# The 7 Day Challenge (Food Storage Made Easy)



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

I signed up last month to take part in FSME's 7 day preparedness challenge. The challenge starts on an undisclosed day in September and lasts for 7 days.

Well today is the first day of the challenge. I wanted to share the daily challenge and what I did. In case anyone else is doing the challenge too we can encourage each other.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Sounds interesting. What do you have access to or no access to today?


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

*Day 1 (Monday)*

Today's Challenge



> Today's Tasks:
> 
> Put together seven complete DINNERS for your family to eat for a week (either compile long term storage ingredients into a ziplock bag or mason jar, or put together canned goods into a bag to make a complete meal)
> Make a list of breakfast and lunch ideas that your family can choose from and place the ingredients all in one spot for easy access
> Ask your spouse or one of your kids to cook one of the meals for dinner tonight.


Here is what my menu looks like...

Breakfast:

cereal and powdered milk
just-add-water muffins mix
powdered eggs and canned bacon
just-add-water pancakes mix
Augason's LT FD yogurt
oatmeal
toast with homemade jam and powdered eggs
Lunch:

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
canned hotdogs and baked beans
canned chicken matzo ball soup
canned chicken noodle soup
mac and cheese
canned ravioli
canned chili
Dinner:

pasta and canned meatballs
canned meatloaf
beef stew (made from all canned foods)
canned chicken with pasta and Alfredo
canned corned beef and canned veggies
canned chicken fajitas
rice and beans with canned veggies
Dessert:

just-add-water brownies mix
canned cake
instant pudding
instant jello
Nutella on toast

I could have cheated and said all meals are freeze dried meals by Wise Foods but why cheat?


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

Let's see, the hubs and I worked through this together almost more as a thought exercise, but we did come up with some ideas together:
Dinner-
Mac n Cheese (powdered cheese mix and milk)
Hot n Sour Soup with udon noodles and dried mushrooms
Dried bean soup with beef bouillon
Canned salmon with dried stir-fry veggies
Hot dogs
Pre-packaged food
Red beans and rice

Lunch:
Approx 3 days of leftovers due to only one person eating the meals
Canned soup
Canned spaghettios/pasta kits
Homemade tomato sauce over pasta
Cornbread with beans and a gravy sauce

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with dried fruit
Quinoa with almonds and maple syrup
Cereal with powdered milk
Canned bacon and powdered eggs
Cream of Wheat
Biscuits and powdered gravy mix
Pancakes and syrup

In doing this, we found a few weaknesses mostly in variety of canned/preserved meats and shelf-stable dairy.

Edit to add:
Desserts-
Cobbler or pie, one would last my husband all week and could be done from scratch


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Day 1 Update

K made dinner tonight as per the challenge. Canned meatballs, pasta sauce and shell pasta with canned corn. I made brownies from a mix you just add water to. Normal "daddy is cooking dinner" meal. 

I need more variety in our food stores. More meat and fruit for sure!


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## ROBIE (Jul 10, 2012)

Hey Grimm, 

Happy to see someone is keeping up with the challenge on here with me. 

Day one was easy, as when I'm away for any length of time my wife goes for the easy fix meals. 

I'm a cook in a restaurant so I need a pass from the "no going to a restaurant" rule. 

I was at work all day yesterday so I had not time to post anything, but today I posted on their facebook and on their blog. 

Hope todays challenge is a good one for you neighbor! 


Robie


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

*Day 2 (Tuesday)*

Today's Challenge



> A neighboring state has been struck by a nuclear weapon. All water sources in your area have been contaminated with radiation. Only the water that is already stored in your home is safe to use.
> Goal: Survive today using ONLY stored water


I got the email last night so I set jugs of water in each bathroom on the sink, a bucket for the gray water and a bottle of hand sanitizer.

First thing I did when I woke up was to fill our solar camp shower with stored water and set it up on my balcony to warm up. After lunch Roo and I will take camping showers outside in our bathing suits. The parts under the bathing suits will be washed inside with wash cloths. 

Most of my cooking today will be done with the jugs of stored water I keep on the steps into the basement for this type of emergency. I already use bottled water for my coffee so no change there.

Roo is potty training so she will be using the potty and the gray water will be used to flush for her. I will be using the method I have used in the past... the cat boxes. They are the CleverKitty type boxes with a perfect hole cut in the top. The boxes are strong enough to hold a person if they sit on them. I'll just have to change out the litter at the end of the day or my tomcat may start marking...

I am also minimizing my cooking of foods that require extra water to cook. I am planning on cooking foods that are packed in water and fresh foods so I can conserve the 100 gallons of stored water we have. You never know when an event like this will last longer than you prep for.

I do know I need more water and have plans for rain barrels. More food canned/packed in water is smart too. If this were real and not a test I would have K set up the outhouse behind the cabin so we have long term potty solutions. Maybe one of those 5 gallon bucket pottys would be smart to have til the outhouse is up...


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Day 2 Update

I did some research and none of our water filters will remove radiation. So I started looking around for one that will. Seychelle makes a filtering pitcher that filters out radiation for about $90. Each filter will filter out about 150 gallons. The replacement filters are about $60 each.

Here it is on Amazon.

And Roo choose today to start wanting to use the potty exclusively!


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

Congrats Grimm! She had to start sometime and after the challenge day, I'm sure it will be a blessing.

Day 2 for us wasn't really a success. I worked all day, so I couldn't avoid using water and my husband didn't know what the challenge was so he did laundry, dishes and showered before I got home. But we both know that stocking up on water is important and we talked about a few ways to get more water. We also agreed that this scenario would be pretty difficult to do as we use, quite literally, the world's largest aquifer.
But I digress, basically the plan is to start stocking up on some water bricks or to use buckets and fill them partway so I can store them in the crawl space. Not ideal, but I have no room right now.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Today's Challenge



> A TORNADO is tearing through your town. You have been told to evacuate to the nearest shelter and don't know if your house will be there when you get back. Grab what you can and evacuate (after evacuating, you will come back home and will simulate being in a shelter for the rest of the day). To make matters worse the tornado knocked out the electrical grid for your whole town so there is no power at the shelter or your home.
> Goal: Evacuate first then survive the day under "shelter conditions"


Today I opted not to do the challenge. We had a fire evac scare about 6 weeks ago. I freaked out and have been working on filling the holes we discovered then. We were short a cat carrier and lacking in our important documents in a central location. I got a briefcase type fire safe since then and have ordered the missing carrier.

I am currently updating our BOBs and have put one together for Roo. Not much I could learn today I didn't get slapped with weeks ago.


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## Lake Windsong (Nov 27, 2009)

Grimm, do you find some of their current/past scenarios a tad bit unrealistic? I'm getting the emails, and looked at the previous years posts for ideas, but I don't think I'm on the same wavelength as these people on the blog.
Today's scenario is a good example. No one is going to tell you to evacuate to the nearest shelter in case of a tornado. You will not be in the shelter all day. No public tornado shelter has room for tons of bugout gear (a backpack sure, but the rest of the items they suggest, no) (Going on the details from the blog post), You won't get a 30 minute evacuation notice for a tornado, the car is one of the last places you want to be in storm wrapped tornado weather, you won't have a 10x10 area in a public shelter, it would be standing/sitting room only, etc. **I do like 'Judy's' comment in the blog referring to the AL tornados and what she learned.
I am an email subscriber to a few of these types of blogs, and I guess the difference in having lived some of the situations and their hypothetical scenarios that don't quite add up to reality IMO is turning me off from fully participating. That said, we do 'drills' and test weekends, use our preps and try to fill in the gaps best we can based on experience. Maybe I'm being too judgemental?


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Lake Windsong said:


> Grimm, do you find some of their current/past scenarios a tad bit unrealistic? I'm getting the emails, and looked at the previous years posts for ideas, but I don't think I'm on the same wavelength as these people on the blog.
> Today's scenario is a good example. No one is going to tell you to evacuate to the nearest shelter in case of a tornado. You will not be in the shelter all day. No public tornado shelter has room for tons of bugout gear (a backpack sure, but the rest of the items they suggest, no) (Going on the details from the blog post), You won't get a 30 minute evacuation notice for a tornado, the car is one of the last places you want to be in storm wrapped tornado weather, you won't have a 10x10 area in a public shelter, it would be standing/sitting room only, etc. **I do like 'Judy's' comment in the blog referring to the AL tornados and what she learned.
> I am an email subscriber to a few of these types of blogs, and I guess the difference in having lived some of the situations and their hypothetical scenarios that don't quite add up to reality IMO is turning me off from fully participating. That said, we do 'drills' and test weekends, use our preps and try to fill in the gaps best we can based on experience. Maybe I'm being too judgemental?


Yes, their scenarios are a bit out there. I am using them as a way to find holes for those out there crazy situations.

I have lived through a few tornado evacs when we lived in Kansas (my folks and I). The only people told to go to the shelters are those that don't have cellars like us. We lived in a trailer. Back then they had you drive your car into the shelter but that was your space.

In this scenario we would move down to the basement til the storm passed. Why packed up the family when most shelters won't let you bring your pets. Roo would go crazy with out Winter. That has become her dog (was mine but my daughter has taken her from me!).

Plus, I've never heard of a tornado hitting a mountain...


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## brightstar (Apr 24, 2012)

Grimm said:


> Yes, their scenarios are a bit out there. I am using them as a way to find holes for those out there crazy situations. I have lived through a few tornado evacs when we lived in Kansas (my folks and I). The only people told to go to the shelters are those that don't have cellars like us. We lived in a trailer. Back then they had you drive your car into the shelter but that was your space. In this scenario we would move down to the basement til the storm passed. Why packed up the family when most shelters won't let you bring your pets. Roo would go crazy with out Winter. That has become her dog (was mine but my daughter has taken her from me!). Plus, I've never heard of a tornado hitting a mountain...


Grimm, never say never. I live in the mountains, just on the opposite coast. We'd never had tornados here, all heard the old saying tornadoes can't climb or jump over the mtns growing up. Then a couple of years ago we got hit hard with 3 days of twisters in 1 week. One day was so bad, it completely destroyed a town about 30 mins away from us. Totally leveled. I live nearish to a chemical production plant that has sirens in case of a chemical leak, they had to use them to warn about incoming storms bc we had no other sirens. It was total chaos and we were unprepared, personally and as a community. Now I don't count anything out and made plans for every major natural disaster. Since then we've had a minor earthquake or 2 and flooding this year so bad that it topped anything even close on record. The flooding put our town under 6 feet of water in less than 45 mins. In 2 years, 3 natural disasters no one had ever seen here. Just a thought


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

brightstar said:


> Grimm, never say never. I live in the mountains, just on the opposite coast. We'd never had tornados here, all heard the old saying tornadoes can't climb or jump over the mtns growing up. Then a couple of years ago we got hit hard with 3 days of twisters in 1 week. One day was so bad, it completely destroyed a town about 30 mins away from us. Totally leveled. I live nearish to a chemical production plant that has sirens in case of a chemical leak, they had to use them to warn about incoming storms bc we had no other sirens. It was total chaos and we were unprepared, personally and as a community. Now I don't count anything out and made plans for every major natural disaster. Since then we've had a minor earthquake or 2 and flooding this year so bad that it topped anything even close on record. The flooding put our town under 6 feet of water in less than 45 mins. In 2 years, 3 natural disasters no one had ever seen here. Just a thought


I said I had never *heard* of a tornado hitting a mountain.

Just in the past 5 months we have been living here we have had fire evacs and massive storms that put our little town under 8 feet of mud from flash floods. We are the highest house up the mountain on our road. I watched as the dam broke above us and washed down the creek bed next to the house and took out my neighbors' place below me. K had to hike from the highway when he got home that night because the road was under mud and boulders. The neighbors around us said this has never happened before. The storms have never been so bad they block the roads. They have had the bridge wash out but that is from the river below us not the falls above us.

The day that happened I was sitting by the window watching the water with my BOB on waiting for things to get worse.


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## Lake Windsong (Nov 27, 2009)

That's the most informative part of this challenge, IMO, the first hand accounts like yours that people are sharing in the blog comments. I need to take some time to read the comments from the previous years challenges. Thanks for sharing your experiences here.
Today's challenge is about first aid. The Red Cross has a few online courses that I've added to our homeschool curriculum.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Lake Windsong said:


> That's the most informative part of this challenge, IMO, the first hand accounts like yours that people are sharing in the blog comments. I need to take some time to read the comments from the previous years challenges. Thanks for sharing your experiences here.
> Today's challenge is about first aid. The Red Cross has a few online courses that I've added to our homeschool curriculum.


Right now our homeschool first aid lessons consist of "kiss and make it better?"
:teehee:


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

*Day 4 (Thursday)*

Today's Challenge



> You belong to a local Emergency Preparedness Group and were asked to teach a class on basic first aid and CPR. You must put together a packet of emergency information to provide as a handout, pack up emergency supplies to bring as a display, provide a recommendation for "home kits" and be prepared to demonstrate basic first aid skills.
> *Goal: Gain knowledge of basic first aid skills and CPR*


Right now the only first aid lessons I have been teaching is the "kiss and make all better" kind to my toddler. Today she tripped and cut open her chin. Not bad but it did bleed for a minute. She won't keep a bandaid on to save her life!

Both K and I need to get our certs updated. My first aid training goes beyond the basics to include water safety and rescue. I even have ocean lifeguard training under my belt. 6 years as a lifeguard at the beach and a few years as a swim coach for a club team. Not to mention the years of teaching infants and kids to swim and be water safe.

K has trauma and first responder training. As a construction worker that comes home with a lot of cuts and deep scratches he has to treat on site rather than run to the ER every time.

We have a pretty extensive first aid kit. It started out as a 205 piece kit that I have since added more things too including silk sutures. There have been more than a few times I've had to stitch myself up or give K a few staples. I have put my sewing machine needle through my finger tips more than once. Not fun when you are working with silk... blood EVERYWHERE!

I need to point out that you should never have any thing in your first aid kit that you don't have the training to use!

I am not qualified to teach any form of first aid other than basics found in the instruction booklet in most first aid kits. I could walk some one through administering advanced first aid such as staples if I couldn't do it myself. You can find great posters online that can advise on using a triangle bandage or a tourniquet.

But after reviewing our first aid supplies I think having some more homemade and natural remedies would be smart.


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## GrinnanBarrett (Aug 31, 2012)

You should be able to take a five gallon bucket and with some cheesecloth and play sand be able to filter out radioactive particles before putting water through your regular filter. Big issue is keeping it out of your regular filter.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

GrinnanBarrett said:


> You should be able to take a five gallon bucket and with some cheesecloth and play sand be able to filter out radioactive particles before putting water through your regular filter. Big issue is keeping it out of your regular filter.


I have several bags of play sand and empty buckets laying around.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

GrinnanBarrett said:


> You should be able to take a five gallon bucket and with some cheesecloth and play sand be able to filter out radioactive particles before putting water through your regular filter. Big issue is keeping it out of your regular filter.


There is a great thread in the water-section here on the forum about "Bio-Sand water filter" - there are videos on how to make your own and videos on how it works. I didn't realize that a bio-sand filter would also filter out radiation, I thought it would only do impurities.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

*Day 5 (Friday)*

Today's Challenge



> The wiring in your house has gone haywire due to an electric fire in your circuit panel. Your stove and the rest of the kitchen circuits have been affected. You cannot cook in your kitchen until a repairman comes out to fix it tomorrow. Keep your fridge closed to preserve your food as much as possible.
> *Goal: Practice powerless cooking techniques today*


So I think we have an out on this one.  We have a second fridge plugged in in the basement and a second microwave down there too. I use the microwave to cook/heat non food items like my Zote soap for my homemade laundry soap. (Makes it easier to grate/pulverize)

If we were to not use the basement kitchenette I could use either of our 2 propane stoves, the grill, esbit stove in the evac kit or the buddy burners I made last year. I'd like to have a propane stove so if the power goes out I am not without my stove top.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

*Day 6 (Saturday)*

Today's Challenge



> You have house guests coming to visit today and you just found out that they are living a strict vegan diet due to health issues. You must feed them and your family today without using meat or any other foods that come from animals. You don't have time to go to the store before they arrive.
> *Goal: Eat all your meals without using meat or other animal products*


OMG! I have this in the bag! I eat 100% vegan 2 days a week for my Graves. Today happens to be one of my days.

Breakfast: oatmeal with almond milk, bananas, strawberries and orange juice- hemp protein powder for extra protein boost

Morning Snack: shot glass of mixed nuts

Lunch: bean and rice chili with TVP (the unflavored type by Bob's Red Mill) with a side of spinach and green beans

Afternoon Snack: honeycrisp apple

Dinner: grilled asparagus, baby squash and red onion on a bed of brown rice with pressed tofu

Evening Snack: No-Pudge-Fudge-Brownies made with homemade applesauce instead of yogurt

On some of my vegan days I make smoothies instead of cooking. Lots of fruits, veggies and protein powder. Or I get creative and make Chinese food without the meat like mushu vegetables or sweet and sour tofu.


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

I haven't been able to participate much, we have been working our bums off at work this week and simply don't have the energy.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

*Day 7 (Sunday)*

Today's Challenge



> Truckers across the nation are striking and it looks like it will last for at least several months.
> No food or fuel items will be coming into your town at all in the near future. It's time to get
> organized, assess your supplies, and make a game plan for the next few months.
> *Today's Goal: Do a food storage inventory and make a future plan*


I was able to get most of the inventory done after church but I still have some work to do.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Grimm, thanks for posting the daily challenges. The one for today was easy because I keep a running inventory of long-term food storage in a spreadsheet. 

I just realized I need to post minimum inventory levels on the shelves of my medium-term storage items even though we have a practice of "use one, buy two". Once a month I glance through short-term and medium-term items (food and non-food); however, it would make more sense not to have to figure out minimums each time. That was certainly one of those "Duh" moments!


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