Bleach

Don't forget to stock up on BLEACH!, I called Hylex in St. Paul re longevity, and she said it will retain its 5+% acidity for a year from the manufacturing date. Shelf-life varies w/ termperatur of storage. Their number is 1-651-454-1160 ask for Angie. There are cheap acid testers in a corner drugstore that will give some degree of accuracy of acidity. There are chlorine chemicals that are 15% acidity.

TENTS AND KNIVES

I have been contemplating purchasing smaller, lightweight tents for bug-out packs for our family but evidently (and this may not be precise), the lightest tent is about 3 lbs. and costs over $200. We recently purchased a second 4-5 dome tent that weighs a lot more than 3 lbs. My uncle suggested that we split up the parts of the tent and carry it that way instead of getting anything new. Another new purchase was 3 space blankets. We lined the bottom of our tents with them and they really helped against moisture and for heat retention. They are lightweight, versatile and don't take up much room - great purchase.

KNIVES: We had all manner of knives with us - survival knives, Swiss army knives, etc. etc. By far the favorite was my husband's buck knife. My 12 year old daughter whittled walking stick handles with it. We used it to scale fish and cut onions. It was extremely sharp and has a safety feature I like which prevents one from folding the blade against one's hand. (I had to take my daughter in for stitches when she did this with her Swiss army knife.) It also looks like an effective weapon if necessary.

CONCLUSION: We will need far more water for Y2K than I had estimated (at least 3 gal/person/day if you're going to do ANY laundry) and far more fuel. We will probably produce less garbage than I had thought before. Using dried and canned foods will make cooking simple but the biggest time consuming task will be baking bread. All my children will get buck knives in their Christmas stockings (although some may not be allowed to use them) and my nieces and nephews will get engraved Sierra cups. The Y2K-anticipated lifestyle will pose many more dangers to us and our children, but I will have to entrust all of us to our guardian angels.

WOMEN: Personal Supplies

Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999
From: Emily K

I am only 16 years old, but when I first heard about the computer crisis I took it much more seriously than most. I have a valuable sugestion for households containing women. Planning for the worst, I suggest stocking up on sanitary napkins and tampons. This is such a common convienience, it could be taken for granted. Thank you.