I question the mindset of someone who would react that way. I can see stockpiling supplies for a short duration - perhaps 3-4 weeks + some contribution and skills towards rebuilding society, but after that it is time to find some remnant of people and rejoin society, even if it’s different and primitive. A lone wolf, or lone wolf family is no way for humans to live and in their mindset they are just delaying the inevitable, death by resource depletion, just slower then the rest but living a very sad life.
Just an FYI for those haven’t really thought about water and aren’t to interested in storing it. The back of your toilet stores about 5 gallons give or take. So most folks have 5, 10 or 15 gallons right there. Then there is your water heater. The have drain valves if you look. Thats another 35 to 55 or more gallons right there. A person needs about a gallon per day for drinking/adding to instant food. Make sure you turn the water heater off before you drain it so you don’t burn out the elements when the power comes on. And, to be safe you need some purification tablets or chlorox to make that water drinkable.
So, make a point of keeping some canned food thats edible cold if need be and its not that hard to make it a week or two at home with being hungry or thirsty as hell and not having your home look like a preppers wet dream with piles of food and bottled water.
Toilet tank water is not considered potable, but you can use it for washing.
And if you have an opportunity while the public water system is still functioning, filling your bathtub can provide an excellent source of water.
Canned foods should emphasize no added salt. Corned beef hash will only make you more thirsty!
~VOW
I figure the worst events in recent memory have meant a week without outside food, water, or power.
So I guess a decent couple weeks’ food, a couple big blocks of ice and a cooler for the frozen veggies, keeping that 5-gallon Gatorade cooler full of water, and having something that’ll make a whole bunch of heat when burned is a good idea to have. That’ll be the desk I’m sitting at (all particleboard, should burn beautifully)
After two weeks are up, it’s time to hit the road to find a way outta here. I’ll probably end up fixing somebody’s truck in exchange for a ride out.
This is nothing compared so some communities of survivalists on the Internet! :eek: This series is actually pretty mild compared to what’s actually said online. I’d actually agree on the week’s worth of dry goods (or 2) and water is worth it because power outages aren’t uncommon in the US (YMMV, mostly for high winds, ice, and power companies lacking the manpower to trim trees)
Google and a few hours of reading their postings will only confirm signal to “the crazy” ratio is out of wack, even for dolphins with tinfoil hats. 
CPR?! I’m not gonna waste my time trying to revive a potential meat supply. Into the pantry they go!
Attaboy.
I’ll stick with Brawndo, thanks. It’s got electrolytes.
I’d drink it or cook with it if I had to. Though I’d certainly sterilize it first. The tub thing is good. But you gotta make sure your tub doesn’t have a slow leak. Many tubs see to have em.
Another great way to store water is in plastic cat litter buckets. They are light and nest inside each other well. And if you gotta cat or know somebody that does they are free and over time you can collect enough to fill a swimming pool :).
Like I said nested they store nicely (remember to keep the lids as well, so if you have to store some outside it will keep the leaves and bugs out). And you almost can’t store too much water. We were without power once. We had plenty of drinking water but it sure was nice to be able to have the extra to do some heavy duty sponge bathing and actual hair washing (due to us living in the south without AC in the dead of the summer).
I definitely consider myself a “prepper”, but not in any way a survivalist.
IMO, we’re prepared for a disruption to “normal” life for 2-3 months. If any situation were to last longer than 3 months, then I think we would need to shift our thinking, but I really don’t see that happening.
We have 2 months worth of beans and rice, as well as some luxury items in the pantry. I can vegetables and soups from our garden, and our freezer is also well stocked with meat and vegetables. If we were to lose power for more than 3 days, I have enough jars and lids to can nearly everything in the freezer, and I always have a spare 20lb propane tank on hand to fire up the outdoor burner for the water-bath canners and pressure canner.
For water we’ve got a swimming pool with ~18,000 gallons of water available, as well as a hand pump well in the back yard. Also, I keep cases of bottled water on hand and then use them for workouts when they near expiration.
The other important element is board games, coloring books, puzzles, and lots and lots of books to keep from driving each other crazy!
My grandparents always had 6 months supply of tinned food, carefully rotated, after living through WW2 rationing, here in the UK.
I must admit, it doesn’t seem entirely unlikely to me that food prices could go up enough over the next ten or so years to make things like that a reasonable idea again; I don’t think we’re likely to have a sudden major disaster, but the UK is now growing so little of its own food compared to the size of the population that a small problem with transport could have a big impact in the availability of some foods. Personally, I just try and stock up on tins when things are cheap, and grow some of my own vegetables- which is enjoyable in itself, even without some oil crisis, but I wouldn’t really criticise people who felt a bit happier with a bigger stock.
I do, however, reserve the right to laugh at the people who buy ‘Survival Seeds’, which frequently won’t stay viable for more than a year or two, plus you then have to wait up to a year for any crops off some of them, even assuming the people buying them have the faintest idea how to grow them.
If you think it’s a good idea to have your own crops in an emergency, start growing stuff now! That way you won’t have to wait ages for a crop (with any luck, at least some plants should survive the zombie apocalypse), you’ll have nice fresh seeds saved from last years crop, you’ll know what you’re doing while everyone else is taking the rancid seeds out the wreckage of the freezer and trying to work out how to get food out of a handful of little dots, plus you still get to eat nice cheap healthy stuff and get some exercise in while you’re waiting for civilisation to collapse.
One thing is absolutely CRITICAL if you are considering food storage: yes, of course, it’s good to date the food, and rotate it, but even more important than that!
Store what you’ll EAT.
There are zillions everywhere with basements full of barrels of wheat, beans, and rice. These people MAY have some type of grinder to mill the wheat into flour, but I’m willing to bet the grinder is still in the box, and has never even been assembled! If they knew how much physical effort it would take to convert a pound of that wheat into enough flour for one loaf of bread, they’d rethink their stockpile!
If you are going to store rice and beans, (1) make sure you know how to COOK them, and (2) make sure your family will EAT them. If the kidlets will only eat Spaghetti-os, there will be a lot of screaming, yelling, nagging, threatening, and other fun stuff. On the same topic, if the Man-of-the-house wants MEAT at every meal, serving him a bowl of rice and beans won’t bring peace and harmony after the Apocalypse.
~VOW
Once they get hungry enough they’ll eat what they are given.
Good advice. I didn’t mean to imply I have a static reserve of beans and rice. I keep 5-6 different kinds of dry beans and several varieties of rice and rice blends that are used constantly as side dishes in day-to-day cooking and replenished as needed.
This. Most people who think they can grow enough to feed themselves who aren’t growing those things NOW before the zombies hit would probably starve. Learning to grow shit after things goes tits up is probably as likely to work as keeping some plans in the basement of how to build an escape rocket.
Since rotating is a vital part of making sure that the food is going to be edible, you should be eating that stored food and replacing it. And for dry goods such as grains and beans, you need to check for varmints, anything from pantry moths to rats, who will regard your stores as mana from heaven.
Eating from the stored foods is a good way to practice old recipes, learn new ones, and teach recipes to the whole family.