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21 Comments

  1. Thanks for all your very helpful ideas the last few days, Mama Bear! Very comprehensive, and brought to mind a few things I had neglected.

    For anyone who is following the current COVID19 news, there is an interesting article on Zerohedge this morning about how the media has started vilifying “hoarders” who are stocking up for potential coronavirus shortages. It’s a very timely article for those of us who lean toward being prepared; it shows how they are going to start to demonize us:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/media-vilifies-preppers-and-those-stocking-selfish-hoarders-potential-mass

  2. Get rubber gloves, basically light Costco medical gloves. Here’s why these might be useful.

    1. Caring for a sick person obviously.
    2. If you wear gloves shopping and outside then every time you inadvertently touch your face, because of the glove texture, you will immediately remember “hey, i need to be more thoughtful around cross contamination”
    3. You don’t know who has handled which package of goods in the store (e.g. the stocker at a minimum and various buyers/customers at worst). If you wear gloves and then toss your recent purchases into a pile, toss a sheet over that, and leave it for a week then you know any virus (or germs of any sort) are dead.

    “Hoarders” is just another liberal name for what is jealousy. It is coveting what your neighbor has instead of being focused on your own responsibility. When my neighbors talk about hoarding, I try to soften this and suggest that extra supplies can be donated to the local Food Bank. Like Mama Bear’s advice, before having any conversation you need to ask yourself “Is It Worth It ?” Is the audience a learning interactive person with whom I can exchange views and give/take to make me better ? The answer to that will inform us. Wish DiDi was my neighbor but I’ll do my best with the neighbors I have.

    1. Another distinction, in my mind, is this: “Hoarding” is to “keep a stock or supply of valued objects”. Preparedness minded people put away extras of items during **times of plenty** when those items are not considered to be valued objects. The items we stored up over the past number of years were both plentiful and cheap. Therefore, we do not meet the definition of “hoarding”. Those who run out in a panic at the last minute to swipe up massive amounts of items now considered to be both valuable and limited in quantity do qualify as hoarders.

      1. That is true. By tapping the supply chain well in advance, we represent one less individual stressing the system during times of crisis, so hence we are part of the solution, rather that part of the problem.

  3. The zero hedge article is good reading, a lot of the comments are worth the trouble as it gives you an insight of what people are thinking. I suggest you keep in mind that few liberals read zero hedge. If someone finds info where the liberals are discussing the subject please share it with us. “Know your enemy” I came away with one quote that is worth repeating. “Liberals are like crabs in a pot, one tries to escape and the others grab on to it and pull it back into the pot.”

  4. Nice article series Mama Bear. Fills in some gaps for me in terms of the inventory of questions.

    Clearly, if you can’t farm or hunt, then you need to have other things to trade instead. Trading with the right friends and neighbors is a great idea within reason (trusted partners)

  5. Stuff getting cheaper now so stocking up:

    Gasoline.. to treat with PRI -G for long term storage

    Butter.. down in price by 15 percent now, store long term in the refrigerator or make ghee

    And today at Bremerton, WA is the Penninsula Fruit Club’s annual spring grafting clinic and plant sale. Over 400 heirloom varieties of apples, pears, cherries, etc., etc., plus varieties of grapes, berries, and more. 10 am to 3pm at the Westside Improvement Club.

    Get your stock now for planting.

    God Bless

    1. Dear Wheatley Fisher,

      I’m always watching for your posts as there are so few of us in the immediate area. Thanks for the heads up on the spring grafting clinic and sale. I’d be there, but Doctor has ordered no weight on foot that was injured. I’m trying to be optimistic and looking forward to next year and so its been logged in the phone calendar. Thinking the virus may likely be burned out by that time, hopefully without not too great a loss of life.

      I’d like to meet some day if ever we get a chance.

      May God Bless

      1. Sure I would be glad to meet somewhere.

        October 22d will be the fall fruit show where you can come sample all 400 varieties of fruits. Same location.

        God Bless

  6. More excellent stuff Mama Bear!

    I wonder how many people think about TEOTWAWKI clothes washing that you mentioned? I spent a few years in South America and hand washing was the only option. When I built my homestead, I naturally built a station for hand washing clothes. Here is a link for the best thing available IMO for hand washing. This same company also offers the old hand-crank clothes wringers, which I also have. They greatly reduce line-drying times so I strongly recommend those as well. Shop around, there may be better prices elsewhere. Lehman’s in general has lots of good grid-down items.

    https://www.lehmans.com/product/breathing-hand-washer/
    https://www.lehmans.com/product/lehmans-best-hand-wringer/

    I also designed my system using a 30-gallon blue barrel instead of a sink, it lends itself better to the plunging action of the hand washer than a square shallow sink. I used my system for two years so I can highly recommend its effectiveness.

    Your idea on using phone wire to create a telegraph system with a neighbor post SHTF is also workable. When I was a young teen, a friend and I found a roll of phone wire some kids had wrapped around the fence surrounding a swimming pool. We wrapped it all back up and it was 1,000′. We knew you could talk into the microphone of a cassette player and hear it in the earphone so we rigged up a phone system between his house and mine using all that phone wire. Essentially, his earphone was plugged into my cassette player and vice versa so we had ourselves a phone system. Phone wire is fairly cheap in bulk (10¢/foot) so this kind of a system could have several advantages over radios for keeping in contact with family members in the same compound or close neighbors. And there are some more modern things available than cassette players. 🙂 But I really like the hard-wired idea.

    I’m glad you mentioned the Humanure Handbook. I’m a huge fan and this is a very misunderstood area of prepping where a lot of cognitive dissonance exists.

    Looking forward to part 4.

  7. Most Iraqi’s had Internet before and after the media blackout during the war. Even when there was no electricity. There are charging devises for a world with no power, we just don’t plan for it.

  8. Good job Mama Bear!! So happy that your Lime disease is manageable by lifestyle and diet. I consider my cancer at bay for the same reasons! This is great news for you! I’m truly happy for you.

    In other news, reporting in from the middle of Idaho… We have no reported cases of the virus yet. However, the Costco that I order from (to be delivered), is having an issue with online orders. Unheard of. Every time I put something that was supposedly available into my virtual cart, by the time I put something else in my cart, I got an error message that something in the cart was “out of stock”. So I would remove it and find an alternative. I played this game for quite awhile, and finally satisfied that these additional items I thought would be handy could be purchased, boom, the website froze while I was trying to finalize the purchase. Not my Internet connection. Everything is working fine. It’s actually possible that the online Costco site crashed. Unbelievable. I half expect to get an email saying I purchased the same things five times, but not yet. Fortunately, I can take the blow if that happens. Unfortunately, (or fortunately?), an awful lot of people are doing the same thing from around the country. I heard from a family member in California. They live out in the country and they usually go to Costco on the weekends. Their Costco is always pretty empty and well stocked, but not today. She said she’s never seen anything like it and people were being limited to only 2 cases of toilet paper and 2 cases of water. There is *definitely* panic going on in Cali. My heart hurts for them. This is the result of absolutely terrible policies. People know that with the large homeless population and the hidden illegal immigrant populations, that they are now personally at risk. Before, it was just their tax burden to be angry about. Now, it gets personal. Please pray for the faithful who remain there.

  9. Mama Bear… it is good to hear that you have your Lyme disease under control… I have a lady in my Life Group ( Church ) who has had Lyme for 10+ years … would you please share things that you do that have enabled you to live a more normal life… I would love to pass the information to her… TY so much for your attention…may The Lord continue to bless you in your pilgrimage…Robert

    1. An excellent traditional Chinese medicine doctor and accupuncturist made a huge difference in my health and taught me about eating a balanced diet from the Chinese perspective.
      Eliminating stress and spending time outside in the natural environment are also helpful.
      Get away from processed foods and corn syrup also.

  10. Mama Bear, fantastic! So many items touched on, thank you! I actually had put in an order for essential oils this morning before I read this installment as I am intrigued by some comments SaraSue posted yesterday about the Theives Oil. Aromatherapy is something that I’ve recently begun to study.
    I also received last week my copy of Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine. I’m going to start studying how/what/why of natural kinds of ways to manage my health. I have Lupus, Fybromyalgia, degenerative disk disease , high Lymphocytes . All the Doctors want to do is put you on all kinds of crazy medications (antidepressants, anti-this anti-that, steroids, muscle relaxers, blah blah blah)!! I refuse to take any of these!!
    In fact, I was taking a small dose of Singular to manage my sinuses but I stopped taking it when I read an article a couple days ago stating they were putting the black label warning on that medicine because of high suicide risk. That was enough for me.

    I’m so glad to hear you are managing your Lime Disease. Health is everything

    Gotta go, gotta put in an order for some more canning jars. The calculations you mentioned just for jars alone sparked me to take a look at my supply. Yikes, I need more!

    Looking forward to the next installment

  11. I never hoard, but I do stock up early when nobody cares on things I think will be useful in the future.

    In January when the COV-19 was starting I checked my stockpile, yep about 350 of those N95 masks on the shelf. Picked up another 100 just for fun, before anyone really cared, now I guess I’m part of the problem.

    I also picked up 4x half gallon bottles of hand sanitizer, not something I usually have but it seemed prudent.

    So being a prudent fella, and looking into the future about… 2 months here is my plan:

    I’m going to call Cenex and see if I can buy and fertilize my pastures early, I only need 4 tons but who knows what the supply chain will be like in the spring.

    I already have my diesel tanks topped off for the year (I wish I would have waited, the price is better now)

    I need more dog food, I guess I’ll hoard a few months back for my wireless security device =)

    I have 5 x 5 gallon gas cans I need to refill with premium gas and Stabil, for the year after next, I guess I’ll hoard those as well.

    My septic tank hasn’t been pumped in 10 years, probably not a problem but I guess in my hoarding way I’ll have it pumped this year in anticipation of a down turn in the economy, what a selfish bastard I am.

    I’ll sell the last 20 tons of hay in the barn, no doubt the price of hay is high right now for those that didn’t prepare. I guess my hoarding of that hay has led to higher prices, so now I am guilty of gouging those that didn’t buy enough last fall.

    lastly my 1000 gallon propane tank is about 70% full, so I guess I’ll selfishly refill it (now that the price of gas is down). In 3 months when propane is hard to get, I guess I’ll be guilty of hoarding that too.

    1. Montana Rancher, I am a hoarder brat just like you! Back about 8 years ago when that bad drought hit the TX panhandle, OK, and other parts of the Plains, I was a really horrible person and bought an extra 18 months of hay for my horses and cows. Then I rudely went to the extra effort to make room in the barn for hay storage so I could keep it as fresh as possible. (THAT was a lot of extra work.) If you recall, it took about 6-8 months before the price of hay started to sky rocket here in Montana. I was surprised that it actually took that long for prices to go up. But eventually Montana hay farmers started shipping hay to the cow/calf operations further south, and they were selling it for a pretty penny too! Folks here in Montana grumbled mightily as the cost of hay went up. I was glad I had seen the writing on the wall and acquired my hay at a good price… and was happy that our hay farmers could get a nice profit on their hay too! I warned many of my friends but no one thought hay could ever be as expensive as it turned out to be that year.

      Montana is blessed with many smart and self sufficient folks and it certainly sounds like you are one of them!! 😉

  12. Montana Rancher,
    LOL, you crack me up. I guess we’re all selfish hoarders here. Too bad!!we thought ahead, the snowflakes didn’t.
    I will provide for me and my family no matter what some brats say! Always have, always will.
    Thank you for making me laugh today

  13. Mama Bear, I see you note food drying in passing. Having done both, I choose drying over canning.

    Safer, faster, less fuel intensive, way less storage space and weight, no botulism danger. I so enjoy teaching people the basics of dehydration.

    Then there is salting, fermentation…

    Carry on

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