Active New Top (30 days) Compact Card Sump Pump Kit: Keeping your basement dry (and your neighbour’s too) brownfox-ffContributor - January 17, 2023 (image credit: Magnolia Field Flooding by Doc Searls. Licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0) It’s 2 am. Your neighbour bangs on the door. Their house is flooding, and their sump pump just broke. The hardware store is closed. Can you help? .. If you live somewhere with a basement and water, you may use a pump to keep your basement dry. This kit contains everything needed to get water out of your house. This kit may seem expensive, because you are buying a pump. But it’s cheaper than an emergency call to a plumber. And it’s cheaper than an insurance claim and a flooded basement. A sump pump is a perfect example of something worth preparing in advance. When you need it, you *really* need it. And chances are – everyone else may too. Better to have a kit ready than to be part of the crowd, rushing to the out-of-stock hardware store during a flood. How To Use It Usually you want to send the water one of two places: into the storm drain system (in a city) or out onto the lawn or road. The farther away from the house, the better – at least 20 feet. Note it is illegal in many areas to permanently connect your sump pump to the _sewer_ system (it should connect to the _storm drain_ system), including a floor drain. But in an emergency, if choosing between a floor drain and a flooded house – put the water wherever it needs to go. You can point the hose at the floor drain and remove water, if the hose is not long enough to reach outside of the house. How To Store It You have several ways to store this: One Bucket, stuff sticking out. If you use a standard hose kit, it is unlikely everything will fit into one bucket. If you’re not concerned about being neat and tidy, this is the cheapest, easiest way to do it. You could also measure the hose length to your floor drain and cut the hose to save space. Two Buckets, one for hose, one for pump. If you coil it nicely, 20 feet of 1-1/2″ hose will juuust fit inside a 5 gallon bucket. Put the pump and other items into a second bucket. This lets you put lids on top, to keep it all together. You must carry two buckets around. One Bucket, smaller hose. If you buy an adapter, you can use a marine hose (strong garden hose) instead of a regular hose. This lets you fit everything in one bucket. The marine hose may be longer, but have a smaller diameter, so it will move water more slowly. Can I Really Use A Garden Hose? You should *not* use a garden hose for a permanent setup. But in an emergency a hose will move water. It’s an option. I spent twenty hours of research and one hour of testing creating this kit. I found a dozen people online and one person in my real-world prepping circle who have used (real life) or claimed to have used (online) a pump with an adapter and garden hose. I called three pump manufacturers and two plumbers to ask about pumps, PSI, and setup. All of them recommended *NOT* using a garden hose as your permanent pump setup. A garden hose or marine hose has a smaller diameter, so it will move the water more slowly.Your first bet should be the main discharge hose that is sized for your pump.But if you want to buy a $15 adapter, you can. References https://www.bobvila.com/articles/best-sump-pump/ https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/waterquality/documents/check-you-sump-pumps-now https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/164984/sump-pump-ok-to-reduce-1-5-to-3-4 Related Threads https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/protecting-homes-from-water-infiltration/ https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/flood-barriers-alternatives-to-sandbags/ https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/prepper-home-safety-how-to-prevent-and-avoid-accidents-in-the-home-during-a-crisis/ Read More 13 16 GearScenarios (image credit: Magnolia Field Flooding by Doc Searls. Licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0) News for week of 2023-01-09 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 16, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 3 49 News The dead of winter is a great time for pruning. RedneckContributor - January 14, 2023 There is so much to do on a homestead, even in the winter when nothing is growing. Lately I’ve been cleaning up the garden, getting rid of all the dead plants. That material all goes in the compost pile. I’ve also been pounding in a dozen 8 foot T-posts, to hold my 6 foot trellis netting for a new location of pole beans. For many plants, the best time to prune is in the winter when they are dormant. I finished cutting back most of my roses and now I am working on my muscadine grapes. They get real leggy because each shoot can put out a stem that can be 10 feet long… or longer. They bear fruit on new growth, so it is extremely important to cut them way back each winter. When done with the muscadines, I have around 150 fruit trees to prune next. Read More 3 0 Advice Favorite source for storm warnings? Hardened - January 13, 2023 There have been some extreme weather effects in the US lately and San Francisco is about to have an another one. The National Weather Service’s Bay Area office issued “a frank and dire warning to citizens”: “To put it simply, this will likely be one of the most impactful systems on a widespread scale that this meteorologist has seen in a long while,” the warning read. “The impacts will include widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down (potentially full groves), widespread power outages, immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life. This is truly a brutal system that we are looking at and needs to be taken seriously.” I find it helpful to get a “heads-up” about storms like this and sometimes they will appear in my regular daily news (The New York Times), but I’d like a more specialized source to check regularly. My built-in iPhone weather app is pretty good at providing forecasts when things are normal but it didn’t warn me about the artic blast we received in December. What’s your favorite source to check for storm forecasts? Read More 2 20 AdviceNews An example of off-grid apartment living in Manhattan atlanticrando - January 13, 2023 From Ars Technica: tl;dr – An NYU professor living in an apartment goes off-grid for 8 months. “Today, more than half the world lives in cities. I’ve always thought that living “off the grid” meant living “off in the woods,” where you can live simply and set up an alternate power source. But I’m a professional in Manhattan and need to earn a living… …Even though corporate and policy choices matter more than those of any individual, I was still curious to see if I could make my own practices more sustainable. Personal responsibility matters to me, so polluting less motivates me; it’s a small thing, but one I can control, even if it’s important to make policy and political changes, too. And I wanted to see how easy (or difficult) this might be for other city dwellers—both to help with sustainability and with utility bills. In addition to the obvious benefits that reduced power consumption brings, there’s also the issue of grid resilience. If everyone could stand a few days without grid power, we could build grids that aren’t made for 99.9 percent uptime but for 95 percent or lower uptime (with dedicated power for essential services like hospitals, police, and subways). At some level of local resilience, we could power cities exclusively with solar and wind despite their intermittency, with much lower battery needs.” There are some major caveats: 1) Heat (which he’s basically leaching from the building and neighbours) 2) This is a VERY minimalist setup that just won’t be practicable, especially for a family or someone with medical devices However, I thought some folks here might find it kind of neat as a proof of concept or food for thought. The classic ‘cabin in the woods, plop down as many solar panels as you can’ setup is not really compatible with the way most people live, which is in more urban environments. Read More 2 2 Has anyone trained a dog to carting? Lindsey - January 12, 2023 Has anyone trained a dog to carting before? As urban dwellers, a horse or pony isn’t an option for our family but well-trained dogs are allowed in pretty much every neighborhood I know of. I like the idea of training a dog to carting but am not sure what all is involved and was wondering if someone else had tips to share. In regular situations, I envision the dog pulling a cart when we go out to apple-picking to collect more apples or ferry the 1 year old. In a more serious situation, the dog already being trained to carting would add capacity to the supplies we could bring. Of course, the dog also adds to the supplies we need for an evacuation! So perhaps it’s a wash from the capacity perspective. For clarity, we do not yet have a dog and will be adopting the dog from a rescue. I had rescue dogs growing up but we never trained the family dogs beyond the basic obedience classes to be good dog citizens. In other words, a dog will be joining our family whether it is trained to carting or not. Read More 4 12 Advice Prepping with infants? Kamaria Wingender - January 11, 2023 So, I’ve decided to start prepping. I’ve been reading all these articles bout prepping and gear. I’ve even read how to prep with kids but I’ve found nothing about prepping with infants. And so I don’t even know how to start prepping with infant. Read More 3 3 AdviceGear The economy Steve Martin - January 10, 2023 Just a heads up. I have 2 people in my family who are over-the-road truck drivers for one of the big carriers and both have been sitting still waiting on load assignments for the last 4 days in different parts of the country. Just 3 months ago, they were being pushed to the maximum on hours because they couldn’t keep up with demand…but nearly over night, demand evaporated. There’s an economic storm coming and the “experts” seem to be divided/unaware about it. Read More 5 3 News for week of 2023-01-02 (all current event convos go here) Gideon ParkerStaff - January 10, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 3 34 News Anyone else wondering if recent substation attacks are “white hat” efforts to accelerate/prioritize grid hardening? Rearden - January 7, 2023 These actions, regardless of the true intentions, are hardly costless alarm sounding exercises. Hence the quotations around “white hat” here. Do these actions help place grid hardening (and prepping more generally) more on the front burner? I think many people here would agree that some type of long-term grid down situation is one of the worst reasonably plausible scenarios. And as has also been discussed in here recently, another very bad state of affairs is massively underprepared neighborhoods / communities, which can effectively undermine your own preparation (unless you’re extremely isolated/ well fortified?). Thoughts? Read More 1 13 News for week of 2022-12-26 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 3 13 News Burning Candles Barb LeeContributor - January 1, 2023 This probably seems like a grade-school level subject, but I’ve tended to have a lot of difficulty burning candles efficiently. Boredom with the bad weather has encouraged me to relieve my ignorance. It turns out there’s a lot more to burning candles than just lighting the wick. And there are lots of articles on the internet about how to burn and maintain candles for optimal light and burn time, not to mention safety practices. One of the main points (there are many!) is always trimming the wick. As I was reading an article, I was burning an Amish stearic acid carriage lamp candle (really!) in a little kerosene lamp that I converted for the candle. This candle was burning flawlessly (my last try with the candle that was just open to the air was a failure, yet these candles burn handsomely in carriage lamps!). To my surprise, when I looked up from reading about burning candles, the candle (which had been burning about an hour) was really “chugging” and smoking a bit. So one of several rules about burning candles is that depending on the candle, it’s going to need its wick trimmed during extended burn times. After burning an hour the wick was about 3/4″ long! This candle looks like it needs attention about every hour. I’d encourage folks who have a stash of candles for emergencies, but never actually gave a thought to burning them, to look up the many articles on burning them safely and correctly. This is a pretty good place to start. Read More 4 17 Skills News for week of 2022-12-19 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023 Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 4 25 News Foraging for cooking fuel and haybox bean soup Barb LeeContributor - December 30, 2022 Everywhere I look I see fuel! I went foraging for fuel for my new EcoZoom rocket stove a couple of days ago. I hauled in a long, skinny maple branch that had fallen a couple years ago in an ice storm. Brought it into the shop and cut it into 1 ft lengths with hubby’s miter saw, then split (as best I could) the thicker end into kindling. Everything’s wet from the recent rain so I hauled my treasure into the house to dry out (there is no part of the house that is off limits to my projects!) I got the brilliant idea that the rocket stove and the hay box were a match made in heaven. Since I needed something more challenging to cook with both, I decided to make a pot of bean soup. It took 30 minutes to bring the room temperature ingredients and cold ham hocks to a boil from the time I started the fire in the stove. About 8 quarts. Rushed the pot to the haybox (which was about 40 degrees to start!) and let the soup cook for three hours. It was 165 degrees. At that point I needed to add veggies, so I prepared the food, started the stove again, dumped the veggies in the pot and heated it to boiling again before putting the pot back in the box. It’ll simmer for another hour or two to cook the veggies. So, except for a flick of the lighter, there was zero energy cost to slow cook a giant pot of bean soup. (don’t remind me about using the miter saw! LOL!) And I barely skimmed the top few sticks off the top of the fuel box. There are worse things than tending a fire on a cool, cloudy Fall day. Edit to add: After two more hours in the haybox, the carrots and celery were cooked al dente, the beans were perfect and the ham hock meat was falling off the bone. This is really a delicious recipe and the “alternative” cooking devices did not disappoint! Read More 2 7 Skills Crampons (ice traction for your feet) matthew.Contributor - December 29, 2022 I’ve been meaning to write a post about crampons, and how I believe they are an important prep for anyone living in an area with the potential for ice storms. Seeing that a significant chunk of North America is blanketed with snow and ice at the moment, now seems like a good time to discuss. If you’ve ever experienced a significant ice storm, you know it shuts down everything. Simply walking from your front door to the sidewalk can be dangerous. An ice storm can paralyze an entire city or region – forget driving, you’ll struggle to simply walk. If you don’t believe me, I suspect you’ve never experienced a true ice storm (lucky you!). Sadly, I live in an area that gets them routeinly. They are not fun, but far more manageable if you have a good pair of crampons. Crampons are a traction device that attach to your shoes and allow you grip and navigate the otherwise impassable icy world. They work very much like the chains you’d put on your tires, so you’ll want to identify and size the shoes/boots you’d planning on wearing when using them before you make your purchase. Crampons come in differing designs ranging from purely urban use to climbing a glacier. Your choice will largely be dictated by your environment, especially how hilly it might be. Navigating ice on a flat surface is one thing, navigating it on an incline something completely else. I am a particular fan of the Ice Trekkers Diamond Grip crampons. They are a medium-duty crampon that are well made and good for varying conditions. I use them when I’m walking my dog or going for a winter hike, and paired with my Vasque Breeze winter hiking boots they make me feel secure whether I’m walking down a sidewalk or up the side of a mountain. There are lighter-duty models out there as well which are significantly easier to attach/remove from your boots. If you struggle with hand strength you might consider one of the rigid/flat-bottomed ice cleat models that are solely designed for urban use. If you plan on using your crampons for winter hiking/ ice climbing only, get a heavy-duty model, but don’t expect to be able to walk on a sidewalk with them. One additional note- crampons are a lot like tire traction chains. They take a beating when you use them, and they will eventually break. Like chains, I think crampons are definitely worth spending a few extra bucks on. Read More 15 10 Just another reason to be prepared! Steve Martin - December 26, 2022 News story this morning out of North Carolina where a massive power outage hit….deliberately caused by gunfire. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/intentional-vandalism-leaves-40-000-without-power-in-n-c/ar-AA14SalO Read More 8 19 News 90% dead at the end of a year after complete grid loss - December 24, 2022 It only takes two 5 kiloton nukes in orbit at particular places to blow the entire U.S. grid. The U.S. death toll at the end of a year without electricity is the high end estimate. Some crucial parts for our grid are no longer made in the U.S. 1. Reliable protein source you raise yourself. Cuy. Floor to ceiling shelves, plywood boxes, wire tops. Got the idea from a family in Peru. 2. Water. A well. In some urban environments you can hand drill a well…. if you know how. There are you tube videos that will show you how. I bought a hand pump from a local hardware store for 64 bucks. 3. Tools to grow food. 4. Protection. You can learn about what else you need by thinking about what you will need. For cooking…. Folding hand grills over cinder block stoves fueled by dried wood for me. Can also boil water.. Read More 2 12 Do you know who the enemy might be? Steve Martin - December 24, 2022 Under the “situational awareness” heading, is knowing who to watch and who to trust in our preparations for anticipated emergencies and dealing with them afterwards. During the recent political unrest, I had a local who was a member of a certain fringe group and he was bold enough to put a huge sign in his front yard advocating changes to our government he was demanding, and on a particular day in January, he made a trip to DC to express his opinion. He’s one I’ll keep an eye on if things go from bad to worse. I am also aware of a neighbor who has that ” if the SHTF I’ll just use my firepower to take whatever I need from everyone else” attitude. Another one I’ll keep an eye on. Be aware of the extremist in your midst, not paranoid but aware, BEFORE the SHTF. They might be a potential problem when the time comes, or an ally. I tend to be too suspicious of others motives….a hazard of having spent some time in military intel: everyone is up to something, you just have to figure out what it is and if it’s good or bad. Read More 3 5 Advice Help me decide on a portable generator. Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb? Steve Martin - December 22, 2022 Alright I’m ready to pull the trigger on a new electric start 11000 watt portable generator…but I have to choose one over the other of two possibilities. #1 is elect start, fuel injected so no carb to worry about…but is only gasoline powered. #2 is same brand, same wattage but with typical carb and is tri fuel…gasoline, nat gas or propane. So there’s trade offs. The tri fuel version is also $200 cheaper. I did the generac whole house estimate which came back at $10, 790. YIKES! There will still be some electrical contractor expense as I’ll get them to put in that sub panel so I can plug this portable in. I have a nearly new generac 3500 watt portable I’ll be selling so I can recoup part of the purchase price. So….which would YOU consider? Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb? I have a torn rotator cuff with damage so pull starting ANYTHING is out of the question now. So I’ll be selling the new chain saw, weedeater and generator. Read More 2 4 AdviceGear Essential medical reference books for the prepper library Scott P - December 22, 2022 I wanted to start compiling a list of great medical references at different levels that are useful for austere medicine and hopefully longer term survival. Also curious what books others have found useful to study or have on hand as reference. Quick reference Wilderness & Travel Medicine – fairly good first step and comes with larger AMK kits, which I like for the packaging. Written in an accessible and easily referenced way. NOLS WFA reference card – Good for rapid reference for those in your group who are less trained or practiced First aid Wilderness Medicine (Forgey) – Well written and it has a good focus on being more remove from definitive care Fix Your Feet – A good reference on foot care. It is targeted more at runners and hikers, but if you suddenly increase time on your feet it will be valuable to know how to care for them Hypothermia, frostbite and other cold injuries – a good deep dive into cold injuries for those of us who live in climates with extreme cold. First responder Outdoor Emergency Care – This is the textbook use for national ski patrols certification. I don’t love it, but it is a reasonable textbook at the FR/EMT level that also includes some more environmental emergencies and dealing with more austere situations such as backcountry rescue. Advanced Auerbachs Wilderness Medicine – THE textbook for wilderness medicine. It is a 2 volume medical textbook, which is very comprehensive. Depending on your science background this could be a hard read. What have others found? Read More 22 14 Advice Developing a fireless oven for retained heat baking and roasting Barb LeeContributor - December 21, 2022 The fireless oven is an extension of the haybox concept, except it strives to roast and bake via heat-radiating substances instead of boiling everything in a relatively large quantity of water. In the 1910s, the heat radiating substance was soapstone. Several months ago, I bought two soapstone fire bricks to experiment with but for prepping purposes, I didn’t have a sensible method of heating the bricks. That seems to have changed with the “free energy” rocket stove. This morning with the outdoor temperature at 40F degrees and sunshine, I wrapped a room temperature soapstone brick (about 1 1/4″ thickness) in aluminum foil to prevent soot buildup and placed it on the cold rocket stove. The 1913 book, The Fireless Cook Book by Margaret Jones Mitchell advises to heat new soapstone radiators slowly the first time, after which they are safe to heat more rapidly, so I built my little fire up in the stove accordingly. The test to know when your soapstone brick is ready for baking is to sprinkle a wee bit of flour on the surface. When the flour begins to brown, the brick is hot enough. This occurred in 25 minutes of lighting the first twigs and gradually building the fire. The top surface of the brick registered about 469F degrees. The energy cost to heat the brick was zero. Possible downside is that you have to feed small fuel into the stove fairly continuously. For me, that was amusement, not a downside. Finishing this project won’t be particularly cheap as unlike the haybox or Wonder Bag, the insulation has to be non-combustible. So for that I’ll go with ceramic wool furnace insulation, but it’ll take me awhile to get where I can actually bake with bricks! I must say I am motivated! One last note. We have a cooking option that Ms Mitchell did not – Reynolds Oven Roasting Bags. I put a 3lb chuck roast and veggies in a bag and submerged it in a large quantity of boiling water to make a pot roast in the haybox the other day. The roast cooked in its own undiluted juices and came out perfect. I checked the safety of the bags. No toxic chemicals are released into the food from the nylon Reynolds bags. Read More 4 5 Skills News for week of 2022-12-12 (all current event convos go here) Carlotta SusannaStaff - December 19, 2022 This is the replacement for the twice-weekly news roundups I stopped publishing last week. Instead of all the content coming from me, we’ll instead make a blank forum thread like this every Monday, and then anyone can chip in the news and thoughts they have. We’ll keep this weekly thread going for as long as ya’ll find it useful. Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news. Read More 6 25 News Smoking some fish. Yum! RedneckContributor - December 19, 2022 Smoking meat is a great way to preserve it. It also is extremely tasty. Today I smoked some sockeye salmon and some black cod (sablefish). Both are high in those healthy fish oils and are really healthy to eat. Both are my favorite fish to eat using all sorts of techniques, but today we are smoking to have as an appetizer for a family get together tomorrow. I’ve had a small electric smoker for many years. It uses very little wood and makes smoking a breeze. First I brined the fish using 2 parts brown sugar to one part kosher salt. I then drizzle on some maple syrup. I brine for about 5 hours or so, rinse off the fish well, pat dry and place on drying racks in the refrigerator overnight. Putting in the refrigerator for a few hours allows the pellicle to form. Pellicle is a thin, sticky film that forms on the surface of the meat. The sweet smoke sticks to this pellicle and gives a much better smoked flavor than cooking without creating it. I smoked for about 4 hours until the internal temp of the thickest part reached 140 degrees. Today I used some alder wood and some apple branches from the orchard. Brining the fish adds some flavor but it mainly pulls moisture out of the fish. This way you don’t end up with mushy smoked fish. Read More 3 3 Skills Invincibility points Adriaan - December 16, 2022 I just read that in Ukraine they have set up what they call “invincibility points” where people can go for hot water, electricity etc. I like the concept. In the winter I often think it would make me feel safer if I had another little building where I could go live for a while if something catastrophic should happen to my house. I was wondering if anyone would like to talk about this and maybe share ideas? It would have to be low-budget 🙂 Read More 2 2 < Prev 1 2 3 … 10 11 12 … 57 58 59 Next > Recently Active Has anybody blood tested the Oroweat keto tortillas? - 5 days agoNews for the Week 2024-04-22 - 5 days agoNews for the Week 2024-04-15 - 6 days agoWhat is the best camp stove for an emergency power outage or camping? - 1 week agoChickens for preppers: Important considerations - 1 week ago RULES This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics: 1. Be nice to each other. 2. Stay focused on prepping. 3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments. 4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc. 5. Debate ideas, not people. FILTER Show all Advice Gear Meta News Scenarios Skills

Sump Pump Kit: Keeping your basement dry (and your neighbour’s too)

brownfox-ffContributor - January 17, 2023

(image credit: Magnolia Field Flooding by Doc Searls. Licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0)

It’s 2 am. Your neighbour bangs on the door. Their house is flooding, and their sump pump just broke. The hardware store is closed. Can you help?

..

If you live somewhere with a basement and water, you may use a pump to keep your basement dry. This kit contains everything needed to get water out of your house.

This kit may seem expensive, because you are buying a pump. But it’s cheaper than an emergency call to a plumber. And it’s cheaper than an insurance claim and a flooded basement.

A sump pump is a perfect example of something worth preparing in advance. When you need it, you *really* need it. And chances are – everyone else may too. Better to have a kit ready than to be part of the crowd, rushing to the out-of-stock hardware store during a flood.

How To Use It

Usually you want to send the water one of two places: into the storm drain system (in a city) or out onto the lawn or road. The farther away from the house, the better – at least 20 feet.

Note it is illegal in many areas to permanently connect your sump pump to the _sewer_ system (it should connect to the _storm drain_ system), including a floor drain. But in an emergency, if choosing between a floor drain and a flooded house – put the water wherever it needs to go. You can point the hose at the floor drain and remove water, if the hose is not long enough to reach outside of the house.

How To Store It

You have several ways to store this:

One Bucket, stuff sticking out. If you use a standard hose kit, it is unlikely everything will fit into one bucket. If you’re not concerned about being neat and tidy, this is the cheapest, easiest way to do it. You could also measure the hose length to your floor drain and cut the hose to save space. Two Buckets, one for hose, one for pump. If you coil it nicely, 20 feet of 1-1/2″ hose will juuust fit inside a 5 gallon bucket. Put the pump and other items into a second bucket. This lets you put lids on top, to keep it all together. You must carry two buckets around. One Bucket, smaller hose. If you buy an adapter, you can use a marine hose (strong garden hose) instead of a regular hose. This lets you fit everything in one bucket. The marine hose may be longer, but have a smaller diameter, so it will move water more slowly.

Can I Really Use A Garden Hose?

You should *not* use a garden hose for a permanent setup. But in an emergency a hose will move water. It’s an option.

I spent twenty hours of research and one hour of testing creating this kit. I found a dozen people online and one person in my real-world prepping circle who have used (real life) or claimed to have used (online) a pump with an adapter and garden hose. I called three pump manufacturers and two plumbers to ask about pumps, PSI, and setup. All of them recommended *NOT* using a garden hose as your permanent pump setup.

A garden hose or marine hose has a smaller diameter, so it will move the water more slowly.
Your first bet should be the main discharge hose that is sized for your pump.
But if you want to buy a $15 adapter, you can.

References

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/best-sump-pump/ https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/waterquality/documents/check-you-sump-pumps-now https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/164984/sump-pump-ok-to-reduce-1-5-to-3-4

Related Threads

https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/protecting-homes-from-water-infiltration/ https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/flood-barriers-alternatives-to-sandbags/ https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/prepper-home-safety-how-to-prevent-and-avoid-accidents-in-the-home-during-a-crisis/ Read More

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GearScenarios

(image credit: Magnolia Field Flooding by Doc Searls. Licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0)

News for week of 2023-01-09 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 16, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

Read More

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News

The dead of winter is a great time for pruning.

RedneckContributor - January 14, 2023

There is so much to do on a homestead, even in the winter when nothing is growing.  Lately I’ve been cleaning up the garden, getting rid of all the dead plants.  That material all goes in the compost pile.  I’ve also been pounding in a dozen 8 foot T-posts, to hold my 6 foot trellis netting for a new location of pole beans.

For many plants, the best time to prune is in the winter when they are dormant.  I finished cutting back most of my roses and now I am working on my muscadine grapes.  They get real leggy because each shoot can put out a stem that can be 10 feet long… or longer.  They bear fruit on new growth, so it is extremely important to cut them way back each winter.  When done with the muscadines, I have around 150 fruit trees to prune next.

Read More

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Advice

Favorite source for storm warnings?

Hardened - January 13, 2023

There have been some extreme weather effects in the US lately and San Francisco is about to have an another one. The National Weather Service’s Bay Area office issued “a frank and dire warning to citizens”:

“To put it simply, this will likely be one of the most impactful systems on a widespread scale that this meteorologist has seen in a long while,” the warning read. “The impacts will include widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down (potentially full groves), widespread power outages, immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life. This is truly a brutal system that we are looking at and needs to be taken seriously.”

I find it helpful to get a “heads-up” about storms like this and sometimes they will appear in my regular daily news (The New York Times), but I’d like a more specialized source to check regularly.  My built-in iPhone weather app is pretty good at providing forecasts when things are normal but it didn’t warn me about the artic blast we received in December.

What’s your favorite source to check for storm forecasts?

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AdviceNews

An example of off-grid apartment living in Manhattan

atlanticrando - January 13, 2023

From Ars Technica:

tl;dr – An NYU professor living in an apartment goes off-grid for 8 months.

“Today, more than half the world lives in cities. I’ve always thought that living “off the grid” meant living “off in the woods,” where you can live simply and set up an alternate power source. But I’m a professional in Manhattan and need to earn a living…

…Even though corporate and policy choices matter more than those of any individual, I was still curious to see if I could make my own practices more sustainable. Personal responsibility matters to me, so polluting less motivates me; it’s a small thing, but one I can control, even if it’s important to make policy and political changes, too.

And I wanted to see how easy (or difficult) this might be for other city dwellers—both to help with sustainability and with utility bills.

In addition to the obvious benefits that reduced power consumption brings, there’s also the issue of grid resilience. If everyone could stand a few days without grid power, we could build grids that aren’t made for 99.9 percent uptime but for 95 percent or lower uptime (with dedicated power for essential services like hospitals, police, and subways). At some level of local resilience, we could power cities exclusively with solar and wind despite their intermittency, with much lower battery needs.”

There are some major caveats:

1) Heat (which he’s basically leaching from the building and neighbours)

2) This is a VERY minimalist setup that just won’t be practicable, especially for a family or someone with medical devices

However, I thought some folks here might find it kind of neat as a proof of concept or food for thought. The classic ‘cabin in the woods, plop down as many solar panels as you can’ setup is not really compatible with the way most people live, which is in more urban environments.

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Has anyone trained a dog to carting?

Lindsey - January 12, 2023

Has anyone trained a dog to carting before?

As urban dwellers, a horse or pony isn’t an option for our family but well-trained dogs are allowed in pretty much every neighborhood I know of. I like the idea of training a dog to carting but am not sure what all is involved and was wondering if someone else had tips to share.

In regular situations, I envision the dog pulling a cart when we go out to apple-picking to collect more apples or ferry the 1 year old.

In a more serious situation, the dog already being trained to carting would add capacity to the supplies we could bring. Of course, the dog also adds to the supplies we need for an evacuation! So perhaps it’s a wash from the capacity perspective.

For clarity, we do not yet have a dog and will be adopting the dog from a rescue. I had rescue dogs growing up but we never trained the family dogs beyond the basic obedience classes to be good dog citizens. In other words, a dog will be joining our family whether it is trained to carting or not.

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Advice

Prepping with infants?

Kamaria Wingender - January 11, 2023

So, I’ve decided to start prepping. I’ve been reading all these articles bout prepping and gear. I’ve even read how to prep with kids but I’ve found nothing about prepping with infants. And so I don’t even know how to start prepping with infant.

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AdviceGear

The economy

Steve Martin - January 10, 2023

Just a heads up. I have 2 people in my family who are over-the-road truck drivers for one of the big carriers and both have been sitting still waiting on load assignments for the last 4 days in different parts of the country. Just 3 months ago, they were being pushed to the maximum on hours because they couldn’t keep up with demand…but nearly over night, demand evaporated. There’s an economic storm coming and the “experts” seem to be divided/unaware about it. 

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News for week of 2023-01-02 (all current event convos go here)

Gideon ParkerStaff - January 10, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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News

Anyone else wondering if recent substation attacks are “white hat” efforts to accelerate/prioritize grid hardening?

Rearden - January 7, 2023

These actions, regardless of the true intentions, are hardly costless alarm sounding exercises. Hence the quotations around “white hat” here. 

Do these actions help place grid hardening (and prepping more generally) more on the front burner?

I think many people here would agree that some type of long-term grid down situation is one of the worst reasonably plausible scenarios.

And as has also been discussed in here recently, another very bad state of affairs is massively underprepared neighborhoods / communities, which can effectively undermine your own preparation (unless you’re extremely isolated/ well fortified?). 

Thoughts?

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News for week of 2022-12-26 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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News

Burning Candles

Barb LeeContributor - January 1, 2023

This probably seems like a grade-school level subject, but I’ve tended to have a lot of difficulty burning candles efficiently.  Boredom with the bad weather has encouraged me to relieve my ignorance.  It turns out there’s a lot more to burning candles than just lighting the wick.  And there are lots of articles on the internet about how to burn and maintain candles for optimal light and burn time, not to mention safety practices.

One of the main points (there are many!) is always trimming the wick.  As I was reading an article, I was burning an Amish stearic acid carriage lamp candle (really!) in a little kerosene lamp that I converted for the candle.  This candle was burning flawlessly (my last try with the candle that was just open to the air was a failure, yet these candles burn handsomely in carriage lamps!).  To my surprise, when I looked up from reading about burning candles, the candle (which had been burning about an hour) was really “chugging” and smoking a bit.

So one of several rules about burning candles is that depending on the candle, it’s going to need its wick trimmed during extended burn times.  After burning an hour the wick was about 3/4″ long! This candle looks like it needs attention about every hour.

I’d encourage folks who have a stash of candles for emergencies, but never actually gave a thought to burning them, to look up the many articles on burning them safely and correctly. This is a pretty good place to start.

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Skills

News for week of 2022-12-19 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - January 1, 2023

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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News

Foraging for cooking fuel and haybox bean soup

Barb LeeContributor - December 30, 2022

Everywhere I look I see fuel!

I went foraging for fuel for my new EcoZoom rocket stove a couple of days ago.  I hauled in a long, skinny maple branch that had fallen a couple years ago in an ice storm.  Brought it into the shop and cut it into 1 ft lengths with hubby’s miter saw, then split (as best I could) the thicker end into kindling.  Everything’s wet from the recent rain so I hauled my treasure into the house to dry out (there is no part of the house that is off limits to my projects!)

I got the brilliant idea that the rocket stove and the hay box were a match made in heaven.  Since I needed something more challenging to cook with both, I decided to make a pot of bean soup.

It took 30 minutes to bring the room temperature ingredients and cold ham hocks to a boil from the time I started the fire in the stove.  About 8 quarts.  Rushed the pot to the haybox (which was about 40 degrees to start!) and let the soup cook for three hours. It was 165 degrees. At that point I needed to add veggies, so I prepared the food, started the stove again, dumped the veggies in the pot and heated it to boiling again before putting the pot back in the box. It’ll simmer for another hour or two to cook the veggies.

So, except for a flick of the lighter, there was zero energy cost to slow cook a giant pot of bean soup.  (don’t remind me about using the miter saw!  LOL!) And I barely skimmed the top few sticks off the top of the fuel box.

There are worse things than tending a fire on a cool, cloudy Fall day.

Edit to add:   After two more hours in the haybox, the carrots and celery were cooked al dente, the beans were perfect and the ham hock meat was falling off the bone.  This is really a delicious recipe and the “alternative” cooking devices did not disappoint!

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Skills

Crampons (ice traction for your feet)

matthew.Contributor - December 29, 2022

I’ve been meaning to write a post about crampons, and how I believe they are an important prep for anyone living in an area with the potential for ice storms.  Seeing that a significant chunk of North America is blanketed with snow and ice at the moment, now seems like a good time to discuss.

If you’ve ever experienced a significant ice storm, you know it shuts down everything.  Simply walking from your front door to the sidewalk can be dangerous.  An ice storm can paralyze an entire city or region – forget driving, you’ll struggle to simply walk.  If you don’t believe me, I suspect you’ve never experienced a true ice storm (lucky you!).  Sadly, I live in an area that gets them routeinly.  They are not fun, but far more manageable if you have a good pair of crampons.

Crampons are a traction device that attach to your shoes and allow you grip and navigate the otherwise impassable icy world.  They work very much like the chains you’d put on your tires, so you’ll want to identify and size the shoes/boots you’d planning on wearing when using them before you make your purchase.  

Crampons come in differing designs ranging from purely urban use to climbing a glacier.  Your choice will largely be dictated by your environment, especially how hilly it might be.  Navigating ice on a flat surface is one thing, navigating it on an incline something completely else.

I am a particular fan of the Ice Trekkers Diamond Grip crampons. They are a medium-duty crampon that are well made and good for varying conditions.  I use them when I’m walking my dog or going for a winter hike, and paired with my Vasque Breeze winter hiking boots they make me feel secure whether I’m walking down a sidewalk or up the side of a mountain.  There are lighter-duty models out there as well which are significantly easier to attach/remove from your boots. If you struggle with hand strength you might consider one of the rigid/flat-bottomed ice cleat models that are solely designed for urban use.  If you plan on using your crampons for winter hiking/ ice climbing only, get a heavy-duty model, but don’t expect to be able to walk on a sidewalk with them.

One additional note- crampons are a lot like tire traction chains.  They take a beating when you use them, and they will eventually break.  Like chains, I think crampons are definitely worth spending a few extra bucks on.

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Just another reason to be prepared!

Steve Martin - December 26, 2022

News story this morning out of North Carolina where a massive power outage hit….deliberately caused by gunfire. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/intentional-vandalism-leaves-40-000-without-power-in-n-c/ar-AA14SalO

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News

90% dead at the end of a year after complete grid loss

- December 24, 2022

It only takes two 5 kiloton nukes in orbit at particular places to blow the entire U.S. grid.

The U.S. death toll at the end of a year without electricity is the high end estimate.

Some crucial parts for our grid are no longer made in the U.S.

1. Reliable protein source you raise yourself. Cuy. Floor to ceiling shelves, plywood boxes, wire tops. Got the idea from a family in Peru.

2. Water. A well. In some urban environments you can hand drill a well…. if you know how. There are you tube videos that will show you how. I bought a hand pump from a local hardware store for 64 bucks.

3. Tools to grow food.

4. Protection.

You can learn about what else you need by thinking about what you will need.

For cooking…. Folding hand grills over cinder block stoves fueled by dried wood for me. Can also boil water..

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Do you know who the enemy might be?

Steve Martin - December 24, 2022

Under the “situational awareness” heading, is knowing who to watch and who to trust in our preparations for anticipated emergencies and dealing with them afterwards. During the recent political unrest, I had a local who was a member of a certain fringe group and he was bold enough to put a huge sign in his front yard advocating changes to our government he was demanding, and on a particular day in January, he made a trip to DC to express his opinion. He’s one I’ll keep an eye on if things go from bad to worse. I am also aware of a neighbor who has that ” if the SHTF I’ll just use my firepower to take whatever I need from everyone else” attitude. Another one I’ll keep an eye on. Be aware of the extremist in your midst, not paranoid but aware, BEFORE the SHTF. They might be a potential problem when the time comes, or an ally. I tend to be too suspicious of others motives….a hazard of having spent some time in military intel: everyone is up to something, you just have to figure out what it is and if it’s good or bad.

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Advice

Help me decide on a portable generator. Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb?

Steve Martin - December 22, 2022

Alright I’m ready to pull the trigger on a new electric start 11000 watt portable generator…but I have to choose one over the other of two possibilities. #1 is elect start, fuel injected so no carb to worry about…but is only gasoline powered. #2 is same brand, same wattage but with typical carb and is tri fuel…gasoline, nat gas or propane. So there’s trade offs. The tri fuel version is also $200 cheaper. I did the generac whole house estimate which came back at $10, 790. YIKES! There will still be some electrical contractor expense as I’ll get them to put in that sub panel so I can plug this portable in. I have a nearly new generac 3500 watt portable I’ll be selling so I can recoup part of the purchase price. So….which would YOU consider? Single fuel but fuel injected or tri fuel with a carb? I have a torn rotator cuff with damage so pull starting ANYTHING is out of the question now. So I’ll be selling the new chain saw, weedeater and generator. 

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AdviceGear

Essential medical reference books for the prepper library

Scott P - December 22, 2022

I wanted to start compiling a list of great medical references at different levels that are useful for austere medicine and hopefully longer term survival.  Also curious what books others have found useful to study or have on hand as reference. 

Quick reference

Wilderness & Travel Medicine – fairly good first step and comes with larger AMK kits, which I like for the packaging.  Written in an accessible and easily referenced way. NOLS WFA reference card – Good for rapid reference for those in your group who are less trained or practiced

First aid

Wilderness Medicine (Forgey) – Well written and it has a good focus on being more remove from definitive care Fix Your Feet – A good reference on foot care.  It is targeted more at runners and hikers, but if you suddenly increase time on your feet it will be valuable to know how to care for them Hypothermia, frostbite and other cold injuries – a good deep dive into cold injuries for those of us who live in climates with extreme cold.

First responder

Outdoor Emergency Care – This is the textbook use for national ski patrols certification.  I don’t love it, but it is a reasonable textbook at the FR/EMT level that also includes some more environmental emergencies and dealing with more austere situations such as backcountry rescue.  

Advanced

Auerbachs Wilderness Medicine –  THE textbook for wilderness medicine.  It is a 2 volume medical textbook, which is very comprehensive.  Depending on your science background this could be a hard read.  

What have others found?  

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Advice

Developing a fireless oven for retained heat baking and roasting

Barb LeeContributor - December 21, 2022

The fireless oven is an extension of the haybox concept, except it strives to roast and bake via heat-radiating substances instead of boiling everything in a relatively large quantity of water.  In the 1910s, the heat radiating substance was soapstone.

Several months ago, I bought two soapstone fire bricks to experiment with but for prepping purposes, I didn’t have a sensible method of heating the bricks. That seems to have changed with the “free energy” rocket stove.

This morning with the outdoor temperature at 40F degrees and sunshine, I wrapped a room temperature soapstone brick (about 1 1/4″ thickness) in aluminum foil to prevent soot buildup and placed it on the cold rocket stove.

The 1913 book, The Fireless Cook Book by Margaret Jones Mitchell advises to heat new soapstone radiators slowly the first time, after which they are safe to heat more rapidly, so I built my little fire up in the stove accordingly.

The test to know when your soapstone brick is ready for baking is to sprinkle a wee bit of flour on the surface.  When the flour begins to brown, the brick is hot enough.

This occurred in 25 minutes of lighting the first twigs and gradually building the fire.  The top surface of the brick registered about 469F degrees.

The energy cost to heat the brick was zero. Possible downside is that you have to feed small fuel into the stove fairly continuously.  For me, that was amusement, not a downside.

Finishing this project won’t be particularly cheap as unlike the haybox or Wonder Bag, the insulation has to be non-combustible.  So for that I’ll go with ceramic wool furnace insulation, but it’ll take me awhile to get where I can actually bake with bricks!  I must say I am motivated!

One last note.  We have a cooking option that Ms Mitchell did not – Reynolds Oven Roasting Bags.  I put a 3lb chuck roast and veggies in a bag and submerged it in a large quantity of boiling water to make a pot roast in the haybox the other day.  The roast cooked in its own undiluted juices and came out perfect.

I checked the safety of the bags.  No toxic chemicals are released into the food from the nylon Reynolds bags.

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Skills

News for week of 2022-12-12 (all current event convos go here)

Carlotta SusannaStaff - December 19, 2022

This is the replacement for the twice-weekly news roundups I stopped publishing last week. Instead of all the content coming from me, we’ll instead make a blank forum thread like this every Monday, and then anyone can chip in the news and thoughts they have. We’ll keep this weekly thread going for as long as ya’ll find it useful.

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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News

Smoking some fish. Yum!

RedneckContributor - December 19, 2022

Smoking meat is a great way to preserve it.  It also is extremely tasty.  Today I smoked some sockeye salmon and some black cod (sablefish).  Both are high in those healthy fish oils and are really healthy to eat.  Both are my favorite fish to eat using all sorts of techniques, but today we are smoking to have as an appetizer for a family get together tomorrow.

I’ve had a small electric smoker for many years.  It uses very little wood and makes smoking a breeze.  First I brined the fish using 2 parts brown sugar to one part kosher salt.  I then drizzle on some maple syrup.  I brine for about 5 hours or so, rinse off the fish well, pat dry and place on drying racks in the refrigerator overnight.  Putting in the refrigerator for a few hours allows the pellicle to form.  Pellicle is a thin, sticky film that forms on the surface of the meat.  The sweet smoke sticks to this pellicle and gives a much better smoked flavor than cooking without creating it.  I smoked for about 4 hours until the internal temp of the thickest part reached 140 degrees.  Today I used some alder wood and some apple branches from the orchard.

Brining the fish adds some flavor but it mainly pulls moisture out of the fish.  This way you don’t end up with mushy smoked fish.

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Skills

Invincibility points

Adriaan - December 16, 2022

I just read that in Ukraine they have set up what they call “invincibility points” where people can go for hot water, electricity etc. I like the concept. In the winter I often think it would make me feel safer if I had another little building where I could go live for a while if something catastrophic should happen to my house. I was wondering if anyone would like to talk about this and maybe share ideas? It would have to be low-budget 🙂

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