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© 2010 Security Whip
I’m not afraid to admit that I keep Ramen noodles as part of my food stores. They are cheap, convenient, have a long shelf life, easily stored, are a comfort food, kids love them, and last but not least… tasty.
From a prepper standpoint they have a couple of drawbacks, one being you have to use water to reconstitute them, the second is the water needs to be hot or boiling. While not the end of the world, it could be a problem depending on your particular situation. Aside from these issues, it’s the perfect food in emergency situations. Heck, I may even decide to put a case or two in Mylar bags and then store them in my food grade buckets for the long haul!
With that said, check out this article from Serious Eats on how to upgrade your instant noodles.
Ramen Hack: 30+ Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Instant Noodles
What is it and why even bring up the subject? It’s milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated until after its opened. This is accomplished by using a different process than regular pasteurized milk. Apparently, the milk is heated to 282 degrees Fahrenheit for several seconds and then cooled rapidly to 70 degrees; at this point the milk is packaged aseptically in a container called a Tetra Pak. Chances are you have already seen Tetra Pak’s in the supermarkets, but its beef broth or chicken broth in the packaging and not milk.
I came across shelf stable milk approximately 2 years ago while working in Afghanistan. I had never seen it before and to be honest I was kind of weirded out by milk that had been literally setting un-refrigerated in Afghanistan for months. Herein lies the problem why Shelf Stable Milk hasn’t really been accepted well in the States. Where as in other parts of the world it’s quite popular. I think part of the problem has been extremely poor marketing on the part of the manufacturer. Folks in the U. S. have a paradigm that milk has to be in cartons or jugs and must be kept in the refrigerator section of the grocery store…period! If you can’t break that thought process, then you won’t be successful and that’s exactly what has occurred with Shelf Stable Milk.
Personally, I think it makes a great addition to your food storage for several reasons:
1. Doesn’t require refrigeration
2. It won’t cost you any of your water like powdered milk does
3. Will last for months or years when stored at room temp
4. Taste exactly the same as milk, cause it is milk!
Finding Shelf Stable Milk can be a challenge and it’s not really cheap especially online when you factor in shipping. I did find that Alpine Food Storage out of Utah has a pretty good selection; I’m not affiliated with the company and don’t know anything about them. If you have had any dealing with the company, please leave a comment.
In closing, I find that Preppers are a unique breed of people and are probably a little more open minded than the general public. If you’re in that category and up for an adventure, I think Shelf Stable Milk is probably a product that might interest you and provide some diversity to your food stores.
Thanks
Security Guy
You can go to any survival or preparedness website and they will have a list of tools that goes something like this: Knife, Multi-tool, Flashlight, Matches, First Aid Kit, Compass, Whistle, etc. Almost every list is the same with a few minor exceptions or variations. And, for the most part these are all great tools to have on hand all the time, not just in an emergency. But my question to you is, what happens after the so-called “standard” 72 hours is over and the situation has not improved. What do you do now? At this point, you have utilized all of your basic tools and supplies, now what? More specific to this article, what specialized tools or skills are you going to need to make it the rest of the way?
Now before anyone flames me or cries foul, I want to make clear that I’m not suggesting anyone steal, loot or other wise break the law in any form or fashion! What I am suggesting is there may come a point when thinking “outside the box” may be necessary for your survival. This may include using tools in such a way, in which they were not designed to be used. As always, circumstances and common sense should always prevail.
Most of these tools are self-exclamatory and need no explanation, however their use may require some practice. Also, most of these tools would be located in your in home or bug out vehicle and not necessarily in a bug out bag.
- Stiff rubber hose -Siphoning gas and having the tools to remove gasoline from cars may be needed. With today’s vehicles you may find this quite a challenge, older model vehicles may be the way to go.
- Bolt Cutters – Cutting chain link fences, chains, locks, wiring, you name it.
- Lock-pick set – If you have never tried picking locks by all means give it shot. Once you do, you will quickly discover how fun and easy it really is! It’s always a good skill to have, make sure and check your State laws regarding the possession of a lock picking set.
- Hacksaw – Also know as a, “redneck speed wrench”, designed for cutting through metal relatively quickly.
- JB Weld – When it comes to joining two pieces of metal together quickly, this stuff is always handy.
- Car Battery Inverter – By now your cell phone is probably dead after making far too many attempts to call your loved ones. If your like me that cell phone still contains valuable information that you will need access to. You need to recharge it, but the power to the city is off. Lucky for you there are abundance of abandoned cars, which means, car batteries. Attach the battery inverter to the car battery and you’ve got instance power.
- Hi-Lift jack – Growing up on a farm everyone I knew had a Hi-Lift jack in the back of their pick-up. Unfortunately, because of the way cars are designed now days, (horrible bumpers) you will need some special equipment to use the Hi-Lift jack with modern vehicles. Aside from that, this is probably one of the most versatile tools out there, not only can it be used to raise a vehicle, but can also be used to remove a tire from a rim, be used as wench, a manual jaws of life to extricate someone from a vehicle and placed horizontally in a door frame (even metal) can be used to gain entree to pretty much any door on the planet…ok, maybe that’s a stretch.
- Wrecking or Ripping Bar – Opening doors, breaking glass, removing a manhole cover, etc.
- Axe – Fallen trees, firewood, opening doors, getting through obstructions such as standard interior sheet-rock walls, etc.
- EMT Shears – Or trauma shears are awesome, these things can cut seat belts, clothing, flex-cuffs, leather, even thin metal. I personally own 3 pairs, if you don’t own a pair you might to check into them.
Security Guy
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