Boyd, you always keep us thinking and preparing.
Thank you for those pictures, the one of the people running up the hill scares me- I can just see the people flooding out of the cities by the thousands, heading for us because they think there is food in the counrty. There is, but not enough for us, let alone them.
We have spent our tax return every year on some aspect of preparing for some kind of disaster. Some years it has been just a very small amount, and I am sure that people with a larger income could dedicate that much each month to it. Think $200-300. Not a lot for most people, all you would have to do is cut back on buying new clothes, electronics and eating out. I always think, "If next year there was no electircity, water or gas, would I wish I had spent this money differently?"
We don't have much, really. Not nearly enough. But we are doing what we can. Our biggest concern is water. Here we get less then 10 inches of rain a lot of years, and we have to irrigate anything to get it to grow. So, if you plan on surviving on food you grow yourself, you have to think about the fact that your whold garden will need an inch of water a week to live. Multiplied by a LARGE garden, that is a LOT of water, hundreds of gallons.
And that doesnt count the water to drink, cook and clean with. If you keep any animals, they will have to have water too, and a horse or cow can consume a huge amount of water in the hot summer.
We have wells here, but they are all too deep to hand pump. Look for windmills that are still hooked up and running. Solor wells may or may not work, but these sources could quickly become overtapped and run dry if you suddenly had hundreds of people depending on them.
For those of you who are just getting started, do not panic and think you will never be able to get enough ready, here is how we started. (And we have a very limited income, we have even continued doing this during times of unemployment, by focusing a small amount of our government benifits, mainly food stamps, to food storage each month.)
Start by buying water, unless you have a source of clean drinking water available. Buy water in sealed jugs. We started getting the boxes of 4 gallons of drinking water from
Wal-mart. They cost about $2 apiece. We try to get a couple every time we go, which is normally once every 1-2 weeks or so. Even at that slow rate, it adds up. I figured for our family, drinking water only, not cleaning, cooking, or animal water, we need a minimum of 1 gallon a day. I know this because we drink purified water out of gallon jugs, and that is about what we use.
The next thing you should work on is supplies. Like was mentioned above, cleanliness will be of highest importance. You can die from a small cut if you don't have cleaning supplies available. We started by buying two of something, when we needed to buy one. When I buy bar soap, I buy two and stick one back. You won't really even notice the expence but it could save your life. A package of 8 bars of soap cost around $3.
I also started buying the biggest bottles of hand sanitizer, the refills. Again, you will be saving water, so not having to wash your hands every time with soap will help a lot. Stock up on antibiotic cream, the kind you treat wounds with. Buy peroxide and bleach to clean with. These things cost virtually nothing if you do it over time, you won't even notice but they add up fast.
Next, focus on food. You need several main nutrients. Think about what vitamins and nutrients are in the food, and how well it will keep. Also find things that you can eat without cooking first.
If you were stranded without food for 2 weeks, what would you need? Energy, or complex carbs. Protein to keep you going. Vitamins to keep you from getting sick. 100% juice is a great source of carbs and vitamins, and it also will keep you hydrated. You can buy it in cans. Canned soup is cheap and you can eat it without heating it. It has protein and veggies. Vitamin C is very important, even if you are only a week or so without help. Your immune system needs it. (Don't forget a can opener.
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Some foods that keep well without refrigeration are potatoes(Potassiam) , sweet potatoes (Vitamin A), pumpkins and winter squash(Vitamin A and some C) beets, carrots (Vitamin A), cabbage, onions and gGarlic (great for the immune system), etc.
These are not things to do if you think you will need to survive on your own for the rest of your life, these are things to do to prepare for the smallest of disasters.
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Please don't get angry, but this is scary to me.
People die in short emergencies. The thought that an emergency of a month is not extended is amazing to me. Do you have a clean water source for a month? That means at least a gallon a day, drinking water only. Do you have a way to dispose of your sewage, without contaminating other's water? What will you eat? What will you do when others come to take your chickens and other animals to eat them? How will you wash your hands? What will you do if you get the flu or a cut? How will you heal a infected wound without antibiotics? What will keep looters from coming into your home and killing you ALL for your last loaf of bread? These things are not speculation or extremism.
These things don't take years to happen, they take days. Do you have food for a week? Two? How often do you have to run to the corner grocery store? These are things you have to think about. If you go grocery shopping once a week, you have enough food to last your family until next week. Without power, you have enough food to last about 2 days, if you are lucky.
You should listen to the people who have survived through hurricains and earthquakes.
And above all, the thought that you will be able to depend on the government is somewhat alarming to me. Beyond that, we are a very assuming society if we believe we should not take personal responsibility for ourselves, and that we should just wait around and let other people feed us and protect us. It is not the government's responsibility to take care of your mistakes. They may, but that is not because they have to. What are you going to do it there funds and resources are occupied elsewhere?
