Online food storage suggested quantities

That is a really good point to explore further tomatoes. I’d suggest you just use what you have calculated and forget the online experts but i assume they have added a significant safety margin for spoilage, pests etc .

Apparently many of those freeze dried buckets of meals in the US are way below what is required for a working person. From what i had read they provide only 25-50% of your calorie needs per “meal” so essentially a starvation ration. They know how to charge you though…..

The best gauge is your own so why not bunker down for a week or two of eating only prepper meals? I’d like to know your final calcs regardless as they seem pretty on the money so far. 

1. Keep grocery receipts for a while. Then average out for say, 1 year or however long you like.
2. Work out say 4000 Cal a day (lots of manual labour, wastage, spoilage...). That's 1000g of carbs.
Then swap some, eg. 1000 cal of carbs for 1000cal of protein or 1000 cal of fat.
Then work out how much rice that is, then how much rice and meat, then how much rice, meat and oil.

That's MACRO nutrients.
Don't forget micro, eg. vitamins, minerals, trace elements.

I'm hearing you DD. The daughter and daughter-in-law grew up with horses, and whilst they aren't vetinarians or farriers they know how to care for them. The DIL's stock horse recently tore it's leg open on a fence, exposed a lot of bone. One vet wanted to euthanize him, another cleaned up the wound, gave the DIL some medical supplies and she has been treating him herself. Last I heard he is doing well.

Canning skills are something I lack. When jars and lids become available I intend to butter you up and ask your advice.

I think animal manure is just one of many possible solutions for soil fertility depending on the area where you live. Wood ash, blood and bone meal, seaweed, grain meals, homemade composts, fish emulsion and the list could be endless. It is just what is plentiful and available in your area. The average size of a single family farm back in the day which could be worked comfortably with a mule was 4o acres but some of that also was used for pasture and hay production. Do you have any idea how much horse crap it would take to fertilize even 20 acres.

Mr. DD's GG Grandfather immigrated from Ireland here in the early 1850's. He manned a munitions wagon in the Civil War for 4 years and survived to be granted by the U.S. Government 40 acres and a mule in the then new territory of Missouri. 1865ish!!

I grew up with horses and mules and have no intention of farming with them. Mules are just ornery creatures. I will just provide my own labor. I can push a wheelbarrow, push carts, wheel hoes and broad forks. I have done it before. If I get to the point that I can't it is time to pass on. I know what it is like to wake up before daylight headed to the gardens and to leave the garden with the setting sun.

I run into people everyday that say the are going to grow ALL their own food and be totally self sufficient. People who have never planted a seed or preserved so much as a spud. Just because they have a bucket of SURVIVAL seeds does not mean they are going to survive. People who have never caught and cleaned a fish much less canned or smoked it. People who have never hunted or butchered an animal of any kind. People who have never thought of building a smoke house or owning meat grinders and butchering spices and supplies.

Everyone here in the U.S. has intentions of fleeing to public park lands and such. They have all watched too many mountain man movies. Pipe dreams and bull s*&t. If you want to survive anything do your homework BEFORE the shtf.

Boy I have lots of personal opinions today don't I...

Hugs anyway milspec and I enjoy seeing you back with us again. I missed you.

DD the gardening guru and this thread has inspired me to just purchase this canning unit:

www.ozfarmer.com/presto-23qt-canner

It will be a worthy companion to my excalibur dehydrator and hand crank grain mill.

Now to stock up on jars.  Can you get jars that have reusable lids? 

I own 2 Prestos. One I have had for almost 40 years and still going strong. Do not forget to stock extra rubber gaskets for the lid and blow plugs. It is a small rubber pressure relief plug. They are rubber and I replace mine about every third year. 

Reusable lids are manufactured in the US and are Tattler and Harvest Guard lids. I personally own Harvest Guard. 
canninglids.com/

These lids will fit a standard Ball canning jar.

Also  a Ball Blue book with instructions on how to use your canner with recipes.


www.amazon.com/ball-blue-book/s?k=ball+blue+book

At present there is a glut of raspberry's, and soon to be blueberry's. My other half is busy making jams in the bread maker, and they are yum mm.

One of our solar powered portable electric fence units that we corral the chocks with gave up a couple of days ago. She who must be obeyed asked if I could fix it, and I can. Then she asked where I was getting the parts from and I replied that I have a container full of s..t that Ive collected over the years and would have the stuffs to rebuild it. Its a good test for after the collapse to see if I can really get something going again with spares I already have.



You know you own an old tractor when.....At a show an onlooker asked "what did they use that for ?"

The ultimate aim is 100% production to feed the 9 of us here, and that's got to be the aim, otherwise you wont survive. A shipping container full of food will eventually run out, then what ? Its not going to be easy. We do have meals completely from our own resources about once a week, (eggs on toast ?? Not quite, but simple meals none the less.), Most people think its simple to grow food, but I have no illusions that its not just a matter of throwing some seeds out and reaping a harvest. Life is going to get much, much harder. And we have been at it for over 20 years, refining skills, collecting equipment, working out what works and what doesn't, especially as we are sub tropical, but do get frosts.

Above ground garden beds work best here, and we have a couple of 20 meter by 40 meter patches of flat ground that I rotary cultivate for summer crops, like spuds. We have bees and about 70 boxes, so honey for bartering will be a must. We can also grow sugar cane and have some in now.

Animals will play a big role, having tried cows and other large animals, we now have sheep, widipole types that don't need shearing. They are easier to handle than cows, but our cows are for milk. Ive built a milking shed with a bale and pen, specifically for milking the cows, and used to have a single stand milking machine, 240 v operated. looking for another one.

We do have almost unlimited water, both rain water for household use, and dam water for irrigation, but how about firewood ? WTSHTF, how do you process firewood without a chainsaw as there is no fuel to run it? We have a couple of 240 v electric chainsaws, and they do work OK, but need a long extension lead to reach the wood lot from the house. (Which I do have by the way, 250 meters long).

After the unprepared die off, probably after a few months, local food co operatives will spring up where barter will be the order of the day. The humble 22 LR slug will become the new gold standard.

And yes, the average Joe thinks they can scatter a few seeds about and harvest a crop. They haven't tried being self sufficient when failure isn't an issue. We have had 20 years plus to sort out what works and what doesn't, and still cant get it right all the time. And that same person thinks preserving food means jamming it in a freezer. Most haven't thought through the loss of grid power, (read Hal turners account of a severe snow storm, and he would be classed as a prepper). We still are learning and making mistakes.

Mend and make do will be the new buzz words. Knowledge will be the new power. Joe average will panic when the net and all phones go down. I have supplied short wave radios to most neighbors and shown them how to operate them, along with UHF radios and Ive solar powered the local UHF repeater. We are also planning another get together at my on farm range to fire some weapons and arrows, etc under real life conditions. Then its a bring your own BBQ after-woods to get to know everyone.

The average person who thinks like that will be the one who suddenly realizes that times up and will be forming the marauding gangs to raid the country, hence the need to be away from a city, and have some means of defense.

Even with all this thinking about it, and preparing, I'm not sure we will even come out the other end, we certainly will be more healthy for it and most can afford to lose weight.

We have sussed out strategically located trees that can be dropped to render road access impossible, confining the bad guys o the bush, where we have the advantage of local knowledge, and of course, all the landmarks ranged in.

We realize its not going to be easy, but we can say to the Lord, "look what we did with the resources, skills and knowledge you gave us". We at least tried.


You know you own an old tractor when.....Its easy to fill the radiator with a bucket.

We tried dehydrating the berry's, but it takes so long they go moldy before they dry.

No sugar isn't necessary. We use honey, raw honey from our bees. Sugared off honey also works well. I love the sugared off honey on my breakfast, with homemade yogurt and sultanas on weatbix, and homemade milk.




You know you own an old tractor when.....You can take up a rod without removing the oil sump pan.