April 13, 2026 - What did you do this past week to prepare?
Posted by Anthropic--principle@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 57 comments
Please use this thread to discuss whatever preps you worked on this last week. Let us know what big or little projects you have been working on. Please don’t hesitate to comment. Others might get inspired to work on their preps by reading about yours.
BunniesOnTheBrain@reddit
Been trying new canned foods(I’m neurodivergent probably have undiagnosed condition called avoidance food disorder) figuring out what I can add to my storage that I will actually eat. Also learning how to use my mylar bag for storage.
FormerNeighborhood80@reddit
Bought some canned vegetables and fruits for deep pantry. I’m not sure where all this war business is going and I feel safer having extra shelf safe foods.
Scrumdiddly_69@reddit
Began taking my water supply more seriously, also prepped a "go box" for myself and my cats in the event of nuclear fallout.
PrepperBoi@reddit
Do you have a designated bug out location out side of your proposed zone? Preferably historically downwind
Scrumdiddly_69@reddit
Not within a reasonable driving distance for now.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Started a couple new hives
That's always a good calming time- you can't work bees bee'ing stressed. Kinda forces some relaxation in the same manner a good punch does to the body also.
Finished putting in most of the north garden area. Had some rye grass that was put in the fall for a cover crop come back pretty heavily in some areas. I had mowed it a couple times over the fall/winter and raked the clippings for the rabbits. I must have let it get too established. I had just mowed it tightly and then tilled it in. I don't think most of it was dead. It's taken over big areas where I have cabbage and brocolli and is choking them out. Another area that had it I covered in an old billboard vinyl ad (basically large heavy duty tarp) and leaving that on for a month or so kills it off well, then it's tilled in. You can tell the difference that is made keeping it covered to kill it off. Put in another couple dozen peppers and tomatoes.
Back of the garden area I have been planting some medicinal herbs- Echinacea, 4 Elderberry bushes, Yarrow, chickweed, German Chamomile, etc. Got some more starts of Horehound, Feverfew, Agrimony, etc. to put in there but running out of space. Have found some locally growing mullein, nettle, etc. and have transferred some of them to that area also. Started some new tinctures - Yarrow, Horehound and red clover, takes about 8 weeks before I can bottle them.
Got a couple batches of bunnies coming up. One new momma doe lost about 5 of hers and has two left. This is her first set of kits she has raised at all and was already out in the "fatten them up" community cage in the garden- last stop before going to Sugar Candy Mountain... aka the freezer. I noticed she had pulled some hair and quickly moved her to a vacant cage, hopeful this might redeem her. 2 out of 7 isn't exactly great, but warrants another try IMO. Another tried and true doe had 9, lost a couple and has 7 left. I need to revamp our rabbit setup, several cages are older and have been repaired several times, etc.
Digging in a water line to a new orchard area. Here's a reminder to draw out where you run water lines. 28 years later your going to "swear" that this crosses this about here and.... and a lot of digging may or may not prove you right, or wrong... And we've had ok luck with the "water witching" clothes hanger trick before, but it wasn't working for us this time. I decided just to tie in at a different area which actually puts most of our "turn on this area" ball valves in the same general area. So hand digging about 300' of water line.
Personal level- wife and I continue to train for The Murph Challenge the end of May. 2 mile run, 300 squats, 200 pushups, 100 pull ups or equivalent (most of our guys do a combination of some pullups, some rows, etc.) all in a PC with plates. We practiced Monday and Wednesday, skipped Friday cause we ran out of time. Saturday I was digging in water line and working outside all day, trying to quit early to get some rest before training Sunday and about 4pm she mentions doing The Murph, I said I'm exhausted how about a half Murph? So I went a little slack Saturday. Trained combatives on Sunday in the park working some striking and movement drills and some takedowns and ground work- always fun on dirt versus mats.
CalmNote123@reddit
This is amazing! This is some stuff I’d like to do when I get some land of my own. I’ve been interested in learning about medicinal herbs and how to prepare/use them, do you have any recommendations on sources or reliable ways to learn about this subject?
Totally ok if not! You just seem knowledgeable and like you have your stuff together 😅
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Here's one I finished reading recently that was VERY good. Found it at Tractor supply.
You can start by buying dry herbs in mylar bags from Amazon and making tinctures with those, albeit some are better with fresh herbs. Most are simple tinctures basically putting the herb in a jar, pouring Vodka over them, keeping the Vodka level higher than the herb. Then shake them every couple days and let them sit for 6-8 weeks. Strain off the liquid into dropper bottles.
Elderberries are a good way to start- great immune booster useful for flus, colds, etc.
CalmNote123@reddit
Awesome! I’m going to check this out, thank you so much!!!
JRHLowdown3@reddit
No problem, good luck. I've been planting a big section of one of our garden areas with Elderberry bushes, echinacea,, Yarrow, Chamomile, Feverfew, Horehound and a few others.
I personally think Echinacea flowering is more pretty than a rose flowering so should have a beautiful and health producing area soon.
Many-Health-1673@reddit
'As Built' plans are always good. I had my Dad hand draw me 'As Built' blueprints of where he ran waterlines in the barn lot. Glad I did, because it was a mess.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Problem is some of the "land marks" have changed over the decades, between things that were there and later pulled out- a couple dozen grapes, pulled out to make room for a solar expansion, then Hurricane Helene damaged a lot of our garden and food infrastructure.
I started making diagrams when I've tied into other parts of our water grid, to include putting pieces of metal in the trench above the pipe so as to locate via a metal detector.
I need to do this more.
angrytetchy@reddit
Yanked out a bunch of flowers that were trying to take over the small garden area we've got here. Cleaned up around what I discovered to be butternut squash and my two slips of sweet potatoes (one Molokai, the other Okinawan). Gonna yank up more of the "grass" for a decent sized area - I'm strongly considering a 3 Sisters approach (corn, peas, and squash) with a corn that can survive tropical type heat from UH Manoa. Turns out my pohinahina has rooted through its plastic so I'm gonna cut it out to give it some nice room. The hau needs to get into the ground as well so it can fully grow.
Also called doctors - if shit is gonna hit the fan, I should probably get everything done while I have insurance.
Old_Ad5194@reddit
Made my first emergency food bag for family of 4 with 2 under 2. Lots of beans, rice, infant formula cans, baby food, protein powder, all with shelf life's of about '27, I figure it's roughly 3ish months of food to hunker down with with hard rationing. Got the wife kind of on board with being somewhat prepared for anything. Purchased another 5 gallon water cube. Just starting out. Also picked up some propane cannisters for the camp stove we have, matches and lighters just today.
MoInSTL@reddit
Had fully seasoned white oak and hickory delivered and stacked yesterday. Feels good to have a load of wood in. Conversely, I ordered and received a solar powered fan for the summer power outages. Can also charge it via USB. Added a couple of pasta sauces in glass jars. Date on the label and moved the other ones forward.
DevGn0me@reddit
Spent about 20h this week reorganizing my family's inventory across our 5 locations. Also started tracking expiration dates more seriously instead of just guessing. Small steps but feels good to actually know what we have.
ihatecleaningtoilets@reddit
I’m currently working on Re inventorying too
DevGn0me@reddit
Nice. How is it going? What're the problems you've to deal with?
ihatecleaningtoilets@reddit
Not much really We just don’t have that much. There are 5 of us and we Only 21 days worth of food & water, if we are conservative.
MojoFilter8@reddit
Honestly that's great. The amount of food needed to sustain 5 people for 21 days takes work to stock and maintain
ihatecleaningtoilets@reddit
Thanks. It’s a lots of variety but we have a spare closet and a bunch of upper storage in our kitchen pantry that can’t realistically be reached on a daily basis so we are working on filling those areas
FinnfinnLP@reddit
Came up with a quick at-home training regimen I can pull off whenever work either crushes all motivation or doesn't allow for a trip to the gym. As expected, I have the legs of a hiker and noodle arms.
Studying for HAM license. Seventh grade math is buried so deep in my brain that I'll probably ask the archeology department of my local university for assistance.
Went through OTC medication to rotate expiry dates.
joshak3@reddit
I cleared an area for planting some more fruit trees once it gets a bit warmer. You never notice how many old stumps are in the ground until you need to clear them all out to plant something else.
gonyere@reddit
Digging holes to plant trees I had to choose a different spot a half dozen times due to hitting old sandstone blocks 4-8" down...
Hobby_Homebrew@reddit
Blocks? Foundation?
Hobby_Homebrew@reddit
Ordered 4 - 15lb bags of Royal Basmati aged white rice. We like it. Got them in and fit them into 2 - 5 gallon buckets. Didn't use mylar, didn't repack, left them in the canvas bags they are sold in. Added a teaspoon of diatomaceous earth (DE), 5 oxygen absorbers and a long shot of nitrogen/argon from a can of Private Preserve wine preserver. Then I quickly hammered the lid with a mallet to seal it. Ask me in 10 years!
westu_hal@reddit
Started a couple flats of seeds! Mainly focusing on multiple varieties of squash and carrots, and tossed in some watermelon just for fun.
the_lovely_otter@reddit
We spoke with a lawyer friend on how to go about living wills, trusts, etc! Now we just need to follow thru. If Tuesday happens and/because something happens to one of us, I don't want to be stressed with legalities and what ifs!!!
IllustriousShifter@reddit
I’m in a townhouse so space is limited, but we helped clear out half of the community gardens and got several other households set up for vegetable plots. First round of starts are going in the house, the tomatoes and peppers have been up potted and will still need 1-2 months indoors before the soil is warm enough to transplant outside. Potatoes, alliums, and brassicas were planted in late March and most are looking fine. I am always learning something new, the citrus developed an insect pest I had never experienced before. I miss having a greenhouse.
We purchased a 270-gallon tank while they were still cheap, got the OTC and bathroom supplies stocked up, and we get another bag of rice or beans each time we go majorly grocery shopping. I inventoried the household medical supplies and reorganized them by type and frequency of use.
Got a couple cook books on shelf stable meat preservation and Medieval recipes.
Helped a friend set up for growing culinary mushrooms that he is down with supplying us when established.
PrepperBoi@reddit
Where are you putting 270 gallon tank in a townhouse that won’t cave in
suzaii@reddit
Ordered a few medical supplies for the first aid kits.
PrepperBoi@reddit
It rained. A lot. It was appreciated for my yard.
I’ve started feeding the birds, squirrels, and rabbits of the area via a bird feeder. It only took a week or two for them to start coming for it. SHTF meals.
Cheap_Cap760@reddit
Built a 24ft bridge over a swampy area/creek so we can access a 7 acre chunk of out property thats surrounded by swamp. Planted 28 potatoes (german butterball, Kennebec and red norland) and 194 peas. Lots of weeding. Opened up a portion of our community garden for the wife's coworker to plant some veg. He's a young 20s kid who's never planted anything in his life , so kinda cool. Did some shooting with a neighbor, he'd never shot out to 250yds and was giddy about the results. Prepped the range for this Saturdays low key, family friendly intro to shooting day. Lots of quality time on the rowing machine. Dealt with 3" of rainfall in 10hrs that flooded and over flowed our primary septic tank. Fixed some flaws in our rain collection set up that presented themselves when the rain came. Busy damn week.
Academic_1989@reddit
I've also been making rowing machine friends. Good for when the weather is bad
Cheap_Cap760@reddit
Nice!!!
Emergency_Ocelot_576@reddit
Invested a bit in fleshing out my BOB (I started a few months ago on a VERY tight budget, so 20 bucks a month gotta do it for now), refueled my car at half full, printed some local maps at work and reorganized my storage to be safely accesible in a rush and started planning my balcony herb and veg mini garden. Something's better than nothing right?
Emergency_Ocelot_576@reddit
Oh, and I'm finally starting to stock water!
fenuxjde@reddit
Ordered a few more cubic yards of compost and distributed that across the lawn and garden.
Sterilized and filled with reverse osmosis water another 28 gallons of emergency water and vapor sealed the openings for long term storage.
Finally got the new CCW to the range to test it out and break it in. It's an hk cc9 and I love it!
Ordered tons of replacement parts kits for plastic, rubber repair, for tools, bikes, generator, solar etc.
Recalculated caloric needs of the growing family and will be adding some more long term food storage to boost that.
Ordered another backup sewing kit with specialty threads, like elastic, and nylon.
Changed air filters in HVAC and inventoried spare filters putting them all in one location finally.
wakanda_banana@reddit
What backup parts do you most likely need for a solar generator?
fenuxjde@reddit
Connectors, the 2awg wires, solar wires, a second inverter
Academic_1989@reddit
Added two more apricot and one more pear tree to the orchard. Planted a few tomato plants and several seed potatoes. Also, some flowers for pollination and to make me smile. Purchased some additional medium and long term pantry storage items - 2- 40 packs of bottled water, canned salmon, chicken, corn, tomatoes, tomato sauce, olive oil, spam, and sardines. (have to focus on higher protein, lower carb for health issues) Had twice a year blood work done, working with doc to get blood sugar and weight down, med free if possible. Took out a bit of emergency cash in small bills. Did our taxes - not too bad. Discussed purchasing more ammunition with partner and discussed going to the range to fire the 38 and new 9mm - such a troubling uptick in crime locally... The past 2-3 weeks have been quite stressful - it relieves my stress to work on preparedness.
Chaos_Goblin_7007@reddit
Went through my bag and took inventory of whats there. Went through the pantry to see where we are low on stuff. Water is our biggest issue. Not a lot of storage space, and I really do not trust the quality of our water either—but I know it’s a necessity to have.
Sel_drawme@reddit
Picked up a Subaru. Switching from working on my bug in preps to working the bug out preps.
Gotta get a couple more Plano boxes for storage, and really start working on the water sources.
Early-Individual-866@reddit
Inventoried and listed the items in my go-bag, especially the medical container and food container.
Meat-Fart@reddit
6 gym sessions & outdoor walks to improve health and physical fitness
Vehicle maintenance
Home maintenance
Topped off gas tank
funke75@reddit
Started planting and expanding our garden
DeafHeretic@reddit
DeafHeretic@reddit
Many-Health-1673@reddit
Cleaned out and organized one of the barns at the farm.
Got a bush hog prepped/mounted on the tractor for the first time this year and started mowing around the edge of our property lines to keep the neighbors cows from pushing against the fence to eat the grass. He has at least twice as many cows per acre as he should. I may have to start spraying the fenceline to a 3 or 4 foot wide band of grass to keep them back.
Adjusted the valves on one of the grasshopper mowers, and mowed the barn lot, shooting ranges, and the farmhouse.
Sprayed some glyphosate around the areas I weedeated around so I do not have to weedeat for the next 4 or 5 weeks.
Reloaded 75 rounds of 6GT.
Had a 2 hour power outage so I hooked up the whole house generator and got the power back on.
Added some more food preps.
PrimarySteak5812@reddit
Bought a manual pump for 5gal water bottles.
HlfPnt86@reddit
Ordered life straws. Ordered adjustable window steel security bars that allow me to keep our kitchen and living room windows cracked open without allowing someone to just open it all the way from the outside. In search of “forever match” recommendations. Are they legit? I’ve been stocking up on matches but this seems too good to be true.
Aekeron@reddit
Not much in the resources department. Re planning my bug out kit to streamline and include a few things I was missing on my 2 day trial this past week.
Signing up to a range with CCW classes + tac medical classes. Also gonna go to a stop the bleed class on my next weekday off!
This week is an education and practice week. Next week I get paid so planning on getting either new ultralight camping gear, or some new clothing for hiking. Also need to get some more fertilizer to stock up on as well as long term composting supplies for my bugin prep!
gonyere@reddit
I planted... Idk how many trees and bushes. 30-40+ I think. Apples, peach, blueberry, pawpaw, new Jersey tea, elderberry, blackberry, serviceberry.
I just moved most of my tomatoes and peppers outside for the next few days. Will (hopefully!!) plant next week. We have one more "cold snap" supposedly coming over the weekend, then we'll hopefully be clear!
I dug, and transplanted a bunch of flowers into flower beds, and planted some seeds. We'll see how they do. Have more of all that I can plant again in a couple of weeks.
crayyarccray@reddit
Bought a labeler. Just a little $10 bluetooth labeler for designating what is what like pellets (Fuel pellets, cat litter pellets, stove pellets, etc.). They're easy to mix up.
5 gallon food safe buckets from walmart with lids were $6 for bucket and lid. Not bad.
I will go through this week and check expiration dates of long term storage and see what I'm short on.
I continue to work on gardening to better support my family. I've got a rhythm now which is nice.
AlphaDisconnect@reddit
You know. Once you hit prepped. You dont need to think about it that hard.
Scrumdiddly_69@reddit
It sounds silly, and I know it's not silly, but I started taking my water reserves more seriously, and worked on what I'm calling my first "go-box" for myself and my two cats. The "go-box" holds at least 3 weeks worth of food for myself, a month worth of dry food for the cats, pee pads and odor blocking powder for the cats, trash bags, a sleeping bag, thermarest backpacking mattress and pillow, spices, vegetable oil, nutritional yeast, first aid, hand sanitizer, and my beat-up but sharp work machete; give me hell, it's what I had nearby and at least I know how to use it effectively. You name it, it's probably in the box. In addition I also have a Hyperlite Mountain Gear Southwest 4400 bag packed with quilts, towels, clothes, hygiene items. You'll see why I don't have toilet paper and paper towels in the box.
We live in a high-rise apartment building next to a university in the northeast US, and last Tuesday with the whole bullshit in Iran I was fully prepared to wheel my "go-box", my two cats, and recommended two weeks worth of water reserves for myself and my cats in my wagon down via the elevator to my apartment complex's semi-basement gym bathrooms to shelter in place in the event of nuclear war. Barely anyone in the building frequents the gym, and I'm certain that in the event of a nuclear disaster the undergrads here wouldn't even think to leave their apartments to walk less than a few hundred yards away to a safer place.
The bathrooms are single occupancy, fully lined with concrete blocks, set furthest to the back corner of the gym, have full-length locking metal doors, don't have windows, all four of them have extra rolls of toilet paper and paper towels inside, and there are five stories of apartments above them.
It's probably the safest place in the building in the event of any disaster, and to access the gym from the outside you need a unique code sequence for the door pin pad. My plan was to have everything and the cats staged in my car, have the car pulled around to the gym doors, and watch the news in the car until a declaration of nuclear war was made. I could have everything unpacked into the bathroom, the cats comfortable, and the door locked and secured with duct tape and plastic sheets well within 15 minutes.
I'm in the high fallout zone if the nearest major city to me happened to be hit, and the bathrooms are probably more ideal for fallout protection than my 1 bedroom apartment near the top of the building with windows in every room.
I was thankful to have the opportunity to put together my "go box", not thankful for the context, but because while I was assembling it I realized that I'm missing a crucial piece of gear. I don't have an emergency hand crank radio, and nowhere near me stocks them in store! This is my first purchase come payday, and shower wipes. I'm going to do a complete re-assessment of the "go-box", take proper inventory, and set a reminder to cycle through what's in there periodically. Completely forgot until recently that it would probably be a good idea to include multivitamins for myself and maybe the cats in the go-box in the event we're out of the sun for 2 weeks.
Otherwise I'm cycling through my spice cabinet, eating up my oldest reserves of dry rice and beans, and adding more things to my shopping list.
Dramatic_Chest_9180@reddit
Expanded my chicken coop/run to now have around 57 chickens. Along with finishing up my gardening, time to watch things grow. Next to get my rain barrels lined up and catching water.