lets discuss preps for disasters

[dirt ditch]

Dirt Ditch - Well written, informative post.

As I read your scenario I can see you have learned the hard way; about prepping. I have never had to go through what has happened to you and your family. I will certainly take the tips that you have suggested inadvertently within your post. I am not prepped for anything like you described, but can see that everything you have described has purpose and should be heeded. I was shocked when you described FEMA as Marshal law though.... I hadn't really thought about that aspect happening as an aftermath. Interesting -that you incorporated that into your final thoughts when you closed your post.

Perhaps I need to do some sort of prepping, I am not prepared for any event of sorts, nor do I have any material to educate myself if resources aren't available. I have a handful of candles and a flashlight in the shop. I have no radio as you described ( had to Google FRS radio). Living in the country I do have chainsaws and camping gear (stove/axe/etc.). Generator is standard in these parts where I live as loss of power happens too frequently, every year. Guess I need to do something because I could only make it about a week if an event like yours came to my neck of the woods.

Actually if we did it like prepping for the end of the world I would not want to do it, and what good would it do. Like the people on the TV shows. I set and laughed watching those shows. People spending thousands and thousands of dollars on bunkers, weapons, food, and vehicles then want to be on TV showing everyone what they got and usually where it is. My favorite one was when the guy mad his own bulletproof vest out of floor tile. Yea, I'll hold his beer for him...

A smart budget and doing a little at a time works well. Like others that have posted before in this thread, we have a small well stocked pantry just by buying a little extra food for it when we could. Usually when it was on sale so we would save as much as possible. If a person has food stocks then they better stock up on TP. I don't know how Tarzan did it and I probably won't have to with a little planing. Now we have an emergency fund of cash. After our disaster it was some time before the local banks were open for business. Once in a while we buy a box or two of ammo and just set it back. Better safe than sorry with that. I got the FRS radios used on ebay from a good seller, 15 or 16 of them for about $40. They all work and most of them are FRS/GMRS. Have to have a license for GMRS, but the radios have the frequencies and I am sure no one gave a dang the night of our storm. After seeing what a tornado can do we now have an in ground tornado shelter. One sad event was a couple took shelter in their basement. The house blew away, then the wind picked up the guys vehicle and dropped it on top him down in the basement. It killed him.

As far as FEMA, I understand there has to be some control over what happens after a disaster. Marshal law was enacted as soon as the sun came up. Law enforcement from surrounding jurisdictions was brought in to set up roadblocks at every access point into town. Lots of rubberneckers needed to be turned away along with the thieves. But it really puts a burden on the local people who just want to get their property cleaned up and get on with their lives.

 

[dirt ditch]

I hope you had the kitchen exhaust powered with the generator or doors open AND battery powered CO detectors. You don't know you are fatally poisoned by CO until it is too late. Camp stoves are not typically rated for indoor use and give off CO, unlike a rated indoor stove. Be safe.

Ummm, an indoor propane stove is no different than an outdoor one. Both give off CO. That's why they advise against using an open gas oven to heat your house.
Aaron Z

I appreciate you looking out for us. We do have CO detectors upstairs and downstairs. If we have to cook on the camp stove it is always a quick easy meal so the stove is on for just a few minutes. It's never used for heating the house. Those little screw on bottles are way too expensive for that. We normally heat with wood but there are 2 ventless propane wall heaters in the house for backup (1 upstairs & 1 downstairs). so if we are not home the pipes wont freeze.

 

[Sprinklerman]

I have a driven well for my irrigation system , I also have a hand pitcher pump for just in case .

 

[s219]

dirt ditch, your story reminded me what it was like after Hurricane Isabel here -- took us a couple hours to make it the 14 miles to my mother in law's house to check on her (multiple trees down on her car and house, so we were anxious to get there). It was a real battle zone, and I cut more trees that day than I can remember, alongside National Guard crews and other people we met along the way. At the time I had my dad's old chainsaw which was really outgunned, and that started my modern chainsaw arms race (like my own personal chainsaw cold war -- me against the wood). Now I am so ready with saws and gear it's crazy. And now we live near water and could boat over to my mother in law's place to check on her, though I am not sure how safe that would be with all the debris in the water after storms. Anyway, you did a good job describing how intense and crazy things get after a natural disaster. Those are days I will never forget. Went through much of the same after Hurricane Irene in 2011, but thankfully nothing real bad since then.

 

[dirt ditch]

s219, that is funny about the chainsaw arms race. I did the same thing. Only had a Poulan at the time. Cut down and trimmed up several trees for my dad and granddad with it. Tree trunks got old real fast with that Poulan. Now I have 3 Stihl chainsaws, a tractor, and a skid steer with a root grapple. Hope I never have to go through that again but I am better prepared than I was.

 

[TnAndy]

We prep, but we also live a self reliant lifestyle raising 80% of our food....2-1/4ac gardens, 2 greenhouses that extends our growing to nearly year round, raise and home process our beef, pork, chicken and catfish+ venison. Built 'auxiliary' kitchen off back of garage with 6x6' walk in cooler to hang meat during processing. Can extensively (3 canners, two hold 7qt jars, big AA canner holds 20 qt jars at a run), 8x10 root cellar for veggie/fruit storage. 6 freezers (mostly 7-9cuft), empty and shut down as we use them up during the winter. Between what we raise + dried grains + Mt House cases, I'd guess we have 3 years of food in stock most of the time.

Photo today from one house. Green beans about a week out from first picking, we'll pick a couple bushels out of these over the next month or so.

Lettuce and spinach that will go on all winter:

3 hogs hanging in the walk-in cooler one year:

Water is gravity fed spring with 3,000gal of storage all the time + drilled well backup.

Power is grid, but have 11kw solar that feeds the grid now producing a surplus.... (they owe us $813 currently), and 6kw of it will operate off grid with the flip of a transfer switch, w/battery back up. Generators: 4kw, 5kw, 8kw.

Fuel: Two 300gal elevated tanks in shed, one gas, one diesel, put 6-55gal drums gas and 9-55gal drums of diesel, 2-55gal drums kerosene. All preserved with PRI-G&D.

Heat is wood, with small propane backup (wall heater). Burn 6 cords/yr, and have 18 cords cut/split/in dry. Cooktop is propane, water heater is propane, have wood cookstove w/oven for backup. Use about 350gal of propane/yr, and keep 3 -500gal tanks (2 full, never use) + dozen 100lb tanks (23gal).

Two of four firewood sheds. Hold 4 cords each.

Well stocked armory, plenty of stored feed for it, and plenty of reloading components/equipment. Location is pretty defensible as well....small valley between two mountain ranges, one way in at upper end, and lower end. We live off to one side at the end of a small, dead end road, surrounded by mountains/USFS property.

One of the reasons I build so many things around the place is most of our property is mountain land with timber. I bought a Woodmizer mill in 1991, and haven't quit building here yet.

 

[TomSeller]

Ummm, an indoor propane stove is no different than an outdoor one. Both give off CO. That's why they advise against using an open gas oven to heat your house.

Aaron Z

The indoor rated ranges are calibrated to burn more efficiently to be used in homes. Camp stoves are made for outdoor use, so not as we'll built or efficient. More importantly, however is the camp stove maker's often (if not always) rate their units "not for indoor use". So if you die of CO poisoning in your home because of a defective unit your family's lawyer has little to work with, whether the unit is defective or not.

 

[s219]

We prep, but we also live a self reliant lifestyle raising 80% of our food....2-1/4ac gardens, 2 greenhouses that extends our growing to nearly year round, raise and home process our beef, pork, chicken and catfish+ venison. Built 'auxiliary' kitchen off back of garage with 6x6' walk in cooler to hang meat during processing. Can extensively (3 canners, two hold 7qt jars, big AA canner holds 20 qt jars at a run), 8x10 root cellar for veggie/fruit storage. 6 freezers (mostly 7-9cuft), empty and shut down as we use them up during the winter. Between what we raise + dried grains + Mt House cases, I'd guess we have 3 years of food in stock most of the time.

Nice setup -- that must have been quite an investment in time and sweat to get where you are today, but it's great.

 

[TnAndy]

Nice setup -- that must have been quite an investment in time and sweat to get where you are today, but it's great.

33 years into a 50 year project. My goal is for the NEXT guy not to have it too hard.......ahahhaaaaaa

 

[MossRoad]

As far as using a camp stove indoors goes, besides CO there is another concern. If the flame goes out, your house fills with propane. And camp stoves are notorious for losing a flame. I wouldn't use one inside. I'd cook the meal outside or in the unattached garage with plenty of ventilation.

As for the CO, if your range hood vent is working, that'll probably take care of it, but if your cooking on a camp stove in your kitchen, your power's probably out and your range vent probably isn't working either.

Just cook it outside.

 

[Garycw]

One nice advantage of propane as fuel source is it Never goes bad.

 

[TnAndy]

One nice advantage of propane as fuel source is it Never goes bad.

Yep....that's why I keep a bunch of it.

 

[Raspy]

We never really know just what the "disaster" might be. But I'm much happier to be in the country rather than the city. There is no way I want to depend on city infrastructure during a long term power failure and no way I want to deal with the social breakdown that seems to go along with emergencies. Here, I can always get water from the well, shoot rabbit or deer if needed, and go for a very long time on the propane and fuel oil I have on hand for cooking and running the generator a bit. We seem to always have several cords of wood ready to go too. Plus I know my neighbors much better than I did in the city.

As long as things were not too chaotic, working with neighbors to manage the problem by trading items and making meals, etc, would be a big help. It's when some nut job decides the problem is a license to to panic and steal all he wants that it will get weird. A managed temporary problem is no big deal compared to a longer term breakdown, such as a major war or grid failure or oil crisis.

So many folks I talk to think we are on the edge of a complete national breakdown and monetary crisis. Not me. It's comforting to have resources on hand for the unexpected, but it's also much better to plan on success than failure. The doomsayers, ready to "bug out" at any moment, just look ridiculous and spend so much of their resources prepping for a day that they'll never see. And if it really does come and is as bad as they predict, they're toast anyway. As an example, there are folks that spent a fortune on the Y2K thing in ways that bought them nothing or would not have sustained them if it would have been a problem. Now, so many are terrified of the President and convinced doomsday is right around the corner. All based on irrational fears. Sheesh.

 

[Soundguy]

I have a foot locker that is lined with 1/16" lead I recovered from a contract I had to remodel a former health clinic...the radiology(x-ray) room had been shielded with sheetrock that had the lead sheets laminated onto it...even the door to the room had a sheet of lead in it...!...the "glass" the tech looked through was lead crystal...!

The locker makes a great place to stash vulnerable electronic stuff...

BTW...every elec. outlet box had special (lead) liners...and every drywall screw had special little lead things (for lack of a better word) that were pasted into the heads before they were mudded over...

nice find on the reclaimed lead. Hard to find any good scrap lead around here, especially now that wheel weights are some california safe junk..

Did they make you jump thru any hoops taking out the lead. Have to wear a space suit or anything?

 

[Soundguy]

Nope, I think it were the National Geographic channel.

Yes, I think you are correct.. I think I remember the yellow logo now. memory was fuzzy, thanks.

 

[EddieWalker]

We prep, but we also live a self reliant lifestyle raising 80% of our food....2-1/4ac gardens, 2 greenhouses that extends our growing to nearly year round, raise and home process our beef, pork, chicken and catfish+ venison. Built 'auxiliary' kitchen off back of garage with 6x6' walk in cooler to hang meat during processing. Can extensively (3 canners, two hold 7qt jars, big AA canner holds 20 qt jars at a run), 8x10 root cellar for veggie/fruit storage. 6 freezers (mostly 7-9cuft), empty and shut down as we use them up during the winter. Between what we raise + dried grains + Mt House cases, I'd guess we have 3 years of food in stock most of the time.

Thank you for posting your pics and sharing what you are doing. I showed my wife and she kept saying over and over again that's what she wants. Eventually she hopes to be able to work full time from home and focus on her gardens, but for now, we are still in the getting it all set up stage.


As for cooking inside, I have several different types of camping stoves that I would only use outdoors on the patio. We have plans to build an outdoor kitchen that could be used for cooking meals if we lost electricity. I would think that most meals would be cooked on the BBQ since there is an unlimited supply of wood and no matter how much fuel we saved for camping stoves, it will run out eventually. I don't want to store a bunch of propane when firewood will do the job and it's everywhere.

 

[TnAndy]

Thank you for posting your pics and sharing what you are doing. I showed my wife and she kept saying over and over again that's what she wants. Eventually she hopes to be able to work full time from home and focus on her gardens, but for now, we are still in the getting it all set up stage.

Takes a lot of time to get anywhere close.....as I said above, we're 33 years into a 50 year project....no joking.

Wife worked 33 years at a local school system, retired a couple years back. I worked there too for 8 years (taught shop), then moved back to self employed construction. Together, we spent a lot of time over those years turning this place from a raw hunk of mountain land into something that fit us. We've gotten 10 years worth of previous projects into the last 3-4 since we are both here full time now, so if you stay healthy, there's a LOT to look forward to. 60's are the new 40's, it seems....ahahahaaa....I don't remember my grandpa doing near the stuff we do.

 

[/pine]

nice find on the reclaimed lead. Hard to find any good scrap lead around here, especially now that wheel weights are some california safe junk..

Did they make you jump thru any hoops taking out the lead. Have to wear a space suit or anything?

Nobody said anything about the lead...but the architect had a note in the specs that the ceiling tiles should be tested for asbestos before any demo...so that was figured into the bid...

 

[MossRoad]

Thank you for posting your pics and sharing what you are doing. I showed my wife and she kept saying over and over again that's what she wants. Eventually she hopes to be able to work full time from home and focus on her gardens, but for now, we are still in the getting it all set up stage.


As for cooking inside, I have several different types of camping stoves that I would only use outdoors on the patio. We have plans to build an outdoor kitchen that could be used for cooking meals if we lost electricity. I would think that most meals would be cooked on the BBQ since there is an unlimited supply of wood and no matter how much fuel we saved for camping stoves, it will run out eventually. I don't want to store a bunch of propane when firewood will do the job and it's everywhere.

The make a nice cooking trivet for that wood stove, too.

Cook Mate for Napoleon 1400 and 1900 Pedestal Models

Although I often wonder if I want bacon grease splattering around my wood stove. :laughing:

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

We prep, but we also live a self reliant lifestyle raising 80% of our food....2-1/4ac gardens, 2 greenhouses that extends our growing to nearly year round, raise and home process our beef, pork, chicken and catfish+ venison. Built 'auxiliary' kitchen off back of garage with 6x6' walk in cooler to hang meat during processing. Can extensively (3 canners, two hold 7qt jars, big AA canner holds 20 qt jars at a run), 8x10 root cellar for veggie/fruit storage. 6 freezers (mostly 7-9cuft), empty and shut down as we use them up during the winter. Between what we raise + dried grains + Mt House cases, I'd guess we have 3 years of food in stock most of the time.

Photo today from one house. Green beans about a week out from first picking, we'll pick a couple bushels out of these over the next month or so.

Andy, that is so awesome how self reliant you folks are. I would say that less than 0.001% might be as prepared as you guys are.