Serious Question: What has CV-19 taught you about your "Emergency Stores"

News & Current Events
#8

This could be a good topic to read what other folks are doing or have done.

We (the wife has always been on board) have been preppers for over a decade so our stores and preps are fine. We did see the writing on the wall about a month ago and bought stuff to round out the edges so to speak.

The only thing we’re short on that I just ordered a boat load of are paperback books in our favorite genre. I’m staying away from the EOW books for now, why read what you could be living. My second favorite are William Johnstone westerns. Easy, fun, simple, therapy for the mind type reading.

You should have at minimum stores of:
#1 Rice #2 Flour #3 Yeast #4 Beans #5 Sugar #6 Pasta #7 Any and all canned goods

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#9

I admit, I am lazy. I live .5 miles from my grocery store. So, I don’t really stock up. That will change. Soon I want about 2 weeks of food stocked at all times.

I still have not figured out what is up with the run on TP… Corona is a respiratory virus.

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#10

I think it is scaring the crap out of people.
That’s my attempt at a funny for the day.

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#11

Minor lesson learned:

  • I need to be better at rotating stock. We did a quick inventory check pre-panic and had to throw out some boxes/cans because they were way expired in the back of the pantry. Pushed some others into the “eat soon” category
  • I’d like to find a way to keep more protein in mid-term storage (like a freezer)

Major Lessons learned:

  • Toilet Paper! I never would have thought that would be the thing I can’t get. Unfortunately, the stuff is bulky and takes up room
  • I have always thought of these emergencies as “no one gets anything for 2-3 weeks”, I’m honestly not sure how to handle “you can randomly get some stuff for the next 2-3 months”

In general, we are doing/have done a pretty decent job of keeping a good small stock of supplies where if the lights go out without warning we wont starve, or at least not immediately. As soon as we figured that things might grind to a halt, we tried to “top off” the supplies to mixed results because some folks figured the panic out before we did and cleaned out stuff like toilet paper. I suppose another lesson learned is to get better at predicting these panics. We live in the suburbs, so no matter what we are dependent on the gubment for things like electricity, running water, heat, etc.

My area (Northern VA near DC) is not total lockdown, but schools are closed and lots of people are staying home/working remotely/laid off. So it just feels weird around here.

I’ve always considered “disaster preparedness” from an angle where no one has access to anything for a few days/weeks. Not something extended like nuclear fallout or EMP or zombie hordes. But more like a hurricane or big snowstorm or flood hits and no one has power/water and all the stores are closed for some short time. So you need enough supplies to bridge until “the lights come back on”.

But this situation is radically different. One is that it may be significantly longer than a few days/weeks. The other is that we’ll have access to some things, but not others and in varying quantities. Like if you go one day, the store has veggies but no meats. The next time you go there is meats but no veggies. Go another time and there is meats and veggies, but NO TOILET PAPER :wink: etc etc. It’s hard to predict and therefore hard to manage. It makes me want to make a small garden for fresh veggies, but no way to get fresh meat around here if not from a supermarket. And I have no idea how to make toilet paper :laughing:

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#12

There are alot of things that are cheap like Ramen Noodles that can keep you going a long time as long as you have the vitamins to prevent stuff like scurvy. I have always tried to keep a 6 month supply of food and water on hand.

I know I am going to have to bug in, for awhile. I have plans for that. I have that deadly funnel created in my home. Looks open but it’s not. I can close down only entry in seconds. I have medications that I have to take.

So for me if it is ever a true EOTWAWKI. I’m going to have to get my wife through to someone who will take care of her in exchange for months of prep, guns and ammo. Because I most likely won’t make it.

That’s just the true hard calculus of life.

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#13

I have found that we need to secure more,and better cooking alternatives. We have a gas stove which can be used without electricity, but really nothing should natural gas supply be interrupted.(probably don’t want to be cooking outside if others are without food).
We also need to keep up on our canning. We have been saying for months that we needed to can, but never got around to it. Last Saturday we canned 17 quarts of meat. We have a lot of meat in the freezer, but prefer to can it, as electrical disruption is a likelihood in most disaster scenarios.
We have some cash on hand, but realized we need to increase that amount.
All in all we were/are in pretty good shape.

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#14

All in all I’m pretty well set. Going to get a little more cash out of the bank. But what I’ve discovered is a lack of mental preparedness. I down played the situation early on and it took conversation with other close preppers to get it to really sink in. I was too focused on THE VIRUS and laughing it off. Was not expecting the reaction/actions that the Gov’t is taking. Funny thing is I’ve been suspicious of the powers most of 30 + years and this has caught me slightly off guard. Not that I’m not prepared but that my move to action was delayed if that makes sense? I think I allowed myself or was conditioned to be more complacent of how fast things could change or be implemented. Eyes wide open for sure now! A good lesson to learn but not what I want to admit.:thinking::face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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#15

With the tendency of hurricanes to make landfall here in the SE US, we have gotten very good at preparing for a week’s worth of missing electricity, but we need to prep for longer outages than that. We’re in pretty good shape for now, but if this things does roll on into July or August, I’m concerned that society will unravel…and then Stephen King’s The Stand could look more prescient than he intended.

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#16

The ‘One Second After’ series by William Forstchen….excellent series that I highly recommend…(One Second After, One Year After, The Final Day)

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#17

What I learned from CV-19 is that my “emergency store” will run out of guns and ammo very quickly :wink:

wuh wuh wuhhhh :trumpet: :trumpet: :trumpet:

apologies…this is what too many days working from home does to me…

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#18

I’ve never even thought of canning meat at home… :thinking:

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#19

Mostly that I need to remove all firearms and ammo from the safe and fill it with TP. GRIN Sorry, sometimes I just can not help it…

#20

We cold pack it. Actually one of the easiest things to can.

The nice thing is the meat is fully cooked during the process, and can be eaten right from the jar without even heating it if necessary.

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#21

@Brett13 Care to expound on this process?

Cheers,

Craig6

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#22

Cold (raw) pack meat canning:
Make sure jars are clean, wash and rinse lids. Place lids in pan of water on low heat. Cut meat into cubes, or strips, place into jars leaving 1" head space for beef, pork, venison. 1-1/4" head space for chicken. You can add 1/2-1 tsp of canning salt to jars if you prefer, we do. It works best to add salt prior to filling with meat.
Place lids on jars and snug bands, do not over tighten.
Place jars into canner. The rest is for our canner, an All American 930, and our elevation (below 1,000’.
Wait until a steady stream of steam flows from vent for 10 minutes, then place weight on vent at the 10 # setting. Once weight jiggles the first time. Steam for 90 minutes at 10 psi. Weight should jiggle 1-4 times per minute. Follow canner instructions for cool down.
The All American 930 can process 19 pints, or 14 quarts at a time. Hint: add a little vinegar to water in canner to avoid white film on jars.

P.S. I should clarify that you put raw meat into the jars. Just place the meat into the jars. Shake to fill voids, but do not pack it down.

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#23

You can also can hamburger and pork sausage, but these must be browned prior to canning.

#26

My biggest takeaway, was my mantra as a leader. “Inspect What You Expect”.

I had let a couple of critical items get dangerously low. Vitamins, especially. My wife had been raiding those as I have to take vitamin supplements, so instead of buying each month, she would grab from stash. Instead of buying new. So right now I have whatever we could find.

She and I also had to discuss the difference between long term dry food that lasts w/o power vs long term food with power.

I think I am going to be a bit more diligent this fall, about trying to find someone to hunt with and start making jerky again.

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#27

@Zavier_D Are you familiar with Emergency Essentials at www.BePrepared.com.
They are out on Salt Lake City UT. I have been dealing with them for about 16 years, there shipping is very reasonable and there products are of good quality and are good for 20 to 30 years. They have been in business long enough to test after 20 to 30 years. In buy all my long term foods from them. Like any company now there is a 1-3 month wait. :+1:

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#28

I am. I have been dealing with alot of issues health wise and just hadn’t been checking enough to be sure. That’s on me.

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#29

We just started a couple of months ago. I’ll start a thread in the Hunting category for a recipe swap!