Meals Ready to Eat
@RichardMeister (5328)
Otis Orchards, Washington
July 3, 2016 10:05pm CST
When my friend came and trimmed my trees he wanted to keep the limbs. He couldn’t fit them all into the back of his little Subaru Brat so I put them in the back of my pickup. Today I hauled them out to his place. About a thirty-five mile (56 km) trip one way.
After we unloaded the branches he said he wanted to give me some Meals Ready to Eat (MRE). (For those who don’t know, MREs are what the military are given when they are out in the field. They are packaged to be preserved for something like twenty years.)
My friend wanted me to make up a 72-hour emergency kit. You can buy them with a backpack. However, just before I left my last job the company gave everyone backpacks for the yearly gift.
My friend grabbed a big, heavy box and went into the room he used for storing his MREs. Hundreds of boxes of MREs, freeze dried food and emergency food filled the room. He gave me a bunch of MREs to put in the box. We filled the box and he asked me to go out to his shed and get another box just like the one we filled.
I said something about him giving me so much and he said he had plenty. So he fill up a second box. He also gave me water packets, rubber gloves, freeze dried ice cream, freeze dried scrambled eggs with bacon and a couple of accessory kits.
When I returned home I got out my backpack. Of course all the stuff he gave me wouldn’t fit into my backpack. I put two of each type of the MREs in. The water packets went in as well as the freeze dried food. I had been given a first aid kit one year as a yearly gift at my last job. That went in as well. Then I took a roll of toilet paper and put it in a FoodSaver bag and suck the air out of it and put that into the backpack. There are a couple more items I need to put in the backpack but if I had to evacuate right now I’d have plenty to eat.
I live between two railroad track so if a train carrying dangerous chemicals derails there is a good possibility I’ll have to evacuate.
Do you have a 72-hour emergency kit? Have you ever considered getting a 72-hour emergency kit?
3 people like this
3 responses
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
4 Jul 16
That's funny. In America it's "knocking on wood." I didn't think it was necessary until there seemed to be a lot of trains derailing that were carrying things like oil that caught on fire. And there has been chemical spills as well. Just the other day to freight trains collided.
2 people like this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
4 Jul 16
@RichardMeister Too bad that the state governors can to nothing about those volatile crude oil trains. Interstate commerce is off limits I guess.
2 people like this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
4 Jul 16
@JamesHxstatic It seems that way.
1 person likes this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
4 Jul 16
We don't specifically have a "kit" - but here we are supposed to be prepared for earthquakes, with extra water, food, first aid, etc. My sister bought my parents earthquake kits . . . not sure what all was in there . . . but I'm pretty sure anyone can make their own for much cheaper. I've always wondered what those freeze dried meals tasted like. I've only had that freeze dried ice cream (I assume it's the same as astronaut ice cream) - but I ate too much of it in one sitting and it made me sick 
.
.1 person likes this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
4 Jul 16
@RichardMeister Oink, oink! 
I think the freeze dried stuff just expanded in my tummy .
So since he had tons of those MRE packets, are you going to test each meal out . . . just to be sure that's the kind of meal you will be able to digest should an emergency hit? We saw something similar at an outdoor/camping type store . . . I think it was beef stew. I wish they had samples like they do at Costco so we could test taste before we buy 
.
I think the freeze dried stuff just expanded in my tummy .
So since he had tons of those MRE packets, are you going to test each meal out . . . just to be sure that's the kind of meal you will be able to digest should an emergency hit? We saw something similar at an outdoor/camping type store . . . I think it was beef stew. I wish they had samples like they do at Costco so we could test taste before we buy .1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
5 Jul 16
@much2say Yes, I've been testing them out. So far I've had peaches, spaghetti, stroganoff and a bread snack. They were all good.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
4 Jul 16
You little pig! You ought to know if you eat too much of anything it's going to make you sick. Yeah, freeze dried is pretty much the same. The MRE are not freeze dried. Yes, I'm sure you can put together a kit cheaper than buying one.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
4 Jul 16
We have been gathering water and have some other things, but not yet in a kit. The question occurs to my suspicious mind is "Where did he get all that stuff." Did you ask?
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
4 Jul 16
@RichardMeister He is prepared in a big way then. I have never run across anyone that ready for disaster.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
4 Jul 16
@JamesHxstatic He started back in the late 1980s or early 1990s. He has preached to me for years about how unprepared we are for a disaster.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
4 Jul 16
Clear your suspicious mind. They were all bought legally. He got them from Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com). Put MRE in the search. He also has several other items you will find there.
1 person likes this
