For most preppers, the action plan for a TEOTWAWKI scenario can be neatly categorized into basically one of two categories:  Bug in or Bug out.  Many people live in rural areas with sufficient security and provisions to be able to go to ground in the event of a disaster and ride out the storm.  “Sufficient” security might include bunkers, shooters, stockpiles of ammunition and weapons, spare parts, etc.  “Sufficient” provisions might be enough food to get the defense force and extended family of the principal through to the harvest, and enough seeds to ensure that the harvest will feed the crew indefinitely.  For many rural preppers, this scenario is an attainable goal.  For many urban preppers, however, this goal could never be realistically accomplished.  For that reason, we have to consider the possibility of bugging out.
There are some relatively standard considerations that almost anybody with a functional brain housing group would think through prior to bugging out.  Where am I going to get fuel?  What type of vehicle do I need?  How much food and water should I be taking with me?  Where am I going?  These are the basics of bugging out, and many of the conversations I see around the topic within the forums are geared towards that end.  These are great considerations, and they need to be considered as a bare minimum before attempting a bug out.  But, having experienced moving through combat zones for most of my adult life, I’d like to offer some other considerations that may not be so obvious.

As a caveat, these considerations are based upon several assumptions.  First, we are assuming that the power grid is down.  Second, we are assuming that the domestic security situation has degraded to the point that the police are no longer capable of providing safety and order (if they ever were capable to begin with).  Therefore, based upon those two assumptions, we have to further assume that traveling is a very dangerous activity.  People will be looking for targets of opportunity for any chance of finding food, water, or supplies. 
Here are some not-so-obvious considerations for bugging out based upon those assumptions:
What are my primary and alternate routes going to look like?  Yes, I said “alternate route.”  While it may be expedient to travel along paved roads to arrive at your bug out location, it may not be realistic.  There are several reasons why traveling along paved roads may not be the best idea you’ve ever had (remembering that we are assuming the security situation has degraded significantly):

1. Paved roads are highly visible.  Traveling along paved roads will draw attention, particularly in a scenario where practically all vehicular traffic has ceased because of fuel shortages and security concerns.  Doing so may expose you to bands of roving thieves and other not-so-friendly types. 
2. Bridges and overpasses make excellent choke points.  This means there is only one direction that you can travel, and it also means that you are in an extremely weak position to defend against a well-planned ambush.  It’s worth saying that if I weren’t a prepper who was working towards building supplies for my family, and the apocalyptic disaster happened upon me, I would probably use this method to feed my family.  A good ambush can be executed with a few well-placed individuals given the correct terrain.  An overpass or a bridge is the correct terrain.  It’s best just to avoid them.
3. Roads may be impassable.  Think about a scenario where traffic was so bad that sat in their cars for days and didn’t move.  Many would eventually just leave the cars in the middle of the road and head home.  Remember, we’re talking about an urban situation here.  You might not even be able to fit your bug out vehicle down those roads. 
4. Some people are capable of making shots at 500+ meters.  If you were driving down the side of a major highway, your enemies would be able to see you from far enough away that you would never hear the bullet that killed you.  There is relatively little cover and concealment on highways. (Obviously it is hard to drive through cover and concealment.) 

Since your primary route was probably a highway, I’d like to challenge you to come up with an alternate plan.  Let’s try it on foot this time, through the woods if possible, or at a bare minimum through back streets where ambushes would be less likely.  If you’re a smart cookie, as many of you are, the thought of reaching your bug out location on foot will immediately trigger several other considerations.  Here’s a small list of things to think about:

1. How will I navigate?  Since we are assuming the power grid is down, you probably won’t have a charge on your fancy little GPS system (if the satellites are still functional).  You’re going to need a good, old-fashioned map and compass to get where you’re going.  Do you know how use land navigation techniques?  You’d better start thinking about taking a class. 
2. How much food and water can you carry on your person?  This might necessitate changing your overall bug out location. 
3. How good is the cover and concealment along your alternate route?  Will it provide sufficient concealment for your needs, or do you need to augment your concealment through camouflage clothing?  What type of camouflage is most effective in your environment?
4. How much private property are you going to need to cross to arrive at your location?  Can you detour through a publicly owned National forest or other location where you are less likely to run into the security forces of other private citizens?  Remember, trespassing during a major disaster might get you shot repeatedly.

Where are my en-route safe havens?  “What the heck is a safe haven?” you may be asking.  Think Custer’s Last Stand.  Where are you going to go when the stuff hits the fan right in the middle of your trip to the bug out location? 
For obvious reasons, I recommend having as many safe havens built into your route as possible.  One safe haven for every mile or two would be ideal.  They need to be thoroughly discussed, known by all members of the travel party, and visibly marked on all of the maps (of which everyone should have a copy).  A good safe haven will offer limited entry access, ballistic protection, cover, and concealment.  Concrete buildings work great.  Bathrooms within concrete buildings work even better (there is only one door in, the doors can typically be locked from the inside, and they are usually made out of concrete).  In a pinch, a thick grove of trees can serve as a great safe haven as it offers the bare minimum of ballistic protection, cover, and concealment.  You get the idea.  Here are a few additional things to consider about safe havens:

1. Public buildings such as fire stations and park buildings are less likely to be defended by gun-toting militia members.  You might even run into a friendly fireman who has medical knowledge if you’re lucky, but most likely all government operations will have ceased by this point.  If you choose to utilize someone else’s property for a safe haven, you need to be prepared to fight for it.  This might not be the best idea, considering you might be getting chased at the time.  Even Hitler couldn’t win a two front war.  Think about it.
2. You need a running password.  In the event that your group is split up, everyone will have directions to rendezvous at the closest safe haven.  The first person to arrive will secure the location and wait.  If other members of the group are inbound in a hurry, they need to have some way to communicate that they are secure and not under duress.  I suggest sign/countersign.  It can be as simple as a number combination.  For instance, let’s say our number combination was seven.   I might challenge the runner with the number “Four.”  The runner would reply with a verbal “Three” and, since those two numbers add up to seven, I would know that all is well and not feel compelled to shoot my friend.
3. Ideally, a safe haven would not be too far off of your route.  It’s best if they lie along your route so that everyone knows where they are and how to get there.  The fewer the barriers between your route and your safe haven, the more quickly you can travel there when SHTF.  For instance, a river between your route and your safe haven could be disastrous. 

Do I need geocaches of critical supplies?  Since we’re now on foot, we obviously can’t carry as much as we would like.  We might need extra food, supplies, medical kits, ammunition, and more.  Since we can’t reasonably carry them with us, we have no choice to but to store them along our route.  I suggest planning en-route waypoints where critical resupply caches can be pre-positioned.  I would bury them if at all possible, on uncontested land (like somewhere deep within a national forest).  Mark them on your map, and then build the waypoints into your route.  If you get there and don’t need the supplies, leave them alone.  You never know when you might come back through. 

Obviously, you would need to develop some way of storing your cache in such a way that your supplies would not be ruined.  You have to keep it dry and serviceable despite weather and potentially having been buries for a long time.  Also, you need to think of a way to mark the cache so that it’s obvious to you but won’t cause cousin Earl from the local farm to dig up your supplies out of curiosity. 
As a general rule, I recommend one geo cache for each day of foot travel required to reach your bug out location.  Of course, many people will label me paranoid and crazy for even suggesting the practice, but then I guess I am a bit batty. 

I hope this article has helped someone think of a few extra considerations about bugging out that might save their life if TEOTWAWKI ever actually happens.  As always, any prepping is better than no prepping, so take it one step at a time and do it over time as you become able.  You’ll never regret being prepared. 

Jim:
In How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It, you missed mentioning one of the great uses of "bypassed areas" -- that of an en route cache.  There is no question but that it would be plain stupid for any family to wait to leave the big cities and urban areas until the very last moment when TSHTF, urban riots have broken out, and the freeways have become one big parking lot full of shooting and looting.  But many families will want to hang on in the cities as long as possible because of employment, family commitments for the care of elderly relatives, and other reasons.  When they do leave, it would be much safer for them to quickly exit along the back roads with only the clothes on their backs and half a tank of gas than to take the time to stuff their vehicle full of survival goods and become a visible target of great interest to looters along the road. 
 
Their first destination would be their own unimproved wooded one acre lot in one of the "bypassed areas" within an hour's drive of their urban home, with only a small, used, stripped down camping trailer on it and maybe an outhouse.  It is not going to draw much interest from potential looters.  By stripped down camping trailer, I mean an old one with the wheels removed and sitting on concrete block.  Its propane tanks and battery would also be removed.  To an outsider looking in the window, it would look very Spartan with no supplies or anything useful.  There would be no source of water there.  So what good is such a property?
 
Somewhere on the property would be a 20 foot long metal CONEX shipping container completely buried under about a foot of soil (deep enough so you can cover it with plants and its location will not be obvious) and a specially constructed entrance to the back doors of the shipping container that is also buried under the same foot of soil and plants.  It might take an hour of shovel work to dig out the entrance to your buried shipping container.  This is your supply cache with the important supplies and gasoline that you will need to safely travel the rest of the way to your permanent retreat.  It also contains the wheels to your trailer along with the propane tanks, battery, generator, and plenty of gasoline for your vehicles and what ever else.  It contains food and water, and pre-positioned supplies that you would need for safe travel or to remain at that site for a few days or a little longer.
 
The advantage of such an arrangement is that there is little that is visible from the road to tempt thieves.  And if they loot an old, empty travel trailer - so what?  Your real cache is buried underground and is well out of sight.  It is also out of danger from forest fires that would likely burn your trailer to the ground.  In such a forest fire, you will not have lost anything that is not easily and inexpensively replaceable.   The best part of all -- such an acre of worthless ground that is covered with brush, stumps, and scrub trees should not cost very much.  The general impression that people will have of it will be, "This guy is really hurting if that is his retreat."
 
The disadvantage is that [in northern states] it is only likely to be accessible about nine months out of the year with snow closing the roads during the other three months.
 
Hope this helps and adds something to your work - Paul O.

JWR Replies: As has been discussed several times in the blog, CONEXes cannot be buried without concrete reinforcement. This is because they are designed to take loads only on their corners. With the weight of rain-soaked soil, their walls and roofs collapse. So, when all is said and done, it is actually more expensive to buy, reinforce, and bury a CONEX than it is to build a dedicated reinforced concrete shelter. From a practical standpoint, I'd instead recommend burying a much less expensive poly water tank with a man hatch cover just below the ground surface.

As for the camping trailer: Why have anything above ground at an unattended property? That just attracts junkies and assorted lowlifes. Storing a wall tent inside an underground cache makes more sense, to me. If you need to store a trailer, then make it a simple box trailer, with the wheels and lug nuts buried nearby. The advantage is that an open box trailer won't prove to be an attractive place for drug addicts to use as a recreational cabin.

Have you seen the latest reality television show, “Doomsday Preppers”, from National Geographic?  I made a mistake a few years ago – after 20 years of successfully resisting the cries and moans of my children, I gave in and allowed cable television to be installed in my house. Should have known better, but as they say, that’s a whole ‘nother subject.  Now, every week, National Geographic brings us “Doomsday Preppers,” Animal Planet serves up “Meet The Preppers,” Discovery beams in another episode of “Doomsday Bunkers” and the new pay-to-view internet network GBTV fires off a round of “American Preppers.”  Can some kind of copycat show from TLC be far behind? I guess maybe the good thing about these shows is that I no longer am tempted to confide in my friends about my efforts to be prepared for fear they might profile me into the same category as the folks they’re watching on television.  Better to keep it under the radar anyway.

I don’t really watch the shows but I’ve seen little bits and pieces of them as I walk through the room when they’re on and seeing the barns and bunkers filled with years’ supplies of food and water can give a guy a real sense of inferiority.  Am I doing enough?  How can I ever be as prepared as the stars of those shows?  Is my family at risk because I’m not taking this all seriously enough?  My total larder isn’t up to the level of what those guys spend in a single episode!  My steel trash cans filled with vacuum packed bags of rice, beans and oatmeal seem like just a thimble-full compared to the warehouses of canned goods kept by the celebrity preppers.  Since I’m not being paid thousands of dollars an episode to parade my efforts in front of a voyeuristic audience, I just don’t have the disposable income to lay up that kind of stash overnight.  Am I going to be a failure at this?  Not a chance.

In spite of the fact that we’re experiencing 8% real inflation and even though I live in a state where the economy is in a deep ditch and I subsequently haven’t had a raise or a bonus in four years, I’ve still been able to squeeze $10 a week out of my budget to engage in the process of laying up the things I might need WTSHTF.  I would dare say most people waste more than $10 a week on things like soda, fast food and movie rentals.  Think about your own expenditures for a moment.  How much could you save just by brown-bagging your lunch?  Plenty - like $5 or more per day!  Or kiss Starbucks goodbye and take your own coffee from home – treat yourself to a really nice travel mug and some quality beans and you’ll still save.  My wife and I do the cash-in-envelopes budget thing so on pay day I go to the bank and take with me our cash for the week.  In that cash is my $10 for prepping.  Lately I’ve been swinging by the nearby discount grocery store and grabbing ten bucks worth of rice, beans, peanut butter or cooking oil, and when I get home after work, into the larder they go.  Or some weeks I’ll stop at a big box department store and grab a couple 2-packs of propane cylinders or a gallon of Coleman fuel.  If I skip a week because the beans and rice are piling up on the kitchen counter waiting for me to vacuum pack them with the FoodSaver, I’ll grab a box of ammo or a couple replacement chimneys and spare wicks for my oil lamps.  While the 15-minutes-of-fame guys on TV might be spending $1,000 a month on supplies, I can’t do that.  But $10 a week is $500 a year and that’s a measurable step in the right direction that almost anyone can afford.  It would be nice to do this all overnight but you’ll be surprised at how your stockpile grows if you just are consistent and disciplined about working your smaller scale plan.

Sometimes, we’ll save up our $10 weekly allowance and splurge for something special or bigger.  We live about an hour from a large settlement of Amish folks and they have a great mercantile in their community filled with items designed for simple living.  My wife and I took a Saturday awhile back and drove there for the day.  We came home with an awesome stoneware crock for making sauerkraut and a pile of re-usable canning lids.  I was drooling over the hand powered grain grinders but we’ll have to save a little longer before I can come home with one of those!  They also sell basic foods in bulk in that community.  We came home with a 25 lb. sack of oatmeal for $11.25 and a big brick of Strike Anywhere matches.  If you’re fortunate enough to live near a store like this you can find almost anything you need for off-the-grid living at very reasonable prices.  If you don’t, just click on one of this blog’s banner ads and send a little business to one of them.
     I’ve also learned that the local big box membership warehouse isn’t necessarily the best place to find things on the cheap.  I assumed that if I bought a big bag or rice there that would be the cheapest way to go.  Wrong.  My wife the Coupon Queen showed me that it’s actually cheaper to buy in three-pound bags at the discount grocery – 30 lbs. for $16.90 versus about $25 at the “club”  store. Shop around and save.

     You might be asking, “Okay, but from a practical standpoint, what can I really lay up for $10 a week?”  Well, here’s what I’ve been doing:

The key is to be consistent and disciplined and make that $10 purchase every week.  A few months into it you will be amazed at what you’re accomplishing.  A year down the road, you’ll be experiencing a lot less dread about facing an uncertain future.  Two years . . . well, you get the picture.  Obviously there is much more to be done before I can call myself “prepared” for a grid down situation or the collapse of civilization as we know it, but I’m not convinced that we never really “arrive” anyway.  I’m finding it’s more of a journey.  I’ll do it this way while the lights are still on and look for new ways if and when they go out. 

Not to digress too far from my main topic of $10 prepping, but we’re also doing additional things on the home front that will help us be further prepared.  We left the city six years ago for four acres of paradise in the country.  Even though I hadn’t yet begun prepping at that time, I thought now that I was a country gentleman I should do something country-gentlemanish so I put up a little chicken pen and bought some chicks at the local tractor store’s “Chick Days.”  We’ve been raising birds and selling pastured eggs at our roadside stand ever since – a child could do this and succeed at it.  And since my favorite food group is bacon, a couple years later my oldest son and I trenched in some “hog panels” and built a shelter out of an old pickup truck camper shell and put in a few feeder pigs.  I now raise premium Berkshire pork for our freezer and for a few friends and family.  Food, water, shade and six months – that’s about all it takes to raise a hog.  Now we’re constructing a cow pen and I’ll be picking up a recently-weaned Angus steer next month.  It’s comforting to know that I can actually raise livestock and the meat is just so much better than the factory farm stuff you get at the store.  By the way, the livestock operation doesn’t fit into the $10-a-week scheme but rather comes out of our grocery budget.  I’ve also started gardening at almost zero expense.  Last year I grew 64 tomato plants and my wife canned over 160 quarts of various tomatoes, juice and sauces.  We also canned copious amounts of sweet corn and green beans.  There’s a real learning curve to gardening, though, so start now. You’ve heard it before – if you wait until the grid goes down you’ll starve to death before you master growing your own food.  Start with a few tomato plants, some beans, a few zucchini and a potato barrel.  Just take it one step at a time and eventually you’ll get somewhere.  Once again, it’s about being consistent and disciplined.

Like the Good Book says, “A Prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.”  (Proverbs 22:3) Prudent or “simple” – what’s it going to be for you?  While $10-a-week prepping won’t get you on TV, if it’s all you can afford (like it is for me) I believe it will earn you the title of Prudent.  While you won’t be a celebrity like the television preppers, you will be at least somewhat supplied in the event of TEOTWAWKI.  And if that day doesn’t come for awhile yet and you’re consistent and disciplined between now and then you’ll be a lot more than just somewhat prepped.  You’ll be ready to face an uncertain future with one less thing to worry about.

James Wesley:
The author of the article “A prepper’s guide to Beginning Ethanol fuel distillation” is using the wrong recipe for his mash.  Corn will not ferment unless it is “malted” either by sprouting the grain and then drying and crushing it, or by treating crushed corn with the enzyme diastase.  The old, illegal, moonshiners did this by sprouting and then drying whole, fresh corn.  The enzyme treatment is usually done by incubating the crushed corn with a malted barley high in diastase content, such as malted six-row barley.

When your author ferments his corn/sugar mix the only thing he is fermenting is the sugar.  The corn is wasted.
 
This is because the yeast cannot break down and metabolize starch but rather only simple sugars.  The crushed corn is high in starch but has very little sugar.
 
Even more important:  Do not drink this distillate!  Not only is this illegal, it is also dangerous.  Production of safe to drink ethanol requires fractional distillation because the first, more volatile, components coming off the still are highly toxic.  Among these is methanol (wood alcohol) but butanol and other nasty byproducts are also present.  There are books available that tell how to do this safely but it is still illegal in the USA to produce alcohol for consumption without a license.   Not recommended. - Mark R.

Jim:
 
D.P. 's article "Fire -Your Partner in Survival was very good! 
 
I would like to add that firewood storage life depends greatly on the type of wood.  Oak and other similar types can be stored for well over 20 years with no problems. (Especially if split and covered with a quality tarp or stored in a woodshed with a good roof.) But in contrast, un-split white birch will start to rot in a single year. Poplar and some other species also degrade quickly.
 
D.P. is right on about the type of heater to use.  When I built my house back in the very early 1970's, I just had to have a conventional Heatilator type fireplace for the open fire romance.  I should have listened to the old timers back then who told me to just put in a stone hearth and plain wood stove!  In the end, I wound up closing the fireplace damper, filling the flue with fiberglass insulation and putting a steel cap on it!   Now I'm just using the wood stove in the basement [with a separate chimney] to easily heat the entire house with lots less wood than the fireplace consumed.
 
Gasoline to run chainsaws can be kept for a very long time with the addition of PRI-G stabilizer. The same company also makes a stabilizer for diesel, called PRI-D.
 
(I recently started a gas engine that has been sitting for over 12 years with the original gas in the tank. Started right up and ran fine.  (I did add a little extra PRI G every few years during it's storage time)
 
I have no financial interest in PRI G or PRI D. I'm just a very satisfied user.

A Very Important Introductory Note: Owning a still is legal in the United State according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). It is not legal to use your still to Distill Ethanol Fuel without a permit nor is it legal to Distill Spirits for personal use. I created my still after watching countless YouTube videos and reading various reference web sites. I made one small batch of Distilled Ethanol Fuel, less than 1 liter, which I later found out was illegal in the US because I did not have a permit for it- even though it was a one-time experiment! Well- I now have a permit. After going through this process I believe, that every serious prepper would be well served by reading this essay in full, making a simple still , and then deciding on whether to legally test the process or just have it as a backup tool.

Now to begin formally- Every serious prepper should understand the basics of distilling and have a small still set up and ready to use, just in case. Why? Well a still is a terrific multi purpose tool to have at your bug-in location. With a still you have the ability to produce Ethanol and make Spirits, both for trade and personal use. You can also use a still to make Distilled Water – useful in a number of ways. If you want to get specific, a still is a tool that will help you separate liquid substances through the application of heat. Upon different boiling points of your mash, different liquids will be released as vapor. A still will create the environment for the separation and then using a cooling process, will return the separated vapor back to liquid form for collection.

In the event of a protracted failure of the current social contract or an extended period of hyperinflation, you will have a both a tool and trade. With enough investment in time and materials you will have a renewable source of fuel for your non-diesel vehicles. If you are like me, it is just fun to learn and potentially very useful in case TSHTF.

Since this is a Beginner's Guide, I'm only going to share some very basic information about stills and the capabilities of Ethanol. Disclaimer: I am also a beginner at Distilling Ethanol . I am fairly certain I am not the only Survival Blog reader to experiment in this direction but it looks like several years have passed since the topic has been addressed and not to the level that any prepper could start out with and 'take to the bunker' in my opinion. Let me say that there are definitely a lot of folks who know a whole lot more than I do (especially about various yeasts, mashes, enzymes, still design and basically everything about Ethanol Fuel production) but I do feel comfortable relating the basics to an audience. Please keep in mind this is a Beginner's Guide, and there are a very, very many ways to skin this proverbial cat. This is a quick and dirty bang-up that just about anyone can put into use over the course of a weekend like I did- as a proof of concept . You will not learn truly efficient production of Ethanol Fuel from this essay, but you will be exposed to possibilities and resources to guide you further in your studies and I encourage you to study further.

My goal is to give the SurvivalBlog community enough information and resources to quickly and legally work through a proof of concept Ethanol Reflux Still with capital outlay of less than $100 and to provide enough information so that even if you do not work a still, you will be able to tell if someone else is actually doing enough of a correct process to not cause you problems.

Why do you want to have a still? Well for me the ability to produce Ethanol was of terrific importance. The ability to produce Spirits was a vague intellectual interest as well, but most importantly is the idea of personal responsibility and self sufficiency that I believe many preppers share. Sure- we stock pile food and ammunition but those are non-renewable resources. If you don't have the capability or desire to grow your own food and raise your own livestock you still need some sort of useful skill that will allow you to retain your capital resources and focus on growing through other sustainable enterprise. Distilling Ethanol for fuel seemed like a good choice to investigate further. After all – garbage is eternal .

So what is so great about Ethanol? Here is my short list.

Ethanol is a clean burning fuel (much cleaner than even bio-diesel) that can work in your vehicle and can be used as a cooking fuel. Ethanol mixes very well with Kerosene – allowing for an extension of supply. 100 years ago Ethanol mixed with Turpentine was often used for lighting (Just in case you don't store kerosene). Ethanol can also be added to gasoline (It must be dehydrated first!) and with the correct supplies and purifying process you can even make your own E85 (85% Ethanol and 15% Gasoline) fairly easily and at a greatly reduced cost than what you experience at the pump.

(Read: potential to extend supply of existing gasoline and to further create your own Fuel if that supply is exhausted. Some Survival Blog readers are sure to have non-Ethanol unleaded gas stored for a rainy day due to its extended storage life. How about planning on adding Ethanol on an as-needed basis? Just a thought. For me, it is the potential of 50 gallons of Fuel at 17 MPG +/- or 100 Gallons of 50% Ethanol Mix at about 14 MPG – the math kind of speaks for itself there as long as the supplies exist to create the Ethanol Fuel as needed.)

Many vehicles sold today are Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) that are designed by the manufacturer to run either Gasoline or E85 or any mix between the two. If you don't have an FFV vehicle you CAN re-chip what you do have if it is electronic and whilst you may experience more maintenance- you will certainly save money in fuel costs if you are making your own fuel at a reasonable production level and have close enough to the same mileage per gallon. If you have a carburetor in your vehicle you can account for the lower temperature, slower burn of Ethanol Alcohol by retarding your timing, having a multi-fire distributor and increasing the Air to Fuel ratio. If you run straight (100%) Ethanol Alcohol as a fuel there are more considerations involving fuel lines, jets, gaskets, cylinder compression and filters. (I am only brushing the surface here as this topic could easily be its own essay but I will say that it greatly surprised me to find that the first automobiles were all fueled by Ethanol and not gasoline.)

Fuel is a very important consideration in the present environment. As an example of how producing Ethanol Fuel could help me personally, I drive an old Full Size Jeep with no electronics – I would just need to retard the timing a bit and possibly fiddle with the choke if I put a Ethanol mix into it – I do not plan to go E85, I might try out a 25% Ethanol mix and then see if 50% Ethanol mix worked well with minimal changes to the motor, fuel delivery and ignition systems. If I did a 50% Ethanol mix then the price to fill my tank drops about 25% according to my estimates- but the trade off is the time spent managing the operation safely and consistently.

Ethanol stores well – in an airtight container it will sit for years- if left open to the air it will suck moisture out of the atmosphere and gradually lose potency. Ethanol is a common solvent and even has medicinal properties, most commonly used to cleanse wounds (but ouch! it stings). You can also whip up Alcohol stoves out of tin cans if you decide you need a cooking surface quickly or power an actual alcohol stove – which delivers a nice constant heat... Quite a few uses really.

Best of all, in my opinion, Ethanol alcohol comes from the fermentation of yeasts that eat sugar out of starches and cellulose. While corn is traditionally thought of for a mash to produce ethanol (mostly for economic concerns for production), in reality it can be produced (though not as efficiently) from almost anything that you might normally compost from your leftovers...if you have the right enzymes to facilitate the breakdown of starches and cellulose into sugars. Some examples would be Beets, Carrots, Potatoes, Sugar Cane, any Sorghum grain, Artichokes and especially for those of you in the Midwest, Switchgrass is apparently an excellent producer of Ethanol. You can literally create Ethanol Fuel out of garbage with the right process and enzymes- again it wont be as efficient as with, say, Sugar Cane (which is what Brazil uses) but you get the idea. Many Ethanol producers clean and sell the waste mash as feed for livestock- depending on what you are fermenting this may also be a possibility for you. I don't have any livestock so after I was done with the mash, it went to the compost bin (where it would have been anyway), but if you ramp up to a serious production level Ethanol operation, you can usually use the leftover corn mash as hog feed at the very least. Yeast eats sugar and not corn or vegetable matter. Your mash uses temperature and maybe enzymes to help release the sugar from the starch or cellulose so you have a better idea of what your waste material is if you choose to use it as feed.

See the Wikipedia page on Ethanol for more information about this useful substance.

I recently made my first Reflux Still at a cost of $75 in one afternoon. This was not a 'Production Still', but served as a test in theory. With this small still, I can distill 5 gallons of corn mash or sugar water into approximately 1 liter +/- of Ethanol Fuel, which was my main purpose. There are many types of stills, very basic ones are functionally no different than a Pressure Cooker or Stock Pot with a hose poking out for the Steam/Condensate to pass through and a bucket of cold water to help the Ethanol Alcohol go back into liquid form. More advanced types, such as the Reflux Still I made, have a length of (usually Copper or Stainless Steel) pipe with non reactive stuffing in the pipe like glass or stainless steel marbles. I used Stainless steel scouring pads. This extra 'stuffing' helps greatly to catch condensate and 'purify' the end result. The general pot and tube method may be able to generate as high as 75%-80% ethanol which is not fuel grade but fine for Spirits. Most of the online videos showing folks making Rum or Spirits use this method which is illegal and not practical for producing Ethanol Fuel. The Reflux Still method can go as high as 96% which is much closer to fuel grade (100% Alcohol) for sure. My test run using baker's yeast had about ½ cup of the first Ethanol distillate that measured almost 90% alcohol but the results quickly lowered in Alcohol percentages, just to give you an idea.

My simple Reflux Still is a 30” length of 1 inch copper pipe stuffed with 2 stainless steel wire scouring pads-cut in half (solid core ribbon and not covered thread). There are 2, 1-inch 90 degree elbows soldered to the top to form an upside down U shape. The water cooling jacket is formed from the other side of the upside down U shape. There is a 1 inch to ½ inch reducer that is soldered to a 12 inch length of ½ inch copper pipe which provides the outlet for the Alcohol. The Water Jacket (for cooling) consists of 2, 1 inch to ½ inch Reducer Ts that are capped and soldered together with ½ inch holes drilled in the caps. 2 additional lengths of ½ inch copper pipes are soldered to the Reducer Ts to form the Water Inlet and Water Outlet. Each of the 3, ½ inch pipes protruding from the water jacket are fitted with ½ inch male adapters to fit hoses onto.

The main Reflux Chamber is added to a 2 gallon Stock Pot which has a 1 inch hole drilled into the cover. I supported the Still Reflux Chamber by adding a 1 Inch T section to the bottom of the Reflux Chamber and bolting the T wings to the Lid. The lid is held onto the Stock pot by three Vice grips set firm but not crazy tight. Now a lot of folks will use a pressure cooker here for the gasket seal and safety valve (which is more energy efficient and more recommended than what I did). I used the vice grips and coated the Pot Lid and top of the Stock Pot with a flour and water mixture to provide a seal of sorts that will still vent a bit without blowing up. If you decide to use a Pressure Cooker (again, recommended but keep in mind you will be at 15 psi rather than the 1-3 psi that I am with my set up - just a thought.) then you will probably spend more than $100 for your Proof of Concept unless you get lucky at a Thrift Store – remember you will have to drill through the lid – some of the older cast aluminum pressure cookers are quite thick.

If you decide to use a Stock Pot (or a 55 gallon steel drum for that matter) and are concerned about a buildup of pressure – a very simple pressure release valve to consider using is another scrap piece of pipe sticking up out of the lid with a weighted can over it (maybe a ½ oz or 1 oz fishing sinker weight for example- heck even a small rock would work)...this will bubble up and release your steam when/if the pressure gets high enough (1-3 psi was my target, rather like a normal pot lid) and allow you to proceed with extra caution and safety.

I used Lead Free Solder and Flux and also used JB Weld on the hole in the Stock Pot Lid. The capabilities of JB Weld go to 600 degrees, far above the 170 – 215 degree temperature your pot will cook mash in.

Now with your still ready- you can make a quick mash and get to producing Ethanol.

The first step is to thoroughly clean everything! If you use a plastic bucket for the mash to ferment then use a non abrasive cleaner, but clean everything at least two times! Make sure the bucket is a food grade. If you have a glass carboy great – clean it. I also steamed the inside of the Reflux Still for 30 minutes before I got the mash cooking.

Quick Mash- Mix a 5 pound bag of corn masa (not flour- you want it grainy but not clumpy!) with a 5 pound bag of sugar in a plastic 5 gallon food grade bucket. Add bottled or filtered water to close to the top of the 5 gallon bucket. Stir it around real good and add a packet or two of some simple baker's yeast. Stir it around some more getting it good and oxygenated. Then cover it and let it sit for 2-3 days. (If you feel the need for a one-way vent then a simple way to do it is to drill a small hole in your bucket lid and tape a surgical glove over the hole then use a needle to poke a small hole in one of the fingers. You will see the fingers of the glove partially inflate while the mash ferments.) Agitate the mash again real good after 2-3 days by shaking the bucket- you don't need to open it. The yeast is done fermenting the sugars to alcohol when all the sediment stays at the bottom and is no longer partially suspended. This usually takes about 4-5 days.

Now you are ready to distill the Mash.

Get yourself a heat source and don't use your kitchen range unless your family is particularly forgiving of strange and potentially foul odors permeating your home. Ideally you have a something like a propane turkey fryer element or an electric hotplate set up in a safe and controlled environment. Get a bucket full of ice water and a small submersible pump for the water jacket. Create a closed loop of cold water in to the water sleeve and hot water back into the bucket. Apply your heat and monitor temperature. I found that a handheld digital infrared thermometer worked well for my one-time experiment unless you want to spring for some pipe surface thermometers at additional cost. It does require you to be more hands-on, constantly watching and measuring temperature, but this was only a one-time proof of concept test – you can always grab a good book or a friend and a deck of cards and remember to manage your production run as safely as possible.

Since the Reflux chamber of my simple still was only secured with vice grips, I also tied 2 safety guides to the U bend at the top of the pipe just to be extra sure that the apparatus wouldn't tip over unexpectedly- you might want to do the same. Be on the lookout for steam leaks - Alcohol vapor can be explosive so be sure to test your still and carefully monitor for Steam leaks- if you have a leak that you didn't catch when boiling water you should stop and fix it before you continue your production, especially since this still is attached directly to the mash pot, which is being heated. Be Safe!

The alcohol will begin to boil off at about 170 degrees. My Reflux still showed signs of boiling closer to 180 degrees F. The water jacket part of your still should bring the temperature down to about 70-80 degrees F at the outlet which is about perfect for the Ethanol to turn back into liquid form. As the alcohol level decreases, the temperature of the mash and the (Stock Pot) will increase. When your mash pot reads close to 215 degrees then your mash is done producing Ethanol and is starting to produce Steam Water. The entire production run for this small still should last about 2.5 hours, I stopped at about 100 minutes. A larger Mash Pot will of course take longer to heat...my advice is to do what I did, start small to get a feel for it, and of course get an ATF permit first to be legal and check with your County for additional requirements.

Now a quick note on using Ethanol as fuel for your car. Do not take your Ethanol from this production and pop it in your gas tank! Fuel Grade Ethanol is 100% alcohol and the very best you can get with any still is going to be around 96% alcohol. My still's total production from this experiment averaged only 76% Alcohol when totaled together– you don't want that anywhere near your engine! To make sure all of the water is out of the Ethanol you need to treat your batch with Zeolite chunks (which is a molecular sieve that absorbs the extra water content). Zeolite is expensive – expect to pay north of $100-$200 for enough of the type 3A gravel chunks to be worthwhile but it is infinitely reusable, soak your Ethanol in the Zeolite chunks overnight and strain out the 100% Ethanol- Dry your Zeolite chunks over your BBQ periodically and you are good to go. Also Invest in a hydrometer to double check your alcohol percentages (and look like a mad scientist when doing it- I put on a white lab coat for full effect) – a hydrometer is usually around $20 and recommended to make sure you are fuel grade before adding Ethanol into your gas tank. Water in your gas tank is bad!

Ok- so you have made Ethanol. Would you be surprised to learn that nearly the exact same process is how you go about making Spirits? (Remember- the ATF says distillation of Spirits for personal use is 'impractical' due to numerous permits and taxes that are to be paid) Molasses makes Rum, Potato makes Vodka, so on and so forth. There are additional nuances for each type of Spirit but now you know the basics for sure. Your simple production run of Ethanol from above “could” be divided and proofed down (watered) and flavored to make Schnapps or homemade Kahlua for example, so your quick and dirty production is potentially not worthless...it is just very strong and somewhat impure drinking alcohol. So for about $10 in raw materials for the mash – depending on what flavoring you use and how strong you like it- you can probably get 3-4 bottles of homemade Spirits which is, again, not legal to make for personal use according the ATF, but in the event of the End of the World it is reasonable to assume the ATF may either overlook your transgression or be otherwise occupied.

Now I do feel compelled to state that this simple Ethanol still is designed for Fuel and not Spirits- it will certainly kick out trace amounts of other alcohols that are not good to digest – like Methanol and Butanol let alone having JB Weld holding some seams...so just keep in mind this is not the right set up or process for making quality Spirits, at a very minimum you would want to proof the product down to 40% Alcohol give or take and you would need a series of food grade charcoal filters to help clean up the Product before you should even consider drinking it(and I'm not sure I would even trust that too much), you will see what I mean if you tackle this experiment using my quick examples! For making Spirits really drinkable the process is called 'polishing' and normally takes anywhere from 1 week to a month of soaking activated carbon in the Distilled Ethanol and then filtering the carbon dust out of the Alcohol to remove the bad stuff that gives to 'yuck factor' to moonshine and turns the product into something more like Vodka, tasteless and odorless.

Remember, the point of this essay is for Ethanol Fuel Production . Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the legalities, the YouTube videos that are everywhere about Distilling generally gloss over the legal requirements if they are mentioned it at all. It is a mess that you do not want to get involved with if, for some reason, the ATF does a check on your Homemade Liqueur Operation because you post it on YouTube and you are found to have homemade Distilled Spirits or Ethanol that has not been denatured. Then they find out you are a prepper and have more than three days of stored food, then they notice you have more than one magazine for your pistol and more than 50 rounds of ammunition in your house...I am sure you get the idea.

Here is how my production with baker's yeast as first-time experiment turned out.

1.75 gallons of mash started to boil at 47 min at 182 degrees F. The chamber read 105F, between the water cooling pipes read 95F, the top read 111F and the jacket read 74F. After 10 minutes my product was filmy and pungent, and measured 89%-92% Alcohol. 12 minutes later the pot measured 189F, the chamber 111F, between the cooling pipes read 89F, the top measured 101F and the cooling jacket read 80F. At this point I have about 2 cups of product but the alcohol percentage for the second cup reads only 74% alcohol – far less film and stink. The temperature readings stayed approximately the same for another 50 minutes. The production of Ethanol was about 3.5 cups. Total alcohol measure of entire production was 76% Alcohol. So- I got about 3.5 cups of 76% Ethanol Alcohol after about 1.5 hours and could have run the production longer but decided not to. Note- Alcohol percentages in the output dropped considerably over time.

Now I need to try out champagne yeast or turbo yeast for extra alcohol content, et cetera to really see how much Ethanol fuel I could really net from capital outlay – but I think you get the idea here, making a quality Ethanol product isn't just a wham-bang deal, its needs some precise expertise to make it really functional and worthwhile. Consider also that this simple Reflux Still also leaves something to be desired when compared to one designed by a professional...but it is pretty inexpensive and it works better than pot with a copper tube sticking out of it for close enough to a Fuel grade product to be workable in a pinch.

Now that you have done a simple run with your still, you are well positioned to explore using different yeasts for increased alcohol production (baker's yeast obviously isn't the best). If you work out an agreement with a local farm for example – you may be able to buy your bulk corn- mill it down and instead of adding sugar, add certain enzymes to your mash to facilitate a more natural breakdown of starches for sugars. After you are done with your production, the leftover corn mash can be rinsed and dried and used as feed. My understanding is that normally 100 gallons of mash will produce about 10 gallons of fuel grade Ethanol if you have a really tight process...which mathematically fits the production made from my test run of 1.75 gallons of mash to get about 3.5 cups of moderate to high proof Ethanol. Buy corn in bulk for about $7 a bushel (on the exchanges at least) which is about 70 pounds – just one bushel would net you about 40 gallons of mash give or take, or you can just use bulk sugar if you like. Enzymes are a little pricey as a capital outlay but last a long time. You could probably expect to get your fuel grade Ethanol cost down to between $1.50-$2 per gallon if you got serious with it, maybe less is you re-sold or bartered the mash as livestock feed.

Okay, now for some more specific legal considerations. Before you make anything with a still, you need to check with your County jurisdiction about obtaining a permit. You will also need to be registered with the ATF and in case of an inspection you will need to know how to denature your Ethanol so that it cannot be used for homemade Spirits. Form 5110.74 is the document for a Fuel Distiller and they will want to know the general layout of where your still will be located on your property. They do not want to see it in your back yard patio or in an attached garage or next to your least favorite neighbor's bedroom window so keep in mind safety and practicality. Use an outbuilding 20-50 feet away from your home and other structures if at all possible. There is no cost to file for the ATF permit and they do not even require your social security number, however you will still need to invest time at the local level to track down the correct process for your jurisdiction.

For making Homemade Spirits by Distilling with the intent for personal consumption – again, be aware that it is NOT ok according the the ATF. Also I want to remind you all again that even a one time experiment such as this one (even if you are 12 years old and need a science fair project) can only legally be done by obtaining a permit through the ATF BEFORE you make Ethanol Fuel. I did not find out about the permit requirements until after my first batch because I watched too many You Tube videos so learn from my mistake. I do have a permit now, so I count it as a learning experience.

Now for some more End of the World considerations about distilling Ethanol Fuel. The process takes time and makes a stink. I found the smell noticeable at 20 feet and I can imagine it getting much worse if you are fermenting garbage because it is SHTF time. It might not be a good idea to have a still operating right next to your bug out location or biggest cache. Alcohol is, of course, flammable and Ethanol is particularly hard to see when lit unless it is mixed with Kerosene for example. It is fairly easy to separate your mash pot (which is on a heat source) from the Reflux chamber, unlike my quick and dirty example. This is recommended for safety reasons especially if you cannot watch your still while the Alcohol is being separated from the mash (but you should always watch your product run and have fire extinguishers on hand – I know- its pickle when you are dealing with the End of the World, but try to be as safe as possible under all circumstances, remember that alcohol vapor can explode and treat accordingly!). Fully off-grid Solar Stills could be engineered using mirrors, a Fresnel lens or a parabolic mirror but you will need to carefully consider temperature management. It would be fun to think through how to tackle that one!

I think I have covered all of the basics pretty well, and maybe a bit more than the 'basics' but these are the key points I feel preppers should be aware of regarding this alternative do-it-yourself Fuel Source and its capabilities. Incidentally, by reading this essay you now know a few key questions to ask someone else who might be making Ethanol Fuel or Spirits to see if they know what they are doing in case TSHTF, if they do not filter or polish for Spirits and have no idea about dehydrating the Alcohol for Fuel you know the quality will be lacking...which may lead to complications that would be otherwise avoidable.

Good Luck!

Some of the very best resources I have found to help you dig deeper:

Robert Warren's Site on making your own fuel If you don't go to any other link – go to this one, it is the best!

Home Distillation of Alcohol for a terrific breakdown of different stills and Home Spirit production

ATF Permit (Form 5110.74)

ATF FAQ for Distilled Spirits - Don't do it! Read the penalties.

Mother Earth News Articles – Chapter 7 Distillation Process

Mother Earth News Alcohol Fuel Basics

Alcohol Can Be A Gas – Terrific video

Ranier Distillers – Excellent FAQ and source for Zeolite, Enzymes and Yeasts

To say we have had a mild winter here in Iowa is an understatement to say the least. That was until recently. It would be safe to say that with temperatures in the 50 degree range I have gotten a little complacent this winter. Like many who read SurvivalBlog I spend time watching the news and trying to keep an eye on the big picture. At least in this case it came at the expense of some of the details. Like everything in life I would like to remind myself as well as all my Brothers and Sisters out there that might read this that like all things in life we need to take a balanced approach.
 
We did have a snow storm and nature reminded us that it was still winter. I guess this would be one of those situations that Attitude made the difference in the whole day. That was something else that I think I may have forgotten. At my house we don’t prep just to survive. If all I was interested in was surviving I would not put so much time and effort into what we have done. Personally I want to survive with a life worth living.  I personally am not someone that is going to wonder through the woods with a backpack eating bugs having lost everyone and everything I love. If they are going to get to the people and pets that I love and care for then they are going to have to go through me to get there. So if those things are gone they would have had to take me out to get there. So while I’m here I might as well enjoy the life that I have.
 
Instead of taking the doom and gloom look at what all went wrong let’s take a positive outlook on the day and see what I was able to learn from our experience. Life is a choice. Where you are in life is a sum of the decisions you have made so you are exactly where you have chosen to be. Look at it this way: If you are now willing to make changes to your lifestyle such as giving up cable or eating out then you have made a conscious choice. You have chosen to keep things exactly the way they are. Since you are not willing to do anything different you must be happy with the way things are in your life. So let’s take a look at where the choices I have made took me for the day.
Waking up to about 4 inches of snow meant that my first duty of the morning was to get out and get rid of the snow off the driveway and sidewalks. Not a big deal. My Cub Cadet has a two stage snow blower on it and I race my neighbor to see who can do the others sidewalk first.

The first thing I notice is this has got to be the heaviest and wettest snow I can remember in a long time. As soon as you step down on the snow it instantly turns to ice on the sidewalk under your feet. This is the first time I can ever remember my machine struggling to throw the snow out of the way. I’m usually having to angle the shoot down so the snow does not go too far and end up where I don’t want it. I happily spend an hour or so removing the snow from our property and a couple of my elderly neighbors. Rats, Rick has already gotten the sidewalk. Score one for him. I’ll get him next time.

I pull the tractor back into the garage and notice that it is unusually dark inside. I thought I had turned on the lights in the garage when I went in but must not have. Well no big deal there is plenty of light coming in from the open garage door. I put the tractor away and pull my truck back in and prepare to go back into the house. Like most people I go to walk out the door and hit the automatic garage door switch and nothing happens. Click, Click, Click? I looked over and I had turned on the lights but they were not on? I guess all this heavy wet snow has taken down some of the trees in the area.

A power failure is not a huge deal. I pull the release cord on the door to disconnect it from the drive and close the door manually. Here is where our first learning experience comes into play. Don’t you just hate those? With the door being connected to an automatic garage door opener there are no operating locks on it. Being an accountant by trade I’m not the most mechanical person on the planet so I have to subscribe to the K.I.S.S. principle.  So believing in this instead of trying to do something elaborate I just grab a set of vice grips and clamp them on the rail to secure the garage. It would have been no big deal if the door had been closed when the power went out but since the side was all the way back there was no way to secure the door. A nice set of Vice-Grips on the rail worked quite well in my opinion.

At this point my vicious guard dogs decide to wake up and come downstairs and see how much of my breakfast they can talk me out of. This is where I would really suggest one of those LED head lamps if you don’t already have one. The kitchen is on the North side of the house so does not have a great deal of outside light this time of year. Having both hands free makes tasks much easier than trying to hold a light with one hand and do everything with the other. Of course there is always the hold it in your mouth and slobber all over yourself method. Personally I prefer the head lamp. Slobber all down the front of your shirt first thing in the morning seems to bring a lot of pesky questions. Or at least it does at my house.

At this point the power has been out from probably an hour and a half at my estimation. With Winter having shown up with the snow the temperature outside was far from what we had gotten used to. No big deal “I HAVE PREPS”. Quite proud of myself for having thought ahead I have a backup heat source. I have a kerosene heater out in the garage that I keep around for just such an occasion. So closely watched by my ever vigilant guard dogs we go out to the garage to get the heater and bring it into the house.

I do have to interject here that I was quite proud of myself at this point. I have read here on SurvivalBlog quite a few times that you can never have too many flashlights and the read many praises on the new LED flashlights. Having done so a while back when I was at Home Depot I saw bulk packs of them on sale and picked up several. She Who Must Be Obeyed and I then went around the house and put at least one flashlight in every room of the house. Several rooms we put a couple. Luckily for me the flashlight was right where I expected it to be and worked great.

The Dogs and I then went out and brought in the heater and wiped off the dust and checked it over for proper operation before I tried to light it. I used to use it regularly to heat the garage before having a heating system put in. Since then it has sat patiently on the shelf waiting. This is when I noticed that last time I used it I had forgotten to refill it. Not a big deal. I was prepared. I knew I had extra kerosene in the garage. I had several unopened cans that I had purchased for just such an occasion. So the dogs and I trekked back out to the garage to get some kerosene to top it off before we put it into operation. I knew the cans were unopened and therefore full. I checked on them by looking over at them to make sure they had not been damaged several times a year but had never physically touched them since I had put them off in the corner against the wall. I know they were full because I had purchased them and put them over there.
 
This was when I realized that Murphy's Law had not been repealed. The cans were strangely light when I went to pick them up. Almost as if they were empty. I look at the top and the seal is still in place right there where it is supposed to be. They simply can’t be empty could they? They were new when I put them there and the seal is still on top right where it was supposed to be. I shake the can and there is no slosh like there should be. No one ever told me that if you put a steel can on a cement floor that the bottom of the can will rust out. It must have happened over a long period because I never remember smelling kerosene in the garage but the bottom of the can was rusted and the cans were empty.

Well we must keep our beautiful wife warm so we go back into the house and strategically place the heater in the kitchen on the bottom floor of the house and light it. I did this because heat will radiate up. So by putting it at the bottom of the house farthest away from the stairs the heat will radiate through the bottom floor and eventually upstairs. The sun has finally come out so I open up the curtains on the south side of the house to let in as much sunlight as possible. I was surprised that within a half hour I had to go back downstairs and turn the heater off. It was starting to get way too warm upstairs.

Not knowing how long my existing kerosene still in the tank was going to last I went to plan “B”. Being a believer in "two is one and one is none", I had recently purchased a backup heat source to my backup heat source. Truthfully I had picked it up for the 5th wheel we have recently purchased and placed out our bug out location. On another trip to Home Depot I had purchased a Mr. Heater tank top heater. I had plenty of propane. All of my back up cooking is based on propane if the gas were ever to go out I had stocked up with the normal grill tanks with the adapter to fill the small tanks our camping stove uses and had a supply of tanks for our grill as well as three different 100 lb tanks to take down to the 5th wheel. We are still in the process of setting up the camper so they have not been moved down there yet. All were fully charged for just such an occasion.  With no better time to test our new heater than the present I assembled our new heater and attached it to the tank. I was amazed at the heat this thing put out and had to quickly turn it back off. I was confident that we were going to be nice and warm for as long as we would be without power.

So that gave me a few minutes to sit down and go through my checklist to see what needed to be done:

• Shelter is in place and safe? Check
  
• Water? Plenty stored and water still running check
  
• Food? Well stocked for both 2 pawed and 4 pawed family members so Check
  
• Everyone Safe and warm? Check
  
• Light? Plenty of candles, flash lights with back well over 100 back up batteries (Sale at Bass Pro shops on back Friday), Oil Lamps with extra wicks and oil, all in place so check  

Not being the type that would be willing to leave a heater on and unattended this gave me some time to sit by the window and go over our situation and evaluate what still needed to be done and see where I had missed things. As I sat there in the a comfortable chair looking out the sliding glass door watching it start to snow again I noticed a few things. Please let me share them with you.
 
As I sat there in front of the window I had a sense of calm and peace flow over me. It had started to snow again fairly aggressively. I could see several neighbors loading up their cars forced to trek out into the storm looking for a warm place to go. Meanwhile I was sitting there in my chair warm and comfortable. Knowing my family was safe and warm. I didn’t have to care what the roads were like. I didn’t have to care how much it snowed. I didn’t have to care when the power came back on. For the first time in several years the house was quit. I could almost hear the house talking to me. Those subtle noises that a house makes that are always there but are hidden behind the background noise of all the gadgets of our modern life create. I had a calmness and peace that I had not felt in quite a while. The simple things in life were all taken care of because we had the foresight to prep not just for the big disaster but also for the little things.
 
I realized the mistakes I had made. I had gotten complacent in knowing my preps were there and had not taken the time to periodically check and make sure they were still in operational condition. Luckily I had subscribed to the "Two is one, and one is none" theory and that had saved us.
 
My pointed out an area I had thought of once and had completely forgotten about. As unromantic as it sounds at this point feeling so good about how well things had gone overall we forgot about the toilet. Where we live we have a high water table so the sewer system cannot be buried very deep. Because of this we have what is called a grind pit in our back yard. All the waste from the house drains down into this pit and a device in the bottom grinds up all the solids and then pumps them “UP” to the sewer system. With no power there is no pumping action and the pump would become full rather quickly if we did not monitor how much water went down the drain. Of course this is when Murphy decided to make his presence known again. I had not really worried about it too much because I had a nice Kohler generator. Well as you might guess we don’t currently have our generator. It is over being worked on by the small engine person of our Mutual Assistance Group. We are experimenting with retrofitting the generators of our group with automobile mufflers in an attempt to quite them down considerably so they will be safer to use at our bug out location in a SHTF situation. The loud roar of several generators will carry for quite a ways in that type of situation and we are attempting to lower our decibel output as much as possible. Because of this my generator is not currently available.  Not a severe problem I can always grab one from work and bring it home once the storm passes if necessary but defiantly something that I need to work on.
 
At this point there is only one thing left on the list to do. So I go upstairs and see my beautiful wife and my vicious guard dogs all curled up on a pile of pillows on the bed. This is a scene that would make the cat proud. My wife is comfortably reading a book basking in the sunlight coming in from the window. My lab is comfortably curled up on my pillows and my Shepherd is sprawled out across what is left of the bed.
 
I update my wonderful wife on our situation and my conclusions. Then I inform her the only thing we have left to do to insure our survival is work on shared bodily warmth and comfort. That this is a critical part of our survival plan. The fate of the world could depend on it.
 
My loving wife then looks up from her book. She looks at me with those beautiful hazel eyes. Her long beautiful hair cascading down across her shoulders and pillows. The absolute picture of loveliness. A gentle smile crosses her face only to be replaced by her tongue sticking out followed quickly by a raspberry thrown in my direction. Dejected and rejected I was banished to the couch where I had to spend the afternoon taking nap lessons from the cat.

Hello James,
To follow up on the recent letter about running gasoline engines on "drip": I have never used drip gas, but an old friend of mine who lived and worked in Texas told me it was often necessary to remove the sulfur from drip gas. I would suspect your nose would tell you if sulfur was present [in high concentration] by the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide. The trick used back then was to let the drip gas sit in a container full of copper wool.  Obviously copper wire will work, but over a longer time period, as the copper wool has more surface area. The sulfur in the drip gas reacts with the copper to form a very black flake that then falls off the wire, leaving a black sediment in the container.  

The reason this is important is that the sulfur can also react with the copper in bearings of your engine, leading to a major failure. Burned sulfur in fuel, now sulfur dioxide gas, after passing through a catalytic converter is converted to sulfuric acid, leading to a rust out of your exhaust system. All of this can be eliminated and tested for by soaking with shiny copper wire, wool, or even pennies.  

Watching a sulfide containing liquid, such as Ortho Dormant Disease Lime Sulfur spray, to remove all the copper off of a post-1982 penny is an interesting experiment. It leaves the pure zinc penny naked of it's copper shell. Now imagine it is pulling the copper off your engine's bearings. Best to you, - Dave B.

JWR,
I noticed your description of "drip" as an alternative fuel in your novel "Survivors". Many years ago I was on a task force in Farmington, New Mexico to catch and convict "drip thieves". I was then a Special Texas Ranger and worked along with New Mexico Highway Patrol, local law enforcement officials and the then Tenneco Oil Company Security investigators. Theft of drip was very big then, as probably now due to the high cost of gasoline. I will share with you some of what we learned from the experts, the actual thieves we caught.

First of all it is not called "drip oil", but only "drip" in thieves term. It is actually what the oil industry calls "condensate" and as you correctly stated is a by product of natural gas production. It is the condensate liquid that forms from natural gas as it is produced from the wells. Some wells are "wetter" than others and produce more condensate. Those are the wells drip users look for. Wells produce through a well head valve system and flow through pipes to the collection system. Each well has a flow meter, usually a Barton type, that measures the volume of gas produced. Several wells may feed their condensate into what is usually a "210" barrel collection tank, also low points in the pipelines collect the condensate and are routed to the storage tanks. These tanks are the targets of drip users, which will fuel vehicles.

Drip users, which is illegal but common in areas where it exists, like the high gravity clean type, and different wells produce different types. One thief explained the tests he used to test drip, the spit test and the burn test. He would get drip from the valves on the lower part of the storage tanks, the 210 barrel type. He would first get a sample through the top of the tank by climbing the catwalk to the upper hatch, oddly enough called the "thief hatch", he would lower a small can into the hatch and obtain a sample of the condensate, either a coffee can or similar. Once he had several inches of drip, he would first spit into the drip and see how fast it sank, the faster the better the drip. If it lingered on top or was slow to sink, it was not what he wanted. If it sank and passed that test, he would light the fluid and watch the flame, if it was blue, it was great, if it was yellow or orange and let off smoke, it was too high in sulfur and not too good. Once he identified a good well, he always remembered where it was located.

One thief drove a van and had 55 gallon drums in the back that he would fill. The 210 designation tanks were 20' tall and gravity would usually fill the drums. He would also fill his own gas tank in the van. But, a good thief would always install a drain cock in his tank in case he got bad drip and had to dump it. Many thieves would use drip for mainly private consumption, however we caught some selling it to regular gas stations who would just mix it with their regular gas and sell it blended, no one knew.

Some thieves told us they needed to advance or retard their distributors a bit to get drip to run the best, but that was in a day before all this electronic fuel injection stuff.

I hope I did not go into too much detail, but now you have a basic idea of drip usage in vehicles and how it is stolen. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to ask.

Regards, - C.R., Retired in Colorado

James,
Thanks again for doing everything you do.  It is with great pleasure I write to you again to contribute some of my knowledge. I mean no offense to Caspar d'Gonzo, but after reading his article I have the notion that he has not yet actually constructed a gasifier based on the FEMA instructions.  Though his article was very good about covering the theory and basics.

I was first fascinated with gasification when I saw them make a gasifier on The Colony.  I read about it and planned to build one.  Not long after I almost wrecked my Jeep while driving through northern Pennsylvania when I saw someone using a home-made gasifier on a car.  I pulled over and chatted with them and now I really had a passion instilled in me for an alternative energy vehicle.

Fall of 2010 I had a college course called Alternative Energy, and the final project was constructing something relevant to the class.  Some classmates and myself tackled the FEMA wood gasifier.  Other groups built solar food dehydrators, small hydro-electric generators, waste oil burners, etc.  The FEMA gasifier instructions are a good starting point, but far from all you need.  Ingenuity and creativity will get you from the FEMA instructions to a working model.

I sized my gasifier to run the 134 cubic inch, 72 horespower engine in my 1963 Jeep CJ5.  At the beginning of my project, I wanted to run that CJ5 with the gasifier.  Now, I see that this will wear out an engine faster than normal fuels, so I will be building a dedicated gasifier powered vehicle in the future.  Also, the gasifier ended up being very large overall, and requires a pickup truck or trailer.  It would not fit in the back of my CJ5.

I was fortunate enough to have full access to a local salvage yard that was sympathetic to college students.  I could go out and pick through acres of scrap, and I still could not find some of the items that FEMA called for.  The instructions are outdated.  Be prepared to deviate and get creative.

Some things I learned...

Harbor freight has the cheapest ball valves for the carburetor unit.

Garages have 125 lb grease drums/gear oil drums that make good filter housings.  They usually throw them away or use them for garbage cans.  I got one with a re-usable lid just for asking.

Home Depot sells a fireplace sealer in white tubs that worked well on the inside to protect the metal from heat cycle fatigue and seal welds and gaps. But be sure to put it on thin or it will never cure.

I used two 55 gallon drums from the scrap yard instead of garbage cans.  They're thicker and usually found for free, but make sure they didn't have anything in them that could poise a health risk when you have a fire inside.

For the shaker bowl in the bottom of the gasifier, I found a stainless steel colander (bowl with lots of holes) large enough at a restaurant equipment supply store.  They had lot's of sizes and very economically priced.

I used flexible steel exhaust hoses to connect the gasifier to the filter and the filter to the carburetor unit.  They were kind of pricey at my local auto parts store but I was having trouble locating heat resistance flexible pipe.

I used a 4" Attwood Turbo 12v inline blower to draw a vacuum at the carburetor unit and get the gasifier going.  This fan worked really well and I found PVC pipe fittings at Lowe's to connect it to the exhaust pipe. These fans are built for pulling fumes out of boat hulls, so they're typically advertised as spark-less, and the best price I found was online at walmart of all places.  This fan was really useful, because by flipping the wires I could run the fan backwards and blow air into the gasifier to fan the flames on start-up.  Switch the wires back and pull the gas through.

The only free fuel I could get my hands on at college were green pine wood chips made for mulch use.  I would not recommend that less than ideal fuel, but it did still produce flammable gas.  I had tar and filthy water pouring out of my filter.  The FEMA design for a filter was really ineffective.  When I get back into the gasifier project I will be researching what other people are using because a can full of wood chips will not keep your engine running for long.  Lot's of tar and moisture were bypassing it.  Obviously, I did not have enough temperature drop for condensation and particulate filtration going on.  The fuel definitely needs to be a good wood, not pine, that is dried.  Dried goat manure was used with success on the PA Apocalypse TV show.

The only testing I did was on a 6 HP Briggs & Stratton small engine and it ran fine on the gas I was producing, but when I took the head off after test running there was a lot of tar inside.  I was always able to light the gas coming out of the gasifier outlet for entertainment value and have a nice pink or orange flame to verify it was producing gas.  Also, I only used my gasifier while stationary, not mobile on a vehicle, so I was frequently shaking the bowl in the bottom to pass ashes through it and pushing the fuel in the top into the fire tube.  Mobility is a must with this design so that shakes and bumps going down the road keep things running, but other designs exist that are intended to be stationary.

Right now I'm playing with burning waste motor oil and vegetable oil in a 1967 military surplus M35A2 ("Deuce and a half") I purchased with great success.  For now, my gasifier will sit and wait until I have more time to experiment with filtration and quality fuel.  I hope to find an older 4-cylinder truck, like a cheap Chevy S10 to mount the gasifier on.

Good Luck with Gasification, - Josh in Pennsylvania

James Wesley:
The recent article by Caspar d'Gonzo in SurvivalBlog left out the advances by the open source group gekgasifier.com

They have taken the WWII design into the modern era, with a much more efficient design, as well as a design that is easier to start and produces much less tar than the FEMA design. Best Regards, - Bill M.