how prepared are you for a SHTF scenario

originally posted by: NorthOfStuff

originally posted by: MykeNukem

originally posted by: offensive
I mean how prepared can you really be ?

Im screwed if the S### hits the fan . I live in the suburbs of a big city , II have a generator but it hasnt been started in years and last time I tried wouldn't start
I Have one 5 gallon gas can about half full. My freezer is pretty well stocked but alot of good that does if we lose power. No fireplace or wood burning stove.

I have some canned goods but minimal lol. I couldnt start a fire without matches or a bic, I know nothing about gardening and growing food .

Never been a hunter dont even own a gun ATM. I could fish But Im no where near a lake or river.

I am just effed if the SHTF

Quite the pickle.

Yep, you're screwed. More because of laziness or apathy it sounds like than any other factor.

You could always just rebuild the gennie carb with a carb-kit, new gaskets, needles, seals, float/diaphragm, etc...but that doesn't sound like your style...

Sorry to say, your type will be prey. Not prey for my type, because I won't be anywhere near a city if SHTF.

Depends what SHTF means...it won't be like the movies...

IMO S has already HTF...matter of perspective I guess..

Hey Myke! We can meet up half way in Saskatchewan and pool our resources!!

As far as running a generator in a city, better only use it to power the fridge, freezer and furnace keeping the lights off and be prepared to defend it when others hear it running.

My plan is to get out of the city ASAP. We have a spot.

It will be ugly until the population thins out. The game around here won’t last long, same with farm animals.

I’m as ready as I can be but it’s going to be complicated and not very pleasant. The have nots will be on the hunt to provide for their families and their short sightedness will lead to desperation which will lead to violence.

It sounds like a cool movie until it actually happens. Then we’ll be wishing for the old days.

Life will get very very hard.

I'd have your back anytime bro, same with all the other patriots.

My mom lives in the city, and you'd be damned sure I'd be making some sort of crazy run to the city to break her out, lmao. I have other family members that live in or near the city too, but we're all rednecks...so they just gotta get outta there and they'll be fine.

Then, I have my wife and 2 boys (grown adults now and they'll wanna bring their girlfriends or whatever, lol), things can get very hairy quick when you're trying to all move together. Though, I've drilled it into their heads and they're ready, but may be a little shell shocked at the time, lol.

We have good communities, so I know we can count on that, at least.

a reply to: DerBeobachter

He sold me on a Huntsman. Good thing Victorinox hired him for public relations. They give him knives to give to the children in classes he gives on responsible knife use and crafting to children.

originally posted by: LSU2018
Y'all must be neighbors...

I certainly hope not!

On an unrelated note, did I mention that I moved to Peru recently?

And on another unrelated note, I read where cannibals say that humans taste like pork.


TCB

originally posted by: XipeTotex
Dont have electricity if something happens but thats the way she goes.

That reminds me - if we lose electricity, the first thing I'm going to do is to home can what meat I have in the freezer. That way it can last a long long time without needing electricity. Of course I wouldn't be able to use my electric stove to do it, and probably not my gas burners, but I have some little two-burner Coleman stoves with plenty of gas tanks. That'll heat up my pressure canners.

originally posted by: NorthOfStuff
It will be ugly until the population thins out.

So true. A lot of people go to the grocery store everyday and pick out what they're cooking for dinner. It shouldn't take very long for those people to starve and be out of the picture. I think after the first month or two, it'll keep getting easier and easier. If you have "skills" that is.

originally posted by: Ahabstar
Or if you have iPhone, 3D Knots App I’m sure Android has something as good.

I don't have a cell-phone, but if the electricity went out, I wouldn't be able to use it very long on the charge it had. What I do is to print out lists, techniques and other important things to know, punch holes in them, place them in those protective plastic sleeves and then into a 3-ring binder. It's my permanent reference source - custom made for my needs.

a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

Or buy the book as mention before that part. But learning knots now is better than in the thick of things. Also you can buy a solar charger, crank charger or other devices for power generation as you get back on your feet.

Not all situations are permanent. Take the earthquake in Turkey, very bad now and maybe as much as month down the road for survivors that lost everything. But things will get back to normal in time. So ditching equipment that is useless now isn’t always wise in the long run.

2-3 on a scale of 1 to 10 so pretty screwed, if the system pseudo holds together (power) my family is good for 6 months.

If it doesnt break till we are in our own place, I am good for a year.

When I say good I mean I wont have to go mad max to provide for them.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

We can't really expand our prep supplies because there are just two of us and it is hard to rotate an expansion of supplies. We buy to save money and work sales if they are good and buy like five of a can good so we keep them the best tasting...one year past best buy date on base foods and six months max on acid foods past that date. We rarely throw anything away because we only buy supplies to stock for foods we usually make and at a quantity of stores that reflect on that. We do it to save money because buying food and toilet paper and paper toweling at full price these days is way too expensive being we are on social security with just a small pension and some IRA savings and stocks that we do not touch. We try to live within our means and it is getting harder and harder.

If one of us does die, the other needs the savings to keep living in our home...both being on social security means income is cut way down if one of us dies. We have our budget to follow and part of that budget means we buy foods that are healthy versions, not much highly processed foods. But it keeps us from being sick and going to the doctors where they try to suck all of your money away like vampires.

Strange thing I did learn, if you choose healthier foods and more natural old recipes....you eat way less. If you eat all those flavor filled highly processed foods...even if they are good ingredients and you make them highly processed, you eat way more to be satisfied. I notice that a lot of people these days take perfectly good chicken and make it unhealthy in recipes by adding lots of stuff the recipes call for. So they eat way more since they made the food less bioavailable.

a reply to: MykeNukem

Reading that made me think how everyone has different situations to deal with and being prepared and having a plan is different for everyone.

I grew up in the country but my career has me locked into city life on the weekdays.

My mom and the rest of my side of the family still lives in the country but the wife’s side lives in Calgary. Mostly left wing without a care in the world about what could potentially go sideways.

Out of respect for my wife I’d have to do something but I suspect they’d resist and want to stay put.

With my life skills and experience in the bush along with my extensive gear I’d probably have a decent chance of making a go of it. It’s helping the extended family that would get me into a bad situation.

Most people I know have a plan that includes heading to the mountains. We’d go the other direction to our place out into the “flat” lands that aren’t really flat at all. They are full of coulees and ravines that hold tons of game and the area is way better for growing food. Also a good community, where people know and look out for each other.

I’m just hoping that it isn’t a slow burn to shyte hitting the fan and that whatever happens does so fairly quickly. I don’t want to have to deal with lockdowns and martial law until I get into position.

a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

Totally agree. Gear and provisions would get burned up very quickly helping everyone that needed it.

It would be a sad situation to be in, making hard decisions about who to help and who not to. Possibly coming down to having to defend yourself from them in order to ensure that there is enough to provide for friends and family.

Honest assessment, not being a Debbie Downer, based on my knowledge and experience in a total TEOTWAWKI I give myself optimistically 25%-33% chance of survival the first year with 15%-25% each year afterwards as a solo survivor.

In a group, odds become much better. 33%-50% year after year.

Weather is the number one enemy. Hypothermia, crop destruction, severe storms, heat, cold, drought, flood, wind, fire, snowfall crushing your shelter. I’ve slept in a semi rocked by high winds all weekend long. It was a little scary in a disconcerting way.

Illness and injury are killers too. Checking those traps if your are on crutches for six weeks? Deer and rabbits gonna eat your garden while getting over the flu?

Raiders? Possible. Hungry big dog wandering in is more likely. He won’t be afraid of you either because he used to be a pet. You can give him food or be food, he doesn’t care which.

a reply to: Ahabstar

Those deer eating my garden in the summer will taste pretty good. There are around seven deer that come around in the summer, I will shoot and process them in the early winter after things freeze and put them in an old freezer locked in an out building so they stay frozen.

I could survive, being I don't get badly sick very often...even with a sore back I can drag and process a deer.

I also know lots of edible plants and plants that are good medicine....my biggest problem is having enough western dressing and hidden valley ranch for all the salads I will be eating from the yard full of dandilions. Potatoes are easy to grow, and I like fishing too, we stock lots of salt usually to salt things if necessary, we stock a minimum of forty pounds of salt at all times just in case. Also, we have jars and lids and pectin in stock

We could survive for a year except tor milk and eggs if there was just the wife and I. I could get chickens too, to attract the foxes and coyotes to shoot to eat.

a reply to: rickymouse

Mayo is eggs and oil. Ranch is buttermilk and mayo with some herbs, so easier to make than wheat bread. As getting a bunch of people to thrash wheat by hand will be like pulling teeth. So cornmeal and acorn flour it is.

Water and shelter are first order then food. Trapping and fishing would be the most calorie conserving way to get nutrition off the land. Gathering at every opportunity rather than going out to forage would be the best way to add calories without expending them. You must study these things and practice it because everything you will need is out there.

As an example, I use a wood stove to heat with. I use about six cords of firewood a season and will purchase it or have that much by winter. Otherwise I'd go out and cut enough firewood for daily use, that is about two full wheelbarrows daily. Eventually I have gotten it down to doing about an hour or two of cutting on the weekends to supply the entire week with firewood for heating. Food and water could be similar activities if I needed to do that as well.

It will take lots of practice and practical application to get it down to the point where you just go out into the woods (rather than to a store in town) to get whatever it is you need. Having a garden is similar, you have to learn from experience, then after many years you could live off of your harvests. All these things are complicated processes, but you could do alright and have what you need to survive.

IMO though, nothing will match the satisfaction of smoking a pipe full of your own home grown tobacco and or cannabis while drinking home made beer, wine or moonshine and eating some venison jerky smoked with maple wood and cured with homemade maple syrup.

I mean how prepared can you really be ?

You can't.

You can't plan enough.

Stockpile enough.

or have everything covered that will arise.

Knowing when cut bait is something you'll need to do too.

a reply to: NorthOfStuff
It’s helping the extended family that would get me into a bad situation.

That's the only wild-card in my plan too.

Dragging around skin bags (family or not) that have ignored our warnings or even failed to prepare at all, won't be happening. Sounds harsh, but that's the way it is IMO.

Having a loose cannon, or even someone who is going to continuously whine about the circumstances can drag the whole thing down.

I know where you're talking about with the ravines and hollers, that sounds smart to avoid the "spot" (mountains) that everyone else is going to go.

I do think they are going to try to slow burn it along, but if they ever try to lock us down again, I suspect it won't be as pretty this time.

Stay safe, bro!

a reply to: DerBeobachter
Wanted even to start a carpentry apprenticeship because all of that but had to admit after two weeks that i have been out of school for far too long (30+ years now) and that the theoretical part would break my neck. I can´t see me sitting here and learning math again (after decades of only, exclusively using computers for calculating really everything).

You just need to know a bit of "bush carpentry".

If it doesn't fit, hit it...

If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot...

etc..

a reply to: MykeNukem

Having a loose cannon, or even someone who is going to continuously whine about the circumstances can drag the whole thing down.

That would be most children. Kids will get you killed!

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: MykeNukem

Having a loose cannon, or even someone who is going to continuously whine about the circumstances can drag the whole thing down.

That would be most children. Kids will get you killed!

Very real possibility, yes.

Of course, any parent or grandparent will gladly take that chance for their offspring.

Now, drunk uncle Ken that knocked the tree over last year....he's bear bait....you just have to out run uncle Ken...

Remember, if a bear is chasing your group, you only have to outrun the slowest person.