Are you preparing for not-so-good-times ahead

[Bullitt]

That copper tubing is good for making moonshine and heating your water.

You can wrap copper tubing around a stove pipe. The only problem is you have to have a pressure release valve so you don't blow out your pipes.

I hope the solar water heater works out.

 

[JD4570]

Yeah, I know about moonshine. You might say it's a family tradition.

For the pressure release I'l use a 600lb. popoff valve.

 

[Bullitt]

"It's a family tradition." I think I heard that in a song.

I am not sure how high the pressure will get before something breaks, but it sounds like you have the right idea with that valve.

 

[JD4570]

Oh you mean Hank jr's song. He also did "a country boy can survive" . I've decide on a 300 lb popoff. I may go with an all welded array.

 

[Dapplepony]

Dad says we can always eat Millie, whose like 150 pounds of boer goat.

 

[newfoundland]

If you have ever been camping with the boy scouts, you will know that it is perfectly possible to get by without either running water or electricity. 150 years ago, neither of these were available in homes. The best water on our planet comes from springs that have been filtered through rock. You must however go to it's source, because it becomes polluted by agricultural and industrial run off. Failing this you can either boil the water, or boil and condense the steam. This will certainly remove bacteria.

All boy scouts know how to build earth closets. It is only necessary to dig a deepish hole, well away from the house and of course water sources, and every time someone uses it, they take a spade full of the evacuated soil and sprinkle into the hole. When the hole fills up you dig another one. It's that easy.

You can make candles from rushes and tallow, sheep fat. They will not smell good, but they will provide light. You can heat water on open fires for washing, clothes washing, keeping warm etc. You can griddle food on flat stones laid around an open fire, and build a pit over which to spit roast. You can easily stew in a big lidded pot, over an open fire. You can boil water and cook by dropping stones, heated in the heart of a fire, into a pot and it soon comes to the boil. Ancient Britons cooked like this all the time.

This is self sufficiency to me, not having a generator, which will naturally need some sort of manufactured fuel. I think dooms day senarioists need to think a lot more basically and radically than stockpiling a load of goods that will run out eventually anyway.

 

[Qurus]

I am one of these. I've been called a survivalist, a prepper, a doomer. Heck, I've also been called weird, a pessimist, and once, I was even caled a freak. This of course, happened when I was forced to explain why I was survival camping in a desert "for fun". Please note, I do not beleive that TEOTWAWKI is tomorrow, I just enjoy the training, the confidence it gives me, and the "bases covered" feeling I get when I know that I can care for my family through almost anything.
Anyway, I originally got into raising chickens (and goats and gardening, etc) as a prep. Basically, my goal was to turn my property into a self-sustainable hobby farm, not to be confused with a self-sustaining "real farm", in case I ever needed it. Once I got into it, and found how much I enjoy hobby farming, it became less about preparation and more about fun and work with a solid, visible result.
Now I still enjoy family survival camping, teaching my fiance defense techniques and marksmanship, and generally challenging myself to come up with ways to provide a good life for my family in adverse conditions. I still run fire drills for my kids, and teach them to respect nature and how to camp without being seen or heard. And I still get the rare chance to bug out on my own for a night or two with nothing but what I carry on my back. But now, I have learned new wholesome skills to teach the kids, and while they don't enjoy farm chores as much as camping, they really love the new "pets" that they are not allowed to name and the fresh eggs and veggies.

 

[Fowl_Odor002]

Just got two more 1.75 liter bottles of vodka for $11.79 each this weekend

drank one

 

[newfoundland]

Excellent Fowl-Odor002!

 

[gryeyes]

​

And ya don't have to keep vodka bottles stored on their sides, either. Nor chilled (but it is danged good splashed neat into a glass straight out of the freezer)!