Category: Home Power

Lessons Learned from Hurricanes Ike, Rita, and Katrina, by TiredTubes

In September, 2008, Hurricane Ike–a Category 4 hurricane–pounded the Gulf Coast of the southern US. Some coastal communities like Crystal Beach no longer really exist. Inland, life was severely disrupted. For those of us on the South Coast hurricanes are a frequent reality. We were quite well prepared, but used the disruptions and dislocations as a test and opportunity to tune up our preparations. 1. Be ready to help others and to accept help We didn’t need much during Ike, but the power went out before a neighbor finished boarding up his house. My 1 KW inverter, hooked up to …


Letter Re: Lamar Alexander’s Solar Homesteading E-Book

Jim- Your recent link to an item in the Preparedness Forum (100 things that go first…) led me to other parts of the forum where I found a link to Lamar Alexander’s Solar Homesteading e-book. Besides the videos/pictures etc. an e-book is offered for $5. What a bargain! It is full of useful practical ideas, for example: a barrel-in-a-barrel digester that he uses to fuel his gasoline generator which he had converted to run on natural gas; how to dig a “driven-point” well; a solar dishwasher. And on and on. Your readers will want to get this e-book! BTW, I …


Letter Re: Getting Self-Sufficient in Wyoming

Dear Mr. Rawles, I was recently given your novel “Patriots” by a like-minded friend in Wyoming. I read it once for pleasure, then twice with a highlighter, notepad, and Google. It’s a wonderful resource, and I’m looking forward to the new book [“How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”]. Reading “Patriots” left me proud to be an American, and revitalized something I felt I had been losing in the recent years. This is a wonderful country, and I have faith that there are still a bunch of decent God-fearing people who will stand up for …


Letter Re: A Nation of Improvisers–More About Everyday Life in Communist Cuba

First our prayers are with your family in these dire times. The first thing about surviving in Cuba was that we did not see it as “surviving”, it was more like living, we did not know anything else, as the media in Cuba is tightly controlled. I remember as a child we did not have glue so we made glue out of Styrofoam and gasoline, just mix them up in a glass container that you could close to preserve and that’s it (if you go a little crazy on the gas it would be too liquid and take forever to …


Two Letters Re: Construction Without Electricity

Jim: The recent Construction Without Electricity article reminded me of a stint spent with the Amish here in southwestern Missouri. I worked making buggy wheels, but one of my duties was to ride a stationary bike which powered a one cylinder compressor so they could spray paint the buggies. The buggy shop owner wanted to run a compressor off his windmill to a pressure tank but the community said that was going too far. With that kind of set up you could run all kinds of air tools. It smacked of being “too modern”. So I rode the bike. – …


Letter Re: Battery-Powered Dirt Bikes

Dear Mr. Rawles, Your family is in our prayers, and we hope everything is going as well as possible. Imagine my surprise today as approximately ten dirt bikes drove by me up the street, but weren’t making any noise. I expressed surprise to the friend in the car with me, who responded with, “Oh yeah, there’s a company that makes battery powered dirt bike motorcycles, just around the corner.” Out of curiosity, I headed around that corner and discovered that they were having a large open house, with free dirt bike rides, information on their products, and free hot dogs. …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Living on a Chesapeake Bay Island

Mr. Rawles, I am just now (pretty late in the game, I know) becoming aware of the impending collapse and have begun reading your blog regularly (it is the first thing I read in the mornings now). I realize now that I must prepare as much as I can and have a question about my current location. I live on an isolated (no bridges, ferry and airplane transport only) Island in the Chesapeake Bay. It is somewhat densely populated for its size, but everyone knows each other and most residents hunt and fish and have their own boats. Many residents …


Construction Without Electricity, by Curtis M.

I watched the second episode of the [reality television show] The Colony, [that is currently airing on The Discovery Channel]. I found one part of it especially idiotic. They had a bank of automobile batteries for electrical power [to power an AC inverter.]s They did not have a way to charge the batteries yet, and they were still using a circular saw and a Sawzall to construct different things, among them was using a Sawzall to cut tread out of tires for shoes. They were building some thing out of plywood and they were cutting the plywood with the circular …


Letter Re: Grid Beam Construction

Hi Jim, Memsahib, “Gridbeam” is a building system that’s been getting some attention recently among do-it-yourselfers. I’ve seen references to it on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools and the Makezine web site. Gridbeam is described as a sort of “Erector Set system for adults”. It’s simply a length of squared wood, aluminum or steel with precisely drilled holes [at regular intervals] along its length. Holes are drilled in both directions so that they intersect in the beam’s middle. Sections are simply cut to desired length and pieced together. Additional pieces can be designed and added on to connect pieces at different …


Preparedness Beginnings, by “Two Dogs”

I am a retired Marine Corps officer and Naval Aviator (jets and helicopters), commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, and most recently, an aircraft operations manager for a Federal agency. I graduated from numerous military schools, including the U.S. Army Airborne (“jump”) School, U.S. Navy Divers School, Army helicopter, and Navy advanced jet schools. In addition, I have attended military “survival” courses whose primary focus was generally short-term survival off the land, escape from capture, and recovery from remote areas.  Like most Marine officers, I attended The Basic School, an 8-month school (only five during the Vietnam era – my case), …


Gear Up — Appropriate and Redundant Technologies for Prepared Families

I frequently stress the importance of well-balanced preparedness in my writings. All too often, I’ve seen people that go to extremes, to the point that these extremes actually detract from the ability to survive a disaster situation. These range from the “all the gear that I’ll need to survive is in my backpack” mentality to the “a truckload of this or that” fixation. But genuine preparedness lies in comprehensive planning, strict budgeting, and moderation. Blowing your entire preparedness budget on just one category of gear is detrimental to your overall preparedness. Another common mistake that I see among my consulting …


Community Disaster Recovery–Asking the Right People the Right Questions

I was pleased to see this post over at the Mountain Steps blog: A letter to our county commissioner about emergency preparation for hyperinflation. It is commendable to make such inquiries, but it is essential to ask detailed questions. Especially when contacting elected officials, vague, general questions tend to elicit vague, general answers, and hence most likely no action will be taken. It is also essential that you do some research first, to direct your inquiry letter or phone call to the right individuals. Flunkies don’t create or change policy, they just implement it. You need to direct your letter …


Letter Re: Power Failure Alarms

James; I need your advice. I am worried about power failures, and even EMP while I’m sleeping. This could take out my security system, and leave my family vulnerable. Is there any sort of device that’ll alert me if the power goes out? Thanks, – Nolan S. JWR Replies: There are fairly inexpensive commercially-made plug-in power failure alarms available via mail order for under $15. (Or under $20 each at larger home improvement stores.) I recommend buying one for each bedroom, and one for your generator house. (The 86 dB alarm is not loud enough to be heard from far …


Survey Results: Your Favorite Books on Preparedness, Self-Sufficiency, and Practical Skills

In descending order of frequency, the 78 readers that responded to my latest survey recommended the following non-fiction books on preparedness, self-sufficiency, and practical skills: The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery (Far and away the most often-mentioned book. This book is an absolute “must” for every well-prepared family!) The Foxfire Book series (in 11 volumes, but IMHO, the first five are the best) Holy Bible Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens The “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course Crisis …


Net Producer-Net Consumer Equations for Self-Sufficiency: Getting Out of the Pit

In a recent phone conversation with one of my consulting clients, I was asked why I placed such a large emphasis on living in the country, at a relatively self-sufficient retreat. I’ve already discussed at length the security advantages of isolation from major population centers in the blog, but I realized that I’ve never fully articulated the importance of self-sufficiency, at a fundamental level. In a societal collapse, where you are in “You’re on Your Own” (YOYO) mode, it will be very important to be a net producer of water, food, and energy. This will mean the difference between being …