they'd never be lonely
Posted on 08/31/2011 3:47:21 PM PDT by EnglishCon
The One Long Term Survival Tool Everyone Forgets.
OK, the SHTF big time, and it is going to be a very long time until things settle down. You, as a prepper, have your food, medication and fuel stores, your guns and ammo, your water and power needs sorted out and your retreat. You have even arranged allies amongst your neighbours. You are set to ride this thing out until things slowly get back to normal. Your garden is growing, and the odd intruding deer, raccoons and rabbits that fancy a free lunch are making a welcome addition to your meat store.
You have probably forgotten all about the major tool for serious long term survival.
Entertainment. After all, there are not going to be any TV shows or movies for a while. Talk radio is off the air, and the HAM radio is used for contact first, gossip second.
Books are not just for information but, more importantly, entertainment. A musical instrument or two, if you or one of your party are blessed with musical ability. Songs, as anyone who has had to do a route march knows, makes even the most mind numbing tasks bearable. Music in general, as there is nothing more pleasing than listening to music of an evening.
For books, we have a mix. Some paper and ink, mainly the how to manuals and the repair manuals for every piece of machinery we have. At the insistence of my wife, one inclusion I should mention is a good vegetarian cookbook, for the summer months. The ability to trot out into the garden, grab some veggies and make a truly tasty and interesting meal without digging into your meat store is not to be sneezed at, yet, like most preppers, it was a blind spot for me. We have three kindles, and a hand cranked charger that will charge both them and the MP3 player. http://www.survivaldepot.co.uk/product474753_3307984.aspx is dirt cheap, easily repaired if it breaks and takes up almost zero room (as usual, I am not affiliated with this site or product in any way, merely a happy customer). Two of the kindles have yet more manuals on them, with duplication of the vital ones like the Bible, Gray's Anatomy, the Handbook of Medicine, various gardening books and, oddly, several law books. One of the things to be considered in a community after TSHTF is law, which a lot of people don't consider. American readers might want to add the constitution to their list, though I would bet that most preppers can recite that by heart! The third kindle though, is the important one. Stuffed with books, both classics and modern, children’s and adult, fantasy and biography. We already have the habit of reading to each other in the evening, which is surprisingly entertaining, and is a good habit to develop.
Music, well, there is the MP3 player, as mentioned. Three of them, in fact, each with SD card slots. Our entire music library (something I am REALLY going to regret losing when TSHTF, but it is simply too bulky to move) is all on SD cards. A battery powered docking station, with a solar charger, lets more than one person listen at a time. Instrument wise, we have 12 sets of guitar strings – bugging out with a guitar on your back is, shall we say, impractical. I can make a guitar or a dulcimer easy enough, but the strings I cannot make. Drums are easy enough to make and provide a good beat for evening singalongs.
Prepping is for survival. This I understand and approve of. Simply surviving is not living. I have added maybe 3 pounds to your survival preps with this post, but have added a huge amount to your quality of life.
Always good to have a deck of playing cards in your bug-out pack, they can provide hours of entertainment with no electricity needed.
Also, harmonicas are nice if you are looking for some additional musical instruments that are portable. Pretty easy to learn too, but they only play in one key, so you might want to grab a whole set if you want to get a good bug-out jug band going.
they'd never be lonely
LOL !
For months, I’ve been watching a wasp that stays busy outside the desk window. Fascinating thing.
If you have a large tank for heating fuel the diesel would probably work fine.
Propane generators eat lots of propane.
I have a small 2kw honda that is very fuel efficient, relable & quiet. You have to rotate your loads if you want to run a couple freezers charge batteries run lights & such as you did. The advantage of getting a smaller efficient generator is you may be able to run your needs for a month on 15 gallons of gas. With a Cascadia subduction earthquake they have guessed we could be out of electric for a month or two.
I have a larger (& much noisier) dual fuel generator that I occasionally run just for readiness. Never have run it on propane. I’m saving the propane for heating & cooking. It’s going to make a big difference if we get hit in the winter versus milder weather.
And forget storing that crappy ethanol contaminated gas. Get the real stuff, add preservative & then still rotate it.
I’ve got it all covered. I have lots of reading materials on my e-reader and laptops.
NOT A PROBLEM. /s
See, I’m way ahead of the curve here.
Actually in a hunter/gatherer society the time spent looking for food is actually a lot less than the work time today.
And if you are gathering with a gun, its that much easier.
Ping.
>> Actually in a hunter/gatherer society the time spent looking for food is actually a lot less than the work time today.
Even if TSHTF, I’m not planning on regressing *that* far.
I’m planning on being the farmer/craftsman/artisan/animal-husbander (yes, I *am* planning on raising sheep, how did you guess?)
And even if we do revert to hunter-gatherers, I’m gonna be that four-eyed geek that gets rich staying up late in his teepee making your bows and arrows for ya.
That’s my plan, anyway, and I’m sticking to it! :-)
And relaxing! Love wildlife!
Guns ARE tools, lj.
Just make sure my pillow is fluffy. And the coffee needs to be ready by 7 AM. Just a touch of cream.
And leave my wife alone. She’s mine. You can have my mother in law.
Great eggs, liquid fertilizer from the ducks and meat, milk and fun from the goats.
Funny you should mention beer- a friend of hubby’s owns a bar and had a guy ask him if he could get him 100 cases of beer to store in his garage. Yes hubby made it a point to find out who it was and we know him pretty good. The guy is older, divorced and as far as I know the big preparation he has done is firearms, ammo, and beer.
And because they’re tools, somoene has to be around to repair and clean them. That’s why I’m now building ARs and converting carbines to tacticool rifles. Good tools do good work.
All kinds of tools!
>> Just make sure my pillow is fluffy. And the coffee needs to be ready by 7 AM. Just a touch of cream.
Uh, we won’t be in the same teepee, son. You’ll have to fluff your love-muffin yourself. And coffee? I’ll sell you some. I know how to grow it. I’ll show you where to milk too (and how to tell a bull from a cow; that’s important).
>> And leave my wife alone.
Don’t want or need her; I’ve got my own. Chicks dig us brainy handy types. Especially once they realize we own the mortgate on *your* little one-room tipi! By the way, I like my bison ribeye medium rare.
:-)
You would be surprised how much entertainment you can get from those two items.
If you are planing to shelter in place then get lots of different board games. And up the number of packs of cards you store and sets of dice you have. Trade goods.
I have heard there is no climate in the U.S. that will work to grow coffee- is that not true? If I can grow coffee here in the desert I would learn how, my hubby will be really hard to live with after our supply runs out.
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