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Reading these threads is well, interesting...As someone who wants to eventually purchase a small farm, heat my home entirely with wood, go solar, etc...I'm very into self sufficiency. However, whenever I read these threads about how the world is ending there's always a common theme: Stocking up on firearms, ammunition, fuel (diesel, kerosene, gasoline, etc...), and the like. Anyone who is doing this has shot themselves in the foot right there. Unless you install storage tanks reminiscent of the 1 million+ gallon jobs you see driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, how long will it really last? Six months? A year? More importantly, even if you have a huge stockpile, how long until it goes bad? Even diesel will "go stale" albeit it will take a lot longer than gasoline. Ammunition? Again, you'd better have a warehouse full because even if you're reloading (even then you need a supply of lead, gunpowder, primers, etc...) eventually you'll run out. It isn't as if the good folks at Remington and the like will be continuing to produce after the end of the world.
"Civilized" society has also created a lot of "booby-traps" for us in a sense as well. Maybe 100 years ago you would have been safe to dig a surface well anywhere (the one you have may run dry or the pump may go bad and you can't fix it) and get clean water-now due to environmental pollution who knows what you'll get. How about when nuclear reactors, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities begin to implode due to the fact that the infrastructure around them has been destroyed? Nuclear fallout and chemical clouds will drift around the United States via wind currents which you can't hide from.
The fact is that any post TEOTWAWKI existence is going to more like "Clan of the Cave Bear" and not "Red Dawn." The only way to truly survive longterm (I'm talking 10+ years-human society isn't going to just remake itself overnight) will be to revert to a hunter/gatherer type existence. Instead of lusting over the latest issue of guns and ammo, you ought to be learning how to make a longbow and arrows from scratch as well as how to shoot it accurately. Snares and pit traps are worth studying too. Find yourself a knowledgeable Native American to talk to-they're the original survivalists. It's humorous that some folks think that we're going to go back to a bucolic simple time a'la the Waltons with the occasional firefight with looters if the world totally collapses.
Reading these threads is well, interesting...As someone who wants to eventually purchase a small farm, heat my home entirely with wood, go solar, etc...I'm very into self sufficiency. However, whenever I read these threads about how the world is ending there's always a common theme: Stocking up on firearms, ammunition, fuel (diesel, kerosene, gasoline, etc...), and the like. Anyone who is doing this has shot themselves in the foot right there. Unless you install storage tanks reminiscent of the 1 million+ gallon jobs you see driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, how long will it really last? Six months? A year? More importantly, even if you have a huge stockpile, how long until it goes bad? Even diesel will "go stale" albeit it will take a lot longer than gasoline. Ammunition? Again, you'd better have a warehouse full because even if you're reloading (even then you need a supply of lead, gunpowder, primers, etc...) eventually you'll run out. It isn't as if the good folks at Remington and the like will be continuing to produce after the end of the world.
"Civilized" society has also created a lot of "booby-traps" for us in a sense as well. Maybe 100 years ago you would have been safe to dig a surface well anywhere (the one you have may run dry or the pump may go bad and you can't fix it) and get clean water-now due to environmental pollution who knows what you'll get. How about when nuclear reactors, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities begin to implode due to the fact that the infrastructure around them has been destroyed? Nuclear fallout and chemical clouds will drift around the United States via wind currents which you can't hide from.
The fact is that any post TEOTWAWKI existence is going to more like "Clan of the Cave Bear" and not "Red Dawn." The only way to truly survive longterm (I'm talking 10+ years-human society isn't going to just remake itself overnight) will be to revert to a hunter/gatherer type existence. Instead of lusting over the latest issue of guns and ammo, you ought to be learning how to make a longbow and arrows from scratch as well as how to shoot it accurately. Snares and pit traps are worth studying too. Find yourself a knowledgeable Native American to talk to-they're the original survivalists. It's humorous that some folks think that we're going to go back to a bucolic simple time a'la the Waltons with the occasional firefight with looters if the world totally collapses.
That the scenerio in the book "Earth Abides" plague wipesout 90% of population then they de-civilize to hunter gatherer. I cling to guns and a compound bow while I teach the kids to parch corn and make a pit snare.
I know this is the "Green" forum but if we're talking survival here for heat get a wood/coal stove. Anthracite coal has about 25 to 28 million BTU's per ton at 40 cubic feet per ton and it can be stored forever, anywhere...
Roughly speaking you can get a tractor trailer load of 22 tons for about $3300 plus shipping. A typical 2000 sq. foot home will burn about 5 tons in year but since we're talking survival here I'm sure you could whittle that down to 2 tons a year in a 1000 sq. ft home.
In 11 years start burning wood.
FYI comapring to other fossil fules anthracite is quite envirmetally friendly, CO2 aside only Natural Gas is cleaner. As the saying goes it's not just coal, It's anthracite.
Actually thats chapter 2 in my manual. Send a fire team to blow the tracks at one end of town and stop the daily coal train.( this will also cut town access from the east) Another will secure the one grocery store in town and another (mine) will secure the power plant. got to be ready!!!!
Think so? I'm talking to a publisher right now it's gonna be a money maker!!!!
Daily coal train? WTH You go, my54ford! I'm sure it'll be a huge success... And if you're not writing a manual, you should!!! Can't wait to read it, since apparently I need schooling in this area -
99.9% of the coal trains are bituminous coal, so not only will they be able to smell you a mile away they'll be able to see you. Anthracite burns with little smell (e.g) you'd have to be next to the chimney) and no smoke so you maintain your stealth. If you put a anthracite coal fired stove into a very urban environment your neighbors will never even know you have it.
The fact is that any post TEOTWAWKI existence is going to more like "Clan of the Cave Bear" and not "Red Dawn." The only way to truly survive longterm (I'm talking 10+ years-human society isn't going to just remake itself overnight) will be to revert to a hunter/gatherer type existence. Instead of lusting over the latest issue of guns and ammo, you ought to be learning how to make a longbow and arrows from scratch as well as how to shoot it accurately. Snares and pit traps are worth studying too. Find yourself a knowledgeable Native American to talk to-they're the original survivalists. It's humorous that some folks think that we're going to go back to a bucolic simple time a'la the Waltons with the occasional firefight with looters if the world totally collapses.
A Clan of the Cavebear world is likely to some extent. But so is a version of Red Dawn. Or more like the series Jericho, especially the fighting between the two towns over resourses. If you look at when TEOTWAWKI hit the Roman Empire, life became hard and hungry and terribly violent for the surivivors. Warlords dominated and war became endemic.
Tribal alliances will become the way of life because it is the most basic form of human interaction. Even in this massive society people have their own tribes, because part of our identity is a managable size of society. I read a homestead group and its true a lot of people expect the world to be quiet and basic and have not considered defending themselves. But when you get more towards the survival point of view the expectation is that you will be challenged for what you have. At first, when the sheeple are running amock, defending yourself and your possessions will matter a lot. Later as those who do not survive are gone a more even keel can exist.
Good point about the environment. We wouldn't be hunting and gathering in virgin land, but what is left of the earth we are destroying. And the mass of our society has no idea how to start. They'll be the ones who are taken over by the people who do know because survival takes whatever you have to do, and after the beginning those who will not give up will be left.
I believe we are headed to some version of TEOTWAWKI, but most likely a slow slip downward. There will be less need to adjust fast but a gradual fading of what we are, and each generation will lose a little more than the last. Tribes will come together... but perhaps the level of voilence will be less.
In any event, store up on a supply of food. If the world stays fine you have extra groceries, or supplies for a natural disastor. And learn how to garden and save seeds. At the worse you'll have some nice fresh vegies and save some money.
99.9% of the coal trains are bituminous coal, so not only will they be able to smell you a mile away they'll be able to see you. Anthracite burns with little smell (e.g) you'd have to be next to the chimney) and no smoke so you maintain your stealth. If you put a anthracite coal fired stove into a very urban environment your neighbors will never even know you have it.
This is sub-b less sulfur still some stinky stuff though! I don't care btu is btu..........
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You go, my54ford! I'm sure it'll be a huge success...
And if you're not writing a manual, you should!!! Can't wait to read it, since apparently I need schooling in this area - 
