I live in the Mountains in a little town called Placerville,and our family drinks alot of Milk we go through gallons of milk and since we heard about Y2k we have been doing things to prepare, and since we go through gallons of milk I thought of filling those empty gallons with water and putting it in a safe dry spot and with the water.

I would also like some cost efficient ideas

-- MoJo (Morgan) (Y2KFever@Aol.Com), November 24, 1998

Answers

Hey, MoJo...would that be the mountains of Placerville, Ca.??? I've been there many of times...have family that still live there. I don't know if they are y2k aware yet! I remember that it gets pretty cold there at night...might consider a fireplace insert or woodstove if you don't already have one. Blondie

-- Blondie Marie (Blondie@future.net), November 25, 1998.

Those gallon milk jugs are designed to biodegrade fairly quickly if they are the kinda not-clear ones. REALLY embarassing for your water storage to start leaking all over the closet in about 6 months!

Chuck

-- Chuck a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), November 25, 1998.

Here in the Atlanta area the stores carry cartons of milk that doesn't need refrigeration. It has been irradiated with gamma rays to sterilize it and it won't spoil. Once the carton is open then of course it will act like any other milk, use it or lose it. Or stick it in a snowdrift (protected from stray cats and raccoons). This stuff is not radioactive, it's just sterilized. I haven't tried it. Maybe this is available elsewhere?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), November 25, 1998.

Fill Dec 28, 1999 - they'll keep a while. Don't refill from the local creeks, the runoff is spoiled with lead, mercury, other poisens from the old gold tailings. Filter it through something efective against minerals. Boiling doesn't remove chemicals, heavy metals, from water.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 25, 1998.

# # # 19981124 -- 401 days until The Year 2000 Techno-Ambush!

Distilling ANY water works fine. Evaporate the water ( up ) into a canope; allow condensation to run-off/down from canope into a clean vat. I have a previous post re constructing a solar distillery ( off- line ).

Regards, Bob Mangus # # #

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus@mail.netquest.com), November 25, 1998.

Don't worry about those milk jugs degrading. It takes longer than a few years. I've had milk jugs filled since the summer of 1997 with no problems. I'd start filling them now. You never know when the power might go out. It's nice to have a supply of water on hand just in case.

Dave

-- Dave (dave22@concentric.net), November 25, 1998.

About the distilling water: Brita claims that it removes 98% of lead and other nasty things from water. Anybody know if it would deal with other heavy metals and thus be useful to MoJo?

-- Karen Cook (browsercat@hotmail.com), November 25, 1998.

As a back-up strategy try to find a natural spring in your area that has already been tested. I't always wise to know where the alternate water sources are.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 25, 1998.

Don't reuse milk bottles! The water you store in them will taste of rancid butter when you drink it; probably harmless, but quite horrible.

Cola bottles are a much better bet, and also that sort of plastic is a lot tougher.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), November 25, 1998.

DO NOT USE OLD PLASTIC MILK JUGS FOR WATER STORAGE.

The microscopic pores on the inside of the jug will allow for the possibility of contamination. Yes, even when rinsed real good there will still be some milk left in the plastic jug.

One gallon milk jugs are cheap plastic. The quality is designed for deliverly of milk and then the jug should be recycled. Spend the money on food grade plastic water storage containers. One should also have the ability to filter and treat(bleach) rain, stream, and or lake water. Look at high quality water filteration(Katadyne, Pure).

My two cents.

yada

-- yada (yada@yada.com), November 25, 1998.

Those plastic milk jugs work great for storing water if you plan on using the water for flushing toilets and washing dishes. Rinse them well with bleach and you should have no problems. I assume even a simple minded person would not use them for drinking water.

-- Dave (dave22@concentric.net), November 25, 1998.

Regarding the milk - About 9 years ago I went to France through a high school foreign exchange program. They would buy milk in cartons and store them in their pantry/wherever. The milk did not have to be refrigerated until it was open. I'm not a big milk fan, so I can't really remember if the milk tasted any different than the milk we are accustomed to in the U.S. Also, it was not a time when I was Y2K aware - didn't ask how long the milk would store.

-- Christine A. Newbie (vaganti01@aol.com), November 25, 1998.

Since your family likes milk so well get yourself a pressure canner and fill quart canning jars up with heated milk and pressure can them for 10 min. with 10 lb. of pressure (pints for 5 minutes). Make sure that you boil the lids for 3 minutes. While the lids are hot place them on the jars of hot milk and tighten rings and put in canner that has 3 qts of hot water in it. Follow the directions that come with your canner for basic pressure canning procedures. Refrigerate after opening. This is not quite as good as fresh milk but it's taste pretty darn close and you can store on the shelve without refrigeration.

-- Trellis Tindall (Can-can@milk.com), November 25, 1998.

Karen - ref distilling vs. boiling to remove heavy metals, chemicals.

We're both right, but I wasn't as clear as I should have been.

Two different cases at work here - you get two different results. Boiling water = take water, put in pot, heat water. [ My kind of cooking. 8<)] Boiling water kills germs, microbes, parasites - any living type gunk in the water. Great. Any chemical dissolved in the water originally, or anything suspended in the water (lead, mercury, oil, dirt, gravel, fish sticks, cats, whatever....) stays in the pot, gtes hot, but stays toxic.

Distilling water - solar or other powered - place water in container 1. Heat it or evaporate it => you get "pure" water vapor from above the container => pass the pure water vapor to a diiferent (hopefully clean) container => cool the seond container => water vapor condenses => you get no chemical contamination in the second container. So the wet cat and the heavy metals stay in the original container, and you are safe.

However, you have also left behind all the chlorine in the first container that keeps mold and algae and other critters from growing in the newly pure water. So if the second container is exposed to the air, it grows lots and lots of new critters. Solution: sterilize or boil the water from the second container if it could be contaminated, or has been sitting for long time in the dark. (Think of a picnic cooler that was put away wet and left for long time.)

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 25, 1998.

Get a milk cow. Gal. of milk should sell for about $10+ in todays money. No more milk factories.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), November 26, 1998.

I thought it too obvious an answer but since no one else said it - make sure you stock up on powdered milk. You can use it now in different recipes and even drink it. Tastes best if chilled before drinking and can add it to regular milk. Powdered milk is cheaper than regular milk too.

-- Rod Beary (rbeary2327@aol.com), November 30, 1998.

Speaking of powdered milk... I read somewhere (head is too full to remember where at this point) that it is not a good idea to store the powdered milk that comes in a box. The kind of powdered milk my local grocery store sells, well, comes in a box. Where is the best place to buy the other type - canned? - not sure. I would like to be able to purchase it in smaller quantities - limited on funds, and I don't have enough funds to purchase one of those huge dehydrated packages for several hundred dollars.

-- Christine A. Newbie (vaganti01@aol.com), November 30, 1998.