New to prepping and have a few questions (acres, house, convert)
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Greetings all,
I am interested in learning and doing more about prepping for disasters or hard time situations.
So I’ve been doing a lot of reading up on it and could appreciate some advice.
I was raised LDS so I’m not really all that unfamiliar with it but it’s been a while and things have changed.
We are way out in the sticks on the Washington Olympic Peninsula on a few acres.
We are on well, septic and have a very large propane tank that is only for our whole house generator.
There is large game here and we also have oyster beds, clams beds and all that goes with that on the property.
We don’t have solar yet but we have a perfect large southern roof for it.
I plan on doing that in the near future and using repurposed electric car batteries.
Some of my buddies are hip to that and have taught me a lot so I think the repurposed batteries are a good value.
I like the idea of an attached narrow shed to the backside of the house with solar fans like sailboats have for ventilation.
So.....
Here are some of my questions .
Can I load up several plastic 55 gallon drums with bags of dried foods and store them my shop.
The shop has heat but I don’t heat it.
It has a concrete floor.
Should I isolate my food off the floor with some sort of insulation like thick expanded rock sheeting?
Same question on my gun safes and ammo pallet.
Should I also install a lock on our shop freezer to slow down a thief?
What driveway security system works the best.
I want to do this now, like a doorbell chime because the driveway is a couple hundred yards long and we can’t see the street.
On one forum one guy said to get a couple of geese because that are better than dogs.
He actually said they work well with dogs because they get the dogs on alert quick.
I use game cams but they won’t fit this bill.
Also what would be a good emergency form of transportation?
I like the idea of e bikes.
We are going to get a couple soon.
I even want a trailer to haul game or supplies if needed.
We have 4 or 5 first aid kits that are ok but I would like to get a really good one.
Any suggestions to better fine tune my needs would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MechAndy
Greetings all,
I am interested in learning and doing more about prepping for disasters or hard time situations.
So I’ve been doing a lot of reading up on it and could appreciate some advice.
I was raised LDS so I’m not really all that unfamiliar with it but it’s been a while and things have changed.
We are way out in the sticks on the Washington Olympic Peninsula on a few acres.
We are on well, septic and have a very large propane tank that is only for our whole house generator.
There is large game here and we also have oyster beds, clams beds and all that goes with that on the property.
We don’t have solar yet but we have a perfect large southern roof for it.
I plan on doing that in the near future and using repurposed electric car batteries.
Some of my buddies are hip to that and have taught me a lot so I think the repurposed batteries are a good value.
I like the idea of an attached narrow shed to the backside of the house with solar fans like sailboats have for ventilation.
So.....
Here are some of my questions .
Can I load up several plastic 55 gallon drums with bags of dried foods and store them my shop.
The shop has heat but I don’t heat it.
It has a concrete floor.
Should I isolate my food off the floor with some sort of insulation like thick expanded rock sheeting?
Same question on my gun safes and ammo pallet.
Should I also install a lock on our shop freezer to slow down a thief?
What driveway security system works the best.
I want to do this now, like a doorbell chime because the driveway is a couple hundred yards long and we can’t see the street.
On one forum one guy said to get a couple of geese because that are better than dogs.
He actually said they work well with dogs because they get the dogs on alert quick.
I use game cams but they won’t fit this bill.
Also what would be a good emergency form of transportation?
I like the idea of e bikes.
We are going to get a couple soon.
I even want a trailer to haul game or supplies if needed.
We have 4 or 5 first aid kits that are ok but I would like to get a really good one.
Any suggestions to better fine tune my needs would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Welcome to the sub-forum. Picked a great time to visit.
Sounds like near paradise. Any land for sale next door?
FOOD: You could store food, sealing the drums well of course. Also putting some desiccant inside. As long as it isn't freezing you should be OK.
I would isolate my food off the floor, though if it's in plastic drums it's safe from water and bugs. Rodents could probably eat through it. At my house we keep our food in the pantry and in our storage room has a rack of shelves where we store some freeze dried emergency food and a trunk of grab and go food in case of fire or something.
GUNS: I sold all my guns so the gubbermint can't take 'em... But if I did still have any I'd bolt my gun safe directly into the concrete with expansion bolts. I'd use about 5/8" bolts with 3" square plate washers so someone can't just pry the safe out.
LOCK: If things are so bad you need to lock up your food, I would. I'd also lock the shop and install alarms, lights and cameras! Otherwise unless you don't trust someone in your family/group, why? You'll have to assess it.
DRIVEWAY: They make various early warning devices. "Driveway Alert" is a cheap one. Some security systems now have battery or solar motion alarms.
ALARM: I don't know about geese, but I have an "assault cat." We're our security team, I throw the cat at the intruder and she takes it from there!
TRANSPORTATION: Don't know much about E-bikes. But why not. Personally I have a Jeep for emergencies. Horses might be appropriate in some circumstances. Remember back in the 70's when "Mo-Peds" were all the rage? They were everywhere until regulations killed the industry. But they are still used by billions of people around the world.
FIRST AID: That's plenty of kits. We have a basic bandaid and gauze kit for each car and a medicine cabinet for boo-boos at home.
I have one "medical-trauma" bag that goes with us if we go out of town or to the gun range. It has supplies for major injury/gunshot. I'm always adding to it, but it includes quik clot, tourniquets, combat bandages, sponges, chest seals, O2 monitor, blood pressure, oxygen, etc.. You can buy pre-made kits but without experience someone wouldn't know what to look for to know if the kit was any good or not. A lot of kits have junk you never use and leave out stuff you need.
I'd suggest do a bunch of reading on setting up kits, and maybe go ask a paramedic what's in their kit.
jamies,
Thank you for that advice.
Exactly the stuff I was looking for.
ComeCloser,
That toy claymore mine is pretty darn cool.
I think that would be great Christmas presents for several kids I know.
I have actually designed and made a trip wire device that will release a very large whistle noise, a bang report or even release a blue powder that will stain an intruder for a while for a friend that needed some security.
On another note I also want to learn to to jar things like fruits, veggies and meat.
This seems like a good value .
"Can I load up several plastic 55 gallon drums with bags of dried foods and store them my shop."
5 gallon buckets are easier to move and you don't necessarily need to use bags. Plus it's better to have 10 individual containers subject to failure than putting all your eggs into one basket. Walmart sells BPA free food-grade 5 gallon buckets for about $3 each (add another $1.50 for the lid) which probably brings the price down lower than those huge drums too. You can stack the 5 gallon buckets to the ceiling if you want.
"What driveway security system works the best."
A dog.
"On one forum one guy said to get a couple of geese because that are better than dogs."
Geese taste better than dogs, I imagine (have never eaten dog) if things really get bad. We have geese and the problem with them is that they will honk for no apparent reason, sometimes 18 hours a day, and sometimes when they should be honking they don't. They go through a nesting season once per year when their abilities for detecting danger borders on useful, but the rest of the year you'll be wanting a dog. And look at it this way: one stray dog can kill a flock of geese in just a few minutes. It's happened to our neighbors. No number of geese are going to kill a dog. My second choice for "animal protector" would be a donkey. They don't like strangers and have the ability to scare them off or even kill them, it doesn't matter if it's a dog or coyote going after your sheep or somebody trying to get to your house. Of course, keeping equines takes a lot of knowledge, experience, and extra meds and gear. But unlike geese and dogs they can haul heavy loads, pull carts, etc. Donkeys are more closely related to zebras than they are horses (indeed, many donkeys like ours have stripes on their legs from their ancestry of interbreeding in Africa) and as desert creatures they can thrive off half the food of a similar sized horse.
"We have 4 or 5 first aid kits that are ok but I would like to get a really good one."
Get a bunch of coagulant and a wound stapler. It also helps to know how to stitch a wound up. If you have livestock you've probably already done this but if not you can learn how on youtube. It takes less than a minute to learn how to use a wound stapler. But you need to know how BEFORE you have to use one. Get a pair of adjustable crutches and at least one each of ankle, knee, etc braces. A bunch of spools of vet wrap (they sell at walmart in the livestock section). It amazes me that preppers have all this gear for surviving wounds for a shoot out which is never going to happen but they don't own a pair of crutches which most people are going to need within their lifetime if the S NEVER hits the F anyway. They think they are going to make them with sticks or whatever and sure they probably could, but you want to have something ready to go before you break your ankle, not after when you are immobile and can't get to the sticks and twine. Of course, I've digressed, this has gone beyond "first aid". If you know that medical care is definitely going to always be available all you'll need is cub scout stuff. The best "commercial" first aid kits I've seen were for marine use- when it's assumed help is a long ways off.
Last edited by terracore; 01-11-2021 at 07:59 PM..
On another note I also want to learn to to jar things like fruits, veggies and meat.
This seems like a good value .
Once again thanks.
To can meat you are going to need a pressure canner. It's one appliance you never want to skimp on because the alternative is botulism. This is the one we use. The tolerances are so perfect no gasket is required:
I never heard of a pressure canner.
Thank you.
I will look into that.
I read on a hunting/fishing forum that people really like their jarred tuna much better than store bought.
I hope I read that right so I will have to check that out again.
I am a bee keeper and am just used to jars and keep cases on site.
I would think if you oven pasteurized meat or fruit in jars and you can see the the vacuum dimple you would be good to go especially if it popped when you opened the lid but I will look further into that.
That 5 gallon bucket idea really makes a lot of sense.
We have a very tall crawl space and it could hold a lot of buckets that wouldn’t be taking up shop space.
That would be also be so much easier to travel with as well.
Thanks for that also.
The pressure canning system would really be nice for smoked oysters I’m thinking but if I could just go jars it might be easier.
Ahh,
I just checked out the link you supplied.
That makes sense now.
I actually fit and weld stainless steel pipe for a living.
I could easily convert that into an alcohol still with just a little bit of work.
Heck it’s a “twofer” in my book .
Greetings all,
I am interested in learning and doing more about prepping for disasters or hard time situations.
So I’ve been doing a lot of reading up on it and could appreciate some advice.
I was raised LDS so I’m not really all that unfamiliar with it but it’s been a while and things have changed.
We are way out in the sticks on the Washington Olympic Peninsula on a few acres.
We are on well, septic and have a very large propane tank that is only for our whole house generator.
There is large game here and we also have oyster beds, clams beds and all that goes with that on the property.
We don’t have solar yet but we have a perfect large southern roof for it.
I plan on doing that in the near future and using repurposed electric car batteries.
Some of my buddies are hip to that and have taught me a lot so I think the repurposed batteries are a good value.
I like the idea of an attached narrow shed to the backside of the house with solar fans like sailboats have for ventilation.
So.....
Here are some of my questions .
Can I load up several plastic 55 gallon drums with bags of dried foods and store them my shop.
The shop has heat but I don’t heat it.
It has a concrete floor.
Should I isolate my food off the floor with some sort of insulation like thick expanded rock sheeting?
Same question on my gun safes and ammo pallet.
Should I also install a lock on our shop freezer to slow down a thief?
What driveway security system works the best.
I want to do this now, like a doorbell chime because the driveway is a couple hundred yards long and we can’t see the street.
On one forum one guy said to get a couple of geese because that are better than dogs.
He actually said they work well with dogs because they get the dogs on alert quick.
I use game cams but they won’t fit this bill.
Also what would be a good emergency form of transportation?
I like the idea of e bikes.
We are going to get a couple soon.
I even want a trailer to haul game or supplies if needed.
We have 4 or 5 first aid kits that are ok but I would like to get a really good one.
Any suggestions to better fine tune my needs would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Plastic drums are porous and could absorb nearby chemicals, such as concrete.
Ahh,
I just checked out the link you supplied.
That makes sense now.
I actually fit and weld stainless steel pipe for a living.
I could easily convert that into an alcohol still with just a little bit of work.
Heck it’s a “twofer” in my book .
A mormon with a still? LOL.
Actually, having clean alcohol isn't a bad idea. (Water purification use.)
The things that people seem to need urgently, are~
And IF it's a prolonged "SHTF" situation, then a scoped 30.06 and ammo. Lots of food can be "acquired" with this.
2nd to last resort, is going to the zoo for food. (Elephants can feed about 5400 meals, btw.) Give or take.
Last resort, is people. (Don't eat the dead one's already. Eat only "fresh kills.")Dead one's won't likely be safe to eat.
Happy hunting!
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