This thread is for posting regular practices, hobbies or prepper type subjects that members regularly perform and may want to share with others.
I will start with listing some of the things I enjoy doing, even though I may not be an expert in.
Doing most of my own auto repairs.
Wood working and Carpentry, including processing wood for various projects or firewood.
Metal working.
Homesteading/gardening.
Hunting/meat processing.
Brewing beer.
I’ve recently started making my own booze. I got tired of suffering the following morning after a night of debauchery. So I did some homework and found some recipes of wine and mead. It wasn’t difficult either. The primary ingredients are water, grapes or honey and yeast. No other ingredients or additives are necessary. After some experimenting I’ve found some good combinations that get me numb, pain free and happy. I have a half gallon of white grapes that is fermenting to a wannabe Chardonnay 
Now I’m nice, right, and tight. The wife is happy and all is well within the cosmos. 
Change smoke detector batteries and HVAC filters every change of daylight savings time.
Rarely let my gas tank get below 1/2.
Keep the equivalent cash of a tank of gas hidden in the car just in case.
Have storm evacuation plans for hurricane season.
I grow edible perennials - plant once, harvest yearly; plum trees, strawberries, blackberries, planting asparagus this year.
Hunt, and pressure can the meat for long-term storage. Lasts 10 years on the shelf. Also can thanksgiving meat leftovers like turkey and ham.
Paying off my house early and save as much as I can without sacrificing too much of everyday life and fun.
My expectations for SHTF are a small, localized event that small things can prevent or prepare for. Zombie apocalypse and civil war while not impossible, are improbable. I expect household emergencies, job loss, or inclement weather to be my most likely problems.
Can you share those wine recipes with me? I make my own wine too, but it’s not from any great recipes.
I’m currently in the process of expanding my produce production capability. Some perennial, but mostly focusing on heirlooms I can harvest next years seed from. I used to have a magnificent asparagus bed, but when the house was gutted for renovation, that and my figs didnt get sufficient care plus cattle are rough on asparagus if they manage to break in. On that note, perpetual meat supply from domestic and wild sources, and do all my own processing on wild. Basic preservation like drying and pickling, but need to learn to can.
I enjoy rolling my own freedom seeds; not as far as casting, yet. Basic functional proficiency in framing, carpentry, and farm-grade welding. I have the most rudimentary mechanical foundation but nothing like re-gearing a jeep rear end.
Writing it down I realize I have a lot farther to go than I thought.
Canning is so easy. Once you start, you’ll can everything you grow or shoot. Canned bacon is nice too!
Find jars at yardsales and estate sales. Buy new lids regularly-you’ll need them. After sealing, you can remove the rings and reuse them often. For the sake of easy cleaning, Widemouth jars are better for meat, standard mouth are better for fruits and veggies.
A long way from being “prepared” here. The current administration appears to be “warning” us of food shortages as various food processing plants are being burned down. It will be prudent to grow a lot of food this year and possibly beyond. In my area, this is probably the best time of year to start a garden since we’ve hopefully had our last freeze this morning.
The only perennials are my apple and peach trees, but you can’t really count on a yearly harvest because of frost, wind, or hail. The apples store very well for several months (in a cold garage), which has me looking at attempting a root cellar. “Everyone” used to have root cellars because they keep food over long periods of time.
The peaches will have to be dried to make it through the winter. My sister has a freeze dryer I might be able to use this coming harvest (if we get a harvest).
Canning will be a great skill to have. If you’re just getting into it, the lids and other canning tools have been scarce in many areas - probably a rush on the equipment similar to ammo! Start gathering supplies when you can (no pun intended).
One skill you will be happy to have learned and practiced is lacto-fermentation. Making sauerkraut, pickles, and other preserves adds a lot of nutrition to your diet. Canning may last longer (thus, good to do also), but it takes away some of the nutritional value. Lacto-fermentation adds nutritional value, but it is good for just a few months (depending on temperature and environmental conditions). Fermentation lids make the process practically fool proof.
Kombucha is also a nutritional fermented drink; it ferments to acetic acid, but I’m sure there are ways to increase the alcohol content! I’ve been making it for years off and on, but it doesn’t take all that much effort. Here’s a link to a short, cheap on-line book that will get you started. It’s very conservative and rigid, which is good for a beginner.
Also, I’ve found some local plants that can be eaten. You don’t want to experiment when you’re hungry since many plants are quite poisonous. Dandelion is one almost everyone tries to get rid of, but it’s very edible - imagine God giving us a weed that we can’t get rid of and has so many uses!
Sorry for the novel.
My daughter and I semi regularly forage while out choring. Right now we have agarita and dewberries which is a huge treat. We have snacked on dandelion and yellow woodsorrel salads many times and it’s a lot of fun. TX hill country gets pretty meager as it heats up but spring and fall are pretty bountiful.
Hostas are another edible perennial. I also have those in my yard.
And here in SC, muscadines grow wild, so pretty much everyone has, or can have, them grow in their backyard along a lattice.
I try to garden, mostly with abysmal results. I live is the Chihuahuan Desert, and growing anything without thorns is, well, challenging. I’ve added a good amount of peat moss, potting soil, compost and cow manure to my 10’x10’ garden plot, all with very limited results. This year I planted 8 rows of corn, along with some chile, lettuce, other greens and peppers. The only thing remaining is a total of 7 corn stalks, each between 1.5 to 2 inches tall currently.
I do roll my own ammo, as well as cast and powdercoat my own bullets for everything I shoot, with the exception of rimfire.
Unfortunately, there’s no big game to be hunted within about 100 miles of me, other than Oryx (gemsbok). While the meat is amazing!, (better than commercial beef), getting drawn to hunt Oryx on White Sands Missile Range is literally a “Once in a lifetime” event, and it gets pretty expensive. After a motorcycle accident in 2013 that cost me a leg, I’m not really able to hump the mountains anymore for deer or elk, so we’re kind of limited on meat choices.
I’ve been storing various goods, mostly canned goods, in 5 gallon buckets in my barn for over a decade, “just in case”. The only problem with that is that is that after my accident, I kinda forgot about rotating those goods into my daily use for a while, and ended up having to throw a fair amount away. DON’T FORGET TO ROTATE YOUR STOCKS!! Several cans of tomatoes, pineapple and chile corroded and leaked in the buckets, ruining otherwise usefull cans.
We live within our means. We paid off our small house last year, 5 years early. All three of our vehicles are paid off, all with between 90k and 400k miles on the clock.
We went to Florida early this year for our daughter’s wedding. That was the first “vacation” that we’ve taken in quite a few years. I think the last one was 2015.
While we haven’t completely given up drinking, it’s not a regular occurrence, and then it’s a single beer or drink. Not worth making my own.
We both quit smoking over a decade ago. The only thing that I occasionally miss is a nice cigar, but I know that if I have one, it’ll all be over.
We refuse to pay for cable/satellite TV. Well, to be fair, we are in a pretty remote rural area, and cable doesn’t come this far, but even if it did, we wouldn’t. We get live TV Over The Air. We do have Amazon and Netlix, much to my chagrin, but the Mrs. enjoys them, and I’m not going to complain about it.
We have a large garden and can enough green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and squash to last a year. I freeze my deer meat, but we boil and can all of the rib meat and lower legs for hash. I usually smoke that for about an hour before hand.
We also raise chickens for eggs and quail for eggs and meat.
For the garden we also have a rain catchment system for watering.
Eta: one important thing we have learned is to only stockpile those items that you routinely eat. Elsewise your stocks won’t get rotated and will expire. Rice, dried beans, grains etc can be vacuum sealed and left for years. Home canned gods will last a good long time and can be seen through the glass jars. I would expect that store bought canned goods will be ok well past the expiration dates on the cans.
Stuff like this is the reason I wanted to start this thread. Something is wrong in our country right now and if folks don’t learn to be more self sufficient and to share that information there will be needless suffering as a result.
- Became 100% debt-free.
- If I drive it, I can fix it (with the possible exception of automatic transmissions - still intimidated by those).
- Have dies and components and work up good loads for everything in the gun safe.
- Have a cash emergency fund.
- Keep the gas tanks, pantry, and freezers full and be ready to supplement by hunting.
- Just starting to investigate distilling and hoping to find a good “disinfectant” I can generate from things we already grow.
*Most importantly: Actively cultivate and nurture a circle of like-minded and capable friends.
i am learning to knit… people underestimate how valuable socks are…
I carry enough cash separate from my wallet that’s enough to get a ride home from anywhere I might be (I am seldom more than 25mi from home, usually less than 5). Come to think of it, it would definitely be enough gas to get home, if I were on E and at the far end of the county.
Wife bought ten pounds of frozen mixed vegetables, corn green beans and carrots. Ran them through our dehydrator and vacuum sealed it in a two quart jar. Ten pounds fit in a two quart jar. So one cup would equal 1.25 pounds rehydrated for soup etc. Cost a little over $10.
So, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, do any of you have a communications plan? I have a few VHF 2 way radios and an old Bearcat scanner. I’m an old school electronics tech from back in the day and have enough test equipment to fix most anything. I even experimented with C band dishes to pick up GOES satellite signals for WEFAX. I’m just curious as to what others may be doing.
I got a can of spam and some club crackers. Ready for when things get a little sideways. 
I have no comms plan, except to try to save enough to buy a set of radios. I am not sure how well such radios will work in these 'burbs, but from what I read, the only way to find out, is to find out.
My wife started “prepping” back when Obama got elected and took a break for a little while and went back into it when Biden got elected. She got a freeze dryer and has been freeze drying food non stop for about a year now. Freeze dryer food is good for about 25 to 30 years if it is fat free. She was totally on board with a AKV when I told her that her shotgun wasn’t goi g to cut it if bandits decide to decend on her stash of hard work. Anything you could want to prep she has and I know because I have to help carry it out of her car and or Amazon delivers it.
When it comes down to it, you can save and hoard till your hearts desire but eventually those items will run out. You have to learn to take care of yourself and learn the basis of what our great grandparents did on a daily basics. I highly recommend the Foxfire Series books of self sufficiency printed in the early 80’s. Teaches you everything our great grandparents knew and more.