Category: Sanitation

Your Retreat’s Privy, by Stephanie M.

Have you considered an outhouse/privy as part of your preparedness plan? If you could no longer flush your toilet because you were having plumbing problems,   or your commercial water supply was cut off and you didn’t want to use your water stores for flushing, do you have a good backup plan,practical even for long term? Going in a bucket with a toilet seat attached to it in your bathroom is one option, but then you have to keep dumping it somewhere. This doesn’t seem like a good long term plan to me. Now, if you happen to have a …


Letter Re: Remembering Dear Aunt Flow

Dear Editor, I really do appreciate Kali for bring up our Dear Aunt Flow because is something I don’t think a lot of women have thought about. I did want to bring up a concern I have about using tampons and menstrual cups that I don’t think has been brought up yet which is the risk of toxic shock syndrome. From what I remember learning in nursing school it’s basically when bacteria gets introduced into a dark moist place in the body is allowed to grow and gets into the bloodstream  through thin skin and becomes life threatening. I’ve heard …


Letter Re: Remembering Dear Aunt Flow

Dear SurvivalBloggers, I have used folded up cloths as pads for years for my monthlies.  As long as you use a cotton cloth at least as big as a bandanna, bleed-through of a pad is surprisingly not that likely.    Have several, that way you always have a dry one and they can hand wash and hang dry in shifts.  There is no reason why they can’t be as sanitary as the commercial ones.   To wash one, soak it in soapy water.  Once it’s soaked a bit (like 10 minutes), rinse it and wash it again with soap until …


Letter Re: The Blackout Docudrama

Hi Jim, The really bug thing about long-term black outs, is the failure of urban (and not-so urban) water systems.  Few care where their clean, safe, drinking water comes from, since it’s been gushing out of their pipes all their lives.  Electricity pumps water into towers and tanks on high ground where gravity does the rest.  No power, no water.  Even the FEMA planners in New Jersey I lectured to a few years ago didn’t quite grasp the implications of a post-EMP America….they all thought they’d be inconvenienced because they couldn’t use their computers. Toilets need water to flush, so …


How to Deal with Dead Bodies in a Survival Situation, by Tim K.

During a break-down of society you may happen upon a dead body. In a without-rule-of-law situation such would not be unusual. This article will give you a rough outline of what to look for when you examine a dead body. The dead body may be near your camp and you may need to get rid of it pronto. There are several reasons why you might need to closely scrutinize a corpse and document what you see. You may need to protect yourself from the outbreak of disease. You may need to protect yourself from later accusations of murder once the …


Letter Re: Some Off-Grid Living Techniques

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for a great blog site.  I’d like to share some techniques we use every day at our off-grid homestead that would be applicable for grid-down living With 280 watts of solar panels in the southern plains, a good Xantrex controller, three marine deep-cycle batteries and an inverter we power a 9 cubic foot freezer-turned-refrigerator fitted with an analog temperature controller, a portable dvd player used nightly for movies and documentaries, 1 to 3 small fans in summer, a netbook computer, and a couple of compact fluorescent lights along with charging cell phones and cordless tools and …


Stuff Hitting the Fan: A Position Paper – Part 3, by R.L.

(Level II Scenario, continued) Utilities For me, a 1,000 Gigawatt generator is not needed. Just 12 volt deep cycle storage batteries and a photovoltaic panel to charge them up, along with with a homemade generator from a lawnmower engine fan belted to a Chevrolet car alternator will be enough to power some communication electronics and spot lighting.  Deep cycle batteries are preferable to regular 12 V car batteries as they last much longer, but car batteries will certainly do in a pinch.  Incandescent lights need more power than fluorescents which need more than white LED arrays. Do some experimenting.  Another …


Letter Re: You’ll Need a Fine-Tooth Comb

Hello James, One item that is often overlooked in preparing for a collapse situation – where hair and beards can grow long and so can the interval between showers, is the humble nit and lice comb. So take a look at the Shantys nit and lice comb, and watch their video. (I have no connection whatsoever with this company)   Best Regards, – Andre D. JWR Replies: Reviewing the history of the 20th Century, one could summarize: “War is hell, but it is also lousy.” Whenever people live in close confines, the spread of lice increases dramatically. Just imagine your …


Some Overlooked Risks, by Havoc Pondering Prepper

I’d like to discuss some planning concerns for when the world really starts to unravel that you might have overlooked: Quite a few authors write about situations which probably only constitute a partial collapse of society as we know it. Such situations include those where there still exists some semblance of trade or even transportation of some goods. Perhaps some vestige of government is even functioning. What if a disaster happens and we are left with even less than that. At the risk of being criticized for being too much of a pessimist, I would suggest that a thoughtful prepper …


On Safe Cooking, by Mrs. Icebear

Disclaimer: Please use common sense in applying anything you read here! In the (European) country where I live in we have a lot of cooking shows on television, and I never cease to be both shocked and amazed at seeing (some – thank God not all) professional chefs taste their exquisite creation with a spoon  and then put that spoon straight back into the pot. So, if anyone feels offended by my stating the obvious below, please don´t take it personally. For preppers/ survivalists/ people who want to be self sufficient there are of course a host of reasons to …


Medical Notes from Nicaraguan Villages, by COEMT

Here are some insights that I gained from a recent week-long medical mission trip to Nicaragua. We treated hundreds of men, women, and children living in remote villages for general medical complaints.  I envision these conditions as being similar to what many of us would see in TEOTWAWKI. Living conditions: Mostly, the men in these villages are subsistence farmers, picking coffee beans, or something similar.  The women stay at home and take care of the children, grandparents, and animals – chickens and pigs.  Their average income is very low, in the 10’s of dollars per month. Their houses are really shacks …


Surviving the Aftermath, Hurricane Katrina Style, by Frank G.

On the morning of August 29th, 2005 we came face to face with TEOTWAWKI in the form of Hurricane Katrina.  An estimated 92% of our community in Pascagoula, Mississippi was inundated with a storm surge of 20-30 feet and 30-55 feet sea waves.  The surge waters traveled well inland, between 6-12 miles and combined with freshwater flooding from our numerous creeks, rivers, and the runoff from the Mobile, Alabama reservoir that opened its flood gates to relieve stress on the dam.  This basically cut Jackson County in half.  Fortunately the worst of the storm hit in the morning just as …


The Zero Waste Kitchen, by Kate in Colorado

With food prices soaring with no end in sight, it is extremely important to use our food purchases and harvests wisely. How we manage our kitchens and decrease food loss will become even more critical in the face of increased economic pressure that seems to be increasing at breakneck speed.  The people of this country have been blessed with such food abundance in the past that many people automatically assume the supply of food will continue to be endless in the future.  The average person has no idea where their food comes from nor how it is constructed, processed, and …


Preparedness for Short Term Regional Disasters, by K.H.H.

I know this blog is primarily aimed at folks preparing for a long-term crisis, but I have a unique perspective on living without electricity after a regional disaster that I thought some might find informative. I live in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, and I have lived through three sustained (my definition: 4 or more days each) power outages caused by extreme weather events during the last two years. These power outages were caused, respectively, by Hurricane Irene, 19 inches of wet, heavy snow in October before the trees had lost their leaves, and Hurricane Sandy. I have learned …


Caring For Moms and Babies in Disastrous Times, by EMT Tina

Having a baby under normal circumstances is a great and beautiful thing, but when disaster strikes there’s going to be some issues.  Obviously in dark times one might not be able to deliver at a clean, safe hospital, or run to Walgreens in the middle of the night to get formula and diapers, or to Target to get extra pajamas for baby.   As a mom (and EMT 3 years, 8 years as a First Responder before that) I feel a certain responsibility to help others and to encourage preparedness in others.  Here are some helpful shopping tips, knowledge, and other …