Year's supply?

arbilad · Head Chef

Year's supply?

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Being unemployed, I'm currently using mine. :) I do worry that once I get through the whole unemployed thing, that the Lord will come at about the point when our food supply is the lowest, and we need it again... it makes me nervous to ever use it.

--Ray

-- Edited by rayb at 15:27, 2007-01-01

arbilad · Head Chef

What I've heard said, and it makes sense to me, is that if we're doing the best we can to fulfill a commandment the Lord has given, then he blesses us anyway. I'm sure that the Lord understands that you're unemployed, and He won't punish you for having done the best you can.
Of course, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't renew your supply when you can. But I sort of doubt that the Lord is up there thinking, "How can I trick Ray into not listening to my commandments?"

Roper · Senior Bucketkeeper

We have really good 72 hour kits that have been field-tested, improved, and restocked for two years now. We're at about three months on food, water, and fuel storage. Our goal for this year is to get to six months. The water and fuel create the biggest challenges.

Fregramis · Senior Member

Hey Roper-

You mentioned water storage. What method or plan do you use?

Roper · Senior Bucketkeeper

Water storage:

We were able to obtain a few used food-grade plastic 55-gallon drums from a local beverage company. They held syrup for flavoring Sprite or Seven-Up, I think, so the water has a very faint taste. We also purchased a hand pump that fits in the smaller lid opening. Our water comes from a municipal supply and is already treated, so we don't add anything. We keep the drums in a cool dark location to avoid any possibility of algae. We empty and refill them every six months.

As a backup, I have a really good camping pump/filter and iodine tablets. I've used it to drink water from our nasty Texas lakes, and so far I'm still alive and kickin.

eta: remember you have a water heater full of water that is potable and can supply a family just drinking water for a few days. Water in toilet tanks can be used for other purposes (don't drink.)

-- Edited by Roper at 20:37, 2007-01-02

arbilad · Head Chef

BTW, it's been so cold here that my 55 gallon drums have frozen solid. Isn't that cool?

Roper · Senior Bucketkeeper

Ice water: Great for drinking. Sponge baths, not so much

Fregramis · Senior Member

Thanks Roper.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

You can drink your toilet tank water if you eat saltpeter.

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

rayb wrote:

You can drink your toilet tank water if you eat saltpeter.

Hmmmm Poo Crystals. The secret ingredient of Tomacolatte.

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

We've got lots of stuff (grain and beens) in dry pack cans, but probably some of it needs to be replaced, and it is in no way sufficient for a year for the family or balanced yet.

Do we need to store some poo crystals too?

arbilad · Head Chef

www.providentliving.org has a great guide for how to store a nutritionally balanced diet for your family.

BTW, many grains store for a long period of time without problem. Stored wheat will probably outlast you. Literally. They've found wheat in the tombs of pharaohs that they were able to sprout. Some stuff, like dehydrated milk, you do need to rotate frequently. But most things will last for a good long while.

Euphrasie · Senior Bucketkeeper

I need to inventory. I keep buying stuff, but it's been awhile since I updated my spreadsheets. I need to add another little 'half a person' requirement too.

I'd say for balanced stuff we have 6 mo. Some things we have more...like wheat, beans, and salt. That'd be an exciting menu if we had to get to that point.

Valhalla · Profuse Pontificator

We have a year, maybe 15 months worth. My goal is two years. I have been buying and rotating lots of canned goods to use as supplements. Also buying lots of spices, different thing, I have to use it, I want to live well.

I also would hunt for additional supplements. I live in a small town in a rural area. About 80% of the meat we eat is what I have hunted, venison. The deer are all corn and soybean fed, so they are not gamey. My kids claim they hate venison, funny how kids are, what they don't know doesn't hurt them. They have been eating venison for years and don't know it.

Additional supplements would be garden seeds that are packed for long term storage. You would just have to remember that in an actual SHTF situation, if you have a garden and fruit trees, plan on losing your crops to people raiding them. In fact, I have seen it happen without an emergency and people just help themselves.

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

Valhalla wrote:

We have a year, maybe 15 months worth. My goal is two years. I have been buying and rotating lots of canned goods to use as supplements. Also buying lots of spices, different thing, I have to use it, I want to live well.

I also would hunt for additional supplements. I live in a small town in a rural area. About 80% of the meat we eat is what I have hunted, venison. The deer are all corn and soybean fed, so they are not gamey. My kids claim they hate venison, funny how kids are, what they don't know doesn't hurt them. They have been eating venison for years and don't know it.

Venison is so much healthier than beef anyway. It's leaner and doesn't have all the shots that modern beef production has. It's good to start them on the wild game early. My youngest two have a hankering for quail and like to call it the little chickens that daddy shot.

mirkwood · Senior Bucketkeeper

We are sitting at around 15-16 months. I hope by summer's end to be at the 2+ year mark. The end of the year at the latest for that goal.

Euphrasie · Senior Bucketkeeper

*sigh* I need to get reserves built back up. I've been working on trying to use things that are getting to the end of ideal storage lengths (milk, oats, pasta, etc.) but I haven't gotten to the cannery in awhile. Having a baby will do that, I guess.

I'm trying to decide if I should sign up on the cannery lists (for September) or just may a little extra and order some buckets of stuff. Or both.

I also need to inventory what I've got because I've been stashing stuff around the house and not recording it very consistently. And also, I think we only had 1 kid when I designed the spreadsheet, so I need to add another 2 (1 1/2) peoples' worth needs to the targets.

PollyAnna · Senior Bucketkeeper

We are working on our 2nd year and "specializing" the first year with stuff we like and would miss that isn't on any normal supply lists... I got some canned butter and cheese from a link I think mirk posted...?) Preserved some of some of my own with info someone else posted and got a cool deal on some great "canned" jerky and "2 year" trail mix... for our larder...

We REALLY went to town with the tax refund and updated the 72 hr kits, it's been a while since we had new packs and the kids that have cars have 72 hr car packs too... I feel good about the shape we are in, but having LIVED on our year supply too many times to take it for granted, I never sit on my laurels.

We are always adding, rotating and re-evaluating where we need to be... It's like a hobby now...

PollyAnna · Senior Bucketkeeper

Ray... sorry about the job... is that the sad thing you mentioned elsewhere?

You and the family are back in my prayers. Everyone's worked like a charm for me... so I'll hope and pray your situation is better VERY VERY soon... I am glad you have food storage to help you. We have lived on ours many times one time when the kids were really young and I was really sick we had approx 9 months of remaining storage last 18 before hubby found work... miracles come in all sizes... (He went back to school for retraining during that layoff too... that seems to be a trend with us... HOPEFULLY we are past all of that! But you never know... That is why WE follow the prophets council.)

Euphrasie · Senior Bucketkeeper

(I don't know what Ray's sad thing was, but this is kind of an old thread, so that's probably not current. I just resurrected it for lack of a better place to post my musings.)

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

Yeah, Polly, check the dates.

Polly's so nice.

Come on, Euph, it's time to get a new excuse besides the "baby"... what is he, a year old now??

Euphrasie · Senior Bucketkeeper

Umm...SHE is 7 months now... And I can use her as an excuse as long as I want. So there.

Besides, I have a backup excuse. My husband is Scoutmaster and 2/3 of the time, there's a campout planned for cannery day.

Also...for the life of me, I can't figure out what I was trying to say "just may a little extra..." Maybe it was supposed to be just BUY a little extra...like at the store.

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

My baby turned 10 months yesterday. He's still an excuse??

My other excuse was that guy from po-dunk came and took our canner like a week before I got to use it. The person in our ward that had it didn't have the spine to tell him where to go, because Coco's using it **tomorrow** and already bought all her flour, sugar and dry milk that she was going to do and he's just going to have to wait. Haven't seen hide nor hair of the Stake traveling canner since.

And actually driving to the cannery doesn't work because, well.... I have this baby, see...

Euphrasie · Senior Bucketkeeper

That sounds perfectly reasonable. We're such victims.