http://www.do1thing.us/

A few simple things you can do a bit at a time to get prepared for a potential emergency.

I learned allot from Jericho.

Buy guns, buy more guns - then buy lots of ammo. The if there is a huge emergency, at least I'll be well armed to deal with all the other thieving fucks.

Obama's possible election is enough reason to do that.

Our family has been working on this for a couple years. We have an alternate location to go to if we need to that has food, water, and weapons. It is not as far along as I had hoped, but it is getting there.

Alright, time to reveal my survival wackyness.

I stock a lot of stuff. Guns, and LOTS of ammo, to start. I have excellent hunting grounds for deer, elk and need be, bear out in the NF behind my house. It is nearly untouched all the way to the divide. Also have excellent fishing grounds, so I keep a large supply of fishing gear (way more than what would be needed for a typical season).

Water supplies:
-Two large water containers for transport/ storage, and bunch of small containers. Capacity in the area of 50 gallons.
-Water filter with extra filter cartridges. Enough to filter around 1000 gallons
-Activated carbon and sand for an emergency long term filter (I actually use this in my dog shit septic tank, so I always have it on hand)
-Water source within walking distance

Food supplies:
-Rotating pantry of canned goods. Go to Costco, buy large packs of soups, bean, etc and rotate stock so they are consumed prior to expiration.
-Hunting
-Beginning production of a small greenhouse garden

Heat:
-Wood fireplace with 2 - 3 cords of wood onhand in the winter

Gas:
-Rotate gas cans, keep around 20 - 30 gallons on hand at any given time. Not a lot...

Why? Not the end of the world, not peak oil, not global warming... a snow storm. A few years ago the house got hit with six feet of wet snow. 6 days without power (which meant no heat, but also no water, no food once the fridge thawed) in the winter. You could not go anywhere; even my backcountry cross-country skis were tough to navigate with. I learned my lesson. But now I am a little wacko...

Oh, and I also like to take survival backcountry trips each year. Spend a few days in the woods with a knife, water filter, pot and emergency sleeping bag to brush up on skills like shelter building, primative hunting, finding water, edible plant life...

I have been considering that sort of camping trip myself, but my family is not going to be able to handle that. I am concentrating on getting enough food to last us a few months right now.

My bug out location does have tons of deer and fish though.

Don't you guys still have your Y2K supplies stashed away???

It's always a good idea to prepare for emergencies. In some cases like where Mine_Man lives, if you might get six feet of snow it appears to be a matter of necessity.

There is one thing you need to consider though when thinking about emergency preparedness. Stockpiling food is one thing, but what if the emergency requires you to evacuate the area? Maybe evacuate permanently.

You need a different plan for that type of emergency.

Don't forget to duct tape the house!

If you're just looking for normal emergency food, dehydrated camping meals are excellent. Lots of calories and sodium and they've got a good shelf life - plus you can rotate through them on camping trips.

Might also want to purchase a camping water filter so you can pump-filter the water. Purifying tabs are probably also a good idea, depending on your source of water.

Other supplies to have on tap are some basic OTC meds:

• Aspirin
• other pain relievers
• anti-diarheals
• basic cold and cough stuff
• benadryl (great for allergic reactions
• mouthwash, toothpaste
• antiseptic creams, alcohol wipes, etc
• rubbing alcohol
• witch hazel

Just a few off the top of my head.

Even more guns instead?

We have water, and we're just minutes from Nordstrom.

Everything will be just fine in my household.

We have cats.

If necessary, we can eat stir-fry for a couple weeks.

On a more serious note. To keep rain off of my patio, we are hooking up a few big drums to some new gutters to collect rain water from the Garage & House. Which could be used in a stay at home kinda emergency after being filtered.

Plus we have a good supply of medical supplies & canned food. I joke about learning from Jericho the TV show, but do feel that the writers weren't to far from the mark with regards to how society would lower it's standards to survive.

You are always going to need guns in many types of emergencies. Some types of catastrophic emergencies will require the need for guns more than others.

Chances are those types of emergencies may never happen in your lifetime. But, it's always better to have guns and not need them than to need guns and not have them.

Rinky - that's why you need activated carbon and sand. Layer those in the bottom of one of the drums, poke some holes in the bottom, use the other drums to feed and collect, and you have pretty clean water.

frontier - just make sure you keep enough gas onhand to get to your hide out, obviously. If the power goes, no more pumping gas.

Ron ap Rhys - camping filters are only good for around 50 - 200 gallons for each filter, depending on size, brand, etc. That is why I keep several back-up filters. And I do the same thing with my camping food.

Popular Mechanics has an interesting guide to natural disaster preparedness....

http://www.popularmechanics.com/survival

Good point on the gas. Currently I just never let the gas get below half a tank on our two primary vehicles. That would most likely get us out of town. I need to get 20-30 gallons to keep on hand though.

If the highways out are jammed or occupied by unfriendly forces I have mapped out several other routes that use country backroads.

I too am kind of a survivalist nutter to some extent. I hope and believe that I will never need any preperation, but it is fun to think about and prepare for just in case.

True on the filters, but for "normal" emergency situations one and a spare would be fine. That's roughly 2x the necessary supply of water/person at a gallon, so if it's just two, one could potentially last for 100 days. Even in our situation (1 dog, 7 cats for my wife, 3 snakes, and a gerbil) that'd easily last us through even a NOLA-type event, which really isn't likely in central Ohio.

But if I ever got truly survivalist nutty type, I'd need to get more. Not that have anything against the survivo-nuts, but I haven't crossed that line. I can see it in the distance, but I know I probably won't get there...

Ron ap Rhys - Remember, you will need to filter more than just drinking water. Water to add to dehydrated food, water to clean with, and so on. I used to live in 110 year old miners cabin, we lost water for about 2 months over a brutal winter (it would freeze, warm up and thaw, freeze again...), we used about 1.5 gallons per day of filtered snow melt for drinking/cooking and another 1.5 gallons of unfiltered water for bathing, toilet...etc. It sucked, but we got thru it.

A "normal" emergency you would be fine. I have an elderly neighbor or two that I always anticipate helping out.

True - and that depends on the types of emergencies you'll be facing. But it's better to start small and work your way up.

Plus, toilet water doesn't need to be disinfected. Just a reminder for those that might not think it through...

oh - and you might want to make sure you've always got an adequate stock of the OC or other BC method laying about. One wouldn't want to be partway through a non-ending emergency and find out that another mouth is on the way.

Especially considering that there might not be much else to do for "entertainment".

Am I the only one that caught this? pot

Here is a good idea for storing fresh water for temporary use in some types of impending emergencies....

The WaterBOB...

https://www.waterbob.com/Welcome.do

Well look at this scenerio:

Your neighbor has lots of food, water and supplies.

You have guns and ammo.

After a period of time if the emergency lingers....who has the food,water and supplies now????

This would be a real, sobering experience that everyone could face.

True - but you can happily barter in that situation. Chances are there are others that might want to take both from both of you. Since you know your neighbors, you can help provide protection and fresh protein in exchange for them helping with alert duty (note that I didn't say guard duty - don't give them the firearms, have them alert you of a problem and then you respond appropriately).