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Questions to assist in creating a working inventory of mind, body, and equipment for living in dangerous or uncertain times
I have been reading the excellent book, Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood, by Barbara Demick, and thinking about other places like Ukraine, Egypt, Venezuela, Syria, Argentina, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Japan, Chile, Haiti, France, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Russia, Libya, Israel, Liberia, Yemen, Mexico, and my home state of Texas. This has caused the paranoid part of me, a part that is apparently immune to normalcy bias, to consider how one might spend some spare money and time, apart from buying sovereign bonds and attending DSK's quarterly sex parties, to prepare for TEOTWAWKI as experienced by the people in the aforementioned nations. What follows is not a shopping list, but rather a list of questions to assist in creating a working inventory of mind, body, and equipment for living in dangerous or uncertain times. These are mostly things one would want to get squared away while one has time for consideration, before one's life, or another's life, depends on it.
Mind
Whom do I love?
What do I love?
What do I have to live for?
What am I willing to die for?
What are my mental assets?
What are my mental liabilities?
What is my single biggest knowledge gap?
What are the top three habits that make up my character?
Whom can I really trust?
Who are my mortal enemies? Why? What can I do about it?
What skills do I have to earn a living?
What special tools do these skills require?
Do I know how to beg...effectively?
Do I know how to barter...effectively?
How good of a liar am I...really?
Do I know how to use a compass and map?
What is the highest point in my county?
Do I know how to make a fire...without making much smoke?
Do I know how to hunt, fish, butcher, and prepare meat?
Do I know how to gather, grow, store, and prepare food?
Do I know how to change a tire, swap a battery, and jump-start a vehicle?
Do I know how to sail a boat?
Do I know how to use a two-way radio that is not a cell phone?
When and where am I safe to be in condition white?
What is my reactionary gap at day and at night?
How do I respond to a reset of my OODA Loop?
How can I reset someone else's OODA Loop, and how much time does that give me?
What does it feel like to get punched in the face, and how does it affect me?
Do I really know how to defend myself with a knife? For example, where are the three primary arterial targets?
Do I really know how to use my rifle? For example, can I hit a man twice in the chest at two meters, in less than 1.5 seconds, while moving? What about once in the chest, at 250 meters, with my first shot, and while I am sitting on the ground?
Do I know CPR?
Do I know how to make and apply a pressure bandage?
Do I know how to treat a sucking chest wound?
Do I know how to apply a tourniquet?
Do family, friends, and I know our neighborhood, out-of-town, and out-of-state rally points?
What is the first and last name of my twenty closest neighbors (geographically)?
What is the name and cell phone number of my county sheriff?
What is the name of the commander of my local militia?
What exactly do I do if I see the flash of light from a nuclear device?
Do I know the location of several local bomb and fallout shelters?
Body
How well, relative to others, am I able to see and hear, with or without aid?
Am I able to run for my life for more than a minute?
Do I have the strength to manage my own body weight? For example, can I pull myself up over a six-foot wall?
Am I able to control my appetites, or do my appetites control me?
Am I chemically dependent?
Am I fit enough to perform sexually?
Am I able to swim 500+ meters?
Am I able to fight off everyday infection and illness, and to heal my own minor wounds?
Am I physically able to defend myself without a weapon?
Am I physically able to repeatedly manipulate and engage my pistol and rifle?
Equipment
Do I have multiple pairs of Rx glasses and hearing aids if needed?
Do I have a good light and spare batteries or fuel?
Do I have a good pair of shoes that I can put on and walk to the next town without blisters?
Do I have warm and durable outdoor clothing in muted colors?
Is my vehicle in good condition with a spare tire, tools, water, siphon, fuel container, and flares?
Do I have a bicycle, boat, aircraft, or animal (with appropriate kit) that will carry me, and my gear, hundreds of miles?
Is my dog obedient and does he or she warn me of danger?
Do I have portable, widely recognized, and durable assets such as gold coins?
Do I have a reliable and portable method to obtain clean drinking water?
Do I have a good compass and appropriate maps?
Do I have some sort of telescopic magnification?
Do I have a first aid kit?
Do I have a two-way radio that is not a cell phone?
Do I have a knife that is high quality and a small sharpening stone?
Do I have a sidearm, ammunition, gun belt, holster, spare magazines, and magazine carriers?
Do I have a rifle, ammunition, sling, spare magazines, magazine carriers, spare firing pin, and range card?
Do I have body armor and a kevlar helmet? Or will I be relying on bread?
Do I have a "spare" set of identification?
Do I have a mask, balaclava, or disguise?
Do I have at least a month's cache of food?
Do I have ammunition cached?
Do I have books cached?
There are many more, I am sure, but I hope this at least spurs a lively discussion.
Peace!
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might be a good idea to put on some pounds to keep you going with little or no food...just drink lots of clean water
au contraire. be as lean as possible so your fat-burning is nicely operational.
my rule of thumb: be able to run 20 minutes maxed out without stopping.
be no more than 20percent above your weight when you were 25 (if over 25)
a slow march 3 to 7 days with 50-60lb gear should energise you not exhaust you.
Home-made hot sauce or Sriracha on that...?
Hot sauce is good. If you got barrels full of pasta and rice, a variety of flavor sauces will make eating it not so bad at all. We've dreamt up some recipes in case we have to live off what we have saved up.
I want to make some booze too. I already gave up cigarettes and that sucks enough for me.
It brings a whole new meaning to the term 'finger food'. Can't we at least eat the pets first?
OK, but then banksters and politicians.
Fuck that, I'll have a side of Blankfein before I ever BBQ my pets.
Your neolithic ancestors found dogs useful for a reason. Start thinking about how to keep your best friend fed.
He can have some Blankfein, too.
But I don't consider them human so there would be less yaking and gaging involved. Anybody up for some chocolate covered banker?
Wouldn't be canibalism, as they are a different species!
Would that be a "chancre" ?
Doesn't sound very tasty.
A good list for starters...another way to say it ... beans, bullets, bullion, and bandaides .. plus items for barter .. from beer to coffee to chocoloate .. a six pack of beer during Katrina was going for 100 bucks.... bleach will help killl most water born bacteria and even fights AIDS virus. One might ask . how did people in Russia survive the collapse of the Soviet Union .. a lot can be learned from their experience .. otherwise you end up with hundreds of babushkas beggging on the streets . older people need a plan as well .. they wuold be among the first casualties as would unmprepared metro urbanities... also helpful .. get a state topographical map it will show high points . dips and logging or other little used roads... if you have to bug out .. think it through in DETAIL .. so the plan becomes the action . when you have the plan you have a headstart on 90 percent as most will be deer in the headlights ... also be prepared to break the law .. during Katrina a lot of poeple were stupid enough to listen to authorities instead of geting out they ended up dead .. one sheriff deputy who listened to the FEDS .. lost his mother because he refused to challenge their no go dictum... be prepared to be a low breaker .. otherwise you will end up dead. They . if there is any kind of federal response or even state response will demand your weapons .. have a hiding place you can get to easily .. think it through ...
HH, you have with much understanding of past, present, and future, given yourself and your family the privilege of open space, natural living, and the ability to withstand a "rainy day" (raining gubbamin and bank frogs), mentally and physically. Most of us in cities and suburbs do not ask these questions, nor are we prepared to handle our JIT systems (which includes households, as centerline pointed out in another thread today) breaking.
In any case, a solid multi-tool is a modern must-have for every male. If I had to run out the door, never to come back again, and I could grab only one thing, this would be it:
https://www.leatherman.com/3.html
Last year I asked one of my friends if he wanted to go car camping. Fool's never slept outside under the stars. "Are there hotels there?"
Guess how many people have never even been car camping, let alone backpacking or unplanned traveling by foot. (Answer; lots).
Thanks for the insights from all, from tools to awareness/knife attacks to water filters and deprivation/fasting.
I like multi-tools when on the road because of the tool density, despite the lesser durability compared to individual, quality full-sized versions of the components' counterparts. The "new" version of that particular Leatherman model, I've had good success with (they improved the lock/release mechanism). As for general usage and abuse, there is absolutely nothing better than a $5-10 utility knife and replacement blades. I'm not into carving yet, but I do have blocks waiting, and need to acquire a good carving knife and start. It's like knitting for men?
edit: Chumba, I concede that a folding knife like that is better and more comfortable in most cases. I favor full tang blades in general. A small/medium blade with a well-placed index finger groove.
My preferred "multi-tool" is a simple (but sturdy) folding knife. I use it for everything, and with the exception of the pliers, I can do with it almost everything one can with a multi-tool. I buy the $4.99 ones from Harbor Freight, because they are cheap, fairly robust, and I can abuse the shit out of them without remorse. When they go bad (like the tip breaks off, or a lot of times the folding/locking mechanism gets all fucked up) I recycle the old one and buy a new one.
Even in a serious situation, I would prefer a folding blade over a multi-tool--but I wouldn't mind having the multi-tool on me as a backup.
-Chumblez.
A multi-tool with a small saw is very useful when field dressing an animal. That saw is great for cutting the pelvis. If you have a young enough animal, you can sometimes pop open the growth plate with a knife, but on an adult, you either have to saw or hack the pelvis open.
I prefer a Spyderco folder. I've never been able to destroy one. Tenacious is brilliant and cheap btw. I like to sharpen my blades rather than buy new. I'm just a smidge sentimental. In a serious situation my hand would grab for the fixed blade, Bark River Fox River, always near me.
nice choices, bro. for dry land 'jobs' i have a blu tang diving knife and an apache-style skinning knife. and a bunch of whatevers that i use for whatever. sacrificial, iow.
if it comes down to it, i can slaughter some asshole with a victorinox steak knife if that's what it takes.
Leatherman tools suffer from very brittle screwdriver blades. Took me a month to break both of them. Haven't ever had a failure with a genuine Wenger or Victorinox Swiss Army knife. Lost a few but never broke anything on them.
You are correct on the principle, however, and others may have had different experiences than me. But I have used these tools a lot everyday for decades.
I have a Victorinox that was a gift. A couple of weeks ago, I cut myself after having whittled a bunch of wood. I was surprised, because it was one of those cuts that bled everywhere and did not hurt, which is generally a sign of a very sharp knife because the cut is so clean, which this was even after doing some carving.
Skateboarder, for living in the big city, if I had to pick only one or two things from the list, it would probably be to learn what is my reactionary gap at day and at night, and to acquire the habit of not allowing strangers within my reactionary gap when nobody else is around (as the saying goes, there is safety in numbers...up to a point...then there is the madness of crowds).
EXHIBIT A: London Knife Attack Kills One and Wounds Another
Few can stop such an attack, but we all can learn to recognize and avoid dangerous situations.
in respect of that, i would suggest the ability to be invisible, and the ability to appear weak when actually stronger than the predator.
if you don't practice fighting with knives you can't possibly venture into that territory if it confronts you.
Excellent link. Thanks for sharing.....
But what happened to empathy???
Someone comes banging on your door at 3am, are you going to shoot first or put yourself in their hungry shoes?
After I put myself in their shoes by confiscating them, I'm going to use them as barefoot slaves to plow my field. That way we both eat.
If you have a choice between them being hungry, or you being hungry, what are you going to do? If you have a choice between you being dead and them being dead, what are you going to do?
So, there are only -two- options, eh?
Oldwood is a troll, and a particularly fallacious one at that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
Very Good Point.. a Bug Out bag.. is also a very important evacuation by car Bag.. imagine no hotel where you are going and the possibility of road blocks and living in your car on the side of the road for a week..
No roadblocks on the routes that I'd be taking if I had to GTFO. The popos would freak out if they saw some of those roads, and they sure as hell coudln't get their Bearcats and MRAPs down them.
Another one to add to HH's list: Know your back roads and back trails. If I had to, I could get from dirt roads that start in Albuquerque all the way to Mt Taylor without ever touching pavement. I don't need a map for this, and if I had to avoid people, some of the trails that I would use are not on any maps. Also, shovels, tow straps, and all of the other stuff that you would want if simply going out 4-wheeling are a good idea.
...and a really good fence tool is worth its weight in gold, especially if one is on horseback, but not exclusively.
PS: Don't forget the bow saw.
And an ax. Fence tools are very nice, but Lineman's dykes can also work wonders.
Also, on your fire part, for people to look up are Dakota fire holes and rocket stoves. I would also recommend learning a primitive method of starting fire. I kind of enjoy that stuff anyway, but OTOH, I don't smoke, so if I forget matches, and break down, I figured that I always have paracord in my Jeep. It's not something that you want to have to rely on if you haven't done it a few times. Trust me on this. Besides, if civilization did totally break down, who is going to be making matches and lighters when yours run out?
Instead of a key fob on my ring, I use a US issue magnesium striker tool. Another trick is to carry a little bit of roofing tar paper (30#), which makes a very light and super great firestarter because it burns very hot and for a long time. Everyone needs to remember the sparks from their jumper cables also.
definitely the rocket stove
http://prepared-housewives.com/how-to-build-a-rocket-stove-and-impress-the-boys/
http://www.silverfire.us/silverfire-survivor-rocket-stove
Swedish Fire Steel:
http://www.lightmyfire.com/products/products/swedish-firesteel-20.aspx
SHF
Step 1: fight way to pistol
Step 2: use pistol to fight way to rifle
Step 3: use rifle to achieve short, intermediate, and long term objectives.
Add water purification. Can go for quite some time without food. But, dehyradation will get you fast.
Lots of cheap solutions here - even some pretty basic DIY filtration systems. Good for all sorts of emergencies too where power or other problem might kill supply or render it unsafe.
Get a Lifestraw or two:
http://www.cabelas.com/product/EARTHEASY-LIFESTRAW-WATER-FILTER/1675088.uts
As with fire you need some levels of redundancy. A few years back we started up Teton Pass and before we made it to Death Canyon Shelf my Pur pump filter broke. We were out of water treatment tablets before we made Paintbrush Divide. Fortunately we carried ample stove fuel to boil the water from there on out to Jenny Lake.
You get what you pay for. Our Katadyn Pocket filter supplied our family the whole way, including three additional days on Moran, just as it has on dozens of other trails. Did you take the tram, or hike up the first day?
My Pur is the same as the Katadyn Hiker Pro, the later bought the former. One of the o-rings wore out and I had no replacement.....I do now.
When I was kid we always took the tram. Then to Granite Canyon, DC Shelf, Alaska Basin, SF Cascade Canyon, Jenny Lake. Later and on that specific trip we took Teton Taxi to the Teton Pass trailhead. Not really scenic through Philips Pass but then you hit Granite Canyon and you're good. Then DC Shelf, Sunset Lake, NF Cascade Canyon, Holly Lake, Jenny Lake.
How is Moran? Hard to accomplish so many destinations for us but we like the Tetons and Winds.
Moran is a nice climb, the glacier is very active, the lake approach by canoe is beautiful, and there is much wildlife because of the very small amount of traffic.
Thanks for allowing me to recall some great memories. I miss the area. I'd like to make it back sometime soon. Right now the Smokies are much more accessible.
Guess how many people have experienced real hunger from not eating for 24 or more hours? At some point the mind stops operating and panic begins to set in.
Most people have never experienced any sort of severe deprivation. About as close as they ever get is the power going out for a few days or even a week. Even then, while the technology stops working the world is still pretty much there. Now shake it up a bit and see how disorientating it all becomes.
I do the Master Cleanse a couple times per year. Still have to cook and clean for the rest of the team while avoiding all but the prescribed nutrition. Tough to deal with psychologically for the first few days. Migraines kill me.
Coffee drinker? Most likely the headaches are from quitting caffeine cold turkey. For me, when I fast, it takes about a day before they start and another day before they end.
I go without coffee sometimes and do not get headaches. I can get a good migraine only in a high stress situation at work, or during the cleanse. I don't get headaches or migraines very often at all though.
Bloodsugar goes all haywire. People lose focus and become rather difficult. Teamwork can really break down quickly. Stress gets amplified. Not good things if one is dealing with potentially dangerous situations.
I fast on Yom Kippur every year. It is HARD !!!!!!!!