Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

[PetMom]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

one thing I do is to always keep the ice maker going and we have several coolers, I would immediately put the ice in a cooler and the frozen stuff in so that we could eat that right off the bat...as once refrigeration is gone we then resort to boxed and canned goods.

we are opting out of investing in those impressive looking sealed meals.

plus in tx. we can make use of solar cooking here most months.

[mountainmist]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

I've not had much chance to explore this fascinating website, but I'm certain that their dozens of plans for solar cookers work well in latitudes north of Texas.

http://www.solarcooking.org/

There's really interesting stories about the work they do -- on the righthand side of the homepage is a link to a story about how the solar cookers are helping to prevent women from being raped - in Darfur.

They have lots of different plans, all tested, all so very inexpensive.

But I've not yet actually experimented with this.

[mountainmist]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

DH and I are working on it. I've started stockpiling dry cereal, gallons of water, and other non-pershiables, but I think the most we could last is a month right now. I really need to get busy and get more water stocked up. What other people call "alarmism" is really being prepared. In this day and age, anything could happen. So all you who aren't prepared don't come knockin on my door in an emergency!

DH isn't much help though. His contribution is to stock up on ammo so that he can "hunt" for food and protect us from looters

One month is a LONG time - in comparison with most of the population. We may actually purchase some of those "expensive" specialty storage foods -- mainly because it is really time consuming to be continually rotating the canned goods and conventional dried foodstuffs found in grocery stores -- AND were we to get even MORE canned goods, there's really no way that we'd be able to keep up with rotation - unless we ate them ALL the time.

NOW, however, is not the time to avoid fresh produce and meat & dairy foods - because if we are ever actually quarantined or instructed to shelter in place -- that will be the time when fresh food may not be available for long periods.

Last year I read that in event of a pandemic they are considering having the U.S. Postal Service deliver medicines to all addresses in the USA, and to have the National Guard deliver groceries.

I don't have any idea how any state in our nation could afford such an endeavor - and I really wonder how many families would be able to fare on government commodity foods.

Meantime, I've gotten pretty disgusted in doing research about ACTUAL TRUE expiration dates on canned foods -- it turns out the U.S. Army opened canned goods after 46 years in storage, and all the meats, vegetables and jellies were FINE.

After 46 years!

I am disgusted that this info isn't easier to find out about -- I'd really like to know why ALL the fruit canners state that their tinned fruits are good for 2 years, but Libby's doesn't expire for 3 years ---- and goodness, what is WRONG with their methods if the military can can food which lasts perfectly for half a century.


Hmm.

http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22196

The above link is to the messagethread about expiration dates.

[boefixepa]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

I've always read and been told that canned good are fine as long as the can in not bulding and the seal in good. Nutional value will slowly decrease over time, but I consistantly use canned goods that are over two years old without a problem.

[PetMom]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

I just read in detail the very first post. If college students are being given this type of detailed instruction on what to do this has gotten a bit more serious than I had realized.

I had read a few Dr.s or naysayers state that it is so unlikely this could happen here. We are not compacted together as the places where this is spreading, it is a conspiracy of flu vaccine makers, etc, ad nauseum...

Wow. But an obvious concern is how are we going to work if we shut in and how are we going to pay mortgage, will there be an excuse for all of us not to be foreclosed on? Banks are vultures ready to pounce on any dilema.
And I sure would hate to have to have cash to ride over there to pay them in paper and coin.

I think panic would probably ensue once certain food trucking lines were shut down. The post about the self defense stuff would not be too far off.

I wonder how prepared the govt and emergency agencies are for this situation. Our ecomony will shut down and who is going to get left out because of this after all this is finished?

I assume this is the avian flu pandemic? Sis brought up point of why can't all just stop eating chicken - at least for while.

For fresh milk: aseptic packages of soymilk are good. Sprouts (already mentioned) some herbs and great tip on garlic, that keeps for a long time.

I will have to make sure our grills have charcoal and propane for heating up all the ramein noodles (that is all I feel like eating if ill).

A tub to handwash clothes, hand washer, and line to dry things.

I mean we may as well do a pioneer set up!

Ice will probably be a rare commodity if anyone ventures out to get it.

But there have been historically pandemics (my Dad lived through the polio one and they flat out went nowhere for weeks; and the flu of 1918)
this really is not that far of a stretch of possibilities. Dad has always hoarded gallons of water everywhere, now I realize why, only that though and some empty butter containers which will be of little help.

Thanks for solar cooker link! And the Tightwad Gazette also had a freebie one to make too. That is a fascinating topic.

One logical thought? what if a neighbor knocks and asks what we have, do we stockpile exters for others? How cruel to turn away some neighbors, or desperate people with children or the elderly...

[Mathew Green]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

I've always read and been told that canned good are fine as long as the can in not bulding and the seal in good. Nutional value will slowly decrease over time, but I consistantly use canned goods that are over two years old without a problem.

It depends on the food. But there is really no reason to ever keep canned food more than 3 to 6 months, so storage life shouldn't be a problem.

Stores put newer products at the back of the shelf and move older stuff to the front so customers will buy the older stuff first. That is a labor intensive process, but no one needs to do it that way in their home storage system. Just put the first cans you buy on the lefthand side of the shelf, the next ones to the right of them, and so on. By the time you reach the righthand end of the shelve(s), you should have used some of the stuff on the left and can start putting new cans there. Just mark your cans in some manner so you'll know what month you bought them, and buy enough replacements each month to keep the shelf almost full. With this system, you never have to intentionally rotate the stock because even the oldest cans are always within easy reach and constantly being used.

[tinapbeana]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

I wish that the network "news" programs would STOP showing all those 3-block long lines of people lining up at tiny convenience stores for water & batteries AFTER a disaster strikes.

I wish they instead would focus on the families who followed instructions - instructions that have been put out CONSTANTLY every since 911, to have at the very very minimum a 3 day supplie of food & water, with flashlights,radio & batteries, and first aid kit.

don't forget a handcrank/solarpowered radio/flashlight, batteries go dead. they actually have one of these at sports authority right now for $20 i think.

one of my dad's favorite sayings:
"Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"

[disneysteve]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

But an obvious concern is how are we going to work if we shut in and how are we going to pay mortgage, will there be an excuse for all of us not to be foreclosed on?.

That's what your emergency fund is for. Just one of many reasons why it is recommended that you keep an EF of 3-6 months of living expenses.

It is likely, however, that in a major disaster, payment due dates will be extended and late fees waived. Didn't that happen a lot after Katrina?

[disneysteve]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

I wish that the network "news" programs would STOP showing all those 3-block long lines of people lining up at tiny convenience stores for water & batteries AFTER a disaster strikes.

I agree. I also am baffled each year by the folks storming the hardware stores when a major snow storm is predicted, scrambling to buy a shovel. What did all those people use last year and the year before? Snow happens every year around here. Why the mad rush the day before a storm?

[geojen]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

one of my dad's favorite sayings:
"Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"

I love that! I really agree with it.

Bye the way, I have an interesting pamplet that a SAHM put together after she became concerned about the possibilty of a pandemic. The advice is good for all disasters, really. There were also some interesting quotes from Pres. Bush, one of them being that the government would expect a 40% decline in the workforce if a pandemic did happen. My dad works at a power plant and they already told him that if something happens, the crews in the plants will be locked in until the pandemic is over, so that there will be healthy people to keep the power on.

[tinapbeana]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

That's what your emergency fund is for. Just one of many reasons why it is recommended that you keep an EF of 3-6 months of living expenses.

It is likely, however, that in a major disaster, payment due dates will be extended and late fees waived. Didn't that happen a lot after Katrina?

i was a trainer for a nat'l phone company at the time katrina hit, and we waived all bills and moving/reconnect charges based on zip code for 6 months.

don't know if this would happen after a pandemic just b/c it would be much harder to sort out who is & isn't affected (as opposed to a disaster which is relatively localized).

[PetMom]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

But if the banks are shut down in one of more dire emergency predictions or there are runs on them should that
6 month ef be in paper and coins?

if people are that sick everywhere, you can bet I would be at home self quarantining and not venturing out to do bank business if the bank was even open.

it also depends on how quickly and virulent this avian pandemic would be,
on how it could affect the day to day running of the country.

I am just wondering why some serious cases of spinach e coli was able to be stopped by the stoppage of any spinach being sold (last week I still could not buy any) yet no one has even thought of stopping the sale of chickens with this looming in the horizon? There are other meats to eat worldwide, not as if there would not be any meat.

I am perplexed by this not being enforced.

Once it firmly mutates into human transmission obviously will be too late, but you can bet there will be people asking why chickens were not just banned for a year or so.

[boefixepa]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

In the US they could do something like that, but in the poorer countries I don't think the government has the ability to do something like that....it will be interesting to see what happens with all this though.

[geojen]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

The biggest problem is that there will always be a group of people who don't want to take percautions if it personally inconviences them. Would stopping the sale of chicken prevent the spread of the virus? Maybe, but too many people would whine about not being able to buy chicken.

[sarah]

Re: Do you have 3 months emergency supplies & food?

The risk of acquiring bird flu from a chicken in any industrialized country is close to zero.We don't live that closely with our poultry. The risk here is that Avian Flu will mutate into an airborne strain that moves easily from human to human. Once that happens the risk is that it will spread through the global transportation net to the United States. Confirmed human to human transmission has occurred but not easy airborne transmission. Yet.