Posted on 01/06/2016 12:59:49 PM PST by w1n1
Unlike the past few years, I’m currently well stocked with “free range” water in powder form.
Yep.
I bought a couple of big packages of cigars. They are sealed up in humid controlled packages.
When you see Mad Max crunching on a stogie...it means I will have gas and water,. Or I will be laying by the side of the road with my head blown off.
I would add a rifle to your list, you might lose everything else on your list to someone with a stand off weapon. Even an inexpensive hunting rifle with scope should reach out to 400+ yards. Even with slugs, the shot gun won’t hold off bad guys more than 100 yards.
Blizzard kills thousands of cows and threatens Texas dairy business
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/02/news/dairy-texas-storm-goliath/index.html
Think diesel for emergency fuel.Lasts 10 years in storage.
Chocolate
I have five jerry cans. Each one has a number. Every Monday I empty one and go refill it. I know it’s not much, but with a full gas tank and those cans...I can drive to get my daughter and bring her home to the outpost!
Last week I paid $14.95 for a brick of CCI Mini mag. I hadn’t seen it in about a year. The last time I bought it, it was $35 for 500 rounds.
How many times *did* you ignore that firearms and boating PSA?
“Dehydrated food with a long shelf life AND WATER and the ability to heat it!”
The latter is EASY - there are plans all over the internet for building a rocket stove out of rocks, or cinder blocks/bricks or empty steel food cans. Build one now, just to see that it works and that you can do it, and store lots of the cans (don’t forget a decent pair of tin snips, and wear heavy gloves to avoid cuts - no new antibiotics during SHTF).
Hybrid seeds - Plant those seeds and you’ll be lucky if anything grows and any actual fruits or veggies that result will likely be less than pleasant.
In shtf times, better to plant those seeds than to throw them out. I'd go for "less than pleasant" than starving.
True, but most people can’t hit at that range. most would be hard pressed to hit at 100 yards without being regular shooters. My personal view is a shotgun is the better choice because it is more utilitarian. And range needs can be at least somewhat/partially offset by Sabot rounds and remain within the skill/utility level of the average person. The way I see it, an .06 with a scope is about useless to unfamiliar hands where a 12 ga takes far less skill to maximize usefulness and can do more damage within that ability.
I also think most encounters will be close range as most people arent military trained at stealth/evasion.
WHICH Friday?
I haven’t seen ANY .22 at Wallyworld in ages - and it ain’t for lack of checking.
Instead of just thinking about supplies, I’ve been thinking about skills that would be handy. After all, supplies will eventually run out, but if you can manufacture things yourself, YOU would be a commodity of value.
4 things I think preppers should consider learning to manufacture from raw materials (and also learn how to acquire those materials):
1. Ethanol - easy to make, and the raw materials are very easy to find. You could also make methanol using an even simpler version of the process, from even easier to acquire materials, but you cannot drink methanol to help you cope with a post-apocalypic existence :)
Useful for: fuel, disinfectant/antiseptic, anaesthetic and a valuable trade good.
2. Soap - easy to make, materials are easily available, and it is an absolute necessity if you want to avoid dying from infections in a world without hospitals or antibiotics. Also, you and your posse will probably get along with each other much better if you don’t all smell like wild animals.
Useful for: hygiene, laundry, cleaning tools/utensils/cooking vessels, trade good
3. Candles - Once the kerosene and batteries run out, you probably won’t want to be reduced to wood fires for all your lighting needs. They’re smoky and hot, and will draw a lot of attention to you, not mention you are going to have to spend your energy chopping and gathering wood. If you have the materials to make soap, you also have most of the materials to make candles, so you might as well learn to do both.
Useful for: lighting, trade good
4. Gunpowder - This is the trickiest one to make, and probably the one you can most easily do without, if you just stockpile enough ammunition and powder ahead of time. However, if the situation lasts a long time, this would be a very highly valuable skill to have, and a rare one as well. The easiest form of gunpowder, black powder, would not be too difficult to make, if you can find sulfur. If that is not commonly available in your neck of the woods, think about stockpiling some of it just in case. For smokeless powder, you would need to know how to make both black powder AND nitroglycerin, so it’s probably best to forget about that unless you don’t mind losing a hand while you try to perfect the process.
Useful for: ammunition, explosives, trade good
Thank you!
An old woman who lived through WWI & WWII in Germany spoke about how cooking oil was like gold. Highly sought after.
I’m playing the Mad Max game myself. Probably not quite as good as Fallout 4, but can you pull a driver out of a moving vehicle with your harpoon and then drag his corpse along the highway behind you in Fallout 4?
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_30.html
I was talking to a couple about living through that winter in Neb. They made the comment about how people these days wouldn’t make it.
Wanna know why most people will die?
They cannot build fire without matches or a lighter.
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