Posted on 07/22/2014 6:35:28 PM PDT by Kartographer
When Paul Revere’s alarm, “The Redcoats are coming!”, was sounded through the countryside centuries ago, it was made to people who were prepared to meet a challenge. Whether the coming challenge in our present day is one of economics or something else, will you be prepared to respond when the alarm is sounded? Here are some ideas you should consider as you get started in your preparations for whatever hard times might await:
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalblog.com ...
BFL
I opened a can of stew a while back. It was AT LEAST 7 years old.
A little bit of shrinkage, (water molecules are SMALL!!), but it tasted great!
Do a Google and read about the SS Bertrand.
Now, give me a cool basement, and I wouldn’t hesitate to try 20 year-old canned food - providing, of course, that the can wasn’t bulged out (none of mine are, by the way), and the contents smelled decent.
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Just a little FYI on this . . . I usually don’t worry about canned food if it’s slightly out of date, but twice lately I’ve had issues. One was a can of tuna that was six months past date. It looked fine so I made some tuna salad . . . that was inedible!!! It tasted like I’d ground up the can and mixed it in with the tuna! LOL! The other was a can of Progresso soup that was only a couple of months past date. Gave me major indigestion. Now, as things stand now, these were minor inconveniences. But if there was no doc available, I wouldn’t want to risk getting sick from weird canned food. So my lesson from this was to try to keep all my canned food stoes within date.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks!
I have being buying protein powder. It has a very long shelf life.
Another Fallout Fan!
I think that sense of unreality is being fostered by shows like "Doomsday Preppers".
Now, to escape unreality, imagine yourself without power for just three days.
Imagine (for whatever reason), food became scarce. Or the currency became worthless.
Whatever the case or cause, it boils down to a few basic things.
Food
Shelter
Clean water
The means to cook or procure those items for a while--or indefinitely.
Even a hurricane can produce such a situation in coastal areas, where it may be weeks or more before basic services are restored.
Our system, as robust as it seems, has many points of failure, which ensure supplies on hand will be small in the event of a problem.
That problem could be economic, political (war), natural (a large storm or other cataclysm), and localized or widespread, of short or long duration.
Can anyone be prepared for every possible scenario?
Honestly, no. Not unless they have incredible resources to draw on.
But you can be prepared for the basics, by sticking to the basics of food, shelter (including clothing), water, and the means to retain what you have and get more if you need to.
What scale, what duration, what severity of a problem you wish to be prepared for is up to the individual, and some will try to be ready for anything up to and including a large cosmic impact or 'supervolcano eruption' (either an E.L.E.), events which have been decidedly uncommon as far as we know.
Political unrest, warfare (declared or otherwise), storm events, are far more common around the world, and while not 'the big one', still are disruptive enough on a localized basis to be deadly. How far can you walk in a day? Not on sidewalks or a track, but over broken ground, carrying a couple of day's supplies? It might take more than a couple of days to get some place 'safe', and there might not be any help--there might even be people who want to take your supplies.
I think you have to weigh the odds, and plan accordingly. Maybe you get snowed in for a couple of days--will you be able to eat? Most people will.
Now, add the fact that the power is out. Will you be able to stay warm? Not so many can say yes.
Will you have water you can drink?
Will you have the means to stay clean? The possibilities are endless, and depending on how far you want to project a loss of economy as we know it, trade as we know it, or just a disruption of the conveniences and trimmings that make life more than huddling by the fire at night, you might decide to be prepared.
Not everyone is anticipating the next dinosaur killer asteroid or the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera.
Throw in a couple of boxes of crackers. That’s a good starter list.
wise guy,huh?
There’s one in every crowd.
Look in church, you are bound to find a lot more Ladies even in a small church than you will find in any bar on the planet.
Now you tell me. I found that to be true but almost messed up my kidneys and liver finding out.
Today its the Regulators are coming!
It seems that the Regulators were active in the wild west also.
My wife and I had that discussion the other nite. My response? I ain't worried about the "END". I'm worried about losing a job and being unemployed for 6 months to a year. I've been there before and had to take drastic measures (moving across country) before any thing changed. If I'm prepped with the basics to last through something like that, I'd be a lot happier and able to focus on getting re-employed.
Thanks. To be honest, I’m a little scared. I’m in great shape and physically strong for a woman, I have power tools and know how to use them, and I spent my childhood and young adulthood on a farm so I know about country life. Still, I’m a sixty-year-old lady moving to an area with which I’m unfamiliar in the VA countryside, with no friends or relatives to call on. I’ve lived in the same suburban town for a quarter of a century and it’s hard to say goodbye to familiarity. It will be interesting to see what God has in mind. Onward and upward!
Pilot Bread is for preppers, I’m looking for something for those that talking to is useless, if I could sell them on pilot bread, then I could talk them into buying powdered eggs and a water filter, etc, but that isn’t the situation.
I am of the thinking that if I can go to the store with them and afterward stack two cases of water in the closet, and then stack a small, neat box of common canned food of 4 or 5 varieties on top of that water, that they will come to like knowing they have that little package that needs no attention or rotation and can be forgotten about.
If they are like most of us when we read the news about shortages or emergencies, our minds go to our food stocks or lanterns and we get a good feeling of being prepared, I think that if I can sell them on my little nothing ice breaker package, that in time, their own mind will want to supplement it with things, once they adapt to seeing themselves as already having a food stock, then they will be more likely to think about batteries and candles, and perhaps freeze dried foods, or whatever.
Either way, at least they have some last ditch food and water sitting there.
As others have said, dehydrated foods are expensive so think of it as another form of food storage with it’s own pros and cons. The pro is it takes up less room than canned goods and may have a longer shelf life. Other than the higher cost, the cons are the serving sizes are too low on calories and the reconstituted amount may be smaller than advertized (see the proof on imstillworkin’s youtube on that). As for personal taste, purchase single cans from various companies and try them out on your family to see which they like or can’t stand before stocking up.
If a total breakdown of the system isn’t on your radar, then get into the reality of what might happen to your family within the next year. You might lose your job and have to eat down your food storage so what little money you have won’t be going out the door so quickly. Or there could be a natural disaster that knocks out power to your neighborhood for a few weeks. Or a bridge collaspes. Or a flood wipes out roads in the area. Or you’re sick and can’t make it to the store. Or the water supply is disrupted. Or you take in your cousin’s family because their house burned to the ground. Or there’s another Boston terrorist hunt that lasts for several days. Or civil unrest or a dozen other realistic scenarios that would keep your family closer to home.
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