[kev]

This is something that was only talked about, but here it is in real life. News reports something like 48% of states are battling an out of control pandemic. The United States set a new record of 77,000 new cases in 24 hours.

Fascist Antifa (they are the thing they claim to fight against) are causing riots across the United States.

With all of that going on, what would you have done differently over the years?

We have to be realistic with saying the vast majority of people have money limitations, There are lots of stuff I would love to do around the farm, but can not afford to fork out thousands upon thousands of dollars, such as putting in a new metal barn.

So what could I have done differently over the years?

Firearms - Consolidate my firearms collection a little better. As of right now I have three deer hunting rifles - Remington 700 in 280 Remington, Marlin 30-30 lever action, FN/FAL in 208 Winchester. Why am I saying the FN is a deer rifle? Because the 308 is very effective on deer. My daughter took her first deer with my FN/FAL.

What would I have done differently, maybe have a bolt action rifle in 308 as well as the FN/FAL. Currently, I have three different types of ammo, but only one rifle per caliber. If one rifle were to go down, then the ammo for that rifle sits. I thought about getting a 270 Winchester, but do not like the idea of stockpiling a 4th deer hunting caliber. For Southeast Texas all three of my calibers are very effective on deer and wild pigs.

Ammunition - Everyone could use more ammo, but I am happy with what I have.

Canned goods - Several years ago I phased back my canned foods, this was due to a change in life after going through a divorce and having less extended family member. I am working on getting the wire frames back on the shelves and getting them filled up.

Hand sanitizer - I should have had several bottles of Everclear already in place. Luckily I was able to hit the local liquor store on the way home from work and build up my stockpile.

I have since switched over to using everclear on cuts, scraps, tick bites... everything.

Fruit trees - Over the years I had not been giving my fruit trees the attention they needed. This has been addressed through regular organic fertilizing and watering.

Chickens - In 2019 I was gone through the summer working away from home for 5 months. During that 5 months I lost numerous chickens to predators. This spring I added another batch of chicks to the flock to get them up to where I want - around 30 or so.

Winter 2020 I plan on spending time on the national forest deer hunting. This will be in areas only accessible by boat on the Angelina River.

This video was posted in 2010 and is one of the spots I plan on going hunting at. The national forest extends several hundred yards behind the camping site.

Face Mask - I had a case of N95 mask, but bought cloth mask when this pandemic extended past a few months.

Gloves - I thought I had more gloves than I actually had. This was a mistake on my part. The gloves I had on hand lasted and I was able to get more in stock. Consider that a lesson learned.

There have been some lessons learned but those are for another thread.

I feel we have yet to see the worst. Those infected during 4th of July celebrations are just now starting to show symptoms. With 77,000 new test results in 24 hours, I feel we have a long way to go before things get better.

 

[yes2matt]

Yeah poultry and other agricultural pursuits don't really ramp up quickly if the situation changes. They need to be maintained at whatever levels we want them. I also let a flock of laying hens and ducks dissipate. I use an incubator so won't actually realize increased output from them for another 4 months. And even then a slow ramp up.

I'm happy with my garden this year, I didnt have to deviate from plan.

I'll stash alcohol in future.

Sent from my SM-J737P using Tapatalk

 

[Grotius]

I suspect the coronavirus will become a way of life for a long time to come.

The problem is that it's a geometric progression. Every person infected tends to infect multiple other people (estimates vary). So 77,000 infected in the past 24 hours could mean 154,000 infected in the next 48 hours, and 308,000 infected in the 48 hours after that.

Obviously, not everyone will suffer to the same degree, many will recover and a few will die, but the idea is that the virus continually replicates itself and is going to be something that will modify the way we live our lives as long as there are any people on the planet left to be infected.

Many efforts are being expended to find a vaccine, but - as with the flu vaccines that are sort of hit and miss each season - the virus mutates. There are already more than one variation of it in circulation. There is no reason to expect that there will not be further mutation. Which version will the vaccines be aimed at over the next three or four years? I'm not confident that a *universally effective* vaccine will be discovered that will protect everyone anywhere on the planet.

I suspect that masks, social distancing, and other protective measures will become part of daily life in the US (and many other countries) for the foreseeable future.

Definitely something to factor into planning.

Just an opinion.

 

[bunkerbuster]

Our family / BOL group members is 20 strong, and a few youngsters. By combining funds, we make large orders of survival food & gear. So, we get wholesale pricing on about everything.

Covid-19 pandemic wise, we all had some masks, gloves & sanitizer / disinfectants.
Once Covid-19 emerged, we made bulk orders on assorted face shields, respirators, masks & gloves.
Also DIY made effective hand sanitizer so all households had several gallons.

Firearms / Ammo

All our family / BOL group members are well armed. The difficulty was a diverse amount of calibers. So, I "standardized" arms/ammo.

Each household now has (besides everything else) 223/5.56 AR's, 308 bolt or semi-auto, 40 Cal pistols, 12 gauge shotguns & large amounts of corresponding ammo.

So, if need be we can interchange between ourselves.

FOOD
All our family/BOL group members households store at least a 90 day supply. Reason being, if SHTF lasts longer than 90 days, we will all convoy together to our isolated - defensible - sustainable BOL.

 

[Alaskajohn]

The only significant change we've made since Jan is more fully heeding Ol' Remus's maxim of "staying away from people." We've doubled down on this and significantly limiting when we come down from our remote mountain. We've limited going into town to just once every 3 or 4 weeks, and its limited to the hardware store, the grocery store and to the gas station to top off our gas cans. Being that a trip to the store and back takes a full tank of gas, we've typically not taken trips to town lightly.

A couple other adjustments. We almost doubled the size of our garden to take advantage of our doubling the size of our cellar. While we intended to increase our garden when we started our cellar expansion project last year, we went a bit further in our garden expansion due to current events. We also started to better track our supply burn rate and have made some adjustments to some basic supply par levels.

We will continue to further isolate ourselves from the world with some long planned projects aimed at increasing our ability to be self sufficient and our ability to sustain this if the world continues on its present path.

 

[FerFAL]

Face Mask - I had a case of N95 mask, but bought cloth mask when this pandemic extended past a few months.

Kev, get a REAL mask, something that seals and has particle filters rated N95 or preferably higher. The cloth mask is very much about compliance and its all about useless. This idea of protecting OTHERS rather than the person wearing the mask is BS. It simply doesnt work that way and it is very much abotu compliance and control. Having said that, a REAL mask like a 3M 6200 (half mask) or a good NBC mask, that will protect you when in proximity to people that may be infected. N95 or preferably better, anything less and you're talking 40%, to 50% chance of stopping the virus.

 

[Jojo]

Other than just a little more of everything we have now (isn't that always the case?) I am happy overall with the state of our preps. We expanded our garden and took advantage of my BILs empty backyard to make a satellite garden, because he and his wife are living at the hospital. My other BIL doesn't work with us in the garden because he does go in the house, to take care of their pets. Everyone found their niche and the group is working well as a whole. Roll with the changes.

 

[McMacy]

The pandemic and riots reaffirmed we are on the right track. My Wish List is huge, but there is not a lot that we 'need.'

The Right Track was stocking and rotating food, no regrets for buying the ammo we have on hand, and doing the prepping without everyone around us knowing our business.

My wife and adult daughter have both expressed an interest in shooting more and getting a carry permit. My adult son got a few more things together and made an escape plan, if needed, to come here and support the group.

My daughters husband is ex-Army (2017) and has some skills that would be beneficial to the group.

 

[merlinfire]

I got a LOT of prepping done this year between some good investments in the stock market paying off, a big tax refund, and the covid-cash. the biggest improvements follow:

1. our food storage increased by 2.5x

2. for the first time since i've started prepping i've felt comfortable that we could make it through a full winter (in ohio where the winters stay below freezing most of the winter, and sometimes below 0F). kerosene, alcohol, diesel, stoves, lanterns, wood-burning stoves. we'd be just fine on heating/cooking. one less thing to worry about.

3. got serious about water. i have enough equipment to set up 3 separate wells on our property and will probably work on it once it cools down a bit. also have enough shelf-stable trichlor shock to purify more water than i'll ever drink

4. before covid i was already starting to move more towards standardizing around 5.56x45, 9mm, 12 gauge, and 22lr. as a result almost every gun i have bought in the last several years have been one of those calibers. the only exceptions have been a 20 gauge single-shot i use for pests, a 410/22Mag chiappa double badger, and a 38 special revolver for the wife.

5. started thinking about security beyond guns. i think we get locked in on the guns and forget about other important security preps that will help ensure that, when it comes time to use the guns, we'll do so at the maximum possible advantage. bought the equipment and supplies for fencing, area-denial, and sentry comms.

 

[Rural Buckeye Guy]

Sounds alot like us. I'm still working on comms and water, but security is a puzzle I'm cluing in about, I think.....?

I went 38 for our kids but they still have them and thier bags as adults. Most of them were bought in pawn shops in Dayton and Columbus. My wife carries a 380 Bersa, she and her female instructor settled on that....small hands, butch attitude.

Whats your well equipment? My inlWs own the farm and have been thinking about another one as back up.

 

[Hound Dog]

We were good on first aid. Plenty of 190 proof on hand. Firearms are good with duplicates in all but one .243. Ammo, check.

Things to improve:

Should build a shelf system to rotate canned goods. This required a couple of supply runs.

More masks and gloves. Ran short on these but made due by not leaving much.

Security needs improvement. The area is defendable but further deterrents would be better. Complete fencing and further hardening of the home. Having rolls of razor wire that could be deployed if needed might be good to have on hand.

 

[Grotius]

"...started thinking about security beyond guns. i think we get locked in on the guns and forget about other important security preps that will help ensure that, when it comes time to use the guns, we'll do so at the maximum possible advantage."

Absolutely agree with this statement.

One of the most significant defensive security investments anyone can make is to install exterior cameras, particularly covering avenues of approach that are not visible from the windows of your house. Areas hidden behind adjacent outbuildings, dips or draws that lead toward your residence, etc.

Together with strategically-located exterior lighting, camera systems can provide significant early warning of intruders or potential adversaries - WELL prior to any other means of detection. Obviously, the earlier the detection, the earlier your response.

Combining camera systems with motion-detection-activated lights, or other sensor systems, allows the occupants of your residence to be able to detect intrusions and activate responses in time so that they're more effective. Cameras are force multipliers. My son served in 7th Group in Afghanistan, and one of the key elements of defense on their FOB was a night vision camera set up on a 45' mast in their camp. Mounted on a gimbel, with pan/tilt features, it allowed them to keep tabs on all night-time activity anywhere around the exterior of the FOB, and prevented many attacks before they could be launched. The same principle applies to domestic use, particularly for those who live in relatively remote locations. The earlier you're aware of intruders, the more effectively you can respond to them.

 

[slackercruster]

Not too much change. I can't raise chickens, pigs or beef. But I help manage an orchard of 28 fruit trees and can get fruit or forage for lots of abandoned fruit trees here.

I found an old stash of hundreds of masks from the late 1990's I had in storage. Surgical and N95 equivalent. Only problem with the N95's is the nose foam rotted away.

I wish I would have kept my .308 HK and bought an auto sear for it. Also wish I stockpiled some .308 AP ammo. Should have bought more weapons lasers when they were available. (These are lasers used for defense, not for sights.)

I have an extra SIG AR pistol that needed a better sight. Just ordered an EOTECH for it. I could have taken an EOTECH sight off my other guns, but I like everything ready to go.

Wish I didn't squander so much $$ in the past. I could have bought dozens of Trijicon ACOG scopes instead of ****ing the $$ away. (I don't need dozens of ACOG's...just saying.)

Seldom use hand sanitizer. I use wipes. Have enough wipes for a few years. If I want hand sanitizer have enough for decades, if it does not go bad.

Gloves are so-so, only have a few thousand. I started to reuse them for 5 or 6 times. I like gloves as I can wear them for many hours during the day and sanitize the gloves and my hands don't dry out from repeated contact with sanitizer. Then when done for the day I remove gloves and sanitize my hands.

I made the mistake of not buying everything on the shelf on March 3, 2020. That was the last time I saw gloves at Sam's Club...5-1/2 months ago. Have bought a few boxes of gloves for more $$ here or there. But they screwed them up. They went from large / extra large to one size fits most...which are small for me.

I'd possibly like more suppressors for car 9mm Glock. Just for some ear protection to make the gun report less damaging to the ears. But suppressors add lots of length and it throws the gun off balance, so there is that tradeoff. The length can mess you up in confined spaces. You like to make the gun quieter to cause less hearing damage, but the suppressor makes the gun terribly unwieldy.

Back in the 1960's they had rocket guns. Wish they made them now and they worked well. No hearing damage.

https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/rocket-powered-pistol-mba-gyrojet-model-b/249827

But it had lots of issues.

 

[slackercruster]

We were good on first aid. Plenty of 190 proof on hand. Firearms are good with duplicates in all but one .243. Ammo, check.

Things to improve:

Should build a shelf system to rotate canned goods. This required a couple of supply runs.

More masks and gloves. Ran short on these but made due by not leaving much.

Security needs improvement. The area is defendable but further deterrents would be better. Complete fencing and further hardening of the home. Having rolls of razor wire that could be deployed if needed might be good to have on hand.

I try to date everything on top with marker. 7-20 is for July. Not a big deal to do as you bring them in the home.

 

[slackercruster]

Our family / BOL group members is 20 strong, and a few youngsters. By combining funds, we make large orders of survival food & gear. So, we get wholesale pricing on about everything.

Covid-19 pandemic wise, we all had some masks, gloves & sanitizer / disinfectants.
Once Covid-19 emerged, we made bulk orders on assorted face shields, respirators, masks & gloves.
Also DIY made effective hand sanitizer so all households had several gallons.

Firearms / Ammo

All our family / BOL group members are well armed. The difficulty was a diverse amount of calibers. So, I "standardized" arms/ammo.

Each household now has (besides everything else) 223/5.56 AR's, 308 bolt or semi-auto, 40 Cal pistols, 12 gauge shotguns & large amounts of corresponding ammo.

So, if need be we can interchange between ourselves.

FOOD
All our family/BOL group members households store at least a 90 day supply. Reason being, if SHTF lasts longer than 90 days, we will all convoy together to our isolated - defensible - sustainable BOL.

...fortune favors those who are prepared.

Only thing on the shelf for pistol ammo last time I looked at Cabela's' was a box of .40 cal, some 22's, .32 ACP and 454.