Your Best and Worst Preps of 2020!

[Cindyd]

Where are you from? What would you have them prepare for?

Where are you from? What would you have them prepare for?

@Thatoneguy69 I can't speak for big paul or anyone else here...but wondering what are you prepping for? I'm just curious. Your intro said seeking "like minded, prepper community" but you never really said what that is/means for you.

GARY, I'm glad you love baking so much! I hate it! Lol. Maybe that should be my worst prep for the year! Easy, no knead bread is about best I care to do in the baking department. Not sure why I have such an aversion to baking...has to be my lack of patience or dislike of sweets..but I love good bread! ...I need a baker in my group!

 

[bigpaul]

Where are you from? What would you have them prepare for?

UK, anything that stops normal life, either for a short time or right up to the big one that makes normal life impossible.

 

[user 7650]

UK, anything that stops normal life, either for a short time or right up to the big one that makes normal life impossible.

I imagine prepping in the UK would be difficult. I will agree with you that it is difficult to get people to prepare; most people just want to stay asleep it seems.

What are you preparing for?

 

[bigpaul]

I imagine prepping in the UK would be difficult. I will agree with you that it is difficult to get people to prepare; most people just want to stay asleep it seems.

What are you preparing for?

anything that causes societal collapse, that one is top of my list.
prepping in the UK isnt difficult its just different, mostly its bugging IN rather than bugging out as we dont have the wilderness areas that are in the US, all the land is owned by someone even the more wilder areas like the moors and forests.
most people here if they prepare at all, 99% dont, only prepare for minor events, a day, 2 days, a week, a month at most, there are very few like me who prepare for anything more than that.

 

[GaRp58]

GARY, I'm glad you love baking so much! I hate it! Lol.

Started baking ash cakes back in 1973 while in the CA mountains and Yosemite, Carmel Valley, John Muir Trail and then across America to TX. Got me going in everything and every type of bread, muffin, cakes, pancakes, waffles and such as the kids and grandkids all like the fresh from the oven homemade better than the store-bought. Fudge, brownies, cookies are all on the list too. Oatmeal with different condiments are my favorites. Raisens, M&Ms, pecans, peanut butter mostly. The neighbors always compliment Helena for the things we bring over and she has to confess that I did it....she bakes too, just not as often.

 

[bigpaul]

back in the early 80s we were baking "hash" cakes!!!! LOL.

 

[GaRp58]

videos like this...

 

[user 7650]

anything that causes societal collapse, that one is top of my list.
prepping in the UK isnt difficult its just different, mostly its bugging IN rather than bugging out as we dont have the wilderness areas that are in the US, all the land is owned by someone even the more wilder areas like the moors and forests.
most people here if they prepare at all, 99% dont, only prepare for minor events, a day, 2 days, a week, a month at most, there are very few like me who prepare for anything more than that.

Fair enough, prepping to bug in meets 99% of most situations I would say. I am curious though, would you be trying to cross the English canal if you had to bug out?

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

Started baking ash cakes back in 1973 while in the CA mountains and Yosemite, Carmel Valley, John Muir Trail and then across America to TX. Got me going in everything and every type of bread, muffin, cakes, pancakes, waffles and such as the kids and grandkids all like the fresh from the oven homemade better than the store-bought. Fudge, brownies, cookies are all on the list too. Oatmeal with different condiments are my favorites. Raisens, M&Ms, pecans, peanut butter mostly. The neighbors always compliment Helena for the things we bring over and she has to confess that I did it....she bakes too, just not as often.

You are a man with many talents!!

 

[Arcticdude]

I guess my worst prep for the year is the one I didn't get to finish. I was planning on adding another 6 solar panels to supplement the 10 I already have. My plan was to put in the mounting pole by the end of October. Then I could put the panels up at my leisure any time after that. But nature had other plans. It started snowing and hasn't stopped yet. Sure, I could have gotten a backhoe up here to dig the hole, but no way could a cement truck make it in. It'll have to wait until June now.

 

[Danil54grl]

I guess my worst prep for the year is the one I didn't get to finish. I was planning on adding another 6 solar panels to supplement the 10 I already have. My plan was to put in the mounting pole by the end of October. Then I could put the panels up at my leisure any time after that. But nature had other plans. It started snowing and hasn't stopped yet. Sure, I could have gotten a backhoe up here to dig the hole, but no way could a cement truck make it in. It'll have to wait until June now.

I think we have 16 solar panels. Everything should be good to go. Had a tech guy out early last month to say it was good to go and we were hooked up. But yet, we are not. . . Still. Been dealing with with for almost a year now. I have watched videos, but it seems like all I do is go round and round. Still hooked up to the power lines.

 

[Arcticdude]

I think we have 16 solar panels. Everything should be good to go. Had a tech guy out early last month to say it was good to go and we were hooked up. But yet, we are not. . . Still. Been dealing with with for almost a year now. I have watched videos, but it seems like all I do is go round and round. Still hooked up to the power lines.

I never could get anyone to come out and help me set my system up. I called every solar guy in the southern part of my state, no interest
I had to fumble around and set everything up myself. It was frustrating because I couldn't call the dealer from where I set up the system. I'd have to drive up the hill to make calls, take notes then drive back down to generator building. Then the dealer said all the information was on their website including videos. Other than my phone we don't have internet. My wife was in Alaska at the time and she had to get her IT department to put the videos on memory stick. Then the manuals were all electronic on the website too. She copied all of the manuals and mailed everything to me.

 

[Danil54grl]

We used Pink Entergy to install. Right after they filed for bankruptcy. In all honesty it is very frustrating. I found the owners manual for our system with instructions, but just went round and round.

 

[Arcticdude]

We went with another company called Backwoods Solar for the new battery bank. They have been great to work with. They delivered the batteries right to our house. I'll be getting all of our solar stuff from them for now on.

 

[GaRp58]

I set up a brick foundation, formed up a 3 ft. X 7 ft. frame and poured a concrete base for a grill and baking place directly next to the terrace I built last year. I will build a grill, smoker, baking and cooking area left and right from a sink with running water and an electrical rotisserie so we can even grill a small pig on a spit and smoke hot or cold as needed. You can just see the white electrical cable and the water drain in the top middle of the pic. The hot and cold running water will come from the garden hose connector seen in the lower left. The main terrace is the bricked area on the right. ((I cleaned the camera lense after seeing how bad the pic was))

 

[GaRp58]

Good morning and Happy New Year Greg, hope all is well. Safe work and pet your dogs for me.

 

[bigpaul]

Fair enough, prepping to bug in meets 99% of most situations I would say. I am curious though, would you be trying to cross the English canal if you had to bug out?

I'm assuming you mean the English Channel, NO I moved out of a British city 25 years ago and live in a rural agricultural area and have no plans to bug out anywhere else,
crossing the English Channel from here would mean travelling South and going through many inhabited towns and villages, or going many miles around to avoid them, I dont think that is feasible.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

I imagine prepping in the UK would be difficult. I will agree with you that it is difficult to get people to prepare; most people just want to stay asleep it seems.

What are you preparing for?

I think there are a couple of reasons most people don't prepare.

1) It is expensive and means much of your disposable income goes towards prepping so less to spend on getting your hair and nails done, fancy nights out, new cars every four years and such.

2) They believe that someone else is going to "help" them if all hell breaks loose; be that the Federal Government, local police or relatives

3) They are clueless as to how thin the veil between civility and chaos actually is

4) They are somehow "special" and therefore that kind of stuff happens to other people and not them.

 

[bigpaul]

I think there are a couple of reasons most people don't prepare.

1) It is expensive and means much of your disposable income goes towards prepping so less to spend on getting your hair and nails done, fancy nights out, new cars every four years and such.

2) They believe that someone else is going to "help" them if all hell breaks loose; be that the Federal Government, local police or relatives

3) They are clueless as to how thin the veil between civility and chaos actually is

4) They are somehow "special" and therefore that kind of stuff happens to other people and not them.

you are so right!

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

I set up a brick foundation, formed up a 3 ft. X 7 ft. frame and poured a concrete base for a grill and baking place directly next to the terrace I built last year. I will build a grill, smoker, baking and cooking area left and right from a sink with running water and an electrical rotisserie so we can even grill a small pig on a spit and smoke hot or cold as needed. You can just see the white electrical cable and the water drain in the top middle of the pic. The hot and cold running water will come from the garden hose connector seen in the lower left. The main terrace is the bricked area on the right. ((I cleaned the camera lense after seeing how bad the pic was))
View attachment 18450

We have done some underground cooking of feral hogs like this, on a smaller scale:


Now my mouth is watering.

I like the underground method in SHTF for a couple of reasons

-no smoke to give away your location
-no smell ditto
-you don't spend all day having to check on your food
-it just tastes amazing

Native Americans used this method effectively for cooking many things such as yucca root, that would be poisonous otherwise.

One thing though they did not tell you in the video about using rocks. Make sure the rocks DO NOT have water trapped in them or when you heat them, they can explode, sending rock fragments out like shrapnel. We lined our pit with mortared in fireplace brick and only dug about 4' down. That way, it doubles as a smoke pit as well (because our ground doesn't freeze, we can have our "smoke house" in the ground)