I bet you didnt think about THAT!!

Originally posted by shaneR
reply to post by Talltexxxan

 

hi Talltexxxan,

i think only a few people have the right idea in this thread...

"run for the hills...???" ... the average american , techically, is overweight...

and whos already in those hills, + armed + waiting...???

NO, the best idea is to prepare your own home,
and get to know your neighbours, PROPERLY...!!!


my two cents worth on NECESSITIES =

ability to start fire...in all situations..
.
and the ability to collect water,

(both usually hard work...)

seeya

edit on 27/7/2011 by shaneR because: typo

edit on 27/7/2011 by shaneR because: (no reason given)

It is good to know your neighbors, but, if you live in a city and there is nowhere to grow or find food due to no cleared land and everything has been looted then you're going to have to become mobile for a while to find a suitable location. If this is the case, social skills will come in handy but not particularly neighbors if they've already left or are going to stay behind.

reply to post by Wookiep


Little pre packaged wet-naps, alcohol wipes FTW, small, light weight, Plus the Alcohol wipes can be used as fire started. Best rule of thumb for Survival gear, Does it have 2-3 uses?

reply to post by DarkSarcasm


hi DarkSarcasm,
and thanks for that...

and i agree with the "get out of town" theory (for some people, in SOME situations)...

but MOST are too old, fat, lazy or stupid to be ready to run when TSHTF...

the roads will be clogged, (worse than they are now !!!)....

and i would really recommend that people are best off storing up NOW on food,
and all the other stuff we need...and wait it out ( whatever happens)...

unless the shhit hitting the fan is in your backyard !!!

hide and keep yourself out of sight...

paranoid ???

maybe

seeya

reply to post by Talltexxxan

It has been said that knowledge is power. I would add that one's knowledge is best gauged by their ability to reference something more than to simply pull it from memory, as humanity's greatest strength is our ability to pass on massive amounts of information through the written word, not only memorization.
Therefore, my addition to the standard BOB would be a small, efficient ebook reader filled to the brim with gigs and gigs of books on homesteading, survival, gardening, energy production, electrical and mechanical maintenance, etc. I also suggest a small solar charger, portable Faraday cage and water proof container to keep it working. My setup takes up about 6x6x4 inches in my bag and weighs under 2 pounds and it contains several hundreds of ebooks and instructional videos on everything one would need to know to be self-sufficient, safe and comfortable. I'd also suggest making copies of everything on SD cards or a similar medium and leave them in a safe spot, also protected from moisture and EMPs.

nice thread. funny how i stumbled upon it. it was only a couple days ago it dawned on me from out of nowhere...oh snap.. i dont have anything to boil my water in. So a "pan" is my answer for a survivalists' necessity.

The one thing you need is a suppressed revolver preferably a nagant because the cylinder seals to the barrel and its totally subsonic, if you're clever you can make a stock for it and get better accuracy. killing in total silence gives you the ability in stealth to carry out any BOB collecting you need while on the move, and you're not leaving any evidence along the way

gotta bring my armor (clickity clank i think i'm a tank :lol. but seriously in a SHTF in a big way scenario there will unfortunately be quite a few people out there who will just try to TAKE what they want/need. so protection is a good thing. chain mail is easy to make if rather boring and time consuming. if all else fails you can take a lesson from the Japanese, who didn't have great quantities of metal so made a lot of their armor out of wood. even leather can be used for protection as i is tougher than your skin. dip leather into melted wax and let it soak and then form it produces a VERY hard durable material, also useful for liquid containers (just not hot liquid).

bullets run out so low tech weapons like bows,swords,axes and maces ect will be handy to have. even a good solid walking stick ie a bo staff makes for a decent protective weapon, not as good as my pole mace but a bo staff is both good for offense and defense. many posters seem to have picked up that low tech weapons would be a good thing to have.

of course having weapons is good but if you don't know how to use them properly you could find yourself in great difficulty. just take for example swords. a typical European type sword is made for hitting the target with force, using that force to cut. now if you just swing your arm, not only will you not have as much force (unless of course you are built like a brick house full of muscle), but your arm will tire quickly. you need to use your body to wield it effectively twisting at your hips. this uses your body to create the force needed to hack at your opponent.

now take the typical "samurai" sword, this sword is typically razor sharp if you have a good one and not a cheap knockoff. but it uses completely different moves. to use it to hack at an opponent like a European sword chances are you will damage or break it (high tempered steel is a bit on the fragile side). to use one of these you use a drawing motion, that is you pull it back as you come in for the cut. effectively you are slicing your opponent rather then hacking at them. now if your opponent is wearing metal or chain mail you can't effectively use a samurai sword against areas that are protected. you have to go for unprotected spots only, or try to cut any straps holding the armor onto the person. and just so you know most swords found on the general market are USELESS crap. if you insist on using one you need a quality blade.

in general unless you know how to use a sword you are likely to be a danger to yourself and others on your side. for those who don't know how to fight weapons like maces (pretty much a club), or other simple weapons like a bo staff are far more likely to help you. anyone can swing a club just keep in mind to use your whole body to swing it as arms tire quickly. most club like weapons require you to be right up at your opponent where something like a staff is used farther out away from your opponent. knives and daggers are also decent weapons, but again knowing how to use them is key, in order to use a knife one has to be right up in the face of an attacker. now if one is up against say a sword in their face is the best place to be since swords like staffs are more distance weapons. by being up close and personal they are unable to attack you effectively. again this type of thing is where KNOWING HOW to use your weapons comes into play. different weapons are used in different ways. not really knowing can be a hazard all on it's own

the best form of protection is actually numbers. forming a group to travel and "camp" with is probably the best deference at all. most attackers will not want to risk attacking a larger group unless they think they have a major advantage. after all they likely don't want to risk getting killed.most of these scavengers will primarily attack small groups or "weak" groups.

not only is a group better for protection it can mean that you have many skills available. this can be a key point for survival. especially in the beginning of a crises, having many hands means that as some people deal with setting up shelters others can prepare meals, while yet others can be out foraging and hunting. if you suspect a prolonged time of crises any storable food should be left alone if at all possible for emergencies, living off the land should start immediately. you should also try to preserve as much as possible. especially in colder climates vegetable type food will be hard to come by, even some animal life will tend to disappear, making something like daily foraging an unrewarding task. also in a group planting, taking care of plants as well as harvesting works better with more people involved. so being in a decent sized group would be a good plan.

When i was around 8 years, there was a lot of bamboo in our backyard, so i grabbed a piece of bamboo and than i stumbled over a rock, so the stick of bamboo came 1 cm next to my eye, i had a big splinter there, oh what was i lucky or i had crushed my whole eye.

Originally posted by Talltexxxan
was the other day I was watching one of the million survial shows that are on nowadays (I forget which one), and the guy was running through a woodland area, when out of no where the end of a small tree branch caught him in the face. I was thinking WOW! if that branch would have been alittle to the left it would have jabbed straight through his eye!

you bring up a valid point & it made me smile that I have several pairs leftover from an old job I used to do but I couldn't help but think that if I was the guy in your e.g. & I was wearing my glasses I might not get blinded or killed but the branch would still deflect off the glasses and possibly mess up my face or stab through my cheek in the process...I guess don't run through the forest?

-Bob

reply to post by wildoracle13


after posting, I started wondering about wild yeast,

A pottery crock, plastic container or glass jar, preferably with a loose-fitting lid
A wooden spoon
A piece of cloth
Some flour (preferably without any preservatives in it) and water
To start a culture, mix two cups of flour and two cups of water in a glass or pottery bowl (in the old days, a baker probably had a special clay crock for starter). Lay a cloth over the top and let it sit on the kitchen counter. It turns out that there is yeast floating in the air all around us all the time, and some of this yeast will make its way to your flour/water mixture. It will then start growing and dividing.

After 24 hours, you pour off about a cup of the mixture and feed it with another cup of flour and another cup of water. In a few days, the mixture will become frothy as the yeast population grows. The froth is caused by the carbon dioxide that the yeast is generating. The starter will also have a bacteria, lactobacilli, in it. This lends to the slightly acidic flavor of the bread by creating lactic acid! The alcohol that the yeast creates and the lactic acid together are the source of sourdough bread's unique flavor!

Leave the starter on the kitchen counter for five days. As the starter ferments, it will develop a strong aroma -- bready and alcoholy and not particular appetizing. Feed it every day or two by dividing it in half and adding a cup of flour and a cup of water to one half of it (you can throw the other half away). When you see a watery substance floating to the top, stir it. Sourdough bakers call this "hooch." Over the week the starter became a thick liquid, like pancake batter. It will be slightly yellowish.

keep it on the counter and feed it every day When it comes time to bake bread, you add a cup of this live culture to the dough to provide the yeast needed to leaven the bread. You replenish the pot by adding back an equal amount of flour and water, and regular feeding keeps the culture alive.

It is that easy! Also its something to trade, how many people will know how to make yeast?

Mosquito netting is a must have, and not just because Alaska's mosquitos and no-see-ums will eat you alive. High quality mosquito netting can be used for tons of things. You can net small fish with it. Tripling or quadrupling the layers together makes a very usefull water strainer to remove most suspended particles/debris from water before boiling. With the proper gloves and a snowsuit or thick work overalls, a man could easily use the netting to construct a makeshift beekeeper suit to collect honey & grubs from wild bee hives.

Honestly, I have a lot of oddball stuff in my survival kits. Most of it is Alaska-centric and probably wouldn't be a great idea for those outside AK to use valuable pack space or weight on. That said, I also don't have to waste pack space on things like water or strange evaporative water collection items many folks in drier loactions have to supply, so it balances out.

Originally posted by Afterthought
Listerine or the equivalent.

A toothache will make your entire body hurt! Using an oral disinfectant regularly is always a good thing to help prevent decay and abcesses.
Plus, Listerine can always be used on a wound anywhere on the body to stave off infection.

Don't use Listerine please it's a straight road to Cancer of the Mouth with that stuff believe me. (that's from a Dentist Friend)

Colloidal Silver will be the most valuable thing you could carry not only for bacterial and viral infections but for sterilizing water too.

Check it out and don't listen to the scare stories - there is only one true one and that's about a person that turned blue but they fail to tell you that he was drinking a half bottle per day and by the way states 'he's never felt so well' so make your own mind up.

I have checked the evidence and use it daily for brushing my teeth (no fluoride poison for me) and swallow 20mls daily - never catch a thing. Proven stuff!!!!

My Dog cost MEGA BUCKS for Ear infections over a long period of time - Sprayed the CS into her ears and problem was solved - never to return. I spray her ears and eyes once a month just to be sure. It works the same in humans too - sore throats/ear infections/infected wounds/ etc etc etc read up on it.

To may way of thinking - looking at first page of posts only - you guys are not thinking far enough ahead. But this is a great thread nonetheless.

Speaking of thread, needle and thread would be a great idea. As for tobacco, a couple of the big bags of pipe tobacco, and a pipe. Papers will soon get wet or run out and will bum you out as they disappear, and pipe tobacco is cheaper since it is not taxed as much. Not only that but if you take papers you run the chance of leaving a trail unless you field strip EVERY time you kill a butt.

Goldenseal Root works good as a weak anti-biotic and could let you avoid surrender in order to get an infection healed.

But I think the best thing you could have would be a couple of books on edible plants, especially if they have the uses of the plants listed out. Linda Runyon's is not bad, but it's also not what it is cracked up to be.

As for pain relief in the tooth area; clove oil is best, after that runs out try chewing the inner layer of some willow bark.

Ittabena

Colloidial Silver (250 ppm) - used as an ANTIBIOTIC CURE... for everything from gingivitis and viral infections to cancer and MRSA. It also purifies infected water.

reply to post by SevenBeans


Exactly!

What are all the " blind" going to do?

I have spare glasses and contacts, but for forever laser vision seems like the way.

reply to post by Q:1984A:1776


You list info on emp's but you are talking about an electronic device.

How long could an e-reader last in the bush, btw Batteries are heavy!

reply to post by generik

Wheat Seeds

reply to post by Talltexxxan


That was a harsh response, the post you responded to was relevant and a valid thing for anyone to need in the event of tshtf, knowledge and experience... irreplacable with all the tools of the world. The old nugget of wisdom is 'Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever' I could survive in the wild for a long time with nothing but the clothes on my back... because of what i know, how to light a fire(without getting horrendous blisters), how to gut a fish(with a sharp stone if needed), how to build a durable shelter from the elements. there is nothing you can pur in your b.o.b that will teach you these things.

Interesting though, it reminds me of the show 'The deadliest catch' one of the Fisherman named Russ who seems like a great bloke, he always wears some yellow tinted glasses, kind of like the tactical ones that wrap around your head so they dont come off, I always wondered why he wore those then i thought, wait a minute, he probably has to wear glasses, and you cant wear glasses on a crab boat, its extremely dangerous, and if they were to smash or anything he would have glass all up in his grill ! Hes literally the only one out of the hundreds of fishermen so it always baffled me, until i thought of this.

If your thinking about 'what if a branch stabs my face' as a survival situation then maybe you are over thinking survival. I can think of so many survival situations, but never have i thought that i must get some safety glasses in case i run in a forest and get stabbed in the eye with a stick hahaha. Maybe i should pack an extra set of treads incase i slip on a banana?