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Hello, last week we woke up to no running water, our pipes didn’t freeze or anything like that, the city had a busted section of line they had to replace. It was only off for a few hour’s that day, but it was around lunch time. So if we wouldn’t have had any water stored back, we wouldn’t have been able
to cook our lunch. So this week, I want to tell you the best way to store water long term.
Why is water important?
Simply put, we can not survive without water. Our bodies need water for our basic bodily function’s. We also need water to wash our hand’s, flush out toilet’s, clean with, cook with, wash laundry and a number of other thing’s. If we ever find ourselves in a situation where we do not have any water, it can be
a pain, but if you have water stored, you can rest assured that you will be prepared for that kind of situation. Each person need’s to have a half-gallon of water per day for drinking, or a gallon of water per day if you also plan on cooking or washing up with it.
How can I keep my water from going bad?
First thing is to make sure you store your water in a cool dark place out of the sunlight. I see sometimes, throughout the summer there are stores that will leave cases of water for sell, outside in direct sunlight. If you have ever tasted a bottle of that water, you would know what I mean.
You can get storage container’s to keep the water in, these 5 Gallon Stackable water containers are a great way to store 20 to 100 gallon’s or more of water, they are made in the USA, BPA free, food grade material and HDPE so it is very durable. Each container come’s with a built-in handle for easy carrying.
What ever you do, do not use any milk jug’s to store water in. Yes they are easy to come by, but you are not able to get the inside of the jug clean, the bacteria will still be in there and it can make you sick if you were to drink from it. Now you can buy the gallon jug’s of water at the store, they do come in handy, but
after so long, the jug’s can become brittle and break, then you’re out of water. You will want to change out the water every 5 to 6 month’s if you want to keep it as fresh as possible. What I do with my cases of water is I will pick up a case of water every week, I will usually go through a half a case a week myself, my wife will use some as well. So in order to keep our water fresh, we will rotate out the water, when we buy a case, we put the date on the package, so we are able to keep track of how long we have had it and know when we will need to get it used up by to make sure that we have fresh tasting water.
We ended up buying a water purifier that you hook onto your kitchen sink faucet, we really enjoy it. It is a PUR FM-3333B Classic Vertical Water Filtration Faucet Mount, It can treat up to 100 gallons, it has an indicator light to let you know when it is time to change the filter out. The longest you should use the filter is 3 month’s, after that you should replace it with PUR RF-3375 Filter we buy the dual pack because it is cheaper in the long run to buy two as opposed to the single pack.
How can I purify water on the go?
With Potable Aqua Water Purification Tablets with PA Plus you can make questionable water suitable to drink, 50 tablet’s treat up to 25 quarts of water in about 35 minutes, unless it is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures that low slow down the process and it could take longer to purify the water. The PH tablet’s will remove the iodine taste and discoloration of the water. These are good to throw in your BoB or your camping gear.
The Sawyer Mini SP103 Water Filtration System These are also great for camping, at about 5 ounces it doesn’t add a lot more weight on you like carrying around a water jug or pouch. It can treat up to 100,000 gallons of water with each filter. It removes 99.9% of all bacteria, such assalmonella, cholera, and E.coli; removes 99.9% of all protozoa, such as giardia and cryptosporidium. The kit comes with a 16oz reusable squeeze pouch, a 7″ straw and a cleaning plunger.
You should never drink from any water that is stagnant and full of algae. You should always filter water that you find outside, even clear stream water it is best to filter it out, you just never know what kind of gunk you can ingest with
unfiltered water. The cleanest water you could find out in the wild would be from the beginning of a spring fed waterway, the water is filtered out from the earth. It is also some very cold water, I remember the first time I went to a spring fed creek, I jumped in without realizing how cold it was. Needless to say I got a wake up call. This was before I joined the boy scout’s and learned a lot. This is in my opinion the best way to store water long term.
Next week I will be talking about the 25 item’s that would be gone from the shelves within hour’s of a natural disaster and how you can keep your family safe from the horde’s of hungry and thirsty people that found it to be non important to prepare for such event’s.
I have also changed the theme of the website, I hope you enjoy the new look. I am always open to getting feedback from my reader’s. Thank you for your time, I hope you have a great day!