End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

[streaker69]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

I like the way you think. It's settled then. Next apocalypse we all head to Streaker's house.

Damn, I better stock up on scrapple.

Ok, I'm ready, found some recipes.

PEPPERS STUFFED WITH SCRAPPLE

1 1/2 lbs Scrapple
6 large green peppers
3 tbsp. chopped onion
1 c. cheese sauce

Cube and soften scrapple over low heat. Add onion. Cut thin slice from stem end of peppers. Remove seeds and plunge in boiling water 5 minutes. Drain and stuff with scrapple. Set peppers in muffin pans. Bake in moderate oven (350 deg. F.) 25 to 30 minutes. Top with cheese sauce. Serves 6.

APPLE-SCRAPPLE MEAL

4 MacIntosh apples, cored, sliced
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 lb. scrapple sliced.

Put layer of apple slices in 6 by 10-inch shallow baking dish. Add crumbs to butter. Mix and sprinkle half over apples. Put layer of scrapple over crumbs. Add remaining crumbs. Top with layer of scrapple and apple slices. Bake in moderate oven (350 deg. F) 30 minutes. Serves 4.

 
BAKED SCRAPPLE ALOHA

2 lbs scrapple
6 slices pineapple

Grease lightly shallow baking pan. Cut scrapple loaf in 6 two-inch pieces. Lay piece of scrapple over each slice of pineapple. Bake in 375 deg. F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until brown. Serve hot with chili sauce or ketchup. Serves 6.

SCRAPPLE HOTTIES

Cut 1/2 inch cubes of scrapple. Roll each cube in 1/2 of a strip of bacon. Fasten with toothpicks. Broil until crisp - about 6 inches away from heat.  Serve on toast squares

[artoir]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Man I'm hungry..

Ahem

I need to get my ass into gear and start making enough money to attend a Con asap (or get lucky have my employer send me). I hope by the time I make it something like this will have been implimented.

I think it could work well before or after the main event. If it was before, a talk could be done about how it went, what people learnt, what went wrong and what worked well. If it was after, it could be a low-tech, survivalist afterparty for those that still don't want to go home just yet (although I'm not sure if beer would be the first thing you would pack in the presence of an imminent disaster (maybe it would, who am I to judge)) where attendees could use the things that were talked about in the discussions while its still fresh in their heads.

[xor]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

I've got a recipe for chili that will make you wish that it was the end of the world

Actually I think the salad at last years Shmoocon had the same effect.

xor

PS Don't eat the Shmoocon salad.

[BackatchaBandit]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Actually during hard times like the ones mentioned above family and extended family are you best options for survival. The old safety in numbers. Plus when it comes to manual labor the more the merrier. It's an everyone has to pitch in scenario.

Dimitri Orlov would agree - I guess he'd have a better idea than most.

Maybe it's time to start a local cult of your own?

At least pay a little attention to what John Robb's saying.

[valkyrie]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Dimitri Orlov would agree - I guess he'd have a better idea than most.

Maybe it's time to start a local cult of your own?

At least pay a little attention to what John Robb's saying.

My survival bag is already packed. things to start fire, water purifier, crampons, silk under stuff to keep me warm. Oh, yes and several guns and knives to hurt you should you wish to take my stuff. I am acquainted about what I can and cannot eat regarding plant life.
I am a Woofer and maintain that cert. The only thing I cannot figure out is how to fit my pink pumps into my survival kit.

Who wants to go out and play? I am so there...

Regards

valkyrie
__________________________________________________ ____________
sapere aude

[BackatchaBandit]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Someone once made the observation that "Safe is anywhere a hungry person can't walk in three days..."

Even living where I do - about as far from 'major' population centres as I could get - that's not really an option. When I first moved here (from the capital), I had this notion that I would put together resilient systems, thereby insulating myself from the systemic failures our hyper-complex, over-optimised energy junkie modes of existence make inevitable.

I embraced permaculture, renewable energy, anything that might assist my 'independence'.

I was working the veg plot one afternoon, when it struck me how indefensible that piece of ground was. Maybe I could convince the first 'invader' of the rationality of letting that particular lettuce go to seed so as I have something to plant next year, but what about the other 20,000 angry, hungry people who come wandering up the hill in the days and weeks after the last truck showed up at Asda [Walmart] and the shelves went bare, having cast off their 'primary loyalty' to social convention in favour of whatever might just, for a while, silence the hungry cries of their children?

So how much razor-wire should I buy? More to the point, How many rounds of ammunition?

A few years ago, I was drinking late one cold February night with an old friend, a smallholder and director of an organisation devoted to developing sustainable infrastructure - like myself, a 'numbers man' (as in 'show me the data') - we were talking about the way of things, where we were headed.

Expecting a breakdown of the potentials of various renewable technologies, etc., I asked him what he thought the 'answer' was.

"A bottle of whisky and a shotgun", he laughed, but only half joking.

A little uncertain, I then asked him the question I'd once asked myself, in italics above. He thought for a few moments, then soberly replied: "Count your loved ones, then add one".

A couple of days later I learned that the Duke of Gonzo had only needed the one, being on the phone to his wife at the time.

'Big Dark Coming Soon', he'd once written.

I think we stand together, or not at all. To merely 'survive' is not to live.

Despite all that, though, I'm sure I'm not the only one here who in some way looks forward to a day when those of us who know how to take things to bits and re-purpose them for useful ends, or those of us who know how things work and how to fix them when they don't, are deemed to be of more social value than those who merely know how to rob other people and not get caught.

<click-clack>

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Wow...

Best. Unexpected. Post. Evar.

... seriously, that just made my morning and will turn this day into an entire exercise in existential thought and theatrical sentence structure for me. I am so buying you a beer or something whenever we cross paths.

"A bottle of whisky and a shotgun", he laughed, but only half joking.

that reminds me of one of my favorite lines from a play...

Give me a bottle of bourbon and half a chicken and I'll conquer the world.

in my case, you totally know it could be true. who's with me?

[noid]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

All this talk of survival and preparedness and no mention of Cody Lundin. The guy is a badass, lives off-grid and has for a long time. He has a great book called When All Hell Breaks Loose. Good stuff. I also saw that several people mentioned '5 Acres and Independence', the 'Encyclopedia of Country Living', and the 'SAS Survival Handbook', all of those are good books. In my kit I also keep an old, tattered, copy of the Boy Scout Handbook. Right there in my bag next to my handgun and my steel hockey mask.

I have video of my presentation I gave at DC206 last year on disaster preparedness, I'll torrent it up and put a link out there. In the meantime, here's my slides

[BackatchaBandit]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

..theatrical sentence structure...

Erm... I can't help it, I'm English. Instead of the drink, would you take me up to the range for an hour? We're not allowed 'boomsticks' here other than .22 bunny-fuckers and 12-bores for the pheasants. <--- ['stiff upper lip' smiley]

Cheers for the heads-up on Dick Proenneke, BTW - That film was beautiful. Reminded me of H. D. Thoreau's Walden (audiobook up on Librivox - good for a long drive).

I have video of my presentation I gave at DC206 last year on disaster preparedness, I'll torrent it up and put a link out there. In the meantime, here's my slides

I'd appreciate that. Looks good. LEO's might be 'jumpy'? I'm not completely sure you'd even be able to find one...

I don't know if Thorn has a take on it, but I remember reading somewhere in an account of the shit/fan interaction in (IIRC) Argentina about when things get pretty bad the ranks get somewhat diminished, as the natural human desire to assure the safety of ones family overrides the promise of a paycheque (that may well bounce, anyway). 'Primary loyalties', again.

An acquaintance, ex force and firearms-trained (not such a common thing here, especially back then), was recounting how, back in the cold-war days, they used to get rotated on a duty standing around for a few weeks under a damp field somewhere clutching an MP-5, supposedly guarding some 'continuation-of-Government' type bunker facility against the unwashed masses should it all kick off. Apparently, the sentiment in the ranks was that when the bowler hats came running down the tunnel they'd get capped before they even got to the door (being the buggers likely to have caused the problems in the first place), ensuring room in the bunker for it's valiant defenders and their nearest-and-dearest. Hearing that kinda restored my faith.

(I'm sure a knowing smile just flickered across the face of the poor MI5 officer assigned to read all this... REGNUM DEFENDE, by all means, mate... but Jacqui Smith? )

[theprez98]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

"0.1 acres and Independence" an interesting article.

http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2007...ependence.html

and

http://www.dervaesinstitute.org/medi...20Pioneers.htm

[Z^2]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Hmm, I guess I'm coming in a little late to this thread.

What I want to add is that a lot of "city folk" actually get scared by rural knowledge, because I've definitely scared my share of friends when I meander toward a bush and start eating seemingly random berries. I've actually had people tell me that when the apocalypse comes, they're my buddy!

Of course, maybe I'm just a hippie, but I've been interested in keeping a food-bearing garden for at least the past 10 years and am a firm believer in the fact that the best kind of food is the free stuff from the forest. Some of the things you find growing right next to a grocery store they won't even sell at the store, of all things.

I'll be moving for a new job shortly, and the thing that I'm looking forward to the most about the place is learning about the native edibles and ecosystem, and what I can grow myself in the climate.

[noid]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

You can call it hippy, but I call it self sufficiency. I didnt get a chance to replant this year, but I try to grow at least some of my own vegetables. Now that we have the hackerspace here in Seattle, we're going to plant a proper vegetable garden in the spring in addition to a number of other self-sufficiency related projects (i.e. watering said garden with rain run-off). Now if I could only find the time to go hunting...

[BackatchaBandit]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

"0.1 acres and Independence" an interesting article.

..I've been interested in keeping a food-bearing garden...

A handful of resources that I found really useful:

An old one from the UK, Robert Hart - Forest Garden

Australian Bill Mollison made a series of 4 short films about permaculture systems in different climates - the 4th one covers the 'urban' setting and shows a system in NYC: Global Gardener

Another Aussie, Geoff Lawton, made a recent film entitled 'Food Forest' which is excellent - it's a good guide to establishing such systems ('hacking' nature?) and also takes a look at some systems that have been established for 30, 300 and 3000 years. I love it as it's an excellent example of the application of 'systems thinking'.

There's also a database of plants put together over many years by Plants For A Future.

Also of interest was another recent film entitled 'Garbage Warrior', which follows the story of an architect named Mike Reynolds who designs and builds housing (out of refuse) that incorporates self-sufficiency in energy, water and food.

(All the vids above can be found online somewhere).

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Now if I could only find the time to go hunting...

that's actually something that interests me more and more. Not for the sport of it or the challenge (because, let's face it, if you want to use certain technology and modern equipment, there are significant limits to how "challenging" it is to hunt if your area is game-heavy.

Simply the economics and general impact of obtaining one's own food appeals to me. Now, the part that i find aggravating concerns limitations of what you aren't allowed to do, even on your own property.

I have friends in wickedly rural areas who own 80+ acres with clear line of sight into wilderness that no one occupies. They are prohibited by state law from hunting with rifles on their own land. They are prohibited from taking game from their home. Personally (again, i'm not a "sportsman" about it) i see no problem with waking up to find a deer in your yard one morning, walking out to the front porch and bagging it in your bathrobe, then getting clothes on and field dressing it right there for your family to eat all month long.

Meh, maybe i just don't understand some other aspect of the situation.

[not5150]

Re: End-of-the-world skills, books and planning...

Here's a tip for starting fires

Save all your lint from your dryer. (that fuzzy stuff in the collector)

That stuff lights up like crazy and heck it's free. Put it in ziplock bags. Just don't breathe the fumes when it lights, because synthetic fibers are poisonous.

You can also take cotton balls and dab them in petroleum jelly. Put a bunch of those in a ziplock and squeeze all the air out.

For firearms,

I have pistols and I'm planning on buying a .22 rifle. I'm going for the .22 because it's cheap and ammo is plentiful (and dirt cheap).

I'm in California so the AR-15 is out of the question :( Well, I could get one, but it has the damn internal magazine and can't be reloaded without cracking the gun open.

For bags, I just save up all the convention bags/packs and stuff the gear inside.

The survival forums on abovetopsecret are full of threads like this and it's chock full of great info. You just have to get past all the UFO and conspiracy threads. But heck, I'm sure most of the readers here just might enjoy reading them.