There is no time like the present to start storing up sustenance for that “just in case” scenario. In these uncertain times, when civil unrest can explode at the drop of an offensive phrase and natural disasters can strike at any moment, not to mention the threats of terrorism and possibility of war, it is a good time to ask yourself some questions. Are you prepared to withstand days, weeks, or even months without a source of food or water? Do you understand what could happen if, let’s say, a power grid is destroyed? Do you know how long a human being can survive without oxygen, food, or water? Well, read on and you will learn the answers to those questions, as well as some basic information about how to prepare a storehouse that the moths cannot eat away!
How Long Can A Human Survive Without Basics
First and foremost, let’s answer the question, “How long can a human being survive without air, food, or water?” An excellent way to remember the answer to this question is to memorize the following: “3/3/3 rule”. It’s explanation is that a human being can survive without:
- Air for up to three minutes,
- Water for up to three days, and
- Food for up to three weeks.
This is just a simple formula to keep in mind as you prepare your storehouse, with an obvious emphasis on food and water, although, in the case of war, one should learn the basics on how to create a clean air environment. However, that is for another article.
Water, The Most Important Natural Resource
So, now we know a human being can only survive three days without water, and water is the most important natural resource to have in an emergency situation. Studying and buying a top notch water filtration system is priority one in any survival scenario. In the footnotes to the guide, there is valuable information on where to do just that. Now, it is time we move on to the practical guide to food preparations and storage– a storehouse moths can’t eat away.
Space to Store Food
To begin with, you will need the space to store food. One does not need to live in a fortress or farm to be able to store food. You can make a storage facility out of a closet, garage, or basement. But in order to make food storage possible and easily accessible, one should sit down and go over a food storage plan.
The Best Place in Your Home
First, find the best place in your home. The space needs to be cool and dark for optimum stored food shelf life. If you live in a small apartment, your only choice may be closets, in which case a shelving unit would make the most of a small space. Living in an average, 1200-2400 square foot house increases your choices. If possible, use an entire room, preferably in a basement or ground floor.
Plans For Using This Space
Draw up plans according to the space you have and configure a shelving pattern that will maximize your storage capability, utilizing every nook and cranny of space. Set up shelves from floor to ceiling, making sure they are sturdy to hold food products. One can find shelving units at second hand stores at a very reasonable price.
Storing Your Food
Next, it’s time to start storing food away! Begin by simply buying extra canned food items every time you go grocery shopping. You will be surprised how quickly your supply shelves will fill up when you simply buy 10-20 cans each trip to the store. Try to have a section in your storehouse just for canned food.
Bags and Containers
Buy gallon-size freezer Ziploc bags and plastic storage containers at every grocery store visit as well. These will serve as handy ways to store food items and keep them fresh. Now, in order to have at least three month’s worth of food stored up, buy as much in bulk as possible. Rice, oats, barley, flour, and sugar can all be stored for long periods of time in plastic bins, after sealing them in freezer Ziploc bags. Label each bin.
Ordering Items for Long Shelf Life
Consider ordering freeze-dried food from a manufacturer or purchasing a food drier and vacuum sealer for maximum food storage freshness. These products extend the shelf life of food from months to years.
Buy Inexpensive Sealed or Packaged Foods
Buy sealed or packaged foods, such as granola bars, protein bars, and freeze-dried meals that only need hot water to prepare. These, you can get at any grocery store and are fairly inexpensive. The point is to build slowly and steadily, so the cost doesn’t break your budget, but by month three or four you will have the start of a well-stocked storehouse.
Building a Three-Month Storehouse
So, in order to reach a three-month storehouse supply, one must calculate according to how many people there are per household that will need three meals a day.
Doing the Math
Do the math and come up with a list of what items to buy each week or month, depending on how often you shop. See the following example:
Family Size: 4
Meals per day: 3 Each
Daily Meal Total: 12
30 Day Meal Total: 360
3 Month Total: 1080
Using the guide, a three month plan with three meals per day for four people will entail having supplies enough for 1080 meals. Keep in mind, you can make use of freeze-dried, bulk, packaged, and canned food items.
Make a Menu of One Month’s Worth of Meals
Make a menu up for one month’s worth of meals and plan your shopping accordingly. If you have 50 pounds (or 400 cups) of rice stored, calculate how much you will use per meal. If four servings equals two cups of rice, then you know how much rice you have on hand, et cetera, and can plan meals accordingly. Do the same kind of calculations with all food items. Then, you will have an accurate inventory of your storehouse and know exactly how much you will need to feed your family for the allotted time.
How to Make Your Storehouse the Best Possible
In order to make your storehouse the best it can possible be:
- Try to rotate canned goods as you buy them, keeping the older products in front to be used first.
- Make sure to seal bulk items completely first in Ziploc freezer storage bags and then sealed plastic containers.
- Keep a weekly inventory as you buy, in order to have enough food for at least a three-month period, if possible.
- Keep your storehouse clean, well-organized, and easily accessible, labeling all storage containers.
Nobody ever wants to have to use their storehouse because in doing so, it means something catastrophic has occurred. However, it is nice to have the peace of mind that a well-supplied storehouse provides, just in case the disaster strikes.
Footnotes: Water Filtration
http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com/drinking-water-filters-reviews/
https://www.theperfectwater.com/home-water-purifiers/
https://livepristine.com/collections/pristine-hydro
SurvivalBlog Writing Contest
This has been another entry for Round 74 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
- A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
- A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
- A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
- DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
- Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
- A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
- Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
- American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
Second Prize:
- A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
- A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
- A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
- A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
- A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
- A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
- RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.
Third Prize:
- A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
- A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
- Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
- Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
- Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
- Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
Round 74 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Don’t forget: 3 hours without shelter
The most underused storage space is the bed space. Simply remove the box spring and discard. Build a plywood box with a hinged or removable top to which the head board and foot board can be screwed to from within. Stain or paint appropriately and staple a bed skirt around the box sides. Be sure to place a support running down the middle of the box top to hold the lid up in the middle. Place bed mattress on top and make up the bed usual. For long term storage simply screw the lid down at the corners to keep kids and guest from knowing the contents. Do not tell the kids what is in the box. Each bed in the house can be made to hold food and would be appropriate in any size apartment or home. Cool Dry Discrete.
I should note that the bed frame and box spring are eliminated in this build. The plywood box should be made of hefty 3/4″ thick plywood and the head board and foot board are to be screwed to the box from inside the box. Box height should be as close to normal bed height as possible which should allow a 5 or 6 gallon pales to be stored inside. The length of the storage box should be about an inch longer than the mattress to allow blankets to fall naturally. Four walls and a lid for the box.
Stan and Holly Deyo wrote a book Dare To Prepare that has lots of good ideas on food storage and a lot of the items are purchased in your local area. I first checked it out at the local library and then later purchased it for myself as I felt is was so good. I write the date that I purchased items on the tops in permanent marker and sometimes what is in the can or package. I makes rotating easier and also inventory. The dates on packages are usually sell-by dates and the items will be good for much longer than initially thought. We have a throw away society. Accessibility is something to consider because if you can’t get to it without a lot of hassle, odds are you won’t use and rotate it. But it’s better to have it than not. A point to remember is to have a way to cook and heat food without electricity. As the east coast is being hit by severe weather I can’t help but wonder if anyone there has prepared and only hope they all make it ok.
I would also add 3 seconds without thinking, like a massive stroke or blunt truama to head like a baseball bat. As well as 3 months without hope, like lost at sea or being imprisoned.
Not just the # of meals, the key is the number of calories per day. The more active you are; more calories that are being used
Fats have a shorter life span than I would like and are a very important in the diet. Long term survival without fat in the calorie mix is questionable. You may want to look up rabbit starvation.
This is not a perfect solution but, I buy 8 quarts of vegetable oil at my local Winco each year and rotate out the 9 quarts in my food storage that I bought last year. I give the old 8 quarts to a food bank.
I’ve heard of people freezing olive oil with success, but I haven’t tried it. Freezing butter works well for me. Of course, freezing requires electricity. I use vegetable oil, as well, but I’ve had to throw away oil which became rancid. It seems wasteful, but I agree with you – there isn’t a perfect solution.
I have read that Crisco will keep forever but I don’t know if that is true.
I have hesitated to comment on this topic because it is so controversial. Because of Obamacare raising insurance prices out the roof, we went with a Healthshare program, since we “HAD” to have insurance. This program requires me to check in every month with a health coach, and this health coach has been trying to get me to believe the usual medical establishment myth that says that animal fat of any kind is bad and vegetable oil is healthy. I’ve been checking in for a year now, and in that year, I’ve been milking a cow and drinking my fill of raw milk and cream. And I’ve lost 40 pounds. Our lifestyle is very close to how we would live if we would have to survive just off the land. I eat very little “junk food.” So I understand the precise meaning of “the fat of the land.” There is a reason it was historically a sacred food. It is precious. And as it is the “fat of the land,” not the oil from the factory, it is healthy. My philosophy tends to be, if I can produce it with simple means and simple processes from the food I can naturally produce, it is probably healthy. If I have to be dependent on “the food industry” and “the medical establishment,” it is probably not healthy, because they care more about money than they do my health.
Incidentally, saturated fat (butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil) is much more shelf stable if it is handled correctly. It can sit on the shelf for many, many years and not go rancid. With tallow or lard, it helps to can it. Coconut oil doesn’t require canning. I have canned butter, but I prefer it frozen. Vegetable oil will go rancid within a year, no matter how you handle it. It’s yet another way the establishment tries to make us more dependent on them.
Teacher Mom, I store oil that has turned [rancid] in the cellar to use for homemade lamps. I just keep extra wicks along with the oil, but you can make your own from scrap cotton material from clothes you are discarding anyway. I always have a few chipped mason jars, and just keep old lids and rings that have started rusting to make the lamps. I put a bit of oil around the inside of the ring to keep it from “sealing” to the jar. Just poke a few air holes around the edge of the lid before putting it all together. I keep it all together in a plastic tub so I can grab it quickly if needed. Great way to store extra ways to light without spending money. There are examples online with pictures.
Many prepackaged foods in a pouch claim that they are one or two servings — don’t confuse servings with a meal! You may need 3 or 4 servings for a filling meal. Plus, many of these meals are mostly carbs — pasta, pancakes, cereals, and other grains. Very little fats and proteins because they tend to be expensive or have shorter shelf lives. To compensate, mix your food storage from many sources: long term storage foods, canned foods from the grocery store, dried beans from club stores, home pressure canned, stuff you grow or raise, etc.
After planning a 30 day menu, make sure you test your menu for a week to see:if you can actually prepare the food,is it reasonably tasteful and filling, how do you feel after eating this way for a week.
I figure also by the calories. My family of 5 with 2 adults and 3 small kids needs a minimum of 3 million calories a year. With God’s grace we are finally there!
One more in the “rule of threes” to add to the list: Three hours without shelter. Don’t forget the need to maintain a warm and dry living space or all the other preps may be for naught.
Rather than give old rancid oil away (might it make the next user sick as it would you?), consider using it as fire starter or fuel. A little goes a long way an makes a big difference in rainy conditions or if your wood is wet. I poured some in a squirt bottle to better control aim and flow. Just a few trigger squeezes perks up that fire real fine.