Are you prepared? Trying to be more self sufficient

Yup. But if you have no power and a freezer of thawing meat... moving all the water out will make the greenhouse drier than ambient, and thus good for meat dessication.

 

If it's coming for you it doesn't matter.

Had a close friend in high school lose her mother in the F5 that hit their house. It had a basement with rebar reinforced poured concrete walls and it still didn't matter. The entire structure was taken down. Only reason it didn't take out the entire family is because her and her sister were at the church for youth studies and their dad had left the house to try to bring them home.

 

Interesting. This defies the laws of physics. You should write this up.

 

Either you or a family member has a health condition that requires daily medications. All of a sudden you can’t get to a pharmacy it’s no longer available what do you do?

this will apply to some of us others perhaps not but this situation is a tough one to figure out how to deal with

 

https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/ocean-observation/understanding-climate/air-and-water/

Ikr. Those JPL guys know nothing about physics either.

 

This is one of those 'sucks, but...' Stockpile if possible, look up alternatives that might work (diet, older compositions, similar compositions made up for livestock, etc) but really, if your wellbeing is dependent on a well functioning society to get you stuff, and that society stops functioning for an extended amount of time, you just basically get hosed.

 

Yep for those of us depending on meds there’s no easy solution. I have been able to stock pile a decent amount of meds that’ll last me for a while plus testing equipment to monitor myself. One of the biggest steps has just been correcting my diet. I work a pretty physical job so that’s mostly taken care of and grid down it’s going to be a lot of hard physical work. No easy answers to this one which is why I asked the question

 

No, he's right. The humidity ratio (lb water per lb air) doesn't change, but the relative humidity decreases if you take any air and heat it up. Relative humidity is only useful as a measurement when paired with temperature. Dew point is a more useful metric that doesn't change with air temperature. (Dew point is the temperature at which a given air/ water mixture will be at 100% relative humidity, or fully saturated, or, wait for it, when dew would form.)

It's also why it can be quite muggy in the morning, then feel pleasant in the afternoon on the same day (although sometimes the humidity ratio/ moisture content changes as well).

The field of study is called psychrometrics, if you want to read more about it. Mechanical engineering uses this stuff for HVAC design.

 

More importantly, when you want to talk about dehydrating meat (making Jerky), if the warmed chamber has lower moisture percentage than the meat, the moisture of the meat enters the ambient air. You'd still want to make sure that the chamber top is vented so there's circulation, of course.

This isn't something I came up with, but https://livingoffgrid.home.blog/how-to-dry-food-beefy-jerky-with-a-solar-dehydrator/ is an example of someone doing just that (solar dehydration), and shoot, I guess you can slap some glass on top of some bins and charge a hundred bucks for it too.

$100 JUA Technologies Solar Food Dehydrator

https://www.amazon.com/Dehytray-Portable-Solar-Dehydrator-Device/dp/B089N5H9BV

 

Short answer is if its something major you wont have long to worry about it... i do however have some stuff in reserve.

 

I’m a pharmacist. One of the first questions I ask people is how long they will live without their medication and where they store it. Few people plan long term on their meds. You’d be surprised how many wait until they are completely out and come in wanting an emergent fill.


From a practical standpoint, if I’m at work when a SHTF moment occurs, I’ve already identified what I’m taking home. (For me that’s meds, but everyone should assess what they have at work that would be better off at home prior to a SHTF moment) At home I keep 6 months worth of meds on hand. If you need it to survive, make sure you’ve got enough to hold out a while.

Would be a good idea to have a couple of antibiotics on hand. Most docs have no problem giving you scripts for a well stocked emergency kit. You can even buy kits already made up with proper meds, but they are expensive. Think 3rd world first aid kits for extended visits.

 

This is a problem, some of my meds are on a thirty day refill. This is dictated by the insurance companies, I would be more successful getting world peace than dealing with the insurance company.

 

Huh? You started out putting meat in a greenhouse and now you're essentially making an oven..... It's off topic and can't keep up so I'll just say OK. Best of luck.

 

Insurance screws us a lot with this as well denying your meds being refilled until they think it’s the right time

 

Fill it full of meat and set it outside in FL during the summer. Report back.

(your link is just some sort of weird AI hashtag and instagram photo aggregation, btw)

 

Idk about dehydrating but you all have me interested in looking at building a solar oven now

 

Insurance sucks.


There are often time ways around that. Some insurance allow early refills for vacations. Some allow 90 days if the MD requests it. If it's a fairly cheap drug, you can pay cash and bank a few extra months. One way that I am not recommending, but just telling you about is to have the script written for the max daily dose but only take your actual dose. In other words, if you take 50mg/day but the max dose is 150mg/day, getting it written for 150mg/day gives you a 90 day supply. In a couple of months you have a year supply. Not suggesting that route at all, just for info.

I'd suggest talking to your pharmacist and explain to him that you need more than a 30 day supply and see what they can do. If you come to me, I'll hook you up. Non controlled meds of course. Nothing to do about the 30 day supply on controlled meds.

Seriously though, even for a natural disaster you need an adequate supply, especially if it's keeping you alive.

Emergency kits are easy enough to do ahead of time. If your provider won't write for them, you can get well stocked kits online.

 

My wife had her thyroid removed so is prescribed synthroid. Any hacks to using that in a SHTF? Sources, or alternatives? Even dog meds need to be prescribed.

 

Does it have long shelf life? Sometimes getting stuff from Mexico is an alternative

 

Foreign meds are a crapshoot. Having done many medical missions to Central America and experience with the Army having a pharmacist at JTF Bravo in Honduras that did alot with the locals, 25% of the drugs in those countries are counterfeit. Even in the US we are not 100%, but far better than south of here.

As far as actual Synthroid, there are good generic alternatives if she is taking brand name. The key is you have to stay on the same generic and not switch. If your insurance is an absolute 30 day no other option type thing, lose the bottle the day after you get it filled. Or pour it down the sink, drop it in the toilet, or my favorite have your cat eat it. Then get another 30 day supply with cash not billed to insurance. Then fill your next monthly fill on time on insurance. Now you have a 30 day cushion. Be really clumsy and do this a couple times a year.

If your insurance allows longer or early fills for vacation, go on vacation as often as the insurance allows.

Of course, my advice is worth what you pay and only hypothetical.

As far as long shelf life, store in a dry, cool area. Not the bathroom. Keep for 10 years without a worry. As long as it's not tetracycline. If it's tetracycline, throw it out now. The military routinely extends the expiration date of most drugs by a significant amount. After that they are still good for humanitarian uses.