I know we had a topic similar to this once but thought we could start it up again. I find that learning from others mistakes makes life a little easier! Please share things you’ve tried that you would advise against!
Sorry…that was me above. I never had to type my name before but our computer had some major problems last night so maybe it erased it.
If you are not used to cranking a generator, write out the directions in BIG letters that you can read almost in the dark & laminate the sheet & attach it to the generator. I just about killed myself trying to start ours once, in the dark, with a flashlight in one hand — so also consider keeping a head mounted flashlight handy near the generator too.
A head mounted flashlight is a good, basic prep for everyone, not just those with generators.
Do not leave a pump or siphon sitting outside when it’s freezing weather unless ALL of the water has been drained out of it. It’s no fun to try and pump ice :-(
If you’ve never cooked over an open fire, try it before your life depends on it. We camped this weekend and I cooked all our meals using a Dutch oven, fry pan, and griddle over our campfire. It worked out well after all was said and done, but there was a definite learning curve. If you are planning to cook over a fire in a pinch, make sure you have a good set of BBQ utensils (they are on sale for dirt in areas where summer is winding down) and some oven mitts or fireplace gloves (potholders leave too much skin exposed).
Edna Mode, that’s right — fireplace gloves or welder’s gloves are great to keep the heat from singeing your arms — or worse.
When I bought my manual oven it came with 2 leather (suede) pot holders too, that are wonderful!!
You know, for years I’ve had this stuff, but I’ve never actually had to use them. almost can’t wait for fireplace weather so I can test some of these cast iron pans, & BBQ tools, etc.
I guess I could test on the grill, but that just seems too easy…..:-)
Um… how about … do not freak out and go shopping and buy a lot of whatever canned foor items that store happens to have one sale — like tins and tins of canned sardines — unless you have a plan for how you will actually EAT said sardines. (-:
Always prep with a plan!
My biggest goofs have been as a result of watching Home & Garden TV where they make “do-it-yourself” look so easy. You can NOT paint a bathroom linoleum floor and have it be anything you want in your life. (the paint pulls back from the edges — so my blue paint over a yellow lineoleum resulted in a pea-green rim around the room that looked worse than a garage mechanic’s bathroom toilet).
One of my MANY fears about H5N1 is the notion that I might have to feed my family on what I can raise in our garden. I can grow radishes well enough, but food for four? Gads. I did try some new “crops” this year but with not very impressive results.
Do not buy 20 lbs. of carrots to dehydrate, at least not 20 lbs at one time. I decided to go the cheapie route and buy 20 lbs of raw carrots instead of being intelligent and buying frozen (frozen = already cleaned and sliced). I am so sick of slicing carrots that I could scream! The nice thing is that they did turn out wonderfully, and I believe that I can now chop as easily and uniformly as Rachel Ray (but still not quite as fast),
Here’s one that Hillbilly Bill preaches, I agree with (and yell Amen!) and y’all need to take serious heed of.
Make sure you have actually tried out, set up and used any equipment that you believe you will be depending on to preserve your and your family’s life and safety. No exceptions. If you haint tried it out, you can’t depend on it.
And that’s all I have to say about it.
Once you have your stores in place, cycle through them with your normal shopping. This way you will always have the ‘freshest’ in store. It is no use having a mile of food and it all reaches its use-by date just when you need it most.
Also, when buying and storing canned goods, ensure none of the cans are dented - this can lead to rusting and spoiling of the contents.
AND, ensure all labels on the cans are well secured - or write on the lids what the contents are. If your cans should get damp for any reason, and the paper labels peel off, meals now become a lucky dip!
Annie B - If my canned goods reach their use-by date just when I need them the most, I’ll keep right on using them. The contents will be just fine for a fairly long time after that date has receded into history. Folks need to realize that if it says USE BY Jan 12th, they don’t have to flip everything out on the 13th. Maybe by the 13th of the next year or the one after that.
Annie, good idea to re-establish this discussion.
Regarding testing out your preps (this was covered before, but I just verified that it’s important): ensure you can OPEN any food storage BUCKETS you have. Imagine if you threw your back out, or if you were sick with regular flu during quarrantine or SIP. You’d have plenty of food but be unable to get at it. The regular pails are a challenge for me to pry off when I’m semi-healthy, gamma lids work MUCH better. Also have enough manual can openers in case yours breaks. I have three but have had them for a while so will likely get another one.
My Big Berkey water filter just started leaking (actually, dripping) from the spigot. Not where it joins the body of the unit, but where the water is supposed to come out from. Only it comes when it’s not supposed to. Anybody else have this happen?
AnnieB – at 00:24
“AND, ensure all labels on the cans are well secured - or write on the lids what the contents are. If your cans should get damp for any reason, and the paper labels peel off, meals now become a lucky dip!”
WOW … Thanks for that reminder! I’ve been moving my canned soups, fruits, and vegetables into a warmer but very damp area. Guess I need to reconsider that plan or start *marking*! Oh boy…
bird-dog, If you are semi organized (as I am, only semi :) ) you can leave cans in the little flat boxes they come in and just lable that, not each can. Or atleast come up with a code so you aren’t writting “cream of mushroom soup” every time.
I have also expierimented with just how much charcoal i need in my grill to keep the temp up to bake, surprising it’s not much, and there is enough heat to bake several dishes. If your grill doesn’t have a thermometer, buy an oven one for inside of it.
If you have to store supplies in various locations around the house - as I do - rather than a single centralized location, make a list, put it in a clear vinyl jacket with your OR solution formula and bleach dilution formula so you can actually find that hand siphon pump when you need it.
Eccles – at 00:09
A preacher always appreciates a hearty amen now and then, at least in the churches I go to!
It really is easy to deceive oneself into believing that you are all prepared because you assume you have everything needed on hand. The first disappointment comes when you realizse you DON’T have everything you need. Imagine how foolish you will feel if your plans are null and void because of the lack of some simple item that you can’t get now. The second round of disappointment comes when your equipment and plan don’t produce what you thought they would and that negatively impacts some larger part of your survival plan.
A lot of what I have done lately to provide a little bit of essential electricity for my home if the grid is down has taken WAY more time and energy than I expected. Several unplanned trips to Lowes Depot were also needed to fulfill the plan. I would not have wanted to do this under stressful conditions that a pandemic and resulting SIP situation would surely bring about. Also, I had a very disappointing setback that was an inconvenience at this point in time, but would have been a disaster after businesses were shut down and UPS trucks were no longer running.
Would you go camping with a tent you had never assembled or equipment you had never tried out? Practice is Essential.
Have a can opener. We had a: vacation, box of prep food, and no… you guessed it. You cannot imagine the frustration.
For opening buckets, horse supply companies make a great tool since most horse supplements come in buckets. Go to http://tinyurl.com/hnpza which is the Valley Vet company and then search for pail lid opener. It is in the equine catalog under miscellaneous horse supplies. They cost five bucks and work great.
blackbird — now’s the time to buy a Berkey repair kit with spare parts for that rascal — love mine — I must also get a kit since my main supply of water will depend on our Berkey.
May I also suggest for bucket opening devices that you consider whether you’ll be doing a LOT of that (have lots of buckets) or only a few. Most of the bucket openers or wrenches you see are plastic, and if you choose that, get a couple in case one breaks.
Or you can purchase metal openers like this:
or my personal favorite:
I like the latter because it’s easy on your hands, if your hands are sore or tired, it’s lightweight but durable & I suppose it could also serve as a weapon to keep your kids away from the chocolate pail!
I agree on the bucket opener. Especially if your someone that does not have enormous man hands (shes a man baby) At least try to open one of those pails of beans you bought before you realize you cant later. It would be like the twilight zone with the geeky guy left alone with his precious books and he breaks his glasses.
Annoyed Max, that brings up a good prep that I haven’t thought of: a spare pair of glasses. Thank you.
Back Up RX Glasses are a great idea anytime. I jsut got my eyes checked and will get new glasses ASAP.
It is a good idea for everyone to make all the routine doctors appointments now.
blackbird you are right about some things being too heavy especially when sick or injured etc. My big plastic containers full of canned food (2 weeks each except water) are almost too heavy to lift. I can drag them around or use a dolly.
My plan is to make things accessable when the pandemic hits but also keep some hidden.
Just a thought re: bucket openers. I got mine (2) at Ace Hardware for $1.50. If you go this route, you have to ask for the openers for the bulk commercial paint buckets (which are the same shape/size/lid type as the food buckets we’re all using). My Ace had two and I got them both.
Make sure that you have multiple ways of getting into your canned goods.
And do not leave cans where they can freeze. Even if you then have some method of opening the cans … they are practically impossible to open.
Never heat cans that have not been “vented” in some way. This could create a potentially explosive situation.
My Swiss Army knife has a good can opener.
We have an old hand dug well on our property. Currently we are using it to water gardens only, as we are also on rural water. It is away from the house so we set it up with a couple solar panels, an inverter and a battery to run a small pump which runs our sprinkler. Sounds good right? Free power and free water. Well, we put the whole thing on a timer to water regularly… worked like a charm until the inverter blew and stopped charging the battery. The pump kept turning on until the battery died….. so now we get to replace both.
This was primarily a watering system, but combined with a good water filter was also our backup water supply. <sigh> Our lesson was to try things out for an extended period… this worked great for about 6 weeks… (We won’t repeat the timer mistake.)
Lids for cans…..various sizes………I just realized that if I open a can for the 2 of us at our house & don’t use all the contents sometimes I’d want to leave the stuff in the can, especially if there is a water shortage, rather than mess up a plastic container I’d have to wash later, and if I wanted to store it in an ice chest or somewhere where it might not be able to sit totally upright, it would help if I had can covers to give a tighter seal than aluminum foil. It wouldn’t work for everything, but it would be helpful to me for a lot of stuff, especially since there’s just 2 of us here — we rarely eat a whole can of anything and I buy the smallest cans I can!
I’m-workin’-on-it – at 06:58 - Thanks for mentioning the can lids. I need some for cat food cans anyway.
There are plastic storage caps for the wide mouth canning jars. Mine are made by Ball. I found some at Ace Hardware. I used them for my jelly jars that are in the refreigerator. Work great.
Olymom great point about the home garden. Some folks think if you plant seeds it will grow. Any good gardener will say what you get is a bonus from Mother Nature. Weather, pest, and animals can take that lovey garden out. Veggie crops can be picky at times. Best advice is talk to a old gardener, you will get more help and tips. Gardeners enjoy passing on advice as to what will grow in your area.
if the content of a tin is acidic, like tomatoes, the best is to put the rest content into something else. The cans starts to rust on the moment its opened.. (rust is only healty to eat (iron) but the taste is not so good. I use to pour some foodoil (olive is best because its get stiff) on top of the content in cans etc, better than plastic and used as preserving for hundreds of years.
Lauralou on August 13: it is a *charge controller*, NOT an inverter that is part of our defunct watering system. Sorry- electronics are are area of DH.
Many of my Crystal Springs Mountain Water 1-gallon jugs (expiration 2008) have begun leaking. They’re stored on shelves in a basement under normal conditions. Check your filled water containers.
We also have empty water bladders to fill when TSHTF.
silversage – at 12:26 There are plastic storage caps for the wide mouth canning jars. Mine are made by Ball. I found some at Ace Hardware. I used them for my jelly jars that are in the refreigerator. Work great.
urdar-Norge – at 18:58 I use to pour some foodoil (olive is best because its get stiff) on top of the content in cans etc, better than plastic and used as preserving for hundreds of years.
Well, I didn’t know either of these things so thanks to both of you for sharing this info!!
heck again….that was me….cookies get cleaned on Mondays & I forgot it had happened.
I’m-workin’-on-it – at 09:49 I still need to order the repair kit for berkey. Mine stopped leaking after I cleaned it. Embarrasing but true … it hadn’t been that long …. But the kit’s a good idea, thanks for suggesting it.
I’m-workin’-on-it – at 06:58 Not “buying the smallest cans” was one of my beginner prep mistakes. I have lots of 28 oz cans of meat for a two-person household. Not a big problem as long as there’s power for refrigeration, or during cold weather, or as long as we eat lots of meat in a single sitting (not).
I don’t have (and won’t get) a generator because of the noise, visibility, need to store quantities of fuel, plus care & feeing (maintenance) of the thing. So I’m working around my limitations. Solar probably wouldn’t work here except in the summer. This energy-retarded prepper is still looking into that and other alternatives.
« going to go study Eccles threads now »
bump
I mentioned this on another thread: If you bought those large bleach tablets, break them first into smaller pieces and use good ventilation, mask etc. when you dissolve them in water. I had one sitting in a large jar for several days, and even though it was only partially dissolved, when I opened the lid it almost knocked me off my feet with the fumes. I thought it would kill me. Please be careful!
Good reminder about the water jugs leaking. I need to go check mine soon.
Sorry, that is me. Using someone else’s settings.
I drained my rain barrels today since it was supposed to rain and I wanted fresh water it in them. Now it’s pouring outside so I ran out to check on them since I hadn’t closed the bottom spigots. It’s raining so hard that the water is shooting over the top of the barrel and they’re not filling up!! I may need to change the down spout, it currently curves at the end and normally runs into the barrel but apparently not when it rains this hard. If I had gone out tommorrow and they had been empty I would have been very disappointed!!
I had a good laugh at myself…
Looking at my preps I thought my goodness this toilet paper sure takes up a lot of room!!! But I wonder if I have enough of this very important prep?!?
Soooooo…I got out my handy dandy calculator and did a little math…let’s see, I have 29 packages of 6 mega rolls which are suppose to hold 4 regular rolls. I heard on my definitive prep source fluwiki that you need one regular roll a week.
Much to my chagrin I realized I have enough toilet paper for 13 YEARS!!!
As an experiment we planted some vegetables in our backyard (suburban density) and it was worse than a failure due to RATS. We attracted every rodent in a 1/2 mile radius who stripped all but the jalapenos. The neighbors complained and we pulled the plants out.
no name @ 12:05 - Look at it this way. You have a very valuable resource for bargaining!
Rain barrels and gutters. Attach a piece of string to the end of the gutter, long enough to go all the way down to the rain barrel, with a small washer attached to the end of it. Water will follow the string down.
Use commercial grade, polypro/nylon marine-type string. Light-weight string, not rope, not craft string, not kite twine. Available at any hardware store. To attach the string: drill a single tiny hole in the end of the gutter. Thread the end of the string through the hole and tie a tiny washer on to serve as a retaining device. Anything will do, or just tie a huge knot at the end. Run the string down to the water barrel and secure a washer at the bottom end to keep the string anchored. If you’re using plastic barrels with lids, cut a very small hole in the top of the lid for the string. Otherwise, remember to put the lid on the water when it stops raining or the thing is full.
no name – at 12:05
Rest assured that if any one of your family ends up getting sick, with diaherra (I never can spell that right), you’re likely to go through one roll a DAY. Just think ahead & realize that there are unpleasant reasons you could speed up your usage without wanting to! :-)
amt – at 12:20 I have always looked at the rabbits and squirels as a food source. However in a pinch rats would do just as well. As I remember, they are a bit gamie but when you are starving, any port in a storm will work.
Thanks ya’ll for the support…I guess instead of chagrin it’s charmin. Sometimes I love myself for the shear entertainment value I add to my life. I get a belly laugh every day at some of the things I do.
no name, LOL!!!!! We had such a good laugh about your toilet paper! My DH just told me that we have enough for 3 years…..I haven’t told him how much I’ve put in the attic!!
I want to know, who goes through just one roll per week? Is that per person? Was that person a man?
And, there should be a big difference between those who work out of the home and those who stay at home, right? I mean… well, you know …. more time at home means more uses of the potty at home… not at work, in restaurants for lunch, what have you ….
Maybe I need to rethink our TP usage….
Maybe I should be anonymous for this one… some things are just too personal to share….
Naaaah! (-:
I agree wholeheartedly with AVM @ 16:06. We both are stay-at-home now and have 2.5 baths, the larger of which I have commandeered. I know that I can go through one roll/week by myself [I counted so I knew how much to get.] Of course that is the “regular-sized” Charmin not the Mega Roll.
AND, check out something about those different sized Charmins — the smallest [regular size] roll of Ultra has 154 2-ply sheets. The next size, which is supposed to be double that amount, as about 200 sheets, not 308, so it really isn’t double. The Mega sized, which is supposed to equal 4 rolls of regular, has 400 2 ply sheets. If it equaled 4 of the regular sized rolls, it should have 616 sheets. Yes, it is double the 2nd size; however, still — Truth in Advertising!
MAinVA – at 16:21 I was trying to google usage info and here you already figured it out. What I found was someone wrote: a little over 1 roll per week/person or 60 rolls per year/person. So for a family of four I need 80 rolls for three months. I have that but just thinking about it makes me want to go out the get more, especially if anyone is sick and needs extra.
MAin VA 16:21
Ok…reduce the amount by a third. So I only have enough for 9 years. Definitely next sale I am going to get more…feeling a little insecure not being in double digits!!! Thanks.
Ocean2 15:16
I hadn’t thought about the ATTIC for paper goods!!! Thank you Thank you!
no name - it could also be a useful bargaining chip so don’t feel bad about having a bit too much! Personally, I don’t think you can ever have too much!
Ocean2 15:16 & no name – at 18:30 Make sure your attic is varmit free. Varmits would love to make a bed of your paper goods - soooooo soft and comfy, they’d tell all their friends. LOL
OK, I confess. Underneath half of my queen size bed are kleenex toilet wipes (on sale a few months ago). I know they can be hell on the pipes, but couldn’t resist the idea of cleany-freshness!
having paper for the loo is certainly a luxury we all dont want to lose,,, but eventualy it may be gone so then what do you do !? i would think a handy squirt bottle to “lube the shoot” and “disuade cling-ons” would be a good start to a paperless existance. just a though. :)
- follow up re: water containers-
Crystal Springs has made amends for leaking gallon jugs with coupons - will try the 24-packs, now
Regarding the tiolet paper. At our house during the summer when everyone is home (4 people) we go thru 1 double roll per day.
Lohrewok — THANK you! I didn’t want to post our TP usage because I am not honestly ready to accept comments on how to IMPROVE our conservation ability — I mean, if TSHTF I guess we will improvise but until then I am just not ready to comtemplate. Or discuss! (-:
But our usage is a lot more like your family’s.
Oh, and another thing—
learn from my mistake and don’t do this: try to pressure-can for the very first time (beef stew!) the same time as a predicted bad thunderstorm begins.
We lost power (as we often do) and I was canning (on my gas stove) in the dark, by lantern. It worked but definitely wasn’t ideal and wasn’t fun, either.
I’m-workin’-on-it – at 21:36
“Rest assured that if any one of your family ends up getting sick, with diaherra (I never can spell that right), you’re likely to go through one roll a DAY.”
Have y’all thought about what to do with the used tp? If water is on, flush it away. If there are problems with local supply… burn, bury, what?
I was planning on having a bucket lined with 15–20 liners that TP would be discarded into, then kitty litter would be dumped on top to control odor, before it got too heavy a liner would be removed (maybe once a day) and either thrown away if there is still garbage service or burned.
We are on septic and have an inground pool so we will have “flushing buckets” by the toilets that should continue to run the system.
However, if the septic system goes down for some reason — and this isn’t an unreasonable event to prepare for — then we have plans on having a metal burn barrel.
I’ve been getting rid of as much packaging as possible with my food preps so this should help with some with garbage build up. It also saves on space.
The one thing you want to remember though is if you unpackage an item that doesn’t come labeled on the inside then you need to keep a permanent marker handy so you can figure out what it is in. Also, keep a pair of scissors handy to cut out any needed directions to be stored with said item. Trust me, been there and done that in the middle of a hurricane. <grin>
so conventional garbage or burning are the 2 options I’m hearing (thanks to I’m workin’ and Kathy).
Does anyone have any other ideas?
Kathy in FL is right….labeling clearly is soooo important — for instance knowing how much of your dried egg powder equals one egg
29 August 2006 spiritaxe – at 14:51 having paper for the loo is certainly a luxury we all dont want to lose,,, but eventualy it may be gone so then what do you do !? i would think a handy squirt bottle to “lube the shoot” and “disuade cling-ons” would be a good start to a paperless existance. just a though. :)
I have several jumbo packs of Charmin from Sams, along with several boxes of wipes, I think wipes are a better idea, not only does it take care of business, but the wet wipe will also enable you to keep clean, when water is scarce, especially for us women
Average Concerned Mom – at 08:23 Lohrewok — THANK you! I didn’t want to post our TP usage because I am not honestly ready to accept comments on how to IMPROVE our conservation ability — I mean, if TSHTF I guess we will improvise but until then I am just not ready to comtemplate. Or discuss! (-:
Well, the way I see it, if TSHTF. I’m going to have to have extra TP to clean the fans as well….LOL
This is a good thread, let’s please continue to share what we learn.
My contribution for today:
Raisins that I bought this summer (post-Karo cluster panic) are smelling distnctly fermented. They are Sunmaid brand, in unopened bag, and the space they were stored in MAY have been hot during the summer. The ‘best before’ date is 11/23/07. Comments:
1) Check and rotate your preps
1a) Assume some losses (surprises) in your calculations of how much food you have on hand.
2) Anyone have recipes that take advantage of fermented raisins (seriously)?
«blackbird goes to vacuum seal and store in a COOL place if the rest smell okay»
Blackbird at 17:42, LOLLOL…….maybe make some zipped up oatmeal cookies might make the cookies more moist and good flavor……..holidays are commin….:)
Blackbird , cook those raisins with rice, or cook the raisins and put them with apples for a Dutch apple pie, make an old fashioned raisin pie, there’s lots you can do with them. there’s lots of cookin and bakin in these next couple of months so shake out the ole apern and jump in. :)
ya all need to watch a few cowboy movies cause you can open a can with a big hunting knife
I pulled out a bag of cookies to prepare and looked at the use by date which to my surprise was Feb. 04. I bought them this year! Well I made them anyway just to see, and they taste as good as ever! Good to know…
Learned from my uncle, who never used a bank. He had over 500,000 hidden in house---it burned down along with everything he had—he never did get back 0n his feet!!! We are going to bury our money in different spots around the outside of the house!!!!
I haven’t done it yet, but I have been giving it some thought. I have water barrells of some different sizes and I was thinking of placing them strategiclly around the house. One 15 gallon in the bathroom for washing,teeth brushing…one or two in the kitchen for cooking with, keeping a bucket on hand in each location for waste water.
Most will end up in my basement where I have the most storage space and I’ll have to lug water up stairs.I’ll use the 5 gallons containers for lugging with a funnel for refilling the larger containers maybe. My stairs are old and steep so I’m not looking forward to that at all. If I leave them outside they would freeze in the winter. Any other suggestions? I’m a not quite 5 foot tall person : 0
ok, I have water on the brain today. Just had a thought that most of you young moms and dads have already thought about but its been a while since I had little ones around the house.My grandaughter who is 18 months now and a new one in January will be staying with me. We need to be extra vilgilent about storing open containers of water in buckets, bath tubs, dish pans.. with the ittibitties running around.
KimT - lugging water up the stairs is good for your stance! - Suggestion - get a pole and hang the buckets filled with water from both ends Then walk up the stairs.
Great Horse stance exercise eh?
Goju – at 20:08
Not sure how wide they make steps where you live, but that won’t work on any staircase in my house.
nor mine :) its an old dungeon basement with steep stairs, not very wide.
Maybe I could create a pulley system…hmm
An experiment that I’ve already performed…..”Disinfecting Money”….To disinfect paper money, use 3/4 cup of bleach in one gallon of water….soak for five minutes….rinse well, spread out to dry. I was afraid that so much bleach would affect the ink in the money but, it didn’t. The paper money came out looking beautiful…it looked almost new. I didn’t experiment with coins and just assumed it would be okay in the bleach solution too.
Dittos on looking at expiration dates before buying food items. Also make sure you LIKE it! At Grocery Outlet I bought a goodly number of boxes of organic corn soup. Tried one and it was horrible, even with adding ingredients, plus it was almost outdated. Waste of money. I suppose it would be okay if we were starving to death.
KimT – at 19:03
Maybe you could rig up some type of pulley system and bring the water up like you would out of a well. With 5 gallon buckets that have lids you wouldn’t have to worry about spilling it. One rope could be for lifting, and another one could pull the bucket toward you. Then you could dip out of the bucket until empty.
I have carried many many buckets of water for household use, and have to say that anything you can do to make it easier will really make a difference.
Alternatively, you could get tanks to put upstairs and gravity feed them down to the sinks, etc.
blam – at 20:27
That sure seems like a large amount of bleach. Are you sure you need the heavy duty solution or would a sanitizing solution work?
KimT: we keep our delivered 5gal bottles in the garage all winter and the never freeze (we’re in CT so it gets pretty cold). They are not on the floor but on a low shelf a few inches off the ground. We keep them there purely out of laziness! It’s a lot easier to lug them into the kitchen from the garage then up and down the basement stairs - plus the Poland Spring guy puts them on the shelf for me! The smaller bottles (packs of 1 liters say) might get some ice) but we’ve been doing this for years now and have never lost anything. If we needed to we would bring it all insde as you can see into our garage from the windows.
Speaking of water: did an experiment this weekend to see how well a bathtub holds water. Answer: not so great! Well, one held very well, the other lost half in two days (different kind of drain mechanism. The utility sink lost a fair amount as well. So, if you are planning on filling bathtubs, etc. with water, experiment first, see how they hold. If they don’t figure out a way to keep it from draining out.
LauraB at 6:13
One hurricane-area recommendation for sealing bathtubs is to clean it with bleach, then use caulk. Once it has dried, fill tub with water. It should stay put.
Bagging and burning seem to be the only methods mentioned for times when flushing is no longer an option. Has anyone planned on composting in a humanure bin? I have made one with chickenwire and an 18 inch “sponge” of straw and leaves which I keep active with kitchen scraps and yard waste. In the spring, if there has been no reason to deposit human waste in the bin, the contents go on my garden. Otherwise I am ready to make human waste deposits at any time. I have lots of straw, leaves, peatmoss and wood shavings that I can use to cover the human waste and I am sure that there will be no odor problem. I just did not want to be caught in the dead of winter having to make decisions like this.
deborah….I thought the same thing about the high concentration of bleach. Everyone on another site kept saying that it was the strength needed to kill the virus. So, I tried it with success on a one dollar bill.
Somewhere I read about sprinkling human #2 with either baking soda or garden lime. That is supposed to dry the stuff out. Man, if you go that route (garden composting) I’d sure put a big reminder sign on the bin so that no one forgets and spreads that stuff around next year’s potatoes or carrots.
Traditional emergency latrines are to dig a long trench in the ground and to fill it in as you, uh, move along. That way you could save the lovely leaf mold and peat moss for the garden . . .
In the dead of winter, with frozen, rocky ground, I am going the easy route. The bin is four feet by four feet. Nobody is going to forget what is in it.
Olymom – at 10:53 “and to fill it in as you, uh, move along”
Cute pun!
Meserole in FL – at 07:10 - Where did you apply the caulk to seal up the tub? Around the drain plug? Sounds like a great idea - waterproof but easily removable.
blam – at 20:27
deborah – at 04:44
blam – at 10:48
It is not uncommon to see recommendations for a 10% bleach/water solution to be used to sterilize objects. Your formula of ¾ cup bleach in 1 gallon of water is approximately 5% (6 ounces bleach + 122 ounces water to make 1 gallon).
Much “weaker” solutions are used to sanitize food equipment; see Guidelines for the Use of Chlorine Bleach as a Sanitizer in Food Processing Operations from Oklahoma State University.
LauraB – at 06:13
Go to local hardware and find old style rubber drain plug that will fit your tub and pull out the regular stopper. The rubber plug will seal much better.
blam – at 20:27 The paper money came out looking beautiful…it looked almost new. I didn’t experiment with coins and just assumed it would be okay in the bleach solution too.
A friendly reminder that bleach is a corrosive. If prolonged contact with metal surfaces, those surfaces will discolor. Read the warning label on the bleach — I did just a few weeks ago when cleaning my garage floor.
Thanks, lady biker, for your suggestions about using fermented raisins. Do you (or does anyone) know of any recipes that would benefit from fermented fruit specifically? I have a couple pounds to make use of…
Mari – at 11:14
Yes, caulk around the drain plug. When you no longer need it, it peels off easily.
Don’t try to dehydrate your own cranberries. I dried them in my excalibur for 44 hours and all I got was bloated crannies. Threw them away. Madamspinner suggested I “check” or blanche them first. I’ll try that next time. Sam’s frozen spinach is good thought.
{blackbird – at 02:58
Thanks, lady biker, for your suggestions about using fermented raisins. Do you (or does anyone) know of any recipes that would benefit from fermented fruit specifically? I have a couple pounds to make use of… }
>>Try googling for brandied raisins. I think they might be just fine in that. Use on ham, ice cream, etc. The Dutch even use them to make a beverage it looks like. Brandied raisins search here.
blackbird, try making some of those heritage mildly-alcoholic drinks with the fermented raisins! You’re already a step ahead! (s) What are they called… shrubs or something.
LauraB - at 16:03:
I stored some of the 5 gallon water containers in the garage last year (free standing garage). They froze, burst, a mess.
For your bathtub, if you can’t find a plug that fits, they have old-fashioned flat pliable plastic discs that (due to the vaccuum created by the water) do a good job of keeping water in a bathtub. You might be able to find one of these at a local hardware store.