72-Hour Kits: Food and Water

This is quite possibly the hardest thing for me to figure out for my 72-hour kits.  Everything else is pretty straight-forward.  But when it comes to food and water -- there are some major factors you need to consider:

1. What will your family eat?  For a long time, Chopper and I kept a couple of MRE's in our packs.  That was awesome for us, but there's no way that our kids will eat those!  Plus they are about 300 calories in one sitting and Chopper says you have to eat all of it or you'll have digestive problems.  Only he didn't put it that way.
2. How do you prepare it?  Ramen noodles and light and filling but require water to eat them.  I'm personally already worried about carrying water to drink so I'm not sure it's a great option for us -- especially when the kids wouldn't drink the broth.  If you're packing ready meals like Spaghetti-O's or Hormel, will you eat it cold or do you need to carry a way to heat it up?  Those take up space and weight in your pack.
3. Nutrition/Calories: I found a great chart for how many calories you need in a day, but on average think 2000 calories per person, per day.  Do you want those calories to be awesome or junk?  We're actually going for junk.  My reasoning?  It's 3 days of survival and makes what could be a real crisis situation into an adventure with special treats!!  Also, junk tends to have more calories in fewer amounts.  Truth.
4. Expiration/Rotation: This is why the MRE's were awesome!  They were good for a LONG time.  A friend of mine just bought these 72-hour food buckets for their storage and they also have a good shelf-life.  Looking at it online though, I'm not sure that it includes the water you need to hydrate the meals.  Back to the junk foods -- surprisingly they often have a short shelf-life.  A good rule of thumb is to go for a 6-month rotation and then DO IT every year -- LDS General Conference is a good point to remember that.  But that also means that you need to be ok with purchasing replacements every 6 months and dumping what's about to expire into your regular pantry.  So I don't want ABSOLUTE junk food.
5. Water:  Oh Texas.  How I loathe you.  I can't carry enough water for my family and neither can any of them and it is HOT.  Find a way to filter it.  In fact, that needs to be a whole separate post.

Resources for storing food (and some water) in your 72-Hour Kits:

• Prepared LDS Family Food Packs
• Your Own Home Store
• A Day in My Life

The above resources are all for putting together your own, since MRE's and other add water meals are pretty easy to find.  Our food packs are NOT complete but this is what we have so far (that is junk but not junk, and has a shelf life of 6 months and decent calories per serving):

• Nature Valley Breakfast Biscuits (experiment food -- may not make the cut in 6 months) -- 230 cal.
• Jif to Go peanut butter cups - 250 cal.
• Strawberry Fig Newtons - 100 cal. 
• Starkist Tuna pouches - 70 cal. - plus crackers - 160 cal.
• fruit snacks - 80 cal.
• fruit pouches - 70 cal.
• fruit leather - 45 cal.
• granola bar - 90 cal. (Quaker Oat chewy)

So far that gives us a total of 1025 cal. for one day.  Yeah I've got a lot of work to do.

72-Hour Kits: Comfort and Clothing

First I need to explain where I'm coming from.

I am packing our 72-hour kits to be complete for us to WALK out of our house.  If we are able to take a car, we will throw in sleeping bags, tent, camp stove, etc.  In fact, a later challenge will involve creating an evacuation list: when it's time to go what's the first thing to grab, second, third, etc. to keep organized in a small amount of time and not devolve into chaos.

However, some families may be able to be more comprehensive with their kits.  My husband and I have 3 kids -- 7, 5, almost 3 -- who can offer little help and will themselves be a burden (and I say that with love but a 30 pound 3-year old will only walk so far so I'm just being realistic!).

Thus, our 72-hour kits are 2 adult backpacks, 1 full-size child backpack, and 1 mini child backpack.

Right now the posts will be divided into 3 categories.  Make your own list for each category and COLLECT the items you have in your home on that list.  That way you know what's left to purchase/find.  At the end of the month, I will combine the 3 categories together and print a list of each backpack's contents to put in that backpack.  That should help make it easier to rotate items every 6 months.

Ready?  First category:  comfort and clothing

This is the easiest category to get done because it's almost all on hand.  It's also the easiest one to go overboard on so it may need purging at the end of the month but we'll see.  This list is anything that is not a life or death item basically.  Fun stuff to keep kids entertained, clothing (not being able to change your clothes won't kill you I think), and little things that make you happy (because seriously, if you're in an emergency situation you need SOMETHING to brighten your day!).

Here's my list with explanations and then I'll post some links to other blogs with great ideas!

Each individual gets 1 full change of clothing but 3 pairs of socks.

You do NOT want your feet to suffer if you're walking everywhere.

For my kids I am packing long pants but light knit types.  I want the length to help protect them from bugs and sun.  But they will have short-sleeved shirts.  It is Texas in the summer after all.

2 tarps / cheap shower curtains / large trash bags for creating a shelter

hats

Glow sticks -- the skinny $1 for a tube kind.  

Hard candy / gum / mints

card games / mini bowling game

scriptures (we have mini military ones so it doesn't add a lot of weight)

book(s) - hear me out.  My kids love to listen to me read.  1 or 2 small paperback books will calm them down in a crisis and start a fire if absolutely necessary!

small notebooks and crayons (apparently one will burn for 30 minutes too.  I'm trying that one this summer!)

Rain ponchos

Cash in small bills (how much is up to you)

Emergency contact info for family and friends

map of the area

family picture / recent pictures of kids

Hair ties and brush

Mini sewing kit (no I'm not planning on quilting when I evacuate but you never know!!)

I'm doing laundry today so I went ahead and pulled out clothes that we won't miss for the next six months and a few other things that were easily accessible.  I have some items on my list that I know that we have but I can't find them so that's one of my goals for the next 10 days.  Get this section of the list complete at least as far as what I have!

Am I forgetting anything?  Hope not!

Here are some good blogs if you want to see others:

72-Hour Kits in 12 steps: clothing

A Day in My Life: 72-Hour kits

Kid's 72 hour kit

Bag for Baby (honestly so glad I don't have to worry about this one now!)

Prepping with NatSprat complete list

72 Hour Kits: Containers

I realized today that if you're working on challenge #1 (finding space), it's helpful to know already WHAT you are storing.  A 3 month supply of pantry stable foods and a year's supply of basic necessities are pretty obvious (cans and boxes), but what about those 72-hour kits?

Chopper and I actually argue about this quite a bit, but since I'm taking the initiative here, I get to decide.  But our argument actually brings up some valid points.

How much can you carry?

We have 2 hiking backpacks  Large, framed, hiking backpacks (that mysteriously went missing from my parents house years ago . . . ).  Chopper has used them for scouts and we've held on to them with the dream of someday doing some extensive backpacking (ha!).  But they are what he wants to store our 72 hours kits in because we can carry a tent, sleeping bags, a camp stove, and everything else that we need to be comfortable in the wilderness.

I maintain that I will probably be carrying 2 out of 3 children and I can't haul around 60 more pounds on my back.

Plus, like I said before, he uses them.  Not frequently.  But for a while there, he was dumping out the 72 hour kit every couple of months and I'd have to stick it all back together.

I'd rather have a dedicated bag so that I can put it together and forget about it (mostly).

We also have to take into consideration that our kids are 7, 5, and nearly 3 and that Megan asks me to carry her SCHOOL BACKPACK (which doesn't weigh a lot in the 1st grade) nearly every day.

This has shaped what I think I can handle as a 72-hour kit.

Chopper and I both have decent sized, a little bit larger, backpacks (but not hiking ones)

Megan has a regular sized backpack

Abby has a mini backpack

William has himself

As the kids get older, we'll "upgrade" them of course.  But I need to be hands free and able to walk.  Yes, this means it limits what we carry.  

I will be limiting clothing to mostly underwear and socks and maybe a fresh shirt.  

Food will be non-cook.  To get the calories right it will mostly be junk, but if I'm worried about surviving for 3 days with JUST this backpack, I'm not worried about proper nutrition.

Abby's mini pack will be our sanity stuff for the kids -- games, coloring, candy, etc. which means that Chopper and I carry ourselves + one kid so our extra stuff?  Not much.

We'll get into all that in the next few months because finishing those 72-hour kits will be the next few challenges.  In the meantime, here are a few good posts about different kits.  Look at what they contain and HOW they contain them and find your container so that you know what your space needs to look like:

5 Gallon Buckets

Prepared LDS Family (scroll down the side, there's a bunch of links for 12 steps to 72-hour kits)

Another post from Prepared LDS Family on where to store

5-gallon bucket backpack (this is for sale and I am NOT advocating you buy it -- just thought it was interesting)

A backpack one

Survival Mom

Another one -- this mom carries a corded phone!!  Not a bad idea actually . . . 

Preparation Challenge #1: Space

Where does emergency preparedness start?  Regardless of whether you are collecting enough for 72 hours, 1 week, 3 months, or an entire year, you have to have a place to put it!  And herein lies the problem. 

There is no space.

Dallas, Texas may be be known for our sports (whether you love them or hate them), decent cost of living, and hot summers, but we are NOT known for our space.  No basements, small attics (if any), and for crying out loud, my house has one closet that isn't a bedroom closet.  ONE.

Right now, don't think about how much space you need for a 3-month pantry supply or a 1-year essentials supply.  Instead, think about where you can START.  Ideas include closets of course (maybe stack boxes in the back), garage shelving (for items that don't need temperature control of course), underneath beds or other furniture, or disguised under tablecloths.

So for this month, your challenge is:

1.  Identify THREE spaces that you can use for emergency preparedness -- one for your 72 hour kits -- one for your pantry supply -- one for long term food storage.

2.  Empty those spaces and PREPARE them for their new occupants.

Take pictures!!  Take a before and an after -- that "after" picture should show a empty area.

You have until June 1st.  Good luck!