Rules of 3 - Water

We have been covering the Rules of 3 for survival. So far we have talked about how you can survive up to 3 minutes without air, and you can survive up to 3 hours without shelter. So far we have just been summarizing these rules and briefly talking about things to think about, prepare for, and touched on a few of the things that I have done. Today we are going to talk about water. The 3rd rule of the 4 rules.

Rules of 3 - Water
Once you have your shelter and you are secure your next challenge is to secure water. You can live up to 3 days without water so it is important to address this issue quickly. So we will toss around some ideas of where and how to secure water.

1. Store water
2. Capture water
3. Purchase things with water already in them
4. Economize your water consumption

On average you need about a gallon of water per day per person you will be responsible for. This is a general and basic rule of thumb that will vary greatly based on the activities you do, the time of the year, and the temperatures.

Storing water:
There are a variety of ways you can address water storage. Water containers that you can pickup at your local Walmart or other big box retailer range in size from 5-8 gallons in size. You typically will find these in the sporting goods section of the store. These containers are typically are plastic. Pay particular attention to the type of plastic to ensure that it does not contain BPA. You can check this on the bottom of the container. Look for the number in the triangle of a 7 or higher and avoid these plastics. Now for my family of 4 a 1 gallon a day, for a week we would need 28 gallons minimum to keep everyone on minimum rations. If you want to go longer without water then just multiply it out. So 2 weeks which is 14 days times 4 people is 56 gallons of water. Now a gallon a day is pretty tight rationing so obviously if you want to give yourself some cushion when calculating your water needs. So for my family of 4 we presently have 8 water containers that hold 8 gallons each. I purchased they hydroroller so that these come with handles and wheels so that they can be rolled around. You might find this helpful as water is very heavy and your wife or kids might be the ones doing the filling and moving these around. I have also purchased food grade barrels from a local Coke Bottler that used to hold corn syrup. I will be cleaning and filling these barrels for additional capacity to save water from the utilities.



Another option that I didn't touch on is having your own well. This would be the best of all worlds if you can drill or have your own well. Now some things to think about if going with a system like this. Most wells today use electric pumps to bring water to your home or on your property. If the power is out your water is out. So I would consider one of a couple alternatives. You could retrofit the well with a solar power power backup with batteries so that your well continues to function. Second option which is low tech is to install a hand pump on your well so that if the power is out you can go and pump your water by hand. If your in the process of looking for a home one of the things on my priority list would be the ability to have my own well. This circumvents problems with utilities, rates increases, and water use restrictions that may apply to those in the city.

Capturing water:
You can also setup rain water catchment systems to capture water off of your roof or any other large flat surface that might be exposed to the rain. One way to do this is rain barrels. With proper filtration this water can also be used for internal household use purposes for cooking, and cleaning as well. Again the amount of capacity you need will be determined by your water needs. Also keep in mind as we get to the next rule of 3 for food you might want to calculate the additional watering needs of your garden. So more water capacity may have to be taken into consideration there as well. For my family and due to our location we do not get a lot of rainfall throughout the year. So when you do get rain you need to capture all of it you can so we over sized our rain barrel catchment beyond just a couple of barrels to augment gardening. We have purchased 6 barrels for capture and would probably buy more, but we don't know where we will finally end up. So I have not deployed this rain barrel system at this time due to the modifications that I would be making to the gutter down spouts to redirect the water into the barrels. So our plan is to use all 6 barrels, but the jury is out if I will put those out at my current location this spring or not. So I will keep folks posted on how that story develops. Definately consider rain water catchment. You will have to appropriately size your system based on the number of people using it, the various uses you might have for it, and what kind of rainfall you get in your area. I will try to post some more info on the barrels I purchased and some pics at at later time. A couple other sources of water that you might not have thought about is water in your water heater and water in your toilet. As soon as you water goes out you will want to go and turn off the water heater and shut off the valves so that the water isn't siphoned off by the system. Depending on how well you have maintained your water heater with routine flushing will determine how useful this water is and if you can get to it. Sediment and calcification can build up in the bottom of your take making this water that comes out of the drain in the bottom of your water heater un-usable. So just a heads up that this is a potential source of water in an emergency and something to consider.

Purchasing things with water in them:
This one might seem a little strange but as we get into the next Rule of 3 which is food we will be talking about a food storage plan and why you will want it. One of the side effects of purchasing a short term/mid term food storage supply is that many things that are canned are canned in water. So when your purchasing these foods they typically have already been cooked and they are already in water so you don't need to add water, and in a pinch you can drink this water. So canned foods in your food storage plan may be an potential source of water.

One other method is to buy pre-packaged water. This can get expensive, but is an option. There are emergency packs that have the water in boxes and are sealed and no light gets in them. I understand this is the preferred way to keep this water for longer time frames vs the typical plastic bottles that you see everywhere with water in them.

Water Conservation:
The next thing will be key to stretching your limited water resources as far as possible. This is water conservation. Obviously no water and limited to what you have in storage means no baths, or showers. You will want to minimize washing of dishes and that sort of thing so you will want paper plates, and plastic ware so that your not washing these items. Focus on conserving in any way possible. Look around at the things we do with water today and think about how you can do without it. We honestly waste a lot of water, but it is a completely different matter to go from our daily routine to the type of conservation that allows you to get by with 1 gallon a day per person. So keep your eyes open.

One of the things that I plan to do soon is start some drills in my home practicing with some of these preparations to see just how effective we can be at utilizing our resources and how we would get along, how long things last, and to examine if there is a better way to do this. So I am sure we will be posting more about our experiments and just how well things worked.

In the news....
Rumblings that the government maybe eyeing your retirement accounts.... To protect YOU of course!
Greece's default on it's debts may force the EU to try an bail them out What are they going to do about Ireland, Spain, and the many other EU nations that are about to default????

Roubini lays it on the line: Greece is bankrupt

UK central bank says it will stop monetizing the debt.... Ghee could it have something to do with the fact that their debt to GDP is already beyond the point of no return?

Swiss say that UBS bank may be forced into crisis

Record Spending, Record Deficit, 8.5 trillion dollars in new debt over next 10 years Who in their right mind would be willing to loan us that money when we cannot pay?

Money market funds no longer safe for our money Apparently the idea is that when they don't have the money on hand they will just lock down the accounts and that fixed the liquidity issues... Ghee why didn't we think of that before! We are doing it to protect you really we are...