What basics?

Discussion in 'Back to Basics' started by duane, Apr 9, 2020.


  1. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    It is 3 AM, I am at my computer, made in China, powered by atomic energy, talking to people only God knows where, with a glass of Calif orange juice, German heart pills, India pain pills, driving a car made in Japan, wearing a pair of jeans made in Bangladesh, able to see the computer with my reading glasses and eating my sandwich, butter, bread, peanut butter, from who knows where, but only if I have my false teeth in.
    While I might be able to survive, I do attempt to prepare and put more effort in it than the average sheeple, I am afraid that if I had to go back to the true basics, 100 % derived from what I could do on this land with my preps, reality or the grim reaper, would allow about 6 months preps to be sufficient and anything beyond that would be a gift to the next generation.
     
    Dunerunner, john316, Ganado and 10 others like this.
  2. OldDude49

    OldDude49 Just n old guy

    hear ya
     
    Dunerunner, duane, SB21 and 2 others like this.
  3. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Beam me up Scotty
     
    Gator 45/70, Dunerunner, SB21 and 2 others like this.
  4. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    I'll survive until I don't
     
    Gator 45/70, Dunerunner, DKR and 7 others like this.
  5. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Fatalistic, but yup, me too. I'll tell the kids to fend for themselves, I've lived it.
     
  6. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    Both my kids are golden and still working, independent and on their own.
    I am not medically dependent, and what needs I have I can deal with my self.
    God watches over me, a lot.
    I don't need the computer to be entertained, however, it is a source of information for what is going on in the world. all taken with a grain of salt, of course.
    If I am not in my shop or working in the yard, I am working on inventions and looking for parts to complete my current event. I have several in the mix so it is no big deal to jump from one project to another.
    Late at night, I'm drawing while listening to music or letting a movie play I can ignore just as background noise. I would just as soon have my bed in my shop except there is no room, and the dust and debris would be problematic.
    I believe that having work that needs to be done ( and working on it, is healthy, it is a demand and humans need demand otherwise we atrophy and the brain shuts down. no matter how smart you think you are, challenge is essential to survival.
     
  7. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    you always make me smile @duane just bringing home the reality of modern living [Moto]
     
  8. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    More like realistic. I'm not going to kid myself ain't no body getting out alive.
     
  9. IceRanger

    IceRanger Intellectus Refuticus

    Other than the drawing, this is me from top to bottom. I'm fortunate that even in my mid-fifties I have no medical dependencies, and still carry on as I did in my mid-twenties. I stay busy with projects, and am perfectly happy to be in the workshop and completely away from people other than my immediate family.

    The projects I undertake are all designed either to strengthen my house and outbuildings (literally) or to increase my family's independence from society/the grid. What I don't have, I make. What there are no supplies for, I "invent" something else. What I can't invent or reinvent, I do without.

    I am VERY fortunate in that I bought a house whose occupants had died and which sat empty for years. Virtually all of the things that others would view as "valuable" had been taken (including the copper pipes), but most of their collected ephemera was left behind. Since the day we acquired this property and moved in, we've called this the "magic house" because no matter what it is that I say I need, this house provides it. I was working on a propane line. I needed a flaring tool, and didn't have one among all of my stuff. I found THREE in the basement. Just yesterday I was rebuilding the roof and one wall on one of our outbuildings. I told my wife I needed drip edge to complete the project. Five minutes after saying that I went to that shed and found exactly the amount of drip edge I needed, buried in a corner behind a bunch of scrap lumber. I've been in that pile dozens of times, and never noticed the drip edge leaning there. It's happened, I kid you not, fifty times since we moved in. I say it, the house provides it. But these people were old depression-era folks, too. They lived the way we are trying to live, and so they hoarded the "important stuff".

    Still, I have come to terms with the fact that if shit really, truly hits the fan, I probably can't be certain of our survival past six months either. I can feed us--raising rabbits and vegetables, hunting the wildlife that wanders behind our property, fishing the river that is in walking distance. But I have kids--YOUNG kids. They depend on electronics for the entirety of their lives. If suddenly that was gone, it is foolish to believe they're just going to wake up and become hard-working farm kids. I like to believe they'd adapt, and so would my (young) wife, but we all know how today's humans (particularly spoiled, coddled AMERICAN humans) are. Five minutes without air conditioning and the world is coming to an end. Ergo, God help me if the world ever comes to an end and there is no air conditioning!
     
  10. BlueDuck

    BlueDuck Monkey+++

    Survival is more then a pile of food, water and a gun. Add the tools to be self sufficient. Prepare to grow your own food, water system and forage. Might be a little tough in the city, but that is personal choice.
     
  11. IceRanger

    IceRanger Intellectus Refuticus

    Agreed. I am already self-sufficient in terms of water, power, heat, cooking, and partially in terms of food. I'm getting meat rabbits this weekend (I know there's something demented about getting bunnies to kill on Easter weekend, but I didn't exactly CHOOSE the timing! LOL). I will raise enough stock that I can provide about a third of my family's meat needs. My neighbor, with whom I get along well and who thinks very much as I do, is putting a chicken coop in. We've already agreed to exchange meat and eggs. This will be for variety, not additional stores, but variety is important too. I can also hunt and fish within walking distance of our homestead. I already grow a garden, and that will be expanded in the coming weeks. Blueberries and grapes should produce this year as well.

    It's a start.

    Because people are thinking like this again, though, some of the folks who would destroy our freedoms have even taken to banning the sale of seeds in their state. SEEDS!

    Yeah, if you live in Michigan (and/or Vermont/Massachusetts, I can't remember which) your governor won't allow you to buy the essentials to grow your own food.

    I wonder what happened to the America I grew up loving...?
     
  12. smithcp2002

    smithcp2002 Monkey+++

    Here in Western Mass, most of the supply stores are open. Bulk seed is been delivered and home garden seed pack are available. The only thing that I have seen short is the starter trays and peat disks. Just questioning the food store for the restocks are slow and sparse.
     
  13. IceRanger

    IceRanger Intellectus Refuticus

    The first place I saw that seeds were not allowed to be sold was Vermont, if I'm not mistaken. But Whitmer in Michigan has taken this whole power thing way, way, WAY too far. And seeds? There's only one reason to ban the sale of a product that will allow people to produce their own food...

    ...and that is to keep the people dependent upon others (namely the government) for their basic needs. To say it's a travesty is an understatement, but the real travesty is if people actually allow it to stand. I've always been the guy people come to when they need a voice of reason, but even I'm at my breaking point--this kind of thing simply must be addressed, in whatever way gets the situation remedied (namely, returning us, and demanding of those we elect, to respect for our Constitution and the Bill of Rights).
     
  14. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Plenty of seed available here for all kinds of vegetables that won't grow on the coast. Not many nutrients in sand....
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2021
    Gator 45/70, IceRanger and SB21 like this.
  15. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    There is a flaw in the Michigan plan that I confirmed this afternoon. Eventhough there are these cute little signs and section closed ribbons. The SKUs still exist in the system. I grabbed a pack of radishes, carrots and chili pepper mix. Walked to the self-checkout.

    It appears that the scanners are smarter than people in that they are also ignoring Gretchen's edict. I walked out with 3 packages of seeds as a big FU to the governor.

    I didn't need the seeds. Just proving a point.

    Wonder if the staties are going to come visit.
     
  16. IceRanger

    IceRanger Intellectus Refuticus

    I hope that this is the worst of the "civil disobedience" we have to witness before this madness ends. Sadly, I don't think it's going to be. Because I don't think this has anything to do with seeds, or church services, or tee ball, or hoops. I think this is an effort to draw out the next "Timothy McVey"--to give them a scapegoat and "cover" for even more, and/or more permanent, usurping of our liberties (the hardest push of all being to ban/confiscate firearms).

    I so hope I'm wrong.
     
    Gator 45/70, Oddcaliber and duane like this.
  17. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    farming on the high ground for a limited number of people is possible. All I see are issues with the water supply... Square foot gardening to the mex...
     
  18. OldDude49

    OldDude49 Just n old guy

    location could be a serious issue?
     
    Gator 45/70 likes this.
  19. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    And keeping what you grow for your efforts. Local paper had letter to editor complaining about empty shelves at grocery stores and food hoarding and how she couldn't get her fair share. We used to eat as much as 40 or so percent of our meals out of the home. That may seem high, but that includes school lunches, hospital, business and other cafeterias, fast food meals, coffee shops, and the like. When the lock down went into place, most of those meals stopped and the average person now had to buy that additional food at their local grocery store and being what we are, that meant we wanted those things we were comfortable with and were easy to fix, that emptied the shelves and since the new demand was at the retail level, the old system supplying the out of home supply chain could not quickly supply goods for the new demand. Then human nature and I think a deep rooted survival instinct kicked in and Joe Sixpack decided that if he might be going to get hungry, that he would pick up a couple extra spaghetti sauce and a couple pounds of spaghetti, some packages of mac and cheese, a frozen pizza or two, and in an instant the stores were empty. Is having food for a week hoarding? The snowflakes think so and want papa government to make it all better and "fair". Going to be interesting times and I don't think I would want to have a greenhouse full of food in Boston, be a race to see if it would be stolen or sized for the greater good.

    The great toilet paper crisis, living in a rural area, we have individual septic systems and need a specific tissue that is designed to break down almost completely. Again many people were using out of home facilities and their supplied tissue, work, school, shopping, fast food places, and now the "business" is done at home. The commercial tissue is not packaged for individual sale nor is it designed for septic systems. Local septic pumping truck has ad that stated the tissue had to state septic safe and while flushable might be fine for a sewerage disposable plant, it will not work for septic tanks, so now there are 3 strikes in the toilet paper wars, people using more at home, packaging set up for commercial use, and right tissue for the application. Then you decide that since you were only going out once a week to shop you need more and then panic set in and you decided to buy enough for a couple or three weeks, and the whole system falls apart. It was made worse by our supply chain, the factory in China was churning out the wrong tissue type, the containers on the ships had the old expected mix of products and the warehouses in th US had the old mix. When the demand changed for the product, the whole system fell apart and with the plants in the US gone, even under the best of conditions, it will take weeks to sort it out. Not saying to prep, but do you need any more proof that the present supply chain system does not handle change well.

    Be grey and hide it well, the hungry would be looking for it and they think that your fore thought is hoarding and that they have a God given right to take your food for their needs.
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2020
  20. Oddcaliber

    Oddcaliber Monkey+++

    JMHO, I believe that survival is a mind set instead of a gear list. Yeah gear helps but you got to know how to use it first. Classic example is the fur trapper/mountain man. Had everything he needed to stay alive under any conditions. Nothing wrong with stocking up on the 3'bs but knowledge goes a long way.
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7