Your emergency ration kit

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Half a million UK army ration packs are being sent to the US hurricane zone. They contain: French onion soup; Hot chocolate; Savoury biscuits; Milk chocolate; Tissues; Cooked rice; Boiled sweets; Fruit biscuits; Chewing gum; Chicken pate; Orange drink powder; Curried lamb; Fruit dumplings in custard; Bacon and beans; Condiments; Hot pepper sauce.

I'd need to add: Cigarettes; vodka; cashew nuts.

You?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4221838.stm

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

[I think there's a similar thread somewhere but I couldn't find it]

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

gotta have that chewing gum in times of crisis.

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

curried lamb!

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

ME HUNGRY

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

poor vegetarians etc.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

Well I'd replace the lamb and bacon with something else, for a start. I know it's survival rations but still... oh and I'd need cheese.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah I'd need veggie options too. Stick a yam in there.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Add cat food and, most important of all, water. I plan to loot the cigarettes and liquor.

Stick a yam in there.

I love it when you talk dirty.

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

Can I have Sag Paneer instead of curried lamb, please?

Yes, more cheese U&K. Even welfare cheese would be fine.

― Luminiferous Aether (kate), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

I'd put some serious money down that the americans don't think to put chocolate in their emergency ration packets.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

i guess any cheese you get in this situation would be welfare cheese.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

1. Lawyers
2. Guns
3. Money
4. Warren Zevon's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

Replace the orange drink powder with whiskey and the French Onion soup with Johnny Depp, and I'll accept it.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:47 (twenty years ago)

I used to get US military MREs from an Army surplus store here in town. Excellent for camping/backpacking trips. When I was a kid I thought it was hilarious that there was toilet paper in them, but, then again, when I was a kid and I was camping for 4 days at a time, I would somehow manage to not poop that whole time, I would just hold it in until it threatened to leak out my ears.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

one .45 caliber automatic
two boxes of ammunition
four days' concentrated emergency rations
one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
one hundred dollars in rubles
one hundred dollars in gold
nine packs of chewing gum
one issue of prophylactics
three lipsticks
three pair of nylon stockings.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Your lipstick-to-prophylactic ratio seems off.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

Slim Pickens never needed any prophylactics.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

Milo, be a real man and just make your own jimmy hats out of rabbit skins.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

H-frame pack containing:

1 tent
1 sleeping bag
1 fishing pole w/ assortment of lures/tackles
1 pairing knife
1 machete
change of clothes (maybe two)
2 1-gallon ziplock bags full of trailmix
1 water filtration handpump
flint/steel

Granted, the pack will weigh in the neighborhood of 40+ lbs., but whatever, at least I won't be dying in the city with you fools.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

I should throw a pot/pan set in there too, probably.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

MESS KIT, that's what they call those things.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

halloumi

― emsk ( emsk), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 22:30 (twenty years ago)

bwahaha "welfare cheese"! i have never heard that.

― emsk ( emsk), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 22:32 (twenty years ago)

Unfortunately "welfare cheese"=real, distributed to members of my family (by other members of my family) and not funny

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Thursday, 8 September 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

Give me a Granfors Bruks forest axe and and Iisakki Laap Puukko.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 8 September 2005 06:03 (twenty years ago)

¿dónde están las bromas sobre "pussy"? kgraciasadiós

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 8 September 2005 06:46 (twenty years ago)

oh shit! i'm genuinely sorry. i thought she meant like supermarket brand kraft cheese slices.

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 8 September 2005 07:07 (twenty years ago)

Nah, it's all too real. Also called "Reagan Cheese" during the 80s. Suzy, Dara, Ron and I were just having a conversation about it and its inedibility the other night - all of us had lived on it at one point or another.

― Luminiferous Aether (kate), Thursday, 8 September 2005 07:13 (twenty years ago)

We called it "government cheese" and as far as we knew only senior citizens got it. It came in huge ridiculous bricks, unsliced.

― Orbit (Orbit), Thursday, 8 September 2005 07:15 (twenty years ago)

A girl I stayed with/lived with for a brief period got it as a single mother, along with milk tokens. I remember it being a really improbable colour, an indivisible mass which might have done better as a housing material or insulation.

― Luminiferous Aether (kate), Thursday, 8 September 2005 07:18 (twenty years ago)

ODB kept referring to welfare cheese iirc. I didn't realise it was, you know, a Thing.

― beanz (beanz), Thursday, 8 September 2005 07:27 (twenty years ago)

Isn't chewing gum completely silly as it makes you hungrier???

I'd want lots of yoghurt.

― nathalie's pocket revolution (stevie nixed), Thursday, 8 September 2005 08:22 (twenty years ago)

French onion soup

i'd rather die than eat that.

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Thursday, 8 September 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

Japanese sticky rice! Oh, you need a microwave for it. Nevermind.

― nathalie's pocket revolution (stevie nixed), Thursday, 8 September 2005 08:33 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

Certainly post 9/11 there was this wave of OMG duct tape and plastic wrap. But since then there's been a more rational, reasonable recognition that having an emergency preparedness kit is not a bad idea in case of disaster - earthquakes, floods, contaminated water/air, etc. In fact, my wife just the other day suggested I get one together, and I still pretty regularly come across articles recommending the same. My problem is, I can't think of any disaster scenario that would require, say, three days worth of water that wouldn't also require much, much more than that. I guess the idea is that you should have enough to hold you over until you get to safety, but again, I'm not even sure how long that would be if they had to evacuate a city of 6 million.

So do any of you have emergency kits? Have you at least considered it? What's reasonable, and what's not? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around more than just the practical minimum - first aid kit, crank-operated radio, that sort of thing.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:18 (fourteen years ago)

I meant to start a new thread, because this thread is silly.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:19 (fourteen years ago)

you need tuna man - cans of freakin tuna

― The Golden Vagina Shines for You and Your Lucky Day (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:20 (fourteen years ago)

Sigh.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:23 (fourteen years ago)

Tuna man:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ymecPMaym1k/TPAa8dNIJEI/AAAAAAAADCA/If8Tb88kjEU/s1600/ct.jpg

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:23 (fourteen years ago)

its the chicken of the emergency

― The Golden Vagina Shines for You and Your Lucky Day (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:31 (fourteen years ago)

I have a little emergency pack at home, it actually contains not only food/water/first aid but key papers, including insurance coverage among many other things. Idea being that if I need to get out of the place quick, I'll be able not merely to survive the day to day for a bit but also be able to go over details as needed. "Hey, it says right here, earthquake coverage..."

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:36 (fourteen years ago)

I got this book last year, and have been through a few neighborhood preparedness courses - learning how to shut off gas mains, etc. Don't have a grab-and-go kit set up, but do have solar/crank radio, emergency tarps, plenty of food storage, alternative means of cooking, first aid gear, etc in prep for a potentially bad winter. There's some (probably false) comfort in living in a single story house with no tall buildings/trees around vs. living in a tall apartment building - even if both are in liquifaction zones.

― Jaq, Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:00 (fourteen years ago)

How about water? I read that you should have three gallons on hand for every person in the house.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:05 (fourteen years ago)

Seriously my emergency kit at this point is a carton of cigarettes I brought back from Michigan and all the Budweiser from the bodega if their power goes out, bought before it starts to warm up. I guess I should buy some candles. And tuna.

― arch midwestern housewife named (Laurel), Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:06 (fourteen years ago)

The thing I'm most glad about is no longer living above a garage.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:07 (fourteen years ago)

Summer sausages are probably awesome for power-out situations, come to think of it. No refrig necessary.

― arch midwestern housewife named (Laurel), Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:07 (fourteen years ago)

Summer sausages! That's genius! (And midwest-nostalgic)

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:09 (fourteen years ago)

summer sausage is often employed in blackouts, even in winter

― The Golden Vagina Shines for You and Your Lucky Day (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:10 (fourteen years ago)

Lordy.

This actually just happened a few hours ago a couple of blocks from where I live:

http://www.ocregister.com/news/fire-313776-firefighters-garage.html

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:11 (fourteen years ago)

re: water - it's part of the food storage for the potable stuff, which is just our regular food supply and so rotated regularly. Doesn't have to be water, btw, just potable liquid. Having some kind of filtration per person, or knowing how to make and use a solar still is probably better for any kind of long term survival scenario though, vs. a gross of those little coconut water tetrapaks. Rain barrels are my plan for washing water, though of course those are problematic in a harsh winter.

― Jaq, Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:14 (fourteen years ago)

"A woman on her way to the gym early Thursday morning spotted the fire and reported it."

― The Golden Vagina Shines for You and Your Lucky Day (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:18 (fourteen years ago)

Chocolate is a necessity if you're camping or without power. It has essential oils and psychological benefits.

Nothing I like better on a camping trip than a big old bag of Ruffles!

― Gavin McLayoff (u s steel), Thursday, 25 August 2011 19:02 (fourteen years ago)

we actually had a team building exercise today about "what would you do if you were stranded in the wild with (list of items)"

can of crisco turend out to be the "correct" best item

― Splendid Curving Oasis of Ivory (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 19:06 (fourteen years ago)

lube?

― a long time ago i used to be snush (remy bean), Thursday, 25 August 2011 19:16 (fourteen years ago)

among other uses

― Splendid Curving Oasis of Ivory (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 19:29 (fourteen years ago)

I made a disaster kit when I was about 13, when it was something that was brought up at school. I think mine consisted mainly of candy and hair spray.

― ¯\(°_o)/¯ (Nicole), Thursday, 25 August 2011 19:32 (fourteen years ago)

I should throw a pot/pan set in there too, probably.

^ this is key. but forget the pan. just pot.

― karma's ruthless invisible (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 25 August 2011 19:40 (fourteen years ago)

I don't even think my flashlights have batteries in them. :(

― your mom the burrito (ENBB), Thursday, 25 August 2011 20:07 (fourteen years ago)

Bought a Red Cross car kit. Tossed it in the backseat, promptly forgot about it.

― Blind Diode Jefferson (kingfish), Thursday, 25 August 2011 20:10 (fourteen years ago)

remember to stock up on sandwiches!

― Splendid Curving Oasis of Ivory (Latham Green), Thursday, 25 August 2011 20:16 (fourteen years ago)

I think mine consisted mainly of candy and hair spray.

Haha! I set up a bolt hole in my bedroom closet, in case of bandits breaking in or something. My mom found it when she noticed all the cereal boxes, canned fruit, and a 5 lb bag of sugar were missing.

― Jaq, Thursday, 25 August 2011 20:21 (fourteen years ago)

ha ha!

― karma's ruthless invisible (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 25 August 2011 20:26 (fourteen years ago)

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