This past week we met our goals of using our food dehydrator twice to make some shelf stable food and snacks. I can see it is going to cost quite a bit to make any dehydrated food in enough quantity to actually have some for storage. The fruit leather we made was banana/strawberry and it was 3 ripe bananas and 2 lbs of strawberries and gone in less than 4 days. We also made beef jerky with Whole Foods London Broil but 2 huge cuts were barely enough to fill up half the dehydrator.
Even the beef jerky will get eaten very quickly and that will not provide any food to store. The ideal is to use organic, non-GMO, grass fed healthy food. In order to be able to afford this I am going to have to do some serious sale shopping and buy in bulk then dehydrate it ASAP. The fruit and vegetables will actually be easy once things start coming into season and the prices drop. The meat will be another issue. In the past we bought cheap stew meat and cut it into smaller chunks to cure and dehydrate. It made a good bite sized snack and would make a good staple to just toss in a soup to have protein in with the vegetables. Our natural foods coop sells beef in bulk and I can buy a few pounds a week (which I actually have already been doing) so we can make a big batch of the dried once we have about 6 lbs or so. Other than that I will buy the beef from Whole Foods meat counter when it is on sale. This also means I will need to stop buy weekly to check on their sales and see what I can get.
Our next stop is to make sure the dried stuff gets rotated and our 72 hour pack is always nice and fresh. I am using our foodsaver to vacuum seal the bags once they are done. Writing the dates on the bags is the easiest tracking tool we have right now. Of course we have such a small quantity right now rotation is not an issue. I hope to have a much bigger store as the weeks go on and we meet our "fill the dehydrator once weekly" goal.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Baby Steps
So today I cleaned off a few shelves in the revamped "basement" room Brad overhauled yesterday. We still have a ton of junk to get rid of, some ebay, some freecycle and that will free up more space for some food storage. We also went to Sam's club and bought some extras to keep on hand. I got rid of a bunch more books, I find that I really prefer ebooks and if it is hardcover I am not really interested unless it is a reference book or recipe book etc. So the library is getting 6 bags of books as a donation.
Now it is time to look for sales on stuff we can store and use. We also need to look at water and power solutions. I am buying rechargeable batteries which is just a good household idea anyway. We also need to get some more non-perishable or shelf stable protein to have enough. So much of ours is in the freezer.
This is a process when you have to fit it into a normal household budget! But we are just trying to be smart, like the batteries we need anyway so this time I will just buy the rechargeable instead of spending money on alkaline. And it woudl be good to be prepared for at least 72 hours for the upcoming tornado season.
One goal we did not meet was drying anything last week. So that means we should probably do 2 batches this week. I am hoping for some good sales on grass fed beef that we can slice up and make a bunch of beef jerky, I will stop at Whole Foods on Wednesday and see what I can dig up.
All in all I am happy with what we have been able to do, I find myself making wishlists and looking at what everyday items we can move over to smarter items that work better for long term and for our budget.
Now it is time to look for sales on stuff we can store and use. We also need to look at water and power solutions. I am buying rechargeable batteries which is just a good household idea anyway. We also need to get some more non-perishable or shelf stable protein to have enough. So much of ours is in the freezer.
This is a process when you have to fit it into a normal household budget! But we are just trying to be smart, like the batteries we need anyway so this time I will just buy the rechargeable instead of spending money on alkaline. And it woudl be good to be prepared for at least 72 hours for the upcoming tornado season.
One goal we did not meet was drying anything last week. So that means we should probably do 2 batches this week. I am hoping for some good sales on grass fed beef that we can slice up and make a bunch of beef jerky, I will stop at Whole Foods on Wednesday and see what I can dig up.
All in all I am happy with what we have been able to do, I find myself making wishlists and looking at what everyday items we can move over to smarter items that work better for long term and for our budget.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Progress so far
This week was kitchen work and trying to fill in some of the more obvious gaps in our 72 hours bags. I found a bunch of really nice washcloths at Target for 1$ each on clearance so I bought all of those and washed them to add to our linen closet and 72 hour bags. Next was an inventory of our pantry for non-perishables. We have plenty of frozen food for 72 hours but are woefully short on non-perishables. Next step is organizing and finding some room to rotate and stock some more stuff like jerky, dried fruits, food powders and nuts. In addition we need to decide how we will pack and rotate our "go" food. First of all we actually have to have enough for 3 days and right now we do not, so food first, packing decisions after that.
It's a bit hard to not go out and just buy everything we need right now but we agreed that we would work this into our regular budget and use the preparedness food as part of our normal diet to keep it as fresh as possible. Our goal for this coming week is to make a trip to Sams club to stock up on some things (preparedness and our regular household items) and hopefully make some jerky this weekend to start off our once weekly planned food drying schedule.
Doing this really does make you look at things differently, sales become opportunities to stock up on essentials instead of just a way to save money on this weeks groceries. Buying in bulk becomes more appealing so that there is some to eat and some to store. Higher fat and protein foods are priority as well as some luxury stuff that we all love.
We are looking at transforming our "basement" aka junk room since we live in a mobile home LOL. into a preparedness room and making it a much more useful part of the house. Its daunting to go in there but when we all four get working on something it actually goes rather quickly. This is going to be a process, it seems almost more like a mind-set change than anything else, you keep doing the things you always do but you learn to do them differently with preparedness in mind.
Still on the agenda: water, power, fuel, home gardening, home defense and vehicle preparedness. Still a long way to go!
It's a bit hard to not go out and just buy everything we need right now but we agreed that we would work this into our regular budget and use the preparedness food as part of our normal diet to keep it as fresh as possible. Our goal for this coming week is to make a trip to Sams club to stock up on some things (preparedness and our regular household items) and hopefully make some jerky this weekend to start off our once weekly planned food drying schedule.
Doing this really does make you look at things differently, sales become opportunities to stock up on essentials instead of just a way to save money on this weeks groceries. Buying in bulk becomes more appealing so that there is some to eat and some to store. Higher fat and protein foods are priority as well as some luxury stuff that we all love.
We are looking at transforming our "basement" aka junk room since we live in a mobile home LOL. into a preparedness room and making it a much more useful part of the house. Its daunting to go in there but when we all four get working on something it actually goes rather quickly. This is going to be a process, it seems almost more like a mind-set change than anything else, you keep doing the things you always do but you learn to do them differently with preparedness in mind.
Still on the agenda: water, power, fuel, home gardening, home defense and vehicle preparedness. Still a long way to go!
Monday, February 13, 2012
72 hour bags packed...
So. We finished our personal bag packing, found a few things we were missing and discovered that our emergency supplies are pretty darn unorganized for what we do have. We have decided to repack our personal bags seasonally to make sure we have the proper clothing and avoid packing clothing for all temperatures in there.
We made a list of the things that need to be redone (our emergency medical kits, 72 hour food and water supplies, blankets and towels) and we are getting some good ideas for fixing things up at home. We dug out our Food Saver and decided that we can also clean up the boxes and bag in our pantry by moving the stuff to Tupperwear or to vacuum sealed wide mouth jars. Our Excalibur will be busy as we also decided to dry some food once a week to add to our snack and survival food stores.
Water is still a bit of a problem, I am going to look into rain water collection and filtering for long term possibilities. In the meantime we are looking for a way to store 12 gals of water (1 gal per person per day) for our 72 hour plan. Glass is heavy and bulky but plastic tends to deteriorate and leach into the water you are storing in it so that is not a great thing either. Twelve gallons is not really that much so the small amount should be relatively easy to store and rotate. Longer term water will be an ongoing research project.
Our emergency food supplies will need to be rotated so we will be using stuff we normally eat for the most part, beef jerky, coconut cream concentrate and dried coconut from Tropical Traditions, dried fruit and veges, etc. We will put in some beans and rice and probably some powered dairy or other protein rich powders, but we have to avoid pretty much all grains and corn because of the rampant food allergies in our family. We also are trying to stay non-GMO and pesticide free (aka organic) since the jury is out on whether that crap is actually what is causing all the food allergy and autoimmune garbage that is becoming a problem for so many people.
Overall we are doing this one step at a time and each step will bring us closer to the goal of being prepared for whatever may happen in terms of emergencies, power outages, food shortages and other such natural and man made disasters. We are budgeting a little bit each pay for emergency preparedness and trying to do as much as we can with what we have on hand already.
We made a list of the things that need to be redone (our emergency medical kits, 72 hour food and water supplies, blankets and towels) and we are getting some good ideas for fixing things up at home. We dug out our Food Saver and decided that we can also clean up the boxes and bag in our pantry by moving the stuff to Tupperwear or to vacuum sealed wide mouth jars. Our Excalibur will be busy as we also decided to dry some food once a week to add to our snack and survival food stores.
Water is still a bit of a problem, I am going to look into rain water collection and filtering for long term possibilities. In the meantime we are looking for a way to store 12 gals of water (1 gal per person per day) for our 72 hour plan. Glass is heavy and bulky but plastic tends to deteriorate and leach into the water you are storing in it so that is not a great thing either. Twelve gallons is not really that much so the small amount should be relatively easy to store and rotate. Longer term water will be an ongoing research project.
Our emergency food supplies will need to be rotated so we will be using stuff we normally eat for the most part, beef jerky, coconut cream concentrate and dried coconut from Tropical Traditions, dried fruit and veges, etc. We will put in some beans and rice and probably some powered dairy or other protein rich powders, but we have to avoid pretty much all grains and corn because of the rampant food allergies in our family. We also are trying to stay non-GMO and pesticide free (aka organic) since the jury is out on whether that crap is actually what is causing all the food allergy and autoimmune garbage that is becoming a problem for so many people.
Overall we are doing this one step at a time and each step will bring us closer to the goal of being prepared for whatever may happen in terms of emergencies, power outages, food shortages and other such natural and man made disasters. We are budgeting a little bit each pay for emergency preparedness and trying to do as much as we can with what we have on hand already.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Home preparedness begins!
So with a husband who is an Emergency Management Coordinator, and my own desire to provide for my family, I have finally stopped procrastinating and designated this week as home preparedness shape up and planning week!
Our first stop is planning and packing each of our 72 hour survival "go" bags. Sunday is our designated packing day so we each have until then to make our lists, pick our bag and pack it. The only stipulation we have for this project is that we may not buy anything new to go int he bags, they need to be packed with extras and stuff we already have in the house.
First I assigned the kids as part of their writing this week to make a list of what they think should go in their bags if we had to leave home for 3 days and be able to survive. I did tell them they did not need to worry about food, we will make a 72 hour food kit for the whole family.
It was interesting to see their lists, Willow was highly worried about making sure she had a cell phone so I had to point out "what if cell phones are down?" the last time we had a 3 day power outage we had no cell phones, she said "oh" and went back to thinking and writing. Pierce wants to take enough to fit in an army duffel, pillows, blankets etc. I simply said he had to be able to carry it all himself in one bag.
So on Sunday the packing will happen and then Brad and I will be onto the next project, organizing and prioritizing our survival plans and then funding the ones that will cost money. As a family project this actually has been fun for me and given me much to research and learn. It also brings up a lot of good ideas we can use to live better right now. I will have to keep track of all "the survival ideas that help our life now" projects we end up doing.
Our first stop is planning and packing each of our 72 hour survival "go" bags. Sunday is our designated packing day so we each have until then to make our lists, pick our bag and pack it. The only stipulation we have for this project is that we may not buy anything new to go int he bags, they need to be packed with extras and stuff we already have in the house.
First I assigned the kids as part of their writing this week to make a list of what they think should go in their bags if we had to leave home for 3 days and be able to survive. I did tell them they did not need to worry about food, we will make a 72 hour food kit for the whole family.
It was interesting to see their lists, Willow was highly worried about making sure she had a cell phone so I had to point out "what if cell phones are down?" the last time we had a 3 day power outage we had no cell phones, she said "oh" and went back to thinking and writing. Pierce wants to take enough to fit in an army duffel, pillows, blankets etc. I simply said he had to be able to carry it all himself in one bag.
So on Sunday the packing will happen and then Brad and I will be onto the next project, organizing and prioritizing our survival plans and then funding the ones that will cost money. As a family project this actually has been fun for me and given me much to research and learn. It also brings up a lot of good ideas we can use to live better right now. I will have to keep track of all "the survival ideas that help our life now" projects we end up doing.
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