Posted on 12/17/2010 12:09:03 PM PST by Doctor Prepper
Introduction.
Part one of these articles introduced the concept of sequential food storage. This will deal with how you can assess your lifestyle so that if the TSHTF you will have a relatively new stock of food and supplies that will be useful to you and your family.
Some have compared this process to doing the laundry. It is an ongoing process that is vital to you and your family’s survival in an emergency.
I realize that it’s that this isn’t as interesting as it could be, but as Napoleon Bonaparte once said “An army marches on its stomach”. It won’t matter if you’ve got a rifle that chambers in .308 or .223 if you starve to death, so pay close attention.
Assessment basics.
The two most important factors in evaluating you personal situation have to be where you live and how you live.
Where you live could be the subject of a whole different thread, but the Local Population Density (LPD) and your primary domicile type (Detached dwelling, townhouse or apartment for example). Will determine what you will need to do should TSHTF, both of these factors need to be considered in your overall plan.
The LPD and type of dwelling will determine whether you can plan on sheltering in place or if you will have to evacuate as a matter of course. This alone will determine the types of foods you should stock – if chances are you are going to have to bug out, lightweight freeze-dried foods may be your choice. The downside of this is the expense and whether you will want to eat these foods in addition to increased water requirements. Conversely, if you are in rural area and have the storage space, you can stock up on regular canned and bulk foods.
Ideally, you should plan for both eventualities in the long run, but for starters, consider one or the other.
Geographical factors have to also be taken into consideration – for example, if you live in the Southwest you will need to put added emphasis on your water supply. Up North, heating supplies will be more of an issue.
The main part of this discussion will be how you live. How many times a week do you go out to dinner? How often do you prepare your own meals? These are all things to take into consideration when making you plans or adapting your lifestyle to a SHTF scenario.
The 0 –100 scale of readiness.
For the sake of discussion, we’ve decided on a 0 –100 scale to guide you in what you need to do. The higher the score, the better off you are.
Heavily urbanized areas with high Local Population Density (LPD) will be at the lower end of the scale. Rural areas with a low LPD rate higher on the scale.
The more self-sufficient you are, the higher you will be on the scale. The more you can do for yourself – growing and cooking you own food, the better. Other factors: Number of people in your family and the number of young children in the household, the possibility of extended family members or friends sheltering in place with you.
Again, this is simply a guide to so that you can begin to plan what you may need to be ready.
Clearly if the Schumer hits the fan, it would better for you to be a rural area and be as close to being a self-sufficient as possible. At the other end of the scale, if you live in densely populated area (and the population is also dense) and you couldn’t find your kitchen if you life depended upon it, the worse off you will be.
Make no mistake, you’re in big trouble if you’re used to getting your mocha fluffacino latte at the local coffee house every morning and are on a first name basis with every maitre-de in the area. This is the time to begin planning on how you would survive in an emergency situation.
Refrigerator reconnoitering, Pantry perusals.
Take a look at you kitchen cabinets and your freezer – what do you normally stock?
What types of meals do you normally have?
For various reasons you shouldn’t plan on having any type of long term refrigeration. Even if you have a generator the noise will attract unwanted attention and you can't be assured the food will be safe without power 24/7.
Again, were talking about you evaluating you own situation – but assuming that this planing is for the long term emergency, the first thing you may want to do would be clear out your freezer and have a feast. You may be able to have short periods of refrigeration to cool off a beer or two, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Take a look at what you normally eat and see how you could substitute refrigerated items for products in your pantry. Powered milk can’t compare to fresh but, as they say, it’s better than nothing is.
Adapt recipes for a more self-reliant lifestyle. Learn how to make bread and pasta from whole grain. This all about planning and adapting ahead of time and surviving.
There are calculators on the web you can use to determine what you need:
http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm.
(Thanks to FrogMom)
But remember these are just for the basic foods, you’re going to need to know how to prepare these ingredients and part of the whole reason for sequentially storing them. If you are used to preparing and eating these ingredients you will be way ahead of the game if needed.
If you can’t resist having fast food, one option would be to make you own at home and adapt it to pantry ingredients.
http://lifehacker.com/5665491/top-10-fast-food-recipes-you-can-make-at-home
Folks, it vitally important for you at least begin planning on what you should stock and how to use it to survive.
As they say, “It’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”
Next week, Buying your food and supplies.
That’s one of the advantages to getting old and living near the biggest navy base. It will all be over in a big poof...no worries about seeing people suffer or dying of radiation poisoning, etc.
I am thinking more of a steady decline and huge hyper inflation.
The Surviving in Argentina blog is very educational in this respect. And those of you who aren't on the back 40, don't be discouraged. Ferfal (the blogger who lived thru the Argentina crisis and still does) says rural areas can be very dangerous too. He says the safest set up is an area of like minded folks who can take turns with security and guarding the fortress. The biggest problem will be looters and roving bands of people looking to take advantage. Argentina saw and still sees this very much in the rural areas.
I'm sure others may have better suggestions than I, but if the infrastructure/utilities are down for that long, my only suggested option would be to have a bug out location owned by yourself, friends or family in a rural area or small town/community that can band together to better provide those services.
Your larger cities and dense metropolitan areas by that time will likely be under tight control by military in order to prevent anarchy, or it will be like living in downtown Manhatten in the 1981 movie, Escape From New York. I say that slightly tongue in cheek, but really all one has to do is to reflect back on what happened in New Orleans in a scant 24-48 hours after Hurricane Katrina hit back in 2005, then imagine what it would have been like if those initial conditions continued for 6 months. Civilization really does possess only a very thin veneer.
I’ll add one other thing to my previous post. The answer I gave you was based on living in a high population density area/city/suburb. Those in rural areas like me, may have different options to choose from that those in the city may not have, as far as cooking fuel source. I own 100 acres of woodland. I have enough fuel to cook and heat for the rest of my life, whereas, if I or my family need a doctor which is 15-20 miles away and no fuel is available, you may be in a better position to have that access by living in a town/city.
I believe for the majority of people, that just isn’t feasible for reasons of money, location, limited transportation choices, stuff like that. It seems it would be really difficult to transport all the material required to live off the land, if there is limited or no fuel available to move. Things like tools, storage containers, etc, are heavy and take up a lot of space.
Yeah, I try to keep up with Ferfal’s website. He does have a lot of good first hand knowledge to share. And I agree that there are risks to living in the country as well as in high density population areas. The most important aspect I think to being prepared whether living in the city or the country is to be able to quickly band together with family, neighbors, & friends rather than try to go it alone. I may not can protect my place from a maurauding bands of looters on my own 24/7, but I’ll be alot more likely to be able to repel such an attack, and hopefully inflict enough damage to ward off any future attacks, if I’m together with my brothers, nephews, uncles, neighbors, church members, etc. and we all have firepower and know how to use it.
SHTF ping for later.
I would also agree that one cannot feasibly carry all those things that would be needed in escaping from a high density area to a rural/country area, but that's where the prepping thought process begins.
Some citybound folks have gone so far as to buy a separate bugout piece of property in the country and have living facilities (camper, trailer, vacation cabin) there already stocked with the essentials. But like you said, most folks may not can afford that option. Hopefully, in the alternative they have family or friends that live in a rural area that have all the essentials at their household so that whatever you can bring, whether it's additional food, medicines, silver, ammo, etc. will at least help add to the stockpile of goods. Again, that's why it's so important to have that group that can rely on each other, to lessen the burden of each individual from having to provide everything one needs.
Sorry to get so verbose. It's an important issue with me.
Silver and guns.
I can live on my fat for months.
BTW, if you want to stockpile gasoline, wash it with a little water — the water will remove the alcohol and leave the gas drier than it was to begin with. You’ll lose a couple octane points.
> lost my gun...<
Where do you live? :-) (In case I need supplies)
There is a book called “The Amazing Wheat Book” by LeArta Moulton. Really vital for those who want to store and use wheat berries. Remember that another thing you need is a good grain mill for grinding the berries, with both cracking augers and grinding augers.
Thanks for introducing this set of topics to FR. And yes, I lost all my firearms and ammo in a boating accident in the desert. Tragic story.
Dang, I lost mine in a boating accident in my basement. And the other I lost somewhere around my T.V. in another boating accident.
Two boating accidents? In your house even? We on FR need to stay away from boats. There is just to much heartache involved.
Yeh, and I lost the boat too.
When is the memorial service?
Sorry this happened back in November of 2008. I continue to morn, and will till 2012, or God forbid 2016.
I don’t believe it’s the peole, I think it’s the fact that this is the 21st century and what makes that way of life viable, just is not possible for the number and location of people we have today.
I doubt that many people that are 3rd or 4th generation, living in the big cities, still have family or friends living in the country that can be relied on to provide a new way of life that may be necessary.
I understand your fervor, but unfortunately, I think you are preaching to a very small choir.
You’re welcome.
At this point in time all need to be thinking about what to do in a ‘what if’ scenario.
As I understand it you should start out with a mixture of whole wheat mixed with rice flour. Evidently there is a greater amount of fiber in the whole wheat berries that can cause... well, you know. Wheat berries can also be soaked in a crock pot over night for a whole 'nuther realm of uses as well.
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