Two Letters Re: Another Perspective on Selecting Barter Goods, by OSOM

JWR,
As for the persistent stream of articles related to barter goods: After reading the various articles on barter goods, I am still confused as to why one would keep goods for barter. Supposedly you are at a rural retreat, stocked with everything you could need during your lifetime (guns, ammo, band aids, reading material, and toilet paper) and are surrounded by a horde of people who are ill-equipped to cope. But now we have interjected the need to trade, and buy things, I suppose it would be great to have a store in this situation, but what’s the point in having a store to sell stuff to the destitute. I suppose it’s keenly American to think that stuff will solve all our problems. There has been a lot of talk about goods, but what about services? Are you going to use your barter goods to buy services? If so, then what kind of services? Paying little orphan billy with food to sweep your floors, wash your car, milk the cows? What services can you offer to your neighbors?
Being a survivor isn’t just about having stuff, it’s about having skills. Technical skills, people skills, leadership skills. Having stuff is great, I like my stuff, but in a TEOTWAWKI, situation I realize I may be left with stuff I can keep in my pocket, and perhaps not even that. The skills I have are something I can use to buy more stuff if I so choose. Don’t trade tools. Instead, have tools and the skill to use them so people will be trading you their barterables. And most importantly don’t let the stuff you own, end up owning you. Just thought I would throw in my US $.02 – AVL

 

Jim:
There are two kinds of things to barter with; goods and services. Barter with goods is useful but of course the items you store for barter (1) take space (2) can deteriorate (3) can be stolen and (4) are not unlimited in quantity. Barter with services have none of these disadvantages. If you have tools and knowledge you can take them with you anywhere. In my mind, barter of goods would be done by people caught unprepared for a crisis. Here, take my wedding ring… can I have some food? That does not apply to readers of this blog. If you think that there are items you would want to barter for in TEOTWAWKI, then bypass the barter and just get the items ahead of time. What you may need to barter with is for services. Skills you don’t have, and likely can’t learn in short order. A midwife, a surgeon, a dentist a veterinarian, a gunsmith, et cetera. You should have items you can barter with for these services if they won’t take your services in return, and make sure that when these services are rendered, you take careful notes to learn as much as possible. Even better, ask if you, your wife or your child can apprentice with the service provider. Free labor in exchange for knowledge. In TEOTWAWKI, schools will not be available, but the apprenticeship will. In terms of services you can offer, rather than have 20 pairs of shoes, have a pair of shears and some rope and know where the local tire dump is and then you can have shoes to barter with all day long. Use your barter goods sparingly and and use your barter services whenever possible.

One exception to foregoing are items like a small flock of good egg laying and meat producing chickens as these are renewable goods. – SF in Hawaii

Letter Re: Enlightened Survivalism Article in The Energy Bulletin

Jim,
The comments in today’s SurvivalBlog concerning my ‘Enlightened Survivalism’ article that was posted on the Energy Bulletin that ‘this more likely qualifies as preaching to the choir’ is exactly why the article was not sent to yourself for posting on SurvivalBlog. I tried ‘preaching to the choir’ as you put it with my post to you ‘Considerations for Longer Term Survival’ that you posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2005.
It would seem that many have still not really got to grips with its contents particularly: ‘What about food when the “Year’s Food Supply” is gone? What about your water supply?’.
It is now nearly a year since you posted that article and I have seen very little discussion concerning the longer term on SurvivalBlog.
We seem to be in state of denial with reality and expect things to get back to some semblance of normality after the chaos.
Many societies have collapsed in the past and those collapses are well documented, particularly by people like Jared Diamond with his two books, ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ and ‘Collapse: How Societies Choose to fail or Survive’. The problem is that the coming collapse may well be caused by the some or all of the causes that lead to previous societies collapsing, but
this time we will not have the planet’s resources, particularly oil, to rebuild with. Our finite resources which are irreplaceable will have been expended.
We also live in world where our systems are now so complex that the slightest thing could bring it all tumbling down. Painter’s ‘The Collapse of Complex Societies’ is worth a read on the subject of complexity.
I would agree that ‘preaching’ short term survival, for those who have not given ‘survival’ any thought before is very valid and that all people should
be able to look after themselves without reliance on authority for a short period of time. For those ‘survivalists’ that are already aware of the problems that are to come and are prepared in the short term for them then they must now start preparing themselves for the longer term and teaching those that follow.
I did debate sending you the article, which came about from posts ‘Preparing for a Crash: Nuts and Bolts ‘ by Zachary Nowak. Which was responded to with ‘Why the Survivalists Have Got It Wrong.’ by Rob Hopkins. To which I responded with ‘Major Problems of Surviving Peak Oil’.
After consideration I did not send you the article because I felt that it was not the sort of article that SurvivalBlog would, on the one hand, wish to publish and on the other I rather feel like I am hitting my head against a brick wall with trying to persuade people to consider a life after collapse without the infrastructure and systems that we have today.
A good quote to close is: ‘To our grandfathers and grandchildren, the cave men.’
Regards, -Norman
P.S. Go on, read that last quote again

JWR Replies: Although the majority of SurvivalBlog readers are concerned with discrete events and short term infrastructure disruption, there are indeed a lot of readers that are actively preparing for long term and even multi-generational scenarios. In essence, there is the “buy six months of storage food and a backup generator” camp and the “build your own infrastructure and establish true self sufficiency” camp. I fall in the latter category. In my estimation, even if there is just the outside chance of a multi-generational whammy, I think that it is wise to prepare for it. It makes more sense to fence a garden and take the time to develop expertise in gardening rather than to just be dependent on storage food. Likewise, it is more logical to make your own power (e.g. photovoltaic, wind, microhydro, and on-site firewood, coal, and natural gas, or biogas production) rather than being dependent on fossil fuels produced hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Unless someone is a multi-millionaire and can afford to install propane tanks measuring in the thousands of gallons, it is absurd to think that a retreat can depend on outside fuel supplies and still have generator power ten years into TEOTWAWKI. (And even then, a stored resource that large would be an obvious target for anyone in a position of authority–whether legitimate or assumed–for “requisitioning.”) I encourage SurvivalBlog readers to read Norman’s various writings and think through the full implications of Peak Oil and potential climate change. My conclusion is that even though the timing of these predictions may be off by decades or even a century or more, it is prudent to become truly self-sufficient. In essence to be truly prepared you should be a producer rather than just a consumer. If not for ourselves, do so for the sake of your children and grandchildren, so that they won’t someday be reduced to a troglodyte existence.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Tom at www.CometGold.com mentioned that www.birdflubook.com has the entire text of the book on H5N1 by Dr. Greger, available for free download.

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White House Statement: Iran, Hezbollah Form ‘Terror Nexus’

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Jason in North Idaho sent us this link: An M1A rifle goes ka-boom! Jason notes: “Since many of us shoot .308, I thought I’d forward this interesting story. Quite alarming!–the follow up analysis is very informative as well. A lesson to us all to maintain our weapons.” JWR Adds: From the photos, it looks more like an obstructed bore to me. Perhaps the shooter didn’t notice the quiet squib load report of the preceding shot.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." – John F. Kennedy

Note from JWR:

When you write your obligatory Christmas card insert “brag letter” this year, please mention that you’ve been reading SurvivalBlog. And if you send an electronic version, it would be greatly appreciated if you’d include a SurvivalBlog link logo or link text. Every bit of publicity helps. (Our goal is to double the SurvivalBlog readership in the coming year.) Thanks!

Product Review of the MURS Alert Motion Detector/Alarm from Dakota Alert

Mr. Rawles,
I saw a mention on your site of the Dakota Alert system, and since I’ve been using one for about a year, I thought I’d sent you a few comments.

First, I had tried a previous Dakota Alert system, several years ago, and found it unreliable, then tried several others and also found them either too short ranged or unreliable. I have a 1500′ driveway, about one half of which is blocked by a hill and trees.

I ran across the MURS system sold by a company in Canada, and didn’t even know until I got it that is was a Dakota Alert brand, or I probably wouldn’t have ordered it.

So far, the results of using it are mixed. I bought the two different type sensors, the PIR and the magnetic driveway probe. You can connect a total of 4 of either type to the system.

The driveway probe began giving trouble immediately. It would go off every minute, whether something was tripping it or not. I called Dakota Alert, and they sent me a replacement. It did the same thing !

I called and talked to one of their folks, who I ‘assumed’ knew their stuff, and he was puzzled….even though he could hear the “ALERT ZONE 1” going off in the background of my call each 60 seconds as we talked. I asked “What are the odds I would get TWO of these units bad ?” Uh, well, I don’t know. I’ll check into it.”

So, they sent a THRID unit, and it DID THE SAME THING!

Guess what I finally figured out: I had a single bad battery in the [set of] 6 AAs, brand new out a package ( what are the odds of that ? )…..and when the voltage gets low, the unit starts this behavior to warn you the batteries need replacing–like the ‘chirp’ of a smoke detector.

What I found amazing was that Dakota Alert apparently doesn’t know that!

So, my magnetic driveway probe works just fine….100% reliable and the batteries do last about six months, at which time it will start the every 60 second alert mode to let you know to change them.

Now, the PIR unit is a different story…..it seems to be about 50% reliable. About half of the time, a car passing it will set it off, and the other half, it won’t. I’ve tried changing the various settings for sensitivity on the unit, but it seems to make no difference. And this unit is actually closer to my house, about 400′ and in line of sight, than the mag probe unit, which is at the far end of my drive and blocked by the hill and trees.

I’m going to keep the system, because having tried several others before, this is the best so far……but it’s still a far cry from what I would call 99% reliable. – A.D. in Tennessee

Letter Re: Tire Spikes for Home Retreat Defense

James:
Yesterday my wife went over to our new house that we’re moving into. It has a gate and about 100 yards of driveway. She told me that while she was there a van full of strangers drove up through the gate and right up to the house. Several people then came out uninvited. It turns out that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now, I’ve got nothing against them but you don’t drive up into another persons property unannounced, especially in numbers. I thought, if they we Mutant Zombie Bikers that’s not a lot of time to get inside. I looked into tire spikes that roll out onto a road but they were $$$ ($300-$530). I figure a 4×4 with brown spray painted 6″ nails driven into it at 1 1/2 inch intervals should do it. A 4×4 trench across the driveway by the gate would let me put the improvised tire popper nails up or nails down depending on my needs. This serves four purposes:
(1) Loud popping sounds from blown tires are a form of perimeter alarm
(2) Ditto for screaming sounds of a burglar stepping on one at night
(3) Depending on the length of the driveway, you get a few extra seconds to situate yourself in case of home/retreat invasion
(4) You get to have that ‘Well what did you expect trespassing on my property’ look when uninvited salesmen, process servers, or Jehovah’s Witnesses want to make an unannounced visit and ask to use a phone to call a tow truck. – SF in Hawaii

JWR Replies: One word comes to mind: liability! In my opinion you should use tire spike trips only in an absolute worst case situation. (Total collapse/anarchy.) Even then, I’d worry about my friendly neighbors or their livestock accidentally encountering the spikes. But it might be prudent to buy the materials, just in case. (Namely, 2×6 boards, camouflaging paint in various flat earth tone colors, and 10 pounds of timber spikes. For the latter, I would recommend 6″or 7″ long timber spikes, galvanized, with a square cross-section. These are typically made with a spiral twist. Steel belted radial tires are no match for these spikes!) OBTW, Be sure to pre-drill holes for the spikes so that the board isn’t split to pieces when you drive the spikes through it.

My preferred plan for slowing down looters in vehicles is more low key and less likely to inspire a lawsuit: This works best in heavily wooded or very steep country where vehicles cannot avoid using a road: use a series of 1/2-inch diameter steel cables across your road, each secured with keyed-alike padlocks. In “peacetime” you can put up and lock just one of the cables, festooned with flagging tape, so that visitors don’t accidentally run into it. The cables should be supplemented by a MURS intrusion detection system, pyrotechnic trip flares or chemical light stick trip flare actuator frames (using the latest generation ultra high intensity light sticks), as well as trip noisemakers. These can be made from tin cans (as described my novel “Patriots”) and from the pull actuators New Years party streamer poppers. Use three or four of these pull string noisemakers in bundles on each trip wire. By placing the cables at roughly 50 foot intervals, the bad guys will have to stop several times to reduce each obstacle. This should give you plenty of warning time to man a defense and make it clear (ballistically) that the bad guys need to go find someplace else to loot. Unless they are suicidal, they will hear your gunfire and quickly depart in search of easier pickings.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail . . . the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation." – The Late Col. Jeff Cooper, 1993.

Notes From JWR:

Today (11/11) America remembers our veterans.

Wow! Our unique visits counter is about to surpass the 800,000 mark. (And a whopping 38.3 million page hits, but that is a far less important statistic.) Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a great success! Please keep spreading the word.

We recently changed ISPs, so we will no longer be checking our old Earthlink.net e-mail. But our more recently (and commonly) used “rawles@usa.net” e-mail address will still be checked at least twice a day. Please update your e-mail address book, accordingly. Thanks!

Speaking of communications, we just switched to Vonage.com “voice over IP” long distance telephone service here at the Rawles Ranch. This means that I have unlimited calling to hard wire phones in the continental U.S. as well as to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and throughout the U.K. This will be a great relief to any of you were dreading the big phone bills associated with consulting calls. Henceforth, just let me know your phone number, and I will call you. (My consulting fee is still $100 USD per hour with payment in advance, but now, unless you live in Outer Mongolia you won’t have to pay for the long distance calls.)

Today we present yet another article for Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Since there have been so many great entries in this round of the contest, I will also be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win Round 7, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 7 will end on November 30th. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

Another Perspective on Selecting Barter Goods, by OSOM

Dear Jim:
The recent letter on barter goods caused me to sit down and organize my thoughts on the matter. Running a successful retail/wholesale operation, I can see some caveats and analysis that needs further exploration.
What’s WRONG with Barter Goods
As has been well emphasized before – forget about barter goods until you are squared away for your own logistics. Beyond that, remember that barter goods are much inferior to money or cash in a functioning economy, with a good division of labor. If you need to sell them to raise cash, it will take some effort, and you can easily lose money – especially if you need to sell them fast. Barter goods tie up your cash, take up valuable storage space, and must be carefully stored so rust / staleness, etc., etc. don’t degrade the value of your inventory. Obsolescence is a major factor to consider for any technology item. And how do you know exactly what will be valuable in the future?
So why go to the trouble of storing any barter goods at all?
Barter goods, if well preserved and in demand, will preserve your purchasing power from inflation – and it is very hard for the taxman to collect on barter transactions! But of course gold and silver would do just as well, probably better, in a hyperinflation, and are much easier to store, easier to sell, more liquid, etc., etc.
So barter goods are for a real TEOTWAWKI when the economy is not functioning – a catastrophic breakdown in the division of labor. Think about a rapid and uncontrolled decline from a Western industrialized economy, to a primitive Third World economy – but without the low-tech skills the Third World folks survive with.
Your money (even real gold money) can’t buy much because there simply isn’t a functioning market to spend the gold or paper money. The shortages and/or civil disorder is so bad that immediate survival is the overriding issue, and the viability of money to get goods is in question. If it isn’t this bad, gold and silver is the way to go. If it ever gets this bad there will be a horrific loss of life as it is the efficiencies of the division of labor that keeps our interdependent and sophisticated economy wealthy and our population fed.
In this horrific situation, tangibles for barter rule because, “you can’t eat gold”. For example let’s imagine Farmer John who won’t sell you one of his pig’s for those gold coins you have. Even if there is a local market accepting gold and silver, he doesn’t want to take a dangerous trip to town and leave his property unprotected. Transportation, communications and security are all in horrendous shape.
But Farmer John will consider trading the pig for tangible stuff that solves a critical problem for him. Stuff he has trouble getting, lets hypothesize: fuel for the tractor, or bullets for his gun (or a gun for his grown kids that are now back on the farm and under-equipped). How awfully bad it has to get before barter goods trump gold and silver is a prime factor to consider in evaluating what will be valuable – the desperate situation dictates that hard core survival items will be in highest demand, consumables, especially. If you don’t think it will get this bad, just store gold and junk silver. Best bet is some of both.
War and/or hyperinflation are the most common circumstances, historically, where things get this desperate, with the fiat money collapse destroying the division of labor. Unless we were “bombed back to the Stone Age” sooner or later a functioning economy would evolve again with real gold and silver money reestablished. But that would take time – after the worst of the population die-off had occurred, and some stability re-attained. In the interim, barter goods will give you purchasing power to buy consumables you run out of, stuff that breaks or wears out, items you didn’t think ahead to store – or unforeseen needs, e.g., medical, new baby, new people at the farm, etc., etc.
Be be advised that when storing barter goods you are entering the realm of running a business. You had better be able to predict what will be valued by your local market when you need to barter – supply and demand. Otherwise you will be wasting money, time and storage space.
What problems will people need to solve? What will be in high demand and/or short supply?
1. We don’t know for sure, so be careful. It bears repeating – don’t worry about barter till you have your own supplies well stocked.
Don’t commit more than a small percentage of your assets to barter goods. Concentrate on stuff you can probably use yourself, or would like an extra spare of. Predicting the future is a tough game – put the odds in your favor so that even if TEOTWAWKI doesn’t happen on schedule you have stuff you can use, sooner or later, or at least hold it’s value for resale. You can predict your own demand better than anyone else’s, so fill that first.2. Consumables Rule – If they haven’t gone bad. Obviously consumables are depleted much faster than durable goods wear out, so supply will be tighter. Durable goods are likely to be in much better supply. The ugly truth is that barter only comes into it’s own in a really desperate situation with a significant decline in the population. So there would likely to be a lot of durable goods left behind by the deceased – and you don’t want to compete with that supply.
So my first choice for barter items would always be consumables that you consider essential as your core logistics that you store anyway. Just store more than what you need for food, ammo, fuel, batteries, etc., etc. But this has a strict limit, as you must be very careful on the storage life, and your rotation, so you don’t end up sitting on a wasting asset.
That said, the guy who has stored gas or diesel, treated for long term storage, will be sitting very pretty after all the untreated fuel has gone bad (unless TEOTWAWKI is an EMP strike and not many vehicles are running.)3. Back to basics. When things are desperate, the first rung of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will prevail – the basic physical needs: shelter, warmth, water, food, defense, medical needs, etc., etc. Comforts and luxuries are not as sure a bet. If the situation is good enough to worry about luxuries your gold and silver will probably do just fine – no need for barter goods. Addictive substances such as cigarettes and alcohol are comforts that might be an exception to this rule (not that I would want to supply those items, however lucrative).4. Items that are less needed or uncommon in peaceful times, but sorely needed in TEOTWAWKI times will be good candidates because, even if they are not consumable, demand will outstrip supply. Best bets would be durable items where long term storage is not so much of an issue, e.g., work gloves, water filtration, defensive firearms and accessories, perimeter security, Body Armor, etc., etc.5. Stick to items that are good for a wide range of scenarios. Nuk-Alerts, radiation meters, etc., etc. wouldn’t be “as good as gold” in a nuclear scenario – they’d be “better than platinum”! But they would have relatively low demand in other scenarios. Essential for yourself, but not a good barter bet. Stick to general use items.6. KISS. Don’t got too complicated. High tech will degrade rapidly – stick with what is simple and easy to keep working.7. Keep it local – look at what your neighbors will need in your neighborhood, your climate, your situation. You won’t want to travel far to trade, even if you can. For example propane conversion kits for gas generators would be a superb item out in the country with a lot of propane tanks about. But what if the only customers nearby only have a model that you don’t have the right kit for? Travel would not be worth the risk. On the other hand, non-hybrid garden seeds that are optimal for your climate, and hardier than standard factory crops would be ideal.
8. Keep most items reasonably small and easily divisible. .22 Long Rifle ammo will be the “nickels and dimes” of post-TEOTWAWKI barter. Be able to “make change”, or you might have to settle for a bad deal.9. Lower your risk by buying low. If it’s an super deal it’s hard to go wrong – but you must know the ins and outs of what you are buying, and the market pricing. Stick with what you know.
Some ideas: garage sales, auctions, eBay and craigslist.com (Craigslist is the free, online local classifieds.) [JWR Adds: I also like Craigslist, but I also highly recommend www.freecycle.org. If you watch the daily local freecycle ads closely, you can pick up lots of useful, barterable items, free for the taking. Often someone is moving and they list their excess household goods on freecycle. Check it out, you’ll find lots of great stuff free. Since both “available:” and “wants” are listed, you will also see some opportunities to dispense charity to folks that are presently needy.]
Garage sales are generally the lowest cost supply – but hit or miss on useful items. If you’re in or near a large city, crisis is the way to go, after garage sales. They are hoplophobes who won’t accept ads for any kind of weapon, but their free, online classifieds is fast replacing the newspaper classifieds section in our metro area. It let’s you deal consumer to consumer, cutting out the middleman.
By the way, Craigslist is also a great place to turn your unused items into cash. The eBay auctions are good for specialized items without a big local market, Gunbroker.com for weapons, but craigslist for everything else. A digital camera photo, a good description, and you are in business, cheap. You can actually buy furniture, cheap at garage sales, and resell on craigslist and make money – if you know your product.
Some of my favorite barter items:
Ammo: Common calibers that you can always use yourself. Consumable, easily divisible, in high demand, long storage life. And if TEOTWAWKI doesn’t\ happen on schedule, you can have fun “rotating your storage” 😉 A lot of folks have guns, but not very many have enough of the right ammo, so think self defense first, then hunting and practice rounds. (A lot of folks will be smart enough to figure out that a gun and 100 rounds of practice, is better defense than a gun and 200 unfired rounds.) Cheap food that stores well long term, e.g., wheat properly packaged. I like cans over mylar for durability, but you won’t want to trade a gallon can that looks like you have a bunch of stored food. Repackage into plastic before trading .”Tactical Kits” For the folks that don’t have suitable defensive firearms a complete kit of an easy to operate rifle, spare mags, ammo, web belt, mag pouches, sidearm, holster, and even Body Armor, could have a value greater than the sum of the parts. The bonus here is that you can have spares for your weapons, and also be stocked to equip your Neighborhood Watch on Steroids, refugees that you take in, or long lost relatives that show up after The Crunch. Batteries and Solar Powered Chargers – obviously a great consumable, and solar powered chargers will be better than gold when there is no electricity. Check storage life for batteries and the number of recharges possible very carefully on batteries. From what I have read NiMH battery technology is the way to go – any battery experts out there? Work gloves become consumables when used constantly.If other folks can suggest items that fit the criteria, please, let’s hear them! The above list is just a start. Regards, – OSOM “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”

Odds ‘n Sods:

The second Medal of Honor has been awarded for heroism in Iraq.

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Rourke (editor of the Jericho Discussion Group) mentioned this article: Jericho, the most heavily “streamed” TV series on Innnertube, will sadly be “split” into two half seasons, to avoid repeat episodes. (The first eight episodes, BTW, are available for free download.)

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‘Aliens could attack at any time’ warns former British MoD chief Nick Pope

 

Notes from JWR:

Fall, in all its glory, has come to the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Here at the Rawles Ranch, the aspen and tamarack trees recently took on a brilliant golden hue. With last week’s storm, the aspens shed all of their foliage, but the tamaracks still look resplendent. This is my favorite time of year. I love feeling the crisp air, the smell of wood smoke, the pleasant sights of venison hanging and cordwood stacked, and the taste of freshly made applesauce. All is well here. We are nearly ready for winter.

The high bid is still at $100 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction, It is for a scarce autographed first edition copy of the book Survival Guns by Mel Tappan. The auction ends on November 15th. Please submit your bid via e-mail.

Today we present another article for Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Since there have been so many great entries in this round of the contest, I will also be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win Round 7, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 7 will end on November 30th. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

The Forgotten Survival Skill: Physical Fitness, by Ron D.

Most of the people of the world and especially Americans are urban dwellers. We commute to an office every day and sit at a desk. Just as the skills needed to do this don’t prepare us for a shortage of water or food, they don’t prepare us to evacuate on foot or run from danger. But unlike other parts of preparedness, they actually work against us in a future survival situation.
When I was a freshman in college I was returning to school in Oklahoma with a friend. About three miles outside a little town in the middle of no where, my check engine light came on the car quickly stopped running. It wasn’t going to start again because the engine was frozen solid and would have to be replaced.
Here we were stranded in the middle of nowhere. This was in the age before cell phones and we couldn’t call for help. My friend said “We’re only three miles out of town. I’ll just jog there and get help.” I thought he was crazy, but that’s just what he did and returned with a tow truck in under an hour.
You can see how easily this type of situation could happen. And the only thing you need to have to overcome it is the ability to jog, or walk, a few miles.
What if there is a chemical spill in your town and your car won’t start. How are you going to get out of the danger area? Walk, jog, run. Aerobic/Cardiovascular fitness isn’t the only type of fitness. How much weight can you lift? Can you lift it without hurting yourself? Could you pick up your unconscious child or spouse and carry them out of a burning building? Your in a storm and a roof falls on you. Can you bench press a fallen joist off yourself?
In my opinion, these are the things you need to be able to do at any time:
– Run full out for 200 yards
– Jog for two miles, preferably over uneven terrain
– Walk for 20 miles in a day
– Hike, with a pack, for half that, 10 miles a day.
– Swim for 300 meters
– You need to be able to lift 25% of your body weight over your head
– You need to be able to squat half your body weight.
This isn’t as hard as it sounds. When I turned 40 a couple of years ago I realized I needed to get into shape. I had never in my entire life ran more than 1/2 a mile. My birthday is in January. In May I ran my first 5K and in July of that same year I ran a sprint triathlon, 300 meter swim, 12 mile bike ride, 5K run. I wasn’t fast but I finished, as a matter of fact I finished 298 out of 300 in the tri, but I did it and I was in good shape.
The biggest problem we have when we want to develop a skill is motivation. You are being called on to do something you don’t have to do, but you need to do. The first thing you can do is set goals. There is the list above as a long term goal. Along the way it is good to have shorter term goals and events that will motivate you. For instance I found planning to run a race like a 5K at the end of a 9 week running program.
For the purposes of starting a running program, I’m going to recommend the same program I used CoolRunning.com’s “The Couch to 5K
in 9 weeks”. It is an easy program that only requires you to run for 20-to-30 minutes, three times a week.
Now for strength training. This is a little more complicated because it requires some equipment. The program I recommend is Body for Life. Buy the book, ISBN 0060193395, and avoid the supplement hype. It is a well balanced program that includes diet, weight training and cardiovascular training. You could use the above running program for the cardio portion or stick with Body for Life‘s High Intensity Training (HIT).
For the weight lifting part you’ve got a few options. You can join a gym which has the advantage of lots of different equipment and a social atmosphere that some people thrive in. It has the disadvantage you have an on going expense and have to go somewhere three days a week to workout. Another advantage in the overall program a gym brings is they probably
have a swimming pool and if you want to work toward your swimming goal, you’ll need that.
Instead of a gym, you might just buy some simple equipment and work out at home. What my wife and I did was to buy a set of PowerBlocks, which are just fancy dumbbells, and simple weight bench. They take up less room that a rack of dumbbells or even plate weights. You can work nearly all of your muscles with just dumbbells.
No matter how you choose to integrate fitness training into your lifestyle and preparedness program it is a survival skill you’ll benefit from even without a TEOTWAWKI situation. Physical fitness gives you more energy through out your day and lowers you risk for all kinds of diseases and injuries. So make a plan and start moving toward it today.