Stocking Up, Putting Back, Prepping = Paranoia?

[zippitydooda]

Hi there! I'm new to this website. Found it through Backyard Chickens.

Anyhow, I have some questions regarding stocking up.

1. How do you store your canned goods?
2. How long are they good for?
3. Do you buy any of those emergency freeze dried meals?
4. How do you calculate your needs? (How much food do you store per person? A weeks worth? Longer?)

Looking forward to getting to know all of you and learning how to be prepared.

Thanks in advance for all your help/suggestions!

 

[valmom]

There are so many answers to your questions- and the answer that counts most is yours! I haven't started canning anything yet- still on my "to do" list to get a pressure canner. I just keep dithering over it. I am more comfortable with things that can be water bath canned (pickles and jams) or dehydrated (just about anything!). Stuff I have canned last as long as it takes to eat them

I wouldn't spend any money on pre-fab dehydrated meals! You are better off buying raw ingredients and learning how to use them (and possibly how to grow them) than in stockpiling a bunch of stuff that once they are eaten, they are gone. And you will get better quality food that is better for you, too.

We haven't actually gotten a real stockpile done- we have very little actual storage space in this house. But, we have probably 2 weeks of easy food that we like and more than that of things that can be made that we don't like a much. Yes, I am not really a "prepper". There are people here much better at it than I am. I have recently started watching videos on youtube of a Mormon lady who shows people how to keep their required year worth of food stocked and stored. I would love to get up to that level!

 

[SKR8PN]

I think that I must be one of the older members here at 68. So maybe my views and thoughts probably differ from some of the others here. But my sincere feeling about being thought of as paranoid is this . . . kiss my backside. They can do their thing and I'll do mine. I don't care much about other's opinions. My life experiences tell me that someone who worries about other's opinions too much probably IS paranoid.

Boogity, I am right behind you at 57 years old, and I have the very same attitude as you.

 

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[k0xxx]

Being called paranoid doesn't bother me. You don't live this long and not be called MUCH worse. I can understand as FC said, that in your twenties you feel invincible, but my attitudes changed when we had children. That was the point that I realized that I needed to have extra things on hand for them, and that I couldn't sit on the rooftop and shake my fist at hurricanes (metaphorically speaking). I knew (or at least I thought) that I could weather most any storm in life, but I had to be more responsible my son and daughter.

The last thing you want to happen in an emergency is to end up in a government shelter or food line. My parents operated Red Cross shelters during hurricanes. The people in them had no privacy, it was noisy, and it was always hot since the power was normally out. I decided that I would try to never be in the situation where I had to depend on someone else to take care of my family during a crisis. I just don't understand the attitude of "I'll just sit here, wave sheets at passing helicopters, and someone else will save my butt and feed me." I guess that I'm just preaching to the SS choir.


BTW, Welcome zippitydooda!

 

[GOOGLE NIKOLA TESLA]

Hahahaah!! Im in the lower 20's too lol. Guys i harvested some of the wheat today, i screwed up on keeping it unweeded so i lost alOt of crop lol. The oats i got abot double the amount that i bought, but again the weeds over took this and wasted Alot, this yr was all an experiment but i am impressed how fast the freakin oats and wheat grew!! Begginning of may i planted and i harvested today on the wheat and oats a few days ago!! To me 3 full months is not bad from seed to harvest... Now i am seeing the importance of these 2 crops, high yeilds and speed of growth....the corn is funked up, its healthy, no bugs, but i planted it to close that it has toppled in some spots and only partial ears formed..... I ate the partial ears and they are soooo delicious, i might let the corn dry to seed and think about better full ears next yr... Meaning better spacing. I knew about it before i planted but wanted to see for myself and it does not work planting close lol.... So i grew organically and everything was clean and safe!!! That was my major goal this yr....

 

[k15n1]

The part I don't understand is the bigger threat that seems to be discussed here. The idea that starving friends and family will be knocking on your door and you will have to turn them away. The idea that you need lots of ammo to protect against starving masses of zombies. It's the societal threats as they relate to prepping that I am looking to understand better.

Yes! It's penny wise, pound foolish.

Isn't part of SS teaching others to be SS? That's probably better protection than guns. Taking this to the logical conclusion, a SS society is the best possible solution.

 

[Neko-chan]

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[Britesea]

I ran across an excellent prepper manual at http://gilescounty.org/pdf's/Community_Version.pdf

I'm 58, and I can still remember the model bomb shelter the LA County Fair had on exhibit one year back when I was a pre-teen. It made an impression on me that has stuck with me my entire life. As a teen I devoured books on how to make soap and candles, how to spin yarn using a drop spindle (and even how to just roll the fibers across my thigh to make a strand if I didn't have a spindle). That was probably the start of my interest in Cultural Anthropology. I realized that in a post-apocalyptic world, the third world countries and primitive societies would fare better than people living in a place like Los Angeles.
Events conspired to move me away from those studies, but I've returned to them and am happier than I've ever been, knowing that I am taking my fate into my own two hands as much as possible. I just wish I was still young. It's hard to live off the land when you are old and fat and not used to doing it.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I stock up for a number of reasons:

I grew up that way
I grew up in post war Germany
My parents were children in the war and went without
My mother's family were country people and lived that way
We were poor most of my life
I went hungry too often
I like being prepared
I like knowing what I am eating
I like to depend on myself, rather than on any one else, especially the government
Hurricane Katrina
I live in earthquake country

We have talked with all the neighbors and we intend to band together. We are already doing so in many ways. Crime has become a bigger issue and we look out for each other. Local government is clamping down on us and we are helping each other fight it. We barter in a casual sort of way with each other. Most of us have had job losses or cut backs and live on much less money. We sell our produce or barter it. Our neighbors like the fact that we know how to do stuff. They also know how to do stuff and we figure we have a better chance even in our current situation, if we help each other out.

I have recently had several conversations with strangers, who think it is great, that we live a fairly self reliant lifestyle and that includes stocking up on stuff. The people I talked with stated, that it made them feel good to know that people in the community knew how to do the stuff we do, so we would be able to teach others, if neccessary.

We stockpile mostly stuff we need, but cannot easily produce ourselves. Then we also stockpile the stuff we produce, just like grandma used to.

Mostly, I want to know how to do things myself, so I and my family can survive a Hurricane Katrina type of situation or a really bad earthquake that would disrupt the infra structure for weeks on end. We have one main road into our city and a small airport. It wouldn't take much to create havoc.