Posted on 05/09/2009 12:20:57 PM PDT by appleseed
Something that isn’t approached in many of these articles is, what if you’re not in your home?
Having a year’s supply of food in your basement is one thing - but if you’re forced out of your home and “relocated” to a community center by the government; or if you are wise and head for the hills BEFORE they come get you - what good will all that stockpile do you? 55 gallons of drinking water is terrific, but you can’t carry it with you.
Some alternative suggestions for cache’s or ‘bug out’ places should be discussed too, I think.
bookmark
“Been through a lot of stuff. I know what I’m doing as far as my own house goes. Read the scriptures and am aware. I think you are right on the money. Thanks for your thoughts.”
Your welcome. :) It’s clear to me that most of us who post on these threads have some experience with any number of temporary “emergency” situations and are trying to give encouragement and support to others. I must admit though to being somewhat bemused by the apparently obligatory “negative” post that appears on these threads.
Evidently we need to dispell some myths about “survival”? :)
I say that being from exotic country you are the best candidate.
“Why do you think what I suggested is “island” planning? “
Good question. In a previous post I mentioned “myths” and this seems to be one of them. Obviously we need to discuss the importance of developing “community”? (yet another word that has been “co-opted” into something negative ;)
“Many people survived in the Southwest before all the modern conveniences, it surely can be done.”
Actually, not much. After WWII, Phoenix only had about 50,000 people, and only became livable after the invention of swamp cooling. And only prosperous with the invention of home air conditioning. And that 50,000 only because of plenty of water and commercial air conditioning in the city.
In summer, it was a pest hole of disease, and anyone who could, sent their children to live in the much cooler North country. It’s big draw was that it had such dry air that Tuberculosis patients were attracted to the place.
Without water and electricity, which amount to the same thing here, as electricity is needed to pump the water, Phoenix and much of the southwest returns to the Sonora desert from whence it came.
First of all, keep in mind that no matter how bad things get, Mugabe is still in charge of Zimbabwe. Governments just won’t die on their own. There was no Weimar Revolution in Germany. Hyper-inflation, if it even happens (hasn’t in Japan), is no guarantee of a government falling or even of a stock market going to 0.
Naturally, prepare first for the idea that a societal meltdown won’t happen. That’s right. The good times might just edge out the bad no matter what. So...
Good job/business, education, strong family ties, no debt, positive savings, etc. Cover the basics. I’d hate for a good person to so over-invest in TEOTWAWKI that she gets crushed instead by society functioning normally. That would be tragic irony.
That being said, this is an awful time to be taking chances in major investment categories likes stocks, bonds, and real-estate.
Get into cash. Sell whatever you can. Drop your asking price to sell fast. And renting is better than owning during these sorts of deflationary downturn panics. This crisis has been going on since 1989 in Japan...it may go on that long here.
The time to invest is later, after the dust settles. Until then you want ca$h. Trust me, I’m an expert!
With the basics covered, you need to be prepared for a short-term emergency like all banks being closed for an extended period of time. Do you have enough cash on hand if your ATM card won’t work for a month?
Really? Banks are closed. ATMs won’t work. You’ve still got bills. You’ve got that much ca$h on hand? You better.
Checks and credit cards (bank cards!) may be unusable for a while, too.
At the next level, can you survive inside your home without going to a public/government food/shelter depot if a hurricane/tornado/tsunami/volcano/avalanche/earthquake or other natural event renders all stores closed for a month? What if society has a hiccup? Roads aren’t being cleared of downed trees/powerlines. Goods aren’t moving from the country into town, or between towns.
You’ve got your meds? Water? Safe canned food (#10 cans keep food fresh for 25 years). A certain way to start a fire, even in the rain? Winter clothes?
Do you have a 72-hour “bug-out” bag to grab and run if a wildfire or medium-sized meteor puts your home in an unsafe region? Or a plague (e.g. terrorist infection in your area)?
Does each member of your distributed family know how to call you if cell lines are working, and know where to meet up if they aren’t?
Do you have basic first aid available (painkillers, aspirin, hydrogen peroxide, bandages) and know where to find a doctor/hospital?
Pause...
Surviving for longer periods of time is an order of magnitude more difficult than preparing for any of the above...and most people won’t come close to having the water or cash handy to handle even expected outages of the comforts of civilization (e.g. sanitary).
A few tips if you are in a longer-term survival situation:
#1: avoid all contact, especially violent, with military and paramilitary groups. You won’t have the firepower of a Destroyer or B-2 bomber, and you won’t have access to their level of medical care. You want to survive. This is not about starting or winning a war. You’ll likely end up like one of the 3 dead pirates off the coast of Somalia if you violate this rule.
#2: stay put if you can. Once you leave you will become a forager, and that’s a very difficult way to survive.
#3: if you have to leave (e.g. to avoid contact with paramilitaries), then leave. F’in go! A stocked sailboat would be nice at that point. Go fishing. Come back when the crisis is over.
#4: announcements on loudspeakers, radio, TV, posters, and handouts, are not to be believed. But they’ll be out there.
This is important because in a desperate situation various bad actors will have incentive to tell you what you *want* to hear in order to manipulate your behavior.
Also, weapons, dogs, and body armor are great things (get them!)...but they aren’t going to help you against paramilitaries and they won’t sanitize your hands before eating or after septic disposal. The daily grind can kill you dead.
Likewise, while a gun is nice (and better to have one than not), shooting a deer in a nation that is starving will bring *large* numbers of people toward what they hope will be a deer kill. Drawing attention to yourself by firing a weapon or turning on lights at night...perhaps even a campfire, may be contrary to improving your survival odds.
This might be a great time to have a simple slingshot for squirrel hunting. Very quiet.
Now, just remember that the worst is unlikely to happen. Being prepared for the plethora of catastrophes that are possible is difficult. Moreover, you don’t want to scare yourself silly *or* become so invested in the mental idea of a crash/disaster that you begin *wishing* for it.
It’s unlikely to happen. Many a 1980’s “Reagan nuclear war” survivalist wound up disappointed. So too did the Y2K nuts (e.g. World Nut Daily).
What’s more likely is higher unemployment, limited riots/arson attacks near colleges and ghettos, and some inconvenient bank failures that tie up some access to capital.
You might also consider some redneck car armor for your family/commuter vehicle. Used police surplus ballistic body armor panels (soft armor) can be found online for as little as $25 each. Stuff them behind your door and rear hatch interior panels, plus in front/under your driver instrument cluster pod.
Lower your windows on your doors, remove your interior panels, and insert old phone books. Duct tape them out of the way of the glass windows and electric window motors. This can be done by an amateur with as little as 1 hour of your time per door.
Lighter calibers of street-thug firearms such as .22, .38, and 410 shotguns won’t penetrate into your interior through your metal outer door panels plus through phone books.
This is a very quick and inexpensive way to help protect your family from small domestic riots where some bad actor in the crowd is likely to have a small pistol.
You can do the above without even alarming your family that an elevated level of threat exists. The windows will still work, after all. Your car will appear normal. If you want to go the extra step, pick up on-line some Llumar or C3 bulletproof window film for your windows.
You aren’t Rambo. You aren’t going to be machine-gunning down whole crowds of rioters before one of them can shoot your car from behind or from the side. TEOTWAWKI is *not* Hollywood! A little armor can thereby improve your daily sense of security without running up a big bill.
Obviously the above is worthless against more powerful handguns, but a rioter is less likely to be carrying around heavy artillery without being picked off by whatever police/national guard forces are still in existence.
For trading materials under riot conditions or TEOTWAWKI, I’m a bigger fan of dual-use materials like liquor.
Cheap Vodka, Everclear, and Moonshine have sanitizing uses, firestarting capabilities, painkilling uses, as well as trading and entertainment value. They also store for longer periods of time than you and your children and their grandchildren will live.
In contrast, you might find that single-use materials like gold hold no luster during actual panics.
“What kind of things should you have in your Bug out Bag?”
Change of clothes, hard candy, fishing line/hook, knife, firestarter, flashlight, 2 reflector sleeping bag pouches, money, slingshot, 1st aid kit, water, water purifier, rain poncho, no rinse body bath, hand sanitizer, potassium iodide, plastic twist ties, JB Weld, duct tape, sewing kit, toothbrush/toothpaste, lightweight camo net, dog treats, tampons (If married), warmpack handwarmers, beef jerky, diapers (if kids), 8’ rope, binoculars, condoms, prescription glasses, military surgical toolkit, and Dentek Replace/Secure for emergency tooth fillings/repairs.
The clothes should be inside plastic bags for water resistance. The flashlight should be hand-cranked (no batteries).
For extra credit: vitamins... and superglue (useful medically for sealing cuts).
Excellent question. I drive 42 miles to work. We have a plan when the shtf. Most of it revolves around me getting back to the house. I work in a sector of public safety. I wear a good pair of boots to work. Ready to hoof it need be. Got the best way home if the shtf.
Excellent question. I drive 42 miles to work. We have a plan when the shtf. Most of it revolves around me getting back to the house. I work in a sector of public safety. I wear a good pair of boots to work. Ready to hoof it need be. Got the best way home if the shtf.
Every you bring up is right on the money. Thanks for posting it.
My family lived in the midwest during “the” depression. Large large garden, grew, dried, canned, ate very well. We did not have a cow but we had chickens, guinias, geese, ducks, and often rabbits. We also had a “storm cellar” otherwise known as a root cellar. There we stored potatoes etc. Can be done.
My mother lived in Phoenix in the 1920s and said she didn’t remember it being bad before coolers. They just weren’t used to them like we all are now. They had screened sleeping porches because it was too hot to sleep indoors at night. They did have electricity though- I think she said they had ceiling fans. But Indians and Hispanics lived in that desert before there was any way to cool it. There were fewer people but they were able to survive in the desert.
During the depression my mother’s family moved to Camp Verde because life was really tough in Phoenix with so many without work. Talk about basic survival, my grandmother was a widow with 5 children when the depression hit and my mother said they lived for months on corn meal mush and very little else. Once they moved to Camp Verde they had a place for a garden and could fish and hunt. My mother said she thought Camp Verde was a paradise compared to Phoenix. It is hard for us to imagine living a life based on sheer survival, but many before us have done it- and there are many on this planet doing it right now so it can be done when it comes right down to it. I admit the large population would make it harder but I would think anything so catastrophic that it could take us back to that point would likely kill many, many people. Mankind in general is tough and you just don’t know how little it takes to survive when you have no choice.
I don’t know how old you are, but I grew up around adults that went through the depression and their stories were heartbreaking. I had an uncle that said they would work hard in the fields all day long in the hot Texas panhandle and then come home at night and many times they had very little or nothing to eat before they could harvest so would just go hungry for days until his dad could manage to kill something or trade for some food or money. My mother knew people that had to give up their children because they could not feed them. The scary thing was everyone of them would tell some terrible memory of the depression and then tell you they knew people worse off than they were. Many died during the depression, but most survived somehow.
Thank-you for the good advice. I have only two differences of opinion, and they are merely that.
Owning property vs renting? Depends. I was “born country” and we’re heading “home” in the next year (or sooner if necessary) to land that’s been in my family for generations. You don’t mention your reasoning, but I can assure you that renters *do* pay for increased taxes, upkeep, etc., not to mention that they *can* find themselves out in the street in relatively short order. That doesn’t mean it’s not the right decision for some, just that there are downsides to both, depending on your individual circumstances.
Second, while a sling shot may work for you, I prefer a bow and arrows for “silent” hunting. Both take practice. :)
PING
Owning any equity (stocks, real-estate) during deflationary panics is costly. Renters get the best of a bad deal during such hard times.
Like you, I too own land...but I wouldn’t advise anyone to go purchase land right now. Better to rent because prices are still falling.
Same for stocks. The current stock run up will tempt lots of money in before the next major stock crash later this year.
Better to be in cash on the sidelines for a while. At least until inflation returns widespread to housing and salaries.
“We have a plan when the shtf.”
Probably should be number one on any “list”. :)
We’re implementing our personal “shtf” right now. “God willing and the creek don’t rise”, we’ve got about a year. Worst case senario, my husband’s job could be terminated at any time, in which case, the basic plan remains the same, but we’re not as “prepared” on the other end as we’d like to be. Or somewhere inbetween.
I have no crystal ball. I do not know for sure what lies ahead, but “common sense” tells me it’s time for us, personally, to take action. Faith in God, strong family ties,experience in survivng “hard times” before,and an understanding of the “community” we’re heading for, are the things I’m relying on to see us through what lies ahead.
Thanks for your reply. I understand what you’re talking about now and agree.
Lower “cost of living” is one of the reasons we’re moving.
As for stocks, I’ve always considered that a form of gambling and I have no money to throw away, especially at the present time. :)
Gold will be king in the coming years. Inflation will drive it over $2,000 and ounce. Stocks will drop after interest rates and CD incomes go back to double digits, making them and the bond market the hot investments. (That is if you can figure out a way to sidestep the increased taxes.)
We’ve got deflation, not inflation. Gold is for suckers who don’t understand the Greater Fool theory.
Deflation means falling prices. Cheaper homes. Lower salaries. Falling stock prices.
People will soon be selling gold to obtain hard-to-get cash. And if you think that cash is easy to get...where are you getting it?!
You know recently i’ve noticed that stores shelves are really empty. Sure it looks like stuff is there but they are only one deep and today i went to the walmart supermarket that we have here because they usually have great variety on lean cuisines and their entire frozen food offering were down to just a few varieties.
I don’t know what’s up out there but there is really a dwindling amount of stuff at the store.
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