Be quiet and try not to stink?

Last night I got freaked out...hubby in bed and me in the living room at the computer reading and I hear what sounds like someone (with long strides) walking in the gravel outside my living room windows...it is midnight, I shut off the lights, grab the night vision goggles and go look around but see nothing, same thing happens again at around 2am, looking through my goggles again I see nothing...so I stay up until hubby gets up at 4am for work and get him to go walk outside in front of the flower bed in the middle of yard, then in front of the living room window and along the side of house by fireplace and I can barley hear him walk. perhaps because in the night sounds are louder(?)...today I tell myself it was probably a deer cutting through my yard and the hoofs would make more sound on the gravel...yup, that is what I am telling me...lol

Igsbrooks let me know if it happens again. 🙂

I spent months after I moved into this place thinking someone was coming up my front porch. It turns out that the sound of my neighbors going up their porch echos. I still have moments where I don't know if it is my porch or the neighbors and peak out the window to check. Last week I noticed a "face print" on my porch window. Someone must have been trying to look in.

Those kinds of sounds are part of the reason for this post. If there was a power outage do you want your neighbors to hear that you have a generator or smell that you have a way to cook? Since the answr is a big no for me, I need to figure out how to address the risk of sounds and smells as long as I live here.

well, in my own personal neck of the woods, we have a lot of eco's, its taken years to figure out what the different sounds are and where they are coming from, something as simple as cutting wood, can eco around like there is no tomorrow, a dog barking is the same or chain saws etc so for us at least, local's would know where the sounds are in general coming from but for others, it would take them a good amount of time to figure it out.

When its truly sllent at the farm, rare but it means that we can hear the nearest farm, their kids, the horses, the dogs etc..

As for smells, I can smell anything that comes from the farm next door but nothing further, and I have been over there when I can smell what we are cooking over here, as for your first questions on how far.. pretty far if the breeze is right, I have been out in the north and been able to smell for a few miles someone's camp/cooking but they are not trying to make it smell less either?

It would depend on so many factors. Are there obstacles between you and other places (building, trees, hill...), are there vehicles running or is everything dead silent? As for smell, TEOTWAKI +1 day, your cooking smell may blend in with other folks also still using their BBQ with whatever meat they have in their thawing freezer. TEOTWAKI + 15 days, once everyone has ran out of propane and food in their meagre pantries, that may be different. Than another 45 days with garbage, sewer, corpses, etc deteriorating, cooking smell may no longer be an issue.

In short, there's no exact science to tell you how far your generator would be heard or how far one could smell your bread baking in a solar oven. Or a while though, I would really put a lot of efforts in being incognito : don't run your genset after most people have ran out of gas for theirs and once every one has ran out of food, cook stealthily for a while. You don't want to become the center of attention.

we have a wee solar light system and the panel on the side of the house looks like it works for the motion light out there...we have metal roll up blinds on outside of windows and the plan to have black out curtains like during WW2 to ensure the light does not get out...as for smells I have not noticed any smell when using the solar oven so that will be good, we have many foods that do not require cooking so if in doubt of who may be around that would be the food of choice

One option that you could look into, is sound proofing a generator shed. Egg carton sound insulators and Batts sound insulation. Add a muffler to the exhaust.

One option that you could look into, is sound proofing a generator shed. Egg carton sound insulators and Batts sound insulation. Add a muffler to the exhaust.

Maybe, but when things are dead silent...

Has anybody seen any charts of graphs of estimates as to population loss over time? Like,how long before just preppers left or military or other like groups who may be left? Nice to know how long before one can break out the bar-b.

well it could just be me, but I think by the time you are down to that odds of having propane for the BBQ, is unlikely.. but no, I have never seen any charts or graphs.

Well I now know that you can hear a generator at least 2 blocks away when the power goes out.

This may sound strange but I wonder if you have a generator inside an old chest freezer you can lock up for security and vent the exhaust , would you need to have an air intake ? I am guessing yes ? And I wonder if you could stack peat moss or shavings bales wrapped in plastic around it to buffer the sound? Those bales do not get wet and are easy to move and stack .
Might be worth trying with that muffler idea?

Yes, you would need an air intake. There would also likely be a heat issue inside the old freezer. This is commendable if your intent is to be a good neighbour during the next power outage, but if you plan on using that system for Opsec in a serious post-SHTF, then there is much more to it then muffling the genset's noise signature.

The biggest noise source is the exhaust.The bigger the exhaust,the quieter it is.Not everybody can have a 50 foot exhaust pipe.Running it into a lake or reservoir or maybe even a barrel might get rid of the noise and smell.I think.Just bubbles left.If you try it let us know if it works.