$185 to provide the basic equipment you need for MOST disasters: $600 for a complete set up

In the old days, it was fairly common to build an inexpensive backyard grill, and then any scrap wood from downed branches were piled up neatly. Then one could always cook a large meal outside. Anyone could build one. They are not complicated. Who doesn't have yard waste? Your neighbors have it, and you get your garden cart, and go collect it. That's your fuel. They are happy and you are happy and wood is better than charcoal anyway. Some concrete block and mortar and a few grates and you are in business.

If the power went out and everyone's freezers had no power, you could grill up a lot of that and feed a lot of people.

Every little element of what I said works together. It is just common sense and pragmatism.

Nylon tents are fine to situational use, but are no good long term. They do set up fast.

Canvas is better long term, but needs airing out and can be repaired / patched. Keep an eye on mold and never put it away wet.

Every single person needs at least a basic daypack like kids use for highschool and university. A whole family with those can hike around and carry a lot.

You really want sleeping bag inserts made from higher thread count sheets. Then they are more comfortable and you can wash those.

Inexpensive polar fleece blankets are light to carry and warm. A plain old chamois is a great towel and weighs almost nothing.

Straight away when camping,upon arrival, you untie your gear that may be on the roof of your vehicle, and you tie that rope up as a clothesline for drying swim suits and underwear and jeans and towels.

A smart camper has at least two tarps, and so and tie up a rain fly so if it pours down rain, the cooking and eating area is dry.

A plain old inexpensive hammock will be occupied the entire time by someone taking a nap. It costs very little and is easily erected between two trees. It is so much better for your back.

None of this costs much.

Nice thread. 5*

Excellent post, OP, but have to take issue with your figures here. The round kero heaters don’t use anywhere near 5-6 gallons a day; at 22,000 btu, the standard for a round heater, they use about 2 gallons of kero per day, a day being 16 hours, as you never leave a kero heater running while asleep.

One of the 10,000 btu rectangular heaters might be a better choice for a smaller home, as they only use about 1 gallon of kero per day, and will heat a single room very well. They also have less clearance issues compared to the round heaters, which must have 3’ clearance in all directions.

Also, have to watch when bringing kero in from the cold and not filling the heater too full, as it will expand slightly as it warms up and could leak from the tank.

I'm just curious what sort of systems people have in Texas.

Like here my building runs on oil heat and gas for my stove.

I'm not sure what happens if I lose electricity in the neighborhood. Do I lose gas service?

Also heating is run by steam - old fashioned radiators. I guess the oil burner needs electricity to run? I don't know..

What sort of heat do most people have in Texas?

Also why would you need to store water? Wouldn't there be water pressure?

Genuine questions, not being a wise-guy..

People today are not used to having burning candles indoors, and candles do not burn evenly. That is not how on ancestors burned candles anyway as they used candle followers to control the burn rate.

The safe inexpensive way is to get some outdoor solar lighting, and charge them up outside and bring them inside instead of using torches (flashlights). This is so much smarter and you get good illumination.

The last thing you need during a disaster is a house fire.

This works perfectly when camping.

I would recommend you go to a discount tool store and buy a solar trickle charger. Then you could charge rechargable devices and tools and even your car battery.

It is a known FACT that Butane stoves DO NOT Work in temps below freezing! The Isobutane(80%butane/20%propane) stoves(completely different stoves)work well down to about 15F-20F degrees.

White gas stoves are good at temps found anywhere on planet Earth. Easily melt snow for drinking water at -40F. I just got a another Titanium pot yesterday for my three MSR Dragonfly stoves. I have a couple Whisperlite International stoves too.

You may not always have water pressure if there is a situation like an ice storm.

A clean gardening container that has a pump on it, used normally for applying fertilizer or insecticide, is useful in a camping situation for a crude shower as it produces a steady stream. You have it just for that use.

Similarly a water hose stretched out in hot summers then when full has warm enough water to bathe.

Remember when heating water in a stock pot over a campfire that the bottom of those pans have lampblack on them. Don't get that on anything. You put some soap on the stock pans prior to use and dampen a paper towel with wood ash, and that comes right off.

For indoor heaters, the Mr. Heater Buddy is good and safe. It can heat a large room and uses propane. Most models have a tip-over shut-off and a low oxygen auto-shutoff as well. Costs less than $100.

If you ever had a situation where you have to dig a latrine, do NOT mix the two as that will not chemically break down as the reactions oppose each other and making a stinking mess. You put one in one area and the feces in the other mixed with plain old inexpensive gardening lime.

Tell you neighbors too or the whole neighborhood will smell terribly. A mistake means the whole neighborhood smells foul for months. This would be horrible in hot summers where you need open window air circulation. Plus you don't want flies.

Propane can have problems below 40°F, as well. White gas stoves are great, but not for use inside.

Most of Asia uses kerosene cookstoves that can be used indoors. St. Paul Mercantile sells some nice ones:
[link to stpaulmercantile.com (secure)]

The outdoor grill will save you in hot summers and this is why summer kitchens were invented versus heating on woodstove. It would be sweltering.

Likewise when butchering meat, you do that outside by rigging something up. Likely that is autumn during hunting season. You want you guys able to wash up outside in a hygenic way. Bad butchering will make everyone sick. There can be no errors by nicking a bowel.

You need rope and even rigging to harvest the meat.

Water Issues: The Texas people can describe what they actually went through but MANY people in Texas lost their water pressure this past week. It came about either because the pumping plant went off line, the underground water lines broke (from not being deep enough for the freeze they experienced) or the water lines inside the house itself froze up or broke because of freezing. Millions of people in Texas have had serious water availability issues with this freeze ... but the same thing wrt lack of safe drinkable water happens with hurricanes and other storms here in the US which destroys or floods community water systems

Natural Gas pressures dropped due freezing issues in the gas pumping and delivery system and it was the lack of natural gas that forced many power plants off line, though I think they managed to keep the residential pressures up for virtually all people this past week. Most in Texas however use electricity to heat (heat pumps), not gas fwiw. Even if one would have an old style (for Texas) gas forced air furnace once the electricity went off that furnace would cease to work. Gas fireplaces and appliances in the residential areas though apparently did continue to work. Oil for heating has been falling out of favor in the US for for decades now and other than being used for various manufacturing and service shops because of localized availability I doubt it is used very much in Texas

Since in Texas most use electricity to heat (heat pumps), and the water pumping stations also use electricity, when the power plants went off line many people lost the ability to keep their houses warm AND many water pumping stations all over the state ran into problems with keeping their electric pumps running.

Remember, at it's worst just under 50% of all electric customers in the service area affected (about 80% of the state's population) were without electricity, or about 10 to 11 million people ... and this was with temperatures tending to be down near zero F during the worst period.

As a northern resident myself one of the most basic preps you can have is the ability to provide backup heat if the temperatures plummet below freezing. ie: my emphasis on having an INEXPENSIVE secondary source of heat (nonpowered propane wall heaters, or something similar, would obviously be better, a couple of my friends in Texas had those, ... but that requires a much bigger investment plus the placing of a large external propane tank somewhere out in the yard)

Hope this helps a bit

I have one. Provided you conserve, a full tank can last up to 8 hours..provided you are heating one room and not trying to heat a whole house.

I have an emergency portable wood burning stove you can run the the pipe out a window. I use sheet tin to block the opening and make a heat barrier for the walls and floor, ( keep a 1 inch air space from the tin and any burnable surface). You can always find something to burn, even dried dung. You do not have to worry about running out of fuel or frozen fuel.

If you read this and said that you have done all of this, I would add $15 for an amateur radio license and $250 for a four band radio and an antenna on your vehicle.

There are always hams out there that can help or pass your request for help.

my 2 cents

Kerosene heaters are not SAFE ... but they are better than no heat, but I prefer a gas generator, sitting outdoors - making a huge racket - because all my propane appliances have ELECTRIC thermostats ... and my house is wired for the emergency conversion ... which makes it simple - I unplug from the grid, and plug into the gen ... and the whole house is up and running - only needed it once (2hr) in the past decade - but the generator is handy for other projects too - and the gas is easy to rotate in cans when used by the mower

a propane secondary power source is far more efficient, but cost more initially - they both burn a gal of fuel per hour, but if you have a well insulated home, you shouldn't have to run them all day ( or at night if you have a feathered bed) ...wood is the cheapest, but the most work

500 gal of propane stores easily and doesn't go bad like gas ...kerosene sucks, it smells and saturates you and your home - I used it one Winter ... hopefully, never again(I can still taste it) ... and I could always put a "rocket" stove in my fireplace LOL - or drag the wood stove in from the patio


IMO food and water are more important than heat ... your body will generate heat if you are fed ... you can only go three days (max) without water, but you can go two weeks without food if you have water ... water should be your primary concern ...

^This. Been using Sawyer water filter for years camping and traveling. Everyone should at least have a water filter for ANY situation. Clean water first on the list and kept in your back pack or daily bag :)

Good post!

Only suggestion is if you're using propane for cooking may as well use it for heating too. No need for multiple fuel.

Same with ammunition, I try and keep it universal for handgun and rifle.

Just run gas in the kerosene heater

The most famous advice about firearms advertisised a rifle in .22 for small game, something in a .30 for reaching out and a 12g shotgun for close in. Nothing about a handgun though I am thinking of getting a 9mm. Open carry at this point, CCL maybe in the future. MI is so weird about sidearms.

I agree .. I bought a "portable" ham radio, that will run on a car battery ... could be installed in a car like a CB but it is a HAM ... been sitting in a metal file cabinet for about five years ... walkie talkies would be better than nothing ...for neighborhood watch.

.
... remember when glp had those "shake down" home events? ...
.
... WHEN THERE IS NO EMERGENCY they are good to do BECAUSE you realize what you forgot ...
.
... shut off the water and electricity and see where you are at for prep ...
.

Agreed. Things to buy that have real value. Not the Chinese electronic shit that's foisted on us daily.

Walkies are a really good option for local comms. I have four in the preps. Just don't think that the 'privacy codes' actually provide privacy.

Edit: This is the perfect opportunity to plug the CH3 project from Amrron. Have a planned response to an emergency that incorporates all radio bands. CB, FMRS, whatever. We need to pass information.

[link to amrron.com (secure)]

Last Edited by Lowkey Cyberpunk on 02/20/2021 01:26 PM

You wana help people? Find INDEPENDENT businesses to buy from! How lazy is a person to use Amazon and not go to the seller online, knowing how evil Bezos is. They even give you links to the seller. WTF. I can't even percive this, I just can't.

YOU JUST DON'T GET IT DO YOU?

I don't WANT to survive in world with this many stupid people.

SCREW YOU and your Amazon and big box links. I mean a deep down Fuck you.

What an idiot.

Or acquire 1 unlicensed firearm, use to acquire everything else.

Actual Americans are encouraged to emigrate from the People's Republic of MI to a civilized area, like Texas, or Florida.