prepping

[mistylady]

I'm not trying not insult or annoy here but I was wondering if anyone else is considered a prepper? I prepare for the worst and pray for the best so I don't consider it a bad term but I know some people get annoyed with titles.

Does everyone have a plan if you have to bug out? Do you plan to stay put? Can you and your family stay where you are comfortably (hopefully) for 72 hours with out going to town or needing electricity? How about 14 days?

Lets get some discussion going here.

[FVR]

not much on bugging out but I do have about 300 liter bottles of water with a drop of bleach in them downstairs.

Always try to keep a stockpile of canned food and rice.

My wife has said many times that she has no fears if anything happens as I could provide for the family from the woods that surround us.

Good feeling.

[wolf]

I do absolutley no preparation out of laziness. Yes i know everyone says prepare for a disaster, but I don't and I probably never will. ok fine im just going to get chewed out on this forum so i'll start packing some water... and food.

[mistylady]

Wolf as long as you put enough water back to get you through two days without electricity and a few cans of tuna, fruit, or something you like to eat (jerky is good for storing) ....I won't attack. :D

Where I live the power may or may not work when it storms. So having water and some food stored is a must. It also snows here and the driveway is long and steep so I'm stuck if it gets icy. :eek:

[wolf]

Sounds good to me

[rusty_oxydado]

I was a woods tramp before moving to the city, I still practice my skills, I hate leftovers so I can them for later meals, I process my own meat to extend it's shelf life, and what fruit and veggies I can scrounge up what isn't eaten outright is canned or dried. Every week I have something going on in the canner or the dehydrater, winter is coming, and food may get scarce.
I have limited space in my tiny apartment, I have even fewer visitors cause they are all afraid of my pressure canner, it is big, it makes noise, and "they" have heard the horror stories.
There is a small cabin about 30 miles out of town, tucked away at the bottom of a canyon, hiden in the trees, I am always taking some of my excess and stashing it at the cabin, just in case.
If something should happen where no new supplies can make it in town for three days, all the stores shelves will be empty, and the people will panic, this is when people will remember I can my own food, this is where living in the city will be a super drag. Before this should happen I would want to be at the cabin, keeping quiet and waiting for the crazyness to end.

[donny h]

people will panic... people will remember I can my own food... living in the city will be a super drag.

For that reason, y'all shouldn't discuss your level of preparedness with those around you, I know that sounds paranoid, but when they get hungry enough, they will be coming right to you, family, friends, neighbors, strangers, all of them. Maybe you want to share with some of those folks, still don't tell them any details on your preps, they may tell others in the meantime...

I feel I can share here, though:

I store 110gal of water, two barrels, but I have a year round creek about 200 yards from here also, and a fish pond to utilize, I think I'm good on water.

I could go a year easy on my food supply. Beans, rice, and wheat stored in buckets packed with dry ice. Cheap, nutricious, versatile, long shelf life. I have maybe 200 pounds of that stuff, and it wasn't expensive, although I didn't buy it all at once.

I keep a well stocked pantry, I look for 'case lot' sales, the stores here do it once a year, stuff is cheaper by the case, I buy stuff I normally eat, just in larger amounts: refried beans, tomato sauce, olives, corn, green beans, chili, and soup.

Check out stores like Emergency Essentials for #10 cans of dried stuff, I have a couple dozen now, I get a couple more a year when they go on sale, some are stuff to make the rice/beans/wheat palatable: dried butter, eggs, cheese, carrots, peppers, and onions. The #10 cans of veggies are pretty cheap.

As you look into this, don't be scared away by the high prices on MREs and backpacking food, think bulk, it brings those prices way down. Buying in bulk may be done at any grocery store, they all have bigger sacks of rice and beans.

In case you didn't know: Rice and beans together make excellent protein, eaten alone they are nutricious, but not a complete protein like when they are combined.

EVERYONE should have a least a couple weeks of food and water AND MEDS on hand, as well as pet food. There is NO disaster scenario where folks are going to bring food to your home, you will ALWAYS have to relocate to the food, abandoning your home, livestock, belongings (and long guns).

I have forest I could hunt about 4-5 miles from here, but I live in a valley with 400,000 other folks, and if they get hungry, the only game left in the hills will be way, way back in there. That game may require a nomadic lifestyle to harvest. If you truly live in the woods, hunting may work out, but not if you live in the woods on the edge of a population mass.

A hardcore survival guy might have a pond with bass, bluegill, and turtles to harvest in time of need, but I that's another topic...

[rusty_oxydado]

Many great ideas have been mentioned here, yet I keep hearing the word "buy," and this bothers me.
We all buy more than what we use anyway, so instead of buying fromthe store survival foods why not focus on making your own? You go through a lot of veggies and fruit, there is some waste, so why not get that you are going to throw away, and before it goes bad, skice it thin, and dehydrate it for future use. All it needs is to be stored in a dry container. Some of that stuff is a great snack just chewed like a chip.
Set the slices of sliced fruit or geggies on a cookie sheet, set in the oven set to 200, leave the oven door open about 2" and the food will be dehydrated in just a few hours.
I cook from scratch, some foods you can't just make a single serving, so I can my leftovers, The food has been payed for, so come winter the food I canned is free!
It is great to have money, doing a lot of the stuff yourself will leave you with just that much more!

[Bodhi]

I always have plenty of bottled water and lots of MRE's. The funny thing is that is not to be prepared. I just prefer bottled water and the MREs are left over from my Army days.

[ryaninmichigan]

Hello I am new here. Reading these posts makes me think plans very based on geographical conditions. I store no water and some canned food but not for an emergency. I grew up in the big woods of Michigan and given a hour to gather things I could take my family into the woods and stay pretty much indefinitely. I guess that is not true for everyone..

[LakeLady]

Hi all.......I too am new to this site and have a question for anyone regarding donny h's post "Beans, rice, and wheat stored in buckets packed with dry ice." I don't understand this. One couldn't possibly put new dry ice in your buckets every day! There must be something I'm missing here but sure would like to learn and understand.

[donny h]

Hi all.......I too am new to this site and have a question for anyone regarding donny h's post "Beans, rice, and wheat stored in buckets packed with dry ice." I don't understand this. One couldn't possibly put new dry ice in your buckets every day! There must be something I'm missing here but sure would like to learn and understand.

Using dry ice is a do-it-yourself method to drive the oxygen out of a food container, retarding spoilage.

Here is the short version:
http://www.dryiceinfo.com/food.htm

And the long version:
http://waltonfeed.com/self/upack/dryice.html

Welcome, LakeLady.

[LakeLady]

EXCELLENT! and thank-you. I knew there was something I was missing.

Thank-you for the welcome. I found this site yesterday and am learning quite a bit already.

[cw0203]

I never thought of dry ice. I do vacuum seal all my wild game and make alot of jerky and dry out alot of fruits. I can probably last a month or so on what I have dehydrated without much rationing. I also keep about 2 weeks worth of gas stored for my generator. It's not a big generator but it'll pull my freezer and my fridge without any problems. Waters not a problem for me either since I'm about a 2 minute walk from a considerable river.

[LakeLady]

Since I'm not inclined to 'bug out' I prefer stock piling. What is the shelf life for things stored with the dry ice method?