SitX has come, Civilisation has broken down.. How would you live long term??

Hi everybody!

I've been doing some research / reading and it got me thinking to how would you survive long term after sitX has come. I'm talking about habitat / shelter not surviving. Its 4am here and I've woken up and cant get back to sleep! my house mates cat decided to creep around and wake me up the dam thing!

time to knock around some ideas for your long term survival goals! lets have a bit of fun with this, some of what I say wont be realistic but it's something I'd be trying for!

Having a tent is great, but not really viable for long term living and shelters are a good alternative but not permanent.

So would you opt for rebuilding your shelter and going on the move hoping to find supplies on the road.
or, and this is what I would tend to favour :

would you build something? I tend to favour this as it will give you something to concentrate on and not dwell upon! as well as providing heat and comfort.


I'd construct a relatively simple log cabin at first to get out of the elements and save my tent. The area I plan on bugging out to is surrounded by a forest and underground water, and I've never seen anybody else around there whilst I've been walking / camping!! which makes long term survival viable.

Nice and simple to start with. I'd construct a central fireplace / hob from clay bricks (dig down and you'll come across suitable material) not overly lavish yet just simple enough to house a fire inside (the type isn't in the scope of this post but log / alternate fuels such as waste food etc). This would take care of the most important items in survival shelter and heat.
Out side I'd cultivate some plants and herbs, from the seeds I've stashed and from cuttings of surrounding ones. It'd be a few pretty big areas scattered around to try to avoid to look of being man made as best as possible. (the average joe doesn't know what herbs / plants grow in certain areas)

Before you read this bit, bear in mind I'm a computer nerd nowadays and have been tinkering with electronics and things like that all my life!

Then and here comes the extreme and far out bits!!!! I'd probably take a trip into the local town and acquire through bartering or not if there's nobody around, some metal cans, poles, plastic bottles and some other bits and pieces to construct a Stirling engine (anybody remember these from school?!). A simple engine that relies on heat to be power a simple piston that can be attached to a fly wheel etc. This I'd use to generate small amounts of electric to power some l.e.d lights around the hut. You'll will get about 15watts from a smallish Stirling engine and with some clever wiring this will be enough to power a good number of L.e.d's. Mainly around the bedding area so I could read / write when its dark. This would be popped over the fire (might as well make use of all the energy rather than waste it!) and at push could even power recharging batteries for a radio or torch.

To stop me from going insane I'd spend my time improving and expanding my shelter and supply of power / heat. Of course every trip away from your camp is dangerous, but we still need to meet and socialise with people so rebuilding friendships would be vital! and I'll be dammed if I have to spend the rest of my life alone without a nice young lady!

So your thinking this is not very realistic then by now I should imagine?! maybe that I'm a bit of a whack job .... but ask yourself why? sitX doesn't mean people stop being people and inventive. After all if that was the case then America wouldn't be the super power it is today, people wouldn't have overcome the plague in Europe etc. People learn and invent things and that wouldn't stop in me! I know I'd be constantly on the scavenge for things I could use to build items to make my life easier! I'm not saying create a PS3 or anything like that, but basic power generation is something that is very very very easy to do!

so! what would your plans be?.. oh and I'm not a nut

Vortex, as we're in the same area geographically speaking, take a trip up to the hills between me and thee and there is an over-abundance of construction materials to hand in the form of dry-stone walls 4ft plus high that run for as far as you can see across the dales (thanks to the 'enclosures act')...a few people working over a couple of days could quite easily build a stone cairn structure that can be further covered in earth-filled carrier bags and then topped with turf to give a solid and insulated structure

worked for bronze-age man as a house-building method, so it will just be as practically useful now

The other option would be to aquire a transit van and drive into the hills, dig a pit deep enough to drive the vehicle into and then top-over with a roof-structure. This would give you an almost hermetic-sealed living-space for a couple of people, ability to run the electrics from the vans power systems, and a possible escape vehicle for later times if forced to relocate

Prime aquisitions would be scaffold pipes, clamps, and boards to build trussed roof structures, and chainlink fencing to build gabion walls

[edit on 5-11-2008 by citizen smith]

Originally posted by citizen smith
Vortex, as we're in the same area geographically speaking, take a trip up to the hills between me and thee and there is an over-abundance of construction materials to hand in the form of dry-stone walls 4ft plus high that run for as far as you can see across the dales (thanks to the 'enclosures act')...a few people working over a couple of days could quite easily build a stone cairn structure that can be further covered in earth-filled carrier bags and then topped with turf to give a solid and insulated structure

worked for bronze-age man as a house-building method, so it will just be as practically useful now

The other option would be to aquire a transit van and drive into the hills, dig a pit deep enough to drive the vehicle into and then top-over with a roof-structure. This would give you an almost hermetic-sealed living-space for a couple of people, ability to run the electrics from the vans power systems, and a possible escape vehicle for later times if forced to relocate

Prime aquisitions would be scaffold pipes, clamps, and boards to build trussed roof structures, and chainlink fencing to build gabion walls

[edit on 5-11-2008 by citizen smith]

oh good idea, I like the idea on the bronze age house! I'll make it my next survival project after I've finished my "test" hut. Using the time now to practice and learn. I'd be interested in learning the engineering aspects of a simple underground long terms storage hut. Mainly the tension and compression strengths of the basic frames and materials etc

at the moment I'm at a slight disadvantage.... I don't drive. So all materials need to be sourced at the location, hence the log cabin would have an abundant source of materials in my chosen area's. I will be purchasing a BOV in the form of a 250cc scrambler when my next client has been invoiced so I can extend my recon out wards. But I think I'll take a hike out at the weekend. I've only ever seen the remains of the walls around my area, and loads of other fencing but I'm not the sort to piss a farmer off and free his livestock lol

I've got a list of common land (in west yorkshire) as interim camping and practice sites if anybody is interested?

Id live in old caves, get a man powered generator, lights, seeds, water and my B.O.G.(bug out gear) live off what ever i can grow and hunt. there are tons of cave systems in america that are not completly explored or that are very deep and off the beaten path. throw in a tent, sleeping bag, blacket guns and ammo and youre set.

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The other option would be to aquire a transit van and drive into the hills, dig a pit deep enough to drive the vehicle into and then top-over with a roof-structure. This would give you an almost hermetic-sealed living-space for a couple of people, ability to run the electrics from the vans power systems, and a possible escape vehicle for later times if forced to relocate


[edit on 5-11-2008 by citizen smith]

Actually the commest accepted method that has actually been used is to partially bury a shipping container into the side of a hill after first spraying it with waxoil and coveringing it with builders plastic, If you get a 30 / 40 footer you have enough space to build a decent shelter and to keep your tranny van in, it needs to be indeally stodd on something like dolmite or granite ballast so water does not pool around its based. the noted survivalist writer "John Locke" from Northamptonshire has spent a great deal of time looking into using shipping containers for suirvivalism.