As a handyman, I would like to say handyman because you are more equipped for a variety of situations, but perhaps more specialised things would be more important. Maybe a plumber or car mechanic or something.
Happy burnt fireworks pickup day!
Looking for a free app that is cross operating systems for my wife to view my location.
I have Droid, shes iPhone. We used to use the find my iPhone feature on my work phone but I recently switched jobs. I hunt alot and go across state very often and it helps her judge my eta and just incase I need help. Would love to hear your app preference. Even if it's a small fee p/ month I may do that.
Thanks in advance.
Please use this thread to discuss whatever preps you worked on this last week. Let us know what big or little projects you have been working on. Please don’t hesitate to comment. Others might get inspired to work on their preps by reading about yours.
I hope everyone had a great 4th
They sell rain water collection barrels off of Amazon that you can hook up to your gutters and they will catch and hold rain water. I live in a place that gets a lot of rain and am wondering if there is a way to make that water safe to consume/water plants with. I know roofs are sealed with all kinds of chemicals that is not safe to consume but is there a way to filter out those chemicals?
I looked into Fortitude, what the speak of is exactly what Im looking for but it is too expensive for me. Im looking for a place to be 365 days a year. Learn, work, help anything needed of me. Im in lower Michigan. Is this a pipe dream?
Big storm burst hit my area yesterday. Got notifications that my power and internet were out until 8pm. No big deal… I set the dogs up and went to work. Got home at 1am and still no power. I have an Anker Solix battery bank so I grabbed that and realized it was on 2%. I never charged it after the last power outage. (1st fail)
I was still able to charge my phone and a battery for my dewalt fan. My 2nd fail is not having both of those batteries charged up. I was able to get one battery charged up enough that the dogs and I were semi comfortable last night even though it had been 95 degrees yesterday.
This morning I went to grab the cords to run the solar panel to the battery and my 3rd fail is that I can’t find one of the connector pieces. Luckily I found the car charger adapter, so I loaded a kid and dogs up in the car and we went for a drive to get cold drinks and ice for the cooler.
My one small tiny win in this situation is that earlier this year I bought a plug in ceiling fan for my living room. They are meant to be installed on outdoor porches. I didn’t want to try and wire a ceiling fan in so I went with the plug in route.
The dogs and I are currently sitting in a blacked out room with the ceiling fan plugged into the battery bank to cool off for a few before I brave the hotter parts of the house to go in search of the connector I need to hook the solar panel up.
Power isn’t expected to be restored until possibly 8pm tonight. We are safe overall but this has shown me multiple ways I need to improve my set up and how things are organized
the power company here in utah is hinting at brown outs but not exactly warning for them and I was considering buying a hessaire mc21v at home depot incase the power goes out when its hot as balls outside and they use next to no electricity. I have a small solar generator and was figuring it might be worth the water and electricity to use it to cool a room in the summer if the power does go out.
If you don't know what an evaporative cooler is its because they only work if the humidity is below 40% they are relatively common in the southwestern part of the country because of this.
What does the redditor say though?
Every bit of research I do on fixing gun shot wounds or other major wounds basically says just go to a hospital. Obviously in a scenario like this there is none. So how do I patch myself up to hopefully survive such encounters. Like if I’m shot I don’t think I can just suture that bad boy up and call it a day right??
I really need some medical supplies and books but want to know I’m prepped for eventually getting majorly hurt or for when it happens to someone I know.
Also how to create anti bacterial stuff to prevent infections, etc.
I've been carrying essentially the same backpack system for over 10 years: a 2015 Tom Bihn Synapse 25. It's served me incredibly well, but I finally decided to order an Evergoods CTB26 to see if a more modern layout (clamshell opening, better laptop compartment, external bottle pockets, and a more rectangular interior) better fits how my kit has evolved.
I'm hoping to get some feedback on the overall philosophy and see if anyone spots blind spots, unnecessary redundancy, opportunities to simplify, or better implementations.
My bag serves three primary roles:
The get-home aspect is what drives a lot of the contents. I live in northern New Jersey and frequently travel into Manhattan for work, etc. The design scenario isn't one specific disaster—it's really anything that would require me to get home on foot. That could be a prolonged regional power outage, major infrastructure failure, severe weather event, or anything where trains, PATH, ferries, bridges, and cellular networks are unavailable or unreliable and I'm left walking home over the course of 24–48 hours.
It's not intended to be a dedicated bug-out bag or a pure get-home bag. It's an everyday backpack built around modular pouches that i dont dig into 90% of the time - so I can adapt it to the mission (for example, removing my tool pouch when flying carry-on). The goal is to carry a bag that's genuinely useful every day while maintaining the ability to continue making progress toward home despite uncertainty.
The biggest constraint is that I actually have to carry this thing every day. If it turns into a 30-pound dedicated get-home bag, it's failed its purpose because I'll eventually stop bringing it. I have my car kit for that.
My normal everyday carry (including my 14" MacBook Pro) weighs about 15.5 lbs. That's before adding a water bottle (I'll likely be carrying a 32 oz in the CTB26), and on vacations or family trips I'll often add a camera and a lightweight jacket, plus misc stuff.
Everything is modular. The photos show the layout, but it's basically:
I've actually started weighing every pouch because I'm realizing that while I don't necessarily want the lightest bag—I want every ounce to earn its place.
For example, a few things Im debating:
I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who has built similar systems or have evolved theirs over time.
More than anything, I'm interested in challenging my own assumptions. If you carried this bag for a year, what would you remove, what would you add, and—most importantly—why?
I've been at it for about 14 years now. When I started the kids were small and money was hard to come by. Now, I'm more experienced and less worried about the "big one" and focus on what target hazards my area presents. It's more short term comfort with the addition of long term supplies.
The experience and knowledge have helped but I no longer focus only on "doomsday".
My weakness are comms and long term water.
Just curious to see what others have to say on this topic.
* edit, reading through these great response. Thanks for taking the time to contribute.
https://adrelien.com/the-20-radio-thats-building-an-internet-nobody-can-switch-off/
An easy to understand article explaining
TL;DR – Inexpensive (less than $50!) mesh radios than can connect to a phone (or not) and then each other to transmit voice, text, and data over long-ish distances (a mile in an urban area, much more in open spaces)
My father had bought a Yamaha EF1000 portable generator as one of his preps, which I chose to keep when he passed.
Aside from them being sought after, was trying to think of what I could use something that small for as its the only backup power I have currently. Should I have any concerns using it to power a standard gen 3 starlink? Or household electronics for that matter?
Not necessarily prepping related, but its rural so ill give a tey. Father in law passed this past spring. Mother in law is less than mobil, and has raised concerns with her not being able to get to the basement to check her sump pump. The advice ive gotten so far is to get a large Generac genny, that can run the house. Or, a mastercraft unit with a back up pump.
Shes running a 1/2hp pump now, which according to Jackery has a 4000w surge/peak, and 1050w running. Seems wildly overrated, and an unnecessary cash grab.
I dont know much about pumps or power back ups, been stuck in city for 50 years. I think the most hands off fix is best, in the basement for 1, and she aint no tech savant for 2. Cost isnt really an issue, but $17000 for a full house Generac, or even $4000 for the suggested Jackery, is crazy in my head.
Any advice welcome and appreciated.
I've been watching all the security cam videos of the Venezuela earthquake and seeing how little time people had to get out of their houses. Do you have a specific "escape" bag for if your house catches fire or other reason you need to unass the AO quickly?
I just have my wallet, keys, glasses, phone and EDC knife on my nightstand and the plan is to just scoop those up. I also leave my previous day's clothes on the floor by my bed in order to quickly put on at least my pants so I don't have to run out in my underwear. (my ex-wife hated that. But she hated pretty much anything I did, lol)
We have an emergency box which includes candles, but now that we’re actually post thunderstorm with high winds and tornado warning tonight and have no electricity , I’m realizing some sort of electric lantern would be helpful - ie something I can leave on while sleeping in case the kids get up to go to the bathroom, without worrying about fire risk.
Any recommendations from others who have solved this?
Hey guys, looking for a lithium iron phosphate battery power station to plug in my trucks block heater in winter. I understand they don't discharge well below 0. Wondering if I wrapped it in a blanket on the seat if the heat from the inverter itself would be enough to keep it warm. I am in Canada and winters can be nasty.
i think once i heard someone mention getting an alcohol distiller for purifying water. has anyone here done that? might be looking to getting one myself.
Hi there. I wouldn’t describe myself personally as a prepper, though I am becoming increasingly prep inclined. I don’t want to doom spiral mentally however I am in a part of Europe that is currently undergoing an extreme heatwave with high humidity, and I’m no fool - I know this will likely be one of the coldest summers (somehow) of the rest of my life. As a result, I want to make adjustments in advance of next year’s summer to live more comfortably if I can.
So I was wondering - even if it looked a little ridiculous, what would be the best everyday clothing for dispelling heat, managing air circulation and sweat evaporation? Specifically in humid climates. I know that in dry, desert countries they have figured out that robe-like full body coverings are best, but I imagine in high humidity those don’t fare so well. I do think that some level of headwear might still be in order though, just to drain the sweat from my brow.
I’m also aware that light colours, less matte textures, and specific fabrics like cotton are better for handling heat, but those are more surface-level adjustments than what I’m looking for. I’m wearing a white tshirt right now that’s fairly loose fitting and I’m still bloody boiling!!!
I want to go a step further and think about options that are a bit more out-there. Are there specialist fabrics or clothes designed specifically to handle this sort of heat? Are there any cultures that live in perpetually wet and hot climates I can take inspiration from perhaps? I will gladly wear anything less ridiculous than a potato sack if I have to… sooner or later we’ll all need to change our clothing habits so might as well start dressing the way a post-climate-change person would
Please use this thread to discuss whatever preps you worked on this last week. Let us know what big or little projects you have been working on. Please don’t hesitate to comment. Others might get inspired to work on their preps by reading about yours.
If you wanted a custom map for prepping, what would you want on it?
I want to create a map of my area with features highlighted that would be useful. Making the map (with GIS) is the easy part, I'm just trying to think of what to put on it.
Outside of basic things like streets, specific features I want to include are storm shelters, fallout shelters, hospitals, and pharmacies. Maybe flood zones? This would probably have to be multiple maps.