Cheap Food Storage Plan

I am reposting this with permission from a woman on a Peak Oil list I am on who I find to be Very Smart ;)
Anyone who knows me very well knows that I worry worry worry about those that I love having some sort of food storage. Here is one reasonable route to take if the budget is extraordinarily tight.

PART ONE - The ANYWAY, Very Cheap, System of Food Storage for Emergencies and/or Inflation

================================================================

While people in other countries MAY think that their government will come
to their assistance in a natural disaster, and Americans *used to* think
this, now Americans know that this is no longer true. I certainly hope it
will be true again someday.

But we know from bitter experience in New Orleans and - now two entire
years after Katrina - we know that poor people in Houston received very
inadequate help after the recent Hurricane Ike.

So - to the rest of the world - we really aren't paranoid; we Americans
have learned from bitter experience that we can no longer trust the
government to do the job we pay it to do. Not at present anyway.

And we have a very large country, very prone to natural disasters of one
kind or another. Hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, ice
storms: the bad effects of at least some of these disasters can be
mitigated by sensible preparations.

Americans have also seen TERRIBLE inflation in food costs for the past
year. Foods costs across the USA vary a lot by area, but my husband and I
estimate that - in our area - the prices for foods have risen from 30% to
40% *IN THE LAST YEAR*.

These figures are of course not reflected in the official government-issued
statistics on inflation; the government removed both food and energy costs
from the inflation statistics a while ago. But we are experiencing this
terrible inflation in food costs, and we know darned well what we are
experiencing. We aren't stupid.

OK, moving right along - what can we do?

Can you scrape together $5 extra each week for about three months (at MOST,
and maybe you will need the extra $5/week for less time than this)? If you
can, I can suggest a plan for you. If you cannot, then I cannot help you
with storing food.

I believe that most people can manage $5 extra per week for about three
months (at most). This can be in food stamps instead of in actual money;
food stamps will work for this. If you can get food from a food pantry or
food bank, that will also help. If you can get more money together, you
can accomplish this plan faster.

But if you can only get that little bit extra money together - and not
permanently, only for a while - you can do this plan; not fast, but you can
do it.

In what follows, I'm assuming that you live alone, if you live with other
people, you'll need to increase quantities.


1. First step: Set a goal, make a plan, write it down. Write down what
you need to do each week to accomplish your goal.
The initial goal I suggest is this:

=============================
Initial Goal

To have on hand, at all times, enough water to keep you alive for one
month. To have on hand, at all times, enough natural and nutritious food -
no junk food - to keep you alive for one month *without needing to cook
anything*. This food must not require refrigeration, and it must keep for
a fairly long time.

================================

This - to me - seems like a very reasonable *initial* goal. When you have
accomplished this initial goal, then you can stop and re-assess the
situation.

You may want to stop there. You may want to increase the variety of food
that you store. You may want to get some means of cooking in a power
failure (assuming that your kitchen stove is electric, which is the worst
case).

You can cook some of the foods I'm going to suggest, and that's probably
what you will do in normal times. But if your power is off, and if you
have an electric stove, you can safely eat these foods without cooking.

If you need to evacuate the area, if you have a car, or a friend or
relative with a car, you can take some of this water and all of this food
with you. If you need to evacuate the area and you must do it by public
transport, then you can only take what you can carry. Some things cannot
be helped. So there's no point in worrying about them. I try hard to be
prepared for what I can be prepared for, and to let the rest go without
fretting about it. I pretty much succeed at this now.

OK, so how are you going to accomplish this initial goal?

First, you must learn and follow the Basic Rule of Food Storage: Use what
you store, and store what you use.

This means that you must ONLY store what you will actually eat. You will
regularly eat all the items you store.

People with more money can afford to buy other foods for storage.

But people with very little money - like you and like me too - cannot
afford that. We must USE WHAT WE STORE AND STORE WHAT WE USE.

I am assuming also that you can only get to a regular, normal supermarket.
So I'm going to suggest a plan that can be accomplished completely, totally
at a normal supermarket (as they exist in the USA, the UK, Canada, probably
Australia and all of Europe and so on).

If you have an Aldi's you can get to, or a Wal-Mart Supercenter, these will
probably have the same foods cheaper, so that would help. If you can get
to a store that sells bulk foods, you can probably get one particular item
cheaper, so that will help. But if you cannot - OK, you can do this at a
normal supermarket.

Don't forget - you are going to set your own goal (which may be the goal I
suggest or may not). And you are going to write down a plan to accomplish
this goal; week by week.

Then you will start on your plan.

Here's what I would suggest for Phase One of your Plan. Phase One may take
you a week; it shouldn't take more.

1. A hand-operated can opener. I think there are people who only have
electric can openers (I myself have never had an electric can opener). If
you only have an electric can opener, then please buy a hand-operated can
opener the first week. It can be a cheap one. You can buy these in normal
supermarkets, although perhaps a Dollar Store will have one cheaper.

2. If you have a gas stove, make sure that you have matches. We have a
gas stove; it has electric ignition. But when the power is off, we can
light the top burners (only) with a match. We cannot light the oven with a
match, because the burners are sealed in and inaccessible. But we can light
the top. So far as I know, you can light the top burners of ALL gas stoves
with a match. So buy a box of matches if you don't already have them.

4. Do you have a bottle of multi-vitamins on hand? If not, please buy a
bottle of multi-vitamins. They don't need to be expensive ones, the
cheapest ones available will do. If you can only afford a small bottle,
buy a small bottle now and get a larger bottle later. We try to keep one
year's supply of multi-vitamins on hand. But please get enough for 30
days, that's important.

3. Store enough water for a month. Water should definitely come before
food: people can go without food an awful lot longer than they can without
water.

So far as I know, everyone who has running water in the USA and Canada can
safely drink the water that comes out of their taps. You cannot afford to
buy water. So you will store the water right as it comes from the tap. You
are going to store enough water to keep you alive for a month.

This is a minimum of one gallon per day. You're not going to drink a whole
gallon of water any day, but you are going to wash your hands at least once
per day and you can splash some water on your face (then catch it in a
dishpan or pot and use it to wash your hands).

So you'll need 30 gallons for one person, for one month. What can you keep
it in?

You may already have this much water: if you have a hot water heater in
your home or apartment, see if you can figure out to drain it. You might
need to slide a dishpan under the drain place, but you can probably do
this.

I don't want you to do it now; I just want you to know that is a
possible source of water if you need it. I want you to know how to do it
if you need to. If you cannot figure it out, ask someone who knows how if
you possibly can.

Large, empty clean soda bottles, with tops, are great for storing water.
Ask everyone you know if they can please give you the empty bottles if they
drink any soda at all.

Empty clean apple juice bottles are equally good - or any fruit juice
bottles. Ask everyone you know to give you fruit juice bottles.

Empty clean whisky or wine bottles are also fine - again, ask everyone you
know. (Some cheap wine comes in gallon or half-gallon glass jugs - these
are perfect.) If anyone you know buys bottled water, those bottles are
fine too.

If you cannot find ANYTHING else, then you can keep water in clean plastic
milk jugs. They are not the best container, but they are better than not
keeping any water at all. Milk jugs will become brittle and break
eventually, but they should be OK for a month. (Meanwhile you can work on
getting better containers.) Wash milk jugs very carefully and rinse,
rinse, rinse - then fill with water and keep them out of the sun.

If you have any empty 5-gallon buckets, they will be fine too.

If you have a cat, you may have empty cat litter buckets. I do NOT
recommend drinking water stored in a cat litter bucket - although they are
not dirty - the actual cat has been nowhere near them. They are not
food-safe plastic. But if you have no other possible way to store water,
it would be better than having no water at all. Maybe you have a friend
with a cat who will give you some of these.

You don't need to treat this water in any way if you replace one-third of
it every month. Just count how many bottles of water you have stored, and
dump out, rinse, and refill one-third of them each month on the first of
the month.

Where to put it? Let's just say this: if you really want to do this,
you'll find a place to put the water.

I will also make one more suggestion about water: for some natural
disasters, people do have warning. Hurricanes do not sneak up on people;
ice storms or blizzards generally don't either. We have warning.

I have always seen advice to fill your bathtub with water if you think the
power may go off. It seems to me that this is terribly bad advice: I have
always tested the bathtub in every one of the many, many places where I
have lived and every single one of them has a slow leak through the drain.
No bathtub that I ever lived with will store water overnight - in the
morning, it's all gone.

But what you can do is to put any kind of large container(s) in your
bathtub and then fill the container(s) with water. I'm thinking here
specifically of the very common 18-gallon totes used to make SWCs, for
example. Many people store things in their homes in these.

That way, if the container should spring a leak, OK, it's in the tub
anyhow, no problem. If the container does not spring a leak, you'll have
more water.

You can flush the toilet with this water or drink it (in an emergency only)
or wash with it, whatever. If you have warning, you can also fill any
large pots and pans you have with water, and any 5-gallon or cat-litter
buckets you have too. Fill any containers you have with water if you have
warning of a hurricane or ice storm.

You should be able to accomplish the initial water storage goal (and the
can opener, matches, and multivitamins, if necessary) within one week.

Next you sit down and think about water. You might decide to store more
water, or you might decide that this is enough water. So we've taken care
of water now.

Now we'll move right along to Part Two.

_________________________________________

PART TWO - The ANYWAY, Very Cheap, System of Food Storage for Emergencies and/or Inflation

By the way, I'm calling this the ANYWAY, Very Cheap System of Food Storage,
because you are going to eat these foods *anyway*. You're going to eat
them as part of your regular diet.

People with more money can store foods that are different from their
regular diet. People with very little money cannot do this. They must
store foods they'll eat anyway.... problems or (hopefully) no problems!

In Part One, you took care of water storage for a month. You also
determined that you already have - or you bought - a manual can opener, and
matches if you have a gas stove, and at least a month's supply of
multi-vitamins.

Now we need to think about food. The initial food goal I suggest is this:

============
To have on hand, at all times, enough natural and nutritious food -
not junk food - to keep you alive for one month *without needing to cook
anything*. This food must not require refrigeration - and it must keep a
long time.
===========

This seems to me a very reasonable initial goal; after you have
accomplished this, then you can reassess the situation and decide where you
want to go from there. You may want to stop there. You may want to get
more varied foods. You may want to get a way to cook in an emergency. You
may want to continue to get more of the same foods.

OK, how to accomplish this initial goal, and to spend the minimum necessary
amount?

This is what I suggest; but I caution you: you are going to be eating
these foods *regularly* and *anyway*. If you are allergic to any of the
foods I suggest or cannot eat them for some other reason, or you just
cannot stand them, then you need to find a substitute.

The quantities given are for one month for one person. If you have more
than one person in your household, you will need to increase the
quantities.

The first food that I suggest you buy is rolled oats: you can buy - in
every supermarket that I have ever seen in the USA or Canada - regular
rolled oats or quick-cooking rolled oats. (I hope you can eat oats; it is
difficult to find a substitute for them because you can eat them uncooked,
and that is not true of most grains. I know of two possible substitutes,
but they cost considerably more. More on that later.)

Please don't buy instant oats which are generally jammed full of sugar and
artificial flavor and are a rip-off. But regular or quick-cooking rolled
oats are a very valuable food.

You may call these 'oatmeal' or (as in the UK) 'porridge' or 'porridge
oats'. They're the same thing.

The usual brand I see in supermarkets is Quaker Oats. Store brands would
be fine, and might be cheaper. If you can get to a store that sells foods
in bulk, they might well be cheaper there. Yesterday, we bought regular
rolled oats - in two large plastic bags - at a little general store here
that has a few bulk foods.

We paid $0.71 per pound - we bought approximately 15 lbs of rolled oats. I
eat these regularly. My husband also eats 'porridge' for his breakfast
regularly - he prefers the quick-cooking oats and he has enough on hand at
present; so we didn't need to buy any for him yesterday.

We'll come back to the price per pound in a little bit.....

You can eat these oats in one of three ways - and two of them do not
require any cooking because oats are actually partially cooked before we
buy them, as part of their processing. This is why we can eat them
uncooked. I do eat them uncooked, regularly, in homemade muesli.

1. Cooked, in normal times. Then you have hot oatmeal for some of your
breakfasts. This is a very valuable and nutritious food. Add raisins, or
other fruit, and if you wish, serve with milk. My father didn't put milk
on hot cereal (including oatmeal), he dotted it with butter or margarine,
then sprinkled a little cinnamon and brown sugar on it. Hot cereal is nice
that way too. You can cook oatmeal either on the stove top or in the
microwave. Just follow the directions on the box. If you cook it in the
microwave, it wants to puff up and get all over the place. Use a VERY
oversized glass cup or casserole dish: that will prevent this.

2. Uncooked, and mixed with fruit and yogurt - this is called muesli. I
eat it for breakfast most days. Just the uncooked oats, fruit, plus
yogurt. Add raisins and sunflower seeds if you wish, during normal times.
You can soften the oats by mixing them with yogurt (or fruit juice) ahead
of time, or you can do it, and then eat them right away.

3. As a cold cereal: in this case (and I eat this too), you put the oats
in a bowl, add raisins if you have them, perhaps a sliced banana if you
have bananas. Then you pour milk over them and eat them as a cold cereal.
If you have no milk, you could use fruit juice. If you have no fruit
juice, you could use water.

The nutritional value of rolled oats (with no additions) is as follows:

Rolled oats, dry - 4 oz Calories - 434
Grams of protein - 18

You could eat - IF YOU HAD VERY LITTLE OTHER FOOD AVAILABLE BECAUSE OF SOME
EMERGENCY - 8 oz of oats daily. That would give you 868 calories and 36
grams of protein. This is a *very* substantial part of a woman's calorie
and protein requirements; it's even a substantial part of a man's calorie
and protein requirements for that matter.

So I'm going to recommend that you wind up with 15 lbs of rolled oats *per
person* for storage for emergencies - figuring on eating 8 oz of them per
day. I don't recommend that you eat this many ounces of oats except in
case of dire emergency.

I do recommend that you eat oats for breakfast two or three times per week
*in normal times*. I do this, I eat about 4 oz of oats for breakfast.

How much will this 15 lbs of rolled oats cost? Well, let's assume that you
must pay more than the $0.71 we just paid per pound. Let's assume you pay
as much as $1.00 per pound. The 15 lbs of oats will have cost you about
$15.

Once you have managed to save the 15 lbs, then you just keep replacing it;
never let it go much lower than this. Or you can decide to buy more and
keep 20 pounds on hand, if you prefer. Or 30 lbs or even 50 lbs. I
wouldn't keep much more oats per person on hand than that. But they do
keep a long time.

Note that you are now buying the oats *as part of your normal breakfast
regime*. So you don't need to set aside separate 'food storage money' for
oats anymore; you can use your normal food budget for this. This gives you
more money for other food storage.

If you cannot eat oats for some reason, the only two substitutes that I can
think of *that don't require cooking, do not require refrigeration, and
keep a long time and are very nutritious* are sunflower seeds or
Scandinavian-style crisp bread, such as Kavli and Wasa Brod. The crisp
breads are available in normal supermarkets. The crisp breads are mainly
whole grains; they are nutritious. I don't know if sunflower seeds are
available in normal supermarkets or not. If they are, you want them
uncooked, unsalted, if at all possible. They won't keep as long, unless
refrigerated, as oats or crispbread, however.

Now what other foods do I recommend you start buying for the *bare bones
minimal, cheapest possible useful food storage*?

I recommend that you buy canned beans too. Not baked beans, just plain
canned beans. There are many kinds, they all have approximately the same
food values, and they all cost about the same as far as I know. If you
live alone I suggest you buy the small cans of beans - approximately 16 oz
per can.

In normal times, you can base many, many dinners on beans - tacos, chili,
soups, frijoles refritos, salads, beans and rice, etc. In normal times,
you'll probably want to cook most of the beans (but they are used in salads
and cold plates too). You don't *need* to cook them. You can buy one kind
of beans only, or two or three, etc.

I base our dinners on beans *at the very least* two nights per
week. I recommend that canned beans be rinsed very well with cold water
before eating (in normal, non-emergency times) if you are concerned about
sodium. Even if you aren't concerned about sodium, I think they taste
better if you rinse them first.

Some ideas for cooking with beans are here:

http://www.meadows.pair.com/beandinners.html

You can find hundreds, maybe thousands, of other bean recipes on the Web.

Beans are *good food*, and they are a very versatile food. They are also
good for your health.

I'm looking at a can of black beans; they are probably my favorite kind of
beans. The can of beans has (the whole can, in total) 315 calories, and
24.5 grams of protein. If you ate the whole can of beans, which I only
recommend in case of emergency, plus 8 oz of oatmeal, this would give you:
1183 calories, which - together with two other foods I will recommend in a
minute - would be enough for a woman to keep going for quite a while in an
emergency, indefinitely, in fact - unless you are already emaciated BEFORE
the emergency. You also probably have at least some other food in your
house, which you could add to your diet.

It would also give you 42 grams of protein. This is not the RDA for a
woman's protein, but it would certainly keep you going for quite a while,
well more than a month. You wouldn't develop malnourishment in a month's
time if you were eating this much protein each day together with the
calories you would have. Many women throughout the world live their entire
lives with lower daily protein figures.

Other beans have very similar food values.

What does a can of beans cost? We can get them (or we could get them
anyway, until very recently for about $0.50/can ON SALE ONLY). But let's
even say that you need to pay $1.00 a can. I don't think you will, but I
don't know what food costs in other places, after all.

If you plan to store 30 cans of beans (per person), then you would need to
spend $30. BUT you can also start eating these beans regularly, as part of
your normal food. And I would recommend that. Then if you know that you
have eaten two cans of beans in a week, and you are still increasing your
supply of beans, you buy four or six cans. Simple.

When you get up to 30 cans of beans, then reassess the situation. You can
maintain that inventory, or buy more beans. Up to you.

Let's assume that you want to accumulate the 15 lbs of oats and the 30 cans
of beans before you start eating them.... You have now spent $45. If you
can only spend $5 per week for food storage, this will have taken you nine
weeks. If you can spend more, you can do it faster.

But it's really not fair to consider these costs all as food storage costs;
you are going to put these foods into your regular diet, after all. Some
of this money can come out of your regular food budget.

Now what other food do I recommend you buy as part of your basic,
bare-bones food storage?

I recommend that you buy cans of tomatoes too; they are very useful when
cooking beans (in non-emergency times). You can buy stewed tomatoes, or
diced tomatoes, or whole tomatoes - they are equally useful. Perhaps the
diced tomatoes are a little more useful. You can eat them without cooking
them. They are perfectly safe to eat uncooked.

These will provide you some vitamins and some more calories (but not many).
They will also make the beans much more palatable.

So for a month's storage for one person, I suggest you buy - as quickly as
your money will allow - 30 (small - 16-oz) cans of tomatoes. I recommend
that you use them as part of your regular diet also. When you have 30 cans
of tomatoes, you can either maintain that level, or increase it. Treat the
tomatoes just as you are treating the beans: always replenish or increase
your supply of them. Rotate them - eat the oldest ones first.

The last recommendation for a basic, bare bones emergency food storage
supply: I'd get cans or jars of fruit. Applesauce is very useful and
nutritious, and most people like it. If you live alone, get the smaller
jars. It will make the rolled oats more palatable. Many people normally
eat applesauce; it can fit into your normal food regime nicely.

I also recommend that you get some other fruit in cans - both my husband
and I like canned pineapple packed in its own juice, so we keep a supply of
that on hand. If you prefer peaches, then get peaches, or some of each, or
some other fruit altogether.

I'd recommend building up to 30 cans or jars of fruit, just as you did with
the beans and tomatoes. Treat the fruit just as you treat the rolled oats,
beans, and tomatoes - replenish whatever you use.

At the end of this plan, you'll have the following on hand, and your supply
of these will not diminish: you always replenish them.

15 lbs of rolled oats
30 cans of beans
30 cans of tomatoes
30 cans or jars of fruit

All of these are now being eaten as part of your normal food regime, so all
the money to replace them should now come out of your normal food budget.

NONE OF THESE FOODS IS EXPENSIVE. And you would have enough to live on for
ONE ENTIRE MONTH.

Don't forget to take one vitamin pill per day.

Now that you have one entire month's food supply safely on hand,
congratulate yourself on a job well done! Then think about what you want
to do next.

The foods I would add next would probably be raisins and dry skim milk.
Both would add interest to the rolled oats. And you can use both of them
in your normal food regime.

The next thing I would probably want to buy is a guaranteed method of
cooking food: Sterno would do (don't forget that you need matches to light
it). You can probably buy it in a normal supermarket or hardware store - I
have often seen it in regular, normal supermarkets. You can build a little
holder for it from bricks. Then you put your pot on the bricks, and the
Sterno under the pot. You might be able to find a chafing dish instead in
a Good-Will Store. That would work.

After that, I would probably want a few herbs and spices - maybe oregano,
cumin, and chili powder for the beans, and cinnamon for the oats. Some
brown sugar would be nice on the oats as well. Maybe you already have
these in your kitchen.

I cannot think of any food storage plan that would be cheaper, and yet have
the following features:

1. The food must all be nutritious.
2. It must all keep a long time without refrigeration.
3. You must be able to eat it uncooked if necessary.
4. It must all fit into a normal diet.

If you do this, I guarantee that you'll be glad and that it will give you a
feeling of security.

I hope you will never have an emergency, but even if you don't, you will
always feel a little more secure with (at least) one month's food on hand.
That is definitely worth the little bit of work and expense this requires.

You may want to continue and gradually build up to a three-month's supply
or to vary the foods. But keep that bedrock, bare bones one month's supply
- always replenish what you use.

THIS is what I'm talking about.

http://www.technologyforthepoor.com/UrbanAgriculture/Garden.htm
We all have plastic crap that is very difficult or impossible to recycle. Some of us, me in particular, live in really low income areas. Why not put that stuff to work? Grow some healthy food in the midst of our Wal-mart and KFC land. I talked with a neighbor who has lived down the road from our house for 40 years. He remembers when there were orchards and fields everywhere. I asked him what he thought of my dream of converting some empty lots around us into gardens. In addition to thinking I am particularly strange, he thought that the gardens wouldn't do well. Apparently the amount of garbage and oil dumped in those areas has been a major problem for some years. But that doesn't mean that we can't try or use that ground to hold containers!!! I am just astounded at the amount of land that people own and pay to have companies come and spray chemicals on. There is a full acre lot down the road from us that is fenced in and is a jungle! Twice a year a team of workers come in and take it to the ground. SUCH a waste, especially in such a poor area. rant rant rant.

Not Even 4 Months Old

Gas prices have risen 99 cents since my son has been born.

One of my favorite pieces of "survivalist" humor

You might be a survivalist if.......

---

- You can't put your groceries in the trunk of the car because its already jammed full with emergency kits, first aid supplies, and fully-stocked BOBs.

- You have emergency rations for your pets, and view your pets as potential emergency rations.

- You know the news three days before it hits the mass media.

- You have back-up plans for your back-up plans.

- You're convinced you've been exposed to so many chem-trails, you consider it a form of birth control.

- You've ever repressed the urge to bleat "BAAAAAAAAAA" as your neighbor earnestly asks, "What war? Where?"

*- You've ever bought antibiotics for human use through a vet, or grains for human consumption through a feed store.

- You've got more than one grain mill.

- You've ever wondered how you might filter the used water from your washing machine to make it fit for human consumption.

*- You have a kerosene lamp in every room

*- Your living room coffee table is actually a board with pretty cloth over it to disguise your food storage underneath.

- Your box springs are Rubber Maid containers filled with rice and beans.

*- You save dryer lint to make fire starters.

- Your most commonly-used fuel additive is 'Stabil', instead of 'Gumout'.

*- You automatically choose the heavy duty flatbed cart upon entering Sam's or Costco.

- If you know the shelf life of tuna fish, but don't know how long you've had an open jar of mayo in the frig.

- Your basement walls are insulated with crates of toilet paper, from floor to ceiling, all the way around.

*- While other people are saving money for new furniture, or vacations, you are desperately saving to get solar panels put on your house.

- You were excited beyond all reason when they came out with cheddar cheese in a can.

*- You've ever served MREs at a dinner party.

- You can engage in a spirited debate on chemical vs. sawdust toilets for hours on end.

*- You've ever considered digging an escape tunnel from your basement to the nearest stand of trees.

- You know how to use a vacuum cleaner in reverse to filter air in your designated bio-chem attack safe room.

*- You've ever considered buying an above-ground pool for water storage purposes.

- You know what things like 'TSHTF', 'BOB' and 'TEOTWAWKI' mean.

- You have different grades of BOB's.

*- You know the names, family histories, locations, and degree of readiness of over a thousand fellow doomers on the net.... but you've never met your neighbors.

*- The best radio in the house is a wind-up.

*- You have better items in storage than you use every day.

*- When the SHTF, you would eat better than you eat now.

*- Your significant other gave you a sleeping bag rated at -15 degrees for Christmas.... and you were moved beyond words.

- You've sewn a secret mini-BOBs into the bottom of your children's school backpacks.

- Local food pantries have come to depend on donations from your larder when you rotate stock in the spring and fall.

- You're still using up your Y2K supplies.

*- You have enough army surplus equipment to open a store.

*- The local army surplus store owner knows you by your first name.

*- You fill up when your gas tank is 3/4 full.

- You call Rubber Maid for wholesale prices.

*- You have several cases of baby wipes and your kids are all grown.

- Bert from 'Tremors' is your favorite movie character.

*- You carry a pocket survival kit, a sturdy folding knife, a SureFire flashlight and a small concealed handgun on you to church every Sunday.

- You start panicking when you are down to 50 rolls of toilet paper.

*- You keep a small notebook to write down any edible plants you happen to see along the road.

*- You shop yard sales, store sales, and markdown racks for barter goods for ATSHTF.

- You own a hand-operated clothes washer and a non-electric carpet sweeper.

*- You have at least two of every size of Dutch oven , and 20 bags of charcoal, although you have a gas grill.

*- You have rain barrels at each corner of your house, although you have a city water hookup, and a Big Berkey to purify the water.

- You have sapphire lights, survival whistle, and a Swiss Army knife on every family member's keychain.

- The people in line at Costco's ask you if you run a store or restaraunt.

- You require a shovel to rotate all your preps properly.

*- You no longer go the the doctor's because you can either fix it yourself, make it at home, or know and understand the physicians desk reference better than he does, and can get the goods at the vets or pet store for MUCH less moolah anyway.

*- You know that a 'GPS' has nothing to do with the economy.

- You track your preps on a computer spreadsheet for easy reordering, but have hardcopies in a 3-ring binder 'just in case'.

- You've thought about where the hordes can be stopped before entering town.

- You start evaluating people according to 'skill sets'.

- You view the nearest conservation area as a potential grocery store if TSHTF.

*- You know all the ways out the building where you work.

- You have enough pasta stockpiled in your basement to carbo-load all the runners in the New York marathon.

*- You know that you have 36 gallons of extra drinking water in the hot water tank and your 2 toilet tanks.

*- You know which bugs are edible.

*- You have a handpump on your well.

- You have #10 cans of 'stuff' that the labels fell off of, but you won't throw it out or open it because it 'may be needed later', even though you haven't a clue as to the contents.

*- You know where the best defensive positions and lines of fire are on your property.

- You've made a range card for your neighborhood.

*- Your toenail clipper is a K-BAR.

*- The Ranger Handbook is your favorite 'self help' book.

*- You've numbered the deer romping in the yard by their order of consumption.

- You must move 50 cases of food for the plumber to get to that leaky pipe, but you have your own hand truck in the basement to do it.

*- You own more pairs of hiking boots than casual and dress shoes combined.

*- You have more 55gal blue water drums than family members.

- Your UPS system has more than 6 Deep cycle batteries.

- You have a backup generator for your backup generator, which is a backup for your solar system.

*- You go to McDonalds and ask for one order of fries with 25 packs of ketchup and mustard.

- You have ever given SPAM as a serious gift.

*- You've had your eye out for a good deal for a stainless steel handgun to conceal in the bottom of the magazine rack next to the toliet.

*- You are single male over 40, but you still have an emergency childbirth kit, just in case you have to deal with that possibility.

- You have two water heaters installed in your basement, but one is a dummy that's been converted to hideaway safe.

- You've made bugout cargo packs for your dogs.

*- You have a walking stick with all sorts of gadgets hidden inside.

- Your koi pond is stocked with catfish.

- As a stand-in scoutmaster, you taught your son's troop to set mantraps and punji pits, and haven't been asked to stand in since.

- You're on your fifth vaccum sealer, but you keep at least one of the worn out ones because you can still seal up plastic bags with it.

- You haven't bought dried fruit in years, but you buy fresh bananas, apples, peaches and pears by the case and have three dehydrators.

*- Your UPS man hates you because of all the cases of ammo he's had to lug from his truck to your front door.

- You have duplicates of all your electronics gear, solar panels and generator parts in your EMP-shielded fallout shelter.

*- You have set aside space for your live chickens in the fallout shelter.

- When the power goes out in your neighborhood, all the neighbor's kids come over to your place to watch TV on generator power.

*- You must open the door to your pantry very carefully for fear of a canned goods avalanche.

*- You have a 'Volcano', you know you can cook anything, and you cast evil glances at your neighbor's annoying, yappy poodle, muttering "your day will come, hotdog" under your breath.

- You've learned to knap flint, make twine from plant fibers for snares and use an atl-atl, because you fear that all of your preps and hard work will be confiscated by FEMA troops or destroyed by earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear blasts, ravening hordes of feral sheeple orreptiloids from 'Planet X' ATSHTF.

Grow your own rice!

Thanks to the Off the Grid Chicks, I now know how simple this could be. Maybe we couldn't sustain ourselves on rice alone, but we certainly don't have to rely on a big rice paddy growing operation to do it either. Thanks Ladies!

Monsanto Nastiness

I have watched The Future of Food (and own it, if you want to borrow it), but this is More Info on the lovely Monsanto...and it's free to watch. Give yourself about an hour and half.
New link:
Here

Action time, my friends.

So here is some food crisis reading. Greenpa, a REAL green activist has posted a call to action here. Dirt cakes are not food. There is enough food in this world to feed everyone. Profiteering and Food-Speculating are not human in spirit and are the product of capitalism gone awry. Read Greenpa's post. Write an e-mail, make some calls, post a link or 10.

Chickens

In a step towards more self-reliance and food security, we have started in on the big chicken project. We have some baby chicks who will one day be laying hens and they have a coop built to move into, once spring finally actually arrives. We are expecting snow in Portland OR this weekend. I could go into a long rant about the weather, but there is plenty of info on it now. Try this link if you want more depressing news, thanks to the wonderful Sharon Astyk the blogger's research. If you want more chicken information go to backyardchickens.com ! Good stuff in both places.

Treasure Mapping; Today is the Day

Last night at 8:54, we moved into the Aries New Moon and are now ready to Treasure Map for the year. P got his magazines last night and the kids and I are going this morning. This afternoon we will get to work, opening ourselves to the journey of this next year.

Speaking of food...

The food crisis is here. and it's big and obvious if you have been to the market to buy staples lately.
Today I was placing my order with Azure Standard and it all hit me in the face. A group of local mamas and I all order together in order to meet a $400 minimum. Anyhow, this is a great company with its focus being on natural products, many of them in bulk amounts. Earlier this week I had started loading my "online shopping cart" and had included a 50lb bag of oat flour for the price of $36. Today, I looked online and that same bag of oat flour was now $47.90. Holy geez. This was oat too! Not even the recently uber-publicized wheat flour. After doing some further reading, I understand that the crisis is really about all staples. I am so sad because there will be so much loss around the world and I don't think that it can be remedied very quickly. Any ideas?

Whatcha gonna do when it all goes down...

Does anyone have a plan? I have made a few, most of which we don't have all of the components for. One plan involves biking to my dads house, where he has a well and a huge house with some property. There is also a river nearby. It would be one helluva bike trip, but manageable in one day if we were in shape. Ha! To do this, we would need to actually own bikes and at least one bike trailer for the kids.
Another, less shit-hitting-the-fan plan that I have involves lots of preparation now. I imagine that slowly (although quicker than anyone will like) food prices will become so high, oil prices so high and the market so low, that there will be mass suffering here. We have a many-pronged strategy for dealing with this.
First, food and water storage. I plan to have enough food for 6-12 months stored at all times. The roughest part about this is that half of it will be in a freezer which is reliant on electricity. I am making a big leap with this, but if I see a big electricity crisis on the very near horizon, we will eat that stuff first. I have about 15 pounds of beans, 10 pounds of rice, (25 more lbs of beans on the way), 15lbs frozen fruit, 10 lbs frozen veggies, tons of canned foods, oats, flour, spices, an extra gallon of olive oil etc stored. We abide by the store what you eat, eat what you store rules. I have to purchase some water storage containers. These mylar storage totes seem like the way to go. I am also ordering some buckets with Gamma lids and mylar liners for more long-term storage. I imagine that we will continue to add to our storage/prep at about $25-$50 a month until no longer feasible. It is likely that we will be feeding more than our own family from time to time and I want to be able to contribute wherever possible.
Second, self-reliance. We can use a lot of development in this area, but our beginning is with a garden. We will need to expand as much as possible, but this is not the year for it. We are also going to be getting some backyard chickens, which will be so valuable in terms of animal protein. I know how to can and dehydrate and am learning more and more about sprouting, fermenting, and other forms of food prep that don't require electricity or fossil fuels. We have the boxes to make a solar oven and plan on putting in a fire pit in our backyard. I am so disappointed that we have no heating solution for our house in the event of electricity outage and/or no oil supply. Other than installing a woodburning stove, we have no real alternatives yet. Unfortunately, that is too costly to do anytime soon. Other self-reliance concerns are around medical care. Luckily we are members of a community with many wonderful healers. Naturopaths abound and many members of our local tribe are wonderful herbalists, etc. We will surely need to grow and concoct our own tinctures, etc and should probably begin that now. The kids and I only use natural medicines, so our adjustment should be minimal in those areas, but in the event of a real medical emergency, I have little knowledge. I would love to learn how to do stitches, set a bone, etc. I also need to get a decent medical kit with curved needle, etc. Finally, general ability to use tools/repair household items is also a problem and a whole 'nother post! We will also have to get around, which leads to number 3.
Third, get out of our car-coma! We have been a two car family much to my embarrassment when I think about it too much. There is really no reasonable reason for it, especially in the city. We have just gotten used to it and have often felt entitled to each having our own car, when in reality it is a terrible waste of resources. We bought a great double stroller that will work when for hauling stuff when the kids have outgrown it. We are downsizing to one larger car that is carpool friendly and one scooter-type bike that Patrick can commute on. We are also both getting new bikes, since my old one is in pieces! I believe that each of these adjustments will ultimately give our children a world-view that is more in line with the true state of the world and will make later adjustments to an earth-centered lifestyle easier. And that will be beautiful and scary, all at once.

The Omnivore's Dilemma, etc.

So if you want to hate corn and be suspicious of every packaged product on the market (as I already am!), this book will do it. Also, if you want to feel like whole, local foods are affordable and more nutritious than a basket of organics from Mexico, this book will also do that for you. I absolutely love the task that Pollan took on to trace foods from their beginnings in a field, factory, wherever, to a dinner. Of course, the McDonald's dinner gets our attention first with its horrific % of corn (likely all GMO) based foods. Most wildly was the mass spectrometer reading that was able to calculate how much of each food came from corn. Some things were obvious, like the soda being 100% corn, since it is sweetened with HFCS, which is all that soda is anyhow, plus a bit of flavoring, water and color. The flavoring and color were probably corn based too. More surprising were things like the chicken nuggets, 56% corn. From the HFCS in them to the corn and antibiotic and hormone diet the chicken was fed to the breading and "flavors" we can attribute more to corn than anything else. And people think they are eating chicken. Gross.
The other meal that blew my mind was the hunted and gathered meal that barely cost him a dime. It was all local and proved to be a lovely, varied meal. He has some caveats to that meal that you have to read to get, but it was inspirational to read about a meal that was so truly affordable (maybe not timewise, but time may not always be the premium that it is now) and free of nasty additives, hormones, irresponsibly raised animals or environmentally damaging processes. I am really drawn to recommending this book because of the corn and monoculturing information, but also the underlying message about petroleum usage. Food is only becoming more valuable as peak oil nears. This is an essential to understand before you read the book, IMO.

So after digesting this book, I was reading over on the Oil Drum about our economy and how it will likely effect our food supplies as other countries will be less willing to export to us and how we will have to start becoming more domestically responsible for our own food supplies. All of that triggered me to thinking about the terrible depletion of our soil from mono-culturing corn. Corn that is largely not edible without massive (petroleum driven) processing. How are we as a country going to feed ourselves? We are in a situation of corn corn everywhere and nothing left to eat.
Here is a link to the very concise post about the economy and peak oil that was made over on the Oil Drum. I highly recommend it :)

Important Information; Plan Accordingly

http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/items_disappearfirst.htm

Nutrition and Pregnancy Rant.
I have so many rants about nutrition. It has been a "hobby" of mine the last few years, the focus changing on a whim from month to month, often based on what Moon was experiencing or decisions that needed to be made in our lives around diet. Since Landon has been born, I have been really considering how serious pregnant women should be taking nutrition. And not just pregnant women, actually, but each and every person who is dispensing information to pregnant women. You see, with Moon I had such a terrible pregnancy (horrible morning sickness through the entire pregnancy, anxiety, insomnia, and finally pre-eclampsia). I had followed a lot of mainstream medical advice, even though I would not have labeled myself a "mainstreamer". 50 grams of protein a day (plenty of that was soy protein), moderate exercise, lots of ridiculous appointments with blood testing, etc all made to make the mama feel like she is taking appropriate care of herself and the baby. Endless morning sickness was just treated a part and parcel of the pregnancy experience. I was even told that losing 25 lbs was GOOD because I was overweight to start with. Needless to say, I was so unhappy being pregnant and the resulting unplanned hospital delivery of Moon was the icing on the proverbial cake.
When I found out I was pregnant with Landon, I was determined to have a completely different experience. I swore off western medicine for 90% of my care and went with a naturopathic midwife who was willing to let me chose what tests and interventions I wanted. I totally loved her and felt so at ease with her. I also never saw nurses or a "team" of care providers for my prenatal care. Just her. Immediately we talked about how to avoid a horrible pregnancy and came up with a pretty intense diet that included 100g of protein a day. Later when I was having heart palpitations, we created an awesome care plan of daily herbs and supplements to MAKE SURE that my body was functioning at its best and that Landon was getting all the nutrition he needed. I received chiropractic care and craniosacral therapy for anxiety and processing. Acupuncture for digestion and anxiety (and later to prep my body for childbirth). It felt so good to take action and feel somewhat in control of my pregnancy. I still wasn't loving being pregnant, but I didn't feel disempowered. To cut to the chase, I had a totally healthy pregnancy with Landon, a perfect birth experience and Landon was born big and healthy. Post-partum has been so much gentler to me this time around also. No coincidence, I believe.
I feel so sad that Moon has bore the brunt of poor nutrition choices from me. She struggles with food allergies and eye and teeth issues. All of which can be mama-nutrition related. I am totally thankful that she breast-fed for 3 years, but feel like that first year of milkies could have been so much more...that hindsight is a killer.

Book Reviews

Unconditional Parenting. Another great book, this time in the realm of shifting our parenting paradigm away from rewarding and punishing, toward open communication and consistent displays of genuine love. I found this book so compelling and was even able to see the author give a lecture on the same topic. If you have ever felt like punishments were a little off kilter with your values or that "good job" was becoming a watered down mantra, this book is a good choice to read.


Affluenza. Totally fabulous, if not depressing book. Really opens your eyes to the "disease" of wanting to consume more things vs wanting more time to develop ourselves, spend with family, cultivate LIFE. Things often being the winner, we are suffering the consequences. Affluenza offers some great ideas to cure ourselves and to prevent further progression of the disease. Warning: you may find yourself very disturbed and judgemental next time you see someone driving a Lexus SUV with vanity plates...

Treasure Mapping

I would be so happy to have all of the people I love join me in Treasure Mapping this year. I feel particularly motivated to put a significant amount of energy into mapping this year because of the rapid changes happening in our country. The downshifting of the economy and the growing awareness of returning to a more sustainable way of life will require a lot of energy. I hope that this transition is one that comes as no surprise to most of us who are paying attention. I plan to do most of my blog posts on shifting our reality in many ways, from food choices to parenting to gardening to money. Feedback, community building, information sharing are all encouraged!

Now is the time to start clearing our spaces, physically and mentally, to allow for new energy to come in. April 5th is when to begin your treasure map. Not before!