Category Archives: Sanitation

infection control, waste disposal, cleaning

soap follow up

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This is a follow up on the Homemade Laundry Detergent Blog. I found some more information from our daughter, friends who have done this before and the internet.

How to make washing soda from Baking Soda-
Pour baking soda onto cookie sheet with no oil
Place into 400 degree preheated oven
Bake for 45 to 60 minutes
Washing soda will look dull and be a finer grade of granules
Baking Soda cost $2.24 for 4 lbs and Washing Soda is $3.24 so Baking Soda is cheaper (These prices are from Wal mart)
-if you cook the baking soda at the same time as you are cooking a cake, roast or potatoes you will save the cost of cooking it – in other words you will kill two birds with one stone.

For the bar soap to use, you can use any soap you want to but the suggestions were to keep away from the heavy scented soaps. Ivory soap, Castile or if you have soap allergies use the bar or liquid soap that works with your skin.

In my research there was one recipe that called to use 2 TBS of Glycerin in the 5 gallons of liquid detergent. Glycerin would cause the detergent to be a more smooth consistency instead of gloppy gel and would also act as a natural fabric softener.

Other recipes call for adding even more water to the solution, so experiment with using this with your water (if you have hard water or if you have a water softener) and the dirtiness of your laundry.

This is good detergent to use for babies because it is not full of chemicals next to their delicate skin.
It also does not cause high suds.

To make homemade powdered soap-
Finely grate your bar soap
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of borax

After mixing all ingredients only use 2 tablespoons in a full load HE front load washer. Again experiment with your water and dirty clothes to fine tune the amount to use. So, after you make sure that this works for your skin and clothes, then you can make up more and store away to use at a later date or at least store the ingredients to add to your storage. This will make a big difference in the amount of money you will have to use to put away a years’ worth.

For fabric softener, most of the information I found was that you just use ¼ cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle of the HE front loader washing machine with essential oil. If you do not like the smell of vinegar then add your drops of essential oil to the rinse cycle instead of the wash cycle. Basically you can add the essential oil at any stage of the wash or drying. I like it better and it seems to work better to add the essential oil to the dryer.

To make dryer sheets you can use 5” squares of 100% cotton material, that can be from used clothing or you could crochet 5” squares of cotton yarn. Place essential oil onto the material and throw into the dryer. You can use this same square and placing the essential oil onto it each time used for at least 5 loads of clothes, then wash the square. The square can then be used for another 5 loads until you rewash it again. Both the material and the essential oils can be stored away for a later date to use. The key to maintaining oils is to store it air tight.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

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Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Well, while our daughter was gone on vacation this summer I made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent. I have been meaning to make it for years but never got around to doing it. Our daughter has been making her laundry detergent for the last couple of years. It was much easier to do than I thought it would be and is so much cheaper. She said it only cost about $2 to make a 5 gallon bucket full and only using ½ cup for each load, will last quite a while. To get all of the ingredients it is almost $7 but compared to ready made laundry detergent is much cheaper. She gets all of the ingredients at Wal-Mart. She said if a load is really dirty she will add oxi-clean which she gets at the Dollar Tree for a dollar and will last for a while depending on how dirty your children get their clothes. The ingredients for the laundry detergent are below:

1 five gallon bucket, these you can get at paint stores or Wal-Mart or Home Depot
1 bar of soap-you can use Fels Naphtha or Zote which are only 97 cents
1 cup of Washing Soda, use washing soda not Baking Soda they are different about $3
1 cup of Borax, which usually goes by “20 Mule Borax” about $3

Other items needed are a cheese grater, a long handled stirring spoon, a pot that will hold at least 4 cups of water and a measuring cup. If you would like to add a different scent to the soap you can use essential oils, however, I prefer the scent of the ZOTE bar soap to Fels Naphtha. Whatever the color of the soap is will be the color of the detergent.

Use the cheese grater to grate the bar of soap and put it in 4 cups of water and put on medium high heat so that the soap dissolves in the water, do not boil. Pour this into the bucket and add 1 cup of Washing Soda and 1 cup of Borax to the mixture and stir until all is dissolved. If you want to add a different scent, now is the time to add that. Fill the bucket half way and stir. Place the half full bucket at the point where you will be using it and stir. Then add water until filled up to about an inch below the top of the bucket. You will still need to stir the detergent so don’t overfill. Place the top on the bucket and let stand for 24 hours. The detergent will look like a gloppy gel, and that is how it is supposed to look. You can leave it in the bucket or put in smaller containers whichever is more convenient for you. If you don’t like the gloppy gel you can pour some out and use a blender to make it more even looking that will be just your preference. It does not affect the way it works one way or the other.

For a front loader HE washing machine use ½ cup for a large load – you will get about 160 loads out of the 5 gallons-, if you use a top loading washer you can use up to 1 cup – about 80 loads out of the 5 gallons- for each large load. And adjust as needed. Most commercial laundry products tell you to use too much soap per load so that you use more and have to buy more.

If you have any questions or concerns or have a different way that you make your laundry detergent, please share your comments. we would love to hear your comments.

www.PrepareSurviveThrive.US

Water

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Water is the single most important item to plan for in your 72- hour Kit. Allow a minimum of 3 Liters (preferably one full gallon), per person per day. This is absolutely essential. The body can live without food for extended periods of time, up to 2.5 months [BOBBY SANDS of the IRA early 1970s]; but can live only about three or four days without water. This is at rest, not considering people in active, stressful or emergency situations.

Be sure that all family members know how/where to find safe water and how to purify it.

Carry your water inside your backpack (or other container) or strapped to the outside. Use canteens; empty one or two liter Coke bottles work great too.

NEVER use milk jugs because they are designed to self-destruct. Be sure that all water containers are clean and free of defects. Check them from time to time, at least every six months, to insure that they have not developed any leaks and to verify that the water is still usable. You should consider having six two liter Coke bottles per person. That will give you three days supply. If you don’t have adequate water, DON’T eat as this will de-hydrate you even faster. Remember that the BEST way to store and carry water is inside of you. NEVER ration drinking water!

In addition to the water you actually carry with you, be sure to carry supplies to purify more water. Liquid chlorine bleach, iodine tablets and iodine crystals are good disinfecting agents. Learn how to use them and rotate them properly to insure maximum shelf life (See chapter on Water Storage and purification for further details). Nevertheless, be sure to include in your kit any one of the above-mentioned items to disinfect water because in times of emergency you may not be able to build a fire or have access to other heat sources to boil water.

Ebola 2

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Ebola 2

Years ago, back in the 1980s and early 90s I worked with ‘high risk’ HIV patients. How the general public is responding to Ebola reminds me a lot of the attitudes back then, except this time around there is not the stigma of it being a homosexual [only] disease as was believed back then. Some of my friends worked in public health at the time. One of them who I will call Rob was a minister by training and was working as a paper pusher compiling statistics and writing reports except on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. On Monday, Wednesday and Fridays the nurses in the clinic drew all the blood and collected other samples for syphilis and gonorrhea screenings and they were not concerned for their own safety beyond ‘universal’ precautions. However the blood draws for HIV screening were done Tuesday and Thursday mornings NONE of the nursing staff would do those blood draws due to fear of catching the HIV bug. Rob had to do all the HIV blood draws because of this. Rob and I discussed all this often and we would both laugh – AT those nurses – because it was the same patient group who had been in the day before for the syphilis blood draw. It would have been easier on the patients [and the nursing staff] if all the blood was collected at the same time.

The short of the story is that there is a lot of fear over some things that as long as you take reasonable precautions and pay attention to details you will remain very safe even when dealing with deadly diseases such as HIV and Ebola. That is as long as whatever ‘bugs’ of the day have not been tampered with and weaponized. If they have been, well all bets are off.

Basically if you treat everyone as if they have everything –germ wise- and take those Universal Precautions AND use your head, you should be reasonably safe.

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/ebola/ or http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us

EBOLA

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EBOLA

Its very name strikes FEAR into the hearts of men!

And it SHOULD….. 90% fatal if untreated and only 60% fatal with treatment. This last week Ebola has been in the news with a death count of over 800 so far, I bet that it is actually higher. Then over the weekend one of two healthcare workers contracted it and one of them has already been flown here to the US. According to the news people our public opinion was strongly against allowing the importation of the 2 healthcare workers to one of our best CDC hospitals. Rightly so…. Perhaps. Consider this on the other hand, thi8s may well be the first time someone with the disease has come here BUT it is not the first time that the infective agent has been brought into our country. Both the CDC and our military bio warfare facilities have active samples that they have been experimenting with and in some cases turning into a weapon. How do you think that CDC has serum to use to treat the 2 healthcare workers?

As a practical matter our government is going to do whatever they jolly well want to do and we the people can not really stop them. At least so far the Ebola bug is not truly all that contagious. YET.

So what do we the general public do in case the bug starts spreading here in the US? Same thing as we can do for most anything. Stay away from sick people unless you are their care giver. Beware of others body fluids. Wash your hands with plain soap and water and a lot of it. That alcohol gel stuff is not all that it is cracked up to be and the antibacterial soap isn’t all that good either. If the sick person is coughing or sneezing have them wear a mask to protect everyone else – you can wear one too if it makes you feel better. Ideally a glass walled sick room [or a green house] so that a lot of direct sun light can get to most sides of the treatment area and patient so that the UV light can help disinfect the area and the air. The more filtered air flow that you can provide the better. – is possible the air should be filtered entering and leaving the sick bay area. Limit the exposure to sick folks.

Keep the patient clean, dry, well hydrated and nourished. Keep your local environment clean and well ventilated.

You may consider making quarantine signs a head of time to warn others that you have sick folks in your house.

Some things to consider stocking include;
Chlorine bleach to disinfect things
Medical gloves of whatever fits most of your people
N 95 masks – these really should be fitted to you but most folks wont do that
A large supply of linens, towels and wash clothes
Safety goggles or face shields
Soap [bar, dish and laundry]
Wash basins
Outdoor drying lines so that the sunlight can get to the laundry

What else can you think of along with this?

Personal Hygiene

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Personal Hygiene

 

Personal Hygiene is a difficult situation during a disaster. If you are sheltering in place you can still use the tub and have the luxury of taking a bath of course in smaller amounts of water and not as much soap as usual. You can heat water up however you are doing that and put some cold water with it and just wash up. You do not need to take a bath every day or you will use your water supply up. And you can wash your hair the same way, and have someone pour water slowly over your hair as you get the soap out. Your hair does not need to be washed every day either. In between you can use any kind of personal powder or baking soda. Just sprinkle either on your hair rub into hair and comb as usual. This dries up the oil that gets into hair and causes it to look dirty. This is what we use in healthcare as waterless shampoo, For the men maybe this would be that special time that you get to grow a mustache and a beard. But you can still shave if you have a straight razor or a safety razor and a non-breakable mirror (look in the camping section). You can use just soap on your face instead of shaving cream. A straight razor is great for camping because you do not have to worry about extra blades, the straight razor can be sharpened like a knife.

 

In case you need to bug out everyone should have a washcloth and a towel.

Kneel down with the bowl of water in front of you. Take your shirt off and take your washcloth and get it wet and a very small amount of soap and wash your face and neck and upper body. Rinse and dry off, then put your shirt back on. Take your pants off and lay them on the ground and kneel down on them. Wash your lower body, rinse and dry off, then put your pants back on. It is better to have a look out and be up against a group of trees or rocks. This way if someone comes upon you, you’re not completely undressed. This should be done as fast as you can and following these directions will be safer. To wash your hair especially longer hair kneel down as before having someone pour water over your hair, use little shampoo, lather up and have someone pour water slowly over your hair as you rinse out the soap. A comb takes up less room than a brush. Also if anyone has long hair it is a good idea to have something to put the hair up with or braid it would be even better. Deodorant is also a good idea. Some insect repellent and sun protection and a few chap sticks would be good. Some medicated powder would be a good idea especially to use at first until your body gets use to walking a lot.

 

For the women in your group who have the monthly visit of nature some extra hand towels or premade cloth pads that can be washed out and reused. This may not seem like a good idea, but how many disposable pads can you carry. Of course you can start with the disposable but you probably will have to go to the reusable at some date, depending upon how long the disaster lasts.

 

For babies and toddlers the same thing applies. How many disposable diapers can you carry or save up. They still sell cloth diapers and rubber pants. And you can wash them out and reuse them.

 

As far as soap to use, it would be easier to use only 1 type of soap for washing dishes, clothes and the body. Whether to use like dawn liquid you would have to be careful that it did not spill in your pack. Bar soap lasts longer and would not spill, you could use something like Ivory [or Grannies’ Lye soap] for everything.

We must Prepare to Survive & Thrive.

Ready? or not

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a bit taken from the book

Ready-Not-Things-WILL-Happen Quick start survival guide.

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Not-Things-WILL-Happen/dp/1496022947/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395604161&sr=1-1&keywords=Richard+Calton

FIRST AID KIT TO INCLUDE:

  • Olive Oil,
  • First Aid Manual, or NOLS First Aid Handbook,
  • Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia,
  • Water Purification Tablets,
  • Table Salt,
  • Baking Soda,
  • K+ (Potassium),
  • Aspirin or ibuprofen (for both children and adults),
  • Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline),
  • Diarrhea medication,
  • Laxative (mom or colace),
  • 30 days of Prescriptions,
  • Safety Pins,
  • Adhesive and/or paper tape,
  • betadine,
  • Bandages,
  • Gauze Roll,
  • Coban elastic bandage (or Ace Bandage),
  • Heavy String,
  • And you may need Tetanus immunization every five years.

see also www.preparesurvivethrive.us

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/a-time-for-travel-the-christmas-project/

Cold weather at home. WATER

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Cold weather at home. WATER

 

Last week it got down to minus 22 degrees F actual temperature, I do not know what the wind chill was. to large extent that information did not matter because IF you outside without shelter which includes proper clothing, you can die in less than an hour.

 

There were several structures with fire suppression systems [automatic sprinkler systems] that had those pipes in the ceilings freeze and break. I am sure that was a big mess.

 

The other thing about very low temperatures is that the frost line goes deeper. Our town had several water mains that burst. This is not good even during calm summer times. The cold weather made it much worse. Depending on how and where the main breaks it takes at least 8 hours to dig down to it and then repair the problem. I am not sure exactly how many people were without water nor how long it actually took to restore service to them. Even after the break is fixed, the water pipes must be flushed out to clear any contamination issues. Some of the citizens were VERY mad over the water outage. They had no showers before going to work and they had no way to clean, flush or do dishes nor water for cooking.

 

The sadly amusing thing about this is that the city water department has over the years reminded us all that we should store at least one gallon of water per person per day for at least 3 days to get them through things like this.

 

What would those people do if this had happened later during a total grid down situation? What if it had taken a week or more to restore water service?

 

Being prepared is not only about when the ‘big one’ hits.

 

Several years ago when some of us worked at the local hospital we were awakened at about 0200 one morning to the sounds of heavy machinery digging up our street. The water main had broken and the water that escaped had flooded the people’s basement next to us. It had not bothered us as we didn’t have a basement. Anyway we both had to be to work at the hospital that morning on the heart floor [tele] and the mother baby floor [OB]. We set the alarms for about 15 minutes earlier than normal as we needed showers before work. [the water was out for about 9 hours that morning]. We did get our showers and we did get to work on time.

 

How did we manage that with the water main turned off?

 

We used our water storage and alternative shower system which was a brand new 2 gallon pump sprayer tank. You know the kind they sell in lawn and garden section that you use to spray weed killer and insecticides. We poured a couple of 2 L coke bottles into a pot on the stove and heated it. When it was the right temperature we filled the sprayer and got in the shower. One of use sprayed the other to get them wet –and yes that WAS fun! ;] The first one soaped up and was sprayed down to remove the soap. We then switched places. This was just as good as a ‘real’ shower, used less water than normal AND was way more fun. One of our co-workers lived down the street from us and did not know about the water issue until she went to take her shower and NO water. We discussed it at work that day. I told her how we had handled the situation. She seemed to listen and asked where & how to get ready ‘IF’ it happened again.

 

Cross ref http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/water-storage-…coke-bottles-2/

Water West Virginia

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Last Thursday [2014 –Jan- 09]  in West Virginia, a chemical spill was identified that flowed into  a river a mile or so up stream from the intake point that was the water source for 9 counties. Other towns down stream from this also harvest water from this river. This chemical [4-methylcyclohexane methanol ] which is a hydrocarbon, can cause eye & skin irritation, headaches and breathing difficulties, among other not so fun reactions.

The best solution for most people is to have water storage PRIOR to any contamination incident.

It is difficult at best to process this type of contaminated water. The 4-methylcyclohexane methanol has a boiling point cooler than water. This makes it hard to process the water by distillation in a field situation. As with most hydrocarbons you can clean it up with activated carbon which is basically ground up charcoal which you can make at home.

We will discuss water treatment later.

Many if not most eateries who could not afford to truck in the volumes of clean water needed simply closed for the duration. To say that the economy in that region was adversely affected would be somewhat of an understatement.

On the Monday following the chemical spill I was listening to the news on the radio. Part of the report was that people were ‘abandoning their homes” and going to out laying communities ‘in search of food”.  This ties into a conversation that I had with S.W. about the declining ability of people to cook for themselves.

Late in the week the water department reported that the levels of the contaminate had fallen to ‘safe’ levels and the affected residents were told to run all of their taps to finish flushing out the water system and that after words the water would be safe to drink. BUT out of an abundance of caution, pregnant women should boil their water before consuming. This seems to be a ‘feel good’ bit of advice as discussed earlier.

The take away from this is [A] to have water storage in your home and office for consumption, [B] learn the actually facts of whatever you are faced with. [C] learn how to cook and do other stuff for yourself – which does not mean that you have to personally do everything yourself – so that you can tell when you are being lied to.

Sanitation – toilets part 2

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What is done is the plumber or you climb up on the roof and introduce the snake into the vent stack and run it out to the street. They will then check all your drains to make sure that the system is clear.

OK, what do you do when the plumbing gets stopped up on a Friday night? You will most likely not be able to cross your legs and hold it until Monday or Tuesday when the plumber can come out at the regular rates. You could drive to the local 24 hour gas station or convenience store or Wal-mart, every time you have to go. Not a very viable option, is it? Another way to deal with the situation is to just go ahead and go and NOT flush until the plumber has taken care of the situation. Will it stink, most likely after a while it will. You could pour some vinegar into the toilet bowl. I would not use bleach as it can react with the ammonia in urine and give off a poisonous gas.  Many people have died mixing chlorine bleach and ammonia together.

Other short term options include turning off the water to the toilet and flush it so that the bowl is empty and then line the toilet bowl with heavy duty trash bags –at least 2 so that there is less of a chance for the bags to leak when you take it out each day. What do you do with it then? Some people will tell you to toss it into the dumpster or to bury it. You should check your local laws as most towns have laws against discharging raw sewage.

All of these ideas can be used after an earthquake disrupts sewer services.

A longer term solution designed for dealing doggy do is to dig a hole near a tree and installing a specially made device like a bucket with an articulating cover and as you collect the dog poo and dump it in the composting bucket. A bigger solution is to take a plastic barrel such as a 55 gal water drum or plastic trash bin with a top, cut the bottom out so that it drains well cut a few holes in the sides so that worms can freely travel between the compost and the ground and they will convert it to soil, during normal times put your leaves and grass clippings in it instead of out on the curb for the city to haul off.. During ‘normal’ times most towns frown on putting human waste into something like this – check your local laws.

Longer term ideas would be to have a composting toilet. They are more expensive up front, however over the long haul you will use less water which will save you money and it will be less stress on the environment too.  The compost is great for your plants too.

Most folks think that we are living longer and healthier because of ‘modern’ medical care. To an extent this is true. However, a major historical note, it was only in the late 1800s that modern man discovered the germ theory and started making use of better sanitation like flush toilets and hand washing with soap and clean water. BTW do you know where the term taking a crap came from? Thomas Crapper, the inventor of the flush toilet was knighted by the Queen, so from a literal point of view in the water closet is the crapper. ;]