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brin_bellway) wrote2023-08-25 08:14 pm
brin_bellway) wrote2023-08-25 08:14 pm
Entry tags:
Friday Five: August 25, 2023
1. Are you prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse (essentially any disaster, natural or otherwise)?
Not as much as I would like.
(that's glass-half-empty for "yes")
2. What's in your bug-in (stay safe at home) kit?
Four 20L jugs of tap water. Six 24-packs (= 72L) of commercially bottled water (stacked to form a table in my parents' bedroom).
A tent that in a pinch we could probably set up in the kitchen to better share body heat, though I have not yet practised that.
I keep a deep pantry and three freezers: I routinely go 2 - 3 weeks at a time between grocery trips, and if we absolutely had to I expect we could go maybe 3 - 4 months.
Late August means I'm due for the annual check of our OTC medication supplies: I'll be dealing with that one soon. (Off the top of my head I know we have plenty of naproxen (I saw an unopened 200-pack in there recently on my way to fetching something else), but not much acetaminophen (a few pills).)
A spirit-burner stove (and a bottle of fuel for it) that I am admittedly not as practised with as I should be.
Some of the bug-out items are also notable here, such as the camping solar panel capable of keeping several phones and USB lights charged.
3. What's in your bug-out bag?
That's a long list.
General overview:
* masks/respirator/goggles/wearable-mosquito-nets
* spare glasses (highly recommended: I notice a couple other Friday Five answerers expressing concerns about glasses access)
* spare clothes
* toothbrush/floss/soap
* a three-day pack of lifeboat rations (apple-cinnamon flavoured; most ration bars are coconut, but I dislike coconut and my mom's allergic)
* cash
* medkit (largely wound care, with OTC meds and whatnot being in my utility belt; if I were sexually active I'd have emergency contraception in here, but since I'm not it's low enough on the priority list that I haven't bought it yet (though it *is* still *on* the priority list))
* menstrual products
* fire kit
* water-purification tablets (there's also a filter straw in the utility belt), two water bottles (one of which I specifically got single-walled steel for, so that you can boil water in it in a pinch)
* abovementioned solar panel
* USB headlamp (though if I were doing it again today I'd go for one that takes AAAs and get some of those USB-rechargeable AAA-shaped batteries to stick in it, get the best of both worlds)
* map (no longer free, but I got in while the getting was good and it's still pretty cheap)
* wet wipes, some of those compressed just-add-water towels
* heavy-duty trash bag (poor man's tarp)
It's all kept in a camping backpack, which I spent CAD$280 on and I don't regret it: it really does make a *huge* difference in how well I can carry stuff around, and in how likely it is to break when I need it most. I've weighed everything and it comes out to 18.4 pounds, though my future plans call for a final weight of 21.6 - 25.6 pounds depending on how many of the things I'm torn on I decide to go for. (Plus the utility belt is another seven pounds or so.)
Some things that would normally be in bug-out bags are in my day-to-day utility belt instead, such as the foil blanket and the campfire/sterilisation lighter (it's not really a "cigarette" lighter, given that it's never lit a cigarette in its life) and the penfork.
4. What's on your 'to get' list?
I originally interpreted this question as "what things are you grabbing during an evacuation if you have slightly more time than 'take the bug-out bag and run'": laptops, prescription meds, bag of this year's utility bills and tax documents and suchlike, previous years' document bags if I can swing it (some people say old ones are unimportant, but I *have* been known to find myself in positions where I need to be able to produce a bank statement from 2015 and I *have* been known to find myself consulting paperwork from 2007 and I don't have the *entire* archive digitised at this time).
But it looks like all the other respondents so far have interpreted it as "what prepping-related items are you hoping to get in the future", so: broad-spectrum radio (I have an FM receiver in my phone and there's an AM/FM radio in Dad's bag, but I know I can do better), multitool, wool clothes to replace the current bug-out-bag outfit, stand-to-pee, closed-cell sleeping pad, proper tarp maybe, lightweight/compact sleeping bag maybe, fire-escape window ladder, home insulation (actively working on this!), hybrid on-grid/off-grid rooftop solar (it's *so* expensive but I want it *so* much). Every room in my basement has at least one window for some fucking reason even though we're only *almost* outside of tornado country (they're not common but they happen, and we had a tornado warning last month), so I'd really like to do something to improve the sheltering there.
5. Do you keep gear in your vehicle, if so, what?
I do not de jure own a vehicle, though I picked-out and paid-for-90%-of my dad's car (it's a pain in the ass to legally own a car you can't drive, so instead I shoved the money into his bank account and had him fill out the paperwork). I hope to get a bicycle soon, but I've been saying that for over a year now.
There are three more three-day ration packs in the underfloor compartment of my dad's trunk (being left in vehicles for years on end is what lifeboat rations are specifically designed for!). There's a seatbelt-cutter/window-breaker in the glove compartment. I'm pretty sure there's a blanket. Figuring out emergency-car-repair gear is his job: I can't say I particularly trust him with it (certainly I've never been able to get him to adopt the practice of not letting your gas tank go below half-full, though we've only outright run out once), but there's no point in putting repair gear into a car if the driver's not on board with it.
Not as much as I would like.
(that's glass-half-empty for "yes")
2. What's in your bug-in (stay safe at home) kit?
Four 20L jugs of tap water. Six 24-packs (= 72L) of commercially bottled water (stacked to form a table in my parents' bedroom).
A tent that in a pinch we could probably set up in the kitchen to better share body heat, though I have not yet practised that.
I keep a deep pantry and three freezers: I routinely go 2 - 3 weeks at a time between grocery trips, and if we absolutely had to I expect we could go maybe 3 - 4 months.
Late August means I'm due for the annual check of our OTC medication supplies: I'll be dealing with that one soon. (Off the top of my head I know we have plenty of naproxen (I saw an unopened 200-pack in there recently on my way to fetching something else), but not much acetaminophen (a few pills).)
A spirit-burner stove (and a bottle of fuel for it) that I am admittedly not as practised with as I should be.
Some of the bug-out items are also notable here, such as the camping solar panel capable of keeping several phones and USB lights charged.
3. What's in your bug-out bag?
That's a long list.
General overview:
* masks/respirator/goggles/wearable-mosquito-nets
* spare glasses (highly recommended: I notice a couple other Friday Five answerers expressing concerns about glasses access)
* spare clothes
* toothbrush/floss/soap
* a three-day pack of lifeboat rations (apple-cinnamon flavoured; most ration bars are coconut, but I dislike coconut and my mom's allergic)
* cash
* medkit (largely wound care, with OTC meds and whatnot being in my utility belt; if I were sexually active I'd have emergency contraception in here, but since I'm not it's low enough on the priority list that I haven't bought it yet (though it *is* still *on* the priority list))
* menstrual products
* fire kit
* water-purification tablets (there's also a filter straw in the utility belt), two water bottles (one of which I specifically got single-walled steel for, so that you can boil water in it in a pinch)
* abovementioned solar panel
* USB headlamp (though if I were doing it again today I'd go for one that takes AAAs and get some of those USB-rechargeable AAA-shaped batteries to stick in it, get the best of both worlds)
* map (no longer free, but I got in while the getting was good and it's still pretty cheap)
* wet wipes, some of those compressed just-add-water towels
* heavy-duty trash bag (poor man's tarp)
It's all kept in a camping backpack, which I spent CAD$280 on and I don't regret it: it really does make a *huge* difference in how well I can carry stuff around, and in how likely it is to break when I need it most. I've weighed everything and it comes out to 18.4 pounds, though my future plans call for a final weight of 21.6 - 25.6 pounds depending on how many of the things I'm torn on I decide to go for. (Plus the utility belt is another seven pounds or so.)
Some things that would normally be in bug-out bags are in my day-to-day utility belt instead, such as the foil blanket and the campfire/sterilisation lighter (it's not really a "cigarette" lighter, given that it's never lit a cigarette in its life) and the penfork.
4. What's on your 'to get' list?
I originally interpreted this question as "what things are you grabbing during an evacuation if you have slightly more time than 'take the bug-out bag and run'": laptops, prescription meds, bag of this year's utility bills and tax documents and suchlike, previous years' document bags if I can swing it (some people say old ones are unimportant, but I *have* been known to find myself in positions where I need to be able to produce a bank statement from 2015 and I *have* been known to find myself consulting paperwork from 2007 and I don't have the *entire* archive digitised at this time).
But it looks like all the other respondents so far have interpreted it as "what prepping-related items are you hoping to get in the future", so: broad-spectrum radio (I have an FM receiver in my phone and there's an AM/FM radio in Dad's bag, but I know I can do better), multitool, wool clothes to replace the current bug-out-bag outfit, stand-to-pee, closed-cell sleeping pad, proper tarp maybe, lightweight/compact sleeping bag maybe, fire-escape window ladder, home insulation (actively working on this!), hybrid on-grid/off-grid rooftop solar (it's *so* expensive but I want it *so* much). Every room in my basement has at least one window for some fucking reason even though we're only *almost* outside of tornado country (they're not common but they happen, and we had a tornado warning last month), so I'd really like to do something to improve the sheltering there.
5. Do you keep gear in your vehicle, if so, what?
I do not de jure own a vehicle, though I picked-out and paid-for-90%-of my dad's car (it's a pain in the ass to legally own a car you can't drive, so instead I shoved the money into his bank account and had him fill out the paperwork). I hope to get a bicycle soon, but I've been saying that for over a year now.
There are three more three-day ration packs in the underfloor compartment of my dad's trunk (being left in vehicles for years on end is what lifeboat rations are specifically designed for!). There's a seatbelt-cutter/window-breaker in the glove compartment. I'm pretty sure there's a blanket. Figuring out emergency-car-repair gear is his job: I can't say I particularly trust him with it (certainly I've never been able to get him to adopt the practice of not letting your gas tank go below half-full, though we've only outright run out once), but there's no point in putting repair gear into a car if the driver's not on board with it.
no subject
(i attempted googling but i'm not remotely confident that any of the offered answers are the correct one)
no subject
The exact model I have is an official Girl Guide one that seems to have been discontinued, but this one looks similar.
P.S. To be fair, I *am* thinking of switching to a spork because they're lighter. Not *hugely* less weight, but it adds up.