Katie sigmond of leaked

Memory Transcription Subject: High Captain Ferlinn, Secessionist Fleet Command
I stared grimly out at the darkness of subspace. I had just doomed a colony of thousands to be atomized. The glassing wouldn’t be as quick as the Feds or Arxur would have done it. Our antimatter arsenal was small due to the weapons being an offensive weapon, needlessly expensive to produce, and all our military being primarily focused on defense. The only reason Operation Hailstorm succeeded so well was because of the Federation’s incompetence and cowardice. Looking back at the battles, our attack strategies were quite sloppy, relying only on the overwhelming force of our dreadnaughts to constrict and crush our enemies.
Vajo would likely expend whatever antimatter, nukes, and Class-3 seismic charges he had before switching to standard bombardment. If that wasn't enough, he'd send down death squads to clear the survivors. I looked at the coordinates Overseer Noctif had given me. Sot Lovin, a planet heavily scarred by centuries of weapons testing and one that was well out of the Unity’s way. Large portions of its surface had been rendered uninhabitable by radiation and toxins and a seismic charge test gone wrong had gouged a deep scar visible from space called Odorala’s Folly after the long-dead woman who’d designed and tested it. Although it was still occasionally used for more testing, fresher planets had been acquired for similar and Sot Lovin had been more-or-less reduced to a hazardous, historical wasteland barely worth notice. It was a perfect rendezvous point.
As I relayed the coordinates to Faznik, who had yet to receive them, I ordered our subspace trail be hidden. The Federation had no such technology to accomplish that but we weren’t able to secretly keep tabs on the xenos for so long without learning how to hide our footsteps. I leaned back into the Captain’s Chair and rubbed my organic eye. Everything had gone to shit - more than usual at least - because of one person. I still couldn’t fathom as to why Edo had done this. He was a die-hard Isolationist and should have withdrawn the Guardian Fleet and hunkered down like he originally wanted to. Instead, he’d escalated the war and I had a suspicion that the Arxur weren’t going to be very happy. After witnessing their power at Earth, I had concluded that the reptiles could easily destroy the Federation but they didn’t because the xenos were their food supply.
With Edo vaporizing that food supply, he was drawing the Arxur’s ire.
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Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Drozo, Arxur Dominion Sector Fleet
This Zeyzell Unity was quickly drawing the Dominion’s ire. Their hatred of the animals was commendable but destroying our food source was unacceptable. Betterment had been attempting diplomacy with them for a week now only to be completely ignored. My target was a colony they had yet to glass and seize it from the pitiful predators. I chuckled as I recalled the first time I came face-to-face with one. The tiny carnivore had growled threats at me when I drew too close and spat the word "xeno" the same way a prey animal would call me a "gray." Despite the xenophobia, it seemed that a predator alliance with them and the Humans was entirely plausible as they continued to pledge more and more support.
And then they left. Every ship and troop battalion packed their bags and went back to Zeyzell-10 without any explanation. Rumors began to leak through about some sort of attack on the Zeyzell ruling council and then the canines suddenly turned and began glassing every Federation planet under their control down to the last city, using weapons that nobody had ever seen: bombs that cracked planet's crusts, satellites that sent the weather into pure chaos, among others. It was obvious that whoever took control after the attack, they wouldn't stop there so, against our better instincts, we attempted to talk them down. Every transmission was ignored and every vessel was turned away at gunpoint at best and blown up at worst.
So here we were. We'd give whoever this was one last chance to stand down before we attacked.
"Exiting subspace nowng subspace now, Captain.”
The sudden shift from darkness to light dazzled my eyes for a second. Blinking the afterimage away, I stared at the scene before me. The wreckage of a battle lay scattered in orbit while a large Zeyzell fleet turned the planet to glass. The way the fleet instantly fell into a defensive formation instead of panicking and running like the prey usually did was oddly refreshing. Bombers continued to skate through the atmosphere while the larger ships trained their weapons on us. Those boxy and vulnerable Carriers of theirs opened their bay doors and allowed clouds of swarmfighters to spill out.
“Hail them,” I snarled.
The hail transmitted for a few seconds before it was picked up. A Zeyzell appeared with disgust evident in his eyes.
“What do you want, xeno?”
“I am Captain Drozo of the Arxur Dominion. I have been sent here to relieve this colony from your control. This is non-negotiable.”
The canine laughed.
“Overseer Edo wants those things down there dead and who am I to disobey him? I would have thought that our goals would have aligned right here.”
“We agree that the prey are lesser than us, but the fact of the matter is that we need them. The animals exterminated our livestock and so we have been forced to turn to eating them to survive.”
“So what? There are plenty more planets throughout the Federation. This isn’t even a blip on your radar.”
“I think we both know that this Edo will not stop here. And what’s stopping him from turning on us once the Federation is destroyed? We are putting an end to things right here and now, one way or another. I will give you one last chance. Stand. Down.”
The Zeyzell bared his teeth in a laughable threat display.
“May Maa scorch your soul.”
WIth that, his image dissipated and target-lock warnings began blaring. Opening volleys from railguns on both sides lanced through the void. More of theirs struck a target than did ours. Oh, what I would give for some of those metal balls the Zyezell were fond of using. The Zeyzell hastened their glassing campaign as we closed in.
“Incoming swarmers!”
The clouds of swarmfighters launched forwards when the railgun strikes lessened and began tearing our front ships apart. The Zeyzell fleet spread out into a defensive blockade with the Carriers in the middle of formations of a few dozen ships. Giant gaps were opened up in the formation. Of course. The goal wasn’t the defense of the planet. It was holding us off until the glassing was finished. Who cared if we landed on the surface? We didn't have time to besiege them. We had to find a way to kill them or drive them off as soon as possible.
Many other captains saw the openings and allowed themselves to be overtaken by their bloodlust and sped forward.
“Wait! They’re baiting you! Turn back!”
Some heeded my warning and pulled back. Those that didn’t met a swift end to a second wave of swarmers. This was going to be difficult. We surrounded them, but they held all the cards. Anyone who got too close was vaporized and all the canines had to do was sit and wait until their job was finished. The Zeyzell held remarkable control over both their fear and aggression, not a single one breaking formation to fight or flee. I growled. I didn’t see a way to get through them.
Railguns continued to fire and some were able to hit a target but most were intercepted by a swarm. I sighed. There was no brilliant strategy that came to mind. The Zeyzell obviously weren’t worried about the populace so there was no need for them to spread themselves thin to cover more of the planet and the small groupings were well defended, only breaking formation to fire a railgun shot before falling back behind the curtain of swarmfighters. I recalled a few Zeyzell once bragging about how they were the masters of defense. At the time, I couldn’t fathom as to why they thought such cowardice was worthy of recognition. I know now. The Zeyzell had been hiding from the Federation for centuries. That gave them plenty of time to learn how to turn cowardly defenses into fleet-killing formations just in case they were attacked.
I thanked the Prophet that this fleet had no Weapons Platforms. That would probably put an end to this battle real quick. I watched the battle for a few more minutes before resigning myself to the fact that we were going to take heavy casualties no matter whether we won or lost. We might as well throw everything we still had at once. Otherwise, we might as well be bashing a titanium shield with our bare hands.
“All ships surge forward on my command. We will overwhelm them with brute force. We will not allow these pitiful predators to hold us off!”
Growls of anticipation answered me over the comms.
“Ready… Now!”
Every remaining warship burned their sublight thrusters and flung ammunition wildly at the blockade. I could practically feel the Zeyzell’s eagerness as they pounced. Warships fell in droves as the blockade tore them apart. But then they began to fall off as well. A cloud of swarmers that had been on the verge of tearing my own ship apart suddenly stopped as their Carrier was destroyed. We were doing it! We-
Suddenly, the Zeyzell broke their formation and began retreating around the planet. Swaths of bombers rose up out of the atmosphere and joined them.
"Sir, they're hailing us."
Perhaps they were surrending.
"Accept it."
The Zeyzell from earlier appeared before me again with a smug look on his face.
"Congratulations, xeno. You win. Here, have the ball of glass and carbonized corpses. Maybe you can clear out any survivors for us."
I growled with hatred. We'd been too late.
"What was the point of all this? You know what we would have done to the population. They might as well have been killed. We would have done your job for you!"
"Orders are orders, xeno. I follow them to the fine print. Have a good day."
With that, they jumped out of the system and left us with a useless, dead colony. All that food just wasted!
The Dominion would get our retribution eventually.
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Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Nikonus of the Kolshain Commonwealth
I was in a bit of a pinch, that was for certain. The Zeyzell had gone from yet another problem to deal with to perhaps the greatest threat to the Federation except for maybe the Humans. We and the Arxur both used each other for our own purposes. The Arxur needed us for food and we needed them to keep the population under our control. The Humans had thrown a wrench into that balance but I was certain that they could be dealt with in time. The Zeyzell at first posed a similar problem as the Humans until a week ago.
No matter what the predators claimed, I hadn't blown up their Council Chamber. I didn't even know where Zeyzell-10 was. But whoever did it, they had royally pissed the canines off. They had turned full genocidal on us and they didn't have the same needs as the Arxur did. Normally, I would just let the veil of our cowardice fall and wipe out the predators but I had no idea of their true defensive capabilities. Their offensive abilities left something to be desired but there were plenty of rumors abound of their impossible defenses such as energy shields that covered entire planets and gigantic turrets that could take out orbital targets from the surface. For all I knew, any Extermination Fleet would be ripped to shreds within days. Not to mention that they were almost certainly spread out over many worlds. Glassing Zeyzell-10 would complete the amazing accomplishment of killing a portion of their population and pissing the rest off even more.
I had to hope that they would stop where they are now.
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Looking at buying a 2000 Suburban 1500 for towing. Engine/Trans are in amazing shape, everything mechanically seems as perfect as possible for the year. The only problem is there is a small drip leak from one of the fuel lines, on top of the cross frame right behind the fuel filter.
Mechanic near me said to avoid because lines are impossible to find, which i quickly debunked but in the process noticed a lot of aftermarket companies are using nylon sections in those regions to avoid the recurring rust problem. Would it be an issue to use a nylon line and a couple of connectors and repair the fuel lines in that region instead of ripping out everything from the filter back and paying $250 for all new lines.
If a repair is fine, can anyone direct me to the appropriate lines and connectors to use? I would likely just go ahead and replace all the lines there at once

Hey everyone, quick question today!
So, I upgraded to my Silvia Pro X a little over a year ago. It’s been a joy to use, and is part of my daily routine. I make around 5 shots a day for me and my family, but we entertain often as well.
About 3 months ago, around the holidays, my machine began leaking water out of the sides of the portafilter during shots. I noticed it happened consistently if I was brewing around 18g in and 30-35 grams out in 30 seconds (about 12-14 on my Niche Zero grinder)which is my standard pull. I temporarily began brewing coarser as a workaround.
I eventually did some quick research, came to the conclusion that I needed to replace the group head gasket, and replaced the part within a week.
The replacement seemed to work, and I went on with life.
Now, less than 2 months after replacing the gasket, the same issue is happening again.
I am wondering if this is part of a larger issue with the machine, a bad repair job, or something else I’m missing.
Hoping for any advice or opinions y’all have to offer! Thanks!

i'm paraguayan and i used to believe my knowledge about stroessner was EXTENSIVE based on the personal experiences i've heard from my family back in the dictatorship and the books i've read about him. but listening to a foreign journalist talk about it made me realize just how VILE and horrible that part of my country's history was... and how naive i've been about the whole thing? my mom's stories made it sound like heaven on earth, because my family was not part of the opposition, they were quite privileged in fact, stroessner visited my grandparents farm once and he was the one giving the diplomas to the graduates at the national public high school in Encarnación, his former chauffeur is a family friend who ALLEGEDLY was the one who took Josef Mengele to Hohenau and did a bunch of other dirty work for the dictator, dude was just confessing the most insane shit you've ever heard on a sunny sunday lunch. Stroessner's main house in Encarnación is now an Agronomy University i think? and yes, it does look and smell like shit, some people go and take a leak once in a while. His influence and stupid fucking ideology that has ruined this country and regressed back to the middle ages, is felt even today, the Colorado party's presidential candidate PRAISED him just a month ago during a speech for his campaign. Anyways i just wanted to share this just to give people outside of Paraguay a perspective, on how many people really got away after Stroessner fell and the injustice and irony of it all.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to remove white buffer stains on metal (aluminum I think)?
Been trying for ages to clean up stains after our HPLC machine leaked buffer. I've tried ACN, water, ethanol, methanol, EDTA solution, mild HCL, acetone, and soap/water. Nothing's proven very effective.
Buffer is thermo proprietary but I'm sure it contains sodium phosphate and smaller amounts of 1-OctaneSulfonic Acid and Triethylamine.

I have been at this for a month and it's driving me insane, can someone fix my insanity.
Situation: If I'm cruising on 40km/h (25 miles) and I'm shifting from 3rd to 4th gear with low 'RPMS' the car stutters for a second and these lights come from 1 second and disappears, nothing wrong with the rest of the drive. You might be asking that I almost stalled the car and its reacting like this however, Another scenario, if I'm cruising on the road at 55km/h (35 miles) and I'm on 6th gear, if I GENTLY tap on the gas, the car will stutter and these lights will come one, I tried it again and floored it and didn't have an issue.
What I've done:
- Changed all 4 spark plugs- Changed all 4 Ignition Coils- Changed the PCV system- Smoke test to check vacuum leak and did not seem to have a leak- Used both fuel ignitor cleaner and seafoam over the span of 3 weeks, and surprisingly, got my first contact engine light which happened to be P0341, camshaft position sensor, so I replaced that with no luck of fixing the issue, code is not erasing away. Any tips?
Now can someone please riddle me this.
Note: The timing chain, and water pump were both replaced in the past year. Car: 2011 VW GTI Mk6 Manual with 180000km (111000 miles)

[1996 honda accord ex 2.2L] bought it a couple months back for $200 from a coworker, guy said only known mechanical issue is it had an oil leak. went through half a quart in 150 miles. did an oil change & found a bunch of oil covering pan & filter, traced it to leaky oil sender. i swapped the spark plugs out with NGK brand at the same time & found a bunch of oil in cylinder two from a seized plug. all that's left in there is oil residue, no new oil is collecting after driving it around. i have new valve gaskets on the way just in case. i've driven it 350 miles since, check the oil often & it fluctuates on the dip stick from about halfway between max & above max. has anyone ever experienced this? it fluctuates about an inch. i always check oil in the morning before work, i park in the same angle on flat ground. no dash lights or codes.

We had a surprise leak under our kitchen island that necessitated a visit from ServePro and the demolition of said island and a floor to ceiling height pantry cabinet. Still waiting for the wood floors to be ripped up and replaced, but that’s a topic for another day. We’re trying to look at the situation as an opportunity to fix a few design elements about the kitchen we never loved anyway, starting with the island itself. Used to have the sink, countertop and a stepped up bar height area along the whole length with some stools for seating. We’ve decided we want to have the sink and one big countertop without the stepped up bar area. So will now just be one big, flat island with the sink on one end. Granite or quartz countertops, haven’t decided which.
I love a white farmhouse sink. Trying to decide between drop in and undermount, porcelain vs. fireclay. Have been going back and forth for days, was totally camp fireclay drop in, both for the aesthetic and added cabinet space underneath…until I considered the fact that there won’t be a backsplash/stepped up area of the island now, which means the lip of the sink will interrupt the expanse of the countertop.
Contractor is waiting on me to decide so he can finish the cabinet specs. Have been without a kitchen sink or dishwasher for a month now, and we can’t fix the floors until the cabinets are done, so looking at another month at least. Beyond tired of washing dishes in the laundry room sink.
Help me, Reddit? Hit me with your pros and cons. Is there a bunch of gunk around the edge of your undermount? Will the lip of the drop in look goofy on a big open island? Am I totally over thinking all of this? Should I just take a shot of whiskey and pick something?

I have a Brim espresso machine and it’s starting to break down. It leaks and the steamer wand doesn’t get very hot. Not sure what’s wrong with it but I’d rather repair it than buy a new one, even if the repairs are expensive because I hate contributing to waste in this way.
I’ve already reached out to hitech espresso and he refuses to even look at my machine (also a bit of an asshole) and the other appliance places I’ve called don’t do espresso machines.
Help! Thanks in advance!

Do you think you have the skills to survive a Depression?
Let’s face it. We may say we’re preparing for winter blizzards or freak hurricanes, but down deep, if you’re a prepper, what you’re really preparing for is a collapse of America’s economy. It may happen within a few days, or it may be a continual downward slide over many years. Its causes may include numerous Katrina-size natural disasters, a toppling federal government, chaos on Main Street, and the odd meteor or two.
Regardless of the causes, we want our families to be as secure as possible for the long haul.
So, the question that naturally arises is: How do you prepare for a Greatest Depression? Is it even possible to prepare for something that may last a decade or much, much longer? Is it better to be a homeowner, even if someday you’re unable to make your mortgage payments, or is it better to have mobility and rent? Should you leave your life savings and retirement funds where they are or take the tax and penalty hit and invest in land, or gold, or a year’s worth of food?
While there are no definitive answers to these questions, you can take stock of your level of preparedness, see where the gaps are, and work to fill them.
​

Assess Your Depression Survival Skills

Let’s begin by evaluating your skills that would help you survive a depression. Answer yes or no to the following questions:
​

Easy skills level:

1. Do you know how to sew on a button?
2. Do you know how to use an oil lamp?
3. Do you know how to boil an egg?
4. Do you know how to ride a bike?
5. Do you know how to keep houseplants alive?

If you answered yes to all five, move on to the next level.
​

Medium skills level:

1. Do you know how to cut up a whole chicken?
2. Do you know how to hem or fix a rip in clothing?
3. Do you have a stocked first aid kit in your home?
4. Do you know how to build and maintain a fire?
5. Do you know how to cook and season dried beans?

If you answered yes to any of the five, move on to the next level.
​

Hard skills level:

1. Do you know how to grow your own vegetables?
2. Do you know how to use a pattern and sew your own clothes?
3. Do you know how to can fruits and vegetables?
4. Do you know how to start a fire without matches?
5. Do you know how to raise chickens?
6. Do you have a fully prepared emergency kit in your home?
7. Do you own and know how to use a gun?
8. Do you or someone in the home know how to fish and hunt?
9. Do you have a well-stocked pantry?
10. Do you know how to make a quilt?
11. Do you know how to bake bread from scratch?
12. Do you know CPR and basic first aid skills?
13. Do you have the physical ability to ride a bike?
14. Do you know how to purify water for drinking?
15. Do you know how to cook in a dutch oven with charcoal?

​
If you answered yes to all in this level, congratulations! You will survive.
If you passed the easy and medium levels but failed the hard level, not to worry. You are teachable. A Boy Scout learns 99% of these depression survival skills! Select a skill to learn, make a plan, and then work the plan! Rinse and repeat.
Now, let’s consider a question.

Readers Respond: How Should We Prepare for a Greatest Depression?

If we could talk with survivors of the first Great Depression and ask them, “If you could go back to 1925, how would you have prepared for the Great Depression,” I wonder what they would say.
We’re preparing for something on a worldwide scale, so I asked Survival Mom readers this question: How should we prepare for a Greatest Depression? Here is a curated selection of those responses.

• Is it possible to prepare for something that may last decades? Yes, but it’s not easy. I think it involves home ownership (not a mortgage, which means the bank pretty much owns your home), enough land for self-sustainability, and the skills to utilize that land. I see prepping as something that will help me get through lean times. Hopefully, we never have to survive totally off our food storage. Instead, our food storage will just help us stretch our budget if things get hard. (Bitsy)
• I remember my grandparents and uncles talking about the Great Depression and WWII rationing; honestly, I don’t think they noticed a huge difference in their lives. They lived very simple lives in eastern Kentucky, my grandfather quitting school at 7 to go to work. But they also had skills that most of us preppers can only dream of. Inflated food costs were no big deal if you were growing most all of what you needed. They kept gardens, orchards, chickens, and cows. Made their own clothes. Mended their own shoes. Never really strayed too far from home. If we’re going to survive something long-term, we HAVE to relearn those basic skills and learn to take care of ourselves. (Andrea)
• The way I look at it, my food storage and other preps are giving me OPTIONS and increased flexibility at a time when we might all need to be extremely creative to thrive. I won’t be nearly so dependent on a steady paycheck, so even if I lose my job, I can make it for some amount of time without facing utter hopelessness. If I’m fortunate enough to have a job and steady pay, I can use my money for needs other than food. All I’ve stored is insurance and wealth for bartering. (Linda)
• We know how to can, dehydrate, and we are saving many staples, but do we know how to fix and repair? Can we stitch a wound or have an understanding of herbal remedies for when doctors are not in the budget? The preparation we need to do is on every single level of our lives. (Kris)
• I think of food storage as a supplement if things somehow manage to limp along. If things completely collapse, then food storage becomes not a supplement but a bridge to tide us over while new ways of growing and transporting food are worked out. Keep in mind that there are basic differences in types of food. Grain is relatively easy to transport for long distances and is more likely to be at least somewhat available. Perishable items like meat, eggs, and fresh vegetables are likely to only be available according to what is locally produced or from your own backyard. Basic gardening skills can be ramped up fairly quickly, but those basic skills take years to learn. If you anticipate the need to produce your own food, get started now. Even if it is on a very small scale, you need to learn by experience what works and what doesn’t for your situation. Once you’ve got the basics covered, expanding the output is just a matter of doing more of the same. Buying a can of “survival seeds” and thinking that you’ll just plant them if the need arises is not a plan – it is almost guaranteed to fail at a time when failure could have very serious consequences. Can we prepare for something that will last for generations? That is really the question in a society such as ours, where the same systems that make us so efficient and wealthy are extremely fragile and interconnected by their very nature. Our system has no resilience, so if one part collapses, it can take everything else down with it. My preparations for a multi-generational collapse take a different approach than the typical prepper. Long-term preparations include a home-schooling library for our grandchildren, an extensive library on a wide variety of topics, “obsolete” technology in the form of slide rules (they were used for all the calculations that put man on the moon and built the Boeing 747), and quality basic hand tools and fasteners of various types. The worst thing that could happen in this regard is for our society to lose the basic knowledge we have built over the past 6,000 years. (Stephen M.)
• Before the Great Depression, most Americans did not live the life of affluence, that is the middle class and above standard of today. They were not poor by that era’s standard. As a matter of fact, compared to their immigrant parents’ life in the old world, they were very well off. Go look at a middle-class house built around the turn of the last century. Rooms are small to conserve heat. The closets are tiny because that’s all the room they needed. Few people had more than two or three changes of clothing. My Grandmother rarely owned more than four dresses at any one time. The newest one for church and special occasions. The next older one is for going out in public, such as visiting and going to town. The next older one for everyday wear. (and I mean every day, the same dress.) The very oldest one, oft mended and patched, for doing dirty work. The house I live in now, built in 1920, originally had a total of only four electric sockets. Nobody thought someone would have enough appliances to need more. My point here is that many people like my grandparents didn’t feel much difference once the Depression hit because they didn’t have much to lose. They were accustomed to a life that we consider austerity. Modern Americans are more spoiled than they think. $8 a gallon for gas is no big deal when you don’t own a car and never did and only dreamed you ever would. (Barbara)
• I think it will be a different type of depression than it was back in the 30’s. People were closer to the earth and didn’t count on the government as much. They also “networked” alot and used barter with friends and neighbors even in the good times before the depression. This is one thing I have been working on myself. (Woodnick)
• Zero DEBT!!! (George)
• I would consider every purchase NOW in light of how it would be viewed if LATER we were in a Depression. For instance, would your child benefit more from a pocket knife or a new video game? A book or a plastic toy? An emergency radio that doubles as an MP3 player or an iPod? Buy things of quality, too. I would replace things now that you can. (Katy)
• I think learning skills to survive a depression and teaching those skills to your children is important. My daughter can knit, sew, and crochet better than I can. In fact, my son can sew better than I can. We homeschool, so we have lots of books, including stockpiled curriculum for grades my children have not yet reached (in case we can’t afford to buy a math textbook then). Textbooks get low priority compared with food. I guess I am looking at a scenario where life is likely to get much harder and everything but food and shelter is considered a luxury. (Katy)
• You get comfortable with populations shifting around, little or nothing in the way of government public services, and surviving without a job. You get used to using absolutely every part of everything you have. You “fix it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” You learn how to plant and harvest and butcher and shoot. (Sunshine)
• For a large-scale long-term Depression, I’d continue to store food and basic necessities as there may come a time when we have to completely rely on them. However, if there is no telling how long it would last, then money and storage would eventually run out. I have written about coming up with a personal economic crash plan to fall back on if or when a worst-case scenario happens. Not pretty to think about, but it may have to include moving in with family to pool resources, selling off belongings, possible bartering, etc. The main thing is survival and learning to live on less now. Imaging the worst-case scenario would help in preparing and not being in a state of shock if it happens. (Bernie)
• Lately, every time I shop and buy something, I ask myself, “What would I do if I couldn’t buy this thing? How would I make do ?” It’s really made me think and has caused me to stockpile some items I hadn’t previously thought about, like repair supplies for water hoses and shoes and iron-on repair patches for clothes. Sometimes, I’ve gone to the internet and printed off recipes for homemade cleaning products, vinegar, fruit pectin, and instructions for darning socks, making paper and homemade ink and glue, etc. I don’t have time to learn to do all that stuff right now, but I want that info in my survival notebook for later, just in case. (Linda)
• My mother will soon be 88. She was young during the depression. She said there wasn’t a change in their living standard. They lived in a rural area on a working farm. If they didn’t raise it or make it, they didn’t need it. They never had much to begin with, and when the depression began, they couldn’t tell any difference. I suppose somewhere in that story is our lesson. I am afraid that we may have lost enough of our morals and skills and have grown so used to our creature comforts that perhaps a depression could be much harder on us than the last one . . . much harder. (Reggie)
• I advise stocking up on tools and tools and more tools. Especially consumable tools. A bow saw with a dozen extra blades. Extra drill bits. My cordless 14.4 drill is going on 12 years. I advise a solar panel for recharging. If you have the motivation, tools will help you tremendously in building what you need. I think that there will be an abundance of emptied structures to strip for raw materials. We will be pulling screws and nails from buildings. Every one will have value. But stocking up on extra boxes now is not a bad idea. (Sierra D.)
• We are concentrating on learning skills to survive a depression. This year we are learning to save seed from our garden produce. I learned to knit this summer and have gotten some yarn on clearance from different places. I just watched videos on how to make tallow candles and pemmican….we have never saved the tallow from the deer and elk that the boys harvest each fall…now we will! Hopefully, the skills we learn will help fill in the needs as they arise as times get harder. (Sheri)
• I think we’ll be seeing high prices and scarce commodities (if only because fleets will be grounded for lack of fuel or too-high fuel costs) and an actual lack of petroleum-based products like gas, plastics, and rubber. So one thing we’re doing is stocking up on spare tires for our biodiesel vehicles and bicycles, tire patching kits, plastic bags, etc. – anything made from petroleum that we think we need during a major transition to a different lifestyle. Oh – and fabric, thread, needles (besides food & seed). (Mary)
• This is why I’m learning skills: gardening, animal husbandry, repair, crafting (practical things like knitting socks), cob building, and the like. I think if you already know how to do these things, it will be much easier to make the transition. (Herbwifemama)
• My mom lived in a NYC tenement during the depression, and it was pretty bad. She said the only time she got enough to eat was when they went to my great-aunt’s farm in the summer to work. Sickness was everywhere and you couldn’t afford medicines. My grandmother lost her hearing due to ear infections. All my mother’s teeth were cracked and broken due to poor nutrition and illness. (Vicki O.)
• My parents both lived through the depression before they married. My father, at times, nearly starved and worked at any job he could find. My mother’s family owned a farm and always had food. They didn’t have extra money and were very frugal, but they were able to eat well. I think preparations must include knowledge….how to grow food, both animal and vegetable. (Bernadine)
• Practical, hands-on knowledge is, by far, the best thing we can do for ourselves. What good is an emergency seed bank if we don’t have the proper soil for it and don’t know what to plant when? How do you can your produce and meat over a campfire? Do you know the medicinal properties of the common herbs we use for cooking? (I didn’t know that Thyme tea is excellent for upper respiratory problems–specifically the ears!) What about hunting without a gun? Butchering what you’ve managed to kill? Get past the squeamishness and learn how while there is time to make the necessary mistakes along that learning curve. (Patty)
• Has anyone thought of blacksmithing? Back in the day, every village had a blacksmith. I figure we’d need at least one skilled blacksmith for every few hundred people. (Chandra)
• Interestingly enough, I had a grandmother and mother who lived through the Great Depression with lots of info! My grandmother lived on a farm, worked hard, lived frugally, and wasted nothing ( even cooking water went back to water the gardens…and amazing gardens she had!). She reused paper towels and foil later on in life, composted, and never bought anything without purpose ( big lesson there!). She spoke of hard times but not starvation. My mother grew up in New York City and painted quite a different picture: standing in food lines for bread every week, no heat or electricity ( too expensive), cooking potato soup on a potbelly stove, clothing from the Salvation Army, quitting school at nine years old to work in a pencil factory for food for her family, getting Christmas presents from the local church ( one gift, a wooden cradle, her father promptly broke up and burned to keep his children warm…heartbreaking). While hard times are ahead, I think the standard of living is so different now that we have many ways to downgrade and still live very well. It goes back to living intentionally, shopping with purpose, and planning ahead. We do need to learn to provide for ourselves and learn long-lost skills should our modern conveniences ne’er return. We also must return to forming communities, getting to know our neighbors beyond a wave of hello at the mailbox as we hurry inside. (Doctorb)
• I used to have a class in a large city teaching people skills and urging them to make the move to the country. We had a very interesting large panel discussion on the depression. We invited people who had lived thru the depression and could relate stories of what they went thru. I’m glad we filmed it (quite amateur but a good record). It was fascinating! One consistent thing was that those who had lived in the country had gardens and lived like “kings and queens” compared to those who lived in the cities. They often said that as children, they didn’t know they had it bad. They ate well, played outdoors with siblings, cousins, etc. People in the cities often went hungry, stood in bread lines, and made meals out of the most meager ingredients. (Jan D.)

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I was injecting some UV dye into a system to try and find a leak, the bottle exploded right in front of my face and got all over myself and in my eyes. I washed off as much of it as I could, but I can’t find much information on just how hazardous this is.. any thoughts or experience would help please