Sir:
Let me start with, my #1 resource for information has been the Internet for over 15 years. I learn just about everything from this seemingly endless source of ‘how to guides’, to history and nature. I can literally download thousands of ‘text based’ with the 1,000 gigabyte external memory devices I own. It is also easier to lug around than just a few hundred books. My point is, I am not knowledgeable on ‘survival’ and ‘growing foods’. When the Schumer hits the fan, I doubt I’ll have the Internet as an extremely valuable resource of information to help me along. solar capabilities keep me from being limited to grid production electricity, so it will allow me to utilize my computer for at least a few years after the fall.
I remember someone telling me once, ‘if you thought about it, chances are someone else in the world has thought of it as well’. Do you know of anyone gathering necessary information electronically? Are there web sites that are offering information in downloadable PDF files specifically for farming, hunting, or other ‘survival’ how to guides? – Christopher S.
JWR Replies: Some of the site that I keep bookmarked for download are:
Project Gutenberg has more than 33,000 free e-books. All are public domain. (Mostly pre-1924.) Be advised, however, that the farming and medical advice contained in some of those books is out-of-date, and they do not follow modern fire, chemical, and machinery safety standards!
The Australian Small Farm Permaculture and Sustainable Living web site has lots of free e-books.
E-Books Directory has links to free books on outdoors topics including hunting, hiking, and camping.
Steve’s Pages. Has thousands of free firearms manuals and military manuals. (If you do any extensive downloading, please send Steve a donation, to help cover his large monthly bandwidth expenses. PayPal: steve@stevespages.com.) At a minimum, be sure to downlad the exploded diagram and the user manual for each of your guns.
The Hesperain Foundation offers free downloads of many books, including the now classic Where There Is No Doctor by David Werner, and Where There Is No Dentist
Global Security has lots of free military manuals. (Text only.)
PR68.com has lots of links for U.S. Military FMs and TMs.
Wikipedia has some links to PDFs of U.S. Military manuals.
For advice of stocking up, download a copy of The Alpha Strategy by John Pugsley.
For some good Christian doctrine and Bible stidy, I recommend the many free books offered by the Institute for Christian Economics, established by Dr. Gary North.
Others, For a Fee:
I also recommend buying the 38-year compendium of The Mother Earth News on CD-ROM.
There are several e-Bay vendors that sell inexpensive collections of military manuals on CD-ROM. Virtually all of those can be downloaded,if you hunt for them, but for around $10 you can get yourself dozens of manuals on CD-ROM. (Just do the math on what your time is worth, if you are considering downloading, as the alternative.)
And, at the risk of sounding a bit self-promotional, I recommend the five year compendium of SurvivalBlog archives on CD-ROM. It is in both PDF and HTML. The amount of information on the archive CD-ROM is immense. The HTML file is 44.6 megabytes and 7,024 pages long! (So I don’t recommend printing a hard copy.) I do charge $20 for it, but you can rest assured that you will still have access to the SurvivalBlog archives, even without Internet access.