Arsenal OK for survival...now what?

[Byron Quick]

My current emergency thinking is not running to firearms, ammo and knives. I've got them. My current project is developing 24/7 emergency packs for my vehicles and a bigger one in my house and at my hunting cabin. Good axe, sleeping bag, water, Katydyn water purifier, serious first aid kits, freeze dried foods, vitamins, prescription meds, paracord, military poncho, fishing line and hooks, etc. enough for a month or so in the vehicles...more in the dwellings. Shortwave and shortrange twoway radios...solar charger with rechargeable batteries.

Generator and fuel for the house and the cabin for a month. Thinking more Hurricane Hugo type natural disaster than anything else. But if several power plants got hit throughout a region...it could be awhile before you saw power again.

 

[sm]

I agree with your assessment and planning.

Old friendly gentlemen friend, now past, related to me the depression is a good history to learn and plan by.

Tools, spare parts, duplicate instructions for things that need fixing. Barter materials. He said Booze and Tobacco survive when everything else fails. Whiskey stills made fuel and could be used for medicinal purposes--serious-- he was in reference to pain killing and anesthesia...heck with the revenuers. Them tins of tobacco and boxes of papers can barter quite well.
He also suggested maps, good ones including topo's. Good compass, more than one, and knowing how to use one. He'd thumb his nose at a GPS. "Stuff should be independent--not rely on more stuff". He had a point.

Hadn't thought about inner tubes,patch kits and plugs, in his day they were prevalent. I doubt most folks have seen-much less know how to use a patch kit. He used a Bike a lot, horses for the garden ,travel , scoutin' around. and kept the old p/u in the shed for just in case.

An old country boy whom made out better than some. Canned goods, and knowing how to. Gardens, fishing and hunting. He knew his food stuffs...perhaps a book identifying edible foods, which berries, herbs and the like. Fixing a blackberry cobbler, apple pie, and the like in the cast iron dutch oven." Not thinkin' about dessert or being in high cotton...just hungry with mouths to feed...did help the attirude some".

Dry beans, coffee, flour salt , rice...basic stuff to cook, that keeps, and used to make other food stuff. BisQuick comes to mind.

 

[chadintex]

Get that Katadyn, you won't regret it. It helps if you live half a mile from a river

Another good option is a children's Tylenol (it has a dropper) bottle of bleach.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Get a saw too. Why chop when you can saw? An adze too if you want to build yourself a cabin. Don't forget a shovel (gotta make mud to chink the cracks between the logs). Bucket or two (plastic 5 gal. use as storage and use for water). Flint & steel - just in case you run out of matches. Soap. Never mind the deodorant - just have soap to wash yourself & your clothes. Lice suck. Knife & sharpening stones. Wanna shave (btw, I have a "wind-up" shaver that was developed for the Apollo missions)?

 

[sm]

I gotta share this, my Grandpa I never knew ,used old sawmill blades to make knives and saws. He also made screwdrivers and such from what, don't know. Being good with his hands and wood too, he made the handles. Could make, fix, figure out anything. City folks 'bartered' for these things and services during the Depression. He often stopped by to visit and barter with a neighbor --he'd forget the soap he was supposed to get...never forgot the "snake oil" --medicinal purposes--ya know.

My mom got a new pair of shoes from a City fella whom bartered for some knives, and screwdrivers, he made.

 

[Moparmike]

Enough stuff for a month in a vehicle? Do you drive an Excursion or something? I think a BOB is more appropriate for a vehicle, but what do I know.

I only have one problem with the storing in a cabin, and that is security. I say that because my mom is experiencing some random break-ins in her shed.

 

[Byron Quick]

It's a pretty well hidden place on land surrounded by another man's fenced and gated land. If you don't know exactly where it's at, odds are you won't find it. And it's gated too. You'd have to walk over a mile after climbing the gate to get to it.

Oh, I'm not talking high living here. I'm also talking for one person. I've got a big toolbox on my Dodge Ram.

 

[sm]

Then you have a great set-up , you've planned well. With a fireplace/woodstove and Kerosene lamps you can do without a lot. You are also able to do a lot. I figuring you have blankets, wash tubs and rain bbls.

My Kero lanterns are using oil lamp fuel for home use. Kero kinda hard in the city for my area. I supplimented mom's oil lamps and candles with these 3/$10 Kero lanterns, and stocked up with lamp oil for us. She likes these best for when the power goes out. I mention this for city folk whom shouldn't use the Coleman and Kero's indoors.

 

[4v50 Gary]

re1973 - just so happened I picked up an old saw blade (motorized metal saw) just to make a knife out of it. Doing things the old way is kinda fun and was the way all old workmen use to do it. They'd buy the blades and make their own planes. Gunsmiths use to make their own drill bits, cherrys (for moulds) and if things were hard, even the screws. One of these days I'm going to take an art class to learn brass casting and cast my own trigger guards and buttplates.

 

[Moparmike]

Ok, assuming S has HTF, how would one protect a propane tank from the random (or not so random) bullet? I hesitate to build a concrete block wall around it, but is that teh only way? I would build it 2-blocks thick, with rebar and cement inside.

I am thinking of doing this just for hunting season too.

What is the recomended course of action if we have a trailer in BFE? I realize that we are better off than some, but the only thing in the trailer that isnt electic is the stove. What then? What about the inevitable power outage for a week or a month or something? How does one keep frozen goods edible in that time?

Or is that a "Eat up boy, this is as good as you're going to have it" situation?

 

[hops]

I've got the basics to last 30 days, perhaps longer. That includes my cats (food and water for them - I did not mean them as food for me). Lived in earthquake country and now live in volcano and earthquake country.

The main thing I lack is power, beyond batteries. I want some sort of human/wind power electrical generator that would put out 15 or more amps of
120V/60hz ac. Gas power only lasts so long. Is there some thing like this for the home or camping consumer market?

Beyond that, I worry about the sheep that live around me and are not as prepared as I am. I can only too easily envision them, seeing my stash, then taking me out so that they can live. The anti's will be the first to shed blood to survive.

 

[telomerase]

Telomerase inhibitor, gene-engineering lentiviruses, cell culture hood, several huge -150 freezers... man, it's going to be hard to pack this stuff around.

Seriously, don't forget emergency meds (antibiotics, painkillers), potassium iodide tablets for radiation resistance, etc. And some vitamins.

 

[Byron Quick]

Whatever you decide for your propane protection...vent it at the bottom.

 

[MeekandMild]

Simple things a person never thinks about.

DEET, lots of DEET!

One of those new style hoes with the horizontal blade that cuts off weeds without chopping.

A good circular grinding stone, the bigger and slower the better.

One years supply of "heritage" seeds, i.e. seeds which are not hybrid, breed true and are bred for your climate conditions. These should be kept in a little cedar box. To rotate this stock you need a year round garden from which you can harvest your seeds each season. Include the long list of annual and perenial medicinal herbs if possible.

A goat. Well, maybe in real survival conditions a billy and two nannies.

A big bag of sevin dust and a few bags of 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 fertilizer.

The specific saw should be a bow saw between 24 inches and 48 inches long. One can get stell bows nowadays but the traditional design is wood and a wire tension piece.

Fishooks, lots of fishooks. Don't get any DEET on them or the fish won't bite.

Five acres far from the city, clearcut and planted with fruit, nut and berry trees. Pick something low maintainance and not hybrid dwarf peaches which take a lot of pesticide to make fruit!

 

[J Miller]

OK this is a question from JM's other half...........
What is DEET? and what is Katadyn?

 

[digex]

Deet keeps biting insects away. It's what's in OFF. Katadyn is a type of water filtration system I believe.
Tommy

 

[sm]

4V50 Gary: I belive he used old sawmill blades and bandsaw ? I need to pick mom's brain.

He made a very sturdy wooden locker with leather handles and pull out trays for his tools , kinda like a foot locker. Chocked full of his tools he had made. Even made the hinges and the wood for the mortise and bit he carved and made. Planes-forgot he hd those too. Came home one day and the locker had been stolen...thought mom was going to die...she'd helped.

Good luck , do you have a crafts class at the local college or similar? Our Art's center has similar classes on making things. I believe they had a class on blacksmithing and making soap once.