Dave and I spent 5% of our tax return on emergency prep. We bought a half a dozen sealed cans of dried food. Strawberries, oatmeal, potato dices, and 2 flavors of meal-in-a-can. :-) (Freeze dried meals that require only hot water to rehydrate and then serve.) We also bought some pouch food, some of which went into our Bug out Bags and some of which will go into the general food stores. I'm hoping to take a couple of the pouches with us on our next camping trip so we can try them out.
Speaking of Bug out Bags, this purchase makes our BOB's pretty complete. The bags were a little light on food, now there's a couple days of dried food in them, plus a couple more days of ration bars. I also bought a hand crank powered radio/flashlight/cell phone charger. It's pretty slick. Our BOB's are designed to get us through an emergency and to a safe place. We can live out of them for 32 hours, max. Food, water, change of clothes, light, heat, small bit of shelter, soap, cards for amusement, caffeine and basic hygiene supplies. I still need to get copies of the important documents in there, and I'd like to add a book or two, just for additional amusement in case we're trapped in a shelter. I also need to add first aid supplies to the bags, but all of those supplies are in a box somewhere, or two boxes, I don't even know, but it'll have to wait until we get moved.
Eventually I'll need to make a seperate Bug out Bag for Rowen. Right now I have a little bit extra in Dave and I's bags, and the plan is to grab Rowen's diaper bag as his BOB. It has the basics: food, toys, change of clothes and a diaper or two. When combined with Dave and I's he's covered. But, once we get to the point where he's no longer in diapers we'll need to make him a dedicated BOB.
I think this purchase also gets us real close to the 3 week supply of stored food goal. I'll have to do some tallying and a bit of calculating, but just off the top of my head, I think we're really close. It's a hodge-podge collection of food; store bought cans of veggies, home canned sauces, dried fruits and spices, root cellar veggies and now these large cans of freeze dried foods. But, it would do the trick. I think we're still a little weak in flours, and I know it's not all stored quite right, but hopefully after the move I can re-consolidate the food storage and get it all properly sorted, stored and tallied. The Red Cross and The Dept of Homeland Security all recommend that Americans have a 2 week store of food in case of emergencies. Do you? Is it all expired? Would you be living on canned corn and stuffing mixes? Might be worth your time to check. :-)
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3 comments:
Hi Jennie, Dad here. What's the plan for water?
Oh, and speaking of flashlights, have you seen this: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/01/revolution-in-electrical-power/
Hope this technology pans out, it really looks promising. The problem with those dynamo flashlights is that over time they lose their ability to hold a charge, requiring nearly constant cranking to produce light. But they work great for the first few years.
Oh yea! That forever battery tech is definitely cool.
The plan for water is as follows:
BOB's have a total of 10 servings, plus pockets that could hold the metal water bottles that Dave and I always have around.
My BOB has a drain stopper in it, so if we can fill our tub before the emergency, we can do that and with the stopper, we'll know it won't trickle out.
Other ideas are to use the water that's trapped in the hot water heater and the back of the toilet.
Eventually, I'd love to get some dedicated water containers.
-Jennie
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