meat, We canned potatoes and the taste was horrible. I'm sure they are ok in stews or soups, but not alone. We should since we bought a really nice Excaliber 9 shelf dehydrator about 7 years ago, then my health went bad for a couple years and we stopped using it, Jake is too busy to take on anymore task. Meat is too high priced. We used to can lots of meat, veggies. what we didn't grow we bought by the bushels. Now lucky if we can dried beans from grocery.
Nate (Canadian Prepper) is a good source for many things cold related. A power loss here in the summer would be no big deal at all since it is light for ling days and we need no A/C. In the winter however, it could be catastrophic. Many people don't have backup heat, so they will be in trouble if they need heat. Most people here that have houses (not apartments or condos) have some kind of generator, but most are not big enough to power their entire home. Lots also have RVs or trailers that can offer shelter but living in an RV at -30 or -40 can be problematic. One guy I know who was in construction (now retired) built his house as an envelope house. He has and outer envelope, a middle envelope and an inner envelope. They each can be heated and drained separately, so that in the event of an outage, he can reduce his heated living space as needed. The inner envelope area is basically his kitchen with a big wood cookstove and a bathroom. He also has two daughters and a wife, and he travelled a lot when he worked, so he had a "panic switch". Each bedroom had a switch and there was one in the hall upstairs. If he was away and the ladies thought something was amiss, they could flip the switch and lights throughout the house and all the outside lights would come on at once. If that didn't frighten any ne'er-do-wells away, the residents could at least see what was coming. We have a wood stove in the house that is big enough to heat the structure and a woodstove in an insulated outbuilding in case the house suffers earthquake damage during a winter quake.
My Achilles heel is water. I really need to get someone out here to give me a quote on installing a manual pump that pumps water through the system in place of the electric one.
Thats kinda funny. I thought if the heat went out here. We have two fireplaces. But if there was no electric for the fans, the heat would basically draw up the chimneys. I have a cast iron camp stove and I found an old exhaust from a gas water heater I took out. It is galvanized metal 4" and would fit the pipe for the camp stove. The water heater is out but the pipe is still through the roof. However, my first thought was to run (?) over to my barnhouse (out building) which has a small wood cook stove. I had the place insulated for emergencies. So many contingencies, though, depending on.... I am a hoarder and I have a sheepskin coat for each of us in great shape. We didn't wear them often. One I wore all the time and figured to save it for lining a western saddle. They all smell of cedar and moth balls but... Bullets and Two words for all of you: alpaca socks! If I didn't have everything I have, one can easily set up a very insulated tent with sleeping bags in a house.
I'd be afraid of running the heat from a wood stove through that cheap single-walled water heater vent pipe. If the pipe doesn't burn through, the ceiling or roof would surely catch fire where the pipe makes contact. I guess you'd be real warm...for a while. But your point about setting up an insulated tent inside the shelter of a house is an interesting idea....it holds in your body heat and the tent itself is shielded from the elements. And I'll have to see if I can scrounge up a pair of local socks. We have a few alpaca farms around here.
The Canadian Prepper has a video which shows how to set up a small wood stove similar to those used for tents to heat a single room in an apartment or condo. Not the best idea, but better than freezing to death. Burning or smoke inhalation might be quicker but freezing is supposed to be pleasant.
One of my wife's friends found a list in an old cookbook from the 1960s. We believe it is a suggested order list for a barge order for an Alaska family to get them through the winter. It would be supplemented by the berries and game form the locality where they lived.
That list differs somewhat from what we have. I always told my kids we could last three years on stores supplemented by fresh food during growing season. (Mountain House freeze dried along with canned, frozen etc.) Then I would need another cow. People have always laughed at the thought of my paper mountain. I have a goodly bit of alcohol for making tinctures, maybe trading etc, vinegar and other things that real people might not have. Lots of older tools for manual processing. I have taught wild foods to church groups and although I would probably miss restaurant food in a catastrophe, we would be better off than some. Don Alaska asked what would happen if our stores were taken. I would be grumpy.
Freeze dried stuff from the 60's probably would not be any good now I wonder what the freight charge was.
I always thought of prepping as a bit of a sport. I just came across a youtube that suggested turning off your power for a few days and seeing how your preparedness held up. If you have city water, don't use it. If you have a well, the pump won't work so you can't get water. Might be a good idea for those who don't truly think anything bad can happen. I think I will get another hay sled.
I think that is a way to check things. Stop your utilities for a few days and see how you fare without them. I know it is difficult to do without electricity here in the winter, as it is so dark and cold. We had power go out for a day a few years ago, and, while it was inconvenient, we coped just fine. If it had been out a week though, it would have been tough as we had livestock in those days and it was -38 F. so we would have had to draw water out of the lake after cutting the ice and haul it to the critters as well as providing for ourselves.