(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
Heat
We have a super-efficient wood stove in our basement that can heat our entire cabin. We can vent heat into various parts of the house. We have two propane fireplaces that do not use any electricity. I put all these in when we built the cabin as our electricity as always spotty and my belief is that electricity is going to be a problem in almost every society fail scenario.
I have a wood lot and prepare enough wood to stay warm all winter. I have several chain saws and can split small wood by hand. For larger pieces I borrow from a good friend who lives nearby. I know that this it is not a long term solution at this time.
Our stovetop is propane so it can cook our preserved food as well as provide some heat on a limited basis. I have backup camp stoves and LP gas to extend the use of indoor cooking. My grill also can take some of the load. And I can cook on the wood stove if necessary.
Wood heat will be the most likely answer for heating, but procuring wood for wood heat for the long term, in northern Wisconsin, will be a hard life.
Electricity
Electricity will eventually stop, in almost every major scenario. As discussed in another article in December 2023, our power was out for a few days last winter. I had redundant generators, and eventually got one to work well. However, it is not practical to have to run a generator 24/7, and gas will eventually be gone or go stale, so it cannot be a long-term solution to keeping modern processes going.
After the outage I bought a solar-chargeable portable power station. We use it to keep a CPAP going. I should have purchased a larger one, but I wanted to “test drive” one before getting too deep into it. So far I have been very impressed. I may buy another. It can power our radios and charge other key electrical items we need on a limited basis. I have a few portable solar chargers to keep the phones/radios going for use in emergencies and to get the news, such as it is.
To back up day-to-day activities that currently use electricity, I try to keep as many manual, non-electric hand tools as possible for backup.
Use electricity until you can’t. Plan on it going out. Make sure you can function without it.
Tools and Maintenance
Speaking of tools, it is important to keep a wide variety of manually operated tools in excellent shape. I have been visiting flea markets and garage sales to build an inventory of manual tools to back up each electric tool. This includes many types of saws, wood splitters and axes, and hand drills. I am always looking for other useful items such as block and tackle and wood moving tools like come-alongs. I have a basic knowledge for using them, and will try to continue to gain skills in them so I don’t have to learn after I need them. I sharpen chisels and cutting instruments using an electric grinding wheel now.
And, speaking of maintenance, I have been upgrading my maintenance processes on virtually all my equipment, and thus the condition of many of my items is better than it has been in years. Keeping money sitting in the bank while the cost of services shoots up is not logical. I have purchased new tires for my vehicles and trailer. Everything is up to date as far as tune-ups, oil changes, and repairs. I am looking for replacement rechargeable batteries for my drills and drivers.
Transportation
We have 4-wheel drive road vehicles. We have a UTV. We have a snowmobile. We have a speedboat. For fishing I have a canoe and a row boat. I store gasoline but have had problems with keeping the gas fresh so am very careful to use Stabil or Seafoam. I don’t see gasoline vehicles as a long term solution. But I do think they will be very useful at the start to make the final rushes to town for last minute supplies. As long as I have gasoline I want to use it for my priorities such as cutting wood.
Eventually, we know we could have to use bicycles for travel. We have a couple that I maintain.
I have been working through the logistics of using bicycles for local travel and the canoe for lake travel.
Determine how and where you can travel locally if things get rough. I don’t plan on buying a horse, but I do plan on being able to travel four miles to the garden and to the closest village.
Accessible Resource Library
Anyone can now go on the Internet and find almost any information they want. This will certainly not be the case in SHTF, so capture information you need and store it on electronic media. If possible, print it so it is more secure over the long term.
SurvivalBlog has a great option for a thumb drive that has all its archives [and many public domain books and military manuals].
I have been seriously adding to my physical written resource collection. As I try some new or unfamiliar activity, I have realized I need information to successfully pursue it. I have books on a wide variety our activities, such as meat curing, canning, gunsmithing, and many other actions. Other key volumes include medical and first aid, gunsmithing, and gardening. There are several excellent general overview books on How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It.….
I have not read all the detailed process books yet, but I like the idea of being able to walk over to the shelf and find them when I want them.
Also, I have stocked up on various books on religion and how to study the Bible.
Build the library with the topics that will assist you in successfully living through the trouble. Plan to buy them now, as they will not be available once things fall apart.
Trade/Barter
We have stocked up on items that we think we may be able to use to barter. The idea of trading something with someone to get us already split wood is very attractive…
Obviously, good security is needed to do any trading. I have struggled with how to trade without exposing what we have and how much we have of anything. The goods I think I would want to trade include silver coins, food, liquor, and hand tools. I even have cash on hand as the ATMs will most likely go down and there will still be normalcy bias victims who will accept it, at least for a while. I am not keen on trading weapons or ammunition that could be used against me.
My plan was to obtain items now that may be of value to me, and others, in the future. I buy extra.
We also looked for places where, in the future, we could trade with others. These places include our church, flea markets, roadside stands, and local used goods stores. We found a place where we can sell our items right now.
I also performed a “tradeable skills” assessment. I am a retired Facilities Engineer and Safety Professional so I have some skills in getting things constructed and consulting on how to do them safely. My wife can cook, sew, and is a retired teacher who can still teach.
Questions to ask: What are your strengths? What are your skills that may be of use to others? Keep those skills up to date now.
The details of trading will change the longer the problem lasts. Those who are prepared will have the best ability to get what they need on the best trading terms.
Find venues for buying selling and trading as near to your home as you can. If there is something you can do now to get known as a supplier of a wanted item, get/construct those items and let people know. Start trading now.
Trusted Friends/Network
I have a few friends that I trust who will be key assets in the future. One is 6 miles north, one is 6 miles west, and one is ten miles south. Together we will need to set up a network. This is far from ready at this time. We talk but have not taken the hard steps to completely set it up. I must say I am the least qualified as the others are ex-military, weapons experts, or already preppers.
My next-door neighbor is a great mechanic and a great hunter. He can butcher a deer in minutes. His wife can cook, sew, can and has a green thumb. They are great people. I want them on our side.
We had a group garden with some of our good friends this year. It went well in spite of a drought. It was a learning situation having a garden 4 miles away. Next year will be better.
Some of my best team resources no longer live near us. I do gather knowledge when we see them, and have great planning discussions that hopefully help both of us.
Build your support team. If you already live in a rural area, chances are you already know people with great hunting, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and security skills. Find them. Go where you can meet them. Try church, the local American Legion or VFW. These are good people!
Medical
I have been trained in CPR and first aid over the years. We have stocked up with a great variety of goods that have been recommended in our books and by my reading on the internet. We do have prescription meds that will someday be in short supply. We stockpile when we can. I have researched and purchased nonprescription alternatives to my meds. These are easily obtained via internet shopping.
We keep an inventory of all our medicines and first aid items We keep them dated by when we acquired them and/or when they expire. We can find them if we need them.
I have seen numbers ranging into the 90 percent range of our prescription drugs coming from China.
This is a great exposure to supply chain disruptions and drugs being contaminated or of lesser quality than they are said to be.
I know which of our friends have medical or first aid training and have experience as nurses.
Stockpile your required meds and their alternatives now. If the supply chains go down, you will go without them.
Have enough medicines and first aid items on hand to make it through disruptions.
Security
To me, security is not the ability to fight a war. It is the ability to be and remain secure. It is defense. I don’t expect to fight off a battalion of North Korean soldiers, a-la Red Dawn. I don’t see the first few months as being a war experience. I expect and hope to be relatively safe and secure in my home. As security is a private matter, I will only say that I studied and came up with what I think I need for where I am. To that end, ideally I would have at a minimum some alarms, a hidey hole or two, and a very basic armament situation. Some experts suggest that for home defense a person needs a pistol or two, strategically placed in the house, an AR-15 style rifle close at hand, and a shotgun. Also, maybe a stun gun or two. Some knives. Ammunition should be stocked up on, and could be a trading commodity in safe arenas.
Build your defensive plan with the proper tools and skills based on what you think you will experience locally. Get any refresher training you need as soon as possible for use of these tools.
SUMMARY
Get ready. Simplify, make time to focus on the basics right now. Once you are living your new lifestyle, then you can start thinking about becoming Rambo. Plan to survive and live well, independently. Think of the lifestyle of the Amish…. And don’t give up.
Work to be able to live independently and produce what you need. Gain skills to be able to live like this. A basic life is better regardless of the state of the world. Most modern conveniences, (excluding perhaps electricity) are just icing on the cake.
Anyone can do all these things right now, where they are. No matter what your situation is you will need to take these steps regardless of what problem befalls our country. Once you have your level one preps done, you can then put effort into preparing for whatever situation you feel is coming.
My twelve basics:
- Claw back control of your life and your precious time from the modern world. Consider an old time work ethic and life style.
- Stock up to carry you through until help arrives. Grow your own food. Hunt and fish to harvest your own protein. Raise your own livestock. Learn to preserve fruits, vegetables and meat. Learn to store and eat healthily.
- Secure your clean water source. Plan how to purify your water. Plan for long-term sanitation.
- Build your ability to heat your home without electricity. Find your source of wood. Determine how to obtain split wood for the long term.
- Plan how to live with a minimum of electricity. Consider solar, at least for small devices, and if possible, for your home. Get the items you need and store them away with a maintenance plan.
- Procure and maintain the tools you think you will need, now.
- Put in place a realistic plan on where and how you will travel.
- Start building or adding hard copy volumes to your library now. Learn, read.
- Figure out what your local economic processes could be….such as storing or producing goods for trade with others.
- Build your support team now.
- Stockpile your medical and health needs now.
- Develop a security plan for your specific location and situation.
People who have made these basic investments, and simplified their lifestyles, will have a greater chance of making it through the first stages of SHTF. Without these investments the chances of survival will be much lower. This period will end up being the first “sorting” and will separate the winners from the first round of losers.
I am not naive enough to think that twelve weeks will be the extent of the downturn, but after twelve weeks, the ground rules will be much different. Maybe the government will recover and lead. Maybe the citizens who remain will set up their own government. One thing is true…You have to get to that point to participate in post-TEOTWAWKI.
But first, stop and think. What is important to you? I listed what I think is important to me. But your situation is most likely different. I suggest checking out SurvivalBlog’s “List of Lists” Excel spreadsheet, to find what you think you will need to take the first steps to start a journey to living a smarter, and simpler, and healthier life.