Everything in my town, even next to a large city, is trucked in. If there is a stoppage, even for a short period, would bring about food riots in the area.
How is your area? Are you truly independent from the rest of the economy?
Utah Girl wrote this article on 9-15-2001.
This is simple COMMON SENSE.
Thanks for posting.
Utah Girl is one smart lady! :-)
Bump for later study
Don’t forget to also have a tinfoil hat handy.
None of us were Mormons, but my mother always had a supply of food around. And it was always good food, mostly home grown. They went through the depression and were never unprepared. I’m ready.
We just paid off our farm and there’s a small house with a heatalator, a 1 1/2 acre pond, a huge shop building with a wood burning stove, lots of standing timber, and its remote, on a gravel road that doesn’t go anywhere. We’ve been talking about doing this and this makes sense. I do want to know how long I can store food though.
Plan won't work without them.
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Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
Fishing tackle might come in handy.
Good stuff, especially in these difficult economic times. Thanks for posting. Ignore the “tinfoil” detractors. There are those who get it, those who are beginning to get it, and those who will never get it. No point in wasting your time on the last group.
Ping for later thanks
I don’t know about a year, but I do know from experience that the three day requirement is laughable.
I have at least three months supply. Water is something you really need lots of in an emergency situation. You need drinking water, but most of all you need water for sanitation, flushing the johns, washing, cleaning up. Trying to sort through a disaster is bad enough, but not being able to wash is really disheartening. We store our washing water in five gallon water jerrys. Water for the johns is in five gallon buckets of any type. Drinking, food prep and clean up is in storage containers of food grade quality.
Figure on five gallons per day per person.
I have a well so I’m lucky there. I just can use a generator to pump it, but even then you have to be sparing because if the power is out, gas stations don’t pump and you can wind up with a generator and no gasoline to power it.
You can also buy, online, a five gallon bucket with seat and lid, liner bags and sanitary gel to place inside the bags for about $50. Works well when sanitation is gone.
And a plain old rotary phone or just one that isn’t digital to plug in. Cell phones don’t work when the power is out. The cell towers are out too.
I have created a document in Word now, to use as our checklist.
Hubby and I create sales support videos for some of the products sold on QVC, and always thought it would have been a great idea to create a video showing people WHAT TO DO. The government (and I can understand why--libility issues, which was our concern, too) never told anyone WHAT to do beyond the duck tape suggestion and putting some lengthy instructions on a website--too much work for the spoiled, I'm busy America we now live in. The duck tape suggestion made a mockery of a very serious situation. It was sad how it was handled and Americans really need something instructional such a checklist, that's easy and well laid out, to follow. This looks very promising at first glance.
THANKS AGAIN FOR POSTING THIS!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2133221/posts
We keep propane tanks. Very versitile energy source.
We could even use buckets of that rain water to flush our toilets.
I give this as one example of how you can use your common sense and a little thought to take care of yourself.
Up until ten years ago, I was a vulnerable as most Americans. I decided to change that.
Water is first on the list of our requirements to sustain life. We also have a hand-pumped well as a back-up should community water be suddenly cut off.
Most of the people in this country would die within a short time if all supplies they receive daily were cut off.
Sadly, those who are prepared may be placed into a position they will have to fight to defend their self-sufficiency against the hordes who are not prepared and become desperate.
What about the Parmalat Milk, is that good to stock up on? I have cans of: Soup, Tuna, Beans and the shelf staples: Flour, Sugar-*(when it is on sale at $1.99 - it is considered a good deal in New York)*, butter-*(I freeze)*, Jars of Instant Coffee, Oatmeal and Pretzels for my Toddler. If I left anything out food or medical, please advise as I will note it down. We are a family of three, so is really worth it to invest in a club card: Costco or B.J.’s?/Just Asking - seoul62........
Thanks for reposting. Another tip: don’t store flour on a cement floor. It will absorb moisture and make it unusable. Put it on a shelf or on a wood pallet.
I noticed in the town I shop in when fuel was really high the grocery store was running out of things- many empty shelves. I think they cut down on their frequency of orders to save the high shipping cost. Seeing how fast they ran out of basic things was an eye opener though. Everything now is based on “just in time” so I bet grocery stores would be wiped out in just a couple days if anything caused the trucks to stop coming.
I live way out in the boonies and in the back of my mind I thought- well no terrorist or other country is going to attack here- it will be the big cities they hit. Problem is a lot of our food and all other supplies come from those cities. If something bad happens in the cities it will effect everyone no matter where you live.
I keep a pretty well stocked panty, but have been adding to it since I realized it wouldn’t take much to clean out the grocery stores.
Don’t forget to stock up on medical supplies both over the counter and any prescriptions or supplies you can’t do without.
If you live in an urban area, keep in mind supermarkets have no more than 5 days food supply on hand. Urban areas are magnets for looters, microbes and maggots looking for a carcass. You will never be able to defend your stocks in such an environment. If you don’t believe me, see the videos following the New Orleans calamity. AS they say, head for the hills with all due haste and if you ain’t armed be prepared to give up your supplies at the muzzle of a gun.
Excellent. Bookmarked for easy access.
This is mostly for a power outage but it has other benefits year round.
A freezer will run on very little elec power if it is always full. As space in your freezer becomes available with removing food, fill that in with plastic jugs or bottles of clean water.
The freezer gets full in the fall/winter with garden produce/fruit and meat from butchering/hunting, but most tend to get low by spring/summer.
If your power goes out you will need both water to drink/wash, but you will need ice to keep the food in your fridge cold in coolers until it comes back on.
Those water jugs are now ice and will cover both needs.
You can let some thaw to drink/wash and the block/jug will keep your food in good shape.
Always remove the food from the fridge and put it in chest coolers, or even heavy cardboard boxes covered with a heavy layer of newspapers.
You can open them to get something out without all the cold falling out like it does with an upright fridge. ( this is why a chest freezer will run much cheaper than an upright)
As a bonus those jugs of ice and coolers work great for chilling early fall venison and a large catch of fish you may want to clean and store the next day.
Large blocks ( gal jugs) of ice will stay frozen far longer than the same amount of cube ice you might buy at the store.
Anyone that lives in a northern state, and lots of ambition, could even build a small ice house and freeze the clean jugs outside in winter and bury them in sawdust and always have ice year round without any elec power at all.
It takes lots of sawdust but you can get it free at many sawmills.
If possible build it of block( dirt floor, with deep hole for about 5-6 feet of sawdust in back) into a hillside with only the front exposed. It can double as a root cellar for your garden crops.