Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
its the actions of other people than mainly worry me, people will foul hedgerows and water courses upstream of where other people are washing or drinking from!!!
OK folks, let's see who has any thoughts or ideas on how to maintain good sanitation in a SHTF event. We've all heard of municipalities warning people to boil their water during floods, but poor sanitation could have potentially the most devastating effect from an emergency situation, in terms of illness and loss of life.
This is something rarely discussed. If you truly wish to avoid life-threatening disease, you need to give this serious consideration. Where will you get your water? If you have a well, how will you pump the water, if there is no grid power? How will you purify it? How will you dispose of human waste? How will you dispose of household trash? What methods will you use to keep fresh foods clean and uncontaminated? How will you deal with insects and rodents, which may be drawn to trash and raw sewage?
In this world where undesireable 'stuff' is simply flushed away or left out for the trash removal trucks to haul off, where the spigots supply endless gallonage of pure water, refrigeration and freezers keep foods fresh, and pest control companies are simply a phone call away. how would you cope if such things were not so conveniently available? Or do you figure that no such thing should ever concern you?
I live in a rural area and have no need to leave my property. Hunter-gatherer societies had low rates of infectious disease; maximum group size was about forty. The leading cause of death among adults was a battle wound resulting from constant warfare with other groups. The infectious disease rate made a dramatic increase when agricultural communities formed. The first agriculturists did not live on individual farms but in large communities. They worked the fields as a group. The first requirement is, therefore, isolation.
I have a driven well powered by a water windmill. It pumps the water into a cistern. There's an electric pump to transport water from the cistern to a large pressure tank. I now have an auxiliary hand pump should I be without electricity. It's a closed system so no treatment is either necessary or desirable. I had the water analyzed after I had the hand pump installed because it required opening the cistern. It was fine. My septic tank is more than adequate for my needs. I can handle water and sewage with no need for electricity from any source.
I have a couple years worth of bottled water as well as I prefer the taste. It's possible to improve the taste of water by adding a teaspoon of citric acid per liter. If you wish to be fancy add a tsp of lemon extract as well. It's called sour lemonade.
Should my well ever run dry in bad times I can bring water from the river. I have British army burlap filters. After that I'd boil it. If I were afraid of metals or other particles I'd distill it. Anyone can distill water. Rainwater collected on roofs must be distilled.
In a TEOTWAWKI situation I don't expect to have much trash. Vegetable waste will go to the compast heap as it does now. I'll chop animal waste and flush it. My house is rodent-proof. An adult coyote can eat fifty mice per day. I do not use poison. Poisoning the bottom of the food chain quickly poisons the top as well. I'll dump the rest on the other side of a low ridge but still on my property. I don't yet have a Chinese wheelbarrow, but I do have a handcart (look them up).
I've decided that if bad times come I'll get all of my protein from dried milk as long at it lasts along with eggs and fish. Apart from fish, I eat very little flesh even now. This practice will avoid many problems.
Needless to say, I have supplies of toilet paper, soap, and various household cleaning and maintainence items along with Q-tps, shaving cream, razor bades, etc, I have DEET and sunscreen. I do not plan on using mud and ashes on my body or using reusable toilet paper. I'm trying to avoid disease. I have flea and tick preventitive for my dog. My cat stays in the house. I believe that my chickens are OK. I have stockpiles for them as well along with mealworm cultures. Bugs are scarce here.
i keep my tetanus vaccination current; it's every ten years.
I'm a firm believer in planning ahead rather than improvising in a disaster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTSilvertip
.
An outhouse placed downhill or downstream from where the water comes from or where you collect your water handles that kind of waste pretty good.
I advise you to keep your gun handy for the day your downstream neighbors come with a rope.
don't flush animal (or even human)waste post SHTF, that's a waste of water, its also a waste of resources, compost it.. same with urine, which is a source of nitrogen of which we have a non ending supply, dilute it 5 parts water to 1 part urine.
don't flush animal (or even human)waste post SHTF, that's a waste of water,
When I built this house 2 years ago, I was required by the state of Maine to put in a septic system, and that meant a flush toilet (the wife wanted it, anyway). She never understood the amount of fresh, potable water we wasted on flushing until we moved up here! We do have a well, and it feeds a cistern, which she checks every day for water level. When I added the woodshed last summer, I built an outhouse into one corner, and that's mostly what I use, not the indoor loo. Our bunkhouse has a compost toilet, which uses no water.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigpaul
.. same with urine, which is a source of nitrogen of which we have a non ending supply, dilute it 5 parts water to 1 part urine.
Another thing the wife had a BIG problem with. She has now learned that urine contains no fecal coliform bacteria, but still dislikes it on principle. What little of it we use, goes for trees or ornamentals. Any that I save, I pour into the compost pile, and let it stew. Women...and their city ideas!
I live in a rural area and have no need to leave my property. Hunter-gatherer societies had low rates of infectious disease; maximum group size was about forty. The leading cause of death among adults was a battle wound resulting from constant warfare with other groups. The infectious disease rate made a dramatic increase when agricultural communities formed. The first agriculturists did not live on individual farms but in large communities. They worked the fields as a group. The first requirement is, therefore, isolation.
I have a driven well powered by a water windmill. It pumps the water into a cistern. There's an electric pump to transport water from the cistern to a large pressure tank. I now have an auxiliary hand pump should I be without electricity. It's a closed system so no treatment is either necessary or desirable. I had the water analyzed after I had the hand pump installed because it required opening the cistern. It was fine. My septic tank is more than adequate for my needs. I can handle water and sewage with no need for electricity from any source.
I have a couple years worth of bottled water as well as I prefer the taste. It's possible to improve the taste of water by adding a teaspoon of citric acid per liter. If you wish to be fancy add a tsp of lemon extract as well. It's called sour lemonade.
Should my well ever run dry in bad times I can bring water from the river. I have British army burlap filters. After that I'd boil it. If I were afraid of metals or other particles I'd distill it. Anyone can distill water. Rainwater collected on roofs must be distilled.
In a TEOTWAWKI situation I don't expect to have much trash. Vegetable waste will go to the compast heap as it does now. I'll chop animal waste and flush it. My house is rodent-proof. An adult coyote can eat fifty mice per day. I do not use poison. Poisoning the bottom of the food chain quickly poisons the top as well. I'll dump the rest on the other side of a low ridge but still on my property. I don't yet have a Chinese wheelbarrow, but I do have a handcart (look them up).
I've decided that if bad times come I'll get all of my protein from dried milk as long at it lasts along with eggs and fish. Apart from fish, I eat very little flesh even now. This practice will avoid many problems.
Needless to say, I have supplies of toilet paper, soap, and various household cleaning and maintainence items along with Q-tps, shaving cream, razor bades, etc, I have DEET and sunscreen. I do not plan on using mud and ashes on my body or using reusable toilet paper. I'm trying to avoid disease. I have flea and tick preventitive for my dog. My cat stays in the house. I believe that my chickens are OK. I have stockpiles for them as well along with mealworm cultures. Bugs are scarce here.
i keep my tetanus vaccination current; it's every ten years.
I'm a firm believer in planning ahead rather than improvising in a disaster.
I advise you to keep your gun handy for the day your downstream neighbors come with a rope.
My nearet neighbor there is over a mile away, and in a different valley, so not too worried about them, especially since they are members of the rich and shameless, they're only around once in a great while for a party or somehting anyway.
only taked to them once in 3 years.
They're on their own in my opinion, and if they want to dscuss it, there's aways the compost heap if they're too spoiled for bear bait.
Really, who needs gold fixtures in their bathroom?
My BIL is a master pumber and did the install, so yeah, I do know for sure.
It's interesting that their stories always include a brother-in-law or a half-brother, sometimes even a half-brother's brother-in-law or a brother-in-law's half-brother.
I bet down in Tennessee they're talking about your solid gold bathroom fixtures. We bought faucets in the shape of swans with collars of little tiny rubies. What did you get?
He wants to contaminate their water because they're rich. He doesn't think it's fair that they have more than he does. That's about twenty levels beyond LordyLordy/ognend at his worst.
Remember: never place a wealth pot in the bathroom. Certain locations reverse the effect desired.
I bet down in Tennessee they're talking about your solid gold bathroom fixtures. We bought faucets in the shape of swans with collars of little tiny rubies. What did you get?
Our latrine down in TN doesn't have gold fixtures. The WHOLE BATHROOM is solid gold!!!
Amazing what they can do with modular homes, nowadays....
seeing as we are talking sanitation in SHTF, some people wont even have a bathroom never mind gold taps.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm trying to avoid disease. I have flea and tick preventitive for my dog. My cat stays in the house. I believe that my chickens are OK. I have stockpiles for them as well along with mealworm cultures. Bugs are scarce here.
