As it turns out, Wal-Mart had a lower price on the Idahoan potatoes I liked so I’ll be getting a bunch from there, putting the individual packages into a plastic box to protect them, and add them to the stockpile. Im quite pleased….
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I’ve been slacking on keeping track of inventory. I need to sit down with the laptop and go over the spreadsheets of whats what. On the other hand, the spreadsheet of tings to buy is progressing nicely, albeit expensively. Its amazing how one item can require so much support material. For instance, lets say I wanna keep a few gallons of gasoline on hand for that sudden panicked rush to safety,easy enough until you start thinking of everything (and this isnt even a complete list) of what you need to achieve that goal….the list looks like this:
Fuel, Gasoline, 5-gallon can
Fuel, Gasoline, 5-gallon can, rack
Fuel, Gasoline, 5-gallon can, nozzle
Fuel, Gasoline, Sta-Bil fuel stabilizer
Fuel, Gasoline, Fire Extinguisher
etc, etc….and that doesnt include the quantities of each. Then theres the logistics involved in handling the materials (whenever handling gasoline a fire extinguisher must be within reach at all times, the area is to be inspected prior for ignition sources, etc, etc.) But at the same time, it saves alot of effort and money in the long run. Ideally. I hope.
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Was in Wal-mart yesterday and on a whim picked up two 550-rd boxes of .22LR ammo. $18 for 1100 rounds. Really, why wouldnt you buy a box or two every trip at that price? When people need ammo it’ll be worth its weight in silver. Literally.
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Still working on post-apocalyptic menu planning. So far I can guarantee a decent breakfast, a light but filling lunch, but dinner is tough..dont want it to be the same as lunch. Needs variety. Breakfast is a walk in the park though:
– Fruit cup of mixed fruit, peaches, or pears.
– Beverage of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, low-fat milk, orange drink (Tang)
– Cereal of either grits, oatmeal, cornmeal mush or cream of wheat
– Bread product from stored wheat
– Honey, jam, jelly, sugar, creamer, salt to taste
– Hash browns (from dehydrated)
– Small steak or other meat as available.
Even without the meat, its still clocking in at around 650 calories which is around 1/3 of the RDA. Nutritionally, it could use some work but using vitamin enriched cereals will help. The fruit and orange drink handle the vitamin C needs pretty well, though. Theres ‘shelf’ bacon available but the price and reltively short shelf life of a year is prohibitive. I’ve also got #10 cans of the Mountain House freeze dried eggs-n-bacon but Im not factoring that in in this example. However it beats the hell out of the MRE omlettes….
Notes From The Bunker
If you like the whole “just add water” thing, check out Marie Callender’s cornbread mix. It’s pretty good, although it’s of the fluffy and cakelike variety of cornbread rather than the dense and gritty kind I generally prefer.
Don’t forget to stock *instant* grits. 🙂 I know you can make them yourself, but the “instant” part is pretty nice, having it all done up for you in advance in little packets.
Yaknow, in the last post I almost mentioned the instant grits. But after the whole hysterical not knowing about instant mashed potatoes thing, I figured he would short out on the grits.
I leave it to you to de-yankify him 😉
Surprisingly enough, he voluntarily tried the grits while he was out here the first time, and pronounced them edible. 🙂
Still working on the banana-mayo sandwiches though.
You might be interested in the Real Meats line from internet-grocer.com. They cost ~5.00 – 6.50 for a can containing 1.5 lbs. of meat. They also carry canned Kraft cheddar cheese and canned butter.
I plan to cut some of my fuel related expenses by sticking to diesel vehicles. Diesel doesn’t require additives for long term storage and has a much lower flashpoint than gasoline, so it is safer to store. Plus diesel engines are generally more durable and reliable than gasoline engines.
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Most preparedness books I’ve read suggest that you should eat from storage so that a) you get used to it before disaster hits. You don’t want to find out you hate spam when you’re in the bunker for the first time. b) Rotating your stock prevents it from going stale or getting infested with vermin.
Since I’m working toward a calorie restricted diet (for life extension purposes), I need to make sure that my storage packs a nutritional wallop. That means lot’s of fruits and vegetables. So far, some combination of canned, dehydrated vegetables and sprouted grains/beans seem like the best choice. Do you know of any books that provide nutritional profiles of sprouted grains?
Diesel fuel is nice and it would streamline the hell out of supply logistics since I could run a vehicle, household generator and household oil furnace all on the same fuel. Drawback is that in places like this a diesel vehicle needs to be plugged in (usually) for reliable cold weather service. Electricity in a crisis is an unreliable bet. (Run the generator for electricity to run the block heater? I dont think so!) Diesel engines do last longer, no two ways around that. I’d prefer a diesel generator over a gasoline one for the engine life and fuel storage angle.
Gasoline is less stable, no two ways around that. BUT, gasoline vehicles and generators are more common so the benefit of stored gasoline includes a very high trade/barter value. In fact, assuming I had a household that ran exclusively on diesel, Id still have gasoline stored. I will/do, however, take great pains to store it as safely as possible. Ideally, a fuel bunker will be had at some point.
I hate the idea of a ‘dual fuel’ household but it may be unavoidable.
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I dont store anything long-term-foodwise that I wouldnt eat normally. (This is advantageous because it gives me plenty of opportunity to experiment with making up recipes for stored food.) However, there are long-term foods that I DONT eat normally because of expense. (Freeze-drieds, for example. I’ll buy a backpacking-size 4 oz. pouch of a flavor and try it..if I like it, I get the #10 can from Nitro-Pak.) Every book Ive read says the same thing also ‘store what you eat, eat what you store’…and I try to do this. I do rotate stuff out,,,in fact, the freezer meats from two years ago are being used now as well as rice and food mixes from even earlier.
I’ll have to check re: nutritionla profiles but I think Making The Best Of Basics has some info on it. Everyone seems to agree that sprouting is the way to go for creating fresh greens from stored food. It also, apparently, makes a great animal feed for chickens. Failing that there might be some in Carla Emery’s book. I’ll try to remember and look in them tonight, however I do recall reading that nutritionally, raw sprouts pack quite a punch..esp in terms of minerals and anti-oxidents. Major Surplus sometimes sells sprouting seeds packaged in sealed mylar bags for storage.