survival tips thread

The 'SHTF' scenario would be a mess.
Most Americans don't have the basic skills to survive..i.e. farming, metal and wood working, animal husbantry, build a house, security, etc..etc.

Then there is the problem of going from 2013 to 1880 in a week.

Most things we take for granted is depended on the 'grid'.
Power, communications, security, medicine, etc.
The little electrical outlet is the only thing holding society together.

No gas for farm tractors to plow, plant and harvest.
No medicine.
No antibiotics. A simple cut could be serious or even life threatening.

No running water on most farms (pumps are electric in most places.).
Some farms would be abandoned if they have deep wells or far away from irrigation canals.
No way to get the water to the surface without a generator. (fuel problem.)
Crops that were planted would die for lack of water.

Settlements would have to live near rivers or streams and find a way to irrigate.

Then there is a water purification problem.
For crops not a big problem, but for drinking water, it has to be purified. (Cystes, parasites etc..no antibiotics or medicine available if someone gets sick.)

Shop gear like lathes, mills, table saws, skill saws, arc welders etc. to keep the farm or settlement in repair, that runs on electric, are now expensive boat anchors unless run on a generator..(fuel problem yet again.)
All the farming will done by hand which, with even a small community to feed, would be a full time job provided there was enough able bodied people to do it.
Even 'if' one could find a mule or a horse, how many know how to harness and plow with them or care for them?

That's providing there is time to plow, plant and harvest and enough food to last until the first harvest without interruption.
How do they perserve the food?
How many people now a days have the skill to can, jerk meat or smoke meat?

I suppose one could make power with solar or wind.
But where do they find the solar panels?. I suppose they could look for parts for an energy system.
Do they end up 'foraging' also for the parts?; another name for looting?
And what happens when one 'foraging' group, runs into another 'foraging' group (they won't be the only ones out there looking for the same things..) or a group defending their own assets?

Then there is the problem of security.
Everybody will be spreading out foraging and no matter how isolated the farm or settlement is, it will be found sooner or later.
Farms and settlements would have a big sign on them that says 'Loot Me'.
As one poster pointed out in 'Lucifer's Hammer'..many of the looters and threats came from trained cadre.
How many people have the training and skills to address security?

Then they will need people to repair what they have. Metal workers, blacksmiths, woodworkers, leather workers etc.

How do they heat the home? Wood..no chainsaws, more work by hand.

How do they have light?
Candles?..How many people know how to make a candle? What materials are readily available in that scenario to make a candle?
Lanterns?..Fuel yet again.

I suppose one could make fuel, but how many people have that knowledge?
Even with the knowledge, they will need people with the knowledge and the tools to fabricate with the materials they can find.

A thing as simple as a nail we take for granted to build something would be important.
Blacksmiths made nails, but where do you find a blacksmith in such a scenario?

'Wanted: Blacksmith to make nails. Will trade two jars of honey for box of nails. Contact Apocolyse Farms at coordinates 7120 on your GPS."

Of course, the blacksmith's batteries have run out in his GPS.

Did I say back to 1880?
I meant 1840..

I never worry about a WTSHTF scenario . Except in a Mad Max movie when would you see a total break down of all social connections. A more likely situation to prepare for would be a worldwide down turn of the economy making prices go up drastically , getting lost in the woods or desert , or local weather disasters. We had an ice storm in 09 which left us without power or running water for two weeks. Gasoline initially was commandered for emergency and police vehicles . Food and water were gone off the store shelves day one , Kerosene heaters and gas generators were bought out and were available only 100 miles south of the storms path . We were stuck because trees down blocked every exit out and of course ice made travel impossible. Did this situation require AR-15s and militia training . No! We got out chain saws and I was still burning the wood through this winter. I was trying to get to work at the local hospital and slid off the road onto a strangers front lawn . I was trying to figure out how to get out when the feeble older woman who owned the land poked her head out the door and asked if I would like some breakfast . Then she woke up her son who got out the fourwheeled farm vehicle and helped pull me to the gravel. A fellow nurse invited us to stay at their home - they had natural gas heat - so we would'nt have to burn so much gasoline going back and forth. The community really pulled together. The hospital had no generator - the old one blew - and a baby was delivered with flash light . We formed a bucket brigade to get meals from the kitchen to the patients. I say strong community bonds , a little know how , Victory gardens , fostering local economy , a few basic tools , and all will be well in the end.

ok this may be a silly tip but as the person planing a food forest with some livestock. when i think survival i think how will I decontaminate my rain water supply and how to build the house in such a way that if a dormant fault line decides to get undormant my house will survive a mild to moderate earth quake and how do i protect my solar and wind power system in case of an emp. not sure why it would happen but those are my worse case thoughts as the place is already being designed for the normal disasters that can hit we are cash flowing it so the employment disaster is taken care of. I know what it is like to get stuck with out a way to the store for a few months at a time so I am trying to plan our food forest to not only provide food for a season but enough to last through the next. it may not happen with all foods. having milk and wool on the hoof and walking egg and meat factories is also in the plan. so now our family has started talking about not what we need to survive but what we need to thrive. what comfort foods do we want that we can't grow. what books and other pieces of entertainment would we want for a long snowed in period of time. I watch survival things and i think oh that's great you have food and water but what about entertainment. books boardgames maybe a solar powered cd player. How are you planing on warming up that food you have stored. the most likely survival thing your average american will face is job lose. then comes the natural disasters like tornado, flood fire, hurricane and disses. then come the unlikely ones like pandemics, government collasp and nuclear war.

having been brought up in a city(I left 15 years ago) and having to "watch my back" my main problem is trust-or. rather a lack of trust. I stick to the old prepper mantra " if you don't know them, haven't worked with them, then don't trust them".

Before all I do hope that there would be no need for nude survival on massive scale and on longer term.But if it ever comes to us ,on massive scale and long time period, will survive those who move far away from dense populated areas.Then survival skills are only what can save individual and his family.Ancestral skills ,where is excluded anny form of help by means of technologicall gadgets as fire arms and so on are.will be crucial.Good hunting knife,axe and know how how to survive in wilderness is only what will count.If you need shelter you will make shelter,if you need Atlatl or Bow you will make it.If you decide to hunting in one area longer time you will make more permanent shelter,and so on.If ever happens colapse of civilisied way of organised life in community natural tendence after initial period in which disater happend will be aglomearting of survivors in spots where will be abundance of natural resources for many people.Life in community is only what can guarantie survival to individual and his family in fact.Because one can survive in nude nature for how long time?Danger from macro world can be at some extent handled by knowledge which one posess.But when we start reasoning microscopic world of nature,viruses and bacteria..there is no hope on longer term for individual and his family.You simply die despite all of your knowledge.We depend on medicine and pharmacy.or we must accept average life time of anscient people.I would like to hear from people what people really on realistic base think upon survival of individual or his family on longer terms of time in pure nature?Sorry for bad written English.I am from EU and my written English is kind of bad English.

having grown up in and lived all of my life except for the past 6 years in BIG cities, living in the country lets me sleep better at night. We are so deep in the woods, that we're pretty safe vs URBAN mayhem. It is the norm in this part of southern VA, to "can" more than enough for the winter and by this time of year, the freezer is full. I got nervous when the national grid was being pinged for kicks and that is my fear - NO POWER= no fuel = serious problems in urban USA so odds are good friends and kids will be coming "home" which is why they fill up their car long before it hit 1/2 full. Since we are in the habit of having almost a year's worth of food on shelves in the basement (like the amish) & in the freezer we expanded to add dry milk (no goats or cows) grain, honey in 5 gallon cans as well as hand mills, old time coffee percolator, expanded our cast iron cookware to include dutch oven etc. We have a 2500 gallon potable water tank as well as springs and creeks. I keep 10 jugs of vinegar, plenty of bleach, extra clothes pins, solar handheld lights as well as many many boxes of wooden matches. We've spent 6 years slowly adding to our arsenal - a couple weeks ago, we expanded to include plenty of body powder, boxes of baking soda & tooth brushes & personal comfort items. I froze slices of oranges (being thrown out by a local market) to add to vinegar to make cleaners, already use a carpet sweeper rather than a vacuum. Should TSHTF, things will be stressful enough and for me being able to maintain some sense of normalcy is important. THANK you for the butter churn washing pail - love that one.

Josh Johann wrote:The 'SHTF' scenario would be a mess.

'Wanted: Blacksmith to make nails. Will trade two jars of honey for box of nails. Contact Apocolyse Farms at coordinates 7120 on your GPS."

Of course, the blacksmith's batteries have run out in his GPS.

Hey Josh - I'm married to a blacksmith and I promise you - they don't own a GPS