Haven't thought about this happening

[Homesteadmom]

My hard red wheat, corn & alfafa I got in 5 gal buckets at a yard/estate sale for $5/ea. They were too good a deal to pass up. And since I grind my own wheat & make all our bread it was very benefical to my family to get them. The soft whaite wheat berries I ordered as the peanuts too. I am fixing to make peanut butter as we are just about out of the store bought. I haven't done anything yet with the alfafa. I was thinking of growing sprouts for my chickens if I could ever find instructions for it.

 

[werblessd1s]

I have been paying more attention to expiration dates lately.
I know I wont be storing a lot of peanut butter. I noticed it doesn't have a good shelf life, it's only good for a year after manufactoring.
The can of salmon I bought expires in 2013, that's excellent.

 

[PotterWatch]

The can of salmon I bought expires in 2013, that's excellent.

That just scares me. Fish that is at least 5 years old... .

 

[Beekissed]

I have 10 tins, #30, of red turkey wheat in my cellar! A good friend from our church had purchased them sometime, I think he intended for his wife to get self-sufficient and she had other plans. They had been sealed for Y2K and were supposed to be good for 50 years in this manner!! They also gave me a wheat grinder, as they know I make all our bread. That, and my canned goods, is about the only stockpile I have on hand.

When I get my honeybees, I intend to stock up on that, as it seems to never go bad. It has so many good purposes that I feel like it would be like money in the bank.

If I were going to stockpile anything, I guess it would be ammunition and a few good guns. Good hand tools. Canning supplies. Seeds. Gas. Hay and grains. Books!

 

[punkin]

Is there anybody who doesn't have 30+ days worth of food stored? I mean, even people not aware of "self-sufficiency" have pantries and canned/boxed goods, staples, etc. Wouldn't any ordinary pantry have enough food (if strecthed, probably not easy) for 30 days? Wouldn't we all be hoarders then?

I guess I'm just having a hard time wrapping my brain around this. It would be impossible to be enforced. I guess the policy exists for cases where the gov't. may resort to martial law, a just-in-case in an extreme situation type of thing? In which case I can't imagine that the military would have enough free time to go around doing sweeps of all of our houses (and if they tried, I can't imagine the resistance they would encounter).

ETA: Ok, did a little research. Clinton did not sign any federal law about hoarding. He re-organized a bunch of earlier EOs (some pretty old, from the 30's) regarding the federal gov't being able to seize resources in a time of extreme emergency. Some of these EOs discuss seizing food stores. This was all done to centralize responsibility in a natural disaster/national emergency within FEMA. As far as I can tell, there is no federal law against hoarding. Individual states, however, may be a different story. Regardless, it's all scary.

BrookeValley,
I think you would be suprised at the number of people who don't. None of my friends or most of my family does. When I tell them that we turned our hall closet into a pantry for bulk storage, they look at me as if I have 2 heads. Most of the older generation in my family does, simply because they remember hard times. I have met one family (our age-early 40s) in the last 6 months who agrees with us. This is also their first year canning.

 

[Homesteadmom]

I have been paying more attention to expiration dates lately.
I know I wont be storing a lot of peanut butter. I noticed it doesn't have a good shelf life, it's only good for a year after manufactoring.
The can of salmon I bought expires in 2013, that's excellent.

That is why I bought the organic peanuts in bulk I can make our peanut butter as we need it & not have to worry about it expiring on me any time soon.

The wheat berries I got were from a older lady who was extremely stocked up for y2k. She had a basement full of these buckets when she passed away they said 100's &100's of lbs of grains, honey & not to mention all the jugs of water she had too. Plus other canned goods. I won't stock up to that extreme but it does not hurt to have a minimum of 30 days of food on hand as we never know what tomorrow brings do we?

 

[pioneergirl]

This thread, along with the economy "slump" (to put it mildly) had me thinking, and thus conversing with the DH.

I hate our basement...I swear its like something out of a 1950's B rated horror movie...big, thick cobwebs, dark corners that hide whoknowswhat...etc. Its not big, maybe 15x20, but is as old as the house (almost 100yrs) . Anyway, I avoid going down there as much as possible! BUT...when the house was re-done, they left 'stuff' in the basement, and when we moved in, there were rows and rows of jars of ??? ...some I was able to identify as green beans, and peaches. But beyond that it was anyone's guess. At the time, I didn't think twice and jsut threw all of it out. (could have maybe saved the jars)

Anyway, like I said, after much discussion, DH convinced me to clean up the basement , as it has good shelving for my canning stuff, and start stocking up and putting it down there. Well, this requires some serious cleaning...gggrrr. So I went down there this morning with my pump sprayer and bug killer spraying every surface I could see. I'll leave that sit for a couple of days, then go down with a shop vac, trash bags, and broom and try to get it to where I don't get the ultimate creepies when I go down. That will free up space in the house where my food is now stored, and give me more room to store more!

I was also looking at the canning outside thread, and might have the DH convinced we need an outdoor kitchen, or 'summer kitchen'...hehe, see what happens when you make me go to that awful basement??!! ROFL I put you to work BUILDING!!!!!

Seriously though, I think those of us that can, store, or are somewhat self sufficient won't be as affected by this economy problem as those that rely heavily on commercial goods, etc. JMO

 

[the simple life]

AAhh, those lovely old basements. My house is 240 years old, possibly a little older even, so I feel your pain.
We found an old headstone in our basement.
How would you like to find something like that?!
It was blank, one of those old, thin, white soapstone kind of headstone.
I called the town historian to come over, he lives in back of me, he told me that they use to order them in bulk when they were brought into town and then have the names put on them later.
Apparently this was an extra-- I hope.
So I say, well what am I suppose to do with it? He said I would leave it there if I were you.
uh okay.
So you see, I really do NOT like going down to the basement very much.
So anyway I am in smack in the middle of doing the same thing as you.
We have a dirt floor and we are hoping to get it all raked out and stones or gravel put down before the end of the month.
I want it for a storage, root cellar type of thing too.

 

[pioneergirl]

wow, and I thought the horse skull in mine was bad...you got me beat! lol Is the historian superstitious I wonder? Not sure why you would leave the headstone down there, but ok. lol

I would like to insulate the ceiling of mine, since when I look up I see the underside of the kitchen floor. Its all the original hardwood planks and sometimes I can smell that basement (musty) in the kitchen..plus the floor gets cold! lol

Yes, I think extra storage space is in order for both of us...let me know how yours turns out!

 

[Acre of Blessings]

I agree with what this person posted on the Daily Paul page.

Thank you, I don't intend on apologizing for it. If I think I have the ability to help someone, then I will. But, it will not come at the price of my family starving. Although, I admit it may be extremely tough denying someone in desperate need some help.