Prep 101

Discuss the last days, Zion, second coming, emergency preparedness, alternative health, etc.
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Original_Intent
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Prep 101

Post by Original_Intent »

Gonna post a few thoughts on physical preps for bad times. Spiritual preps are more important, and if you do that, the spirit can guide you in what you need to do in all regards. Nevertheless, perhaps the spirit will guide you to this thread and prompt you to take action.

In physical preps, other than air to breathe, the most critical need is clean water to drink. I have been a big fan of Berkey water filters for a long time, but if you don't want to fork out $300, you can just buy two (you could even do it with one) of the filter elements and then follow this VERY easy DIY Berkey water filter system.

Next is food. If you have money to burn you can get kits such as from Patriot Supply, but I am a cheapskate and want a bit more bang (calories and nutrition) for my buck. Rice is a good source of calories that aren't empty calories. Rice is a great extender of whatever else you have to eat, if you have the spices and seasonings to make super flavorful meats (i.e. makings for Teriyaki Sauce) you can put a small amount of meat in your mouth and then stuff rice in and the flavor moves throughout and is awesome. I also bought a lot of Chunky Soups when they went on sale, and a can of Chunky soup can be extended a LOOOONG way with rice if necessary. Good way to have some variety and it is easy and while the best buy date on them is about 2 years at best, I have used them well over 5 years after buying and they are fine. Beyond that, you won't poison yourself as long as the can maintains integrity. But I have had some Calm Chowder specifically that after 5 years the texture isn't awesome.

Also, if you get the cans with the pull tab lids, do NOT store them on their side (we had some rolling shelves to help with rotations, but those lids MAY break seal after time on their side.

Speaking of rotation, definitely set your storage up so you can add new purchases at the back easily, and then you can take your older cans from the front. When my mom passed, it is sad how much food storage that we had to toss (as in years worth of survival for a family) because they had 25 year old stuff that was downright nasty (we did open samples of almost everything and it was, possibly not lethal, but it was really nasty.) Rotate and store what you eat normally. I wouldn't focus on "survival food", but that's just my advice.

Also, I was yesterday days old before I knew that you can actually buy some items from the "bishop's storehouse" without being in need and without having to work in the cannery (I used to work in the cannery a lot and load up on various items. But you can buy stuff directly at store.lds.org. VERY affordable and I ordered three cases with six #10 cans per case and they only charged $3.00 shipping and handling!!!???!!! WHAT?!?!?! Also, everything I have seen there is canned to last 25 years if stored in a cool dry place. Pretty limited selection, but still - for what is available, what a deal!

As far as getting into the details of what you want, there are plenty of food storage calculators out there. Only a couple of things to recommend, fat is very important and also hard to store long term as it tends to go rancid. We keep a two-year supply of peanut butter on hand as we can get thru it before it goes rancid. We also keep a LOT of butter in our basement freezer. Last thing is I don't know that I would invest in a LOT of these, but these emergency rations are a GREAT thing to have in your 72 hour kit and bugout bags. https://www.amazon.com/Rations-Emergenc ... 18&sr=8-16 Note the 5 years shelf life under ALL climate conditions - I mean I wouldn't test it with extremes, but whaat a great thing to have in the trunk of your car, and swap out every few years!

After food and water there is a wide range of secondary stuff that I think is important. I would have hard copies of any kind of "how to" books that you think that you might need. Getting skilled up in things that you can do to serve yourself and others and possible in barter is a very big deal. Some kind of food production and other things that people may need in a Mad Max scenario (which I think unlikely, but prepare for the worst and hope for the best.) I can't reiterate enough building up a personal library of hard copy books of all kinds of things like the best of philosophy, the U.S. Constitution (especially books expounding on it and explaining the importance of the principles) etc. Since people don;t want to learn now, if things collapse you may need every available tool to educate people for the rebuilding so we don't make stupid decisions like accepting the Great Reset.

Anyways, hope this was helpful to someone.

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Original_Intent
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Re: Prep 101

Post by Original_Intent »

Also on the water filters - when they start to slow the flow, that doesn't mean you need a new filter, you can just rub it down with the green scratchy side of a dish sponge - you don't want anything rougher than that or you can damage the filter - but that can extend your filter life should be up to ~3000 gallons per filter element.

You can also get longer life by using a series of "settling buckets" just pour your water in the first bucket, next day pour from bucket 1 to bucket 2 (discarding the gunk that settles out) and bucket 2 to 3 and so forth, so you are starting out with pretty clean water going into the filter.

Final tip is you can put a pre-1965 dime, quarter, half dollar or dollar (or any other silver) in the bottom bucket of your filter system and that will help kill whatever might have made it thru the filter/stop stuff from growing.

Godislove
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Re: Prep 101

Post by Godislove »

Thank you for your post OI. :)
This is just a thought but I feel like everytime I hear talks on preparedness given in church it is stressed that the spiritual preparation is most important and I feel like because many people think that is the focus they deceive themselves into not preparing physically.
I think both are equally important and that one is not more important than the other but that they go hand in hand....if you are truly spiritually prepared then you will also be physically prepared.
D&C 29:34
34 Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal;
The command to prepare physically is actually a spiritual commandment and how good can one be a spiritual anchor for others when they are suffering from physical starvation?

" Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion." - Ezra Taft Benson

"For years we have been counseled to have on hand a year's supply of food. Yet there are some today who will not start storing until the Church comes out with a detailed monthly home storage program. Now suppose that never happens. We still cannot say we have not been told. Should the Lord decide at this time to cleanse the Church- and the need for that cleansing seems to be increasing- a famine in this land of one year's duration could wipe out a large percentage of slothful members, including some ward and stake officers. Yet we cannot say we have not been warned."
-Ezra Taft Benson
Last edited by Godislove on May 29th, 2023, 9:56 pm, edited 4 times in total.

lost ark
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Re: Prep 101

Post by lost ark »

I write about these physical preps in my daily blog PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com, just covering food and medicine, including herbs. There are probably over 1,000 unique articles now.

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Ymarsakar
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Re: Prep 101

Post by Ymarsakar »

My emergency ration is called honey and fruit juices.

I can operate well alone but it requires a dna frequency shift or upgrade. Now i know what john was doing with wild honey in desert

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Momma J
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Re: Prep 101

Post by Momma J »

I love our Berkey. It is the only water we drink. I purchased the XL coffee filters in case I need to filter slime out of the pond water before boiling and adding to the Berkey.

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creator
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Re: Prep 101

Post by creator »

Original_Intent wrote: May 28th, 2023, 3:14 pmRice is a good source of calories that aren't empty calories. Rice is a great extender of whatever else you have to eat, if you have the spices and seasonings to make super flavorful..
Don't forget the beans. I could happily live on just Rice & Beans, especially with some decent added spices.

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Momma J
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Re: Prep 101

Post by Momma J »

creator wrote: May 30th, 2023, 11:22 am
Original_Intent wrote: May 28th, 2023, 3:14 pmRice is a good source of calories that aren't empty calories. Rice is a great extender of whatever else you have to eat, if you have the spices and seasonings to make super flavorful..
Don't forget the beans. I could happily live on just Rice & Beans, especially with some decent added spices.
We love beans and rice fixed various ways. In Texas, people look at you weird if you serve a pot of beans without rice.

Mix cooked rice with scrambled eggs in the morning. Not only does this stretch the eggs. It also tastes great.

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Ymarsakar
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Re: Prep 101

Post by Ymarsakar »

Goya premium black beans were 1 USD a can in 2020. I bought many, still have a few left over.

I looked at the ingredient list and made sure all the weird stuff wasn't on there.

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mudflap
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Re: Prep 101

Post by mudflap »

Momma J wrote: May 30th, 2023, 8:35 am I love our Berkey. It is the only water we drink. I purchased the XL coffee filters in case I need to filter slime out of the pond water before boiling and adding to the Berkey.
I just hate being tied to buying filters from somewhere.

We use a distiller we bought for $99, which is what Berkey seems to hate: https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/can ... lled-water. For $0.99 per gallon, we've saved a few hundred bucks over the past 3-4 years with our distiller. It removes 100% of everything except water - flouride, metals, dissolved salts, no filter needed.

they say a distiller takes out the minerals, but I've been drinking distilled water for years. I feel like you should get your minerals from your salt / spices / food, not necessarily your water. Our distiller cost $100, and takes 4 hours to make 1 gallon of water with a 1800 watt heating element.

My plan is to have several water sources after we move in -
- I want to make a solar distiller with glass (I've seen a lot of plans for this online),
- dig a shallow well (Locals tell me the water table is about 20' down here- can be hand dug)
- I have an idea for a distiller made out of a stainless steel pipe sunk into the ground and distilling by way of temperature differences between the ground and the air (condensation). I have to learn how to weld on stainless steel pipe, though....
- rain barrels for collection from the roof.

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