three cases of MREs for the wife and I. Figure they could last us nearly a month.

When they expire they make for great Halloween "tricks."

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
We just keep a lot of canned goods and food in stock - ie, stuff you will actually eat and over time, you never have to throw any away since you are constantly replacing the older stuff (you eat) with newer stuff.

If it get worse than a couple of months and we go all Lord of the Flies, I'm betting my weapons can miraculously create food in a number of ways.

It is a lucky thing for you tha nobody else has that plan. No competition at all.

I second the 50lb bag of rice. We have tons of deer about, and I could pull 20-30 lbs of salt out of the softener system to preserve it or smoke it as well. Our kitchen is propane fueled by standard 20 lb tanks of which I keep 3 on hand (about 9 months worth easily). We keep 5 cases of spring water on hand and I have a supply of lifestraws for drinking rainwater (barrel under the downspout with 55 gallons at all times) and local creeks/ponds for cooking after boiling.

By the time we got to the end of everything, we’d know if the shot would clean off the fan.

I expect most of the country could go several weeks without a morsel and be better off.

Water, on the other hand, would be a problem.

I plan on eating my free range organic neighbors.

quote:

Originally posted by Censored:
Not a food prepper, but we have 3 grocery stores,2 drug stores, and 3 gas stations nearby. Can take by force if necessary

This is not a statement but a question. Are you advocating taking(iow, stealing) from others, "by force if necessary" rather than preparing now while you have the time and resources?

My wife and I have a fridge and panty stocked with food at all times. The fridge (with freezer) alone would provide enough food for well over a week. Our pantry is regularly stocked with canned, dried, and packaged foods, enough to last weeks. Plus we have cases of #10 cans of Mountain House freeze-dried.

My short response:

Get a Pressure Canner. Get Mason Jars. Learn. Do.

You can and should can Meats. Not just fruits jellies and vegetables. Meats are easy to pressure can and will have a pretty darn good shelf life. Any kind of meat is fine.

You can and should pressure can Water. Canned Water in the glass Mason Jars is sterile, clean, and lasts forever. Far better than plastic bottles and jugs. Mason Jars come in upto a 1/2 gallon size.

Get all of the glass Mason Jars you can get. New ones are great. So are used ones, look at garage sales, Craigslist, estate sales, etc. Old and used, makes no difference, all glass jars get cleaned and sterilized before use.

Get educated first. The University of Georgia has the National Food Preservation For Home Storage. This is from the USDA. Don’t follow grandmas or aunties old recipes, probably not safe by today’s standards.

Here’s the LINK go here and learn. Download what you wish for reference.

Good luck to y’all.

quote:

Originally posted by dave7378:

quote:

Originally posted by Censored:
Not a food prepper, but we have 3 grocery stores,2 drug stores, and 3 gas stations nearby. Can take by force if necessary

This is not a statement but a question. Are you advocating taking(iow, stealing) from others, "by force if necessary" rather than preparing now while you have the time and resources?

And the stores will be EMPTY by the time you realize the need and try to take action.

quote:

Originally posted by dave7378:

quote:

Originally posted by Censored:
Not a food prepper, but we have 3 grocery stores,2 drug stores, and 3 gas stations nearby. Can take by force if necessary

This is not a statement but a question. Are you advocating taking(iow, stealing) from others, "by force if necessary" rather than preparing now while you have the time and resources?

A couple of people have elected to socialize other people's stuff due to their lack of planning. I find it odd to actually plan that way. I get we will all eventually run out of food and water and at that point it is no holds barred.

I could prep a bit better, but my first thought is not who's stuff can I take. Remember guys there is more than one gun for every man, woman, and baby in this country and bullet wounds are a PITA to treat in the field, also they kind of sting.

I just dont have room right to sit on a lot of stuff.
Immediate problem: Should things go south here, I think the inhabitants of our local maximum security prison will spill out into town, making things really ugly, really quickly.

The larder is stocked to record levels. Not really sure why just is I guess. Summer is close enough now I’m betting I coul make it into fall with very few outside inputs. It would not be fun I am sure. Hell I am even at record levels of ammo and weapons.

I have enough to last roughly a month. We live in the suburbs so I figure much beyond that you’re dealing with a total societal melt down and survival is more about luck than planning.

For what it’s worth I consider canned food to essentially be immortal. About a month ago I ate a can of spam with a best by date of 2014 and it tasted like I bought it yesterday.

We live in a state with 22,000,000 or so other people. We can survive a couple weeks here, but our current home and location is indefensible against the hordes. If we have the chance, we'll be making the final stand somewhere other than here.

1020 servings of Mt House plus the usual beans and rice in 5 gallon buckets. Own enough water filters so I could keep 3 different types and give the neighbors a few. 2 55 gallon rain barrels, my waterheater, and a couple of bathtub storage plastic things with pumps along with some water purification crap in case none of the filters work and I'm a 1/2 mile from a river that has plentiful fish. 7 gas masks, everything you need for camping X5, axes, mauls and lots of wood stored up and too many guns and ammo. I've got solar panels, battery chargers, ham and regular radios in a faraday cage. Bought a bug-out location which we vacation at about 5 days walk that has plentiful natural food. That's stocked up too (not heavily) and waiting should we need to bail. The weakness in my system was that the gun safe is an electronic lock and had all the guns and a bunch of money so that got parsed out and now there is $a bunch of cash and some gold with some bonds and stuff in a manual opening safe in a 2nd location and a few other guns moved out too.

Bring it on, I'm ready.

The Mt house is buy and toss in the basement and it's good for at least 25 years if not more. StorminNormin's link to LDS will garner you lots of great info. I'm not Mormon myself, but they have a great program that works if you are trying to do something cheap. I have more money than brains and my wife works, so I went the easy way.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jimb888,

Copy Canning to start.Keep a journal of what your family eats for 2 weeks. If you eat more than one of the item put a hash mark by it each time. By default you will go through the food your family likes the most first.

Next time you go to the store buy at least one extra of everything you used. The more ideal if you can afford it is to buy 50% more. Rotate to maintain freshness. DO this and in about 2 months you will have a 3 month supply of food your family likes.

However, before you do that (or, at the same time), figure out water storage. We keep 2 gallons of water per day for each person and a gallon per day for the pups (don't forget the pets in your copy canning).

This is on top of the fact that our house is fed by a spring, we have a deep well, and a creek on the property. We also have several 3500 gallon tanks that we harvest rain water in to out near the back of the property. This is mainly used to water the livestock but could be used for us with filtration and boiling.

And, speaking of livestock, there is no better method of storing meat than watching it walk around on a pasture. Especially if you have breeding pairs for each type of livestock.

Just remember that when I'm eating bacon cheeseburgers while the rest of you eat rice...


But, copy canning is a great way to get started on back up food without it being hard or expensive. There is a place for long term storables but in my opinion they should be last. Also, if you have children don't forget to sock away some treats. I know you will want to concentrate on nutritious food and I get it but when a younger child is upset and screaming a little treat can buy some peace and quiet when you might really need it.

Mark

Doesn't matter. I'll be wearing nothing but a hockey mask, football shoulder pads, and a thong while driving around town in my post apocalyptic monster truck.

Don’t forget to grab whole bean coffee if time allows. It is relatively light so grab much as you can carry. Coffee will be worth an exponential amount of food in barter if it comes to that.

Good call on the coffee. My band will need the caffeine.

Realistically if you need to fend for yourself for over 3 months in most of America, shit is going to be very very bad for lots of people.