I'm usually too busy doing my own survival stuff, running classes, backpacking, and all that to really pay too much attention to other bloggers or whatever in the survival space.
However I do on occassion read a blog post if something catches my eye. Now to be honest, things like "what to stock" is almost always something that I read because it helps me spot things that I might be missing or haven't thought of, or forgotten, or whatever.
I am regularly astounded however by some of the things people list either as a "necessary" bug out bag item or as something that should be stocked at your BOL.
THIS POST is an example of what I'm talking about. Mimeograph machines??? Are you serious?
Look, your BOL is a location that you stock for when something goes really bad. If your BOL is in the same goegraphic area and there's a natural disaster then your BOL won't be habitable anymore than your home is.
The truth right now however is that what is going on makes me think that your BOL is going to be much more useful should the US government declare some form of martial law. Given the positively insane amount of ammo that the Department of Homeland Security is buying (1.6 billion rounds at present, enough to wage full scale war for 30 years) combined with the ever growing purchases of food supplies by FEMA, purchased in a way that seems to be purposely interrupting the supply chain of emergency food for preppers ... I think it's a fairly likely scenario.
Especially when you figure that the US is currently buried in an ACTUAL yearly deficit running at 75% of GDP and an ACTUAL debt load rapidly approaching 200 trillion dollars, is going to mean that sooner or later the US is going to "pay" for the debt by currency inflation. That will lead to actual massive inflation and THAT is when the crack down will occur (I call it "Syria in the US").
Understand that a massive crackdown by the US government against the citizenry (effectively eliminating the "pesky" constitution) means several very important things.
1) The electrical grid is going to be closely monitored.
2) Various types and flavors of "law enforcement" personnel are going to be actively looking for people trying to be independent
3) Satellite technology means that any gun stashes that you THINK you have hidden are actually well known
Here's what I'm saying.
If (when really) TSHTF you need to be as invisible as possible. You need to be able to live without electricity or gas. If you think the government isn't going to use satellites to find homes being heated that aren't on a known electrical grid or getting fuel oil from known suppliers you are sorely mistaken.
Should the US government do exactly what it looks like its preparing to do, living anywhere in the US is going to be difficult no matter how great your BOL is.
In fact I'm going to go farther.
Unless the US decides to perform a wholesale takeover of both Mexico and Canada then I am rapidly coming to the belief that you need a BOL in both locations. I say both because which you go to will depend on a number of factors.
One in the wilderness of far north Canada (where bothering you is more trouble than its worth) or very deep into southern Mexico (area south of Monterey) where again its just not worth messing with you. Or better yet, go farther south still into Honduras, Belize, or El Salvador (all of which are beautiful by the way).
Each has its own pros and cons. If you go north, you can set yourself up with things like electricity and fuel oil and you can be exceedingly independent. The culture up there is a culture of independence, of making it on your own and bartering for the few things you do need.
However it is extremely cold and you had better know what you're doing to survive up there.
On the flip side, if you set yourself up south of Mexico you can go into the wilderness areas there an live quite comfortably thanks to a very temperate climate. However you have to understand how to survive the storms. The great thing about both places is that you can set yourself up with electricity generation using both solar and wind. (again, inside the US you'll be found if you do this and "brought to heel")
All of these things are why I keep saying the same thing ... all survival sooner or later is primitive survival. If you're going to go south of Mexico or into the Canadian Wilderness you'd better be fairly skilled in primitive survival.
SUMMARY
A BOL inside the US is now useful only for a natural disaster and THAT means that your BOL needs to be in a different geographical area than where you live. Of course actually getting to your BOL during or even shortly after a natural disaster is probably going to be difficult if not actually impossible.
Start thinking about setting up BOLs outside the US should the economy collapse and martial law is declared.
Showing posts with label Grid Down. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grid Down. Show all posts
Friday, August 16, 2013
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
A really great question (sort of)
A guy on the Survivalist Board put up a post about rebuilding society with 30 people. Now personally, I think he and several other people overcomplicated the situation. Here is my response (including details on what I would do and how)
A group of 30 could survive ASSUMING a survival expert in the group that actually knows what they are doing AND DOESN'T FRIGGEN VIOLATE THE RULES.
I put that last part in all caps for a reason. The show on Discovery, "Naked and Afraid" puts two people supposed to be primitive survival experts into actual primitive survival situations. However with a couple of exceptions these people violate the rules and it ends up screwing them. So, I'm going to list out how a group of 30 people survive in a situation where their only resources are the clothes they are wearing.
First, the one primitive survival expert is ultimate authority PERIOD. Anyone not doing what the leader says is punished severely and instantly. Three times of disobeying the leader results in banishment if not death on the spot. The first person to disobey needs to be made a very brutal example of to prevent it happening again, ditto with the first person to reach 3 times disobeying. However if the first person to disobey (or two) are punished harshly enough then probably it won't happen again after that. A small group of just 30 and people get the message pretty quick.
Important rule ... NO ONE is allowed to evacuate bowels less than 300 feet from where ever the group intends to sleep, and said evacuation is a location decided upon by the leader (more on why later) and a hole must be dug at least one foot deep and then covered.
1) Fire.
Leader starts a fire IMMEDIATELY. Even if where they are isn't a good location for the group to pick as a "camp" a fire can be moved (any decent primitive expert should know how). In every survival show I've seen this is always the #1 mistake I see made. Start the fire soon.
Once the group is where they are going to make camp, for the love of all that's good and holy make it BIG. Cooking occurs on the outer edges not the middle. A fire that's 10 feet in diameter will keep away predators, generate smoke to keep away insects, keep up morale when things start to suck (and in the beginning they will), generate heat, and in the beginning give a way of treating water.
2 people are tasked with tending the fire, three more are tasked to obtaining fuel for it. (in the beginning this will mean finding stuff on the ground and even tearing branches off trees ... smoke is actually a good thing to ward off insects so some "green wood" is very desirable. Not only that, but sometimes just walking to the nearest tree and tearing thins off it is easier. Energy conservation is important at this stage.
2) Water.
EVERYONE ELSE works on getting a flow of treated water established. Water from the ground must be boiled ... PERIOD. Yes I know there are some exceptions but with 30 people generating enough water is going to require obtaining water from "untrusted" sources ... that means boiling.
Until there is a good "flow" of boiled drinkable water NOTHING ELSE matters. EVERYONE (except fire tender-ers and fuel gatherers) is put to getting this done.
Once it is done, probably 6 people will be put to keeping that flow of water (transporting water from the source to the fire and boiling, and adding to the number of drinking vessels).
Another huge mistake that I see being made by supposed "experts" is risking drinking running water from a stream. Any water that comes off the ground, out of the ground, and so on MUST be assumed to be bad and MUST be boiled. Water out of a plant doesn't have this rule but getting enough water for 30 people from plant sources is nearly impossible. You WILL need "ground water" from a steam or digging a well or evaporating sea water (not easy given zero resources). I can't stress this enough. Water from the ground must always be assumed bad and therefore it must be boiled. There are exceptions but you'd better be VERY confident in that exception. The entire group of 30 can be killed off quite quickly from drinking just a small amount of bad water. If not from the actual illness from the water itself, then because the illness has made the group too weak to obtain food. Boiling water doesn't take that long, it's why fire is the first item ... it's the first item exactly because the REAL most important thing is clean water.
3) Shelter. (notice it isn't food yet)
Leader would need to ensure that the components for enough shelters are created and built. All structures for 30 people would have final assembly done at once. This eliminates the arguments over who gets to sleep in the first constructed shelters. The 19 people not working on the fire or water are all working on this task. Done properly, within about 4 or 5 days the group has a very large fire, plenty of water to drink, and shelters from the elements. Many small shelters are better than one large shelter (they hold together better in heavy winds).
4) Food.
Branches are torn off trees and FILED (no tools yet) to points on rocks. Again, all 19 people not on fire or water duty are put to acquisition of food.
Most predators are likely going to be drawn to the area the group is using for bowel evacuation. 19 people, properly lead, should be able to relatively safely kill a predator (boar or cat).
If the main predator is snakes and "lizards" (crocs or aligators) then you do have to go get them but they are the "safest" to get assuming the leader knows how (crocs and aligators are safer ... snakes are too much work for the amount of food unless one is at hand). If the main predator is bear, that means fish ... DO NOT tangle with bear even (especially even) babies. Baby bears are given VERY wide space. A full grown bear will often not bother with humans at all ... except mothers who will violently protect their babies.
The leader, besides getting sharpened branches to the group also teaches people how to weave nets and create baskets, both of which are used for trapping fish, small game, and birds. In the early stages, these are pretty much always the primary source of food.
Again, snakes, kill them if they are close, but often snakes require a large expenditure of effort for the amount of food obtained so they shouldn't be "hunted". Fishing with nets, trapping fish/sea life with the baskets, trapping small game/birds with nets and baskets. In short, you need a lot of nets and a lot of baskets to feed 30 people. Again, all 19 people should be put to doing nothing but this for probably 2 or 3 days.
THIS WILL BE HARD. People will be hungry and will want to go off hunting with the first weapon. It's one thing to set a trap with the first net/basket. Especially fish traps. Set them as you go. Hunting should be done only in small groups with the leader while others are still working on baskets. Again, far less energy is expended in trapping/netting than in hunting which is why the early effort should be on baskets and nets NOT on hunting.
The nets need to be fairly large and "closely knit" (meaning small holes) and that takes time. In the right regions with boar and cat predators, these can be obtained by a few people (from the bowel evacuation area) to keep everyone going at first. Someone with decent primitive survival skill will know how to gut an animal with nothing more than a pointed stick. However without knives a lot of meat against the skin will be lost. Bones are OVERWHELMINGLY the best place to start with the creation of sharp tools however and bones from predatory animals are the best place to start as they tend to be very dense. From here, the 3 best people with the fishing and 2 best hunters are put to doing that now that there are sharp tools. They will also "treat" their kills/captures (gutting/skinning), The two people that tend the fire will do the cooking for everyone. Two people will at this point be put to gathering edible plants. At this stage calories from protein and animal/fish fats are going to be the most important. which is why the gathering doesn't occur till after protein sources have been found.
5) Improvement.
At this point there is a VERY good sized fire, plenty of water to drink (actually well more than that for soups, cleaning, and so on), only mediocre shelter, and enough food to prevent starvation. Bones are now giving the group tools to make fuel for the fire easier, the creation of more nets and baskets much faster and easier, and the acquisition of predators for meat easier. 12 people are now without "jobs". They will be put to the task of improving the shelters (ideally permanent "hard" structures made of brick), running water, "harder" tools (stone axes) and generally attempting to improve life. A good sized C shaped wall should be built around the camp to keep out predators and snakes. (after 5 to 10 years the wall can be pulled down as predators learn to avoid the humans with the pointy sticks ... however whether or not the wall is pulled down is going to be a factor of the primary weather. That C shaped wall can keep away a lot of wind if there are frequent storms (tropical or blizzard) which can make it easier to keep structures standing.
Hopefully the leader understands something about building vertical aquaponics systems. These generate a lot of fish, vegetables/berries/herbs, and don't require much effort so some people will be put to that. "Horizontal" gardens/farms require too much work for a group of only 30 and should be avoided.
Any "prey" animals will need to be captured so that domestication can begin. It's about having food sources brought to you so that energy doesn't have to be expended on capture/hunting on an ongoing basis. "animal husbandry" of wild animals can be a little tricky if the animals are penned too tightly. It's best if you can have a fairly good sized area where the animals are mostly penned by the land and there is a fairly good sized space. Shelters will be needed to be built for the animals as well AND they will need to be guarded against predators which means another shelter for the "shepherd on duty"
6) Moving forward.
In a group of 30 there will be pregnancies so any natural medicinals will need to be found, determined, and ideally made part of aquaponics as well or if it's a tree then locations identified. Hopefully someone in the group has some kind of understanding of midwifery.
THAT IS SERIOUSLY ALL THAT IS NEEDED for probably 20 or more years. The group is going to be too small to worry about larger "societal" things like law enforcement and judiciary and accountants. In the beginning the society would need to be very "communal" in that everyone works and everyone has what they need (water, shelter, food). It will be at the leader's sole discretion to determine if someone isn't pulling their weight and if they aren't ... they are gone.
Only 20 plus years into it will something more robust be needed and then likely it will evolve into a tribal system. The "elders" will take over the leadership of what will become a tribe.
Whether or not there is any expansion beyond a basic tribal structure is going to depend on the natural resources, competition with any other groups/tribes, and other things.
HOWEVER, for a very long time, the 30 people can make it. ASSUMING there is an actual primitive survival expert in the group that doesn't violate the rules trying to get from one place to another (not building a fire soon enough) or trying to build shelters for comfort before a stable supply of drinkable water is established. Shelter is not needed to keep safe from predators if a large enough fire is built. Not even boars will get too close to a large roaring fire.
If the group is without someone with primitive survival training AND expertise ... then that group is probably really screwed and not likely to make it a month or at most two.
BASIC LONG TERM PRIMITIVE SURVIVAL RULES
A group of 30 could survive ASSUMING a survival expert in the group that actually knows what they are doing AND DOESN'T FRIGGEN VIOLATE THE RULES.
I put that last part in all caps for a reason. The show on Discovery, "Naked and Afraid" puts two people supposed to be primitive survival experts into actual primitive survival situations. However with a couple of exceptions these people violate the rules and it ends up screwing them. So, I'm going to list out how a group of 30 people survive in a situation where their only resources are the clothes they are wearing.
First, the one primitive survival expert is ultimate authority PERIOD. Anyone not doing what the leader says is punished severely and instantly. Three times of disobeying the leader results in banishment if not death on the spot. The first person to disobey needs to be made a very brutal example of to prevent it happening again, ditto with the first person to reach 3 times disobeying. However if the first person to disobey (or two) are punished harshly enough then probably it won't happen again after that. A small group of just 30 and people get the message pretty quick.
Important rule ... NO ONE is allowed to evacuate bowels less than 300 feet from where ever the group intends to sleep, and said evacuation is a location decided upon by the leader (more on why later) and a hole must be dug at least one foot deep and then covered.
1) Fire.
Leader starts a fire IMMEDIATELY. Even if where they are isn't a good location for the group to pick as a "camp" a fire can be moved (any decent primitive expert should know how). In every survival show I've seen this is always the #1 mistake I see made. Start the fire soon.
Once the group is where they are going to make camp, for the love of all that's good and holy make it BIG. Cooking occurs on the outer edges not the middle. A fire that's 10 feet in diameter will keep away predators, generate smoke to keep away insects, keep up morale when things start to suck (and in the beginning they will), generate heat, and in the beginning give a way of treating water.
2 people are tasked with tending the fire, three more are tasked to obtaining fuel for it. (in the beginning this will mean finding stuff on the ground and even tearing branches off trees ... smoke is actually a good thing to ward off insects so some "green wood" is very desirable. Not only that, but sometimes just walking to the nearest tree and tearing thins off it is easier. Energy conservation is important at this stage.
2) Water.
EVERYONE ELSE works on getting a flow of treated water established. Water from the ground must be boiled ... PERIOD. Yes I know there are some exceptions but with 30 people generating enough water is going to require obtaining water from "untrusted" sources ... that means boiling.
Until there is a good "flow" of boiled drinkable water NOTHING ELSE matters. EVERYONE (except fire tender-ers and fuel gatherers) is put to getting this done.
Once it is done, probably 6 people will be put to keeping that flow of water (transporting water from the source to the fire and boiling, and adding to the number of drinking vessels).
Another huge mistake that I see being made by supposed "experts" is risking drinking running water from a stream. Any water that comes off the ground, out of the ground, and so on MUST be assumed to be bad and MUST be boiled. Water out of a plant doesn't have this rule but getting enough water for 30 people from plant sources is nearly impossible. You WILL need "ground water" from a steam or digging a well or evaporating sea water (not easy given zero resources). I can't stress this enough. Water from the ground must always be assumed bad and therefore it must be boiled. There are exceptions but you'd better be VERY confident in that exception. The entire group of 30 can be killed off quite quickly from drinking just a small amount of bad water. If not from the actual illness from the water itself, then because the illness has made the group too weak to obtain food. Boiling water doesn't take that long, it's why fire is the first item ... it's the first item exactly because the REAL most important thing is clean water.
3) Shelter. (notice it isn't food yet)
Leader would need to ensure that the components for enough shelters are created and built. All structures for 30 people would have final assembly done at once. This eliminates the arguments over who gets to sleep in the first constructed shelters. The 19 people not working on the fire or water are all working on this task. Done properly, within about 4 or 5 days the group has a very large fire, plenty of water to drink, and shelters from the elements. Many small shelters are better than one large shelter (they hold together better in heavy winds).
4) Food.
Branches are torn off trees and FILED (no tools yet) to points on rocks. Again, all 19 people not on fire or water duty are put to acquisition of food.
Most predators are likely going to be drawn to the area the group is using for bowel evacuation. 19 people, properly lead, should be able to relatively safely kill a predator (boar or cat).
If the main predator is snakes and "lizards" (crocs or aligators) then you do have to go get them but they are the "safest" to get assuming the leader knows how (crocs and aligators are safer ... snakes are too much work for the amount of food unless one is at hand). If the main predator is bear, that means fish ... DO NOT tangle with bear even (especially even) babies. Baby bears are given VERY wide space. A full grown bear will often not bother with humans at all ... except mothers who will violently protect their babies.
The leader, besides getting sharpened branches to the group also teaches people how to weave nets and create baskets, both of which are used for trapping fish, small game, and birds. In the early stages, these are pretty much always the primary source of food.
Again, snakes, kill them if they are close, but often snakes require a large expenditure of effort for the amount of food obtained so they shouldn't be "hunted". Fishing with nets, trapping fish/sea life with the baskets, trapping small game/birds with nets and baskets. In short, you need a lot of nets and a lot of baskets to feed 30 people. Again, all 19 people should be put to doing nothing but this for probably 2 or 3 days.
THIS WILL BE HARD. People will be hungry and will want to go off hunting with the first weapon. It's one thing to set a trap with the first net/basket. Especially fish traps. Set them as you go. Hunting should be done only in small groups with the leader while others are still working on baskets. Again, far less energy is expended in trapping/netting than in hunting which is why the early effort should be on baskets and nets NOT on hunting.
The nets need to be fairly large and "closely knit" (meaning small holes) and that takes time. In the right regions with boar and cat predators, these can be obtained by a few people (from the bowel evacuation area) to keep everyone going at first. Someone with decent primitive survival skill will know how to gut an animal with nothing more than a pointed stick. However without knives a lot of meat against the skin will be lost. Bones are OVERWHELMINGLY the best place to start with the creation of sharp tools however and bones from predatory animals are the best place to start as they tend to be very dense. From here, the 3 best people with the fishing and 2 best hunters are put to doing that now that there are sharp tools. They will also "treat" their kills/captures (gutting/skinning), The two people that tend the fire will do the cooking for everyone. Two people will at this point be put to gathering edible plants. At this stage calories from protein and animal/fish fats are going to be the most important. which is why the gathering doesn't occur till after protein sources have been found.
5) Improvement.
At this point there is a VERY good sized fire, plenty of water to drink (actually well more than that for soups, cleaning, and so on), only mediocre shelter, and enough food to prevent starvation. Bones are now giving the group tools to make fuel for the fire easier, the creation of more nets and baskets much faster and easier, and the acquisition of predators for meat easier. 12 people are now without "jobs". They will be put to the task of improving the shelters (ideally permanent "hard" structures made of brick), running water, "harder" tools (stone axes) and generally attempting to improve life. A good sized C shaped wall should be built around the camp to keep out predators and snakes. (after 5 to 10 years the wall can be pulled down as predators learn to avoid the humans with the pointy sticks ... however whether or not the wall is pulled down is going to be a factor of the primary weather. That C shaped wall can keep away a lot of wind if there are frequent storms (tropical or blizzard) which can make it easier to keep structures standing.
Hopefully the leader understands something about building vertical aquaponics systems. These generate a lot of fish, vegetables/berries/herbs, and don't require much effort so some people will be put to that. "Horizontal" gardens/farms require too much work for a group of only 30 and should be avoided.
Any "prey" animals will need to be captured so that domestication can begin. It's about having food sources brought to you so that energy doesn't have to be expended on capture/hunting on an ongoing basis. "animal husbandry" of wild animals can be a little tricky if the animals are penned too tightly. It's best if you can have a fairly good sized area where the animals are mostly penned by the land and there is a fairly good sized space. Shelters will be needed to be built for the animals as well AND they will need to be guarded against predators which means another shelter for the "shepherd on duty"
6) Moving forward.
In a group of 30 there will be pregnancies so any natural medicinals will need to be found, determined, and ideally made part of aquaponics as well or if it's a tree then locations identified. Hopefully someone in the group has some kind of understanding of midwifery.
THAT IS SERIOUSLY ALL THAT IS NEEDED for probably 20 or more years. The group is going to be too small to worry about larger "societal" things like law enforcement and judiciary and accountants. In the beginning the society would need to be very "communal" in that everyone works and everyone has what they need (water, shelter, food). It will be at the leader's sole discretion to determine if someone isn't pulling their weight and if they aren't ... they are gone.
Only 20 plus years into it will something more robust be needed and then likely it will evolve into a tribal system. The "elders" will take over the leadership of what will become a tribe.
Whether or not there is any expansion beyond a basic tribal structure is going to depend on the natural resources, competition with any other groups/tribes, and other things.
HOWEVER, for a very long time, the 30 people can make it. ASSUMING there is an actual primitive survival expert in the group that doesn't violate the rules trying to get from one place to another (not building a fire soon enough) or trying to build shelters for comfort before a stable supply of drinkable water is established. Shelter is not needed to keep safe from predators if a large enough fire is built. Not even boars will get too close to a large roaring fire.
If the group is without someone with primitive survival training AND expertise ... then that group is probably really screwed and not likely to make it a month or at most two.
BASIC LONG TERM PRIMITIVE SURVIVAL RULES
- FIRE FIRST. In any survival situation, build a fire as soon as possible. No kidding. Like right away. You can keep a fire going, you can travel with a fire. So if you aren't at a good camping location, build a fire right away and just move with it. Then, when you are at your Bug Out Location (BOL) you can make a larger fire.
- WATER. Water must be boiled before being drank. You need to be thinking of water by the end of your first day in a survival situation. By the end of your second, your fire should be used to boil water which you then drink. In other words, if you are travelling, then you travel for one day, then do nothing but acquire water the second day.
- SHELTER. Shelter makes it easy to survive if the weather turns ugly ... and it's only a matter of time before it does, and it will probably happen sooner than you like.
- FOOD. Trying to kill "prey" animals like deer or rabbit isn't very easy. Instead think trapping/snaring of fish and small game. It's generally a much better "yield" for the energy you expend. Doing this means nets and baskets for trapping (and if you're by an ocean, trapping fish is an instant "go to")
Everything else from here starts to get much easier.
However, in any survival situation, get a fire going and think about water RIGHT AWAY. Then shelter, then food.
If you acquire good skills in each of those areas for "primitive survival" you can pretty much survive anywhere. Learn how to create a "bow drill" to start a fire. boiling water is fairly self-explanatory if you have a good fire going (just don't let it go out!). Shelter requires knowing how to use vines or other materials as lashings for larger things and knowing how to create some sort of roof against rain. Trapping/snaring requires knowing how to use natural materials to create nets and baskets.
ALL of these skills are actually very easy to obtain and are not hard to do.
If you can't do every one of these things yourself then it should be a pretty high priority to acquire those skills. In a true SHTF scenario you may not be able to get to your BOL or it may be destroyed. Any prepper MUST know how to survive with few resources.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Well, that was horrible advice!
Over at the Survival Blog, someone by the name of ChemEngineer wrote this post. Before I get into the post itself, let me say that you've probably noticed that I'm careful about the advice I give. The reason is that too much of survival is "situational"; meaning that what is the right thing to do in one instance will get you killed in another. That's why I pose so many questions in my posts to get you to consider what the best method will be for you.
Anyway, I really liked that post. It was well written and well thought out, until I got to the part that said "Don't plan to live in a tent or take to the mountains to live off the forest. Bad idea."
Folks, what's a "bad idea" is trying to do something based on the advice of only one so-called "prepper expert" when he's giving opinions with no knowledge of the specific situation you may encounter. Did the writer know what he was talking about? Clearly he'd studied survival "some". Was his opinion about tents and mountains correct? That depends. In fact, it's the "that depends" that makes me say the person probably hadn't truly thought out various different scenarios which meant he wasn't much of an expert ... and that meant all of his opinions were therefore suspect.
If you've spent time learning about what plants and animals will actually be available to you, should you need to "bug out" then you can indeed "take to the mountains" or what ever. As for the thing about the tent ... that was just downright foolish. Many events don't last very long and staying in a tent for a week or two is no big deal, backpackers do it all the time and it's fun (being a backpacker I know this). I routinely will go on two week long backpacking trips where for the entire two weeks, if I don't have it on my back, I don't have it. I'm literally living a "bug out" type of scenario on a regular basis. Like I said, backpackers do this as a matter of course and few think of what they are doing as "practicing their survival strategy" and instead just think of it as having some fun and enjoying nature.
Not only that, but given my background I can speak with some authority about something ... people in groups can get real ugly real fast. If you live in an apartment staying there is a very bad idea if you are a prepper.
People in that complex almost certainly will come after you if there is even the slightest inkling that you have food and water and they don't.
Do you live in a house? That might possibly work IF you have "hardened" the house to prevent a swarm of people from just breaking through the walls. Again, the people in your neighborhood will come after you if any of them know you're a prepper. They'll come begging for your help at first "please give us some food, we're starving! Please help us, please."
They'll bring out their starving children (can you really resist helping a starving child you know you can help) and beg and plead. If that doesn't work they'll resort to an outright invasion of your home or apartment.
Here's the thing, in a Shit Hits The Fan (SHTF) type of event (natural disaster such as massive fire, flood, hurricane, etc) you do not want to put yourself into the situation of having to defend yourself if you can avoid it.
Trust me when I say this ... very few people can actually shoot and someone. TRAINED SOLDIERS have great difficulty doing it which is why it takes so many rounds to make a single kill and why so many come back with mental problems.
It is far better to bug out if you can to a location where you can hunker down and largely be invisible. However, remember what I said, that opinion is situation dependent. For any number of a variety of reasons that may not work for you.
In some places doing it can simply be very difficult (e.g. some parts of Denver the government has the ability to completely seal off the roads and leave you with no way out). If you have to stay where you are (roads washed out or flooding so bad you're stuck or closed and guarded roads) then you have to make the best of the situation presented to you.
In that instance, you want to appear to be gone, but you'll also want to make sure that what ever structure you live in can be "hardened" and you want to make sure that you can make it appear that no one is home.
However, the thing to understand is that if you are going to stay in a city environment then you may need to defend yourself from an incursion of people wanting to see if there is food in your home (particularly if any neighbors know you're a prepper). If you harden it, then it's possible that people will give up and move on to other, easier targets. Once everything else has been broken into, they won't stop and sooner or later they will get in unless you prove that you have the ability to absolutely and completely defend yourself ... and that will mean shooting people.
The best thing to do is to begin to do what you can to harden now and continually improve on it. Try coming up with ways you could break into your house even if it means breaking things (trust me, the mob won't care about that). When you find a weak point, make it strong. Keep working on it.
Not only that, but during Katrina not only was the grid down but there wasn't any water either ... if you stay in a city then you have to expect the possibility there won't be running water either. In that case, how will you obtain water in the middle of a city? Next to breathable air, water is the single most important resource. Without it you will die in a matter of days. If you're staying where you are then you will need quite a bit of stockpiled water. Remember, not just water to drink, but water to bathe as well.
Further, what about "human waste"? Again, with no running water what will you do when you have to go to the bathroom? You can always stockpile "grey water" to fill your toilet tank yourself. However, we're now talking about needing to stockpile a lot of water. A natural disaster that knocks out the water supply for two weeks would mean you needing at least 50 gallons of water just to flush toilets with! That's on top of an easy 100 plus gallons you're going to need to drink, cook, and clean with. Do you have some place that can handle the weight of 150 gallons minimum of water (that is a lot of weight)? Do you have some place to store it?
The Paradox Of Hardened Structures
Now there is another problem. The more "impregnable" you make where you live, should a mob come against your home they may wonder what's being hidden and go at you all the harder. It's why a decent stockpile of ammo at your home at nearly all times should be considered a must.
Prepping does you no good if a mob of people can just come and take it from you.
I bring this up because in any survival scenario you need to the pros and cons.
Should a mob come after what you have, how will you defend your food and your lives?
If you can bug out, how will you get there? Will you have water, food, and shelter?
Hope this helps.
Folks, what's a "bad idea" is trying to do something based on the advice of only one so-called "prepper expert" when he's giving opinions with no knowledge of the specific situation you may encounter. Did the writer know what he was talking about? Clearly he'd studied survival "some". Was his opinion about tents and mountains correct? That depends. In fact, it's the "that depends" that makes me say the person probably hadn't truly thought out various different scenarios which meant he wasn't much of an expert ... and that meant all of his opinions were therefore suspect.
If you've spent time learning about what plants and animals will actually be available to you, should you need to "bug out" then you can indeed "take to the mountains" or what ever. As for the thing about the tent ... that was just downright foolish. Many events don't last very long and staying in a tent for a week or two is no big deal, backpackers do it all the time and it's fun (being a backpacker I know this). I routinely will go on two week long backpacking trips where for the entire two weeks, if I don't have it on my back, I don't have it. I'm literally living a "bug out" type of scenario on a regular basis. Like I said, backpackers do this as a matter of course and few think of what they are doing as "practicing their survival strategy" and instead just think of it as having some fun and enjoying nature.
Not only that, but given my background I can speak with some authority about something ... people in groups can get real ugly real fast. If you live in an apartment staying there is a very bad idea if you are a prepper.
People in that complex almost certainly will come after you if there is even the slightest inkling that you have food and water and they don't.
Do you live in a house? That might possibly work IF you have "hardened" the house to prevent a swarm of people from just breaking through the walls. Again, the people in your neighborhood will come after you if any of them know you're a prepper. They'll come begging for your help at first "please give us some food, we're starving! Please help us, please."
They'll bring out their starving children (can you really resist helping a starving child you know you can help) and beg and plead. If that doesn't work they'll resort to an outright invasion of your home or apartment.
Here's the thing, in a Shit Hits The Fan (SHTF) type of event (natural disaster such as massive fire, flood, hurricane, etc) you do not want to put yourself into the situation of having to defend yourself if you can avoid it.
Trust me when I say this ... very few people can actually shoot and someone. TRAINED SOLDIERS have great difficulty doing it which is why it takes so many rounds to make a single kill and why so many come back with mental problems.
It is far better to bug out if you can to a location where you can hunker down and largely be invisible. However, remember what I said, that opinion is situation dependent. For any number of a variety of reasons that may not work for you.
In some places doing it can simply be very difficult (e.g. some parts of Denver the government has the ability to completely seal off the roads and leave you with no way out). If you have to stay where you are (roads washed out or flooding so bad you're stuck or closed and guarded roads) then you have to make the best of the situation presented to you.
In that instance, you want to appear to be gone, but you'll also want to make sure that what ever structure you live in can be "hardened" and you want to make sure that you can make it appear that no one is home.
However, the thing to understand is that if you are going to stay in a city environment then you may need to defend yourself from an incursion of people wanting to see if there is food in your home (particularly if any neighbors know you're a prepper). If you harden it, then it's possible that people will give up and move on to other, easier targets. Once everything else has been broken into, they won't stop and sooner or later they will get in unless you prove that you have the ability to absolutely and completely defend yourself ... and that will mean shooting people.
The best thing to do is to begin to do what you can to harden now and continually improve on it. Try coming up with ways you could break into your house even if it means breaking things (trust me, the mob won't care about that). When you find a weak point, make it strong. Keep working on it.
Not only that, but during Katrina not only was the grid down but there wasn't any water either ... if you stay in a city then you have to expect the possibility there won't be running water either. In that case, how will you obtain water in the middle of a city? Next to breathable air, water is the single most important resource. Without it you will die in a matter of days. If you're staying where you are then you will need quite a bit of stockpiled water. Remember, not just water to drink, but water to bathe as well.
Further, what about "human waste"? Again, with no running water what will you do when you have to go to the bathroom? You can always stockpile "grey water" to fill your toilet tank yourself. However, we're now talking about needing to stockpile a lot of water. A natural disaster that knocks out the water supply for two weeks would mean you needing at least 50 gallons of water just to flush toilets with! That's on top of an easy 100 plus gallons you're going to need to drink, cook, and clean with. Do you have some place that can handle the weight of 150 gallons minimum of water (that is a lot of weight)? Do you have some place to store it?
The Paradox Of Hardened Structures
Now there is another problem. The more "impregnable" you make where you live, should a mob come against your home they may wonder what's being hidden and go at you all the harder. It's why a decent stockpile of ammo at your home at nearly all times should be considered a must.
Prepping does you no good if a mob of people can just come and take it from you.
I bring this up because in any survival scenario you need to the pros and cons.
Should a mob come after what you have, how will you defend your food and your lives?
If you can bug out, how will you get there? Will you have water, food, and shelter?
Hope this helps.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Prep "Levels"
This whole "prepper" thing is, for some good reasons, focused on survival when things go really bad. Long term survival off-grid with the supply chains broken and mobs of starving rioters running the streets, and/or surviving a full blown bug out.
The fact of the matter however is that there are many more "normal" disasters that we are likely to face.
Prep Level 1: Simple Power Grid Failure
Lets face it, at some point this is going to happen. Can you communicate with others and let them know you're okay? Can your loved ones get to you? Do you have some alternate method of power generation to keep your refrigerator working and a radio running?
Seriously, out of all of the things we need to be prepared for this is the easiest one, but the most often overlooked unless you have a prep plan that allows for you staying at home.
Prep Level 2: Car Malfunction At Worst Possible Time
Now, we've heard of the Get Home Bag, and in the case of your car breaking down in the desert, IF you understand how to travel in the desert on foot, a Get Home Bag can literally mean you grabbing your bag, leaving your car, and doing it on foot. More likely, your "Get Home Bag" that you should keep in your car should be more considered a "stay alive in my car until someone comes by" bag.
The problem is that your Get Home Bag needs to change depending on where you are going to be traveling. The needs of someone in 120 Fahrenheit temps is obviously dramatically different than the needs of someone in sub zero temps.
Not only that, but of the two, the car break down during a blizzard is the worst scenario of the two as you could be stranded in your car for several days. Out in the desert it likely won't be more than a day. However, trying to stay in your car without it functioning in 120 degrees is problematic (your car would function like a giant greenhouse making it even hotter).
A quick word of note on this ... I really know what I'm doing in the snow and mountains. Despite that, If my car broke down during a blizzard and there was no one else around I would stay with my car. My "Get Home Bag" is packed for the mountains where I live. Survival chances during a blizzard drop dramatically when you leave your vehicle.
Prep Level 3: Localized Natural Disaster
The possibility of your power grid going down is a fairly likely event that most everyone will encounter sooner or later. Most of the country has experienced power grid failure for one reason or another that lasted multiple days and well into a week.
This is the first level where you need to worry about things like "Bug out bags" and "Bug out locations"
The possibility of your car breaking down is something most everyone has encountered though admittedly most of us break down on a major road and our cell phones work just fine. If you actually live in an area of extreme mountains or extreme desert then you already know that several people die every single year from cars breaking down and the person isn't prepared for it.
However, if you live somewhere that has tornadoes, a high possibility of torrential rain, hurricanes, "firestorms", or even earthquakes then you know that these events kill A LOT of people, often result in a break down in civil order, and generally things can get pretty ugly.
Katrina hopefully taught us all a valuable lesson regarding the government's ability to respond to something like this and how society will react.
Here is the problem with Localized Natural Disaster; with the exception of a hurricane, it can happen so suddenly that you can't get home to obtain your Bug Out Bag or if you can, your home won't still be there. This is where the "Get Home Bag" turns into a "Get To Your Bug Out Location" bag.
In my previous post I talked about "prepping your bug out location." Well folks, this right here is part of the reason for that. Your bug out location needs to be "ready enough" for your arrival even assuming you don't have your bug out bag ... because you might not have it. You may want to consider taking a look at the video below for assistance in getting your bug out location ready.
In fact, I would venture to say that unless the "localized natural disaster" is a hurricane, you stand a better than even chance of NOT having it. A hurricane is one of the very few massive natural disasters that gives fair warning of its arrival.
Those of you living in "tornado alley" are well away of how suddenly one of these puppies can take out a home. What if one goes through your neighborhood while you're at work?
What I'm saying is that your survival plan must include the possibility that you can't get to your actual Bug Out Bag!
For that matter, during that time of day it would mean children at school and possibly most of your other loved ones at work as well. What is your communications plan in the event of a breakdown in the usual communications system? Do your children know what to do? How will you communicate? I talked about communications in this post here.
Prep Level 4: Widespread Natural Disaster/National Breakdown In Civil Order
This is what most of us are actually prepping for ... and it is the least likely to happen. In most of the first world, governments are quite careful not to push their citizenry so far that breakdown like this will happen and most countries are geologically diverse enough that no natural disaster could be that wide spread (except near extinction level events like a huge meteor strike).
Part of the reason I don't worry about storing years of food is that the likelihood of the above is so astronomically remote. In the event something like the above happens, like I've said in previous posts, I'm much more about growing/hunting/creating what I need than I am with stock piling.
What's The Point Of These Stupid Levels Anyway?
Here's the thing. I wanted to put up this post about the prep levels to create some understanding within our community. In my opinion there is far too much planning for PL4 (prep level 4) despite the fact that few of us are actually likely to see it in our lifetime.
Now I will admit that with the current financial mess the world is in PL4 via massive civil order breakdown caused by an absolute collapse in the global financial system is becoming more likely.
However, it is still far more likely that you will have to live through a PL2 or PL3.
So let me ask you ... if your car breaks down can you live in it? If there is a PL4 do you have a "Get Home Bag" that will get you home or to your bug out location?
Here is my point with all of this.
Lets plan for the most likely survival events we are likely to encounter. Especially since starting with the most likely events we might encounter makes us more prepared for the PL4 level events.
The fact of the matter however is that there are many more "normal" disasters that we are likely to face.
Prep Level 1: Simple Power Grid Failure
Lets face it, at some point this is going to happen. Can you communicate with others and let them know you're okay? Can your loved ones get to you? Do you have some alternate method of power generation to keep your refrigerator working and a radio running?
Seriously, out of all of the things we need to be prepared for this is the easiest one, but the most often overlooked unless you have a prep plan that allows for you staying at home.
Prep Level 2: Car Malfunction At Worst Possible Time
- Your car breaks down on a lonely road during a blizzard in the middle of the night. It's well below zero, visibility is a few inches.
- Your car breaks down on a lonely road at noon in the middle of the desert. It's 120 in the shade and the heat causes disturbances in the air making it difficult to really tell what's up ahead.
Now, we've heard of the Get Home Bag, and in the case of your car breaking down in the desert, IF you understand how to travel in the desert on foot, a Get Home Bag can literally mean you grabbing your bag, leaving your car, and doing it on foot. More likely, your "Get Home Bag" that you should keep in your car should be more considered a "stay alive in my car until someone comes by" bag.
The problem is that your Get Home Bag needs to change depending on where you are going to be traveling. The needs of someone in 120 Fahrenheit temps is obviously dramatically different than the needs of someone in sub zero temps.
Not only that, but of the two, the car break down during a blizzard is the worst scenario of the two as you could be stranded in your car for several days. Out in the desert it likely won't be more than a day. However, trying to stay in your car without it functioning in 120 degrees is problematic (your car would function like a giant greenhouse making it even hotter).
A quick word of note on this ... I really know what I'm doing in the snow and mountains. Despite that, If my car broke down during a blizzard and there was no one else around I would stay with my car. My "Get Home Bag" is packed for the mountains where I live. Survival chances during a blizzard drop dramatically when you leave your vehicle.
Prep Level 3: Localized Natural Disaster
The possibility of your power grid going down is a fairly likely event that most everyone will encounter sooner or later. Most of the country has experienced power grid failure for one reason or another that lasted multiple days and well into a week.
This is the first level where you need to worry about things like "Bug out bags" and "Bug out locations"
The possibility of your car breaking down is something most everyone has encountered though admittedly most of us break down on a major road and our cell phones work just fine. If you actually live in an area of extreme mountains or extreme desert then you already know that several people die every single year from cars breaking down and the person isn't prepared for it.
However, if you live somewhere that has tornadoes, a high possibility of torrential rain, hurricanes, "firestorms", or even earthquakes then you know that these events kill A LOT of people, often result in a break down in civil order, and generally things can get pretty ugly.
Katrina hopefully taught us all a valuable lesson regarding the government's ability to respond to something like this and how society will react.
Here is the problem with Localized Natural Disaster; with the exception of a hurricane, it can happen so suddenly that you can't get home to obtain your Bug Out Bag or if you can, your home won't still be there. This is where the "Get Home Bag" turns into a "Get To Your Bug Out Location" bag.
In my previous post I talked about "prepping your bug out location." Well folks, this right here is part of the reason for that. Your bug out location needs to be "ready enough" for your arrival even assuming you don't have your bug out bag ... because you might not have it. You may want to consider taking a look at the video below for assistance in getting your bug out location ready.
In fact, I would venture to say that unless the "localized natural disaster" is a hurricane, you stand a better than even chance of NOT having it. A hurricane is one of the very few massive natural disasters that gives fair warning of its arrival.
Those of you living in "tornado alley" are well away of how suddenly one of these puppies can take out a home. What if one goes through your neighborhood while you're at work?
What I'm saying is that your survival plan must include the possibility that you can't get to your actual Bug Out Bag!
For that matter, during that time of day it would mean children at school and possibly most of your other loved ones at work as well. What is your communications plan in the event of a breakdown in the usual communications system? Do your children know what to do? How will you communicate? I talked about communications in this post here.
Prep Level 4: Widespread Natural Disaster/National Breakdown In Civil Order
This is what most of us are actually prepping for ... and it is the least likely to happen. In most of the first world, governments are quite careful not to push their citizenry so far that breakdown like this will happen and most countries are geologically diverse enough that no natural disaster could be that wide spread (except near extinction level events like a huge meteor strike).
Part of the reason I don't worry about storing years of food is that the likelihood of the above is so astronomically remote. In the event something like the above happens, like I've said in previous posts, I'm much more about growing/hunting/creating what I need than I am with stock piling.
What's The Point Of These Stupid Levels Anyway?
Here's the thing. I wanted to put up this post about the prep levels to create some understanding within our community. In my opinion there is far too much planning for PL4 (prep level 4) despite the fact that few of us are actually likely to see it in our lifetime.
Now I will admit that with the current financial mess the world is in PL4 via massive civil order breakdown caused by an absolute collapse in the global financial system is becoming more likely.
However, it is still far more likely that you will have to live through a PL2 or PL3.
So let me ask you ... if your car breaks down can you live in it? If there is a PL4 do you have a "Get Home Bag" that will get you home or to your bug out location?
Here is my point with all of this.
Lets plan for the most likely survival events we are likely to encounter. Especially since starting with the most likely events we might encounter makes us more prepared for the PL4 level events.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Communication when normal methods stop working.
Today the Survival Blog posted an absolutely FANTASTIC article. That article talked about intelligence and intelligence gathering.
I would like to address a part of that post that actually only got about a paragraph. (please understand that's not a critique of the post, like I said it was fantastic ... one post can't cover everything)
The section had to do with communications.
Let me ask you a question, TSHTF (the shit hits the fan) and your family is all over the place. Does your family know where to go and what to do?
If one of you is delayed how will you communicate?
Understand something, in MOST major disasters your cell phone won't work either because towers are down, there's no power, or the phone system is being overwhelmed.
So how does communications occur?
What is your back up communications plan?
What about any children? How will you communicate with them should there be a widespread outage of the phone networks?
This article, also on the survival blog gives a great method for handling this.
I would like to address a part of that post that actually only got about a paragraph. (please understand that's not a critique of the post, like I said it was fantastic ... one post can't cover everything)
The section had to do with communications.
Let me ask you a question, TSHTF (the shit hits the fan) and your family is all over the place. Does your family know where to go and what to do?
If one of you is delayed how will you communicate?
Understand something, in MOST major disasters your cell phone won't work either because towers are down, there's no power, or the phone system is being overwhelmed.
So how does communications occur?
What is your back up communications plan?
What about any children? How will you communicate with them should there be a widespread outage of the phone networks?
This article, also on the survival blog gives a great method for handling this.
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