I'm looking at some properties out in the Terlingua to Fort Davis areas. I know Terlingua can get a lot of flash flooding so I want to check the properties first. My county keeps a good one but I haven't been able to find one for out there. The FEMA map says "No Digital Data Available"
I'm looking at some properties out in the Terlingua to Fort Davis areas. I know Terlingua can get a lot of flash flooding so I want to check the properties first. My county keeps a good one but I haven't been able to find one for out there.
A new Amazon data center is set to become the single largest source of environmental pollution in the U.S., according to a New York Times report on August 8. The tech giant — which already operates the most data centers worldwide — is reportedly building a natural gas power plant in Pecos County, Texas, to power its new data center at the same site. According to project permits, the plant would generate up to 7.65 gigawatts of power using 35 natural gas turbines. The new plant — which burns natural gas to generate electricity — has been authorized to release 33 million tons of CO₂ annually, more planet-warming gases than any other power plant in the country, says the NY Times report.
Conversely, Amazon had pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across all its global business operations by 2040. The company made the promise in 2019 when it initiated and co-founded The Climate Pledge — a voluntary coalition of over 700 companies and partners — aimed at addressing its own corporate footprint and rallying global supply chains. However, the company has seen its emissions rise each year for the past several years, something analysts attribute to a spike in data centers to support the AI boom. The company is currently building several additional AI data centers globally, including the one that the new gas plant would power in Texas.
Amazon has acknowledged the impact of its intense AI ambitions on its earlier climate pledges but insisted the company remained committed to them, despite obvious struggles. “The world looks different now than when we co-founded the climate pledge,” said Margaret Callahan, an Amazon spokeswoman. Still, “our commitment hasn’t changed,” she said, echoing similar statements by Microsoft, which is struggling to fulfill its 2030 sustainability promise amid carbon-heavy AI expansion, but insists it remains committed to it.
As detailed in our data center power roadmap, an increasing number of hyperscalers and data center operators are switching from grid connections to dedicated on-site power generation. The “behind-the-meter” moves are being triggered mainly by the long timelines required to set up new power infrastructure to connect new power-hungry data centers to the grid, but also by growing anti-data center sentiments over irreversible hikes in the electricity bills of nearby communities.
While many companies are also pursuing nuclear and renewable energy options — examples being Microsoft’s Three Mile Island nuclear deal and Meta’s agreement to secure up to 1GW of orbital solar energy capacity — gas appears to be the leading preference due to its scalability and speed of availability. The Trump administration has thrown its weight behind such projects for data centers, promoting oil, natural gas, and coal over renewable energy sources.
This month is about meals that use very little water to cook, clean up, or rehydrate. What are your favorite low-water recipes for emergencies, drought, boil notices, or just stretching resources? Share practical meals, pantry foods, and cleanup-light ideas that help conserve water without making food feel like a punishment.
Everything feels one spark away from a problem. What are you doing for defensible space right now? Do you have a real go-bag, or just the idea of one? How are you handling smoke inside the house?
What’s your plan for water when it gets tight, and what are you doing differently this year for pets or livestock?
Seasonal availability varies by region. The U.S. has 13 distinct growing zones. August is peak late-summer “preserve it now” season.
Blueberries - One of the best August preserve-now fruits. Excellent frozen, canned, or dehydrated.
Cucumbers - Still prime pickle material. Not a keeper, but very worth buying in bulk if you want dill pickles, bread-and-butter pickles, or quick refrigerator pickles.
Garlic - Fresh garlic is around, and cured garlic stores better than most summer produce. Also worth drying if you want to turn a good buy into something shelf-stable.
Green beans - Still one of the most practical August stock-up foods. Excellent for blanch-and-freeze, and plain beans need pressure canning if you want them shelf-stable.
Okra - Peak late-summer food in a lot of places. Good pickled, frozen, or dehydrated for soups and stews.
Peaches - Still one of the stars of late summer. Very worth canning, freezing, or drying while the quality is high.
Pears - Early pears start becoming worth watching in August. Good canned, dehydrated, or turned into preserves.
Peppers - One of the best August bulk buys. Useful frozen, dehydrated, pickled, fermented, or pressure canned, especially if you cook a lot.
Plums - A very good late-summer preserving fruit. Good for jam, dehydrating, or canning.
Sweet corn - Best treated as a process-it-now food, not a storage food. Very worth freezing, and plain corn is a pressure-canning project.
Tomatoes - August is peak “do something with all of these right now” season. Good for sauce, salsa, canning, drying, or freezing, but for canning they need tested acidification steps.
Zucchini / summer squash - Still not a keeper, but useful frozen and good for relish or pickle-style preserving. Better treated as a freezer or pickle project than a pantry-canning project.
Notes:
August is less about pretty produce and more about volume. This is the month for sauce pots, pickle jars, dehydrator trays, and realizing you suddenly have way too many peppers and tomatoes. It is also the point where a few early fall items start creeping in, so August can be a nice bridge month between summer preserving and longer-storage autumn produce.
What’s on your August stock-up list this year? Are you focusing on tomatoes and sauce, pickles, pepper prep, freezer corn, or late-summer fruit?
My account just got a warning because I suggested adding a packet of Koolaid to a jar of pickles and Reddit took that as a threat of violence? lol I swear it's a real thing in the south! The sweet and salty together is fantastic on these 100 degree days.
Hey everyone! I’m u/OneLastPrep, a founding moderator of r/TwoXPrepper.
This is an AFAB-centered preparedness community for sharing practical knowledge, making realistic plans, building useful skills, and helping each other feel more capable in uncertain situations.
That includes women, trans men, and AFAB nonbinary people. People outside the AFAB community are welcome to participate respectfully, but this space is centered on AFAB experiences and concerns. Trans women are warmly welcome in our sister community, r/FemalePrepping.
r/TwoXPrepper was created after r/TwoXPreppers was identified by neutral 3rd party bot-hunting communities as having inactive moderation and increasing problems with bots, spam, and bad-faith participation.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BotPosting/comments/1upnb0c/rtwoxpreppers_only_mod_activity_are_weekly/
https://www.reddit.com/r/BotPosting/comments/1tyqpu2/list_of_subs_run_by_bots_work_in_progress/
The only moderator who appears to be even somewhat active refuses offers of help, and moderators who previously tried to assist have left after difficult and hostile experiences working with her. Since meaningful moderation support does not appear likely, we created a new, actively moderated space
We are not here to feud with another subreddit or tell anyone where they should participate. We simply want to build a responsive, well-moderated preparedness community that is not overrun by bots, fear-mongering, misinformation, or political outrage.
Share anything practical, helpful, or thought-provoking related to preparedness, including:
Newbies are welcome. You do not need a bunker, an arsenal, or six years of freeze-dried food to belong here.
We want this community to be calm, practical, supportive, and grounded.
Ask questions. Challenge ideas. Share another perspective. Disagreement is welcome, but insults, fear-mongering, conspiracy spirals, and treating people like they are stupid are not.
We are here to help each other prepare, not panic.
Introduce yourself in the comments. You can share as much or as little as you are comfortable with, such as what brought you here, what you are preparing for, or one skill you would like to learn.
Then make a post. Even a simple question can start a useful conversation.
Please read the community rules before participating, especially our rules about privacy, misinformation, politics-first posts, self-promotion, and AI-generated content.
Interested in helping build the community? We will add moderators as the subreddit grows, so feel free to reach out.
Thanks for being part of the first wave. Let’s build something useful together.
I'm spittin mad yall. I clicked on the link and they do still have them in stock, they're just selling for $100 more. I would have bought a different one if I knew they were going to bait and switch this one.
This is when the grid starts sweating. One bad week and you’re dealing with outages, spoiled food, and no AC. What’s your plan when the power drops? How are you handling freezer triage, food safety, and keeping things charged?
What’s actually worth it for backups, and what turned out to be a waste?
That said, I did cave and buy an Anker power station as a backup even though their solar panels get terrible reviews. Feel free to mock me.
That said, I did buy an Anker power station as a backup, but their solar panels get terrible reviews.
Heat, outages, and water issues stack fast. How are you staying cool if the power drops? What’s your water setup right now? Are you doing anything for electrolytes, shade, or pets that actually holds up in real heat?
What’s worked for you, and what failed when it mattered?
Our CERT training recommended an app called what3words. I thought it was dumb. We already have latitude and longitude. That’s universal. Why would I need three random words that mean nothing to anyone without the app?
Fast forward to last night.
We were driving down the highway last night when the worst of the storm hit. Hail knocked out my windshield wipers, and visibility went to zero instantly. I hit my hazards and tried to get to the shoulder, but we ended up in the median. You do not know fear until you're facing oncoming lights with your kids in the car.
We were sitting in standing water, I couldn’t tell if the tires were flat, and there were no crossroads nearby. So I called the police and gave them our what3words location.
To my surprise, they had it. They dispatched an officer, he checked on us, then let me follow his lights to the QT so we could get off the road and get a ride home.
G-d keeps us humble. I am very glad we listened and downloaded that stupid app.
Our CERT training recommended an app called what3words. I thought it was dumb. We already have latitude and longitude. That’s universal. Why would I need three random words that mean nothing to anyone without the app?
Fast forward to last night.
We were driving down 195 when the worst of the storm hit. Hail knocked out my windshield wipers, and visibility went to zero instantly. I hit my hazards and tried to get to the shoulder, but we ended up in the median. You do not know fear until you're facing oncoming lights with your kids in the car.
We were sitting in standing water, I couldn’t tell if the tires were flat, and there were no crossroads nearby. So I called the police and gave them our what3words location.
To my surprise, they had it. Wilco Sheriff came out, he checked on us, then let me follow his lights to the QT so we could get off the road and get a ride home.
G-d keeps us humble. I am very glad we listened and downloaded that stupid app.
We lost power for a few hours in the storm night before last. Suddenly power station prices have skyrocketed.
Once the first named storm pops up, shelves get wiped and gas lines get ugly. What are you stocking early this year? Fuel plan, generator check, shutters, pet logistics, evacuation timing.
What do you handle now so you’re not scrambling later? And what did you learn the hard way last time?
