Have a little Doom Porn if you are in the mood.
Or just skip to the comments and let us know what’s on your mind.
Either way, shit is starting to get real out in Normie Land and the smell of panic fills the air.
Batten Down The Hatches (Open Thread)
Bustednuckles
Documenting The Death Of America
Our nearest wapmart was really dim inside tpday. Nticed every third lght fpxture had the flrescent tubes remved. Asked a staff member and they said its to save costs since electricity has gone up.
When wally world looks like a set from a zombie movie you know its bad.
Gonna check mine this week. Rarely go in will report back
Hope you make it out alive!
Go in armed…
Inflation driving prices through the cloud deck, yet selected price drops and mark downs everywhere. Why? Sales are in the tank. Nobody has any disposable income. Food, fuel, power. Period. What’s the current number of households delinquent on their utility bills? Remember “It’s the economy, stupid”? Now, EVERYONE is paying for student loan debt. Maybe, just maybe this student loan debacle will be the final straw.
This shit show only stops when people at all levels refuse the orders.
Fuck to the 10th power.
funny, I went food shopping today. the local store has a deal where old folks and vet get 10% of store brand items on Tuesday (old folks) and Thursday for vets
the store brand pasta was GONE. on sale at 89 cents when you buy 3. guess what
they all must have, about 15 feet of 6 shelfs where bare. stock guy said they where
loaded on Monday. chips that used to be 2 big bags for 7 bucks are now 9
canned chicken, store brand used to be 7 bucks per 4 can pack, now 12 bucks and change. but the sale items where picked clean. I just topping off the shelfs myself
as I saw a bit of this coming last year when diesel started to go over 4 bucks.
EVERYTHING MOVES BY TRUCK/DIESEL. the costs have to me made good or up. so the end user pays, as always. back then, the wife thought I was nuts or something, she doesn’t think so now a days.
the damn electric bill went from 120 to 170 inside of a month and I haven’t used that much more than the month before. rate jumped up.
heating oil is still over 5.40 a gallon and doesn’t look like it will be going down any time soon, up, oh hell yes. even firewood has gone up around here too
a cord of oak used to be 225 or so, now if you find it for sale under 300 you doing good. and they want 25 bucks or more to drop it off too now.
get out of the cites if you can, small town, whatever. the inner city youts will be on a tear when they can’t get what they want now. the summer of 2020 will look mild to what is coming soon when the food runs out.
get you garden started or expand on the one you have now. get a canner and jars/lids or seals. invest in some heirloom seeds to store and use later.
learn to save seeds. learn to grow peanuts, the peanut grows under ground and people have no idea what it looks like- they will not steal them.
like the man said, if you are short on anything you think you might need/want, get it now or soon as possible.
I keep waiting for the dollar to implode. the way they just keep printing and adding to the debt is amazing to me. history shows that this can not last much longer. one thing mom told me a long time ago, something is only worth what others are willing to give you for it.
but food, everyone needs food.
For Dave in PA. It is often said that amateur historians study tactics and professional historians study logistics. While I can’t argue with most of what you said, the truth is that if you haven’t already squirreled away a stockpile of food and other items you are behind the 8 ball. For most of the normalcy bias crowd it is already too late, they don’t have the resources or knowledge to make it, and they don’t have the time to acquire either.
I’ve been an adult for over 50 years and been learning skills all my life, when it comes to various methods of food storage I am still learning. Joe Blow from the suburbs isn’t going to turn into the subsistence homesteader in a couple of weeks. There is too much to learn, you don’t throw seed on the ground and become a gardener over night. Canning is a complex skill, it takes a while to get good at it, other necessary skills take just as long to learn. The majority is screwed and they don’t yet realize how badly.
yes, I do know that. started learning how to garden about 20 years ago or so. started reading about raised beds and went from there
canning too, had to do something with all of those tomato’s
thing is, unless some people start now or soon at least. they will not have a chance in hell of making it.
as for the stockpile of “things”, I have ammo in the stash that I paid
under 20 cents a round for. bricks of 22 lr with price tags still on them at 17.95 or less. I have burned up 3 printers and god knows how much paper filling a couple of dozen binders full of stuff I wanted printed off. computers are great until the power goes out.
books last almost forever.
as for the great unwashed, I know they are fucked. why else you you think I moved to the hills years ago ?
people are lazy as a rule, this I know. so walking up hill is not something most of them will even do. besides, there are a lot of liked minded people around up here. something that was nice to find. so, yes. joe blow is fucked, he doesn’t even know how bad it going to get. I have seen people kill others over c-ration cans we gave a kid years ago. something I never forgot either.
one of the first things I did after moving here was to install 2 wood stoves. had a oil burner, but they suck and are loud as hell.
also have 2 full tanks of fuel oil I filled when it was 2.39 a gallon
it now at 5.30 so, funny thing, my neighbors thought I should have installed pellet stoves, but you have to buy pellets and they need electric power to run. they don’t think I nuts anymore, as there are trees all around here and most of the wood in the stack I got for free when one neighbor got a lot of trees cut down early summer
this year. I just had to trim and split it. and stack it.
if some people try now, they will have a better chance than just waiting until there nothing. maybe turn some of those soon to be worthless dollars into something they can live on.
there still more firewood I need to split and stack, but I have at least 2 hard or cold winters worth split and stacked already.
my parents lived thru the time of FDR as dad used to say,
dad always had food in the house, and a stash of stuff we never touched. just in case stuff as he called it.
some things are worth passing on to your kids. he thought so.
now my kids, they might have something stashed away, but I have my doubts about that.
most people have what , maybe a weeks worth of food at home ?
besides, if we don’t help others to help themselves. what does that say about us? not saying I going to hand out food or anything
but I will help and teach others how to take care of themselves.
I saw this coming a long time ago and made plans to stay above or out of the storm so to speak.
and now they can’t afford it.
You make some very good points James.
Now I’m wondering just what percentage of the population at this point has ANY food storage knowledge, other than opening up the freezer.
I personally believe that is going to be a make or break skill set here real quick.
I’ve been practicing some things that were unfamiliar to me and watching You Tube videos until my eyes bleed trying to gather as much knowledge as I possibly can while the lights are still on and they are available. Trying to remember how my Grandmother did some things is also helpful.
I may start posting videos that cover some of the basic skills that people are going to be needing.
I know it would be preaching to the choir for most of my readers but I still get surprised once in a while with new folks stopping by.
phil get at least 2 copies of the ball blue book on canning. the USFDA site used to have a ton of info on canning and other ways of storing food. haven’t looked in a few years now, so I not sure anymore. staples and office max sell those plastic covers for holding papers in binders. THEY WORTH EVERY DIME. I have a bookcase of binders full of info on how to do almost everything. got that from mom, she used to say you don’t have to remember everything, just where the book is on it. I never printed double side anything as it tends to bleed thru sometimes. easier and cheaper in the long run to just print it out and stick in a sleeve in a binder. something else I started doing about 30 years ago too.
I still find things I like to print off now and then.
canning takes TIME. so does cooking down sauce.
drying veggies or jerky does too, but you can do other things while it going on. vac sealers are okay for a lot of things as well.
rolls tend to get pricey, but veggies dried and vac sealed seem to last a while in jars. soup stock ?
water filters are a must have item. also stock up on spare parts for them, filters and seals. I like my big berkley myself, had it for years now, filter cost a bit more but you can CLEAN THEM.
funny thing, wife used to think I was nuts for using it, now. she will not drink water from anything else. there is that much difference in taste when not using or drinking water from it.
wish you guys well, really.
My old dead dad told me stories about him and Grandma Nellie walking to the courthouse to get their gubmint allotment of two loaves of bread and a one pound square of not butter but lard every week . He said you would be surprised how good a lard sandwich tasted when you hadn’t had anything to eat for three days . He told me how they would pass a house with the family out on the sidewalk weeping after the sheriff evicted them cause they could not pay the taxes . The crew carried their belongings out to the curb and then the home was auctioned off where the politically well connected and banksters would buy it for a song and a dance . The love of money is the root of all evil .
You will own nothing and like it. I believe the plan is a lot of evictions take place as people can’t pay their taxes. When it comes to pick up the pieces we need to ensure that land and property tax are unconstitutional.
Was in Sam’s club over the weekend. Took my wife on a hot date as eating pizza there is about all we can afford. Watched what people were buying and no one seems to be stocking up for what is coming.
Talking with owner of small business-costs are going up but he doesn’t want to raise prices so he can’t afford to raise wages for his employees. He complains that none of his employees want to work. When I talk about the CPI he thinks its low so then I tell him to look up the minimum wage in 1970 and run it forward to today with CPI numbers, he’ll find he’s paying less than minimum wage in 1970.
Jenga anyone?
Aaron Brickman was on the Hagmann Report from august the 25 worth sharing .Information for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Here In the northeast, the thing I’m watching is heating oil. (Kerosene)
I used to use about 700 gals for the winter. (Switched to propane)
That’s about 3500 clams just to start.
Being hot sucks, being cold will kill you.
yup. after moving up here in the pa highlands, I installed 2 wood stoves. my neighbors thought I should have installed pellet stoves.
and told me so , many times until the power went out due to a winter storm. power was out 2-3 days and most folks left to stay else where.
my wood stoves and genny just kept on working.
there are a few pellet stoves for sale around here, but not any wood stoves. and the local woodstove shop has a back order of 1 year.
most people who use oil get one or two refills per winter, about the same with propane from what I seen.
firewood used to be about 235 per cord for oak. these days it over 300 at best and 25 bucks to drop off at least..
wife doesn’t think I nuts anymore for doing the things I do around here. even she watching what she buys and keeps stocked on the shelfs now.
a long time ago, I learned that stuff was better than money at times. it all depends on the stuff you have and what you need.
don’t really keep much cash in the bank anymore, but I do have the larder stocked as full as I can.
Leaving NJ to go back to FL. Stopped in a huge Shop Wrong supermarket in the county seat 2 days ago for milk and lettuce. The “organic” romaine at $5.99 for 3 in a bag was plentiful. The “regular “ at $2.99 per bag for same quantity: bare, nekkid big section. I found the last one hiding in the back. I just have always refused to pay the premium for the “organic” BS.
Lots of people buying stuff as if nothing wrong.
The costco in that area : third world country.
I have to run the A/C in my place in the summer as it has a southern exposure and gets full sun for 8 hours/day, even though I’m half way between 45th and 50th parallel. Up until this year, my electric bill for June, July, Aug averaged ~$120.00/mth. Last month it was $160.00+.
The city I live in, 100K+/- people, is going through a once a decade reassessment. I got a letter in the mail this week that my assessment for property taxes went from $178K to $282K, a 58% increase. Last year I paid ~$3300.00 in property taxes. If the rate stays the same, my taxes will be ~$5000.00 for a 1200 sq ft condo. Fucking outrageous.
This all do to the Mayor’s vanity projects, among which is a $10M opera house/playhouse. It was put to a vote two years ago with no info on what it would cost. It passed by a wide margin.
Now, it looks like the city will have to float ANOTHER $10M bond to get it completed, as the project is behind schedule AND over cost. This is not to even mention that the current venue for plays and concerts has needed to be heavily subsidized, because it can’t cover production costs and never has. In fact over the last 40 years that I’ve lived in this area, EVERY playhouse/production company has gone bankrupt because they can’t cover production costs with ticket prices that people will pay.
Then there’s the planned future train station property that was acquired by the city in a sweetheart deal a few years ago. The property had a couple of warehouses on it that went out of use 40-50 years ago and just sat there idle for all that time. There’s been a big push in this state for a train line that connects up to a major northeast city over the last 15-20 years. The plan has been defeated by vote in the state every time it comes to the ballot because it will have to be subsidized by all state taxpayers for it to built and operated, while usage projections are that less then 10% of the states population will benefit from the availability and even less than that will actually use it. Oh, did I mention that the location of the projected station is in the most congested neighborhood in the city with ONE street to access it, where traffic is already a NIGHTMARE?
I used see articles occasionally about small town/city corruption in the press. This place has it in spades and of course the local press is just as corrupt as the national versions in their support of the mayor’s “vision” and this guy is a registered Republican who UNAPPOSED in last years election.
I think I’m fucked if I stay here. I’m in my mid 70’s and am not looking forward to having to move. If I stay in this state, I’ll most likely be in the same boat, property tax wise, anywhere I move to anyway. This state has no income tax, so the only avenue to cover state and municipal budgets is property taxes.
I’ve been entertaining the idea of just refusing to pay taxes. There’s a law in this state that prohibits an elderly person from being evicted from a property over back taxes. so maybe it’s time to just do that. It’s either that or pitchforks and torches, whose time is past due.
Don’t forget to Pray as well.
Phil, canning and drying are essential, those people who depend on freezers are fucked the first prolonged power outage. Even though jars were expensive and hard to get this year I laid in a stock and if the freezer is no longer useful I can can on the gas stove without electricity and will save my frozen meat. I have enough without it but why waste it.
Drying vegetables is very important. The food retains most of it’s nutrient value and when stored vacuum sealed or with O2 absorbers it will last indefinitely. Being 70+ gives a different perspective to good for a lifetime. Eggs are easy to dehydrate, the result can be powdered and kept in the proper containers for years. Cooked meats can also be dried and stored. Given most peoples lack of extra time, dry frozen vegetables, they are already cut up and blanched, just throw them in the dryer.
I store a lot of biltong made of beef and pork loin, There must be 100 videos on it on You Tube, far superior in utility to jerky and easier to make.
I am with you on the canning. I used to put up about 60 jars a year of just garden extras. This year I am at 160 jars and growing as I have begun to can everything from vegetables to beef stew, pulled pork and onion soup. If the freezer dies i will be doing a lot of speed canning to save as much as possible. I also built an outdoor oven that burns wood as a backup for when the fuel supplies run out. Our electric rate doubled (now $0.22 per KW) this month with a promise that it will stay that high for at least the next 6 months. Propane is up almost double.
Best part is that I live up in the woods off a dirt road with no name. Nearest neighbors are all living off grid and we all watch out for each other.
Stay safe and prepare accordingly.
A couple more things, there is a good You Tube channel called Rain County run by what appears to be an older religious hippy who has great info on dehydrating and vacuum sealing without a vacuum sealer, I’ve learned from her.
Five gallon buckets are great for storing food supplies and the Gamma lids truly make things better. They snap on to the top of the bucket and a center section unscrews to make loading and unloading the bucket very easy. The screw sections have a seal so they are air tight. Now for some reason the price on these lids has gone through the roof as they are about $15 at Amazon. If you have a Menards near you they carry them for less than $7 and I just bought some more this week.
https://findaspring.com/map/
When the electricity goes so does your tap water if you depend on your local municipality. When I lived in eastern canada I had a live spring 10 minute drive from my house. Always had 5 five gallon jugs topped up to use when needed for my homemade bread and drinking and cooking. I hate the taste and effect of the chlorine and flouride in my body.
Now I live in western canada and again have found a live spring albeit a half hour drive away. Doing the same here now baking and cooking and drinking. A man can survive 40 days without food but you do need water in that time.
If possible , raise chickens. We just cycled out our old birds and are canning them this week. Have a new flock of 15 hens and 2 roosters. Nice renewable resource 🙂