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Winter Preparedness Checklist
00:15:18
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| All right, well, the winter storm is blowing in, and much of the United States is going to be drenched in, well, freezing ice on the trees. | |
| And that, of course, is going to cause a lot of tree branches to break off and fall on power lines. | |
| And so many of you listening right now are going to lose power. | |
| And that's the focus here. | |
| I'm going to walk through a checklist for you. | |
| Very practical podcast about things that you can do to get ready for the coming storms, the ice, the cold, but specifically the power loss. | |
| So welcome. | |
| Now, I live in Texas and I lived through the 2021 rolling blackouts. | |
| And during that time, we had eight minutes of electricity every 30 minutes. | |
| And it was a horrible time. | |
| And I learned a lot of hard lessons. | |
| One of them was to make sure that my tractor would start before the cold comes in. | |
| It wouldn't start. | |
| And I had a generator attached to the tractor via the PTO, a 50-kilowatt generator. | |
| I couldn't even use it because I couldn't start the tractor. | |
| So first thing is if you need anything to work when it gets cold, start it now and run it for 20 minutes or so. | |
| Charge up the battery. | |
| Make sure the oil is circulating and everything. | |
| You know, warm up the engine before the cold hits. | |
| So do that immediately, especially on generators. | |
| So whether you have a gas generator or a diesel generator, don't wait around for the moment that you need it only to find out the battery's dead or the like the engine air intake filter has gone bad or something like that. | |
| Run it now and test it now. | |
| And then also make sure you've got sufficient fuel stored for it. | |
| Now, I also run diesel heaters. | |
| These are forced air diesel heaters. | |
| And this is for heating open spaces, by the way, like barns and things like that. | |
| So these open air heaters are pretty cool, actually. | |
| I really like them. | |
| I've got several. | |
| And what they do is they have a blower and they burn diesel, but they also require electricity in order to function. | |
| So I have to have electricity to keep everything else heated with the diesel heaters, but I also have to have plenty of diesel. | |
| And so another important lesson is that if you're going to transfer diesel from one container to another, make sure that you have a manual diesel pump. | |
| And the brand that I use is called Fillwright. | |
| That's F-I-L-L-R-I-T-E. | |
| I think that's what it is, actually. | |
| Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what it is. | |
| It's red. | |
| And they make two kinds of pumps for manual transfer out of a 50-gallon drum or a tank. | |
| And they make a rotary pump and then they make a pump that has an arm that goes up and down. | |
| I don't know what they call that. | |
| It's like a diaphragm pump or something. | |
| That's the one you want. | |
| You don't want the rotary pump. | |
| The rotary pump, frankly, takes way more work for whatever reason. | |
| It's just the physics of it. | |
| So get the one that's got the up and down lever. | |
| You'll be way happier with that one, if you can still get it. | |
| Also, there's some other pump brands, and I did buy one that's made out of all aluminum. | |
| And I regret that I don't recall the name of it, but it's great. | |
| And I love the fact that it's all aluminum because then it's not going to rust. | |
| So I've got a couple of different manual pumps. | |
| And that's what I use to pump diesel out of 50-gallon drums into the diesel forced air heaters. | |
| But obviously, these pumps also work for pumping diesel into generators and things like that. | |
| So make sure all that's ready. | |
| Make sure you start your vehicles, etc. | |
| Now, assume you will not have power. | |
| That means you may or may not have water. | |
| This is a big deal. | |
| If you have well water, you're going to lose power to your well. | |
| If you have rainwater, those use surface pumps and those pumps won't work. | |
| And you should also assume that your pipes might break. | |
| Because the cold is going to be unusually long in duration. | |
| A lot of pipes will break. | |
| As you know, I'm not a fan of PVC pipes because they shatter very easily. | |
| Whereas PEX pipes can handle freezing so much better because they can handle the expansion without shattering or bursting. | |
| So you may want to just take a look at your pipe supplies. | |
| Do you have repair, you know, couplers? | |
| Make a run to Home Depot or wherever. | |
| Get yourself some spare parts in advance. | |
| Make sure you've got the tools. | |
| Make sure you've got the parts to do the repairs that you're probably going to need to do. | |
| And it's better to do it now than after the storm when everybody's at Home Depot and all the parts are sold out, right? | |
| So do that now. | |
| Make sure if you're going to repair broken lines, you might need a crimper. | |
| You might need the crimps. | |
| You know, you might need, if you use what I use, which is a PEX expansion tool, you're going to need the expansion heads for the different sized PEX lines. | |
| You're going to need the tool. | |
| You're going to need the batteries. | |
| You're going to need the PEX expansion fittings, the inserts that go into the PEX lines, etc. | |
| Make sure you've got all that stocked up. | |
| I already have all that stocked up because I use that stuff all the time for irrigation purposes. | |
| So I'm all set in that department. | |
| Oh, but I forgot to mention back on water, make sure you store water. | |
| So just assume you won't have fresh water for maybe a few days. | |
| So have some backup water storage. | |
| You can put it in various containers, as you know, lots of things you can store water in. | |
| Or you can buy a giant plastic bag that fits in your bathtub. | |
| And typically that holds about 100 gallons and you can fill up your bathtub with extra water there. | |
| That can be pretty useful. | |
| And you don't have to go out and get expensive drums or barrels. | |
| But even if you do that, you're going to need some kind of manual pump to pull the water out of that bathtub bag. | |
| So think about all this in advance. | |
| The other thing is make sure you've got buckets. | |
| What I ran into in 2021 was just this shocking realization of how much water I had to carry around. | |
| Because of course, all the water dishes froze for all my animals. | |
| You know, I've got goats and I've got chickens and I've got donkeys, etc. and dogs. | |
| And, you know, I've got to keep fresh water for them. | |
| So I was running around all the time taking water out of my emergency storage and then putting it in the water containers. | |
| So not only should you think about water for your animals, but also warmth for your animals. | |
| Can you keep your animals out of the wind? | |
| Do they have a wind shelter? | |
| Is there some kind of safe heating element that you can use, like a light bulb for whatever animals you have? | |
| And also, can you bring your animals inside? | |
| If they're dogs or cats or lizards or whatever, lizards aren't going to do well in the deep freeze, that's for sure. | |
| So find out if you can bring them inside. | |
| And if you can, then definitely do so. | |
| Make sure you're taking care of your animals during this difficult time. | |
| It's going to be tough for them to make it through all this. | |
| Probably don't want to bring all your cattle into your living room. | |
| I'm not going to bring donkeys in. | |
| The donkeys can handle anything. | |
| They're like the ultimate survivors. | |
| They made it through five-degree temperatures a couple years ago, so they're fine. | |
| All right, now, if the power grid goes down, what are you going to do for communications? | |
| You're going to need a backup form of communications. | |
| And as you know, our sponsor, the satellite phone store, they have satellite phones. | |
| And you can reach them right now at sat123.com. | |
| And if you contact them right now, they can probably get you a satellite phone with either overnight or two-day FedEx. | |
| And you can have that sat phone by Friday, maybe. | |
| I mean, probably, depending on where you are, they can tell you. | |
| But reach out to them if you want a satellite phone. | |
| That's sat123.com. | |
| And if you already have a satellite phone, I'd like to encourage you to pick it up and use it. | |
| Make a call. | |
| Make sure you remember how to dial with it because sometimes it's different. | |
| You know, whether you're dialing a domestic phone line versus another person's satellite phone, etc. | |
| And then make sure it's fully charged. | |
| And if you have a battery bank, you know, like a solar generator, which has a big onboard battery, make sure those batteries are fully charged because you can use that to recharge your phone or to recharge maybe a laptop computer or your, I don't know, a tablet or whatever. | |
| So just make sure everything is charged up. | |
| You've got maximum battery power in everything before the storm hits. | |
| And water storage and fuel storage as well. | |
| All right. | |
| What else do you need to do? | |
| Well, you're going to need to figure out food without using the stove, without using a microwave, without using anything like that. | |
| So do you have food that you can eat or make easily without using a stove? | |
| Make sure you've got that ready. | |
| And, you know, it could be nuts, it could be sprouts, it could be, I don't know, bread or whatever. | |
| I mean, you can figure this out. | |
| Or you could make food in advance. | |
| And since it's cold, you can probably store it outside. | |
| Like outside would be like a freezer. | |
| So maybe you can make a bunch of a big pot of beef chili or something if you want. | |
| And you can, you know, store it outside, even if your electricity is down. | |
| And then you need a way to warm it up. | |
| So what are you going to do? | |
| You know, a camp stove, be safe with it. | |
| Use the camp stove outside. | |
| Make sure you know how to use it. | |
| Make sure you've got a pot for it. | |
| Make sure you've got fuel for it. | |
| Or you have a rocket stove. | |
| You're going to feed it on pine cones and tree branches or whatever. | |
| Don't try to start these fires in your living room. | |
| You'll burn up the house. | |
| You know, curtains are on fire. | |
| That's not good. | |
| So use it outside and make sure you're prepared to do that. | |
| And then if you lose all heat, then make sure that you've got a very cold weather sleeping bag that you can put on your bed. | |
| And you've got, I like to use really thick wool blankets because wool is so warm. | |
| It's crazy, crazy warm. | |
| You're going to love that. | |
| So take advantage of that. | |
| Make sure you are fully prepared in every way possible to have no heat. | |
| And, you know, it's survivable. | |
| It'll be cold, but you can survive it. | |
| And there are some things that you can do. | |
| I can't really recommend it, but there are some isopropyl alcohol stoves that technically can allow people to burn isopropyl alcohol, although some of these have been recalled due to, I don't know, fires and things. | |
| So I'm not recommending it. | |
| In an emergency, I have used them and they've been fine for me. | |
| And they burn relatively clean because it's just isopropyl alcohol. | |
| So there's not a bunch of smoke and soot. | |
| There's a little bit, but not much. | |
| But those are some other backup emergency items that you could consider in certain circumstances. | |
| But if you do, make sure you can use them safely. | |
| In any case, it's far more wise to only have open flames outdoors, not indoors. | |
| So just, you know, that's up to you. | |
| If you do, just as another warning here, if you do decide to have any kind of an open flame indoors, including candles, please don't go to sleep with open flames burning. | |
| You know, put all the flames out before you lie down and go to bed. | |
| You don't want to end up sleeping through half your house burning up and then you have to escape the smoke because it woke you up, you know, the fire alarm, etc. | |
| Bad scenario. | |
| So don't go to sleep with open flames. | |
| You know, it's like your mom told you: don't run with scissors. | |
| Don't sleep with open flames. | |
| Okay, what else? | |
| What about emergency transportation? | |
| Is your vehicle ready to drive on icy roads if you had to in an emergency? | |
| Think about that in advance. | |
| Do you have ice scrapers for your windows and things like that? | |
| Do you have a good pair of gloves? | |
| You have, you know, the right kind of coats and shoes and everything else. | |
| People slip and fall on the ice all the time. | |
| And then they end up having to go to the emergency room, but then the roads are icy, etc. | |
| So if you can avoid walking around on icy surfaces, then please avoid it. | |
| If you can avoid walking under icy trees that break and drop branches, then avoid it. | |
| Stay home if you can. | |
| Ride this thing out in your own house with your own food supply, your own water, your own blankets, your own sleeping bag, your own backup generator. | |
| You know, all these things. | |
| Be smart about it and avoid injury and avoid adventures. | |
| You don't need adventures. | |
| You need to just make it through this because all the hospitals are going to be overflowing with people who had accidents or car accidents or whatever. | |
| First responders are going to be in bad shape. | |
| Oh, also, you know, the gas stations may not function because they may not have electricity. | |
| And so you want to top up all your fuel tanks. | |
| Make sure you don't need gas or diesel or anything else during this time. | |
| Now, this is not a time that I'm concerned about looting or even a self-defense issue. | |
| I don't think looters really like freezing cold weather and icy roads. | |
| It's not the best looting time. | |
| So I wouldn't be too concerned about a bunch of looters. | |
| Mostly, you're just going to have to deal with the cold, the power loss, loss of water, also the loss of the use of your freezer and refrigerator, your heater, and your air conditioner. | |
|
Freaking Cold Up North
00:00:59
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| And that's a lot to deal with, actually. | |
| You know, life without electricity and it's freaking cold, especially up in the northern states. | |
| You guys are going to get hit very hard. | |
| And I know you're used to it. | |
| You're like, oh, we live up here all the time. | |
| Okay, well, good luck. | |
| It's going to be like negative 30. | |
| Actually, I don't know if it's going to be that cold, but it's going to be freaking cold. | |
| For all you friends up north, eh? | |
| You're going to freeze your little tushes off, eh? | |
| Yeah, that's what's going to happen. | |
| So even us in Texas, we're going to freeze too. | |
| So everybody get ready. | |
| And if you want any backup supplies of food, you can order from us, although they won't arrive in time at this point, not before this weekend. | |
|
Seven Powerful Essential Oils
00:00:46
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| but you can order at healthrangerstore.com for the next situation, you know? | |
| But if you want satellite phones, you can get those at sat123.com. | |
| So get everything ready. | |
| Thanks for listening. | |
| Be safe, everybody. | |
| We'll make it through all this. | |
| It's not going to end the world or anything. | |
| It's just going to be cold and difficult for a couple of days, and then it'll get better. | |
| All right. | |
| Thanks for listening. | |
| Take care. | |
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| It's made with three types of silver, seven powerful essential oils, and lab tested for glyphosate, heavy metals, and microbiology. | |
| Get yours at HealthRangerStore.com. | |