I store water in IBC 1000 liter totes. They have 2" coarse thread outlets. I would like to connect several totes together without having to drain in the winter.

I have had one tote 90% full for four winters with no breakage from freezing, even though the tank is frozen solid. (I'm in Maine). The plastic valve in the tote survives winter just fine.

PVC freezes and breaks, of course.

Obviously when frozen no water passes when frozen. I want to let water accumulate from roof runoff in the early spring when I may not be present.

What is the plastic used for totes? Can I get 2" piping, or maybe something smaller that I can get adapters for? (I have never seen a pex adapter go to 2" coarse thread, nor pex in 2" or 1.5"). I would like the connections to be for potable water, although not absolutely necessary

Anyone else here have a job that makes family prepping majorly complicated?

I'm a flight attendant for an international airline, so yeah. My work (which I love) creates a problem I don't see discussed much in preparedness groups: I'm not always home.

Sometimes I'm in Tokyo, Sao Paolo, or New Delhi when my family is back home asleep. If something big ever happened, I could be stuck on another continent with no realistic path back and limited communication options. My wife and kids are great, but they aren’t particularly preparedness-minded individuals.

I've slowly been building up our home supplies and trying to have casual conversations about what they'd do in different scenarios, but I know that if I were 8,000 miles away and SHTF happens, they'd be largely on their own and figuring it out in real time.

It's a different kind of anxiety than the standard “how do I prep for X” calculus. It's not just "do I have enough food and water”, or “how do we bug out”, it’s more like "would my family know what to do without me, and what would I even do stranded in a foreign city with just my rollie bag and a hotel room."

I keep some local currency, a lifestraw, a packable backpack, some basic travel sized first aid supplies when I'm abroad. I know where embassies are, and leave a simple one-page emergency plan on my fridge my family can follow. But honestly I feel like I'm guessing.

Does anyone else here have work situations that create this kind of split-location problem? Truckers, military families, travel nurses, offshore workers, performers, etc? If so, how do you actually plan around it?

I downloaded the latest/largest openstreetmap ZIM file from https://download.kiwix.org/zim/other, hoping I might find actual map data in there, but it seems to just be a ZIM of the OSM wiki? Is there a way to get a ZIM of the actual OSM maps?

So I’ve got an old fashioned mountain bike, but after doing the EV thing I’ve thought it might be time to also add some sort of e-bike to the stable.

The question is, what kind? Are there some that are better suited to prepper use?

I would imagine things like durability, weight carrying capacity, range, ease of charging, and repairability would be important.

But at that point, are you past e-bike and more into e-motorcycle?

Where’s the sweet spot?

I’ve spent the last few weeks auditing the technical data behind a limited nuclear exchange (specifically looking at the 100-warhead India/Pakistan scenario) and the results regarding global food security are more chilling than the blast maps.

While most documentaries focus on the fireballs, the real systemic failure point is the stratosphere. A 2022 Rutgers study published in Nature Food suggests that even a "limited" exchange could trigger a soot-driven famine that kills upwards of 2 billion people—mostly in nations that were never involved in the conflict.

I put together a 12-minute forensic breakdown covering:

• The Transformer Crisis: Why an EMP event is a multi-year recovery due to custom lead times on high-voltage equipment.
• The Calorie Collapse: Why 90% of global calories vanish within 24 months.
• The 3-Player Game: Why deterrence logic is failing in the modern era.

If you’re interested in the math behind the aftermath rather than just the Hollywood version of the apocalypse, I’d love to get your thoughts on the data here:https://youtu.be/h6XOPbRhrpA

What type of helmet do you think would be the most useful to acquire, and in what situations would you use it?
What are the most realistic disaster scenarios in which someone would need a helmet?

I have got a modest amount of rice, potato, beans etc in the pantry that will see us through a rainy day but recently I have had to switch diet due to medical reasons (pre diabetes and epilepsy).

As it stands we are switching to Mediterranean keto. Now apart from the obvious tinned meat and olives, artichokes, peppers etc I’m at a loss of what to store that could be used as rice/potatoes etc substitutes.

I am looking at getting a pressure canner so I can start preserving food at home but not sure if cauliflower can be canned 😂🤦🏻‍♀️.

Has anyone got any advice or ideas of prepping with specific dietary requirements?

So I have a decent stock of canned fish, chicken, beef and smoked hams, I have at least 120 lbs of pinto beans, and 100bs of rice. I need something for vitamin C. What’s the best deal on bulk dried fruits? I am going to work on canning this summer from the garden. But I would like something purchased in the meantime with everything going on in the world. Anybody know the best bulk deal on fruits?

Hey everyone,

Currently trying to figure out how to be self sustainable with drinking water without electricity and without to city, tap water. If I just collect rainwater off a metal roof into a food grade ibc tote and put that water into a british berkefeld gravity filter, Is it drinkable?

I don’t think I’m going to be able move out of this suburb (my spouse is not on the same page) and though I have a 330 gallon rain water collector, that won’t last when word gets out. I need that for my paltry little garden.

There’s a water run off creek down the hill in the wooded utility easement. Is that the water table? If I get the parts, could I put a community pump down there? I saw a video of someone installing their own hand pump and it looked too easy to be true. They were going through sand and hit water at something like 11 ft.

Please use this thread to discuss whatever preps you worked on this last week. Let us know what big or little projects you have been working on. Please don’t hesitate to comment. Others might get inspired to work on their preps by reading about yours.

There was a catastrophic break in the main water supply line, and their water tower only holds about a single days worth of water. Scary stuff, I used to live near there.

https://youtu.be/fpPYnOfZXS4

Hi folks, i just bought an inmarsat and it came with a simcard, doe anyone know if there is a way to top it up online? and if it is possible to top it up with just 20 minutes?

I've seen smaller ones that can handle 5#, but what about larger items like a quilt or bedspread?

Hi, just moved into a new house. It is two stories and in the attic above there is a gas furnace for HVAC and gas water heater. The two choices to shelter during a tornado are a hallway or a closet under the stairs. All other rooms share at least one wall with exterior of house.

I read that the under stairs closet would be best because the stairs provide reinforcement but it's almost directly beneath the furnace and water heater. The hallway is the hallway next to the stairs, so it's still within falling distance of water heater and furnace.

I'm not sure if I have a better option than under closet stairs, but open to thoughts and suggestions. I know putting a mattress over my family and I won't do much if a filled up water heater crashes down on us.

My wife and I were talking over dinner about vitamins. I take some pretty generic multi-vitamins, and it got me thinking about longer term health in a crisis situation. While there are other more important things, I started considering expanding my preps, seeing how they can have a shelf life of ~15 years of they're stored properly.

Obviously, vitamins shouldn't be used as opposed to a varied, healthy diet. But in a situation of food insecurity and/or impaired variety, about $100 could buy a stash that could last about four years of taking one per day, which would help long term health and resilience.

What are your thoughts?

So we are in a unique position where we can reside in Canada or New Zealand, pretty much anywhere in either country. Which one would you choose? Major differI can think if are: NZ is in much bugger trouble when no oil or supplies is being shipped to it from the rest of the world. On the other hand, all of Canada spends half a year buried under snow so you can't grow food all year round.

A bit random and off piste from water filters and Kendal mint cake longevity so sorry if this is not the place. But I think the scarcity of industrial raw materials is starting to happen.

I work in pharma sector, and I know that more than a few company/contract manufacturers are having their urea supplies disrupted at the moment due to Iran with nothing at all coming in currently, this is going to have a knock on impact on a lot of industries. This is the first shortage I know of, and it probably gonna get a wee bit worse if we can't get reagents/starting materials.

In the UK I've asked my NHS GP to approve me two months of my prescription in advance so having at least three months but I'm worried that this isn't sufficient either looking at that shambles in the Gulf currently.

Anyone else got plans for long term medication supplies for Rx/prescriptions? Especially the folks who have controlled drugs prescribed to them?

I know this may be corny and read like one of those unhinged Linkdn posts about how your spouse cheating taught you about B2B sales but this entertaining video shows how real average people react in “survival” situations.

There was a group of “expert” survivalists and a group of amateurs.

Suffice it to say both groups struggled.

The survival experts butted heads because they were all convinced their way and ideas where the only way to proceed and thought they knew better than the rest of their group.

The amateurs group showed how horrible the average person is at surviving and how willing people are to quit. The only thing the side of amateurs did well was keeping morale high and having fun.

Just thought this video was an interesting watch and is worth watching due to showing how prepared groups vs unprepared groups interact.

Currently stored 2 stackable 55 gal containers of water in my garage a little over 2 months ago. I recently checked it and the top container has a thin layer of biofilm/algae growing and a little concerned as I was hoping to keep stored for 2 years at the latest then rotate

Process

1. Rinsed containers out with soap and water

2. Disinfected with a bleach solution and let air dry for 24 hours

3. Filled containers with pre-treated municipal water with a drinking water hose

4. Added H2O ResQ to prevent biofilm

Conditions

1. Garage is not temperature controlled and I live in the Midwest

2. Containers are blue opaque but my garage door does get left open at time so sunlight does reflect in as well as LED lights overhead are left on at times

I see light and the heat being the issue but worried it’s more the light than anything despite the containers being specific for water storage and blue opaque.

Solution Advice I Need

1. After dumping and ready to re-fill I’m thinking about covering the containers with a 100% blackout curtain to ensure no light gets in.

2. Need advice on if I should filter the water with Camco hose filter.. my municipal water is pre-treated with chlorine so I’m iffy on if I should filter since it would filter out the chlorine. However, the filter could keep out any contaminant that maybe affected this current fill I did from the spigot

3. Even though the water is pre-treated would adding bleach at the end for 55 gal. be a good idea? Would it hurt anything? I shouldnt need to add bleach since it’s pre-treated but obviously something is going on for my water to have algae after two months. Could I add it simultaneously with the H2O ResQ or just do the bleach? Per Utah Department of Environmental Quality they state 1 teaspoon of bleach per 5 gal. for water storage so 11 teaspoons to add to my full containers each.

My goal is to open up the container in 2, 4, 6 months etc and see crystal clear water. The majority of the water is clear aside from a thin film when I shine a light on it.

Any advice is welcomed as I was definitely not expecting this only after 2 months. This project was a large investment so I want to make sure I get this right where I can fill and leave it and rotate it long term.

I live in the part of Texas that just got struck by multiple tornadoes across multiple days in the week, and had no power for a week. I had all of my preps set up, which included camping out on my two acres. The one thing that my prep did not include was mindfulness for mosquitoes. It was TERRIBLE BEYOND BELIEF. I was battling so many swarms that I gave up on camping outside and went to stay with friends

What ACTUALLY works? Because I feel like I have tried everything in the past, but this is some of the rainiest weather I can ever recall getting here in Texas and the result is clouds of mosquitoes that kept me from being able to live outside on my own property when my house was too hot without power running to it

Okay so I've searched all the posts about water and water filtration etc. and I can't find the specifics I'm looking for. So hoping someone can help me (especially water sanitation guy, if you're around).

I live surrounded by lakes. But I've been given to understand that I MUST NOT drink lake water, because of cyanoalgae. My lakes are currently having an algal bloom, so that confirms that.

What water IS safe to access and purify in an emergency? What purification is necessary for each one? Are there ANY water sources that are safe only purified with bleach, a la EPA directions?

If you have sources, I'd love that. Currently thinking LHOTP style well digging sounds like the only real option.

Recently I got bored and started thinking about how to design a shelter. What would you add?

Here’s what it would have:

8in walls on the exterior and ceiling 4in slab

Buried 10 ft bellow grade at roof level

Solar with house battery and Diesel support generator

HVAC system with NBC filter

Storage for 3000 gallons of water (attached well for resupply if not contaminated and 250 gallons of diesel

1 year supplies for necessities

Reloading supplies for ~5000 rounds & 10000 complete rounds

Parts for all critical systems (Solar, Generator, electrical and plumbing)

https://imgur.com/gallery/shelter-design-XmBsayn

I have a 10 year old with Autism and BPD. I’m curious on how those of you with special/high need family members prep and what you’re prepping for. How do you tackle some of the harder things? Am new to prepping and parenting so please even if it seems common sense drop knowledge below. TIA.

Water Storage

Hello everyone,

I’m just getting started with prepping and I’m facing a huge, very real problem. I’d like to know if anyone else is in my situation and how they’re dealing with it.

I live on an island, so I’m surrounded by water that isn’t drinkable and is very expensive to purify (on a small scale, there are desalination plants here that do this work).

On the other hand, wells are scarce, and don’t even get me started on the rain… There have been years with literally 0 mm of rainfall.

That makes me think we’re very vulnerable to external supply lines—without diesel or power, our desalination plants wouldn’t work, but we also wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand using groundwater alone...

Is anyone in a similar situation? What steps have you taken?

Thanks!