How have you failed to be prepared for COVID-19 crisis

[PocketProtector]

I've been prepared since the Cold War. Now that we have a Cold Civil War........well.......still ready.

[Ohio Rusty]

For flour and yeast, You can put both in the freezer to extend their life. I have a bread machine also. I took some of the flour and an egg and madce homemade noodles the other day. They turned out great.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[ItchyTick]

Obviously I have lots of guns and ammo. Live-feed security systems at both business and farm. House is armed up for a siege. House is plumbed to convert to gravity-fed water if needed. Have ducks for eggs which I'm enjoying almost every day. We have goats, plenty of deer and turkeys on our farm for meat if needed, we have freezer full of food, but here's where I have failed:

Lack of medicine for my wife's kidney transplant. She only gets a 30-day supply each time, but we should have kept a minimum of a 90 day supply on hand, if not a 6 month supply.

Really failed there. Lesson learned. Now we haven't had trouble getting her meds from the Mayo Clinic in MN, but what if SHTF for 90 days.

How about you?

I'm have type 2 diabetes and do slow release insulin. Getting a good back up supply is very difficult given the cost and shelf-life.

[ItchyTick]

I was unprepared for the stupidity of our government and much of the populace. Unprepared, but not unsurprised.

I expected the stupidity from having worked a pandemic already. The problem isn't in the people actually working the response. Its the politicians.

Ignorant consumers are just ignorant consumers.

[ItchyTick]

Preparing is not about predicting, but it's about being prepared for an interruption in your daily life. Lots of things can happen to disrupt your life. I'm not one of those that we saw on that NatGeo Preppers show that has a specific thing I'm preparing for. I'm just generally prepared for whatever does happen. It's also a matter of reading about world events, and understanding how they could affect your life.

Wife and I were just talking earlier this evening that she read an article that people are complaining that they can't find yeast right now. I guess all those people that went out and bought 50lbs of flour for the first time realized it's pretty useless without the yeast and are just now finding out that it's sold out. When I was out topping off our supplies before the country when completely insane I picked up another 2lb package of yeast because I knew it was going to be hard to find. I put with the my other 2lb package of yeast which was there to supplement the 1 1/2lbs that I'm currently using from a mason jar.

Many people are pissed off at us "preppers" because they think we're the ones hording everything, when in reality, we're not. Most of us have had our supplies already well stocked and merely topped off or bought things we thought we might need based upon the crisis that was about to happen. If we couldn't have topped off, we would have just made do with what we had. Fortunately, it was very easy to read what was about to happen, and get those extra supplies before the stores got completely swamped by the grasshoppers.

Well thought out comments.

[sota]

I'm have type 2 diabetes and do slow release insulin. Getting a good back up supply is very difficult given the cost and shelf-life.

are there other alternatives you can take that have longer shelf lives?

eta: note, I don't have diabetes, no one in my direct family has it, so I don't know what I don't know. that said...
https://survivallife.com/are-you-an-...ndent-prepper/
https://www.askaprepper.com/make-insulin-shtf/
https://www.askaprepper.com/9-natura...l-find-useful/
http://preparedchristian.net/prepare...for-diabetics/

Can Syringes Be Reused?
“Fourteen insulin-dependent diabetics were asked to use their insulin syringe-needle units three times in succession to determine the efficacy and safety of this practice. The mean duration of time each patient participated in the study was 20.4 weeks, and a total of 2,000 injections were taken. No signs of infections at the injection site were observed. Multiple use of disposable insulin syringe-needle units appears to be safe and cost-beneficial.”

I hope that helps.

[VooDoo1VooDoo1]

Maybe I missed it but I don't think I seen anyone who posted about stocking up on pet food too.
Some might disagree, but our dog is almost like a kid to us.
When all this apocalypse stuff was just starting to get a little bit crazy, as in noticing the store shelves not being restocked on some things, I guess I got a bit paranoid.
We're almost always prepared for a couple of weeks with food and dry goods.
But I noticed how dog food was not being restocked as much, at least the brand we buy. Had a full 15 pound bag at home, but I bought 2 more bags at Walmart. Then next time I was shopping I seen it was sold out.
Went to tractor supply store and got a 30 pound bag. So we still have 45 pounds unopened for a 67 pound dog. And it looks like the store is able to stock it again now.
My wife feeds a few feral farm cats too, I don't really give a shit about them, they can fend for themselves if they have to. But we are in a rural area and they do really help with the rodent issues we have, especially in the winter.
So I got a little bit of extra for the little commie moochers too, just to shut up the wife. 😁

Sounds like your wife and my ex-MIL are cut form the same cloth; probably feeding the same ferals. MIL's farm is just over the hill in Adamsburg, lol. You should name the commie ferals after Stalin, Mao, Kim, etc. My son that lives with my ex-MIL hate her obnoxious house cats so much that we renamed them after Washington Capitals players. Oshie, Ovechkin and Backstrom. LOL.

[ItchyTick]

are there other alternatives you can take that have longer shelf lives?

eta: note, I don't have diabetes, no one in my direct family has it, so I don't know what I don't know. that said...
https://survivallife.com/are-you-an-...ndent-prepper/
https://www.askaprepper.com/make-insulin-shtf/
https://www.askaprepper.com/9-natura...l-find-useful/
http://preparedchristian.net/prepare...for-diabetics/



I hope that helps.

Lol. The Hannibal Lecter approach and raw human pancreas is always an option.

[Noah_Zark]

I failed to be prepared for the onslaught of total bullshit from federal, state, and local governments, and all manner of print, broadcast, video, and social media.

I have no f__king idea who to believe about anything regarding COVID19.

And I thought I had trust issues before? My trust issues are off the charts now.

Noah

[Yellowfin]

I need to have more savings in advance of things like this. I didn't totally run dry but I see the difference in being able to pay bills for a while versus living the life I want to be able to regardless of circumstances. What this has taught me more about is what worse scenarios I'm not yet prepared for and need to be. This has been effectively a practice run and shakeout drill. Areas for improvement for the real bad stuff include:

1. Generator (Was saving for one but this layoff s*** drained that money away)

2. Gas masks -- For when a real bad disease is running around (greater than 5-10% of future possibility), police use tear gas/OC spray (very likely), chemical spill/leak/explosion (likely since I'm in an area that has heavy agriculture so lots of chemicals) or a foreign enemy or our own gov't wants to play ***hole again and remembers how people are easy targets, and there's a worse guy in office. These just became WAY more likely because of this.

3. Ammo on hand. Need enough to basically survive a war because a worse version of this will cause one.

4. Spare rifles on hand. May need to arm neighbors or friends if stuff like LA riots happens. Again, given what ***holes we now know gov't is willing to be, more likely than before.

5. Bigger food reserves. Full freezer and pantry is nice but it isn't infinite, and I'm finding out that "full" isn't as full as it could be, and peach cobbler takes up space that ground beef should be in.

6. Medicines. Need to assume there's no such thing as a pharmacy or grocery store for a few months. That means EVERYTHING.

7. Get the wife on the same page and up to speed. Holy f*** having sheeple relatives has been a DISASTROUS influence on her. Out of 20+ only she has touched a rifle or pistol in the past 10 years or more and she hasn't in over 3. 4 of them out of 20+ even own a lawnmower.