I just figure my menus for a month and multiply
I ate C rations from WWII made in 1944 while in Nam. They seem to last forever.
I've mentioned this here on the board before, but it's one of the best ideas I've ever heard. So I use it. You can buy a "tin" of 50 or 100 of the P38 or P51 can openers for something like $30-40. (I prefer the bigger P51s). Open up your case/box of freeze dried food or number 10 cans and tape a P51 to the top of 2-3 cans per case. That way you will almost always have an easy way to open them up -even if you have to grab a couple on your way out the door. You easily can do this with smaller cans of stuff like soup/beans/veggies/etc. depending on how you have them stored. That way you have LOTS of them deployed ready to use instead of thinking in an emergency "hmmm I have a bag of P38s around here somewhere..."
I've killed quite a few in my day.I have said this before......but:
It's a double dohicky thingy.
1) you're right in that if everyone goes hunting, and they are successful, it will decimate the population quickly
2) it ain't that easy to kill a whitetail I don't care how big the population is. MS is rated as No. 2 on the Whitetail population. TX is No. 1 and you can easily see the difference (size of the state). And there are thousand of hunters in MS that don't see any deer year after year. Deer are not dumb, and once they "feel" the pressure, they go total nocturnal. My son killed 4: 2 does, and 2 - 7 points. do you know how many other hunters in his hunting club did that? None.
And once a hunter for survival goes without food, that is a bad cycle and health and sustainability/energy goes down hill fast.
Once the rut comes on, and it's early in PA, and later in MS, we have a couple of girls, strutting their stuff in the backyard every night. Once that is off, never see them in daylight, or night time again for better than 6 months. And starting right now, they are dropping their fawns.
And is another reason (because of those two above) I recommend people have .22's for small game. Which will probably be the go to game instead of deer.
That's just my way of thinking.
I think that 2,4-D kills alot of small game. And make deer sick.I've killed quite a few in my day.
Just in my area there's a lot of pressure.
Sure, lots of people go home empty-handed.
But, those of us who know a thing or three will kill deer if we need to.
My dad told abouit the 1930s that there were almost no deer left around here because of hunting pressure.
As far as small game, 50 years ago, it was nothing to bring home a half dozen rabbits.
Now, you could hunt all day and never see a rabbit ot any other small game.
In bad times, many hunters will find it much easier to kill and eat livestock.
People will have to quickly learn to lock their livestock in the barn every night. And maybe one of the armed family will have to sleep in the barn each night too.
This^^^
Sarah Plain and Tall, she's on Instagram, got a lot of sh*t because she revealed that she cans on average 2000 jars of "meals" a year, and also fruit, for a total of 3000 jars. There's five of them in their family IIRC. She also dehydrates, ferments, cures, and now freeze dries produce and other foods. In addition to this she makes homemade breads, cookies, pies, etc.,
What she caught grief for was the 2000 pints of food, meal prep items, because NO ONE needs to eat 2 to 3 pints of food per day. Yep, people went crazy with the math breaking everything down to pounds and ounces.
People don't realize just. how much food they are consuming in one day, and when they work really hard, they consume a lot of calories, which ends up being more than two pints of food a day... a pints a pound the world around, lol.
It's unfortunate that "Social Media" is so often toxic rather than Social.
I always use manual can openers. I’ve had to toss several can openers lately. Someone gave me a Zyliss lock & lift can opener. It comes with a 5 year warranty.I knew a few people with cans and "1" can opener. And if that 1 can opener had broken or become dull they had no way to open all of their cans.
People for the most part use electric openers these days. LOL. One of the reasons I don't is that it taught me to always keep more than one can opener on hand for whatever reason.
I'm still filling in bare spots. Just this morning, ordered a couple cases of #10's of dried carrots and apples while they were available for a good price. People can't live for long on rice and beans alone.
No one seems to have mentioned Swiss Army knives and similar. Actually easier to work with than a P-38 having more leverage. The old Boy Scout knives and similar are even beefier and more durable.
You will want a medium sized model; the small ones don't have can openers on them. More blades does not mean better either, so stay away from the Champion and other 381 blade models. Put it on a lanyard and you will always have it with you.
RR
and unlike MRE’s K rations and C rations are a diet eg you can given a level of menue fatigue eat them routinely Meals Rejected by Everyone instructions indicate 30 or so days OK not an extended diet (worse menue fatigue and constipation at minimum)I ate C rations from WWII made in 1944 while in Nam. They seem to last forever.
Where did you order from, and how do you store the remaining contents after you open the can?
Food Storage | Store
store.churchofjesuschrist.org
These guys have always been my go-to for bare-bone basics. Better prices than anywhere, and only $3.00 (to MN anyway) for shipping. Don't let an "out of stock" scare you. Just put your items in your cart, and order when they are back. That's why I ordered this morning. What I wanted was all in stock. BTW - full cases only.
After a can is opened, put the plastic lid on and store in the kitchen. If your climate isn't super high humidity, it will store just fine for a month or two. I don't have a vacuum sealer, and don't plan on getting one, but if you have one, even better - though I still would use up within a few months.
I've ordered a lot from them through the years.Food Storage | Store
store.churchofjesuschrist.org
These guys have always been my go-to for bare-bone basics. Better prices than anywhere, and only $3.00 (to MN anyway) for shipping. Don't let an "out of stock" scare you. Just put your items in your cart, and order when they are back. That's why I ordered this morning. What I wanted was all in stock. BTW - full cases only.
After a can is opened, put the plastic lid on and store in the kitchen. If your climate isn't super high humidity, it will store just fine for a month or two. I don't have a vacuum sealer, and don't plan on getting one, but if you have one, even better - though I still would use up within a few months.
Speaking of can openers, I have several. My mother had an electric can opener and I always swore I would never have one and I didn't. I'm just thinking maybe I was a little hard on her, oh well. Manual can openers back then were probably crap.
I can still open a can with a butcher knife and I still have the knife I use to use.
This may be true for newby preppers who don't have their sea legs under them yet but for those of us who have been at it for a few decades, this is not true at all.
We know exactly how far ahead we can store anything and expect to be able to keep it rotated and viable. Most canned/dry goods in your local grocery store have a pretty hefty shelf stable time line...coincidentally, many things are good two years out. About any factory or home canned item is good for much more than two years. If we don't lose power, we can extend the shelf life of most things to two years but I'm not assuming we will keep it so my preps don't depend on it. I rely on a lot of things that take minimal power to be ready to eat.
My mouth is literally watering...I'm trying to lose a few pounds and I'm hungry lol. That sounds good!I got to wanting some ice cream. I grabbed a quart of cream from the freezer (use by date 2021) and a can of sweetened condensed milk (use by date 2019). I intended to make plain Vanilla, but fate intervened.
That can of condensed milk was almost caramel. A nice camel tan. I just made Vanilla Caramel ice cream. Delish! Just because a use by date passes, doesn't mean I toss it.
After going through countless "good" can openers that didn't last six months, I finally put in a little time doing research and reading reviews. I settled on this one...I resisted because I didn't like the style but I finally gave in and ordered it. Three years later, it still opens a can like it is brand new and I open a lot of cans. I've just been thinking I need to order another for backup. I still have a few of the crappy ones I could use in a pinch but I want another of these and pray the quality is still just as good.Sigh.
Reading all the comments here, some thoughts:
Many of you need to read my book - seriously. The things you either don't know or worse, think you know....
The amount of posts on P38 can openers and "rubbing on concrete - do not PLAN to improvise. Buy a few good quality manual can openers and be done with it.
That's the one I use. I have GI and church keys, including in the same kitchen drawer. But Oxo is the thing!After going through countless "good" can openers that didn't last six months, I finally put in a little time doing research and reading reviews. I settled on this one...I resisted because I didn't like the style but I finally gave in and ordered it. Three years later, it still opens a can like it is brand new and I open a lot of cans. I've just been thinking I need to order another for backup. I still have a few of the crappy ones I could use in a pinch but I want another of these and pray the quality is still just as good.
I would trade my ham and lima beans to a guy who loved them. He gave me his canned fruit. I liked the fruit and cakes the best. A friend was in the AF and he said they ate steak, lobster, chicken, fresh eggs, milk, ice cream, the list was endless all the time. I lost weight he gained weight.We were being served them in the early 80's before the MRE's were widely available. Our were made during the Vietnam War. Ham and lima beans.......
That was way back in the 60's. Although I've retired that knife for better ones, its still a good knife. I have several manual can openers in addition to the ones on my other knives.Good God, why?! That knife is far too valuable to dull on a can. I've used Canadian P-38s for years. Larger than their American cousins.
It's funny you should mention that. I was at a wedding last week, very informal and everyone there but the bride was over 60...she was 59.I would trade my ham and lima beans to a guy who loved them. He gave me his canned fruit. I liked the fruit and cakes the best. A friend was in the AF and he said they ate steak, lobster, chicken, fresh eggs, milk, ice cream, the list was endless all the time. I lost weight he gained weight.
I considered that one but the Swing Away brand, my favorite in the past, doesn't stay sharp enough for me to last more than a year...at least the last four or five I owned. The ones before that were great.
The crowd here is getting older and arthritis is a thing. Leverage is your friend.
RR
Sigh.
Reading all the comments here, some thoughts:
Many of you need to read my book - seriously. The things you either don't know or worse, think you know....
The amount of posts on P38 can openers and "rubbing on concrete - do not PLAN to improvise. Buy a few good quality manual can openers and be done with it.
The crowd here is getting older and arthritis is a thing. Leverage is your friend.
RR
I sell a lot of that sort of thing in my antique booth and it gets snapped up pretty quickly by people who intend to use them. I have a picker who finds that type of thing for me and sells them to me by the lot but they are getting harder and harder to find. I always keep anything of interest to me or DIL...she's the only thirty something around with that kind of collection lol.Some years back I went on an eBay search for the original swing-a-way can openers...new but old ...the old ones and still on their original cards... the ones made in the USA before China got involved....they are great..was able to find and put back...a couple
Also went on the hunt for new old style potato peelers...that really work..
A backup egg slicer
Plus manual kitchen timers that work...
A really good meat tenderizer..
Things I grew up with..
We have several of the oxo good grips can openers, you need to keep them dry otherwise they’re prone to rusting.After going through countless "good" can openers that didn't last six months, I finally put in a little time doing research and reading reviews. I settled on this one...I resisted because I didn't like the style but I finally gave in and ordered it. Three years later, it still opens a can like it is brand new and I open a lot of cans. I've just been thinking I need to order another for backup. I still have a few of the crappy ones I could use in a pinch but I want another of these and pray the quality is still just as good.
Same thing here in Central Texas. When I was a young kid back in the early '60s seeing a deer was something quite rare. They had been hunted to near extinction by then. By the late '70s they were seriously repopulating. By the '80s they were so numerous it was not uncommon to see large herds grazing in open pastures. Where I lived out east of Austin just a few years ago they were a damned nuisance and would buzz down my vegetable garden during the night! I would have blasted away at them but the neighbor's houses were a bit too close for my comfort. I know all too well from experience that if I had started blasting away I would never see another one around my place. The old joke was about deer everywhere and they all suddenly disappear on opening day. There is a reason they have survived severe loss of habitat - extreme adaptability.My dad told about the 1930s that there were almost no deer left around here because of hunting pressure.