What have you done this week to prep? PART II

[teddy12b]

Whatever your wife bought be proud of her and encourage her. There's a lot of guys who have a wife who doesn't think that far ahead.

Along the lines of what to do for refugees showing up to your place, I think we've all given it quite a bit of thought and where I ended up with it was I'll try and take everyone I can and try to save as many people from starvation and miserable deaths as I can for as long as I can. I think people often forget that this life we live today will end at some point and we're going to answer for every decision and shot fired to a higher power at the end of our earthly existence. I don't want to look the big guy in the eyes and say I wouldn't help anyone else after all he's done for me. Having said that, any refugee showing up would be put to work immediately. I have a stack of books for a variety of skills like medical, comms, gardening, small unit tactics, homesteading and whatever else that would be assigned out and tested. I've heard friends and family make the same jokes about showing up at our place and I've told many of them that if things get that bad we probably won't be there and if we are they won't like the rules they'd have to live under for refuge. I would suggest everyone take the time now to make a list of rules for refugees showing up so that if that day ever did come you could hand them a well thought out printed paper with a date on it that's several years old and let them know the terms they need to agree to or leave.

 

[Karl-just-Karl]

Whatever your wife bought be proud of her and encourage her. There's a lot of guys who have a wife who doesn't think that far ahead.

Along the lines of what to do for refugees showing up to your place, I think we've all given it quite a bit of thought and where I ended up with it was I'll try and take everyone I can and try to save as many people from starvation and miserable deaths as I can for as long as I can. I think people often forget that this life we live today will end at some point and we're going to answer for every decision and shot fired to a higher power at the end of our earthly existence. I don't want to look the big guy in the eyes and say I wouldn't help anyone else after all he's done for me. Having said that, any refugee showing up would be put to work immediately. I have a stack of books for a variety of skills like medical, comms, gardening, small unit tactics, homesteading and whatever else that would be assigned out and tested. I've heard friends and family make the same jokes about showing up at our place and I've told many of them that if things get that bad we probably won't be there and if we are they won't like the rules they'd have to live under for refuge. I would suggest everyone take the time now to make a list of rules for refugees showing up so that if that day ever did come you could hand them a well thought out printed paper with a date on it that's several years old and let them know the terms they need to agree to or leave.

I've made some similar comments to folks I know. I have let them know that there will always be gardening and wood chopping to do.

Fortunately, my arrangements have already been made with some food hoarders with an awesome garden on several acres of land.

Unfortunately for me they are 25 miles away.

Lots of decisions will have to be made on the fly depending on the circumstances.

 

[Usmccookie]

Agreed, she took off with it in her own way. Overall happy caller here.

When counting heads, I add in her father/step mom, sister/ boyfriend. I shouldn't but, they have helped a lot in our everyday life. In all its 6 adults, a tween and a toddler.

 

[Leadeye]

Never concern myself with visitors way out here in the event of trouble. I figure everybody will be going towards town, not away from it.

 

[Usmccookie]

Never concern myself with visitors way out here in the event of trouble. I figure everybody will be going towards town, not away from it.

To be honest I always thought the opposite.

 

[churchmouse]

To be honest I always thought the opposite.

Same here but once the shelves and such are emptied out and the drive throughs are closed there will be an exodus out towards the farms and woods.

 

[Leadeye]

Most people will go to where the government says they will be able to best provide for them even if this is a lie. The Katrina disaster taught us this. They will tell everybody over their phones to go to the cities, towns, whatever, but they will not be there to help. They will go there and expire. I never worry about them going to the rural areas, the phone will say nothing about those places.

 

[churchmouse]

Most people will go to where the government says they will be able to best provide for them even if this is a lie. The Katrina disaster taught us this. They will tell everybody over their phones to go to the cities, towns, whatever, but they will not be there to help. They will go there and expire. I never worry about them going to the rural areas, the phone will say nothing about those places.

Good point.

 

[spencer rifle]

Good point.

Besides, rural areas are full of SNAKES. Urban people have a morbid fear of snakes.

 

[Usmccookie]

Besides, rural areas are full of SNAKES. Urban people have a morbid fear of snakes.

And this guy. That's actually one of my goals this year. I want to get over my fear of snakes.

 

[bwframe]

I take the opposite approach to Leadeye's thinking. While still very rural, my location is only one or two days walk from some fairly large metro populations.

On top of being on a through roadway between those areas, a fair amount of public forrest surrounds the area.

Here we need to be prepared for the crowd that thinks they can head "to the woods" to live off the land. The same ones that will quickly run out of resources and begin to do "whatever is necessary" to feed their kids.

The otherwise good folks that aren't really prepared, but know that going the refugee route will be worse. The one's that believe they know a lot more than they actually do about survival in the "wild."

 

[dsol]

There's a lot to be said for the ability to filter and produce potable water vs storing and maintaining large quantities.

If the Berkey can deliver even half of its promised 6000 gallon spec, there is no way a storage approach can top that.

It's like gardening vs canned goods.

Mine is supposed to arrive today. We'll see how it goes.

Years ago some buddies of mine and I got together and built our own. Ordered (two per person) some of the black filter/purifier elements, got some free 5 gallon buckets from a bakery and bought some spigots. Drilled holes and installed the elements, made larger holes in a top for the bucket to sit over the other one that had the spigot. I also have a third bucket that goes over the top of those with water filters we used to use on our planes (I work for an airline) that were discontinued in favor of sterilizing the water every 90 days. Hint... never drink the potable water off any airline. Never never never. Anyway, I have some huge coffee filters that I can use as a pre-filter down to those aircraft filters that will pre-filter it again to the Berkey elements that are purifiers. I should get a long life out of that setup.

 

[Phase2]

I knew exactly where you were going with that little story. Currently, I fill my Berkey with tap water, so I'm not concerned about pre-filtering and I still have a lot of expected life in my original black filters. However, if I ever have to switch to a more questionable water source, I will be doing some pre-filtering just to keep from clogging up the main filters too quickly.

 

[dsol]

I knew exactly where you were going with that little story. Currently, I fill my Berkey with tap water, so I'm not concerned about pre-filtering and I still have a lot of expected life in my original black filters. However, if I ever have to switch to a more questionable water source, I will be doing some pre-filtering just to keep from clogging up the main filters too quickly.

Yep, if I have a clean water source, the main filters will be fine, but if things go south and I have to get water from the creek about 100 yards behind my house... I will pre-pre-filter like crazy. Plus that will make my main ones last much longer in that event too. I still need to get myself a couple of replacement elements and leave them in their packaging for later too.

 

[Leadeye]

I take the opposite approach to Leadeye's thinking. While still very rural, my location is only one or two days walk from some fairly large metro populations.

On top of being on a through roadway between those areas, a fair amount of public forrest surrounds the area.

Here we need to be prepared for the crowd that thinks they can head "to the woods" to live off the land. The same ones that will quickly run out of resources and begin to do "whatever is necessary" to feed their kids.

The otherwise good folks that aren't really prepared, but know that going the refugee route will be worse. The one's that believe they know a lot more than they actually do about survival in the "wild."

I have a little familiarity with Monroe county, went to school there as did both of my kids. I think most of the people in Bloomington will spend their limited time complaining and demanding answers from government that will be helpless along with them. By the time things run out in thier homes it will be way too late to head out into the unknown. They will walk to Indianapolis where more government is percieved on I-69 before heading south into the GSF, expiring along the way.

I only see a scenario like American Blackout causing something like this and that's in reasonable weather. They won't be walking anywhere if the weather is bad.

 

[churchmouse]

Lets discuss battery's. What ever you have to cover your needs if you have to go into that mode.

We all have multiple flashlights or should have. A few cheap ones and several really good ones. We have 6 Energizer fluorescents that run on "D" cells and a couple that run on "C"s.

AA's and AAA's also. Smaller lights. 2 good sized rechargeable.

These will all need to be fed if we have any extended power out's. Along this path we have enough battery's on hand to go for a good distance. I pick up the big packs at the hardware when they are on sale for daily use. Long term storage there is a 10 year shell life offering available now. Not cheap but what is these days.

What do you all use.

 

[Vigilant]

Lets discuss battery's. What ever you have to cover your needs if you have to go into that mode.

We all have multiple flashlights or should have. A few cheap ones and several really good ones. We have 6 Energizer fluorescents that run on "D" cells and a couple that run on "C"s.

AA's and AAA's also. Smaller lights. 2 good sized rechargeable.

These will all need to be fed if we have any extended power out's. Along this path we have enough battery's on hand to go for a good distance. I pick up the big packs at the hardware when they are on sale for daily use. Long term storage there is a 10 year shell life offering available now. Not cheap but what is these days.

What do you all use.

Costco regularly sells Ganga packs of Duracell AA, AAA’s pretty cheap, I buy a pack every other trip. Also looking into Enerloop rechargeables.

 

[churchmouse]

Costco regularly sells Ganga packs of Duracell AA, AAA’s pretty cheap, I buy a pack every other trip. Also looking into Enerloop rechargeables.

The rechargables will be good as long as the genny's have fuel. That's my only concern.

We do Sams. here is not a Costco n a convenient distance from us. They have the Mega packs of Duracell's and the 10 year offerings for reasonable money.

 

[diablo750]

I recently started stocking up on amazon basic batteries. They are cheap, show up quick, 10 yr life, packaged nicely. I also keep lithium for superior storage/usage life.

 

[churchmouse]

I recently started stocking up on amazon basic batteries. They are cheap, show up quick, 10 yr life, packaged nicely. I also keep lithium for superior storage/usage life.

We just started doing the 10 year thing. Curious just how this will play out.