Posted on 12/21/2010 5:00:48 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
It's been a crazy past few years. We've seen gas prices hit all-time highs, been hit by major and catastrophic weather disasters, and watched as banks and major financial institutions disappear overnight in the midst of what appears to be an actual, real-life economic depression. Our stable, comfortable lives suddenly don't seem so stable any more.
Here are 10 things you can do to improve your chances of riding out a major disaster without looking like a total lunatic. If you get all 10 of these items checked off, let me know so I can come crash at your place when aliens attack.
10. Get solar power
Having solar panels on your roof not only reduces your utility bill, but also puts you in the enviable position of having power when nature strikes down the energy grid. They'll eventually pay for themselves and they're also a great hedge against future spikes in energy costs. In the event of a disaster, you'll have power to fend off the zombies, nuclear mutants and ninja biker gangs that will inevitably rise up from the ashes of polite society.
9. Collect and filter your rain water for home use
A lot of water gushes down your gutter pipes during a rain storm. A typical suburban roof has about 1,000 square feet of rain-catching surface that could be put to good use with the strategic placement of a barrel or two. If a meteor strikes the nation's capital and we're cast into anarchy, it's a good bet your city water will stop flowing after the food riots subside. Assuming it rains where you live, you could provide drinking water for a small family with a couple of good rain barrels.
8) Grow a backyard garden
Growing a garden in your back yard will save you money on your shopping bill now, but will literally save your life when aliens invade and the world destroys itself fighting off the invasion. People are doing miraculous things with very small space, turning typical suburban back yards into teeming microfarms that produce a wide and tasty array of fruits and vegetables. It might not be a bad idea to invest in a few robot machine-gun nests to protect the crop after the invasion.
7. Build a Greenhouse
6. Make your own bio-diesel fuel
5. Get Handy! Learn some DIY Skills!
4. Learn to Hunt
3. Build an electrified fence
2. Get to know your neighbors
1. Build a stockpile of food
Time for a "back to the land" movement in America, if not....then do it in your back yard.
Wrong. Except for the southwestern US, solar power is a money wasting greendoggle. First of all, roof? Ever try to walk on an icy roof to shovel them off? Second, batteries? No mention of batteries or other energy storage. The only reason that solar "pays for itself" is that the power company is forced to buy the power (even though it is not needed) and then sell you their gas or coal generated power when you actually need it. Solar is getting cheaper, but mostly on paper, not when you actually try to buy panels. Also the cheaper technologies are much less efficient so you would have to cover your lawn (not roof) to get enough power to do anything.
They seem to have the right idea, but don't quite get it. What is useful is passive solar (not solar electric) and that applies to a house or greenhouse. Mostly that requires lots of insulation and thermal mass, and ways to keep from overheating in the summer. I think the ideas here are great, but the article sounds like it was written by theoreticians.
I agree.
A wood-burning/pellet-burning stove (I have one in the Machine Shed) and a gas or kerosene powered generator needs to be added to the list (and my personal stash, LOL!) Gotta have electricity to chat with other Freeper ‘survivors!’ :)
Solar is stupid up here on the Frozen Tundra. It’s 7am (been up since 5am) and still no daylight - but this IS the longest day of the year. :)
I have almost everything i need, but needto shore up food stocks.
You’re welcome. I do/have most of this stuff already, but my goal this coming year is to be even more self-sufficient out here on the farm, Apocalypse or not! :)
What kind of disaster will wreak chaos into the power grid and leave those exposed glass sandwiches in working order?
The author hasn’t read the book, “The 500 dollar tomato”. I grew a garden last year. It cost me about three hundred dollars for dirt, fertilizer, fence to keep the dogs out, plants, and pesticides. I managed to can 8 quarts of tomatoes and 4 quarts of chili peppers. The squirrels got the beans and a lot of the tomatoes. Worms destroyed the cucumbers. Coons, borers, and drought got the corn.
This is actually correct - anyone that has solar knows it - or should.
Plus is the event of a real armed conflict, those panels are a big bulls eye painted right on your roof for all the roving gangs to see. - You would need to be in a tightly secured locale with its own trained and standing armed forces.
Biodiesel, and the fence aren’t ideas I really think are productive, and solar is expensive, for a home, but helps to keep the batteries charged in an RV pretty well, provided there is SUN and isn’t that expensive if you stick to the RV, other than that, I’m working on the Greenhouse, all others done or a work in progress.
“but this IS the longest day of the year”
So there’s a Wisconsin in the southern hemisphere now?
:)
Mom bought me a greenhouse about 15 years ago when I bought my farm. 12x10x8, double door, two vents; it really rocks. It was a floor sample at a lumberyard that was going out of business. It was $3K, she got it for $300 AND they delivered it! Deal of the century. I laid the brick floor myself, but it needs a little work; a few heaved bricks due to gophers...
I use it to start and harden off veggies, and also to extend the season with salad greens and stuff if I need to. There have been years when I’ve had fresh tomatoes, peppers, salad greens, etc. up until Thanksgiving. But, it is useless in the heat of the summer; unless I wanted to grow agave for tequilla, nothing can survive those 100 degree days in there. :)
In winter I give it up and grow greens indoors for the winter (55-degree fieldstone basement, grow-lights, etc.) because shoveling a path out to the greenhouse under 100” of snow is just not a ‘priority’ for me! :)
Building an electric fence in an urban or suburban setting doesn’t make you look like a lunatic?
And where you gonna get all the old cooking oil for the biodiesel?
Somebody just needed X number of words for an article.
There’s a learning curve to gardening. I’ve been at it on a serious basis for more than 15 years now and don’t have those problems any longer.
Keep at it! Once you’ve got the basics down, you really can grow a ton of food VERY cheaply. There are cheap ways around the problems you’ve listed. :)
Join our Weekly Gardening Thread for pointers and help. :)
When I looked into solar power I was told the power company required I be connected into the grid—so when they lost power so would I!
That defeats the whole purpose of solar power imho.
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