Garage Shop Preppers

[Mgnu]

Politics aside, you always see an uptick in prepping for the house, survival, etc during elections. Covid was another interesting externality this year as well.

So, many of us think of prepping in terms of storing long term food, medical supplies, household supplies, and the like.

But what about the garage/shop?

For COVID I did the following:

1. Buy up 4 VP Racing fuel jugs for both gasoline and diesel. That gave me about 20 gal of each. Stabil was put in both. It would be enough to get back and forth to my other property which was a concern early in the virus.

2. Consumables. Bought a bunch of oil from costco for both generators, spare spark plugs too.

3. Shop supplies - blue Scott towels, extra spray lubricants used for cleaning guns and parts.


I’m curious what, if anything you all have done or are thinking of doing.

A well stocked shop if you will!

 

[tinmanwpk]

Beer.

 

[Mgnu]

Beer.

I agree, though my beer fridge is located on my back patio not my shop. You say potatoe, I say potato.

 

[bczygan]

I live in a big formerly industrial city (Detroit), with internet delivery of anything I need, so never had a need to stock up on anything, even in the depths of the pandemic,

Bill

 

[ZRX61]

I live in a big formerly industrial city (Detroit), with internet delivery of anything I need, so never had a need to stock up on anything, even in the depths of the pandemic,

Bill

What happens when deliveries stop?

 

[nadogail]

I suggest you search "Mormon Pantry"

 

[Farleyfan]

Don't forget the Toilet Paper ! haha

 

[RandyIA]

Just a suggestion...diesel really doesn't need stabilization if it's kept from getting condensation in the tank. The shelf life of diesel is in multiples of years, not months. For long term storage of gas try and get av gas. No alcohol last I knew. Alcohol attracts and bonds with moisture. For that matter if you want alcohol free gas and can't get it just add water to your gas, shake it up good, let it separate and siphon off the nearly alcohol free gasoline. The alcohol bonds with the water and separates from the gas since gas and water have different weights. It might not get all the alcohol out, but it will get a substantial amount of it out. Then, if you are brave enough, you can distill the alcohol out of the water. It's perfectly safe to drink it then but I certainly wouldn't since I'm not proficient in distilling/bootlegging/making moonshine (I love the stuff regardless). It would make a good alternate fuel however.

Your own research would be necessary to do any of this.

 

[bczygan]

What happens when deliveries stop?

They won't. And everything I need is physically nearby anyway.

Preppers are scared little rabbits. I understand though. There is a personality type that needs a structured and safe environment that has low perceived risk.

I've been alive for 70 years and the only time there was even the possibility of a chance that you couldn't get every thing you desired was during the northeast blackout. And it didn't last long enough to matter.

Bill

 

[CraigStu]

Good job on the gas. But now the best thing you can do is use it and then replace it. I don't bother w/ the stabil. I just keep the 20 gal maybe 6 weeks, then wait til both cars need gas, fill them up, and then refill my cans.

 

[SuperCat]

Got an extra box of gloves and a roll of paper towels hidden deep in the bowels of my garage. I don't expect to do much in the way of shop projects for a while due to a recent hand injury. Fortunately, my middle finger is not affected, so I can still drive.

 

[ScottsGT]

Dust masks! Because when another pandemic hits, you ain’t going to find any again.

 

[matt_i]

I was thinking I'd have to setup a bed out there in case I was positive-tested or symptomatic of covid, in order to protect other family members....but thankfully this has not yet occurred.

I don't have much other than a typical big supply of Bounty paper towels.

 

[seedtime]

I’m that guy who is always thinking (not worrying) about what’s next? I like to have lots of convenience items on hand. Fortunately I had numerous boxes of latex gloves, masks, paper towels, trash bags, wet wipes.... you get the point. Unfortunately we were low on TP. I have two years worth of firewood, canning jar lids, etc. I never anticipated the lumber crisis, so I moved on to other projects. Hard to see into the future, sometimes I just get lucky if not I learn to live without.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[southalabama]

Shop consumables

I survived Hurricane Ivan and we didn’t have electricity for 21 days. Those that weren’t somewhat of a prepper was standing in the soup line. First time in my life I had ever seen Red Cross feeding people. FEMA said keep supplies for three days. It was a week before the roads got clear enough for them to get here with the MREs.

Amazes me people will buy a million dollar life insurance. Insure their house. Then not put back a little extra but I don’t lose any sleep over it.

As far as me and my house we are prepared.

 

[Jeffh40]

I'm not there yet. Covid hit in the middle of me building a new house so things were dicey and there were shortages that I wasn't able to stock up for. They didn't last long but they were there, and still are. Last time I was at the grocery store, there were no green chilis, in two stores. Last month it was canned tomatoes, before that flour and yeast, and we all remember toilet paper....

FEMA says have 2 weeks of supplies on hand in their updated recommendations. I'm good with that or a little more. No interest in prepping for more than a month. That takes too much time and energy for a very slim chance that I'll ever need it (not in hurricane or earthquake country in Ohio)


Now as far as the Garage version, I have a few gas cans which I am in the process of filling with nonethanol gas and Stabil for the winter. A generator is on the list to buy, but that and a transfer switch will be expensive so, not quite yet. We have enough propane and charcoal to cook for a while and food and plenty of beer in the fridge in the garage.

What is everyone else doing?

 

[AngryBeaver]

i live 40 minutes from town. 200 gallons of diesel on hand year round. (truck, tractor, skid steer, mower, and generator) and can use in the furnace if I run out of wood. I only use gas for weed whip and chainsaw, which I keep a couple gallons of VP no ethanol cans anyways.

Who doesn't have spare oil for the vehicles and mowers and whatnot? Do people really buy just enough oil to do one oil change or one can of wd40 at a time? I guess I'm weird and buy things a case at a time...

I have two years worth of firewood already cut split and stacked. (oak takes two years to dry out anyways).

I guess growing up out in the country where you didn't run to town every other day for supplies made me a preppier 40 years ago...

 

[DrewFSD]

Nothing, I'll be working more hours, no time to be at home in the garage.

 

[nadogail]

We will deal with whatever new reality comes our way, by adapting, improvising and we shall overcome.

 

[MattRMagnum]

Beer.

Hard alcohol above ~40% is better, iirc. Doesn't go bad, like beer eventually will. Plus, with a bit of growing and some maintenance, you can easily brew your own beer. Cheaper and more efficient.

 

[MattRMagnum]

i live 40 minutes from town. 200 gallons of diesel on hand year round. (truck, tractor, skid steer, mower, and generator) and can use in the furnace if I run out of wood. I only use gas for weed whip and chainsaw, which I keep a couple gallons of VP no ethanol cans anyways.

Who doesn't have spare oil for the vehicles and mowers and whatnot? Do people really buy just enough oil to do one oil change or one can of wd40 at a time? I guess I'm weird and buy things a case at a time...

I have two years worth of firewood already cut split and stacked. (oak takes two years to dry out anyways).

I guess growing up out in the country where you didn't run to town every other day for supplies made me a preppier 40 years ago...

When I lived that far out, I maintained the same. I wound up moving into a medium-sized town due to both a job change requiring being in an office every day, getting sick of having to make that 40+ minute drive just to the grocery store, and the regular snow/flooding/etc. closing roads and keeping me stuck in (or out) of my property for days or weeks at a time.

Point is: now that I'm able to get things readily? I don't maintain the stockpiles I used to. I do keep gas on hand, but that's because I need some around that's leaded for my old truck, or has a booster added to it for a car that's happier with higher octane than I'm able to buy from the pump.

 

[Tduby]

They won't. And everything I need is physically nearby anyway.

Preppers are scared little rabbits. I understand though. There is a personality type that needs a structured and safe environment that has low perceived risk.

I've been alive for 70 years and the only time there was even the possibility of a chance that you couldn't get every thing you desired was during the northeast blackout. And it didn't last long enough to matter.

Bill

I Tend to agree with you but I like to have a few days of water on hand and well it always seems like the freezer is full and plenty of of extra food in the cupboard for the few times the weather gets bad enough I don’t want to leave home.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, It is impossible to be too prepared for foreseeable things; but I haven't figured out how to foresee everything.

I am reminded of a statement in Sam Rabl's book about backyard boat building. "When you are building a boat, it is impossible to own too many clamps".

 

[gungatim]

one thing I do in my shop requires sugar and yeast. for many months there was no yeast to be found, so that's one thing I will be stocking up on. I used wild yeast from plants and had some good luck and also made some vinegar unfortunately.

as far as shop supplies: work jeans (was right on that one--supply dried up and I go through a lot of jeans, more so working from home!!) Ammo, oil, gas, anti-freeze, and spray lube/carb cleaner etc. (I've lived through antifreeze shortages before no fun...)

also stocked up on charcoal for the smoker. got lucky, made it through the dry summer when nobody had any/just before they wouldn't let you buy home and garden stuff.

for months there was no spray lube to be found, and a lot of that stuff can be tough to get shipped (stores here still won't let us with medical issues shop there).

as far as ordering everything online, I tried that, amazon taking 3-4 weeks to ship, I've still got orders waiting from a month ago on a few items. sometimes you get lucky.

I've never been able to order anything off some store sites (Walmart especially, always crashes so I gave up on them).

when the supply chain breaks down, you can't say you can always get everything you want online. simply not true.

but I am a prepper. when people ran out of stuff, I didn't.

Being a prepper isn't about making a cozy low risk life, it's about anticipating what may happen, and the likelihood of said happening, and your willingness to accept the outcome.

 

[Don1357]

I love the whole prepping genre as much as I love the zombie genre! Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing prepping and as a matter of fact when covid hit I had no need to run to the super market for anything, no toilet paper and heck, I had a 50-count box of N95 masks on my shop. Food-wise I was missing butter. I could close the hatches and bunker down for a while.

Biggest deficiencies are usually energy, water, and food. Energy is what touches the workshop so go with a multi fuel generator (gasoline, propane, natural gas) spare parts, and know how to repair it. Gasoline has a shelf life of about 6 months, maybe north of a year if you use fuel stabilizers. Diesel is better but not forever. Propane, that will last as long as the tank can hold it. Two 100-pound tanks on a switch valve is a good inexpensive setup if toy keep an eye out for the tanks on cl.

If you have a shop, one of the most significant things you can do to make your life more resilient is to learn how to effectively monetise your hobbies and to have the materials at hand to pull it off. Many purple lost their jobs and they had no clue as to how else to turn their time into money.

 

[RVDan]

It’s pointless here. If we stockpile supplies the Americans who didn’t will just storm the border and take it by force. We aren’t allowed to defend ourselves with firearms.

 

[Don1357]

It’s pointless here. If we stockpile supplies the Americans who didn’t will just storm the border and take it by force. We aren’t allowed to defend ourselves with firearms.

If that's important to you then move?

I got tired of living in the socialist republic of Maryland (rain tax anybody?). I traded my almost hour long commute through beltway gridlock for an almost hour long commute through mountains and rivers with eagles flying overhead. The full swat of the political spectrum owns lots of guns.

 

[ddurrett896]

1. Buy up 4 VP Racing fuel jugs for both gasoline and diesel. That gave me about 20 gal of each. Stabil was put in both. It would be enough to get back and forth to my other property which was a concern early in the virus.

I'd but more of those VP fuel jugs - especially if you plan on running generators. Figure 5 gallons a day, 4 days isn't much. I keep 12 full and rotate every 6 months.

Recommend using non-ethanol gas - no need for stabilizers.

 

[Jagmandave]

I keep 5 gallons of fuel for the genset - it will last way more than a day if you don't need to run it non-stop, just long enough to get the fridge down to temperature and the house warmed up or cooled off, then during daylight hours just shut it down. Every 6 months or so I pour it into the car and go get some fresh.....and add Stabil of course. I can buy non-ethanol gas at a couple places nearby so it lasts longer. I have several cars and keep them all full, if push comes to shove I can drain gas from them and use it in the genset. A multi fuel setup would be better as long as you have natural gas, but I don't have one of those generators. If the nat gas stays on we have gas in the fireplace so we can get some heat from that too.

I keep some paper supplies on hand in the shop, and a few jugs of distilled water, other than that just the normal amount of food in the house and such.

The shop supplies I always buy in bulk so I always have enough to keep going on my projects....I hope we never have a situation like that in Cuba, where you're scrambling to keep 50 year old machines on the road any way you can.

 

[bushmechanic]

I've always got eight jerry cans in rotation, four big tanks of propane, a bunch of smaller ones, water, food, and so on...

I always keep every tank full, as well. End of the day, I'm off to top up whatever I've used. It's the same amount of money on top of the tank as it is the bottom.

There is a Pelican 1510 with every tool I need to service and maintain my primary vehicle under rough circumstances ready to go.

Always have a bag packed and ready to go, and pretty much everything else you can think of, including ceramic water filters and all. Mind you, I've spent the majority of my adult life traveling; so I've already got the stuff.

This is because I don't like having to think about stuff when it's time to deal with weather, power outages, or just leaving for any reason, including popping over somewhere and staying in a hotel.

Everyone else can scramble around. When SHTF stuff happens, I just go take a nap or fire up the theater/computer, and watch all kinds of stuff I've saved on a few drives.

People are constantly asking to use my stuff in those scenarios, and my perpetual answer is "no", even for family members. Follow my example of laziness in the face of disaster, or go without.

 

[bushmechanic]

I would imagine most here have older, cheaper tools they've bypassed with upgrades to fancier stuff.

Pull it out, organize it with socket sticks and tool rolls and all, and shove it in whatever bag or box you have.

Don't touch it until you need it, and just grab it when you do and have everything ready in one bag.

 

[bczygan]

I was just thinking that preppers desire an orderly life that is not disrupted by outside events.

That's why I don't prep. I thrive on chaos!

Bill

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

...Doesn't go bad, like beer eventually will...

Best reason to constantly rotate inventory!

 

[DeeDubz]

Last week prior to the election I filled up on

5 gal of diesl
5 gal of gas
1 gal of gas
costco toilet paper
costco paper towels

we already have 100 gals of fresh water and we bought two cases of water.

Yes i can stack my ammo higher than my toilet paper

 

[nadogail]

It’s pointless here. If we stockpile supplies the Americans who didn’t will just storm the border and take it by force. We aren’t allowed to defend ourselves with firearms.

IMHO, a man with a crossbow is a formidable opponent.

 

[Sweetcorn]

They won't. And everything I need is physically nearby anyway.

Preppers are scared little rabbits. I understand though. There is a personality type that needs a structured and safe environment that has low perceived risk.

I've been alive for 70 years and the only time there was even the possibility of a chance that you couldn't get every thing you desired was during the northeast blackout. And it didn't last long enough to matter.

Bill

Or, it could be that some people prep because they've been through tough situations (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.) and don't want their loved ones (and themselves) to be helpless, naïve fools in the event of an emergency. There's no reason to insult those with enough foresight who put the effort in to take care of their own and not be a burden on emergency crews.

Some people like living life paycheck to paycheck, no savings, just scraping by, largely carefree and ignorant to the world. I get it, I have family members like that and they are always needing something. Not necessarily emergency survival related, they're just unprepared for life. I still love them the same, though. Others like to plan ahead for their life and their families well being, set aside some money and some necessities and be reasonably prepared for the next ice storm or whatever comes along. Doesn't mean they're waiting for "the end of time," it just means they care for those who depend on them.

 

[bushmechanic]

Or, it could be that some people prep because they've been through tough situations (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.) and don't want their loved ones (and themselves) to be helpless, naïve fools in the event of an emergency. There's no reason to insult those with enough foresight who put the effort in to take care of their own and not be a burden on emergency crews.

Some people like living life paycheck to paycheck, no savings, just scraping by, largely carefree and ignorant to the world. I get it, I have family members like that and they are always needing something. Not necessarily emergency survival related, they're just unprepared for life. I still love them the same, though. Others like to plan ahead for their life and their families well being, set aside some money and some necessities and be reasonably prepared for the next ice storm or whatever comes along. Doesn't mean they're waiting for "the end of time," it just means they care for those who depend on them.

Yup.

People who toss those stones are the same people calling to get some of my fuel, borrow my generator, or asking if I'll sell a firearm for some reason, as if they have the first use for one.

I don't keep that **** around for zombies or societal foolishness. I keep it around because I've had to do without so many times in so many places in the world that I know better.

Some never learn.

This year's "pointless winter warning" will have the shelves emptied, the fuel points exhausted, service centers full, and the roads clogged; and people will be running around like idiots getting what they suddenly realize they might want.

Not me. It causes me no extra trouble in life to have what I require and want on hand. To me, that hurricane that has people sweating and shopping and frightened is just a bit of interesting weather. I kind of look forward to them, actually.

Doesn't bother me at all, and yup: I'll rub it right in their faces as I say no.

 

[bushmechanic]

I was just thinking that preppers desire an orderly life that is not disrupted by outside events.

That's why I don't prep. I thrive on chaos!

Bill

It's not about an orderly life; mine certainly hasn't been orderly.

What it's about is not having your hand out, and yes, that's a thing that happens 100% of the time, several times a year.

When you experience enough disorder, you eventually learn to avoid most of the nonsense so you can either sit on your *** or do something more important.

 

[Arkansas COB]

Im not a scared rabbit by no means nor do I thrive on an orderly and non disrupted life. I am prepared though. Fuel , oils , spare parts for what I feel I will need to have when SHTF so to speak. Food, first aid , clothing , ammo , and whatever weapons I feel I will need to protect my family and friends and the things i have set aside for such a time. Of course though I am out in the country and it's not just a skip and hop to get the things i need to survive.

COB

 

[Charlie51]

That northeast blackout mattered to a lot of people 9 month later.