10:36 – Barbara starts physical therapy today. She’s already doing very well, and intends to go back to work as soon as possible. The absolute minimum the doctor will approve is four weeks off before she’s allowed to drive or return to work, so I expect she’ll be back at work by mid-February.
As of today, I’m caught up with shipping the backlog of kits. Of course, I’ve also run down my finished goods inventory, so I’ll be building more kits today and the rest of this week.
One of the fundamental principles of long-term food storage that many preppers ignore is to store what you already eat. That’s why we store zero wheat berries and zero dry beans. Both of those have essentially unlimited shelf-lives, but that’s pretty much the best that can be said for them. Few Americans eat diets that are heavy in either whole wheat or beans, and we’re no exception. When we last visited the LDS Home Storage Center in Greensboro, we hauled back close to 700 pounds of food in #10 cans. None of it was wheat or beans. Barbara put her foot down, and I agreed with her completely. Instead of wheat, we bought multiple cases of white flour, which is rated for 10 years shelf life. In reality, it’ll probably be good far longer, but every few years we’ll just add more and keep what we have in long-term reserve. As to beans, we buy pre-cooked beans by the case. (We both really like Bush’s Best Baked Beans.)
The same is true of meat. We eat mostly chicken and beef, with pork occasionally and fish once a week or so. Barbara doesn’t mind the canned chicken breast sold by Costco and Sam’s Club, so we keep three or four dozen cans of it in stock. She doesn’t care for any canned fish, so we have only a dozen cans or so of tuna for me and maybe a half dozen salmon, which she’ll tolerate, for her. She’s not a big fan of roast beef at the best of times, but she will tolerate the canned sliced roast beef sold by Costco, so we keep a couple of dozen 12-ounce cans of it on the shelf.
She does use a fair amount of ground beef, so I decided to stock up on it. Unfortunately, no local vendor carries canned ground beef, so I order heat-and-serve ground beef directly from Keystone Meats. It’s available in cases of 12 28-ounce cans for $80 plus shipping or 24 14.5-ounce cans for $95 plus shipping. I have one of the former in stock and plan to order another case or two. The best-by dates are five years out, but in reality the shelf life is essentially unlimited.
My food storage goal has always been to maintain an absolute minimum of 24 person-months of food, with at least one meal per day that includes meat. That translates to one full year for the two of us or, more likely, four months for six or three months for eight.
Have you considered or looked into classes offered by the LDS or your adult education classes for doing your own canning? For people who have the time and inclination that might offer a cost effective alternative. Both of my grandmothers didn’t just can fruits and vegetables, but also beef, pork, poultry, and fish. Some of it was pretty good.
I actually have canned stuff in the past, including meats. It’s not time- or cost-effective for us, but we do have a pressure-canner and I’ll certainly cover it in the book. I will recommend buying commercial rather than canning at home, because for most people it’s going to be cheaper (not to mention safer) to buy commercial canned foods rather than doing it themselves.
My wife used to have a friend who was LDS. She and several other LDS Ladies would get together every six months and make huge quantities of peanut butter for their food storage requirement. It was amazing to look in her pantry, an incredible amount of peanut butter.
We like the canned chicken breast from Sam’s Club also. It is a good starter for many meals. I try to keep a couple of dozen on hand but managed to run out recently somehow. The albacore tuna also for tuna spread in the summer (nice cool meal).
I wish that the wife would help in maintaining inventory (tell me what she uses). Instead, she relies on the “Oops, I am out” and runs to HEB for more. So, I have to run a periodic inventory. Maybe I will make up an desired inventory sheet.
BTW, we had a training class last Friday at the office and five chemical engineering grad students showed up from TAMUK. The makeup was interesting: one from India, one from Nigeria, one from Korea, one from Russia, and one from the USA.
Few Americans eat diets that are heavy in either whole wheat or beans, and we’re no exception.
I hope you aren’t talking about pinto beans. lol My wife makes a giant pot every week as probably every Hispanic American family does. And those millions of incoming (and millions already here) illegal “Americans” will be hitting the local supers for the huge bags, I imagine.
I don’t think I’ve had canned beans since I married my wife. Van Camps was my favorite as a kid. We always took a can or two to the “woods” to heat over a fire while hiking. That big hunk of fat on the top was muy delicioso, Señor.
“1,700 Private Jets Fly to Davos to Discuss Global Warming”
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/20/1700-private-jets-fly-to-davos-to-discuss-global-warming/
““Decision-makers meeting in Davos must focus on ways to reduce climate risk while building more efficient, cleaner, and lower-carbon economies,” former Mexican president Felipe Calderon told USA Today.”
This article title speaks for itself.
I don’t have any problem with storing dry beans for those who want to, except that processing them is time- and energy-intensive. That’s why I prefer to stock canned beans. You can simply open the can and eat them, and they’ll still be as good as new in 10, 20, 30 years. Probably 100 years or more. And there are plenty of potential scenarios in which cooking is difficult or impossible for days to weeks on end.
Don’t tell Barbara, but I’m also going to buy some #10 cans of various pre-cooked beans from Sam’s or Walmart. Not only does she hate the idea of storing beans, but she hates #10 cans on general principles. But she likes both Bush’s Best Baked Beans and Chef Boyardee Ravioli, both of which Sam’s and Walmart carry in #10 cans. So I’m going to order a couple cases of each of those and explain to her that it’s perfectly okay to refrigerate or freeze left-overs from a #10 can. The food is also considerably less expensive per ounce from a #10 can instead of a small can.
And once again Dr. Bob’s prediction looks like it’s coming true:
“”Big data, IoT and the “appification” of everything are fundamentally changing our economies, and we’re quickly approaching the day when there simply won’t be enough work for everyone,” Morrow said. “Five, seven, nine percent unemployment are a thing of the past. Ten, 20, 30 and maybe even 50 percent unemployment could well be seen in our lifetimes, as more capable technology begins making more job categories obsolete. As countries like Switzerland have done, we will have to begin having serious political discussions about concepts like basic income.”
The same article has a question about the future of IT security which I can answer very easily:
“”There are not enough qualified security professionals to meet current demand. Who will fill the positions open today and the new ones in 2015?”
Visa-holders from overseas or foreign nationals in their home countries, without any background checks or minimal checks, and little or no command of English. I saw this at IBM when the peeps coming round to audit us and our security procedures were ALL foreign nationals who spoke barely any English. Coulda been KGB for all I know.
http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=3726&country=United+States&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email
The whole gist of the article, about the trends coming up this year, seems about right, and further cements my goal in staying away from working for The Man ever again, and above all, to never work at a site that is besotted with Agile/Scrum bullshit. We become more like the old Soviets and Red Chinese and Norks every day in this regard, all singing and chanting and dancing to the same tune, blaring at us from a drill instructor or “Scrum Master.” I’d rather just be taken out and shot right now, ’cause I ain’t doin’ it.
Gorgeous day here with blue skies and 16 degrees, no wind. ‘sposed to hit the 30s again on the weekend. When a chaotic mix of vehicle jockeying here will take place and we have a house-guest for two nights and then Mrs. OFD and guest will go down to Concord, NH for a week to do their gig while Princess takes the other vehicle to visit her bf down in Peterborough, NH. OFD will be Home Alone again and working on house stuff and online courses.
Cooking beans is a snap in a pressure cooker. SOak them overnight, 7-10 minutes 15 PSI and you’re done. I do it all the time. Cooking time varies by bean.
You can do an awful lot with a pressure cooker. I think you ought to investigate this in more depth.
A modern high-tech economy may very well have trouble with high unemployment. 10 to 20 % shouldn’t be hard to cope with in a vibrant economy. However just letting the slackers slide by makes no sense. Probably best to pay a living wage to people who could do more but can be brought into positions of less labor more knowledge, especially as they age. Early retirement, short weeks extra vacations. Yes many would be under utilized, like government workers are now, but so what. For that matter reducing more government workers is just fine by me.
Normally I’m for free market employment but that ain’t gonna work if the peasants are revolting.
Canned pintos, kidney or white beans with a package of Carol Shelby’s Chili Mix
http://www.cajungrocer.com/carroll-shelby-s-original-texas-chili.html?cvsfa=1338&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=31323933&gclid=CLGghaieo8MCFRSIfgodoHMAFA
makes for fast chili to go with BBQ or just by itself. Almost always in our pantry. Make a batch, BBQ a tritip, green salad and garlic bread. About a 30-45 minute meal. (I should find some of that canned ground beef to add for solo chili con carne).
Rest assured, the peasants will be revolting, eventually. When the circus money runs out and they can’t pay the soldiers and cops anymore. The only peeps with security will be the very wealthy and our 200-year fall from stillborn republic to Empire to banana republic and then civil war continues.
How in hell is this regime gonna be able to institute a basic income scheme when we’re nearing $20 trillion in debt and climbing? Maybe I’m stupid or ignorant; can anybody explain this to me?
All with a crumbling infrastructure, a vulnerable Grid, multiple-front wars, with crooks and war criminals running the show.
Again, the money is completely meaningless. It’s just a way of keeping score. What matters is output of goods and, to a much lesser extent, services. Assume that one day there will be no labor at all involved in producing a ton of wheat or a ton of steel or an automobile or a TV or whatever. No labor at all because all of these goods are produced by automated farms and mines and factories. At that point, other than capital costs, goods become essentially free. The Basic Income is simply a way to distribute those goods to those who want them.
My personal inclination is to have no government, no taxes, no welfare programs, etc. No nothing. If you can’t compete, you get natural-selected. But I know that’s impractical because in the coming economy we’re going to see a small fraction of 1% of people usefully employed (there’ll still be lots of make-work jobs, but their net economic contribution will be, as it is now, <0). In practical terms, the 0.1% cannot defend themselves against the 99.9%, which is why we'll end up with a Basic Income.
But if the 0.1% can barely run the show now, how is it that they’ll be able to administer such a huge program?
Frankly I don’t see us getting to such a complex level of distribution in time to stop the mayhem.
Assume that one day there will be no labor at all involved in producing a ton of wheat or a ton of steel or an automobile or a TV or whatever. No labor at all because all of these goods are produced by automated farms and mines and factories. At that point, other than capital costs, goods become essentially free.
Are you assuming that the raw materials are free? Iron, steel, plastic, copper, seed, fertilizer, fuel, and water are not free. Neither is transportation.
I do not think that the incremental amount of labor to produce a good will trend to zero. Even 100% automation workplaces require maintenance.
But unemployment may rise to 20%. And soon. At somewhere between 20% and 50% unemployment, there will be fundamental changes in our society.
I’m pretty sure it’s actually at 20% or a little higher right now. The gummint figures can be safely doubled, at least. And the way they count is totally effed up. It’s like some Euro countries count toward their GNP the earnings of hookers, dope dealers and the black market.
And we’ve had fundamental changes in our society since 1947 when the national security state was put into place, and the 70 years since, in spades. This ain’t the country I grew up in during the 50s and the Glorious Sixties. Meanwhile half the country is outraged by these changes and the other half is outraged that we’re outraged; recipe for eventual civil war, over, above and outside the racial/ethnic strife.
Shadowstats claims that the USA unemployment is 23% right now. I suspect that is a little high but I live in a (currently) low unemployment area so I do not see much craziness going on out there. We are somewhere around 3% unemployment here in the Land of Sugar. The entire Houston region is probably 5%. But that may be changing upwards, very soon.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
For instance, I would not include people who took early retirement. I have a friend who was a school teacher who retired at age 57. She physically could not do the work anymore, especially after a couple of kids knocked her down and messed up her foot while they were fighting. She would like to get a degree in physical therapy and go back to work but that ship may have sailed when she turned 60.
This ain’t the country I grew up in during the 50s and the Glorious Sixties.
Free love, drugs, and rock-n-roll everywhere? Just kidding!
The USA has changed fundamentally since the 1960s and I think for the better. At least here in the South. I go to church, dinner, school, shop with and live next to people that I would never have done so with in the 1960s. The jury that I was on last week was three whites and three blacks. The air and water are much cleaner, especially here in the Houston area. No more dumping offspec gasoline into the Houston ship channel.
All of that stuff is also automated. We don’t need people/labor to produce any of it.
Maintenance is automated, too.
The only thing that will require human input is invention. And eventually people won’t even be required for that.
As I was just saying the other day to Barbara, physicians and surgeons aren’t immune. Before much longer they’ll be replaced. In many ways, computerized diagnostic software is already a better diagnostician than at least half the MDs out there, if not 90%. Eventually, surgery will be completed automated as well. Note that I don’t think any of this is just around the corner, but I think you’ll be amazed at where we are ten years from now. Compare now to ten years ago to see what I mean. The changes between 2005 and 2015 are extraordinary.
RBT: What do you think of protein powders (like bodybuilders often use) as a protein supplement during a long term crisis? They come in sealed HDPE jugs, and can be mixed with water, milk, or probably something like Gatorade.
http://www.bodyfortress.com/chocolate-whey-protein-powder
Just for the heck of it. Any good TEOTWAWKI book should have the nutritional info for eating your fellow humans… 😉
“The USA has changed fundamentally since the 1960s and I think for the better. At least here in the South.”
As that old bromide goes, YMMV. Where you are right now sounds OK. Your particular relationships with other peeps appear to be working out. Right now. But I respectfully disagree that the changes nationwide have made things fundamentally better. Sure, we have fifty kinds of lettuce at the market; we can do all kinds of neat stuff on the net; violent crime seems to be down; and Wall-Mutts and Mickey-D’s are everywhere, worldwide.
Yet we’re nearly $20 trillion in debt and we still allow carny barkers and sales hucksters run our financial system, regardless of how they almost destroyed it. We have active combat troops and military installations all over the world, over a thousand of them. Our bridges, dams and roads are crumbling. Two generations of kidz can barely read and write but have LOADS of self-esteem.
I submit that those rioters in Ferguson and your SIL’s kid are our future. I have my doubts that a handful of techies, scientists and engineers can keep the whole shebang rolling if we Default and the Grid sputters out. This is a HUGE country, the third most populous in the world. Never been done before on this scale. Good ol’ Murkan know-how gonna do it? I think the odds are now against it.
In many ways, computerized diagnostic software is already a better diagnostician than at least half the MDs out there, if not 90%.
The last time I was ill enough to want a doctor was about a year and a half ago. I only “saw” the PA at UrgentCare who put my symptoms in her laptop and said “you have a sinus infection, I’ll send your scrip to CVS electronically”. She then got the “doctors” sign off and I was done in 10 minutes. I picked up the drugs on the way home.
Re: protein powder
An incredibly expensive source of protein. I sure wouldn’t bother with it.
I suspect that is a little high but I live in a (currently) low unemployment area so I do not see much craziness going on out there.
The unemployment is there, it’s hidden as you suspected in early retirement among other things. There were probably 10k engineers and more support staff kicked to the curb at JSC when ISS and Shuttle ramped down. I got caught in one of the Orion downsizings. Many of us were older and ended up “retiring”. More left STEM, since it’s hard to find jobs outside aerospace after you have been there a long time.
It is also hidden in the groups of people who simply quit looking for work at all, and I’m unsure of how they calculate the self-employed, contractors and temps, which is now a huge part of the IT job market.
Not to mention the tens of millions of people who are “employed” by the government or by private industry because of government mandates.
Exactly. I’d forgotten about that momentarily; early senility kicking in again.
So warlord, witch doctor, high priest, whatever: will there be stuff in the book volumes somewhere about medicinal herbs and alternatives to pricey crap put out by the big pharmas in collusion with the medicos?
I’m mainly interested in pain med alternatives, for when stuff really starts breaking down and/or I gotta have some kinda surgery or sumthin, ditto Mrs. OFD, who is due for eye surgery ASAP.
But also just basic chit, for headaches, tummy aches, minor lacerations, flu symptoms, etc.
What!!?? The government employees are the only reason anything gets done in this country. No private industry could even get started without government services. And that internet that lets you run your business? A government project right from the start. Yes, America works because of the hard-working, dedicated government workers — the civil service unions will tell you so, and if you can’t believe the civil service unions, whom can you believe?
Protein powder isn’t that bad in terms of price, when you consider that it’s nearly 100% protein, rather than being mostly water like meats are.
All of that stuff is also automated. We don’t need people/labor to produce any of it.
Construction-equipment maker Komatsu Ltd. has plans to solve a potential shortage of construction workers in Japan: Let drones and driverless bulldozers do part of the work.
Well according to this guy I just saw on TV everything is going great, and he’s going to make it better if those other guys will just go along.
Eh? You watched that tool? What are you, some kind of masochist? Or were you playing a drinking game: a sip every time he says “I”, slam the can every time he says “Let me be clear”.
You pogie-bait capons just don’t rate; I get personal emails from the man:
“Ahead of my State of the Union address tonight, I want you to know that I’m as fired up as I’ve ever been.
In just a few minutes, I’ll deliver my State of the Union address to the nation.
Let me know you’ll be tuning in at 9 p.m. Eastern:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/SOTU
Thank you.
President Barack Obama”
Earlier I had email from the WH itself advising me to watch it on a pooter, tablet or smartphone so I could click all the relevant links for more info.
I took a pass on it or forgot or sumthin. Had to keep the woodstove going, it’s single digits again tonight.
But good to know the Prez thinks so highly of li’l ol’ me up here.
I got the the post SOTU email and he asked for money. He always asks for money,
Friend —
I hope you’re excited about the agenda I laid out tonight for 2015.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Let’s go — make a monthly contribution to support Democrats now:
https:xxx//my.democrats.org/2015
Thanks,
Barack Obama
See? Me and Mr. dkreck are high up on the list!
Here’s my email, just now:
“What the President just said:
“A brighter future is ours to write. Let’s begin this new chapter — together — and let’s start the work right now.”
Those were President Obama’s words as he finished delivering his sixth State of the Union address moments ago.
He spoke not just about where we are as a nation, but where we’re going.
This is a speech you don’t want to miss — so if you didn’t see it live, make sure you watch it now.”
Mine didn’t ask for money ’cause he know I unemployed right now. Dat’s how close we is.
Lynn:
I well recognized the acronym TAMUK, since Kingsville is my hometown. I have also attended and worked there. My understanding is that the engineering college has a good reputation (one of the few, if not the only one). What is your opinion?
Robert
Yeah, the government stats don’t include people who have given up looking for work, which is just nuts. Also, in the service sector, apparently huge numbers of jobs have changed from full-time to part-time, to dodge the Obamacare penalties. Someone who used to work full-time with bennies, but is now part-time without bennies may still be employed, but it’s not the same quality of job.
Re automated medicine: I was at a small company the other day, and saw a demo of a technique where a computer tracks the exact position of the surgical instruments, so that it can instruct the surgeon where to move next. This is for getting stuff into really sensitive spots (like brain surgery), where the surgical path has been mapped out ahead of time. It’s pretty obvious that the next step is to strap those instruments to a robot arm.
Kinda. The problem is, “alternative medicine” pretty much isn’t. Medicine, that is. A lot of our current drugs evolved from natural sources. Science tested the traditional remedies. Those that worked were the basis of modern pharma. Those that didn’t are still being pushed by herbalists et alia even though the vast majority have little to zero benefit and many are actually harmful.
But there are many older drugs that are safe and effective but are no longer in use, things like bromide salts for sedation, magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) for constipation (not to mention its mainstream use for pre-eclampsia), and so on. Salicylates from willow bark were the basis of aspirin, poppy for opiates, and many other plants for things like cardiac drugs, blood pressure regulators, and so on. Then there are the many relatively simple synthetic drugs, including antibiotics like the sulfas, chloramphenicol and thioamphenicol, and so on.
A skilled herbalist could in fact make many useful drugs, but that’s as nothing compared to what a skilled organic chemist could make.
Oh, yeah. I recommended this title, along with several related ones, to all of my organic chemist friends:
http://www.amazon.com/Pharmaceutical-Manufacturing-Encyclopedia-Third-Sittigs/dp/081551526X
It’s more than 3,800 pages in four volumes, and includes detailed syntheses for 2,200+ current drugs. In a real long-term emergency, I’d hand a copy of this to real wizards like Paul and Mary, along with a prioritized list of the dozen or score of drugs we needed to produce in reasonable quantity. Of course, you’d also need a lab and a lot of simple precursors (acids and bases, organics, etc.), but finding those wouldn’t be their problem.
Excellent summary, thanks.
More of less outta my depth on this subject, as are most folks. What do we do when we don’t have aspirin, antihistamines, anti-nausea, antacid, and other assorted pills anymore?
We recently escaped the People’s Republic of WA side of the Portland Metro, and I’m guessing that the unemployment there was easily 23% if not higher. Medicaid and Food Stamp participation rates were both well above 20%, and most of the new Obamacare policies in WA from the state’s highly-touted exchange are simply Medicaid in disguise.
Interesting; so in some areas the true unemployment figure means one in four normally working Murkans are outta work. That’s pretty bad. How long will Medicare/Medicaid and food stamp programs last? And what happens, as in that linked article here the other day, if the EBT cards and/or ATM cards stop working?
I sure would not wanna be anywhere near a major metro area.
Make a trip to Costco or Sam’s Club and stock up. These things are incredibly cheap now. Buy multiple bottles of 500 or 1,000 each and stick them in the freezer. They’ll stay good for a long, long time.
For example, I just ordered a bottle of 1,000 50-mg diphenhydramine capsules (rather than tablets on Amazon for something like $18. Those go in the freezer. (I ordered capsules rather than tablets because I can remove the diphenhydramine from the capsules, dissolve it in sterile water, and inject it if necessary.)
Good idea, thanks again!
One great thing about living up here is that besides the freezer that came with the fridge and the chest freezer down in the cellar, we have several months per year when we can just leave stuff outside on the porch or out in the studio/shed. We’ll also be looking into setting up a decent root cellar, a tradition here in rural northern New England.
Actually, they’ll stay good essentially forever frozen. The clock doesn’t start ticking until the freezer fails. Once you’re storing them at normal room temperature, give or take, they gracefully degrade. It varies a lot from drug to drug, but typically after ten or fifteen years at room temperature, only 90% or so of the original dose may be present. That’s less than the typical variation from tab to tab in newly manufactured medications.
The one exception, which I’ve mentioned before, is tetracycline and its derivatives. There were early reports that it did degrade to form toxic byproducts. I’ve also read in various places that that was true only for the original manufacturing process and that current product degrades safely and gracefully. Even so, since I can’t really test this other than by proxies for which I have no idea of reliability, I’d be careful with the tetracyclines. Like almost any solid drug, freezing essentially puts tetracyclines into stasis, but once it comes out I’d keep it as cold as I could and pay attention to the original expiration date (not counting time frozen).
All very good info, and likely to be valuable in our near future of severely rationed “healthcare” and little or no access to the usual pharmaceuticals. Already signs of it around the country.
The “Health-Connect” web site and associated sign-up stuff here in Vermont is still a complete mess and peeps are just now finding out that although there is huge concern over a $100 million deficit, the projected cost for their now-defunct “single payer” system would have been over a billion dollars in just the first year. Where in hell would that money have come from up here? No one knows, but they were gonna go ahead with it. This is what we’re dealing with. Nationwide.
The money is GONE. They can print it till hell freezes over, just like in Germany and Austria between the world wars, or more accurately, in that lull between major actions of the century-long war. $20 trillion in debt and peeps keep whistling this happy little tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWyhj7siEY
I well recognized the acronym TAMUK, since Kingsville is my hometown. I have also attended and worked there. My understanding is that the engineering college has a good reputation (one of the few, if not the only one). What is your opinion?
Very good. Of course, I am biased since I am a 1982 graduate of TAMU.
Texas has several excellent engineering colleges: TAMU, TAMUK, UT, Rice, U of H, Texas Tech, Lamar. I am not sure but I think that Baylor, TCU, SMU, UTPB, and PVTAMU belong on this list also. I have also forgotten a couple. There is a rumor that Sam Houston State is adding a Engineering College, a Medical College and converting to a University.
WRT storing food you don’t normally eat–
Appetite fatigue is real. You will want some novelty and variety in your menu. (well, most people will, there are people who happily eat the exact same thing year in and out. From some other posts, I get the impression that our host may be one of those.) You will also want a ton of spices, even if you don’t normally like spicy food. If you don’t eat them, I believe that for most of human history the highest value to weight ratio was in spices. The average American has in his cupboard enough spices to purchase a kingdom just a thousand years ago.
Bulk grains are good “stone soup” and charity items. Cheap now, easy to store, and if you don’t normally eat them, easy to give away. They do have a high cost in fuel energy for cooking relative to other things, but they stretch your prepared foods like nobody’s business. Red beans and rice anyone?
nick
Oh, yes. Appetite fatigue (food boredom) is very real, although as you suspected much less a factor for me than many people. Children in particular are subject to it, and women on average are not far behind.
We’re lower on spices than I want to be. We have maybe a couple dozen Costco-size jars of various herbs and spices, but I plan to at least double that. As far as dry beans and wheat berries, I just don’t see any reason to store them. I can store white flour, which LDS rates for 10 year shelf life, and pre-cooked beans for something like $3.50 per #10 can at Sam’s Club, which also have at least a 10-year shelf life. Every year, I’ll buy more of both, along with other staples like white rice and sugar, which have essentially unlimited shelf lives. Along with more meat every year, which goes a long way toward dealing with appetite fatigue. And more spices, peanut butter, etc. etc.
Barbara will draw the line somewhere, but probably not until I have at least five or ten person-years worth of food stored.
As far as storing beans and whole wheat grains (frequently miscalled berries, whereas in fact the grain head would be the closest analogue wheat has to a berry), I do. I’m well aware that normally beans take a lot more cooking (time and energy) than most things, but they do store well, will grow new plants when planted, and they are economical to use (thus freeing up funds for other purposes) prior to any critical collapse of energy availability. In other words, they are a prepping aid, even if not a good post-crisis good. Also, for people who have more time than money (which is a lot of people in these days of unemployment, underemployment, and forced retirement), if you do home-canning, then having dry beans available is good. You can fill up empty spaces in your canner or empty spaces in your jars with home-canned beans.
The notable bad thing about cooked beans is that they are a lot heavier and bulkier than dry beans. This is just something to think about. If you’re bugging out to a forest, then dry is good, and fuel cost doesn’t matter. If you’re bugging in at home, then weight doesn’t matter, and pre-cooked is a BIG advantage.
You can also pick and choose among beans. Borlotti (aka cranberry) beans cook faster and to me taste better than other varieties (excepting possibly Lima beans, which taste good to me too). Asian beans (mung and adzuki) are smaller and (like lentils) cook much faster than standard beans, and are good for sprouting as well.
Another advantage of whole-grain cereals like wheat is that you can sprout them. It’s another case of being able to turn dry long-life stores into green vitamin-rich sprouts. In fact, you may choose not to do so, but having the option is a good thing. Experimenting in advance of a critical need is a good thing too, and if you expect that your stores may need to feed people who haven’t for whatever reason got sufficient preps, then being able to produce green vegetables during the hungry gap from mid-winter to mid-spring is definitely a good thing.
And of course, cereal grains will grow cereal plants which yield many more cereal grains. If there is any chance that you will have poultry of any type, pre or post SHTF, then being able to grow much of their food is a good thing.
I’m not sure about Australia, but here in the US “wheat berry” is the accepted term to describe the wheat kernel that remains after threshing and winnowing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_berry
Also, I probably haven’t emphasized it enough, but this is my personal blog rather than a site for the prepping book. What I write about here is what we’re doing, and not necessarily what I recommend that others do. We have more money than time. That and our other personal circumstances means we make decisions based on personal factors that may not apply to others.
Otherwise, you make several good points. However, be aware that seed wheat and feed wheat are two very different things. Most wheat seed (like most seed generally) is an F1 hybrid, which does not breed true. Feed wheat are kernels that result from growing that hybrid seed. If you plant feed wheat, you will get a crop. A really, really ugly crop, with a random mix of genetic factors. For seed wheat (assuming you’re not going to store enough F1 hybrid seed to plant every year forever) what you want is an heirloom seed, which does breed true.
The same, of course, also applies to feed beans versus seed beans. You can buy a bag of, say, lima beans at the supermarket and plant them. But you’ll end up with a really pathetic crop of deformed lima beans. By selective breeding, you can eventually (over years) get back to the original cultivars from which the original F1 hybrid seed was produced, but it’s going to take a lot of time and work to do so. Better just to store heirloom open-pollinating lima bean seeds.