A redneck's preps

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Started preping 18 months and now that we are down to the last month to prep I realize that we have done a lot but by no means will be as ready as I would like. Preps to date are:

Several hundred pounds of wheat. Three hundred pounds of corn. Less than two hundred pounds of beans and related. Three months of freeze dried foods for the four of us. Cases of canned foods. Also a large supply of spices. Twelve hens give three eggs a day currently. This should increase to at least six a day come warm weather. A young buck rabbit and does. First litter is due by the end of this month. One pond has catfish and the other has bass and crappie. Am collecting pecans now as they fall. Helps to burn off the grass under the trees. A garden. I wish we were better at gardening and had more equipment. A stock of non hybrid seeds.

For light we have six rechargeable lanterns, at least eight flashlights, spare bulbs and many ni-cads. Have several solar panels one to ten watts for recharging batteries including the six volt lantern batteries. Also a bunch of candles.

For heat we installed a ventless propane heater which requires no electricity. The propane tank is 1000 gallons which is up to 850 gallons topped off in the fall. Also lots of blankets and warm clothing.

For cooking we have a Coleman camp stove and nine gallons of fuel which am still adding to as money permits. Currently have 160 pounds of charcoal but could use more. We also have three cases of canned heat. Firewood can be collected in the woods out back. Thirteen gallons of kerosene for fire starter but could use more. Also have an Alaidin lamp.

For water I have hooked up three 55 gallon plastic barrels to the barn roof guttering. The ponds and creek are also a source of water. Have 20,000 gallon filter.

Waste disposal just means hauling up water from the front pond to flush the commode. We have a cesspool. Trash is burned in a barrel and cans piled up in a container made of fencing.

For protection we have two dogs, geese and guineas. I don't care for attack dogs. The rottie looks bad but only barks. Thats fine with me. Other protection is family business, nuff said.

Left to do: Need more cooking fuel and TP which we store in the barn. Lots of feed for the animals especially the dogs. The cat eats dog food. More canned food. Spare shoes especially for the boys. Paper plates, don't have to have but they are nice. Top off propane tank once more. More fire extinguishers and alarms. Herbal medicines and first aid items.

What we won't have because of lack of money: A solar system that could at least power the electric wheat grinder. I hate the hand crank with a passion. A small tractor, money again. A decent pickup truck again the money thing. A nice small house, big time no money. This old trailer leaves much to be desired. What money we do have other than the next paycheck is invested in the (Andy) stuff and this was done long ago.

Opps forgot to mention I smoke and do enjoy a cold beer. Sorry self thats just not in the budget.

So much to do. So little time and money.

Wish you all the very best including Flint and Andy who both take many jabs from opposing thinkers. Trolls get a life somewhere that is not near me.

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), November 07, 1999

Answers

Ed --

Preps look pretty good actually. (You're ahead of us, anyway.) Sure do wich I had some chickens (and someplace to keep them). A suggestion is oil lamps. They are inexpensive (about $19.00) and a gallon of lamp is about $6.00. Am not sure how long a gallon lasts. We have cracked a quart to test the lamps, and have used them a couple of times when the power went out, and haven't had to refill. (took about the whole quart to fill the lamp and can't tell that it is down, so am guessing there are 100 or so hours in a quart.) Don't forget spare wicks.

Great post, though. (I had forgotten that geese are good 'watch birds'.)

-- just another (another@engineer.com), November 07, 1999.


Man, Ed, several hundred pounds of wheat? Your preps make ours look like nada. Still we have way less food and as much Coleman fuel as you do. Seems as if we need more food, huh? ;-) (Mental note to self: NEED to get that lighter fluid for the charcoal grill!!!!)

I finally got around to buying some heavy duty plastic shelf units for the guest bedroom closet, which is now our "pantry". MUCH BETTER than boxes and bags of cans and stuff. Now I can see what we have enough of and what we have probably too much of. Few things we need some more for balance. Was surprised at how much canned milk I have and how little canned fruit (I thought I had a lot!). We live in the suburbs and are beginning to become quite envious of those with stocked ponds, wells, etc. Hey Ed, you don't have a well?

Also when you said you would like a nice small house, this may seem like a stupid question but what are you living in now?

For water, we have two 55 gallon barrels, a 105 gallon water bag (fits under a full sized bed), a 200 gallon water bag, and at last count, 87 2 -liter soda bottles cleaned and filled with clean water and hidden in lots of different spots around the house! We also have a new, never used for its original purpose 55 gallon trash can with a lid that we will set out and pray for rain if need be. We also know how to utilize the water in the fridge ice maker line and the water heater, etc. Also the tubs (2), all sinks and every container we can get our hands on(like our collection of coolers) will be full of water close to New Year's Eve. We are playing that by ear, obviously. We will fill the water bags closer to then, too. One barrel has been filled and treated with Century Pure (like aerobic oxygen only better)--we need bunches more Century Pure but it is $13.95 a pop. We also have a 1 liter water bottle with a heavy duty filter thing in it for the bug out bag. Would like to get another one, plus one replacement filter for each, but that will run a total of $85 ($34.95 for the other bottle and $24.95 each for the replacement filters). We will probably get those things. Even if we don't have to bug out, we may be forced to collect water from the nearby creek and will need those filter bottles badly in that case.

Army buddy of the hubby's gave him a case of MRE's thinking he is into hunting now. We tried to help him GI several months back but he laughed about it then, and laughs about it now. Still, we were thankful for the MRE's, should we need them (God forbid, I have seen those things...and my husband has eaten them.)

I am now into trying out a lot of recipes that use only non- perishable foods (www.y2kkitchen.com--thanks so much Sally!!!!) and that is going pretty well. We have tested the Coleman camp stove. Still need to get a good tent in case we need to get to our already determined bugging out place.

Other preps too numerous to mention. Been at this for tooo tooo long. I am glad it is getting near. My husband has been suffering from a major case of Y2K fatigue.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 07, 1999.


In regards to oil for oil lamps, I have been told that if you burn one oil lamp for five hours each night, you would use 25 gals per year. Therefore, roughly 2 gals per month. Hope this helps!

-- Ruth Edwards (REath29646@aol.com), November 07, 1999.

just another,

Yes we do have the oil lamps and a gallon or two of lamp oil. Not a lot of light but a very long burn time. Am waiting for our local WalMart to restock.

For the last ten years we have lived in a rural town of 8M five miles from our current backwoods place. Y2K was an excuse for me to get our family back to the rural life which I have always perferred. Not that I do not take Y2K seriously. I am an in the trenches programmer. Did have a nice big house in town. Now have a 900 sf older mobile home on acerage. I still like the tradeoff even w/o Y2K.

preparing,

There was a well on our place but it went bad. To get safe water in our local one needs to go deep. Again the money thing. I think it all boils down to doing the best with what you've got.

I enjoy the rural life and so does my wife. It's all the boys have. They have never known the city life. What is right for us may not be so for many others. The bottom line for survival comes from the country. The creature comforts that all enjoy come from the cities.

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), November 07, 1999.


The nuts are a great idea. I was heavy into nutitional studies at one time and found that raw nuts are probably the single most nutritional food. You don't even need meat for protein if you eat a pound of raw almonds each week and they taste many times better than beans and rice. Costco sells huge bags of raw nuts; stock up; they're easy to store and have an extremely long shelf life.

-- DGBennett (bennett1@peachnet.net), November 07, 1999.


Another (educated) redneck's suggestions:

Ed, sounds like you've got it pretty well whipped, at least better that the other 98%. Here are a few thoughts that might help out you and others on this forum.

1) I have a couple hundred pounds each of dry beans, wheat, flour and rice also. The problem is the beans; they take a lot of water to soak, and you have to cook them all day (or nearly so). So I also have a lot of canned beans, and will eat them, and give the dry beans to pollies and let them worry about the water and energy it will take to cook them.

2) I also hate cranking the grain mill. Right now I use it for grinding chicken scratch. I am in the process of hooking up a small B&S engine to it, with reduction pulleys. This will take much of the work out of grinding grains.

3) Your chickens should give almost an egg each/day when the weather warms back up. Earlier this summer my 14 hens were laying 12-13/day. I now have 10 and they are laying 6/day. I plan on supplying neighbors with eggs and an occasional chicken (for trade). Have 20 more pullets that will be ready to lay in the spring. Be sure you have plenty of feed for all your livestock, they could be the most valuble things you own next year.

4) I made a 5 gallon shower bucket from hardware store parts. It sits on boards above the shower door, and has a valve and shower head on it. Heat water (or not) and voila! easy shower when there is no pressure.

5) So you can't afford a tractor, but can you afford a roto-tiller? It makes gardening SO much easier (I'm sure you already know this).

hope this helps

-- cavscout (never@too.ready), November 07, 1999.


DG Bennett,

Sometimes I feel cheated. The nearest Sam's or Costco is about 100 miles away and we never go to the city. Costco or Sam's would have made our preps easier and cheaper. And yes I could eat pecans and english walnuts all day long. Trouble with these native pecans is it takes two or three to get the same amount of meat as in a orchard tree nut. Also would rather have a good bowl of beans than a nice cut of steak. We have lots of deer and turkey but must wonder how long they will last if Y2K is bad and for an extended period of time.

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), November 07, 1999.


Engineer & Ed:

Instead of paying $6/gallon at walmart for lamp oil, I burn K-1 kerosene in them. I can't tell the difference and the K-1 only costs about $2.75/gallon (I'm in CA). The trick is to trim the wick correctly and keep the flame low so that all the fuel is burned (no smoke).

-- cavscout (hunkerin'@down.here), November 07, 1999.


cavscout,

Cook the beans with a pressure cooker, gets the job done in under an hour. Big savings on fuel.

Rice in 5-7 min. Now that's cooking!

Similar savings in time and fuel with all kinds of foods.

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), November 07, 1999.


My 86 yr old grandmother, God bless her soul, passed away in Jan of this year and we found three Aladdin Model B lamps (made in the 30's) in her attic. My dad and uncle, who still don't GI, thought they were disgustingly dirty and didn't understand why I wanted them. I cleaned them up and bought new and replacement parts for them from Lehman's right away. They are beautiful and Aladdins are the best lamps. The parts ran me about $85, total...one lamp had such immaculate parts I didn't need to replace them. Aladdins, BTW, put out as much light as a 60 watt bulb b/c of the mantle. Great to have, but $$ to buy. And I wonder if the backorder on them at Lehman's has been relieved.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 07, 1999.


LM-

Boy, do I feel dumb. And I've been using my pressure cooker for canning the last few weeks. Thanks for the reminder, I'll try and cook up a batch of beans this week.

-- cavscout (can't@remember.everything), November 07, 1999.


Ed, sure sounds like your about ready with all the stuff you have. I didn't see anything of a solar cooker, I was wondering if you could cook beans in them,providing there's sunlight and enough of it. ? . Bring out the bike and hook up a drill pump with it so you won't have to haul the water to the house... Best of Luck to you and yours. Furie...

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), November 07, 1999.

Ed, you mentioned waiting for your Wal*Mart to restock lamp oil. Last week I asked my local Wal*Mart manager where the regular lamp oil was because the display racks had been removed. He said that allocated space from last year had been replaced with other items, and he was attempting to stock some regular lamp oil. I told him that Wal*Mart goofed, and he agreed. Here we go into the heating season, and Wal*Mart decides to remove regular lamp oil. Huh???

Currently there is only expensive colored Christmas lamp oil. I don't know if they can restock the regular oil in time. If not, I'll buy the colored stuff. Ho ho ho!

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), November 07, 1999.


Ed

Thanks for the update. Kind of wondering if you would post anymore about the "ranch".

Good luck down there! (just don't count on it :o)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), November 08, 1999.


I have seen several warnings about cats eventually getting real sick living on just dog food. If they are good mousers, maye that will make up a nutritional deficit.

On the beans and other dried food stuffs, you can save an immense amount of energy by heating them to boiling and then setting the pot in an insulated box over several hours. Several inches of newspaper or straw/leaves/whatever. Some people advocate the use of a thermos bottle for small quantities, but for a big ol mess of beans/rice, the insulated box is the way to go. The food can cool 30 or 40 degrees before the cooking process really starts to stop. If you start out in a pressure cooker at pressure, you have another 20 or more degrees to cool.

Also on the beans and grains, soaking, grinding, and feeding chickens. Sprouting the corn and other grains for the chickens will get you more and better eggs. The calorie and mineral content stay about the same but the vitamin content and digestability for the chickens goes through the roof. Richer colored yolks, more eggs. The same applies to us also. Sprouting the beans, wheat, etc. greatly multiplies the vitamin content. No help for white rice, it is dead. The lightly sprouted wheat and beans can be ground (now much easier) and still be used in breads, other recipes.

As for flashlights, the bulbs usually burn out with less than 50 hours of "on" time. Less if the average on time is short, much less if they are dropped often. Get replacement bulbs. Properly fashioned LED flashlight bulbs simply will not burn out in less than a decade, and impacts have little impact on them. The bad news is they are dimmer. The good news is they are dimmer. They do not ruin night vision like regular flashlight bulbs. One other advantage is that my Maglight D cell flashlight runs 3 to 4 weeks continuously on a single set of alk. batteries, a week on good nicads. That is a year of almost 2 hours a night. No fiddling with a match to investigate a bump in the night for me. The batteries outlast 10 regular bulb lifetimes. Thought of making them for whomever, no takers yet, and it will be too late when most people go Doooh.

You could design a LED bulb to burn for a full year continuously but it would be terribly dim. Of course terribly dim is almost always better than totally dark.

Like the propane idea. You said you could get deadwood for firewood. Do you have a stove or fireplace? (wish i did already)

-- tree (thetrees@bigfoot.com), November 08, 1999.



Ed,

Wow. I'm impressed. A tip I got from a dried grain supplier really helped me solve the bean cooking time problem and without a pressure cooker. Grinding the beans in a grain grinder creats "instant soup" ie. much shorter cooking time! I plan to do that with all my beans to save on cooking fuel.

Blessings and peace to you and your family.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), November 08, 1999.


Ed;

Bugler makes a neat little gadget that makes filtered smokes for about $5. You buy premade tubes, about $1 for 100, and a can of tobacco, about $8. You can make about 3 per min. at the cost of 3 cents per smoke. As for the beer, you can but a wine makeing kit for around $80 and have all you want! burp.........

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), November 08, 1999.


The Buglar cans come with a little over 200 papers. Both the wife and I smoke, we found these cans for $4.50 each awahile back and cleaned the shelf everytime the restocked, they got smart and raised the price to about $5.99. Still, it's more than a carton, practice rolling (we tried the filter thing, pain in the butt).

For the garden, get a tiller. We can till our whole plot twice to get it ready to plant on about 2 tanks of gas. Get some decent gas treatment if you stash some.

With a propane tank that size, look around for a small gas range with and oven. We picked up a small one from a mobile home for $40. When using propane appliances, shut the pilot lights off when not in use and the propane will last much longer, but be careful, you cannot screw up managing the pilots manually.

Oil lamps will burn K1, no problem, another thread mentioned some 'scent' that could be added to K1 to cut down on the smell.

-- BH (bh_silentvoice@hotmail.com), November 08, 1999.


Looking for lamp oil? Try either at Farm & Fleet or at the Meijer's grocery stores. Both stores near me (in Central Ohio) had plenty of lamp oil in stock - $3.00 for 1/2 gallon of pure oil. Just bought a gallon yesterday (11/7) in fact.

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), November 08, 1999.

About cat food. New on-line pet stores are having great specials on cat and dog food. I got 15 twenty pound bags of Science Diet Feline for half price and shipping was $4.95 for all of them! Try www.pets.com and www.petsmart.com.

About getting a gas stove to use with propane. If the stove has been used with natural gas you need to change the gas jets to ones made for propane. Your propane dealer should have them.

-- Evelyn (equus@barn.now), November 08, 1999.


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