Podcast Files Archives - Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival

Emergency preparedness requires thought and planning now to prevent problems later. There is no magic “one size fits all” system that is going to work for you and everyone else in the country. To help you put together a solid food plan, we’ll take a look at the following issues: What are my food needs? Where to keep food? What types of food make sense for different situations. Common Plan Examples: Pioneer Plan Instant Food Pantry Rotation Hybrid Plan Good First step:  Create a sample food plan based off of what you eat now as a starting point and work from there. The post Planning Your Survival Food Storage appeared first on Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival. The post Planning Your Survival Food Storage appeared first on Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival.

The claims made by some food companies are totally unrealistic. Some businesses do not make their own food at all, just market the products made by others. Dehydrated Meals are not bad, but the marketing on them is just insane. Where meals from a pouch makes the most sense is as a piece of a larger food plan. However, investing heavily into a stack of buckets filled with unrealistic “servings” of these meals just doesn’t make any sense. The post Freeze Dried Meals Commentary appeared first on Realistic Preparedness. The post Freeze Dried Meals Commentary appeared first on Realistic Preparedness.

The claims made by some food companies are totally unrealistic. Some businesses do not make their own food at all, just market the products made by others. Dehydrated Meals are not bad, but the marketing on them is just insane. Where meals from a pouch makes the most sense is as a piece of a larger food plan. However, investing heavily into a stack of buckets filled with unrealistic “servings” of these meals just doesn’t make any sense. The post Freeze Dried Meals Commentary appeared first on Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival. The post Freeze Dried Meals Commentary appeared first on Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival.

Survival Food Storage Options Part Two Food Storage Concerns and Common Choices People have commonly stored food, except for in about the last fifty years. Advances in packaging make food storage much easier than it was in the past.  We are working to protect food from heat, light, oxygen, moisture and pests to maximize it’s shelf life. With modern technology, What are the most common choices? MREs – Complete packaged meals, originally created by the military. There is a lot of variety in MREs with multiple manufacturers making civilian and military types. Dehydrated/Freeze Dried – Dehydration uses heat to dry food, can be done at home with a countertop dehydrator. Freeze dried uses huge machines and cold to dry food, which is more expensive, but often a bit better results. Food Storage Rotation  – This can be done using home grown or grocery store goods to create a food reserve. It works best when following a storage plan, but just buying extra of what you already eat is common. You can combine different types of food storage:   pantry food you normally eat, reserve food in closet, small vehicle supply, snacks for every day carry supply and a realistic bug out bag supply. The post Food Storage Concerns and Common Choices appeared first on Realistic Preparedness. The post Food Storage Concerns and Common Choices appeared first on Realistic Preparedness.

Survival Food Storage Options Part Two Food Storage Concerns and Common Choices People have commonly stored food, except for in about the last fifty years. Advances in packaging make food storage much easier than it was in the past.  We are working to protect food from heat, light, oxygen, moisture and pests to maximize it’s shelf life. With modern technology, What are the most common choices? MREs – Complete packaged meals, originally created by the military. There is a lot of variety in MREs with multiple manufacturers making civilian and military types. Dehydrated/Freeze Dried – Dehydration uses heat to dry food, can be done at home with a countertop dehydrator. Freeze dried uses huge machines and cold to dry food, which is more expensive, but often a bit better results. Food Storage Rotation  – This can be done using home grown or grocery store goods to create a food reserve. It works best when following a storage plan, but just buying extra of what you already eat is common. You can combine different types of food storage:   pantry food you normally eat, reserve food in closet, small vehicle supply, snacks for every day carry supply and a realistic bug out bag supply. The post Food Storage Concerns and Common Choices appeared first on Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival. The post Food Storage Concerns and Common Choices appeared first on Realistic Preparedness - Disaster and Daily Survival.

Survival Food Storage Options Part One How Much Food Should I Store? There are multiple common answers to this question. Different people will give you different answers and reasons, but the more common ones are: 72 hours, one week, one month, three months and six months or more. 72hrs – This is the most basic emergency supply for disaster preparedness.  Based on large scale help arriving within three days after a disaster. However, this is a bit optimistic since help will not always show up in three days, based on Katrina, etc. This amount of food and snacks might be a good idea as part of a travel kit to keep in your vehicle or “packed and ready to go” at home. One week – This is a more realistic starting point and accomplishes the goal of the 72hr supply. It would be a good reserve to keep on hand in the event of a big snow, etc. One Month – This give you the ability to possibly “sit out” contagious events, like pandemics or epidemics. It buys you some time to get your life back together after a disaster. Three Months –  Best case scenario if you start up a garden to supply food. It will take this long for your plants to start producing food. This level of preparedness and beyond gives you a hedge against job loss and similar events. Six Months to a year or longer – This is preparation for a cataclysmic event. It is the end of the world as we know it and society will need to be rebuilt. These are the kind of events that make good TV shows.

What is Realistic Preparedness? Making reasonable plans for things that are likely to occur at some point in our lives. Two main parts to this: What are reasonable plans? What is likely to occur?  Reasonable plans, there are three factors: Meet the basic needs of all family members – food, water, shelter, medical, safety, comfort (morale) Have to be affordable, something that can be budgeted for over time. Have to be something that everyone buys into. Likely to occur: What to plan for will vary by location, which is not the same for everyone You have to do some research and see what the concerns are for where you live with natural disasters and also man-made events, based on what is around your house. We can use the Project Management concept for measuring risk, by look at the probability of occurrence and the impact of the event for a variety of disaster possibilities. Focus on events with medium to high probabilities and a medium to high level of impact. Our Main Goal: We plan and prepare so that we do not have to worry about these things, not so that we can worry about them.

  In this post I answer the question: “How do you pick a good daypack for a bugout bag, get home bag, trunk bag or just for hiking?” Size: Daypacks somewhere around 1600 to 2000 cubic inches or 26 to 32 liters are a common choice. Quality: Are the Materials used to make the pack any good? -        Do they feel durable or lightweight? -        Are the zippers and buckles name brand? -        Read the hangtag, look for brand name components. Design: Is the pack well designed? -        Are there enough pockets or pouches to fit your needs? -        Is there a hydration reservoir sleeve? -        Are there cool looking addons that serve no real purpose? -        Check for external lash or attachment points. -        Can you add additional pouches to it to expand capacity? -        Is the hipbelt a nylon strap or padded? -        Does it have some sort of frame to support and help stabilize heavier loads? Construction: Did the people who made the pack do quality work? -        Is the stitching straight and tight? -        Have they done something to keep the nylon from unraveling? -        Is there reinforcement at key points? -        Check where the shoulder straps and hipbelt attach to the pack. Fit: Put weight in the pack, carry it around and make adjustments until it is comfortable.