PREPPER EXPERATION
One of the benefits of working at a food bank as the driver is that I can trash pick. Out of date food deemed too dangerous by the management more conversant in health department regulations than in more robust sciences, I can get for no cash money. I poke fun at freeze dried food, but I also have plenty myself. Because the price was right. Today I picked up two coffee cans full of diatomaceous earth. Again, price of free. Which brings me to my second benefit. I think I get a pretty decent overview of how a lot of preppers stockpile and prepare. They either donate to buy fresh stock ( thank goodness they are Yuppie Scum and actually believe fresh freeze dried food tastes better than ten year old stuff- newsflash, dumbass, it all tastes like crap on a stick ) or, they die off and I get the pantry ( this also happened in Carson City, not just here in Elko ). Today, I went into a deceased preppers apartment and had a grand old time poking and prodding ( even though it was hideously hard work in the heat up and down stairs ). I got the grand overview, not just the food part. Now, keep in mind that I wasn’t able to freely gawk. I had been let in and was helped in the packing. So I only saw and heard half the story. And while it was the typical preppers tale, it was still interesting.
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The apartment was downstairs below ground level, so naturally insulted on five of its six sides. So even if this was a standard city slicker prepper, at least he was smart about where he lived in a cold environment. The weapons were all old ( M1’s and such, so most likely the cheap guns from the Marksmanship Program ), but still the standard of "multiples of the cost of food". Plus, I noticed no ammunition. While I noticed with disdain that there were fewer than a dozen cans of coffee stocked, at least he used the old cans to stock flour which is both frugal and smart. And while the food was quality over quantity, all variety rather than calorie orientated, at least it was, guessing, about three to six months worth. I also noted that on his bookshelf he had the four series of the book on the time travel dude I recommend on my "top 20 list of best survival fiction". So, there were some extra brownie points for him. Along with the fact that he had less than two dozen #10 cans of freeze dried foods. Most was store bought dry goods. Very few cans of meat, mostly dried and canned beans. I really kind of got the vibe of a frugal survivalist, even if the "quick recovery" variety. Too bad he had to die for me to know he was around ( although, I’m sure I knew him by sight. I noticed a few cans with our ink pen mark-out of the UPC ). All that hard work earned me two hours of wages, two cans of DE, and an appreciation that not ALL local preppers are Yuppies.
END
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I've found the Augason Farms "dehydrated" stuff more than tolerable though the simulated chicken (made from soy - which will make you squeal uncontrollably, "MY PUSSY HURTS!!!!") was unedible to me - maybe if times were ruff and nothing else was available and I didn't mind a robust pair of recently developed labia's inside my britches, I'd choke it down. AF dried milk was very good. Supposedly the AF stuff is available at walmarts in the camping dept. but I've never seen it in the 2 stores I've been in.
ReplyDeleteOurs has a prepper section ( one shelf section ) in the flour isle. I wonder if the milk is there rather than the camping.
DeleteOK, how do you determine where the "prepper" section is?
DeleteI know where the camping section is because that's where the tents and sleeping bags are, but there is no Augason Farms stuff in the camping sections. Maybe I don't spend enough quality time in walmart in order to know where everything is.
I imagine it varies by store, if they all even have one. Ours started in the seasonal/special isle, then went to the flour isle, right around where the gravy mixes were. So, food half of the store, if available.
DeleteI always think it is a shame when I hear stories of preppers' who passed away, only to have their families relatives give up all their stock ups.
ReplyDeleteI hope I raised my little ones to be smarter than that.
But in this case it sounds understandable- you said he was in an apartment and though it was probably stocked slowly over time, getting all that out without notice might be a bit much for the relatives. When one of my relatives passed we had to clean out her apartment. She had 30 year old newspapers crammed in drawers with notes scribbled over them and coupons for stores not even in business for decades nicely clipped and organized - about the only part of the place organized. We finally gave up the cleaning deposit and quit trying to clean up when we realized that the rental company didn't even have a record of a cleaning or security deposit.
Cleaning deposit is almost never returned. Either never clean, or never rent an apartment. I went the never rent route after getting shafted once too often
DeleteOh, great coiffed one,
DeleteDo you have any decent advice on what to avoid when renting, issues you've had, and stocking up with limited space?
~SumDude
Don't rent other peoples buildings. Renting a mobile or trailer space is barely tolerable, an apartment or house blows. Limited space just means no variety. You can get a year or two of wheat, ammo and cold weather clothes/blankets in a four by four closet. Just don't think you can add much like #10 cans, #30 cans or anything else. If very small spaces, skip bucket and just have a floppy sack of grain in mylar bag ( or long bags that come with the vacuum sealer ). I've stuffed plenty of supplies in small 16 foot ( that is bumper to hitch, inside is about three feet less ) travel trailers this way.
Delete