I've talked about it before. I've researched info on it over the past couple of years. I even have a folder in my favorites that I put in website links for. What you ask? Emergency preparation - especially for food storage! I just haven't really done anything at all about it because I don't have the room in the house and our garage is so dang stuffed (though very organized due to DH's OCD) I didn't even want to attempt to find room out there. Plus, I know myself - and I know I am not organized enough to keep track of all what's there and making sure stuff gets rotated out and used before expiration dates, etc.
But honestly, the world is really starting to scare me. Obama and his agenda scares the crap out of me. While DH has been working on his supply of guns and ammo (nothing major! don't freak out. He's just got some small cannisters to store a few different types of ammo in. All labeled, of course since he loves organizing). And even if it's not something politically related, we live in an earthquake zone and it's not a matter if if, but when. I mentioned that while it's great in the event of "shit hitting the fan" we can protect ourselves and our home, it won't do much good if we are starved! So he jumped right on board and is going to make some room out in the garage for some long term food storage. Plus, the garage is all his turf so he can be the one in charge of keeping track of and organizing the food storage. Win win.
Our neighbor really is a doomsday prepper. His guns and ammo make DH look like nothing. He has boxes and boxes of long term food storage among all his other stuff to be prepared for. He even has this seriously huge generator, like the size of a small shipping container. He sent DH a link to a website he buys food from to gradually stock up on. They were having a sale and a special through last Saturday. Spend $200 and get a free case of veggies (valued at like $115). Hmm...I looked it all over. It was all freeze dried type of foods you can just add water to and heat up. Stuff that will last 25 years! My idea has always been stocking up on stuff from the grocery store......but like I said - I KNOW I will be terrible about keeping track of it all. The more I thought about it the more I realized it would be good to have some of this type of food on hand, too. Easy and quick to make and a shelf life longer than I'm going to probably be around.
I decided to make the investment and spend the $200. I bought some breakfasts of scrambled eggs and bacon and 2 different dinner meal packages and some crackers to get me over the $200 (neighbor said the crackers are good). All would give DH and I about 30 days of meals. Plus we get all the veggies free: corn, grean beans and peas. After I ordered I told DH I don't care how hungry I might be, I'm not eating peas and he said "me neither". We laughed and he then emailed neighbor and told him we placed an order, but does he like peas? We'd make a trade. LOL. He called back later and said he loves peas so he'll trade us some beans or rice. Ha ha.
Other than that I have been buying an extra jug of drinking water every week and putting it in the extra refrigerator out in the garage. I think I have 8 jugs now. And in the house I have 8 cans stored away of corn. That's all so far. We'll have to figure out a solution for larger water storage, but we are on a well, so it's not like city water that could potentially get cut off. We'd still have access to our water (well, unless the well got damaged in an earthquake - then we'd be screwed)
I think my next purchase will be 2 or 3 5-gallon food grade buckets for flour, sugar and ?. Maybe rice? I know I would want supplies like that to actually cook food. As long as we'd have power (we do have a small generator) I know I'd be cooking meals too. We have a long way to go to get fully emergency prepared, but at least it's a start. I'd also like to buy a good first aid kit. I guess I'd better start re-reading all those websites I saved in my folder and get reacquainted with what is good to have on hand.
Remember even if you have well water that well has a pump, powered by electricity. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnd have DH look up how to make a "rocket stove" for when the power grid is disrupted. You'll need something to cook on once the gas to power the generator is gone.
Yes but at least two of us have generators and could use them to power the pump to get some water out
ReplyDeleteActually I know for sure 3 of us have them 😊
DeleteI have thought about it from time to time, but done nothing. I think when we move out to the land, we may do something like that.
ReplyDeleteGood idea about the pump though, maybe we will install a windmill and hand pump too!
Hopefully this isn't a duplicate, but here is a website that has a recipe to feed a family of 4 for a year. Not the greatest meal, but if SHTF, you wouldn't care as long as you had some food in your belly. By the way, I have nothing to do with the site itself, just something I found in my surfing. http://seasonedcitizenprepper.com/feed-a-family-of-4-for-1-year-for-less-than-300/
ReplyDeleteThat's good info. I think I'd rather try to plan a bit more rather than eating bean soup every day for a year :) but it's certainly better than having nothing, that's for sure.
DeleteI have heard of this but am not doing it myself. We would be able to survive a few days but not for a longer period of time.
ReplyDeleteWe probably have enough food for a few days to a week in the house, depending on how close to grocery shopping day it is.
DeleteSluggy - we also have a bbq that has grilling and a side part for heating up a pan or skillet, so would need to plan to have some extra propane on hand, but could cook some things with that. I'll look up a "rocket stove"!
ReplyDeleteGreetings from earthquake territory. No offense,but if you don't store some water, don't even bother doing anything else. We too, have a well.. Sure, we have a generator, but what do you do when you run out of fuel for that? You need a gallon a day per person. We make it a point to fill about every third suitable container we empty (ie: 2 liter bottle.) We also keep a few of these under bathroom sinks to force flush the toilet when power is knocked out beyond. ( We have a septic system.) Not LDS, but if you have a stake nearby, see if they offer an emergency preparedness expo for the community. We went to one and learned loads.
ReplyDeleteThat should be "when power is knocked out by wind."
DeleteWith all the problems we've had in the past with our well we always keep several 5 gallon buckets filled with water out in our shed (to flush toilet and such). Extra water supply will definitely be in the plan as we get things rolling with it
ReplyDeleteHere's a good link on what to store water in. I do not have much water stored where we live now because I live in the rain forest(literally). We average 16ft of rain a year and so far this year we are past 47inches of rain. That's more rain than seattle averages all year. However I would definitely store water in the 55 gallon barrels and build a rack so two could be laying on their sides one above the other.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.disaster-survival-guide.com/emergency-water-storage/