I was talking to a gent yesterday about the four basic requirements of Survival preparation: Shelter, Protection, Food and Water. We ended up spending much time talking about stocking Survival Food. I explained dehydrated and freeze dried bulk food such as what I get from Honeyville Grain; dehydrated and freeze dried bulk food and smaller packaged meals from EarthWaveLiving; Bulk food and accessory items packaged by the survivor such as in mylar bags using oxygen absorbers and/or vacuum packing machines; and, short term shelf food such as boxed and canned food goods you normally keep in your pantry.

I also explained the need to consider stores of food in all the packing/storage groups as well as problems with determining daily needs based on advertised serving sizes and caloric production.

Near the end of our conversation I was asked if this concept or “survival food strategy” was written down someplace in a hard copy book or e-book as my audience was asking for a “what-to-do” checklist. My reply was that there is a wide variety of ideas and concepts in various Survival novels, and especially on Survival forums where Preppers go back and forth expressing ideas and telling others what solutions they have developed. But in the end I agreed to post one version of a survival food strategy based on all the storage groups.

The assumption is that the Survivor is planning on Bugging In until either a Planned Bug Out is necessary or a Hasty Bug Out is forced. Planned (or orderly) Bug Out is where you have time to plan the Survival Equipment and Material load you will be taking with you, most likely in a vehicle. A Hasty Bug Out is where you are prepared to grab your Bug Out Bags and not much more as this is an instant evacuation, however prepared.

Survival Food Groups

Commercial Dehydrated/Freeze Dried, Long Term Storage Bulk Food Items. The most common of this type is the #10 cans (large coffee can sized) which are vacuum sealed and contain fruit; eggs; starches – such as rice or potatoes or beans, etc; or a meat item such as turkey or beef.

Serving per can will range from 20 to 40 serving based on one quarter cup serving sizes. I think the serving sizes are small. So I figure the “real” serving sizes as 20-25% more, so 40 servings become 30 servings. I also figure two meals a day. So for one person they would need three #10 cans – one of meat, one of a starch and one of fruit to provide one meal at day. Six total cans (or a case) to provide two meals a day for 30 days.

Commercial Dehydrated/Freeze Dried, Long Term Storage Complete Meal or Entrée Meal Items. These are come in sealed #10 cans which are easy to store and transport. Much easier to make a meal, but much more expensive, these entrees are such as Beef Stroganoff, Chicken and Rice, etc. Usually coming in total servings per can of 8 to 12, you can see it would take six cans to provide two meals a day. This is not counting having another item for the meals like a fruit which would take at least one additional #10 can. Military or commercial style MRE’s would fit within this group.

Vacuum packed Long and Semi-Long Term Storage Bulk Food Items. These are bulk food items you buy either vacuum packed and sealed or loose bulk that you prepare and pack yourself. Preparing and packing could be in the form of vacuum packing using a Food Saver type device or buy using oxygen absorbers in mylar bags. Most people will use 3 to 5 gallon buckets to store bulk food, such as rice or beans, in a mylar bags with an oxygen absorber inside before the mylar bag is heat sealed shut. The oxygen absorber draws in all the oxygen, vacuum packing the mylar bag in the process.

Short Shelf Life Pantry Food Items. These are simply additional goods you pickup at the grocery store. They can be canned foods or packaged (boxed) items. This group also includes bottled water be it in 16 ounce bottles or up to 5 gallon bottles that use a standing dispenser. Ever seen a grocery store just after a declared emerging weather threat like a hurricane? People pushing shopping carts and just throwing canned goods into it. The prudent person who buys large quantities of these short shelf life foods, has a rotating system to ensure they use the oldest food or nearest expiration or “use by” date first.

My Survival Food Strategy

I have stocks of foods across all categories.

I have case lots of the Commercial Dehydrated/Freeze Dried, Long Term Storage Bulk Food Items, mostly bought from Honeyville Grain. I have #10 cans of fruit (blueberries, strawberries, bananas, apples, blackberries and peaches) as I figure fruit many be at a premium as it is hard to grow and grow fast to bear fruit. I also have #10 cans of freeze dried diced and ground beef, eggs, potato flakes, peas, green beans, carrots and corn.

I have a smaller amount of Commercial Dehydrated/Freeze Dried, Long Term Storage Complete Meals mostly in the form of MRE’s and commercial MRE’s.

Using a food saver, I have vacuum packed white and brown rice, black beans, pinto beans, split peas, and butter beans into one and two pound bags. I have taken to placing several beef or chicken bullion cubes in with the rice and beans so as I open the bag to use some of the rice or beans I can grab a bullion cube as well to help flavor. I have also vacuum packed sugar packets, one pound units of brown sugar, iodized salt, garlic salt, coffee, peanuts and items like that. My idea is rather than bulk items of one type in a bucket, I mix up the buckets, so if I end up with only one bucket I will have a more complete bucket with diversified items.

The buckets are good ideas as they provide a seat and can be emptied to store water in as well. I have several of these buckets labeled with the contents. If I am on a planned Bug Out and the vehicle becomes stuck or disabled, I can cache everything I can’t carry with me, but one of the things I will carry is one of these ready buckets which will provide approx 2 weeks of survival (minimal) rations for two people.

Buying additional canned and boxed items at the grocery store enables me to have a month or more of ready food in my pantry which will be the first food to consume. Canned vegetables, meats and fruits as well as complete rice based meals, dried instant potatoes and instant milk powder, oatmeal and steel cut oats make up the bulk of these items, multiple jars of Peanut Butter and honey make up the rest. I also have a separate refrigerator in my garage with cold storage items, which of course would probably be among the very first items to consume.

There you have it,…….this is my Survival Food strategy and provides at least a basis to develop your own.

Urban Survival - What the Beginning of the Collapse May Look Like

How much stockage do you think your local grocery store has on hand? How about the distribution centers which bring it to the retail locations? How much food, canned goods, dry matter, etc., do you think they have on average? Do you know where these distribution centers are? I'll bet there are many people who do know.

Most stores are constantly receiving shipments in order to have an on-hand stockage for their buying public. What do you think will happen if and when food supply deliveries become sporadic? The video below shows an almost riot situation at Wal-Mart on Black Friday when Holiday shopping traditionally begins. These people are going crazy over deals. Mobbing the stock boys and not letting the goods get to the shelves before they grab it of the carts.

If this was food and the people where hungry what do you imagine it would look like? If you are reading this site, then you probably are a Survival Prepper and have already wargamed the scenarios involving retail grocery stores and maybe even have a plan to go straight to the disto centers and negotiate with the managers. You know the workers there will be making plans to get their "fair" share, and if/when the food shortage scenario takes effect, food won't be the only commodity in short supply. Be prepared to barter.

If you watched the excellent History channel videos on After Armageddon, which I have posted on the left side of this home page, you notice a scenario where armed gangs rapidly move to control the food distribution centers.

Most of us who are already deep into the Survival Preparation mode, will still venture out to retail stores or other locations in order to procure last minute items that are of a short shelf life nature or to obtain items we may have forgotten. Be prepared to travel to these places on safe routes, have an entry and exit plan for the facility. Be prepared to defend yourself. I can envision gangs outside of some facilities looking to relieve people of their goods as they exit and start to load up their vehicles.

Having a security plan and keeping someone at your vehicle and in fact keeping two people there (two man rule) while another pair entry the facility to shop would be a good idea. Use communication devices, radios or prearranged signals to annotate plans or a contingency plan. You may want to emplace another person or team at an overwatch position to support you as well.

It is probable that in a food shortage situation there will be shooting or other acts of violence by hungry, scared or just predatory people or groups.

Urban Survival Preparation - More Alternative Power Solutions

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a comment asking us to look into Sunforce Solar Products. Sunforce Products is a Canadian based company that markets alternative energy (wind and solar) generators and inverters to retail customers and outlets. You ought to check out Sunforce Solar products. They make a wide array of products to fit most budgets including a wind generator which is going to be my next purchase. Semper Fi. Gunny Mad Dog.

I am already familiar with Sunforce as I have one of their 25 watt folding portable solar panels. It is a mainstay in my portable Bug Out power system to re-charge batteries (AA and AAA) for my flashlights, radios and lanterns). I can also use it to charge 12v car batteries to in turn power an inverter for other applications like power tools. An electric chain saw makes a lot of sense for this capability as opposed to the probable eventuality of running out of gas.

Sunforce makes several models of folding, portable solar panels as well as a wide range of rigid solar panels. A friend of mine has one of their 15watt rigid panels and charge controller and is happy with their quality and performance. Upon reading my post about buying four solar powered motion detecting lights from the local chain hardware store, he bought a couple of these same type of lights from Sunforce, via Amazon, and has them installed on his house same as I do with wing nuts so they can be rapidly taken down and packed for a Bug Out.

Their wind generators makes a lot of sense and this is probable my next purchase as they can be easily disassembled and taken with you upon an orderly Bug Out.

Think about what you are going to do for your power needs in the event of a catastrophic collapse. You'll at least need the ability to power/re-charge flashlights, lanterns and radios. Some people have the foresight to fully implement an alternative power supply where if the power grid fails it won't mean a thing to them.

One word of caution. If you have power and the local area doesn't, be sure to take precautions so your demonstration of power does not become a beacon saying "Here I am. I have power. I probably have food and other things you'd like to have as well. Please attack me."

Take a look at their main sellers below. You can click on any product and read the product details and reviews.

Survival Chronicles of Jim - Chapter 21, Preparing for a Possible End of the Year Collapse

UrbanMan's comments: I have been speaking to Jim about the possibility of a Stock Market collapse before the end of this year,...that's right, within the next three weeks. Not that I think it is probable, just possible. Since Congress has not extended the current tax rates (the so-called Bush Tax Cuts) which will expire December 31st, there is the possibility of many people consolidating their assets and cash resources.

If Congress does extend the current tax rates, everyone's tax rates will go up including capital gains. I read somewhere that if a person has an annual income of $75,000 than they will be taking home $200 per pay period (every 2 weeks) less next year. If the tax rates are set to go up, this should cause many investors to sell off stocks in order to realize the much lesser current tax rates and capital gains rate. If too many investors do this, it will cause a panic, developing a selling run and collapse the market which would drive this country into an immediate depression.

I told Jim that it would be a good idea to start "leaning forward" and fine tune not only his Survival plans for Bugging In and Bugging Out, but for material procurement that he may have been putting off. But I'll let Jim tell what he is doing.

Jim here. UrbanMan asked me to write a short story on what I am doing in case the a Stock Market crash precipitates a collapse.

Even though it a pain in the ass, I will keep my vehicle fuel tank no less than 5/8ths full. I picked up another 5 gallon plastic fuel can at Wal-Mart, and had that one, plus the two other cans filled, so now I have 15 gallons of gasoline in my garage.

My water service won't deliver again until near the end of the month, but I added two additional 2.5 gallon water jugs to my monthly order. I also bought three cases of water at the grocery store.

I also bought: one case each of green beans, peas and corn; one gallon of corn oil (which is getting really expensive); twelve cans each of canned roast beef and Spam. Plus six boxes each of Kashi cereal. And of course my normal grocery load.

My son will soon be out on Christmas break from college, so he'll be with me if the collapse hit's before the end of the year. We'll use the time to do some shooting and I'll tell him about my plans and beliefs on Survival Preparation. As it stands now when he is at school, we do have a contingency plan if a collapse hits.

Hopefully, we'll have cell phone or regular phone contact just before or right after when the SHTF. If I have to Bug Out, we have three linkup points: His apartment, the south end of one of the buildings on campus, and, the back end of a truck stop. We are planning to use the phrase "Ford Truck", "Chevy Tahoe" and "Dodge Charger" to denote the location we will meet and one of those is a designated no communications site as well so in case we don't have any way to communicate that will be the emergency linkup location, before we Bug Out to the Cabin.

I am also heading down to the Sporting Goods store to pickup a few more boxes of 12 gauge shotshells and a box or two of ammunition for my Mosin-Nagant. I can't buy it right now, but I know if the SHTF, I'll regret not picking up an M-4 that UrbanMan has advised me to on many different occasions.

I also took $1,000 out of my bank account and will hold onto to it through the new year. I can always re-deposit it if noting happens. I already have the previous silver I have bought, plus $800 in cash on hand.

I asked UrbanMan flat out if he thinks the Stock Market will crash or otherwise a collapse to hit before New Year. He said no, not really, but it pays just to "take a step forward" (his words) in case it does.

It pretty scary to me thinking that me and my son would have to survive a SHTF collapse. Hopefully nothing happens. I need to get a couple of my relatives into the plan and be better prepared to receive the stragglers. UrbanMan constantly tells me that "Survival is a Team Sport" and now I have a better sense of what he means. Take Care.