lets discuss preps for disasters

[MossRoad]

i gotta ask about the lubed cotton balls. ?

Fire starter. Takes a spark or match real well and burns hot for several minutes. You can also put it in a layer of aluminum foil, poke a small hole in it, pull out a bit of cotton as a wick and use it for a small candle. :thumbsup:

Look it up on youtube. Pretty cool. We used them in Boy Scouts.

 

[MossRoad]

heck, if chlorinated.. might be safe as is.

Our pool is salt water. About the same level of salt as in human tears. 10 times less than the ocean. I think 3500 PPM. Anyhow, if the power is out, the salt water chlorine generator does not run. Therefore, the chlorine level starts to drop in a couple days (so does a chlorine pool). So, if I'm going on vacation, I'll pour in a gallon of Walmart bleach (8.5% sodium hypochlorite) and that'll keep the level up for a week with no power.

 

[MossRoad]

I've told this story before, but what the heck?

Back during the Y2K scare I was bringing in some food from the garden and offered some to my neighbor. He said something to the effect of shouldn't I be keeping it for my Y2K stash? I said something to the effect of "Nah, all I have to do is keep you fat." I smiled and walked away.....

 

[MossRoad]

and those jugs of frozen water.. in the end.. are water!

I'd put that water in clean 2 liter pop bottles and I'd add a couple drops of that 8.5% unscented bleach to it before freezing.

 

[s219]

Speaking of infinite shelf life. Bleach has already been mentioned. Countless uses.

Bleach actually degrades on its own, right in the bottle! It only has about a 6-9 month shelf life, all the while losing effectiveness. After a couple years, it will just be salt water in the bottle.

I use bleach to treat our well water, and don't stock up. It takes me about 6 months to go through a bottle, in which time any shelf stock would have lost effectiveness.

 

[GreenYellow]

Bleach actually degrades on its own, right in the bottle! It only has about a 6-9 month shelf life, all the while losing effectiveness. After a couple years, it will just be salt water in the bottle. I use bleach to treat our well water, and don't stock up. It takes me about 6 months to go through a bottle, in which time any shelf stock would have lost effectiveness.

Who'd a thunk it!? Good to know.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[MossRoad]

Wow.. every day, more great posts. lots of good points.

I actually have a friend that keeps a few FRS radios in aluminum fol wrapping faraday shielding.

Here's another thought. Most of us are talking short term preps ( which is what 99% of us, hopefully will ever need ).. but one onther long term thing that some forget is teamwork.

It's hard to stay up 24 hrs a day, guard the family, go hunt or gather supplies.

you need ( 100% trust your life/wife around ) trusted team members to take turns guarding and gathering.

It helps if your groups team members also each bring their own unique skills. IE.. our family/friendly group has members with medic and 1st responder training, engineering and electronics, tactical ( many members are former military ).. etc.

all those skills in tandem are as important as many of our other preps.

Man, I live on the outskirts of he** as far as society goes! :laughing: South Bend, IN is a heck hole and I can only imagine the chaos that would unfold there if there were no food for three days. I trust my wife, my kids, some of my immediate family (some not!), and maybe one of my neighbors (the one I keep fat). I'm gonna hunker in the bunker for as long as possible. :dance1:

 

[hutchman]

subscribed! Thumbs up on this thread!

 

[MossRoad]

I think most of this thread is weird. Talking about groups with different skills and not being able to stay up for 24 hours to guard the property. Too many movies?

We've done security rotations for 3-4 days during the aftermath of tornadoes. The most stolen item? Generators.

My mother's family down around Cincinnati have had to do security rotations after storms as well. Its not a laughing matter when it happens to you or your loved ones.

 

[MossRoad]

For the scoffers - July 2012.

Carrington-class CME Narrowly Misses Earth - NASA Science

That kind of stuff is so scary I choose to not look up! :laughing:

I was looking at the rings of Saturn two nights ago through a cheap telescope. Pretty cool! While I was getting used to the settings, I put it on the north star so I wouldn't have to keep adjusting it. Holy **** a shooting star went right across my field of vision in front of the north star. Now I realize that most shooting starts are pea-sized or less, you gotta wonder how many large rocks are just hurtling along and its over in an instant. Sleep well!