True Defiance: I Challenge You To Survive The Coming Collapse

Alt-Market ^ | 7/3/13 | Brandon Smith

[DuncanWaring]

Envision a bucket made from a couple of feet of PVC pipe.

[viaveritasvita]

Keep up the good work :)

[viaveritasvita]

I don’t know much about it, but ours is like that, too. It’s quite a ways down, but I actually believe my husband could make it work with a rope and a bucket! I, on the other hand, would be depending on bottled water and probably a bucketful of whatever rain water I could catch. We have discussed getting some sort of hand pump...but right now I’m angling for a nice generator.

[Soul of the South]

Can you dig out a pond for the streams to feed? I have a 10 acre spring fed lake behind my house. Should be easy to dip out water by the bucket.

[familyop]

"I need to look into a hand operated water pump for my well. should the SHTF and I loose fuel for my generator, my well wont do me much good. I have six acres with several natural springs but they don’t produce a lot of water. Any advice?"

You could mount a PV solar power plant on it. Try the following sets of keywords.

Solar powered well pump.

solar slow pump

Grunfos makes the best pumps for those, although the cheaper DC pumps will work. Grunfos also makes a 3" model for those who might otherwise get a standard pump stuck in a four-inch casing.

You need: an array of PV modules (small, if you get enough sun), a cistern to store water instead of using batteries, a float switch, a controller made for solar well pumps (low cost, last I looked), a pump, cables, switches, etc. I've seen controllers that are dual use for solar-generator and solar-wind. If such a power plant is also connected to grid power, you might need a transfer switch. And of course, NEC code for the appropriate year in your area, permit, inspection, etc.

Or yes, you could install and use a hand pump. But if you do that, hopefully, your well isn't a deep one (whole lotta hand pumpin' needed for deep wells). And I haven't seen any low cost hand pumps.

You might also consider a diesel or propane generator. Diesel fuel last longer than gasoline but can gel withinin four year, give or take. Propane is virtually forever, if you periodically check fittings, etc., so it stores really well. For a generator hookup to a well pump, you need an outdoor switch capable of the current on the system, and an "inlet" (and maybe a transfer switch if also hooked up to the power grid). And of course, the NEC (National Electrical Code) for the appropriate year for your jurisdiction. And a strong post for the switch and inlet.

You could build a wood-fired boiler conforming to ASME code, steam engine and a larger axial-flux alternator, if you have some steel fab skills, machining skills and don't mind reading and tinkering much. The boiler, engine and alternator would need to be capable of handling the start-up current demanded by your well pump. No small project. Such a power plant would be terribly inefficient, but it would be really cool. ;-) Or you could buy all of the components already built for a small fortune. Let me know, if you're crazy, sincere and experienced enough to build/assemble such a system, and I'll PM you a couple of links.

Lowtechs

[familyop]

See comment #25, if you're interested.

[JoeProBono]

[familyop]

One more thing. The controller might need to be a type specific to the kind of pump. Not sure, offhand (memory), but the Grunfos might be a DC-to-AC type, where the Dankoff (DC) isn’t. So find a package or instructions on the Web, and go from that. Dankoff pumps are okay but not as durable as Grunfos.

[SgtHooper]

Although I have not worked out the details, my solution for the well is a couple golf cart batteries being charged by a couple solar panels, the batteries kick in when power goes down and will drive the well pump. The usage should be manually controlled under battery operation.

[SgtHooper]

But traditional wells nowadays are 4-6 inch pipe. The most straightforward is PVC pipe on a hand pump at the well head.

[Texas resident]

Thanks much for the ping.
The wife and I now live in a constant state of hurricane preparedness. I have researched medieval weapons and learned how to manufacture them. If it comes down to that, it just does.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

[Rannug]

As is dryer lint

[going hot]

http://www.simplepump.com/

Check it out, nice product, hand or battery power. With a single wire alternator on a pole with a fan blade attached, the possibilities are endless.

[Stentor]

All about wells - A Solar submersible and hand pump inline

This guy has a lot of pump videos. He's all about redundancy.

[CodeToad]

“Find Two Neighbors Who Are On Board”

Easy enough. Just wait until SHTF, then when the jerks off themselves those that get it will be left standing. Problem solved.

[JoeProBono]

[William Tell]

http://www.simplepump.com

It’s very comforting to know that we can pump water
without electricity.

Our preps look pretty good except for the “ideal weight” issue. I think I’ve drifter over the limit.

[bgill]

You can rig a small container to a string to lower down to the water inside the well opening. Maybe time consuming if you need a large amount of water but it works.

[EternalHope]

If you can’t defend it, you don’t own it.

A gun and 1000 rounds of ammunition is only part of the self defense story. You must know how to use it, and practice doing so.

The more people in your group who are ready, willing, and ABLE to fight, the more likely you are to survive whatever trouble comes your way.

Ideally, you should have prepared defensive positions, preferably hard to spot, with at least two locations capable of directing fire at every point of approach.

You need at least one long gun for every capable adult in your group for defense. You should probably consider a side arm for each person as well.

In the “old days” (a year ago or so), you could buy an inexpensive .22 and dirt cheap ammo for it and learn to shoot on a reasonable budget.

Now, ammunition is in such short supply that getting the necessary practice is either going to be VERY expensive, or not possible at all.

All in all, if you have not yet gotten a gun and learned how to use it, then by all means do so immediately. In a true SHTF situation, your other preps are moot without it.

[rfreedom4u]

My grandparents had a well in the ‘70’s. We still had to crank the bucket up to get water. It was the best tasting water I’ve ever had.