5 ms·

It's very sensible to prep for small or extended periods of supply-chain breakdown. My wife and I have taken the following precautions: - We have a few LifeStr

It's very sensible to prep for small or extended periods of supply-chain breakdown. My wife and I have taken the following precautions: - We have a few LifeStraw personal water filters [1]. These things are awesome -- one of them filters up to 1,000 liters of drinking water. Very reasonable price too ($20, you can get them for cheaper occasionally on sites like woot). I'd argue these are the most important items we own. - We have an abundance of canned goods. This isn't primarily meant for "prepping", but we always buy more canned goods than we need when we find them on sale. - This won't apply to everyone, but we have a large amount of heirloom seeds we've collected over the past few years. We have ~9.5 acres of land, so if things were to ever get rough (and plants still grew) we'd be able to get food that way. [1] - https://www.amazon.com/LifeStraw-LSPHF017-Personal-Water-Filter/dp/B006QF3TW4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=ketohunt-20&linkId=b2157e3851cfccad175aec7a61c608cb https://www.amazon.com/LifeStraw-LSPHF017-Personal-Water-Fil...

mrfusion 10y ago
Iodine tablets are super cheap too.
- sp527 10y ago
  This. A trace amount of bleach is also a highly effective purifying agent, though it's trickier to get that right.
vram22 10y ago
> we have a large amount of heirloom seeds we've collected over the past few years. Don't seeds get unviable (if that is the right word) after a few years? I've done gardening in the past, and seen that seeds a few years old sometimes do not germinate. Might want to test with a few of each kind and date range, periodically.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  Seed viability is indeed the correct term. Commercially bought seeds usually have a "best before" date on the packet. There's some information here, but it's pretty technical: http://data.kew.org/sid/viability/ http://data.kew.org/sid/viability/
  - vram22 10y ago
    Had a quick look. Technical indeed :) But good to know - thank you. Heard of the Kew Botanical gardens in the UK. I guess that site will likely be a good resource for other related info and will explore it some.
    - Symbiote 10y ago
      Kew also runs the Millennium Seed Bank, which is keeping seeds from all over the world in a nuclear-bomb-proof vault in a relatively remote bit of southern England -- tests they run there is where the seed viability data comes from. http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/millennium-seed-bank http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/millenni...
- ccallebs 10y ago
  Correct, and we're not planning on storing them for a decade. We have the year they were acquired on each paper bag of them. Old ones will get removed, new ones will take their place.
  - vram22 10y ago
    Got it.

mrfusion 10y ago

Iodine tablets are super cheap too.

sp527 10y ago
This. A trace amount of bleach is also a highly effective purifying agent, though it's trickier to get that right.

vram22 10y ago

> we have a large amount of heirloom seeds we've collected over the past few years. Don't seeds get unviable (if that is the right word) after a few years? I've done gardening in the past, and seen that seeds a few years old sometimes do not germinate. Might want to test with a few of each kind and date range, periodically.

Symbiote 10y ago
Seed viability is indeed the correct term. Commercially bought seeds usually have a "best before" date on the packet. There's some information here, but it's pretty technical: http://data.kew.org/sid/viability/ http://data.kew.org/sid/viability/
- vram22 10y ago
  Had a quick look. Technical indeed :) But good to know - thank you. Heard of the Kew Botanical gardens in the UK. I guess that site will likely be a good resource for other related info and will explore it some.
  - Symbiote 10y ago
    Kew also runs the Millennium Seed Bank, which is keeping seeds from all over the world in a nuclear-bomb-proof vault in a relatively remote bit of southern England -- tests they run there is where the seed viability data comes from. http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/millennium-seed-bank http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/millenni...
ccallebs 10y ago
Correct, and we're not planning on storing them for a decade. We have the year they were acquired on each paper bag of them. Old ones will get removed, new ones will take their place.
- vram22 10y ago
  Got it.