lets discuss preps for disasters

LittleBill21 · Jan 31, 2016

TnAndy said:
My spring is 1300' from the house. The storage tanks are about 100' below the spring. Ran two lines down from the storage, one for supply off the tank bottoms, and one off the tank top to take the overflow....spring feeds the tanks constantly. The overflow runs to a fish pond, and the overflow from it drops into another fish pond, which supply us with catfish.

We've run literally miles of pipe around the place, supplying buildings, greenhouses, animal feeding areas, and so on......so much that I made a map of buried water/electrical lines on large sketch paper with photos of critical points that now runs 5 pages. Told my wife if I die and she sells the place, the map is $5,000 extra if they buy it now, and $10,000 if they want it later !

how do you guys deal with freezing and bacteria for water that is not moving?

TnAndy · Jan 31, 2016

My storage is two 1500gal tanks, inside an insulated, 10x20' building built back into the mountain below the spring. Freezing isn't an issue.

For sterilization, we use a Sterilight brand UV light, the stainless upright tube in the far end of this photo.

Garycw · Jan 31, 2016

TnAndy has it ALL together. I could only hope to do 1/2 as well. I've only been at it 6-7 years though so far. We do also have a good spring the house used to run off of for years. prior to us owning. It still flows and has a 5' dia concrete ring with concrete lid & 18" square access hole & spillway It's set about 4' down in ground.
Also have city water another spring & pond on property.
TnAndy could write a book on this stuff !

GPintheMitten · Feb 1, 2016

TnAndy, what do you do for power outage?

TnAndy · Feb 1, 2016

GPintheMitten said:
TnAndy, what do you do for power outage?

We have an 11kw grid tie solar power system that in normal mode backfeeds the grid, and provides us with a slight credit each month (currently about $900 for a year or so). 6kw of it (I built sort of a split system) has the ability to go off grid with the flip of a 100amp transfer switch. The battery backup to this is a 1200amp/hr @24v AGM battery.

12 two volt cells, each cell weighs around 200lbs.

The solar doesn't cover every use on the place, but it does do most of it. We use wood for heat (fan on the wood stove requires power), propane for cooking (with wood cook stove backup), propane for water heating (planning to incorporate solar in with that this year to pre-heat the water). We use a pressure booster pump on the spring water, but gravity gives us 25psi, which we used for 30 years before I got around to putting the booster pump on last year (but we really enjoy that extra pressure ! )

The main things I was interested in was lighting, refrigeration, and some power tool use if needed. The 6kw covers that. Assuming the grid were going to be down long term, I'd rewire the remaining 5kw into the system and we'd have plenty of power for a very long time.

I also have a couple of generators, more for use around the farm: A 5kw Coleman, an 8kw Miller welder/generator, and an older 4kw Onan that runs at 1800rpm I plan to convert to propane....and maybe wood gas down the road (another one of those 'round to it' projects).

TnAndy · Feb 1, 2016

Fool software here is bad about double posting, so I deleted the 2nd copy of the SAME post

GPintheMitten · Feb 1, 2016

Very interesting what everyone does.

MossRoad · Feb 2, 2016

CurlyDave said:
....
Before you say: "just siphon the gas out" try doing that. You do not want a snootful of gas in an emergency.....

Get yourself one of these tiny squeeze bulb siphons. They work great and no sucking fumes. However, some cars are difficult to get a siphon tube down into.

Egon · Feb 2, 2016

Siphoning gas from vehicle tanks gets more complicated when they have the blowback ball in the line.

Don't have to suck. Just put ones thumb over the end of the tube and pull up. Release the thumb and push down and repeat the process. Works well.

Garycw · Feb 2, 2016

Egon said:
Siphoning gas from vehicle tanks gets more complicated when they have the blowback ball in the line. Don't have to suck. Just put ones thumb over the end of the tube and pull up. Release the thumb and push down and repeat the process. Works well.

That's good info to know. Those little $3 bulbs work good too for small stuff.
Newer vehicles are a challenge

Garandman · Feb 2, 2016

I've tried all our cars: no dice. I top off two motorcycle tanks so I have 8 gallons there along with fuel cans.

MossRoad · Feb 2, 2016

Egon said:
Siphoning gas from vehicle tanks gets more complicated when they have the blowback ball in the line.

Don't have to suck. Just put ones thumb over the end of the tube and pull up. Release the thumb and push down and repeat the process. Works well.

There's no ball in that line. Its all valves in the squeeze bulb.

Industrial Toys · Feb 2, 2016

I needed some gas for a saw a year or so. Tried siphoning it out of a Honda FIT. That thing wouldn't let me have a drop! I could not even shove a skinny ridged hose in there. Wish someone made a Diesel saw!

sea2summit · Feb 2, 2016

Fuel line goes to the engine and it's pretty basic to Hotwire a fuel pump with any 12v power source. You're gonna be there a while but slow gas is better than no gas.

Garycw · Feb 2, 2016

The expedition flex fuel doesn't even have a gas cap behind the door. . Bet you couldn't just shove a garden hose down it though.

GaryLock · Feb 3, 2016

I use one of these for faster fuel flow rate

Except, I use it more for rotating my fuel from the stabilzed cans into my vehicles for use. I then fill up the cans. I have 5 gallon cans, and my generators run off the 12 gallon Attwood boat fuel tank.

On ebay, I have found these

for $170. 30 gallon storage. I want to get one or two for gasoline and one for diesel. I like the pump and handle design.

I have a lot of water storage right now. I want more, but not so much storage. I was thinking that on municipal water, once the pumps go down, I will still have plenty of water pressure for a quite a while. I was thinking of (4) 55 gallon food grade drums. Hook them together. Have an inlet and outlet. When and if the SHTF, you use the washer hook up in the house to fill the 4 drums with water, and you get an additional 220 gallons of water to use. I have two WaterBobs

for an additional 200 gallons. Plus my 100 cases of purified water, and I think that would be good for quite a while.

Food and booze is covered. 13 cords of wood presently. Gives me a feeling of some security at least.

Egon · Feb 3, 2016

MossRoad said:
There's no ball in that line. Its all valves in the squeeze bulb.

Moss, the ball is in the line between the filler cap and fuel tank.

Egon · Feb 3, 2016

MossRoad said:
There's no ball in that line. Its all valves in the squeeze bulb.

Moss, the ball is in the line between the filler cap and fuel tank.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=fuel...hWED3IKHeeZBqwQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=2KjtEQFho-6WNM:

rockarosa · Feb 3, 2016

There is an inhalable insulin that's been on the market now for about a year. It's called Afrezza made by Mannkind Corp. It does not need to be refrigerated. People are having incredible A C ! readings with no side effects. There's some video on Youtube about it.

MossRoad · Feb 3, 2016

Egon said:
Moss, the ball is in the line between the filler cap and fuel tank.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=fuel...hWED3IKHeeZBqwQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=2KjtEQFho-6WNM:

Ahhh, gotcha. I thought you were talking about a check valve in the siphon hose. Thanks.