how long????

[Bigfoot]

I am not nearly as experienced as some of you all at this game. My short term goal for this summer is to have 3 months of food supplies for my wife and I plus my elderly mother and special needs aunt.

Im not really sure what that looks like or the amounts really needed? How many pounds of rice should I have per person? How many pounds of beans per person? How many Mountain house packages? How many mountain house large cans? How much canned food? I plan on starting with the food basics for now and then reassess my preps at the end of summer. I plan on canning vegetables and meats but not until my 2nd go around after summer. I am behind and have a lot of catching up to do this summer to make sure water power and food are brought up to just a basic minimum. As yall know it just doesnt happen over night. I have been doing my homework just time to get everything in place and acquired.

 

[Illini Warrior]

I am not nearly as experienced as some of you all at this game. My short term goal for this summer is to have 3 months of food supplies for my wife and I plus my elderly mother and special needs aunt.

Im not really sure what that looks like or the amounts really needed? How many pounds of rice should I have per person? How many pounds of beans per person? How many Mountain house packages? How many mountain house large cans? How much canned food? I plan on starting with the food basics for now and then reassess my preps at the end of summer. I plan on canning vegetables and meats but not until my 2nd go around after summer. I am behind and have a lot of catching up to do this summer to make sure water power and food are brought up to just a basic minimum. As yall know it just doesnt happen over night. I have been doing my homework just time to get everything in place and acquired.

sounds like you might have a common trait for newbie preppers - "tunnel" prepping - sole concentration on only one needed aspect - your's is food ...

if you can't protect what you already have >> failure - security should have always been #1 on everyone's list and even more so with the crime stats climbing and getting worse daily - could be toooo late - GET IT NOW ....

cooking goes along the food >>> some of the better methods to off-grid cook & heat are in short supply and the $$$$ raising - GET IT NOW ....

water - there's a lot more to potable water than at first glance - again the better methods involved are shrinking in resources - GET IT NOW ...

medical - sounds like you're a special case - even more reason to jump on it - antibiotics for one are at a premium
- GET IT NOW ....

 

[Amish Heart]

LDS websites have food calculator charts where you can type in how many people and it'll tell you how much to buy. Agree with above....cooking skills and water are needed, too.
Buying stuff and learning how to can are short term solutions, though. If you are living in a city apartment, you'll just eat up what you stored, have no way to replace it, then starve to death. You need to store "enough" and be able to grow/hunt/raise the replacements for the continual storage. Our ancestors did this, and it was "normal"

 

[lonewolf]

our ancient ancestors were hunter/gatherers and moved with the seasons, this agriculture is a new thing by comparison.

 

[Amish Heart]

True. There's too many people and not enough earth to do that now though.

 

[lonewolf]

True. There's too many people and not enough earth to do that now though.

give it time AH, post SHTF there will be less people and therefore more earth.

 

[Amish Heart]

Maybe so in the cities. But the cities will be the place to stay out of post SHTF. They're the place to stay out of right now! Although just because one lives in the country doesn't mean that they are prepped to survive. I know plenty that would be dead if it wasn't for their govt handout to spend at the Walmart.

 

[MOS0231]

IIRC, BigFoot has the security aspect covered.
While not ideal, his apartment location is what it is and he is trying to adjust accordingly.
Being a outdoorsman, I am going to assume he has camp like cooking covered.

Realistically no one has enough food covered for a true SHTF event. At some point the rice, beans, MREs etc. all run out.

BigFoot, you have identified your short term goals for prepping.
Have you considered longer term?

 

[MOS0231]

Maybe so in the cities. But the cities will be the place to stay out of post SHTF. They're the place to stay out of right now! Although just because one lives in the country doesn't mean that they are prepped to survive. I know plenty that would be dead if it wasn't for their govt handout to spend at the Walmart.

My Amish neighbors seem to do okay. In 10 years I have not heard of any of them dying of starvation or from the elements.
I have no doubt my community is going to need them and they us to survive a SHTF event.

 

[lonewolf]

I havent been into a city since we moved here and that is 12 years ago now.
got a better chance of surviving out here in the rural areas than anyone in a city even if we have less stores and further to go to them.

 

[lonewolf]

Realistically no one has enough food covered for a true SHTF event. At some point the rice, beans, MREs etc. all run out.

NO ONE has enough stored food to last the rest of their lives, its skills and knowledge that will be needed post SHTF not shelves and shelves of stored food-thats just delaying the inevitable.

 

[Helen Back]

True. There's too many people and not enough earth to do that now though.

If only there was some type of pandemic.... and then a "vaccine" if the pandemic didn't kill enough...

 

[Dracos]

It is not enough to store food and water and weapons. We will need seeds and livestock. Don't want to share a fallout shelter with a flock of noisy poopy pigs and chickens? How about beef and milk cows? Well, someone has to. Do you have enough dog food and cat food? How about livestock feed? You know? In a pinch you could eat your dog and cat food. You could eat your dog and cat too!

 

[lonewolf]

forget large animals like cattle, most people unless really experienced cannot handle large animals, unless you have acres and acres of land then that brings up the question of security, and forget milk cows without electricity this will be laborious and time consuming, most of us will be looking at smaller animals, Chickens and Rabbits were kept by the English during WW2 in small back yards to supplement their meat rations.

 

[Amish Heart]

A milk cow without electricity is not even a big deal. Really not that hard.

 

[lonewolf]

A milk cow without electricity is not even a big deal. Really not that hard.

yes one on its own agreed, but not a whole herd.

 

[MOS0231]

Livestock can be trained.

 

[Amish Heart]

My grandpa did a whole herd right down the road from where I live now. He was an amish man born in 1900. Farming, livestock, preserving....all of that. Not saying it wasn't alot of work, it was. He had seven kids, my mom being one of them. They didn't go without, and he was around for the Spanish flu, Great Depression, and a couple of wars. What a time to live in! He lived a full life, and was a happy man. Enos Yoder was his name.

 

[lonewolf]

my wife was a herds woman back in the day, I dont think she would have liked to have milked the whole herd by hand, not even the small herds they had back then.

 

[lonewolf]

Goats can be milked and are easier to handle, they will even clear brambles and overgrowth for you.

 

[MOS0231]

Goats can be milked and are easier to handle, they will even clear brambles and overgrowth for you.

I use mine for land clearing operations.

 

[Amish Heart]

True, and they're easier to butcher. But if it's steak you're after...
Cabrito is so so, but nothing like a ribeye

 

[Schattentarn]

Well, I am an idiot prepper but I think the food thing would depend on other variables. Bigfoot, you are in Houston. My first thought is to have enough food to get out of Houston. But if you are considering a short term event and hunkering down, then plan your food around that.

 

[Amish Heart]

It'd be impractical to try to get out of Houston with a bunch of food when things go bad.

 

[Bigfoot]

Well, I am an idiot prepper but I think the food thing would depend on other variables. Bigfoot, you are in Houston. My first thought is to have enough food to get out of Houston. But if you are considering a short term event and hunkering down, then plan your food around that.

Yes Schatter I am getting ready for an abrupt end to our grid and I am hoping short term of course but who knows.

I am basically starting from scratch since I only have 40 lbs of rice and 20 lbs of beans stored away for long term purposes. I guess I will just buy another 50 lb bag of rice and 40 lbs of beans and dry can those for storage and that will be about 90 lbs of rice and 60 lbs of beans. That alone should feed 4 people for a month or more I would think.

 

[Bigfoot]

BigFoot, you have identified your short term goals for prepping.
Have you considered longer term?
[/QUOTE]

Not yet. Only because I want to stay focused on the short term goals now. I dont want to keep saying I ll do it because I havent done it yet. I just ordered a berkey travel and that should take care of my water preps for the summer. I have security covered and my next purchase is a major purchase for a solar generator and that will cover my power preps for this year I do have a half way decent first aid bag going but that can always be improved but food is my biggest problem I think. I just need to figure out how much ricaeand beans and other types of basics foods for long term prep. Just the basics for now. Then after I get the basics done I will reassess what I have and then get a new game plan going at the end of summer.

 

[David SB]

I had written some stuff but you have already started down that road... I have a few cases of hormel canned meat for short term shtf, and I hit that Dinty Moore stew almost weekly

 

[Mountain trapper]

I had written some stuff but you have already started down that road... I have a few cases of hormel canned meat for short term shtf, and I hit that Dinty Moore stew almost weekly

When I can find it I buy all the Spam they have on the shelf, not the plain crap but the hickory or teriyaki flavor.

 

[David SB]

I am within the Houston exurbs and the 4 lane highway (not a freeway) outside my home was completely clogged during that hurricane years back, so dont delay if you are planning to get out. first, know your final bug out location and then pre-position your supplies in a local cheap small storage rental unit. i would suggest reasonably close to a lake. dont try to haul the supplies out in a shtf situation.
there is no one-size-fits-all in this game. our ideas may not fit yours......good luck