Showering with just one gallon of water

Here are some great ideas from a person who lived in a trailer with no running water.

http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/04/showering_with_just_one_gallon.html

Laundry and Dishwashing during a disaster

"Survival Mom" gives some good instructions about how to do your housework when you have no electricity or running water.

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/03/21/cleaning-house-teotwawki-style/

She gives a lot of advice about doing laundry during a disaster.

Here is part of the instruction:
Have at least two very large buckets (you can pick up some 20 gallon tubs at the big box store for just a few dollars), a Rapid Washer, a wash board, and wringer if possible.  If you don’t have the funds to purchase an actual clothes wringer, a mop bucket wringer will work as well.  You need something that will get as much water out as possible to help the clothes dry quicker. You will also need to have a clothes line outside or some sort of rack inside to hand the clothes out to dry.

She also tells about doing dishes:  

Washing dishes would be similar to washing your clothes. Fill one bucket or side of the sink about half full with very warm water and let the dishes soak a bit, wash, then rinse.  A bit of vinegar in your rinse water will cut down on soap suds for both clothes and dishes.


Please read the rest of her article.

Hurricane articles, part 3

Here is a link to "Survival Lessons Learned from Three Hurricanes" which was posted on "The Survival Mom" blog.

Part 3 of 3:  http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/07/01/survival-diary-from-3-hurricanes-lessons-learned-part-3-of-3/

Here are things I learned from this article written by Stephen Clay McGehee:

Radios, ice chests, swimming pools, and jugs of chlorine bleach all came in handy.

When he heard the hurricanes were coming, he froze water inside cheap freezer containers in his freezer.  That were free blocks of ice that he didn't have to buy, and blocks of ice take longer to melt than ice cubes.  (I actually keep a few 2-liter pop bottles full of frozen water in my freezer at all times.  They are great to use in ice chests, and when the ice melts,  the water is contained in the bottles and doesn't  get all over your food.)

He gives recommendations for various types of good and not so good gasoline containers.  I agree with him, the nozzle is not as important as just buying a Superfunnel (about $2 each from an auto supply store.  It is a big funnel with a VERY long tube at the bottom, which is small enough to fit in the opening of the gas tank).  You can fill your gas tank much easier by pouring the gasoline from a gas can into the Super Funnel than out of the gas can's long nozzle.  They are never designed right.

Sanitation Kit- What's inside?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oXMmNWp567A

From Jodi on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net

Yikes! The 7 Day Challenge Started Today! No Sewer

The challenge today on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net  is Very DIFFICULT!  We are supposed to figure out how to dispose of human waste without a toilet/sewage capabilities.  Read http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/09/15/the-7-day-challenge-day-1-thursday/  to learn more about it.

I hate to admit it, but I don't think I am going to do the challenge today  (I did all 7 days in 2010, and really learned a lot.)

I do have a few of the items done for today's challenge.  I have a year's supply of toilet paper. I own some empty buckets I could use. I own lots and lots of heavy black trash bags.   I own an "emergency toilet" which is like a folding chair/potty seat with a plastic bag underneath.  But I don't want to use it today!

I believe I would have to dig holes in my yard to bury the bags, and I'm afraid of hitting some gas line or cable. ( I have purchased a post-hole digger for this exact purpose).   I guess what I will do is call the city to come and mark my yard so I will know where my utilities are, so in the future I will know where it is safe to dig.

I don't own the lime powder to sprinkle on the poo to decrease the odor (they say you can also use Borax or bleach),  or the SuperSorb chemical that turns urine into a gel.

Because I am not actually practicing how to dispose of human waste,  it makes me quite worried about dealing with this scenario if it ever happens.

Toilets when you have no plumbing

From FoodStorageMadeEasy.org:

This is a downloadable document on how to deal with toileting in a disaster.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/sanitation-kit.pdf

Bobby's Bathroom Adventures

http://www.3steps.org/Site_3steps.org/Sanitation_-_Bidet.html

A really well-done 8 minute video on how you can cope if someday there is a crisis and there is no toilet paper available.

Solar Shower

I happened to buy this Solar Shower for $6 at Walmart the other day, to put in my preparedness supplies.  Coincidentally, the next day we lost our water for 24 hours.  I ended up using the solar shower (I hung it inside my bathroom shower), and it was wonderful.  In fact, the water got so hot I had to add a bunch of cold water to it because it was burning me.

I decided to go back to Walmart and buy several more, to give to all my kids.  I went back and in three days, the price had gone up from $6 to $6.80.  These are plastic, so they are made of petroleum, so they are only going to get more expensive.

The box says that these are not food grade plastic, so you are not supposed to drink the water from them.  But I am going to buy several for myself, so that when we don't have power we will have hot water for doing dishes and for doing laundry.

We have a propane water heater for camping, but it is about the size of a toaster oven and it is heavy, plus it was expensive.  I think this is a much more economical solution.

Great Video of Emergency Prep ideas

Wow, Lana Richardson has some great ideas of stuff to be aware of in a disaster! This is an hour long, so let it play while you are doing dishes or paying bills or something. It is well worth watching. I took 6 pages of notes!

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6255&Itemid=200049