Practical Prepping Protocol even if Poor

Thank you for your encouragement! It seems very hard, slow going sometimes, and the appreciation goes a long way! You are appreciated, too!

This is something I just learned from a friend on another site this weekend and am anxious to make these - they will fit perfectly for much of what I have put away, and will be a taste treat along with needed protein. Give it a try! Come back and tell us how it went and what you think!

The number one mistake that I see begineer preppers doing is not making a landing net for fishing. This happens sometikes once a week on every Alone episode.

Imagine catching a fish and reeling thebfishnin after tiring it, and then as you try to transfer a heavy fish that likely has fat in it, then snaps the line from the weight not supported by the water.

You would slap yourself for making such an error.

In the evening when you have time, you work on tools like that, so then when you need them, you work was not in vain.

I have watched and enjoyed that program in the past but don't have access to it at the moment.

I remember one of those programs in which one man killed, roasted, and ate a mouse. Another man went to great lengths to kill and dispose of the mouse. Which one won? Yes, that's right!

Good question about vegans, AC 1210. I truthfully had not considered the issue - but a quick search of YT produced a quantity of videos to help our vegan friends, so they may be in good shape after all!
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The fishing, trapping and hunting for game is not going to last long, considering the numbers of people who already think they are going to survive well and feed their families that way. Many are people who recently purchased a rifle, have no real clue how to use it, and are likely to shoot someone or be shot - orange vests, people!! Red hats!! - or fall and break their necks. There will be crowds in the woods and at the lakes and streams, and fighting over anything anybody gains.

The people in Alone are alone - no nearby competition, much less hordes of foolish, untrained, desperate people. They have it easy, compared to what's coming, though I would not want to be trying to survive in that cold!

Thank you for the excellent reminders of things we need to consider and those which require great mindfulness. Also, a big thanks to you on behalf of vegans and vegetarians whom I had ruthlessly forgotten! Help is present on youtube and elsewhere for them!

How are your preps coming, AC? Plenty of water and everything you need? I have said so often, and will repeat here - whatever is under your roof is yours, long as you can defend it if needed. Anything not under your roof will require a fight, stealth, great risk to your own life and safety. Get it now, while you can, and stay home! STAY SHELTERED! Life will not be safe out there - you do not want to suddenly remember a desperate need and go looking - buy or otherwise accumulate it NOW and if you do not, prepare to do without because going for it could easily mean you never get back to your loved ones again.

Oh good heavens! I am slapping myself right now for not having given a net a thought! Aargh - what a dumb thing not to think of, for the very reason you mention! Here is this wonderful big fish, full of all the nutrients the body desperately needs immediately, then SNAP and the fish is gone, just out of not thinking things through.

Bless you for all your helps here! You have it right on! Keep posting, please - we all need to learn and remember!

As winter breaks but spring is still far off, a wise prepper will start fishing as the large fish are very very hungry. That is an excellent meal and substantial.

Fish for some reason can sense when you mash up corn and or peas in the water. Most preppers have these. Hydrate them, but these in a sock, and they will come to the bank and snap on anything due to their hunger.

If it's carp, smoke it and it will be edible.

You can waste a lot of calories by hunting for edibles. When actually you are supposed to minimize work calories. Be smart about that.

There are wild edibles from say late February through November but the caloric intake is low. So you could easily expend more by searching and harvesting than you gained by eating.

If vegan, you have to really overestimate your supplies because think how long t will be before harvest time and how many calories you can realistically gather. Thus this means almost certainly eating meat or death follows.

I strongly recommend, in terms of preparation and food storage, that everyone here read Thread: I ADVISE YOU TO CLICK THIS! It has begun. FOOD SHORTAGES. (Page 17) at least from page seventeen on. Much good information suddenly from old-time preppers. Have a read and comment, too. Good thread. Wish all that was said here!

For planting helps, see Thread: Dandelions and Civilization (short vid)UPDATED pg 11 Dandelion and Spike Proteins (Page 7) and even start from the beginning. He covers foraging, planting, all manner of thing. Highly recommended, as the man has a degree in these subjects and knows whereof he writes.

Last Edited by Pooka on 07/22/2019 02:10 AM

I have a bad feeling about this week. Anybody else? I think as we near the end of the week we will be spent and exhausted, and thankful beyond belief for every little thing we have prepared and purchased and stored and learned.

Feels very heavy on my chest, as though we are nearing the end of "normalcy" and about to enter the times for which we have prepared.

What are others feeling/thinking? Am I alone in this?

People aren't ready at all. And luckily it isn't late November. Every year I cringe when late November arrives as although I am prepared, 95% are not and if the SHTF from late say December to February, then most urbanites would die. They would realize after seveb days of no water they are screwed as there isn't any from the tap and they drank every bit of water and beverages. Now what?

So they get in the car as does everyone else. Then they get stuck in traffic. They leave their city and end up in another large city and out of gas.

Then strike out on foot and can't carry much in snowy conditions and kids die of exposure and mom and dad get frostbite.

The ones who survive steal from each other and use up all the firewood and steal from every little town they run into.

That is the worse case scenario.

In history, for the Native Americans, February was starving time. They stored up food but always ran short. Cooped up people overeat initial then freak out and ratio. So Februrary rolls around and people's immune system is depressed and some fools go out looking and get injured and die as they are famished.

For gosh sakes, think about that as now we have plenty and we're solid on harvesting until the first week of November considering pumpkin/squash. Beans, corn, squash are the three sisters to the Native American elders.

Now a lot of people have no money but it's summer vacation time, so they blow it with credit cards. When actually now is prime prepping time.

Buy your preps. If you have some money left over, when it's Autumn do an inexpensive camping trip and practice your ancdestral skills with the kids like debris huts and cooking outside.

Then budget for Christmas knowing you have your pantry full, had a great family outing,and have a modest Christmas. If you have money after, buy discounted clothing for the kids.

That is frugal and practical and smart.

Consider drying all the excess produce that will be available now through October.

Take advantage this year with persimmons when they are available and have been cured by the first frost. That can liquifid and served as persimmon pudding.

Harvest some chichory root since it grows abundantly this time of year to add to your coffee all year long and make some beignets too.

Cook desserts to give away at Christmas to cut back. Like biscotti which everybody likes and nobody makes homemade.

Everybody likes this with coffee or tea. It's clever original prepper by the Italians and French.

With summer fruit, then make popsickles not buy them.


Make a raspberry trifle which looks spectacular, is inexpensive, and a welcome addition at any summer gathering.

A thirteen year old budding teen can make this and will be very oraised by everyone and it's not difficult a d she needs the practice.

Done pooka looka

You are so right! Eating out of boredom will go too far into supplies. Have on hand things you enjoy doing so that you will focus more on them and less on eating to alleviate tedium.

This is the time to be stocking up - go for what's on sale, what's fresh and preservable. Winter squash require no preserving - purchase as soon as available and keep in a cool, dry place for months. Excellent calorie and nutrient count.

Wasting money with credit cards - dumb thing to do at this time. Will that money spent today on pleasure feed you this winter?

Thank you for great post.

Thank you, MKJeep!

Terrific, delicious post!! Use what is readily available at this time - and thrill your tastebuds inexpensively, while getting great nutrition not available in the pre-packaged variety, such as popsicles.

Yum! What a great idea! Seems like this would store for some time, as well. Definitely the time to be making it!

Thank you for this post and idea!

Good post, good planning. I'm loving the biscotti idea and it is a great gift - you are right - and not expensive, yet everybody would receive it happily and gratefully!

Practicing the outdoor skills, practicing with all the preps you have - excellent - does no good to have plans and physical items, yet don't really know how to use them. Get busy, people! Show the kids what fun camping is - they will need to enjoy what you are doing, even when it is a must-do.

If you are “poor” or rich the best advice is learn the skills of how to live 150 years ago, and learn them so well it is automatic.

Yes, store food if you have a canner or a water bath or dehydrate whatever you can afford.

But in my opinion, being prepared well is having the knowledge to live as out great-grandfathers and further back have lived.

Having lived around the world in the past - it is so clear that the rural villages will be fine in any collapse. They live without anything, always have and can do or make anything from nothing, they hunt, know seasons, know water. They still have that skill.

You have to know where to go that will have few people, where the safe water will flow and the times of years it is livable.

How to care for, help someone medically without a store purchased first aid kit, how to butcher every type of animal then how to preserve without refrigeration. What plants can you harvest, and how so they keep producing. How to store things while keeping rodents out, and from mold.

While it’s good to stockpile preps, if you are poor it can be difficult to do, that also will anchor you to an area where people might raid.

If you are poor, knowledge will make you the richest. Learn to live as they did 150 or 200 years ago. Grab a pencil and paper, write down important skills in a notebook. When tshtf there will be no internet on how to google making twine, or setting a trap.

Excellent points - planning ahead is the only way to manage. When food is not available in the stores any more, what will you eat? Do you have water if the taps run dry or run polluted water? So now you leave home, along with millions of others, all looking for the same things in the same places - do you believe you will be successful? Highly unlikely. People who have prepared for this have also prepared to protect what they have. Remember this!

This is likely to be a very hard winter for most people - if you are not ready for it, you cannot manage for your own family - and if you believe, with "normalcy bias", that everything will always be as it has always been, there is little help for you. Wake up!!

Ref hunting and fishing, a practical bug out plan for people in some coastal cities is a canoe or kayak or even a larger boat.

Even an apartment dweller in Houston can have a small canoe or inflatable boat. All of the bayous lead to the bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The bays and rivers may run out of fish if large numbers of people are trying to forage, but the Gulf will NOT run out of sea creatures to eat.

Plus, there are no limits or restrictions on method of fishing when the authorities are trying to save themselves and their families.

Fresh water for drinking may be the worst problem, so caching a drum or some 2 liter bottles where you expect to camp would be wise. With a good plastic sheet, you can catch a lot of rain water.

Personally, I don't advocate bugging out if you can possibly avoid it. Refugees showing up in farming areas with skills and the right attitude can probably find work at least sufficient to stay fed.

I believe in cooperation rather than the Lone Survivalist theme.

Knowledge is indeed power! The old skills should never have been allowed to become old. The wisest among us can start fires, find water, grow foods, preserve what they grow and hunt, make shelters from the weather, all that a person or family would need.

Reading this thread from the beginning will give a person most all of the skills needed for survival after SHTF - from hints to videos to personal experience. I recommend reading it, from page one, to learn the skills mentioned above, and then to go out and practice, practice, practice.

People, please note that I removed a couple of posts referencing vegeterians and vegans. These were more pejorative than helpful and that is not the point of this thread.

Vegans can find adequate information on youtube and from other sources for recommendations for their dietary needs.

Let's leave vegans out of this thread, knowing they can find their own way, having determined their own diet.

Thank you

No i dont want to be a vegan!
I am a PETA (People for Eating of Tasty Animals though. I mostly farm my own poor little thumper.
But growing is something I do a lot of! Quinoa 1 Lb seed 100 Lbs of sprouts or 1000 Lbs grow out, A lot of water and space!

Sprouting is high on my prep plan mostly wheat grass, oat hay bean sprouts most will start within 7 days and will be ready in another 7 days, I have rolling 2 ft x 4 ft shelves with hydro trays on each shelve and a water reservoir on the bottom automated system with a cycle timmers that flood and drain. The 2x4 low tide trays hold 4 each 10"x20" propagation trays with holes then we got some inserts 5"x5" that let me do different things.
Could go on for day about this subject
Feed store whole grains cheep and sprout well 90%

This is a long thread, so this may have already been suggested and discussed, but anytime you eat out be sure to grab a few of the small packages of salt, pepper, sugar, and any other condiment/seasoning packages that do not have a shelf life and take them home with you. Start a dry storage system for them. By the end of the year, you will have a nice collection at no expense. These also make fantastic bartering items if you have enough.

You need to have realistic expectations about wild edibles. An expert is lucky to get 500-1000 calories a day when 2000 is the bare minimum for an active 70kg man. This is why Zac Fowler lost 70 lbs. With no fat and I adequate calories, then you are screwed as you are likely actually using up 3200 calories a day.

Most would pass out in a month. What happens typically in group dynamics is the healthy athlete with low body fat then runs out of glycogen from their muscle and liver reserves. Then use up their scant fat. Then start passing out due to hypovolemia (low blood volume) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Then they start being disconnected from fully perceivijg how famished they are and how dehydrated they are.

Confusion begins. They drink iffy water improperly sterilized, get diarhea on top of being famished.

Loss of consciousness happens. Stupor and staggering begins. Coma follows. Organ failure. Death.

That can all happen in 14 days, so to survive a month is quite an accomplishment.

Zac lasted 87 days.

When he ate a fish, he ate it all. Even the bones and fishhead became broth.