Posted on 10/24/2009 6:59:56 PM PDT by Bean Counter
We have had a number of open discussions here at FR for quite some time about the importance of personal emergency preparedness. Many of us have taken an interest in this subject for a long time, and have been working steadfastly toward being prepared for a real emergency, and this evening I thought I would share my progress on one phase of our plan, food.
Anyone who knows anything about preparedness will tell you that the first thing you should do is make a plan that fits your personal needs. A bachelor has much different survival needs than a family of seven. Our personal plan is to prepare to support 4 adults in place for a year. We don't have kids in the family right now, so we have not set aside any children's needs, but your plan may well have a considerable bit.
To date we have spent about $3000 over the course of the past year in stocking our emergency pantry. Much of that money went toward purchase of proper storage containers. Essentially, we ended up with three sizes of food grade white plastic food containers:
6 1/2 Gallons (fits 50 pounds of flour if you pack it)
4 Gallon (fits a 25 pound bag of beans perfectly)
5 Gallon Buckets(a late addition, but good for many things).
We also can a lot of our own vegetables and fruit. I have a whole cupboard of homemade jam, jelly and flavored mustards that don't appear on this list but would last us for years...
All bulk dry goods are stored in these plastic containers, along with a couple of commercial grade oxygen absorber packets. These are widely available and are very inexpensive. I bought 100 for $20. When you put them in a bucket that has beans in it (for example) then seal the top (all of our buckets have "O" ring seals) the absorber draws in all of the oxygen in that contained atmosphere, which leaves mainly nitrogen inside. Nothing we know of can live in a Nitrogen atmosphere, so even if you have a live insect in there someplace, it will not last for long.
Again, this list just covers our food preparations. We have also made arrangements for our medical needs, sanitation, water supply, personal protection, etc.
We have made many improvements to our home over the last 12 years including upgrading and replacing all of the windows and doors, upgrading the insulation in the attic, replacing and upgrading the insulation under the house, new duct work and a modern zoned forced air heating and air conditioning system. As you can see, this is an ongoing effort that has been years in the making.
We also installed a modern 78% efficient woodstove that allows us to heat the house with the heat pump turned off at the breaker. We use the forced air system to circulate the woodstove's heat and keep the house warm all winter for a fraction of the cost of using the heat pump. If we lost power, we would stay nice and warm, and we can cook on the stove to boot.
What follows is my inventory for our "extended pantry". We have our normal household inventory as well that does not appear on this list. The process continues, and there are other additions to come that are not listed here, and I have a perpetual list of things to add that I put up as cash becomes available.
Have a look and let's talk...
I’ve read that the two most important items during Katrina were water and plastic bags.
I can understand the water part, and plastic bags are useful, but I can’t see why they were so important...
36 rolls Toilet paper??? Definitely not enough. Treat it like Gold.
You’d better havs some firearms and ammo ‘cause when your UNprepared neighbors find out about all that food, you may need them.
Don’t forget the canned Ham :)
Then there is the matter of items not on your list.
- You store everything indoors. What happens if your house burns down or is looted?
- If you are having to supply your own food, I think it reasonable to say there is no generally available electricity. How will you power the fan that blows hot air generated by your woodstove?
- Water is good. Water is important. How will you obtain water? How will you store it? How will you make it potable?
- While your neighbors are suffering and starving, how do you intend to prepare your food and keep them from smelling it and inviting themselves to dinner?
- Some of your quantities make little sense. What in the world do you propose doing with 50 butane lighters over the course of a year? This is but one of many issues I have with the quantities you have selected for some of your items.
You make want to hook up with a local Mormon group. They have a lot of experience in matters of preparadness and can give you a lot of help.
www.BePrepared.com has them.
Fido can eat the elderly neighbors next door.
They wouldn’t last long anyway.
baking soda and creme of tartar make baking powder. Good to have those on hand as well.
What, no peanut butter?
Some survivalist you are...
Yeah?
Do you bank at bank of america?
citicorp? Indymac? lehman bros? Bear stearns?, goldman sachs? merril lynch? morgan stanley? jp morgan chase? AIG? washington mutual?
Most people don't have duffle bags. A contractor grade plastic bag can serve the same purpose. When I go canoing, I seal my wallet inside a ziplock bag and put it in my pocket.
After a storm like that there is debris everywhere - you need the bags to clean it up. I have about 40 trees on my property, lost 3 in the storm, plus about 50 large bags of tree leaves and branches had to be picked up.
didn’t think I needed a /sarc tag, guess I was wrong.
Exactly. We had the generators but could not get the gas. In Houston the refinery is across town but with no electricity the pumps would not work. Found one station with electric and a young guy was pumping gas at about one cent per 5 second but the meter was running backwards. He was laughing telling everyone “look at me I am getting FREE gas”. After sitting watching him for 5 min (the other pumps were working fine) I walked up to him and said with a smile... maybe the pump is sucking the gas out of your tank. You should have seen the guys face as he quickly turned off the pump. Kodak moment for sure.
Good point but Murphy is always present. Even with a mylar bag, during the brief period you have it open to get a scoop, a pregnant and "in labor" insect can get inside. The diatomaceous earth helps mitigate insect risk.
Plan for a certain loss rate and rotate perishables through the storage.
Good recommendation to Bean Counter.
Thanks for the link.
You left out some things very very important.
vaseline
Bleach
medicine
soap
basic first aid
lotions, ointments, powders
eye wash/saline
everclear...gallons and gallons of everclear.
everclear is a fuel, a sanitizer, and good for getting drunk. Also, if you get overheated in hot weather with no electricity, splash some everclear on your head, face, neck and chest and it will cool you off very fast. be careful of open flames though.
double up on your toilet paper.
you need a hundred pounds of rice, minimum.
Powdered eggs, veterinary antibiotics, medical supplies, a dozen rolls of duct tape, 2 mil plastic sheeting, etc etc
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