Planning for a long term disaster
While in the chat room dirtyharriett asked about my plans on food. My reply was along the lines of “one day rice and the next day beans.” In reality its a little more complex then that.
My plans are like a flow chart, with a bunch of “ifs” on it. If power, no power, if long term, if short term, if food runs out before life returns back to normal, when will the local community have support from the outside world, is the disaster local, nation wide or world wide. There are 4 major plans – A, B, C, & D.
Food Plan A:
Right now I have about 7 – 9 cases of MRE‘s. Each person in the group should get a single case. This case is to be used for snacks and treats by that person. If we have more then 7 or 9 people, then the MRE’s will be divided up equally. The family unit is going to have to have group meals. No one should be allowed to cook their own meals or eat their meals on their own schedule. We eat at breakfast, dinner and supper. The MRE’s will fill in between those meals. Such as snacks or when the “munchies” set in.
The main course for the first week or so will be meat and anything else in the freezers. The time line for this depends on the generator. If the power goes out, gas = food. For every day we can keep the food in the freezer frozen, or cold, that is an extra day we get to eat out of it. One of my investments has been a 100 quart 5 day cooler. Storing some frozen good in these high quality ice chest could extend their freshness by 5 – days This is the deep freezer. It is full of deer meat, sausage, hamburger and ribs. Each package of ribs has 3 slabs in it. The white packages are full of deer mixed with beef hamburger. Notice the tub in the top right hand corner, we will discuss that in a little bit.
This is the stand up freezer refrigerator, this picture is just of the freezer. Notice the rice, it is in the freezer to kill any weevils in it. The pack of sausage on the bottom is 10 pounds of sausage. The second shelf up from the bottom has another 3 pack of ribs on it.
If the power goes out, and the food is spoiling before we can eat it – the plan is to have a massive bar-b-q and invite all our neighbors over. The smoker is used to make whatever into jerky. I like to think I have a way to cook without power. At this family reunion, I cooked enough for 100+ people at one time.
Food Plan B:
This is the back yard garden. Plans A & B run together at the same time. What we have here is a bed of turnips greens. These are called “7 top turnips.” From what I understand, they do not produce a root ball, but instead just produce 7 leafy tops. Mixed in with these turnips are some onions. Along with eating out of the freezer, we will add fresh and what ever is growing in the garden.
While cooking the meat out of the freezer, the heat from the firebox can be used to boil the greens, or what ever else is in the garden.
<—— Insert “IF” statement here. It will either be Plan C or D next. ——>
Food Plan C:
This is the planting of food crops behind the house. Over the past couple of years I have experimented with certain crops to see which ones are the fastest growing. My stock pile of seeds has also been growing. At this very second I have enough seed for 2+ years of gardens, and over 300 pounds of fertilizer. Some of the seeds include greens, radishes, okra, spinach, onions, peans, beans, corn and a wide range of other types of crops. While stocking seeds, hybrids should be avoided when possible. This box is full of all kinds of stuff, more then I care to list.
The brown paper bags are full of peas and corn.
All of these items were bought this morning. That is 5 bags of seeds and a 5 pound bag of bone meal. The seeds include peas, carrots, zucchini and squash. 
The first crops to go in the ground would be radishes. These have a 30 day maturity rate. 1 – 2 weeks after the first planting of radishes, the second set goes down. At the same time as the radishes are planted (depending on the time of year), a few squash, zucchini, turnips, cabbage, collards, rutabagas or okra would be planted.
Food Plan D:
Inside the city, the weak spot is water. I have no way to get water except what I have put up, or comes through the faucet. My parents own some land about 15 miles north of here, we call it the “camp.” Along the property line, for about a 1/4 – 1/2 a mile we have a year round naturally fed creek. We also have a bout 20 acres that can be farmed and 10 that can be hunted on. The “camp” is at the end of a dead end road, in a secluded area. We have just a couple of neighbors through the woods that are not family. So hook the pit up to my truck, load the fertilizer and seeds up, clothes, guns, ammo, and what ever else we need and head to the camp. We have a propane tank so we can use the stove and oven. We also have a water pump that we can hook to the generator.
Currently I have about 2+ cords of dried wood. This is a 1/4 – 3/8 of my wood stocks so cooking should not be a problem. Part of the wood is pecan, which is used for smoking meat.
The tractor always has some diesel in it. So working up the field should not be a problem for the first year. We just need to bust up the ground then use a tiller to work the rows. Or even use hand tools to work the rows up. After the tiller and tractor run out of fuel, hand tools can be used to work the garden. The first year, the tiller and tractor will help break up the soil for later usage.
Notice the deer feeder, wild game is always moving through this area. The field we are working up here has a deer stand over looking it. From where this pictures was taken, there is a box stand about 150 feet behind me. Once the crops start coming up, deer and other animals will start coming here to eat. From this location, there is not a house for 1/4+ mile. After that there are only about 3 houses for mile or so. This one garden plot could play a very important role in food collection. Either by the wild game that comes in to eat the plants, or through harvesting the plants themselves.
From this garden plot, the creek is less then 100 feet away. If we have to, family members can take turns porting water from the creek to the garden. Hunting should not be a problem as we have deer tracks and trails running through this whole area.
During the plague outbreaks of the 1300s, starvation might have killed as many people as the plague. As farmers, merchants and people that transported the food died off, people in the cities died from the plague and from starvation. Gardening and long term food supplies should be in the plans of every survivalist.
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