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This is neat stuff. Building fires using would or cotton balls so I am warm. I can naturally filter my water I find. Does anyone know how to collect water? I am near the ocean so I know I can't drink the salt water.
Thanks to ifnotforgrace and actionj for the advice and video. You both had the same idea, cool. I'll have to come up with a household heat able container, a a sealed cap and hose and a collection container. For weeks of fuel would candles or sterno boil water? Is there another energy source besides wood? Hurricane seasons coming so I want to be prepared and I'm sure other do also.
A few years ago, I purchased and entire pallet of freeze dried food in #10 cans. I also bought several 5 gallon pales of freeze dried "emergency food" from Costco and Emergency Essentials. We estimate that we have more than 1 year of food stored assuming that only three mouths will be fed (my wife, my stepson, and myself). I also have about 150 gallons of water stored.
150 US gallons = approx 550 litres. If you follow the recommendations of two litres of water per adult per day then assuming your stepson is a child (I'm assuming half ration for him) you go through 5 litres per day, so your water supply will last just under four months. That's not including any allowance for washing, although you don't need drinking quality water to wash your face.
Dried food isn't much use unless you've got water on hand to reconstitute it. So you'd need more than 150 gallons of water. Also be aware of how the water is stored - if it's in plastic containers the water will leach some of the plastic over time.
If things do turn south in a big way (and I personally think the economy is going to turn south in a way that makes the events of the last few years look like a picnic) you'll also have to consider protecting any hoard you have. There are going to be people out there who are used to an automatic entitlement to food and shelter that are suddenly turned out into the cold (literally as well as figuratively), and who are hungry and angry. If it's known that you've got a stockpile of food they'll be paying you a visit to help you eat it.
Unless you live in a very remote area I wouldn't bank on keeping it a secret, it will soon become clear that everyone except you is starving because they can't get their hands on any food while you apparently can.
Hello fellow survival-oriented Christian. Thanks for your good post. You're right about the need for more water. I continue to add to my "stash" by buying cases of bottled water. We live near a fairly large lake that we could draw from then sterilize and filter it before using it. I'm also buying a plastic 55 gallon drum that I plan on placing beneath my rain gutter, down spout. The rain water will go through a filter before entering the drum. I purchased my water storage containers from a company that sells containers designed for water storage:
I hope things never get to the point that we need to forcibly protect ourselves but I do have my share of firearms and plenty of ammo to go with them. I pray that God will supernaturally protect us from anyone will any ill-intent
=contango;62634975]The trouble is you're still talking about plastic containers. I'd be a little wary of water that had been stored long term in a plastic container, especially disposable plastic bottles. Filtering the water might remove some impurities from it but then putting it into plastic bottles will just result in it absorbing some junk from the plastic itself.
This is a thought process I don't entirely understand. If you're trusting God to supernaturally protect your food stash from hungry invaders who need food, why not trust God to supernaturally provide food to meet your needs? Just like Elijah and the widow who made him a cake (1Ki 17), God can meet our needs.
God supernaturally saved Noah from the flood but Noah built the ark. God supernaturally gave Joseph a vision of a coming 7-year drought but Joseph saw to it that a good amount of food was gathered together in preparation for that drought. When you or I are hungry do we sit in a chair and wait for God to drop food from the sky or do we head for the kitchen to eat the food that we bought at the grocery store last week or last month?
All good points, although if we've got our own stockpile of food and people all around us are literally starving I can't see us finding it overly comfortable explaining to God why we didn't share our hoard with them.
Hello. Your somewhat argumentative stance and slightly negative tone has been duly noted. You have a right to your opinions and you have a right to live your life as you see fit. I shall hold no grudges if you choose not to prepare for difficult times. That's your God-given right.
Now ... I don't recall ever having said that I wouldn't share my food with others in need. As a matter of fact, I have purchased large amounts of dried grains and cereals (inexpensive foods) for just that purpose. I guess (at the very least) I will have some food to share. You?
Okay ... I am prepared for your next criticism. Have at it!
=contango;62639327]With respect, if offering an alternative viewpoint is considered an "argumentative stance and negative tone" there's little point saying anything other than what a great idea you've got.
As soon as you start sharing you either run out in no time flat or you need a stockpile so enormous you couldn't possibly find space for it all.
A lot will depend just what it is you're preparing for. The issue I find with a lot of the issue of preparing for some kind of meltdown is specifying what level of meltdown you'll seek to survive because it ends up as a constant game of "well what if it got a bit worse?". You know, you've stockpiled enough water for a year and enough food for a year but then it's all thwarted because an earthquake rendered your house uninhabitable. Or you figure you can dig a well and draw water from the well only to find someone tapped it upstream and you've got no water at all, or you grow crops only to find them eaten by either locusts or roaming hungry mobs.
So the question really comes down to, where do you draw the line and figure a meltdown bigger and nastier than this point will render all your preparations worthless?
Or ... you could come out and say that I have a really bad idea and give some credible reasons why. Thus far you haven't really offered an "alternative viewpoint" as much as a critique of the avenue I've chosen to take. In other words, you criticized my decision to store water in plastic containers but didn't actually offer an alternative to plastic containers. You criticized my decision to store food but offered no alternative other than to NOT store food.
Or ... God could multiply the fish and the bread so that it could feed multitudes. In the meantime, I believe that something is better than nothing. Some preparation is better than no preparation. Some forethought and planning is better than total ignorance and/or sloth.
I prepare for power outages; ice storms; blizzards; possible unemployment; trucker strikes and the possible food shortages that would follow; possible economic collapse; etc. Life is full of "ifs." What if this or what if that? I can't see the future. Therefore, I prepare for the most likely catastrophic events (those most consistent with my geographical location). I've been stranded in a blizzard. I've experienced a 36 hour power outage. I've been unemployed and dead broke.
Two things: Firstly, I prep as a hobby. I don't place my faith in my cache. Secondly, I believe it's better to be somewhat prepared for unforeseen events than to sit on my tush and do nothing. After hurricane Katrina folks were hungry and thirsty. Folks from around the nation sent food and water that had been stored for such an event. By the way, the water that was sent arrived in plastic bottles.
Every person on earth draws their own line. If an event is so great that nobody can survive it then I suppose I will have to give up the ghost and "cash it in." However, I will be fully prepared for the next 36 hour power outage that comes my way.
I didn't come out and say it's a really bad idea because I don't think it's necessarily a really bad idea. It just needs to be defined a little - a lot of the time it's easy to "prepare" for something without a specific idea of what we are preparing for, what would trigger our emergency plan, and what level of disaster we would just accept would push past the limits of our planning and leave us winging it.
I'd have thought a suggestion to avoid plastic would suggest using something other than plastic. Like glass, perhaps.
I didn't so much criticise the decision to store food as look to determine just how much water you'll need to dehydrate your dried food, how much food you'll want (which will depend on how long you plan to live on it), what you'll do to protect it or share it, and so on.
Of course something is better than nothing, but without an idea of just what it is you're preparing for it's impossible to say how good your plan is. Which leads on to...
So are you planning to live through a 36 hour power outage or a 9-month famine?
A 36-hour power outage would want some form of power for air conditioning or fuel for heating (depending on whether we're talking Anchorage in winter or Houston in summer), a couple of gallons of drinking water and a couple of meals. Buying ever-more cases of bottled water becomes overkill if you're preparing for something as simple as 36 hours without power.
Somewhat prepared makes little sense - if you're going to prepare then consider all elements of your plan as some things may throw you a curve ball. An obvious example might be someone who kept a huge stash of food in their basement only to find a storm came through, the basement flooded and the food was ruined. Or to take a more simplistic example, someone who uses gas central heating and doesn't realise that their gas boiler still needs electricity to power it so still ends up cold when the power goes off. If you've laid down enough food and water to sustain your family for three years but then find you have to flee, all your plans are laid to waste because you physically can't carry anything like that much water with you.
Hence the question of what level event you're looking to prepare for, whether you're expecting it to be imminent or distant, whether you're expecting the kind of event that forces you to leave your home, and so on.
From your earlier post where you said:
We estimate that we have more than 1 year of food stored assuming that only three mouths will be fed (my wife, my stepson, and myself). I also have about 150 gallons of water stored.
it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume your plan goes far beyond a 36-hour power outage and into something far more apocalyptic. Hence my questions - if you're planning for the kind of situation where you can't lay your hands on food or water for that length of time you're also heading into the kind of disaster that creates a much higher chance that you'll have to flee your home. You're also creating an imbalanced plan if you've got food to feed you for a year but your water will run out after barely three months and maybe faster still if you need it to rehydrate your dried food.
To me a part of preparation for events is to look at the events and look at ways your plans could be thwarted. So if you've got food, look at what would cause the food to become useless to you (e.g. a basement flood). If you've done something like stash gold and silver in a safety deposit box, what happens if you can't get at your box any more? If you've got a hideaway in the woods planned and loaded with supplies, what happens if someone else gets to it before you do and uses your stashed weapons to keep you away from your stashed food?
Since we are discussing food, what food is good for let's say 3 days without electricity or fuel for heating in your house, with a year long storage? Any suggestions for normal people and diabetic?
Thanks for any of your inputs.
Thanks for your suggestions and for the conversation.
Here's where I generally stand:
1) We've witnessed numerous catastrophes around the globe in recent years, i.e., tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, riots, floods, and general chaos. Knowing that these things can and do happen elsewhere awakens me to the possibility that they could happen here where I live.
2) Past experience has taught me that being prepared for any number of possible situations is better than being unprepared for them. E.g., I'd rather have spare tools in my truck if it breaks down than to be stranded without tools.
3) I don't know precisely what tomorrow will bring. Anything could happen or nothing could happen. I don't spend my time worrying or biting my nails. What will be will be. I place my faith and trust in Christ. I simply hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
4) Although I do generally prepare for myself and family I can also picture a situation where my stash of food could save the lives of others. In other words, if a major catastrophe occurred near my abode but I wasn't affected I would be willing to supply the victims of that event with food if it meant the difference between life and death. May God's will be done in all things. Christ left us with two Great Commandments. Love God and love thy neighbor.
5) I have two hobbies that keep my mind occupied during my rare times of leisure. One of my hobbies is knife collecting and the other is prepping. I don't necessarily collect knives with the expectation that I will get in a knife fight with a crazed man or an angry grizzly bear. I simply collect them because I enjoy it. It's a hobby and an investment. Prepping may have a more practical purpose but I don't necessarily expect that hoards of starving, criminally-minded lunatics are going to surround my home and ravage my family, me, and my food supply. In my opinion, the chances of that happening is slim. There is a greater chance that we (Americans) could suffer a major economic collapse which will certainly have far reaching implications. As a kid, I heard my mom and dad speak of the Great Depression and the struggle to survive during that troublesome period. It happened then and it could happen again in the future. If I have a reason for storing more than a few months' supply of food that would be the reason.
As for storing water in glass? I personally believe it's more practical to store it in plastic. Plastic is more durable, lighter, and less expensive and I'm not too concerned about the chemicals that may be leached from the plastic. The city's tap water is probably full of more dangerous chemicals. That's why we have three Berkey Water Filters which remove 99.999% of all impurities.
I'm an imperfect man. My preps are probably just as imperfect and/or inadequate. I'm probably more prepared than most of the world's population but far under-prepared when compared to folks who live deep in the woods with underground bunkers and 5000 gallon water storage containers and emergency helicopters. I can only afford what I can afford. Rich, I'm not!
Speaking of filtering Water: One of these in a backpack (including other ER supplies_ in the trunk of a vehicle might not be a bad idea: It's called LIFESTRAW
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