Emergency Water Sense

By Kellene Bishop

Get the most from your water in an emergency by observing the following tips:

1. A Vegetable Water Bin: When you open a can of vegetables, (peas, corn, etc), instead of draining the liquid and throwing it out, drain it into a large bin, covered with a lid. Drain all of your vegetables in the same bin. Then when you make a soup, rice, or pasta, you can use this water to cook with instead of having to use fresh water. The same holds true for any water that you use to cook vegetables in on the stove. Suppose you use just a tad bit of water to steam your cabbage in, for example. Rather than discarding the water, put it in your vegetable water bin instead.
   
2. Save Your Canned Syrups: The same goes for canned fruits, however, the water in these cans tends to be thicker, and certainly sweeter. You can use this “syrup water” to sweeten grain dishes for breakfast such as oatmeal, cracked wheat, etc. It’s also a great substitute for water in many baked good recipes. You can also use this liquid to make a “sweet milk” with your powdered milk and have a very pleasant taste. It’s yet one more way to ensure your children get their nutrients from powdered milk.
   
3. Re-Use Your Bath Water: In the “olden days” it was not uncommon for multiple family members to reuse bath water. While a bit of hot water may need to be added, a couple of baths does not constitute needing to throw it out. You can reuse your bath water to wash laundry in. If you use biodegradable bath soap, then you can also use your bath water to water your garden with as well.
   
4. Washing Dishes to the Two-Step: When you wash your dishes, have two bins of water, one for washing, and one for rinsing. When you need to dispose of your wash water, then use your previous rinse water to wash in. Yes, you will need to add some more hot water, but it’s obviously a lot less than starting with a new bin of water. Also, the biodegradable soap is a good idea in this case as well. (As stated previously, I highly recommend using the Shaklee products in this case as they take up much less of your storage space, have multiple uses, and are complete environmentally friendly. For more info go to www.shaklee.net/earlene)
   
5. Use Paper Goods When Possible: Instead of using dishes for everything, be sure you have paper goods on hand so that you can conserve the amount of water needed for cleaning. The paper goods also serve as good kindling when you’re making a fire to cook with.
   
6. Catch Rain Water: Unless you live in Colorado which forbids its citizens from catching rain water, you should indeed set yourself up to do so. Simply place an open bucket (I recommend a 55 gallon one) at the base of your roof’s run off. You will be shocked at just how fast you can fill up a 55 gallon container with just a couple of mild rain storms. This water can be used for drinking once it’s pasteurized, and it certainly can be used for watering your garden, cleaning, bathing, etc. Don’t overlook what the good Lord can provide you. Capture it.
   
7. Catch Bath Water: My husband and I have procured a “solar shower” so that we can enjoy a shower in times of “roughing it” rather than using a tub. However, we’ve also purchased a large, shallow, plastic bin about the size of a mini-shower floor. We’ve done so in an effort to capture even the shower water in order to be able to reuse it.
   
8. Alternative Bathing Method: I lived on a very rustic farm periodically as a kid. We didn’t have the luxury of a bath tub or a shower. Instead, when we needed to bath, we simply filled up a plastic bin with hot water. We then used a washcloth and soap to clean ourselves up. Nothing fancy. But it works just fine, and is a valuable approach to bathing when water is a scarce commodity. We grew up calling this a “spit bath.”
   
9. Save Your Pasta Water: In addition to having a veggie water bin, and a fruit water bin, I would indeed recommend having a pasta water bin to store the water in which you cook your pasta, rice, and other starches in. This water is ideal for thickening sauces, soups, and casseroles.
   
10. Avoid Running Water Actions: Most brush their teeth with running water. You’ll have to get over that habit real quick in a time of emergency. Out of necessity while living in the Philippines, I discovered, lo and behold, that I didn’t need to wet my toothbrush prior to brushing my teeth. And I can simply use a cup of water to rinse my mouth and my toothbrush with. The same holds true for hand washing. If you wash your hands first in a more communal bin for the tough stuff and then just rinse them off with fresh water, you’ll conserve a lot of water.

Overall, before discarding a liquid, ask yourself what else you can possible use the water for? As you may recall, it is recommended that you store 1 gallon, per person, per day for whatever time period you’re preparing for. (I plan on a year.) This gallon of water is intended for drinking, cooking, bathing, and cleaning. However, is it a MINIMUM recommended amount. Putting these conservations tips into practice will help you stretch that gallon to its maximum capacity.

Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved.
You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.

Water Blogged

Recently I’ve been inundated with requests from readers to know how I’ve personally prepared for the future. These requests have come about as a result of my blog post of Gerald Celente’s economic forecasts (see link here). In fact, I’ve even create an entirely new blog called Preparedness Pro, devoted exclusively to emergency preparedness in the categories of food (including cooking), water, first aid, self-defense, finances, and emotional preparedness. Be sure to add this one to your blogroll and check back often!

What makes me a pro? I’ve been practicing personal preparedness doggedly for over 9 years. Our house has 3 full rooms of necessary emergency supplies. Usually, instead of going to the store, I just go downstairs to our food storage room, grab what I need, and replenish about every 6 months or so. It will be up to you to decide whether or not what I share with you has merit.

First Things First—WATER!

If you have not started preparing for an emergency, do not start with food. Start with WATER! If you’ve already started a sufficient emergency supply food storage, you are probably like the majority of individuals and have put off storing water. “Where am I going to store those ugly barrels?” you ask? Believe me, that’s the last thing you’re going to care about when you need water.

How much water should I store?
You can go without food a heck of a lot longer than you can water. I know this may sound a bit overwhelming, but you really need to store enough water to provide you and your family with 1 gallon per day—minimum—for at least 3 months. Allow me to restate this. 1 gallon per person is MINIMUM. That’s a lot. But you don’t need to go back too far in history to realize that such a need could exist. Think of the hurricanes our nation has had in recent history. Is your area ripe for an earthquake? What if some moron crashes their chemical truck into your water supply?

eep in mind that that one gallon of water is not just for drinking. It’s for hygiene, (and don’t even think that you’ll avoid bathing all together…this will foster serious illnesses, among other things) cooking, toilet use, laundry, and cleaning.

How do I store my water?
Store your water in NEW barrels. Please don’t store water you intend to use for drinking and cooking in barrels that have been used for something else. You will suffer, indeed. (It’s fine to use those kinds of barrels for water you will use exclusively for cleaning, etc.)

Please, please, please do not store your water in empty milk or soda pop bottles. They deteriorate. (Although is you have to choose one of them, pick the soda pop bottles instead. They last a bit longer)

Should I store purified water?
Don’t treat your water before storing it. Chance are very good that it’s already been sufficiently treated by your municipality. Besides, I would recommend treating your water prior to using it for drinking or cooking anyway. To do this you want to use 8 drops of pure Chlorox per gallon of water.

You can fill your water barrels through the garden hose. As long as you let the water run through the hose a bit and there aren’t any bugs sitting in it, you’re fine. Surely you drank out of a hose when you were little and you’re no worse for wear, right?

If you’re a purist, you can purchase a marine hose that is lined with an anti-bacterial coating. Those are readily available at your local hardware store. Keep in mind that the water in your water heater, water bed, and toilet tanks is usable as well.

Iodine tablets, colloidal silver, and quality camping water filters are also a good preparedness step in the event you’re required to use water from sources you’re not familiar with. One of the things that I stock up on as well are the little Xooma water sachets. These small, tea bag like sachets contain minerals and such that can bring your water to a good non-alkaline levels and infuse minerals in them. I personally believe that doing so helps for better hydration to the body. So I keep stocked up on these for an emergency as well. You can check them out at http://www.xoomaworldwide.com/WaterDiva/

How often do I replace the water?
We empty and refill our water barrels every two years. You don’t need to do it that often, but we’re a bit fanatical about things. You’re fine to go out 5 years prior to refilling them as long as it’s good water to begin with. You will want to aerate your water though prior to drinking it. Doing this is as simple as pouring it a few times from one container to another, such as a couple of pitchers.

Where am I supposed to store all this water?
If you’re in a small apartment, you will be pleasantly surprised how easily you can disguise a water barrel as an end table with a small round piece of plywood and a classy decorative tablecloth. We are fortunate enough to have enough space in our basement and have several of them lined up and then have plywood stacked on top of them to begin shelving for our food storage.

Note to wives: If your overzealous husband convinces you to store “an extra” eight 50-gallon barrels under one of the guest beds, you may want to think twice. It’s a family joke now when folks come to stay with us and sleep in the “water bed.”

Don’t buy into the myth that you can’t store your water barrels on cement. Clarification is that you should not store your water on cement that gets heated by the sun. So if you’re storing it outside, the sun will heat the cement, which will then heat your water. This makes water taste nasty. If you’re storing them outside, place the barrels on top of 2 x 4s.

You can store your water barrels outside in freezing weather, but you run the risk of them freezing and cracking. At the very least, you should not fill them up to maximum capacity to allow for the freezing expansion.

Conserving Water
Consider ways to conserve water in an emergency as well. Storing paper goods such as paper plates and cups will eliminate cleaning, and learning to cook with a pressure cooker which uses a minimum amount of water for cooking is also a good idea. (more on pressure cooking in a future blog.)

Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved. You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.

Preparedness Pro Note: If you would like Kellene Bishop to present an Emergency Preparedness message for your community or church group, please contact us at 801-788-4133. Ms. Bishop is an experienced speaker on Emergency Preparedness topics and also has created a great “Preparedness Party” platform which makes the learning of such a topic more enjoyable for all.