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Posted on 04/18/2011 8:48:01 AM PDT by Kartographer
The laundry room of Tamara Huffman’s split-level here in the Shenandoah Valley is filling up with cheese powder and freeze-dried ham, at the ready should her husband, Brian, lose his job anytime in the next 25 years. She carves a little bit out of their already tight budget every month to buy some more.
This sort of stockpiling was once the purview of survivalists preparing for Armageddon. But Huffman’s fear isn’t the end of the world so much as the $5 basket of grape tomatoes she bypassed the other day at her local supermarket.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewstribune.com ...
I am stocked up but still adding more.
I have two storage 10x20 where I store stuff I don’t room for and a section in both that is strictly for prep. They are 50 miles apart, so I should be able to reach at least one if have to.
I am stocked for 3 months to support 4 people at my office.
At home I have somewhere between 9 months and a year worth of everything except TP, though we have plenty of that and cut shop towels into wipe sizes. Just need to setup a system for disposal and cleaning of them if that time comes but, I grew in the diaper age and know what to do.
Part of anyone’s prep should be bathroom gloves. Not those cheap yellow ones, though I admit I have about 30 pair, but the strudy blue ones that don’t rip and tear so easily.
I have 15 pair of those and about 100 green scrub pads, which I get Home Depot.
For sponges I buy the 10 pack at Home Depot and have 5 packs of those. Comes in handy when guests are coming and I don’t want them to see an overused sponge.
I just toss the used one and pull out a nice clean one before they come over.
Put the rice in one of those 5 gallon buckets with the sealable lids you can get at Home Depot. Put a pound of dry ice in. Let it sublimate away. Seal the container.
The CO2 kills the little nasties.
LOL!
They must be new at this.
I use bay leaves, usually a few in each container, and then re-use them until they are stale. I have only had bugs twice in ten years, and one of the times the rice was already old.
If people rotate, most grains and legumes will easily last three years that way.
And the 10# clubs that turn the brass and lead into projectiles. ;-)
We have been putting in 300 lb seed tatoes for the last 10 years, grow all the carrots & brocculli we need too.
We have always had 2-3 year supply of food due to cost of flying it in. When road isn't washed out and open, we haul truck loads in. I have to keep flour in freezer come summer, but have no problems with can goods lasting 5-6 years, except for fruit like peaches. Alot of our meat is what the land & river provides, but I usually haul in 50 hams and cases of bacon, ect every other year.
We got in the habit of ordering 15 cases of one item every month, whatever is on super sale at Fred Meyer, span ak, or Sams. Usually weighs about 200 lb and costs maybe 75 bucks for shipping, but if I get tuna for 59 cents/can rather than 2 bucks at our local store, I'm good, got 750 cans a few months back.
I have over 100 big tasters choice coffee containers in basement, doesn't go bad, things like that what will really go up in price. Last month I got 15 cases of pie filling, enough for 200 pies. The post office lady laughed, but when she's eatin salmon 24/7, I'll be livin off cherry pie, ha ha. I might have a thousand bucks in shipping of canned goods I bought on sale, but probably 300 cases in basement; and I feel safe that I ain't going to die of starvation anytime soon, ha ha.
Now kids are off at school, we don't use nearly as much. My biggest problem is that it will go bad in about 10 years.
I can see it now, We'll burn the wooden bridges 50 miles down the road to our town to keep the Fairbanks ghouls out. Then the Indians who spend every last penny they get from govt on booze will be begging me for food and I'll be feeding them all I have, cause they are good sharing people themselves whatever little they have. Then every last one of them Indians will be crying the blues about being forced to eat dang White Man's Food. ha ha
I just buy stuff in 25# bags, put in 4 or 5 gallon buckets right away and put bay leaves on the bottom, in the middle, and on the top, and snap the lid on. I keep the buckets in a cool place. I use masking tape to write the contents and date, and rotate. When I open a bucket to use, I scoop out into gallon or half gallon jars and re-fill as needed.
I rotate and am currently using rice, oatmeal, lentils etc from 2008 and they’re fine. As I mentioned above, only had bugs twice.
What you don’t want to do is store anything in original bags. Or bags at all.
I missed the part where they bashed the Mormons...
prepare bump
For short term emergencies (natural disaster, etc), get a few weeks worth of canned goods and a big water container (water will be your biggest need).
For long term, store your grains in sealed mylar bags in airtight containers.
I have full cupboards and my utility room is full. My next step is to start using my crawl space for storage.
Once rice sealed the rice is good indefinitely. Once open as long as you keep it dry and pest free it will be good for for well over a year if not longer.
STORAGE LIFE OF PARTICULAR FOODS
http://waltonfeed.com/blog/show/article_id/162
later read
later read
Not smart to advertise that information. The vultures who didn’t prepare will know where to land now.
Here’s something cool (Man I need to add this to my Preparedness Manual, oh well maybe the next update)
“The Alvin” Vacuum Sealer
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Alvin-Vacuum-Sealer/
Shows how you can rig a Brake Bleeder Vaccum Pump and the Food Saver Jar Sealer to seal canning jars if you don’t have electricity.
Vacuum pack your rice, then put it in the freezer for three days. That kills any bugs. Mine lasts over a year or two in storage.
“Your aquaculture fish would eat the maggots.”
Aquaponics would be even better.
Hope she has a lot of ammo too!
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