The Northwest is hit by a Bomb Cyclone. Areas all around are out. of power since yesterday.
Yet in the middle of all this I somehow still have power!?
This is why we talk about being prepared for such situations. You never known when it is going to happen.
I am doing well; I just hope others are going to be okay.
Glad to hear that you’re doing well!
Stay safe, my friend.
That is good to see you are doing well! How do you stay prepared and have you helped others in your community become more prepared as well?
Glad you’re doing just fine.
I expect flooding in the Sacramento area (hello, River City!) with rains between now and Friday next week except for Monday. It’s too late to build an ark.
I have been a long time (prepper). I have a variety of things on stand-by such as cooking methods, water storage, a solar generator, house heating methods. I have several ways to charge phones and rechargeable lanterns. I have about three months’ worth of food stored up, if not more. I also have a good skill set as a chef, wood worker, mechanic, and handy man.
I have been trying to see if anyone else needs anything I can help with but they are seemingly getting by.
The word going around right now is the power at places will not be back on till the 23rd but before then another storm is supposed to arrive.
It seems you’ve had some time to think everything through. Where do you believe your preparations can still be improved?
In every way! More food, more and better ways to prepare food and storage of food. Storage of propane, bigger tanks. better water storage and purification. I need better communication to and from others.
I understand that! What different options do you have for food currently? I have been switching over to Peak Refuel meals myself as the wife and kid would actually enjoy eating them should we have to break into the stash.
Being a chef I have the ability to prepare a lot of good food. First food that will go bad first then go from there. I have a good number of dried foods, and I have been dehydrating items and canning items when they come available. I had to learn the hard way that storing food you have to be careful about how you store them. I use a vacuum sealer to store rice, flour and beans. Making fruit leather is a cool way to store fruits for snacking on. I also recommend stocking up on sea salt and peppercorns. It has been the simple things that when you do not have them make you miss them more when you do not have them. I am fully stocked up on tea leaves and coffee beans. Life would really suck without those!
Good to hear from you Brother… We know you will be the first into the breach.
I know… A bit dramatic but appropriate. 
What have you been considering to boost your communication capabilities?
I have been working on it. I have CB radios, ATW radios, and I am slowly working on my HAM license.
Good for you. Those radios seem interesting. Sometimes I see gadgets as toys, that way - nothing is work to me.
I planning on gifting my family a couple of radios this and next year. This year, I got my first GMRS, CB, and HAM radios. Got my GMRS license. I must admit, the FCC website was so tricky to me, I feel I got lucky sorting it out, but I kept on trying day after day for a week and finally figured it out for the GMRS license.
I regret I not want to pay for a PO Box, so I ended up using my real address on the license, which to me is a “bummer”, since I prefer privacy. Only $35 for a 10 year license.
I’ll be studying for my HAM license test. If what I heard is correct:
It’s about $15 to test. Test is multi choice, need score 74% = >. Three test levels:
I’m not yet sure (still researching) what perks one gets achieving the higher level license,
(maybe more frequencies usage?).
I heard if you score really well the first test, they may offer you to also take the General test the same day at no extra charge.
I am going for the General License. I feel like it is learning a new language when you don’t speak good English.
I live in NC in a town with a large water tower. I spoke to the city and they said with no power we have approximately 2 week of gravity water. I figure I can wait till the extended power event to fill stuff up. But what do I use to store water?
Can you lend some advise?
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@steve360 Welcome back.
If you drink soda pop or know someone who does the 2 liter plastic bottles cleaned out with Dawn dish soap and a little bleach stores water very well. Cool, dark and dry is the ticket.
I have 50-gallon water storage barrels that are blue in color. They work great. I also check the quality of the water on a regular basis. No sense in storing bad water. The question of how much water should you store? How much water do you need and for how long? That is a formula you will have to figure out.
A person uses 11.6 gallons of water per day in the shower, 18.5 gallons of water per day in the toilet, and 10.9 gallons of water per day from the tap each day in the bathroom; 1 gallon in the dishwasher, and 15 gallons of water in the washing machine per day in the kitchen.
So a person uses 348 gallons of water per month in the shower, 555 gallons in the toilet, and 327 gallons of water from the tap; in the kitchen, 30 gallons per month in the dishwasher, and 450 gallons of water per month in the washing machine.
All we are talking about is cooking, drinking (the most important) and washing up, a gallon a day minimum, two if it’s hot per person.
I store 300 gallons for the two of us, I can collect rain, melt snow or go down to the river if I have to. 
