Well, I don't normally "ponder" this often, but I've got some important stuff to share...
Getting Ready for Sandy
The predictions are getting worse for Sandy. She'll either head out to sea, or hammer the East Coast, hitting somewhere between Virginia and New England. If you are in that area, here's a couple of reminders for your last minute preps...
- Leaves have started falling - make sure your gutters are clean by the weekend
- Crank up the generator and top off your extra gas cans (gas is down in the $3.30 range here so it won't hurt quite as bad as it would have a few weeks ago)
- If land fall looks to be a day away, secure your lawn furniture and anything else in the yard that could become a missile.
- If land fall is imminent, fill up your tub with water for flushing or running through the Berkey
- If you are on the coast or in the path of high winds, tape and/or board up your windows - I'm assuming you have pre-cut plywood for that
Some New Links I Like
I've added two new links to my blogroll. The Shepherd School is a site I've heard about before, and I recently connected with the operator on LinkedIn - it seems we are both emergency management professionals by day and preparedness bloggers and teachers by night. They have a ton of YouTube videos and some great articles on the site. Reality Survival is a site I've recently become acquainted with. JJ focuses a lot on bushcraft and wilderness survival, from a military background point of view. The recent posting about home video surveillance cameras was of particular interest as I was talking with a co-worker today on that very topic. His car and home have been vandalized several times recently with a bb gun.
Portable Solar
I've been talking to Jay at JasPak about his portable solar generators. This is a really cool idea. The solar panel is on a wheeled and tiltable frame, and the deep cycle battery and inverter is stored in a heavy duty pelican-style case. It puts out 1,100 continuous watts, or 2,200 surge watts. It's portable, so you don't need to permanently install it. I can see a great use for this at my home. In an outage, I run a big generator all day for lights, TV, refrigerator, freezer, well pump, hot water tank, etc... I have to also run a generator at night for my CPAP machine, along with a fan and the shallow well pump for those "late night journeys." If I had a JasPak, I could eliminate the nighttime generator, which would be safer, quieter, and reduce fuel and maintenance expenses. The JasPak is not cheap, but looks like just the ticket for some applications. If you are interested, visit the site and let them know you heard about it here.
I agree with your comments about the Jaspak. I live in a 3rd-floor condo and often wondered what I would do in the event of a power outage! I can't run a generator on the deck because they are too noisy and I can't run it from my garage because it's 3 floors down. This looks like the perfect solution for me because it will fit on my deck and I can move it around to get the sunlight as needed. There may be other models out there, but they don't hold up to what you'd need in "real" living conditions should the SHTF! I am really glad to know this option is available. And yes, it may cost a smidge more, but you can't put a price on having your creature comforts in the event of an emergency, and I for one think it's a great deal.
ReplyDeleteThese are cool too.
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