What IF
 

Have you ever played the what if game?

I keep thinking about a post that JA made sometimes back about being more concerned with an attack that would take kill all electronic devices.

Just suppose we lost all of our electricity. Could you survive? If so, how could you do it.

We have become a nation totally dependent on electricity. If you drink coffee do you have a way to make coffee that does not require electricity?

I know being without electricity during Hurricane Ike it was difficult for us without a generator since our water is on a well that requires electricity.

Re: What IF
 

Our house is all electric, although we do have a fireplace and a wood burning stove. We still need electricity for doing laundry, hot water, fridge, etc. We have survived a few days during ice storms, but not for a longer period of time. I think we do need a generator.

Re: What IF
 

As a city kid, it's a lost cause without electricity. Nothing would function.
We'd have water; but not hot water. Even though water heater is gas,new models use an electronic igniter not the old pilot light.
Electric range, refrig, freezer........there would be nothing.

Well, I do have battery operated camping lights, radio, flashlights, bottled water, manual can opener for the canned goods in the pantry< but it would be cold> .
Most of our household and the city would be shut down without electricity.

Not very prepared am I. We don't even have an outdoor grill.:sad

Re: What IF
 

ya gotta git a grill, ya can't camp without a grill. :ursofunny

Re: What IF
 

Don't need a grill here in AZ ... it's 110+ degrees here. Just throw some steak, hamburger or eggs on either the hood of your car or a clean section of asphalt and you're golden!

Re: What IF
 

Yes, we could survive. In fact, we had a practice round several years ago when we were without electricity for two weeks due to an ice storm.

We have a gas grill & deep fryer, charcoal grill, coleman camp stove, coleman lanterns, wind up lights, wind up radios, back up heat source, lots of other survival type stuff including ways to sterilize water.

I often make "sun tea" and could easily make coffee and most anything I wanted to cook without electricity. I can make "fried" cornbread fritters to substitute for real cornbread-- and we're even going to attempt to build a outdoor oven that could be used for baking. How's that for learning to survive? :D

We have a pool and live near a river-- so there's our emergency water sources for laundry & bathing.... LOL

Also have a pretty good supply of water put away, that is regularly rotated.

You should read the Last Light book series by Terri Blackstock. :)

This thread gives me a sense of dejavu. Seems we've discussed this before.... ;)

Re: What IF
 

Twelve years ago we had an Oct ice storm and had no power for a week. We did survive but..........
Everything in freezer and refrig had to be thown away.( Ins pd less the deductible)
With no lights I used candles and later discovered soot on many surfaces.

We did have hot water for showers since we still had our old hot water heater. (showers by candlelight )
Even though it was Oct it wasn't "warm" so we survived by borrowing a kerosene heater from church friends. (The electricity was restored to many areas immediately and many other areas waited 2, 4, 7 days..)

Since this lesson in disaster the electric company has totally revamped their response plans! :ursofunny

Re: What IF
 

We had to eat out.
We did still go to work--- where they had electricity.

(it would be harder now...could not use internet, charge cell phone etc)

Re: What IF
 

We're on a well. Electric pump. We're dooooooooomed!

Re: What IF
 

You'd just have to work hard to rig up a way to draw water from that well. :D It can be done. I remember when I was growing up, our well pump went out and we had to do that for a couple of days till the pump could be replaced. It wasn't fun, it was work-- but you could get to that water if you were desperate enough. :D

Re: What IF
 

Nah. We're doomed.

:lol

Re: What IF
 

Yes, I play what if in my mind sometimes...

What if I had actually married my first love...

What if I could be and do anything I wanted to be/do?

What if everyone I wanted to disappear actually did?

Re: What IF
 

:uhoh :runhills

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:ursofunny:ursofunny:ursofunny

Scared you didn't I?:gotcha

Re: What IF
 

:heeheehee

Re: What IF
 

If everyone disappeared that you wanted to, you'd ... >poof!<

Re: What IF
 

Can you imagine the horrors of being in a large mall during a power outage and having the escalators stop? :sad

Re: What IF
 

You may have that right but I'll never tell:sad

Re: What IF
 

Reminds me of Blart...the Mall Cop :) :ursofunny

Re: What IF
 

How did you keep your dairy products from spoiling?

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I am thinking major disaster!

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Worse would be in an elevator between floors and the door won't open.:sad

Re: What IF
 

Those two quotes used together are just hilarious. :ursofunny

Just walk down, get off the escalator-- then locate the nearest exit. :gotcha



We used as much as possible before the ice in the coolers melted. We lived without dairy products for the duration of the outage. Didn't buy more till we had electricity again. We also took all the meat that was beginning to thaw and other foods from our freezers to a local church that had electricity and cooked them all in the fellowship hall. Gave away the cooked food to whoever was hungry. It sure beat letting it all spoil in the freezers and refrigerators.

Re: What IF
 

We have rechargeable batteries and a charger that works in the car as well as the home. (generator)

We have enough flashlights and LED room lamps to light the entire house and run constant with the chargers.

We also have multi fuel lamps that can use oil, kerosene, diesel and other fuels.

We can cook everything from coffee (a good stainless steel perkalator makes better coffee anyways and never needs filters.) to meats , and vegetables with nothing but a campfire made from tree limbs, and multiple fire starting sources from waterproof matches to torches to flint and steel with steel wool and pocket lint (dryer lint works great too, save it.)

All of our guns are the old fashioned mechanical kind, no sooper dooper laser death rays for us! :-P

We have a cooler/heater box that uses the cigarette lighter in the car to keep cool or hot for storing perishables like milks for weeks to months on end.

Most all of my power tools are lithium ion battery powered and with a power inverter can be recharged using any vehicles cig lighter. (36V DEWALT circ saw with 7 1/4 blade is just as powerfull as a plug up saw.)

So we could cook anything from T-bone steaks to mashed potatoes, and even bake cakes and bread over a campfire with nothing more than aluminum foil and grill parts.

We can defend ourselves against looters and idiots who would rather take from others who DID prepare instead of prepare for themselves.

We can make repairs, and or board up windows, and do minor construction with power tools.

Yeah, with God we could make it. (I cant even walk without holding his hand so I wouldn't ATTEMPT survival mode in desperate times without him.)

I've done what I can to prepare/protect my family, I fully trust God to do what I cannot.

I'm always looking for new ideas as well.

Oh..... did I mention?
We are country.
In the country.

A country boy can survive LOL

Re: What IF
 

That made me laugh and remember the joke about the boys who drowned in the back of the pick-up truck because they couldn't get the tailgate down.:ursofunny

What I was referring to is if the escalator stopped all of a sudden and you wasn't holding on to the rail you might go flying off. :)

Not that you couldn't walk off and not be trapped like an elevator. lol

Re: What IF
 

How would you do that?



BTW...a friend told me a redneck joke on how to roast hot dogs. Get your garden rake and you have 10 or so spikes you can stick your hot dog on and roast like a rotisere. :ursofunny

Re: What IF
 

It's an old boy scout trick that I have improved on a little by reading survival books and experimenting.

Ideally you can use three or four square or rectangle grill pieces and aluminum foil.
Surprisingly cardboard wrapped in foil can be used in a pinch too.

You wrap the grill pieces (or cardboard) in aluminum foil, make a bed of hot stones heated from the campfire, place the bread (typically in a bread tin) on the aluminum foil over the bed of hot stones. Then using the foil wrapped grills you form three walls and then form a roof and front with a foil flap. this of course covers the bread tin to fashion an oven. Then shovel burning coals and embers around the two sides and back all the way up to the top. It's even better with a rigid top as well to place coals on the top.

To make this easier you can dig a hole, place your stone bed, build your oven, and dump the coals in around it.




I like that one! LOL

Re: What IF
 

Whoa, now there's loving your neighbor as your self and loving the enemy for ya! :nah Yep, you will bring many to Christ - NOT. :foottap

Sorry, I don't usually get ugly on forums, but really, isn't during a crisis the BEST time to bring people to Jesus? Isn't that when they need Him the most and we have the most opportunity?

Okay, now you guys have found MY hot button.

Re: What IF
 

There is a big difference between people in need of help and criminals who will inflict harm and even kill to take forcibly whatever you may have that they happen to want.

I have and will be perfectly willing to help others in times of crisis, disaster etc.
But I will not allow punks and thugs to come and take everything we have to survive and endanger my family in the process.

You need something, ask. If I have it to give, I will. If I can help I will.
But if you come at my family and I at gunpoint or in the dead of the night through a window to forcibly TAKE our supplies, you will be stopped. By whatever means necessary. If you happen to not live through the encounter, that is a result of YOUR decisions. I just stopped you.

Re: What IF
 

Absolutely correct, thieves don't need God, they need hell. Hopefully they will die on a cross next to Christ, he won't shoot them.

I don't know, for me it is different. I guess I feel like if I am supposed to be Christ-like (Christian) I have to do as I think Christ would do. I would have a hard time killing someone Jesus told me to love. I trust that God knows they came to me in the way they did, He will tell me what to say and what to do. If I die, I know where I am going. Hopefully my witness will bring them to repentance. If they die, they go to hell and I live with the fact that I did not love them and offer them the hope and forgiveness that I have been given.