lets discuss preps for disasters

[Garycw]

One nice advantage of propane as fuel source is it Never goes bad.

 

[TnAndy]

One nice advantage of propane as fuel source is it Never goes bad.

Yep....that's why I keep a bunch of it.

 

[Raspy]

We never really know just what the "disaster" might be. But I'm much happier to be in the country rather than the city. There is no way I want to depend on city infrastructure during a long term power failure and no way I want to deal with the social breakdown that seems to go along with emergencies. Here, I can always get water from the well, shoot rabbit or deer if needed, and go for a very long time on the propane and fuel oil I have on hand for cooking and running the generator a bit. We seem to always have several cords of wood ready to go too. Plus I know my neighbors much better than I did in the city.

As long as things were not too chaotic, working with neighbors to manage the problem by trading items and making meals, etc, would be a big help. It's when some nut job decides the problem is a license to to panic and steal all he wants that it will get weird. A managed temporary problem is no big deal compared to a longer term breakdown, such as a major war or grid failure or oil crisis.

So many folks I talk to think we are on the edge of a complete national breakdown and monetary crisis. Not me. It's comforting to have resources on hand for the unexpected, but it's also much better to plan on success than failure. The doomsayers, ready to "bug out" at any moment, just look ridiculous and spend so much of their resources prepping for a day that they'll never see. And if it really does come and is as bad as they predict, they're toast anyway. As an example, there are folks that spent a fortune on the Y2K thing in ways that bought them nothing or would not have sustained them if it would have been a problem. Now, so many are terrified of the President and convinced doomsday is right around the corner. All based on irrational fears. Sheesh.

 

[Soundguy]

I have a foot locker that is lined with 1/16" lead I recovered from a contract I had to remodel a former health clinic...the radiology(x-ray) room had been shielded with sheetrock that had the lead sheets laminated onto it...even the door to the room had a sheet of lead in it...!...the "glass" the tech looked through was lead crystal...!

The locker makes a great place to stash vulnerable electronic stuff...

BTW...every elec. outlet box had special (lead) liners...and every drywall screw had special little lead things (for lack of a better word) that were pasted into the heads before they were mudded over...

nice find on the reclaimed lead. Hard to find any good scrap lead around here, especially now that wheel weights are some california safe junk..

Did they make you jump thru any hoops taking out the lead. Have to wear a space suit or anything?

 

[Soundguy]

Nope, I think it were the National Geographic channel.

Yes, I think you are correct.. I think I remember the yellow logo now. memory was fuzzy, thanks.

 

[EddieWalker]

We prep, but we also live a self reliant lifestyle raising 80% of our food....2-1/4ac gardens, 2 greenhouses that extends our growing to nearly year round, raise and home process our beef, pork, chicken and catfish+ venison. Built 'auxiliary' kitchen off back of garage with 6x6' walk in cooler to hang meat during processing. Can extensively (3 canners, two hold 7qt jars, big AA canner holds 20 qt jars at a run), 8x10 root cellar for veggie/fruit storage. 6 freezers (mostly 7-9cuft), empty and shut down as we use them up during the winter. Between what we raise + dried grains + Mt House cases, I'd guess we have 3 years of food in stock most of the time.

Thank you for posting your pics and sharing what you are doing. I showed my wife and she kept saying over and over again that's what she wants. Eventually she hopes to be able to work full time from home and focus on her gardens, but for now, we are still in the getting it all set up stage.


As for cooking inside, I have several different types of camping stoves that I would only use outdoors on the patio. We have plans to build an outdoor kitchen that could be used for cooking meals if we lost electricity. I would think that most meals would be cooked on the BBQ since there is an unlimited supply of wood and no matter how much fuel we saved for camping stoves, it will run out eventually. I don't want to store a bunch of propane when firewood will do the job and it's everywhere.

 

[TnAndy]

Thank you for posting your pics and sharing what you are doing. I showed my wife and she kept saying over and over again that's what she wants. Eventually she hopes to be able to work full time from home and focus on her gardens, but for now, we are still in the getting it all set up stage.

Takes a lot of time to get anywhere close.....as I said above, we're 33 years into a 50 year project....no joking.

Wife worked 33 years at a local school system, retired a couple years back. I worked there too for 8 years (taught shop), then moved back to self employed construction. Together, we spent a lot of time over those years turning this place from a raw hunk of mountain land into something that fit us. We've gotten 10 years worth of previous projects into the last 3-4 since we are both here full time now, so if you stay healthy, there's a LOT to look forward to. 60's are the new 40's, it seems....ahahahaaa....I don't remember my grandpa doing near the stuff we do.

 

[/pine]

nice find on the reclaimed lead. Hard to find any good scrap lead around here, especially now that wheel weights are some california safe junk..

Did they make you jump thru any hoops taking out the lead. Have to wear a space suit or anything?

Nobody said anything about the lead...but the architect had a note in the specs that the ceiling tiles should be tested for asbestos before any demo...so that was figured into the bid...

 

[MossRoad]

Thank you for posting your pics and sharing what you are doing. I showed my wife and she kept saying over and over again that's what she wants. Eventually she hopes to be able to work full time from home and focus on her gardens, but for now, we are still in the getting it all set up stage.


As for cooking inside, I have several different types of camping stoves that I would only use outdoors on the patio. We have plans to build an outdoor kitchen that could be used for cooking meals if we lost electricity. I would think that most meals would be cooked on the BBQ since there is an unlimited supply of wood and no matter how much fuel we saved for camping stoves, it will run out eventually. I don't want to store a bunch of propane when firewood will do the job and it's everywhere.

The make a nice cooking trivet for that wood stove, too.

Cook Mate for Napoleon 1400 and 1900 Pedestal Models

Although I often wonder if I want bacon grease splattering around my wood stove. :laughing:

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

We prep, but we also live a self reliant lifestyle raising 80% of our food....2-1/4ac gardens, 2 greenhouses that extends our growing to nearly year round, raise and home process our beef, pork, chicken and catfish+ venison. Built 'auxiliary' kitchen off back of garage with 6x6' walk in cooler to hang meat during processing. Can extensively (3 canners, two hold 7qt jars, big AA canner holds 20 qt jars at a run), 8x10 root cellar for veggie/fruit storage. 6 freezers (mostly 7-9cuft), empty and shut down as we use them up during the winter. Between what we raise + dried grains + Mt House cases, I'd guess we have 3 years of food in stock most of the time.

Photo today from one house. Green beans about a week out from first picking, we'll pick a couple bushels out of these over the next month or so.

Andy, that is so awesome how self reliant you folks are. I would say that less than 0.001% might be as prepared as you guys are.