Anyone else gathering necessities (food, water, etc.)?

This is national preparedness month and I've been stocking supplies. Think food, water, batteries, etc.

I guess it's coincidental that the national preparedness month happens when we have a big Ebola outbreak, various wars, and who knows what else. There is even an asteroid passing "near" Earth tomorrow, at about 1/10 the distance to the Earth vs. the distance of the Moon.

I've been kind of shocked how expensive it is to get enough supplies to last a given number of days or weeks. If you don't have your own farm, its hard!

I made a spreadsheet with calorie requirements vs. calorie availability in various foods. Even so it's been hard going.

Anyone else thinking or acting along these lines?

Any helpful hints as to how to go about it without going broke or running out of space to store everything?

We have been slowly stockpiling freeze dried meals for the past 18 months. They are pricy so we order small amounts every month (10+ Year shelf life)

Shop at Costco - presto, you're always way overstocked on food and ready for the next disaster.

Also, cost-efficiency-wise, look into oats, bagged beans, bagged rice, and peanut butter. Throw in some redline-store bread and sherbert ice cream for the short term, and you can get an entire month's worth of food for ~$30 (I got it down to $28.)

I never knew people did really do it i always thought it was only in the movies.

mcnair55, not just in movies. Me & a few of my friends do it. Not on a 'nut job" scale or anything. But we do live 30 miles from the Gulf Of Mexico and have had storms rip the roof of the house, and been with out power for over a week. So after those kinds of events happen, one can view prepping in a different light. Nice little pun there too.

WATER:::: I just finished building a nice water filter rig. It is 2 five gallon food grade buckets, 2 ceramic filters and a spigot & a little gravity. It works amazingly well. I also have 110 gallons of fresh rain water in my catch barrels. You also never know when the local water supply could become contaminated with a backed up river or bayou down here. We also have that brain eating amoeba in our waters. So, it is wise to be prepared to "make" your own potable water. Oh, I also have a big bucket of chlorine tablets I can use to clean water for bathing and washing.

I keep a months worth of MRE's and frozen game. My small freezer can be run off my solar rig and I can keep all my lights batteries charged. I also keep 10 bags of charcoal and I use a Green Egg to cook on. I maximize my charcoal life that way.

That's about it. Nothing bizarre here. Just more like storm preparedness taken to a higher level. When storms are headed our way, it is a all out zoo at the local food stores. I like know I already am ready. It gives me more time to get things around the house ready, like boarding windows and doors, bringing all furniture in and so on.

I only go fill up the tanks in my vehicles & a few 6 gallon cans to run the generator. I have a small room in the house that is rigged with 12 volt lights and a tiny window AC unit & a sofa that turns to a bed. We slept a week in that last time and stayed nice & cool at night and we had light! lol

I figured I would come back and edit a little by adding a short list of the other odds and ends I have for "just in case". After I made my coffee I figured others maybe could use a list or a the least be amused by the list! lol I keep all of this stocked in and around my house. Just imagine a light storm here having 10 or so hours of 80+ MPH wind & rain! Your house will leak in places unimaginable!

Several propane bottles, coleman camping stove, ham radio & cb radio gear all run off solar power, solar chargers for all cellphones, fully charged 36 volt golf cart (neighborhood transportation & gives me six 6 volt deep cycle batteries), stabil fuel treatment, plywood, self tapping deck screws, 2X4's to brace garage doors, hand saws, chain saw, pole saw, cordless drill & blower (leaves pile up 2 feet thick at my door during storms), several large blue tarps, staple guns, Five 5 gallon buckets (to catch rain that leaks into house), bunch of old beach towels from goodwill, plastic heavy mil painters drop cloth, water & gas cut off tools for the house, 2 ladders: 8 foot & 12 foot, cat cages for my 2 cats, litter box & several bags of litter, oil filled antique hurricane lamps, fire wood, rope to tie down yard items & tree limbs, zip ties, and last but not least a few home defense tools & techniques! For some folks this may seem like a lot, but after going through a few storms, it is easy to build this stuff up and know what you need to help make things easier. Not to mention most of it is quite useful during non emergency times. But if anything else happens goofy I am fairly well "prepped".

i've got a small stockpile of items to make it through an electrical outage for a month or so...i figure i just have to be self sufficient enough until things get back to normal.

A young thread, but already plenty of good suggestions!

MRE's are expensive relative to how many calories they provide, but have the advantage you don't need anything (even clean water) to eat them.

Freeze drying is an excellent way to keep food, but you will need clean water.

Nobody mentioned dehydrated food, I guess it's suppose not to be as good as freeze dried food?

I wonder how long bagged rice or oats will keep? And beans? If you recycle it (eat a bit at a time and buy new quantities to replace what has been consumed) it would be a good solution.

mcnair55 said:

I never knew people did really do it i always thought it was only in the movies.

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There are folks who have "stockpile rooms", but it doesn't have to be anything that involved; you've got a few cans of this and that in your pantry, some frozen items, etc - that all counts, if the power goes out just for tonight/a couple days, you could throw something together. That's a good start.

flashy bazook said:

I wonder how long bagged rice or oats will keep? And beans? If you recycle it (eat a bit at a time and buy new quantities to replace what has been consumed) it would be a good solution.

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Oats, rice, beans are all good for at least a couple of years in a sealed container. Oats are a fine I'm-in-a-hurry breakfast (add just enough water to float, microwave 1:15, tablespoon of sugar, a few dashes of cinnamon, done), and rice is an expedient side to all kinds of dishes, especially with some good soy sauce..

Figured I would reply to this thread because I do a lot of hiking/camping, and a lot of the "rules" regarding food apply to both (since you need things with shelf life).

I currently don't have a food "stockpile" since I'm young and don't have my own place yet. I live with my fiancé and her parents, and although they love me to death, I don't think they would love me turning all "prepper" on them lol. I do have LOTS of super handy survival stuff though.

Anyway, dried foods are always a good choice. Rice keeps a long long time in sealed containers, as do beans and the like. Most people where I live can lots of goods, so we generally have lots of that on hand (corn, tomatoes, green beans, various other fruits/veggies). Lots of Appalachian trail thru-hikers carry those dried pasta meals due to being lightweight and they keep a long time. One thing that is nice for camping for food, although won't keep super long, is hard cheeses... Cheddar, parmesan, stuff like that. Keeping a rotating stock of cheese in the fridge is good for emergencies IMHO, and its so dang good... Mixes well with rice, pastas, whatever. Dehydrated milk is another goodie (lots of hikers carry it too).

As for general things i keep on hand, ill list stuff out...

For my EDC bag, I have a Rapdom (rapid dominance) t311 messenger bag. It is stuffed with these items everyday and stays in my car:

SOG Powerlock multitool
Leatherman E55 expanse multitool knife
Small screwdriver kit I got for a buck at target
Mylar space blanket
50ft of paracord
Bic lighter
Duct tape and electrical tape
Krazy glue
Commando saw
Spare batteries for various lights (some AAA, AA, and 18650s for my big lights)
"wallet" multitool I got from Lowes for like a buck
Firestarting tinder, combination military surplus and/or the ones you get at walmart
Crkt eat-n-tool (nice spork with self defense capabilities)
Full FAK (when I say full, I mean full. I could almost run a trauma center out of it I feel like lol)
Notepad
Pen/pencil
A headlamp of some kind (right now I have both a Princeton tec Byte and a bushnell h65l, I use them for various tasks)
Usually I carry my Fenix tk75 in this bag, but if its not in the bag it is at least in the car)
2 black Diamond climing carabiners (attached to molle loops on outside of bag)
Sawyer mini water filter (same one I take camping)
Tissues/wetwipes, travel size (these are technically part of my FAK, but wet wipes are super handy)

I am constantly updating my bag and adding things as I feel fit. I also do a lot of walking at night, and I carry this bag with me even then. Probably overkill, but I'm that guy lol I also have plenty of room left in the bag to add things if needed. Although not the most comfortable bag when loaded down, it has worked well as a day hike bag.

Currently I do not have a B.O.B. but I just ordered a new Maxpedition Vulture II for use as an overnight/weekend camp pack as well as a B.O.B. I feel its fine to double duty it because when I go wilderness camping, I will have the necessities I need anyway. And of course since I do a lot of camping and hiking, all of my gear at home doubles as survival gear. Things like my tent, sleeping bag, MSR microrocket stove, mess/cook kit, long distance pack (in case i would need to get out in a hurry and the vulture II wont cut it), etc.


EDIT: forgot to mention, instant coffee packets and instant hot chocolate mix make for great morale boosters to keep on hand in case of emergency.

If this is of interest, since I got some supplies I've been getting notifications of specials (no surprise).

Because this month is national preparedness month, some stores may have specials.

Saratoga Farms (one of the suppliers to these stores) announced a 40% off sale.

So if anyone is thinking of ordering anything, you may want to watch out for specials.

You mean I can't live on my flashlights alone? Hehe!

We have bugout bags with 72hrs worth of food and some water and ways to filter and purify.
My lights and gear in them are streamlined to run off AAs. Goal Zero solar panel and Guide 10 Plus charger.
Extra clothes, footwear, FAK.
We live in a tropical region and aren't worried about the cold but rain and humidity is a problem. I have additional ponchos for that and everything inside the BOB are in ziplocs.

For the house, there's always extra food and water. Just need to refine the choices.
Just went through a 3 day power outage after a hurricane last month.
Showed me that I need more lanterns and I lacked at least 1 rechargeable fan which I now already purchased.

I finished building my second 5 Gallon water filter this weekend. I also put the finishing touches on my portable shower. It uses a automatic 12 volt RV pump, I am using a 15ah sealed battery. I already have the solar panels & charge controller to keep it topped off. I got the pump off the big auction website, the rest of the supplies I found at Tractor Supply including the spray head & hoses. It would work great for cleaning up after a walk through woods, or hot morning fishing. I could put it in the back of wifes van for traveling. I took a regular 5 gallon bucket with a lid to store and transport the rig with. And I cut a hole in the lid to run the hose in for water. I am beginning to find 5 gallon regular & food grade buckets with the gamma seal lids very handy in my prepper setups.
My buddy suggested I paint my shower bucket flat black and leave it in the sun for warmer water. I may do that. I also thought about getting one of those dark colored camo buckets. That would achieve the same. I also thought about cutting a fresnel lens and seeing if I can rig it on the lid to focus the sun on the water to warm it. Not sure if this would work, just one of my many nutty ideas.

I've been 'gathering necessities' for over four decades and it has been very good for me...a good life choice.

I like the suggestion(s) to buy legumes and rice and in big bags (25-50 lbs) but there are some caveats that must be thought about if you want the most bang for your buck.

My cardinal rule is that I must know the volume of the dried foods I've ordered and be totally ready to repackage them right away upon delivery. I live in the humid subtropics so I only order my dried bulk foods from the Mormons. They have been into this for a long time. Over many years of buying dried food products I have had absolutely no problems with the fairly priced foods from Honeyville Farms. They guarantee my dried foods will arrive at 10% relative humidity or slightly less so if I repack them immediately upon receipt they will have a good chance of a 20-30 year shelf life, even in my location. (I'm currently cooking oat groats, rice, legumes and hard red winter wheat on a regular basis that I bought and repacked in 2006-2007.)

Even if you live in the low humidity of the Arizona desert you're going to have to repack bulk purchases right away as the sacks give no protection against mice.

After trying a bunch of different containers my goto favorite for bulk foods are 2 liter soda bottles. They are cheap. They are food grade plastic. They are designed to hold an acidic liquid under pressure. For long term storage they work very well when stacked on the 8 bottle mini pallets/trays that they are shipped on. The mini pallet only takes up ~1.5 sq ft of floor space and I can go high enough in a stack to hold ~250 lbs on a small piece of real estate. The individual pallets are also great even for old geezers like me to load into a truck or car for bug out.

The only weak point for long term storage I've found with this system is the potential exposure to LIGHT. This is easily remedied by slipping 3 mil contractor bags over the stack as they are layed up. An 8 foot tall stack will take 2 bags.

Remember that in an emergency your dried foods may be fully cooked using very little energy (and without heating your house up) by cooking them overnight in a high tech vacuum flask like the Nissan Thermos brand. I have cooked all legumes but fava beans in this manner. Actually, I cook by this method a few times a week, emergency or not.

I'm really just hitting the high spots here. Tips on food storage and thermos bottle cooking are all over the web. This isn't rocket surgery but those who are able to overcome the inertia and just begin putting food by will have the best results as they will learn more as they go along.

If one can just start the process and keep chipping away at it real results will build over time. I would also recommend that anyone interested in this subject read the entire thread listed in my sig file.

flashy bazook said:

A young thread, but already plenty of good suggestions!

MRE's are expensive relative to how many calories they provide, but have the advantage you don't need anything (even clean water) to eat them.

Freeze drying is an excellent way to keep food, but you will need clean water.

Nobody mentioned dehydrated food, I guess it's suppose not to be as good as freeze dried food?

I wonder how long bagged rice or oats will keep? And beans? If you recycle it (eat a bit at a time and buy new quantities to replace what has been consumed) it would be a good solution.

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How many calories are in a freeze dried mre?

martinaee said:

How many calories are in a freeze dried mre?

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Depends on what you get.

martinaee said:

How many calories are in a freeze dried mre?

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Right, it depends. I have found from 190 (Chicken Fajita) to 380 (Chili Macaroni).

Those looking for long term store-able food should check out Honeyville farms. They have a great shipping policy. No matter how big your order is the shipping is capped at $4.99 -- even if you order 250 lbs of food.

Since the expense of putting food by has come up a couple times as an issue already in this thread let me give just one example of how to save boucoup on one product. I looked up the price for Oat Groats and the cost figured out to about 9 cents per serving! (Based on todays price of oat groats purchased in 50 lb bags.) Mrs Umbra had some this morning. Actually she had half a serving so it cost closer to 4.5 cents for her this morning (not counting the peanut butter she topped it off with). I didn't figure the small shipping charge into the cost as my orders are on the large side of normal.

Here's the dope on Oat Groats:

Oat Groats are the least processed oats. All that has been done to them is to remove the husk. These are the least refined oats that may be digested by people. Thats part of the reason that they are so cheap. They also taste great, are better for you and have a great texture. Most who like eating more common 'oat meals' will love oat groats.

I cook mine overnight in a 31 oz stainless Nissan Thermos bottle. (I also have the 61 oz Nissan but I use that one for legumes. Small mouth Nissan flasks are the best to cook with.)

Setting up for the first time:

This will be different from other thermos recipes online but it is simple and very versatile, allowing you to cook a wide range of dried foods in vacuum flasks, almost making up new recipes on the fly.

1) Pick a saucepan appropriately sized for the vacuum flask and set it on a burner.

2) Fill the flask with as much water as will fit in it and still allow the cap to be screwed down fully home.

3) Dump all the water from the flask into the pan.

4) Strip the insulation off of a piece of solid copper wire and bend it into a shape like a bobby pin. Slide the 'bobby pin' over the rim of the saucepan. With a side cutter carefully cut off one of the legs of wire right at the point where the wire touches the surface of the water.

Now you have a gauge for the saucepan that will always represent the exact volume of the flask you're using. It will make things simpler from here on in. You always want the flask completely full when thermal retention cooking as it's important to have all the thermal mass you can get.

The recipe:

1) Place the saucepan on the burner and slide the wire gauge over the rim. Pour in enough cold water to bring its level up to the gauge. Turn the burner on high and bring the water to a rolling boil.

2) Dump the boiling water into the flask, completely filling it. Put the cap on the flask and turn it on its side.

3) Put 7/8 cup of dried oat groats into the saucepan and add enough water to come up to the level indicated by the gauge. Boil the water/oat groats for five minutes.

This accomplishes three things. First, it Pasteurizes the water and oat groats. Secondly, the hot water in the flask Pasteurizes the flask. Thirdly, the five minute wait preheats the flask so that more heat is retained to cook with.

4) After the five minute boil dump the hot water from the flask and quickly pour the boiling water and oat groats into the preheated flask. Screw the cap down fully and then screw down the outer cap. Shake the flask and lay it on its side. 10 to 12 hours later it will be done and you may eat a hot breakfast. With our sked I start it at 11pm and eat at 11am.

I have read of a case where the cap came loose in the night. While this has never happened to me in the hundreds of times I've done this, I usually set the flask on its side in such a way that should it leak it would run into the sink.

NOTE: It is prudent, particularly when you are first starting out with Thermal Retention Cooking, to check the final food temp with a meat thermometer at the end of cooking to make sure you're food is still in the safe temp range of 160F or above. Anything below that will allow some bacteria to grow. You won't have to check every time once you get a feel for what you are doing.

My food temp has only gone above 160F once and I knew it was happening before I checked as I had been delayed in taking it out of the flask by a few hours. If its just a few degrees shy of 160F its no big deal; just dump it into a saucepan and boil it again for a few minutes. This will re-pasteurize the food and you'll be good to go.

This recipe will yield 4-5 servings at ~9 cents each which I put into individual serving sized containers in the fridge (or the cooler if the power is out.)

I bought a two pound bag so I could try the oat groats out before committing to 50 lb sacks.

It is an odd way of cooking but there is no stirring, no simmering for hours, no chance of burning, very little energy consumed and it doesn't heat up the house.

Many, many types of 'long term storage' foods may be cooked in this manner and there is lots of money that may be saved in this way. I know it sounds complicated but its all the same method once you get into it.

I went online a few years ago and compiled a surprising variety of recipes. There are also recipes that you may assemble in the morning, throw into your car (or canoe) and have a hot lunch ready at lunchtime. Its very versatile.

Tonight I'll be using the same technique to make a hot breakfast cereal out of Hard Red Winter Wheat. The same cost, storage, nutrition, convenience and energy savings apply.

If you want to save some money, fuel and time cooking cheap dried prepper foods, give it a try. We think its so good we've worked it into our normal, daily routine.

Jeffg330 said:

We have been slowly stockpiling freeze dried meals for the past 18 months. They are pricy so we order small amounts every month (10+ Year shelf life)

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Hi again, it's been a bit over a year, so what's happened since then?

Ted Koppel just put a book out called "Lights Out" where he looks at the threat of cyber-war. Basically he says that we as a nation (the US of A nation!) are completely unprepared for what looks like to be one of the most likely ways we get attacked from abroad.

This sort of computer-based attack can put out the electric grid not just for days or weeks, but even for months. He emphasizes that most people and local, state, and even the federal government are not talking about this and are very unprepared. The whole state of NY has 25 million MRE's stockpiled and available (enough to feed just NY City, and not the whole state, for only 3 days).

Is Ted Koppel some kind of nut? Not at all, he is a well respected, now retired, news anchor for ABC (he run the late evening Nightline series for many many years). And he bases what he says on actual reporting. He says most people don't even put cyber-war in the list of the top 20 most dangerous threats!

Anyway, this "Black Friday" sales season hasn't been that great, but on food preparedness I found some great/amazing deals, and in some stores they were extended through today.

For those of you that are interested, you can get almost twice the calorie-per-dollar that you normally can!

I more than doubled my supplies just today, at less than half the cost of my previous purchases.

Good luck to us, we'll need it.

PS -- the only state that Ted Koppel found to be prepared is Utah, with most people stockpiling some 3 months of food. This he says is because of a history of Mormon persecution by others, which has made them very cautious. It's interesting to see that in one of the posts earlier in this thread someone mentions buying stuff from Mormon based companies.

Interesting subject for sure.

I've known people over the years, and also a few Mormons, that were into this level of preparedness. At one time, maybe 30 years ago during the Cold War, I was myself, but eventually I got away from it as the Cold War tensions finally eased.

As a retired senior network engineer of course I'm aware of the threat of a cyber attack, but at age 63 I've learned that my late father's phrase, "Where are all the crises of yesteryear?" had more wisdom in it than I thought. Not that one shouldn't exercise some forethought and common sense in these matters. But I've been down this path for several scenarios over the last 40 years (credit/banking crisis for which I accumulated gold and platinum), total breakdown of society (for which I stockpiled a few guns and lots of ammunition, along with other survival gear), etc., but at least so far in my lifetime none of this has come to pass, not that it won't. At one time I designed and almost built a bomb shelter. I do think what you're doing is a good idea though if one is concerned about this issue which might certainly be more likely than most people realize, as you pointed out. As someone once said, figuring things out for yourself is the only true freedom in this life.

I find a certain amount of peace resulting from preparing for week long plus power outages. We were without electricity here in the northeast for a week after Sandy a few years back. Fuel was in very short supply, as were a lot of things. I thought I was ready for that one, and did okay, but it really helps refine your game plan. We kept a notepad in the kitchen starting around day three with things we got caught short on. Since then we've moved, and it's almost like starting from scratch in some respects. This house does have a woodstove where our last had a pellet stove, and I need to replace the electric range with a propane one. Better to cook on anyhow IMHO, and a big tank of propane can come in handy for lots of cooking, water boiling, etc.