How many firearms & how many sources of water.....???

[Frodo]

Faucet and lots of guns?
Guns are a tool. Funny the op did not ask about my shed full of tools
I have a pond with fishin it
Let’s get back to the guns
Because a gun IS a tool, The same principle applies. Different jobs require different tools
I will not use a 22lr to shoot a deer, all that does is make the deer suffer in pain
I use a high caliber rifle. One shot one kill
Their will come a time when the big game is gonee we and only small game is left
Not going to shoot a rabbit with a 30/06
Same thing. Different job different tool
A Need a shot gun for birdsI prefer 20 gauge but like a 410 for tree rats

 

[homesteadreliance]

1 Electric well (plus solar battery backup for whole home)

2 Two springs and a creek

3 Bottled / tank water

 

[Morgan101]

Guns would be in the mid double figures, and a good supply of ammo for each.

Water would not appear to be an issue. Totally eliminating city water, we have rain catchment systems, a creek across the street that flows continuaously; a lake that is walking distance albeit on private property, and a river that is a longer walk but manageable. The great unknown is there may be an underground spring under our house. We have a sump pump that runs frequently during haevy rains. If the power goes out we may have an indoor pool, and I hope I never find out.

We also have purification systems for all of the ablove.

 

[Hardcalibres]

We are not connected to the grid water.

We collect rain water from the roof of four buildings into six rain water tanks. We have an additional header tank that gives increased gravity head pressure. The total volume of the tanks is 42,000 gallons.

We have more than a dozen gully dams that collect surface runoff. Capacity of those is over 10 million gallons. When we purchased our land we specifically chose it because all the surface runoff catchment for the dams is either on our land or out of the adjacent government owned forest - so we get first use of the water.

We also have several springs and a few soaks/drag holes (so called because they were excavated by drag lines/buckets). Those are located down in a part of the land where the water table is less than 10 feet down even in the end of summer.

We have several creeks......

 

[LadyLocust]

We are not connected to the grid water.

We collect rain water from the roof of four buildings into six rain water tanks. We have an additional header tank that gives increased gravity head pressure. The total volume of the tanks is 42,000 gallons.

We have more than a dozen gully dams that collect surface runoff. Capacity of those is over 10 million gallons. When we purchased our land we specifically chose it because all the surface runoff catchment for the dams is either on our land or out of the adjacent government owned forest - so we get first use of the water.

We also have several springs and a few soaks/drag holes (so called because they were excavated by drag lines/buckets). Those are located down in a part of the land where the water table is less than 10 feet down even in the end of summer.

We have several creeks......

Do you mind if I ask what state you are in. If you prefer not to share - all is well, not offended, I get it.
We've lived in pretty well watered areas also, but when we were up in MT, we couldn't believe the water - and delicious!

 

[Proud Prepper]

Guns? If I had any, it would be more than I could ever need. With minimum 1000 rounds per gun and reload capability.

We have a well (electric pump and a manual hand pump)
City water
A pond
A creak
Rain collection
Just over 185 gallons of stored water.

3 big gravity filters (Big Berkey and Alexapure) , a Katadyn portable camp filter, 3 zero water filters and several replacement filters for each system.
10 mini sawyer's 5 lifestraws. 2 old home made 5 gallon bucket gravity filters.
I use one Zerowater filter as a pre filter for the other 2.

I use Chlorine Dioxide @ 5 ppm to treat drinking and cooking water as needed. I use calcium hypochlorite to treat our water for animals, laundry and cleaning.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Not sure if I want to drink rainwater collected off of a roof.

 

[joel]

https://www.emergencywaterwell.com/product/large-bore-diy-water-well-kit/ More comments, L8r..
jd

I used a bore the size of a soda can, it would go 20 feet with 5ive foot lengths of 3/8 pipe.
We hit water on a friends land.
Wife land has a Spring for a pond, but I have not checked on it in a few years.

 

[joel]

 

[Magus]

I have a 50' deep well within 30' of my house, I'm aware of 3-5 others in the area. I can't drink fluoride water without boiling and filtering.

As to my guns. I have a toolbox, are you after mice or Elk?

 

[Sourdough]

Ever notice in threads like this, that "NEVER" one of the 280 "MILLION" humans who are trapped with only faucet water......ever responds.

The "POINT" of this thread is twofold.

1.) Preppers are primarily obsessed with FOOD & FIREARMS. Yet with four years of stored food, and eleven million firearms, they will be dead in less the five days for lack of water. We, the prepping community are food & firearms wealthy, but "HUNDREDS" of Millions have one totally unreliable source for water.

2.) With many cities of ten to Twenty-Two million humans, there is no solution. Even little towns of only twelve hundred, will have high fatalities.

 

[Magus]

Time for another water purification/extraction thread.

 

[Mountain trapper]

We've got a deep well (650 feet derp), spring fed pond, several seasonal creeks, several more springs and creeks close by and lots of snow until May, July higher up. I drink out of the creeks and springs in the area, never a problem. Except for range cattle during summer there isn't any agricultural land near us.

 

[Hardcalibres]

Not sure if I want to drink rainwater collected off of a roof.
View attachment 107105

That moldy old shingle roof is not suitable for collection of potable water anyway.

Birds around here don't perch on clean iron roofs. People who collect rain water don't put perching structures (like TV antennas) over their roofs.

People who have a phobia about captured rain water and birds should go and have a look at all the things (avian and aquatic) that live in every water supply dam in the world.

People who have a phobia about captured rain water should look at their bore water through a microscope or using a lab analysis.

People who have a phobia about what is in their water should start distilling theirs.........but bear in mind that distilled water is not healthy......

Water is one of those things to which the saying "What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve for" applies.

Most people would be shocked at what is in municipal water, but let them see how they can collect the best tasting and most healthy water they have ever drunk, and they go irrational.

There are traces of crap and urine in everything you eat and drink. Perhaps not being able to handle that truth is yet another form of normalcy bias.

 

[SoJer]

^ All very True and Solid Points, HC, but.. I think that particular post May have been some Babylon Bee-style satire.

But, reinforcing all your points, yeah.. Many 10s of millons of 'normies' here in the States, raised on Hollymold and MSM kool-aid, are going to be in for a Very rude awakening, when everything they took for granted Collapses in the not-too-distant, and they find out what 'Unsheltered / Non-Pampered Life' is really all about...

..And Water was one of the Biggest 'We've Got to GTFO, NOW' triggers for us ditching Zommiefornia.. (and voluntarily taking a $30K / yr pay-cut (!!) to Do so (ergo: 'Sacrifice') which still pales in comparison to the Gains we've made towards Survival.. ie: Now, being in a Much more water-plentiful area, with Far less people per sq mi., and Several options, right in our Own lot, let alone backing up to a year-round creek / Major Rivers nearby..

jd

 

[Cabin Fever]

That moldy old shingle roof is not suitable for collection of potable water anyway.

Birds around here don't perch on clean iron roofs. People who collect rain water don't put perching structures (like TV antennas) over their roofs.

People who have a phobia about captured rain water and birds should go and have a look at all the things (avian and aquatic) that live in every water supply dam in the world.

People who have a phobia about captured rain water should look at their bore water through a microscope or using a lab analysis.

People who have a phobia about what is in their water should start distilling theirs.........but bear in mind that distilled water is not healthy......

Water is one of those things to which the saying "What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve for" applies.

Most people would be shocked at what is in municipal water, but let them see how they can collect the best tasting and most healthy water they have ever drunk, and they go irrational.

There are traces of crap and urine in everything you eat and drink. Perhaps not being able to handle that truth is yet another form of normalcy bias.

Keep in mind. I was a groundwater hydrologist for the State of Minnesota. I have sampled many monitoring wells during my employment, Wells at landfills, community drainfields, waste disposal sites, etc. I know a bit about groundwater quality and how soil can treat infiltrating water. I'll drink groundwater way before i'll drink water that has run off of any roof...steel or not. YMMV

 

[Hardcalibres]

Keep in mind. I was a groundwater hydrologist for the State of Minnesota. I have sampled many monitoring wells during my employment, Wells at landfills, community drainfields, waste disposal sites, etc. I know a bit about groundwater quality and how soil can treat infiltrating water. I'll drink groundwater way before i'll drink water that has run off of any roof...steel or not. YMMV

How much test data have you looked at from rain water collected in remote locations. If that would be none, then you have only looked at one side of the coin.

I think you are missing the point though.......there are indeed many things that can taint/contaminate harvested rain water.....but bird crap is about the least important.

Many places in the world have atmospheric pollution that makes harvesting rain water from roofs inadvisable. But almost all those places are also unsurvivable in a very severe crisis (for reasons linked to that pollution and most specifically population density). So rain water harvesting fits in well within an already viable survival system.

If rain water collected from your roof is not potable (or it is but you have an aversion to harvested rain water) then that is probably just one of many problems you have.

 

[Haertig]

If rain water collected from your roof is not potable

My plan for roof-harvested rain water would be primarily for washing, but drinking too as a secondary use. But I also planned on filtering it with a back packing water filter and (optionally) adding a drop of two of bleach or iodine (I would have to refresh my memory on the correct dose). We do have a new-ish roof (5 years old?) I do wonder if shingles - which are tar based I believe - would release petroleum byproducts in large enough concentrations to do harm. That, I don't know. Which is why I say I'd use it "primarily for washing". But if I was dying of dehydration, sure, shingle water sounds pretty good compared to the alternative. I would first try to collect rain water under the open sky with buckets, but I probably wouldn't capture enough that way, so might have to resort to roof water which flows off like a river in a heavy rain.

 

[Cabin Fever]

If rain water collected from your roof is not potable (or it is but you have an aversion to harvested rain water) then that is probably just one of many problems you have.

Yep, that's me. BTW, we always eat snow for hydration when we're out snowshoeing, snowmobiling, icefishing, firewood harvesting, etc...same as drinking rainwater, I suppose. I'm not going to drink the water that washes off my roof unless it is treated for pathogens or the last resort, Again, YMMV.

 

[Hardcalibres]

My plan for roof-harvested rain water would be primarily for washing, but drinking too as a secondary use. But I also planned on filtering it with a back packing water filter and (optionally) adding a drop of two of bleach or iodine (I would have to refresh my memory on the correct dose). We do have a new-ish roof (5 years old?) I do wonder if shingles - which are tar based I believe - would release petroleum byproducts in large enough concentrations to do harm. That, I don't know. Which is why I say I'd use it "primarily for washing". But if I was dying of dehydration, sure, shingle water sounds pretty good compared to the alternative. I would first try to collect rain water under the open sky with buckets, but I probably wouldn't capture enough that way, so might have to resort to roof water which flows off like a river in a heavy rain.

I understand that tar shingle roofs do contaminate runoff with enough hydrocarbons to be a potential problem.

If I was going to have (drinking) that in my plans, then I would research how to treat that water (by carbon filtering or distillation or what ever), but as you say it is better than nothing.

We recently discussed replacing roofs with iron.....in the long term that would be the best solution.

 

[Cabin Fever]

We recently discussed replacing roofs with iron.....in the long term that would be the best solution.

You've mentioned "iron" roofs a couple of times. Can you point me to a manufacturer of iron roofing (not metal or steel)?

 

[dademoss]

Given a choice between dying of dehydration, and drinking what runs off my roof, guess which one wins.

No doubt it may kill me eventually, but hey, nobody gets out of this alive.

Don’t Let “Perfect” Be the Enemy of “Good”​

 

[Sourdough]

The "CONTEXT" in which most hold these serious prepping issues, is snotty, but a tolerable length of time, before it quickly returns to, easy, safe, bountiful quality of life. Preppers don't generally think in terms of SHTF lasting seventeen years, hell most can't grasp their life could super suck for a period of eighteen months. Let's tell the truth most think a life of suck is heavy traffic or living on unemployment.

 

[Hardcalibres]

You've mentioned "iron" roofs a couple of times. Can you point me to a manufacturer of iron roofing (not metal or steel)?

"Iron" roofs is a colloquialism.

They are mostly made of steel which has iron as it's largest constituent.

 

[Spikedriver]

Yep, that's me. BTW, we always eat snow for hydration when we're out snowshoeing, snowmobiling, icefishing, firewood harvesting, etc...same as drinking rainwater, I suppose. I'm not going to drink the water that washes off my roof unless it is treated for pathogens or the last resort, Again, YMMV.

Simple boiling will take care of the treatment. If not boiling, iodine will do. Bleach will do. Potassium permanganate will do. Rainwater is probably the best resource there is for water collection when modern services go down. As long as I can treat it, I'm drinking it...

 

[Cabin Fever]

Simple boiling will take care of the treatment. If not boiling, iodine will do. Bleach will do. Potassium permanganate will do. Rainwater is probably the best resource there is for water collection when modern services go down. As long as I can treat it, I'm drinking it...

Best? I'll stick with my hand pump well where I do not have to boil or chemically-treat the water.

If I have to treat the water I drink, I'll get if from a nearby lake or river. I prefer the flavor of fish poo over bird poo. LOL!

 

[Tacitus]

Water is my greatest weakness, and I've known that for quite some time. I've wanted to move further out from the city. Wife finally talking about it with me. I will try to make sure we find a place near water.

In the meantime, I can probably last a couple months if the taps shut off...longer than most around here.

We get slightly above the national average rainfall per year. When it rains, I will collect in several ways (roof downspouts, tarps into trashcans, etc.). I can filter and purify pretty much every way you can do so.

Bad options: Springs are about 5 miles away, so not really an option. Some ponds are closer. Intermittant creeks nearby won't be much help. I do have some water transport options, but that would be tough work hauling it from a pond (and it would require venturing into a public area with a lot of other people...but maybe most of them will be gone by the time I would need to do that.

 

[Neb]

Best? I'll stick with my hand pump well where I do not have to boil or chemically-treat the water.

If I have to treat the water I drink, I'll get if from a nearby lake or river. I prefer the flavor of fish poo over bird poo. LOL!

One of the water books I read flat out said the best place to store water is underground and only being it up as it is needed.

Ben

 

[Tacitus]

This discussion reminds me that I want to buy some pool filter sand. Also time to buy more pool shock.

 

[Morgan101]

Rain catchment systems don't necesarily have to capture water from the roof. If you have a kiddy pool or two you can catch a lot of water. Anything that came from the roof would have to be treated for sure.