11:09 – As a follow-up to Nick’s first post, I’ll tell a similar story of my own.
I got started prepping when I was nine years old, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Like most adults, my parents were scared and trying to keep it from the kids. We knew something was going on, but few of us realized that our parents were terrified that the USSR was about to nuke us. My dad got to work immediately building a shelter in a basement room and stocking it with food and water. He let me “help” him.
For the next 45 years or so, I maintained a higher-than-average state of readiness for emergencies. The financial crisis of 2008 kicked me into higher gear. On every Costco run, I started buying extra stuff–a case of vegetables, another of soup, another of canned chicken, and so on. From then until late 2013, we maintained probably a 3- to 4-month supply of food, as well as the stuff needed to purify water and so on. I’ve been a shooter since I was a young teenager, so we already had guns and ammo.
In early 2014, I became concerned enough with world events in general and US events in particular that I decided to expand and extend our food supply to carry us for at least a year, as well as having enough to provide for Barbara’s family. In June 2014, I told Barbara that for my birthday I wanted a trip to the LDS Home Storage Center over near the Greensboro airport, where I planned to fill up the back of the Trooper. We made that trip, and hauled back about 700 pounds of food, mostly in #10 cans. I bought four 6-can cases each of flour, sugar, macaroni, spaghetti, potato flakes, rice, and non-fat dry milk, along with smaller quantities of several other items.
No beans, you’ll note. Beans are important in most long-term food storage programs because the protein in grains is not complete. It lacks essential amino acids that are present in beans, so the two in combination provide a complete protein. (One can literally starve to death by eating only grains or only beans.) Instead of beans, I decided to stock up on animal protein, which is complete by itself and is also an excellent supplement to grain protein. So I bought lots of canned meats–hamburger, chicken, pork, Spam, and so on. A couple of hundred pounds worth. Other than chicken, Barbara doesn’t particularly like the canned meats, but if it came down to it I’m sure she’d much rather be eating canned hamburger and pork than just beans. Not that I completely ignored beans. We keep 100+ one-pound cans of Bush’s Best Baked Beans on hand, along with a smaller supply of dried beans.
With all that on hand, the next thing I needed to cover was salt and oils/fats. Salt was easy enough. I picked up a dozen or so 4-pound boxes of iodized salt at Sam’s Club, which I later transferred to wide-mouth PET bottles that used to hold Mott’s applesauce. (They’re a lot easier to clean out than ones that had spaghetti sauce in them.) For oils, the first thing I did was order a dozen 3-pound cans of Crisco shortening. It’s saturated fat, which scares some people, but in reality it’s just as healthy to eat saturated fats as unsaturated or polyunsaturated. Probably healthier, actually. To that, I added several 3-liter bottles of Costco olive oil, which live in our vertical freezer where they’ll remain good for decades.
With all that on hand, my next priority was to start picking up #10 cans of supplemental stuff. None of it is freeze-dried, because the price of freeze-dried stuff is simply outrageous. All of the stuff I stock in #10 cans that isn’t from LDS is from Augason Farms. Augason stuff is very high quality, but the real reason it’s my go-to brand is that Walmart sells it on-line at a fraction of the list price. I picked up six or eight cans each of the Augason powdered eggs, cheese, butter and Morning Moos milk substitute, along with one to three cans each of other supplemental stuff like TVP meat substitute (bouillon) in beef, chicken, and bacon flavors, lentils for sprouting, and so on. There’s also a 26-pound pail of Augason brown rice, which is rated at seven years, but in reality will last much longer.
All of the stuff in #10 cans from LDS or Augason is in long-term storage, where it will not be touched. The same is true of some of the regular canned stuff like pork, hamburger, Spam, and so on. It’ll be edible and nutritious for longer than Barbara and I are likely to be around. Just that stuff totals enough nutrition to feed Barbara, Colin, and me for a year or more. Then there’s a 2X5-foot five-shelf shelving unit that contains lots of canned and bottled goods–applesauce, spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, etc.–as well as some bulk staples that we’ve repackaged ourselves and use routinely. During each Costco/Sam’s run, we pick up one or two 50-pound bags of flour or sugar or rice, and one or two 10-pound boxes of Quaker oats. We also replace the canned vegetables, sauces, and other stuff that we use routinely.
My next goal is to expand our bulk staples storage significantly. We’ll have packaging parties to transfer those to the one-gallon foil-laminate bags that LDS sells on-line.
Another comment from Dave and my response to it:
“Thanks for the suggestions. I’m going to add flour to my storage foods. My plan is to make it to the local LDS Home Storage Center and pick up some cans. Given Bob’s comments about it being more difficult to store flour in two liter bottles, I’m going to skip that idea. Lisa Bedford’s comments about mites in the flour also concerned me with regard to packaging my own.”
Great. I have four 24-pound cases of LDS HSC flour in the closet. At $3 per #10 can, that’s only $72 worth, about $48 of which is the cost of the cans. (Flour runs about $12.50 per 50-pound bag at Costco.)
I’m debating about adding another six or eight cases of flour from the LDS HSC. I gave up trying to use soda bottles–it takes forever to get the flour into the bottles and packed tightly–so the alternative will be using the one-gallon foil/Mylar bags that LDS on-line sells. That’ll cost about $0.40 per one-gallon bag plus another $0.10 or so for an oxygen absorber. A one-gallon bag holds about 6+ pounds, versus the 4 pounds in the LDS #10 cans, so the packaging cost is about $0.50 per six pounds of flour self-packaged versus about $2.50 per six pounds for the #10 cans. LDS rates shelf-life of their flour at 10 years, which is extremely conservative. I doubt you’d be able to tell any difference after 20 years. The same is true for the foil/Mylar bags, so that’s a wash.
I’m not trying to discourage you from getting the LDS HSC canned flour. If I were you, I’d pick up several cases each of the flour, macaroni, spaghetti, sugar, beans, oats, etc. With some salt and vegetable oil, that’d be a very good start at a pretty reasonable price.
Don’t worry too much about bugs in your bulk staples. An oxygen absorber (or using dry ice) solves that problem. Bugs and their eggs can no more live without oxygen than we can.
What’s wrong with getting beans as well? I like them and I assume are cheaper per kilo than meat.
Spam? I couldn’t eat it. I’d rather almost anything else.
Well, we can certainly see why the WSJ wouldn’t even acknowledge this op ed:
http://weaponsman.com/?p=33224
Someone got to Comey like they got to Roberts a while back. Wouldn’t take much, maybe just a lethal threat to his family. What would YOU do?
The good thing about this case, if anything can be called good about it, is that it has now seriously pissed off a whole LOT of formerly rock-steady career people in the military and government. Why bother anymore, trying to do the right thing and obey the nation’s laws? The rule of law is dead here and this was the coup de grace.
Rest assured that message filters down, down, down, too.
Some relevant to the times links via the KSFO Morning Show.
http://fox6now.com/2015/10/29/mans-facebook-post-about-traffic-stop-goes-viral/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/21/police-kill-more-whites-than-blacks-but-minority-d/
http://www.infowars.com/alton-sterling-gentle-giant-or-armed-felon/
The Truth Will Set You Free
Getting back to the idea of storing spares of things in faraday cages…
Assuming that the probability of a CME or similar is p, what is the probability of a second CME soon after? Is it still p, or much higher? It wouldn’t do to replace your fried electronics after the first CME only to have the replacements toasted by a second CME soon after. Just as there are aftershocks in earthquakes.
Been nice knowing you, Mr. OFD:
After Breitbart News reported that three refugees in Vermont have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) over the past seven months, an official with the Vermont Department of Health admitted thata total of fifteen refugees in the Green Mountain State were diagnosed with active TB between 2003 and 2015.
Assuming that the probability of a CME or similar is p, what is the probability of a second CME soon after? Is it still p, or much higher?
My guess, based on taking a course on solar physics years ago, is lower than p for a while then trending back up over time. The reason is that CMEs require a lot of energy and that energy needs to accumulate. However, the sun is not well understood, even today, and I don’t think there is a definitive answer. The causes of such an event are not known. However, the sun is currently in a quiet phase (which is itsself not understood) and such ejections are rarer during such times. CMEs happen several times a day during active periods and every 5 days in quiet, per Wikipedia.
A CME is like a rifle rather than a shotgun. Earth has to be directly in its path to be affected. The chance of two hitting the planet in quick succesion is nearly nil. The chane of getting nailed by one is pretty high. One in 2012 missed us by a week, and it was Carrington-class. Note that a CME affects only the electrical grid itself, anything connected to it, and anything connected to a long conductor. IOW, you don’t need a Faraday cage to protect against a CME. They come with at least a few hours’ notice, so all you need to do is unplug everything before it hits.
I’d like to take this time to thank Obola’s refugee program for bringing back many eradicated diseases to the US.
After Breitbart News reported that three refugees in Vermont have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) over the past seven months, an official with the Vermont Department of Health admitted thata total of fifteen refugees in the Green Mountain State were diagnosed with active TB between 2003 and 2015.
The infected are in every state ! We have 1,000 refugees in Amarillo, Texas causing havoc up there on the high plains. No telling what diseases they are carrying.
http://watchdog.org/253687/mideast-refugees-obama/
““We have 660 (refugee) kids who don’t speak English and the U.S. Department of Education says they have to be at grade level within one year. It’s a ludicrous requirement — they don’t even know how to use the bathroom,” Harpole said. Washington pays schools $100 per refugee student per year.”
What does “cisgender” mean ?
http://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2016/07/11
I never in my life thought that we would have an issue with which public restroom to use.
“I never in my life thought that we would have an issue with which public restroom to use.”
Maybe that is why the “homeless” pee and crap in the streets and alleys, public fountains are also a favorite.
The several strains (different ones from South American, Africa, and the Middle East) of TB coming with the refugees. BTW, most of the strains are new to us and many are totally drug resistant. Testing is showing 80% either have active (10-20%) or are harboring latent TB. The ERs here are routinely testing all people who enter. Yes, I said all because they do not want to be accused of profiling. The Urgent Care centers are also doing the same.
The refugees have also brought some new drug resistant STDs.
And they’re eager to share with the native women. Whether those women want them or not.
These black lives are the ones that matter, worth a few minutes of your time:
http://www.viralvo.com/gorillas/
Absolutely humbling, that is a whole gorilla family; mom behind on screen left with the big silverback dad on screen right directing his kids. These magnificent creatures are more civilized then the ones in the inner cities.
“…an official with the Vermont Department of Health admitted that a total of fifteen refugees in the Green Mountain State were diagnosed with active TB between 2003 and 2015.”
And we were deuced lucky to even get that admission of GUILT. Yes, GUILT. The bureaucrats and public health departments are ENTRUSTED with protecting the population here, and they not only failed at that, they didn’t even bother to tell us we had disease carriers among us. Just as they do not bother to let us know when pedophiles are released into our communities, along with violent felons. Fuck us, I guess.
Yes, thanks to our wunnerful gummint, we will see not only a bunch of old and formerly eradicated (in the West) diseases come back here, but variations upon them and new strains and mutations and severe resistance to our currently available drugs.
In short, our government has, during my lifetime, given us disease, war, terror attacks, several recessions, rampant sewage in the educational system/media and popular culture, and the increasing likelihood of SHTF every hour of every day. I’m old enough to remember the Soviet missile threat and we had that hanging over our heads but at least we knew we’d have some warning and it would all be over for everybody toot-sweet. Now we have no idea what particular load/s of excrement will hit the fan but everything our gummint does or does not do makes it almost certain.
When you know it’s “game over, man, game over“. Kim Kartrashian on the cover of Forbes Magazine. Big Butt’s more important than the world going up in Mooslim flames. BLMers are proud.
From the Lies Our Politicians Tell Us Department:
I forwarded pro-gun-rights emails to my congress criminals recently and here are excerpts from two of their replies so far (WEEKS later):
First, Senator Leahy:
“I believe requiring universal background checks is a matter of common sense. We have had background checks at federal firearms dealers for decades.”
That worked real well for the musloid asshole in Orlando. And the many others who’ve legally bought guns and/or had licenses for them. Worked real well in other places, like Paris, where the laws are so strict and they’ve allegedly closed all those pesky “loopholes.”
And here’s Representative Peter Welch:
“On December 14, 2012, twenty children were slaughtered in Newtown, Connecticut. Since then, there have been over a thousand mass shootings in cities and towns across America. In the face of this epidemic of gun violence, the House of Representatives has done nothing – no hearings, no debate, no votes.”
I must have somehow missed this vast holocaust of mass shootings across the country over the last four years.
So, in short, the same old arguments, lies, bullshit and evasion, and of course these two guys are lifelong Dems. Repubs are no better; talk a great game and then do jack shit; Trump is already back-pedaling on gun rights. A pox on them all.
“Kim Kartrashian on the cover of Forbes Magazine.”
Forbes and Fortune and the other so-called finance-oriented rags have always been on the Left and tuned in to media hoss shit. A pox on them all, too.
It seems I was inadvertently near Black Lives Only Matter When A Cop Ends Them protest over the weekend. Apparently this one didn’t have any violence. At least I missed the fun and left the females at home.
Sooner or later I’m going to learn minimize my travels downtown. And others will reach the same conclusion. The waiter named Dave at my favorite downtown restaurant and people like him will be the hardest hit. I only remember him because I’ve sat at his table several times over the years, he’s always a good waiter and I remember his first name because it’s the same as mine.
Downtowns are dead and dying all over the country and have been for many years. Worcester, MA goes dead after all the office workers go home, leaving only cleaning staff, cops, and derelicts; after dark a particular Hispanic gang takes over. And one of the main factors in the demise of Murkan downtowns was the building of shopping malls and big-box stores out on the main drags outside of the towns, so anything left shriveled up and blew away.
And here’s some fun statistics and unpleasant and hostile FACTUAL data to counter the constant MSM lies and agitprop:
http://takimag.com/article/the_suspect_said_he_wanted_to_kill_white_people_jim_goad/print#axzz4E8VVEgCw
“Wouldn’t take much, maybe just a lethal threat to his family. What would YOU do?” – such threats are only effective if kept secret. If I had any credibility and announced to congress on TV that Highly Placed Person has made threats on my family and myself, it insulates them because ANYTHING that happens to them will be attributed to the source. Other alternative is to use black resources, we know the FBI and CIA use, to eliminate the threat. My #1 rule is, someone threatens my family and I WILL eliminate the threat !
Correct, Mr. H. Combs; you have hit upon it, sir! Given that, one wonders why Mssrs. Roberts and Comey did not avail themselves of that option. Or if they received another threat that was worse, or the family members, for example, were right then being held somewhere and made to scream over the phone. What do we do if we’re just poor ol’ serfs with zero credibility? Yes, figure out a way to the black option. You threaten or hurt my family, I hurt yours. And eventually you. Or you can just take me out right now. Go for it! Molon labe.
Yo, somebody hep me out here! One o’ you STEM peeps, maybe…
Today’s local rag has a bottom-front-page story on a guy from that “Ghost Hunters” show on the SyFy channel; he gave a talk Friday night at the Swanton (next town up from us here) Public Library and the pic on the front page’s caption:
“Ghost hunter Dustin Pari explains Ouija board science in the Swanton Public Library Friday evening.”
I had NO IDEA there was science on Ouija boards; can someone ‘splain this to me?
Meanwhile…
….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i9Fcb_AfLI
Use these boards and you might end up doing something really stupid, like making a “roller boogie” movie.
Kids, don’t try this at home.
Totally predictable:
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/07/11/houston-official-calls-form-segregation-blacks-can-police-black-communities/
First, Trump builds a wall around all the black “enclaves” with limited controlled access (triple barrier accesses where no 2 solid steel gates can be open at a time) . Then these black homeboy cops are dropped in and wished good luck, with the “Houston Official” being the first to be dropped in.
Obuttwad’s campaign promises of “Hoax and Chains” are on an exponential curve which is almost straight up now. BTW, when Obuttwad turns over the keys to THE WHITE HOUSE, he and his family get dropped into Houston’s black enclave.
Keep poking us sjw, blm, black panthers, and your sympathizers, something is going to snap.
“Ghost hunter Dustin Pari explains Ouija board science in the Swanton Public Library Friday evening.”
lol! “Ghost Hunter” is your explanation
And here’s some fun statistics and unpleasant and hostile FACTUAL data to counter the constant MSM lies and agitprop:
Blacks tend to burn down their own communities. Why is that? Lo IQ? Violent?
I like Mr. DadCooks idea: make Houston the first PRC. Let them kill each other. 100m of mines all around. Roving patrols and automatic weapon towers. Just like the Korean DMZ.
Any odds on Rudy Giuliani getting whacked by BLMers in the near future. Maybe Cankles will hire someone to do it. How dare he speak the truth.
Yo, dey gon keep pokin’ and pokin’ and like dat ol’ guy DadCooks say, sumfin gon snap like a mofo. Dis sheet done got real, mofos.
Hey, this guy is stealing my phraseology and ideas!
http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/07/11/reboot-america-step-back-from-the-brink-before-its-too-late-n2190509
Except for the mindless cop worship (I know better, having been one) and the unrealistic optimism at the end that the elites will ever do what’s right.
He is correct, however, that many more of us every MINUTE in this country feel like we have our backs against the wall and we’re not digging it at all.
Forget Larry Klinton’s crack ho’s, AIDs, and criminal foundation, he’s a traitor:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/07/roger-stone/clinton-corruption/
Stone is reporting what’s been known for some time but shoveled under the rug like so much else of the Klinton crime family.
Yo, sportsfans, traveling on July 15th? Avoid these cities:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/07/daisy-luther/day-rage-scheduled-july-15th/
And a big tip ‘o the hat to Ms. Daisy Luther!
I think we’ll stay right here in Saint Albans Bay, VT, and load up on iced Moxie and pretzels and watch the disaster sure to be unfolding in Cleveland.
Incidentally, FL polls are showing Trump leading Cankles by five points and among Hispanics by much more than that, even. Interesting.
I like Mr. DadCooks idea: make Houston the first PRC. Let them kill each other. 100m of mines all around. Roving patrols and automatic weapon towers. Just like the Korean DMZ.
Houston is a PRC. I live outside the walls … for the moment. Someday they will finish the third wall, aka The Grand Parkway, and we will need too move again. The third wall is built in mostly swamps and has snakes and varmints around it.
BTW, Houston is majority Latino. The blacks are not dealing with this truth very well. Except for my black friends. They live out here in the burbs and could care less.
Regarding the Clinton Foundation, and Hillary, here is a very interesting capture of a chat with someone claiming to be highly placed in the FBI, but (for obvious reasons) wanting to be anonymous. He implies that Hillary and Bill, while not small players, are only part of a much, much larger web of corruption.
re that chat, just make sure to apply the tests for intel of questionable validity: what new information does it contain that we can verify?
I didn’t read the whole thing when I first saw this, but what parts I did read was either statements of previously-known information or new claims which I have no way to verify. Doesn’t mean that someone else couldn’t verify, but for now I’m ignoring the whole thing.
They left Gary, IN and Flint, MI off the list. Also, I noticed one major metro area missing, but I’m not going to name it, because it’s the closest major metro area to me.
*The amount of our missile, satellite (GPS satellites in particular), and nuclear technology that Larry (have dick will travel) Klintox gave the Chinese was essentially the whole kit and kaboodle. The Chinese then gave some to North Korea, Russia, and Iran.
Larry and Cankles have done more damage than any other spy in the history of the USofA, yet they walk on water in the eyes of the way too many ignorant.
* My sources are my prior positions with 3 DOE contractors, my position as a representative to the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), and my continuing contacts with [redacted].
You’re close to Charlotte?
“They left Gary, IN and Flint, MI off the list.”
Are those cities scheduled to have the protest activity?
No, Gary, IN and Flint, MI are just two moderate sized urban ghettoes. The Gary residents will have to figure out how to get to the Chicago protests, and the Flint residents will have to figure out how to get to the Detroit protests.