Please start stocking up on food

Just picked up 76 lbs of dried peas for .50 CDN/lb.....pricy but now destined for the Mylar lined buckets and a dinner date with who knows who 20 years from now....lol....I don't rotate....I inspect every 10 years...if you can rotate your food supplies you might as well just roll over and give up.....you need a LOT OF STORED FOOD remember as bland and as plain and as simple as a 5 gallon pail of beans seems today ...tomorrow it could be the currency that gets your generator fixed or your sick child cared for.....lol...besides food storage is fun in a lot of ways...I often wonder what my Family will be doing with 160 gallons of honey...never mind the rest of the stuffs....lol.....not sure how much a gallon of honey will be worth in 50 years but if the bees keep dieing it might be a sound investment...LMAO.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: argentus

This the kind of stuff you need to stockpile....

Are they still alive?

Biggest scam artist I know, well the guy that preach with the Bible thumping all along the stage was a bigger thief. Dang I can't remember his name but he got got with a "red light district lady".



but I still have about 2oolb of beans and rice...I think I would rather die than eat that much beans and rice.

a reply to: musicismagic

You can mock Rev. Jim all you want but when you get hungry during the Apocalypse times, you have no one to blame but yourself, And in Mexican, queso means cheeze...

We must build groups ASAP post event...this takes commitment....this takes numbers...safety and surety come in numbers...so you need a LOT of extra food to feed others with....those Fathers with hungry kids will do their sentry duties gladly when their families are being fed well.

Ba, no big loss. The citizenry of the USA could collectively stand to skip a few meals a week as it is. Maybe steeper prices can help people choose a more natural and healthy regular diet. I grew up eating beans and rice damn near every day, and to this day I can do it and still cook and eat it with family multiple times a week.

I like to grow my own food, and luckily beans are easy to grow. But you need to rotate and replenish the soil between seasons. They cannot be replanted in the same exact spot from year to year, you have to skip one unless you really know how to work that soil. Growing, harvesting, soil nutritional replenishment and irrigation I have been quite successful with. My opportunity for growth now is in pest control. I have not actively worked on it and need to. I had a really good season with arugula and various leafy greens. However I have a great difficulty I. Keeping worms from putting holes in my swiss chard, spinach an redleaf lettuce. I probably only recovered 60%, or even less of my potential harvest.

What good am I at growing if I cannot stop the land from eating my food first??

Anyways I remember a spare of horrible flood years as a child in the early nineties end of the eighties. Seems like we made it to thirty years later ok. It's cyclical from my observations.

Just in Nebraska 400 million estimated loss of live stock. youtu.be...


The national news stations are starting to talk about the flooding..

It's always a good idea to be prepared. Overly prepared is even better.
Food - cash - weapons. In that order.

The biggest problem that I see is that the majority of folks who are sitting around waiting for that "big collapse" whatever form it may come in, think it's going to happen all at once. Like in the movies. One minute everything is fine, the next minute BOOM, the Earth explodes. But it's not like that. It's a slow progression, so slow in fact that most people don't even see it happening around them on a daily basis.

Every time I go to the grocery store prices are higher and products are more and more limited. I often wonder how far it will go and how bad it will get. I think I already know the answer to that.

During the nicer months I grow my own stuff. A lot of it. I store it and I don't use it. I stock up on non-perishables when I can. I always have basic items on hand like candles, batteries, fire starters, lighters/matches, flashlights, rope, fuel... and the list goes on and on. I also try to educate myself about edible plants in my area, and beyond.

Anyway, yeah. Have a plan B - C - D - E and F. Hopefully ya won't need them.

a reply to: Boadicea

Farmers markets will have an abundance of whatever is in season -- and cheap!

Well our FM is not cheap it is in fact really expensive twice or more the cost of the same in stores so I guess that depends on where you live.

It is actually way cheaper to store already canned beans and keep dry rice which is a complete meal with any little bit of greens.

I'm stockings up. I buried about six months worth in the woods near me but badgers dug it up......I have a metal chest now I don't think they will get in that.
Making penican at the moment but it's lovely so I eat it more than store it.

What a bullsnip video, anyways, out in the Midwest it’s nothing but corn, soybeans, and maybe some wheat, all grown for export. Hardly anything is actually grown for human consumption, maybe a little sweet corn. Huge stock piles of that crap are all over the us and overseas. That’s why prices are so cheap, this is good news for some farmers for next years sale prices.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Fallingdown

If they don’t put additives in it you could drink it straight from the pump . Lol

Hmm. I wonder how fuel taxes would affect the price.

If you make it yourself, you "Have To" tax yourself on it and send uncle sam his share. I never checked but I assume that tax is pretty high, considering what gas pumps are being taxed. Though.... It'll be pretty tough to know what you produced because no one is really looking unless you start your own service station.


It's pretty well out in the open that if you get a still, you have to fill out a short document, which you normally get online for free from any seller, that you would just send off to the gubment to let them know you're operating a still to make fuel. That's stops you from getting into legal trouble should someone find a still on your property. Granted, some states have it where still are illegal and many others have it where distilling is illegal but there is a lot of loops and ends and tunnels you can get around in a few cases.

If I'm not mistaken, some states like Kentucky lets you still up to a certain amount even though it's federally illegal. Remind you of any other substance?

So that's pretty much a loaded question with a can of worms for an answer.

originally posted by: Fallingdown
a reply to: Graysen

I do want follow that up with a question though.

My opinion was based on local experience through a butcher that slaughters cattle. My family had dealt with him for decades. ( he’s dead now so if he was pulling my chain it won’t hurt his feelings ) lol

Occasionally he would give us a warning about a coming price increase and claimed animals were being sold cheaper now. I will always assume that was because farmers were consolidating their herds .

Does that just happen in the local market or is there a temporary price to decrease nationwide ?

It's all government BS now. Once upon a time, you could send your cattle/pig whatever to the slaughter house. You can't exactly do that anymore. Now there are regulations in place that make it a very expensive process. Since then, so many slaughterhouses were forced to shut down in SW Louisiana and people couldn't always afford to go to them for their beef or pork, instead going to wal mart.

I could ramble for days on this and I'm sure I'm not giving any specifics to explain in detail but it's pretty ATFU that the government did this for the sake of supposed food safety. It's total BS.

Politics, both sides, ruined our well to do lifestyle in LA. One side said we had to do things by new standards while the other side opened borders for foreign countries to not only compete but gave them access to our own waters and on our land to do it in our faces.

originally posted by: SeaWorthy
a reply to: Boadicea

Farmers markets will have an abundance of whatever is in season -- and cheap!

Well our FM is not cheap it is in fact really expensive twice or more the cost of the same in stores so I guess that depends on where you live.

It is actually way cheaper to store already canned beans and keep dry rice which is a complete meal with any little bit of greens.

Hell no it aint cheap. Amazon bought all of them out and is making their own prices. They're doing the exact same thing as Walmart but starting on the internet. They're buying up all the competition then selling you crap when there are no more competition to fight against.

That's just marketing 101

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Well our FM is not cheap it is in fact really expensive twice or more the cost of the same in stores so I guess that depends on where you live.

That's a shame... but I guess all the more reason to grow for oneself and not be dependent upon others (especially those who would price gouge) for something so essential.

a reply to: one4all

Agreed, long term food is a must, as is medium term food, short term food, sources of light, heat, shelter, clean water and plenty of lead to feed the self defense firearms of choice.

Great time to stock up on AR's when they are sub $400 by the way.

originally posted by: Boadicea
a reply to: SeaWorthy

Well our FM is not cheap it is in fact really expensive twice or more the cost of the same in stores so I guess that depends on where you live.

That's a shame... but I guess all the more reason to grow for oneself and not be dependent upon others (especially those who would price gouge) for something so essential.

True if anything grows where you are. We get nothing now but Kale and not much of that, no sun anymore and to wet.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

We get nothing now but Kale and not much of that, no sun anymore and to wet.

Sounds like you probably need some Vitamin D3 too!!!

On the plus side, while requiring a greater investment, there are plenty of sources for grow lights for plants, along with hydroponics technology. I'm not very familiar with the technology and process, but I'm sure there is plenty of information to find -- both online and in print. I'm sure the vendors would also be great sources for information.

My neighbors (until just recently) grew medical cannabis in darkened rooms with only grow lights. Apparently it somehow helped them grow and ultimately harvest a consistent product. I didn't ask for details about the cannabis, I was more interested in the grow lights. Apparently there are blue and green lights specifically for helping plants grow as well.

So even in your conditions, you could grow something!

a reply to: Fallingdown

Occasionally he would give us a warning about a coming price increase and claimed animals were being sold cheaper now. I will always assume that was because farmers were consolidating their herds .

Does that just happen in the local market or is there a temporary price to decrease nationwide ?

With most stores it is nation wide. Cattle has to be USDA approved and graded for consumption.
Most grocery stores no longer receive whole sides of beef. It comes in boxes with labels such as Chuck Roll-Neck off, or Top Round-Cap on.

All of that beef usually comes from huge cattle farms with slaughter houses.

The price fluctuates quite a bit and also depends on what the store's profit margin is, which is usually 30% to 40% on top of what is already the cost of the meat when the store buys it.

It is a nation wide increase in prices. All stores pay the same price, but prices can and do vary due to the store's own profit margin.

originally posted by: Fallingdown
a reply to: Graysen

I do want follow that up with a question though.

My opinion was based on local experience through a butcher that slaughters cattle. My family had dealt with him for decades. ( he’s dead now so if he was pulling my chain it won’t hurt his feelings ) lol

Occasionally he would give us a warning about a coming price increase and claimed animals were being sold cheaper now. I will always assume that was because farmers were consolidating their herds .

Does that just happen in the local market or is there a temporary price to decrease nationwide ?

The cattle market is a true free market-- many sellers, many buyers, and erratic demand from the end consumer. The national market is nothing but a collection of lots of local markets.

In real cattle country, like the Great Plains, the wild grass is buffalo grass, and evolved to feed vast buffalo herds for a month in the spring and a month in the fall on their annual migrations. Cattle today can gain up to 4 lbs. a day, eating nothing but that grass and licking a salt lick with plenty of water in the spring. That might be $4 a day, per cow, when you sell them.

The only costs are feed in the off-season (midwinter, summer drought), and the cost of the cows that die before you sell them. That and fuel to ship them to market. So the price of cattle is highly dependent on the lagging price of feed, in the form of silage and hay.

Whenever a price shock is on the way, (flood, blizzard, or drought), it is often cheapest and safest to sell as much of your herd as you can. Of course all the neighbors are off-loading theirs at the same time, so you can have a price collapse. Likewise when the crisis is past, the cost of live (as opposed to feeder) cattle will skyrocket, as everyone tries to replace their herd at the same time.

The trick is to do the opposite of what your neighbor is doing. Playing the cattle market is a constant lesson in prepping. Hay that is 45 bucks a round bale in June may be worth 200 $ each in the middle of a blizzard in January, IF those are the last hundred bales in the county....

And a momma cow pregnant with a calf may be worth nothing at all in the middle of a drought, or 3 bucks a pound when the rain starts to fall in April....

originally posted by: Darkblade71

With most stores it is nation wide.

I disagree completely. The cattle are sold at regional (weekly) auction, and most of the majors retailers and restaurant chains have their own buyers present. The major meatpackers do not buy each carcass they process, they process the meat on a per-hundred-lot basis. So Swift or Hormel will do all the meat for Taco Bell or Wendy's. They don't buy 10,000 head of cattle and then sell the crates of burger to the chain. They just kill em and grill em and charge a processing fee. The restaurant chain or grocer owns the cow from when it crosses the scale on the hoof, until they sell it to you as a steak.

Several grocery stores are well-known for developing their own supply chains. Kroger and Winn/Dixie were the two biggest. They used to (I think Kroger still does in many markets) ship beef quarters to the individual store, and let the butcher cut it per your request. The easiest way to find out is to ask for a brisket cut heavy, 15-17 lbs. If he says he needs 3 days, he gets it pre-cut in a short box from a regional distribution center. If he brings one out in 10 minutes, he's cutting from his own quarters.

Cattle has to be USDA approved and graded for consumption.
Most grocery stores no longer receive whole sides of beef. It comes in boxes with labels such as Chuck Roll-Neck off, or Top Round-Cap on.

The inspector is a guy who is an employee of the meat packer. You take a class and challenge the exam and then you are the company grader. Your main job keeping a log of the temperature of the meat. The big box grocers like Walmart and target definitely don't cut their steaks in house. But you can get it directly from the meatpacking plant or from a butcher, and cut how you like it. I know people who are licensed federal inspectors, who process deer during hunting season and do hog sausage and beef the rest of the year. Fewer than 10 employees. A total mom and pop operation.

I'm sure the vast majority of beef is bought by people at the Uber-market. But theres no reason for that. Usually, even in an urban area, a butcher is cheaper than the grocery, and the beef is a different order of dining.

Where I live now there is a local slaughterhouse. This winter, a friend took 25 head of cattle in, and got them quartered and processed. I got rewarded for helping with 2 quarters, and sold 5 more to neighbors from church. The main problem they had was where to store 6 months worth of steak, ribs and burger.