omg i have been one of these for years, secretly...

[jeanswithatwist]

dh thinks i am mad but i am well read on the subject, not something i advertise. i stock pile too......mountain house, etc. big secret, dh sworn to secrecy....this will make for some interesting reading. only know about this new section (is it new?) as someone on aibu was asking what prepping was

I love my life straw

I am too squeamish to try a life straw

I planning to replenish the bottled water supply, but stash them in the motor home so DH will just think they are for camping.

He doesn't understand either, but he will be pleased I saved us when the shit actually hits the fan

I'm learning so much - life straws look essential kit. Ive just cleared out a kitchen cupboard I'm going to use for tinned food. Just trying to write a list of what would be convenient and tasty to eat. Don't fancy tinned potatoes much, although I suppose if hungry that would do nicely. Tinned rice pudding, yum..

I've seen the life straws and they look neat and probably should form part of everyone's kit for emergencies - but I think you have to be realistic.

Adult fluid intake (mostly through drinks) should be - what - up to half a gallon a day or something? Whatever the precise figure is, we need a lot of liquid and I don't think that using a life straw is really going to cut it unless you're in a truly desperate situation where a few mouthfuls are going to mean the difference between dropping down or managing to keep going to the next proper watering hole. (And have found an easy source to suck from.)

I would be thinking streams or wells in the longer term. (For a short term Trouble, people should be able to manage on supplies.)

Life straws would be great to take if you are travelling to an area of the world with potentially dodgy water. If in doubt you can fall back on the straw.

I just looked at another site and I think I worked out the suggestion for water storage amount was about 50 litres per person for two weeks, just for drinking and cooking. Does that sound about right do you think? It seems a lot!

The life straw filters a minimum of 1,000 liters (264 gallons).

I think I would rather make a filter system with sand and gravel, than use a life straw.

At least I could see the colour was ok...

thickorthin tinned potatoes don't taste too bad sliced and fried, particularly with a bit of onion. Not my first choice of potato accompaniment, but ok in a pinch

I know - and the family filter does quite large amounts. Even so - you're best to think long term if it's a long term Trouble.

It seems a tad on the higher side, Through but I suspect that the devil is in the and there. Once you add in water for personal hygiene, cooking and teeth, you're stating to climb up the numbers.

Scrappy, next on my list,,a camping stove so if the powers out, I can fry my tasteless tinned potatoes , good tip to make them deliciously edible though, and my onions are currently growing nicely in my veg garden.

*starting

Sorry.

Presumably lungpowered though?
I keep finding myself lurking on these threads...

It seems a huge volume of water to store; we have got the space in the garage and outside sheds but it would have to survive the winter and summer temperatures.

Grr. That was a comment about the life straw

I have a picky eater (aspergers) and all food has to be very familiar, I reckon I could fry tinned spuds and call them chips.

I read somewhere that the more vulnerable of us (very young, very old, some SN like my DS) are very susceptible to malnourishment in a crisis situation, as they can find eating differently very difficult.

So my (restocked this morning) tin cupboard is full of potatoes (aka chips), baked beans and hotdog sausages!

I am very of your vegetable garden.

Water doesn't store in bottles forever. It turns nasty.

In most scenarios you would only have to get through a week (hopefully).

• After a power cut react quickly and fill bath with water / you can get bath inserts called Waterbobs (or similar).
• Water purifying tablets
• If desperate you could

modernsurvivalblog.com/health/make-drinking-water-safe-with-bleach/

• modernsurvivalblog.com/health/how-to-purify-water-with-sunlight/

Thanks for your links Zetetic. Someone pointed me in the direction of water purifying tablets, I think I'll order some. (It just seems to make the jump from just having sensible stocks to actual prepping though , a big step!)

I am going to get some water purifying tablets, I think. They seem quite cheap on Amazon so I will get some with the next Christmas order.

Do you think they would purify bought bottled water, which has been stored a while?

I do keep extra stocks of bleach for this purpose, but can't imagine many scenarios in which DH let's me bleach our drinking water

See what you mean. It really depends where you live. If you are in a town or city then you would be priority for help / water / reconnection.

If you are out in the wilds and might be cut off it is a bit different. So in the big storm in the '80's urban areas were back to normal much quicker as there are more options to reconnect big settlements (multiple lines going in / substations to switch). Some places on tiny spurs of the network in Exmoor were off for weeks and weeks.

Anyway the army would be drafted in to get supplies to you so you just need enough to last for however long they took.

I've just had a look on Amazon, I'll def get some. Our household gets an Amazon package every other day it seems (bit, not much, of an exaggeration), so it'll look totally normal, just need to conceal from dh. He's into getting a generator, but need to do one thing at a time as far as he's concerned.

I'm secretly jealous of preppers. It's a part of MN that I lurk in frequently. We go off travelling next year for a year. I've been making notes for when we get back and locating potential hidey-holes where OH can't judge me or my antics.

Well if you do buy a generator they have to maintained (very expensive to buy/ probably not worth it unless you have a specific medical issue). The most common problem that hospitals and the like have with their emergency back-up generators is that they forget to maintain them and when the power cut comes they don't start!

www.propublica.org/article/why-do-hospitals-generators-keep-failing

Generators can also damage appliances.

My understanding is that water doesn't go "bad" as such, it just needs re-oxygenating. Its generally as simple as shaking it up a bit. It might not taste great but its still going to hydrate you.

If bacteria has entered the water then yes it can go "bad" but this will generally happen either because the storage container wasn't clean or because people have drunk from the bottle and once they have done this they will have contaminated the water. It is possible for the chlorine levels in the water to drop to such a level that bacteria can start to grow after its been stored for a long time. Its also possible for the plastic to pass chemicals into the water.

If the water is sealed and stored correctly you'll get a fairly long shelf life out of it and given how cheap our clean water is its no big deal to change it out every year.

This seems to suggest the same but to change it once a year if possible. I guess it all depends on how good a container it is in.

modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/long-term-drinking-water-storage/