Lesson 10 of 25
Water 1.1 Water 101
Water has so many uses that we tend to take for granted on a daily basis. We use it to bath, we wash our cloths with it, we wash our dishes, our car and our animals with it. Most importantly though we drink it. Now if you had to forego the washing of yourself and your cloths, dishes, car and animals you would survive just fine. You, however, cannot forego the drinking of water. Your body is comprised or almost 75% water and every organ and system of your body uses it in one way or another. When these systems start receiving less and less water and your body becomes dehydrated they start shutting down non essential portions and work at only a percentage as normal. When your life is on the line the last thing you need is for your brain and body to let you down because you didn't have enough water.
Water is a huge importance in your life and to be really serious about preparing and surviving you need to change the way you look at it and use it. Most people spend a majority of their lives dehydrated to a certain degree. Our diets in america are almost designed to make us that way. What I want you to change is to start learning for yourself the signs of dehydration and the effects that it has on the body and your brain. You need to drink more water everyday and make it a positive change in your lifestyle. You never know when you are going to be forced to react to an emergency or crisis and by being fully hydrated you are going to be thinking your best and be able to more your best.
Drinking water on a day to day is important but during an emergency it is going to keep you sharp which will give you an advantage. Rationing will be a normal part of life in a long term crisis but water shouldn't be on the rationed list. Water stored at your home is the next part of the lesson. At this stage of training you should think about having a solid 72 hour survival kit at home. The standard for water stored is one gallon per person per day. This is not just drinking but for cooking as well. So if you live alone you should have three gallons of water stored. Easy, Right?
Once you have the water stored it is best to rotate your stock so it doesn't just sit in plastic jugs for a couple of years. Simply drink a gallon and put aside a new gallon. If you are filling from your own tap then just dump and refill. Fresh water just tastes better and you morale will thank you for keeping your supply fresh. If you are storing for a large family or for longer term then you might consider storing in five gallon jugs. I use the water bottle jugs from water bubblers with a sandwich bag taped on the top with electrical tape. They were free and store well with a nice handle for pouring. I also like that they are clear and I can see what is in them. If you use these make sure to store them in a dark place so the sun doesn't encourage things to grow in your water.
The next part of basics of water is cooking. If you have a nearby water supply that you can tap into to bring home to use for cooking then you can use that instead of depleting your drinking water supply. I wouldn't count on that and store less water though. In fact, store more! As important as this it to your health and life, and also that it is nearly free, you should make this your number one prepping priority. Store as much as you can and keep building. Remember, in a crisis you have no idea what will come next and when a family finds there way to your door and is on the brink of death from dehydration you probably aren't going to kick them to the street.
If future lessons on the topic of water we are going to cover multiple ways to treat, filter and boil water to make it safe. We will also cover livestock and gardening watering, water travel and even water power generation. We will also discuss to potential hazards to drinking water and how to recognize them.
In the next lesson we are going to cover water safety to explain why you can't just drink from a stream and how to treat your water to make it safe. The goal is that by SPEAR level 10 you will be capable of finding water and staying hydrated no matter what life throws at you. You will also be capable of using this amazing resource to grow food, provide effective transportation, and even generate some power for you home.
Continue onto Lesson 11
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