Preparedness for when

System

beautiful_ravens my sympathies..... reminded me of the time I had newly moved into a wreck of a house with three small children and a 'Saniflo' loo that operated on an electric pump - we had a lot of winter electricity and phoneline disruption in that neck of the woods, and after the first bailout experience I very quickly added a 'do not use this loo' sign to the blackout supplies.....

BigMummaF

I am so in awe of folks who can have 100 loo rolls (this would be my luxury item on a desert island; can't & don't want to, imagine life without it or a working, flushing loo :eek: ..I'd sooner take my chances with the zombies!) hidden in the wardrobe & gallons of drinkables under the bath. The Offspring moaned about my baked bean stash for months & forbade me from buying any more but they're sorry now My time is taken within the company of Muvva & the kids assured me they were fine, doing for themselves & of course just stumble from day to day; several times now, one or other has moaned about having to go out specifically to shop for basics & I think they now realize their mum isn't the loonie they imagined her to be :rotfl:

With my own dodgy health concerns heaped on top of muvva's increasing frailty, I'm trying to make life easier there too but it's being met with growing hostility My muvva is a contradiction; she keeps things from years back when it suits her, but detests the larder I've begun in the small bedroom.. even though food is always her first thought. We'll be eating breakfast & she's talking about dinner, eating dinner & she's discussing tomorrow's meals, & everything is done by the clock :doh: "Fancy a cuppa Mum?" & she'll look at the clock before answering. Or we're out shopping & I always ask her if she wants a bit of lunch (she's diabetic & prone to 'go off' when hungry) & she looks at her watch. It. Drives. Me. but I guess there's things I do that initiate the same reaction in her..... like having a pile of tins & packets in her spare room :rotfl:

grandma247

You can just tape a plastic sack to the toilet and just add cat litter as needed then tie it up and put it outside at least daily. If it looked like a prolonged problem I would empty the recycling bin into black sacks and put my toilet bags in it with as much air removed from the bag as possible.
If you live near lots of tree you could use leaf litter in a pinch if you forgot the cat litter.

Empty the toilet of any standing water with a mop before you put the bag in.

mardatha

What grandma said - but use a separate bucket to pee in and empty it (often) as far away from the house as you can, into running water.

Perplexed_Pineapple

Sticking with the theme, I've heard that if you have a ground floor toilet, when you have the sewers full of floodwater you can get backflow <gulp>! I've seen online some gadgets which are supposed to seal your toilet to prevent this happening - has anyone had experience of this kind of problem or any solutions to it?
Sounds as though things are getting worse by the day in the US - hope our transatlantic preppees are ok. This BBC article states the obvious but is worth a read: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25642694

VJsmum

Emptying the loo of water will break the seal and all the smells will rise up :eek:

What does cat litter do that, say, sawdust won't? As a non cat person, I simply don't know. Many compost loos work by adding a cup of sawdust after any, err, solid deposits.

In temperatures as cold as the states, would gas supplies work? I am thinking about how the house, or at least one room, would be heated. I must get OH to check the gas bottle in an old calor gas heater we have. Might be worth investing in a spare.

mardatha

Blue cylinders freeze VJ, red propane ones don't - but you need to insulate the regulator at the top cos that freezes.

kezlou

we would just use cat litter, we buy the wood pellets for our five moggies. I hate the gravel / grit dust one its rubbish and absolutely stinks. The wood pellets contain the odour and soak up the urine, well cats anyway.

For urine, you could easily just pea in one buckets and pour that directly on the soil. I know in medieval times they used store human faeces and use it on the fields over winter.

In home bargain$ they sell hand sanitizer that you don't need soap or water with. you just put sanitizer on your hands and rub together. Its the same as the stuff they use in hospitals.
Its very good and ideal for when everyone has bugs.

What a nightmare raven

Bricken

Invariably flood water will find a way into your house backed up sewers is just one but a disgusting one. if you have warning and time to act take a plastic rubble sack put inside a cloth bag (old pillow case) filled with a small amont of sand 1 kilo ish drain wter from loo then push the sand in the two bags into the u bend until firm then add more sand 5 kilos should do it pack down tight then pour in 1litre of water then close the bags and seal round with gaffer tape.this will allow you to put plastic bags on top to use loo as normal then seal for disposal at appropriate time.

[Deleted User]

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

One thing to consider with paraffin based lamps is they take oxygen from the air to burn, and give off some minor fumes and sometimes if poorly maintained carbon monoxide.

The same applies to gas, and indeed any carbon based burnable fuel.

More than one person has died from carbon monoxide poisoning, due to using a gas camping stove or lantern, in a tent, or other enclosed space.

More than one operating at the same time might consume a certain amount of breathable oxygen inside a house and make things a little fumey.

The amount of oxygen consumed, is directly related to the amount of fuel burned, and the gas lamp consumes a lot of fuel.

Tilley lamps can give off heat as well as light

So do Hurricane lanterns.

They may have some interesting insights on living with fuel-based burners on a daily basis for those interested in long-term usage.

As a child, I, along with my parents, siblings, and several of my neighbours, lived with paraffin heaters for decades, with no noticeable negative consequences.