Monday, July 18, 2011

Taking care of the really big emergency!


Ok the power goes out, most of us think about the fridge and freezer thing first. But before the power goes out you need to know something very important! When you flush the toilet, where does it go and how does it get there? I asked this question in my own home town and everyone laughed. But the city administrator was there and I asked her this question. No one was laughing after her answer! It went quite a ways and used “pumps” to get there. No electric means it isn't going any where. You flush and whoever is down stream of you or in the lowlands is going to be blessed with your waste! Not a pretty picture is it! So ask someone at your utility or city hall where your waste goes to and how it gets there. If it involves pumps or other services that uses electric then be a real pal and make other arrangements before you have a long term outage that causes some real bad feelings!

I bought a very simple toilet kit from Walmart.com and had it shipped to my local Walmart for free. It's called a Luggable Loo and comes with two boxes of Double Doodie bags with BioGel. You should also buy Absorbent Gel in case you run out of the Double Doodie bags. The kind I got is called “Super-sorb” instant lemon scented Absorbent. This turns that mess into a lemon scented Gel—really! Can also be used for other spills like blood, urine, vomit, oil, ect. Most listings online were for a 6 pack case but I've listed one below that sold single bottles if you want to try it first. It's at Waresdirect.com. http://www.waresdirect.com/products/Office-Supply/FRESH-PRODUCTS/Supersorb-Liquid141544?trackURL=shopzilla

You should also have vinyl gloves and a good bathroom cleaner that kills all the germs and viruses. I found one at one of those big box home supply places like Home Depot or Lowes. It's “Hi-Genic” by Franklin Cleaning Technology. What you want is something that kills Strep, Salmonella, Pseudomonas, Staph, Ringworm, Athlete's Foot, Influenza, herpes and AIDS virus. If you get into a long term situation you will want something to clean up your toileting area to prevent spread of diseases while you get your act together and figure it all out. If you use regular trash bags for your toilet make sure you double bag and bury it as fast as you can away from all water sources. Regular trash bags are made to decompose rapidly so fast disposal is very important. We go camping several times a year on the other side of our good pond and have set up a toileting area over there using a tarp and our emergency toilet. It bets walking the ¼ mile each way in the middle of the night when you really have to go! We have our own waste solution so we know we can pour buckets of water in our toilet safely as it goes out to a sewage lagoon without pumps being involved. But we are grateful for the emergency toilet for camping in our primitive places!

Now for the second part of this! My family inhales toilet paper! Ok, not really but it sure seems like it! I know if I filled my entire basement with TP we'd run out in 6 month's or less! No way could I store enough for my family! So I went looking for another solution. It involves eating lots of ice cream out of those big 5 quart buckets! I use a clean one of those and a clean large plain yogurt container or a cottage cheese container. I add to it a couple of sponges, a peri bottle and a stack of double flannel wipes. You can find these online but I just made my own. Got each family member their own color and zig zagged around them. Made a dozen each about 4 ½ x 7 inches. You could serge them if you have a serger or sew them leaving a small opening and then turn right side out and stitch the opening shut. Add it all into the ice cream bucket and you have your own little toilet paper repair kit. Fill the peri bottle with clean water and you can rinse with that and use the flannel to dry with and use the sponges if you need to scrub. Add the dirty cloths to the yogurt or cottage cheese container and wash them when you are able. I know a large struggling family with 10 kids who made each up their own kit and they went a head and did away with toilet paper all together. They've been using this for about 10 month's now and assure me it's working fine. They are able to use that extra money to buy extra food storage.

Cherlynn








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