paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 19, 2016 16:15:55 GMT 10
LOL, now I know your real 'secret' to your claim of not being a prepper. You really were [which is why you're here] you're just trying to keep it from your wife We should start a threat on it. - You're not a prepper your a survivalist. - It's not prepping it's food insurance - It's not prepping it's food hording - It's not prepping it's getting ready for the inevitable zombie incursion - It's not prepping it's flood charity packs Speaking of that, I think if I have food that needs cooking, I'd be throwing in one of those small portable stoves with the necessary butane for the food I put in, to make sure it's all there. I prefer the term 'collecting' to hording. I'm just an anarcho-survivalist collector/homesteader with alt hobbies... Right? After 15 years together I suspect she's onto me anyway, just better if most of it takes place 'behind the scenes' people question things less that way. As for fuel storage for buckets you could go the metho/tin can stove to keep costs down. I'm thinking this way as Ive already got a few alcohol stoves and metho is cheap
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 19, 2016 8:37:24 GMT 10
Looking at the nuclear bunker stuff, the advice is as we've done. They say to put it in there and leave it there, don't use it for your normal food. I've got both really and I think as you mature as preppers it's inevitable, who wants to be moving food around all of the time, I don't run a supermarket. Stores in the cupboard get used up and moved around, store in the bins get left there and since I add a little yearly, at this point I could throw out a whole years worth and still be fine This is where I'm at now. Have run the preps like a supermarket for years and its starting to get too much. Your post has got me thinking (thanks!) that I need to start getting some longer term storage happening. I really like your style of self contained buckets rather than one food to one bucket. You can have 10 buckets of rice but if you need to hand one out or grab and go its not going to be of much use. It does however really cross the grey area of just 'keeping a well stocked pantry' into full blown prepping, I think thats partly whats been holding me back... Makes deniability to the wife go out the window lol
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 17, 2016 20:35:05 GMT 10
Have dropped the ball on the veggie patch this spring... We did not start any seedlings as we were too busy so I've had to resort to buying seedlings just to keep moral up! Put in tomatoes, capsicum, chilli and cucumber. Prepped a couple zucchini mounds for planting next weekend at least they'll be with our seeds. Hopefully in the next few weeks I have time to attack the pumpkin patch, they're always our saving grace... Got 40 very good sized pumpkins last year. Looking to expand the patch this season.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 16, 2016 22:26:05 GMT 10
Nice kits, I like the scalability. Candle is a nice idea. Have you thought to use hand warmers? Would give an extra protection if the o-ring ever leaked a bit. Does push the costs up a little, I think I paid $1 each at coles last time.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 14, 2016 21:36:59 GMT 10
Not a spam lover jo? I always get eye rolls from the wife whenever I bring home more cans of the stuff, she wont touch it.
Just got home and checked my spam collection and noticed they don't have best before dates on them... they do have 'packed on' dates but no clue as to how long they suggest it would last.
My oldest stock is 'packed on October 2014' so I'm not concerned at all my rotation is only a year or two usually.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 14, 2016 12:28:01 GMT 10
Spam cordon bleu just got added to my list of things I need to try... What a wonderful idea
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 10, 2016 14:14:53 GMT 10
Dont get me wrong, i have many solar panels from 300mW to 200W... Very very useful but I'd never be taking one with me in a bugout or camping situation. Good thing about solar is you can cut them up and re-wire them to suit application so modular!
In my mind a good collection of recharable batteries and power generation at the base/homestead is the best way to do it, keeps weight to a minimum. As to the device in the OP I'd be interested in a larger scale stationary system for the homestead, makes a lot if sense but trying to make something transportable and lightweight is never going to be efficient.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 10, 2016 10:27:01 GMT 10
There are many solutions to this 'problem' but I seem to be missing the point.
How many electronic devices do we really need when hiking or bugging out? You can carry a lot of batteries for the weight and bulk of a solar pannel. A phone is for emergency use, if you get bad battery life ditch the smart phone and get somthing cheap and simple that'll hold a charge for ages.
For a half kg pannel you could pack 20AAs or 30 if you go lithium. Most radios/gps devices can take battery adaptors and this eliminates constantly trying to charge the devices. A map is a simpler solution than a gps anyway.
Anyone else see this as a solution to a problem that doesnt exist?
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 8, 2016 20:05:19 GMT 10
I got 'hunter'
I imagine post SHTF there would be a rise in private security & armed escorts. Would be difficult to build a rep but once trusted I'm sure there would be no shortage of need for such people.
Also blacksmithing - with the need to repair things rather than replace, the ability to reshape parts and forge new ones will be in high demand. A good friend of mine is gearing up for it to be his post SHTF trade, trick is to avoid electric and gas... need to be able to make your own fuel.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Oct 3, 2016 21:58:32 GMT 10
Yep small cubes and get a bit of crisp on the outside. I'll always have a soft spot for spam as I did a lot of 4wd camping growing up and we always had a few cans of spam on hand.
Probably not the most amazing recipe by any foodies standard but one of my favourites from my childhood camping trips that I've cooked up for the kids a few times and usually goes down well is:
500 grams pasta, can of spam, can of tomato soup & one onion... Just cube the spam and onions, fry 'em up then throw the soup in. Cook the pasta and throw it in too.
Always goes down well in fried rice. I really like the idea of the spam curry you posted remmy and will definitely try that one out! Anything you'd use ham in really. They're on half price at coles or wollies often enough and I always pick up plenty of cans when they are.
I like to pick at least one or two meals a week to either cook outside on the fire or purely from pantry foods. Would be crazy to have all this food and not know how to cook it or not be used to the flavours.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Sept 29, 2016 14:23:10 GMT 10
All systems can and will fail, its surprising to me this doesnt happen more often.
Interesting that everyone seems to blame/look to the government in times like this when both the power network and comms network are privately owned and managed systems.
If you go back a couple years SA power networks were being blamed for 'over engineering and 'over developing' south australias line infrastructure, costing us too much money.
A lot of these issues stem from people believing you can build somthing that cant fail and building their lives around this fact.
You're very right in saying the disruption this caused being a concern in itself. To me this is probably the bigger issue.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Sept 29, 2016 13:43:30 GMT 10
Almost as though they want people to panic?... Hmmm... I'll leave it at that so people dont start trying to take away my tin foil hat. Another big bonus is my wife had been questioning why I needed to get my HAM radio licence this coming weekend. Having all the cell towers down got her over the line
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Sept 29, 2016 13:09:28 GMT 10
After all the huff and puff the news, government and general public made of this event you'd think the sky was falling. I know one of our main backup generators was out as they're in the middle of a 3 week shutdown at the moment (I know some of the people working there). We had no power for nearly 6 hours that is all. What this event really taught me is just how much the general public panic when they cant just drive to the next town over who still have power and get take away. If this had lasted a day or two... Maybe a week, I hate to think what would have happened to some people emotionally. I got out the blackout kit, cooked up pasta for tea from pantry foods on butane stoves (no opening the fridge during blackouts rule)... Kids spent the evening reading books and doing school workbooks. Best thing to come out of the evening for me was I had a really good conversation with my wife about all the things that were down. Explained a few of my preps she was yet to be aware of and made some really good progress with her Long story short; Don't panic and always know where your towel is...
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Aug 17, 2016 17:36:34 GMT 10
Wonderful idea! Only issue I can see is that the corosion resistance of metals goes down with added heat. At the same time you're creating a highly saline solution in direct contact with the highest heat.
I work in the sealing industry and we do a bit for desalination plants, 316 stainless steel turns into a sponge at these higher salinities, you need some pretty special alloys to desal water.
I dont think its going to desolve in front of your eyes but do too many tests while your wife is away and you'll have some explaining to do.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Aug 5, 2016 23:26:07 GMT 10
We've used a fowlers water bath for a few years now with the ball jars and standard ball lids. Looking forward to trying spaghetti sauce.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Aug 4, 2016 10:53:51 GMT 10
Fresh green broadbeans are amazing, my kids love going and getting them from the garden and eating them there, very sweet! We usually plant 1kg worth and get about 4-5kg back after shelling and kid tax
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Aug 4, 2016 0:29:10 GMT 10
Broad beans... I let my garden have a rest over the winter, the broad beans are a nice way to get a yield from your fallow periods. I use a variety called 'coles dwarf' from www.greenharvest.com.au they do really well in my coastal conditions, just plant in mid autumn and I'm pulling a yield in spring.. they suppress weeds, give a good nitrogen yield.. and once harvested I just mow the rows down for a good spring mulch.
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Aug 4, 2016 0:23:24 GMT 10
My presto pressure canner from Ozfarmer arrived this morning, looking forward to busting it out and doing some tests this weekend! Good turn around given the free freight, very happy with their service once again
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Jul 30, 2016 0:13:45 GMT 10
Yeah my understanding was that the canning process worked because it was sterilising it...
My wife is all over the tong/funnel stuff... have been doing water bath canning for a couple years now, just looking to get into the serious stuff!
Placed the order with ozfarmer 9pm last night, by 10am this morning I had a courier tracking number in my email. Now that's service!
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paranoia
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Post by paranoia on Jul 28, 2016 23:35:07 GMT 10
That makes sense on using the pressure canner as a makeshift autoclave, im sure there would be all sorts of things they'd have to guard themselves from. Grain will already be in ball jars for ease of innoculation afterwards so I cant see the difference between that and pressure canning... Bring on the mushroom spawn!
I'll second that on having a good expirence with ozfarmer. We've bought plenty of ball jars from them in the past and was happy with the transctions.
I did place the order afterall and look forward to canning next summers veggies!
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