Disaster preparedness for the home

. . . and an outhouse to use it in.

A cat.
Dog or two.
Chickens.
Maybe a cow.
Plow horses or oxen.
Guinea hens or geese (low-tech alarm system) .
Fiddle.

Spare chains, gas, oil for saw.

After the recent big Christchurch, NZ earthquake water and sewer were badly damaged. This is what some did:
http://www.showusyourlongdrop.co.nz/

More and more this disaster-preparedness is starting to look like plain old common sense living.

When I first moved up to the boonies many years ago, most folks I knew did not have indoor plumbing or electricity. We hauled water, made our own music, read by the light of oil lamps, and became pretty refined at creating sanitary facilities that were as inviting as circumstances permitted.

A bucket of wood ash served in lieu of a flush and eliminated interest of the local insect community. Bagging and burning rather than dropping one's paper products allowed for an effective `annual flush' (rising and then lowering of the water table in the spring after the thaw) meant that a good spot, once established, could last many years. To ensure that one's anatomy did not adhere to the facilities (a la tongue-on-a-flagpole-at-20-below) one used styrofoam cutouts made a cozy-on-contact surface, hanging the seat on the wall behind the wood stove between trips, or gymnastic manuvering.

Most of the other refinements (beyond walls and ceilings and the optional door) were esthetic: flower vases, posters, graffitti, clever roll holders, missives of love to family and friends, reading material, and so on--self-expression and Northern hospitality; one outhouse I knew doubled as a tool shed. I've been in many a one more inviting than some public (and even a few private) indoor restrooms. Looks like the Kiwi's caught the spirit--probably not that far removed from their collective memory. Thanks for the link . . .

If you have enough prior warning (such as with storms) you can do things like fill a bathtub with water to use in flushing the toilet and use a 7.5 gallon ported fermenter to hold drinking water. This will prevent the need to fire the generator to operate a well pump for a three plus days for just two people. This in turn makes generator load handling easier.

Preparation gets harder for certain classes of disasters, for example river flooding, the best preparation for that is to avoid it (in other words that pretty riverside lot may not be all that pretty after all).

Luckily, I'm a farmer so have plenty of food in my bins although would not be all that great tasting (field corn and soybeans) but it would sustain life. We also have chickens/ducks for eggs and meat (just got 18 more "spent" pullets today). I know how to cook or roast the beans to anneal the tyrosine (spelling?). We've got a timbre and lots of upland range for hunting (although in long term emergencies I'm sure the wild animal pop will be decimated). Water from a year round creek + bleach for sterilization. Working on wood heat but feel this is my weakest area since I would need electricity to run the pumps. We live in a windy area so I've looked into wind generators but they are a bit pricey as all alt energy systems tend to be. Some guys are buying refurbished ones to power their hog houses. We've stocked up on canned goods since we live in the country and can't just run to the store quickly. I'd give us a good chance of surviving the winter!

I guess your survival outlook will have a lot to do with how close you are to the monthly shopping day.

Not hardly there bub.

Thats what Iam saying! ;-)

Just because we usually go shopping at the grocery store once a month in the winter, doesn't require that we depend upon going the the grocery store at all in any given month.

Usually by the time winter arrives we are all set to last anywhere between 6 months and a year.

There is a difference between survival requirements and having things you might like to have.

Thats where Iam finally. Chicken should start lying in Dec. Jan. Will just help that much more. I have a fall garden lookin good to!

Just remember those chickens undergo moulting and most breeds stop laying during their moult which can last up to three months.

We have always had a larder to fall back on even when living in a city. The issue we have in the winter is not wanting to do the slip and slide routine or snow removal routine just to get a bit of food.

For the benefit of Flatbedford and others, that list I unloaded (along with more items) is also available to me if I feel like doing a bit of outdoor living.

However the op has a two week need to get a list together for.

We do the garden routine and all of the associated canning involved, we buy what would have been classified as staples back in the day and roll our own instead of buying ready made items. We are always working on the next round and can sit out all storms, this area isn't seismically active, very low tornado threat, all landed ice in the world could melt and we wouldn't be flooded, the brook across our lot has many, many feet to get to the house, it isn't likely a flood will come through the backyard either. There's a decent hunting area around the house.

Moult is independent of lack of light considerations.

So . . . . does anyone know when the Apocalpyse is happening since it seems as though some folks are convinced it's coming . . .

To get this back to the original poster's question . . . I think he was only looking for ideas for a 1-2 week loss of services . . . not having to survive the barren wasteland after World War III.

The apocalypse is scheduled for 2012--heard it from this Mayan dude I know.

Likely any near term apocalypse will be caused by idiot political hacks of all persuasions. They have a knack for making large scale messes.