# What if



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

We haven't done any tshtf scenarios in a while and have lots of new folks here.

This is an opportunity to play out a possible emergency in your head and work through some of the problems you may encounter in about the most painless way possible.

The parameters are:
You are home at midday tuesday. (If you'd normally be at work, you've taken the day off.) The only other people home would be young children that are not yet school aged, if you have them in your immediate family, or elderly or disabled members that are normally home. The rest of the family is at their normal daytime location. (If you homeschool, of course, school aged children will be home.)
You have only what is on your property to work with. No quick trips to any store.
Suddenly the power goes out. You pick up the phone and it is dead. No land lines are working, no cell phones are working. Battery powered radios work, but your local station is off. At this point, even though the radio is "on" all you get is static.
Your vehicle will start. If you go anywhere, there are no traffic lights. No gas stations are pumping. All the stores have closed.
Nobody knows what is going on.
It is early September and hot.
What do you do? What are your priorities. What do you think will happen next?


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## Madame (Jan 1, 2003)

I'd stay put, turn on my battery operated fan, check the radio periodically for news, figuring their back up generator will come on soon. Wait for information before acting. I've gone through a lot of power outages over the years. No reason to panic.... yet.


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

THis is a scenario that we as a family have discussed...the person at home is not to go out looking for anyone. Those that are out are to bring with them any family members that are not living at the farm at the moment such as my Mom... they will bring with them all things that they can carry in their vehichle and that that can be packed within 30 minutes. They are to come to the house.. if the gas stations ar enot pumping then that eliminates one thing they are suppose to do which is to buy all the gas they can carry..but in this case.. they would not stop at the gas station but come straight here. 

Being the one at the house, I would be responsible for trying to find out what is going on from the emergency radio and the short wave overseas radio and getting weapons/ammunition close, getting dogs close to house.. Since power is out and if there is an indication that it will be out for days, then I would begin canning all freezer foods with propane stove...I would harvest everything needing to be picked before nightfall... I would try and make it a fun game with the kids.. distract them etc...we have more plans.. but I will let others have a say about it...


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

First off, if I"m at the farm, I wouldn't go anywhere. I'd be waiting that first day to see what ELSE happened. We have plenty of food, water, generators, fuel and whatnot to survive a while. I would probably hike over to the neighbor to see what he knows. 

If I were in the house in town, I'm sure life would be chaotic. EVERYONE running around like crazy. Asking questions. Police would be overwhelmed quickly, with people pounding on the door. Hopefully, the town authorities would have their HAM system fired up and then the police cars would be going around telling everyone what they know. maybe. 

If I'm in town...I just don't know if I'd stay put, or make a bee-line to the farm on the back roads. (which most of them are between the townhouse and the farm)

Don't need airconditioning if it's hot out, so no electric isn't a problem there..but water would be here in town. hmm...the more I think about it...Electric, phone, cell all go out at once...I think I might just get everyone in the truck and head to the farm. If I go quickly, as in "it's a plan", then I'd have a better chance of getting there before others decide to run. 

And the whole time, I'd be kicking myself for not having that HAM license yet.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

Make the kids finish school work and chores...as usual.

Its not that hot here in Sept. but if it was we could take the trail to the lake or pond and swim and fish...bring home water for the critters on ATV/tractor

Plan on dinner out of the fire pit

By Sept. we are cleaning and dialing in(guns) for hunting season...


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## Sweetsurrender (Jan 14, 2009)

If the car is starting then I would not suspect an EMP but rather a large scale power outage. Possibly cause by a solar flare. 

I would plan dinner on the outside grill or propane stove top and advise everyone not to open the fridge. I am in charge of all food in situations like that.

I wouldn't know all stores would be closed because I would be staying home. DH would be coming home within an hour or two if all power was out, he uses back roads anyways.

I would have my usual heightened sense of alertness which I guess when the power goes off, storm is coming...etc.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Hmmm, if it were evening, I'd say it was time for a gin and tonic. I'd also be looking under the bushes for Rod Sterling. The reason for my nonchalance is the situation you describe is physically impossible for a number of technical reasons. Understanding what is realistically possible and what is not is another type of prepping. I have no preps for groundhogs toting shotguns either.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

if it was all as you describe then i would assume emp or some sort of solar storm.

my first priority would be to pick up the kids from school (not easy even in good times as i have to cross the 5 freeway) bob and all our bikes in the back of the truck just in case.

during travel home and after arrival i would assess situation.
if i saw no mushroom cloud or bright lights in the distance and felt no ground shock or shock wave i would assume a probable natural solar occurrance 
or a limited EMP attack not global nuclear war.

i get to here but would need more imfo to seriously work through the simulation and to decide what to do next.

what did i see or decide?do my solar panels and small engines still work
does my computer turn on with battery power?


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## limey (Sep 1, 2004)

This happened here a couple of weeks ago. It is not uncommon for the power and phone to both go out. As for radio reception - I'd think my batteries were going. Often all I get is static. I wouldn't do anything different. If this were the Big One - I probably wouldn't recognize it until I went into work the next day. A few years ago (gosh, it was on Clinton's inaugural day - longer than I thought) we had a massive wind storm that damaged a lot of the power/phone infrastructure. No gas pumps were working, no traffic lights, etc., this lasted for almost a week. Just life in the Pacific Northwest. We almost ran out of milk, but that was the only impact.

Limey


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## willbuck1 (Apr 4, 2010)

I don't see any technical reasons why it couldn't happen. EMP depending on distance or Solar flare depending on magnitude could cause it. The grid is actually more vulnerable to either than small non-connected devices.


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## willbuck1 (Apr 4, 2010)

Get my kids from school and get home. Wait for other family to show up or things to start back up. Don't trust the school system to get them home and their cousin lives about 1/4 mile from the school. All bugout plans include the idea that if they are at school they are to go there and wait for me or other family to bring them home. No guessing about where they are.


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

First of all I'd be grateful it wasn't cold outside, then I'd be gathering all the non-electric items and getting those ready to use. I'd be trying to find out what happened from the nearby neighbors. If they don't know, I'd wait until they went wherever and found out. Some of them wouldn't sit still waiting for more info. We have neighbors who do a neighborhood watch kind of thing and they always find out and report to the rest of us about any emergencies such as a wreck that's closed our road, or weather info we need to know. DH would most likely still be at work and would try to get home if needed, but he usually finishes his shift before leaving work. 

After having been through similar situations in the freeze of winter, I know we're ok with what we've got for water, food, heat/cooking source, and other supplies. We'd wait out whatever it is unless there was a good reason to move to a safer location.


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## Madame (Jan 1, 2003)

damoc said:


> if it was all as you describe then i would assume emp or some sort of solar storm.


Not an EMP, my car (only 6 years old) works. Maybe a solar flare.


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## cathyharrell (Nov 9, 2003)

Go sit outside with all my cats dogs and poultry and hope things get back to normal asap.


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## willbuck1 (Apr 4, 2010)

I forgot to mention you can here the buzzing of high voltage lines from my house. If they have quit I know it is a bigger problem. If they don't it is more local. Plus I can see a transformer from my front porch. Did it blow? 
Madame, depending on the distance and things like being in the shadow of a hill your car could very well start with the grid down from EMP. It is a function of induced current and longer wire runs will induce higher currents. Computer chips are delicate but the circuit lengths may not be long enough to create enough current to fry them while the miles long runs of power and phone lines go down. The car will probably quit but not necessarily especially if you are next to a tall hill or even a metal building that blocks the pulse.


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## TJN66 (Aug 29, 2004)

Wait at home for hubby to get here. Begin moving all non essential items out of the central rooms we will be using when it gets cold. If I am at work get home asap. Walk if I have to as its only 3 miles from my house. Get the items in the fridge/freezer cooked and canned. Shock the pool so that the water will last longer for us. 
Cant think of anything else at the moment. I cant wait to see what others will say though.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

Madame said:


> Not an EMP, my car (only 6 years old) works. Maybe a solar flare.


they are realy not sure how EMP will effect all vehicals not to mention
all the variables of terrain and where the vehical was parked etc etc

just because your newer vehical still works does not mean there was not an EMP attack

but just in case i drive a 60s chev.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

I'd continue the days chores and school work. I'd check my stove and see if it was usable. I can usually match start it. I'd start working on canning up some of the meat in the freezer. When DH go home I'd pump him for information on what he heard and saw. Do generators work? If so DH would be home at normal time, if not he'd be home early as without power and phones they can't work. DH would have a few things to do, then would start doing some re-loading, just in case.

With phones out I'd likely sit and pen a letter to my folks within a few day, if it was still going on. Then walk up to the PO to mail it (we live in town). With no outside information coming in I'd not know if it was local, regional, or large scale.

I'd start splintering up some wood for fast hot fires to cook on. I'd teach DS how to do it safely and let him at it as well. I enjoy doing it and DS is a bit "immature" so we haven't had him do it,yet. But emergencies cause kids to mature quickly.


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## Jerngen (May 22, 2006)

If my cell phone, electric, and landlines are all down yet my van (and radio) still work/power up..... then I'm going to assume either solar flare, very edge of a emp strike, or terrorists have somehow brought the grid down. 
Since the vehicles work, and we're not fully stocked up yet, I would take the emergency cash and go see if the Amish owned stores are open (they're not very well advertised, even most of my neighbors who've lived here for decades have never been to one) since they don't need/use electric to run their stores. If open, I would stock up with what I know we'll use no matter how long/short the "event". Next I would stop at one of their farms that are always advertising chickens and pick up what we can reasonably use (on the verge of getting some now anyways). Stock up on feed if I can find it. Then head home. 
Wherever I'm at, I would be grabbing what drinking water I can. 
In the same circumstances, my wife would drop what she is doing and head home. 
Once we're both home we would cook up any meats in the fridge, eat up what we can, grab the frozen coke bottles and ice out of the freezer and put it and the rest of the perishables in the coolers down in the basement. 
After that we would continue to seek out further information on what's going on, making contact with our neighbors to see who's still unaccounted for, lending a helping hand where we can (we only have six neighbors in our area). 



Water is our current major weakness. We have lakes/rivers/streams nearby. Our next major purchase we're saving up for is a Berkey water filter system (I do have a small one for backpacking etc.) and a hand pump for the well.


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## SCKYHWoman (Oct 10, 2008)

I'm staying put till others get home, keep freg and freezer closed. Drain water in pipes into containers. Keep the children busy. Do chores that need to be done before darkness hits. Keep checking Radio. make stock of what I do and do not have. Get candles lanterns ready if power not on before dark. Maybe get bugg out bag in more convenient local.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Generators work. Nothing that requires grid power will work unless you can use a generator that you already own. The web is down.

Never thought of an Amish store, but if you have one, have cash, and can get there and back without running out of gas, then that is ok. All the other stores closed when the grid went down.

This is a "grid down" scenario, which could be from any number of causes.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I'd go pull the lever, to turn my solar panels back on, so they could be charging the batteries. I'd get two lanterns ready for the night. Walk up the hill and start bringing cases of canning jars to the house, and start sterilizing them... if the juice is off for over two days, I'll have to start canning.

I'd start cutting back on the feed for the poultry, and ration back on the goats. Them that can free range and survive will get to stay longer than the ones that can't.

Survival triage plans would be gone over with all the critters on the place.

Cook a good supper, read by lantern light, and go to bed.

Oh, and double-check the firearms...

(my first thoughts!)


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

Cyngbaeld said:


> We haven't done any tshtf scenarios in a while and have lots of new folks here.
> 
> This is an opportunity to play out a possible emergency in your head and work through some of the problems you may encounter in about the most painless way possible.
> 
> ...


I have no children so I can't partake in that part. Miday DH would still be at work, I would not have left for work yet. I would stay put and wait for DH to get home. Since it gets so hot in the trailer if the AC is out, I would put the dogs out with lots of water in the shade (is the water still working?) if the water isn't working I will give them water from the pond after filtering it (we have beavers around so it must be treated first). I'd try to keep the freezer as cold for as long as possible and cook up the meat on the grill (don't have too much meat though normally, just enough for a couple meals), the dogs and us would eat as much as we could before it goes bad.

There will likly be a run on water at the convience store but most of us are used to extended power outages here as it happens at least once a year from bad storms. Aome neighbrs have generators and can keep food cold for a while for everyone else. the nighborhood would be ok for a week or two, it's happened that long before.

As for light after dark, we have a few wind up lights that work really well and need no batteries. If it's too hot inside to sleep we have plenty of tents to sleep outside in to keep the mosquitoes from eating us alive.


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## MollysMom (Apr 20, 2010)

If something like this would ever happen, I would hope I would be home that day. I work 50 miles away from our farm. I'm a nurse, so even wanting to go home could pose a problem. Also I commute via Vanpool. I always wondered how I would handle this. I'm prepared for home situations, but what if I would be in Nashville when something like this could happen. I sure would hate to be so far away from home without my husband.


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## cnichols (Jan 5, 2010)

Well, if I'm home my DH is home too, since we drive team. That's a plus. We have no children at the house either, so nothing to do there either. Don't think there's too much I would worry about the first day or so. If it didn't look like things were going to improve I'd have to start canning our meats to keep them from going bad. We have lanterns etc for lighting at night. But I don't think we'd really stay up late anyway.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

The first thing we do when the power goes out is fill every water container we can find, and when we run out of containers, we fill the bathtub until the pressure tank empties out. I could go to the river for water; I also have a hand pump for the well, but it isn't installed. If the power outage was prolonged (I'm assuming your scenario is for a prolonged to permanent outage) I'd get my neighbor to help install the hand pump on our well, and allow the entire neighborhood to use it. 

Next thing I'd do would be to get out the oil lamps, candles, etc., and make sure they were ready to use when it gets dark.

Next thing would be to get the solar cooker out and get it set up (I have a parabolic solar cooker, which heats up instantly, unlike the box cookers). I would probably put together a hay box (insulated box) so we could get stuff up to boiling with the solar cooker, then put it in the hay box to finish cooking. Being in the high desert, we have sun most days -- totally cloudy days are almost unheard of in the summer, and even in the winter we have a lot of sun. So the solar cooker will work for us here, although I'd like to have a wood stove for backup.

We would leave the frig shut as much as possible, and the freezer totally shut. If there was no word by the next day about the power coming back on, I'd start drying whatever was in the freezer that we wouldn't be able to use up right away.

Talk to the neighbors and set up a neighborhood watch program in case of looters, but that's probably not going to be much of an issue out here. Start open-carrying. 

If our vehicles work, it wouldn't make much difference if I was at work or home, because I'd still be able to get home. I'd wait to see if the power was going to come back on, though -- we've had a two-three hour outage before while I was at work, and I just waited it out. 

Kathleen


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

We just had this conversation when an earthquake happened in northwest arkansas. 

If the cars worked I'd get the oldest grandson from school and he would then help me get the two youngest who would be at a different school. Their daddy would come home and get the canoe then head for the river where we have a designated area where he would be. My dh and all three kids work across the river in fort smith, they are all to meet at my son's home as it is closest to the river, they would go to the designated area on their side and wait for my son in law to get them in the canoe. The place was chosen because of it being narrow, and he has enough rope (hopefully) to tie from one side to the other. Of course this NOT been tested but it is better than having no plan at all.

I welcome all comments, truly.


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## cast iron (Oct 4, 2004)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Battery powered radios work, but your local station is off.
> What do you do? What are your priorities. What do you think will happen next?


Fire up the ham radio and establish contact with my local network of like minded fellow radio operators, many if not most of whom I've met in person previously. I would first use this contact to try and establish what has happened, and the overall status of the situation based on reports from operators in various locations throughout the county.

This information is required for me to determine what my next steps might be.

I would then use the ham radio to contact family members who are in a different county and verify if their status.

If my wife was at work during this time I would first try to contact her using the ham radio and contact her on her mobile radio which is (or should be) in the get-home-bag in her car.

Same scenario for my son if he was at work during the incident.

Hard to answer about what actions I would take beyond this as establishing what the current status is and what the heck has happened is the critical first step (assuming no injuries need tending first).

If I could not establish contact with my wife at work I'd probably get the dual sport motorcycle out and attempt to travel to her work location to find her, which is only about 7 miles away. There are four different routes to try between our home and her work location, well actually six if I ride down the power lines and cut through some peoples property.

Once I got home with my wife in tow I would suspect my son would have walked home from work by then, but if not, I drop my wife off at home and set out on the motorcycle to retrieve my son.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Life would go on as usual for the rest of the day. I'd go to the car and turn on the radio to listen for news of what may have happened. When I found only static, I would use the battery power on my laptop to see what I could find out on line, then use the adaptor in the car to recharge the computer for later use. 

If it is a local problem, it will most likely be fixed reasonably soon. For dinner, it would either be sandwiches and canned fruit, or using the propane campstove to cook a quick meal outdoors. Before doing the evening milking (goats), I'd very briefly open up the extra freezer in the barn, just long enough to pull out a couple gallon bottles of frozen water to put in a cooler, add some water from the filtered water supply we keep on hand, and set the milk to chill in the cooler. I'd wash the milking things in more filtered water and set to dry for the next morning. We also keep plenty of water on hand for watering the animals, but if we were running low on rainwater (we are typically in a drought that time of year), we could run down to the creek or river to fill 5 gallon buckets, as many as will fit in the back of the truck. The sawdust toilet would be pulled out along with the bale of shavings, ready for use. More water would be set to filter to replace that used for washing dishes and hands. By dark, about 8pm that time of year, the oil lamps would be out, along with the solar powered LED flashlights. Bedtime would be early, and possibly outside, where it would be cooler.

If the news was that it was a longer-term event, I'd be pulling meat out of the freezer to thaw and convert to sundried jerky or canned up over an outdoor fire. Still need to get my turkey fryer and extra filled propane tanks so I could do it more easily over controlled heat. I have unlimited dry firewood, though, so I would be canning everything I could. Using the car, trucks, and several sliding doors, solar dehydrating would be fairly quick, especially for fruits and vegies. I have plenty of jars and lids, so I should be able to can up quite a bit of the meat, and I have quite a lot of salt on hand for salting down or jerking meat. I also have many reference books for info on just about everything, along with practical experience. The garden would still be in full production, so I'd not only be canning and drying the freezer contents, but would also need to put up whatever is coming ripe, such as corn, green beans, tomatoes and raspberries. Again, dehydrating would be the most logical method of preserving the garden in a long-term power out event. 

If I buy a motor home this summer, preserving the food would be much easier - I could use the propane stove in it to run the canners and to cook, would have a small propane fridge, too.

Next?


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## candyknitter (Apr 23, 2009)

First thing I would do is collect the younger kids from school, which is literally around the corner, then I would walk around to my moms house because she lives alone and its only 3 streets away.After I would also check on elderly neighbours then head home. My husband and eldest son I am sure would shut up their shop and make there way home pretty rapidly because they always have done in the past when there has been heavy snow forscast and once when there was a bomb scare. We have a coal fire and always sacks of kindling, coal and logs in the outside shed so heating and cooking would be possible. I also have a shockingly huge stockpile of candles so I would place them strategically around the house ready for nightfall! We have a diesel generator so we would have back up power if necessary and I never let my car go beneath 1/2 tank of petrol although if I can walk where I need to go then I use that option first. We also have a battery radio so I would keep checking it and sit tight. If it went beyond 2 nights with no change in the situation I would move mom in because any longer and I (and she) would worry about the lack of rapid communication. We have plenty of food in the house and bottled water as well as a full rain barrel and the old fashioned plumbing system so a huge water tank in the attic. I always have loads of spare meds, toiletries, cleaning chemicals, batteries on hand anyway. 
Its actually really interesting but as I type I am thinking about past situations I have learnt from like the petrol strike a few years back, the London bombings and previous powercuts. One thing I find really hard to cope with is being cold - at the begining of May this year our boiler broke for 3 days and I hated it!!!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Wednesday morning and the power is still off. If you have a battery operated radio that will pull in shortwave, you learn that there is no power anywhere in the English speaking world. There are other broadcasts, but you don't speak anything but English and don't understand them.

So looks like this is long term. Now what do you do?

If you don't have shortwave listening, you don't realize this is widespread so what do you do?


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

No need for electricity around our place...grid, generator or otherwise.

First off, I'd turn on the crank/solar/battery powered radio. If I found no one was broadcasting, I'd try the shortwave bands.

While listening to the radio for news, we'd start canning and/or jerking all the venison and veggies that are in the freezer. Canning would take place on our natural gas range. If NG wasn't available, we'd use either the Coleman stove, woodstove, or campfire.

Since it is hot out, we'd stay hydrated with ice cold well water from our hand pump well.

Since it's September, we'd be harvesting the remainder of the garden....it would all have to be canned. (In case you're wondering, we have a vast stockpile of empty canning jars and lids)

I'd save every ounce of gasoline on the 'stead for the chainsaws. Since we already have a two year supply of seasoned firewood, we'd start putting up firewood for the 2012-2013 heating season.

If we knew this was a long-term SHTF situation, we'd be harvesting deer and either canning or jerking the meat.

Hopefully the kids...all grown in their mid to late 20s....could make their way to our place. We'd need their help with night and day time watch from a few strategic lookouts we have around the buildings and yard area.


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## Becka (Mar 15, 2008)

I homeschool, so the kids would be home with me already, but dh would be at work. My first thought would be perhaps a chemical plant or natural gas company experienced an accident that brought down the grid, because these are possibilities in my area. If the kids or dog were outside, I'd bring them inside in case any chemicals might be in the air, and follow instructions for shelter-in-place, which around here means you close doors and windows and don't let in the outside air.

If after a few hours, there is no visible chemical haze and still no power, I'd use the grill to cook dinner. If dh makes it home from work, I'd see if he knew what was going on and we'd continue life as normal, only keeping more alert. I would fill the bathtub and extra containers with water since we live in town and a lack of power could mean a lack of city water sometime in the near future.

If dh did not make it home from work, I would assume this was a terrorist attack or EMP attack and the car doesn't work or the roads and bridges are blocked/destroyed. I would have a firearm at the ready and at bedtime have the kids and dog all sleep in the same room as me. Periodically, we'd check the radio or cell phone for communication/info.

By the next morning if there was still no power and dh still wasn't home, I'd have the kids do chores as usual and keep their hands and minds occupied. I'd start cooking up anything in the fridge that would go bad and we'd eat it that day and share with the dog if possible. I would start taking 1/2 my dosage of regular meds to make it last longer.


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## Sweetsurrender (Jan 14, 2009)

Hard for me to imagine not speaking any other languages. My first language is French and I can understand a whole lot of Spanish and Italian so to me that is like telling me "You have to think like you have no kids" when in fact I have a 2 and 4 year old.

FOOD: I would move what is in my kitchen freezer into my stand up freezer in the garage (opening it only once) and at the same time grab two of the frozen juice bottles that are filled with water and frozen solid in that stand up freezer. I would move the perishables from the fridge into the coolers with that frozen bottles of ice. I have about 20 frozen bottles in the freezer so I think that would keep it good for a week. 

We would make sure to eat perishables such as milk, yogurt, left overs, fresh vegetables and fruit and cheese first.

I would start getting out my jars and lids to eventually start canning in a few days once stuff would start thawing out in that freezer.

WATER: I would kick myself in the rear for not having bought a hand pump for the well before. I have a 15 000 gallon pool and I would keep that balanced. We would use all bottle water for the upcoming canning sessions. We would use all gray water for flushing. 

I don't have rain barrels but I do have very large Rubbermaid containers I could move to the downspouts to catch rain water.

COOKING: We have an underground propane tank so stove top inside is not an issue (can be lit manually) oven is electronic so that could not be lit. would start gathering wood from the woods. Also have a propane grill outside with a few tanks. 

My DH and I would discuss if one of us makes a run to the Amish store, we have several in the area. No matter how many preps you have, it almost always feels like you need more. Right now I am set for 6 months to a year with just what I have in the house for my family of 4. But I know my in-laws would come over and that would cut supplies drastically. I often think of that and feel a little panic...


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## NJ Rich (Dec 14, 2005)

I would wait for more information about what actually happened before making any move off the homestaed.

My family would be coming here if they are able. It doesn't take much gas to get here and the closets ones can take the back roads. One son and family need to go through only one traffic light in the 10 miles they need to travel.

A week day would be a problem for another son and his wife. Their son has some autism problems and would need to have mommy or daddy get him from school. That means they drive away from us and the support we can supply. Having no traffic lights would be a major problem for them in the drive they would need to make.

I would plan what I need to get out of the refrigerator/freezer before I opened them. I may not open them at all for the first 24 hours. I have enough stocked foods, I don't need to use fresh foods for a meal.

I would get out the candles; fill a couple of oil lamps; jug some water if it was still running and get the deep cycle batteries into the garage from the store room; get out the flashlights and check their operation. Probabaly put a firearm or two close by. 

Then I would wait for the family to start to arrive.


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

TJN66 said:


> Wait at home for hubby to get here. Begin moving all non essential items out of the central rooms we will be using when it gets cold. If I am at work get home asap. Walk if I have to as its only 3 miles from my house. Get the items in the fridge/freezer cooked and canned. *Shock the pool so that the water will last longer for us. *
> Cant think of anything else at the moment. I cant wait to see what others will say though.



I had not thought about that.. good idea:thumb:


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I would not leave the homestead, going weeks without leaving is normal for me. Right off, I'd get nervous about when to go into overdrive, just cause I'd need to take control. Day 1, do nothing, see if DH makes it home 1&1/2 hrs drive from the city where he works for Road comish.This is important because if things are bad, work will keep him there for unknown amount of hours. He will have to set up intersections with generators that run the lights etc. We also have one of these generators- it can run 3 houses. I don't mess with things Elec. rather live without it. If I really need to, one of the neighbors will hook one of the small ones up for me. The cows have a spring fed pond and a stream runs thru the property. Not sure they would stay in pasture without the elec. fence, but would only probably go into the hay field if got out. If the Zombies come out, they(the cows) need to go into the special paddock with the underground barn. By now the neighbors will be around checking on each other. Now I'll start canning all the meat in the fridge, dry veggies. There is enough propane for the stoves that are used for this. If need be , there's the wood cook stove. September might have me without many jars left empty, so might have to empty juices (start making wine) to cann the meat. If Dd is still gone, I'm worriening how he is without/or if he's gotten his meds. I guess just have to see what's gonna happen next to deal with. People showing up, settling them in, giving them chores, keeping things calm.


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## Mike in Ohio (Oct 29, 2002)

I would begin preparing for bugout to our farm. This entails:
Top up gas in the truck and pack extra gas cans on the trailer.
packing additional supplies in the truck and trailer. 
harvest any extra fruit and veggies from the garden at the house
pack extra tools to take with.
preparing the animals (cats and dog) to take with.

Not too concerned about traffic lights as pretty much all of the driving is 4 lane or 2 lane highway.

Only have to worry about DW and her work is on the way (8 minutes) to the highway. I would wait maximum of 1 hour (more like 30 minutes) and head out. I would leave her a note indicating what time I left and the route I would be taking (there are several alternatives). I would stop by her work to check. 

Assuming we hook up we would top off gas in her vehicle and drive in separate vehicles. I would of course transfer her weapons and supplies to her vehicle. We have handheld radios for each of us (plus extras).

We would probably swing by the relatives on the way (it literally is on the way) just to give them a heads up.

Once at the farm I/we would start getting settled in.

If it is a false alarm then no harm no foul. If not then time is of the essence.

We have discussed this and run a few test drills. 

Mike


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## Mulish (Mar 24, 2005)

Well, I guess I would carry square bales from the hay shed down to the shop to stack on and around the freezer. Carry gas cans from shed to the patio, remove the faux doghouse from the genny, then fire it up for a test run.

Then I suppose I would gather pinecone, twigs and sticks in a feed sack to store under cover for future use in the kelly kettle, ( sweetheart is a Scotsman and really likes his morning cuppa, and I would not like to be collecting fuel to make his tea in the predawn dark.

Then I would work up a menu of meals that could be prepared without power,then pull the ingredients out of my storage room.

After all that hauling and walking, I would sit and have a cup of tea, then go and see how my neighbors were making out.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Thursday morning and the news over the shortwave band is unsettling at best. Apparently there is no grid power anywhere. Nobody knows why yet but it is obvious this is a long, long term event and may be permanent.

If you don't have shortwave or have somebody close with one you still don't know if this is temporary. Rumors abound of course. Those of you on city/county water systems have been told to conserve and your water utility has turned off the water except for 1 hr in early afternoon. They are trying to get generators set up. A few utilities have the backup running, not many. If you are on a well, do you have any way to obtain water without electricity?

Have you inventoried your supplies? Do you know how long they will last? Do you have alternative ways to heat/cool, cook, preserve food, wash, lights? Transportation?


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## Becka (Mar 15, 2008)

Break out my stash of paper cups and plates, and use them sparingly to conserve water. I would send the kids down to the river that runs by our house to get buckets of water for toilet flushing, and only flush for #2. I'd make good use of that one hour to fill every empty container in the house with water. Eat the perishable foods first, sharing with the dog so as to conserve the dry dog food, which is lighter in weight to carry if we have to go somewhere. Empty the rain barrel in the backyard before one of the welfare folks or dope heads in town try to. Check the garden for anything to harvest. Check on my elderly neighbors, but besides that just stay home and keep quiet, watching for any stray people roaming around. If I cannot can all the meat going bad in the freezer, I'd cook it up and start dehydrating it. Spend time planning out what we'll do if this continues, take stock of what we have/need. . .and pray!

Edited to add: I would limit my cooking to once a day, preferably after dark, and bring the grill in the house as soon as possible after to prevent theft.


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## Sweetsurrender (Jan 14, 2009)

Today would have been spent canning whatever is starting to thaw out. I would then sit down with DH to go over plans. Take a more current inventory of things.

I have a question: Two people mentioned dehydrating vegetables and then meat. I'm not familiar with dehydrating aside from the plug in dehydrators and I've never done it. How do you dehydrate without power?


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## Becka (Mar 15, 2008)

Sweetsurrender, you can dehydrate on a warm day by putting the food on cookie sheets in your car, or you can easily dry stuff outside in the sun, just keep the bugs away. There are different methods for this and you may be able to search it in the preserving forum. You can use a primitive method by laying it on a sheet and keeping the flies away, or you can build a cardboard dehydrator yourself to use outside.


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## Sweetsurrender (Jan 14, 2009)

Becka said:


> Sweetsurrender, you can dehydrate on a warm day by putting the food on cookie sheets in your car, or you can easily dry stuff outside in the sun, just keep the bugs away. There are different methods for this and you may be able to search it in the preserving forum. You can use a primitive method by laying it on a sheet and keeping the flies away, or you can build a cardboard dehydrator yourself to use outside.


Thank you Becka. I very familiar with canning but I've never tried drying food. Makes sense and you just made me think of a few ways to keep the flies and yellow jackets away. Plus the car is a wonderful idea.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I used to have a stack of window screens from the salvation army store. I would lay clean paper towels over them and put my sliced food on the towels and put the screens into the car in the sun. You can put some in the trunk too.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I was thinking about baking cooling racks and then Jan Dolings camping window screens on the car windows and havnig them down or cracked. Seems the two would make a large dehydrator. Or window screens like Cyng said

Heck - I bet even cheesecloth hung taught between two bars in a hot, bug free place would work.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Since I've learned a few lessons from our past power outages, I'd do things a bit different than the first time. In our remote area we often have power outages that last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Most of the neighbors are prepped for it.

Tuesday (Day 1)
Set up the solar oven and get dinner started.
Put fresh linens on all the beds.
Set out oil lamps and flashlights.
Check perimeter alarms, alarms on all outdoor equipment, doors, windows, etc. (I do this monthly, but also every time the power goes out)
Run gen just long enough to keep freezer and frig cold and fill water containers/tubs/sinks.
Plan solar meals for at least a week.
Wait for extended family to show up.

Wednesday (Day 2) 
DS #1 should have solar panels installed by now.
DS #2 and family will probably be here now.
DD and family will probably be here or on the way.
Run gen 3 or 4 times a day for about half hour each time (daily task.)
Start dehydrating foods from freezer using solar dehydrator.
As soon as everyone arrives, assign tasks that need done (water hauling/hand pump/power converters/cooking/cleaning/laundry/etc.)
Set up outdoor wood burning stove, grill, chiminea, and dig fire pit, for alternative method of cooking.
Dig out all of cast iron pots and pans from camping gear.

Thursday (Day 3)
Visit neighbors to assess the long term situation.
Start teaching classes on dehydrating foods/solar cooking/etc. if needed.
Start digging trenches to install pvc cooling system (might have started this earlier depending on how many hands have arrived to help.) 


A couple ideas for dehydrating foods... 

1. needle & thread - string veggies and hang to dry.
2. lay out a clean sheet and spread foods on it, fold over to protect from sunlight and bugs. 
3. window screen from house with plastic or cotton "tent" over it for protection.
4. storage building with small wood stove for heat if outside temps aren't high enough for drying food.

It's always a good idea to have a roll of screen wire in storage for making a solar dehydrator. Just about anything can be placed over the top to protect from the sun and dew, even an old blanket spread over it will work. Racks can be made using branches from trees as framework to attach the screen to.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Angie M2 said:


> I was thinking about baking cooling racks and then Jan Dolings camping window screens on the car windows and having them down or cracked. Seems the two would make a large dehydrator. Or window screens like King said
> 
> Heck - I bet even cheesecloth hung taught between two bars in a hot, bug free place would work.


All the screens for my doorwalls are kept for drying fiber when I dye it, then can be used for dehydrating. I keep a whole bunch of old lace and sheer curtians, they are good for both covering drying food and using as floating row covers.


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

Where I grew up, it was hot and dry during the summer and fall. I had one neighbor who would string whole persimons and hang them to dry every year.


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

We would stay put. I would move everyone down to the basement where it is cooler during the day. We have everything we need here and simply have no reason to leave. If my husband were at work then it is his job to get home. We have always had home as the rally point if we are separated so he would expect me to be here. I might saddle up and ride around to neighbors to see if they have any idea what is going on, but other than that life would be pretty much the same here.


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

Since we have the electronic meters and the power company is automatically notified of power outages, I probably wouldn't think it was anything more than a normal power outage, until a few hours later I would try to call the power company line which normally gives me the amount of time estimated until power is restored - then I would realize the phones don't work. I would then try my cell phone and realize something was amis. We home educate, so my children would be home.

Tuesday (Day 1)
Check the trailer to see what is working. If the fridge works, turn it on.
Check the battery/hand crank radio, find that nothing is working, switch to the shortwave bands and find out that problems seem to be nationwide or global.
Pray!
Get flashlights, glow sticks, candles and oil lamps ready.
Put locks on the fences, lock the trailer, tractor and barn, make sure any fuel cans are inside locked areas, put locks on the chicken coop doors (we have all these locks in our basement, but pretty much only use them for trips).
Run the generator about an hour for ref/fridge and run pool pump and shock pool.
Get down solar oven from garage shelf.
Hope husband at and sons (one living on his own about 15 miles away, one married about 10 miles away come here.
Make up couch bed in basement, set up cots for sleeping since it's always cool there even when it's hot outside.
Pray.

Wednesday 
Pray.
If we've heard that some vehicles won't run, disconnect the battery or starter from our vehicles so people will think they aren't running. Possibly set up the Trailer solar charger to charge the vehicle batteries as needed.
Run generator for fridge & freezer, recharging trailer battery and rechargeable batteries and flashlights and maybe do a load of clothes for one hour.
Check to see that solar panel is connected to trailer battery
Get children and cover pool so that water will stay clean. 
Check inventory of chicken feed, decide if we can give some chickens to neighbors, get rid of extra eggs in egg refrigerator by taking to neighbors. Check on neighbors, especially next door as MIL is on oxygen. She can probably only last a week unless FIL can get gas for his generator.
Ask neighbors if they want to come help can and dehydrate to learn how (many of my neighbors already do this though).
Pick as much from garden as ready and begin dehydrating and canning on the burner next to the propane grill.
Have children weed garden and remove any finished crops, plant seeds for winter crops.
If sons have come here, have them move the old extra woodburning stove from the basement and set it up outside. Also have them go through woods and cut additional wood for fires.
Get with neighbors to set up a watch for our road to only let family in. Probably cut down some trees to block the road from vehicles. There is only one way in/out, the property at the end of our road is a steep incline that even four wheelers can't go up and has about a mile long lake on the other side of the hill, so it is unlikely that people would come from that direction. We do walk that way occasionally as those neighbors are friends.
Go through camping gear and see what we can use.
Run generator for one hour to recharge and refreeze.
Pray

Thursday 
Pray.
Continue planting, gardening, dehydrating as necessary. Move items from fridge to camper.
Get with neighborhood on setting up a community watch, and maybe moving fencing so that the whole neighborhood is fenced in. (we have several 100' rolls of fencing in our barn that we are eventually planning to put up around our 8 acres, although about 2 acres is currently fenced in to protect our chickens - although they often jump the fence.
Convert dehydrator so that it can be heated with candles or wood instead of electricity. See if fan can be converted to battery operated.
Get with neighbors to see who can do what (security, hunting, gardening, soapmaking, gathering water etc.) We have a lake nearby which we might be able to set up a piping system to come to the bottom of our road. 
Set up berkey filter to use, put extra barrels from barn under roof drainspouts to collect water. Since we have a metal roof, even the dew will drain into these.
Check around for buckets or any other containers to collect rainwater when it rains.
Till up grass to plant more winter crops. 
Send a few of the boys (with guns for protection and our dog) to see if they can barter some chickens for a milking goat or cow at some of the farms about a mile away. Carry chickens in boxes, and bring extra dogs leash to walk animal home if they can get one.
Begin planting some of the winter hard wheat berries to see if we can grow our own wheat.
If computer and printer/copier still work, begin printing off extra copies of preparedness or how to articles when the generator is running - these are for the neighbors.
Talk with neighbors about saving everything, especially containers. 
Pray


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## Ode (Sep 20, 2006)

My husband works for the power company, so we would know what was going on. Also the language restrictions wouldn't be a factor unless the broadcasts were only in languages we don't speak. It just seems highly unlikely that there would be a worldwide grid failure and no one would know why. And that no one in America would be broadcasting at all. Not to mention all the other english speaking nations in the world.


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## crtreedude (Jun 14, 2006)

It might be a while before we would notice anything amiss since power outages are not uncommon here - as well as loss of cellphone. We don't need heat or cooling, so that is no problem - and we have year round gardens - with catfish in the pounds, nearly 300 sheep, a cow for milk, etc. We own around 15 horses too, so transportation wouldn't be a problem.

We don't go to work so we are not going to end up stranded somewhere most likely. 

Any meat in the freezer we would cook on the grill most likely once it became obvious that the power outage was going to last for a while - probably make jerky out of it.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Ode said:


> My husband works for the power company, so we would know what was going on. Also the language restrictions wouldn't be a factor unless the broadcasts were only in languages we don't speak. It just seems highly unlikely that there would be a worldwide grid failure and no one would know why. And that no one in America would be broadcasting at all. Not to mention all the other english speaking nations in the world.


Yes, but the point is to get folks thinking how they would handle long term grid failure without distracting them with why it is down.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

I've seen some information that makes this scenario seem not so implausible, with a high probability of it coming to pass sometime this year, possibly this summer. The scenario includes the interstates being shut down, so if you or one of your group will need to travel to get home, make sure they have alternate routes. No need to go into the reasons for it, or how it would come about, as the end results for us would be the same -- no electricity unless we produce it ourselves, and severely restricted travel. Also the large cities will be extremely unsafe, but I think we all knew that already.

As for this continuing saga: at this point, I would be taking the garden cart or my bike with trailer out and collecting whatever wood I could find, small sticks and such (squaw wood, to be politically incorrect about it). Build a clay oven/heated bench in the garage (we have clay soil, which I would use), so we'd have someplace to keep warm in the winter. We don't have a wood stove, and only a little bit of firewood for building bonfires -- a severe weak point in our preps, but the house isn't mine and Grandma insists she doesn't want a wood stove. I don't think she can comprehend the possibility of permanently losing the grid. 

As soon as I could, I'd butcher the goats I'm keeping for meat, so as to leave as much feed for the milkers and breeding buck as possible. And would be taking them out to forage off our property as much as possible (road-sides). I make nearly all our milk into kefir, which doesn't need to be refrigerated (or at least will keep quite a while without refrigeration), so we'd manage without the frig. The butchered goats would be turned into hard sausage or jerkey. I'd also cull the chicken flock to just the number we can feed without bought food, probably by sharing some of the extra birds with neighbors. (Enable them to feed themselves, and they are less likely to come to our house for food.)

Kathleen


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Well, let's see...day three now? And it's looking like this will be a long haul. Okay then.

I'm still at the farm, and probably brought a car full of food with me. (hopefull a trailer, as well) All the winter clothes are already out at the farm, so that's not a problem, as well as sleeping bags if needed. Artificer made it out here. He brought another barrel of oil for the generator. If this happened right now, this week, we'd have enough fuel to run the generator 4 hours a day for a year. Hopefully he also brings as much gasoline and diesel as he can buy.

If he HASN'T made it to the farm, I go quietly insane from worry.

We've filled all 4 of the big water containers (350gallons each). Rain barrels set up. Water for garden as well as drinking. That way the well pump only has to be run once a week-ish. The well is 150feet down, so a hand pump is...problematic. Be a lot easier to just ride the bikes over to the river. Water AND fish. 

The few solar panels I have scattered around doing light duty would get put into full sun with the gel cell batteries. Don't imagine I'd use a lot of electricity other than the radio. Summer..don't need lights. 

During the day we work on bringing downed wood up to the shed where it gets cut for winter. Start those broody chickens going to work for more chicks. Let the rabbits go into full production, as well.

Make contact with the farmer neighbor to see what we can set up there for getting milk (dairy and meat farm). Probably try to work it so we have 2 of his cows since he's now got to milk them by hand..and that's not possible with 100 cows. Or one of us goes to help with whatever cows he's still trying to milk. Most he'll just let dry up, I'd think. 

We wouldn't have a lot of problems, I don't think...at least for the first few weeks while things got sorted out. If it was a YEARS LONG problem staring at us we'd have to regroup. We are already set up off grid at the farm, and it's stocked with dried and canned food. Plenty of wild game for at least the first year if necessary. The chickens and rabbits would be carefully guarded from predators. 

Most of the people out there would just hunker down in place. Old farmer types. Not much phases them. Just time to go into "little house on the prairie" mode, I suppose.


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## mamagoose (Nov 28, 2003)

Since we just put a whole highland beef in the gas freezer, if the gas stopped flowing, I'm going to be wondering why I didn't think to have all the roasts cut up into small pieces by the butcher shop to make canning quicker. I would be thankful I have 2 pressure canners. DH and I would be watching the sunset on the front porch in anticipation of greeting our 2 grown sons arriving from their city dwellings.


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

BlueJuniperFarm said:


> I've seen some information that makes this scenario seem not so implausible, with a high probability of it coming to pass sometime this year, possibly this summer. The scenario includes the interstates being shut down, so if you or one of your group will need to travel to get home, make sure they have alternate routes. No need to go into the reasons for it, or how it would come about, as the end results for us would be the same -- no electricity unless we produce it ourselves, and severely restricted travel. Also the large cities will be extremely unsafe, but I think we all knew that already.
> 
> As for this continuing saga: at this point, I would be taking the garden cart or my bike with trailer out and collecting whatever wood I could find, small sticks and such (squaw wood, to be politically incorrect about it). Build a clay oven/heated bench in the garage (we have clay soil, which I would use), so we'd have someplace to keep warm in the winter. We don't have a wood stove, and only a little bit of firewood for building bonfires -- a severe weak point in our preps, but the house isn't mine and Grandma insists she doesn't want a wood stove. I don't think she can comprehend the possibility of permanently losing the grid.
> 
> ...


could you perhaps just buy the wood stove and the parts /tools for installing it and store it??? Not set it up but have it so you COULD if TSHTF? If I could afford to, I would do that very thing.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Nickie, for me it's an 'if I could afford to' thing, as well. I'm trying to find a heavy-duty steel barrel to use to make a rocket mass heater -- not quite sure where to look. But just the stove pipe is expensive, never mind the stove! Especially since Oregon has extremely strict laws about wood stoves -- they have to be approved makes or you can't install them at all. (Rocket stoves probably aren't officially approved, but are one of the least-polluting types of stove -- probably nobody would even know we had one, as the 'smoke' is more like dryer exhaust.)

Kathleen


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I have a cheap small wood stove and the cheap, single wall pipe in my storage trailer. When the time comes it is needed, I'll have it. We have a very short heating season here and I'd as soon not have the mess in the house of wood and all the work, while electric is still available.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

willbuck1 said:


> I don't see any technical reasons why it couldn't happen. EMP depending on distance or Solar flare depending on magnitude could cause it. The grid is actually more vulnerable to either than small non-connected devices.


If it were EMP my car would not be working - its too new


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Thank you, but please let's keep this discussion on topic.

Fast forward two weeks.
Still no power, no phone (either cell or land line). A very few stores have opened with the police making sure order is kept. You must have cash in hand to purchase unless you negotiate a barter/swap with the store. Selection is severely limited and sometimes the items aren't of obvious use. There are some trucks being escorted in convoys into cities, but there is widespread unrest and even rioting and looting in some areas. Not nearly enough supplies are getting through, cash is needed to purchase and the quantity allowed each purchaser is not sufficient.

How are your supplies holding out? Do you keep some cash in case you need to purchase anything available? Do you need to chance going and standing in line in hopes of feeding the family today?


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

I've never really thought out scenarios like this before, our most likely scenarios are hurricanes, snow storms, power outages. It's been a neat exercise.

Well hopefully the car worked, if it didn't - I would have to bike to the kids school and get them home. DH would not be able to physically do this so he would be home preparing our off grid items. Water, heat and power items would not be a big issue. We would have to take turns biking home with the one on the bike carrying the pack with water/snacks in it, I will carry the protection. We have a power assist bike so could quickly get there without a whole lot of energy expended, but would probably take 3 hours to get home. Kids wear uniforms so they would need sneakers and their gym gear to have a comfortable walk home. We are small town, so I'm going to assume the first day will not be very dangerous.
We normally have our hay in by September so I would be able to provide for the mouths I have decided to keep but...As soon as we realized this was a long term, I would throw some of the goats in with buck for immediate breeding, September is a little early here but Oct is safe so I would try to make sure everyone was bred then butcher him. Anyone without impeccable dairy background would be kept unbred, dried off and kept as meat on the hoof and raised like brush goats, with forage/pasture and a hay ration. I would attempt to barter a milking goat or 2 for a neighbour's horse. He has several, but doesn't keep food livestock. 
I would begin seeding cold hardy crops transplants- there would be enough time for more broccoli, spinach etc with cover. and evaluating what plants I may need to allow to go to seed in the garden, time to plan for next year's food. I also would be taking nice looking tomato slips and potting up for in the house. Regular garden harvest would be underway making sure everything gets put by that can be. We would start hunting.

By this point I'm going to assume I have more mouths to feed from extended family but also have more help and are going to need to start monitoring our borders so to speak. In this situation I can realistically see as many as 17 immediate family members arriving at some point if they could find a way- 2 will arrive with excellent stores, 5 will be able bodied, 1 will die through the winter (lack of meds and medical treatments)
We have a small amount of silver but certainly would not be spending it yet and all jewelry would be added to the cache.


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## Becka (Mar 15, 2008)

Rioting already? I think in my area, it would take a month before that would happen. Power was out almost 2 weeks here last winter (in some spots) and the worst I saw were signs that said people were cold and hungry and needed help, with an arrow pointing at the road. They were too lazy to riot or steal.

I think I could sit tight for about a month BUT as I live in town, we could not do this forever. At some point neighbors will start connecting with other trusted, like-minded neighbors to pool resources and form groups. In town we have lots of welfare folks who don't work. Many of these are on drugs and could become a serious problem. The widows on my street have wood burning fireplaces and if it got too cold, we could go sleep there in exchange for manual labor and protection from dope heads/thieves, etc.


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## Mike in Ohio (Oct 29, 2002)

Nothing particular we would need from the regular store. We'd probably stop by the Farmers Exchange to see what seeds we could pick up for future use.... just in case.

I'd stop by the neighbors to work out an arrangement for fresh milk so we don't have to dig into the powdered milk.

I suppose we would be busy with things at the farm. Lack of electric wouldn't be too big an issue. We have plenty of candles and sconces on the wall. Cooking on the campfire might get to be a drag so I suppose we would be uncrating the wood cookstove that has been sitting in the barn for the past 5 years. It would be a good time to work on projects at the farm such as building the addition on the cabin. 

I suppose we would be getting curious as to what is going on but that's about it.

Mike


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

After 2 weeks, the one big hole in my preps that I could see being a problem would be gasoline. 4 trips to town in 2 weeks (for my work shifts) would just about empty the tank on the SUV, although there is still the truck with dual tanks, and a small amount of stored gas in cans. Hopefully, as an RN, my job would be considered vital enough that there would be a way for the hospital to provide some gasoline, if any is available. I would think that in that amount of time, at least a few gas stations would have rigged up a generator to run the pumps. I do have cash to pay for gas and any other needed items. I have ample food to last much more than 2 weeks, and the garden should still be producing. I would be putting frames over each raised bed and over the raspberry patch, in order to throw blankets and sheets over them at the first sign of frost, and putting up the greenhouse addition on the end of the house - have all the parts needed for it, and can do this without power tools.

I'd be continuing to wash clothes in filtered water in a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger, cooking on a campstove, small BBQ or other propane powered appliance. As soon as I realized the power might be out for an extended length of time, I'd have taken all the tanks in and had them filled - that doesn't run on electricity, so it would be available at the feedstore, where I'd also be stocking up on animal feed. 

I'd be offering most of my goats for sale, keeping only my very best milkers and my buck. I would think that there would be a demand for all the milkers, as well as doe kids that could be bred for milk last in season. I'd have to start thinking hard about keeping the horse or not. Transportation locally would be good, but I have to travel 60 miles round trip for work, and that would be a bit much for my mare, and there is the cost of her feed. 

By September, I would have already paid for a year's supply of hay for all the animals, but it is normally stored 10 miles away. I'd probably talk to one of the neighbors who has a small barn and no stock, to see if he would be willing to store hay for me in exchange for milk and eggs.

In my earlier post I said I'd use my computer in the car to see if there was any news on line. That would not be possible, as the satellite internet service and wireless router would be down. I even thought about using the 3G card, but if there is no cell service, it doesn't work, either. So, no options there.

If I was able to change my work schedule so that I could make one trip to town, stay in town between shifts, and come home after 4 days, I'd need to find which neighbor was willing to care for my animals, milk the goats in exchange for the milk, and watch things at home for me. In turn, I'd need to find if they had any needs that I could help them with, and start working cooperatively with them to patrol our neighborhood. Although we are fairly remote from a big city, there are locals who would not have enough supplies stored and would not hesitate to help themselves. Those in our immediate neighborhood are pretty well "prepped", though.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

Well let's see.

First if it happens during the week I'm the one who wouldn't be home. 

Week 1
Considering I work about 30 miles away I'd be getting home in about a day and a half. It's mostly up hill but I can avoid all congested areas. Being dog tired and I'm sure the feet will be sore. So at the end of the trip I'll be thankful to be home.  The DW will still be using water on hand, farm chores, and other regular habits will be mostly the same. Tho I maybe getting a bit stinky. 

Week 2
By now depending on when it actually takes place. If it's closer to the end of the month. It will be as above without of course the walk. By the end of the week I'll be hauling water from the spring for the livestock. For us It'll be water from the old hand dug well.

Week 3
It's time to salt the meats and other frozen goods. By now if it could be a week into october....:icecream: So the average temps are in the 40's... Just nice for salting. If it's still Sept. I'd have to start the salting by the end of week 1. The rest of life will go on with little change. Well except for modern things of course. Maybe I'll go and start cutting more wood.... It would be good for barter. Considering most folks only have gas saws.


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## PrincessFerf (Apr 25, 2008)

The time of year this event would occur is key, especially to those of us "up north". September (and even the first half of October) can still bring daytime temps up into the 70's and even 80's. 

I am enjoying reading these responses, its shown me areas where our own preps are lacking and where we would need to consider filling gaps (such as a generator). In other areas, I am pleasantly surprised that we would do OK (firewood, food, water, access to hunting, etc.)... my key area of comfort is that I live in a rural area with supportive neighbors. 

In any sort of SHTF scenario, I would be 10 times more worried if I were in an urban/city area.


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## crtreedude (Jun 14, 2006)

PrincessFerf said:


> In any sort of SHTF scenario, I would be 10 times more worried if I were in an urban/city area.


I think this is really something to think about. My wife and I took a decision about 8 years ago to simplify our lives, though we financial were fine. Now it looks brilliant. We always had a plan to finish up in Latin America, mainly because she always wanted to be fluent in Spanish.

One thing is for certain, if civilization falls, the higher you are, the harder you will hit. Without exaggerating too much, it is easier to buy horseshoes here, than parts for a car. All hardware stores have a complete selection of horseshoes and the tools you need. You can also buy tack as well. Things will slow down, but honestly, not a heck of a lot in a world where if too friends meet on a road, they think nothing to stopping and chatting, without a care regarding the traffic going both ways - and the traffic doesn't care either. :lol:

So, we might notice a bit, but still, not that much.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

First thing I would do is haul some buckets of water from the creek because as soon as the power goes out everyone has to go #2. (I don't understand that reaction) My big concern would be access to water. I've got wood for cooking and food to cook. Enough supplies to last a couple weeks at least. But the water issue would be a problem. we are looking into installing a hand pump in the guest house for such emergencies. Or even using a solar power source for the well.


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## crtreedude (Jun 14, 2006)

Danaus29 said:


> First thing I would do is haul some buckets of water from the creek because as soon as the power goes out everyone has to go #2. (*I don't understand that reaction*) My big concern would be access to water. I've got wood for cooking and food to cook. Enough supplies to last a couple weeks at least. But the water issue would be a problem. we are looking into installing a hand pump in the guest house for such emergencies. Or even using a solar power source for the well.


Well, when the #2 hits the fan, it had to come from somewhere, now didn't it?


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

manygoatsnmore said:


> I'd be continuing to wash clothes in filtered water in a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger, cooking on a campstove, small BBQ or other propane powered appliance. As soon as I realized the power might be out for an extended length of time, I'd have taken all the tanks in and had them filled - that doesn't run on electricity, so it would be available at the feedstore, where I'd also be stocking up on animal feed.


Is there a reason for washing clothes in filtered water? that I don't know about?
--------------------

As far as work, if this emergency has knocked out the power, getting to work would be a very short lived phenomena. Local stations might be able to get a genny and pump out their fuel... but if they don't get resupplied, it's game over in a day or two at most.

Hospital gennies will run for a while, but they only have a few days to a weeks worth of fuel on hand.

No matter what kind of job I had, I'd not be going in to work. I'd be hunkering down, after getting to town once to see if there was any feed stocks salvageable.

There'd come a time, when civility would break down, two days? a week? and the violence would spread like fire... zero reason to leave the house if you ever made it back home. IF I had to leave for some kind of emergency, it would be in an armed convoy situation.

I wouldn't be selling ANY livestock, to ANYONE. You may need to eat them yourself later. Sell to others, and let them know you have livestock, and you'll have hungry people wanting to buy or take the rest of your livestock... they'll want to pay in fiat paper, worthless. Or they'll come armed and take it... and you'll give it up or someone must die. Imho, best to not advertise you have diddly.

Things get really hairysome, I have a standard plan of killing all excess roosters, and all of the noisy ones. I usually have a couple dozen of small chickens, that haven't learned to crow yet. Crowing roosters screams I AM FOOD, COME EAT MY BRAINS... Crowers will get eaten, by me or the dogs.

manygoats... I'd keep the horse. Regardless of feed problems. Your vehicle might become a very expensive food dehydrator, or yard art, if things don't get better. The horse could be very valuable for getting around. If things get really bad, it'll gain even more value, and you can always eat it to fend off starvation. Unless you could sell it for something that you vitally need and could get it immediately, I'd keep it. A pocketful of paper money (tp) would pale in comparison to a month or more's worth of food off the horse carcass.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Fast forward. It's been a month since the grid/phone/net went down. The trickle of supplies into your local grocery has all but dried up. The few gas stations that were able to get a generator working have emptied their tanks. All deliveries have been routed to the local gov to keep police/ambulances/fire fighters going. Most business have closed their doors, indefinitely. There may be some grain elevators or storage facilities in your area with stores of grains and/or beans. If so, the local authorities have commandeered them and are passing out the food. Do you know if such is available? If you received whole grains and/or beans can you make them into a meal for your family? Could you travel to pick up the food? Do you need to go and possibly expose yourself to danger by trying to find food?


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## fostermomma (Feb 26, 2007)

Well I would be home with all of the kids except my oldest. We would continue school work and chores as normal. Dh would make his way home from work and pick up our oldest. Until they arrive we continue as normal. My folks would come here and bring what they could load up with them and they would stay for the long haul. We would stay home other than to visit neighbor and family members in walking distance. We might venture to the local post office that's 2 miles from us nothing else in the town anyway and see if they have any information.

We would stay home as long as possible and work on canning, and drying food as well as hunting and fishing. We would have to try and make it to the next town over to get meds and pick up any supplies if possible. Dh, oldest boys, and other men in the family would go together and they would get as much info as possible. All the ladies would stay home and continue life as normal as possible.

When the men get back with the meds and any supplies all are put away and continue life as best we can. At around a month we might start talking to neighbors about increasing our local neighbor hood watch program and also try setting up a flea market/trade center at the local post office parking lot. We are far enough out that the folks in the big town won't make it on foot easily and yet we are far enough out that most folks have gardens and animals and are prepared for the basics and are just now starting to worry.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

WOW a whole month and power is still down everywhere and its now October
and growing cooler the realisation sets in that power will probably not be on
anytime soon its teotwawki at least it seems to be.

nothing much has changed except i probably have some extra people here
family.Generators are not started unless very important both to conserve fuel
and so as not to invite any trouble which is likely already rampant.
solar and wind are working well for lighting, entertainment and most houshold
uses but generator is still needed to pump from the deep well to houshold storage tank.


its about time for acorns to start falling i think these will be collected this
year and turned into flour as they may well be needed this year.
any game just became fair game season or not meat is jerked.
opuntia cactus fruit ripens late october early november collecting and
preserving these is also on the todo list

ive run out of rabbit food most likely and are attempting to feed with wild foods like cattail,blackberry,oak,thornless opuntia,acorns and whatever other stuff i can find for them
Im not sure how effective this will be ill miss my rabbit meat if i cant make
this work.


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## PrincessFerf (Apr 25, 2008)

I would highly doubt that we'd venture off our our place, beyond keeping in touch with our immediate neighbors. We would band together with them to get hunting going, combining our skills and tools for the betterment of the group. Our immediate neighbors are comprised of less than 20 people, including my family. This doesn't include family that may join us. This group would have sufficient tools and skills to get through the winter ok. 

If we were completely on our own, at the end of one month, things would begin to get harder for us since we don't have long-term preps. I would be more worried about the winter, and by late October - frost and snow aren't uncommon to happen at night.

I would have long given up worrying about my job.... heck, after the first week it wouldn't be a worry of mine.  

I agree with Texican in regards to selling off livestock. Reinforcing our small community of immediate neighbors (we are blessed to live near good people) would be a top priority, along with water/food/wood for heating.

We have a natural fireplace that works well for keeping part of the house toasty. All of our immediate neighbors also have fireplaces and one of them has a wood furnace. There's lots of woods around us and I would expect several of us would be getting firewood, several would be hunting and several of us preparing and storing meat.

We do a lot of canning and our neighbors regularly hunt. DH is learning to hunt, but that would need to kick up. My concern would be whether or not we would all have enough ammo. If we ran out of ammo, I'd probably have to get out my bow and dust off my skills.


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## willbuck1 (Apr 4, 2010)

Remember folks in the middle ages most deaths from starvation happened in the spring and early summer. That is after stored food is gone and before the next crops are harvested. Most of your neighbors who garden didn't plant enough to live on until then. Better figure out ways to build greenhouses or there will be problems. Hunting is great but the high demand will make game scarce very quickly.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Texican, the only reason I'd be washing my clothes in filtered water would be because I don't have rain water (Sept is typically a drought month here), and the river water isn't necessarily all that clean. Since I have the filters, and use them regularly now, I'd continue to do so then. I wash my clothes in either rain water or filtered water now because I have orange/brown well water - turns the clothes "interesting" colors. 

So, it's been a month now - I can't get to work. Even though the hospital would still be open, even without a generator, the kinds of care we could give there would be changed by the lack of electricity, and even with the need for nurses, with no fuel, I would not be leaving the home place. It's starting to get colder, nights are chilly and we've had our first frosts, but the blankets over the plants worked and we are still harvesting some foods from the garden. The woodstove is keeping the house toasty, even when used part time and dampered down. 

The foods from the freezer have all been canned or dehydrated, meat jerked hard, like old time jerky, not the tender stuff that used to be available at the stores. The rains have returned, and all the buckets, barrels, totes and other water holding containers under the barn drip line are full, and will likely remain so throughout the fall, winter and spring to come. 

The potatoes have been harvested from part of the garden, and the rest have been covered with spoiled hay mulch to protect them from freezing, as have the carrots. Between the pantry stores, the fresh foods still in the garden, the greenhouse addition just finished off the south side of the house and planted to cool weather crops and greens, and the newrly harvested potatoes and carrots, as well as milk and eggs, we are in great shape as far as food goes. No need to go looking for food in town, 17 or 30 miles away, respectively. I'm thankful for the aluminum coffee pot (stovetop percolator), and a good supply of coffee and fixings for it. None the less, after inventorying all food stocks, I am rationing our stores to make sure they last until life returns to "normal".

The hay was moved to my home by my hay supplier as soon as I suspected gas may become an issue, so there is ample food for the horse and goats, and on one of the first trips to work, I paid cash at 4 different stores, including the feed store, for dog and cat food. Even though we normally keep a good supply on hand, this is one item that I can see running out of, so I bought as much as I could. Our LGDs are a working part of the farm, and even more important now. I also bought as much more feed as allowed at the feed store, to make sure the milk goats would continue to have all they needed. Breeding season is here, and I've made sure 2 of the goats are bred early while the other 3 will not be bred until late in the season, in order to assure the best chance of a continuous milk supply.

All of the propane tanks have been filled, and thanks to spending the summer picking up old propane cylinders at every garage sale and then exchanging them for new tanks at the Blue Rhino stand, there is a plentiful supply available. This will be used very sparingly, with most cooking and heating of water done on the wood stove. The kerosene lamps are used sparingly, as well, and life has slowed...to bed with the chickens and up with them, too. Time is spent continuing to harvest wood from the clearcut next door as well as from my own woods. Gas for the chainsaw is more important than for the car at this point. I'm now very happy I saved all that small twiggy wood, bark chunks and half rotted wood rather than burning it - it will stretch our wood supply by at least another year by using it all.

With time spent at home, rather than on the road or at a job, after the chores are done each day, there is time to work on projects at home, using the stored supplies on hand, such as fencing and cross fencing the place, building simple shelters, and expanding the garden for the next year. There is, as well, time to read from the thousands of titles in my home library, listen to CDs on the (charged by solar) laptop, and work the collection of Sudoku puzzles - which are copied by hand from the puzzle books to plain paper, many puzzles to the page and using both sides of the page at that. The basic chores take longer, but are still done in time to allow this leisure time.

I worry about how I will be able to pay off my mortgage if I am not able to work, can't access any of my accounts, and probably have no value left in those accounts anyway...


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Manygoats -- the potatoes and carrots that you left in the garden under a hay mulch will almost certainly be eaten by mice before winter's end. Not a disaster in normal times, but if you are counting on them for food in tough times, better keep them in a more protected place.

Kathleen


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## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

Well when we had our ice storm our electricity was off for 14 days :clap:We don't keep much food in the freezers nope good old jars plus lots of survival foods . Got some good L E D lights wood burner stove and lots of wood . Just go to bed earlier and keep my guns a little closed would be our biggest change anyway it went . 

Till i saw it on Tv i didn't know some people stop at the store every day and don't have any cash  Well i grew up with a outhouse and only had a light in each room not to be left on very long either :clap:. Hadn't been for the old refrigerator don' think we would had any electricity. 

Few times i have almost told them what they could do with their electric meter anyway. So first thing i'd do is see if i still had a meter :run:


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

BlueJuniperFarm said:


> Manygoats -- the potatoes and carrots that you left in the garden under a hay mulch will almost certainly be eaten by mice before winter's end. Not a disaster in normal times, but if you are counting on them for food in tough times, better keep them in a more protected place.
> 
> Kathleen


I've kept them in the ground under heavy mulch many times and lost only a few nibbles to the tops of the carrots to voles and mice. The potatoes are actually in the dirt, well hilled and the spoiled hay is just added insurance against freezing. I find they keep longer in the ground than out, especially if there is a chance that they will get frozen out of the ground. That will turn them to spoiled mush in a hurry.


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## KOHL HAWKE (May 8, 2010)

Thank heaven I am home! 
My big worry would be that my children get home soon and safe. I wouldnt go into lock down yet, but I think I would makesure I had ALL the water I could get set aside, and have the boys "tinkle" outside. If more than 24hrs, well then I think I would begin to lock down the fort.
Candles, start livestock shut into barn at night, guns loaded, oh darn the fridge...dry the meat/cook the meat in solar oven, Chat/check on the elderly neighbors- we work together on alot of farming-, the livestock have the pond- and we have the fish so thats taken care of, at least its September and not too hot or cold yet. If this were to continue for more than a week well all bets are off, I would be very testy if new visitors came by. Time to set up the solar shower because the situation isnt the only thing that stinks!
OOPS I didnt jump ahead just noticed that and editing- sorry.


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## KOHL HAWKE (May 8, 2010)

A full month! Goverment takeover would send people snooping around the farm for food- Could I? would I protect it at any cost? I would start an indoor "green house" and start some plants, beans and such. Think hothouse. Go to the woods across road and collect firewood for the cold months, shut off kids bedrooms and have them hunkerdown in the livingroom. Do I have enough feed for livestock? I would need to cull some to make the winter. I also worked at a hospital as a cardiac nurse and after the first 24hrs, well lets say I need to be home. I have a stash of medical supplies- hope the kids can use animal antibiotics ( need to check this asap as I hadnt thought of it till now) since the stores are out. The only thing I am not ready for is surg. I am not a M.D.- But foods are low, clean water- is what we clean, I pray the neighbors stay friendly.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

KOHL HAWKE said:


> A full month! Goverment takeover would send people snooping around the farm for food- Could I? would I protect it at any cost?


After it became apparent this was a long term bugaboo, I'd used a few gallons of diesel, pulling culverts out of the road. I'd still be able to negotiate through the woods and get out... but most vehicles would turn around when they see a 6' wide trench, 6' deep in the road. Anyone wanting to visit would need to know the 'old roads' in, unless they were on horseback or footback. If I started hearing gunfire in the distance, the chainsaw would be used to drop hundreds of logs across the road... about a mile away. I'd actually not do much to my road close to the house... if someone were coming down the road, they'd be stopped, and I'd subtly redirect them to some other place. I'd try and disguise my entrance road, pulling the gate, and fencing over the road. Precious fertilizer and grass seeds would be planted, to try and disguise the dirt road turnoff.

Govt. workers are not your friend. I won't tolerate enemies. Someone going to Cozumel or on cruises or buying new vehicles every year... instead of prepping... well, they can go on a cruise when the shtf... I'll have nothing for them.


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## KOHL HAWKE (May 8, 2010)

The problem is there is a 1 to 3 acre housing development, all very high end homes, no livestock- you know the type. any ways its only 2 miles away and 1 by the way the crow flies. These are the neighbors I am afraid of I know they would come. I think that disguiseing the road is a great idea, but it wouldnt work for me I wish it would. Id love to move further out but the market for selling my home now sucks here. So I suppose I could get somemore ammo, the thought of it saddens me- but one must do what one must. Better get my boys some practice shot, just incase.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

*Days One & Two *

I would start by covering up the deep freezer with a few blankets to protect the contents. Without any news, I would have no idea as to when it would end. I would likely check with a few of the neighbors in my homeowners association to see if they knew anything. We are also two blocks from a fire station, so I might be able to get information there. Chances are good that one of them (mostly retired folks) would have hopped into their cars to check on family in other neighborhoods. I would be able to get a better idea of how widespread the outage is.

Without power, my husband's job would shut down and he would be on his way home. Since he works in a suburb and passes through the opposite side of the city, I would soon develop a fairly accurate picture of the enormity of the situation. My daughters (in their 20's) may or may not be at home but they would be able to walk home or catch the bus. The lack of power for traffic lights doesn't stop the buses from running on schedule.

We would have a quick family meeting which would include the relatives who rent a house next door to us and hubby's daughter who rents from a several blocks away. We would make a plan for anyone who wants to evacuate to my parents house. We would begin the next day at dawn by taking our chickens and quail out to their house (45 mins away). While there, we would borrow Mom & Dad's van with the large gas tank so that we'd have another big vehicle that we could pack stuff into.

Essentially, we'd want to be out of the city within 3 days. We had a bad storm some years ago where power was out for a week. It was peaceful, but without access to information, human nature would get ugly and the rumor mill would be ridiculous. I wouldn't want to wait around too long.

We would pack all of the important things that we would need like tools, fireplace insert, charcoal grill, matches,candles, canning supplies,clothes, personal care items, rolls of fencing, blankets, med supplies,bug-out-bags and bins, bikes,tents, food,etc...Most of this is kept in one area and 

We would also try to smoke or cook as much meat as possible to preserve the life. After a few days, I would use dry ice in the freezer and move it to my parent's house. I don't have a lot of it on hand and don't know how long what I have will last. We would not try to can anything...There should be time to do that once we get to my parents' house.

All of this moving would be difficult because we would only have a limited amount of gas. Our gas tank would be close to full when this event happened and we do keep several gas cans full at all times. We would likely limit ourselves to no more than three trips to get fully moved.

If there was room, I would want to dig up some of the plants in the garden like beets, turnips and amaranth for the chickens and we would dig up the strawberry plants, garlic, onions and potatoes, squash, tomatoes, peppers and callaloo. I would also bring the window boxes that I grow herbs and lettuces in.

The idea of getting out of dodge might seem a bit dramatic to those who don't live in the city but the situation being described in the scenario is very different from even an extended power outage in my city. The lack of information would really make most city people crazy in a very short period of time. After the big storm that I mentioned previously, cell phones and battery powered radios still worked and people were able to check on family members. In many areas, even the land lines still worked. City people aren't used to feeling cut off from the rest of the world.

Though we don't have a radio capable of receiving shortwave transmissions, I believe that my parents do. In the course of our move, Mom would have let us know what was going on. Also, most of us in my household can speak Spanish and one daughter can speak both Chinese and Japanese, so we may even be able to understand some of the broadcasts in foreign languages. 

The broadcast information about the situation being long-term/permanent would just reinforce our decision to move onto the farm with my parents. We would also have to retrieve my sister who is legally blind. She lives in the suburbs, but is on the way to Mom & Dad's house.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

*Day Three*

By this time, we are essentially moved in at the farm and the English shortwave broadcasts are confirming what our daughter translated. Though my parents have two generators (1 portable and 1 stationary), we would be trying to conserve fuel. The freezers would be powered up for only an hour or so per day.

The house is heated with fuel oil, but we would not be using it, even if the nights were a bit chilly. We would layer up to stay comfortable. During the day, Mom and I would work on canning up the food from the freezers and we would bake things as needed. My daughters would be put to work replanting the stuff that I pulled out of the gardens at home. My father, husband and brother in law would work on building some fencing for the chickens. Until it was completed, the birds would have to stay in the barn and we would bring them wheelbarrows of weeds and leaves to pick through. We would try to operate on more of a sunup til sundown type of schedule.

With two wells and the generators to power the pumps, water isn't a big concern yet. There are water barrels at all corners of the house that can be used for the animals, gardens and flushing. Potable water will be a greater concern in the future, though.

The big concern will be heating. The cooking stove is propane but the house is not equipped with a fireplace, woodstove or any other alternative heat source. (In the past, they have used the propane stove for heat when the furnace broke.) For this reason, we would have pulled out the fireplace insert in our own house before bugging out. My parents do have a wood stove that they purchased when I was 8 years old and never installed. It is still in the box! I am not sure if they have any stove pipe or anything else that would have been required to install it. For this reason, we may have to improvise or try to find some from the neighbor down the road who sells woodburning furnaces.I would also hope to get the materials to install our firplace insert and use it as a freestanding wood stove. We would either need to find legs for it or set it atop of some cinderblocks or something. 

Once at least one woodstove is in place, we would spend a lot of time each day trying to get firewood to last the winter. One possible source is the same man who sells the furnaces. He has a lot of reclaimed lumber from deconstructing a barn. He also has a lot of earthmoving equipment because he is a landscaper. However, gas/diesel may be an issue for him, too. We would be looking for a lot of fallen trees and branches in the woods on the property.

Foodwise, there would be a lot of store bought, shelf stable things. My parents have always stocked a lot of food and my sisters and I (one more sister that I neglected to mention)would bring all of our food. I am the only one who has canned in recent years. We would try to eat the perishable items that we cannot preserve before they spoil. We would also try to eat the chicken eggs, quail eggs, etc... as they come in or barter them with the neighbors for other things. It would be important that we save as much of our non-perishables for the Springtime. We would all spend as much time harvesting apples from the six trees on the property. These would be utilized as either people food throughout the winter or as feed for the chickens.

Since our quail aren't likely to decide to sit on eggs, we would experiment with making a non-electric incubator. Quail mature in 6 weeks so they would make an excellent source of meat for the coming winter. As for the chickens, unless we had gone out of our way to my friend's farm to pick up a couple of my roosters, we would have no way of raising any chicken chicks. Our 9 chickens would just be useful for eggs, unless we decided to slaughter a few.

Our every action would be aimed at getting ready for the long winter ahead.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

*One Month Later*

In the time that has passed, we wouldn't have felt comfortable driving into the nearest suburb to get any supplies from the grocery store, though we would have a certain amount of cash on hand. Instead, we would try to cut deals with some of the local farmers.(Maybe they need money to go into town) Across the street is a horse farm and stable. They have a lot of horses on site that they may be struggling to care for. It would be difficult to find sufficient hay to get a horse through winter, so we might be able to cut some forage on the property for the horses to eat. We wouldn't have adequate fencing for a horse, so one wouldn't be feasible to keep on our property exclusively. We would trade forage and eggs for the ability to use a horse whenever we needed to. About a quarter of a mile away is the family of a high school friend. They have goats (and more horses) and I'm not sure what else, though they used to have a llama! This would be another bartering opportunity. My mother mentioned a few weeks ago that the neighbor who sells the wood furnaces has chickens (I had forgotten this) I don't know if he has any roosters or not, so maybe we could trade money, work or something else and get a rooster. 

During this time, we would be moving the freezers onto the enclosed back porch. The porch is not heated during the winter and would require less energy to keep things cold. Once the deep freeze sets in, we could always move the food into tote bins or coolers and unplug the freezers.

The enclosed side porch would be used to grow some lettuces, spinach, etc...through the winter to give us a bit of diet variety. The difficult part of all of this is that we like to be prepared but would actually be consuming our supplies. We would need to endeavor to always put something away for another day by either freezing, drying, preserving, making from scratch, etc...Hopefully, we would have found a way to hatch the quail eggs and would have a steady supply of birds that we could either eat, preserve or barter for anything that we are lacking. Our chicken egg supply would drop as we would be forced to feed newly hatched quail chicks scrambled or boiled eggs. Gathering branches and deadfall would still be a daily ocurrence as we would still be behind the 8 ball as far as firewood for the winter. The problem would be that we wouldn't know exactly how much we would need so we would just have to keep cutting until we couldn't locate any more that could be used during the current season. (I'm sure dad has a lot of lumber scraps in one of the barns, but we might need that for building and repairs.) Once we had used up the deadfall, we would have to start cutting the greener stuff to put away for next year since it doesn't sound as though things are going to get any better, anytime soon.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Day one and the power goes off. and phones are gone too. (Don't know about internet without electric my computer is down.) This is not too uncommon around here, but generally not on a clear day like today.

I throw a bunch of quilts over the freezer and the fridge. Check the 5 gallon water jugs in the bathroom. They're full and the 1500 gal poly cistern is full. We had a rain recently and both ponds are full. Goat's water is full so I'm ok on water. (We are on a shared well, no power, no water.)

I drive over to Roy and Diane's (neighbors) to ask if they will use the cell to call the electric co and phone co. Diane says the cell phones are down. I'm in a dead spot for reception and don't have a cell. I knew the electric was off to other homes because the well is on a different meter than mine.

Diane and I visit a bit, then she goes to start dinner on the grill and I go home to feed the livestock and milk. We drink the milk warm so I don't open the fridge. That evening I try to get some news on daughter's radio after noticing there was only static coming out and she seemed to have lost her station. Can't pick up any stations at all. Not even that obnoxious rap that comes in so strong and is hard to avoid. So I dig out the shortwave and try to find anything. Finally hear some people talking about power outages. One seems to be in NY and another in FL. Texas is on a separate grid though so even if NY and FL are down, we shouldn't be affected by that, should we?

To hot in my bedroom so I sit out on the porch till late. Daughter had a jar of beans for supper. I drank some milk and had some crackers. Heat saps my appetite. To entertain myself I keep listening to the short wave. I guess it gradually dawns on me that this is not going to be a quick fix for the power company.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Day 2

I wake at first light. Start pulling all the milk out of the fridge and pouring into qt jars. Get out the propane camp stove and start the canner. I have one load finished before the goats come up to be milked. I had a qt of milk for breakfast, daughter had a qt and some dried fruit as usual. After milking I run a second canner load of milk. That took care of the backlog in the fridge. I take enough stuff out of the fridge freezer to make a big pot of soup and stick the rest in the chest freezer. Barely enough room, but part of the contents of the chest freezer is jugs of ice. I also have some grains I was freezing, some homeground flour and all the jars of butter and lard I canned. It keeps better in the freezer. Thankfully I canned all that pig some time back. I grab a soup bone while the lid is up and close it quickly, covering with the quilts. There is quite a bit of frozen milk in there yet. 

Took the milk jars out of the pot and dropped the soup bone and veggies from the freezer into the hot water. Bring it back to a boil then turn it off and wrap it in some heavy towels and an old blanket.

I clean out the fridge, wiping it with alcohol to prevent mildew. Mom taught me that. Close the door after putting an open box of baking soda in each compartment. Pull the plug.

(I took the a/c unit out of my window the first night and put the screen back. Moved my bed to get a better draft.)

I go down to the storage trailer and bring back fuel for the lamps. I fill all the wall lamps and put them on their brackets. We'll only need them a little while in the evenings. We'll be sitting on the porch till bedtime and I want a lamp in case a snake decides to join us. Wonder if Chris (neighbor) can come roof the porch for me. I'll ask him tomorrow. I give daughter the old cd player with ear buds. Music keeps her quiet and happy. We have soup for lunch and supper and I put the rest into jars and can it. Not quite enough for a canner load so I can a couple jars of beans too. I get out the hand crank grain mill and start daughter grinding some oats for tomorrow. The mill sort of flakes the oats on coarse setting. I put some in a jar and pour boiling water over them. Wrap it up in towels and stick it in a box. I haul some water from the pond for my container garden. Daughter and I eat fresh peppers and tomatoes for a snack and share a melon.

When I go to feed, I take note of which cockerels need to be culled. As soon as it is dark, I go down to the coops with my black light and grab three young ones. I get them cleaned and cut up and drop them in the hot water from the canning. Toss in some onions and peppers and salt. Bring the water to a boil turn it off and wrap the covered pot real well to retain the heat.

While I sit on the porch, I grind some coffee beans for morning. No point in getting too uncivilized!

Since the goats aren't producing heavily this time of year, we can manage to drink it all. We love the milk so it isn't too great an effort.

Day 3-7
Pretty much the same. Been thawing the milk in the freezer a bit at a time and canning it. Culling 2 or 3 cockerels or drakes a day and canning what we don't eat. Chris agreed to put a roof over the back porch and I can put up the screen wire. I just can't roof.

The neighbors are desperate for water. I dragged out my hand pump and pipe and went with them to their well (I'm on a different one that is much further away.) They pull the electric pump and install my hand pump. They agree that I can use all the water I want in exchange. This well is about 300 ft from my house and uphill. The other well is over 1/2 mile away and almost impossible for me to reach. I make a surge tank next to the pump, cut my black poly supply line to the other well (if power ever comes back I can splice it back in) and run the line down to the house. I put a spigot on the end. Now I just have to walk up occasionally and fill the surge tank. The poly tank was plumbed to roof catch before we moved. As soon as it is empty I'll get Chris and Roy to move it and replumb it.

I bring the old wood stove up next to the house and rig up a pipe to keep smoke out of my eyes. Time to start saving the propane. Plenty of squaw wood around. Have to keep it dry.

The young couple next door took their three young daughters and went to Austin to stay with her mother. They asked me to take care of the donkey. They didn't take all their cats either. Didn't say why. The other two families back here are pretty self sufficient. Not really preppers, but both keep pantries and have livestock.

Roy and Diane agree to bring firewood in exchange for eggs and milk. Chris has a few hens and a couple of steers and some horses.

I ask Chris to take a message to my sister who lives 10 miles from here since he was driving into town. She is doing ok but gas for the genny is running low. Worried about her.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

Nice tip about the alcohol in the fridge, Cyngbaeld! I'll have to remember that one. I also like the plan for the water. One thing about living in the city is that we don't lose our water when the power goes out. Another thing about living in the city is that if you don't get out fast enough, then water is the least of your worries!

My parents have a cistern at their house in addition to the two wells. We've never used it. Does anyone know how you would go about utilizing it? Are you supposed to drop a bucket down into it? Is there supposed to be something in the basement to access it? I think I've been in the basement twice and wouldn't have a clue as to what I was looking for!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Get a pitcher pump for the cistern. It more than likely needs to be emptied and cleaned out before it is usable. You can drop an electric submersible sump pump in now and empty it into the yard or ditch.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

TheMartianChick said:


> *Day Three*
> 
> 
> Since our quail aren't likely to decide to sit on eggs, we would experiment with making a non-electric incubator. Quail mature in 6 weeks so they would make an excellent source of meat for the coming winter. As for the chickens, unless we had gone out of our way to my friend's farm to pick up a couple of my roosters, we would have no way of raising any chicken chicks. Our 9 chickens would just be useful for eggs, unless we decided to slaughter a few.
> ...


There are several nice non electric model incubators you could get now, while the gettings good. Silkie hens are the best, I have seen silkie roo's sitting for a while. Quite a few bantam chicken breeds retain their natural ability to set/raise chicks. If you want chickens, post troubles, a dozen or so bantams are indispensable.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

I had silkies as a kid and loved them, Texican. The problem is that Texas A&M quail eggs are so darn tiny that even my quail crack them in their cages from time to time. A silkie would be more than willing to sit on quail eggs (or ping-pong balls for that matter!), but would probably have trouble keeping them from breaking. The good thing is that quail eggs are extremely forgiving during the incubation process. The humidity doesn't have to be exactly right...the temp can waver quite a bit and the only effect is that the incubation time might be extended by a day or two. I think that it might be possible to hatch them using a small styrofoam cooler, hot water bottle and a piece of damp sponge for the humidity. Since we would be home for the duration, we should be able to keep the eggs viable enough to get them to hatch.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Get a pitcher pump for the cistern. It more than likely needs to be emptied and cleaned out before it is usable. You can drop an electric submersible sump pump in now and empty it into the yard or ditch.


Thank you! I always wondered how that was supposed to work!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Day 14-45
Chris brings me one of my sister's Nubian bucks. Only one of my does is Nubian and the others are LaManchas or LaMancha/Fr Alpine. However, a healthy Nubian is much better than one of my neighbor's scrub bucks that is not properly cared for. I want to breed early to have plenty of milk early in spring. I hold back the youngest doelings in a separate pen to breed a bit later in the season, letting the 5 older does go with the buck.

The neighbor up front and her elderly father aren't there anymore. She didn't say anything to anybody but we assume they went to stay with her son in town. The neighbors next to her are gone. They too have family in town. None of them are preppers. The neighbors up front with the horses are hanging in and David and his family are there. David came to see how we did the well and fixed his the same. Jim and Mark came too and fixed the community well for the families closest to it. Here is the page with instructions on an inertia well pump:
http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm

Jim sold off all his poultry so he wouldn't have to feed them. He raises them for the farm exemption but never butchers or eats any. He sells them live. He kept several hens for family eggs. Mark has a few hens and his FIL lives with the family and has planted a nice orchard and put in quite a garden. He has a greenhouse too. Jim's wife Kim gardens. Mary's family on the other side of Jim has a huge garden but no livestock. Her husband does odd jobs and is a hard worker but doesn't speak English. That's pretty much all the close neighbors that I know. There are several ranchers in the vicinity but they keep to themselves.

I'm still culling poultry. The dogs are staying fed on the entrails. I don't have energy to do more than 2-3 a day. I'm doing laundry by hand. The neighbors are kind enough to fill my surge tank when they go to pump for themselves. That saves me a lot of walking. We set up a message box by the pump so we don't have to walk to each other's homes each time. With gas getting scarce everybody is cutting back on using their 4wheelers and vehicles. I'm eying the donkey and wondering about a cart.

All the neighbors who didn't have a garden this summer are wanting one now. I share seeds with those who are lacking in that dept.

The neighboring men have set up road blocks on the FM on each side of our neighborhood. Some of the ranchers have joined them. They are on horseback and escort any passers thru from one end to the other and see them on their way. 

We hear of trouble in the larger towns and all the cities via shortwave. I normally sleep with the .38 handy. Now I keep the 12 gauge loaded and handy as well.

Chris put a bank of dirt across the shared driveway with his front end loader. I make sure all my gates are locked and the dogs are inside the fence. The creek wraps around my property and a vehicle couldn't get thru the trees.

Worried about my family. Will I ever hear from them again? The only one close is my sister, 10 miles away. Might as well be 100 right now.

My garden is coming on better as the weather cools. I put in my potatoes and onions. Start some lettuce too. Should be harvesting sweet potatoes soon. I'm making a solar dehydrator. I'm using scrap wood and the glass door from a shower that we took out of the house earlier this yr.
http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/solarchm.htm

Finally cooler and I took the mylar off the windows. Saving it for next yr. I put it on with water and static cling holds it in place.

Dragged out the treadle sewing machine and started making insulated curtains to help keep the house warm this winter. I'll be wanting Chris to come install the wood stove in the house soon. We don't have much of a heating season but it will be good to have when needed and I can cook on it.

Glad I ordered enough coir fiber to keep the composting toilet going at least a yr. Daughter has a 1 pint flush toilet in her bathroom and I have a composter in mine.

Really glad we have no carpet! My new vinyl is so easy to keep swept and mopped!

Chris came by with a truck load of corn for me. He and some of the other neighbors went to the elevator and brought home as much as they could. I gave him some ducks to eat and promised him some more when he wanted them as long as it was within a reasonable time frame and they weren't already culled. (Chris is a procrastinator deluxe.)

All the neighbors have been coming by with their corn to grind in my mill. They are making tortillas. I enjoy the company.

Roy shot a wild pig. We are having BBQ tonight! I'm taking fresh veggies and a couple of big melons and a big bowl of rice. The whole neighborhood is coming. The men will be taking turns to do patrol in pairs while the party is going on. Not safe to leave our homes unoccupied for several hours without watching.

I showed everyone how to make tea from the Yaupon Holly that grows wild here. They had been missing their caffeine as they were running out of coffee. We enjoyed it with the BBQ. Had a lovely time singing around the fire with all the children.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

TheMartianChick said:


> I had silkies as a kid and loved them, Texican. The problem is that Texas A&M quail eggs are so darn tiny that even my quail crack them in their cages from time to time. A silkie would be more than willing to sit on quail eggs (or ping-pong balls for that matter!), but would probably have trouble keeping them from breaking. The good thing is that quail eggs are extremely forgiving during the incubation process. The humidity doesn't have to be exactly right...the temp can waver quite a bit and the only effect is that the incubation time might be extended by a day or two. I think that it might be possible to hatch them using a small styrofoam cooler, hot water bottle and a piece of damp sponge for the humidity. Since we would be home for the duration, we should be able to keep the eggs viable enough to get them to hatch.


Quail benefit from calcium supplements. A regular hen's eggshell dropped into the cage is much appreciated.

I have had Coturnix set and hatch. They need a LOT more space than most people give them if they are to set.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Quail benefit from calcium supplements. A regular hen's eggshell dropped into the cage is much appreciated.
> 
> *I have had Coturnix set and hatch. They need a LOT more space than most people give them if they are to set.*


Really? Wow! Mine don't even seem to connect the fact that the eggs come out of their own bodies! They always seem kind of surprised that they keep tripping over them...They definitely won't win any awards for intelligence!

We save all eggshells in our house for either the garden or the quail. I only buy calcium supplements for the chickens. I usually have a good supply on hand, but I don't keep that much feed right now. I've got to do a bit better in that department.

Oh, one last cistern question...Would it be possible to raise tilapia in one? There is an old silo base on my parent's property that could be used but the cistern would allow for much deeper water and it is set into the ground so it would be less likely to freeze(maybe).


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

You should be able to raise fish in it. You'll need some way to aerate the water and filter it. Look for info on aquaponics.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Day 46.
Roy came over to bring some corn to grind. He set some of his grandchildren taking turns. He is really worried because he's heard there is rioting in Austin. I tell him that from the SW traffic there is rioting in all the major cities and some of the smaller ones. People are hungry and bored. Deadly combination. He hasn't heard from his daughter since the power went off. Two of his sons live with him but the third is quite some distance. He isn't too worried about the son, mostly just his daughter. The courts took the children from her so she can't live with her parents who now have custody. Roy is ready to go get her anyway. I tell him to go armed and take both sons.

I hear on the SW that some food is being shipped by rail and more cars are coming out of storage to move it. They are having to hire more people to operate switches manually as well as flagmen to route trains . None of the automatic signaling or switching equipment is working. Some areas are getting phone service back up using generators, but it is spotty. There is not enough fuel to run all the generators full time except those equipped to use natural gas. It seems almost all the satellites were damaged. They are saying the power transmission system is going to take possibly years to repair as most of the transformers are toast.

It was a Carrington Flare and we weren't ready. The aurora sure was pretty though. You don't normally see them this far south.

Day 50
I finish fencing around a larger garden area. I've been feeding the birds on this spot and letting them kill the grass for the last 5 yrs and it is ready to plant. I sow some winter oats and austrian peas.

I've nearly got all the cockerels from the past breeding season culled. All the extra drakes are done. I have two toms I'm saving for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That leaves me a trio in each of three breeds. I start culling the Embdens. I plan to cull all but a trio in this breed. I won't cull the American Buffs, the Blues or the Cotton Patch. I will also cull a lot of the chicken hens, especially the crosses.

It looks like the 5 does are bred. Still holding off on the other four if I can keep the buck out.

Day 60
The oats and peas are up and looking good. I've been dehydrating a lot of veggies in the solar dehydrator. Garden is still going strong. Wish I had got that greenhouse up that I've always wanted.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

It has been about three weeks since the lights went out. My parents' house is packed to the rafters. It is a 20 room rambling farmhouse (with one bathroom!) that is now housing 16 people...and there is still a possibility of new arrivals. My nephew lives in Connecticut and would likely have difficulty in getting to us. If he does manage to reach us, he would be a good addition as he is a good problem solver and a volunteer firefighter/EMT. None of my husband's 11 brothers or sisters would have come with us to the farm...They aren't good at making a quick decision and they would want to band together in the city. With no weapons and not a lot of survival skills, they would not fare too well.

There are now 5 young children, since my husband's daughter and her husband would have beat a hasty (but late) retreat from the city after two weeks had passed. (My husband's stepson probably wouldn't come out to the farm because he wouldn't believe that things would get dangerous in the city.)They wouldn't have brought much with them to contribute to the group. What little food that they might have had would have mostly been consumed in the city and both parents probably wouldn't have thought to try to conserve it. Two of her children would still be in diapers when they arrived but potty training would be the first order of business for her, so then there would only be one child needing diapers.

While we would be glad to see them, they would bring a new set of burdens to an already difficult situation. Our son in law is not the most ambitious fellow in the world and he is as slow as molasses when he does attempt to do anything. He is apt to look for every opportunity to sit down when there is work to be done. For this reason, I would assign him to work with me doing the various odd jobs of collecting fallen twigs and branches, caring for quail chicks, collecting wild edibles like nettles and lamb's quarters, gathering produce from the garden, feeding the poultry, collecting fallen apples and weeds for the chickens,raking the leaves that have fallen off of the trees and storing them for poultry bedding, etc. He would probably resent doing those tasks since he would clearly not be working with my dad, my hubby, my sister's hubby and even his own son!

I wouldn't be concerned about his feelings, though, because he would be more of a hindrance to the important projects that the guys would be working on. They would probably be digging an outhouse or two, for use as a backup to the one bathroom. My parents do have a chemical porta potty,too. I just don't know how long the chemicals would last. At least one wood burner would likely be up and running...maybe both. The other key project would still be cutting firewood from fallen trees and maybe throwing together a shed to house the wood. If the son-in-law did take issue with his assigned tasks, then he would be shown the door. Under these circumstances and with so many mouths to feed, slackers would not be tolerated.

There are a few things that we would be carefully rationing at this point. Gasoline would be one of them. We would be using it only for the chainsaws. Another would be propane for the kitchen stove. We would start to heat simple foods on the wood stove so that we all could get used to it. Out of the entire family, the four of us from my household are the only ones experienced with burning wood for fuel, cooking over an open flame and using a woodstove to cook on. (My dad used one when he was growing up, but he is 78 years old.) Most dinners would consist of some kind of stew, lunches would be an assortment of odds and ends and breakfast would revolve around the egg, since we would have both quail and chicken eggs at our disposal.

The generator is propane. We would not use it to operate lights. Instead, we would bring in all of the solar powered lawn stakes in the evening and use them as night lights to keep folks from tripping. We also have a few of those hand crank Dynamo lanterns that could be used when needed and plenty of candles. Essentially, if it was dark, then we would go to bed.

One thing that we should never be is bored. My parents have all sorts of books, puzzles, cards and board games. They also have a lot of children's educational materials like old textbooks and flashcards. Those things would be helpful once we got the kids onto a lesson plan. My sister with vision problems is good at crocheting and would be working her way through lots of yarn that my mom has accumulated over the years. She likely would have brought some of her own, too. My mom and I can handstitch decently enough to make items out of fabric scraps or to mend holes in clothing.


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