How many people here are prepared for an emergency?

wooddustmaker · Jan 12, 2014

Living in areas where Mother Nature has certain patterns can make a big difference in how, and what needs to be planned for.

It is amazing how animal people will help each others out in times of crisis. That is a good thing.

Marianne · Jan 13, 2014

We're fairly prepared, but illumination would be an issue in short order. Plenty of dry and canned goods, hand pump on one of the wells, firewood for heating and cooking, but not much in the way of candles and lamps. When I mention it, I get 'the look'. Funny where some guys draw the line...

hqueen13 · Jan 13, 2014

I get the same sort of look from the bf, Marianne when I talk about losing power and needing water. There currently isn't a way to hook the well up to a generator and the bf doesn't seem to be concerned about how we'll flush toilets or cook or wash dishes, or most of all how the horses will be watered with no wells running.
We definitely need to do more to stock up on things like batteries, but I worry most about heat and water.

Marianne · Jan 13, 2014

I know, it's so frustrating sometimes. I got lucky on the wells - one is an old, hand dug well that has a handle crank pump that someone converted to electrical years ago. DH looked at it and said it wouldn't take much for it to be usable in a pinch.
We only have 4 little goats and a couple flocks of hens, so it wouldn't be too much hauling for them. Hauling for our baths, etc? Different deal. I won't haul water to flush a toilet. A five gallon bucket and a toilet seat will have to suffice. Oh, and a pail of crushed leaves to put over your business.

) I hope it never comes to that, but I can do it if I need to.

Britesea · Jan 13, 2014

We have a pretty good supply of canned and dried food on hand, a backup kerosene heater (but not enough kerosene stocked up yet), and enough water for about 3 weeks for drinking and cooking. I'd like to get some sort of manual pump for our well, but it's 125' deep which pretty much rules out the usual hand pump. In a pinch, I can haul buckets of water from the river about 100 yards away and filter it.
Right now, we would HAVE to go with the 5-gallon bucket toilet if we lost electricity for a significant amount of time; turned out the only place we could locate the new leach field was uphill from the septic tank so we have an electric pump to force everything uphill. A generator would help, but I'd rather build a sawdust toilet. I haven't figured out how we could take a shower or bath at this time either-- it's spit baths only for now, lol. It would be fairly simple to set up a solar heated outside shower for summer, but if we lost power in the winter?
For light we have a mantle lamp for the main room, oil lamps and candles, and a few battery-powered flashlights.

If we actually had to Bug Out (wildfire or volcanic eruption being the most likely causes), considering our decrepit, aging bodies I told DH that the Bug Out location should be an assisted living facility :lol:

Marianne · Jan 13, 2014

Britesea said:
We have a pretty good supply of canned and dried food on hand, a backup kerosene heater (but not enough kerosene stocked up yet), and enough water for about 3 weeks for drinking and cooking. I'd like to get some sort of manual pump for our well, but it's 125' deep which pretty much rules out the usual hand pump. In a pinch, I can haul buckets of water from the river about 100 yards away and filter it.
Right now, we would HAVE to go with the 5-gallon bucket toilet if we lost electricity for a significant amount of time; turned out the only place we could locate the new leach field was uphill from the septic tank so we have an electric pump to force everything uphill. A generator would help, but I'd rather build a sawdust toilet. I haven't figured out how we could take a shower or bath at this time either-- it's spit baths only for now, lol. It would be fairly simple to set up a solar heated outside shower for summer, but if we lost power in the winter?
For light we have a mantle lamp for the main room, oil lamps and candles, and a few battery-powered flashlights.

If we actually had to Bug Out (wildfire or volcanic eruption being the most likely causes), considering our decrepit, aging bodies I told DH that the Bug Out location should be an assisted living facility

LOL I couldn't get too far, either! LOL (I can't find the emoticon thingys yet) That's crappy that the leech field is UPhill from the tank.
We don't have a generator, hubs wants one, I can't justify it. We were without power for 8 days several years ago and woefully unprepared. Nearest town had no power, so no gasoline to run a generator anyway. I'd rather try to figure out ways to have what I need, versus what I want. That's not saying that I don't want creature comforts, but I don't need to run a television or a hairdryer, you know?

Denim Deb · Jan 13, 2014

Marianne, to find the emoticons, look in the reply box to the right. You'll see a smilie face. Click on that, and you'll get the emoticons.

Something that someone told me you can do for a shower is to get one of those 2 gallon pump sprayers like this. http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/groundworkreg;-pump-sprayer-with-brass-wand-2-gal Doesn't need any electricity to run, and is supposed to work well. I've never tried it, so I can't say for sure.

baymule · Jan 13, 2014

Marianne, we live in hurricane country and several years hurricane Ike came blasting through here. A huge 100 year old tree fell on the house, we were without power for weeks. We had a generator, the nearest gas pumps that worked were almost 100 miles away. The only thing that saved the freezer was that my boss sent out a driver every day with every ones gas cans. We had a locomotive engine turned into a generator at work and never lost a day's work. The gas runs helped too. If we would have had to go for gas ourselves, then the freezer would have been a total loss and the 1/2 calf we had just put in it. I guess what I am saying is that a generator doesn't help much if the whole area has no power and you can't buy gas.

wooddustmaker · Jan 13, 2014

For running a generator, looking at propane, or natural gas could help. Propane never goes bad, and the NG supply typically stays up, unless a break in a line occurs.

If you do look at a weed sprayer for a shower, if you paint it black, it will apsorb the heat from the sun better. It could end up being too hot if you are not careful.

unclejoe · Jan 13, 2014

Marianne said:
We're fairly prepared, but illumination would be an issue in short order....not much in the way of candles and lamps.

Solar landscape lights. They don't throw off a lot of light but if your completely in the dark, they seem mighty bright.
In the winter when there is less time for charging the batteries, make groups of 3-4 lights. Take the first group and let it charge all day. When the sun goes down, remove the battery so the light doesn't come on. When the sun comes up, put the battery back in and let them charge all day again. Even during the shorter days of winter you can get them up to full charge in 2-3 days. So if you have 3 groups of 4 lights, you'll always have a 4 unit group fully charged.

How many people here are prepared for an emergency?

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