Our Food Storage

[izzyscout21]

Hey Justa...you are making people look bad around here!

Yeah, stop it! (J/K)

I'm going to have to go buy another gun now to compensate for my percieved food inadequacy

[JustAPrepper]

Thanks, everybody.

This didn't happen overnight. It took us two full years. A little here, a little there. It adds up faster than you realize. That's why we kept moving things around and finally just "gave in" and dedicated an entire room to it. We also have more grains...some are stashed behind the loveseat and another 200 pounds of Wheat that needs to be bucketed. We've just been waiting for it to cool off a bit and the humidity to drop so we can do it outside along with the few loose bags that are on the floor of the Doom Room. Then, we are going to transfer some of it down to my parents house. As you can see, we are pretty much out of room and since they are our primary BOL we'd like to have a fair amount of storage at their place as a back up.

I think it was John that asked...according to the LDS food calculator we have roughly two years of food for the two of us, one year for the four of us if we head to my parents, not including the home canned proteins (430+ jars of meat). We're a little over on some things and a little under on the veggies but we are hoping the garden will supplement.

Both DH and myself like to fish and we used to own a fishing boat. We sold it when I knew the economy was going to tank and used the money to buy all our preps. We sold all the offshore rods and gear with the boat but kept all the others so those aren't anything we bought specifically for a SHTF type event. But, we do have the ocean and a few inlets and waterways close by so they'll definitely come in handy if we need them.

Raven, yeah, those are solar lights. The kind you put in your yard. They work great. Not enough light to read by but you can definitely move around the house with them and they are cooler than candles (burning candles after a hurricane in the middle of summer with no fans or A/C really adds heat to the room). I've also read somewhere on the net where some people are finding ways to add on/off switches to them so they don't keep glowing all night. I meant to show it to DH but I forget where I read it.

I'm going to make one more change to the Doom Room. I'm going to add two, maybe three, small shelves, one above the window and one above the closet door and possibly the entry door. I'm going to move all the plastics/aluminum foil up there and free up that space for more canned goods. Hopefully veggies from the garden this fall.

[JustAPrepper]

ROFLMAO!!

I see I have a new title...Queen of the Doom Room! I LOVE it!!

[mollypup]

Wow! You are definitely light years ahead of me! I thought I was doing pretty good but now I also feel so inadequate lol!
I noticed all the jars of mayonnaise you have. That's one of the food items I don't bother to store because I'm planning on a power-grid failure type of SHTF. Mayo doesn't keep after it's open unless it can be kept fairly cold. But, you know, if that's all I can find to pick at, then you are doing REALLY GOOD at prepping! Totally impressive I must say

I took my mom down to my basement a few days ago when she was staying with us and I showed her all the stuff I've been collecting. She looked at all of it and then with a look of fear and great concern on her face asked me how many others knew about this? I knew what she was thinking because if people find out I have this stuff they will not be nice in an attempt to take it. I was thinking about starting a thread about what can we do if the starving know we have food? I hate to say this, but sometimes I wonder if being part of the starving hoards is safer than trying to defend what you have. I don't know, it ain't gonna be good no matter how it goes down.

Again, I love your pics!

[Sniper-T]

I am still in Awe!!

Couple things...

If you put the heavy 5 gallon pails on either side of your can rotator, it might give it a little more strength and not be like the leaning tower of Pisa standing on the leaning tower o Pisa...

And, for the solar lights, if they are the kind that I am thinking (with a hole in the bottom for a post to stick in the ground) They sit quite nicely on a table without the post, and by a window, will charge all day... and then be on all night.

Unless... when ready for bed, just pick them up and turn them upside down. The ones I have a switch in them already, so if they get knocked over they shut themselves off. They don't throw a lot of heat, but in the yard if one fell over into some dry grass, they could get hot enough to ignite it. Try them out, see if they're the same. If not, you can always just pull the battery to shut them off.

[Dropy]

Ok, i am impressed, inspired and agitated that i am so far behind.

[JustAPrepper]

Wow, thank you all again!

Please understand, this post was not meant to make anyone feel inadequate. We all have our own plan and we do what we can do, when we can do it. It was really meant to be an inspiration that even some Joe Six Pack couple like ourselves, that have a Little House in the Hood, can achieve it relatively quickly and more importantly, store it in a very small space. Our house is only 1100 square feet and I think that room is only 10x9. Water Filtration, Food Storage and the different things we'd need to prepare our food (Grain Mill, Solar Oven, etc.) were our first priorities. We also snuck in additional ways of protecting it all but we sold our boat to pay for it all, including the build out of the garden. There was definitely a trade off so now, instead of DH and I competing for who can catch the first or the biggest fish, now we garden to see who can grow the biggest or best tasting tomato.

Molly, it's funny you mention the mayonnaise. Back when I was working we would easily go through a jar a month because we both brown bagged it most of the time so they were being rotated quickly. Since I've been out of work the mayo hasn't been going as quickly and I just threw away five jars a couple days ago because they were five months out of date and were starting to look and taste a little funky. I'm sure by the end of the year I'll be throwing away another few jars unless we start eating Egg Salad for months on end, lol!

Sniper, good eye on the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Actually, when I put them together they were leaning the other way. I shimmed them with pieces of cardboard and they were straight, now they're leaning the other way. I'm thinking they are settling in and I can start removing the shims as needed. As for the Solar Lights, ours have the spike to stick in the yard but can be turned up inside like they are now for storage. I didn't know they made some with On/Off switches but I understand where that would be really useful especially if you want a "lights out" situation. The addition of the switch seemed simple enough but for a $3 yard light might be too much work. Now that I know, I'll be keeping my eye out for ones with switches. Thanks for the info!