Are You Stocking Up On Food?

[newfoundland]

I think this thread is very interesting. I watched doomsday preppers on TV for the first time yesterday. I thought some of the people were rather too preoccupied with preparing for disaster. Having said that I live in England and have never experienced the sort of natural disaster such as hurricanes, that for many people are an annual event. I fully see why people who are subject to these events really do need to be very prepared. We have of course our share of flooding and increasingly very cold and snowy winters. My preparations for these events are quite minimal really, just enough emergency food for about a week, which I start to stockpile now, and extra animal feed. We do have power cuts quite frequently as we are quite remote from the town and have overhead power lines which are subject to damage. Candles, bottled gas heaters and camping stoves, keep us going till power is restored. You really have got me thinking now though, maybe this winter I will do more to prepare.

 

[mickey328]

Fortunately, we live in a place that isn't subject to many natural disasters. We get a few twisters in a season but generally only enough to take a few shingles or do minor damage, and once every 10 years or so, we'll get one that causes some destruction. But as a rule, the worst we get is some hail. So my "stocking" is for that purpose, really. I've always kept stuff on hand...grew up living 25 miles from town, so we never got just one of anything, and it's a habit I've not been able to break.

Mostly, though, it's for the purpose of saving money. We grow what we can, and preserve it...by canning or dehydrating as much as possible since freezer space is limited. I stock up on things that are "keep-able" when they're on sale. We already have a propane cooker that I use for canning, so if the power went out, we'd still be able to cook, and we have flashlights and candles on hand as a matter of course. We do have some bottled water that we've picked up here and there, and I have a fully stocked herbal medicine chest.

Personally, I see no purpose in stocking to survive for years and years...we live close enough to Yellowstone that if the caldera goes, we'll likely vanish in the first go-round, LOL. So, I'm more into...months...get us through to the next growing season and save what money we can for other things we can't provide for ourselves...like coffee!

 

[Baymule]

Thanks Mickey328 and Newfoundland, this is what I am talking about. Not piling up tons of dried beans for the end of the world, but stocking up on the everyday things like canned goods, coffee, tea, pasta, and yes, dried foods that will last awhile. I have been through several major hurricanes and the panic is real. People grab EVERYTHING off the grocery store shelves. So if all you have is a week's worth of food in the pantry, you are in trouble. Even under the best circumstances, it takes WEEKS to restore things back to normal.

If you lose your job, would it be a comforting thought to know you have 3-6 months worth of food in the closet?If you know you can feed the family for the next few months while you struggle to make the mortage, then that is one load off your shoulders. If a blizzard knocked out everything and you were nestled down with a growling belly, how happy would that make you?

I worked as a Red Cross volunteer during hurricane Rita which came 3 weeks after hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of people fled from Houston, fearing for their lives. I took the night shift at an elementary school a few blocks from my house to let others go home for rest. (we had opened the schools for a safe place for people to stay) People got quite upset when they realized WalMart was closed. They got ugly when the power went off and we couldn't magically turn on the air conditioning or the big screen TV in the cafeteria. Our Junior High campus held over 2,000 people, who instead of being grateful for a safe place to stay, trashed our school. They smeared feces on the walls, tore things up and it took 2 weeks after power was restored to clean, repair and sanitize the school before we could let students back in. Oh, and everywhere the fleeing people went, they left a trail of trash and garbage thrown out the windows of their cars. On every road and highway coming out of Houston was a trail of mess that had to be picked up piece by piece. Now realize this was a minor occurance in that the storm lasted a mere 24 hours. The panic before and the devastation afterwards took weeks if not months to recover from. If you found yourself in a similar situation, how would you fare? What if your job was gone because the building blew away?

Most people were grateful. We didn't have howling mobs with murder and mayhem on their minds. We opened our churches and members raided their own freezers (melting anyway) to feed people. I am illustrating this to let you know PANIC IS UGLY. If you have a full pantry and don't have to venture out for a few weeks, you will be a whole lot safer and happy that you can open up a can of Chef Boy-R-Dee raviloi and eat it cold with a plastic fork.

 

[7 Biddies]

Quote:
This is the way I live, as well. Being alone, however, I don't need as much, but I still stock up on paper products, cleaning supplies, etc., when they're on sale. It's only wise. Because I'm interested in the quality of the food I eat, I grow much of my own and get the rest from local farms, which I preserve for the season. As a by-product of these life choices, I have plenty to last if something should happen. My kids and friends have recognized this and have informed me that if anything happens to our food supply, they're joining me up here in the mountains, where I also have access to trout fishing and my fresh eggs. My son claims he's a "prepper", but I have no need to be. My lifestyle takes care of it for me.

 

[newfoundland]

Spurred on by an obvious need to get more organised I added a collection of storecupboard food to my weekly grocery order. Water is not a problem for us as we have a borehole for our supply. Although the pump goes off with the electricity, we do have sufficient run off to meet our water supply needs. Next purchase is a generator I think that will at least run the water pump.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I found this list very intresting. While it might be a lot to go buy or try to keep on hand, it gave me ideas of stuff I hadn't thought of.

http://www.grandpappy.info/hfood1yr.htm

And a very thought provoking opinion on pets and livestock

http://www.grandpappy.info/hpets.htm

And some more info

http://www.grandpappy.info/hnow.htm

Don't anybody get their panties in a wad, I posted these links because they gave me insight I hadn't thought of. I am not going to come to your house and eat your dog.........unless he might be young and tender....

Seriously, I thought this guy had some intresting points. Dig around on his site, he also has some recipes for what to do with all this stored up stuff we are hoarding.

That pet link has to be the dumbest thing I have ever read.
A trap is as good as a trained hunting dog?
A guard dog attracts people?
Don't own livestock cause other people might want to eat them?
Dont own rabbits cause he spent more money feeding his then he got out of them?
Don't own livestock cause you may get scars?
Exec...


Sure.....

 

[Baymule]

That pet link has to be the dumbest thing I have ever read.
A trap is as good as a trained hunting dog?
A guard dog attracts people?
Don't own livestock cause other people might want to eat them?
Dont own rabbits cause he spent more money feeding his then he got out of them?
Don't own livestock cause you may get scars?
Exec...


Sure.....

Rebelcowboysnb, I sure wouldn'd give up my dogs because of that article. Nor would I give up my horses or chickens. I posted that because it is a different point of view. I have owned rabbits and I think maybe he didn't get the hang of keeping rabbits. I read an account of someone who lived through the siege of Bosnia and he said there were no pets left...........people got hungry..........if anybody's gonna eat MY dogs, it'll be ME!!

I started this thread to make people think about their food needs beyond a week or two. If the system broke down, even for a short time, there are a lot of people that would be hungry. A well stocked pantry is just the sensible thing to do, as many of us already know. If this thread gets just one person to take thought and stock up on staples, then it is a good thing. Many events happen, whether it is loss of a job, hurricanes, blizzards and so on that can put people in a bind. Having extra food on hand can help pull someone through hard times.

Oh, and don't forget to keep an extra bag of dog food too!!

 

[Capvin]

I think that the most important observation made on this thread was Baymule describing what happened in Houston during Rita. Now, mind you, that was a very minor disruption, and then you can go and see what happened in New Orleans with Katrina. The most important reason for having some disaster preperations is to not have to be part of a hoard or mob that has been deprived of what they have taken for granted for a long time and now are suddenly cut off from Walmart and electricity. Personally I have no use for doomsday preppers but that does not mean that I am not aware of what can happen in a disaster. For that reason I have a home in a pretty remote area with very few neighbors in sight. We are surrounded by lakes for water and fish. The woods have lots of game to shoot and eat. We live in a warm weather climate that does not get severe natural disasters and I am well armed and have generators. In addition I keep a 250 gallon tank of propane that will allow me to cook and have fuel for a reasonably long time. We also have a small garden. I would much rather be where I am and not have to have a large stockpile of food then be in a city environment with a stockpile of food.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

There seems to be some good stuff on that website but after reading that pet link I have to wonder if he has any experience in any of it or is it just what sounds good in his mind? Was expecting him to tell us how noisy roosters are an how you needed one to get any eggs.

 

[Baymule]

I think that the most important observation made on this thread was Baymule describing what happened in Houston during Rita. Now, mind you, that was a very minor disruption, and then you can go and see what happened in New Orleans with Katrina. The most important reason for having some disaster preperations is to not have to be part of a hoard or mob that has been deprived of what they have taken for granted for a long time and now are suddenly cut off from Walmart and electricity. Personally I have no use for doomsday preppers but that does not mean that I am not aware of what can happen in a disaster. For that reason I have a home in a pretty remote area with very few neighbors in sight. We are surrounded by lakes for water and fish. The woods have lots of game to shoot and eat. We live in a warm weather climate that does not get severe natural disasters and I am well armed and have generators. In addition I keep a 250 gallon tank of propane that will allow me to cook and have fuel for a reasonably long time. We also have a small garden. I would much rather be where I am and not have to have a large stockpile of food then be in a city environment with a stockpile of food.

Capvin, you are in a wonderful location with abundant natural resources plus what you raise yourself. I would love to live in such a location myself. However, I and many others like me live in town on a small lot. While I have all the instincts and "inner country" of a country gal, unfortunately I don't live there. And you are right, I wanted to illustrate that a packed pantry is a beautiful thing in the wake of a disaster, natural or otherwise. Living in a town that is on a major highway that is a conduit to and out of Houston puts me smack in the path of paniced fleeing people. For hurricane Rita, I had water and plenty of food, but nothing to cook it on. My DH and I sheltered 13 friends in our home so we dug a pit in the ground, took the grill out of the oven and got busy. You can bet I have 2 bar-b-cue pits now! Even though we didn't miss any meals, it was a real eye opener and I am much much better prepared now.

A normal 1-2 hour trip from Houston to my small town took people 28 hours. They stopped here because they were out of gas. Paniced people brought no water, no food, cars overheated, (it was 100+ degrees before and after the storm) several people overheated and died in their cars. It was the largest evacuation of any U.S. city ever and it has been and will be studied on how to do it better in the future. There are now contraflow signs and easily moved barriers inbetween the highway lanes, so the inbound lanes can be closed and the outbound lanes can use the other side of the highway to move people out faster. As a town, ours was not a designated stopping point. People were supposed to go past us to a safer point further out. We were totally unprepared. I am proud of how our town turned out to help people in desparate times, and not just my town, but all the outlying areas from Houston.

As you pointed out, this was indeed a very minor disruption that was over with and power restored within a week for some, several weeks for others. But having a stocked freezer, pantry and knowing how to pull it all together not only helped my family, but quite a few others as well.Folks, just keep some extra food on hand.... it could make a big difference when you least expect it.