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

[valkyrie]

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

Noid, excellent preso. Thank you! I am not up on the ham skills yet, but am working on it. I would suggest a couple of additions: not one week's worth of required meds, but two, and if the meds are for heart or blood-sugar issues, try to find herbal or behavior replacements, as you cannot be sure that you will be able to replace your meds after one week. Also, learn rudimentary medical skills and put a sewing kit with unwaxed floss in your bug out kit to deal with any physical damages that need to be stitched up. Freeze dry Tansy and GoldenSeal for wounds and pack small bottles of spearmint, peppermint, clove and grapefruit oils for sanitation.

regards,

Valkyrie
__________________________________________________ _______________
sapere aude

[Thorn]

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

Also, learn rudimentary medical skills and put a sewing kit with unwaxed floss in your bug out kit to deal with any physical damages that need to be stitched up.

Cyanoacrylate (SuperGlue) is easier to use than stitching, and is a lot less painful for the victim, especially if you don't have topical or local anesthetics. Medical glue versions (2-octyl cyanoacrylate) is preferred for such use, due to a lower toxicity levels, but the good ol' hardware store brands like SuperGlue and KrazyGlue will work fine in small doses and if the medical versions aren't available. It works best if applied in layers.

[theprez98]

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

Here's a tip for starting fires

Save all your lint from your dryer.

I have a bag of dryer lint just for that purpose.

Also, steel wool (preferably 0000 grade) and batteries.

Demonstrations coming in August.

[Sereyna]

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

Also, steel wool (preferably 0000 grade) and batteries.

Demonstrations coming in August.

This was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. Found out rather quickly that it's not such a good idea to use an SOS pad, though.

[theprez98]

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

This was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. Found out rather quickly that it's not such a good idea to use an SOS pad, though.

SOS pads tend to have soap in them, and don't burn well. Also, the steel is too thick. You can get some sparks, but hard to ignite.

[Gadsden]

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

Heh.. this thread is great! I am having flashbacks from Boyscouts.. which in retrospect seems more like a Jr. Survivalist Training Camp. (If I recall correctly, the Asst. Scoutmaster was a former SEAL.)

[Samurai Drifter]

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

Learning where to find and how to operate and maintain guns in the event of a zombie apocalypse. You may be laughing now, but when the dead rise and come looking for brains, there will be no place for you in my fortified bunker.

In actuality, I'm just trying to get into better shape (currently by learning martial arts), because if I ever had to kill my own food I'd probably be out of luck. The evolution of intelligence in humanity has caused us to progress to where we are today in terms of technology, but it also mean's we've surpassed natural selection and are no longer held to any physical standards.

[mfreeck]

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

I have a bag of dryer lint just for that purpose.

Also, steel wool (preferably 0000 grade) and batteries.

Demonstrations coming in August.

I save my dryer lint all year long. At 6-8 loads of laundry per week, it really adds up. In addition to a lot of fine hair in it, there's a bit of hay too. It provided a bit of amusement when I made the movers pack it.

I pack the lint in empty egg crates and add paraffin. It wouldn't work well this way as a spark catcher, but it goes up quickly and burns for several minutes if you have a small flame available initially. One egg cup = one firestarter.

Last year I put several eggcrate flats on our camp fire and the result was pretty spectacular. A marshmellow could be lightly roasted from a foot away.