Household Generators and Hurricane Preps

[ziactrice]

A good friend is asking about home generators - I know someone on my Friends list has one. Would you speak up so he can pick your brain about the details for installation, care, and feeding

Comments

[silkensteel]

I've seen those forehead headband cooler things, where you soak it in water and wear it, and evaporative cooling does the job. I have my doubts as to whether it works well enough in high humidity. (Spent enough time in Phila/NJ that I've experienced High Humidity.)

A bow saw comes in handy, I've used one in combination with a hatchet and an axe to cut up and discard a 20 foot downed pine tree. I'd suggest a large (about 3 ft long) and a small (about half) for handling a variety of sizes.

Dollar stores have the sandwich-type cookies CHEAP, often Mexican or other-Latin-American made. In my experience they're as tasty or tastier than Oreos. Larger too. If you get the ones packed in tubes, they store more efficiently and more break-proofedly.

Allergy pills! I'm learning that not only are they useful, but quite nicely barterable. Same goes for any OTC pill or other med.

Vitamins?

Is it practical to make jerky spiced with the kind of soup or stew spices you like, then seal in portions appropriate for meal prep?

Instant-cool type ice packs.

That's all off the top of my head. :)

[fearsclave]

+1 on the axes recc. A Leatherman multitool is also insanely handy.

Flashlights are your friend. The more the better. I'd recc a mix of handcrankers, handcrank lanterns, a big police-brutality sized 5 or 6 D-cell Maglite or two, and maybe a Surefire G2. Lots of batteries of course.

If you want long-term storage food, safecastle.com has a sale on Mountain House freeze-dried food at the moment. The stuff has a 25-year shelf life. Just add water. Supplement these with some Meals, Ready-to-Eat, which come with a pile of useful stuff aside from just the food and flameless heaters, and you're fairly well covered.

Hats, comfortable boots, and work gloves are a good idea.

First aid kits.

Photocopies of your birth certificate, drivers' licence, title deeds to your properties, insurance policies, passport, and other important life documents are all an excellent idea.

Having a BOB (Bug Out Bag, not Battery Operated Boyfriend) ready to go is also a great idea.

Check out http://www.ready.gov/america/index.html for preparedness 101. Go to www.survivalblog.com for the graduate-level seminar.

Reply to fearsclave

[ziactrice]

I have a Leatherman - and yes, insanely useful. Now gets carried on my belt, despite the fact it tends to dig in whenever I sit. I need to get a drape-holster for it.

Flashlights we have coming out of our ears - although the battery supply needs looking into. However, I need something better for early evening light - I want to get a good kerosene lamp with reflector, so I can have enough light to read by that isn't harsh. We did use a HUGE candle with three wicks, an 8" job. That was great for 'enough light to move around by' purposes.

I have a hard hat that I wear during tree-clearing activity from my job. Wide-brimmed gardening hat (fabric) for keeping the sun from cooking my brains (can be soaked in water) - and about a half-dozen different working gloves (what? It's hard to find small enough ones, so I always buy spares when I do).

Haven't got an express kit made. Just lots of supplies here there, and yonder. Will ask my estimable roomie who is a nurse practitioner to help me work up a list and get a bag.

Check, these are in the Bug Out Bag.

Yep, learned that after the street flooding we had.

I've been ready the Survival Blog for a while. Lots of good stuff there, although I don't go so much for the firearms as the food storage.

Reply to silkensteel

[ziactrice]

1) the humidity we experienced after Rita and Ike was about 96-98%, so any evap cooling - including the body's own sweat, doesn't work so well. That is a good part of what makes the after-heat so unbearable, I think. Although if you don't have it, you can't use it. I will get a few of those headband things just in CASE the humidity is low enough they can help.

And while I am thinking of heat remedies - neither one of use suffers from high blood pressure - some salt pills will help us deal with the heat tremendously as long as we have lots of water to drink.

2) My half-size bow saw is currently a rusty heap. Buy two new ones, one larger like you say, and get two spare blades for each if I can find them.

3) Did not know about the sandwich cookies. I will be checking out the local dollar places to see if I can find these, since it is time to restock.

3. Allergy pills I am VERY well supplied with being an asthmatic. Walitin and such OTC shouldn't get me into trouble bartering, either.

4. I have some, but they don't particularly seem to help with the stress. Although given dried or canned food, or Meals Ready to Eat, they might be necessary. Although by the second week of Ike, I was DYING for some green vegeatbles - or ANY kind of fruit. Some bags of dried fruit might be very smart.

5. OOOOO. GOOD idea. And I have the Good Eats method of making jerky to go on, but I'll have to get a dehydrator and do it inside - the outside humidity is now so high that the meat will mold long before it dries enough to prevent such sad event.

6. Good for the medical supply. Have to ask Lollee where to buy.

Very good ideas! Thank you much for that.