Short term-WW 3 are you ready for rationing?

Myself a bit unsteady about the current situation.


Headed out for the usual Sunday- Thursday grocery circulars with limits except for loss leaders.

If this was January 30, 1942 how would you and your family be situated? Vehicle? Tires? Oil?
No new vehicles and rationed oil and gas during WW 2.

Many of us look to the long term but are we ready for a snap short term rationing?
And do we want to use our advance planning for the short term?




"In the spring of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was set into motion. Rationing would deeply affect the American way of life for most. The federal government needed to control supply and demand. Rationing was introduced to avoid public anger with shortages and not to allow only the wealthy to purchase commodities."
Aded.
With the onset of World War II, numerous challenges confronted the American people. The government found it necessary to ration food, gas, and even clothing during that time. Americans were asked to conserve on everything. With not a single person unaffected by the war, rationing meant sacrifices for all.





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Make It Do - Metal Shortages During World War II
World War II Rationing
Contents - World War II on the home front: Rationing
Rationing on the US Homefront during WW II

With the onset of World War II, numerous challenges confronted the American people. The government found it necessary to ration food, gas, and even clothing during that time. Americans were asked to conserve on everything. With not a single person unaffected by the war, rationing meant sacrifices for all.

In the spring of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was set into motion. Rationing would deeply affect the American way of life for most. The federal government needed to control supply and demand. Rationing was introduced to avoid public anger with shortages and not to allow only the wealthy to purchase commodities.

 

Satire and parody were severely rationed by the 3rd Reich during WW2. Black marketeers in those commodities tended to get neck stretched or spend some time in a concentration camp.

Rationing of food and other consumables created an industry in making things last longer, and being prudent with what one had.

141 Wartime Recipes | The 1940's Experiment

One of the recipes from the above 1940's experiment recipe list,

 

What would you buy on the horizon?

Walgreens Weekly Ad

 

Bicycle tyres and inner tubes.

and reloading supplies....SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

Vitamins, first aid supplies.

 

I have two different routes that my mind went when I read this:

Rationing & food lines- Survival Monkeys are a bit more prepared for SHTF or war. Yet if your local gov't starts to hand out food- IMO you would have to go. If the officials were passing out weekly or monthly allotments per family it would be OpSec to go because if you didn't people would notice and draw the conclusion that you have stuff set aside. On the other hand if you went it would be a gathering and it would be unsafe:
1. Easy round up for officials for relocation
2. Exposure to illness
3. Someone would have to go, leaving one less person to help guard the homestead.

This is a what if that I play over in my mind. What if I had XX hours before the bottom fell out. If I saw the signs and had a few hours before I thought things were going to collapse. I know that I wouldn't go nuts and grab everything and anything. I would definitely grab more gas cans and stock more gas. I ask myself often if I saw a collapse or something, would I go to Wal-mart or a grocery store to grab some more rice or something, last minute stock up and I just do not think I would. The thought of going into a store that could become frenzied and violent, may not be worth it.

 

If .gov sets up distribution centers, of course you are going to give strong consideration to having someone go. You'll survey the situation from afar and make sure people going in are coming out. It is unlikely they will suddenly start rounding up people while your person is there. You may talk to a few people that have departed the point of distribution (POD) asking what is happening and in the course of that discretely attempt to ascertain what questions the .gov officials may be asking and determine what info they are trying to collect. If you deem it not too risky, of course you will go. By going you extend your family's survival opportunity by reducing consumption of your own stores. You'll certainly learn something about the current state of affairs by talking to some people and observing what's happening. The intel alone can make the effort worthwhile. You aren't going to take undue risk but you should investigate and consider.

By the way, FEMA has a specific course on running PODs. I've been thru it. Their expectation is for distributing goods to people who generally have automobile transportation though there are provisions for walk up distribution. The key things to note is the program is oriented for speed. Control traffic in, have multiple cars stop simultaneously in loading areas, keep people in their cars and do not let them get out to help. Have workers stuff a fixed load (such as case of bottled water and case of A Pack food rations) into trunk or back seat, when done, loaders stand back holding hands up signaling they are done, when each station is done, the three or four loaded cars are sent out and next group moved into the loading stations. Not much conversation and all about thru-put. That said, note that workers will be seeing in your car or truck as they do the loading, not you. While their job is get food and supplies out the door quickly, LEOs or ABC agencies could easily put some covert folks into loader roles and make pretty close observations, even inside your vehicle trunk. They could even quickly lift a blanket or rug in your trunk to see what's under there while dropping a couple cases of water into the back of your car. Be advised.

AT

 

Remember the ration stamps from my childhood, but somehow they did not bother us. Dad butchered and we lived on a farm and had a large garden , chickens, cows, pigs, and such. Had a lot of city uncles and cousins visit us and they took stuff home with them. Sugar was the only thing I recall being hard to get. No bananas and oranges were in the Christmas stocking. Dad loved to fish and went to northern Minn for pike and Iowa for bass. Had an old model T pickup and when they rationed gas, dad figured out how to run it on "stove" fuel. I don't know if it was kerosine or what but people cooked with it. You bought it from the station and carried it in a weird wide mouthed can and poured into a thing like a chicken water and it kept a constant level on the wick. Recall dad stopping at the gas station and getting a couple of cans to "do some canning" and driving out of town and filling the truck tank with a funnel. Had to start on gas, but once the engine got hot he could change to stove fuel and he had to play a lot with the timing lever on the steering wheel shaft.

 

Livestock and seed?

 

Rabbits and rabbit pellets.

ETA: Yep, we had a dual fuel Farmall that you started and shut down on gasoline, but once warmed up it ran on kerosene...still, you'd better park it at the top of a large hill in the winter to get it going!

 

We're sitting real good on a lot of things, except for tires and fuel. The Mr puts a lot of miles on my car going back and forth to work. I've got every fuel can I own full of gas, taking advantage of these stupid cheap prices, but putting an extra set of tires back hasn't been in my budget and the thing is due for a new set now. And I have no diesel set aside, beyond what's in the truck's tanks now. Stupid I know but I kept putting off getting diesel cans because they're so flipping $$.

(just ordered 4 off Amazon, lol, and 2 manual siphons since no doubt the cheap-o spouts will suck)

 

Low compression engines would run on Kerosene as long as it was not over 50%.

Start on gas, add the kerosene and then later you would need to decarbon the engine.

Was told this as a kid and when I was further from home than I should have been, late one night, low on gas in the Cushman, I spotted a flickering yellow light from a road construction site.

Snuffed out the flame, added the fuel to the idling Cushman. Headed for home and made it on a trail of black smoke.

Yup, had to remove head the next day, scrape the piston top and head, replace the plug, add fresh gas and no harm done.

HK

 

they can take everything but the plants. So plant stuff! @Gopherman has the right idea, plant lots of edible trees and vines

 

DW,
With fuel prices this cheap, you need to find some bucks and stock up diesel. For diesel I suggest you find a 55 gallon drum or two that had engine oil or hydraulic oil in them. They are not easy to unload from a truck or trailer when full without the aid of a tractor or forklft. However, they are not terrible to move around the garage by tipping up on one edge and rolling/turning or with a hand truck. A full barrel weighs about 400 pounds (it can vary a bit depending on blending). Check with your farmer or small trucking company owner friends as these two groups buy much of the oil sold in 55 gal drums. Some farm stores will buy empty oil barrels back from farmers for 10-15 bucks and then cut tops off and sell them as trash cans. I've gotten several from farmers and three from a farm store before they cut them.

Fill the barrel with diesel and seal it up good. Store in cool dry place and the diesel fuel will be good for decades, no preservative needed if well sealed. You also want to do this in winter so you buy and store winter blend diesel. The refiners change the formulation for winter vs summer. No problem burning winter fuel in summer but summer blend will cloud or gel in winter more easily which you don't want.

AT

 

The time for eating or canning ANYTHING that comes out of the Pacific Ocean is pretty much over. Tuna is very dangerous, so much so that the entire Pacific harvest was stopped dead a few months ago. (Don't know if it still is.) I remember an article from last year where Japanese officials seized and destroyed eight shashimi-grade tuna because they were too radioactive for human consumption. Each one was probably worth about $200,000.00 if top quality.

They must have been pretty hot--because this was after they bumped the legal limits up about 1000X.

The only fish I eat now are farmed catfish, and some inland Talapia. I stay away from Long John Silver's because they use Pacific whitefish, and I don't eat imitation crab because it's pureed Pacific anything-with-fins fish. The radioactive pollution from Fukushima is rapidly making the Pacific sea-life extinct, and the quickest way to join them is to eat what they eat.

Every person has to make their own choices, but Life is dicey: First you roll, and then you're bones.

 

I'll echo the effort to have extra bike tires and tubes. Much past that, not much I see that you could do - other than moving to someplace easier to live (warmer, more space, etc).

Dunno about WWIII, but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones....

 

Making an Atlatl | Survival Forums Monkeys and Kingfishers will have a head start!

 

There wont be any war I fight with sticks and stones. I have stacked ammo deep. I will never run out.

 

Gas can be stored long term however not commercial gas that is laced with alcohol. Marine gas is more expensive. It is ethanol free and has a higher octane level. The trick to long term storage is to never let it fluctuate in temperature . I keep mine in an old well pit (root cellar) underground. Ground temps are under 60 degrees. This type of gas is best used in small engines and or boats. I heat with wood so I need to stock enough for 10 years cutting with my chainsaws. I put Marine grade stabil in my gas before I store it. I have used 4 year old gas with zero problems so far in the saws, my garden tractor and the small boat which has a 9.9 hp merc 2 stroke on it. Im also storing some of this cheap car gas now but not keeping it more than a couple months. I try to keep all the cans full. Im at about 100 gallons total right now. My biggest concern is still emp pulse attack from Russia or China. I think that scenario is going to be worse then ww3 and rationing.