[nw_arizona_granny]

The link for the Yahoo article did not show the article on my computer.

http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080524/ap_on_re_us/environmental_survivalists.html

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2057748/Bulk-Survival-Food-Tips
[An ad for freeze dried food, but worth thinking about. Granny, your thoughts?]

Bulk Survival Food Tips
Kevin Taylor © 2008

What are the options for food emergency preparedness?
The conventional wisdom offered by our governments is to go to your local supermarket and buy canned food and dry grains and store them. There are limitations to this survival food strategy that are highlighted below. Two other options MRE or ‘meals ready to eat’ and Freeze Dried Food have additional superior survival food benefits that will make you and your family much better prepared for a situation that requires a survival food supply from 72 hours to 6 months.

1. Survival Food Option - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains
Buy the canned foods, grains, and bottled water as many government agencies recommend. Store in your house or apartment.

• Good, can be done in 2 hours or less
• Bad, most will forget or not store it properly so it will be useless when it is needed
• Bad, Goods are heavy, space is often limited people will not be able to store much
• Bad, grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce.
• Bad, you will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
• Bad, canned foods can destroy appetites after awhile

2. Survival Food Option - Buy Canned Food and Dry Grains on “inventory cycle” plan
Same as the first option except be more careful in storing and ‘cycle’ inventory of goods buying new food so that food store is always edible.
• Good, food will not be bad when you need it Bad, most people do not have the time, space, or inclination to do this
• Bad, grains need a lot of water to cook to eat and water may be unavailable or scarce.
• Bad, you will need to spend a lot of time preparing food
• Bad, canned foods can destroy appetites after awhile

3. Survival Food Option - Buy MRE’s (military style Meals Ready to Eat)
• Good, easy to store and lasts upto 5-7 years in a cool dry place.
• Good, fastest preparation time possible and can be heated fast with “MRE heaters”
• Good, can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
• Bad, relatively expensive per meal and for extended reserve of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year a lot space required to store.
• Bad, lasts only 5-7 years so you will need to buy a replacement reserve relatively soon.
• Bad, tastes like canned food which can destroy appetites after awhile

4. Survival Food Option - Buy Freeze Dried Food
• Good, easy to store and lasts up to 30 years.
• Good, fast simple preparation just add water. But only water that is needed to hydrate the food, much less than cooking.
• Good, once hydrated, freeze dried food taste is very close to original food taste.
• Good, light weight easy to store large qty (Mountain house #10 cans) of food for reserves of 6 weeks, 3 months, or a year. A 6 week food reserve can fit under a bed!
• Good, can be ordered online in minutes, delivered to your house. You will only have to spend less than 30 minutes storing it.
• Good, as economical choice - cost can be less than $3.35 per meal. As you can see there are a lot of benefits to Freeze Dried Food over the other options making it a superior choice for bulk survival food.
More information on survival food including MREs and Freeze dried food at

http://bulk-survival-food.com

[chickpundit]

Great thread! I still have a lot to learn, but will share the small measures I am taking:

I have begun buying an extra bag or two of white flour when I go to the store. I store these bags in an extra freezer, where they will last for years. I use the oldest bags first and rotate. Rice and dried beans have a fairly long shelf life, and are good buys. It doesn’t hurt buy extra cooking oil. Canola is cheap and has a pretty long shelf life. Butter freezes well.

I have purchased extra vitamins for the kids. They have a long shelf life and could help with Vitamin C/iron deficiencies.

Here’s a site that has info on how what to do in order to conserve/purify water. If you’re not able to boil water, you can treat it with bleach:

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/emergwatersuppl.html

I wish we had acreage, but we will just have to make due expanding our garden in the suburbs. I love gardening, and am learning more about saving seeds from heirloom veggies. Seeds (once dry and packaged correctly) can also be stored in the freezer so they remain viable longer. Here’s a great site to learn more:

http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html

Some of you may have already heard of No Knead Bread. I started making it a couple months ago, and I no longer buy bread from the store. It’s really easy, and tastes so good. I bought yeast in bulk, so it’s very inexpensive. I apologize for posting something from the NY Times, but it is a wonderful recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

We only have electric heat though. Although we have a fireplace, it does not produce as much heat as I had hoped, as we found out a couple years ago during an ice storm ... better than nothing though. I have some cast iron/enamel covered pots. I wonder if these work on top of a charcoal grill?

Any opinions on this product to dry veggies?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KYNR1O/ref=asc_df_B001KYNR1O711095?smid=A1GV61T0AKND7P&tag=dealt5563-20&linkCode=asn

I saw some plans on earlier posts showing how to build a solar dehydrator, but unfortunately I have no clue/ability when it comes to building things. I have an electric food dehydrator that I like. I still need to learn to can, but a dehydrator is a good option for now.

[chickpundit]

Here’s a recipe for dried cured meat using a grill:

4 lbs. pork, beef, or wild game
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. black pepper

Slice meat 1/4 inch thick, and trim excess fat. In a shallow dish lay day a layer of the cure then lay down the sliced meat and cover with the cure. Plastic wrap can be used to separate layers of meat. Cover last layer of meat with plastic wrap and put another dish on it to weigh it down. Cure for 3-6 hours then rinse off with water and let air dry. Next, smoke the meat using a grill or smoker using indirect heat for 2-3 hours. Keep the smoking heat around 150-200 degrees. Let meat air dry for another 24 hours after smoking to dry some more. The meat should be shelf stable after this process.

[Joya]

Thanks and bump.

QX ping.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

How do you live without electricity
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/evangelista73.html

By Anita Evangelista

It’s going to happen. Sooner or later, the power will go off, and you won’t know when (or if) it will come back on. This doesn’t have to be the work of evil-doers, either. It could be a sudden ice storm that brings down the power lines. It could result from other severe weather such as a tornado or hurricane, or from a disruption caused by faulty power company equipment, or even something as simple as a tree branch falling on your own personal segment of the grid. The effect is the same: everything electrical in your home stops working.

For most modern Americans, the loss of power means the complete loss of normalcy. Their lifestyle is so dependent upon the grid’s constancy that they do not know how to function without it. How do you cook a meal if your gas stove has an electric ignition? How do your children find their way to the bathroom at night if the light switches don’t work? How do you keep warm if your wood heat is moved through ducts by an electric fan? What do you do with a freezer full of expensive meat? How do you find out what is happening in your area with the TV and radio silent? What will you drink if your water comes from a system dependent on electrical pumps?

These are questions that both the Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency are asking people to seriously consider. Both of these agencies have suggested that preparations for three days without power are prudent commonsense actions that all Americans should now undertake.

We’ll look at these issues in the broad context of living without access to the grid, whether you’ve chosen to separate from it or whether the choice is made for you by outside forces. What you can do now to mitigate your difficulties if the power goes off in the future, and what you can do then to help keep your situation under control, will be the focus of this article.

Remember, too, that an important principle in all preparations is that you maintain as much “normalcy” in your lifestyle as possible. For example, if television is part of your relaxation and unwinding process, don’t assume you can easily do without it. The closer you can keep your daily routines to “the norm” for your family, the more easily you can deal with power outages.

There are five primary areas that are easily disrupted if the power goes off. Each of these is critical to daily survival, as well, so when making preparations for emergencies keep these in mind. In order of importance, they are: light, water, cooking, heating/cooling, and communication.

[continues...]

[Brad from Tennessee]

Yeah, please add me to Frugal Dad, Granny. Thanks.

[metmom]

Here it is ping.

[is_russia_western]

bttt

[SunkenCiv]

The Bum Rap on Biofuels
American Thinker | 5-13-08 | Herbert Meyer
Posted on 05/14/2008 3:59:06 AM PDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015711/posts

Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed
ethanol producer Magazine | May 16, 2008 | By Kris Bevill
Posted on 05/17/2008 9:22:13 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017389/posts

[Freedom56v2]

survival bump to top :)

[GeronL]

I wish I could affors to buy a farm in the middle of nowhere

[Velveeta]

Great job on the new thread, Granny!

[samiam1972]

Bump to self to read later!

[knews_hound]

Wow.

Almost 550 posts on self sufficiency and no one has mentioned brewing your own beer.

It is cheaper, better and lets you drink the beer you LIKE, not what you can afford.

With premium beers going for almost 10 bucks a six pack, the idea of making your own for 25 bucks for 10 GALLONS seems a bargain indeed.

Cheers,

knewshound

On or off the Homebrewers Ping list just ping me.

Homebrewing 1A (Homebrewing for beginners)

Homebrewing 101 (for experienced Homebrewers)

[NELSON111]

Bump for later

[They'reGone2000]

Thank you for all of the information you’ve shared!

[TnGOP]

Does anyone have any information on emergency generators? I've been looking around to find a small one to run the freezer, refrigerator, and possibly the 110v fan on the gas heat. This is for more of an ice storm/tornado situation than a long term survival tool.

From what I've found so far, you can get an off brand gasoline powered generator that produces enough power to run my freezer, fridge, and charge batteries or run 1 or 2 light bulbs for $120 to $200. These are 950 to 1200w, run on gas or an oil-gas mixture, and generally run about 3-4 hours on a gallon of gas.

Harbor Freight tools has something else that caught my eye. It's a generator head that you hook up to your own engine. The one they have works on a 20hp gas engine, but I didn't see smaller ones you could hook up to a push mower, which would make the perfect size for occasional home use. Anyone have any plans or ideas on this subject??Don't leave me "in the dark" on this (pun intended)

[cyborg]

Mother Earth News had a great article that asked the reader if they could survive without electricity or WATER. It made me think. I guess I could do without :gasp: internet but not having water is a different story.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Jim,

Would you consider making this a “daily” thread on the front page of FR? There is some really important information being posted here and it would be great if more FReepers could find it. Especially since the “Daily Dose” has gone away. :(

Maybe some FReeper can make up a cool logo for us.

[EdReform]

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