Real World Survivalism for the coming Depression

reply to post by Exmar


my two cents... i was handed down from my grandfather, who was a wood worker alot of old fashioned tools. the good thing is you can make about anything you want without electical power. i have 3 huge wooden boxes filled with hand tools to cut, shape, sand, drill, plane, and put together any type of wooden product. only the imagination limits what i can produce. that said i'm going to hang onto them, and if i have to, hang a shingle over my garage that says i'm open for business.

Great thread!

Family/community unity is key. Also, concerning the Internet we must consider that BBS's will pop up everywhere if government control is gained, or the Internet is taken out.

Also, we must realize that new styles of the "pony express" will pop up for Patriots (probably using churches as the main delivery points).

Water, food, and ammo are important of course.

I've been using $10 a week to purchase a stockpile of food. I purchase 10 gallon plastic bins from Wal-Mart to store them in, and I buy a new one everytime I fill one.

One must remember that life can be prolonged for quite some time with these four things - water, vitamin tablets, sugar, and fats/proteins. All vitamin supplements are fat soluable, so vitamin supplements will not work without some fat in your diet.

Sugar is necessary for proper brain function, so candy is also important if you do not have a proper diet saved up.

It is entirely conceivable that you could live for some time on water, vitamins, hard candy, and rice mixed with crisco and beans if need be. Though it might not be prefered, or very tasty you could last for sometime.

Even from day to day, too, skim as much as possible from your budget, maximize the money you do spend by buying on-sale items in bulk, providing it's something you can use or preserve.. Supermarkets are discounting somethings heavily all the time, usually staples are far cheaper than highly processed foods, but one or two hours a week spent cooking meals ahead of time can fit into a busy schedule, while you still have a fridge and freezer with power. Learn to can, too if you have time. Make up vegetable soups, fruit compotes or jams, anything that you can make as nutritious and cheaply as possible. By investing time and money into this sort of cooking, you're preparing a bigger stockpile, and giving yourself extra cash to play with at the same time. The internet has thousands of recipes for anything you like, and you can always modify to include say, smaller portions of meat, more veggies or rice, to make each meal go a lot further.

I'd say also, invest in some basic camping gear, just in case. If the worst comes to the worst, and you're living in a tent city somewhere, having a decent tent, sleeping bags, camp stove, etc, cannot possibly hurt. Imagine not having your house, what would you really need and want that you could fit in your car, or carry if necessary. What becomes important to you then? figuring that out ahead of time will help lessen the shock if something bad does happen. Have a plan made while you're calm and safe, for what could happen if you're not calm and safe. Better to rely on the decisions you made when your mind was clear, than in a dangerous or stressful situation.

reply to post by Exmar


Water, we have our own well but that only works if the power is on so I made a simple bailer out of pvc that will fit between the well casing and the pump conductor pipe. If you want to make one make sure that it is small enough to fit in the well without pulling the pump.

Fuel, I have been laying in fire wood. I didn't buy it but talked to people about trees in their yards that needed to be taken out. Also pallets can be gotten free and burn great.

Gardens, you need to know what will grow in your area. Corn and Milo are not going to work on our place. Potatoes and other root crops work best here. The nice thing is that you can over winter them in the ground if need be.

Weapons, I have some differences of opinion with you, however in general I agree with your position. If you need to go into town and things are quiet then I think that a lever action in .357 or .44 causes less drama than my FAL. Higher rate of fire than a bolt gun with large mag cap. For long term use I have seen breakage of Glocks in matches. I have two but still like my 1911. All .45 acp. Chamber inserts, I have these for the 06, in .32 acp they make less noise than a .22 lr and hit harder.

Pay off all debts. We have worked hard to get debt free and save money.

One point that you did not talk about is Relative Deprivation. With your back ground I am sure that you are aware of this. To those of you that are not what this is, is that the more you have and the easier life you lead the worse the effects of a crash are. To a bushman in Africa no running water or no electric power make no difference in their life. To some one in New York who has never been without these it seems to them as a critical state. I have started looking at ways to lessen the impact of this. Simple things at first. Skip daily showers on the weekends. Use hand soap to wash my hair. Turn all the lights, TV, radio ect. off and read a book by the window. Turn the heat way down on the furnace and ware a sweater in the house. Change my diet to include more unrefined foods so that a big change of diet will not be as big an impact on my system. Make up your mind that tomorrow may not be like today.

The USA military are American citizens too,they will not turn on there own people,It plain won't happen!, i agree with the above posters that this is/will be, a time when people need to help one and other ,it always should have been



[edit on 16-11-2008 by all2human]

Right now, it is critically important for people to get their personal economic houses in order.

I agree with the "get out of debt" posts. Be very frugal with spending. Conserve money.

What I think is on the horizon is the possibility of total economic meltdown on a global scale. That's the most likely TEOTWAWKI scenario we are currently facing, in my opinion.

Great Posts.

Some more input:

As most of you know, most people are living in a state of denial still.

DivineGypsy9, I agree with you on quitting talking about this with most people to an extent. I am wary to giving up too much information about myself so I am hesitant to open up and talk with people about this. I approach the subject carefully and let the other person open up about their concerns. If they have none and think everything is hunky-dory, I move on.

I encourage this approach because valuable information can be obtained from people. Information they don’t even think is valuable could give you insight to the bigger picture

Examples:

1)
I friend told me about an estate left to him by a dead uncle which he thought he was going to get a good inheritance for. He did not pay attention and signed for the estate. Turns out he signed for debt, the estate was reverse mortgaged it’s actually going to cost him $6,000 to clear the estate or have a foreclosure on his credit record since he signed for the estate.
Because of this info, I began research on reverse mortgage companies and saw that this is the inevitable direction we are heading. Whether or not there is a severe depression or not. I invested in Genworth Financial (GNW)@ $.97 a share it’s at about $1.45 now. 5-7 years from now I expect it at $10 regardless of economy. Check it out, but be careful. We have not hit bottom yet, although some stocks have, other have a ways to go, and a lot will no longer exist 5 years from now.

2)
Another friend mentioned his sister (just barely a baby boomer) got laid off from Compaq computer, her job was moving to Mexico. Don’t find that interesting? Her job was in accounting, Compaq is outsourcing their accounting dept to Mexico. I find that stunning with all the corruption in Mexico. A hidden story whose significance was not even realized by the people it immediately affected, yet lends further credence to the big changes coming our way.

3)
Talked to one of the richest close friends I have. Net Worth over $4 million. WAS over $4 million. Taken massive hits on his blue chip stocks and he jumped on Gold when it was in the $900’s. Know what? This fairly rich guy sees all the signs, agrees we are a year or more away from the real-estate bottom, recognizes the real-estate bubble/credit default swaps are massive problems and still is in denial that a severe worldwide depression is on the way. He just says this is a good time to buy into the market.

Waterdoctor:
You’re absolutely right on Relative Deprivation.

Maybe advice to people like:
Stop buying the daily $5.00 non-fat latte and buy a small coffee maker for $20 and make your own.
Then
Take the money $23 you saved the second week on coffee and buy 2, 25lb bags (NOT 1, 50 lb bag) of rice from Sams Club or Cost Co.
Then
Take the next $23 and buy as much powdered egg mix as it will get you
Then
Powdered Milk, Then seeds for a garden, Then a lot of Coffee, Then Ammo, Then etc.
(not insulting Latte drinkers, I was even hooked on them for a little while!)

Find other expenses that you can do without and use that money to finance your preparations.

Again,
Most people are in denial, don’t waste time and energy trying to convince them otherwise unless they are someone you chose to stand by throughout this ordeal.

You can’t change denial by the masses so use it to your advantage. Sell things you don’t need and that will be near worthless in tough times. Fancy exercise equipment, boats, unused skis, etc.. Sell them while someone is ignorant enough to still buy them, and then buy something useful to you. That’s survival.

Don’t dump all your excess money in the stock market yet, as tempting as it may be for some. As long as most people still have money, it has not hit bottom. But it within months after the mass layoffs it may. Still do not sink everything in because it could drop even lower if war breaks out.

reply to post by HillbillyHippie


Hillbilly, you make a very good point that few folks think about. Fat. I recall a German soldier who related that in the harsh winter after the failure to take Moscow, he and another soldier on the retreat found a supply of lard.

They would melt the lard and actually drink it. It had a ton of calories, which is just what their bodies needed under those extreme conditions. He further related that if he tried the same thing in temperate weather, he would retch it up. But under those harsh conditions, his body knew it needed this valuable source of calories.

You can have all the rabbits an squirrels and deer in the world, but without an additional supply of fat, you'll starve in spite of a large food supply of these animals. They have no fat to speak of. A man has to have fat.

One other thing that you will gradually weaken and die over is a lack of salt. Your cells in your body are little batteries. The salty blood is the negative, and the potassium in the cells provides the positive. Lack one without the other - the batteries go dead - and so are you. Salt is cheap right now, but will be beyond precious in hard times.

I also stock sorghum. Tons of calories and vitamins in a concentrated, natural substance. Likewise honey has antimicrobial properties.

Salt and Fat. Don't leave home without them!

Originally posted by Exmar
Communication:

Cell phones, not sure. IMO they will work but reliability will be bad. Some areas coverage will drop others not. Have a landline backup.

Do not trust landlines as a backup. Whether they are more reliable than cellphone network depends very much on the area you live in.

In cities landlines are still very much that, physical wires buried in the soil. However in rural areas the landline network will make a jump to wireless at some point. For example where I used to live landline networks used to be divided to cells of maybe 10 miles in radius. These cells then had a central point where the connection switched from wires to wireless, using targeted microwave dishes - the same technology that cellphone networks use for communications between cells.

The landline hubs have been digital for years, so id the power goes down the landline network goes down (eventually, they do have backup power).
But as I said this depends a lot from the location. If you can have an ADSL connection trough your landline provider you are propably connected to the network trough wires. If your provider doesn't provide ADSL, then your landline propably turns into a wireless at some point.

Interesting thread...I did ten years active duty..Im good to go as well..HAM radio is something I didnt see anybody post as a possible means for comms..PRC would be nice but expensive, 223 ammo is quite pricey so if you going to stock up, Now is a good time. Maybe a stockpile of batteries especially 123A and maybe a few good surefire lights. Since your a former Marine I can see why you like the Glock, I do as well but most civilians may shoot themselves or somebody since there really isnt a true safety but a good gun that is able to brave the elements nevertheless.

Like some I have a plan on where Im going to fall back to but I have some loved ones who I would get to safety first, Its really funny but when we would have some downtime this was a topc of discussion and where we would go and it is still in place to this day. Lets hope for the best but prepare for the worst. My biggest fear is to engage american troops here in the US....Good thread

[edit on 18-11-2008 by cmd18B]

Great thread, well done OP...

Just wondering if any guys from the UK have read this ???

If so what do you think and are doing the same ?

My preparations have taken a bit of back seat at the mo, but I will be back on them soon.
My other half knows that I am preparing and lets me get on with it, though I feel she thinks of me as a bit of a fruit cake.
I can't even tell the Father in law as fails to see or believe anything will or could happen.
Funny thing once, We had a what to do in an emergency booklet come thorugh our door from the Gov. He threw it away before anyone had the chance to read it and said " Well I already know what to do" with the attitude of well my parachute is open jack.

I firmly believe there will be violence. It will break out over food, territory, mating and religion. History repeats itself.

Thanks for the info I didn't really think about the internet being down. That means that GPS won't do anyone any good. I just bought a road atlas and walkie talkies. We have our survival kit, but I didn't think about Walkie Talkies. Thanks again!

I will plug my own thread here:

Herbal Medicine for Sit X

Beyond violence and starvation, lack of medical knowledge is going to be the #1 killer.

The thread concentrates on plants which can be found in the wild and can be used as antibiotics, painkillers, antidepressants, hemostatics, and childbirth aids.