It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

I am completely unprepared... Help me figure out what to get...

page: 1
4
<<   2 >>

log in

join
share:

posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 02:58 PM
link   
I am pretty much completely unprepared beyond a few weeks of canned goods. I live on 3 acres of land, 2 of which are somewhat cleared with trees in Northwest, Florida. I have a neighbor that is about 300 feet from my home visible, and another about 300 feet through the woods no visible. Both are rednecks with many weapons and dogs. I have a 300ft freshwater well with an electric pump. The structure is an older house, stick built, vinyl. I have no weapons, or medical, or survival equipment with only a few weeks of food and water.

I have 3 adults in my household (1 male, 2 females) and 1 infant.

I want to get prepared. Please tell me what things I should buy first and so on, as i want to do everything i can to prepare and have some cash saved up to do so.

Maybe it is too late, but I'd like to at least try...
edit on 23-1-2012 by DJM8507 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:04 PM
link   
Like your signature says, "It doesn't matter" - just enjoy life as anything at any moment can kill you. Get some canned food, water, first aide kit then go back to normal life, hoarding goods to preparing for something that might or might not happen is useless.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:04 PM
link   
Florida? You're gonna need a boat, hot air balloon, and/or some scuba gear with O2 tanks.

Worst case scenario... we are all incinerated, to which no preparations will do much good.
Best case scenario... the coastlines are flooded out and the proper gear should handle your needs.

Those are my "theories" of course.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:05 PM
link   
Bake some cookies or bread, and take them over to your neighbors on both side. Get to know them. Sounds like they *might* be good allies if it came to that.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:05 PM
link   
Well aside from specific goods, I would suggest looking into getting a manual hand pump for your well. Having that on your property puts you several steps ahead of the game should things go south but it wont amount to a can of beans if the electricity goes south with it; generators only last for so long.

Never underestimate the power of good old fashioned elbow grease.

Edit:

Bake some cookies or bread, and take them over to your neighbors on both side. Get to know them. Sounds like they *might* be good allies if it came to that.


Sounds like an excellent idea!


edit on 23-1-2012 by clowdstalker because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:09 PM
link   
reply to post by DJM8507
 


Hello!

I'm confused... I get that you wanna get prepared. Now my question is: prepared for........

.........

.........

what exactly?



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:09 PM
link   
reply to post by DJM8507
 


1. It's never too late. I don't know what's happening in northern Florida, but nothing is happening in MO.
2. I wouldn't focus on weapons. You can't treat a head wound with a gun.
3. You need to have extensive first aid, including medications, for everyone in the house.
4. If your infant isn't potty trained, a stash of appropriate diapers, cream, wipes and small size garbage bags are essential.
5. Fresh water rotated on a schedule.

Remember, you're not fighting WWIII in your yard. You need to consider this first and foremost a disaster survival kit and not "shoot 'em up/Mad Max" preperation.

If you've ever primitive camped, this is pretty close to that. Prepare for no electricity, water, or fresh food for a week. That will get you started.

You might also consider a Glock.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:20 PM
link   
reply to post by paulorf86
 

Exactly. If you don't know what you're preparing for, then how would you know how to prepare?

Why not start with the obvious things that might go wrong for your area? Hurricanes? What would you ideally need to survive that?

And any time you make a step toward getting away from eating GM food or depending on running to the store every 10 seconds for stuff you need is a nice start. Maybe start and USE a food pantry? But only stuff you eat on sale and stock only what you will use before the expiration date. Then, you save a ton of money.

Learn how to start a garden and grow stuff that does well in your climate. Again, that's going to get you better food as well as help make you more self-reliant.

And, yeah, make friends with your neighbors.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:20 PM
link   
reply to post by DJM8507
 


My end-game prep is a bag of stash, a bottle of good wine, and two bullets. Go with that unless you think life will get better. I'm not crawling into a hole or heading for the hills or buying a ton of food that will only extend the inevitable.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:37 PM
link   
reply to post by DJM8507
 


Make some grow beds and grow some vegetables. Try and get stuff that grows all year round. You dont have to make massive beds. Recycle all your compost and stuff and have some compost beds. Make yourself a large pond and stock it with fish. The water from a pond is rich in nutrients and can feed your vegetables. Grow herbs too and learn and keep some of the basic medicinal ones. Collect and keep a seed stash too.

Make reserves and learn how which vegtables you can store and use. Make preserves and stuff too. Make a smoker, its good way of curing food...

Learn how to catch game even if its just birds and fish they are easy. Plant yourself an acre of high biomass woodlands. Willow works well in scotland for example. It is a good source of fuel. You can coppice it. Its not hard to take cuttings for trees. Not an expensive job. Nice little bonus willows are a natural source of Asprin.

Have yourself a good range of tools. Garden stuff and indoor stuff. It is a good idea to have some old fashioned ones too. The pre electric stuff. Keep a good range of stuff for doing jobs. Build yourself an open fire or put a water baked stove in. They are nice to have and you can warm the water without electricity if you do them right.


Know your area and make sure you have access somewhere to a spring. Look on maps if you cant find one. Fresh water is essential im lucky theres three springs near me

Just a few ideas. some of the stuff iv done. Im sure i missed lots.
Have fun


Ox

posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:37 PM
link   
reply to post by DJM8507
 


For the sake of a quick reply, I'd say two large packs (one each for two adults) and a carrier (preferrably backpack or front pack for the 3rd adult) for the infant. Enough food (freeze dried, canned) for the adults and infant for at least a week, diapers if not potty trained, a quick shelter, first aid kit, something to keep the child entertained IE: Favorite toy etc (this is more important than you may think). You need also a PLAN, most prepared people (or the ones who think they are at least skip this step and move on the fly) have a plan, think of a safe location and find a route to it, do a dry run if you need to. You'll need lighting, a fire source, a heat source. There are plenty of great sources out there if you google "Bug out bag supplies" etc.
I use my old ALICE pack, you can find them on ebay rather cheaply, they're sturdy, comfortable and well worth it.
Check out the survival forum as well.. great source.
Hope this helps.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:38 PM
link   
reply to post by DJM8507
 


check out zorgons solution
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Aquaponics


interested in aquaponics? Go here to grow up to 10 times the plants, in half the time, while the "fish" do all the work! thelocalwebsolution.com... -End of Ad See below.

Growing power seems to have a winning combo going. I underestimated what they are doing. Based on the information in these videos, IF true, then on 3 acres they are producing 1,000,000 pounds of food each year! How are they doing this? Well, based on the information given in the video...

10,000 fish
300-500 yards worm compost
3 acres of land in green houses
Grow all year using heat from compost piles.
Using vertical space

A packed greenhouse produces a crop value of $5 Square Foot! ($200,000/acre).

Now, just to be clear I am not growing power or will allen. Also, a pound of plant or fish product is not the same thing as eatable food unless you process all parts of them for food. i.e. eating the fish bones and using plant stalks in stews. Generally, nations that are well fed throw away most of the plant and eat only the best parts thus lowing the yield of food.

Growing power depends on and runs on the HUGE amounts of compost they make from food waste that is taken from the city. With out this compost there would be no heat for the greenhouses and no fuel for the plants to grow. Its a great thing to divert this from the landfill and provide cheap food for the community.

My personal experience is that growing 7 pounds of food per square foot in a year is not that hard to do especially if you grow year around. You have to select plants that produce a lot of food in a small space which means you may not get a nutritionally complete diet if thats all you grow. Also layering of growth to use all space is important.

I personally use a 12 foot round pond 2.5 feet deep to grow 300+ pounds of fish in an aquaponic system and the bulk of my produce is grow using the biointensive method, in the ground, which is watered from the nitrogen rich fish water. My typical yield is between 6 and 9 pounds of food per square foot per year. This does require that I grow over winter which most people do not do. I find that growing in fall and winter months I actually get more production over fall and winter because there is NO bug problems! The crops do mature much slower, but they will mature! Think of it this way, the standard planted row may have 2 or 3 rows of veggies. Bio intensive will plant 12 rows; thats already 4 times the produce. Now add in onions, for example, that grow vertically above sweet potato vines, this increases production a lot. Now add to that 4 harvest per year vs the standard one season growing season. Now you have X4 more productivity. This brings us to X4X4 or 16 times the productivity of the standard growing methods. If you add to that hanging pot or what ever to add more growing space you have again increased productivity again. I personally have not used vertical space in that way. An snap shot of my experience is growing one sweat potato per 1.5' x 1.5' area (2.25 square feet) this one plant produces on average 12 pounds of root per plant and in that space I grow 4 to 6 leeks adding a pond of produce. Now, the vines grow all over the place, and I tie some up, are not confined to that 2.25 square feet of soil space. From each plant you can easily average 3 pounds of eatable leaves as you pick them over the growing season. At this point alone I am averaging 16 pounds of eatable food in 2.25 square feet or 16/2.5=7 pounds of food per square foot. Now that is in ONE GROWING SEASON. As I also grow fava beans, wheat, and fodder greens for two more seasons so my yelid is averaging 8 to 10 pounds in a year. IF I did this on 3 acres of growing space, excluding foot paths and green house walls ect then my production would be 8 pounds per square foot * 43560 feet acre * 3 = 1,045,440 pounds of food. It is possible to get even more by choosing the right crops and getting 4 harvest per year. I have settled on 4000 square feet of growing space per person for providing pretty much all the food a person needs. I suggest anyone starting this start with a very small garden and do it well. Something like a 5' by 20' growing bed would be the most you would start with.

SUGGESTED READING:
backyardaquaponics [dot] com/forum
Food Now by bountiful gardens
One Mexican Diet by bountiful gardens
Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman
Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman


and get together with your neighbors Now! post SHTF, will be too late, if they don't know you from a looter...

edit on 23-1-2012 by DerepentLEstranger because: added edit and comment

edit on 23-1-2012 by DerepentLEstranger because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:43 PM
link   

www.amazon.com...
Because you never know...
edit on 1/23/2012 by this_is_who_we_are because: typo



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:45 PM
link   
Get a few guns and lots of ammo, so you can take whatever you need from others when it's time.



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:47 PM
link   
reply to post by strato
 


you will wind up looking like your avy
with that attitude.

a case of life imitating art indeed


Ox

posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 03:55 PM
link   
reply to post by strato
 


Not the best advice. You never know who's path you'll cross. With that attitude, if you crossed this Marine's path trying to take what's mine, I'd skin you and use you as a warning to others



posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 04:49 PM
link   
Beat me to it, but, yes, aquaponics for TSHTF ! Free, natural, organic food. Forever. No pesticides or other petrochemicals involved. No need for any money. And you don't have to wait for TS to HTF, you can start enjoying free food now!

And a manual pump for the well. For sure.

And getting to know the neighbors? Number one, absolutely.




posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 05:08 PM
link   
reply to post by CaptChaos
 


hey the more the merrier

for those interested in unplugging from the matrix

www.kickstarter.com...



Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters building the Global Village Construction Set - a modular, DIY, low-cost, open source, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different industrial machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.

The aim of the GVCS is to lower the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing. Its a life-size lego set that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, or in the developing world.

So Far we’ve prototyped 8 of the 50 Machines and we’ve been expanding rapidly. We are 100% crowd-funded. We have 400 True Fans that support our work monthly.



www.miiu.org...

Welcome to MiiU ("me:you")

MiiU is the resilient community wiki. A resilient community is a place that produces most of what it needs locally and connects virtually for everything else. That means it is nearly immune to many of the negative effects of disasters and global breakdowns.

MiiU is a collection of all the resources and places that make personal, family, and community resilience possible. Resilience isn't only about surviving global failures, it's about building a better life for you and everyone around you.




posted on Jan, 23 2012 @ 07:54 PM
link   

Originally posted by DJM8507
I am pretty much completely unprepared beyond a few weeks of canned goods. I live on 3 acres of land, 2 of which are somewhat cleared with trees in Northwest, Florida. I have a neighbor that is about 300 feet from my home visible, and another about 300 feet through the woods no visible. Both are rednecks with many weapons and dogs. I have a 300ft freshwater well with an electric pump. The structure is an older house, stick built, vinyl. I have no weapons, or medical, or survival equipment with only a few weeks of food and water.

I have 3 adults in my household (1 male, 2 females) and 1 infant.

I want to get prepared. Please tell me what things I should buy first and so on, as i want to do everything i can to prepare and have some cash saved up to do so.

Maybe it is too late, but I'd like to at least try...
edit on 23-1-2012 by DJM8507 because: (no reason given)



Your gonna need a Knife for definite, one of the most important survival tools ever created.
I suggest a "puukko". it is the perfect survival knife:


You might also want to invest in FireSteels:


Projectile weaponry and the skill to use will also be beneficial for hunting etc, If Your expecting the STHTF then I hope your not planning on surviving on tinned goods alone.
You should Buy books on edible plants too, maybe learn how to grow certain veggies too.
Fishing Rods/Equipment.

Lots of info here ---> SHTFPLAN.COM

Google "bushcraft" that will be a good source of survival knowledge to begin.

Also here is a few good sites/threads to get you started:

Wilderness Survival

Urban Survival

Martial Law Survival Guide

Coke Can and Choclate = Fire???

Multi Branch Survival Manual

Books:

How to Grow More Fruit/Veg?


John "Lofty" Wiseman wrote a book entitled SAS survival Guide, If you can find an online E-Book I recommend it. Or alternatively buy it from Amazon or something.

Acquire as much knowledge as possible on Survival and what can and can't be used in any given situation.
And remember that being able to think Quickly and with a cool head is probably the best advice anyone can give you.

Good Luck.

- CD



posted on Jan, 24 2012 @ 12:56 AM
link   
reply to post by WickettheRabbit
 


You said,

I wouldn't focus on weapons. You can't treat a head wound with a gun.

And it is hard to argue with this fact, well unless you carry the same caliber and can use your own cartridges to plug your new bullet holes of course.


But, I propose that if one has a gun, they may take the possibility off the table of being shot.
Just like Mr. Miagi said, "Remember, best block, no be there."
Having a gun may give your possible attacker the idea, they should no be there!


So, while I would not make it the "focus point" I certainly would put it very high on my list.




top topics



 
4
<<   2 >>

log in

join