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remy
01-15-2008, 09:26 PM
paying attention ?

Sarge47
01-15-2008, 11:50 PM
My list is geared towards what EVERYBODY should have at hand, therefore firearms & knives are not listed as there are many people not properly trained in their use:

1.) Non-perishable food supply, enough to provide a minnimum of 3600 calories per person for three days at least.

2.) Three gallons of "safe" drinking water per person.

3,) Emergency radio, preferably two if the one at hand does not have a "Weather" band.

4.) One large flashlight, several smaller ones and plenty of candles w/matches.

5.) Blankets, either wool or at the very least, one "Sportsman All-Weather Blanket" per person.

6.) At least one whistle per person.

7.) Proper clothing including outer garments for inclement weather.

8.) One roll of "Gorilla" tape, or, lacking that, Duct Tape.

9.) One large roll of "Visqueen" Plastic sheeting; 4 mill or better if you can find it.

10.) 100 feet of 550 cord per person.

Rick
01-16-2008, 04:59 AM
Here is my list:

http://safezonellc.com/personalzone5_1.html

Sarge47
01-16-2008, 07:42 AM
Here is my list:

http://safezonellc.com/personalzone5_1.html

Great site Rick! Wish I'd of thought of that!;)

carcajou garou
01-16-2008, 02:38 PM
Add a plastic pail/lid with disposable bag liners for an impromtu latrine when needed.

corndog-44
01-16-2008, 03:45 PM
What would be the top 10 things you would recommend a family should DO or BUY for home preparedness.

remy I would recommend a family should do as others are saying here. For me, home preparedness would be lying to myself as I always claimed that I can live comfortable in the wilderness. Others would have to learn to do the same once their supplies ran out.

corndog-44
01-16-2008, 04:40 PM
remy, if I'm prepared to live comfortably for a long time survival then the short time survival is already covered. By the way, the government is not always there when a person needs it.

trax
01-16-2008, 06:41 PM
Well, I've never trusted governments promises so I can't imagine why I'd start in an emergency situation.

The lists above are pretty well-informed. I don't need to worry about any meds other than a first aid kit and I have firearms, that's a matter of each person's choice.

trax
01-17-2008, 03:41 PM
Now there's a theory that pretty much everyone agrees on. They're still calling it a theory right? Good ol' Abe Maslow, there's a guy I bet couldn't get a campfire started...

trax
01-17-2008, 06:52 PM
just like my "horrible accident" theory in the other thread, dude, that was my point!

trax
01-18-2008, 12:06 PM
Dammit remy, I put a lot of thought into that "horrible accident" theory lmaooo:D:D (at least 4.5 seconds, which is about 3 seconds longer than I put into most of my theories!)

corndog-44
01-18-2008, 12:36 PM
If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.

tracks
01-18-2008, 12:55 PM
This is great info......but what about your like minded community members ? some of the people that I hunt and trap with, who are also prepared have discussed the possiblity of meeting up at a pre determined location if the emergency/SHTF should persist for more than 72 hrs.heard mentality,human contact ,pooling resources whats your opinion good idea or bad in a survival situation

Sarge47
01-18-2008, 01:00 PM
This is great info......but what about your like minded community members ? some of the people that I hunt and trap with, who are also prepared have discussed the possiblity of meeting up at a pre determined location if the emergency/SHTF should persist for more than 72 hrs.heard mentality,human contact ,pooling resources whats your opinion good idea or bad in a survival situation

It would depend on how well you know the people, what they can offer, their family, potential medical problems & how prepared you are to care for them, etc..:cool:

Rick
01-18-2008, 01:09 PM
Tracks - I think you are right on the money. See this thread for who is in your clan. That's what we discussed.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1095&highlight=clan

Nativedude
01-21-2008, 03:12 AM
This is great info......but what about your like minded community members ? some of the people that I hunt and trap with, who are also prepared, have discussed the possibility of meeting up at a predetermined location if the emergency/SHTF should persist for more than 72 hrs. herd mentality, human contact, pooling resources what's your opinion good idea or bad in a survival situation

Pooling or sharing resources with family is a must, but with neighbors or friends. . .I wouldn't!

People become funny in disaster situations. Look at New Orleans after Katrina. Neighbors turning on neighbors, looting, shooting, killing, stealing from one another, etc. :eek:

Some people tend to hoard food, water, etc. for themselves, figuring that they have more right to it than others. And if you are not related they are more likely to become this way!

BraggSurvivor
02-09-2008, 10:38 PM
For ME, Ive spent years preparing for long term self sufficient living as well as teaching my wife and four children how to survive using the basics. We live on 60 acres on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and live very comfortably without being on the "grid" if required. I remit my top ten based on staying put on my land if a sickness, disaster or calamity strikes.

1. Do - Have at least one full year supply of food storage that is rotated and restocked religiously.

2. Buy - Rifles/shotguns and enough amunition to hunt and protect your family and property.

3. Do - Feed/raise livestock with high turnover and yield. ie) poultry, pork, beef steers and goats.

4. Do - Learn how to properly prepare and butcher an animal in the event you have to use them. (raised or wild)

5. Buy - Have 55 gallon plastic drums filled with clean rock salt as to preserve the meat (if required)

6. Do - Have your children involved in land and waste management programs such as 4H to gain valuable knowledge and to actually know where their food comes from. Competition / choirs has a great value on it's own

7. Do - Know your neighbors well, I mean really know them, not just a quick hello in passing at the post office.

8. Do - Have little or no revolving debt. Pay off your mortgage. Owe nothing to anyone.

9. Buy - Physical gold and silver.

10. Do - Stay steadfast in your faith (whatever it may be) and help others when in need, things tend to come back to you full circle.

And I'll give you one more that is probably should be in the top three:

11. Do - Dont buy all kinds of fancy expensive shiney B.S. to survive.......best tool you have is from your shoulders up. I hope.


BraggSurvivor

crashdive123
02-09-2008, 10:45 PM
I like your list and priorities BraggSurvivor (I'd abbreviate your name, but I don't know you well enough yet) :D

Rick
02-10-2008, 07:44 AM
Sounds like a man with a solid understanding of life in general. Even if nothing ever happens to you or your family (and I hope it doesn't) you still have a pretty good life. Thanks for sharing those. Good words.

Rick
02-10-2008, 08:45 AM
After thinking about your post for a bit I have a couple of questions for you. A year is a long time and feeding six people for that year would be a fairly intense undertaking if you had to do so by being self sufficient. I was wondering:

1. How did you determine what your needs were?
2. Did you utilize some standing guidelines to acquire that much food?
3. Do you have some specific location, like an oversized pantry, where you store your food?

That just seems like a LOT of food and nearly a full time job trying to maintain inventory and rotating your supplies.

wareagle69
02-10-2008, 10:13 AM
rick it doesn't take that much space to save a years worth of food take an 8 kilgram bag of rice(around 18 pounds sarge) how long to do think you can live on that take two of them in a five gallon bucket and lid now the same with beans two five gallon pails take up how much space? now if you are proficient in wild edibles and/or you live where you could grab a chicken or rabbit from the yard you can live a long time.

sarge 3600 calories per day minimun? thats alot for home preparedness i understand if your in the woods but not at home.
unless you are refering to twinkies then that would only be what two of them how many could you store then eh twinkie err i mean ric?

Rick
02-10-2008, 10:24 AM
Well, I don't know. 36 pounds (that 16 kilograms, WE:rolleyes:) is a LOT of danged rice but I don't know how long it would last me. I probably can last a couple of months on what I have. That's assuming the whole darned clan lands here. Rationing would be the law, I'm sure. And I don't know that I would ever want a year's worth of anything. I'd just like to know what guidelines are used.

I know the Mormons believe in one years supply so do they, for example, have some checklist that they use to determine what a year's supply is? I think it would be useful for folks to know. Even if you wanted to stock 30 days worth of food you could use that same list and just adjust it as necessary.

wareagle69
02-10-2008, 10:37 AM
i was doing some plumbing at a guys house this summer went to the basement and saw his storage was i impresed turns out he is a mormon and in charge of food storage for his church, check out the bishops checklist they also have they benefit of haveing a like minded comunity to help.

nell67
02-10-2008, 10:58 AM
Rick,here is a link for storage planning software per the latter day saints


http://www.permapak.net/freesoftware.htm

Tony uk
02-10-2008, 11:09 AM
Nice link nell, Thanks :)

Rick
02-10-2008, 11:10 AM
Well ain't that just cool. Thanks, Nell!

Tony uk
02-10-2008, 11:13 AM
Well ain't that just cool. Thanks, Nell!

I know your realling meaining me when you say that its cool :cool:

Rick
02-10-2008, 11:24 AM
Holy crap-a-moley. That calculator says I need 2392lbs of grains, 1480 lbs of vegetables, 202 lbs of oils and fat (hey, I'm already over that). 476lbs of sugars. Hmmmmmm. sugars.

Tony uk
02-10-2008, 11:35 AM
Holy crap-a-moley. That calculator says I need 2392lbs of grains, 1480 lbs of vegetables, 202 lbs of oils and fat (hey, I'm already over that). 476lbs of sugars. Hmmmmmm. sugars.

Just take all the sugar :D

crashdive123
02-10-2008, 11:50 AM
Wow! 477 lbs of Twinkies!

Rick
02-10-2008, 11:56 AM
Sort of what I was thinking. I live on the two basic foods groups; sweets and preservatives.

nell67
02-10-2008, 01:33 PM
You are welcome guys,LOL I haven't checked it out yet,but think I will forgo much of that sugar,a moment on the lips,forever on the...well you know:eek:

Rick
02-10-2008, 07:22 PM
Gads....my mind is reeling......:eek:

Tony uk
02-10-2008, 07:29 PM
You are welcome guys,LOL I haven't checked it out yet,but think I will forgo much of that sugar,a moment on the lips,forever on the...well you know:eek:

Tell Us nell, People (Okay, Okay ME) are to stupid to figure it out :(

BraggSurvivor
02-10-2008, 09:08 PM
After thinking about your post for a bit I have a couple of questions for you. A year is a long time and feeding six people for that year would be a fairly intense undertaking if you had to do so by being self sufficient. I was wondering:

1. How did you determine what your needs were?
2. Did you utilize some standing guidelines to acquire that much food?
3. Do you have some specific location, like an oversized pantry, where you store your food?

That just seems like a LOT of food and nearly a full time job trying to maintain inventory and rotating your supplies.


First I'd like to mention that I'm not Mormon. Years ago when I owned a fire/flood restoration company, I was asked to mitigate losses for a family of Mormons after they had a fire in their home (teenage son smoking a reefer in the garage). I was completely astounded to see the food cache they had accumulated. For me the light went on and put their practices and ideas to use for my family.

We accumulated all our food storage a little at a time. Week by week and honestly alot of trial and error took place. Now we have very little waste as my wife rotates every week. We have it to the point now where she basically shops from our own supplies. If she needs something, she takes from our "supermarket" and replaces next time shes in the city. Rule of thumb: store what you usually eat.

We took inventory in August 07 and I believe if we had to replace what we have accumulated, I estimated the value at over 20K (not including meat). Buy on sale and in case lots.

Over the years we have had to add to space required to store all these supplies. I have rooms in the barn (long term storage), a 20' L X 10' H walls of shelves in the quonset (canning and preserves) and one whole wall in the garage dedicated to short term every day supplies. In the garage alone we have 2 tons of food supplies.

We always have 2 Black/Red Angus 4H steers in the paddock and butcher in the spring. I put one in our freezer and butcher the other to give to single mothers in need at the local churches. We always have laying hens (heritage breeds) that produce all the eggs we can eat. My kids make money selling eggs to neighbors and always have money in their pockets. I have a breeding pair of Large Blacks heritage pigs that can handle our cold winters and produce all the pork my family and neighbors can eat. I butchered our milk goat last fall as she had 1 bad teat and failed to produce proper milk quota and we will get another preg in the spring.
We fill two large freezers and one small standup freezer with homegrown meat each year.

Before:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/Bructer/IMGP0367.jpg


After:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/Bructer/IMGP0239.jpg


Cheers,

Rick
02-10-2008, 09:17 PM
Thanks for the info and pics. I do appreciate it. I have an area in the garage as well that we use for day to day supplies as well as a decent sized pantry and I buy by the case on the most used items like tomato sauce/paste or some can goods. I don't keep nearly that much protein on hand but then I'm not feeding four kids either.

We had a good deal several years back. A local packing plant slaughtered pigs for a pharmaceutical company that only wanted the livers so if you bought half a beef they would give you half a pig (minus the liver) at no additional charge. Sweet deal until the pharmaceutical company got bought out and the practice stopped. I had three kids at home then, too.

nell67
02-12-2008, 06:03 AM
Holy crap-a-moley. That calculator says I need 2392lbs of grains, 1480 lbs of vegetables, 202 lbs of oils and fat (hey, I'm already over that). 476lbs of sugars. Hmmmmmm. sugars.
It only calls for 180 lbs of sugars for me,LOL still alot of sugar:eek:

Rick
02-12-2008, 07:08 AM
At the risk of repeating myself....Hmmmmmmm. Sugars.

Tony uk
02-12-2008, 10:11 AM
Mmmmmmmmm Chcocolate

bulrush
02-21-2008, 02:04 PM
9. Buy - Physical gold and silver.

To me, gold and silver are useless. If food is scarce, no one will sell it anyway, and you can't eat gold and silver.

Here's my list of important stuff I use for power outages, in no particular order:

- Positive attitude. Probably one of the most important things to have. A "I'm gonna die!" attitude will destroy a whole group of people quickly. I have a "no problem" attitude. If I don't have it, I can make it or hunt it. If I can't make it or hunt it, I don't need it.

- I have plenty of water containers (covered to prevent dust and bacteria getting into them, filled if I suspect a power outage is imminent) for holding water. Dirty water can be collected and used to flush the toilet. "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down."

- I have several LED flashlights. They are super power savers and the batteries last a long time. I don't use the flashlights unless I have to. I also have several candles to provide just enough light to walk around and not bump into things.

- Disposable lighter. When the fuel runs out, the spark can still like a cotton ball. Matches are nice too, if only for removing the odor from the pit toilet. :) A metal refillable lighter ($20) is easier to change the flint on though, and can carry cotton balls inside it.

- Alcohol powered stove. I have actually used this camping and during a power outage. Works great, fuel easy to find normally.

- Hobo stove. Hobo stove is a tiny grill made from a metal coffee can. It is powered by burning small sticks. I have used it to boil water, as a test, and it works great.

- Canned food. Stuff that is easy to make or warm up over the alcohol stove. Beans, soups.

- Dry food. Noodles, crackers, dry beans, lentils, things like that.

- Soap for body and washing dishes. Preventing illness is a high priority.

- I also have a big pot for boiling water for drinking (if needed) or washing dishes.

- Knife. I only use this a little, even when camping, but when I need one I REALLY need one.

- I happen to have an outdoor fireplace. But no ready firewood nearby. Nearest park is about 1/2 mile walk.

More items for long-term survival situation:

- I have a pump water filter (real PITA) but it's there if I need it. I just made my own Berkey filter out of a candela I bought, and PVC. Have not tested it yet but cost was: $45 for candela and $25 for PVC and parts. Total $70. That beats $300 at most other places. My advice: buy a gravity filter, not a pump filter. It's a lot less work and worth it. Buy a big Berkey if you can afford it ($250-$300us).

- Paracord can be handy.

- Hammer and nails and scrap wood for building rabbit and squirrel traps would also be handy. No use shooting and alerting the neighbors you have food.

- Layers of clothing for cold water.

- Sleeping bag good to 0F.

- 1-2 wool blankets per person. You can always cut a slit in one and use it like a poncho. I did this and my and my son love it, we even fight over it.

- Plastic tarp. Tarps are stronger than just plastic and can be used as ground cloths or overhead shelters. Get tarps that have the reinforcing threads built into them. When plastic gets real cold, below freezing, it has a tendency to crack under stress. Tarps are a more flexible plastic below freezing.

- Candle lantern. Keeps the candle from blowing out during windy conditions (though it may flicker a lot.)

Since I am in Michigan, how materials react under 32 degrees is a big concern.

Things I do NOT recommend:

- A gun if you do not know how to use it.

- Boots from the mall. They are made of many pieces and leak like a seive. Most cannot be made waterproof either. Get your boots from a farm supply store, those are REAL boots. I have a pair of rubber boots with a felt liner. These are the warmest, driest boots I have had in my life and were only $25 (not on sale). I love these boots. These boots have kept me toasty in -12F conditions (you boys in Alaska stop laughing).

- Pump water filter. If you can find a gravity filter, get one. If not, a pump filter will make do.

- A hatchet or saw for firewood. I cannot think why you would want to waste energy chopping wood unless all you can find is green wood (it's hard to break), and all you have is an indoor fireplace. An outdoor firepit can hold 12 foot logs with east. I simply break my firewood, no chopping for me.

Teotwawki
05-26-2008, 11:19 PM
Our goal is 3 years worth - and we are getting there and should be 100% by this fall. Lots of grains (flour, rice, corn meal, pasta), canned goods, dried beans, other dried stuff, sugar, salt, honey (lasts forever)...

By the way, it is a good idea to toss your bags of grain in a freezer for a few days before you store it away in an airtight container. Freezing kills meal worms - otherwise, you might break into your store of goods and find some extra protein.

Our calculations were pretty simple: (3 meals a day X number in family X 365) X 3

The 3 meals include: A grain, a vegetable, and sometimes a meat.

Not exact I imagine but I trust my own figuring more than I trust shareware. And it may get boring but we'll not starve. Plus we are counting on supplementing with livestock and wild foods. And we don't count certain things in our store - we don't count the honey, rotating cans of fruit juices, jerky, etc... so we will hopefully be 3 years +

There was an article recently in the WSJ saying that food is about the best invesment value going right now.

Here tis: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120881517227532621-lMyQjAxMDI4MDI4MjgyMTI1Wj.html

Final thought: Great way to create a ready made root cellar - buy and have delivered a new concrete septic tank - bury or have it buried in the side of a hill. Line the inside with shelves. Might also make a good way to stash stuff.

Something I never see on a must have list (maybe assumed one has this in their toolbox or in the garage): A good whetstone for keeping knives, axes and stuff sharp.