The number one item on my ideal Bug out list; Survival Lilly, shows a home survival kit. Including the 'flowering pot' heater. It's the only list I've seen with a geiger counter. For some reason people believe in stocking up on guns for the end of the world; but don't prepare for the only thing that could wreck western society; a nuclear war (spoiler alert there is no such thing as zombies).

https://youtu.be/ARZ0EGlIBkY

qjs

She features one of my favorites - the Trangia stove, simple to operate and runs on a variety of fuels. I would be tempted to augment it with a small canister stove, if space permitted.

I heard that the flowerpot heater can be dangerous due to CO. The pot prevents proper burning.

Also not sure how usefull a geigercounter is. It's just a tiny part of equipment and skill level of any radiation incident...

Someone somewhere should make it clear that the flower pot used needs to be terracotta, not the usual plastic ones you find today. So, here I am stating the obvious.

I first heard of doing this many years ago, but putting the pot on top of a natural gas fired stove's hob---supposedly a big increase in radiated heat. The stove, I think, would not produce any more CO than normal as the gas and O2 are mixed in the stove prior to burning, thus the blue flame.

I'm very skeptical of the tea candle producing any useful heat.

Presumably the tea candle will produce enough heat to equal that radiated by the typical human bod. That might help in a small, enclosed space.

Fortunately,my living room sports a fireplace and I have a stack of firewood. That will produce a lot more heat.

I love Survival Lilly, and her friend Bushcraft Steph. Great channels!

My only comment is why all the small gear such as you'd have in a BOB or GHB?

Lighting: Why a headlamp when an LED lamp can light the room, not just where your head is pointing? A headlamp has its place, but there are better options for a home kit.

Cooking: Why a Trangia alcohol stove when a cheap butane stove can heat a lot more food and water faster? I expect to see a Trangia in a small hiking kit,not a home kit. We've had a few power outages and cooking on butane is not a problem.

Food: I mostly agree. Most people do not stockpile food at home these days.

+1

At home, even in a small apartment, there are more effective choices. As suggested, a LED lantern, or, really old school, kerosene lamps: many choices. Same with cooking: a two burner propane Coleman stove will work fine at home.

Yeah, there are both kerosene and LED lanterns here. If it's just a short power outage, there's no reason to break out the kerosene. An LED lantern is fine until the sun comes up and they don't smell. My other half liked my County Comm Lumora LED lantern so much I bought one just for her.

OTOH, I need my coffee et al and if the power is out when it's time to heat something, my GasOne butane stove comes out without a second thought. It heats water as fast if not faster than the electric stovetop.

OT: GasOne now has a dual fuel version. GAS ONE NEW GS-3400P Dual Fuel Portable Propane & Butane...

Quote:

...Compatible with both butane (Fuel not included) and propane fuel (Fuel not included) / Operates on a single butane cartridge 8 oz or a propane cylinder 16.4 oz (Propane converter Regulator Included) **With Propane connect the adapter hose to the stove first before connecting to the 16 oz Propane tank***...

I may do this. I already have a conversion line to use a 20# propane bottle on my Coleman stove, so maybe ...

The correct answer, for me, at least, is "all of the above." I have accumulated gear suitable for car camping, back packing,minimalist hiking (SAR), caving, and just about everything in between. I have two double burner propane stoves and three Trangias, for example. They can all come in handy whe the utilities are interrupted

I imagine there are a number of gear junkies here. I made my first alcohol stove from a soda/pop can (7-Up as I recall) and it worked fine considering the price. There are lots of options. One stove that I bought on a whim and haven't yet used is a Vargo Hexagon Wood Stove. There are places I have hiked (but not in a while) where the small branches from trees are readily available on the ground and will provide a near endless supply of fuel. Otherwise, for SOCAL, there are a number of backpacking stoves which use white gas, kerosene or iso-butane fuel, but for my counter-top the Gas One stove seems an ideal back-up.

Haven't watched the video yet, but Lily seems to be targeting a wider viewership, those that perhaps aren't as familiar as we are with gear and it's use as we are. Many of them aren't outdoors people and would not be inclined to buy higher priced items for "What if?" use. An alcohol stove fits this niche nicely. They're cheap and easy to DIY with common household items. They're simple to use and don't rely on unfamiliar fuel sources.

I totally agree about home lighting. Get something bigger and brighter, why not, as long as you have the space?

I am inclined to alcohol or gas stoves because of the weather we are experiencing right now in SoCal - wet and windy. I hiked for years, building campfires only, but the occasional brushes with sloppy conditions inclined me more and more towards some kind of stove which did not depend on dry wood

Gear Freaks?? Here? No Way!!!

That may be the answer -- a kit for non-outdoor types that does not take a large investment and is easy to use. For a home use alcohol stove though I really like the Vargo Decagon alcohol stove . The wide base gives it good stability so you don't end up with alcohol spillage.

OT: from the weather map it looks like there's HEAVY rain over LA right now. Time for Hikermor to break out the gear.

It is raining like the cows are doing their traditional thing on a flat rock, as the saying goes. The lights are still on, however, and my gear is poised and ready to go.

Rain just started here. This system is moving very slowly. I don't anticipate a power outage, but if so, we'll be fine.

How do you prepare for a nuclear war? Dig an underground bunker, stock it with tons of supplies, and plan to live underground for a couple of decades? I'm not entirely sure I'd want to live through the aftermath of a nuclear war anyway. I highly doubt hunkering down for decades would be as fun as it's presented to be in "Blast From The Past".

Unlike gold and silver and other useless things that some people stock up on, firearms and ammo have very good uses - food procurement, self defense, bartering and trading to name a few.


If you are prepared for zombies, you are prepared for a lot of what would happen in a non-pretend scenario too. So talk about zombies and have tongue-in-cheek fun with that, but you're actually preparing for real problems at the same time.

If you read Max Brooks book "The Zombie Survival Guide", you will often times find yourself immersed in basic survival strategies and totally forget that the premise of the book is a zombie apocalypse. It's an entertaining and fun read, and believe it or not, you can actually learn some useful stuff from it.

Even during a nuclear war there will be countries unaffected. What I want to know is how do we get there when the world goes to hell in a hand basket.

Jeanette Isabelle

Remember "Duck and Cover"? Fallout shelters, various versions, were all the rage in the 60s, perhaps peaking around the Cuban Missile Crisis. My father installed an underground shelter on the 80 acres outside of town that was his weekend getaway for rabbit hunting and fishing. Two weeks worth of popcorn,peanuts,and water (no TV) and you could emerge to face the Brave new World. Dad never realized it, but he developed a perfect BOL,in today's parlance.

Firearms certainly belong in any normal, moderately well equipped household, but lots of survivalist types place way too much emphasis on weapons, and clearly anticipate way too much full scale combat...

You don't want to survive a nuclear war? One could say the same about anything that requires using up a massive stockpile of ammo to defend yourself.

On the other hand, if you still plan on shooting USPSA, IDPA, whatever, after the apocalypse, you should definitively stock up as much as you can. Why should we stop having fun just because the world ended?

The difference is, you have the potential to repel attackers but you do not have the potential to repel radiation.

I have way more guns and ammo than I'd need for the apocalypse. But I haven't been buying them for the apocalypse, I've been buying them because I have fun shooting them! I buy large quantities of ammo when it's readily available and inexpensive, like now. That way I don't run out, have trouble finding it, or have to pay exorbitant prices when the political winds shift to a different administration.

But because I have fun shooting firearms, and buy ammo during times of abundant supply, yeah, I'm ready for the apocalypse because of that. But that's not my primary goal.

I've heard that too but a check on Wikipedia seems to indicate that it would take 3 tea candles to equal the BTUs an adult male will generate. I hear that a number of people will burn a candle in a snow shelter/Quinzee to bring the temp up to near the freezing mark. (Hotter than that would ruin the shelter and cause drips.)

Does that mean when someone is said to be "hot"or is described as a "hottie", that they exceed the three tea candle norm? Inquiring minds want to know....

For that matter, you are quoting the BTU output of a male. What about the ladies??

I was gifted the book "The Zombie Survival Guide" for Christmas a few years ago and I really liked it. Then I asked myself if I was being silly and irrational. (Am I the only one who has these moments of self-doubt?) After rechecking my personal/family preparation goals, I realized that I was right on-track. Our basic survival needs are the same, if in different priorities, depending on our location and the disaster at hand.

It took me a while of lurking on the Zombie Squad site to understand and appreciate the zombie concept. There are quite a few people in the world who seem to genuinely obsess over the potential undead, and it can be off-putting, but for more of us preparing for less physically defined zombies is a great way to keep things in check and still meet your ubiquitous and specific local needs at the same time.

Not be overlooked is that fact that we can easily be poked fun at because of a particular disaster or "the end of the world as we know it" scenario we envision, but "zombies" keep our ideas more vague, and protected from the criticism of "You're crazy! Tha will NEVER happen!"

"You don't want to survive a nuclear war?"

A Formica plywood desk is the answer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKOctWC9sIA

Heywood Banks-SCHOOL DESK

(slightly sarcastically political, but funny and sweet)

+1^

Not much point in a hobby if you're not enjoying it. And, if it doubles as a survival skill, more power to you.

I'm pretty sure the lack of those moments is known as "megalomania."

I found an article this morning that's is germane to the topic, but deals more with the food aspect.
Storm-Proof Your Kitchen for Healthy Nutrition

My ideas on food is that you should stock what you normally eat, just more of those foods that are shelf stable. We could eat for a couple months here and not touch an MRE.

$.02

If you haven't had whole grain pasta, please try some before you buy a whole cartload of it. Some people really hate how it tastes. So, yes, I'm in agreement with people who say stock what you normally eat. You don't want to be surprised with a digestive problem in a disaster.

We use brown rice pasta.

Bread has been a staple food for ages. Flour, water, yeast and a bit of salt. All staples that you can keep for a long time, and all are low cost. IMO, for extended survival, knowing how to make bread, is as basic as knowing how to build a fire.

I would not recommend whole grain pasta for long term storage anyway. It contains fatty parts of the grain and can go rancid.

True, here are a few bread recipes. If you haven't tried challah, I highly recommend.

That´s true. The scent of baking bread also lifts morale.
And like with other skills a little practice can´t hurt. Regularly baking bread keeps the skill honed.
I switched to home made sourdough bread some time ago. That produces a tasty bread with a long shelf life and the sourdough can be used for excellent pancakes.

...to add -- (since this is a thread on a home survival kit) the bread ingredients and the skill to use them should be practiced assuming your kitchen oven is out-of-bounds.

So how do you make bread without your oven? If a decent camping/picnic stove (be it propane, butane, white gas, kerosene or Isopro), what else does it take to bake bread?

How to Bake Bread on the Stovetop

As often as I've seen bread baked and taken in that wonderful aroma, I've never baked bread myself. I may try some on the butane stove I mentioned earlier in this thread. getting the flame right will be a challenge.

Nutritionally, what is the difference between bread and plain old pancakes? I am pretty good at pancakes and the process is much simpler.

More calories in pancakes due to way to much butter & maple syrup. The same argument could be used for PB & J though so maybe it's a wash...

A classic "dutch oven" (cast iron, top and bottom) can and will make tasty bread, either in a standard oven or on a fire (tricky, but doable with practice). But don't limit yourself. Pita, and most, if not all, flatbread can be, and was for thousands of years, made on flat stones in a fire. Bannock, while now viewed as something special, has more relation to historical bread making than anything you can find in any store today.

But you have not had the pleasure of relishing my low cal, SoCal pancakes - made with no oil or butter, and garnished with apple sauce, not maple syrup. It's my way of indulging, but avoiding a big calorie hit. Wouldn't the dough be about the same?

You lost me with "no oil, butter or maple syrup". How do you get away with calling them pancakes?

Besides the texture of bread being different than pancakes, one being baked while the other is fried, look at the ingredients: Flour Water Salt Yeast for bread versus Bisquick for the other (just add, oil, butter and maple syrup).

Here is a recipe for pancakes with flour, salt water and yeast.
The texture is close to flat bread. You can choose to drown it in butter and maple sirup or you can put some fruit or salami on it. Cut into thin slices it tastes well with some broth.
Reading all those recipes I wonder if we have to be really careful to avoid putting on too much weight in a "survival situation" at home .

I view pancakes & waffles as something to carry the goodness (butter & maple syrup) to my stomach. Without those accessories, what are pancakes good for? I might replace the maple syrup with raspberry jam, but the butter stays.

Germane to the "good for you" topic, as long as you'all want "healthy" pancakes, there is a Gluten free version of Bisquick and while in Trader Joes this morning I saw a box of "Buttermilk pancake & waffle mix", which is probably similar -- so there you go. I have tried neither, so buyer beware. Don't mess with perfection

Russ;

This channel is 17th Century oriented, and the video is an intro to Dutch Oven cooking (bread) in 17th Century Canada. Should still work---https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGBvqNJ8H-U

Thanks, that was an informative video, here's a hotlink - Dutch Oven Baking: Getting To Know The Utensil. I like that he used a ceramic baking dish as all I'd seen previously were standard metal bread pans.

Heating the lid as was shown in the video to get the heat distributed uniformly makes me wonder how well a Dutch oven would work with a propane/butane/kerosene/whatever camping/picnic stove where the heat is only on the bottom. The air temp inside the pot would need to get hot and would heating from the bottom only get the temp high enough? Maybe Hikermor is correct -- pancakes.

I love how marketers have equated "healthy' with "gluten free;" As I understand it, normal flour with gluten is perfectly healthy, unless you suffer from celiac disease, and perhaps some other syndromes. Like anything else, too much is a bad thing (and it is easy to consume too much, especially mine, which are graced with chopped walnuts and blueberries) some folks are allergic to nuts, so you can't win....

Perhaps we are dealing with alternative facts....

I like walnuts and blueberries. I haven't tried them in pancakes though because the rule book says ... there is no rule book. I bought a box of that "healthy" pancake mix just to try and my first batch will have walnuts and blueberries (and butter). With the blueberries in the mix, I hold off on maple syrup.

I don't have celiac disease and have no problem with wheat, but I still prefer rice if it's available.

For people with celiac disease, gluten free is a must. It can be pretty bad otherwise. I have a good friend who has a very rough time with celiac disease.

But many people who insist on gluten free are doing that because it is the newest fad, not because they have celiac disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oht9AEq1798

For those who think gluten-free is a compromise, I tried the non-gluten pancake mix today (mixing blueberries in) and maybe it's just me, but they tasted like really good blueberry pancakes. Comfort food.

The hardest part was convincing my other half to not help; it's her kitchen.