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Pottery Barn is selling the Prepster three-day emergency kit. Let’s check it out:quote:The Prepster Luxe 3-Day Emergency Bag helps you prepare for unexpected events with its thoughtfully-planned and generously-stocked kit of survival supplies. First, those Datrex emergency water rations are a great start but there’s no way that’s going to last two people three days, especially if you have to cut into it in order to apply a peppermint shampoo and Cilantro conditioner. The FAK isn’t terrible, but it seems more like a run of the mill household FAK that couldn’t really handle a major emergency; I also didn’t see any necessary meds like NSAIDs, anti-diarrheal, antihistamines, etc. in there. Also for that price I’d want to see something high-proof that I could put in that flask. This strikes me as a day and a half kit rather than a 72-hour one. I see the primary utility of this kit as demonstrating its shortcomings and providing the end user with a foundation upon which to build. There are some good items in this kit, but it needs a lot of work. I get the feeling most people would buy one of these and toss it in a closet and think they’re good to go. Also, lol that Pottery Barn is selling prepper stuff
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Mar 9, 2021 22:01
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pantslesswithwolves posted:Also, lol that Pottery Barn is selling prepper stuff That looks like about $50 of stuff for $500, so about right for Pottery Barn.
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Mar 10, 2021 01:44
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pantslesswithwolves posted:I also didn’t see any necessary meds like NSAIDs, anti-diarrheal, antihistamines, etc. in there. The funniest part of that kit is imagining someone opening it up in their Lexus after evacuating for a wildfire or something and realizing they have a luxury toiletry kit but their only food for the next several days is Datrex emergency rations and they have no laxatives.
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Mar 14, 2021 03:56
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wife bought me a gopnick bag, I managed to stuff a splinters cuts scrapes and minor burns first aid kit, paracord, lighters, pad and pen/pencil, compass, multitool, flashlight and extra batteries, and a grip of pearson's salted nut rolls and trail mix. I've needed to swapped out the weird gerber multitool with something functional for awhile, I think I'm just going to get another swiss army knife, a pair of slip joint pliers and a good multitip screwdriver and throw them in there. today's examination of the bb&bbb made me realize I should probably put some advil in there too and possibly a flask.
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Mar 14, 2021 04:26
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Godholio posted:It's a lot easier to lug a kindle/tablet, a small solar charger, and a lithium battery pack thing than a stack of books. A Kindle/Kobo loaded with books is a great choice just for psychological reasons, especially if you've got kids. Now, I'm just a random civilian, and I was never in the boyscouts and don't have much of a outdoors background beyond basic camping stuff, but I got into Mother Earth News/Homesteading/survivalist stuff as a teenager and in my experience like 90% of "survival books" all have the same information in them with different editorializing/organizing and focus. Compare say, a bushcraft guide for hunters/boy scouts to something targeted at the "woah, I'm concerned by natural disasters, I should make a earthquake kit" market, or at preppers. You could grab a old 50s era outdoorsman's guide, or even George Washington Sears' book from the 1880s, and it would mostly have the same (although dated) information. And some of it will doubtless be second-hand information. Like maybe the author is just recounting the "everyone knows" instructions on how to make a fire drill from FM 21-76, but they're missing one specific trick or aren't being detailed enough since they never tried it themselves. Or maybe they've got a desert survival section but have never seen a cactus. IMO somebody would be fine with a single book by a reputable author versus a bunch of different non-specialized books, and actually practicing the relevant skills, however I would "mention as notable" the Collins "SAS Survival Guide" by Lofty Wiseman just because it has a pocket edition that's actually pocket sized, so it's actually practical to carry around and won't take up much space or weight in a backpack.
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Mar 14, 2021 09:41
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Is there a recommended dual fuel generator to power a fridge and maybe a window air conditioner during a power outage?
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May 26, 2021 12:49
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There's quite a few very nice Solar USB Batteries now I've got a couple for camping/daytrips.
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May 26, 2021 17:31
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Don’t fridges use something like 300-500 watts an hour, meaning that you need 3-5kw of usable capacity to just make it through the night, plus a good amount of solar capacity, to fully recharge with less than ideal conditions like you are likely to see during a power outage, since they usually accompany storms rather than nice sunny weather? Isn’t that in the thousands of dollars for a system that can do that, compared to 500 to 800 dollars for a dual fuel gen plus LP needed to run 3-6 days?
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May 26, 2021 17:43
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Yeah a Fridge needs a generator, but as it is its usually easier to just keep the fridge closed in a power loss scenario, or invest in a Chest Freezer or Chest Fridge, as they can hold their cold a LOT longer than a standard fridge.
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May 26, 2021 18:54
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An evaporative clay pot cooler might fit the bill if you don't have too much stuff to keep cool. Conversely, if you do, the extra thermal mass will work in your favor.
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May 26, 2021 23:58
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Nitrousoxide posted:Is there a recommended dual fuel generator to power a fridge and maybe a window air conditioner during a power outage? This is what I have. I have it because it was the one Lowe's had available immediately after Hurricane Zeta. So far, so good. I tested it today, about 9 months later, and no worries, but after Zeta I've only been running it for 30 minutes a month to keep everything tested and lubricated. Never actually used the propane option.
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May 29, 2021 03:19
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lol that karl has shifted in minecraft to in fallout https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xtx8DAqvH8
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Jun 3, 2021 02:26
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Just discovered that my employer has three days of rations stockpiled for every desk in the building even while 95% of people aren't coming in. Water and ultra-high calorie ration bars, plus misc. other supplies. If an earthquake strikes and leaves the area completely hosed for longer than my own supplies last, it's good to know that's nearby and is likely to go overlooked. Unless the building collapses or someone else gets to it first  It's not impossible that they already have a plan with the local government to redistribute the supplies as needed, though.
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Jul 20, 2021 05:23
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Dumb question time: if you're going to rotate your stored water what's the best way to make sure the container is clean before you refill? Soap and water? Bit of bleach and a rinse?
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Jul 20, 2021 06:57
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US Berder Patrol fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Feb 18, 2022 |
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Jul 20, 2021 08:02
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L0cke17 posted:Dumb question time: if you're going to rotate your stored water what's the best way to make sure the container is clean before you refill? Soap and water? Bit of bleach and a rinse? Star san! It's commonly used for brewing, it sanitises and doesn't leave a nasty taste!
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Jul 20, 2021 13:38
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TIL food-grade liquids are commonly shipped in giant bags that basically turn standard ISO cargo containers into 6,000 gallon franzia boxes
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Jul 20, 2021 14:33
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US Berder Patrol fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Feb 18, 2022 |
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Jul 20, 2021 15:31
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ASAPI posted:Star san! It's commonly used for brewing, it sanitises and doesn't leave a nasty taste! this is perfect, thanks!
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Jul 20, 2021 15:50
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Now that Ida is bearing down on NOLA, think about how you’d prepare for a similar storm were it to hit your area. If you live inland, suspend disbelief or think of some similarly catastrophic event. What would you be doing: One week out? 72 hours out? 24 hours out? The day of? The day after? I’ll post my own answers later tonight.
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Aug 30, 2021 01:03
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I am revisiting my kit as well tonight, having already gotten into it once this year for the big TX freeze. Biggest learnings were: 1) my plan of "GTFO if things aren't improving after 48 hours" was not always going to be tenable. Roads were impassible and the assumption that any disaster would be relatively localized did not pan out 2) How much water do you need? More than you have. You have a lot? Yeah more than that. I evacuated from the NOLA area in the wee hours 16 years ago yesterday. This feels like 2005 all over again but I am glued to my phone instead of waiting for WWL's internet stream to come back up the next day to find out WTF is going on. This constant flow of bad and worse news from afar is loving with me a lot more than I thought it would. Can't imagine how it is for anyone who actually suffered materially or lost someone in Katrina.
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Aug 30, 2021 03:45
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pantslesswithwolves posted:Now that Ida is bearing down on NOLA, think about how you’d prepare for a similar storm were it to hit your area. If you live inland, suspend disbelief or think of some similarly catastrophic event. What would you be doing: When you say "out", you mean "before" or "after"? Because Ida was barely a gleam in a weatherman's eye one week out. If you're curious though I can post my real life answers when you're done.
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Sep 8, 2021 01:11
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Bumping this thread because the bigass fires last week gave my family some emergency prep drill. Quick trip report and some questions: 1. Just like always, the plan was more important than the equipment. We had a pre-developed evacuation plan that we had halfassedly developed that included transport plans for 2x cats and a dog, routine storage of critical records in one portable box, and a rough idea of what we'd want to pack and how to pack it. Having that turned the pre-evac packing into just a mental checklist that we executed once it was obvious that the fires were getting closer and we were out the door within 20 minutes of the official evac notice. 2. We had a couple of days with no heat and no running water, and we're still without potable water. Having a prepped supply of drinking water and food took a lot of the stress off. But the post-return, pre-service restoration period did show us a couple of things we missed. We had planned to flush toilets with snowmelt, but melting that much snow is a huge pain in the rear end. We also didn't consider how to clean cookpots with no potable water, but fortunately we had some bleach to make sanitizing solutions. This part was also where longjohns and other clothes for extreme cold came in super handy, which wasn't part of our official emergency storage but we just had around. So basically, lessons-learned for us are that we're going to put more thinking into sanitation and add that to our prep kits. We're also going to get one of the waterbobs that came up earlier in the thread, since we could have saved ourselves some hassle if we had filled one as part of evacuation prep. We're probably also going to add a second fireproof box for high-value items and store it with the records box, but that's a lower priority because we don't really own anything that emotionally or financially significant that we want to save it. But the basic idea of having the stuff we wanted to take with us pre-stored in one place made it real easy to bring it with us, so we'll probably extend that a little. I'm also on the fence about whether to pre-pack a go-bag: prep from 0 to ready to evacuate was probably 30-45 minutes for 2 adults, 2 kids, and 3 pets, which was more than we needed in this case but could be cut down if we invested in pre-packed clothes and chargers and poo poo. I'm not sure it's worth it for the time savings. Question for the thread: I use a Grayl filter when I travel because it's the easy to use and rated for heavy metals/viruses/chemicals as well as standard bacteria. I want to get some extra filters and put them on the shelf for prepping, but does anybody else have any experience with them? They claim to do so much more than any other filter I've seen on the market that they make me vaguely uncomfortable - it feels like they have to be over-claiming given that they're not completely dominating the market. But I've used them for years and never had issues, and the reviews about them are mostly by backpackers who only care about bacteria and microbe filtration so it just may be that they're perfectly fine and it's just that most water filter users just don't need full-spectrum filtration like you probably want in a disaster scenario. Fires deposit a lot of nasty poo poo in waterways and a basic bacteria filter wouldn't cut it.
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Jan 6, 2022 22:20
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a few of my tins of anchovies just ended up bulging so I need to rethink my canned fish only shelf stable emergency ration plan
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Jan 7, 2022 01:26
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Your emergency rations include surstrommin now.
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Jan 7, 2022 02:37
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serious question: if you're without power and the weather is too junk to play outside in, how do you keep kids from getting bored?
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Jan 7, 2022 02:58
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The Voice of Labor posted:serious question: if you're without power and the weather is too junk to play outside in, how do you keep kids from getting bored? Deck of plastic / waterproof cards. Teach them go phish, crazy 8s, euchre, poker, etc.
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Jan 7, 2022 03:44
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For younger kids glow sticks are a great way to both keep them entertained and provide them a light source.
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Jan 7, 2022 03:51
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Board games, card games, new 64 pack of crayons, a new lego set, coloring books, etc. And enough batteries for your light source. I grew up when there used to be no poo poo blizzards when you couldn't leave the house for a few days and my mom always had a blizzard box with a new game, a new puzzle, and some junk food in it. Kept me and my brothers from tearing the place up.
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Jan 7, 2022 03:58
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Never a bad time to get them addicted to risk or dungeons and dragons
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Jan 7, 2022 04:17
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CommieGIR posted:Never a bad time to get them addicted to risk or dungeons and dragons
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Jan 7, 2022 04:21
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can't do risk. assuming I could convince the wife to play a board game her and the child would conspire against me
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Jan 7, 2022 04:22
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man, there needs to be a kids game that generates it's own light. I think I'll see what I can do with some softballs, a spinner target, an alternator and a flashlight
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Jan 7, 2022 04:52
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There is! I have this game, it's easy and fun: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1070/shadows-forest
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Jan 7, 2022 12:54
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stealie72 posted:Board games, card games, new 64 pack of crayons, a new lego set, coloring books, etc. And enough batteries for your light source. Yeah, a good variety of 10 board games would be great. From Candyland for the little ones all the way up to Scrabble, Boggle, and Risk for the older ones, board games and playing card games can keep you busy. Downloading some Yoga for Beginners to your phone can be fun, too. Not only is it a form of exercise, but it will help stretch your muscles. It's a good way to keep warm, or just warm up your body before you have to go out and dig out the cars and driveway.
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Jan 7, 2022 15:05
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Teach your kids to gamble for their rations.
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Jan 7, 2022 16:03
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Because gambling never bites anyone in the rear end.
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Jan 7, 2022 17:06
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The Voice of Labor posted:serious question: if you're without power and the weather is too junk to play outside in, how do you keep kids from getting bored? Depends on the kid I guess, but for us it was a lot of drawing, a lot of board games, and a lot of reading to them.
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Jan 7, 2022 18:00
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Munchkin is a fun kids game.
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Jan 8, 2022 00:11
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Notahippie posted:Bumping this thread because the bigass fires last week gave my family some emergency prep drill. Quick trip report and some questions: A basic go bag is not a huge investment, and can also be used as a 'get home bag/car survival bag' for long car trips or if you have to drive in crap weather. And depending on what your kids are into might be fun for them to take part in or make their own. The thing about Grayl filters is they are not cheap and are not always the best option for your average hiker. It might be worth it just to buy a few more bottles for your partner and kids, but if it is primarily for home use and not getting out, there are better options. Also if you are worried about all the deposits in the waterways, a good idea is to have a Milbank bag (can use other cloth materials if you are a cheap bastard), it is basically a pre filter that takes out all the large particals so you do not have to worry about clogging your working filters. I know a lot of people do not have much of a choice, but I would never live in a home without a wood stove. Having lived my entire life in cold climates it has saved my family from a many hardships. Glad you learned the not so hard way that melting snow takes time and a lot of energy.
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Jan 10, 2022 08:48
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