When an SHTF event takes place, those who aren’t prepared will be forced to maraud and loot others to survive.
People who have prepared for this event should already have extensive food stores, water, supplies, fuel, and off-grid power generation systems. Additionally, self-defense that includes firearms is mandatory to defend both supplies and loved ones.
Here are the 11 most attractive items that need to be hidden, as looters are going to be looking for easy targets to steal when SHTF.
Food
Food stores are going to be in high demand when SHTF, as people who aren’t prepared won’t be able to go to the grocery store and buy food anymore.
These individuals, no matter how nice they seem, are going to do anything they have to so they can feed themselves and their families.
Most preppers already hide their food stores and no one outside of their family should even know about it. Having a hidden room that is dedicated to storing dried food, canned food, water, and basic supplies is the bare minimum.
Anyone who doesn’t have this basic necessity should find somewhere in their house or in a bug-out location to hide food and supplies.
Livestock
Most preppers realize that long-term food stores, no matter how vast they are, aren’t going to last forever in a grid down, long-term catastrophic situation.
To become completely independent, food production is required. Raising chickens, hogs, and cows is one way to ensure a consistent food supply.
Related: Livestock Animals You Should Start Raising For The Upcoming Economic Crisis
However, in an SHTF situation, looters are going to be looking to steal any food they can get, dead or alive. While it may not be easy to hide livestock, they need to be protected to ensure starving looters don’t decimate them.
Vehicles
In an SHTF situation, people who haven’t prepared will be in a panic situation and look for any way to get out of the city when no resources are left.
Individuals who don’t have a vehicle or don’t have sufficient fuel in their vehicle will be quick to steal cars and trucks so they can make their exodus from the city.
Keeping vehicles locked in a garage or another secure location will likely be sufficient, as looters will be looking to steal the most accessible vehicles.
Fuel
Fuel is going to be in high demand when SHTF, as gasoline stations will run dry within days and most people don’t store fuel.
Hiding fuel stores is as simple as leaving containers with fuel locked in the garage or locked up at a bug-out location.
Ideally, opt for diesel vehicles and generators, as diesel fuel is best for long-term storage, while pure gasoline goes bad within six months and gasoline mixed with ethanol goes bad within 3 months.
Related: The Best Places Where You Can Store Fuels Safely
If storing gasoline, use a fuel stabilizer that can extend its life from 1 to 3 years.
Generators
People who are somewhat prepped with food stores, but don’t have electricity are going to be looking to steal generators when SHTF. The problem with generators is that they are typically located outside and are noisy when they are operating. This makes them an easy target for looters so they should be secured at the very least.
Placing metal fencing around an outdoor generator may deter some thieves from stealing it, but it is far better if it is completely out of sight.
A generator can be stored in the garage or shed if the exhaust exits to an outdoor location, but the exhaust fumes will still draw unwanted attention.
Solar Panels
Solar panels and more specifically solar systems will be in high demand when the grid goes down.
The problem with solar panels is that they are very difficult to hide and potential looters will be drawn to them.
Related: Build Your Own Solar Panels
Many looters will assume that if one has solar panels, they also have other supplies that are a necessity in an SHTF scenario.
If solar panels can be hidden in a bug-out location that is far from civilization or on a structure that doesn’t face traffic, they may not draw unwanted attention.
Weapons
Weapons, especially guns and ammo, are going to be high on the list of items to steal.
In a complete collapse situation, people who have weapons have the potential to defend themselves, while those without weapons will be at the mercy of others.
In an SHTF situation there is no mercy so secure and hide weapons from prying eyes to avoid becoming a target for looters.
Precious Metals
Cash will initially hold its value in an SHTF situation but will become completely irrelevant long-term. Precious metals like gold and silver are going to be one way to facilitate barter.
Precious metals are going to be attractive to looters, but for the most part, gold and silver are easy to hide.
Furthermore, most people that own precious metals already have them hidden away.
Alcohol
Alcohol is going to be in high demand when SHTF, especially for people who are addicted to it and don’t have access to it anymore.
Hiding alcohol with food and supplies in a hidden room is a good practice to avoid becoming a target for thieves.
Supplies
All basic supplies are going to be high up on the list of things to steal when society completely collapses. Something as basic and simple as toilet paper will have a value similar to gold if it is widely unavailable.
First aid supplies, hygiene supplies, and any other supplies that we now take for granted should be stored in a hidden location so potential looters don’t come hunting for these necessities.
Hand Tools
Basic hand tools will become extremely valuable when electricity is sparse and construction becomes a necessity in a long-term SHTF scenario.
Storing an extra set of tools in a hidden room along with supplies is a good way to ensure that they will still be there when needed.
As society breaks down before our eyes, the probability of reaching an SHTF scenario increases by the day. The good news is that we still have time to prepare so we must make the most of it.
Securing all supplies now in a hidden location, away from the eyes of looters, in conjunction with possessing adequate self-defense, is the key to surviving the upcoming societal apocalypse.
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So, everything we acquire to be preppers 🙂
So, hide everything eh?
Maybe you should think about having a MAG and thus trusted friends to have each other’s backs instead?
Ecclesiastes speaks to times of oppression and troubles Chapter 4: …11Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? 12And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Hopefully this poor article generates useful comments on how to deal with “The new normal” of a failing lawless society.
For you enlightened individuals who know everything about everything you might put into your realm of thinking not everyone is so astute as you. If they were, why are so many not prepping or only have a few basics. If everyone was as smart as you why do those who can vegetables and fruit put their jars on a shelf without some type of protection to keep them from falling off the shelf in an earthquake, which now occurs in nearly every state. Sometimes, if you don’t point out the obvious, people do not realize they are prone to making mistakes, or have opened themselves up to theft. If you all are so smart, how many of you have fuel cut-off switches on your vehicles so they can’t be stolen. No matter how perfect you think you are someone can always find something you haven’t done.
You can over plan, or under plan. ALL plans change when the first shot is fired! If you make no plans, then nothing can change your plans but be ready for ANYTHING! To those who ask, “why isn’t everybody prepping?” Those people are planning on taking YOUR “plans!” That is why multiple caches are important. Remember the old saying…”don’t put all your eggs in one basket?”
Michael –
Agree.
For many years, the “Survivor” series was televised by the Illuminati – to condition many people into a selfish, even treacherous, mindset.
Prudence is necessary, of course, however: self-worship is deadly idolatry.
WOW!! I never thought about that!? Good one! I really liked it when it first came on. But after a few seasons it got awful and I stopped watching it!! Now I know why!! They all got selfish and also it got to be about sex!!!! Right on rm p!
WOW!!! I never thought of that!? Good one! When it first came on I really like
a MAG might work, but might not, depends on the skill sets of the foragers/raiders.
Please do not fool yourself into complacency because of what you have anticipated might happen, do everything, including OPSEC and stashing supplies if you can, to avoid the “oh SHIT! someone circumvented all our security preps!”
even the best made plans can fail, depends on the unknown factors that ALWAYs rear their ugly heads when in a crisis.
Why do so many people think of things in linear “tunnel vision”, like “do this or do that, and anything else is wrong”. Another attitude to failure is “we can handle anything”, concepts based upon lack of experience and failure to be ready for the unknown. From my perspective, why not plan and prepare for a multiple of circumstances you may encounter, constantly assess your situation, and be ready to adapt and improvise as needed.
People are gonna be people. Prone to anger, mistakes and violence. Imho taking the “high road” in these boards (while they’re still openly available) is a great way to get an edge on stupidity. So here’s one of my favorites. For auto theft alarms are a waste of time in the cities. A master corcuit breaker can be puchased for around 20$ and since its about the the size of a pack of gum, can be hidden anywhere and it mostly guarantees your vehicle wont be stolen without a tow truck. Stay positive, get better every day. Enjoy the journey, life is short
God and guns
Most vehicles in the past 15 years or so have chipped car keys and most modern ones must have a key fob to start the car.
While cars can still be stolen by smart thieves, how many in a SHTF scenario are going to know how to circumvent those security measures?
It is easier just to steal the fuel from a car than to steal the whole car.
Well its more like the thin blue line looters who will be going after your weapons…..
Granted people here living in a population dense environment is awesome idea but this article while poorly written and has little value to anyone that isn’t aware of water is wet…. Use this as a reason to move to a country living and build a mag in that Environment. .
Good morning, Raven, sadly your correct when things go spicy the folks with badges look to more “Direct Support” for their needs.
But that clashes with most folks’ normalcy bias. Some police are good folks, but I notice although they are well aware of their BAD Police behavior, they protect them with silence.
That’s a problem in a normal Rule of Law situation. Once the paychecks of the police buy less and less, they in every other 3rd world country I’ve lived in seek “More Direct” payments from the people.
I’ve had to “gift” the police my watch in South America to “escort” us to the hospital for an injured friend. Just reality.
I do wonder about the thoughts of someone with a Support the Blue sticker AND a Molan Labe sticker. Just who do they THINK are going to “Follow Lawful ORDERS” to collect them?
Watch Canada for how the Socialists USE the LAW and Law Enforcement on truly Peaceful Protestors. They’ve already started infiltrators and provocations nicely filmed by Media “Accidently” there for that all so brief moment.
Nothing accidental around Socialists, all planned even Biden’s gaffs.
As Kenny Rodgers said “Know when to hold them, Know when to fold them, Know when to walk away, Know when to Run…”
Hiding at least a decent restart of your preps IS a Good Idea. That way if you have to flee an overwhelming force, you’re not completely a refugee. You can rebuild.
Dead people may be right, but they are DEAD Right. Even the US Marines know who to do a fighting retreat. Just saying.
I even had a cop tell me that he planned on looting. He said, “My preps are right here,” indicating his sidearm. I didn’t say anything but thought to myself, “Thank you. Now I know at least one looter to shoot on sight.”
what is a MAG?
mutal asstiance group…. it can be anything like people in shtf come to your place to ride the storm or a country living area where the local good people form together to help each other out
Hazel: This is actually a reply to your mirror-like film to put on windows. Well, we did invest in something sort of similar a few years. It is actually a film that means even if a marauder came to smack and break all your windows and sliding glass doors and break in, they almost cannot do it! The film holds the schards of glass together as if it were not broken. We have always loved this film (from 3M, if I remember correctly) and have felt a degree of safety since installing it. As I remember, it was not at an exhorbitant price, either. We also had the “side light” panel next to our front door replaced with something that is not extremely pretty, good enough. Through it, we can see the front steps and front yard, but there is now no glass panel that is close enough to break and then reach in and unlock the front door (nor deadbolt. Sorry about the confusing grammar! THEN we had the 3m film installed on it anyway, just to be sure! We also have some cross bar reinforcements for each door leading into our”daylight basement where the food pantry is, as well.
Sigh, lil sparrow, where do you live the cops are so bad? You make it sound like a great place to be from and never do back. Swamps, man-eating beaver, and cops with no heart. Kid, anyone with a brain who breaks into a house goes for guns, first, and anything else later. Resale, under the table on guns is better than 50% of actual value. And, that’s here, Arizona, where there’s a gun shop on almost every corner. You can find farm stands selling ammo as well as tomatoes and oranges and guns. And, wow, are you a townie making a comment about it being safer in the sticks. If someone has close neighbors who can hear screams, then they’re less likely to be raided than someone miles from anyone. Raids on farms and ranches often means no witnesses allowed to live. That’s why farmers had a large bell on the house, to let neighbors know they were being raided.
red, I bet Magpie the Ignorant Liar has no clue what it’s like having Illegals wander through regularly. That slowed way down under Trump, but has increased ten-fold under Dementia Joe. And on Magpie’s videos, it sure looks like he’s in what I would a call a suburban farming area that has a lot of well-maintained paved roads (with signs!), lot of businesses with electric signs that light up at night, and was that a min-strip mall? Yeah, he’s “rural country” all right – NOT. Just a loser desperately seeking attention and willing to insult and lie to provoke responses. Reminds me of a spoiled bully that always blames everyone else for his bad behavior. If he was actually as smart as he thinks he is, he would have never aggravated anyone on any blogs, but instead would have provided valid information and invited them to review his videos, but I never saw any of that, what a loser.
Something not discussed very much – somewhat tangent to the looter scenario – somewhat tangent to the whole topic of “I’m coming to your place when trouble hits” …
Might want to take down any home/farm ID you might have out – definitely remove any family name signage – see about making your road or street harder to find >> if you have a somewhat remote town far off a major road – discuss with the town officials or take independent action to take down any directional or town ID signage at that intersection …
Becomes more important with any loose lips OPSEC that might have occurred – might just be a matter of everyone at work knowing you live in a safe location for a SHTF – and don’t forget all those extended family members that might come looking for their cousin …
all it takes is some power tripping cops which is fairly common. They will violate your rights all for the sake of ego or just following orders. Waco and ruby Ridge are good examples of murdering women and children over a botched illegal raid.
Not take down road name signs but MOVE them to another intersection.
Replace your house numbers with different house numbers.
well…. why ?
if I was out “foraging”, I would not care what the street signs and numbers show, I would assess by observation of the area, then focus on what I determined would be the most productive at the least risk. Local signs mean nothing to looters/foragers/raiders unless they have a specific target in mind before they set out, as in a “mission”.
Illini: Good ideas, but, anyone can access maps. If someone has access to a solar charger, they can keep the battery up on a cell phone and open information copied there. niio
You mention diesel fuel for vehicle and generator. Be aware that diesel fuel will grow bacteria in storage. For long term storage purchase and add an anti-bacteriological agent to the fuel every few months. Manufacturing and other industrial facilities with diesel generators contract with maintenance companies to do this and run the generators for several minutes on a regular basis.
Excellent point!
John: Copper kills bacteria, but anything from crude oil is subject to being eaten by bacteria and fungus. niio
If and when SHTF, there will be a few different types of looters.
The panicked types who have no idea what they’re doing, the monkeys and monkey support teams who want the $300 high tops and as many flat screen TVs as they can smash and grab, the absolute desperate types who have no idea what or why they are with the others breaking into homes (usually armed in one way or another) and the well trained types who know exactly what they are doing and what they want.
Either way, supplies must be hidden and secured, but as we’ve all witnessed during 2019-2021, these types of people burn everything they can’t steal using protests or survival needs as an excuse. They’ll be just as content to kill you as to steal your flat screen, Chef Boy Ardee and/or shoes.
We can’t be at whatever bug-out local or home 100% of the time and we don’t always have someone else to guard the goods… Looking (now) for special locations -around our homes and bug-out spots- to stash supplies is critical. Whether it’s a shipping container or school bus (best idea since we can use the engine to run a series of alternators for 110v-220v power with exhaust pumped out.. etc… and the interior for shipping container sized storage) secretly placed underground or build around with stucco or siding hiding it (?).
The big thing is, are you prepared to defend your supplies and your family by lethal means?
We can’t all be Kyle Rittenhouse… But we should be.
Well becareful with those freedom words….. A few here are upset if you defend yourself and use violence.
If you don’t have the stones to defend yourself and your Family then Elohim will hold you accountable and it you will face judgement. It’s a man’s duty to protect his family and defend it with all costs and to lnclude your life.
Most of the ‘woke’ protestors did what they did because they knew there was to be no enforcement of the law. There was no fear of someone shooting at them, or even getting charged if they were arrested. Many, if not most, were recruited and paid to participate. (Not the looters running in to stores, but the ones setting fires to buildings, etc.) I don’t think too many of those sissy woke protestors are going to keep moving forward if they hear a shotgun being racked; they are cowards who choose the path of least resistance and had political backing.
In a true long term SHTF circumstances there will be no police or others to protect. you and allies and supplies. Neighborhoods with a “Hanging Tree” will discourage many of the looters unless they are a fairly large armed militia type group. Sounds very harsh, but survival of the fittest will likely come to this type of situation if it a true TEOTWAWKI event.
lol…. your joking right… the “racking of a shotgun gets shot fired towards it” please beaware they have guns and they know how to use it… They have military training they work hard and well funded. Consider this i would be 95 percent of the commenters here haven’t touched their firearm in 7 days
Valerie, what might work even better is to place a large round in one of the leaders, especially if you can get a lot of splatter and blowback onto the people around them. That is very demoralizing, most will panic and run/hide. Then, if you have not yet compromised yourself, you might want to watch for those that don’t panic and take them out if you can, also without compromising yourself. Once your general location is discovered, it’s time to move as quickly and stealthy as you can, and cover your trail, some people are very good trackers, even in an urban setting.
They thought no one would shoot them until Rittenhouse. Notice how fast those things deescalated after the shooting? All fun and games till the reset on their computer doesn’t work and the real blood is splashed around.
The kid who attacked Kyle with the skate board thought he was brave and they would plant him a monument for his bravery – turned out they just planted him and his monument is only his head stone.
The one who was chasing him had mentioned he was gong to kill him over heard by a news reporter. He was a criminal and thought like ,the police and courts he could do no wrong. His wrong was believing in himself!
For the most part crowds are not gangs which have some loyalty to the group. Crowds are individuals and only feed of the others around them. When the crowd is thinned with real circumstances the individual in the crowd all of a sudden realize ‘I need to get out of here’.
My martial grand master said you find the loud mouth or the one with a white shirt slam him in the nose and his blood will make the other cowards rethink their involvement in the situation.
Noticed how the crowd around Kyle all of a sudden grew empty space in all 360 degrees.
There is no leadership nor loyalty in a looting crowd. You just have to show them your not an easy target!
Kyle was lucky on a few accounts… including his legal team as well the “partroling the streets” i like the kid but he did have Elohims protection covering him that night.
I always said its going to be a fire team that does a mass shooting… and the cops like they would try but won’t be able to do a thing.
JL: When SHFT, the thing many will be looking for is guns. Ammo and food next. Family in Penna know where my son hid his, burying it in concrete in oiled paper and wood crates. I’m back in Arizona and thank God I can bugout in-house in this area. niio
And exactly how does one ‘hide chickens and ducks, besides locking the coop up?
A good question, one I’d hope the author of this article would address.
So far, I cannot recall a time the author showed up in the comments to expand on their thoughts.
But then again there is always a first time, Eh?
Yep, there’s always a first time. 🙂
There is a thye of prairie hen that does not cluck and rooster that does not crow. Forgot.what they are called. If you have rhose they do not attract attention.
My nephew lives in a city so he has an attachment on his rooster’s neck that does not let him crow.
Bob: Native roosters do not crow. Araucana is one breed. Americana will, tho, but those birds love the snow, too. S. America had three breeds, and the Caribbean 2, and one breed was common in SE US when the Spanish arrived. They’re not noisy, and are survivors, and stay close to home. niio
You can make them little camo outfits because as every expert prepper knows you are invisible when you wear camo. 🙂
I’ve had this in mind for some time. I’ve gone for Muscovy ducks, will be getting more soon as they are very quiet. With alpacas, sheep and cattle spread over the farm it is hard to hide all of these all the time.
Hens without roosters are not self replicating and my geese are extraordinarily noisy but currently they have to compete with the native cockatoos which start at 4am and go until late lol.
Chuckling those Muscovy are odd looking ducks 🙂 but their hissing sounds are pretty low key. If you close enough to hear them, you’re likely hearing us discuss farm duties.
As an aside, do you have a PLAN to keep the children quiet and tested that plan with your kids? Stressed kids yelling at each other is NOT wanted when trouble is near.
Noise and Lights are the two trouble points in hiding. Having lights when all others are dark is “Attractive” to many from the scared-lost, the hungry and the aggressive looter types. MILES of attraction at night.
I’ve a neighbor that uses the rooster muffler a velcro strap to keep the rooster from giving full throated calls. It helps but still more than you want. So how to quiet a rooster in the initial craziness? Same way you quiet a generator. Soundproof the chicken house and keep him inside. You can do without his services for a week or so.
Same with the generator, choose wisely when staying dark and no generator OR build an effective Sound Proofed Generator shed with a retrofitted automotive muffler.
Geese are my watch animals; I want their noisy warning.
Do you have a Plan to keep your Dogs quiet? I know how far away my neighbors’ dogs full throated barking goes.
Michael, you bring up some interesting thoughts. My grandkids are not trained for quiet but I am working on that.
My solution for the roosters is to have a separate pen and they are free range, only putting them with the hens when needed. Still they fly over a 6ft fence no problem and roost in trees. Sound proofing a hen house would be almost impossible here, the birds would die of heat stress in summer. The Guinea fowl on the other hand free range for a couple kms around the homestead and only come home at night. Good luck catching them lol.
The dog is a hard one as she is an assistance dog, barking when she hears things since I’m partially deaf.
Lights can be shut in with blackout curtains and my house is so old the windows are smaller than average.
So much to think about and fix as best we can.
In some prepper site or another I did read about a film you can put on your windows that acts like a two way mirror shiny on the outside (like a mirror) but people inside can still see out of the house. I believe these are sold as a form of solar heating/cooling?
AZ: Good question. Some neighbors raise rabbits by letting them run. No coop, but live traps. Chickens can be raised like that, as well. I think the best breeds are native like those in Mexico. there’s a lot of turkeys raised here, as well, and most live in the brush, coming home at night for feed and water. Plenty of quail around, and soon we’ll see them followed by dozens of chicks. they head for their favorite bird feeders and some are tame enough you can get close to them. niio
Hazel: Yeah, solar cover for windows is good. I inherited 2 rolls when buying the place but never used them. Right now, Lady Banks roses cover the west window and the north one that is exposed is under the back porch. East doesn’t get sun long enough to be a problem, and the south windows are under the eves by the time it warms up. Amazon, Lowes, and so on should all carry it. niio
Hiding the chickens and ducks all comes down to your location. Personally, my off-grid farm is already in a hidden location and it is surrounded by trees so no one would even know it is there. Keeping the chickens locked up in the coop is the last thing I would recommend, as it doesn’t allow them to range freely. If you are in a populated area it will be nearly impossible to hide your livestock so you should prepare to defend them when SHTF.
Eric, good location is important. We are in the country but as the farm was an original block taken up well over 100 yrs ago it is a bit hard to hide all the infrastructure and trees just don’t grow that thick here, plus it would reduce the amount of farming land. 35 years ago we weren’t looking to hide away from the public although I have planted quite a few tree rows since. 10 years of dryer than normal seasons has thinned them out some.
My hens have the run of the orchard so are partly free range, The foxes would love me to let them out fully but that is restricted to the autumn to spring period when they can forage. Nothing around over summer which is our dry and bare period.
One important thing looters will be after is DRUGS (Medications).
Another issue is that when looters come for your stuff, there will be little to no law enforcement.
Your wife and daughters WILL BE targets.
Our biggest problem is that we cannot find much of anywhere to HIDE our prepper supplies! There are no “hidden rooms” in our home, and almost every inch is either heated (not good), or just in plain sight! Where to hide food and meds. where there is little heat, moisture and light is a real problem!! HELP! We do not have an old school bus we could bury, sorry to say…Money spent on the supplies, not on school buses!
Assuming you live in a standalone home, surely you have an attic or a crawlspace? They might not stop a thorough search of your home, but will surely thwart casual searches.
If you have a hallway or area with a narrow section in it, consider building a false wall there with some 2x4s and sheet rock and put your emergency supplies behind it.
If none of the above works for you, then it’s time to rent an excavator and dig a hidden “root cellar” in your yard (in case anyone asks what it’s for while you’re working on it). Lots of material out there on how to do this and it would make a fine Spring project.
Yeah, the thing is an attic that goes to over 100 degrees in summer and under 25-30 degrees in winter, is not going to work either. I already thought of those areas. AND our Amish friends told us not to bother with a root-cellar, as much as I have always wanted one! The builder I know that made one for his family, told me it took him 4-5 months of back-breaking work to build his root cellar and told me he would never do that again. And he was around 40 y.o. when he build that! AT nearly 70 y.o., I could only WISH to have a root cellar, always a dream of mine. The problem is I am not able to do something that strenuous anymore…MUST be something else that would work! I need to look into that more. I know my husband was thinking at least to store guns in the small area behind the main shower, as there is an adjoining mini-wall and empty area behind it from next bathroom. Not sure how totally waterproof that would be, but it seems O.K. for now. NOT enough space to really hide supplies, though, but at least something!!
Or a false wall in a closet. Just make the closet less deep than it is now.
Lt. Col., Sorry about repeating what you already wrote in another comment of mine below. I didn’t read all of the comments before posting. Your comment about keeping the old food is one that I clearly agree with.
Jess, I saw an article that removed one side of an interior door, stuffed it with packet items, condiments etc then reseated the door skin. Made the door a little heavier but it functioned well and some stores remained hidden. A coat of paint and it looked normal. Just a thought.
An update: We had already stored some items below the stairs in our raised ranch, but then I read that all looters look there FIRST! Well, that stuff is pretty old now, anyway, so I think we need to clean it out and start over. At least with the water cooler, the humidifier, and big stack of old shoes and boots in the way, it won’t be so easy to have access to that space if looters wanted to scrounge through there! I supposed the old gallon bottles of TIDE might still be usable, though I never use Tide anymore! Hey, better than nothing, maybe even worth keeping for trading….?
I hear you about root cellars. It sounds like the builder you spoke of built a pretty large one given all the work he put in. Maybe you could manage a much smaller one by digging a hole just large enough to hold a buried garbage can? That you could probably manage with a shovel and a few hours of work.
Why not leave the old and useless stuff under the stairs as a decoy? That way if looters find it there they will think they have found your “stash” and maybe not look so hard for more? Just a thought…
If you are dead, doesn’t matter if they find it or not.
Just a thought.
Consider “Get out of Dodge”.
Have hidden sites along the route toward your destination.
Consider alternative transportation to cars, like motorcycles or horses.
Carry only enough to get you to your next hidden food site.
Jess, you may consider keeping the old supplies as a “decoy” to use as a “handout” for the mother that knocks on your door begging for food to feed her kids, and also if anyone does manage to get to those expired supplies, they may grab that and not search more diligently for better hidden supplies. I also have a single-story house with an attic that gets way over 100 degrees, so I don’t stash anything up there. We keep a lot of food supplies, most on sturdy shelves that I have no way to effectively hide, and a lot of other things randomly placed here and there through the house and garage. We know we may have to defend ourselves, and why some of those things we stash here and there includes weapons and ammo. I need to go shop for large diameter construction grade plastic pipe, connectors, and screw caps, stash some rice, beans, and something cheap that rusts easily in them as testing materials, bury them at least a foot or more deep, then dig them out in six months to see if they remained watertight with no condensation, bugs, rust, mold, or algae. If they pass, then reseal and bury for another six months to get exposed to the other half of your annual climate. If they remained sealed and uncontaminated for the second six months, then you have discovered an excellent way to create your own long term storage caches that should work for food, weapons, medical supplies, etc.
Jess,
Don’t toss out the old and outdated stuff. Place in a closet for “them” to find. Hopefully, that will keep them occupied for a bit and distracted from your more current supplies. If you are an older couple, it’s to be expected that we older people keep old stuff around, so it will just seem normal.
Lots of interesting resources out there on root cellars if you look around. Here’s one with a number of interesting ideas, several of which offer great concealment possibilities: https://theprovidentprepper.org/inexpensive-root-cellars-13-literally-cool-ideas-to-chill-with/
1.) 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids which are water proof can be buried in the ground. I know of one family who have gardens and they bury the buckets under the rows in their garden. If someone asks for their food, they will tell them it is in the garden!
2.) There are many sizes of septic tanks made of a plastic which doesn’t deteriorate and which has a large capped opening on the top. They can be buried and even the lid covered. If you have a septic tank, you can install another one (not connected to the sewer line) and use it for storage. If it is concrete, it can be painted with waterproofing paint.
3.) If you have stairs inside, you can make shelves under each step and sheetrock them in.. full of long term foods!
4.) In the attic, packaged foods can be placed on the sheetrock and covered over with insulation. Put rice, beans, pasta and any dry goods, even money, in Mylar bags… be sure to follow instructions of using the oxygen absorbers. Place bay leaves in the packages with rice to keep larvae from developing. Do not put oxygen absorbers in sugar… it will harden!
5.) Back walls of closets can be removed… filled with Mylar bags of food and sheetrock replaced. You can extend the depth of the closet wall… usually 4″ deep… by attaching a 2″ or thicker board on top of the stud before replacing the sheetrock.
I LOVE this ‘Ask a Prepper” site and really appreciate everything I have learned. There are others also that will show you how to preserve food, garden, etc., etc.
I would suggest putting any attic food storage in metal tins after bagging. If you happen to get squirrels, mice, or raccoons in the attic, they will tear through mylar and plastic like a hot knife through butter. What they don’t eat, they’ll scatter and mess on, destroying everything. Same goes for outbuildings and cellars.
not sure you want the moisture issues of doing that but go for it… Why bother with Gamma lids as well if you’re not going to use it for common things… as well…
not sure about you…but the food should be stored in dry cool …. things not a hot ass attic.
Miz Kitty: Attics are great for drying green beans, peppers, and so on. I have a dozen pumpkins and the same in squash that need to be cut and dried. But, no attic in these houses. the bathhouse will do, I guess. Sting some hot peppers on either end of the rope, and it should stay rodent free. I’m going to see if the smoker works. It’s electric and gets warm. But, I need to get my butt in gear and build a small solar drier. niio
that heat – ductwork or radiators or electric baseboard ?
if you have ductwork – you have all kinds of cache space with the correct advance prep – do it correct and the likelihood of the cache being found is nill ….
No ductwork. Don’t I wish. ALSO, there is no place to reply to the person who has so much summer and 2 weeks (each) of Spring and Fall. Sure wish I knew where that local was located!!
Jess: Hollow interior walls, above the ceiling, under the floor. In sheathing under the stairs. The average house can hide hundreds of pounds of food. Canned goods under furniture in the back of closets. Go to a yard sale and pick up a set of old encyclopedias, hollow them out to hide things in like ammo. Food should be in copper sheeting containers to kill bugs and rodents. Add bay leaves and ground chili peppers to chase off pests. All grain and dry legumes should be frozen a week or two, to kill insect pests. Chia has always been used as a famine food. 2 tablespoons a day are enough to keep a man alive and in fighting condition. Yes, that’s been proved. Be blessed. niio
Thanks for the great ideas!! I have already started looking at my husband’s piles of old papers in 4 drawer filing cabinet. Also, I figured out that we could hide some smaller bags of freeze dried food in between the layers of fabric still leftover from when I used to sew and collect clothing for destitute children in Uganda!! I am also going to pull out eve4ry DVD off of our entertainment center and place them on the shelves behind the DVDs!!
I forgot to say that we have apprroximately 15 lbs. of organic chia seed left in storage. as we eat it with oatmeal and berries every morning!!! So YES to chia seed. It is also fantastic mixed with coconut milk to make a pudding and then add a tiny bit of vanilla stevia; YUM!!
My comment about burying a school bus was an option -possibly cheaper- than a $5000 shipping container. That is IF it is affordable enough. A .30-06 or .308 round will go completely through the average house, so home defense is very limited if at all.
Remember that doomsday prepper who thad the noah’s ark of buried school bus’s… the thing that was interesting was ….they all where leaking…. and damaged and basicly he spent all that time and money for trash to be burried. Shipping contaniers don’t bury well and you might as well just pour the walls and and a roof vs wasting the time to half ass something.
The root cellars work and man what a blessing to have one. We been looking at putting ours up but have had other things to do.
That’s one down side to my location, not able to do a root cellar.
Sandy loamy ground and high water tables.
But we have 11 months of summer.
2 weeks of spring and Fall each
And MAYBEone or two days of 40 degree weather
Raven,
You’re right about not burying structures that were never meant to be buried. The roofs of both began bowing and caving in. It would be creepy enough to be underground but to be somewhere with an unstable roof would be disturbing.
My Mother had a root cellar built for her. It was just the size of a small bedroom. It was built next to a small hillside and then most of the root cellar was covered with dirt and plants with shallow roots were planted on top. The basic form was a couple of sheets of WWF 6″x6″ spacing (usually used to support driveways), bent into a quonset hut shape. Some rebar was bent to to follow the shape of the quonset hut style, maybe a foot or so apart. Then chicken wire was placed over it all to have something for the gunite style concrete to stick to. The front of the root cellar was concrete with a heavy wooden door. As this was in an area prone to moss growing everywhere, I sprayed the front with about four different colors of green to mimic moss.
It has lasted decades.
you don’t bury school buses – they are the concrete form used for the surrounding pour – school buses are uniquely designed to withstand the weight and pressure >>> unlike the CONEX boxes
Shipping containers will cave in when you bury them. I buried a forty footer and had to beef the roof and the walls up. A real pain in the butt. However it works well. I put sand on the roof then plastic so the water would run away from it then more sand to protect the plastic. Seven feet of it. When I walk inside in the winter it’s like walking into a heated building. Just using it for a root cellar to store veggies from the garden. Not prepping…. Yet.
you must turn the container upside down to bury it. Think about it the strongest part of a container is the floor that would normally hold the weight up to 40,000 lbs or more when it is loaded with cargo so if you reinforce the container sides and turn it upside down it can indeed be buried without collapsing.
Rick, please describe in more detail how you did this. Considering a 40′ long container is about 9′ tall and 8′ wide, do you mean you dug down and buried it deep enough to put about 7′ of sand on top? If so, and you wanted the surface area of the sand to be relatively flat, that must have been quite a whole at least over 16′ deep, and over 40′ long. Considering an empty 40′ container weighs about 10,000 LB’s, did you use something large enough to lift it from above, like a crane, that can lift it and also swing it over and set it down into the hole? If so, how did you prevent the side of the hole from caving in due to the weight of the crane? Since you reinforced the sides and roof, it may hold the weight, but some containers have wooden floors that will rot, and all will eventually rust out, what did you do to prevent or at least slow that? And what are the total costs involved?
Why not just build something from concrete or concrete block to accomplish the same storage?
drew, have you ever worked with shipping containers? flipping them over does NOT make them stronger – the flooring sits on cross supports for the bottom to hold weight, but if you “flip it over” then you have the flooring underneath the supports with only the fasteners holding it to the supports, which would be like attaching your second story flooring underneath the support beams instead of on top – would you want your family walking around on that “floor”? I highly doubt it would support the weight of being buried, and even if it did the walls would still buckle unless they were seriously reinforced.
drew by the time you buy the shipping container .. its about 5 grand. . Then you need to dig out the hole for it so figure renting equpment 500 to 1000…. Then you can use the same excavtor to help drag it into the hole… and figure out how to “renforce the it…. which the most i seen is people using concert block which is…. a 1 buck a block or so and heavy… so thousands into that.
The truth is you’re better off diggin the hole and pourning the walls and having a dome made for it. Gravel the floor in 10 inches of gravel so you have a mositure drain. . At least this method lasts and your method is going to rust out or collaspe with your wife and kids in it.
Rick: Sounds like you started prepping. ! niio
If there’s dark text above this forgive me I normally do speach to text and something got frozen into the system and can’t figure out how to remove…..
One thing I think should be stressed on hiding your preps, is MULTIPLE caches. If you got all your preps hidden in your home and if goes up in flames or you have to bug out away from home temporarily you run the risk of losing all.
It’s like I remember “combat chow” in the Army. One food item was located here. Load up move out next side item is served 50 yards away. Repeat and repeat untill done. In case of say mortar attack not everything is gone. You’ve mitigated your losses.
Figured it out. Speach to text started typing in the window my name goes in.
Why would someone find that comment something worth down voting? It’s just straight info.
Sagebrush
I saw that also and was gonna leave it be.
Obviously someone’s mother didn’t love them enough growing up….
Or maybe she loved them too much.
great post ron you really contributed a lot
hey there Magpie the “Expert Masterbator”, what an immature hypocrite you are. You insult and lie about other posters all the time. Tell me again “Oh Great and Powerful Faker”, where do I live? What’s going to happen to me in the future? You’re such a joke and too stupid to realize it, enjoy your little fantasy “safety bubble”, I’ll stick with the real world.
Ron : There are much better ways & places to seek attention. Try say, twatter, Fakebook, tik toc, etc.,
Please try THOSE places. You’ll be warmly welcomed and then cancelled.
Hate ta see ya go, man (snicker) . . .
We assholes will miss ya !
Marc – you need to realize there’s people like Shopping Cart Ron that have nothing else in this world – he strikes out here to maintain the little sanity his course of drugs allows >>> toss a buck when you see the destitute – good chance they are another “Ron” of the world …
Thank you so much to all the kind “suggesters” who actually addressed my problems with storing food in a raised ranch without any “hidden rooms” or a usable attic, etc. I learned a lot from your kindness and am grateful for your ideas! YES! I am storing several fish biotics and some Ivermectin, as well. You can easily buy Iver-tin from AllDayChemist.com in India. These are the same pills that were used so sucessfully in India so as to reduce C-19 cases to near zero in some provinces. Our family used them over Christmas and Christmas break, when all 3 of us caught that nasty virus. THAT, and a tons of natural medicines that I always keep on hand, since I am a 16 year veteran “Certified Natural Health Professional.” Iver-tin worked like a charm without any side effects, though not totally instantaneously!! Just be aware that your order will not arrive for probably 3 weeks after your payment clears, so if you truly want to be prepared, then you need to order it NOW and not wait until you’re already sick!! That is like storing your food on your front side walk for any and all looters, and then regretting that you didn’t buy more ahead of time when you had the chance to not starve to death! I have also use several types of Fish Biotics at times, that are not too awfully expensive and have saved us more than once! My doctor says “DON”T go to the hospital unless your oxygen is below 90% during C-19 infection! She knows the kind of neglect and dare I say “ABUSE” you will receive in many hospitals!!! Certainly, she is correct, since we have had many friends who experienced extreme neglect and the poisoning of Remdesivir for C-19. That medication destroys your kidneys, so you will die anyway! Patent Owned by George Soros, of course!! That way he can reduce the population AND make money doing it!! Oh, well, God will make certain good ol’ George will burn in HELL anyway! Go for it, George! We are just WAITING to see you get what you paid for!! GOD BLESS the Patriots!!!
Lt. Col. Venom:
LOVE that link to Root Cellar ideas! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND HELP!!
I am disabled, live alone, haven’t any place to hide things in ground. Yard is sand, prone to collect water during the summer monsoon season, high 90’s. I live in a mobile home in Florida, in city. Apparently I will have no chance of survival. I cannot run or even walk far. I have a gun to protect myself. And a prayer. Reading these suggestions for survival has made me feel truly alone and thinking of getting a roommate who could have my back, and I theirs. I guess I’m dead if I don’t find someone to help me, at least God hears my prayers, and may take me in.
Vicky God is in control. As Paul said writing from Inside a Roman Prison,
Philippians 1:
To Live is Christ
20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know.…
Paul knew when his time came before the Roman Court System that He would Die. Yet Paul chose to DO the Will of his Lord and Savior.
No matter how healthy-strong-skilled we are, ALL of Us will Die. As William said in Braveheart “All men Die, Not all men truly LIVE.
Fear not death if you’re a believer in Jesus.
I have no fear of death, I have the Lord Yashua Christ. He is who I trust and love. If God is with me, who can be against me?
Perfect response. Perfect truth.
Vicky,
You communicate well and have skills in that area to share. I wonder if you could pair up with someone who is visually disabled? Florida has a few organizations specifically for blind people and I would imagine that at least one of them has a home that the two of you could share together. The trade-off would be that you would provide the eyes, while your roommate provides the physical skills.
If you plug in your search engine something about visually impaired and your location, your options will pop up.
Vicky:
God always has your back, but you also need to cultivate a positive attitude. Don’t focus on your “can’t dos”, but rather on what you ARE capable of doing.
Having a roommate would not work for me – I don’t trust other people enough to have a stranger in my house, nor do I “play well with others”.
I honestly can’t think of a single person I know that I could tolerate living with at this stage of my life. I also have seen too many ‘crazy roommate kills housemate’ and ‘My roommate stole my stuff’ programs on TV. Perhaps you are better “socially adjusted” than I am and less paranoid – it wouldn’t take much, lol!
My ideal long term support team would have to be like-minded neighbors that I can trust in a community or communal setting where we all have the autonomy to do our own thing (within reason), in our own quarters, but who are willing to work together for security or group projects. That’s hard to find.
I wish you luck.
On a more practical note, you can hide a great deal of supplies in odd corners – closets, cupboards, under and behind furniture, in totes marked “Christmas decorations” or “pool toys”, etc. Get creative and look at “empty space” around your house. Remember to keep your weapons secure, but accessable. They sell hidden storage that masquerade as picture frames for under $50 – that might be a worthwhile investment for you to put weapons, cash, etc.
Under the fish tank/ pond in the front yard.
I don’t know where you store extra toilet paper, linens, etc…. But neither heat nor cold would matter to an extra set of sheets.
I would then use the freed up space to store food/meds etc… I would take care to store the stuff in the attic in metal garbage cans or some other rodent resistant container.
Just a thought 🙂
Vicky: Peace. Nor do I expect to survive it. Liberals made have war against the disabled and elder for years. But, I prep. No attic, no basement, monsoon storms from July to September. I used to live in a trailer. I took some paneling down, removed the insulation and added in sheet copper boxes (homemade, will kill rodents and bugs). Bags of beans, rice, dried fruit and -veggies. Everything has to be first frozen for a week or so to kill any insect pests, then add bay leaves and ground hot peppers. Under the beds, cases of canned goods. Under the trailer, crates of dried corn and and so on. God bless and protect you. niio
Thanks anyway.
Hi all. About those hiding….er, stashing places.
Who looks in the sewer vent stack? What if you have more than one?
How about that cammo pattern on pelican boxes in the trees?
Ever go into a really cluttered space? It’s hard to find stuff and you don’t even want to look.
Who gardens in buckets, pails & pots? Anybody ever hear of a thief stealing the entire tomatoes plant?
Anybody have stacks of old tires? Nasty things with moldy water & bugs…who would look at those?
Coffee cans buried at strategic locations along your bug out route.
Kitty litter boxes, extra deep. Under the appliances. Imagination is endless.
I could go on but you get the point….hopefully.
MER: for that matter, the septic tank. I remember reading a survivor novel where a man sealed all important papers, books, and paper cash and opened his septic system to bury them. No electric or water meant the place would be safe in a year. Away back when, people would wax a box and put their money in it, money that might be needed later, and sink it in the outhouse. Outhouses were dug, not cleaned, and the dirt piled over the old one.
When Penna passed the outhouse law, no new ones could be dug, Dad tunneled into the hill to the bottom of ours and cut a hole in it, then dug out the soil. Black, loaded with earthworms, some bottles and some gold and silver, as well. We used that thing for several years more before selling the farm. niio
gov would….
Sigh, li’l titmouse, they have yet to do that even in the event of raiding meth makers. I hear things because you see, I respect the uniform and the person in it till they at in a disgraceful way. when they come for your stash, it’ll be weapons, ammo, and food, not Mr. Poopy.
Just a note to all. We had a week long power outage recently. The nearest gas station with power was around 45 miles away. The generator burned around 12 gallons a day. The gas I was using at the end was 3 years old. A testament to PRI-G additive. And most of all a wakeup call to store more and rotate more.
When raided, guns and ammo go first. Then any other portable wealth. brandy and stronger things can be buried and always out of sight. tobacco is going to be a major plus for trading. if you can, start a parch of rural/semi-wild tobacco like Jasmine or Pueblo. Let it self-sow. call it ornamental if people wonder why you planted it. niio
Most people would be lucky if they had more then a few boxes of ammo and on top of it all…. be lucky if they even trained for a fight. The last place i want to shoot it out is my own home in a SHTF place.
And those people will the first to raid you. You’d be surprised how fast mojados pick up survival skills like guns, driving, and so on. Most were raised by survivalists. Most are very revenge-minded and it they have women and kids with them, they’ll die to help them.
Its why when they attack or you attack them you destroy them all… Man woman and child.
red, I looked up Jasmine Tobacco seeds and it shows a lot of very ornamental looking flowers, is this the right Jasmine tobacco?
https://www.bing.com/search?q=Jasmine+tobacco+seeds&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=jasmine+tobacco+seeds&sc=1-21&sk=&cvid=F6B6D4FE75584A8582439A6C4295635C
dz: Yes, for the hidden garden. Mind, it’s medicinal, but all old fashioned tobacco is. Smoke it and you’ll get stoned on nicotine. If you want larger leaves, top it, removing flower buds. A lot of food stuff is ornamental for gardens who want to hide what they raise. niio
red, I was a smoker for 20 years, finally quit in 1995, so I’m not worried about the nicotine buzz. I think I might try to grow some tobacco in containers, and also a few in the open ground to see if the gophers avoid it. I also saw Pueblo tobacco seeds for sale, what is the difference between Jasmine and Pueblo? I saw tobacco can be used as a natural insecticide, so I am definitely interested in learning how to grow and utilize tobacco for other than a smoking habit. I have never knowingly even seen tobacco while it’s growing, and I hear it also has to be harvested and cured properly, so I will be seeking your advice for that when the time comes.
dz: If you quit, do not start again. Nicotine is, according to research in Germany, Russia, Japan and China, safe. If it were not, all those nations would have long since outlawed it (Hitler tried and was laughed at). but, there’s plenty of other things thar cause problems. I smoke and use unbleached hemp because paper is bad, and bleached paper will cause serious problems.
Jasmine is bred for a strong floral scent. Pueblo was bred for smoking. Both are wivian, used by healers like midwives. i have native wild tobacco and encourage it to spread. it’s frost resistant, which varieties of tobacco from the tropics are not.
We also have Cardinal Flowered Lobelia/Indian tobacco/prairie tobacco in case the day comes i have to quit. It does the same as tobacco, endorphins and so on, but is not good for healing like tobacco.
Roots are high in nic, and when it’s in the ground, gophers should avoid it. Be warned, if you have a problem with plant diseases, anything in the family (chilis, tomatoes, eggplants) can catch it from tobacco. This is why people stopped using it as an insecticide on gardens, but, it’s OK for animals and humans. niio
red, if you roll your own you might also consider rice papers, no dies, no glue, very clean burning compared to other rolling papers.
I quit 26 months ago a lifetime of smoking. I was stuck on nicorett gum gfor more than a year but finally quit that. I still occasionally really want a smoke but won’t do it…. I know 1 smoke and I’d be back and it was just to hard to quit.
JPup: On occasion I have to quit for a while, like thanks to a hospital stay. Red flower lobelia is called prairie tobacco. It has all the tempting things in it but tobacco and replaces it. It’s not addictive and a lot of people will cut tobacco with it until they’re smoking only it and that stops the craving. But, if off tobacco too long, a lung infection starts, an abscess in one lung. then, clove cigarettes powdered cloves in the front of the smoke) stops it. It also stops bacterial pneumonia and bronchitis. That’s what ‘flavored’ cigarettes were used for. Peppermint stops asthma attacks but only if smoked or used in medicated snuff. Over a century ago in the Official Medica America pharmacists had mixes to use in cigs for medicinal purposes. niio
JPup, I absolutely concur, and I have heard it’s harder to kick nicotine than heroin. I have never been addicted to heroin, but I know kicking the nicotine was a real bitch time of it, and I was dumb enough to have quit, restarted, and then finally quite for good because I didn’t want to expose my kids to it.
Something I’m not seeing being discussed and (imho) highly relevant to the conversation.
How are we, assuming most are conservatives and therefore law abiding, going to know when the S truly HTF?
You don’t want to start being protective in a lethal manner if it’s not justified, obviously, but justified can go from “just a feeling” to too late in a heartbeat. We don’t need a visit from the police …certainly don’t want our loved ones dead.
So, again cause I’m slow, how will we really know it’s gone so far south we need to shoot almost on sight? How do we make that determination in a country that’s not seen a ground war since the civil war?
law abiding is a silly term that we should avoid. the line in the sand is when they prevent you from worshiping Elohim and taking away and go again his laws
MT: last ground war was an invasion from Mexico in 1922. Right now, we’re being invaded by friends of the democrats, aka terrorists.
When you see it, you’ll known when SHTF is going on. Home invasions are getting more common. Rapes. Murders. Robberies. Some places, the police won’t show up at all. SHTF is closer in northern, liberal states than the South. Trudeau in Canada actually invited chicoms to come for winter military training. Putin shot them both down over that. Russia is trying to claim Canadian and American crude. niio
japan invaded alaska during ww2. why bother with cops… nothing good comes from them.
MTern, do you trust your instincts? If you do, follow your instincts, they are there to protect you.
Ya.Dad was on the next island from the japs for 18 months….it didn’t do good things for his mental status.
True statement regarding “law enforcement”, too many older, experienced cops left during the 70s & 80s leaving newbies to train newbies. Factor in returning service members who’s focus was to stay alive ( no problem with that…I’m partial to breathing as well). LEOs without a solid grounding in the constitution and constitutional law combined with lack of training/ support and an increasingly hostile populous ….well, things go south quickly.
But
There comes a point where the body in the front yard is going to start to smell. I just think when it goes south it’ll happen quickly and do not want to hesitate worrying about the legalities. I’d hate to have t see the neighbors gunned down/ beaten down but that would signal the S had HTF.
Just wondering what other people’s thoughts were. Bear in mind I’ve survived the mcauthor park Bart station at 11pm as a pale person.
I was asked how I beefed up the container and what it cost when I buried it. I do not recommend doing it the way I did. I ran a beam length ways on the floor and the ceiling down the center then put posts from the floor to the ceiling. To keep the walls from being pushed in I ran a heavy plank length ways half way up. From one end to the other and put braces from wall to wall. This does work and is fully functional but not a good way to do it. Because the cross braces get in the way. Now it can have two floors but only using the bottom for now. The reason I did it that way is because my lady friend had thousands of dollars worth of herbal stuff and oils that couldn’t be overheated. So I was in a extreme hurry. I was working by myself and from the time I started till it was buried took three days. The braces took a lot of time. I used a 150 size excavator. The property has two levels so I dug out the top level then dragged the container to the bottom level then pushed it into the slot. I did not lift and lower. Because I could only pick up one end at a time. The cost was $1,200.00 for the container. $700.00 To deliver it here. The excavator was my own but digging time was about a day so about 12 hours @$125.00 per hour = $1,500.00 I had a very small bucket on the machine that’s why it took so long. I hope that answers your questions. When I bury another one I’ll temporarily beef up the ceiling the way I did this one then rebar the hell out of it and pour concrete on top and after a couple weeks I’ll remove the bracing. On the outside of the walls I’ll put logs to hold the fill back. The concrete will go out over the logs so they can hold some of the weight. I’m not worried about the logs rotting because a few feet above them in the dirt or sand there will be plastic to shed the water well away from the structure. At my age I’ll be in the ground before they rot. Since I’m not and expert at this stuff use my ideas and improve on them so you will be happy with the end result. It’s worth it.
Another area to hide items that are small, ie canned foods, hand gun & box of shells, is under a kitchen/bathroom cabinet. Remove the bottom drawer, in older cabinets there is a 4” space underneath. If you can’t reach all the way inside, you’ll have to figure a way to slide deeper items forward to reach them. Maybe a piece of sheet metal with a lip at the end? At a younger age that’s where I kept some cigs. Found that space when I removed the drawer to clean it out. Surprise.
Tie string around each item and push them in then when you want something just pull the string and the items will slide out.
WHY are some posts being crossed out and no longer have links that work?
WHY are you deleting some posts?
Excellent read. As a person that doesn’t get a lot of time to scour the net, I appreciate the emails. Keep doing what your doing, I enjoy reading all this great info.
I too, love reading all the comments! Lets me know how much smerter I am than you folks!
Seriously, some of you are so anal! And some of you actually contribute!! Most entertaining!!