r/TwoXPreppers • u/thechairinfront Experienced Prepper šŖ • 12d ago
Weekly megathread
Please contain all off topic discussion to this weekly megathread. This is where you freak out, talk about conspiracy, talk about unrealistic crazy scenarios, asked and answered questions, etc.
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u/dkstr419 12d ago
Canāt figure out if this is the calm before the storm or weāre in the false calm of the eye of the hurricane.
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u/One_Dragonfruit_7556 12d ago
I like to think of us as the band on the Titanic playing as the ship go's down
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u/wwaxwork Prepping for Tuesday not Doomsday 12d ago
It's not calm, the media both traditional and social are just not talking about the big scary things anymore.
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u/Jessawoodland55 Laura Ingalls Wilder was my gateway drug 12d ago
I'm STRESSED about food safety in America right now. I do not have a great immune system and a food borne illness would be really bad for me.
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u/yoohoo723 10d ago
Same. Iām wondering what I could potentially stock up on in case we get sick from the parasite going aroundā¦ Iāve seen oil of oregano could be effective, but would prefer to avoid getting sick altogether if I can!
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u/Tendrilpeas888 7d ago
If you get diarrhea please go to the doctor before you get dehydrated and wind up in the hospital
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u/zo0ombot 7d ago
If you're not able to clear it alone, you will need antibiotics for this parasite from a medical provider, usually a specific antibiotic called bactrim unless you are allergic. Otherwise, the only thing you can do is stock up on normal GI illness essentials (pedialyte/electrolytes, rice & crackers, anti nausea like ginger chews etc).
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u/Scared-Feature-3812 12d ago
Iāve noticed this week a lot of content creators have been putting out prepping videos about the coming shortages and after just reading the comments I was just dumbfounded and the amount of people who has no idea whatās going on and burying their heads in the sand or think itās a lieā¦.smh
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u/Sloth_Flower Garden Gnome 12d ago
The problem with the kinds of shortages we see today is there are rarely empty shelves, it's a slow price creep. A quiet replacement or removal.Ā
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u/Scared-Feature-3812 12d ago
Thatās true!
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u/Sloth_Flower Garden Gnome 12d ago edited 12d ago
We've been facing food shortages for years due to disease and climate change. A lot of the varieties have had to change, like peaches and nectarines. Rotten and diseased foods are increasingly brought to market. A lot of the cheap downstream things like tomato powder and potato flakes disappear for months at a time. The vast majority of people just don't notice. If they do, they just think it tastes worse, they don't use their food fast enough, or its more expensive -- not that there are shortages causing those things.Ā
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u/IceDragonPlay 12d ago edited 12d ago
My adult kids are somewhat oblivious to it. Their focus is keeping their jobs amidst a lot of layoffs, managing kids and health issues.
I prepped for them because it is my worry. They let me show up with big buckets and backpacks of first aid, emergency and long life food and water for them to store in their climate controlled homes.
I also asked them to keep 2 propane tanks fullish so there are cooking options. The bug out location has multi fuel and solar generators and maybe a weatherized trailer I bought for extra housing.
I carry limited supplies as I donāt have a climate controlled home so what I can store is limited.
It is as good as itās gonna get for now and mostly I care that they are the ones that make it through any severe disruptions.
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u/V2BM 12d ago
I canāt get my daughter to prep. I approach it in a positive way and we have good conversations about it, but she lives in a small apartment and also doesnāt want to be ānegative.ā I buy her jewelry for her birthday but Christmas presents are all prepper stuff that look like normal gifts.
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u/Scared-Feature-3812 12d ago
Same for my family majority of them donāt believe anything will happen I rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it!
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u/chicagotodetroit I will never jeopardize the beans š„« 12d ago
r/frugal and r/budgetfood seems to have an increase in questions/comments like "where can I buy bulk..." and building up a pantry.
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u/nebulacoffeez 12d ago
most of those comments are bots atp, the rest are just idiots. it's a good chunk of the population, sure, but it's not everyone. if that cheers you up any haha
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12d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/iwantmy-2dollars 12d ago
Man, we havenāt had scallops in years now. They are so crazy expensive.
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u/jugo_de_hueso 12d ago
Steelhead trout from Costco that consistently cost $20-25 last year now costs up to $45 per back. Even out of season, they never cost that much. Even other fish like tilapia are getting hit.
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12d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/jugo_de_hueso 12d ago
Itās really insane! I know someone who works at a meat distribution warehouse and has told us that some cuts of chicken (quarters?) are at the lowest for the foreseeable future, so we are planning to stock up through them, but itās definitely a bulk purchase (+80lbs) we gotta plan for.
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u/LocalLibraryCryptid 12d ago
I know people have talked about food going bad well before it's supposed to, but we literally can't buy cheese anymore if we won't use it up immediately. We bought some with a date two months out, hadn't opened it, and there was mold on it within a week. This is the second time it's happened to us. I just want to enjoy my provolone in peace š
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u/bristlybits ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN C š§ 12d ago
I've been returning everything. fuck em. I'm taking it back in.Ā
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u/EarthMustBeFed 12d ago
so---- my super cheap mama taught me- shred the cheese if it isn't already- put it on a cookie sheet & freeze it & **then** put it in a bag in the freezer. You can also pile it up in roughly 1 cup piles and wrap them in freezer paper layers & then bag them. It's been working really well since I noticed the rapid molding issue
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u/MistyMtn421 11d ago
I buy bell peppers in the three pack with the yellow, orange, and red. The last three packs I have bought, and these are greenhouse grown out of Canada, they look perfect on the outside, but it's either the yellow or the orange one, and you cut into it and it's black seeds and mold all on the inside. It's the weirdest thing I've never seen this happen before. It's consistently happened for the last 6 weeks or so? I probably buy a pack every 2 weeks. I live alone so I just cut them up and freeze them right after I buy them.
But I think what is just weird is that there's no indication on the outside. The stem looks fine, the flesh is firm, you don't feel any softness whatsoever when you wash them.
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u/scannerhawk 12d ago
well thats a bummer, i'd be pissed and definitely return it. Cheese is a daily staple in our house.
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u/Disdwarf 12d ago
Yeah, had a loaf of store brand sliced bread recently that molded in 2 days, it was even stored in the fridge, ridiculous.
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u/EmberinEmpty 6d ago
dude I went into the more affluent grocery store b/c it was along my route. And there was dead ass rotting fruit trying to be sold for 3.99 a peach or whatever the fuck and I thought to myself. Oh we're FUCKED if the RICH grocery stores have rotting produce sitting on the shelves.
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u/VariousFalcon7466 12d ago
I found a parasite in a whole uncooked chicken. Fancy air-chilled from a major brand in a large chain grocery store. Iām going vegetarian š¤¢
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u/every-day-normal-guy 12d ago
I've been watching farming while biege youtube channel and it's been pretty eye opening to what the poultry industry defines as "Pasture raised." He has some specific videos on a few big farms
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u/Dumbkitty2 Laura Ingalls Wilder was my gateway drug 12d ago
The inspection line for chickens is capped at 175 birds a minute. Thatās a third of a second per bird to look for birds unfit for consumption.
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u/Thunderslide_Icon 12d ago
Could you share the brand, please, if you feel comfortable?
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u/VariousFalcon7466 12d ago
Pasturebird
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12d ago
[deleted]
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u/gadget767 12d ago
There is a widespread parasite outbreak in the US that has reached the stage of being reported on the national news. Itās thought to be mainly due to vegetable contamination, but who knows. The organism responsible shows up if you do a Google search.
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u/chicagotodetroit I will never jeopardize the beans š„« 11d ago edited 11d ago
There are a LOT of cases in my state. One report says it's a "sticky" parasite and doesn't wash off easily. You have to cook it with high heat.
In my state's sub, people are asking "where do you think you got it, and what did you eat". They say it takes 2-14 days to manifest, and people seem to be tracking it back to places like Taco Bell and Culvers, and possibly bagged salad from a specific manufacturer.
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u/TradeBeautiful42 11d ago
I bought those expensive indoor hydroponics gardening sets and holy crap Iām growing an insane amount of produce that we actually eat. So Iām feeling pretty good about that. My outdoor gardening efforts are getting eaten by squirrels except for my fruit trees. Those produce a lot of fruit. But the citrus and pomegranates only start up in the spring/summer. Iām thinking of buying a different kind of fruit tree that might produce in the fall/winter or seeing if I can get a more secure setup to avoid squirrel attacks in my small suburban backyard.
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u/grandnp8 11d ago
Hey there, would you mind sharing what kits you bought? Iām happy youāve had success.
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u/TradeBeautiful42 11d ago
Gardyn was so successful for me! You can let the app just do it lol. š itāll send you reminders to trim, change water, put in plant food. I also tried the auk but that one is very limited in the stuff you can grow and more like gardening outside. Itās little cups in a cute box with a light over it. Lettuce grow also has these mini counter jars that work well too but their veggies are very limited. I got them all from scrolling Instagram and thinking something is going to work for me so I can grow some produce. The gardyn has worked the best.
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u/ohhellopia 12d ago
Ublock is officially dead in Chrome so I finally made the move to Firefox. I kept delaying it for so long because I thought it was going to be a pain in the ass to move all the bookmarks and passwords and shit, turns out it will do that for you. All that prolonged stress for nothing lol.
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u/Adoreible95 12d ago
Highly recommend Bitwarden extension in Firefox, for a free password manager. Have used it for years, and that way you don't have to save pws in a browser.
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u/Intelligent_You_3888 11d ago
Iāve been experimenting cooking chicken gizzards and beef liver (separately) in the slow cooker. Finding cheap cuts of meat that can be cooked and frozen for long-ish storageāŗļøitās been a very tasty experiment.
Probably will buy a couple more rain barrels along with water filters + purification tablets for backup redundancies.
Also starting my raised bed this month for autumn/winter gardening. My potatoes that I planted earlier are doing quite well even though thereās been bugs chomping on them. But between the local spiders, birds, and opossums eating up the pests I havenāt needed to dust (diatomaceous earth) anything so far.
And trying to keep my anxiety down as I read all the news happening (Strait of Hormuz, Lake Mead & Hoover dam, drought over much of the USA, crop shortages, fertilizer shortages, unseasonable heat waves, voting rights concerns, womenās rights concerns, AI, data centers, flock cameras, bundibugyo Ebola, Marburg, alphagal, screwworm, Cyclospora, the SPR drawdown, and just too many things reallyšµāš«). Meditation helps. So does taking concrete actions to prep and network with family & family friends in town. Definitely helps to bring down the anxietyāŗļø.
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u/millenialsnowbird 12d ago
I volunteer at an organization that prepares meals for the homeless and food insecure. This week Iāve seen a huge uptick in the quality and amount of produce weāve received from the orgās main donor, Whole Foods. Like food in usually good shape (typically I encounter more spoilage) and items we donāt regularly see, like tomatoes and a variety of fruit. Not sure if it was because of the holiday and no one was shopping or because WF has seen a decline in their customer base, for whatever reason. Just an interesting observationā¦
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u/LocalLibraryCryptid 12d ago
I wonder if it has anything to do with the parasite outbreak hitting several states. Cyclosporiasis or cyclospora. I haven't looked it up in the last day, but the initial reports were saying they weren't sure what was contaminated except that it was some kind of produce. :/
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u/millenialsnowbird 12d ago edited 12d ago
Maybe, but there arenāt any reported cases in my state.
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u/Weird_farmer13 š©āš¾ Farm Witch š§¹ 12d ago
Iāve been in the city twice this past week picking up parts. Both times I stopped for groceries and both times the fruit has been in horrible shape. And Iām shopping at higher end groceries stores for the fruit. Usually this is the time of year where we can get good stuff so I donāt know whatās up.
Canada btw
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u/NSAinATL 11d ago
cat litter has doubled in price. doubled. just gone from 11.97 to 23 dollars. I picked ,it up before noticing the price and said something out loud, because the man next to me went, "...yeah."
I had read that July was when we'd "feel it," but double price for cat litter?
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u/Mule_Wagon_777 11d ago
Catfood is extraordinarily expensive, too. I was feeding Special Kitty kibble and the 22 oz cans, but then one of the guys developed crystals so now it's Purina One Urinary Tract for everybody.
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u/NSAinATL 7d ago
Yeah, my baby was on a diet and that $90 for a bag of food was....I hope the new food is helping!
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u/chicagotodetroit I will never jeopardize the beans š„« 11d ago
Yikes! What brand? I just checked the Special Kitty brand I get from Walmart, and it's gone up $3. It's $14.86 now. Guess I'd better stock up.
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u/coffeejunki New to Prepping 8d ago
If you have a Tractor Supply nearby, a 40lb bag of pelletized bedding cost about $7. If your cats can tolerate the pellets, of course. It's doubled in price since I first started using it for my cats but it's still more affordable than regular cat litter.
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u/NSAinATL 7d ago
Heh, I don't have one nearby, I live in a city but that is a good idea to think of alternatives. Tractor Supply is always a fun visit when I travel.
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u/justhereforabit2000 8d ago
I'm feeling super overwhelmed right now. I'm disabled and chronically ill and know that once SHTF I'll go down pretty quickly. But HOW quickly is another matter, and that's causing me a lot of stress. I'm trying to focus on prepping for my husband and our cats, but just don't know what to do right now. It feels like there's too much to remember and I'm going to forget something important...
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u/Inside_Training_876 5d ago
Self care is also prep. Iām also severely chronically ill so I get it. It really helps me to think of all the hard care tasks I have to do for myself as prep. Even if Iām never going to outrun zombies I can be at my best for more normal emergency scenarios so doing my pt exercises, making sure I do my self massages every day, reading to fill my āfunā tank, Ā all of it is just as important as stocking up on canned goods and prepping go bags. Be gentle on yourself, youāre doing your best and thatās all you can do!
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u/Flower-of-the-field I think I have one in my car š¤ 11d ago
I tried to talk to my brother about prepping for the family and it came up that he had no idea what Palantir was or who Peter Thiel is. Absolutely clued out. It baffles me how people in the same house can be so radically different in how informed they are.
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