Stone Age Immersion Living...talk about going way out there

[Ghosth]

Well your right in that water is going to be the hard one. Especially once the electricity goes out.
If nothing else that water heater in my basement is 50 gallons of pure water just sitting there.
At 1 gallon per person per day that buys me and my wife a fair chunk of time. Time to get the crazy stuff over with.

Also that's partly why I figured to ride the river. The Red River may look nasty, but its actually cleaner, fewer pollutants than most of the lakes around here.  Worst case scenario, fill a 5 gallon bucket, let it settle over night, siphon off the clear water, boil it, cool it, bottle it and your set. 

[john9001]

i have a well but it has a electric pump, i have been looking at a manual back up for it, they fit down the same well casing beside the electric.

[DREDIOCK]

I actually believe this is true, and will happen.  I don't think most folks realize how fragile our civilization is, and how much of a mess things could get with a fairly minor push. 

I agree with your entire post. But especially with this line in particular . And especially with our society becoming more and more reliant and dependent on modern technology. Cell phones,GPS etc in all likelyhood are going to be among the first things to be rendered useless other then a possible weapon to throw at something.

In talking to kids and many young adults these days. Im amazed at basic things they dont know how to do. Like read a map, sharpen a knife, Find NORTH without a compass, Basic first aid. Find dry wood and start a fire in the rain. Hell I've seen some that cant build a fire in dry weather without using some sort of chemical  accelerant.
And much more. But all things I either learned how to do or figured out for myself how to do by the time I was 13 playing outside and away from my parents prying eyes

Much of our younger crowd Im afraid, I think is screwed. It truly will be survival of the fittest in a physical sense as might will make right. As the button "B" on the game pad will not be able to save them. And they wont be able to google the answer for instructions.

For many of the 40 and up, it will be little more then a return to our youths and remembering old lessons. Men who have spent their lives working with their hands instead of behind a desk. Will be at a distinct advantage as many will already have at least some practical and improvisation skills in using whatever is on hand to their best advantage

[DREDIOCK]

Well your right in that water is going to be the hard one. Especially once the electricity goes out.
If nothing else that water heater in my basement is 50 gallons of pure water just sitting there.
At 1 gallon per person per day that buys me and my wife a fair chunk of time. Time to get the crazy stuff over with.

Also that's partly why I figured to ride the river. The Red River may look nasty, but its actually cleaner, fewer pollutants than most of the lakes around here.  Worst case scenario, fill a 5 gallon bucket, let it settle over night, siphon off the clear water, boil it, cool it, bottle it and your set. 

That is, provided whatever caused the cataleptic event didnt  in itself or cause the river to be contaminated too due to runoff or the failure of water treatment faculities
Quarter those water rations until you find a way to resupply them. In fact scale down all rations on everything to bare minimum. Until you find a way to resupply.
Then consume the most perishable items first, the least,such as dried dogfood last. And while it may not sound particularly appetizing. Dried dog/cat food if kept dry will last a really really REALLY long time. And most people dont realise that animal feed in many circumstances has to meet stricter standards then human food.

[mtnman]

Well your right in that water is going to be the hard one. Especially once the electricity goes out.
If nothing else that water heater in my basement is 50 gallons of pure water just sitting there.
At 1 gallon per person per day that buys me and my wife a fair chunk of time. Time to get the crazy stuff over with.

Also that's partly why I figured to ride the river. The Red River may look nasty, but its actually cleaner, fewer pollutants than most of the lakes around here.  Worst case scenario, fill a 5 gallon bucket, let it settle over night, siphon off the clear water, boil it, cool it, bottle it and your set.  

Thinking like that (using the water you have "hidden" in plain sight) is probably what it'll take to survive.  Just think how many folks could die of thirst, with full water heaters in the basement.  Your neighbors houses will probably have water left in theirs too.

I'm set for water (if I can make it home).  Our water is from a spring, it runs into the house endlessly.  It keeps our tank full, and then just bypasses through a pipe and drains into our pond.  It's like a garden hose that runs all the time.

One of the things that worries me the most is an EMP type issue.  Man made or natural, I suppose it doesn't matter.  In that theory, we could lose electricity, vehicles, and communication abilities.  My house is an awesome refuge (farm, surrounded by woods and marsh), but I work 40 miles east of it.  My wife and kids work 25 miles west of it.  My fairly young kids are in two separate schools, 15 miles apart.  Worst case scenario, how do we link up?  Say I manage to get home, and they're not there.  Now what?

[DREDIOCK]

Thinking like that (using the water you have "hidden" in plain sight) is probably what it'll take to survive.  Just think how many folks could die of thirst, with full water heaters in the basement.  Your neighbors houses will probably have water left in theirs too.

I'm set for water (if I can make it home).  Our water is from a spring, it runs into the house endlessly.  It keeps our tank full, and then just bypasses through a pipe and drains into our pond.  It's like a garden hose that runs all the time.

One of the things that worries me the most is an EMP type issue.  Man made or natural, I suppose it doesn't matter.  In that theory, we could lose electricity, vehicles, and communication abilities.  My house is an awesome refuge (farm, surrounded by woods and marsh), but I work 40 miles east of it.  My wife and kids work 25 miles west of it.  My fairly young kids are in two separate schools, 15 miles apart.  Worst case scenario, how do we link up?  Say I manage to get home, and they're not there.  Now what?

Establish a rally point. After 911 odds are the schools have some sort of contingency plan in place. Which for the first day or so will probably be followed until everything falls apart socially. So I'd establish some sort of rally point with the wife. Then get the children.

I figure you have 24-48 hours before society starts to completely unravel.

[Penguin]

I'd give up the tanning too, if I could afford to buy braintan instead.  Unfortunately, I'm too poor for that, and commercially tanned leather is so inferior it's not even really worth using for most of my projects...  So, it's a lot of work, but I don't see a way around it yet...

I saw the average age there too.  I wonder how many of the "original" stone age folks made it to 35yrs old.  I'm sure a few did, but even 30 yrs seems pretty extraordinary.

Braintan as in

Brain


+ Tan


=


Or am I missing something? 

-Penguin

[Ghosth]

Braintan as in killing a deer, skinning it, using the brains from the deer to tan the hide into leather.
Not for the faint of heart or those with a sensitive nose.
BTW you can use plain old wood ashes to slip the hair off.
The process tends to be quite gross, very smelly, or very hard work, at times all 3.

But, it makes very very good leather.

Mtnman get home and wait. Discuss alternate travel routes in the case of big problems.
Or safe places to hole up until you can go find them.
Safe places to hide messages as to where your at, what route your taking.
This can be as simple as a pile of stones, with a single stone pointing direction.
"I was here, I was thinking, I'm headed this way"
Can make all the difference in the world.


If we do get hit by an EMP, you can pretty much plan on throwing power and communications out.
Anything that's electrical in nature and is powered up, unshielded will fry.

Dred, very good point about the catfood, probably would have taken a while to think about that one.

[eagl]

EMP will kill electronics that aren't even turned on...  Any pathways that are not fully shielded and isolated end to end will have a huge spike in electrical potential along the path, no different than hooking up the circuit to a very high amp power source for a brief instant.  Coils will see even worse damage and may actually jump or twitch causing physical damage, due to magnetic fields induced from the current flow through the coil.

EMPs are interesting things to study and think about   Lots of possibly unexpected things can happen.

[john9001]

who is going to set off this EMP and why?

[Ghosth]

Can you think of any better way of turning the USA into a 3rd world country?

I can't, with one blow you could knock out the last real superpower.

Keeps the people around for consumers, but totally destroys our power, communications, etc.
Anything that runs on computers (and almost everything does in one way or another) would be dead.

The potential is staggering.

All it takes is one nuke exploded in the right place. Any geostationary satellites over the area would probably also fry.

Takeover is a simple matter of "taking local control to coordinate relief efforts". They could split us up any way they chose, and in that situation I bet resistance would be scattered and largely ineffective.
 

[eagl]

who is going to set off this EMP and why?

As an example of a plausible "what if", North Korea could eventually come up with a crappy little version of their crappy bulky atomic bomb, attach it to the top of one of their big crappy rockets, and loft it at the US (or anywhere within a few thousand miles).  The odds that we'll have interceptors in place and ready to go are not 100%, so it is conceivable that they could arrange a nice dirty airburst that doesn't actually kill anyone, yet causes a lot of inconvenience.  There are North Koreans who think this would be a really good way to gain bargaining power at the negotiating table...

[Ghosth]

North Korea, Iran, India, Pakistan just to name a few would in theory have the capability to do so.

Launched into space on the right orbit the chances of us being able to stop it are not great.

[Reschke]

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm

Nice link here about EMP.

EMP is something that really gets me to thinking about the how and when I would be able to move my family. To get to the only fast route out of the area is about a 5 mile hike from my house but it would take us at least 5 days on the Cahaba River to get within another 5 miles of my parents location. For me this is a small problem with a really young little girl and a wife whose only time in the woods or camping has been in a motor home or a fully equipped cabin. For my boys they would learn easily and quickly since they are already learning when we camp out on hunting trips and they are both used to walking long distances albeit without anything heavier than a small day pack.

The thing is I would have to get the help of one of my like minded neighbors to help get us and the canoes there but its a dilemma since his plan is to go north and mine is to go south. Man I gotta add in some extra contingency plans for the possibilities.

[mtnman]

who is going to set off this EMP and why?

Well, assuming that everyone on earth just stays friendly and minds their own business, there's always the sun.  In theory anyway.  A modern repeat of the Carrington Event could theoretically be catastrophic.

Unfortunately, there are folks out there who don't want to just get along and mind their own business.