Old thread was getting long fairly quickly. You’ll find it here.
This is the all new, much improved (faster) Flu Prep page…
Thanks, BB.
Have at it campers.
H. Bill at 22:40 “By looking at the purchase dates on the cans, it was obvious that February was when I had a major meltdown. Was that the Iraq clusters, or BF in Nigeria? “ So funny! As I was rearranging items on my new shelves, I noticed many of my preps had Feb. dates and was asking myself the same question. I have made several large grocery runs lately and DH is catchin’ on…because when I bring a car load home, he now asks-what happened on the wiki today? His agency is attending training for bird testing this next month, so he is becoming less passive in his quest for info.
The mods have started taking meltdowns into consideration in our conferences because two of us had them this week. YOu are not alone.
Melanie – at 00:04 --- AND!! I did the markup without the spaces! :-)
I noticed many of my preps had Feb. dates
Remember this about expy dates — they aren’t all written is stone. The USDA, FDA and others have required for several years (at least in the US) that nearly all products sold in retail grocery outlets have a reasonable expiration date placed on them. Things like milk, eggs, meat—things that you KNOW will spoil rather quickly—make sense to have these dates. But on some other things—dry goods, powdered chocolate, soda in cans—the expy dates are there simply to satisfy a gov’t mandate.
You can reasonably assume that dry goods will generally last well beyond their expy dates, as long as care is taken in their storage. Canned fruits and vegetables, as long as the cans are not badly dented, or rusty, will last years. Same with powdered items like Quic chocolate mix and powdered milk.
The best example of a silly expiration date? Honey. It has an expy date, but what they forgot to add is that honey NEVER goes bad. It’s the only food to have this property.
See, Bill,
If I can figure it out, it isn’t hard.
B.Bill, I write the purchase date on all of my preps for a quicker (and easier to read for failing eyeballs) indicator of which items to rotate sooner out of my stash. I was thinking i must have done some heavy duty shopping in Feb., as I was noting all of the Feb. dates while rearranging preps today. If I read Hillbilly Bill’s post correctly, he was saying the same thing…and that there was probably something significant that occurred in Feb. My husband can always tell when something new occurs on the h5n1 front, by the frequency of trips and how the car “sits” upon the return from said shopping trips.
“how the car “sits” upon the return from said shopping trips.”
My little Subaru has come home dragging its tail on many occassions!
BB: Like giraffe I write the purchase date on the can with a Sharpie marker. That way I know at a glance which ones to use first. There are very few cans marked January left on my shelves but a LOT marked February. All of my expy dates are well into 2007.
I’d start a separate thread on ideas for how to deal with meltdown when you read upsetting news here, but I don’t want the Wiki to meltdown from too many open threads.
Anyhow, when I’m stressing a bit too much I do the following
1) Pull weeds in the garden by hand (or hack them to bits with a hoe). Nothing like a little healthy aggression vented onto the right thing. This calms me and also gives me a sense of accomplishment.
2) I take a look at what I have on hand and REALLY focus for a minute on what I ALREADY HAVE. I remind myself that some people have NOTHING put aside for any kind of emergency. Then I think about what I need to get for a later supply run, remembering what I do have already.
3) Go read a book, test out a recipe, plant a new crop, test a preparedness item — it’s not just about having stuff on hand, you need to have some KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS too.
4) Do household chores. Even if a big awful pandemic is coming, laundry still builds up, dishes still need to be washed, trash still needs to be taken out, dogs still need to be walked etc. Better to stay caught up with mundane household tasks now while you can. Oh and aggressive cleaning is good exercise.
5) Do something mindless now and then — it’s okay to take a break from preparing once in a while. Escapist books, TV, movies, video games aren’t off limits.
6) For those who are into it, exercise isn’t a bad idea. I get plenty in gardening (I do a lot by hand) but I know others like jogging, lifting weights, yoga etc.
7) Go out and buy something that will give you more peace of mind. This I think you should do only after you have done #2, taking a deliberate visual inventory of what you have on hand and #3 learn to use what you already have. Mindless buying isn’t as helpful to preparing yourself.
8) Rediscover your sense of humor. Laughter and joy still matter.
9) Consider sharing SOMETHING with someone else. This doesn’t have to be preparations or information about bird flu. Just go have a chat with a friend, share a meal with your family, mail a funny card to someone you care about.
If you all have more ideas on how to combat preparation overload, post away!
Actually writing/checking purchase dates on cans, etc. is a good exercise to see how quickly you are using your preps up or if there are certain areas where you are using them faster than expected.
I realized that somehow my family’s normal consumption was going up … it was incremental but I couldn’t figure out what was happening.
Then I realized all of my estimates for groceries was still based on what I needed last year. Sound strange? Well, as commonsense should have dictated, but which I didn’t notice until I really started watching the purchase dates … I added a teenager and a 2 year old, both of whom are high activity boys. <grin> My oldest son turned 13 and the baby started eating regular “meals” though admittedly small. I didn’t notice the difference at the grocery store because budget items shifted around and because I was already dealing with rising food prices. I attributed everything to rising food costs … but when I looked at actual consumption …
Stable family size and ages … as in they are all adults or are all already teenagers … should have an easier time of it.
However, if you have growing kids … watch how much you are prepping. Take into account “growth spurts” when they can’t seem to get enough to eat.
Also, if you have a house full of junk food junkies, you are going to have to deal with changing eating habits and finding ways to detour the calories they normally consumed in junk food to healthier food choices … and make sure to have those food choices stocked.
Like I said, in hindsight this was all commonsense … but it never hurts to take a second look at what and how much you are prepping to get a realistic expectation of how long your preps will last. And don’t go by servings on the can … they are too bogus for most families.
Great ideas annonymous!
I can’t really say that my prepping is a result of a meltdown. I came on board pretty late in this endeavor and am playing catch up. One thing that I think I do need to do is to sit down and write some menu plans out and attempt to determine how many months I actually have. My guess is that currently I have about 3 months of preps. April and May have been extremely busy months for my family, so consequently shopping was usually for only bare essentials, plus we ate out a lot. That, in itself, could also account for most of my goods have placed-in-stock dates from Feb.
H.Bill…I am so glad I am in such great company!
Talked my wife into “trying out” our new wind up flashlights. We went into the dark basement and took a tour of the “stash” using only the light from the windups.
That’s tricky business, giraffe, trying to figure out how long your preps would last. I’ve never been able to do it, since there seem to be so many unknown factors in my case. My parents aren’t prepping (unless you count the two cans of Spam as prepping), so I have to factor them in, but I don’t have a good sense of how much food they normally keep around. And what I cook and how I cook it would change if I were feeding them as well as myself . . . .
It bothers me a little, since I don’t like unknowns, but I don’t see a way to do it that wouldn’t be a massive pain in the butt or involve so many assumptions as to be useless.
If your parents aren’t prepping then they can’t dictate what you are storing. Not being nasty, just we can only do so much to accomodate those we care about in the event of a crisis.
Keep prepping for what you normally would. If they suddenly need to depend on you then they will have to just “be happy” with whatever you have prepped.
If your goal is one person for three months then adding two adults means your preps will only last 1 month.
And I assume that they wouldn’t come to you until their own regular pantry was empty … so you “might” get another week or two out of what you are prepping, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Just do the best you can and anyone that suddenly becomes dependent on your will just have to appreciate what you are sacrificing on their behalf.
Getting a big laminated world map from Barnes and Noble to keep trap of all natural and unnatural events from here on in. Use postums to mark it up. Concentration is now my mode of buying. A good Sicilian lemonaid and sour cherry mix, and lemonaid and blueberry. A little satisfies, so a two fifty bottle takes less space and adds more to taste satisfaction. Will try diluting it with mineral water and plain water. Will get a baby pool. Suddenly its summer. A day ago I was wearing layers, today a short sleeved blouse. So keeping warm was a priority before, now keeping comfortably cool is.
My wife and I are storing a number of our food inventory in the basement. It is not finished - an old hand dug basement that is cool year-round, 55 in the summer, 45 in the winter. I run a dehumidifier because it can get damp for 2 or 3 months during the year. We have our buckets of provisions from Y2K there. We still use them and they seem fine. What we want to do it store canned food there but I want to coat the cans with something to prevent rust. I am not sure what to use that is neutral. I know not to use Rustoleum! Any ideas or links? Thanks.
I have heard of people dipping cans in paraffin wax to prevent rust
http://www.endtimesreport.com shows pics of this!
Keeping my garden going is high on the list for me now. I have a lot of the nice basics in it that will dry and can well, plus I plan on freezing some things. I now have a small greenhouse to keep it going longer when fall comes, plus it will let me start it earlier next spring.
I can do laundry when power is out, and not have to get in a tub and stomp around. Thank you Lehman’s, gotta love some of their stuff.
Slowly stocking up on meds for my dogs (heartworm, fleas, other parasites) and food. I figure the meds are most important for their health, if things get really bad they can always eat rice and beans with us. I will just leave out the onions in their portions!
Thanking god every day that there is just me and my husband to prep for, plus assorted pets. I have enough on my plate to worry over without having the concern for small children or teens to care for also. I have a lot of sympathy for those of you who have children and elderly to care for. I know there is a lot of love in the bargain but there is so much worry as well. Hugs to you all!
It is nice that since starting to prep in earnest, I now have so much less worry in my daily life with respect to the ‘what ifs’ that are out there in the world. Thank yous from me to all here who helped me to get to this state of mind, you were a godsend and still are. I have a few major items I still want, but if I don’t have them my world will not come to an end even if a pandemic hits. We will be comfortable, and that is all that really matters.
Mainly all the prepping now is replacements and normal stocking up when bargains are seen. I am sure you all can relate to that, hehe. A good bargain in my sights, and I can swear I hear it calling to me ‘buy me! buy me now! and buy LOTS of me!’ LOL
Kathy in FL – at 09:55
Good point about increasing appetites. I’ve been figuring on my seven year old’s eating habits going up geometrically in the coming years, but really didn’t figure what lifestyle changes might do to the rest of us. If my husband can’t spend 18 hours a day sitting in front of a computer he’ll hit the exercise equipment instead and work up a much bigger appetite. On the other hand, I’ll probably be less physically active and need less food.
To help supplement the snack foods, I have been buyinh popcorn and storing it in the freezer. We used to use the microwave variety, but have been making it the “old fashioned” way lately for practice. My granddaughter was amazed this weekend when I made a batch, she had never actually seen popcorn pop and she is 9 years old. Maybe a pandemic will eventually lead us to a kinder, simpler existence.
HillBilly Bill – at 15:33 - granddaughter
You need to take her camping and fishing and then spend the evening showing her how to find the north star. Even camping in the back yard will be remembered for a lifetime.
Some of the amounts of food I see other preppers talk of having stocked had me thinking that they were stocking for more people than I (15) or for a longer time (6 months min.).
Having expanded my spreadsheet this weekend to include caloric content, I realize I am not as prepped as I thought. — sigh!
I have stocked just over one million calories of food. Visually, I thought I had enough for 6 months, and now mathematically realize I have enough for just over one month.
I need five million more calories!!!!
Sam’s, Krogers, and Wally-world……. Here I come!
If you haven’t started prepping yet, please do; It’s later than you think.
I was picking up some things at the grocery store yesterday to make potato salad for todays BBQ (celery seed in potato salad is wonderful!) when I grabbed 4 gallons of water and some more TP. Hubby said, “jeez we don’t need more water!” Well I whipped out my “1 gallon per person per day” math and floored him. We bought the water! LOL!
Ok, this may not be the place but I am panicked now, realizing that I have taken too much time getting ready. My plan is to go tomorrow and at least buy enough rice and beans for one year, for a family of four and 1 dog. I have been trying to do the “plan for a month and add on” bit, so I do have things to spice it up and oil, etc. I do still need more water, too. I am sorry if this was addressed in another thread, but I couldn’t find it. My question is what is the minimal amount of JUST beans and rice one would need to survive on? I think that it is a 5 to 1 ratio of rice to beans for a complete protein and know that you don’t need 2000 calories a day, but I can’t find any answer here or on the net as to what someone should store as a minimum. Thank you for any help — I appreciate all the help I’ve received so far, mostly from lurking!!
preppiechick How many months are you preparing for and how many people???
preppiechick – at 01:42 You will also need some source of fat to supplement the beans and rice. I suggest lard, it is cheap and shelf stable.
This weekend I got the majority of my garden planted. We have had a cold, wet spring that has delayed planting so some crops are going to go right up to the first frost date. I hope to build up our canned goods over the summer while we are basically eating out of the garden.
Old fashioned popcorn has been the big hit here the past few weeks too!!!! Kids love it I’ve also been putting in my garden its a busy time of year. But my carrots and peas and potatoes are all up. got to get my corn in today.( Black flies are insane)
preppiechick, it’s 3 to one for rice (or most other grains) to beans. The exception is corn which is 5 to one.
My fiance and I went to Costco Friday night after work and we bought $400 worth of food. A Huge bag of rice (which I have to find something to put it in)peanut butter, canned vegi’s (corn, greenbeans, diced tomatoes), canned fruit, a large can of tang, a large can of powdered gatorade, a large box of individual packaged instant potatoes, a box of indiv. various jams (the kind they have on the table in restaurants, crackers and several other things that I can’t think of right now….but my prepping (for only starting about two weeks ago) is really coming along.
Heather, get the storage first next time — as it gets warm, grain moths can be a real problem. Meanwhile, if you can make the room, put that bag of rice in the freezer to deal with any problems it may have brought in with it.
Still looking for a cheap source for buckets…
DJOD: I got eaten up by deer flies while planting yesterday. Repellant didn’t even faze them.
I took a break from prepping over the weekend-helped my state of mind tremendously as I was also having severe meltdown last week. Did A LOT of gardening! Weed whacking is a great stress relief! Put in a pool for the kids. Husband was going to build a solar oven, but he did the pool instead-thats ok. We really needed the pool first. Kids loved it, it was huge hit. It got really really hot all at once! Read some Jane Austin I love Victorian Novels and Gothics- just give me a good windswept heath, an old estate, dinner clothes, a broody man with a secret past, throw in a family ghost-ahhhh. Also went to see Davinci Code- I also love historical conspiracy Novels. (stopped at Big lots on way home and picked up a few preps-just cant totally get away from it!) Had family come over for big Cookout/sleepover first part of weekend. Did some Memorial Day stuff yesterday.
This morning-(after fluwiki) I’m rethinking preps/prepstorage. Space is at a premium-we have a small house. I’m also looking into the beans/rice/protein/calorie thing- last week I dug out some old “seventies save the world eat vegetarian” cookbooks. They have a lot of protein/calory charts-am going to do a web search for updated info. Kathy from Fl is spot on about increasing food amounts. My 15 year old son is out of school and started mowing lawns /gardening work for extra money-good night! What that guy can eat!!!! He ate half a loaf of bread before supper! (Like, half an hour before supper) I’m talking long loaf of French bread, then ate more than husband and I combined! Then an hour later came around looking for dessert!
I’m vegetarian, we eat mostly vegetarian meals,(because I’m the cook) but husband and son are not vegetarians, though they happily eat the beans and rice. (they happily eat just about anything as long as its food and somebody else cooks !) But they uasually get lunch out and then its hamburgers, or some other meat thing- I’m thinking now about canning some ground beef/chicken/ turkey for them.
Preppiechick-if your considering the beans and rice route-a very good one IMO I’d start now and gradually work into. Thats not a diet I’d start all at once under stressful conditions-it can really play havoc on your digestive system. Canned beans are easier to digest-I suggest you start with those, then split peas and lentils.
LBB- I have a huge freezer so I will move things around so that I can put the rice in the freezer for awhile to kill any bugs it might already have! Where can I get food grade buckets (My fiance said we could use the ones that spackle comes in but I told him they had to be food grade)…?
Heather, I have heard that you can sometimes get food grade buckets from restaurants or bakeries — they buy their supplies in these buckets and then don’t need them afterwards. I haven’t tried this yet but it’s worth a go, given that the buckets are neither free nor cheap. Other than that, you can either buy via mailorder from one of the Disasters R Us stores, or you can look for a restaurant supply place that sells retail — they’ll have these.
I wouldn’t turn down the spackle buckets, though — if you’ve got good lids for them, they can be used for non-food items that you want to keep water- and critter-proof, like tissues or TP or personal care items.
Green mom (and others!!) - was right there with you on the meltdown thing last week. I am actually going to TRY to keep myself off the wiki this week, except the news, which I am limiting myself to number of times I check. (Keep telling myself I am not changing the outcome by checking more or less..) I too can tell my meltdowns by a surge in items purchased at the same time. :-( oops.
But I am really having a perspective problem. A prespective on how much is really enough - a family of 4 - 2 adults, one grade schooler & a preschooler. I’ve looked at LDS sites and many other lists provided here on food storage & am trying to note everything we use/eat, etc. and have just come to conclusion that we are unpredictable!! And then to prep for these things we don’t use regularly or at all - masks, alot of the OTC meds we could possibly need but fortunately never used once for the kids. And bags - I know people say “lots” of bags - I keep wondering what the border line of “lots” and “obsessive” is :) And I hate to admit it, with all you people who just know exactly what you are doing with canning, and growing gardens - but I don’t have any of that - I am reading books like crazy but feel like I don’t have enough time to really get over the learning curve in time to save my family with this. I am late bloomer for prepping and trying to get to comfort level - I have tried to get the rice & beans thing to a good level, but also alot of prepacked foods too. Not for lack of my trying to change it, but the kids are such picky eaters. If do figure if TSHTF, they will eventually eat what is served because the other option is starving. But I don’t want everyday to be like that if I can help it.
Anyone have any advice for me??? (And yea, I am going out shopping again in a bit…)
Amak….I have been gardening since I was a kid and one thing I have found thru adulthood is if You plant it it will probably grow…I do alot of summer festivals and preparing for them and have planted many a garden I did not really have the time to tend to.Usually they grow some food,albiet not as much as if I had tended them right.Put in the seeds and plants.There now you are a gardener…
Amak- For a change of pace meal I think your kids will like, try ramen plus angel hair pasta. A package of Ramen plus about a fifth of a box of angel hair cooked in about 2–1/4 cups of water makes a very filling and tasty meal for a couple of kids for about 20 cents worth of storage food. It is not very nutritious, so I would only use it occasionally, but it is someting that would be something else for them. And it gives them enough calories to get to the balanced dinner you serve later. Ramen noodles can usually be gotten for less than 10 cents a pack on sale. I have several cases of them stuck aside for just such a change-up.
Another Ramen meal that my wife and I like is to cook a pack of noodles in hot water, then saute with soy or teriyaki sauce to make a mock Lo Mein. Add whatever leftover veggies you might have on hand if you want. For the most part, nutritionally bankrupt, but filling and satisfying.
Thanks for the ramen ideas - I do have a few 12 packs of those tucked away - also in the category of things the kids won’t eat, but if the choice is starve or ramen noodles, they better learn to eat it! :-)
I did actually plant some seeds which have sprouted - I guess I need to replant now - if I ever get any food off this it will be surprising…
lbb- all good ideas. Thank you!
HeatherinVT: I have gotten several nice food grade storage buckets from the deli in my local supermarket. Ask them to save them for you, and make sure to tell them you need the lids as well.
I store my rice in cleaned out kitty litter buckets. After freezing and thawing the rice, I pack the 3lb bags rice in their original bags into gallon size ziplock freezer bags, then pack these in the buckets. I get 24lbs of rice per bucket.
Bill- I decant 20 pound bags of rice into canning jars. Either a dozen quart or half a dozen 2 qt sized jars do it for the 20 pounds. I lid them and screw it on tight, freeze and then store them. I have yet to meet the critter that can gnaw through a canning jar, and, if I remember correctly, they aren’t supposed to sieze home canned foods. I would hope that if it ever came to that, the canning jars full of rice would not qualify for that.
Of coure, if things came to that, then OY.
Speaking of things coming to that, my wife expressed doubts as to whether one really wants to stock up on trade goods. her point was if you were in that situation and trying to trade, you would most likely run into someone like “Beardy” from Lost (the ABC series), who would more likely than not say “That’s good. But the thing is, you gotta give us all of your stuff.”
Eccles Or even worse, follow you back home, find out where you live then come at you for all you have in a night raid. I am not planning on trading, unless it would be to help out a very close neighbor, and then would be very careful about it.
Thnaks for all of the help so far. I guess that I wasn’t clear, in my haste last night. I have been buying for a while now, but just doubling up what I was buying.I do have things, in small amounts, like ramen noodles, canned tomatoes, soup,sugar, flour,salt, etc. I do have vegie oil, crisco and olive oil (no lard, heard that makes really good piecrust and biscuits- last thing I need is to use that now and get hooked <g> !)
My idea, for today, is to go out and buy the total amout of beans and rice needed for us to survive on, for a year -if thshtf, and break up the monontony with the preps that I’ve already accumulated. Just looking for an inexpensive way to take care of my family today, and then go bck to adding other stuff as long as I can.
Also, get the best storage that you can. I live in a nice suburban area, of a good sized city and last night I opened my spice drawer and found that a mouse had gone thru and ruined a lot. Especially fond of the little gel things for writing on cakes. GROSS! But made me realize that if conditions change, we’ll be in thier territory and our food will look and smell very good to them and others. They ate some plastic things, so now I’m rethinking my rummermaid storage. Also, I don’t have freezer room to debug rice - any other ideas? Thanks again!
Eccles: Your wife has a point, but then again those types can possibly come around whether you have anything to trade or not. Maybe someday I will be at the point that I am stashing away pints of liquor and young coneys packed in cherry brandy to trade for non-mutant females of breeding age, but that is not in the immediate future.
Preppiechick - I have been thinking along those lines also - just one a day item - how much do I have & how much do I really need of this item to get through 3 mo,6mo, a year? My problem as stated earlier is the things I don’t really use & can’t figure out - gloves, masks, etc. Today I believe is canned beans day and more water.
Amak- I can’t guess amounts, either. My thought is to do the best that you can with those items, but make sure that you have the absolute survival amount of food, first. That’s why today I just want to buy all the rice and beans(and beano!!)to just be able to survive, so that if I run out of time soon, at least I’ll have one year of minimal food to survive.
Don’t forget, that fasting is an option too… many people fast once a week, or two days a month. If you go on a “just water” fast it can be very healthy and replenishing for teh body - gives the body time to wash away extra toxins. (of course it doesn’t feel great at first, but you really come to appreciate real, healhty food!)
fasting is NOT an option for those who need to manage their glucose levels.
Yes, water is number one. No water, no life. You can cut back on on food and loose weight but you cannot do without water. If you do go with just rice and beans- be sure to include a bottle of multiple vitamins.
Have said this elsewhere but it bears repeating- Get a copy of “making the best of basics” by James Stevens. Far and away the best food storage book I have read. Has checklists, calculation sheets, about everything you need to decide how much to order of whatever.
Walton Feed in Idaho has the best prices I have seen for the stuff in Stevens’ book.
I do have enough vitamins for a year. Still need to figure the water storage thing- hoping to move somewhere with a pool! Actually, I do plan to get a water filtration thing. I don’t plan on living on just rice and beasn, but I want to get the absolute minimum in stores,NOW, so that I CAN live on it, if something breaks out soon and I don’t have time or money to finish a balanced prep. I have not found any calculation sheet (i.e. provident living,walton feed, deyo, etc. ) that just figures rice and beans. There must be a ratio somewhere, i.e. from the UN or PeaceCorps or religious organizations, that provide survival amounts to third world countries. Again, any help is greatly appreciated as I am making a sams run in less than an hour!
HeatherinVT – at 08:49
If you go to Costco you’ve probably seen the large plastic barrel looking containers full of cheese puff balls or pretzels. Well, the one with the puff balls will hold 20 lbs. of rice.
And no … you don’t want to know how I figured that one out. LOL! Suffice it to say that the story has a two year old, a playdough knife, and a burlap bag of rice with a hole in the bottom of it in there. <grin>
btw, Walton Feed is *really* slow. I placed an order several weeks ago and then two days ago I finally got an email acknowledging the order, asking if the shipping cost was okay, and then stating that my order would be filled in another 2–3 weeks. And this was for a very small order. I’ve seen another very similar complaint about Walton on the wiki as well so not at all sure that I would recommend them.
I ordered powdered eggs from honeyville and they were very quick and very helpful. I got my order delivered in less than a week!
For folks with kids- when I try to get my kids to try something new, I used to make up just a little of the new dish with a side of one of their favorites-say a soy dog, (new thing) with lots of Mac and Cheese(big favorite at our house)
or a really fab dessert
or call it something else-my kids wouldn’t touch quiche, gobbles down “vegtable pie” don’t even tell them-but you have to be sneaky about this. My kids ate tofu for a month before they relized what it was, I just put little bits in things and gradually increased the amounts.
Preppiechick-I’m doing the same thing you are-making sure I have basic rice and beans first, then filling in with other things. And heres a help-if you keep reciepts, go back and look at grocery recipts for a month or so and see what you buy. If you don’t keep reciets, you might want to start! I have also been marking things with a bit of tape and sharpie-“bought this on 05/15/06″ and see how long it lasts. Ive discovered oatmeal is lasting longer than I thought, but we are using more flour and oil, than I thought. Dogs eat more, cat eats less than I had calculated.
sometimes they will surprise you-we inadvertantly ran out of milk over this last weekend-unexpected company, and my son went in the pantry, found powdered milk, mixed it up and poured it on his cereal, said it tasted ok-especially since we were out of milk! I never would have guessed he’d go for powdered milk….
Of course, now my kids are older-12 and 15-they eat anything that dosn’t move….
preppiechick - it seems no one has addressed your issue, so I will attempt to for you. I will go with your earlier statement about 4 adults. I will ignore the dog in this, as I don’t know the size or caloric needs for it. I suggest buying a year’s worth of inexpensive dog food, unless you can afford a higher quality one. The dog food will most likely be infested with weevils or moths, so while you are out, purchase 2 large metal trash cans as you will be needing to store the dog food in your garage.
You should probably count on 1600 calories a day per person of the rice and beans. With what you will add from fats and your current stores, I am sure that will come to 1700–2000 per day. Keeping in mind that you need a 3–1 ratio of rice to beans, and you asked specifically about those items then:
You need 1200 calories per day from rice, and 400 calories per day from beans. Navy beans have 80 calories in 1/4 cup of dried beans. Rice has 150 calories per 1/4 cup dry rice.
You will need 1 1/4 cups dried beans and 2 cups uncooked rice per day per person, which for 4 is 5 cups dried beans and 8 cups uncooked rice.
Per pound of dried beans, you will have 3 cups of beans. Per week for 4 that adds up to 11 2/3 pounds. For a year 11 2/3 x 52 weeks= 606.32 pounds. I would vary the beans as navy beans for a year would get mighty boring!
To make things a bit easier regarding the rice, you will have 50.5 cups per 20 pound bag. Per week for 4 you need 56 cups. So for a year that equals out to 2912 cups, or 58 20 pound bags or 1160 pounds of rice if my math is right.
I couldn’t find my calculator so had to do this all quickly by hand, excuse any mistakes. The calorie counts are accurate, I got those directly from bags I have in my own storage. You can redo the math to see what the exact total is.
As others have stated, you will need to kill any insect infestations by freezing, You cannot skip this step or you will end up with inedible foodstuffs. What I suggest is buying 5 gallon plastic buckets and lids from your home improvement store, and ordering mylar bags online. Place the rice and beans into the mylar and seal. If you cannot afford the oxygen absorbers, you can get the majority of the air out by using a vacuum sealer. An inexpensive version can be found for about $39 at Walmart.
Place a mylar bag inside a bucket and fill it. Use the vacuum sealer to remove the air then seal the mylar. This will make sure you have the maximum amount in each bucket. Place the lid on the bucket to seal it, then freeze the bucket and contents for 3 days. If you cannot fit the bucket in your freezer, you need to place just the mylar bag with rice or beans in the freezer. You can seal all the bags as soon as you start the job, then place as many as will fit into your freezer for the required time. Keep rotating bags out, sealing them into buckets, then new bags in until you have treated all your beans and rice. It will take a lot of time, so be patient. By removing the air and sealing the bags, you remove the potential of infesting your foods. The best way is with the Oxygen obsorbers. That removes enough oxygen that any bugs inside can’t live for long, if at all. Plus it extends the storage life of your food stores.
I hope this helped. Again, make sure you have fats and spices and other things to make your diet varied. I would get a lot of dried onions and garlic to help also. Don’t forget some vitamin C, either tang or chewable tablets. You will be needing them on a limited diet.
Someone with a calculator check my math, as I may have figured incorrectly.
Nuts add protein and oils, and peanut butter is good in many ways, with honey, with soysauce and cayenne pepper (maybe with something sweet and something sour-honey and lemon juice, say) as a sauce. Also cheese for calcium, protein and fats. Kraft makes a canned cheese, 8oz. for about $3 from Internet Grocer. Haven’t tasted it yet, but others here liked it.
preppiechick – at 12:26
same here- I figure that the powder eggs will be good for 3,5,10 years or better. scambled eggs and rice is not to bad. I also have tried the eggs with the “bacon bits” added- that works OK. Even if there is no H2H in the US, I think that the price of eggs will be going up and this is an easy way to be ready. I also got some of their(Honeyville) smoothie mix- you got to have some fun ….. That,dried fruits and M and M’s will be my “comfort foods”. I normally don’t eat much chocolate, but I wanted to boost my calories when needed. You can do a lot of recipies with powdered/canned millk and powdered eggs.
Some folks out there are prepping for sure, as have noticed that the lag time for dehydrated/freeze dried foods is now fairly long. Have been trying to order a small amount every month or so and it has been 3–4 weeks before they ship most of them, and the time has increased for each order I have made, some companies take longer than others. All in all have been pleased with the products sent, but still waiting for a few back ordered items from most of them, to include 21st Century Food Storage and Emergency Essentials, have got all my ordered items from Survival Acres, they all are very responsive to emails or problems, great companies, IMO. Meyers also has been great, seem to have the best prices for MREs. If you can take the heat, the Tasty Bite line of Indian foods are great, try them from markets then order them by the case if you like them, also the Trader Joe’s equivalent line. And TJs is a wonderful place for gourmet preppers on a budget!
Heard they have battery powered fans at Walmart, dread no power in Summer even here in New England, as my house gets very hot after a couple of scorching days, might have to move to the basement in a pinch. Still not enough batteries, are there ever enough? Crank LED lights, LED lantern, fluorescent one also, old kerosene lamp, candles, but thinking of one of the Aladdin oil lamps, has anyone experience with the Aladdin? Noticed that there are about 100 different variations of that one, brass, glass, nickel, etc. Too many choices.
Dennis C, have tried stockpiling chocolate and nuts also, but seem to have a problem with them as they tend to disapear during stressful times (which seems to be more frequent these days, but will try again.) <G>
Perhaps one of the chemists in the group could explore the apparent increase in the vapor pressure of chocolate when it is placed into storage. It seems that it is a universal experience that storage chocolate evaporates long before it is needed. This needs to explained.
If you are stocking for a year, consider if there is a loss of electricity, what will you be eating? Dried beans take a lot of time and fuel to make. Consider the safety of having a portion of your beans in canned beans,-refried,pea/lentil/bean soups, chilli, baked beans, etc. I don’t want to get stuck eating raw rice and flour, so I’m getting a no-cook supply of food, beyond the normal cook-type food. Where will you be cooking if there is no power? Outside grill or inside wood stove- which will be more secure? I think to be prepped for a bad year, I need to take the next leap and get a wood stove. However, it’s not the type of thing you can keep in a closet and pull out if you need one. I would have to install it, and there’s never a great place to put one, if you don’t have rural decor.
Ahhh…the disappearance of chocolate in storage. This is caused by a super-secret cocoa-sensing government satellite. This satellite circles the globe, searching out preppers and their stashes of consumable chocolate in any form.
The best way to keep your chocolate from being appropriated by this satellite is to first: wrap each piece, individually, in 27 layers of aluminum foil. Second, wrap duct tape at least 3 times around each piece. And third, melt at least 47 pounds of paraffin wax, and dip each piece into the wax a minimum of 45 times, letting the wax harden between each dipping.
This will, in effect, protect your chocolate from this nefarious satellite, and preserv it for at least the next 250 years. Of course, each 1-inch piece of chocolate will now measure approx. 15 inches square, and weigh about 4 pounds.
IMHO.
Bill - you and your conspiracy theories! In order to evade the gov’t chocolate sattelite, make the fudge recipe off the back of Fluff jars. It’s super-easy, very rich (don’t need a big piece) and freezes well!
I 2nd the slowdown at Waltonfeed - I got the same message OCDinthe DC got from them - I ordered three weeks ago and they are still saying 2–3 weeks to ship. Honeyville was quick and at my door in one week. Cans are enormous though - take up a lot of space. Walton has lots more items but the wait is crazy.
NJ. Preppie – at 14:24 I have a propane stove- but my back up is a Kelly Kettle and a thermos. You can cook rice, barley, oatmeal, soups in them. The Kelly Kettle is pricey, but it doesn’t take much fuel- a hand full of twigs to boil your water, then just pour in a thermos with the rice and wait. In reality, I have some Sterno cans and homemade fuel “gels” that I can use. I have almost all my Beans in cans. The reason is that at my altitude it takes a half day to cook them even if soaked a day.
But the bottom line is don’t forget water and cooking fuel. I don’t know if we will be entirely without utilities for months but I do think there will be “outages” of days and very slow repairs to the grid.
Thanks deborah! That was helpful.
DennisC: Have you tried making Chinese fried rice out of your rice and eggs? You can find the seasoning packets in the ethnic foods section.
Are you guys freezing your chocolates? I plan on storing M&Ms and Snickers bars.
My prep this week is to clean closets…. I’ve been putting this off for almost 3 years now, trying to get a dissertation completed… but no more, I’m hoping that a morning of cleaning closets will make working on the dissertation more appealing! :=)
In reality, I’m looking for more room for my preps and while I’m confident I have 4–6 months of most foodstuffs, manufactured products, and medical supplies for illness, I’m not so confident in clothing for my growing children if we SIP over next winter and spring.
ABOUT COOKING DRIED BEANS: I built a super insulated (styrofoam sheet between two wooden boxes) with a super-insulated Lid to fit my biggest soup pot. This works great with dried beans. Soak the beans. Bring to a boil and set the whole pot with lid into the box and place its lid on. Leave on a few hours and the beans are done or stew or rice or you name it. THIS SAVES PRECIOUS FUEL!!!
Swann – at 15:24
down here it is Mexican fried rice with black beans - and some chili
I have only recently discovered the great taste of black beans…we make taco soup frequently. Do you use scrambled eggs in Mexican fried rice?
Hide-in-the-Hills (and wait) – at 15:49 I am at 9000 feet, my problem is that water boils at a much lower temp so it takes forever to cook dried beans even when soaked for the day before.
Swann – at 15:56
the tradition here is an egg over easy on top of your rice/black beans.
but scrambled eggs and a beef burrito is a nice meal. Tortillas are not too hard to make. They also make breakfest burritos with eggs. refried beans (from dried powder) is also normally on the side. (these things are regional and depends on who the cook’s mom was but there are a lot of “real Mexican” food places here in New Mexico cook by undocumented Mexicans).
Some where there is a thread about beef (fry then dry in oven and freeze). You can make a lot of “Tex-Mex things” with beef, rice, beans (black, refried, pinto), tortilla, and spices- Not to mention the Velveta and tobasco sauce + peppers. I can find all the Mexican spices I want here, but I still haven’t found any chutney. You can also make the dishes with canned chicken instead of beef.
My neighbors include a Nat’l Forest and an Indian Reservation. There are a lot of things like fried bread and native plants that can be added. THere are a lot of “ethnic” homecooking meals around here but like any homecooking, it all depends on who the cook’s mom was.
BroncoBill – at 14:32, while your method might keep chocolate from being found by government cocoa satelites, what about the “chocolate” detection canines utilized by the chocolate SWAT teams? hee hee You know, those dogs are trained in associative odors, such as duct tape and aluminum foil! Oh my, our precious chocolate will never be safe:(
For the Tex-Mex crowd, don’t forget to add Rotel Tomatoes to your stash. I bought a case at Sam’s club recently. Will add to Velveeta for a cheese dip with homemade tortilla chips, or add to chili for an extra “kick.” Also plan to buy some Louisiana Hot Sauce to my stock - may make the dehydrated scrambled eggs a little easier to swallow, and I use it as a dipping sauce for quesedillas. I recommend you practice making flour tortillas before you need to make them. I found unbleached flour tastes better. I have a griddle that fits across two of my burners, or on my outdoor grill, so I can cook 2 at a time. Also use this for pancakes.
If you Tex-Mex types could do some canning-there is an excellent ground beef in tomato sauce recipie in the Ball Blue Book that goes with all kinds of TM foods-good chutney recipies too.
Thanks to all for the solution to the chocolate evaporation problem. That explains it! My solution to evade the SWAT team Chocolate detectors is the old fashioned scent killer/coverup, GARLIC!
NJPreppie, in regards to using a wood stove as backup cooking in case of power failure, have an old one myself which could be used for heat and cooking, but would not want to fire that big monster up in warm weather, besides which my wood supply is small, limited to emergency heat use. My solution was a single burner butane stove, uses small cans of fuel. They are popular as a tableside burner for making things right by the diner such as Steak Diane etc. Mine has almost 10k BTUs, will boil 2 cups of water in just a few minutes, available many places, got mine through kingbutane.com, fuel very inexpensive, read somewhere that puts out little carbon monoxide, but use with ventilation anyway so as to prevent oxygen depletion. Last item on my food prep list is probably going to be a bread machine. Reading up on them now. Not enough room in my small freezer for more than a few loaves of bread, and the alternatives like Cheerios make an awkward sandwich! Any preppers using one, I would welcome your comments.
Nautical man @ 14:01
The battery powered fans at Wal-Mart are not bad (in the camping section). Mine was about $12. Says it will last for 24 hrs on 8 D batteries.
Eight D cells?!? That’s a lot of batteries over a period of 3 months…
BB goes shopping for more batteries…
Walmart also has $1 “keychain” fans, 2 AA batteries included. The blades are foam, so painless if they hit you. It makes a very strong breeze! Maybe I’ll get some more. It’s about 6″ by 1 1/2″ so it could hang off a belt loop by its metal clip.
I bought a Coleman LED micropacker lantern, for $10. It uses 3 AA batteries and is about 7″ tall. There’s a sliding reflector and a (rather delicate) folding handle. Run time “up to 125 hours (test used fresh alkaline batteries).” Batteries are included. It’s cute, too, and looks sturdy overall. I haven’t pulled the tab to try it, though.
Also bought 2 folding 5 gal. water containers, so we’ll have 5 more days of water even if it doesn’t rain. So now we have water for 50 days, for 2 people, if we drink from the plastic garbage cans. Filtered, I suppose.
The camping aisle at Walmart looked cleaned out today, so I got alarmed, but turns out they are moving the contents to a bigger area.
Deborah-
THANKS! I already left when you wrote and just got back! Of course, I now feel even more unprepared even though I bought another 50# bag of rice- they didn’t have any dry beans. How on earth can I store that much - ugh! As for chocolate, I coincidentally bought 5#s of tootsie rolls. The expiration date is 2008, it was only @ $5.00 and I can resist them a lot easier than Ghiradelli’s! I also bagged them and stuck the bag in some large metal coffee cans - my kids don’t even know that we have them! Thanks again for all the hard work - I’m sorry that you had to do all that calculating (my least favorite subject!) _I was thinking that there was a formula already out there. Well, now to figure where to put all that rice!
Bronco Bill @ 18:42 I agree. That’s a TON of batteries and is one of the reasons for considering rechargeable batteries, solar charger, etc. Am very concerned about the potential for Alabama heat though. Today it was 92F here, with heat index of 97F. Humidity is 52%. Just lovely May/spring weather in AL.
Anyone have any experience with the “Dollar Store” batteries? Last time I was in, they had 4pk of Panasonic D cell batteries for $1, exp. date 2010. They weren’t alkaline; they were described as “heavy duty.” Anyone know if these are actually any good?
“The camping aisle at Walmart looked cleaned out today, so I got alarmed, but turns out they are moving the contents to a bigger area.”
Reminds me of the time I flipped out when there were no 5 gallon gas cans.
“Anyone have any experience with the “Dollar Store” batteries?”
I have used them and for the price they stack up well against name brands.
Galt – at 21:05 92F here
Ha, Ha, the high was 76 here -humidity 28%. (NM at 9000 feet) But it will be in the low/mid 50′s tonight.
I just have a small muffin fan linked to my 12V solar array/battery. I have a second on in the sick room to keep it negative pressure from the rest of the house.
DennisC, you might try ethnicgrocer.com for the chutney. They have all kinds of foods from all over the world. Here in Washington state, you can get 10 different kinds of chilies, masa, and corn husks in grocery stores, but I like to cook Thai and Middle Eastern food, also. I can get things like lemongrass and halvah (mmm!) from ethnicgrocer that I can’t buy locally.
Preppie-I understand your concerns completely..I too purchased rice and beans first using my non mathematical eye estimate for three months..just so that if tshtf I could feed us..but also am nickle and dime’n the other supplies. I just completed three months of breakfast this past weekend. Now onto lunches..(almost there as my daughter could live on ramen noodles with green beans..she eats green beans as a snack.)We now eat out so much I have plenty of room in my pantry for preps.
All the talk about summer heat got me thinking that my current home improvement project might help some other apartment dwellers. My very creative sister (who watches WAY too much HGTV) suggested that I screen in my little apartment balcony. I’ve ordered a roll of fiberglass screen from the Home Depot website and we’re going to screw a board to the overhang, staple gun the screen onto it, then staple the other end to a board placed on the floor of the patio (I’m a little hazy on the details because my sister is the handy one, not me).
This will create a little sleeping porch for summer nights—a lot cooler than inside the apartment if the AC is off! And the cats will be able to come out on the balcony with me, which it isn’t safe for them to do right now. (I wouldn’t do this if they were kittens that would try to climb the screen, but they’re all grown up.)
My sister and I are doing this on the cheap (screen was $35 or so with the shipping), but the Lowe’s website has instructions on how to do it with fancy little dealies to hold the screen—more expensive and involved, but it looks like it would be bug-proof, more or less.
Hillbilly Bill—thanks for info on Dollar Store batteries.
Dennis C @ 22:28--Wow, 50F, that’s what we call a blizzard here! (ha)
DennisC at 16:25 - Thanks for pointing me to Tex-Mex ideas; my cooking style is southern country (fried chicken, cornbread, collard greens) :) I need to widen my horizons.
Look for chutney in the aisles that have olives, relishes, pickled onions…usually find it on the highest shelves.
I have done so much with prepping for food and water….now is the fun stuff…..
I have purchased solar lights, they will not be really bright when brought inside at night but we wont have to rely so much on batteries………which I have tons of. I have also bought a solar shower at Wal-Mart as a luxury item:) The nice one for 97.00 (its not “nice” now but it will be then:)) Also bought the portable toilet. I think that was about 100.00 too. I wanted to get that just in case h20 got low and we needed the water. All of which we will be able to use when we go camping.
I think everyone should have some luxury items. If this is really bad when TSHTF and we have a really long time to SIP these simple “luxury items” will be a huge deal then!! Chocolate is next on the list:)LOLOLOL
I have got to check out Honeyville….I have read so much in these forums about all that you can get there….gotta check it out.
I recently spent a week in the hospital which afforded my eldest step-son the opportunity to raid my gasoline cache (about 25 gallons) There isn’t any pandemic around here at the moment - he just needed the gas. I’ve since placed a contactor’s Job Box in the back yard and plan to store gasoline, oil, propane and lighter fluid there. The box is secure, locked, in the shade and in no real danger of fire. There is some air circulation in the box - it isn’t air tight. Does anyone know if such fuels can be safely stored in close proximity with each other? As it is the box is about 30 feet from the house.
Excellent point. As soon as we are out of anything, the family wants to raid the emergency stash. I’ve thought about installing latches and padlocks, seems the only way to keep the kids out of the Top Ramen because “we were out and you weren’t home to ask”! yikes. Any other suggestions? They haven’t gotten into the gas because I have that in a separate storage and they don’t drive yet!!
johnnystop – at 00:18 --- Depending on where you live, the air temperature inside a job-box even in the shade can be 20–30 degrees hotter than the ambient outside temp. You might be better off to put it in a locked shed with open, screened vents at the top and bottom.
As for storing them together, the gasoline will be the most volatile, with the lighter fluid coming in a close second. They should be safe together, as long as there is adequate ventilation. The danger isn’t from being next to each other, but instead is from any fumes that might settle at the bottom of the box. A job-box just won’t allow enough circulation.
Similar to johnnystop at 00:18 I’ve also wondered about the logistics of storing fuel. On another thread (and maybe another board) someone noted that Wal-Mart stores the small 1lb propane cannisters on an aisle inside the store. is it safe to store the 1lb propane cylinders inside (garage, etc.)? If so, how many would be safe? How are others in suburbia storing their backup fuel (propane, kerosene, auto gas)?
“As soon as we are out of anything, the family wants to raid the emergency stash”
Our preps are for the most part what we eat so this is not a concern here. Store what you eat and eat what you store.
Corrientempe- Picking up on what Bill syas, if your kids are raiding the Top Ramen in your supplies, then you should increase the supply of Top Ramen in your house. It would appear that you daily use supply is too low. Also, this shows a means of rotating your stock so that your supplies stay fresh.
Your emergency supplies are not some sacred untouchable stash, but as Bill and others point out, they are the same stuff you eat all the time. If you need to dip into them for a day or two, no problem, as long as you replace what you took on the very next shopping trip. otherwise, the cupboard may well be bare when needed.
I feel I must admit that there have been many steps getting to the system our family is operating on now. At first, I kept the preps as something that should not be touched. At that point, they were pitifully small and I was desperately trying to build them. When I got up to a couple of months of food, I got the marking and rotation logistics ironed out and things moved through fairly smoothly. However, I found that I was driving myself crazy filling in exactly what we had consumed on our shopping trips, (i.e. 6 cans of corn, 2 cans of chicken, 4 sirloin burger soups, etc.). The store we buy most of our groceries from (Aldi’s) is a bulk store and it works best if you buy in case lots. So, now that I have expanded my shelving, We get single cans and boxes from one location and keep full cases in another. When all the corn is gone from the “singles” area, I get a case from the other shelves. I am not so concerned now that I always have an exact number of a certain food item, but more that I have a sufficent combined total. As always, I reserve the right to make any changes in my pandemic planning at any time.
Hillbilly Bill, I use the same method (stocking by the case and moving single cans out where they’re easily accessible). Most of our preps are in a basement crawl space which has somewhat difficult access, so this works quite well for us. I just bring out one case, or a few cans, of something to the pantry and then only worry about what’s in the crawl space.
My prep for the next few weeks is to test a bunch of recipes from the recipes threads. My dinner preps are limited to about 4 different meal choices currently: spaghetti w/ sauce, soups, canned meat and white rice, velvetta shell’s and cheese.
I made “Quick Chicken ala king” last night and it was good. Certainly will go into the preps and might even become a regular meal too.
“test a bunch of recipes from the recipes threads”
Whether you use KathyinFL’s (and others) numerous submissions, or try out your own, learning to cook with and eat what you have stored is essential. I keep preaching this point because I feel it is necessary. We need to practice what we are saying we are going to do. Just like you wouldn’t go into a pandemic without testing your generator or your emergency lighting preps, don’t neglect practicing cooking and eating what you have stored. You might find problems and shortages now that could be disastrous later.
Thanks Bronco Bill - We live on Whidbey Island (North of Seattle) so the temperature is rarely above 80. I don’t think heat build up will be a problem. I may add ventilation to the job box because it seems to be the best solution for lockable fuel storage. As for storing preps - we have a lot of canned food which we almost never eat in our regular diet. My wife is revolted by the thought of eating canned vegetables - and when I added a few cases of Spam - her comment “It will be a dark day…..” We have a collection of large blue storage tubs with lids; I store quite an assortment of foods in each tub - in an emergency, should we need to retreat from our house, we could grab any of the tubs, throw them in the truck or boat and and still have a varied diet. I numbered the tubs and we list and date everything that goes into them so that we can retrieve them later without a lot of digging. In one way I just think of all our preps as insurance - if we never ate a thing we’ve stored, we would still be ahead of the game.
What is Aldis…..I notice alot of people speak of shopping there and noticed on a little trip there is on about 2 hours from me…Is it worth the trip?
malachi – at 10:15 Aldi’s is a grocery chain that keeps prices low (amazingly low) by staff reduction. The food items are mostly stacked on pallets that can be wheeled out and pushed into place eliminating the need for shelving and stock persons. As the cashier scans your items, you put them back into your cart and then move to a seperate area where you can bag and box your purchases, thus speeding up the checkout line (YEAH!!!). You will need to either bring your own bags or purchase them at the checkout (paper bag is $0.5, plastic is $0.10). Our store only accepts debit cards and cash, no checks or credit cards. You will need a quarter to get your cart. This insures that people will bring them back to the rack which means they don’t have to pay somebody to gather them up from the parking lot. IMO, it would be worth the trip.
Malachi- yes! Definitely worth the trip, but bring coolers!And a trailer. Prices make all the work worthwhile. But a word of caution: avoid going right after social security and welfare checks come!
No matter how much I spend at Aldi’s, I always leave wishing I could have bought more. Usually I quit when I can’t get anything more in the cart.
Styrofoam Oven
I tried something new today, it was an impromptu extension of the Cooking in a Thermos that we have all discussed in the past.
I was looking at a styrofoam shipping box that I have, which is normally used for shipping heat sensitive materials like medicines or epoxies with cool packs so they arrive at the other end cold. I was wondering whether I could focus sunlight into the open end and use t for solar cooking. Then I got my birght idea. The Cooler has 1–1/2″ think walls, and an inner cavity that measures 6×8x11 inches, with a very think lid that “plugs into” the opening to give an excellent thermal seal. I noticed that the cavity would be a nice fit for a 1 qt lidded glass casserole dish that I have.
So here’s what I tried. I boiled 2 cups of water in the casserole in the microwave (it took about 4 minutes), then added salt and a dash of olive oil, then added 2/3 cup of rice (I thnk I had enough on hand for the experiment), then lidded it and slid it into the box box was lying on its side) and closed it up.
After 40 minutes I came back to a dissappointing casserole full of still fairly hot water with a layer of uncooked ric on the bottom (actually, just a little softened). I stuck it back in the microwave for 1 minute and it reboiled. I put it back in the styro box, and 20 minutes later I checked and I had a casserole full of fluffy, cooked rice.
I am eating the experiment now, with some soy sauce.
What I learned is that with a very small amount of fuel (enough to boil 2 cups of water, and then a little more later) it is possible to make a decent bowl of rice. For those who don’t have this kind of cooler, try a small cooler inside a somewhat larger one. it does work. And it will make the difference in burning 25 minutes worth of fuel versus 2 or 3.
And they have those inexpensive styrofoam coolers in stores.
Eccles, I have some styrofoam panels inside a cardboard box, and I’ve been wondering if I boil water and then wrap the closed casserole in an old length of wool or something, how it would do. A “Haybox” cooker with styrofoam that would just get tossed in the trash otherwise.
I also thought about trying the solar oven plans too. (My car can about function as a dehyrator and solar oven…)
Ran into a “I talked to someone in the hospital field and American is getting ready, I’m a patriot, and I know pandemic isn’t going to be a problem, because our people are having all these drills and working on vaccines” …
Sure is nothing clever enough to cut through that mindset in one minute…trying to tell *me* to check Google News and talk to a hospital and then I’d see there was nothing to prepare or worry about! (Let alone civil unrest.)
The new flyer printed up on the library well, (I like that winged clock icon, too) and now I wonder where I should best leave some…
Lily- The cooler I used for this was a step above the cheap ones in the stores, but it DOES show what one can do with relatively little materials to stretch their resources. One approach might be to use crumpled newspaper as an aditional insulating layer inside a cheaper cooler. All you need to do is keep the dish hot enough, long enough and you have saved a whole bunch of fuel.
“Store what you eat, and eat what you store.”
That is an old prepping maxim that has been around for years. It saves on the budget and nothing goes bad. Helps with the rotation factor.
I’ve only been storing items that my family eats anyway and its actually been saving me money in the long run. Sometimes even in the short run. <grin>
My latest project has been trying to decide how much of any given item I use in a quarter (3 months). I’m breaking out a chart for items that is 3, 6, 9, and 12 months in the columns with an additional column with what I actually have on hand.
You’d think I was feeding a whole platoon. <sigh> But it is certainly giving me a better idea of how prepped I am in some areas and how so not in others. I will admit though I have more for some items than I thought.
I tried using the Provident Living chart, but I just don’t shop or cook that way normally. I’m having to break it down into items that I normally use. Its a tad harder method, but certainly more useful to me personally.
Crfullmoon- Try the box out. Just be careful not to scald yourself wrapping the casserole dish in the wool. All you need to replicate my results (the mark of true science) is a bit of rice. Got any?
I used to send Omaho Steaks to my former neighbor in California after visiting. They ship things out in good styrofoam, I think I have the remnants in the basement, worth a try. I’m someone who gets a kick out of buying something for one use, dirt cheap and crafting something else out of it, a challenge. Also could use a heavy pot and lid. Might see what I can do with my rice over the weekend.
Does anyone here have experience with sprouting beans and other seeds?
It seems like most discussions here is about boiling their rice and beans and don’t fry their rice (like my Mexican recipes) or sprout seeds (like some of my Oriental dishes)
Eccles, I’m not thrilled about the tax assessor needing to get inside the house soon -as I have grocery bags sitting around on the kitchen floor, and running out of space in the basement to put them… including more rice.
I used to make sprouts, but not in years, DennisC. It does give more nutritional choices and might make grains easier to cook, too, or can mix sprouts into breads, ect.
If we cooked the rice first in a bit of oil and then added the boiling water, or whatever stock, ect, that’s how to make pilaf, right?
crfullmoon – at 13:56
You mean that your tax assessor has to be allowed in your house without a warrent? I have never seen a tax assessor in my XX years.
As long as the tax assessor doesn’t tax your preps.
Crfullmoon- I’m sorry. Eccles can not answer your cooking questions. This exercise has severely taxed Eccles cooking capabilities. For further answers in this regard, try one of the nice folks that have a good working knowledge of this stuff.
<Eccles sits cross legged in the corner contemplating eating nothing but styro-rice for the rest of his life. Then stands up and walks out into the approaching H5N1 storm.>
“stryo-rice” What a perfect name!!!
Dennis C at 13:49 I sprout seeds quite a lot. I love little alfalfas on a sandwich and mungs in a salad-yum! Bridges the gap in the winter time in between lettuce plantings.
I get my sprout seeds through Pine Tree Garden Seeds-I just order a bunch when I order my garden seeds. Also Whole Foods Market, Fresh Market, Wild Oats, type stores have them and nateral foods, food co-op places.
I just use a quart jar to start them, and a kids sand strainer for when they get bigger but you can buy all kinds of special sprouting devices. PineTree sells a sprouting kit, with the sprouter, seeds,instructions for about $20.00 and its a lot of seeds. But you can do it for a lot less. I found some alfalfa seeds the other day from 1999-y2k stash maybe? I don’t know, but I tried them and they sprouted just fine.
I have one of those Omaha Steak styrofoam boxes kicking around the basement that someone gave me-(just the box, alas! Not the steaks….) I want to try the styro rice-might be a new food craze…..
crfullmoon – at 13:56
Its about a cup of rice to 2 T. of butter or oil. Once you “fry” the rice you add your liquid, broth, seasonings, veggies … whatever.
Think of it as homemade rice-a-roni. <grin>
Green Mom - Let us all know how it works for you.
IMO, a thin pot would be better if it’s just the container you pour the hot water into, because it wouldn’t take up much of the heat. On the other hand, if you have a stove to heat the pot and water, then a thick pot would be better because it will help to retain the heat.
I just got two Omaha coolers full of chicken and prime rib in today :) (and I have 2 in the attic already)
It is pricey but sure beats white rice and beans!
It would be interesting to line a cooler with aluminum foil and see how warm it gets inside. I’ll try it out tommorow if it isn’t too cloudy.
Nopower- You keep your chicken and prime rib in the attic? eeewwwwww.
See what dangling modifiers can do for us?
Aldi’s are not large stores by any means, but they do seem to be packed with the basics plus a nice selection of gourmet choices. I made up Christmas baskets for folks a year back and everyone was THRILLED with the goodies and thought the baskets had come from an expensive gourmet place. Their chocolate/biscuit cookies are VERY good, pirouette cookies, marinated mushrooms, artichoke hearts, salad dressings, maple pancake syrup (In glass jars), teriyaki sauces, nutella (hazelnut spread/with chocolate), etc. You can afford the ‘good life’ on a heck of a lot less at Aldi’s. Their crackers are very good and much less than supermarket prices as well.
I just did a road trip to Aldi’s and Big Lots today. Got lots of good stuff but not as much as I expected. Big Lots had great deals on water. Some of it was brands I had never heard of so for certain items I know my kids are picky with I’ll stick with their favorites rather than risk wasting it. It was a schlepp (45+minutes) but worth the trip. I got a bunch of stuff for our church pantry too. Got the last three collapsable water jugs at Wallyworld, but everything else was well stocked with no obvious prep displays.
Need to make another Costco and Bj’s run. Looking ofver my list of food stuffs I am worried about quantities. Other than energy (my nemisis) I am in good shape for other items. My yogurt maker came today! Thanks to KathyinFL I can start making our own! My kids go through tubs of it and it’s a great calcium source.
Those styrofoam coolers are also a great method for making your own yogurt. For details, check out Alton Browns directions on his show “good eats” on the FoodTV.com for the Food Channel. There are probably photos or maybe even a video.
Eccles: You ready for some yogurt? How about some kefir?
Eduk8or – at 15:42 My prep this week is to clean closets…. I’ve been putting this off for almost 3 years now, trying to get a dissertation completed… but no more, I’m hoping that a morning of cleaning closets will make working on the dissertation more appealing! :=)
I did that all day yesterday…cleaned out the pantry. Not as much ‘vintage food’ as I thought but it’s not fun when you not only have to separate your recyclables from the trash, you have to haul the whole lot yourself to the dump.
I got the big freezer in the basement under control too.
Best part about doing this was not only the space I freed up and a better idea of what’s missing but I got it all organized. I can find things, hooray!!
Oh I picked broccoli and peas in the garden yesterday. The peas were lunch today and half the broccoli was made up into broccoli rice casserole, put in vacuum FoodSaver bags and frozen. Yummy.
I’ve noticed I’m paying a lot more attention to keeping up with the laundry and dishes too.
East Coast anonymous – at 17:22 I’ve noticed I’m paying a lot more attention to keeping up with the laundry and dishes too.
Isn’t that odd- me too! I think it’s wanting to not get caught with my pants down- so to speak- even though I know services wouldn’t go down for a while. I also find it’s rather nice not to face dirty dishes in the sink in the morning and I’m in a much better mood heading off to work. So everytime I say to myself- I’ll do it later- I tell myself- no do it now and get it done and you won’t have to look at them/it (laundry) in the morning! And I have also found that if I run the washer at night when we turn in- I can hang the clothes out in the morning. Thats’ a really great start to the day and there’s nothing better at bed time than getting into a freshly made bed with sheets that have that smell of being dried on the line. So I guess the prep from this excercise is getting in the habit of attending to things in a timely manner. There won’t be time to lolloygag later.
Got some RV hoses so I can quickly fill up my water barrels if needed. Found another source for plastic buckets - the local doughnut store (lemon & raspberry filling ones today). Am trying out different brands of non-fat dry milk to see if I can taste the difference (I’m going with 3/4 non-fat and 1/4 Nido). Got the bread maker going but will have to experiment with various high-altitude corrections - the first loaf top fell in. Tried out the pinto bean cake on my sweetie, and he thought the secret ingredient was carrots!
I think my prep for today is to vent. I am having a denial day or something. Keep thinking … this CAN’t happen. Am I nuts storing all this food??? I must be getting to a point of three months or more - I have no space left. Really need some quailty time to inventory. and need to have no learning curve to get this all packed away & preserved so it doesn’t go bad. We won’t eat like kings, but we won’t starve. As long as there is no home invasion to take all my preps. Oh yea… figure out immediate home security that I have been dwelling over. I just don’t want to deal with this anymore, but also have a sense of urgency for some reason. Maybe from reading the news thread - which just seems to be getting more and more scientific - I am not stupid (at least, I don’t think I am…)- but I don’t follow all this stuff. I see no “NEW” cases reported, yet everyone seems even more concerned. someone - please come give me virtual backhand across the face and yell ‘snap out it woman!’
Anyone have any suggestions/comments about reusing glass jars for storage? Like sauce jars for pasta? The jars can easily be cleaned, but sometimes the lids are stained. Is that bad/bacteria harboring or anything?
amak – at 14:54
Just soak the lids overnight in 10% bleach the rinse, rinse, rinse. They should be fine.
Or you could put them in boiling water for 20 minutes or so.
Pickles, relishes and hot peppers of every sort are half price, so I added them to my little preps, along with a potent engergy drink on sale, for those days that one drags along from the humidity feeling like a wet dish rag. got some plastic flats on legs to store plastic bottled spring water on concrete. Threw out last summers ice cream, and the russian rye in the freezer. If it hits my freezer I never seem to use it. Some birch beer for root beer floats, its already humid and hot and a nice thing to sit on the porch at dusk and watch the bats zipping about while sipping and spooning up gooey vanilla icecream.
Got my car inspected today. While waiting, I walked to Barnes & Noble and bought two books.
“Putting Food By”, 4th ed. — The classic work on the best ways to can, freeze, pickle, dry, cure, and preserve. (at least that’s what it says on the cover)
“All-new Hints from Heloise”
Here is what she listed in her survival kit. (good preps)
I don’t think I’ve violated copyright; You’ll have to buy the book to see all the ways she uses them.
Went online and ordered the last of my N95′s today, and ordered 22 boxes of 3 ply surgical mask as covers. The masks through Amazon were 25% cheaper than I’ve been buying them at Lowes, and saved a 2 hour car trip plus gas. And severly crimped my lifestyle until the next credit card payment…
Wyoming - where’d you get your N95′s? Went to check about ordering more today & the price is up $7 a box. Ick.
Amak-I’ve been buying AO Safety’s N95′s from Lowes for months, 2–4 boxes at a time, for 19.95/20 count. Amazon’s got ‘em for 14.99- http://tinyurl.com/no2gd .I tried ordering 7 boxes from Lowes, but their server limited me to 2; after a few times re-trying, it told me they were no longer available online, and to check the local store. All this in the space of 20 minutes. Home Depot, also unavailable online. Oh well, I like supporting Amazon anyway-can’t beat ‘em for service. Hope this helps.
My latest flu prep, which I bought over the weekend, is a manual blood pressure cuff, which has a built in stethoscope. I always thought taking a BP was something of an enigma, but now that I read “how to,” and have done it, I realize how simple it really is. Upon closer inspection, the stethoscope is not as high quality as I would like, although it works fine to locate and hear the pulse in the brachial artery, so I may find another higher quality stethoscope to listen to chest sounds, etc. to add to my medical supplies.
Here are some outdoor solar lights from TARGET that I bought. You can put them inside at night just so you can see a path in the dark, etc. They are not bright enough for reading. There are 4 for $39.99. The picture shows them on a stake, but the other option is to hang them freely from an arched pole (from the loop you see at the top of the lantern). To visualize what they look like without the stake, just cut off the picture below the first thin horizontal line at the bottom of the light. I would use them detached like that. The light in the picture was kind of screwed to the top of that stake. They are cute! They continuously each recharge 2 NiCad AA batteries they are sent with. It will probably be better to buy NiMh batteries and replace them. Also, this is another way to be charging AA batteries for other uses!
Amak- on re-using glass jars for storage: Some pasta sauce jars can be re-used for canning-these are marked “mason” I’ve used them and they were fine. Other jars Ive used for my dehydrated stuff, and a few for beans/grains- but as these are bulky I prefer using the larger plastic buckets for those. I just bleach the lids and re-use those-Ive never had any problems.
Ok, just ran across this site at work, not related to it or anything else, I get to play on the net at work : ) interesting product maybe for some that have lots of geese near them
Prep for today- PreppieChic got me to thinking about amounts and calories and am I stocking the right stuff. I went to some of the earlier food prep list threads and found one with a link to a bulk food orderplace that had a lot of info on FEMA units-how much wheat/beans/ rice/ people can survive on in a year according to FEMA. I was surprised that what I had calculated as being what my family would need was very close to the FEMA units. (You go go to Forum index type in FEMA units will take you there) Anyway, recalculated/ tweaked my master shopping list (sigh) Its good that I’m on the right track-discouraging that I have so far to go. I would like to order the powdered eggs. The rest of the stuff I think I can purchase locally. I also discovered that a couple of kitty litter containers will just fit in a little storage niche. I dug out the styro box, but alas didn’t get to make the styro rice today.
Hey Green Mom - I can;t find the link for the FEMA. Sorry, is probably so simple, but I am not getting there. Can you give a direct link?
We have had our pneumonia shots some time back, but thinking things over thought maybe it would be a good idea to have some antibiotics in case of a long SIP, possibly up to a year if what I read can be believed. Today the mail came with my packages of Zithromax, good for secondary pneumonia infection, in case the shot does not work, and also Baycip, Bayer being the developer of Cipro which is used frequently for Urinary Tract Infection. Would hate to have to go to the hospital with something easily cured and get the flu while we were there, that is if one could even get in to a hospital during a Pandemic. Expiration dates are from 2 to 4 years, and imagine you could probably go a year more. Also have some Phenergan on the way re Dr. Woodson’s recomendations. Have not been succesful in acquiring things like Hydrocodone, which I have discussed in other threads. Understand that it and other similar pain meds are considered controlled substances here, unlike Canada and other countries where they are sold OTC. So, unless I get to Canada guess I will have to make do with the usual run of Tylenol and ibuprofen. Feel as if we are about 90% there, probably never reach 100% as that goal seems to be moving away from me as fast as I move towards it! I am sure many of you feel that way also..
Nautical Man - how do you get your antibiotics? I have an appt. coming up with my doctor, but I know her practices…. unless I am truly in need of them at that very moment, I can’t get antibiotics out of her. Same with the kids pediatrician. Can’t figure how I am going to get these to store without doctor hopping - and how much am I going to waste on copays with new docs until I can get what I want?? Any advice?
I’ve told my doc that hubby and I are going on a 3 week adventure vacation to an exotic place-Peru. Know a little bit about it before you go as the doc might ask questions about it. Like are you staying at the shore or in the mountains? My doc wanted me to get malaria drugs if on the shore! Got the antibiotics without the malaria drugs ‘cuz we are stayin’ in the mountains!!?? Maybe you could be going on a church mission. Be creative.
amak: Many people, myself included, buy pet antibiotics sold through vet supply. Same as those used for people, just labeled differently. See site linked below as example.
Using pet meds was discussed in this thread. The skinnie - don’t do it unless you really know what you are doing.
http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.VetrinaryBroadSpectrumSuitableForPediaticApplciations
amak
Your question about my source for antibiotics. Have not had any luck at all with my Doctor for anything I need to prep on the medical end. Let’s hope your Pediatrician is more helpful. After reading posts over the past months and finding a seemingly reliable source on my own for Tamiflu, at a reasonable price, I took the word of others here and tried goldpharma.com. They seem to be very legit, at least IMHO, with emails when the meds were sent. Could certainly get meds here in the U.S. cheaper due to my insurance, that is if my Doctor would prescribe anything for me. Too me, the small extra amount I had to pay to buy it overseas is well worth it for the peace of mind it brings.
Continue this thread at Todays Flu Prep V
New thread can be found here.