You have your food storage, now what to do with it?

[Iggy]

Okay- you have your food storage all packed away. You have all of the non-edible items too- t.paper, medicines, hygiene products, etc., etc..

You are rotating it to keep it fresh.

But, what if you lose electricity/water for a week, up to a month or more? Will you be able to cook food? Cleanse your body? Keep your home clean, dry, warm/cool?

From my own experience I can relate to you how to make do with very little to no running water. Or no electricity for a short period of time.

WordFlood, do you have links that would also teach us how to survive without the comforts of modern appliances?

[LarryKJ7YM]

Can anyone here suggest a good and hopefully less expensive Canning Sealer. I can hardly believw how much they cost. Next mont our Mylar bag sealer should arrive. We followed the storehouses lead and bought the same model they have. I think the 350.00 cost is an at cost amount, but still a large some for our humble family. However we are more than a hundred miles round trip and that adss up to many many hundreds of dollars at todays fuel prices if we were to commute every time we got a little extra food. I believe for this to work for me I will want to hammer at it every payday a little at a time for a very long time. It will certainly be a lot more convenient ant that should raise our participation level a lot. Might just be a wash though, we will see. It would be nice to put everything in Mylar but I have lost food to rodents in the past. I like the idea of putting the Mylar in 5 gal. metal buckets, but have no idea where to find such buckets. It seems the world is all about plastic these days.

Larry Casa Grande, AZ

[pam]

Okay- you have your food storage all packed away. You have all of the non-edible items too- t.paper, medicines, hygiene products, etc., etc..

You are rotating it to keep it fresh.

But, what if you lose electricity/water for a week, up to a month or more? Will you be able to cook food? Cleanse your body? Keep your home clean, dry, warm/cool?

From my own experience I can relate to you how to make do with very little to no running water. Or no electricity for a short period of time.

WordFlood, do you have links that would also teach us how to survive without the comforts of modern appliances?

Sometimes I think it's nice to hear advise from someone who has experienced it. Experience is the best teacher. I would love to hear what you have to say.

[Jenamarie]

I'm not WordFLOOD but I have some ideas. :)

My husband and I planning to buy a butane stove to cook with when we have no electricity. It's basically a single gas burner that you can use inside (as opposed to a propane stove or grill you have to take outside) One canister of butane lasts for 16 hours, and the stoves are very compact and easy to store. Caterers use them a lot to keep food warm, or cook small quantities of food on-site. They're very inexpensive too.

If you live in a sunnier part of the country there are "solar ovens" that use sun light to cook food, and can also be used to draw moisture from the air for water. They're a little pricey, though, and bulky.

As far as keeping our house warm, we thankfully don't live in a very cold part of the country, so wearing our "outdoor" gear inside (hats, jackets, etc.) wouldn't be unfeisable or terribly uncomfortable, and then we'd all sleep in the same bed at night, in the smallest room in the house, with the door closed. We have lots of extra blankets that we could use.

For personal hygiene we have a huge Costco-sized box of baby wipes. We can use that to clean our bodies, and reserve water for cleaning our hair.

[meredith14]

We live in an area where we lose power for days. So we use our camping gear. We have several camp stoves that use white gas along with a heater and light. We have a years supply of firewood to keep warm and we also would move into one room and not heat the rest of the house. When we don't have power we go to town to wash clothes but I do dry them on a line here at home. I don't know what would do for long term "EVERYONE" is without power kinda of thing. I can most of my food stuff to be shelf stable. I don't want to lose a freezer full of food.

Back to the water issue..we live on a well and when power goes out we lose the use of a toilet. So we have 2lt plastic bottles filled with water to use for the toilet. I store them on there side under shelf that has space. We don't use for drinking so I don't ever rotate them.

Larry- i find plastic buckets at restaurants. I ask them to save them for me with the lids in tack. I like them better cause you can keep them cleaner and move them around for rotation better. I too can have mice here and so I keep mouse bait every where and check on it.

[kishtakaye]

Camping gear is always great but remember that our ancesters used fire. My great grandmother used a wood burning cook stove to cook on until she passed away in 1989.

No cook stove!!!Coil up strips of card board and put them into an empty tuna can. Fill can with wax (parafin) no wick is needed, light and set in the bottom of the BBQ works great as a bunson burner!

[kishtakaye]

I have even cooked great meals on my car engine. Hint secure or your meal may end up as road kill lol

[Bookmeister]

Kish, that's a great idea about the cardboard and tuna can...Thanks. I've also found that if you squirt a little mosquito repellent on a spoonful of creamy peanut butter, it'll burn long enough to heat a couple of cups of water.

[kishtakaye]

but I love peanut butter thanks for the tip.

Hey another great idea is to get 5 or more 55 gal. barrels and connect them to each other with hoses and splice the first one to your main water supply coming into your home then every time you turn on the water you are rotating your water supply remember that the 1st barrel will collect all of the foriegn materials that are in the water! When connecting the barrels the "IN" hose must reach the bottom of the barrel to assure proper circulation.

[hankpac]

Several topics brought up here.

We have a 30 ft Travel Trailer that is always stocked, and topped off with propane, and on the charger. We also have two generators.

We have a large chest type freezer, but it is empty, as we have rotated out of that type of storage, long ago.

I don't use any open flame inside the house without adequate ventilation.

Notice that although you can cook with a propane or natural gas stove, that you are strongly warned against just running the flame to heat a room. It'll flat kill you in a trailer.

People have been asphyxiated in tents using butane stoves.

WE have adequate freeze dried foods to carry us for a week without cooking, then caned and instant foods that require heating, and then into our raw dry pack foods that require a lot of processing. At that point we will either be in a new area, with the means to prepare these more complicated foods or the emergency is over.

We lived on our food storage for almost a year when I went back to school with a wife and two kids, and one on the way. I thank God for a frugal well prepared wife, who knew how to do all this.

A regular vacuum sealer will seal mylar bags. You can reseal chip bags, and that is the same thing.

re-use the mylar bags and re-seal them until empty.

If you don't have access to 6 gal tins, (the green ones all the older Mormons have) just use the free plastic pails at your donut shop. I give them an opener that leaves the lid intact, and they give me all the buckets I need.

If you have to drive 100 miles to the Bishop's storehouse, you are in the same situation as I am. I obtain orders from the ward, and take my truck, and have everyone chip in on my fuel. However, that is just to obtain raw materials, the Ward can get the dry pack canner and the sealer and mylar bags on rotation from the Stake. That should be a minimum of fuss, and travel.

Check prices at the suppliers who ship, and see if it is less to order and ship to you, than to drive, even with people sharing fuel.

I brought a ton and a half of supplies on the last run, it cost 78 dollars for fuel, and I paid about 20 dollars for my share of the fuel. We divided it up according to how much weight each person had, rather than dividing it across the board.

I am shifting all my 5 gal buckets over to # 10 cans, in boxes, using the Stake's canner.

I am saving the 6 gal cans for some future possible use.

I use mouse bait, in the garage (I don't store any food out there, I just don't want them out there) and in the sheds, and the storage area. So far no problems.

We constantly use from our storage, and replace some each month.

Just bought some butter with a 10 year shelf life.

[Iggy]

but I love peanut butter thanks for the tip.

Hey another great idea is to get 5 or more 55 gal. barrels and connect them to each other with hoses and splice the first one to your main water supply coming into your home then every time you turn on the water you are rotating your water supply remember that the 1st barrel will collect all of the foriegn materials that are in the water! When connecting the barrels the "IN" hose must reach the bottom of the barrel to assure proper circulation.

Excellent tip with the water, Kishtakaye. Be sure that the hoses you use are food grade. Garden hoses are NOT food grade. Neither are black rubber hoses. Read the boxes they come in, or the labels that are on them. Bite the bullet and go talk to the local beer distributer and ask what type of hoses he uses when he puts kegs of beer in a line up. I can not remember the grade. It is clear hoses- that is all I can remember.

[Iggy]

Sometimes I think it's nice to hear advise from someone who has experienced it. Experience is the best teacher. I would love to hear what you have to say.

Okay - Shampooing hair with just 2 quarts of water max.

Wash your hair with just two quarts of water, two towels and NO conditioner. Conditioner takes WAY too much water to rinse out, so go without during the crisis.

Place a large metal or plastic bowl in your kitchen sink. Heat up two quarts of water. No electricity, use cold. Cool to cold water is best to shampoo with anyway.

Carefully get your hair wet using a cupful of water. If your hair is short, short like mine ( about 2" long at the most) use a washcloth to get your hair wet. Shampoo up using about a teaspoon of shampoo or less/more. Use the same amount you normally do- or try to use just a bit less.

With your hands, scrape the shampoo off your scalp and hair but DO NOT let the shampoo fall into the bowl that is catching all the water. Then take a hand towel and wipe the shampoo out of your hair. Now you can rinse your hair, saving all the water in the bowl in the sink. Do it a cup full at a time, starting at the nape of your neck and working the water through your hair with your fingers/hands. It will take two cups for hair as short as mine, it took nearly the two quarts when my hair was permed and hit below my shoulders.

When it is rinsed- squeaks between your fingers- squeeze, scrape as much water as you can out of your hair into the bowl. You are done, so take another clean towel to dry your hair.

The water you have saved, can be used to wash another head of hair- or save it in the bucket you have all the other used water, from washing your hands, face, dishes, etc. This bucket of water is to flush the toilet with.

Set aside the soapy hand towel (I safety pinned a piece of paper that said Shampoo Towel on it) to dry, same with the drying towel. You can use both later in the week for your second shampoo or someone elses shampoo.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Iggy

[Iggy]

Camping gear is always great but remember that our ancesters used fire. My great grandmother used a wood burning cook stove to cook on until she passed away in 1989.

No cook stove!!!Coil up strips of card board and put them into an empty tuna can. Fill can with wax (parafin) no wick is needed, light and set in the bottom of the BBQ works great as a bunson burner!

Another great tip!

I once used one of those small hibachi's and set it on the wooden railing of my porch. BAD choice. It got so hot, it burned the railing. I was lucky that I had some bricks laying in the yard. By using lots of pot holders I was able to lift the small hibachi up and place on the bricks.

Once we had electricity back and the roads cleared up, I had a co-worker weld me a stand for the hibachi and for my Coleman propane two burner stove. THAT gets hot enough to burn the railing too!

I refuse to use either one inside my house- but my porch was protected enough from the wind, rain and snow that I could easily cook out there. Had to wear a coat and hat- but I could cook more than just soup. Fixed home made stew! Used canned meat, canned vegetables, flour, liquid from the canned veggies. Used my 3 quart club aluminum pan for the stew.

I also baked Pillsbury biscuits on the hibachi- used my 5 quart dutch oven with it's lid. The biscuits were a bit over cooked, but not too bad.

[Guest Username-Removed]

Okay- you have your food storage all packed away. You have all of the non-edible items too- t.paper, medicines, hygiene products, etc., etc..

You are rotating it to keep it fresh.

But, what if you lose electricity/water for a week, up to a month or more? Will you be able to cook food? Cleanse your body? Keep your home clean, dry, warm/cool?

From my own experience I can relate to you how to make do with very little to no running water. Or no electricity for a short period of time.

WordFlood, do you have links that would also teach us how to survive without the comforts of modern appliances?

Iggy,

I'll post some ideas at noon. I do have some links.

[Guest Username-Removed]

FYI - My expertise is in short term emergency items. Iggy knows more about long term items.

Ok here goes .....

Heating. If you have a fireplace or a wood stove than you can store wood. If you have a pellet stove you can store pellets. But most pellet stoves take electricity to run. There are a few that where you wind up the hopper! A very small generator will run the regular ones by the way. For those of us that dont have any of the above, you can get one of those indoor rated propane (I know that sounds wrong but its true) heaters. I actually did a review on those on my website in my product reviews section. Of course, blankets & sleeping bags are all good!

Cooking. I am not aware of any indoor safe propane cooking stoves so you dont want that. There are some safer cooking stoves (which I have yet to review) that run on butane, here is an example. Of course, you could use a propane stove outdoors, or even your propane BBQ (if it has a side burner), but remember it gets cold outside! There are a number of hiking stoves, but again most of those burn fuel that you cant burn indoors because of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning which is the same for Propane stoves.

Lighting. Again propane is out! Candle lanterns are really safe and inexpensive. Shake flashlights now are really good. You never have to worry about not having battery power, and some actually can be turned on instantly! Also there are a number of battery powered lanterns, but again, you have the whole battery storage and rotation issue. My advice, for emergencies, Candle Lanters, Good shake flashlights, and light sticks. Here is a link that has information on the Shake Flashlights and Lightsticks. Emergency Candle Lanterns can be found at Walmart for about $15. I was unable to find them on their website. Candle lanterns can also be found at most outdoor/hiking/camping stores.

Water. Of course, good running water in an emergency is pretty much a pipe dream (LOL - I crack myself up sometimes!). So, I store water by purchasing those purified water containers and using one of those office water cooler stands for it. They are gravity fed so you only use what you need. Purifying water is a whole section itself. There are already some posts on that. But when thinking of water, you need to think of short term emergency solutions and long term. You can use the purification tabs, but I have those as a last resort. Actual water and filtered water, should be your first defense in my opinion.

More Regarding water... Ive done a lot of research on emergency water. There is a company that makes some great emergency water filters called HTI. They have a video on

. I've actually met the CEO of the company and invited him to our Emergency Prep Fair for demos. We use those filters in our ward and I've used them myself. They are military grade and pretty incredible. The nice thing about them is that they are simple, small and affordable and filter out all the bad stuff. Again, you use these for a few days then you toss them (great for 72 hour kits or emergency water). However, Im not convinced that company has a good product for home storage/ long term water supply. Also here is a video on

regarding emegency water from a TV news station in California. I'm still doing research on Longer term emergency water, but right now I am leaning towards the gravity water filters such as this one from Aqua Rain . Storing water in drums is an opion, but Iggy has more experience with long term water storage than I do. Again, storage tanks are really not a good idea unless you have your own house. Our entire ward and much of our stake now lives in condos/townhouses or apartments. So water purification on what you have is pretty important. Most condos/townhouses or apartments have pools, so you can filter that, or go to a water sourse (lake, stream, canal) and filter that. Most folks that have those drums filled with water worry that its gone bad. So, back to the the filter option on those! Also, perhaps another reason to store some clorox bleach (the unscented kind) to purify it. After you do that, then you can filter it. So, that goes back to how much beach it takes to purify which I also have in the power outage section or the three months supply section of my website Edited June 25, 2008 by WordFLOOD

[Iggy]

You have no running water, don't know when it will be turned back on and you have dishes that need to be washed.

Before you wash scrape the food off the dishes with a rubber spatula. When I was a kid we always scraped the food off and put it into the dogs dish. Then when the dog got too fat we scraped it onto a piece of newspaper and then wrapped it up and tossed it.

Put a pot of water (non-drinkable[rain water, water from the creek, river, etc], non-soapy) on the stove to heat. I use my 5 qt dutch oven.

Put soap into an empty butter tub or a small bowl of that size. Using a kitchen sponge wash the dishes, turning them upside down in the sink when you are through washing them. When they are turned upside down the soapy water drains off.

Now, I remove the dish with soapy water and set it aside. I then put the dishpan in the sink to catch the rinse water. Using a soup ladle, I ladle the hot rinse water onto the cleaned dishes, one at a time over the dishpan. I put the silverware into the dishpan as I rinse the dishes, then scoop them out and put them in the drainer. Be careful, boiled water is HOT!

When it comes to pots and pans, I use a clean dishrag dipped in the hot rinse water and rinse the pots and pans.

Save the rinse water to wash the next batch of dishes. I generally have several old plastic pitchers to save water in. If you have a lot of soapy water left over, save it in the bathroom to flush the toilet with.

Edited July 5, 2008 by Iggy

[Iggy]

I finally got my laundry room cleaned and straightened up. I have a small square freezer that has a door on it. Cutest little thing, bought it second hand nearly 20 years ago for $100.00. I have certainly gotten my moneys worth. It is in the laundry room. Ends up being a catch all for nearly anything and everything!

I use only liquid laundry soap. I find that powdered/granulated doesn't dissolve enough and I end up with angry red, blistery rash from it! I was turning these jugs upside down with the caps on to get the last bit of soap out of them. Then I was tossing the jugs.

Well, I thought about water storage. My sister in Seattle saves her empty bleach jugs, fills them with water, and when she rotates her water in her water storage drums, she adds one of the gallons of bleachy water. One week end the water main broke and she was without water to flush with, and wash with. She use up her bleachy water. Once the water came back on, she refilled them all and put a bright silver sticker on the top of the caps to let her know they didn't have enough bleach in them to use for her barrels of water.

I recently didn't have water either. Same thing, a water main broke. Husband is on diuretics, I had a bug and was using the bathroom like every hour too! We had NO water to flush with. Thanks heavens it only lasted 4 hours. I used up 2 gallons of good drinking water from our storage.

I decided right then that I was going to put water in all of the empty laundry soap jugs just for that purpose. I had 10 of them in the laundry room- hadn't gotten around to tossing them in the trash.

As I removed the lids, I shook them and lo and behold there was still soap in them. I tipped them up to empty them into an old pitcher and nothing came out. I shook the jug and yep, there was soap in there. So I took a pair of vice grips and pulled the spout out, then emptied the jug. Got about 1/3 of a cap out.

I didn't rinse these jugs out. I wanted the water to be soapy- clean the toilet while I am flushing it! Out of 12 jugs, I got 2 1/2 cups of soap! I am never tipping them to drain in their caps again. I am pulling out the spout and emptying them out into a plastic container with a lid from now on.

I did not put the spouts back in. I need the water to come out with as much force as possible when I manually "flush" anyway. I then took some large labels and hand wrote - washing water- and then stuck them on the front of the jugs.

I went to K-Mart and bought a 5 shelf Plano shelving unit. I can only use 4 shelves- cause there is a shelf up above in the way. On the top shelf I have my unused laundry soap. On the next shelf I have my powered and liquid all color bleach. On the next two shelves I have my Washing Water.

This shelving unit I put on the wall near the exit door and the dryer. It just fits. I have just enough room to get out the door. Thank goodness the door open out and not in, other wise the unit would never have worked in this room.

The shelf I couldn't use, along with it's legs, is sitting against the wall in front of my washing machine. It holds the pre-wash, stain spotter and little tub I put lint from the dryer in. Under neath it is a cardboard box with the extra throw rugs I use in the laundry room and kitchen. No linen closet to keep them in.

Now there is only the empty wipe-n-dipe box filled with dryer sheets sitting on top of the dryer. No more clutter!

Edited July 18, 2008 by Iggy
spelling- what else??!!

[rayhale]

The Church encourages people to build up food storage, look at the official site for more information: http://www.providentliving.org/channel/1,11677,1706-1,00.html

I’m surprised that with all this encouragement to build up a food supply that there is no information on how to prepare the food. Don’t forget that it’s the era of instant food, we have microwaves, prepared foods, and the meaning, for some people, of cooking ‘from scratch’ is to bake a cake with the boxed pre-made ingredients.