The P-38 Can Opener

The Harried Homemaker recently asked her readers about their favorite can opener. Makes sense, since canned foods are often a big part of food storage.

This inspired me to mention the P-38 and P-51 can openers. (They're basically the same opener, but the P-51 is a little bigger). These can openers are very small, very lightweight, and very efficient. And they're cheap. You can get them here for just $4.49 for a 15 pack.

Another benefit to these can openers? They have no moving parts. That means less to break, less to malfunction, and better reliability if you're in an emergency situation.

Originally, these can openers were GI Issue. I think they were designed before MREs were commonplace. I guess GIs used to have to carry around actual cans of food, thus creating the need for a lightweight, portable can opener.

It takes a little practice to learn how to use one quickly, but I think it's a skill anyone can master without a problem. Check out this video of these can openers in use:

My Car Kit - Downsized

Hubby had been doing a LOT of complaining about my Car Kit. It was originally contained within an under-the-bed plastic storage box. Admittedly, that thing was pretty darn big. The cargo space of our mid-size SUV was packed with the Car Kit, the stroller, and a plastic box of everyday things I keep on hand (extra diapers/clothes for the kids, blanket for the park, child carriers, etc.). There was barely enough room for the grocery bags whenever I went shopping.

So, to make him happy, I downsized my Car Kit until it fit into a plastic box about half the size of the under-the-bed box. I lost a few luxuries and a few redundancies, but I think I still managed to get the essentials packed away. Here's what I've got in my Car Kit:

• A change of clothes for everyone in the family (pants, shirt and socks)
• Plastic water bottle
• Water purification tablets
• Two small disposable aluminum pans
• Matches
• Waterproof matches
• Swiss firestarter
• Bic lighter
• Fleece blanket
• Tube tent
• Contractor's trashbags
• Gallon ziplock baggies
• First-Aid Kit (bandages, OTC medications, latex gloves, etc.)
• Sunscreen
• Bug repellent
• Paracord
• Nylon string
• Duck tape
• Battery-operated LED flashlights
• Battery-operated LED headlamps
• Battery-operated LED touch lights
• Batteries
• Hand-crank flashlight/cell phone charger
• Two kid's chapter books
• New Testament
• Prayer book
• Big knife
• Fishing line
• Fishing tackle
• Toilet paper
• Disposable ponchos
• Mini sewing kit
• 2 nylon backpacks
• MREs
• Sharpie/Small notepad
• Hand sanitizer
• Antibacterial wipes
• 3 cloth diapers and diaper pins
• Safety pins
• Rubber bands
• N-95 masks
• Hand/body warmers
  

With a little innovative packing, I was able to cram this all into a moderately-sized plastic box (although I did have to tape down the lid to keep it from popping off). Hubby is now happy that there's room in the SUV, and I am, too.

In addition, I keep a few other things stored in the SUV (our main vehicle), including:

• A pretty extensive first aid kit
• A pair of sneakers for me
• Some pouches/bottles of water
  
• Emergency food bars
• An extra fleece blanket
• A hatchet
• A few hand-crank flashlights
• Lightsticks
• More fishing gear

If my family ever gets stuck somewhere in our car for a day or three, we should definitely be able to survive without too much problem... unless we're surrounded by a gang of zombies trying to break through the windows.

Flu Lessons

I just finished up a 3-day bout of the flu (which should explain my lack of blog posts). My 103.9 degree fever, chills, body aches, headaches and fatigue actually taught me a few things. Here are a few of my Flu Lessons:

• I need more babysitters on speed dial. I was way too sick to take care of my kids properly, and so family had to pitch in. Between Hubby's mom and my dad, I did have someone else here during the roughest patch of my illness. It helped greatly just to have another person to wipe noses, change diapers and fill sippy cups. But if my illness had stretched on just one more day, I would have found myself doing it all alone, since work schedules would have meant most of the extended family was unable to help. Having a few more babysitters waiting in the stables would have been really useful.

• I need to boost my first aid preps. I thought I had a pretty decent stockpile of OTC meds, but apparently I don't have nearly enough. I purchased 3 bottles of ibuprofen a while back during a $1 sale and thought it would last my family at least a year, but I almost finished off the last bottle during my illness. Clearly I am underestimating my family's need for painkillers.

• I need to get in better shape. This bout of flu really kicked my ass in a major way. For two days I could barely move off the couch. Now, I know that illness can hit anyone--even the very healthy. But I do believe that being fit and eating the proper foods can help your body fight off disease and viruses. I can't help but wonder if I would have gotten less sick if I'd been eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise. As it was, I was only down for 3 days (and, really, by the third day I was feeling back to about 90% normal), so that's not too bad. But could I have done even better?
  

Brains... Brains.... Brains...

Now I know how zombies feel when they're constantly hungering for brains.

Brains... brains... brains... brains... brains...

I don't really want to eat brains. But damn, I'm hungry! I've been cutting back on my calories and exercising more because I'm trying to lose the baby weight. I haven't cut back on my food too much (I'm still nursing), but enough to give me an edge of hunger pretty much all day long.

Even though I'd love nothing more than to sit my ass down in front of a serving bowl of spaghetti and a loaf of garlic bread, I know that I've got to lose the weight. For one thing, I was almost prediabetic before I got pregnant with R. That means I better get control of my weight and my eating habits if I don't want to end up a full-blown diabetic. For another, I won't be able to protect my own brains (and my family's brains) from the zombies if I'm overweight and out of shape. I only need to lose about 8 pounds to be at my pre-pregnancy weight, and then another 10 pounds to be at a weight that would satisfy me.

So I guess I'll nibble on a little cottage cheese and a few blueberries, and leave the pasta in the pantry.

Pantry Cooking

A lot of people preparing for the zombie apocalypse tend to stockpile long-term food storage, such as whole wheat in plastic pails or freeze-dried foods in cans. However, a large pantry typically is also part of any food storage program.

The large pantry generally consists of canned foods (canned soups, veggies, meats, condiments, etc.), as well as dry goods (pasta, rice, barley, flour, sugar, etc.). Most people rotate these foods into their regular, everyday meals since these foods tend to have a short shelf-life (usually less than 3 years).

My family eats some pantry food, mostly rice, pasta, canned tomatoes and canned beans. And a little bit of tuna or salmon. But, for the most part, we rely heavily on fresh or frozen foods for our regular meals. As a result, my pantry stockpile is not getting rotated as much as I would like.

So I've decided to commit to making at least one "pantry meal" each week. For that meal, all of the ingredients will come from my pantry. Hopefully this will help me discover new recipes that my family enjoys (and could be used after the zombies attack), as well as help rotate my stockpile so we actually eat the food in my pantry before it expires.

To help, I recently purchased the book 100-day Pantry: 100 Quick and Easy Gourmet Meals. The recipes in this book are based entirely on pantry and long-term food storage ingredients. None require the addition of extra water (instead, the juice from canned goods is used as liquid). This could be super beneficial if water conservation was important. The author claims all the recipes are tasty, too. I'll be trying a few of the recipes over the next month or so, and I'll let you know the results. At first glance, I think using the word "gourmet" as a description might be a stretch, but we'll see.

Garden Surplus That Can Be Saved Without Canning?

So I know I want to try my hand at a garden this year, but I also know that I don't want to home can my foods (yet)! As a result, I want to grow foods that can be easily frozen or root cellared. I might try to dehydrate a few things, too, just to experiment with it a bit.

Anyone have suggestions? So far, I'm thinking:

• Green beans (freeze)
• Peas (freeze)
• Potatoes (root cellar)
• Onions (root cellar)
• Garlic (root cellar)

I'll also do a few things that we'll eat fresh, like a couple of tomato plants. And I hope to get a few berry bushes, too, which will allow me to freeze some fresh berries.

I definitely want to keep my garden small scale for now. I've never had much success with plants. Even houseplants. I have a brown thumb. Every plant I touch just withers and dies. But I really really want to learn how to grow some of my own food, so I'm going to give it a try this spring.

Self Defense Without Weapons

I am a firm believer in responsible gun ownership. I also happen to live in the kind of town where pretty much everyone has a gun in their house, even if it's just a hunting rifle. However, I live in a state that has seriously hardcore gun laws. Getting a permit to legally carry a concealed weapon is pretty much impossible.

So lots of times I feel a little vulnerable. What if I had to defend myself and my kids against a carjack or a kidnap?*

I have a purple belt in TaeKwonDo, but I never felt that I would be able to practically apply that particular martial art in a real-life scenario. Now that Hubby is on a more regular schedule, I've been thinking about taking Krav Maga classes.

As a fighting technique, the goal of Krav Maga is to incapacitate your opponent in any way possible, even if it means fighting dirty. Aggressive attacks with a touch of brutality are the hallmarks of this style. It's taught to Israeli soldiers (especially the special forces), cops, bodyguards, etc.

And it totally sounds like something I'd like to learn.

If the fecal matter ever hits the fan, knowing how to defend myself without a weapon could be a useful and necessary skill. A hard punch to the head might be enough to decapitate a zombie (I mean, zombies are half-rotting flesh anyway, right?) Besides, it might be a fun way to get in shape, too.


*I have always had one thought in my mind about carjacks and kidnaps, though. If an attacker ever approaches me in a parking lot or public place, I plan to just look him square in the eyes and say, "Buddy, you picked the wrong lady to fuck with." If these types of guys are really looking for an easy target, that might be enough to make them back off. If not, well, that's when I guess I'll have to resort to other defensive tactics. But one rule: never ever ever ever ever get in the car with them. Ever. Ever.

Hungry Kids

Sometimes it's just me and my kids for dinner at night (because Hubby has to work late or has other plans). R is still too young for solids, but P and I will sit together at the island for our meal. She enjoys eating very much, often saying "Yummy!" or "My favorite!" as she forks food into her mouth.

And at each and every meal, my heart breaks a little. Mostly because it scares me to think that something... a job loss, an economic crisis, a natural disaster... could put us in a situation where there's no food on our table for her to enjoy. But my heart also breaks for the kids who are in that type of situation right now, where the parents are struggling financially (or, in other cases, the parents are neglectful), and there's simply not enough food to regularly fill the bellies of the family.

So every night at dinner I have a little heartache, and a gentle, unintentional reminder from my daughter that I need to boost my charitable giving.

"Crossloading" Food Storage Buckets

Most serious preppers have at least some food storage in 5-gallon plastic buckets. Typically, foods like whole wheat, rice, oats and sugar are sealed in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, and then stored in lidded pails. And it's most economical (and easiest) to do it one food item per bucket. So one pail contains a large mylar bag filled with sugar, another pail contains a large mylar bag filled with oats, and so on.

However, I learned about "crossloading" by watching the video below by SafeArmsReview. And damn... it makes total sense!

The basic concept behind "crossloading" buckets is this: Instead of putting just one type of food in a bucket, fill each pail with various foods. So a single bucket might contain rice AND beans AND oats AND salt AND sugar AND flour, etc. (with each food being sealed in individual mylar bags with oxygen absorbers). Obviously, this is a more labor intensive and expensive method of food storage. But it makes sense for three reasons (offered in better detail in the video):

• If a neighbor or friend knocks on your door after the fecal matter hits the spinning blades, and you want to offer them assistance, you can give them a variety of food without having to open a bunch of different 5-gallon buckets (since opening them could decrease the lifespan of the foods inside).

• If you need to bug out quickly and can only grab a couple of buckets, you can be assured that you're taking a variety of food with you.

• If vermin or pests get into a bucket, you won't lose a huge supply of one food item... like half your supply of flour. Instead, you'll only be losing a small supply of a variety of foods.

Anyway, SafeArmsReview offers a better explanation that starts around minute 3 of this video. Check it out!

I Love Porn

Or, more specifically, "stockpile porn" (a term I learned from The Krazy Coupon Ladies).

I am always searching YouTube for videos of food and household stockpiles. Sometimes the videos are made by survivalists, sometimes by coupon enthusiasts. Either way, I totally dig this type of "porn."

The funniest part of the video below is when the guy says "As you can see, it's not yet complete."

Not yet complete??? Dude... how many people are you planning to support with your stockpile?



The video below is a little longer, but it's one of my favorite stockpile videos. Below is part 1 of his 2 part video. I am in awe of his stockpile.