How long would you survive an utility outage?

So we’re foraging for food and water? Just for me, on my own, quite some time I believe. Always streams and bugs or worms.

Water? Water is a real problem.

I’ve gone 8 days after a hurricane with no electricity, and probably could go much longer. It would get tiresome, but I could go months if I had to until the cold weather hit, and then I’d feel really desperate.

Can I buy water? Right now I have 3 days of bottled water in my house. I guess I could catch some rain as long as we don’t get a weird drought. I have some bleach so I could try to ensure it’s safe to drink, or maybe boil it. I’d have to build a fire to boil the water.

Another argument for solar. The solar community a few miles from me would sitting pretty.

A long time. But… we’d have to learn to hunt. Well, Rick knows how to hunt. He just hates it. He’d rather “pet them and hug them.” But he’d hunt and I’d have to learn how to process wild food. He could probably help me with that too.

As long as I can fuel for the generator; internet and water are on a separate feed. For a long time.

Good, so the gas is still on.

Reminds me of the time sigother called to say that there was a blackout at home, the meat was defrosted for dinner but the gas cook top wouldn’t light.

But back to the topic, I reckon I’d last a light year.

Not very long at all. I am sure the stores would be ravaged of water.

I guess I’d be pulling water out of the lake and boiling it for consumption. I’d be living at the lake.

As long as it’s possible to get water from somewhere else, it’s not a big problem. The longest I’ve been without power was for 4 days I think, in the winter when I was 16. My parents had to go into town to get water, but other than that it was kind of cozy, playing games and stuff in the candlelight.

In the past I would lose it if my smart phone was lost. Or my glasses were misplaced.
I actually loved power outages. It was like a vacation.
My guess is that I would be fine for as long as my 3 gallons of water lasted. Maybe about 72 hours of water and eating through my food that needs water and would have mountain house meals. I would need to dispose of my waste some how.

Quite a while. I have a lot of dried and canned food in the house, I have the ability to create fire to cook food, I have water stored and I have the ability to filter/purify more water. I have the tools and ability to hunt and forage for food. I have crapped in the woods before or I could dig a trench to get rid of waste. I have board games, cards, dice, books (real books, not e-books) and other things for entertainment. I have oil and lamps for light as well as candles, flashlights, and electric lanterns. I could go for a good amount of time.

A long time. I have my camp stove, extra water, a pellet rifle and .22 rifle for shooting squirrels, and lots of fishing gear with a well stocked river just down the road.

As long as needed. I keep roughly a month of food on hand and could live off the squirrels in my yard for quite a while (kidding but not really). Plenty to forage in the woods nearby. I can filter water half a dozen ways and there is a stream close. I can cook food easily about ten different ways. I have a couple solar setups that I can use to charge phones, radios watch TV etc..

A few hours at most.

I ordered this Emergency Survival kit ( backpack) a couple of years ago. It has enough to keep a person alive and fed and warm for 3 days.

Since wildfires were happening around our Province it was advised.

I wondered about drinking water and realized that the lakes,Rivers would not be safe to drink in that case so I was happy to see that this safety kit included emergency purified drinking water ( 125 ml each packet) that also has a 5 year shelf life.
This is enough for people in our town to live of until we reach the next Town etc

Today I looked up that website and discovered that they sell a lot more items of use in case of emergencies suitable for family’s too. Example: 96 Box of 125 ml water packs equals 12 liters of water that has a shelf life of 5 years as well.

https://www.canadiansafetysupplies.com/emergency-preparedness-72-hour-kits-s/46.htm

A couple different water filters are a must. You will never be able to store up enough water.

@ARE_you_kidding_me
But what if the water was contaminated? Wildfires,leakage from oil etc

@Inspired_2write A good filter will take that right out. This is not your average britta filter I’m talking about. You can also distill the water if you know how.

@ARE_you_kidding_me

Yes, I suppose that if that was the only water available it would make sense to have a good filter system.

@Inspired_2write I have a filter from the folks that make the LifeStraw. This has a funnel that you pour the raw water in and it filters through, blocking out everything above a 0.1u size. That gets the biologics as well as any solid contaminants. For any potential chemical pollutants, I also have a large supply of activated charcoal. That will remove all organics (chemicals). That should make it safe to drink with no further treatment. It can do about a liter at a time and is good for thousands of uses. After each use, it has the ability to backwash the filter to help keep it clean. Here is a link to the product:

https://www.lifestraw.com/collections/featured/products/emergency-preparedness-bundle-disaster-master

I bought mine by itself and did not get the two smaller straw filters with it.

In a pinch, take a two liter soda bottle. cut the bottom off Flip the bottle upside down with the normal mouth on the bottom. Use a rubber band to attach a coffee filter over the mouth of the bottle (small opening…not the big opening you just made). Put some activated charcoal (you can order some if you don’t have it) in the bottom to a level about ¼ of the way up. Put some pine needles on top of this, some sand on top of this, and some small gravel on top of that. Pour your raw water over the top of the gravel and collect the filtrate that comes out the bottom. This will get most of the contaminants out of most water, but I would suggest using some bleach or boiling the water before drinking it as the filter will not remove all bacteria, viruses, or parasites. They do sell purification tablets that you can get, but honestly, it is cheaper and just as effective to use a little liquid bleach.

Indefinitely

By the way, Pine Needle tea is pretty interesting. It contains a lot of vitamin C and tastes pretty good. Boil water, put the pot off the heat, toss in some pine needles and let it steep. Yum!

Twelve days after Sandy but there was water and I wasn’t in my house the whole time.

@seawulf575
All the pine needles have been sprayed with pine beetle insecticides in the last few years, kind of scary to try it now?( last three years )
Thanks for all your information, in case I need it in the future, good to know.

@ARE_you_kidding_me when Rick and his bro were little, his folks had a cabin on a river. Rick and his bro would go out every morning and shoot a mess of squirrels and present them to their mom. She’d fry em up for breakfast.
They eat nuts so I bet they wouldn’t taste too bad.

Well, I have enough in my yard to feed a small army right now.

You murder them I’ll cook em @ARE_you_kidding_me.
Actually, Rick will cook them (he’s a good cook) and I’ll watch Judge Judy.

Squirrels can taste pretty good. A little tough, maybe, and the older ones are a bit gamey, but not bad.

These squirrels are obese from a buffet of acorns right now. Probably quite tasty.

@Dutchess Dont forget the white gravy after frying them.
I’ll help Rick if its at the Mansion..lol

Young is definately tastier, I cant bear the gamey taste of old ones.
Maybe soak in milk-vinegar overnight.

Actually now is a good time, acorns are dropping heavy here now.

@Inspired2 write May sound cheesy but Bear Grylls show is pretty helpful on survival, esp for we women.
From starting with nothing to thriving. I love it.

My favorite and the grossest, was in bear country. If starving, find bear scat, whole nuts and berries, undigested, can be eaten after rinsing. Pretty awesome. Very helpful in my area though.

@KNOWITALL ugh,hope that I never have to consider that?

I guess if you are hungry enough, you will eat things you probably wouldn’t consider otherwise.

@Inspired @wulfie From watercress in fresh streams, getting water out of squeezing moss, Mother Earth gives us what we need. We just forget.

@KNOWITALL I agree. Learning how to forage is a fascinating education. You find all sorts of things you can use and eat that you never thought about before.

@seawulf If I go native in a few months I’ll send you some fresh pemmican. :D

Really it is fascinating. I have a terrific book about making brooms, wheels, literally everything, by hand. The Forgotten Arts and Crafts. Check it out.

@KNOWITALL I started getting interested in this sort of thing when I was about 10. We had a copy of the first Foxfire book. There were 14 books put out, but we had only the first one. It was all about things people did when they lived close to the land. How to make a log cabin, home remedies, treating skins, etc, etc, etc. Lot of really amusing things here. Some of the home remedies I just marveled at, that someone would actually come up with something like that. The one that really stuck with me was one of the treatments for a sore throat. You take a sock that you have worn for 7 consecutive days and tie it around your throat. I still cannot fathom why someone would think that was a cure.

@seawulf Sounds like mine then.

Growing up on a farm was invaluable. From fishing to harvest (now), theres plenty avaiable. Morels are my favorite, yum.

Morels are delicious. Breaded with corn meal and fried! But you have to be careful when picking them. There is another ‘shroom that looks very similar that usually grows near them. I understand they are edible, but if you drink alcohol with them they can make you sick.

@seawulf Havent died yet, buddy.

Almost time for deer loin, yum. I’m going to make that part of the divorce, still get deer and turkey the first season lol. Almost shine season, too.

Save the backstraps for me please…

You can actually propagate morels. Just find a shady area and mulch some ash wood. Spread it out over the area you have. “Sacrifice” a couple morels in a food processor and dilute the slurry down with a couple gallons of water. Spread the mixture over your mulch pile. Best done in early spring.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I’ll have to try that, if I can find some Ash or Elm around here.

I think oak may work too.

I’ve been without electricity for 24 days with no real problem. It was winter so not having the AC was not important. I have never lost phone service. I have never been without water either.

Did you have a problem with pipes freezing and house plants dying @Sagacious?

@Dutchess_lll No, we never had pipes to freeze. I did put one of those styrofoam covers over my outside faucets. Now I live in the tropics and my power never goes out. Never. But we haven’t had a direct hurricane hit since I’ve lived here either. Karen seems to be a possibility though. Maybe she will turn around and go back out into the Atlantic like that other one did.

When your power went out for 24 days where did you live @Sagacious?