Is it better to light a candle, or curse the dark?

I think having a generator and a thousand hours of fuel would be excellent if I could afford it. But my prepping budget is extremely limited. And with these liabilities...

-Exhaust that must be vented outside, which means that sound will also occur outside.

-If you do have a generator, its use will need to be minimized; because the more you use it, the more evidence you will generate. If you have lights, you'll need to black out windows. If you run a a/c, it will generate a signature noise, as will a dryer. Anything more than a refrigerator and maybe a microwave will soon become obvious.

-liquid fuel is bulky and heavy, and a fire hazard. LPG tanks are easy to spot, and an advertisement that you have energy.

-The larger the generator, the more frequently it will need to be serviced, and the more fuel it will consume. Eventually, you'll have to discontinue it, and what then? If you are going to prepare for being without electricity in 3 days, or a week, or a month, why not just prepare for it now, and put your effort into something other than preserving an expensive hallmark of civilization?

oops redundant post. That must be what that key labelled "bump stock" does...

apologies, multi-posting

The main cause of smoke is incomplete combustion.

If you have a fireplace burning in a home, and the fire is hot enough, there is virtually no smoke. In fact, if you own a Franklin stove, the owner's manual will tell you that if you see smoke coming from the chimney of an active stove, you need to adjust your set-up.

I still cannot afford a generator and a 250 gallon tank of fuel. So I'm working on old school sources of heat and light in my preparations.

Using boiling water to steep/simmer things like pasta, beans, and MREs this summer has been a success. This is how I will prep going forward.

a reply to: tovenar

You can also save on heat energy by cold soaking pastas and rices first. MREs can be body-heated.

Hot food would likely fall down the priority list and rise up the list of risk factors. A camping gas stove wouldn't necessarily be bright enough to draw attention; the cooking smells on the other hand could attract people as well as hungry animals. In terms of saving energy (butane gas, petrol, diesel, firewood etc), cold food would become more appealing and flavour less important.

Of course, having clean water for soaking food raises the need to save energy again. Once your clean water supplies were used (not many springs in suburbia), it might become necessary to boil what you can get.

ETA - I replied to your PM on the 28th Sept.

a reply to: Kandinsky

all true.

I was posting about my own particular location; but YMMV. I'm thinking of plans for hunkering down to shelter in place.

I live rural, and we have our own well. I've got a narrow pipe on a line I can drop down the well without removing the drive shaft. The pipe is closed on the bottom, had a line attached to the top. The pipe holds less than a quart. But we can pull a gallon for every family member + guests, without being seen--just a question of time. My refill rate is faster than you can haul water up, a pint at a time.

Part of my cooking plans involve boiling water on the backyard gas grill, then carrying the water inside to make rice, pasta, etc. Having the windows closed will dampen the smell, and the widows can be blacked out so we can use lamps at night without the house advertising that it's occupied. Kids' construction paper works a lot better than foil on the windows, because you cannot tell the windows are really covered in the daytime; foil makes it look like someone is hiding out in our house...

I'm not a huge fan of bugging out in case of widespread emergency. Camping is really vulnerable, even if you have enough group members to set a watch. The only reason I'd leave home is if we KNOW things are better elsewhere, and friends and family at the destination are ready to receive us. But frankly, we are already living pretty bugged out--the kinfolk that prep are planning to come to us instead.

One of the reasons I'm anti "camp in the woods as a bug-out", is because the longer you are out there, the more obvious you'll have to be, even on the move. If you're mobile, you really ARE going to have to stop and boil water at some point. You can eat cold food in a pinch. But at some point you're going to be serving whatever you can catch or kill. And those critters can't be eaten raw.

We prep and practice for survival in the woods; but in a real emergency we'll only bug out if our location seems clearly worse than camping in the woods indefinitely.

my fore-thoughts.

a reply to: tovenar

If we look at other parts of the world, where rule of law and infrastructure are weak, gangs and warlords fill the void. I'd expect wide-scale looting of buildings to occur within days of any SHTF scenario. You and the family could be OK if you're in a smaller urban area like a small town far away from gang culture and links to cities and large towns. In contrast, cities and similar would probably look like the LA riots or Islamic State strongholds. Terrifying to consider and something like a suicide kit would be a reasonable back-up plan. Bullets sure, but for loved ones something less visceral and more compassionate.

In my imagination, I wonder if smaller areas would group together for the greater good. I like to think so. In that case, your plans are well considered and practical. Rural areas in particular still retain some of the old social cohesion and values.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Right. I'm off the paved road. But I value my neighbors, and several of them are refugees from urbanity. They have more money than I do, and and full on prepping/farming. We hand out a lot of treats in the neighborhood, to stay on everybody's good side. Free eggs for everybody who lives within earshot of my roos!

Soon we will hear the sound of gunfire in the distance. But here it's jus the noise of freezers being filled. Right now it's all quiet, since the echoes of bowstrings don't travel far.

originally posted by: Spader really don’t want to live in a post-apopalyctic world.

ditto. i struggle to cope with this pre-apocalyptic world.

watermill electricity?

I understand the people who say that don't want to live in a post-apocalyptic world; but wait till you see what it actually is before you turn your back on it. It might be more fun than your own prior experience. The level of community and belonging-ness is something most westerners never experience...

You might discover that you're simply doing without a bunch of stuff you didn't really need in the first place, and stuff that wasn't really serving you anyway.

You can always have a shaving accident later, if I'm wrong.

a reply to: tovenar

Yes , Buy Lots of Silent Glow Sticks , or collect Fireflies in a Big Jar . Candles are Ok to . Can Never have Enough Candles ...)