prep once,
I would love to have one of these in my yard. However, they are currently out of our budget.
But, I am hoping to get a root cellar dug soon. We have an abundance of hillsides here in eastern Kentucky. 🙂
Many budget minded have been using large plastic septic tanks to build root/storm shelters. The people that supply can also install.
Anonymous,
Thanks for the tip! Will be looking into this.
Dr. Lawrence Kotlikoff, who server in the Treasury under Reagan, and is now at Boston Univ., says if counted EVERYTHING that is promised, but unfunded, it is around $222 TRILLION
http://www.kotlikoff.net/sites/default/files/Kotlikoffbudgetcom2-25-2015.pdf
There are three and only three ways to pay for this: raise taxes (kills business, and people vote with their feet so they will do “hidden” taxes as much as posible), print money, or cut services (hence disgusting Zeke Emanuel’s “die at 75” comment.)
And do you think leftists have a clue??? Mais non! They’re still out chanting for Bernie “More Free Ice Cream, Please!” Sanders.
The policy options with this much debt and this much economic stagnation and lack of productivity are thus:
1) Burn the machine at a higher tempo: via quantum computing introducing pure infinity hypothecation and take derivatives to infinity. It will not make any more real wealth but it will spin the machine so fast, few people will grasp what is going on.
2) The great, filthy hordes: Open up the flood gates to maximum and let hundreds of millions of people flood into the West from the third world. Put them to work in factories or on welfare and consuming crap. Many boomers believe (stupidly) that Muslims will happily work their socks off to pay taxes to cover their pensions. I think not. But people are short-termist and greedy, so look to see this option be implemented this year.
3) Re-set and default: they can’t let that happen because that would upset the social structure. Debts need to be paid (even if they cannot be mathematically repaid) and the scum need to be kept in their place.
4) Dirty boys, dirty girls: open the economic space to include all the sinful things humans like to do and make them legal (drug use, prostitution, bestiality, etc.). This can turn the West into a giant Las Vegas/Bangkok on steroids and would attract sex and drug tourists from Asia. White p#ssy is highly prized so we could probably eek out a couple decades of prosperity on getting our daughters and wives to work their booties.
5) War: this is also another option that we will see in 2016. War has many advantages: it gooses the weapons industry and is a spur to science and technology R&D, it eliminates pesky over-population problems, it destroys things that then need to be re-built with new stuff, and it allows for ‘cleansing and cleaning’: removal of populations that fail to join the 21st century.
There you have it: the only 5 policy options available to see this situation through. And 2 of them will go into practice this year.
Test
I meant flour,how long does flour keep in a freezer
How long will flour keep in a freezer,thanks in advance
Nationalist Me,
According to what I have read, flour should keep for years in the freezer.
I store flour and corn meal in gallon size freezer safe ziplock bags in the freezer.
It’s Official: Canada Has Sold All Of Its Gold Reserves
“As of this moment it’s official – Canada has fully “broken away with tradition” and has exactly zero gold left: The Government of Canada sold it last 21,851 ounces of gold coins for settlement in February.
On February 29, gold holdings stood at 77 ounces. The valuation is based on the February 29, 2016, London p.m. fix of US$1,234.90 per ounce.”
ht tp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-03/its-official-moment-canada-has-no-gold-reserves-left
Direct link…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-03/its-official-moment-canada-has-no-gold-reserves-left
One reminder about seeds, as I am finding out the germination rate even on seeds harvested last season is not good, I planted 50 seeds and only got a 30 percent germination success rate, if you buy seeds, be sure to buy at least 3 of each, your first garden may be planted too early and the rain will rot the seeds in the ground, the second garden may get ravaged by birds or mice, and when you have used your third supply of seeds, what do you do if you have to leave your location? I am ordering my 5th go-round of seeds today-Once TSHTF where do you think you are going to get seeds from-not the store and probably none available for barter.
Are you keeping your seeds in a dark, stable temperature area? A refrigerator or freezer extends the shelf-life even further, but I have very good luck keeping them viable in a root cellar. Of course, heirloom varieties have far superior germination rate as opposed to hybrids. Hybrids only ever have a ~20% germination rate from kept seed and that continues with each successive harvest. Heirlooms on the other hand will typically yield seed with over a 90% germination rate.
Gardennut
Hybrids have cytoplasmic male sterility. It is carried by the female and that is why they die out… the “death” gene that is talked about. I don’t use any hybrids, ever. I am saving more seed types this year, too.
There is generally no difference in seed viability of hybrids vs. heirlooms for most common vegetables. Most vegetable hybrids do not have cytoplasmic male sterility, but some could. Buying heirlooms does ensure you avoid this risk, but more importantly heirlooms grow true to type, generation after generation.
A true hybrid will not produce the same offspring in the 2nd (F2) or later generations – that is the primary reason to avoid hybrids for long-term gardening self-sufficiency. It can be fun to grow out a hybrid year-after-year and see what variations you get in color, taste, productivity… After all, all heirlooms initially started from an F1 hybrid (either intentionally cross-bred or by accident) and were then selected generation after generation for desired traits until the genetics stabilized into an “heirloom” variety.
Good seed viability requires harvesting at the correct time, good processing (like fermenting tomato seeds before drying), thorough drying, and storing in a cool, dry place. Commercial seed is not always prepared/dried optimally, and so viability can be poor – be it hybrid or heirloom. I have no problem maintaining seed viability of my own home-grown seeds for peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, melons, cukes and beans for 4 years or longer. Other species have naturally shorter viability: lettuce 2-3 years tops, onions 1-2 years, parsnips only 1 year. Storing these seeds in the freezer (well dried, well sealed in glass jars with dessicant) can extend viability by 5x or 10x.
Suzanne Ashworth’s “Seed to Seed” is the best gardening investment I ever made. Has all the juicy details. Karol Deppe’s “Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties” is great if you want to learn basic genetics and techniques for developing your own vegetable varieties optimized for your local climate.
SeedSaver666
That behavior in future generations, F2 and so on, is inconsistent with Hybrids and is merely a cross between two varieties, not a Hybrid. However, if you choose to insert cytoplasmic male sterility into your seeds, it is your choice. Every generation forward has fewer offspring, since it is passed forward in the female line.
Thank you. I knew it was some kind of sterility issue, but I never really looked in-depth into hybrids other than to realize my test batches had typical germination rates. After three rounds of test batches, I decided to just stick with heirlooms.
Prep like there’s no tomorrow, for one day you will wake up to a situation very similar to what’s going on in Greece or Venezuela. The ones who say it can never happen in the good ol USA are dreaming. They will be the ones who will be crying like a bunch of babies asking for help. The ones who don’t want to heed the warnings can go pound sand. The End…
Donald
It has happened before in the US, we are not immune.
Lonelonmon
I like your set up.
I planted 5 native elderberry bushes last year. I use the berries, 3 are going to be a windbreak, and my chickens love them. I like adding to my forest garden as well as my formal garden. Two is one.
This year I am adding more crabapple and currants.
Keep us posted!