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Fahren
| | Posted on Saturday, January 08, 2011 - 11:04 pm: | 
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Best to you, City. I hope and pray it never comes to such extremes, but I am preparing for the bad as best as I can nonetheless. |
99savage
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 11:44 am: |
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Doubt that the Apocalypse is coming. - Suspect that most people & most institutions will try to continue to do their jobs as best they can.
BUT we can realistically expect the following:
1. Near hyper increases in cost of food, fuel & fiber. - That is happening already & being accelerated by nanny considerations concerning "food safety"
2. Major inflation in the rest of the economy
3. Enforced "holidays" for banks & other financial institutions, which will cut us off from our saved funds & render checks & credit cards useless.
4. Reduced retirement payments - World wide, Governments are out of money & are already nationalizing retirement accounts.
5. Reduced Social Security payments - Face it lads, they system is broke.
6. Roving strikes/slowdowns by Civil Servants - Anybody recall the NYC snow removal or lack thereof?
7. Reduced/delayed welfare payments as State & Local Governments go belly up.
#7. is likely to result in banditry & is a good enough reason to keep a 12 gauge under the bed & the Springfield uncased in the closet but the rest call for cooperative actions.
It is easy to act against the hyper increases in food prices. - Put in a garden, get some goats to graze on what was your lawn, instead of repelling the deer browsing on your rhododendrons, nail one & salt it down.
Fuel is a bigger problem & not too much can be done. - Walk more, bicycle more, stockpile bedding, substitute muscle power for horsepower, keep some wood around so your fireplace can actually be used, . . .
In my opinion the biggest issue will be continuing commerce when the financial system is in tatters. - Payments on checks will be delayed. - Most institutions will want to continue doing business but will struggle paying their suppliers. - Damned if I know what to do here. - A stash of silver coins might help w/ local barter. |
Johnnylunchbox
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 11:51 am: |
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Lots of salt. |
Kenm123t
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 12:08 pm: |
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The problem is the Community and those that think community is always the answer to personal responsiblity. The thought that Community has a right to the fruits of others labor is why we are where we are now. |
Fahren
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 12:31 pm: |
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Glad I'm not your neighbor, Ken, with an attitude like that LOL! You don't have to equate community with communism. Community can be a social network of family and friends. There is nothing wrong with working to increase the ties within your local community, to create bonds based on shared values, friendship and respect.
If when 99savage's scenarios play out (I tend toward the "when" and not the "if" side), I want to be glad that I thought of these things and did my best to prepare.
As Court says, "We are at an interesting juncture in history." |
Just_ziptab
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 12:57 pm: |
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If push comes to shove,I wonder how long I can survive off my bee hive full of honey?
The water table is high enuf that I can easily dig a groundwater well with a post hole digger. Wood is with in dragging distance for the free standing pot belly stove.A creek with fish is close,but how long will the water go untainted. Small game would be wiped out locally.Big game would be hard to keep in the warmer weather.
The mass of America would soon starve with out mechanized farming and processes..... ....but there are too damned many people in this country,regardless.A bee hive only holds so many bees. I think "growth everything" is wrong.The country can only hold so many people..............like bees,the extras are expendable. |
Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 03:09 pm: |
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in the 80's it was nuke war
in the 90's it was industrial accidents
of course Y2K !
in 2000 it was terrorists
now it is our government
the circle of the threat is shrinking to a more local level. So nuke war didnt happen, the same preparations, indications and warnings, and readiness, applies today
I hope it doesnt come to it.... but reading their own words, and knowing a dangerous bit about soviet history, I doubt it. I doubt it very strongly.
locked and chocked, loaded and cocked
off grid in under 30 |
Sifo
| | Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 07:11 pm: |
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A big question is how long until the "community" turns into gangs and simple self serving survival? I like my odds in the wilderness much more than my odds in an urban setting when it hits the fan. I will also be thankful for those who chose to stay near the cities. |
Spatten1
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - 08:52 pm: |
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question....if you are taking down all the snow fences.... what stops the drifting that they were set up to prevent? or is there a new government bail out to replace them with a new 'Green' technology ......
Sorry for the delayed response. We do maintenance on the snow fences, removing old wood and replacing it with new. Also, when a fence gets too dilapidated for maintenance, we will do the tear down and a fence contractor will build a new fence.
The weathered wood is really cool. It mostly goes on multi-million dollar mountain homes and in restaurants.
It's great to salvage wood that would be thrown away and give it a second life, especially where it will really be appreciated.
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Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - 09:27 pm: |
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It looks great, I have always liked the aged rustic look.
I just made a call on an espresso stand that went out of business, guy wants 10k for it... I told him, I didnt want the equipment, or the location, just the building.... hes down to 3k and a haul away  hello cabin |
Buellerandy
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 10:01 am: |
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That's awesome city. I've toyed with the idea of getting some property out in the boonies to build a lil 24x24. Maybe 10 acres depending on the taxes and what not.
Just not quite there in life yet. |
Spatten1
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 10:10 am: |
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Yeah City, sounds like a plan!
I see some good Doug Fir timbers and flooring coming out of old buildings in the Pac NW. You can get the flooring really cheap sometimes, around $3.00/SF. Check out this site: http://www.woodplanet.com/ |
Xodot
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 02:30 pm: |
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The triple threat is:
1- virus outbreak
2- earth, wind and water moving fast (natural disaster)
3- civil conflict
all happening at once.
You might have an escape plan to a remote area but when will you go? How will you know it's bad enough to leave?
Sorry, but by the time you realize it's bad enough, it's too bad to get through.
I will stock my home with enough to share and spend my last days living as I have always lived - trying to make the day better for others. Actually I suspect we will all spend our last days without much departure from what has become "our normal".
I have learned that in an emergency personalities don't change - rather one's true character is revealed. |
Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 04:27 pm: |
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I have been in indications and warning field for twenty years, if you see me leave, you know its on its way.
I am betting I have at least a two week run on the 'masses'
and you may laugh at the preparations I took, but I did not miss any of the tom foolery that went on for Y2K
yes all of my money was out of banks, and I really havent trusted them since.
I was off grid and over seas for 4 weeks, if it had gone to shiate, I was already remote.
i will be similarily off grid and remote for November December January of 2012-3.
and again the choice between an agonizing slow death from a virus or forced 'health' camp, well I have plenty of ammo, and I will save a round for myself. |
Spatten1
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 05:16 pm: |
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I've got a protected elk herd on the hill behind my house, year-round. When everything goes to hell I'm goin' up that hill and dragging one of them back down with me (in pieces). |
Buellerandy
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 05:46 pm: |
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City, you better leave 1 last thread called "shtf" so we get the que. |
Sifo
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 06:01 pm: |
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City, you better leave 1 last thread called "shtf" so we get the que.
+1 Post the code word when the time comes! |
Court
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 06:56 pm: |
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>>>>Sorry, but by the time you realize it's bad enough, it's too bad to get through.
That's what I've long said. I never loose sight of the fact that we live on an island. There are 3 bridges that connect us with the world.
Someone tried to convince me that is something happens (be mindful that twice since I've lived here we've been without cell phone service, electricity and police services) that they'd jump in their honker SUV (they seem to think that 4 wheel drive and big tires give them a ticket to the front of the queue) and head out.
I pointed out that, on the same roads, in "normal" traffic each day it takes me an hour to get 1.5 miles to the bridge. Toss the 15% unemployed into that mix and all the others and there's no way you'd make it.
I figure, here in NYC, that if anything happens we need to be able to hang here for 30-60 days before leaving.
I've got 10 acres 3 hours North of NYC that no one could ever find . . . hahahaha . . except the local tax people. It lies on an access road to a power line.
It'd be a nice place to hang out for a while. The sames folks, by the way, laughed when I put a fairly "non civilian" antenna on the roof and a Motorola commercial rack mounted repeater up on the 3rd floor. It has the Motorola power revert panel . . if it looses 120VAC it drops to a pair of deep cycle batteries. . . it's a case of using your geography. Our house is about the highest point in the eastern seaboard between the Carolinas and Maine and makes an excellent location. I can sit on the Tappan Zee Bridge and operate the panel.
I learned a lesson after the blackout when I couldn't reach my wife by phone.
Just in case. . . . |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 08:14 am: |
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Get one of those KLR's running Court, and put it alongside a zodiac to keep in the basement.
(I have a buddy that has restored his second zodiac now and learned a lot of good tricks... if you put in the time, the costs aren't bad). |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 09:46 am: |
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I've always enjoyed reading books based on "collapse of civilization" scenarios. 3 of my favorites are:
"Lucifer's Hammer" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle- Comet passes close to Earth, a few fragments break off and impact around the world, causing tsunamis and similar devastation. Civilization pretty much collapses.
"The Stand" by Stephen King- "Superflu" bug escapes the CDC facility in Atlanta and proves fatal to ~99% of population. Survivors in U.S. have visions and either join up with evil dude in Las Vegas or benevolent old black lady in Boulder City, CO. Major supernatural element.
"Dies the Fire" (series) by S. M. Stirling- weird event happens that causes all electrical devices world-wide to stop working. Also, all "high energy" reactions (explosives, gunpowder, nuclear, etc.) don't work. Civilization falls overnight. Premise is scifi, and there are supernatural elements as well, but most of story is very believable.
All three books go into great detail speculating about how things would go on a personal basis for the survivors. It's very interesting to consider the things you'd have to deal with, skills you'd need to have or acquire, and odds of surviving such a thing. I hope we never have to find out. |
Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 12:33 am: |
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all you gotta do is spool up the video from katrina and rodney king riots
I wouldnt want to be any where near 'civilisation, or community' |
Strato9r
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 02:59 am: |
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"The Stand" is the most terrifying book I've ever read. Reason enough to be ready to haul ass at a moment's notice...... |
Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 03:21 am: |
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I like my stupidity down range, and at distances over 300 yards |
Hybridmomentspass
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 10:21 am: |
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Hugh - thanks! you just listed my next three books! I'm always looking for a good read and this sort of thing interests me.
Again, thank you. |
Nukeblue
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 11:57 am: |
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don't forget "patriots" and "one second after" |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 01:32 pm: |
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Hyrbridmomentspass- Glad to help. The "Dies the Fire" series is up to 7 (?) books now and (EDIT) NONE of them have been bad; most have been great.
Nukeblue- sounds like a couple more I need to check out.
(Message edited by Hughlysses on January 15, 2011) |
Hybridmomentspass
| | Posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011 - 03:34 pm: |
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nuke - i just finished one second after....LOVED IT!!!!!!!!! |
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