Going dark next weekend - suggestions for BOB please

Recondite49

Hi guys,

To avoid accusations of being an Armchair Survivalist, my better half, myself, her sister and two kids have decided to "go dark" next week from Friday through to Sunday.

In plain English this means we've decided to simulate a breakdown of society where there's no on-grid electricity or water and where the shops are no longer running.

Naturally nothing could really approach the level of panic and deprivation you'd experience if there were some kind of apocalyptic event. Also we have advance notice of when it will happen and it will only be for three days from Friday through to Sunday.

Just to make things more difficult, we've decided to undergo this experiment at the sister's place as unlike me she doesn't have a well stocked larder, herb garden nor loads of useful items lying around the place as you would expect from living with a Survivalist.

My gf and I are both taking two large backpacks, which we'll fill from my cache of supplies - everything inside will have to be enough for all five of us.

This is really great as I've never put together a BOB before, as come the Apocalypse I want to stay put.

So far, I've put together the following list for us to weather the long weekend:

- Food (dried and canned mostly, it's not too heavy).
- Vitamin tablets (for the kids)
- Water (bottled mineral water from my personal supply. We're hoping to use a rain butt for personal hygiene purposes! We've also cheated slightly and asked the sister to buy in a few bottles too).
- Several pieces of scrap cotton (to filter rain water prior to boiling - we've all agreed to have a sponge bath for the duration).
- Clockwork radio (Our one concession to modern technology just in case an actual disaster occurs while we're play acting).
- First aid kit (We're toying with the idea of simulating an injury).
- Toiletries
- Leatherman Multitool(!)
- Rocket stove (for heating up food. Fortunately we've an outside area where we can do this - plenty of twigs around).
- Personal clothing
- Card games and board game of Junior Monopoly (to keep the kids entertained).

Any further suggestions would be very welcome as it's hard to plan for every eventuality.

The plan is that we'll show up on the morning of Friday 10th, I'll flip the main breaker to cut the power, and we'll all agree not to use the taps.

Any suggestions for the BOB or how we could make this more difficult for ourselves would be much appreciated. If this goes well, we plan to do it for a longer duration some time around Christmas.

Recondite49

Just had a message suggesting the whole thing is a bit too easy in the first place given that we know exactly when a disaster will strike, and that it'll last for only three days.

In response to this I'd say :

- Survivalism implies a state of constant preparedness. This means to a Survivalist, if an emergency were to occur tomorrow, it would be the same as next week or a year from now.
- Short term emergencies are much more likely than long term ones.

I'd also like to think we're making things more difficult for ourselves by simulating "getting out of dodge" and most importantly the place we'll be staying will not be a Survvialist's retreat cached with six months' supply of food, drinking water and weapons but a normal everyday household.

We also have a four year old boy and two year old girl to entertain and care for, besides ourselves.

As mentioned before, if anyone has some suggestions on how to make this easier/more difficult, that would be much appreciated!

CardinalJ

Could be an idea to get each of the adults to come up with a few scenarios that only they know about, you could pick them out of a hat and have to then work around them. Would be good to see how you all react to a scenario where you have to actually think on your feet and you'll have to use what ever tool you have etc.

Recondite49

CardinalJ wrote: »

Could be an idea to get each of the adults to come up with a few scenarios that only they know about, you could pick them out of a hat and have to then work around them. Would be good to see how you all react to a scenario where you have to actually think on your feet and you'll have to use what ever tool you have etc.

Thanks Cardinal. We had thought about simulating an injury of some kind to practise our first aid skills. Of course there's always "Conflicted" - the survivalist card game which asks you how you would react to various scenarios too!

Recondite49

I've been toying with the idea of keeping a log of everything that happens, just for a little fun reading after the fact. If anyone would like to read it, please feel free to like this post, I'll upload it week after next.

my3cents

I bet you flush the toilet before the end of the first day.

If you don't turn the water off its never going to be very realistic.

Tabnabs

Funnily enough, there's a lad over on survivalistboards.com that did just this recently. A very interesting read, although he lived in an apartment by himself.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=366575

As for suggestions on scenario; Cork has an epidemc of Ebola and you have just enough time to get to your sisters house before the curfew begins. With no lighting or running water as an added bonus, you must consider carefully whether or not it's safe or even feasible to cook out of doors? Lighting and heating come at a premium. Who will break first...?

Stovepipe

Washing powder. Five people's clothing will need cleaning in short order.Pencils and paper;kids can draw and write for entertainment; books; feeds the brain and can be used to start fires.

ShadowFox

Flashlights and batteries and don't forget your personal protection equipment . If your cooking outdoors and want to keep it real don't forget to post a guard / lookout the smell from cooking will travel over your boundary wall. Maybe get a friend or 2 to attack when you least expect it

Recondite49

my3cents wrote: »

I bet you flush the toilet before the end of the first day.

If you don't turn the water off its never going to be very realistic.

Hi my3cents,

We are going to flush the toilet but are going to fill the cistern using rainwater to do so - naturally it doesn't matter if the water is drinkable.

As such the toilet will be used as normal but we'll have to be careful to flush only at regular intervals. I have some Clorox which can be arranged in layers after each visit to make sure we only need to do a few per day.

Recondite49

Tabnabs wrote: »

Funnily enough, there's a lad over on survivalistboards.com that did just this recently. A very interesting read, although he lived in an apartment by himself.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=366575

As for suggestions on scenario; Cork has an epidemc of Ebola and you have just enough time to get to your sisters house before the curfew begins. With no lighting or running water as an added bonus, you must consider carefully whether or not it's safe or even feasible to cook out of doors? Lighting and heating come at a premium. Who will break first...?

Hi Tabnabs,

Many thanks for posting this, it has made for very interesting reading!

After discussing it with my better half, we've decided your suggestion is an excellent one and we're going to simulate a pandemic -this will neatly explain why we can't retreat outdoors but also why we're happy to do our cooking outside as anyone approaching us would stand as much to lose as we would, too much risk of infection!

Will post again when we've worked out some specifics.

my3cents

Recondite49 wrote: »

Hi my3cents,

We are going to flush the toilet but are going to fill the cistern using rainwater to do so - naturally it doesn't matter if the water is drinkable.

As such the toilet will be used as normal but we'll have to be careful to flush only at regular intervals. I have some Clorox which can be arranged in layers after each visit to make sure we only need to do a few per day.

You don't need to fill the cistern just tip a bucket of water down the pan it does a much better job and uses the same amount of water.

madmaxi

We were forced to do this for 3 weeks last year (August) after a local builder knocked out the esb by accident.

Lighting: glowsticks for the children in bed, head torches, electric lanterns, candles for everyone else.
Heat: coal, logs, briquettes, lighters, matches etc
Blankets &/ sleeping bags.
Your children should have their own BoB, even if it's just a few of their favourite toys or a special teddy, torch, spare batteries, book, crayons, pencils, writing pad, a packet of biscuits & a small bottle of water. It gives them a little bit of choice over the proceedings & a little responsibility over themselves.
Meds: Personal medication, not something you want to forget, especially for the children.
Entertainment: Brush up on your ghost stories or teach the children how to play charades. Blind mans buff, hide & seek etc. The children will get bored far faster, hence the toys in their personal BoB.
If you smoke, extra tobacco etc
Extra toilet roll (backside, blowing nose & starting fires) & wet wipes (cleaning hands, faces, backside, general body wash & when dry can also be used for fire lighting)

I wouldn't pull the main breaker if I were you, it will destroy all food stuffs stored in your sister's freezer. Leave the kitchen appliances live & the house alarm if there is one, everything else can be switched off.

Recondite49

madmaxi wrote: »

We were forced to do this for 3 weeks last year (August) after a local builder knocked out the esb by accident.

Lighting: glowsticks for the children in bed, head torches, electric lanterns, candles for everyone else.
Heat: coal, logs, briquettes, lighters, matches etc
Blankets &/ sleeping bags.
Your children should have their own BoB, even if it's just a few of their favourite toys or a special teddy, torch, spare batteries, book, crayons, pencils, writing pad, a packet of biscuits & a small bottle of water. It gives them a little bit of choice over the proceedings & a little responsibility over themselves.
Meds: Personal medication, not something you want to forget, especially for the children.
Entertainment: Brush up on your ghost stories or teach the children how to play charades. Blind mans buff, hide & seek etc. The children will get bored far faster, hence the toys in their personal BoB.
If you smoke, extra tobacco etc
Extra toilet roll (backside, blowing nose & starting fires) & wet wipes (cleaning hands, faces, backside, general body wash & when dry can also be used for fire lighting)

I wouldn't pull the main breaker if I were you, it will destroy all food stuffs stored in your sister's freezer. Leave the kitchen appliances live & the house alarm if there is one, everything else can be switched off.

Hi madmaxi,

So sorry you had to go through this, astonishing how ESB dragged their heels, taking three weeks!

I've packed some toilet roll and glowsticks but didn't even think of taking toys - I had thought there'd be some since we're going to the sister's house but apparently they don't have many that don't need electricity and are for indoors so we'll bring something to keep them entertained - good man, good thinking!

My gf has suggested we simply place red tape over the light switches and power sockets, as well as unplug everything with the exception of the fridge - naturally we won't be using it while we're going dark.

Perhaps you should write up your experiences too? Am sure your experience would make for very interesting reading!

kippy

Fair play to ye lads.
I am a lurker in this forum and I'm never sure what to think of it all.
But all I can say is dedicating a weekend towards something like this is some outlay, particularly with kids involved.
Perhaps living without thinking of these issues is a folly of mine.

madmaxi

Recondite49 wrote: »

Hi madmaxi,

So sorry you had to go through this, astonishing how ESB dragged their heels, taking three weeks!

I've packed some toilet roll and glowsticks but didn't even think of taking toys - I had thought there'd be some since we're going to the sister's house but apparently they don't have many that don't need electricity and are for indoors so we'll bring something to keep them entertained - good man, good thinking!

My gf has suggested we simply place red tape over the light switches and power sockets, as well as unplug everything with the exception of the fridge - naturally we won't be using it while we're going dark.

Perhaps you should write up your experiences too? Am sure your experience would make for very interesting reading!

ESB fixed the break after 5 days, but by that stage everything in the freezer was ruined so we said what the hell lets push the boat out & see how long we can last. If it was wasn't for the heat that August we would of kept going. Battery operated fans can only do so much.

If you have the opportunity build yourself one of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tf3fngKA-c

It's great for running a laptop, router, lighting, recharging phones, small radios, any electric appliance that doesn't use a lot of juice.
My brother built one for under €150, local motor factor for the battery box & battery & dx.com for the internal components & inverter.
A small solar panel will keep her topped up on juice.

You'll find that after a few days you'll enjoy the more relaxed pace of life. No interruptions from the outside world.

madmaxi

Other half just mentioned, don't forget the hot chocolate & marshmallows for the children.
Also a treasure hunt in the house will keep them occupied. Prize can be as simple as watching one movie on a laptop, or something sweet etc.

Great dinner for the family very easy to cook:
Egg volcano Rhinocharge's Mum made it on camping trips.
Ingredients:
Powdered potato
Eggs (2 per person)
Back bacon (2-3 slices per person)
Baked beans in Tomato sauce

Cook off the bacon.
Boil the eggs till they are soft & the yolks will be runny.
Add boiling water to the powdered potato until it reaches a creamy consistency.
Heat up the beans.

Put potato mash into the centre of the plate/bowel.
Place eggs into the very centre of the mash & cover the eggs with more potato mash. (until it looks like a mountain)
Add bacon & baked beans to the sides.
When the eggs are broken into, the yolk pours down the outside of the mash like lava... hence egg volcano!!

Very easy meal to make on a campfire, extremely tasty, very nutritional.
A big hit with children & adults alike.

Recondite49

madmaxi wrote: »

Other half just mentioned, don't forget the hot chocolate & marshmallows for the children.
Also a treasure hunt in the house will keep them occupied. Prize can be as simple as watching one movie on a laptop, or something sweet etc.

Great dinner for the family very easy to cook:
Egg volcano Rhinocharge's Mum made it on camping trips.
Ingredients:
Powdered potato
Eggs (2 per person)
Back bacon (2-3 slices per person)
Baked beans in Tomato sauce

Cook off the bacon.
Boil the eggs till they are soft & the yolks will be runny.
Add boiling water to the powdered potato until it reaches a creamy consistency.
Heat up the beans.

Put potato mash into the centre of the plate/bowel.
Place eggs into the very centre of the mash & cover the eggs with more potato mash. (until it looks like a mountain)
Add bacon & baked beans to the sides.
When the eggs are broken into, the yolk pours down the outside of the mash like lava... hence egg volcano!!

Very easy meal to make on a campfire, extremely tasty, very nutritional.
A big hit with children & adults alike.

MadMaxi, I could kiss you.

I have actually set aside some eggs and bacon and the sister has potatoes, so will give this a bash, think the adults will like it more than the kids!

I've brought my little rocket stove which can run off twigs but am toying with the idea of taking the gas one too. Naturally it's not a long term solution but this is a short term scenario - eventually everyone who's going to die of Ebola will do so and we can get on with our lives!

Recondite49

madmaxi wrote: »

ESB fixed the break after 5 days, but by that stage everything in the freezer was ruined so we said what the hell lets push the boat out & see how long we can last. If it was wasn't for the heat that August we would of kept going. Battery operated fans can only do so much.

If you have the opportunity build yourself one of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tf3fngKA-c

It's great for running a laptop, router, lighting, recharging phones, small radios, any electric appliance that doesn't use a lot of juice.
My brother built one for under €150, local motor factor for the battery box & battery & dx.com for the internal components & inverter.
A small solar panel will keep her topped up on juice.

You'll find that after a few days you'll enjoy the more relaxed pace of life. No interruptions from the outside world.

Hi MadMaxi,

This looks very promising. I hadn't heard of dx.com - I've been like a kid in a candy store looking through there. They don't seem to have any deep cycle battery but as you say Motor Factor can help there ; I imagine a 12V deep cycle battery would be more useful than a car battery, due to the fact it needs to be charged by solar.

I have some battery operated lanterns and was planning on using these for lighting - the kids think this is all for Halloween..!

madmaxi

Recondite49 wrote: »

I've brought my little rocket stove which can run off twigs but am toying with the idea of taking the gas one too. Naturally it's not a long term solution but this is a short term scenario - eventually everyone who's going to die of Ebola will do so and we can get on with our lives!

If you were going off grid (in an emergency) you would use anything to hand be it gas, solid, gel or charcoal fuels. Use what you've got!!
We found gas is best for boiling water fast (so we used it sparingly), everything else is fine for cooking food stuffs. Break out the bbq if you have one. Meat, fish & veg on top, bake potatoes in foil in the ashes.

Chips can be made for your youngsters, by par boiling potatoes(10 minutes), letting them rest out of the water till they are cool enough to handle, slicing into rounds & then shallow frying until golden. Salt & vinegar to taste & become the hero for the weekend.
Nothing beats homemade chips made over a campfire.

For the most part the cooking will be the easiest part, it's keeping the children occupied that will be the hardest part.

If I may make a recommendation, if you have the opportunity go to the beach & collect razor clams, clams, limpets, mussels, cockles and winkles. You don't have to eat them you can catch & release. It could be the reward for the treasure hunt.

I hope you have a blast & I for one am looking forward to hearing about your adventure.

madmaxi

Recondite49 wrote: »

Hi MadMaxi,

This looks very promising. I hadn't heard of dx.com - I've been like a kid in a candy store looking through there. They don't seem to have any deep cycle battery but as you say Motor Factor can help there ; I imagine a 12V deep cycle battery would be more useful than a car battery, due to the fact it needs to be charged by solar.

I have some battery operated lanterns and was planning on using these for lighting - the kids think this is all for Halloween..!

The battery pack is a simple transportable pack which is safe for the whole family to use. You can keep a car battery topped up with a solar unit, it's not as efficient as a deep cycle battery but much easier to find in an emergency situation. Great for use for youngsters & o.a.p's alike.

Get down to a decent discount store & get some garden solar torches. You can remove the led lighting mechanism & place them strategically around the house (stairs & bathroom) They give enough light to stop you breaking your neck going down the stairs. They need 2 days charge before 1st use, but last at least 8 hours per use there after & since they are solar powered they save you money in the long run. Major plus you can place them in the window indoors & they will still charge.

madmaxi

Recondite49 wrote: »

Hi guys,

To avoid accusations of being an Armchair Survivalist, my better half, myself, her sister and two kids have decided to "go dark" next week from Friday through to Sunday.....

The plan is that we'll show up on the morning of Friday 10th, I'll flip the main breaker to cut the power, and we'll all agree not to use the taps.

How did it go Recondite49?

Recondite49

madmaxi wrote: »

How did it go Recondite49?

Hi madmaxi,

Overall not as bad as I thought it'd be! I got back yesterday evening am going to pen my experiences this evening, as I kept a handwritten journal of what happened, need to type it up!