View Full Version : Any preppers here?
Tussiemussies
11-4-12, 1:37am
Just went through being without power for four days and was it ever a cold fifty degrees in our house. We had prepared for an emergency years ago after 9/11 since we lived so close to NYC. We had some emergency candles, matches, batteries and flashlights left over. DH filled up his car with gas before Sandy arrived. At least we didn't have any damage to our home or trees like so many others have .
The only thing was that we had to eat take out and that all adds up. We lost the food in our refrigerator and freezers. We will be investing in a generator when the aftermath of Sandy is over with. Our other plan is eventually have a wood burning stove with a two burner top, at least we could heat up some food on the woodburner if necessary.
Do you prep for emergencies? What have you set up, just in case? What frugal ways will you be using so you don't wind up spending money in unexpected ways?
Maxamillion
11-4-12, 4:56am
We don't get bad winter weather often, so when it does happen, everything shuts down. The worst was back in the mid '90's when we lived out in the country and there was an ice storm. We were without power for 11 days, and trees were down on the roads, so there was no way to get to town.
I've started buying canned goods to put back for the winter, just in case of bad weather. I'll be putting several gallons of water in storage too; I've got a big blue plastic container that holds something like 7 gallons and several 2-liter bottles. Heat-wise, there's not anything I can do. I live in an apartment where everything is electric and they won't let us have kerosene heaters. So I have several blankets and me and my furbaby can cuddle up for warmth. It rarely gets below 20 degrees here, so we should be okay. I've got a wind-up flashlight, a wind-up radio (that also has a light), and a battery-powered flashlight, and lots of candles. I do need to stock up on toilet paper this month, I had almost forgotten about that.
When we lose power, we lose heat and water, as we have a well pump. We rarely lose power more than overnight, but last October we had a freak snowstorm that left us without power for a week. That really got old. We have a woodstove for cooking and for heat (also a gas grill and camping stoves) so that was ok, but hauling water from the hot tub to flush the toilets got to be a pain. I have a gallon jug of lamp oil, and a gazillion candles. We still haven't gotten a generator, we have to go higher powered because the well pump is 220v, and my husband wants propane, which involves a whole 'nuther set of complications.
I do have a pantry of canned goods. Last year I learned that with all the other things involved in a storm that would knock the power out, that I would be too tired to create the meals from scratch that I normally do. So there are a lot of canned soups now.
I also have 7 gallons of water that I rotate every 3 months- water the garden then refill. I have extra cash on hand in case the ATM's are out and usually remember to fill up my gas tank and also have other gas available for the snowblower or chainsaw. We also now have a bow saw on hand so that I can handle small trees and limbs on my own (I'm uncomfortable using a chain saw and its impossible for me to start one).
And after last year's storm, I bought a special weather radio. I already had regular radios, but found that stations in my area continued to play music instead of telling me that a tornado was headed right through my town.
Miss Cellane
11-4-12, 5:57am
In New England, there's always the risk of hurricanes and blizzards and nor'easters, so I'm pretty much prepared for 2-3 days without power, or just some general Oh-Oh, The Universe Is Mad At Us Again event, all year long.
Several gallons of drinkable water stashed away. At least a week's worth of canned goods and stuff that just needs hot water (Ramen noodle type stuff) to be edible. Plus the usual food I have that doesn't need refrigeration--bread, crackers, peanut butter. The food slowly gets rotated by eating a bit of it every month. A small camping stove so that I can heat up water for tea and warm up canned food.
I pretty much never let the car get below half a tank of gas. There's spare cash hidden in the house and the car. We have a huge old clawfoot bathtub that can hold enough water for at least three days of toilet flushing.
The big thing is heat. I rent, so there is nothing I can do to heat the house once the furnace isn't working. In the winter, my town opens warming stations when the power goes--there's one within walking distance of my house. It's an old house and can hold a bit of heat for one night, but after that, if I can't get to work to warm up, I'd probably have to sleep at the warming station. On the other hand, in the winter, we can take all the food out of the fridge and store it outside on the porch and it won't go bad. The milk will freeze, but it won't go bad.
One thing I think a lot of people forget about in planning for natural disasters is their caffeine delivery system. It's very likely that coffee shops won't be open, your coffee maker won't work and you will go into slight caffeine withdrawal. This was pretty evident this past week, as some co-workers lost power for 4 or 5 days due to Sandy. They'd come into work and head right for the break room for coffee before doing anything else. Caffeine withdrawal can make you headachy, sleepy and irritable, none of which are good in situations where you have to think quickly on your feet. So if you really need your morning caffeine, I'd suggest figuring out how to get it when the power goes out. Lots of chocolate, a six-pack of Coke stashed away somewhere, a small camp stove to boil water for instant coffee or tea--something that will let you feel normal and better able to cope with a tough situation.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-12, 6:55am
excellent suggestions so far. We lost power years ago due to an unforcasted microburst and it took us hours to figure out how to listen to the radio (had to sit in the car) and make coffee on the grill.
Since then we have invested in some items that really make life safe and convenient if we do lose power. You can start small, and slowly build up what is most likely to help you in your particular situation depending on your budget as well. Remember, gas pumps, cash registers and ATM's won't work without power. As we are seeing in NY/NJ, gas stations may have no fuel.
A solar hand crank radio with back up batteries. We change the batteries when we change the clocks, like in the smoke detector. Almost all of us have some kind of radio in the house we could use if we had the right size batteries, or they would be cheap at goodwill.
Solar sun oven. As long as the sun is out I can heat water and food, bake stuff and pasteurize water as well. This was an investment plus a learning curve to be able to actually use it. Camp stoves and grills are other sources of heating or cooking food.
Drip coffeemaker. An old one that you pour boiling water into the top and it drips by gravity through the ground coffee. Remember to have some ground coffee if you grind your own beans. Also, we have tea bags.
We don't let the gas tank get below half and have an extra can of gas in the garage.
Small bills of cash and some coins. we keep a small bag hidden in the car and one in the house.
Others have mentioned great food ideas. Others are to have a week or two of canned food, I rotate by donating to the food bank about every six months and getting stuff on sale using the sale circulars and coupons. A big can of ravioli or soup heated up may not appeal to you today, but during an emergency you'll feel like you are eating like a king. I live where I can grow some food year round, so I can suppliment my canned stash with a little fresh. Also, I do sprouts for fresh veggies. All skills you have to learn by trial and error.
a few weeks of drinkable water, an idea for predicted disasters like hurricanes is to save milk or other screw top containers but leave them empty, then fill as you make your other storm preps. If you have containers of water you filled yourself you have to pay attention to rotate the water. There are all kinds of water purification tablets and systems available, research what is best for you and what water sources are nearby. And of course filling your bathtub to flush a toilet. With no water for a week it would be a huge luxury to be able to wash your hair with the bathtub water as well, by pouring some over your head, don't you think?
Google using a five gallon container as a toilet if necessary for some ideas.
Before central heating people used bricks warmed in a fire wrapped in cloth to warm their beds before getting in. Sure beats getting into a cold bed. Hot water bottles also were quite common. Also wearing socks and a hat to bed will go a long way to keeping you warm.
We don't have a generator now, but we did when we lived where you spent four months when you could go days or weeks without getting above thirty degrees. I felt it was worth it to make the investment, as opposed to dealing with frozen pipes. I never felt comfortable with a kerosene heater, and my asthma make a wood fire or even candles not too practical if I want to breathe. But your situation may be totally different.
Keep yourself in the best shape possible. Keep your mind and body alert and as well functioning as you can.
Make a plan. Many people don't have the resources to be prepared and we all should be quite aware now that the scope of these huge disasters like Katrina and Sandy overwhelm even well intended and well funded government agencies. Be as prepared as you can possibly be.
I live in VA. We get a lot of hurricanes. In the winter we get a lot of ice storms rather than snowstorms.
I live alone. So it's all on me. After the derecho in June I decided to get a generator and ran out the next morning to Lowes and bought one. Was it the best buy I could have made? Probably not. But it was Lowes and so I'm sure I wasn't shafted.
Everything in my house besides my dryer is on gas so I don't have to worry about not being able to cook or take a shower.
I also have a wood burning fireplace and about 1/3 of a cord of seasoned wood. I need to buy some more wood so I can hurl the logs on with impunity but I haven't gotten around to it yet. (It involves the distasteful act of writing a check.)
For Sandy I went out and filled the tank and also got another 2 gallons of gas for the generator (I'd already had about 5 gallons in there) but that's about it. My generator will power my fridge and lights and computer which is basically all I need.
Water hasn't been an issue (although we did lose water during Isabel 10 years ago [city pumping stations were shut down but this year they just completed an upgrade so that won't happen again]) but I do have a 5 gallon potable water jug that I would fill in advance of a really threatening hurricane prediction.
I always have plenty of food on hand so not an issue.
I think I could manage fine for about 2 weeks then I would run out of food. Beyond that, I'm screwed.
Miss Cellane
11-4-12, 7:41am
Another thing--not that I'm a huge fan of disposable wipes in general, but if you run the risk of losing water when the power goes out, a small travel pack of baby wipes is a good thing to have. You can clean your hands, and take a mini-bath with them. If you have to go to work when there is no water, the wipes can make you feel a bit better about venturing into public. I can sit and stew in my own sweat when I'm alone, but I feel the rest of the world shouldn't have to experience that.
You should also prepare for just not having any water. Twice now, there have been water main breaks that either left me without water at all, or only with non-drinkable water. In the latter case, we could boil the water to make it safe for drinking. But apparently no one even considered doing that, except me, and the stores were sold out of water within a few hours of the announcement. I ended up giving a couple of gallons of my bottled water to neighbors with an infant, who didn't want to risk using boiled water to mix her formula. And none of the restaurants or coffee shops could sell coffee, because their coffee makers didn't heat the water to boiling. And boy, were people complaining about that. (Even though they could have boiled water at home and used that to make coffee or used some of the bottled water they had to make coffee. But no, they were so used to buying their coffee that they couldn't figure out any other way of acquiring it.) So again, having a foolproof caffeine delivery system is a key survival tactic.
Living in New Hampshire it's not uncommon for us to be without power for a week or more. Drinking water is one major thing we concern ourselves with. We also fill the bathtub for water for flushing. In winter we tend not too loose much as we can just bring food outside to keep cold. We make sure our grill is working year round so that we can cook in winter without power. We have lots on hand that can be eaten without warming/cooking as well. In addition we make sure we have plenty of warm blankets, zero degree sleeping bags, a full tank of gas in the car and lots of layers, matches and candles. We live about a mile and a half from the nearest shelter so if it gets really bad we will go there, but we try to tough it out at home due to having pets.
Blackdog Lin
11-4-12, 8:39am
I am a prepper.
I can recommend this: we have a cabinet in the house that holds all our flashlights, candles, portable radios, coal oil lamps and oil, lantern and little propane canisters etc. Anytime we need a flashlight we get it out of this cabinet, and return it to this cabinet, so that in a power-down situation we don't have to fumble all over the house looking for and retrieving these items. All spare batteries are kept in this cabinet also.
We have a kerosene heater for use in case of no heat. And several gallons of kerosene. And a plan for blocking off much of the house if we had to use it.
We keep 18 gallons of water on hand, and rotate them every summer watering flowers. Should have more. I have purchased 2 rain barrels, and will have one actually installed outside ready for use next month, when we get our new siding and guttering. We have an "emergency" water filter (never been used so I don't know.....), keep bleach on hand for purifying (use it for laundry anyway), and have a couple packets of the correct kind of pool shock which could be used to make bleach to purify water if necessary.
We have a charcoal grill, keep charcoal on hand for it, and have a camp stove w/the canisters, and a fire ring and wood, so could always come up with a way to cook food. I keep a large pantry.
We never let the gas tanks get below 1/2 full, and keep 12 gallons on hand in the garage, that I make it a priority to keep always topped off. But then we have a tractor, a golf cart, a riding mower (we have a very large yard to mow) and a chain saw; so that gas gets rotated all too quickly in the normal course of things.
And as everyone has mentioned, having an emergency caffiene delivery system is crucial. We have a camp coffee percolator and keep a redundency supply of ground coffee on hand, so we don't have to worry about having coffee.
And what about simple first aid supplies? Having and knowing-where-it-is something as simple as bandaids and neosporin could be crucial in an emergency - even a little cut could quicky become infected. And if you take health-sustaining prescriptions: do you have a plan for not running out, or being able to procure more, in an emergency?
We keep an emergency stash of cash, in case electronic systems go down.
Just a few little thoughts.....
An emergency caffeine delivery system does not have to be complicated. A spoonful of instant coffee taken as is will do the trick. No water needed. And yes, if I had one of those horrible caffeine headaches so bad that it makes me vomit, I would take it that way.
Energy shots could be stockpiles to replace coffee.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-12, 10:44am
My DIL was telling me that she has some of that milk that does not need refrigeration. It is expensive, but her thought was the two year old has milk when he gets up from his nap. She felt like as much normalcy as possible would be helpful. They don't watch TV so they are used to playing with toys etc. instead of being entertained. Smart girl.
Don't forget diapers etc. if you have a baby. And if you are prepared and calm it will be helpful to keep children calm.
don't forget a fondue pot with sterno can make instant coffee, tea, soups, insant oatmeal, etc. i have more supplies than that however it is a great little thing to have around. We have a tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve which means i always have a fondue pot.
Now reading this I really need to update my emergency food.
awakenedsoul
11-4-12, 1:54pm
I keep around ten gallons of drinking water on hand. I also have additional water stored for the animals. I have extra cash, and keep my gas tank at least half full. It's also important to keep your cell phone charged if you don't have a landline...(which I canceled to save money.) I have two huge bags of charcoal in my car trunk, lighter fluid, and a small bbq. My antique stove runs on gas only, so I could cook on that. I also have a gas hot water heater. I have an stovetop espresso maker and some extra cans of evaporated milk. I also have a box of powdered milk. My garden supplies fruits and vegetables year round. I keep extra pet food, as well. I have two oil lamps, plenty of matches, and a couple of candles. I have a travel clock and a solar powered radio and flashlight. I have a lot of food stockpiled, but I think I should add some crackers and salami. I have nuts, granola, dried fruit, and plenty of staples.
Thanks for the reminder in the above post about coffee. I just ground a bunch of beans and refilled an old cocoa can that I keep for that purpose. I have extra dog treats, too. I have a gas heater, but also could get by with my featherbed mattress, down comforter, and two large German shepherds. My lemon tree provides lemons year round, so I could make lemonade. (Since I have plenty of sugar and water.)
It's a good feeling to be prepared and to have plenty of food. Our water well system is old, so I'm used to having the water shut off a lot of the time.
I am a prepper. More later.
I drink tea. Easier caffeine delivery system. Just boil a bit of water.
We don't get bad winter weather often, so when it does happen, everything shuts down. The worst was back in the mid '90's when we lived out in the country and there was an ice storm. We were without power for 11 days, and trees were down on the roads, so there was no way to get to town.
I've started buying canned goods to put back for the winter, just in case of bad weather. I'll be putting several gallons of water in storage too; I've got a big blue plastic container that holds something like 7 gallons and several 2-liter bottles. Heat-wise, there's not anything I can do. I live in an apartment where everything is electric and they won't let us have kerosene heaters. So I have several blankets and me and my furbaby can cuddle up for warmth. It rarely gets below 20 degrees here, so we should be okay. I've got a wind-up flashlight, a wind-up radio (that also has a light), and a battery-powered flashlight, and lots of candles. I do need to stock up on toilet paper this month, I had almost forgotten about that.
You can use 2 liter soda bottles or Nagalene water bottles, fill with hot water (seal up tightly) and put those in your bed to warm it up before getting in, if you don't have heat.
I don't trust candles. Too much could go wrong, even though I don't have any pets. I have several lanterns and lots of batteries. I also have a headlamp. That was suggested to me by others, as much easier to read by one.
ApatheticNoMore
11-4-12, 3:41pm
I have 10 3L gallons bottled water jugs filled with tap water, various places around the apt. I have some canned food, I don't know if it's enough so I'm adding to it, and it's not garbage - because I don't eat chemical concoctions otherwise why should I in an emergency, it's canned fish, canned beans, canned soups (Amy's organic) and TJs, did have some TJ peanut butter but into the trash it went :). Starting a box with household supplies, just the basics like TP, nothing other than basics - trying to have a months worth or so. Have a first aid kit (just the kind from the store nothing very elaborate), medical gauze. Try to keep around at least in the closet a cheap landline phone that doesn't need electricity. Own extra blankets, and sweatshirts, because you know in southern CA, in an extreme cold snap with no heating, the temperatures could just dip so low that ... I'd be uncomfortable! :)
I'm not truly addicted to any caffeine substances, it's almost silly to think that that's what I'd worry about in an emergency. Now I do sometimes *like* to have black tea in the morning, especially if I'm feeling a bit tired (I also like chocolate). But even then it's an as needed thing, I go days and days without caffeine fine just in the natural order of things, as long as I got good sleep that night (only caffeine today was a free sample coffee at TJs). Have flashlights, maybe should get more. I'm also going to start prepping my parents house. Oh in case it isn't obvious, the main danger here is EARTHQUAKES, period.
We might be reckoned "preppers". I think of it as simply being ready for quite predictable events. We live in an area prone to storms that can keep us from travelling for days, or leave us without power for days-to-weeks. Other events can intrude in our remote location - just the other week, the single ferry dock that provides our main transportation link to the mainland was out of service for a week, so there were no shipments of goods.
We have two wood stoves, that we can, and usually do, heat the house with, though we have grid-based heat available as well. I usually have 1-2 years' of firewood set aside.
We have a variety of lighting solutions: oil lanterns, battery-powered lanterns, candle lanterns, light sticks, and so on. Aside: Lehmans Hardware is a great resource for off-the-grid living equipment.
We can cook food on the wood stoves, or on the BBQ grills outside (I make sure we have an adequate supply of propane for the grills), or on Coleman camp stoves inside (with ventilation) or outside. You don't need a whole wood stove to cook, a simple camp stove will suffice, or you can make sure to set aside food that doesn't require cooking.
We have a few hundred gallons of water set aside in the house, tens of thousands of gallons set aside outside in large tanks that are part of our water system (enough for weeks of gravity-fed water w/o power), a year-round spring 5 minutes walk from the house and water filtering gear, and a huge lake about 15 minutes away.
We have enough food in the kitchen pantry for weeks, enough in the auxiliary pantry for another month or two, and long-term storage stocks of food good for many many months. This food is part of our regular rotation of foodstuffs, so it is "frugal" in the sense that it isn't just sitting there waiting for zombies, and it allows me to purchase large stocks when prices are down, and avoid purchasing during periods of high prices.
We have tools and materials and skills to perform necessary repairs during Unfortunate Events.
We have several other residences within a 15 minute drive from the house that we can relocate to if our primary residence needs to be evacuated due to wildfire, earthquake, or heavy storm damage. The different homes are subject to different sorts of disasters, so the odds are at least one will survive any single event. We also have a boat we can live quite comfortably on for months, and it is usually stocked with supplies good for several weeks at least.
We have small stocks of gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lamp oil, propane set aside, and keep the vehicles usually above 1/2 full. We drive very little, the gasoline I have set aside would keep us going for quite some time before resupply.
We have a single small Honda generator/inverter, which during long power outages I will run for a few minutes a day to operate the septic system pump on an as-needed basis, but we don't use it for much else, as the house is set out for long power outages.
I try to keep the freezers full with ice if they aren't full of frozen food, and we've not lost food even during long outages. Worst case, I can smoke/BBQ the meat to save stuff if needed, usually our long outages are when the weather is cold enough that the food will keep in coolers outside I suspect.
Maxamillion
11-4-12, 7:22pm
I wish I could get my family to prep but they won't do it. I worry about the kids (my nieces and nephews). I'd buy preps for them but they wouldn't keep up with the stuff and any food would get eaten right away and not replaced. And they don't live near me, so there's nothing I could do to help if there was bad weather.
Blackdog Lin
11-4-12, 8:39pm
bae, you have a few hundred gallons of water stored in the house. May I ask how?
DH is only onboard with my prepping to a certain extent. And so the 6 3-gallon leftover Culligan bottles kept filled on the back porch is okay. (actually, he realized they could come in handy last year when we had an unfortunate hot-water-tank incident). But he will look askance at me if I try to fill a corner of the garage with eleventy-three cases of water (as I feel we should). I have to choose my battles.
How do you store that much water?
(I HAVE to add this. True story of tonight: I have several totes of prepper-preserved rice, beans, and pasta put aside in the back porch closet. And tonight's recipe of Mexican rice required long-grain rice, there was none in the house (we've switched to basmati), but we know we put some back in the "long term storage" totes. So we go looking in the totes. DH even helped me. Tote one contained solid bricks of everything but long-grain rice. Tote 2 contained solid bricks of everything but long-grain rice. Tote three: hallelujiah! some long-grain rice. Solid bricks. I had talked him into helping me vacuum-seal (with oxygen absorbers) the stuff back in '08 (it's dated) and we ate it tonight and it was as fresh and tasty as anything we could have bought at the store today. At a 50% premium - as in, that rice cost us half back then what it would cost us today.)
Lesson 1: we did good with our vacuum-preserving. It kept well; and (2) putting up long-term food items, that you know you will use, gains you more interest than any cash you could put in the bank.
I suggest keeping a bottle of bleach at all time. I know they have water purification tablets and iodine but they are more expensive and I have to go somewhere to buy them other than a grocery store. Bleach is a great disinfectant and will purify your water supply.
Also, during the Sandy storm, on Television they had a show on what you need. They said at least 3 cans of food per person per day. For 3 people for 3 days that's 27 cans of 'mealable' cans of food. Whoa. Not being a big canned food eater, this came as a shock. Sure, there is ramen, crackers, canned milk and others, but when I think of it, canned food probably has the most density to provide satiety. I have nowhere need that and probably won't ever. Recently I invested in a large amount of Progresso soups, thinking, hey, 1.00 lunches, what a bargain and a good way to stock up. Ugh. Every soup, regardless of the type or flavor tasted the same and tasted of tin can. Yuck. So I won't buy anymore of those. I like cream soups, and Campbells chicken noodle better than those and I think they are awful too. What to do?
bae, you have a few hundred gallons of water stored in the house. May I ask how?
4 food-grade plastic 55 gallon drums, 4 20 gallon drums, 8 5 gallon drums, 2 water heaters, 4 toilet tanks, however much ice is being used to full empty space in freezer.
(I HAVE to add this. True story of tonight: I have several totes of prepper-preserved rice, beans, and pasta put aside in the back porch closet. And tonight's recipe of Mexican rice required long-grain rice, there was none in the house .
We all got home from separate activities very late last night, and were all cold and wet. We did our usual bidding process to come up with our dinner plan. Daughter won with "zombie chow", so out came the Mountain House foods, and e were eating 12 mins later. If you wait for sales, the Mountain House freeze-dried meals are cheaper than frozen convenience foods, and have a 5 or 30 year shelf life.
Miss Cellane
11-4-12, 9:27pm
I suggest keeping a bottle of bleach at all time. I know they have water purification tablets and iodine but they are more expensive and I have to go somewhere to buy them other than a grocery store. Bleach is a great disinfectant and will purify your water supply.
Also, during the Sandy storm, on Television they had a show on what you need. They said at least 3 cans of food per person per day. For 3 people for 3 days that's 27 cans of 'mealable' cans of food. Whoa. Not being a big canned food eater, this came as a shock. Sure, there is ramen, crackers, canned milk and others, but when I think of it, canned food probably has the most density to provide satiety. I have nowhere need that and probably won't ever. Recently I invested in a large amount of Progresso soups, thinking, hey, 1.00 lunches, what a bargain and a good way to stock up. Ugh. Every soup, regardless of the type or flavor tasted the same and tasted of tin can. Yuck. So I won't buy anymore of those. I like cream soups, and Campbells chicken noodle better than those and I think they are awful too. What to do?
Canned food has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, on sale often, easy to find in stores, easy to store in your home and you can eat it without needing to heat it up. I think that's why it's recommended so often.
There are alternatives--you can can or otherwise preserve food yourself. You can check out military issue MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), although if you don't like the taste of canned food, there's a good chance you won't like them. There's dried fruit. There's freeze-dried food. Lots of hikers use freeze-dried food--it's lightweight and doesn't spoil and can be eaten as is or just needs a bit of hot water to make it edible. But it is usually much more expensive than canned food. Or just try out some food that comes in jars. Maybe that wouldn't taste as bad.
Then there's peanut butter, bread, crackers, vegetables like carrots that will last several days without refrigeration (longer if you can keep them in a cool cellar), fresh fruit like apples that will last several days, some hard cheeses, and things like that.
I don't eat a lot of canned food, but I keep some around, mostly for emergencies. I can put up with the taste because I know I'm only going to be eating them for a few days.
HappyHiker
11-4-12, 9:57pm
We've kind of got it together. Living in coastal North Carolina for the past 10 years, we've been through a few hurricanes and multi-day power losses.
On hand are two oil lamps (and oil), a bunch of flashlights/lanterns and batteries. We've a Coleman propane stove so we can cook and brew coffee. We keep a good supply of canned goods in the pantry. We keep very little in our freezer and eat most of the frozen food up before the hurricane arrives. Lots of bottled water.
What we can't prep for--and no one really can--is storm surge. That's the worst. I really feel for those poor folks in NJ and NY who got nailed by the water, sand and mud. It's awful. We've been very fortunate in that regard, but with every storm, we worry.
If ordered to evacuate, we would not hesitate to go. It's only "stuff." I prefer life.
ApatheticNoMore
11-4-12, 10:26pm
Recently I invested in a large amount of Progresso soups, thinking, hey, 1.00 lunches, what a bargain and a good way to stock up. Ugh. Every soup, regardless of the type or flavor tasted the same and tasted of tin can. Yuck.
I think the more natural stuff is better quality. I mean most canned food is not my preference either, I prefer fresh food, but I'll eat it. And in fact I DO eat it, I eat it when I'm sick (always go through that stuff when sick) or there's no food and I don't want to go to the store (most of the time I'll just go, but ...). That's why I mentioned Amy's soups, they were on "sale" today at WF, 2 for $5, picked up some more. Yea that's not much of a bargain, it's not $1 each, but what's the point of having food around I'm never going to eat in anything short of nuclear winter? This stuff I don't feel bad about eating, healthy ingredients etc. Another good option I mentioned is the Trader Joe soups that come in square containers. They're pretty tasty, really they're enjoyable (organic tomato and roasted red pepper is yum), and the ingredients are pretty decent, retail for about $2 something, but contain quite a lot of soup. Dried stuff works if you've got heat and water to spend preparing it (yea beans and rice). Oatmeal scarecely even requires that.
Of course food you can yourself is tasty but I'm having a REALLY hard time seeing that as a viable *emergency* preparation. So suppose the big earthquake came, those glass Ball containers are going to crash against each other so hard, that all I'll have is very messy shelves! Ok maybe it's possible they'll survive, but I wouldn't rely on it as my preps.
Tussiemussies
11-4-12, 10:30pm
Thank everyone for all of your posts. I am learning a lot from what you have to share and really need to implement a lot of things. Bae your survival system is amazing -- wow you are really prepared!
Thanks again -- Christine
Canned food has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, on sale often, easy to find in stores, easy to store in your home and you can eat it without needing to heat it up. I think that's why it's recommended so often.
There are alternatives--you can can or otherwise preserve food yourself. You can check out military issue MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), although if you don't like the taste of canned food, there's a good chance you won't like them. There's dried fruit. There's freeze-dried food. Lots of hikers use freeze-dried food--it's lightweight and doesn't spoil and can be eaten as is or just needs a bit of hot water to make it edible. But it is usually much more expensive than canned food. Or just try out some food that comes in jars. Maybe that wouldn't taste as bad.
Then there's peanut butter, bread, crackers, vegetables like carrots that will last several days without refrigeration (longer if you can keep them in a cool cellar), fresh fruit like apples that will last several days, some hard cheeses, and things like that.
I don't eat a lot of canned food, but I keep some around, mostly for emergencies. I can put up with the taste because I know I'm only going to be eating them for a few days.
Knowing I would only have to eat them for a few days is fine. It's just buying them for a hypothetical situation and then not eating them and not rotating them that bothers me.
what's the point of having food around I'm never going to eat in anything short of nuclear winter?
EXACTLY! Next time I get a yen to "Stock" for some nuclear winter, I will try the Amy's and see if I can live with them. Thanks!
IMHO, Amy's brand tastes terrible, and is overpriced.
Instead of canned goods I have stocks of the plastic tuna packs, pre-cooked rice packs and the super yummy Indian curries such as Tasty Bites. I don't have the cupboard space for many cans and those flat packages pack up easily into a backpack if we need to evacuate.
They easily heat up on the dashboard of your car, too :)
IMHO, Amy's brand tastes terrible, and is overpriced.
:(
Miss Cellane
11-5-12, 6:43am
Of course food you can yourself is tasty but I'm having a REALLY hard time seeing that as a viable *emergency* preparation. So suppose the big earthquake came, those glass Ball containers are going to crash against each other so hard, that all I'll have is very messy shelves! Ok maybe it's possible they'll survive, but I wouldn't rely on it as my preps.
Have to admit that here on the East Coast, earthquakes don't really factor into emergency preparations. We just had a large quake, well, large for New England, I think it was 4.6, and it didn't do any damage. It's been 100 years since we had a similar magnitude quake. So what's a reasonable emergency method in one part of the country might not work elsewhere.
awakenedsoul
11-5-12, 11:34am
I like to keep beef and turkey jerky in my stockpile, too. It's nice to have protein. When my mom was in the hospital, my dad ate through all of their stockpiled foods. My mom had bought tons of beef stew from Trader Joes, frozen pizzas, etc...She's always kept a lot of extra food. It does come in handy for when life throws you a curveball.
The end of the world would be problematic for us, but most run of the mill emergencies won't pose a huge challenge because we will still be able to see, drink, eat, keep warm, stay/get dry, go to the bathroom, etc. The most difficult natural disaster we face is a direct hit from a strong tornado. For perspective, that would be an exceptionally rare event because they are so localized even though we face storms capable of that level of damage on a regular basis. Even so, we are right now in the process of building a reinforced storm shelter in the basement of our house. During regular times it is a cool, dark store room for canned goods, but in the cases of a violent tornado hitting the house with us in it that is as close as we can come to insuring survival (which is obviously the top priority).
The end of the world would be problematic for us,....
I Refuse to let this thread go any further without first properly acknowledging the understatement of the year as quoted above.
Got to agree with you Gregg. The world ending would definitely put a crimp in our plans as well.
yes.
have a couple weeks worth of food, want to have at least a month. i dont count freezer/fridge food
enough first aid stuff for minor things
plenty of ammo
plenty of batteries
45 gallons of drinking water. will fill up tubs for flushing/sponge baths if i have prior notice of a situation
2 bottles of LP, want 4, gas grill with burner
need to get a generator, but dont want to rely on it. use it to get through fridge/freezer food.
need to live in a house with wood stove.
also for the caffeine posted on page one...french press and a stove top kettle.
plenty of ammo
How much do you consider "plenty"?
It seems to me that in most natural disasters, you wouldn't need much, and even in USA-style civil disorders you wouldn't need much.
Mad Max/The Road scenarios, perhaps a bit more.
ok, plenty to get started with. lol.
in the grand scheme of things id like more/variety of long guns
250 shells for now.
I keep it pretty simple. Have a bug-out bag (backpack) with enough stuff to last me a few weeks outdoors in any weather conditions. Things like freeze dried food, sterno stove, water pump, fire making stuff, first aid stuff, extra clothes, one person tent, sleeping bag, tarp, etc... basicly stuff you'd take backpacking with a few extras for personal protection if needed (handguns and extra ammo) . At home I have several cases of bottled water - the small bottles as well as they are easier to carry if need be - and lots of canned food that can be eaten cold or easily heated. Some wood for the fireplace too. More guns and ammo for the zombie hoardes :-)! I could probably last a few months before needing to go out and replenish supplies. But, If a disaster lasted longer than a month I would probably leave and go lie on a beach in south Florida! I also have extra stuff in my truck and plenty of extra dog food too.
An emergency caffeine delivery system does not have to be complicated. A spoonful of instant coffee taken as is will do the trick. No water needed. And yes, if I had one of those horrible caffeine headaches so bad that it makes me vomit, I would take it that way.
My sister carried a small stash of caffine pills with her where ever she goes. It ain't Starbucks but it'll keep the headaches away.
Tussiemussies
11-5-12, 10:59pm
Never though of the coffee withdrawl issue, but great suggestions here on how to deal with that.
Gregg, your plans sound really smart...
After what just happened here and not too many were prepared as we don't usually get any big types of weather like this it's great to see how many on the board are prepared...
I like to keep beef and turkey jerky in my stockpile, too. It's nice to have protein. When my mom was in the hospital, my dad ate through all of their stockpiled foods. My mom had bought tons of beef stew from Trader Joes, frozen pizzas, etc...She's always kept a lot of extra food. It does come in handy for when life throws you a curveball.
Trader Joes has come to town here. Are their canned foods better?
stay away from their chicken noodle soup.
awakenedsoul
11-6-12, 12:24pm
Trader Joes has come to town here. Are their canned foods better?
I don't buy much canned food. When I visit my parents, I eat theirs, and I like it. I used to overspend there, but now I shop at Costco. Trader Joe's has a huge variety of treats, and I would cave in and buy all kinds of desserts, candy, dog treats, etc...
They have a lot of the same stuff at Costco in Huge packages for a lot less money.
Trader Joe's has a huge variety of treats, and I would cave in and buy all kinds of desserts, candy, dog treats, etc...
.
This is probably the number one reason I got a Costco membership - I'm less tempted to buy all the goodies they have there since they come in such large servings. No individual servings of cake and pie and no candy at the checkout at Costco. I even store my emergency supplies with foods I generally don't like (lima beans anyone?) that come in large cases at Costco. I'll eat them if I'm starving but otherwise they are safe from gluttonous me for the most part!
Another "survival" thing that I think is useful - certainly useful in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy - is having a bike. Preferably a sturdy road or mountain bike so you can get around in the event that there is no gas for the car - or no roads that are passable by car. I have a mountain bike and bike trailer that I use to haul around the dog. It would be a great tool to pick up supplies after a disaster.
I don't buy much canned food. When I visit my parents, I eat theirs, and I like it. I used to overspend there, but now I shop at Costco. Trader Joe's has a huge variety of treats, and I would cave in and buy all kinds of desserts, candy, dog treats, etc...
They have a lot of the same stuff at Costco in Huge packages for a lot less money.
I have found Costco not to be a savings for me. I didn't see any 'treats' at TJ's that tempted me either. I don't like canned food. But if one place has one I might use and actually be able to rotate it, as an insurance for a future emergency, then I would like to find it.
Miss Cellane
11-7-12, 6:58am
Tiam, if you don't like canned food, but would eat it in an emergency, you could do as someone here has suggested--buy it, store it, and periodically donate the unused cans to a food pantry, and buy new.
Or go a completely different route with your disaster preparations. Get a small camping stove, stockpile more water and plan to do real cooking. Check out websites for hikers--lots of food suggestions for lightweight, non-refrigerated, easy to prepare foods. Or the websites of survivalists. Or check out some of the food preparedness sites for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. There's a lot of useful information about storing food long-term.
Tiam, if you don't like canned food, but would eat it in an emergency, you could do as someone here has suggested--buy it, store it, and periodically donate the unused cans to a food pantry, and buy new.
Or go a completely different route with your disaster preparations. Get a small camping stove, stockpile more water and plan to do real cooking. Check out websites for hikers--lots of food suggestions for lightweight, non-refrigerated, easy to prepare foods. Or the websites of survivalists. Or check out some of the food preparedness sites for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. There's a lot of useful information about storing food long-term.
That would be a kindness, but not something I can really afford to do. But I do have the camp stove and water. Just need to stockpile propane I guess.
Just a note to anyone thinking of storing water in their bathtub: Don't store water in a bathtub
From the Preparedness Department, National Headquarters American Red Cross
"Recently, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) did some studies which were shared and verified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)...
For years, it was common to find a recommendation that for disasters with long-lead time, such as hurricanes, people should store water in advance just in case the community water supply was disrupted by the event. One of the suggested places to store water was in a bathtub.
Quoting from the VHCB report, "Historically, lead has been added to porcelain glaze powders as a pigmenting compound and also as fluxing agent that allowed for lower firing temperatures of ceramic products. Because of this practice, it is likely that many older bath tubs (tubs manufactured before 1978) and household ceramic fixtures contain lead. The data (from the VHCB study) has shown that approximately 75% of the tubs tested by XRF were positive and contained lead in the glaze above levels that would be considered lead based paint. The data collected clearly demonstrated that lead glaze was prevalent in a majority of pre-1978 tubs and that a significant percentage would return levels of lead dust that would be considered hazardous on a floor.
We do not know how many bathtubs are "out there" that were manufactured before 1978. But we estimate that the number is rather high, especially as bathtubs tend to have a very long life.
We also know that exposure to lead is cumulative, and it affects children in quite harmful, prolonged, ways, including causing permanent brain damage.
So, based on this information, FEMA's Community & Family Preparedness Program has changed its stand on storage of water, and (in concurrence with the American Red Cross), we both now are saying that water should NOT be stored in a bathtub before disaster strikes (such as in a hurricane). We will continue to suggest using food-grade containers, such as soft drink bottles, and other containers designed to store liquids for human consumption.
My understanding was that water in the bathtub was for flushing not drinking.
puglogic
11-13-12, 11:59pm
My understanding was that water in the bathtub was for flushing not drinking.
My assumption as well.
ApatheticNoMore
11-14-12, 12:07am
If there is that much lead in bathtubs wouldn't you be absorbing it via your skin when you take baths? Happy thoughts .. happy thoughts .. but really wouldn't you? Not like it's going to stop me from taking baths though really.
try2bfrugal
11-14-12, 12:29am
I am not intentionally a prepper, but we are focusing on sustainable living, some solar power and a native plant yard so I guess there is a lot of overlap. Many of my cost cutting Google searches keep leading me to prepper forums. Solar panels on our roof do not seem to be cost effective for us, but I am buying solar lights and various lights and small appliances that run on rechargeable batteries that can be charged with solar panels. I am typing this by my solar desk light I had charging outside earlier in the day. Today I picked up a book at the library on how to build a solar food dehydrator - not so much to stockpile food for the apocalypse but because it saves money to buy inexpensive produce at the ethnic stores an then dry it myself.
So there are lots of overlaps but the stuff I do is mostly just to lower our expenses.
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