Monday, May 13, 2019

Sustainable Meal Planning - Breakfast

Part of our long term sustainable survival must be meal planning.  A bottoms up approach considering how many men, women, children and livestock we will need to feed is essential to planning our food supply.  Calories, nutrition, variety and desirable taste (spices) are all important.

So lets start with Breakfast, and keep in mind it need to be something that you can raise, grow or hunt on your own property which limits our options.



Without reviewing details covered in our Livestock series, the easiest animals to raise are Chickens, by far, followed by Pigeons, Rabbits and Goats; possibly Ducks and Fish if you have ample surface water.  Bees are easy to raise and honey is the easiest most natural sweetener you can find.  Nuts are also a good source of protein and preserve well.  As much as I like beacon and sausage, pigs require a lot of space to raise food to feed them. The fat from having pigs would be a huge benefit making pigs are great barter item, but still a challenge to raise and feed.  Hunting wild pigs will yield little as Wildlife will be limited from excessive hunting.  Capturing and raising them will be a much better choice. 

With this in mind, a sustainable life style breakfast might be as follows:
  1. Three Scrambled Eggs
  2. Several Biscuits or Pancakes with fresh honey or a bowl of oatmeal or corn grits
  3. A portion of meat or nuts of your raising
  4. Perhaps a glass of goats milk
  5. Maybe some garden onions or dried ground peppers
To achieve this breakfast, we will need:

Eggs
  1. Eight laying hens per person.
  2. About 200 lbs of chicken feed per person (per year)
  3. Four 50 lb size sacks to package and store the grain
  4. About 0.25 acres of land to raise this feed 
Biscuits, Pancakes, Oatmeal or Corn Grits
  1.  Four 2 ounce Biscuits or 8 ounces of pancakes or grain cereal 
  2. Baking Soda, Baking Poweder or Yeast or sour dough bread mix
  3. 300 lbs of grain per year per person.
  4. Six 50 lb size sacks to package and store the grain
  5. About 0.50 acres of land to raise these grains.
  6. One bee hive per person for the honey.
  7. Fifty pint jars & lids to store the honey.
Meat
  1. Sausage, 6 - 8 ounces (whole hog)
  2. About 650 lbs of feed per person (per year)
  3. Thirteen 50 lb size sacks to package and store the grain
  4. About 1.50 acres of land to raise this feed 
Milk
  1. One nanny goat that is milked daily
  2. About 400 lbs of feed per person (per year)
  3. Eight 50 lb size sacks to package and store the grain
  4. About 1.0 acres of land to raise this feed 
Totals
  1. Pounds of grain - 1,550
  2. Feed Storage Sacks - 31
  3. Acres of land - 3.25

 These are the requirements  per person, per year, for one meal - Breakfast.  Based on heirloom crops with limited fertilizer, but rotating the crops and resting the land every other year.

So as you can see, sustainable living is not easy.  The Prepper Handbook available on Amazon Kindle for $4.99 has a Sustainable food model shown to help develop your own meal plan.

For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 
Complete Sustainable Living Plan


Sustainable Meal Planning Series


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Monday, April 15, 2019

Home Schooling for Preppers

After an economic or societal breakdown, i.e. the proverbial SHTF scenario, it will be necessary to educate your children at home, which takes on a whole new meaning under these circumstances.  While we still need the academic school training, there is much more that must be learned, many of these Prepper Skills for Youth we should already be teaching.  So lets look at home schooling from different perspectives.
  1. Academics - Math, Science, English
  2. Basic Life Skills -  Farming, Ranching, Food Preservation, Hunting, Fishing, Wilderness Survival, Delivering Babies, First Aid, Sewing, Business, Mechanics, Electrical and this list could go on and on. 
  3. Art - creativity would clearly seem to be the least important skill for survival as indicated below in Maslow's hierarchy of needs however music has been something that makes life enjoyable after a hard days work, and brings people together. Mental health is important, and randomly scheduled group events are helpful, as long as they don't compromise security. In fact, security should be increased as the noise could be risky.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Regardless of what you are teaching, having a hard copy set of encyclopedias (below) is a great resource.  Old copies of these can often be purchased at estate sales or re-sale Book Stores.  Having a CD version can also be helpful, IF you have electricity, which may not be the case after an EMP.




For Academic Books, W.W. Norton seems to have a good selection of school books. 

Another great source of educational materials are College Book stores, where they sell used books at a discount, and Amazon.com, however they are globalist with anti-American sentiment and should only be used as a last resort. Further, buying lots of books, guns, ammo, etc. on line &/or not paying with cash WILL get you flagged as a potential risk with the NSA and FBI, who track every transaction, phone call, text message, etc.

Every year, there are many school books retired and replaced with new (more liberal) ones, so older books may actually be preferable. 

For Basic Skill books,  our Prepper Handbook list of Best Prepper Books will provides many known good books to have for basic skills.  We would welcome your suggestions on some good books in the comments below.

Ideally, we build our own good library of books ahead of time, but if not, then Salvaging books from a school or library may be necessary. If this is not an option, then we may borrow, Barter or Purchase the necessary books from others if still available.

Last, but not least, a Bible is mandatory, and a good bible scholar as a Teacher is priceless.

Teachers are essential; the more the better. Different Teachers for different subjects is the ideal scenario with each having their area of specialization, especially at the higher grade levels.

School must be scheduled around farm work schedules; off during the spring planting (spring break), off during the summer harvest, and in school though out the winter. A college type schedule with some courses on Monday, Wednesday and other courses on Tuesday, Thursday.

Early to bed, early to rise is also a good schedule as students will likely be living a farming life style; up at dawn, break at lunch during the heat of the day, work again in the evening and off to bed shortly after sun down.

Educating our children is an investment in the future and one that must be taken seriously.


For more information:
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Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 


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Sustainable Meal Planning - Nutrition

For a healthy Prepper Sustainable meal plan, you must have the right amount of Calories & Nutrition.  Below is a table showing how many servings you would normally need.

I left the size intentionally large to make this easy to read.






To see the original charts, click HERE

 For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 
Complete Sustainable Living Plan


Sustainable Meal Planning Series
Or click on a label below for similar topics.

Understand Best By Dates

Stop throwing away perfectly good food! Here's your cheat sheet to what's still good—and what needs to go.


cans expiration date aluminum
Confused by “best by,” “sell by,” and “use by”? You’re not alone. In fact, a Harvard University study found that more than 90 percent of Americans throw away perfectly good food due to label confusion—resulting in 398,000 tons of food waste each year. Because, as it turns out, those eggs with a sell-by date don’t suddenly turn rotten at midnight.

Understand what those labels really mean. “Sell by,” “use by,” and “best by” are actually all dates determined by the food manufacturers, and they’re the manufacturers’ best guess as to food quality—not food safety. Basically, they indicate how long a food producer will guarantee their product will still be at peak quality to enjoy.
And there’s no governmental authority policing how those dates are used—though Congress has tried (and failed) to pass legislation in recent years to try to standardize this labeling and clear up the confusion. Depending on the product and how it’s been handled, it is likely perfectly safe to eat for days or weeks after that sell-by, use-by or best-by date has passed. Check out which foods you might be throwing away too soon.

Ignore the sell-by date. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “the sell-by date is literally just for the stores themselves,” so the manufacturer can let them know when a product may be past its prime and need to be taken off of store shelves. (Again, it may still be perfectly tasty and perfectly safe for long past that date.)

Inspect your food. You can usually tell quickly when a product’s gone bad—there’s mold on the bread, or the milk smells sour. “Check the quality of the specific product by smell, taste, if it’s visually okay, if there’s no mold or discoloration,” says Stacey Antine, MS, RDN, founder of HealthBarn USA. Keep in mind that bad things can “happen even before the use-by or sell-by date,” especially if it’s a perishable food that may have spent time at an unsafe temperature. See which foods you should definitely toss by the expiration date.

Stop the clock. Have food that you know you won’t finish before it might go bad? Just chill. “If you are getting close to the indicated date…put it in the freezer,” Antine suggests. “It sustains the product, extends its life, and reduces food waste.” Next, read on for 50 more secrets food manufacturers won’t tell you.

To read the original article, visit Readers Digest HERE

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Sustainable Meal Planning - Calories

For a healthy Prepper Sustainable meal plan, you must have the right amount of Calories & Nutrition.  Below is a table showing how many calories you would normally need.  However, living a Sustainable life style would have everyone working much harder, so use one column higher than normal.  I left the size intentionally large to make this easy to read.

Click HERE to see the Original Table

 For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 
Complete Sustainable Living Plan


Sustainable Meal Planning Series
Or click on a label below for similar topics.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Severe Storm Preparations

In the event of a severe storm, seek shelter in an interior room on the first floor.



Ideally you should have the following:
  1. Have a plan
  2. Wear pants and closed toe shoes
  3. Bottled water but no food, or only light snacks
  4. Flashlight, batteries for power outage
  5. Walkie Talkies, chargers
  6. Cell Phone and charger; Save your phone calls for emergencies
  7. Listen to EAS, NOAA Weather Radio, or local alerting systems for current emergency information and instructions.
  8. Emergency Whistle
  9. Games can make passing the time more bearable



For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 
Complete Sustainable Living Plan



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Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Vote for the Prepper Handbook

The Prepper Handbook Blog is provided free to help families be prepared in the case of an Emergency, SHTF scenario or long term Sustainable Living.  If you enjoy our site, please take a moment to vote for us and see the other top Prepper Sites.



http://www.topprepperwebsites.com/vin.php?s=prepperhandbook2014 
For more information:

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Sunday, April 7, 2019

Knowledge is FREE

We can't afford to go out and buy everything we need at once, so we must develop a Step by Step Prepper Plan that can be used by anyone.  This requires saving and spending money.  Sure we start with the Beginners basic needs, but still spending money.

This post is a collection of Prepper Knowledge that is effectively FREE.  While there may be a few items you can purchase referenced in the article, it is primarily FREE knowledge.





The Rule of 3 (set priorities by this);
Red flag warnings its time to Bug Out

Edible Wild Plants 
Survival Fishing
3 Odd Techniques for Primitive Fishing
How to catch your own live bait


Urban Survival Plan
Prepper Training for Youths
Delivering Babies 
EDC Survival (Every Day Carry)
PioneerRecipes
Sustainable Meal Planning

Group Security Drills
Home Invasion Response Plan

Vegetable Planting Dates
Vegetable Days to Harvest

Understand BEST BY Dates

Wilderness Survival TEST 
Archery  
Handgun Introduction


Prepper Handbook Recommendations (low cost/must have)


For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 
Complete Sustainable Living Plan 
Prepper Handbook Recommendations 


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Prepper Handbook Recommendations


Over the course of time, we identify some key Prepper items that are very affordable and which we believe every family should have.  We call these our Prepper Handbook Recommendations.  

A good example would be a Solar Powered Light that can also be used as an AA Solar Battery Charger for $4 - $8. Make sure to only get the ones that use AA or AAA batteries.

Another example is a 300 watt DC - AC Inverter that will provide 120 Volt electricity while your vehicle is running for $30 to $50. 


Below are more of our Prepper Handbook Recommendations.  

Power Outage Preps
Power Outage Heater

Prepper Gift List
Knowledge is FREE

Edible Wild Plants (knowledge is free) 

Salvaging Supplies (plan now) 


For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 
Complete Sustainable Living Plan


Or click on a label below for similar topics.