Thursday, April 19, 2018

PREPPER: 17 Essential Blackout Survival Kit Items

PREPPER: 17 Essential Blackout Survival Kit Items

Having a blackout survival kit was something that was unheard of until just recently. Technology has really come a long way in just a short time. Electrification initially began to grow from the 1880s to the 1960s. At first, it was only the rich who could afford what was considered a luxury.
So many people during those times were not dependent upon electricity as our society has become. They were mainly self-sufficient. Now many of us can’t imagine being without electricity for just a few short hours.

We’ve grown accustomed to having air conditioning, lights, and television. It is a way of life now to have it. As a matter of fact, a lot of places in the United States require being connected to the electrical grid. So when a blackout happens many of us freak out like it is the end of the world.
Still many of us experience short-term blackouts due to natural disasters, inclement weather and power failures. On top of that, there is the risk of an EMP attack that would leave us in the United States without power for at least 18 months. This is why it is important to have a blackout survival kit included with your home preparedness system.

What happens in a blackout?

When the power goes down you are going to lose a few things. Obviously, you are going to lose power for lights, cooling/heating, and communication. Lighting isn’t imperative to survival but is extremely helpful and makes surviving a lot easier.
However, cooling/heating can have a huge effect on your survival depending on where you live. If you live up north where there are brutal winter storms then you could be in danger of frostbite or hypothermia. For those that live in hotter climates, you could be in danger of heat strokes and dehydration.
Communication is another important aspect of survival. It can be a survival multiplier. Communication can give you warning of impending danger like a military invasion or even less extreme circumstances. It can also give you information on relief efforts.
Just recently in Florida, we experienced a hurricane that took down our power for two and a half weeks. The cell phone towers were down so I wasn’t able to communicate with friends and family that way. Luckily we had HAM radios and walkie-talkies. This was helpful to communicate needs to each other as a lot of people were without food and water. It was also helpful to communicate for security in our neighborhood. Luckily our blackout survival kit was able to provide us with enough power to keep those devices functioning.

What is a blackout survival kit?

A blackout survival kit is preferably a small container that contains essential items that you can quickly grab to adjust to being without power. It is designed to help you safely get to your preparedness and survival supplies quickly.
The kit should be in a designated place where you will have quick access in the dark. Of course, you will want to have your other preparedness and survival supplies in the standard places. I would recommend placing these kits in drawers, nightstand and end tables in every room of your house. That way you don’t have to walk to one particular room in the house in the dark.
It should be communicated to your family members where these kits can be found. I would recommend placing glow in the dark tape on them. That way they can be easily seen.
These kits should provide enough backup power for up to 72 hours. For more of a long-term grid-down scenario, you should have other backup sources of power. Typically you can place those items in your pantry or garage.

What a blackout survival kit isn’t

The blackout survival kit is designed to help you get to your preparedness and survival supply. This kit isn’t designed to survive off of alone. However, you should eventually build up a supply of backup power for anything over 72 hours.

Survival Kit Items

Waterproof container (Starting off I would recommend getting a waterproof and compact case to place these items into. That way water doesn’t destroy the items. I would recommend the airtight/waterproof container that can be found at the Smart Prepper Gear Store.)
Glow in the dark tape to place on the container
Multi-tool (My recommendation is a Gerber but there are other great options out there. This would be helpful if you have to work on the circuit breaker.)
Work gloves
Small but powerful flashlight
Glow sticks
AA batteries
AAA batteries
Emergency Radio (This is helpful to be informed on what is going on around you. It will also provide you with helpful information on relief efforts)
Headlamps (This will keep your hands free while working on something instead of holding a flashlight.)
Tealights
Lighters and/or matches
Knife
Portable HAM radio (My recommendation is the Baofeng UV-5R. I’ve done some posts on how to operate it HERE)
Laminated emergency contact list (It should be laminated so that it isn’t damaged by water)
Hand warmers (These can keep you warm until you are able to build a source of heat)
Portable battery charger (I prefer to use Anker’s portable battery charger. I also have them packed in my EDC and survival bags)

Long-term blackouts

Again, this kit is only designed for up to 72 hours. Once you are able you should stock up on other sources of power. Having a generator and a portable solar power charger would be helpful. I also have LED lanterns. These bad boys produce a lot of light and are battery powered. The gas powered lanterns typically create a lot of heat. Living in Florida it just isn’t a good idea to have that much heat being produced. If you do get another type of lantern make sure that it is safe to use indoors.

7 Important Areas of Your Home Preparedness System

Contrary to popular belief, your bug out plan should not take precedence over your home preparedness plan. We should strategically prepare so that we are never forced to bug out. When it comes to developing your home preparedness system there are 7 important areas to keep in mind.

Show Notes

in this episode, we are continuing our theme for the year
for the first quarter, we talked mainly about food and water preparedness
for this next quarter of the year, we are going to be talking about shelter preparedness
more specifically this month we are going to be dealing with grid down scenarios
grid down scenarios can include short-term black scenarios to more extreme situations like an EMP attack
to me, preparedness should start at the home
I’ve heard a well-known prepper on YouTube who says that you should first focus on your every day carry and bugging out
However, I believe that home/shelter preparedness is apart of your everyday carry
I don’t believe that you should focus on bugging out before preparing your home
the likelihood that you will ever have to bug out is very low
this is in comparison to more likely threats that you will face at home
as I have mentioned multiple times and have written in The Strategic Prepper, bugging out should be plan B
bugging out should be if you have no other option, it is your last resort
this is because bugging out will make your more vulnerable
so it should be our goal to be fully prepared so that we are not ever forced to bug out
so this all begins with home preparedness
even if you are out and about when SHTF your plan should be to make it home where most of your preparedness and survival items can be found

Grid down scenarios

like I mentioned before we are going to be talking about grid down scenarios
blackout scenarios are the more common occurrence
they are not as extreme as more long-term recovery scenarios like an EMP attack
but we have seen in the past what can happen when people go without power for even a short amount of time
there tends to be looting and violence
on top of that, you are limited to the number of resources you can find to survive
just recently here in Florida, we experienced a blackout scenario for about a week and half
stores were not able to sell anything
so many were stuck without gas, electricity and even food
unfortunately, there were lives that were taken due to this
now it wasn’t as bad as something like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans
but that was another grid down scenario that took many lives

6 Important Areas of Preparedness to focus on for your shelter

1. First Aid

in a grid down scenario, you may not have the ability to run to the hospital to get help
they may be without power as well
plus you may not even have the gas to get there
in a more extreme scenario, an EMP attack may stop you from traveling anywhere
so there are always going to be accidents even in grid down scenarios
this is why it is important to have some sort of first aid
even if that first aid is just to patch you up until you can get some professional help
this is why in a collapse scenario health care professionals are going to be in demand
not only should we have first aid items but we should get some basic training
there are places like Red Cross that have first aid training classes that you can attend
even local community colleges provide certification in first aid as well

2. Heating/Cooling

when the grid goes down you are going to be vulnerable to the elements
your shelter/house may protect you to an extent
however, if the grid goes down in a brutal winter then many will die
we see this now when blizzards hit throughout the country many people die
now these blizzards may only cause a short-term power outage
so if the grid is down much longer then the casualty rate will multiply
even if the grid goes down in a scorching hot summer
there is still the chance of people having heat strokes
we have seen hot temperatures take lives as well
at least with the grid up you are able to find some sort of relief
so when you are developing your home preparedness plan you will want to have ways to cool or heat your home
it is all going to start with what you are wearing
in a blog post, I talked about the must survival clothing layers to wear in the winter
in the summer you will want to do the opposite
you will want to have fewer layers
so the rule of 3’s tell us you can only survive 3 hours in rough weather conditions
for heating, you can typically build clothing layers and have a way to build a fire for heat
with cooling a house it is a little more challenging
you could have a generator powering a window a/c unit
however, in a long-term recovery event, you will become a target if you have that luxurious
on top of that, it will be challenging to get enough gas to power the generator
however, if you choose your home/shelter wisely then you can pick a house that will remain cool even without a/c
now heating and cooling wouldn’t be essentials in average climates
this is mainly for homes that have extreme winters and summers

3. Food and Water Supply

now food and water supply should be apparent as a prepper
typically this is the first thing preppers begin to stockpile
but it is important enough to reiterate their necessity
again the rule of 3’s tell us you can only survive three days without water and 3 weeks without food
in a grid down scenario, you won’t have the opportunity to find stores to sell these items
they will either run out or the stores will be looted
so you will want to have your own supply
last month I talked about the 3 prepper food layers that you should use when building your stockpile
first off, you will want to have at least 2 paychecks’ worth of store-bought food with long shelf lives
this will be helpful for short-term recovery events like blackouts or natural disasters
store-bought food is the easiest to stockpile and you have better accessibility
from there you should begin building a stockpile of at least 6 months worth of dried food
this should be enough to hold you over until you can grow your survival garden
most of us preppers do not have enough space to store years worth of food to survive
so the alternative is growing a survival garden
in a blog post I talked about the essential foods needed in a survival garden
you will want to grow foods that are perennials, don’t take much space to grow and can be easily stored
now there are a lot of debates or objections to growing a garden
many of us don’t have land to grow that food
that is why it is important to begin strategically prepping now
you may want to look for a way to buy a house with some property or at the very least some land where you can grow the food
then there is the objection that growing a garden will make you a target to looters
that is why I would recommend using the secret survival garden method that camouflages what you are growing
that way passers-by don’t see what you are growing
I will link to the show notes of this episode a great book on The Secret Garden of Survival

4. Sanitation

without the modern conveniences of toilets and showers many lives have been taken
you can look at 3 world countries that don’t have the modern capability that we have
many people die in those countries due to the lack of proper sanitation
in a long term recovery event you may be exposed to rotting bodies and diseases
you will want a way to stay clean and free of that
even in short term recovery events there is still the possiblity of lives being taken due to improper sanitation methods
there are some options
you can have an offgrid toilet system setup
I’ve seen many homesteaders use buckets with saw dust to cover waste
then they use that waste to make fertilizer which will help with your survival garden
having a local water resource is also nice to have so that you can bath
an alternative that I used during a grid down scenario was a solar camping shower
you can place this bag full of water out in the sun for a few hours
it will warm up the water so that you have a nice warm shower
cold showers suck

5.Backup Power

to me power isn’t essential to survival
however, it is a survival multiplier
I believe that it will increase your survival time in long term recovery events
yes, you can survive without it but it makes survival a lot easier
there would be electronics that would be helpful in a grid down scenario
for example, flashlights need batteries
now you could walk around with a lantern the whole time
but a flashlight is going to give you long range visibility which in turn can give you an advantage over an opponent

6. Communication

according to the rule of 3’s, you can only survive 3 months in isolation
this is why I disagree with a lot of the lone wolf survival people
we are designed to be interactive creatures
so we need communication with others especially friends and family
communication is also a survival multiplier
having communication can give you an idea of what is going on in the outside world
if an extreme scenario like an EMP attack happens you can be updated on advances of enemies or just updates on relief operations
it also helps you to coordinate with family and even survival groups
if you have a survival retreat it will be imperative to have means of communication to defend your property
this will give you a heads up on an enemy

8 Ways To Catch Fish Without Gear

What if fishing is your only way to survive in the next coming days? Do you think you can pull through without proper gear?
Truth be told, your creativity will play a big role for you to successfully pull through. Here is an opportunity to make your experience a success by employing the following techniques.

Creatively device baits, a hook and line from any reachable materials in your surrounding

What to use for the baits

You can attempt to improvise lures using several items commonly found. Among them is a piece of bright color clothes, feathers, and shiny clear earrings. You can farther disguise them by shaping them to resemble an insect.
What else could be more exciting than such acts?
Keep in mind that your goal is to survive fishing even with no gear. When fishing in clear water ensure that the bait you use has a bright color. Bait that has a bright color is easy for the fish to identify thus fall into the trap

What to use for the hook

Some of the materials to consider include a piece of wood, a bone or even shells and sharp twigs. You can attempt to sharpen any of the items using a knife if available. You need to be very articulate on how to utilize these items for a possible catch. Just ensure that the hook you improvise is in position to function well.

Materials to use for the fishing line

You can creatively devise a line from a wire, threads from a piece of clothes and wild ropes from the trees. Find a way to cast the lines by attaching them to tree branches which are spiral.

• Using weirs

You can use weirs to carry out fishing in tidal water bodies. Use stakes that are longer in height than the depth of the water.
How do you do this?
Drive the stakes deeper in the banks of the shallow waters. The stakes will create a barrier with three faces along the water path. Open the ends of the barrier where the water is flowing down the stream. Create a wall that has a V shape.You can do this by adding more stakes. Ensure that the wall is open at its ends, as this will direct the fish into the weir. Other materials to use in place of stakes are rocks. Once the fish gets into the trap, you can use a spear or your hand to remove them.
The size of the barriers you can come up with depends on the water volume and materials. Creating a weir that extends to the walls of the river will give you better results. This is because it will allow only a few fish to pass. Are you fishing in an area that is muddy? No problem, simply direct the fish towards your trap from down the river toward the direction of the trap. This method is also known as trap fishing.

• Creating a spear

The materials you can utilize to create a spear include sharp bones, metal or a piece of wood. Using such spears will work well for you during the nights as you wade the waters. Carry along a flashlight to help you with vision.
Spearfishing will help you to catch the big fish other than line fishing. This is because fishing using either lines or hooks happens randomly. The good news is that it’s still possible to make a bigger kill even without the fishing reel. You can also create a spear with jaws using a long pole.
The best material to use in improvising a spear is the willow wood. You may decide to either sharpen the end of the wood or use a knife. If you choose the knife you will have to tie in well at one end of the wood. Choosing spearfishing as your technique needs a lot of skills. Apart from the skills, you will need lots of patience and you have to be very fast. Do a lot of practice to sharpen your skills as it can be frustrating at times.

• Noodling

It’s possible to catch the fish you are yearning for using your bare hands. You only need to search for it in the right places. What are some of the places to look out for? They include the rocks, logs of trees and the dark uneven trains along the river path. This technique will require you to be very patient and alert. Once you get the opportunity, grab your prey by the gills or mouth out of the water as fast as possible. But don’t you dare think that this is as simple as it sounds.
Carry out this kind of fishing only when the weather is less cold. Catfish are among the fish you will likely get using this method. Do you think it’s possible to catch fish with your bare hands? If this sounds weird to you, then you have never been in a survival situation. Anyway, it can never be that easy but it’s got to be done!

• Caning the fish

This may sound so crude but remember survival here is your goal. Simply get a nice strong cane. Whenever you spot a fish cane it hard in order to paralyze it. If you happen to miss the first hit, do it again as long as the fish is still in your vicinity. Once the fish becomes weak and can no longer escape your whip you can happily take it away. Let this be your last option because caning the fish has a lot of dark sides.

• Rock throwing

Get an average weight stone and throw it deep into the waters. This aims at dispersing the fish as they stumble for safety. Get ready with a trap to fetch them out. You can use a large container with perforation to drain the water away. This will trap the fish and you can put it away into storage. Wow, this truly sounds funny, don’t you think so? As funny as it may sound, it may be the answer to your survival puzzle.

• Using fish poison

Are you aware of certain wild leaves that make the fish inactive once they get their smell? How about making some wild juice to mix in the upstream water so as to make the fish immobile? The ancient populations did in and made it, why don’t you? Well, this method isn’t among the best ways to counter survival challenges but there’s no harm in trying it.

• Fishing net

You can improvise a net for fishing using blanket, clothes or a towel using two sticks. For a successful venture target the shallow waters. There you will be able to find different groups of small fish to target. Scare the fish toward an area with no escape zone. Once you trap the fish with net lift it up quickly so that they do not slip back.
You will realize that it isn’t that hard to still manage fishing even without the gears. Simply remain in focus while putting your acts together. You are definitely going to have a meal in the next few hours. Just have confidence in the clothes net you have come up with. This technique is great for targeting the smaller fish than the contrary. Be ready to catch lots of small fish as long as you remain patient.

• Basket trap

You will need to get a container with a funnel shape opening to create a basket trap. That way your trap will be very effective and meet its purpose. This method will work well if you target the small fish. The materials to use in preparing such a trap are wood and soda bottles. If you decide using the water bottles you will have to cut off the neck and invert it into the bottle.
Lead the fish towards your trap for them to be caught. Once they are caught remove them using your hands into your collection tool. Ensure to identify the spot you suspect to have the fish before laying your trap. Once you have the spot in mind, let your trap do the rest. However, you will need to drive the fish you target towards the trap. Hey, try taking it easy and you will surely reap the benefits.

Conclusion

Do not allow yourself to starve when there’s so much at your disposal. Use whatever materials that you have around you to grab that fish.
Task yourself to make it work even when you do not have a single gear with you. You might just discover other interesting ways to fish that you have never thought of before. Besides this might be a great opportunity for you to learn more survival tactics. Getting such skills will help you pass the same to others who might one day be in the same predicament.
Do not be afraid of challenges as they are the once which greatly determine growth!

The Best Emergency Food Methods For Keeping Your Family Alive

Posted on April 10, 2018 Written by Mark Lawrence 3 Comments

Surviving the Collapse – The Best Emergency Food Methods For Keeping Your Family Alive

A second catastrophe promises to follow in the foot steps of a first — it’s a catastrophic food shortage. The time to prepare for that is now. Lessons passed down by expert preppers on storing up emergency food on a budget…

Emergency foods are something that families, church and relief organizations, schools, institutions, and food banks should be stocking up on nowadays, while it’s still possible, while there’s still food to be had.

Our nation is sitting on a ticking time bomb and we unfortunately cannot tell exactly when this bomb is going to finally detonate. But we can hear it ticking. Louder with every passing year. Yet, no matter how frantically government and the military work to defuse the bomb, defusing this bomb continues to elude them. Of course I’m using an analogy to describe some serious crap hitting the fan.
When it does, we are looking at a famine on a level that this world has never seen before.

Nationwide food shortage and then —

Famine. No more food coming in from anywhere.
What if the day comes where stores never re-open? At the point where your survival food stores become exhausted after several weeks following a collapse, you’re either going to have to turn to begging for food, or a very difficult and frustrating life trying to hunt, fish, trap or forage in the adjacent forests — called living off the land — but truly, only the adept, the knowledgable, and the experienced are going to be able to “live off the land” and the ones who do won’t be found in any nearby woods or hills.
Because there won’t be anything to hunt or forage for in the nearby woods or hills following a major disaster.
Wildlife is very sensitive to the presence of people. So a large number of people fleeing into wilderness regions is going to send much of the wildlife fleeing for remote regions. It’s these remote regions that the hunting can be good; but only the most adept are likely to make it that far where there are no roads, where there may be rugged mountains and canyons and rivers to cross; there may be dangerous weather conditions to deal with depending on the season. If you can make it to a remote region, I’m talking really remote, it will be possible to live off the land, but it won’t be easy.

Are you just fine right where you’re at?

In a worst case scenario, we may see martial law, a government collapse, a civil war of sorts. Our nation weakened, it’s defenses obsolete, it’s critical infrastructure all but destroyed, a scene from Red Dawn (I’ve referred to this movie in another article) may play out in a number of communities. Are those Russian jets in the skies? Are those parachuters dropping down onto main street, Chinese or North Korean? The sky is full of them. The clouds were a perfect cover when radar defenses on the ground were no longer working, having been fried by the EMP that had first wrecked America’s power grid six months back.

Build and make your own energy source

Parachuters are landing in residential neigborhoods. Quickly gathering up parachutes. Quickly checking weapons and gear. Firing at people who had been watching it all unfold from front yards and porches.
Who’s cargo planes are landing at the local municipal airport with tanks and military vehicles streaming out? Chinese symbols. Russian symbols. What the hell is going on?

Hopefully that’s not your community

But it may be more than one community at some point. It’s very possible that your community will make it through the weeks and months following a collapse that we can feel in our blood and in our bones is heading America’s way some point soon. We can see the signs in the heavens and the earth, I believe, that Jesus warned about when he was here and told us to be on the watch for. Impending judgement. We were told, and cautioned as Christians, to watch for it. When we see it, we will know. It’s almost like Yoda talking to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, telling Luke he will know the time when the time is the right time. What Yoda? That makes no sense. On reflection though, Luke finally one day figures out what Yoda was telling him. What is the Lord telling us right now through the Spirit? For the unbelievers out there, who don’t yet know God, for a Christian this essentially means what is God leading us to do or prepare for without using words to tell us?

Some of us should be stockpiling food

Some communities, some neighborhoods, some small towns and cities will likely make it through the first few months following a collapse relatively fine, all things considered. Other’s won’t do so well and will be very dangerous places to live.
You’ll need some friends, you’ll need some fire power, hopefully God is on your side with all that fire power and he’s going to use you in some way to make a difference, for good. The violent hand of God is something we see repeated in Old Testament chapters of the Bible. I expect it’s something we’re likely to see again some day. There’s just too many examples of God going to war through his people, though not all of them of course, just a few at a time. Because if God used too many people, to give the enemies of Christ a beating, they might make the mistake of thinking that they did this by their own power. That’s not God’s style in the Bible though. That’s not the pattern we see in scripture.
Who remembers this phrase? “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”
When God favored the Israelites, the Israelites were successful at wiping out enemy nations, success after success after success.
But when God was angry with the Israelites, over rebellion, over disobedience, over wicked acts and atrocities, just the opposite happened. The Israelites were overrun, beaten down, many killed, many more ended up enslaved to other nations.
That first part sounds a lot like America. At one time we were a nation under God. Success after success. Innovation after innovation. Dreams and bigger dreams. America had God’s favor and was the gem of the world. People from around the world dreamed of moving here and many did. But today America no longer has God’s favor. We have become God’s enemy. Not all of us. But a lot of us.
Jesus warned the wheat would be seperated from the chaff. If you don’t know what he meant by this, you better figure that one out fast. If should be the first thing you do before you do anything else in life.
What the hell did Jesus mean when he said he would seperate the wheat from the chaff? There’s nothing difficult with that statement. So why do so many people have a hard time grasping those words?
They just don’t care.
Tick.
Tock.
Time’s up.
KEEP IN MIND THAT SURVIVAL OF YOUR CHILDREN TOTALLY DEPENDS ON YOU!

How long will your emergency food last?

If disaster struck today, how long would your stockpile last? Careful, it’s a trick question. I’m not asking how long you would be able to live off your stockpile — I’m asking about the actual shelf life of the foods in your basement or pantry.
Though you may have beans and cereal that, in theory, can last 10 years or more, the way you store them can substantially decrease or increase that amount. In other words, you may have quite a bit of food in your pantry right now that has less than a year until it expires… and that’s a tough position to be in if a serious, earth shaking disaster struck today.

The Scoop on Emergency Food Storage

Extending the shelf life of several foods

Food storage done right, so you can double, triple or even quadruple the shelf life of your foods. Let’s talk about that for a moment. It all starts with the 5 food storage enemies: Oxygen, moisture, temperature, light and pests. The 6th one is time but there’s nothing we can do about that except rotating our stash. Now, if you’re looking to get 10, 20 or even 30 years of shelf life off your foods, you need to tackle all of these enemies. No exception.
What happens if we lose power indefinitely — foods that require freezing or refrigeration for long term storage are going to go bad. Emergency food storage in advance will be the only way to feed yourself and your family.

Extending the Shelf Life of Grains, Beans and Rice

Grains, beans, white rice… These are some of the foods with a long shelf life preppers like to stockpile that are also cheap. However, not all varieties are worthy to be in your stockpile.
For example, Cheerios and other breakfast cereals you typically buy at the supermarket have a shelf life of 6 to 8 months. Processed cereals have many refined and hydrogenated oils in them, oil goes rancid so, even if you were to use the preservation techniques we’re going to talk about in a minute, it still wouldn’t be worth it. Thus, step one in storing your food for a really long time is to pick the right food. When we’re talking about real long term emergency food storage, opt for storing white rice (not brown), dried beans and whole wheat berries (not breakfast cereals); rice, beans and wheat berries should be the staples of your survival stockpile.

Mylar bags with oxygen Absorbers for storing emergency food

The best way to store your emergency food is in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. This is a no-fail combination used by most preppers, provided your food is dry before you store it. Otherwise, you can wake up with condensation after you seal the package –- not a good thing.
The process is simple. You fill the bag nearly all the way to the top, seal it using an iron or a hair straightener (but not before you add a pack of the oxygen absorber), depending on the size of the bag. Oxygen absorbers are small packs of iron powder and create a nitrogen environment by removing any oxygen present through chemical reactions. So, even if the bag will look like it’s got air inside, you don’t need to panic because that’s just nitrogen.
It’s worth mentioning that neither the nitrogen nor the iron powder can affect your food (provided you keep the O2 absorbers inside the original packaging).
As you can see, you don’t need to vacuum-seal the bags; the absorbers will do the trick to prevent growth of aerobic pathogens (such as mold) as well as preventing oxidation. These are the two ways oxygen can spoil your food. Besides, your cereals will crumble under the pressure of the bag.

Put mylar bags inside airtight BPA-free 5 gallon buckets

Next, you should put the Mylar bags inside airtight BPA-free 5-gallon buckets. This may seem unnecessary but it’s actually a good idea. First off, the bucket will shield the bags from light (another declared food storage enemy), thus improving shelf life. Second, it protects the bag from accidental puncturing (Mylars aren’t that strong, by the way).
We talked about aerobic bacteria but anaerobes need very little or no oxygen to develop. The most important one is called Clostridium botulinum and is responsible for a disease called botulism (not something you want to suffer from post-collapse). Fortunately, this doesn’t really occur when storing grains, beans and rice as long as they’re not moist. It’s something that mostly shows up in canned food, which we’ll tackle in a moment.
The last thing you need to do after you’ve taken care of oxygen, light and humidity is ensure the proper temperature. Anywhere between 50F and 70F will work, preferably closer to 50.

A Self Sustaining Source Of Fresh Meat,Vegetables And Clean Drinking Water

If you do everything right, how long can food last in storage?

What shelf life can you expect if you do everything right? This is pretty amazing:
– White rice can last at least 7-8 years with some sources going as high as 25.
– Hard grains such as wheat and corn can store for at least 10 years.
– Soft grains can last about 8 years (because the outer shell is not as strong as that of hard grains)

Emergency food storage for pasta

Storing pasta for the long term is just as easy as storing beans or grain. If you read the label, they tell you it lasts for 1-2 years but if you store it in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, that shelf life can increase up to ten times… that’s 20+ years in shelf life!
Place it in plastic buckets to protect it from light, from crumbling inside and from accidental puncturing of the bag. Speaking of punctures, you may want to consider storing things like spaghetti in 5-mil bags instead of the more common 3.5 mil to avoid any sharp noodles accidentally poking holes in the mylar.
Some people like to freeze pasta before storage to prevent larva eggs from hatching. So, to kill these eggs, noodles should stay frozen for approximately 5 days but this method is not needed as long as you use oxygen absorbers. Ultimately freezing the noodles won’t hurt them but it won’t really help either. If you do decide to do it, you need to allow the frozen noodles to reach room temperature before you seal these noodles in Mylars. Otherwise condensation will form and allow the growth of mold.

Canned food can last several years past expiration date

There are a lot of myths about canned foods and I want to bust the ones that have to do with shelf life, the one related to the expiration date. Food experts on shelf life have looked closely at unopened cans of food from several decades back, sometimes recovered from shipwrecks, and the data they found was a real eye opener: Canned food can last several years past it’s expiration date.
As long as the can has been properly stored and it looks good on the outside (it’s not leaking and the lid is not swollen or punctured), it’s probably safe to eat. You still have to check for suspicious smells but there have been reports of cans of food that were safe to eat even after 30 or 40 years.
Nevertheless, plenty of people have reported being absolutely fine after eating canned food past the expiration date. Of course, you need to give your cans the same conditions you do to your beans and rice: Keep them in a cool, dry, dark place away from moisture.
Now, there are two types of canned food when it comes to how long they can last: High-acidic and low-acidic. The USDA guidelines tell us that high-acid food (canned fruit and pickles) can last up to 18 months while low acid food (canned meat, beans, corn, potatoes etc.) up to 5 years. The acid in these cans contributes to the deterioration of color, texture and nutrients (over time, of course).
As mentioned earlier, if the can looks, smells and tastes ok, you can ignore the expiration and the “best by” dates (in a post-collapse you might not have a choice anyway).

Extending the shelf life of peanut butter

Peanut butter is jam-packed with calories and can last a long time if properly stored… but there’s a catch. It’s full of oils and, as previously said, oils go rancid over time. It depends which type of PB you’re storing, because natural peanut butter only last a few months while smooth and crunchy can last up to a year.
To improve its shelf life, you need to keep peanut butter tightly sealed and in a cool, dry, dark place. You should also store it in a glass rather than a plastic jar to increase longevity even more.
The alternative to PB is powdered peanut butter, which should store for at least 5 years, closer to 10 actually, and it’s good for another year after you open it. That’s considerably longer than traditional peanut butter.

Food items with an indefinite shelf life

You probably heard that honey has an indefinite shelf life. The only thing that can go “wrong” with it is crystallization, meaning the sugar molecules align themselves in a certain way. This is not a sign it went bad but still, there’s an easy fix: Place the open jar in a pot full of hot water and stir it until the crystals dissolve. In order to slow down the crystallization process, simply store the honey at room temperature. Since most of your foods need to be in cool places, you can keep honey in your kitchen or pantry where you probably have more space.
The other items with an indefinite shelf life are salt, sugar and molasses but the one thing you should do is keep them away from moisture. It’s common for basements to develop mold due to poor ventilation so the two options you have are to either install a fan (if your basement has windows), a dehumidifier (which, unfortunately, will incur electricity costs) or use some of the other recommended options depending on how bad things are.

The shelf life of seeds

No long-term survival plan is complete without the seeds that will allow you to start a garden once the dust settles after a collapse. In a worst case scenario, especially those who live in heavily populated areas, that may mean a long and difficult evacuation from a disaster struck region.The good news about seeds is that they don’t take up a lot of space and you can transport them with relative ease; when the time is right, plant that garden finally.
The most important thing to seed storage is to keep these seeds dry. Moisture is the biggest enemy but, fortunately, one you can easily defeat. Keeping your seeds in a cool, dry place should work and don’t forget to add desiccants to the container and seal them afterwards. Another thing you need to do is dry them before storage.
If you don’t want to use desiccants you have other options, such as putting them in paper envelopes. Other options include storing them inside the fridge or the freezer but if you’re left without power in the next disaster, you’re still going to use one of the aforementioned solutions.
The shelf life of various seeds varies. Some people say they can last up to a hundred years. They actually found seeds inside the belly of a frozen mammoth, meaning they lasted thousands of years! It’s hard to say but if you do it right, you can expect to get at least 5 years of storage life and a 70% germination rate. The ones that have the longest shelf life are:
Bean (2-3 years)
Radish, muskmelon, cress, collards and cucumber (5 years)
Tomato, squash, turnips, eggplant, sorrel, cauliflower Brussel sprouts and watermelon (4 years each)
…but, again, the life of a seed can increase if you do a good job storing them.

Emergency food storage for your pet

How to store dry and canned pet food

There are essentially two types of pet food you can stockpile and they’re the same ones you feed your pets every day: Dry and canned. Surprisingly, canned food lasts a lot longer than dry because dry food has a lot of fat in it, which causes it to go rancid quickly. Dry food usually lasts a year while canned food for 2+ years.
If you’re thinking of using oxygen absorbers with dry pet food, it might not work. You might wake up with mold rings around the absorbers which will, in turn, spoil the entire bag as several preppers have cautioned.
The good news about storing pet food, though, is that there’s no difference between survival food and what they regularly eat for your pet. The other good news is that pets can eat “human survival food” (for lack of a better term). For example, dogs can eat white rice, which we already know can last a lot longer if properly stored (being one of the most popular survival foods).
As long as you store your pet food in a cool, dry dark place (such as a ventilated basement), you’ll surely get a lot more than the 1-2 years it’s stated to last.

How temperature fluctuations affect emergency food

Before we wrap this up, I need to address an overlooked aspect: Fluctuations in temperature. We said earlier that some foods need to be stored at temperatures between 50F and 70F but that’s only half the story. The other half is that you need to keep temperature variations to a minimum because they too can (negatively) affect shelf life. Even if you keep it within the interval at all times, fluctuations between 50F and 70F should be avoided.

Why store up emergency food? So you can survive during a famine!

In the modern age, with so many grocery stores and restaurants bustling with activity and low prices (sometimes high) on many common food items, it’s hard to imagine what life would be like if suddenly it all came to an end. Unfortunately, if someone were to pull the plug on interstate shipping and nationwide commercial food processing and commercial agriculture, literally overnight stores across several regions would slam shut their doors and before you knew it the greatest disaster in America’s history would unfold right before our eyes.
Famine. Food shortages. Long lines stretching possibly miles for a government handout (until the government closes it’s doors as well). Long lines seeking food at churches (that is until churches run out of food) and soup kitchens — soup kitchens once popular with the homeless but now attracting crowds of hungry and scared citizens and their families looking for food and also looking for a solution; but there won’t be one.
What about orginizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army? In some communities, in the first few hours and days, they may also be a source for food, but expect incredibly long lines. When or if food finally gets into your hands unfortunately it may not be something you really find that palatable.

Isn’t storing up food at odds with living by faith?

For those of us who live as Christians, it would seem that way. Living by faith means we know that the Lord will provide. It takes great faith not to store up so that we can see how the Lord will provide and many times he can astonish us. I think though that there’s another angle here to look at; it’s knowing that there are a lot of people who will be hungry during a massive food shortage and subsequent famine, who haven’t stored up food, and first and foremost that could end up being a neighbor or even family and friends who simply never believed that the Terrible Day of the Lord as warned in the Bible was one day headed our way.
A lot of people, and I’m sure a few readers here, may not believe today in these Biblical warnings I’ve shared at different times on the site. I’m going to predict though that a lot of you will start believing in the times ahead.
I get that assurance from the Bible — most people who end up believing in Jesus don’t believe until God is dropping the hammer. In other words: People are some hard eggs to crack!

Food storage happens now — not later

It’s a sad, unfortunate fact. There will be a day where tens of millions of people realize that so many signs about a coming catastrophe were all around them, but they were just too glued to their daily routines and complacency and stubburness about life to notice. They felt life should be lived whatever way they wanted, even though for many the way they live their lives is in direct disobedience to God.
I know it. I’ve been there. And it’s not just the banksters at the top of the food chain preying on the consumers or the super elites at the head of our corporations; no, it’s the rest of us also, the people that make up modern day nations caught up in what the Bible describes as carnal, worldly lives — with a complete disregard for God and his warnings about the coming wrath on the world to deal with it’s many evils and atrocities. Atrocities are committed somewhere on our planet on a daily basis.

God sees all

The prophets, apostles, Jesus himself assured us that there is a terrible day coming for our planet.
If we don’t get our lives right with God, we are going to be caught up in the midst of it. It may start with a government collapse and famine and food shortages, but really that will only be the beginning. A serious storm is heading to our world and we see it’s waves starting to beat against our shores; consider ISIS (or another faction of Radical Islam) as one of those waves; if you look at the ocean during a storm you cannot count the number of waves that hit; but you can see how strong and violent the waves get as the storm approaches.

The storm is approaching

Matthew 21:25-26 – 25 “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world…”

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