Mainstream online media post about stocking up on food

July 24th, 2010

Some of you may have seen this article on Yahoo:

The top foods you should keep in case of an emergency

Some preppers may argue that when the mainstream media start to suggest stuff like this, things may be worse than we think. I hope that instead more and more people are just coming to the realization that they can’t rely on grocery stores to carry everything everyone needs at any given moment. The phrase “nine meals from anarchy” is a spot-on description of how far away from social unrest if the trucks stop rolling and the three-day supply of food on grocery store shelves is gone. Stock up now while you can. There’s no good excuse not to.

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Trying to catch up on my food dehydration…

July 13th, 2010

I’ve been on the road so much the past few weeks that I’ve hardly had time to dehydrate anything and my freezer reached its limit tonight: 18 lbs. of carrots, 8 lbs. of blueberries, 8 lbs. of spinach…and a package of barbecued chicken that I took out before I took these photos. :P

Actually, in the second photo you can see a couple bags of Totino’s Pizza Rolls (hey, I have my vices) that I had to take out of the box so that all the bags of veggies would fit in the freezer!

As of a few minutes ago, I just put 8 lbs. of frozen carrots in two dehydrators (1 lb. per tray):

and in about 12 hours, those 8 lbs. of carrots will fit in a 1-quart mason jar:

I’m glad Friday is payday, because I’ll soon have an empty freezer! :P

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Don’t lose your common sense while prepping

July 10th, 2010

At my fiancee’s insistence I watched the show “Wife Swap” with her last night (the show was better than I expected and not like the name sounds), and actually I was intrigued when I heard that one of the families on tonight’s episode was obsessed with 2012. Unfortunately, that family IMO gives a bad name to those of us who are trying not to leave our common sense behind as we stock up and prepare for pretty rough times ahead. The parents made their kids come home immediately after school every day “just in case something happens.” They wouldn’t let the kids participate in sports because 2012-oriented tasks were much more important and made them participate in regular hazmat-suit drills in the backyard. They even had a dry-erase marker board in the kitchen counting down the number of days until 12-21-12!! These people really didn’t seem to have much of a connection to what was right in front of their faces. I mean, sure, they have their survival food stash (which looked like cases of MREs) under the stairs, but really, making your kids wear “survival packs” with them everywhere they go?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nearly a year’s worth of food on hand for both me and my fiancee (trying to add a month’s worth of food every two weeks), I’ve got a steadily growing ammo stash (need more range time, though) and I hang out online with really smart people at GIM and a couple other sites and read stories on a couple dozen news sites a day to try to read between the “official” news stories and see what’s really happening, but c’mon, what are the odds of a particular family in a particular neighborhood needing hazmat suits for the entire family on any given day? You’re more likely to encounter hungry, angry mobs ransacking houses for food in most SHTF situations that I can imagine, because most people like to eat every day.

Until this past year, there was a Cold War-era stash of VX nerve gas at a military depot about 40 miles away from where I live. In the event of a VX leak (not to worry, all the VX at that location has now been neutralized), residents in close proximity to the depot received an automated warning and were expected to have enough time to seal up the doors and windows in their residences with, I’m guessing, plastic sheeting or other such material. But being 40 miles downwind, there would either be a lot of dead people between my house and that depot by the time the VX reached me, or the gas would dissipate into a dilute-enough concentration that it wouldn’t be an issue outside of the immediate area of the depot. I can’t imagine what any one family imagines it might encounter that it needs hazmat suits and drills for their entire family…unless they all had bad bean burritos for dinner.

But seriously, that family on TV tonight really give a bad name for those of us who haven’t lost our common sense and are trying to prepare for the most likely SHTF scenarios based upon our life situations. Since my fiancee is disabled, I’m not in a position to bug-out except in the most extreme circumstances, so we’re going to keep prepping and keep stocking up right here while keeping our jobs and not losing our minds.

I’ll try to find a link for the episode, if it’s been posted online yet.

EDIT: I almost forgot another very important detail–this family had bought everything on credit and didn’t plan to keep on paying after, of course, the world ends in 2012. WHAT KIND OF PREPPERS BUY EVERYTHING ON CREDIT????

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Spiritual preparation for difficult times

June 26th, 2010

I really hadn’t posted much on this blog about spiritual endurance or spiritual nourishment since my initial post about four months ago, but wanted to revisit this now because I want the things that are most important in “real life” to be better-reflected on this blog in preparation for hard times.

I’ll state unequivocally and without reservation that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I realize that not everyone will have the same spiritual beliefs and perspectives as I do, and it is not my intent through this blog to try to proselytize or “preach” to anyone. I will, however, stand by my assertion that without the help of someone more powerful than ourselves, there’s no way any of us can really keep our footing and persevere in the face of adversity.

It’s good to have extra food and other supplies during hard times, but that’s not enough. It’s good to have personal protection and means of self-defense for yourself and your loved ones, but that’s not enough. It’s wonderful to be surrounded by like-minded family and friends who are in agreement with you about both the challenges our economy and our society are facing and how to prepare to deal with them, but that’s not enough. You can have all the physical supplies and human support in the world. But spiritual fortitude doesn’t come in cases of dehydrated food, boxes of ammo or the number of people in your retreat group. You can have all the material provisions in the world to get you through years of hard times but still be empty on the inside.

Without God in your life, it’s inconceivable to me how anyone could expect to make it through the tough times that are coming. If you haven’t been to church in a while, find one where they’re giving people real spiritual meat from the Bible, not just the feel-good pablum taught in too many places. Spend time studying the Word, and keep on doing so. Get back into a conversation with God if it’s been a while — He’ll be glad to talk to you and to have your attention again. Find a group of believers who can encourage you in the faith and who you can likewise encourage; there’s spiritual strength in numbers with like-minded people. And when everything in this world starts crashing, take your focus off of the chaos around you and look to God for strength, because He is ultimately the only source any of us can really draw strength from. I’ve been a follower of Jesus for 24 of my almost 40 years, and He has never let me down. I hope you’ll find that same strength through Him.

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Are you just planning to prep? Or are you actually prepping?

June 23rd, 2010

It just occurred to me that I hadn’t posted anything new on here in well over three weeks. Quite frankly, I’ve been so busy prepping that I haven’t had time to write. But how many of you are so busy PLANNING to prep that you don’t actually get around to prepping?

In the past few weeks I’ve dehydrated about 40 lbs. of carrots, added about 10 lbs. of spices to my pantry stash and found out that blueberries can be rather tricky to dehydrate. (More on that in a future post.) I’ve also added a couple more cases of canned mackerel to my storage pantry and am about to place a large order (probably more than 50 lbs.) for dehydrated banana chips which I can order more cheaply than I can make them myself.

Are you planning to prep? Or are you actually prepping? What are you waiting for?

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You really, really don’t want to live under martial law…or do you?

May 28th, 2010

I STILL can’t figure out why anyone deems celebrities to be authorities about anything except acting like someone they aren’t, but Woody Allen’s comments last week are as far beyond stupid as I’ve heard from the Left Coast:

http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-movies/woody-allen-make-obama-529655.html

Woody Allen, the actor and director who’s been no stranger to controversy over the years, has done it again.

This time, Allen told a Spanish language newspaper that President Barack Obama should be given dictatorial powers, Fox News reported.

According to Fox, Allen said it “would be good if [Obama] could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.”

Allen, 75, told La Vanguardia newspaper that he’s “pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him.”

Allen’s latest remarks come on the heels of last week’s reiteration of his support for filmmaker Roman Polanski, who remains under fire for a 1978 sex scandal.

Anyone who EVEN FOR A MOMENT thinks that quelling dissent by force of law is going to solve problems has absolutely no idea what martial law involves — and they’re just asking for even more dissent. You don’t stop a pot from boiling over by sealing it up tightly — you change the conditions that are creating the heat in the first place. Here’s some good reading:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=martial+law+restrictions

If bullying the other side into submission is the only way to get your views to prevail, then you’ve already lost the argument. I’ll take unrest and dissent any day over the quasi-permanent theft of the rights that our early countrymen fought to give us, and that millions of people around the world are still fighting to obtain. And if you’d rather have “peace” than vigorous debate, discussion and dissent, then maybe you should just plug your ears to what our Founding Fathers said:

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your council or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams

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How NOT to prepare for TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It)

May 22nd, 2010

I cringed when I saw the story Doomsday safe-haven offered under Mojave Desert on the AP wire last week, partly because this sort of slick marketing ignores the fact that most disasters, including but not limited to nuclear war, probably won’t happen when we expect it — not that anyone among us usually sits around taking bets on when nuclear war will happen. But what dismayed me even more is the huge disservice that this slick marketing job is doing for those of us who are trying to take common-sense preparations for hard times (and encouraging others to do the same) while not acting like TEOTWAWKI is imminent — it MIGHT BE imminent, but most of us who are prepping are doing so while going on with LAWKI — life as we know it.

Under the slick slogan “You can’t predict, but you can prepare,” entrepreneur Robert Vicino promises that for a scant $50,000, people can ride out the Apocalypse in a fancified bunker under the Mojave Desert. Take a look at some of the over-the-top accommodations:

At first glance, I can’t help but think of the show “The Simple Life” — how the heck are the kind of people who have more money than common sense (assuming as I am that most people willing to drop $50K think they can just buy their way out of nuclear war or other such scenarios) going to do the grunt work needed to rebuild after TSHTF if they aren’t willing or equipped to deal with what’s going on above ground in the first place?

And you gotta love the rhetorical question “Where would you go with 3 days’ notice?”

Think back to how most travel in general and all air traffic and commerce in particular ground to a halt on 9/11. If we have a major — REALLY major — SHTF situation like, oh, maybe nuclear war, it’s going to make 9/11 look like a Sunday School picnic. And I’m guessing that at that point, all bets are off that anyone will get anywhere on anything even remotely resembling a “normal” schedule.

But the REAL problem with putting all your eggs in one bunker is that it gives yet-unprepared or still-asleep sheeple a false idea or seven about what SHOULD be done to prepare for uncertain times. Most of us who are prepping aren’t digging elaborate bunkers in our backyards (for one thing, it might violate zoning regulations — see this article), but we are stocking up on food, water, medication and other necessities of life while preparing for uncertain times.

For those of you who are already prepping, keep on doing what you’re doing and don’t lose your common sense. For those of you who haven’t yet started prepping, start taking steps right where you’re at to prepare your people and your preps, and bug out only if and when TEOTWAWKI comes to your hometown. And don’t worry about the Mojave. People looking for safety in a bunker under the desert just have their heads in the sand.

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Don’t wipe out your toilet paper supply!

May 14th, 2010

The idea of stocking up — REALLY stocking up — on toilet paper probably seems ridiculous past a certain level of inventory. After all, storage space is valuable, so how much do we need to stock of just one product? Well, that’s all fine and dandy when it comes to substituting one product for another nearly equal product, but the one thing you really can’t live without is toilet paper. And as anyone realizes when they sit down on the toilet only to find that there’s no paper, if you don’t have it, you-know-what can really hit the fan.

And the lack of toilet paper can, um, wipe out public health as we know it.

There are any number of jokes that could be made about toilet paper or the lack thereof, but suffice to say that not having it becomes an emergency to the person who doesn’t have it. Multiply that times, oh, 6.5 billion people and you have a public health emergency. Even if you have a working sewer system after TSHTF, pretty soon the lack of paper can be pretty dicey. Multiply that personal SHTF situation by millions of people and you have a public health emergency.

“But stores NEVER run out of toilet paper…do they??”

Many of you who are old enough probably remember the bogus toilet paper shortage that Johnny Carson joked about in 1973. The next day, according to reports, stores across the country were stripped clean of toilet paper amid worries of an impending shortage. A few nights later Carson retracted his statement, but it still took weeks for the supply of toilet paper to return to normal on store shelves.

At this moment I have about 120 rolls of toilet paper on hand — probably more than a year’s worth for the average person under normal circumstances — and by “normal circumstances,” I mean a lack of extra toilet paper usage that comes about through, let’s say, intestinal distress. Or long-term guests. Or just plain forgetting to buy more. Or the cat learned how to paw open the cabinet where the toilet paper was stored and turned the paper into confetti. (All of these scenarios have happened to me; don’t think they can’t happen to you.) All it takes for things to hit the crapper is for the so-called “just in time” inventory supply lines to be interrupted to bring about problems keeping grocery items on the shelves. I can (maybe) do without coffee for a day or two if something catastrophic has occurred and there’s no chance of my being able to buy coffee. (But I’ve planned ahead and stocked up, just in case.) But I really can’t imagine what would happen if I run out of toilet paper. The health problems that can arise from contact with fecal matter are even worse than the contact with fecal matter itself.

(If you like being around fecal matter in the first place, you have much bigger problems than just a lack of toilet paper. And almost as much common sense as public-health expert and singer Sheryl Crow, who said people should be restricted in how much toilet paper they are allowed to use.)

To badly mangle a quote by the great patriot Thomas Jefferson, who had his share of SHTF situations, we hold these truths to be self-evident that not all toilet paper is created equal. Just because you have two equal-size packages of toilet paper doesn’t at all mean that you’ll get equal benefit from them. Let me illustrate:

Exhibit No. 1 is the POM 40-roll case of Quality Bath Tissue from Sam’s Club:

Exhibit No. 2 is the Member’s Mark 36-roll package (well, technically it’s 4 9-roll packages in a larger outer-wrapped package) of Ultra Premium Bath Tissue, also from Sam’s Club:

Can you tell which brand is which?

A case of POM as of this writing is 18.88 for 40 rolls, or 47.2 cents per roll; a multipack of the Member’s Mark TP is 14.98 for 36 rolls, or 41.6 cents per roll. So you should get the Member’s Mark TP, right?

Not so fast there, pilgrim. Look at the small print:

Each roll of POM has 450 2-ply 4-by-4.5-inch sheets:

But each roll of the Member’s Mark has less than half of that — a mere 200 sheets per roll!!

Technically, you’re saving 5.6 cents per roll when you buy the Member’s Mark TP. But your savings goes down the crapper because you get less than half of the TP surface area from the Member’s Mark than from the POM. But even more unsettling than the higher per-sheet cost of the Member’s Mark TP is that you use it up more quickly and can deplete your toilet paper supply much faster than you might expect.

And that would be a very, very bad thing.

Plan ahead. Stock up. Pronto. Because your life depends on it.

Three cases of POM toilet paper take up less space than that big-screen TV you made room for. And I don’t think you’ll care about the TV when nature calls and you’re out of paper. And as you sit there at some point looking at the last empty cardboard tube on the roll with no paper left in the house, I’m pretty sure nothing else will matter. Anyone who says you can have too much toilet paper is just full of crap.

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Two million people in Boston without water is why you need to be prepared

May 4th, 2010

I’m about a day late in posting this, but I think the message will remain long after this particular news story is gone:

Water main break leaves 2 million thirsty in Boston

If you think you’ll always have water, heat, food, electricity or anything else because that’s the way things have always been, re-read the articles at the link above. Anyone who reads stuff like this and thinks they shouldn’t become self-sufficient because “the system” will always work and will always provide for them is going to be really hungry, thirsty, cold and miserable someday. I’ll bet all the tea in Boston on it.

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Don’t skimp on your food storage equipment — your life depends on it

May 2nd, 2010

I came across a thread in one survival-prep forum recently where someone posted the suggestion that instead of buying allegedly more-expensive oxygen absorbers, why not buy iron oxide hand warmers, they said, since the hand warmers were cheaper and readily available in sporting goods stores and, they said, had the same active ingredients as food-grade oxygen absorbers? Well, that’s all fine and good if the hand warmers are cheaper and if they’re food-grade, but is cheaper necessarily what you want when it comes to food storage?

I’ve tried probably eight or nine different brands of food dehydrators over the years, and the only one I’ve tried that I would recommend to other people (disclaimer: I haven’t tried an Excalibur) is the one manufactured by Nesco, which has an internal fan for air circulation and helps food dry in half the time compared to dehydrators without fans. I like the Nescos so much that I’ve bought a dozen of them over the past several years just so I’ll have plenty of extra food preparation tools if I need them. (Shameless plug: You can usually get a Nesco on eBay for around $30 (plus shipping) if you pick your auctions smartly.)

Now, I could buy a Ronco or other model without an internal fan that would in fact use less electricity during the drying process…but if it takes the dehydrator twice as long to adequately dry food, am I really saving any money? I think it’s more than worth a few extra pennies of electricity to have dehydrators with fans so that I know my food will dry quickly and uniformly…and in the end, I have the security of knowing that I have plenty of food if I need it. (If you’re so worried about a dehydrator with a fan using more electricity than a dehydrator without a fan, maybe you should unplug the appliance in your house that uses the most electricity — your refrigerator!)

Which brings me back to the point about getting what you pay for.

In 1996, I bought my very first car, a 1984 Toyota Corolla. (Yes, a Toyota. The brakes worked on this particular vehicle…but nothing else did.) The car had about 162,000 miles on it, and the dealer was asking only $850 for it. The only warranty it came with was for me not to let the door hit me on the way out of the so-called dealership. More than $1,000 and 1,300 miles later, the car wouldn’t budge out of my mom’s driveway. Well, that’s not quite true…I could drive it three or four miles before the engine would overheat and I’d have to put more (and more…and more…and more) water in the radiator after it cooled down…and watch the water go right through the radiator to the pavement because the bottom of the radiator was rusted out.

I’d spent close to $2,000 and now had nothing to show for it. I was not a happy camper. But at least I could catch a ride on good days and hope I didn’t have to walk very far the rest of the time.

Which brings me back to my first point.

It’s one thing to shell out a couple thousand bucks on a piece-o’-junk car and have the thing eventually stop running altogether and then chalk up the experience to a lesson learned the hard way. But it’s a whole different story when your life depends on something.

And you can’t live without food.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that hand warmers technically do have the same oxygen-absorbing properties as, well, oxygen absorbers. I haven’t been able to try to vacuum-seal a jar yet with hand warmers because (at least according to the sporting goods clerk at Wally World) they are a seasonal camping-accessory item and won’t be available until later in the year. But do I really want something to heat up my food items as they are undergoing vacuum-sealing, and risk denaturing the vitamin content of the food that my life could depend on if TSHTF? Or would you rather use tried-and-true methods and materials that have been proven time and time again to work, so you don’t have to worry?

I’m not telling you not to buy that 1984 Toyota. I’m just asking you if it will get you where you need to go when you need it to get you there. If you’re buying cheaper food storage tools that you can’t be sure will do what you need them to do — keep your food fresh and safe until you eat it — are you willing to risk your health and maybe your life just to save a few bucks?

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