Being Prepared
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Prepared
One thing to keep in mind is having a plan. If you try to do everything at once it will become overwhelming and very costly. Do some research on this site, (lots of good info here), and plan out in stages. First make sure you have supplies for 72 hours... then for two weeks... then a month and work at it to get toward multiple months.
Be sure you have a rotation plan for your canned goods. Put by those things you would normally eat, (it does no good to have 5,000 cans of okra if you hate okra). Remember that if you can't use it or won;t use it, no matter how cheap something is, it's no deal.
Learn to grow vegetables and learn how to preserve them, (canning, dehydrating, pickling). There will come a time when the local Piggly-Wiggly has empty shelves.
If you live in an area where it's allowed, learn to raise some chickens, (rabbits are easy, but if that's your only protein source, you will starve to death). Once you learn to raise chickens, learn to butcher chickens, (yeah, it's tough to take the life of another living thing... but the simple truth is that meat does not naturally grow on little styrofoam trays in the super market).
Learn or relearn some of the skills that our grandparents took for granted as a normal part of life. Learn to repair clothing by sewing, darning and knitting... learn to repair your own shoes... learn to use, maintain and repair hand tools.
Most importantly, do SOMETHING towards becoming self-sufficient every day. It doesn't have to be a big deal. Just learn one thing. You will be surprised how quickly the knowledge and skills pile up. And speaking of skills, just because you read something in a book and understand what you read doesn't mean you know how to do that thing. Reading and understanding how to make fire with flint and steel doesn't mean you CAN make fire with flint and steel. Reading and understanding how to hunt, kill and butcher a deer doesn't make you a hunter or butcher. Practice, practice, practice... it is what turns a novice nimrod into a master of preparation.
Welcome to the journey... enjoy the ride. (... and please keep your hands and arms inside the car while the ride is in motion!)
Congratulations on your decision... more congratulations on your partner being on board. It is always easier if both of you are in harness and pulling in the same direction.
One thing to keep in mind is having a plan. If you try to do everything at once it will become overwhelming and very costly. Do some research on this site, (lots of good info here), and plan out in stages. First make sure you have supplies for 72 hours... then for two weeks... then a month and work at it to get toward multiple months.
Be sure you have a rotation plan for your canned goods. Put by those things you would normally eat, (it does no good to have 5,000 cans of okra if you hate okra). Remember that if you can't use it or won;t use it, no matter how cheap something is, it's no deal.
Learn to grow vegetables and learn how to preserve them, (canning, dehydrating, pickling). There will come a time when the local Piggly-Wiggly has empty shelves.
If you live in an area where it's allowed, learn to raise some chickens, (rabbits are easy, but if that's your only protein source, you will starve to death). Once you learn to raise chickens, learn to butcher chickens, (yeah, it's tough to take the life of another living thing... but the simple truth is that meat does not naturally grow on little styrofoam trays in the super market).
Learn or relearn some of the skills that our grandparents took for granted as a normal part of life. Learn to repair clothing by sewing, darning and knitting... learn to repair your own shoes... learn to use, maintain and repair hand tools.
Most importantly, do SOMETHING towards becoming self-sufficient every day. It doesn't have to be a big deal. Just learn one thing. You will be surprised how quickly the knowledge and skills pile up. And speaking of skills, just because you read something in a book and understand what you read doesn't mean you know how to do that thing. Reading and understanding how to make fire with flint and steel doesn't mean you CAN make fire with flint and steel. Reading and understanding how to hunt, kill and butcher a deer doesn't make you a hunter or butcher. Practice, practice, practice... it is what turns a novice nimrod into a master of preparation.
Welcome to the journey... enjoy the ride. (... and please keep your hands and arms inside the car while the ride is in motion!)
Good for you ! I am working hard, too. Today I am canning beef chuck meat in cubes. I am trying to figure out how much to can and store. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, I am figuring out how much of each type of item we will use in a week. That is my way of determining things.
For 365 days, that will take a lot of food and supplies.
I would be sure to have seasonings for that food, too. We are not going to want to eat plain food if we don't have to.
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Welcome to the forum and good luck with those plans! It's a wise decision you've made.
We choose to stockpile what we use daily...I don't have but a mere 10 MRE's that I got for a gift, so all our stock is what we eat and we rotate it. There is something about being sefl sufficient and being prepared that makes a person feel safe, content and accomplished. You get a real pride in that accomplishment too.
We choose to stockpile what we use daily...I don't have but a mere 10 MRE's that I got for a gift, so all our stock is what we eat and we rotate it. There is something about being sefl sufficient and being prepared that makes a person feel safe, content and accomplished. You get a real pride in that accomplishment too.
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Taste test everything. Buy the kind of stuff you like to eat on a daily basis. Plan to have a variety of foods. Make a list of all the expiry dates and rotate your stock as the dates come up. Buy items by the case to save money and space. Store all your food in an organized manner so you can easily use and rotate stock.
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8 Posts
What great advice there is in this thread. Here goes for my twopennyworth.
I decided to put up stores to cover us for one year. I worked out the things we would not be able to provide for ourselves from our kitchen garden and chicken yard. The main items were salt, flour, yeast (for breadmaking - it is after all the staff of life), olive oil. These items head my list. I then made out a two week menu in which I could make a main meal once a day from canned food and chickens from our chicken yard. Here in Australia if an item of food for sale does not have a use-by date on it, it means the contents are good for 2 years plus. So I am stocking tins of corn beef (Corn Beef Hash), Tuna (Fish Cakes, Tuna with Pasta etc), chick Peas (Falafal), Sardines (On pizzas), all of these items are for protein. I can get two meals Plus soup from one chicken (for three people). We are eating from this menu right now so that I can keep my stocks up to date with fresh purchases. A year or two ago I had to throw a lot of stuff out because it was well past it's use by date. I learnt a lot from that experience (I hate to waste food). I bought myself a pasta machine and at the present time I am teaching myself how to bake/roast/casserole with a wood fired stove. I have also just purchased a Fagor pressure cooker which I have not as yet tried out (I must admit to being a little nervous of it) but I bought it because I will be able to cook a meal using the minimum of fuel. Being self-sufficient in food is an enormous challenge but incredibly rewarding. I think hard times might be just around the corner so now is the time to plan and learn all you can The very best of luck to you.
I decided to put up stores to cover us for one year. I worked out the things we would not be able to provide for ourselves from our kitchen garden and chicken yard. The main items were salt, flour, yeast (for breadmaking - it is after all the staff of life), olive oil. These items head my list. I then made out a two week menu in which I could make a main meal once a day from canned food and chickens from our chicken yard. Here in Australia if an item of food for sale does not have a use-by date on it, it means the contents are good for 2 years plus. So I am stocking tins of corn beef (Corn Beef Hash), Tuna (Fish Cakes, Tuna with Pasta etc), chick Peas (Falafal), Sardines (On pizzas), all of these items are for protein. I can get two meals Plus soup from one chicken (for three people). We are eating from this menu right now so that I can keep my stocks up to date with fresh purchases. A year or two ago I had to throw a lot of stuff out because it was well past it's use by date. I learnt a lot from that experience (I hate to waste food). I bought myself a pasta machine and at the present time I am teaching myself how to bake/roast/casserole with a wood fired stove. I have also just purchased a Fagor pressure cooker which I have not as yet tried out (I must admit to being a little nervous of it) but I bought it because I will be able to cook a meal using the minimum of fuel. Being self-sufficient in food is an enormous challenge but incredibly rewarding. I think hard times might be just around the corner so now is the time to plan and learn all you can The very best of luck to you.
Stay away from the pre-packaged "deals" as long as you can. You can tailor your foods to your eating habits if you buy individually--with the pre-package combos, you normally get things that you won't eat and it's just sitting there on the bottom of the pile. I like to buy from Honeyville and Emergency Essentials, but much of my prep is what I've gathered and bagged myself; rice, beans, flour, oats, and other things I can buy in bulk and then bag myself.
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