Medical Equipment - December Idea of the Month

Most communities don't have the medical capabilities to handle large scale disasters. There are just too many people. So for your church group, preparedness group, or large family it is a really good idea to have at least one set of basic medical testing equipment. When a disaster hits you will possibly have a doctor or nurse in your area, but they will need some of those basic tools to diagnose the sick and injured. A lot of doctors and nurses won't have those tools in their homes. Here is a list of basic testing equipment that you will want to have. All of these items can be bought online. Keep in mind that you will still need first aid supplies to go with it.

• Stethoscope
• Otoscope (for ears)
• Thermometer
• Pulse Oximeter (for monitoring a person's oxygen saturation)
• Glucometer including appropriate strips and lancets (for blood sugar)
• Blood pressure cuffs
• Reflex hammer
• Tongue depressors, preferably wrapped.
• Flashlight
• Masks, Gloves
• Alcohol wipes
• Lubricating jelly
• Alcohol gel for hands

Emergency Irrigation - November Idea of the Month

 

In an emergency situation, oftentimes you don’t have all of the parts and pieces that you need to build things and access to these parts would be difficult at best.

So thinking outside of the box can really pay off.

 

PVC Pipe Emergency Drip-irrigation for Garden

Materials needed:

• Heat source (hot coals from a waning fire, briquettes, etc.)

• PVC pipe (I use 3/4”, but any size will work)

• 5 gallon plastic bucket

• Hack saw

• Cotton rags

Directions-

1. Making the point: Take the PVC pipe and the hack saw, cut four slits about 3” long in one end of the pipe. Heat the pipe until soft and mold it tapering to a point (as shown). Let cool and file off excess edges.

 

2. Making the pipe-stop: Take the other end of that same PVC pipe and cut four slits down about 1” deep, then heat until soft. Smash onto a flat, hard surface so that the end flares outward. Hold until it cools.

 

This is the finished product:

3. Hole in bucket: Drill a 5/16” hole towards the bottom of the bucket. Then heat the area around the hole until soft. Then take the PVC pipe point that you made earlier and push the point through the small hole from the inside of the bucket. Note: This photo shows only a small part of a bucket purely for demonstrative purposes. You would use the whole bucket to hold the water for the irrigation process.

4. Cutting the point off: The point is used to aid in inserting the pipe through the small hole; but also to form a sealing shoulder on the bucket (as shown here).

Once the pipe has been pushed all the way through to the stop, the point is no longer needed. Cut it off. You will be attaching the rest of the pipes to this first pipe.

5. Making the bell: Take a regular piece of PVC pipe and heat approximately 1” of the end until soft. Then take another pipe and shove it into the soft end of the heated pipe, let cool and then you can pull the second pipe out. This makes a bell-shaped connection so that pipes can be easily connected together.

6. Making elbows (if needed): You may need to make an elbow if you need your makeshift irrigation system to turn a corner. To do this, you need to take a short piece of pipe and put duct tape on one end, then fill the pipe with sand, and then tape the other end shut. Heat the middle of the pipe and then bend it to your desired angle. Once it cools, dump the sand out.

7. Drip pipe: Wherever there is a plant, drill 3/8” holes clear through the pipe. Take a short piece of a cotton rag and roll it to fill the hole with a small amount hanging over both sides.

8. Assembly: Your five gallon bucket holding the dirty water needs to be sitting on something two or three feet in the air so that gravity will feed the water through the pipe. Use cinderblocks or an upside down barrel etc. Start connecting your pipes to the pipe coming out of the bucket and run the pipe alongside the plants. Start drilling holes wherever the plants are and stuff the rags into the holes (The reason why regular drip nozzles won’t work is that they plug with dirty water). At the very end of your system, plug the pipe with something or heat it and smash it until cool. Fill the bucket with water as needed and watch your plants grow.

Afterthought: If you do have steel pipe and desire to connect to the plastic pipes, heat the metal pipe for about 10-15 seconds, shove the metal pipe inside the plastic pipe, and cinch down with a hose clamp on the joint to embed the threads of the steel pipe into the plastic pipe. You can take the hose clamp off once it cools. This also works using plastic bottles if you desire to use them for a funnel or to connect another type of container to your piping system.

Polyester Water Filter

This is an inexpensive, light weight filter for your emergency backpack. It is to be used to filter water before you boil it in an emergency situation. The video below demonstrates that this filter works wonderfully. This filter can be washed and reused for up to 3 years.

It can also extend the life of an expensive water filter by using it as a pre-filter before you run the water through the expensive filter.

Take a plastic empty water bottle that has a smooth neck (highly recommended) and cut off the bottom. Find or buy an article of clothing that is made of 100 percent polyester non-stretchy tight weave fabric. Cut it into 2 inch to 3 inch strips. Get the polyester a little damp and role it into a roll. Make each layer snug but not too tight (If you stretch the fabric, the holes increase in size making it a less effective filter). Make the diameter of the roll big enough to insert into the water bottle. It needs to form a fairly tight seal against plastic.

Then you pour the water into the bottom of the water bottle where you cut it off and it will filter through the fabric and out the top part of the bottle.

If the water has a large amount of sediment, you can do 2 water bottles one on top of the other.  You can also put a layer of charcoal between the 2 bottles to eliminate bad odors or odd taste of the filtered water.

The water should have the appropriate amount of bleach, four drops per quart added or heat to a rolling boil (think of the ever-useful survival saying “big bubbles, no troubles”) to ensure that all of the organisms have been killed.

Kill virtually anything in 10 to 20 minutes using Acidified Diluted Bleach

In an emergency situation cleanliness is more important than ever. Hospitals will be overflowing. You can't afford to get sick. Endospores can survive without nutrients. They are resistant to ultraviolet radiation, desiccation, high temperature, extreme freezing and chemical disinfectants.

The American Society for Microbiology did a study that shows Vinegar increases the killing power of bleach. "Diluted bleach at an alkaline pH is a relatively poor disinfectant, but acidified diluted bleach will virtually kill anything in 10 to 20 minutes," says Norman Miner, a researcher on the study. "In the event of an emergency involving Bacillus anthracis spores contaminating such environmental surfaces as counter tops, desk and table tops, and floors, for example, virtually every household has a sporicidal sterilant available in the form of diluted, acidified bleach."

Miner and his colleagues compared the ability of alkaline (pH 11) and acidified (pH 6) bleach dilutions to disinfect surfaces contaminated with dried bacterial spores, considered the most resistant to disinfectants of all microbes. The alkaline dilution was practically ineffective, killing all of the spores on only 2.5 percent of the surfaces after 20 minutes. During the same time period the acidified solution killed all of the spores on all of the surfaces.

Miner recommends first diluting one cup of household bleach in one gallon of water and then adding one cup of white vinegar.

So in addition to storing water and bleach for emergencies I suggest you also store vinegar.

These three items will allow you to effectively keep all surfaces clean and sanitary thus eliminating the risk of sickness.

Source:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/asfm-vik021306.php

Solar Panel Alignment Tool

Those of you who came out to see us at the preparedness expo last week may have seen this.

Many know that solar panels are highly sustainable and completely renewable.

Being able to harness power from the sun, especially in emergencies is an excellent alternative power source. Those who do use solar panels should always aim to get the most energy they possibly can.

You can buy solar alignment tools that use shadows but I thought I could make one for free.
My first design worked perfect with no problems. It is a simple concept really. The suns rays are hitting the earth fairly straight. If the sun was exactly over a persons head your shadow would be around your feet. The more angle of the sun the longer your shadow is.

 I use this tool on my solar panels all the time. Once you align it perfect with the sun your voltage increases. The more it is out of alignment the more your voltage decreases. I connect my solar panels to batteries and then I have my inverter connected to the batteries so I can convert DC power to AC power.

The idea behind this is to find the best angle for the sun to hit the panel. You may be asking when to use this. . . the answer is simple, you choose. Generally, the more precise the angle, the more energy. Oftentimes, people set the panel’s angle at noontime, then move it a couple weeks later as the sun moves.

How to:

• Find an old clipboard or a thin piece of plywood, drill a ¼ in hole in the center

• Put 1/4x3in bolt through hole and secure with washers and nuts

• On the backside put ¾ in boards on two edges

To use:

• Lay flat on the face of your solar panel
• Move the panel until the shadow of the large washer is directly underneath it (as shown), this is the perfect angle at that precise time! (NOTE: The first photo shown is out of alignment)

Preparedness Expo

Thanks to all those who came out to see us last Saturday!

Please check our website often as we will be adding new things all the time!

Please leave us a comment if you have questions about anything!

We are all about getting prepared for emergencies, Redneck style!

Do-it-Yourself Fire Starters

One of the many problems people might have in a natural disaster emergency situation is how to cook or provide heat. This idea for this first came from my friends son who helps at the preparedness fairs. It is an easy way to make fire starters using items everyone probably has in their home. These light easily and burn really well.

Items Needed:

- Lint from your dryer

- Used cardboard egg carton

- Small rope or twine

- Wax (I used the leftover wax from my wax 

   warmer. I just dump it into a jar after the smell

   is used up.)

The first step is to cut off one section of your egg carton.
Then stuff it with lint and tie your rope or twine around it.

Next you need to heat up your wax. I did this by placing my jar of used wax in a pan of hot water.
The wax helps hold everything together and also provides more fuel for a longer burn.

Once the wax is melted just dip your egg carton section in the wax (you may need to push it down with a fork so the entire thing gets covered in wax. Then set it on a piece of tin foil to dry. One its dry you can cut the rope/twine to make a small wick.

And there you go.

Just light the wick (string) and it will burn for approximately 15 minutes.
Quick, easy, cheap, and best of all, it works!!