Search Results for: water

My Solar-Powered Dankoff Slow Pump System – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

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…kill plants as well as my goldfish that were eating the mosquito larvae in the water troughs I had placed under the barn eaves to collect rainwater and the nightly dew running off during the summer. Bottom line is that I cannot drink or water plants with barn roof water, but it is still good for fire control and washing stuff that doesn’t touch food or our septic system. I have irrigation water coming from a district pipeline, and a tiny reservoir on our property. Our water well is only 55 feet deep. Glad I prepared redundancy because the neighbor broke the main irrigation transmission line and it was out of water for 10 days this summer. I used a 100 foot hose to siphon water from our reservoir for the garden and young trees, keeping a cheap ball valve on the downstream end to turn water on and off,…


Making Your Water Filter Last, by F.J.B.

…did have a water emergency while on their trip. We have all read the incredible things our water filters can do. They are truly a great accomplishment of modern man. The instructions on my Katadyn Micro filter state, “ Suitable for turbid and extremely turbid surface water. Makes the water clear (particles will be removed). Suitable for questionable tap water. Suitable for safe tap water (drinking water quality).“ I am certain that all of these statements are true.  All of the instructions for my other various countertop gravity water filters were the same or similar. Lake water, river water, water from a creek, rain water, water from a small puddle in a depression in a rock; all are acceptable sources for drinking water through our filters. It was nearly 10 years ago that I first purchased a Berkey countertop gravity-feed water filter. At the time, I had no practical experience…


Thirsty Are Those Who Do Not Prep- Part 1, by The Grumpy Gunfighter

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…in MT ongoing water law disaster, and worked for BLM for 22 years in WY. My decision is an informed one. Water is life. Molon Aabe. Cgn I have neighbors with advanced water preps in place. They have a Grey water recycling system in place. Additionally they have 5 ibc containers networked together under the back deck. These discretely catch and hold rain water from the house. The Grey water system could be attached to them etc as needed. Only a skirting was be needed to obscure the setup in a water rights state. Additionally they could be moved to the high end of the crawlspace further out of sight. Maddog North Texas here. 100 acres of land we live on. We have a spring fed creek, a well and 2 ea 10k water catchment tanks. One inch of rain provides approximately 3 K gallons of water from our metal…


Do-It-Yourself Water Filtration, by Robert B.

Introduction: I’ve maintained a salt water reef tank for more than 10 years. The following is a improvised method that I used to process water to the point where it was acceptable for use with coral and salt water fish [before it is salinated] . Coral and salt water fish are very sensitive to toxic chemicals, nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, and ammonia in some cases just  .02-20 PPM would be deadly to salt water animals, so filtration quality was key.  Improvised Water Filter Water Filtration and Storage On the run filtration Building a Water Filter Collection and Storage On the run filtration Collect water and run through several layers of cloth; then treat water with the following process: Add 8-9 drops of plain bleach per gallon. Shake up container, and let sit for 30 minutes Open container and smell for bleach. If the water does not have a light smell of bleach,…


Kitchen Cupboard Medicine, by Barefoot Yankee Gal

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…the affected area in a solution of Epsom salts and warm water for 30 minutes daily. Salt water: Bathe the area with a warm solution of salt water. SORE THROAT: Honey/apple cider vinegar: Mix ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar and ¼ cup of honey. Take one tablespoon every four hours or as needed for pain relief. Lemon: Add the juice of one lemon and one teaspoon of salt to one cup of warm water. Gargle three times a day for one minute. Thyme or Sage: Make a tea with five lightly crushed fresh or dried leaves; place in a cup and fill with boiled water; cover (to retain the aromatic oils) and leave to infuse for five minutes; remove leaves and drink. Thyme’s antiseptic properties make it an excellent choice as a gargle. Water/salt: Mix a teaspoon of salt in eight ounces of quite warm water.   SPRAINS: Cabbage…


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Day One Response Water Filter

…cysts and DDT. Another really nice thing is that the directions that come with the water bag, are written as well as a pictograph – for use in countries where folks don’t really know how to read English that well. The Day One Response water treatment bag, has also been used all over the world – with great success. It meets WHO and US EPA emergency drinking water guidelines. The water bag is a translucent polymer bag that holds 10-liters of water -or 2 1/2 gallons. The water bag comes with enough P&G (Proctor &Gamble) Purifier of Water packets to fill the bag up to 60 times. The P&G packets contain iron sulphate, calcium hypochlorite and other ingredients to purify the water. There is also a very fine filter – down to 2-microns, that removes many of the nasty bugs in the water. The water bag can be used up…


Resourcefulness: How to Survive Without Supplies, by L.W.

…clothes and then again for flushing the toilet. You should also reduce the amount of water your body requires by staying out of the sun and limiting physical activity when possible. But however resourceful or conservative you are with water, nearly all sources of water will eventually run dry. It will then become necessary to move on and seek out new sources in order to survive. No Stored Water (Review): If water is still coming out of the tap, fill anything and everything with water. The water heater tank is a prime place to find 25 to 60 gallons of water. Make use of your climate by collecting water from outside. Drinking your own urine can be an emergency source of water. Use your own resourcefulness to think about where more water could be. Conserve and recycle the water you have. Food: Let’s take a brief look at survivalism with…


Making Water Safe to Drink, by Paratrooper John

…the ground naturally filters water. Detailed Descriptions of Methods: Boiling: Boiling water is probably the most effective and reliable method of disinfecting water.  To make water safe to drink by boiling the water needs to be at a rolling boil for at least one minute.  Some sources may mention five or more minutes as the minimum but the extra time doesn’t provide any extra benefit and uses up more fuel.  An exception to the time for the boiling would be in high elevations where three minutes is recommended. Ensure the container has not been previously used to store dangerous substances.  Metal containers are ideal for boiling water but other containers such as clay and plastic can be used as well. A plastic container can also be used for boiling water.  Place the full container as close to a heat source as possible without coming into direct contact.  Keep it there…


Be Ready For Infrastructure Collapse – Part 2, by J330

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…don’t have power to pump it or to process your credit/debit card transaction. The scope of earthquake damage would be much worse. Also, most of the waterlines in the ground will be broken. My small local water system has around 200 miles of PVC water mains in the ground. These range in size from 2 inch to 10 inch diameters that are usually installed in 20 feet joints. Maybe some could be saved and reused if they are slip jointed, but certainly not all. We have four elevated water tanks that will possibly be lying on the ground, emptied of over half a million gallons of water, so what mains that are left intact will be empty. Not to mention that our water supplier, the treatment plant that provides potable water to us and several other systems, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers, is in the same shape we are….


Pat’s Product Review: Clearly Filtered Water Filters

…give the Athlete water filter bottle a good work out – she said, and I concur, that the first few bottles full of filtered watered had a bit of a “taste” to it – after that, the water was clearly “filtered” and had no strange taste. I found the same true with the Straw and Canteen – after a use or two, the “taste” was gone, and we were drinking great water.   The Athlete bottle will last up to 6-months or 100-gallons of water – and I drink a lot of water each day. The Canteen can also filter up to 100-gallons of water or 6-months of use. The straw, which is very small, can filter up to 25-gallons of water. The Athlete bottle and canteen replaces up to 800+ plastic water bottles – stop and think about that for a moment. I don’t know many people who store…


Life Without Running Water – Part 2, by E. Homesteader

…filled. Crates of drinking water jugs stay indoors near the kitchen. Where we put it – going out While living in the tiny cabin, we manually dumped our graywater outside after doing dishes or other watery things. When prepping for the septic permit, we had two, 6’x6’x6’ perk holes dug with a backhoe. We used one of them for our graywater – the other has a new outhouse over it. The first three years we had buckets going in and buckets going out. Now there’s just buckets going in. The new building has a graywater system and composting toilet. The kitchen sink and shower drain into the graywater. Keeping it Safe – Keeping it Clean My husband and I are used to live water or well water that isn’t treated or filtered, compared to city water that is treated with chemicals and is essentially dead and sterile. Each has its…


Life Without Running Water – Part 1, by E. Homesteader

…intermediate handwasher or dish rinse if I don’t want to bend down to dip water from the bigger bucket. Water Sources 1. Drinking water: Any potable water faucet. From May to October, we use a public, artesian well located in town. From November through April, the local laundromat provides a quick way to fill many jugs while we do our laundry. Since we always use a Berkey Water filter for our drinking water, technically, we could use rain and lake/pond water to drink, but we’re using that option as a last resort. I guess I could order drinking water from a service, but I don’t want to spend the money and like to know the source(s) of our water. 2. Wash water: rainwater first, lake water second during warmer/dryer months, and in winter, melted snow or use town faucet as last (or lazy) resort. Rainwater catchment: It’s great to catch…


Safe Drinking Water, by Lloyd T.

…disinfected.  Fog traps can also be made.  They are not difficult to make, but only work in a heavy fog.  Hang large sheets of plastic or other sheet like materials and collect the water that adheres to them.  With plastic, shape the bottom of the sheet into a curve that brings the water down to one point and place a container beneath it.  With cloth sheets wring the sheet out periodically.  This water will be as clean as the surface you collect it on.  You may or may not have to disinfect it, although it is a good idea to. Water heaters are also water storage tanks.  They come with a drain valve on the bottom.  Each water heater will contain many gallons of drinkable water.  This is particularly handy for short term water shortage problems, such as grid power failures.  Safe drinking water is an age-old problem, and is…


Facing Lockdown in an Apartment – Part 2, by J.F.J.

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…use chemical or other purification) the tap water for drinking and food preparation to avoid using your emergency water. In some situations, such as impending storms moving toward one’s town, store extra water beforehand in case of utilities outage. Those who have ever lived on a rural or private water system that has failed because storms knocked out the electricity to the neighborhood pumps know to fill up pitchers and the bathtub with water just in case the system goes down. Even if the municipal water is out, water trapped in the pipes on the apartment floors above yours (if applicable) may run out of your sink or tub taps because of gravity flow. The same applies if your community uses a water tower to create water pressure. If the municipal water is likely to be out for an extended period of time, one can use the water stored in…


On Spring and Well Water, and Some Water Treatment Basics

Plentiful fresh drinking water for drinking, cooking, washing, and gardening is the most critical resource for all societies. The vast majority of the residents of First World countries are dependent on grid power to supply their water. When the grid goes down for more than a few days, water towers will soon be drained and huge numbers of people will be forced to draw water from open sources. Thankfully, there are streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds in walking distance of most homes. Rainwater from roof downspouts can also be used. But the logistics of hauling water will just by itself be a challenge. Next, people will need treat all that water, or face infection. Most families don’t own a water filter. Boiling water is an option, but only for those that have natural gas, propane, or wood cooking stoves, since electric ranges don’t work without grid power. Even folks with…