One of my favorite things reading about on Arfcom are the many "Lessons Learned" and "What Worked - What Didn't" threads.

AR Jedi's Excellent Sandy - 12 Days Without Power is one such thread. There are many more that I can't quite attribute to since site changes have archived so much. The info is there, I just can't credit many individuals because the names have been changed to protect the innocent. But Harbor Freight "Inverter Generators" NOW OFFICIAL BUDGET GENERATOR THREAD and the Fuel Can Oracle have combined centuries worth of knowledge to comb through.

For me, my own what worked, what didn't was having a generator for Hurricane Zeta, but what didn't work was there no way to connect the generator to the well, so I still didn't have water. When I originally bought the generator, I was renting a house that had municipal water. I then moved into a house I bought that was on a well, and never really thought about the water situation. The big lesson here was when you move, re-evaluate your needs and abilities. The changes I made were adding a Generlink.

Lessons learned from this site was how valuable a smaller, more efficient generator can extend your gasoline stores and how best to store that gas. Also, that dual fuel generators are immensely valuable, because propane stores so much better than gasoline to begin with. So I made the change to adding a dual fuel, 4,500 watt inverter generator. Along the way I also picked up 3,000wh of a portable power station to feed into a small, 4 circuit manual transfer switch. That paid off as this week we had some pretty severe storms roll through while I was at work. The batteries kept lights on, along with internet and refrigerator, all running for three hours. It was something to look on my phone to check the security system and see my house was okay while the neighbor was without power and in the dark the whole time.

I really am grateful for being able to apply what I've learned from you guys and gals.

So I ask you, what has been your most valuable insights learned from here or other boards, and have you made the changes from your own experience or from the experiences of others?

Good thread topic!

For me:

- Have a means to cool the house in the summer without grid power. In my case that means the basement. We have generators and multiple ways to keep the house warm. A power outage in the summer, while not life threatening, it sure is nice to sleep in AC overnight. AC isn’t a survival necessity like heat is but it’s sure nice to have!

- If you are remodeling or building a house, over insulate. Do not meet code minimums. Exceed them by as much as you can. Insulation might not be a “look at this awesome insulation you can’t see in our fancy new house” but it WILL save you money for as long as you own the home. Our extra costs in insulation had an approximate payback time of 3 years. We have lived in the house for 7 years now and will likely retire in it. Love the low bills!

I had an experience the other day that opened my eyes a bit.

Was 5:30 or so a.m. I'm on my kitchen floor stretching after a work out.
Hear a wild commotion of screeching cats and patio furniture flying around on my front porch.
Normally not a big deal but we had just replaced two cats that have been attacked by something on that front porch, and I was determined to see what the hell it was (bobcat or coyote).

So I go flying out the door and into the yard...darkness and silence.
I can barely make out the form of something running/quartering away from to my right, but can't make out what it is.

Then it hit me: WTF am I doing out here in the dark, no light, no weapon, and no glasses?

I have since remedied that, but it was a bit embarrassing for me.

I have a tendency to learn things the hard way.

Couldn’t agree more about the A/C! And while the Heat may not kill me, the wife would! That’s why I have a 4500w inverter, still sips gas compared to the main one, but plenty of headspace if I need more power.

Great thoughts on the insulation. I learned this past summer that my original, blown in insulation needed a fresher coat as over 20 years, there had been a fair amount of settling. If I’m ever lucky enough to build, I’ll absolutely keep that in mind!

ETA: It was the Texpacolypse thread that I learned how inefficient electric space heaters were to run on generators, so I now have some Mr. Buddy Heaters and electric blankets (a lot of warmth for 200 watts and the wife loves them!).

Don’t we all!! Hope you don’t have to go out hard charging much anymore, but I’m sure someone will be along in GD asking what the best bump in the night gun is and you’ll have a story!

For me, I used to live in a house and had most stuff squared away. I'm temporarily in an apartment and it really sucks to not have all the resources I would need in a real "situation". The Great Texas Deep Freeze of 2021 showed me some holes in being prepared for winter which I've remedied. I'm still not really in a position to deal with a heat-of-the-summer power outage. I don't have a portable AC down here and not sure I want to get one since we're hoping to buy a house soon and move.

One of the other shifts I've made over time is to "upgrade" certain prep items. I used to use a big, honking Coleman smoke and noise generator back at the house. It certainly did its job several times but I replaced it with a much quieter, much more efficient inverter model. It was much, much less painful to try to sleep with the inverter unit than with the old-school genny. I used to keep many gallons of bottled water and replaced the oldest every hurricane season. Now, I have collapsible 5-gallon containers I plan to fill instead. Much less space taken up. So, I basically try to keep up with new stuff that comes out that might be significantly better than what I'm currently using. If it makes sense, I'll "upgrade" and (sometimes) keep the previous version as backup. Have definitely done that with LED lanterns, headlamps, flashlights, etc.

Have a small battery bank / “solar generator “  to use for your internet modem, WiFi router, tv with mud flap antenna and a lamp with an LED bulb.

When the power goes out, that setup has options to keep everyone entertained.

My biggest LL came exactly 31 years ago when there was a sho 'nuff April blizzard in Alabama.
It started snowing in the afternoon so I picked up some milk and Rice Crispies and a couple of videos.
The next morning I woke up to thirteen inches of snow and the power out.
I realized that I had no way to make coffee. After the panic attack faded and the shaking subsided, I realized that I had some MRE coffee left over from the Army.
To heat it up I took a can of wood putty that I'd been using on my SKS stock and saw that it was HIGHLY FLAMMABLE.
Perfect.
I took my canteen cup and in my unventilated tiny kitchen(where else do you make coffee?) proceeded to boil some water.
Of course, the fumes nearly overcame me, and I'm pretty sure I lost some spatial reasoning ability, but shortly I had coffee.
And Rice Crispies. For the next two days, that's all I had to eat.

edit: Worst of all, I didn't even have a way to start a fire. Finally I remembered that I had a gitl's phone number written in a book of matches from a bar(remember those?)

Kyle taught me the real importance of having a sling on my rifles. When that went down I realized how unprepared all of my equipment was, no usable holsters, slings or lights, the wrong type of guns etc. The true lesson is that it doesn't matter where you live or how safe you think you are, shit can flare up anywhere at any time. Coming home from a work trip to a scared wife and residents from our subdivision actively armed patrolling the entrances in our former suburban bliss will change you. I then got my gear properly sorted out, including getting the wife much better tools and practice with them. If you don't have the basic arms setup and ready yet, get it done RFN. Thinking you are safe and nothing will ever happen in your area is wrong think and stupid!

Making the switch from internet “hobby survivalist” to something more like a lifestyle starting about 20 years ago, I had no idea how long it would take to make an off-grid property a reality and how many challenges, small challeneges, it took to get to a place where I can just walk out my door and be there a few hours later and not take anything with me.


I found that I spent more on freeze dried than a freeeze dryer and should have just bought the freeze dryer. I was eventually given one on a long term loan and ran the shit out of it until a house fire took it out.

I found out that house fires are pretty SHTF.

I found out canned food doesn’t last as long in storage as the internet says it will. Particularly high acid foods.

I found out that buying PMs needs to be done when it’s right for you and after you have done your due dilligence and not when your friends tell you to. And definitely don’t buy on the run up to a price peak.

I found out that having good friends who have your back are one of the most important preps you can have, aside from a wife that is on-board with your life and complements who you are. But, all women still have their shit.

I learned a lot when I bugged out to my cabin for COVID during the early days and didn’t know how bad it was going to get. I posted a what did/didn’t work thread if you guys want to look it up.

I learned that access to water, especially large quantities of clean water is the biggest challenge you have as a surivalist, beyond basic shelter.

I learned that in off grid living, water is the most expensive thing you will deal with in terms of energy consumption-pumping it out of the ground and heating it is the biggest power draw in my cabin by far…. And you use hot water for a lot more than cooking….. dishes, showers, coffee, tea,…… it’s a real thing…

I learned that the typical generator sucked balls for filling a battery bank compared to even one or two solar panels on a sunny day.

I learned that internet warriors who tell you solar won’t work in your area and because of that solar isn’t worth doing are totally full of shit. Having reasonable expectations and sizing an adequate system is easy to do and DIY. I only did a partial installation during COVID and it has worked so well that I haven’t had to priorities the rest of the install over other things that need done at the cabin. It’s basically like being on the grid now with 4 panels, I have 22 more to install…… it will mean cloudy days will be like being on the grid during long winters in retirement.

I learned that solar panels are cheap on craigslist, particularly used panels from Arizona, and most large cities have someone that resells these solar farm panel pulls.

I learned to not let your possessions hold you hostage-fires can be liberating in their own way.

Most of your so called friends….aren’t your friends. They are really just acquaintances. When things go bad for you, they will abandon you. When things get better for you, suddenly they will want to be your “friend” again. They aren’t your friends.

Real friends will be there for you, good times and bad. But, to have real friends you must be a real friend to them. That means giving of yourself to them….be there for them.

Mine is the power of money... I've seen it "fix" a lot of issues.  Nope, I can't eat it, or defend myself, or use it as shelter.  However, it fixes a lot of problems

Most problems are monumentally severe events.  Massive 1000 year floods don't happen often.  But minor flooded basements are frequent.   I get 20, 30 small " oh, shit, this is NOT good events" for every big one.  And small shtf are often fixed with $.

I'm asthmatic.  Cold and exercise cause REAL problems.  It's northern Quebec, and I have two caribou down, in 24" of snow, and a long drag up a seriously steep hill.  This is not good. It's stupidity and a brain fart on my part.  But here I am.  Moments later I hear a snowmobile approaching, with a drag sled ( Hunter also) and I flag him down ..  " I'll give you $100 if you drag these fuckers to the top of that hill, and drop them road side". Problem solved

Job loss.  No more income.  Not a problem.  I go to the safe, do a quick count, and realize I've got a six month cushion, so I have breathing room.  Problem solved.

Car break down?  Rent a car.  Problem solved

I've had other issues, solved in other ways, but overwhelmingly my number one "problem solver" has been the appropriate application of a appropriate level of cash...  

Sept. 2003... Hurricane Isabel.  We went almost two weeks without electricity which meant no water from our well.  I was able to get a generator on the fifth day w/o electricity so that allowed us some conveniences again.  Living in a rural area with no water and no electricity is no fun, especially when your wife is pregnant.  That storm is what got me into the preparedness mindset.  I was never, ever going to live in a $300k wooden tent again.

I will second the home insulation statement.  Our house is very well insulated top to bottom, and it has made a significant difference over the years.

Slings, and holsters for everything I want to use or carry.

Backups to the backups.

Spare parts and carburetors for anything I need to run in an emergency.

Spare magazines for everything I own.  I won't every buy another gun without a readily available/ affordable magazine, and just because its readily available now doesn't mean it will always be.  Get a few extras.  

If there is something you need or know you will eventually get just get it now because it's almost always going to be more expensive in the future.

Save more than you spend and think about/ plan for retirement and the future as often as possible.

Live well below your means and put the difference into well-considered savings and/or long-term improvements to your house/property.

I've done so for a long time; my house/property has been considerably improved with careful "sweat-equity", and my savings keep on growing.

I'm a "lucky" person, although I "made" some of my luck.  I have both SoSec and Fed pension.  Both SoSec and Fed Pension allow me to indulge myself in minor matters, and to save money.  I planned it that way.

If TSHTF, one's Pension, as well as SoSec is likely non-viable.  I've planned for such as well.

That was the event that triggered me to get into preparedness as well. Five+ days with no power with heat and humidity. Sure, had water and food but not being able to sleep at night sucked rocks.

That’s a great first start. No focus on having a place to BE that is more than half a gas tank away.

Understanding my environment: I live in Florida, so it's plus 80 most of the year, which means you need to know how to dress, your physical conditioning, food, and how to function. The odds of freezing to death are low, and the odds of heat exhaustion are very high; understanding how much water you need to consume to function and how long you can function is enormous. Everyone is different in their physical tolerances.

- I agree 100% with the having a little AC unit for summer power outage. In south Texas summer can be brutal and a little AC feels like heaven.

-My worst experience was in the middle of the night about 30 minutes after going to bed the house alarm went off.  I wish I could say I sprang out of bed in my Rambo pajamas, put on my night vision, bullet proof vest and silenced MP5 and within 5 seconds flat was ready for anything.

What I learned:
1.) It takes a moment for the brain to comprehend an alarm is going off and believe it.   I spent at least 10-15 seconds just waking up and realizing ....'shit that's MY alarm!   Learned:  have alarm siren in a location where it will wake you up - not just the neighbors.   You will lose time getting up and oriented.

2.) Springing from my bed in my underwear, my pistol was across the room in my dresser ready for tomorrow morning's concealed carry but not a real emergency now. In the dark, alarm going off, staggering across my bedroom it felt like it took an hour to get the pistol in hand.   Learned: keep pistol within arm's reach of bed.  Also learned: If you can't see well without glasses during the day, you will not suddenly develop 20/20 vision at night under stress.  Have your glasses right by your gun ready to go!  Also, you won't suddenly have night vision and the bad guy won't wait for you to rummage through the kitchen draw looking for your flashlight.  Have it right by the bed within arm's reach (better yet, have a weapon light).

In summary, I learned everything you will need for a real emergency should be within arm's reach of your sleeping position.   Don't forget your glasses!  Time is not on your side, and you will need to wake up and get oriented to be safe and effective.   Plan for ways to buy time for getting ready inside your home once someone has breached the perimeter and set off the alarm.   If it is a home invasion style attack, they could be on you quickly and every second might count.

BTW: False alarm, no threat was present - thank god!

Honestly, just learning to focus on the most likely things to actually happen and stop worrying about the most recent fear of the day. Health/Medical, financial, natural disasters and their secondary effects are about all I give serious looks at these days.

Just focusing on those things and not so much the next Red Dawn, EMP, peak oil or whatever has put me in a much better and balanced position of preparations. I got lucky in TX'21 but it was mostly because natural disasters and power outages had been on radar for awhile. Was I 100% ready then? Nope, but i made it far better than anyone I knew. Am I even better ready now? Yup, absolutely.

+1

I also feel it's very important to prepare for the most likely events first, instead of an EMP that may never happen.  Getting you and yours in a position to easily handle an event that has hit your AO in the past should be first and foremost.  Probably common practice for those of us that frequent this forum but figured I would echo it again.  For me those actual emergencies would include extended power outage caused by a storm, washed out roads, snow/ ice storm, localized supply chain disruptions, but most of all financial strife, lack of financial planning, and prepping for retirement.  

Do I have a few cases of MRE and freeze-dried options sure, but I also have ways to procure potable water without going on an adventure or using fuel.

The newest pack or camping gear is fun but if you don't actually use it on occasion then the chances of needing more than a lifetime supply of packs is probably not necessary.  I have a whole bin full of packs that I don't really need.  A few good ones are enough.

Don't buy stuff without the intention of using it in your everyday life at some point.  I am guilty of this but have been doubling down the last few years and only procure/ buy things I have a need to actually use at some point in the near future.

An example of this would be basic everyday comfortable clothing that I actually use and has gone on sale enough to make it worthwhile to stack a few extra back.  I have some extras, it's a hedge against future inflation, and I will actually put another in rotation once I wear one out.    

Stay organized and know what you have.  If you don't know what you have you might as well not even have it.

Hey OtherDave, I looked for how I could and didn't see a thread on the cabin. I do remember your housefire threads and how terrible that was for you.

This is my camp. It's mostly hurricane preparedness. I will say that some of my preps have spilled over into other areas, and that's okay. I don't spend as much time and effort, but it's nice to have some small solar as tertiary power for end of days type stuff. But I gave up on Red Dawn a long time ago. That doesn't mean I can't defend me and mine, but I'm far more likely to face a hurricane then a russkie.

Glad it was a false alarm!!

I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many southerners in this thread. There have been a lot of outage threads where people have stated there's no need to power A/C. In my experience, by August and September, that's absolutely true, but also ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. If one isn't acclimated to the heat, you're just not sleeping at all when it's 90* and 68% at night. That's a heat index of 105*, at 22:00. So yes, I'm sure we can all agree that trying to run a 3 ton Heat Pump will use way more gas than most people want to store, I also think it's worth consideration to plan for an extra 500 to 1,000 watts for at least a window unit. I've done the math and have enough fuel for 3 days of full blown A/C followed by a week of Window Unit. Extravagant maybe, but people on here spend a whole lot more on things I would say the same too.

A somewhat general reply from more than one incident. Trust your instincts. If the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up for no clear reason, there is one you are picking up on at some level. My wife thinks I’m a little crazy at times when I say things like “let’s find another place to park “. I’m convinced there is something in our DNA from long ago that alerts us…if we are listening. I’m working on getting my 16 year old to pay attention to that.

I just spent 10 minutes trying to find it buy guessing on what the title was, apparently you can’t search the archives by username as they strip poster’s names now-probably because of the doxxing that was happening.

It's a small thing, but I learned the value of headlamps.
The latest, brightest tactical flashlight is useless when you need two hands to do (most) things.

Neither borrower nor lender be.  Period.

Along these lines, I took a few extra steps;

1) harden the house against forced entry. Nothing is 100% impregnable, unless you live in a .gov nuclear bunker, but delaying entry either makes scumbags look for easier targets, or gives me more reaction time. Door jamb reinforcement + door club (both are $2x.xx at Home Depot). Window security film. Exterior motion sensing floodlights.

2) knowing about the disorientation from being rudely awakened, I was curious as to just how quickly I could come to my senses, and grab my gear.

The gear:
- Tavor SAR with a T2 and WML (and DBAL), in a Hornady AR Gunlocker under the bed

- plate carrier with 3 mags. The plate carrier has soft iiia in the cummerbund, and the cummerbund attaches with Fastex buckles. I keep the strong side buckle unfastened, so I can literally throw it over my head, slipping the weak side arm through the hole, and even without fastening the strong side buckle, it stays pretty secure, but fastening the buckle only takes another couple seconds

- Gold Ears Predator Pro muffs on the bedside table. Several factors that made me choose this particular set. They turn on via the Volume knob, so I can throw them on after the PC, and just crank the knobs all the way, to turn them On, AND to the maximum volume, that amplifies soft sounds to better than regular hearing (vs my Comtacs that require pressing a button to turn on, and pressing and holding the button to adjust volume. The GEPP is much faster).


To see how fast I could awaken enough to comprehend a potential threat/issue, and be ready, I told the SO, “At some point on a random night this week, when you can hear from my breathing that I’m fast asleep, shake me hard and yell DRILL! DRILL! DRILL! I want to see how quickly I can wake and respond if I need to”.

Took less than 5 seconds to waken and comprehend, and just over 20 seconds from waking, to roll out of bed, grab the SAR from the Gunlocker (I put the wristband on before going to bed), toss the PC over my head, don the muffs and crank the knobs to maximum. (*** falling back asleep was another story, even though I knew ahead of time, that this was just a drill).

20 seconds is at the same time impressively fast, and a lifetime.

Yeah, which is why the hardening part is an important part of the equation: provide more response time.

I learned that I have worked long enough to come to hate what the modern workplace has become.

It's being remedied in a couple of months.

Thanks for the effort and the thoughts you put down in here!

I wish someone would have told me to take better care of my body when I was younger.... maybe they did and I didn't listen...

Hit some black ice in 2007 while driving through the Yukon at night.  Slid down an embankment through 2 feet of snow barely missing some trees.

I did a quick assessment and understood I was proper fucked.  

Quarter tank of gas.  No tools to dig me out.  A pair of non-winter boots and a couple pair of socks.  No radio.  Out of cell phone service range for my carrier.

Several hours later I finished using the remnants of a plastic tote to dig a path through the snow.  My feet were wet and frozen.  I kept warming them up with the heater.  Eventually got back up the embankment and onto the road after sliding back down sooooo many times.  Not a single car passed in that time.  

Drove real slow up to the next town and found a room.  Got gas the next morning with like 16th of a tank.


Nowadays...

Things are way different.  Truckbox is full of useful emergency items.  Vehicle has a 5 gallon gas can and the tank never goes below 1/3.

I have got stuck but never that stuck.  More so now than ever I think folks always think help is a phone call away, and while it usually is it only takes once.

I grew up in a small town with no gas station, and no cell service.  I took solo snowmobile rides often.  When riding solo I always turned around when I got to a point where walking home would get questionable.

THIS!

18Z50

Discussed this in the bags thread.

Prioritized an “oh shit bag” over your traditional “survival bug out bag”.

know a lot of people who like to be prepared that have a bob, but no actual local evac bag.

If my house burns down, there’s a chemical leak, or I otherwise have to evacuate my home, a tarp, snare wire, three fire starting methods,fishing gear 100 feet of paracord, a rifle, ammo, camo netting aren’t going to do me a lot of good when I’m trying to start my truck and drive my family to a hotel room in my underwear at 2am.

There’s still a place for a BOB, but at the end of the day, a local emergency in the middle of the night is more likely.

This. Like many here, I have a bunch of guns in various states of "set up" maybe optics but not a hard zero, no sling, empty mags randomly in bags, etc. I had one "house gun" with a dot and light ready to go.

then I had an active shooter in my front yard. I realized how quickly you may need to go from having a drink on the couch to geared up and shooting back. Turns out it can be about 10 seconds.

Thankfully my stuff was squared away but I was sitting there with my rattler wishing my can had cleared cause it's a loud little bastard....

This 100%.  I would even go a step further and say if you already live in a mostly rural well-equipped home/ place that well equipped 72hr go bag is probably the most important/ practical prep even for a bug out.

Living on my own acreage, in a pretty rural area I can't Invision any last-minute event SHT/ TEOTWAWKI type event that would have me walking away with camping gear.  Any bad situation that has me leaving, has me leaving in a hurry, headed for a hotel, or go help a family member in an emergency.  Whatever bag I grab or bring needs to be small, light, and allow me to go.  If I have time to hike away with a 50 pound or more frame pack, then why would I leave?  Or not pack for the specific situation at hand?  Everything I need for short term or long-term events at home.  If I am forced to or have to leave its because its life and death and not the time to be carrying fishing gear and a tent.  

Specific go bags for a true and realistic emergency in my eyes is the most likely thing to help me when I have to get out.  Keeping your gear organized and knowing where everything is, can't be overlooked.  

That. If they aren’t someone who would 100% come help you out on a moments notice with a broke down car a couple of hours away, they are just a buddy/acquaintance.

In my house fire AAR thread, there have been two more members here since that have had fires and one specifically mentions being glad he had a go bag ready.

It’s an easy thing to do if you arena hobby shooter to end up with a bunch of half set up guns.. everyone here is probably guilty of that.

I have dedicated working guns though, and it was a lesson learned to not have any open emitter red dots on working guns for me-the inside lens and emitter tunnel both froze over and completely bricked my Trijicon SRO and it stayed that way with t-shirt wiping etc until I got it inside and let it that. Any open emitter sight would have done it.

Agreed.

I've got some of the "world is ending" gear, but most of what I keep readily available is practical stuff for really common things that can (and do) happen to me that make things take a turn for the worse.

Warmth, self recovery, and avoiding compounding issues takes a huge precedence over long term sustainability stuff like living for 10 years off the fish I catch. Plus, I suck at fishing.....so thats out anyway.

I am frequently in "kinda bad" situations (almost all non-violent, all are in the US). Things like driving in a blizzard at 2 am, entering an area with no electricity, being stuck in a vehicle for a few days, etc. If I get into a bind, help is always going to be on the way. It may take 4 hours or 4 days, but someone will be looking for me....and it will be much quicker if I can alert them to my problems. I need to keep myself alive during the meantime, and thats what I gear my stuff towards.