I was having a SMS conversion with my Sister in Bribie Island, Qld which is very close to the flood action up north of Brisbane. She said that the island nearly cut off from the mainland as the road to the causeway are flooded. They have to make do with what they have, and she was so proud that she followed my previous advice about stockpiling in case of emergency. Well done Sis. All those people that laughed at you must be thinking twice about your forethought it light of what is happening.
She told me that all of the supermarket shelves were bare and that people not even close to being affected by the floods were stocking up in panic. I can certainly understand the panic part of it given the media coverage, but I still cannot understand why people do not have at least a weeks food on hand at home. This type of situation is often solved by the practice of stockpiling food and essentials.
Our stockpile consists of about 3 months worth of meals and things like toilet rolls, soap and the like for personal hygiene. We stockpile basics like flour, rice, beans, sugar, salt, tinned tuna, dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, corn, baked beans, tinned spaghetti. You get the picture. Things that you can make meals out of quickly, and a few items that you do not have to cook at all. Add to that lot all of our home grown preserves, fruit, eggs from the chooks, extensive veggie patch that you can always scrounge a meal from, then you are well fed for what ever comes your way. If the power goes off, we still get to eat. If the gas goes off, we still get to eat. BBQ’s are an amazing backup cooker. Just make sure you have a spare LPG bottle at all times.
Of course all of the preparedness in the world does not help if you house gets trashed by an inland tsunami, or caught on a flood plain, but it does help if you are cut off from normal services for longer than a few days.
I believe that this is the year of being prepared, and as I have written before, we are all only 9 meals from anarchy. It doesn’t matter what the crisis is, if the trucks stop rolling we are in a world of hurt within just 3 days. Whether it be a natural disaster caused by climate change, or oil shortages due to peak oil, these days it pays to stock up well before the emergency, and get on top of the situation with one less thing to worry about when the crisis actually hits.
I may sound a little bit like a doomer, but so be it. I believe I am more of a realist that anything else, and if I can save my family and friend anguish in their time of need, than I have the piece of mind that we will eat well, and can share with others if needs be.
Now, the easiest way to stockpile is to keep a list of everything you have on hand. When a certain item gets used then you put it against the list to pick up next time you are in town. We use good shelf management, and put the new stuff to the back and bring the stuff that needs to be used first to the front. The other tip I will give, is make sure you use the stockpile constantly. Don’t just buy food that you don’t normally use. Make sure that it is incorporated into your diet, so that when push comes to shove, you are not scratching you head trying to figure out what to cook with all this stored food. We use every single item we stockpile in the course of our normal menu planning. This certainly helps with stock rotation and keeps it all within the use by dates.
Another added bonus of stockpiling is that when you buy in bulk you often save quite a bit of money. Why buy smaller quantities of items when the bulk quantities are often significantly cheaper. It just makes common sense.
Other than those few tips, the only other suggestion I have is make sure you take appropriate action and actually start to create a stockpile yourself. It doesn’t matter how small you start off, just start. You will be amazed how often it will save your bacon. There have been many times when I have been incapacitate, and we have had to use it in earnest. No panic required, just pop over to the stockpile cupboard and see what is for dinner!
Be Prepared, please.