Weekly "everything else" If it's in the spirit of prepping, but not "news" or "intel"

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Wrong_Organization29@reddit

NW Ohio.

The weather seems to be in the same type of cycle for the last several years now. Tons of rain late winter until May and then nothing. Got everything planted but now I need to water because there is no rain in the forecast at all. It will probably be this way for the whole summer and into fall. I remember when I was younger it was never like this. Never this bad.

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IDKijustdrinkhere@reddit

Have you heard of ollas? They work great. The nice ones aren’t cheap, but if you buy a couple at a time when on sale, it is manageable.

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splat-y-chila@reddit

Same here but it's actually good. If you can water in the morning, things have a chance to dry by the evening and then your sprouts don't get eaten by snails/slugs. This past week of rain was hell on my beans and cucurbits with slug damage, so now that it'll be dry for at least a week, they have a chance.

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Unlikely_Lobster_534@reddit

What's up with the 2027 NDAA.. That just seems like a terrible idea.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

What’s that?

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NetflakesC@reddit

National Defense Authorization Act, https://armedservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy27_ndaa_chairmans_mark_-_final.pdf

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MistyMtn421@reddit

Ok that's crazy. Why exactly? Just to eliminate votes for funding or is there a more nefarious reason?

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NetflakesC@reddit

Here is an AI summary of the act:

Key provisions include: Industrial Base & Munitions: The bill addresses critical supply chain vulnerabilities, such as reliance on Chinese critical minerals, by mandating a second manufacturer for solid rocket motors and instituting workforce development initiatives. It also requires the Pentagon to surveil markets for adversary risks and establish a preference for U.S. companies in service contracting. Procurement & Ships: Authorization is granted for multiyear procurements of F-35 and F-15EX fighter jets, destroyers, and missile systems (Patriot PAC-3, THAAD, Tomahawk). The bill includes $500 million for a second destroyer and $1 billion for the Trump-class battleship, though the latter is blocked until weapons systems meet technology readiness requirements. Army, Air Force, & Space: The Army receives funding for additional UH-60M and CH-47 helicopters and Paladin howitzers. The Air Force retains restrictions on retiring the C-130 fleet and gets funding for C-130Js and MH-139 helicopters. Space programs see the elimination of the Space Development Agency and Space Rapid Capabilities Office, with oversight consolidated under a new Pentagon official. Nuclear & Workforce: The bill authorizes nearly $42 billion for nuclear weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration and includes "right to repair" language to allow the military to maintain equipment without excessive reliance on contractors.

I’m not sure exactly what the concern is for u/unlikely_lobster_534 though.

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RootCauseEffect@reddit

Question about bug out bags for families with kids. Do you pack the same items in each bag in the event that you are separated? Or do you kind of spread the things that will be used by everyone in the family across the bags with the idea that you will hopefully all be together and can share usage? Thank you for your input.

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Own_Papaya7501@reddit

What kinds of items are you thinking of?

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RootCauseEffect@reddit

I’m thinking about teenagers who can be somewhat self sufficient if the worst happened. I have some things that I think we would need but just starting to make portable packs. For example, if everyone had water bottles, would one person carry a water filter, or everyone has their own? Can opener, multipurpose tool, stuff like that. Where as a family you would only need one. But what if something happens and the family is separated. I know people think they would never let that happen but I worry that it could.

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Own_Papaya7501@reddit

I don't know what kind of situations you're anticipating, but if every bag has cans, every bag could have a can opener. Or, you can just get canned food with pull tops.

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ExtraplanetJanet@reddit

For things like water filters and can openers, they are cheap enough and vital enough to go with redundancy. Get yourself a handful of those little fold-flat army-style can openers and some Sawyer filters (make sure to test that they fit with whatever brand of water bottle you carry) and you’re hardly taking up any room in a bag.

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faco_fuesday@reddit

My children will be separated from me in an emergency over my literal dead body.

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modernswitch@reddit

Emergencies don’t always happen when you are all together. Example: You have kids at two different schools, and a disaster happens..which parent is going to pick up which kid? The family is already split and may take time to reunite.

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DuckyDoodleDandy@reddit

Plan for it anyway. Chaos doesn’t acknowledge mothers love.

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faco_fuesday@reddit

My kids are both under 5. If we get to a point where they're separated from me it's against my will and our BOBs won't help anymore.

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iwantmy-2dollars@reddit

Exactly, all of this.

My kids don’t take critical medications but both parents have mini first aid kits with fever reducer in addition to our big med bag. This isn’t something I’m putting in my 4 or 6yos bag. Other than that everyone carries their own.

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DuckyDoodleDandy@reddit

Can each one carry a tiny backpack with essential info, like phone numbers of relatives, any allergies, etc?

If they are separated for any reason, that would help them be reunited with you, or at least with family, if the worst happens.

It can also carry a small blanket or stuffie for comfort.

Lost children who don’t know their full legal name, don’t know their parents names, and don’t know any phone numbers tend to wind up in care of the state as John/Jane Does.

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Naive-Molasses-729@reddit

I know the correct answer is to put every thing in every bag, but financially that’s difficult. Everybody has the basics, and then we have one “master bag” that’s technically mine, but everyone has been told if they have to bug out without me to take it with them. So it has the stuff we can’t afford to duplicate in it.

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dontdoxxmebrosef@reddit

I think that would depend on the ability of your kid to use the items in the bags. Like a seven-year-old may be able to do stuff that my four year-old can’t do so ultimately everyone’s SOL if they get lost from the adult.

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ninjaluvr@reddit

Is it uncommon to be a prepper that doesn't worry about specific headlines and predictions? I like to keep up on what's going on in the world. But I just prep for whatever may come my way. I prep so that my family is well prepared for many different scenarios. I find that worry and fear just create unproductive stress and anxiety. As an old man who's been doing this a long long time, I feel I've seen a million predictions come and go, and everyone's just on to the next one. I guess it conditioned to me to shrug my shoulders and keep just making sure I'm doing the best I can across the spectrum.

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Less_Subtle_Approach@reddit

Common at both the low and high ends of the resilience spectrum. At a certain point of doomerism, the individual headlines are meaningless. The trajectory of industrial civilization can't be predicted exactly, but externalizing so many costs to the environment in terms of topsoil loss, biodiversity collapse, poisoning of the hydrological cycle, etc. has an obvious endpoint. The day to day specifics matter little when the long-term outlook involves procuring food from somewhere other than a store.

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faco_fuesday@reddit

/r/twoxpreppers has a lot more of this mindset. Assess your personal risks, prepare for those, don't go nuts, and have a plan.

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justtinyquestions@reddit

I’m prepping specifically for hurricanes, being on an island that means potentially prepping for 7 months without power and 3 without water, which was how long people were generally out of those resources after Hurricane Maria. Prepping for 7 months without power pretty much covers it all.

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

Prep for Tuesday mindset. Over decades I have needed preps for mostly mundane reasons like weather, utility issues and job loss. There was a pandemic in there. We buy what we're going to use anyway and that works for us. It has influenced things like which appliances we bought, too.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

It’s better in my opinion. People get too caught up in unrealistic predictions and end up with a bunch of useless stuff.

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mkv40270@reddit

Had an electrician come do a quote for us related to prepping because we need to get old knob and tube wiring removed from attic because the folks who did the home energy audit refused to insulate our attic without it being removed citing a “fire hazard”

Also looking at increasing voltage to breaker box from 100 to 200 and adding more slots so we will be ready when we want to install mini-splits and solar (after our roof gets replaced; we got a quote last fall hoping to take advantage of tax credits but made more sense to delay until after roof needs replacing since we have a good decade left, barring weather events).

In other news I rescued an old metal Hampton Bay air circulator, cleaned it up, and fitted it up in the bedroom and boy does that thing blow!! They don’t make em like they used to.

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fragrant-final-973@reddit

My dude that is a huge fire hazard and society realized that fact 75 years ago.

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Pontiacsentinel@reddit

It IS a fire hazard. I vote replace it and upgrade your box. Future you will be glad. Also, if you can keep a receipt and share it with your insurance company that you rewired, you can often get a discount. I did years ago.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

I think the AMOC is in far worse shape than anyone is letting on.

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DuckyDoodleDandy@reddit

The what?

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

Look up the Younger Dryas and what caused it.

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_strand_@reddit

Atlantic Meridian Overturning Circulation

big ocean currents historically go one direction and dictate basically all weather

could shift and then they whole world's climate would shift with it very drastically

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keinezeit44@reddit

They've already come out with very recent studies on how it's weakening and probably going to collapse "faster than expected," but yeah. I'm thinking after this super el nino we're going to see more studies about how these latest predictions were too conservative and instead we're looking at collapse within a couple decades or so. Hopefully not.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

Maybe a Younger Dryas-type reset will wake people up.

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whagon-wheel@reddit

Will they be awake if most of them are dead?

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

It won’t be insta-death. The Day After Tomorrow exaggerated the timeline.

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whagon-wheel@reddit

That’s definitely worse. Hope we never see it…..

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

If you’re under the age of 50 then you’ll probably see at least part of it.

Running from escaped zoo wolves is optional.

gif

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TheIrishWanderer@reddit

What has become everyone's biggest concern in terms of prepping?

I used to be most concerned about the wars in Ukraine and then Iran and their impact on things like fuel prices and nuclear posturing, but I think I'm more focused on the effects of climate change now. Obviously we should prep for multiple issues depending on personal circumstances, but this El Niño event is bothering me more than I care to admit. The temperature records we've broken in Europe this week feel like a warm-up (pun intended) for the main event over the next year or so.

I recently read The Ministry for the Future, and that first chapter has stuck with me. If you know, you know. I've also seen videos and read theories on AMOC collapse, the Thwaites glacier, a hypothetical double blue ocean event, and more. All very heavy topics, but bigger concerns now than ever before. Even the optimistic scientists predict an "overshoot" if we somehow stabilise our warming crisis, which we probably won't. I think the planet is fucked for humanity and collapse is already here. Worse, it's accelerating now.

I don't necessarily want to be a doomer, but my optimism on this issue has gone. It blows my mind that science deniers still exist.

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-Avacyn@reddit

Short term: global food supply as a result of the energy crisis.

I'm western EU, which means that most likely, we will not have shortages but prices will simply rise. But on a global level, there will be many farms that won't be able to harvest and won't be able to replant for the next season. There will be regions that will face starvation because of this.

Long term: food and water supply due to climate change, and all subsequent issues like mass migration. And I also see a lot of risk regarding out energy infrastructure. Things like blackouts and similar will happen, the only question is when and how severe.

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keinezeit44@reddit

Climate change is my biggest concern right now. I'm in the US so I'm also concerned about civil war and of course the possibility of WW3 & nuclear war. But climate change is definitively already happening, and the rate at which it's accelerating is itself accelerating, so that's the biggest concern.

Regarding Thwaites, the eastern ice shelf is about to go. Scientists think probably this year. They've literally written an obituary for it. That ice shelf stabilizes the whole glacier, which in turn stabilizes the rest of Antarctic ice.

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KiaRioGrl@reddit

Wind events as a subset/downstream effect of climate change are increasingly becoming my biggest concern. The amount of damage and extra work they impose, the unavoidability and unpredictability... And there's nothing you can do beyond 'weight/tie things down as much as you can't and hope. It's so demoralizing.

I almost quit farming last night because of it.

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keinezeit44@reddit

I start seeds because I'm finicky about getting open-pollinated seeds that I can save. My mom always buys her starts from garden centers. This year she's had to check multiple local garden centers because it's hard to find basic starts - tomatoes, etc. - and she hasn't found all of the ones she wants yet, like Brussels sprouts. The people she talks to at the garden centers say their suppliers got hit very hard by bad weather and so starts are limited. Northeast US.

The Hudson Valley region's fruit crop was recently decimated by a hard freeze. NY is the 2nd leading supplier of apples in the US. PA's fruit crop isn't looking too good either.

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VariousFalcon7466@reddit

Lot of nurseries in Florida have starts. See if they’ll ship them to her.