dalepres

Ok, I know this is a years old thread but I just can't help responding. Ben Raines, I do remember Katrina. I remember the police, the National Guard, police from several other states, and government paid mercenaries all going door to door collecting constitutionally protected firearms and I remember videos of these government home invaders beating up an 80 year old woman who was trying to surrender her gun to them. I remember a government very much willing to enforce any policy it wanted on Americans.

Here's a link showing how to test an oxygen absorber. Of course once tested it is no longer useful so the idea is to test one out of a bag while keeping the rest of the bag sealed. The idea is to see how much water gets sucked into a jar inverted into a tray of water. The amount of water sucked into the jar is how much oxygen was absorbed. https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/packing_your_own_food_storage/checking_capacity_of_oxygen.htm Here is the page from Sorbent Systems indicating the 30 minute time for using oxygen absorbers. Just guessing here, but if some suppliers are saying 5 minutes, (and many of the blogs are from sellers) then perhaps they're not selling fresh absorbers. Oxygen Absorbers - SorbentSystems.com

Why not just use your Food Saver, etc. to seal the absorbers? When I start packing, I put an hour or so's worth of absorbers in a zip-lock bag. The rest, I seal with the Food Saver. That way the amount of oxygen available to those I will not use is very minimal (just the counting and transfer time - about 2 minutes at most). Since the absorbers are supposed to maintain full rated capacity for at least 30 minutes exposure to open air, the main supply can withstand several cycles of this. When I'm all done for the day, I just take the vacuum-sealed remainders and put them into another bag and vacuum seal that, leaving them double-wrapped. I've come back years later and the absorbers were just fine.

Treated seeds? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

I'm a 55 year old high school dropout so I have long since forgotten those science classes I did take but I was in an interesting class at work last week about how crude oil is extracted from the earth. One of the presentations demonstrated that oil in fine sand or oil in large sand, the amount of oil is the same, all other conditions being equal. Take a bucket and fill it with small marbles. Fill the bucket with water and measure the amount of water it held. Now start over with big marbles. The amount of water it takes to fill the bucket remains constant because all of the marbles are spheres, thus the shape of the gaps and the shapes of the marbles stay the same. The only difference is the number and size of the holes. So rice, being narrow and long, will pack differently than beans but big beans and little beans will pretty much have the same amount of oxygen. Now, granted, there will be some difference because not all beans are shaped exactly the same but, in general, they will be similar. And rice will probably be similar to wheat. But it's the shape of the content that makes the difference, not the size. Interesting class.

Sorbent Systems has the sealer that you can use on Mylar bags at home: http://www.lds.net/forums/preparedness/14775-more-vacuum-sealing-tips.html

Here's my plan for sharing. If you come to my house with a weapon to take what I have, I plan to defend myself and my family. If you come to my house with an empty bowl, I will share with you.

This an awfully old thread but since you brought it up again, you're suggesting that we abandon our home and property, even when our own home and property is not threatened except by looters and the police? You forget that many of the looters were police and national guard. The real lesson in this is to have good records of your possessions and a good video surveillance system. That way, when you sue, you can win and get a fair judgment. What is the point of a home storage plan if we are just going to surrender it to out of control government officials? I'm not saying to fight but I am saying to not cower. There. I fixed it for you... Sort of. Your basic premise is false. The police and guard, as well as non-uniformed thugs, looted the homes of people who left along with the homes of those who stayed. In fact, I would venture to say that more homes of those who stayed were looted by uniformed thugs than by non-uniformed thugs.

Hmmmmm. Sounds like an advertisement.

How do you figure? What if, because of your righteousness and wisdom, God just gave you enough of a hint of your surroundings to allow you to detect a threat and pull your weapon to defend your loved ones in the nick of time? Did righteousness or wisdom keep Joseph Smith safe?

Rotating your food is easy if you remember that there are community kitchens, food banks, women's shelters, homeless shelters, etc. that always need a donation of food. At 25% remaining shelf life, load up a box and drop it off for the needy - problem solved.

And the National Guard and police from other areas came in to do the house to house searches. Don't count on your food storage for a nationwide emergency. But it is awfully useful if you become unemployed so keep it up no matter what.

I just had a weird situation. Microsoft Hotmail said that the notice I got about the last post here was unsafe. Here's the content of the help message related to the warning. I'm sure it's just a technical issue with the site or maybe even a but in Hotmail. About Sender ID, spoofing, and phishing Sender ID is a technical solution started by Microsoft and other industry leaders to help fight spoofing (Sending messages with fake or stolen account information.) and phishing (Falsely claiming to be a legitimate business to send you to a fake website or scam you into giving out private information.) , which are the two primary deceptive practices used by senders of junk e-mail (Unwanted, unsolicited, or illicit e-mail or other electronic messages, including spam.) . For more information, visit the Sender ID Framework Overview webpage. Notes * Windows Live Hotmail treats all messages that fail Sender ID and phishing tests as fraudulent and warns the user about opening these messages. For information about how to read blocked e-mail messages, see Block or allow messages from specific senders and domains. * If you experience difficulties when you use another mail service to send your mail, but you use your Windows Live Hotmail address as the sending address, contact the network administrator of the other service for help.

While doing it is better than not doing it and having a year's supply is better than having a half-year's supply - especially if there's a disaster - I still think having the year's supply delivered on a truck all at once would be rather anti-climatic. And you'd miss the teaching, growing, sharing, and loving opportunities that come from building your storage together as a family instead of Dad ordering it at the PC. I suggest start now, not tomorrow, and take a few month's to do it - if you're feeling nervous about the security of the world. If you're feeling secure, you don't really have to even go that fast. Delivery for many companies selling food storage online is 8 to 12 weeks or longer. Your local grocery has food today. Maybe tomorrow is too late. Maybe 10 years from now is soon enough. Who knows.

Do either of those companies can their own or are they just putting their labels on them?