I get this is a survival post. But I think it would be wise as one preps to make peace with mortality. Do you really want to live in this unacceptable world?
I say this very thing often. I’ve done some prepping, but honestly, if it gets to the point I’m relying on a can of beans next to a campfire to survive, I’d rather move on from this life.
I don’t think it will come to this. While the Deep State whips up new fears on a daily basis, the truth is, behind the scenes, the Great Reset is moving along rather nicely.
Yep yep and YEP. I get by with storing rice (basically starch) for many years in gallon glass jugs. As we have very low humidity I can store even brown rice for 3-4 years with no change in taste, not rancid.
Sugar stores well if you can keep moisture away, again glass jugs with a good seal.
Your fruit wines; I'd add sugar before fermenting, 20-21% alcohol by volume (ABV) stores,as you noted, for many years. Most fruit wines, fermented without sugar added, will be in the 8-10% ABV range.
Water; filtration's good, boiling's better for the average person as there are filters and there are filters.
Yeast; if you've none store bought most of your fruits have natural yeast on them, Fermenting, just seal with a bubbler or some such to assure no oxygen gets in, else or unless you want vinegar instead of alcohol.
Salting stores meat well. I suspect in Thailand, when, sadly not if, the fhit hits the shan you can trade up country meat for salt dried lower on the peninsula as often and as long as necessary. As I suspect you know, a rock hard Virginia ham can store for decades even if you need soak it for 48+ hours before you can cut and cook it.
& again yep, yep, Yep, we could be heading into an extended grid down, power down, commerce links broken, why yes Chicken Little, the sky really is falling situation, or/and as Yeats said;
" The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere ..."
Oh well, be prepared to buckle up and hunker down.
I think Thailand especially in rural areas would be able to withstand an extended grid down scenario without as much chaos. Obviously most large stores have backup generators in both places so if it was caused by something that is not apocalyptic in and of itself (i.e. its blamed on a software glitch rather than a nuke detonation in the sky, say) panic wouldn't really set in for several days at which point the window to say salt the meat from your deep freeze and leave it out to dry is gone. I also suspect that addictions of all sorts would be a bigger problem in the USA and suspect that riots and chaos might begin over people seeking their drug of choice. My experience of grid down has been exclusively in warmer climates. Perhaps you can be the one to write an article on how to keep your deer carcass hidden in the snow away from marauding bears. That's not in my wheelhouse. ;-)
I'm always reminded of the old adage, you can give a man a fish or you can teach him to fish. Of course all the lakes and rivers will be fished out within a few years of your scenario. The point is, we can stockpile food, which, in the ideal scenario might get us through the first year or so - then what? Ultimately, we'll all have to learn how to generate food, we'll all have to become farmers.
Here is a short beginners course on how to do that.
I am going to make this easy for anyone who reads this. Buy a lot of peanut butter from Amazon or Walmart or Costco. Yeah it goes bad after a couple years but if I ever need it I doubt I’ll give a shit unless it makes me sick.
The name of the game is caloric intake. PB is high in fat which gives off more calories. That’s it, that’s all you need and some decent vitamins.
I get a kick out of some of these fools thinking they are just going to start growing a lush garden. Even if you have one going now it won’t be much help to survival. Growing food uses up a lot of calories because it’s hard work. That being said, nothing wrong with that but if that’s your only plan you will be DOA.
You could always resort to cannibalism I suppose. But if you’re going to open that door don’t wait until barely have any strength left.
Access to clean water is the most important and most often overlooked. When it goes down I am going into complete astronaut mode of survival. In other words, no more good food for me. Play time is over!
Notice I said WHEN not IF. During 2020 I got very nervous when the economy was shutdown. That’s never made any sense to me at the time. But now I understand this crony capitalist facade much better now. My point is that while I was running around in 2020/21/22 screaming that the sky is falling I was motivated by my instincts.
Truth is I actually felt something bad was coming but really didn’t know what. I’m sure the insane lying that started about same time Trump did probably didn’t help.
Well here’s how I know (see link). Hat tip to former Obama acolyte Ben Rhode’s for having the nerve to admit reality. His suggestion to deal with it is about the only thing I have been able to come up with as well. No, I’m not an economist but I do have some common sense. America needs to get it thru her head that out days as a hegemony are OVER. That and we better start kissing a little ass and stop treating other nations like shit.
Even if we do that no guarantee they will trust us. The US has really burned some bridges since Jan 2021. Trump is not going to save us. I will vote for him but we are to have to save ourselves this time. Our current system is breaking. If you read this article from Simplicius one must bear in mind as they engineered this they NEVER thought we would lose in Ukraine. Not with all the brilliant globalists minds on the job. Truth is their hubris blinded them.
How many allegorical stories of this tale are out there? Probably a lot. Well soon there will be one more. I do not know how bad it will get. But read this piece as the author drops some hints. Again, bear in mind when they brought the migrant hordes here, it was a done deal. After we kicked Russias ass and scattered her remains to the wind China would be next. Then it was off to the technocratic gulag for all of us.
Haha you bastards fucked up. But things are going to get hard here. Am pretty sure of that…sorry in advance for grammar errors am on my phone and tired. Goodnight 🌙
I didn't call it out specifically in this article but peanut butter is the best grocery store bang for your buck on caloric intake which also needs no cooking or cold storage. It's a great one to have around!
Yes the US hegemon is finished methinks. I watch trends and follow a ton of people who are on opposite sides of a given issue as a means of triangulating the truth. My sense is that on all war fronts our asses are getting kicked.
There's a dark irony in that those populations targeted by past sanctions, economic hardships, seiges and wars brought on by neocolonialist powers have been forced to adapt and transcend harsh conditions. Meanwhile our fat, self indulgent technocratic utopia has led to those, especially the ones in charge, having absolutely no idea what to do in the instance of forced hardships on the ground. I suspect that in a true societal breakdown many will be running back South of the border for their homelands. All it takes is the paychecks to stop flowing.
I suspect something will give sooner rather than later. Prepare accordingly
White rice is #1 for storage / cost effectiveness. Easy to cook, decent amount of calories.
Flour is cheaper, but harder to prepare.
Next is beans - soak for at least a day, then they cook quickly.
Peanut butter is 3rd - very high calories/$$.
Lastly - you can make hard-tack for storage. It's very simple, just water, flour and bit of salt, rolled flat, double or triple baked low temp for a long time to drive the water out. Vacuum seal if you can - machines are about $70. Hard-tack keeps for a long time.
The 2 main things people miss in this equation - you're not going for variety, you're going for survival. A little bit of variety will go a long way.
Think CALORIES!
Also, rancid food is still edible - it means that hydrogen has bonded to the food and it tastes a bit funny. It's not like giardia or e. coli, which will kill you. Rancidity is more like getting cancer in ten years.
Good stuff. It’s also wise to know our local ecosystems in case we’re down to foraging. Your hardtack recipe reminds me of surveyors and the westward movement in 1840+ Southwest US. Here's an old soldier who had a plan, stayed ready, and survived some horrendous obstacles.
Prairie traveler : a hand-book for overland expeditions, with maps, illustrations, and itineraries of the principal routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific : Marcy, Randolph Barnes, 1812-1887 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Yes it hadn’t occurred to me Schumer might have been running the gas without a flame either.
Haven’t built up the courage to can meat containing things, but have plenty of pickles and jam. We’re pretty dependent on the refrigerators and freezers though, so have a generator to hopefully maintain their temperatures if power is out for long. Probably not a problem in Thailand, but also have some propane heaters (ventilation!). Election season and later will be cold…
That Schumer picture is hilarious on multiple levels. It's head scratching to me how you would flip the meat with cheese on it, assuming there was a fire, without also setting the cheese on fire. Photo ops gone wrong indeed.
Generators and extra gasoline and the like are good to have. There's a lot to be said about alternative electric sources too but for this article I decided to keep my focus on how to survive without electricity at all...here's hoping we make it to election season without total catastrophe
Excellent info, Amy. Cold and cheesy Chuck Schumer earned a roasting. Since TPTB are killing the cushy Western push-button lifestyles, I’m hoping to beat them to the punch. When I retired, I gave my kids the house and happily wandered the Texas coast in my truck for two months with fishing tackle, an ice chest, a tent, and a generator. Not exactly roughing it, and with winter coming on, I built a simple little cabin in the sticks. Think Walden Pond. The cabin shell was dried in about a week before the big freeze of 2021. I had a hose bib, two 120-amp circuits on a power pole, a generator, warm clothes, a sleeping bag, a coffee maker, a toaster oven, and the last space heater off the shelf at Home Depot. Brownouts were a nuisance but didn’t touch me. I still haven’t bothered to finish the cabin, and some prepper touches are needed, but I’m way more content with way less. My scattered neighbors are sweethearts, and we’ll do our best to protect and sustain each other when SHTF. We’ll probably get scorched off the earth with DEWs or nukes or bioweapons, or maybe “UN troops” will massacre us or ship us off to the gulag, but I can live with dying, and I feel more blessed than ever. For now, life is good.
Thanks for this Amy. The canning kit I bought 2 years ago remains unopened gathering dust, and this has given me the impetus to give it a go. I know that when SHTF Bangkok will be horrendous and getting out within 48 hours will be crucial. Great info in your post.
It's funny how food preservation techniques tend to meet an East side/West side divide. Salting, drying, fermenting and brining do happen here in the Land of Smiles, most commonly with fish (nam pla, anyone?). Meanwhile canning is almost unheard of except for a small group of export oriented types. Some of this is because although there are seasonal crops here there is no winter/summer per say and some common tropical foods (coconuts, bannanas, papayas) fruit year round. Some have seasons (such as jackfruit in the summer) but still produce even in the off season. So this is nothing like the fall bounty in many northern (or should I say winter/summer oriented) countries with a bolus harvest where you'd better prepare for winter or else.
Consider skipping the iodized salt. It’s a waste of space and resources. You can use it for cleaning, or anything you use the cheap, refined stuff for, but it has so little nutritional value compared to pink salt or grey, and we’re discussing a situation in which every vitamin and mineral counts. The iodine in iodized salt evaporates off as soon as the package is opened. Even if there is iodine present still when you first open it, there won’t be any when you go back to it.
Lugols’s solution may be expensive, and as a controlled substance, elemental iodine is too, but potassium iodide (KI) is nearly dirt cheap. KI is 60% iodine, and you can derive elemental iodine from it if you want to make your own lugol’s solution, with a coffee filter, hydrogen peroxide, and muriatic acid. Here’s a 5-min video showing us how. Maybe take notes for when we don’t have access to the info on the internet
Super useful thank you Amy. I have dried onions and mushrooms (in a dryer) and they are nice to have around. Also, without a dryer in the summer, when the green beans are selling, its a cinch to use a needle and thread and string them up in a window to dry. Took about 14 days, in July in Oregon, to dry.
When you want to use them, you rinse first, (for dust), then hydrate in water or broth. The greenbeans I dried last summer I just ate now, and there were great. Put them in a pot with a chicken and some barley and some curry flavor. After I ate up half of the chicken, made the rest into a great soup. 10 meals for $20. For emergency cooking I have an Approvecho twig stove, from Cottage Grove ORegon.
I still need to figure out a stove that can fit in a backpack, can make one, also some very inexpensive ones available, though I do not use Amazon, here is their list of many twig stoves under $20
I get this is a survival post. But I think it would be wise as one preps to make peace with mortality. Do you really want to live in this unacceptable world?
I say this very thing often. I’ve done some prepping, but honestly, if it gets to the point I’m relying on a can of beans next to a campfire to survive, I’d rather move on from this life.
I don’t think it will come to this. While the Deep State whips up new fears on a daily basis, the truth is, behind the scenes, the Great Reset is moving along rather nicely.
Yep yep and YEP. I get by with storing rice (basically starch) for many years in gallon glass jugs. As we have very low humidity I can store even brown rice for 3-4 years with no change in taste, not rancid.
Sugar stores well if you can keep moisture away, again glass jugs with a good seal.
Your fruit wines; I'd add sugar before fermenting, 20-21% alcohol by volume (ABV) stores,as you noted, for many years. Most fruit wines, fermented without sugar added, will be in the 8-10% ABV range.
Water; filtration's good, boiling's better for the average person as there are filters and there are filters.
Yeast; if you've none store bought most of your fruits have natural yeast on them, Fermenting, just seal with a bubbler or some such to assure no oxygen gets in, else or unless you want vinegar instead of alcohol.
Salting stores meat well. I suspect in Thailand, when, sadly not if, the fhit hits the shan you can trade up country meat for salt dried lower on the peninsula as often and as long as necessary. As I suspect you know, a rock hard Virginia ham can store for decades even if you need soak it for 48+ hours before you can cut and cook it.
& again yep, yep, Yep, we could be heading into an extended grid down, power down, commerce links broken, why yes Chicken Little, the sky really is falling situation, or/and as Yeats said;
" The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere ..."
Oh well, be prepared to buckle up and hunker down.
I think Thailand especially in rural areas would be able to withstand an extended grid down scenario without as much chaos. Obviously most large stores have backup generators in both places so if it was caused by something that is not apocalyptic in and of itself (i.e. its blamed on a software glitch rather than a nuke detonation in the sky, say) panic wouldn't really set in for several days at which point the window to say salt the meat from your deep freeze and leave it out to dry is gone. I also suspect that addictions of all sorts would be a bigger problem in the USA and suspect that riots and chaos might begin over people seeking their drug of choice. My experience of grid down has been exclusively in warmer climates. Perhaps you can be the one to write an article on how to keep your deer carcass hidden in the snow away from marauding bears. That's not in my wheelhouse. ;-)
I'm always reminded of the old adage, you can give a man a fish or you can teach him to fish. Of course all the lakes and rivers will be fished out within a few years of your scenario. The point is, we can stockpile food, which, in the ideal scenario might get us through the first year or so - then what? Ultimately, we'll all have to learn how to generate food, we'll all have to become farmers.
Here is a short beginners course on how to do that.
https://secularheretic.substack.com/p/prepping-chickens-the-ultimate-regenerative
I am going to make this easy for anyone who reads this. Buy a lot of peanut butter from Amazon or Walmart or Costco. Yeah it goes bad after a couple years but if I ever need it I doubt I’ll give a shit unless it makes me sick.
The name of the game is caloric intake. PB is high in fat which gives off more calories. That’s it, that’s all you need and some decent vitamins.
I get a kick out of some of these fools thinking they are just going to start growing a lush garden. Even if you have one going now it won’t be much help to survival. Growing food uses up a lot of calories because it’s hard work. That being said, nothing wrong with that but if that’s your only plan you will be DOA.
You could always resort to cannibalism I suppose. But if you’re going to open that door don’t wait until barely have any strength left.
Access to clean water is the most important and most often overlooked. When it goes down I am going into complete astronaut mode of survival. In other words, no more good food for me. Play time is over!
Notice I said WHEN not IF. During 2020 I got very nervous when the economy was shutdown. That’s never made any sense to me at the time. But now I understand this crony capitalist facade much better now. My point is that while I was running around in 2020/21/22 screaming that the sky is falling I was motivated by my instincts.
Truth is I actually felt something bad was coming but really didn’t know what. I’m sure the insane lying that started about same time Trump did probably didn’t help.
Well here’s how I know (see link). Hat tip to former Obama acolyte Ben Rhode’s for having the nerve to admit reality. His suggestion to deal with it is about the only thing I have been able to come up with as well. No, I’m not an economist but I do have some common sense. America needs to get it thru her head that out days as a hegemony are OVER. That and we better start kissing a little ass and stop treating other nations like shit.
Even if we do that no guarantee they will trust us. The US has really burned some bridges since Jan 2021. Trump is not going to save us. I will vote for him but we are to have to save ourselves this time. Our current system is breaking. If you read this article from Simplicius one must bear in mind as they engineered this they NEVER thought we would lose in Ukraine. Not with all the brilliant globalists minds on the job. Truth is their hubris blinded them.
How many allegorical stories of this tale are out there? Probably a lot. Well soon there will be one more. I do not know how bad it will get. But read this piece as the author drops some hints. Again, bear in mind when they brought the migrant hordes here, it was a done deal. After we kicked Russias ass and scattered her remains to the wind China would be next. Then it was off to the technocratic gulag for all of us.
Haha you bastards fucked up. But things are going to get hard here. Am pretty sure of that…sorry in advance for grammar errors am on my phone and tired. Goodnight 🌙
Uhhh try this link. It’s latest from Simplicius
https://open.substack.com/pub/simplicius76/p/ruling-class-finally-awakens-to-the?r=nvvvu&utm_medium=ios
I didn't call it out specifically in this article but peanut butter is the best grocery store bang for your buck on caloric intake which also needs no cooking or cold storage. It's a great one to have around!
Yes the US hegemon is finished methinks. I watch trends and follow a ton of people who are on opposite sides of a given issue as a means of triangulating the truth. My sense is that on all war fronts our asses are getting kicked.
There's a dark irony in that those populations targeted by past sanctions, economic hardships, seiges and wars brought on by neocolonialist powers have been forced to adapt and transcend harsh conditions. Meanwhile our fat, self indulgent technocratic utopia has led to those, especially the ones in charge, having absolutely no idea what to do in the instance of forced hardships on the ground. I suspect that in a true societal breakdown many will be running back South of the border for their homelands. All it takes is the paychecks to stop flowing.
I suspect something will give sooner rather than later. Prepare accordingly
Excellent synopsis!!
White rice is #1 for storage / cost effectiveness. Easy to cook, decent amount of calories.
Flour is cheaper, but harder to prepare.
Next is beans - soak for at least a day, then they cook quickly.
Peanut butter is 3rd - very high calories/$$.
Lastly - you can make hard-tack for storage. It's very simple, just water, flour and bit of salt, rolled flat, double or triple baked low temp for a long time to drive the water out. Vacuum seal if you can - machines are about $70. Hard-tack keeps for a long time.
The 2 main things people miss in this equation - you're not going for variety, you're going for survival. A little bit of variety will go a long way.
Think CALORIES!
Also, rancid food is still edible - it means that hydrogen has bonded to the food and it tastes a bit funny. It's not like giardia or e. coli, which will kill you. Rancidity is more like getting cancer in ten years.
Good stuff. It’s also wise to know our local ecosystems in case we’re down to foraging. Your hardtack recipe reminds me of surveyors and the westward movement in 1840+ Southwest US. Here's an old soldier who had a plan, stayed ready, and survived some horrendous obstacles.
Prairie traveler : a hand-book for overland expeditions, with maps, illustrations, and itineraries of the principal routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific : Marcy, Randolph Barnes, 1812-1887 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Well done. A good survival primer.
Yes it hadn’t occurred to me Schumer might have been running the gas without a flame either.
Haven’t built up the courage to can meat containing things, but have plenty of pickles and jam. We’re pretty dependent on the refrigerators and freezers though, so have a generator to hopefully maintain their temperatures if power is out for long. Probably not a problem in Thailand, but also have some propane heaters (ventilation!). Election season and later will be cold…
That Schumer picture is hilarious on multiple levels. It's head scratching to me how you would flip the meat with cheese on it, assuming there was a fire, without also setting the cheese on fire. Photo ops gone wrong indeed.
Generators and extra gasoline and the like are good to have. There's a lot to be said about alternative electric sources too but for this article I decided to keep my focus on how to survive without electricity at all...here's hoping we make it to election season without total catastrophe
Excellent info, Amy. Cold and cheesy Chuck Schumer earned a roasting. Since TPTB are killing the cushy Western push-button lifestyles, I’m hoping to beat them to the punch. When I retired, I gave my kids the house and happily wandered the Texas coast in my truck for two months with fishing tackle, an ice chest, a tent, and a generator. Not exactly roughing it, and with winter coming on, I built a simple little cabin in the sticks. Think Walden Pond. The cabin shell was dried in about a week before the big freeze of 2021. I had a hose bib, two 120-amp circuits on a power pole, a generator, warm clothes, a sleeping bag, a coffee maker, a toaster oven, and the last space heater off the shelf at Home Depot. Brownouts were a nuisance but didn’t touch me. I still haven’t bothered to finish the cabin, and some prepper touches are needed, but I’m way more content with way less. My scattered neighbors are sweethearts, and we’ll do our best to protect and sustain each other when SHTF. We’ll probably get scorched off the earth with DEWs or nukes or bioweapons, or maybe “UN troops” will massacre us or ship us off to the gulag, but I can live with dying, and I feel more blessed than ever. For now, life is good.
Thanks for this Amy. The canning kit I bought 2 years ago remains unopened gathering dust, and this has given me the impetus to give it a go. I know that when SHTF Bangkok will be horrendous and getting out within 48 hours will be crucial. Great info in your post.
It's funny how food preservation techniques tend to meet an East side/West side divide. Salting, drying, fermenting and brining do happen here in the Land of Smiles, most commonly with fish (nam pla, anyone?). Meanwhile canning is almost unheard of except for a small group of export oriented types. Some of this is because although there are seasonal crops here there is no winter/summer per say and some common tropical foods (coconuts, bannanas, papayas) fruit year round. Some have seasons (such as jackfruit in the summer) but still produce even in the off season. So this is nothing like the fall bounty in many northern (or should I say winter/summer oriented) countries with a bolus harvest where you'd better prepare for winter or else.
Where you would go in total crisis is interesting
Thank you Amy! Great read
Consider skipping the iodized salt. It’s a waste of space and resources. You can use it for cleaning, or anything you use the cheap, refined stuff for, but it has so little nutritional value compared to pink salt or grey, and we’re discussing a situation in which every vitamin and mineral counts. The iodine in iodized salt evaporates off as soon as the package is opened. Even if there is iodine present still when you first open it, there won’t be any when you go back to it.
Lugols’s solution may be expensive, and as a controlled substance, elemental iodine is too, but potassium iodide (KI) is nearly dirt cheap. KI is 60% iodine, and you can derive elemental iodine from it if you want to make your own lugol’s solution, with a coffee filter, hydrogen peroxide, and muriatic acid. Here’s a 5-min video showing us how. Maybe take notes for when we don’t have access to the info on the internet
https://youtu.be/CLhwkFKLdPA?si=G9zy2vlLxsoyO7Lq
When the grid goes down I have a list of things to do.
It is not a prayer list.
Always have a backup power supply.
.
This Is A Military Coup.
You Can Call It Covid.
Or You Can Call It What It Is:
A Military Coup.
They Took Out One President.
And Installed A Puppet.
.
Super useful thank you Amy. I have dried onions and mushrooms (in a dryer) and they are nice to have around. Also, without a dryer in the summer, when the green beans are selling, its a cinch to use a needle and thread and string them up in a window to dry. Took about 14 days, in July in Oregon, to dry.
When you want to use them, you rinse first, (for dust), then hydrate in water or broth. The greenbeans I dried last summer I just ate now, and there were great. Put them in a pot with a chicken and some barley and some curry flavor. After I ate up half of the chicken, made the rest into a great soup. 10 meals for $20. For emergency cooking I have an Approvecho twig stove, from Cottage Grove ORegon.
I still need to figure out a stove that can fit in a backpack, can make one, also some very inexpensive ones available, though I do not use Amazon, here is their list of many twig stoves under $20
https://www.amazon.com/twig-stove/s?k=twig+stove