Weekly Preppers' Thread

9/4/15 | kartographer

[SkyPilot]

Since you are a child of God, you know that He protects those who are His. Here are some things I feel He has called me to do these past couple months:

1. Get right with God, confess and repent of any secret sin

2. Water - have it! Bottled water. You can also purchase 5 gal collapsible jugs or hard plastic storage systems.

3. Be like Old Testament Joseph and store food in your barns now; dried foods, canned food, pasta, rice, fruit, vegetables, oats, nuts, etc

4. Have alternate sources for power, heat, and light (generators, fireplace, wood stove, oil lamps, flashlights with new Batteries, etc).

5. Have some cash on hand.

[Shadowstrike]

I stored dry cat food in a five gallon bucket with a mylar bag, and it lasted 2 years without problem, but I kept it in a “cool” room that didn’t get much sun.

Hope that helps.

[Iron Munro]

Johnny,

What are the brands or sources for that washer and dryer in your post?

Thanks

[Shadowstrike]

you might want to be a little better to the cats, had a Tuxedo (who past almost 2 years ago) who was a darn good hunter, brough home more than one REALLY big rabbit. Course, one of them had kicked her in the face, might be why she wanted him so bad.

[mumblypeg]

My friend has the first greenhouse shown in your link. She loves it, but she’s not a prepper, she’s a hobby gardener. IMO these are rather pricey, good for starting seedlings but way too small to grow hothouse veggies in winter, if that’s what you’re looking for.
A less expensive alternative is rectangular raised beds, constructed with 2x4s. Then in winter you can put hoop houses over them. You just use several flexible PVC pipes, bent into dome shapes, stabilized with 3 straight PVC attached horizontally, one on each side and at top. Then cover with greenhouse plastic, and you’ve got a hothouse for winter growing.
The raised beds mean I don’t need to bend as much for ground crops.
One negative: raised beds need to be hand watered with a hose; can’t lay a soaker hose.
Also, what I do, is leave the hoops on year round, but cover in spring with bird netting. Keeps the bunnies and birds from eating all my food.

To keep from feeling guilty, I plant a few extra goodies round about, especially for the little critters.

[mumblypeg]

Oops, meant to include you,in my post # 45.
Please forgive me, Grumpy. When I’m Sleepy I tend to get Dopey.

[Hardens Hollow]

Don’t know if this is the right thread, but I’ve been having canning failures.

I have had literally ONE failure using ball metal lids over the last 4 or 5 years.

then I bought tattler ez seal lids- presumably you are able to use the exact same technique as with traditional lids. the first batch I had 1 can not seal, the 2nd batch had 3!

after the first failure, I did tighten the rings on the tattler lids a but more-perhaps causing the 3 failures. I’m thinking I should’ve instead have loosened the rings a but, as was needed in the tattler lids before the ez seals were invented.

anyone know?

[JRandomFreeper]

http://www.simplygoodstuff.com/dual-tub-washer.html

This is a website with the washer.

The dryer is a Panda(tm) model that I found on sale.

I spent about a week looking for this stuff at a decent price.

/johnny

[Iron Munro]

Thanks Johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

My 2 catz are indoor only catz. They never, ever go outside.

They wouldn't know what to do with a rabbit.

BTW, there are NO squirrels around this part of the neighborhood. Burp....

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

I'm glad I took the time to do the research. I'm very, very happy with the setup.

When I got really sick, I wound up paying cash for each load of laundry. I couldn't afford that, so I bought one time and can afford that...

/johnny

[metmom]

Check the Tattler website.

They’ve changed their recommendations for using the lids a couple times.

I’ve gotten some emails from them about it.

I had a few failures as well. I am using the regular lids for most of the time. I figure the tattler ones would be good for a SHTF scenario where regular lids cannot be had any more.

And I do have a nice stock of the regular ones.

[cherry]

Fred Meyer's has their 24 per case water sale....$2.50...also, I recently read that distilled water last longer than regular bottled water, and its actually slightly cheaper at FM's at least....

what's the rule....1gal/per day/per person?

[cherry]

I've at least stopped buying paper towels...next, I want to go back to all cloth napkins...good cotton ones that will wash well, not the silky fancy ones...

I don't know about the tp....

I guess we could do without tissues...

[Kartographer]

1 gallon per person per day.

[Patriot Babe]

Here we go James. Funny there isn’t that much for animal prepardness but here is a link to the Humane Society. I would stock up on their food by first getting a pail or bucket to store it and get a vacuum sealer perhaps using a mylar bag or some sort.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/animal_rescue/tips/pet_disaster_preparedness_kit.html?credit=web_id354243830

[tet68]

Just a heads up, Sportsman’s Guide has army surplus
new unused gasoline powered immersion heaters for sale.
These will work to heat up a bath or hot tub.
Tank holds two gallons, comes with flue, manual,
and sells for $116, and there is free shipping this
weekend on items over 79 dollars.

We used these in Nam to heat GI cans of water to clean mess
gear in.

I have a large poly tank I plan to turn into a
Japanese Ofuru or Hot bath.
Sure miss that from my time in Japan.

Might order another one, these don’t come around
every day.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for posting the Three Sisters story. I knew of the method, native American tradition, however not the story telling.

Preppers need to study this method and put away seeds. It is the most simplest gardening method, productive and easy to preserve over the winter months.

The generator type system you are proposing is really a modified solar electric system. I am investigating roof mount panels to add to my backup system.

I have just updated my modified sine wave inverter to sine wave and have had an eight battery storage system going on decades. I use the generator to charge the batteries.

The solar panels will provide most of the power for minimal (well, refrigeration, coms, led lights, remote sensors) electricity. The generator is for those times the batteries need conditioning or extended cloud cover. We have a lot of that in western PA.

Next year I will complete my final plans of burying a 500 gallon propane tanks. Fuel is hard to store. Propane is a good back up for cooking, drying, hot water (with evacuated tube solar hot water), and electrical generation.

Batteries and inverters are pricey with cables, transfer switches, DC breakers and a few other items added into the mix. This is the basis for power generation and storage.

Here is a general schematic of a stand alone system.



I don't particularly care for wind generators. There are numerous concerns such as icing, high winds, noise, bird blending and maintenance.

[PA Engineer]

They’ve changed their recommendations for using the lids a couple times.

Thanks for the info and heads up. I do have tattlers in my backups. I never got emails about the problem.

[PA Engineer]

I purchased a number of these and use them by color coding. One is for dishes, another for windows and a different color for the shop. They are reusable and we have cut way down on paper towels.

Microfiber Cleaning Cloth - 24 Pack