Bedside Story

Place to post prepper & homesteading tips & info.Prepper wannabe. Dreaming of a suburban homestead.

[bedsidestory]

Sane prepping

I tried searching through Tumblr looking for prepping posts. But honestly, they’re all crazy. I’m not prepping for Doomsday, or zombies, or Mad Max. Like, I just wanna be prepared for normal things that can *actually* happen, like job loss, bad weather, power outages, inflation, potentially another pandemic. I’ve found some decent info & like-minded people on reddit, and was hoping I could follow a few on here. I guess I’ll just keep looking!

[prolifeproliberty]

Food Storage Guidelines

Know you need to be storing extra food, but not sure where to start? Identify your level of food preparedness below and consider bumping up one level at a time.

Level 0: Weekly grocery run

At this level, you depend on your weekly (or more frequent) grocery runs to have enough food in your house. That means you’re dependent on food being on the shelves. When food shortages hit (note that I didn’t say “if”), your food will run out quickly.

Level 1: A few extra cans

This is “intro to prepping”. Each time you go to the grocery store, get one extra shelf-stable item. Canned foods, rice, beans, pasta, etc.

Store these in a back closet away from light and moisture - if you can, store them in the coolest part of your home.

Pros: Easy place to start, minimal financial investment

Cons: You will get REALLY tired of rice, beans, and canned foods. As much as possible, go for variety.

Level 2: Emergency Food

This is the next stop for most people. You can buy emergency food buckets from many different companies - do your research and consider what you and your family actually like to eat (as well as any allergies or sensitivities) before buying a bucket. Note that most food buckets don’t include meat - you’ll see “chicken flavored” and “beef flavored” meals, with no actual meat in sight. Usually you have to pay extra for real meat.

I recommend one bucket per family member to start. Depending on the company you order from and how you ration, a bucket may last 1-2 months.

Pros: More food variety, easy storage

Cons: Can get expensive, and you may end up with more oatmeal or banana chips than you actually intend to eat

Level 3: Home food preservation

Preserving your own food by canning, dehydrating, or freeze drying can move you from “I have a little extra” to “I’m prepared for the worst.”

Canning: Many foods can be canned in a large stockpot (water bath canning), but some foods require a pressure canner to reduce the risk of botulism. Canned foods take up space and are heavy, so you can’t easily transport them. They also lose some nutrition during the canning process.

Dehydrating: Pretty low startup costs, but it can take a long time to set aside a substantial amount of food. Not all foods dehydrate well, and you do lose some nutrition.

Freeze drying: Highest startup cost, but can be well worth the investment. Retains the most nutrition out of the three options, and many foods can be rehydrated to pretty near their original taste and consistency. This can allow you to build your own emergency food buckets. You can freeze dry meals and bag them, knowing what you’ve stored away is what your family likes to eat. Fats and oils don’t freeze dry well, so you will need to find a way to store those separately (making your own Ghee is a simple and cost-effective option for this).

Pros: Store the foods your family likes at a fraction of the cost of food buckets (after startup costs)

Cons: Requires potentially expensive equipment and storage space

Level 4: Homesteading

If you’re worried about a total collapse of society and a grid down scenario, you will eventually realize that homesteading is the only way to truly be prepared for anything.

For this you’ll need some land (at minimum a couple acres) and the time and energy to grow food and raise at least chickens, if not other livestock.

You’ll never be 100% self-sufficient, but you can reach a point where you are able to grow/raise most of your own food and trade with others for the things you can’t grow or make yourself.

Home Gardening Supplemental:

Of course, you can and should have a garden at any of these levels - even back at level 0, a garden can be a nice way to supplement your grocery runs with homegrown veggies. A home garden can also provide the food for preserving at level 3.

This garden can be anything from some herbs on a windowsill to containers on your porch to a full-fledged vegetable garden in the backyard or at a community garden.

As with all of these options, something is better than nothing!

[catholic-prepper-deactivated202]

Don't freeze this winter

I know its already late in the year, but if you live anywhere that gets cold winters and you have a wood burning stove or fireplace in your home, I would strongly urge you to buy or harvest some firewood for the winter. Even if you've never used your fireplace or stove before, dust it off, clean it, inspect the ventilation, watch a youtube video on how to use it or ask your grandpa to teach you, whatever you have to do, just don't rely on the grid for heat if it means life or death where you live.

Rolling power outages, unpredictable weather, bad economy, evil globalists, take your pick of reasons, there are plenty to justify investing in a bit of firewood to make sure you and loved ones don't freeze to death this winter. The people running this shit show don't care about you or your family, they will shut your power off and watch you freeze if it would further their own interests by even an iota, and they have every opportunity and resource at their disposal to do it.

[preppers-will]

How To Keep Long-Lasting Produce In Root Cellars

Long before refrigeration kept our food fresh, people depended upon root cellars to secure their food for the long winters. Here's how some

[preppers-will]

A Few Tips For Building A Proper Root Cellar

Those that want to preserve produce on the homestead know how vital it is to have a good cellar. This article should give you a good idea of

[bedsidestory]

I really, really am interested in building a root cellar. I’m not sure if it’s something I would actually utilize or not, so I need to do more research. But I love the idea of it. And now I actually have enough property to actually build one if I wanted to.

[aprilrainstorm]

I’m ready..