Water question

I'm a pretty prepared person in general - grew up in earthquake country :-)

I'm now living out in the woods on a farm, raise chickens (fresh eggs) and fiber sheep (learning to shear, spin, knit). Can heat the house with wood, have a river nearby for fish, garden and put up food, part of a rural community, etc.

If the SHTF, I feel like I'm in a good place. Just going to hunker down and get through it. I hope.

The one thing I keep getting hung up on though is water. We have a well on the property, but it's pumped up with electricity. When the power goes out (big thunderstorms and the like), we have stashes of water to get by (I need extra to keep my animals, too), but....

For all my preparedness, I haven't figured out water!

I could use river water if needed - for now it's not polluted - but I wouldn't know how to start.

Do I have to boil it? For how long? What about in the winter - can I just warm up snow for water? Should I have a filter? I'm guessing its not a "britta"?!

Advice please??

reply to post by ns9504


where my cabin is located there is no power so they have a couple wells dug and put in manual pumps maybe think of installing a manual pump?
www.survivalunlimited.com...
like that

www.berkeyfilters.com...

www.berkeyfilters.com...

Also you can treat river or well water with a few drops of bleach/chlorine per gal.Hydrogen peroxide may also be used to treat water.

do yourself a favor and invest in a lightweight solar system, battery system, powers inverter, then buy a small air conditioner with water collector
dealnay.com...

you can run it when you need pure clean water

You can treat the water by exposing it to the sun for 6-12 hours in direct sunlight. The uv rays will kill most biological material. Boiling is also recommended if a heat source is available. If you place a flat surface like a pan over the boiling pot at an angle the steam condensation will come out relatively clean. Boiling does not pull out all chemicals (the lighter than water salts can transfer with the water vapor). I suggest a sand / activated charcoal filter in addition. The are several websites that explain how to make these filters.

Hope that's some help..

I just purchased a 45 watt solar panel kit specifically to run my water pump. Don't have it hooked up yet, but I'm pretty confident it's going to work fine. I'll post some results after it's up and running.
AliWV

VAWT savonius type wind turbines because of high torque and low speed are excellent for pumping water, you can rig one up out of 2 55 gallon drums. Do a youtube search.

Sri Oracle

reply to post by ns9504



Sound like you are in good shape overall.... Congrats

The video below has some good water purification tips you may be interested in.

Get an old fashioned hand pump.
As long as you have an arm you have water
Small windmill?
River water should be filtered like any other water not contained.
Collect rainwater.
Mulch heavily and keep your animals shaded.
Create solar stills w sheet plastic.

Sounds like you got a pretty good set up there. The first thing I think of is "how did they do it in the old days"?
They had hand pumps on the wells and the old fashioned wind mills (especially for livestock) and a lot of the old houses around here still have the old cement cisterns in the basements. The rain would collect in the eave troughs and go down into the cistern, then the kitchen sink would have a small hand pump. Of course all water would need to be filtered and boiled before consumption.

I once had a place in the country with a well that was 150' deep with a 8" diameter metal casing. The pump was in the bottom of the well, so if it needed servicing or replacing the whole thing had to be hauled up. If the power went out there was no way to get a bucket down there either. So I was seriously thinking of getting solar panels at the time.

As clever and inventive as our pioneering families were, we are a bit more fortunate that we have the option of new alternative technologies if we choose to use them. Not knowing exactly what your well system is, perhaps a mix of the old ways with the new may solve your problems?

Personally I like the idea of the cisterns. In my case I now live in a small community with town water and if the power went off indefinetly I would like to have some water supply. I don't want to pour cement for one so instead I'm going to use plastic barrels in my basement, connected to each other with plumbing pipe so one feeds into the next. The downspouts will feed into them, but I haven't quite figured out the pump situation. I'm still in the planning stage.

Anyway I hope you get things figured out. Sound like you have most of the basics for survival: shelter, heat, food, now you just need the water, or at least a way to get it into your house. Good luck.

This is a great site,j ust search for water treatment on this site and you'll get lots of answers.

modernsurvivalblog.com...

Another thing to consider is building a still. All you need is a heat resistant tank, a length of copper pipe and a second receptacle to catch the re-condensed vapor. .

It doesnt purify the water 100%, but makes it safe to drink, and bathe with.

www.cawst.org...
look up biosand filters charity orginizations have been using them for a while for third world countries very cheap very effective , no power , easy to get materials , and easy to maintain.
check out a demo in kenya
www.metacafe.com...

reply to post by peacefull observer


now as you learn these filters work with a bio film on top of the filter which eats the harmful organisms from the contaminated water.Im starting to see most people using plastic barrels and other things and I feel this might be a bad idea, cuz some plastics out there depending on what you use have they're own antibacterial properties, and if you think about it could possibly kill off that beneficial bio film. the original design is in a mold from concrete, which is easy you can either build your own or use a concrete drain culvert ,and another thought in stead of pvc pipe. ive thought of using copper pipe cuz copper has its own antimicrobial properties like silver it would be well below the bio film and possibly kill off any leftover nasty critters.

reply to post by ns9504


A manual pump would work, but, try to find a low cost solar system with batteries and get a 12v pump. As for filtering, get granular Calcium Hypochlorite...HTH is the common name for it. It will last longer than any liquid chlorine. It is volatile though so BE CAREFUL. Set up a barrel with layers (in order from bottom to top) fine sand, coarse sand, anthrocite coal, and a screen (cloth) to filter out the bigger particles. Boil it for 2-3 mins, although some people say as soon as it hits boiling it is safe. If you are storing it make sure it isn't sitting still, no need for stagnant water. I work in a water treatment plant so if you have any questions let me know. I also owned and operated a battery store. So if you have any questions about that let me know.

Edit: 2-3 min timeline would be for pre-filtered water...not straight out of the lake/river/creek.

You do have to boil water for at least ten mins, even unpolluted river water can get you a whole host of wonderful bugs if you don't. You could always use charcoal to filter or even reeds of grass in a pinch. One important thing people forget in a survival situation is also salt, it is very important for you body and without it you are pretty much bugged. Also Baking soda is perfect for the unfortunate circumstance you get well how to I say it? By a tree without any leaves there you go, to stop that as well as take cares of some acid issues in both joint and stomach. Just another FYI.