I have been reading so much about stocking up food, etc., but I admit most are on emergency preparedness boards and they are a bit more...er...militant, I guess? than I want to be about it. I posted about it more in detail on my blog, but am not sure that's actually read SO my question here for you all is, do you know of any good links for lists of food that SHOULD be kept for emergency prep reasons? I know one showed 100's of lbs of wheat...and we don't use wheat...at least at this time. I could see doing sugar, rice, flour, etc. and I know they say to do it on salt. My plan is to keep an eye on specials and sales at stores and do it that way.

So what is YOUR list or do you have a site with a good list(s) for this type of thing?

I want to do some first aid ones as well, for vehicles and home. Again, iffy on that one. I for sure know bandaids, neosporin, that super glue stuff for cuts (we like that! heh), butterfly bandaids...ummm? Oh, alchohol swabs. I know I'm missing some important things, though like maybe small bottles of pain meds for adults and a small bottle for kids?

Do I sound nuts, yet? hehe Need to stop reading those boards! ;-)

Now I'm off to freecycle to see if anyone has an old freezer to get rid of. ;-)

I haven't thought tooo much about it but I know that I want to start growing vegetables and saving seeds. That will be very important to me.
You aren't crazy, it is a very good idea to have some surplus of some things.

Looking forward to others answers!!

How about betadine and Grape Fruit Seed extract for the first aid/health kit? A book on emergency first aid?

I thought I would start with water. That means buying some containers and finding a place to store it.

Rhea

I'm saving for a generator. lol. If everything fails, I can run the well on a generator.

I'm dabbling in heirloom seeds but I'm realizing that I'm a crap gardener so I dunno. :o

In my perfect world *wink* there would be...
A generator for outages.
primary power on wind.
worm beds in the basement for meat waste and winter compost
corn or wood fueled heat
chickens for protein. *check* lol
glorious gardens
a basement full of root veggies and canned goods.
a full freezer.
a well stocked pantry and emergency jump kit.

OMGosh, I gasped right at this point:

"worm beds in the basement for meat"

:lol:

Rhea

omg. meat waste. must not stop reading mid sentence. *snort*

I suppose i could give it to the dog but she has such a tender tummy that I'd be dealing with her barf and poo. ew. Worms are better. lol. Of course right now, scraps hit the trash but I'll save ya all the maggot stories. This is a pretty nice thread.

:hahaha:

:lol: It WAS a nice thread! :lol: j/k!!!

start looking at what your family uses most and stock those things up. You're right that if you don't eat bread anyway you won't need a hundred pounds of wheat products.
start keeping a list of what you use and how much in a month and make your own lists. :)
water is important to everyone though and don't forget your pets! we have three months of food for the dogs and cats and probably a year's worth for the bunny. :)

I think the most important thing is not to shove this food aside somewhere and never touch it. I've read some sites where it is more about hoarding the stuff and not using it until the end times are nigh, lol. I keep a certain amount of each thing and when I start to get "low" I buy more and stick it in the back. I'm constantly rotating.
I'm aiming to get us up to 6 months. I think it's a good thing financially and logically to have plenty of food in the house. I come at it from the angle of what if something happens to our income.

for first aid check out your state EMA site. They should have great information on disaster preparedness that pertains to your area. I love those lists! all sorts of things you might not think of!

good storage for things that don't go bad is a must. Like batteries. My grandma had rain get into a rubbermaid tote and the batteries ruined the clothes and food inside. So. Keep batteries in a double ziploc, or something :D

Also, you have to rotate like pp said because even batteries and canned goods can go bad.

Find storage places in your house, even weird places.

Extra rx's if your ins will cover them. Flashlight, candles, etc. Extra can opener lol. And tp ;)

I agree with keeping a list of what you use all the time. I'd always forget something like sunblock because we don't use it all the time, but it's needed still kwim? One of my kids is very fair and so is dh, so . . . since we camp we have a good edge on this kind of thing, but I still don't have a good "kit" ready. *sigh* Working on it now that dh's on board tho.

following this thread for more good ideas

My Grandma, having went through WW2 in Germany horded stuff in her basement. The stuff she horded was not stuff for survival, but the stuff you wouldn't get if food was rationed - coffee, toilette paper, sheets, nylons, and sugar. I'm sure there was more, but that is what I remember from when I was a child in her basement. She also bought ONLY high quality furniture, appliances etc and only bought was she needed. Her house was very simple and uncluttered but she was comfortable. She maintained what she owned extremely well, including her VW bug which she drove for decades.

Check out: http://sharonastyk.com/ and especially http://sharonastyk.com/2008/03/04/food-storage-101-part-i/ (the start of her monthlong food storage "class").

This is where I'm trying to go with it - not so much a stockpile of "emergency" rations as a sustainable year's worth of food that gets used and rotated regularly.

For true short-term emergencies I have some grains and beans and jugs of water, extra flashlight batteries, etc. It's not as well-organized or maintained as I'd like but it would get us by for a month or so. For longer term I want to do what she's doing. It's a piece of self-sustainability for me.

My Grandma, having went through WW2 in Germany horded stuff in her basement. The stuff she horded was not stuff for survival, but the stuff you wouldn't get if food was rationed - coffee, toilette paper, sheets, nylons, and sugar. I'm sure there was more, but that is what I remember from when I was a child in her basement. She also bought ONLY high quality furniture, appliances etc and only bought was she needed. Her house was very simple and uncluttered but she was comfortable. She maintained what she owned extremely well, including her VW bug which she drove for decades.

Same here. I was just thinking about my grandma's margarine tub collection the other day. lol. It was obnoxious. stacked on every step leading to the attic, in the attic, in the basement. I know it was hard for her to throw something "useful" away but I don't think she reused even a fraction of them.

My dh's grandmother had old bleach containers filled with water in the basement. Hundreds of them. Great for washing clothes I suppose. I never asked her what exactly she'd be using the water for and I didn't really want to know.

Didn't read the responses but I think a great way to start is to work on getting a good first-aid kit for home and your car, make up "bug-out" bags if you're in an area that will possibly have evacuations (thinking of hurricanes and fires right now from the news), and to make sure you have enough supplies to feed and take care of your family for atleast 3 days. I think it would have to be REALLY bad for it to go beyond that but if you are atleast at that point, you're doing well. From there, you can increase your supplies to 5 days then 7 days then stock up on some longer stored stuff that might come in handy.

I'd say to think more of what CAN happen rather than what MIGHT happen. In other words, prepare for the kind of emergencies that can happen much more easily in your area of the country. For Long Island, that's mostly a hurricane in the summer/fall or a winter storm in the winter. We will be at most 7 days without power but even during that time, we can drive for supplies after 2-3 days. So that's my plan. For the country going into major depression and anarchy? Nah - not so much IMO so I don't plan to THAT extreme. I know others do but that's not a priority for me right now.

When I was in florida in 04 some people were without power for 4 WEEKS. My boss had no power for over three weeks. We were lucky that we lived in a newer neighborhood (lots of underground wires) and near some major public works and schools which were used for shelters. We didn't go more than a few hours once and just over two days another time.
But I am well aware that things happen that just screw up the system and I go for one month of no electricity emergency rations. Canned foods, clean water, oil lamps and oil, sterno cans and supplies to cook on the grill. the only thing I am bothered by here is we have a well pump. This is the first time we have had a well since I was a kid and I want to get a generator as soon as possible.
I also want to get a hand pump because I'm a dork like that. :)

Ahhh, thanks for the link, Lauren. I think you've linked to that blog before, but I haven't read any of the "course." I really appreciate a SANE and thoughtful discussion of food storage. I had to stop reading the emergency preparedness stuff because I started feeling paranoid (I posted about that here awhile ago, perhaps you remember).

This is much more of what I need right now!

Thanks.