First, a thank-you for George Noory for having Cliff High and me on the Coast To Coast AM show last night/early this morning – Noory is a masterful interviewer and a good human being.
Following the show, a couple of readers sent in questions that went to the idea of “What can I do to prepare for even more calamitous times ahead, which may include food shortages and such if I just have a tiny amount of money that can be spared? I can just barely make ends meet now.”
A good question. There are plenty of answers, too, which will depend on where you are and what level of preparing you’re willing to invest in. I say ‘invest’ because that what preparedness is, in its most generalized kind of way…investing today in learning and saving in ways that never cross most people’s thinking, since they are so used to the day-after-day routine. Why, to this kind of person, those of us that actually have thought out survival beyond ‘more of the same’ really are nutjobs.
Education: This part doesn’t have to cost much at all. Starts with something as simple as a library are and having the sense to read 2-3 general books on survival like the SAS Survival Manual, for example. Then, reading up on local wildlife and learning what plants are edible (not to mention which wild beasties thing you’re the edible) is an investment anyone can make.
Throw in a couple of books on basic survival housing: Lean-to’s, teepees, and such are quick to make from most anything at hand and properly done can keep you out of the weather.
Own a Knife: But this gets me to the second thing you should have: A good pocket knife. Knife selection is one of those very personal decisions – and lots of people have a half dozen knives, depending on where they plan on going.
Just to put it in perspective, I’ve got five knives that make up my personal knife collection and with the right knife, I feel more prepared than most for anything that comes along. Sure, there’s the $20 eBay survival knife with an 8-inch blade, a built-in compass, fishing gear, and such. Just the ticket for out on the wilder parts of the property and beyond if on foot.
Just going out to dinner? That three-blade folding Case knife that was passed on to me by my father (my so expects to inherit it, too) is the all-purpose family relic. Need to pick a thorn out of your foot? Trim back 3/8th’s of an inch of insulation while wiring? Whittle something down that isn’t fitting right in the shop? Something that takes a nearly fine-enough-to-shave-with edge? This is the one – and plenty of time sharpening follows after a big electrical job of any size, LOL.
The all-round knife is a 3 1/2 single blade, one-handed opening knife – again, about $20 off eBay. That’s the one that gets used for cutting up cardboard boxes when something comes via UPS or FedEx.
If I’m mucking about on machinery, the Leatherman tool is great. And both Elaine and I have steels with flints, so if there’s tinder about, there’s fire. Torn up credit card bills are recommended tinder if things hit the fan, LOL.
Assuming you can hang onto a library card and can read up on knives, even with a cheap pocket stone for sharpening you’re looking at all of what, $25?
Better Clothes – Forget Logos: You will want to maybe change your clothes-buying habits. Forget brands and go with practical. Heavy denim will last longer than cotton twills, heavy shirts are generally warmer than light shirts. Tick socks better for long walks than thin ones, and the thicker the sole on the shoe, with bigger grips, the easier walking long distances will be, should you need to use your legs for something besides walking from the computer to the shower, shower to car, car to cubicle. Doesn’t have to cost anything more – just a change of tastes so that you can exist outside if you have to, or walk somewhere if there’s no gas, or it’s price makes turns it into rarium or unobtainium.
Water Container: Next thing you’d want would be a water container of some kind, since people are 70+% water. lots of options here…everything from a sophisticated ‘gator’ kind that you wear to a regular bottled water bottle with some water purification tablets in a smaller container taped to it. Water’s a good thing and thirst is bad. Hang with the REI and camping crowd. If you’ve got a load of dough, a Berky water filter is marvelous. But tabs and household bleach (unscented, of course – duh) and disinfecting tabs is cheaper.
May not seem like much, but depending on what part of the country you’re in (or can walk to) this is the start of basic survival. Then start watching SurvivorMan and other such TV shows. Much to be gleaned from that.
A simple pack: You can get a simple kid’s book bag for less than $10 if you hang at the dollar stores or WallyWorld on sale. May not be fancy (come on, you’ve always wanted one in pink, right? LOL) but we’re talking function here and screw the rest.
Basic food: Long term food looks to be an issue, so to solve that problem you can make a basic stored foods plan with something as a 20-pound sack of white rice (brown may have more nutritional value) and a couple of sacks of beans. A multiple vitamin and some granola bars are a bonus.
A friend of mine up the road bought come PVC pipe 13-years ago and stored away wheat flower in it and says it’s still good. A little care and caution a person can accumulate a tremendous amount of food over time and store it safely.
Radio – optional: For less than $50 you can get one of those all-purpose crank-powered radios with a flashlight and NOAA weather radio in it. There’s entertainment and such. Optional though. If it clouds up, get your rain hat – First People lived for centuries without NOAA.
Also cheap: Boy Scout and Girl Scout used field manuals. Boy Scouts is quite good and I still refer to my 1950′s vintage copy often when I think about building a bridge over the creek here, or some such.
Bow for Hunting: Since you’ve got a pocket knife, you can take up archery with either an inexpensive bow and hand hewn arrows, or a few fiberglass items. May not put the tastiest meat on the table, but people in other countries eat things like squirrels and rats when necessary, although a blunt head instead of a broadhead is to be considered for game birds.
While you whittle out additional arrows (and mount the feathers from your latest grouse or whatever) the next thing I’d invest in – while there’s still computers and power is the four DVD set of 22,000 survival books from SurvivaleBooks.com. This is a collection of mostly government training manuals for everything from the 1994 Navy Cooking Course (but they never explain why spoons dissolve in Navy coffee by midway through the second watch) to escape and evasion, or on a more down-to-earth note “How do you live without electricity?”
Backpack to shove things in, some paper and a binder for key field identification guides and some time spent on learning a new hobby – relearning about being a competent human – is not that expensive. Our budget?
| Library Card | 0.00 | Local |
| Good knife | 20.00 | eBay |
| Sharp stone | 5.00 | eBay or local |
| Flint & Steel | 20.00 | Amazon or eBay |
| Good used recurve bow 50# | 60.00 | eBay |
| Water purification tablets | 20.00 | eBay/ Amazon |
| Rice | 10.00 | any store |
| Beans | 10.00 | any store |
| Cheap back pack | 10.00 | dollar store |
| Hooks and line | 10.00 | Any sporting goods shop |
| DVD set | 30.00 | www.survivalebooks.com |
| Total | 195.00 |
Want that radio to keep from being bored to tears? OK, $50 bucks then…but that bored part is where you get into nature and hear other voices like the wind – and a lot more.
Would it be nice to have something more than a cheapie kids backpack? Sure! Would it be nice to have that Berky filter? Yer damn straight, it would be. Or, that (fill in the blank) MRE a pack full of those dandy ready-to-eat meals you just add hot water to. Yum. But, you get the idea.
Next I’d be adding a first aid kit, bug repellant…but as you can see, this is like any other hobby or pursuit – depends if you want to approach it from the ‘heavy on the toys’ or the ‘heavy on the knowledge’ side, doesn’t it?
Ultimately, I’m hoping the web bot predictive work is wildly off the mark. But, if it’s even close, my confidence in our personal survival of the future is much higher as my knowledge of everything from MOUT tactics (military operation in urban terrain) to eating off the land – goes up.
For America to survive – we need to only do a couple of things: Uphold the Constitution and push back against all enemies, foreign and domestic whether they come armed with a violent ideology or a phat purse and a standing army of lobbyists. Don’t know about you, but the Gloria Gaynor song comes to mind (maybe because I’ve been up all night?) — it’s “I will survive…” and if you take back ownership of your life from the corpgov brainwashing that has been mainstream media of late, not only will you survive it all in stride as a more powerful human, but so will you and those you love.
I’m just sayin….you can make your own version of geocaching if you really want to have some options. But even that would break down in a crustal shift…so maybe the ‘old ways’ are more durable.
Around UrbanSurvival: Changes and Newbies
Every time I do a radio show – especially one with as large a following as Coast To Coast – I point people to the FAQ page. Another question is “Where’s that old web bot stuff?” See the directory of past columns here.
Long time readers will ask “What’s that new dot up in the upper right hand corner of the page?” Link to the Princeton EGGS Global Consciousness Project…since one reader said there was a spike when the bot run was released. Coincidence? Well….let’s just watch the EGG’s around big events going forward, shall we?
Machinery’s Revenge
This is probably ‘pay the mechanics day’ – the Daewoo, the Kubota…and turns out I am not the only one who turned most everything mechanical I touched this week into non-op scrap metal. More when I get some sleep….how about tomorrow morning, then?
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Send comments to george@ure.net
The UrbanSurvival Mall:
Peoplenomics This Week:
Calm Before the (Cytokine) Storm
This week’s Peoplenomics report is a little outside of our usual economics perspective but worth sharing since I’ve been doing a lot of personal research this past week into the upcoming expected outbreak of virulent novel/swine flu in the USA this fall and winter. Because it’s expected to result in a fair number of fatalities, and since I need all the readers I can get, I’ve put together a reasonably comprehensive look at what to expect and some personal courses of action when (more than if) swine flu comes to your neighborhood. This is not medical advice – for that, see your health care professional (or local shaman). This is a survey of what’s out there to be learned and some thoughts on how it may be individually applied. My market outlook as usual accompanies in this week’s Chart Pack.
More For Subscribers Subscription Information
MyGroPonics
My commodity broker JB Slear has nailed a great solution for people who living in apartments and condos who want to become at least partially self-reliant when it comes to raising food: An ultra-high efficiency micro-hydroponics system using readily available local parts. 25-pages and plenty of pictures to turn you into a farmer no matter where you live (Great if you have back problems, too…)…or if you just want to fill up the back yard with MyGroPonics trees and feed the neighborhood… $10 bucks here…
Maxa-Cookie Manager
The newest version of Maxa-Tools Cookie Manager (MCM) is available. Existing users of MAXA Cookie Manager Pro use the update button in the about window, all others can download the Standard version here:
Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those pesky ‘non-browser specific’ cookies. Bonus: You computer may run faster. I took over 1,000 cookies off my son’s machine that he swore was clean. It ran much faster.
Attn: Mac Drivers: MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world.
Help US Go Viral
UrbanSurvival has a dandy growth rate, but sadly, it’s nothing like swine (hybrid) flu’s growth rate. However, if you’d like to sicken the PowersThatBe, just click here for a tool that may help. (It’ll pop up an email window if you use Outlook (or a few other email programs) then simply send a link to everyone on your distro list…
“Live on $10,000″ Updated
What? You haven’t ordered the ebook “How to Live on $10,000 a year — or less”? Suit yourself. We’re all going to live it shortly, anyway. I just thought you might like a heads up by reading about how to do it before you get pink-slipped. But, suit yourself OR visit www.liveontenthousand.com or, click one of the following button:
Yep – still possible. I also took a bit of additional material that was pertinent from recent issues of Peoplenomics and included them. The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the aforementioned dollar amount, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you make a little more than that and do some active savings… Click here for the page with more details on it.
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Last week’s report is here. For back issues of this site, click here. (Goes back to 1997!)
