Topic Tuesday #10 2012/09/25 "Water World - Part 2"

Topic Tuesday #10 2012/09/25 "Water World - Part 2"

We need quite a bit of water to survive on. It needs to be clean...
Last week I discussed the requirements of how much water we need to survive. Today, how do we make it safe?

I am going to quickly give some ways to clean up water so you don't die. 

There are 4 categories; Separation, Chemical, Filtration, Oxidation.

SEPARATION: (HEAT, LIGHT & GRAVITY)

• SEDIMENTATION gravitationally settles heavy suspended material. 
• BOILING WATER for 15 to 20 minutes kills 99.9% of all living things and vaporizes most chemicals.  Minerals, metals, solids and the contamination from the cooking container become more concentrated. 
• DISTILLATION boils and re-condenses the water, but many chemicals vaporize and recondense in concentration in the output water. It is also expensive to boil & cool water. 
• ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT is a good bactericide, but has no residual kill, and works only in clearly filtered water. Still in its infancy stage is a new technology involving super white light.

CHEMICALS

• CHLORINE is common, cheap, but extremely toxic. It does not decrease physical or chemical contamination, it does increase colesterol formations, is a carcinogen, amd causes heart disease. 
• IODINE is not practical, and is mostly used by campers. 
• HYDROGEN PEROXIDE kills bacteria with oxygen, is chemically made and is very toxic. It is used in emergencies. 
• COAGULATION-FLOCCULATION adds chemicals which lump together suspended particles for filtration or separation. 
• ION EXCHANGE exchanges sodium from salt for calcium or magnesium, using either glauconite (greensand), precipitated synthetic organic resins, or gel zeolite, thus softening the water. Minerals, metals, chemicals or odors are not affected, and the water is salty to drink. 

FILTRATION

• SLOW SAND of 1 cubic meter passes about 2 liters/min, and does a limited bacteria removal. 
• HIGH PRESSURE/RAPID SAND of 1 cubic meter passes about 40gpm and must be backwashed daily. 
• DIATOMACEOUS EARTH removes small suspended particles at high flow rates, must be back-washed daily and is expensive.
• PAPER or CLOTH filters are disposable and filter to one micron, but do not have much capacity. 
• CHARCOAL: 
• -COMPRESSED CHARCOAL/CARBON BLOCK is the best type of charcoal filter, can remove chemicals and lead, but is easily clogged, so should be used with a sediment prefilter. 
• -GRANULAR CHARCOAL is cheaper, but water can flow around the granules without being treated. 
• -POWDERED CHARCOAL is a very fine dust useful for spot cleaning larger bodies of water, but is messy and can pass through some filters and be consumed. 
• REVERSE OSMOSIS uses a membrane with microscopic holes that require 4 to 8 times the volume of water processed to wash it in order to remove minerals and salt, but not necessarily chemicals and bacteria.

OXIDATION - These are most often used in big water treatment facilities. These techniques attempt to mimic what mother nature does with rivers. See THE SELF-PURIFICATION OF RIVERS AND STREAMS, from 1919. You can read a great deal about it to understand how it is supposed to work.

• AERATION sprays water into the air to raise the oxygen content, to break down odors, and to balance the dissolved gases. However, it takes space, is expensive, and picks up contaminants from the air. 
• OZONE is a very good bactericide, using highly charged oxygen molecules to kill microorganisms on contact, and to flocculate iron and manganese for post filtration and backwashing. 
• ELECTRONIC PURIFICATION and DISSOLVED OXYGEN GENERATION creates super oxygenated water in a dissolved state that lowers the surface tension of the water and effectively treats all three types of contamination: physical, chemical and biological.

The easiest for you and me to go through is likely to be the separation method. An issue to remember here, and one that has caught entire villages with a bad case of the runs, is proper storage of the water once you have sterilized it. There are many methods to do that, but that will be another topic. Look for "Food Safety" later on.

Now for your consideration: 

1. What are your plans on keeping a supply of available, CLEAN, water on hand? 
2. What would be the best method for scaling up for family clusters, to villages, to towns, etc? 
3. Are you going to try any of these methods?

Topic Tuesday #9 2012/09/18 "Water World - Part 1"

Topic Tuesday #9 2012/09/18 "Water World - Part 1"

© hdptcar

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

And you thought I was going to mention a certain movie where someone pees into a Mr. Coffee and gets Tasters Choice... Well you were right. Love it or hate it, Water World with Kevin Costner, presents some interesting scenarios. The only one I am concerned about is potable water. Clean water, that won't kill you. Pretty important stuff. You can live for about 72 Hours without proper hydration. Food is not without moisture but in the strictest terms, you will die from dehydration long before starvation. Now I could go on and on and on about conservation and the importance of water, but that will be for another topic. Today lets talk about solely about how much water we need and where we can get it. 

In a survival situation, water quite often is a life and death factor. If you are in your fortress of solitude, you may have a cache of water. The numbers on what is recommended you consume depends on the individual, environmental factors and labor exerted. The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day, for an average, healthy adult in a temperate climate. What you eat also provides a significant portion, an average of 20 percent of total water intake. Given that we are in the context of a survival situation, we will forego chat about excessive water consumption, hyponatremia. The above information was from the Mayo Clinic and the numbers SEEM high for consumption (given that FEMA recommends 1 gallon or 3.78 liters for drinking and sanitation). We will look at one more metric to determine our hydration needs: Urine.
"Generally if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or light yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is probably adequate."[Mayo Clinic] This also may seem high but to avoid illnesses and allow your body to properly dispose of waste, it is a vital number. Personally, I have worked long and hard and knew I needed to drink more as I hadn't had to pee for over 8 hours. That was with what I thought was large consumption of fluid. It wasn't enough; so watch yourselves and those in your care.

Now for your consideration: Recap: We need quite a bit of water to survive on. It needs to be clean, BUT given that is a HUGE topic on it's own, I'm breaking that out into part 2 for next week.
Where do we find our water? This is assuming the municipality stopped working or you are making a sequel to Swiss Family Robinson. Brain Storm with me and share your favorite methods to collect water.

Topic Tuesday #8 2012/09/11 "Tomorrow Land"

Topic Tuesday #8 2012/09/11 "Tomorrow Land"

If you have been reading some my previous Topic Tuesdays, you have probably figured out, I am a bit of a futurist. I try to look at the big picture and see where will be in the years ahead. There are a lot of variables here and no one can pretend to be able to see the future with any certainty. Regardless of those obvious shortcomings, I look to the future. Today's topic is future related as well, but rooted in the present. With a simple query, I pulled up the estimated population of earth. Wolfram Alpha and Apple were kind enough to furnish the graphic.  http://www.worldometers.info/ Has live counters for much of this information aggregated from the sources that keep track. Simply put, we have approximately 7 billion people onboard spaceship Earth. Estimates have that number rising to around 10 billion by 2050. That estimate doesn't take things like medical improvements and social infrastructure proliferation, which will make the number larger. What's the point to all this? What are we supposed to do with that many human beings on the planet? How will we feed them? Where will they live? What will they do to work? How will they entertain themselves?
Now think about this... I just gave you a bunch of numbers and here is the one that matters: 38.
The scenario played out is only 38 years away. This is within most of our lifetimes. It's not Star Trek future; it's 401k retirement future. This is just not that far away... In America, we do not face the over crowding issues of nations like China, India and Japan. That doesn't mean America won't have to in the near future. Scenarios like overcrowding, famine, water shortages always highlight science for me. I saw a recent NASA estimate that terraforming Mars, will take a whopping 480 years and 5 trillion dollars (that's the complete deal, no suit required, go play fetch with fido in the park, time frame). 480 years, call it 500 years, is 400 years too late to handle the issues we will have here, but in doing research towards those ends, we will discover amazing things that we can use here. Imagine, the problems that come with restarting an entire planets biosphere to make it habitable for you and me. I think we might find a few way to clean up this planet  in the process. One day, people may realize, its about all of us, and not just about getting a better rate of return on your 401k. Our legacy, is our future as it is being written now. Will we live in enormous arcologies?
Will we resort to blood sport and de-humanize ourselves to control population? It's only a few decades away. What do you think?

Topic Recap: in 38 years, the population of Earth will rise by 3 billion people to 10 billion+. How will we handle that? And what about the future beyond that? How/where will we live with this many people in the year 2100?

Topic Tuesday #4 2012/08/14 "Skills"

Topic Tuesday #4 2012/08/14

SKILLS. 

Do you know how to change a flat tire? Have you ever been camping? Hiking? Ever had to build your own fire?

Duct tape around a disposable lighter

For boys, there is the Boy Scouts to teach many of these skills, and they serve us well throughout life. You never know when a knot you learned for that merit badge will help out, strapping a mattress to a minivan.
For girl, there's been the girl scouts. From what I gather, the girl scouts has really slacked off over the decades in what they tea

ch our young women. My mother told me about having to jump into a lake and take her pants off, tie the legs together and inflate them to make a flotation device. That is certainly no where in sight today. PLEASE correct me if I am mistaken.
This brings me to the heart of the topic. What skills should we just know by the time we are 18 and "adults"? Are there any skills that should be taught that aren't or vice versa? Have at it!

Responses from Facebook (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

 

Jon Jimenez You should be taught about credit

Tuesday at 12:36pm via mobile · Unlike · 3

Selah Kat Cox not so much skills in my eyes as values... integrity and honesty would be the top two... in regards to skills i would say communication. just my humble opinion take or leave it as you will.

Tuesday at 12:46pm · Unlike · 1

Eva Gibson Girl Scouts was horrible. At least my troop was--the leaders ordered pizza on the camping trips, and nothing was said about knots or fire or anything else. All I learned was that I hated door to door cookie sales.

Tuesday at 12:51pm via mobile · Like · 1

Don Hopkinson The Boy Scouts are also great for teaching the bigotry skills so necessary in life.

Tuesday at 12:58pm · Like · 2

Andy Cowen I know Don... Churches are almost the sole sponsors of the scouts (Girl and Boy) and many of the tenants of the faith supporting them literally HAVE to be there for their continued support. For the most part, I have found them to be more beneficial for the roll they take in teaching teamwork and other important core values. Everything must be tempered, however, and temperance is something that is not taught very often.

Tuesday at 1:02pm · Like

Jon Jimenez Temperance is my answer!

Tuesday at 1:03pm via mobile · Like

Dawn Fox I never did scouts, but my dad made sure I knew basic car maintance before I could drive. I can change my own oil, do a tune up, Check and replace most of the fluids and change my own flat tire. Thanks dad. :)

Tuesday at 3:54pm via mobile · Unlike · 1

Ryan Wilhelm I think the two very basics are food/water and navigation, shelter and all that are a little easier to improvise. First suggestion from me is the book: "Hunt, Gather, Cook" by Hank Shaw. It's America-centric, but it would certainly get the thought process going so a person travelling would know to do their homework before ending up somewhere that it doesn't apply.

The second is a discourse in astronomy: knowing where the sun rises and sets, how to tell time by it, knowing how the phases of the moon relate to time, and of course knowing your basic constellations so you can find which way is north easily. "Turn Left at Orion" by Dan Davis is a good primer of the stars, the rest I'm not sure the best way to learn other than having someone walk you through it a few times.

I could give a pretty good list of what a person should and should not take with them if they are heading out in to the woods, some things might surprise (knife not really important, paracord on the other hand...)

for boy-scout type things anyway. I wasn't a scout for the record. We just liked that sort of thing. In real life I think knowing how to learn things is #1, and not being afraid to break something (and the lessons about fixing that go with) is pretty high up there too.

Tuesday at 7:03pm · Edited · Unlike · 1

Andy Cowen I was not a scout either. I just lived my days looking at how to live if I found myself stranded on a deserted isle. I was an asst scout master for a time. And I have slid down a few crags on my butt. Great advice, Ryan! I will be checking those books out soon.

Tuesday at 8:06pm via mobile · Like

Responses from Google+ (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

I forgot to post to Google Plus... Whoops!

Topic Tuesday #3 2012/08/07 "Sustainability: The future is at stake."

Topic Tuesday #3 2012/08/07

Sustainability: The future is at stake. 
Open your mind to the sustainability of our actions as a species.

• When we run out of oil, what will we do? 
• When we run out of coal, what will we do? 
• When we have contaminated the water, and can't drink it or eat the fish, what will we do? 
• When the air we breath is toxic and the plants (not factories) all die from the acid rain that falls though the soup, what will we do?

We are literally consuming the planet. I'm not making it up. Fossil fuels (you know from the dinosaurs that died millions of years ago) are not renewable. We can recycle some of it, but not the gasoline that is converted into toxic hydrocarbons that we pump into the atmosphere.
Now the question, given the above as a primer: 

If you were granted virtually unlimited financial resources and the best and brightest minds, what do you propose we do to ensure our species lives for the next 10,000 years and beyond?

Richard Feynman ♥

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgaw9qe7DEE

Fun To Imagine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI&feature=bf_

prev&list=PL04B3F5636096478C

Thanks to April for creating this and sending it our way.



Responses from Facebook (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

 Share · August 7 at 10:13am ·

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    Tom Houston The people in charge making these decisions will be dead long before it becomes an issue so they don't care as it will be someone else's problem. :P

    August 7 at 10:16am · Like
  • 
    

    EditDelete

    Andy Cowen But there is always someone to replace them. So what would you do? What would you hope that your children and grandchildren do to keep us going? The stock market punishes anything other than growth. We cannot grow infinitely (on this world). So how to we make sure humanity (such as it is at times) isn't a galactic flash in the pan?

    August 7 at 10:23am · Like · 1
  • 
    

    Jim Mathews Our civilization has been built on technology and abundant, convenient and cheap fuel. The infrastructure up till now has been very robust because we are still operating on much of that infrastructure. We are facing many challenges before we even try and tackle expensive, inefficient and so far not sustainable without major government involvement which is why industry has only taken only a research interest.....

    August 7 at 1:04pm · Like
  • 
    

    Andy Cowen 
    

    Again... What would you do if the limitations you specified were removed? Brainstorm with me. Science tells us some simple truths. As long as there is a difference, power can be generated. Take a fan that was still and put it into the flow ...See More

    August 7 at 2:08pm · Like
  • 
    

    Andy Cowen 
    

    Sustainability is not just power... It's also agricultural. Currently our farmland and crops have been engineered to over produce. It strips all the nutrients out of the land leaving nothing for the next crop. All the nutrients have to be ...See More

    August 7 at 2:15pm · Like
  • 
    

    Jim Mathews 
    

    Well, of course with unlimited resources and all those resources going to solve the problem instead of lining peoples pockets..... sorry, off subject, we could make anything we wanted. The technology is there. one of the problems is the pop...See More

    August 7 at 5:26pm · Like
  • 
    

    Andy Cowen I think it may be a matter of population distribution.

    August 7 at 5:39pm · Like
  • 
    

    Jim Mathews yes, that is definately a problem. the other problem is transporting food and resources to the population

    August 7 at 6:07pm · Like
  • 
    

    Tom Houston Hydroponic Skyscraper Farms, about 1 square acre by about 100 stories tall. :)

    August 7 at 6:09pm · Unlike · 1

Responses from Google+ (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

AWE... Nothing today from G+

Topic Tuesday #2 2012/07/31 "What do you do when the power goes out, for a LONG time?"

Topic Tuesday #2 2012/07/31


What do you do when the power goes out, for a LONG time?:


Here's a hypothetical situation to get your neurons firing. Wherever you are, the power just simply goes out. No one on the radio or TV says anything for a few hours. Your cell phone is glitchy, and calls fail almost immediately, and you don't have reliable data. Even SMS isn't always making it to your contacts. You are cut off. The power is down, inexplicably, and you have no idea when it will be restored (if it will be restored) Assume at this moment, you don't have power for the foreseeable future unless you are the source. Now (easy for hurricane veterans) consider all the items you rely on that require power. The clock starts ticking on perishables, your AC or heating doesn't work. The power backups at the utility providers (like gas stations, natural gas, water, sewer, internet, telephone) likely have 4-48 hours of reserve power. So... What do you do? What are you going to do if and when the rioting starts?

(This is an exercise to get you to plan ahead and to help others that may not have the same insight. This is NOT for fear-mongering. Those that have lived through storm events know what this is like. Share the love and lets see your plans, and maybe make a better one.) http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/poweroutage/needtoknow.asp

Responses from Facebook (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

 

Becca Diehl Charvet move north! this state ain't fit for not having a/c ;)

July 31 at 9:26am · Like

Andy Cowen but, given the example, how would you move north? This is an immediate survival situation.

July 31 at 9:28am · Like

Becca Diehl Charvet these boots were made for walkin'... (come on! just let me be snarky!)
ok, really? I'd get my peeps circled up in one location with as much fuel as we can get, gas, propane, charcoal, wood, car batteries. Then figure out food & water sources. We happen to have some free-range chickens, so making sure those are secure is tops. Oh, & make sure the bikes are working. That's off the top of my head.

July 31 at 9:42am · Unlike · 1

Jim Mathews LOL, first thing I would do is take my trusty 5kw generator over to my friends gas station and trade him a .22 pistol and a couple hundred rounds ammo for as much gas as I can pump into my 5 20 gallon army surplus gas tanks. I won't go into further details, just know that I have thought this out and prepared......

July 31 at 9:53am · Like

Linda Mahoney Sauls bank, gasoline for vehicles and spares, LOTS of ice. fast thawing food to cooler, add ice, compact everything else from our 3 freezers into one freezer, pack with bags of ice and newspaper and foil, shut and don't open till food gone in cooler. All set for food and water, matches sterno, gallons of water prepared for hurricane each year. Do seal and fill bathtubs with water, washing machine as well. Gather neighbors and help put together plan so we all know what the others have to share if things get tough. (Andrew was a lesson well learned) Traded gas washer and dryer use for ice and food, traded our steaks for gasoline, game plan for finding water and ice, would split up as neighbors and each head for a different site and share what we got.

July 31 at 10:09am · Like

Andy Cowen In case you wonder where I get ideas like this... http://www.cnn.com/2012/

07/31/world/asia/

india-blackout/index.html

Most power restored after India hit by second, even larger outage - CNN.com

www.cnn.com

India suffered its second huge, crippling power failure in two days Tuesday, dep...See More

July 31 at 3:14pm · Like · 

Michelle Rasberry Here in Arkansas we are use to our power going out for weeks at a time, especially in the winter months. You just light the fireplace and pull out the board games for the kids and do the best you can until power is restored. If you are smart you have a gas stove and you can heat some water to take a spongebath and at least eat. But if all else fails you just put the pot in the fireplace and do the best you can.

July 31 at 4:42pm · Like

Donald Davis Lack of running water is much more scary than lack of power. There is wood to burn to cook if you have tools, etc whatever food is available, but fresh water is the real commodity.If there is no power for long periods of time, perishables can soon be forgotten about because ice only lasts for so long, same with gas once supply lines are cut and it runs out. The only real way to move forward is to learn to live without those comforts. people did it before, and survival instincts will kick back in, hopefully there will be some civility left among people if it ever does come to pass.

July 31 at 9:22pm · Like

David OConnor I figure out my survival plan based on a few things - Water: Know where and how to get fresh water every single day. Food, be aware of how much you have and where/how to get more. Multivitamins help here. Shelter - don't let your environment kill you, and is also a handy place to prepare food. Showers and defecations - have a plan to facilitate this.

How prepared should you be? Some people go to extremes in their bid to survive the worst holocaust, but that's incredibly expensive to do. If I have a knife, some rope, a tarp and a water filter I would feel pretty well prepared because the worst case scenario is the world goes to hell when you're out on vacation. Plan for that and think about what it would take to acquire the things you need to keep going. One week of food and water is pretty reasonable to have on hand - One month of food and water on hand will get you past the worst of most emergencies. For the most extreme (Look up katrina) you will have to rely on your neighbors working together to keep everyone going, which is read: alive.

July 31 at 9:38pm · Like

Becca Diehl Charvet reread Alas, Babylon :)

August 1 at 8:47am · Like · 1

Responses from Google+ (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

Tony SandovalJul 31, 2012

+2

part of the problem is that people panic before they think.

We are not that far removed from being the people who never had power to begin with.

My grandparents lived in one room shacks with wood stoves and outdoor toilets.  No indoor plumbing.

I spent summers on a farm that was the same until I was a teen.

 I used to "hobo" when I was a teen.  slept where I found space, camped in a tent.  ate out of cans and cooked on an open fire.  Walked or got rides however I could.

The first thing is not to panic.  The next thing is to realize we do not "need" electricity to live.

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David OConnorJul 31, 2012

I figure out my survival plan based on a few things - Water: Know where and how to get fresh water every single day. Food, be aware of how much you have and where/how to get more. Multivitamins help here. Shelter - don't let your environment kill you, and is also a handy place to prepare food. Showers and defecations - have a plan to facilitate this.

How prepared should you be? Some people go to extremes in their bid to survive the worst holocaust, but that's incredibly expensive to do. If I have a knife, some rope, a tarp and a water filter I would feel pretty well prepared because the worst case scenario is the world goes to hell when you're out on vacation. Plan for that and think about what it would take to acquire the things you need to keep going. One week of food and water is pretty reasonable to have on hand - One month of food and water on hand will get you past the worst of most emergencies. For the most extreme (Look up katrina) you will have to rely on your neighbors working together to keep everyone going, which is read: alive.

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Matthew O'ConnorAug 1, 2012

Well, the first thing to keep in mind is that zombies are interested in brains, brains, brains...

Tony SandovalAug 1, 2012

That's just B grade movie zombies.

"Real" zombies just eat living flesh.  doesn't matter arms, ears, legs.  they don't care.

but, this is about a regular power outage not  a zombie apocalypse.  That would change a lot of things.

Andy CowenAug 1, 2012Edit

Zombie Apocalypse will be another Topic Tuesday down the road. :-)

Matthew O'ConnorAug 1, 2012

Very good.  In that case... I'll take a stab at what memory serves me, and hopefully I won't get too much wrong...otherwise I'll be DEAD if this ever happens!

in situations where supplies of finite quantity and there is no foreseeable resumption of basic social infrastructure, rationing is a good thing.  Food intake should be kept to a minimum where possible - humans can survive on around or less than 1000 calories per day, as I recall, though that number may be high.  If hunting for food is not a plausible activity, attempt to seek out and organize food acquisition and distribution; again, rationing here will become a necessity.  Canned goods are always a good thing.  If you're a baker, sourdoughs do not require much more than the starter, flour, and water.  Makeshift solar ovens, clay ovens, or underground fire pits can be useful for baking.

Water is a necessity, especially in hot climates.  If gas or wood fuel is available, water boiled for 15 minutes (after a full boil is reached) should kill most microorganisms.  Do not catch water out of your gutter, especially if you have an asphalt roof - set up an independent catch-water system if you intend on trying to use water from the sky.  Coffee filters may remove a good number of large impurities, but distillation is the best for removing the most.  Wells have to be used with caution, especially around urban environments - lots of pesticides, heavy metals, and other nasty things will wind up in them.  A water heater can be an invaluable source of water - the catch to having it be one is that you have to regularly flush the tank.  The tanks have ports near the bottom for this purpose.  Flushing once a month would generally be sufficient to keep sludge to a minimum and a full 40+ gallons of fresh potable water available.

Staying cool can be hard - wearing as little as possible and avoiding movement during the hottest daytime hours can help, as well as residing in the shade.  This also conserves energy and water.  Bathing may be reduced to sponge baths every couple of days, or longer if the situation becomes dire.  Wear hats to keep the sun off you, and loose breathable clothing if you must be in the sun.

The propane tanks used for gas grills can be handy to have, but you have to have at least one or two on hand because once the power goes out, those things go out of stock fast.  The downside to the gas grill is it's terribly inefficient for heating things like water - we had to use ours for a while while our kitchen was obliterated.  Making spaghetti took a looong time.  Maybe it was just our piece-o-junk grill...

Digging back to basics, if you are running out of fuel and happen to have trees available for the chopping, you can acquire two useful things: pitch and charcoal.  I don't remember the particulars about pitch and its usage (other than for making boats waterproof), but as I recall the charcoal is made by setting the chopped bits of wood on fire, then burying them to smolder and cool.  The process takes many hours.  The resultant charcoal should make excellent fuel.

If riots are really a concern, having a shotgun or two on hand should at least deter people from rioting on your property.  The goal - get them to realize that your neighbor doesn't have a shotgun and doesn't mind a riot in HIS front yard. ;-)  No need to fire unless they are intent on causing you harm, the sound of a shotgun cocking should make most people rethink their intentions.

And remember this above all else, and especially when the scoops come: Soylent Green is People.

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Andy CowenAug 1, 2012Edit

Excellent advice Matt. For calories, basic rule as I understand it, to maintain your current weight an average metabolism must consume 100 calories per pound of person. So if you are 200lbs, 2000 calories on a normal day will sustain your mass. Do more work, you need more calories and start to shrink or waste away. Do less, need less.
CDC and FDA recommend 1 gallon of fresh water per person per day. Plan accordingly.
Rain water from roofs is still invaluable. You can use it for bathing and irrigation and for washing clothes and such items that will not be ingested. Washing dishes for instance, as long as the final rinse is with clean water. 

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Matthew O'ConnorAug 1, 2012

Great info!  Enjoyed the CDC article after I got done blathering on, too.  Now about those zombies.... ;-)