Preperation for a Short Term Disaster !

[4570Man]

Some Mormon friends taught me a trick.

Pay with everything you buy for a week or teo with $20 bills. Keep all those small bills in the safe, unless you want to be paying $20 for everything.....

That's what I do most of the time. But, then I tend to spend the small bills on diesel. I paid for 3 tanks in a row with 1s. I'm nearly out of them now and I'm using 5s.

 

[RSKY]

When I started this thread I was thinking of preparing for a temporary emergency of a month or so but some here seem to be prepared for a decade with no outside help. One thing those people do not have that my 90+ year old mother and father-in-law would both point out as a necessity is a salt box and smoke house. Spent several days every year in my youth salting hams, shoulders, and bacon. The salt can literally freeze your hands. Then would have to take them out and hang them and tend the fire every afternoon after mom did it at night and dad in the morning. Hams would hang for a year or more before they would be taken down and served.

Getting back to the short term, thirty day or less disaster we have a Brita filter pitcher to filter water that stays in the fridge. Best tasting water you can drink. I guess it could be used to filter drinkable water from clear outside water but the filter probably wouldn't last long. We also have plenty of quilts and blankets and pillows.

I have been doing all my planning based on my extended family coming here and staying. That would mean two daughters, two s-i-ls, and four grands. The problem would be that two of the grands are still in diapers though one is beginning to transition out of them. Might ought to purchase a pack of the next two sizes up for the littlest one for the winter.

Looked in the utility room closet a few hours ago. We have enough home canned green beans, purple hull peas, and lime pickles to feed all ten of us for a month.

Could shoot squirrels out of the front yard for meat.

All jokes aside both of my parents lost their fathers when they were five and eight respectively. That was in the twenties when there was no welfare to fall back on. They all survived and thrived by making do with what they had. They ate what they grew or killed or caught. They didn't worry about fashions. They survived on their wits and on the traditions handed down to them by their parents. I could do the same if I had to and also ensure the survival of my family. Most of the people posting on this forum also could. Sadly, many if not most of the young ones alive today could not.

RSKY

 

[CalG]

Well, It may be an issue of relativity.

Inconvenience vs emergency. Would you compare the events in Burma or Syria to your contingency plans? Those are EMERGENCIES!

 

[Gunny]

Timely thread. I usually try to take stock of what I have and what I'll need to get at least once a year. This is as good a time as any to do it this year.

I stock lots of canned, dry and freeze dried and frozen food, probably well over a years supply of seasonings and a very large stock of canning lids and rings, about 1/3 of the lids are the reusable type. Typically buy canned food by case lot, then mark them to keep it rotated. Two freezers, one refrigerator, a generator with 25 gallons of treated gasoline. Pellet stove with a minimum of 1 ton pellets on hand, batteries and inverter to power the stove. 500 gallon LP tank with LP cook stove, a vent free LP heater in the living room to be used if needed. Have an insert down at the farm that can be installed if unable to use the pellet stove. Several 12 volt LED lights. I have a well on the farm that I can easily dip water from with a rope and bucket, then I have a large homemade water filter to run it through, just to be safe.

About $250 in small bills in the safe and pretty much that amount in change. (I've been saving pocket change for years) Lots of things that can be traded or bartered off.

I probably need to stock up more on TP, we usually only keep 20-30 rolls on hand. Also need to get a couple of cases of cheap whisky in 1/2 pints. (In this area, that would be a great item to to trade with, along with 22 LR ammo)

We made it through the ice storm and were fairly comfortable, electricity was off for 5 days. We also had a rogue wind storm come though here in August and knocked out our electricity for 10 days. We had plenty to eat, but it was so hot and muggy, it was hard to get comfortable.

 

[Streetcar]

Getting back to the short term, thirty day or less disaster we have a Brita filter pitcher to filter water that stays in the fridge. Best tasting water you can drink. I guess it could be used to filter drinkable water from clear outside water but the filter probably wouldn't last long.

Many water filters do not work on parasites or diseases

 

[square1]

A couple generator items.

A schoolmate went out to pull start his generator in the last outage here caused by a nice storm. He slipped on the ice, hit his head and was found dead. Should only have to hear that story once.

Is it possible to start a generator on gas and switch over to natural gas to run? My limited understanding is the carburetion works, but getting one without an electric starter up and running on natural gas is hard, nay impossible. Again, limited knowledge, but I understand there would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a 20% deration of rated power. Since we have natural gas, it sure seems like the way to go for power,

 

[3930dave]

Brita is designed for potable water only.

Commercial products like these are designed for filtering captured water, preferably visibly clean.

Best Backpacking Water Filters & Purifiers 216 — CleverHiker

Other techniques can work (bleach....), down to survival practices like these:

Water Purification

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

A couple generator items.

A schoolmate went out to pull start his generator in the last outage here caused by a nice storm. He slipped on the ice, hit his head and was found dead. Should only have to hear that story once.

Is it possible to start a generator on gas and switch over to natural gas to run? My limited understanding is the carburetion works, but getting one without an electric starter up and running on natural gas is hard, nay impossible. Again, limited knowledge, but I understand there would be somewhere in the neighborhood of a 20% deration of rated power. Since we have natural gas, it sure seems like the way to go for power,

Plenty of people have done propane conversions on gasoline gens, and they are sold dual fuel by several manufacturers.

I wouldn't go messing around with converting an existing gasoline gen to natgas; if you want to go that route just install a dedicated natgas generator.

Propane leaks can be nasty (heavier than air) but are at least tank-limited. I can't imagine a licensed natgas tech risking his ticket hooking up to a converted gasoline gen - liabliity is too high.

Rgds, D.

 

[square1]

It has been a few years since I did any looking at the possibility. At the time there were a lot of homespun conversions. I should have done a quick google search to get up to date. It now looks like three fuel is a fairly common readily available off the shelf conversion.

convert gasoline to natural gas generator - Google Search

So now the question becomes, does anyone have one installed / are they running one? Can you switch over while running?

 

[RSKY]

Many water filters do not work on parasites or diseases

I stand corrected. Water filtration is something I had not thought about until I put it in that post. I need to look in to that. Of course the water could be boiled for a few minutes, then run thru the Brita to remove solids and make it more drinkable. Still, a purpose built filter would be better. I know there are large bathtub sized bags available for purchase that would be filled before the water in the system ran out. Having one of those would also be good to have. During the ice storm we never lost city water.

Gonna do my yearly generator run today to burn out the old gas and refill with fresh.

During the ice storm one of my sister's neighbors was running his portable generator when suddenly the power cut off. He could hear the engine running and figured that somehow the cord had vibrated loose. Took his time getting his coat and boots on and when he got outside his generator was gone but his push mower was sitting there running. Never saw the vehicle the thief's used to haul his generator away.

Other things that would be handy in a short term situation would be a solar battery charger, small walkie talkies, lots of quart freezer bags, and rechargeable batteries.

Keep thinking and posting guys. You might post something that will make somebody else think about their situation and save them a lot of trouble or inconvenience in an emergency.

RSKY