Category: Water Storage & Filters

Letter Re: Questions on British Berkefeld Water Filters and Eastern U.S. Retreat Locales

Jim, My wife and I are ready to make a purchase of a water purifier. I have taken your advise as a reader of SurvivalBlog and researched the Berkey products and I also looked at Aquarian. I have decided on the Berkey and am leaning toward the Travel Berkey Water Purifier that is listed on Get Ready Industries web site at $199. This unit appears to be usable on the go and as a purification unit in a retreat situation. I would like you thoughts on this unit when you have time. For your information we live in eastern Kansas …


Reader Poll Results: Your TEOTWAWKI Resume — 100 Words and 100 Pounds

Some of these stretched the 100 word limit. (I skipped posting one that rambled on far beyond the limit.) The poll’s premise in a nutshell: “If someday you went to the gates of a survival community post-TEOTWAWKI and pleaded the case for why you should be let past the barricades and armed guards to become a valuable working member of the group, would you get voted in? Taken objectively, would you vote yourself in?”   I am a shoe maker (not just a repairman) can repair saddles tan leather have done ranch work mechanics weld gardening skills set a broken …


Letter Re: A Solar-Powered Atmospheric Water Generator

Jim: Good morning. The heightened awareness on SurvivalBlog surrounding sourcing pure drinking water, especially for the survival community, reminded me of information on this topic that I had wanted to send to your attention. There’s a bit of self-interest here, as the company is owned by my father-in-law, but the short story is that his entity is on the cutting edge of fresh water production from air. That’s right… he sells atmospheric water generators. Water Pure International is his company, it trades on the stock market under [the stock symbol] WPUR.OB (about $0.50 per share currently.) The machines are similar …


Poll Results: Why are You Preparing to Survive?

Here is the first round of responses to this question: Those who are well educated enough to see a societal collapse of some sort or another in the making fall into two groups, the merrymakers and the preparers. The merrymakers don’t see life worth living post-SHTF, so they live it up now. We on SurvivalBlog are the preparers and have chosen to survive, but why? Our children? To rebuild civilization? Because the collapse will only be temporary? Because we can and we’re stubborn with a stronger than normal will to survive? The following is just the first batch of responses. …


Letter Re: Keeping Preparedness in Perspective

JWR I often have discussions with my friends and business associates concerning world events and how they will affect our future and I have also read countless statements from others with similar opinions. I have noticed that many people seem to be narrowly focused on only one aspect of possible future events and are not putting the whole picture into perspective. Many are unable to take the actions that are necessary to deal with the probable coming changes. I would like to offer some of my observations and hopefully contribute something that would help others to move in the right …


Letter Re: Dry Hypochlorite (Pool Shock) Bleach for Disinfecting Water

Mr R.: Your blogs’ post on Ca++ hypochlorite as a stable disinfectant stock for water treatment was golden advice. I had some liquid chlorine bleach stored. It actually eroded out through the bottom of the plastic container. It dripped down and ate through steel mess trays underneath. Eroded completely. I remembered that chlorine is an oxidizer, and will do damage – duh ! – to organic material … hence it’s value as an antibacterial/anti-parasitic treatment. Cleaning up the dried bleach was irritating to eyes and airways. Again – duh ! – as terrorists in Baghdad have made evident. Fortunately other …


Poll Results: An Exercise in Humility–a Poll on Embarrassing Mistakes

The following are the responses that we’ve received thusfar in our current poll on Lessons Learned: Jim: I didn’t the follow instructions on the bottle and I only took antibiotics until fever broke, then stopped. Fever came back and had to switch antibiotics. I didn’t floss my teeth for years thinking brushing my teeth was enough. Ignored continual bleeding from gums and didn’t visit a dentist for 15 years. When I went I found out that I had advanced gum disease and jaw bone loss far beyond my years. Surgery was required. I’ve been flossing every day now. If I …


Nuclear, Chemical or Biological Disaster Preparedness, by Brian A.

One of the recent phrases the media has used almost to exhaustion is, “dirty” bomb. A dirty bomb, or radiological dispersion device (RDD) is basically an explosive device with some element of radioactivity attached, or some other means of distributing radioactive particulate matter. When detonated, it releases radiation in the form of dust or debris, which is harmful mostly when inhaled, or introduced into the body by other means, (eyes, open cuts, etc.). The main terror use of such a weapon would be to contaminate emergency services workers responding to the initial blast. In the 1990s, Chechen rebels reportedly placed …


Letter Re: Lessons From an Unexpected Grid Down Weekend

Hi Jim, We just had a bout with Mother Nature and lost power which appeared at first to be for some time. I am happy to report that my “list” generated from this un-expected “grid-down” weekend was very very very short. I attribute this success and wonderful feeling to what I have gleaned from your publications, SurvivalBlog, and a few very good friends! We were without power for about 40 hours and really only had two “needs”. I was actually “disappointed” when the power came back on. J Oh, and we did not use the power generation until hour 38 …


Letter Re: Save Your Wine-in-a-Box Mylar Inserts

JWR, In reference to MQB’s letter about box-wine inserts. While I have only had the misfortune of drinking box wine on several occasions (It is best described as a “wake up in jail” drunk) I do really like the uses mentioned. I would also like to add that using baking soda in place of Clorox [plain liquid hypochlorite bleach] for washing out the bags may work better, and impart less of a taste to any future contents. I have been using straight baking soda for cleaning out my hydration bladders (platypus brand) for several years and have found this to …


Poll Results: Best Occupations for Both Before and After TEOTWAWKI

In no particular order, the following are the first batch of responses to my poll question on the best occupations or home businesses for both before and after TEOTWAWKI: Locksmith/Home security systems installer/repairman — Beekeeping Small scale vegetable gardening. Growing herbs (medicinal) — 1) Electricity: a. Recharge batteries for folks, rebuild the bad batteries, and lots of folks don’t know squat about electricity for lighting, etc. Got several methods: Solar, miscellaneous generators powered by hand, animal, wind and even the old one lung gas engine with that darn heavy flywheel. b. Also use the above for communications when there aren’t …


Wound Care: An Emergency Room Doctor’s Perspective, by E.C.W., MD

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Arguably the most important factor in wound healing is the potential for infection. Ever since Semmelweis and Lister demonstrated that strict hand washing made a tremendous difference in reducing the incidence of postoperative infections and puerperal fever after childbirth, health care workers have tried to refine methods for decreasing bacterial contamination of wounds in an effort to avoid infection. Thus we have some practitioners who still soak wounds in betadine solutions lengthily even though more modern research has shown that this kills viable tissue and makes wounds less amenable to suturing. For the concerned individual who must deal with a …


Letter Re: Save Your Wine-in-a-Box Mylar Inserts

Dear Jim, For the ‘Survival Minded/Preparedness Bent’ all the things we use daily should be reconsidered for alternative uses. For my part, I drink wine, the good stuff mind you. It comes in a box! Interesting thing about it is that each box that is consumed leaves behind another useful tool for any ‘rainy day’ event. The bladder in the box that holds the wine is about 15″x15″. It is quite durable and contains a very efficient valve. The valve is self sealing and easily removed from the bladder itself. When the wine is gone, I remove the [box insert …


Letter Re: Another Use for Diatomaceous Earth: Curing Bowel Infestations

Jim: Food grade diatomaceous earth (DE)–not the swimming pool grade-will flush your system of parasites. In addition, the scientific literature states DE is shown to remove methyl mercury, virus and more. I “accidentally” cured myself of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) while using it, just in case I had worms. I had been feeding it to my cattle (works great!) and decided to take some myself. No more IBS? I am no doctor; however, the first thing I would do for ulcers/IBS/Crohns/divertic ailments, would be to dose myself with DE, as I now suspect that microscopic uglies are involved in all …


Two Letters Re: The Jericho Television Series Returns With New Episodes

Hi Jim: Hit the nail on the head didn’t you? Jericho is nothing more than the standard protagonist/antagonist Hollywood pipe dream of heroes coming out of the woodwork to save the day. I certainly hope no one is seriously considering this show as a realistic depiction of life after “the pulse”. Rather, I compare this show to the “Dark Angel ” series, i.e. for network TV, fairly good science fiction with almost nothing based in fact. Actually, I retract that statement. As far as depicting the scenario after an EMP event; the “Dark Angel” series was quite a bit more …