We use the 5 gallon refillable water bottles for water storage. I get spring water for my coffee in it which helps me to keep in in use so it doesn't just sit.
We cook on a gas stove so at least we'll have that!
Our government is quarantining anyone with landing rights from China at the moment and has closed the borders to people without those rights. However, with the spread, I don't think that we can be sure to keep it out.
My main concern is that I have a fairly high temperature most of the time - one of the side effects of ym MS drugs. So if people are quarantined based on temperature, then I'll be in trouble.
I really don't think there will be water/electricity disruptions. I also really don't want to be wrong about that, but it seems far fetched. Unless we're talking about a The Stand situation.
Post by BicycleBride on Feb 25, 2020 9:48:59 GMT -5
If you store bleach already stored, remember that it expires. Or there is a date printed on the bottle after which it can not be guaranteed to be fully effective.
Dumb question, but what are you all buying that is non perishable to eat? I'm trying to envision keeping enough food to eat for 2 full weeks, with no specific start date (i.e. I can buy 2 weeks of food today, but what if this happens 2 months from now? Do I keep buying 2 weeks of food every week?). We have a reasonably well stocked freezer and pantry, but only so much space in an apartment and I feel like we'd run through that all pretty quickly if we had no access to supplement it.
Dumb question, but what are you all buying that is non perishable to eat? I'm trying to envision keeping enough food to eat for 2 full weeks, with no specific start date (i.e. I can buy 2 weeks of food today, but what if this happens 2 months from now? Do I keep buying 2 weeks of food every week?). We have a reasonably well stocked freezer and pantry, but only so much space in an apartment and I feel like we'd run through that all pretty quickly if we had no access to supplement it.
Some easy-to-store non-perishables are peanut butter, mac and cheese, canned veggies, etc. Generally the advice is to store what you eat, but we eat mainly fresh foods so I definitely had to make some accommodations to get to 2 full weeks of meals. I have pasta and pasta sauce, PB, canned veggies, oatmeal, powdered milk, etc.
Dumb question, but what are you all buying that is non perishable to eat? I'm trying to envision keeping enough food to eat for 2 full weeks, with no specific start date (i.e. I can buy 2 weeks of food today, but what if this happens 2 months from now? Do I keep buying 2 weeks of food every week?). We have a reasonably well stocked freezer and pantry, but only so much space in an apartment and I feel like we'd run through that all pretty quickly if we had no access to supplement it.
I am in a hurricane/earthquake zone so a lot of my prep is stuff we just naturally do.
I don't buy stuff to keep for long term. I just make sure I cycle through my supplies all the time. So I usually have about 20-30 tins in my cupboard (things like tinned tomatoes, chick peas, sweet corn, baked beans) and I make sure I restock those every time I go to the supermarket.
This seems like a good time to ask this question- how do you guys store water for emergencies? Do you buy the gallon milk jugs of water at the store or what?
I bought a gallon of distilled water to use in my Netipot. I used a little and then stored the rest, thinking it would be good to have on hand. I went to clean out my under sink storage and the bottle was practically empty. It had a snap on lid, not a screw on so I guess those aren't airtight? New it had the piece of plastic that you peel off but those don't seem airtight either. There's got to be an airtight option for medium/longterm storage?
We have an emergency supply of water packaged in cans (we also live in an area where earthquake concerns are prevalent so we have a kit for that already). It’s supposed to have a 50-year shelf life and still taste fresh. I mainly liked that it wasn’t in plastic so it’s less likely to break / leak, and I don’t have to worry about all the plastic chemicals being absorbed into the water over time (though in a real emergency I’m not going to think about that). It was not cheap to get (mostly because of the freight costs) but I consider it worth it for not having to cycle it out every year or so. Or have it leak somewhere and create a mess (we store it in an interior closet). So that’s an option.
Dumb question, but what are you all buying that is non perishable to eat? I'm trying to envision keeping enough food to eat for 2 full weeks, with no specific start date (i.e. I can buy 2 weeks of food today, but what if this happens 2 months from now? Do I keep buying 2 weeks of food every week?). We have a reasonably well stocked freezer and pantry, but only so much space in an apartment and I feel like we'd run through that all pretty quickly if we had no access to supplement it.
We have a reasonably well stocked pantry/freezer and tend to eat mostly fresh stuff so I have just restocked pasta, pasta sauces, tinned veg (lentils/chickpeas/beans/tomatoes), tinned tuna, frozen veg (peas/beans/broccoli/sofritto/grilled veg mix), cereals, cooking bread and frozen fish/seafood. Also water, UHT milk, coffee and biscuits.
Things that have a near indefinite shelf life: - rolled oats - dried beans - dried pasta - sugar - honey - white rice
We purposely try to incorporate these into our regular diet so we are rotating through.
I've also started to buy corn in cans because when I toss it into chili it tastes no different than frozen. I refuse to eat canned green veggies, though. 😐
I really don't think there will be water/electricity disruptions. I also really don't want to be wrong about that, but it seems far fetched. Unless we're talking about a The Stand situation.
I'm trying to imagine what it would be like if we quarantined people/areas over the flu. Because I think that's what it would be most similar to. So stocking up on OTC meds ahead of time, and preparing for an extended period of not leaving the house.
The thing that is hardest to plan for is the hysteria. I'm pretty confident that my household would weather the actual sickness fine. I just don't know what actions that scared state, county or city officials, or individuals, might take that could impact my area and/or freedom of movement. I don't think that 45 has purged the CDC and HHS as much as some other agencies like EPA and State, but we have an irrational elderly germophobe at the head of the federal government and I have no confidence in his ability to navigate this.
Dumb question, but what are you all buying that is non perishable to eat? I'm trying to envision keeping enough food to eat for 2 full weeks, with no specific start date (i.e. I can buy 2 weeks of food today, but what if this happens 2 months from now? Do I keep buying 2 weeks of food every week?). We have a reasonably well stocked freezer and pantry, but only so much space in an apartment and I feel like we'd run through that all pretty quickly if we had no access to supplement it.
canned soup, canned veggies, canned fruit
some stuff like pasta/pasta sauces
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whatever we don't end up needing, we'll incorporate into our regular meal rotation. My family eats canned veggies and fruit anyway and soup is something that we can eat one way or another
we aren't buying tons and tons of stuff, just a few cases each time i shop
I really don't think there will be water/electricity disruptions. I also really don't want to be wrong about that, but it seems far fetched. Unless we're talking about a The Stand situation.
I'm here. What would bring down infrastructure in the US? No workers? Contaminated water supply seems extremely unlikely. You all can generally drink out of the tap. Even I drink tap water often, though it's not recommended here. Not Mexico kind of not recommended, but more old pipes and who knows what leeched out not recommended.
I couldn't bring my anxious mind to read much of the Stand.
I recommend boxes of wine Maybe some sealed salami if you're into that and a wheel of parmesan. Whatever you do, don't get that Jim Bakker shit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbZp2P7wn4. If you have an extra 15min, this is so worth it. You may need some levity after this thread.
Dumb question, but what are you all buying that is non perishable to eat? I'm trying to envision keeping enough food to eat for 2 full weeks, with no specific start date (i.e. I can buy 2 weeks of food today, but what if this happens 2 months from now? Do I keep buying 2 weeks of food every week?). We have a reasonably well stocked freezer and pantry, but only so much space in an apartment and I feel like we'd run through that all pretty quickly if we had no access to supplement it.
Stuff I usually keep on hand. A case of canned tomatoes, Onions, garlic, beans, chicken stock, oatmeal, pasta, frozen edamame/peas/corn/raspberries/blueberries. It's not about overstocking. I'm just not going to let any item run low before restocking.
I think the US has the hubris that we won't acknowledge coronavirus is here until we also decide it's too wide spread to contain or quarantine.
This thread is teaching me that we will die if anything catastrophic happens.
I'll die the way that I lived -
Looking at the pantry and saying, "You know what, let's go out for dinner."
I think reframing the preparedness might help a little - Just think about the last time you had the flu or something where you couldn't get off the couch, what are you going to eat? What medicine are you going to want? Etc.
Looking at the pantry and saying, "You know what, let's go out for dinner."
I think reframing the preparedness might help a little - Just think about the last time you had the flu or something where you couldn't get off the couch, what are you going to eat? What medicine are you going to want? Etc.
I bought a gallon of distilled water to use in my Netipot. I used a little and then stored the rest, thinking it would be good to have on hand. I went to clean out my under sink storage and the bottle was practically empty. It had a snap on lid, not a screw on so I guess those aren't airtight? New it had the piece of plastic that you peel off but those don't seem airtight either. There's got to be an airtight option for medium/longterm storage?
We have an emergency supply of water packaged in cans (we also live in an area where earthquake concerns are prevalent so we have a kit for that already). It’s supposed to have a 50-year shelf life and still taste fresh. I mainly liked that it wasn’t in plastic so it’s less likely to break / leak, and I don’t have to worry about all the plastic chemicals being absorbed into the water over time (though in a real emergency I’m not going to think about that). It was not cheap to get (mostly because of the freight costs) but I consider it worth it for not having to cycle it out every year or so. Or have it leak somewhere and create a mess (we store it in an interior closet). So that’s an option.
Yeah- I don't have a garage or basement so stockpiling stuff for the longterm is hard. But then my anxiety spikes and canned water doesn't seem too bad. Maybe I should continue my stockpiling La Croix. lol
Post by icedcoffee on Feb 25, 2020 12:41:46 GMT -5
Every time I get really sick I swear to god I will always have Gatorade on hand so then I buy some and it gets consumed before I get sick again. Rinse, repeat.
Snow storm preparedness always consists of an Oreo, frozen pizza and wine run.
But really...if we couldn't leave the house for 2 weeks we'd probably be ok. Like...my family might get pissed that dinner is brown rice and black beans, but we'd survive.
I'm in NorCal. At least once a year we get stuck inside/at home for a week because something went wrong (smoke, power outages, whatever).
I expect we'll be doing that again some time this spring.
Some shops, work places and activities will close. They'll cancel school for a week. We'll be mostly eating from the pantry.
As long as they don't shut down the only road out of town and put us on quarantine, it won't be out of our new climate change "normal."
Because of Coronavirus?
Because of paranoia and catastrophizing.
@ The local school closed for a day last year because of some illness. I don't remember what. I assume that when the US realizes/acknowledges it has coronavirus in the bay area, they'll do it again.
Every time I get really sick I swear to god I will always have Gatorade on hand so then I buy some and it gets consumed before I get sick again. Rinse, repeat.
Snow storm preparedness always consists of an Oreo, frozen pizza and wine run.
But really...if we couldn't leave the house for 2 weeks we'd probably be ok. Like...my family might get pissed that dinner is brown rice and black beans, but we'd survive.
Same. We're more likely to run out of toilet paper, tissues and paper towels than food. And medications if we're sick. I realized that this morning and am making a Sam's Club run today.
@@@ My main concern is that we're totally milk drinkers. 3 of us go through 2 gallons a week, and the baby is about to be a year old. If we're quarantined, DH and I could do without but try explaining to the 4 year old why we can't just go to the store and get more.
Every time I get really sick I swear to god I will always have Gatorade on hand so then I buy some and it gets consumed before I get sick again. Rinse, repeat.
Snow storm preparedness always consists of an Oreo, frozen pizza and wine run.
But really...if we couldn't leave the house for 2 weeks we'd probably be ok. Like...my family might get pissed that dinner is brown rice and black beans, but we'd survive.
Same. We're more likely to run out of toilet paper, tissues and paper towels than food. And medications if we're sick. I realized that this morning and am making a Sam's Club run today.
Yep. We don't buy meds until we need them. Every time we do they expire before they're ever used. Then not only is it wasted money and product, but I have to find a way to safely dispose of the expired product. So...we'd for sure not have meds if we needed them.