Being Prepared Without Being a Prepper

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

It's difficult for hard-core preppers
to make and keep friends....

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

My home has enough of everything I need to survive without power or other utilities, and without me having to go to any store, for a week. However after a week I would run out of food, so I would like to build up a stash of dry and canned food that is good for a month and would not run out in just a week.

I used to treat 15 gallons of water with a few drops of bleach and store that for one year at a time in brand new 5 gallon homer buckets from Home Depot. Last year I used one of those buckets for another purpose and contaminated it, so now I'm down to 10 gallons.

I've been lazy and I have not dumped out the old water and put in new fresh tap water and treated it with a few drops of bleach last summer like I intended to.

If we lose county water service here I will probably drive down to the lake (or some river /creek) and collect lake water to use for flushing toilets, and I will keep the purified water in those new clean 5 gallon buckets just for drinking and cooking.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

My HOME has pretty good supply of survival gear but not my vehicle-- not anymore. I cleaned it out several months ago to use all of the available storage space for other purposes and I have not yet put any "survival gear" back into it other than clothing, because I always have a couple sets of clothing and extra footwear in my vehicle. Well, I always have a knife and a flashlight and a cigarette lighter in the glove box so I guess I've got some survival gear...

I have a personal policy if not letting the vehicle get below 1/3 tank of gas before I refill it, so that helps. Some people let their gas tanks go right to "E" before they refill, and they could be caught off-guard if there was ever a sudden gas shortage.

 

[LARGO9]

Copy this from another Survival site
If you want to stay happy in life, it's good to be both optimistic and realistic. That is: think about what could go wrong and make sure you know what to do if that happens, and at the same time don't live on the assumption that things will go wrong, because you could easily turn it into a self fulfilling prophecy.

This means thinking through the different scenarios that could play out. Pay special attention to the worst case scenarios and think about what should be fine to avoid those, or what could be done if they happen anyway. And once you've thought those through, focus on the best case scenarios and start working on the things you need to do to make them happen. In my view, just hoping for the best is not enough. Commit to it, believe in it. But also know that, sometimes, things just don't work out the way you'd like, and you can't always help that.

 

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

I used to treat 15 gallons of water with a few drops of bleach and store that for one year at a time in brand new 5-gallon homer buckets from Home Depot. Last year I used one of those buckets for another purpose and contaminated it, so now I'm down to 10 gallons.

A few years back I had three of the 50-gallon water storage containers. I opened one of them more than a year after filling them to see how the water looked since it was my first time storing water long term like that. It had been treated with bleach and was crystal clear, so I closed it. A year later I opened it again and it had about a hundred or so floating green things in there. They were on top and suspended in the water. I don't know if it was mold or algae, but I learned to never open it unless I'm ready to switch it out completely lol. Nowadays I use the collapsible tub bags that we can fill at the first sign of bad weather.

To the original post,
I would recommend a headlamp as the first line light source. They allow you to work hands free in the dark, and I can't count the number of times it has come in handy.

 

[hamburglar3]

I made a basket for power outages since I live rural and trees fall a lot

It is on a timer so it only charges about an hour a week to prevent overcharge on lithium batteries.

Has a power pack, 2 headlamps, a lantern, a light that goes around neck, battery fan, and a usb block to charge them all. Also a little us light that plugs into power pack

Always in the same place, always charged up, easy to grab in the dark

 

[NewLeaf]

We drink from a Spring in a Cave. Picked up some water dispenser bottles. Thought about picking up some Life Straws? Cave Spring GA has the best water we’ve found.

 

[Klif]

When you teach your class, also touch on a "get home bag". Many people were caught in the freak snow storm this year with nothing on board their vehicle. A get home bag, with a little food, a little water (not bottled water as it will freeze and possibly burst), a first aid kit, some glow sticks and a flash light and anything else you might want to have along if you are spending the night on the road. It's a life saver. I ever have some hand wipes and a roll of TP since I'm old and not going to hike to the nearest bathroom if stuck on the interstate. They can be made as big or as small as you want but I've been thankful for mine more than once.

 

[Spas-12 Owner]

When you teach your class, also touch on a "get home bag". Many people were caught in the freak snow storm this year with nothing on board their vehicle. A get home bag, with a little food, a little water (not bottled water as it will freeze and possibly burst), a first aid kit, some glow sticks and a flash light and anything else you might want to have along if you are spending the night on the road. It's a life saver. I ever have some hand wipes and a roll of TP since I'm old and not going to hike to the nearest bathroom if stuck on the interstate. They can be made as big or as small as you want but I've been thankful for mine more than once.

Add some hot hands for winter time and sounds GTG.

 

[Hopbuilt]

When you teach your class, also touch on a "get home bag". Many people were caught in the freak snow storm this year with nothing on board their vehicle. A get home bag, with a little food, a little water (not bottled water as it will freeze and possibly burst), a first aid kit, some glow sticks and a flash light and anything else you might want to have along if you are spending the night on the road. It's a life saver. I ever have some hand wipes and a roll of TP since I'm old and not going to hike to the nearest bathroom if stuck on the interstate. They can be made as big or as small as you want but I've been thankful for mine more than once.

Great idea. I thinking of a shelter in place box, bug out bag and a get home bag.