Be Prepared

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by Pete

Somebody not been reading all the posts around here?

Who owns the Rain?


http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=22937

My apologies, I did miss that one. Personally I disagree with the idea that anyone gets to claim ownership of the rain, if it falls on your property and you want to collect it, you should have the right IMO, trying to say you don't is just another instance of the gov getting way to involved with a citizens day to day life for no reason.

[mugwump]

FYI for water, fuel, etc. They come in different grades for different liquids.

These were new to me...they are apparently the equivalent to steel shipping containers for small quantities of liquids. They're colloquially called "totes" and when I Googled "tote 330 gallons Illinois" I got hundreds of hits, many local.

Most are stackable up to 4 high, so I'd assume you could put one in the corner of the garage, fill it 3/4 with water (we freeze hard around here), cover it with a square of 3/4 ply, and stack stuff on it up to the ceiling. A 330 gal tote full of H2O would weigh more than a ton, so they must be tough if they stack 4 high. They have standard fittings and most apparently come with industrial ball valves. Standard size for 330 gal is 46½" x 46½" x 48".

The guy who told me about them got a once-used 330 gallon food-grade unit for $120 hauled away from a chocolate factory. He just had to rinse out liquid glucose residue.

ecobulk.jpg

[ZooKeeper]

Originally Posted by mugwump

FYI for water, fuel, etc. They come in different grades for different liquids.

These were new to me...they are apparently the equivalent to steel shipping containers for small quantities of liquids. They're colloquially called "totes" and when I Googled "tote 330 gallons Illinois" I got hundreds of hits, many local.

Most are stackable up to 4 high, so I'd assume you could put one in the corner of the garage, fill it 3/4 with water (we freeze hard around here), cover it with a square of 3/4 ply, and stack stuff on it up to the ceiling. A 330 gal tote full of H2O would weigh more than a ton, so they must be tough if they stack 4 high. They have standard fittings and most apparently come with industrial ball valves. Standard size for 330 gal is 46½" x 46½" x 48".

The guy who told me about them got a once-used 330 gallon food-grade unit for $120 hauled away from a chocolate factory. He just had to rinse out liquid glucose residue.

Attachment 12381

We use these in my line of work in 500-600 gal versions. Ours have fungicide & insecticide in them. You have to use a forklift to move them. If you had a walkout basement with double doors (or another way to get them in a environment that didn't freeze), you could put clean/new totes there & use a pump (Banjo Corp?) to move water to where you need it/into your current home piping.

Originally Posted by ZooKeeper

We use these in my line of work in 500-600 gal versions. Ours have fungicide & insecticide in them. You have to use a forklift to move them. If you had a walkout basement with double doors (or another way to get them in a environment that didn't freeze), you could put clean/new totes there & use a pump (Banjo Corp?) to move water to where you need it/into your current home piping.

A marine grade water pump system is not hard to create on land.. with a dc source for electricity.. water pump with an accumulator and you can use the tank as a direct supply right to the faucet.

OTOH, a foot pump like I have on Evangeline works well too.. does not need any form of electricity and saves on water.

I installed one of these puppies last weekend in the galley.
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?...451&id=1125818

search for a water pump there as well. If you do go that route.. you need to make doubly sure that any hose you use is 'food grade' and able to handle whatever psi the water pump requires. You can get it at home depot and don't let the knuckledragger there try to tell you it is all the same.. it is NOT..

[Razor]

Brush, usually the order of materials is reversed, with sand on the bottom. The reason is that the larger and then smaller rocks are used to catch the "big chunks" of particulate before it reaches the sand, which would quickly become covered/clogged otherwise.

[The Reaper]

Some charcoal wouldn't hurt either.

TR

Originally Posted by Razor

Brush, usually the order of materials is reversed, with sand on the bottom. The reason is that the larger and then smaller rocks are used to catch the "big chunks" of particulate before it reaches the sand, which would quickly become covered/clogged otherwise.

I kept looking at BO's post and knew something was wrong... I am suffering from CRS a lot lately.... One can go to an aquarium shop and get this fine grade sand used in the bottom of aquariums for filter. It works well for that particular application. TR's right, mosdef charcoal.
'Play Sand' one can aquire at any Home Depot is good, but this 'river sand' from the fish shop is even smaller sized.
AM

[mugwump]

This looks like a good option for storing water if you see the storm coming...not much good if you hear the 'boil order' before you have time to fill it, though.

WaterBOB

I made up a kit for my folks in hurricane-land several Christmases past and included two thin plastic dropcloths-- one to line the tub and one to cover the water to prevent evaporation. This looks a bit more elegant. I have one on order and I'll write a short review when I test it out.

[mugwump]

Originally Posted by Rangertab1

Not sure where to ask these questions, so here seems best. Time context is the year 1450 A.D.

1. Does anyone have the basics for making/storing goat/cow cheese?
2. Does anyone know the process of creating penicillin?
3. What is the best compilation/book of Native American medicinal plants?

Sherman...didn't you learn your lesson the last time you used Mr.Peabody's Wayback Machine?

[Paslode]

Originally Posted by mugwump

This looks like a good option for storing water if you see the storm coming...not much good if you hear the 'boil order' before you have time to fill it, though.

WaterBOB

I made up a kit for my folks in hurricane-land several Christmases past and included two thin plastic dropcloths-- one to line the tub and one to cover the water to prevent evaporation. This looks a bit more elegant. I have one on order and I'll write a short review when I test it out.

Other than evaporation, what would be the benefits of this device compared to your poly sheet kit or merely filling the tub with water?

[zpo]

Originally Posted by Paslode

Other than evaporation, what would be the benefits of this device compared to your poly sheet kit or merely filling the tub with water?

Not who you asked, but I have those. The other advantage over filling the tub is that you won't have to filter the water to drink it. The chemicals you clean your tub (and the dirt since you probably didn't clean it before filling in an emergency) with are not great for you. The poly sheets are cheaper, but easier to contaminate your supply since the sheet is just laying there. With proper care, not a problem.

[mugwump]

Originally Posted by Paslode

Other than evaporation, what would be the benefits of this device compared to your poly sheet kit or merely filling the tub with water?

Well, compared with lining a tub with a poly sheet, filling the tub, and laying down another sheet to cover the tub, I agree that I don't see much advantage. I've tried this method and it works well. You need some dexterity to manage the top sheet without sinking it or sticking it to itself when wet. I can see my folk, who are in their 80s, wrestling with this. When I get the new bladder I'll judge if the pump is more problematic than the top sheet.

If you don't line the tub in some fashion first, I suspect that the next day you'll find the tub empty, unless your stopper is much tighter fitting than mine. And in the winter around here I'd lose 1" per day to evaporation without a top sheet (assuming the heat is still on).

[crazyjake123]

I watched the first two episodes and it looks like an interesting experiment on post catastrophe survival. Hope you all enjoy.

It airs every Tuesday at 10pm on Discovery Channel. But the first two episodes are online at the discovery channel website.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/colony/colony.html:

What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? How would you find food? Water? Shelter?

The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.

With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.

Experts from the fields of homeland security, engineering and psychology have helped design the world of The Colony to reflect elements from both real-life disasters and models of what the future could look like after a global viral outbreak.

Over the course of the 10-week experiment, the Colonists must work together to build the necessities of survival, such as a water-filtration system, a battery bank that powered their electricity, a solar cooker, a shower system and a greenhouse – and even some niceties (a coffee maker!).

Tune in Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 10 p.m. ET/PT to see who thrives and who fails to survive

[Pete]

Originally Posted by crazyjake123

I watched the first two episodes and it looks like an interesting experiment on post catastrophe survival. Hope you all enjoy...

I liked Out of the Wild but I'm not too crazy about this one. Flicked it off after the first raid (not the first hunt for supplies) by the bad guys.

The threat of deadly force is the first reply in a situation like that and the civilized version for TV is just too unreal.

A handmade crossbow shooting a two foot metal bolt through an intruder's chest would show your intensions were serious. But for TV it was pushy, shovey, oooh that's mean.

[Defender968]

I'd tend to agree with Pete, the superficial drama is a bit much, though it's brought up a few topics that I hadn't thought about, like how to handle additional unrelated but apparently unthreatening visitors to your camp i.e. extra mouths to feed, especially when considering the reactions of some of your own people. It’s also interesting to me to see how untrained personnel view things, like security for instance, not earth shattering knowledge, but it is somewhat thought provoking for me at least.

Overall not the worst hour of TV I've seen.