Daniel Andy

People might be interested in the Soviet era maps produced of the world (including the USA) in secret during the cold war.

Im told many were lost in a warehouse fire but you can still buy them for many cities and areas.

https://redatlasbook.com/northamerica

I'm skeptical of the value of well watered plants to stop a forest fire.

Grass fire maybe.

But i have seen how sopping wet wood, collected in the rain, dries out and burns when next to burning logs. My conclusion is that well watered plants will help against flying embers and grass fires, but a burning tree will turn all those watered plants to fuel around it.

Adding my emergency bag list for future reference:

Here's my list (all fits into one medium hiking backpack):

**Main Bag**

* Work Gloves

* Small crowbar/Wrench (wrench is for turning off the gas to my apartment)

* 150ft parachute cord 1/8th in

* x3 carabiners

* Stack of particulate filter n95 masks

* Roll of duct tape

* 1-2 person hiking first aid kit

* Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, sunscreen, floss)

* 3L water

* Separate toilet paper and matches

* Flashlight

* Laser pointer

* whistle

* Spare batteries for flashlight

* waterproof matches

* Head anti-bug netting

* Local area maps x3 (local cities and nearby country)

* Compass/magnifying glass

* Notepad

* Sharpie

* Mechanical Pencil

* Thermal blanket

* 8 Meals (would be better if I could fit more)

* Can-opener

* Camping towel

* Chemical glowsticks

* Sewing kit

* Earplugs

**Camping SubBag (already have this for camping, get a smaller bit of it if you dont camp)**

* x2 Camping pots (one is fine, got 2 in a camp stove kit that nest)

* Camp stove

* Fuel Cannister for stove

* Collapsable Cup

* Swiss army style knife

* Chopsticks

* x3 Resealable airtight bags

* Food hanging bag (drysack)

* Bluebags for toilet

* Medium size camp towel

* Water purifier

**DayHike SubBag (Already used for hiking, might as well store it together)**

* Headlamp

* Day toilet kit (TP, matches)

* Lighter

* Sunscreen

* Photocopy of passport

* Poncho

Olga Booker wrote:Hi Hugo, you live in Burgundy, a vine and wine county.  Can some knowledgeable neighbor or local farmer help you with the choice and maintenance of vines?

Burra:  Great information, thank you.  Sorry to hear about your fire last year, must have been scary.  It is the same here, most fires are started by discarded cigarettes butts, machinery, and in a few instances, arson  Incidentally, any suggestions about what to put in your grab bag?

Hi Olga, I happened to have my emergency bag contents list handy, here it is:

(all fits into one medium hiking backpack):

**Main Bag**

* Work Gloves

* Small crowbar/Wrench (wrench is for turning off the gas to my apartment)

* 150ft parachute cord 1/8th in

* x3 carabiners

* Stack of particulate filter n95 masks

* Roll of duct tape

* 1-2 person hiking first aid kit

* Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, sunscreen, floss)

* 3L water

* Separate toilet paper and matches

* Flashlight

* Laser pointer

* whistle

* Spare batteries for flashlight

* waterproof matches

* Head anti-bug netting

* Local area maps x3 (local cities and nearby country)

* Compass/magnifying glass

* Notepad

* Sharpie

* Mechanical Pencil

* Thermal blanket

* 8 Meals (would be better if I could fit more)

* Can-opener

* Camping towel

* Chemical glowsticks

* Sewing kit

* Earplugs

**Camping SubBag (already have this for camping, get a smaller bit of it if you dont camp)**

* x2 Camping pots (one is fine, got 2 in a camp stove kit that nest)

* Camp stove

* Fuel Cannister for stove

* Collapsable Cup

* Swiss army style knife

* Chopsticks

* x3 Resealable airtight bags

* Food hanging bag (drysack)

* Bluebags for toilet

* Medium size camp towel

* Water purifier

**DayHike SubBag (Already used for hiking, might as well store it together)**

* Headlamp

* Day toilet kit (TP, matches)

* Lighter

* Sunscreen

* Photocopy of passport

* Poncho

Not really an answer but another thought: how can you build the 5ft fire defense zone such that it can be neglected?  It would be disappointing if your children inherit your house and it burns down because nobody kept up with your annual trimming regime.

The most defensible approach is just to have a house that cannot burn. Build entirely from rocks and dirt, at least on the outside.

Surely the second most sensible defensive approach is to use that area to store things that dont burn but dont need to be roofed. Im not sure i have enough such things to surround a house. Its a shame the solar panels cant be put around the house in such a way as to shade the 5ft zone permanently.

Wildfire protection thinking makes the earth berm people look really good. Solid earth seems to be one of the few ways

Even though you can run an electric vehicle from solar more readily, there is still some niche value in storing electricity in ethanol. For one thing it doesn't go bad the way gasoline does or discharge the way batteries do.

A tank of ethanol can be kept essentially forever. It's the tank's durability that matters, not the ethanol: https://www.laballey.com/blog/storage-and-shelf-life-of-ethanol

This makes it a suitable backup fuel for generators for when the PV system can't function, or perhaps for longer duration vehicle trips, although a pure ethanol vehicle is a bigger project than most will contemplate.

I think the last time I looked, though, biodiesel seemed simpler than ethanol due to the aforementioned difficulty getting engines designed for pure ethanol.

Personally I want one, not as a primary power source but as a backup that will always be working and can always be fixed, even if trade wars or something means I can't get new solar panels.

Phil Stevens wrote:It's definitely got a mad scientist vibe to it. I don't know if I would trust the braking and holding features in the sort of storm winds we can get here.

As I understand it, It's not a brake. It's physics. It actually gets less likely to move as the wind speed goes up.

The guy has absolutely no concept of what makes a good video but that doesn't mean his fluid mechanics and engineering are wrong.

The concept:

1. A wind turbine that is better in low speed wind instead of high speed like nearly all other designs.  

2. One that is low to the ground so you don't have to build a 30ft tower to construct it or do maintenance.

3. One that can be built with local workshops instead of the factories needed for solar panels and turbines

4. One that is *inherently safe* against overspeed

I'm always interested in more ways to make modern living something we can do ourselves instead of being fundamentally dependent on faraway factories, so this is right up my alley, and I want to build one.

I'm not to the point of building but I have a ground-up earthship design (my own instead of buying plans) that I would love your thoughts on, despite it being only on paper.  Perhaps critiquing plans isn't really what you were looking for, though.

When I have them done I plan to post them here but I'm still working on details and could use your thoughts before I try to share them with the forum as a whole.