There are a lot of things to consider when you begin prepping. The easiest way to start is to prioritize. Consider the most important things you need every day. Food and water is the most basic and hopefully obvious consideration on the top of the list. I see so many videos and blogs talking on and on about the gear they use and store but don't mention bulk food or water storage or how much for how long, or storage space and locations.
So lets begin with water. The single most essential thing a person needs, in fact all life needs. For the sake of convenience and safety I will estimate and round off my numbers to allow for larger portions, For example, When talking about a years supply of anything I will be calculating for 400 days rather than 365. It is estimated that the average American uses between eight and ten gallons (30.28 - 37.85 liters) of water each day. It takes about 70 gallons of water to fill a bath tub. However for drinking the average person needs about one gallon of water each day, more or less depending on environment and physical activity. This means that a full bath tub can provide enough drinking water for about two months. Nutrition is a major factor to health and second only to fitness, but in a short term emergency nutrition can be temporarily marginalized for sake of calories. However this will eventually lead to a state of undernourishment which can then create greater problems. Some of the problems that occur when undernourished are mental, being depression, agitation, and anxiety. Other symptoms of undernourishment include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, weight loss. Severe starvation can lead to hair loss, fainting, hallucinations, and stop menstruation and cause abortions in pregnant women. All of this can have detrimental effects on survival. It is possible to be so malnourished one cannot eat let alone gather or prepare food; this should be avoided for obvious reasons aside from the fact that starvation is not an entirely pleasant death.Approximately one year of food for one person - One pay day I ran out and bought fifteen five gallon buckets with lids from Home Depot costing almost $3 per bucket and $2 per lid. I then went to Cash & Carry where I can buy bulk foods and purchased two 50lbs bags of white rice for less than $20 each, two 25lbs bags of black beans about $35 each, and two 5lbs bags of red kidney beans about $10 each. Later I purchased one 50lbs bags of whole wheat costing about $20 and a 50lbs bag of whole oats for about $20, one 50lbs bag of white sugar, and 2lbs of dry ice (way more than I needed). I then went to another store where I purchased 10lbs of honey and 5lbs of salt. I lined the buckets with food grade mylar bags and placed a few chunks of dry ice in them and filled the bags with one or the other types of food. Dry-Ice is just carbon dioxide. It is slightly heavier than oxygen and will settle evenly inside the buckets and displace the oxygen and suffocate any insect pests in the food. About one cubic inch of dry ice will sublimate into about one hundred square feet of carbon dioxide (but this varies wildly). Without oxygen the food is slightly better preserved because it cannot oxidize. I used four buckets for 100lbs of rice, 2 buckets for 60lbs of beans, four buckets for 100lbs of oats and wheat, two buckets full of white sugar. I did not seal the mylar bags and only folded their tops and taped them shut with masking tape. I still need a few more things like spices, and oils but because oils spoil faster than these dry goods I'm holding off on bulk storage of cooking oils.
water storage - I found a man on Craigslist who was
selling large blue 55 gallon water tanks for $25 each. I purchased two from him
with a polite $1 delivery charge. When he dropped them off I carried them into
the back of the garage and using the garden hose I filled them to the top and
capped them. Water can store for a very long time without any problems but I
suggest an occasional refreshing. In the spring perhaps, drain the tanks of all
water and refill them to keep a clean supply. At one gallon a day for drinking
only I have about 110 days worth of clean drinking water at hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment