Are you Stocking Up or Preparing for an Emergency? Support Thread--part II

[JTA Mom]

Here's the link to the last thread. The first post in that thread has all the important links in it, so I won't repost them here.

I noticed the old thread was becoming HUGE, and, as a result, not as talkative. So here's a nice fresh thread to clutter up! lol

My mini-update:

I bought a bunch of seeds from Renee's Garden for 50% off! They are this year's seed stock, but I think they should work fine for next year. I got almost everything I wanted. Anyone else know of any good seed sales? I didn't have the energy to do a garden this year, but next year, mwahahaha, watch out!:

I am also forcing myself to start sewing more often. I have such small snatches of time I find myself wanting to just sit & veg. It's not helping me make more longies for ds, start a wool quilt, or do the mountain of sewing I want to do.

Oh, and for squeezing in extra reading (Putting Food by, Gardening when it counts are ones I'm focusing on right now) I carry one of the books in the car & another in my purse. That way, if ds falls asleep in the car, I get some quiet reading time while he naps! No more cranky baby, and I get some precious quiet moments, lol.

What has everyone else been up to?

Ami

[Krisis]

I kind of got in trouble with my last grocery trip so I haven't added to our storage in two weeks. I'm kind of debating what to do, too. It would really help our finances if I didn't go grocery shopping for a while and we just lived off our storage. but what happens if THE END COMES after we've eaten all our stock? Argh!!

DH told me tonight he thinks I should just aim for a 3-month supply. Which is fine, and I'll get there, but I was determined to do a year supply. He thinks there's not enough room in our apartment. I guess we'll see! If nothing else, it'll force me to get creative.

Oh, and I stocked up on 4-5 bags of on-sale Halloween candy on Nov 1. It's going into our 72 hour kits (which I bought a big plastic tub for too).

[A&A]

What is everyone doing about water?

[mugglemom]

Originally Posted by A&A

What is everyone doing about water?

Water is tough, isn't it? We're on city water and it's never been a problem even when we had multiple-day power outages. But I try to keep at least a 3-day supply on hand. We have two 55-gallon rain barrels that are always full in the summer, but now that it's below freezing I had to drain them. I bought some 5-gallon water jugs from a camping store and keep them filled. And if worst came to worst, we have a Travel Berkey water filter that could be used to filter water from the lake a couple of blocks away. A friend of mine recently went on a canoe trip and highly recommended the Steri-Pen for treating smaller amounts of drinking water, so I'm going to look into that, too. It uses UV light to kill all the nasties.

[mamadelbosque]

We're putting in a handpump for water. One of the advantages to living in the country and having a pretty darn shallow well(~50 feet), is that you can pump it out by hand!!

Our new big project around here is getting goats. I am SO excited!! I can't qutie believe that I've talked my dad and husband into this, but I am just ecstatic!! I've wanted goats for years and years, and now finally, we're going to get them! As such, they (DH & my dad) are out working on our nice new goat-proof (we hope) fence as I type It'll be an electric fence, 42" tall with 4 wires (I'm thinking 9", 10", 11", 12" apart respectively).

[velochic]

Originally Posted by A&A

What is everyone doing about water?

Inherited a Big Berkey and we have near access to a river for long, long term. I keep about 50 gallons that is rotated out (I go through about 2 gallons a week at work). I refill the bottles from our filtered tap water and have never had a problem keeping tap water for 6 months. Any longer and it should probably be treated with a couple drops of bleach. We also have a 50 gallon water heater and we have tapped that to use for flushing and washing before. A few winters ago we had a water main bust and was without water for several days. Boy was that a pain in the butt.

[JamesMama]

Can I join in?

With everything getting worse and worse we're begining to stock better.

I'm in an apartment, it's a bit odd in that my laundry area is my personal washer and dryer (not pay) and in a hallway that I share with one other family/tenent. Luckily enough she is a very good friend of mine, we've known each other for coming up on 10+ years...anyway we have this shared hallway that no one else has access to so we're going to talk to our landlord about putting some shelves up on one end and both of us stocking up. We'd write our initals or something on the bottom to keep stuff semi-seperate, but I figure when TSHTF we'll just share what we can.

We'll mostly be stocking up on canned food stuffs. We don't have a garden plot, but I bet if it gets too bad our LL would let us dig up a part of her yard, we can't do the yard on my side because they walk horses there.

Both our DHs work in factory/manufacturing type jobs so we're already feeling the pinch.

[tamagotchi]

Preparedness forum?

I've noticed a lot of threads like this lately, and posted a suggestion for a Preparedness forum in Questions & Suggestions.

I put together a list of preparedness/stockpiling threads that might be useful too.

If you think a preparedness forum might be a good idea, or would like to discuss the idea, or would just like to see the list I posted, here is the thread:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...php?p=12588573

[LeighB]

I'm not too sure about water. We have really limited space, so I'm doing enough for our BOBs and then I think i'm just going to get some kind of purifier.

I'm really upset with my lack of space. I've converted our one and only hall closet into a pantry. The pantry we have is uber small and doesn't even fit a regular amount of food in.

[janasmama]

We have one of the Foxfire books which teaches a lot about living with minimal materials.

I'd like to get some more books on safe plants to eat. Right now we're in the process of moving 900 miles so I'm clearing out our food so we don't have to move it. As soon as we get to where we are going I will start to stock again.

I saw some handy crank flashlights at Home Depot. It was a set of 4 for $10. I wanted to buy them but DH said no.

I'm not huge on being super stocked but I do need to get some strike anywhere wooden matches.


How exactly do you collect rain water to make it drinking water?

[almadianna]

subbing to this one too!

[mamadelbosque]

We bought a copy of this book after a co-worker lent one to my husband and he fell in love with it Its a really good book with lots and lots and lots of info and really good drawings (which, IMO are much nicer than actual photos which don't usually show you everything you need to).

I would think you could collect rain water pretty easy via a gutter just running into a big barrel. Though, to use it for drinking you'd have to filter and/or boil it first (depending on what kind of a filter you ran it through).

[Stone Fence]

Subbing.

We've been prepping for a while. Last check we had about 4 months of supplies. We're probably down to 3 months.

Water: This could potentially be a big problem. We have a great well, it has lots of clean water. It's 547 feet deep. We need electricity to get the water up. We have a generator that can run the pump. But we may not always have gas for it and it could break down. We got a Big Berkey. We tried it out for a week and then put it up for real emergencies. We have about 2 weeks of drinking water stored and extra water for flushing.

I need to practice my whole grain breadmaking.

[missmich]

What are we stocking up for? A long power outage or a major loss of income? Or just a general stock pile?

I have nothing so far! Well I have plenty of bath and body products,but those won't help much in most emergencies! lol

[cloudswinger]

I live in the suburbs, but I just got a bunch of quail to raise for eggs(and meat if necessary). They're small, quiet, and fast growing.

[janasmama]

I would love to have some chickens for eggs. Are quail eggs just like chicken eggs? Are the quail easier to raise?

Are any of you preparing your children for a time when we can't be wasteful? Of course I always try not to waste but my kids are really wasteful, especially when it comes to food. They get so picky and demanding about what exactly they want to eat and often never eat it all, even in a small portion. So for the next snack 10 minutes later they want something different.

It bothers me to think I might have to deal with this in a time when we really can't waste food.

[Stone Fence]

Carrie,

The waste issue is a big one for me. DS is 3 and is expressing himself by not eating what's for dinner. We're putting very little on his plate and giving him an incentive for finishing (miniature candy bar). I keep telling myself that someday he'll come around.

Beyond that, we try to model our behavior ourselves and try not to waste anything (not even close to perfectly) and we do discuss it with DS.

To answer another question, we are stocking up for a power outage, job loss, illness, big winter storm (most likely) or any other disruption you can think of.

[Garden~Lover]

I saw some handy crank flashlights at Home Depot. It was a set of 4 for $10. I wanted to buy them but DH said no>>>>

ohh those sound good, I may have to get some.

About 2 weeks ago I went to the grocery store and spent about $350 on food, lots of canned, lots of stuff for the freezer. each week when I go to the grocery store I buy some extras. I really want to stock up on pantry stuff rather than freezer stuff. Although I am doing both.

How do you stock up on water? Ive heard the containers break? I do have a extra fridge in our basement that is pluged in , I use the freezer mainly (we also have a chest freezer) I keep my flour, and bread in the fridge part but I guess I could keep water. would it break over time if I keep it in a fridge?
]
im not talking tons, maybe 4 gallons.

my main reasons for doing all this is just in case we dont have any money. the way things are going, me getting my hours cut like crazy at work, who knows if we will have money in 2 months...

[~Boudicca~]

Originally Posted by A&A

What is everyone doing about water?

Holy cow, I am so glad I started storing water! I actually need it right now.

I only started about a month ago, and have a little over 25 gallons. Not much, I know, but get this. I got home tonight and turned on the bathroom faucet, only to realize that there is just a very thin stream coming out. My well pump isn't working at all and DH is on his way home from work to see if he can play around with it. But at least I am not screwed (at least temporarily) because I can use the water I stored downstairs for cooking, hand washing, and toilet flushing.

Anyway, I have been saving all the plastic containers I can get my hands on. We usually buy cranberry-pomegranate juice from BJs and I keep those for water storage, glass vodka bottles (the handle kind) too.

[katheek77]

Originally Posted by janasmama

IAre any of you preparing your children for a time when we can't be wasteful? Of course I always try not to waste but my kids are really wasteful, especially when it comes to food. They get so picky and demanding about what exactly they want to eat and often never eat it all, even in a small portion. So for the next snack 10 minutes later they want something different.

It bothers me to think I might have to deal with this in a time when we really can't waste food.

I have a 28mos old and I nanny for a 4 year old. I give them very small portions. The rule is, "If you eat what you have, and want something else or more of something, I will always give you more food. But you have to eat what you have first". They also know once they're done, I'm not serving food again for at least an hour (they're little, so, we usually have a meal or snack every 1.5-2 hours).

They get it. It might mean slightly more work for me (getting up to serve 4 times for one snack), but, it's worth it to me to teach them not to be wasteful.