Now that we're about a week into the war in Ukraine, I'm curious to see if this is having an effect on anyone's prepping. Have you changed any plans or goals? Realized that there are gaps you hadn't considered before? Etcetera, etcetera.
Personally, I've just pulled the trigger on a few items which I'd been holding off on (power station, foldable solar panel) and am currently researching a few other items: countertop water filter; "overlanding" style upgrades for my truck - solar, awning, storage, cargo box, etc.; and a small solar setup for house. I'm also trying to determine how I can move forward with some food gardening (my property is heavily shaded), even if it's just a little, and trying to improve how my preps are organized.
So what changes (if any) have you made?
About the only things I have done is get more cash out of the bank, and I put most of my electronic devices into faraday bags. You know, just in case.
I got some fresh potassium iodide and rechecked the expected fallout paths map from the 90s (I haven't seen a newer one) to plan for a road trip in case DC gets nuked. If Richmond gets nuked, I just hope we're close enough to go with the initial blast.
I also re-evaluated my escape path should our nuclear power facilities be effected. I expect a nuclear attack on the US to be a low risk, but the doomsday plane was in training the moment Putin mentioned his nuclear alert and this man is clearly off his rocker, so who knows if he has an itchy trigger finger for the rest of the world.
I did recently purchase a distiller, but that was because distilled water has been hard to find or stupid expensive recently. I got a thermal plate so I can safely use it over open flame without damage to the pot.
Otherwise, I'm just being careful to keep up with my regular preps for any disaster.
Not just Russia/Ukraine but also the trucker protests here and in Canada, and from both from the supply chain and the government response(s) standpoints.
Still withdrawing cash on every trip to town, and got the septic tank drained this week (after a very minor water backup in the basement drain while doing laundry, some pipe snaking and 10 gallons of boiling water down the drain seemed to resolve it, but wasn't taking any chances of going into an apocalypse with a full shitter ;) ). While we gave up on vegetable gardening some years ago I think I'll check if the local stores have any vegetable seeds out yet too, still have a stash from when we last gardened but doubt any are still viable. Need to remember to do that every year...
Quote from: Anianna on March 02, 2022, 01:05:17 PM
I did recently purchase a distiller, but that was because distilled water has been hard to find or stupid expensive recently. I got a thermal plate so I can safely use it over open flame without damage to the pot.
I'd have cleaned and tested mine for the first time this past weekend if it wasn't for the plumbing issues. Hopefully this weekend.
Put some stuff in a homemade faraday cage. Couple night vision, one of our shortwave radios, an extra cell phone , couple flash lights and a extra tablet with documents and pdfs with survival type stuff. Few months back I posted on here about field gun cleaning kits to put in my GHB. Wasn't happy with any of the ones I found and just ended up forgetting about it. I went ahead and ordered a USGI steel rod kit last night after someone posted a pic of one the other day. Still isn't really what I wanted , but.....
Also looking for some kind of portable solar panel. I figure all this will over one way or the other in the next week. I'm just trying to be as prepared as I can be if it goes the other.
I updated my potassium iodide, and grabbed some extra groceries above what is normally extra.
No special preps here. 90% of my ham gear is stored in Idaho; what I have here has no special protection. Anything big enough to give an EMP blast in this area likely isn't going to leave anything standing here. There's so many military bases surrounding us, and the National capitol just ~50 miles north of us that when nukes are involved nothing short of a deep fallout shelter and a few years of supplies will help.
As far as other types of threats, there aren't any that have been significantly raised in this area, so my regular preps will suffice. Just doing regular perishables rotation and keeping things topped off.
Lots of stuff in Faraday cages.
-Blast
Still packing for my move here.
I feel there is actually nothing I can do at this point.
Quote from: Lambykins on March 03, 2022, 06:33:48 PM
Still packing for my move here.
I feel there is actually nothing I can do at this point.
Moving closer to family and having a new place to work on, put in a garden, etc. sounds like a decent plan, even if it was totally unrelated to Ukraine!
It's going to sound like a smart-ass, selfish thing to say, but it's got me worrying about 7.62x39 availability specifically, and ammo generally in the US. I hate to say it out loud, but we're way beyond the Freedom Fries effect here. First goes the vodka, and then?
Business as usual. I've tried to keep calm, stock supplies of what I know I'll actually use, and not feed into any purchasing panic. And check in with my neighbors. To me, the silver lining in Ukraine is that groups of people united by adversity are capable of incredible things.
Checking and rechecking my supplies, maps, food, shelter, first aid. And making sure people I care about are doing the same.
Quote from: slipkid42 on March 02, 2022, 07:51:48 PM
I updated my potassium iodide, and grabbed some extra groceries above what is normally extra.
On potassium iodide pills, saw this article this AM: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgqpd/iodine-pills-nuclear-apocalypse
A possible alternative if they're not available, and one that has other uses for first aid and water disinfection (and maybe Covid :) ), is 10% povidone iodine (Betadine). I could only find the abstract of this article now, SKIN EXPOSURE TO I BLOCKS THYROID UPTAKE OF 1311 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4066341/), but here's a couple screenshots from the pdf:
(https://i.postimg.cc/dtN508gC/i-block.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/HnhbTtjs/i-block2.jpg)
Quote from: EBuff75 on March 02, 2022, 11:05:15 AM
Now that we're about a week into the war in Ukraine, I'm curious to see if this is having an effect on anyone's prepping.
-------
So what changes (if any) have you made?
Given up.
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 05, 2022, 04:58:39 PM
Quote from: EBuff75 on March 02, 2022, 11:05:15 AM
Now that we're about a week into the war in Ukraine, I'm curious to see if this is having an effect on anyone's prepping.
-------
So what changes (if any) have you made?
Given up.
Don't do that, Ever. You've already dealt with more that most people will ever have to endure. And remember that things could always be worse (just ask the average Ukrainian). But more than that, study after study has shown that those who persevere in the face of adversity aren't the one's who are physically the strongest. Or even those who have taken the most steps to prepare. It's the people who don't give up. Who simply refuse to let go of the idea that things will get better and that there is (or will be) a world worth living in. You have a community here, if no where else.
The single most important prep is the will to go on. We live in challenging times, no argument here. But we here on this forum have always anticipated (or at least entertained the possiblity) that challenging times lie ahead. More than anything else, the very idea of a difficult, challenging world is precisely why we're all here at UFOZS. That's why you're here, even if you don't realize it.
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 05, 2022, 04:58:39 PM
Quote from: EBuff75 on March 02, 2022, 11:05:15 AM
Now that we're about a week into the war in Ukraine, I'm curious to see if this is having an effect on anyone's prepping.
-------
So what changes (if any) have you made?
Given up.
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20160905 (https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20160905)
One more change...I'm back to flossing my teeth every day. Good oral health is important.
It's the little things...
-Blast
It has not affected my prepping in any special way. It's a challenge finding a lot of stuff as it is with the supply chain dorked, let alone trying to find extra over and above the norm. We just keep on, keeping on as per usual. Hope to keep the larder full and fingers crossed nothing catastrophic happens.
An odd thing in my experience; my family has informed me they are sending me a bicycle... (their words) in case I need to escape. No other explanation offered.
Out of character. Unnerving. Unexpected.
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 10, 2022, 05:17:20 AM
An odd thing in my experience; my brother's family has informed me they are sending me a bicycle... (their words) in case I need to escape. No other explanation offered.
Out of character. Unnerving. Unexpected.
Well the movie "The day after" was located in your town. Of course when the time line of that movie occurred, you were surrounded by ICBM silos. Hopefully Ivan does know that is no longer the case. Where do they expect you to pedal to?
Quote from: flybynight on March 10, 2022, 06:40:12 AM
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 10, 2022, 05:17:20 AM
An odd thing in my experience; my family has informed me they are sending me a bicycle... (their words) in case I need to escape. No other explanation offered.
Out of character. Unnerving. Unexpected.
Well the movie "The day after" was located in your town. Of course when the time line of that movie occurred, you were surrounded by ICBM silos. Hopefully Ivan does know that is no longer the case. Where do they expect you to pedal to?
Talked to them today. They wouldn't respond to direct questions, nor are they responding with straight answers to my meandering casual questions. They are not preppers but I feel they are definitely spooked about something. I insisted they not send the bike, which was flatly refused no matter what direction I came at it from. Again, odd. Just kept pounding 'keep it safe, do Not let it be stolen. You may Need it.' (emphasis theirs)
Completely out of character. Unnerving. Like they know something but will not give me more info than that.
I'm mind reading at this point and as such is not reliable. But... the behavior is nothing I've ever seen. So I'll take the bike and pull it into this too full apartment. And get my other one fixed and pull 'it' in here too. And buy back up tires and tubes.
Oh, and I got a wind up clock replacement to conserve on reliance of batteries, both rechargeable and not.
Looking into a wind up watch too.
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation)
Looking into a wind up watch too.
What you may really be looking for is an "automatic" watch. It's a quaint almost anachronistic term for a selfwinding mechanical watch. I say almost anachronistic because in it's day it eliminated the chore of having to hand-wind one's watch every morning. In that sense evey modern battery powered watch is "automatic", but in the watch industry the nomenclature is reserved for mechanical watches that harness your body movements to wind a traditional mainspring. This one is on sale at the moment and is a steal at $45:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQJS6M?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=40cf2888a52411ecb94f4267e803f3150INT
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQJS6M?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=40cf2888a52411ecb94f4267e803f3150INT)
It is technically a men's watch but not a particularly large one and has the advantage of being highly water resistant. If you're at all interested, do read the most popular Amazon user review because it does a good job discussing it's pros and cons. Yesiree, that one Amazon reviewer sure knows what he's talking about. I bet if you were talking to him now he'd tell you he still owns it and nothing over the past few years has changed his very positive opinion of it ..
But another, perhaps better alternative for a post-SHTF watch is comething from Citizen's Eco-Drive line. Technically those are battery powered but the battery is recharged via solar power. Eventually even that solar battery will fail, but we're talking a decade or more. And the Eco-Drive will be far more accurate than any mechanical watch.
Bought a little extra rice, took out a little extra cach, tossed a few things that I don't use often in Faraday's cages, mostly on general principle instead of keeping them in a drawer.
A few AA flashlights and headlamps, folding solar panel, a couple power banks, some AA envelopes, usb charger for them, an old phone with charger, emergency radio with crank, solar and batteries, E-book reader (need to pull it and make sure I have "Ditch Medicine", "The Ranger Handbook" and a "few" other pdf's on there, and also put "scans" of important documents on there and on a USB drive)
I used a couple metal paint cans I bought empty, they are airtight and should make a good faraday's cage (I think I got the tip about using paint cans from the old forum)
Thinking about buying a few Baofeng radios.. (I'll probably ask for some advice over in the Coms section later)
Quote from: majorhavoc on March 16, 2022, 08:28:06 AM
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation)
Looking into a wind up watch too.
What you may really be looking for is an "automatic" watch. It's a quaint almost anachronistic term for a selfwinding mechanical watch. I say almost anachronistic because in it's day it eliminated the chore of having to hand-wind one's watch every morning. In that sense evey modern battery powered watch is "automatic", but in the watch industry the nomenclature is reserved for mechanical watches that harness your body movements to wind a traditional mainspring. This one is on sale at the moment and is a steal at $45:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQJS6M?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=40cf2888a52411ecb94f4267e803f3150INT
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQJS6M?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=40cf2888a52411ecb94f4267e803f3150INT)
It is technically a men's watch but not a particularly large one and has the advantage of being highly water resistant. If you're at all interested, do read the most popular Amazon user review because it does a good job discussing it's pros and cons. Yesiree, that one Amazon reviewer sure knows what he's talking about. I bet if you were talking to him now he'd tell you he still owns it and nothing over the past few years has changed his very positive opinion of it ..
But another, perhaps better alternative for a post-SHTF watch is comething from Citizen's Eco-Drive line. Technically those are battery powered but the battery is recharged via solar power. Eventually even that solar battery will fail, but we're talking a decade or more. And the Eco-Drive will be far more accurate than any mechanical watch.
I looked for a windup wristwatch, but the only ones I found were very expensive. Then looked for a self winding . But that was more than I wanted to spend also. So I ended up buying a Casio quartz / battery watch at Wally world for $19.00. It says the battery lasts ten years. Has luminous hands and numbers. When I got home , didn't even take it out of the box. Just set the time . Closed the box back up and wrapped it in four layers of aluminum foil. Instant fall out watch on the cheap.
If i may suggest an alternative clock. A simple sun dial in the yard will keep reliable and accurate time. Calculate the correction factor for local noon to sun dial display or better yet adjust the sundial for the correct time and keep the correction factor handy in case the sun dial needs to be reset.
Quote from: Raptor on March 16, 2022, 07:19:30 PM
If i may suggest an alternative clock. A simple sun dial in the yard will keep reliable and accurate time. Calculate the correction factor for local noon to sun dial display or better yet adjust the sundial for the correct time and keep the correction factor handy in case the sun dial needs to be reset.
Not very handy if you are running and gunning alien mutant fallout zombies :panic:
Quote from: flybynight on March 16, 2022, 06:53:26 PM
I looked for a windup wristwatch, but the only ones I found were very expensive. Then looked for a self winding . But that was more than I wanted to spend also. So I ended up buying a Casio quartz / battery watch at Wally world for $19.00. It says the battery lasts ten years. Has luminous hands and numbers. When I got home , didn't even take it out of the box. Just set the time . Closed the box back up and wrapped it in four layers of aluminum foil. Instant fall out watch on the cheap.
+ 1 on that suggestion. I almost mentioned certain Casio models with a 10 year battery life. Super affordable too. Not their G-Shock range, which are more expensive but offer a whole other dimension to the idea of an "end of the world" time piece. 10+ years into the apocalypse and those of us who still survive will probably have learned to live without a to-the-minute concept of time.
I'm a bit of a watch collector with an affinity for modern and vintage mechanical wristwatches. But the absurd level of practicality, affordability and utility offered by Casio models isn't lost on me. I even own one (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000LAKYW8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000LAKYW8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details)). Not one of the 10-year battery life models, but I love it because it's so similar to something I wore in the 1980s.
Makes me realize there's ample material here for a whole separate thread on post-apocalyptic timekeeping.
Sundials are portable.
https://youtu.be/ztrI8yjj_r0
That and if it is the ZPAW the current time will always be "Time to haul ass". :clownshoes:
But how do you adjust a sun dial for daylight savings time?
Quote from: Zed hunter on March 17, 2022, 09:22:30 AM
But how do you adjust a sun dial for daylight savings time?
The same way you adjust it to local time (vs solar time) by rotating/lifting the bezel/platform until it shows the correct civil time.
Local noon is based upon your geographic location and typically is off from the official noon. In fact sailors have been using this fact for navigation for centuries before chronometers were invented to determine latitude.
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/solar-noon.html
https://celestialnavproblems.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-noon-sight.pdf
Local noon is when the sun directly overhead at your position.
https://www.myfrugalhome.com/set-your-sundial/
Im about to pull out all backpacking and bugout supplies. Go thru them and reconfigure our main packs and day packs. Also putting the electronics in ammo cans. And building a better vehicle bag.
I can get nuke pills locally. Am considering that and pladtic sheeting and tape for fallout. But i live next to LAX. So chances are we would all be dust anyway.
Been considering buying a new computer for my 1999 Jeep and putting it in an ammo can. Was considering selling it for a smaller, lighter, way better gas Toyota Rav4 with 4x4. But now im having second thoughts. Jeep is way easier to repair. But gets terrible gas mileage. If i had the money id buy dirt bikes.
Quote from: majorhavoc on March 05, 2022, 07:23:05 PM
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 05, 2022, 04:58:39 PM
Quote from: EBuff75 on March 02, 2022, 11:05:15 AM
Now that we're about a week into the war in Ukraine, I'm curious to see if this is having an effect on anyone's prepping.
-------
So what changes (if any) have you made?
Given up.
Don't do that, Ever. You've already dealt with more that most people will ever have to endure. And remember that things could always be worse (just ask the average Ukrainian). But more than that, study after study has shown that those who persevere in the face of adversity aren't the one's who are physically the strongest. Or even those who have taken the most steps to prepare. It's the people who don't give up. Who simply refuse to let go of the idea that things will get better and that there is (or will be) a world worth living in. You have a community here, if no where else.
The single most important prep is the will to go on. We live in challenging times, no argument here. But we here on this forum have always anticipated (or at least entertained the possiblity) that challenging times lie ahead. More than anything else, the very idea of a difficult, challenging world is precisely why we're all here at UFOZS. That's why you're here, even if you don't realize it.
Thanks. Have now stayed away from the news for a couple of weeks and body&soul seem to have settled. That bicycle insistence from my fam, the wind up clock and following conversations seem to have me waking again.
That said, today I'm seeing the possible events beyond covid I would do well to pay attention to with additional and new prep directions because of the war going on now and what I see as possibly? some major political and civil unrest heading our way beginning in the summer or fall. As well as war & cyber attacks if 'he' starts setting his sites in our country. Plus the new covid wave my intel is currently indicating heading this way as soon as summer, maybe early fall.
To that end I've started revising needs for much longer term food, in house medical, and sundry preps, EMP protection just in case he goes that direction too. Safety during civil & pol unrest. Looking at what I might have for barter use if/when scarcity hits. (I have no skills to barter with)
etc.
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 16, 2022, 02:05:04 AM
Quote from: flybynight on March 10, 2022, 06:40:12 AM
Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on March 10, 2022, 05:17:20 AM
An odd thing in my experience; my family has informed me they are sending me a bicycle... (their words) in case I need to escape. No other explanation offered.
Out of character. Unnerving. Unexpected.
Well the movie "The day after" was located in your town. Of course when the time line of that movie occurred, you were surrounded by ICBM silos. Hopefully Ivan does know that is no longer the case. Where do they expect you to pedal to?
Talked to them today. They wouldn't respond to direct questions, nor are they responding with straight answers to my meandering casual questions. They are not preppers but I feel they are definitely spooked about something. I insisted they not send the bike, which was flatly refused no matter what direction I came at it from. Again, odd. Just kept pounding 'keep it safe, do Not let it be stolen. You may Need it.' (emphasis theirs)
Completely out of character. Unnerving. Like they know something but will not give me more info than that.
I'm mind reading at this point and as such is not reliable. But... the behavior is nothing I've ever seen. So I'll take the bike and pull it into this too full apartment. And get my other one fixed and pull 'it' in here too. And buy back up tires and tubes.
Oh, and I got a wind up clock replacement to conserve on reliance of batteries, both rechargeable and not.
Looking into a wind up watch too.
maybe the bike frame is filled with gold and uncut diamonds..................so you can buy an escape
Curious about people's thoughts on today's announcement that businesses should prepare for potential retaliatory cyber attacks by Russia. Trying to translate that to personal preps. Besides being even more diligent about topping off vehicle and home heating fuel tanks and having a bit more cash on hand, what should we be doing?
This has actually helped. I used to go thru my bugout and inch stuff fairly regularly. But after going theu my atuff this week i sadly discovered that my tiny countycomm Marathon am/fm/shortwave radio died. I tried to get it fixed. But this radio is about 10-15 yrs old. I found a better replacement tho.
I was also able to see where i could still make improvements. And good things i had forgot that i had. Or decisions that i had forgotten i made.
I can see items i can take out of my bugout bags and put into my ghb. And items i can move to other family members bags.
But mostly ive found several places where i want to improve. I kind of got burned out on bobs and the like awhile ago. After obsessing for years. And this war has given me renewed interest. Im back to researching items i would like to improve upon. And things that i have since learned and want to incorporate.
My comms are limited to gmrs only. And only two handhelds. I definitely plan to replace them with baofengs. A new sw radio talked about above. A better antenna for it. Founf some killer green leather gloves i want to move to my ghb. I wanna test the pocket rocket clone stove i bought ages ago. I want to put my better sleeping pad in my bob. Instead of the lightweigjt one that sucks. But it saved weight.
I forgot how comfortable my boots are that are in my bob. I wore them for half a day. They are so comfy.
My ligjtweight hiking clothes are really light colored. The polyester stuff from rei and columbia. I found a darker set onsale at columbia today. That fit the bill much better.
I lost a bunch of weight over the last 6 months. And have been working out more. So alot of really nice texhnical clothing i had found on deep discounts fit me now! Which opened up alot of options.
But i also cant find a couole key piecea of clothing i lent to my son. Which will hopefully be found in the garage this week. As we are cleaning it out. Organizing our preps. And setting up a gym.
The main thing I have moved up is making a bulk meat buy - looking at a quarter or half cow, which is all we can fit in the freezers. The casual food shortages comment from the latest potato in chief is not encouraging and we were going to do it anyway.
I have to stand my go bag back up from something near zero (burned through a lot of it during the move and haven't circled back yet). That will be item #2, probably. Used to be a tornado bag, so it'll need updating for current events and a new environment.
Begun purchasing seeds to save for an uncertain food availability future. To be grown on balcony midway up a high rise.
Began researching what paperwork I needed to file to buy a Javalin... and asked the farming half of my family if they had any tractors they could spare. :smiley_bril:
Good thinking. I don't think I can tow much with my mower.
Quote from: Mr. E. Monkey on May 17, 2022, 04:19:13 PMGood thinking. I don't think I can tow much with my mower.
I can probably get a couple tractors we could use, Monkey.
I've got cousins that are farmers and if I promise to bring them back some gear, I'm sure they wouldn't mind loaning me a couple tractors.
I might even be able to get ahold of big rigs and trailers from other cousins for bringing back other goodies. :smiley_clap:
I purchased a half a cow, killed a good sized doe, and my wife planted a good size garden that with all the rain we've had here in North Missouri is growing at an amazing rate...
Quote from: NT2C on May 17, 2022, 12:57:14 PMBegan researching what paperwork I needed to file to buy a Javalin... and asked the farming half of my family if they had any tractors they could spare. :smiley_bril:
Omg. Thats funny as hell. Good one.
Quote from: NT2C on May 17, 2022, 12:57:14 PMBegan researching what paperwork I needed to file to buy a Javalin... and asked the farming half of my family if they had any tractors they could spare. :smiley_bril:
https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/for-sale/salford-bbi-inc/javelin/farm-equipment
:smiley_chinrub:
Quote from: NapalmMan67 on May 18, 2022, 03:16:21 PMQuote from: NT2C on May 17, 2022, 12:57:14 PMBegan researching what paperwork I needed to file to buy a Javalin... and asked the farming half of my family if they had any tractors they could spare. :smiley_bril:
https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/for-sale/salford-bbi-inc/javelin/farm-equipment
:smiley_chinrub:
So, you're saying it was a shitpost? :greenguy:
Quote from: NT2C on May 18, 2022, 03:30:39 PMQuote from: NapalmMan67 on May 18, 2022, 03:16:21 PMQuote from: NT2C on May 17, 2022, 12:57:14 PMBegan researching what paperwork I needed to file to buy a Javalin... and asked the farming half of my family if they had any tractors they could spare. :smiley_bril:
https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/for-sale/salford-bbi-inc/javelin/farm-equipment
:smiley_chinrub:
So, you're saying it was a shitpost? :greenguy:
I never said that! :clownshoes:
While hard to make much noticeable progress, we've been adding more rocks to build up the height of the rock gardens on the front and rear sides of the house recently. Our lower level is a little below grade, and dirt was backfilled on 3 sides to a height of 3.5 to 4 feet high when we built. Afterwards we started collecting rocks to place on the slope for decoration mostly, but an ulterior motive for me was that it would add some radiation and ballistic protection too. The wife gets the pretty rocks for the front of the house and I get the ugly ones for the rear and side. It's very much a work-in-progress but this year when adding new rocks I'm placing them at the top of the slope and against the house to add to the height rather than on the face of the slope, and focusing more on the sections of wall opposite where we'd shelter inside. Most of the rocks being in the 5 to 50 pound range, softball to near basketball sized mostly.
Really wish we had a full basement as we did in our prior home, as part of our preps there we had a brick retaining wall built on two sides of the house which not only looked nice but also some added some protection if sheltering in the basement. Being older and unconcerned with keeping up with the Jones' now, ugly rocks are fine by me (and are free). But for anyone living in a urban/suburban area (or in a HOA) a retaining wall might be a good way to add some radiation protection while increasing the value/appeal of the home too.
If (God forbid) things do get hot there are several expedient designs/options that provide protection. If you are putting mass barriers like rocks it would be easy to incorporate the ability to drive over a pre dug trench with a vehicle. There are many designs like those below.
Digging the trench is the time consuming part but a pre-dug trench (with proper drainage) could easily be incorporated and utilized as a "root cellar" until it is needed for other purposes.
The one thing that would worry me using this is the fuel in the vehicle.
How has the war in Ukraine affected my preps?
It's made me think a bit harder about CBRN preps. I bought a few more packs of potassium iodide, a case of duct tape, and a few extra rolls of heavy plastic. I'd like to get some more Tyvek suits and some fresh filter canisters for my masks.
It's also given me a kick in the pants to get started on increasing my basic preps. I'm still rebuilding my preps after a personal SHTF back in 2018, and I've been lax in laying back consumables and savings. I set up my paycheck to Direct deposit 100 bucks a paycheck into a savings account last week, and I've been spending at least 25 bucks extra on non-perishables every time I go to the grocery store since April.
Quote from: Raptor on June 03, 2022, 12:53:45 PMIf (God forbid) things do get hot there are several expedient designs/options that provide protection. If you are putting mass barriers like rocks it would be easy to incorporate the ability to drive over a pre dug trench with a vehicle. There are many designs like those below.
Digging the trench is the time consuming part but a pre-dug trench (with proper drainage) could easily be incorporated and utilized as a "root cellar" until it is needed for other purposes.
The one thing that would worry me using this is the fuel in the vehicle.
A good way to determine protection against radiation is by a material's half-value layer (or attenuation length if you´re into physics).
It describes the thickness of a material by which the intensity of radiation has been reduced by 50%. In reality it´s a bit more complicated than that. It also doesn´t really absorb half of the photon's energy, a photon with 1MeV will still have 1MeV, there will only be about half the amount of them on the other side. I´m not good at particle physics. Maybe someone here can explain it better and in detail.
Half-value layers can be combined and the inverse value of it´s fraction gives you it´s protection factor. For nuclear protection you are looking for a factor of about 40-100. (https://civil-defence.ca/protection-factor-pf/#:~:text=Old%20FEMA%20civil%20defence%20guidelines%20specified%20a%20minimum,be%20listed%20as%20a%20shelter%20was%20PF%2010.)
My parent´s have a nuclear shelter built into their house. My family once tried out the air filtration unit and my father, who at that time was physically in good condition was absolutely knackered after half an hour. I couldn´t even manage to turn the crank properly. I don´t think keeping it going for more than a day is realistic and a nuclear shelter is nice, but without air slightly problematic. :eek1:
We have a couple of old silver mines close by that I´d rather take a chance with.
On topic:
We have an inflation rate for energy prices of 38% for May alone, a lot of the food prices for things I buy regularly have risen by around 20%. I am financially at a point where without my husband's income I´d have to decide between paying rent or buying something to eat. Sadly, this has influenced my prepping negatively as I can´t afford to buy many things I don´t desperately need any more. I´ve been trying to liquidate any valuables that I can bear to part with and reducing costs where I can.