Emergency Ideas

Nov 16, 2016

From Prepper Website

Mar 24, 2016

Field Medicine for Terrorist Attacks

Editor’s note: Lots of folks are asking about tactical first aid classes after yesterday’s bomb attacks in Belgium. Here is an article I wrote after the Boston bombing titled “Field Medicine for Terrorist Attacks.” It describes the basics of what you need to know about stopping serious bleeding and some links to trainers who can […]

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The problems of Sanitation and Waste Disposal After TEOTWAWKI

I read an article on medicine that said until the advent of antibiotics, plumbers probably saved more lives that Doctors. This of cause was because of the improvements in sanitation and waste disposal. During the middle ages, sewage and garbage disposal in most cities was simple; you threw it out the window into the street. Of cause, this led to all kinds of health problems, which included the plagues that were spread by fleas which lived on the rats that ate the sewage and garbage.

In some parts of the world, sanitation is not much improved over what we had in the middle ages. …

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Mar 19, 2016

Food Storage vs Shelf-Life

http://livingprepared.blogspot.com/2016/03/food-storage-vs-shelf-life.html

When I began storing food just before Y2K, there was much controversy and uncertainty about this subject. Most who wrote about it were new at it themselves and had no long term experience to draw upon thereby what they were writing about was just a guess. Because of their guesses I made some mistakes in the beginning but, through my own trial and error and not giving up, got me on the right track.

It's not as difficult as you think, just two rules for food storage.

Rule #1, Keep it very simple with minimal varieties!

Rule #2, Store only what you've already tested, eat and know how to prepare.

Another confusing area about food storage is we’ve all heard about long term and short term but. What are they and how long is each and generally what kind of food is stored in each? Here’s what worked out for me:

Short Term Storage:

Up to 2 years shelf-life.
Virtually all foods in your supermarket fit this 2 year time frame.
This is the food that's in your everyday pantry, just more of it.
It is can, pouched, bagged or boxed foods including your home canned food.
The source for this food is your everyday supermarket.
There should not be any foods in Short Term Storage that requires freezing or needs refrigeration because you cannot ever count on having dependable grid electricity in troubled times.
For Short Term storage there's no need for buying kit buckets of food, MRE's or other specialty survival foods.
All can or home canned foods needs to be protected from freezing.

Mid-Term Storage:

Up to 10 years shelf-life.
Most all #10 cans of dehydrated or freeze dried foods.
Most all pouched foods/meals like the Mountain House brand.
MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat).
Kit Buckets of food, like the Mountain House 72 hour kit/bucket.

Long Term Storage:

Up to 30 years shelf-life.
Any purchased foods with a declared shelf-life of up to 30 years.
Typically this is all bulk purchased dry foods like; wheat, beans, lentils, rice, barley, pasta, etc.
It requires being sealed in Mylar Bags with Oxygen Absorbers.
Included are ‘some’ #10 cans of dehydrated or freeze dried food, verify shelf-life before storing.

Additional Information:
Stocking commercially canned foods, long term food storage and home canning always raise the same question. What is the shelf life? I look to University Extension Services for the most accurate research and tested methods. The links below will help answer this question with tested fact. Enjoy and be safe with your food storage and canning!

The shelf life paragraph below is from the Utah State University Cooperative Extension
http://extension.usu.edu/foodstorage/htm/canned-goods/

Shelf Life:
As a general rule, unopened “Home canned foods” have a shelf life of one year and should be used before 2 years. “Commercially canned foods” should retain their “best quality” until the expiration code date on the can. This date is usually 2-5 years from the manufacture date. High acid foods usually have a shorter shelf life than low acid foods.

For emergency storage, commercially canned foods in metal or jars will remain safe to consume as long as the seal has not been broken. (That is not to say the quality will be retained for that long).

Foods “canned” in metal-Mylar®-type pouches will also have a best-if-used by date on them. The longest shelf life tested of this type of packaging has been 8-10 years (personal communication U.S. Military MRE’s). Therefore, storage for longer than 10 years is not recommended.

Here’s a few very good links for more qualified canning information.

Utah State University Cooperative Extension
http://extension.usu.edu/foodstorage/htm/canned-goods/

39 Food Specific PDF’s about canning are at this link plus other informative topics.
http://extension.usu.edu/htm/publications/by=category/category=319

National Center for Home Food Preservation. Lots of trustworthy information at this site.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

Mar 9, 2016

Anti-Hoarding Laws Will Enable GOV To Take Your Food Storage by Ken Jorgustin

I suggest that you take the following information very seriously. It is a fact that there are laws on the books that will enable .gov to take and redistribute what you have – as they see fit – under the same circumstances that many of you are prepping for…

Should those circumstances actually come to pass, they will actually have the legal authority to take what you have. It will be even easier for them to do so if they and their agents preemptively discover (e.g. through local word-of-mouth) that you are one of those ‘preppers’. In other words, if you’re ‘ratted out’.

The mainstream has labeled ‘preppers’ = ‘bad’ (and worse), and the fact is that their label’s have ‘stuck’ in the minds of many – that’s another discussion altogether… Those who are self-sufficient-minded, independent-minded, liberty-minded, Constitutionalists, gun owners, any of the above… (you get the idea), be aware of your ‘label’ and the anti-hoarding laws which will paint a big target on you and your abode…

Note: In the context of this article, “hoarding” is not that of having piles of so called junk all around one’s home and yard, instead we’re talking about things like a deep food pantry, food storage beyond a few weeks, extra consumable supplies that you’ve stored, things like that… ‘They’ (the mainstream) have also labeled this type of thing as hoarding (which is ridiculous).

So here we go… how can .gov actually take this away from you?

Mar 6, 2016

Trying Out Some Food Ideas by Suzanne

I've been thinking lately of trying out some of my food ideas:

1. Adding sprouted lentils to a pot of pinto beans for more nourishment.

2. Growing pinto beans and picking some of the beans at about 3" long for green beans, and leaving some to go to seed. That way you could re-supply your beans and still can or dehydrate some.

3. Try a few different recipes for hardtack to find one that won't break your teeth but will still store for years.

These are just a couple of the things I want to actually try for myself and see what is edible and what's not.

I'll be adding to this list and maybe some of you could comment with some ideas for me to try out.

I'll post my results as I get time to do them.

Blessings
Suzanne