TEOTWAWKI and Covid 19 Prep

[jgradyc]

The Covid 19 crisis is unlike any TAOTWAWKI book I've read and it's unlikely to get that far, but it would be wise to learn from the situation. 

I realized that I was not as prepared as I thought I was. I had planned to go shooting and I'd planned to restock my ammo after. I should have done it before because now I can't find 9mm and 223. I'm redesigning my Get Home bag. I've put an adult push scooter in my van. If necessary, I could average 8-10 mph on it. I had sufficient calories for a month, but not enough variety to make "meals." I've fixed that. I've topped off both vehicles and my propane tank. I think I have sufficient disinfectant, alcohol, clorox, and hydrogen peroxide. I don't have any large wound first aid. I have a solar panel, a controller, a 12v battery, and an inverter so I can charge rechargeable batteries and run small 120v items.  

I'm going to the bank to get a wad of $20 bills and some $100 bills. Yeah, I know paper money can hold the virus, but I don't plan on spending them unless the banks close. I'm building up my cash on hand to buy any deals that pop up. Some people will be selling stuff they didn't need to raise money. I just bought a 2019 Macbook Air with a retail of $1,299 for $750... not exactly a steal, but a good deal.

I've also stocked up on vitamins to boost my immune system. There has to a reason why this coronavirus doesn't affect most young people and since I'd take the vitamins over the next year anyway, I've stocked up

What have you learned? What are you doing to be better prepared?

[Oh Shoot]

I've been a "minimal" survivalist for a good while now. As a townie, in an apartment. Just me.

Assuming the water supply hangs in there, I can shut the door and not open it for at least 9 months. (only have 2-3 months water stored).  Idea is that if the big balloon ever goes up, I can at least hang out for a while to see if life's still worth living in the aftermath of whatever would cause that. Assuming I don't get overrun by bad bipeds.

This isn't that, but it will do till that comes.

My last "close" contact with people was at Kroger on the 24th. I don't expect to do any more of that till May.  Maybe longer, we'll see. Ain't skeered, just don't see a lot of reason for "mostly" social distancing since I can easily do it totally for a good while.

- OS

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Oh Shoot

[Grayfox54]

I learned my lessons back in 2003 when "Hurricane Elvis" hit. I'm good for a couple of months at least.

Also building my cash reserves as well. When those stimulus checks start coming in, there's likely to be a run on the banks to cash them. 

There has to a reason why this coronavirus doesn't affect most young people

I've heard that the fastest growing group of victims is the 21-40 age segment. There was a group of 70 that went to Spring break together and 27 of them have tested positive. 

[MacGyver]

This Atlanta boy is going to edit the title of the thread to reflect an R.E.M. appropriate The End Of The World As We Know It. 

[TGO David]

43 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

This Atlanta boy is going to edit the title of the thread to reflect an R.E.M. appropriate The End Of The World As We Know It. 

I feel fine (about this).

[Chucktshoes]

46 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

This Atlanta boy is going to edit the title of the thread to reflect an R.E.M. appropriate The End Of The World As We Know It. 

 

3 minutes ago, TGO David said:

I feel fine (about this).

Lenny Bruce is not afraid. 

[MacGyver]

Leonid Brezhnev approves of this thread. 

[Moped]

I've always wanted to prep and I have to some extent, with my firearms.  But my wife and kids ahve always thought it was crazy. When this thing looked like it was going to be bad, I talked to my wife and then hit Sam's and Krogers and immediately stocked up on enough food to last us a couple of months (an estimate).  It wouldn't bee a fun couple of months, but we'd make it assuming the water supply didn't get turned off.  There are things we still probably need like more vitimans and medical supplies.  I pointed didn't stock up on water, since I felt like that wouldn't be a necessity during this period.  My wife and I ahve already decided that when this is over, we are going to set down and do a lessons learned and start preparing for the next situation, whatever it is.

My kids on the other hand were completely blind sided by this, is spite of my warning too them.  After Food started getting hard to find, my soon and his girlfriend both lost their jobs and we made the decision to take them to the store and buy them a 30 day supply and top off their gas tank.  Since then, they have both been called back to work and they are keeping up with their food stock.  They fixed us dinner last week to think us for taking care of them.

My daughter and her husband, while also being initially caught flatfooted, figured it out pretty quick and get on the prepping bandwagon.    and have been able to catch back up, now having enough food for 30 days.

One thing I think lots of people tend to overlook is their pets.  One of the things we stocked up on was enough dogfood to also last us from a couple months as well.

[Chucktshoes]

This is something that my wife and I are going to have to really talk about. We’re good for a month, tops. It’s time to re-evaluate our comfort in the idea of things carrying on as normal. 
 

edited to add: Just talked to the wife and she is on board with getting us in line to be set for at least a couple of months.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Chucktshoes

[MacGyver]

When you've got time (and likely a lot of people have a decent amount of time right now), it's worth sitting down as a family and making a list of meals that you regularly enjoy - especially looking at some of the simpler ones to start with.

For instance, in my family of five - it's guaranteed that we'll do spaghetti once a week - and my kids wouldn't complain if it was more.  When the local Publix has Buy One Get One on jars or sauce or noodles, it's easy to put one away without even noticing it.  Since they regularly run sales of some items biweekly - and others monthly - within 3 months max - you can have enough set aside for a month without even going outside your normal food budget. Date the items you buy - and put the new stuff in the back so that you use the oldest stuff first.

There are other meals that this is pretty easy with as well.  If you grew up like I did having a pot of beans and a pan of cornbread once a week - there's a complete protein.  Likewise with a lot of soups or curries.

Americans have really gotten out of practice living out of their pantries.  Part of the reason supply lines have gotten tight in places is that up until two weeks ago, America was eating over half its meals in restaurants.

 

[Shorty]

While water isn't an issue with this scenario presently, it would be a good idea to think about it for future preparations.  I'm not saying you need to go out and buy cases of water now, but a "couple" of good water containers should be considered, especially if your storing a lot of dry goods.  A Reliance Aqua-rainer holds 7 gallons and costs less than $20 each.  Just cycle the water about every 6 months.

[Chucktshoes]

3 minutes ago, Shorty said:

While water isn't an issue with this scenario presently, it would be a good idea to think about it for future preparations.  I'm not saying you need to go out and buy cases of water now, but a "couple" of good water containers should be considered, especially if your storing a lot of dry goods.  A Reliance Aqua-rainer holds 7 gallons and costs less than $20 each.  Just cycle the water about every 6 months.

Thankfully we live in the sticks and have well water. 

[Oh Shoot]

1 minute ago, Chucktshoes said:

Thankfully we live in the sticks and have well water. 

Can you get to it if the power dies?

- OS

[Chucktshoes]

1 minute ago, Oh Shoot said:

Can you get to it if the power dies?

- OS

No, but alternate power methods are a part of the equation. Also figuring out a hand crank wouldn’t be a terrible idea  

 

[Ronald_55]

1 minute ago, Chucktshoes said:

No, but alternate power methods are a part of the equation. Also figuring out a hand crank wouldn’t be a terrible idea  

 

This is a basic outline of plans that i have seen. lets you pull water from the well sans power. 

 

https://preparednessadvice.com/well/make-your-own-deep-well-bucket/

[peejman]

We generally keep about a months worth of food around. Meals would get boring about half way through, but I don't think we'd starve. I also keep 21 gallons of water stored plus the 50 gallons in my water heater.  I have a couple water filtration options. 

We were fortunate in that we took delivery of our annual beef supply (about 150 lbs) around march 1st. That plus the usual chicken and pork means our freezer is packed.

We also usually have a small vegetable garden and try to can what we don't eat. The garden yield hasn't been great the last couple years so we're down to a few jars of relish, pickles, and jam. We'd already decided that if the garden doesn't produce enough this year, we'll hit the farmers market and get a few bushels to can.  A friend at work grows and cans lots of green beans. In the past, we've traded maters and relish for beans. 

We've got camp stoves and plenty of fuel. We've also got a fire pit and firewood, so cooking should be covered. 

With that, I think we've got the fundamentals covered. It's just extending the length of time we could go at this point. 

[jgradyc]

Keep in mind that if the water goes out, there's several gallons of perfectly clean water in the back of each toilet. There's also 40 gallons in your hot water heater. 

We have a spring on the property so water is covered. We also have unscented Clorox to purify water and a filter bottle should we need to travel. 

I have pasta, but I'd forgotten to get extra spaghetti sauce. I'll pick up a few cans and some cornbread mix. 

Walmart and Aldis have granola bars 5 for $1.79 or so that are calorie dense. I have several boxes of these.  

The idea of getting cash before all those $1,200 checks hit the banks is a GREAT idea. I'm going tomorrow. Banks are probably stockpiling extra cash with a rush on banks on the horizon. 

[Ronald_55]

So far, the number one thing I have learned is that I need to organize. That is my personal character flaw. I have had to pull together some of the stuff I have spread around and it has taken too long. Then again, some of it is spread out to keep the rest of the family from hassling me.  At least I have the stuff already though.

I started a very long post for this, but felt it was over doing it. I have been seriously studying emergency preparedness for years. I have a lot of ideas my family doesn't exactly go along with. I am not a "prepper" as the term is used usually now.

I have shared it before here, but if anyone is interested I run a site dedicated to all levels of emergency preparedness. I'm not an expert, but I have had time to process a lot of ideas about this.

http://leveledsurvival.com/

Anyone used these water bricks? Water Bricks

Edited April 2, 2020 by Ronald_55
misc

[bud]

.

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by bud

[Ronald_55]

@bud

Great to hear! Honestly I don't get a ton of feedback on the site even though I can see traffic coming to it. Glad it helped. That is the whole reason for it. I got tired of only seeing "be ready for the Zombie Apocolypse in an underground bunker" type of planning discussed.  Thanks.

If anyone else is interested, this is the list Bud referenced. I finally broke down a year ago and put it where it can be directly seen. 

http://leveledsurvival.com/2019/03/10/the-list-i-thought-i-would-never-make/

 

I will look at those containers. I bought a couple 7 gallon ones a while back, but they don't stack and 7 gallons is a lot of weight. Around 58 lbs. Not something you want to move around a bunch. 5 gallon (40 lbs) might be a bit easier. Still have to figure out where I can get that stacked away from kids and animals, but not subjected to cold and heat.

[monkeylizard]

You're not kidding. I have the 7 gal Reliant Aquatainers and they are HEAVY. Those plus the water heater plus a rotating stack of bottled water should have us set for a while, but I really don't see us losing city water over this.

 

Worst case - I break out the Sawyer bags and Lifestraws and make the 1/4 mile trek to the river.

Edited April 2, 2020 by monkeylizard

[DWARREN123]

For water do not forget your toilet tanks and water heater tank. They both contain drinkable water.

[Ronald_55]

6 hours ago, DWARREN123 said:

For water do not forget your toilet tanks and water heater tank. They both contain drinkable water.

As several have said that water is there, but I would rather thing of that as last ditch options. One thoughtless push of a handle by a family member can empty that toilet tank. 

@monkeylizard I wish I was that close to a good source. Side effect of making sure I am not somewhere that can flood back when we bought the house. 

[jgradyc]

12 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

I have shared it before here, but if anyone is interested I run a site dedicated to all levels of emergency preparedness. I'm not an expert, but I have had time to process a lot of ideas about this.

http://leveledsurvival.com/

Thanks for doing this!

By the way, in a few days (?) those $1,200 checks will be going out. What can we expect? As someone posted earlier, I think there will be run on banks to get cash. That could cause a panic if banks aren't prepared with cash on hand. It seems like every other industry has been unprepared so far so this isn't too unrealistic. Ironically, the cash that no one wants to touch today could become very valuable in a couple of weeks. I mean, if I wanted to buy something from someone else, I wouldn't expect them to take a check in today's market. 

I might be totally wrong on this, but having some $20s and $100s stashed away would seem to be better than buying a $1,600 gold coin. No one is going to be able to make change for a $1,600 coin.

EDITED TO ADD: I also think it's essential to be extra careful and vigilant now. A cut or broken arm or car accident could send you to the ER and potentially expose you to Covid 19. I'm also more careful about carrying when I'm outside the house. Also, a lot more people are going to parks. That means there are a lot more novices leaving valuables in cars. I anticipate more car break ins at parks.

Edited April 2, 2020 by jgradyc

[gregintenn]

My wife and I were raised country folks. We have  seen virtually no difference in our lives except we'd usually be going to high school baseball games about 4 nights a week. I suppose we were prepared?

Living out in the sticks means going to the store is more of an inconvenience than if you live in a city, so we've always had a well stocked pantry and freezers, as well as full gas tanks.