Life continues apace. I usually write entries at work and then bring them home on a USB drive….but when you see a week go by without posting you know Ive been forgetful and haven’t gotten the saved posts and the USB drive in the same place at the same time. On the other hand, it means that when I do get my ducks in a row the backlog of posts gets dumped as one long post. You lucky people.

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Im picking up some gear for my bicycle this week. I found a nice piece of gear. It’s a rack that goes on the back of the bike, much like what you see on most bikes. However, its fitted for a nylon gear bag to go on it. The gear bag, in turn, has two expandable pockets that fold out to make panniers. The entire bag unit is QD removable and has rings and a shoulder sling to carry it. Perfect. Good place to store extra batteries, headlight, pump, patch kit, first aid, wrenches, chainbreaker, chain, etc, etc. Additionally, Im also picking up a LED headlight (removable, naturally) and taillight. Ideally, I need both to run on AA-batts for logistics purposes.

A mountain bike is pretty much the last word in mobility in compromised urban terrain short of a nice enduro-type motorcycle. So, until the KLR650 shows up in my Christmas stocking my mountain bike will be receiving all the attention deserving of an important piece of preparedness gear.

Without getting preachy, its also worth mentioning that with gas at $3 a gallon, riding the bike to the post office, grocery and video rental store is a damn fine idea. Its also very handy for fishing/hunting expeditions in ‘walk-in/non-motorized usage areas’. However, it adds a whole new skillset to be learned – bike repair and maintenance. Tire patching, spoke replacing, chain removing, cable replacing, etc, etc, etc. On the bright side, everything you need for most repairs other than a spare wheel and tire will fit handily into a fairly compact bundle. Matter of fact, I’d say one tall .50 can would hold all the spare tubes, chains, spokes, cables, screws, gears, and other items youd need to keep your bike running.

I’ve been toying with the idea of having the frame stripped down, powder coated a dull olive grey finish and then put back together. Might be a bit of overkill. Cheaper to just keep a can of spraypaint in the bunker.
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Speaking of, I’ve been salvaging 2×4’s from my place of employment and have amassed enough to start another ammo can rack project. I used a bunch last week to make a wooden rack to hold 5 6-gallon plastic gas cans. Happiness is enough stabilized gasoline to get Way The Heck Away.
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Someone asked about food storage so I’ll give my two cents worth. Keep in mind that this is pretty much my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.

Before you start socking away food, you need to ask why youre doing it. Why do you need to know this? Because the types of foods and their storage are going to differ based on your need. If youre storing for the day the missles start flying that’s probably going to be a completely different type of food storage than what you’d plan for against, say, losing your job or being snowed in for a week.

Generaly speaking the things to consider are longevity (or shelf-life, or whatever you want to call it) and durability (which is the packaging end of things). To a lesser degree portability is a factor as well.

Terms to use:
Wet-pack (or wet food) – Generally speaking, things like canned goods (canned fruit, canned veggies, canned meats, etc, etc) or jar foods (spaghetti sauce, apple sauce, etc)….stuff that when you open the package, its wet.
Dry pack (or dry food) – Rice, pasta, bread, flour, legumes (beans), grains, wheat,cereal, etc, etc. Stuff that is dry.
Freeze dried (FD) – Usually backapacking-type food. Some off-the-shelf foods at your grocery are FD like onion bits, strawberrys, etc, etc.
Retort – This is stuff that is cooked in a sealed pouch and then is ‘shelf stable’ (meaning it can sit on the shelf in your pantry with no refrigeration.) Military MRE rations spring to mind. Theres been a large increase in the number of retort packaged foods available on grocery shelves lately. Good examples are the ‘pouches’ of tuna, ground beef, etc, etc, that are becoming more common. Retort foods are often foods that would normally require refrigeration but because of their packaging can be left out at room temp. (in their sealed containers).
Dehydrated – Food that’s been dried and had most of the moisture removed. Beef jerky is a dehydrated steak. Prunes are dehydrated plums.

Simple enough right? The box of spaghetti in your cabinet is dry pack, the spaghetti sauce is wet pack, the onions and garlic in the little bottle in your cabinet are FD, and the chicken meat youre going to throw in is either from a can (wet pack) or retort pouch.

The lightest foods in terms of weight and storage space are FD and dehydrated. The heaviest and least portable are wet pack. Dry pack tends to be bulky (rice, flour, etc) but store well in bulk. Retort combines the best and worst of all features.

Bulk dry stuff tends to be the cheapest. A 50# bag of rice or beans is less than $20. Wet pack stuff can be found on sale at your local grocery or WalMart and if you go with the ‘house’ brand versus the ‘name’ brand you can save big bucks. FD and retort stuff tends to be the most expensive…that freezedrying process does not come cheap…however, the shelf life of FD foods in cans (not the foil pouches) is measured in decades.

If youre staying put, weight and storage space aren’t too big a deal so the wet/dry pack stuff makes sense (especially economically.) The FD, dehydrated and retort stuff makes more sense if youre on the move or want an easily-transportable amount of food in case you have to go somewhere. And if youre stocking a weekend cabin that you probably only use three or four times a year but want to keep some food at ‘just in case’ the FD cans win hands-down.

So, what do you want or need?

Ideally you keep a mix of things. I keep retort stuff (MRE’s mostly) for their high portability in case I have to leave home in a hurry…theyre completely self contained with drink mix, food, heater, etc, etc. But if Im staying at home then I’d rather go with the wet/dry stuff which is cheaper and since it has a shorter shelf life, needs to be used/replaced every few years.

Most of the canned goods you buy will have ‘best by’ dates on them. These aren’t expiration dates. Canned food is usually good for at least a couple years assuming proper storage conditions (the classic ‘cool, dry place’).

Bulk foods like rice, pasta, grain, etc, can be stored in clean food-grade 5-gallon buckets. I keep a bucket of rice in my kitchen and just scoop out rice as I need it. Buckets stack, store well, are fairly resistant to damage, watertight, and fairly portable. If youre going to store rice and the like, use buckets. You can line the buckets with Mylar food storage bags (available from the usual outlets) to make things neater and a bit more airtight.

I know what youre thinking..’Dude, this is all theory. What do I need???’ Grocery shopping for other people is insanely impractical. I like things you don’t like. But, heres a good way to figure it out…

Figure youre going to have two meals a day. Maybe three if you really want to live it up. Also, lets assume you don’t want to use anything that has less than a one year shelf life. That means that everything must be used up at between one and two years down the line…so buy stuff you wont mind eating when there isn’t an emergency.

Breakfasts:
Oatmeal, instant or regular
Canned fruit
Pancakes (from mix) with syrup
FD coffee or tea
Orange drink mix (Tang) or other mix (hot chocolate, apple cider mix, etc)
Instant milk (low fat if you want or Nestle whole milk)
Dried potatoes for hash browns
Dehydrated egg mix
Breakfast cereal
Corned beef or roast beef hash
Canned ham
Salt, sugar, coffe sweetener

Everything listed above has a shelf life of at least one year, requires no refrigeration and not a lot of preparation. You can easily have ham & egg breakfast with juice and fruit, oatmeal with scrambled eggs, pancakes and hash, or any other combination and it won’t be too far removed from an average breakfast. Powers out, its ten below zero outside and your having ham, scrambled eggs, hash browns and OJ for breakfast…life is good.

Lunchtime rolls around…you’ve been out all morning sawing through downed trees, wading through flooded streets, shooting looters, or tarping your roof. Have a seat and have macaroni & cheese with tuna, Spanish rice, any of the ‘Helper’ meals (tuna helper, chicken helper, hamburger helper using canned meats), chicken and rice pilaf, etc,etc. Neighbor comes by and gives you a roast because his freezer is offline and he cant eat all the meat that’s in it…add some canned potatoes, onions, carrots and make stew.

Back to the grind….finish helping the neighbors get their house squared away, pull a few wrecked vehicles off the road, help the in-laws set up their generator and its time for dinner…
Chicken cacciatore (canned chicken, tomatoes, etc, etc)
Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce
Chicken fried rice
Soup (any kind from a can)
Beans and rice with ham
Etc, etc.

My point being that food storage isn’t eating out of an aluminum pouch with a plastic spoon while grimly forcing grey foodpaste down your gullet.

Im a ‘belt & suspenders & shirt-sewn-to-the-trousers’ kind of guy. I’ve got a couple cabinets filled with wet/dry pack stuff for immediate (within one year) use. After that Ive got the slightly longer term stuff (rice, grains, etc, etc), for portability and grab-your-stuff-and-run theres cases of MRE’s and FD pouches, and for true long term theres the #10 cans of FD Mountain House. A little something for everyone.

So, easiest and cheapest way to store for that upcoming rainy day? Next time you buy a can of something for use at home, buy three. One goes into regular usage, the other two get stored away for later. Instead of buying the 1# bag of rice, buy the 50# and repackage it. Next time you buy pancake mix or Gatorade, buy an extra and stuff the extra away with the other goodies.

Books I recommend on the subject:
Stocking Up III (probably up to IV or V by now)…great book for home storage using canning, freezing or drying. Probably one of the best out there.

Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery … another classic. Good recipes and menus using stored and homegrown stuff.

Making the Best of Basics …. Good for planning, a little weak on recipes.

Menu planning:
Take your favorite cookbook and check out your favorite recipes. Many of them can probably use substituted long-life ingredients without much problem. Canned onions, potatoes, corn, etc….canned meats or rehydrated meats….margarine instead of butter…you get the idea. It isn’t enough to shove a handful of pouches and cans into a cabinet and figure you’ve covered the whole ‘storage food’ angle. If it were that easy you could just buy 500# of rice and eat rice every single day at every meal. Youre probably better off getting a handful of core ingredients that give you the most versatility in making different dishes.

As I said, this is all just my opinion….figure out what you like to eat and then see if theres a way the ingredients can be made to last indefinitely on a shelf with no refrigeration.