SURVIVAL TIPS

I'm thinking about the future and about who might know it. My thoughts don't run to seers or folks like that but more to the actuarial, number crunching kind of people. I mean, for instance, the number of foreclosures in Los Angeles this Summer. That number is known, or pretty much known. Will there be riots and burning? Will there be people going hungry and thirsty? How about up in Chicago? Or New York City? Any predictions on Detroit anyone? Maybe there are some words on Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, and Houston. Like I said, this stuff is known and we are not getting told about it. Why are we not told what our government knows about our future? Lives could be saved with that knowledge.

I have been reading about EMP tribulations forecast for this country and they are not pretty. Stan Deyo wrote a very good article in 2006 on that very subject. I cannot remember who it was but some blogger wrote about EMP this morning. You can withstand an EMP attack but you better be prepared to do without lights and communications and transportation and specialized medical machines and refrigeration and heat and all those servants you have grown accustomed to. Your coffee machine will not work and most likely your alarm clock will not work either. If your water system depends on electricity you are probably in for a dry spell.

But strike anywhere matches will work and so will candles. Wood and coal and bottled gas will still burn. A hand pump will still draw water from your well. All those canned goods you have been storing away will still feed you if you have a can opener. Better get a few extra can openers. Lackadaisical children and busy neighbors will need a can opener, just you watch. Better have some extras. Cheap ass cooking utensils will not get it done cooking over a fire three times a day. The cheap things are not constructed to take the abuse. Get cast iron for your own personal use. Why do you think cast iron is advertised so heavily and spoken of so frequently? IT IS BECAUSE IT WORKS and it works damn well.

Non-electrical tools would be a blessing. Don't bother getting electrical tools. Everybody will have those. They will be plentiful. They will not work without electricity either. Bow saws. axes, shovels, splitting mauls, hammers and screw drivers will be your best bet for tools that work. Buy 50 pound boxes of nails because your nail gun won't work anymore. Better have cleaning kits for all of those guns you have been hoarding these last many years. They sure are nice and they can do some wonderful things for you but you have to keep them clean and serviceable.

If you are on some kind of needed medication then I suggest that you get a supply of it on hand that will last you a while. Nothing like running out of needed medication. I know a man who is diabetic and he has a two year supply of insulin. Right now he is shooting year old insulin and it is working just fine. But he says that once you prick that membrane on top of the medication with a needle you had better be prepared to use it up in a normal amount of time. If fuel is stopped by an EMP, and most likely it will be, the hospitals will be running out of supplies in a rapid manner. One of the first things to go will be breathable Oxygen. If you need it you better have it on hand.

Transportation is a wonderful thing if the power goes out due to an EMP (That is Electro Magnetic Pulse if you didn't now it.) The only thing that will run with reliability is a diesel with no electrical fuel pump. Get an old diesel pick-up and get it running well. Have all the micro-chip ladened accessories taken out of it. You can find mechanics that can do this sort of work at speed shops and other out of the way places. If they can't do the work they will know someone who can.

Have barter items for getting things done that you cannot do yourself. If you build a new cabin for you and your wife out somewhere you had better have some barter goods to pay for kitchen cabinets and counters. If you find a man who has the skills to do it and the materials to get it built, then pay him what it is worth.

Try to come up with some good tips of your own. They can save lives. Stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net