How long can you go?

[2cool9031]

Right now....with all the stuff that's growing in the garden, one month easy

[newbomb]

I too think winter would be a little easier. We have a large wood burning fire place with a fair amount of wood for the house and also a wood/coal burner for my fur shed that could be rigged for the house also. I voted for 1 month but could go MUCH longer in the winter. Water is always an issue for me though. Im still trying to find clean barrels for storage that dont cost a fortune and I could drive a little ways to buy.

[Royal-1]

H2O would be the really hard part for us, but we do have filters, so sneaking across the road to the pond to grab a few buckets of water at night would be something we would have to risk. No wells in the our "Vinyl Village". If we did have the 3 days head start on filling up every available container we might be OK without our midnight raid on the neighborhood pond for the 3 months.

[redneckmedic]

1 month...until I get that hand pump installed in my well then prob up to 6 months if I can get our freezer meat smoked or jerked quick enough. (hold the jerk comments please )

[hotfarmboy1]

I'd have to say around 3 months, moreso in the winter. Esp if I can manage to get a hand pump for the well. We've got plenty of wood around for heat and cooking, along with my camp stoves. I'm trying to get dad to help me buy a wood burning stove again like I used to have here at my house. I think it'd be a better idea than the corn burning stove..

[WinChoke]

I could go a week easily just on what's in the fridge and freezer. Another 6 months on stored non-perishibles and water. Coleman cook stove. Get one if you don't have one and plenty of fuel for it.

[teknickle]

We have plenty of protection.
Enough can goods for 1 month.
I would be worried about the deep freezer losing power.
We actually were without power for 3 hours this morning --just a gentle reminder to finish the battery bank I already have the inverters for.
FYI: Golf car batteries are the best value and use for this.

I think the kicker is clean water and cooking.
Our new place has electric EVERYTHING (clothes dryer, stove, microwave, water heater, blower for the gas force-air furnace).
The fireplace is in the center of the house, so that helps.

I could probably divert water from gutters to the kiddy pools for water collection.
(if you have a large pool-water should not be a problem, just filter out the chlorine and other stuff).

[Annie Oakley]

Like some others, winter would be the easier time to do this and during that time 3 months could happen without too much of a problem. We are lucky to live where there is always a supply of wood....it is just getting out to get it most of the time. We have a really deep well of good water and although it isn't plumbed you can always get it a bucket at a time.

My medications would be the most difficult thing to deal with but, hey, sleeping is overrated until you start to hallucinate! The animals would also require some creativity although in the winter I tend to keep extra supplies on hand for them since we occasionally get snowbound.

[newbomb]

(if you have a large pool-water should not be a problem, just filter out the chlorine and other stuff).


I cant believe I have never thought of this!!! I have a 30,000 gallon swimming pool 15 feet from my back door. Now I need to find out how to filter it and make it potable.

[Prometheus]

Water is our biggest issue... next week we move and the basement has a sump pump. Oh how that could suck. I'm thinking some sort of battery backup / handpump and maybe I should get to work on buying a PV panel or two.

Going to brain storm and probably post a post on this later today.

Second biggest issue is fuel for cooking. I store a lot of rice... worst case we let it soak overnight... warm rice would be nice though, lol.

As it stands, we could go a month or so, I have so many can goods we could be drinking the juices for weeks, lol. Also have a good filter for 100 gals of water and for 'clean' water I have a steripen to kill the germs. Steripen is good for 10,000 liters IIRC.