Securing your BOL, BIL, Homestead - And prepping 101

[Seeker1001]

Hey all,

My family has a house with some land out of town a couple miles. We have been prepping here with mostly just the basics: 25 year food buckets, sugar, upgraded propane for enough storage to power the property for over a year, backup generator, guns, ammo. I feel like there's so much more we can do but like all of us here, we have a budget.

What necessary food supplies can we stock up on that have a minimum shelf life of 5 years? Best way of storing a preserving items? I feel like we will need basic things like oil (coconut lasts longest I heard), coffee (how can we store it? Stock pile instant coffee?), flour and yeast (how do you store yeast?) Any other options you have to offer are appreciated.

How can you store up on water and keep it safe to drink? I feel like filling up a container and letting it sit for who-knows-how-long isn't the best idea. We have a well that uses one of those basic red faucet and handle spout used for our irrigation.

*****A big concern of mine, beyond prepping items, is our security. We are right off the highway and the house is in plain view. What can we do to secure our property from intruders during a SHTF situation?

 

[user 6493]

\ok water you have a well with a hand pump you will always be able to get water and even after a nuclear war the well water will still be good,,,,with a well water is not a concern there are a number of ways to get the water to the surface\

 

[jontte]

dry yeast!
instant coffee!
raw coffee beans,which you roast when needed,cool dry place,I think. roasted and ground root of dandelion,as a substitute for coffee.

 

[Dani]

Wells come in very handy and like Ghost said shouldn't have any problems there. As for food you need to store what you eat normally. I store basics for baking, cans of veggies and meats, oil, coffee, spices. . . things like that. Flour, sugar, rice dried pastas, dried beans gets thrown into 3 & 5 gallon buckets. Brown sugar, powdered sugar, other dried beans that we don't use as many, get put into old 3lb coffee tins. You can get creative with old food containers to store in. I have saved old pop bottles, mayo containers, peanut butter containers, etc. to store something in. You don't have to buy oxygen absorbers & mylar bags. . . .but they will help extend the life of a product. Just keep in mind that flour does have an expiration date, but normally 2 years out. Its still good afterwards, but the quality does goes down after that point. So if you are a bread maker 4 years after expiration, your bread may not turn out exactly like it should, but still very edible. Rice, you want to throw in the freezer for a few days to make sure bug eggs get killed then you can store it in buckets. White sugar can cake, normally just breaks apart with a spoon. Dry beans will need to soak longer after expiration. The key here is use what you have stored and rotate it. Cant stress that enough. Don't store what you don't eat or it is a waste of money. For dry yeast, I keep some in a glass jar in the fridge, but I use a sourdough starter on a weekly basis and just keep it going. The one I have is an Amish Friendship Starter but there are others out there. One that used potatoes and another that uses potato flakes are the ones that come to mind. This is used for all bread items, loafs, quick breads, yeast rolls, cinnamon rolls and the list goes on. As long as you feed it regularly and let it breath, you will always 'yeast' available. You asked about coffee. Jontte's suggestion of grinding your own beans as needed is the longest storing way to go. I have only about 6 months of coffee stored right now. I keep those in the original unopened tins. Heaven help us here if I ever run out of my coffee! I have read that instant coffee last forever, but I am not sure on that one. I cant stand the stuff. You and your family need to sit down and go thru what your family normally goes thru food wise in a weeks time, then multiply that by however many weeks you want to prepare for. Or even start with just one day at a time. Take into account that you may be burning a lot of calories during an event depending on what it may be, or you may just be sitting around not doing much. I don't know your lifestyle so hard to judge on that one. I know for us, I would use a higher calorie intake. This is just some very basics.

 

[Seeker1001]

dry yeast!
instant coffee!
raw coffee beans,which you roast when needed,cool dry place,I think. roasted and ground root of dandelion,as a substitute for coffee.

Coffee beans and yeast actually have quite a short shelf life. Coffee turns rancid due to the oils after a couple months and yeast because inactive after a couple months. I'm looking at options to replace or preserve these. I heard instant coffee (which is freezedried) has an extremely long shelf life.

\ok water you have a well with a hand pump you will always be able to get water and even after a nuclear war the well water will still be good,,,,with a well water is not a concern there are a number of ways to get the water to the surface\

Just found out that it's not a manual pump. it's the same as those red ones you see in forested areas wherein you just lift the handle and it pours out. Is there a replacement pump head out there that can be easily put on for manual pumping water in case of power outage?

 

[Seeker1001]

Wells come in very handy and like Ghost said shouldn't have any problems there. As for food you need to store what you eat normally. I store basics for baking, cans of veggies and meats, oil, coffee, spices. . . things like that. Flour, sugar, rice dried pastas, dried beans gets thrown into 3 & 5 gallon buckets. Brown sugar, powdered sugar, other dried beans that we don't use as many, get put into old 3lb coffee tins. You can get creative with old food containers to store in. I have saved old pop bottles, mayo containers, peanut butter containers, etc. to store something in. You don't have to buy oxygen absorbers & mylar bags. . . .but they will help extend the life of a product. Just keep in mind that flour does have an expiration date, but normally 2 years out. Its still good afterwards, but the quality does goes down after that point. So if you are a bread maker 4 years after expiration, your bread may not turn out exactly like it should, but still very edible. Rice, you want to throw in the freezer for a few days to make sure bug eggs get killed then you can store it in buckets. White sugar can cake, normally just breaks apart with a spoon. Dry beans will need to soak longer after expiration. The key here is use what you have stored and rotate it. Cant stress that enough. Don't store what you don't eat or it is a waste of money. For dry yeast, I keep some in a glass jar in the fridge, but I use a sourdough starter on a weekly basis and just keep it going. The one I have is an Amish Friendship Starter but there are others out there. One that used potatoes and another that uses potato flakes are the ones that come to mind. This is used for all bread items, loafs, quick breads, yeast rolls, cinnamon rolls and the list goes on. As long as you feed it regularly and let it breath, you will always 'yeast' available. You asked about coffee. Jontte's suggestion of grinding your own beans as needed is the longest storing way to go. I have only about 6 months of coffee stored right now. I keep those in the original unopened tins. Heaven help us here if I ever run out of my coffee! I have read that instant coffee last forever, but I am not sure on that one. I cant stand the stuff. You and your family need to sit down and go thru what your family normally goes thru food wise in a weeks time, then multiply that by however many weeks you want to prepare for. Or even start with just one day at a time. Take into account that you may be burning a lot of calories during an event depending on what it may be, or you may just be sitting around not doing much. I don't know your lifestyle so hard to judge on that one. I know for us, I would use a higher calorie intake. This is just some very basics.

do you just store coconut oil since it's shelf life is years? I've been curious how to store other oils so they don't go rancid

 

[Proud Prepper]

I store vegatable, olive, peanut and coconut oils. Coconut is my long term stored oil though which I have the most of. I store a lot of honey, white vinager, apple cider vinager, soy sauce, rock salt, white suger, corn meal, white flour, baking soda and powder, cayene pepper, garlic powder, various dry herbs and seasonings.
White rice, several types of beans, several kinds of pastas, oarmeal, grits. Other than some jellies/jams and pickled cucs, oakra, I dont do home canning. Instead I buy freezedried meats, vegeatables and meals, also canned meats, vegatables, butter, berries, etc.

We have fruit trees, vegatable garden and a bayleaf tree(which I highly recommend)
We store 10 year, non hybred seeds.

I would get stored water and lots of water containers, water purification system for home, water filters both family and for each person and a water collection system setup or ready to setup if needed.

We have small animal snares (good to have if your on the move or if you dont have a farm and you can make your own with just some cord and sticks), chicken coop.

 

[Proud Prepper]

do you just store coconut oil since it's shelf life is years? I've been curious how to store other oils so they don't go rancid

Olive oil is best after coconut, but store only extra virgin oils in cold dark areas and sealed from oxygen exspoture. Cover the bottles to keep all light from the oil and refrigerate it, its best below 55 degrees.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Coffee beans and yeast actually have quite a short shelf life. Coffee turns rancid due to the oils after a couple months and yeast because inactive after a couple months. I'm looking at options to replace or preserve these. I heard instant coffee (which is freezedried) has an extremely long shelf life.

Just found out that it's not a manual pump. it's the same as those red ones you see in forested areas wherein you just lift the handle and it pours out. Is there a replacement pump head out there that can be easily put on for manual pumping water in case of power outage?

How deep is your well? There is no easy way to put a manual pump on your well if it already has an electric pump installed. You'd either have to pull the pump out, or make some extreme modifications to your well and pump. Why not get a generator to run your well pump during a power outage? If you still want a manual pump check out Lehman's. Or you should be able to source one locally. I used to have a manual hand pump on a well that I dug myself years ago. It worked great, but then it was only only down about 30 feet too.

 

[Dani]

I store vegetable oil and olive oil, but I also render my own lard from the pigs. The vegetable oil was bought in gallon sized jugs and stored in its original containers along with the olive oil. The lard can either be put in the fridge or canned for long term. We got about 60 lbs off our last hog butchered. As long as we have hogs, we will have oils to use in cooking. Be it stored in the pantry or on the hoof.

 

[Seeker1001]

I store vegatable, olive, peanut and coconut oils. Coconut is my long term stored oil though which I have the most of. I store a lot of honey, white vinager, apple cider vinager, soy sauce, rock salt, white suger, corn meal, white flour, baking soda and powder, cayene pepper, garlic powder, various dry herbs and seasonings.
White rice, several types of beans, several kinds of pastas, oarmeal, grits. Other than some jellies/jams and pickled cucs, oakra, I dont do home canning. Instead I buy freezedried meats, vegeatables and meals, also canned meats, vegatables, butter, berries, etc.

We have fruit trees, vegatable garden and a bayleaf tree(which I highly recommend)
We store 10 year, non hybred seeds.

I would get stored water and lots of water containers, water purification system for home, water filters both family and for each person and a water collection system setup or ready to setup if needed.

We have small animal snares (good to have if your on the move or if you dont have a farm and you can make your own with just some cord and sticks), chicken coop.

Those all seem like great ideas for prepping. I love that honey and vinegar can store indefinitely

 

[Seeker1001]

How deep is your well? There is no easy way to put a manual pump on your well if it already has an electric pump installed. You'd either have to pull the pump out, or make some extreme modifications to your well and pump. Why not get a generator to run your well pump during a power outage? If you still want a manual pump check out Lehman's. Or you should be able to source one locally. I used to have a manual hand pump on a well that I dug myself years ago. It worked great, but then it was only only down about 30 feet too.

We do have a generator that clicks on auto if theres a power outage. but eventually in a SHTF scenario I would like to be prepared for when we run out of propane to run the generator

 

[Brent S]

We do have a generator that clicks on auto if theres a power outage. but eventually in a SHTF scenario I would like to be prepared for when we run out of propane to run the generator

Backups for backups!

 

[Dani]

Yeast is stamped with a 2 year out date when packaged so look for the furtherest out date. It can still be used once expired, you just need to add more, but for long term, as mentioned before use a starter and just keep it going. One package of yeast is all it takes and if properly maintained can last for a long while. As for coffee, you can always buy the green beans and roast yourself. Think it was averaging around $6 lb. Put in vacuum sealed bags and store in a dark bucket.

Things that have an expiration date on them are a used by for best quality date. . . it doesn't mean it is bad. You can still use the product and it will not kill you.

 

[jontte]

 

[jontte]

 

[Seeker1001]

Better suited for Vietnam terrain.

 

[jontte]

you just adapt and use what's available.

 

[drt4lfe]

Hey all,

My family has a house with some land out of town a couple miles. We have been prepping here with mostly just the basics: 25 year food buckets, sugar, upgraded propane for enough storage to power the property for over a year, backup generator, guns, ammo. I feel like there's so much more we can do but like all of us here, we have a budget.

What necessary food supplies can we stock up on that have a minimum shelf life of 5 years? Best way of storing a preserving items? I feel like we will need basic things like oil (coconut lasts longest I heard), coffee (how can we store it? Stock pile instant coffee?), flour and yeast (how do you store yeast?) Any other options you have to offer are appreciated.

How can you store up on water and keep it safe to drink? I feel like filling up a container and letting it sit for who-knows-how-long isn't the best idea. We have a well that uses one of those basic red faucet and handle spout used for our irrigation.

*****A big concern of mine, beyond prepping items, is our security. We are right off the highway and the house is in plain view. What can we do to secure our property from intruders during a SHTF situation?

securing property from road ? you could concrete in 12-16 inch diameter pipe flush with ground level and keep pieces of pipe that would slide into those in the ground to prevent most vehicles for driving up close....you could loosely run barbed wire around the pipe sticking up to help slow people down.....If a quarry is close you could also have big rocks brought in and line the area a vehicle could travel through.....put a heavy gate on entrance to property and line the rocks on each side of gate to stop vehicles.....you could dig big wide ditch in the same area, it would hold water which you would need and stop vehicles....

 

[YerbaMate]

As for coffee you can use substitute like jontte wrote, dandelion root or common chicory root. For yeast you can use something you can make by yourself. Sourdough. Make some starter and later take care of it for years. If you starts now you can have a lots of it and there's a way to avoid storage in cold. You need to spread thin layer of sourdogh on baking paper and dry in 25-30 C (77-86F). Then you powdered it to flour, sealed it in glass jar for unlimited time. Just add water to dry sourdough, make wet paste and if it starts to bubble, sourdough is still alive You can forget about yeast. Sourdough bread is even much better.
For the flour, you can use acorns to make flour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough

 

[DrHenley]

Roasted okra seeds makes a pretty decent coffee substitute, I've tried it. The hard part is separating the seeds.
I've also heard that roasted sweet potato make a good coffee substitute.

There is only one native North American plant that contains caffeine, called yaupon, or the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria). It is closely related to the yerba mate plant (Ilex paraguariensis) that is used to make a popular caffeinated drink in South America. Indians in the Southeastern United States made what was called the "Black Drink" from yaupon when preparing for battle.

 

[Brent S]

Roasted okra seeds makes a pretty decent coffee substitute, I've tried it. The hard part is separating the seeds.
I've also heard that roasted sweet potato make a good coffee substitute.

There is only one native North American plant that contains caffeine, called yaupon, or the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria). It is closely related to the yerba mate plant (Ilex paraguariensis) that is used to make a popular caffeinated drink in South America. Indians in the Southeastern United States made what was called the "Black Drink" from yaupon when preparing for battle.

I usually have loads of okra seeds left over each year. I may try that out. Just dry out and crush?

 

[DrHenley]

I usually have loads of okra seeds left over each year. I may try that out. Just dry out and crush?

Roast them whole until they get a nice dark golden brown, then crush them. (No need to dry them first) You don't want to put them in the coffee grinder because it turns into a fine powder that clogs up the filter.

 

[Brent S]

Roast them whole until they get a nice dark golden brown, then crush them. (No need to dry them first) You don't want to put them in the coffee grinder because it turns into a fine powder that clogs up the filter.

I always say I’ll try just about anything once

 

[Warriorhealer22]

Do you live there full time? if so, you should start getting interested in small scale farming and raising animals, food that can replicate itself!! As for coffee, the only substitutes must contain caffeine, otherwise, its not really a substitute! What do you mean right off the highway? Is it an interstate near a major population center? Do you mostly see just truck traffic? Entrance denial is the best way. How about planting trees that will obscure your house. Are you willing to help others in need or do you plan on turning everyone away? A way to hide most of your goodies in case you do have unwanted visitors, they can have some things and move one, hopefully leaving you and your family alone. How far are you willing to go to keep your stuff safe?

 

[KateMTx]

Do you live there full time? if so, you should start getting interested in small scale farming and raising animals, food that can replicate itself!! As for coffee, the only substitutes must contain caffeine, otherwise, its not really a substitute! What do you mean right off the highway? Is it an interstate near a major population center? Do you mostly see just truck traffic? Entrance denial is the best way. How about planting trees that will obscure your house. Are you willing to help others in need or do you plan on turning everyone away? A way to hide most of your goodies in case you do have unwanted visitors, they can have some things and move one, hopefully leaving you and your family alone. How far are you willing to go to keep your stuff safe?

I agree about the coffee substitutes! The point of coffee or tea is caffeine Caffeine is of course a natural stimulant, which can be very useful if you are forced to stay awake long hours.
When it comes to location, having a house obscured from the road is best and not too close to a main road or highway. That is the one problem with my parents' farm - the road is a little too well-traveled for my liking and the house is too close to it.

 

[Maverick]

Google earth are your enemy and why?

http://doomsdayprepperforums.com/index.php?threads/google-earth-and-the-criminals.11603/#post-159040

 

[KateMTx]

Google earth are your enemy and why?

http://doomsdayprepperforums.com/index.php?threads/google-earth-and-the-criminals.11603/#post-159040

I hope Google earth dies when SHTF. If not they will be using it to sniff out stashed they think will be easy taking.

 

[tmttactical]

Most of the google Earth pictures I have reviewed are out dated, many years old. It is good for general country landscape but is not up to date on any development on the landscape. Crooks will not be able to use it to see if your car is parked in the driveway.