Living in interesting times

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Thom

There is a curse of uncertain origin: “May you live in interesting times.” Well, it would appear we are cursed. Within the space of a few months we’ve experienced a pandemic with its accompanying challenges, Asian murder hornets, and now civil unrest and riots. And through it all we’ve experienced a constant social media barrage as seemingly everyone feels qualified and obligated to tell us what to do, what to think, and what to feel.

It’s difficult to not just turn off the light and go back to bed, to say nothing of meeting each day with a smile. There’s few things more annoying to me when I’m already stressed than to have everyone lecturing one another and looking to find fault. I prefer to make social media my “happy place,” but lately it’s been anything but.

The things is, my life isn’t that bad. Working from home isn’t as difficult as I’d feared. I’m still getting paid. I’ve got most of my family around me, and my distant daughter is safe. My wife and son kept their jobs throughout all this. We’ve been able to hold church at home. I don’t really care that much about going places–at least places that would now be off limits. Our house is comfortable, our yard is perking up nicely, and I have plenty of cute, furry things to pet when I need a little fur-therapy.

But even with all that some days it’s just been almost too much to bear. Even without everything going on right now life can still hit you hard on an off day. Now, there are people who deal with anxiety and depression, and I by no means imply they should be able to just snap out of it, or that anything I’m about to suggest should work for them. But for the rest of us, here are a few things I’ve found helps me cope.

Exercise – I realized at one point amid my home isolation I had let my exercise program slide. Even when I was doing it I wasn’t doing it for very long. So I changed things up, getting up a little earlier to make sure I was getting longer, regular activity. I also took advantage of my being home and my shared interest with my younger son to get outside every other afternoon for some basketball. Pretty soon I noticed two improvements. I was feeling better physically from improved health, and following through on my goal was boosting my general satisfaction with myself.

To Do Lists – This probably won’t work for everyone, but in my case the less I feel I accomplish the worse I feel about myself. I actually don’t like to-do lists, but I do like the feeling I get when I check off an item or when I review my accomplishments at the end of the week. The thing that surprised me was to find that the size of the task doesn’t matter so much. If it’s something you need to remember to do, put it on there–in fact, the smaller they are, the easier it is to do them, so if you have something big that can be broken down into smaller tasks (ie. getting stuff you need, prep-work, the actual job, cleanup, etc.), do it! You’ll have concrete proof of having done something, and it really helps.

Ditch the Downers – I have a love-hate relationship with social media. When the majority of my feed is positive I feel positive. But the more negativity that creeps in the more I feel myself absorbing it. And I hate unfriending people–my problem, I know. But recently I discovered that Facebook gives you the ability to “snooze” people for 30 days rather than unfriending or hiding them. I find it much easier to hit the “smite” button and say, “I don’t want to deal with you right now.” There may be other ways, including taking a break altogether. If you’re like me and you can’t help absorbing the negative energy, it’s okay to admit you just can’t handle it. You shouldn’t have to handle it. Most people wouldn’t come over to your house to act like that, so it’s okay to avoid them online if necessary. Take a break.

It’s Okay – Related to the previous point, I can really get on myself sometimes. I keep telling myself I have no reason to be feeling the way I feel, that other people don’t feel this way, and that I should just snap out it and move on. Sometimes I can do it, but sometimes I just can’t. And I’m slowly coming to realize that’s okay! It’s okay to feel what I’m feeling. It might be good to look more closely and see what might be behind it, but ultimately…it’s okay. Also, cut other people some slack. We all deal with things differently, and things that bother me won’t necessarily bother you–and vice versa. If I’m dealing with something, chances are you’re dealing with something too. It’s okay if you don’t handle it the way I would. I don’t need to be like you in how you handle things. People get angry, get stressed, get hard to live with. Let them. Give them some distance if you can’t handle it yourself, but don’t beat yourself up over it. Own how you feel and make a plan to move forward.

Pull a Scarlet O’Hara – Years ago when I was out of work for two years I would have the occasional meltdown. My poor wife couldn’t talk any sense into me, and I most certainly couldn’t talk myself out of it. I’d get caught in circular thinking and go down in flames. Eventually I started learning that some days I’d just have to surrender and go to bed early. Almost without fail things would look better the next day. A good night’s sleep can act as a reset button, clearing out the mental garbage you couldn’t get rid of the day before. Sometimes I’ve even found the admission that I just can’t handle it to be cleansing enough to turn things around.

Get Outside – During this pandemic that option hasn’t been available to everyone, but even just getting out for a while to walk the dog can be great. A change of scenery works wonders sometimes.

Well, that’s the extent of my wisdom. Just remember, free advice is worth every penny you pay for it! But hopefully something in here may just help. Everyone struggles from time to time. We’ll get through it sooner or later, but every little tool, every strategy helps.

What are some of your favorite coping strategies? Leave a comment!

Is it worth it?

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Thom

Ken Jorgustin at Modern Survival Blog takes up the question of whether it’s worth it to invest in self-reliance. He looks at various types of home production, such as raising your own chickens, growing your own garden, or even switching to solar energy all cost money, and often those same products can be obtained commercially for less.

During the process of building their palace, I’ve thought about the money it took to get this done. As well as the ongoing costs of maintaining the small flock, and feeding them. Let me put it this way. You might get depressed to realize the ultimate cost per dozen eggs output compared to the money input!
Ken Jorgustin

I’ve noticed that with gardening. In both places we’ve lived our irrigation and gardening water comes from the same water as our culinary and hygienic water, and the cost can more than double during the summer months. Whatever money we save by growing our own vegetables is more than eaten up in the water, seeds, tools, and fertilizer needed to grow them. We ultimately decided it simply wasn’t worthwhile to try to grow our own potatoes in Idaho.

We also looked at solar power ourselves a few years ago and realized that in spite of what the salesman told us, the system would never pay for itself, even if the power company paid for any excess electricity we generated–which they stopped doing within a few years. While we would like to have been able to do more to reduce pollution and our own energy dependence we just couldn’t justify the expense.

It can all be enough to make you step back and wonder if it’s really worthwhile to take a different path. But, as Jorgustin explains, the answer will be different for everyone. For some people cost is the only consideration, and they’ll likely not bother with many self-reliance measures. For my wife and I, we find home-grown food is usually healthier and better tasting. What’s more, there may be rough times ahead–times when the stores won’t be able to get the stock they usually get. We may very well need to supplement our food supply from our own yard. In the middle of the crisis is not the time to be learning what grows and what doesn’t, or how to lay out your garden, your watering, etc. And as we’ve seen, the price of things can increase quickly when it’s in short supply.

A considerable part of self-reliance, and especially emergency preparedness, is not just having the things you need when things go wrong, but knowing what to do with them. Maybe not everything we can do we should do, but it is worthwhile to consider what things you want to be able to do. And sometimes it just feels good to do it.

Experiments in document destruction

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Thom

I am hard on paper shredders. I’ve destroyed two of them in the past year. I like to think it’s just because those diamond-cut shredders are flimsy, but I suspect it’s really because I push the limits a little too often. In any case, I recently cleaned out the shed and found I had three boxes full of old financial docs, dating back twenty years. That’s way longer than I need, and is perhaps even becoming a liability. But…I don’t have a shredder.

My wife suggested I look up other ways of destroying documents, so I did. I don’t think a burn-barrel would go over too well these days, but a soak barrel sounded interesting. The idea is to get a bucket of water and dump your documents in there, let them soak, then stir them well to break them up and turn them to pulp. Then you pour the pulp out somewhere and let the water drain/soak/evaporate out of it until it hardens up. You can then pick it up and put it in the garbage, and no one will really be able to get any info out of the mess.

So I tried it. I immediately got it wrong. I started by filling two five gallon buckets with papers. Then I filled them with water.

Do you ever cook spaghetti only to have the noodles all clump together tightly and not want to separate? Paper is much, much worse. I should have separated them more, or better yet filled the bucket with water first, then put the documents in, page by page until it was maybe half full. The first time I went to stir them they all stuck together in a single mass that wouldn’t budge, let alone break up. Even my hand tiller tool, used for breaking up garden soil, wouldn’t work.

It became a battle of wills. I’d go outside once or twice every day, replace any evaporated or soaked-in water, and stir/till each bucket, slowly scraping bits and pieces of paper from the clumps. Over about a week it began to look more promising.

Finally I could wait no longer, and dumped out the two buckets on a tarp I set up and spread the pulp out to dry. That didn’t go quickly, either, as we have very few sunny places in our yard. It probably took another week of drying.

Eventually it dried enough to make an interesting piece of art. My wife joked about using them for floor mats, or table placemats, or finding a way to roll it out thinner and making our own recycled paper. Frankly, I don’t think there’s much worth doing with it other than throwing it away.

I really don’t see much to recommend this particular approach to document destruction. At this rate I’ll have my documents destroyed around about….October. It’s cheap, and it may even be less labor-intensive than sitting there for hours feeding a few pages at a time through a shredder. It’s certainly cheaper than a new shredder. What I really ought to do is get a good document scanner and a good shredder, scan the documents as soon as I get them and shred them on the spot. But I’m a cheapskate, so that probably won’t happen. But I also won’t pay to have the local UPS Store dispose of them for me, either, so who knows. Maybe the pulp-pots will remain in business?

I’ll probably try another batch with an entirely different approach and see how that goes, but at least by the time I’ve done that it should be easier to justify shelling out more for a good, industrial-strength shredder.

Take good care of yourself, you belong to…you!

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Thom

I went to post a link to yesterday’s column on Facebook and suddenly realized I’d gotten sidetracked when I wrote it. The post title had nothing to do with what I ended up writing about! So here I am, back again, hoping to get it right this time!

As I began yesterday, the article “7 Tips For Increasing Self-Reliance” lists some of the usual things and some less-than-usual. One that perhaps doesn’t get the attention it deserves is their point on looking after your body:

While you shouldn’t expect yourself to be your own doctor and should always seek medical advice if you are concerned about your health, try to look after your body to minimize the need for treatment and medication.

While you shouldn’t expect yourself to be your own doctor and should always seek medical advice if you are concerned about your health, try to look after your body to minimize the need for treatment and medication.

Work out on a regular basis and eat healthy food most of the time. Try to stay informed about specific diseases that you may be at risk of developing (whether genetic or environmental reasons). All of these actions will make you more confident about relying on your body. It will have the side-effect of making you feel more comfortable with the idea of self-reliance in general.

I’ve always taken my health for granted. Somehow I bucked the family genetic trend and was born with a high metabolism, I’ve been on the skinny side most of my life. While never all that physically active, I was certainly more so than most teens today. And in college I was in great shape; slinging a vacuum around a department store for four hours every morning, followed by frequent, high speed walks back and forth from upper campus to lower. I never considered my body; it always did what I needed it to do.

Then I graduated and got a desk job. And I got married. In a short amount of time I put on thirty pounds. My doctor got on my case about that, and with little modification I took those pounds back off. Then I found that fat had been masking something else. I had a heart murmur. We quickly discovered I have two leaky heart valves. Fortunately, it was nothing serious yet, so we continued to monitor it. My lifestyle still didn’t change much.

When we moved to Utah I didn’t even continue monitoring it for a while. And when I finally did, things seemed normal. Then suddenly, one year, they weren’t. My heart is getting worse. Though getting in better shape can’t fix that, the doctor agreed it certainly wouldn’t hurt. So I’ve been making a more concerted effort to get in better shape.

Mind you, I still find exercise an inconvenience. There are other things I’d much rather do than spend an hour a day (on average) exercising. But I will grudgingly admit to noticing a difference when I do. I’m not as tired. I don’t give out as quickly. I can pretty much do whatever I need to do around the house

Part of the trick for me is to either find something I enjoy doing, or find ways to make what I’m doing enjoyable. I ride a stationary bike every morning for 25-30 minutes. I listen to speakers or audio books during that time so that I pay less attention to the clock. Every other day I practice basketball, either playing with my son or working on my shot on my own. Since my objective is completely separate from the exercise I don’t focus on the fact that I’m exercising.

I’ll never been one of those guys who measures his exercise in miles our hours. Spending six hours on a Saturday biking 50 miles just doesn’t sound fun to me. For me the primary motivation comes down to this: I’ve got a heart condition that could significantly limit my life span. My best chance of beating that is by being as healthy as I can. Life is only getting more interesting the older I get. I don’t want to miss anything.

It’s the little things that count

Posted on May 21, 2020 by Thom

I always get a little excited when I see the concept of self-reliance brought up in unexpected places or referring to aspects outside the usual “prepper” mindset. After all, my philosophy of self-reliance is much broader, and should be more applicable to everyday life by everyday people. So it caught my attention when I found “7 Tips for Increasing Self-Reliance” on The Law of Attraction.com.

Some of their seven points are somewhat familiar, such as “Accept Responsibility” and “Make Your Own Decisions,” but others are are a little less obvious–or at least less practiced these days.

Take Point #3: Learn More Practical Skills:

The more practical skills you have in your toolkit, the fewer chances there will be for you to feel helpless or need other people to come to your rescue. While you should feel free to call out experts to help you with complicated household problems and mechanical difficulties, it’s great if you can at least do the basics for yourself. Get some books or join some classes.

Try to get a better grasp of everything from plumbing to IT, electronics and cooking.

A few (dozen) years ago I spent two years in Australia as a missionary for my church. Before we travel to our assigned locations we spend anywhere from three to eight weeks learning teaching skills and, where necessary, a new language. From the beginning we are paired up with another missionary, who we will be with 24/7.

My companion was a really pleasant fellow from solid farm stock (Central Utah turkey farmers), but I was soon quite surprised to find he had no idea how to do his own laundry! Nor did he know what to do when he spilled dinner on his tie. Now, I won’t claim to have been anything but a burden on my mother up until that point in time, but she had at least taught me how to do laundry, how to cook, how to sew on buttons and mend pants. I gladly dispensed my wisdom to my companion, and I have definitive proof he was able to survive the entire two years.

A few years later while I was in college I went to an activity with a bunch of other college students. We decided to go get some ice cream or something afterward at a place several blocks away. While I was driving through campus I realized my tire had gone flat. I pulled over into a parking lot and started pulling out my equipment to change it for my spare.

Before long about a handful of young women from our group had pulled over to see if everything was okay. When I explained what the problem was and that I’d be okay, they all insisted on staying to watch. No one had taught them how to change a tire! I was only too happy to demonstrate for them, of course.

Whether it’s hanging a picture, or strengthening a wobbly chair, or reattaching things that come loose, there are a lot of simple tasks in life we can easily take for granted and forget to either learn or pass on. There’s no reason we should be helpless when it comes to using basic tools to perform simple maintenance tasks. Fixing a leaky faucet–or outright replacing one–isn’t difficult, but if you have no idea how to go about it you might be tempted to spend a decent chunk of money on something that shouldn’t take very long.

Learning some basic skills will pay off in spades sooner or later. And it might just help you get the girls! (Okay, not really. They were all impressed, but that’s about as far as it went.)

Garden planning from Mother Earth News

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Thom

Mother Earth News has an article and a video about planning your garden before the growing year begins. They pack a fair amount information into a 4-minute video, and it’s worth a look. They also plug their garden planning software, which got me all nostalgic for the old Sim Farm game. Supposedly it helps you map out your garden area, plan around shade, ensure proper crop rotation, and helps you know how many plants each area can support. It looks pretty cool, and comes with a 7-day free trial. After that it’s a subscription, cheapest if you sign up for two years.

Have any of you used this or similar software? If so, leave a comment below and let me know what you think of it.

And now, the video:

COVID Confusion

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Thom

I found this in our local monthly/marketing newspaper in a humor piece of things the author learned from social media during the COVID-19 quarantine:

In effort not to get sick we should eat well, but we should not go out to get healthy fresh food when we run out and eat whatever pre-packaged food we have on hand instead. However, we should order out at our local restaurants to help keep them in business. Then it’s okay to go out to pick up the food. Your food might be prepared by someone sick that doesn’t know they are sick, but that’s okay if you pay by credit card and take the food out of the container. However, you should avoid going to the grocery store at all costs because you might get sick.
Joani Taylor, “The Social Media Scandal – What I Learned During Quarantine”, Sandy City Journal

If there is anyone left out there who still believes there’s a perfect response to a pandemic, especially one where the details about the virus aren’t really known…well, they’re probably on social media telling the rest of us what we should be doing. I’ve been fortunate enough to live in a state that took a somewhat moderate approach, while managing to keep the death rate fairly low, but the nags and scolds have been everywhere all the same.

Sure, I get it. People are scared, and fear makes people thrash about desperately in search of some way to feel in control. For many people that means lecturing everyone else. But the rest of us, when faced with conflicting information, reach a point where we just have to decide for ourselves which advice we can keep and what risks we are willing to take. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned (or re-learned) from all of this:

Preparation buys time. We were not as prepared as we wish we’d been, but we still had at least several weeks worth of all essential items. Even though we weren’t sure how long our toilet paper supply would last, we had enough to hang in there until more started appearing. We didn’t need to panic, spend exorbitant amounts of money to secure the essentials, and could put off even shopping for groceries until things calmed down.
People don’t want or can’t handle fresh. When we did go shopping we had no trouble finding fresh fruits and vegetables. Do people just not buy the more perishable items in an emergency? It’s not like we were without power. Veggies keep for weeks in the fridge. Or do people just not know how to prepare fruits and vegetables anymore? Not that I’m complaining. We’ve been able to eat healthy while everyone else, from the look of the store shelves, are existing on flour, pasta and beans.
Savings are essential. I am one of the fortunate people who can work from home, even if it’s not my preferred way to work. But even I had been furloughed or laid off we would have had savings to get through this.
Flexibility and resilience help. When things like this happen we can sit back and complain over every inconvenience or difficulty, or we can relax, take a deep breath (or two or three), and deal with everything one step at a time. This is easier to do if you’re not worried about basic survival.
Cut everyone some slack, including yourself. I’ve had to continually remind myself that people are experiencing widely varying levels of stress right now. On the other hand, if there were people whose stress was causing me stress, I’m not obligated to keep absorbing their stress. There are some where I hit the “social media snooze button” so I wouldn’t have to deal with them until things calm down again. For the most part people have been keeping things on an even keel, and when they aren’t I would try to be kind and remember where they’re coming from.
Even introverts need people. While introverts across the world have been cheering about this being the moment they were born for, the truth is, introversion does not mean we don’t need anyone else. Introversion/Extroversion is more a matter of where we get our energy from. Extroverts get their energy from being with others. Introverts get theirs from being somewhat isolated and quiet. We can enjoy social interactions, and even get some energy from particularly enjoyable ones, but most drain energy from us, and sooner or later we need to get away and recharge. Being shut up at home hasn’t been particularly difficult for me, but after a couple weeks I found myself reaching out to people much more than I usually do. I miss the depth, breadth and variety of my normal interactions.
Focus on what you can do. This crisis quickly revealed where our family is not as prepared as we should be. The problem is that some of that just can’t–and perhaps shouldn’t–be fixed right now. We found we were least prepared in our supplies of paper products, baking supplies, and a few other food categories. And yet if we’ve learned anything about shortages, it’s that running out and stocking up just make things worse for everyone, so we’ve had to resist that urge. Instead, we identified some things we can procure right now, and we’ve focused on that. We have a much better water storage now, and we’re better prepared for the next power outage (and in our area, there will be one). I feel satisfaction and accomplishment at having done something useful, even if I can’t solve all of the problem just yet.
Have a plan for the rest. As I said above, there are some preparedness deficiencies we can’t fix yet. But I’ve learned from sad experience that if I don’t have a plan in place for when we get back to normal-enough I’ll likely forget to do anything at all. I can take this time now to at least come up with a plan so that I know the next steps to take once we can take them.
It’s difficult to be prepared for everything. I’ve been a homeowner for over twenty years. In this part of the world we have to be on guard against mice. Right before our state went into quarantine we discovered something entirely new: rats. Mice we could have dealt with. Nothing we had worked on rats. And even after some online research and a curbside pickup purchase it took a long time to figure out what would work.

I could probably go on, but I’m hearing too many heads hitting keyboards already, so I’l spare you. This quarantine experience has certainly given us a lot to think about, and a lot of time in which to think about it. Right now the biggest question we should all ask is, “What do I do about it?” What are we going to change as a result of our experiences? Set a goal, make a plan, and get it done.

Unexpected surprises – Follow-up to a product review

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Thom

Last week I wrote a review of the Saratoga Farms 5-gallon water containers we purchased recently. One of the things that bothered me about our purchase was that when I’d first started researching water containers there was an option to buy just the containers, and another to get a starter kit with them that included a wrench to tighten the caps. And oddly enough, they were the same price either way.

Unfortunately, when I went to order, the site claimed the “with kit” option was sold out. The price was so good on the containers I ordered them anyway, figuring I might pick up a smaller set with the kit another time–you can’t have too much water, right? But those were sold out, too. Then I checked back the following week after I received the initial order, and found that someone else was selling the containers with their own version of the kit. This one included a friction-band wrench, which looked like it could be pretty handy, so I ordered it.

That arrived this week, and when I filled these containers I got the chance to try out the friction-band wrench. Eh. It works, and it was certainly more effective than tightening the lids by hand, but the band slipped loose at high torque. But it appeared to do the job. The containers didn’t leak.

Today I took the dog outside to play just as the UPS driver was pulling away. She’d left a small package, which was odd. I didn’t remember having ordered anything. When I opened it I found a plastic lid wrench for the water containers, from the same company I’d ordered the original set from. We had…a mystery on our hands! Did they read my review and decide to help me out?

I keep everything (not always a good habit), so when I got back indoors I checked the packing slip from the previous shipment to confirm the order date. To my surprised, I found that the wrench was listed on the original packing slip, quantity 0. Evidently they considered my purchase part of some package deal, and the wrench had been back-ordered.

In any case, I now have two wrenches! So I guess I’ll review those, now.

Actually, there’s not much to discuss. I prefer the one on the right. It’s made for these particular lids, and now that I’ve seen one in person I can tell it’s made of fairly high-grade plastic and won’t be breaking soon. The belt wrench works okay, but you have to re-adjust the belt after every turn, and the design of the containers only realistically about a 90-degree arc where the wrench will fit around the cap and you can turn it freely. It also puts your fingers right in line with the edge of the container when the belt slips. The plastic wrench handle is off-set so it rides above the container edges and can turn 360 degrees. It fits the cap more snugly.

Mind you, I’ll keep them both. And the belt wrench can be used for other size lids–which I have. It may come in handy in other ways.

Spherical gardening?

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Thom

I’ve heard of Square-foot Gardening, but IKEA now has something new in mind: spherical gardening.

Read more at the link, but the idea is that the design ensures that all levels get air and light, and you can access it from both inside and out. Heck, it might even make a nice little reading nook or a meditation chamber. It certainly looks like the Yoda version of Darth Vader’s meditation chamber:

I like the idea but, seeing as it’s made out of wood, how long before weather and water make it unstable? We’ll have to check back in a few years and see how well it works.

The plans are available online. If anyone out there has built and used one of these, please drop me a line and let me know how it works!

Product Review: Saratoga Farms water containers

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Thom

As discussed here and alluded to here, we finally decided to do something about our inadequate water storage. Fifteen gallons just won’t cut it for four people and three pets in any serious situation. I’d been looking into various options for some time, but finally decided to pull the trigger and get something.

I looked at large-capacity storage tanks (ie. 50 gallons + in a single big container). I looked at small-capacity storage. I discussed the merits of Water Bricks with my brother, who has been using them for a while for their storage. And over time I came to some conclusions. When we got water storage containers, they had to be:

5 gallons or less so they can be carried easily to wherever they are to be used
made to take spigots to make dispensing easier
made of high density polyetholene (HDPE), and opaque for best storage and durability
airtight
inexpensive

I finally settled on Saratoga Farms’ 5 gallon stackable containers. I did consider Water Bricks, as their design allows for taller and more secure stacking, but I’d been warned by my brother that they can leak, and they’re designed to be stored sideways, which only encourages leakage. Perhaps I’ll invite him to do a guest review on his and how they’re performing. Ultimately the biggest deciding factor was price. For the amount of storage we purchased, we would have spent about a third more for the same volume in Water Bricks.

So we ordered them online, only to find they would be shipping from a local company not more than a few miles from our house. We prefer to shop local, but had already discarded that business, as their prices were too high by comparison. I wasn’t sure why they’re so willing to undercut themselves on Amazon, but that’s their business model, I suppose. Since then I’ve found another company selling the same containers on Amazon, also at a lower price, so I guess they needed to be competitive. But why they couldn’t lower their local price accordingly, I don’t know. They offer free shipping on Amazon, so had they sold at a similar price locally I would have saved us some time and them some money.

The order arrived earlier than expected–always a plus. We had another order scheduled to arrive that day, so we thought it was the other order until a few hours later when the expected order arrived. That evening we unpacked the containers and put them in their expected destination until we had time to fill them.

That time was this weekend. My wife and one of my sons helped. I had heard that the containers seal better if washed first, and since they ship with no lids on it was probably safer to at least rinse them. Someone in the comments recommended filling a separate container with warm water and dish soap that you could then pour into the containers to swish around to clean them, as putting dish soap directly into the container itself would cause lots of foam and take a lot longer to rinse out. I may have put too much dish soap in the bucket I filled, but every container created a lot of foam when I started shaking it around. It did rinse out without much trouble, though.

It might not have been the best idea, but for rinsing out the soap before filling I added some water, swished it around again, and then dumped it out on the lawn. My front lawn isn’t the greatest to begin with, though, so it it probably won’t make a difference.

To fill the buckets, I bought a fresh, clean hose just long enough to reach from the faucet to the containers. I intend to use this hose for nothing but filling water containers in order to keep it as clean as possible. Our house is on city water, which is chlorinated. Though the company that makes the containers suggests buying their water purifier solution, all the sites I checked (FEMA, ReadyUtah.org, etc.) all say that chlorinated city water is sufficient and should last at least six months to a year.

Filling the containers didn’t take as long as I expected. We were able to fill one in a couple of minutes. From there we put on the cap. The caps that came with them have extra bands around the outside that ratchet against the opening on the container to keep the lid on tight. To open the containers you’ll have to tear the band off, similar to the caps on milk jugs.This implies the lids are not intended for reuse, though I can’t imagine there being any problem with it. The containers we already have been using are reusable and have given us no trouble.

Once each jug was capped I tested them to check for leaks. Here we ran into trouble. The very first container I tested dripped from the cap at a pretty steady rate. The second sealed just fine.

As it turned out, close to half of them leaked. I had read in some of the reviews that the caps had to be really tight before they would seal, but other reviews insisted that you wouldn’t need the wrench they sold as part of a starter kit (which they were out of when I ordered them) and most people could hand-tighten the caps without any trouble. I’m only 135 lbs, and don’t lift, so I guess I don’t qualify for “most people.”

After several attempt to hand-tighten the caps (often I could go back after I’d already tightened the first time and tighten them a little more) I decided to see if by any chance my channel lock pliers would open wide enough to fit the caps. The fit–just barely–and I found I was able to tighten each lid at least another five or six clicks beyond what I could do by hand. That seemed to be tight enough, finally, and I didn’t have any more containers that leaked.

Finally I was able to place the containers in the location I had prepared. I’ve heard from several sources that plastic containers react with concrete floors, leeching chemicals into the water. I’ve also found sources contesting that assertion. In my case I chose not to take chances, plus it’ll keep the containers cleaner if they’re not right on the floor. I laid down some two-by-fours and a section of old wall board on top of that to provide a slight base just wide enough to stack two containers next to one another. The containers are 10″ x 11″, and 14″ tall, and designed to bear the weight of additional containers on top.

Yup, they stack! My old ones (seen on the left)…don’t.

When stacked like this they really to store efficiently. I’m not sure I’d trust the caps enough to store them on their sides, at least not in an area that doesn’t take water leakage well, but upright like this they should be just fine. It’s recommended you store them in a cool, dark place. I’m not sure that’s as critical with the right containers. Sunlight encourages algae growth, and cooler temperatures tend to preserve most things better, but we’ve stored water in the containers on the left in our garage before, and the water was fine for several years at least.

The key is when you go to use the water, check for two things. First, is there anything floating on top the water when you open the cap. That’s bad; the water grew bacteria. Second, smell the water. If it stinks, don’t use it. If it just smells stale it’s fine. The air in water tends to separate out over time, so when you go to use it you might want to add air back in by pouring it into a sealable container and shaking it up, stirring it well, or some other means of aerating it.

The long-term viability of these containers is yet to be seen, of course, but so far I’m satisfied with the investment. The difficulty in getting them to seal was frustrating, but otherwise they function pretty much as advertised. They are a little heavy to lug around, but the handles are comfortable, so getting them from their storage location to our kitchen to use shouldn’t be an issue. Even I’M not that wimpy!

I will test the water quality in about six months, and then a year, and see how it goes. If there’s a problem I’ll write a follow-up review and/or update this post. But I will admit that I feel better knowing we have a good amount of water on hand should we have any more quality issues with the city system or should we get hit with a worse earthquake (though that in itself might reveal some other issues, such as whether the containers are durable enough to handle falling over without rupturing or compromising the seal).

All in all, these containers seem to be a good storage solution at a decent price. Most containers seem to sell for at least $20 – 25 for a 5-gallon unit. With some bulk pricing these came to close to $17.75 or so. It’s a little pricey for something so simple, and there may be cheaper solutions (like the larger barrels or tanks), but over-all I don’t think it’s too much to spend for peace of mind.

UPDATE – May 8, 2020 – I got some more containers from another source that included a wrench. I also got a back-ordered wrench from the first source that I didn’t realize was coming. It’s time for the Battle of the Wrenches!

Simple Self-Reliance

Stand on your own, but not alone

Category Archives: Foundational