Bug Out Bag Water Filtration Options

Written by Pat Henry on The Prepper Journal.

A critical prep that you have to plan for including in your bug out bag is water. When I first got into prepping, I had people saying that they would carry all of the water they needed in their bug out bags. If you figure 3 gallons (1 gallon per person per day), that would simply not be wise or possible for most people for very long. Then I started seeing people say they would pack 3 liters of water. That’s better, but 3 big plastic bottles is almost 7 pounds, not to mention you must have space for them. Not the end of the world, but not insignificant either.

One of the ideas I try to promote is to watch the weight on your bug out bags and not overload them. I recommend this for a lot of really simple reasons. If your Bug Out Bag is too heavy, it will hurt eventually. It might not hurt when you first take off walking, but it will eventually. In addition to rubbing you raw and potentially causing injury, you will be more off-balance and less able to quickly move. If you can’t move out of danger quickly enough, that bug out bag could get you killed. The better idea is to pack your bug out bag in a way that is as light as possible while still maintaining the essentials you need to survive for up to 72 hours. Don’t go minimalistic for the sake of making the scales proud, but you should look carefully at the overall weight.

Water, Food and ammo, possibly a tent are all great places to shed pounds from your bug out bag and today we are focusing on water. I have personally tried a few different water filtration methods and wanted to highlight the pluses and minuses for you today on the Prepper Journal as I see them. Hopefully this information you will make sure the bug out bag water filtration options you choose will work well for you if you ever need to use them.

In addition to being less heavy than simply carrying your water on you at all times, these bug out bag water filtration options will give you increased range and capabilities. Instead of being limited to only the water you are able to carry, it is easy to filter an extra liter or more from sources along your route. All the while, ensuring that the water you are drinking isn’t going to make you sick.

MSR MiniWorks EX Water Filter

This first filter I tested is one I have owned for years and up until recently used on my backpacking trips. The MSR MiniWorks EX is a great water filter that is activated by a manual pump. You simply connect the hose, stick that into the water and screw your Nalgene bottle or dromedary bag onto the bottom of the filter and start pumping. In just a few minutes the water from your  source will be pressed through the filtration system and with a little time, you will have a full bottle of clean water to drink. Filtering a standard Nalgene bottle like below probably took 3-4 minutes.

The MSR MiniWorks EX was my first backpacking water filtration. We loved it when we had to depend on it in the woods.

I would take these down to the river and fill up everyone’s water bottle as well as two 48 ounce bladders we had when we stopped. The bladders were to refill bottles and went toward coffee and reconstituting our freeze-dried food.

So, good and bad about this filter. First off, I like the fact that this is pretty simple to use and you don’t have to get down into the water to collect anything. The water tastes great and the pump has stood the test of time for the most part. I did have one pump stop working on my wife when we were on a backpacking trip. Fortunately, I had two filters so we had some redundancy built-in. Pumping does take you a little while and the pump isn’t the lightest or cheapest option. Once you return from your trip you need to clean the filter element, usually with a scrubbing pad to get the gunk off of it and let everything dry completely for a few days before you put it away.

MSR MiniWorks Features

• Ceramic/carbon Marathon™ EX element effectively removes bacteria and protozoa including giardia and cryptosporidia
• Also removes unpleasant tastes and odors caused by organic compounds, such as iodine, chlorine and pesticides
• Filter can be cleaned over and over for maximum field life with no tools required
• Bottom screws onto an MSR Dromedary® Bag or Nalgene® water bottle for easy operation (both sold separately)
• Easy dis-assembly lets you troubleshoot and maintain the MSR MiniWorks EX filter in the field

Weight: 14.6 ounces

Cost: $84 on Amazon.com

I also found this excellent review of the MSR MiniWorks EX from Black Owl Outdoors for those who like to watch videos.

Sawyer Mini

When I first tried out the Sawyer Mini I thought this was the best invention in the world at least from the standpoint of water filtration options for preppers. The filter was extremely lightweight, compact and could filter hundreds of thousands of gallons. The Sawyer Mini could be used as a straw to drink from a water bottle like the life straw or from the included squeeze bag that comes with it.

The cost, low-weight and ability to filter so much water is an incredible advantage, but using either the squeeze bag or a standard water bottle has some drawbacks in my opinion. You are still only filtering on demand unless you squeeze the water into another container and that isn’t always the most practical. One of the reasons I don’t think the LifeStraw is the best option for me in all cases.

You can use the included squeeze bag to collect water and the Sawyer will make it safe to drink.

Sawyer Mini Features

• Hollow-fiber membrane offers a high flow rate; sip on the Mini like a straw and it filters the water while it’s on the way to your mouth
• Filter will also fit the threads on the included Sawyer 16 fl. oz. reusable pouch that you can fill at a lake or stream and then use to squeeze water through the filter
• 0.1-micron filter physically removes 99.99999% of all bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera and E.coli; removes 99.9999% of all protozoa, such as giardia and cryptosporidium
• Filter will also fit the threads on most bottles of water that you buy at a grocery store; can also be used as an inline filter (adapters and hoses not included)

Weight: 2 ounces

Cost: $20 on Amazon.com

I also found this review for perspective from Preparedmind 101

Polar Pure – Crystal Iodine Water Treatment

The third option I tried is Polar Pure. Polar Pure is a Crystal Iodine water treatment, not a filter. The bottle holds actual iodine crystals you might be able to see in the photo below. The process is for you to fill the bottle with water and let this sit for 1 hour. At the end of an hour you have something like concentrated iodine brine that you can use make almost any water safe to drink. There are simple to follow instructions on the bottle and even a hand-dandy gauge to tell you how many capfuls of the solution your water will need to be safe. The number depends upon the temperature of the water.

Polar Pure uses iodine crystals to disinfect water.

You pour the recommended capfuls into your 1 liter water bottle and let it stand for 20 minutes before drinking. When you are done, just fill the bottle up with water again and it will be ready for your next treatment in another hour. This relatively small bottle will last for up to 2,000 liters of water, although I don’t know who would count them. When the iodine crystals are gone, so is your ability to use this to make your water safe.

Iodine, unlike the micron water filters above can kill viruses. Giardia, mentioned above is caught by the water filters, but if you have something like hepatitis or polio in the water, the simple filtration method above won’t work. Now, the question becomes, do you have to worry about viruses in the water you are drinking or just organisms that can make you violently ill?

The Polar Pure bottle is one that I would carry with me as an extreme back up for highly questionable water. The science is good on making your water safe. Iodine has been used for a very long time, but the bottle is glass. You could be in trouble if this is all you have and it is broken. Additionally, iodine will make your water safe, but it won’t filter it out so if you pour yourself a big cup of slightly brown pond water and treat it with iodine, it will be perfectly safe for drinking – brown pond water. Filtering your water first through a handkerchief or something like coffee filters at a minimum would be better. Some people use Polar Pure plus another filter for the ultimate in safe water.

Weight: 5 ounces

Cost: $20 on Amazon.com

For those who want to see the polar pure in action, there is a good video from Provident-Living-Today.com

Platypus 2L GravityWorks Filter

The last item I tried out for my bug out bag water filtration decision process was a relatively new purchase. I had heard about the Platypus GravityWorks Filter system from one of the readers on the Prepper Journal when I was initially looking at the Sawyer answer to the same functionality. The Platypus was almost half the price so I decided to give this a try because it looked like the perfect solution to me.

Keeping the bags separated is easy with clear labels.

The Platypus 2L GravityWorks Filter is a two bag system. You have one bag for water collection and it is very simply labeled “Dirty”. Your dirty water goes in here and it has a wide opening at the top which works very similar to a zip loc bag. This wide opening allowed me to collect 2 liters of water from the creek very quickly and easily. You can see my test water isn’t a crystal clear glacier spring so the bag’s label was very appropriate.

The Platypus Bag system has a simple attachment system to hang your bag of water to be treated up on a tree, bumper or anything higher than the clean bag. Gravity does all the hard work.

Another nice feature were the connectors. The Platypus GravityWorks has a quick connect so you can collect your dirty water and either pack it out for filtration later or carry it back to camp. The filter element snaps in and you are ready to filter.

The Platypus filter element snaps into the reservoir quick connect and you are all set to filter water.

This system is fast. I only filled up about 1 liter but it was filtered in less than 2 minutes.

Once the filter is snapped in, the water will flow almost immediately. The tube running from the filter has a stopper that you can use to quickly pinch off the flow while you hook up the clean bag. As long as the bag of dirty water is higher than the clean bag, the appropriately named GravityWorks filter will take care of all your heavy lifting while beautiful clean water flows into your empty bladder.

This system will hold 2 liters of water which I think gives you a lot of water for the average person. You can also just filter two liters, then collect two more liters of dirty water for later. You will be carrying four liters of water with you at all times. Two filtered and two that needs to be filtered.

Cleaning this system is as simple as lifting the clean water bag up over the dirty water bag and squeezing your clean water bag. You will see the dirty sediment flow back into the dirty bag and you know your filter is clean when that stops.

Platypus GravityWorks Filter Specs

• Easy, Pump-free filtering
• Fast! 1.5-liters per minute
• Weighs as little as 7.2 oz. (203 g)
• Ultra-Compact
• Meets all EPA & NSF guidelines for the removal of Bacteria and Protozoa, including Giardia, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Salmonella and Cholera

Weight: 7 ounces

Cost: $79 on Amazon.com

And I found this review from Outdoor Gear Lab that shows the larger 4 Liter system.

So What is the best bug out water filtration system?

This question isn’t something I can answer with a definitive statement that will stand for all time or in all situations, but I will share some of my thoughts. My idea of bugging out involves living possibly for some time in forested terrain. I plan to be on the move and I don’t want to slow down more than I have to for rest. Water is crucial for life so I don’t want to have to go to more trouble than is prudent to acquire it. Additionally, if I am strapping a pack on my back and walking out the door, I have to plan for being on my own so to speak for potentially much longer than 72 hours.

I have considered both caplets like the Portable Aqua Water Filter tablets and I even own some of them, but they last for a finite amount of time. The standard bottles will give you I think 25 quarts of water. With a hike for three days in the summer, enough for food and your bottle will quickly be cleaned out. It will go faster if you are sharing.

I had all of this clean, fresh tasting water in a little less than two minutes.

The LifeStraw product is one I just don’t think is practical. It is a great idea, don’t get me wrong, but I for one don’t want to be forced to stick my head in a puddle just to get a drink. I want to take giant gulps of water if I am thirsty and I want to be able to take water along with me. Sure you can fill up empty bottles and drink out of them with a LifeStraw, but I think there is a better option.

The MSR Filter pump has usually been a great filter, but because it is mechanical, I have had one give me troubles. I was able to repair it eventually, but that wasn’t a good sign. I should have back-ups anyway I know, but I would rather go with a more stable platform and the MSR is heavier than all of the other options I have tested.

What about boiling water? Sure you could do that, but you have to build a fire first and then boil your water, then let it cool down. Do you want to do all of that in the heat of summer? Even in winter, that fire might be nice, but to go through all that effort for drinking water seems like a fall back plan, not the first option.

Iodine crystals like Polar Pure seem to be the best option for killing viruses, but like I said, their bottle is glass. One slip out of your hands onto a rock will end your water filtration options for that bug out trip. Even if you don’t drop it, I prefer to drink water as soon as possible and wouldn’t want to remember to keep my iodine warm for effectiveness.  I think Polar Pure makes sense as a back up, but not the sole method of water filtration in a bug out scenario. For Backpacking trips Polar pure is a great idea. If you have the time to leisurely prepare your water, I think this is a good option.

The Sawyer as it is would probably be my second choice because of the weight and size. I would have to fill a large reservoir, something like the 48 ounce Naglene Bladders and rig up some way to squeeze filter a larger amount of water into my bottles. Not the best, but it is incredibly light and could get the job done.

What about items like the SteriPEN that use UV light to make water safe to drink? What about EMP? What if it breaks? What if you run out of batteries?

I think that for me the GravityWorks system from Platypus is the easiest and fastest way to collect water that will be clean and fresh tasting. With it’s fast flow rate, I can grab a 2 liter bag of water, hook up the filter and throw them both in my bag if needed and keep on going to a safe location. This seems to offer the most capacity with the fastest filtration time and easiest system to learn and remember. I can teach my kids how to use this in about 2 minutes which is about the same amount of time it takes to produce 2 liters of clean water.

That is my take on the best bug out water filtration options. What do you use?

The post Bug Out Bag Water Filtration Options appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Pomegranate Tree Types – Tips On Choosing Varieties Of Pomegranate

By Amy Grant Pomegranates are centuries old fruit long the symbol of prosperity and abundance. Prized for the succulent arils inside the various colored leathery skin, pomegranates can be grown in USDA zones 8-10. If you are lucky enough to live within those regions, you may be wondering what pomegranate tree variety is best for you. Pomegranate Tree Types Some types of pomegranate fruit trees bear fruit with a rind of yellowish pink all the way up through the color spectrum to a deep burgundy. Varieties of pomegranate come in not only different exterior hues, but they may have soft to hard arils. Depending upon what you plan to use them for, this may be a consideration when choosing a plant. For example, if you plan to juice the fruit, hard or soft doesn’t matter, but if you want to eat it fresh, softer is the more likely choice. While

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Dad’s Southern Garden & Meatloaf Recipe

It's time again for an update on my dad's garden. He has been very busy this year, between his Georgia garden and his North Carolina garden, tending to both of them as well as he can. You would think an almost 88 year old would slow down a bit and relax during the heat of the summer, wouldn't you? Not my dad. He thrives on growing his garden every year and I think he would just have nothing to live for if he had to give it up. So, we encourage him within reason to keep gardening. It's his passion and that's truly what keeps him going. I don't know how he does it, as being outside during the sweltering heat that we've had lately, just about kills me. I can't take that heat nearly as well as he can.

My idea of fun right now is floating in the pool or lake to beat the heat.

The post Dad’s Southern Garden & Meatloaf Recipe appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

Magnolia Blooming Problems – Why A Magnolia Tree Does Not Bloom

By Teo Spengler Magnolias (Magnolia spp.) are all beautiful trees, but they are not all alike. You can find deciduous magnolias that drop their shiny leaves in autumn, and evergreen species that provide year-round shade. Magnolias can be shrubby, medium tall, or towering. The some 150 species in this tree family are known for – and often grown for – their fragrant, frothy flowers. Plants grown from seed can take a very long time to flower, while cultivars have been developed for rapid blooming. If your lament is “my magnolia tree does not bloom,” take action to help the tree. Read on for information about magnolia blooming problems and what to do to encourage those beautiful flowers. Why a Magnolia Tree Doesn’t Flower Whenever a flowering tree fails to blossom, the first thing to do is to check its hardiness zone. The plant hardiness zone indicates what type of weather

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10 Tips For Bugging Out to the Country

When many urban or suburban people think about Prepping or Survivalism, they think about bugging out to a more rural location.  This has to be one of the most frequently-expressed fantasies in the Prepping world, and reams have been written about where to go and how to get there.

But very little has been written from the perspective of the rural dwellers.  How does your average farmer or homesteader feel about urban folks bugging out to the country?

We live on a twenty-acre homestead farm in rural north Idaho.  Wow, I can see your eyes sparkling from here.  You’re thinking, “What a perfect bug out location!”  Then believe me when I say the most dreaded words a homesteader can hear on the subject of Prepping is, “Well, if the bleep hits the fan we’ll just come live with you.”

Oh, bleep.

The truth about farms and homesteads

“Farm” does NOT mean remote or isolated or even self-sufficient.  Farmers live pretty much like you do, but with more elbow room.  We go to the grocery store.  We have jobs.  We have neighbors.  And we have towns nearby.

Okay, granted those towns can be pretty small by urban standards, but they’re just as full of unprepared people as anywhere else.  That means if the manure hits the rotating device, we’re going to have our hands full dealing with them.

Bear in mind that most people in the country may not be much more prepared than you are – which is to say, perhaps not at all.  Unless rural folks already have a Preparedness mindset, they’re just as susceptible to societal interruptions as your average city person.

Our only advantage is we’re farther away from the Golden Horde, that mythical group of city folks who will take to the road in times of disorder, or so some survival experts believe.

Or, are we really that far away and safe from thousands of straggling refugees? In our case, we live within a very short drive (as in, four minutes) from a town of 1000, many of whom are on welfare and are just as dependent on government checks as anyone in the inner city.  This means they will certainly go “foraging” when they get hungry.

Many people don’t realize that the Greater Depression has already impacted rural areas.  Hard.  Jobs out here are as scarce as hen’s teeth (as the saying goes) and unemployment in our county hovers around 20%.  Most of us are poor to begin with, especially by urban standards.  That means we don’t have a lot of money to pour into elaborate “prepper” projects.

So does this mean you should give up your idealized little dream about bugging out to the country?  Yes and no.  It depends on how realistic you’re being about your bug out plans.

Ten Tips if you decide to bug out to the country

To smooth the way, here are ten tips that may make your welcome a little warmer.

1. Don’t Come Unannounced

If you want to escape from the city, make your own private plans in advance and do not broadcast them to every Tom, Dick, and Harry of your acquaintance.  Nothing will dismay a rural friend or relative – much less a perfect stranger – more than having a brace of new people on their doorstep asking for food, shelter, and protection.  There’s nothing wrong with talking to rural-dwelling friends or relatives about the idea of deploying to their place if things get bad.  But if you do……

2. Prepare the Way

One of the “panic” aspects we country folk feel is that we don’t have enough supplies to provide for a hungry horde.  And we don’t.  Let’s face it, sometimes we barely have enough supplies to feed ourselves (remember, 20% unemployment in our area).  Do the math to understand our concerns.  If, through hard work, thrift, and diligence we’ve managed to squirrel away a year’s worth of food for our family of four – and then you show up with your family of four – then we’ve automatically halved our supplies to six months.  Now can you understand our fears?

Pretend you’ve bought an isolated cabin in the mountains to use as a bug out.  Would you be pleased to show up, exhausted and scared, to a cabin with no food, water, bedding, lighting, heat, or other necessities?  Of course not.  Presumably you would outfit your cabin to be ready for a bad scenario.

Your plans to bug out to a host family should be no different.  Send supplies in advance.  Send lots of supplies in advance.  Can’t afford it?  Well guess what, neither can we.  That shouldn’t stop you from sending a case of canned goods, a few sacks of rice and beans, perhaps some boxes of ammo.  If the host family has an unused corner of their barn, perhaps they’ll allow you to dedicate that area for your supplies.  Don’t forget clothing, sleeping bags, toiletries, firearms, medical supplies, etc., and make sure you make everything weather, insect, and rodent-proof.

If your finances permit, consider funding an expensive project that may be beyond a host family’s reach, such as a windmill, pond, or other pricey item. Think of it as a sort of investment.

Sending supplies in advance proves your worth.  It demonstrates you don’t plan to be a leech.

3. Clarify your Baggage

Even if you’ve made plans ahead of time and stashed adequate supplies, don’t expect a host family to welcome all your baggage.  For example, we have two large and semi-aggressive dogs.  We have large and aggressive dogs on purpose – they help protect us.  If you show up with a yappy Pomeranian and four cats, don’t expect us to be happy about it.  Our dogs would spend every waking hour trying to eat your pets for lunch.  And no, it’s not our fault that our dogs are “aggressive.”  It’s your fault for bringing animals into a situation that we’re not prepared – or willing – to handle.

4. You’re Not the Boss

This is our home.  We live and work here.  We pay the mortgage.  No matter how much we may love and welcome you, you’re still coming as a supplicant, not a part-owner of our farm.  You are in no position to make demands or request that we change our way of doing things unless you can demonstrate you’re an expert.  And even then, it’s still our house, property, equipment, and possibly food and other supplies.

Hint: diplomacy will go a long way if you think you know a better way to do something.

5. Prepare to Work

If you bug out to a rural host family, remember they’re not running a bed-and-breakfast.  Don’t expect them to wait on you or cater to your every whim.  A farm – especially post-bleep – will be a place of constant and brutal work.  Nothing will annoy a host family more than some lazy jerk who does whatever he can to weasel out of the day’s chores.  Be ready, willing, and able to help.  It’s possible that lives may depend on the willingness of everyone to pitch in and work together to do what must be done.

6. Don’t Be Wasteful

When you arrive at your host family’s rural location, you must immediately change any wasteful habits you may have and become very parsimonious.   If you spill something, don’t lavishly use paper towels to wipe it up because you can’t buy any more.  Use a rag.  Treat everything as irreplaceable – because believe me, if you’ve bugged out in the first place, it’s probably because the bleep has hit the fan and common everyday things are irreplaceable.

7. Bring Skills

Host families in rural areas will be more likely to welcome those with useful skills. If your most useful skill is shopping or meditation or social activism, don’t expect a whole lot of sympathy.  Your master’s degree in 18th century French literature is not likely to do you a whole lot of good post-bleep.  But if you have practical skills – medicine or defense or mechanics or food preservation or animal husbandry or veterinarian skills or sewing or something similarly needed – you’re far more likely to find an open door.

And this should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Don’t lie about your skills or abilities. If you state with confidence that you’re an expert at hunting and butchering – but have never held a rifle or dispatched a steer – that will be discovered soon enough. Learn those skills first before you claim knowledge. Duh.

So learn stuff.  Don’t show up ignorant.

8. Clarify by Contract

If/when the bleep hits the fan, people (urban and rural) are likely to be a lot more hysterical than normal. Having your plans in writing ahead of time clarifies all the obligations, expectations, and limitations between the two parties. This contract can also include what the urban person can and cannot bring. Pets should be included in this list. If the rural refuge is not prepared to handle your yappy Pomeranian because he has three aggressive German Shepherds, you need to know that in advance.

This contract should include one very important part: how many people the host family is expected to take in.  If, in your compassion, you gather up every second-cousin-twice-removed and show up with a swell of fifty people, do you honestly think that’s going to work?

9. Shut Your Mouth

Okay, let’s say you’ve done everything right.  You’ve made a contractual plan in advance with a rural host family.  You’ve sent plenty of supplies ahead of you.  The welcome mat is ready to be rolled out.

Now whatever you do, shut up.  Don’t blab your plans to friends and coworkers, because doubtless they’ll want to know more, and before you know it, the host family’s OpSec is blown.  The host family is already going out on a limb by agreeing to take you in – don’t compromise their safety even more.  And if martial law ensues and your gossip spreads about the host family’s supplies, it may mean those supplies may be confiscated.  Congratulations, now you’re screwed – and so are the people who took you in.

10. Practice Forbearance

The dictionary defines forbearance as “patient endurance and self-control.”  Believe me, if the bleep hits the fan, we’re all going to have to practice astronomical amounts of forbearance.

It is not easy to move into someone else’s house.  It’s not easy for the hosts to have permanent guests either.  Imagine a standard-sized ranch house with five women in the kitchen.  Do you honestly think they’ll all get along swimmingly?  If that’s too sexist for you, imagine a building project with five guys or (worse) five engineers who all have their own ideas of how something should be done.  Who’s right?

Hint: Whoever owns the house gets the final say unless you can diplomatically demonstrate you’re an expert in something.  And even then, ownership trumps expertise.

Remember what it’s like at your home when friends and family arrive for the holidays?  After three days, you long for everyone to leave.  Well if it’s TEOTWAWKI, it won’t be a three-day vacation.  There will be stress, anxiety, and short tempers.  Everyone will need to walk gently, or the biggest danger for all may be much closer to home than you realize.

Living spaces are likely to be cramped and not private.  There is only so much room in the average country home.  It’s not like farmers live in mansions with multiple extra bedrooms.  Expect to be bunked down on the living room floor or even the barn, shoulder to shoulder.  (And no, the host family should NOT have to give up their bedrooms for you.)

Additionally, septic systems are easily overwhelmed by extra usage.  One of the first projects everyone is likely to be involved in is digging an outhouse.  Please don’t complain about its construction or usage.

If the circumstances with your host family become hostile and unbearable due to stress, high emotions, and general fears – then feel free to make other arrangements and leave.

I apologize if this list makes me sound hostile, but I’ll admit rural folks get tired of being treated like everyone’s personal deep larder if the bleep hits the fan, expected to uncomplainingly provide food and water and medical care and shelter and protection for anyone unprepared enough to show up on their doorstep.  Don’t get me wrong, we’re not without Christian charity and will do what we can to help; but like most of our neighbors, we are low income and our resources are NOT INEXHAUSTIBLE.   Our primary focus will be our family, neighbors, and beloved friends.

This article is not necessarily to discourage anyone from making plans to bug out to the country.  This is just an attempt to make you look realistically at the people whom you’ll be bugging – and I use that double-meaning intentionally.

Guest post by Patrice Lewis, columnist and blogger at Rural Revolution.

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The post 10 Tips For Bugging Out to the Country by The Survival Mom appeared first on The Survival Mom. Be sure to check it out!

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Worm Plant Care: How To Grow A Jade Necklace Worm Plant

By Bonnie L. Grant The structural craziness of Crassula marnieriana makes it a standout plant for any grower’s collection. The succulent is known by many names, among them: Worm plant Chinese jade Jade necklace vine Baby necklace Lucky for us colder clime growers, this plant is hardy and can even withstand a light freeze. The genus Crassula may exceed 200 species. Crassula marnieriana is one of the most unique with vertical stacked thick leaves adorned on the edges with blushed pink. Here are a few tips on how to grow a jade necklace and experience the architectural beauty and Dr. Seuss form of the worm plant. Jade Necklace Vine Info Succulent lovers are probably familiar with the family of Crassula plants. Many of them are notable for their strange shapes and unusual stacked leaves. Crassula worm plants exemplify the fantastical structure of a living necklace, with stacked leaves placed perfectly

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Food Storage Can Sizes: When to go big, when to go small

I’ll never forget the very first time I placed an order of food from a food storage company. It was with Walton Feed and, although their products are very good quality, their order form made me dizzy. A friend helped me through the order process and for many years afterward, I figured that the big #10 cans were the way to go. The bigger, the better, right?

My pantry is currently stocked with mostly #10 cans.  If my family’s survival depends on this food, I’ll be glad I went for the biggest containers possible.

That’s what I used to think.

Now, 7 years later, I’m rethinking that strategy. It all started when a perfectly good #10 can of freeze-dried grapes became virtually inedible due to a small level of humidity one Phoenix summer. The grapes became sticky, a little gooey, and clumped together. It was hard to eat them and I ended up throwing most of them away. That can of grapes was a #10 can, and my young kids just couldn’t eat that many freeze-dried grapes and weren’t all that crazy about them to begin with.

Food storage can sizes can be confusing

Food storage companies sell most of their freeze dried and dehydrated foods in 2 different size cans. Cans labeled #10 are the really big cans you might see at Costco or Sams Club, holding foods like nacho cheese sauce. They hold about a gallon of food each and in many, many homes are the building blocks, so to speak, of a family’s food storage. The smaller #2.5 can holds about 1/4 that amount.

In almost every case, if you are stocking up just for yourself or maybe one other person, you may want to buy more of the #2.5 cans, but that depends on the individual food. For smaller households or for people who eat smaller amounts, these cans each hold enough of any given food to last several days or weeks, and you’ll likely consume the contents before they’re negatively affected by heat, humidity, oxygen, light, or pests. They’re also easier to transport and their smaller size means they can fit into nooks and crannies — space that would otherwise be wasted. 

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Recently I reviewed the sites of a couple of food storage companies and developed a sort of checklist I’ve followed to determine which size of can is the best choice for my family. Three of the biggest companies, Thrive Life, Augason Farms, and Emergency Essentials all carry similar products. Here are my recommendations for what you should buy in a #2.5 size can or a #10 can.

My suggestions for #2.5 cans

NOTE: Virtually all baking ingredients should be purchased in smaller amounts, except for sugar and flour — if you normally use those 2 ingredients frequently.

• Baking powder. Your can of grocery store baking powder has lasted for how many months? Don’t bother buying this in a #10 can.
• Baking soda. If you use baking soda just for baking, this size is fine. If you use it in household cleaners or in other ways, I recommend either a #10 can size or the much bigger 5 or 13.5 pounds bags available at Costco, Sam’s Club, or on Amazon. That’s what I’ve purchased, along with a handful of #2.5 cans to use for baking.
• Beef and chicken bouillon. Humidity can affect this in a big way and unless you’re making meals in a jar that call for bouillon, for most households, the smaller can size is best.
• Butter powder. A little goes a long way and this product produces a flavorful spread but it can’t be melted
• Cheese blend. This is a powder, similar to what you would find in a package of store-bought macaroni and cheese. Not everyone likes it, but it’s a handy ingredient for making cheesey things. A smaller can will last for quite a while.
• Hot chocolate mixes. Most people just don’t go through this very quickly. A small can will do very nicely.
• Iodized salt
• Freeze-dried cheese, if you’re stocking up for just 2 or 3 people.
• Freeze-dried parmesan cheese. How long has that green can of Parmesan cheese lasted in your house? Probably a very long time! Therefore, if you buy this version, plan on buying the smaller can.
• Freeze-dried meat and chicken, if you will be preparing meals for just 1-2 people.
• Juice mixes. I’m not a big fan of these and my family never drinks juice, but if yours does, look for varieties that offer a nice dose of Vitamin C, in particular.
• Shortening powder, unless you make biscuits frequently
• Specialized grains, such as millet and amaranth
• TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) – If you choose to stock up on this, a little goes a long way. I use 1/3 cup, for example, in soups.
• Yeast or Instant Dry Yeast. This tends to not store very well, long-term. You’re better off with smaller packages. If you very rarely need yeast, you might just want to buy an occasional jar of it at the grocery store so less is wasted if the yeast becomes too old to be effective. Always proof yeast that is more than a few months old.
• Yogurt bites. These are very sensitive to humidity. Get the smaller cans and enjoy them while they’re crunchy. They are a great addition to homemade trail mixes.

Produce

• Most fruits, especially if you live in a humid climate. Humidity causes the sugar in fruit to become sticky and the pieces clump together.
• Vegetables that you don’t use very often or that only a few family members like.
• Vegetables that are cut into very small pieces — a little will go a long way. Examples: celery, onions, peas, chopped carrots. Even a #2.5 can of dehydrated onions will last practically forever.
• Vegetables and fruit that you really love but are very expensive in their freeze-dried or dehydrated versions. Examples: cherries, raspberries, mangoes.

NOTE: Definitely consider buying varieties of freeze-dried and dehydrated vegetables and fruit that you cannot grow yourself, for whatever reason, and/or tend to be pricey. Blackberries, raspberries, cherries are all some of my favorites, but I’ve chosen to stock up on their freeze dried versions because they usually are more expensive in the grocery stores. I’ve purchased fewer freeze dried blueberries because I live in Texas blueberry country and can easily buy them in large quantities and can them for later.

My suggestions for #10 cans

• Bakery mixes. Some companies offer cookie, cornbread, bread, biscuit, muffin and brownie mixes. Before ordering these, take a look to see how much is required for one batch of a recipe. One sugar cookie mix recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of the mix! Just 4 or 5 batches, and that can is ready to recycle. You’re better off stocking up on the individual ingredients to make your favorite desserts, but some people really like the convenient mixes.
• Beans. Beans have a very long shelf life, even when the can is opened.
• Fruit varieties that you know you’ll use frequently. Apple slices, for example, if your family loves apples and you use them in lots of recipes.
• Freeze-dried cheese. Most recipes will call for at least 2-3 cups of rehydrated cheese (think enchiladas or a lasagna). If these are recipes you want to continue making, the larger cans will be best.
• Grains. Virtually all grains, from wheat to pasta to oats and rice, are fine in the larger cans. If you use grains at all, they are probably a staple of your family’s diet and you’ll have no problem using up the contents in a #10 can as these foods store very well, long term.
• Just-add-hot-water meals. You’ll most likely use a few cups of these meal mixes at a time.
• Most freeze-dried meat and chicken. Some brands say that opened cans of their freeze-dried meats are only good for 30 days or so, while other companies estimate a few months. Honeyville says to use their freeze-dried meat within 30 days once opened and within a week if it’s not refrigerated. Thrive Life’s meat and chicken have longer shelf lives once open. If you have Honeyville meats, then smaller can sizes might be a better choice, unless you normally feed a large family and can easily use up a #10 can within 30 days.
• Some vegetables. For the most frequently used veggies, you might want to opt for the larger can size. Do you cook a lot of meat and potatoes? Then #10 cans of potatoes in all their varieties is probably your best choice. One caveat is for those living in a very humid climate. In that case you may want to buy the smaller 2.5 size cans because humidity will affect freeze dried and dehydrated vegetables.

Is Food Storage new to you? Check out my list of food storage articles for newbies here!

As always, always, your mileage may vary! One of my prepper pet peeves is the occasional complaint by some of my readers who don’t stop to think for themselves when they read different types of survival advice: “You say to stock up on peanut butter, but we’re allergic to peanut butter.” “Why should I buy mangoes when we hate mangoes?” All food storage absolutely must be customized to your household’s preferences, allergies, food sensitivities, storage space available, finances, and even the level of motivation.

In survival and preparedness, as in every other area of life, you must make the decisions that suit your family and your circumstances best! Use my suggestions here as guidelines but do consider:

• What will my family actually eat?
• What ingredients do I normally use in the course of a month?
• Are there any allergies or food sensitivities that I need to keep in mind?
• In a worst case scenario, who else might I need to feed? (If you think there will be loved ones showing up at the door, stock up on a lot of meal stretchers. These extend just about any recipe and are calorie dense.)
• What is my monthly budget for extra food storage?
• Where will I store all this extra stuff? Never store food in an attic, garage, outbuilding, or any place that isn’t, at the very least, well insulated. Ideally, food should be stored in the 70-75 degree range.
• What are my priorities when it comes to food storage? Just the basics, beans, wheat, rice, and salt? Making sure my loved ones continue to enjoy the same familiar and comforting recipes no matter what happens?

When the #10 can is just too, too big

Sooner or later you’ll be faced with the dilemma of what to do with the contents of an opened #10 can when you know, full well, that you aren’t going to polish it off any time soon. The food doesn’t have to go to waste, and shouldn’t. You can easily repackage it.

Most of the foods I’ve listed here can easily be repackaged in canning jars of the size you prefer. You’ll need a selection of jars, canning lids, a vacuum sealer, and a jar sealer attachment. This is a very, very simple process, and I’ve used it to package in jars everything from salt to biscuit mix to quinoa.

You can also use the vacuum sealer and vacuum sealer bags. That’s a nice option because the individual bags can be stored in larger bins and buckets.

In this video, I demonstrate how to use a vacuum sealer and jar sealer attachment to store small amounts of food in canning jars.

The post Food Storage Can Sizes: When to go big, when to go small by The Survival Mom appeared first on The Survival Mom. Be sure to check it out!

Feature Friday: Life on Virginia Street

Meet Sarah, from Omaha, Nebraska. She's an executive in the financial services industry by day and a blogger in her spare time, sharing her decorating and DIY adventures on Life on Virginia Street. This is her 3rd home with her hubby and they are doing a wonderful job making it their own.

The post Feature Friday: Life on Virginia Street appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

Summer Table with Mikasa {+ Giveaway}!

As a Southern girl, I love pretty dishes and tableware, as I'm sure most of you do too. There's just something so nice about sitting down to a beautiful table all set with dishes, flatware, glasses, and colorful napkins. Oh, don't forget the fresh flowers. I cut these hydrangeas from my yard, which was a treat this year.

Today, I'm joining a few other bloggers and sharing a fun book and dish set giveaway with Mikasa. I love Mikasa and have so enjoyed my Italian Countryside dishes that I use everyday.

The post Summer Table with Mikasa {+ Giveaway}! appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

Preppers Should Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

Written by Pat Henry on The Prepper Journal.

Crisis, disaster, the grid going down, SHTF or TEOTWAWKI (The End of The World as We Know It). All of these are terms preppers use as the motivating force for taking steps to proactively avoid these situations. We prepare so that if we do have to go through some crisis or disaster we will hopefully arrive on the other site unscathed. The last thing most preppers want to see is any kind of SHTF event, but I wanted to pose the idea that as well as being something we try to plan for to avoid, a crisis could give you opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Rahm Emanuel is famously quoted as saying “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do things you did not think you could do before.” I think it is widely accepted that in the context of what he was saying; he meant that you could make major changes in political policies with a large enough crisis. The fear or anger of the actual event would make pushing changes through policy much easier.

Preppers can also use a crisis regardless of whether we are in the middle of the crisis or observers on the outside – watching the news and looking on with the rest of the world. If you take the prepping lifestyle serious, I want to show why preppers should never let a crisis go to waste either. We can use tragedy to further our agendas just as well as the government can. Our reach and the scope of what we are able to do personally might be insignificant in the face of a government behemoth, but nevertheless, touching just one person’s life is worth it.

Use the crisis as an opportunity to help

First and foremost in any crisis, I am prepping to help people. To be perfectly honest, those people I am planning for are me and my family first, but if I am not in danger and I can help others, I will happily step in. The recent floods in Texas are a good example of how preppers could help people out who were not prepared or who perhaps were prepared, but their provisions along with their homes and all of their other belongings were swept down the river.

The crisis could be local to your area and in that case you can volunteer your time to help people who are displaced. You could take your big bug out vehicle down the road and rescue people who aren’t able to make it out of their homes on foot or who in colder weather, can’t get their car down the road due t snow and ice. Your nice Stihl chainsaw could come out of the shed to help your neighbors clear a downed tree or cut limbs up that have fallen. You could share some of your food storage with neighbors who have had their homes destroyed by tornadoes.

Even if the crisis isn’t local to your area, you can learn and teach others using the subject.

Use the crisis as an opportunity to teach

As a prepper blogger, I almost always see an upswing in my visitor traffic immediately following some natural disaster. It makes sense that people want to learn how to get prepared when their reality of sunshine and lollipops is rocked by scenes of destruction on their Facebook pages and across the internet. News of horrible tragedy, especially the kind caused by Mother Nature reminds us that bad things do happen to good people all of the time.

I have related the story before of how I foolishly tried to get my wife on board with my prepping efforts in one manic speech at night right before bed. Naturally, me hitting her out of the blue with all of my fears about the future and my plans to spend major bucks insulating our family from anything bad wasn’t met with a warm reception. After that night I realized I needed to step back and try a different approach.

Rather than trying to convince her of the validity of my worst Grid down fears, I used crises in the news when they happened. When winter storms knocked power out for thousands, I mentioned to her how we should get some supplies in case that happened to us. With the news so fresh in her mind her resistance to me prepping for disaster disappeared. It was directly because she could see how that tragedy could affect her and our children.

Disasters occupy the attention of nearly everyone for at least a couple of days. During this time you can very easily talk to friends or family about the situation and pose questions to them about how they would react if for example; a lunatic on prescription meds walked into church and started shooting. You can ask them what they would do if they lost power due to winter storms for 3 weeks and couldn’t leave their house because they were snowed in. Rather than come into the subjects of personal security or food storage completely out of the blue, preppers can start a dialog that makes sense within the context of current events.

Use the crisis as an opportunity to learn

I am an advocate of learning new things as much as possible. I even try to learn from my mistakes and disasters can give you an opportunity to learn in a couple of ways. The first way is first hand. Many people have grid-down weekends where they flip the power switch off on a Friday night and leave it off for the weekend. This is done to practice living off your prepping supplies and learning lessons about cooking, cleaning up, staying occupied and warm or cool. If Mother Nature throws you a grid-down weekend of her own, you can still learn lessons from actually using this gear you have lying around your house.

You can learn lessons like:

• Whether or not the fuel you have stored is enough to power that generator for more than a few hours.
• If that generator even works
• How much that generator will actually power
• How noisy that generator is

Medical skills could help others in a crisis.

If you aren’t directly affected by the crisis you can still learn. Many people volunteer as CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) members and if needed, you could be called into action to assist in your community. This training is great for people who are looking to get training on assisting during disasters.

You can also take first aid training and possibly assist with saving a life in a crisis. If nothing else, the things you experience can remind you of what supplies you may need during a crisis and the training could benefit one of your own groups. There doesn’t even have to be a crisis to use first aid skills as people get hurt all of the time on their own. If nothing else, like the example of my wife above, you can use the next crisis to motivate you to redouble your efforts or jump back into the game.

In addition to actually being in the thick of it or simply letting the crisis motivate you to attend training, you can learn from the crisis even if you are on the other side of the world. Use the crisis as a hypothetical scenario to talk through what you would do. Ask your children what they would do if that crisis happened and you weren’t home. Ask your spouse or parents what they would do. Think of what you and your family would have done if this happened and you were away from home on vacation?  Learn their perspectives and give them any information you have that they might have forgotten. Never let a crisis go to waste.

The post Preppers Should Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Plants With Healing Energy – Benefits Of Indoor Plants In Hospitals

By Bonnie L. Grant For centuries, humans have harnessed the power of plants with healing qualities. They may be medicinal or dietary, but healing plants and their uses are a time tested powerful cure and medicine for a host of ailments. The benefits of indoor plants in hospitals may be more than visual and stimulating in form, scent and color. There are plants with healing energy through their herbal qualities and oils, but also using live plants in hospitals brings a promise of life and renewal of hope. They soften the sterile white corners and naturalize what is otherwise a very unnatural experience, creating a sense of calm in patients and reducing their stress. These effects are a winning combination from which any patient can benefit. What are the Benefits of Indoor Plants in Hospitals? I remember being stuck indoors as a sick child, looking longingly out at the sky,

Read this article

Going From One Income To No Income: The Plunge Has Been Taken

Several months ago I wrote about my family’s plan for my husband to continue his education: he was going to quit his job as a software engineer and then become a full-time student at our local university, working toward a degree of electrical engineering. We would be living on no income for an extended period of time — living off of savings and food storage.

More backstory to fill in the blanks

My husband has been very slowly working toward his bachelor’s degree for many years now. About three years ago, we made the decision for him to go from a 40-hour work week to a 32-hour work week at his office. We would still keep all our benefits, and though our income would take a hit, we would still be able to save money. With the extra time per week, he would be able to take one class per semester at the university as a “non-traditional student.” His guidance counselor determined that at this rate, he would graduate around 2021. Eek! But, if he decided to go full time, including spring and summer terms, he could graduate by December 2016; a much more workable plan.

I was nervous to tell my mom about what we were planning, but when I did, she said, “If anyone can do it, it’s you two.” It was really nice to have the parental support, because the internet was not so kind. People called us irresponsible, misguided, and said that we were crazy dreamers. My favorite comment was, “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.” At least I know my mom likes me!

As the date approached for my husband to quit his job, I grew increasingly nervous. What if those internet commenters were right? What if we were just being foolish?

In the end, it was a moot point. My husband’s company underwent some major restructuring that resulted in most of his team being laid off, including himself. His boss and others in management had known about his plans to quit for months but very generously fired him, so that he would be eligible for a severance package.

So far, so good with our living on no income experiment!

So now, here we are, more than two months since my husband stopped work, and already finished with his first term (it was an accelerated course). How are things going so far? Well, not so bad, actually.

Thus far the changes have been minor. Some have been good – the university is closer to our home than my husband’s former office, so he rides his bike, leaving me free to use the car. Other changes haven’t been as wonderful – my husband is gone more hours per day so he can do most of his work on campus.

One of my concerns in planning our adventure involved the amount and type of food we would have access to. In my imagination I worried about being hungry all the time, forced to eat sludge with depressing names like, “gruel,” “mash,” and “cabbage soup;”  things that taste like sadness and broken dreams.

If you’ve read Survival Mom’s Could You Stomach These Great Depression Meals, you know what I’m talking about!

After assessing our expenses, however, we found that our grocery bill comparatively minuscule. We can still comfortably purchase fresh fruit and ground beef. It helps, though, that the meals I make from our food storage are flavorful and exciting: falafel, hummus, and black bean tacos.

Are you experiencing lean times, too? Don’t miss my monthly “52 Weeks Savings” series. Each month I post that month’s best bargains, discounts, and deals for the frugal-minded Survival Mom! Here’s a sample for the month of June.

We’re not in lean times, yet. It’s difficult to feel the pinch when there is still so much leeway. We are still making our mortgage and utility bills out of our savings, and expect that this will be the norm for some time. We have already begun eating up our food storage. We did not qualify for grants and scholarships at the beginning of this year because my husband was still employed, but we will qualify for those grants next year, and that will go a long way toward stretching our savings.

Although we will qualify for programs such as WIC and SNAP, we don’t anticipate that we will have to use them. We have no plans to take out student loans, either. The only sticky question that remains relates to health insurance. We don’t want to use Medicaid because we don’t want to become a burden on an already strained system. It’s something of an ethical labyrinth because being uninsured is far too risky (it’s also against the law, thanks to the Affordable Care Act). Yet the price of private health insurance is astronomical. We submitted an application to the healthcare.gov website, in hopes that it will direct us toward a middle ground: health care that is truly affordable that doesn’t constitute accepting a free lunch.

It is not my intention to, in any way, put down those who must use these programs by necessity. Rather, it is to illustrate our mindset. We know that living on no income on purpose is risky, but we have a strong desire to retain our independence and an even stronger desire to refrain from using resources that could go to people whose needs are greater than ours.

In all this, I’ve discovered a very good surprise. For most of our almost ten-year marriage, my biggest fear was that someday my husband would come home from work with news of being laid off. I’ve discovered that this doesn’t have to be such a scary thing. We had prepared for this, long before we made the decision for my husband to quit work. If this had been an unexpected layoff, we still would have been able to feed our children and fulfill our financial obligations, with a lot of room to breathe. If, in the next few months, circumstances prove that our current plan is untenable, we will still have the resources to stay afloat while seeking out another job. This, I feel, is the essence of emergency preparedness: so when the axe falls, preparation softens the blow.

Are you ready to live on no income?

One of the potential disasters that preppers keep in mind is suddenly having no income. Learn more about how to be a prepper with this selection of recommended books:

• 52 Prepper Projects by Dave Nash (Budget-friendly and practical.)
• Countdown to Preparedness by Jim Cobb
• Food Storage for Self-Sufficiency and Survival by Angela Paskett
• The Pantry Primer: How to build a one year food supply in three months by Daisy Luther
• The Preppers Blueprint by Tess Pennington
• The Prepper’s Pocket Guide by Bernie Carr
• Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst Case Scenarios by Lisa Bedford

The Survival Mom, Lisa Bedford, teaches you how to be a prepper in this video

The post Going From One Income To No Income: The Plunge Has Been Taken by Beth Buck appeared first on The Survival Mom. Be sure to check it out!

Sweat Bees In Gardens – Tips For Sweat Bee Control

By Jackie Carroll Sweat bees are often seen flying around the garden with a heavy load of pollen on their back legs. Pollen laden sweat bees are on their way back to the nest where they store their harvest to feed the next generation. It’s a good idea to give them a wide berth so they don’t see you as a threat. But don’t let the fear of sweat bee stings keep you out of your garden. Find out how to control sweat bees and avoid stings in this article. What are Sweat Bees? Sweat bees are a group of solitary bee species that live alone in underground nests. Some species resemble bumble or honeybees, while others resemble wasps. About half of the North American species have a green or blue metallic sheen. A few nests don’t present a serious problem, but you should take steps to control the bees

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Fashion over 70!

Yes, you read that one right!

I'm not there yet, but I have a special guest today. I met Ginny and her husband, Jeff, last year at St. Simons when I was on a media trip there. They are from the Sarasota area in Florida and such nice folks. So, this year they were on the St. Augustine trip with our group and we got to catch up again. Ginny is one smart lady and has been a CFO in her former corporate life, with accounting being her strong suit. She now works with her husband and they do travel writing in syndicated travel columns across the country.

The post Fashion over 70! appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

Clean Your Clothes Without Electricity

Our washing machine was not appreciated. It faithfully sat in the corner of our laundry room and dutifully agitated and spun the dirt away… until it broke last summer. It had served us well by cleaning 60 loads a month, but it was not worth repairing.

This was our unplanned introduction to off the grid washing and putting into practice the skills needed to clean clothes without electricity. No one, except me, was enthusiastic about this new adventure. For two weeks we did our laundry by hand and lived to tell about it.

We knew enough of the basics and we did have clean clothes, but as those 2 weeks wore on, we learned a lot more. If you’re ever without power or if there’s ever a grid-down scenario, these tips will come in handy.

Clean clothes without electricity — not easy, but doable!

• Do your best to keep up on laundry. When an emergency happens, you will feel some sense of assurance that most of your family has clean underwear. In fact, hurricane-hardened moms know to go on a laundry-cleaning marathon once a hurricane is just 3 or 4 days out. If the power goes down, at the very least you’ll have clean sheets, towels, clothes, and plenty of clean underwear!

• Assign a laundry day to each person in the home. If they are old enough to, have them be responsible for their own laundry, this includes their linens. Teach and help younger children how to do laundry, including sorting, which detergent to use, how to remove stains, how to fold each type of item, and finally, where everything goes once folded. When they are 12 years old they should have this mastered. It’s a life skill. Am I right?

• Stock up on laundry soap, dryer sheets, fabric softener and stain remover. A 3 month supply would be awesome! If you want to make your own products, download Switch From Store-Bought to Homemade, a FREE Survival Mom e-book!

• We have stored bars of Fels-Naptha and Zote soap. These bars can serve as a pre-treatment stain remover and as detergent. They are inexpensive, small, easy to store and last a long time.

• As a bonus, Fels-Naptha can be used for poison ivy treatment, cleaning very greasy/dirty hands and household cleaning. Do not wash dishes with it or use it as a regular hand soap.

• Zote is a great soap for those with sensitive skin or for baby clothes. It has a strong scent, however.

• Clotheslines and clothes pins are a must. Clotheslines come in a variety of styles. Buy what works best for your home and size of your family. Be prepared to have a drying method for inside your house on rainy and/or wintery days. Wet clothes have been known to freeze solid on a clothesline!

• Have a backup location to wash and dry. In Southern California we found the weather to be wonderfully cooperative! Consider the bathroom a great place to wash. You will need to drain the water somewhere. Maybe a garage or basement would provide the room needed for a clothes line.

• Once in a while, wash clothes by hand or just bypass the dryer. There is much to learn about the art of hanging clothes on a line. More people than you might think continue to use a washboard for scrubbing clothes by hand.

• In a true grid-down scenario or a severe drought, be prepared to recycle your grey water. Grey water is the water that you used to do laundry and can be used to water plants, wash a vehicle, or other uses that don’t involve contact with food. If you’re planning to do this, use water that has not been used to wash underwear, since any water that comes in contact with feces will be too contaminated to re-use. The solution for that is simple: schedule one or more loads of “underwear laundry” per week and wash everything else separately.

• Consider buying a non-electric washing machine as a backup for power outages. These units run around $50 and the WonderWash was reviewed here a few years ago. Some of these units have a foot pedal or a hand held crank and hold about 6 lbs. of clothes. They require less physical strength and it only takes a few minutes of turning to have clean clothes. Rinsing goes fast and the clothes can be spun to expel much of the water.

There are a variety of laundry soaps and stain treatments that you can make at home. I have made both the powder and the liquid. The powder is faster to make. I recruited one of my children to grate the soap to see how it would work. It went well and I got a clean smelling kid out of it. A food processor was used to grate another batch. It got the job done but it did required electricity. You could easily make a 6 month to a year supply of laundry detergent in an afternoon. Personally, I store bars of soap and have additional store bought detergent as well.

Download Switch From Store-Bought to Homemade for free recipes and instructions for homemade laundry detergents.

Methods of off grid washing vary. If you are strong, want to get strong, or have kids that need to burn energy, I recommend the 5 gallon bucket and plunger method. It is cheap to make and simple to store. This is what you need:
• 2 5-gallon buckets (home improvement store, some restaurants give them away for free)
• Lids for buckets. Washing can be done without a lid, as we have learned, but a lid is better!
• A new plunger, average quality is the minimum.This one was designed specifically for off-grid laundry use.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Take one of the 5 gallon buckets and drill holes all around the side of it. Drill holes in the rubber part of the plunger, if you’re using a traditional plunger and not the one pictured here.

If you choose to use a lid, drill a hole in the lid that is large enough to place over the stick of the plunger. Put the bucket with holes inside the other bucket. Add water, soap and clothes. Allow enough room for agitation!

Grab a chair, put the bucket in front of you, and pretend you are plunging the toilet for about 10 minutes. Dump dirty water out, fill with clean water and continue plunging. When you are finished rinsing, place the outer bucket inside the bucket with holes and press or sit on it. Most of the water will drain from your clothes.

If you are determined to permanently wash without electricity, there are other options to be explored. A bicycle powered washing machine or a large hand cranked machine can be purchased. Antique stores and auctions often have non-electric washing machines from many years ago that are still functional. These vary in price and quality. What matters most is that you have a plan and the proper equipment ready to clean clothes without electricity. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely doable!

Learn more about off-grid living skills

• Follow my Off-Grid Living Pinterest board
• Getting Started With Cooking Off the Grid
• June Skill of the Month: Off-Grid Living
• Off-Grid Living: Take Care of Personal Hygiene
• One in a Million: Would your spouse live the off-grid lifestyle?

The post Clean Your Clothes Without Electricity by Erin Foster appeared first on The Survival Mom. Be sure to check it out!