Eggplant in 103
Get self a gravity-fed water filter like the British Berkefeld or Doulton water filters. I’ve been using one since I lived in the Bay Area. My brother’s famous addiction to Coca-Cola lead me to snag some of the avalanche of screw-top plastic drink bottles to store tap water.
The Berkefeld filter is a stainless steel cylinder with a reservoir at the top and torpedo-shaped filters using compressed Diatomaceous Earth, with activated charcoal and (I believe) silver particles as anti-bacterials. Takes about an hour to filter about 2 gallons or so, by gravity, to the bottom receptacle, which has a petcock.
This type of filter has been distributed for many decades by the International Red Cross in disaster areas. Cost $250-280.
Read up on the 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak, if you wonder if it’s worth it.
Also took a 12-week Red Cross course in Wilderness Emergency Response, which was based on the premise that you (victim or rescuer) might be days and days away from medical care.
That class trained people in first responder skills wounds, injuries, all sorts of CPR, assessments, hypothermia, heat stroke, frostbite, mass casualty incidents, monitoring vital signs, and lots of things to NEVER EVER DO.
Now when there’s a rending auto crash in the intersection next to me I know all I have to do is sit on the curb with my head down and I won’t FAINT!
Also, around the SFBay in the 1990′s, each community’s professional fire department offered CERT courses – Community Emergency Response Teams. Learning how to determine whether to turn off utilities, assessing building safety, urban search, rescue, triage, basic first aid, cribbing to stabilize crashed vehicles, how to use fire extinguishers, and more.
Finally, it turns out that people who spend a lot of time in “historical re-creation groups” tend to practice a lot of low-tech self-reliance skills. This might include such groups as Black Powder enthusiasts, Civil War re-enactors, participants in Fur Trader Rendezvous events, and members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA).
For most of a decade I attended a lot of SCA events, learned a lot about living simply. It’s proven mighty useful dealing with adversity.
Hasn’t done a thing to reduce my verbosity.
