The last couple of forays into the shortage cycle with TP and gas make me wonder what people really need to survive.
As the title says. It's the end of the world as we know it. An actual emergency instead of a media hype emergency. Think 3rd world country with minimal government help for at least several months. Services are either down or rationed. What are you stocking up on? If you have to leave home, what do you carry with you? Where do you go?
My Ricoh XR7 and a few lenses, a spare set of batteries, and a few 100' rolls of Tri-X 400.
Answers will reveal your opinion of fundamental human nature :)
For me, it would be food and medical supplies.
If I were to stay home, I would stock up on:
Realistically, I would leave home and high tail it to one of the military installations in my city. There are a few within driving distance so it'd be about a 12-13 hour hike assuming no stops. Leaving home I would carry:
Being on city water is really my biggest concern. I'm not sure I'm up for homebrewing a big enough filtration system to keep 4 of us alive on rainwater.
Otherwise, stock up because E36 M3 is heading for the fan? Flour, rice, seeds. Pickup a rooster and some breedable meat birds to go with my egg layers. Maybe a breeding pair of pigs or goats.
I'm walking distance to a river that's safe to eat from, I can grow everything else.
Lumber, nails, saw blades, pipe, all things I already try to keep on hand.
If we're really talking mad Max style emergency, there's a solar farm not to far away, lots of panels fit in a pickup truck.
Shotgun shells and canned food.
Our food pipeline is scary weak if you look hard at it and when people get hungry, they get ugly. As a society, the vast majority have no idea how to hunt/gather/grow their food and as such would go for "raider" as their likeliest way to fill their bellies.
Read a book called "One Second After" if you want a glimpse into how poorly things are likely to go.
Too many variables here to give one answer. My first thought: Do we maintain a safe source of freshwater? That does not have to be from the faucet. I can drink from a lake. So do I need to hoard it? Or will nature take care of it for me? Secondly, what is our food production like? Rice and Beans can keep you alive for a long time, and store well. Food and water - those are my first two thoughts. That may be in the form of farming, fishing, hunting, and trapping, but I'd need to take care of that. Then I'm thinking medication and medical supplies. Penicillin, painkillers, aspirin, bandages, sutures, gauze, tape. Maybe some cheese, it can pull double duty as an antibiotic and a food. Condoms. Wouldn't wanna have to deal with a little one running around.
Ok, that stuff - the bare essentials - is taken care of. Next, I'm looking at fancy footwear. Wool socks, numerous pairs of quality insoles, enough boots/shoes/sandals to last me 2x however long we think this is going to take. I'm stocking up on blue jeans, sweat pants, longjohns, jackets and shirts, some nice hats and gloves. A lot of wool and leather, and a lot of high quality stuff that I normally don't bother with.
Next, firewood, and other things with which to make heat.
Then, tools. Whatever I think I'll need to build, maintain, repair everything I have. Same with hardware.
Somewhere in this list is enough fuel to get me 2x as far as I think I need to go. Probably 1,500 miles worth. Not sure if it'd be necessary or not. I'd want to go north to some areas where I'm reasonably confident that we will have an abundant natural source of clean freshwater.
But again, we don't know what kind of apocolypse this is. So all of this could be stupid.
I've thought about this some, but "what" really needs to be considered in conjunction with "who" and "where".
Let's say you easily have enough rations to survive months. Do you have a way to protect yourself & your rations? Maybe you have a personal arsenal that rivals your state's National Guard. Can you defend it by yourself?
Personally(and selfishly), I just hope whatever the event is, it takes me out with it so I don't have to worry about the aftermath.
More than my yearly hurricane prep I take it.
Water filtration comes to mind. If I had a place for it, a vegetable garden. Bicycles.
I don't treat humans, but I could if necessary, and in a national emergency they actually do authorize veterinarians to treat people. I'd want to have a supply of local anesthetic, suture material and instruments, as well as some emergency drugs.
Bandaging materials, over what I normally stock. Casting and splint material.
Cash (assuming that still has value).
This would be when I regret not getting solar power for the house. My generator will be useless after the fuel runs out.
ammunition. Proper application of it can keep you fed and help protect you, but it is a consumable tool. Other tools are practically non-consumable so "hoarding" them isn't really necessary. Having one or two of the basics is enough.
Medical supplies are the other one. Preferably antibiotics and analgesics.
Based on current events, I'd say "used cars that nobody would have taken a second look at six months ago" since those are apparently a better currency than cash now.
In reply to mtn :
I would point out that you aren't going to get much advance notice about the apocalypse so you aren't going to know what it is until it hits. Figure several months of little to no assistance and little to no resources. Fill in the apocalypse blank with whatever you can dream up.
If you live on a lake then water isn't much of an issue to you. If you live on a farm with a planted garden then food isn't going to be as high a priority as it would be for the person that lives in NYC. Take your situation as it is now and plan accordingly.
I think my Jeep Cherokee XJ would be useful along with my dirt bike. But then again maybe I have been watching too many zombie shows.
Fueling up all the cans/tanks we have, a few extra propane tanks. we're on well and septic and far enough out we're staying in. My main hoarding item is going to be batteries and alternators to build my own home brew wind generator. Likely grabbing seeds/fertilizer for the home garden that we'll start and make sure we have sufficient salt/sugar/flour for long term.
And hoarding? Coffee. Seriously long term shortages people will be killing each other for coffee.
Fishing supplies (lines, lures, hooks, etc). Then I'd steal the best sailboat I could find and let the rest of you get eaten by zombies.
I guess I would need some developer. In an end-of-civilization scenario I would probably have time to dabble in Caffenol, the ingredients for which should keep for a very long time if kept sealed up. But I don't think that stuff is good for pushing film so maybe some HC-110?
In reply to bobzilla :
Coffee and sugar are on my shortlist. They will be difficult to replace when they are gone.
I'd go for sheltering in place so...
First, try to sequester an armored car and back it up to my front door to create a shelter / offensive position plus signal that I'm prepared for trouble.
Next, procure lots of bleach as I've got a 25K gallon swimming pool for drinking water and cases of peanuts, powdered milk, rice, and vitamins. Other energy dense dried foods would be good but if you've got those four things, you should be OK indefinitely.
Next, solar panels, car batteries, converter, and propane tanks.
Next, tarps, duct tape, rope, sand bags, axe, LED lights, multi tools, and survival books.
Next, guns, ammo, cleaning kits, night vision goggles, bullet proof vests, knives. One could argue that these should be a top priority but they're going to be everyone's top priority so hard to procure and a hot spot for aggression. Perhaps grab a bunch of liquor and try to trade for weapons later.
Car batteries, wire, oil/grease, tools.
If it really is an Armageddon situation, electricity will be important (refrigeration, communication - small handhelds, lights, etc)
I would need enough fuel to get to my buddies house with a freshwater pond, plenty of land, great sightlines, etc. He lives outside of a very small town and there is no reason for anybody to go out that way.
Just to be clear, if it's the end of the world, a Bible will get you by. Nothing else matters if it's all over.
But if that's hyperbole and it's just a "undefined length of a collapse of society", then water, canned food, ammunition and weapons (to hunt and defend), a fishing pole, knives and flashlights. Pretty much camping but for real. I'd ideally find a creek and stake out some of it to claim because water is heavy. No lakes here in SC worth staying close to. Before you ask, I am not well equipped currently. We have very little canned food and I don't have any hunting weapons.
What am I stocking up on? Friends. and skills.
When the bottom drops out, you will need to work with other people in order for the community to survive. Your value will be tied to the things you can do. Can you fix stuff? Can you use tools? Make shoes? Can you grow food? Identify plants that are safe to eat vs plants that are not?
tuna55 said:Just to be clear, if it's the end of the world, a Bible will get you by. Nothing else matters if it's all over.
This is true for sure.
Also, I'm of the general mindset that if it is bad enough that how many guns and cans of food you own matters, then it's likely that all of it will be robbed from you anyway.
And you'll be left with your friends and your skills (if you don't lose your life trying to protect your stash). Better to have things that can't easily be stolen.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
There is a lot of truth to what you say.
Some friends and I have this discussion on occasion. Half of it is in jest, but we have figured out what everyone brings to the table. I'm the fix it. We have a couple of hunters, a couple of gardeners, a couple that loves fishing, and a cook or two. I'm pretty sure we could make it through the first year or two, and from then on it gets easier.
Everything I need to know about the Apocalypse I learned from playing Oregon Trail.
Be a farmer to get more points at the end.
Don't buy food when you supply up, just buy bullets and start hunting immediately.
I mean, I'm just gonna die of dysentery anyways.
Food, water, fuel for the Suburban so we can get the hell away from everyone.
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