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Question Of The Month. (April 2020) (Virus Prep)

carbinemike said:
We are rural with Amish around here so eggs and milk are not an issue.
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The first time I read that, I was like...WHAAAAAAAT??? Did Mike just say he was Amish?????? LOL I'm not a bad reader but I'm a persistent skimmer...it's a bad habit. Sometimes. lol

carbinemike said:
It's hard for him as my dad is still very active. One trip I dropped off some wild flowers for mom and a quart of 13% alcohol hard cider for my dad. Mom gave me hell for it..."he doesn't need that!"
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Oh...but maybe he does!! LOL
 
I have learned that I am Effed. I was more prepared for total collapse than this this half assed martial law.

I have a lot of survival stuff but am severly under stocked for urban lock down survival due to outbreak/virus.

So far is the financial aspect of being unemployed with no income and not enough reserves to last long. Part of this was my mistaken belief that I would still be able to work remotely doing what I do. My company got sold last year and they have a very different outlook in IT. I have retirement funds I can tap into if I absolutely have to but will pay a penalty (which I thin is waived right now) . The realization also hit that they can lock down the amount you can withdrawl which woulfd also put all of us in a real hard spot. Overall the finalcial wounds from this will be the hardest to recover from. I am watching my saving account die with every bill I have to pay regardless of income coming in.

I learned to sew at an early age, something that has helped me immensely through the years. Not having to find pants with an odd inseam being a major plus, but I am now able to make face masks, etc.

I have also learned to repair most things mechanical/electrical.

Almost more important than having the stuff is making sure I know where everything is. I am too disorganized. I know I have certain items but cannot find them

We have several large low level windows in the house that I wish I have put some thought into how to barricade them if people start rioting.
 
The armed forces co-op with hospitals / healthcare. Tents are put up at some hospitals to do a triage before entry. Even field hospitals are put up, either on their own or in empty available buildings. Parts of my battalion put up a triage tent in front my citys ER last week. I wasnt present but my company was informed/updated by the battalion commander whats happening/going via normal channels.

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One thing I missed earlier was the lockdown has given me one last time to be close to my kids in a way that will be shortly over. My daughter is 20 and is getting married in September. My son is 18 and heading off to college in August. They have been self sufficient for years and I have seen less and less of them even though both live here. Both have busy lives and I have always given them and they always earned some space. I am no helicopter parent. Being home so much with them has been great even if it is our last hurrah in this capacity of parent/child, I'll take it and look forward to the next stage of life...with more free time!

Bobster said:
I had "Amish" potato salad from WM the other day--does that count? ;)
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Yes, that is their secret initiation. You are now Amish. Throw your clothes away and switch to all black. Oh yeah, get a horse and buggy.
 
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I found out today that the gloves my mrs bought are all to small for me.
I've been using up all the big ones varnishing a desk.

Theoretically, there are no Amish on the internet.
They typically have a severe reaction to all those electrons moving about.
 
Over the weekend I read an brief article saying that almost 60% of the folks only had a couple to a few days of drinking water stored or available if their water supply was shut down today. Most had focused on storing food (and toliet paper) vice adequate water stores. Even though going without water for two to three days causes serious problems or death.

Seems a common concern, by many responding to this forum question, is adequacy of drinking water if your source of water is interrupted. While there are a multitude of smaller containers, five gallon or less, you can use let me offer a different solution we use. Industrial totes, as pictured below, come in two sizes, either 275 or 330 gallons. Many of these are used to ship food grade products and are FDA certified. Their footprint is roughly four foot square so if you have room in your garage, shop, or barn they make excellent water storage containers. While you can buy them new it's much cheaper to buy used ones from storage yards. Just make sure it's a food quality container. You will need to add an faucet but most of the yards have these adapters for a few dollars.

On average, we plan on using about 2 gallons of drinking water per day, per person. This includes drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, etc. This doesn't include flushing toliets or baths. It's easy to maintain this water at the correct ph. Simply use a small test kit from any big box store and use unscented Clorox bleach to control the ph. Drinking water is safe if maintained between 6.5 to 8.5 ph. The ideal number is around 7.0. Water should be tested periodically and rotated as needed.

Do you have adequate stores of drinking water? Just something for your consideration.

Regards

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We have several 40 bottle cases of water from Costco.

We lost power for a couple hours today and for the life of me I could not find a flashlight. I keep things in specific locations for a reason yet they never seem to be there when I need them.

I'm going to add several of the small motion sensor battery loghts to the list as they come in handy for even small things like a dark garage when the power goes out.
 
When we come face to face with a once in a lifetime event it brings things forgotten or never thought of into focus.

We take for granted things like our first cup of coffee, being able to visit with friends and family, going to the store for one little item, or just visiting with friends on this forum.

Ernst brings up an all important subject, water. Being in the city and having limited space I am woefully short on a supply of water. I do have a means to purify water, tablets and a straw system, but that requires a source. Our go to site is the lake, but we have to get there. Before things got too crazy.
 
I think it's time to buy a generator. Our outages have been few, but it could change.

If we loose power for a day it's no sweat. Longer than that I will be scrambling to smoke defrosting meat & preserve some things that won't keep.
We are so close to the markets I don't keep lots of perishables. But my cupboards are typically full of non-perishables, just from ancient habit.
I can keep the milk and small things cold on stored ice for 3 days, but then I'm out of ice etc.
My range is gas and I keep charcoal and propane, so cooking is no problem.

Depending on the weather, my fish could suffer from cold, but I can insulate tanks and add warm water if really necessary. If it gets hot, the tropical fish will fare better than humans.
I can circulate the water without electricity, but it's lots of work. I have DC pumps on my large tanks, so I can run them from my RV batteries for a while.
 
I'm covered on generators, what I don't have is an easy way to feed it into the house.
 
MikeD said:
I'm covered on generators, what I don't have is an easy way to feed it into the house.
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You could always use suicide cords. It's basically what I did.

Now though, I hard wired a 220v dryer/stove outlets to the outside of the house where I can hook the generator up, and using the proper gauge wire for the distance that I ran.

And then tied them into a secondary service panel.

My secondary panel (100a) only has the circuits that I need to keep running in case of an outage. My fridge and deep freezer are on the same circuit. My lights throughout the house are all in the secondary panel.

I don't have anything in my primary panel box wired for the genny though and I disconnect the primary from the secondary at that point. AC/Furnace. Stove. Hot water heater. Washer/dryer. None of the bathroom outlets (though the lights are wired for genny). There is one wall of my kitchen and a wall in my dining room and none of the den is wired for the genny. But, I did make sure the main things that are most essential are wired for the genny.

My genny isn't big enough to handle any of the big 220v stuff. We have kerosene and coal/wood stove for heat. And have gas for cooking if it's prolonged. There just wasn't a reason to wire everything in my house for the genny. But like I said, the main things are covered.
 
I think I just want one big enough to run one of my three refrigerators and a few lights.

There’s no way I’m going to buy a generator that will run my air conditioner.

I am still trying to contract for a welding shed to be built. I think the people who are working are extremely busy and the rest are closed up. Perhaps someone will call me back today.

I was able to contact the electrician and the roofer and the roofer was actually able to come out and do an estimate for some repairs.
 
Remember when antifa and the black lives matter groups were causing chaos and mayhem, the left, democrats and media, were mostly silent. Or, they justified the actions by bringing up the first amendment. Now those same leftists are outraged that people are protesting because they want/need to work.

The media is outraged, some even calling them terrorists, and the governors and mayors are digging their heels in. I would not be surprised to see those two groups start showing up again to counter protest.

Be vigilant...
 
A month plus into the virus pandemic, what have you learned and how will you change being prepared in the future?

I didn't realize I had not yet answered this. I guess it is not too late because there is no MAY QOTM posted yet.

I learned that, so far, I can keep enough supplies on hand that I don't have to become a hoarder.
I learned that some "vegi" substitutes I cannot distinguish from meat by taste.
I learned that the only person I miss more since the isolation rules is someone who died just before Covid-19.
I'm not getting morbid, but I think more of what may be the cause of my imminent demise. More possibilities arise.

I wonder what the relationship to policies and behaviors is to the deaths of certain groups of people. For instance, if people get closer to each other in social interactions, it is harder on old folks. But if business is strangled, then people will go broke or starve.

My nightmare would be to have the responsibility of setting the policy dials knowing that every choice is literally a life-or-death decision. What if the number of deaths were PREDETERMINED. As if no matter what is done, exactly 9 million people will die. The only difference is that the distribution of WHO dies changes.

I still sleep well. I don't know why.

How will I change? I'm too old to change for good reasons. When I do change, I can't explain it.

We should check back here a year from now. Put it on your calendar. I'll be here... but life isn't fair.
 
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