Discussions
Reply to: What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping? Posted November 25, 2022
Reply to: What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping? Posted November 24, 2022

I too have enjoyed reading about other peoples experiences and motivations into prepping. I, like others, can’t say I had a single catalyst. Maybe, like Redneck, it was all those years as a Boy Scout and the “Be Prepared” motto but I think honestly I was brought up doing a few things that, for my mom weren’t prepping, but were everyday life to survive. My mom had a garden out back in our suburb house outside Baltimore. I grew up heling her can peaches, spaghetti sauce, apple sauce, all sorts of jams and jellies, etc. It was natural for me.  When I married, I brought this lifestyle to my wife. It was never meant to be prepping, it was just the food I enjoyed over store bought.  I have always had a shelf of canned goods in my life. Post college, living in the mountains of the Northeast, Maine, we get some hard winters. It isn’t prepping up here, it is just smart living and being ready for undriveable roads or power outages.  Due to my career and being gone from home for months at a time, when we built our house we bought in back ups to back ups, but never thought it prepping, more just in case.   We bought in a generator, but rather then the normal tank that runs for a few days we opted for the 500lb tank that will run the house for a week 24/7 when full. We bought a propane back up for heating in addition to the geo-thermal, we have a wood fired oven built into the kitchen-no need for electrical or propane just good old caveman fire and we can cook anything. We are on a well and septic. Have a fire place with built in blower to room the house.  Have a coleman 2 burner camping stove and 2 Big Green Egg grills for cooking as well. We have a garden, though we aren’t the best at it. We have always kept 2 spare sets of jackets/hats/gloves in the vehicles JIC since we were in college. Little less than a year ago, I saw an reference to a website on prepping. I don’t remember which, but it was way more SHTF, zombie, EOW then I could handle or except. Then I came across TP, the only site I have yet to find with level headed, normal people prepping for relevant IRL circumstances. From my experiences here I have learned so much and have grown to actually starting “prepping” even more. We know have oil lamps, stored water, more flash lights, more lighters/matches, more dog food, in process of making a well bucket, more gas. I have calculated how much propane my generator runs and know that if we cut the run time to only a few hours a day we can have occasional power for fridge/freezer/well for a month if needed. We have expanded our vehicle kits to include air pumps, snow shovels, and Battery Jump Starters to come soon (Christmas gift for wife). We are slowly expanding our stored food goods as well to give us a bit more. Solar generator to come. It has at least given me even more confidence that my wife can survive for a while if there is a grid town, snow storm, loss of supply chain that requires her to do so. She isn’t a “prepper” and kinda laughs at me but is more then happy to go along with me if it makes me feel better and she does see the point in being ready.

Reply to: Ways of heating a MA apartment without electricity? Posted October 20, 2022
Reply to: Ways of heating a MA apartment without electricity? Posted October 20, 2022

I am no expert like many others on here but living in the NE, Maine, I can relate. I have a small Mr. Heater, propane, that I use in my ice fishing shack all day long with no issues. It is designed for indoor use. I also have its larger brother, the Big Buddy, which can run off of 2x 1lb or a 20lb propane tank (just have to get the hose for the larger tank). That is much more efficient then tons of small 1lb tanks. The large unit puts out 18,000 BTU’s I think, enough to heat a room up to the 70’s when it is 0 outside. Again, it is designed for indoor use.  You can get the large unit on Amazon for $120 looks like. Never ran the 20lb tank none stop but website says you get 110 hours on a 20lb tank. For the carbon monoxide I am sure you can find a battery powered one to use when your power goes out. 

Reply to: Car battery jump starter advice Posted October 19, 2022
Reply to: Car battery jump starter advice Posted October 18, 2022
Car battery jump starter advice
11
9
Posted October 18, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone read the book “Easy Cellar” by Tom Griffith? Posted October 15, 2022
Reply to: How to make a “well bucket” in case electricity goes down and you’re on well water Posted May 25, 2022

Olly, R. Wilson, What was the easiest way to determine the water level in your well, i.e. how far down you had to lower your pipe to ensure it was submerged but not lowering further then necessary?  Did you experience slack in the line possibly? I have 3 wells on my property, 1 has wiring/piping for the geo and house water, 1 has wiring for monitoring the status of the aquifer but the 3rd is an old well head for an old camp that use to be on the property and is no longer in use. It is shallow compared to the others but has no pump/piping or wiring to worry about and is an open pipe. I was intending on making a tripod like this this summer for this well head. I would love to be able to get to being able to put a solar powered pump in as well but don’t know much about how to set that up so that will be further down the road. This is for our worst case on our property as the pump for our in use daily well is on our generator which we can run for about 7-days before we run out of propane. Then it is tripod bucket time.

Car battery jump starter advice
11
9
Posted October 18, 2022
Reply to: What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping? Posted November 25, 2022
Reply to: What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping? Posted November 24, 2022

I too have enjoyed reading about other peoples experiences and motivations into prepping. I, like others, can’t say I had a single catalyst. Maybe, like Redneck, it was all those years as a Boy Scout and the “Be Prepared” motto but I think honestly I was brought up doing a few things that, for my mom weren’t prepping, but were everyday life to survive. My mom had a garden out back in our suburb house outside Baltimore. I grew up heling her can peaches, spaghetti sauce, apple sauce, all sorts of jams and jellies, etc. It was natural for me.  When I married, I brought this lifestyle to my wife. It was never meant to be prepping, it was just the food I enjoyed over store bought.  I have always had a shelf of canned goods in my life. Post college, living in the mountains of the Northeast, Maine, we get some hard winters. It isn’t prepping up here, it is just smart living and being ready for undriveable roads or power outages.  Due to my career and being gone from home for months at a time, when we built our house we bought in back ups to back ups, but never thought it prepping, more just in case.   We bought in a generator, but rather then the normal tank that runs for a few days we opted for the 500lb tank that will run the house for a week 24/7 when full. We bought a propane back up for heating in addition to the geo-thermal, we have a wood fired oven built into the kitchen-no need for electrical or propane just good old caveman fire and we can cook anything. We are on a well and septic. Have a fire place with built in blower to room the house.  Have a coleman 2 burner camping stove and 2 Big Green Egg grills for cooking as well. We have a garden, though we aren’t the best at it. We have always kept 2 spare sets of jackets/hats/gloves in the vehicles JIC since we were in college. Little less than a year ago, I saw an reference to a website on prepping. I don’t remember which, but it was way more SHTF, zombie, EOW then I could handle or except. Then I came across TP, the only site I have yet to find with level headed, normal people prepping for relevant IRL circumstances. From my experiences here I have learned so much and have grown to actually starting “prepping” even more. We know have oil lamps, stored water, more flash lights, more lighters/matches, more dog food, in process of making a well bucket, more gas. I have calculated how much propane my generator runs and know that if we cut the run time to only a few hours a day we can have occasional power for fridge/freezer/well for a month if needed. We have expanded our vehicle kits to include air pumps, snow shovels, and Battery Jump Starters to come soon (Christmas gift for wife). We are slowly expanding our stored food goods as well to give us a bit more. Solar generator to come. It has at least given me even more confidence that my wife can survive for a while if there is a grid town, snow storm, loss of supply chain that requires her to do so. She isn’t a “prepper” and kinda laughs at me but is more then happy to go along with me if it makes me feel better and she does see the point in being ready.

Reply to: Ways of heating a MA apartment without electricity? Posted October 20, 2022
Reply to: Ways of heating a MA apartment without electricity? Posted October 20, 2022

I am no expert like many others on here but living in the NE, Maine, I can relate. I have a small Mr. Heater, propane, that I use in my ice fishing shack all day long with no issues. It is designed for indoor use. I also have its larger brother, the Big Buddy, which can run off of 2x 1lb or a 20lb propane tank (just have to get the hose for the larger tank). That is much more efficient then tons of small 1lb tanks. The large unit puts out 18,000 BTU’s I think, enough to heat a room up to the 70’s when it is 0 outside. Again, it is designed for indoor use.  You can get the large unit on Amazon for $120 looks like. Never ran the 20lb tank none stop but website says you get 110 hours on a 20lb tank. For the carbon monoxide I am sure you can find a battery powered one to use when your power goes out. 

Reply to: Car battery jump starter advice Posted October 19, 2022
Reply to: Car battery jump starter advice Posted October 18, 2022
Reply to: Has anyone read the book “Easy Cellar” by Tom Griffith? Posted October 15, 2022
Reply to: How to make a “well bucket” in case electricity goes down and you’re on well water Posted May 25, 2022

Olly, R. Wilson, What was the easiest way to determine the water level in your well, i.e. how far down you had to lower your pipe to ensure it was submerged but not lowering further then necessary?  Did you experience slack in the line possibly? I have 3 wells on my property, 1 has wiring/piping for the geo and house water, 1 has wiring for monitoring the status of the aquifer but the 3rd is an old well head for an old camp that use to be on the property and is no longer in use. It is shallow compared to the others but has no pump/piping or wiring to worry about and is an open pipe. I was intending on making a tripod like this this summer for this well head. I would love to be able to get to being able to put a solar powered pump in as well but don’t know much about how to set that up so that will be further down the road. This is for our worst case on our property as the pump for our in use daily well is on our generator which we can run for about 7-days before we run out of propane. Then it is tripod bucket time.