New Member From Ohio by way of Calif

[HumBucker]

Howdy folks! I am an old fart retired trucker and radio hobbyist from LA area now living in Ohio. Decided to look for a good Prepper Forum to learn as much as I can about new products and practices. I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to being prepared as I have lived in LA and endured earthquakes, also 20+ years in Florida living with hurricanes, and now dodging tornadoes in the Midwest. I have lived and worked on this country's interstates and backroads for over 20 years and have been to every state in the lower 48 (not AK or HI unfortunately). I am mainly interested in learning more about organic gardening, food and water storage techniques, emergency communications and self-defense. I can offer my advice and perspective on communications monitoring and my hands on experiences with several natural disasters. I hope this is a good forum for info sharing and I hope to contribute as much as I can - thanks


HB

[Denton]

Welcome from Alabama. I drove for a few years until I fell off the top of a load, head first. Woke up in the back of an ambulance, telling them to turn off the lights and siren and obey the speed limit as I don't want to die in the back of a crashed ambulance.
That ended my driving days.

[rice paddy daddy]

Welcome HB.
Lifelong Floridian here, and got out of trucking in 1989 when the CDL's came out. Went into the warehouse then, and retired as a manager of one.

[Gunn]

Welcome from Jefferson.

[Sasquatch]

Welcome former neighbor by way of Orange County CA.

[mastermclaster]

Welcome from Cali, glad to see you join this community!

[Slippy]

Welcome @HumBucker

You mentioned you are interested in "organic gardening"? My advice is not to get too carried away with the word "organic". When the Federal Government got involved in Agriculture they in my opinion ruined true Organic Gardening. Then in 1990 they passed some lame ass law called the Organic Foods Production Act. Nonsense.

We concentrate on using natural methods of non GMO heirloom seed production (primarily but other hybrids work well too). You may hear people talk about not using certain fertilizers, but aren't fertilizers compounds of chemistry? Like it or not, Miracle Gro works! So we use it and find that many of our vegetable are more healthy and better tasting. Sure its costly and you can find cheaper fertilizers or attempt to develop your own mix but for us its worth the money.

Pesticides are another issue and we struggle to blend safe and natural methods with safe and synthetic methods for our natural garden. There are other areas of so called "organic gardening" that frankly is a zero sum net gain. For example; I'm not going to plant and maintain other plants to act as deterrent to Japanese Beetles when I can buy an off the rack solution that works much better and is more efficient.

But at the end of the season, we want fresh, good tasting and healthy fruits and vegetables. Thats our goal, not adhering to some nonsense that a former dumbass hippy from the 60's who got into government and tried to impose their socilaist nonsense on me, says!

Some websites that I use regularly but note there are some things in each of these links that I call BullShat on and don't use ;


https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/
https://www.burpee.com/gardenadvicec...icle10001.html
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/hom...g-tips-460309/

[Marica]

Welcome from Mississippi! Lived for nine years in Cincinnati. If you are interested, Ohio has a very active gun culture. I'd recommend checking out Ohioans for Concealed Carry https://ohioccw.org/
and especially the forums https://ohioccwforums.org/

Could not agree more with Slippy. I advocate for "practically organic" in both senses of the word. There are just some pests that cannot be controlled with purely organic methods. Squash borers-- a real problem in Ohio-- come to mind. These are moths that lay eggs at the very base of the plant. When the eggs hatch, they bore into the main stem and make their way to the xylem tissue. This is the tissue that carries water. They destroy this tissue as they bore along. So one day your squash look perfect, the next they are wilted but no amount of water will do any good. And the next day they're about dead.

The "organic" methods are 1) put stockings (like women used to wear) around the stem which is a truly stupid idea but not as stupid as 2) using a sharp knife such as you would get from The Tourist (!) slit the stem and then with tweezers, pick out the larvae. The practical thing to do is to put Sevin dust on the base of the stem. Diatomaceous earth may work but once you've lost a whole crop of squash to squash borers, you'll be in no mood to be gentle!!

Good luck and Welcome again!

[Joe]

Welcome fellow Buckeye !

[bigwheel]

Howdy from DFW.