$4000 and an acre

Continued from previous post,

There is always an exit:
The next thing on the list would be to make darn sure the other is fully aware of the finality of this said adventure, and if he/she chooses to stay... fine for us either way.

Alright, cut to the chase and all is well.. but unfortunately there is the possibility that in less than 8 hours we will not be alone here. That is a staggering thought, as I'm gonna place some bets that we aren't the only ones heading into the woods... and yes even if this place is hospitable it will soon be inhabited than much more than the available flora and fauna... foraging for meals will come difficult in the short term. Once ML hits the fan... every rambo with a knife will be up in these parts, some could be friendly... some may not and that is why I stress the time factor.

Unload the supplies... set up a rendevous point or basecamp. Get rations of food out, eat.. and take stock of the sit again, discuss and call it a night.

2nd light:
Throw my bike in the vehicle, get my bearings and head off to ditch the rig far out for a diversionary tactic.

Diversion:
Setup: 1 Hour out:
Drive to drop point.
Hop on bike and head back. Trying to get back to basecamp by nightfall.

From there, it's all in the wait.
Lock and load... set some traps (for humans and animals) and once again try to get the big picture.

Unfortunately, it is alot harder than it looks, and as of now... I'm tired from pedaling. I'm becoming slightly uncomfortable with the thoughts of what should be done, and what will become of us.


I ask,
"What says you?"
What would be the next thing to do.
On second thought, maybe it would have been a better idea to take the cash and drive to winnemucca for some hedonistic pleasures... go out with a bang so to speak?
Ahhh well, hindsight is always 20/20.

Feel free to take this idea where you will, as for now it's quite late... and I'm out of strength and ideas.

Looking forward to more,
T-


[edit to add some humor]


[edit on 19-2-2008 by telemetry]

[edit on 19-2-2008 by telemetry]

reply to post by Noah-What


Yep, I got all of my books from Amazon...

I would highly recommend "Bushcraft Skills and How to Survive in the Wild: A Step-by-Step Practical Guide", it has large color pictures and great step by step instructions for n00bs ... which is helpful since FM 21-76 depending on your copy might not be that descriptive on how to do certain things.

Man I would love to have a $4000 budget to create a survival site... I am having to do it but with only $1000 which makes it a bit harder.

reply to post by Triarchic


Thank you.

I'll see if i can get a copy from amazon.

reply to post by Noah-What


No military commander in his right mind is going to invade the US without expecting a to lose at least 4-5 million troops and killing at least 10% of the population. Nothing like an military invasion to really tick-off the average joe in the US. Seriously, every military commander since Yamamoto has known that invading the US would be a serious strategic mistake.

Other posters have given some pretty good laundry lists. Instead of re-posting their ideas, I'll just focus on a couple of strategies I'd try:


The OP set up a scenario with a wooded lot. So I'd get a chainsaw. In Colorado, I'd expect the wood to be maybe ponderosa pine; hopefully we're not on the side of a mountain 10,000 feet up. The problem with most pines is their highly acidic sap. It makes the soil difficult to grow anything but pine trees. You can't compost them very quickly, either. But I'd think about all that pinewood fuel, even if it's not great quality--hey, it's paid for.

The problem with pine fuel is that it's aromatic, meaning you can smell it burning for miles. So the question you'd have to answer on site is, can you burn it without drawing predators. In general, the colder it is, the less humans are out in the woods. So you might be able to risk a fire when it's really cold at night, but maybe not just to have a fire going for cooking.

I'd get a gas grill. Propane prices have tripled, but 20 bucks for a month's cooking is still a great deal. The fuel has no odor, and you can precisely control the temperature. 5 or six 6 propane bottles will last you through the coming summer while you develop other options.

With the chainsaw, I'd start building some shelter, even camoflage for the vehicle. I would also start fencing in an area, even if it's only the size of a large room. . . .

When it comes to water, I didn't hear anything about a creek or spring. A solar still is critical in that case, while I'd be looking for some USGS maps to see where the water table is estimated. Again, this would depend more one WHICH acre of colorado I had to work with.

For gardening, I'd get some big bags of soil ammendment suitable for the land I have to work with. My experience with gardens is to begin small and expand as you learn to deal with the local conditions. I'd be getting basic shovels, hoes, rakes. If the four grand wasn't exhausted, I'd look at a roto-tiller. They use about as much gas a push lawn-mower, and you could till a huge garden with one. Some even have attachments that would be useful. I've had a lot of success with green beans in different climates. Potatoes also do well in the rainshadow of the rockies. Depending on elevation, I'd look at some root crops like carrots and beets. I wouldn't grow lettuce crops, but settle for poke salad instead. I would skip corn because of it's high water needs. Depending on elevation, I'd try for barley and buckwheat. I've had a lot of success feeding pigs on buckwheat.

I've raised pigs before, and I'm pretty comfortable with them. A couple of bushels of grain, and some weedy land, and you really don't have to feed them that much for a summer. I've started with 4 sows and a boar, but you could do 2 and one and be fine. Again, local forage would be dictated by the particularities of the land I have to deal with. 4 panels of pig fence are pretty cheap, but I'd need some other tools; a bander and whatnot. I'd try to build a moveable sty that I could rotate around the land. By day, I'd let them rove, and call 'em home at night. Sharpened pickets of ponderosa are called "coyote fence" in New Mexico, and my sty would feature a ring of picket fence made that way, about 5 feet high.

Wife and I are talking about chickens, and this would be my chance to start. chicken wire, empty feedsacks and the wheel from a wheel barrow will make a great portable chicken coop. a 40 lb bag of ground oyster shells, a bushel of wheat will feed a dozen hens for a year. Forget the chicken chow. They'll love bugs and weeds, and should be fine for a while.

Personally, I don't think 4 people can live off a single acre. They could come fairly close, but the books on sufficiency say you really need five acres. So figure on a lot of hunting. An SKS is only a hundred bucks; but figure your neighbors will be poaching out of season and all. So snares will do a lot better. Even so, plan on leaving the lot frequently to forage on the neighboring land. I love to fish, but without the NPS stocking the streams, look for humans to denude them over the course of a single summer. The fact is, you're going to have to poach and squat on the neighbors' property to survive. So start making friends.


.

Thanks again to the OP for starting this thread. I've been thinking about it instead of the guests at a business party this evening. I've got to post and then get to bed; work is already waiting on my desk for the morning.

I have been thinking about planning for the acre in phases.

The first phase, I'm calling "camper plus."
I would basically treat the first 3 or 4 days like I was camping, to give myself time to adjust. It might mean even sleeping in the vehicle if the weather wasn't too cold. I'd buy food for this phase that is mainly comfort food for us. Include some candy bars, some canned soups, some things with a shorter shelf-life. they'd help us adjust to life outdoors, and cushion the transition. For instance, Toilet paper. I've lived outside for weeks at a time. While you're getting used to getting up at the butt-crack of dawn, eating weird food, and working all day, the last thing you want to do is wipe with a fistfull of leaves. You want some real toilet paper. It's bulky but cheap, and makes that first week in the wild a tiny bit more civilized.

The second phase is "survivor: colorado"
This is where you focus on building a shelter that will stand a serious drenching downpour. Where you start thinking about your food and heatiing supplies for the coming winter. You organize your work areas into food processing, food storage (both away from sleeping area), secure quarters, and a "workshop" for projects like building more advanced tools.

Phase 3 is "self sufficiency"
I have no idea how long it takes to get here. This is the point at which you are cutting wild grass for winter forage and bedding (making your own hay), planting crops, using the roto-tiller to dig irrigation ditches and terraces. You have calculated how much wood you'll burn this winter, and are setting it up. You're curing your own ham, making your own omlettes, and beginning to live off your own produce, rather than on food you brought in before TSHTF.

Phase 4: "The republic of ME"
You've built a redoubt that protects your sleeping area, you have an "alarm system" in place, and weapons for dealing with unwelcome guests. You have spare supplies cached, and you barter for what you want.


I have no idea how long these would take, but they give me an idea of what to plan for. I would want to take some tools for each phase, and plan to survive each one and pass beyond it. More later.

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Sounds like you have a good plan Dr. I agree that any extra food you bring along with you will help in the transition to self sufficency as long as I don't lay around in a hamock all day long when i should be working. Comfort food is important especially if you have children with you, it helps in their transition in that envirnoment. Toilet paper is a big comfort item for me, I will use no pine cone before its time.

I saw an excellent show on a foreseeable mega-drought on the History Channel Monday. They picked the one topic everyone seems to forget in the discussion: water or more precisely, water harvesting. If you don't have a drywell or cistern, it should be one of your first priorities. I've hauled water and it ain't no fun. If you dig a below ground cistern, make sure it's at least 100 ft or more uphill from your outhouse,cess pool or septic system. Any water storage pond should also be as far away as possible from your waste disposal area.

On the Mega-Disaster episode Monday they showed how the Native Americans in Chaco Canyon dammed every natural water course in the canyon to capture water that flowed off the cliff above them and got corn to grow in what appeared to be dry sand trapped behind the stacked rock dams they created to capture the water. If the archeologists are correct, Chacco Canyon was the most densely populated area in the Southwest until the 1930's.

I'd start with at least a 500 gallon tank if you're dry camping(no running water) or 5,000 if you have running water. If your irrigating a small garden. I'd plan on at least 20,000 gallons of water storage. Hope you have at least 20" inches of rain per year where your mountain acre is at because you'll need at least that much to survive in a year without some sort of pumping water well.

reply to post by crgintx


Good point crgintx

Water is important to survival, number 1 I believe.

Water
Food
Fire
Shelter

Thanks for the info.