Have you tested your preps?

[Maddie_cat]

It is all well and good us prepping, getting the food and water in, sorting out stores of fuel etc but have any of you actually tested whether you could cope?

I saw a proposal put forward on another survival website which intrigued me and I did have a go. The proposal is that you come home from work on a Friday and (without any prior preparation) as soon as you step through the front door, you will act as if an EMP has hit your house. For the entire weekend, you will stay within the confines of your house, eating from your stores. Bear in mind that an EMP will probably knock out all electricity stations so not only will you not have leccy, you will not have on-tap water (it will have knocked out the pumping stations), any battery operated items (eg laptops, clocks), telephones, electrical cooking appliances (including many gas ovens as they usually have an electric ignition), gas hobs and central heating (if using mains gas), fridges, freezers etc. For the purposes of the exercise, we were not allowed to open the fridge or the freezer (although for practical reasons, if you have a pint of milk in the fridge, you could use it so long as you had a pint of milk in storage that you would have used if TS had really HTF). You were allowed to have one shower a day and to flush the toilet if you wanted to opt out of that bit.

The exercise ends Sunday night (after you have gone to sleep!)

I undertook the exercise about 3 years ago and it was quite eye opening.

• I did take the shower route but I made sure I stood in a washing up bowl to catch the water which I used to flush the loo. In fact, any "waste water" was added to the bowl.

• I do have 15 gallons of stored water but I became extremely conservative with water usage which was quite eye opening. Every drop suddenly counted for if this was a real situation, where would I get replacement water? There is a river at the bottom of my village - but it is a very steep hill back to my house!!

• Long term, I realised I need more outside water storage – rain barrels etc – so that I had a ready source to flush the toilet

• I didn't have a problem with lighting although I soon found that I had to light a scented candle to mask the smell of the lamp oil. I also realised I did not have enough lamp oil or candles for long term – and having mirrors behind candles greatly reflects light

• Stupid thing, but I realised that I had to have matches and lamps all over the house. No point having all of them in one room and then trudging around the house in the dark trying to find them. I have since remedied that and now have oil lamps in each room with matches by the side – as well as a couple of torches around the house

• For heating, I made sure that during the day, if I got cold, I put an extra layer on. In the evening, I lit my wood burner and wrapped myself up in quilts

• For cooking, I have a gas hob but it is bottled gas so I was able to use that. I did use a camping stove as well. I couldn’t use the oven as that is electric so no baking. Not sure what I would do about baking bread etc – flat bread I suppose. Haven’t remedied that one yet.

• The main thing I realised I was defective on was tinned and dried vegetables so I could see that long term, meals would become dull

• Entertainment: I enjoy my own company so was happy to spend the weekend reading, sewing etc. I did use a w/u radio Saturday night although realise that in a true EMP situation, there would be no radio! By Sunday afternoon though, I was feeling withdrawal symptoms. I don’t watch much TV but I do tend to on a Sunday afternoon whilst I sit and sew. I missed it and, not having had any human contact over the w/e, was glad to go to work on Monday!

• I also realised that, even setting aside the lack of on-tap water, I do not really have any good facilities to wash clothes etc. I keep meaning to invest in hand powered washing machine


All in all, it was a good exercise and I keep meaning to do it again to see if my preps are any better.

I would be interested in hearing whether anyone else has tested themselves, the conclusions they came to and the gaps in their preps. It might flag them up for the rest of us.

[TwoDo]

Very interesting and thought provoking... thanks for posting that

[Arzosah]

Great post, Maddie! Short answer is no, I haven't, not like this. The long answer is, I need to! So, erm:
- water. I agree we'd all become immediately conscious of how much water we used - instead of using a slow trickle of water to wash veg, for instance, it'd be a slow trickle into a bowl, and then stop.
- I'm almost ready to set up my two water butts, tho I don't have a connector for them yet. I'll be really glad when I've got them, but I also need to buy a proper water filter.
- I keep candles and matches in two thirds of my rooms, because in the two years I've lived here, I've had four power cuts! And one was at night. So I'd manage the light okay, for a while, anyway. Also got LED lights, lanterns for the candles, and a couple of solar lights meant for gardens. Good tip of yours on the mirrors - logical, but we don't always think of these things.
- in a real TSHTF situation, I think where possible we'd revert to what they did in medieval times - chucking wee out of the window! I think I could actually do this there's a steepish paved slope straight down to the pavement outside my house, it wouldn't contaminate any soil or plants, and from the pavement it'd go into the gutter. Or I could be nice and take a potty (disguised as a jug!) to the grid to pour it down.
- I've never even *heard* of a hand powered washing machine, but googled it - excellent

Lots and lots of food for thought, thank you.

[tigs]

great post , its really started me thinking now

[Maddie_cat]

- in a real TSHTF situation, I think where possible we'd revert to what they did in medieval times - chucking wee out of the window! I think I could actually do this there's a steepish paved slope straight down to the pavement outside my house, it wouldn't contaminate any soil or plants, and from the pavement it'd go into the gutter. Or I could be nice and take a potty (disguised as a jug!) to the grid to pour it down.

Don't Arzosah

1. put into the compost bin - aids breaking down the compost

2. if there is a bloke in the house, get him to urinate around your boundary. Foxes and wildlife will then stay well away from your garden!

[Arzosah]

Brilliant! That should go in Ferricks' "five things" thread

[David B]

Hi Maddie Cat, great post. I am a newbie and have a few questions, excuse my ignorance.

I was wondering what would be the cause of an EMP?

And also why the need to stay within the confines of the house? Wouldn't people want to get out and about in hunter-gatherer mode fro survival?

Would wind up torches and radios definately not work post EMP? Is there not a way to protect electrical devices? Thanks

[Maddie_cat]

Others will be along later with better answers but for now:

I was wondering what would be the cause of an EMP?

I believe nuclear explosion or solar flare. Might be worthwhile looking here as I had queries about EMPs as well

And also why the need to stay within the confines of the house? Wouldn't people want to get out and about in hunter-gatherer mode fro survival?

If it was a proper EMP, probably. It was just the terms of the exercise. In reality, I did have to go outside to check on my animals but there would be other incidents that could occur where you would be locked in the house (eg snowed in w/o power) where you would have to test your own resources

Would wind up torches and radios definately not work post EMP? Is there not a way to protect electrical devices? Thanks

A Faraday cage. Basically, a large cage which is grounded and covered with reflective material. Google it and you can see how to make one yourself.

Hope that helps

[David B]

Hi Maddie, Yes that helps thanks. I like the idea of testing preps. At the moment I have only just begun with water, tins and some basics. I would like to widen my skills to include basic survival, relocation, wild edible foods, self sufficency etc. I know a test drill would be a great way of highlighting weaknesses in your plan and to identify areas for improvement. But not sure my wife would buy into it as she doesnt even do camping as there is nowhere to plug in a hairdryer!!

[Maddie_cat]

But not sure my wife would buy into it as she doesnt even do camping as there is nowhere to plug in a hairdryer!!