out of contact for a while

[Raellus]

Get one if you have frequent outages. If your neighbors are the grasshopper type and don't prepare and don't help each other, F*&k' m. If they're the kind of neighbors who either prepare or leave town until power is restored, or they're the kind of neighbors that help each other and watch out for each other, let them have some fridge space for thier spoilable medicines.

That's the scary part of these scenarios- for me, at least. If your grasshopper neighbors have few guns, and not much in the way of scruples, mi casa will soon become their casa. I don't fancy getting into firefights with the guy across the street. Ideally, the neighbors are all great people and you can chat with them about disaster preparedness at the block barbecue. If not, the next time the block barbeques, you might be on the menu.

I'm a fan of The Walking Dead comic/graphic novel series (the TV series is just above average, IMHO) and have been since well before the zombie bubble. One of its themes is how, even after a zombie apocalypse, the biggest threat to those who survive is other survivors. The zombies just kind of become set dressing- it's the other folks out there that make the world a living nightmare.

[Targan]

I don't actually know how to use a civilian generator. I would assume that you unhook the appliances you're trying to power from the wall and plug them into the generator

That's what you'd have to do if you hadn't had an electrician rig some alternative arrangements allowing you to run the generator's output through your house's main power board. You'd basically have to run an extension lead into the house.

[mikeo80]

Get one if you have frequent outages. If your neighbors are the grasshopper type and don't prepare and don't help each other, F*&k' m. If they're the kind of neighbors who either prepare or leave town until power is restored, or they're the kind of neighbors that help each other and watch out for each other, let them have some fridge space for thier spoilable medicines.

We don't have outages that often. Longest I was without power was three days after a truly monumental ice storm.

For the most part, my interpretation of the neighbors is that they are decent human beings, but grasshoppers for the most part. I think I would scare the bejezus out of them if I opened up with full discussion on prepairedness. Small comments here and there have led me to my conclusions.

So the voices in my head have the on going debate....

My $0.02

Mike

[mikeo80]

I had that very conversation with my wife last night, Mike. I fear she's a bit more of a believer in humanity's essential goodness than I am and doesn't really think that being the only prepared household in the neighborhood would make us a target. Right now, I think the benefits of being able to run refrigeration, comms, and a trickle of hot water and hot food may be outweighed by the potential for locusts to descend. If we weren't in suburbia, I'd see the issue differently, though I'd still want to build some sort of sound-dampening enclosure for the equipment (maybe a buried pit, too, providing I could arrange adequate drainage).

- C.

Your wife and mine sound very similar. I think I am beginning to corrupt mine. She keeps making noises about having a "little bit more, just in case"

This makes Mike a VERY happy man. An extra $10.00 here or $20.00 there makes a huge difference in the food/water/ammo/pharmacy departments.

My $0.02

Mike

[weswood]

Depends on the kind of generator you get. Small portable ones that run on gasoline, you unplug the appliance you're going to use from the wall and plug it into the generator. You can also wire it directly into the breakers, but you need to be sure to turn off the main breaker. If the power comes back on while your genny is running and the main breaker is on, you can blow the transformer, or cause a fire in your house.

There's also larger permanently mounted ones that run on natural gas or propane. These are hardwired into your breakerbox and have a sensor that automatically starts them, usually about 10 seconds after the power goes out. When the sensor sense power coming from the grid, it shuts the genny off and reverts to grid power. They run around $8k to 10k and can run the whole house.

The neighbors around my house are the band together in an emergency type. We've gone 3 weeks without power after hurricane Ike. No gunfights or anything. One neighbor even cleared the fallen branches from my yard, knowing I was working 16 hour days getting the grid back up.

[weswood]

Wait, what There's got to be one helluva story there waiting to be told.

Two years ago on this coming Sept 23, I had an work order to get a reading on the electric meter of a house. The house sat on about 1 1/2 acres, I couldn't see the meter from the fence. I went into the yard and 4 rotts and another dog came flying around the corner. For some reason they they weren't happy to see me. I threw a notepad I had in my hand at them which had about as much results as you'd expect. I had on my toolbag with a pair of pliers, a large screwdriver and a wrench. I whipped out my pliers and laid into the dogs until one ripped the pliers out of my hand. Out with my screwdriver, stabbing. I don't know if it was the same dog twice or two different dogs, but I hit under a jaw twice but not hard enough to penetrate. By this time I had backed up past the gate and was getting cornered and the fence was not the kind you could dive over with a pack of dogs on your heels. There was kind of a break where I and the dogs just looked at each other, evaluating. I remember thinking "I really need to get out of here, these bastards are going to kill me". So I charged them. They backed off a foot or so. I kept rushing at them until eventually I got back to the gate and managed to get out. I ended up with stitches in two places on my right hand, along with bite/scratches on every finger of that hand, one bite on my left wrist where you can still see the individual teeth marks, a bite on my left calf, and a bruise that stretched from my right butt cheek down to the inside of my knee. I think I got that one when I was charging them, one kind of got behind me. I had blood all over my shirt, on my back, even on top of my hardhat. I don't know why I didn't whip off my hardhat and use it as a weapon, didn't think of it. It was the most intense 15 seconds of my life!

[Tegyrius]

Your wife and mine sound very similar. I think I am beginning to corrupt mine. She keeps making noises about having a "little bit more, just in case"

This makes Mike a VERY happy man. An extra $10.00 here or $20.00 there makes a huge difference in the food/water/ammo/pharmacy departments.

So very true. Mine sees the value in preps, thanks to an ice storm the first winter after she moved up here. We were out of power for about four days and were fairly comfortable, thanks to assorted gear and supplies. It's the social side of disasters that stymies her - she just doesn't quite believe that people are dangerous apes under a thin veneer of civilization.

- C.

[weswood]

I have a problem amassing ammo. Every time I buy a box, I shoot it.

[Tegyrius]

I have a problem amassing ammo. Every time I buy a box, I shoot it.

Buy online and in quantity. Procuring a thousand rounds at a time is cheaper than paying retail, even after shipping, and lets you take 500 to the range and put 500 in an ammo can under the stairs.

- C.

[mikeo80]

I have a problem amassing ammo. Every time I buy a box, I shoot it.

Or another option, buy two boxes, shoot one, put the other in your "safe area".

I try to buy some every 3-4 months. I'll go to the local Wal-Mart and buy SOMETHING to help keep the wolves (two and four legged) at bay.

My $0.02

Mike

[mikeo80]

So very true. Mine sees the value in preps, thanks to an ice storm the first winter after she moved up here. We were out of power for about four days and were fairly comfortable, thanks to assorted gear and supplies. It's the social side of disasters that stymies her - she just doesn't quite believe that people are dangerous apes under a thin veneer of civilization.

- C.

I agree that the species Homo Sapiens is a VICIOUS beastie.

I will paraphrase from Heinlen's immortal Starship Troopers. In one of Juan Rico's H&MP classes (high school or OCS, detail escapes me right now), the instructor states that "Humans are wild animals that so far, have had the
ability to survive". (that quote is the paraphrase. I do not have a copy right now, mine finally fell apart at the seams.)

Yep, that just about sums it up.

Yes there are humans that do wonderful, kind things for their fellow human. But when the chips are down, I think it is a safe assumption that man will turn into a beast. A T2K or TMP type of situation, and the veneer of civilzation peals off.

My $0.02

Mike

[weswood]

We seem to have wandered from the thread topic. Anybody hear from Jason the last couple days

[Matt Wiser]

Talked on the phone today: his lights are back on, and thus his A/C. It's actualy cooled off in D.C., and is more...seasonable, he says.