Hello everyone. I'm posting from northeast Pennsylvania. I decided yesterday that I wanted to find a 'prepper' forum or site to participate in. I tried this about 2 years ago and it went very badly, but now I realize the community I was participating in wasn't really about survival or prepping. It was more like a very conservative religious group hiding itself behind a prepper forum. I tried to find it yesterday just to see if it still existed and couldn't find it. I've browsed this forum and it is full of good information.
I'm married, but my husband gets very worked up in any kind of 'crisis' and wants to do a thousand things at once. I can't get him to plan beforehand so that is my responsibility. We are very fortunate to live on his father's old farm. The farm hasn't been active since 1985, but we have lots of land and I've been working on the pear and apple orchards. The fruit is edible and improved somewhat in the 3 years I've been trying to salvage the trees, but I was given advice by people with more experience. They told me the trees would probably never produce well again and I should plant new ones, so I did. I have new saplings and older trees. I have several berry patches too. I can find berries in the woods but I wanted a reliable source. I've always been interested in canning of all kinds because I spent a great deal of my childhood with my grandparents. I loved helping my grandma and great aunt. I wish I had an old wringer washer. My 88 year old aunt was still doing her laundry with one of those in the mid-90s. I've found a few in old barns and storage areas but none have been in very good shape.
Anyway, I'm interested in being self-sufficient, if I need to be. I have a private animal rescue/sanctuary here. The human family comes first in a disaster, but I really don't want anything to happen to my furballs either. I don't have just cats and dogs, its quite the menagerie. Some of these animals might be able to survive better than I can, but the atypical species came from wildlife rehab so they're not 100% able to live 'wild'.
My father and I have educations in bio/chem and I worked as a nurse for several years. We used our education, the internet, and other references/resources to come up with efficient, cost-effective ways to provide medical care for all these animals since we are not rich. Of course we can't do surgery or anything like that, but there is quite a bit we can do ourselves. Sometimes the things we've learned come in handy for humans in the family too. I' not sure how much we're allowed to talk about regarding medications/medical supplies and how to get them so I won't go into that unless someone says its okay.
I've been wondering about a library. If something disrupts normal infrastructure, the internet won't be there to search. I'm deciding what to have in paperback/hardback form (as opposed to e-books). I've got hundreds of titles on my list. I need to pare that down, but I'm not very good at that. I want extra everything and back-ups for back-ups. I'm not sure if that comes from growing up without a lot of money or what but I feel anxious if I dont have extra essentials in my home. I have not looked through the section on manuals here yet, so maybe research materials I need are listed there. I'm open to suggestions too since I'm sure I've missed a lot of things. I'm also thinking about starting a bee colony, so if anyone has experience with that I would love to know how it worked out. I wish my husband dealt with everything related to guns and ammunition, but I guess its better if I know about it too. I'm not anti-gun. This is rural PA. I grew up around them and my dad made sure I knew the basics, at the very least. Im just not very enthusiastic about firearms.
I'm married, but my husband gets very worked up in any kind of 'crisis' and wants to do a thousand things at once. I can't get him to plan beforehand so that is my responsibility. We are very fortunate to live on his father's old farm. The farm hasn't been active since 1985, but we have lots of land and I've been working on the pear and apple orchards. The fruit is edible and improved somewhat in the 3 years I've been trying to salvage the trees, but I was given advice by people with more experience. They told me the trees would probably never produce well again and I should plant new ones, so I did. I have new saplings and older trees. I have several berry patches too. I can find berries in the woods but I wanted a reliable source. I've always been interested in canning of all kinds because I spent a great deal of my childhood with my grandparents. I loved helping my grandma and great aunt. I wish I had an old wringer washer. My 88 year old aunt was still doing her laundry with one of those in the mid-90s. I've found a few in old barns and storage areas but none have been in very good shape.
Anyway, I'm interested in being self-sufficient, if I need to be. I have a private animal rescue/sanctuary here. The human family comes first in a disaster, but I really don't want anything to happen to my furballs either. I don't have just cats and dogs, its quite the menagerie. Some of these animals might be able to survive better than I can, but the atypical species came from wildlife rehab so they're not 100% able to live 'wild'.
My father and I have educations in bio/chem and I worked as a nurse for several years. We used our education, the internet, and other references/resources to come up with efficient, cost-effective ways to provide medical care for all these animals since we are not rich. Of course we can't do surgery or anything like that, but there is quite a bit we can do ourselves. Sometimes the things we've learned come in handy for humans in the family too. I' not sure how much we're allowed to talk about regarding medications/medical supplies and how to get them so I won't go into that unless someone says its okay.
I've been wondering about a library. If something disrupts normal infrastructure, the internet won't be there to search. I'm deciding what to have in paperback/hardback form (as opposed to e-books). I've got hundreds of titles on my list. I need to pare that down, but I'm not very good at that. I want extra everything and back-ups for back-ups. I'm not sure if that comes from growing up without a lot of money or what but I feel anxious if I dont have extra essentials in my home. I have not looked through the section on manuals here yet, so maybe research materials I need are listed there. I'm open to suggestions too since I'm sure I've missed a lot of things. I'm also thinking about starting a bee colony, so if anyone has experience with that I would love to know how it worked out. I wish my husband dealt with everything related to guns and ammunition, but I guess its better if I know about it too. I'm not anti-gun. This is rural PA. I grew up around them and my dad made sure I knew the basics, at the very least. Im just not very enthusiastic about firearms.
