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In reading many of the replies to other threads a question has come to mind. So many folks post as though they have just a month to 3 months worth of supplies, which make me wonder …..what will you do after 3 months?
Our experience is that (living in our own personal SHTF situation) is that if all we had was 3 months we are to be frank screwed.
Things that must be questioned/considered:
crop failures (it takes more work that one can imagine to raise what you need and eat while doing such. It takes time to learn and imo if you are not there now, if the SHTF today, your in for some real heartache), government (are they going to bail you out after 3 months?), food shortages (mini ice age) and just a whole plethora of things that I won’t waste time here listing, such as caloric intake under duress.For those of you that started prepping in the last 2 weeks (after all if you just now realized you need to get prepping into gear, woke up so to speak, usually newbies buy everything they can as fast as they can) I would understand only having a couple of months of preps. But many have been at this for years and still only claim a few months worth. I don’t mean to be offensive for those more delicate/thin skinned in our midst, just wondering what people think. So again here is the question:
What will you do when your 3 months runs out?
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AnonymousMaybe not everyone is telling the whole story. Preppers are secretive people. 🙂
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You bring up what I always talk about to others about prepping in terms of farming and gardening-it isn’t easy. For one: There is a massive learning curve. For two: growing some tomatoes and a tub of taters won’t cut it. Even an acre of tomatoes and greens won’t cut it in terms of calorie crops. For three: soil health, crop rotation, compost, crop staggering, etc.
Not to mention, even the most experienced growers have catastrophic crop failures when they do ‘everything right’.
So to get back to what you are saying about the 3 month prep thing-if someone is prepping for a storm or power outage or minor social upset then I get that arbitrary number of 3 months.
If a person is prepping for long term social breakdown and/or catastrophic war then I think in terms of prepping you are looking to changing your lifestyle completely to focus on a measure of self sufficiency or community sufficiency that exists outside of the normal social single family unit structure as we know it now. Otherwise, good luck. -
Dark Future…I did think of that, but using that logic:
1) People cannot keep their mouths shut….own worst enemy.
2) Online presence (forums, radio, journalism, fb, twitter and so on) already puts them in a category of potential stores of wealth (food, guns or whatever else).
3) Sometimes saying 3 months is akin to boating accidents….reread bullet point #1.
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You will do the best you can . The reality is , that you have only so much space , only so much money to devote to preps . IF you have to bug out , its a moot point as there is only so much you can take with you . Only the rich have endless options , that is , only if they think the way we do , and have a system in place before hand ………….if not , they really are not all that better off if it all falls apart .
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We still have about a whole hog in the freezers.
We are getting eggs still, but not in the quantity we were in the summer.
Of course we could slaughter a few chickens if need be.
We scale back on the rabbits as winter gets closer. We could breed them again.
And we could always slaughter a goat or 2.
It would take every window sill, but I think we could get at least some of the faster growing greens in containers. Covered in plastic. Grow lights. -
AnonymousI think a lot of it depends on what people believe they need to prep for.
If you’re prepping for the short term, like weather incidents or unemployment things like that, then three months is perfectly acceptable. If however you’re more the societal collapse or end of the world type, well, three months won’t cut it. Also as Tolik mentions most people have a finite budget and room to store things. Then you could also add to the mix that some folk vastly exaggerate their abilities, what they have stored and what they intend to do (namely the armchair prepper) and then there are those who play down what they have and what they are prepping for.
I think we need to remember we’re on the internet, folk can say anything they like and it cannot be confirmed or denied.🤫 😁 -
AnonymousThere are not a lot of easy answers here. In my case I don’t know how many people to plan for. If it’s an EMP and all the cars are dead I don’t know if my daughter’s family will make it here or not. I know most of my neighbors are not prepared, so how many of them do I stock food for? Ok, let’s say just my family only and go with 6.
There are lots of places selling prepper food. Who’s food do I trust? What brands? Which seller website? Do I buy 500 pounds of rice from the local Asian market? Last I bought was about $1.25 a pound, ok I can do that. Used to be they talked about whole red winter wheat, in bulk. Do I buy that? Where? I don’t see bulk grains on any of the websites. I know that I should put loose stuff like that in buckets but I am supposed to put the food in food grade bags before I put them the buckets. I remember reading that your supposed to get some dry ice and let that melt in the bags before you seal the bags. I’m pretty sure where I can I get dry ice, but where do I find the food grade bags? Do I have to use food grade buckets if I use food grade bags? I don’t see food grade bags or buckets on the web sites anymore. Where can I get these? Can I just use 5 gal utility buckets from Lowes?
But you need a more balanced diet than rice and wheat. It looks like most of these sellers just want to sell prepared meals. Again, Who’s food do I trust? What brands? Which seller website?
I know I need more food but telling me I need more food is not helping, just making me more frustrated. Help. If you know, please answer my questions.
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For greens you run micro greens on trays takes 60-90 days many trays less space and failure resilience. Super easy and can work on fluorecent lamps for a few hours in addition to sunlight.
As for protein if you can fish they are year round. Use old methods if a collapse as no conservation officer same with hunting forget going out walking bait and kill.
You can grow scoby in kambucha to eat takes 30 days.
You can grow spiralina ( green algae) 60 days
There are food stretchers, adding cat tail pollen to flour, growing meal grubs for protein, crickets and snails.
Cooking techniques never ending stew to maximize nutrient recovery.
There are lots of things in forest to eat all year around just the great grey masses have no idea the food they walk by.
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Lots of folks are new. You’ve got to start somewhere. I know what you’ve been through and completely understand where you are coming from with your question.
It’s very easy to become overwhelmed when you’re just getting started. When you’re starting from zero, it’s hard to imagine creating a one-year, two-year, ten-year supply. It’s daunting! I know this because I’ve started over many times myself.
We’ve all got to start where we’re at and do what we can do. There’s really no way to compare one person’s level of preparedness to another person’s.
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Daisy is right. You do what you can with the abilities and cash that you have. Before you run out of food, then you follow what Selco has said over and over and try to barter for food. Even skills for food will do as long as you do it safely. There’s always hunting and fishing. Then there is trapping as well (squirrels, rabbits, birds, etc.) that will stretch out your supplies. If you don’t know how to make traps, then search how to do it on Youtube. Here’s a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/user/horsebackbob
It’s pretty simple actually. Gardening is a good skill, but takes months to start turning out a good crop, especially if you are feeding more than 1. I cannot imagine living in the city if SHTF. I’m suburbia, and am not even sure of that. I just pray that my survival skills will get me through, along with the simple preps that I did make.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
Eli Grekko.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
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@no money Daisy answers most of those in her blog
You can buy most of the liners online looking for mylar bags
The dry ice just gets rid of oxygen that causes decay, you will want to get some oxygen absorbers to put in with food.
Rice buy only white rice as it last longest brown has oils on it which go rancid.
Wheat look at an organic baking supply shop but look at getting a countertop grain mill with stone wheels or it is alot of work to grind.
Salt and sugar last forever.
You can make your own mre style meals they just won’t be as compact and most will require cooking and water to eat, but they will taste much better. This can be found on daisy’s site as well
Mountain house has ok stuff but to try them go to local outdoor place and buy some freeze dried food and try, no sense buying stuff you cant stomach unless for trade.
If you have huge storage go to aliexpress (alibaba) and buy bulk by tonne they have all the things you want.
Dried beans and vegitables even some pickled itemsLook at Craigslist or kijijji for food grade barrel. If the smell then fill with water and
Use either baking soda or vinegar to get rid of the smellsDaisy has a canning book it is full of useful info buy the jars at yard sales and thrift shop buy the lids from store. You van never have enough big mouth canning jars or lids.
Most things here is a mix of stuff and skills pick one thing Inside food prep and do it it takes time and mistakes to learn. Do it now when a mistake is a bunch of rotten food rather than going hungry for a winter. Join a group that does this and learn from the local pros…
I am only guy at canning bee here locally but I lift the heavy stuff and they teach me the tricks of the canning skill.
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WOW….Okay…..
I did not mean to offend anyone, just trying to make some think and for them to then take action.
Namelus and a few others answered the question. I really love the ideas of microgreens. With the cheapest solar panel you can run a grow light. Great ideas.
Someone mentioned levels of preparedness for small scale vs. large scale and loss of a job was mentioned. Maybe the 3 months is enough. Maybe 1 month of preps so-to-speak. But what is that job loss is 6 months to a year. This is addressed to the long time prepers.
The question was simply: What will you do when your 3 months of preps runs out?
That is not to say that 3 months is worth nothing or that it is some competition. Which it is not.
Maybe this will help some. Let us use gardening as an example. For the preper who buys a seed vault and thinks they have gardening covered. LOL wrongo partner. It requires work, it requires failure and learning from those failures and on and on and on.
Therefore one might say that the lack of experience in gardening to said preper is a handicap. It would be prudent for said preper to have the necessary preps to endure the handicap, until they are of the ability to overcome it.
Please don’t be upset with me here but excuses never put food on the table. You can always find space for more if you really wanted to. Hid in wall, caches, the possibilities is endless. Secondly money; here I go again making friends…(this is just a personal note I am sharing with you)…Is it more important to make the banker happy or feed your family?
So, after I made some of you upset with me I am sure, unintentionally of course. Let us return to the main question at hand: What will you do when your 3 months runs out?
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I have an emergency fund, 3 months’ worth of “stuff,” and grow microgreens on windowsills. While I do keep adding to my savings, I don’t intend to store more “stuff” as I live in a 700 square foot apartment in a city. I prep for bad weather and unemployment. The “stuff” is mostly for “lockdown” due to civil unrest, pandemic, and (heaven forbid) radiation due to a dirty bomb or a suitcase nuke — situations where I can’t leave my home to go buy supplies. These are the prepping goals I have picked.
If the United States collapses like Venezuela, then I guess I die! I’m not going to move to the country, buy land and animals, and learn how to be a rancher and farmer, just in case the apocalypse comes. Picture Eva Gabor in an episode of “Green Acres” … that would be me.
I do engage in serious research about getting a long-term residency visa in a foreign country. I don’t think the apocalypse is going to be evenly distributed throughout the country or the world.
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I’m certainly not upset. It’s a fantastic question.
People who have smaller stockpiles, not enough storage space, or tighter budgets just need to be ready to bring Plan B for food into action sooner than those of us with more food put back. (And of course, we should all have a Plan B. And C. And so on.)
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Molly,
Thank you so much for posting. At least you know what you plan, limits and such. Personally I thought that was a great answer. And BTW…..we laughed out loud at the image of Eva.
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Daisy,
Now more than ever I would encourage ‘radical prepping”. There is a title for ya to write about.
I do tend to come across a little brash at times, but it is a question I would have asked in my radio days. And you are correct in that our situation does and has made me see things more clearly than before, of which then I thought I had a pretty good hold on…..I was wrong.
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Here if all else fails I can pan for gold if I can’t find a job and economy still around.
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Additional question to ask is, that 3 months supply, is that under normal consumption rates?
I posted a thread about bone stock. If I lost a job, suddenly I would have to find ways to make sure every scrap gets used. Make a single chicken last a week. Make sure nothing goes to waste.
And, scale back on calorie intake. Might get a bit thinner.
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Here’s something very important that no one had mentioned yet. During a SHTF event, whether its just you individually or society as a whole, the body is placed under a LOT of mental stress. If you are forced to provide for yourself, now you can add a LOT of physical stress. Growing food, raising livestock, foraging, and all related activities takes a LOT of energy. That means that your calorie intake must be greater to compensate for the additional stresses. If you are looking to add “off the shelf” emergency foods to your storage, please take the time to read the daily calorie count they provide. Most list 1200 – 1500 calories. In a long-term stressful environment thats a slow starvation diet and your health will deteriorate. One MRE meal is over 3,000 calories. There’s a reason for that. Combat is mentally and physically stressful!
Dried beans and white rice, when stored properly, have a shelf-life of about 30 years. Right now both are CHEAP when you buy in bulk. Organic red winter wheat is a great choice for long-term storage, but you will need a grain mill…. a good one! And, if you are not Conan the Barbarian I would suggest one you can motorize.
While I am mentioning all those carbs, don’t overlook our body’s need for fat… and lots of it under stress. EVOO, coconut oil for instance. But the shelf-life is a lot shorter. Save those meat drippings. Eat the fat on that steak or opossum, or whatever you catch, kill, or run over.
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Natty Bumpoo
In reading many of the replies to other threads a question has come to mind. So many folks post as though they have just a month to 3 months worth of supplies, which make me wonder …..what will you do after 3 months?
Good question, and yes I agree, lot of people do not give up their real preps and it is perfectly fine.
There is another point here, more important.In case of serious event, you may adopt philosophy that your preps (3 months, 6 months…) simply giving you good chance until you figure out how to continue to live in new world, whatever that mean.
It may be you are living of your preps while you figuriong out what is the situation “out there” and what are the new options for you.
It would suck if you have to check that on day 7 because you do not have enough food, meds or whatever.In any case of serious event most of us will be force to “go out” and use our skills in obtaining resources, by having preps you are postponing usually that moment, until you are ready or situation around you get more clear, or in case of minor event until situation gets back to normal.
I find having preps as a (grat) help, but not complete solution to everything.
Complete solution usually include growing food, hunting, trade, having means to substitute some meds with herbs, or to find it trough other channels.
And yes, sometimes you can do only what you can do.
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Selco,
What series of events caused the beginning of a return to the new normal after your experience?
new normal in this case, the ability to once again to purchase food and supplies in peace
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Arriving of international peace troops, and forcing the truce.
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I remember.
My point here is that in my humble opinion, that may happen in the U.S. in some major areas of import/export for example.
When the U.S. collapses, there will be no coming back. There is no one coming to force peace, no food to trade for, all you have is all you will have and as you said skills will be what you survive on. Farming, security and such.
My concern is that to many people have romantic inclinations of SHTF. We have not had children throw grenades here since the middle 1800’s. The remedy for crop failures is a trip to the grocery. 3 months, won’t get you through that. I will say if a person has a job, it is better to skip a payment and assure more food for your family. Again, it is just my most humble opinion.
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This is a great thread, Natty B! From my perspective, it’s useful to look at food from a systems perspective. What do you need from start to finish? You can store only so much food, so how can you create it with the least amount of effort? Do you grow your food in soil or nutrient-enriched water? Something I haven’t heard mentioned is seed storage. While fruits and vegetables may not provide all your caloric needs, they do provide nutrients and fiber, both of which are essential for gut health and immune function. Microgreens are packed with nutrients and are relatively easy to grow. Sites like seed savers exchange, the grow network, and territorial seed have some good resources. I find learning to grow things is a satisfying challenge and gardening forces you to learn other skills, too, like carpentry, soil restoration, canning, drying, etc.. Start somewhere and learn more each season.
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I have been trying to grow microgreens. Not having much luck so need to get some grow lights.
I do have one question. I have been cleaning out my closets and almost all of them have food in them. I am trying now to get everything down to one closet. We do not have a pantry. So have had to make do. The one thing I have heard many times is in case of marshal law. Is it true they can come and take whatever food and even ammo or whatever if they deem it necessary? I heard a while back that Obama signed something into law allowing this but not sure of it. Does anyone know if this can happen under marshal law. I really have no way to hide what I have. And what food we do have will now only feed us for maybe 6 months if anything happens. This will also include the rest of my family and not just hubby and me. So we are looking to maybe have to feed at least 10 family members.
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Littlesister, keep working at it, you will succeed.
On the martial law question. Yes legally they could but won’t.
Their eyes will be more on warehouses (sam’s, costco and such), food distributors and manufactures.
We are far down the list.
There are many ways to hide things. In walls, under the floor or stack those can goods each side of your couch then throw a small table cloth over them and you have instant end tables, for example.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by
Natty Bumppo.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by
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Looking at the three month time frame is an interesting one.
As preppers we may or may not have enough food or supplies for that time period. And what happens will greatly determine what time frame we need to consider.
Job loss? That can be a day, a week, a month or longer. And with that comes personal decisions. A while back several locals were out of work for quite a while. Why? Because taking a $12.50 an hour job was below them, they were used to making $70k a year.
Me I shut down my shop and took a “regular” job, at a third the pay, because of the same economic downturn. The difference, I didn’t let pride prevent me from providing for the family.
How much do we prep for? We prep for what we can, be it three days, three weeks or months. More can be better if you have the space and cash, if not, you make do.
What do you do when three months isn’t enough? Gardening around here is more than a challenge. And producing enough microgreens, or other items for a family, thats not just a simple task. Nor is it something that happens overnight. Sprouts might be a better option.
But it being January, two thirds of the US isn’t hitting the growing season for another 4-5 months. How does one start making enough food outside of storage?
Long term has many aspects, not just gardening, not just storage, not just anything. It becomes a lifestyle and permanent changes to methods and methodology.
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I hope I am posting this in the right place. Maybe Dasey will know the answer. I have been cleaning out closets full of food that I got when Farm Fresh was going out of business, but I also have food that I stocked up and put in mylar bags with 02 aborbers. I found in a big box a bunch of the knorr sides that I packaged up in 2012 & 2013. My question is would they still be good. They are still in the package bought from store but was put into the mylar bags. So they are at least 6 years old and past the expiration dates. I am thinking they might be stale by now.
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Littlesister,
Those Knorr sdes, what kind of fats/oils are in the ‘mix’?
Stale is tolerable, rancid isn’t.
And the easiest option is to try a couple and reseal the bags/boxes.
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I don’t think there is much fat and oils, but will check that. I was first starting out back in 2012 with prepping and long term foods. It was a learning curve for me. I will try out a couple to see how they are and if doesn’t taste right, I will throw them out. Haven’t bought any in a few years now, so will double check on oils and such. Thank you for that info on the oils and fat content.
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Seems I have lots of questions as I clean out my makeshift pantries. (closets). I have a great deal of olive oil. A lot of it is in glass bottles and has a best buy date of 2013 and 2014. At that time I was able to get it buy one get one free but was unable to use it up fast enough. I have read on another forum a long time ago that you can use it for lamp oil. My question is has anyone else heard this, tried it and can you keep that oil in a shed for that purpose? They say it does not smoke. But burns well in an oil lamp.
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Oil lamp information
http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/Oil-Lamp-Parts/Lantern-Oil.htm
Olive oil life
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Whirlibird thank you for those post. I printed out on making the olive oil lamps. So now I have a DIY project. I was thinking of dumping the oil but this is a much better option. Going to box up the olive oil to put in garage where temps are much better just for this purpose. it will extend my other lamp oils for the addaden lamps.
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