4 ms·

I never thought about it before but now I wonder if I should have a small stock just in case. Nothing serious, maybe 2 weeks worth of stuff to live on. That I c

by eknkc 10y ago

I never thought about it before but now I wonder if I should have a small stock just in case. Nothing serious, maybe 2 weeks worth of stuff to live on. That I can have and forget, not maintain indefinately. Anyone have something like that? Any tips?

curiousgal 10y ago
Most Americans who lived through the Cold War probably have some advices to give.
tonyonodi 10y ago
> Anyone have something like that? Yep https://www.reddit.com/r/prepping/ https://www.reddit.com/r/prepping/
zyxley 10y ago
Well, food is easy enough - canned food doesn't take up much space and is easy to keep stocked, assuming you regularly rotate through it so that it doesn't expire. The harder part is water, as just a few days worth of drinking water for one person can take up a huge amount of space.
- hga 10y ago
  The harder part is water, as just a few days worth of drinking water for one person can take up a huge amount of space. Eh??? A generally "comfortable" minimal budget for water is 1 gallon per day (3.8 liters, call it 4), although you might need more on hot summer days. A 5 gallon container is, with all the plastic and features for stack-ability, going to take up less than a cubic foot (19,000 cc). It's not compact like food, but it's pretty easy to store enough so that you can ride out a short disaster and pick your time to get more for a longer one.
  - EGreg 10y ago
    You can get a portable desalinator! Why not?
    - hga 10y ago
      I was born and raised in, and have retired to a town famous for its distance from any large body of water, let alone salt water (Joplin, MO), and most Germans aren't on their coast as well. Here, if I run out of stored water, along those lines I need purifying capability, such as coffee filters for coarse filtering, then any one of a number of chemical methods, e.g. plain household bleach, or a serious small pore filter such as Katadyn specializes in.
  - toomanybeersies 10y ago
    I disagree, you can get by on 2 litres of water per day. You're obviously not going to be having showers and brushing your teeth with it, but that's not the end of the world. Hell, I go through only about 6 litres of water a day while climbing mountains in the summer. Remember that food also contains water when looking at minimum intakes.
    - hga 10y ago
      That's why I qualified 1 gallon/3.8 liters as a "comfortable" minimum, if you're planning water storage for your dwelling, given the size of containers and your not needing to carry it anywhere, you might as well initially splurge. If the disaster lasts long enough, and you can't get more, you can cut down to ~2 liters/half a gallon some time before you run out. And I like to brush my teeth....
2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
Speaking as someone who cooks, a typical pantry should last you at least 2 weeks if you just wanted to survive. Flour, pasta, rice, eggs, various preserved meats and vegetables. Anything you have that is perishable could probably be immediately preserved and will easily last 2 weeks. If there was really a problem, my main concerns would be water and power.
toomanybeersies 10y ago
Everyone should have at least 3 days of food and water stockpiled. Especially if you live in an area where you might experience a natural or man-made disaster (doesn't Turkey get lots of earthquakes?). You want food that can be eaten unheated, all the better if it's not in cans so you don't need a can opener. Get some biscuits or crackers, some canned meat (corned beef or tuna), and canned or dehydrated vegetables (soaking them works well enough). Dehydrated potatoes are also light and compact, and provide good energy. Chocolate is also a great compact source of energy, and lasts for a long time. Grab some muesli/granola bars as well for eating on the go. A standard tin of corned beef will last a couple of days. A mixture of corned beef, dehydrated potatoes, and dehydrated peas will keep you going for a long time. I've eaten a pot of it all mixed together and gone until the evening eating hardly anything while climbing mountains. As for water, you'll want at least 2 litres per day, and you'll want to rotate your stock every 6-12 months as water does go stale. If you want to set yourself up for longer term, I'd suggest getting a gas cooker or something to cook on, and then you can also boil water to get clean water. The alternative for long term water is iodine or other purification tablets, but they taste nasty. Apart from food, you'll also want to keep some medical supplies: bandages, sling, tape, gloves (these are important!). Toilet paper is also essential. You'll want to keep all this stuff in a box or bag that you can easily grab and get the fuck out. I live in an earthquake prone area, so it pays to be prepared here.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  For people that are healthy, 3 days of food is pretty much only a matter of comfort. Peanut butter is about 2x as calorie dense as canned meat (and it tastes good and is going to be more nutritious than cheap canned meat).
  - toomanybeersies 10y ago
    Forgot about peanut butter. It's one of my essentials when going hunting or hiking. Goes surprisingly well with corned beef and bread, like a half-arsed satay. Canned meat (especially tuna) is a good source of protein, which peanut butter doesn't really provide. There's also a moral effect of eating meat. You could just stockpile a few boxes of muesli bars, which are calorie dense, but you'd get pretty upset with eating them after a day or two. Even the Army realises this, and attempts to give variation in their MREs and in their First Strike ration packs. You could feed a soldier on a fat/sugar/vitamin/fibre mix, but you'd kill their morale pretty damn quick.

by eknkc 10y ago

curiousgal 10y ago

Most Americans who lived through the Cold War probably have some advices to give.

tonyonodi 10y ago

> Anyone have something like that? Yep https://www.reddit.com/r/prepping/ https://www.reddit.com/r/prepping/

zyxley 10y ago

Well, food is easy enough - canned food doesn't take up much space and is easy to keep stocked, assuming you regularly rotate through it so that it doesn't expire. The harder part is water, as just a few days worth of drinking water for one person can take up a huge amount of space.

hga 10y ago
The harder part is water, as just a few days worth of drinking water for one person can take up a huge amount of space. Eh??? A generally "comfortable" minimal budget for water is 1 gallon per day (3.8 liters, call it 4), although you might need more on hot summer days. A 5 gallon container is, with all the plastic and features for stack-ability, going to take up less than a cubic foot (19,000 cc). It's not compact like food, but it's pretty easy to store enough so that you can ride out a short disaster and pick your time to get more for a longer one.
- EGreg 10y ago
  You can get a portable desalinator! Why not?
  - hga 10y ago
    I was born and raised in, and have retired to a town famous for its distance from any large body of water, let alone salt water (Joplin, MO), and most Germans aren't on their coast as well. Here, if I run out of stored water, along those lines I need purifying capability, such as coffee filters for coarse filtering, then any one of a number of chemical methods, e.g. plain household bleach, or a serious small pore filter such as Katadyn specializes in.
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  I disagree, you can get by on 2 litres of water per day. You're obviously not going to be having showers and brushing your teeth with it, but that's not the end of the world. Hell, I go through only about 6 litres of water a day while climbing mountains in the summer. Remember that food also contains water when looking at minimum intakes.
  - hga 10y ago
    That's why I qualified 1 gallon/3.8 liters as a "comfortable" minimum, if you're planning water storage for your dwelling, given the size of containers and your not needing to carry it anywhere, you might as well initially splurge. If the disaster lasts long enough, and you can't get more, you can cut down to ~2 liters/half a gallon some time before you run out. And I like to brush my teeth....

2muchcoffeeman 10y ago

Speaking as someone who cooks, a typical pantry should last you at least 2 weeks if you just wanted to survive. Flour, pasta, rice, eggs, various preserved meats and vegetables. Anything you have that is perishable could probably be immediately preserved and will easily last 2 weeks. If there was really a problem, my main concerns would be water and power.

toomanybeersies 10y ago

Everyone should have at least 3 days of food and water stockpiled. Especially if you live in an area where you might experience a natural or man-made disaster (doesn't Turkey get lots of earthquakes?). You want food that can be eaten unheated, all the better if it's not in cans so you don't need a can opener. Get some biscuits or crackers, some canned meat (corned beef or tuna), and canned or dehydrated vegetables (soaking them works well enough). Dehydrated potatoes are also light and compact, and provide good energy. Chocolate is also a great compact source of energy, and lasts for a long time. Grab some muesli/granola bars as well for eating on the go. A standard tin of corned beef will last a couple of days. A mixture of corned beef, dehydrated potatoes, and dehydrated peas will keep you going for a long time. I've eaten a pot of it all mixed together and gone until the evening eating hardly anything while climbing mountains. As for water, you'll want at least 2 litres per day, and you'll want to rotate your stock every 6-12 months as water does go stale. If you want to set yourself up for longer term, I'd suggest getting a gas cooker or something to cook on, and then you can also boil water to get clean water. The alternative for long term water is iodine or other purification tablets, but they taste nasty. Apart from food, you'll also want to keep some medical supplies: bandages, sling, tape, gloves (these are important!). Toilet paper is also essential. You'll want to keep all this stuff in a box or bag that you can easily grab and get the fuck out. I live in an earthquake prone area, so it pays to be prepared here.

maxerickson 10y ago
For people that are healthy, 3 days of food is pretty much only a matter of comfort. Peanut butter is about 2x as calorie dense as canned meat (and it tastes good and is going to be more nutritious than cheap canned meat).
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  Forgot about peanut butter. It's one of my essentials when going hunting or hiking. Goes surprisingly well with corned beef and bread, like a half-arsed satay. Canned meat (especially tuna) is a good source of protein, which peanut butter doesn't really provide. There's also a moral effect of eating meat. You could just stockpile a few boxes of muesli bars, which are calorie dense, but you'd get pretty upset with eating them after a day or two. Even the Army realises this, and attempts to give variation in their MREs and in their First Strike ration packs. You could feed a soldier on a fat/sugar/vitamin/fibre mix, but you'd kill their morale pretty damn quick.