endtimeobserver
01-07-2008, 06:42 PM
Individual meals
The first thing we will cover, is homemade survival meals. This meal should be made now, as time has run out. We can still order, and still have deliveries, but we should plan on them quitting anytime,and the chores still have to be done.
If you can order more food, do so, if not, then pay attention to this quick way to build meals, that will keep you from starving.
I developed these meals, when I was doing major time in the wilderness, and had to cover many miles, and utilize many hours of daylight, for my work. Not having much time for meals these meals were developed to sustain and supplement with wild meat when available.
I dried my own veggies, in a commercial food dryer, and cured most of my own meat in a smoker I had made. I practiced meat drying for ease of storing, persevering, and maintaining the protein within the meat itself.
Here is what you will need to start making your own MRE's,
(1) vacuum seal a mealer ( go with quality, and figure about 200$ to get one)
(*) Plenty of seal a meal bags, start with the pints, first, until you get good enough
sealer. The bags can become expensive, so you will have to pay attention to
detail and not make mistakes.
(*) Dried veggies, cut in small pieces, and when drying, dry an extra 4 hours to en-
sure that all the moisture is out of veggies.
(*) Bullion cubes, ( place two cubes in each meal)
(*) 25# of rice and barley
When I started making these meals, it worked out about 18 cents apiece, I think now they would be little higher, but still very cheap to make in mass. When sealing the open end, I always doubled the seal to insure they did not leak. You have to be gentle when packing these meals, so they do not loose there seal, but once packed, they last a long, long time.........
Now if you can't dry the veggies, you can go to health food stores, and large chain stores such as Albertson, Winco, etc,... and they have bulk foods, and you will find the veggies there already dried ready to be used.
With a pint size vacuum seal a meal bag, I place 1/2 cup of rice and barley in bags, add 1/3 cup of dried veggies and two bullion cubes and seal. There is your meal, already to go, with 20 minutes of cooking you have enough to stave hunger, and you can throw in some squirrel meat, or fish to get more protein. I always pack my dried meat in another package to ensure nothing went bad. With these individual meals, you can put about 45 meals in one 5 gallon plastic bucket. That could be one persons food for about 20 days and it would weight in about 4 pounds.
I myself have broken down my foods and resealed them in vacuum seal a meal bags, for several major reasons, one, is like supplies you do not want all of them at one place, same with food, if you had 10 1/2 # bags of sugar, instead of 1 pound container, you are less likely to spoil, or loose all 5 #.
You can very quickly put together a pack full of food that will pack well, not spill, or get damaged. I can put 25 meals into my ruck and head out........with #10 cans, you will have to take care in moving them without them being spilt. Remember you will have animals smelling and tracking you. In say 5 minutes you could issue 2 buckets to each person in your group and head out. You can combine these individual meals into one big stew, but there is more positive to making these meals that there is not. And trust me, if you have to get into these meals, or buckets, you will most likely be very happy to each rice and veggies.
Survival bucket
If Steve can recover the picture from the paper I sent him on buckets, we can go over the bucket in detail................I do not believe the limitation of bucket use has been discovered or the importance of the same has been achieved as of this writing, nor will I expect it. so, the answer is so simple, and so easy to developed.
I had developed the survival bucket or cache bucket in the late 80' working in the field and wilderness of the pacific northwest. Something I have realized, in developing these buckets is they can be used for anything, last a long time, weather proof, can be sealed tightly, and successfully stored in two positions, rightside up and upside down, which will be covered in depth later in this essay.
First you want to find a source of free or cheap buckets with lids. Most chain stores who have bakery's can furnish you these buckets on a regular bases. Some might want to charge a little, but that is okay as well. You want to make sure they have no holes in them, a lid with a rubber seal, and a good handle for carrying. Wash out bucket with hot, hot steaming water with lots of soap. Most of these buckets held frosting, so you need to get the smell out as much as possible, to keep bears from digging these valuable contents.
Container distributors are everywhere just check your yellow pages, and when you buy bulk, it comes much cheaper.
The contents of these buckets can be most anything. I would start with placing some of these homemade meals in these buckets, and also put water purification, toilet paper, and matches to make sure there is water, fire and food available.
I have made radio buckets, battery buckets, first aid buckets, toilet paper buckets, ammo buckets, food buckets,......books buckets ( how too books) and the list can go on and on.
The one thing you do want to do, and that is evacuate all the air ( oxygen) out of bucket before sealing so as not to cause condensation which can cause damage to electronic, medical and special gear.
In all my buckets that I have sealed, and will not open again till needed, I have used an only technique to force all the air out of bucket. Have on hand, in the freezer some (dried Ice), once you have placed all that you plan on putting in the bucket (as full as you can get it), place apiece of dried ice in the bottom of the bucket, then place lid on the bucket, but do not seal just yet. The dried ice will create a fog that will force out all the air in the buckets, once that is done then seal bucket on just 4 sides. Wait another day, burp the lid, and reseal immediately, and the bucket will be sealed and secure until you need it. Now you can stack, store, bury, or even place underwater until you need it.
Here is some ideas when you build these buckets, first of all paint them something earthy, anything but white. Also scrub the buckets before painting, with ammonia to neutralize the smell of humans and or frosting then paint.
I would also urge all to make an inventory of what you have placed in buckets and mark them so you will know what is inside without having to break the seal to the bucket.
You might want to rub some Vaseline petroleum jell on the rubber gaskets in the lids. Replace any that is broken, cut or not whole.
Once you get into the field of bucket preps you will see all the advantages of exploring this field and becoming involved.
Now think of all that you could do with all the empty buckets you have now at your base camp................so it has gone from a container, to now a tool, whether it be for hauling water to the garden, porty potti, to storing next years food you have preserved this year.............................
The first thing we will cover, is homemade survival meals. This meal should be made now, as time has run out. We can still order, and still have deliveries, but we should plan on them quitting anytime,and the chores still have to be done.
If you can order more food, do so, if not, then pay attention to this quick way to build meals, that will keep you from starving.
I developed these meals, when I was doing major time in the wilderness, and had to cover many miles, and utilize many hours of daylight, for my work. Not having much time for meals these meals were developed to sustain and supplement with wild meat when available.
I dried my own veggies, in a commercial food dryer, and cured most of my own meat in a smoker I had made. I practiced meat drying for ease of storing, persevering, and maintaining the protein within the meat itself.
Here is what you will need to start making your own MRE's,
(1) vacuum seal a mealer ( go with quality, and figure about 200$ to get one)
(*) Plenty of seal a meal bags, start with the pints, first, until you get good enough
sealer. The bags can become expensive, so you will have to pay attention to
detail and not make mistakes.
(*) Dried veggies, cut in small pieces, and when drying, dry an extra 4 hours to en-
sure that all the moisture is out of veggies.
(*) Bullion cubes, ( place two cubes in each meal)
(*) 25# of rice and barley
When I started making these meals, it worked out about 18 cents apiece, I think now they would be little higher, but still very cheap to make in mass. When sealing the open end, I always doubled the seal to insure they did not leak. You have to be gentle when packing these meals, so they do not loose there seal, but once packed, they last a long, long time.........
Now if you can't dry the veggies, you can go to health food stores, and large chain stores such as Albertson, Winco, etc,... and they have bulk foods, and you will find the veggies there already dried ready to be used.
With a pint size vacuum seal a meal bag, I place 1/2 cup of rice and barley in bags, add 1/3 cup of dried veggies and two bullion cubes and seal. There is your meal, already to go, with 20 minutes of cooking you have enough to stave hunger, and you can throw in some squirrel meat, or fish to get more protein. I always pack my dried meat in another package to ensure nothing went bad. With these individual meals, you can put about 45 meals in one 5 gallon plastic bucket. That could be one persons food for about 20 days and it would weight in about 4 pounds.
I myself have broken down my foods and resealed them in vacuum seal a meal bags, for several major reasons, one, is like supplies you do not want all of them at one place, same with food, if you had 10 1/2 # bags of sugar, instead of 1 pound container, you are less likely to spoil, or loose all 5 #.
You can very quickly put together a pack full of food that will pack well, not spill, or get damaged. I can put 25 meals into my ruck and head out........with #10 cans, you will have to take care in moving them without them being spilt. Remember you will have animals smelling and tracking you. In say 5 minutes you could issue 2 buckets to each person in your group and head out. You can combine these individual meals into one big stew, but there is more positive to making these meals that there is not. And trust me, if you have to get into these meals, or buckets, you will most likely be very happy to each rice and veggies.
Survival bucket
If Steve can recover the picture from the paper I sent him on buckets, we can go over the bucket in detail................I do not believe the limitation of bucket use has been discovered or the importance of the same has been achieved as of this writing, nor will I expect it. so, the answer is so simple, and so easy to developed.
I had developed the survival bucket or cache bucket in the late 80' working in the field and wilderness of the pacific northwest. Something I have realized, in developing these buckets is they can be used for anything, last a long time, weather proof, can be sealed tightly, and successfully stored in two positions, rightside up and upside down, which will be covered in depth later in this essay.
First you want to find a source of free or cheap buckets with lids. Most chain stores who have bakery's can furnish you these buckets on a regular bases. Some might want to charge a little, but that is okay as well. You want to make sure they have no holes in them, a lid with a rubber seal, and a good handle for carrying. Wash out bucket with hot, hot steaming water with lots of soap. Most of these buckets held frosting, so you need to get the smell out as much as possible, to keep bears from digging these valuable contents.
Container distributors are everywhere just check your yellow pages, and when you buy bulk, it comes much cheaper.
The contents of these buckets can be most anything. I would start with placing some of these homemade meals in these buckets, and also put water purification, toilet paper, and matches to make sure there is water, fire and food available.
I have made radio buckets, battery buckets, first aid buckets, toilet paper buckets, ammo buckets, food buckets,......books buckets ( how too books) and the list can go on and on.
The one thing you do want to do, and that is evacuate all the air ( oxygen) out of bucket before sealing so as not to cause condensation which can cause damage to electronic, medical and special gear.
In all my buckets that I have sealed, and will not open again till needed, I have used an only technique to force all the air out of bucket. Have on hand, in the freezer some (dried Ice), once you have placed all that you plan on putting in the bucket (as full as you can get it), place apiece of dried ice in the bottom of the bucket, then place lid on the bucket, but do not seal just yet. The dried ice will create a fog that will force out all the air in the buckets, once that is done then seal bucket on just 4 sides. Wait another day, burp the lid, and reseal immediately, and the bucket will be sealed and secure until you need it. Now you can stack, store, bury, or even place underwater until you need it.
Here is some ideas when you build these buckets, first of all paint them something earthy, anything but white. Also scrub the buckets before painting, with ammonia to neutralize the smell of humans and or frosting then paint.
I would also urge all to make an inventory of what you have placed in buckets and mark them so you will know what is inside without having to break the seal to the bucket.
You might want to rub some Vaseline petroleum jell on the rubber gaskets in the lids. Replace any that is broken, cut or not whole.
Once you get into the field of bucket preps you will see all the advantages of exploring this field and becoming involved.
Now think of all that you could do with all the empty buckets you have now at your base camp................so it has gone from a container, to now a tool, whether it be for hauling water to the garden, porty potti, to storing next years food you have preserved this year.............................