Totally UNPREPARED

[chickensducks&agoose]

I have no money, not much space (under the stairs is it, no basement, closets etc.) and a family of 5. We live real rural, and have chickens, ducks and a goose... I am worried about the future, and try to buy things in bulk, but DH doesn't like clutter, and thinks that storing food is tantamount to throwing it away. We have a pond, and a woodstove with a little bit of wood, enough for 2 weeks if the power goes out, and we deal with being pretty cold, and isolate the downstairs... I've got enough canned stuff to feed us, (plus eggs.. as long as I've got enough chook food), for about 2 weeks, I think. but we'd run out of milk, flour, and water.... what else do we need to store, other than powdered milk, flour and water?

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hi, what exactly do you need to prepare for? Power failure? natural disaster? Or maybe a better question would be how long do you think you would need to be prepared for.
Where I live, we don't really have anything that could wipe out our grid or compromise our water system, so we don't really prepare for any of that. We do, however have a generator, just in case.

I do, put up summer's bounty to last us the winter, until next years harvest comes in, but that is not really emergency preparedness.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

Aside from BIG issues, like terrorist attacks and other bad things, we get Ice storms and snow storms. We lose power for usually 3 weeks combined, worst ever has been 13 days at once... The other thing, is that depending on how my husband's military stuff ends up going, I might just decide to not ever leave the house again... but I think that'd be a WHOLE other thread..... so I'm thinking 2 or 3 weeks at a go, just to be safe...

 

[Ldychef2k]

I am preparing just in case our economy and/or our dollar collapses. The news tells a rather serious tale these days. I started in June getting really serious about making sure I have enough food to last at least a year, for eight people.

My recommendation would be to start with dehydrating. Takes up very little room, and if you are not permitted to buy a dehydrator, you can use your oven, set on the lowest temperature possible. Google for it, there are lots of good bits of info.

Yes, dried milk, flour, sugar. All you can get away with. Store it under the bed if you have to.

Since he seems to have a military bent, an interesting thought would be to create home made MRE's. Dehydrated vegetables, pasta, things like that. My family thinks I am crazy, but I keep on doing it. You can fit a dinner for your whole family in a ziplock bag, and since you have water to heat, it would be easy to cook.

Do you have a friend who will let you use some storage space?

Not sure I can give you any advice to change his mind. But if the need arises, you will be prepared and will know you did all in your power to provide for your family.

 

[FarmerChick]

Ice storms---that is how we lose power in NC. Happens alot but never for 2-3 weeks.

Make sure you have you BBQ ready to go. Make sure you have either extra propane or alot of charcoal. That way you can BBQ and have a stove to heat water etc. for 2-3 weeks.

Think of foods you can cook in a "dutch oven" type situation over a bbq grill or over an open fire.

Rice is easy in one pot. Along with a stir fry veggie. I could live on this easily...LOL

I would stock up more wood than for 2 weeks. When super cold wood goes fast so stock up more and be safe on that one.

Do you have extra water for animals? I have a well, when power goes out so does my water supply. Something to think about.

Heat, food and water are you three most important when being isolated for 2-3 weeks.


If you lose your well like I do when power goes out, IF YOU EVEN think there is a big storm coming and chance of power going, FILL UP the bathtubs. I do that. I fill up each bathtub and that way I know I have water for flushing toilets. Saved me many times..LOL

that is some I can think of

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

We've got a big propane tank, and if money becomes a little looser, we'll be able to fill it up. If the E went out, we'd not have heat, but we could probably cook for a year...

 

[enjoy the ride]

Would your husband object to your accumulating a little more of what ever you normally use that has a good shelf life? For instance, if you use pasta and don't make your own spaghetti sauce, you accumulate some pasta and canned sauce because it came on sale?
I think the most important thing is to store what you use normally and then use it in order of date. No waste?

 

[Wifezilla]

I am preparing just in case our economy and/or our dollar collapses.

THAT!

I have end tables/coffee tables that also have storage in them. I am using them for dried veggies, beans, etc... Nothing is in the way and hubby wouldn't even know about it if I hadn't shown him

 

[Ldychef2k]

There you go !

I am so glad I don't have to answer to anybody about this stuff ! Of course, I don't have anyone to lift that barge and tote that bale, either. But it's a trade off I am willing to make.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Growing a garden is a cheap way to have extra food. You could get or build a food dehydrator and dry some of the harvest easily. You might look into building a root cellar. That's how most of our Grandparents kept their produce fresh. Works fine in power failures too.

Food dehydrators are found in thrift shops lots of times to. People get them as gifts or just don't use it and then get rid of them. Dried foods have a long shelf life and take up little room. I've put them in gallon bags and then kept a bunch of the bags in a 5 gal. bucket before. Any unused area could work. I've even stored dried foods in a picnic cooler as part of my old hurricane evacuation kit.

Fill the propane tank if possible. You can get boxes of emergency candles at dollar stores. Keep plenty of blankets around and stock up more wood. For more options on how to keep warm.

Here's an old thread about preparing for emergencies that had some good tips:

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=287