Thursday, October 10, 2013

river days, some food...and yes, i buckled and bought a bucket of freeze dried food!

here's a beautiful sunset that we enjoyed a few nights ago...amazing eh?


and then a river day that looked like this - it was wonderful. we downed tools after working all morning, caulking and sealing all of the screw holes in the greenhouse to make it as airtight as possible.

 
here's some yummy steak and a greek salad for supper - it was delicious!


next up - a bit of a ramble. i have never been into stockpiling MRE's or freeze-dried food. i stockpile whole foods and for those of you who know what i mean, you will understand. we can freeze and dehydrate whole foods...and that is what we stockpile. we cook almost everything from scratch...and little things like balogna sandwiches will eventually run out in the event of some cosmic-scale collapse! so we will simply do without and make blueberry jam sandwiches - know what i mean? that is how we approach our prepping.

however, my friend denob, the prepared Canadian put up such an interesting post on the Canadian Preppers Network about a month back...and it really got me thinking. maybe it is because he is doing such a good job running both the network and the forum. maybe it's because i trust his judgement. maybe it's because he takes such a scientific approach, using his kids and family as the scientific testers - bahahahah! oh he's funny - he is! but i trust his opinion and he is never afraid to share it! he got the Chef's Banquet Ark Bucket from Briden Solutions, a Canadian company, and he put it to the test. you can read more about his scientific tests of the bucket here. anyway, i was convinced. did we need 335 freeze dried meals in our preps. yes, i think it was finally time to incorporate them in our preps.

so we ordered the bucket. got it in about a week and a half. for those concerned with OPSEC, the bucket arrived in a plain brown box with absolutely nothing identifying what was in the box. NOT like the Safecastle and MountainHouse boxes which i have read come with blaring advertisements on the box as to the contents!!!

here is our bucket.



here are all of the freeze-dried meals guaranteed to last 20yrs...however, i have read that they last much longer.


here is what the bucket contains. if you can't read it, go to the CPN for a link to the Ark bucket.

remember our crappy little closet with the water heater in it?


well, you will remember that our house is a cottage with an addition stuck on the side. remember we have 2 attics and that when the addition was stuck on they didn't even remove the siding from the first cottage? anyway, all of that to say...when jambaloney first started trying to find a way into the second, or first attic, i can't say which- he found this little hidey-hole behind the gyprock in that crappy little closet. can you say SCORE?!?!?!?  oh i know you can! have a peak!


i removed a bunch of our preps so that you could see the shelves and whatnot that he put in. this little hidey-hole, when covered stores ALOT of preps. when all of our preps are in it, it is full to the max and because i am tiny, i am the one who goes up there to document and add new preps. well that is where the Briden Ark bucket lives...along with all of our other preps. this is just one of our preps storing areas. but i wanted to show you that there are many places to find in your home for hiding preps and i also wanted to tell you that, yes, i buckled and bought a bucket of freeze-dried preps. again, i trust denob/thePreparedCanadian...and that's why we bought the bucket...at a very good price i might add. 335 meals. on top of our several years worth of preps, i think i can stop worrying for a while.

it's been a beautiful couple of days. we've been spending afternoons suntanning on the front deck or down at the river. have a look-see:


we had a bit of a celebration yesterday afternoon - getting all of the screws in the greenhouse caulked, sealed and painted...a bit of a milestone...it will make the greenhouse airtight for the winter. so for our afternoon celebration, we had a big-*ssed BLT, some dark ale and some wine.


we took our celebration meal out on the front deck, naked as the day is long, baked in the sun, and enjoyed each other's company.


that above is what i looked at while i ate my sandwich.

and there's nothing like some chicken wraps for supper - yummeh!


we spent this afternoon at the river...hopefully i fried myself to a crisp. i need to bake the tan in so i can be sorta' brown until the middle of november, ya know?

i read and snacked on pita chips while jambaloney suntanned. then the hill-billy boat launch started calling to him so he went and worked on it some more.


it's been a really good couple of days. we have a really looooong weekend coming up this weekend - it is Canadian Thanksgiving...our favourite holiday! and we are booked from friday through to monday. how awesome eh?

17 comments:

  1. Hey Sweet Kymber,

    The beautiful colors of the skies up there makes your pictures look like portraits. The skies are beautiful morning, noon, and night. We have pretty skies but living in the prairie you don't get to see all of the beauty like you do up there in O Canada!!!!

    This company Chef's Banquet offers these buckets here in the big package store called Sam's. The bucket cost is $97 dollars and change. Have you tried samples of the food enclosed? I was curious because Bulldog Man and I had looked at the bucket when shopping at Sam's, decided to wait, and read up more on it. Now that I have information from you with ratings from your friend Denob (we will check out his site), we may invest in some to compliment our own preps. Thanks for the information :-) Gurlie!!!!!

    My glass house is done, just in time for a winter visit :-)
    I'm happy to hear about your greenhouse being done. Have you decided what you'll be growing inside during the winter?

    Yummy food, rule of thumb.......never read Kymber's blog when you're hungry!!!!

    Be careful, I heard some old timer was up there watching the naked sunbathers and feel into the river, lol

    Sending hugs your way to the both of you.
    Your Friend,
    Sandy

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  2. I saw that BLT.... now I'm hungry.

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  3. Cool hidey-hole :)

    The FDF looks brilliant - good choice - we don't get FDF here. Have you tried any - how does it taste?

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  4. I always look forward to your posts, and the others in my bloggers in trust group. I am so not ready for winter. Who would be after 6 years of sunshine. Our fall colors are all messed up. It almost done here and in other ares is just getting started. You both have done a wonderful job with the manor.

    Un happy thanksgiving à mes amis Canadain en Nouvelle-Écosse. Vous passer du temps avec vos amis. Ne pas trop manger. If this is wrong I used Google translate to use french Big Grin.

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  5. This is probably blasphemy to you but I just never understood the need to go that far. If the world went kaput tomorrow, I probably have four to six months of food in canned goods and whole foods that are much tastier than reconstituted meals. Even if I had more, I'm not sure I would really want them. There would be far bigger problems beyond food at that point and at some point is it really worth living when you aren't really living but just surviving? Anyhoo, if it brings you peaceful dreams at night, the more power to you I guess. You certainly aren't hurting anyone and perhaps someday (though I hope to never see that day) you can say I told you so.

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  6. If you were in this country, you'd want to keep your prepping quiet. They passed a law here making it legal to steal the stashes of known preppers during an emergency. (And who's to say what's an emergency?) Good work, though!

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  7. We stock a good amount of the Wise foods and the Chefs Banquet. You can get a really good deal at Amazon and if you are a Prime member the shipping is free.

    As always awesome and beautiful pics. Steak looks delish!

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  8. I think variety is important so the addition of freeze dried food to your supplies makes good sense to me. I just can't imagine eating as well as you two do. The meals you make are really appetizing and I will bet they are healthy for you too. I enjoyed this post very much.

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  9. I think the freeze dried food has place in anyone's prep. 335 meals sounds like a lot at first, but based on 2 meals a day for 2 people it's a little over lunch and dinner for not quite 3 months (83 days). But after you try out a few meals they would be great for a BOB and toss in your car emergency kit and GHB. If you find there are meals you don't care for, you can always make a "charity bucket or barter bin" to hand out to folks that need a little extra or a start on preps.

    I try out and lot of cheap/inexpensive products and I find few I really like but If I don't care for a product I toss it in my "Barter box or charity bucket" because I know someone will either like it or need it eventually. You get stuff with a long shelf life and it can do someone some good.

    Now all you guys need is a smoke house to smoke those fish and make your own cured meats!

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  10. The hidey-hole is neat. What's the temperature like inside?

    So, how many meals do you actually count in the bucket? I'm not familiar with polenta, but surely a packet of 'orange drink' or 'instant mashed potatoes' is not a meal, right?

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  11. I think Denob is exactly right and that freeze dried food has a place in everyones preps. I love your hiding place ! Briden has a great reputation too.
    Love to you both.

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  12. Wow! Nice post!! I read something that triggered a comment or question and then I'd move on to the next topic and forget my comment! lol Anyway, I do not know how to cook steak. It looks delicious! Perhaps you can teach me some time.

    The BLT looks good too. And the pita wraps. Hmm...it must be close to supper!

    Have you tried any of the freeze dried food yet? I've been thinking about trying the Thrive freeze dried food but it's sooo expensive.

    Wow, your preps look great!

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  13. Great sky! Great clouds! Great food! Great river! Great hidey hole! We're hoping for some good weather this weekend, though it's warming up again, ugh. They are saying rain possible, but fingers crossed.

    Thanks for the info on the freeze drive food. We have a space I'm going to turn into a hidey hole of sorts and I've been wanting to start stocking it with some stuff, seeds, emergency food, etc. I just might have to have a couple of those buckets to add to our supplies. Thanks for the tip and thanks Sandy for the US suggestion. :-)

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  14. I like your hideyhole....notes taken. With the exception of one bed, every bed in our home has freeze dried food tucked underneath.

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  15. Your posts make me hungry.

    I get a little nervous with elevated hidey-holes in wood structures. Had a fire burn down a house we lived in when I was young. The elevated spaces by far were hit the worst.

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