A beginners thoughts on what I think I need to do for preps

[combat squirrel]

Hi all,

So im starting out on my prepping journey, loads of ideas (brain is flooded with making plans, want to do xyz….etc.)

Read a lot of material, know it can’t all be done in one night, and trying my best not to get too caught up in it, I don’t want it to be an obsession, just a sensible sort of hobby that I won’t spend more than an hour or 2 on each week.

But it’s difficult isn’t it ?! lol

My priorities at the moment are simply (1) Stocking water at a fairly steady pace (2) Looking at medical kits (any recommendations?) (3) Following these tasks, food stocking.

Im currently planning to convert my yard into a ‘as productive as possible’ square foot garden setup – sure to produce crops, but more to learn the techniques involved, learn cultivation techniques. So far I have installed a water butt for crops, the yard is of limited space (roughly 3/3.5M by 8/10M).

Yard plans:

1) Build compost heap/bin
2) Build self-made custom sturdy shed – one that allows me to sort plants inside, is a good store for cultivation equipment/supplies, as said space is premium so im going to build an internal ‘shelf’ section that will be above the water butt (but has space for the drain pipe behind it), basically an overhang section that the water butt sits under. Additionally im going to make it strong enough to turn the roof into a ‘square foot garden’ (as said space is massively short)
3) Build square foot gardens around the edge of yard, leaving a space in the middle to walk and put a garden lounger chair in (still want to chill in the summer )
4) One section of the yard is a guinea pig hutch (4ft wide 2ft deep), 4 pigs, roof also going to be a ‘square foot garden’ on top, their waste going straight into my planned compost bin (read pig poop and waste hay/sawdust is awesome).

This is my ‘food factory’ setup.

Next to the yard is my conservatory, 3x2m – not massive, but properly utilized, a good location to grow delicate/heat loving plants. So the yard/cons area is 3m by ~12M setup, also in some areas I will have shelves high above having more plants growing.

All areas have good sunlight from around 10.30am to sunset.

The house is already pretty tooled up security wise – I like ‘projects’ and already installed a sprawling night vision CCTV camera setup. This runs off my server, but can be run from my lower power 18w AMD Fusion PC.

All CCTV is hooked up to UPS battery backups, can run for 6 hours for all cameras should the power go – I guess I’d get around 2 hours from the lower power pc monitoring it all. In addition the lower floor windows of the house have metal security bars, and I installed a freakin heavy front door (terrace house). I also have extreme heavy duty tables/office tables in key locations so if SHTF I can board up the front window/door/back window in less than 30 mins with 2-3 inch thick hard wood with metal scaffold bars running along the back of them (3 initially but hopefully id have time to continue to add rear horizontal/vertical layers of scaffold poles that I have out back) All bolted to the walls.

SO OK, sorry for the book long post here.

But I want the experienced prepper’s ‘review’ of my situation.
1) My plans for learning to grow food – are they ok?
2) My SHTF plan of boarding up door/windows (that already have metal bars) ok? – My reason for CCTV is to be bugged in – but able to view the surrounding area easily.

Things I think I need:

1) POWER generation!! No use having low power CCTV if it won’t run, im thinking of building a few wind generators, I need to power around 40 watts totally for all front/back cctv and a 18 watt PC. ---- Initially wind gens attached to a few car batteries? Which will in turn power stuff……not 24/7 just when I feel I need it – constant trickle charge from wind Gen (also trickle charge my UPS supplies – due to different bat type)
2) COOKING ABILITY – need fuel and stuff to cook my food – any good ideas?
3) HEALTHY – im in ok shape, but I need to train (never really done much exercise but always constantly busy)
4) Join self-defence classes – however have already joined local target practice club (air rifles are pretty pants but better than nothing if only for a ‘1st defence’ – OF course id never ever use one other than at a rifle range unless society collapsed and I Was fighting for my life – I am sensible ! lol)
5) Just remembered I need to sort a decent bug out bag – will get on it.



SO there we go, folks, your wisdom is needed! What have I missed? What would you do?

Thanks for reading !

[Arzosah]

Great post, combat squirrel (and great name!). I'm definitely *not* an experienced prepper, but I know a *little* bit about gardening in particular ... square foot doesn't have to be exactly that, of course. Think about the "catch crops", stuff that grows quickly, or that you can cut and come again - lettuce, radishes, stuff thats hard to kill, corn salad. Some plants that bees like - you need them for pollination.

You'll probably want to grow plants up the walls, to get more crops - that could be veg, like runner beans, courgettes, squash, or could be trained fruit trees, or both. Climbers could grow up through the fruit trees.

Your house plants can do some work for you - either ones that purify the air - spider plants etc - helpful for the skin - aloe vera - lavender - helping sleep, clearing sinuses I think, check that one - even some salad plants, and herbs.

Great idea to have a shelf over the water butts!

There's a recent thread on cooking, I posted on there tonight - check that out.

Sounds great! Though, with wind generators - you're kind of putting up a sign saying "Here, zombie zombie - I have power, there are lots of nice tasty brains in this house, come suck them out of the skulls they're currently living in" unobtrusive solar cells might be better, if you can find them.

[lupiilu]

Hi all,

So im starting out on my prepping journey, loads of ideas (brain is flooded with making plans, want to do xyz….etc.)

Read a lot of material, know it can’t all be done in one night, and trying my best not to get too caught up in it, I don’t want it to be an obsession, just a sensible sort of hobby that I won’t spend more than an hour or 2 on each week.

But it’s difficult isn’t it ?! lol

My priorities at the moment are simply (1) Stocking water at a fairly steady pace (2) Looking at medical kits (any recommendations?) (3) Following these tasks, food stocking.

Im currently planning to convert my yard into a ‘as productive as possible’ square foot garden setup – sure to produce crops, but more to learn the techniques involved, learn cultivation techniques. So far I have installed a water butt for crops, the yard is of limited space (roughly 3/3.5M by 8/10M).

Yard plans:

1) Build compost heap/bin
2) Build self-made custom sturdy shed – one that allows me to sort plants inside, is a good store for cultivation equipment/supplies, as said space is premium so im going to build an internal ‘shelf’ section that will be above the water butt (but has space for the drain pipe behind it), basically an overhang section that the water butt sits under. Additionally im going to make it strong enough to turn the roof into a ‘square foot garden’ (as said space is massively short)
3) Build square foot gardens around the edge of yard, leaving a space in the middle to walk and put a garden lounger chair in (still want to chill in the summer )
4) One section of the yard is a guinea pig hutch (4ft wide 2ft deep), 4 pigs, roof also going to be a ‘square foot garden’ on top, their waste going straight into my planned compost bin (read pig poop and waste hay/sawdust is awesome).

This is my ‘food factory’ setup.

Next to the yard is my conservatory, 3x2m – not massive, but properly utilized, a good location to grow delicate/heat loving plants. So the yard/cons area is 3m by ~12M setup, also in some areas I will have shelves high above having more plants growing.

All areas have good sunlight from around 10.30am to sunset.

The house is already pretty tooled up security wise – I like ‘projects’ and already installed a sprawling night vision CCTV camera setup. This runs off my server, but can be run from my lower power 18w AMD Fusion PC.

All CCTV is hooked up to UPS battery backups, can run for 6 hours for all cameras should the power go – I guess I’d get around 2 hours from the lower power pc monitoring it all. In addition the lower floor windows of the house have metal security bars, and I installed a freakin heavy front door (terrace house). I also have extreme heavy duty tables/office tables in key locations so if SHTF I can board up the front window/door/back window in less than 30 mins with 2-3 inch thick hard wood with metal scaffold bars running along the back of them (3 initially but hopefully id have time to continue to add rear horizontal/vertical layers of scaffold poles that I have out back) All bolted to the walls.

SO OK, sorry for the book long post here.

But I want the experienced prepper’s ‘review’ of my situation.
1) My plans for learning to grow food – are they ok?
2) My SHTF plan of boarding up door/windows (that already have metal bars) ok? – My reason for CCTV is to be bugged in – but able to view the surrounding area easily.

Things I think I need:

1) POWER generation!! No use having low power CCTV if it won’t run, im thinking of building a few wind generators, I need to power around 40 watts totally for all front/back cctv and a 18 watt PC. ---- Initially wind gens attached to a few car batteries? Which will in turn power stuff……not 24/7 just when I feel I need it – constant trickle charge from wind Gen (also trickle charge my UPS supplies – due to different bat type)
2) COOKING ABILITY – need fuel and stuff to cook my food – any good ideas?
3) HEALTHY – im in ok shape, but I need to train (never really done much exercise but always constantly busy)
4) Join self-defence classes – however have already joined local target practice club (air rifles are pretty pants but better than nothing if only for a ‘1st defence’ – OF course id never ever use one other than at a rifle range unless society collapsed and I Was fighting for my life – I am sensible ! lol)
5) Just remembered I need to sort a decent bug out bag – will get on it.



SO there we go, folks, your wisdom is needed! What have I missed? What would you do?

Thanks for reading !

Okay, I'm a beginner as well, (and don't we have a lot to do!) I've a few suggestions that I would like to share.

1. Growing food. I would look into and seriously consider a 10' by 10' forest garden in your garden. This is for a couple of reasons. A. a normal crop of anything takes up a lot of land that can't be used for anything else, whereas a forest garden is used on five different levels, growing your root vegetables, ground veg, small bushes, large bushes/small trees and large trees. You want to plant a couple of fruit/nut trees, leave enough for sun to still shine through (this is not suitable for high carb foods, but I plan on taking on an allotment as well for this kind of thing). If you make one of your trees an apple tree that will give you the wood you'd need to make Maddie's lye for home made soap. B. A forest garden needs very little work done once it's established. Except for your one off yeild veg a forest garden is self maintaining and propagating. You don't just plant food, you also plant useful plants that repel aphids, others that attract insects that eat aphids and other harmful bugs, some like Arzosah says, attracts bees for pollen, the most important thing is to make it organic, chemical pesticides don't care if the pest is an aphid or a bee, if you want a strong garden it has to be a natural garden, so my advice is to research home made natural pesticides that target that bad guys, or just use the right plants for the right jobs. There are forest gardeners who run one day courses to teach you how and what to plant and how to balance your forest garden.

2. Air rifle. There has been a discussion on here about air rifles v crossbows, personally I prefer crossbows simply because they are quiet and itshtf and you need to hunt for your own food then a crossbow won't attract attention from potentially dangerous types. That's just my two penneth worth.

Everything else looks good to me, but then I'm still a newbie to this too! lol

[TomW]

It's not easy getting started but it definitely sounds like youve got the right idea.
My first thoughts were similar to arzosahs, why turbines? Solar is much more discrete and requires a lot less maintenance. While you can diy them its not as easy as you would think lol
Crossbow v air rifle is more difficult. Yes crossbows are quiet but they take a lot more strength and more importantly time to load. Also 1000 pellets take up a lot less space than even a couple of bolts. While you can reuse the bolts they will inevotably get lost or broken over time. I'd probably actually get both as they would both be immensely useful and as we all know, two is one, one is none

My top tip.is to.maintain focus by just doing one thing at a time. For tge larger things break them down in to manageable chunks. The goal might be a years supply of food but its much easier to aim for a week, then a month, three months etc. Same with your garden, aim to grow something at first rather than everything.
By even considering the s hitting the f you will be streets ahead if it does

[combat squirrel]

Great stuff thanks guys.

My main reason so far for no solar is mainly that its not really very sunny here, but ALWAYS windy,lol.

I suppose I could locate the wind turbine at a location other than my property (built up around the house apart from the back on step sided waste land that eventually reaches more buildings)

What sort of power would a solar setup get ?

Cross bow + air rifle, sounds perfect, in a SHTF world id of course mod the air rifle for as much power as I could get out of it (of course keep it legal while society is still 'normal')

My other plan, which is highly dangerous........ I hope that people of our mindset (ones that can see outside of whats on tv) would realise a SHTF scenario quicker than others, while alot people may panic and run for the super market id be running for my nearest gun store (5 mins walk).......however, im not sure how to play that one, for obvious reasons, all other stuff noted

Thanks,

[bulldogeagle]

I keep reading both on here and other forum's the subject of crossbows. i dont know if this is because they are more macho or cos they are fired like an air rifle, but hasn't anyone ever considered the traditional bow and arrow? i got a Slazenger bow and a few arrows at a car boot for £25, arrows are very cheap on ebay, i buy 10X30inch basic arrows for £12.79 +p&p, a new bow string only cost me £6.22 including vat and p&p, and you can pick up a standard quiver for around £13, so you see its not an expensive item, against a crossbow its very cheap.

[harlowmaverick]

To use a bow with any great accuracy you need to be either extremely talented or practice regularly.
Crossbows also need some skill for correct use but are easier to shoot more accurately as you do not have to practice as much to attain good accuracy and keep the correct posture.

[unsure]

i started with the usual items , rice pasta , tinned foods and bottled water .
i think todate i have around 4 - 6 months , that includes fuel even a few throw away bbq`s .
power is a differant matter , thats my next project over winter , battery`s aren`t cheap but are easy to maintain along with solar panels , from ive read they aren`t easy to fit up or cheap come to that .
crossbow v air rifle , i have both , broad heads and lots of pellets .rifle wise i have a springer and a co2 , the co2 is very quite in use unlike the springer , that sounds like a cannon when things are quiet , it is a cheap one after all .

[diamond lil]

I'd sort out a plan B for cooking and heating over this winter while you're planning the garden etc. Not a lot of use having a houseful of food and crossbows if you're freezing and living on crisps

[Alleycat]

I'd sort out a plan B for cooking and heating over this winter while you're planning the garden etc. Not a lot of use having a houseful of food and crossbows if you're freezing and living on crisps

I totally agree with DLil on this one! I think you need to make sure you have more than one option......indoor/outdoor cooking, low energy use options such as hay boxes and thermos kettles, and heating indoors - being cold is no good for your body and no good for morale. And again you need to think about what your prepping for, total SHTF or just normal job security type issues and adjust your plans accordingly.

But as you realise its one step at a time and any step you make is a step further than the sheeple