What's for dinner?

I had a few links lying around for MRE's and I thought that it was time that I pull them together for future reference.

Aside from keeping a few extra packages of random food-stuffs, I hardly have a well thought out supply of food and water for emergencies.

I suppose I should start with water, being one can live only 3 miserable days without water before dying of dehydration. Past one day and you'll be irritable at best and feeling pretty sick when you're not intensely busy with keeping breathing, securing shelter, and looking for water. I've been dehydrated before and it must have been relatively severe because I though that death would have been an acceptable alternative (in a purely sardonic way).

So, the two issues I see with water are finding a supply of it and keeping it clean and handy. Maybe that's three... but as for finding it, it would be best to go to your two week storage of water and smile that you have it, then go look for a source where you can get more. Walmart might not be there to bail us out, so I'll plan on getting two 55-gallon barrels to store an initial amount of water. In addition, I'll be saving almost any jug I can to keep about another 55 gallons in smaller amounts. I have two water filters, one for the car and another for the house to keep the water clear of sediment and biological nasties. I'm not too worried about viruses given that we live in North America. That should do for an extended emergency.

As for food, well, I'm pretty short there. I have some freeze-dried camping meals and a few Datrex bars, but we'll need something much more extensive for that. I'm not thinking of the 1-year minimum required by the Church of Latter Day Saints, but somethings sensible. There's food that you need immediately in an emergency, stuff that you can eat without preparation, and things for long term storage. I'll be focussing on a combination of Datrex bars, MRE's and probably freeze-dried items.

The Datrex blue bars are Coast Guard certified and are good for 3600 calories that could be extended to about three days of light activity per person. I haven't tried any yet, but some damn mice found my stash in the basement and somehow smelt the goodies within and chowed down on a couple packets. Little bastards... but it was my fault. I'll keep these bars in my car, at work, at home for those emergencies where I might not be able to get at the rest of my stash immediately. They'll probably be good to barter with later as well.

I'm still researching MRE's, but there looks like there are a few good choices available. According to one article I've read, I'll have to choose carefully since there is a big difference between the civilian rations available. Looks like there are a number of good sources for MRE's like The Epicenter and aPack. For myself, I'll probably look into getting something to cover my wife and I for about two weeks: 84 meals or 7 cases. That's like almost $500 not including shipping and handling. I'll have to do that a case at a time.

(work in progress)