My daughter headed out to the St. Louis airport this morning to catch a flight to Denver; I was about sick with worry until she called me a bit ago and was off the plane and out of the Denver area - she said no 'rage' other than normal STL traffic. She's only going to be gone 3 days, so then I get to worry about her coming back in to St. Louis... I did my best to hide my worry from the grandsons, but they've already called me on being grumpy once, so I'm just going to try to chill.
For emergency use water, I have a 1000 gallon tank that the rain water from one area of our machine shed drains into. I also use this water in my canners as it is soft water and not likely to mess the canners or jars up. The water is not filtered as it goes in to the tank, but the water is usually clear - no trees nearby for nesting birds, etc.. I do boil the water before I use it in the canners; and will do the same for drinking water. I have materials for a double bucket secondary strainer that will sit on one of the IBC totes; and then the Berkey comes into play after that. I was raised on cistern water - and we'd occasionally have to have water hauled in - it's certain that we would have had to do that this year if we relied on a cistern. Our household water currently comes from a rural water cooperative water tower that is about 6 miles from our home. I'm not sure how much pressure there would be; if it would push the water that far... If TSHTF, I will first fill my water bobs, leave Hubby at home filling jars, then head to the nearby state park camping area that is on a different tower and fill all my 5 gallon water jugs. I'm not a fan of bottled water, so I rotate the cases through daughter's house; I keep about 10 cases on hand at home. I also have some water 'canned' - I put in a jar of water if I don't have enough jars of food to fill a canner. I often re-use a lid when I do this - there is a local Amish trick to bring the lids to a boil with a spoonful of baking soda to 'freshen' the sealing compound. I figure if the water doesn't seal, it's no big deal; and if it does, I'll have sterile water for various uses beyond drinking - wound care, etc.. I also saw an interesting water harvesting thing on line that is a box with a piece of glass on top - it is supposed to collect water by condensation; I didn't have time to finish the video so need to look a little farther in to it. I have a large, square stainless steel pan we used for pressing cider, that has a spout on it that can be opened and closed; plus a piece of glass from an old picture window...hmmm
I left for daughter's house early this morning to pick up the boys, so had time to hit Wal Mart before I went to her house. I finally found boneless skinless chicken thighs - there were 6 packages; and I will admit that I grabbed three of them that were between 4-5 pounds each. I'm going to run them all through the crock pot; and freeze containers for the cat. And the humans - I cook and can or freeze them to human standards so that we can use them in an emergent situation. Or a non-emergent one
I've been known to use the cooked chicken thighs for chicken Alfredo, chicken and noodles, chicken biscuit stew, chicken salad... Dang, I'm starting to sound like Bubba in Forrest Gump
Middle grandson decided he wanted to cook something, so we make BBQ meatballs, green beans with potatoes, corn, and corn bread - the whole pan of corn bread disappeared, but there are a few leftovers - enough for Hubby to take in his lunch tomorrow, and maybe enough for my lunch as well. I don't know what he is going to want to cook on Sunday
I have to have the boys back in town at 0700 to drop them off at their Great Uncle's for the day so they can go do 'guy stuff'; the other grandpa just had surgery and Hubby works tomorrow so Uncle stepped in, bless his heart! After I drop them off, I will probably zip over to Wal-Mart since I need a new sprinkler, and will see if they have more chicken in stock. If so, I'll see if I can get enough to run 7 quarts through the canner. The feral cat also likes the salmon and whitefish canned cat food 'pate'; I wonder, if I put a trot line in the lake, would I get some type of fish I could cook or can for her... Catfish are common to catch on trot lines; and you also get the occasional carp on the line. I clean and cook catfish, but haven't done anything with carp other than throw 'em back in the lake.
Well, I think I'm going to go prop my feet up and read a Kindle Unlimited book that popped up on my tablet - probably need to run these boys through the tub as well.
Take care all; stay safe out there!