Prepping Archives | Page 6 of 8

Ice Blocks

Posted on December 25, 2012 by trevor

Blocks of ice can last a shocking long time if stored correctly. In the 19th century, Fredric Tutor made his fortune shipping ice from frozen American ponds all the way to Cuba.

With the convenience of electricity, we don’t need to harvest ice from ponds anymore. But sometimes electricity stops working, such as during Hurricane Sandy. To prepare for such a scenario where business as usual comes to a sudden grind, you may want to make an emergency bucket, full of supplies that can come in handy during such circumstances.

These bucket-shaped ice blocks were made by the National Aquarium in Washington DC in preparation for Hurricane Sandy. If they had lost power these would be instrumental in regulating water temperatures for their aquariums.

If any readers know how long this ice would stay frozen, please share in the comments!

Oil Jerry Can

Posted on December 2, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

I’ve recently moved to the frozen reaches of northern Alberta. The weather is deathly frigid, but the economy is super-heated by torrid flows of oil money. Here’s a five gallon bucket idea relevant to the world’s most important energy resource.

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Personal Flotation Device

Posted on October 30, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

It won’t pass coast guard standards, but a sealed up five gallon bucket makes a passable flotation device in a pinch.

Here’s a kid learning to swim using a personal flotation bucket.

You could expand this idea to make a buoy or a raft. One man took this idea to the extreme by building his own private island held afloat by plastic containers.

Rainwater Collection

Posted on October 20, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

The pacific northwest monsoon season is arriving in my neighborhood. I use the term “neighborhood” loosely, as I’m spending a few weeks living on a sailboat.

Life on the water finds even more uses for buckets than life on shore. On rainy days, just a few catch enough water to meet all my drinking and cooking needs. The water is delicious and clear, unlike our municipal source which has a faint yellow sediment tint this time of year.

The only filter I need is an old t-shirt tied over-top one of the buckets. Its main function is to filter out sand, which is ubiquitous on the boat. In my system, the two open buckets are poured manually into the filter bucket when I need water.

The rains here are aggressive enough that I don’t need a panel to collect enough water, but if I used a clean tarp to increase my collection surface I would have enough water to start a water bottling company! What would you pay for a bottle of fresh, pure, five gallon bucket water?

Hidden Cache

Posted on September 25, 2012 by trevor

Category: 5 Gallon Bucket Uses

Fishermen or hunters will keep strategically hidden supply caches so they don’t have to carry as much on their way in. A military might use larger supply caches for similar reasons. A new group of people called “preppers” may use a supply cache in conjunction with a “bug out location” to allow them an option to wait out an economic or natural disaster.

I have a supply cache for gardening tools in my square foot garden, which is in a back yard a few miles from where I live. I would never remember to bring everything I need with me every time, so I keep some twine, a knife, a spade and a clippers on site, hidden away in one of the garden pixels.

As you can see, it’s impossible to tell I have hidden something underneath my mulch layer. The tools and supplies stay dry since my supply bucket has a tight-fitting lid and an impermeable plastic surface. It takes about five seconds to get at my tools, much quicker than walking across the yard and unlocking a tool shed!

I think this technique would be useful to allotment gardeners, or even guerrilla gardeners using forgotten spaces and boulevards.