SODIS water treatment

Part 3 of 4
Emergency Water – Following shelter on the priority list of survival is water.  There is something called the “rule of threes” talked about in the preparedness community.  It goes something like this:  you can go without air for three minutes; you can go without water for three days; and you can go without food for three weeks.  Let’s talk about water.  In the situation where your lodging is gone but the city infrastructure is just fine, you should have access to clean drinking water without much problem due to numerous public fountains and tap water.  You’ll need a bottle for the water and those can be easily scrounged from trash and washed if you cannot afford purchasing a bottle of water.  If you have the funds, buy just the initial bottle of water—you can refill it from the public sources.  But what if you think the city water system has been somehow compromised?  Should that be the case, the city probably will have public distribution sites and your only concern is having enough containers to fill.  Depending on which source you read, plan on a minimum of two gallons per person per day.  You can, of course, make water you gather from a spring or capture from rainfall safe by a few methods:  SODIS, filtering, and boiling to name a few.  SODIS is probably the easiest method.  All you need is that plastic water bottle you kept from your purchase at the store or picked out of the trash.  Remove the label.  Two bottles is better than one in this circumstance.  Cut the top one third off one bottle—that makes a funnel and cup of sorts.  Place a clean cloth (sock or bandana will do) in the funnel part and mate that as best you can with the uncut bottle.  Dip the cup portion of the cut bottle into your water source and pour the water into the filter funnel.  What you’re doing is filtering out the particulate.  Once your uncut bottle is filled, cap it and set it on its side on a light colored surface in the sun.  Let it sit there all day.  The ultraviolet rays of the sun do the water treatment for you.  Do multiple bottles at the same time.  Use the treated water of one of the bottles to wash off the threads of the other bottles tops and wipe them clean.  Repeat as necessary.  A picture of a SODIS setup is at the top of this article.  A last minute filtering method uses the exact same equipment as above in case there isn’t sufficient sun.  It’s not as safe as SODIS but can be used as a last ditch effort and is definitely better than drinking untreated water straight from the source.  On top of the cloth filter in the funnel, place a layer of crushed charcoal (can get it from campfire debris) topped by a layer of sand.  Water is slowly poured from the cup into the filter which is mated with the bottle.  Boiling water is what most experts say is the best way to purify water.  You’re going to need a pot for this (although I will detail an alternate method below).  So, scrounge a big beer or soda can from the trash.  Fosters beer cans are the choice of a lot of ultralight campers and pages upon pages have been written about how to make them into ultralight cooksets.  For our purposes, carefully cut off the top portion of the can and somehow smooth off the sharp edge, perhaps by grinding it with a stone.  Fill it with water, place it on your heat source, and let the water boil.  I prefer solar as a heat source (I’m a Leave No Tracer) and I have provided a couple pics of my Bernard Solar Panel Cooker which deserves its own paragraph (tomorrow).  One method of campfire heating that I’m fond of is the Dakota Fire Hole.  Click on the word Dakota for a link to a pretty good description of it. This method calls very little attention to you as it's almost invisible unless you're really close.  In essence, you dig a hole about eight inches in diameter about ten inches deep.  Try to dig it where you don’t expect any roots.  Roots will make the digging more difficult and, more importantly, you don’t want the roots to smolder which could lead to fires in the surrounding area after you fill the hole back in.  About a foot away from the hole, make a two inch diameter diagonal shaft-like tunnel leading into the hole.  This tunnel provides air to the fire.  Get some dry tinder and sticks (if the ground is wet, look for your sticks in old trees that have yet to fall down) and start your fire in the hole.  There are numerous methods of starting a fire and I can talk about it in later posts if you want, but hopefully you have a lighter handy or can scrounge one discarded because it no longer has any butane in it.  The spark wheel probably still works so all you have to do is catch the tinder on fire with sparks from that.  Also, you can use a Ziploc baggie with some water in it to make an expedient magnifying lens to start a fire which you will push into the hole.  Feed the fire periodically with bigger sticks to keep the fire going.  By the way, the can is going to get blackened with soot when you use a campfire type source of heating.  The soot is actually advantageous as you’ll see in the upcoming post about the solar panel cooker. Yes, your hands will get sooty.  You should be able to clean them.  Just don’t forget and wipe your face after handling the pot but before cleaning your hands.  Let’s take things a step further and assume you are unable to find even a discarded beverage can.  You can still boil water.  Let’s assume you still are using the Dakota but a regular camp fire will work.   Or, you may have used your beverage can as a stove by cutting off the top and punching holes near the bottom to let air in (fire is made in the bottom of the can).  Dig a six inch diameter hole about six inches deep near your Dakota.  Line it with some newspaper  or a bandana/handkerchief or T-shirt.  Heat up stones (not from near the water source if it is a creek or river—those may explode from steam build-up inside the stone).  The stones are transferred by using sticks as tongs from the fire to the smaller hole when you believe they are super hot.  Just prior to transferring the stones, transfer your water to be boiled into the hole using whatever method you can, even cupping your hands.  Transfer the heated stones to the water.  The heat from the stones is transferred to the water which will cause it to boil.  All you need to do now is to get the boiled water to your lips.  I’ll leave that to you.  I’m sure you’ll think of something.    I’ll get to the Bernard solar panel cooker, food, and miscellaneous thoughts tomorrow.  Here’s an article I wrote a few years back.  Tongue-in-cheek, but it actually has a purpose.  Sorry, no pic on that.  Hope you enjoy it.

 Making Do - - Bras as Cooking Utensils – The below is mostly theory in that I haven't personally attempted these suggestions mainly because I know my wife will not donate a bra for experimentation.  Those who know me would categorize me as "unconventional" (they say "he ain't right" (sic) even in my presence) so my apologies in advance to those who don't see this post as of value.  Recent musings on the utility of items on one's person when no other tools are available led me to conclude there are strategies for using a bra for cooking.   Obviously bras donated by a buxom lady have greater capacity than those of less proportion.  While on the subject of specifications, I'm speaking of those bras composed mainly of cotton instead of those of frilly, padded, or synthetic material. Save that kind for use as silly hats at your next club meeting or use them as unusual tool belts (with neat pouches for nails, etc.). Picture this:  you and your significant other are watching nature's light show (an electrical storm far off and moving your way) while discussing what disaster preparedness actions to take should it come your way.   Stretched between your lawn chairs is a double barreled slingshot also known as a bra (duct taped to the chair arms of course) with Cheetos in one cup and trail mix in the other.  Or chips and dip.  Or M&Ms and gummy bears.  You get the picture.  Too silly?  OK, how 'bout using the cups as strainers for water going into coffee pots for purification?  Got your interest?  Well, then, my greatest bra cooking utensil idea to date:  cooking pots.  Huh?  Some folks are aware you don't have to have a pot to boil water.  You dig a depression in the ground, line it with cloth (such as a handkerchief) and put your water in there.  Then you place hot rocks (heated in your campfire which you started using pocket and belly button lint as tinder) in the holes.  The heat is transferred from the rock to the water thereby heating (boiling) the water.  My proposal is to use the bra cups instead.  You can whittle chopsticks out of any wood nearby (do learn to use chopsticks so you can enjoy individual flavors of the foods you eat).  So now you can tell your grandchildren that during the hurricane/tornado/earthquake/civil disturbance of the year XX, you and grandpa/grandma used a bra to have a nice hot meal of stew made of foraged food in matching pots near a romantic campfire while watching Mother Nature do her thing.  Obviously you could just use a couple handkerchiefs, but what kind of a boring story is that?  Should anyone try this, please report it as I'm sure it would work and I need validation for motivation.  It's hard to get bra donations and someone might take me away to the looney bin for sure if I'm observed trying this out.  Bottom line:  think unconventionally when trying to overcome problems--you'd be surprised at the innovations you come up with.