It seems that the meat department at Albertson’s is politely asking people to limit meat purchases.
I’ve got a freezer full of meat, as well as a goodly amount of canned meat, so I’m not terribly concerned.
Food, gasoline, cash, cleaning supplies, ammo, electricity….I’m feeling fairly secure. I’d feel better with more money in the bank, but thats pretty much always the case.
The lessons I’m learning here are legion. The biggest one is that consistency and discipline is paramount. Next time I think “Hmm..Im a little low on X, I’ll get more next month when I go shopping”. No, you get it as soon as you find out that you need it. Compacency in the past is becoming apparent. When this is all over there is going to be some severe changes to the frequency and diligence at which I put money, silver,food, and supplies aside. Like..religiously diligent.
But, by and large, I’m ahead of most of the crowd and I suspect you are too.
Whats been your weak spots?
Dear Commander, Indeed we who read you regularly are ahead of the crowds. A deep larder is very comforting these days. I have enjoyed the many photos of empty store shelves. Made empty by grasshoppers I expect. But Commander, stay out of those stores. We do not want you sick. Social distancing is our last weapon against this pandemic. Our society is not unraveling but is getting a little frayed on the ends. Until they come up with another way to combat this virus, stay safe.
I am not even close to a deep larder as many (most) of you, but I should have enough for 1-2 months tucked away in 5 gallon totes. One of the good things is that when this is over my spouse will no longer be reluctant on being more prepared.
My hole:
A few days before the hysteria hit, I noticed my “Shoot” stash of 22 was getting low. So when I went to walmart, I looked at the ammo section. Fully stocked for the most part, but they didn’t have my preferred brand so I didn’t buy any. Not wishing I had bought the stuff I don’t really like, but it will curtail my 22 practice until they get it back in. I’m not waking the deep sleep stuff for something like this. That’s for a Real emergency, not a sheep panic.
What difference does it make what the brand is if it’s only for plinking/target practice. As long as a flag with word “BANG” on it doesn’t come out of the barrel when you pull the trigger, any practice is good practice.
We probably all agree the ‘panic’ is worse than the disease, but this thing is contagious enough that it’s very likely we’ll get it at some point in the next 24 months. Once that happens, your whole household gets it, regardless of how careful we are.
When that happens, I need to be able lie down & drink water for ~3 weeks or more.
Wuflu is not very contagious,first case was in Chicago area,had hundreds/thousands of contacts only transmission was to her husband(both elderly chinese both recovered). Almost no transmission to whites or black,even less serious cases unless really elderly/already sick. Watching Italy,# probably fake with all deaths attributed to flu(car accidents,robberies,heart attacks,strokes), likely looking for hand outs- their economy was a mess brfore and this is a convenient way out.
It’s funny – we thought we were pretty prepared – and then fixed corned beef and cabbage for St. Paddy’s Day. Lo and behold, tons of prepared horseradish, but only a half jar of mustard. Obviously not a mission critical item, but is a failure of our inventory tracking system, which tended to keep track of the major items at the expense of more minor things like condiments: a lacking that we will address in the future once we’re past this current crisis.
Our local Walmart discounted all pistol ammo in December, I could not pass up the prices so I bought everything they had. My wife freaked out seeing the stacks in the pickup. But now she is totally cool with it, very surprising turn for her and a relief for me
weak? none really tho I did join the fray for a last run. cigs for the ol lady, beer for me. topped off fresh stuff for the most part. had a blast looking at the shok in peoples eyes at the sight of empty shelves. the little stores still had plenty with a few blank spots. bank atm went down, closed the lobby/ only doing window now. fixin to top off the gas and beer just for fun, have a deep stash of both but don’t want to hit that yet…..one weak point is our stash of canned butter and bega cheese is getting long in the tooth. so we’ll freeze the fresh stuff we have and use the canned for a while, tho it too is sold out for who knows how long….. I feel much like that ol hillbilly laying back on his sacks of wildwood weed seeds 🙂
At this point, we have one child who is 8 and he eats us out of house and home. We have always worked to be prepared as bugging out was not a good.option for us. We have a good quiet place but the reality is our situation changes as our son grows. We are good on our supplies for a year but in the end like CZ said…time to conduct AARs during a dwell time and figure on how to improve our situation. Our biggest thing is not being able to plant until late May here but starting inside is a must now. I have a side business which allows access so that helps. I truly worry about my son and wife getting this crap….that is what keeps me up. We are quarantined and limiting interaction as much as possible. I am going to buy a solar power back for our well this week. I screwed the pooch not doing that this past year. Also, home schooling now as my wife’s school and sons is closed.
So far, so good. Haven’t ID d any specific areas that need work right now but that may change as time goes by. I’m treating this as a full scale test run for a much more severe situation by doing my best to limit exposure and remaining in place. I’ve finished the last of the fresh food purchases I wanted to get out the of the way – eggs, fresh vegetables, fruit etc. No meat, lots in storage frozen and canned.
Final thing to do is drag down one of the 14.5 gallon gas totes I’ve had put up to take advantage of dropping prices (down to $1.76 and still declining for regular) in gas but I’m purchasing 100% gas from our local station that stocks it for $2.80 a gallon. Combined with all of my full 5 g cans, I’ll have pushing 65 g s stored (safely).
I’ve also added another 60 gallons of water to stores by filling 6 gallon water jugs. Ironically this has immediate practical purposes I’ll actually have to use some because the ongoing sidewalk construction is going to cut off water and gas for at least a day or 2. I also got one of my butane cooktops out of storage along with a couple cans of fuel.
The GF is still spending time w her mom so the old gal doesn’t have to go out for food, meds, etc. I’m trying to pitch in by cooking for all and driving it over there in takeout clamshells (something VERY handy to have if you haven’t thought of it yet – cheap too). Last night I did smothered pork chops, rice, greens, buttered corn, and biscuits all from scratch from the stores. This morning it was fried eggs, cheese grits, leftover biscuits, honey, sausage, and canned pears. We might get stuck here for a long time but we’re gonna eat good! 😀
Regards
When my wife and I first started stocking up quite a few years ago we made the mistake of stocking large amounts of food products that we didn’t normally eat. Subsequently, ended up giving away a lot of it and a lot of it went bad. We try to only stock items that we already eat now, and have had no more wasted food. (Still have long term freeze dried to supplement). Our major weak spot was always fuel. Recent events were enough of a kick in the butt to pick up bulk diesel for the tractor and truck and non ethanol for all the small engines and small truck. Sitting fairly good now, but probably like everyone else here, wondering what is going to be an unexpected shortage that I failed to consider.
I was short meds that weren’t expired. I’d fully stocked in ’14, but we don’t use enough to rotate. I KNOW it’s still good, but we’re not getting any more from china for a while so I hit costco for about $750 in OTC meds. Took care of some other things in the medical department that I wanted for a long time,but were a ‘bridge too far’ for my wife. Got them just in time.
I had a problem with vermin and had let on hand food stocks run down. I hit that hard from November on. I forgot to get milk back up to stock. UHT is all gone, but I’ve ordered some NIDO. Not as much as I’d like though. Cows will still need milking, so the supply will be there, I just don’t want to risk getting sick to get it.
I’m really wishing I’d got some suppressors, and a nice scoped rifle. (and training)
I did get some armor and I’m very glad about that. I think I mentioned that I hit it HARD the last few months. Don’t know why, had a feeling. In Dec or Jan I knew why.
I never finished getting the whole house gennie set up. I’m hating that now. I let my old faithful gas gennie sit for too long, and didn’t get the used honda e3000 I picked up running yet. Generators running is top of the list after moving all the food to accessible storage. More gasoline in storage and more sta-bil are on the list too.
Increasing defensive posture is coming soon. Moved my soft armor to under the bed. Want to get one last trip to lowes/HD for garden and defensive stuff. Need to reinforce against door kicks beyond what I’ve already done.
I’ve got seeds, and beds, but no green thumb. I have been trying for at least 4 years now, and other than collards and carrots have not been able to grow anything and nothing in “feed the family” quantities.
There’s always something, and like CZ it’s mostly stuff I put off.
nick
Ah, storage batteries and a solar charge controller. I’ve got the panels, and inverter, but batteries are expensive. Damn.
n
Lost most preps in a fire last year,only now is place getting close to ready. If a “smart” meter has been installed on your residence ask it to be removed they are a fire hazard (multiple witnesses to mine exploding),the hotel the insurance put me up in has 2 other “smart meter fire” victims, cashier at bank lost her parents to “smart meter fire” in Dec.. Also review insurance coverage,get fire safes for guns/documents/valuables, maybe safe deposit box for copies of important papers/houehold inventory(no originals/cash orPM). Fire drills need to be practiced,know how to properly use extingushers(what kind nitrogen/co2 are good for almost all with minimal cleanup compared to dry chem,how to use them),exits and alternatives ,smoke and CO detectors. A bol with supplies staged would be best. Be safe.
CZ, thanks for the elbow jog. TDW-Mark II and just did a cursory “Oops!” List, will revisit again, soon.
Well, the weak spot just came apparant as my wife lost her job today due to Covid-19 cut-backs. We “should” be good financially for 3 months, and have a go (back) to hell plan for after that, but hopefully it won’t come to that. We’re both RN’s so getting a job should be relatively easy- just not one that she wants, as she really doesn’t want to go back to ICU nursing
I’m in So Cal and my friends who are RN’s and PA’s say that their facilities have already started putting together hire lists for when/if existing staff gets infected. They’re treating is as a Reserves list. I’d be surprised if other facilities around the country aren’t doing the same. As RN’s you’ll probably be in high demand.
Sotto voce,,,
Dialysis
Her skills are sufficient, the schedule reasonable, and lots of locations…
Wait, what? Who would cut back on nursing staff with an impending surge?
Coincidentally my group and I did a 100% inventory of our long term stores at our BOL about 2 months ago. We documented what we had been stashing ad hoc each trip there for the last 3 years down to the last bean, bullet, and band aid.
From this list we identified gaps and set to filling them, for example we added about 120 more rolls of toilet paper back when it was overflowing from the aisles, one guy realized he had no clothes for his kids down here! I’d love to say this makes me the smartest man alive but I will say we didn’t buy everything we identified at once because it wasn’t like the world was going to fall apart in the next 60 days, we had time right? So regrets, we have a few, but too few to mention.
Also about 4 weeks ago I started feeling like things might be different this time and began ordering more freeze dried food every few days as the feeling got worse and worse. I finally stopped as prices doubled and then everything went out of stock. Probably added about 3 weeks by calorie count for my family in Mountain House to my existing stores. Last week was a HUGE grocery trip when everything but toilet paper was still available so we are doing pretty good.
Not short on supplies, though I’ve spent a good bit on filling in the gaps since Mid February.
Auto parts from out of town are a problem, for the first time I can remember since moving to the mountains in 1986, the shop couldn’t fix a minor issue with the Jeep due to parts not arriving on the delivery truck. They say maybe by next Wednesday.
Our telephone service has never been good up here, but for the last two weeks it’s been even more marginal than usual. Repairman was out here today, wouldn’t say word one about what was going on. He made it clear he’d lose his job if he discussed the topic.
Power is never particularly reliable here, but in the last week I’ve had more outages than in a normal (non weather related) month. Scuttlebutt is that some individuals on our already small repair crews are taking vacation now so they don’t have to mix with people. I know some of those guys, and it doesn’t sound like them, but I have noticed a change in people here lately. More aggressive, more assertive, angry, in the case of a lot of individuals. Had a guy come up to me in Walmart while I was putting some frozen peas in the buggy, and ask me “you gonna take all those.” I said yes, and showed him there were more in the freezer case.
Resupply in the two grocery stores here reminds me of the book “Lights Out.” Same scenario. You don’t know what will come in, or when, and people are buying up everything as it hits the shelves. I saw two Walmart employees in the pet food section. One walked up to the other with a four pack of toilet paper, handed it to him, and said “here’s yours.” She had a four pack tucked under her arm. They saw me watching and ambled off. Don’t know what that was about.
Checking out, a lady had two 12 packs of bottled water, and the cashier told her she could only buy one. Haven’t seen that here before either.
Strange times. Hard to know what’ s coming next.
hey p. what’s your theory on the phone thing?….not seeing the angry here, opposite in fact but the lost look on some faces when they see empty shelves is just weird. been over a week since the tp was available. some folks may be squirming about now, lol. take care.
Wife stopped by Food City this pm to get some of their fresh choc coconut cookies and reports that the shelves were amply stocked with tp and shoppers not crazily buying it. Maybe she hit it lucky, but its a data point.
Southern MN checking in…. Stores are reasonably stocked if you look around. Don’t stay locked into 1 or 2 big places, check the smaller ones too.
We’ve had good luck bolstering our stocks by going shopping in the mornings. We’ve also been shopping for the gf’s mom & aunt with health issues.
The people we’ve interacted with while shopping have been decent. A few with the shocked to fearful looks in their eyes (frequently single parents I’m guessing) but most just dealing with it all.
Last few days we’ve been organizing our stocks & tossing stuff that nobody left in the household will use or that has expired long enough that we aren’t comfortable with it. We found stuff we forgot we had, lol. Overall we’re looking better than I thought we were.
Steelheart