Emergency preparedness goals
Mark and I have a very
hit-or-miss approach to emergency preparedness. We've covered the
basics --- storing drinking water, making sure we have enough food for
a few weeks, staying warm during outages, and keeping the lights on
without electricity (all of which I write about in more depth in The
Weekend Homesteader).
But each new disaster we face reminds us
of a few ways we'd like to keep comfort levels higher, and Just in Case gave us some extra ideas as
well. So here's our new preparedness plan, which we'll be pecking
away at over the next few years.
Now or soon:
- Make sure we have cash on hand at all times. Like many modern Americans, we use plastic nearly exclusively, but Harrison makes a good point that credit cards don't work without power.
- Check to make sure our car has a spare tire. Neither Mark nor I could recall if we did this when we bought our "new" (1994-model) car a year and a half ago.
- Stock up on toiletries. If we didn't have access to stores for a month or two, we'd be fine in the food line, but we'd run low on soap and toilet paper. Since neither is perishable, it wouldn't hurt to have a couple of extra packages on a shelf in the barn.
- Put up smoke/carbon dioxide detectors. I'm ashamed to admit that we don't have a smoke detector in our trailer. When we moved in, various friends and family members gave us bags-full, but the devices were all cheap and went off whenever I cooked (not even burning anything), so we gave up on them. I suspect that if I get a better model and read up on placement, we could have the benefit of a smoke detector without constant false alarms.
Replace our fire extinguisher
with one rated for class A, B, and C fires. We do have a
fire extinguisher easy to grab in the kitchen, but it's only good for
class B (gasoline and grease) and C (electrical) fires. Granted,
class A (paper and some plastics) fires can probably be put out with
water, but I want to add an extinguisher to the East Wing as well where
there's not water on demand.- Buy a cat carrier.
If we had to evacuate with pets, Lucy would be easy, but my usual
cat-wrangling method (just wrap whoever needs to go to the vet in a
towel and then in my arms) wouldn't work with two cats. For our
chickens, we'd probably either turn them loose with extra food, or move
them to the barn.
- Replace my tents.
We've got all the camping gear we would need to spend a couple of weeks
in the woods, except that my twelve-year-old tents have finally bitten
the dust.
Longer term projects
tentatively include:
- Add a hood over our cook stove and redo the cabinets so they're higher up. When researching Trailersteading, I learned that a huge proportion of trailer fires are due to the cabinet above the stove catching fire since it's flammable and too close to the range surface. An ounce of prevention here is worth a pound of cure.
- Get our solar
setup to the point where it fuels ordinary, daily activities.
What's been standing in the way here is that I keep waiting for someone
else (Bradley, Mark, Huckleberry) to do the research and figure out
whether batteries need to be outdoors or indoors, what kind of inverter
to buy, etc. I think I need to buy a good book and learn more
about solar myself --- does anyone have a basic solar book suggestion?
Convert our generator
to propane. Having fuel on hand for our generator is
tricky since gas goes bad quickly in our humid climate. Although
you can add fuel stabilizer to gas, Mark thinks converting the
generator over to propane would be a better solution.- Hook up a second solar setup so we can have one for the main trailer and one for the East Wing.
- This may just be at the dreaming stage, but we're also
considering a little underground
shelter up the hillside, beyond flood range, that could be used
during floods and tornadoes, and as guest quarters and a root
cellar. I probably should get an underground house book to
expedite my research --- any favorites there?
As usual, some of these
plans are quite ambitious, but it helps to have them all laid out from
easy to hard. After all, I know I can buy soap and toilet paper
and take some money out of the bank in small bills this week, putting
us 16% of the way to our goal immediately. What is on your
preparedness list for the near and far future?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Anna it is refreshing to read thoughts on preparedness that do not focus on armgeddon scenarios. Our lifestyle has always been one of conservation and preparedness. We have managed to remain frugally comfortable through loss of power, transportation and income, because we felt we needed to be prepared and concerned ourselves with the "what if's". We are grateful to our parents, and grandparents before us, who taught us a lot about the importance and methods of preparedness. That takes us our lessons back as far as 1896.
Given that you live in tornado country, having an underground shelter of some sort would make me feel safer about you. A lot of deaths from tornadoes are those who live in trailers because of the lack of basements/other underground shelters that can be gotten to quickly.
I'd also be interested in anyone's suggestions for books about converting your house to solar. We're debating that in my family right now.
Anna, I also live in tornado country and struggled with the realization that if one hits, I have no where to go. I believe I have found a solution that will work for both me and for you. Are you aware of Earthbag structures? They are amazing; flood proof, bombproof, tornado proof and extremely cheep to make! Here is a website that I believe you and your readers will really like. I know I'm really excited to have found this and plan on building a 10 foot dome this summer.
Jim
http://www.motherearthnews.com/hands-on-and-how-to/disaster-resistant-earthbag-housing.aspx
A hood around the cook stove is an excellent idea. It is probably best to go for stainless steel there, since it doesn't need corrosion protection (paint can burn as well) and is easily cleaned (grease/oil are flammable). It's also very hygienic.
In a kitchen the biggest danger is probably a grease or oil fire. It is possible for a stove to heat the oil or grease above its autoignition temperature. Oil and grease fires are very hard to put out, because the hot oil can easily re-ignite when it comes into contact with air again. A k-class fire extinguisher will work best on these kinds of fires. Having a fire-blanket around would help as well. In a pinch a wet (but not dripping!) towel can be used to cover the fire.
I probably don't have to tell you that trying to put out an oil/grease fire with water will only produce spectacular fireballs.
Anna, do you know about "dtisolar.com" ? I think they're located in Virginia. It's a good site if you want to learn about setting up your own solar systems, no matter the size. They also offer classes, I believe at their warehouse.
for making butter, how to cook with dried foods, etc., etc. It has been both educational and fun.
Also, one of the things I've been doing to prepare for an emergency is teaching myself to cook from the basics. I no longer buy packaged and/or prepared foods. I'm learning to cook and bake everything from scratch and educating myself about dehydrators for preserving foods, mills for grinding grains, presses for making juices, churns
Several years ago, a severe ice storm knocked out power to more than half the state of New Hampshire. Downed trees blocked roads, making travel difficult. When loss of power is this widespread, you discover quickly that you had better be ready to be self sufficient. Without power, you cant get money from an atm, and stores cannot process card purchases, gas pumps do not work, cordless phones dont work ( keep a spare old fashioned phone!) and most stores are unable to operate. Our small town convenience store opened for cash sales, but could not sell any perishables ( dairy, meat, eggs, etc) because federal regulations prevented it after no refrigeration for x number of hours. This outtage lasted for weeks, and no power also meant no communication- we could not find out where there might be gas available, for example, and we could not risk just heading out in search of some and possibly getting stranded. All police, fire, and emergency workers were already overburdened. We were on our own. That experience taight me several things. I will always keep food and water in hand, plus a way to cook, even if it is a solar oven, or a rocket stove outside. We will never be without a wood burning stove, and firewood. And i keep gas on hand. Plus, since we live in a fire zone, i have a bag with important document copies, hard drive backup, change of clothes ( clean underwear!) and basic emergency things like flashlight, multi tool, emergency rations, etc. all together easy to grab if forced to evacuate quickly. A cat carrier is for our canaries.
My goal for preparedness is to purchase a water purifier- we have wells, and no power also means no water, we can lug river water if it came to that, but a purifier is necessary.
I am also backing up all of my kitchen gadgets with non electric versions- hand coffee grinder and french press( priorities!) hand grain mill, meat grinder, and cast iron cookware that can be used over an outdoor campfire or wodstove if need be!
And i tend to store food that is home canned or dehydrated, rather than frozen because our power goes out rather frequently in our rural location.
Gee, was that more than you wanted to know?
It would take a bit of work, and at least the use of a bobcat, burying a 20 foot container into your hill would work as a shelter and a root cellar. If it were only partially buried, straw bales could be used as insulation for the root cellar. Much cheaper than a container but still the same concept would be a dead van with its wheels underground and the passenger side dug into your hill. [You could use the side doors to get in.]
Somewhere I ran across a root/storm shelter school bus buried to its windows with the back 2/3s covered with dirt
I agree with Deb that freezing a lot of food leaves you vulnerable to a major storm. Also, when I heated with wood, I had the wire brushes for my chimney and I would clean it out several times during the heating season to avoid fire issues.
There is a great podcast called The Survival Podcast (by Jack Spirko) and he has a great guest named Steven Harris who has tons of info on energy usage and alternative energy etc... One of Steven's websites I suggest for you is solar1234.com. Listen to the podcast episodes (on that website, ready for android or iphone streaming too) and check the items, pictures and links provided. Yes, he sells his books, DVDs etc.. but the free info on the site is wonderful.
I can't recommend that podcast enough either! (http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/)
Thanks for the great blog! I just found you last week and thoroughly enjoy it!
This is an interesting product. From reading the disposal instructions, it probably contains sodium bicarbonate, which decomposes releasing CO2 and water when heated.
And as opposed to potassium bicarbonate (which is twice as effective at putting out fires, see purple-k) it doesn't produce aggressive and toxic decomposition products.
One of the best features is its automatic operation. It releases the powder when a flame touches the bottom of the canister. Very good idea.
I would certainly recommend this.
Anonymous --- I use Linux too, for the same reasons, and I gladly give pdf versions of my ebooks away to folks who email me. On the other hand, you can read any Amazon ebook using your web browser in Amazon's cloud --- that's what I do when I want to read one. Thanks for your interest!
(And thanks to everyone else for your thought-provoking insights.)
I maintain many generators for friends and family and have to say that the best thing that can ever be done to a generator is to switch it no natural gas or propane. I switched over my father in laws generator to natural gas and it was amazing. Every time since it has been smooth starting and easy running. No fouled spark plugs No gummed up carburetor. I only need to change the oil. Compare this with my grandmothers which had gasoline left in it for a year and needed a complete overhaul of the carburetor to make it run again. I used the "c" kit from http://www.propane-generators.com/