Heinlein and Prepping

He was one of the first preppers. He built a fallout shelter and even moved to Colorado to be away from the fallout zone in California. Of course they built NORAD in his front yard just after he moved.

Is Prepping important to anyone here?

Depends on what you mean.

When I lived in the country, I was a 4-H Mom. We had a chest freezer and a generator. I canned food, and had a garden and all of that other fun stuff. Since we'd occasionally drop power, I'd keep water in five-gallon jugs in the basement, so we could flush the potty when the sump-pumps went down. I tried to always have a 6 month supply of food on hand, and good first-aid supplies. I had oil lamps for when the power went out, and always a supply of fire-wood for the same reasons.

I don't live that way anymore, but things are looking so scary, I might resurrect some of those old habits.

If Obama wins this fall or even looks like he will win I am going to get back into prepping seriously. I have slacked off lately but I used to be diligent about my preparations.

That's what I'm thinking, too.

Its not really an option for us right now. If it was just me, I would get the hell out of dodge ASAP because the shit is going to hit the fan when the entitlement state collapses. The percentage of folks in NYC that live completely off the government (and live quite well) is scary. I could tell you stories...

I know stories even here in the boonies. We have had dealings with a welfare queen who owns horses. She uses the money she gets for her two children to care for her animals and the children basically do without. I wish there was some kind of deal where these people that are on welfare could be watched and forced to spend the money we give them on the things they are gifted the money for. If we added a little shame into the mix and forced them to only be able to buy basic staples with their food stamps and housing money more of them would stop being on welfare.

I live at least 10 miles from a major city, over 100,000 in population...

It will save me from the major frying, but not from the fallout, which is why I have other plans in place to save me from that, anyway, yes, I have major plans in place to go off the grid if necassary, and to survive the craziness to come, and it is coming, may be 2 years from now, may be 40 years from now, but either way, my family, my gene pool will survive.

BTW, you have made numerous subjects for admins only to respond to, please fix it, because there are numerous subjects that I would like to respond to, that I can't. Thanks!!

Yeah I cant post in the religion forum. I forgot to bring that up earlier.

I'll look again I thought I fixed those problems

I do have an atavistic desire to own rural property, partly for that reason. Can't say I'm a survivalist, but the idea of owning some remote property and some stuff to survive with appeals to me. My SIL and her husband keep food for 2 years, something I just found out about them.

My neighborhood south of Miami was devastated by hurricane Andrew, no communications or even passable roads for days, no electricity for weeks, so I do at least understand that the veneer of civilization is thinner than many people imagine.

Hello everyone. Is there a hello thread here somewhere?

Sam Cree wrote:

I do have an atavistic desire to own rural property, partly for that reason. Can't say I'm a survivalist, but the idea of owning some remote property and some stuff to survive with appeals to me. My SIL and her husband keep food for 2 years, something I just found out about them.

My neighborhood south of Miami was devastated by hurricane Andrew, no communications or even passable roads for days, no electricity for weeks, so I do at least understand that the veneer of civilization is thinner than many people imagine.

Hello everyone. Is there a hello thread here somewhere?

Sam! Great to see you here.

You can start a Hello thread. In any case hello.

Nilla wrote:

Sam Cree wrote:

I do have an atavistic desire to own rural property, partly for that reason. Can't say I'm a survivalist, but the idea of owning some remote property and some stuff to survive with appeals to me. My SIL and her husband keep food for 2 years, something I just found out about them.

My neighborhood south of Miami was devastated by hurricane Andrew, no communications or even passable roads for days, no electricity for weeks, so I do at least understand that the veneer of civilization is thinner than many people imagine.

Hello everyone. Is there a hello thread here somewhere?

Sam! Great to see you here.

Nice to be here and nice to see you guys too.

Aric2000 wrote:

I live at least 10 miles from a major city, over 100,000 in population...

It will save me from the major frying, but not from the fallout, which is why I have other plans in place to save me from that, anyway, yes, I have major plans in place to go off the grid if necassary, and to survive the craziness to come, and it is coming, may be 2 years from now, may be 40 years from now, but either way, my family, my gene pool will survive.

Wait a second, isn't 100,000 kind of small to be considered a "major city" for purposes of this discussion? I mean, there are close to 300 cities in the US with a population of at least 100K. We'd really be into a SHTF situation before somebody was sending that many nukes over here, wouldn't we?

I ask primarily because the city I live in is over that population.

Is it just me, or are Heinlein's "Crazy Years" coming up soon?

2000-2100 the period of the American Ayatollahs in the Future history.

Well, it wasn't prepping, but I have a story to tell.

We had an electrical fire at my house a few decades ago. It took out the wiring, some of the plumbing, and three or four rooms.

For about four months, I had no electricity. I was "off-grid". Here's how I coped:

I had an old pickup with plenty of room in the engine compartment. I found room in there for an extra automobile battery, and connected it to the regular battery with some cheap jumper cables. As I drove around, the spare battery would charge.

I acquired, from a trailer supply dealer, some twelve volt incandescent bulbs that fit into regular lamp sockets. In those areas where I was working on the electricity, I isolated the wiring, and substituted twelve volt for grid power. (Remember to turn off lights when not in use!)

After lugging the battery in and hooking it up, I could go into a room and flip the light switch on. Modernity!

For water, two projects: I placed many five gallon or so containers around the outside of the house where they could collect rainwater. In my currently unused bathtub, I put two plastic thirty-two gallon trash containers. After a rain, I would bring the smaller water containers to the larger ones, and fill them up.

This provided water for flushing the toilet. A small pail full of water works remarkably well when poured directly into the toilet bowl. You could, for the more genteel set, fill the tank, but that really doesn't work as well.

For washing hands and doing dishes, I placed a pressure tank on the back of my truck and drove down to my cousin's house. He let me connect the tank to his outside faucet, and as the tank filled, it pressurized. When I got back to my house, I connected the tank to my outside faucet, and opened the valves. That portion of the plumbing that was not leaking now had pressurized water ready to flow. (I did not use this water for flushing, as I had that covered.)

More modern convenience!

With these accommodations, I was able to remain on-site while I was making necessary repairs to the rest of the house.

Part of what made this work for me was the season of year in which I was working. That can make a difference, both positive and negative, for what you need to do. But always, you work with what you have, and make the best bargain with it that you can.

As soon as I can have some property bulldozed I am going to start building my new house. It will have no connection to the grid beyond internet.

Gideon wrote:

As soon as I can have some property bulldozed I am going to start building my new house. It will have no connection to the grid beyond internet.

That sounds intriguing. Have you worked on some plans, or is this going to be like a camp cabin?

If I were doing something like that, I'd incorporate some interesting new techniques, along with some reliable tried-and-true.

NicknamedBob wrote:

Gideon wrote:

As soon as I can have some property bulldozed I am going to start building my new house. It will have no connection to the grid beyond internet.

That sounds intriguing. Have you worked on some plans, or is this going to be like a camp cabin?

If I were doing something like that, I'd incorporate some interesting new techniques, along with some reliable tried-and-true.

I am building what is to be a 14th century Scottish living History farm. I start working on my PhD in archaeology with my focus being 14th century farming this fall.

I have already purchased the land and it has been logged I now need it cleared.

The house and surrounding land will be farmed mostly using 14th century techniques. However part of the house will have modern conveniences.

The house will be a reconstruction of the 14th century fortified tower house or small castle that was called Strathaven castle. The first two floors will be totally build as the original would have been and the top two floors will have modern fixtures but hidden as well as possible.

Depending on how much modernity you want to hide, that tower section looks like a good place to put a raised cistern.

Power looks to be a bit difficult, unless you want to also sequester some PV panels somewhere they can't be seen from the ground. Otherwise, you'll be dependent on a wood-burning technology.

Even that isn't too bad, as good airflow and proper design can make a building comfortable in most seasons.

I was wondering if a ground loop without compression could be useful. It isn't 14th century technology, but it could be concealed easily within those thick walls. One way to move the circulating fluid within the loop could be to heat it near the top of the loop, so that it would rise higher in the loop and then fall to the lower levels as circulation began.

This circulation could be implemented by solar thermal collectors, hidden from view, and by panels built into the fireplaces, in the "Heatilator" manner.

By circulating water or brine through this system, a relatively constant temperature could be aimed for, to make the building comfortable year-round. And all of it could be hidden from view, if designed, as the opportunity presents itself, from the ground up.

Another possibility, if you have a small stream nearby, is to use non-powered systems to raise water, on a continual but small scale of operation, with either a hydraulic ram, or Archimedean spiral built into a concealed connection to the water source.

That would be another reason to elevate the water storage.

It might be prudent to recall that one reason many farms, a few decades ago, had ponds not too far from the farmhouse, was that if the Fire Department had to be called, it would be a good idea to have water available that they could draw from and pump.

Man, I don't know about this dark skin color, my least favorite.

OK, I'm a prepper, but it's more a matter of prudence rather than fear.

I live rural in tornado alley.

This state gets hit with many tornados every year.

In keeping with my nature and observations of the aftermath of serious damage, I've prepared to survive an EF5 direct hit.

All the normal preparations you might expect for something like that, including a storm shelter made of 6 inch reenforced concrete that is buried except for the doorway. It's large enough to live in should the house blow away; it was designed to shelter 10 people, but since there is only me and my wife it didn't take much to make it comfortable enough to live in if we had too.

It was a simple matter to expand off that to plan and prepare for a different type of disaster.

Already had the emergency generator, unlimited water supply, fuel storage and since we grow and can much of our own produce, it was a simple matter to increase production. Two freezers, two refrigerators and enough dry and canned goods to last a year

Defense of what we have is a consideration, and I'm not foolish enough to believe it can't be taken, but if it comes to that, I'll just make sure the cost is expensive enough to warrant choosing a softer target.

I don't make a big issue out prepping and choose to believe I've taken reasonable steps without going overboard.

The problem with prepping is that the only real defense against people taking what you have is community. I'm not a people person but I do know my neighbors quite well. When I have the tower house finished we should be pretty much defensible against anything less than a tank.

For power usage I plan to have hidden solar panels and wind turbines that can be raised when no one is about. The heating and cooling system is a good idea and we will have a cistern for rain water on the roof and in the basement/lowest floor.

I think I'd like to check out wind generators. They ought to work well in winter, when it tends to be breezy and there's less sun.

Gideon wrote:

The problem with prepping is that the only real defense against people taking what you have is community. ...

Agreed...and I'm comfortable with my community and the people around me and a willingness to contribute to common defense.

My place is one of the designated rally points for a few close friends...I wouldn't have to go it alone...gotta sleep sometime.


ETA: Why did you choose black background? Hard for me to read...any plans to allow a different skin option in preferences?