We don’t have any Ramon, but do have a ton of pasta. Those are in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers…put in sealed buckets.
Did the Ramon look funny or just taste bad? Can’t say I’ve seen pasta that went bad.
Survival in The Worst of Times
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We don’t have any Ramon, but do have a ton of pasta. Those are in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers…put in sealed buckets.
Did the Ramon look funny or just taste bad? Can’t say I’ve seen pasta that went bad.
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We have friends that own a grocery. When meat is a day or two from the best if purchased by date, they put it in a special place for my husband. This week we have been given 25 lbs Polska Kielbasa, hot dogs, 9 lbs of bacon, etc. We have a deep freeze and 3 side by side refrigerators that are full.
The people that help me with wood and work have been gifted. My husband also gave food to the guy who owns the liquor store.
I'm gonna have to start canning some of the meats that can be. Wish i could get lots of chicken for me to can.
The people that help me with wood and work have been gifted. My husband also gave food to the guy who owns the liquor store.
I'm gonna have to start canning some of the meats that can be. Wish i could get lots of chicken for me to can.
I prep beaded on what I know or family eats in a year. I started doing calculations before we began prepping because I needed to calculate how many of certain things to plant and can.
None of the calculators ever made sense for our family.
Great feedback guys!! Since we all have different circumstances, I see there are varying methods being utilized. Which makes total sense. For those like me who are prepping for far more than their immediate family, we don’t really have the “specialty food selection” option as others do. Now that doesn’t mean mine and hubby’s favorites aren’t in the stocks! 
But we don’t eat beets or parsnips…others very much like them. We also can’t gauge consumption of others. The only thing I can do is make certain there are enough calories, meat and fats in the preps.
But we don’t eat beets or parsnips…others very much like them. We also can’t gauge consumption of others. The only thing I can do is make certain there are enough calories, meat and fats in the preps.
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Fruit. I haven’t stocked many fruit on purpose. We have a vineyard and fruit trees as well as blueberry and blackberry bushes. It is a bit of a risk though as a seasonal crop can be greatly diminished.
What are you all doing about fruit?
What are you all doing about fruit?
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You can always freeze dry if you have one to stock up for off season. Canning is possible but doesn’t tend to last long. Making into jelly or jams are better and will stay good for a few years before they start tasting off.
We have fruit production on our property and the surrounding woods like blackberry, elderberry, huckleberry, mulberry, Mayhaw. Muscatine
I store canned, dehydrated and freeze dried fruits.
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We are getting all new appliances delivered tomorrow. So excited because the new oven dehydrates as well as air fries and a bunch of other cool stuff! If the dehydrator function isn’t to my liking I’m going to break down and get a freeze dryer. Yes, I’m cheap on certain things!
One of my goals with the freeze dryer is to freeze dry items that i can buy cheaper in bulk (and that aren’t readily available)
Example 4 sweet potatoes at the grocery $5-6. 10 lb bag $10. Two of us wont go through that 10lb bag.
Other goal is for my Citrus when I have a bumper crop like last year.
When I run my smoker, it just as easy to do 2 Tritips as 1. FreezeDry the other.
Taking a work smarter approach, as well as less waste.
Example 4 sweet potatoes at the grocery $5-6. 10 lb bag $10. Two of us wont go through that 10lb bag.
Other goal is for my Citrus when I have a bumper crop like last year.
When I run my smoker, it just as easy to do 2 Tritips as 1. FreezeDry the other.
Taking a work smarter approach, as well as less waste.
Exactly what I was trying to say, just a lot less words Survivor!!
We are having terrible crops in the fruit area. I went scavaging for pears, apples and grapes. Canned pears and apples with brown sugar and cinnamon and made concord grape jelly. Do not have much space for fruits.
Helena loves a banana per day. She buys them a bit green and likes them that way. If they get ripe, yellow and little brown spots and are getting soft....their mine!
Wife said it smelled rancid. My beef Ramon was fine but her shrimp Ramon had turned. So maybe something in the shrimp packages made it turn. Since Ramon is a very cheap food and in the past was easy to store, I will need to look into a better way to store it in the future. Maybe a vacuum sealer.
Stock up on local honey too!!!
.You are ahead of me! AGAIN!!
I get my honey from about a mile away. His bees are all over property. He sells it to me at $42 gallon.
I've never used a calculator/planner. I try to keep all the food groups and a variety. I can a lot of all meats, veggies, variety of pickles, fruits, jellies, whatever is "cannable". I dehydrate foods, vacuum seal, use myler bags, I buy a variety of the bulk freeze dried foods also, and store what I can get out of garden. I have plenty of drink flavoring packets from Kool aid, tang, to the propel, and other brands with electrolytes, coffee, teas. Variety of salts/spices. We don't eat a lot of sugar but I have a fair amount stocked, as well as variety of honey, maple syrup, all that bottled stuff, along with dried/powdered milk and lots of store bought canned meat and other. Don't forget alcohol and tobacco to keep in your stash (whether you use it or not).
I'm running out of room. I do take inventory. The stuff we use out of the most is of course the stuff I replenish the most.
I'll have to check my Ramen noodles! I don't have those in vacuum sealed packs either.
I'm running out of room. I do take inventory. The stuff we use out of the most is of course the stuff I replenish the most.
I'll have to check my Ramen noodles! I don't have those in vacuum sealed packs either.
Thought I would share a snippet from another writer. Selco Begovic, who endured and survived an entire year without electricity, grocery stores, no stored personal food, no running water, sewage disposal, our fuel during the Balkan War. There was no escaping as the city was totally surrounded.
Directly after the SHTF…
“First people ran riots on stores and looked for valuables like gold, money, TVs, stereos, and cars…then when they finally realized the situation they looked for weapons and fuel…then it was candles and batteries and food. Finally they started digging up people’s potatoes they could get to. People needed some time to realize what was really important. It didn’t take very long, but sometimes even a few days or a week is important.
In the first week folks even stole washing machines. The majority of the people could not imagine what was coming, so they could not fathom that a bag of AA batteries were going to be worth much more than 50 washing machines. Those were later used to plug a hole in a wall or to secure a door.”
Directly after the SHTF…
“First people ran riots on stores and looked for valuables like gold, money, TVs, stereos, and cars…then when they finally realized the situation they looked for weapons and fuel…then it was candles and batteries and food. Finally they started digging up people’s potatoes they could get to. People needed some time to realize what was really important. It didn’t take very long, but sometimes even a few days or a week is important.
In the first week folks even stole washing machines. The majority of the people could not imagine what was coming, so they could not fathom that a bag of AA batteries were going to be worth much more than 50 washing machines. Those were later used to plug a hole in a wall or to secure a door.”
Somehow that all sounds familiar. Watched that happen in Sarajevo, Karlovac, Split and Zadar.
Your priorities change so fast when you find out that there is NOTHING left in the stores.
As I left the front once, I asked a friend, Thomas, from Australia, what could I bring him back the next day from the little town I was headed for. Cigarettes? Chocolate? Whiskey? Great BIG NO---just a roll of TP.....
Unfortunately, as I came back the next day with his toilet paper---he was no longer among the living.
Begovic was in Sarajevo I believe. Gary, your experiences are so valuable there isn’t a price high enough. Reading some of this guys darkest times kept me up last night. I won’t put them on here. Just too much to absorb and I sincerely doubt they would help anyone in the end. Now, what he relays from lessons he learned, much like your book, is a must read in my humble opinion.
These Millenials, Gen Z, and even Gen Y are in trouble. There will be no safe spaces, and nobody will care their pronouns. Sometimes I wish I lived closer, so I could capture their liberal tears. Would be the best drink I have ever tasted.
You MAY BE RIGHT...but, as I have said before: you must KNOW YOUR ENEMY.
Even the worst things should be shared here.
One thing we saw and watched in Sarajevo, as there was nothing left to eat, the bravest went out on the streets and collected dandelions, nettles and such for soups...under threats of being shot by snipers. Especially children were wounded so the rescuers would come to help and as the ambulance and helpers were there---they would drop mortar rounds onto the same playground and kill/injure the rescuers and families.
One of the men I trained brought his dead brother back from a firefight. I asked how he had died.
His brother had felt sorry for an enemy who had fell into a deep well and could not get out alone. Despite many warnings to let the man die there, the younger brother reached a hand down into the well to help the man out---
and got shot in the face for his action. My soldier dropped a grenade into the well and finished the murderer off.
Know your enemy and do not trust them to do absolutely anything.
Wise words. Tough to accept, but I am determined to learn from those who have experienced the worst of mankind! Too many die from learning it personally.
Okay, I will share one item of advice from Selco that I was having a hard time accepting.
“The violence was shocking.
Quite often guys would use human shields to get to the house. A lot of people got killed because they thought it was not OK to kill some poor prisoner in order to defend the house.
Imagine that three bad guys come towards you, and they push two older women in front of them. Terrible situations. After some time, most people shot at anything that looked suspicious…no matter what.”
Okay, I will share one item of advice from Selco that I was having a hard time accepting.
“The violence was shocking.
Quite often guys would use human shields to get to the house. A lot of people got killed because they thought it was not OK to kill some poor prisoner in order to defend the house.
Imagine that three bad guys come towards you, and they push two older women in front of them. Terrible situations. After some time, most people shot at anything that looked suspicious…no matter what.”
I don't trust the neighbors I have now. In my rural area, there will be nice homes (like mine) with 50 year old mobile homes next door. Only a fool would think they wouldn't shoot us to move out of theirs and into mine. Not only do I have no problem shooting anyone deemed a threat, I have no problem acting proactively when we are WROL. I am pretty sure I will be taken out by one of these a holes eventually, but I am going down fighting.
Horrible times are ahead. NO DOUBT.
Horrible times are ahead. NO DOUBT.
We all will have to make exactly these types of decisions as the SHTF sooner than wished.
We all MUST make these decisions NOW.
REASONING: as I said before, the second you need to decide if, who, when, why, how many times, etc.etc.
IS THE SECOND they will use to shoot first.
Unfortunately, your decision will be grave no matter if it was right or wrong.
Your decision is and must be already made to fire as felt and needed---INSTINCTIVELY and AS TRAINED TO DO.
Unfortunately, also without thought, just instinctively. Your training is decisively FASTER than your thinking when you are only calculating the speed of reaction to a situation.
Example: if you touch a hot object, the reaction comes extremely fast--and the thought "ouch-hot" comes later.
If you train to fire quickly and accurately--it will come faster and the thought of survival will come afterwards.
WROL is the situation, unknown person is the target, his/her actions are the trigger and your shot is the reaction.
"this" is what will keep you alive and your family fed.
Every other thought, however nice and kind may very well get many innocents killed.
Sorry for the truth that makes you uncomfortable, but the LIES that make you comfortable are worse...
We all MUST make these decisions NOW.
REASONING: as I said before, the second you need to decide if, who, when, why, how many times, etc.etc.
IS THE SECOND they will use to shoot first.
Unfortunately, your decision will be grave no matter if it was right or wrong.
Your decision is and must be already made to fire as felt and needed---INSTINCTIVELY and AS TRAINED TO DO.
Unfortunately, also without thought, just instinctively. Your training is decisively FASTER than your thinking when you are only calculating the speed of reaction to a situation.
Example: if you touch a hot object, the reaction comes extremely fast--and the thought "ouch-hot" comes later.
If you train to fire quickly and accurately--it will come faster and the thought of survival will come afterwards.
WROL is the situation, unknown person is the target, his/her actions are the trigger and your shot is the reaction.
"this" is what will keep you alive and your family fed.
Every other thought, however nice and kind may very well get many innocents killed.
Sorry for the truth that makes you uncomfortable, but the LIES that make you comfortable are worse...
Make plans now for a backup location. There are options. Look for sparsely populated areas. In those areas check for AirBNBs. Check them out via tax assessors records and find a few that are owned by 1) a company or group. 2) owned by someone who lives far away. Check them out overhead via Google to make sure you don’t see something negative close by. Then go drive by them to find out which one/s are safest.
Safest Criteria
1) Not on a busy main road or Interstate
2) Not closer than 2 miles from those type of highways
3) Not closer than 30 miles from a town with 50,000 or more
4) Not closer to a city than 1 hour drive
Private B&Bs in the country who offer fresh eggs and homegrown veggies is another option to check out.
Jonathan Hollerman’s Survival Theory books have this information in them. I did not think of these. He offers ideas for folks who can’t or don’t want to put money into a BOL far away from cities.
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Here is some good advice and insight for those of us on the east side of the Mississippi!!
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While we don't have wide open spaces like in the West, I consider that a GOOD thing because it's hard to hide out in the open.
Cover is your friend! And there is LOT'S of it east of the Mississippi.
Now granted, it's hard to find a spot around the Great Lakes (New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin) or on the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina up to New Hampshire that is not within spitting distance of somebody's house. And even if you do, you won't be able to afford it unless you win the MegaMillions lottery. But south and west of those areas all the way to the Gulf of Mexico there are plenty of places.
Cover is your friend! And there is LOT'S of it east of the Mississippi.
Now granted, it's hard to find a spot around the Great Lakes (New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin) or on the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina up to New Hampshire that is not within spitting distance of somebody's house. And even if you do, you won't be able to afford it unless you win the MegaMillions lottery. But south and west of those areas all the way to the Gulf of Mexico there are plenty of places.
