Richard and I belong to some of the same prepper yahoogroups. I have long admired his preps, particularly his handmade built-from-scratch solar panels. I was thrilled to receive an invitation to attend his presentation near my home town.
SUBJECT? Water purification.
Now, I will admit with some vanity, that I am not a slouch when it comes to prepping. I humbly acknowledge that there are novices, average folk, better-than-average folk (I'd like to think I'm in that category), and then there are people like Richard King and Cheryl Driggs. I would pay good money to go to any class put on by Cheryl Driggs. I'd pay money for a class with Richard too, but I was lucky enough to "get in" for free, lol.
Anyway. Water purification. When I told my DH where I was going tonight, he queried "water purification? Don't you already have that handled?" My response was, "yes, but this is a Richard King class. He's the rock star of prepping. If ever I would learn something new, it would be from him."
I was not disappointed. For those of you who teach prepping classes (or who may be asked to do so), I was really impressed by his "style." For one, he brings a lot to show and tell. He groups these into, well groups, and then individually covers each group with a sheet, so you can't see underneath. He uncovers one group at a time and talks about it. As a presenter myself, I immediately see the benefits: (1) keeps your audience focused on that specific issue (2) keeps the presenter on track (versus bouncing around.)
For this particular class he had five groups: water sources (where to find/get), water storage (container types pros and cons), water purification with chemicals (iodine, chlorine), water filtration/purification (i.e., Berkey, First Need, Katadyn, PUR) and a home made water desalinizer (and you know how much I have wanted one of those.)
A few observations. (1) Richard, you might be still smelling chlorine because chlorine is a gas regardless of its form: solid, liquid or gaseous. So yeah it's going to permeate. (2) Audience participation was a bit too participatory. I don't think I've ever been in a class where people felt compelled to interrupt the speaker with their own stories. Even if I had two cents to put in (and I did), it's not my class so I'll keep my mouth shut until I get to my blog.
Here's my .02 on the water desalinizer though Richard: heat it with a parabolic cooker or fresnel lens. Sure, you've got to figure out how to pack said cooker/lens if you are bugging out, but you won't have to worry about FUEL. I'd have mentioned it in class, but Richard was already getting interrupted by enough people who "just had to" share their wisdom at his expense.
An hilarious moment came when he unveiled the desalinizer. A guy in the front shouted out: "hey, that looks like a still !" I about rolled on the floor with laughter. Not only that, but I'll bet my brother, who spent a few years in the back country of Kentucky, probably already has one. I never thought to use it as a water de-salinizer/distiller. That's a stovetop pressure cooker on the table (how genius is that??), copper tubing which feeds down into the black tube, copper tubing (separate piece) spirals down and water comes out the small bump on the left. The larger spout on the right is to easily drain excess precipitation.
Apologies to Richard for the yellow smiley face. Forgot to get his permission to publish his likeness on my blog before I left the class.
Other things I had not thought about (or forgot if I had): cover the blue 55 gallon water barrels with black trash bags. I hate that the "blue" color can be seen through my side gate. Black trash bags are cheap and easy and make them less noticeable. Using a white trash bag tied over a tree limb (and closed off) to collect water via transpiration:
All in all, a great class. Thank you for the invitation, it was a wonderful to have a "front row seat" to a prepping rock star's concert.
No comments:
Post a Comment