This is a concern re: batteries for the battery bank. We are still using L16's and will continue to as long as possible. Since the late 1990's, we have been getting on average 8 years off a bank of batteries.

We have done the unpardonable sin- we have mixed old and new batteries, more than a few times now. It's BS that you can't mix them.... Something made up by those that overanalyze and under DO things. Mixed battery banks have been running our homestead for 25 years or so...

What we have experienced before with multiple bad cells that bring down a string is that you can pull each battery, test it, try to ID the battery with the bad cell and remove it from that string and rearrange the bank. We have done this on numerous occasions and why I was hesitant to change to 48 volts (8 batteries per string instead of 4).

The worst we have experienced is that the bank becomes kind of a pass through type system- while the sun is out energy is transferred to the house and anything on that system, but as soon as the sun start waning, the power goes.

So in short, even with a completely dead, can't rearrange strings any more, can't jury rig anything else battery bank, we may still have some power options, at least during the day.

Fuel- diesel, at least older diesel before all the enviro crap changes to fuel, stored a lot longer than 10 years, especially put up with PRI-D. We were using off road diesel from 98/99 in 2012-2015 in heavy equipment and it was running fine. The newer fuel doesn't seem to last as long.

Having 3X as many spare fuel filters you THINK you need for each piece of equipment as well as extra fuel lines, carbs for smaller equipment (especially gas operated), in line pre-filters the little cheapie plastic ones that are about $4. each are handy. I added one in line on our JD tractor before it gets to the main fuel filter. It's right near where I get on the tractor so I always look at it. It's a quick disconnect and replace once a year and we haven't had any further fuel issues since.

But overall, yes, expecting the same standard of living 10 years into a real event isn't likely.

Was working in the greenhouse the other day, moving some more starts out to one of the garden areas.

I started thinking about how you would have to 'scale up' to really this work for more than a small amount of people.

For example, I'm standing looking at the snow peas

There are snowpeas growing in the short center bed, a small section growing up a piece of recycled fence on the far left corner and another small section that's not visible, just to the right of where I took the pic (next to the brocolli).

So let's consider this ONE vegetable (you can extrapolate this out to any of your resources).

1. This is a very small amount of snowpeas growing here. When I posted that thread about building a greenhouse, the redundant systems we put in it, etc. I talked about how jacked up our growing season is- usually by July too hot for almost anything to grow, sometimes getting over 100 as late as early October, but then often seeing first freezes as early as mid November. A very compressed and choppy growing season. Fall gardens, planted outside of the greenhouse are risky due to the cycle mentioned above- you have to wait for the temps to drop to plant cool weather crops, then often when they are just getting started they are blasted by a freeze and you lose them.

So how are you going to SCALE UP when the time comes from growing a small amount of food to a larger amount of food? Assume we are talking about NO MORE OUTSIDE INPUTS of any kind- i.e, no running to the feed store, it's gone.

Assume also you've been one of these folks that haven't taken food storage very seriously. So your 3 to 6 months (probably average 'at best' numbers for many folks) is running out.

You can't just eat all those peas, no matter how hungry you are, you need to keep seed for next growing season and preserve and protect that seed until then. Further, due to potential failures, possible issues post event with water (how are you going to water??), etc. you need to save MORE seed than you likely realize. This isn't "a packet put in, save a packet's worth and your good." This is "oh shit I only had a packet to start with, I really needed much more, now I need to save about 8-10 packets worth."

Ideally if you had enough food storage, you would save upwards of 90% of your seed from your first post event garden. Why? So you could EXPAND it further. Most especially for you "community, we will all share" types- you gotta have something more to share.

So producing more SEED requires less EATING for you. Hence the need for a more serious plan for food storage- several years worth of basics being the ideal starting place. Calm down, calm down... I said the basics, i.e, basic grains and legumes which are not expensive. Doesn't mean you have to have 5 years of Mt. House.....

Having to save a large amount of your first post event crop to expand from say a small 10x10 raised bed in the backyard to maybe digging up all of your 1/5 acre suburban backyard will require you save most of the seed coming in from that first post event garden.

For some crops where the seed IS the edible part of the crop- like the snow pea example, it would seriously hinder what you could eat from that first harvest- at best you could harvest fresh and full, carefully split the shell remove the seeds to dry and eat the shell which is good also. Wouldn't work with things like corn, wheat. Would work to an extent with things like peppers and tomatoes- removing the seeds before eating the fruit.

Also, some crops have to be in the ground 2 years to produce seed at all- carrots for example.

Animals are another thing that would have to be able to be SCALED UP. Right now, we don't have a rooster, which is considerably more quiet and not as hard on the hens, but that means no peeps.. Some hens are more broody then others- it was largely discouraged in chickens for a long time, now it's appreciated as a good quality. For about a decade we did not have to buy new peeps- the roosters did their jobs. A couple of the hens would disappear at some point, be gone for a few days and then reappear with a passel of peeps under them/following them around. For every 8 or so, 4-6 would make it and the flock perpetuated itself.

Scaling up your small animals in a way will be easier than scaling up your garden or definitely your orchard. We have 2 bunny mommas out there with kits now, 1 is a very reliable producer, another has struggled through multiple failures and was ready for the freezer. She gave birth to 8 and she is down to 2 but they are chubby and about a week old now, so hopefully they will make it and she will get squared away and avoid the icebox. Three other does all newer does. Pregnancy takes a month, kits take about 6-8 weeks with the mom and then are separated and the mom can be knocked up again. Usually you don't want to breed them till they are about 12-16 weeks. So SCALING UP your herd means being able to have feed to 'risk' raising more breeders for 4 months then seeing how they do- 1 month at least to know per "chance" given each doe. You could easily spend a half year of feed figuring out if a doe is a decent enough mom to raise kits or not. Contrary to popular belief and having raised rabbits since 1993, I can tell you not all are good moms.

What does all this SCALING UP mean? It means you have to have to have a lot more logistics than you think you need. Ideally that means several years of basic grains and legumes (anti starvation diet at the minimum). The good news there is with a quick glance at Sam's club website, you can still put together most of the basics for a year for under $300. (read again, the Basics, and anti starvation diet not FD Caviar...) Add 100-200 lbs. of wheat to this (didn't see it on their website and wanted to use a place available to everyone for the example).

Also, growing a garden every single year and maintaining as best you can, your OWN seed source is going to be important to do now. Sure you can get on Amazon and go to Survival Seeds and buy seeds and they are delivered within a few days. BTW, shameless plug but that's a good brand, we have great luck with their seeds for veggies and herbs! Also, seeds don't last in storage like you might have heard of the some of the regurgitated BS online- "seeds last forever" No they don't... For funsies I chitted some pepper seeds I found in some ammo cans with other supplies I went through at an alternate location. They were from late 90's/early 2000's. Not a single seed sprouted. We have had pepper seeds we saved from before Hurricane Helene (which destroyed most of our garden and livestock infrastructure) that have not sprouted this year- Helene was in 2024...

Also not just the saving seed every year aspect, but the experience and development of your soil from growing a garden every year will be invaluable if you have to live off of it.