Holiday Season

Keeping busy as the holiday season crawls along towards Christmas.  Have holiday baking to do, presents to wrap (last minute thing around here since we still have a Santa believer), but for the most part, I am prepared for Christmas.

We got a couple days of snow, meaning a couple snow days off school for the kids.  Snow is not the norm here, so people aren’t really prepared, no one knows how to drive in it (myself included, I can’t lie!), and pretty much the city shuts down.  Even if they manage to get the main streets clear and things moving, we are stuck, because we live at the top of a series of steep hills.  If you make it to the bottom of the first, and try to move out into the bigger world, you get to a junction with a hill going up left and a hill going up right.  Getting home is a big challenge, even if you make it out.

Besides, we live in the boonies version of suburbia, pockets of homes surrounded by protected wilderness.  So the road deicers never make it this far.

I still haven’t received my water barrel storage unit ordered on 10/28.  Part of me worries that I am getting scammed.  But I did email at the end of November and got a quick response that they are waiting on material from their fabricators, which if the email was accurate they would have received the first week of December.  The website says “Turn around time is typically 3 weeks.   So the sooner you place your order…the sooner it will be ready but there is a lead time for the fabricators to make everything.”  All I can do is hope I am not getting strung along so that it will be too late to register a complaint with my credit card company.  My gut tells me that they are just a small company (or even just “a guy”) and since they have to outsource everything, I just need to be patient, and eventually they will come through. I was “order 204” not 14,204 or 183, 204.  So, I am practicing patience.  And hoping I am not an idiot.

However, I haven’t wanted to fill up my water barrels, only to have to empty them to rack them, so I feel a little vulnerable.  On the other hand, its winter and we get precipitation fairly constantly.  If the SHTF and I didn’t have to worry about legally collecting rainwater (only collecting roof runoff is legal here), then I could put out the kiddie pools and buckets and tarp collectors and have plenty of liquid to run through the berkey.

Water Update

berkI decided after all to go ahead an order a Big Berkey.  On a forum that I read, the safecastle website has a presence, and posts “bunker” passwords for savings from time to time.  The latest bunker had a good deal on Birkey systems, which were already on sale.  I was able to get the Big Berkey with dual black filter AND a stand to rise it up enough that you can fit a glass under the spout for less than just the unit from the Big Berkey site or Amazon.

I have set it up, but I have not yet primed the filters and tested my assembly yet.  The one disappointment, and this is not the fault of the company, but my own failing, is that the unit on the stand is a scant 1/8″ too tall for the spot that I meant to be the filter’s home, which was under a cupboard where the bottom is shaped like an H (center is higher than side cupboards).  I thought I had the right measurements, but that didn’t include the little knob on the cover for easily removing to add water.  Bummer.

Done

Temporary water stored (about 10 gallons in regular store bought milkjug gallons)
Ordered water stand for 55 gallon barrels
Ordered tubing and plumbing supplies to chain 3 barrels
Supply list compiled for rainwater catchment system

Limbo:

Pick up 3 barrels (waiting to hear back from my SiL source)

To Do:

Obtain supplies and install rainwater catchment system
Decide on and order portable filter options for bug out situation. Still leaning towards a UV pen option for portability, but when we “arrive” what then to cleanse water?
Assemble 55 gallon barrel stand when it arrives
Acquire more portable containers for transporting water from catchment system to filter, from filter to barrels, or for immediate use. 7 Gallon aquatainers are looking like a good option. I would like to have 4-6
Buy 4 Water BOBs for tubs, 1 per tub, plus a backup each (if time allows for filling)

Obviously I would feel better if this were all done, and better yet if I had a stream or well on my property, but for someone with nothing, not even plans!, a few months ago, I feel good about where I am at.

Water storage thoughts

I was planning on ordering 55 gallon water barrels through my SiLs church contacts, but my water will have to be stored in the garage, but then I read that it is not a good idea to store the barrels directly on concrete, so I held off.  Elsewhere I have read that is mostly a myth.  One site quotes some guy [“According to preparedness lecturer Kenneth Moravec: “Concrete attracts fluids and ‘bleeds.’ Anything that has been on or in that concrete will find its way into your plastic water barrel. This includes the lime in the concrete, any hazardous materials (i.e. gasoline, oils, kerosene or anything a contractor used in construction), algae, etc. Usually it is not enough to make the water toxic but it will taint the water enough to make the taste unbearable. And no amount of pouring it from container to container will take that taste away.”] who turns out to be a long term prepper from Utah, no particular expert except via experience (which is not to be sneezed at, except when you’re wrong), and then it gets parotted and shared as gospel.

*Heated* concrete is a problem, so if it’s in an environment with relatively stable temperature, like in a basement, it’s probably fine.  My garage isn’t temperature controlled though, so it might be a good idea to raise it.  If you are going to do that, then why not create a rack that stacks 2-3, to use the vertical space?  Right now, I could get this metal stand with upgraded plumbing system, with delivery, for around 385$ from groundzero3.com. It’s on sale, and there’s a coupon code, which drops it 60$ altogether.  Note this is without barrels.  Assembly of this would be relatively simple.

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There’s are also a number of plans out there to build a wooden rack.  A 2×3 takes it up to 330 gallons, which would make me pretty comfortable, once a rain cachement system is in place. Do I have the skill to build that though?  Well, no.

These are great videos and make it seem easy.  But I don’t have the tools.  And if you add the materials and time, well, perhaps it’s not more cost effective.  But it’s twice the barrels.  It’s easier to expand.  Once you have the tools, the additional supplies aren’t that much.  Tools are useful and should be owned anyway.

Times like this, I quite wish my guy was handy.  And that he was on board.

Preparedness Pro has a great article on myths and facts of water storage.  Worth the read.