The Food Storage Blog

So we finally did it.  We escaped the deathtrap peninsula we lived on in Suburbia just outside of Nashville, TN.  No longer do I fear the rising floodwaters of a broken dam or being trapped in an EMP nightmare with 30,000 other people on a 5 square mile strip of land with only 2 ways out.  We bought a 40-Acre farm in Lewisburg, TN about an hour and a half south of where we were living (About 40 minutes north of the Alabama border).  We did keep the house in Hendersonville and are renting it (kind of, as the tenants only pay occasionally).  We also upgraded the business from the little 3000 square foot rental location to a 6000 square foot building we purchased.  It’s provided us a lot more opportunities and we’ve taken a stab at some other little businesses in addition to Discount Mylar Bags.

After the kids are bad.

I love the small town feel (there’s an open drive-in theater two lots down from us!), and I will live and die in this place.  My wife doesn’t even ask if I want to run to Nashville for something…because I don’t want to, and likely never will.  I could putter around in the warehouse or on the new farm for the rest of my days, without ever stepping outside of town.  To all of the customers who made this possible, you will never understand how grateful I am for you.  With Trump in the White House, our market has seen some pretty significant declines, and I hear the same for almost every prepper-based business.  We’re attempting to retool and refocus in different areas as quickly as we can, but no one ever knows what will happen.  For me, it’s enough that we’re here and we’ve kind of created a lifestyle where my wife and I could pay most of our bills selling stuff from Goodwill on eBay.  Plus, they let us keep our kids in cages as necessary.

Not the brightest animals.

We’re on our 2nd flock of chickens, as the first were killed off over the Fall and Winter.  (I hear that’s pretty common with a first flock).  We’ve upgraded to a nice large coop and have 6 great hens (1 passed just recently to an infection).  I had to put down our rooster Cluck Norris last week as he attacked one of my 3 year old twins (and has even attacked my wife).  It was the first, and hopefully last, time I ever pointed my Glock at a living thing.  Though it was a little nice to know that my carry pistol works!  We have a new turkey that wanders up to say hello to the chickens around sunset, I keep meaning to put a flock block out for her.

The thing about 40 acres is there’s always something to do.  My wife and I are not outdoorsy or farmy by nature, but we’re trying.  We all went tooling around the property in the Suburban on Sunday putting fire ant killer on any mounds we could find.  My wife is working on a small garden, and my Spring project is trying to fix the fences (so we can get some goats) and carve out a walking path around the property (it’s just about a mile walk along the outside of the entire property)

Our beloved Coco passed (she ran into the road, which is still too close for comfort), but it was almost a necessity, as she, despite being 3 pounds, killed 3 of our first flock of chickens.  My wife, who was a trainer by trade, says chicken-killing is a trait that is hard to break for a dog.  Ellie, our new border collie mix, loves to get along with everyone.  She’s our hero right now, as she pulled the rooster off of Dagny when it was attacking her, and damn near killed it.  For as sweet a dog as she is, it’s nice to have another set of eyes (and teeth) looking after the girls.

Mancamp in the back 40

Life is busy, but beautiful.  We’ve found a church we love, and we’re working to start making those important connections in a small community.  This past weekend I passed the Technician test to get my Ham Radio license. (Call Sign KN4DCA) I plan to join our local ham club and emergency response team.  I am even considering starting a little ‘Survivalclub’ Meetup to see what the town has in the way of preppers and survivalists.  Down here, I suspect they’ll be quite a few folks who far surpass anything we’ve done.

My families main food storage is still at SurvivalClub North (as another just in case), so I’ve started again down here.  However, my focus here is a lot different, and encompasses everything I learned helping our group lock down our needs at our first location.  If I find the time, I’ll try to do some updates and let you know how I’m doing things differently down here in comparison to when we first started prepping.

Again, thanks to all who helped make this amazing journey possible!

My wife and I feel very strongly that people should prepare, whatever their circumstance.  Toward this end, we are announcing our program ‘Food Storage Supplies For Veterans‘.  If you know a veteran (or are one) that is struggling and cannot afford to buy Food Storage Supplies but would use them if they had them, please let me know at admin@discountmylarbags.com.  Please provide their branch of service, address, and circumstance, and we will send them a free Mylar Bag and Oxygen Absorber combo kit.  To be honest, I don’t know what the demand will be, but I commit to sending at least 3 kits per week.  Plus, any donations we receive for ‘Food Storage For Vets‘ at the link below will allow us to send additional kits. (As a reference, a $25 donation will cover the shipping cost of around 5 kits)

I know it’s not much considering the service our vets provide to this country, but its a small token of our appreciation to let them know we think of them often.

Thanks for the service of our veterans!

Hey y’all.  After many years, I have started an email newsletter from folks who opted in while ordering (Yes, I’m a little slow!).  I added a sign up form here (right below our banner) and at our Facebook page.  Every month, each new signup for the newsletter will be eligible for some great prizes like a $50 gift certificate, Lifestraw Personal Water filter, and other goodies.

The newsletter will usually contain 3-4 sections.  The first will be a section for recipes or survival tip.  The second will highlight a product or service we offer.  The third will usually be something about our company and how we operate or what we value.  For example, our upcoming newsletter scheduled for Wednesday, June 18 will include information about a project we are starting called Food Storage For Veterans, to allow us to give back to some great folks in our community.  Finally, we will usually close with a use-limited coupon or a special bigger than our other general coupons.  For example, in the upcoming newsletter we will be closing out several items (about a dozen cases of Gamma Seal lids and Tattler canning lids) and offering them at cost until they’re gone.

Plus, if you have any suggestions, comments, guest articles you would like us to consider, or other item we might include, drop me a line at admin@discountmylarbags.com.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, just a note to tell you that we are sponsoring (with about 4 others) a blog giveaway taking place from March 31-April 7.  We are a sponsor, and are giving away 5 – $50 gift cards to the store, and there are 4 other participants as well, including one giving away a 9 tray Excalibur like the one we use…its awesome and you’ll definitely want to enter to win.

How it works:

There are currently 17 blogs in the giveaway.  Every person can earn a total of 2 entries by liking 2 social accounts (Such as Facebook and Twitter) of each of the sponsors linked at any of the blogs (I’m not actually a participant but a sponsor so you won’t be able to get an entry here), so if you like all 10 social accounts of the 5 sponsors, you will get the maximum 10 entries into the contest.  All the entries will be put into a virtual hat and presto, out come winners!

I’ve been highlighting one of the participating blogs per day over at our Facebook page if you want to check it out (and like us!).

If not, here is the full list (forgive the formatting, I hate copying and pasting from Office, but its better than retyping it all!).  You should go check some of them out; I’ve been reading a bunch of them over the last couple of days, and most of them have beautiful, interesting blogs…I definitely have blog envy!

I’m always thrilled to come home and see Mylar Bags on our freezer!  My wife stored some cat and dog food this weekend.  We buy our pet food in bulk, usually from Petsmart where my wife gets a huge discount twice a year. (Although we will gladly pick it up anywhere we find a deal, sometimes at Walmart, and occasionally in other pet stores we go in.)

Cat and Dog Food

The main thing to remember about pet foods is that most contain oils that can go rancid over time.  (Sometimes the food will still be edible and provide calories, but will taste bad and can sometimes cause illness).  While I recommend rotating pet foods yearly to avoid this, we’ve had good results when testing foods we’ve stored up to 2 years old.

Because our dogs are small (smaller than our Cat-Puma), my wife stores food in gallon bags.  If your dogs are larger, 2 or 5 gallon bags might be more appropriate.  We’ve taken to storing food that we will use within 12 months in totes, for both visibility of what we have, and because they stack nicely and fit on our racking more conveniently than buckets.  For us, that means about 200-300lbs of various pet foods.  If you have the space and are attached to your pets, I would store the same amount of days of food for them as you do for yourselves.

Arnold guarding the baby