Last minute tips for parents when the SHTF

Sir Martin Rees, a member of the CSER, speaking about a potential collapse of society, particularly as a result of technological advance.

Specifically that begins ~ the 9 minute mark.

Here's a recent post from thesurvivalistblog.net

[link to www.thesurvivalistblog.net]

"We are in the post SHTF era, current timeframe, late spring/early summer. Electricity and water are still available and flowing for now. Stores have been picked clean and the population is beginning to get hungry. Most people aren’t working, but looking for food. The inner city population have begun the exodus out of their normal haunts in search of food. Their population is thinning due to the few police and determined resistance from homeowners, but they still present a huge danger. I don’t know how close I am to being right in this, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Pick this scenario apart so we all learn from it.

From your perspective…You and yours have managed to escape the immediate danger. You have bugged in with your food, weapons and knowledge in Suburbia, USA. Your kid and spouse has shown up at your door with their kids and the spouses parents wanting refuge. The kids in-laws cannot stay. You tell them they can stay the night, but they have to move on in the morning.

Next morning the electricity goes out. No problem for now, but how long will that last? You pick up your cell phone to call the problem in to the electric company. Great! They’re working on it, but there are issues everywhere you’re told. It may be a while before service is restored. After breakfast, the in laws of your kid make their teary goodbyes and leave.

Break out the handy-dandy solar cell phone recharger and set it outside in the sun. Check the landline phone and it’s still working. Starting to get warm so let’s get a drink of water… uh oh, no water now. No problem, you break out a jug of water from your stores to quench your thirst.

Curious, you move up and down your street, knocking on doors trying to find out if this water outage is local to you, or the immediate area, or the suburb, or the town. You don’t know all your neighbors, just the ones next door, a few doors down or across the street. Most people have left by now searching for food. Very few people come to answer the door. The few who do don’t know you and demand you leave their property immediately.

Returning to the house you enter a heated argument between the kid and their spouse. It has escalated to your spouse, as well. Why did the in laws get sent away? They have no place to go. That’s why they came here. You didn’t have to do that, there’s plenty of food. You’ve been preparing for years!! Wonderful!

It’s starting to get hot. The AC is off and everyone is cranky and sweating like crazy. Your bodies, used to the wonder of AC, has difficulties adjusting your core temperature and is trying to find balance. You’re hot and the only thing the body knows to do is sweat. AC is also the same thing that drove people inside so they didn’t get to know their neighbors on those warm summer nights. Folks used to sit on their front porch, go for walks or visit friends who had some cool lemonade. AC took care of that.

You have plenty of water, but with all the sweating, it’s going at an alarming rate. The toilets got flushed early in the day and now are not functional other than a container. Lid down, door closed and a towel at the bottom of the bathroom door to keep the smell down. You plan to use the water from the hot water tank to flush once a day. Urinate in the back yard. Girls over there behind the tarp, boys over there by the tree. There’s about 40 gallons of water in the tank. Takes about 3 or 4 gallons to flush the commode so you have ten days or so. Surely the water will be flowing again by then."

More at the link...

Basic Combat Training: the Foot Stomp

The metatarsals are the long slender bones that make up the base of the foot. They are analogous to the metacarpals which make up the bones of the palm of your hand.

Because the feet need to be very flexible and to act as shock absorbers for all of your weight, they really are not very strong in handling a direct blow. They are engineered to absorb punishment by walking but completely without a protective layer of fat or muscle on the top side.

Now some people will be smart and wearing boots. Still, these at best have steel toes and not protecting the rest of the foot. As such a sharp blow to the top of the foot can easily break the opponent's foot.


Here's a video describing the metatarsals. Like the collarbone, they are easily broken and can chip and develop stress fractures as any endurance runner or hiker has found out.

The fifth metatarsal is EASILY broken and chances are high that you might at one time have done this if active.
[link to www.physioroom.com]

This means one should expect that bugging out people who have not training for walking 7-10 miles a day should expect stress fractures at the very minimum.

Most people are expecting two attacks with your legs, either a higher kick to the midsection or a knee to the groin. Unless they commonly visit the dojo or the MMA studio, then they don't realize how common a metatarsal break or stomp occurs.



Don't be fooled into thinking this is a minor technique and that it's only for women. Watch how common this technique is used in MMA fighting.

Basic Combat Training: Foot Stomp finishing technique

This is a very dangerous attack to finish an opponent. The pterion is the junction of many suture lines on the sides of the skull. See:
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

That is very fragile and easily broken...and lethal.

Making cedar shakes

Most lumbar must be rough sawn, but you can produce cedar shakes fairly easily. Cedar shakes are uncommonly used today as slightly irregular roofing tiles. Technically a "shingle" is more uniform.


To make a cedar shake you need a variety of cedar, a mallet to pound with, a "froe" which is a specialized dull blade of iron that is attached to a handle, and some patience and skill. You lay the froe edge on the cedar tree at the thickness you desire for the shake, then hit the top edge of the froe with a mallet to begin to make the split. At that point, due to the properties of cedar, it continues to split with minor assistance from your hands. You then flip the tree over (for it will likely pull thinner on the end and you don't want progressively thinner shakes), and repeat the technique.
[link to modernhomesteading.ca]
[link to ecoshel.com]

Note: you probably will have difficulty finding felt post-collapse, but you need this to ensure less dripping when using this as roof. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Why would you want this? Having a flat piece of lumber instead of round branches for construction is very helpful. Cedar is abundant and sweet smelling, both as incense to burn (as the Native Americans were want to do for their spirituality) as well as acting as a practical insect repellant. Having both a pleasant smell in lieu of frequent bathing and driving away insects without Deet are very useful properties indeed.

Not only that, but an excellent way of cooking either bread or fish is by cooking them on cedar planks. It imparts the resin slightly to the food, which in lieu of spices is very helpful as well.



See this link for more recipes, one of which is cooking fish by cedar planking. I think you'll like it. It especially tastes good for making rosemary flatbread for rosemary is already resinous herb.

See the next post for more information about flatbreads grilled over coals.

Here's that link of SHTF recipes:
Thread: SHTF recipes (Page 2)

They were struggling a little. I included recipes for using up ingredients from your supplies, especially considering what would be used up by nonpreppers (who will be thinking, "What the heck am I cooking tonight with no electricity and no gas stove/oven?).

Here are two recipes for flatbread. One includes baking powder, the other yeast as the leaven.
[link to smittenkitchen.com]
[link to www.epicurious.com]

Both of these work well cooked on cedar planking. Even if one didn't have a froe, I'll bet you can find some long piece of blunt metal with an edge that you could strike with a mallet to form a cedar shake.

Of course, the pioneers would use ash to make the leaven. That or they would gather some wild yeast. Both methods have been discussed numerous times in previous posts. All of these lessons are intentionally successive. There is some method to my madness.

Recall that an excellent tasting flatbread can be made from white clover blossoms. They contain lots of protein and who knows if someone will catch a fish, rabbit, or squirrel that day. You should be sending out your children to scout for white clover blossoms, sneaking them into salad, making fritters with them added, as ways to introduce this very old healthy food into their diet. It sure was an important food for the Irish. The clover isn't just a symbol without a definite reason.

Clover flour, unlike many other added in natural non-glutenous flours that are added in to your wheat flour to "stretch it", will not make it as crumbly as long as you don't thin it down too much.

Here's a video to jog your memory:


Note: no complaining about taste! That's very helpful for you can bet your family will be bellyaching over all of the wild edibles after being used to a Western overly sweet overly spiced diet pre-collapse.

Essential preparedness items: paracord

I have mixed feelings about sharing this information. While paracord is truly one of those items to always have around, I was taught that knotting a rope and leaving it that way...weakens it. Since paracord has on average 550 lbs if Type III (and not all are rated for that i.e. read the fine print), and since it's likely you're not climbing with it, but making snares, then I wonder how much you've weakened it by making it into a bracelet or belt. To be honest, I don't know.

One can easily either spool it or wrap it and place it with your gear. The problem with that is you don't carry your gear bag with you everywhere.

For years (many decades) I kept certain items with me at all times: a lockblade knife, matches, a small LED flashlight, etc. At one time I constantly carried a yawara. More about all of that later.

It's definitely worth it to know how to tie knots, and so I am including both the instructions for making a belt, which contains quite a bit of paracord, as well as a paracord bracelet.

Here's a link so you can match up the rating strength by type:
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

The link and the video:
[link to mobiobione.wordpress.com]



The whole point is to learn how to tie a knot well, which hopefully encourages you to learn to tie many others. The paracord rapidly unties for use, or else it would be useless. Also, how many times have you thought, "Oh if I only had some strong rope."

It's important not to reply upon things. Making cordage is fairly easy for a quick fix. Making very stout rope that will hold up like paracord is very difficult to do. Sometimes it's worth purchasing a few items because they are so difficult to replicate.

Don't be fooled though. One can often make a bit of cordage in the field to make a clothesline, make a snare, repair a tent/hammock fly, hang up some tools or items, make a repair, etc. Using paracord can be overkill, but you can bet that it will hold up to punishment, which makes it worth it.

Now in light of that last post, why would you not want to wear a bracelet?

Having worked with machines for most of my life, I can tell you that it's fairly easy to snag either a ring or bracelet within the machinery. Obviously they would get greasy in some instances, but worse, you could lose a finger or even deglove a hand. You don't want me to show a picture of that as it is gruesome. Personally, I know a guy who unpeeled his finger inside out because he was wearing a ring and it got hung up as he was falling.

Of course, with a ring, most are metallic and conduct electricity. Seldom did I know any guys working in electricity or electronics who wore their wedding rings while working. They took 'em off and put them back on as they were headed home. It was too hard to forgo wearing one altogether (understandably so).

In the wild, while climbing a tree or while headed through brush, there are lots of times that a ring could give away your position by making contact with something else. Or a bracelet could again snag. As such, it seems to me that it's not a great idea.

Everyone needs a belt however. You can bet post-collapse, that we'll need to cinch up our belts as we lose a lot of weight.

Please take all of that under consideration.

This is why I like fanny packs. You can put a remarkable amount of things within them. Far before they were invented, I would carry something like a Native American medicine bag on my belt while hiking or even working. Then it would sometimes include unusual things like some spare change, wire nuts, lugs, several nuts and bolts, besides the common survival gear (even water purification tablets something that people forget to carry).

I know it looks dopey to have a fanny pack. I'd rather look dopey and have all of those essential items than not have them. It's like a mini-tool kit. Are you the kind of driver who travels without a tool bag or the kind that has one, a map, some spare food and water on each trip. It seems unnecessary until you get stranded...one time.

USA Truckers call for General Strike Oct 11-13

If you have been reading this topic for any length of time, you know that I have warned folks about the susceptibility of our manufacturing and inventory practices since we have adopted the Japanese Just-in-Time method.

Earlier last year, the largest trucking associations also recognized this and an article was published detailing their concern about it.

Now they have actually called for a general stroke Oct 11-13. I urge everyone to prepare by purchasing food and supplies NOW. At any time, such tactics could create outages, cause prices increases, and create havoc. Please don't wait until it happens and then react to that. It is so much easier to have items on hand than to do without or to scurry around trying to cope while it is going on.

People are angry and when they are they will use this simple tactic. One group using it can serve as the fuel to get other groups to do it.

[link to www.shtfplan.com]

"Last year the American Truckers Association prepared a report for Congress highlighting the susceptibility of the nation’s just-in-time delivery system, the majority of which is made possible by the transport and delivery of freight. In the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a war that drives fuel prices through the roof or even a natural disaster such as a solar flare that renders electronic trucks inoperable, there would be a “a swift and devastating impact on the food, healthcare, transportation, waste removal, retail, manufacturing, and financial sectors,” according to the report.

The backbone of commerce in the United States are the truck drivers who spend long hours on the road ensuring our very survival as a modern society.

But with fuel prices continuing to rise, wages dropping, jobs becoming harder to find, and rampant corruption in Washington D.C. furthering the country’s economic death spiral, America’s truck drivers, like the majority of our fellow citizens, are fed up.

Between October 11th and 13th they have called for a general strike, asking truck drivers around the country to refuse to haul freight, a move that could carry with it a significant impact on the American economy.

The protest calls for truckers to make their way to Washington D.C. in a massive convoy in an effort to call attention to, among other things, the Benghazi cover-up, the recent attack which killed 25 members of Seal Team 6, ever rising fuel prices, and claims that President Obama has engaged in treasonous crimes.

Moreover, they’ve requested that the American people join them in solidarity by not shopping or engaging in any economic activity that benefits the government or their corporate interests."

More at the link...

Some tips on disassembly

If you're truly going to learn to repair things, then you need a manual. I know, no one reads the manual...that is except for techs.

When I was young and newly married, I was already a craftsman, experienced at fixing things, but I didn't really repair appliances. I felt it was cheaper to buy a new one that work through all of that.

But being married, money got tight. I often had something break, for we were on a tight budget, and so some old appliance, even a major one like a water heater or a washing machine or dryer would breakdown. It was too expensive to buy another one, for it exceeded our budget, and who knew when the repairman would get there?

1) If you have the manual, a good one, it shows a view which shows how a component is assembled/disassembled. This is called an exploded view:
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Wow, that is really helpful, but for a beginner it looks like the most complex drawing ever. In time you'll learn to understand what it means.

2) Nowadays, before disassembly, you can take digital pictures. That is wisdom for otherwise you're relying upon memory or written descriptions.

3) All machinery is put together with fasteners. Get a bowl out and take not of the length of the fastener and how it was assembled. To save money, most machines or devices are made with no more than five types of fasteners. If not then their costs would go up for inventory as well as to change tools for assembly. But if you put the whole fastener in, when it is "threaded" for one type, then it won't go in and forcing it should tell you that it's being assembled in the wrong way. That's a good way to strip the threads from the fastener OR buggering up the threads that a die was used to make them.

Note: later learn what a tap wrench and bit is. It's the way that threads are formed. You might someday have to rethread a hole if it gets "wallered out".

4. Take apart a section. Make a note of the mechanical drives working within. Things spin and move either in a circle or along a track. It's possible that some mechanism is bound up, because dirt or material has jammed it. You might not need to disassemble very much of it.

5. By only taking apart a section in stages, you have a better recollection of how that component section works. Document it.

6. If there is an electrical component section, then sometimes there are electrical safety switches (sometimes called microswitches) that must be made when the outer housing is in place. It's there to idiot-proof the device. If for some reason that switch is not made, then power is interupted. See if that is the issue.

Believe it or not, this is why some microwave ovens stop working. The door switch is maladjusted and so no power is allowed to be power up the device.

7. Is a fuse blown? A fuse is usually a thin piece of wire or solid metal that opens under an overcurrent condition. Current is the flow of electricity in a device. If the flow is higher than normal (short circuited for example), then that massive rush in would harm the device. So the fuse blows. It blew for a reason. See if you can figure out how that happened, or else only replacing it, then it will blow again.

Teenagers are notorious for opening a microwave oven while things are still cooking. This can blow a fuse to protect them, for a fuse is faster acting than the doorswitch.

8. Has something stopped working and so there is no information to something else? For example, in a water heater, there is a thermocouple. It is composed of two dissimilar metals that are bound together and form a junction. When that is made, it generates a milivoltage. That milivoltage corresponds to temperature. This is how another device like a control board or a similar thermostat, knows that a temperature is sufficient. In a water heater, if the thermocouple is open, then it thinks, "Oh it is way way too hot. Shut it down immediately." This is why your pilot light goes out and won't relight.

9. Has a belt broken? Maybe the motor on a device is working, but the mechanical drive around a pulley has broken. Hence you have no movement of a drum. Maybe it is as simple as replacing a worn belt and properly adjusting the tension of the new belt. Read the manual.

10. Is it the power to the device and not the device itself? Sometimes an overcurrent condition makes the circuit breaker kick out. If so, then often it is caused by a motor being locked up. That might be caused by something mechanically binding. What is the root cause? No matter what, you need a multimeter to see if the problem is power related, but what is the real issue that caused the power interruption.

With training, most people can disassemble and reassemble items. The difference in success is knowing what to do to troubleshoot the malfunctioning or broken part, ordering it or obtaining it (probably ordering it), then in the interim time (which could be more than two weeks), not forgetting how to reassemble it.

11. It's worth purchasing some wire numbers. You label the wires and the order in which they were taken off, and label the terminals in which you took the wires off. Most devices will use many colors so that whoever put the device together could carefully do so. Sometimes a wire will be the same color in general, but will have a tracer color spiraling through the insulation around that wire. Say the overall color is green, but there is a orange color also going around that insulation. Make a note of that to document what wire goes on what terminal. In two weeks, while you may think, "Oh I will remember this...it's obvious..." Well sure, but can you remember what you ate for breakfast three days ago? I doubt it. We are too busy for those small details. You don't want to make it worse because you think it was wired in this way.

12. Does it need lubrication? All things wear by grinding metal on metal. It is entirely possible that the mechanism is bound up simply because no one has lubricated it since it came out of the factory. Many times people throw away things that only needed some TLC.

Making simple repairs: jeans

When the Lewis and Clark expedition was well underway, they got to a point when they had to portage their canoes for there was insufficient depth of water to continue. To be honest, they'd been dragging them for awhile hoping for more water and against the current forever. Can you imagine how difficult that would be all the way to the West? It meant the return trip was fast by comparison.

Anyway, they walked through some meadows that were full of thorns. As such, this tore up their clothing and shoes, and they reported in their journals how miserable it was to be first walking through it and it smarting their skin and feet, repairing their clothing at night, then it being progressively worse as the thorns tore their clothing and shoes once more.

While you may think of sewing as women's work, no person in a tribe in history would have thought of routine repair in that manner. It was practical knowledge. You can bet if you are bugging out and walking miles upon miles, maybe hundreds of miles, that your boots and clothing will be literally falling off of you over time.

Denim is a tough material that gets softer over time. It's tough because of the way it is treated when being manufactured. That results in it being stiff. Some of it will remain that way at the seams. This means you'll need a thimble to help get your thicker than normal sewing needle through it. It's that or a lot of cussin' from piercing your fingertips.

[link to www.wikihow.com]
Here's a link which shows how to turn it inside out and to sew it up. Double up on the stitching. You sure don't want to repair it the next night. Use a stronger thread than normal or else it will break.



You should expect for your pants to drag in places unless you intentionally shorted the length. That dragging will produce friction and fraying. It's up to you. Either shorten them and save yourself the hassle early, or deal with the constant fraying.

Making simple repairs: an iron on patch

An iron on patch is far faster, but post-collapse will mean cleverly heating up some metal to transfer it, having the iron on patch, and not scorching the fabric or the patch. Here's a video showing how to do it with an electric iron.

While it does provide a very strong patch, and can be placed on the inside so it looks better, that means having it with your prepping supplies. You did remember to pack some...right?
[link to www.wikihow.com]



Naturally that patch will take to a variety of fabrics. Read the instructions for the ones you purchased to see which you can and cannot patch.

Making simple repairs: tents

Nylon tents break down from abuse, routine wear from people walking on the material, and because the sun breaks down the fibers. The easiest way to repair it in a pinch is duct tape. That won't hold though. You want to also have some silicon sealant.


Here's a video which demonstrates how to fix it.

Note: because some athletic clothing is also made of nylons or similar fabric, and these kinds of fabric breath and hold up to abuse well without wearing, then I recommend having them. I have used mine for years and with care they won't tear easily and will dry much faster in warm weather.

Silicone can be also used to repair some electrical insulation in a bad location. While you should remove the cracked insulation, wire nut it, and then tape it up, it might be for a device and in a bad location and impossible to do. When the insulation starts breaking down on wire, often due to heat and sun, then it will be happening in more than one place. If so, then there's not much you can do, for there are too many places to repair. But it's from wear at that one spot, then sometimes a little silicone sealant can patch it and you can still power it up.

Note: one you put down a bead of silicone sealant, if you wet your fingers, then it is less likely to stick to them. This means you can smooth it out evenly which looks better. If you wear contacts, if you were to get the silicone on your fingers and touch your eyes, then you could both ruin the contacts and your eyes. Carefully wipe it away with a paper towel or cloth and discard it. Wash your hands carefully.

Making simple repairs: shoes

Your shoes will definitely wear out as you walk all of those miles. They were not intended for such constant duty. Holes will appear in the soles, or cracks or splits along the seam where the soles attach to the boot itself.

Runners have long used either silicone sealant or shoe goo to repair a perfectly good broken in pair that has a cracked sole.





Can you see why you want silicone sealant? It can fix a lot of things by patching. Will it hold up very long? Perhaps not, but then the shoe might fall apart by that time. It gets you going long enough to source a replacement.

Because silicone repels water, that helps in the repair more than just a simple patch.

Some people even apply a coat of a silicone sealant to tools to insulate them. If you use them constantly, then this cushions the area and stops blisters from forming too.

Good dose of info ! GLP needs more posts like this & less bs

Thanks for the praise. I'm always willing to answer questions if someone has a specific topic in mind. No doubt someone knows more than me. As you get older, you just pick up information along the way. Having studied on my own as well as in school (hard to believe from all my grammatical and spelling errors but that's the cost of being an AC instead of a member. You can't correct the errors) I've learned many trades and crafts.

Only a few people have responded with their own posts. That's a shame because there are topics that I haven't touched upon like military tactics, weaponry, etc. I sort of steered clear of that.
...
Uses for plastic in a post-collapse world

While some people recycle now, in places like rural Africa or Latin America, the reuse their plastic for many common duties. And why not? It's a durable strong material that can either be reshaped by cutting or even melting.

Here's a video showing how to melt plastic into a useful glue. This is very important because other than this, you'd have to lash a tool in a handle or learn how to melt deer hooves to make glue (see previous topics).


Here are some common uses for plastic but don't discount it.Drip irrigation will be the major method for watering gardens. This means you can use up those plastic jugs very well. Recall the straw effect of closing one end. This will inhibit the drip rate, so you can adjust how much to dispense very easily. A nongardener will shrug their shoulders. A gardener who has experienced a long drought will get some ideas from watching the video.



Because plastic is composed of oil, then it's flammable. That makes it useful on it's own as a flame that won't go out easily. Yes, we don't want to burn plastic now, but there might be times that combustion would be useful in a collapse.

Blackout: the new BBC series on a grid down situation

I think it's timely to watch this new tv series from the BBC. A grid down simulation (whatever that means) is planned soon. Please let us hope it is not a false flag event. Regardless, something as common as a power outage over a large region would cause mass panic. Even if the power outage didn't affect your region, if it was sustained, then there is a very high chance that the extended power outage would pull EMS personnel from your region, redeploy electrical personnel to that region, and still affect you since transportation would be going through your region.

Here's a clip from the first episode of the Blackout three part series:


Here's an article about the show:
[link to www.list.co.uk]

You cannot watch this without thinking, "Wow they have no common sense and skills...". But honestly, look in the mirror. Are you prepared? Could you manage even half as well as they are? I'll bet not in all honesty. Most people haven't a clue. Some weirdos even say with glee, "I have no survival or preparedness skills..." as though that's something anyone would be proud of. Gosh, what man would ever say such a thing? Pathetic.

Here's a brief interview with Mr. Rawles, an author and blogger who runs a preparedness website:


Most people are very ill prepared. Quite a percentage think that if things get bad, they'll magically ascertain the proper time to leave an area, but most probably cannot read a map, don't know many alternative routes, can't treat a very minor injury themselves, don't know what to pack, have never fasted for three days just to experience the hunger and affect on blood sugar, don't have a clue about finding water, can't read the clouds to determine the weather, etc.

If you think that you don't need to prepare, well I'm a firm believer that if you're that hopeless, nothing I can say will persuade you. But you might want to look at this article about the tourists in Mexico (plus all the locals):

[link to www.shtfplan.com]


Do you think these folks wish they had supplies or even more skills?

Don't become a parent until after, that should be obvious really.

Be constructive and part of the solution

I would say in all seriousness, that post-911 we've been in a decline in America. The economy has steadily gotten worse and worse. We sold our liberties for the sake of a mock sense of security, but then was supplanted by a growing police state. Drones are in the skies, the militarization of law enforcement, the loss of privacy. These are the outcomes of 911.

Unemployment is far higher than anyone has the balls to admit to. Instead of trying to live within our means as a country, we add to more social programs while the tax base declines. Property sits vacant. People are losing the ability to own a home.

I guess one could remain blissfully ignorant and think that the economy will turn around, but it doesn't seem probable. Even China's behemoth of an economy is faltering. The main reason that grew was we allowed the jobs to be relocated there since they could sell us cheaper goods with less labor costs. Talking about short-sighted!

It's easy to do nothing. It's easy to waste time with snarky comments. It's easy to ignore the flood while the waters are up to your knees.

Wake up. Do something constructive. Help yourself extricate your family.

How can you do this? You can stop wasting time. Try to gently persuade people of the real state of reality. If you have skills, put them to use. If you don't know any skills, then learn some.

For most of my life I've tried to teach folks primitive or pioneer skills. I'm only one person. Logically it may seem like it doesn't matter to write positive constructive posts. But it does.

Why is that so? Because people either are curious because they themselves are witnessing phenomena, they are waking up, they are feeling the economic pinch, and they are all looking for some practical answers.

I have probably met thousands of people in my lifetime since I genuinely like people. Almost everyone has some skill. They have some knowledge inside themselves because something interested them enough to make it a passion.

If that describes you, is there any way to teach someone else your passion, especially if it's a practical skill? You can save someone a lot of time, money, and energy by helping them avoid whatever mistakes you made while learning.

Please don't be selfish and keep that information locked up to die when you are gone.

I know you might have been led to believe it's a dog-eat-dog world. That other human beings are hopeless. If you feel that way, then you likely are either friendless or loveless.

That's not how the world is supposed to be. We've hardened our hearts to think we could buy happiness and that we didn't need our neighbors. It's a lie.

If they suffer, they will either be enraged when a collapse comes and riot, or somehow their suffering will affect you and your family. Don't think, "If I have enough bullets, beans, and bandaids...then I can make it without others. That is complete BS. Isolated families do not make it alone. It just doesn't happen.

Swallowed up into Despair

3 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

3 “May the day of my birth perish,
and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
may a cloud settle over it;
may blackness overwhelm it.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
may it not be included among the days of the year
nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
may no shout of joy be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days[a] curse that day,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars become dark;
may it wait for daylight in vain
and not see the first rays of dawn,
10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me
to hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why did I not perish at birth,
and die as I came from the womb?
12 Why were there knees to receive me
and breasts that I might be nursed?
13 For now I would be lying down in peace;
I would be asleep and at rest
14 with kings and rulers of the earth,
who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
15 with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child,
like an infant who never saw the light of day?
17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 Captives also enjoy their ease;
they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slaves are freed from their owners.

20 “Why is light given to those in misery,
and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that does not come,
who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22 who are filled with gladness
and rejoice when they reach the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man
whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
24 For sighing has become my daily food;
my groans pour out like water.
25 What I feared has come upon me;
what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I have no peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Job 3:1-26

When young, innocent, and without the experience of tragedy, then these words usually have no meaning. When older after many decades, and seeing the face of evil, then this can be one of our responses.

Some people pray for Jesus to come again. I don't think they realize that He will come in judgement and they be in fear and trembling when that happens...the great and fearful day of the Lord.

Some people pray for chaos to reign. For the system to finally break, as if when that happens, complete anarchy will not be the first response. Since most people are unprepared and have no supplies and no skills, then they will surely die.

Some people are ignorant, and despite whatever anyone says, you cannot change the mind of another. Only they themselves can change and allow the scales to fall from their eyes. Only God has the power to perform a miracle. We cannot change them or awaken them. Because of Free Will, only they can do it without direct supernatural intervention.

The world is a very dark place. It doesn't have to be, but when you wake up and ordinarily see the light upon opening your eyes, then when you see darkness instead, that can create terrible despair.

Don't give into it. It will lull you into thinking that it is hopeless. You will fall into a chasm like Job.

Only your decision to fight anyway or God's direct intervention, will persuade you to do so.

Believe it or not, a dictionary and a thesaurus are important preps

As you begin prepping, I think you're slowly going to realize all of the things that you know...are not really helpful for preparedness or homesteading. You've been brought up in an educational system that was intended to specialize you into a compartment. As such, you know only enough to fulfill those obligations.

Some people decide to get more educations, while it is true that some of those folks went to college, one could spend a fortune on a college education and not learn anything at all worthwhile.

An even smaller amount of people actually learn to help educate themselves by developing some critical thinking skills. They challenge what they believe, read the opposing viewpoints of many, read some that support their assertions, and then and even smaller group will consider that what they were taught, or even what others in the majority think is true (veritas) is not truth at all.

At that point they have to actually make a decision for themselves what to believe.

A tiny amount of people realize that they don't know much of anything. They spend their entire lifetimes in the pursuit of veritas. That means whittling away all the deadwood until you end up with the closest you can come to veritas is seeing that bright shining even brilliant light...but only in the distance.

Maybe when we die this existence, we see veritas. That is my hope.

...

It does no good to go looking for veritas unless you invest in a good dictionary and thesaurus. The initial steps for that journey mean understanding words you do not know and that you cannot pronounce.

Every time we communicate, our words are unraveled by slips of the tongue. If we speak eloquently but misspell a word, make a grammatical error, or mispronounce a word, then that pulls at the tapestry we have woven of our personal veritas.

Today I heard a person in the prepper community mispronounce the word "cache". It's pronounced "cash" in English. It is frequently mixed up with the French word cachet.
[link to www.merriam-webster.com]
[link to www.merriam-webster.com]

One is a secret storage of supplies. The other is an official seal. If you misuse a word, then ask people to correct you. It is easy to go to a good reference site, click on the pronunciation link, and hear it spoken. One could though admit some ignorance, which is perfectly fine, and say, "I don't know how to say it, but is this word pronounced ....".

I make tons of errors in my speech and in my writing. That is largely the result of writing too fast and too frequently. Still, there is no excuse.

If you truly want to educate yourself and to communicate well, for there are no more important preps you can make, then you need to do these things. Only then can you begin your journey.

Corrective criticism is a blessing. While some people are overly critical, gently correcting an error could save someone lots of hardship. Worse, when we misspeak, as I often do by dropping a word, then one can say the opposite of what you intended.

Soldiers are drilled without ceasing in the earliest days of their training, for tiny mistakes like that...kill others and themselves.

Antibiotics

Thread: Has anyone here ever taken Erythromycin Powder for Fish, for themselves?

I made a series of posts here because someone necroposted the topic. Yes, it's true that you can take fish antibiotics. Yes they make them in dosages that one could use easily for people.

For that matter, one can purchase antibiotics cheaply in Mexico as well. You might have trouble bringing it back though.

The problem with that is that these antibiotics do not have the very rigorous testing that is normally done to ensure efficacy in humans nor safety precautions to ensure purity and noncontamination. You get what you pay for but I'll admit a lot of drugs are very overpriced.

In addition, in some places one can be prescribed a medicine by the pharmacist, and perhaps under certain circumstances that would be a good thing.

BUT, there are problems with just taking antibiotics for any old reason. The reason we have superstrains of bacteria is from the OVERUSE of antibiotics. Not only that, but if you take them and stop taking them instead of a full course, then the infection can come back worse.

Besides all of those issues, I discussed the first pass effect, contraindications, preexisting conditions, a protocol for choosing which antibiotic to take, etc.

You should read it. Better, you should read it and do some independent research to verify what I wrote and also to look up similar common illnesses. Many websites feature a truth table. It's a diagram of if this is so, then do this, but if not, then do this. If this symptom is present, and the patient is an adult but not a woman of child-bearing years, then take this, etc.

Many infections are complicated by giving the correct dosage, getting it fast enough to help, diagnosing the correct bacteria (for other illnesses look similar), and mostly worried about pregnancy and allergy.

Don't just take this antibiotic because you kinda think your illness is this and your best friend is taking that, and so that is right for you. That's crazy.

If you do the ill-advised self-diagnosis (you have to be a genius because you have no rapid Strep test or any med tech to look at diagnostics or a micro lab tech to verify the culture), then if you screw up, it could harm you. Please be honest and tell the doctor afterwards and don't compound your illness.

Antibiotics Example: an ear ache

[link to www.cps.ca]

Follow the chart if you can. It shows what a healer might be thinking and observing and testing and evaluating through a patient's course of treatment(s).

Do you see why I cannot just provide you with one chart for all bacterial illnesses that one might use antibiotics for? That doesn't take into account preexisting conditions or things like pregnancy or a susceptibility to things like secondary infections from antibiotic usage.

On the other hand, if one would spend some time studying a little medicine like When There Is No Doctor, and a little outside reading and some supplies, plus watch some informative videos on diagnosis, then under collapse conditions, one might be able to save a life.

For the bugging out crowd: watch this film

The Way Back (2010) is a film about some prisoners who escape from Siberia and manage a 4,000 mile odyssey to freedom.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]


A lot of urban folks think they have the guts and resolve and skills to make it bugging out. I doubt it. Please watch this film to get some idea of what you are up against, particularly if law enforcement and the military are used against the citizenry of the USA.

They are beaten down and malnourished when they begin, but each step takes them away from food and water and housing. They roam the wilderness in a minute-by-minute struggle and many of them perish by the end of their journey.

Something as simple as a mouthful of water might make the difference in your survival.

A pretty sweet homemade solar trickle charger set up

I've discussed the importance of this several times. I think it's important enough that it's worth discussing again. Anyone with common sense can make one of these. It takes minimal craftsmanship but like all small projects, safety should be a chief concern since working with electricity of high amperage (the marine battery).

First, why do you need this gear? I don't usually push gear, for a lot of people don't have money, and I do believe that skills are far more important. However the things that make up gear are really really essential equipment that one cannot easily construct or that is impossible to construct on your own.

A trickle charger is a device that uses the sun (usually for it can be mechanically driven with an alternator too) and this slowly recharges your car batter (typically. Here it is a special marine battery called a deep cycle).

You might in a collapse have to scavenge for gear, and this is a prime example of a gear setup that would really help out. Why wait until that happens? Make it NOW.



What the video demonstrates is a person who thought and thought about things like overtemp conditions, overcharging conditions, storage of essential equipment within the box, etc. That kind of intentional foresight is so rare these days. It deserves to be commended.

Now, why would you need to trickle charge a battery? If we had a collapse, while you might have fuel for your vehicle, you would have the same issues that any car lot has...dead batteries from sitting and not operating.

You see as your car/truck is running, the mechanical engine that is powered by the fuel is also driving an alternator. That feeds back to trickle charge the battery and keep it operating. Otherwise the battery would drain from using electrical and electronic items (your radio, heater, air conditioner, power windows, etc).

There's a pretty good chance that the average person doesn't have a battery powered radio or a dynamo powered one that you crank to generate electricity. As such, a lot of people every day during a collapse would go out to their vehicles, waste gas on charging the battery and listen to the radio for news.

The more you do that, the more people are aware that you have an operating vehicle in your neighborhood plus use up the gas, plus make yourself a target since you likely would do this on a schedule. Not a good plan.

Why else would a solar generator be a good thing to have? The video mentions inverters. That takes direct current (dc power) from the marine battery and powers up an alternating current device (AC power) for a short time depending upon how many watts (a unit of measurement of electrical power) and current ( a unit of measurement of the flow of electrical power).

That means that you could for short periods of time operate some electronic device that normally plugs in. It doesn't mean you can power up anything that draws a lot of current.

You could also like the guy in the video charge up a small dc powered device like a cordless drill, a cigarette lighter, a cell phone, etc.

His set up looks very well organized. Everything he needs is at hand for measuring power, making a repair, taping something up, or using many different kinds of ways to charge devices.

One can buy a solar trickle charger to only charge the car battery for $20. His set up probably costs in the neighborhood of $200. It is money well spent. With a solar panel placed in a concealed location and the wire leads brought inside a short distance, then one could charge up that marine battery and power up all kinds of things, keep a car battery disconnected and charged so the vehicle is disabled (but you'd want a fast set up for this so you yourself are not stranded), and not have to go outside each day.

Nice solar charger!
We have something along the same lines, though not as self contained.
We have a small panel that charges a marine battery in 10-12 hrs, which we can then use to charge a 1000a/700W power box.

Thanks my friend.


Here's a beefier one in operation for a trailer for those who can't see the point of one. As you can see, a lot of his devices were being powered up to do all kinds of things. It can't sustain a load that will quickly deplete it, but it can briefly be run to do all kinds of things.

When he's discussing his hot water heater, he's discussing the igniter that gets the flame going. Then the hot water recirculation pump is being operated by that same power source. All from the sun. He has a much better solar panel which translates to more trickle charging in a shorter period. All of that adds on to the cost.

Many people will naturally have 12 vdc lighting since that's the power output directly from the battery bank (some use 24 vdc in series, others wire it in parallel for more current flow).

Don't be afraid to make one, for there are lots of plans on the Internet that walk you step by step with parts lists and wiring diagrams. You should have an electrical buddy look at your wiring though just to ensure that you didn't bugger it up by accident. It is easy if you wire it in a hurry, but using wire numbers and going step by step you shouldn't have any main issues.

Let's say you have four children and you are homeschooling them due to collapse. You have all of your lesson plans on hardcopy (on paper) but the videos, the music, the ability to grade and record data, reference material (for many documents and books are public domain), etc are on the laptop.

Over time you end up becoming the teacher to the neighborhood in the collapse. Not only that, but all of your essential survival information is also backed up there too, including engineering diagrams for much more complex things, ideas for scavenging and building things post-collapse, crucial agricultural information, medical data for all kinds of emergencies, several herbal compendiums since there are no medicines, etc.

Because you had a cheap solar trickle charger and a laptop, you could do all of that. Could you do that with a calculator, books, and pencil and paper? Sure. How big a library would you need to do so? A huge one!

I have both. I fully expect to at least pass along that information as my most important duty in a collapse. My life is not that important. The information could save a lot of people. It also could help reestablish some sense of community. Books are great and are the long term insurance, but the other is equally important.

All for $200 and an one working laptop with preexisting documentation stored on numerous USB hard drives. The solar backup generator pictured might be far cheaper but it can't do a whole lot either. It does look rugged.

Soldiers, prepare your feet

I don't know about you, but I am constantly barefoot. It's been my practice since I was a kid. I only wore shoes if hiking or rock climbing. If river rafting or canoeing, I wear Teva sandals. Every other moment I'm practically always barefoot.

Why? I feel closer to Nature when I am unshod. I know it sounds dumb and I make no excuses for it. I hope you'll try it, but not be crazy like Cody on Dual Survival.

Now all of that exercise and exposure has made calluses on my feet and I haven't been a tenderfoot in decades and decades. But chances are high that you are not used to lots of hiking and you will soon fall prey to a foot injury. The most common injury during a disaster is a foot laceration.

For a soldier it's blisters and infection, because guys always always ignore it and say, “No worries. It'll be fine.” No, it won't and the last thing you want to be doing is hobbling and slowing everyone down in your party. Worse, if it gets infected, then you could easily not only affect your efficiency but could require medical assistance from the group. That's bad all around.

Soldiers and runners have learned there are four primary ways to increase the toughness of the soles of your feet.
1) Routine exposure and time
2) Rubbing alcohol
3) Tincture of Benzoin (it comes from Styrax trees[not domestic to America])
4) Tannic acid (finally something we can source in the wild)

If you have a lick of sense, you will begin applying a tiny amount of isopropol alcohol to the soles of your feet each night before bedtime. That will result in some hardening of the soles. That's going to save you lots and lots of blisters later when doing all that walking. Alternatively or even and/or, you can purchase some tincture of Benzoin and apply that too as a salve. Let it dry.

If you get a blister, you'll likely pop it, and also apply the Benzoin.

No doubt someone will make their own distilled spirits in a collapse. Until things are stable enough for that, the most wonderful foot cure can be found in acorns. One could also use a tea made of sumac berries if they are available. Both contain tannins, but the sumac tea makes a delicious beverage. Acorn tannic acid is tossed, but you might not have any depending upon season.

When boiling acorns, they give off lots and lots of tannic acid. One could merely apply a tiny amount to the soles of the feet after cleaning them and then let this dry. What's great is if you steam the acorn nut, it gives off tannins quickly but it also results in a mist of acorn oil. That oil will likely be the main emollient you will end up applying to your cracking skin. Remember: steam the nut...eat it fast and oil in the mist. Boil the nut...eat it after numerous washings...no oil. Only boiling will give you the tannin acid to apply to your feet.

If there are no acorns, then get some of the fresh oak bark or leaves, boil that, and apply it to the soles of the feet. Don't be silly and get some dried up oak or leaves that have been laying around for who knows how long, for the tannins have washed out some.

To a nonprepper, nonoutdoorsy person, who doesn't walk at all, none of this makes sense. To any soldier, runner, prepper, this makes perfect sense. If the soles of your feet are tougher then you will not get injured as easily and can walk further.

On a daily basis, you are going to carefully clean your feet even if you have no soap. You will take a little bracken fern root (they can be gathered in the shady forest regions, along cliff sides shady valleys, etc) using the same kind that you would harvest fiddleheads from for eating. That root contains saponins. While crushing that and swishing it in water will add some cleaning to the water. Then use that with a towel to wipe off your feet. Lightly prescrub the area with some sandstone. This will prevent fungal infection and prevent cracking. That same soap trip was used by English people in previous world wars to wash some clothing.

If there are no ferns and you've run out of the roots, then take a tiny amount of wood ash in water, boil it, then use that to cleanse unbroken skin. It contains a caustic so you will be very unhappy to get that in a wound.

I'd have a fingernail clipper with a file, but that's one more piece of gear. One can lightly buff the fingernails with a sandstone once a week to keep them to a manageable length. Learn how to cut your toenails. If you cut them too short, you will only increase the chance of an ingrown toenail.

If you get an ingrown toenail, applying that tannic acid to the region will toughen the skin so that the pain gets better. If infected, while draining it is not usually recommended, the accumulating pus won't get away without draining, so you must do it so it can heal. Don't overexpress the wound for that only makes healing take longer. Sanitize whatever you lance it with.

A foot laceration can take THREE WEEKS to heal! Do you really want to be bugging out, or on an extended hunting trip, and have a foot lac? No way.

In the field, clean it, and apply neosporin if you have it. If not, and it's very bad, then one could apply some dermabond (skin glue), but if you do that don't apply the neosporin. There's concern about trapping it in and causing irritation and slowing healing. A lot of medicines to clean and treat a wound can reduce fibroblast formation and so makes healing slow down. Not enough cleaning, leaving debris in there, not getting rid of the pus, means it makes a pocket, poisons the blood, and you lose a foot under collapse conditions. What does dermabond do? Makes a tight seal. You could seal in the infection so it takes someone who is not a complete idiot to use it.

The only way it will heal is to not walk on it. It won't heal if you pick at it. It doesn't matter to write those two sentences because 90% of you will do both. The other 10% will get healed feet faster.

If you're foolish enough to wear half boots (aka ankle boots), they will likely rub, and you'll induce a wound. Great, just great.

Corn starch is a soldier's best friend. That applied to areas that rub will immediately make those areas glide instead. And overweight person knows about skin chaffing during a run.

Expect for someone in your group to foolishly drop something on their bare feet, to leave out a sharp tool and cut another person's foot, for another to burn their feet on a hot coal, etc. Most people have no innate common sense. They are not used to camping and they will do these in every group.

Special considerations:

Youngsters have no dexterity unless they are some gymnasts or dancers. They will accidentally get into all kinds of trouble, be embarrassed and hurt themselves, then only tell you later when it's gotten bad enough to be an issue.

Diabetics with out of control blood sugar can get foot wounds very easily. See a past post on inspecting their feet on a daily basis and making sure they are cleaning up their feet and applying the tannic acid properly.

Older folks commonly lose their nerve sensation in their feet. That means they can't detect every little alteration in the ground, and that makes them often noisier when stealth is needed. That means they can get hurt easier and not feel as intense a foot pain, so again, you're inspecting everyone's feet to ensure that this is not happening.

Sound weird? Well, is it better to spend a few seconds to make sure they are taking care of little details like that, or to have to treat a serious food laceration for weeks and really slow things down and have a person down for chore duty?

When you assume that they will do what you tell them, you make an ass out of you and me.

How you prevent an ingrown toenail

I would bet that 90% of you cut your toenails wrong. Usually that is no big deal, for regular bathing, being young and invulnerable, or very lucky, or never walking any distance, then you don't get them.

You probably cut your toenails the same way you cut your fingernails by rounding them off. DON'T DO THAT with fingernails, for when you are bugging out and walking seven miles a day, you will get ingrown toenails.

You want to cut the toenail straight across and leaving more nail than you might on your fingertips. See the picture at the bottom of this page.
[link to www.bupa.co.uk]

If you round off the nail, it will begin to regrow and forced into the crevice you created. Not a big deal if only walking a couple a blocks a day. A huge deal when walking more than a mile each day.

If one were desperate under collapse conditions, then you can take a portion of the nail away on the infected rubbing side as seen in this page.
[link to orthoinfo.aaos.org]

All of this seems silly, right? This is why the drill sergeants in Basic Training go crazy. Most of you think you know what to do, for your way has always worked for you. It won't work under dangerous conditions, and your errors will put others at risk. Imagine all the soldiers in training that they have tried to keep out of harm's way. That's why they get so fired up. Listen and learn so you don't suffer and use up your tribe's resources.