Anyone in Iowa here?
(as I pop up from behind last year’s dried cornstalks…) Yes, an Iowa prepper here, from the Iowa City area.
Central Iowa here. No one else I know of in this area. Hit an incredible store in Cantril, Ia this week- down near the Mo border called Dutchman’s store- picture old fashioned hardware store, grocery store, Ben Franklin, and bulk foods- mostly VERY reasonable! Wish I would have been more prepared to shop!
Yah.. there are more of you! I was wondering about starting an iowa prepper thread! Northeast Iowa here.
(waving enthusiastically to the west and northeast) Hi mommaof3 and Family Farmer! I don’t usually post during the day because I’m a night shifter, but I’m up WAY past my bedtime today. Glad to know there’s a few other Iowans out there getting on this boat. I’ve been working on prepping for a while now (about 6 months I guess), but have a long way to go before I’ll feel like we are ready (mostly due to limited budget). I have three kids (ages 13, 9 and 6) and a husband to prep for, as well as one young couple we have invited to join us if the need arises.
Hello! I usually just surf, but since I’m in central Iowa, I want to add my voice here. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one in the state who is paying attention to this issue. Thanks. Have any of you contacted your city governments about preperations? I haven’t, but I wonder what the reaction would be if I did.
Hi, I am in south central Iowa, just a few miles from the Missouri line. Been prepping since about November. It is hard since we have no big stores nearby.
Sivad, Are you near the Dutchman’s store in Cantril? The variety of bulk food in the store is phenomenal!!! (and you’d be helping a local business :) ). Might be worth checking out.
How about water purifiers?? Most of the sites can’t sell to Iowa due to taking the flouride out of the water- checked campmor and berkley. What are your plans for water? Maybe next trip to Cabelas will have to check or have one shipped to sis is Il to bring here her next trip?
so Be It, I haven’t contacted our local govt- will try to this week. Problem is the board of supervisors main job seems to be bickering! We’re lucky to have a fire department. I did ask at our pediatrician office and just recieved this blank look.
Hello from South Central Iowa. I’m a recent transplant from Florida and can’t help but feel a little more secure now that I’m surrounded by corn fields rather than condos… I too can recommend the Dutchman’s store. I’ll be making another trip down there in the next month. I’m about 50% of the way there in terms of my preparedness goal and every day feel a little more in control of things! Hope you all are well.
Back to work…
Hi! Just checking in from east central Iowa on the Iowa-Illinois border. Even though I live in a larger town (by Iowa standards, anyway)I don’t know anyone else prepping, and our community officials and local school districts are not discussing the issue at all. Don’t know about the water and power folks, but I’d be very surprised if their answers were any different.
MyKidsMom- the superintendent of my daughters school has been pretty open to my emails, but until I sent him website links and newpaper articles (online) his plan was just wait for the state to tell them what to do and would plan on using the school for the mass vaccination, like they did in the late 60′s for small pox.. didn’t realize there isn’t a vaccine for BF
… never thought about mandatory school closings for months on end, how teachers would be paid, bills paids, kids educated… he’s at least asking questions now
I’d be pesistant even if under an alternative email address to send online links or the USPS to send print material.. I also involved the health & science teachers as well as the school nurse… sometimes an internal employee asking questions will help get the ball rolling.
Our town (small by Iowa standards : ) is clueless, mostly elderly (>70) and 40% of our familys in school are on free & reduced lunch even if they wanted to limited budgets are reality. The bright side… we have a lot of backyard gardens and are close to dairy, beef and swine production…
Hello again Iowa Preppers, Thank you for the info. Now to add to the stories, I talked to the Director of Public Health, when she came to care for my Mom. I asked her what our county plans were for the BF. She replied, we sure hope it does not come. I gave her email addresses, but she tells me she does not know much about the computer. DUH. We too are former Floridians. Mom lived 40 years in Clearwater and we did live in Eustis and Cocoa Beach. I have been copying articles from various areas and sending to our local newspaper. So far, no articles. Double Duh!
North Central Iowa here, close to MN border (that’s all the more specific I care to get at this point). Prepping is pretty minor to this point. We are small community with lots of farming operations close by. Cattle, Hogs, chickens, all nearby. That might be good, or bad. Also have deer and other wild game, that are as close as our backyard.
Our town has done nothing. People are aware, but I would call them, guardedly optimistic, when it comes to the possibility of a Pandemic. Sounds about right to me, but I’d like to see more planning, “just in case”.
My company is beginning to consider pandemic plans, which is good. One of the managers actually heard Osterholm speak many years ago and his messages stuck with him for a long time, so it wasn’t necessary for me to push too hard. I fill a supportive role.
Glad to see more Iowa preppers popping up. I imagine an Iowa map with little lights going on here, and there. So far my efforts in the Iowa City area to find out what’s being planned locally have come to very little. I decided to start a business to sell very basic preparation kits which include many of the items on the U.S. Gov’t planning list for individuals, as well as a small number of masks and gloves. This is not a money-making venture, as I’m trying to keep the price as low as possible. I’m currently preparing a mailing to all of the churches in our area, including a cover letter, a copy of the government planning list for individuals and a copy of the planning list for faith-based communities, as well as several copies of the brochure for my preparation kits (the brochure has a lot of educational material about avian flu, quotes, and web links for more information). In the grand scheme of things I don’t really care if I sell very many of the kits, I just see the business as a way for me to try to spread word of H5N1 and be able to deduct some of the expenses of doing so from next year’s taxes. With each brochure I hand out, I have hope that another person has at least been exposed to the idea of prepping and might take the time to learn more.
Wow, Glad to see others too! I’m in Des Moines, I have been following the news with the Times and CNNupdates at work and finally started planning. My parents have stocked up a little and hopefully after the talk we had last weekend they will do more. My kids think I’m crazy and I keep sending emails links to my ex cuz my adult son and family is currently living with them. I’m expecting them to move in with me when the flu hits. I mentioned the Bird Flu at work and they said “they are not going to worry about it nothing they can do about it anyway.” I am trying to get things organized but,like a lot of others, not getting much help. I just looked at the city of des moines website and nothing was posted, I sent emails to counsel members asking what plans they had but all the emails bounced…State of Iowa site does have some info posted. Don’t have a lot of money saved up so will be getting a little at a time for prepping, ordered a water purifier and bought water to store and a few other misc supplies.
Glad To see others in Iowa preparing, thought I was the only one.
Talked to one of my previous bosses from the Newton hospital last week. One person is in charge of ‘bird flu information’ and noone else knows anything- least not that I could find. No increased PPE that she knew of, etc. They do have routinely scheduled trauma drills that could possibly help in an acute situation…
Hi fellow Iowan’s, are any of you still here?
I have continued to prep, I got a much later start then a lot of others on the wiki, I sure am thankful the wiki was here to help!
I have gotten some stuff from sams club, an ordered stuff on-line. the non food items have come rather quickly, the food is any where from 4 to 8 weeks because of the shortages, hope they make it here but I guess I will keep buying at the local stores and not count on the on-line orders until I see them.
I need lots more anyway. I never realized how much my pets eat or how often my daughter and I just grab something quick to eat. It had gotten to the point that I really didn’t have awhole lot around.
Has anyone had luck getting others to prep or make plans of any kind?
Hi Iowans, I’m in North Central, not far from the MN border (Hi Patch) and have been prepping since Feb. I found out about bird flu by accident. I was concerned about the terror threat in Feb. and a link from a ‘how to build a safe room’ site led me here. My, what a shock!!. I still have some preps from Y@K. I just dumped the stored water into some garbage cans and refilled the buckets with drinking water. That was a start. Haven’t seen or or heard of any prepping by the town. I have noticed that the grocery store in a border town in MN always puts up a big display of peanut butter and crackers whenever there is a terror threat, and the bakery is handing out free buckets for those who ask. My MN doctor takes this seriously and has assisted me in getting the meds I need, but no Tamiflu. He said they had been ordered to not write scripts for it unless the patient had clinical symtoms that they could prove. He’s not sure it will be of any use anyway. Am glad to know there are other preppers here. Have you heard of any state plans for assisting people, or are we all just on our own?
I’m guessing pretty much on our own. I’m in Des Moines, government seems more worried with the recent scandle with citec(sp) I get cnn and other news update at work and I kept seeing an occasional article about bird flu, finially I did a google search and found links to the wiki and from there other sources and started prepping. I’m pretty much on my own now, not to many are taking me serious. I have sent links, articles to different people, newspaper and organizations not gotten responses, my family…my boyfriend sorta is taking me serious, he is helping me prep by getting me set up with barrels and giving advice on optional energy sources…I have so much left to do!
I’m glad you have someone to help you, I have to do it all myself. And I’m kind of long in the tooth. ;-)
What do you have left to do? I know that just being here on the forum has helped. I’ve been quiet and just reading and getting as much info as possible. Knowing that I’m not completely alone with BF issues has helped me cope. I’ve just resently started participating a little. I’m not stupid but there are some really smart people here who give great advice and if i can help someway, be glad too.
Greetings fellow Iowans. We are located in Ames. We have a growing community of Concerned Citizens and Professionals here preparing for the possibility of a Pandemic. I work with a Management Consulting Group and in the process of writing a publication concerning Adaptive Strategies for Pandemic Risk Mitigation for Organizations.
I also maintain a web site on Pandemic Preparation for Individuals, Families and Organizations: Missiontech.org, as well as a daily news letter. We would welcome additional voices to motivate local officials to begin meaningful preparation for a pandemic.
I have met with officials of the Iowa Dept of Public Health and Iowa like most states is completely unprepared and unwilling to admit it. [The recent Mumps epidemic has demonstrated the weakness of the public health system] We would like to assist local groups to develop working processes for action as opposed to stacks of paper and smiley faced reports.
I’ve just found and have been reading our state “draft” copy of Pandemic preparedness found here
So much of this is on vaccination issues, but they do have a section stating that getting a vaccination ready will take a good long while (year or more) and then it will be distributed to those who have been determined to have high priority…
Here are some interesting statements:
situation becomes extreme and immunologically-protected volunteers are needed.
limited to: Schools, Mall, Theaters
The only piece I saw for staying at home was worded in such a way I missed it the first time, again this is only recommended at Stage 6, once its in Iowa
There are also statements which plan for limiting commercial passenger inter- and intra-state travel, again this is only recommended at Stage 6, once its in Iowa.
I’d be interested in knowing if there is something other than a “draft” copy.. this is already 6 months old and so much has happened world-wide since it was put out.
When I met with the IPDH they were talking up their plans to distribute vaccines and antivirals, they became very upset when I pointed out that there were none available … and it would be years before there were enough to make any impact.
Clearly they are completly out of touch with the real problems of a pandemic.
William— I am impressed that you met with IDPH. Do you know of anyone in the Iowa City area who is networking with others to work on the community preparedness problem? I have tried to find others in this area but have met with no success. I also work in a hospital (not in direct patient care) and haven’t heard a peep from the administration on this issue.
Raven; contact me through the missiontech.org website and we will discuss contacts in the iowa city area.
Discussion via an ICN session for education officials around the state with Iowa DPH
we were told that for various and numerous economic reasons as well as enforcement problems associated with such a measure, school closings would be a last resort
I told my daughter entering highschool this fall, once I know the BF is in the state, she doesnt go out anymore. Don’t care if they come after me, figure they will have bigger worries then parents keeping thier kids home. My Daughter, son and grandaughter is all that counts bottom line.
Hi KimT, William,Ok in IA, others. I have spent much of today writing and calling the major poultry producers about the problem of processing USA chicken in China. Frankly, unless I can buy local grown chicken, we simply will not eat anymore chicken. How Dumb Can They Be? I learned of the problem on the EffectMeasure blog. Revere is on of the principals of the Fw. KimT. I understand all the Wisconsin schools will close as soon as BF is H2H anywhere in the US. Our health dept is so up to date, that they are offering mumps shots next Tues here. DUH.
Iowa does have homeschooling rules that are reasonably easy to live with; we are not homeschooling currently but did so for several years in the past. I would encourage any family in Iowa to check into your local school district’s rules if you think you will be taking your kids out of school while the schools remain officially open. Usually there are some forms to fill out; you could request the forms ahead of time to have them on hand. The officials who think parents will keep their kids in school in the event of a pandemic will be surprised at how attendance rates drop precipitously. Whether or not they will start to prosecute truancy will entirely depend on the zealotry (oops, I mean “dedication”) of local officials and their fear of funding losses — avoid the whole problem by becoming homeschoolers for the duration.
I’m in a debate with them now about school bounderies that they recently changed, school board doesnt seem to care about the health of my child. Have gone out of my way to make sure she has meds for her asthma and adult supervision. I have driven her back and forth…way out of my way for years—open enrollment, They denied her this year due to over enrollment in one area, suggested an alternitive where she could still have adult supervision/care after school but it is out of district, so then becomes a racial issue, she is irish and they want the irish to remain : ) It’s realy a money issue, if she goes to another district they lose money. really PO’ed. If I could afford to move right now I would be so gone!
KimT, Stand your ground. The Iowa schools are only after one thing-money, money, money. We moved here from Minnesota three years ago. I am so disappointed in this state. It is like moving back to another century. Like you, if I had the cash….
The Feds have released their grand plan; here is one thing to note.
They estimate a 40% attack rate among school children, a reasonable estimate. When one factors in that this is the most vulnerable age group, the mortality is around 75% so far, why is no one talking about a preemptive closing of schools. Instead, here in Iowa as most States, school closures are considered a last resort.
All you security moms should take note of this, the reason school officials are reluctant to close the schools is that their salaries are derived from funding based on school attendance days.
I’m not very comfortable with the image of little Johnny and Suzie being carted off by the truant officers to a potential death camp and neither should you. Home Depot is open until nine, hard to find good tar these days.
There is another disturbing aspect of the recent Pandemic Plan released by the IDPH … serological test kits to determine who has an acquired resistance to h5n1.
First of all if they had done their homework, they would know that the survivors are not going to leap to their feet in a few days, weeks , months, bright and cheerful, stacking corpses.
h5n1 infections leave long term and permanent damage to multiple organs and the nervous system. In the immortal words of Long John Silver “Arhg, them that die is the luck ones”. Secondly there is no assurance that there are not other strains circulating that can concurrently or subsequently infect.
You would have to put a gun to my head to force me to comply … hmmm maybe that’s part of the plan.
I’ve made my son promise to come home with his baby daughter if TSHTF, regardless of what his wife and her family thinks and my daughter has been told over and over again that she is staying home,NO school… I’ve invited her boyfriend just so they won’t try to sneak out to see each other. I will go crazy with so many people in my small house again but thats ok. ( his family is not preparing either)
Tonight I offered my parents a couple of 55 food grade barrells and they turned me down, said I was parinoid and nothing was going to happen, they have stocked up on a couple weeks worth of food and thats about it. I’ll keep the barrells ready for them but this is so frustrating.
Do you really feel certain that they can make it home? Remember the pictures from the freeway in Houston? My daughter is in the twin cities, I am afraid that she would not make home or may be come infected in the process. Worry, worry, worry.
They live about 10 miles away at the moment, so no problem on distance. Most of my family lives in town, except for a brother in Tenn. He raises chickens in his back yard…is he paying attention to me. NO. I swear I must have been adopted or aliens dropped me off. I’m not a looney, I’m calm, I pay attention, I plan and prepare. Self suffency is a good thing.
My co-workers do nothing so far to prepare. I don’t expect my office to make any preperations for working at home nor caring about what happens to us. We are actually an internet biz, maybe not work in the current way we do now (that might be difficult) but maybe as a form of communication for getting information out,for gov, schools… if we even have internet capabilities. I don’t mention the BF to them anymore, if they watch the movie next week, I’ll be available to answer any questions and send them here and to other places to investigate themselves. I have learned so much here on the wiki.
I don’t expect my parents to even watch the movie-just out of pure stubberness and maybe not wanting to think about the possibilites.
I hear you KimT about the “looney” bit. My married kids think I am way over reacting to the whole thing. Mom is supportive and even buying some of the preps. Husband is coming around too, but not as into it as I am. I have always been the planner in the family. Our community of 6,000 is doing nothing. They are fighting over whether to keep open our 96 year old water plant. It can’t be certified because it has too many problems. There is a comforting thought!
Do you know of other Iowans that are prepping, we seem to have small group here. I talked with one of my neighbors today; gardening over the fence chat/ Casually asked her what she thought of the bird flu, she said that she didn’t think alot about it at this point, her husband works at the hospital and he is consisered essential and will have to go in unless it gets really bad, he is administrative. Then we just talked about our grandkids and plumbing…
Told her about the movie Tuesday, says she will watch it.
I’m going to the doctor for the first time in 13–14 years this week for a phsyical, gonna ask about getting a pneumonia shot as well as getting on those meds to quit smoking—I think its time eh.
Think I will be passing out info to my neighbors now, haven’t had much luck with family and co-workers, I’ve known most of these people for a lot of years I can’t sit by and not do anything. Wish me luck
Just got back from the first of 11 forums to inform the public on BF. A packed audience of 17 and half were associates of the health department. I didn’t find out about the meeting until an hour before and from what the others said thats about all the notice the rest of them had.
No need to really worry its not h2h yet and probably will never get that far.Stocking up on supplies is not a big deal, just in case you get sick and are unable to go to the store and the store might be short on a few things. The flu if it does happen will hit everyone equally hard, pneumia (sp) shot would not do anyone any good and the water company has about 3 months worth of chemicals stocked up. AGHH
Are these public forums a “state-wide” initiative or just for a particular county/local level??
I think state wide but not sure. Tomorrow night two will be held. One at East High school in Des Moines and the other at Roservelt High in Des Moines. beginning at 6:30. I hope more people go and ask them tough questions. I’m guessing you may be in the Education field by your name so here is what they have said about schools so far. They did mention they have no plans to close schools, they will just keep the children apart, can’t imagine how they will do that.
Kids in all grade levels of the schools here in des moines anyway have problems getting to thier classes on time because the hall ways are so crowded. Classes are over crowded and they will never keep the elementary school kids apart let alone the high schoolers who are constantly smooching.
Well I guess I have to concede that the path they are taking is a valid viewpoint, though I consider it to be the wrong one. My immediate angry, frustrated reaction really does nothing positive to help me or my family. Whether this pandemic happens soon or not, I know that I feel better having supplies on hand. Unfortunately, I think that the grand majority of people won’t “get it” until the time to prepare is long past. I’m just about ready to close up shop on my little “flu preparation” business… it has been a black hole of effort and money for almost 6 months now, and all I’ve succeeded in doing is convincing a number of people that I wear jaunty tin foil hats in my off hours (at least that’s what it feels like). My only consolation is that if the pandemic does happen, we’ll have some extra supplies from the business that I can hand out to neighbors.
KimT: Thanks for the update. I had heard from a previous ICN session that was their position for the schools. As misguided and ignorant as I believe it is.. obviously those at DPH have not been in the hallways, classrooms, or cafeterias in school to view the issues as you so vividly point out with those areas and K-12th grade students.
Personally, I will teach my courses on line (college) and my own kids will be pulled at the first sign of H2H in the US. After the mumps fiasco here in Iowa & how it was handled by the DPH and colleges, I believe that the decision to not close schools is based purely on economic ones for the stability of the states economy. They are willing to risk our future generations and their parents lives for $$. It would be interesting to ask them what they will do with their own kids when it becomes H2H in the state?
Raven in IA: I hear your frustration, I have mentioned to a few close friends who have listened, asked a few questions, but I don’t think have prepped beyond buying more toilet paper and rum than usual at their last Sam’s run. I have a letter I will send out to my neighbors and friends next week as well as to our local paper. My goal when the kids are home from school next week is to do a final inventory of my preps (food, medicine, & supplies) and finish the top off. As far as your consolation, especially given the situation in Romania and Indonesia this week, its looking more and more like not IF, but when.
In Palo Alto County, the newspaper ran a series of articles on disaster preparation on the front page, in the last three weeks. In the list of disasters they presented, bird flu was included. They were very specific about what supplies to have on hand, how to make a bug-out bag, having a family plan etc. They specificly mentioned that the schools, grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals etc. may be closed, and that people may have to stay in their homes. Although they did not use the word ‘quarantine’. They also went into the area of trauma recovery and what to expect mentally and emotionally after going through a disaster. I saw the paper in the doctor’s office. I don’t live in that county and can’t remember the name of the paper.’The Democrat’?? maybe. It was very well done. At least they are trying to get the word out.
OK, i am seeding the two meetings tonight with people I know and I am coming up with a list of questions for them to ask the local powers that be.
Help and Suggestions?
somewhere on here (or the old forum) there was a thread about questions to ask TPTB.. try searching for “what to ask” or “questions” and see what was suggested.
Bump… any iowans out there??
yea, still here.
not currently but born and raised NE Iowa, family still there
Yep, still here, still watching.
hello fellow Iowans (Ottumwa, once upon a time) imagine it’s Dec 14th, it’s about 11º outside. The power is off, water too. There’s no natural gas. You may have a generator running electricity to a fuel oil furnace but when the gas runs out, getting more could be impossible. You’ve heard about pitching a tent in your living room but April is a long time away.. a long time to be trying to live in a tent in your house. Do you build a fire outside and stand around it all day?
How are you going to spend your winters during pandemic?
Fortunately I’m very lucky to be really out in the middle of nowhere. Once the generator is outta fuel, the plan is to switch to a very small woodburning stove for heat and cooking. By small, I mean enough to heat about 1000 sf. It’s a cabin size stove for our cabin sized house and bought specifically for emergencies. At last check, there are 6 large dead oaks on the property and the plan is to drop them and cut them up in the next month (hopefully long before I need them). If it happens, I expect to spend a lot of time reading, planning next year’s garden, and probably getting really proficient on my guitar, which is collecting dust in the corner way too much these days (when I’m not splitting all that wood).
I was most curious about your situation iowagator, seeing as you moved to Iowa from Florida… and Florida being warmish like Baja
other than the risk of fire.. or burning yourself by brushing up against the stove by accident. Your plan makes sense. Water as in frozen pipes or well pumps could be a problem. Water stored outside will freeze on you.
anyone else? :-)
Hate the heat! just kidding. I grew up in central florida, went to school in Gainesville, DH’s job brought us to Iowa and I don’t know if I’ll ever want to leave. One extreme to the other in lots of different ways. The stove is in the garage and I have tons of storage space down there. The cars will be outside at that point and outta gas anyway. Actually, the catalyst for getting the stove was a concern over freezing pipes. We use propane for heat and have a 500 gallon tank and a keep-full contract with our supplier (we used less than 350 gallons for the entire past winter) but our road is really treacherous with any amount of ice so the stove is a backup for lots of reasons, not just panflu. If the power is off, the gen can run the blower for the furnace for a while but eventually the stove will become the primary heat source. Anyway, I’m storing a lot of bottled water for drinking/cooking exclusively, and will have to rely on the stove to melt ice or snow for filtering water once that runs out. (we’re on a lake but that water really is the last resort). I see the heat issue as my biggest obstacle (at least for 5 months of the year),water second, and then everything else after that.
here (Mexico) water is my biggest concern, followed by security. I’m amazed the 500 gal propane tank lasted that long, I’m about to buy one of those for here to run my propane fridge and cooking.
Corn burner. DH farms 1000 acres of corn… supply shouldn’t be aproblem. But not Until the power goes out AND we run out of diesel to power the tractors hooked up to the PTO generator to run the fan off the LP furnace…. even then lots of layers, stocking caps, and hot soup, cocoa, & jello.
My BIGGEST concern and I’ve mentioned it before on the community preparedness thread, is the infrastructure of the electrical grid staying up… without it… heat, water, cooling all are gone, at least to a level that makes day-to-day life managable given the modifications/updates even farm houses have undergone in the past 20 years.
I have no issues cooking and heating with a fireplace.. I just don’t have one it was removed to “update the house” in the 40′s
… my well is too deep to manually puump water, all my shade trees died with Dutch elm 20 years ago and the hard maples still aren’t large enough to cool sufficiently in the summer. My large picture windows that used to open up to let in wonderful cooling breezes have been replaced with energy efficient non-opening double-paned low E glass…. it’s all about trade-offs.
I haven’t thought about burning cobs at all.. hardly the same for cow pies. I remember once seeing a corn burner, if my memory serves me correctly. What about the Amish? Are there any nearby.. could you anticipate bartering for plowing? (just at thought)
are there any city dwellers who would care to comment on the power situation?
my brother has two woodburning cook stoves he’s refurbished. there’s a nice Iowa item worth having for this
I’m a city dweller, I have gotten the tents and below o sleeping bags, plastic for the windows and blankets, 2 Propane heaters and stove and stocking up on lots of propane, checking into kerosine this weekend too. various light sources—flashligts, solar, oil lanterns, a small solar setup to keep a few small things going.450 plus gallons of water storage, water filters and food too of course. Its just me and my daughter. I hope my son and grandaughter get here, I’m prepping for them too. Don’t have a wood burner or fireplace not sure I can get one either. Have gotten a couple of those ole fashioned bags you fill with warm water to sleep with and a lot of hand warmers, warm clothes.
The summer heat doesn’t bother me, I live in an old house and it stays ok up thru August usually, bought some battery fans and lots of battteries. The one thing that will really bother me will be no ice in the summer without elec. We’ll just hunker down and cuddle alot in the winter. Write that book or two thats in me.
Have lots of charcoal, grill and cast iron stoves for cooking with too
if you have access to water you can freeze ice, or harvest from nearby bodies of water… you’d need to make a place now to store it and as a city dweller I’m not sure you could do that. In the country you’d fill a cellar and cover it with sawdust. I should be possible to have ice into August.
I’m not sure what type of furnace you have, woodburning seems to be the best long term option if your house has a usable chimney and many do. you could successfully heat with a gravity feed oil furnace (fairly inexpensive) and have on hand a couple of 55 gal. drums of fuel oil along with a hand pump to switch the fuel over to the feed tank.
many of the heating methods you’ve spoken of carry substantial risk in noxious fumes and fire hazards although reading your posts I, you probably know that
hmmm forgive my bad edit ;-)
do any or all of you have guns?
Got a bb gun. No, been thinking about it though and to sign up and get shooting practise. I’m a martial artist, but bullets much faster then kicking feet.
Have a Gas furnace, house is 100 years old and use to have a coal burner but that is long gone of course. I have been investigating a wood burning stove and been trying to make more money at work to potentially buy and have one installed but haven’t gotten there yet.
I’m not looking forward to cooking and heating with propane or kerosine, I understand the dangers, have bought new battery co detectors and have several extingishers ready. I have an enclosed front porch where I will do the cooking, plenty of air circulation.
I had one of those little tiny pot bellied wood stove in my last enclosed porch I owned in Iowa. that was great and in a pinch you could cook a one pot meal on it and maybe potatoes and aluminum foil wrapped items, in it. the wood you use has to be small however. Smaller than what you’d receive if you ordered wood from a supplier. I don’t imagine solar cooking would work all that well there.
plumbing? do you have an outhouse?
I ask these questions because I’m trying to determine the value of bugging out to Iowa :-)
moeb -
If it’s December 14th, and your not having a good time bugging out in Baja (or Iowa), your invited to my place. (Tucson) I’ll be partying it up on my 40th B-day that day. :-) (If I don’t have BF, that is) ·)
I just had to comment on the date you picked…I’m kind of fond of it. By the way, don’t ask me what that cyclops is at the end of my last sentence on the previous post…I have know idea what happened…Actually it looks kind of cool. Maybe I’ll put little cyclopses instead of smiley faces from now on… .)
hmm Tucson.. warmth, familiarity.. it’s the states (smiles) I wonder when a fluwiki tribe might form. That’s probably not in the cards but I’m aware it’s gone through others minds. Thank you niah (very much) :-)
nope, no out house, have buckets and kitty litter, a back yard with bushes and trees. I have a good southern exposure,bay windows—have thought about building a solar heater. I could always go get a port-a-potty and put it in my back yard : 0. During the flood of 93 I knew several people that did that.
how are your preparations coming along there in Tucson… that’s kind of a large city isn’t it? I do like the idea of warmth although I think Iowa might be the cradle of a new civilizations (said tongue in cheek)
definitely I’d recommend the portapottie thing.. dig a deep hole in the back yard. stock some of the RV chemical. That’s a great idea
I’ve not been thrilled with my solar experiments other than pasteurizing water and I live in Baja
there will be a need to know how to drain your water lines. since heat wrapping them won’t work with the power off, water pipes will freeze and burst in winter time
moeb - Your welcome. .) They’re coming along quite nicely, thank you for asking. The main thing I have some concern about is, of course, water. Unless we plan on camping up in the White Mountains for a while (about three hours away), I have no idea where fresh water will come from after ours runs out. (about 3 months worth)
I’m not stalking Iowans, by the way, I actually have relatives there, and wanted to see how Iowans were doing with preps. You all are quite on top of things. I’ve just got to get my relatives to see the light. Cheer-e-o! I’m going thread-hopping! .)
moeb@ 18:48. The corn burner burns field corn (think just the corn off the cob, not the cob), and there are plenty of woods in our area of the state (East of Hwy 218)
no we don’t have an outhouse, but we have windmills to pump shallow welled (read- nitrate & probably pesticide laden) water we’ll use to flush toilets which drain to our septic tank and seepage bed.
We have Mennonites within 20 miles and Amish within 60, no plans to barter.
Yes we have the usual rifle & shotgun and there is a rather large rural contingency in this state that use their guns on a regular basis either at a gun club and/or for hunting as many birds & mammals as the DNR allows.
Haven’t tried the solar cooking option here, but I figure it will take a LONG time to recharge AA batteries in January using the solar charger. We have a large surface water source that we have a pasture right up to, and I anticipate cutting the ice from it and storing it in the old root cellar at my in-laws if the pandemic waves and electrical outages last into late winter.
P.S. Tucson is getting large…is used to be more of a quaint, smaller city, but it’s been growing fast. Not quite up to Phoenix level, thankfully, but getting bigger all the time. The atmosphere around here is rather small town-ish, though, in my opinion. I kind of like it that way. People are very friendly. We live on the outskirts of town on some land that is gorgeous and it would be almost close to perfect if you added a little beach and took away about 20 degrees of daily heat during the summer…..can’t beat the sunsets, though……. :)
sounds good Eduk8tor… unfortunately my options are one of two towns in Iowa. I don’t really have a farm to retreat to.
Moeb@ 21:35.. maybe you ought to price one… a small acerage is very reasonable compared to other housing prices around the nation!
Example : one down the road from us but off county blacktop about 4 miles-→ 10 acres, 5 outbuildings (old barn, machine shed, chicken coop, etc) + 3 bedroom house, small creek through the property.. between 115–125K
niah @ 21:34 I certainly hope more people in Iowa are prepping than are letting on to me personally or on this thread.. I think the danger is we feel isolated/safe from the rest of the world, and I don’t think most people I’ve talked with about this really feel the urgency, possibly due to the already self-sufficient nature of most of the peole in the state
however, the head in the sand approach- especially about closing schools as a last resort really, really concerns me.
How do you drain water lines? So much to do and learn, sigh. Do I just open all the faucets? I know how to turn the gas off, yea me. I am such a city girl. I have learned to do a lot over the years but advice is usually a phone call away..in a pandemic I may not be able to call someone. I have gobs off books that I keep buying for just such an occassion.
Eduk8or – at 21:50 There must be more of us in Iowa, then what is here. I have converted a couple of people, or they just have humored me so I don’t nag them and give them more handouts.
I saw something at work yesterday on a polk county/des moine health site when I was looking to see if when the flu shot clinic were starting. It had a list of names of people that were involved in planning for a pandemic, kinda surprised me.
Seasonal Flu shots start October 2nd-FYI
http://tinyurl.com/mkb6k link to pdf of names
ah draining pipes. with luck there is a shut off valve in the basement.. do you have a basement? and then you open a tap at the highest point in the house where you can (upstairs bathroom). Then it’s back to the basement to open a valve to allow the water to drain from the pipes.
suddenly it dawns on me that the water will probably have been off for a while and you’ve already drained the water pipes for extra drinking water.
have basement, thats what I was kinda thinking. Thanks
Here’s a link, the competent private instruction handbook the state requires you to file to homeschool your children. the form needs to be filed within 14 days of pulling them from school, so you have some time if your trigger point for this is really a false start.
Note that one of the items that must be returned with the official paperwork is lesson plans for time you are homeschooling for the year.. this includes the title, authors, publisher of the textbooks used, and I would guess (as it’s unclear how detailed they need to be) daily lesson plans for each subject taught (minimally: english/reading, math, science, social studies).
Speaking as an experienced classroom teacher, these take time to pull together, so make sure if you are considering this option that you have acquired the books that you’ll use and use a calendar program or something similar to map out what you’ll be covering each day with each of your children. Don’t obsess over it as when TSHTF I don’t think the local school adminstration nor the state DOE will be coming to our home to check on how closely we followed our lesson plans.
I’m putting down the chapter, section topic and any assignments given as well as days I’ll test.. that was good enough for all of my principals for the years I wrote them in the classroom, I can’t imagine it won’t be good enough in this situation. I’m not tying it to any particular dates, just starting at Week #1, Day #1 and going from there.
I’m taking my son’s lesson planning and progress a lot more seriously as he’s a junior and it would be nice if I can document that he kept up with his curriculum so when he heads back to school, he can get credit for those completed and be in courses that allow himto graduate on time.
You also need to check whether you’ll use a licensed teacher (elementary -k-6 or secondary - 7–12) to supervise your student progress 2x a year, along with a portfolio of work or if you’ll bring students into the school for yearly tests to check for minimal progress.
Hope this is helpful for those of you looking to homeschool when TSHTF.
Tempers flared Tuesday as the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors rejected the health department’s request for more money to prepare for a potential bird flu pandemic.
Snip~ “We have been planning for a biological threat,” O’Rourke said. “It is becoming more and more imminent in our view and in the view of others.” http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/165336249?-13907 _____________________________________________________________________________ COMMENT: I’m working on contact info for these people and intend to write to them, I urge you to do this also. :-)
gasp.. choke.. spit! I was a mous~ there for a moment, sorry
gasp.. choke.. spit! I was a mous~ there for a moment, sorry
gives the computer the evil eye.. (wills it to behave)
Phone and email contacts for those individuals can be found at the Black Hawk County Web site.
Gentlemen,
I recently read where you voted down funds to cover planning and preparation for an H5N1 (Bird Flu) Pandemic. I think this is a serious mistake. Throughout our lives we hear about potential threats to humanity. Usually we take these threats with a grain of salt as it’s apparent that the threats, while potentially real… usually arrive with a probability that falls outside of our lifetimes. (You know the kind, asteroids, tsunamis, solar flares and the like). In other words “they’re someone else’s problem”
I was aware of bird flu in that context and then it began to spread… it began to infect more and more individuals. And while it arrived in 1997 with a high fatality rate, more recently it got more lethal. This is not tomorrow’s generation problem, this is out there right now, working to become fully adapted to humans. When it does, you will experience something like you have not dreamed possible.
Historically pandemics infect about 30% of the population. Natural immunities and population dispersion have seen to that. Today we have no immunities to H5N1 and people are tightly packed, especially in the largest cities. You need to know that whatever percentage of the population becomes infected, it is HIGHLY likely that 77% of them will die. If you work the numbers that is an incomprehensible amount of people. An unbelievable number. I advise you to become a believer.
In 2005 Congress spent 25 million dollars on “pandemic preparation” In 2006 the executive branch requested $7.8 Billion Dollars. Again… they requested $7.8 BILLION DOLLARS. Up from 25 million. They got 3.8 Billion and snuck another 1.2 Billion under the guise of getting our borders under control. THEY (the government) do take this seriously.
I know you may be thinking… “it’s been quiet, there’s not been alarming headlines concerning a pandemic, of late”. Unfortunately we humans are very much a “Here and Now” species. We bore so easily and if the threat isn’t backed with visible indications we become blase about it very quickly. Behind the headlines of Iran, Foley, North Korea and Oil Prices you have to be aware that H5N1 is more active in winter months and there has been no indication that it’s going away.. no indication that it is going to become less lethal. For the sake of those people you represent, educate yourselves about this and grasp the data. It’s very scary but beats sticking your head in the sand and ignoring reality.
Good Luck,
moeb, lol you are funny and proactive. I’ve been on a letter writing quest myself recently, whats a few more : )
bump
suppose I said okay… a place in Iowa may become available to others to come together to weather this?