In 20 ys of watching TB2K, I have seen only one Prepper who understands the chokepoint in prepping.

[Troke]

Drinkable water.

The electric grid goes down and by the end of the week, thirst for a majority of the population.

By the end of the month, death.

And there is no Plan B.

Odd how nobody ever mentions that. Every farm I know has an electric submersible pump. No power, no water. Only one has the original hand pump still in place But it has not been used since the early 1950's, so..............

And check the towns with a water tower. Most of them get the water up into that tower using electric pumps.

Everybody preps against starving to death. Not going to happen if TS really HTF. You will die of thirst first.

 

[bw]

More have that figured out than you know.

 

[Dennis Olson]

I had 440 gallons of water stored in blue plastic drums, and a Big Berkey for after that. Family of 4 at the time.

 

[WalknTrot]

I'm betting there are more than a few folks here who have a hand pump, artesian well, spring or a decent flowing water source that can be filtered.

This place has a hand pump on the well, (water level rises in the well pipe to less than 13 feet from the surface, so it only requires a shallow well hand pump) and a year-round trout stream running through the pasture with a good sized pond.

 

[SSTemplar]

I can produce electricity.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I have to admit, having fresh drinking water is our weakest point in our preps. We are rural, and have no well on our property. We do have rain barrels set up which store around 1000 gallons at any given time, and a pond just down the hill from us. Big Berkey system will be set up for filtering purposes. Still, it will be hard. I always wanted a well that could have a bucket lowered into it for water, though, like my grandparents did.

 

[Melodi]

This does get discussed here, I have a lot of bleach and we nearly had to use it this past week when we had no water for five days.

 

[hiwall]

I'm covered for about a year or so with easy water. After that I still have water but not as easy though certainly doable.

 

[Millwright]

Big pond.

Material for a filter.

Bleach. (powder)

Berkey.

 

[Bumblepuff]

 

[Troke]

Well, you folks have accounted for 0.0001% of the population, maybe.
Gonna be pretty bad news for most of the other 319, 900,000.

DO has the right idea, several hundred gals and hope the juice is back before it runs out.

 

[bw]

Springs, creeks, and hand-pumped wells are better.

 

[GammaRat]

Choke Points...

Water.. I have a bullet bucket that I intend to use with my existing well.
Food. Goats and heirloom seeds.

Learn how to pull a well pump and make a bullet bucket out of PVC and a sump pump check valve.

DON'T do what everyone else does.... (go to the lake)... Unless you want to get shot or die of starvation.

If our infrastructure collapsed in November, you will not be able start a garden until March. How long can you go on existing food stocks?

 

[Dozdoats]

Spring

Uphill

 

[Freeholder]

I have two water filters, the know-how and materials to make a sand-and-charcoal water filter, a pond which is known to have never dried up (spring-fed), a shallow well which would be easy to improvise a hand-pulled 'bucket' on, and a creek nearby. Also four water barrels for collecting runoff from roofs. And we no longer live in a semi-arid location. I know this area does get droughts, but a drought here is nothing like even a regular summer in Oregon's high desert. I do also keep some stored water on hand, but I don't try to keep a year's worth, just enough for a few days.

And, in this part of the country, I think most people would manage to find a water source -- there are ponds, streams, rivers, and lakes all over the place, not to mention plentiful rainfall most of the time.

But I do agree that the dry parts of the country could have issues, and so could the large urban centers.

Kathleen

 

[GammaRat]

If you know how to find water in the dry areas of the country, you're much better off than the areas that have water and where people will congregate.

 

[The Mountain]

If you can locate a source of water of any kind e.g local pond, stream, rainwater catchment etc, you can build a filter capable of cleaning it. Look up slow-sand or biosand filter, lots of good info. I used to have a nice neat infographic showing how to buiild one inside a large (30-40gal) clay jar, that was intended to supply drinkable water to rural villages in India, but I can't locate it now. Most of the better designs include a charcoal layer, so boning up on how to produce charcoal might be in order. The filter system can be endlessly rebuilt as needed, since it uses only rocks, gravel, sand, maybe charcoal, and cloth.

I have to admit, having fresh drinking water is our weakest point in our preps. We are rural, and have no well on our property. We do have rain barrels set up which store around 1000 gallons at any given time, and a pond just down the hill from us. Big Berkey system will be set up for filtering purposes. Still, it will be hard. I always wanted a well that could have a bucket lowered into it for water, though, like my grandparents did.

Were I you, I'd get a borewell drilled anyway. There are plans available online for a dip-bucket system that can be used in drilled wells when power isn't available.

 

[zealotbat]

You all can Google this if u like.

Kristof Retezár's Fontus, a "self-filling" water bottle that can make water out of thin air.

Solar powered....and the time line is pretty fast.

 

[Millwright]

If you can locate a source of water of any kind e.g local pond, stream, rainwater catchment etc, you can build a filter capable of cleaning it. Look up slow-sand or biosand filter, lots of good info. I used to have a nice neat infographic showing how to buiild one inside a large (30-40gal) clay jar, that was intended to supply drinkable water to rural villages in India, but I can't locate it now. Most of the better designs include a charcoal layer, so boning up on how to produce charcoal might be in order. The filter system can be endlessly rebuilt as needed, since it uses only rocks, gravel, sand, maybe charcoal, and cloth.



Were I you, I'd get a borewell drilled anyway. There are plans available online for a dip-bucket system that can be used in drilled wells when power isn't available.

Commercial 4" dip buckets are available for drilled wells.

Saw them recently, but don't remember where.

 

[Troke]

Springs, creeks, and hand-pumped wells are better.

Springs OK provided there is not a cave back there filled with bats enriching the water. Better test while you have the chance.

Surface water OK if no Ag chemicals. Otherwise you need a deep activated charcoal filter at the minimum and I am not too sure about that given what could be in the water.

Hand pump good but I would test that water too. I know of more than one well a bit enriched with Ag chemicals.

 

[Troke]

One more thing. The word gets out that you have water, it won't matter how much AK-47 ammo you got, it won't be enough.

These people will be a lot worse than a starving mob.

 

[David Nettleton]

1/2 teaspoon of Clorox bleach per ten gallons of drinking water. A good prepper friend (he's been ready since the mid '60s) said STAY ON YOUR PROPERTY. Wouldn't be long before anybody moving out there will be considered a threat and/or fair game.

 

[Millwright]

Hearsay has a spring in the next section over from us.

During the settler days, everybody in this area got drinking water there.

Supposedly never went dry during the Dustbowl.

 

[GammaRat]

Commercial 4" dip buckets are available for drilled wells.

Saw them recently, but don't remember where.

a well bucket can be made with PVC

I made mine with a 48" piece of 4" PVC. I necked it down to 1.5" and attached a sump pump check valve as the trap door on the bottom of the bucket.

 

[ShadowMan]

Well, Solar power, Generator x 2, Swimming Pool, Hot Tub, Water Tank, Creek, Streams, River, Pond, Lake, Big Berkey, various Hiker filters/purifiers, Life Straws.

Besides NBC gasmasks for breathable air, water is the next most important survival requirement.

 

[dogmanan]

I know powered pool shock is ok to use for water, I know their are two kinds one is ok to use the other is not , which one is the ok one to use.

 

[hiwall]

Well, you folks have accounted for 0.0001% of the population, maybe.
Gonna be pretty bad news for most of the other 319, 900,000.

I agree but this scenario is about IF the grid goes down which is not a very likely event.

If you know how to find water in the dry areas of the country, you're much better off than the areas that have water and where people will congregate.

As someone who has walked countless miles in the desert, it is pretty easy to find the water holes there. And find the windmills that are in the middle of nowhere to water cattle. A good topo map can make most anyone an expert. But no matter how remote that water is you can bet many other people know its there too.

 

[Dennis Olson]

I know powered pool shock is ok to use for water, I know their are two kinds one is ok to use the other is not , which one is the ok one to use.

If the powder contains more than pure bleach, it is NOT okay to use, at least for drinking and cooking. Flushing and bathing are okay though.

 

[dogmanan]

If the powder contains more than pure bleach, it is NOT okay to use, at least for drinking and cooking. Flushing and bathing are okay though.

Ok thanks

So it will say on the ingredents pure bleach or something like that.

 

[jward]

Still have 10k? Feet of metal roofs collecting water into ibc totes up hill from the house, pvc pipe and fittings to run it into the house.huge water storage barrels in house, a public access well within walking distance, water filters of differing sizes, as well as plans, parts, and ongoing projects. Oh. And I replaced the water storage i passed out or used myself during the flood.

Could use sand and charcoal though. Plus another 101 other things, but like you said, water is definitely a choke point!

 

[jward]

Hearsay has a spring in the next section over from us.

During the settler days, everybody in this area got drinking water there.

Supposedly never went dry during the Dustbowl.

You can find that out online...poke around county websites, and take a close look at the gis systems' layers. Never hurts to know where the wells are, either, imo.

 

[West]

Commercial 4" dip buckets are available for drilled wells.

Saw them recently, but don't remember where.

Make your own, cheap.

Wind pump here. And if the wind stops blowing....I'll try to talk the wife into useing the pump jack....

 

[L.A.B.]

The real chokepoint is the ability to process water. Depending on volume or mobility required, there are a few ways of meeting the requirements of safe drinking water.

Vented Distillation and UV light for pathogens, chemicals, or bio’s.

Water water everywhere, but how to treat it is the priority.

 

[NCGirl]

In current location one thing I don't worry about is water. We have a spring fed hand dug well on property that used to irrigate 50 acres of tobacco. Its closed up for safety but can easily be opened up by hand in a few minutes if needed. We check it every few years and there is no sign of it declining. We have at least 8K-10K of metal roofs on outbuildings and several other options too... water would really be the least of our worries in a bad situation

 

[Doomer Doug]

Now I understand why various states are making the collection of rainwater illegal. Further, large parts of usable land here in CONUS was ceded by Clinton to either the UN, ie "heritage sites," or used as collateral backing all the debt China and Japan bought from us. Do any of us really think China would buy several hundred billion in unpayble US debt without getting guarantees in terms of ports, roads, bridges, other infrastructure and farmland. The real chinese invasion will be hordes of farmers, backed by China's military, to settle our depopulated rural farmland.

And yes, fresh water will be a major part of the looming resource wars in our near future.

 

[dogmanan]

Well Lake Michigan is a short walk from me , so I think that water would last me for a while.


That is why I wanted to know about the pool shock, I will need to treat the water coming straight from the lake just to be safe.

 

[Luddite]

Commercial 4" dip buckets are available for drilled wells.

Saw them recently, but don't remember where.

Lehman's carries them.

https://www.lehmans.com/product/lehmans-own-galvanized-well-bucket/

The Great Grands upgraded to this new technology about 80 years ago. I was shown where the springboxes were located in the springs for the previous century-ish.

That's the last problem we'll have in Appalachia. Ya'll DON'T come. (Unless you bring lots of food, knowledge, and a hatred for commies and their mommies.)

ETA: Spend a little time researching ram pumps. Rife was making ram pumps in the early 1800s, IIRC. (eta since 1884) Moving water can pump spring water to amazing heights. I'm saving my pennies to do a water system with one of these.

Engineer 775 and Wranglerstar are two prepper personalities that give good videos on their use and construction.

 

[Profit of Doom]

Well on site, generator. If needed could pull pump and hand dip, but really don’t want to do that.
Long term grid down would only run generator and pump a few minutes when needed.

 

[Squib]

More have that figured out than you know.

Yes, sir! We live in the high desert plains and foothills and rain/snow is a key prep for us. It has been since settlers came out here.

We have a Big Berkey, multiples of filters, home made 5 gallon water filters, gutters and water catchment system, and 2 2200 gallon buried cisterns, and a well with redundant sources of power to bring the water up.

 

[hiwall]

Ok thanks

So it will say on the ingredents pure bleach or something like that.

calcium hypochlorite and nothing else.