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So the power grid goes down for a long time

select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,529 ✭✭✭✭
edited March 2015 in General Discussion
How do you get the water if there is no electricity.. Your generator is good till you run out of fuel.. the Amish one looks like dryer vent pop riveted together. Hand pumps are another option. I have a 150' deep well.

https://www.lehmans.com/p-1384-lehmans-own-galvanized-well-bucket.aspx?show=all

http://www.alpharubicon.com/primitive/wellbucketspitfire.htm

Comments

  • yoshmysteryoshmyster Member Posts: 22,065 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I like windmills or solar with battery banks. This also depends on how much water you need. I reckon in a pinch you could jack up a car and put a belt on a rim then put it in drive [:D].
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It is a good question. I have a Lehman's galvanized well bucket, sure would come in handy following an EMP.
  • fordsixfordsix Member Posts: 8,554 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    go to basement and turn on tap natural pressure[;)]
  • joshmb1982joshmb1982 Member Posts: 8,228 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have a small pond I can bucket water out of if needed. I wouldn't drink the pond water without boiling but I have drank from the spring that feeds it without any ill effects. I know how to make a camp fire to boil water and the 500lb propane tank ought to last for a good bit. Watering the garden without electricity would be a chore tho. To bad I couldn't put the garden downhill of the pond.
  • MaxOHMSMaxOHMS Member Posts: 14,715
    edited November -1
    I will just get in my Prius and go to 7-11 and purchase some bottled water.
  • RobOzRobOz Member Posts: 9,523 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I guess I would have to rig some type of hand pump for the well. I don't think it would be to hard being that the house used to have one. I could also go to the Jesus spring and haul water.
  • bpostbpost Member Posts: 32,669 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have a natural gas well on my land, gas is free, as long as the electronics in the genset are OK it will run. If not that is OK too, the well is shallow with a pulley hook already there to get water as needed by bucket.
  • MaxOHMSMaxOHMS Member Posts: 14,715
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by bpost
    I have a natural gas well on my land, gas is free, as long as the electronics in the genset are OK it will run. If not that is OK too, the well is shallow with a pulley hook already there to get water as needed by bucket.


    Wow- all the natural gas you need.......and get it with a bucket!

    [:D]
  • MaxOHMSMaxOHMS Member Posts: 14,715
    edited November -1
    rainwater collection w/ upper tank for gravity flow, 12v pump to transfer to upper tank

    headwaters of small river close enough to carry/fill buckets
  • LesWVaLesWVa Member Posts: 10,490 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Those well buckets have been around for as long as I remember and you can still find people using them around here. My Grandfather used one until about 1995 when he moved into a house with electric and running water. He also ad a larger water wheel that turned a generator to charge a battery bank for his power needs.

    My generator runs on Natural Gas which is free. I own the mineral rights on the land and obtained free gas for as long as I or a family member owns the rights instead of royalties. The Royalties off of the gas would have been about the same + or - a little as what the gas bill would be.
  • joshmb1982joshmb1982 Member Posts: 8,228 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by bpost
    I have a natural gas well on my land, gas is free, as long as the electronics in the genset are OK it will run. If not that is OK too, the well is shallow with a pulley hook already there to get water as needed by bucket.


    Why not get a generator that runs on natural gas? Small enough for just the pumps needs or big enough for the whole operation.
  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,584 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have a well. Water at 20 ft. Have bucket, chain, pulley as backup. Also have wood stove and hot air woodburning furnace. We have been off the grid for 12 days and did fine. Grew up around a lot of folks that never WERE on the grid.

    lehmans.com covers about any non-electric thing you want, but they are pricy. Unless your well is about 30 ft or less you would need a deep well pump, or a well bucket.
  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 14,163 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm not worried. Maybe the city folks can dip water out of the sewer/storm drains. I operate under the NMP(not my problem) policy and take care of my own w/o worry or sympathy for those less prepared.
    Life is tough and even tougher when you're unprepared (or just pain stupid).
  • MBKMBK Member Posts: 2,918 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My daughter lived in Wooster, Ohio in the early 90's. On each visit we had an opportunity to go SE to Amish country and see the Lehman's store. It was quite an experience.
  • claysclays Member Posts: 1,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by joshmb1982
    quote:Originally posted by bpost
    I have a natural gas well on my land, gas is free, as long as the electronics in the genset are OK it will run. If not that is OK too, the well is shallow with a pulley hook already there to get water as needed by bucket.


    Why not get a generator that runs on natural gas? Small enough for just the pumps needs or big enough for the whole operation.


    In the event of an EMP generators produced in the last 30 years would be useless. I am currently reading a book by William Forstchen, titled "One Second After", it is about the events that take place after an EMP event, based in the area of Black Mountain, close to Ashville, NC. Very interesting read about how it can effect all of us.
  • shilowarshilowar Member Posts: 38,811 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have a river close by and will use my gravity filters. That PVC looks like a good idea, though my well is 400'+ down.
  • mogley98mogley98 Member Posts: 18,291 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    IF the grid were down for a long time, (first what is a long time? a week? a month? a year? )

    Nationally and not regionally? I would think chaos would set in pretty fast.

    When this area had Hugo hit, a lot of people had cook outs so they could use up the freezer food. Kinda nice got to meet a few neighbors.
    There was no cash available from tellers, no generators to pump fuel from the tanks of most service stations, Hell ICE was selling for a premium and Mayor Joe Riley threatened to arrest anyone caught gouging. Damn few are anymore prepared.
    FEMA couldn't rescue the entire country and things would get really ugly.


    A week most people will handle OK and talk about for years to come. The city dwellers may loot.
    A month and most people are in dire straights or very close to it.
    Any more than a month and we have a whole new America.

    The best move would be to get as far into the wilderness as one can with as much as one can haul in before martial law and roI want fees to go ups are set up. Anywhere else you are a sitting duck.
    Why don't we go to school and work on the weekends and take the week off!
  • Sam06Sam06 Member Posts: 21,244 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I can drink my whiskey straight up if need be.
    RLTW

  • jonkjonk Member Posts: 10,121
    edited November -1
    We have a cottage on lake erie. East Harbor to be exact.

    Though city water went through years ago, we still have the well. Stinky sulphur water but safe to drink. We also still have the antique hand pump from when the place was being built.

    Place has an oil furnace. While useless if there's no power, the diesel oil in it will burn just fine in Kerosene lamps.

    Wood burning fireplace might mean that we have to put the beds in the living room around it for the winter, but we could manage.

    If you aren't picky, there's enough fish in the harbor to live off of... though sheephead and carp aren't good eating, we won't starve.

    We'd make it but it wouldn't be fun.
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    clays I have that book by William Forstchen about life after an EMP. As you say it is set in Black Mountain NC. I live 40 minutes from there and have been to Black Mountain many times.

    This is a realistic look at what life would be like, and it would be grim. To boil it down, after a day or two nobody has any more water, and after 3 or 4 days nobody has any food. That is when the shooting starts.
    It is grim.

    ps You really don't want to be in, or near, a city. Your only hope for survival is to be out in the country.

    Which is where I am! Got a propane tank, and a wood stove, big wood pile. Got 5 gallon buckets of hard red winter wheat, packed in nitrogen, stuff is good for 30 years.
    Plus I have lots of other stuff that would come in handy.
  • shilowarshilowar Member Posts: 38,811 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    clays I have that book by William Forstchen about life after an EMP. As you say it is set in Black Mountain NC. I live 40 minutes from there and have been to Black Mountain many times.

    This is a realistic look at what life would be like, and it would be grim. To boil it down, after a day or two nobody has any more water, and after 3 or 4 days nobody has any food. That is when the shooting starts.
    It is grim.

    ps You really don't want to be in, or near, a city. Your only hope for survival is to be out in the country.

    Which is where I am! Got a propane tank, and a wood stove, big wood pile. Got 5 gallon buckets of hard red winter wheat, packed in nitrogen, stuff is good for 30 years.
    Plus I have lots of other stuff that would come in handy.


    You just better hope you are near home when it happens!
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    That's the catch. If the EMP strikes today, as I am about 3 miles from the Rio Grande, it is all over. Got arthritis in the hip, without the big rig no way I could get back to North Carolina. Time to die in Laredo.
  • shilowarshilowar Member Posts: 38,811 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yeah, I work 30 miles from home and that would be very difficult to navigate in crisis. It took me 1.5 hours the two weeks ago in a 3 in snow storm to get home sneaking through back roads and such because I knew the interstate would be a nightmare. It would be a very dangerous walk in crisis times to make it home.
  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 25,375 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    1st I would go to all the anti-gun ( sad none around me so we would have to make a road trip ) and take all there goods [:D]
  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,529 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The EMP would not affect any pre computer cars. It would be havoc. Hate to say what percent of folks in the big cities would die within a few days. Then the sanitary conditions would set in.
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yes, the pre computer cars would run. And here is one of them. My girlfriend "happens" to own a 1982 Mercedes 280 Diesel with stick shift.


    carport035.jpg


    This car would still run after an EMP, even if the battery was fried, you roll start it, and off you go.
    However, as Forstchen points out in his book, the question is, "Where do you go?"

    Following an EMP there would be about 6 cars that would run in Madison County. No police cars or ambulances would run. Martial law would be declared, so, if you drove into town, your car would be confiscated by the cops.
    Or, Billy the Hillbilly would drop a pine tree across the road, and when you stop to chop it out of the way, he shoots you. Then, he gets the Mercedes and your gun.

    In the post-EMP world, best to keep a low profile. You want to get cute and run your generator 6 hours a day, to keep your freezer cold?
    Somebody is going to hear that generator, and they will pay you a visit. And they will have guns.
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    And EMP would spell out a real Zombie Aplocolyps only with live people. Sorry to say, I'm not running and anyone wanting my food is going to either die trying or kill me. One of the advantages to my place is I can see for miles from the bar and even at night as lon as it's clear I can see a long ways. Good luck sneaking up on me because I'm sniping any and all movement near my place [8D]
  • bigcitybillbigcitybill Member Posts: 4,913 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It would be very difficult, if not impossible to take down the entire North American Power Grid,
    and if an EMP could do it, lightning would have done it to us long ago. As far as damage to electronics,
    that's a different story, but I don't believe life would come to a standstill.

    Maybe serf will come along and tell us how very dire this situation is.
  • wiz1997wiz1997 Member Posts: 1,051 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    "Cement" pond in backyard.

    10000 gallons of water.

    Here in South Texas every third house has a pool.
  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 25,375 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think the rural areas would do Ok short term any way the big cities and anything in looting distance of them would be bad news for countless people ,
    If the whole country went down with in a month our population would be dropping fast . it would come down to making friends fast and having a large enough group to defend what you have . unless you living in a underground bunker with a years worth of supply's but at some point you still need to come out , like waiting out a submerged sub or the old surround the castle and wait for the food to run out story. so will the remaining population greet you with open arms [B)]or just take you out because thy can [xx(]and now they have a bunker [:D]
    I do hope I do see such a time
    how ever if it does I plan on taking as many of the SOB's as I can with me
  • spasmcreekspasmcreek Member Posts: 37,717 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    95-98% of the people would PANIC....almost no one now is prepared in any way...and no one has a defensible location or food supply....and the govt only duty is to protect and care for the elite that run it...the rest are on their own....
  • mogley98mogley98 Member Posts: 18,291 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Perhaps depending on the damage. A simple ice storm left us without power for almost two weeks in the rural areas.

    quote:Originally posted by forgemonkey
    ,,,,,,,the electricity would be back on before 90% of ya run out of beer [:D][}:)][;)]
    Why don't we go to school and work on the weekends and take the week off!
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