Practical survial skills-Stockpiling supplies

[FyredUp]

Gentlemen,

Let me ask you a simple question. How many of you can honestly fund food stockpiles for a year, let alone 5 or 10 years? I know for me I strive for somewhere between 6 months and a year. But there is no way I can do the boxes of food or bags of grain for 5 or 10 years.

My wife and I can and freeze some of the vegetables we produce as well as can apple sauce and pie filling from our apple trees. We buy either as quarter or half a cow, and a whole pig, from farmer friends of ours that raise them naturally with no hormones. We buy eggs locally from farmers that raise their chickens naturally. When we do buy to add to our stockpile we buy things that we normally eat, canned soup, canned chicken, tuna, Spaghettios, stew, SPAM, other canned pasta, pasta sauce and varieties of pasta, packaged rice and pasta side dishes, and so on. We also bulk buy sugar, salt, powdered sugar, and spices. We buy what we know we will eat, instead of buying what may seem to make sense but calls for more prep to make something edible.

We also have extra toilet paper and paper towels on hand. My wife is a soap maker so bath products are handled in that manner. We also stockpile first aid supplies at a higher level than the average household.

Obviously I have a gun or 2 and some ammunition on hand. But honestly they don't play as prominent a role in my survival as being prepared other wise does. Yes, if it came to it I would use them to protect me and my family. But the reality is I am surrounded by hunters and hunting land and my belief is wild game would be scarce in short order if push came to shove. Not sure I am ready to eat opossum or raccoon any time soon!

I guess I look at the prepping thing as more an everyday emergency back up than for an end of the world as we know it scenario. Honestly I look at it for things like a trucker's strike, bad storms stopping deliveries, or any other disaster like that. I can tell you honestly when my wife had breast cancer and couldn't work our food and other stockpiles allowed my pay checks to pay the bills while our supplies kept us fed and taken care of.

I'm not at all saying that if you have the money and the ability to build a bunker or 6 and supply them with food and ammunition for 20 years that you shouldn't do that. I am saying however that that is almost completely out of the means of most Americans. That shouldn't mean surrender to what comes your way, it should mean do what you can to be prepared.

[nutznboltz]

Again. Welcome back.
Try to set aside funds from each payday. Buy dried package foods. If you buy dried rice for the evening dinner you're on the right path.
Think about water supply and energy production.
Buy seeds to grow your food.
A firearm is just part of the equation. Get to know your neighbors. You may not like them but they know you. My ex is a trauma nurse in the country surrounded by farmers.
To me? That's about it.

[nutznboltz]

BTW? settle in and sit for a while. Cool?

[dutigaf]

Gentlemen,

Let me ask you a simple question. How many of you can honestly fund food stockpiles for a year, let alone 5 or 10 years? I know for me I strive for somewhere between 6 months and a year. But there is no way I can do the boxes of food or bags of grain for 5 or 10 years.

My wife and I can and freeze some of the vegetables we produce as well as can apple sauce and pie filling from our apple trees. We buy either as quarter or half a cow, and a whole pig, from farmer friends of ours that raise them naturally with no hormones. We buy eggs locally from farmers that raise their chickens naturally. When we do buy to add to our stockpile we buy things that we normally eat, canned soup, canned chicken, tuna, Spaghettios, stew, SPAM, other canned pasta, pasta sauce and varieties of pasta, packaged rice and pasta side dishes, and so on. We also bulk buy sugar, salt, powdered sugar, and spices. We buy what we know we will eat, instead of buying what may seem to make sense but calls for more prep to make something edible.

We also have extra toilet paper and paper towels on hand. My wife is a soap maker so bath products are handled in that manner. We also stockpile first aid supplies at a higher level than the average household.

Obviously I have a gun or 2 and some ammunition on hand. But honestly they don't play as prominent a role in my survival as being prepared other wise does. Yes, if it came to it I would use them to protect me and my family. But the reality is I am surrounded by hunters and hunting land and my belief is wild game would be scarce in short order if push came to shove. Not sure I am ready to eat opossum or raccoon any time soon!

I guess I look at the prepping thing as more an everyday emergency back up than for an end of the world as we know it scenario. Honestly I look at it for things like a trucker's strike, bad storms stopping deliveries, or any other disaster like that. I can tell you honestly when my wife had breast cancer and couldn't work our food and other stockpiles allowed my pay checks to pay the bills while our supplies kept us fed and taken care of.

I'm not at all saying that if you have the money and the ability to build a bunker or 6 and supply them with food and ammunition for 20 years that you shouldn't do that. I am saying however that that is almost completely out of the means of most Americans. That shouldn't mean surrender to what comes your way, it should mean do what you can to be prepared.

we try to keep some veggies & meats in the extra freezer.. plus we keep plenty of can food... & lots of water.... then we are on a generator set up with good well water as a back up...

so we are decently supplied. YEARS worth? hell no. someone will have robbed, raped, killed ya by then. emergency situation prepared? yeah pretty good.

[tanvil]

I agree with the 2 previous posts. There is some kind of mindset created by advertisers and such that the guy with the most wallyworld trinkets is somehow ready for anything. Basically he's ready to be robbed of all his blister packs that he doesnt know how to use anyhow.

Here is a mindset that I think we should be living by:


Heinlein – Specialization is for Insects

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

[FyredUp]

I forgot I have a generator and my own well so as long as the gas holds out we are good that way. We also have several cases of bottles water on hand too.

[dutigaf]

^^^^ right. with my 500 gallon tank full... i can actually run the genny 2 times a day for 45 mins (1.5hrs total) & cycle all the freezers/fridges, heat/cool my home, run the well pump, shower, washing machine & the aerator... for about 250 days. (yup it uses right at a gallon in 45 mins at "house load")

LONGER... if i dont wash clothes as often or drop the thermostat down some in the winter. We would probably move to the basement anyway for cooler in the summer.

thats way longer than my food would last with out replenishing the supply.

not to mention the various small bottles we have around = 4- 20's , 2 - 100lbs....

the main thing we still wanna ad though is some solar panels & a 400watt turbine.... this would mean you would only need the genny for the 220volt stuff.

BUT that gets pretty pricey so it might be better to just go to the 1000gallon tank instead.

it was one of the big selling points of our new location out in the sticks. when the power does go off (fairly often) we dont even know it. IF it was "tough times"? we wouldnt let it run more than like we said above ... 2 times a day cycle.

i just cant seem to get behind that dehydrated food thing.

[Brokengun]

Gentlemen,

Let me ask you a simple question. How many of you can honestly fund food stockpiles for a year, let alone 5 or 10 years? I know for me I strive for somewhere between 6 months and a year. But there is no way I can do the boxes of food or bags of grain for 5 or 10 years.

My wife and I can and freeze some of the vegetables we produce as well as can apple sauce and pie filling from our apple trees. We buy either as quarter or half a cow, and a whole pig, from farmer friends of ours that raise them naturally with no hormones. We buy eggs locally from farmers that raise their chickens naturally. When we do buy to add to our stockpile we buy things that we normally eat, canned soup, canned chicken, tuna, Spaghettios, stew, SPAM, other canned pasta, pasta sauce and varieties of pasta, packaged rice and pasta side dishes, and so on. We also bulk buy sugar, salt, powdered sugar, and spices. We buy what we know we will eat, instead of buying what may seem to make sense but calls for more prep to make something edible.

We also have extra toilet paper and paper towels on hand. My wife is a soap maker so bath products are handled in that manner. We also stockpile first aid supplies at a higher level than the average household.

Obviously I have a gun or 2 and some ammunition on hand. But honestly they don't play as prominent a role in my survival as being prepared other wise does. Yes, if it came to it I would use them to protect me and my family. But the reality is I am surrounded by hunters and hunting land and my belief is wild game would be scarce in short order if push came to shove. Not sure I am ready to eat opossum or raccoon any time soon!

I guess I look at the prepping thing as more an everyday emergency back up than for an end of the world as we know it scenario. Honestly I look at it for things like a trucker's strike, bad storms stopping deliveries, or any other disaster like that. I can tell you honestly when my wife had breast cancer and couldn't work our food and other stockpiles allowed my pay checks to pay the bills while our supplies kept us fed and taken care of.

I'm not at all saying that if you have the money and the ability to build a bunker or 6 and supply them with food and ammunition for 20 years that you shouldn't do that. I am saying however that that is almost completely out of the means of most Americans. That shouldn't mean surrender to what comes your way, it should mean do what you can to be prepared.

You can package whole grains yourself using 5 gallon buckets, heavy sealing lids with Oxygen absorbers and mylar bags. Go to a local farm store and buy whole grain corn in 50 lb bags. If you have a supplier of grains for farmers that pant wheat and rye that is untreated you can also store that as well. Doing your own packaging you can save a fortune. Its best not to go to a local farmer and buy grain unless you know it is well dried. Locally I have a supplier that sells cleaned bags of wheat and rye. If you have Amish around you go to their store and buy bags of oats. I suggest you start with corn from a local farm store.

[FyredUp]

Brokengun:

You can package whole grains yourself using 5 gallon buckets, heavy sealing lids with Oxygen absorbers and mylar bags. Go to a local farm store and buy whole grain corn in 50 lb bags. If you have a supplier of grains for farmers that pant wheat and rye that is untreated you can also store that as well. Doing your own packaging you can save a fortune. Its best not to go to a local farmer and buy grain unless you know it is well dried. Locally I have a supplier that sells cleaned bags of wheat and rye. If you have Amish around you go to their store and buy bags of oats. I suggest you start with corn from a local farm store.

I support you going this route but for me the hassle of processing corn, rye, and wheat, just isn't worth it to me. I may be shortsighted in my opinion, but I see having to purchase a means to process these grains and then finding the time to do so, as well as figuring out how to make it into something my family will eat. If I truly believed that a complete economic or social collapse would occur I might be more inclined to go that route. But having lived through the war protests of the 60's, the democratic riots, oops convention in Chicago, the Nixon resignation and 9/11 I just don't see that as viable.

[nutznboltz]

I support you going this route but for me the hassle of processing corn, rye, and wheat, just isn't worth it to me. I may be shortsighted in my opinion, but I see having to purchase a means to process these grains and then finding the time to do so, as well as figuring out how to make it into something my family will eat. If I truly believed that a complete economic or social collapse would occur I might be more inclined to go that route. But having lived through the war protests of the 60's, the democratic riots, oops convention in Chicago, the Nixon resignation and 9/11 I just don't see that as viable.

Curious here. Are you a city or country person? You don't need to answer.