Don’t see a lot of posts about storing various types of fuel so I wanted to start a convo.

I like to keep 40 gals of regular unleaded, 10 gals of kerosene, and 100 lbs of propane on hand. I live in a suburban hurricane threatened area so I started keeping extra fuel in my shed for power generation. I realized how important fuel for your vehicle would be in the event of a supply chain disruption (natural or man made disaster) especially if I had to evacuate a longer distance. 40 gals is roughly 1 fill up for my full sized pickup and my wife’s small suv. We also try to keep our tanks half full or better if we’re just running around town.

Supporting equipment in this prep for me would be funnels and a hand operated transfer pump, large and small generator that runs on both types of fuel, propane camp stove, propane heaters, kerosene heater.

I use up about 5 gals of kero a year at my hunt camp, and I drain the gas into my vehicles and refill every 3-4 months. Regular unleaded with 10% ethanol is all that’s available in my area so I treat it with stabilizer and switch the gas out on schedule. So far there have been no issues and my fuel system was just given a clean bill of health.

I like the metal “Justright Safety” cans with a spring loaded pour spout. The 5 gallon kind without the metal hose, just a pour spout are about $65 apiece. I can tell hardly any air gets to them (and thus very little moisture, which bonds to the ethanol and gets sucked into the fuel) because every time I open one I hear the tssssst of pressure stabilization.

What methods/ how much fuel are yall storing?

Hello everyone. I'm interested in buying quik oats in bulk and wanted to ask you all if anyone has a good source/link. The best deal I've seen is Azure. Are there any places local (US) that quik oats are available in bulk, I'm sure the shipping isn't very good buying online because of the weight. I'm think of buying above 25lb, storing in Mylar o2 absorber method. Thanks for any suggestions

Looking for smaller items I can buy to continue to prep. I've got myself pretty well set for Tuesday, don't know if I'm totally interested in prepping for complete collapse but I'm open to any ideas.

I'm not going to bother with what I have because maybe I'll hear something different but no one else pays attention to that part anyway 😂

As someone who does not do "hungry" very well, I'm wondering about the ability to successfully ration food after a complete collapse. Could be sheltering in place after any catastrophe where supply chains have been completely broken and society has collapsed. But let's say you have a large stockpile of food and let's even say you're able to keep it hidden/safe. You need to make it last long enough to ride out the storm, outlast the masses as they die off, and/or get crops in the ground then harvest them.

Questions for the group:

Do you have a strategy for rationing food? If so what is it? How many calories per day? What does that look like in terms of rice and beans or whatever?

Do you have the discipline to be hungry and/or calorie deficient when you still have months of food stores?

Or is it more important to maintain health, energy, and morale while you have food on hand?

Concerns out of scope for this discussion: community, sharing, raiding, defending against raiders, hunting/fishing/gardening, etc. Let's just focus on the long term (12 months) management of a food stockpile internally please!

hard to make a good soup without it. I know you can use actual animal parts to make chicken and beef varieties but am mainly looking for something freeze dried / canned.

Yes, we all want to barter, but if there's an agreed upon medium of exchange, everything gets easier. What do you think are candidates, and what do you think of them? Some of my thoughts:

-I always thought matchbooks would be the ideal post-apocalyptic currency, if you could find enough of them.

-I'm meh on gold and silver. You can't eat it/burn it/shoot it and who knows if the lights are ever coming back on (and if the new government will let you keep your accumulated metal wealth.

-Canned goods: it seems like there's too much nutritional variation for this to be practical. A can of corn != a can of chili.

-I know everybody says don't trade ammo, but ammo is standardized and imperishable. You could just trade with trusted individuals/groups. Or you could accept ammo as payment, but never give it out.

-If you had a way to make some kind of token (maybe a cattle brand on a square of leather?) you could have your own hard currency. Make the tokens equivalent to a laying hen or a buckskin or something. It'd be hard to use pre-existing tokens because what happens if someone finds a stash of them?

-This game I played, Atom RPG, was set in Russia and you could still trade with rubles after a nuclear war. Apparently it was the most convenient item in this game's world. If there was a chance things were getting back to normal in the short to medium term, cash might have some value. Maybe even in a long term event, just because the psychological value of a dollar is so strong.

So trying to prepare for next hurricane season, as well as any other power outage. Lookin for somethin to power my CPAP and various electronics/stove/fridge ect. Is this a good brand? Any other recommendations? I live in an apartment complex but luckily I'm on the top floor so a solar panel might work best, plus I can't really have a gas generator up here. At least I think. Worst case I guess I could use gas on my balcony.

Need some opinions and output. Thanks all.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and I am looking for communications options for the family that don’t rely on cell towers. I suspect WHEN (not if) the big mega earthquake hits, all cell towers are going to go down. So, outside of satellite phones, what would you suggest? I am looking at some sort of satellite communicator like a Bivy Stick or possibly Zoleo.

Here are some requirements: 1. Range needs to be over 20+ miles (I work 22 miles from home so regular walkie talkie not practical) 2. Lowest price/recurring cost (am willing to reasonable monthly fee) 3. Portable - needs to be small enough to pack around easily. 4. Long battery life.

Edit: thanks for responses. Will look into GMRS and meshtastic more. But the little bit I have seen so far for both seem like they require a someone to have a base station/antenna/repeater, is that correct?

1) should have stated originally just looking for a text based service not necessarily voice. 2. Seattle metro area so have LOS issues beyond a few miles.

If civilization collapsed tomorrow, what part of the equipment ore infrastructure would you try to keep running for as long as possible?

My wife wants to ensure we can get water from our well if we lose power for an extended period. I've heard her say grid down and EMP, so she's concerned with a Doomsday scenario. Though I don't share her fear of a pending apocalypse, I must admit that we've seen some crazy things the past few years, and it doesn't hurt to be prepared. So, I'm looking at options.

We have some acreage and already have a propane whole-house backup system (the former owner said it could run everything for two weeks during the summer). I've noticed she exaggerated with some other items, so I won't know until we need them. It's a commercial Generac 2000 series, fed by 800 gallons of propane (two 500-gallon tanks). There is a 200-amp automatic transfer switch in our basement. I've had it serviced, and it appears to run, but I haven't tested it yet by throwing the transfer switch. Even though we have this generator, she wants something renewable and quiet - this thing is a beast and very loud.

The well is 400 feet deep. I'm unsure of the pump type/size, but the control box is 1hp, 230v, 1phase, 2-wire, and the breaker is a double 20amp.

I just bought a Jackery 2000 Pro Plus Kit (4kwh) for portable power and was hoping it would be up to the task in a pinch, but now that I'm looking at the specs, I doubt it. It's a 25-amp max output unit, so it wouldn't work with two 20-amp breakers, right? If I bought a second one, could that work?

If I can't get a solution in a box, like a Jackery or EcoFlow, then I may install a permanent solution like this to appease her: https://shop.rpssolarpumps.com/products/watersecure-6k-solar-backup-for-well-pumps

My only concern would be finding someone qualified to install it in my area. My preference would be to have something that I could pull out of the basement and hook up to critical items (water pump and freezers), but I could go to a larger solution. Thoughts? This is all new to me.

In my later 20's (now 47), I lived for several years on an incredible 80-acre parcel in WA state, in a 10x16 old hunting cabin that I insulated and fixed up. Fast-forward to today, where I have recently relocated from Austin TX to a couple acres and a small house in northern Michigan. Really glad I am back on land and am insulated from some of the harder prep questions people face when living in the city.

I want to prepare for short- and long-term power outages. I fully remodeled my little home last year, and I am 100% electric with mini-splits for heat/air. Concerned about this, I bought a portable 7500-watt gas/propane generator that is currently still wrapped in plastic on a pallet in my garage. Fortunately no outages this winter! But I need to figure out if I'm going to use it, and I'm not sure if it's the best solution for me. BTW it's just me, single woman, and a couple dogs.

I mention the old hunting shack because I know how to live without power, as I didn't have it there. I had a Mr. Heater Blueflame heater that runs on propane. I had a camp stove and used propane canisters. I had candles and solar lights and a headlamp. I did go to my neighbor's down the road for showers, and I had a cooler with ice for refrigeration. I filled 3 or 5 gal jugs for water. Simple, but pretty much worked out fine.

The intention of the generator is to connect it to my power panel to be able to run lights, mini-splits, fridge, water pump, and hot water heater. I could basically live mostly like normal, which would be cool. But, I'll have to layout another close to $1k to get it set and hooked up to the panel, and I'll need to bring a propane tank onto the property and rely on a propane company for as long as I want this situation to work. I am low on funds and trying to be very careful about my plans, and the generator-connected-to-panel idea only seems like a good idea for short-term outages. It's noisy, and expensive to run all of that for very long.

So, I'm tinkering with the idea of just selling the generator and with that I could buy a heater, a camp stove, stockpile some 100 gal propane tanks and canisters for the stove, get a solar charger for devices, some solar lamps, etc. At that point my concerns become water (how to keep my well pump going) and refrigeration, because I'm thinking about a scenario where I'm not going to the store for ice. But I think I could live with this scenario for far longer than trying to run a noisy, smelly generator for a length of time. Not bad to have, but I don't have the resources to do both.

Just looking for some insight. I wish I could dump more money into this stuff but the remodel drained me and now I'm worried the economy will tank and I won't be able to build back this year. I've got about $10k in savings and I need to be super, super careful. Also prepping food and everything else. Thanks for any advice!

I will be going on a 4-day cruise next Spring. With me being prior Navy and an avid prepper, as well as all the news about cruises getting caught in big storms, I feel as though I should take some added precautions.

Are there any ideas, strategies, or items that you believe I should have or keep in mind for this trip?

Was going to attach a photo but doesn't appear to be an option on this sub. I'm sure you all know what a hollow handle survival knife looks like, anyway. Thanks in advance.

I'm constantly thinking about this ethical dilemma when prepping: in emergency scenario, to what degree should I share my equipment, resources and knowledge with others in need.

What follows is kinda my current view on it, but I'm very curious to hear your thoughts about it.

Note that I try to keep the word "emergency" as broad as possible, not restricting it to a particular event.

1) Knowledge is probably the easiest one, as it multiplies when you share it. I would probably spend a good amount of time teaching what I know to people around me. However there's still a little something telling me that it's quite opportunistic/greedy from them to come and get the knowledge we accumulated over years right when they need it instead of listening to us telling them to educate before something bad happens.

2) Equipment, and especially spares, is starting to get tricky. I would probably be ok lending things to some people when I don't need it but there's always the risk of misuse and damaging it. Spares I could exchange some but I would probably try to hide most of it so I can still rely on it.

3) Resources is the toughest one. I really don't want to appear like an aweful person keeping things to myself and my family but I would probably need to dissimulate most of my supplies. However, that will come to be know quite quickly imo. I would have a hard time managing this as there would probably be way more demand than I could ever cover. So all my supplies gone shared in a day?

Then you also need to think about individuals thinking about the group as a whole and have you preps being viewed as part of the whole community. And also people getting things from you by using violence.

Hi,

I've created a small bidet that will fit most standard PET bottles. I think this comes in handy when there is not a lot of water available. You can download it for free and print as many as you want. For personal use only;)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6999309

I semi recently moved and no longer have an obvious choice for tornado sheltering. My bathtub is pretty close to an exterior wall. I have no basement. This place is basically made of Lincoln logs.. I have a hallway down the middle. All of the actual rooms have an exterior wall. The ceiling is drop ceiling with a layer of insulation and then roof.

My thought is hunker in the hallway between rooms directly in the middle? Second thought would be to hunker on the internal wall of my bedroom and pull my mattress on top of me. Anyone have any better ideas? Are these good ideas?

I’m in northeast Ohio so tornado likelihood isn’t currently high, but it’s increasing. We’ve had a couple nearby in the last 2 years.

I live in middle Tennessee and we are getting a lot more bad storms each season. We got a quote for a a Generac 22k for $21000. While it is possible for us to buy it I wonder if it is the best use of that money. It would be a big commitment for us financially. We have a single level 1650sf home.

Should I focus on some other things instead? We have not lost power in the last 5 years for more than 30 minutes. There have been areas in our county that have lost power for hours with storms.

Maybe a Jackery power station to run a fridge and freezer? My main concern is sometimes we have a bad winter storms with ice. Our power company says it struggles to keep up with demand.

Overall I just look at the up front cost and long term cost. Then I wondering if that money could be put toward other prep supplies. Thanks

Believe it or not, summer is around the corner! After years of apartment living, I now have the outdoor space for some outdoor cooking, and I bought a propane grill for some backyard BBQs.

While I intend to use this primarily for recreation, I was thinking about how having an alternate and off-grid cooking method would be helpful. An extended power outage would affect everything - even my gas oven and range still rely partly on electricity, and a long power outage could also lead to a gas outage since the local gas distribution pumps also rely on electricity and only have temporary backups. Our freezer is full of stuff that would go bad quickly in an outage, and grilling thawed assorted meats sounds like fun, even in an emergency. I'll keep some spare propane tanks around just in case.

Does the sub see a grill more as a prep or more as just a fun way to cook when its hot out?

Hello!

I’m in Ohio and we’re projected to get some nasty storms capable of producing tornados tonight. The layout of my house is very weird and not very conducive to tornado season.

I have a three level split home with the partially underground level being a fully finished living room, bedroom, and bathroom/utility room. Not a single room has no doors or windows.

*ALL THREE OPTIONS ARE ON LOWEST LEVEL

Option 1: The bedroom has a very tiny indent of a closet with cheap flimsy sliding doors…it could fit maybe 1 person and 1 dog but I’ve got myself and two dogs and a cat (and a husband when he’s home). The room itself has a door to the outside (although I don’t think the window in that door is glass).

Option 2: the bathroom/utility room has a window. There again isn’t really much space for more than 1 person but maybe if I backed up enough between the hvac and water heater I might be far enough from the window… no tub in this bathroom.

Option 3: we have a very big crawlspace with no windows. This option would fit everyone including all animals. Problem is, this is where the foundation of the house sits and I’d think if the house caved in we’d be right under the heaviest part of the house.

Thoughts? The first level has no rooms without big windows or internal closets, and the second floor has a hallway without windows but I’d think somewhere down on the bottom level is still a safer bet…

Edit: sorry for the late update, I was told this post was removed so I didn’t even know it posted! I am not brand new to tornados, I just grew up in a house that actually had a fully underground basements without full and my three level split now is such a weird layout that my husband and I have debated for several years now what the best place would be in the house

My partner and I are debating our options. We’d like to be able to heat partially with wood, or completely in an emergency. Options are:

Insert: We have an open fireplace that we love using, but is obviously inefficient, or maybe completely useless in terms of heat. Chimney is in good shape, we’d love to not lose the feel of an open fire/beautiful mantle.

Outdoor wood boiler: we already have hot water baseboard with an oil boiler. I think it would be possible to connect an outdoor boiler to this system, and be able to use either boiler as needed? Lets us keep the fireplace.

Standalone woodstove install: might not be as cheap as an insert, but lets us keep the fireplace. My girlfriend (co-owner of the house) does not like this idea much at all.

Additional details: it’s a 2,200 sq. Ft. House built in 1850. Two stories. Fairly well insulated/good windows relative to its age. We’re in the finger lakes region of NY, so fairly cold but not brutal. We have 3.5 acres of woods, (9 acre perimeter of wooded hedge row) with lots of ash dying due to EAB, and in a rural area where it’s not hard to buy in wood at a decent price if necessary. We’re in our 30s, and I’ve got plenty of energy for “doin wood.”

What would you go for? Any pros/cons/experiences to consider?

Does anyone have any experience with using roof-mounted wind turbines to supplement their home energy use? Our home isn't really in a spot that's great for solar, but we get windy conditions pretty frequently. Would wind power be a good step towards getting off grid/less grid-dependent for electricity?

Anyone riding this out up there? I moved to the South ten years ago. Went through a bad one in the 80’s. No power for days. Back then a wood stove was our primary heat and we canned our own food, had a root cellar etc. As I recall we lit the lanterns, put a pot of beans on the stove and rode it out. Back then everyone was prepped because we regularly got snowed in for a week at a time.

This storm looks considerably worse. Restoring power could take weeks in some places. Any firsthand reports?

Hi all, I have a question regarding backup heating options for blackout.

We live in Belgium, and are planning to move into an old house in suburbs, with renovations in planning phase right now. So it seems that it's a good time to figure out the backup heating solution in case of a several days blackout from natural/technological disasters.

Here are the input data: 1) in recent years winters are typically relatively mild in Belgium, it is typically a week or two per winter below freezing point during the day, and multiple nights through January-February. Of course, freak weather accidents are getting more frequent. 2) the house has a gas boiler for heating, which requires both natural gas and electricity from the grid. In case of only gas failing we have a couple of electric space heaters. In case of electricity failing we are out of options. 3) the house has old chimneys and bricked over fireplaces. I thought of restoring at least one and placing wood stove, but it is heavily discouraged by local council, with it being not ecological and all. And of course it requires extra maintenance and has safety concerns , especially with kids and pets. 4) there is some storage space in the cellar and standalone garage where some hard or liquid fuel can be stored.Couple of hundreds of liters is easily doable, couple of thousands is much harder.

I welcome your advice.

This offline library came today. Super stoked to check it out and I'll report back anything interesting outside of what they advertise. It took almost a month to arrive and I had to pay 60€ish import fee. Something to keep in mind. Tried again to add a picture. Getting an error, sorry for the repost

-Follow up: Very impressed with the info available and yes this device could be created by a someone with time and bit of Savvy. Best advice I've gotten falls in line with a good prepper line of thought. The old adage, 1 is none and 2 is 1... it's got many single points of failure to overcome. SSD's go bad, the blackberry could fail in some way. Having the data backed up and redundant ways to access it is key.

Thank you again for the advice

WD40, 2 cycle motor oil, wrenches, acetylene torches, torch strikers, lug wrench, how to make gaskets, weld metal, attach hydraulic systems to cylinders, o rings, etc.

How come we barely talk about any of these things?