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Thread: My SHTF Survival Guide

  1. #1

    My SHTF Survival Guide

    SHTF Survival Checklist:

    "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." –Motto of the Great Depression

    High Priority Items:
    □ $100 Cash
    □ Fanny pack
    □ Hand-crank flashlight
    □ AA Batteries
    □ AA Radio (at least AM)
    □ Waterproof matches
    □ Garden seeds (non-hybrid)
    □ 2-Way Radios (AA Battery)
    □ NI-MH Rechargeable Batteries
    □ Acetametaphin + Ibuprophen
    □ MRE (Meals Ready to Eat)
    □ 500mL+ Durable Water Bottle
    □ Knife
    □ Ziploc Bags
    □ Camping cook-set
    □ Clothes pins
    □ Flint-n-steel Kit
    □ Solar/Crank powered charger

    Medium Priority Items:
    □ Sunblock
    □ Lip balm
    □ Protein powder
    □ E.R.G. drink mix (electrolyte restorer)
    □ Energy bars/meal bars
    □ Simple fishing kit
    □ First Aid kit
    □ Backpack
    □ Space blanket or equivalent
    □ Computer “go file” + reader
    □ Canned beans
    □ Tuna in oil
    □ Notebooks/pencils
    □ Waterless anti-bacterial fluid
    □ Portable Propane
    □ Poncho
    □ Leatherman or equivalent
    □ Portable water filter
    □ Plan of action (written)
    □ Frozen meats
    □ Rice (large quantity)
    □ Flour
    □ Powdered milk
    □ Stored water
    □ Hiking shoes
    □ Hand can-opener
    □ Spices
    □ Bicycle (in working condition)
    □ Work & Warm gloves
    □ Aluminum foil

    Low Priority Items:
    □ Candles/Oil Lamp
    □ Propane stove
    □ Vegetable oil
    □ Durable jeans (LEVI)
    □ Tarps/Stakes/Twine
    □ Canning supplies
    □ Charcoal/lighter fluid
    □ Multi-Vitamins
    □ Garbage bags
    □ Cooler
    □ Duct tape
    □ Sleeping bag

    Ways To Improve Now:
    □ Try to stop using your car, and possibly sell it. This saves money on car insurance, gasoline and maintenance. A bicycle is a possible alternative, as well as mass transit.
    □ Plant a garden. This is useful in that it provides some food security, but it also is enjoyable and provides benefits to your mental state.
    □ Take extra money that doesn’t go to survival supplies and save it in precious metals or barter goods. Examples are: gold, silver, aluminum foil, propane tanks, baby formula, etc.
    □ Invest in some solar cells for your roof (if you intend to stay) to help you keep your electricity going even if the power goes out.
    □ Create a rainwater collection system. This is very cheap to do, and easy to maintain.
    □ Build a smoke house to smoke and cure your own meats. Smoke houses are not difficult to construct.
    □ Build a greenhouse. Particularly in more northern areas, this helps to increase your ability to garden.
    □ Raise simple farm animals. A chicken track is very easy to build and maintain for instance.
    □ Prepare your relatives. People today are trained to accept authority, and until the very end, authority will tell them that they should feel foolish if they attempt to prepare for the worst. Educate them; liberate them.
    □ Purchase any excess food supplies at non-membership stores (not Costco or Safeway) and pay only in cash. It is not unheard of for government to look up such records to punish the “greedy hoarders” that prepared if TSHTF.
    □ Purchase a paintball gun to supplement an actual firearm. A real gun protects you from someone threatening your life, but a paintball gun is a non-lethal alternative for those who are simply up to no good and are unarmed. (Airsoft guns are okay as well, but make sure you have them charged and loaded.)
    □ Make sure any seeds your purchase are heirloom seeds. All other seeds grow plants that do not produce new seeds to plant with. Heirloom seeds will give you the ability to continually renew your garden.
    □ If you have the ability, invest in non-urban housing. If you have relatives with such land, contact them and discuss the possibility of living with them if everything should go horribly wrong. Many people in rural areas are already preparing.
    □ Get to know your neighbors and create a sense of community if possible. Offer services and goods in exchange for goodwill and services. It’s better to lend your neighbor a pound of flour than be faced with the prospect of them trying to break into your home.
    □ Have a wide array of spices and spice plants. Spices and herbs make eating lower quality foods more tolerable, and allow your acceptable foodstuffs to broaden.
    □ Keep at least some liquor or wine. It’s a great bartering item even if you don’t intend to consume it, (although your opinion of that may change…)
    □ Learn some “durable skills”. Woodworking, farming, machining, etc. Even if you don’t get the chance to practice these skills (as with farming) you can familiarize yourself with them.
    □ Make sure you have evacuation plans for varying levels of emergency, with accompanying “go bags” for each. You should know, before an emergency ever happens, what to take with you.
    □ If you have and intend to keep a motor vehicle, keep one full tank of fuel in a separate container(s), and attempt to keep your car fueled at no less than Ύ of a tank.
    □ Make sure that you know where all your important photos are. It’s likely that these are the only truly irreplaceable things you own.
    □ Hope for the best. The idea of disaster preparation is that you don’t ever want to use it. Keep a positive outlook, but be ready.

    Keep In Mind:
    ►You are preparing for wide ranges of possibility, so not everything is needed in every situation.

    ►Consider getting maps of the immediate area, preferably ones that include topography.

    ►Do not store anything you collect where you don’t have immediate physical access to it. (Like a storage unit.)

    ►Keep an inventory of not only what you have, but how much. Make sure it is always up to date (including quantities).

    ►There is no reason that you can’t create a “Library of Usefulness”. Print out or collect the things you might need a reference for.

    ►You want to be ready in case you have to resort to barter. That means be ready to have what will be in scarce supply.

    ►You must have a plan in place for a vast set of outcomes. Will you have to leave the city? Where will you go? Will you stay in the city but have trouble surviving?

    ►Consider that you may have to survive in a situation where lawlessness prevails. In that case, you would be prudent to keep some kind of at-a-distance weapon, like a firearm.

    ►Learning skills cannot be emphasized enough. Learn how to fish, can foods, administer first aid… whatever you can find information on. The idea is self-sufficiency.

    ►You are attempting to create redundancy in your life. Imagine something you depend on failing and figure out what to do to insure against that. For instance a bike insures against the loss of mobility.

    Some Useful Resources:
    A One Year Food Supply (For Under $1600): http://grandpappy.info/hfood1yr.htm
    The Five Stages Of Collapse: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47157
    How To Smoke Meats: http://www.geocities.com/tominelpaso/meats.txt
    How To Build A Rainwater Filter: http://www.aqsolutions.org/images/20...ket-filter.pdf

    Reminders:
    • People are your greatest resource. In any level of survival situation, a strong community of some kind, (neighbors, friends, family, etc.), vastly increases your ability to survive.
    • In the event of social unrest, urban environments are a bad place to be. Crime is higher, resources are lower, the people are less of a community and there is more desperation.
    • Simple medical needs can be very difficult to handle in such a situation. That’s why it is important to keep yourself healthy, as well as to keep basic medical supplies on hand at all times.
    • Expect that those that you care about will be unprepared.

    Possible Levels Of Catastrophe:
    Widespread Bank Failure: The banking system fails, and the FDIC is unable to patch the holes, but the economy as a system survives. Be prepared for rampant inflation, possible barter, and a steady decrease in the quality of comparable goods. Finding jobs will be difficult, but they will exist, so make ends meat while you try to find a way out. Expect basic human services, like fire, police and EMTs to continue service, though quality, especially with regards to police and crime, will likely decrease due to strain on the system. Utilities should continue to function, though the cost may be a bit prohibitive. May last up to six months.
    Systemic Failure of the Dollar: The dollar as a system of currency fails, and the government is left helpless. Food is your most immediate concern, as the United States only has a three day supply of food at any given time. Imports will slow to a crawl, which means durable goods will all but disappear, and barter/looting will be common place. Personal firearms to protect what is yours and/or a place outside of urban areas is preferential. Expect food, precious metals, skilled services and housing to be the coins of the realm. Basic government services may continue, but will likely do so in a chaotic fashion. Entitlement programs stop paying, as do all pensions. Utilities may or may not continue service. In some areas water service may continue, and sewage service is almost certain to continue, but electric and gas service is likely to be interrupted. May last up to a year.
    Systemic Failure of Society: All societal services and formalities break down, accompanied by the failure of the currency and government. Expect everything that comes with the failure of the dollar above, however all government services cease, telecommunications are disrupted or terminated, 911 service halts, and utilities, except perhaps sewage, are either disrupted or halted. Looting and crime will be utterly chaotic; personal firearms a necessity. This could last for several months or several years depending on how far spread to failure is (i.e. confined to the United States or involving multiple world governments and societies).
    Systemic Failure of Society Leading to Armed Conflict: The breakdown of modern society leads governments in shambles to attempt to seize natural resources from other nations. With a breakdown of society and government, the complex controls placed on nuclear arms make such destruction unlikely, as government would in most cases be too destroyed to properly operate their nuclear arsenal. Conventional armed conflict however would be entirely possible, with proximity to borders being the likely limiter. Mexico and Canada would likely be annexed. This scenario will last several years at a minimum; expect to have to forcefully overthrow regional and federal governments.
    Systemic Failure of Society with Unaffected Aggressors: This situation would be analogous to the situation describe above, however it involves a government or nation that remains largely unaffected by the mess and attempts to capitalize on the situation. In addition to any possibilities described above, this may also present foreign armed troops occupying your locale. Local militias may fight guerilla warfare, or occupying forces may find a subdued population. Be prepared for fighting or occupation. Duration is indefinite.
    Systemic Failure of Society with Martial Law: This situation could potentially be most dangerous, but is also the most difficult to recognize because the troop deployment would likely come before the societal breakdowns described. There will almost certainly be an attempt to disarm the population; do NOT under any circumstances let troops confiscate your weapons. Make sure you can hide them, or be prepared to confront the National Guard. This would have the potential to be the most dire situation due to the extensive infrastructure in the US such forces would have to work with. Duration is indefinite.

    ___________________________________________

    Hope you find this useful.



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  3. #2
    Tnx
    "They [the Soviets] intend...to induce the Americans to adopt their own 'restructuring' and convergence of the Soviet and American systems ... Convergence will be accompanied by blood baths and political re-education camps in Western Europe and the United States. The Soviet strategists are counting on an economic depression in the United States and intend to introduce their reformed model of socialism with a human face as an alternative to the American system during the depression."
    Anatoliy Golitsyn The Perestroika Deception 1990


  4. #3
    Good list, forgot toilet paper.

    Consider getting some of these crank radio flashlights,
    http://www.amazon.com/Kaito-KA404-Em...6459827&sr=8-2

    Works great if you don't mind cranking every 10-30 minutes. Got one for Christmas and it works great, was worried it would be too dim but even the low setting is fine in pitch black. Haven't tried charging a phone with it since the tips are separate. For $15 these are well the investment. Order 2 or more and get free shipping.
    Eliminate interference in your life

  5. #4
    Good list. I have a few of my own:









    http://glenbradley.net/share/aleksan...nitsyn_4-t.gif “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  6. #5
    Nice list. Thanks!

    I just pre-ordered this book. It looks like it might be useful.

    If you want to know what to prepare for from a person who has lived through it and is in the middle of it right now, go here.
    "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by GunnyFreedom View Post
    Extra fancy rice? That isn't masculine enough to fit my imagining of you. I suggest at least writing a vulgarity between "extra" and "fancy". And what is that -- a picture of a flower?!?!! Where's the tank?



    Edit: Here is a manly bag of rice...

    The metric system is very manly.

  8. #7

  9. #8
    Because we need many babies to become eventual soldiers.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Mitt Romneys sideburns View Post
    Why arnt condoms on the list?
    They actually were supposed to be...

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by ChaosControl View Post
    Because we need many babies to become eventual soldiers.
    Condoms for survival aren't for birth control. Non-lubricated, you don't want that stuff on the barrel of your rifle OR your food, OR your swiss army knife...
    http://glenbradley.net/share/aleksan...nitsyn_4-t.gif “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Kludge View Post
    Extra fancy rice? That isn't masculine enough to fit my imagining of you. I suggest at least writing a vulgarity between "extra" and "fancy". And what is that -- a picture of a flower?!?!! Where's the tank?



    Edit: Here is a manly bag of rice...

    The metric system is very manly.
    LOL - it doesn't stay in that big bag for long. I split em up into little baggies of one cup each, with dates and prep instructions, and then pack them together in "one-week kits" and vacuum seal.

    so I get whatever Costco has on sale, quite regardless of the flowers on the bag. ;-)

    And the tank?



    Oh, not what you meant? ;-)
    http://glenbradley.net/share/aleksan...nitsyn_4-t.gif “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by rockjoa View Post
    Good list, forgot toilet paper.

    Consider getting some of these crank radio flashlights,
    http://www.amazon.com/Kaito-KA404-Em...6459827&sr=8-2

    Works great if you don't mind cranking every 10-30 minutes. Got one for Christmas and it works great, was worried it would be too dim but even the low setting is fine in pitch black. Haven't tried charging a phone with it since the tips are separate. For $15 these are well the investment. Order 2 or more and get free shipping.
    No he didn't;
    □ $100 Cash

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Wickwire View Post
    I just pre-ordered this book. It looks like it might be useful.
    I think you will be very disappointed. Have not seen the book, but you should note that this is a novel, not a manual. Also, the author wrote "The Game" and is the host of the reality TV series "The Pickup Artist".

    Why don't you get a book written by someone that knows what they are talking about? There are many good ones but "When all hell breaks loose; stuff you need when disaster strikes", by Cody Lundin. It is actually a manual and the author is a survival instructor. He also wrote "98.6 deg - the art of keeping your ass alive" which is considered a classic in the field - but more oriented to "just the shirt on your back in the middle of the woods" type situations.


    Quote Originally Posted by ChaosControl View Post
    Because we need many babies to become eventual soldiers.
    Women tend to stop menstruating in austere situations - heat/cold, lots of physical exertion when not used to it, sudden change of diet and low caloric intake, etc.

    Your average South American female peasant will be futile as a turtle in those same conditions - but they are used to the lifestyle...

    Survival rates of children born in such situations will be low and OB complications will be hard to deal with with the loss of the mother as well as child a real possibility.

    Also, you can only re-use condoms so many times - but for a survival kit, an un-lubricated one in a sock makes a good canteen.

    OTOH: there is always a spike in birth rates, 9 months after every blackout.

    -t

  16. #14
    I stopped reading at fanny pack.
    Capitalists can exploit you only with your permission: by trading with you, selling to you, asking you to sell out.

    Government exploits you at the point of a gun.

    As long as you limit the power of the latter, the former can only exploit by providing better products, services and options. if they collude, then all bets are off. But that is a problem with government--in that case fascism--not capitalism.

    -dew

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by RonPaulwillWin View Post
    I stopped reading at fanny pack.
    umm - what post - certainly not mine...

    -t

  18. #16
    Just a blimp - though this thread should really be n "Freedom Living"

    -t



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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by RonPaulwillWin View Post
    I stopped reading at fanny pack.
    ???

    A small carryign device that leaves both hands free? How would that not be useful?

  21. #18
    Why are the garden seeds recommended to be non-hybrid?
    "I'm not just trying to win or get elected. I am trying to change the course of history" - Ron Paul

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by tangent4ronpaul View Post
    umm - what post - certainly not mine...

    -t
    Second item listed under High Priority Items

    I still read though....great read.
    Capitalists can exploit you only with your permission: by trading with you, selling to you, asking you to sell out.

    Government exploits you at the point of a gun.

    As long as you limit the power of the latter, the former can only exploit by providing better products, services and options. if they collude, then all bets are off. But that is a problem with government--in that case fascism--not capitalism.

    -dew



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