Preparing for ???
(Survival for 6 months or more if present day supply and services are disrupted for whatever reason---human or natural event)
First, if something bad happened that essential services were disrupted for 6 months, life the way it was, would not ever return. "Normal" would be redefined.
Second, no matter how much supplies you had stockpiled in your castle guarded by a moat and attack dogs, even if you had the weapons and abilities of Rambo, the starving masses are going to get you someway or another if you try to stand alone or with your own immediate family. The first thing I would do (and am doing) is to develop a extended family/clan/neighborhood/village/tribe for mutual support and protection. Even if it means sharing all that you have MOST IMPORTANTLY your knowledge, with your tribe/village, you are creating a life support system far stronger than attempting to stand alone.
Third, the essentials for survival are MAINTAINING BODY TEMPERATURE (too hot or too cold will kill you faster that starvation or dehydration), WATER and FOOD. Everything else is a LUXURY in a survival situation. Of course, human companionship and comfort items will add much to your personal and psychological well being.
Maintaining Body Temperature: Clothing, shelter and heating/cooling fit into this category. So, figure out what is the most extreme weather that you may face and plan accordingly. I've lived in a tipi at minus 40 F. so I can tell you that an army surplus feather sleeping bag and another warm, willing body can keep a person quite warm. Shelter can be anything from a piece of canvas, a debris covered lean to or even a hole in the ground. If you are trying to maintain your suburban house, close off rooms, live and sleep in one room if you have to--depends on your resources and what extremes of weather you face.
Water: It takes 1 gallon per person per day for cooking and drinking--much more if it is extremely hot and/or you are working extremely hard. Figure a minimum of 1 gallon/person/day for washing/dishes/clothes etc. Of course that daily shower is out of the question---you'd have to relearn everything there is to know about water management and reusing from one task to another with the same water. A sweat lodge or homemade sauna is very useful in a limited water use situation. It uses very little water and can keep your skin clean and healthy. If you've ever had a boil on your skin, you know how important it is to keep your pores open and your skin healthy.
It's impractical to think that you can store 6 months or more of potable water so knowing how to catch rainwater, making a solar still, and filtering/boiling water is vital. In a survival situation and you are extremely thirsty, you will use whatever water is available, even scum covered ditch water. Natural contaminants can be filtered out and/or killed with boiling---boiled water tastes terrible so know what wild plants in your area can be used for herbal teas. Artificial toxins pose a far greater threat in an urban situation--in a worst case scenario, filter the toxic water thru successive layers of sand and charcoal (from your campfire). Most toxins will chemically bond with the charcoal and be removed from the water but this is a last resort-survival situation.
Unless you have an abundant water source and you are ambitious enough to carry lots of water, filling your flush toilet every time it is used is impractical. You can use less water by pouring it directly into the bowl. Even better would be to dig a hole and build an outhouse. A chamber pot (5 gal. pail with a toilet seat & tight fitting lid) with a few inches of water to keep things from sticking--if the water is available-- works well during the night or in bad weather.
Food: The basic survival foods that can be stored for long periods of time are grains and beans and dried greens. Everything else is a luxury---very enjoyable of course but not essential to staying alive. Grains and beans each have different types of amino acids which are the building blocks for proteins but together, they compliment each other and provide all the amino acids necessary.
Grains, beans and dried greens can be kept for years with little loss of nutrient value when stored in sealed containers that protect them from moisture and vermin. Storing them in a cool, dark place also extends their useful life.
You can grind your grains & beans with 2 rocks if you have to, but a hand powered grain grinder with metal plates sure makes it easier--the grain grinder needs to be attached to a solid workbench anchored to a wall---takes lots of muscle power and a table will wiggle all over the place. Metal plates can can be clean after grinding gummy beans etc. Stone plates are great for grinding grains into a much finer flour but will gum up with some things. Hand ground flour is still very coarse. Bread baked with hand ground flour will probably feel more like a brick but is very filling--daaaaaaaaaa---packs well in a back pack and keeps well!!
Grains: Wheat, rye, corn, millet, oats, barley etc. (you can grind whole, unhusked oats and barley--very coarse but very filling) if you fry it you have pancakes, boiled for hot cereal, baked for bread (you can bake bread in a tin can over a wood stove if you have to--or wrapped around a stick and toasted over an open fire), sweetened with honey and baked for cake. Different grains, beans, ground rose hips, alfalfa leaf powder, edible weed leaf powder, ground weed seeds etc. can be added to your grain flour to improve its nutrition and/or extend your limited supply.
Foraging and growing greens. Greens are everything from edible herbs & weeds, wild foraged roots, fruits & nuts to your backyard garden, berry patch and orchard. They all provide essential vitamins, minerals etc. and just as important, a variety of tastes to sustain your emotional well being as well. Just think how scurvy cursed early explorers and sailors to get some idea how vital 'greens' are to maintaining your health!
Drying Greens. Almost any foods can be dried and stored but drying greens are by far the easiest! I define greens as herbs, edible weeds, alfalfa, therapeutic and medicinal teas and on and on. Most greens can simply be cut, tied together in small bundles and hung up in a shady, airy place to dry. You know that they are dry enough when you can crunch the leaves up by hand. The dry leaves can be stored in sealed jars----salvaged from your trash, washed and allowed to dry completely! Dry leaves can be stored whole, crunched into pieces or ground into powder depending on your planned uses.
Beans and Greens: These can be cooked individually or mixed together for soups and stews. The basic difference between a soup and a stew is the amount of water in the kettle. If you have lots of hungry mouths and a limited amount of food, make a soup. If you have a limited amount of meat, use it in the soup or stew. Don't forget to boil the bones--crack them into pieces to get to the rich, fatty marrow--- cool, pick the meat off and use the stock for a soup base.
5 gallon pails of honey, 5 gallons or more of cooking oil in small, sealed containers, kept in a cool, dark place, 5 to 50 lb. of sea salt--excellent source of trace minerals, baking soda/baking powder and peanut butter were things that I bought even when I lived a lifestyle that was over 80% food self-sufficient.
Invest in stainless steel and cast iron!!! And hand tools--know how to use them. 2,3,4 & 5 gallon stainless kettles are very useful from boiling water to processing garden produce to picking wild edibles. A dutch oven is valuable for outdoor cooking. If possible, invest in more than you need for trading and bartering.
Guns and ammo. These will be used primarily for hunting and protection against varmints & predators. Self protection maybe??!! but the best defense is a strong, mutually supportive community. These tools can be incredibly dangerous and also have incredibly complex legal limitations so KNOW THE LAWS!!! KNOW YOUR WEAPONS AND THEIR SAFE HANDLING!!!! Something else to consider would be to gain the knowledge and equipment to do your own reloading of your ammunition. Black powder weapons would be something to consider for extremely long (multi-generational) survival considerations.
Traps and snares. This is a category of food producing gear that is often overlooked if not outright disdained. Now I don't go out and trap those cute, furry. little woodland creatures as part of my daily food supply; but I tell you, in a survival situation, trapping and snaring would be one of the most efficient means providing food, especially in the winter!!!!
The 110 conibear trap is probably one of the most useful tools for survival food production. They are best used for trapping squirrels and rabbits so they could be really useful in a suburban survival situation as well as in a rural area. Wire snares can also be extremely useful if you have the knowledge on how to use them. It is YOUR responsibility to know and follow your state's game laws if you plan to practice your 'survival' trapping skills!!!
http://www.buckshotscamp.com is one of the most useful websites I've found for survival trapping supplies as well as home produced 'how-to' videos.
Fishing, gill netting, spearing. Again, know and follow all state game laws if you choose to practice these survival skills. Obviously, in a serious "life and death" survival situation you may be forced to take actions that keep you alive regardless of present day laws.
A basic fishing kit, frog spears and a small (usually illegal--use only for survival) gill net would be extremely useful in a true survival situation---depending on your location!
No comments:
Post a Comment