I'd bet that more than a few folks are curious about your curiosity.
Ya see, without opsec, it ain't really opsec.
'net anonymity is a myth
Posted on 11/01/2012 10:46:33 AM PDT by Joseph Harrolds
Just how prepared should you be to ride out a disaster, man-made or otherwise? For purposes of this thread, we'll define the various levels of "prepping" as follows, mostly dependent on how long you can "ride it out" before needing to leave your home or receive aid from the authorities:
Level 0: Nothin'. Your emergency supplies consist of half a box of Cheerios and a cigarette lighter. In case of disaster, you'll be first in line for some government-issue MREs and a seat at a football stadium.
Level 1: While you don't keep things at home with disasters in mind, you at least could live on the supplies in your cupboard & refrigerator (assume the electricity is the first thing to go, though) for a few days to a week. If the tap water stops flowing you're in trouble, though.
Level 2: You've thought about prepping to the extent that you have actually bought a fair amount of supplies with just that in mind. You have enough food and stored water to last a month, and you have at least the level of supplies suggested by FEMA at http://www.ready.gov/basic-disaster-supplies-kit. You routinely keep a survival kit in your vehicle...just in case.
Level 3: Serious prepping. Forget being prepared for the sorts of disasters that have struck this country in the past, you're prepared for worse, more hypothetical ones; nuclear terrorism, bio-terrorism, hyper-inflation, etc. Instead of a savings account or CDs, you have gold and silver. You have enough food and supplies to last a year...at least.
Level 4: It's not just a hobby, it's a lifestyle. You're ready for the End Times, full-blown nuclear war, a zombie apocalypse, the complete collapse of society, etc. You have the supplies, land, and skills to make it on your own (or with the help of your friends/family/survival group) for the rest of your life. You either live on a survival retreat already or plan to go there when TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) strikes.
So the question is, which category do you most closely fit, and do you aspire to a higher (or lower) category?
I'm around level 2 myself, and would like to get to about 2.5 or so.
At least a 2-1/2. Food, water, medicine, generator, solar, cocked & locked & ready to rock.
I would have to be veeeeery selective. Like I said, it is a small generator. It's big enough for the refrigerator, the furnace blower and maybe a couple of lights. I think it is around 1000 watt peak. A local store was having a sale for $99 on it so I picked it up with plans of buying a bigger one later.
Also, there's a difference between opening up the switch powering the furnace, unscrewing the hot and neutral wires and electrical taping them to an extension cord to keep from freezing vs. opening up the breaker box to disconnect my house from the grid unless I was expecting power to be out for a long time. I would like to get an electrician in to isolate a few circuits for emergency use and be able to switch those between the main grid and a generator.
Fortunately all three times I've had power outages over 24 hours have been during the summer and only one of those (also hurricane Ike) was widespread enough where stores got stripped of ice so I lost my refrigerator contents.
We love our natural gas generator. I have lived in the mid-atlantic region for over 20 years and while we have lost electric and water, never natural gas. Doesn't mean it can't happen, it is just the most reliable utility.
The generator starts up and runs for a few minutes every week. We keep extra coolant and oil on hand, as well as a back up battery for extended outages. I check the status panel every week to make sure there are green lights across the board and we top off oil and coolant before upcoming storms. Twice a year, the maintenance people come to check it - an added expense but worth it. It's just like taking the car in for a tune up and oil change periodically. In fact, the generator engine IS a car engine.
The generator comes on automatically after 30 seconds without power and shuts off when power is restored. It runs our whole house. Natural gas is cheap right now. Our life is only interrupted for the 30 seconds where we sit and look at each other saying, "hey - is that a power outage?"
One thing on our next-prep list is a battery back up for the sump pumps. While we chose to live on the high ground so don't have to worry about an actual flood, in an extended outage in heavy rain or snow, we may have to shut the generator down to cool off before we can add oil or coolant. Wet basements can happen even on the high ground.
Our natural gas generator isn't the ultimate solution for the ultimate zom-poc (that's what our mountain retreat is for). But it (along with long term food and water storage solutions that I've been practicing and refining since September 12, 2001) has gotten us through Snowmageddon, Son-of-Snowmageddon, numerous tropical and summer storms, that crazy 20 minute hurricane-like storm earlier in the summer, and finally Sandy. Prepping has become such a way of life that I never stop thinking about it any more than I stop thinking about what I'm going to feed the family for dinner. In fact I'd say it has become my favorite and most satisfying hobby.
Big thanks to Kart for all his work here on FR - I am always adding to my knowledge thanks to his efforts!
I also would like to salute Kartographer. Glad there is a prepper community on FR.
I was always a massive calorie burner and I know very well the need of calories, I was the guy that would trade his C-ration peaches and fruit cocktail for the calorie dense, but less desirable, fruit cake.
Many of those prisoners were not always getting 1100 calories, and it took them a long time to die, we also learned that young men starve quicker than older men, because the older man’s furnace doesn’t burn so hot, and can better adapt to low calories.
I praised the rice and Spam as a great start, and hoped that I did an adequate job of making clear that I knew it’s limitations and inadequacies.
I want to show people how easy it is to get started, and how for little money and trouble, they can instantly transform themselves from none preppers, or preppers in sentiment only, into having a month or twos worth of long term storage foods, with a single visit to the grocery store.
In recent years my preparedness interest is in getting people to get their feet wet, to get them to break the ice by getting started with some simple storage items rather than waiting to make the single, bulk purchase of freeze dried foods, or to makeover their personal lives into becoming bulk shoppers who rotate everything.
White rice and Spam is a great start, besides, double, triple, quadruple the portions, since we are only talking about it.
I was only making an example of how long term, last ditch, survival preparations, are in reach of everyone.
“Wet basements can happen even on the high ground.”
Do you have gutters?
I added gutters connected to PVC drain tile to a dry well to get the water away from my foundation. This should correct your water problem if you are on high ground. There was a tremendous amount of water that would run off my roof and then down my foundation and eventually leak onto my basement floor. The gutters took care of 90% of it. I added draintile pipe to get it 20’ away from the house and now my basement is always dry.
BTW, I didn't drag those 4000 calories a day in from my monthly or bi-monthly trips to town. Lots of those calories came from local area forage.
Prepping is a mindset and skillsets as well as what you have in your hand. The nice thing about the mountain experience is that it taught me that I can thrive without too much in material posessions.
The experience did drive me to study my chemistry, geology, and biology a little harder than I would have without it. It can be important to know what kinds of rocks can do what kinds of things. ;)
/johnny
Yes, for that size, it would hardly be worth the trouble.
My 5,500 kW is 120/240V. It added convince of lots of items running, but also creates the problem of being a bigger gasoline hog. By the 5th day, it was getting hard to find gas stations with both fuel and electricity to pump it.
“a water collection system “
Sadly, IIRC, I think they’ve become illegal (or almost illegal) in some areas. I think they’re monitored, discouraged, and/or taxed. California comes to mind. Not positive, but that comes to mind.
We do have gutters. But while we are on the high ground, it isn’t the highest ground - our neighbor to the east is slightly higher and we get his run-off. We’ve tried all sorts of things over the years with limited success (and it’s an old house). So far the sump-pumps have been the best solution.
Short term disasters, I'm good.
TEOTWAWKI? Might fall a bit short after a month or so...
Mine comes from the roof via pvc pipe through a filter system and into storage containers in my garage. The only thing visible is the pvc pipe at the back and side of the garage and it looks like gutters unless you are right up on it.
Sounds like a good plan. When we were house hunting in Tennessee, we noticed that several homes had rain barrels and generators. It didn’t take us long after moving to know why; utilities aren’t stable in our neck of the woods. I have to look up my husband’s office number, but I sure know the the electric utility ‘s number.
Only goes to level 4?
I'd bet that more than a few folks are curious about your curiosity.
Ya see, without opsec, it ain't really opsec.
'net anonymity is a myth
I posted shortly before heading off to work. Nothing sinister, I assure you :-)
(this reply made from my phone)
Thanks for the valuable information.
LOL .. cheers
And yes, I have supplies in my car. Who's to know that you would be safely at home when disaster strikes?
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