Month Three in Review

The third month of my prepping plan is complete.

What I accomplished:

• I added more cash to our BOBs
• I bought plastic sheeting and duct tape to prepare for sheltering-in-place
• I also got a box of trash bags for sanitation and other SHTF purposes
• I acquired local/regional maps and placed them in our vehicles and BOBs.
• I bought a lot of items for food storage.

What didn't happen:

• I have my duct tape and sheeting, but I haven't cut it to size. Having pre-cut pieces could save so much valuable time.
• I didn't get bottles of butane to refill my favorite Zippo MPL or the rest of my van's vehicle kit either. I decided to hedge against rising prices and bought 200 lb of wheat instead.

I'm still trying to prioritize my purchases for Month Four. So much to buy, so little money!

Month Three Food Storage

Some of my plunder

Sam's Club is a very dangerous place for me. I walk in with a sensible list and one grocery cart and I manage to come out with two carts filled to the brim. I'm sure I could get things cheaper if I lived somewhere with more than one small town grocery store. I'm working on couponing, but I am still a rank novice. So a big monthly trip to the "big city" it is for many of my food storage needs.

My food storage area

Here's what my main food storage area looks like now. The top rack has my canning supplies. I've used up quite a bit of vinegar by canning pickles and I need to restock that. One day soon I'm going to do a post on the virtues of storing vinegar.

The next rack down is canned fruits and vegetables. I tried to pick ones I thought my family would eat.

The middle rack has my home-canned pickles and green beans as well as kidney beans, Spaghettios, soup and chili. I have never bought Spaghettios or canned chili before. You're supposed to "Store what you eat and eat what you store", but that is a challenge when you don't normally eat many canned foods. I'll figure out something to do with them.

We've been rotating through the next rack down pretty quickly. I have 20 lb of peanut butter now so I think we're done with that for the time being. At least that's one item I can check off my list!

I have pasta, boxed mixes and the large box of quick oats in plastic storage bins on the bottom. When you live in the middle of a cow pasture, you can't help but get mice running through your house from time to time. We manage to catch them quickly but I'm trying to make things as difficult for them as possible by storing them in the bins.  The goal is to rotate through these items before they have a chance to deteriorate in nutrition or taste.  

Chicken-n-fats. I'm woefully low on fats besides peanut butter

I have a few cans of chicken now. I've never used canned chicken before so this will be another new adventure for us. One of these days I'll try canning my own meats and see how that compares.

Here's what I bought for food storage this month:

• 6 lb macaroni
• 6 lb spaghetti
• 12 cans of chili with beans
• 5 cans of chicken
• 4 lb of yeast (I've frozen this and it will last indefinitely in the freezer)
• 16 cans of Spaghettios
• 12 boxes of macaroni and cheese
• 3.75 lb of baking powder
• 9 lb of quick oats
• 2-2.5 lb jars of peanut butter
• 8 cans of corn
• 8 cans of peaches
• 12 cans of green beans (Next year I hope we will be able to can enough green beans to be self-sufficient.)
• 5 cans of kidney beans
• 36 applesauce cups

Not to mention the 4-6 gallon buckets and 4-#10 cans of wheat that are on their way.

Our homeschooling year began this week and during The Thinker's history lesson, we read the following quote from Lao Tzu:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

It feels like I've spent a lot of money and have very little to show for it, but I am at least three steps closer to my goal of 1 year's worth of food storage.

What steps have you taken this month to insure that your family will have food in a crisis?

To wheat or not to wheat?

I was all prepared to make my final Month Three Prep purchases this morning when I was made aware of the craziness in the world wheat market. I was watching HLN, which I refer to as the junkfood of the TV news biz. You know, full of fluff, light on substance. They reported that the Russian government is halting wheat exports, which set off a giant price increase in wheat prices. They are predicting wheat to continue it's upward trend. Famine could be a possibility in third-world countries like Egypt that depend on cheap wheat to survive.

Then I got on The Survival Blog and JWR said: "I predict this will start a chain reaction, around the globe. Other nations are sure to follow suit with export restrictions, and futures prices will soar. We can expect food riots in the future. There is also some likely inflation in other grain prices, as cattle feed is shifted slightly, to compensate. Get your wheat orders in with a trustworthy vendor pronto, before the inevitable prices increases hit the retail level! Wheat prices could double again, before December."

I about choked on my Cheerios when I read that.

My prepping plan went out the window and I decided to spend the remainder of my budget this month on wheat. Unfortunately I had already spent half of my money on sheltering-in-place supplies and a trip to Sam's Club.  I envy the people who live close to LDS canneries. You can get wheat very cheaply there if you are Mormon, have a Mormon friend who will go with you, or they let you in. 

The best buy that I have found for me is to order through Emergency Essentials. I had enough money remaining to buy 4-6 gallon "SuperPails" and 4-#10 cans of hard white wheat. If I had food grade plastic buckets and mylar bags on hand, it would have been cheaper to just order bags of wheat from Honeyville Grains. When I need to refill these buckets, that is what I'll probably do. Yes, I do plan on using my wheat regularly. Once I get it and get a grain mill, that is!

I hate deviating from my plan. Knee-jerk reactions are often not my best decisions. In this case, however, I was planning on buy some wheat in the next few months. This may save me some money and insure that the product I want is available.

Now I have to decide whether to get back on my prepping plan next month or to go ahead and buy more wheat. I need to buy 473 more pounds in order to have a year's supply for my family. I refuse to be at the mercy of inflation, food shortages and a world gone crazy.

Here are some links I got from the Survival Blog for further reading on the subject of the wheat market:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6742QQ20100805

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/higher-food-prices-russian-heatwave-wallet/19581230/

Sheltering In Place

The government has been telling us to stock plastic sheeting and duct tape and be prepared seal a safe room since 9/11. Maybe they recommended it before and I was oblivious, but it really entered the public's consciousness after the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Yes, I've known I should do this.

No, I didn't take any steps to do it until this month.

Technically, there are two kinds of sheltering-in-place. The first is the one those of us in Tornado Alley are familiar with. If severe weather approaches, you grab your kids and hunker down in the basement or other safe area to avoid being blown into Oz. I've never looked good in blue gingham, so I've got this maneuver mastered.

The sheltering-in-place I am going to address today is the second variety and it is different from the first in some very important ways. If there is a chemical, biological, or terrorist attack, you may need to stay indoors and seal a room to keep your family safe.

In contrast to a severe weather situation, you do NOT want to shelter-in-place in the basement for a chemical or biological attack. Some chemical agents are actually heavier than air and can sink below ground level. You should select a room on the highest level of your house. Ideally that room would be interior and windowless and yet spacious (approx. 10 square feet per person) and with a source of water. I don't know about you, but that doesn't describe any room in my house!

I selected our master bathroom. It does have a window and door, but I should be able to seal them up quickly. Obviously it also has a water supply. If I had a lot of notice I could also seal up the adjoining master bedroom. We would be considerably more comfortable and have access to a TV to keep abreast of the news. I'm not counting on having a lot of warning, so we're probably going to be stuck in the bathroom. Thankfully, I store our BOBs in the bathroom closet so we'll have an emergency radio and other supplies.

The following diagram from ready.gov illustrates how you're supposed to seal up your room.



You should pre-cut all of your pieces of sheeting ahead of time. The last thing you want to do is be fooling around with that stuff when time is of the essence. Store the pre-cut sheeting with a roll of duct tape and a pair of scissors in the room you'll be sheltering in.

Don't forget to make sure the sheeting you buy is at least 2 mils thick. I bought a 250 meter roll of 3.5 mil plastic for $7.27. The duct tape was a little under $4. Pretty cheap preps that have a multitude of other uses. The leftover plastic sheeting could be used to make an evaporation still, a tarp, or sleeves to wear when you butcher rotting pig carcasses to create biodiesel. You know, vital survival activities in a SHTF scenario.

This kind of shelter-in-place is designed to last for a few hours, not days. You can't seal yourself in for very long or you'll suffocate! I've read that if the room you're sheltering in has at least 10 square feet per person, you will have enough oxygen for at least 5 hours. My bathroom is only 50 sq ft and I have six people in my family, so I guess we'll have to all breathe shallowly. I have read that most chemical agents should dissipate by 2 hours, though, so we should be fine. I hope.

Just to muddy the waters further, if there is a nuclear attack, you should shelter in place in the lowest level of your house or an interior room. Having earth and concrete surrounding you will help protect your family from radiation. You should prepare your basement shelter in much the same way as your upper level shelter. Read this for more information http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/shelter.asp

Don't forget that before you seal yourself in for a chemical, biological or nuclear attack, you need to turn off your heat or A/C!

I live in a rural area and I'm pretty sure the farmer next door isn't a secret agent for Al Qaeda, but even our family could potentially need to shelter in place. No matter who you are or where you live, take the time to buy some plastic sheeting and duct tape and get ready. Don't be a slacker like me!

There are two websites I recommend for further reading:


http://www.bt.cdc.gov/planning/shelteringfacts.pdf


and

http://www.ready.gov/business/plan/shelterplan.html

Month Three Preps

I've spent my money for Month Two so it's time to think about spending next month's money!

1) Get more cash and add it to our Bug Out Bags (BOBs).
2) Buy a box of trash bags.
3) Get a roll of heavy mil plastic sheeting and a roll of duct tape. Use it to prep for possible sheltering-in-place.
4) Buy butane refills for my Zippo lighter.
5) Buy maps for both vehicles + BOB.
6) Buy the remainder of items for my van’s emergency kit.
7) Continue to buy items for food storage.

My original plan for Month Three had me buying a bunch of food storage containers for my pantry and a Brother P-Touch label maker. That's the OCD organizer in me.

I decided that it was probably more important that I store up food. With my luck, TEOTWAWKI would happen and all I'd have to show for it would be a bunch of plastic with nothing in it! And with the threat of hyperinflation looming, food prices are only going to rise. It's best to stock up NOW on the essentials of life. However much Snapware makes my soul sing, it will not sustain me in an emergency. :)

Where I stand in my food storage

I have been accumulating food storage for a few months now. I haven't made any huge purchases but I have been consistently buying a few extras when I go to the grocery store or warehouse club. Here are a few pictures of my major food storage areas.

I am fortunate to have a large kitchen with ample storage room. I cleaned out parts of two cabinets and am currently storing:

A 3/4 gallon of olive oil, 24 lb of salt, 2 jugs of maple syrup and 6 lb of baking soda are among my stored items here. I need to move some of these items to the basement because I intend on this area being a dry storage area. Items like the salt, baking powder and baking soda that absolutely must stay dry will be in this cabinet. Our basement never floods and never should, but it can be a bit humid in our storage room. To protect these items sensitive to moisture, I'm going to store them in the kitchen.

Here's my other storage cabinet in the kitchen:

I have items like different kinds of soup and tomato products here. The Diet Pepsi doesn't count as food storage! I am a total soda addict and have the cavities to prove it.

These pictures don't even show the items I have in my regular pantry. I am storing bottles of apple juice (about 7 weeks worth) along with the every day items that everyone has in their pantry.

Here's my basement storage area:

It's filled in a little bit since I last posted a picture of it. On the top rack I have my canning supplies and two gallons of vinegar. The next rack down has canned fruits, vegetables, and soup. I've only just started storing these types of goods and I don't have very many yet. The next rack has my home-canned items - pickles, tomatoes, dried oregano (not really canned but stored in a Mason jar) and green beans. Hubby Dear and I are slowly increasing our harvest from our garden and I hope to can even more next year. The next rack down has a mish-mash of items like Crisco, applesauce, jelly, 15 lb of peanut butter, salad dressing, and a variety of condiments. The bottom part of the storage rack has a couple of large plastic containers. In one I am storing boxes of baking mixes. Right now all it has are two lonely boxes of brownie mix. The other container has 36 lb of pasta.

When I have filled up this storage unit, I have a couple of shelves on other units cleaned off. I will, however, need to buy some sort of additional storage. I'm thinking about getting one of these from Shelf Reliance:

That would make rotation so easy, but I'm not sure it is the most efficient use of space.

When I look at what we've accumulated so far, I feel like we are getting somewhere.

That is until I watch some of the many YouTube videos where fellow preppers show off their food storage.

Sigh. We have so far to go.

We are making headway, though, and now that Hubby Dear has given me a budget, I'll be able to make consistent purchases. I am considering changing my Month Three Preps in order to make a large leap in our food storage next month.