The greatest invention of the last 3 millenia.

[Pope Lecherous]

Fucking health inspector made me throw out my grill.     I need to get a smaller one i can hide from him.

That's a fucking shame.  The gas grill DEFINITELY comes in handy during a hurricane.   MREs and beer!  They've come out with some surpisingly good ones though recently, but you couldnt find them in those shitty surplus ripoffs.

[Richter]

This turned into the Discordian Survivalism thread quick 

[Cainad (dec.)]

The Hivemind must be preserved!



Also, I think nearly all of us have a tiny amount of paranoia. Hurricanes, dystopias, it's all the same.

[Richter]

Fucking health inspector made me throw out my grill.     I need to get a smaller one i can hide from him.

Also... salt.  It never occured to me until just now I'll need that if things go to hell.  I'm usually trying to eat less of the stuff.

Why the hell is he able to walk in and make you throw out anything?  I'm guessing apartment living or somesuch.

Anyways, this may help.  Cheap / free, efficient, and EXPENDABLE!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hobo-Stove-from-Tin-Can---Traditional-High-Tech-Ca/

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Fucking health inspector made me throw out my grill.     I need to get a smaller one i can hide from him.

Also... salt.  It never occured to me until just now I'll need that if things go to hell.  I'm usually trying to eat less of the stuff.

A health inspector at your house? Weird!

Yeah, some often-overlooked things that are good to stock up on are salt, sugar, aspirin, and hard liquor (I chose vodka because it's cheap and versatile, and not tempting enough for me to break into before I need it). A case of duct tape couldn't do you wrong, either. I store a lot of my garden produce via canning, but if you can't do that, a case of dried cranberries or cherries is a great idea. Dried meat too, preferably just salted and not seasoned or smoked, so you can use it for soups. Vegetables like corn, onions, carrots, and peas dry very well, store well, and rehydrate nicely into soup. I also usually have a 20-lb bag of pinto beans and one of rice on hand; I go through them gradually and buy new ones when I'm about halfway down so they don't go bad. I would like to keep a 50-lb sack of flour on hand but I have problems with moths and a 50-lb sack won't fit in the freezer.

Normally I keep a bunch of winter squash from the garden n the basement, but I kept procrastinating moving them to the basement and they all froze.

It's not hard to see the Mormon influence on my attitude toward food, is it? 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh, by the way, you can usually pick up 55-gallon steel drums for less than $30, and it's not a bad idea to have one on hand for smoking/drying meat if you should need to. Also, getting handy with stone-age hunting tools isn't a bad idea; ammo always runs out eventually.

The thing that I've been stressing about lately is that I REALLY need a wood stove in the house for heat.

[Richter]

The thing that I've been stressing about lately is that I REALLY need a wood stove in the house for heat.

Remember them 55 gal. drums?  They don't make the most efficient wood burners, but they work. 
Line it with firebrick / furnace cement, and make up a door, baffle, legs, etc.  (They sell kits, for ~ $50.00.)

I've seen a few cast iron box stoves go DIRT CHEAP at yard sales if they're rusty.  (Haunt foreclosed properties maybe?)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The thing that I've been stressing about lately is that I REALLY need a wood stove in the house for heat.

Remember them 55 gal. drums?  They don't make the most efficient wood burners, but they work. 
Line it with firebrick / furnace cement, and make up a door, baffle, legs, etc.  (They sell kits, for ~ $50.00.)

I've seen a few cast iron box stoves go DIRT CHEAP at yard sales if they're rusty.  (Haunt foreclosed properties maybe?)

No space for one that big. You can pick up old wood stoves really cheap at salvage yards, or on Craigslist.

The main problem with older wood stoves, and almost all homemade ones, is that compared to modern stoves you get about half the heat from your fuel. Also, honestly, the bulk of your expense is going to be installation/firewall/baffle/hearth and putting in a safe chimney: you might as well spring for the extra couple of hundred to get an efficient new stove, especially since obtaining a steady wood supply in the city is going to be a little trickier. Also, working with limited space (my house is big but the rooms are small and crowded) means I would be better off with a smaller, more efficient stove.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I just figured out where I can put a wood stove that works.

Yay! Now I just  have to save up.

[Richter]

Good points.  I wouldn't want to try to improvise baffles either.

My parents run a woodstove in the city, and burn msotly scrap wood from job sites or old skids.  (Junk mail burns well.  Provoke enough and your kindling comes to you.  )

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Scrap wood is really good, if you have carpenter connections you can get an endless supply of free wood.

[Requia ☣]

Fucking health inspector made me throw out my grill.     I need to get a smaller one i can hide from him.

Also... salt.  It never occured to me until just now I'll need that if things go to hell.  I'm usually trying to eat less of the stuff.

Why the hell is he able to walk in and make you throw out anything?  I'm guessing apartment living or somesuch.

Anyways, this may help.  Cheap / free, efficient, and EXPENDABLE!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Hobo-Stove-from-Tin-Can---Traditional-High-Tech-Ca/

Apartment yeah, my lease says the landlord gets to do inspections, and is allowed to have a 3rd party present.  What caught me by surprise was that the landlord would use his to let the health inspectors in.  I'd fight it, but it comes with an advantage that the inspector never checks bedrooms (at least not when we're here).  So the landlord is still in the dark about things like the rats.

[Richter]

IMHO, that's sucky, but landlord vs. renter rights are always odd.  I hope they never rifle through your bedroom. 
If you think they might, booby traps would just cause trouble.  Defend your rodents with psychology: leave a towel and a dildo over the obvious side of the rat cage.

[Requia ☣]

IMHO, that's sucky, but landlord vs. renter rights are always odd.  I hope they never rifle through your bedroom. 
If you think they might, booby traps would just cause trouble.  Defend your rodents with psychology: leave a towel and a dildo over the obvious side of the rat cage.

We use a blanket and my roommate's anal  kit actually.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My friend says that if she has any money left over after her bathroom remodel, she'll buy us both wood stoves. Cross your fingers for us, guys; we need to be ready when the zombies come.