This weeks preps check-in

[DrHenley]

One of my relatives (who is an prepper) told me that buy ing Huge bags of beans ( assuming thats you bought) are not that smart. If an disaster strikes, soaking takes a bunch of water and & cooking them are a waste of fuel and energy. Buying Pre-Canned beans are a good choice, and they don't go bad. Now if You are canning beans for a disaster, well thats the way to go.

Neither water nor fuel will be a problem for me. Artesian well and hundreds of acres of oaks.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

Soaking the beans will add moisture that you need to survive. You just don’t put in too much.
Its the old debate Rice vrs Pasta. Rice absorbs what you put in, pasta only to a point.
if you use the pasta water to clean the dishes, then water plants, it balances out

 

[Brianna]

My new storage shelves are already fully stocked. I'm adding as many long term essentials as I can in the next few months.

 

[Mountain trapper]

That reminds me, I put up a couple of storage cabinets in the wifes laundry room yesterday.

 

[Kiwichick]

One of my relatives (who is an prepper) told me that buy ing Huge bags of beans ( assuming thats you bought) are not that smart. If an disaster strikes, soaking takes a bunch of water and & cooking them are a waste of fuel and energy. Buying Pre-Canned beans are a good choice, and they don't go bad. Now if You are canning beans for a disaster, well thats the way to go.

I hear you, there are so many details to take into account when prepping, weighing pros and cons and odds.
We have a mix of dried and canned. We eat what we stock and stock what we eat so it's in constant rotation. We live a a fairly wet area surrounded by rivers and streams, plus we stock bottled water, but hopefully our preps are never needed for a long lasting situation.

 

[Kiwichick]

I'm glad I got the new torches and lanterns. The power keeps going out thanks to strong winds. Trees down across roads. Power poles blown over too. Sirens and alarms constantly going off. School buses canceled. Fun times.

 

[Oddcaliber]

We are in recovery mode after Ida. Will be going through my food stores to replenish what was used for the hurricane.

 

[DrJenner]

Got our back up generator (#3) today on sale - last one in the store.
Storage containers and getting ready for the move.
I really need to take inventory of everything and determine more what we need.

Going to pick up some wine today

 

[MOS0231]

While I was tending to livestock, wife went to town for groceries.
She added additional things to our already well stocked pantry. More dry goods, oils of differing kinds, coffee, tea, toothpaste, sugar and salt.
She noted more holes or one front items on the shelves.

I am not ruling out the possibility the supply vs demand is going to cause a seize in the economy and we wake up one day with hyperinflation.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Just finished setting up the new Winco 12 kw propane generator at the pump house. Got a 250 gallon propane tank feeding the generator and the heater inside the pump house.
The electrician said he'll be out in a week or two to hard wire the generator and add a couple sensors so that it will operate automatically. Until then I'll still be using my engine driven welder to run the well pump for now.

 

[DrJenner]

Inventory done - cannot stress how important this is.
Thought I had a bunch of first aid/medical supplies, turns out I don't. I gave my glucose monitor to my dad when his blood sugars were so high on steroids (and he was showing signs of kidney damage)
At any rate, ordered an ENT/otoscope/opth kit today -
Chest seals
IV supplies - different gauges including 14 ga to able to do a needle decompression if needed
IV tubing ( we have plenty of IV bags)
new glucometer
oral hydration packs
trauma tourniquet.
Xtra trauma shears (I think my kid took my back up ones)

Need to take inventory of bandaging supplies before I purchase more.

 

[Owen Quin]

Neither water nor fuel will be a problem for me. Artesian well and hundreds of acres of oaks.

If a nuke hits well, we all be dead, and your well would be dried up and your oaks would be destroyed. but if your are prepping/stock in' up for a disaster with canned/freeze dried foods, well you got plenty of fuel and water. Way to go!

 

[Owen Quin]

Soaking the beans will add moisture that you need to survive. You just don’t put in too much.
Its the old debate Rice vrs Pasta. Rice absorbs what you put in, pasta only to a point.
if you use the pasta water to clean the dishes, then water plants, it balances out

I wouldn't be watering house plants if a disaster hit. I'de put the leftover water in a my Berky to make it suitable for drinking.

 

[Owen Quin]

I hear you, there are so many details to take into account when prepping, weighing pros and cons and odds.
We have a mix of dried and canned. We eat what we stock and stock what we eat so it's in constant rotation. We live a a fairly wet area surrounded by rivers and streams, plus we stock bottled water, but hopefully our preps are never needed for a long lasting situation.

Thats really good! One of my relatives has a Berkey (Berkey Water Filters - World Leader in Water Purification). it is a versatile water filter system for muddy/contaminated water. That would help a lot if you need emergency drinking/cooking water. Or if you you run out of stocked up water.

 

[Owen Quin]

I'm glad I got the new torches and lanterns. The power keeps going out thanks to strong winds. Trees down across roads. Power poles blown over too. Sirens and alarms constantly going off. School buses canceled. Fun times.

So sorry.

 

[DrHenley]

If a nuke hits well, we all be dead, and your well would be dried up and your oaks would be destroyed. but if your are prepping/stock in' up for a disaster with canned/freeze dried foods, well you got plenty of fuel and water. Way to go!

The well is 1600 ft deep. No strategic targets for hundreds of miles. Nukes are too expensive to waste on forests.

 

[Owen Quin]

The well is 1600 ft deep. No strategic targets for hundreds of miles. Nukes are too expensive to waste on forests.

Well said. That is true about nukes. I didn't know that your well is that deep. But if wildfire burns your trees down, well nobody be happy. You are a true prepper. keep it going!

 

[DrHenley]

Climate is too humid for wildfires. In fact the humid climate is the biggest minus since it doesn't cool down much at night in the summer. I'll have to get "climatized" when the power goes down for good. I grew up in a similar climate without A/C. I survived, but I didn't sleep well at night in the summer.

Here is what the aquifers look like. We are tapped into the fourth and largest aquifer down.
All the aquifers except the shallowest one are entrapped, meaning that the water can't come straight down from the surface because the boundaries betweeen aquifers are impermeable. The aquifer slopes up for 100 miles until it reaches the surface in some remote hills where it is replenished by rain water. Because the boundaries are impermeable, and because it comes from a much higher elevation, we have positive pressure coming up out of the ground (artesian).

 

[Mountain trapper]

My well is only 650' deep, shallow compared to Doc's well. I've been looking for a hand pump for when fuel is no longer available to run my well pump generator. So far the deepest hand pump that I've found only goes down to 325'. Does anyone know of any that will go down to 625' (my static level)?

 

[Dropship]

Recently bought myself this flint striker thing and bag of tinder-

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and know how Tom feels to have created fire..

 

[Amish Heart]

A boy scout!

 

[KateMTx]

I wouldn't be watering house plants if a disaster hit. I'de put the leftover water in a my Berky to make it suitable for drinking.

They might be watering food producing plants too.

 

[erqueen75]

The well is 1600 ft deep. No strategic targets for hundreds of miles. Nukes are too expensive to waste on forests.

Seems like there might be a few good targets in your neighborhood, not in the MT range, but if the Ruskies or Chinese wanted to toss around a lot of smaller gadgets...
I pray it never happens, not ever. Not anywhere.

 

[erqueen75]

Inventory done - cannot stress how important this is.
Thought I had a bunch of first aid/medical supplies, turns out I don't. I gave my glucose monitor to my dad when his blood sugars were so high on steroids (and he was showing signs of kidney damage)
At any rate, ordered an ENT/otoscope/opth kit today -
Chest seals
IV supplies - different gauges including 14 ga to able to do a needle decompression if needed
IV tubing ( we have plenty of IV bags)
new glucometer
oral hydration packs
trauma tourniquet.
Xtra trauma shears (I think my kid took my back up ones)

Need to take inventory of bandaging supplies before I purchase more.

So easy for you DrJenner! I'm super jelly of what you can acquire ... having the worst time accumulating materials for my kit. On the other hand, I am kinda happy that every Tom, Dick, and Harry can't just pick up an EZ IO Drill from the corner store.
Stay well
Erqueen75

 

[Illini Warrior]

They might be watering food producing plants too.

EXACTLY - as always "It depends" - but - keeping your veggie garden going might be the best & smartest move you can manage - you don't risk your life or expend unbelievable resources for it - but if you can drive down the road for a tote of water and devote a couple of hours to garden watering - stupid to let your garden die off just because your house spigot is dry ...

 

[MOS0231]

They might be watering food producing plants too.

I have a dwarf lime plant.
I will be watering it as I do not want to chance a case of scurvy.
I have an additional 100+ apple trees, but one can not be too careful.

 

[MOS0231]

EXACTLY - as always "It depends" - but - keeping your veggie garden going might be the best & smartest move you can manage - you don't risk your life or expend unbelievable resources for it - but if you can drive down the road for a tote of water and devote a couple of hours to garden watering - stupid to let your garden die off just because your house spigot is dry ...

Well said.
When I was living in the sub burbs, looking around for sources of water, things could get interesting as all the people in the development would be forced to use the same retaining ponds.
The ones the Canadian geese poop in.
Sanitary issues, namely potable water will likely kill off more people than roving bands of MZBs.

 

[Dropship]

Although I live only 50 yards from the Atlantic I wouldn't be able to drink a drop in a post-apoc world because of the salt (sniffle).
I've googled around unsuccessfully trying to find some kind of simple salt-remover device, say like a small flask where seawater is poured in the top and passes through filters before trickling out the bottom as fresh water.
Do things like that exist?
At the moment my 'Plan A' will be to boil seawater in a saucepan like below and the condensed fresh water will trickle off the upturned lid into a container, and I hope it'll give me enough to live on-

 

[DrHenley]

The problem with filtration is that the chlorine and sodium ions are too small.

My mother had a purpose built water distiller that was basically the same thing as what you want to do.

I've made something similar only with a metal lid. I've used it to distill both water and vinegar. Metal conducts heat better than glass, and you need to remove heat in order to condense the steam. I put ice in the top to make it condense faster.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Although I live only 50 yards from the Atlantic I wouldn't be able to drink a drop in a post-apoc world because of the salt (sniffle).
I've googled around unsuccessfully trying to find some kind of simple salt-remover device, say like a small flask where seawater is poured in the top and passes through filters before trickling out the bottom as fresh water.
Do things like that exist?
At the moment my 'Plan A' will be to boil seawater in a saucepan like below and the condensed fresh water will trickle off the upturned lid into a container, and I hope it'll give me enough to live on-

My brother had a desalination unit on his boat. You might check on a marine supply house and see if a boat size desalination unit will work for you.