Emergency Preparedness (year's supply of food, 72 hour kit)

Various Sources ^ | 9/15/2001

[homeschool mama]

**Just be sure no one unplugs the freezer.**

okey dokey, grammie.....has that ever happened at your house?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Yep.

Once.

[homeschool mama]

Do tell.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Sad day it was.

[SCalGal]

Bump

[Utah Girl]

Here is a new website about preparedness. It was created by my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) It is excellent and has some great information. It's only been online for a couple of weeks, and I keep forgetting about it.

Provident Living

[homeschool mama]

Thank you for the link, Utah Girl. I'll peruse the site and save the addy, I'm sure. :o)

Did you know Brad's Gramma was FR's Finest today? :o)

[homeschool mama]

Excellent site!

[Utah Girl]

No, I didn't know that, I'll go over and bother her. :)

[diamond6]

Thanks for all the info!

[Utah Girl]

You are welcome. If you don't mind, I'm going to answer your FReep mail here, I think it will help others out. I don't know what kind of canned goods have the longest shelf life. From a website:

Pack date: This is the date the item was packed, most-used on canned and boxed goods. It is usually in the form of an encrypted code not easy to decipher. It may be coded by month (M), day (D), and year (Y), such as YYMMDD or MMDDYY. Or it may be coded using Julian (JJJ) numbers, where January 1 would be 001 and December 31 would be 365. In even more convoluted coding, letters A through M (omitting the letter I) are often assigned to the months, with A being January and M being December, plus a numeric day, either preceded or followed by the numeric year.

What I do is write the date on the can when I purchased it. Then when I take stock I can tell what is older, what I need to replenish, etc. I also rotate, so I buy what we eat normally. I started a new job last year, and didn't have the money to do what I normally do for food storage. But it is amazing to see what you can accumulate by just buying one extra can of something here and there. It does make a difference.

One other tip is to either call or email the manufacturers of the canned goods you want to store. They will tell you the magic code that is stamped on their cans.

And my last tip for the day is to get food that is kind of exotic or a treat. Last summer I bought a case of Libby's Tropical Fruit Mix when it was on sale. Yum, a real change from the peaches and pears I usually store.

Here is a link about canned goods. Canned goods storage life

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Well, if you don't like it, send it via email to someone else...

[Utah Girl]

I actually have the same opinion of Spam as Nita. Yuck, it's not in my food storage.

[asgardshill]

Sorry this turned out to be so long.

Don't be. Conservatives are naturally more prepared and self-sufficient as a rule, and this information could save lives. Bravo!

[asgardshill]

I actually have the same opinion of Spam as Nita. Yuck, it's not in my food storage.

If I slice it thin enough, burn it long enough, and cover it with enough mustard and hot sauce, I could eat wallboard covered with Tyvek in a pinch. My personal stash proudly includes a dozen cans of Spam.

BUMP and bookmark for a great thread.

[fanfan]

Moral of the story: Store what you eat, and eat what you store.

But what if you only eat fresh foods? How can you alternate stocks of products you don't normally use?

[Utah Girl]

Grow a garden? :) I go through my food storage once a year, checking the dates. Whatever is close to being out of date goes to the local food kitchen/homeless shelter. I also freeze a lot of fruits and vegetables, as well as meals. I do rotate those because of the short freezer time for most things. Good luck, it does take some creativity to keep foods current and what your family eats.

[AFPhys]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'll mull this list over.

One item, just to make certain that anybody who reads this doesn't get improperly concerned, you improperly identified or mis-spelled the proper "active ingredient" of bleach.

"Sodium hypochlorite" is the ingredient you're looking for (sometimes, simply called hypochlorite), not "hypochlotie". It is very standard, so there should not be much chance of confusion.

[Professional Engineer]

bump!

[Spiff]

Our 72 hour kits have sat in the closet for too long and most of the food has gone stale, etc. Because of Katrina we're pulling them out and redoing them. We had been storing about 200 gallons of water in barrels, but we hadn't been changing the water and it is green, etc. Not potable without boiling or purification of some kind. 2 months ago we purchased a 1,100 gallon tank that is now in line with our water system and constantly refilled. We've also got a pressure pump. We turned off our water supply and without rationing of any kind our watter supply lasted our family for 5 days. With rationing, it would last much longer.

We've been using our food supply (wheat, rice, etc) so we need to restock some of that. We've still got a LOT of food storage sealed in buckets. This disaster is causing me to relook what we have and what we might need to get back up to speed.

I need to relook my communications situation. I rely upon internet, phone, and cell phone and don't have any radios. We've only got one power company in the county and if it went down for an extended period of time, I would be cut off without comms.

I also need to review my bug out plan and what we would take and how we would take it.

This disaster is certainly a wake up call for people to review their preparations in case of any kind of disaster, attack, or whatever.