What have you done this week to prep?

[dudley0]

Bandages with a clotting agent have an expiration date too.

Is the expiration the same as food stuffs where it is not really an exact date? I guess I have not looked into that. I have a lot of the stuff in bags and totes.

Always figured if it wasn't open or subjected to harsh environments then it was good to go.

 

[Ballstater98]

Is the expiration the same as food stuffs where it is not really an exact date? I guess I have not looked into that. I have a lot of the stuff in bags and totes.

Always figured if it wasn't open or subjected to harsh environments then it was good to go.

I was told by an ER nurse at a "Stop the Bleed" class to go by the dates. As for EXACT Technology changes over that time period too. I even asked about rubber gloves left in various locations like in my truck (no date on those and probably the harshest conditions). She responded with, "Ever notice how every nurse in a hospital reaches in the glove box and throws the 1st one they touch away each and every time? No one knows how long that glove has been sitting on top."

 

[churchmouse]

I was told by an ER nurse at a "Stop the Bleed" class to go by the dates. As for EXACT Technology changes over that time period too. I even asked about rubber gloves left in various locations like in my truck (no date on those and probably the harshest conditions). She responded with, "Ever notice how every nurse in a hospital reaches in the glove box and throws the 1st one they touch away each and every time? No one knows how long that glove has been sitting on top."

My SHTF med kit has vac wrapped bandages in it. I can not see them...."Going bad" due to the way they are packaged. Maybe the band aids depending on where they are stored I guess. This is something to look into for sure.

 

[MCgrease08]

Meijer has their 10 for $10 deal going on right now. A good time to stock up the pantry and freezer.

https://www.meijer.com/

 

[teddy12b]

As far as food dates go, yeah there's a lot out there that can be eaten well past it's due date, but the nutritional value of it drops way down to next to nothing. You may not think you're hungry anymore and you may get a moral boost, but you're not really getting fed. I've got a project ahead of me with going through a lot of MRE's that have been properly stored for a long time and now they're well past their expiration date. It doesn't hurt anything that my wife is tired of it taking up the storage space though either. That may be my next big project.

 

[Phase2]

As far as food dates go, yeah there's a lot out there that can be eaten well past it's due date, but the nutritional value of it drops way down to next to nothing.

Can you point to any documentation on this, please? I have an interest in this area. My understanding is that nutritional values go down gradually over time. They don't drop off a cliff and the expiration date is not set based on nutrition measurements, but on other factors.

 

[churchmouse]

Meijer has their 10 for $10 deal going on right now. A good time to stock up the pantry and freezer.

https://www.meijer.com/

Great. The spouse and daughter are going there today.

 

[churchmouse]

Can you point to any documentation on this, please? I have an interest in this area. My understanding is that nutritional values go down gradually over time. They don't drop off a cliff and the expiration date is not set based on nutrition measurements, but on other factors.

Exactly. We try and rotate out the stores by date if possible.

 

[teddy12b]

Can you point to any documentation on this, please? I have an interest in this area. My understanding is that nutritional values go down gradually over time. They don't drop off a cliff and the expiration date is not set based on nutrition measurements, but on other factors.

Everything I've read points to a gradual decline like you mentioned, not dropping off like a cliff. There's plenty out there in google if you want to look it up. My only point is that with the MRE's I've got the 5 year good to go any time any where window has closed. The 10 year stored properly in ideal conditions is also mostly gone as well too. I've mostly switched gears on my "insurance policy" food to mountain house or other 25 year shelf life types of food because I want to stay in that window of decent nutritional value.

 

[churchmouse]

Everything I've read points to a gradual decline like you mentioned, not dropping off like a cliff. There's plenty out there in google if you want to look it up. My only point is that with the MRE's I've got the 5 year good to go any time any where window has closed. The 10 year stored properly in ideal conditions is also mostly gone as well too. I've mostly switched gears on my "insurance policy" food to mountain house or other 25 year shelf life types of food because I want to stay in that window of decent nutritional value.

We keep a solid 30 days of perishables to consume. Rotated as need be. We have enough water for this as well.
We have gone well past the MRE's (we have a few cases but most have found new homes) and into the freeze dried mountain house and that style of foods. Problem here is having enough water. This all requires water and a heat source. We have the heat sources. We have as much water as space permits. But even at that we are short.

 

[teddy12b]

We keep a solid 30 days of perishables to consume. Rotated as need be. We have enough water for this as well.
We have gone well past the MRE's (we have a few cases but most have found new homes) and into the freeze dried mountain house and that style of foods. Problem here is having enough water. This all requires water and a heat source. We have the heat sources. We have as much water as space permits. But even at that we are short.

Where are you at that you're so short on water? How much water is your goal to have on hand? I'm just curious because you mention water a lot and seem to know what you're talking about and I'm starting to doubt my own supplies. For me I live within a few hundred yards of a river. Granted the river looks like chocolate milk, but there's enough supplies and no how on sight to get that water clean enough to use for an emergency so it hasn't gotten as high on my radar as it has yours. Do you have a gallons per person formula you're using?

 

[churchmouse]

Where are you at that you're so short on water? How much water is your goal to have on hand? I'm just curious because you mention water a lot and seem to know what you're talking about and I'm starting to doubt my own supplies. For me I live within a few hundred yards of a river. Granted the river looks like chocolate milk, but there's enough supplies and no how on sight to get that water clean enough to use for an emergency so it hasn't gotten as high on my radar as it has yours. Do you have a gallons per person formula you're using?

Just rough estimates on how much water we drink a week. We drink bottled water but use tap to cook mostly.
If you figure 4 adults (currently) and 3 kids consumption/hygiene/cooking needs that is a lot of water. Even putting it under ration figure 3 bottles a day per adult minimum ( I drink 4 to 5 a day as that is all I drink anymore) and 2 per child. So a 40 bottle flat of water is pretty much gone in 2 days. This is in normal temps and not sweltering days. Consider preparing at least 2 meals a day that would be north of a gallon or right at depending on what you are making and how. So just hygiene and cooking you are looking at about 10 gallons a week for just this and possibly more. Add it up.

We are not near any creeks or rivers. We do have a big pool so if the SHTF in warm days we have that as a reserve. As it stands when we have all the water we can set aside we are good for maybe 30 days with food on hand for much longer.

Water. It is the key. With out it the freeze dried foods are pretty useless.

 

[MCgrease08]

Just rough estimates on how much water we drink a week. We drink bottled water but use tap to cook mostly.
If you figure 4 adults (currently) and 3 kids consumption/hygiene/cooking needs that is a lot of water. Even putting it under ration figure 3 bottles a day per adult minimum ( I drink 4 to 5 a day as that is all I drink anymore) and 2 per child. So a 40 bottle flat of water is pretty much gone in 2 days. This is in normal temps and not sweltering days. Consider preparing at least 2 meals a day that would be north of a gallon or right at depending on what you are making and how. So just hygiene and cooking you are looking at about 10 gallons a week for just this and possibly more. Add it up.

We are not near any creeks or rivers. We do have a big pool so if the SHTF in warm days we have that as a reserve. As it stands when we have all the water we can set aside we are good for maybe 30 days with food on hand for much longer.

Water. It is the key. With out it the freeze dried foods are pretty useless.

Not to question your methods, but doesn't getting flats of bottled water take up a ton of space and get really expensive?

I ask because I keep a 30-cup Zero Water dispenser in the fridge. The 5-stage filter is miles better than Brita and the filtered water tastes better than any bottled water I've ever had.

The Zero Water filters aren't cheap (about $15 each), and aren't meant for prepping, but for every day water consumption it can't be beat. You also don't have any of the space limitations or waste associated with buying bottles. Space is a big concern with me too since I live in an apartment. All of my water stored on site is for emergency use only and I buy the Ice Mountain 101.4 oz bottles because the plastic is thick enough for longer term storage and they bottle design lets you stack/nest them on top of each other.

I do have a case or two of bottles on hand generally, but most of my stores are the jugs. Walmart has them on sale for $1 each quite often and I try to store enough to have one jug per person, per day. I really only keep about a week's worth of water on hand because I don't plan to bug in during a long-term emergency. We'd be moving out of town to stay with family. I just don't have the room to store more than that.

I'd recommend a Zero Water system to anyone that doesn't have a house filtration system. You hit your payback on it pretty quick just by not buying bottles for everyday use. Just something to think about.

 

[teddy12b]

Just rough estimates on how much water we drink a week. We drink bottled water but use tap to cook mostly.
If you figure 4 adults (currently) and 3 kids consumption/hygiene/cooking needs that is a lot of water. Even putting it under ration figure 3 bottles a day per adult minimum ( I drink 4 to 5 a day as that is all I drink anymore) and 2 per child. So a 40 bottle flat of water is pretty much gone in 2 days. This is in normal temps and not sweltering days. Consider preparing at least 2 meals a day that would be north of a gallon or right at depending on what you are making and how. So just hygiene and cooking you are looking at about 10 gallons a week for just this and possibly more. Add it up.

We are not near any creeks or rivers. We do have a big pool so if the SHTF in warm days we have that as a reserve. As it stands when we have all the water we can set aside we are good for maybe 30 days with food on hand for much longer.

Water. It is the key. With out it the freeze dried foods are pretty useless.

Thanks for the explanation. I remembered you having a pool or were thinking about one in pages past of this. I'd just always gone off the old 1 gallon per day per person as a rough budgeting idea. Currently I have 1 of the 7 gallon aqua tainers per person in the household topped off and sitting in the basement. In addition to that there's the water heater if things ever got that bad and going outside wasn't an option. For filtering I have katadyn hiker, hiker pro, sawyer mini's and basecamp filtering setups in addition to a big berky, in addition to all of that I have a couple of lifestraw types of filters but I don't usually count those. Of all that gear the only thing I've never actually used is the Berkey and Katadyn basecamp. Everything else has been on at least one outdoorsy outting. I'm with you 100% on the importance of water. I think I just take finding more of it for granted. One of the reasons I still have my good old Alice pack laying is because I can put the little shelf on it and go for a short walk with a 5 gallon jug on my back to go fetch more and bring it home for processing.

 

[churchmouse]

Not to question your methods, but doesn't getting flats of bottled water take up a ton of space and get really expensive?

I ask because I keep a 30-cup Zero Water dispenser in the fridge. The 5-stage filter is miles better than Brita and the filtered water tastes better than any bottled water I've ever had.

The Zero Water filters aren't cheap (about $15 each), and aren't meant for prepping, but for every day water consumption it can't be beat. You also don't have any of the space limitations or waste associated with buying bottles. Space is a big concern with me too since I live in an apartment. All of my water stored on site is for emergency use only and I buy the Ice Mountain 101.4 oz bottles because the plastic is thick enough for longer term storage and they bottle design lets you stack/nest them on top of each other.

I do have a case or two of bottles on hand generally, but most of my stores are the jugs. Walmart has them on sale for $1 each quite often and I try to store enough to have one jug per person, per day. I really only keep about a week's worth of water on hand because I don't plan to bug in during a long-term emergency. We'd be moving out of town to stay with family. I just don't have the room to store more than that.

I'd recommend a Zero Water system to anyone that doesn't have a house filtration system. You hit your payback on it pretty quick just by not buying bottles for everyday use. Just something to think about.

As we steady cycle the water out buy purchase date it is far easier to just keep the 2nd fridge stocked with drinks. The G-kids are here constantly as they live next door and we have a common fenced (8' 6" stockaded) back yard. They get their juicy's and waters from the fridge on the porch. Dealing with the filter would be a real pain as to the convenience we now have. But I will look into one of those filters. But the mere traffic through here on a hot summer day and that thing would need constant re-filling. Kids my brother. And their parents...

Storage space is at a premium for us. Getting those jugs stacked in would be impossible. Maybe 2 high in some areas but not all. The suckage of living on a slab.

we get the flats (40 16.9oz) for about $2.90 (avg) at Sams club. 676 oz's per flat. Yup, it might be a bit more effort but in the end it works for us.

We have several milk crates with 4 each of the 1 gallon distilled jugs we would use for cooking and hygiene. We also have 2 40 gallon water barrels fed off the gutters to water the garden. We keep them fairly clean and like T-12 said we can clean that supply up as well. But they are drained and turned over right now for the winter months.

I am open to any and all suggestions. Water is the key.

 

[rhino]

Just rough estimates on how much water we drink a week. We drink bottled water but use tap to cook mostly.
If you figure 4 adults (currently) and 3 kids consumption/hygiene/cooking needs that is a lot of water. Even putting it under ration figure 3 bottles a day per adult minimum ( I drink 4 to 5 a day as that is all I drink anymore) and 2 per child. So a 40 bottle flat of water is pretty much gone in 2 days. This is in normal temps and not sweltering days. Consider preparing at least 2 meals a day that would be north of a gallon or right at depending on what you are making and how. So just hygiene and cooking you are looking at about 10 gallons a week for just this and possibly more. Add it up.

We are not near any creeks or rivers. We do have a big pool so if the SHTF in warm days we have that as a reserve. As it stands when we have all the water we can set aside we are good for maybe 30 days with food on hand for much longer.

Water. It is the key. With out it the freeze dried foods are pretty useless.

If you intend to use your swimming pool as an emergency water source, you need to have either a substantial reverse osmosis system (and the means to operate it) or the means to distill 100% of the water you take from the pool for consumption. There are likely inorganics in your pool water from the sanitation chemicals that you can't remove any other way. Mechanical filtration and carbon adsorption won't help at all and resin/ion exchange won't help that much.

 

[churchmouse]

Thanks for the explanation. I remembered you having a pool or were thinking about one in pages past of this. I'd just always gone off the old 1 gallon per day per person as a rough budgeting idea. Currently I have 1 of the 7 gallon aqua tainers per person in the household topped off and sitting in the basement. In addition to that there's the water heater if things ever got that bad and going outside wasn't an option. For filtering I have katadyn hiker, hiker pro, sawyer mini's and basecamp filtering setups in addition to a big berky, in addition to all of that I have a couple of lifestraw types of filters but I don't usually count those. Of all that gear the only thing I've never actually used is the Berkey and Katadyn basecamp. Everything else has been on at least one outdoorsy outting. I'm with you 100% on the importance of water. I think I just take finding more of it for granted. One of the reasons I still have my good old Alice pack laying is because I can put the little shelf on it and go for a short walk with a 5 gallon jug on my back to go fetch more and bring it home for processing.

I forgot to mention the water heater. That is another 50 gallons.

 

[churchmouse]

If you intend to use your swimming pool as an emergency water source, you need to have either a substantial reverse osmosis system (and the means to operate it) or the means to distill 100% of the water you take from the pool for consumption. There are likely inorganics in your pool water from the sanitation chemicals that you can't remove any other way. Mechanical filtration and carbon adsorption won't help at all and resin/ion exchange won't help that much.

Boiling it is not an option...???
We have a fire pit and large pot for such things but I see your point.
Looks like the pool becomes a bathtub of sorts.

 

[teddy12b]

I found out on a trip to Alaska that boiling doesn't 100% kill everything. I was planning a trip in Denali national park and some of the units had water sources tainted with "heavy metals". I never found an answer for fixing that issue. There is no filter, chemical treatment or boiling that gets rid of it. Now I doubt you'll have that issue with pool water and probably not anything that a couple drops of bleach won't get out, but after I read that article about heavy metals it's made me really question the redundancy's I have in treating water. It's just something that always crosses my mind.

 

[eldirector]

Our water plan is currently the genset to run the well pump. Depends on fuel, of course. I have been wanting a manual pump for the well, but just haven't sprung for it. I should do that.

And set back more bottled, just because.

We also have a rain barrel good for 40 gallons or so. Would need filtered for drinking, but only filtered a little for bathing.