Covid19 – Home Preparation, Deep Pantry and Gardening Megathread – Peak Prosperity Covid19 Library of Files

This is a compilation of the comments about Home Preparation, Deep Pantry and Gardening which are discussed in the following Peak Prosperity Articles, Blogposts and Podcasts from 1/23/2020 to 3/9/2020:

From 01/23/2020: ALERT: Coronavirus Pandemic Event Now A Serious Risk

George Karpouzis: Stage 1 Preparation
Its been a while but as soon as this story broke I knew where to go. I’m going to start phase 1 of my prep JUST IN CASE. I have a 2 year old son and a 5 month pregnant wife. Phase 1 includes the following:
– LOADS OF WATER
– I ordered 2 months of formula for my son. He drinks HIPP Combiatik from Germany. Good stuff
– LOADS OF DIAPERS AND TOILET PAPER
– PROPANE TANKS (ABOUT 2 OF THEM)
– LOADS OF CEREAL AND ALMOND MILK
– MASKS AND GLOVES
– ELDERBERRY SYRUP (THANKS CM)
Any other recommendations?

Quercus bicolor: my prep so far
2 boxes of 20 N95 masks plus one N100 respirator (particle filter only) to add to the one I have already. Home Depot had plenty. Walmart supercenter was out of stock.
1+ lb dried elderberries and 3+ lbs honey to make syrup as needed (or a decoction sans the honey for my wife who avoids all things sweet).
Plenty of nonperishable foods stuffs sufficient to to meet the family’s varied dietary needs.
Reviewing Stephen Harrod Buhner’s facebook post from today and considering some/all of those herbs.

From 01/24/2020: VIDEO: The Risk Of A True Pandemic Is Higher Than We’re Being Told

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From 01/25/2020: How Contagious Is The Coronavirus?

George Karpouzis: Time to start prepping
The lack of new info is making me prep more
I have 24 cases of water
2 months worth of diapers
2 months worth of baby formula
60 N95 masks plus one full on respirator
canned soup and fruits

herewego: Thanks for the wealth of information
Because of your input I have ordered N95 masks, made a list of medical care at home items to pick up on my next town trip for my household and my elderly mom’s, and have a pot of frozen elderberries on the boil right now. We both have deep pantries but they will get deeper at my earliest opportunity. Interesting that all of the smaller packages of N95 face masks went out of stock in 2 hours on Staples.ca. All dozen or so brands!

From 01/25/2020: PODCAST: Everything We Know So Far About The Coronavirus

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From 01/26/2020: VIDEO: Challenging The Chinese Coronavirus Data

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From 01/27/2020: The Coronavirus Is Now An Actual Pandemic

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From 01/28/2020: How Will The Coronavirus Impact The Markets?

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From 01/28/2020: What The 1918 Spanish Flu Can Tell Us About The Coronavirus

signalfire: ICU bed and respirator availability
My husband just died in November from heart failure and he was in the ‘ICU’ for several days before he was transferred back to the general population rooms and put on a a short term of hospice – it wasn’t worth finding a regular hospice spot for him because he didn’t have long. Since I spent a lot of time in the ICU and have hospital experience otherwise, I can tell you ‘not much’ in the way of empty rooms and adequate staffing, especially during the winter normal flu season. It looked like a warehouse for terminally ill patients.

I encourage anyone who is thinking of going to a hospital if they feel unwell to first open up that hospital’s website on line, search under ‘careers’ and look at how many nursing and other technical staff openings they have. I don’t care which hospital you look at, they will have dozens of unfilled spots.

Learn to take care of yourself at home, stock up on flu medications, alcohol, Lysol, gloves – depending on whether you live alone or not – masks to protect others in the household, easy to prepare and consume food. You may be MUCH BETTER OFF staying at home than exposing yourself to the germ soup that is a hospital, and an understaffed overwhelmed hospital at that. Oh, by the way, even the biggest city hospitals only have a few respirators, and they’ll be used by the sickest and/or most politically advantageous (board members and sick staff) patients. Unless you think someone else will get taken off a respirator to give you access to it. People in China are starting to spit on (!) hospital personnel saying ‘if you won’t treat me, I’ll make you sick too’ – and they’re being polite. In the US, all these types of people have guns.

From 01/29/2020: Coronavirus Update: The Calm Before The Storm

Chris Martenson: Yes, I think You’ve Got This Dead Wrong
Meantime – I remain opposed to anything that heightens fear in people – because ultimately I believe it does more harm than good.

I’m going to challenge you here because you have it pretty much dead wrong. Here are two cases, fear and no fear.

No fear: People don’t even know what the risk is, and so they don’t change any behaviors. They walk around, they cough and sneeze without even covering up, they shake hands and then touch their faces before washing their hands. They congregate, and they don’t use any proper hygiene. Tens of millions get infected, hundreds of thousands develop severe complications, and tens of thousands die many of them unnecessarily because the hospital system gets overloaded.

Fear: People ‘get it’ and because they cannot see virus particles they come to fear what they can’t see. So they develop an overabundance of caution. They socially shame people who cough and sneeze without wearing face masks. They don’t shake and and touch escalator railings, doorknobs, etc., without immediately using hand santizer that they now carry with them everywhere. They forgo large gatherings, and places where congregation would unnecessarily expose them to higher odds of being near an infected person, symptomatic or otherwise. Because of a vastly slower progression through the population, the contagion does not swamp the hospital system and many more people live.

I think your view is wrong when it comes to this subject, and possibly a little bit patronizing. I trust my fellow citizens to do they best they can if given the full and complete information, it seems you do not? And by the way, if the facts make someone fearful and panicky, the problem isn’t with the facts.

suziegruber: Things To Consider Re: Travel Plans
Hi E, First of all, congratulations on your marriage. How untimely all this is for you. I have several trips scheduled in the next little while including a major vacation in a couple of weeks, so I appreciate your question. Here’s what I think is worth considering in no particular order:

~ How prepared are you already for the pandemic? Would you be better off staying home and preparing further in case this situation really does become major where you live.

~ Where are you going and what will you be doing when you get there? From my perspective this probably isn’t the greatest time to be sightseeing in the middle of Bangkok for example. If you will be doing something more remote that does not involve large crowds, then that’s a different story. If you are going to a country that typically gets lots of visitors from China for Chinese New Years, they may have more Corona virus cases than are currently reported.

~ What level of trust do you have in the medical system of the countries you are visiting should you get sick?

~ Will you have access to news where you are going and can you abort your trip if necessary and return home early? Will you be able to communicate with friends and family from where you are going?

~ How important is it for you to stick to your planned schedule or would you be okay if your return home was delayed by the events at hand? Along with that consider your level of emotional & financial resilience if you were to suddenly be stranded in an unfamiliar city for a period of time.

~ How healthy are you currently? Someone with a history of lung issues or a compromised immune system would likely be taking more of risk traveling right now than at other times.

~ Are you prepared for flying at this time? In my opinion people flying should have at a minimum a supply of N95 masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. I would also bring all of my own food for the plane travel portion of the trip.

~ Will you be able to enjoy your trip or will your attention be split because of what’s going on? This is a big one for me personally with the vacation and not so much for the work trips I have scheduled.

This is a tough and very personal decision. We just don’t know what will happen since we are at the beginning of this pandemic. I have not yet decided what I will do. I wish you well in your decision making.

Mrs. Bohall: Thoughts from a newb
Hi! I’ve been reading comments from this site re: Coronavirus now for about 15 days. I found this site through Censored.news and check it daily…more than once… I decided to go ahead and register due to the solid info from PeakProsperity and the attentive commentators…

I’m a 48yr old mom of 3 daughters. Been married now for 27 years. 2 of our daughters are grown and in their 20s. Both of them are clueless about what’s going on and weren’t really too interested in my input on the subject. (typical ignorant young people) Our 3rd daughter is now 7 and I homeschool her. I’ve talked to my DH about this somewhat but he also is taking a very casual attitude… haven’t spoke to my parents about it yet but I will this weekend. My dad drives for Uber in Las Vegas… that could be a problem IMO.

So basically, I am just an average person (except for the fact that I don’t HAVE to go out into the public on any daily basis). I know enough to NOT TRUST the MSM narrative. I pay attention to NaturalNews.com and Infowars (as well as some other sites) and I keep my “fears” in check due to my longstanding faith in God. We live in a small town about 45 min south of Kansas City, MO and since the Chiefs are in the Superbowl this weekend I’m headed to the store to do some stocking up before all those people return on Monday…

My logic is this. Even though I am a “healthy” gal and do not have any major medical issues (at least none I’m aware of), I’m not in any position to be getting sick. (Ain’t nobody got time for that). If the Chiefs win…we’re not going to the parade (even though I REALLY want to). In 2 weeks time, I figure if anyone caught this little bugger down in Miami (still an open airport for Chinese travelers) we’ll have it here in the heartland. Since I have a little time on my hands as a stay-at-home-mom I’ll be prepping to stay in for at least 4-6wks if/when it hits up in the city. We don’t have expendable income right now so I can’t go buy prepackaged 4wk supply meal offers that are out there. I’m going to do it myself. I will buy a vacuum meal saver thing (about $50) and I’ve compiled my own list of foods to either make ahead and freeze or foods that don’t require a lot to prepare (like just add water, lol). I’ve got to stay in my budget as best as I can (it’s a very slow time of year for my husband – a self-employed commercial artist)

I looked at some of the food items included in a pre-packaged MRE offer and from that, I came up with ideas of my own. Pinterest is a great place to search for meal prep ideas. Obviously if we lose power than that’s a different problem but for right now, I can only mentally deal with what is appearing to be on the horizon. If nothing happens in the next couple weeks, and the virus takes it’s sweet time in getting here (I do believe it’ll eventually arrive) than all I’ve done is just some preventative planning. I’m not going to buy worthless surgical masks but I will probably at some point soon, go locate our painting respirators that my husband has used for work (I think they’re in the garage somewhere) It’s not a full face mask but the dual cartridge filters are replaceable and the mask fits snug on the face. I may also pick up some sealed safety goggles (like we used to wear back in chemistry class) or perhaps just go with some motorcycle goggles that are sealed all around the eyes (also in the garage). I told 7yr old (who CONSTANTLY touches her face) that I may have to fashion her a cone collar (like they use on dogs after surgery) to keep her hands away from her face. She loved the idea of course, lol. I’ve already taught her about germs on surfaces of things (I hate public restrooms) and so to a certain degree she understands why I would be vigilant about this kind of thing.

I don’t know if anyone would really care about how a stay-at-home mom might handle this possible upcoming potential catastrophe but these are just some of my ideas… if anyone would care to see my “list” I’ll gladly put it here in this comment section. Thanks for your time! May God be with us all…

greendoc: Greetings, and spend some money on sprouting seeds
A treasure trove of great information here. May I add, when prepping dry goods consider seeds for sprouting. If ever it comes to weeks/months of social distancing, then fresh fruit and veggies some of the first things to go. Providing you have clean water (and part of prepping is to figure that out) and seeds, mason jars, sprouting lids and some patience you can grow sprouts easily! I like broccoli and radish sprouts, as they are high in sulfuraphane, as well as other needed things like folate, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and vitamins C and K.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sulforaphane Many places online to get seeds, I like Sproutpeople.

annepan001: Sprouting seeds
Great advice greendoc! We have an organic veg farm, but are heading into the “hungry gap” from April to June, when last year’s crops are finishing and the new ones are seedlings/ young plants. We sprout organic mungbeans routinely from October to March for ourselves and our pet hens, to make sure we all get some vibrant living plant material through the winter months. A crop takes two days to be ready – no brainer!

Oliveoilguy: Sprouts
Could not agree more that sprouts are almost required for isolation living. We do a broccoli, alfalfa blend for salads and mung beans for stir fry. Sprouting lids are cheap on amazon as are organic seeds for sprouting.

brianwilliams82: checking in from central Europe
Hi all, I don’t post very much here but I very much value the work carried out by PP. It’s really shaped a lot of my outlook since coming across it (via Mike Maloney’s ‘Hidden Secrets of Money pt 8’ video about 15 months ago – Chris’s segment really leapt out at me!) I have a ‘love/hate’ relationship with the site, if I’m being honest – I ‘love’ what it provides but ‘hate’ that such a site actually needs to exist, if people get me?

My own feelings on this since starting to take this seriously last weekend (following the PP weekly newsletter) have gone from real, almost irrational fear of the type Andy_S is likely on about (“oh God, this thing will kill us all!! Gotta get out of the city!!!”) to what others here have helpfully referred to as a heightened state of concern, driven by that underlying fear. I’ve taken quantifiable, actionable steps to reduce myself and my family’s vulnerability to this thing should it arrive here (no confirmed cases as yet in Czech Republic);

I’ve made sure the car’s petrol tank is full ‘just in case’. We do not need to use the car every day due to excellent public transport.
Purchased several bottles of elderberry syrup. No doubt not as good as homemade stuff, but better than nothing!
Ordered some N95 masks. I’m ‘on the list’, basically, as demand has totally cleaned out supply
Stocked up a bit on canned goods. I already have a bit of a stash, no doubt not nearly as much as many regulars here have but we’re not too bad on this front
Got hand sanitiser + antibac liquid soap. I’ve also increased my own handwashing and am avoiding touching my face as much as possible. This is hard as my face seems to be incredibly itchy all of a sudden since I can’t touch it, lol! This has an added side-benefit, as I’ve a lousy, lifelong habit of biting my nails and the skin around them, so this is giving those long-suffering fingers a great chance to recover!

It has also – belatedly – allowed me to have a somewhat ‘PP-related’ discussion with my other half, for which I’ve been greatful.

pinecarr: Seeds for sprouting
Greendoc, good advice on sprouting, thanks! I looked around for good deals on seeds for sprouting, and Country Life Natural Foods ,https://www.clnf.org/seeds, seems to have some very reasonably priced organic seeds compared to Amazon and other places I looked. Lots of other bulk grains, seeds, etc.

From 01/30/2020: The W.H.O. Just Prioritize Money Over Human Life

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From 01/31/2020: New Coronavirus Ro of 4.1 = Massive Contagion Risk

Tim Soper: Newbie Asking For A Reality Check
Newbie here. Thanks for the great info from PP and the commenters as well. So grateful I found this community. I could use a reality check. I’m a 53 year old male, mildly overweight, with a taxed immune system who lives alone in a suburb of Chicago and works in a casino with a large clientele of Chinese & Asian players. A casino is nearly as bad as a daycare for infections, my clientele are expats who travel back and forth to Asia, and I can’t just walk away from my job. So I realize that I’d be likely to be right on the early firing line if and when this pandemic hits the US. I think I’m relatively intelligent, but I admit that pandemic wasn’t high on my list of worries for 2020, and my week to week bankroll isn’t such that I can get 6 months of food or water supply. I’ve got that much of a reality check so far (which is miles ahead of my friends, but thankfully my kids & ex-wife have listened), but I’m asking this community what else I can do this late in the game? I ordered dried elderberries and will be cooking up the syrup tomorrow. I’ll be shopping for groceries on Monday (payday) and will be getting 2 extra weeks of meat & dry goods (most I can afford). I’m thinking of ordering the electrolyte mix so I can combat dehydration. What else would be a MUST HAVE this coming week say on a budget of $100? Also, and this is looking into the future, if I would need to go to a hospital, I’m thinking it would be wise to go away from the city towards the best smaller community hospital I could find. My logic is that the Chicago hospitals would get flooded, but is that trade off of some of the best care in the states for less crowded, but probably less qualified care worth it? I hope this doesn’t sound panicky, because I’m not panicked. I’m just looking to get informed even if I’ve been asleep at the wheel too long. Thanks in advance for any and all comments.

Mots: what to do beyond mask/elderberries/stored food
Tim, 1. “Sandpuppy” has many postings on this topic and is the best source of such information in my opinion. Look for his postings along with Chris M videos.

Because so much is known about this virus, I expect to see some serious medicine emerge fairly soon, so the longer we wait the more opportunities for chemical interventions.
Personally, I would look into buying an oxygen tank and mask, to administer oxygen and stay out of the hospital (but you need to learn how to handle gaseous oxygen: tuberculosis survivors and other lung challenged long term survivors use these). it seems clear that presently the only cure is our immune system and time. Hospital ICUs seem to merely provide ways to get oxygen into weaked lungs while waiting for the body to do its thing. I wonder what the excellent ICU experts on this site have to say.

Haiku4U: Common sense and the basics to start with…
Chris and Adam, and everyone at Peak Prosperity. Thanks SO much for everything that you are and have been doing for this community over the past decade. I am a long time lurker, but posting for the 1st time. I have come to depend on PP as my first “go to” website when I want an in depth discussion on so many different topics. You guys are great!

If you are just starting to prepare for emergency preps the basics are where to start. Start with what you might need for the next week or two. Toilet paper, disinfectants, coffee, food, bread, a few gallons of water, etc., is a great place to start. Batteries, Pedialite, Ibuprofen, food for your pets…whatever you can think of. You don’t need to hoard stuff or buy things you don’t need. Just stick to the basics.

Jess Condra:
Eat well (lots of veggies), sleep well, try to take very good care of yourself during this time. If possible, wear gloves to work. If you can’t, wash your hands with soap and water as frequently as possible. Make sure not to ever touch your eyes/nose/mouth. Also, perhaps you could arrange to work during the least busy times, rather than the most busy.

Krystelle Ellaby: some budget friendly ideas.
Along with the elderberry syrup; Garlic, fire cider, Manuka honey and any over the counter cold and flu tablets you normally take. Also get a couple jars of vitamins.

To keep things clean: masks, rubbing alcohol, bleach and hand sanitizer.

For food: This is not a balanced diet, its not enough calories for a healthy adult, it’s just a jumping off point: 100g or about 3 to 4 oz of pasta or rice is one serve. So for 1 person for 3 months you need around 20kgs or 44lb. Then you can supplement that with tinned meat or beans. 30 tins for a one month supply. Buy a couple boxes of oats, nuts and dried fruit to make overnight oats or muesli.

Buy some radish and beets, plant them in a pot and eat the leaves, for fresh greens. Simple dressing for salad is fire cider, garlic and olive oil. I just got divorced, just moved, I haven’t got much, but I spent about $500 Australian or about $350 us for two people and hopefully it’s enough carbs at least, that I don’t have to go to the shops for a few months.

nickbert: Bugging In
My family and I here in Mongolia have been largely staying indoors since we got back on Wednesday. Other than a couple of shopping trips we’ve stayed indoors the whole time, and I’ve been doing those grocery shopping trips solo. When going out I’ve been carrying and using hand sanitizer on a regular basis, carrying antibacterial wipes (for shopping carts and other things), and wearing an N95 mask (that I brought from the US… I’ve been told you can’t find any around here anymore). One thing I’ve realized is my longtime habit of using cash could be a higher risk than using a debit card. Applying some hand sanitizer after using a debit card point-of-sale terminal is probably a safer alternative than handling cash that any number of people could have handled prior to me. At this point I don’t think the risk around here of contracting nCoV is high. BUT… I think these precautions are good habits to lock in now before it eventually spreads to Mongolia.

Staying inside is workable but not without challenges. The good thing is we’ve got Netflix and cable TV, a s-load of movies and e-books on digital storage, a bunch of home projects to work on such as my 3D printer and webcomics and crypto-trading, and our son got a new Playstation 4 for Xmas that (along with some board games and such) helps keep him and his little sister from going absolutely bug-house. Even so, it’s getting increasingly hard when my daughter asks to play outside to tell her that it’s just not a good idea. How do you explain the situation to a 5-year-old? You can’t… you just try to be patient and try to come up with new things for her to do. At least our kids have their cousins to play with (they live in the same complex and are being kept indoors too). When things warm up a bit next week their grandparents plan on taking them to their country house. At least there they’ll get to play outside without exposure risk from others. Again, at this point in this place I think our exposure risk is still very low, but if there’s even a 25% chance of this coming here I think adapting our behavior is worth it. Even wearing that N95 mask. I fing HATE wearing that mask…

signalfire:
Presume that ALL hospitals will be overwhelmed. Hospital personnel are not saints nor are they immune to infection. They are NOT going to be an option for the vast majority of people and are a germfest for everyone who walks into one, even on a good day. As far as preps, obviously wear a mask at work; I suspect given large amounts of Asian clientele, that may very well close soon anyways. Food/supplies: no need to order special electrolyte fluids; you need to replenish sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium; buy OTC pills for the last three, cheap. Slightly salt your drinking water for the rest. Buy easy to prepare, no cook food, the kind you could prepare for yourself if you were almost too sick to get out of bed. You won’t have much of an appetite if you’re sick anyways. I’m convinced that most Americans are near-scurvy in their Vitamin C levels (unless you’re a real lover of spicy foods or broccoli) and Vit C not only provides immune support, it is burned up fast in an infectious scenario. 1 gram (1000 mg) every 1-2 hours if you start feeling sick, at least supplement 1 gram a day as a normal daily dose; some advice says ‘to bowel tolerance’ which means too much causes diarrhea; this is a mere flush of the system and not a disease state to worry about. Some hospitals are using high dose IV C plus B vitamins to combat sepsis (blood poisoning) with great success, others apparently haven’t heard of it yet. If worse gets to worser, quarantine yourself; for now, shop early morning or late at night when grocery stores are less crowded; use self checkout, assume staff are infectious/contaminated. Don’t touch the cart until you wipe it down with sanitizer. Don’t go anywhere crowded, starting now; good advice in any flu season. As an introvert, I’ll never understand people going to the Superbowl with all the threats that entails; someone should do a study on sicknesses arising from participants 1-2 weeks later…

Added: Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think people in the States can just go out and buy an oxygen tank. For one thing they’re dangerous fire-wise and two, if you’re sick enough to need one, you’re too sick to monitor the use of it.

AKGrannyWGrit: Oxygen System
The sick and elderly use portable oxygen all the time. My father who died from COPD used an in home and also a portable oxygen unit. They can be rented and purchased on-line. Experienced divers will also be able to figure out how to rig up an at-home oxygen system. Just a thought.

Alex Earle: Small Steps – Almost There
I finally convinced my wife to review this situation, calmly and logically. I reiterated that hopefully this is not something to “Panic” about but preparing would be prudent. (Pray for Best; Prepare for Worst.) I explained how Complications, Rnaught & Asymptomatic Incubation Period make this a spectacular case. Add on top of that: planes have been flying in and out of China’s airport since December 31 (First discovered case). We have to accept the reality that it’s already in the US (WAY more than 7 cases)

So, we made 2 lists: One for no power and one for power. Either way we have to assume life is going to change (at least for next 2 months if not longer). Our everyday habits specifically. If it got really bad, I’d have to assume government workers who are responsible for our drinking water sanitation may not be able to operate the facility. Linamar, the HUGE coal plant in Arden, NC that basically supplies electricity for Asheville, Mills River, Arden, Hendersonville etc. will at least be operating at less efficiency. In that case we’d have to be prepared for self sufficiency. So, we made that list and have been purchasing those things in earnest (larger generator, 100 gallon water tanks, camp stove with enough small propane for 6 months, extra propane tanks for the grill). The “have power list” is almost complete. We’ll finish it up today. It includes 3 months of canned goods, freeze dried foods & “snacky” items (ie-nutella) that would make life a little better during a quarantine. Extra dog food and antibiotics. 2, 50-lb bags of rice/quinoa, fruits veggies, etc. Berkey 3.5 gallon water filter.

In the case of home health we have: (1) Antibiotics (2) Plastic room liners w/zippers, tyvek suits, full face respirator (3) Theraflu, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, Boxes of sanitize wipes, 7 gallons of bleach (4) anti-nausea, anti diarrhea, elderberry, throat lozenges, cold packs, thermometers, epipens, 7 large gallons of Gatorade (hate the stuff) plus a 1/4 lb of electrolyte mix.

I’ve almost talked her into purchasing a small shot gun and pistol. (which we will probably sell after this is all over) I’ve got 50 hours at a tactical range logged. (lol but never purchased a weapon) So I’m confident I can ice an intruder before he has the chance to take over our property. Our son attends University of Arizona and I’m WORKING HARD to convince her to bring him home. She still needs a little more convincing. I figure by this Friday, we will have a DEFINITIVE idea of how serious this is and by next Friday the 14th know if it’s full blown zombie apocalypse mode. Anxiously waiting, fingers crossed, hands for prayer. Still have to be prepared.

Sambuu: Employers
I would value this community’s thoughts on how to manage this situation as an employee. I’m a site manager for a food manufacturer in the north of England. My concern is knowing when one should decide to implement self imposed isolation, and how exactly that would be managed with ones employer (with an eye on future employment prospects) hopfefully it’s not just me thinking this

BillL: small steps…
Alex. I’m going to be a little pc about my comment even though it is not really my style. Go out an buy whatever firearms that you feel you need to protect your home. Do it now. Not sure why you would need permission. What good is tactical training if you have no firearm in your possession? Serious question. Where I come from, it is the man’s job to protect his family…at all costs. For those of us that live in out areas. There will be no call to 911. There won’t be time. ETA at best from our sheriff’s dept. would be 30 minutes or more. If you live in a highly populated area and shtf, police will be overwhelmed beyond belief. When seconds count, and help may never come, you better have what you want and need at that moment. Your families lives may depend on it. Get what you need. Today.

fated: Employers – my thoughts
As an employee I have already decided I will call in sick when the time is right by my parameters. By that time a number of others will be ill in society and maybe hospitals busy so it wouldn’t look suspicious. I already have some holiday leave locked in for a few weeks from now so hopefully the timing will coincide… In Australia employers are expected to provide a safe workplace. I’m not sure how you would measure the risk in each workplace but nobody can stop me from being off sick, and in the midst of a situation like we are fearing but hoping won’t occur I doubt anyone from work will come knocking on my front door to check up on any validity of a sick claim!

mntnhousepermi: Reply to son at college Arizona
I would not take him out of college, or rather, try and convince him to leave, he is an adult. But, I would send him a good care package and keep in touch with what is going on. You can even wait and not put the care package in the mail yet, but have it ready. Include in it some masks, gloves, elderberry syrup 2 bottles of the concentrate, a forehead thermometer, one of those fingertip oxygen percentage/pulse readers, asprin or naproxene ( or whatever you use), electrolyte ( maybe just a premade salt/sugar to add to water ? ), canned soups and a hotplate, pot and can opener if he is in the dorms.

Just have it ready. I have a package ready for my college student, who is in an apartment, the student doesnt know I have this ready. It is not time yet. I also have the recommended buhner herbs, in tincture form, for the corona type viruses, as our family uses and is used to herbal healing, so it would get used. I still need to write out directions, write out reminder of how to deal with steps to try and keep from getting sick, how to treat being sick at home, and when to know to go get help ( trouble breathing, Oxygen low, etc…) as going in too soon can just get a person sicker. But, I will treat my young adult as another adult and as hard as it is to have them away, the risks are not high enough to try and drag them out of their program.

From 2/1/2020 Coronavirus: Now That It’s A National Emergency, Is It ‘Too Late’?

LeftCoaster: Family thinks I’m exaggerating potential risk
I know what you mean about your family not taking the info seriously. I Have had to dole out tiny bits of info, to a select few, so they don’t just disregard everything I am trying to tell them. I am finding it quite frustrating being around people who act like nothing is wrong. Meanwhile, I am just preparing, on my own, and hope family takes a little preparation. Bottom line is I can’t make them prepare or remove their denial. That is an inside job.

From 2/2/2020 Coronavirus: How Bad Will It Get?

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From 2/4/2020 Coronavirus: ‘Nothing To See Here’ Say Markets & The Media

sebastian: Mega city lockdowns.
How are these giant cities in China feeding themselves?!? Without the people in the cities themselves going about their jobs? Everyone from the truck drivers to the dishwashers are essential cogs to the food supply line no? If a city has what 2-3 days of food supplies at any one point in time…. the stores are empty now, at what point does hunger/ desperation take over. Are they rioting already but nothing is getting out or is the army able to keep them fed enough. What a nightmare. I’ve got enough basic calories and water to last my family for 6-9 months but I’m severely lacking in the self defence area… I’ve not grown up with a guns for hunting/self defence background. Consequently I have a big O when it comes to that resiliency… My city living brother in law has that side of things down but very little resiliency when it comes to a protracted situation. Perhaps this is something to pursue. Anybody know how long and what the process of getting a rifle/hand gun in Canada is like?

dtrammel: Buy a shotgun
Sebastian, not sure about the laws of buying guns in Canada, but you can buy guns for hunting can’t you. If so for a novice one of the best home defensive weapon is a good old 12 gauge shotgun. Buy 5-6 boxes of #4 buckshot (small 1/4inch size shot) and a couple of boxes of #00 (called double aught). #4 buckshot has about 20 pellets and at home ranges of 15-20 feet will hit an intruder like a sledge hammer while not penetrating inside walls and doors to hit family or friend. #00 pellets are larger and heavier, and will travel farther and still hurt. Save those for people outside the house.

Personally I would go with a semi auto versus a pump action for the ability to first 3 rounds without fumbling the slide in a panic. Others will prefer a pump action for its ability to clear a jammed or misfired round. If you have a wife who is of a smaller frame, maybe a 20 gauge shotgun, which has a lighter kick, though many women I know have no problem with the larger gun. Here in the US you can find them for a few hundred dollars. I expect that this question and the answers will be very lively, lol. You aren’t going to be fighting a war, but just scaring off possible intruders looking for a quick score.

MiguelitoDeSilva: Reply about shotgun

4 might make it through a conventional sheetrock wall. I prefer to keep a round of #7 or #8 first in the chamber which will still ruin someone’s day at close range for home defense. It serves as a warning shot for everyone in the house to hit the ground because the next ones will be 00 buck and coming through. My home defense 12-gage pump shotgun has a short barrel, no choke, red dot sight, tactical light, a full load with no spacer plus the #8 in the chamber. It’s really hard to miss with this thing.

Mdjared: Don’t buy a gun if you don’t know how to use it
If you didn’t grow up with firearms, I highly suggest you consider mace or pepper spray, a baseball bat, or some other weapon you could actually use to defend yourself. If you don’t know how to load a gun or fire a gun, it will take some practice. Although a shotgun is certainly a good place to start for a beginner, the statistics are clear that you’re far more likely to injure yourself or someone else if you don’t know how to safely operate a gun.

If you want to learn a new skill, a shotgun is a useful tool to learn (don’t bother with a rifle or pistol if this is for this crisis), but without some training or at least an hour with your brother-in-law, you’re probably just giving the intruder a weapon to use against you. Do you know the difference in shell sizes? Not shot size but shell size?

westcoastjan: What’s your risk Seb?
The decision to acquire a gun should be based on your perceived risks I think Seb. I don’t know where you are in Canada but I will say that I am not feeling that type of threat at all. As others have mentioned, this is not even garnering respectful attention, never mind active preparations. It is not even on most people’s radars. The only way it will get attention is if the virus knocks Facebook off line or something like that. I am curious to know why you feel you need a gun? Note to American members, and with all due respect, we simply do not have the same gun culture up here.

I am no expert but I understand a course in gun safety is necessary prior to getting a license to purchase a firearm. You cannot just walk into a store and buy a gun… I believe the feds administer the gun registry so perhaps you can find info on their website. It will take time so if you are intent better get at it.

As a side note, a few weeks ago we had about 4 days of really adverse weather that saw many ferry cancellations. Vancouver Island relies heavily on ferry service to keep stores supplied. We saw some grocer shelves depleted during that storm, thanks to the just in time delivery system for foodstuffs. That was a red flag for me and I have been re-stocking my deep pantry ever since. Now with the virus I have added additional things to support health & immune systems. I do think we will see this morph into a bigger deal in a few weeks time. Victoria is the capital of BC, and many government staff make routine trips to Vancouver, which I think has the capacity to get hit hard. That being said I still think my risk is fairly low. The game plan is to reduce potential for exposure, stay on top of healthy living practices, PAY ATTENTION to what is going on around me, and be ready to act accordingly. Beyond that, fate has a hand…Information is power – thanks again Chris & Adam and all contributors. Stay well everyone!

Mark BC: For Canada
You will need to get a Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) by taking a course from any approved school. There might be a wait period after this before getting a gun, I’m not sure. A hunting license is another course on top of that. I wouldn’t rely on the gun for self defense but it is good to have it. You have to have the gun locked up separately from ammunition so good luck using it for self defence legally. Although technically, you can have trigger lock on it instead of being locked up, and there is nothing saying that the key can’t be sitting right beside it.

Forget about getting a handgun, they are too restrictive, unless you want to break the law and store it illegally. Which, in a crisis, might be justifiable.

Personally I’d just have a can of bear mace handy with other more formidable weapons nearby if needed once the intruder is disabled with mace. You’ll probably want a respirator in that case. That way you won’t do permanent damage to the intruder and won’t have to worry about going to court for murder for protecting your own home.

mweight01: Mace vs. handgun – an inexpensive alternative
Consider Hot Shot Hornet & Wasp Killer. Shoots a 27′ stream, easy to aim at the face and from what I understand, burns the eyes and nasal passages something awful. Minimal blowback. Readily available at grocery stores.

sebastian: We are fairly close
Im in Lund, so across the water from you. My current perceived danger is extremely low, really next to nothing. Lund itself has 250 people give or take. But we, like Van. Isl. rely on the steady supply of outside food inputs. I don’t foresee an immediate danger ie 1-3 weeks. But what if Vancouver ends up going the way of Beijing? It seems possible that with the large Chinese population in the lower mainland returning from holidays etc the corona virus could get a strong hold… I’ve looked into what it takes to acquire a gun and it’s a fairly straight forward process but it can take up to 2 months. It really depends how hard we are hit by this, but for all we know it could b similar to what is going on in China, then all bets are off. I’m fairly certain most folks around me have enough to feed themselves for 1-2 weeks… after that my rice and beans might look fairly appealing.

Bleep: Chinese Resilience and Social Capital
I don’t know what is happening over there except what I hear from my in-laws. People are sheltering in place and my wife’s family is ok. The only stores open right now are grocery stores from what they say. I was in rural Sichuan in May 2008, just 3 days after the 7.9 earthquake. All roads into several third tier cities were impassable. Yet, people were getting food because industrious entrepreneurs were walking in, taking donkey carts or 4WD in mostly with food. The government was also airlifting food and supplies into isolated areas. Preparation for something like this is important but from a psychological point of view, it is also important to avoid catastrophizing and hysteria. I hope people are taking care of themselves this way out there. Rebecca Solnit in A Paradise Built in Hell. writes about differing responses to catastrophe using examples like Hurricane Katrina and you find paranoid, hoarding, bloodthirsty folks after disaster but also close knit communities who are assisting, sharing food and supplies, supporting and protecting each other. This is what Chris and Adam call Social Capital and it is so important at times like this!

dtrammel: Lesson From The Grey Man
I would bet that the majority of regular members of this forum know what I mean by “The Grey Man”. For those of you who don’t and for the people who have just found Peak Prosperity, “The Grey Man” refers to a set of actions and lifestyle changes which you do, when you are in a situation or environment which may be dangerous. The best camouflage is not standing out.

I lived for a while in in Los Angeles, in a area of town that was a bit rough and the sound of the occasional gunfire would sound at night, a place that a older white male like myself was an oddity. And yet I walked to the store and the local market, did laundry and interacted with all the diverse people in my neighborhood without fear. I did this while working in the movie industry and making $80K a year because I never flaunted my money. I never looked like prey. To be a “Grey Man” (or Grey Woman) is to adopt the clothing style and daily habits of those around you, while never appearing to be someone the many predators in that neighborhood would think was worth the trouble to attack and rob. It also means not showing fear. If you need to, do a search of the term. Many prepper and survival sites have good articles on the term and concept.

Why do I bring this up in the current crisis?

Many of you are just finding out that to take care of yourself and your family means preparing now, instead of when its too late. To stock up now on food, water, medical supplies and all the other stuff that may be in short supply if this situation gets as bad as we all hope it doesn’t. And supplies for even a small family can be a large amount of stuff. Even if the over all situation doesn’t get very bad regionally or nationally, local conditions at times may. A large cluster of infections, a over loaded hospital and inept city government can all cause a chaotic and possibly lawless environment to appear for days or even weeks until the national government can reestablish control. Those kindly neighbors, those parents who go to your church with you or whose kids go to school with yours, when faced with their loved ones starving or getting ill and dying, won’t hesitate for a second in forcing you, who has prepared, to give up what you have.

Just like putting the empty box from your new 72″ flat screen TV out with the trash, tells thieves you have something to steal, unloading from your car several dozen grocery bags piled high with food and supplies, carrying in a few 5 gallon cans of gasoline, or buying a new generator tells your neighbors you have stuff they may need when SHTF. They might not think about it now, but someone will later when they open the last can of soup in their cabinet. Be a bit stealthy as you stock up and prepare. Go to the grocery store on the way home every night this coming week (and maybe next week) and buy just enough that you can get out and walk right in to your home. Maybe take an early nap and go out in the middle of the night, or early morning before work to pick up stuff. Hide what you can in your basement, under your bed or in closets, so your kitchen doesn’t appear over full. Be careful who you allow in your house for now. Lie and tell people your wife or kid isn’t feeling well (or yourself). Don’t be unfriendly but by the same token, don’t go being the one flaunting wealth.

When you talk to casual neighbors to see if they are concerned about the Corona virus and if they are thinking of preparing, be discreet. If they ask you, lie and tell them you aren’t concerned and don’t plan to. See who appears to get the danger and who doesn’t. Those that do, might be ones to talk to privately later. I remember years ago, when nuclear war seemed a possibility, one guy said rather flippantly, “Well if it happens, I’ll just come to your house.” He might not have liked the reception he would have gotten, but too many people don’t hesitate to take what they need anymore.

If it does develop that people start getting ill, don’t socialize. Definitely don’t have a big barbecue on your back porch. Don’t leave your house with your mask on, instead don it once you’ve driven away. If people come to your door, don’t hide behind the door but talk to them in a guarded but friendly way. If you feel unease, just start coughing a bit. People will think you might be sick and leave you be. Dishonest yes, but then you are protecting yourself and your family. Sit down with your family and especially your children and bring them into the loop. Level with them about why you are preparing and why its important not to talk to their friends about it. Adopt the attitude of the Grey Man.

VTGothic: Best Time To Prepare
Everyone should own a gun. Just as the best time to put a stop-loss on one’s stock portfolio is long before a reversal, and the best time to fill in a deep pantry is during flush times long before people panic, so buying and learning to use a gun is best done before one feels a growing sense of foreboding or danger. The second best time for all of that is today.

Rector: Lethal Force
Please keep in mind that when you use an improvised weapon (like insecticide) the law will often consider that “lethal force” in a similar manner as if you had used a weapon. Stick to “non-lethal” options like pepper spray to stay out of trouble.

cheapseats: more reply about shotgun
Do not buy a gun unless you’re going to use it. It’s not for scaring people off. Birdshot is for birds. 4 is for varmits. Any shotgun load that won’t penetrate a wall or door will not penetrate a person enough to stop them immediately. Make sure your family and all the good guys are 180 deg behind you. Don’t draw fire in their direction.

Montana Native: Birdshot at close range
It will kill the hell out of you…..

From 2/5/2020 Coronavirus: The Media Says “Shoot The Messenger!”

PenchantForHoarding: Spreading Word to Friends/Family/Colleagues
Office-bound corporate Dad with a family of 4 based in NYC/Brooklyn here. Don’t judge, we have a rural house 100 miles outside the city. Therein, I have a closet filled with 6 months of shelf stable food, basic home protection, and have 600g of water storage in the basement. Lots of land on a wetlands preserve, large established garden.

So my wife, select family and friends have tracked my prognostications, grumblings, cynicism, and alt news coverage through the silver fiasco (big losses from 2011), ebola, “prepping,” financial collapse and…. well, you know. Now this. They don’t take risk seriously, furiously scrolling through Instagram frivolousness vs news, consumed with selfies vs thoughts of being self-sustaining. They think I’m nuts.

It’s a lament more than a question: when society has such addictive blinders on, obsession with triviality, and you (we?) have no more credibility (shared the crash course with all family and friends when it came out, got a lot of people into PMs etc – and nothing happened but endless stock market ramp!) – how do you get anyone to take you seriously? Long time reader but only recently joined. Chris/Adam – amazing coverage – thanks for what you guys do. Looking forward to joining the conversation.

cheapseats: Protect Your Cache
Buying a load of stuff doesn’t help your family if you can’t prevent people from taking it from you. The upstate locals have your bug out spot cased.

dtrammel: Handy Hint For People New To Stocking Up
As someone who is an old hat to having a deep pantry and a decent amount of food stored for an emergency, I sometimes forget that common things I do, people new to preparing don’t know. Case in point, as you buy extra food, take a sharpie marker and write the date you bought the food on the package. For a soup can, just write on the bottom of the can. This way you can easily see which is the oldest of your foods, and then choose that for your meal today. A large pantry isn’t something to accumulate and then let sit, its something you want to rotate, eating the oldest first, then adding new supplies.

Also, buy what you eat. If you don’t eat rice or beans on a regular weekly basis, don’t pick up 10 pound bags of either. Nothing makes self quarantine suck like eating the same bowl of rice and beans every single day. And don’t forget some comfort food. Buy at least some that you can have as a treat, like granola bars, those small bit sized candy bars, poptarts, even some cookies. When you hit a snag or feel stressed, sit down for a moment and take a break. The Pandemic will wait 5 minutes.

Redreamer:
right now with pre ‘valentines day’ products on the shelves is a good time to supplement treats especially if you have kids since the prices are as good as they get. Buying organic seeds to sprout is also an activity you can do with children that allows them to help produce edible food/greens and provides some daily structure in a lock down situation.

dtrammel: Sprouts and Microgreens – Add To Your Meal and Keep The Kids Entertained
Good point Redreamer, small indoor gardening is a great activity for children in normal times. In a situation of self quarantine, having an activity which keeps their interest and puts a little food on the table to spice up their meals would be great. Nothing like eating a meal you helped grow. There are just tons of Youtube videos on how to grow them. I like the Home Garden channel, since I ran across this neat way to grow onion greens.

I’m not sure where they are, since I don’t recognize the language but you don’t need to. The videos are easy to follow and easy to make. I haven’t tried the onion one yet, still too early here to get onion sets but I suppose I could use green onions from the grocery store if I needed to. I’ve got a pretty good indoor growing set up, that I’m about to re-set up for the Spring anyway. I do quite a bit of container growing since I teach it on my website.

Matties: Sprouts and Microgreens
Yes all good fun but abstain from wheat and other grains. They contain lectins, the evil poisons of these plants. Also abstain from sprouted beans. You can sprout beets, radish, broccoli, cabbages etc. and eat those. For more info goto the other PP, Plant Paradox of dr. Gundry. The guy is serious.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC440759/

kunga: sprouts and greens
Yeah, Matties, Plants really don’t like to be eaten. Who knew? They want you to eat their fruits in order to spread the seeds. Most modern engineered fruits are really too high in sugar for the average person. Avocado is a high fat, low glycemic fruit, high in potassium. I buy, mash and freeze.

From 2/5/2020 Coronavirus: What We Can Say Publicly & What We Can’t

kunga: pets
Heartbreaking stories about the abandoned and starving pets left by folks in China who can’t get home. I am a cat person, but living rural I have thought of getting a dog. I like animals, lots of wild bunnies and birds where I live. However, for several reasons, I have decided to be petless. The notion struck me during Katrina as pets were ripped from people’s arms so they could board rescue busses, and many had to be abandoned as owners fled . This occurs in our wildfire areas of the west coast, too. After Katrina I sensed things were not going to improve. To the govt. I am just a number and my precious pet is just a statistic. So, my decision lowers my stress on one level. I hope those of you with pets have a plan B for them if this all goes to heck. I just couldn’t take it if my precious animal had to suffer.

kunga: Clothes for shopping
I am thinking of going with a baggy, hoodie shirt and baggy sweat pants that can be worn over other clothes and easily removable when I get home. Hijabs may become a popular item of women’s wear.

Sparky1: Importance of formal and informal information networks–and knowing who to trust
Especially when something’s afoot. I tend to rely on multiple source for both and always consider the sources and the motives behind the message. Then I gauge those against their actions, trusting my “lying eyes and ears” more often than the official narrative. nCoV is a perfect case in point. I also try to stay in low-profile “grey woman” mode as much as possible to minimize the amount of information circulating about me and mine. It can be helpful in gathering information as well. Besides my minimal use of email, PP is my only other exception to my participation in social media.

KLM-6:
Hey, I would just like to know what kind of supplies you have gotten in case the virus gets in your area. I am starting to build a list and would just want some more info, Thanks!

nordicjack: KLM regarding what supplies.
There is no real way to know what you would need for yourself and family, but here are some basics to think about:

Medicines: prescribed, OTC pain reliever/fever reducer, allergy pills/cold meds
first aid, bandages, antiseptics ( h202, alcohol ) antibiotic ointment, cortisone cream
Tools, hand tools.. some cordless or corded power tools , flash lights TAPE!
Foods: anything you can get canned,frozen, dried, as much as you can get… balance your diet.. beans and lentils are good war-time proteins.

Copper’s Hu-mom: supplies I bought
See the great preparation article by Chris and Adam….whatever you normally buy when you are sick, but consider you may be sick for 3- 4 weeks… Big bottles of Advil, lozenges, elderberry syrup, Vitamin C and D, masks, disposable gloves, Robitussin flu/cough, Vick’s vapor cream, bleach, Lysol wipes and sprays, hand soap and sanitizer, laundry detergent and sanitizing bleach, toilet paper, canned soups, peanut butter, coffee, honey, pet food, tissues, toilet paper. Whatever else you do not want to be out of if you can’t shop or shelves are bare. A good thermometer and oximeter. Prescriptions. If you have a health savings account, check out the HSA store. Some things can even be purchased with your HSA account. Plastic sheeting or plastic party tablecloths for covering things. Hope this helps.

dtrammel: Preparation Supplies By Category
(I have inserted my follow up list of 2/14 here)
Several of you have asked for suggestions and recommendations on what to buy to fill out your deep pantry and hopefully help get you though this crisis.

Rather than give a list of specific supplies for those of you new to preparing and stockpiling a deep pantry, I want to offer a list of supplies by categories, in the hopes this will make you think about your own personal situation and choose wisely, as well as see where you have overlooked a needed supply. Very few of us can go out and spend thousands of dollars just before an emergency to create a deep pantry. That is why we recommend you do it in stages and over the course of months before a crisis hits. Unfortunately this isn’t the case now. In this case, given the rapidly growing threat of a global pandemic, you will need to prioritize what you stockpile, and consider how quickly you can do it. Not all of us are in the same danger as others.

Pandemics go through a time progression which looks something like this:

1) Localized Outbreak:
2) Small Regional Spread
4) Large Regional Outbreak
4) Trans-Regional Spread
5) Mass Infections Across National Boundaries
6) Hot House State/Global Infection
7) Outbreak Burnout (either within regions or globally)
8) Post Outbreak Aftermath
9) Possible Second Wave – More Severe Than The First?

Each of these phases has preparation that you need to do, progressing and building on the ones before it. They also are not universal. Not everyone is going to need to go completely bonkers yet stocking up.

The Large Regional outbreak in China, which is now progressing into a Trans-Regional Outbreak in the Asian Rim requires certain drastic preparations that for someone in the rural portions of the United States does not yet need. They can take their time and acquire supplies over a much longer prep time than someone in China right now. And yet, China is the manufacturing center of the global economy. So someone in a phase that doesn’t need a measure of preparation later phases do, like that rural person, may still need to up their own preparation because resources are going to be scarce soon. But you should remember, YOU HAVE AT LEAST A LITTLE TIME TO GET READY.

Let’s look at some categories then.

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1) Life Critical Medicines:
These are supplies you need to keep yourself alive normally, ignoring the current crisis. As Chris has pointed out, China is the World’s medicine chest. They supply raw materials and finished products which are rapidly running out. This will effect everyone.

Are you diabetic? Do you take medicines on a regular basis? Does any of your family take them? If so, then you need to schedule an appointment with your doctor or pharmacist and talk to them about prescribing a larger supply of your current medications. Also stockpile any equipment you need to give those meds, like syringes, or test strips.

Importantly, are you or your partner pregnant? Giving birth in a pandemic can be particularly challenging. Consider how you might stockpile if you think you may have to do a home birth during a period of self quarantine. Rather than a hospital deliver, investigate midwife services. Consider birth control and stockpile for it. Its a given that any self quarantine may be boring, and people bored sometimes choose to entertain themselves in a more personal nature. Seek additional supplies of birth control pills or a supply of condoms.

Think not just about yourself but also any elderly family members who don’t live with you. You may decide to bring them into your home with you for protection. They may not see the current crisis as worrisome, and ignore or downplay the need to stockpile but you can always address it as a supply problem. Imports from China, including medicines are being impacted by their national quarantine. Important medications may not be there if they wait.

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2) Children and Their Needs:
I’m not a parent, nor do I have children, so I’m going to offer this section from an outsider’s perspective. Children and their needs depends a lot on their ages. Those who are pre-kindergarten, have different requirements from those who are in grade school, as do those from children in their teens.

While children, like any of us needs food, to me children in particular have a need for distraction. That is, they may have varying levels of understanding of the crisis and the reason they must stay inside and not go out. Entertainment and educational resources will go a long way to keeping young children happy and distracted. Older children with an honest discussion between you and them can and will help out if given the opportunity, if you explain the importance to them. Consider devoting in the opening phases of your stockpiling, a portion to buy supplies that keep your children busy and entertained. Look to what books, games or DVDs you have on hand.

Don’t forget educational supplies. If conditions worsen schools will be one of the first things closed. Take some time to speak with your children’s teachers and ask them if there are plans to address school closures. I doubt there are but your questions may prompt teachers and school administrators to put plans in place. Get a library card from your local public library. Most have online catalogs and allow you to request books that way. You can then walk straight in, pick up your requests and walk out with minimal exposure. This also allows for variety in your children’s’ entertainment and education.

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3) Pets:
Don’t forget your non-human companions. Stockpile meds if needed. You might think that you could just give them table scraps in a dire situation, but their health will suffer. Look for pet food on discount if money is tight but be aware changing foods can cause diarrhea and digestion problems. Make food changes slowly. Pets can help tremendously in lowing stress and providing comfort. Don’t neglect their welfare. Don’t have a pet? Consider volunteering at a nearby shelter. People will get sick and be unable to help out. Nothing more sad than to imagine animals slowly dieing for lack of food or water because no one is there. Consider being a foster too. Having a new animal in the house can provide distraction and help with boredom and stress. And as a foster, after the crisis passes, you can return the animal.

AND NO: Animals do not carry or transmit this virus, unless someone infected sneezes on their fur and you stick your face in it right afterwards.

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4) Transportation:
Beginning tomorrow, fill you car’s gasoline tank at 3/4. Yes, that means you will be stopping to fill a lot. Get used to it.

Transportation is your lifeline to supplies and support. In a city wide lock down, there will be no ambulances, no mass transit. While I don’t expect electrical service will be disrupted beyond minor blackouts, remember both ATMs and gas pumps don’t work without electricity. If you have the money, consider stockpiling one tank’s worth of gasoline with your deep pantry. Remember you will need to use and rotate any stored fuel if kept more than a few months. Consider too cooking fuels. You may at some point need to consider cooking on an alternative method that your normal one. A small barbecue with a bag of stored charcoal, or something bigger like a small camp stove with propane or liquid fuel may need to be factored into your prep.

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5) Water and the Toilet:
Begin by putting a large plastic tote in the shower and fill it. This can provide a small source of usable water to flush with if needed and can be stepped around to take a shower. Be careful, falls and slips can injure you as easily as the virus can. Remember, you have 20-30 gallons in your water heater, which you can access if you need to. Do a Youtube search and watch how to open and drain your water heater. In many cases domestic water heaters have a build up in mineral scalings, which may drain with the water. Best consider this a source of water for flushing your toilet and not for drinking.

If the water does temporally shut off, remember to conserve. Many people forget that, and flush as they would normally, wasting precious water. Put a bottle of common bleach in the bathroom. After you use the toilet, pour a small amount into the soiled water and only flush when waste becomes a problem. Just because it smells a little doesn’t mean it can’t sit for a bit. Pick up a few bottles of toilet cleaner too, then before you go to bed, flush and pour some in the bowl to help sanitize and keep bacteria from growing. Something else, buy lots of toilet paper. You can go hungry but if you can’t wipe your butt, you are not going to be happy. Stock up on feminine hygiene products too if needed.

Consider buying at least some sealed drinkable water containers. Humans need about a gallon a day, either through food, juices or water. Plan for that. Most grocery stores have fillable water jugs and it runs about $1 per gallon. Remember though, water is heavy. Don’t stack too much in one place in your home. 1 gallon milk jug size water containers, prefilled and sanitized are available at the grocery store. Personally I went a size larger. My store has 2 1/2 gallon prefilled containers, which each have a spout for use. I like them because they are not too heavy to carry and if needed can be traded or given to an off site family member or friend. At a minimum, I would stockpile 20 gallons a person. If you have the money pick up one or two plastic 55 gallon drums and fill them with drinkable water. Remember water weighs about 9lbs per gallon, a 55 gallon drum weights around 450lbs. Put them in your basement, garage or where the weight won’t matter.

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6) Heat, Cooling and Lighting:
For those of us in North America, we are headed out of the Winter. Heating except in an unexpected cold snap will be less of a problem, one that heavy blankets on the bed and a sweater worn inside may solve. For those of you in the South Hemisphere, you need to consider what the approaching Winter will do to your home and preparations, if power and fuel is interrupted. We can actually live in unheated environments, and our ancestors did so. Same with cooling, though its likely that the Corona virus will decrease when warmer weathers become common.

For lighting in a electrical disruption, candles may seem romantic but there are many newer led camp lights which last a long time on batteries. Get one, and get at least one replacement of batteries. Get half a dozen small flashlights too. Put them at doors, bathroom especially and have everyone in the household keep one on their person. Don’t forget getting some matches and a few lighters.

IMPORTANT: Buy a couple of fire extinguishers if you don’t have one. Put one in the kitchen and another next to each person’s bed. Talk about how you will exit the house in an emergency and where you will all meet up with your family. Change the batteries in your smoke detectors this week. Stock up on replacement batteries for your common devices. Consider rechargeable batteries and a solar charger too.

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7) Money and Capital Resources:
A lot of us have several credit cards, and they should be considered a usable resource if needed. Don’t hesitate to rack up some debt if you have to in this crisis. Just be wise about it, remember you are going to have to pay it back eventually.
Consider putting at least a few hundred dollars in cash at home, in small denomination bills. If you can, up that to $500 or more. While I doubt it might happen, a very serious crisis could cause bank runs or government interventions which make your savings and financial resources unreachable. Its quite possible that during this crisis there will be computer disruptions and your cards, both credit and debit, may be declined. Have with you an amount of cash will allow you to buy needed supplies. An yet, be careful and don’t flash large amounts of easily stolen cash. Put a smaller amount ($20-30) in a pocket that you can access, and the rest safely hidden.

Also consider paying your utilities and monthly bills in advance at least one month. I’m not sure how this crisis will effect billing and such things. I would hope that services would make allowances for people in need but then they may not. More and more, computers are in charge of who gets their services turned off. Don’t let a illness put you in the dark or sends the sheriff to your door to evict you. If you haven’t move yet, your 401K or other investments into cash options NOW. This crisis will probably bring on a recession and cause a serious correction in the Market. Don’t survive and end up poor because you were focused on the real world and ignored the financial one.

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8) Security and Protection:
If you own a firearm, check it, clean it and put it somewhere you can get at it. If you don’t own one, consider putting some sort of protection where its handy. Also have something with you if you go out. I remember when I worked as a security guard in college, the police instructor who trained us said this, that carrying a billy club was illegal, but one of the longer and heavy flashlights wasn’t. If we had to use that for protection then it was ok. Likewise, I have in my car as 4 way tire iron, for changing tires. I also have a hollow steel pipe which fits over one arm of that, to provide leverage to unstick frozen wheel nuts. That four foot pipe can be just as easily used to defend myself. If your family members are uneasy with firearms, then consider non lethal means like pepper spray. Hang one or two on the back of any entrance door so that if there is someone trying to force their way into your home, its handy. Put a baseball bat at the door too.

Don’t forget your car either. Put a can of pepper spray inside where each occupant can use it thru the window if need be. No, I don’t think we will see roving bands of MadMaxian thieves assaulting our homes. And yet, in many Third World countries you can be attacked and robbed in the few feet from your car to your front door. Become situational aware. Watch your environment. Crises like these bring out the best in people but also bring out the worst.

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9) Virus Related Medicinals:
We covered life critical medicines in section one. A second section must be those medicinals related to the crisis. You may not be able to cure the underlying illness but often being able to handle the symptoms can go a long way to keeping you alive. Look at the symptoms that this virus has, cough, fever, diarrhea and find over the counter medicines to address each of them. Stock up, its going to be rough. Don’t forget simply instruments. A good thermometer and oximeter can tell you when its time to brave the line at the local hospital or end up dead. Buy some comfort foods for the sick, like frozen popsicles or ice cream. This virus causes sore throats and coughs. Being able to just sit and eat something cold and tasty will go a long way to making the ill comfortable.

Attitude is going to be critical in recovering from this virus.

Consider your self quarantine measures as well. One of your household is certainly going to be sick. Your job is to see that all of you don’t. Personal protection equipment (PPE) to prevent the virus from spreading inside your home and to protect you when you have to go out for supplies, is critical. Buy what you can but don’t hoard. Others out there will need supplies too. Read up here on how you can extend the life of your PPE and masks. Protect yourself and don’t put yourself and your family at risk if you can help it.

Don’t over look less traditional medicinals, like herbals and supplements. You need to strengthen your bodies immune system and stay healthy and well. Read where you can. Knowledge is your friend. Also don’t over look the way that a good 8 hours of sleep can increase your resistance to infection and boost your immune system. Dr Seheult on the Medcram Youtube channel has a host of good detailed and informative videos that compliment Chris’s here on Peak Prosperity. He has a series on how sleep helps too.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlbM6VVkVZM&t=1s

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE4pBkslqS4

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10) Food:
I put food at the end of this list because it is often the first thing people think of when they begin to prepare and it is probably one of the least important things to stockpile. I know most people will take issue with this, but its true. You can survive a long while on little food. You can’t if you are diabetic and don’t have insulin. Food is important but you must approach it with some smarts. Food is a supply you can easy go overboard on and waste your money. Lets consider some key points to outfitting your deep pantry with food.

10a) Buy what You Eat:
Too many new people to stockpiling will see the ads for survival food and buy into a bulk purchase of foods which do provide the needed nutrition but which are completely useless as additions to their deep pantries. Simply this, if you don’t eat rice or beans on a regular basis, buying 20 pounds of either as a basis for your deep pantry is wrong. Either of those staples may keep you alive, but you aren’t going to enjoy it. Purchase the food which you eat in your pre-crisis life. Deep pantries aren’t something you buy and then store in the basement never to touch unless it gets bad. Deep pantries are really just buying your normal groceries that you eat from day to day, but buying them a few months out. One hint, as you buy stuff and build up your deep pantry, date each item with a magic marker, then try and choose the oldest food item in the pantry when you need to eat.

That also means deep pantries aren’t static. You need to set up a schedule of weekly menus so that you don’t end up with supplies that are years old. Second hint, buy and put up a small white board in your kitchen, both to plan a menu and to remind yourself of any needed additions. This virus outbreak isn’t going to cut off our access to food. Some things may get out of stock. There may be food runs too, where local stores empty out. You though, know enough to plan ahead and not let panic dictate your actions.

10b) Consider How Its Stored:
Most of your deep pantry will need to be stored for a while, at least weeks if not months. When you purchase and fill out your deep pantry, be aware of that fact. The majority of the food you buy will be in cans or packaging which allows room temperature, dry storage. If its one thing modern grocers have perfected, its making food that lasts. That’s good. Some things may require electrical cold storage. I own a 7 cubic foot freezer and its almost always filled to the top. If power goes out though, that food will quickly turn to unusable garbage unless I cook it and eat it. Electrical cold storage though is very useful and as I’ve pointed out, at least in the US, during this crisis, electrical supplies of power should be constant. Try though to buy those foods that store at room temperature.

10c) Plan For Foods While You Are Sick:
A portion of your food prep should be foods that are easy to make (think 2 minutes in the microway), can be eaten cold (most soups or canned meat), or are nutritious and easily digested (think teas, broths, juices). Don’t forget electrolyte replenishers like Gatoraid. Diarrhea can be a symptom of this virus, which will deplete important minerals, salts and sugars from your body. If we can’t cure the virus, then we have to survive the symptoms.

10d) Buy A Few Comfort Foods:
Nothing cuts stress like a couple of cookies. Its tempting when you first outfit a deep pantry to focus just on the basics and the core supplies. That is a mistake. We aren’t just animals eating that which we need. We are emotional beings that sometimes just want to have a hot cup of coffee and some chocolate. Remember that when things are hard, its helpful to be able to step back, recenter our thoughts and let the stress go for a moment, before getting back into the fight is critical to your survival.

10e) Start Growing Something:
Even if its just a few sprouts. Or a bucket of microgreens. Start now to gain at least a small amount of control on where your food comes from. You can check out this tutorial on the forum here on how to make a low cost ($10) self watering planter for patios or balconies.

https://www.peakprosperity.com/forum-topic/self-watering-garden-containers/

Growing some of your own food is also a great way to keep children focused and entertained. The act of caring for a plant and watching it grow, to then harvest from it and see it on the table is a powerful way to help your children through this trying event.

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Optional: 11) Things That You Can Trade:
Unfortunately, for every one of you reading Peak Prosperity and preparing for an emergency, there are 99 who don’t. Some of them may be your friends and neighbors. Think about what you can spare and where you need to say no. And what you might have extra in the case you have forgotten something, or need more of an important supply, like medicines, that you can use in trade. Be careful to only trade with people you know and then to guard yourself. Never let on that you are a juicy target that someone desperate might want to rob. Trade small and walk away.

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Note on where to get supplies: Don’t over look non-conventional sources. Its natural to think grocery stores or big box retailers, but places which sell to retailers and businesses often have a larger supply of goods, and a lower price. I recently stopped by a restaurant supplier looking for a 55 gallon drum. They didn’t have them but they had a box of rubber gloves which I had just paid $9 at a hardware store for $5. And they had another 50 boxes of those gloves on the shelf. Think outside of the box.

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Ok, that’s some thoughts and suggestions. I suspect I’m missing a whole lot of things but at least it gets you thinking. Remember, developing a deep pantry and preparing for hard times isn’t just going out and buying a whole lot of canned food. For every dollar you have to supply a deep pantry, unfortunately you are going to have 3-4 things that you think you need to buy. Take your time, think though your options and even if you later think you chose wrong, don’t worry about it too much. You will make mistakes. This isn’t a situation with right or wrong but a situation where you can only choose what is best for you. Be safe.

Chris Martenson: How long are you preparing for?
The way things are shaping up in China, and assuming things go the same way in my own locale, a reasonable reaction might be to self-isolate and limit contact until a vaccine is developed. While we can hope that will be in a few months, I honestly think it will be at least a year. So…what then? How to approach that situation?

Well, gardening suddenly factors into that equation as a necessity. I am in huge flux now personally as I am in between moving homes, and have not yet established my new garden. Luckily there’s an existing garden space, a really nice one, at the new house, but still all of my perennials and medicinal plantings are at my old house. Perhaps I can move a few of them, but the fruit trees and grape vines not so much. As well, I rely each year on buying new annual seeds for vegetable crops. Without having the time to really dive into planning my new garden (something I normally take a few luxurious weeks to do) I went the easy route and ordered these heirloom seeds as a package (just in case I was unable to procure my usual supplies). Heirloom seeds, of course, because those offer the chance of seed saving in perpetuity. Hybrids either breed untrue, or not at all, depending. Worth every penny to my peace of mind):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07577BVWH/

wyrldtraveler: Can’t afford food?
A great Native American (we used to call them Indians) is famously quoted as saying that you cannot eat money. This is an investment in your future, not ‘prepping’. You can eat this, at least. I’ve seen at least one post on the forum which states that the poster ‘cannot afford to stock up on food’. This is preposterous. I just bought a year’s supply of food. Cost me about $500. It’s not great, but I won’t starve.

“But I live in [expensive place]!” Not true. Food is about the same cost in many places, unless you are in the desert or on an island and everything has to be flown in (Point Barrow and Nome, Alaska come to mind.) Here are some real-world prices:

Rice, 20 pound bag = about $10 USD
Dried Beans, 10 pound bag = about $2-$3/pound
Bulk canned vegetables (#10 can) = $8 average price.

These are prices available at places like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco and restaurant supply stores. You might have to open an account, but you can get a couple of pallets of food all at once. I keep extra food stored at one of those self-storage places. No nosey neighbors. I can shuttle stuff in the trunk of my vehicle late in the evening when lighting is bad so nobody can see what I am hauling. They don’t know if it’s a big bag of rice or a bag of wood pellets for the stove.

“I have no space.” Food for one person for a year takes up about ten plastic totes (the size of a normal laundry basket – 1 meter by 60 cm by 60cm) that can be stacked and turned into a table or bookshelves with some strategically-placed boards. Nobody keeps track if you go grocery shopping once or twice a week. Buy more, buy more often. You’re going to eat it anyway.

Yoxa: Beans and rice – need new recipes!
If you’re going to buy a year’s supply of something, make sure you know how to cook it in some interesting ways. Aim for balance so that if you have a large supply of something you also have the other ingredients you’d need to go with it. Having food on hand will keep you safe, but savvy menu planning will keep you sane!

dtrammel: How Deep Is My Pantry? Reply To Chris
I will be honest, before this crisis I’d let my supplies slide. Water and fuel are still very low for me, but over the last two weeks I’ve been doing daily runs to the grocery store fattening up my food supplies. A rough guess based on a visual inventory say’s I’m probably at 8-10 weeks of food for one person as of tonight, with another week’s worth in grocery bags from tonight’s trip.

That would be ok except if it does hit hard, then I’m almost certainly moving in with my sister nearby. She is single with no children and two years younger than me. She owns her own home and I’m moving in with her at the end of this years, now that I’ve retired. She probably has 1-2 weeks of food at her home. She doesn’t stock up like I do. We had a short conversation about the crisis last night when I stopped by and I was honest about things with her. She copied down your name to check the videos out. We trade meals since we both like to cook. I crock potted a 5lb turkey breast I’ve had in the freezer since 2018 Christmas Sunday and steamed a few pounds of fresh veggies. Half of that went into the freezer and I brought over a bit for her. I got beef and noodles.

I’ve been looking at fuel options the past week, and I’m probably going with 5 gallon container. I’m not happy since those are about $25 each once bought and filled but I’ll probably start picking one up a day until I get 40 gallons in storage. On average I go thru about 10 gallons a week right now, though my sister probably doubles that since she still works. Water has been a puzzle. I’d like to get at least one 55 gallon plastic drum for the basement to use for toilet flushing. For cooking, cleaning and drinking I’m probably going to go with store bought 2.5 gallon units prefilled and sealed. They will run me about $1 a gallon. Started picking up 1 a day as well and will go until I get up to 50 gallons in storage.

Beer is a bit light as well, lol. Just 3 cases of 32oz cans. I may have to make an emergency run soon. The end of the world without beer, I shudder at the idea.

Cleaning supplies are going slowly because I haven’t made a priority of them yet. I’m waiting until the end of the week to see if we have further people sick here in the US. If a run starts to happen, there is a restaurant supply store the animal shelter I volunteer at buys from. They have a large warehouse and I will pop up to them and buy a truck load if it looks like people are getting scared. Security wise, I’ve got a few hundred rounds each of 9mm and 38, for my three handguns. I should get off my butt and buy the shotgun I’ve been meaning to. Got about a month of pet food too but will double that on Friday when I go clean at a petstore we provide animals at.

All in all Chris, I’m not where I’d like to be, but I could close the door for a month easily.

dtrammel: Don’t forget spices
You make a great point about meal planning and being able to liven up a plain fare of beans and rice Yoxa. Weber makes a variety of barbecue spice mixes I’ve found do a great flavor combo on simple veggies. I picked up a simple electric rice steamer at a garage sales a few years back and its my favorite cooking tool.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Handy-Steamer-Cooker/dp/B01N8SJXPD/

The one I have doesn’t have the rice steamer insert so I usual just boil a cup of rice to toss the veggies on. The manufacturer Zatarain’s makes some prepackaged Gumbo, Jambalaya and Black Beans and Rice dishes that are tasty. I throw in a 2 cups of extra rice and it makes a big pot fit to feed 5-6 for about $5 if you add a few sausages or some shrimp. You can definitely feed people on less if you flavor it up right. If someone was going to get a large supply of the basics, beans and rice, I would recommend they get some spices too.

dtrammel: Start Your Garden Early With Containers
Chris, you could get a jump on your garden by starting some onions and leafy greens in containers now. The greens would be ready in a few weeks, the onions a bit longer. Here’s a tutorial I did for PPers on the forum. If you stagger your greens, one bucket each two weeks, you’ll have greens all Summer.

.https://www.peakprosperity.com/forum-topic/self-watering-garden-containers/

Myro Ashe: Stocking up on seeds for ongoing food and a few high calorie foods with long shelf life. Chris had a comment earlier about stocking up on seeds. May I suggest Baker Creek Heirloom Seed collection? More expensive, I know, but you would support an amazing company. Also, one thing to consider, is that if you are really depending on your garden for calories, you don’t want to be growing mostly leafy greens and broccoli. Consider onions, rutabagas, corn, squash, pumpkins with hull-less seeds, and other foods denser in calories. Also, most importantly, you want them well-adapted to your region, and from a reputable company with a great germination rate (no conflict of interest here!):

https://www.rareseeds.com/store/seed-collections/heirloom-seed-collection

Re: foods with long shelf life, I have had to look into some really unusual powdered foods, such as powdered butter, powdered coconut butter, and powdered bone broth. I am really picky about my food during normal times, and in a scenario where medications are running scarce, I wouldn’t take any chances – so my choices run organic and pastured where possible. I would love to hear tips from others along those lines. Some of the foods with long shelf-lives like pasta and rice are low calorie and for me personally inflammatory.

bbtruth: A big garden a must this year!
Last year I skipped my garden in favor of starting my orchard, as both are very labor/time intensive and couldn’t do both and work full time. This year, much as I would like to continue on my orchard, which is going to be quite large, the need for a garden may take priority. I have a good supply of regular seed stock for this year and have a bucket of heirloom/non-GMO seeds in storage from the same company shown on your post for emergency and continued future propagation. All of this is part of the overall planning in a vein similar to the philosophy you teach here in preparation for a changing world. I am fortunate to have land, water, and an abundance of resources of which I plan to take advantage. I anticipate a day when I will have to choose who gets to live here with me and who I have to turn away. That is definitely something I hope to avoid, but think is inevitable.

dtrammel:
One of the things many preppers (or survivalist) have is an “Every Day Carry”. This is usually a small belt bag worn, or perhaps a backpack kept in the trunk of your car, which holds some items that would be useful in your day to day life and the problems you might encounter. I don’t wear one at the moment, but given the progression of this crisis, I think its time I did. The question for this post is, “What kind of things should you have in a EDC bag?”

(longer thread including many pictures and more text)
https://www.peakprosperity.com/coronavirus-what-we-can-say-publicly-what-we-cant/#comment-331121

AKGrannyWGrit: EDC – We Call That A Purse
Great info dtrammel. I have been obsessively sanitizing my phone, door handle, steering wheel and shifter in my vehicle. Glasses too. I keep disposable gloves in my purse as well.

Barbara: Adding everything but comfort food to my “carry bag” [purse].
Since I live in snow country, the car has winter gear 9 months – heavy socks & boots, parka, blankets in case I have to walk or hunker down in the car in heavy snow. I also have my light hiking fanny pack with a couple space blankets, knife and light sources. First aid kit, CERT emergency bag. I had my car totalled and just dumped by winter kit in the storage closet. So I got into Iowa blizzard without most of my kit. Stress! So without thinking I ate a couple of low sugar, gluten free bakery items. Forgot they had eggs, which I’ve been avoiding for 6 months and ended up with an allergic reaction. If you need comfort food, try a little dried fruit. It will keep you healthier.

bbtruth: Lots of good info! Thanks.
It’s easy to overlook, forget, or not consider things that may end up being essential. Be that supplies, planning, or habits. Thanks for sharing all your prep tips. One thing I went ahead and did was set up some basic outlines or plans for the next month, two months, three months in a plan A or plan B manner. I figure that with the shifting information it is good to think ahead and plan for different scenarios with the idea that the plans are adaptable and will help to keep some important actions on the forefront.

wyrldtraveler: food storage
If you have a sensitive digestive system, one can always freeze-dry items low in fat (grains, vegetables, fruits) and separate out those that are not (ghee from butter, etc.) Coconut oil has a long shelf life if cool and dark, butter can be frozen, etc. Other options include conventional drying (solar, electric, gas) and canning in those nifty glass jars.

Freezers are remarkably efficient in cellars where it is 55F all day and all night. Even an old one from a resale shop or Good Will/Salvation Army, etc beats nothing. Bought a little one for 20 bucks a few years back about this time of year. I regularly buy 10-20 pounds of hamburger from the butcher and brown it for soups and sauces. One pound (pre-seasoned) servings go into freezer bags and I am magically an amazing cook! Same goes for soups and stews – everything gets prepped, into the freezer bag and after thawing all I have to do is add to a pot of water or stock for cooking. It’s not gourmet, but it’s not bad. Unless there is total collapse, power will remain on (may get intermittent) so no need to go overboard at this time. Now is the time to get started; later it might be time to get serious about post-collapse survival. If the power goes out for more than 3 days, you’re not going to be worrying about eating as much as your neighbors wanting to be eating.

Machine: I started preparing the second I could see there was a problem.
I started getting ready or stocking up on food and water the first week of January. During the 2nd week of that month, I just kept track and things and by the 13th I ordered hazmat suites with excellent breathing devices. And more food and water, MRE’s and dried food. I also started warning friends and family to get ready as this looks bad to me. Some laughed and thought I was nuts. Oh well, not much I can say about that. On the Third week I put a decontamination area with bucket full of water and a bottle of bleach close by to add to the water. So when we had to go out, when one of us came back we could decontaminate ourselves. Also purchased more water and food. As of now I have my radio station set up and supplies to max. Ready to stay put for up to 6 to 8 months if necessary. Some think I’m nuts! But, I think I’m just fine and plan to keep it that way as you can’t Trust the Government to take care of you. Once you understand that your expendable, then you will have a better understanding of what I just said and have done. Former Military and thank you so much for what you do here.

wyrldtraveler: Two Main ways to Approach this pandemic
There are two main ways to approach this:

1) Lock yourself in the bunker and wait it out for 12-18 months.
2) Focus on staying healthy and practicing good hygiene. Hope for the best.

If it is as infectious as reported here, it will eventually either infect everyone or kill everyone (minus the bunker folks). Perhaps some immunity will develop, or it will mutate into a weaker form. I’m not good at predicting the future.

Barbara: There’s a third option
The third option, which it appears most of us are using is:

Do a reasonable set of preparations and have a bug-out place identified. Focus on staying healthy and practicing good hygiene (if you or someone in your household are not high risk) Monitor outbreaks near you and be ready to up the game. Avoid locations with large crowds where you can (work may not allow that). Identify your red line which moves you into short-term lockdown in place. Identify the red line that moves you into lockdown in your bug-out location.

The above is a rational plan, but I think you have to add to any of the three plans what to do when you or a family member may have been exposed. The exposed person will probably interact with the family for several days before knowing of the exposure. Once you know you’re infected, of course you still need to worry about contagion, but it’s what to do when you may have brought the virus into your home that appears to me to be the hardest decision.

wyrldtraveler: re: There’s a third option
Barbara, I agree. Unfortunately, the only way to be absolutely prevent infection (unless you are in a high-traffic community) is to sequester oneself and family immediately. Even this is not fool-proof, as we may have encountered someone in our daily travels. (I was in an international airport 3 weeks ago; I might be carrying and spreading it unknowingly.) It is impossible to know as even the testing kits will fail below a certain threshold. Given the long incubation period, your odds of infection (and subsequent silent contagion) increase daily. Putting a school-aged child into home quarantine for up to a month is well-nigh impossible. Sequestering a sick person doubly so. You will have contagion within the home, unless you happen to live in a former research lab with decontamination chambers, etc.

The benefit of having a “bug-out” location is that, when the epidemic strikes, you have a place to isolate yourself and reduce the chances of re-infection. (Make sure the Census folks know that you already sent in your form.) Let’s hope that you will still be able to get there.

wyrldtraveler: Unwanted visitors
I suggest that folks make some signs that say “Biohazard – Quarantine” to deter unwanted visitors. Let’s hope they never have to be used.

dtrammel: Bug In Maybe The Only Option For Many
Great points Barbara and wyrldtraveler. This is definite one of those situation where just packing up and bugging out, carries the risk of you taking the problem with you. Unfortunately, I think for too many, including myself and my family, bugging out isn’t an option. Yes, friends and I have talked long on buying some country property but like most, the money never was there. Best we can do I’m afraid is try and make the best of a difficult situation where we live now.

I figure we have had the 1st Generation wave with the massive outbreak in China. Whether it flattens out and the CCP gets a handle on the outbreak is questionable. If there are significant portions of China’s population still under self quarantine and factories there are still not up and running in any percentage, then I expect real problems politically there. Whether China has a major revolution and chaos is up in the air, literally.

2nd gen wave in the rest of the Asian rim, the US and UK is just beginning. Maybe we see large outbreaks like China or maybe we dodge that for something more like a bothersome serious flu outbreak with over worked healthcare is 50/50. I expect a recession to come out of it though, even with the Fed pumping money. With so many unable to pay for treatment, perhaps we will even see “helicopter money” for the Masses. I expect 2nd gen wave to wane with the Summer heat in the Northern hemisphere but the 3rd gen wave to hit hard the South as Winter arrives. Complicating that is how hard Covid hits central Africa (Ethiopia probably) in April/May. If Africa falls, then the southern part of Africa will have to face the Winter hard on the heals of a destroyed health system. India is the wild card. They have the population of China without the political might of the CCP. And Pakistan to the East.

dtrammel: Getting Supplies – Don’t Forget Local Warehouse Distributors
Just a reminder, if you are looking to buy sanitation and cleaning supplies, look around for places like restaurant and medical supply stores. I stopped by a couple today in my running around, looking for a 55 gallon drum for water storage. No luck, but their prices on common items, like rubber gloves, masks and cleaning supplies was significantly cheaper. I saw a box 100 vinyl gloves I’d just bought at a hardware store for $9, on sale for $5 (regularly $7). They also had Lysol in 1 gallon jugs. A hand sprayer and mixing it yourself is much cheaper than a lot of the spray cans.

Sparky1: Bug-in Option and how this pandemic plays out
I don’t yet have our bug-out option settled, so it’ll likely be a bug-in scenario for me and mine. I agree with your forward-thinking assessment dtrammel, except for the waning of the virus in the second wave with the summer heat. I’m not convinced yet that that warmer weather in itself will be enough to mitigate all the other variables that have contributed to Covid-2019’s stealth, resilience and spread.

From 2/17/2020 Coronavirus: The Calm Before The Storm?

Myrto Ashe: Making decisions about travel and other issues
I used to have a brilliant business coach, Brian Whetten, who had a technique for teaching decision-making. It is called “Yes, Yes, Hell No!” His ebook might be available on Amazon still.

Basically, he said first consult the “voice of reason.” In the cruise ship case, how many cruise ships are out there? Only 2 have had quarantine issues. Your chance of being on a ship with coronavirus might not be very high. On the other hand, one person outside China (was is in Japan, or Singapore?) got the virus after traveling to Hawaii… so it’s in many places already. What is the monetary cost of cancelling this cruise? What is the cost of a possible quarantine to you? And other questions you can answer with calculations and thinking.

Second, the “voice of intuition.” Check in with your gut feelings: imagine yourself setting off on the cruise, or deciding to stay home. How do you feel? Imagine yourself on the cruise, and someone next to you is coughing (someone certainly will). Will you be able to relax and enjoy yourself? That is something only you will know.

And finally, the “voice of fear” – it will either tell you to do it, in which case there’s no problem, or it will say “hell no!” – in the case of many decisions you have to make, if the other two voices are saying “yes,” the voice of fear is not an indicator to stop, because it just means that you are on your “growing edge.”

Barbara: SAD diet and US health
I’ll add to that those trying to avoid the “twinkies and big macs” have discovered you can’t buy processed food without additives – particularly sugar. So, I spend hours cooking fresh [sic] foods from scratch. Even if I purchase a 6-12 month supply of the less toxic non-perishables that I use, it won’t keep me healthy because you just can’t get a lot of stuff without additives. Rice and beans, obvious staples, not only lack nutrients, they also cause inflammation in many people. So if I’m trying to fight inflammations to stay healthy, rice and beans won’t help. Gardens will help if they don’t serve as a beacon to starving neighbors, but even with my cold frame and starting sets inside, it’s at least 2 months away. Uncontaminated, healthy food could become a problem.

Myrto Ashe: There’s lots of healthy unprocessed non-perishables
You can find organic dried vegetables of all kinds. Nuts and seeds are also helpful for various vitamins and minerals. Some of the processed foods are still healthy, especially as your choices dwindle. There is bone broth powder out there, and many “superfood” powders high in anti-oxidants, including cacao. For fat sources – calories, and for those of us who don’t do well on a high carb diet – there is butter powder, and coconut cream powder. These may also come in handy for cooking, as you need some kind of fat for most cooking.

kleymo: rice and bean for Hillbillies
My mother, now 85, went through the Depression and WWII on rice and beans. They did have meat every Sunday, and there were plenty of fresh vegetables in the summer months. She still eats rice and beans two or three times a week. Looks like a way to go as long as there are other things available, also.

yagasjai: Rely to: SAD Diet and US Health
Barbara, I am in a similar boat, trying to think about how to stock up on food that will not be inflammatory and won’t aggravate my food allergies. I’m looking into canning. Also looking into getting a chest freezer where I can prep veggies to freeze, at least for some time. Intermittent and longer-term fasting has been useful for me, high fat/low carb eating plan means that high fat items like olive oil and ghee are shelf-stable. But I need to eat a lot of veggies and don’t live in a situation where I have access to a garden or even much sunlight to grow things in containers. I figure canned or frozen is better than nothing. I welcome other thoughts about having access to veggies, particularly if anyone has ideas about canning things other than string beans and beets.

mntnhousepermi: Rice and Beans have alot of nutrients
The most important need is water, and the second is calories. It actually takes quite a while to get a nutritional deficiency if you had been healthy with high nutrients before. Beans have calories, protein, fiber, folate, B vitamins, lots of minerals. Rice depends if white or brown, white stores for longer. White rice also has protein, carbs for energy and added vitamins, and it makes meals made with beans more enjoyable. Wheat is very nutritious, lots of protein and folate and b vitamins and fiber. Goes good with a bean soup.

Anyway, people who have storage food usually have dry goods, which are very healthy : Grains and legumes. High vitamin canned goods like canned tomatoes, canned apricots, canned meats or fish, peanut butter. You can get dried carrots and dried onions, packed for a 30 year storage very cheaply. I have practiced cooking with these, they rehydrate just like fresh, much better than canned or frozen, no comparison. The carrots are not squishy, they have aome firmness, they smell like carrots and have vitamin A like fresh. The onions also are like fresh diced onions once rehydrated. SO, they worked very well, and just one #10 can of each would last for months and months of supply disruption. These 2 items and some garlic powder, and canned tomatoes ( I can my home grown, but there are good quality canned, especially BioNaturae or Eden, but if you can only afford WinnCO that will do fine too ! ), some soy sauce and hot sauce….

I have dehydrated parsley and green onions, you slice the green onions, and these 2 dry so fast, you just lay them on a cookie sheet indoors ( if it is warm, so in a warm location indoors) and after they are dry, put in a glass jar. Low heat drying out of the sun keeps all the nutrients, so you can all do this now ( if it is too humid, you can put in the oven at a very low temp, if yours will stay low, just pilot light low). So, then more variety and vitamins for the supply disruption pantry. Dry some kale while you are at it in the same way, kale is very nutritious.

Dried fruit can be very good. Nuts. So, dried apricots, dried persimmons, you can still get these in the store and good to snack on and make porridge ( from your stored grains ) more enjoyable. There are so many grains, most people can find ones that agree with them. Wheat, oats, corn, rice, millet, buckwheat, etc…

TLWA1879: WAPF – Inflammation, Food Storage and Preservation, & Whole Foods
The Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF) @ westonaprice.org was extremely impactful to changing my approach to food and a deep pantry. I’d recommend learning how to prepare traditional foods via soaking, fermentation, and “slow food” types of processes. Whole foods, not processed foods. Dry goods prepared via soaking and even slight fermentation sufficiently reduce inflammation causing compounds. Fruit, vegetable, and even meat (ham, prosciutto, salamai) can all be preserved via fermentation instead of canning and result in a much higher nutrient content, lower inflammation response and better taste and texture. For example, part of my deep pantry is a 5 gallon container with several heads of cabbage, brussel sprouts, garlic, and a few other goodies thrown in for fun all fermenting in lightly salted water and a bubbler on top. The cabbage leaves will be used for cabbage rolls, low carb tacos, sandwiches, or chopped and used in many dishes. I will say that I’ve not attempted to ferment meat since that takes a little more caution, but veggies are easy.

To dial it in a little more for inflammation you may first need to address “leaky gut” issues. The GAPS protocol is one of many, but a good place to start. http://www.gapsdiet.com/gaps-full-diet.html. Both WAPF and GAPS (or any other leaky gut protocol) recommend utilizing the whole animal for health, and bone broth is key to good nutrition and healing gut or microbiome issues.

westcoastjan: Utilities & facilities maintenance risks
In addition to food and pharmaceutical supply risks, among other things, so many of our utility systems and facilities require regular and ongoing maintenance. Think power generation, the electrical grid, water filtration plants, sewage plants and so on. Both the hardware and software requires all kinds of parts and specialized skills that may not be available. As I type this I am watching a hydro worker replacing something on the pole outside of my home, wondering what would happen if he was unable to get the part he needs, or if he and a bunch of his peers were off sick or in a quarantine. Would my home be at risk for a power outage? The neighbourhood, the city? How about my water supply? Will the pumps that need to be maintained get maintained on a timely basis?

These are crucial questions to ponder as part of one’s personal risk assessment. Some things are beyond our control but it never hurts to think about a plan B for such an eventuality. It is far easier to develop the plan B while in a relative state of calm, with adequate lead time, than when in panic mode after it is discovered, for example, that there will be an extended power outage of unknown duration. All the more so if you have dependants and any special needs e.g. a power-operated wheelchair that needs to be charged daily.

I say this not to cause alarm but to help people think broadly beyond the immediate needs of food and medicine. There are so many implications of supply chain shut downs, it is truly mind boggling… our vulnerabilities are being exposed big time, which hopefully will wake up more people to the downsides of globalization and the critical dependencies that brings.

Matties: Rice and beans cause inflammation
Not if you cook them in a pressure pan. That will destroy the lectins. See the plant paradox of Dr. Gundry.

FooBar: RE: Emergency Solar options, keep it simple
Funny reading about people concerned with the reliability of the grid and talking solar power….I’ve been pondering that myself the past few weeks. I’ve been wanting to dabble more into solar power ever since playing with a couple of cheap HarborFreight solar kits I got for my truck bed camper a couple of years back. The older 45 and the newer 90-watt kits are probably enough to power a fan, cell phone, or ham radio, but not much more. I had thought it would help my two deep-cycle lead-acid RV batteries keep up on voltage, but they didn’t. Then about two months ago I started binge-watching on roku the DIY Solar with Will Prouse channel while exercising. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoj6RxIAQq8kmJme-5dnN0Q

Some good stuff on his YouTube channel as well as his amazon-affiliate web page. I just order a all-in-one 12-volt charger-controller of ebay, and four used 250 watt panels off ebay as well. I will probably have around $1k into once I’m done sourcing other connection pieces, some I already got, some I’ll need to buy. https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/all-in-one-solar-power-packages1.html

Of course, controller is made in china, might be running out of supply now, go figure.

britmi: Canning/Culturing Vegetables
You can culture vegetables instead of canning them. I guess a different type of canning. Carrots, beets, beans, cabbage (it becomes sauerkraut), cucumbers, garlic, and others. It’s just salt and water or a starter culture. You need a cold place to store the jars and will last for 6 months or so. Much better for you as well as you get probiotics when eating the vegetables.
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/natural-fermentation/how-to-ferment-vegetables/

Thrivalista: Tell me more, please
Barbara, you mentioned that rice and beans cause inflammation in many people. Can you tell me more, point me to some studies? I’m genuinely interested in learning more. One help might be to have some vinegar with the grains and beans – it’s anti-inflammatory, and acidic notes can improve the flavor profile of beans. Same with using citrus if you’ve got it.

From 2/18/2020 Coronavirus Pandemic: The Next Two Weeks Are Critical

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From 2/19/2020 Coronavirus Infections Outside Of China Are Growing Exponentially

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From 2/22/2020 Coronavirus Cases Doubling Overnight In Many Countries

Desogames: I say FIGHT
Ofcourse resources are a problem. But that goes to preparing for a pandemic to possibly happen; that would include a emergency financial buffer for situations just like this one. If you had any doubts whether to this situation warranted dipping into that buffer, Italy and South Korea crushed those. But; we work with the hand we’re dealt. So start working together. Just because this virus is problematic and contact should be eliminated as much as possible, doesn’t prevent us from using our heads. So for example; try to convince 2-3 neighbours close to you to all chip in for a proper kit. Full body suit, reusable mask, plenty of bleach just for cleaning it, rubber boots, latex gloves, duct tape. Tailor it to the fittest person in your group – the one that can keep moving the longest. Exchange ways to communicate in multiple ways (email and phone for multiple networks, maybe even walkie talkies incase electricity goes down).

This spreads the cost of “being able to move during a contagion” across multiple people, so that those people can devote more resources to “surviving an enduring lock-in”. Then when the calamity comes and supplies are needed which wheren’t accounted for beforehand due to cost or whatever – you have a Courier to get those for you. If money is needed or the drop has to be made, that can be done outside of a door. Ring the doorbell, step away, money is put out and later a package is put back, ring doorbell, watch from a distance to see the pickup and presto. If it’s placed in a container that can be washed with bleach; the outside of the container is infection free and can be brought inside and be cleaned in a controlled enviroment.

Does that require you to trust strangers? Yes. Is it likely the system will break down between some people? yes, unfortunately. But it is important to fight and try to keep morale up. It’s important to not feel powerless, even when you effectively are. Because you can only decide to roll over and die once when it actually counts. This thing CAN be beat, as long as you don’t make the same mistake China, the Authorities, the WHO and all the media made: Conceal, Hide, Mistrust. Other people are in the same boat as you and there is NOTHING that unites humans as much as a common enemy does. You just have to correctly identify that enemy: Other people outside your social circle. Who’s inside that circle you determine (and well.. the others too ofcourse. Consent and all that.)

Desogames: 3D Printer
Oh i just realised. On the mask business, one thing you can still buy because nobody’s thought about it yet are 3D printers. You buy one of those with tons of PLA or PETg material and you can basically make your perfect fit mask. With a nice engraving even! As i said earlier with a snorkel type setup filtering all the air coming through a tube is easier to filter then around a mouth. Plus with the valves and face-fit closing off all other venues of air you can use a lot tighter woven cloth because of the increased pressure. Hell even my mask of 84 euros has just some flexible rubber flaps as valves, works like a charm, so some mechanical ones are going to be even better.

You could even rig a setup with UV light and a battery as an additional filter for incoming air. Either rolled up cloth or rubber around the edges should make for a more comfortable fit. Stretch cloth can be used to keep it on your face. It’ll be a while before the supply chain disruptions start hitting the 3D printing market cause it’s somewhat in a lull cause the hype’s gone (even though a lot of the stuff is made in china). So there’s still plenty of machines out there and plenty of material. I’ve got one standing around that was about 500 euro for a 30x30x40cm print area (foot/foot/foot+1/3rd) which is more then enough to build a mask from which will be airtight.

Do note though; one of the reasons few people have one of those is because it’s not really consumer ready technology. I’ve had to make quite a few adjustments to my printer (creality 10s-pro) including a glass plate, new fittings, and fucking with the height adjustments. But now that it works; it’s a beaut. All i’m saying is; be prepared to fuck with settings ALOT before it works. But hey i’ve got bout 5-6 KG of plastic i’m pretty sure i can build some life saving devices from it. As long as it’s all mechanical that is.

dtrammel: A Reminder – Take Some Time This Week To Audit Your Recent Upgrades
I’m sure many of us, have been on a shopping spree trying to fill the lack of preparation we have had. I’ve got more than a few boxes and bags of stuff sitting in my living room waiting to be put away. I wanted to suggest that we all take a few days this week to go back and organize our deep pantry and preparations stores, to see where we have a hole or two and then make a quick purchase to fill them this week. This week or next at the latest may perhaps be the last calm before we start seeing shortages and empty shelves. We’re already seeing “not available” at Amazon and other big online retailers. Its slowly seeping into the minds of the public that “Houston, we have a problem!” When that gets firmly established I expect a run on local goods like before a big storm or hurricane. You do not want to be out there in that mess fighting the crowds of worried people. Thanks to Chris, Adam and some of the informed members of the community here, we all have a head start. Let’s use that wisely.

From 2/23/2020 The Coronavirus Is Swiftly Breaching Defenses Across The World

Desogames: Loss
As i posted on youtube under the video, start preparing yourself for loss. This will be just as vital as preparing yourself to not get infected or to try and save friends. Because the cold hard truth is you cannot save everybody. Today was supposed to be a relaxing day for me but i spent it screaming at an Italian friend who “didn’t wanna think about it because she had other things going on” to drop said other things. And she lives very close to the quarantine area (but isn’t in it yet). And this is one of my closest friends. So you need to prepare yourself, especially in this day and age of online friendships where you can’t possibly help somebody when shit hits the fan.

One day you’re going to log in, and somebody dear to you lost somebody dear to them. or one of your friends is feeling a bit ill, says he’s going to the hospital, you never see him again. They, or you, are going to feel helpless, powerless, and completely distraught. It’s one thing to lose family; but another to lose family in an ongoing calamity that might and will claim more people. And you need to be prepared. Just like the virus moves in phases, preparation happens in phases. The “Material” phase is almost over. When everybody panics, whatever you wanted to buy needs to have been bought. But then, the “Mental” phase begins.

Expect loss. Expect fuck ups. Expect being completely prepared to survive a lock down and then having to travel to save a friend who was totally unprepared. Expect to abandon people; you will not be able to save every one or protect everyone. Even people who are near and dear to you might pull you down with them, much like a panicking drowning person. We’ve all seen the movies where people are running for the escape hatch but the “hero” of the story needs to close it or they all die. That will happen to you in real life. You can only buy so much stuff, and at some point, you will have to make the hard call; who do you save? Who can you save?

Ask yourself these hard questions now. Think about them. That’s all the preparation you need. The only difference between a hero and a helpless bystander in those movies is the hero has contemplated loss early and was capable of making the hard call when it was time. The others just freeze like deer in headlights, not capable of giving up life, but not capable of protecting it either.

Waterdog14: Letter to local officials
Tom Sammy, here is a draft of a letter that I am about to hand-deliver to our local city council. I wrote it yesterday because it doesn’t appear that our local officials are aware/preparing for COVID-19. My city of 6,500 people famously weathered the 1918 Spanish influenza with zero deaths, by blocking access to outsiders. That wouldn’t work today, but I’m seeing NO preparedness or communication with the public (yet).

Dear Council Members,
We are in the midst of a deepening global health crisis, resulting from the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and resulting pandemic (COVID-19). This crisis is not confined to China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. Cases have been confirmed in 32 countries, and this novel coronavirus is especially virulent. The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) is working to slow the spread of the virus, but most experts recognize that the virus can no longer be contained.

The City of _ and its citizens should prepare for the arrival of the novel coronavirus, in the time we have. _ is “famous” for averting local deaths from the deadly 1918 Spanish flu by limiting the influx of visitors on what is now Highway 50. Such draconian measures would not work today, and we should prepare for the very real possibility that 60 to 80% of our populace could be infected. For many, the symptoms may be minor and some infected individuals will even be asymptomatic. For the vulnerable 20% of those infected, the symptoms may be severe, including vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills, and possibly death.

Individual and community preparations must focus on three tasks – reducing each person’s chance of getting sick, helping households with basic survival needs during a pandemic, and minimizing and coping with larger societal disruption. What matters most is how households, neighborhoods, community groups, and businesses prepare.

Without being alarmist, our city leaders should review any contingency plans that are already on the shelf and update (or create) contingency plans for this new epidemic.

Will public gatherings be restricted? What criteria will trier this or decision point? (Social distancing will be important but unpleasant and financially costly.)
Are our critical services such as water and sewer treatment fully staffed, and do we have adequate cross-training of employees in the event that half of our city staff is taken ill at the same time?
Do maintenance staff and police have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE)?
Do public buildings have placards and adequate supplies for hand hygiene and non-mask respiratory etiquette?
Does the City have several month’s supply of critical reagents, filters, lubricants, and parts to weather the supply chain disruptions that have already begun?
How will our police balance public safety vs. individual rights with respect to virus containment, self-quarantine, or mandatory quarantine?
Are we prepared for a reduction in tax income when local tourism is affected as severely as international tourism is currently being affected?
Do we have systems for organizing volunteers to work together through the difficult times that may be coming?
Council members and City employees likely have their own written or mental lists for critical services and emergency response.

I urge City leaders to set an example for a resilient and rational response to this very real outbreak. We need not live in fear, but we mustn’t live in ignorance, either. There are many simple and powerful steps that our City leaders and individual residents can do to prepare before the outbreak is felt at a local level.

Yours in service to health and prosperity of our community,
(your signature)

Perhaps I’ll be considered a crazy person for writing and submitting this letter, but I’ll take that risk over riding out the Coronavirus without water, sewer, and other critical functions. What do you think?

Yoxa: Letter to Council
symptoms may be severe, including vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills, and possibly death.

Consider adding severe respiratory difficulties and pneumonia to that list. Also mention that some would require extended hospital care, even intensive care.

This crisis is not confined to China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. Cases have been confirmed in 32 countries, and this novel coronavirus is especially virulent.

Suggested:

“This crisis is not confined to China; cases have been confirmed in 32 countries to date. This novel coronavirus spreads easily and hits hard.”

Edit for conciseness in every way you can. If you can make the same points in fewer words your text will have more impact with busy officials.

Barbara: Letter to public officials – KNOW your official’s ideology first
In today’s polarized political climate, we probably need two or three letters with different flavors.

For traditional politicians (conservatives) it may start something like … as the Federal government has recently indicated, Americans should do their duties to get prepared for local corona outbreaks… Here are some expert suggestions… add a mainstream reference

For politicians who can’t take their eyes off the money: Bloomberg (or most recent business publication) reports that economic disruptions from covid19 are likely to be severe if steps are not taken to prepare. Some of the following preparation will save this community money and keep our local businesses as healthy as possible during the projected disruptions…

For liberal politicians: I know you want to keep our community safe. The corona pandemic is not only a threat to individual’s physical health, but also could have side effects with severe impact on the wellbeing of the entire community. I have a few suggestions that might help us all pull together to weather the coming storm as a stronger community…

If you’re very sure they’d want to hear exactly what you’d want to hear, pick up the phone and chat. If they are not the kind of deep thinking people we find here on PP, then spend time analyzing the words they use and the things that seem to motivate them before you write. Remember, it’s not what YOU say, it’s what THEY hear. Perhaps a few non-conspiracy looking letters to the editor, geared to the common denominators in your community might also be in order. Don’t criticize the stupidity. Just give a few simple, not alarmist ideas that remind people to pay attention.

From 2/24/2020: Coronavirus: Time To Prepare Is Running Out

Dale Hinkley: Another New Zealander
I haven’t been able to get supplies. I have masks and gloves that I stocked up several years ago. But can’t get goggles or gowns for if I end up nursing anyone. It seems to me the health department is pretty useless and won’t be interested unless you have a strong association with China. Not sure if anything else or association with another country or anything unknown – even with suspicious symptoms would ever get a person to be tested. I doubt it. When I studied the bird flu years ago, I decided that staying isolated is the only way. Easier said than done – for longer periods anyway. I’m still getting my head around all this, having renewed my membership with PP again and checking out Dr John Campbell too. Is there a NZ group I can join?

I have a family member, that I doubt would survive if he caught the virus today. Lungs compromised because of an 8 week bronchitis episode that still has not been overcome – with two Doctors so far. I’ve been wondering if there is a way of getting oxygen for home use? If someone was to need it after getting the virus. I bought a good oximeter today. Thanks for any help on this if there’s any out there

AKGrannyWGrit: dtrammel and all
“It is a great idea to talk to your Mom about disruptions and acquiring some extra supplies. May I suggest you create a simple sheet with bullet points or check-off boxes for her. When a persons anxiety increases organized thought decreases. By providing a task and making it fun, your Mom will not only want to please you but will feel a sense of accomplishment as well with less anxiety.”

A while back I created a list for my kids should we all need to leave to go to our out-of-town location. Knowing stress would be high giving them a “here’s what to take list” would make their preparations easier. One for the kids is helpful too. Good luck and keep us posted!

From 2/25/2020: Sven Henrich: Did The Coronavirus Just Infect The Markets?

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From 2/25/2020: The Coronavirus Pandemic Is A Crisis Now Obvious To All

sand puppy: Agree Brushhog, Governments have little power over viruses
Governments simply do not have the power to control this contagion. They are not responsible and are not to blame anymore than they are responsible for rainfall. This is just being realistic. We must focus on our own lives and families. We have quite a bit of power in our own worlds. By focusing in our own lives we get even more power. Going out shopping again this morning. Getting organized. Got some storage totes from Lowes. Smaller ones to hold canned foods as they are heavy, and some of these bigger ones.

I have 4 recipes:

Pancakes with lots of toppings,
Pasta dishes,
Tuna Casarole and
Chicken Chili

I’m buying the ingredients needed for each meal x4, and putting each meal together in one tote with a label (and the recipe) “Chili”. That was yesterday. Today, I’m heading out to do it again.

bushhog: Sandpuppy good going and a few ideas
Toilet paper….cant have too much
Disinfectant, Masks, Gloves, iodized salt, Gasoline

Kat43:
A lot of foods typically stored will be constipating. I’m stocking up on prunes! LOL In a shortage of gowns, wearing large trash bags can be helpful.

saxplayer00o1: State: Residents should have emergency supplies on hand in case of coronavirus outbreak (Hawaii)
The state said to prepare for a potential outbreak, residents should:
-Come up with a family plan to consider what measures you’d need to take to prevent the spread of illness.
-Prepare a kit of emergency supplies, similar to those used during hurricane season. The kit should include 14 days worth of water, food and other necessities.
-Set aside an emergency supply of any needed medication and keep a copy of your prescriptions. The DOH recommends a three-month supply.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/02/26/state-residents-should-have-emergency-supplies-hand-case-coronavirus-outbreak/

km64: Good Overview and Prep List
This seems like a good overview of the issue and has a decent prep list for the common family (ie not survivalists.) Would be worth forwarding to those who are currently less concerned.

.https://virologydownunder.com/so-you-think-youve-about-to-be-in-a-pandemic/

kunga: Garlic, ginger, Himalayan pink salt, goji berries
Much of this sourced from China. If you use, stock up.

Kat43: Garlic
My understanding is that the garlic has to be fresh (within hours) or it’s just flavoring, not health benefitting.

From 2/26/2020: Coronavirus Containment Has Failed

Ckbit22: How many months?
i just wanted to quickly ask how many months you are planning for as far as prepping? 2, 3, 6?? I need a range and haven’t really heard through videos or blog posts. Anyone else – how long are you prepping for?

VTGothic: Re: How many months?
Officially, 14 days. But, c’mon. If there’s any rationale for that it’s that a quarantine only lasts 14 days, to clear the area (or individual) of being contaminated according to official guidelines that if you’ve got it you’ll present in those 14 days – which we all know is bunkum. Plus, if you’re in a house and 1 person presents within those 14 days, the clock ought reset from that moment to see if anyone else comes down in a subsequent 14 days. This is why China closed cities for a month – and likely more yet.

We all have to decide for ourselves. Personally, I think one ought to prepare for at least 30 days. Then, when that’s done, for another 30, and even another 30 days after that. After all, a community can sustain an unfolding problem over an extended period of time. And if it’s food you’d eat anyhow, you can just rotate through it in good times, and you’ll always be prepared for shocks to your personal world (like, say, a job loss; it’d be nice to know you don’t have to spend your remaining cash on food, right?). If you have the space, why not take a Mormon approach and gradually get prepared for a year?

msnrochny: How long?
We are trying to set up for 18-months. That’s the earliest a vaccine is likely to be available. Ripple effects with possible multiple waves, economic fallout, and societal issues could go longer.

Expat2Uruguay: Question regarding migration strategy for covid
If it turns out that there is seasonal reduction in the coronavirus transmission, I am considering how I would use migration as a tactic of avoidance. I currently live in the southern hemisphere, so I’m pretty worried about what will happen when the normal cold and flu season start here. So these are some music that I’m having and I would appreciate people’s feedback. Thanks for reading.

Migration. I am considering hunkering down in my house for the fall (southern hemisphere) to avoid the virus and then starting travel toward the equator and continuing up into the US during the summer months. I have done a small amount of research and found that Ecuador and Costa Rica have the best Healthcare systems while not being high cost locations to live that allow 90-day tourist visas and have easy immigration procedures. I plan to travel via commercial airline, selecting for small planes and short hops on relatively untraveled pathways. I plan to Airbnb rent small places by using the “entire place” search feature. I plan to stay in each location for a month approximately. As summer approaches I plan to fly into a small airport in the southern part of California and Rent-A-Car for the rest of my travel up to Sacramento, where my children live.

I want to stay in places for a month, because I want to conduct research of countries I may decide to live in for longer periods in case of a sustained pandemic without Suitable vaccine development.

kunga: Uruguay
You are obviously not poor, and you do have a detailed plan, which is good. I spent two weeks hanging out in Uruguay in Sept. 2009. I was considering a move there, but not wealthy enough. I decided to stick out the end of the world in rural US. Uruguay is a cool country with some problems. Could use a colony of Amish and some good German engineers. Technology is like 1960s, but the people are great.

My pandemic thoughts are, I think travel is not a good idea. Much more chance of encountering the virus and you might become a non symptomatic spreader. It does get cold there in winter, those Antarctic storms can be intense. However, if I were living in Uruguay, I would already have a residence in Salto. Off the beaten path,clean, agricultural. Also, great hot springs. Salto is my vote. If you were my Mom, I’d move there and live with you.

Mike Anderson: perhaps not Ecuador
I’ve been through many cities and towns in Ecuador, and every time I go there I get sick with something that might as well be the flu. The facilities are often nicer than in Peru and Bolivia thanks to oil money and deficit spending, but they are still crowded and often unhygienic compared to what I’ve read about Uruguay. I’ve slept in beds where they don’t change the sheets between guests, they don’t change blankets, everyone packs into taxis and buses, marginally cleaned open air markets, and I wonder about all the people drinking from the same chalice at mass. What you need is better control of your own living quarters and plan to stay there longer.

Huge: Preps
This was helpful for me. Your mileage may vary, but it’s late in the game. As we used to say in the military, no plan survives contact with the enemy, but any plan is better than no plan.
http://bitly.com/WCV-PrepsNow

dtrammel: A Critical Reminder For Those Who Have Prepared
Check your smoke alarms and replace the battery. Buy a fire extinguisher or two. Be a total b!tch to have all the supplies you picked up recently, go up in an accidental stove fire or some such. Remember to watch out for all the other things that can get you too. Ohh, drive like other people want to run into you too.

From 2/27/2020: Coronavirus Situation Is Quickly Going From Bad To Worse.

nickbert: Boredom antidotes
Here at our place in Mongolia we are limiting our excursions out of the home to grocery store trips, (for my wife) to/from the workplace, and occasional weekend trips to the family’s place in the countryside. The Mongolian gov’t has also announced a ban on having school-age children in public places. We’ve been doing this almost a month now, and here’s are some of the things & activities that have been keeping us and our kids from going bugnuts crazy:

1) Netflix: Yes, we get that even here in Mongolia. It doesn’t have everything you want to watch, but there’s enough there that it’s almost impossible to see all the shows & movies they have (at least the ones that are half-decent). I had Amazon Prime from a free trial (they offer it to me every Xmas season like clockwork) and some of those shows were good while my trial lasted. I’m not a big fan of watching TV, but there’s a place for it and at least Netflix doesn’t have commercials or political ads. The Lost in Space series and Mars series on Netflix were good ones for family watching.

2) Drawing & Painting: Having crayons, markers, the occasional coloring/sticker book, and a good-sized amount of printer paper handy has been great for our kids, especially my daughter. I spend a lot of time myself with this using my drawing tablet to make my webcomic (Nerd By Northwest).

3) Reading: I took a fair amount of paperbacks to Mongolia with me last month, but the real lifesaver here has been Kindle Unlimited.

4) Schoolwork: Schools here are closed but they are showing televised classes each weekday. If schools close in US communities, I expect they’ll do the same with televised or online classes. But have some extra materials too… I use Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills texts for my son and have him finish a handful of pages every day or two. I’m also starting to look into some of the tablet learning apps.

5) Video games: My wife totally doesn’t get video games (she didn’t grow up with them), but is grudgingly accepting that the kids playing an hour or two a day won’t destroy their brains. Personally I think video games are a marginally better option than TV, as there’s at least some interaction and activity with a video game (especially with our old Nintendo Wii!).

6) Legos: My kids are playing with these as we speak. Great indoor toy, period.

7) Board & Tabletop Games: Our go-to’s here are Monopoly and Settlers of Cataan. Occasionally I’ll do a little Dungeons & Dragons for my son and his cousin.

8) Cleaning: Not anyone’s favorite activity (especially with our kids), but it needs to get done and now there’s a little more time for it.

9) Cooking: You’re not eating out much if at all, so if you don’t cook this is a good time to learn. Sure food delivery is still an option, but it’s good to build a skill and save money at the same time. We seldom ate out and I like cooking in the first place, but I have used the opportunity to try more new things.

10) Getting Familiar w/ my new 3D Printer: I brought a new 3D printer back with us last month, and have assembled it and been familiarizing myself with the software and the models. Who knows… at some point I might try creating custom facemasks that can be fitted with filters on the inside (how cool would a Darth Vader facemask be for those handful of times you need to venture out?). 🙂

11) Wilderness Activities: We don’t stay in ALL the time. When we get the opportunity, we take the kids sledding. Even with other families sledding (in our areas at least), there’s plenty of space to yourself and never need to get near another person.

There’s other things to be sure, but these are the biggies for us thus far. BTW speaking on TV, one of the local channels aired a Korean pandemic movie called ‘Flu’ yesterday and showed the movie ‘Contagion’ today. I’ll be waiting to see if they have the chutzpah to air ‘The Stand’ for tomorrow.

Mike from Jersey: A Thought
As a practical matter. If you are going to stock up on food, shop at 9:30 P.M., or a half an hour before your supermarket closes. At that time there are very few people in the store and casual infection rates would drop. Of course, the cashier has interacted with numerous people during the day, so it is a good idea to use the automated checkout line.

Vilbas: I’d say shop when they first open so that an entire day’s worth of shoppers haven’t passed through leaving their germs behind. Also, you have to touch those self checkouts, so, they will probably cleaner in the morning as well. Hard to avoid germs at the store but I think going in early is at least nominally better than going at the end of the day. Either way, do go when it’s not crowded.

thc0655: You’ll be on your own.
(long post on preps and the future state of the US, check it out here)
https://www.peakprosperity.com/coronavirus-situation-is-quickly-going-from-bad-to-worse/#comment-383682

From 2/28/2020 VIDEO: Market Meltdown Update

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From 2/28/2020 When It Comes To Protection From The Coronavirus, You’re On Your Own

locklimitdown: Sprouting
Just a heads up in regards to sprouting. We have never tried it before but I did buy sprouting kits during the last global medical concern (SARS) I pulled those kits out today as we have concerns about food supply disruptions in the coming weeks or months. I recall a dental surgeon of mine from the past told me he lived on a diet of sprouts for many months and said he never felt better for it. I just wanted to bring this up as a possible option for those out there, like myself, who have no gardening options. Its a perfect way to supplement ones diet if vegetable supply experience disruptions. Its also very inexpensive and I was amazed with the assortment of sprouts one could choose from. What a fantastic option for many with limited resources!

From 3/3/2020: An Official Emergency

Torii: New Member Field Notes
Greetings, all. Some observations:

Grocery and hardware/garden stores in NC are fully stocked. Shoppers radiate no sense of urgency. However, my online “next-day deliveries” are increasingly delayed, often by as much as four days. I had to back-order a nebulizer from Amazon. Worth the wait to avoid crowds at Costco.
Several local universities have recalled students studying abroad, and it is not clear that those students will quarantine before returning to area campuses. These schools also enroll an abundance of Chinese students; the latest documented return from China was January 14. Hmmm…
Someone here mentioned prepaying taxes/bills. I have requested an early top-up of the propane tank that we need for the gas stove. I had to insist since we are not due to refill for another six months. I’ve also scheduled septic-tank pumping this week. Trying to think of other do-ahead jobs in this weirdly calm interval.
A reminder to focus on the present and to be alert to your surroundings as you plan. I absentmindedly took a tumble two weeks ago and fractured my foot, just as I was organizing preps. Now I hobble around a three-story house on crutches and a frankenboot, not ideal. Make self-care a daily priority, even as you plan for chaos, in order to remain on your feet in a crisis.
A personal note, if you will indulge me: I have been preparing for a decade, after reading Kathy Harrison’s gentle but urgent guide, Just in Case. Canned foods I bought from the LDS bishop’s storehouse in 2009, when the forecast looked dire, can sit on my shelves for another 20 years—-more satisfying than money in the bank. My family has called me an alarmist and a kook. But this past weekend, my husband apologized for once suggesting that I am mentally ill. “You may be right this time,” he admitted. Jeebus. Those of us who strive alone to protect our loved ones need resources and communities like Peak Prosperity to help us remain resolute. Thank you all for your efforts, which have inspired and reassured me over the years!

bbtruth: Big farms.
I am in agreement on both big farms and the need for people to be able to do things for themselves. Specialization is for insects. I have gone to self isolating at least to the degree of minimizing trips to town and social interaction. I will be growing a massive garden this year(1 acre for one person= massive to me). I have been working on a orchard for the last 1.5 years or so and will unfortunately be putting much of that on hold as I anticipate the garden will keep me working sun up to sundown.

Putting up a gate on the driveway as soon as the ground thaws. I am blessed with a nice sized chunk of land, good soil, rolling hills for my orchard, woods and a mostly private lake. I have resources, I plan to use them, and plan to work very hard. This all works within my long term plan to build a business from what I have so only a bit of a tweak in the plans for this year with the caveat that since I will be out of the workforce for the interim, so on a budget but well provisioned and get to spend extra time and effort on the farmstead. Doing seed starts this week, got some more trees to clear and stumps to pull while I wait for ground to thaw and warm up. Hopefully getting a greenhouse put together soon and maybe a high tunnel in the near future. Lots of work to be done. Good luck in your efforts sir.

dtrammel: If You Are A Business Owner or Management
The Food and Grocer Industry put out a very well written summary of the challenges their businesses are going to face in this, with some common sense recommendations for what to do.

https://www.fmi.org/docs/default-source/food-safety/pandemic-planning-final-2-28-20_pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=fd60124a_2

Good for the employee too, to see how a business should be reacting and know when your company isn’t.

From 3/4/2020: Next Comes The “Turbulent Twenties”

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From 3/5/2020 A Crisis Within A Crisis

green_achers: Food
I would think that anything cooked would be safe. Handle packaging as you would anything else, which means wash your hands before and after, and don’t touch your face during handling. If you really want to have fresh, raw greens, you can always grow sprouts or microgreens in a jar. Johnny’s Selected Seeds will sell you a wide variety of seeds for those by the pound. I’m sure there are a lot of other sources, but I have experience with them and they deliver very fast.

From 3/6/2020: How To Avoid Getting Infected By The Coronavirus

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From 3/7/2020: Cronavirus: Why The US Is In Deep Trouble

Chris Martenson: My Bright Red Line just got crossed
Hello everyone. My bright red line was crossed this morning and Evie and I are now in self-isolation mode. This is community level transmission in our neck of the woods. No travel history, no idea where this guy might have got it…means…here we go.

For us this means:
Nobody coming into our house any more. I need my house to be a “green room.” This is for my own mental health…I need a place of refuge which I know, for certain is clean. I can’t have that niggling worry that maybe that last person in was a carrier…this is for my own mental health.

All trips out, which will be few, will involve full PPE and decontamination on return home. This means clothes stripped off outside and left there until either time has passed or they have been dunked in bleach water.

No more handshaking with anybody. Nobody closer than 6 feet. Social distancing works. Read the latest from Hong Kong where they have been doing this (in spades!) and now recording a huge decline in flu and other communicable diseases. It works, but it’s awkward at first if your culture isn’t used to it. Okay, so time to be awkward then.

Complete awareness when out and about. In ‘condition yellow” I will be observing other people. Is anybody coughing or seemingly ill? Extra wide berth. No getting caught in a crowd. No trains, no planes. Disposable gloves in my car to use before picking up a gas pump, or placing items in the shopping cart. Plenty of hand sanitizer with me at all times. Stray bottles of bleach and plastic garbage bags to put any outside items in for transport home. Leaving things outside in the sun for 9 days if possible before bringing them in.

It didn’t have to be this way. Taiwan, Singapore and Honk Kong demonstrated how to do this. My country opted for a “head in the sand” strategy coupled to gross negligence and incompetence.

My entire strategy now boils down to this; don’t catch this thing. And don’t get otherwise injured requiring an emergency trip into a ground zero environment.

sigh deep breaths

In other news, I’m going to have the most well tended garden of my entire life.

dcallback: Got your food, now get some cash
Once you have your food and supplies set, please give some thought to your cash flow situation. Time may be limited to do any type of a cash out Refi to access any equity you may have sitting in a property. Closed on mine this morning and I will now sleep better knowing I can bail out my adult children and pay my employees (perhaps half pay?) if/while they are locked out of my office. Remember, real estate appraisers base their estimated values on closed sales, which are in the past, so basically on history. At this point the possible bleak future will likely not affect your appraised value. If we have a financial crash, property values are also going to take a hit, and therefore your appraised value will suffer, and in turn your equity and ability/amount to cash out.

Please don’t just get a line of credit, these can be withdrawn/cancelled. Get the cash and break it up between several accounts at various banks. (instruct your closing attorney that you want your loan proceeds in the form of several smaller checks, not a single large check) Then take out small amounts of cash to have in hand from each. Remember, bank employees by law must report any suspicious activity, like withdrawing large amounts of cash, and/or numerous small withdraws in a row. (If you are unfamiliar with cash reporting requirements, please google it) It is always nice to have a cover story to chat about during your withdrawal if the teller gets nosy. “I finally found that good used riding mower I’ve always wanted, but the seller will only take cash”. Please don’t get just $100 dollar bills, some $100’s is Ok but get a mix of bills. I actually prefer my emergency cash fund in all $10’s and $20’s.

kunga: Nails and screws
On my final town trip today, I got started later than I wanted, dang DST. First stop was post office to send items. Clerk said no mail in or out of the area today because police action on Hwy. 20, main rout from the west. Grocery store was fairly unremarkable, more sale items than usual including paper towels. Picked up a big box( 12 bags) of ginger snap (my favorite) cookies pre ordered on line at Dollar Tree. Got gas. Went to hardware store. Bought $40 of nails and screws for my summer projects. I don’t know what the builders will do this summer if production in China doesn’t pick up. In between all stops, trying to don and remove disposable gloves and protect my credit card, license and store card. Wiping down, put in ziploc. All packages into back of pick up, immediately sprayed down with lysol, so have contact time on trip home. If you shop, plan extra time, no noted virus in area, yet, so everything is still a work in progress for contamination.

I decided to keep one set of clothes for outside trips. They do not come into the house. Waterproof boots, hat, socks, sweat pants, Tshirt, jacket. Then I cover with light plastic rain gear. Change in carport. Will have H2O2 spray bottles and clothes lines. Don’t have it all worked out, yet. It is time consuming, I plan to stay home for 1-2 months at a time. Will use respirator if the worst happens, here.

Grayman: Pro Tip 1 – TP roll
Hi folks, Pro Tip: Put a spare toilet roll in your car. (Keep it hidden from thieves though.) Put it inside your bag of portable PPE (sanitizer, wipes, masks, gloves etc.) You do have one of those bags don’t you?

Why TP? There may come a day when your employer will not be able to stock the toilets with paper. I assure you that such a day, if it comes, will be a surprisingly memorable event for you.

Theft of masks, sanitizer, rubber gloves etc from places where health care workers operate is already endemic.
So… don’t be surprised if toilet paper goes missing from offices, factories, pubs, gas stations etc. Heads Up people! Your world is changing.

nordicjack: This is what responsible people do.. they act.
I just received this email from harbor freight, I had long expected and anticipated the grocery chains to implement the same kind of responsibility. I also suggested my brother’s employer that sees 4000 per day to implement some policy like this.. but his boss thinks this some soft of mild flu.

“As communities begin to feel the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19), I want to share with you the steps we’re taking at Harbor Freight Tools to help protect the health and safety of our customers and associates, which is always our top priority.

We’re closely monitoring local and national reports on the evolving impact of COVID-19 and, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization and applicable public health agencies, we’ve developed plans and established a task force that will allow us to respond timely and appropriately.

Our housekeeping and sanitization efforts in our stores have been greatly expanded. We’re frequently disinfecting often-touched surfaces such as door handles, countertops, keypads, restroom surfaces, shopping carts and baskets. We’re asking all of our associates (and we urge everyone) to follow the CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of the infection.

We feel deeply for those who have been affected. Thankfully, as of now, we’re not aware of any associate contracting COVID-19. But we have implemented guidelines that instruct any associate who may develop symptoms or come into contact with infected individuals to stay home and follow the CDC’s instructions. And impacted associates will be compensated for their missed work hours.

At this time, all of our stores are open for business during their regular hours to meet the needs of our customers. If we become aware of any condition in any store that would make it unsafe, please rest assured that we’ll close the store until those conditions have been addressed. Again, the health and safety of our customers and associates are our top priority and we’re committed to doing our part to help keep you safe.

Thank you, Eric Smidt. Owner and Founder of Harbor Freight Tools”

That is exactly the kind of response we need.. action not over-reaction..

From 3/9/2020: VIDEO: Making Sense Of The Market Meltdown

thc0655: Welcome to The Long Emergency and look forward to The World Made By Hand
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/things-take-a-turn/

“Lots of things are blowing back on us now, especially from the patches, tweaks, and work-arounds we applied to the shuddering system while the “check engine” light was flashing the past twelve years. After the awesome skid of 2008, you’d think the world’s money managers might have learned something about the hazards of stepping on the gas when those lights were flashing. Sadly, the tens of thousands of PhD economists in the back seat couldn’t think of anything else to do. And history will regard them as no better than the hooded priests of the 1300s who swung their smoking censers in the dark streets while the stricken town folk bundled their dead.

The new disposition of things is upon us, and the sooner we get with the program, the better. Welcome to The Long Emergency and its aftermath, a world made by hand. Expect that a lot of things crashing, grinding to a halt, and falling to pieces will not get patched back together and restarted. When the dust settles from all that, we’ll discover one of the primary conditions of the new era: we’re poorer — a lot of what we took to be money, or things that represented money, were figments. “Money” itself, as manifested in currencies, may become a slippery concept, with low credibility. If that’s the case, people ought to ask themselves: how can I be useful or helpful to the others around me in a way that will raise my own social capital and accumulate, at least, the good will of these other people, and perhaps some of their help or service in return for mine? That is the beginning of building a local community — people bound together by mutual obligations, responsibilities, duties, and rewards.

We’re lucky for one thing: this crisis of advanced civilization is striking at the very start of the planting season. If you’re prudent, you can begin at once to organize serious gardening efforts, if you live in a part of the country where that is possible. I’d go heavy on the potatoes, cabbages, winter squashes, and beans, because they’re all keepers over winter. Baby chicks sell at the local ag stores for a few bucks each now and you’ll be very grateful for the eggs. Get a rooster — even though they can be a pain-in-the-ass — and you won’t have to buy any more chicks.

If you live in a part of the country where the terrain is rugged and well-watered — as I do — start scoping out local hydro sites that might potentially generate electricity or drive machinery directly from water power. We will probably need more of that. Around here many of those sites are signified by the ruins of decommissioned factories and hydro-stations from not much more than a century ago. They were originally built with a lot less machine power than we would use today, and a lot more power of men working in groups. We’ve forgotten how effective men can be working together with pretty simple tools. We were too busy devaluing men in recent decades for the sake of a moral crusade to erase “gender” differences. Well, that will be bygone so fast your head will spin.

The big cities won’t do well if supply chains stay down for a month or longer. This ought to be self-evident. If you have friends or relatives in places where food can be grown, or in the small towns favorably located near productive land and running water, maybe this is a good time to start negotiating some new arrangements and making a move, if you can. Nobody knows yet just how deeply the effects of corona virus will cut through daily life in the weeks ahead. The potential for disorder isn’t tiny, looking at the current situation, at least in terms of broken business relationships and the flow of vital goods. We’ve apparently entered the hunkering-in-place stage of the crisis. Be prepared for plenty of action when the hunkering ends and the hungering begins.”

From 3/9/2020: VIDEO: The Coronavirus Is The Pin Popping The ‘Everything Bubble’

Desogames: For those not used to communication via PC
I’ve done nothing but talk online to people via computers for 20 years now. So if anybody is looking to continue lessons or contact or whatever via the PC, i’ve got a few ideas on how to.

Currently, the most popular app is Discord. It allows you to make a server (for free) and then share a link with people (for free). You can make channels, assign permissions/roles, chat with people over voice or via one of the text channels, you can even stream your desktop to people in the server these days, though that does require a good connection to yknow, stream your desktop. It’s a good place to have a “live” community. It’s taken over the desktop voice market quite rapidly and is now the most used app for communication for gamers (especially world of warcraft, haven’t connected to a teamspeak for a while). Especially to keep schools going during long periods of lockdown i’d take a look at that one first.

For a more dedicated talking program that focuses on speech online, both Teamspeak and Ventrillo are the old guard here. Mumble is a freeware alternative that i’ve used with a World of Warcraft raiding guild for a long time. Obviously, no extra frills here, just voice chat. But a very well done voice chat even with options to set up a cross channel talk/command structure (i used Teamspeak in a militarized gaming tournament a decade and a half ago called 21st century warfare).

Ofcourse there’s Skype for person to person video calling, that’d be the known one. Though programs like Line might be more popular these days amongst the mobile phone crowd. Which program is used varies highly per country in that area.

Then there’s streaming, via Twitch (amazon), Mixer (microsoft) or Youtube (google) streaming. This would be more useful for trying to reach larger audiences, as streaming via Discord puts a very heavy strain on your connection while doing it via the streaming services means you just upload to them, everybody else watches it from the site’s connection. Even if 10 teachers are sick, as long as they all teach the same subject, one is enough to reach hundreds.

While streaming might’ve started for just gamers, Twitch has many many catagories now that are seperate from gaming. Just Chatting (or IRL) is the most famous example (actually 3rd highest watched catagory on twitch right now), but also for example the Art catagory (6k+ viewers) or Podcasts(5k plus). Music got split up into multiple catagories not too long ago. Yes, you can earn money via the platform, many try, but that is not a requirement. You can stream for free just as well. If you’re interested in streaming yourself as a past time a good place to start is Streamlabs and their streamlabs OBS client. It’s the least amount of hassle to set up and get going (and you can always “upgrade” to normal OBS with plugins later).

Don’t expect any additional income. Building a community takes ages. However if you already have a community to carry over (virtually all the succesful streamers are that way cause they carry over a community from other social media) it’s a good way to do like a weekly podcast or whatever and earn a bit of income on the side from that. Hell if Chris where to do a livestream AMA on youtube live streaming to just awnser questions live that might’ve been posed 15 videos ago and nobody got time to watch all of that (as well as situations that might’ve changed since then); one stream could probably fund this site for a month. Me, i tried for 11 months, never missed a day, got an average of 5 viewers. Not very economical. Not to mention don’t expect donations considering everybody’s going to tighten the ol’ belt in a depression. But, it is still a past time to do when there’s nothing left to do.

As far as entertainment goes; While there’s many online stores, Steam remains king of digital distribution. Obviously, many games, but there’s software and movies on the platform as well (though the offering is still mediocre). Their service is the best, having many features such as the recently revised Remote Play, allowing you to play couch co-op games across the internet! Though if you wanna support good devs as well as play some nostalgic older games, GOG is a very good alternative. Their new galaxy 2.0 client certainly gives steam a run for it’s money.

Of course there are many streaming services now such as Netflix, Amazon prime video and Disney+, so watching stuff isn’t going to be much of an issue.

That’s pretty much it for the digital illiterate. There is so much digital entertainment on here you could be in lockdown for a decade and not even come close to running out of everything that’s been produced so far.

yagasjai: Communications
I lived in a small, rural, town in Western MA for 12 years that did not have cell service. I have subsequently moved closer to town where there is cell service. But I’ve never bothered to upgrade my cell phone from my tracfone flip phone, which is pre-paid. I can buy a block of minutes in advance and use it as needed. No monthly payment. The workaround I used while living rural for people being able to text me was a google voice number, which shows up on my computer, not cell.

At this point I would like to upgrade the tracfone to a smart phone of some sort so that I can stop pushing buttons over and over to text and also get on the internet if I need to. And in researching this am finding that tracfone now offers “plans” where you can pay $20 or more a month to get unlimited talk and text (which seems potentially useful in an emergency) but does require the banking system to be functional in order for automatic payments to go through in order to keep the service running (not great in an emergency). So what I may do is simply get the upgraded phone with better texting and internet capabilities and not the plan, but continue buying the blocks of time so that it’s already there if I need it.

Or get the new phone with the plan, and keep my block of minutes on the old flip phone as backup. But then I’ll have 2 cell numbers. Wondering what others are thinking about cell phones/payment plans and how to keep connected with loved ones. I also recently heard a friend of mine on the west coast talking about getting a CB radio as part of her emergency planning and remember using CBs as a kid with my family on long car trips to hear where the “speed traps” are. Also interested to hear if people thing that having a CB radio on hand is a good investment for this type of emergency. I’ve not seen much discussion of the implications for our cell service or phone/internet system.

FooBarr: Communication for Emergencies: CB, FRS, GRMS, MURS, Ham Radio
Out here in fly over country, seems lately a few folks been have been talking up some interest in radio communications for emergencies. A few farmers still got a CB in their trucks, and maybe an old base station on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. Most have given into using cellular phones nowadays.

I got a little bit of everything, but have gotten rusty in using it. Just last weekend I pulled some GMRS and Ham radios out of storage and started setting them back up on my shelf over my desk and I’m back to rereading their manuals.

One of the best primers for a quick reading on EMCOMs is this older post (Jan 2012) over on SurvivalBlog. I still reference it once in a while to pull freqs to scan.
https://survivalblog.com/comprehensive-crisis-communica/

Today one can fill out the paperwork for a (no-exam-required) GMRS license, send it in with the $90 fee, and after a few days them and their family can legally use the higher powered GMRS-only radios.
https://nsea.com/apply-gmrs-license.html

Then in between sessions of playing around with GMRS, they could be studying for their Technician-level Ham Licence with an on-line class. http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed

The hard part will be able to find a ham-radio testing location with everything shutting down in next few months.

Covid19 – Home Preparation, Deep Pantry and Gardening Megathread

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