This weeks preps check-in

[Dropship]

It seems nature is way ahead of humans..-

WIKI- "Seagulls drink salt water, as well as fresh water, as they possess exocrine glands located in supraorbital grooves of the skull by which salt can be excreted through the nostrils"

I've actually seen that happening with the seagulls on the roof opposite, I see water trickling out the nostril holes near the end of their beaks so presumably the filtered clear water has gone into their systems and the stuff trickling out is just salty waste.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Just found out yesterday that a piece of land about 5 miles away from us is coming up for sale. Its part of a large ranch that the old man died and the son is selling off a few pieces. Not sure how many acres or the price yet, but I'm guessing its a few hundred acres. Much of it is either flood irrigated or sub irritated. Has timber and a creek flowing through it. One advantage is that we could run our cattle down the road without trailering them. Its about a thousand feet lower in elevation too.

 

[Owen Quin]

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).

WOW! thats really deep! Our well is shallow compared to that. Thats right about the humid climate and wildfires.

 

[Owen Quin]

They might be watering food producing plants too.

Thats very true. i should of thought about that. I'd probably water my garden with my leftover water.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

Thats very true. i should of thought about that. I'd probably water my garden with my leftover water.

. I have luxury not many people have, a 5000 gallon water tank. I also have about 1500 auxiliary capacity in IBC tanks and rain barrels.
I also have 5 ponies that drink 25 gallons a day each, 1 horse that goes through 15. And 3 labs that are about 2 gallons a day. I have calculated out the usage at 150 gallons a day just for the critters.
We will say that 1 gallon of water for pasta served 3 purposes Cooking, Cleaning, and Watering.
I can last a long time before needing a Berkey. And I do have a power backup plan to fill that 5000 gallon tank.

 

[Dropship]

I bought myself this monocular earlier this year because it's a nice small lightweight size for hiking AND it can be zoomed to a fantastic 25x..
(I've owned monoculars before but they only had a lesser fixed magnification making me think "I wish they could zoom")
This cost me a kool £77 (106 USD) which is a bit steep but what the heck it's only money and is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, and my philosophy is you can't worry about the price of survival items when your life's at stake, and now I'll be able to see zombs coming miles away..
PS- my only gripe is that the image tends to be a bit dull at the higher zoom levels but hey, ye canna change the laws of physics captain..

 

[DrHenley]

PS- my only gripe is that the image tends to be a bit dull at the higher zoom levels but hey, ye canna change the laws of physics captain..

Indeed
You get maximum image brightness and clarity when the exit pupil matches the diameter of the pupil of your eye. Exit pupil is calculated by dividing the objective diameter by the power.
25mm/25x= 1mm exit pupil. Your pupil diameter is around 1.5 mm in bright light,, so to match your eye's pupil diameter with the exit pupil, you would need a 25/1.5 = 16 power magnification. Any higher and you lose image clarity and brightness. In low light, your pupil diameter is 7mm (or less), so your maximum power would be 25/7= 3.57 without losing image clarity and brightness.
A 3-16x25 monocular would give you a full range of lighting conditions with 3x being low enough to get maximum brightness and clarity from a 25mm objective in low light.

 

[DrHenley]

BTW, the reason I know all this is because I was trying to figure out why my 3-12x50 scope wasn't any brighter at 3x than at 7x in low light. Legal hours for hunting deer go to 30 minutes after sundown, and it can sometimes get pretty dark at 30 minutes past sundown. I assumed that at the lower power it should be brighter, but didn't really seem to be.
50mm objective/7mm pupil = 7.14 power. Any thing below that power is the same brightness, but lower magnification. So now I know to just leave it at 7x in low light because going lower doesn't help anything.
One of those things that comes up in the real world but not in computer games

 

[Dropship]

...One of those things that comes up in the real world but not in computer games

Steady on, in the Armed Assault game not only is the scope zoomable but there's also IR or NV mode as the sniper on the roof of Doomsday Hall demonstrates..

 

[tmttactical]

Steady on, in the Armed Assault game not only is the scope zoomable but there's also IR or NV mode as the sniper on the roof of Doomsday Hall demonstrates..

And did you have to calibrate the scopes? Set the eye relief, align the reticle, adjust for angle and distance, and of the bullet drop, barrel twist rate to bullet weight and length of barrel to caliber and bullet?

 

[DrHenley]

Avoid canting the scope, make sure parallax is set correctly, focus ocular lens correctly...

 

[Dropship]

That's the spirit guys, we'll need you to help defend Doomsday Hall..

First we'll work out the best lines of fire, ambush positions and killing grounds-

Then when the starving mobs come to pinch our brussel sprouts-

We'll give them a warm welcome..

HEY GUYS why are we discussing this in the wrong thread?
A "Doomsday Hall" thread would be the best place but I don't know what forum area to start one in.

 

[DrHenley]

The Barrett M107 (originally M82) is NOT a sniper rifle! It is an anti-materiel rifle and an explosive ordinance disposal tool. At about 3-4 MOA (with milspec ammo), it's not nearly accurate enough for precision long range fire because of the way the action operates. The barrel recoils with the action. Sniper rifles in 50 BMG are bolt action like the Barrett Model 95.
Ian covers this in detail:

 

[Mountain trapper]

. I have luxury not many people have, a 5000 gallon water tank. I also have about 1500 auxiliary capacity in IBC tanks and rain barrels.
I also have 5 ponies that drink 25 gallons a day each, 1 horse that goes through 15. And 3 labs that are about 2 gallons a day. I have calculated out the usage at 150 gallons a day just for the critters.
We will say that 1 gallon of water for pasta served 3 purposes Cooking, Cleaning, and Watering.
I can last a long time before needing a Berkey. And I do have a power backup plan to fill that 5000 gallon tank.

How deep do you bury your tanks to keep from freezing? I have to bury everything at least 5 feet.

 

[DrHenley]

How deep do you bury your tanks to keep from freezing? I have to bury everything at least 5 feet.

Depends on where you live.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

How deep do you bury your tanks to keep from freezing? I have to bury everything at least 5 feet.

. I get 2-3 inches of snow 2-3 times a year. It’s melted away before noon. I think the lowest I have seen the temp here is 28.

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

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)?

Not that I have seen. Also have asked a few well drilling folks and they say they don’t exist for that deep. Perhaps you could engineer one yourself for backup?

 

[Mountain trapper]

Not that I have seen. Also have asked a few well drilling folks and they say they don’t exist for that deep. Perhaps you could engineer one yourself for backup?

Water is our only weak link here. We're fine as long as we have propane to run the well pump generator.
I've got a water witch coming out soon to witch around the house. I'm hoping that he can find water at 200-300 feet. We have the pond and a couple springs, but they're between 1/4 and 1/2 mile away. Fine for an extreme emergency I guess. This is partly why I'm interested in buying that place down the road on the creek. Plenty of water there.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

@Arcticdude did you look into solar power dc well pumps? If you are going to put and additional well in, that may the way to go.

 

[Mountain trapper]

@Arcticdude did you look into solar power dc well pumps? If you are going to put and additional well in, that may the way to go.

I have. It a depends on how deep I need to go and the size of the pump. Our current well is 650 feet and has a 5 hp motor. Solar for that well would be prohibitive.
If we can get a shallower well by the house, with a smaller pump, I could run it off our existing solar system. I only need about 10 gpm for the house and garden.

 

[Owen Quin]

UPDATE: recently bought a "Ultralight Pocket Stove"(see pic. below) for any camping trips i do. it has a 10000BTU burner. I also thought it would be good for any backup/power outages we have. I also got 2 100g fuel cartridges. planning to buy more fuel cartridges, maybe a 10 or 20 pack. is there any other "camping"/cooking gadgets you recommend?

 

[Amish Heart]

I don't do much camping anymore. Mostly use big cooking gadgets since I'm where I'll be. I have an outdoor kitchen set up with iron cooking tables that each hold two dutch ovens, I have a solar oven, a rocket stove, a cooking sack, a solar set up that keeps marine batteries charged to use with an inverter to power portable electric burners, we have a barbeque and lots of propane, and the little doo dads like you've got above with fuel packets. I cook alot, and can cook on about anything.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

I have camping stuff if I want to camp. I keep it in the tack room of the horse trailer in case I need to Evac from fire.
All the rest of the preps are about staying here for as long as possible. I deem this the safest place to be.

 

[DrJenner]

Got our ENT set - allows for examining eyes, ears, extractions from ears for foreign bodies
Picked up a box of IV catheters, tubing as well - we already have a box of IV fluid.
We have bottles of lidocaine with epinephrine, some coban to wrap bandages.
Got more headlamps, some pepper spray/mace for the cars.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Picked up some lantern oil yesterday. Also some wax. I make wax discs mixed with lint and/sawdust. They make great hand warmers when I'm out and get cold.
The diesel generator wouldn't stay running this morning. I didn't think it was cold enough for the diesel to gell yet. Added anti gell treatment and it runs fine now.

 

[DrJenner]

Picked up some lantern oil yesterday. Also some wax. I make wax discs mixed with lint and/sawdust. They make great hand warmers when I'm out and get cold.
The diesel generator wouldn't stay running this morning. I didn't think it was cold enough for the diesel to gell yet. Added anti gell treatment and it runs fine now.

How do you make that? That's a great idea.

 

[Ram619]

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-

It's really not all that hard to make your own desalination equipment. All you really need is wood, screws, some decent size windows (or pieces of glass), and some type of black rubber or tarp material that will hold water.

You basically build a box to put the black tarp in. This is where you will put the salt water. Build a back and side walls, and angle the glass from the front to the back wall over the water. Make sure the glass side is facing the sun. The sun will heat up the water in the pool and the fresh water droplets will rise up to the glass. Then they will travel down the angled glass where you need something to collect the fresh water.

I've never actually tried to build one but have seen it done and the concept seems like it would work pretty well.

 

[MOS0231]

This came today, 12inch, 6qt:

 

[DrJenner]

@MOS0231 I have one of those too. I love it - fits nicely in my pyro tower!

 

[MOS0231]

@MOS0231 I have one of those too. I love it - fits nicely in my pyro tower!

Pyro tower?
You have my attention.
Could you provide a picture?