Caching
From Steal This Wiki
One of the side affects to the impending demise of the Amerikan empire will be shortages, many empires have been known to use food shortages to force their will on the commoners in exchange for daily bread (Do a web search on "Biafra" to see what kind of horror this entails). Caching our vital supplies is an important part of bringing down the pig empire. It is also a good idea to disperse a few sets of travel or wilderness gear and a way to get around like a bicycle or cross country skiis.
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Food Caching
The Mormons, besides being a little square, have one radical idea; storing food for a rainy day. A storm is brewing and we want to eat too, so here are some things that pack and store well, some of them even come from our own victory gardens.
- MRE Meals (medium-long life)
- Canned Foods (short-medium life)
- Coffee (short-medium life)
- Dried Beans and Corn (medium-long life)
- Dry Fruit and Raisins (short-medium life)
- Dry Milk (medium life)
- Flour - Preferably Whole Wheat (short life)
- Honey (long life, will keep indefinitely if kept sealed and cool)
- Hot Chocolate Mix (short-medium life)
- Instant Mash Potatoes (short-medium life)
- Oatmeal (medium life)
- Olive Oil in bottles or jugs (medium-long life)
- Oven Dried Meat Jerky (short life)
- Pasta (medium-long life)
- Rice (medium-long life)
- Salt & Spices (medium-long life)
- Sugar (long life)
- Tea (medium-long life)
- Vegetable Shortening in cans (long life)
- Vinegar (long life)
- Whole Kernel Wheat (long life)
- Whole Nuts (medium-long life)
- Wine (stored with corks down), Hard Liquor/Spirits (long life)
All shelf life estimates assume a cool dry and sealed environment short life=1-2 years, medium life=2-5 years, long life=10 or more years
Most of these foods can either be grown or bought in large containers, the bulk foods section can often order 50lb sacks or 5gal buckets of these foods. Get some clean buckets made from food-grade plastic with good undamaged seals. Drop a block of dry ice into the bucket and then fill with your food, loosely place the lid, after 30 minutes seal the bucket. This eliminates almost all of the nutrient damaging oxygen and safely kills any bugs without poisoning the food.
If a can is bulging at the top and/or bottom, there is a very good chance the food inside is not safe to eat.
Only use long life foods for buried storage. Rotate through storage foods using oldest first in your normal diet, try not to store foods you would not normally eat. (Helpful mnemonic: "Eat what you store, and store what you eat.") Try to store some treats like chocolate or hard candy in your stash; If times are rough, unpalatable foods might not be eaten by picky eaters and people have been known to starve this way.
MRE's
If you know of a military surplus store, a good Army quartermaster, or if you're simply eBay savvy, try to grab some MRE's (Military abbreviation for "Meals, Ready to Eat"). An MRE is sealed in a thick plastic pouch and contains an entree (they come in both meat and non-meat versions), a side dish and dessert (often a cookie or dried fruit), crackers or bread and a spread (usually peanut butter, jelly or cheese flavored spread), a beverage powder to mix with water, and an "accessory pack" containing chewing gum, a moistened towelette, a matchbook, packets of salt and sugar, either a fork or a spoon, a tea bag or a packet of instant coffee (which will come with a packet of creamer), and a small pack of toilet paper. Some even come with a "Heater Pouch" that is a plastic sleeve you put your sealed meal in and add water to activate the magnesium in it to heat the water, giving you a hot meal (Yum!). (The MRE heaters are a source of hydrogen if you want to make a floating weather balloon UFO from a big trash bag.)
One MRE contains around 2-3,000 calories, which is about what you need for a light walking stroll all day. If you're doing hill/mountain climbing, 1 1/2 to 2 should suffice, MRE's are known to cause constipation and and stomach upset in some so drink lots of water, eat enough fiber, and carry baking soda to stop the gut burn. A few MRE's make a great caches to pre-stash along a possible evacuation route.
A number of companies that make MRE's for the Military or other Government operations (Ameriqual, International Meals Supply, Sopakco, Wornick) also make knock-off versions for civilian sales. They're the ones with the brand names on them (aPack, Eversafe, MREStar, Sure-Pak) or sealed in clear plastic, and the ones you'll probably find in camping or Army Surplus stores. You can read more info about civilian MRE's at http://www.mreinfo.com/.
A trick in the field is to cut the pouch of the food open lengthwise so you can eat out of it like a bowl. The food is often more filling than flavorful, so if you feel like it, bring a long a few small packages of spices to perk up your meals.
You can tell how old a Government issue MRE or MRE component is by looking for a four digit code on the package. The first digit is the last digit of the year, and the next three is the day of the year it was packaged. So, an MRE with the code "5314" was packaged in the year 2005 (or 1995?) on November 10th (the 314th day). The shelf life of an MRE depends on what temperature it was stored at. If it was kept at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it will stay safe for about 5 years. At 60 degrees, it can stay safe for 10 years.
Don't feel like you're supporting the Amerikan Department of Destruction by purchasing these; most were probably stolen anyway, particularly the ones you might find at the gun shows. If they say "U.S. GOVERNMENT, COMMERCIAL RESALE IS UNLAWFUL" on the package, they're the real thing. But if the four digit code is missing, it's probably been wiped off and the meal may be too old to eat.
The US also produces a humanitarian relief meal which is vegetarian.
A bit a warning about the toilet paper you'll find in US Government MRE's: The paper is known for having a very coarse texture and isn't very "user friendly". Military folk have often called MRE toilet paper "John Wayne paper" because it's "rough, tough, and doesn't take any shit from anyone".
Gun Cache
A firearm must be prepared before caching it in the ground, a grease gun can be used to fill the cleaned dry barrel and goop up the internal mechanical parts, the outside is also coated in grease and then the whole gun is wrapped in paper then plastic sacked so the grease is sealed in. The protected firearm is placed into a PVC Heavy duty pipe with one pipe cap already cemented on and sealed, a large silica gel moisture absorber which has been baked at 200Degrees for two hours is a good idea to add. Place a plastic bag wad into the tube to keep the gun from sliding up the the end that the second pipe cap is at. cement on with plenty of PVC cement, after everything is sealed paint the end cap that is safe to saw off.
Ammunition must be cached separately from your greased up weapon, grease and oil are well known to kill primers leading to dud rounds. It is a good idea to bury ammo, a gear vest, some good boots, and a little food next to your rifle so you will be ready for action if it gets so bad.
Bicycles
Our favorite mode of transportation is the bicycle, when times get tougher these will be in great demand. Plan to have several reserve bikes bought at thrift store prices for when everyone wants one.
For caching purposes the hardware can be removed and stored in grease or oil or spares can be purchased. The following are especially sensitive to the elements:
- chain
- cables and cable tubes
- sprockets
- tires
- inner tubes
- springs
If possible store the bicycles in a heated dry room, garages in anywhere but the driest areas will rust a bicycle in a few years. Bicycles kept outdoors should have all hardware, tires, and inner tubes removed and placed into a waterproof bucket with silica gel packets, plan several hours to reassemble such a prepared bicycle. Clean well and spray all exposed steel parts remaining like the sprockets with a heavy marine spray grease.
Marking a cache
If you are caching your things outside you will need a way to find the treasure, be careful to bury in a place that they are unlikely to excavate, plough, or build on or you will loose your cache. A piece of aluminum can with hints impressed onto it and nailed to the upper side of a branch on a prominent tree or landmark is hard to see from the ground and will last for years, painting the badge black or green makes it harder for a hiker to find it by chance but also for you to find. To help you find your cache lay a medium sized rock over the final burial site in case the area gets overgrown. Don't place all of your trust that GPS will help you find a cache, in the future it may be switched to another system. Be cautious that you are not observed while placing your cache or you may find it missing when you need it.
