What I learned On My Summer Vacation

I just got home from my working vacation yesterday afternoon.If you are wondering why I am
posting this in the survival forum,the reasons will be explaned.
I was visiting my son's farm for my vacation this year.I had brought a few things over for them
and learned a lot while visiting.

All the clothes that I have packed in my B.O.B. are wrong for my SHTF destination.I am used
to wearing skirts and dresses down to around my ankles.I need to start wearing jeans and pants
again so I can get used to them.I found out quickly how neccessary it is to wear the proper clothing.

I was at my son's farm when those bad storms hit friday evening.I was in the kitchen,with one of
my grandchildren,when the storm winds started to blow.I looked out the window and saw just how
strong the winds were.I took my grandson into the hallway bathroom and told him to stay there.
I then heard a loud crashing sound and walked back into the kitchen.A large cherry tree had fallen
above the kitchen roof!
Earlier,a bridge and picnic area had been built next to the house.That bridge deflected the force of
that tree falling and the damage to the house was minimal.The tree branches were stopped,just inches
from the window by the kitchen sink.

Then,the power went out and we were in darkness,strong winds howling,chicken coops were tossed
around like building blocks! One of my boys and his wife were out driving in this weather.I prayed for
their safety and they came back home with no injuries.They both spoke of fallen trees,downed power
and phone lines.
We knew which room the candles were in,but, we didn't know where in the room they were at.Everyone
should always know exactly where emergency candles,matches and flashlights are at all times.When
supplies are stored and maintained by one individual and that individual is not around,things can go
downhill quickly.

Being in a rural area, you usually have well water and well pumps.When the power went out,so did the
water pump.One of my boys fired up the generator and got the well pump running.We were finally able
to flush the toilets and fill up all the water jugs, and make koolaid and tang.I washed the dishes and put
all the picnic supplies out for us to use instead of the regular dishes.
The generator wasn't able to supply enough power to run the pump,refridgerator and freezer.Sometime soon,
my son will have a hand pump for the house well like he has for the back pasture.I had a plastic tub filled
with soapy water to clean up myself and my young grandson in.

I am glad that I am used to keeping my air conditioning at 75 to 80 degrees,I wasn't as bothered by the heat
as some were.I do have to wean myself off of sleeping with a fan running.While I still had power to my cellphone,
I called my husband to come over and pick me up,I wanted to go home! I hadn't had a shower in a couple
of days,no power, limited water and Mama wanted out.I still have a lot to learn and I thought I would let
everyone know what I did learn on my summer vacation.

Explanation: S&F!

Awesome realizations! I am glad you and yours were not injured in such rough wild weather!

Personal Disclosure: Bumped for so many reasons!

Well I am glad you and your family are okay.
You went through quite an experience.
(I live where those storms hit directly friday and saturday)

But I think you learned what alot of people need to learn:
People are spoiled and need to learn what it's like without conveniences.

All to often I hear stories of folks losing power and going crazy.
But it's good to see your family has it together, yourself included.

We got hit pretty hard here in central Virginia. Still no electricity at my house except what this little 800 watt generator will do - a couple fans and a computer. I have ice, cold drinks and a basement so I'm in good shape,.
Funny thing is last week I had the strongest urge to stock up on emergency supplies so I picked up more canned food, water and half-dozen flashlights. Good timing on that!
People have been fighting each other just to get ice. I can't imagine what it would be like if they power stayed down for weeks. People aren't capable of dealing with all the problems that come with it.
Also paid to have cash on hand as some stores were open but could only take cash.
Glad you and your family were ok, lessons learned for the next time though!

If tv is out you need to have cards, books to read and a couple board games and oil lamps.

reply to post by mamabeth


Some of the best lessons I learn, other than those from first hand experience. are those from hearing of others' experiences. Good for you in posting yours'. What I learned from you, is, make sure everyone living in the household, knows where emergency supplies are stored!

Glad to hear you, and your family are safe.....

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


Everyone knew which room the supplies were in,they didn't have
the time to look for them.The 'main' individual was in the hospital
having a baby.We were all busy removing the trees and trying to
find out how many animals were dead or alive.We lost 6 chickens
and 2 rabbits in that storm.The cows and goats were in another
pasture and they were okay.

I hear you Mama Surviving a severe hurricane and personal armageddon when I was younger made me weather paranoid and "prep-minded" than I probably would have been without that experience. Sure changes your paradigm and shows you whats more important in a situation that throws you out of your comfort zone

Everything is for a reason and can be a learning experience.

You think your ready when the power goes out. Until it goes out. You then find "holes" in your plans.

Dont know if your son is a "prepper" but finding out that the power is your achilles heel to your water pump is a nice find now so later when it happens again you can be ready. yes gas Genys will work for a little bit but what happens when you run out of gas.

glad everyone is ok. to bad they lost some live stock. thats aways a bummer.

good luck

Originally posted by camaro68ss


Dont know if your son is a "prepper" but finding out that the power is your achilles heel to your water pump is a nice find now so later when it happens again you can be ready. yes gas Genys will work for a little bit but what happens when you run out of gas.


good luck

edit on 2-7-2012 by camaro68ss because: (no reason given)

It'll be back to the ol hand pump They have some really cool updated versions of it that are for emergency now. Im telling you, when TSHTF even on small scale, you realize how sedentary our lives really are! You work for EVERYTHING.. even clean water. Hell.. even dirty water! LOL!

reply to post by camaro68ss


I do believe in taking advantage of any natural disaster into finding
your weak links.I started cutting back on my coffee,taking showers
every other day instead of daily...[Mama is a stay-at-home housewife]
I was very grateful for that,I had to go 3 days without a shower.
I found out that the well pump overheats if you are taking a shower or
washing laundry while they are filling the troughs.

reply to post by Advantage


That is a very important observation...you have to work for everything.
Disasters can alert others,in your group,of who will work and who won't,
Prima donnas will fade out pretty quickly!

reply to post by mamabeth


Good Stuff! Thanks for sharing! First hand experience is a great teacher.

I've got family in WV who got caught with their pants down when this storm swept through their neck of the woods. No cash, No gas and half stocked pantry.

When I read the title of the OP, I immediately thought of Sister Mary Elephant (don’t know why - but I am old)

The first day of my summer vacation – I woke up, then I went downtown to look-for-a-job, then I hung out in front of the drug store.
The second day of my summer vacation – I woke up, then I went down town to look-for-a-job, then I hung out in front of the drug store.
The third day of my summer vacation…. well you get the idea www.madmusic.com...

Back on track OP – Glad you’re ok, and we never stop learning or being prepared…. You guys seem to have it together, good luck.

Mickierocksman

Glad you learned something from your experience and that damages were not severe. An ounce of prevention, or readiness as the case may be...

Often I have commented and had discussions with others that have lived in the US and other parts of the "civilized world" that our methods of daily living leaves us a bit better prepared than our neighbors to the north. After the initial strike of the storm your hardships or shortcomings centered around your water supply. That is an area where we have an advantage, though it seems unlikely many of you would re-adapt with our type of set-up.

Water generally is pumped to us two or three days a week, pumping stations delivering water to different areas at different times. Our water is then stored in our aljibe or underground storage tank with a floast valve that cuts-off delivery when filled. Some folks use an older style system with their water stored in a pila or above-ground pool. Our aljibe is two meters deep by two meters long by one meter wide giving us 8 cubic meters of water, 8,000 liters of water, or over 2,000 gallons. An electric pump is used to send water up to a tinaco (tank) on our roof which holds 1,100 liters or about 280 gallons of water and gravity-feeds our water system. This provides adequate pressure for sinks and showers but is a little slow filling the washing machine, but not by much.

Generally the tinaco needs to be refilled about every ten days or so if we don't experience excessively heavy usage. We have a float system that will keep the tinaco filled automatically but often bypass the auto-fill and run the pump manually when the pressure weakens as the tinaco runs low. Topping the tinaco when it is empty requires about 50 minutes of pump time. Using the auto-fill keeps the tank within a certain range so operating it manually keeps the pump from going off at various intervals and making noise.

Our friends on the ranchos who use pilas generally have part of the pool entering a corner of their baño and use a cubeta (bucket, pail) to splash-on shower and typically do not have a tank on their toilet but use the cubeta for pouring in the bowl to flush. They have a routine where they never reach a bare hand into the pila so as not to contaminate the water supply but periodically they must empty the pila to clean then refill it once again, doing this about every three months or as needed.

Our aljibes have a cover that we can open to dip a pail into if necessary but this has never become a necessity as a typical power outage usually only lasts a few moments and never experienced a power loss over a couple hours or so, but it could happen. From time to time a toilet tank valve may not close properly and could run the tinaco dry if not discovered in a reasonable time. A few moments of running the pump would be sufficient to get the water flowing again but I've never had the misfortune of being caught without water in the tank.

There was a time about five years ago when the pumping station's pump failed and water service was interrupted for almost over two months. Our water company sent tanker trucks around to top-off peoples' aljibes so there was little hardship created during that time. During that time I had been living alone so had little water usage and made not effort to conserve it, unlike some of the larger families in our neighborhood that would use more. As I was leaving the house one day the tanker was filling up the next-door neighbors home and asked if I would like mine topped-off as well. This was about two months into the pumphouse breakdown and as I opened my aljibe could see that the level was not much over a quarter of the way down so I estimate it held over six months of water of used at a normal to conservative rate.

Our extended family unit now occupies three houses on the same block with about the same water set-up for each home, one with four baths, one with three, and the last with two, and now houses a toddler, a teen, two young adults, and three middle-agers - I can still include myself in the latter category for another six months before reaching 60 and have to declare geezerhood, though that comes with discount bonuses and half-fare travel to ease over that hump. I expect we could weather through most moderate to severe interruptions of services with little hardship.

I offer this post as an idea to alternative water systems and for a glimpse behind the scenes at life as usual in Mexico. Fare well everyone and best of luck to us all.