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Monday, February 28, 2011

Guest Post: Firestorm Chapter 6 , by Christopher Young

Brenda Writes a Chapter
 


Greetings, such a pleasure to meet all of  you out there. My name is Brenda, and I'm married to Sam. I don't do much important in this story, I am mostly just a home maker. Sam's out there bringing home the bacon, and transporting loads of stuff across the country. I worry about him so much, he is away from home so long, and he goes in and out of cities. I wish he could just do country runs, like our small town where it is mostly safe here. We sure have some good neighbors, and we are lucky to have such good neighbors.

I'm worried about the baby, we've been out of milk for a couple days, and the breakfast cereal she loves is nearly all gone. Mabye Sam can get some on his way home, if he can find a store that's open. Other than that, we're doing fairly well. We do have food in the house, even if it's not totally what we are  used to. Those military rations and canned goods are a bit different than we are used to. But, still, we are thankful to God for all the blessings we enjoy. Anyhow, I get to tall you a little abut the people in my life, and some about my family.


The stranger walking up Bill's driveway turned out to be Darrin, the fellow who lived next door. Darrin had been coming over to visit at night for the last several years. He was about the same age as David, and they both enjoyed car chase movies. Darrin had in his hand the latest DVD, he bought before the power went out. Came over to see if David had a generator, so they could watch the movie together. Neither man had seen the movie. They went inside the house, and watched the movie.

Bill breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to squeeze the trigger. Well, this one worked out okay. Next one might not. Who knows?

  Sammy, my precious son. He had been doing fairly well, with his job at the factory. I know his Dad nags him about getting some food in the house, but he'll learn some day. With the riots, he'd called home and said he was going to head for home. His cell phone got cut off, he forgot to mail in the check. And the rioters burned his car, so he's going to walk. Figures it will take a couple days, he's young and strong. I worry so about him, he's only got a couple days food in the house. Will that be enough to make it home, or will be hungry?
    Sammy was walking along the road home, and  stopped by several abandoned cars and looked around. They looked as though they'd been empty for several days,  maybe a couple weeks. Dusty and parked off to the side of the road like they ran out of gas and were pushed there, they also appeared to have been looted. Clothing was strewn about and empty suitcases were lying all around. Then he saw the bullet holes in the door of one of the cars. He walked over to it and peered inside. On the front seat lay the body of a man. Dried blood was everywhere. The dark color of the blood indicated death had occurred several days ago. Checking the other cars, he found no more bodies, no food or water, and absolutely nothing he could use. Was it a group of refugees who had an argument? Had a band of looters taken everything including the people? He decided it was definitely not a survival group. The large amount and type of clothing, the two birdcages, and the small pet kennel made him feel it was probably a bunch of urbanites trying to escape from suburbia.
  He pulled out his map to check his position. He was pleasantly surprised to find he was about fifty miles from home. Was home still in one piece? Was Mom and Dad ok? Had his big sister come home? He put the map back and then changed shoes. Sammy only had two pair of shoes, and each one got sore after a while, so he kept switching off. He really wished he could have kept the bike he'd used for a few days but it was just too much trouble riding with two flat tires. Of course they went flat out in the middle of the countryside with no Walmart anywhere around. The empty farmhouse where he'd found it had no spare tubes that he could find. So he rode as far as he could. He'd left a note and a twenty dollar bill on the workbench in the garage where he found the bike explaining what he'd done. Now he had to get home even if he had walk. He said a prayer for his family and for traveling mercy for himself and started walking.
  He soon came into farmland with plowed fields everywhere. With his gut screaming for food, and his bad shoes, walking plowed field wasn't an option. Sticking to back roads as much as possible, he made decent time even allowing for hiding time. When he saw a vehicle coming toward him, he hid in ditches, plow furrows, along fences, anywhere he could find. Thankfully, traffic was light. The few cars and pickups he'd seen were occupied by rough looking people. Looking down he saw his shadow. Cursing his inattention, he turned around to see the pickup slowing down. He quickly slipped the Beretta from its holster, flipped the safety off and held it down on the side away from the approaching truck. It appeared to be a 1994 chevy 4x4, nearly identical to the one in his garage. As the truck stopped, he noticed the passenger was dressed in a county deputy uniform. Somehow it didn't match the overly long hair and beard stubble.
  "We don't get many transients through here these days. Where you headed?" "North."Sammy said."Up by Ft. Wayne." "I think we'll give you a ride to the north end of the county. Maybe stop at the courthouse and run a quick license check. You do have a license don't you?"
     The driver shut the truck off and started to reach for something and the passenger reached inside and started to pull out a shotgun. As he straightened up Sammy saw the hole in the breast pocket of the uniform... a bullet hole. The man saw what Sammy was looking at and jerked the shotgun around. Sammy pulled the Beretta up and sent a double tap to accompany the first hole. The driver pulled up a pistol from the seat and leveled it at Sammy. Sammy swiveled to his right and pulled the trigger twice. Both shots connected with the man's face. Sammy whirled back to see the passenger sliding down the side of the truck, a red stain marking his path. His eyes slowly closed. Sammy looked at the man on the ground. His name tag read Jenkins. He rolled the body over and removed his wallet. A drivers license picture matched the man but the name was Warner. So they had been passing themselves off as deputies. As he looked at the men, his hands started shaking violently. The urge to vomit nearly won but it passed after a few minutes. There were no houses within a mile but he knew the sound of the shots had carried a long way. Looking in the bed of the truck, he saw the pair had been busy. The contained several bank money bags, boxes of jewelry, two large boxes of prescription medicines still in the drugstore packages, and a large assortment of guns with what appeared to be cases of ammo.
  Acting on impulse, he rolled Warner into the ditch. Walking around to the driver's door, he opened it and stood back letting the body fall to the ground. He checked the man's license. It also failed the picture test. He drug the body to the ditch and let him join his partner in crime. Going back, he searched until he found some rags. He used them to wipe the blood up as much as he could. A further search revealed under the seat and behind it to be stuffed with guns and ammo. The registration belonged to someone from the other side of the state. The glove box also held a map that showed a route outlined with marker to a destination two more states away. The gas gauge read three quarters full. What the heck, he thought and started the truck. He wondered if stealing from a thief constituted extenuating circumstances. The smooth idle told him that even sticking to back roads he could be home in under two hours. He dropped it into gear and took off.
  One hour and forty minutes later the truck ran out of gas. But, fortunately, it was only about a mile from our home. Sammy coasted the truck off the road, locked it, and put the keys in his pocket.
   A half our or so later, Sammy walks in the back door. I looked up, expecting to see Chris or Gomer. I recognized my boy. I ran to hug him.

      The next morning, my household was a buzz with activity. Honey Bunch had laid out his ideas for the plans. Honey bunch had an old Model A Ford in the garage which needed an engine rebuild. He had all the parts, and the tools to rebuild, but never really had the time cause he was always on the road. Gomer, such a nice young man. He seemed interested in motors, and vehicles of all kinds. To work on a Model A would be a rare treat, they were hard to find, and the people who owned them usually took them to specialized antique car garages. Gomer kept talking about how it had no pollution control devices, and nothing more electronic than breaker points. Besides, as Gomer loudly reminded the others. It's a FORD. Chris smiled. I looked confused. Chris and Gomer took turns explaining the friendly rivalry that had helped forge  a friendship between Chris and Gomer. While they were merciless on the Chevrolet versus Ford debate, they each knew they could count on the other in a crisis.
    And then they started to talk guns. Gomer was telling how wonderful his gun was, and Chris was telling about his. Guns scare me, they are loud and they hurt my hand, and make awful noise. So, I went to the kitchen. I was trying to ignore the gun talk, but it sounds like Chris and Gomer had to shoot a couple people yesterday. That's so sad, I wonder why they couldn't just shoot them in the leg and then take them to the hospital instead of killing them both?

     As they were discussing he plans, I had been cooking eggs on the gas stove, fortunately the natural gas was still on. But no way to know for how long. A knock at the door, and Brenda went to see who it was. It was the next door neighbor, Mike, who had been checking on me, since he knew that Sam was on the road. Mike had been keeping eye on the family for many years, and was an old trusted friend of the family. Mike's wife Susan was also a trusted friend. They were both retired, and their children and grand kids lived in other states of the union. One of their kids had moved to Mexico, and had married a Mexican woman.

Mike stopped in to ask if they had enough to eat, they had a week or two groceries. Susan had gone shopping when they heard that the nation was endangered. Yes, Sam replied, they  were doing well for food, the bigger problem was what the broken leg. And winter was coming. They were considering packing ahd moving some where warmer.

The men got a chance to meet each other, and Mike got to meet Chris and Gomer. Mike offered whatever help he could be, to get the Model A running. Mike had also some interest in old cars, and so he and Sam were fast friends form many years ago.

Sam also had a couple 5 galon cans of gasoline at the house, and so had plenty of fuel to get the Model A where ever it needed to go. As a four cylinder car, it got good fuel mileage, the car was light enough. The gas tank of their family car should also have some gasoline.

Chris and Gomer went out to the garage, to look at he car. Sam  hobbled out,  using a set of crutches he had at the house from another situation years ago. The garage was dark, but opening the door of the garage let a lot of light in. The Model A sat in the center of the garage, the valve head was on the work bench, and the spark plugs were in a bin. The camshaft was out, and the timing chain was laying next to the camshaft. Rows of parts were lined up nearly, and the carb was wrapped in shop rags.

"Piece of cake!" Gomer commented. With no practical motor  rebuilding experience, Chris could only agree. Gomer picked up the valve head, and walked over to the engine compartment.

About four hours later, Brenda called them back into the house. Lunch was served, though not as fancy as the last couple meals. The fresh food had run out, and what was left was military rations, and canned good. There wasn't much to be done with canned soup, though that was plenty good. There was no ice, and not much way to make things cold, so she did her best with faucet water, and some kool aid which as left over from something earlier. The guys were hungry, though they paused to ask a blessing on the food, and thank God for their safe travel. And then gobbled down the food, and thanked Brenda for cooking.

Three hours past lunch, Gomer thought it was about time to put the car to a practical test. He squirted oil in the four spark plug holes and put in the spark plugs. Poured a table spoon of gasoline in the air intake, and set the dash switch to retard the spark. Gomer put the hand crank onto  the front of the engine and put the palm of his hand on the crank, so as not to have his thumb on one side of the crank. He pressed sharply down on the crank, and the motor sputtered, and almost kicked to life. One more crank, and the engine fired up and ran for a second, on the fuel in the carb.

Time to quit for the day, he figured. It was starting to get dark, and the car would wait for another day. Gomer's cell phone rang, and it was Heather. Wondered how things were going. Gomer gave her a quick update, and asked how things at the house. Everything fine, and the kids were happy to have playmates. Another call to Bill's, and find that David was also happy as a clam with his playmate, they were watching car chases. Replaying the same DVD again and again on the television in the blackout room.

Night time was much the same, for the three households. Bill was on LP at night, David staying up late to watch movies. Heather was in charge of their house, she spent hours and hours listening to Faith tell of what had happened in her life over the year ot two since she and Gomer had split up. And all the things which had gone wrong with the marriage. The kids were long since gone to bed. Faiths and Heathers kids had decided to all bunk in the same room, and ended up all being in the same bed. Faith and Heather didn't see any problem with this, it gave them security to have other kids so near by. Faith and Heather were developing a good friendship, based on many similar interest.

At Chris's neighborhood, Ernie and the neighbors were doing a good job, to keep the park secure. they had set up rotating shifts, and the guards were doing a good job of keeping trouble out of the trailer park.

Ernie wondered what had happened to Chris. he would have been surprised to find that Chris as in Ohio, with an injured friend. But then , Chris would have been surprised at some of the things which were going on, in his old neighborhood back home.

And, so, passed another night.

Morning arrived, the sun came up in the East, as it has done for centuries. There was a calming effect that had. Chris and Gomer both remarked on this, how calming it was tht some things never change. There was so much which had changed, it was nice to see some things much the same. And the same God which had made the universe was still in control. The prayer and blessing over the food that morning was a bit longer than the one the night before, there was so much to be thankful for. Sam was enjoying some pain relief from the well stocked medical supply at home, and also the medical bag that Gomer had packed. Sam had enjoyed another good night sleep, in large part thanks to the pain and sleep medications which Gomer had brought along for the extraction.

Chris finally posed the question. What was God's point of view, about this whole situation. The adults discussed it over the breakfast table. They had an assortment of ideas, but no good answers. Finally the general thought was that the world is an eternal battle between good and evil, and that evil had grown a bit more powerful in the last few days, that good would some how triumph after a while. But it would take some work to get good back in control. What to do about it, well, be kind to everyone possible, and encourage them to pass the kindness along.

Chris had been active in his church, as also Sam and Brenda. Gomer had grown up with a faith in a higher power, but had not been involved with any particular church or denomination. They agreed that God would likely not be very approving all the destruction which had taken place in the last couple days.

The cell phone was still working, and so they called down to Bill's compound, see what new was happening. Find out that David had invited in a friend from down the way, and was busy watching car chase movies. That was good. Chris was sure that they had not revealed the extent of their preparations, Bill played that very close to the vest, and even Chris didn't know the extent of his preparations. Surely, that would make a good bug out destination. Living farther to the south, it would be more temperate in the winter, and would not have the heating problems of homes in the north, in the winter. Though, it could be argued that Gomer's place was far ahead of the rest of the city for being self sufficient. A couple of cords of fire wood were stocked out back, drying and seasoning. and there were a couple of wood burning stove in the house, to provide heat for cooking and to keep the indoors warm.

For them moment, it was decided that Sam and Brenda would stay in place. They were warm enough, that they could stay in the house. Actually, it was perhaps a bit too warm. Sam had put by some months of food, most of it was packaged food that needed no heating. They had a good supply of pain meds, and Sam was feeling much better, though his left was still not practical to walk on. The healing had begun already. Partly the power of faith and prayer, and partly the good immobilizing which the splint had been providing.

Chris and Gomer decided to spend a few more hours, and try to get the Model A to the point that it was drivable. They went out to the garage, and found that Sam had purchased the optional retro fit package, the battery and starter sat in the boxes, unopened. And the generator package, which normally ran the machine would serve well to keep the starting battery charged. With some hand tools, Gomer fitted the starter to the side of the Model A engine, it had already had been drilled and tapped for the mounting bolts. And put the battery on a tray which was designed for just this model of compartment under the hood. Some wiring was needed, to wire to the starter relay, and the push pedal on the floor for the starter.

Gomer poured a five gallon gas can into the tank of the model A, and gave it a tablespoon of gas in the air intake. He climbed in, retarded the spark, and put the shift in neutral. He pushed the starter with his toe, and the engine franked for a couple seconds. And then came to life. Moved the spark retarder back to run, and the engine idled gently with full power.

"Well, Sam's mobile, I guess. When his clutch leg heals." They went in and told Sam, who was thrilled to have his Model A running. Brenda volunteered that it had been a while, but she could drive standard shift, and had learned on one. She'd also driven a Model A at her parents farm. They had one as a run about vehicle. So, they were mobile. If not totally as Sam would like it. as a professional driver, he'd prefer to do all the driving. But, these times were not going to permit him to do that.

Simple Survival Tips - The Spare Key

Being alone, stranded and locked out of your car or home is a common occurrence. It’s something we’ve all faced at one time or another. Now losing your keys is bad enough but if they wind up locked inside your car or your home, you will find yourself subject to the ridicule and puns of friends and relatives. The “You did what?” question will occur in abundance. Not only is it a frustrating and embarrassing situation to find yourself in but it can also leave you in a very dangerous situation.
If you’re in a strange part of town that is unfamiliar to you, it’s late at night or some bad weather that has decide to take advantage of your situation (a sudden rainstorm comes to mind), you may be wishing you had an extra car or house key tucked away somewhere.
My personal favorite is just to carry a spare house and car key on a separate key ring. Using a simple “jean clip” makes it easy to carry a spare set of keys by clipping it to a belt loop on your pants, just in case they’re needed. Thieves are too good at finding hiding places in and around your home or vehicle and it’s a lot safer just to keep them with you. An extra car key and house key on a separate keychain won’t take up much more space in your pocket than some of the other stuff that usually finds its way into your pockets. It’ll be there when you need and you won’t have to rely on somebody to bring a spare set to you.
Got spare key?
Staying above the water line!
Riverwalker

Modern Acorn Soup


By Joseph Parish
 
Most people who know me understand that I have a great deal of respect for the Native American and their ability to survive under adverse conditions. They have managed to make use of what they have readily available at hand while wasting nothing in the process. If there were ever one group of natural survivors it would have to be the native tribes of North America.
Take acorns as an example. Acorns are not just for squirrels. The acorn is exceptionally high in protein and contains just about every known essential vitamin known to man. There are many good uses for this readily available nut including soup or grinding it up into a powder for use as fry bread. However, in order to use the acorn you must first know when and how to gather this excellent resource. 

We should gather our crop of acorns during the fall season. Discard the first of the acorns that fall from the tree. I don’t suggest this in order to be kind to the squirrels but rather because they are usually wormy and not good for our purpose. You can easily determine acorns which are good from those that are bad by their hunchback look resulting from the enclosed worm larvae. 

During my military years I met a Native American friend who related to me how his grandmother would venture out daily in order to find additional acorns for her food storage. He used to jokingly refer to her as his “squirrel grandma”. He claims that she had one room in her home where she saved all her acorns. His largest complaint was that he had to mix up the acorns every week in order to prevent the accumulation of moisture which would encourage mold and destroy the nut.
Once gathered the acorn should season for at least a year in order to ensure that the nuts are dried completely. Next you would crack the hull of the nut open revealing the inner meat. Simply whack the acorn with a mallet or use a pair of pliers to break the hull. As you open the acorn you will notice a red skin which must be removed. My friend hinted at an easy method of accomplishing this task. He explained that by dropping the meat into a pan of water the skin will not only lift right off but it also helps to remove the tannin from the nut.

Inspect the meat for any which might be wormy or dark colored. These should be discarded. Good acorn meat will be clean looking and yellowish in color. Now let the meat soak overnight and in the morning you should drain and rinse the nut.  After you have properly drained it put the meat through your meat grinder using a fine blade setting. Place these acorn grindings into a clean cotton muslin bag such as a pillow case or a jelly bag. Next soak the sack in an equal amount of water overnight. In the morning squeeze the water from the sack. Repeat this process over again until such time as you are satisfied with the taste of your acorn meal. 

I have been told that to speed up the process you could place your acorn sack in a bowl and simply pour some boiling water over it. Again let it soak for one hour and repeat as necessary. After you have properly leached your acorn flour you should spread it on large cookie sheet and allow it to dehydrate in a 175 degree oven until completely dried. 

Once you have dried and cleaned the acorn the real task begins. The acorns will now need to be pounded or broken up. You can use a granite mortar and pestle to do this job or you can do it in a much simpler fashion. Either way it is a time consuming process but must be done. To ease your workload a bit you could use a common flour mill. When finished your acorn flour should be similar to wheat flour in consistency.

In order to make the soup or mush, stir one cup of flour into two cups of hot, boiling water. I must warn you now you will likely not care for the flavor unless you add some sort of actual meat to it and cook it as you would a normal soup. Several cups of chicken chunks work wonders when combined with a little broth and some seasoning. 

As an alternative you can use the acorn meal for any recipe which calls for normal flour such as corn meal muffins etc.  Let me know what creative ways you come up with.

Copyright @2011 Joseph Parish

Guest Post: Imagine 6 Months After, By Northern Raider


© 2011Northern Raider

Imagine the countryside 6 months after TSHTF if we got a proper societal collapse? Just after the remainder of the city dwellers panic if the government has not yet saved them, they start to migrate in desperation seeking help, what will they find out of town?

No Chickens to be found nor Pheasants, Grouse, Rabbits, Hare, Squirrel , Ducks, Geese, Wild ponies, Wild pigs,  etc because the rural communities have either killed everything, or more likely trapped and caged enough to start a captive breeding regime.

No fertiliser, no weed killer, it takes OIL to make Ammonium Nitrate Fertiliser, the same for pesticides. Crop size will immediately start to reduce due to various blights.

Most herds slaughtered or secured where scavengers can’t get them without fighting a well armed, well prepared and entrenched rural community.

Fish farms are emptied, as would be battery chicken and rabbit farms, those creatures not rescued to start new breeding programs are left to die in their millions months ago..

Scrappy, BSE, Mad Cow Disease, Parvo, Bovine TB, Rabies, Mixy, F&M return reducing the animal numbers substantially and also scare the bejesus out of folks fearing Rabies outbreaks.
Oh and don’t forget the south east of the UK now has fairly frequent outbreaks of malaria mosquitoes for some insane reason (warming due to climate change?).

Most easy recoverable firewood, sea coal etc used up and the rest secured by the residents of those areas that still have wood and coal.

Most lesser roads will already being reclaimed by nature pretty quickly footpaths, bridleways, lanes and minor roads will become heavily grown over, providing the locals with even more places to hide animals or set up ambushes to keep townies and refugees out.

Many major routes will be clogged with abandoned vehicles or possibly be blockaded by belligerent locals or brigands.

Many earth reservoirs etc will start to leak as no one regulates the sluices any more, in time many of the Victorian earth berm types will fail completely causing flooding and reducing the amount of gravity supplied water to the affected areas below.
Drainage dykes, ditches, sluices etc start to sediment up and overflow, soon areas like the Somerset levels would be flooded much of the year as the natural order of things will reclaim much land.
Drains and sewers will for at least three years after TSHTF cause biological waste to find its way into many water sources that survivors will be drawing drinking water from.

Smaller semi self sufficient communities become more like fortified villages, outsiders not welcome. These self reliant clusters plus the preppers are the only ones left who can feed and sustain themselves.  It is those preppers who took preventative measures in advance of the collapse who were best placed to survive by way of being already established and known  in the rural communities they chose as BOLs.

Now imagine what the Cities will be like 6 months after TSHTF

No power for the previous 26 weeks means the water storage tanks in most buildings are now dry for 99% of the city. The sewage treatment plants failed the minute the power to the pumps, aerators and sedimenters stopped, many sewers are now nothing more than cess pits backing up and overflowing into the streets.  No phones work, no street lights work, most back up generators in government and hospital buildings are now out of fuel, so no light, no pumps or refrigeration is available. Insulin is no more, Beta Blockers no more.

No fuel or power means no rubbish bins gets collected or streets cleaned, 6 months of rubbish line the streets including human waste as people take to using alleys and stairwells as toilets.
Millions of cars, buses and trucks litter the streets, victims of crime, disease and starvation are left to rot in the streets because there no one to collect them. Nor is there fuel to cremate them or transport them besides the temporary cemeteries in the parks are full.

There are plenty of disease carrying rat’s crows and pigeon flourishing as they gorge on the dead and the waste, and yet people still trap them for food which because of fuel shortages often gets eaten under cooked, the spread of disease is rampant. Bubonic and Pneumonic plague which has never been totally eradicated in the UK returns to terrorise those survivors without very strong hygiene protocols in operation.

The subways and underground lines are abandoned and flooded as the power to the rails was also the power to the pumps that kept the tunnels dry, The rising waters leak from the tunnels by the billions of gallons eroding the soil and foundations of roads and houses above.
Parts of the cities are still smouldering ruins after desperate survivors had accidents with knocked over candles, fuel leaks or other incidents that caused fires in most tower blocks (the sprinkler systems long since drained of precious water). No Fire and Rescue services came to help as they are long since out of fuel, besides most roads are permanently blocked with abandoned vehicles or barricades set up by gangs of survivors.

The few remaining urban preppers survive by rigging wind turbines and PV cells to the sides and roofs of the apartment blocks they have taken over, the inner courtyard areas secured by barbed wired topped walls contains the few animals they keep for food, chickens, pigeon, rabbits, pygmy goats, small pot bellied pigs and even guinea pigs fed on whatever the preppers can harvest from the surrounding area. The flat rooftops of the apartment block are covered in cloches, greenhouses and poly-tunnels that provide the only SECURE place to grow food crops.

All the apartment blocks guttering is now redirected into water tanks in the courtyard and the survivors living in terror of a long dry rainless summer. The only glazed windows remaining face either into the courtyard or are above the fourth floor if on the outside. Only one doorway remains, the rest concreted up and permanently blocked the days after the first break in by scavengers.  An island of hope in a sea of desperation.

What hope do our two groups of preppers have that one day they can start to rebuild and establish a new society based on barter and trade??  Neither community knows of each others existence as both were formed independently from members of prepper groups and forums who had little interaction or cooperation.  One glimmer of hope lay in the fact that a few people in each group actually remembered a debate they once had online to agree that if no communications system was available that each year on the summer solstice preppers could meet to barter, trade, talk, share etc in the grounds of either Stone Henge or Glastonbury Tor providing the Somerset plains have not been reclaimed by the sea.

Its your choice, plan and communicate with others, together there is hope, or face a lonely struggle in isolation.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Fresh lentil sprouts from store bought lentils

You can buy a 1 pound pack of lentils for a little over 1 dollar. I love lentils so they make up a big part of my dry long term storage.  One thing I like to do is whenever I go to the grocery store to buy anything I pick up one package of lentils, split peas, or dry beans. If you use this method of slow accumulation you will be filling 5 gallon buckets before you know it.
Sprouting is something I have been looking into to get more variety into my diet and also it gives me another way to use up long term storage items.
Check out this excellent tutorial on making sprouts from store bought lentils… seems nice and easy.
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/02/19/how-to-grow-sprouts/

Bugout Cooking: Bannock

This is the first in a series of articles on foods that can be prepared while bugging out or just plain off the grid. If you’re on the go, with minimal gear, you’ll be glad you know that you can still prepare delicious foods that will both warm your body and improve moral.
In a bug-out situation or in many cases when off the grid, you won’t have all the amenities you’d normally have. But even without an oven or microwave there are plenty of things you can eat, and bread is no exception.
This recipe is one of my favorites when I’m out in the bush. It’s simple to make, delicious and doesn’t require an oven — just a pan, a flat rock, or even a stick, and a heat source. This versatile, oven-less bread is what the Scottish call Bannock. Here’s a video on how it’s done (using the pan method):

How to Make Bannock Video

Here’s a video I made on how to make bannock (Here’s the link for my email subscribers: bannock):


You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

How to Make Bannock Instructions

Step 1: Mix dry ingredients listed in one of the recipes below. This can be stored in a plastic or mylar bag until you need it.
Step 2: Add water until you reach the consistency somewhere between pancake batter and pizza dough. At this point you can also optionally add any other ingredients you see fit (ie raisins, nuts, sausage etc).
Step 3: Flatten dough onto a pan until it’s about a half an inch thick.
Step 4: Cook on a greased pan (or non-stick cast iron pan) until medium brown underneath, flip over, cook, and repeat. Each side takes about 8-10 minutes depending on the heat of the heat source.

Recipe

Just as there are multiple ways of making bannock, there are equally multiple recipes and variations. Here are my two favorites:

Recipe 1 (breakfast bread) for Single Serving

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup powdered milk
  • 1/3 cup powdered egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
Mix all together and store in a plastic or mylar bag. Pack away in your bug-out bag or just take it with you when you’re camping!

Recipe 2 (dinner bread) for Single Serving

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons powdered milk
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
Same as other recipe; mix all together and store in a plastic or mylar bag. Add water and cook over a fire!

Related posts:

  1. Off-Grid Cooking Part 2: Fixed Cooking Options
  2. Pinole: The Ultimate Bugout Food
  3. Off-Grid Cooking Part 1: Portable Stoves

Link of the day: FarmGal

 Came across this great website on food preservation.
vegetables
 http://farmgal.tripod.com/

Just some of the many topics:

Introduction on Canning Fruits and VegetablesPage 1 of "How to Can and Freeze Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden." This page talks about what you should know before you begin to can.
How to Can Vegetables Using a Pressure CannerPage 2 of "How to Can and Freeze Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden." This talks about canning vegetables using a pressure canner.
How to Can Vegetables Using a Boiling Water CannerPage 3 of "How to Can and Freeze Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden. This page talks about canning vegetables using a boiling water canner.
How to Can FruitPage 4 of "How to Can Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden." This page talks about canning fruit.
How to Freeze Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden.Page 5 of "How to Can and Freeze Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden." This page talks about freezing basics and "how-to's."
How to Make Jams and Jellies Page 6 of "How to Can and Freeze Fruits and Vegetables from Your Garden." This page talks about the tips and tricks of making homemade jams and jellies.


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4 Best Methods for Off-the-Grid Food Production from Activist Post

from ModernSurvivalOnline.com
I saw this article over at Activist Post – thought you might be interested.
- – Rourke
Original article appears here: 4 Best Methods for Off-the-Grid Food Production

For most of us producing all of our own food is just a fantasy. It evokes visions of multiple acres of fertile land, long work days, and expensive machinery. However, none of these are necessary to achieve self-sufficient food production.
There are many gardening techniques that can produce an abundance of food for you and your family without requiring a lot of space, money or equipment. What each of these methods will require is your time, but not the dawn-to-dusk work hours associated with farming.
Rather, you will need time to study and practice these methods and other food preparation skills such as learning to mill your own wheat or corn flour to make breads, tortillas, pastas from scratch, or learning to can, pickle, or preserve food in all its forms.
Your diet should also be considered when planning for the best self-sufficient food production method.  Do you need meat and dairy products? How much grains do you require? Yes, in order fully produce all of your food off-the-grid, you may have to make changes to your current diet if your resources are limited.  Some may view these as dietary sacrifices, yet the folks that can claim a high level of food self-reliance will all claim their diet is far healthier than the average American.

With dedication and proper planning, everyone has the ability to survive the looming food crisis by producing their own food.  None of the following methods should necessarily be considered by itself.  Each offers unique techniques that can be mixed and matched for the best results.  Their optimal application depends on calculations of your property size, climate zone, or your budget and time constraints.
Here are the 4 best food production methods for self-reliance:
1. Permaculture Gardening: Permaculture is where you design an entire edible habitat based on the natural capital of your setting. Then, place plants to methodically balance the soil, water, and pests. For instance, a nitrogen fixing plant may be planted next to a nitrogen hungry plant, which may sit next to an ornamental that deters predators, and so on. Permaculture gardening re-creates nature by using a large variety of plants while incorporating as many different animals as feasible like chickens, goats, ducks, and bees.  You may also see features like vertical gardening and aquaculture ponds in permaculture designs depending on the space available. Utilizing this method is not expensive, but requires a lot of know-how and trial and error. Permaculture gardening can produce massive abundance.  See the amazing video below for a real-world example of going off-the-grid in suburbia:

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2. Aquaponics: Aquaponics is a interdependent hybrid system of aquaculture and hydroponic gardening.  Vegetables and herbs grow in soil-less containers that are fed with waste water from the aquaculture pools.  The plants feast on the bacteria from fish waste and return the water to the fish in a purified state. These systems can be as big or as small as you wish and can potentially produce large amounts of fish and vegetables.  When done properly, very little if any additional fertilizer or chemicals are needed, just fish food.  Aquaponics can also be applied indoors, either in a greenhouse setting or with grow lights. The video below is a good description of the benefits of Aquaponics.


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3. Greenhouses: If you live in a region of the world with harsh winters, then a greenhouse will be essential for food self-sufficiency.  Obviously, a greenhouse alone is not a strategy for full food production unless it is a large facility.  Typically it can be viewed as a compliment to other gardening methods.  In fact, the Dervaes family in the first video above uses a greenhouse to clone and start seedlings even though they live in Southern California. There are great designs and greenhouse starter kits available online.  Below is a brief video on the benefits of greenhouse gardening:

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4. Indoor Grow Rooms: Indoor growing is typically done with grow lights and hydroponics.  Some people have sun-rooms in their homes which can basically act as a fancier greenhouse.  However, for this section we’ll focus on indoor hydroponics.  This method of growing is certainly not the cheapest way to produce food, yet it is a steadfast method especially where weather and other elements can hinder food self-sufficiency.  Indoor hydroponics requires grow lights such as LEDs, CFLs, or HPSs, along with tubing, drainage, fertilizer and ventilation.  However, even a small space can produce fantastic yields for leafy vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, sprouts, and much more.  To make this method fully off the grid find the most energy efficient grow lights possible and think about getting a solar generator to offset the electric costs.  Below is a video about indoor plant lighting:

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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Guest Post: Firestorm Chapter 5a , by Christopher Young

David's Generator

Bill says that guy from New York wants me to write a bit. I flunked out of school, so he's going to have to fix it up a bit, cause I don't know much about writing. Why don't I just tell you a bit about what's going on, and you can write it. OK with that?

Anyhow, as this starts, I'm driving down the road to town. I went and visited a couple friends of mine, and see what kind of generator they have to trade. Chuckie says he knows a guy who has one, but he wants a rile and about a thousand rounds of ammo. I know Bill has one in the closet, he's never used it, and so that should be OK. I mean, it's not like he ever used it or anything.

Lot of stuff that never gets used. Like the Model A Ford in Sam's garage. And all that firewood and Pepsi at Gomer's retreat. Heck, even that guy Chris has piles of stuff he's never used. I figure Bill won't miss that stupid plastic gun.

So, I've got the rifle in the trunk, and it's dark. I'm driving down the road, and I know my way around. Lived here for years, and I've been this way a lot of times. Not much cool music on the radio. I scan up and down the dial, and finally found one station that's working. Blast, thought the radio was broken. I'm half way paying attention, and the radio is saying how the President is calling for everyone to remain calm. The Muslims have burned just about everything they could, and it's going to take at least two years to rebuild the power grid. Two years? You mean it's going to take that long? And the radio guy says that they have been burning stuff all around the world, too.

What the radio guys weren't saying, is that a quick conference had been called, of some of the leading minds in the USA. The power grid was off line, and it looked like it might not be possible to get it going again. A few isolated small power companies had isolated themselves from the national grid, and so there were still some pockets of places which had power. A few hospitals have backup generators, and a few fire halls. But, the equipment needed to make more sub stations was not working, account of the failure of the power grid.

The casualty report was also depressing. All states were asked to report back to Washington. Several states were out of contact, the cell phone switching had long since run out of battery backup power, The telephone switching stations, many had been burned down in the initial wave of violence. Many ham radio operators were still transmitting, and many more were listening. However, there was little substantial news. More and more people were starving, dying, and diseased without medicine. The over the road fleet of trucks had been confiscated, and FEMA was holding all of them with no real plans to get commerce running again.

Lucky me, I didn't know all of this at the time. I pull into Chuckie's  driveway, and sure enough, there is a van I don't recognize. Chuckie introduces me to the other guy, and we have a look. In the back of his van he's got a generator. It's the ugliest thing I've seen  in years, it's really old you know? I asked  if it works, and so he pulls the cord an it starts  right up. He plugs in a light, and the light comes on. Good enough for me.

I go to the trunk of my car, and pull out the rifle. I can't  remember what it was, some hokey foreign name like Daiwoo. It's all plastic and black. Doesn't even look like a rifle to me. But the guy smiles, an I have the ammo can with the thousand rounds. He loads the generator into the trunk of my car, and we shake hands. We're all good.

I asks him if he has any cigarettes. Well, sure enough. He's got a whole bunch, and he'll trade them for another rifle and some more ammo. I figure Bill is going to have a big scream about this, but what the heck. After all, it's a generator, right? And that means I'll keep my car chases going all night. I'm thinking quick and ask if he'd consider a pistol and some ammo. Sure, he says. Pistol is good, too. And so I ask what brand, and how many cartons he figures he's got to trade. Well, I've only got the one gun with me so I'll have to come back later. Told him to sit tight, and I'd be back in an hour or so.

Car chases. Well, I wasn't the only person thinking about car chases. I find out later that Gomer and Chris were having a nasty  night sleep, that military thing they did, the exact shun or something they called it. The distraction they did for Sam. They were both thinking too much that day, and so they were having a hard time sleeping. Good thing that they were both pretty tired. Nice thing about being up late like me, not many people out and moving.

At Gomer's retreat, Heather just turned off the television. She and Faith have been doing a lot of talking. You know how women jabber jabber all the time. They sure are up late. I figure that they ought to be friends, they have so much in common. Living in New York and all.

Meantime, it's night, and I want to be home watching TV. Wonder if Connie has any more cigarettes? I'm doing my own car chase, got to get my ass back to the house and grab a pistol before Chuckie sells those cigarettes to someone else. I'm going down the road about 80 miles an hour, the nicotine withdrawal is really getting worse.

Back at the house, Connie was still looking at the FRS radio like it was some kind of poison snake. Bill's voice came over the radio again, "Backup, backup...." Connie picked up the radio, and said David would be out in a couple minutes. But, where is he?

Everything is good. I'm coming up the driveway, and Connie is running out of the house to me. She's screaming something about got to back up. I throw the car in reverse, not having any clue what that crazy lady is yelling about. So emotional. She says no, no. Not to back up the car. Says Bill is out at the military thing and he's saying he wants Dave to back up. Finally I figure out what's going on, Bill is having another one of those drills with me. Well, hope he doesn't scream too much.

I go into the house, and keyed the microphone at the house twice, the arranged signal for backup on the way. Connie's got a cigarette going in the ash tray, so I pop it in my mouth. And then grabbed my rifle, and emergency grab and go bag, and ran out the door. It was a quick run down the road. I'm in fairly good shape. So, I quietly came in the back door of the listening post, lit cigarette still dangling from my lips. Bill coughed loudly, grabbed the cigarette out of my mouth and threw the cigarette to the ground. Stomped on the cigarette. Damn, that's the last one too. Bill handed me the binoculars, and pointed. I looked through the binoculars, and said I'd go flank to the left. Bill nodded. I dashed back out of the LP. When the stranger had gone a couple more feet down the road, Bill threw the switch that turned on the flood lights, and lit up the entire stretch of road for about 50 yards.

Surviving in an urban setting

City Skyline
Many of us realize that the city is perhaps the worst place to live, to prepare for a SHTF scenario. Should you choose to stay in the city, the following information may be helpful. This information has been gathered from various sources and compiled.

Cities are formed for the benefit of interacting with large groups of people for mutual benefit. However, they need resources from outside of themselves; most notably, food, water and electricity. Although electricity and water can sometimes be created or found within city limits, cities are dependent on the importation of food. For a long time they have been entirely dependent on the American farmer for their support, something almost all Americans take for granted.

The city presents serious risks during a crisis. The four most serious are: (1.) Rioting and the breakdown of order, (2.) Lack of water, or the delivery of water, (3.) Lack of food, (4.) The power grid going off-line. Some cities may experience only a few of these, although most certainly there will be cities that experience them all.

Social order is psychological. It could collapse under the right conditions. When people realize there is no longer law and order, they behave according to their own whims. Only the threat of immediate death stopped the looting and violence in the L.A. Riots, when the National Guard responded to the crisis. Eventually the National Guard assumed control. Remember, this was only an isolated event, with one city. In a more serious crisis, will the National Guard or local police be able to handle the load? Overnight this country could be turned into a war zone, requiring all-out martial law and military force. The reality is, however, the military would be stretched beyond limits to handle the load.

The greatest risk of remaining in the city is the breakdown of social order. Lack of food, water, and money will drive people to behave unethically towards other people. While certain areas will manage to keep things under control, people will be forming lines at the local (depleted) Red Cross shelter, while other cities will erupt in violence. The gang-infested regions of major metropolitan areas will not stand in line and wait. Racial tensions will simply serve as a catalyst for shooting people in order to get their food or other possessions.

Lack of money results in looting and mass theft, resulting in a collapse of social order. Lack of water has the same effect. The collapse of social order doesn’t require any collapse of the power grid, telecommunications, transportation or banking. Social order is psychological. Global panic can quickly remove the mental barrier that right now keeps people basically “lawful.”

Water treatment plants are electricity dependent. Some plants have already failed emergency testing in the event of a shutdown of the power grid. In one such test, the water treatment plant released a fatal dose of fluoride into the water system when tested. The computers thought they were 99 years behind in releasing minute doses of fluoride, so they made up the difference. If you happened to be downstream, drinking that water, you were dead. Fluoride, no matter what misinformed dentists tell you, is actually a fatal poison. A major crisis likely to demonstrate this fact in more than one city.

More importantly, however is, what do you do when the water stops flowing or is not drinkable? People can live without water only 2-3 days. During the first day of the water crisis, many people will only be inconvenienced. As the day wanes, they'll get worried. By the second day, more will realize the water isn't coming. Social order will begin to break down while they search for water. People will searches stores and eventually those supplies will vanish. If water stops flowing, there will be looting of all the grocery stores, outbreaks of violence with some shop owners defending their goods, a mass exodus from the city by residents in search of water, ransacking of any houses or farms within a gas-tank radius of the city (presumably by desperate people with guns), mass traffic jams as people abandon their vehicles when they run out of gas, and outbreaks of water-borne diseases as people use streams and rivers as drinking water and lavatories.

Supplies of food will dwindle quickly. Breakdowns in the transportation sector will result in major delays. Any shipment of food that arrives will be quickly grabbed and eaten or stored. Expect the atmosphere to be that of a “near panic”, the level varying from city to city, if food is delayed by as little as three days. A shortage of food results in the same behavior as a shortage of water.

The power grid goes off-line. Nothing is as suddenly obvious nor has such a psychological impact as a power outage. When electricity stops, almost everybody knows it at the same instant (unless it happens at night). People assume it’s temporary. What if it doesn’t back online? Without power, everything shuts down. Looting begins in the more crime-ridden cities. The longer the power stays off, the worse the social disorder. Vehicles may get around, but businesses won't be operating. Houses that use electricity for heat will reach Winter temperatures, freezing many occupants to death. Those that depend on electricity for AC will just as quickly reach Summer temperatures, some dying from heat stroke. Hospitals and police stations may have generators with a few days worth of fuel, but eventually that will be depleted. Water treatment plants will almost certainly be off-line causing all the events mentioned in the water section. If you have power, you can survive a food shortage, perhaps even a short water shortage. If you have a “bug-out” vehicle stocked and ready to go, this might be the time to bail.

Okay, so you're stuck in the city and made the decision to stay. What now? You really have only two options. You can (1.) Stay and defend your home, or (2.) Bug out. Of course this is not an either/or situation. You can begin by staying in your house and assessing the situation. You'll want to have a “bug-out” vehicle stocked and ready, but you may never actually choose to bug out. When you bug out, you face major risks and disadvantages. Among these: You're severely limited in how much you can carry; you have limited range due to fuel; you expose yourself to social chaos, roadblocks, random violence, etc.; your house will certainly be looted; you run the risk of mechanical breakdowns; you must have a place to go that you know is in better shape than where you currently are.

In general, unless you have a specific, known safe place as your final destination, it's not advisable to bug out. Staying and defending your house is sometimes the only reasonable course of action, even if it seems dangerous. For the most part, looters and people looking for food are going to have plenty of easy victims, so if you show a little willingness to use force to defend your property, you’ll likely send people on to the next house. That is, until the next house is already empty and you appear to be the last house on the block with any food and water left. Your neighbors may “gang up” on you. The best situation is to keep your neighbors informed and help them get prepared. Then you can act as a group, defending your neighborhood and sharing supplies with anyone willing to help defend you.

Storing food is important, but hiding it is far more. That’s because in the worst areas, marauders will be going house to house, demanding your food or your life. To count on having any amount of food left over after the marauders break in, you'll need to hide your food. One alternative is to plan on defending your home with force. If you have enough gun-wise people in the house, and enough firearms and ammo, you can probably pull this off. But most of us aren’t nearly as experience with firearms as the gang members. The best way to hide your food is to bury it inside airtight containers. Bury your food at night so nobody will notice, and make sure you don’t leave a map on the refrigerator door! Try to get the ground to look normal after you're finished. You’ll want to bury your food as early as possible give the grass time to grow over. If you’re in an area that snows, you’ll have great concealment. Most marauders won't go to the trouble to dig up food, especially if you insist you don't have any. Also, have smaller amount of food stashed around the house, letting them find something. Better to give them something and send them on their way. Be creative in hiding your food. Use the walls, the floors, and the structure of the house. If hiding your food is not possible, then don't advertise it. In reality it would be easier to simply build a false wall in your garage and seal up your food behind the false wall. Sure, you might loose 2-3 feet of usable space in your garage, but the trade off is knowing everything is safe.

Water can be stored in exactly the same way. Make sure you treat your storage water, rotate it or have filters on hand when you get ready to use it. If you don’t have a yard, or it's not practical to bury your water, you’ll have to store it inside your house. Water takes up lots of space and is difficult to conceal. It’s best to get containers made for long-term storage, but you can use almost any container: soda bottles, milk jugs (although it's very difficult to rinse the milk out), and even rinsed bleach bottles (in that case, you won’t need to add bleach). Many of these containers will deteriorate quickly, and they may break easily. Also, consider what happens if your water may be subjected to freezing. Will your containers survive? Be sure to leave enough air space to handle the expansion. Stock at least six months of water at a minimum two gallons a day per person. That’s nearly 400 gallons of water if you have two people. Even with the best preparations you may find yourself short of water. In this case, one of your best defenses is to have a really good water filter that can remove parasites and bacteria from the water. You can also treat your water in other ways (iodine, distillation, silver solution, bleach, etc.). The best solution for obtaining long-term water is to drill a well. Many cities simply don’t allow the drilling of wells, so you may not be able to get one drilled even if you want to. The deeper your well, the more expensive it becomes.

Now regarding defense. In rural areas most people are going to find ways to cooperate. However, some cities will suffer complete social breakdown and violence will rule. If you happen to be stuck in one of these cities, you’re going to need to use force to defend yourself. Also, do not use your lights at night. Avoid drawing attention to your house. Defending your house is a crucial element on your stay-in-the-city plan. Make your house your fortress, and hold drills to help other family members practice some of the more common activities such as hiding, defending, evacuating, etc. Some useful items for home defense include: a guard dog, pepper spray, firearms, smoke bombs, and trip wires. The guard dog probably eats a lot of food, but the investment is worth it. Dogs also tend to sleep light, so have them sleep near food storage areas, and make sure you sleep within earshot. If the dog barks, don't consider it an annoyance, consider it an INTRUSION. Pepper spray will incapacitate people and certainly give them a painful experience to remember. On the downside (potentially), it might just remind them that next time they come back for food, they better kill you first. Firearms are useful for obvious reasons. When looting is rampant, you may have to shoot someone to protect yourself or your family. If you’re squeamish about pulling the trigger under these circumstances, don't plan to stay in the city. Use the “bug out” plan instead. Smoke bombs can be useful for covering a planned escape from your house. You can purchase high-volume smoke bombs that will quickly fill up any house with an non-breathable cloud of military-grade white smoke. Trip wires are great perimeter defenses and will give early warning.

In addition to these devices, you can make significant fortification-style improvements to your home. While none of these are very affordable, they certainly help defend your home: replace glass windows with non-breakable Plexiglas; add steel bars to the windows; replace all outside door locks with heavy-duty deadbolts; replace all outside doors with steel doors (preferably without windows); remove bushes and other shrubs where people might hide; black out the windows entirely to avoid light escaping at night; build secret hiding places for food, coins, or even people; create escape hatches or passageways; and rig pepper-spray booby traps. Many people living in rough cities already have steel bars covering their windows, and removing extra bushes and shrubs is a well-known tactic for making your home a safer place.

To light your home when there’s no electricity, try the following: use LED flashlights and rechargeable solar-charged batteries; use propane-powered lanterns (be sure to purchase extra mantles and store lots of propane); purchase quality oil lamps and stock up on oil (tou can also purchase cheap kerosene lamps then simply purchase and store extra kerosene); buy extra candles; purchase lots of olive oil. Not only can you cook with it but it also burns as a clean candle fuel. You can float a wick in a jar half-full of olive oil and light the wick for a home-made candle. Olive oil is a great item for your storage anyway because you’ll still need cooking oil. Well-stored olive oil can last for thousands of years.

Your best bet in regards to stocking fuel for your house is to stock up on UNCUT wood logs. The effort is worth it, because this will give you a ready-to-go source of heat and fuel that cannot be easily stolen. You'll need equipment to cut and chop the wood. Wood splits better when it’s frozen, so you might wait until Winter to start splitting. Only split a little at a time so as not to invite theft. Cut about to start drying out, then chop them as you need them.

Getting along with neighbors is important. The best situation to be in, is to have neighbors who are aware of the issue and who are getting ready, stocking their own supplies. If you do live in a bad neighborhood, do what you can to relocate. If you live in a good neighborhood, do the best you can to educate and inform your neighbors.

The gun-control politicians (and the people who supported them) have placed most Americans in a situation where the police cannot protect us in a timely manner, nor can we lawfully defend ourselves. Criminals unlawfully have firearms; citizens lawfully don't. The cities where rioting will likely be the worst is where firearms are most likely to be banned from lawful ownership (and where criminals may wield near-absolute power for a while.). Millions of people are going to have to resort to breaking the law in order to protect their families. And yes, you too will have to resort to breaking the law if you are to acquire a firearm in an area where guns are entirely banned from private citizens. After the disaster hits, if the situation deteriorates badly, local police will be begging law-abiding citizens for help. But if you carry a gun while you smash a window of the Wal-Mart and walk off with a stereo, be prepare to get shot. Police officers don't mind private ownership nearly as much as many believe. When the crisis hits, they'll be more than happy to have your cooperation. If you really feel you need a firearm to protect yourself and your family, your best bet may be to move to a city or state where people are a lot more accepting of firearms. Check the gun laws in any state you're considering moving to.

Suppose you’ve changed your mind about this city thing. You’ve decided to BUG OUT! Well, you will likely need a 4x4 truck in order to go off-road and around stalled vehicles. It should also be able to carry at least 1000 pounds of supplies. Yes, it requires more fuel, but you can carry the fuel as cargo. You will need an armed passenger in case you run into not-so-nice people. Here’s what you should take if you’re preparing to bug out with two people: your 96 hour kits for each person in the vehicle; 20 gallons of water; 40 gallons of extra fuel or more (and a full gas tank). As mentioned earlier, if you have a designated BOL, go for it. If not, you’re basically driving anywhere you can go, so try to head for an area that is forested and near a creek or river where you can get some water.

The conclusion is this: choosing to remain in the city is a rational choice for many people in many situations. However, the further away you can get from population centers the better your chances of surviving. Most people have a difficult time accepting that a major disaster would be as bad as described. However, the very nature of a major disaster means that if only one or two major infrastructure components go down, the ripple effect will quickly create a much worse scenario. The most likely scenario at this point clearly points to massive disruptions, shortages in food and water, loss of power in some areas, and a breakdown of social order in areas where the population density is high. But you can survive anything with good planning, an open mind, and plenty of practice. Now is the best time to start.
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