Spags Unfiltered Group
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Most Overlooked ITEM in Preparedness
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Most Overlooked ITEM in Preparedness
Notice I said “item”. No answers like “knowledge” or some ambiguous touchy feely BS. Throw out there the items that you put back that perhaps others do not put back. Let’s see how unique your answers are.
What’s the point? Your answer may shed light on something we are all missing. For example, my buddy Charles pointed out at the last MWPP Spring Festival, how he has a UV light and UV pen in his and his wife’s EDC. This way they can write messages to each other in preplanned areas that no one else would even know was there. Brilliant. That is going into our EDC’s at the Spags household, but ONLY because someone else mentioned it!
Ready…..and go!
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This discussion was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by
SpagsUnfiltered.
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This discussion was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by SpagsUnfiltered.
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This discussion was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by
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172 Replies
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Extra pairs of prescription glasses/sunglasses jic the originals get broke or lost. Extra reading glasses for not only me but maybe seniors (halfassed able to see/read is better than not at all). Notebooks and writing implements for people to journal. Coloring books/colored pencils to keep any children entertained. Feminine hygiene products for women who need them. I’m sure there’s plenty more.
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Great answers! Well done!
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Yes to all of that! I put all of that together too!
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Thats a must for me. Blind as a bat
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This is going to sound counter intuitive; in the larger sense of preparedness, I think it is water. Most people, even serious preppers, under estimate the amount of water needed to maintain a working homestead. And since homesteading is the natural landing spot in the evolution of a prepper, that’s the target we should be aiming for. It’s relatively easy to prep for survival levels. That’s not what we are preparing for, though. We are preparing to thrive, not just survive. In the event of a collapse, in order to thrive we need water for ourselves, hydration and hygiene. We’ll also need water for our livestock and our gardens. Stock ponds and drought resistant crops can alleviate the problem a bit; still the amount of water that is consumed on a working homestead dwarfs what most people “prepare” for.
That’s my 2 cents, YMMV
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100% spot on! We HAVE to move past our Sawyer Mini’s and Lifestraws!
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⬆️ that is one of the toughest things to get prepared for my household. We keep working on water but it never seems to be enough or it “accidentally” gets used.
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Agreed. Water it the hardest thing to stock in abundance. One thing I learned about and have been trying (with some difficulties) is using a dehumidifier to collect water out of the air, then filter it through a water purifier.
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Love that idea! 🤯Just not the one in the basement.
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There are companies that are marketing in home potable water condensers.. They are really neat; they do tend to be a bit pricey, though. “Cool costs money,” as an old boss of mine used to say. An ingenious person (Hacks for the Homesteader), could probably cobble one together for a lot less.
Here’s one I was looked at when I was contemplating the idea:
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?????
Fuel cells[edit]
A hydrogen fuel cell car generates one liter of drinking quality water for every 8 miles (12.87 kilometers) traveled by combining hydrogen with ambient oxygen.<sup>[15]</sup>
If said fuel cell is powering a generator…….
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There are some that can get really pricey, but my budget is very limited. This combo ac/dehumidifier unit is the one I went with. I got the idea from Pinball Preparedness on ScrewTube. His demonstration worked perfect. Mine, not so much. For some reason nobody can explain, I can’t get much of the collected water to filter through my Alexapure Pro filter. I’ve been back and forth with them and the only real answer I got is “only fresh water can be filtered through our filters.” If what I’m breathing day after day can’t be filtered through an Alexapure, something is very wrong. Maybe someone here has an idea.
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I looked into this in the past and would add a couple of things. First water off a cooling coil is “fresh” as opposed to saying.. sea water (Brackish). Your filter won’t work on sea water which is what they are probably poorly conveying. Matter of fact condensed water it is closer to distilled water since it has low mineral concentration.
Why the water is not going through your filter is not something I think I could answer today with what you shared. I would take the filter and run other water through it (domestic water, rain water, etc.) to test how it is generally working,
I would like to make 3 points about obtaining water from air that you may not be aware of. First, it typically takes a lot of energy to do this and if you don’t need the cool/dehumidified air for another reason, it is not cost effective. Second, this is dependent on the amount of water in the air. If it is winter and the dew point (which is almost always less than the outside temperature) is under 40 degrees(ish) Fahrenheit this will not produce anything. Third, make sure you are good with the materials used for the drain pan, piping, maybe solder for connections (sometimes lead based) and bucket. If you plan on drinking this and not just watering your Ficus or flushing your toilet with it, you should use food grade things including inside the dehumidifier and filter for all known contaminants. Also, keep the system clean from the coil to the bucket with nontoxic cleaners.
These are just some thoughts that may help you out.
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A root cellar or basement at the BOL or homestead. This is super important if you have no (or unreliable) electricity and don’t want things like food and to quickly degrade. Also helpful for a rodent control or the like. If you plan on moving when stuff happens make sure you got the space to move your things that require some temperature control to. You don’t necessarily need a nuclear fallout bunker but almost no homestead went without a root cellar of some type.
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I have plans to build exactly that. I just need to have property to build on first.
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This is a fantastic reply. Can you imagine living in states where basements are not standard?
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In some states you can’t build a basement because of the water table
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Very true. It’s very interesting to me how varied the topography is in places, often not even far apart.
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Yes, I can. There is not even crawl spaces in most…Florida. However, some have some though.
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Basements are rare in Texas!
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Right? I’d think just on account of how materialistic the country has become that most new construction would include them where possible.
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Like in South Georgia? Lol. That’s where I live and basements are never part of a house plan but we have an abundance of water. We also have a Berkey Filter for drinking water. There’s a pond across the street and a stream running through the property. Keeping food cool is definitely going to be a problem but maybe waterproof bags in the stream will help.
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Keeping food cool is definitely going to be a problem but maybe waterproof bags in the stream will help.
Around here they used to have spring houses; small buddings built over a stream, or running stream. They would put the food in clay pots, or mesh bags and lower it into the water It worked well. Also, look up Zeer pots. In short, it’s 2 pots, one nestled one within another. There is a layer of sand between the two. The sand is wet down, and the evaporation cools the inside pot. Your comment is worth a thread in itself.
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II remember reading about spring houses, great idea! And thanks for the other suggestions. I will research them.
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My father used to tell me that they put their milk in the cistern to keep it cool….also, he said to drink water from a creek where ther were tadpoles.
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Same in north Ga. unless you build a walkout in the side of a hill…..
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Water table is too high in our area of Texas… we have a 100 year old storm cellar, but it gets water in it when we have a wet spring. Keeping things cool will be tricky here. The temp in the cellar was 72 though when it was 110 outside this summer, so that’s better than nothing. 😉
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I agree water is priority. I can create rain catchment systems but don’t (yet) know how to get it inside the house because it is my BOL. I’m a party of one so going outside to get water could get tricky as no one is watching my back. Then what? SOL.
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Hopefully being here, you can find others in your area to team up with!
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No one in this group from my area. I’ve asked round about here if people are prepping. I’m getting deer in the headlights.
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As we grow, I’d bet that absolutely changes.
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Agreed with the going it alone. People are clueless. I’ve talked to friends and family. I have one
cousin who is doing the same and his parents think we are nuts.
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Thank God I am not the only one! This party of one situation can definitely pigeonhole you! I’m placing a lot of faith in the growth of this new community. It would be nice to reach out to someone who could occasionally help pick things up and put things down!
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I’m going to go with community. Many people believe this will naturally happen or that they can do it alone. At the end of the day, if you can’t protect what you have, you are just storing it for somebody else. You have to sleep.
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Spot on! Lone wolves and would be “community gravitas magnets” will either be the first to go, the first to become tyrants to ensure their survival.
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I’ve got a lot of work to do. I realize under current circumstances, I might as well put a sign out “free pickins”…well not exactly unless I’m sleeping.
I’ve been watching the Community videos. I guess I’m going to have to drive to Perry Lake KS to meet like minded folks.
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Lesa what area(not a specific city/place) are you located?
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Arkansas
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You know, my first thought on reading Tag’s reply was…’Well, duh, why didn’t I think of that”. Honestly, the thought didn’t even cross my mind at the time. I think that shows exactly how important community can be. We’ve been blessed to land within a fantastic community. It took a while; here we are, though. I feel secure in it; secure enough in it, that I can take it for granted at times. This thread, case in point. Community can give you such a sense of security and well being that it becomes part of the landscape, and you don’t see it until you look for it. Build your communities now, while your basic survival needs are taken care of. When your life literally depends on securing water, food, shelter or a means of protection, figuring out you need a community is not the most optimal time.
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I agree with Moe on basement or cellar, not only for food storage but in some locations to escape from the intense heat and radiation coming from the sun. We had a small preview this summer. We couldn’t stay outside without feeling like our skin was in fire. If in an area to build one, make it happen.
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The sun has been brutal this summer for sure.
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We are just getting in to where the CMEs ( coronal mass ejections from the sun ) are getting more frequent and intense. This has health impacts as well. A place underground is very important for many reasons indeed.
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Yes, Danny. We do not have basements in our area. My daddy said it was the soil here and have heard others say the same. We are looking at buying a prefab one though that doesn’t leak..
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I said that I thought there was a different heat coming from the sun this year. I am born and raised in Arizona and every year we can hit up to 128 degrees for many days in July and August. We never hit 122 maybe twice this year. But, my plants were burned beyond belief, fried. Never have I experienced that magnitude of burning without heat above 122.
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I’m in Ohio and I had to create partial shade for my full sun plants.
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Same here, also Ohio! We had 2 new trees burn completely up. My aloes burnt up, thankfully I was able to save them and they all mostly came back. I had to add shade cloth to my greenhouse as well as make a spot for our kids because the powerline company butchered the trees that they had for shade. Its been brutal for sure, thankfully I listened to Danny and got heat loving seeds mostly so our garden was good and then I made sure to plave things so that the things that needed some shade was able to get it.
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We had 100° weather or verynear a month earlier than usual and it burned up almost all of my garden.
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I’m in south Georgia and it was the same here. We were having 100s the end of May and most of June. Normally it’s mid July into August. The heat index was around 110 for weeks. It destroyed our garden, or most of it.
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Solar radiation seems to have been a bit extra this year. It was hard for me to do much outside between noon and 4pm most day.
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You are absolutely right about that. It would feel like your skin was burning when you were in the sun for even a short time.
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Insoles. I’m only in my mid-thirties, but after 18 years of rucking and jumping out of various aircraft, I can go about 48 hours without insoles before my lower back completely gives out.
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This is probably a truly overlooked item! Good post.
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Green house and grow lamps. Herbs and seeds.
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Also salt. Salt is a must
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I have LOADS of salt. All kinds, table salt, rock salt, kosher salt, pickling salt.
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I agree with this.
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Great item to bring up!
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Well… I think about extra underwear, socks, bra, jeans, t-shirts and so on.
I think the situation with the ports & China are getting worse and we should remember most all garments come from china. 😏
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China has such an influence over our supply chain. You’re absolutely right.
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Yes, the basic everyday wear items! Shoes!
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I always think about the most mundane things to add. Items like nail clippers, nail files/emery boards, Q-tips, cotton balls, cheap, disposable razor blades, etc. Almost everything needs at least 2 uses.
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All very good items to stock up on!
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Under medical supplies – even just basic knee brace, ankle brace, etc. Working day in and day out will be an adjustment to some people’s body. A way to do deal with some aches and pain to make work more manageable.
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I actually have these and things like Crutches and walkers, stretchers etc in reserve. Great post!
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Agreed!
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