Five Gallon Buckets

We have about 30 five gallon buckets that we paid nothing for and we wanted to pass on how to do this to our readers. Call or go around to any deli in your area. We first saw an advertisement on Craig's List for free buckets for any amount of buckets we wanted at a deli. So check Craig's list for your area and go to your local deli.

What can you do with these buckets:

Store kindling wood.
Store Water.
Store wheat or rice in mylar bags.
Store medical supplies.
Store a supply of groceries to last the family X amount of days. Example: Peanut Butter, jelly, crackers, dry milk, mac & Cheese, vegetables, fruits etc.

Use your imagination and common sense. We'd love to hear what you use your buckets for and where you got your buckets from.

By the way if you get pickle buckets we have found filling them up with water and a little bleach and letting them soak overnight will take the pickle smell away. Oh, and it may take many days for the car to quit smelling like pickles!

Food Storage Analyzer

I have 15 Days worth of food. Well almost, but who counts 14.9 days worth of food. I put in those 7 cases of vegetarian beans, 24 cans of Tuna....wait..I didn't add in the macaroni and cheese I have. Ok, now I have over 15 days worth.

This is an awesome calculator for food storage. My favorite part is being able to see what the Emergency Essentials has available and knowing the cost on the very same page! I like being able to add my own canned items and supplies.

The only downside is when I did put my boxed macaroni and cheese in I had to choose to put it in the MRE section or the dried can section. At least at first. THEN I discovered 'add a product' right under that and if I'm willing to spend the time to put in the Nutrition Facts from the back of the box I can have it added to the list. A bit time consuming but gives me an accurate reading of my food supply!

I've tried several different online food calculators and I have to say this one is superior to any of the others. This is a FREE calculator and one I will continue using. Try it for yourself.

Free E-Book: Homesteading for $3000 by James Dakin

I am always in search of free ebooks online. An internet search last night brought me the free book Homesteading for $3000 by James Dakin.

I like to read how others live. It's good to know that everyone has their own way of making things work for them. Hell, it's good to know that other people live with low income too, no matter what the circumstances are for not having money.

James Dakin writes bison survival blog and has ebooks available for purchase. I enjoyed his free book so much I felt he should be paid for his time and I purchased The Frugal Survivalist: Disaster Preparations for Under $500. It was available for $10.75, for hard copy, at Amazon or $3.00 as an ebook.

Please note I am not associated with this author nor any author of books that I review. I am linking to this book because of the ideas we can gain on homesteading and want to be clear that we DO NOT share his political philosophy or ideology which is frankly rather offensive due to misogyny, racism and other bigotry. However, if you're able to sort through that nonsense, a great deal can be gained about survival and emergency readiness. To be honest the vast majority of blogs and books out there on these topics are a little scary but that doesn't mean that there is nothing that can be learned from them.

I haven't read this second book yet but will review both of these books soon. I will also review other books from time to time. Reading blogs and books helps to keep me focused with my food storage and prepping. I highly recommend reading as many blogs and books as possible for as much information as possible. Knowledge is just as important as food storage and is another important part of prepping.

The B.O.B

This is wifey again. I've been working to keep at the emergency preparedness with filling up my Bug Out Bag (BOB) There is much to be said for having a bag you can just grab in emergencies rather than running around like mad when everything goes to hell and you've gotta run.
Some people keep their BOB at home which makes sense if that's where you spend most of your time. I spend a lot of time in my car due to my job. Living in the snowbelt of upstate NY, I'm afraid that I'll get stranded somewhere in my car during the winter so I keep my BOB there. Anything could be used for a BOB such as a tote or duffle bag, backpack, 5 gallon bucket w/lid, or box. I use a multi-pocketed backpack that I got at a yard sale this summer for $1.00. I think a backpack is best in case you have to hike with it. I thought I'd give an overview of stuff in my bag to maybe give some ideas or spark discussion.

- complete outfit (pants, tshirt, undies, sweater, socks)
- extra socks
- emergency blanket
- rain poncho
- travel first aid kit
- wet wipes
- hand sanitizer
- toothbrush & paste
- hair brush
- box cutter
- light sources (head light, flashlight)
- glowsticks
- paperback book
- paper & pens
- magnifying glass
- food (granola bars, animal crackers, trail mix, candy)
- 2 bottles of juice
* I am planning to add a sewing kit, some cash in small bills, extra hat & gloves, firestarters, lighter, and a large bottle of water
* make sure to take into account climate such as not putting electronics in a bag that might be left in the car to freeze or packing chocolate bars that could melt in hot weather.

What's in your BOB? I'd love to hear ideas as I am always interested in hearing what else might be needed. At this rate, though, I just might need a bigger bag!

this is wifey

Hi. This is the femme of the house. I have to admit that when my better half started talking about preparing for "the end of the world" I thought she had lost her mind a little, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. The way I see it is that at any time between the months of December and April we could be snowed in and unable to get to the store. Even scarier is the thought that if something happened that limited our income, we would need a store of food so we could pay our other bills. There are a lot of reasons to stock up. Now I am totally into it. My advice to someone with a reluctant partner or spouse is to give them a scenario that could result in needing a store of food. Make these as believable as possible (such as a blizzard, hurricane, tornado) or ask them to come up with a situation.

Anyway, as a vegan I am used to planning when it comes to food. I always travel with food in my car, my purse, and have a little stash of munchies in my desk at work. I never know when I will stop at a gas station and have next to no choices and when I get hungry, I am grouchy! For other vegans needing to keep emergency rations I highly recommend Luna, Cliff or Odwalla bars, fruit & nut mix, animal crackers and dehydrated soup cups (where you will have access to hot water). Keep your eyes open for clearance items or good deals on bulk. You may have just read about my beloved buying me lots of lovely chili for only 29 cents a can (yum). I recently found vegan, whole grain crunchy granola bars at our local dollar store for $1 for a box of 6. They are organic and delicious. You never know what you might find at the dollar store... visit it often. I must be prepared because even if the world goes to hell I have no plans to eat meat. I'd love to talk to other vegans who are working on food storage and readiness issues. Let me know what you are putting away for a rainy (or snowy) day!

Good Deal

Went to my local Aldi's Store today. Sometimes I just love this place. Granted it takes twice as long to get through line because there's only one line for at least 7 customers but the deals I have found there over the year are great.

I really did not think I would be able to spend money this week for stocking up but I looked at my electric bill and it's not due until next week. Once I realized this I was off to the grocery store to get some food.

Last night for dinner I had tried a can of stew from Aldi's and added egg noodles and it tasted pretty good so I thought I might stock up on a couple cans of that at $1.89 a can. Maybe more flour while it's at the cheapest it's been in a long time and more yeast while it was still available. I had all this food in mind but I came across a deal to good to pass up.

Vegetarian Chili with Beans in a can. My wife tasted this kind for the first time last week and she said it was very good and she would buy it again. Last week she paid $1.09 for it. Today it was on sale for 29 cents a can! I bought as much as I could afford which was 4 cases for a total of 48 cans. This cost about $14 and I saved $38 dollars on four cases. I wish I had enough to buy the last few cases but it's wasn't in the cards today and even if they raise the price back up tomorrow (which they do a lot at that store) I will still feel good that I got this deal. Who knows maybe another person can get the last few cases today and put it in there own storage.

I think the reason I'm really excited about this deal is because my wife is vegan and it's hard for me to know what to buy her. I feel better knowing that she will have food other than beans in mason jars. And speaking of her, I was very proud this week when she ordered 6 jars of her bouillon vegetable broth mix at one time. This is a first for her to buy in bulk and she put some in storage and the rest in the cupboard. Our storage grows each week and should anything happen I feel like we have a good start.

If anyone else has found a good deal please post it. I like to hear about deals people have found. Also leave the name of the store and the date and maybe others can benefit from this sale as well. Thanks!

Water

The water at our house is horrible. It's filled with iron and no matter what we do we can not get the color or smell out of the water for more than a few days. We added a large filter and now we have two full house filters. We put bleach into the well. In fact only after dumping one and a half gallons into the well does it smell okay for a few day. The smell of bleach is better than the smell of iron! We don't know what else to do so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Filters are costing us $50 a week and we can't go on paying this much. We've just been letting the filters go as long as possible but honestly by the time we put a filter on by that night it's completely black.

Needless to say-we do not drink the water. My toes are stained permanent rust color. Can you imagine if I put this water into my body? Every week I haul in 12-14 gallons of water for drinking and cooking. I use vinegar bottles and a Reliance 7 gallon water jug (which sits on my counter with an easy spout to get the water from) for collecting water from my father's house. The Reliance water jug is one of the best investments I've bought this year. It cost about $11 at Walmart and I've filled it at least a dozen times already. So already it's cheaper than paying a dollar a gallon for water from the store! As soon as I can get a little extra money I'm going to buy at least two more of these!

As of now I have no real water storage to talk about. There is 2 store bought gallons in my pantry and an additional 6 gallons in a camping water jug. So on hand I have between 8 and 23 gallons of water a week. So if I couldn't get out to get more water today than I have about 10 gallons on hand. That would not even last me a week!

I need 12-14 gallons a week just for cooking and drinking. Add to that washing and cleaning and it will more than double the amount needed. So at the very least that would be 30 gallons a week needed.

I've been thinking about what I have to do to store water. I think a hand pump for the well would be a good investment. I can see the top of the water about 5 feet down when I take the lid off so a hand pump will work and this will be good but only for bathing and cleaning. In a pinch I could add some drops of bleach to each gallon of water to drink it if we had to. After all it's mainly our hot water that is discolored and stinks the most.

There is also a lot of standing water around here. Part of this land is swampy and holds water well. Even the lawn is soggy for days after it rains. In a pinch I could filter this water with a cotton shirt or something and add bleach. Also this is the area for lack effect snow. Plenty of ice, rain and snow to gather into buckets. But all this is the last resort. I don't really want to drink from the tadpole hole or even from my own iron well so I must find a way to store water.

I have to come up with money for jugs or just start purchasing water a little at a time. On a $10 a week budget it's hard. I don't even think I'll be able to come up with $10 this week because I had to pay my first internet payment. I feel the internet is important so I can keep in touch and learn from other preppers. How else will I know what to do? Anyway I work online and to make even the little bit of money I earn now it is a necessity.

When I do begin storing water, where am I going to put it all? Can't leave it outside it will freeze so it must be stored in the house. Well, I'm not going to make up my mind today. I'm going to keep pondering how to afford the water and where to put it. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know and I'll keep you informed as to what I'm doing next.

Wood & Heat

Sunday morning about 7:30 am, the 10 cord we've been expecting for 3 months finally arrived. We helped to split it at the wife's fathers house. Just been waiting for the dump truck to deliver it. Cost us $140.00 to have it delivered about 50 miles.

Add to that we've been out in our own woods gathering kindling wood. Branches that have broken off from trees over the last year are now stored away with the wood. I believe we ended up with about 7 cords as the estimate we were told was wrong. We put 6 cord in the shed and almost a cord on the back deck for easier access with a tarp over it.

Only took 2 days to stack the wood and we could not have asked for better weather. The last 3 days have been high 50s. That seems real scary somehow when it's November and we live in the snow belt of CNY. Anyway today is back to the 40s and I carried in wood this morning to tide us over for a few days. It's suppose to start raining later today.

My wife wanted me to mention the wood because of the kindling that we gathered. We wanted an easy way to store it and carry it into the house when it's 20 degrees outside. At first we gathered it into 5 gallon buckets but this took up too much space in the shed. We ended up bundling the wood into twelve to fourteen inch bundles with two pieces of rope around it and tying the two pieces together to create a handle. This worked well. The wife thought these bundles would be a good idea for back packers to just tie unto their packs. I guess if you lived in the desert or someplace where there isn't wood readily available that it is a great idea.

Okay about the 7 cords and our heating situation. We heat with propane. We keep the thermostat at 60 degrees. At our last place we didn't even have heat in our bedroom, we used an electric blanket that seemed only luke warm (electric blankets seem to die after about a month for us), so do believe that we will not raise this thermostat. Our last place we heated with kerosene and had to start the kerosene heater everyday for as long as we wanted heat. At this house we have a fireplace and we knew when we bought this we would have to supplement the propane with wood for a cheaper fuel source.

We thought ten cords would be enough and I'm not sure 7 cords will last us but it's what we have and we'll have to do the best we can. This will be our first winter here and we'll see what happens. Next year we may put in a wood stove (her dad has one for us) where the fireplace is but we want to see how this year goes. I'll keep this blog informed.

One Cheap Meal

Boxed Macaroni & Cheese 35 cents
Can of Tuna 50 cents
Can of peas 39 cents
I add a little milk & butter 10 cents

And I have a complete meal that feeds 3 for $1.34

It might not be the most wholesome meal but it feeds an empty stomach and kids love it. A couple of weeks ago my son substituted hamburger for the tuna and corn for the peas and stated that was a success too!

Baking Supplies & Meat

This week I've found sales for baking supplies so it's time to stock up as much as I can. I put away 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of sugar and 24 packages of yeast. Sometimes it doesn't seem like much when I spend about $10 a week but it is adding up and I'm using the rotating system where new stuff goes in the back and I eat the older stuff. I am trying to only buy what my family will eat.

My wife is vegan (vegetarian with the added twist of not eating or using anything from any animal. So not only no meat there is also nothing with dairy, no eggs and no honey). That's just her and the rest of us continue to eat meat and such. She too is helping to store food she can eat. She came up with the idea of putting dried beans in quart mason jars. She has jars of different colored beans lined across the top of the cupboard. Not only will they assist if the shit hits the fan (shtf) but they look decorative too.

This week I also bought a can of stew. I'm trying to find meat in a can besides tuna fish that I can cook with. The can cost me $3 for 24 oz. I'll try it probably over egg noodles to see if it taste good and to help extend the use of meat. I'm realizing if the shtf then meat will be scarce for me and I will have to make what I have last longer. That can of meat, with noodles and a loaf of bread will feed 4 people instead of just me. Anyway I'll have to taste that kind of stew and see if it's any good. I could buy a few and take a chance because if it's all there is and I'm starving I know I'll eat it but if the world doesn't end, it will sit in the cupboard and pass the expiration date and then it will be no good. I can't afford that. To me $3 is a lot of money that I don't have.

I'll have to start buying turkey, ham and chicken in a can too. Also canned ham. I do have one canned ham but it cost so much I don't want to try it because I can't replace it yet. I may like it or I may not but until it's closer to expiration it may just sit there. The tuna I have, I got a deal on, 2 for $1. The rest of the meat will cost me at least a dollar a can. I'll let you know when I start storing it. I'll probably end up getting a can or two a week with other things. Unless I find a good sale of course!

The Axe

I got an axe! You wouldn't think this would be exciting but it is to me. For months I've been wanting one so I could get out in the woods and chop the logs that are on path. There is lots of dead wood out there from someone cutting it years ago.

It took me three months to get an axe because we couldn't afford $30. But yesterday we found one for $20 and we went with it. Thank you wifey!

This axe isn't only about chopping up the rotten logs and moving them. This axe is about having a tool that will be useful if there is no more world as we know it. With an axe we can get wood. We can stay warm. We can cook food. We can build shelter. This one tool, though not as easy as a chain saw, can still give so much to us and will never need gas.

I wanted to go out and use it when we brought it home yesterday but it was a down pour of hard stinging rain. So now I'm off to get the logs out of my way that I've been walking over for months..................

Homestead

Rural New York State. Never rural enough but it'll have to do. Beside I do have a plan to get away from the road. I keep thinking anything bad that were to happen would come from the road. With the economy in the tank and still going down that leads to people losing jobs, losing there homes and trying to find a way to feed their families. If something terrible happened to the bigger cities people would begin walking or driving the roads. I can't be entirely sure that they would not come this way. It wouldn't make sense for them to come here. I keep thinking people in big cities like NYC and smaller cities like Buffalo and Syracuse, that the people would head south down 81 and 95 especially if it is winter here or maybe if they are desperate they would head west on the thruway. I think it would be rare for city dwellers to come here but maybe not and I must be prepared either way.

My plan:

Next summer (hopefully) I want to build a cabin back in our woods. This three and a half acre spread has a mixture of swamp and highland. If the SHTF than we only need to walk out the back door and into the woods.

I keep thinking living by the road we are so vulnerable for anyone with a vehicle, for anyone with a gun. My stash of food grows every week and if I could not get more from the store how would I feed my family? If someone took it, I could not replace it. It must be hidden, right now I realize food would be the last thing stolen unless someone were starving but if there are no stores left it will be one of the most important things. (I realize guns will be another be I'll write about that at another time).

The cabin that must be built will have to be built as cheap as possible. I'm still trying to figure out how it will happen. I'll keep the reader in touch every part of the way.

For now:

I'm going to tell you about the homestead without getting too specific. I would not want any unexpected company. We live in about a 2000 sq. ft. home. 3 bedroom, 2 bath. It makes us sound rich doesn't it? We're not. It takes two weeks of paychecks just to pay the mortgage. That doesn't include, heat, electric, $50 in water filters every week because no one bothered to tell us the water was full of iron and was brown. Pretty much we are on a tight budget. We do not go out to eat or for any type of entertainment. We do not get any type of TV. I did decide to get internet for the first time in four years and that was a hard decision because $40 a month takes food away from us and I'm trying to have enough to eat and to put some into storage.

The land here is very wet. When it rains the ground holds the water for days. Lower spots never seem to dry up. We may have bad water at the house but the low spots fill up with water that could be ran through a filter and drank and I bet that water would taste good. We do not drink the water at the house and I have to collect water every week from an outside source.

We have only lived here for about about three months. The yard and house are about an acre of land. The other two and a half are mainly woods. Some one butchered the trees back in there and there are wide open spots surrounded by trees. There are many pines between 1 and 5 feet that have grown back. Plenty of dead wood out there where they felled trees and just left some of them. It's a mess. We've been gathering a lot of smaller pine branches and putting them in buckets for kindling. We chopped ten cords of wood with the wife's father for our fireplace. Hopefully soon it gets delivered here. Today is already November first and we live in a snow belt. Here we get much snow and it is called lake effect snow. It's not unusually to get two feet of snow overnight and still go to work and school the next day.

Who ever lived here before used the land as their dumping ground. There is broken glass and all kinds of junk embedded into the land. I don't know how we'll get it all up. At this point it would be easier to bull doze it all underground and put fill over it. Unfortunately there's no money for this. Especially now that fall/winter is here, the tall grasses are dying and you can see into these ditches. We knew we would have to do a lot of landscaping/yard work when we bought the place. Of course we didn't know about the junk embedded in the land. We figured the rotten logs and pulled up trees would be what we would be working on not glass and broken toys. All kidding aside I've found a faded fishing box (still works and stays dry), broken lights, baby stroller, toy guns, light bulbs, crockery and more. And this stuff is mainly just from mowing my lawn and gradually cutting into the deeper grass to get a bigger yard.

OK that's the homestead. I hope you get the picture. What we do and where we go from here is wide open and for me it's always with an eye toward the future. Unfortunately I don't think the future looks all that good which means preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.