Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Okay, this topic will reflect my thoughts, and I invite yours, as to what gear will do you and your family the most good IF during some national emergency, survival situation or nuclear aftermath; you must remain in your home. You guys who are city-dwellers of the ultimate urbanity (apt, condo, highrise), I think you are basically screwed; but maybe there is something here for you anyway? Maybe you have a hunting cabin or an RV you can get out of Dodge in/to? Hope so.

So, in this scenario maybe the utilities remain for a while, so that's a temporary blessing. Likely they are just gone. Maybe you are out in the boonies and wake up to have no power, no phone; can you make it on what you've got?

Hopefully, you've got some water stored, at least 5 gals per person; and a way to get more. Your first priority has to be drinking water. Maybe you have a well? Maybe you live near a non-polluted body of water? Need to clean up that water, boil it or treat it. Even if you've got a water filter, start with the cleanest water possible, it will keep your filter functioning longer. Got some clean buckets or storage bins? At least you can catch rainwater runoff from your roof, or if you have a kids wagon or garden cart, you can fetch water from the lake or stream. A couple gallons of plain hypocholrite bleach will disinfect questionable water, about 8 eyedropper drops per gallon kills bacteria.

Other stuff; you need to own some firearms and ammunition. In a life death situation, you don't want to be holding only a baseball bat. A short barrel shotgun either 20 or 12 gauge will decisively stop someone at close range. Hopefully, your home is fenced and has some decent security locks; but you need something to give you time to respond to a break-in. A dog will hear things before you can, small ones are the most alert and hyper. A chain on your door or some bracing will give you a second or two to respond. A barking dog may encourage a prowler to go elsewhere. Kurt Saxon advised, "A 12ga for up close, a .30-06 to reach out, and a .38spl always at hand." Good advice. We can talk guns, but these basics are better than most. Pump or double barrel shotgun, bolt action or pump .30-06 (or .308Win,) maybe a lever-action .30-30; and a 4-6" .38spl revolver. Learn proper sight pictures, how to press the trigger so you don't jerk it, and practice a bit; you will be a lot better off than with a baseball bat or kitchen knife.

Nice to have a portable radio, some batteries, a few LED flashlights, maybe a propane lantern or two with fuel and spare mantels. The radio to enable you to get some basic information, the flashlights and lanterns to enable you to work. A headlight LED will enable you to work or read, worth considering. Maybe you have some candles, kerosene lanterns, wick candle that sits in oil? Nice to have.

Maybe you have a generator, or are considering one? You want to have electricity, but a generator is best used sparingly. If you have a couple of inverters and batteries, you are better off than with a generator alone. The batteries will last a long time if they are Heavy Duty/Deep Cycle and you keep them regularly charged. Great to have a genset to run a battery charger and a voltmeter to verify battery charge. Also nice to have a solar panel or two to quietly charge your batteries whenever the sun is shining. Also you might want to consider 12v appliances as these can be run straight from your battery w/o an inverter. For decent capacity, you want 2 or more 12v batteries wired in parallel, this hooks batteries + to + and - to - which gives you a longer lasting 12v battery. If you are using 6v cells you wire in series, which is + to - and use the two free end posts as your contact points to access 12v power. Hook 4 6v cells up in this fashion for 24v which is really necessary for low-loss power transmission; IE to send power from your battery to your inverter without voltage loss. So, with electrcity you can run lamps, a radio, a grain mill. Don't waste your battery on incandescent lamps. A flourescent bult in your lamp can put out a 40w equivalent light while only using about 6watts per hour. You really need to use energy efficient gear to maximize your battery resource.

Mainly, this thread will discuss food preparation gear and how to cook the food you've stored up. You have stored up some food, haven't you?

If you've got whole grains, especially Wheat, you'll need a grain mill. I have a couple of Coronas and an electric mill. We had a Champion Juicer with grain milling attachment which was pretty good, but big, heavy and slow. The Corona is a good value, but handgrinding gets old really fast. Takes about 20 mins to grind a 35lb 5gal bucket of wheatberries into flour for baking; faster if you want coarse grind. Our mill is a K-Tec, I endorse it as a worthy product.

How are you going to cook if the electric & gas are no longer supplied? Got a propane range? Maybe a woodburining fireplace or heatstove? If you have a propane range, does it require electricity to ignite? Is the electric required 240v or 120v? Makes a difference. Very few 240v inverters that aren't pretty expensive. Yet, you could obtain a dual 120v converter or wire your own if you think about it ahead of time. Time to Think About it today!

So, you have a brick hearth and flued fireplace, you are set with a few additions to cook there. Cast iron cookware, Lodge or WagnerWare will serve really well in that environment. Dutch ovens with legs and cast lids will do almost anything. If I had only one cooking utensil, this would be the one. You can bake in it, roast meat, make stews and soups, use the lid as a griddle, place it in the fire, in a hole with coals above and under, suspend it from a tripod or cooking bar. The Dutch Oven is a crockpot that needs no electricity. Lodge sells about 4 different sizes. They also sell a skillet combo w/o legs for about $25 which is a pretty good deal for two versatile cooking vessels. Nothing beats cast iron for durability and great functional versatilty. To cook on your woodburning stove, just place the pots near or away from the hotspots where the wood burns. Trivets or tiles are a good idea to rest things on.

For an emergency cooker, pretty hard to beat a Century or Coleman propane campstove. These adapt to a 5gal propane cylinder very easily and provide 2 or 3 burners with good clean heat source. Coleman still makes their campcooker folding oven which might be nice to have. This puts an oven at your disposal for baking etc. Really worth having a number of propane bottles around, if nothing else, you can use them (with a recharge Valve from Northern Supply $10) to recharge small cylinders for lanterns, catalytic heaters, and torches.

For your kitchen, you'll need a couple of dish pans. Water will be precious for most, dishpans assure you that your soapy, hot water won't go down the drain when something bumps the stopper. One to wash in, one for rinse, then you need a rack to dry with a runoff mat if you sanitize with boiling water.

What will be the most versatile utensil in your kitchen? The biggest pot or kettle you have. When you cook, you'll likely make the most of the energy used and therefor will want to have leftovers. Always uses for a big kettle, crab or lobster pot with a lid. Volrath institutional cookware is really superb. The steel line is preferred, but we found an aluminum tall Volrath for $8 at a resale, so we have the steel one we paid $120 for and the other. About the next most used pot will be a pressure cooker, 6qt minimum size. Cooks faster, retains nutrients and heavy duty with handles. Buy an extra gasket set. For pots/pans, steel is preferrable over aluminum. Heavy duty Revereware or Faberware is very workable. Nice to have Williams-Sonoma copper cookware, but unless you are a gourmet chef not very necessary. A couple of good tea kettles, one w/stopper are also worth having. Pyrex pans & bowls are a great value. Pyrex measuring cups are versatile and durable.

Knives are the heart of food prep. Harvest an animal? Need to cut it up and this requires the right tools. I have split a lambs pelvis when butchering it before. Even a 3# meat cleaver being hammered by a 2x4 shank is almost not enough tool. Good Knives are ESSENTIAL. Chicago Cutlery is about the minimum, the good ones with oak handles. You need a bread knife with fine serrations, several chef knives, carving knives, afilet knife, a boning knife and a variety of small paring knives to steak knife sizes. I am glad we have a Dexter meat cleaver and poultry shears as well. You really need sharpening gear. Arkansas stones, diamond hones, a set of edge setting stones & jigs to hold the knife, all are good investments. Most kitchen knives will be stainless and stainless does not hold an edge.

Quick note: For some Great Values, shop for kitchen gear at your local Restaurant Supply dealer. Likely they offer the best stuff at competitive prices. You will not find 24 count muffin pans at target, nor the variety of pots/pans/trays and utensils. Busboy trays are great for many uses, maybe you can grow wheatgrass in one? Lots of Great Stuff at restaurant supply dealer.

Ancillary items include Melita drip cone coffee makers, or the old pyrex cone drip coffee maker. These are THE BEST for flavor, especially the pyrex one piece job with wooden grip. Nice to have some tea balls for gathering your own leaves, herbs to make teas with. Good can openers; can you have too many? Levers to lift food pail lids are worth having if your hands aren't up to prying the lids off. Playtex or HD rubber gloves are a necessity, especially handling/butchering wild game. Cutting boards, different sizes; you'll need several and something big to set baked goods on.

I endorse the Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator. We hav owned one for 15 years and they work great and last.


If you have natural gas appliances, they can be adapted to propane use with an orifice change. Call your distributor and see if they have kits in stock. It is pretty affordable to buy several 25gal propane cylinders and a regulator and keep these ready. There are dual regulators that work with 2 cylinders which allow a fast changeover to the 2nd cylinder when #1 cyl is used up. Likely there are automatic switchover types, but ours simply requires moving a small lever and opening the valve on the new tank. Talk to a propane supply house about how you could convert over in an emergency. Pretty easy to shut off your natural gas at your meter/connection, and attach a line to your regulator, then convert the orifice(s) on your cookstove, dryer etc and you are set. A 25gal cylinder will last for about 2 mos of constant cooking.

Food and the abilty to prepare and cook it is the main challenge in survival self-sufficiency.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

You mentioned the Champion grain mill attachment, did the attachment mill a fine flour? I have a Champion juicer and was considering the grain mill, I need a mill of some kind and was thinking this might be worth considering?

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Good thread. Good info.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Yes, Champion makes a milling attachment, cost about $100 iirc

The problem with the Champion as a grain mill is as follows:
The grain hopper is too small,
The flour goes into a denim collection bag which holds a few cups,
The mill puts out a lot of dust in the air,
The mill grinding plates and motor get very hot.

I would buy a stand-alone milling machine if you are going to mill any qty of wheat.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

I have to agree with that. I have a Champion juicer, and I wouldn't want to ruin it with huge amounts of grain. I have a Jupiter electric grain mill. It is exceptionally noisy, but it does the job fine.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Very nice. If you are worried about fire, lop the trees closest to the cabin, 25 yards out or so, and use a weedwacker + rake occassionally to keep the grass level down there in the summer months, also remove any branches or other debris. It's light work really, but good insurance.

Lopping the trees may lose it some character, but it will vastly improve the survivability of the entire cabin from a future fire. The area has already proven itself to be fire prone.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

I'd love a place like that. 1/2 a mile isn't that far. I would consider travelling at different times of the day though and as a pair so someone can stand watch.

If it wasn't for this stupid real estate bubble i'd have a similar place to yours. But as it is people have bid the price of everything to stupid stupid prices. Better buy now or you'll miss out. Property only ever goes up :confused_ma: Fingers crossed I'll be able to snap up a retreat for a couple of Oz of the yellow stuff

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Instead of a cabin, put in an energy efficient monolithic dome, then you won't have to worry about fire, earthquakes, weather, etc. A cheaper, uninsulated version of this type of structure would secure your preps well too. And if you don't like the shape in contrast to the surrounding area, berm it with soil so it doesn't look out of place.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolithic_dome

Durability



The dome, when finished, is earthquake, tornado and hurricane resistant (FEMA rates them as "near-absolute protection" from F5 tornadoes and Category 5 Hurricanes). Recently, a number of monolithic domes constructed using MDI techniques have survived major disasters:
Several monolithic domes in Florida survived direct hits by Hurricane Katrina.
Several monolithic domes were in the path of the 2005 and 2006 wildfires in Oklahoma and Texas, and survived with only slight charring of the exterior foam insulation.
In 2003, a monolithic dome mosque in Iraq survived a direct hit by a 5000 lb. bomb. The interior of the structure was totally destroyed, but the dome itself remained standing (see picture).

The demolition of Ream's Turtle also demonstrated the durability of the monolithic dome structure. A wrecking ball demolished a strip several feet wide around the perimeter of the structure, without a collapse. When a doorway on one side was pulled down, the dome finally tipped over, and collapsed.

[edit]
Climate control

The monolithic dome, for a number of reasons, is very energy efficient. The spherical sections of the dome offer minimal surface area for the volume they contain, so there is less surface for heat transfer with the outside air. The one piece construction of the monolithic dome also eliminates many of the seams through which air can leak, though this is mitigated to some degree in residential domes by the addition of multiple doors and windows. By placing the insulating foam on the outside of the concrete shell, the concrete acts as a heat sink inside the building, reducing interior temperature fluctuations far more than the traditional home's insulation inside of a brick or stone veneer.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Source: http://www.monolithic.com/gallery/ho...son/index.html

Going Small, Cozy and Safe!

by Freda Parker
March 7, 2007
Irie is Jamaican for alright

And Irie is the name owner Jerri Hudson chose for her new, 1000-square-foot Monolithic Dome home that sits on a 40-acre, wooded site in Missouri.

Since moving in this past November, Jerri has found her new home both comfortable and secure -- exactly what she wanted.
Worldwide, extreme weather prompts construction of Monolithic Dome

Jerri said, "I lived in Jamaica for several years, and, during that time, I experienced a few hurricanes. All the while, back in Missouri, where my family and friends were, the tornadoes seemed to be rampant.

"I knew things weren't going to get better, and I really didn't want to live in a house that could not protect me both day and night, even when I slept."
Preparedness

Besides security, Jerri wanted energy efficiency. She said, "I feel times/events throughout the world are going to create a harder life and become a more expensive life for everyone. I want to be as prepared as possible for harder times and, hopefully, suffer as little as possible."
Research led to www.monolithic.com

While researching sculptured, Shotcrete homes in Mexico that she had seen on HGTV, Jerri came across Monolithic's website.

"The more I read," Jerri said, "the more impressed I was." Both the amount of information and the categories covered amazed her. "It has information on just about every issue or question one could possibly think of -- and is most helpful with the listings of builders and designers, state-by-state."
Feeling of space within a small footprint

That was Jim Kaslik's design goal for Jerri's home. Jim said, "When budget limits the house size, there are things that can be done to maximize the perception of space."

He separated two domes with a foyer, thus creating a public space with living room, kitchen and powder room and a distinct, private space with bedroom, bath and walk-in closet.

Jim overcame the risk of separate segments not looking unified by connecting the foyer's roof line to the circular window extension, and he credits builder Ray Ansel for doing "a great job of detailing that."

As a result, when you look at Jerri's dome, your eye focuses on the entrance, rather than the whole structure, reinforcing the desired perception of a small, but cozy, home.
What the neighbors think

Jerri said, "Reactions have been positive. I'm not sure everyone who has seen it wants one, but they are always in awe of it. Most people think it's the neatest thing they have ever seen."
Kudos for Cloud Hidden Designs and R&S Lifeline Domes

Jerri is pleased with Irie's design and construction. She said, "Both Jim Kaslik and Ray Ansel went above and beyond with advice on what would work best in this type of home, from skylights to doggy doors. They are very enthusiastic about what they do and it's catchy!"

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

A couple of thoughts to add. If you have a bug-out place and the ability to heat and cook with wood, fine. But if you're stuck in place in suburbia, what to do when the electricity and natural gas go out?

Sleeping bags. You can stay warm during the day by dressing appropriately and staying active. At night, you'll be glad you can slip into your sleeping bag that is rated to at least -15 degrees F.

Solar ovens to cook and boil water on sunny days. Stock up on charcoal briquettes for the days when the sun doesn't shine. You can even construct an oven from cardboard boxes and aluminum foil that inverts over the smoldering charcoal. Food to be baked goes on a shelf inside held above the charcoal by empty beer/soda pop cans.

These are strictly survival suggestions -- not for the long term nor will they make you comfortable. But, in a pinch, you won't freeze or go hungry.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

For suburbia, any ideas on providing a temp heat source. This maybe far fetched but I'm thinking of the old coal pan bed warmers. What material will give off heat slowly, w/o toxins, that could be heated outdoors on the brickets and brought indoors overnight to keep heat in the house? May seem stupid - just trying to think outside the box in a SHTF scenario. Don't think I would get enough sun on my roof (maybe 6 hours a day) to go solar. Need to look into NG generator (5500W?).

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

ICF's (Insulated Concrete Form) are the way to go if you don't happen to like the dome look. 6-8 inches of reinforced concrete for all the outer walls and it will withstand any hurricane or tornado. Plus it looks just like any other house. Just a few percent more in price compared to stick built. Very energy efficient, quiet inside, and safe.


http://www.cement.org/homes/ch_bs_icf.asp

Owner/builder friendly too. Many on this site are building with ICF's along with traditional building materials.

http://www.ownerbuilderbook.com/

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Buy yourself a kerosene heater, a good stock of kerosene, and most important, spare parts, specifically wicks, to keep it running.

We use our ToyoStove DC-100 each year in the early Sping and early Fall months and it works great. Our normal heat system is a coal fired boiler and one of its quirks is that at these times of the year when you'd like heat for only a couple of hours a day and don't need it the rest of the day will cause th boiler to overheat, so instead, out comes the kero heater.

This type of heater is stone reliable, very safe and can provide heat, light, and a cooking surface for one pot meals.

One of the benefits of a kero heater, is that you can buy it, the fuel and spare parts, stick them on a shelf for years and they'll always be ready to go at a moments notice.

If someone is interested in going this route let me know. I've been using kero heaters for quite awhile and I'll be happy to answer your questions and provide, what I hope will be useful tips concerning their purchase and operation.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Charcoal and Kerosene heaters (and any other open flame heat source) run a risk of asphyxiation.

Sleeping bags, down quilt etc are good for cold nights.

The kerosene heater is a great suggestion, They will burn #1 heating oil, also sold as #1 diesel fuel or fuel kerosene. Our WallyWorld sells the 5gal jugs of kero for about $35 these days. They were $15 a couple yrs ago. Cheaper to buy a blue plastic fuel can or two and fill-up for under $15, although the steel cans are reusable. A couple of spare wicks, a cheap bulb-press pump, and maybe a spare igniter and your heater will work for years. Kero also stores really well.

About the best value in home heating systems has to be the Monitor and Toyo closed combustion programmable heaters. These are electric powered heating oil/kero fueled heaters that draw and vent through a single 3" pipe. They are superbly energy efficient, portable, and some have an internal 1 gallon tank which is enough fuel to last about 18 hours continuous runtime. These heaters may be set for timed operation, continual thermostat, or simply ON. They will run with an inverter, are easy to maintain. If you have an electric drill and holesaw you can install one in about 20 minutes. When it is -40F one of these will heat an 1800sf two-story home. Toyo makes a super efficient model that burns #2 diesel, which gives it a big boost in efficiency if you live where temps don't get much below 10F when #2 diesel will gel. The extra btus possessed by #2 diesel over heating oil is about 15% or more. For under $1000 the Toyo laser 30 or Monitor 422 are superb investments.


Coleman makes some small catalytic propane heaters that are pretty decent. One of these might take the morning sting out of the air in your bedroom/bath. They also work well in tents.

An inexpensive box heater and stovepipe can assuredly be easily adapted to almost any house, might be worth having stored in your garage; along with tools to process timber like a bow saw, splitting maul, axe etc.


I would prefer an oil or kero heat source for the first season after TSHTF as they do not produce smoke.
Pretty doubtful that after the first year there will be many roaming bands of mutant zombies looking for woodsmoke.
Safety first.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Our DC-100 is a 23,000 btu unit. When I first pruchased it, I followed the standard recommendation to leave two windows cracked for airflow. After using it for 15+ years I've come to realize that if you are using the unit in an average house such as ours (1200 sf, average insulation, R19 walls, R30 ceiling), you will get enough normal air infiltration that leaving a window or two cracked is unnecessary. A good idea of course to be on the safe side, but unless you're using it in a very small area or very tightly insulated area you shouldn't have a problem.

Don't buy kero at Wallyworld or Home Depot, Lowes, etc. They'll rip you off comething fierce for a gallon. Get a couple of Blitz cans and bulb pump and find a gas station in your area that sells it. Also, you will occasionally hear that you should only use 'clear' (without any food dye added) kero in a heater. I've used both clear and dyed kero for years and have noticed no difference in heat output, smell, or longevity of the wick. Some people will tell ya that the dye clogs up the wick but this has not been my experience.

As far as using diesel or heating oil goes, what I've noticed is that in our DC-100 (a 'double clean' burning unit), there will be a slight increase in smell for a short time when turning on or shutting the unit down, but nothing objectionable. We also have a radiant heater from Northern Tool http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...6426_200316426 and with this unit, the smell is a little greater, but only on startup and shutdown and at any rate, still not objectionable.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

I live in a monolithic dome. Best decision I ever made.

Energy efficient beyond my expectations. 50 foot diameter. Roughly 2000 sq ft. with a 19 foot high ceiling in the center. Kept cool all Summer by a single 110V window box AC. Set on "Low". Lots of 90+F days this Summer. Lots. Wanna run a 400F oven for a few hours in the heat of Summer? Doesn't impact the ambient temperature. At. All.

Winter requires a 1500 watt oil filled heater. 2 of them if the outdoor temp falls much below 30F. Will eventually get a small wood-burner for emergency backup. Currently have a small kero burner, if needed.

Some Drawbacks:
Zoning laws in some places.
Lining up contractors is rough.
Good luck trying to get one financed. Be ready to save up and pay cash.

They do cost about as much per square foot as conventional housing, but you get a really high ceiling. You can pretty much design the innards yourself, as none of the walls need to be load-bearing.

Re: Gear to own for sheltering in place
 

Alcohol burner. Used back in the day, worldwide (think Hemingway). Anything will work, from aluminum can cat and heiniken stoves, to Brasslite.com which simmers, or the Trangia. These can be placed on your electric or stove burner, or rigged to drop into a woodstove lid.

Key: fuel is eth/methanol, always available as dri-gas, cheap, crystal clean, hotter than a pistol, long-storing, and relatively safe. In winter you'll want wood, but in summer you may only use 1oz for a teapot and not heat up the house. Propane will be expensive and hard to come by, as it is converted from oil. Any still run on old fruit mash can make ethanol.
http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id2.html

The classic Coleman stove has a propane converter available, which gives you multi-fuel options. No kero/diesel, however, although there are stoves that will, like alpaca.

To think ahead, any stove will be better than none, and last a lifetime: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...7953_200307953 Because of retail, most are boxed in pieces, say 2x2x4' crate, easy to stack goods on in the corner of the garage. Remember the pipe and cap. They'll be harder to get than stoves.

Water: in cities this is a problem, but remember cities were usually built over farms. There is an old house somewhere on your block that may still have the hand-well. If you have a drilled casing, rig a 2" pvc drop into it. With a cap of any sort and a leather flapper, you have a long drop-bucket. Annoying, but otoh, people and things don't fall into 3" well sleeves. You'll need a soft woven rope for this and many things.

Yes, sleeping bags and comforters, sweaters, and many hats, because it won't be toasty north of Mason-Dixon. Boiled wool mittens last long, merino is very nice too.

All your old-time cooking things: large canners, pots, copper wash boilers, lidded SS buckets, cutting boards, knives, large glass jars, and so on. Expect you'll get food, but it'll all appear one day with nothing for the next months, like wild plums, tomatoes, or deer. Old-time shops like Lehmans.com can do this, but so can auctions or 2nd hand shops.

Implements like shovels, hoes, files, and so on. There'll be a lot of stuff in a crisis, but it will all be useless suburban chinese junk, not hearty long-wearing tools. There's a devil of a lot you can do with junk, and a BBQ forge with a 12v CPU fan, but working tools are elegant and appreciated. Leave the cobbed tools to your less-prepared neighbors and give them something to think about when they work.

Seeds. Most important thing possible, after 10 year old trees and vines. Sprouts.

Some things you may not think about: you have a house, but is the roof ready? Can you patch it? If pipes, stoves, or other spring a leak or need a part, do you have it? Thinking circulators, anodes, and nozzle jets. Repair glass (or lexan) and paint. Plywood and nails. Blue tarps? It will keep you going a while and be good for many projects.

That's my idea for the day. What's good as a bed warmer: a rock. No josh. If you look in the antiquers, you may find 1x1' soapstones with bail used for the purpose--it's just a very very nice rock. You don't want coals in your bed. Fire will be enough of a hazard then.

Stock up on extinguishers. Fire 24/7 leads to mishaps.

TS