Water

Using the rule of threes: 3 minutes without air,  3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food, this commodity is pretty darned important, often overlooked and taken for granted. If you read and watch the news, you see the droughts in AZ, Texas and other areas once not thought of as “drought prone” are now having their problems as well. In a recent visit to AZ, I met a leather shop owner who had a small ranch outside of town. In the back of his ¾ ton pickup, he had a 250 gallon water tank. I asked him why the tank? He responded that he had horses and some other livestock and that every other day, he would buy water and take it to the ranch to supplement his water supply, what a job and expense to do this.

So we have covered the first 72 HOURS, on day four you get up to make some breakfast, you check and see if you have plenty of eggs and bread, you do so you open the tap to fill the coffee pot….nothing, nothing at all! A quick check and you find out that the local water main break and it will be and added two more days for repairs, the whole south side of town will have no water, now what? This has happened to us, it’s a real event that happens.

Well if you have followed the prepper lifestyle, this is no problem, you have enough stored to handle the shortage and you have planned for this! Some simple planning and containers and you can have this checked off your list. Start by planning on 2 gallons of water per person, per day. Now this won’t leave any room for a shower but will for a sponge bath. This is basic use for food and drinking water.

Containers to store in are up to you. We use the Blue 55 gallon drums with two threaded bung’s. We also use the 30, 15 and 5 gallon blue containers. The size depends upon portability and how often you need to get to them. Another thing we use are the barrel rollers that you can move the drum around easily. Do remember that water weighs 8lbs/gallon, so a 55 gallon container weighs 440 lbs. So that does NOT work in a pickup unless you intend to leave it there.

Finally, go to our RESOURCES page and get the pdf on water. Either laminate it or insert into a plastic sleeve and keep it with your water. It gives you all the info you need to protect your water supply.