You’re prepared for the worst, but what about reality?

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BillM

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Not trying to knock on you guys who are preparing for the next mad max fury road, but what about what is going on right now? Specifically, within the city? I’m moving from mustang to Edmond, staying in a regular city lot. Watching food/energy prices gives me the willies. I would really like to try and pad my losses with all this crap going on. I have maybe 3-6 months worth of food, but I don’t want to store food for the fall of civilization, I want to be prepared for the sake of my pocket book. If it were 2-4 years in the future and I had bought my 20-30 acres and such I wouldn’t be concerned and could go about farming, everything would be ok. But right now living in a standard city lot is my reality. What can I do to offset things/build myself a bit of a safety net? I’m on a fixed income at the moment, so I don’t have a ton of wiggle room. I’ve been considering getting 4-6 chickens (Edmond allows that many for my size lot if I’m not mistaken), maybe starting a garden. This spring I would also like to start beekeeping. But given my little plot of land, and my finances, my options aren’t great right now. Aside from stocking up on a few staples, I don’t have much desire to hoard a ton of ridiculously inflated groceries.

what do you guys suggest? Keep a half dozen chickens, start a few raised beds and a beehive? Am I looking at spending more money that I will likely save?

what about quail? They’re plenty tasty, produce eggs, and from what I heard take up little space. While the husbandry techniques would be different, having a few quail would be super handy next year, as I’m getting a hunting dog and would need some good training aids.
YMMV, but the last tomato patch I put it, my tomatoes cost me about $300/pound. I don't doubt my grandma would have a fine garden, here, but I didn't inherit her green thumb. I've never so much as broken even on a garden plot. We also have a hawk living in the area, so I doubt chickens would last very long, either. I'm also on a city lot, in Del City, 60'x120', with road & sewer easements so I get more like 54'x90' including the house, driveway and sidewalks. Clay/sand soil about 6" deep over most of the lot where it isn't paved.

Good luck finding something you can do.

Bill
 

BillM

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rural living
>self sustaining, needs lots of fuel
>would be difficult to find things you need, no matter how to get them

city living
>hidden in plain sight
>steal everything you could ever need
>raid trucks
>close to major infrastructure that would prevent military/uniparty from bombing you out and/or massive dew fires
>more access to a variety of resources

team raider all the way. never forget most people that own things own more than they could ever use, including property. it's all for the taking.
My step-father who was expecting Armageddon to break out when I was a kid thought the same stuff. He said we didn't have to store food, the Mormons were storing it for us. My grandma was Mormon, and I was thinking he'd catch a lot more than he could afford to hold onto trying to take her food.

Also, got news for you. The military doesn't need to carpet bomb to get insurgents, these days. Back when I was a young pup, they were developing "smart bombs" that made it way easier to hit one specific small area. And that was almost 50 years ago, before personal computers, and smart phones and such like miniaturized electronics. I got to watch some of the stuff I helped develop and test get used during Desert Storm, more than 30 years ago. The stuff they have now is much better. Plus, they don't have to fly half-way around the world to get to you here. Think about it a bit. You're also easier for Delta, and the Airborne units to get to, here, as well.

Bill
 

emapples

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Not trying to knock on you guys who are preparing for the next mad max fury road, but what about what is going on right now? Specifically, within the city? I’m moving from mustang to Edmond, staying in a regular city lot. Watching food/energy prices gives me the willies. I would really like to try and pad my losses with all this crap going on. I have maybe 3-6 months worth of food, but I don’t want to store food for the fall of civilization, I want to be prepared for the sake of my pocket book. If it were 2-4 years in the future and I had bought my 20-30 acres and such I wouldn’t be concerned and could go about farming, everything would be ok. But right now living in a standard city lot is my reality. What can I do to offset things/build myself a bit of a safety net? I’m on a fixed income at the moment, so I don’t have a ton of wiggle room. I’ve been considering getting 4-6 chickens (Edmond allows that many for my size lot if I’m not mistaken), maybe starting a garden. This spring I would also like to start beekeeping. But given my little plot of land, and my finances, my options aren’t great right now. Aside from stocking up on a few staples, I don’t have much desire to hoard a ton of ridiculously inflated groceries.

what do you guys suggest? Keep a half dozen chickens, start a few raised beds and a beehive? Am I looking at spending more money that I will likely save?

what about quail? They’re plenty tasty, produce eggs, and from what I heard take up little space. While the husbandry techniques would be different, having a few quail would be super handy next year, as I’m getting a hunting dog and would need some good training aids.
We fill the freezer every year from a garden in my residential lot, okra, beans, peppers, sun chokes, Swiss Chard, Colard Greens, you can do a lot in 6 x 18 beds, I have some vacuum packed rice and pintos along with some spam and sardines stored for the chit show. Alot of people claim they will simply hunt to which I say the U.S. would hunt wild game to extinction within a year or two if things went 100% Thunderdome.
 

BillM

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I'm on a 7 acres. Have livestock, gardens, generators, etc and lots of protective equipment but if I was on a city lot/house I'd convert my garage for raising rabbits. Very prolific and easy to raise.......the other white meat.
Need a source of fats if you're going to depend on rabbits for protein. They don't have enough body fat to work well for that unless they're very well fed. Good thing about them is that they can eat about any kind of vegetable matter, and they will produce a whole lot of good fertilizer, but it has to be aged to be useful. If you process it correctly, you can make black powder with one of the byproducts. You do need to collect and sequester it to make that happen. Will still need charcoal and sulfur, too.
We fill the freezer every year from a garden in my residential lot, okra, beans, peppers, sun chokes, Swiss Chard, Colard Greens, you can do a lot in 6 x 18 beds, I have some vacuum packed rice and pintos along with some spam and sardines stored for the chit show. Alot of people claim they will simply hunt to which I say the U.S. would hunt wild game to extinction within a year or two if things went 100% Thunderdome.
You really think it would take that long? We have more than ten times the population we had when the Passenger Pigeon went extinct, IIRC. I'm figuring six months, max. And two years after that, we'll probably have a tenth of the population we had back when those pigeons went down.

Speaking of pigeons, my dad raised them, both to race, and to eat. If you can feed them enough to make them think your place is home, they can fly loose, and forage for themselves, too. Pigeon 1-way gates can be made from a bunch of bars of coat-hanger wire or similar. Ring at one end, the other end straight. A dozen or so of those hanging from a bar over a door, with the straight ends hanging below the threshold lets pigeons in, and keeps them from going back out. Several variations here for inspiration without much perspiration:

The ones my dad made looked a lot like the ones in the "Powers boys get after a bird trap" photos, but made with bent wire. I see some newer variations that look like they'd maybe work better there, too.

SWMBO is too squeamish to eat "strange" meat, and too ill to last long once things get tougher. If I outlast her, we'll see what happens if there's an after.

Bill
 

CC379

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a few things I learned about tomatoes, be sure and read the sunlight and watering requirements on the tag, most only need 6hrs sunlight a day, more than that will burn them up, steel cages speed up the burning process, too much water results in very few tomatoes, used coffee grounds work better than miracle grow.

I grew up on a farm helped mom in the garden she never seemed to have issues growing anything, after several years being away from home I thought I could just put out a few tomato plants and have plenty, that's when I started learning there is more to it than just putting a plant in the ground
 

joegrizzy

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My step-father who was expecting Armageddon to break out when I was a kid thought the same stuff. He said we didn't have to store food, the Mormons were storing it for us. My grandma was Mormon, and I was thinking he'd catch a lot more than he could afford to hold onto trying to take her food.

Also, got news for you. The military doesn't need to carpet bomb to get insurgents, these days. Back when I was a young pup, they were developing "smart bombs" that made it way easier to hit one specific small area. And that was almost 50 years ago, before personal computers, and smart phones and such like miniaturized electronics. I got to watch some of the stuff I helped develop and test get used during Desert Storm, more than 30 years ago. The stuff they have now is much better. Plus, they don't have to fly half-way around the world to get to you here. Think about it a bit. You're also easier for Delta, and the Airborne units to get to, here, as well.

Bill
lol the us military is a joke; they would have no chance against the us citizens.
 

emapples

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Need a source of fats if you're going to depend on rabbits for protein. They don't have enough body fat to work well for that unless they're very well fed. Good thing about them is that they can eat about any kind of vegetable matter, and they will produce a whole lot of good fertilizer, but it has to be aged to be useful. If you process it correctly, you can make black powder with one of the byproducts. You do need to collect and sequester it to make that happen. Will still need charcoal and sulfur, too.

You really think it would take that long? We have more than ten times the population we had when the Passenger Pigeon went extinct, IIRC. I'm figuring six months, max. And two years after that, we'll probably have a tenth of the population we had back when those pigeons went down.

Speaking of pigeons, my dad raised them, both to race, and to eat. If you can feed them enough to make them think your place is home, they can fly loose, and forage for themselves, too. Pigeon 1-way gates can be made from a bunch of bars of coat-hanger wire or similar. Ring at one end, the other end straight. A dozen or so of those hanging from a bar over a door, with the straight ends hanging below the threshold lets pigeons in, and keeps them from going back out. Several variations here for inspiration without much perspiration:

The ones my dad made looked a lot like the ones in the "Powers boys get after a bird trap" photos, but made with bent wire. I see some newer variations that look like they'd maybe work better there, too.

SWMBO is too squeamish to eat "strange" meat, and too ill to last long once things get tougher. If I outlast her, we'll see what happens if there's an after.

Bill

I have Ghee (a lot of Ghee) for my fats, and when it comes to hunting out game I mean 2 year for all of it, Deer will be gone in 6 months, rabbits and squirrels, hogs, dove, ducks, it would be a massacre unfortunately. Then you have the fish that might take a little longer but it would happen with hundred os millions of people fishing, of course at that time they’d be using batteries and only phone cranks and a net so it could happen faster then we thing. If really got bad then I’d definitely electricute some crappie and get me some sand hill cranes :)
 

Jack Shootza 50

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Not trying to knock on you guys who are preparing for the next mad max fury road, but what about what is going on right now? Specifically, within the city? I’m moving from mustang to Edmond, staying in a regular city lot. Watching food/energy prices gives me the willies. I would really like to try and pad my losses with all this crap going on. I have maybe 3-6 months worth of food, but I don’t want to store food for the fall of civilization, I want to be prepared for the sake of my pocket book. If it were 2-4 years in the future and I had bought my 20-30 acres and such I wouldn’t be concerned and could go about farming, everything would be ok. But right now living in a standard city lot is my reality. What can I do to offset things/build myself a bit of a safety net? I’m on a fixed income at the moment, so I don’t have a ton of wiggle room. I’ve been considering getting 4-6 chickens (Edmond allows that many for my size lot if I’m not mistaken), maybe starting a garden. This spring I would also like to start beekeeping. But given my little plot of land, and my finances, my options aren’t great right now. Aside from stocking up on a few staples, I don’t have much desire to hoard a ton of ridiculously inflated groceries.

what do you guys suggest? Keep a half dozen chickens, start a few raised beds and a beehive? Am I looking at spending more money that I will likely save?

what about quail? They’re plenty tasty, produce eggs, and from what I heard take up little space. While the husbandry techniques would be different, having a few quail would be super handy next year, as I’m getting a hunting dog and would need some good training aids.
If it gets to a total collapse, I will become mobile and head for the hills (as in Red Dawn) no offense to the ones that want to stand their ground but after a couple of weeks with the "system" crashed everything will dry up and the roving gangs of starving scavengers will start to crawl over the land like locusts, they will go after the easiest pray they can find. I'm fortunate enough to live in a state that has plenty of natural resources and a person can still live off the land with a little common sense, good luck to all the rest.
PS: If you live in a big city find a way out that only a rugged 4x4 can manage because you'll not even be able to get out of your driveway when it happens.
 

OKCHunter

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If it gets to a total collapse, I will become mobile and head for the hills (as in Red Dawn) no offense to the ones that want to stand their ground but after a couple of weeks with the "system" crashed everything will dry up and the roving gangs of starving scavengers will start to crawl over the land like locusts, they will go after the easiest pray they can find. I'm fortunate enough to live in a state that has plenty of natural resources and a person can still live off the land with a little common sense, good luck to all the rest.
PS: If you live in a big city find a way out that only a rugged 4x4 can manage because you'll not even be able to get out of your driveway when it happens.
The problem with that plan is you will be running onto someone’s private property that might be defended. Unless, however, you‘re planning to bug-out to public lands.

Edit: you will need to have something to offer or contribute to the land owner. And, able to make friends fast.
 

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