dalepres

Ok, I know this is a years old thread but I just can't help responding. Ben Raines, I do remember Katrina. I remember the police, the National Guard, police from several other states, and government paid mercenaries all going door to door collecting constitutionally protected firearms and I remember videos of these government home invaders beating up an 80 year old woman who was trying to surrender her gun to them. I remember a government very much willing to enforce any policy it wanted on Americans.

Here's a link showing how to test an oxygen absorber. Of course once tested it is no longer useful so the idea is to test one out of a bag while keeping the rest of the bag sealed. The idea is to see how much water gets sucked into a jar inverted into a tray of water. The amount of water sucked into the jar is how much oxygen was absorbed. https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/packing_your_own_food_storage/checking_capacity_of_oxygen.htm Here is the page from Sorbent Systems indicating the 30 minute time for using oxygen absorbers. Just guessing here, but if some suppliers are saying 5 minutes, (and many of the blogs are from sellers) then perhaps they're not selling fresh absorbers. Oxygen Absorbers - SorbentSystems.com

Why not just use your Food Saver, etc. to seal the absorbers? When I start packing, I put an hour or so's worth of absorbers in a zip-lock bag. The rest, I seal with the Food Saver. That way the amount of oxygen available to those I will not use is very minimal (just the counting and transfer time - about 2 minutes at most). Since the absorbers are supposed to maintain full rated capacity for at least 30 minutes exposure to open air, the main supply can withstand several cycles of this. When I'm all done for the day, I just take the vacuum-sealed remainders and put them into another bag and vacuum seal that, leaving them double-wrapped. I've come back years later and the absorbers were just fine.

Treated seeds? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

I'm a 55 year old high school dropout so I have long since forgotten those science classes I did take but I was in an interesting class at work last week about how crude oil is extracted from the earth. One of the presentations demonstrated that oil in fine sand or oil in large sand, the amount of oil is the same, all other conditions being equal. Take a bucket and fill it with small marbles. Fill the bucket with water and measure the amount of water it held. Now start over with big marbles. The amount of water it takes to fill the bucket remains constant because all of the marbles are spheres, thus the shape of the gaps and the shapes of the marbles stay the same. The only difference is the number and size of the holes. So rice, being narrow and long, will pack differently than beans but big beans and little beans will pretty much have the same amount of oxygen. Now, granted, there will be some difference because not all beans are shaped exactly the same but, in general, they will be similar. And rice will probably be similar to wheat. But it's the shape of the content that makes the difference, not the size. Interesting class.

Sorbent Systems has the sealer that you can use on Mylar bags at home: http://www.lds.net/forums/preparedness/14775-more-vacuum-sealing-tips.html

Here's my plan for sharing. If you come to my house with a weapon to take what I have, I plan to defend myself and my family. If you come to my house with an empty bowl, I will share with you.

This an awfully old thread but since you brought it up again, you're suggesting that we abandon our home and property, even when our own home and property is not threatened except by looters and the police? You forget that many of the looters were police and national guard. The real lesson in this is to have good records of your possessions and a good video surveillance system. That way, when you sue, you can win and get a fair judgment. What is the point of a home storage plan if we are just going to surrender it to out of control government officials? I'm not saying to fight but I am saying to not cower. There. I fixed it for you... Sort of. Your basic premise is false. The police and guard, as well as non-uniformed thugs, looted the homes of people who left along with the homes of those who stayed. In fact, I would venture to say that more homes of those who stayed were looted by uniformed thugs than by non-uniformed thugs.

Hmmmmm. Sounds like an advertisement.

How do you figure? What if, because of your righteousness and wisdom, God just gave you enough of a hint of your surroundings to allow you to detect a threat and pull your weapon to defend your loved ones in the nick of time? Did righteousness or wisdom keep Joseph Smith safe?

Rotating your food is easy if you remember that there are community kitchens, food banks, women's shelters, homeless shelters, etc. that always need a donation of food. At 25% remaining shelf life, load up a box and drop it off for the needy - problem solved.

And the National Guard and police from other areas came in to do the house to house searches. Don't count on your food storage for a nationwide emergency. But it is awfully useful if you become unemployed so keep it up no matter what.

I just had a weird situation. Microsoft Hotmail said that the notice I got about the last post here was unsafe. Here's the content of the help message related to the warning. I'm sure it's just a technical issue with the site or maybe even a but in Hotmail. About Sender ID, spoofing, and phishing Sender ID is a technical solution started by Microsoft and other industry leaders to help fight spoofing (Sending messages with fake or stolen account information.) and phishing (Falsely claiming to be a legitimate business to send you to a fake website or scam you into giving out private information.) , which are the two primary deceptive practices used by senders of junk e-mail (Unwanted, unsolicited, or illicit e-mail or other electronic messages, including spam.) . For more information, visit the Sender ID Framework Overview webpage. Notes * Windows Live Hotmail treats all messages that fail Sender ID and phishing tests as fraudulent and warns the user about opening these messages. For information about how to read blocked e-mail messages, see Block or allow messages from specific senders and domains. * If you experience difficulties when you use another mail service to send your mail, but you use your Windows Live Hotmail address as the sending address, contact the network administrator of the other service for help.

While doing it is better than not doing it and having a year's supply is better than having a half-year's supply - especially if there's a disaster - I still think having the year's supply delivered on a truck all at once would be rather anti-climatic. And you'd miss the teaching, growing, sharing, and loving opportunities that come from building your storage together as a family instead of Dad ordering it at the PC. I suggest start now, not tomorrow, and take a few month's to do it - if you're feeling nervous about the security of the world. If you're feeling secure, you don't really have to even go that fast. Delivery for many companies selling food storage online is 8 to 12 weeks or longer. Your local grocery has food today. Maybe tomorrow is too late. Maybe 10 years from now is soon enough. Who knows.

Do either of those companies can their own or are they just putting their labels on them?

The atmosphere contains 20.5% oxygen. You should use a single oxygen absorber in your jerky that is sized to absorb 20.5% of the total air in your package. Beyond that, there is no advantage to additional oxygen absorbing capacity in your situation. There is a technical advantage to a small amount of overkill when it comes to absorbers. All plastic based containers pass a small amount of oxygen through the walls of the container - whether that container is a bucket, a Mylar bag, other vacuum bag, or a ziploc bag. They all have different rates of oxygen transmission with, of those listed, Mylar having the least transmission by at least a couple hundred times. A small amount of excess absorber capacity will help reduce the oxygen that passes through the container that way. In all most all cases, if you are using fresh absorbers and handling them according to the instructions, your oxygen absorbers will have enough excess capacity over and above their rating to handle this issue. So, especially in the case of jerky, because of the very short life span, even with oxygen absorbers, there is absolutely zero benefit to adding additional absorbers. As for the vegetables, go to sorbensystems.com and read their pages on sizing oxygen absorbers. That will tell you what you need for your vegetables. It depends on the size of package and the capacity and freshness of the absorber. I'm glad the tip about the frozen vegetables was useful. I've dried vegetables very dry. I don't know what percentage that is; just very dry. And they reconstituted for soup just fine. For fruits, fresh or frozen, I dry them to a leathery consistency so they're enjoyable eaten dry. Hope this helps. Dale

No, that's about 75 dollars. If that's what you meant, I misunderstood. Using the one shown there is a good idea. SorbentSystems.com sells those, too. Along with about a couple hundred other places. Watch out for those videos, though. That guy gives a LOT of bad advice, I think.

The closest storehouse is a couple hundred miles from me so I've never been. I do know that, other than a Temple recommend, I've never seen an ID for church membership. When I called them about going a few months ago (I ended up not going) they never asked if I was a member or not.

As I posted on the other thread, Sorbent Systems sells those for about 5 bucks. I wouldn't use one, though, for anything other than resealing an open container for a few weeks until you used it all. The cheapest way, if you can't get hold of a sealer specifically designed for the job, is just use your clothes iron. Use it without steam on the wool setting. Iron until it's sealed, usually 5 seconds or so. You can seal just the last inch of the bag. With the iron, I don't suggest trying to seal less but you should experiment and see what works for you. Worse case, you waste a couple bags learning and then you won't have any trouble after that.

Just a quick tip for all who might borrow a sealer. They do wear out. The heating element and the Teflon tape have to be replaced from time to time. If you borrow or use someone else's sealer and use it a lot, consider making a donation of the wearable parts or the cost of the wearable parts. I know we all want to be good neighbors. :)

Sorbent Systems sells those clips for about 4.95 each + shipping. I wouldn't use one for storage; only for temporarily sealing bags you have opened. If you can't swing a sealer for yourself, you might be able to borrow one somewhere.

That's a great point, Deborah. We live in an area notorious for having no soil (it all blew out west in the 30's) and I travel a lot for work so we don't have much of a garden. We're still able to dehydrate a lot. We got a tip elsewhere to dehydrate frozen vegetables bought at the store. It's by far less expensive than buying them already dehydrated. We even mix them up for soups and stews. If you pack your own spices, your own noodles, your own vegetables, and starches, why couldn't you make your own meals on demand. They'd be (in my opinion) much better than pre-packaged dehydrated foods. One thing to think about when considering pre-packaged dehydrated meals, either purchased at retail or packaged yourself, is that the maximum shelf life of any package is equivalent to the shortest shelf life of any product in the package. Spices and flavorings generally have a much shorter shelf life than grains and legumes and even pastas. I suggest packing the ingredients for all your favorite storage recipes, but package them in separate packages. Never mix ingredients before packing for long-term storage. Dale

I thought you weren't allowed to sell anything on these forums? I have nothing to sell. So I'll just tell you that I highly recommend packing your own short-term storage from things you use normally and using long term storage like grains and legumes to extend that short-term storage. And I've been involved in food storage for 35 years :) But if I sold freeze-dried foods, here or elsewhere, I might suggest something else.

Using one large bag fills the bucket more efficiently. If you're intending the food for long term storage, you'll probably be living on it exclusively when you open it. It will go fast enough. If you're planning on living on it in the short term, within a few years, use the smaller bags so you don't have to live on it exclusively. You have to go to 18000 feet to cut the amount of atmosphere in half. The percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere remains pretty constant. There's not enough change at 6000 feet to alter your packing procedures in regards to oxygen absorbers. Marshmallows? Dum dum suckers? Oxygen absorbers?

Vacuum pack and use oxygen absorbers. Oxygen is the biggest factor in flour turning rancid and in the life of weevils. Whether you vacuum in bags or in cans is your choice but the cans are definitely better if you have that option. For me, the nearest church storehouse is 250 miles so I vacuum bag. I may, one day, buy a canning machine... if the world and economy lasts another couple years.