What is your timeline for storage?

[JustAnotherNut]

Just how long are you preparing for? 6 months? 1 year? 5 or 10 years?

My goal has always been to have enough food & supplies put up to last about a year and the ability to provide more for longer.....as with my chickens & garden.

BUT is that really enough? Simple answer is probably not and it would actually depend on many outside influences as to how long we'd need to survive from our stores. But what kind of timeline do you expect your stores to last or that you would need it???

[Chiefster23]

6 months minimum and plenty of seeds for next years’ planting.

[Prepared One]

If left alone, I can live well past a year. However, I do not expect to be left alone.

[StratMaster]

If left alone, I can live well past a year. However, I do not expect to be left alone.

And there's the rub my friend.

[Prepared One]

And there's the rub my friend.

Indeed my friend, I am an army of one with nothing more to lose since my wife passed. Those who would think me easy prey would be wise to consider that. Then again, how could they know that I have nothing more to do in this life then to take a bunch of useful idiots to hell with me.

[Slippy]

1-2 years

[Mad Trapper]

1-2 years

Damm @Slippy !

How much bourbon do you have stashed?

[SOCOM42]

We, for five years, expect no one other than my brother and wife.

Have no blood relatives left alive to leech, ex in laws been told NEVER come here.

[SOCOM42]

duplicate, system screwed again, no change in post count of 7,976, should have gone to 7,977.

[Redneck]

BUT is that really enough? Simple answer is probably not and it would actually depend on many outside influences as to how long we'd need to survive from our stores. But what kind of timeline do you expect your stores to last or that you would need it???

The way I see it, it makes no difference if your stores can last you over a year, if you can't be secure/safe. Your security is as important, or more so, than how much food you have. If you don't have a valid plan for long term security then your stores may go to others. Sure, we all have guns... lots of guns. But in reality, last thing you want to do is constantly fight for your survival. Rambo isn't real. In the real world, anyone can get hurt/killed in a fight. Sure, you can maybe fight off some raiders but what about your neighbors that are starving? They have a right to be there so you just can't shoot them on sight. If they are starving and you have plenty, they become a huge threat. At any time, one or more neighbors could take you out to have access to your preps.

So yes I have stores enough to last me & mine a few years. But my plan is to share my stores with most families on our rural, dead end lane. The plan would be to come together as a small community to share resources and for joint security. That way your neighbors don't become a threat. On our lane, we have a couple of farmers with cattle herds. We have a dentist and a couple of nurses. Most are rednecks and are avid hunters/woodsmen. Several have large gardens, one has bee hives and a few, like me keep chickens. I have a pond full of grain fed catfish and there are several larger lakes around. The woods are full of deer & other game but I wouldn't expect that to last.

So I see my stores as a temporary fix to provide food for many for a short amount of time... under a year. It is designed to buy us time to get organized and to get food crops in the ground so that the community can become self reliant. I keep many hundreds of pounds of garden seed in storage and at the fist sign of a crisis, when others are fighting over food in the stores, I'll be at the farm supply loading up on more seed, fertilizer & chemicals.

Everyone's situation is different, so I understand what I plan wouldn't work for many. However, I'm afraid too many preppers just think about how much they have in storage and don't really consider their safety... besides being Rambo.