Anybody doing any Prepping??

[LDK]

Thanks slow!

[rowerwet]

everyone is a prepper in one way or another, I haven't had a flat tire in years, but I still carry a jack and spare tire in my cars. You probably haven't had a house fire ever or at least not recently but I'm sure you have smoke/fire alarms and an extinguisher in the house. I'm sure if you heat with wood or pellets you try to have the years supply in before the snow flies. being a mechanic I have a set of tools in both cars just in case, and carry a leatherman in my pocket wherever I go. Being a mechanic who works for a regional airline I keep an overnight bag packed in the car and take it on any trip I get sent, even those "short easy" jobs.
I've seen enough of those prepper shows to think they are more fluff than useful, I really wonder how all those urban dwellers will do in their cold dark house with all it's large ground floor windows, no wood stove to heat or cook on... good luck with that! If society breaks down to that point you will need a concrete bunker, just ask all those poor people barricaded into their homes in NY and NJ after sandy, wolf packs of teens roaming around robbing homes and stores, and the people terrified inside. your average home is so weak it is a joke, and if they really want to get what you have fire always works...

an EMP bomb (which more than one country is working on) is a "poor mans nuke", would take out pretty much everything, the whole electric grid, gas mains, and anything else with a computer in it. the only cars and trucks running would be ones with carburetors and non computerized diesels, of course at any moment the sun could spit out an electromagnetic pulse that would do the same thing, it has happened at least once, the last one blasted Canada but since it happened back when the only electronics around were the telegraph wires, it sent so many pulses racing through the wires they overheated sagged, some broke and arced into the ground setting off prairie fires.
Not many of us will survive if that happens today, even your hardest core prepper or off-the-grid fanatic is way too dependent on electricity and gasoline to survive. I think people like the old order Amish could have a better shot at it, they already live without most of the technology from the last century. Just imagine the most powerful thing around being a team of oxen, the fastest being a horse, and no stores to shop at. cutting all the wood to heat the house with an axe and two man saw ( and where are you going to get more of them?) no chainsaw. farming with no tractors, clearing land with no bulldozers or backhoes, tilling, planting, weeding, harvesting, with no tractor, washing clothes by hand, making your own soap, candles, clothes, learning how to cook with just a wood stove (who will make them) or fireplace. all that stuff that is fun to visit at historic places, not so much fun to live with.
say what you want about Mormons, but they are better prepared for real life than anyone else http://providentliving.org/?lang=eng , and they make more sense than the average "buy lots of guns, ammo, food, and land in the mountains, on credit, from us" hucksters.

[LarryJ]

at any moment the sun could spit out an electromagnetic pulse that would do the same thing, it has happened at least once, the last one blasted Canada but since it happened back when the only electronics around were the telegraph wires, it sent so many pulses racing through the wires they overheated sagged, some broke and arced into the ground setting off prairie fires

Interesting trivia about that: Many of the lines in the US were protected because of the advanced notice from Canada, so they were able to turn of the power to the telegraph lines, avoiding many of the issues you mentioned - yet many telegraph operators reported that not only were the lines still working, they were actually working better than they did with their normal power source.

LRJ

[Bogo]

I wouldn't say I specifically prep to hard. Plenty of food on hand and kept rotated. A number of gas cans full of gas and rotated to keep them fresh. Generator. House and farm wired so major important stuff can easily be powered by the generator. All I need now is a 220V capable generator so I can run the feed bin motors. If it was a diesel one, that would be handy as there is a big tank out back.

Due to an ice storm a couple years ago, I spent a week without power. From that I learned not much, except the house only looses 1/2 degree per hour with 10F temperatures outside and I needed better indoor lighting. I'd already prepped almost as good as needed. I still haven't gotten the 220V generator. For a really long term power outage, having more gas on hand would be good, or having a generator that can run on diesel. Lighting has been handled by some 12VDC powered LED string lights. I keep them on all the time for night lights. They only draw a few watts total. I just need to grab a fencer battery from the barn to run them. Normally they are powered by a 120VAC to 12VDC converter.

The biggest hassle was cooking outside in the cold air. When I get the breeze way finished emergency cooking will be nicer. I still had hot showers, but I needed to do them by flashlight. LED rope light strings will some day be added to both showers when the tile is finished. I decided laundry wasn't practical to do even though the generator was powerful enough, but I'd planned ahead and had all my clothes clean the day before the storm so I was able to ride out the storm. I also had all my dishes clean. I ate allot of steak, hamburgers, and veggies grilled on the grill. Oh yeah, the grill is hooked up to the 1000 gallon house propane tank. No chance it was going to run out anytime before the next summer. I have it topped off every other year. The house uses less than 300 gallons of propane a year.

On the LED lights, eventually I will put in a 12VDC battery bank to run them when the power is out. If I get a power outage, it is almost always at least two hours long. they happen a few times a year. I'll get a good battery charger/maintainer to keep the battery charged, and power the lights from the battery.

Once I get this place heated by solar, then there won't be much need for the propane. It will only be used grilling, and clothes drying.

[oicu812]

http://www.greatdreams.com/EMP-protection.html
I think this might help.
Do a search on "Faraday Cage"

[CARS]

Anyone watching the NBC series Revolution?
The power went out... its a pretty good example of what could happen to an electric society.

[jstrubberg]

It's pretty ridiculous, actually. Funny how electric lights don't work, but helicopters that rely on a computer for stability work just fine.

EMP is almost a dead issue. Your car won't be affected, since it's largely grounded by the rubber tires. Your satellite TV is probably toast . Many electronics (pretty much everything now that the millitary uses) are hardened against EMP, making it almost totally ineffective. I'm assuming a high altitude detonation here to get the kind of spread you would need to affect a large area. The close you are to the blast (such as a ground burst), the "harder" the EMP blast is.

The biggest problem in an EMP blast would be the possibility of the national power grid losing components that take a long time to order and replace, such as large transformers. Even this isn't very likely, as those transformers are extremely well grounded. EMP doesn't come close to the destructive power of a lighting strike, and those are considered an everyday hazard for an electrical transformer.

[Riptide]

I have done some things to "prep" although I think that the end of the world thing is unlikely we do have some vulnerability.

We have a potential problem with destruction of our currency from our own government; spend, spend, spend and when in doubt spend some more. Keynesian economics don't work and never did, otherwise the would have the most active economy we have ever had. Wrong in FDR's time and wrong now.

There are some bad people (North Korea and Iran) who would to do a high altitude EMP against us, but they are not able to produce the technology to make it happen for some years yet. The previously mentioned book "One second after" is a chilling read and the guy who wrote it was in charge of EMP testing for a government agency and so has real knowledge of the subject.

my much inflated 2 cents,
Kerry

[CARS]

It's pretty ridiculous, actually. Funny how electric lights don't work, but helicopters that rely on a computer for stability work just fine.

I assume you are referring to my post. 1st off, that doesn't happen till next season. 2nd, don't give away the ending

I do agree with you though. I can't believe that someone doesn't take an alternator off one of the "dead" cars, put a paddle wheel on it, and get a few 12V lights to work. I am pretty sure any of us that paid attention in school could generate electricity on a small scale. The idea that once "the power goes out" we can't turn it back on is ridiculous...

[jstrubberg]

Heh, it's TV. maybe I am expecting too much for it to make sense...

[rowerwet]

India and Pakistan (China, Iran, etc.?) are both working on EMP, and knowing how good our gov't is as at predicting, or trying to stop, these kinds of programs, they probably already have them. A Nuke like North Korea already has, and has also proven it can launch high enough to clear Japan in flight, is the best way to make an EMP pulse. Every soviet first or retaliatory strike involved a high altitude nuke over each coast of the US to wipe out ALL printed circuits and power grids. Only certain military systems (the computers in the B-1 bombers for one) were made "hardened" or protected from the EMP created by a nuke (they were supposed to drop them after all).
the blast from an EMP would fry any printed circuit (computer chip) as well as the older analog systems. The only protection is a thick metal box with fancy venting systems for air.
I'm glad to hear that mos tractors haven't been ruined with the EPA garbage regulations that forced cars to be more computer than anything, but there is only so much diesel out there, hopefully we could come up with a system to keep the farmers supplied, but I expect society to have dissolved into chaos before a week or two. Of course rural areas would do better than urban thanks to less people, and more people who know how to work around problems. Your average mouse and button pusher is doomed though. I just remember the stories of NY project dwellers using the hallways as bathrooms because the toilets wouldn't flush, they either weren't smart enough or un-lazy enough to walk to the nearest water with a 5 gallon bucket, fill the toilet tank and flush it, considering most of them have been handed a fish their whole life though I'm not surprised.
for cars, we would have to go back to carbs that could be run on alcohol, just like the model T. From what I have read, Ford was no dummy he knew most of the country didn't have a gas supply, and those that did involved buying it from the general store in 5 gal cans. The model T had a spark setting that you adjusted to allow the car to run on alcohol you distilled from the left overs from the farm.
I figure the US would end up pretty much like it was when the Europeans "rediscovered" it in the 1400's, a mostly empty land with different "tribes" scattered around.

[night*sky]

I grew up and have spent most of my life in the northern prairie states, so I've always been prepared for most anything. Heated with wood for the last 30+ years, huge garden and livestock so the 28 cf freezer was always full of chicken, pork, beef and fish and the cellar had a year's worth of fruits and veggies, 2 wells on the farm and a 3 acre pond, plus limitless snow in the winter to melt for water if need be. Plus I can shoot quite well and there are lots of deer, pheasant, rabbits etc. "Prepping" isn't something I consciously do, it's just my lifestyle.

Interestingly, the little news letter that came with the bill from the electric cooperative today had an article about geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) preparedness steps being taken by the power companies.

[stumphugger]

I gave a box of canned food to the food bank yesterday. It sounds like their doomsday is now.

Now, we have what is known as a sucker hole, so I need to get back to cleaning gutters. That is the prepper work that is necessary here.

[rowerwet]

http://rt.com/news/paint-asteroid-earth-nasa-767/ oh well now we know why the mayans ended everything in 2012... glad I already prepped for that possibility...

[Bogo]

http://rt.com/news/paint-asteroid-earth-nasa-767/ oh well now we know why the mayans ended everything in 2012... glad I already prepped for that possibility...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/2 ... 38340.html <<< Neat graphics for those who are orbital mechanics impaired.

0.09 LD, that's just less than 10% of the distance to the moon, and closer than geo stationary satellites. It won't hit earth, but may take out a satellite. As it gets closer they can get a better idea and move the satellites if they have enough fuel.