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News for the week of 2024-05-20
The Prepared Support - May 20, 2024 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 MoreAltoids First Aid Kit
Bigwig - May 18, 2024 I’ve been making up some kits lately and thought I would share.
Here’s my Altoids first aid kit (including packing order):
Moleskin, Pre-cut and Shaped Pieces (1)
Bandage, Gauze 2”x2” (1)
Alcohol wipes (2)
Bandage, Knuckle (1)
Bandage, 1”x3” (2)
Bandage, Butterfly (2)
Sting relief wipe (1)
Triple antibiotic ointment (1)
Ibuprofen 200 mg (2)
Benadryl 25 mg (2)
Glue, super (1)
Tweezers (1)
Lahaina Fire: Deadliest US Fire in a Century
Eric - May 17, 2024 A wildfire destroyed the historical town of Lahaina, former royal capital of Hawaii, on August 9, 2023. Many people burned alive in their homes, unaware that a fire was approaching. Others burned in their cars, stuck in traffic while trying to evacuate, or drowned while trying to escape into the harbor. Bodies are still being counted (93 so far), but the death toll could be up to 1000.
As fires become more common and more intense, we need to learn fire emergencies like Lahaina so that we can prevent them, or at least reduce the loss of life in the next fire emergency. Please join me in collecting information about what went wrong and what could have been done differently. What challenges did the people of Lahaina face as they tried to escape the flames. What could individuals have done differently to improve their odds of survival? What could the community have done differently to prevent the town from burning or to get people out in time?
Read MoreYou are stranded on a deserted island, you can choose four items…
Captain Peanut - May 17, 2024 First post here. Wanted to share something I saw on Facebook that I thought would be fun.
I took out that spot near the hunting rifle because it had weed in there. I don’t think that’s a very good survival item so lets place an ax there instead as an option.
Don’t just list four items that you would take though, tell why you would choose those over something else and how you would use those items to keep yourself alive.
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News for the week of 2024-05-13
The Prepared Support - May 13, 2024 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 MoreNews for the Week 2024-04-29
The Prepared Support - May 7, 2024 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 MoreNews for the week of 2024-05-06
The Prepared Support - May 7, 2024 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 MoreHas anybody blood tested the Oroweat keto tortillas?
mariamsanford - April 22, 2024 Anybody monitoring blood glucose actively? They have the modified/resistant starch as a primary ingredient. Research around the web suggests pretty dramatic blood glucose elevation, though not as sharp a spike as normal starch. Would love to hear from people directly.
Read MoreNews for the Week 2024-04-22
The Prepared Support - April 22, 2024 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 MoreNews for the Week 2024-04-15
The Prepared Support - April 20, 2024 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 MoreWhat is the best camp stove for an emergency power outage or camping?
My name is Megan - April 19, 2024 I would like to get a small portable camp stove that I can use if the power is out or if I want to go camping. It’s not going to be an every day user, so keeping the cost of the stove and fuel as low as possible will allow me to buy it sooner.
I could go as cheaply as $20 and get a butane stove that runs off little butane canisters.
But for $13 more, I can get a similar one that will work on those same butane canisters or the small propane tanks. I like this idea because I believe it would be cheaper in the long run to use propane, but if I wanted to just go camping I could use butane and take the smaller and lighter tank.
And for $17, I can get an adapter hose that will allow me to use one of those large BBQ propane tanks that should be even cheaper. I wouldn’t bring this camping but if the power is out for days, it would be comforting to have a ton of fuel available.
For $48, there is the classic Coleman propane camp stove that will give me two burners, has a wind guard, but only runs on propane and is larger and heavier if I were to take it camping.
Or I can go all out and buy this camp oven and stove combo for $330
Do you all have any other recommendations or experience with any of these?
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Chickens for preppers: Important considerations
chicksnhens - April 18, 2024 I wanted to put out a guide for preppers who are interested in keeping chickens or other poultry for long term food security reasons. This is a discussion of important concepts for improving self sufficiency in flock management, not a guide for basic animal care. Please add your thoughts/comments/additions!
1. Select the right breeds and flock mix
For preppers, I recommend going with a mixed flock of hardy, dual purpose breeds that are bred for egg production levels of about 200+ eggs/yr. These birds are big enough to make a good soup/stew bird when their laying days wind down and produce higher amounts of larger eggs than fancy and bantam breeds. You want a bird that can forage well, and safely manage all season conditions without heaters or other special care requirements. Popular breeds in the dual purpose category include barred rocks, Rhode Island reds, New Hampshires, orpingtons and australorps, among others. Hybrid production/efficiency birds like ISA browns/red stars can be added to amp up egg production. I also recommend keeping a couple hens of dual purpose breeds that tend to go broody, like brahmas, in the event you want/need to produce chicks without the aid of electric incubators and brooders.
2. Size your flock for your anticipated long term needs
Egg production varies by breed, age of hen, the animal’s health, and environmental/seasonal conditions. Birds under 2 produce more eggs than older hens past their prime, and the dark days of winter can dramatically reduce egg production on a cyclical basis. Even very high temperatures in summer can throw a bird’s laying schedule out of whack. This means that a very small flock of only 3-4 birds is unlikely to produce enough eggs for a family over time, even if they produce enough when they are at their peak. So if you want 3-4 eggs a day from your birds, you will probably need about 6 hens to consistently achieve that.
3. Buy vaccinated chicks from reputable hatcheries/breeders
Many backyard keepers buy, sell, and trade the chicks they produce at costs that are much lower than big hatcheries. The trouble is that most small keepers and breeders dont manage their lineages for health and performance (they just breed whatever rooster they have to whatever hens they have) and more importantly, they ususally don’t vaccinate their chicks for Mareks (https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/neoplasms/marek-disease-in-poultry). Every year, I see backyard keepers on chicken forums looking for help with sick and dying birds infected with Mareks. Many times they lose multiple birds, and the surviving birds become permanent carriers (which means they will infect any unvaxxed new birds the keepers try to get to replace the dead ones). In my opinion, for preppers, it is especially important to maintain a vaxxed flock if at all possible because you don’t want to be losing your birds in a time of food/chick shortages. A 100% vaxxed flock also means that if you want or need to breed your own birds without access to the vaccine, those new birds will be safe. You also don’t want to be contributing to the spread of Mareks in backyard flocks in your region if you sell your birds to others, as that can destabilize the local food supply when you need it most.
4. Use a multi-flock/purpose 20% protein feed in anticipation of changing flock needs
There are a number of different bird feeds out there – chick, grower/raiser, maintenance, layer, etc – and it can be hard to know which one is best. I recommend going with a 20% protein all-flock grower/raiser as your standard feed for your birds once they are off chick crumble for two reasons. First, a 20% feed can be used at all stages of life and for a wide variety of birds – meat, layer, males and females, winter, birds in molt, birds without access to forage, turkeys, ducks, etc. Conversely, layer-specific or general adult maintenance pellets don’t have enough protein for the rapid growth required of young and meat birds, have too much calcium for male birds, and often don’t have enough niacin for waterfowl. This means that if you have your hens on layer pellets and then you get a rooster, now you need to switch feeds. Or if you get ducks, or turkeys, or broilers. You get the idea. Second, as preppers, you should be storing extra feed. If you don’t know how your flock might change over time, you want to make sure whatever feed you have stockpiled will work for everyone in the future, or else you could end up with hundreds of pounds of food that is poorly suited to your animals.
5. Plan on rotating in new layers to keep production consistent
Due to the natural decline in egg production over a hen’s lifetime, your flock’s production will dramatically decrease after a few years if you don’t keep resupplying it with younger hens. Many keepers follow the 1/3 rule: replace/add 1/3 of your flock size every two years to keep egg production high. So if you have 6 hens in 2020, that means you should plan to add 2 new birds by 2022. Older hens do continue to lay, just at a reduced rate, so if you don’t plan on culling older birds to make way for the new additions, be sure to make your coop big enough for a larger flock than you start with.
6. Have a multi-faceted backup feeding plan in the event of feed shortages
The obvious first line of defense for feed shortages is storing enough feed for your animals to get them through at least a couple of months without needing to resupply. Long term situations though, like a complete collapse in the supply chain, will require mutliple other backup food sources in case you can’t resupply when you run low. Fostering a healthy pasture environment for your animals to range is one important strategy. This means preferably offering your animals something more than the typical lawn, and adopting grass/property management strategies that maximize seed production and insect populations (basically the exact opposite of what most suburban lawn care seeks to do). But even with a good pasture available, poultry need supplemental feeds. You can make your own scratch feed by grinding/crushing a mix of dry corn and grains from your own food stores, and you can crush/powder cooked animal bones, eggshells, and crustacean shells for calcium supplementation. Kitchen scraps can help round out the diet. A mix of pasture, kitchen scraps, homemade scratch feed, and carefully rationed amounts of dwindling commercial feed is hardly ideal, but it should hopefully allow you to keep your birds alive longer in a true crisis scenario than if you don’t take advantage of all these methods.
7. Have a backup bird resupply plan in the event of chick shortages/shipping issues
When the pandemic hit, there was a run on chicks and hatcheries were overrun with a surge of orders (https://blog.cacklehatchery.com/the-pandemic-triggers-a-run-on-chickens/). But eggs hatch on their own time frame regardless of how many humans want birds and why. So the orders got backed up, important production breeds sold out, and many people had to wait far longer than usual to get the animals they did manage to order. Issues struck again just recently when problems with the USPS resulted in serious shipping delays, causing thousands of chicks to die enroute to their destinations (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/20/farmers-chicks-arrive-dead-usps-399372). USPS is the only shipper of live birds in the US. If they can’t get the chicks to farmers and keepers, then only people/businesses local to the hatcheries can get birds from them (and there aren’t many hatcheries). These problems highlight the importance of having a backup plan to restock your birds as needed. Keeping a rooster in a laying flock can be a major PITA but it has the major advantage of allowing you to make your own chickens without relying on the agricultural supply chain. If you live in an area where you can’t have a rooster, or if you really don’t want to deal with their general ridiculousness, you can still plan on hatching your own eggs by connecting with other local keepers who are willing to sell/trade fertilized hatching eggs or chicks to you (the pro of hatching eggs vs chicks is that they are cheaper and you don’t have to worry about disease introduction, the con is that hatch rates can be dodgy).
Plants with Saponins
prep_in_Germany - April 8, 2024 I’m now getting into the gardening stage of being a prepper, and started to learn about different plants that contain saponins. Saponins are a mild soap that help remove dirt, although they aren’t reported to be effective against oils.
This summer I’m going to grow:
Yucca Glauca: root is best for soap, but videos indicate that the inner parts of leaves can also be used, but you have to scrape away the outside layer of the leaf first.
Soapwort/Soapweed/Saponaria officinalis Alba Plena: both leaves and roots can be used, but it’s best to make “tea” with them first. This plant is reportedly invasive via seeds and roots, so I’m going to keep them in containers and try to deadhead them before they spread seeds.
Mock Orange/Philadelphus x virginalis: leaves and flowers should be possible to use as soap without any preparation step. I actually didn’t know it contained saponins when I bought it.
In addition, I’m also growing several Luffa plants and hope to have a number of Luffas to use for scrubbing dishes and in the shower.
I also read that horse chestnuts contain saponins that can be used as shampoo, so I’ll plan to forage for some next fall, but don’t have space in my garden for a chestnut tree. Do any of you have experience growing and using plants as soap?
Read MoreNews for the week of 2024-04-08
The Prepared Support - April 8, 2024 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 MoreNews for the week of 2024-04-01
The Prepared Support - April 7, 2024 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 MoreNews for the week of 2024-03-25
The Prepared Support - April 1, 2024 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 MoreIdeal distance to bugout location? (For the sake of discussion.)
Forager - March 28, 2024 I assume most of you are in the same position we are, of using a friend/relative’s house or recreational land you already own, but just for the sake of discussion:
All else being equal, how many miles from home would you like a bugout location to be?
What is too close to even consider (too likely to be impacted by the same emergency) and what is too far to even consider (too difficult/dangerous to attempt to reach as things deteriorate?)
I think the sweet spot would probably be in the 40 to 100 mile range – an easy drive by car, and a long but not unreasonable hike were one to end up on foot. (Unfortunately not our reality, as we no longer have a location available in that range, but what I consider ideal.)
I think anything under 5 miles is too close to really count as bugging out, since even something very localized like a chemical spill or a riot could easily effect both.
I would also discount anything so far away that getting there would require boarding a commercial flight, or spending multiple days on the road in a vehicle. In my opinion if the transportation system is still functioning smoothly enough for that, it’s probably not time to bug out.
Of course, there are other variables according to topography, types of disasters likely to strike an area, and geopolitical lines. 100 miles might not be enough to escape a hurricane in a flat landscape, and 1/4 mile might be all it takes to get out of reach of a flooding river in a hilly one. Dispite the overall impracticallity of bugging out by plane, it may be the only way to reach a distant and uninvolved country if your region were ever overun by war.
What are other people’s thoughts on this?
Read MoreCan 5 gallon buckets be stacked?
Claire - March 26, 2024 Can you stack 5 gallon buckets (food grade with gamma lids) on top of each other? So buckets are heavier (rice) and some are lighter (freeze dried fruits).
If not, any suggestions on how to store multiple buckets so that they don’t take up a ton of space?
Thanks!!
Read MorePacking 5 gallon buckets
Claire - March 25, 2024 Does anyone have any tips on how to be able to get more Mylar bags in a 5-gallon bucket? I’ve freeze dried some food and put them in Mylar bags (5-7 mils thick per side). I haven’t been able to get that many individual bags into each bucket. I didn’t know if there are any tips out there! I didn’t want to end up with tons and tons of buckets.
Read MoreLooking for Long Term Food Storage Ideas
Amy S. - March 24, 2024 I love this site — thank you to everyone who makes this such a great place. I am wondering if anyone has any specific suggestions for long term food storage that supplements rice and pasta. My pantry is as deep as it can be if I follow the maxim of storing what we eat and eating what we store. BUT . . . my ratios are off for any slightly longer term emergency. I keep more rice and pasta in storage than food I could put on it. I can’t store a bunch of canned chili or tomatoes without waste. Perhaps powdered tomatoes? Powdered cheese? Has anyone used these? What else? I’d love to hear about anything you all keep that is both shelf stable and long term to go with rice and pasta for flavor/nutrition. (Yes, I have lots of herbs and spices already — I am looking for more substantive additions.) I’d appreciate any new ideas!
Read MoreNews for the week of 2024-03-18
The Prepared Support - March 18, 2024 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 MoreNews for the week of 2024-03-11
The Prepared Support - March 14, 2024 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 MoreInvisible First Aid – How to help your family, yourself and others traumatized by crime or violence experienced during a disaster
UbiqueContributor - March 13, 2024 When we talk about prepping and first aid, we talk about the various items we will put into our first aid kits.
We talk about the length of the crisis and recovery period and what might be needed for first aid supplies.
We also talk about op-sec and the potential for violence and crime during a disaster.
I would like to merge the two concepts and discuss how to best assist persons who are traumatized during a disaster due to crime, assault and other disaster related trauma.
A disaster will bring out the best and the worst in other people. It will also bring out predators, sometimes from where you least expect them.
I cannot stress the last point enough. During a crisis of any kind, an opportunistic predator will strike. Many predators are known in some way to their victims or their victim’s families.
My policy after surviving multiple attacks is simple. Regardless of the relationship, I never fully trust anyone. If one maintains a certain reserve of trust, then you can remain objective and spot a predator faster.
The following event is a good example of a predator known to the victim with no prior indication of this behavior. It is also an example of how a badly traumatized person can interact with you, and you won’t know the difference.
I was assaulted by my best friend’s husband after my apartment was broken into after 1:00 a.m. She told me to come and sleep on their sofa that night because I was badly traumatized and needed to have my apartment windows better secured the next day.
Despite being able to stop him, I was further traumatized. My condition was not detected by my best friend nor my co-workers when I went to work that day. I was on auto-pilot and no one detected it.
In a larger scale disaster, there are many possibilities for crime and victimization, all of which carry different motives and the potential for different levels of violence.
Not all people who survive crime, assault or other violence in a disaster are going to be openly in distress.
With all the related stressors that must be addressed during a disaster, it can be easy to misread or misunderstand a victim’s behavior.
We are not doctors or nurses, yet we prepare first aid kits and seek to understand how to help or treat someone in a disaster.
We are not psychologists or therapists, yet we can also seek to understand how to help someone who needs invisible first aid. We can learn and practice this now, before a disaster.
When someone survives violence, they feel vulnerable to everything. There is no peace. There is no sense of safety anywhere, even in sleep.
It is like something sacred has been violated and a basic trust of the world is forever gone. It is an innocence that can never be regained.
Survivors of violence and crime in a disaster must continue during the disaster, after the trauma, which further complicates their healing.
Their trauma, if undetected, can also compromise the op-sec of the family unit. Reactions, can happen and may happen at an inopportune time.
I went searching for information that wasn’t there for much of what I survived. I am very glad it is there now.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime has written and assembled a very well done list of resources.
From their website, I have selected three links specific to trauma response for victims, for first responders and vicarious trauma.
Please read through the information for how to support trauma victims. The content is so well organized for a variety of victim specific assistance. I plan to write to them for a hard copy of their manual to put into my first aid kit.
Here are the links:
Trauma response for victims
Trauma response for first responder victims
Vicarious trauma
Read MoreSome things to consider when building fallout shelters
Jesse Smith - March 11, 2024 I’ve long had an interest in the construction of nuclear blast and fallout shelters. Most preppers will be familiar with Cresson Kearny’s guidebook, “Nuclear War Survival Skills” (NWSS), which is available as a free pdf here (save a copy!). Anyone interested in the construction of a fallout or blast-resistant shelter should start by reading this guide, which is excellent.
I have some reservations about strict adoption of NWWS to mitigate contemporary nuclear threats. Kearny’s book was largely a response to underfunded civil defence. He operated on the premise that prior to a Russian first strike there would be a significant exodus of civilians from Russian cities. Having detected this migration via satellites, the US civilian population would have 3 days to migrate to rural areas and construct fallout shelters. There are many open questions regarding this strategy. Some thoughts on how contemporary shelters could be modified:
Today, threats are more likely to be sustained at low probabilities for extremely long time periods. Consequently, shelters don’t have to be constructed hastily but should be highly durable. There are several historic examples of accidents nearly resulting in a nuclear disaster. Obviously these scenarios wouldn’t have provided sufficient time for people to construct a shelter. Independent of their durability, the materials and techniques used in NWSS were quite crude – i.e. tools and materials that could be taken from most suburban homes. In addition, we’ve had ~35 years of building science and product advancement since the last version of the book was published. Scientists seem to be converging on the idea that a 5-10 year nuclear winter will be likely after a full-scale exchange, and perhaps even after a smaller exchange such as the sort that would occur between Pakistan and India. This would result in the near total collapse of the industrial agricultural system. Launching a full-scale reboot of technological civilization is outside the scope of this post. However, it might be worth considering the integration of protected food storage, tools, and technology. Although Kearny did provide details for high capacity shelters, I’m of the opinion that in many areas the default shelter size should have at least moderately high capacity. If you’re going to the trouble of constructing a shelter, the marginal cost of adding some neighbors is low. And this isn’t strictly a bleeding heart perspective. Just think of how smug you’ll be in the middle of armageddon, surrounded by people who dismissed you as a survivalist crank! How many times can you pointedly glance at someone and say “good thing I built this, right?” in 3-14 days?We should divide shelters into 2 major types, those that are within an existing building – usually the basement of a home – and those that are separate. How should you decide between the two? Kearny believed that freestanding shelters were significantly more robust, mainly due to fire risk. On the other hand, basement shelters are considerably less expensive to construct. In addition, it’s somewhat of an open question whether basement shelters could add reasonable fire protection – or even shockwave protection – given contemporary materials, back-up power systems, filtration, ventilation, and airtightness levels. Overall, my sense is that people would ideally have some idea of the threat of fire risk, and gravitate towards basement shelters in the majority of cases where the fire risk isn’t extraordinary, due to the cost savings. I’ll try to cover both types, but will start with the basement.
I’m going to start with a basement shelter that modularly moves through a descending order of priorities. The basement would ideally have a clearance to the bottom of the first floor joists of 7’6″ (or more), which should provide an interior headroom clearance of ~6’. I’ll add an asterix where where I have a lot of uncertainty.
Overhead ceiling mass; Wall mass; Water (possibly integrated into ceiling/walls massing); Food (possibly integrated into ceiling/walls for massing); Fire protection; Ventilation; Air quality and radiation monitoring*; Sleeping; Hygiene; Entertainment and activities; Shockwave protection *.The driving principle to reduce gamma radiation exposure is to place a high mass between you and the source. We have to assume that gamma-laden fallout dust will be distributed everywhere outdoors, so this means placing mass between you and all lines of sight to outside (gamma doesn’t tend to bounce around corners). In fallout literature, people often refer to a material’s “halving thickness” which is the thickness required to reduce gamma radiation by 50%. Concrete’s halving thickness is 2.4”. In the case of a basement shelter, a realistic target is to place 12″ of concrete overhead, which is 5 halving thicknesses. In conjunction with other materials in the joists directly overhead, or other layers of the building, we could likely achieve 6 halving thicknesses, equivalent to roughly a 98.5% reduction in gamma penetration (2).
Here are some instructions for building a shelter with an interior of roughly 7′ wide & whatever length you specify (although working in modules of 4′-8′ is sensible). The frame consists of a supported ledger and a parallel stud wall. These support joists that support ceiling joists that support a ceiling mass (ideally concrete). I have a spreadsheet cutsheet in the works but it’s not ready for primetime.
Select an ideally windowless corner of a basement with minimal overhead obstacles. The selected corner should also be as far below ground as possible. Wiring is OK if stapled to the joists, but avoid significant plumbing (esp waste) or duct-work if possible. Ideally the width of the shelter (short axis) would run parallel to the overhead ceiling joists. Measure the height from the floor to the bottom of the existing basement ceiling joists. Deduct 20″ from this. This is the stud length for support wall. Cut one stud for every 16″ of length + one for the end. Cut 5 pc 2×4 at the specified length of your shelter. These are your ceiling ledger, 2 ceiling rim joists, wall bottom plate, and wall top plate. Mark a level line on the long side of the wall at a height above the floor of (stud length + 6.5″). This is the top of the ceiling ledger. Back the ledger with ice and water shield or sill gasket and attach it to the wall using construction adhesive and masonry anchors. Individually measure and cut studs for placing beneath the ledger 16″ on center. Attach ice and water shield or sill gasket to the flat side of the studs and attach them to the wall in their measured locations using masonry anchors. Frame the wall by connecting the wall plate to studs placed vertically every 16″. Set the wall well back from the work area. Attach ice and water shield or sill gasket to the bottom plate of the wall. Cut the ceiling joists to the specified width Deduct 4 1/2″ from the overall width of the shelter. This is your ceiling joist length. Cut the same number of ceiling joists as wall studs. Frame the ceiling by attaching the ceiling rim joists to the ceiling joists placed horizontally every 16″. Install 1/2″ sheathing over the ceiling using glue and construction adhesive. The sheathing should be flush on 3 sides, but project over one rim joist by 1 1/4″. This projection will be attached the ledger. Apply either asphalt impregnated 15# felt or ice and water shield over the sheathing. This will serve as a capillary break between the concrete and the plywood to prevent rot. Optional: Drill 1 1/8″” holes 12″ on center ~6 1/2″ above the ledger. Epoxy 1″ dia rebar exactly equal to the length and width of the shelter long into each hole, with 2″-4″ embedment in the wall (this will leave the rebar 2″-4″ short of the penetrating the outside edge of the concrete). Connect each point in the rebar grid using a tie wire loop. Run a bead of construction adhesive along the top of the ledger. Measure from the base of the ledger wall (overall width minus 10″) and mark a line the length of the shelter. This part will suck and will require several pairs of hands. Place the ceiling assembly over the top of the ledger and connect several screws through the plywood into the ledger. Quickly place the support wall under the ceiling assembly on the opposite side. Align the outside edge of the wall with the line you struck in 13. Fasten the wall to the floor slab using masonry anchors. Plumb the wall at the two outside studs and fasten the plate at these two locations to the ceiling joists above. Straighten the wall in between these points by sighting the wall along the top. Fasten the top plate 2x at every joist. The ideal overhead mass is 12″ of concrete, but you can use other heavy objects if you prefer. For concrete, prepare plywood edge forms roughly 16″ wide to be attached to the perimeter joists. Don’t install these yet. This part will also suck. Mix concrete and shovel it into the deck. As you approach the nearest edge of the form, install the plywood edge forms so the concrete doesn’t spill out. Once the concrete has set, you can apply more heavy things into the overhead joist cavity to provide even more protection.This should complete a reasonably well protected overhead mass. If folks are interested I’ll try to work on the wall section. Hope you enjoyed this!
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