Basic Survival 101
My
brother visited Argentina a few weeks ago. He‚s been living in Spain
for a few years now. Within the first week, he got sick, some kind of
strong flu, even though climate isn‚t that cold and he took care of
himself. Without a doubt he got sick because there are lots of new
viruses in my country that can‚t be found in 1st world countries. The
misery and famine lead us to a situation where, even though you have
food, shelter and health care, most of others don‚t, and therefore they
get sick and spread the diseases all over the region.
What
got me started on this post is the fact that I actually saw this
coming, and posted on the subject here at Frugal‚s, months before the
new viruses spread over the country and the news started talking about
this new, health emergency, which proves that talking, thinking and
sharing ideas with like minded people (you guys), does help to see
things coming and prepare for them with enough time. So I started
thinking about several issues, what I learned (either the hard way or
thanks to this forum) after all these years of living in a collapsed
country that is trying to get out an economical disaster and everything
that comes along with it. Though my English is limited, I hope I‚m able
to transmit the main ideas and concepts, giving you a better image of
what you may have to deal with some day, if the economy collapses in
your country. Here is what I have so far:
URBAN OR COUNTRY?
Someone
once asked me how did those that live in the country fare. If they were
better off than city dwellers. As always there are no simple answers.
Wish I could say country good, city bad, but I can‚t, because if I have
to be completely honest, and I intend to be so, there are some issues
that have to be analyzed, especially security. Of course that those
that live in the country and have some land and animals were better
prepared food-wise. No need to have several acres full of crops. A few
fruit trees, some animals, such as chickens, cows and rabbits, and a
small orchard was enough to be light years ahead of those in the cities.
Chickens,
eggs and rabbits would provide the proteins, a cow or two for milk and
cheese, some vegetables and fruit plants covered the vegetable diet,
and some eggs or a rabbit could be traded for flower to make bread and
pasta or sugar and salt.
Of course that there are
exceptions, for example, some provinces up north have desert climate,
and it almost never rains. It is almost impossible to live of the land,
and animals require food and water you have to buy. Those guys had it
bad; no wonder the Northern provinces suffer the most in my country.
Those that live in cities, well they have to manage as they can. Since
food prices went up about 200%-300%. People would cut expenses wherever
they could so they could buy food. Some ate whatever they could; they
hunted birds or ate street dogs and cats, others starved. When it comes
to food, cities suck in a crisis. It is usually the lack of food or the
impossibility to acquire it that starts the rioting and looting when
TSHTF.
When it comes to security things get even more
complicated. Forget about shooting those that mean you harm from 300
yards away with your MBR. Leave that notion to armchair commandos and
12 year old kids that pretend to be grown ups on the internet.
Some facts:
1) Those that want to harm you/steal from you don‚t come with a pirate flag waving over their heads.
2) Neither do they start shooting at you 200 yards away.
3)
They won‚t come riding loud bikes or dressed with their orange, convict
just escaped from prison jump suits, so that you can identify them the
better. Nor do they all wear chains around their necks and leather
jackets. If I had a dollar for each time a person that got robbed told
me „They looked like NORMAL people, dressed better than we are‰,
honestly, I would have enough money for a nice gun. There are
exceptions, but don‚t expect them to dress like in the movies.
4) A
man with a wife and two or three kids can‚t set up a watch. I don‚t
care if you are SEAL, SWAT or John Freaking Rambo, no 6th sense is
going to tell you that there is a guy pointing a gun at your back when
you are trying to fix the water pump that just broke, or carrying a big
heavy bag of dried beans you bought that morning.
The best
alarm system anyone can have in a farm are dogs. But dogs can get
killed and poisoned. A friend of mine had all four dogs poisoned on his
farm one night, they all died. After all these years I learned that
even though the person that lives out in the country is safer when it
comes to small time robberies, that same person is more exposed to
extremely violent home robberies. Criminals know that they are isolated
and their feeling of invulnerability is boosted. When they assault a
country home or farm, they will usually stay there for hours or days
torturing the owners. I heard it all: women and children getting raped,
people tied to the beds and tortured with electricity, beatings, burned
with acetylene torches. Big cities aren‚t much safer for the
survivalist that decides to stay in the city. He will have to face
express kidnappings, robberies, and pretty much risking getting shot
for what‚s in his pockets or even his clothes.
So, where
to go? The concrete jungle is dangerous and so is living away from it
all, on your own. The solution is to stay away from the cities but in
groups, either by living in a small town-community or sub division, or
if you have friends or family that think as you do, form your own small
community. Some may think that having neighbors within „shouting‰
distance means loosing your privacy and freedom, but it‚s a price that
you have to pay if you want to have someone to help you if you ever
need it. To those that believe that they will never need help from
anyone because they will always have their rifle at hand, checking the
horizon with their scope every five minutes and a first aid kit on
their back packs at all times∑. Grow up.
SERVICES
What
ever sort of scenario you are dealing with, services are more than
likely to either suffer in quality or disappear all together. Think
ahead of time; analyze possible SHTF scenarios and which service should
be affected by it in your area. Think about the most likely scenario
but also think outside the box. What‚s more likely? A tornado? But a
terrorist attack isn‚t as crazy as you though it would be a few years
ago, isn‚t it?
Also analyze the consequences of those
services going down. If there is no power then you need to do something
about all that meat you have in the fridge, you can dry it or can it.
Think about the supplies you would need for these tasks before you
actually need them. You have a complete guide on how to prepare the
meat on you computer∑ how will you get it out of there if there is no
power? Print everything that you consider important.
WATER
No
one can last too long without water. The urban survivalist may find
that the water is of poor quality, in which case he can make good use
of a water filter, or that there is no water available at all. When
this happens, a large city were millions live will run out of bottled
water within minutes. In my case, tap water isn‚t very good. I can see
black little particles and some other stuff that looks like dead algae.
Taste isn‚t that bad. Not good but I know that there are parts of the
country where it is much worse. To be honest, a high percentage of the
country has no potable water at all.
If you can build a well, do so,
set it as your top of the list priority as a survivalist. Water comes
before firearms, medicines and even food. Save as much water as you
can. Use plastic bottles, refill soda bottles and place them in a cool
place, preferably inside a black garbage bag to protect it from sun
light. The water will pick some plastic taste after a few months, but
water that tastes a little like plastic is far way better than no water
at all. What ever the kind of SHTF scenario you are dealing with, water
will suffer. In my case the economical crash created problems with the
water company, that reduces the maintenance and quality in order to
reduce costs and keep their income in spite of the high prices they
have to pay for supplies and equipment, most of which comes from
abroad, and after the 2001 crash, costs 3 times more. As always, the
little guy gets to pay for it. Same would go for floods or chemical or
biological attacks. Water requires delicate care and it will suffer
when TSHTF in one way or another. In this case, when you still have tap
water, a quality filter is in order, as well as a pump if you can have
one. A manual pump would be ideal as well if possible. Estimate that
you need one approximately a gallon per person per day. Try to have at
least two-four weeks worth of water. More would be preferable.
POWER
I
spent WAY to much time without power for my own taste. Power has always
been a problem in my country, even before the 2001 crisis. The real
problem starts when you spend more than just a few hours without light.
Just after the SHTF in 2001 half the country went without power for 3
days. Buenos Aires was one big dark grave. People got caught on
elevators, food rots; hospitals that only had a few hours worth of fuel
for their generators ran out of power. Without power, days get to be a
lot shorter. Once the sun sets there is not much you can do. I read
under candle light and flashlight light and your head starts to hurt
after a while. You can work around the house a little bit but only as
long as you don‚t need power tools. Crime also increases once the
lights go out, so whenever you have to go somewhere in a black out,
carry the flashlight on one hand and a handgun on the other.
Summarizing,
being in a city without light turn to be depressing after a while. I
spent my share of nights, alone, listening to the radio, eating canned
food and cleaning my guns under the light of my LED head lamp. Then I
got married, had a son, and found out that when you have loved ones
around you black outs are not as bad. The point is that family helps
morale on these situations.
A note on flashlights. Have
two or three head LED lights. They are not expensive and are worth
their weight in gold. A powerful flashlight is necessary, something
like a big Maglite or better yet a SureFire, especially when you have
to check your property for intruders. But for more mundane stuff like
preparing food, going to the toilet or doing stuff around the house,
the LED headlamp is priceless. Try washing the dishes on the dark while
holding a 60 lumen flashlight on one hand and you‚ll know what I mean.
LEDs also have the advantage of lasting for almost an entire week of
continuous use and the light bulb lasts forever. Rechargeable batteries
are a must or else you‚ll end up broke if lights go out often. Have a
healthy amount of spare quality batteries and try to standardize as
much as you can. I have 12 Samsung NM 2500Mh AA and 8 AAA 800mh for the
headlamps. I use D cell plastic adaptors in order to use AA batteries
on my 3 D cell Maglite. This turned out to work quite well, better than
I expected. I also keep about 2 or 3 packs of regular, Duracell
batteries just in case. These are supposed to expire around 2012, so I
can forget about them until I need them. Rechargeable NM batteries have
the disadvantage of loosing power after a period of time, so keep
regular batteries as well and check the rechargeable ones every once in
a while.
After all these years of problems with power, what two items I would love to have?
1)
The obvious, a generator. I carried my fridge food to my parent‚s house
way to many times on the past. Too bad I can‚t afford one right now.
2)
A battery charger that has both solar panel and a small crank. They are
not available here. I saw that they are relatively inexpensive in USA.
Do yourself a favor and get one or two of these. Even if they don‚t
charge as well as regular ones, I‚m sure it will put out enough power
to charge batteries for LED lamps at least.
GAS
Gas has
decreased in quality as well, there is little gas. Try to have an
electric oven in case you have to do without it. If both electricity
and gas go down, one of those camping stoves can work as well, if you
keep a good supply of gas cans. The ones that work with liquid fuel
seem to be better on the long run, since they can use different types
of fuel. You can only store a limited amount of compressed gas and once
you ran out of it, you are on your own if stores are closed of they
sold them out. Anyway, a city that goes without gas and light for more
than two weeks is a death trap, get out of there before it‚s too late.
A DIFFERENT MENTALITY
I
was watching the People & Art channel with my wife the other night.
It was a show where they film a couple for a given period of time and
some people vote on who is the one with the worst habits, the one they
find more annoying. We were in our bed, and this is when I usually fall
asleep but since the guy was a firearms police instructor I was
interested and managed to stay awake. At one point the guy‚s wife said
that she found annoying that her husband spent 500 dollars a month on
beauty products for himself. 500 USD on facial cream, special shampoo
and conditioner, as well as having his nails polished! If you are that
guy and happen to be reading this, or if you know him, I‚m sorry, but
what an idiot!! „500 USD, that‚s a small generator or a gun and a few
boxes of ammo‰ I told my wife. „That‚s two months worth of food‰ she
said. We were each thinking of a practical use for that money, the
money this guy was practically throwing away. Once the SHTF, money is
no longer measured in money, but you start seeing it as the necessary
goods it can buy. Stuff like food, medicine, gas, or the private
medical service bill. To me, spending 500 dollars on beauty products,
and to make it worse, on a guy? That‚s simply not acceptable. The way I
see it, someone with that mentality can‚t survive a week without a
credit card, no use in even considering a SHTF scenario. And this guy
is a firearms instructor?∑ probably the kind of guy that will say that
a handgun is only used to fight his way to his rifle∑ and his facial
night cream∑
Once you experience the lack of stuff you
took for granted, like food , medicines, your set of priorities change
all of a sudden. For example, I had two wisdom tooth removed last year.
On both occasions I was prescribed with antibiotics and strong
Ibuprofen for the pain. I took the antibiotics (though I did buy two
boxes with the same recipe just to keep one box just in case) but I
didn‚t use the Ibuprofen, I added it to my pile of medicines. Why,
because medicines are not always available and I‚m not sure if they
will be available in the future. Sure, it hurt like hell, but pain
alone isn‚t going to kill you, so I sucked it up. Good for building up
character if you ask me.
Make sacrifices so as to ensure a
better future, that‚s the mentality you should have if you want to be
prepared. There‚s stuff that is „nice to have‰ that has to be
sacrificed to get the indispensable stuff. There‚s stuff that is not
„basic need stuff‰ but it‚s also important in one way or another. My
wife goes to the hairdresser once every month or two. It‚s not life or
death, but it does make her feel better and it boosts her morale. I buy
a game for the Xbox or a movie to watch with my wife every once in
awhile, just to relax. 7 or 10 dollars a month are not going to burn a
hole in my pocket. Addictions such as alcohol, drugs or even cigarettes
should be avoided by the survivalist. They are bad for your health;
cost a lot of money that could be much better spent, and create an
addiction to something that may not be available in the future. Who
will have to tolerate your grouchy mood when your brand of smokes is no
longer imported after TSHTF?
˜ FerFAL