Who's serious?

if the S were to really HTF, I wouldn't worry about your commute to work.

If TSHTF I'm not worried about my commute to work, but until then, I gotta make a living. I want to buy a piece of land and be up and running with water, livestock, crops, equipment etc. I'll have to sell my house down here to do it but I'll need more than that. When the economy isn't in the the toilet I have a pretty good job pay wise ( my job sucks work wise ) but it's a means to an end. I just hope I can stay ahead of the inevitable.
 
What is your strategy for long term water?

Even if somehow the bad guys contaminated our drinking water what is the best way to make suitable drinking water if SHTF?

Filter, tablets or a ultraviolet (UV) light?

It only took 3-4 days after katrina for those folks to begin shooting at each other at walmart for basic supplies.

If we had to use the local ponds for a water supply how would you make it suitable?
 
What is your strategy for long term water? .... If we had to use the local ponds for a water supply how would you make it suitable?

Long term: You need a well. Otherwise, this, with an extra set of filters gives 1000 gallons of purified H2O: http://www.google.com/products?hl=e...GLG&q=katadyn vario&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

1 gallon per day per person means about 1.5 years of H2O for my family of 2. Buy a backup Vario and extra filters and you could go 5-10 years.
 
You'll want several ways to get drinking water (use several of them, not just one):

- Store some. Either in lots of water/soda bottles, or get a 55 gallon drum if you have the room and floor support for it. (If there's a sudden disease outbreak or gangs looting, you don't want to be out foraging for water to filter. So, store some.)
- If you already have a pool, great! Be prepared to filter it.
- A gallon of chlorine bleach, as a quick and dirty way to kill bad stuff in water. Be sure to cycle through or replace the bleach every 6 months as it loses effectiveness. http://www.wikihow.com/Purify-Water
- A good filter, like the Big Berkey or one of those hiking filters.
- Especially if you drink coffee, buy 1000 filters for $6 at BJ's... and those can be used to pre-filter water that has lots of debris/sediment in it. Saves your regular filter, and cheaply. A must if you're going to be filtering water out of a pond or a river.
- A way to boil water w/o power. This one is more of a big deal because you'll have fuel storage limitations. But, you can always collect wood in the woods and start a fire if you have to.
- As a last resort, you can have a collapsed kiddie pool, or a stack of trash barrels, that you keep unfilled. If "something happens", get the garden hose and start filling those barrels or the kiddie pool. As long as you are on town water, you'll be able to use the water for a little while since gravity pushes it down from the tower even if the power has failed.



What is your strategy for long term water?

Even if somehow the bad guys contaminated our drinking water what is the best way to make suitable drinking water if SHTF?

Filter, tablets or a ultraviolet (UV) light?

If we had to use the local ponds for a water supply how would you make it suitable?
 
Pittsfield !?!
QUOTE]

Yeah, I livd in Pittsfield back in the cold war days and my science teacher who was a really cool ex Navy guy told me Pittsfield was a suspected soviet nuke target. I think he said it was because of the GE factory that was there a the time. There were actually a lot of factories there at the time and it was a pretty big city. Now of course if they nuked it, I don't think you could tell the difference. I would not worry about that map too much because it looks like a cold war leftover. I think anyone north of Worcester, South of Quincy and west of Springfield should be fine. The fact that Pittsfield is still on it hurts its credibility in my opinion. (No offense intended to the poster of it, just sharing my thoughts!)

This teacher and some other like minded individuals started me on the path to being serious about survival. I don't think that there will be all out nuclear war, but isolated strikes are pretty likely IMO. I have about a years worth of canned food in the basement plus enough weapons and equipment to deal with any "realistic" scenerios. I am not worried about being attacked by gangs of mutants, but I do have enough ammo to defend my home. I just started ordering a few of the #10 cans from Mountain House every month to build up some long term stores. I guess they last for 25 years if stored right, but they are on the expensive side. I also keep extra ammo and BOOZE for bartering.

The scenerio I am most concerned about is the one I think is most likely. Economic collapse. We are far from wealthy, but we do have some savings that we worked very hard to put aside for retirement and I can't bring myself to convert it to gold or some other "liquid" form that is recession proof. My worry is that gold can't sustain it's current high price and I would wind up losing my shirt. If it starts to look like the S is going to HTF, I will reconsider a lot of my decisions.

My wife rolls her eyes at me every time I throw an extra case of canned food or anything camping / survival related into the cart at Walmart, but I think she likes the fact that I have a plan of some sort for us, just in case. As long as it makes me happy and I keep the preperations reletively cheap, she doesn't care.

The steps I am concentrating on now are the ones that don't really cost anything.

1. Trying to stay in shape and be healthy. This is critical. You don't have to be a marathon runner or steroid freak, but if you are not in "decent" shape, you are in big trouble if you have to B.O. or fight.

2. Learn how to hunt / butcher food. I have never hunted and I would like to make some friends in the area that wold be willing to teach me. I am reading about the subject, but I won't feel comfortable until I get some hands on time with it. I am an avid fisherman, so at least I have that for now.

3. Learn how to grow and perserve my own food. I have a small yard, but if we had to, we could probably turn half of it into a garden. This is not a subject I find particularly interesting, but the wife is getting good at it. I just don't mention the apocolypse or zombies and she thinks it makes sense to learn.
 
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Mr Twigg & In G_d We Trust:

Pittsfield was a target in the Cold War for a very good reason and the science teacher was right . . . maybe because he was ex-Navy.

GE made gyros for the missile guidance systems used in submarines back in the 1960s-70s. My Best Man worked there as a Co-Op Student while I was working at MIT/IL as a Co-Op in the R&D end of those guidance systems. Since it was all classified stuff we worked on, the average person who lived in the area may not have known the significance of what was being built there.
 
GE made gyros for the missile guidance systems used in submarines back in the 1960s-70s. My Best Man worked there as a Co-Op Student while I was working at MIT/IL as a Co-Op in the R&D end of those guidance systems. Since it was all classified stuff we worked on, the average person who lived in the area may not have known the significance of what was being built there.

GE isn't running the facility in Pittsfield any more, but the work goes on. [wink]
 
Whats goin on guy's? I'm new to this forum, but I been reading it and thinking how relevant all of this is, but how even more important it seems to be becoming today. Gas prices are jumping all across the country and its predicted to hit $5 by August-November time. I was watching a video the other day that also seemed pretty relevant. Check this out www.endofamerica44.com now some may think this guy is trying to just sell his research n weekly newsletter, may be so, however the information and facts he reveals all seem to hold quite a bit of water. Watch it for yourself and let me know what you think. Im interested to hear some other opinions.
 
I've been serious for a while. I've stocked up as much as our space allows and have the where-with-all to leave if we have too. However, we live in the Greater Boston area, so I'm pretty sure that the roads will be useless. I have another option in the works, but don't have any place to go. So, other than getting away from a hot zone or tital wave, we'll be staying here.
 
The only thing I don't have is a functioning bug out bag. I need to put that together, but the thought of leaving all the other stuff I have collected and stored is troubling. My 'ideal' bugout (if one exists) is to use the camper, load to the gills, put my extra fuel and generator (yes I have two) and go.

I even have an EMP can - metal trash can with NO-ZERO holes with rechargeables, batteries, radios, and solar panel. The extra generator is wrapped in a space blanket in hopes of protection. If this works great, if not, I'll be in the same place I would have been not doing it - cost was 99 cents for the blanket and tape, the can I had.

Bleach goes bad - store pool shock grannular type, can my thousands of gallons of 'bleach' from one package and stores forever.
 
what do you guys think is essential for a bug out bag? i get the first aid kits n other basic essentials, but im considering should cell phone service get cut out, maybe some two way radios would be a necessity. ????
 
Whats goin on guy's? I'm new to this forum,
<snip>
Watch it for yourself and let me know what you think. Im interested to hear some other opinions.

I think folks who show up shilling what's essentially a "misinfomercial" selling fearmongering with post No.1 have suspect intentions. [tinfoil]

Especially when they resurrect a five year old thread.
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no my friend, no foul intentions hear. just curious to see what other folks thought. apparently the guy is a little screwy according to what i just read. Thanks for the input anyway.
 
The only thing I don't have is a functioning bug out bag. I need to put that together, but the thought of leaving all the other stuff I have collected and stored is troubling. My 'ideal' bugout (if one exists) is to use the camper, load to the gills, put my extra fuel and generator (yes I have two) and go.

I even have an EMP can - metal trash can with NO-ZERO holes with rechargeables, batteries, radios, and solar panel. The extra generator is wrapped in a space blanket in hopes of protection. If this works great, if not, I'll be in the same place I would have been not doing it - cost was 99 cents for the blanket and tape, the can I had.

Bleach goes bad - store pool shock grannular type, can my thousands of gallons of 'bleach' from one package and stores forever.

What metal is your metal can? While any metal offers electrical shielding properties by conducting electric field lines around the enclosure, aluminum, copper & tin offer not magnetic shielding. Steel is much better for EM shielding - copper clad steel is even better since the copper offers better Electric field properties and steel better magnetic field properties.

A steel garbage can with a tight fitting metal cover will offer pretty good EM protection. Even better if you then line it with an insulator to keep the stuff stored in it from conducting to the outer metal.
Metalized mylar (space blanket) on the other hand is neigh useless against EM. The metalization is typically vapor deposited aluminium which offers not magnetic shielding and only the barest electrical shielding due to very high sheet resistance.
 
For thos of you that have perscription meds you need to have, figure out the shelf life on them (1 year is typical) and ask your Dr. to write you a scrip for a years supply. You will have to pay out of pocket probably, but it's good to have on hand. Explain to your dr. that after seeing the earthquake footage from Japan, having a store of meds on hand would make you feel safe. Also try and store some antibiotics as these can be a matter of life and death. YOu can order pet antibiotics online and they are the same thing as the dr. perscribes you.

EDIT: I just realized how old this thread is, sorry for the reply.
 
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Two observations:

  1. FEMA can't spell Worcester correctly? Is this map for real?
  2. Anyone remember when Worcester used to be a target, with Norton and Wyman Gordon? Shows you how far downhill Worcester has gone.

That said, I was mentioning to someone what would happen if that Tsunami hit the East coast. Imagine 8 feet of water pushing 3 miles inland around Boston/Cambridge? Of course, this would also take out Pilgrim and Seabrook power plants. We'd be out of power, but also missing our government. I'd call it a "wash" (pardon the pun).

Finally, who thinks the MassPike would still charge tolls?
 
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