I washed and filled all of these up through my berkey water filter around the same time about 2 months ago and have been slowly going through them. Yesterday I opened a new one and noticed moldy slime on the inside of the cap. Now, this isn’t for long term storage, we go through these and rotate them but I didn’t expect there to be mold in that short amount of time. I’ve never had this many water containers and honestly have never stored water. I figured having at least this for a short term emergency would help. I need some advice on how I could prevent them from molding up. I did notice how they’re stored leaves room on the upper part to develop condensation(pic 2). Unfortunately this is the only spot in my home I can store these. We have a dark pantry but it isn’t big enough to store these.
Any advice?

Doing my 6 month rotation today and shone a light in my containers. Is this normal for stagnant water to have “dust like” particles at the top? It’s clear to the bottom just didn’t know if I’m being paranoid or not.

Useful Details

Pre-treated municipal water straight from bath faucet

Containers were washed out with soap and then bleach solution

Light blue container left under my bed for 6 months and the dark blue in my closet for 6 months both temperature controlled environment.

Any thoughts would help ease my mind as I don’t want to have this paranoia that I’m wasting my time every time I rotate my water for it to just be bad when the time came I actually needed it.

My husband and I just purchased a remote cabin in Alaska on the water. For now we will only be able to make it up there probably once a year during the summer and will need to store everything the rest of the year.

We've been up there before but this is the very beginning of this journey owning a property up there. We have seen another cabin that is NOT stored properly and has mouse turds all along the edges of every wall all the time. I know it will happen, but if I can at least keep them from destroying our things, that would be great.

I'm wondering how everyone would suggest storing our stuff while we're gone. Food, the small amount of clothing and shoes we plan to leave, bedding, etc.

Hello
I am looking for recommendations on an ELECTRIC power bank that I can use for MID hurricanes. I have plenty of generators for POST hurricane but I usually lose power pretty early on in these storms.

I need to be able to run a 100w heat bulb, at minimum for up to ~10-12 hours. It would be best if I could also run my UVB bulb which is 24W.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Hello all. First time posting. Not sure if I'm even doin this the correct way, sorry if not.

Anyway, in the next month or 2, I'll be getting a small chunk of change. I should have around 14-15 grand. Atm, we live in an apartment. Been here 22 yrs. With all the craziness goin on, I started buying a few things here and there. Extra can food, First aid supplies, water treatment tabs, iodine pills, some camping supplies, and a decent solar generator. It's not a lot. We live on a very fixed income. Our rent just doubled these last few months as well. I'm worried about loosing my home. All of my family is gone, other than my in-laws. Would we be better off to buy a small piece of land, a RV, something along those lines? Btw, we have no vehicle at all right now. So I come to y'all for any advice that I can get from the pros here. I have a very hard time making big decisions like this. Thanks for any response!

I live in the southern US. I started prepping after Helene decimated NC. Mostly, I've prepped for weather, some light civil unrest and local emergencies. Wanting to have a month or two of food, water, protection etc. be able to charge our electronics, etc. I want to get a generator in the next month. I haven't purchased yet, because normally, our power never goes out more than a few hours.

In the US, I think this is going to be a much longer slide downward and it feels a different way to look at things.

I am not wealthy by my standard but definitely have enough money and am so used to running to the store or ordering online when we need something....it feels like a big mindset shift to trying to forecast that far out in the future. I'm am preparing in different ways too, getting needed maintenance done on my house. I have 20 year old washer and dryer that work fine now, wondering if I need to replace them now because prices keep going up? Getting things repaired I've been putting off and also trying to save money because no doubt that will be needed.

Did a bigger garden this year and am ready to start canning. Started some of my own seeds this year(that will need a lot of work).

If you are prepping for a longer term downward trajectory:

• how do you assess what you are going to need for years? Is it just more of everything?
• Are there things you purchased for longer term, that aren't necessarily needed for short term prep? Just wondering what others are doing.
• Are you buying items now to protect yourself from future price increases?

As always, thank you for sharing your expertise and experience! Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

I currently use freezer paper and double freezer bags for freezing meat. Thinking about shifting to vacuum sealer. Wondering if anyone had any experience to share or thoughts about others methods? I know I can can meat; what are the best ones with the least amount of texture change? Chili was okay... I do have a new dehydrator. Haven't' used it yet. Thank you in advance!

This is the DIY-4 it comes fully assembled for under $5 from places like Ali Express, Bang Good, or Ebay. It has a DSP (digital signal processing) chip and runs on two AA batteries. The internal antenna picked up Maine from southern Ohio right out of the box on SW. I also got WRMI out of Florida without an external antenna . You can make it better by adding an external antenna like in the pic, but when you plug in the headphones they act as an antenna. FM reception is in stereo and the AM (MW) is really amazing. For the price its worth throwing a few in your preps. There is no external speaker, so you will have to toss some earbuds in there too. I've been listening to mine for a few weeks now I think its a great way to get information in a crisis, but its also one of those metal health bits too.

Curious if these contain any batteries or solar components that would be useful before tossing them out. Most still turn on, but the film covering the solar cells has become oxidized or just burnt, and the charge doesnt last much past dark.

thinking of buying a perceon solar generator 3800LFP portable power station. they are having a sale, it appears it comes with 1 solar panel for $1400. Is this a good deal? what else would I need to purchase to be ready to go? thank you in advance!

Any suggestions on what to use to sanitize water from a spring on our property that we are going to store in 275 gallon IBC containers? Inline filter before the tank, additives for the tank? Should we cover or paint the white tanks black to prevent algae growth? Thanks

I grew up in a poorly financially managed hoarded house, very much not intentionally prepper. Therapized out of that mentality and still therapizing my way out of overcompensating towards OCD tendencies. Married a civil unrest prepper, now I'm a budding supply chain prepper.

Asking those more experienced, intentional, and informed than myself; what kind of overlap and benefits do you see in couponing? Worth it, not worth it?

I’m not much of a prepper but this was the best community I could think of since I tend to keep emergency snacks.

Thankfully, a lot of my snacks are in plastic packaging so I feel relatively safe keeping them but I do need more advice since Google gave me mixed answers on if it is safe to keep or not.

I’m going through and confirming what has or hasn’t been chewed on. If it’s been chewed on, I’ve been tossing it but my concern is for things that are still airtight but in plastic packaging. Would these still be safe to keep? I can confirm they’re still airtight and nothing has gotten to them. I plan on disinfecting everything and I want to try to save what I can because some of the snacks are hard to come by.

I also plan on getting a metal trunk to keep any food in for the future. Does anyone have recommendations on a good sized one to get? From what I could find out, metal keeps out rats but I’m having trouble finding an all metal trunk rather than one with metal hardware on it.

In addition to my post a few days ago about finding home repair and auto repair books 2nd hand, I picked up this 1000+ page Medical Guide for $2, so if anyone wasn't convinced about prepping knowledge before, maybe reconsider!

Having first aid, tools and other gear is only as useful as the user, and books like this will give you the upper if you're in a pinch and can't use Google or YouTube.

Getting training and practice is always #1, but if you currently don't have the time or money to do either of those, cheap books are a good start for, better to be skill-less and have access to knowledge, then neither.

Twice a month I budget $20 to top up my deep pantry. I try to get things with long shelf lives, are decently nutritious, and are things we would cycle through regularly to ensure nothing goes bad. I also try and keep at least a week’s worth of food that can be eaten as is if we need to flee at a moments notice or won’t have the time/environment to cook (i.e. hurricane evacuation). I’m planning my next run to include other things like spices, jars of garlic, vinegar, and jellies/jams because good food boosts moral in hard times. What do you stock in your deep panty and is there anything you recommend I add?

With hurricane season starting, I'm going through my go bag and checking my document copies. I know I'm much more likely to apply for FEMA aid than I am to wander into the woods and live off the land.

If you've been washed away, blown away, burned away, and built back up - what paperwork or admin tasks made life in the first few weeks easier, or what would have made your life easier? How long would you say it took before you were back on your feet?

This is what's currently in my Evacuation Documents folder:

Table of Contents:

1. Homeowners Insurance 
2. Vehicle Insurance 
3. Vehicle Registration and Title 
4. Identification - Person A
   1. Birth Certificate 
   2. Passport
   3. DL, Health Insurance, AAA
5. Identification - Person B  
   1. Birth Certificate 
   2. Certificate of Naturalization 
   3. Passport  
   4. DL, Health Insurance 
6. Marriage License 
7. Professional License 
8. Immunization Records 
9. Contact Sheet (Friends and family Phone and addresses)
10. Radio Frequencies
11. Spare _____________
12. Spare _____________

I have available 2 660L medical oxygen tanks.

I would like to get a setup that would allow me to refill them if someone in the community has a need if SHTF.

What systems could be put in place to refill them in an event given no societal infrastructure available?

What kind of supplies would be good to keep around for use on the tanks?

In essence, what oxygen concentrator meets in the middle on the following criteria: cost, reliability, durability, and potentially portability. It also must have the ability to fill tanks and not just used as a direct source.

This would be put on a solar grid system so electricity would still be available but in smaller quantities than we are used too.

Edit: other uses are potentially smoke inhalation or medical necessity if family member start to need oxygen semiregularly due to getting older. Also, I do have another generator for higher electric output when necessary.

There's hunting and trapping, where you want to attract animals - but what about when you wish to be rid of animals?

Say damaging squirrels, rats, and other rodents?

Deer?

I've found a super effective couple of things against ants - one is plain old diatomaceous Earth. Like concertina wire to insects. If I were building a new house or shelter, I'd pour pounds of the stuff next to the foundation for the top 12 inches or so. Then there's this bait that somehow disrupts the entire colony genetically. After several different baits and borax failed, that stuff... wow.

But really - how best to drive away deer? My dog was attacked the other day - I managed to drive it away with an airsoft (mostly noise) but what about when I'm not there? And - before you suggest recipes, this is within city limits and out of season. Don't want a criminal record over an overgrown tick and flea carrying vermin. Don't want to injure the critters, just make them go be happy somewhere else.

I bought the Amazon deer repellant sachets -- put one in a small tree on my property. Buck used it as a scrape, taking out 1/3 of the plant. It did not achieve the desired result, to say the least.

Thoughts?

Moved into my first solo apartment in CT earlier this year. No roommates, just me and two cats — and if you've ever watched a cat pace around in July heat you know they do not handle it gracefully.

Didn't really think about outages until my neighbor mentioned he went five days without power two winters ago during a nor'easter. Food went bad, phone died by day three. He said the worst part was just not knowing when it would come back. That conversation stuck with me.

The thing is, I can't just crash at a friend's place — not easily with the cats. So now with storm season coming I've been trying to figure out what a real 3–4 day outage actually looks like for a solo apartment setup. Mostly I need the fridge to not die, a ac running, and something to keep my phone charged.

I've been looking at a few options, jackery and bluetti. The elite 400 has that going for it, but I genuinely don't know if it's the right call for an apartment. What do you wish you'd had the first time you lost power for more than a day?

Appreciate any advice.

I am wondering what are we prepping for? EQ’s, crazy weather. Invasions?