Prepping – Post Apocalypse

Are you ready for what happens after the apocalypse? I’m not talking about the zombie apocalypse here, nor am I referring to the next pandemic. The apocalypse I mean is the one that’s currently predicted: Harris winning the election. I know some of you are laughing, but please don’t. I am quite serious about this. What are your plans for if she wins?

There are so many moving parts to planning for a Harris win. We have to consider the possibility (likelihood?) of social unrest. There may be a repeat of January 6th, this time with weapons, even if Harris is a clear winner (which I think is unlikely). More importantly, we need to plan for the economic downfall of the country.

It’s time to stock up on some basic things. From now until the election, prices have eased slightly. Harris is trying to buy votes. I know money is tight, but it’s really time to go and buy up all the canned goods you use in a year. Pick up extras of all your dry goods. If you can, order a half cow and stash it in your freezer. I have a funny feeling that if she wins, the country is going to get very expensive, very fast.

I always say, prep what you eat, and eat what you prep. This isn’t for a long-term emergency, though. This is food that you expect to eat over the next year. So look at what you use on a regular basis. For me, in the canned goods department I use a ton of canned tomatoes (both regular and the type with the chilies in it). I use canned beans (black, red, chili, garbanzo, etc.) as well as dry ones. I use rice, specifically Jasmine or Basmati. My family likes sausage, and I can usually find them on sale, so I will buy extras and toss them into the freezer. Last week, I found turkey breasts on sale for 99 cents a pound, and I bought the limit.

There’s more to it than that, though. It’s time to clean out your deep freezer, if you have one. Find out what’s lurking at the bottom, and decide if there are things in there that need to be disposed of. Make room for good foods, and then start picking things up anytime you see them on sale. I try to have a grocery fund, plus an extra slush fund for sales. That’s how I got the turkey breasts.

Go check out your long term storage. Is anything out of date? Do you need to bring up buckets and rotate stock? Now is a great time to do that. Use up older stored goods, and put the new stuff into long term storage. Don’t let things go bad. Check every canned item for seepage or bulging, and get rid of anything that isn’t right. Use your common sense when examining canned goods and dried goods.

If you want to buy the means of making bread, go for it. It’s a handy thing to do. Start practicing your bread baking now, though. I’ll make Monday’s recipe a copy of my weekly bread recipe so you can all give it a go. Consider getting a small hand mill for grinding wheat, corn, barley, and other grains and beans. Then, purchase whole grain rather than ground flour, because it will last a lot longer. Like… decades longer.

As odd as this sounds, having your home look a wee bit on the trashy side might be a plus for a Harris presidency. Inspectors generally don’t go inside; they decide on the current value of your home from the exterior. A bit of peeling paint and a stack of old furniture off to the side might save you thousands of dollars in taxes.

Remember the idea of both blending in, and the grey man concept. These may be important. Have a handful of liberal friends who you can cover by being around. There’s no point in advertising your stance on anything unless we get into a shooting war. Remember, a shooting war means a civil war, which means going up against friends and family. We should not be in a position where we’re doing this again. It was horrible the first time, but I guess people have forgotten. We don’t want a shooting war, as tempting as it may feel to you at times.

Learn to make do. Learn to make things you expect to be hard to find. Remember the pandemic, if you want some ideas. Cleaning supplies come to mind. Toilet paper. Staples like oatmeal, eggs, ground beef.

Above all, practice. And vote, of course. I don’t believe any of the press at this point, so I’ve no idea where we stand in Trump vs. Harris polls. I just don’t trust any of the places reporting, because both sides seem to inflate numbers. I am extremely concerned that we’re back in that neck-and-neck race, again. Having a presidency decided on a coin toss is never a good thing.