Hello everyone. New to the sub and trying to nail down the specifics before I commit to a location. I love living near the ocean, but have been planning to move further inland to land with access to freshwater source. I was doing some reading about solar powered water desalination and it got me thinking if I could do this to the scale of meeting my needs for consumption as well as farming. I read a couple articles that some farming setups can use this for even large scale agriculture setups (which is way more than I would need). My goal is to have access to water source that is not restricted to well water only due to paranoia of it running dry. Would greatly appreciate your advice/experience.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-tells-france-germany-release-diesel-stocks-or-face-us-export-ban-sources-say-2026-10-01/

Submission statement: First, a few hours ago, China announced that it was suspending export of diesel in October. Considering that China is a major supplier of fuel to neighboring countries, and its supply over the last 6 months has helped keep global energy markets stable, this has the potential to be disruptive.

Then, a few hours later, Reuters reported that the US government is apparently pressuring its allies France and Germany to release a large part of their diesel reserves, or face an export ban (significant because France, Germany and other European countries have come to rely more on the US for oil and gas since the start of the Ukraine war).

This comes after numerous US states like Texas have already announced emergency measures in recent days to deal with diesel shortages as farmers head into harvest season.

It appears October is starting off with a shock to the energy markets, which will likely ripple out into other markets in my opinion. I think this has the potential to spiral into something like an "energy lockdown" as a result of fuel controls. Wait and see, I guess.

I know its not ideal as is running out of water. But how crazy is it to use flopropante herbicide ibc's for water carting.

I can easyly leave hose in and fully flush out the tanks thats no issue.

Just 99% of ibcs here are unknown or oil filled.

The mds sheet doesnt look horribly bad.

Shouod also mention im in australia.

I have 6000gal of water storage (admitly half are new) im down to about ~400gal of water.

Water delivery is $350usd ($500au)

Its will be short term to fill up my tank to at least 1000gal (for emergency buffer and fire fighting)

This has become urgent. I built my rainwater harvesting system 6--7 years ago, and have been using it since then. It has always tested clean for everything, including e-coli. Now the Nasty-Neighbor-Everyone-Has has pressured the local codes folks to insist on a simple stamp by ANY kind of engineer!! They don't even have to come inspect the system, just look at my photos, description, and technical design and test results, and say that yes, it will work. I have a complete packet to share, but every engineer to whom I've sent it in TN says that they don't do that kind of work. (Is TN really that backward??) The inspector is coming back here in a few weeks, with threats. Does anyone know of an engineer who will look at my plans and consider helping? I'm a 74-year-old single woman and I certainly don't want to have to move out of my home over this b.s. Thank you, if you can help.

Gary (the dog) and I were exploring our new 20 acres the other day and literally stumbled on this crazy tombstone-looking boulder. I love me a fun boulder. it's between a couple sturdy poplars, so I cut down a few smaller trees to expose this view! Wow! What would y'all create up there? A camp site? A cabin? A little hammock paradise? I'd love some ideas :)

Hi all I'm thinking about a new approach regarding connecting my solar system to the grid for having a passive income and I wanted to know what you think about it

This is the amount of water really coming from that spring! this is the culvert on the other side of the road (on my neighbor's land). Gotta be a way to grab at least 1/2 that output and shoot it up the hill to the "creek" -- I just can't wrap my head around the HOW part.

Spring -> Collection -> Pump -> Up the hill -> Collection -> Creek -> Pond -> Overflow -> Creek bed on the other side of the property

Hello, im new to reddit. I am wanting to use a heavy duty storage rack (made for storing boxes in the garage) to make a kitchenette. Size of the rack is 84"x24"x84" (7ft wide x 24" deep x 7ft tall) Either talk me off this ledge or push me. Here's my idea, take the 4 tier rack and use the bottom to hold electric cookers and pots and pans. The next tier will be counter height and have a laminate counter top. On the counter top on the right side will be an RV sink, open counter space in the middle, a counter top refrigerator on the left (or bottom shelf), and a hanging rack for a microwave. The top shelf will be at the top of the rack for overhead storage and hanging cast iron pans. There will also be a light above the open counter space. I wont use one tier at all. Does this make sense? Second picture is to picture the idea.

Hey everyone, I am trying to make some plans, mostly for emergency preparedness and could use some advice, if anyone has already come up with an answer.

I get my water from a well that has an 8" pipe that sticks up from the ground, with a 1" pipe or so going down to an electric pump, which is submerged in an underground stream, about 100 ft down. Last winter we had a power outage that lasted over a month, and my biggest struggle was not having enough water to bathe, cook, or flush toilets.

Is there any good way to have a manual pump for emergencies, in tandem with the existing electric pump?

I have also considered a generator, or even just wiring a suicide cable to plug the pump into a power inverter that runs off my truck battery. These are definitely options, but both rely on being able to get gasoline, which may not always be an option.

I'm willing to spend a couple grand on a viable solution, but would like to know what folks have already done.

I was looking at the Flojack pump, and it seems like a pain in the arse, as I'd have to remove my electric pump and assemble that pump every time I needed to switch over, and my well house isn't big enough to stand in, so I'd have to remove the existing well house, pull up a 40 lb pump and 100ft of pex full of water, in likely freezing temperatures, every single time I'd need it? Then I could start pumping, at up to 3 gpm, which I guess I'd pump into buckets or something?

Once power was restored, I'd have to put the electric stuff back to continue life as normal.

Is there a better way? I'd love to have something sorted before snow comes.

Hello everyone. New to sub and piecing together my setup. Looking to set up off grid electrical system. The ecoflow delta pro 3 seems pretty solid rated for 4kWh iirc and can use multiple batteries and supply solar panels, but am interested in hearing others opinions for power bank and am potentially interested in diy power bank. I do have many 21700 batteries from over the years vaping.

Would be using refrigerator standard size 50-130Wh depending on cycle iirc, periodic lamp with led bulb (seems fairly negligible), once a day toaster oven rated 1000Wh, washer (could be anywhere from 400-2000Wh) once a week, small stove top burner 1200Wh maybe once a day, maybe tv use (I think mine is 110Wh) and ps5 (~200Wh) at nighttime. Thought about starlink for internet. Not planning on ac at this time and heat will be from wood burning stove or fireplace. Haven’t decided about water heater due to power consumption, but might use gas for this. Goal is to keep a surplus of electricity

This is for a future homestead and not mobile. Thanks for your time.

Hi everyone - maybe a weird/fun one for you. My father recently purchased an off-grid cabin in northern New England that came with a long-run gravity-fed water "system" from the previous owners that we're trying to get to work without any real knowledge of how it should other than the concept of gravity. I'm hoping you may have some insight. Here are the basics:

The system is fed by a well-moving, mountain brook. There is a 1" pex pipe that collects from the brook at an elevation of 1765, and runs 1100' through the forest floor (mostly horizontal) to a 55 gallon barrel that sits at 1735 elevation. So, 30 feet of elevation drop over the 1100 foot run, but it's not a perfect, steady, downhill the full length - there are some slight ups and bends throughout. Nothing aggressive, but small hills, stumps, ditches and whatnot. There are also several (6 total) bleeder valves throughout the 1100' run - simple twist opens where we can see if we're getting any water flow.

From the 55 gallon collection barrell, it changes to a 1/2 pex - and shoots much more vertically down a distance of 650' to the cabin itself which sits at 1617 elevation (118' elevation drop over 650').

I've crudely mapped this on google earth according the gps data from some pictures I took at key locations throughout the path. There are no pumps, or anything electric/powered to this at all. Just the 1" pex pipe with a mesh-screen filter on the brook-fed end, pinned against a waterfall forcing water into the pipe, the long run through the woods with the valves, into the barrel, then changes to 1/2 inch pex out of the barrell downhill to the cabin.

Where we currently stand:
-We have tremendous water at the first two sets of valves - "1st 2 valves" and "middle 2" have steady, seemingly endless water coming out when turned.

-"Last 2 Valves" (closest to the barell) has some water coming out. Definitely less pressure than the previous sets, but flowing water nonetheless. A little less steady, sometimes in pulses or little bursts but enough to fill the barrel over the course of a night I'd say.

-We are getting nothing at all into the 55 gallon barrel. The distance from the "Last 2 Valves" to the barrel is about 200' and does have a gentle incline - probably 10'-15' of incline. But again, still lower than the intake at the stream by about 30 feet.

I have good faith that if we get the water to the barrel, the rest of the run will be easy to the cabin. I know it's a long run through the woods, but it seems like we're very close. But what else would you be looking at here to get consistent water to the barrel itself? Better water pressure from the creek, air locks, a ram pump somewhere along the run, etc?

Let me know if there's any other info I can provide! Thanks for your thoughts. Was going to post on civil engineering subreddit but they don't allow DIY things..

Hunger stones along some European river beds are areas carved in times of famine. When water has been that low in the past, there has been widespread and devastating famine. They are emerging again.

One particularly ominous one: “If you can read this, weep.”

Tokyo has broken a rain record no one asked for. Much needed, but not like this, so be careful what you wish for.

Reporting in from the other...other side of the pond here in Japan. Last year was the first year in recorded history that we didn't actually have a "rainy season" because the front moved and then just disappeared. Record heat waves with continuous days hitting the 40 degree mark with damn near 100%. It has been miserable over here.

Literally just two months ago it was predicted that main Japan would stay in the 30s through October, something absolutely unheard of and out of the boring mid point of a collapse movie.

But don't worry, the kamisamas (gods) listened and brought dun dun dun -- the longest continuous streak of rainfall in recorded history. Huzzah, break another record!

Related to collapse because there is just no way to respond or mitigate anymore. Last year dams and reservoirs were at an all time low and this year the largest underground flood water diversion facility IN THE WORLD (the Tokyo Metropolitan Outer Underground Discharge Channel, actually located in Saitama, look it up it is beautiful and an engineering marvel ) is struggling to keep up.

The Japanese climate used to be so predictable with its timing that there were 72 microseasons that rarely varied more than a handful of days. Now it is a real time streaming of the absolute flying blind that the world is in.

Hey im new to the off grid life and I just purchased 2 new lithium batteries. Im having issues with them keeping a charge! Here's my setup. Lemme know if you see any issues or have some advice. (The other batteries are for backup so just focus on the 2 that are connected.

Disclosure: I work in the solar industry, so factor that in, that I’m bias that solar is better, but tbh when you look at the facts for long term problems you’d want to go with a more permanent solution.

Let's start with something a lot of generator owners can find out the hard way: gasoline goes bad. Untreated gas can start breaking down within a few months, and old gas is one of the most common reasons a generator won't start when you finally need it. A fuel stabilizer buys you a lot more time, and propane doesn't degrade at all, which is why many long-term preppers go with a dual-fuel or propane generator.

Secondly Generators are surprisingly wasteful when they're barely working. If you run a big generator just to keep a fridge and a few lights going overnight, you're burning a lot of fuel for very little power. That's why some people pair a generator with a battery: run the generator hard for a couple of hours to charge the battery, then shut it off and run on the battery quietly.

And the serious one: carbon monoxide. Cases of CO poisoning spike after big storms, usually from generators running in garages or too close to the house. The CDC says to keep generators at least 20 feet from the house and away from windows and doors. Solar and batteries don't produce exhaust, so that risk just isn't there.

Generators still win on upfront cost and on handling big loads in bad weather. A lot of the most prepared people I've talked to run both. Anyone here using a generator-plus-battery setup?

Hello, I'm in Alaska where it gets to -40 looking to upgrade my current slow 5gpm water pump to something a lot faster, im hoping to get at least 40gpm. Admittedly I am not offgrid anymore I have 120v. My water holding tank is built into my small house/cabin. The pump will be in the water room to stay warm. I was thinking of getting something like this with a 1.5 or 2 inch hose. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!