battlemaiden Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 (tin foil hat alert):D I'm standing at the crossroads of "responsible planning town" and "chicken little-ville." :auto: My dh and I are interested in doing a little more food storage, water purifying, off-grid type of research. I'm a little scared of the blogs I've looked at so far.:001_huh: I may get that fanatical eventually, but for now I need to ease into this information. We just want to be more informed about how to get by if we were to go through prolonged power outages, etc. Can we get some recommendations on where to start? Thanks. Jo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Well, there's Off-Grid... I'd probably look more to homesteading type sites - they seem to have practical ideas without going to the crazy place. I prefer to live in "responsible planning town", too, and limit my trips to the far suburbs of "crazyville", just for my own sanity :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chanda7 Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I'm enjoying the Survival Podcast http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/ (aside from when his language ventures into the PG-13 range). It has a message board, but I don't go there very often. Homesteadingtoday.com has a nice forum, with a specific area for survivial and emergency preparedness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Jo, How about starting with some of the ideas around natural disaster planning. Try searching for emergency preparedness and looking at some of the .gov sites or stuff from folks like the American Red Cross. ready.gov Operation Prepare Hawaii Civil Defense As far as emergency power, it depends on what you'd run on it. You don't need winter heating. You can probably plug a freezer and some fans into a generator, but could you use one to power the whole house or central a/c? I don't know if those sort of connections are in military housing (or what is even involved in this). I'm a big fan of things like a regular plug in phone (Hawaiian Telcom was giving them away free in the fall if you brought a bill into a service center). Phone lines have their own power, so an old style phone will still work when there is a power failure that cuts out phones that are portable or have a plug in power source that runs the phone (ex. those with a built in answering machine). You can also get cool wind up radios that can also charge a cell phone. (We got ours from Radio Shack). Another suggestion is to get a weather radio. This will give you tsunami warnings and flash flooding warnings. It can also be used by civil defense to put out emergency messages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilliant Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I had a subscription to Backwoods Home magazine a few years ago. They had useful articles on food storage, gardening, emergency preparedness, etc. My hubby liked the firearms reviews. And they had some really nutty black-helicopter conspiracy-theory stuff, too, to keep it entertaining. :) Backwoods Home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMinMN Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 forums/message boards: frugal's squirrels (membership has to be approved; lots of good info, but a bit on the tin-foil hat side of the spectrum) mrssurvival.com blogs: prepared for survival safely gathered in iPrepared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfarm Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 My favorite is www.simplylivingsmart.com It has a positive outlook on things and also has a large number of videos to not only tell but also show how things are done. It deals with the food storage issues and also preparedness issues. But IMO, the best thing they do there is focus on applying your preparedness skills in your daily living. For example, to cook from your stored foods every day so you will know how to do it if you need to in the future. Another example, the site inspired me to start cooking again on top of my woodstove. I had done so long ago but not on our new stove. so by cooking dd's and my lunches for a couple of weeks on the stove, I now know where the hot spots are, how long grilled cheese sandwiches and baked potatoes take, etc. Much more fun and easier to do when we are not in the middle of a crisis. And if I burn the sandwiches (like I did the first try:001_huh:), it is easy to pop into the kitchen and microwave some soup instead. I can refine my supplies and skills in a calm environment instead of a do or die one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amy g. Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kah Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 We did some disaster-preparedness stuff very quickly (over three days or so) in anticipation of a hurricane a few years ago. It worked out OK, but living without phone, power, or a clear road for a few days did give us some insights on things that were useful, and things that would have been useful if we'd had them. After that, for several years, we make a habit of keeping an "emergency box" packed and available- it's actually about 6 plastic totes w/ lids about the size of a laundry basket. It wouldn't be enough to ride out a nuclear war, but it's plenty for what we feel are the most likely disasters to befall us in our current location. (Mainly hurricane or ice storm- and we're in a pretty densely populated area, so our power tends to come back on quicker than in nearby rural areas.) I haven't been as good about it lately, but I feel like we have enough to get by for a few days if we need to. I had a good PDF that I printed out- I thought it was from the Red Cross, but I googled and can't find it now. I did get a page that said they'd redesigned their site, so maybe it's there somewhere and I just don't see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMinMN Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Drum Runners Lots of links sorted by area of interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 All of the ones that I was going to recommend were already mentioned.:001_smile: We began planning back in November, it's a good idea. My goal is for the government to forget that I exist.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I may get that fanatical eventually Please. No. You won't. I won't let you.:eek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tutor Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 They tend to start out rather small-scale, and often offer alternatives for those who rent so they are often easy, inexpensive, and temporary so if you like the results, you can find a more permanent solution; if you don't, you didn't waste too much, time, energy, or money to try. :001_smile: Bright Hub has a five-part series on the Urban Homesteading Phenomenon Path to Freedom is an advocacy "group" (it's a man and his family who have a successful urban homestead in CA) that also provides tips and ideas Mother Earth News often has good ideas for rural and urban homesteading and has regular features of going off-grid permanently or in emergencies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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