Maybe I'm crazy, page 1

reply to post by Noah-What

Not crazy Noah. Sitting on one's hands and/or just waiting for someone or something to save you would be crazy.

Good on you for developing a support system.

Some advice regarding your food supply. Do what prudent sailors do with canned goods. Get an indelible marker and write what's in those cans and the purchase or 'pull' date of the contents on the tops and/or bottoms of the cans. The glue that holds those pretty labels on is water soluble and the labels will fall off should they be exposed to the elements or just sit long enough in a damp environment. They may be high and dry and safe and sound at present, but should you have to go mobile or... who knows why they might get saturated? Murphy's law applies here. Ensure you know what is available when the time comes to need to know. You'd hate having to guess which cans provide protein and which cans don't.

I'd also suggest that marking the cans with contents and dates will remind you to rotate your stock. There's no reason in the world you have to eat expired foodstuffs if you pull and replace items 'tiring' with fresh on a reasonable schedule. Eat the stuff now that you wouldn't want to face up to in a year or two.

This process also helps to keep an inventory in mind of what you have and don't have. It also will help you prioritize those items to grab if you have to go mobile in a hurry, grabbing the highest priority items depending on your mode of transport at the time. You might even consider a symbol on the can tops (as well as content) for priority. Either P for protein, F for fructose, C for carbs, W for water/milk, etc., or priority 1, 2, 3 etc.

Got can openers? Handy? Get several more. The old military surplus TL29s are awesome. Gnawing your way into a can of peaches isn't a pretty sight and most knife excavations will waste more contents than you'd like to see gone if you're in a survival situation.

Pack things a few times just to see what can go where, how much you can realistically carry over long distances, etc. You can't count on cars going very far at all should the proverbial 'poop' hit the fan.

You can still purchase "canned" water. It is still available and used by die-hard blue water sailors and survival conscious folk. Sounds like your filtration systems are a good avenue though, as long as they are manual types. Can't count on cars or grid supplied electricity in these equations in my estimation.

Not to go all paranoid on you ... Hide some of your larder. Bury it, stick it behind the darkest/ickiest place in the basement, under the bed...whatever. Just enough to hold you over for a couple of days at least. There's a good chance of lawlessness by the 'have nots' against the (even if only meager) 'haves' should horrible events occur. There's a good chance of groups - or even the existing power base (govt, troops, community leadership) confiscating known larders for the greater good. Your planning for 10 people would be very much appreciated by 100 people, although not 100 people of your choice.

Keep up the good work and keep thinking. I'd be proud to be your neighbor.

It's a shame we have to think in these terms. Oh heck, let's not even go there.

Haven't gotten around to an avatar or signature yet, but the signature will be;

"Silent friends are only good as pallbearers."

Peace all.

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Irascible Tractor]

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Irascible Tractor]

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Irascible Tractor]