Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
[quote=coschristi;45233286]Whew! I'm not the only one ... I won't make it past 4pm when everyone gets home from school.
We've been eating tuna fish sandwiches and Chinese for two days now. We're in the middle of a project and food is just an after thought, but egg foo young two days in a row.
I guess we could always eat the two dogs and our cat in an emergency if it meant starving to death. MMMM kitty tacos.
Ugh, forgot the MRE's in the garage. Darn things are like 5000 calories a meal, so there is a few (albeit unhappy) weeks.
And when I say we have food for months.... that's survival, not well thought out meals. At month 3 it would be like polenta, with water chestnuts and rice with brown sugar.
__________________ ____________________________________________
My posts as a Mod will always be in red.
Be sure to review Terms of Service: TOS
And check this out: FAQ
Moderator: Relationships Forum / Hawaii Forum / Dogs / Pets / Current Events
Ugh, forgot the MRE's in the garage. Darn things are like 5000 calories a meal, so there is a few (albeit unhappy) weeks.
And when I say we have food for months.... that's survival, not well thought out meals. At month 3 it would be like polenta, with water chestnuts and rice with brown sugar.
Sounds like when Dr. McCoy was the Mess Officer in the book "Battlestations!".
Still, it's better than the Arctic Ocean fishing boat collision many years ago where they got ashore to an old land base and had plenty of flour, cooking oil, and fuel oil....that was it. Well, there was water in the snow around. When they were rescued, there were lots of samples of fried flour about.
Hard to say what the menus would be, once the refrigerated stores went, but I have found black beans, black eyed peas, and brown rice to be tasty, even without spices. That's the kind of stuff that is cheap and easy enough to keep around.
Pinto beans are cheap but not that easy to prep so what I do is throw a handful into each stew. They aren't there for what they are themselves but just as another "bug" with protein.
How many of you have a generator to keep your fridge & freezer running if the power goes out and enough gas on hand to keep the generator working if gas stations close down for lack of power ?
Having been through Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy we've got enough food on hand for a few weeks and can keep our generator going for several days before we need to find gas for it. Thinking of putting in daisy chained propane tanks so we don't have to worry about gas.
Yes, I just bought a propane powered generator so I don't have to worry about gasoline storage. I can keep tanks of propane in the garden shed for years and it will be fine when I need it. I still have the old gasoline powered generator around, but rarely store over 10 gallons of gas, mostly just for yard equipment. I have more diesel stored for the tractor, and have thought about buying a PTO powered generator, but don't really need that much electricity.
Interestingly, I have a little 1000w 2-cycle make and break governed camp generator that will run 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas. It will run the freezer just fine.
Interesting way to see things. Myself, when it is rainy and muddy and "puddly", I say "This is the kind of weather that the Forester (usually I say its name) likes to play in!".
As things go, one of the plans is to put a truck bed diesel tank or similar into the F250. That will work for the truck, but maybe not for the Forester or the generator. That part I need to still work on. One thing about it, though, is that with the F250 and lots of land, there are ways to prepare. I mean, I may not be able to put in some kind of permanent facility, but I probably can haul in this or that kind of tank. That's why the F250 was bought in the first place, to be able to haul the material loads that the Forester can't handle.
Back to the food side of things, an item I've seen come up is that of diary. My taste buds for many years have been reconverted to using powdered milk that I grew up with. I probably have a two or three months supply of that, ESPECIALLY if there is no refrigeration......then there is less of motivation to drink it. It would probably be used more in baking at that point.
Eggs and butter might be a problem. There is a can of "eggs" on the shelf, but I haven't tried it yet to see how to apply that, for baking, in a crisis. I am perhaps fortunate that butter is almost entirely used in baking and hardly used as a topping; even with baked potatoes, I can get by with sprinkled spices. So if it came down to a use it or lose it situation, it seems the answer would be to bake the butter into more stable forms.
I'm not quite sure if that is my given for the reason of my calculations. At the very least, view it as insurance as in "Insurance....once you have it, you find you don't need it.". I certainly do not look forward to a society collapse but I did grow up on Clark AFB, so I know what it is like to be without power for 2-3 weeks.
As things go, I do have plenty of wood (they tell me just seasonal trimming will provide me year to year) and a fire place for it. A chainmaille dancing girlfriend asked me, when she found out about my ranch, if I was going to have a fire pit for visiting Rennie friends. Now, wouldn't that be something, traveling men of arms knowing that my ranch was a safe haven.
The solar grid (now operational) and perhaps a windmill give potential cooking hope if only in recharging battery banks. A windmill might also provide refrigeration in that it is a source of mechanical power....but off the top of my head, I don't quite see a how to do plan for that.
Assuming that it does work, then there's another approach. Of course, if society goes down the tubes, it won't be around to be bought then, but perhaps for a little looking ahead.
One thing I am not that long termed in are pet supplies. Probably have 2 months in kibble...and two weeks in canned. There will be more room for stocks on hand out at the ranch.....but more mouths to feed (dog & goats at least). Going have to look into that.
For milk, if you mix a can of evaporated milk with powdered milk you can make a gallon of milk that actually tastes sort of like milk. I always keep evaporated and powdered milk on hand just so I don't have to go to town for something silly like milk. I also keep powdered buttermilk on hand for baking, pancakes, etc.
My pet food cycles. Kibbles in the summer get pretty well eaten down, but when bad weather hits I will fill a 55 gallon food grade barrel with dog food. Livestock food also gets stored in food grade barrels. You can get them cheap from the local ice cream factory, often with a couple pounds of chocolate still in the bottom. I don't buy canned dog food because it's so much cheaper to cook my own. A pound of ground turkey, a couple bags of frozen mixed vegetables and oatmeal/potatoes/sweet potatoes and some vegetable oil makes a great dog food, and I know what goes into it.
Water is 2500 gallons of gravity feed from a cistern, so we don't have to haul water to flush the toilet or to cook. The generator will run the water heater, or in a pinch we can heat a 15 gallon laundry tub on the wood stove and have a hot bath. I have both camp gear and a FSC travel trailer, but in extended power outages we just cook on the wood stove. I even have an antique coffee grinder, ever since that bitter winter morning when I was reduced to mashing coffee beans with a waffle head framing hammer to make coffee.
The new generator is a propane electric start model, but in the past we would wait a couple of days before pulling the generator out of the barn.
If you really want to have a food store, the Mormons are required to have a year of food on hand at all times. They sell Mormon food kits that you can find online, or build your own using Mormon guidelines.
If things fell apart in society to the extent that no food was available to buy or there was no way to travel to where it was, you could forget about food that was in a refrigerator or freezer or had to be cooked on an electric or natural gas stove. Wood, coal or propane stoves are all that would work and only the wood supply could be renewed by most people.
Terrific. The propane will last for a while, and there are about 15 trees on my property. The neighbor will give me a share if my son and I drop and cut. I have a couple of bags of charcoal, too.
Food? That would get pretty dirty after a while. Hungry is hungry, and people will do all sorts of things to stop that nasty grinding feeling in their stomach.
I got a curious email this morning, from the grocery shop in germany I buy there sometimes bacause they also deliver to other EU countries. Jetzt wird gehamstert translation now is hoarded. Is this a silent hint to buy/hoard?
Just yesterday it being a heatwave here in EU I noticed my peanut butter melted in the kitchen cupboard, the oil floated to top of jar. Cans of beans etc felt very warm. About the cooking I do have some bbq briquets/charcoal so could cook outside, if need is there and electric fails. I also have some seasoned wood. I read up on the Hearth.com Forums Home forum about seasoning wood and burn times to know about that. I have made a few times some simple flat bread from various recipes found online and in my cookbooks. I do not do much dough kneading because I have osteoarthritis. Guess more crackers then. Years ago I used to read at homesteading forums, prep forums, survivalistboards amd MrsSurvival. I think I watch too many episodes little house on the prairie.When I still was able to go grocery shopping I noticed last years sometimes some items where short on stock or sold out. I had the impression back then that grocery shops do not keep much spare items, just what is on shelves. I also noticed going morning when the grocery delivery truck was latedue to traffic, shelves where
sparse nearing empty. So suppose just delivery was not possible few days then shops go empty. Is not something EU is used to so maybe that is reason for the 10 days food, I think.
Imagine you and persons living with you have to eat from what is in your kitchen/pantry today, how many days of food do you have?
I am far from shops and unable to go grocery shopping myself. Usually is 5 days food stretching it out 8, maybe even 10 days says my teen. My household is 2 adults, 1 teen.
The recent thread on germans told to stockpile food/water got me thinking ........hence my question here.
Not days. Months.
Natural disasters, and even inconveniences taught us that lesson.
Right now I have maybe 2 days worth. It's actually pathetic. At one point I had 3 weeks worth and I decided to use everything up until I had the last little bit left. As I have stated in NY on LI I have at least 5 grocery stores near me. I have to go shopping Wednesday.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
for two days now. We're in the middle of a project and food is just an after thought, but egg foo young two days in a row. 
I don't buy canned dog food because it's so much cheaper to cook my own. A pound of ground turkey, a couple bags of frozen mixed vegetables and oatmeal/potatoes/sweet potatoes and some vegetable oil makes a great dog food, and I know what goes into it. 
