Category: Water Storage & Filters

Two Letters Re: Some Observations on Recent Flooding in the US Midwest

James, I got this from a friend in Indiana: All is well at our house but the town is suffering. Here are a few comments for your edification. – Small rivers come up fast with 10 inches of rainfall. Unknown to me, but if I had delayed another 30 minutes in going home, I would not have been with my family where I was needed. – This was the first time other than snow events when I could not leave town. All roads underwater, including interstates and state highways. – My Chevy 4WD pickup will go through deeper water than …


Letter Re: Advice on a Budget Water Filter

Mr. Rawles, I just graduated from college this month and am still under the huge weight of college loans. I want to get prepared, but my budget (for now, at least), is very tight. You said that water should be the highest priority. I agree with the wisdom of that. I’d like to buy a [gravity ceramic] Big Berky [water] filter, but they are way too expensive. Even an Aqua Rain [filter] would be too much of an expense. Are there any lower cost alternatives for water filtration? Thank You, – R.T.D. JWR Replies: The least expensive option is to …


Letter Re: Do It Yourself Coffee Roasting

After reading some information in SurvivalBlog about roasting green coffee beans I thought I could offer some useful info on the subject, since I’ve been a coffee supplier and roaster for about 10 years. Let’s assume the grid is down—how does one roast coffee? You can do it over an open flame such as a propane burner, or campfire. In the days of cattle drives the cook would roast in a cast iron pot just stirring the beans constantly. If you do that then a peaberry type coffee bean works best because they are more round, and my research tells …


The Precepts of My Survivalist Philosophy

In the past week I’ve had three newcomers to SurvivalBlog.com write and ask me to summarize my world view. One of them asked: “I could spend days looking through [the] archives of your [many months of] blog posts. But there are hundreds of them. Can you tell me where you stand, in just a page? What distinguishes the “Rawlesian” philosophy from other [schools of] survivalist thought?” I’ll likely add a few items to this list as time goes on, but here is a general summary of my precepts: Modern Society is Increasingly Complex, Interdependent, and Fragile. With each passing year, …


Getting from Point A to Point B, by E.I.D.

You’ve got your Bug Out Bags (BOBs) all packed. You’ve prepped your house for whatever reason you’re leaving. You’ve made contact with what family you could, and you trust the rest to meet you at your designated meeting place, whether it’s your retreat or just a spot along the way where your two paths converge. Everything is set. Or is it? Points A and B are ready, but how do you plan to make the trek between them? Walking is always an option, but probably a last resort. Most people aren’t in good enough shape to walk ten miles, let …


Letter Re: Using Dry Chlorine for Water Treatment

Jim:: To answer Steve W.’s question: “How much dry chlorine would be needed to make a one gallon batch of standard 5.25% chlorine bleach?”: In the conversion of dry hypochlorite to liquid (bleach), since all the percentages are by weight, it is easy to calculate the amount needed to reconstitute 5.25% hypochlorite bleach. Since dry is about 55% active, it should be diluted roughly 10-fold by weight (one pound to 10 pounds water). So, you would need 8/10 pound or about 12 ounces per gallon of reconstituted liquid bleach. Then the standard formulas could be applied for the final mixing …


Letter Re: Caustic Chlorine Troubles, and Using Dry Chlorine for Water Treatment

Dear Jim: As you know, ordinary chlorine bleach is an item with a multitude of potential uses in survival situations. In addition to its common use in the laundry to brighten our whites, it can also purify drinking water and serve as a general disinfectant to sanitize food preparation areas and control the spread of disease causing bacteria. Liquid chlorine bleach, however, is inconvenient to store. Only about 5.25% – 7.5% of each eight pound gallon is active sodium (or calcium) hypochlorite; the rest is just water. Yet because of the potency of its active ingredient, and the flimsiness of …


Letter Re: Advice on Purchasing Priorities For a Tight Budget

Mr. Rawles, Hello again! Hope you and your family are doing well. I have had some questions on my mind lately, and was curious if you would mind helping me. (I know you must be tremendously busy with our “strong” economy!). My wife and I are both college students in Santa Cruz, California, and we have a very limited amount of storage space and limited income. Are there any tricks or pieces of advice you have for individuals like ourselves? I recently spent my tax refund on some firearms (which were from a federal firearms dealer :-[ ) and now …


Getting it All Together, Or, The Worst Pencil is Better than the Best Memory, by Sled238

If you are even moderately past the first stage of becoming prepared, you have (or will have) the experience of finding things you had forgotten you had bought. Yeah, Christmas! I thought, until it occurred to me that if I had needed that item really, really badly, I would have just screwed up, big time. Cancel Christmas. After the third – or was it sixth? – time reading “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, it occurred to me there was one thing I wish had made it into the book: the Gray’s notebook. Their preps notebook, to be more specific. Only …


Letter Re: Observations on Chest Freezer Efficiency

Hi Jim, I was reading Monday’s letter regarding “Sizing a Retreat AC Power Generator”, and a thought came to mind when the author mentioned super-insulating a freezer for extended cooling durations. There are basically 2 types of freezer; the upright and the box, (what we call around here, the “coffin” freezer). Given the same basic amount of insulation included with each type, to the point where both manage the loss of cooling at the same rate, the “coffin” appears to be more efficient during access. Cold air sinks. When the door of an upright freezer is opened, the cold air …


A Flooded Basement – Friends You Can Count On, and Lessons Learned

Mr. Rawles, Once again, thank you for your research and SurvivalBlog posts. I have been a [10 Cent Challenge] contributor for a couple of years and have gotten more than my money’s worth. Thank you. Last night my group and I met at my home. Here in New Hampshire we received a record amount of snow fall this year. (Over 108 inches!) That is the fourth largest every recorded. Yesterday it was warmer then normal there for a lot of snow melt. Last night it rained. As the group was getting ready to head to the range for night shooting …


Unconventional Bug-Out Transportation Methods, by A. Taylor

I read with interest the inquiry about, what I term a “Bug out Boat”. I made this recommendation several years ago, in numerous survival forums. Most readers seemed unable to process the potential for this kind of plan or it seemed to be impractical to them compared to hunkering down or egress by vehicle. I would advocate that the more eclectic methods of egress from chaos may hold greater potential for success than some mainstream ones. Traditional modes of travel in the modern age are easily controlled by the powers that be, accidents, infrastructure break down, computer problems, electricity (can …


Two Letters Re: Thoughts on Overseas Retreat Destinations

Sir, I concur with David in Israel regarding overseas retreat destinations. Before any of this discussion was brought up for survival locations, I entertained the idea of relocating to New Zealand, but not for survival reasons. As much as I am attracted there, I rule it out now. I also served in the Middle East as a soldier and served in Moscow, in a different capacity. I spoke fluent Russian at that time. Residing in a foreign country is just that, foreign. Don’t kid yourself, in a real situation, you don’t have much of a chance, even with family. Your …


Two Letters Re: Thoughts on Overseas Retreat Destinations

Mr. Rawles, In looking through your great web site I can’t tell if you’ve ever addressed the issue of having a non-US retreat. There are some notable characteristics of the USA that make it a less then optimal location in a TEOTWAWKI type scenario. I think specifically of very heavy reliance on personal vehicles and fossil fuels, a general ignorance about growing food, preserving food, raising livestock. There is a tremendous demographic heterogeneity (“diversity”) that in a crisis situation would become a very sore spot and possibly a source of violence. Also a Federal government that has shown an inclination …


Self-Sufficiency in Northern Nevada

Over at the Bison Survival Blog (formerly called the Bison Newsletter), editor Jim Dakin recently posted an interesting piece titled “Economics of Self-Sufficiency.” I recommend his blog, although it is with the caveat that there is a lot of foul language posted there, especially in some of the comments posted by readers. For several years, Jim Dakin has advocated the low cost retreating approach of buying an inexpensive piece of land (what he calls “junk land”), and living very frugally, with a large used travel trailer for shelter. Jim Dakin presently lives in Carson City, Nevada, in the rain shadow …