In light of what went on today, rather than comment, I just give you this quote from Thomas Jefferson in his Proposal for Virginia Constitution:
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms"
This week I would like to discuss water and the "rule of 3's".
Actually there are two rules of 3. The first one has to do with what we need to live. You can live 3 weeks without food. (Some of us can live A LOT longer than that), 3 days without water, 3 hours without shelter (in a hypo- or hyper-thermic situation), and 3 minutes without oxygen. To put this in realistic terms, if you have a power outage in the winter, and have a heat pump, it makes more sense to think about how you will keep your family warm than how you will save the food in your non-functioning freezer/refrigerator. As Cody Lundin states in his very informative and funny book, "98.6 Degrees, or How to Keep Your Ass Alive", water and shelter are paramount to regulate your core body temperature. In our area, winter is not so much of a problem if you can be indoors and out of the wind. Summer is a different matter. In our summer temps, without air-conditioning and without water, it's not going to be pretty.
Everyone who asks me how to begin to prepare for a "grid down" situation knows that I always say. Start with your water. A minimum to store is 1 gallon per day per person just for basic living. Don't forget your animals, they will be useful as well as pets. I have 4 dogs who collectively use 1 gallon per day. So that means I need 4 or 5 gallons per day of potable water. WHAT! That's 150 gallons per month. How can I possibly store that much, you ask? You don't.
That brings us to the second rule of 3's.
I think it was an old Indian saying that you need 3 ways of doing something in order to be sure you can accomplish what you need. (more if you can)
In the case of water, you might have rain barrels underneath your downspouts - you'd be amazed how fast a 55 gallon garbage can fills up. You might turn off the intake valve to the hot water heater before the water becomes polluted, and then open the lowest faucets in your home to collect the water from the hot water tank. Maybe you have a large bath tub or a jetted tub. Plan on using a double layer of plastic drop cloth duct taped to the tub with the vents and drains duct taped beforehand. Or just clean the tub with clorox and go for it. Or you could buy what's called a "Water Bob" which is a large food grade plastic bladder that fits inside a normal sized tub. Cost about $20. Maybe you have a free flowing stream near your house, or a lake or swimming pool. Some of this water you can use as-is for basic cleanliness and toilet flushing etc. For drinking purposes, we need to go a little further down the path.
Most of those water sources will need to be purified somehow for drinking. The simplest is boiling. Bring a gallon of water to a full boil for 8 - 10 minutes. Allow to cool unless you want to make coffee, tea, or cook or wash/rinse your dishes with it.
Next is chemical purification. Plain, unscented Clorox is a good and readily available method. Eight drops per quart of water, shake well, and allow to stand for 30 minutes. You can remove the chlorine smell/taste by using a filter pitcher like Pur or Britta (note: they DO NOT remove bacteria or other impurities). Swimming pool water MUST be filtered due to the shock and other chemicals in the water for long term use.
Next is filtering. There are Berkey filters which can do 2 1/2 gallons in a very short time. Each one can filter 5500 gallons of water before needing a filter change, but they can cost $200 or more. There are personal water filters, such as the Life Straw which will filter water for one individual for about a year and cost only $20. I have one of these for each member of our family.
As you can see, there are many things to consider when starting to plan for the worst, hope for the best. Sometimes it's just a matter of thinking of easy solutions to difficult problems. If you have questions, please come and see us at the store, or call/e-mail and I will contact you. Our phone number is 336-944-3933, and our e-mail is patriotaims@gmail.com.
Anna
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