Category: Sanitation

Three Letters Re: Some Comments and Some Personal Experiences in Haiti

Sir: I thought that you and your family might be encouraged by the following: There was an extraordinary occurrence in Haiti on February 17th. Here is a blog entry with a YouTube link about a nationally declared three days of fasting and prayer in Haiti. Amazing grace. The final sentence in the entry is the most sobering: “The only sadness that I feel today is for our nation. While a nation that has long been under Satan’s domination is turning to God with total commitment, our nation, founded on Godly values, has rejected God and is rapidly trying to forget …


Two Letters Re: Cost-Effective Emergency Water Treatment

Jim, Having been a small municipal water system operator in Upstate New York, I have some experience with basic water treatment. The link provided in ” Chris in West Virginia’s” article is sound in regard to using Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione. One would want to use a test kit to measure residual chlorine in the water and maintain the level between 0.3 and 1ppm after initial treatment. To treat water, chlorine is added until the level is at least 0.5ppm after an one hour contact time. It is critical that the chlorine have time to interact with the water and some method …


Letter Re: Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance

Sir: A quick note about cloth diapers: Many stores (Wal-Mart and its French-owned counterpart at least) have flannel sheets on sale right now with twin sets running between $6.24 and $10. Woolrich is one brand and they seem to be of decent quality. That is a lot of fabric for little money. I picked up a half dozen sets. They provide warm bedding, but large pieces of fabric, often in dark or natural colors could have many uses. I will set aside at least 2 sets of the chocolate brown ones to make more cloth diapers for the baby we …


Three Letters Re: Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance

Mr. Rawles, Regarding the blog entry “Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance,” I wanted to add that the problem with the messiness of cloth diapers can be lessened by using disposable liners. Special liners are sold for use in cloth diapers, however a more cost effective solution is to dry out cheaper baby wipes and use those [as liners]. Thank you for your diligent service to the survival community. Keep up the great work. Sincerely, – JD in Richmond, Virginia Jim, I love your blog site. About the article about cloth diapers — they are easy to make and cheaper than bought …


COA Analysis of Common Survival Strategies, by JIR

Having spent a lot of years on military planning staffs, I can’t help war-gaming scenarios. In short (as you know well) Course of Action (COA) development is a big part of Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) and is a fairly reliable way of looking at possibilities and choosing likely sequels, given scenarios. In effect, a way of war-gaming out the future. There are a number of horror scenarios that seem to me to be fairly probable and they keep going around and around in my head as I try to sequence them and assign probabilities to each one. I …


Death and Dying in TEOTWAWKI, by Snowman

Most of the SurvivalBlog.com articles focus on the “how tos” of living in or preparing for survival situations. We all understand these needs. However, there has been much less discussion on preparedness for death and dying. I have worked in the medical profession since 1975. I have worked with people in various stages of death and dying in hospitals, hospices, operating rooms, clinics and accident sites. While most of us are doing as much as possible to prepare and stay alive in bad situations we know that our options may be greatly limited in future scenarios. Death and dying are …


Letter Re: How Hygiene and Sanitation Have Increased Human Life Spans

Sir; While obtaining law doctorate, one of my classes was Health Law, which is two parts navigating your way through the morass of Federal intrusion. One part was actual policy. But, I digress. Only one thing of significance stuck in my mind from that whole class: “Of the forty years increased life expectancy enjoyed in the past one-hundred years, 35 of those years are the result of improvements in hygiene and sanitation. Five years are due to clinical medicine.” I translate that to: “you owe more for your health to the trash man and plumber than you do your doctor.” …


Ladies’ Needs in TEOTWAWKI–Thinking Beyond Menstrual Supplies, by Jeanan

I’m kind of a weird woman, not really a “girly” girl. I grew up on horseback, helping my Daddy out in his oilfield service company shop (my job was to clean old parts), and playing cowboys and Indians out with my brother. I like my guns and my motorcycle now, and I’ve been preparing for a SHTF scenario for almost a year. My career is also kind of weird, I repair musical instruments. School band instruments, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, that sort of thing. My husband is also an instrument repair technician, and we began our own business about seven years …


Two Letters Re: Mountain Money Isn’t

Captain Rawles: While in the US Navy as a diver, Temporary Attached Duty (TAD), to a British Mine sweeper for a couple weeks, I was amused to find their toilet paper to have the consistency of wax paper. And on each square was printed, “Property of the British Government”. Needless to say, I still have half a roll of it around here somewhere. I felt compelled to show it to our sailors for a chuckle. – Chester Dear Mr. Rawles, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! My prayers are with your family this year especially. I came in late on …


A Frugal Wife’s Contributions to Preparedness, by Desert Dawn

This is for the Ladies: take the lead on frugality to finance your family preparedness! Below are things I do and have done, some for years, some for only a few months. You’d be amazed at how much starts accumulating in your checking account when you do these things. I have paid off credit cares and bought a rifle with scope, some junk silver, 1,000 rounds of ammo and a more than three month food supply since I started being more serious about these things. My husband and I are professionals making good salaries – at least for now. We …


Eight Letters Re: Mountain Money Isn’t

Hi Jim, May your family count your blessings during this holiday time of the year. Being the first after losing a loved one. We all make that trip eventually. If the time was spent in a good fruitful life, then their are no regrets. Peace be with you and your family. I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa, The Sahel. This was the southern portion of the Sahara Desert. Water was plentiful but had to be drawn from 60 to 80 ft. deep wells by hand. Then transported in containers to or throughout the village. It was labor …


Letter Re: Mountain Money Isn’t

Mr. Rawles- I’ve seen it repeated everywhere that an item of big importance in survival preps is toilet paper. I do not understand this, myself. While I do use the stuff, I grew up as the son of immigrants from an impoverished nation, and learned a bit about the bathroom customs of the old country. Basically, my progenitors would use a small bucket of water and their hand to wash themselves post-elimination. Frankly, I think it gets the area cleaner than the best 3-ply can. It would put less of a load on a septic tank, if you’ve got one. …


Two Letters Re: Savings and Self-Sufficiency with Homemade Laundry Detergent

Hello Mr. Rawles, I love the Blog! Here is a tip for those readers who would like to save money and their backs by following Carla’s soap recipe. Since I have a cat, I have been using the bargain basement cat litter that come in rectangular HDPE buckets. Rather than throw them out, why not save money by not buying 5 gallon buckets? Of course, one needs a cat owner who uses this product, but with the mess this economy is in, frugal relatives, friends and neighbors may have some. One could make up a smaller batch of her detergent, …


Savings and Self-Sufficiency with Homemade Laundry Detergent, by Carla

What would make someone want to make their own laundry detergent? It is so convenient to go to the store and get a ready made, nicely package, conveniently mixed, nice smelling, make your clothes fresher and your life better if you use me, laundry detergent. My husband and I have always had a preparedness mentality-we live 10 miles from a grocery store and 20 miles from a Wal-Mart. You don’t just run up the street to buy a roll of toilet paper. We prepared for Y2K and have always thought “what if.” We don’t worry, for we know God is …


Letter Re: Wringers for Hand Washing Clothes

JWR: For those who are planning to wash clothes in case of power outage or loss of delivered water I have two suggestions. First is the wringer to get excess water out of washed clothes. Use an industrial mop wringer, such as the kind available through Lowe’s stores. It is made of heavy duty industrial plastic, and, of course, is dual use. Wring out your mops or your clothes. It is less expensive than a traditional roller type wringer. Second, for washing clothes in small batches you might consider a foot moved (adapted to hand crank on rollers) drum cement …