What do I need to survive and be prepared?

[mutt]

This survival forum is a great addition. I like it!

Food for a year is relatively easy to build up. Just buy a little extra in non-perishables each time you shop and before you know it, you got a lot of food saved up.

TP - Never gave that much thought.... guess I better start stocking up!

Gas mask - Good idea as well. Though if we get nuked or hit with chemical/biological, you're only delaying the inevitable. You will get contaminated eventually when your entire environment is toxic.

Water - That's tough. You can't store water for as long as food without treating it and it isn't exactly portable in sufficient quantities. I've thought of making one of those solar stills so I can purify water without power or chemicals. Hopefully I'll get around to tinkering with that one of these days. I'm sure most of you know this already but I didn't even think about till I read it: your hot water heater has 40 gallons of drinkable water in it at any given time. That'll get you through a few weeks at least.

[AP-4Guy]

Mutt - Yes, a lot of people don't think of their water heaters. I cringe every time I hear a commercial for a "Tankless Hot Water Heater". Tom Martino spews on and on about them without giving a thought to the ramifications, just like he encourages people to buy things online to save a buck. Sorry, that's another thread...

TP is a big deal! So is practice, like Bushmasterboy stated. All the equipment in the world won't save you if you can't use it or you find out it doesn't work when it's too late.

[gnihcraes]

food grade plastic barrels in 15-55 gallon size work well for storing water. I've stored water for 6 months easy without it going bad...

bought some barrels from this guy locally, but looks like he's going out of business...

http://drum-runners.com/

[MarkCO]

I'm sure most of you know this already but I didn't even think about till I read it: your hot water heater has 40 gallons of drinkable water in it at any given time. That'll get you through a few weeks at least.

I don't totally agree with the notion that your water heater water is drinkable. First, you should NOT routinely drink water from the water heater. The steel tank is glass-lined and the glass is a fine powder. If ingested, it can damage your bowels. Second, the anode rod gets consumed over the period of 5-10 years and forms oxides of aluminum and or magnesium, which are harmful. When you take water from the top, in a pressurized system, the solids will have fallen to the bottom. But taking water out of the bottom will get you in trouble with these solids.

If you need to use the water from a water heater, remove the cold water inlet supply riser and suck the water out. This will leave the bottom 6-10 inches of water at the bottom, but give you drinkable water without the solids at the bottom.

I am planning on building a solar still this summer. In a pinch, surface water in 2 liter pop bottles laid on black plastic will get the job done in Colorado. At lower altitudes, it is a bit un-reliable.

Bottled water, while expensive, is okay for short duration. Drinking too much water with all the minerals removed is not a good idea.

Having some sports drink powder is also a good idea, but skip the soda.

[bryjcom]

Don't forget to fill the bathtub up with water in the event of a impending disaster. Would be used real good for flushing the toilet

As far as the water heater goes sucking out of the top would be better but remember this is survival. I don't think it going to harm you to much. When you use hot water it pulls it off the top of the tank and the cold water has a drop tube the brings in the cold h2o on the bottom. That in its self will stir up the water and mix up a lot of sediment and such.

They even make Cyclone water heaters for restaraunts that mix up all the water and keep sediment from collecting.

[mutt]

I don't totally agree with the notion that your water heater water is drinkable. First, you should NOT routinely drink water from the water heater. The steel tank is glass-lined and the glass is a fine powder. If ingested, it can damage your bowels. Second, the anode rod gets consumed over the period of 5-10 years and forms oxides of aluminum and or magnesium, which are harmful. When you take water from the top, in a pressurized system, the solids will have fallen to the bottom. But taking water out of the bottom will get you in trouble with these solids.

If you need to use the water from a water heater, remove the cold water inlet supply riser and suck the water out. This will leave the bottom 6-10 inches of water at the bottom, but give you drinkable water without the solids at the bottom.

I am planning on building a solar still this summer. In a pinch, surface water in 2 liter pop bottles laid on black plastic will get the job done in Colorado. At lower altitudes, it is a bit un-reliable.

Bottled water, while expensive, is okay for short duration. Drinking too much water with all the minerals removed is not a good idea.

Having some sports drink powder is also a good idea, but skip the soda.

You bring up some good points and I was not advocating relying on your hot water heater as your primary source of water rations. It's a valid survival alternative should you find yourself without, or with very limited, drinkable water but shouldn't be one's primary SHTF water source. It may not be the finest spring water, but it's far from undrinkable and any toxic dangers are mitigated by the limited amount you can ultimately drink from it.

I know if something catastrophic happened and public water supplies where disrupted for an indefinite period, I'd immediately drain the water from it and drink that before consuming my other stock piles of clean water. It lets you extend your water reserves in an apocalypse type situation so IMHO it's worthwhile.

I do like your suggestion of taking from the top to avoid the solid materials that settle to the bottom. I had just planned to drain out the first few gallons of water to flush the solids but taking from the top may be a better alternative.

Now if we're just talking some localized, short-term emergency, hell no I'm not drinking from the hot water heater. I have cases of bottled water for that! =)

[MarkCO]

I do like your suggestion of taking from the top to avoid the solid materials that settle to the bottom. I had just planned to drain out the first few gallons of water to flush the solids but taking from the top may be a better alternative.

You'll never get the solids out, even if you flush 200 gallons through. The bottom is a cupped doughnut shape, the flue being in the middle, with the drain a few inches off the bottom. With a newish (2-3 y.o. or less) one, slowly draining might be fine. If you have to utilize the water heater for drinking, and don't have a way to suck from the cold dip tube, you are better off draining it into a container and letting it sit for 24 hours before use.

Pretty simple to test your WH. Get a clear glass bowl and drain off a quart or two and see what you end up with at the bottom after 24 hours. Dip a few ounces off the top and taste it. If it tastes the same as the tap, you are fine. If you get an acrid, or dirt type taste (or taste test against a pice of raw aluminum), you have a lot of TDS and it might give you some intestinal trouble. Word of caution: if you have a plastic drain valve, you might as well replace it now. The material is acetal which degrades in the pressence of chlorine, making some real nasty compounds. If it is a few years old, it will likely not re-seal. Get a good brass one to replace it before you do the test, and end up with a reliable valve that will last for years.

The dip tube for the cold is 6-12 inches off the bottom and does not stir up the solids even with presurized water at 80 psig, which is the code max pressure. The Cyclonics don't even stir it up enough.

A bathtub that has been washed free of soap residue is a great, and handy container. With our residual free chlorine in the Denver Metro area of about 0.8ppm, that water should be pristine for drinking for at least 10 days.

[TFOGGER]

A good long handled shovel is ideal for whacking zombies


Survival techniques depend greatly on the scope and nature of the disaster. One thing nobody has yet mentioned: Make sure you provide for your four legged family members. We have about a 2 week supply of kibble for our girls in our kit....

As far as hunting goes, big game is likely a rarity, and quite unwieldy for a small family or group. Better to look at small game. I know for a fact there's enough prairie dogs and squirrels and rabbits to feed a family of four for years just a block away from my house....

[Irving]

What is the difference between drinking out of your hot water heater and pouring hot water from the tap into a glass?


Two other things I wanted to mention, but don't think they necessarily need their own threads are eye glasses and knot tying.

A few years ago I printed out a page with different style knots to practice, but seeing as how I've never really had to tie anything off before, I don't really know what style knot is appropriate for what. Plus, the ones I printed had a lot of nautical style knots. The Bowline seems to be one of the most useful.

Eyeglasses. I wear contacts and have one pair of eye glasses. If something happened to my glasses, I'd be severely handicapped. My vision is what you'd call legally blind. I don't really have the money to stock up on a bunch of spare glasses, and if fresh water is an issue, I don't see myself taking my contacts out very often (not that I do that anyway). Just wondering if anyone has ever put any thought into eye wear before.

Here is a really cool website that animates the knots for you and has a lot of different kinds: http://www.animatedknots.com/

And http://www.expertvillage.com/ has videos on just about anything you can think of and I've learned how to hand stitch from this site.

[jerrymrc]

I have given the glasses some thought but have not done much about it. I can function without them as I am nearsighted so anything I am doing up to 5' is fine without them.

I also have enough adjustment in the scopes that I can use them without glasses. As to knots I have info in a couple of books but I also saved this pic and printed it out to put in the binder.

Along those lines one might think to have some rope in different sizes on hand.