Monday, August 20, 2012
Let's Try This Again
10:02 AM | 
Posted by
Aunt Juicebox |
Shortly after I started this blog, my old laptop had a conniption fit and I lost a lot of my data and a lot of my bookmarks and research that I had been planning to add to this blog. I lost momentum as far as chronicling my efforts online, and worked more towards making hardcopies of the more important stuff, as I have had the time. Since then, I have also recruited my husband onto my side. He has become more and more interested in survivalism and has been doing his own reading. He's taken up a few different projects in an effort to increase his knowledge of useful skills in the case of a serious SHTF scenario. He's learning how to tie knots, and has learned how to make nets, snares, shelters and so on. Very handy, and surprising as well, when he accomplishes a knew knot technique that actually "does something". I hope to add his resources to this blog as well as time permits.
HARDCOPY is very important. There is, of course, an endless selection of books on how to survive in any situation. You can always buy those, but no one book that I have seen has been as all encompassing as what you could compile yourself, for a bit of paper and an ink cartridge for your printer, by printing out what you can find on the internet. Buy a 3 ring binder, or better yet, re-purpose one that you already have, which is what I've done. I have one binder so far, but I can easily see filling more than one. Obviously, the best thing would be to memorize some of the basic stuff you need for survival, most importantly how to secure clean water, shelter, and food. But if you also want to learn how continue to survive over the long run, it would be prudent to begin compiling your own manifesto binder of useful information. You can start with some of the links I will be adding to the list I already have on here. If you have any useful information or ideas that you would also like to share, feel free to comment.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Small Spaces
Part of the reason I wanted to start this blog is that I live in the city, and I live in an apartment. Well, technically, it's a condo, and we own it, but it's apartment "style", so I have neighbors who live above me. I feel that this is a challenge that many people face, who would like to become more prepared for the downfall of civilization as we know it (or just want to stock up in case of financial struggles). Space is at a premium here, and I'm sure it is for some of you as well. I think it's a bit of a misconception that in order to be "prepared" you have to have some compound in the woods with tons of acreage. It will be much harder to live in an apartment if the shit really hits the fan someday, but I don't think it's impossible, at least not in the short term. You can always assess your situation, and try relocating if necessary.
There are so many components to survival, and it ranges all the way from just losing your job, to a pandemic where food actually becomes unattainable. I'm going to break it down into every aspect that I can, as I go along, and hopefully you will try to educate yourself more on any area you feel applies to your own situation. Mostly I am going to be operating from the viewpoint of someone who is a city dweller.
The biggest hurdle I have faced, living in a two bedroom condo, is storage space. We have 3 people living here, 2 cats and a dog. The closets are small to say the least, and I've been attempting to store things there first, but am running out of room. I've been trying to purge things that we don't need as I need the room, but there's only so much I can do. My next step is going to be dependent on how "hard core" I want to go with this. Do I want to maintain some semblance of a nice looking "home" or do I want to look like a survival depot?
While I felt I could possibly store plenty of food (I currently have about 4 months worth stocked up, maybe more depending on how tightly we ration it), but I've been having trouble with water storage ideas. I've got several cases of bottled water, that I rotate by using it over time, but what I really want is one of these. Or some similar large capacity water storage. I like this one because it would be easier to handle/move/rotate. I just had nowhere to put it, until today.
For the past 7-8 years we've had a small chest freezer in the kitchen. We've barely used it in all this time, and I've seen it more as an inconvenience than anything else lately. I unplugged it 3 months ago and let it sit there, to see if we missed having it to use. We didn't. Now, this is an issue where some people may disagree with me. A freezer like this can help you to stockpile meat. This would certainly be useful for those people who are only stockpiling food in case of a short term need. I see it more as a liability for long term use, or in a disaster situation. If the power fails, which it did here several years ago, after that big windstorm from Hurricane Ike, then having frozen food that goes bad is a waste of resources. We lost most of what was in our freezer and in the refrigerator as well because the power was out for almost 5 whole days. Once I shifted from just thinking about the short term, to trying to prepare for the long term, I decided the freezer was less important than being able to store more water. I'm also planning to add some shelves in the dining area of the kitchen as well.
It had limited use anyway. Once the food in it was gone, if we're talking about SHTF scenarios, there will be no way to fill it back up, or to keep the food in it frozen if the power goes out. If you have more room, then by all means, take advantage of using a freezer to stockpile food.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Bloggy Manifesto
I've been interested in disaster preparedness for quite some time, but at first, I didn't really equate my interest to "how to survive the Zombapocalypse". I was just trying to stockpile food items in case the economy kept getting worse, and my husband and I found ourselves unemployed. I think we could get by for quite sometime, as long as we had enough food to eat, so that's what I originally focused on. And then I found myself bookmarking websites, talking to other people, reading as much on the topic or preparedness and survivalism as I could find. I even watched videos on how to make or do things in worst case scenarios.
As a result, I have a lot of information compiled both on my computer and in an actual notebook that I keep. I put useful stuff into word documents, print them, and put them into this binder, in the eventually that I can no longer afford to pay for internet access (or if the day ever comes that there is NO internet at all). My husband is very amused by this "hobby". We had recently run out of ink for the printer, and I made him go out and buy more. He told me that he was going to buy me ink pens and lined notebooks instead. That way, if he ever divorces me, he can use my hand scribbled "manifesto" against me....
It's become more and more a way of thinking for me now, rather than just a hobby, or "something to do". My hope is that I can share some useful information here, and possibly learn something new from other people. Welcome.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Brand New Blog
I am very excited about starting this new blog. I'd gotten a little bored with blogging and maybe having something with an actual "topic" will renew my interest in it again. I have lots of content to start putting up, and hope to get on that soon.
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