Shelf Life

[MakesYouWonder]

I am hoping that maybe we could use this thread as a place to gather information about shelf life. I am finally getting more serous about prepping.

There are now numerous scenarios to be prepared for including the bird flu, civil war over immigration (possibly with armed border conflicts), hurricanes (I live in Florida), ever present potential natural disasters, terrorism (real or staged), the inevitable dollar collapse, action of Iran, or the Taiwan takeover. I know that long term is likely that the political and economic systems of this country are likely to be merged with those of the rest of the continent. I have always wondered how that would happen. It would appear that we are starting to get a glimpse of the future and that hardship is going to have to come to bring that about.

Based on the type and duration of the event there are some items that are going to be better than gold. In my opinion beyond basic stapes some of those items are heirloom seeds, tobacco seed, tobacco. All are readily available now and could be every helpful for making long term survival possible even enjoyable. I'm sure there are lots of other things that would quickly become valuable in anything more than a short duration event. Maybe batteries? The packages say they last 7 years.

Take tobacco for instance. How long would canned tobacco last? Most people say seeds will last about 3 years if they are packed in sealed containers with silica gel. What about each of the basic food staples. Even paper products? Do they eventually go bad?

 

[jed turtle]

been prepping for The End for over 30 years, and thankfully, y2k really pushed me over the line to be very serious about it.

i break down my/our needs into shelter, food, clothing, tools, medical emergencies. some of the items i've deemed necessary:

food: emphasis is on grains, particularly wheat, but also corn, soybeans and beans of all kinds. keep in mind that sprouted seeds will provide 700% more vitamins than just grinding them up... shelf life may be considerable. wheat seeds were found in the pyramids that sprouted after thousands of years.

i keep powdered whole eggs, powdered milk, TVP in 5 gal plastic buckets with nitrogen to push out the air before sealing.
i keep several shelves full of canned foods and boxed cereals and try to rotate the cereals in particular before their due dates. shelf life of canned foods must be at least 10 years, maybe more, if keep in dark and cool root cellar.

water: (cistern, dug well, non-electric distiller, non-electric water purifier) /
i keep hundreds of 2 liter soda bottles full of water from the well in the root cellar to feed the water filters if necessary. also a 55 gal plastic barrel. shelf life: indefinite.

shelter: portable bivouac type shelter ( in my case, i've developed a portable 17' geodesic dome structure that i can put up or take down alone in less than an hour.), i keep several new tarps of various sizes in the original packages for quick deployment. i keep adding on to my root cellar with the intent that it will eventually be an underground workshop at least, if not my future home.
i avoided ever having a mortgage. i lived in sheds, domes, tipis until i built the first portion of my current house out of barns i salvaged, trees i cut, etc.
still working on my 4 bed room house i've lived in and raised my children in for the last 30 + years, but i've got less than $7000 in it. shelf life depends on keeping the rain from coming through the roof...

clothing: i try to keep enough clothes on hand (particularly work clothes, jeans and dickies) for the next 2 years of use. enough socks and tighty whities to go a fresh set a day for a month without washing. i keep a duffle bag full of a clean set for the entire gamut of needs for bugout use (work clothes, sweaters, socks, undies, ponchos, etc). shelf life depends primarily on keeping moths and mice out of reach.

medical: plenty of bandaids, colloidal silver generating materials, pain-killers (tylenol, asperin, etc.) shelf life concerns are primarily with rotating pain-killers every few years or so.

i've mentioned all the basics because shelf life pertains to all of them.
keeping most of this stuff in the root cellar helps extend their shelf life considerably, as the temps usually stay between 40 and 50 and up to 65-70 during the warmest summer months (July August).