Posted on 01/01/2013 3:54:53 AM PST by Kartographer
It’s the Little Things That Matter: 100 Survival Items To Help Keep A Sense of Normality and Sanity After the Collapse
Bullets…check. Beans…check. Band Aids…check. The list goes on and on sometimes doesn’t it? As preppers, we all are stockpiling the items and supplies that we plan on needing if and when it hits the fans. We all need to make sure we can eat, drink, protect ourselves from the elements and defend what needs to be defended. However, today I found myself thinking of things that weren’t on my “Need in order to survive” list. Little things that we all take for granted today, but someday, we may look back and think how simple it would have been to pick up a couple of those items when they are no longer on a store shelf near you.
(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...
Well, that's me, that is all I do as I don't have a life (and that's the way I want it). You must have a life and do stuff. Check with me and I can tell you what is happening in the world by the second. I think a lot and I write articles for a survival website and take care of my little Yorkie.
In my spare time, I check with Johnny to remind him to wear pants, or tell him to look for them so he CAN wear them. He's a true mountain man and there's not much one can do with one of those - he is what he is.
LOL. Well I think they need to be more exposed and cooler temps. Like the refrigerator or an unheated bedroom.
You probably grew a lot of botulism. LOL.
Well, yeh. My Hubby is still here and I baby sit daily with my Grand daughter, and do volunteer work at the health care center, and garden. Add in my time on FR and that’s a pretty full schedule. LOL.
As to “pants” isn’t there a saying: Clothes make the man? On the other hand, that empty suit in a chair makes a powerful case to the contrary!LOL.
I then did some testing with a separate system, a 700 ah battery bank running an inverter. The batteries were fully charged from a generator. The ambient temperature was 20F. I attempted to run some electrical devices such as a small vacuum cleaner. Due to the cold, presumably, the current draw was way up and the cold batteries/inverter couldn't supply the start-up surge current for the motor. It runs in the summer no problem.
So in the winter, around here, I pretty much have to leave batteries out of the equation and depend on fuel only. Sucks, but that's the way it is.
Even our R/C helicopters with their lipoly batteries won't fly worth a crap when it's real cold.
You do have a winter problem with batteries and I'm sorry it is like that for you.
Life of the batteries will be best if you do what the telephone company does with theirs. Keep them inside and keep them near 76F. The oldest telecom batteries I saw were in jars that sorta looked like Lyden jars on special shelving. 30 years old.
Be careful with your batteries. They are living, breathing critters.
In the mountains, all I had was solar and batteries. 80 amps, in full sun on a cold winter day. The batteries stayed warmer than I did.
/johnny
/johnny
HaHa.
Lad, I don't know where you've been, but I see you won first prize.
/johnny
I always chuckle when I read “Don’t charge a frozen battery”. Yeah, that’s true, but don’t let it get discharged/frozen in the first place.
One of my banks was in the water heater closet but it got kicked out. No good answer right now to the ambient storage issue except keep plenty of gas for the generators esp. in the winter. Charging the batteries will warm them but it’s hard to get enough current to do that with a bank.
It was scary the other cold morning when our power went off for just three hours or so. Stayed in bed hoping power would come back on and just when I reluctantly got up and started to get dressed, it came on. We can’t afford an automatic standby system but I was all ready in my mind what to hook up where. We have a propane fireplace for the living room so heat at least in that part of the house for a week or so would not be a problem.
That's damn hard on the battery. You can get small heat strips that will keep the batteries warm. Sure it uses power, and they rate them for 120VAC... They are resistors. Measure the resistance, do the E=I*R and P=I*E math and wire 'em for 12 or 24 volts, whatever your bank is running. Beats replacing batteries every 5 years.
Hell, even cooks can do that basic math.
Some cooks. On good days. ;)
That solar panel bank and battery bank was literally all I had for electric power for almost 2 years. I certainly didn't quit freeping when it was -18F outside.
/johnny
HaHa. Kilt is a word meaning dead where I came from.
Technically, that's true here, if you use phonetic speeling.
But if I was going to get kilt, it would have happened 45 years ago in the neighbor's roses, with his daughter. He was unhappy with me, and threatened dreadful things. ;)
I expect I'll just expire of natural causes, and be in Heaven a full day before the media and the rest of hell knows I'm dead.
/johnny
How is “noxious” defined? Maybe there are other birds you could raise? Something like quail would be quiet and unobtrusive, but would still give you eggs and meat. (the eggs would be about 1/3 the size of a chicken egg, but you could fit a lot more laying birds in a small space.)
Just a thought.
You got big quail, wherever you are from. I've stolen quail eggs from nests on the ground around here and they are about the size of large lemon drops.
/johnny
I expect you are correct.
My Granny’s 3rd husband raised quail. I think it would be eaiser to get them to accept 3 pet chickens.LOL.
Pants? Do you mean little girl under garments, or trousers?
Oh, forgot when I asked about noxious - they said you know like pigs. I said well, I am not planning on raising any pigs.
No one said anything about goats or chickens or rabbits. I figure one acre minus the land taken up by the house and drive could support some bunnies, 2 o r 3 chickens and a goat. Eggs, Cereal, and Milk for breakfast, and bunny stew for supper.
She could have small chickens.
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