Survival Tips For the Apocalypse

[Kal'Narred]

Ok, here’s your chance to share survival tips. Don’t worry if you think your tip may be obvious, we’re all friends here and some people might not have thought about it. Example, the best item for dispatching Zombies etc.

[Kal'Narred]

Ok here’s one from me and it’s probably an obvious one.

If you have anywhere for storage, each time you do your shopping buy just one thing that can be stored for a few years: cheap dried noodles (or rice or pasta), tinned food etc. When in doubt check the use by date, most tinned food can be kept for at least a year.

Also toiletries, toilet paper

[Vaddix]

So i guess i came late cause all of Derek's post's are gone. Not sure what happened but im glad i came after all the drama.

I for one will we embracing Armageddon with open arms. Though if by some miracle i do survive. I would like to help out best i can.

Rebuilding society. Farmers, Medics, Tradesmen will all be worth their weight in gold. Hopefully in this new world thought gold will not be assigned any value other than aesthetics.

I would suggest after tent city is done with focus more on the long term, Find ways to grow food anywhere you can, all year, indoors outdoors.

Renewable energy will get yall back on your feet, and its not as difficult to build as one would think.

 

Dont build anew, Build form debris if safety can allow it. Build smart in sustainable ways. From material to living systems withing the buildings. Id recommend Earthships as a good source of inspiration. Try to build like Jasque Fresco from the venus project would.

[Kal'Narred]

I for one am a little disappointed the drama is over, cos I was just about to get my teeth in, well maybe next time lol. Good ideas guys, we'll certainly have plenty of plastic bags P. In fact we could probably be the galaxies no 1 plastic bag provider lol "Come to Earth For all your Plastic Bag Needs".

I'm going to see if I can build a wind generator this summer using a car alternator. Loads of people have done it already so I should probably be ably to get lots of tips.

[JohnR]

Did anyone do what we did 11 or so years ago and prepare for Y2K?  I think it's funny that everyone I know says they knew all along that nothing would happen.  I look at it as great practice, and learned some interesting things from the experience.  We live on a farm, and I found that nearly everything I bought was usable even though the world kept turning.  I bought a small generator, 250 gallon elevated fuel tanks, extra food, and four sheep to store meat "on the hoof."  I feel really lucky to be living on a farm right now, and just have to think about what will happen when people come to us escaping from the cities.  We might have to form a community right on the farm.

But my point is, that aside from Ramen noodles, who's flimsy packaging fell apart and the food was invaded by worms of some kind, everything I bought or acquired was useful to me.   It assured me that preparation could be fun, and that with the right attitude, I can avoid in participating in the manifestation of "disaster".  I think it's safe to say that we all want the shift, and if the apocalypse is the only thing that will bring it, then we will welcome it and prepare for it.  But the shift is the thing, isn't it?

Right now, I am sharpening my gardening skills, like PaTriciaT, and will teach myself to can vegetables this fall.  Simple electronics and soldering seems to be an impulse for me as well.

[Kal'Narred]

Welcome to disaster plan John Rehorn. I was thinking about that myself just the other day about Y2K and how loads of people went a bit mental. But I’m glad you found use for everything you acquired.

I agree, a shift would be welcomed from me also. In fact the human race needs a good kick up the arse in my opinion.

Even if the worst doesn’t happen, just as a social experiment, it would be interesting to see how most of us would survive without infrastructure, electricity, running water, a sewage system, supermarkets and all the other crap that we don’t really need anyway.

A disaster, like a massive solar flair knocking out all technology and destroying all micro-processors, would have a catastrophic affect. I care for my elderly parents and do shopping for my brother who has Multiple Sclerosis and I dread to think of how it would effect them and how much harder my life would be looking after them in that situation, but as a race we need to realise that our complacency is totally destructive and that we need to grow, evolve and stop being spoiled children.

[JohnR]

Thank you, Kal'Narred.  I'm enjoying this group.

 

I am talking to my friends and neighbors and find that a lot of them, regardless of their connection to the communication that's coming in from the "ethers" for lack of a better word, are sensing just what we are talking about.  It's come to my reckoning that our most important skill will lie in our ability to form community.  Your situation of caring for your parents, Kal'Narred, and your brother will force you to be interdependent with others. I cannot begin to stress how important this skill, above almost all others, will be (if the shit hits the fan).

 

The "low frequency" people among us may have excellent survival skills.  When facing a threat, they may not hesitate to pull a trigger or thrust a knife.  I've witnessed this in my community, and it gave me pause, because being honest with myself, I would hesitate to hurt another human being.  I wouldn't want to survive at any cost. On the other hand, I would want to have these "lower frequency" people on my side, rather than against me.

 

I know this is morbid, but I've often thought that desperate human beings will most challenge our survival skills. On the bright side, as you wrote, Kal'narred, we actually are growing, evolving (the awakened ones) and we can help build a community based on collaboration, not competition.  On love, not fear.  I highly recommend the book "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.  Is there anybody out there who has read "The Velvet Monkey Wrench" by John Muir?

(not that John Muir, another one)

 

P.S. I intend no offense by the use of my words.  Sometimes it's hard to find the right words that accurately describe my meaning.

 

[Kal'Narred]

Your words mirror my thoughts JohnR and you have incite.

Don't worry about speaking your mind here, as long as you don't mock anyone or purely poke holes in their point of view without being constructive, however I doubt that you would.

 

If the worst happens, we will see dark days and we probably will have to make hard decisions and do things that we don't want on our conscience, if not for our own survival then for the survival of those who depend upon us. As long as we keep hold the distinction between what is necessary and what isn't.

If we ever need to defend our community from those who would take by force, as long as we remember who we are deep down and are brutally honest with ourselves as well as others then we won't become like them. Our history if full of people who commit genocide with apparently good intentions, it is happening now, it’s something we must never forget.

We must all have faith that we'll come out of the darkness and build a world of light, where no one is a slave and the word human is not synonymous with sheep.

 

Ok I’m going to stop waffling now, once I start it’s hard to stop, I’m like the energiser bunny of waffle.

[JohnR]

Here, here to TriciaT on your observations on Kal'Nareed.  I second them.

On the marauders, don't get me wrong, I'm capable of swift action if someone were to threaten me or my loved ones. But what if I caught someone stealing from my garden? That might threaten my long term survival, but on the other hand, this guy could be starving.  If there was a community, we could disallow his stealing, but at the same time get him well fed and strong enough to turn up another patch of ground for more food.  You know what I mean?  Tough love.

I don't have kids, and under the scenario we're talking about, I'd be glad I didn't.  Parents will have a completely different and maybe more hardcore viewpoint than I.  Do you two know of the old song, "John Henry Bosworth" written by Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mory many years ago?  In it, he sings of just what we're talking about.  He escapes to the country and prepares so well that when people come knocking at his door, he sings, "Open the door, he cried. Let the brothers and the sisters inside.  We've got everything to give now, and nothing left to hide." Sappy and Utopian, but it's playing in my head these days.

Hehe, Kal'Narred your post just came in while I was writing.  Over in the states, "waffling" is what an ambivalent person does.  "Wishy-washy".  You seem far from that, so I take it that to waffle means something else entirely in Scotland.  I agree with you completely.  I use a technique called "journeying", and it can sometimes help to experience a possible future event on the inner levels.  I think I'll journey to a scenario of righteous warrior and find that place in myself.

More later, thanks for this great convo..

[Kal'Narred]

I would happily support and defend a community with either of you and I’d trust both of you to have my back. I hope that when the time comes the people in your own communities listen to your council because you just might keep them alive. Both of you are pragmatic levelheaded and wise and would be valued and respected in any community.

 

By the way John, I'm so jealous of your farm, I would love to have at the very least a small holding, raise some chickens, a goat and some moo-moo’s. Mind you if I had animals I'd probably name them and I don't know if I could kill and eat something I’ve named.

[JohnR]

Thank you, Kal. We could make an awesome community.

I read your last sentence to my wife, and she laughed.  Those are her sentiments exactly.  

[JohnR]

My ancestral land as well TriciaT.  I'm Scots-Irish on my paternal grandmother's side.  I didn't know what that meant, Scots-Irish, and assumed my grandmother was just lumping two peoples together.  Then a Scottish gentleman at a bar informed me of the Highland Clearings and my ancestral lineage.

It's funny, our remaining Y2K sheep is now about 13 years old.  She's on her last legs, literally.  But she's had a good life, and yes, we named all three and wouldn't have dreamed of eating any except under the direst of circumstances. We lost two of the original "herd" to mountain lions, and we've replaced them with ewes who are getting old in their own right.  We shear them and send the wool to be processed, then I'll spin it or sell it online as roving.

Here's to the thought that your chickens will live long, happy lives and die at a ripe old age of natural causes.

Oh, by the way, I watched an amazing movie last night.  It was called "Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole."  Besides being amazingly animated and absolutely visually stunning, it was foreshadowing and symbolizing exactly what we're talking about, depicting the difference between love and fear, collaboration and competition, bondage and freedom.  I highly recommend it to both of you.  I'd like to hear what my friends of light have to say about it.