With 5 kids, the youngest being 3, bugging in is our primary response.
We have (5) 55 gallon drums of water, along with a 30.
We have a berkey filter and several other filtration methods as well.
Gen set with gas.
Porta potti when the sewage stops.
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With 5 kids, the youngest being 3, bugging in is our primary response.
We have (5) 55 gallon drums of water, along with a 30.
We have a berkey filter and several other filtration methods as well.
Gen set with gas.
Porta potti when the sewage stops.
I am pretty thankful for my home location because all my essential resources are renewable. I still have two big prep items left: build my greenhouse, and connect my generator to my water pump. I have enough water storage to last me through a summer if my well were to fail with standing water adjacent to my property. I have abundant game (I can hunt from my deck with a bow every day of the week) and a smoker if needed so I just need to be able to grow vegetables and can in order to replenish my food supply. I completely heat my home with wood and I live in a thick wooded area with plenty of resources. I generally have about 200 gallons of gasoline and another 10 gallons of diesel as well as plenty of propane. If I do go into a bug-in scenario, then I will begin the process of cutting all vegetation within 100 yards of my house and initiating my fire mitigation strategy. I live in an isolated area that can easily be cut off from the world, and I have some really good neighbors to defend our little corner of the mountain, which has no nonresident traffic; the resources in the area should easily support me as well as my neighbors for at least five years. I still have a lot of work to do, but I can easily live in my home for a very long time as of today. My most substantial threats are illness and fire.
I wouldn't want to live in the city; but if I did, I would seriously harden my house. I would have all steal on steal frame reinforced doors with redundant locking mechanisms and I would have bars on all my first floor windows. All breach points would require significant time to entry increasing your response time. A sheet of precut plywood for each window would be a good idea so you can plug the hole when it breaks (plexiglass with caulking works really well too if the window has bars and you still want to have vision); additional lumber storage would be a great idea as well as a means to cut and fasten it including hardware for repairs. As mentioned earlier, water and sewage are serious problems. I would have the building materials to capture water, and I would consider getting a portable restroom and store it. I would definitely cut off my sewage line if it was on the city sewage; if it backs up, your house is unlivable and you would be forced to leave. I would only live in a house that had a fireplace or wood stove. If it had a fireplace, I would put an insert in it. I would keep as much wood as can be stored on the lot. Resources in an urban and most suburban situations are not renewable. Eventually, your food will run out and you will come out and play. At this point you will be at the mercy of your gang so you will be reliant on the social groups you build. When I lived in Aurora, I developed a friendship with a group of friends down the street; they had my back and I had theirs. These people become your biggest resource.
One thing I forgot: My suburban house had trees. I had fruit trees as well as shade trees. The fruit trees of course provided food; the shade trees provided fuel if needed; I had a wood stove. I also had an established garden. If you live in the city, hopefully, you have a privacy fence and plant both fruit and shade trees and cultivate a garden plot.
Second thing I forgot to mention: I keep a couple of cases of caulking. If your house leaks, you will lose it.
^ good stuff.. I like the pre cut board for your window idea.
Whoa, MED, you know a lot about this stuff. Thank you for sharing! I'm taking your window ideas and caulking to heart, and moving that up near the top of the list.
I think the correct answer is both. You defend and protect your home as long as possible with the ability to quickly minimize your assets to their most important items for survival.
it is not an either or...
A note on fuel: Gas doesn't haven't a very long shelf life, 2 years with stabil I believe. Diesel is much better.
I'd wondered about that. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by USAFGopherMike
No Problem. I believe that when it comes to petroleum fuels, Gasoline is 2 years, Diesel is 5 years, and Propane is 10 when it comes to shelf life. Perhaps someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's right.
Not today's gas blends. if a gallon last 6 months, it's a surprise. I just tossed 1.5 gal of gas that was correctly stabilized because it went bad. The up side was it didn't lacquer up the carb on my generator.Quote:
Originally Posted by USAFGopherMike
Quote:
Originally Posted by USAFGopherMike
I don't really store my fuel; I rotate through it. Between all my vehicles, the plow, log splitter, generator, chain saw, etc.; I constantly use and replenish my fuel. Sometime in the near future I am installing duel fuel propane/gasoline systems on a couple of my old trucks including my bug-out truck.Quote:
Originally Posted by USAFGopherMike
Thanks for filling that in Jim. The 2 yr shelf life was for non-ethanol blended fuel, which is out there if you can find it. The ethanol blended stuff is not as resilent.
I have 2-5's of gas that I've had for awhile. I did add Stabil to both. How do you tell it's bad ?Quote:
Originally Posted by jim
The color will change and become more yellow. Also, if you shine a flashline into the fuel, you may see bubbles. That's water. You used to be able to tell by the smell (rancid if bad), but I think that's changed with the ethanol blends.
Found this: http://blog.gasbuddy.com/posts/Maint...12027-322.aspx
and http://www.fuel-testers.com/expirati...hanol_gas.html
Try it in a lawn mower or something.
I used stabil double dose on some regular and it was fine 3 years later. Stored in a shed
ditto to what Wulf said.
I just cycled through and refreshed my stores at just under 2 years with a double dose of Stabil and it seems to burn just fine in my 74 Bronco,stored in a shed as well.
The only thing that I noticed was it seemed to be a little more stubborn than usual to start,but just barely and once running was the same as the last tank i got from the pumps. I let my tanks get pretty emty too to make sure it wasn't getting a refresh from gas already in the tanks.
I stored it in steel cans though, so that may help some as plastic containers are for temporary use only as with most plastics it will "leech" through the container.
I just refreshed with some stabilizer from Briggs and Strat that claims 3 years with proper dosage. I will cycle through it more than likely in 1-2 years though.
I need to get on a regular rotation because I would hate to be on the end just before a refresh time and then SHTF and now you are starting with older gas. Maybe shorten it to 6 month interval but I was kind of testing this last batch.
and for what its worth on the steel plate, 1/4" - 3/8" mild steel plating will stop up to .45 handgun rounds(tested by me) at close range.
not sure on larger .44 mag or something as I dont have one. And yes rifle rounds including .17hmr will zing right on through.
7.62x39 goes right through 3/8 mild even at 90 yards,like butta.
The reason I bring that up is that mild steel could be installed as a blockage for handgun rounds and could be bought as =scrap and welded together to meet the size you need. If things get ugly and you are aware of whoe is walking up to your door youd probably would be able to tell if they had a rifle but could obviously conceal a pistol easily,so mild steel could protect you from a pistol attack.
Thanks-I think I'm okay for now-stored in German gas tanks with rubber gasket cap and Stabil.Quote:
Originally Posted by USAFGopherMike
Look into Pennzoil Sea Foam! It's better than stabile.
I think the hard starting might be because butane has been evaporating out.Quote:
Originally Posted by brianut
Last year I pulled out one of my old K5s from my lower property. It started and ran on fuel that was probably 7 years old; it didn't run great but it did run. I have a couple of old K5s with really old gasoline, and they both run.Quote:
Originally Posted by HBARleatherneck
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianut
Phone Books and wet newspaper, more availability then mild steel.
thread revival...hope someone peeks in here for my query.
I'm moving out of our rental and into "our" first home. (I owed two during my military career, but since getting married and becoming a civvy, this will be our first house together). While I wish I could have picked a more defensible home, current work situation dictated where we bought and limited options and timing.
Anyway, I have a nice unfinished basement that is prime for a SHTF storage area. I'll be buying some water barrels pretty quickly but I didn't see a lot of talk in here about food.
I'm going to head down to the Mormon place in C Springs soon and check that out but wanted to ask opinions for long term food supplies. I am figuring that a minimum food/water to bug in with would one year's worth. Hopefully, by then all the die off would be complete and there would be small communities putting things back together (hopefully, like-minded people). Anyway, I digress. So long-term food supplies? Good brands? Good values? Taste? Mixing different things? ie: Mormon prepper food, bags of rice, bulk storage food from Costco, MREs?
Luckily, it's just the wife, the dog and me.
Thanks for the opinions.
The LDS place i recommend macaronis, rice, flour small / short term potato pearls, quick oats apple slices and carrots.Quote:
Originally Posted by muddywings
Start here. www.ar-15.co/threads/35633-amount-of-food-to-store?
I will add more later.
later.
http://www.ar-15.co/threads/19906-Th...t-food-thread?
oops, my bad...got in here and got tunnel vision. Will check it out. Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerrymrc
Forgot to add. If you're using a below ground area for storage, consider placing items on pallets / skids. Keeping anything off the floor even canned goods is always a plus.
Jim posted good info there. I keep my stored water on pallets, (not 55 gallon drums) and my buckets of staples in Mylar. Everything else is on heavy duty shelves where the first shelf is up off the ground.
The LDS cannery in Aurora is staying open until October. They said the same stuff will be available for purchase afterwards (already canned up) so I'm not panicking or anything. As long as I can go there and support them through purchase of the product I will continue to go there.