Water is almost the most important prep item you can have. Okay, you can make a case that either food is more important for strength to fight or flee or weapons for their ability to protect your food and water. But my point here is just that you can survive or muddle through with some alternate kind of weapon ( sharp stick ) or alternate forms of food ( stewpot mystery meat ) but you absolutely must have clean water every drop of the way. You really can’t improvise clean water. It has life threatening bacteria in it or it doesn’t. Fortunately for you clean water is as easy as it gets. If anyone tells you that it is expensive ( Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter
) or difficult they are either an ignorant bastard or a Yuppie Scum Survivalist ( but, I repeat myself ). No, I won’t repeat every single way to make your water safe. Just a couple that are so butt simple and cheap that the whole subject is embarrassing. *
For those of you that are so poor that getting a Russian surplus bolt gun is considered splurging, consider the ceramic pot filter.
http://www.rdic.org/waterceramicfiltration.htm
This isn’t any more complicated that a ceramic flower pot without a drain hole. Almost any settlement larger than an off-ramp cluster of gas station, post office and bar ( sometimes all in the same building ) has a nursery. Buy a ceramic pot from them. Buy more than one. A crack in it encourages growth rather than kills it. If you have no other choice than to buy some with drain holes, just buy a used plate or saucer from the thrift store ( The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Thrift Store
) and silicone it in place over the hole. The pot will need to be cleaned periodically with clean water to remain useful, but there isn’t much more to worry about than that and not breaking the damn thing. But better to break a ten buck pot than a fifty dollar Berky filter.*
Not that Berky filters are bad. One of those bad boys can give you ten thousand gallons of clean water. You can get one for under $50.
http://www.lehmans.com/store/Water___Water_Filters___Tabletop_Filters___Big_Berkey__Tabletop_Water_Filters___85415?Args=
Just buy a Berky filter replacement. Take two plastic five gallon buckets ( 5 Gallon Bucket
). The bottom bucket has a hole in the center of its lid and the top bucket has a hole drilled in its bottom center. Put the filter, which comes with a plastic bolt and wing nut on its bottom, in the top bucket and screw into place. Pour water in the top and it filters through to the bottom. The only unresolved question I have is if the rubber washer will dry out in storage. Not sure if you need to Vaseline it or not. However, you can always get out a handy $3 tube of silicon you have in storage ( for shoe repair, window caulking, etc. )( Eclectic Products Inc 110011 Tube Shoe Goo 3.7 Oz
) and gunk it in place.*
For those that can’t even afford the above, there is boiling water ( got the water boiling / one more time 45 rpm single
). As a loyal minion has helpfully pointed out, you do NOT need to boil water for any period of time, even at high elevation. Just the act of bringing it to a boil keeps the temperature high enough and long enough to kill the critters. As soon as it STARTS to boil, it is done. Now, none of these methods eliminates chemicals or minerals. Just bacteria. But bacteria ( Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them
) is what will kill you very quickly, sometimes within hours. If you are lucky. Unlucky and you are in extreme agony for days, shooting blood out your ass and screaming at Baby Jesus that you are sorry you were such an ignorant puke that you kept paying for a totally unnecessary cell phone rather than spending a few bucks to treat your water. But guess what? Baby Jesus is past caring at that point. Now he is just stepping back and allowing Mother Nature to cleanse the herd of the weak and stupid ( if this were the only criteria, we will quickly get back down the Earths carrying capacity. Actually, we might drop so low the species is endangered ). Water treatment is cheap and simple and doesn’t need to involve poisons such as bleach ( although better than nothing ) unless you want it to.END OF FUNDAMENTALS. MORE BLATHER BELOW
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Today is Veterans Day ( as I write this Thursday ). Much to do is made of those who sacrificed. As it should. But I do take exception to celebrating all those that served in the military. Those that got shot at, I salute you today. Those that simply served in the military, in effect civil servants with better clothes, are noteworthy for absolutely no reason. And that includes myself. I was just a federal government security guard. I’m glad I was in the military, despite the total institutional stupidity of the Army. And I’m proud to have been an MP ( Patrolling Baghdad: A Military Police Company and the War in Iraq (Modern War Studies)
)( Military Police (Serving Your Country)( US Army Military Police License Plate Frame (Chrome Metal)
)
even as I realize our training was more propaganda to motivate us to put ourselves in front of a bullet meant for the General instead of to train us for law enforcement. But it was just a job. I didn’t risk myself for my country. I served in the military. A vet risked his life to keep the country safe. So I’m cautious about calling myself a veteran. And, yes, even risking your life to steal the resources of another country ( occupation for oil ) is noble and just. Warriors have stolen the neighbors food to keep their own tribe fed since man became civilized. I have no problem with this uncomfortable fact, I just have a problem with lying to ourselves about why we do it. END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
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13 comments:
Sound advice sir!
Believe it or not you are a vet. You joined to serve your country. Had you been sent into action I am sure you would have done what you were trained and needed to do. Whether(SP) that was to protect a commander or to run a computer to update a shot record. Few people are even willing to serve and take the chance they may have to go to war. Sure you may not be a hero (although I am sure your hair may put you in that category) it is still a privilege to serve and be counted as someone who was willing to protect our way of life or interests or to steal food to feed our people.
You do not have to stand up and yell I am a Vet, but you are.
BUDDY
James,
Good post - unfortunately many people mistake price for quality even though this isn't always the case.
As for the Berkey Filter like you pointed out there is no need to buy a complete unit. I made one in under 15 minutes here are the details if you are interested.
I agree with you on the veteran thing. I was in Iraq pretty much after the surge, and I was only shot at once or maybe twice that I know about. Th rest of the time I spent cruising around in the back of an armored car punctuated with a few foot patrols (medic with the MP's)We basically sat around training Iraqi police to live up to our standards of sloth. The real veterans had it a lot harder and have my respect. We were pretty much overpaid and overfed.
Has anyone actually tried the ceramic pot filter? Does it work?
how do people serve nowadays in the military since your job is to protect this corrupt government?
James,
Haven't posted much this last week, been preparing for the end of the world. The WebBots may not be accurate, but it doesn't hurt to have several "D-Days" throughout the year to top off your supplies. Plus I've been working on my own variation of the Bison Bean Bunker.
I sure do like my Katadyn water filter. Like it so much that I bought two.
For portability and cost per gallon, I don't think it's a bad deal at all.
How in heaven's name are you going to strap a flower pot to your backpack--get real.
Most people with just a little gumption could come up with a couple hundred dollars. With inflation kicking in, the Katadyn Portable Water Filter is a deal at double the price.
Idaho Homesteader
http://tinyurl.com/2d7lcca
http://tinyurl.com/2epndma
If Katadyn Combi rated 13,000 gallons costs about $200 then each gallon of filtered water costs
one and one half cents. That's cheap to protect your family when one glass of bad water can kill your child. $200 buys a filter or nine 30 packs of beer. Your choice.
Hey James, here's another water purification method you could try. its called solar water disinfection, or SODIS. all you need is clear plastic bottles and sunlight. just put filled bottles in direct sunlight for a few hours and the solar radiation kills all the bacteria. Here's some links to other sites about the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SODIS
http://www.sodis.ch/methode/anwendung/index_EN
Great article Lord Bison! For the absolute cheapest water purification, truck on down to Goodwill or the Salvation Army and buy a stainless steel cook pot with lid. You could boil the foulest water and drink it safely. This will work as long as you have a handful of twigs and something to make a spark with. If your water is polluted with solvents like most water on the East Coast, boil it with the lid off to "gas off" the volatile solvents. Boiling WILL NOT remove toxins such as pesticides or fertilizer. A cook pot is maintenance free and will last forever with minimal care. Hail Darwin
A good quality, backpacking style, water filter and an extra filter for it will run you $120-150 and is well worth the investment. Alternatives like the pot method (sounds like birth control) are nice to know about, but sense we're prepping for the future, not worried about this instant, water filters should be the focus.
Gung-ho military types that spend their time in the army riding a desk or didn't sign up at all rub me the wrong way. I have a lot of respect for guys like my dad who got drafted, actually served, regardless of what they did (my dad was a hospital orderly one week a month during Korea), and then got on with their lives. I didn't even know my dad had been in the army until I was a teenager and found some of his old army stuff in the garage.
NO, emphatically no.
I will not give blanket kudos to those you have been in the US military.
Whether you thought you were doing something noble, or watched too many Rambo movies growing up, or simply couldn't make it in private industry... I can't say.
But make no mistake, soldiers in Iraq, or even those in Vietnam did not fight for my freedom. My freedom was never in jeopardy from the adversaries in those wars. Where my freedom is in jeopardy is from the banking elite that have hijacked the US and western Europe governments. They are the true enemy.
Fact is, there are only three military people that I admire.
1) Smedley (war is a racket) Butler
2) Ike (beware the military industrial complex) Eisenhower
3) Daniel Ellsberg
Those three were true patriots.
Most other military are simply hired goons.
Not sure about the comment regarding who fought for your freedom directly above here....but to each their own i suppose..
As far as water filters go, there are definitely some cheaper routes, but I have always been a big fan of the Berkey systems. So much so that I am even a dealer for them now. Their ability to purify water from any source and make it safe to drink is amazing. I will shamelessly put a link to my site here if anyone is interested in learning more about them. ultimatefiltration.com (if this is a no no feel free to remove the link, no worries)
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