Pandemic prep self critique.

**ROCK-IT3** · January 25th, 2021, 09:06 PM

I purchased a 60-day supply of long-term food for 2 people, and will add to it. I am trying to be more diligent with having a supply of canned and dry goods, as well as paper items, in stock. I installed a removable hand pump on the well casing in case power goes out for extended periods of time, and purchased a Berkey filter system to filter the water. I have 35 gallons of filtered water stored in Reliance Aqua-tainers, and plan to increase that amount. I picked up some Baofengs, but need to learn more about their use. I stocked up an batteries, and purchased a hand-cranked radio. Fortunately, just as the pandemic hit, I purchased 10K of small pistol primers, and have enough primers and powder to get me through. I just need more bullets, but still have a few thousand. I have enough 5.56 to last for a while; I don't shoot it too much, so hopefully the crazy prices come down to reasonable levels.

I also looked into solar for the house, but the system I was looking at would not allow me to be off-grid, and the batteries would only power the house for a +/-8 hours. If we stay here, I will look into a buried propane tank and whole-house generator.

**Justin///M** · January 25th, 2021, 09:10 PM

I've been using one of these for coming up on 5 years now. A little pricy, but because of its small footprint, it tucks into the corner of the garage out of sight out of mind. I like having the 260 gallons there in case something precludes me going to the well or creek for a time. It is at 3.5 years since I filled and treated the water and I'm getting ready to send it out to analysis to see how it's doing. I would filter and purify it in any case, but I tried surewater's "5 year" treatment and want to see if it holds up to the claims.

https://www.surewatertanks.com/products/260-gallon-tank

**P89** · January 26th, 2021, 09:01 AM

The only thing I need to critique is my organization. Not that everything is a mess it's that it's scattered around the house due to storage constraints. It's an old house so there is no real basement and not much in the way of attic space that hasn't been consumed by holiday decorations. It's also a toss up weather to hunker at home or head to camp. Camp has a gas well which supplies me with free gas, so I bought some gas lights, just need installed.

One thing that everyone should have is a small still. No, it's not illegal to have a still...it's illegal to make alcohol without the proper licensees. (unless shtf then who cares)
Stills have many uses. However these too can be pricey just in copper or stainless material alone, or you can buy on online.

**Justin///M** · January 28th, 2021, 07:20 PM

So I started buying some of the masks I posted earlier to replenish my supply for the next bug. They seem of very good quality and a fine replacement for the 3M auras that they're replacing..., the the auras are rated as N95 "surgical" mask, these do not carry the "surgical" rating. That doesn't mean much here because "surgical" is applied by the FDA and doesn't have anything to do with the N95 rating and, in fact, a mask can be "surgical" and not be NIOSH certified for anything. I'm just noting the difference between the masks I had stocked up and the masks I'm restocking with.

Anyway, they are heavy on the made in USA branding. "United States Mask." haha

Individually wrapped for your protection.

NIOSH certifcation.

So to verify their claims, I searched for the approval number and found this on the CDC, citing United States Mask as an approved N95 respirator supplier;

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topi...t1sect3-u.html

They seem good to go!