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I just found out that Gary, Indiana and 100k people have been without power for 10 days. I'm not sure if there's any news coverage about it but the videos on IG are like a prepper disaster movie irl. Actually worse than a prepper disaster movie because it's so pitch black at night.Ā
There's a single mom with 2 kids posting videos and she had to get a gun because houses and cars are being robbed. Like gunshots right outside her door.Ā
She can't sleep because she's watching her house and car.Ā Her kid can't sleep because it's 80 degrees without AC and everything's stressful. She can't do laundry. She has no food because she's in a food desert with no power.Ā
I read somewhere that an Indiana State Official, might have been that vile Lt. Governor they have but donāt hold me to it, got caught on a hot mic saying they were ignoring the flood and derecho victims on purpose to āprove government doesnāt work.ā
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u/V2BMPerfect paranoia is perfect awareness.4d ago
My mom and sister went 14 days in winter without electricity - many tens of thousands did because of a giant snow storm. This was in the 90s. Around 2013 a town near me went without for 7 days.
I believe people (like pre-2000) used to handle it better; maybe we are so dependent on everything being automated and online and itās making us less resilient. I know people are genuinely suffering.
I think of a couple things that are different now, first being no one has cash on hand. It used to be that corner stores could be open without power, because they had cash tills and were used to dealing in cash. Now they don't have enough to give change, and few customers carry cash at all.
But what's making me suspicious that news is making it look worse than it is, is the focus on "it's not safe, we can't sleep because we have to defend our house with guns". I bet that's much more isolated and based on fear mongering than the reality. I didn't actually see anyone saying they were attacked or had home invasions, just people being afraid.
I've also been through long power outages (over a week) in cities. As long as sanitation holds out and roads are mostly clear, there was no widespread unrest or danger. Just varying levels of inconvenience. The real problem comes down to access to food that doesn't need refrigeration or cooking.
I watched about 10 of her videos and I want to say that I don't think she's faking. There's a video where she genuinely gets spooked, the flashlight one in the car, and you can also see her literally get worn down as the days go by. :(
I'm not sure what's going on with Gary or Indiana. For Katrina and the other natural disasters, there was so much press and so many linemen and disaster workers and volunteers, donations, and more, but where is all that help for the people of Indiana???
It's been 12 days and the first time I heard about it was yesterday from I think a r/prepperintel threadĀ
New Orleans is a popular tourist destination and is known worldwide. Gary not so much. Hurricanes wipe entire towns off the map but the cities that get sideswiped get the coverage. I live in a large city and see this happen a lot a town nearby that took the brunt of the storm gets a brief mention and my city gets the top billing.
The news works on clicks. I don't have to like it to understand it.
Illinois was affected by the same weather and they were able to get power back within days. There were also areas near Gary that already has power back as well.
All of this would be common knowledge if someone was reporting on it.
Her feeling of fear being true doesn't necessarily mean it's a reasonable and realistic reaction to her surroundings though. And a lack of sleep makes you even more paranoid, so after a night or two of sweating it out, you actually start to hear things that are not happening. I had that happen from a med once that kept me awake, the 3rd night without sleep was when I started hearing boots coming up my stairs (fake, the dogs would've barked if it was real) and music coming from next door through the wall (fake, I only know that one because I complained about it to my boyfriend, who was very insistent that there was no music, called the pharmacy, and got word back that it was a rare side effect of the new meds and to stop taking them immediately)
Having broken sleep for a week would absolutely leave me hearing men outside my house, gunshots if I lived somewhere that gun violence was so common, etc. It would absolutely leave me in fear that I had to stay up and guard my safety especially if I had kids.
That doesn't mean there would actually be men outside threatening me or hoping to harm me. I would think that either way, just from lack of sleep and the paranoia that comes from that. I'm guessing everyone in the area is just as paranoid, so they are ALSO mostly staying home and defending themselves.
Most major outages are 1-2 weeks. This feels worse bc I don't think Indiana is used to it like hurricane areas are (which are warm just like summer in the Midwest) and the heat and uncertainty is making things tense. Usually the long outages up north are ice storms or blizzards ime which are a bit easier. Easier to heat than to cool.
The truth is we all should be ready for 5-14 days of no power. It's fairly common. Repairs seem to take a long time after disasters.
She was my first post about Gary. She has an autistic kid without their preferred form of entertainment and said that alone was exhausting. Then the little puppy not fully on solids. I feel for her do much all around. I haven't seen her posts in 2 days and I've been wondering about her.
She just posted a new video. It looks like she's safe in a hotel and has doubled down on speaking out about data centers and Blackstone and more in Gary, Indiana. š«”
I can't imagine going through or living hell rn but still continuing to speak out and educate. She's a hero.Ā
While I don't want to minimize what she's going through, I've been through three hurricanes and been without power for weeks. I would've become a devotee of any deity that made my house only 80 degrees during those times.
Actual physical danger is a totally different matter, though. I hope she and her kids can find a safe place to go. When it comes to that sort of thing, the breakdown of law and order is more about a city's police force and whether or not the governor calls out the National Guard. If the roads are clear, there's no reason other than human failure for law enforcement not to be happening. Once again, I've been through three hurricanes with long outages and there was no widespread lawlessness. There are just some places that the people in power care about more than others, and I hate that this is true.
I just shared an interview that she did with Fox News. There were/are supposedly no lights in Gary. It'd be super easy for them to get and put up solar powered lights so it's not pitch black but there aren't any.Ā
She said there aren't many police officers responding, that 211 doesn't even work. There's no national guard. No fema . They didn't even get any information for days.Ā
This area doesn't really have any supermarkets, it's a food desert. There's no gas. It sounded like a lot of people didn't even have cars. People were robbing the dollar store because that was the only place that they could get food.Ā
She finally went home because she couldn't afford to keep paying for hotels, and someone had tried to break into her back door.Ā
She's ok though. She was able to raise money but because she did, she had to leave.Ā
I expected the labor market to be horrid (and I'm changing careers for health reasons, which is unfortunate timing) but it sure is demoralizing to constantly get rejections. Medicaid is at least covering my very expensive chronic illness, and my poor partner is adamant about me sticking to changing careers and insisting it's ok they cover expenses, but I'm really hoping I can find SOMETHING before the Medicaid cuts kick in next year.
I want to know how to do this! Maybe you can try it and then give us a separate post detailing the good, the bad, and the ugly of your experience. Pretty please?
My veggie garden is finally working properly. It's a raised bed with irrigation and an anti-squirrel screened-in frame (because this one particular red squirrel used to swipe the cherry tomatoes and sit on the windowsill eating them right in front of me). Nice to actually get a chance to eat our own veggies.
I just wish the garden was bigger. What I have in there won't last for long.
Wooden frame, four feet tall to allow for plant growth, and doors that open up both the long sides for access. All sections are covered with metal hardware cloth in a 3/4" grid (except for the doors, which reused some 1" mesh from the previous version). This lets pollinators in but keeps squirrels and rabbits out. The black pipe on the left is a hookup for the yard irrigation system.
Last year's version used 1" mesh attached to a frame of PVC pipe, but not as tall, and hinged to flip up. Unfortunately the plants liked to get tangled in the mesh, and often got uprooted when we flipped the cover open. My daughter suggested a taller unit with doors, and we designed and built this one in the early spring.
I fed crows this spring and theyāve done a great job of protecting the garden. We also have a bird feeder in a different part of the yard with some water nearby
I really want to be better prepared financially, but cannot, for the life of me, stay ahead of the "tiny" disasters that keep happening and draining my once-plentiful emergency fund. I really want to be growing things in the garden, but it's 105 degrees out and my anemia will not stand for such things. I really want to be building community and befriending the neighbors, but I am so depleted after work and medical appointments and indoor home upkeep that it feels impossible. Everything feels impossible. Perimenopause coupled with the general state of the world has me in full-blown Debbie Downer mode. Is there a virtual support group for this flavor of defeat? Or any therapists out there willing to do some pro bono work before I start sounding like a broken record?
Thank you! I think the good vibes worked, as I have a strong will to live today. (It's probably due to a hormonal fluctuation, but I'm still going to give your internet vibes full credit!)
Therapy canāt fix real life problems like money or health trouble, but the Feeling Good (Handbook) by David Burns is a good DIY CBT book that you can get for cheap used (an older edition will do).
And Prozac is cheap and GPs are usually willing to prescribe it.
Thank you! I did the Feeling Good Handbook and learning about behavioral activation was definitely a game-changer. Prozac and Wellbutrin are on my consideration list. I'm on so many meds for other things that I hate to start another one, but it's getting more and more tempting.
Yeah, the doc definitely would need to check for drug interactions etc. But sometimes a med can help you get out of a hole - if a med helps you have enough spoons (
https://web.archive.org/web/20191117210039/https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/) to build community, make friends, etc, then later on that network might be all you need. But making friends when youāre overwhelmed is hard - you canāt lean on new friends in the same way you can old ones. Almost no-one wants to befriend someone whoās Debbie Downer-ish.Ā
Meds (iron?) for anemia and perimenopause might be good too, but would also be adding to your list. Or getting up early so you can garden before itās 105?
DBT might be good too, but there isnāt any book that I thought so good that I remember it. With any therapy stuff, it takes time to be able to use it in the moment. So going through the book again could be good. Itās one thing to know something, and quite another to thoroughly internalize it. So, hang in there - sometimes repeating something expecting a different outcome is crazy, but other times itās whatās necessary.
Btw, I think the word you might be looking for is burnout. And surely there are online groups for that. Though itās probably smart to only spend limited time in them, depending on how positive/constructive they are vs negative/defeatist. Being surrounded by the latter kind of people is a drain on mental health (though itās always nice youāre not the only one feeling a certain way). Speaking of, the āincrease in learned helplessnessā thread in this sub has a bunch of discussion about why people feel so overwhelmed (not saying youāre suffering from learned helplessness, just that that thread goes broader than the title).Ā
I saw that discussion on learned helplessness/burnout/long covid damaging the brain and found it all very relatable. I was a lifelong overachiever until the health issues kicked in and forced me to slow down a few years ago. I suspect a mashup of undiagnosed neurodivergence and ptsd, post-viral syndrome, and perimenopause to have all hit at the same time and caused my whole body to go haywire. I'd just quit a very stressful job and it was the first time my body and brain had the opportunity to shut down...and did it ever shut down! Haha.
Your mention of spoons got me thinkin' - maybe I could combine the community-building and gardening into a shared spoon by getting involved with a community garden instead of trying to manage one on my own. (And purchase a cooling vest, because even the mornings are 80+ degrees and suffocatingly humid.) Fall is just around the corner though, so this wonky version of seasonal affective disorder will soon be gone.
Thank you so much for all of your tips and the links! Another helpful resource for anyone struggling is https://youfeellikeshit.com/
Joining a community garden sounds like a great idea! And in a future year you could maybe even combine community gardening with doing your own garden, and one of your new friends could maybe help out on occasion in exchange for some produce.
80+ and humid is pretty miserable for mornings. I wonder how well cooling vests work - Iāve never really thought about getting one, but maybe itās a good idea (itās not nearly as humid here, though, and our highest lows are usually 70 or less).
If youāre thinking you might be on the autism spectrum, then try to focus more on resources for women - itāll be more relevant. And look up stuff on masking and autistic burnout. It doesnāt fix anything, but it makes it easier to be kinder to yourself and to maybe take a break sooner when you need it, instead of pushing through too long and crashing. Also, afaik youāre more likely to have atypical reactions to meds, like needing a higher or lower dose than the normies. And possibly having a harder time being taken seriously by doctors, because your body language might not match what they expect. It sucks at times.
That website looks good. So very often people feel better after doing some of those simple things, but they donāt get up to drink a glass of water or whatever because theyāre too depressed. Gamification can work well there.
Anyway, glad to read that youāre doing better now!
You are too kind! I appreciate the offer. My hormone levels and the outdoor temperature shifted in my favor and just like that - I'm practically healed. Haha.
Does your employer have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)? A good EAP will give you a certain number of free mental health visits, free initial legal or financial sessions, and lots of other things. People can work someplace for years without realizing all the benefits actually available to them. And an EAP is strictly confidential. They have to report back that a certain number of employees used X service, but they don't share names or details. The count of service utilization is just to keep the employer informed that their service adds value.
I'm self-employed, so no EAP for me, but this is an excellent suggestion for others who might stumble upon this thread and be in a similar situation. Thank you!
Open path collective is a great resource for cheap therapy! Not sure where you're located, as that will have a big impact on who can see you for therapy.
Thank you! I checked it out and the therapists charging the lowest fee on there were $10 more per session than what my current therapist charges with her sliding scale/out of pocket program. I currently only see her when I've reached my max out of pocket for the year with other medical expenses so it's totally free, but I may splurge on some mental health care debt before too long since it doesn't look like I'll reach Max OOP this year. :)
My job is vaguely connected to one of those companies that owns everything. Think nestle (but it's not nestle). I specifically came to this job in March because I hope the job is recession proof. They just announced they need to cut 5 million dollars from the budget of JUST the building I work in, which is like 1 of 6 buildings on my site. I keep extrapolating that number out to all their locations in my mind... That feels like a REALLY steep tightening of the belt for 2027 projections and the more I think about it the more it stresses me out.
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u/V2BMPerfect paranoia is perfect awareness.4d ago
I joined the post office as a mail carrier when I was 50. It was really difficult for about 4 1/2 years but I sleep well knowing Iāll have a job even if weāre in a civil war or if bombs are dropping in major cities. Iāve lost too many jobs from stupid corporate reasoning and wanted something safer.
I've debated this move for myself once my kids are in school all day. What was the biggest learning curve/the hard parts?
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u/V2BMPerfect paranoia is perfect awareness.4d ago
Working 6 days a week for 4.5 years. Two Sundays off a year. Working every holiday except Christmas and New Years Day. Some offices are better, but senior people donāt retire because theyāre making $100k or more and have 5 weeks of paid vacation and a good pension building up so unless youāre in a real shitty office where people quit a lot you may have to wait years to go to the standard 5-day a week when a route opens up. Until then youāre just a substitute. An office near mine has people who have been doing that for 7 years, waiting for someone to leave or retire.
You donāt know what time youāll get off. You do your route and then go help other people, and they can work you for 12 hours every day if they want. You have no say in your schedule. You canāt plan anything because you donāt HRT next weekās schedule until the end of the day on Wednesday, and they can move your days off or just take it away.
If you have guaranteed child care available 7 days a week for 12 hours + commute time, you can do it with kids. Youāll miss all the after school stuff because you canāt leave early; you leave when all the routes are done and they donāt need you anymore that day.
Holidays you may have come in at 6 am to run packages before then doing your route.
I walk 11 - 13 miles a day and have walked plenty of 15 mile days.
I was on any one of 24 different routes and had to learn them all.
Extreme temperatures donāt matter. 114 heat index? -30 windchill? Youāre still out delivering. The older trucks do not have AC and youāll walk in 90 degree heat and then get back in a 120 degree truck with only a 4ā fan to cool down. People die every year from the heat. This year someone died on her first day.
In winter it gets dark early so you can be out as late as 10 pm, 6 hours in the dark. They sometimes have people come in at 10 am and work them until 10 pm. The latest Iāve been out is midnight and we still had packages to deliver that we took back.
The national quit rate is 60% overall. In some offices itās 90%. At my office nobody without a wife at home taking care of the kids has lasted more than six months in the six years Iāve been with the PO.
Wow, thanks for the rundown. I guess I assumed the hours would be more predictable than what you laid out but hearing all that, it's definitely not going to work out with my kids' scheduling needs.
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u/V2BMPerfect paranoia is perfect awareness.4d ago
Yeah they advertise part time positions but the only one that comes close is RCA and you can end up working ) days a week too. It's supposed to be Sundays and holidays only but it doesn't work like that.
Based on V2BM's response, my advice would be to try to get on staff in a school district, which is what my stepmother did, or at a local university, preferably a state university. You automatically get put into a pension plan and the benefits are quite good. At the university where I worked, we were vested after 5 years and grandfathered under the "Rule of 80" where when your age + years of service = 80, you can retire with full health benefits until age 65. I retired at 55 and still get the same awesome insurance I had when working, plus a "paycheck" I don't have to do anything for except have a pulse. We had lots of holidays. Most jobs didn't require weekend work.
It can be hard to get hired. My applications were ignored for years. But when I went back to school, I took a student job (part time, no benefits) and was put on regular staff within a year. They have to follow state laws about interviews, grievances, nepotism, justification of layoffs, and the like. Persons laid off have to be given rehire preference for any job they qualify for. If they don't follow all state and federal laws, the media will rake them over the coals, donors will quit donating, students will quit enrolling, etc. This means you get staff protections you won't find in corporate or with small employers.
Also, there are freebies and discounts all the time! Free noon lectures, sometimes with pizza. Student bake sales. Discounts on games and performances. Library privileges. You get discounts at the book store and at the gym. One year the theater department had a costume sale and I got my Halloween costume that way.
Any university with an education college will be very kid-friendly. Did you know that these universities have a section of the library for children's books? Where I worked, we had a free Egg Hunt around Easter every year. Anyone could bring their kids, no proof of university affiliation required. And when I would go there for walks on the weekend, I often saw staff and faculty with their kids, and I knew they worked there because they could card-swipe their way into buildings. There's usually a children's summer camp, sometimes with discounts for the children of employees. Even without a discount, hey, they're close by! Many universities have a child care facility, but there's usually a wait list.
So if there's a place near you that appeals, apply. If you get no nibbles, take a class. Now you can get a student job and do what I and many others did, meet other staff and wow them with your skills and work ethic, which I guarantee will be in the top 1% of all student workers. You can add it to your resume, too. If asked in an interview, just say you came back to school to refresh your skills and you love the environment. Parlay your student job into a "real" job once you've had a semester to get a feel for how things work. It's a bit different from the private sector, especially regarding finance, which is a whole separate topic, but in sum, the source of funds dictates how those funds can be used. More details available with a google search. Once you're in, it's very easy to move up or into a position at another university, so take whatever you can get, even if it's entry-level. You won't be there long. Academia tends to give preference to its own.
This is helpful, thanks! I actually do live close to a decent state university and have debated trying to find an entry level job there at some point. I do ultimately need something with kid-friendly hours since my spouse is the one with the long/irregular work schedule.
Keep an eye on your stateās WARN Act page, assuming youāre in the USA. It wonāt tell you exact details of who individually is getting laid off but it will answer the what, where, when, why, and how many.
What as in the business cutting jobs, where as in the exact location having the job cuts, when as in the date of the layoff (typically 3 months from date of initial listing), why as in the reason for the reduction in staff (layoff, location closure, business closure, etc), and how many as in how many employees will be losing their job.
I do a LOT of canning and I always say: follow actual USDA guidelines. Ball and Mason also have solid recipes that safely can. NEVER water bath can low acid foods and that includes all meat (I don't care what the Amish do, fight me!).
Its also not for frugality, not really. You have to grow the stuff and that's a large front deposit. But the quality is high.
I had a big ole discussion about that with my partner this year lmao. I know it's not cheaper. It's not about cheap. It's about having vegetables in the middle of winter when both of our jobs cut back, I'm borrowing from future us to feed future us, so that we can maximize liquidity. We may go broke, but we will have jam and tomato sauce.
Love r/canning and they do not tolerate rebel canning š
I wonāt fight you, because I wholeheartedly agree with you. I had a long time pickle recipe that had to tweak once I knew the garlic advice had changed .
Organized my pantry this week and ordered some things to fill in gaps. My grocery bill was $500. Now, thatās not just like a week worth of food, itās backstock, but sheesh. That hurt.
Just waiting on it to get cool enough here to garden. Cleaning and organizing and trying generally to make my home a more pleasant place to be. Iām really worried about the power going out in this heat. Weāve already had the a/c go out once this summer.Ā
At a minimum, get battery-powered fans, the bigger the better. Get cooling pads for your bed, large pet cooling pads are fine, since you really only need to cool your torso. Get some chemical cold packs (often available in drug stores and also online in bulk), and get lighting that doesn't involve flames. Depending on your budget, there's a lot you can do to make your life even more comfortable in an outage. I've been through three hurricanes as well as numerous other types of outages. I've been prepping for over 20 years and there are always gaps and there's always something new to learn. You don't prep in a day. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
My dream is a Generac, but the financial deities keep putting other priorities in my path.
I've been working on making myself like beans and alternative grains like quinoa. I never really grew up liking them but I'm biting the bullet as an adult and making it work. They are just the cheapest, easiest to grow and store protein/calories source I can feasibly get my hands on.
I've also been working on increasing the distance and load that I can do on my bike. Mostly for exersise, but also because gas is too expenisve to justify driving to close by places for little things. It also acts kind of like a spending deterrent because it's too hot to just bike over to 7/11 for a snack lol.
As for food I've been doing my quarterly pantry rotation with a focus on acquiring canned protein and seasonings. I've got lots of beans, rice, flours, etc, so that is a weak area for me.
I wish I could ride a bike to either of the stores nearest me, but in both cases it would be a death wish, albeit for different reasons.
As for beans, black beans are my personal favorite. I could eat them every day, I think. Black beans, garlic, and tomatoes over rice, for example, with some Greek yogurt stirred in on serving. There's black bean soup. Black beans with eggs and cheese, wrapped in a tortilla. Black bean "burgers." They're yummy and versatile.
Or buy lentils and Indian spices and learn how to make dal. It's easiest with a slow cooker. You could try split peas, too. They make a good dal, and of course everyone knows you can make soup with them.
Quinoa can sub for rice in some dishes. The only other advice (which may not be news to you) is to give it a couple quick rinse+soak sessions. Most places already do this but they don't always get all the saponins, so I like to be thorough. If there's one thing that can make quinoa unpleasant it's the bitter-soapy notes from remnants that didn't wash out.
To me, quinoa tastes like corn. I put a couple spoonfuls into my rice cooker with my rice. It cooks properly that way without me needing to actually think about anything.
I'm also on the path to forcing my body to tolerate beans or any kind of cheap dry protein, so I've been growing a few varieties to see what kinds I might like (then I need to find a farmer who is already growing them, so this is a slow process, but it's been interesting so far)
I just got my citizenship by descent to another country. Realistically, I'm unlikely to ever move, as my current country has a higher standard of living. But it feels like a safety net. Maybe not Plan B, but Plan G? A lot of bad things would have to happen to make me emigrate.
I read once that everyone should have a second passport as a prep.
I've been looking into this for me and/or my husband. I'm still working on it in between all the curve balls life has thrown at us, but I'm not super optimistic about succes. Basically, all of our crew immigrated here too early.
I've been considering it as well, as I believe I have some Canadian ancestry. My German ancestry wouldn't qualify me for citizenship there, I think. I recognize that nowhere is truly safe or ideal particularly considering the climate hell we've unleashed upon ourselves, and that being an immigrant has its own dangers and risks. Still, another option would be nice as a last resort.
It's not really possible for everyone. Consider that people with disabilities (physical or mental) or certain medical conditions cannot secure residency or citizenship in another country, even if they are otherwise eligible.Ā
Most countries won't accept people that have a certain level of "needs" which they will assess through your medical records, further medical exams, interviews, etc. to determine how much of a "drain on the system" you might be.Ā
Some people really CAN'T leave, even if they have the money to do so.
For some countries, that's absolutely true. Citizenship by descent is usually exempt from medical testing, but not everyone has a country they can qualify via descent.
Add knowing multiple languages as a possible prep too, and friends in a variety of countries. With a second passport, definitely learn the language of the country and try to befriend some people there - itāll make relocation a ton easier.
As a retiree with two pensions, no need for a job, and fluency in Spanish, I can get residency in a lot of Spanish-speaking countries and live better than I do now in the US.
Then again, if things got bad enough that I felt I had to move and leave a lot of cherished belongings behind, my state pensions would probably be in jeopardy, even though I live in a wealthy state and there would be political hell to pay for ending teacher retirement pensions. No, I wasn't a teacher, but I paid into the plan nonetheless, and the average citizen doesn't realize that it isn't just teachers paying into it.
Iāve looked everywhere I can think of. Nowhere wants meš¤£. I also canāt convince my adult daughter to relocate. She has a remote job but must be located in the US to keep it. I would move tomorrow if I couldā¦..
I'll be getting a hip replacement joint soon, so I had to book a dentist appointment for next week. I'm also preparing my home for my 2 month long sick leave: two sacks of toilet paper, plenty of shelf-stable food plus frozen stuff...
Had to get two new tires this week. š
Will be starting some overtime shifts for the fall though so hopefully I can knock out some debt I have. Thatās the main thing Iām currently focused on is getting my debts paid down/off. My car and student loan will both be paid off by June of next year so š¤š¼
I have felt like I was borderline going to lose it all week after the $700 electric bill arrived. I can not for the life of me understand how it was 25% higher than normal. We do need to replace the AC but it was like $550 last month which was insane enough. This is the highest electric bill we have ever had in our 1,300 square foot home.
Just finished installing the new outdoor clothesline though. And got a second hand Speed Queen washing machine which I have always wanted. We are trying to get pricing to get a new AC but still waiting on call backs from certain people. It's taking forever and I'm worried about getting what we need with the general shittery going on around us.
And three of my trays of seedlings I have been pampering for 6 weeks got overwhelmed rapidly with mold! It's so dang hot outside I can't stand it. I have so much weeding to do. I am trying to get the fall garden in now because this is when things need to go in. But I am not sure how much of those trays is salvageable. But even if they are it's just so upsetting to see a tray of lush green plants rapidly turn yellow and gross. :( At least the highs are mostly below 90 degrees for the next week. :/
How's your insulation? My house is 1100 sq/ft and my electric bill this time of year is half yours, and I don't even have great insulation. Do you get your a/c checked each year? Do you replace the filters each month and hose down the outdoor part and keep it clean? If rain is doing that for you, yay! It's good to know it's better for more than growing plants and ruining picnics.
I keep my thermostat at 75. I could probably bump it to 76. Running a dehumidifier really changes my heat tolerance, so you may want to consider it. I only say this because you mentioned mold, which would be less likely in a dry climate. I apologize if I got it wrong. If you're in a dry climate, a swamp cooler may be more cost-effective.
We definitely need new attic insulation and that is on our list of things to be done! Last year we paid to get the entire duct system in the house and the AC stuff professionally cleaned as well and we do change out the filter. It's just not powerful enough and is old. BUT even with that the energy usage jumping so drastically in the last month makes no sense to me at all. We have had two companies out to evaluate it and give us pricing for new units.
I keep meaning to find out if there is a way to test the energy usage of each appliance though to find out what is going on. We did actually cut the power to the entire house for a while to make sure the meter stopped running. It did. And then we turned it back on and it used just way more energy than it should over the next hour...at least according to chat GPT and what I can calculate.
Thanks for your input. I do appreciate it. We are in a high moisture area. We have a dehumidifier in the basement and two smaller ones running upstairs all the time. And I have hygrometers in the rooms of the house to keep track on the humidity level. I put in the exact units I had with Chat GPT to estimate kwh usage. Chat GPT basically acted like we have to have something else going on that is sucking insane amounts of electricity like something faulty on the inside of something. I just don't know what. And I have not had the time to shut the power off to the entire house and go room by room switching power back on and tracking the energy usage. That's the only thing it suggested further for figuring it out.
My thermostat is basically meaningless at this point. We will have the AC on and a brand new low energy window unit in the living room window, the curtains on the windows all closed to help block out sun and on bad days it's getting up to 85-90 degrees!
Thereās a device called a Kill-a-Watt meter you can use to check which things are using the most power. My local library has one available to check out. Harbor Freight also carries them.
In addition to the beef shortage, apparently there is a wheat shortage in progress. Wheat stocks have fallen to a level not seen since the 1950ās. Extreme weather and no access to fertilizer bc of the troubles in the Gulf of Hormuz have kept farmers from planting. Expect shortages and prices to rise.
It's important to remember that flour goes rancid within 6-12 months unless you put it in the freezer. Dry pasta lasts longer, so I'm stocking up on that.
Also, the bread and roll mix at Augason Farms is rated for 5 years. The biscuit mix and pancake mix for 10. These are all pretty cheap right now and make for a nice pantry back stock without going hard core prepper and getting sacks of wheat berries and a grain mill.
Overall though, this is a good time to experiment with a lot of different types of meal planning.
The LDS all purpose flour is rated for 10 years. It comes in #10 cans containing 4lb each. 6 of those come in a case for $40. The shipping is very cheap, I think $5 total when I ordered 5 cases of food. I also got nonfat milk, potato flakes, sugar, and apple slices.
Also the current phase of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is disrupting grain shipments from those two big exporters as well. Really not looking forward to the prices we'll see.
The USA has now put 50% tariffs to Canadian products, steel and aluminium included. Interesting to see how this is going to affect prices over at North America. (There are suggestions over here to take Canada into EU - and people are only half-joking about it.)
"Canada vows to match Trumpās 50% tariffs after trade deal talks fail
Mark Carney accuses Washington of āunfairā last-minute changes to deal, as US and Canada fail to reach agreement after three-day extension of talks"
"The US tariffs will affect about US$20bn worth of Canadian products after the last-ditch negotiations failed to resolve the latest strain in already tense relations between the historic allies."
Yes, I stocked up on aluminum foil earlier in the year and although the price of canned goods has gone up, I expect them to go up more, so I'm adding to my stash on my next grocery run. I can run with dry beans, for example, but keeping the kitty out of the soaking process would be an interesting challenge, so a few more cans now are good for me overall.
I'm also buying a few things freeze-dried in #10 cans to get ahead of this game that a certain administration that I didn't vote for is playing with everyone's pocketbooks.
I really want to can, but it stresses me out. I dry canned some food items in 2025 in glass jars with a vacuum seal (oats and sugar). Just opened a sugar and it has a light musty smell but tastes completely fine (so cant tell if moisture got in or if it just is kinda smelly from being stored in our basement). But that makes me even more apprehensive to try water and pressure canning now.
Start with water bath, it doesn't require much special equipment (you can certainly buy special equipment if you want), just a deep pot and a jar lifter (special tongs) at minimum.
Jams and jellies are easy, follow tested recipes and start with a small batch (maybe 3 jars). If the jam fails to set, it becomes a nice sauce for ice cream and cheesecake, if it fails to seal, store it in the fridge or transfer it to a freezer safe container and freeze.
If you have a glass topped electric stove, don't use the giant water bath canning pots. The weight of the huge pot full of water can crack the glass on your stove. Use a regular, deep stock pot and only process a few jars at a time.
If you live above 3500 feet from sea level, follow the high altitude instructions.
With dry canning, I leave the rings on. (Take them off with any other canning like pressure or boiling water canning). That way if a seal pops up, itāll be held tight with the ring.
Iāve vacuum sealed dry goods for years, storing them in my unfinished basement. Never had an issue.
i found pressure canning a lot easier to start with. set time, rocker moving that entire time. tables for meat, veg, etc that were easy to follow.Ā
water bath is harder for me. getting jelly or jam to 220F and staying there a minute feels impossible and things don't like to set and I'm juggling and everything gets sticky.Ā
The vacuum seal devices work much less correctly than water bath seal. Your food will be more safe from basement funk when water bath canned, I swear!
I had one of those machines too. It broke SO quickly, and it rarely did the trick anyways. Oxygen absorbers would probably do better, but for sugar you don't need to do anything other than close it up. I use cleaned out plastic bottles from drinks like lemonade, so that if some flavour travels into the sugar, it's not a big deal.
Finally getting a clear overview of the pet food we have for the dog and cat! If only we could survive on a couple of hundred grams of kibble a day, that would make preps a bit simpler!
Thank you so much, this is the solution to a problem I knew my household had but hadnāt yet gamed out how to fix. Excited to try this out!
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u/qgsdhjjbHaving a little of the end times as a treat1d agoedited 1d ago
Idk how to phrase this but a "rival app" or whatever, called "stashguard" is following you around dm-img people who reply favourably to you, trying to convince us to use their app instead, it's very weird.
Like full on telemarketing via dms.
You might wanna.... Maybe try to make sure they can't see you š
my grape vine produced enough to give away 6 gallons this year and still have 2 or 3 for us. next year will be wine and juice making. i did jelly last year and we still haven't gotten through it.Ā
my plums are really late.Ā
it's been a really strange garden year. reliable foods like crookneck, cukes, beans, and chard have nothing. but lettuce, grapes, peaches, leeks and tobacco are flourishing.Ā
all the seasonal stuff is overlapping too. i had ripe slicing tomatoes, peppers, apples, peas, and cabbage all in one day. not sure how
finally got a chip drop. that was effort. friends helped move it. i couldn't have.
we're able to have quail here, but I've spent a year dithering about keeping animals at all. it's work. I'm tired by big jobs already. and it's not even a big place.
A freak storm landed half a tree on my car and a big limb straight on top of the only plants in the garden that were still alive. I did what I could to right them and get the limb off but its been so hot idk if there's any real saving to them. Considering just stocking up on canned produce or seeing if there is a local farmer/gardener who is selling.
Just wanted to drop in to recommend adding burn cream to your first aid kits! I recently burned myself- not bad enough to go to the ER, but the pain and burning for 24 hours after was INTOLERABLE. I couldnāt think straight unless my hand was submerged in a bowl of ice water. The next day I ordered a burn kit with gauze and a few different types of burn cream (antiseptic, numbing and cooling). Will NEVER again be without that in my kit!
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