What should you be buying right now? Think what do I need to survive the winter. A fairly cheap emergency 5 gal bucket of supplies can be put up right now. Here is a list of things you can put away for just in case.
1- 2 lbs 10 ozs of Oatmeal
4 pounds of sugar
1 can baking powder
10 lbs of pre sift bread flour
4 cans of tuna fish
1 pound of dried peas
1 lb navy beans
2 pounds of pinto beans
5 lbs of rice
1 pound of salt
This cost right around 20 dollars and it fits in 5 gallon bucket you can store it in your basement this is food for 1 person for a week. You have oatmeal for breakfast. You can make pan bread out of the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. The Tuna Fish for lunch, pan bread again for dinner with either navy bean soup, or spilt pea soup or pinto beans in many different ways. Not the best eating but better then going hungry. Add some snares and traps to get your meat and you can be eating fairly well.
The next month switch
1 Cream of wheat
1 jar of peanut butter
1 jar of jelly
10 pounds of flour
5 pounds of rice
6 packs of yeast (long term store in freezer good for 2 years)
6 store brand Mac and Cheese
Next Month
10 Ramon noodles
5 pounds of rice
1 lb of tea
5 lbs of flour
1 can of baking powder
1 pound navy beans
1 pound spilt peas
2 pounds pinto beans
4 cans of tuna fish
1 lb of oatmeal
As you can see it doesn’t cost a lot to put some extra food away. Now think about cooking. Everyone thinks you need emergency cooking stove but a much better choice for folks that live in small towns or the country is propane stoves. 100 pound cylinder well last roughly 6 months 2-100 pound cylinder put away will last a year. I’m talking regular cooking stove with oven even more efficient is apartment size propane cook stove. There you have food and a cook stove that is covered. Now what emergency lights.
Most folks talk about candles open flames are dangerous a much better choice is Dietz Kerosene lantern. A Standard Dietz is roughly 12 candle power not the best light but pretty idiot proof. 12 gallons of pure kerosene the expensive clear stuff sold in Home Depot or Menards. Don’t buy the cheap stuff used for kerosene heater that stinks when burn and gives me a headache. extra wicks and 1 extra globe is needed that should get your through a year.
Another supplement lights are the solar charged yard white lights I have tested the small ground ones gives you lights for hours at night or you can just charge them all day take the batteries out and used them for radio, walkie-talkie, flashlights, etc. wait to the end of summer when they go on sale.
A wood stove is great to have for emergency heat source too. Make sure you have extra pipe and elbows stored. Chain saw you need extra chain extra bar, 12 sharpen files, a hand sharpen tool, air filter, 2 cycle oil, chain and bar oil, spare pull rope, and spark plug. 5 gallons of gas should be able to cut you a winter supply of wood depending on where you live and how long winter last. A splitting maul, axe spend the extra money of the fiber glass handles. After years of splitting woods I can guarantee when you really need it is when you will break the handle on the splitting maul.
Now the big one water. You really can’t store enough water for very long. I have said this many times before if I had property before I even build a shed on it the first thing you need is a well. Wells are very expensive to put in but worth every penny. You need water every single day. You can even hand pump water from 100 foot well with a different system some use check valves. A friend of mind had a set up like that he built a small shed around it super insulted it and heated it with just a pilot light off an old propane heater. Keeps working even at 30 below zero.
I have read a lot about different crisis areas around the world. What sticks out in my head a hand pump well is a God sent, food store and be able to grow more do you have your heirloom seeds put in? Soap I read one story about someone’s Grandfather who stored a water barrel full of hand soap during the depression he traded the soap for food and other things, Some form of lights, extra tooth brushes, some form of washing clothes. One way it is a lot of work is 3-5 gal buckets with lids the first is wash you drill a small just big enough for plunger handle stick clothes in cover with water a little laundry soap plunger it for a couple of minutes, remove wring out into the bucket for next load, next bucket is rinse same thing plunger it a couple of minutes ring out last rinse same thing, wring out good and hang to dry. You will be surprised how well this works. But it is hard work like everything else folks will learn that nothing is easy when you don’t have the comfort of electricity.
What about Showers? Well you can buy solar shower heater they sell in camping supply stores. Works great. Or you can make your own out of a 5 gallon bucket. Drill a 3/8 hole near the bottom on 1 side. Thread in 3/8 pipe nipple 3 inches long put a nut on each side. Silicone the heck out of it both sides. Add a kitchen sink hand sprayer with hose to the pipe check with the hardware store to buy the correct pipe nipple. Paint bucket black you now have a solar water heater. Warning this water will get very hot in the summer might even hit 200 degrees F. only put about 1/3 full and added cold water before using. Make sure you warn the children and everyone using it.
Like everything you are doing it is much easier to do all this ahead of time test it make sure everything is ready for use for when the real emergency hits. What are the 3 most common medical items used. Aspirin or pain reliever, Neosporin, chap stick make sure you have plenty stored away. Doesn’t hurt to get a first aid kit Wal-mart $10 to have some extra supplies on hand. In fact just used mine the other day the tweezes inside work great for removing splinters.
What else to add? Snares 3 dozen small game, 3 dozens medium and 2 dozen camlocks, 4 -110 conibears, do you understand how to set snares? Do you know how to clean animals for food, do you know how to tan leather? The list can go on and on. But take care of the basic first.
Physiological Needs
Our biological needs: The need for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs due to mans need to survive
Safety Needs
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
Needs for Esteem
Needs for Self-Actualization
Safety needs, nothing like a good ole Remington 870 12 ga pump shotgun for feeling safe. Have on hand mixture of slugs, buckshot, and birdshot. Criminal that have this pointed at them reported the barrel of that 12 ga looks to be about 4 wide. Intimating, you rack a shell in that is warning shot, every person in the world knows what that means it speaks in every language loud and clear.
As times become harder a new discovery will happen family well once again learn to work as a family unit. Everyone well feel the love and affection a well timed hug for the children and or wife speaks louder then words. Explain to everyone you all are family and are important and belong together.
Praise not too much but enough so everyone self esteem is build up.
Self- actualization can best be explain on this link.
Self-actualization refers to an individual’s need to develop his or her potentialities and do what one is capable of doing. The self-actualizes are people who make full use of their capabilities in any field of activity they choose.
Interesting the need to develop to the person full potentialities what ever that might be. Plenty of room for that in this cash strap environment that is for sure.
Bruce Buckshot
