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...
A good option for a small amount of electricity is a car battery and a power inverter.
I said screw the ins company. I bought them out of pocket. Did use my HSA money, which mitigated the cost some.
Most people don't realize that you can fill an entire prescription at one time. It's not a legal issue.
Flour loses it’s nutrition within 48-72 hours. Buy the wheat -whole, red, white,winter, hard, doesn’t matter really, , and a hand crank grinder. You can also cook the wheat whole and eat it like cereal, ‘grapenuts’ style.
I dehydrate food. Takes up much less space, stores longer, doesn’t lose nutrition. No jars/cans to lug around if needed to leave. Store in vacuum sealed bags. Wrap in saran wrap, store in mylar bags too for extra protection. Good for years.
Dehydrate2store ,on youtube, has EXCELLENT video’s. She also has a website dehydrate2store.com
But I store for long term storage, as well, 10-20 years. And for short term, dehydrated food I keep in a a canning jar. Fill with dehydrated food, pop in a oxygen absorber, it will suck seal the lid...
You can buy seed, fruit and vegetable already sealed good for up to 20 years. You might want to add seeds to your stash.
You can order Eggs, too, yes they are made and sealed, good for years.
I have ordered from frontiersurvival.com
Some prices better here than others, some not. Same price on shipping and handling no matter how much you order!
Might consider a hand crank/solar radio/flashlight, cheap in stores..
Rechargeable outdoor lights, like you see along sidewalks, make great replacements for candles, when the elec. goes out, safer than candles and no kerosene required.
One last thought. I tried an experiment this summer in my garden, I had read about. Take beans out of your cupboard. Yep whatever kind of beans you have in there and plant them. Yep, they grew. Who knew? Let grow til they turn brown/yellow and the pod splits. Presto, dried beans. Pain shelling them out, but in dire times....
Sounds like something that accelerates dehydration?
In Florida an obvious choice for water storage is rain barrels. Properly configured you can collect rain water and keep it for the garden or use if in an emergency.
Down in the keys they use cisterns where the gutters all drain into it.
ready ping
Yeah, but once you have that cushion in you can go back to buying on the 30 day cycle. So all you are really out is the cost of the cushion supply.
I spent about $1300, but that's chump change considering where I'd be with no heart meds. And I'm not going to let an insurance company dictate that.
huh? It evaporates faster than sweat, therefore it cools faster than sweating does. Pretty basic.
We’re not in Florida anymore (thank God). Florida has some obvious advantages weather wise in the event of certain kinds of disasters. But it is a pretty uncomfortable place to live without A/C. And I don’t miss the cockroaches.
Bookmark - Important thread!
While some will say this kind of discussion is “extreme,” or that those who engage in it are “tin foil hat” wearers, I think we would do good to consider as many contingencies as possible. We don’t know what the future holds, but disasters (natural or manmade) are not uncommon — and the Government we have right now is a disaster waiting to happen.
I’d rather be OVER prepared than NOT prepared at all...
Alcohol evaporating will transport water with it. Water that your body has already sweated is basically lost from your body. I'm not an MD. My question involves water not yet sweated. Will alcohol in contact with the skin accelerate dehydration by pulling out water not yet released through sweat?
for later
Can I use it to kill lice provided I stay away from open flame.
Don’t some states have laws against harvesting rainwater? I mean, it seems easy enough to just do it anyway, but still...
Yes I thnk Colorado has laws about ‘harvesting’ rain water.
The county gives rain barrels away for free here. Limited number of course.
Can you post a source for the food-grade containers - sorry if I missed it -it’s a long thread now.
What do you do for water?
who the hell cares? this isn’t something you do to prevent heat stroke. It’s an emergency measure to quickly get your body temp down after you are already incurring damage. If an elderly person collapses in the noonday sun and there’s no ice and no AC, what are you going to do? splash some alcohol on their skin and save their life? or worry about the drying effects on their skin?
You can get them drunk. I don’t know about killing them. I think they used to use kerosene for that, didn’t they?
http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/ about the best water filters you can get.
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