http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/blizzard-of-93-the-storm-of-th/62671
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00018780.htm
No, my grandfather survived the great depression as kid and self-sufficiency wasn't a fad or popular hobby, it was survival. It was common sense, we had electric heaters, kerosene, a fire place & other means of heating my grandparent's house. My grandfather had a had a generator, a garden, chickens & no, he didn't own a farm. My grandfather just knew how to survive, he was a redneck, a hick, a hillbilly or whatever you want to call him. But, I promise you he survived being one of those homeless teens who took on any job, including dangerous jobs like coal mining, lumber & stoop work on farms like we attribute to the many illegal Mexican immigrants in the US. And he taught that planning, preparation and self-determination for survival to his kids (my mother, my aunts and uncles) which was passed down the family line to me, with some wisdom directly relayed to me from my grandfather himself. Most of this I never understood until I was older.
Enter The Poorman's Guide to Prepping:
Prepping is a fad hobby based on fear and worry. All trying to sell you the latest and greatest in tactical widgets and what nots. Survivalism is a philosophy that is often paramilitary in nature, also built around selling you on gear or skills training. Poor people have been surviving for years and the survivalist movement had its roots in both doomsday Christians and cold war fears of nuclear war.
Poor people and people in general have been surviving with less resources and less gear forever, or at least as long as there have been people. This book outlines some basic skills & talks about low tech/low cost methods for survival including plans of Do-it-yourself bomb and blast shelters, do-it-yourself hazmat concepts. So whether you fear a nuclear war, economic collapse or being left behind at the second coming this book will help you survive without spending excessive amounts of cash on the latest high tech gear.
Whether alone or as a group this book uses simple common sense methods and survival strategies, used by previous generations and today by poor men, in poor countries, without all the high tech gadgets social support networks of the US during bad times and disasters.
What you'll Find Inside:
- Basic Tactics for Reacting to Contact, Convoy Operations & similar,
- Alternative Medicine using herbs found in the Wild & in Your Kitchen,
- Basic Field Craft for Bugging Out,
- Do It Yourself Hazmat Suit design, Decontamination kits & Blast/Bomb Shelters,
- 9 Stages of Preparation to Match Even the Wealthy in Safety & Security,
- Caching & Barter Economics Explained in Detail,
- And much more...
This book was written for those who can't spend all the money on the latest most tacti-cool prepping gizmo. It is a basic foundation of low incoming living, i.e. being poor & some stuff I picked from other preppers and in the army. It breaks preparation down into nine overlapping stages built around feeding yourself and sheltering from extremes. Gardening and canning are addressed, as well as, Do-It-Yourself Hazmat materials. Barter economics allows the poorman to invest in catastrophe to stocking various items they can use as added supplies or to barter with others. Herb medicines have been addressed in detail, with pictures and a list of kitchen herbs one can purchase and store to enhance and augment one's own medical supplies.
I cover some basic tactical drills for small teams and organizing as a group with a less paramilitary mindset then what is discussed in TM 725-15 American Homeguard Anti-Terrorist Handbook. Some information overlaps like building a cache & understanding a Nuclear, Biological or Chemical Threat. Disaster strikes, that's a fact of life but you don't need to invest massive amounts of money or paramilitary tactical/tacti-cool toys to prepare for it.
Poorman's Tip 1: Black Pepper
Black Pepper from Wikipedia,
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the ground pepper derived from them, may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit) and white pepper (ripe fruit seeds).
Black pepper is native to south India, and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Currently Vietnam is the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world's Piper nigrum crop as of 2008.
Dried ground pepper has been used since antiquity for both its flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice. It is one of the most common spices added to European cuisine and its descendants. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine, not to be confused with the capsaicin that gives fleshy peppers theirs. It is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning, and is often paired with salt.
Crushed Black Pepper can be used to treat bleeding and speed healing in open wounds. Because it is native to tropical regions cannot be sustained in colder climates, where the temperature drops below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So it should be stocked up in northern states, desert states & can only be grown in hot, humid locals. This is a poorman's "thick clot" and doesn't need to scrubbed from a wound, however treatment for the wound may require one to scrub out dead tissue and other contaminants but, this is another matter of wound care.
Poorman's Tip 2: Water Purification Tablets
It is a little known fact that the commercial iodine water purification tablets are based of the iodine tablets used by the US military. Certain civilian water purification tablets copy the older military potassium iodine based anti-bacterial water purification tablets, that can be dissolved in 1 quart of water and offer some protection from radiation. For more detailed information on Potassium Iodine follow the link to the CDC site below;
http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp
Poorman's Tip 3: Barter Basics
Everyone was curious about a former CIA agents mention of the "Bubba Effect" on Glenn Beck some years ago; 2009.
Glenn Beck also addressed the Bubba Effect last on the Blaze Network...
The Bubba Effect is a willing removal from mainstream culture and resources. This is best exemplified by removal from government programs, like public education (part of the reason home schoolers are seen as threat) or accepted economic transactions. Trading goods or services for other goods or services instead of the National Currency. Bartering was used in the US by Karl Hess to make it harder for the IRS to seize his wages and as a form of tax resistance. Hess explained this in an op-ed for The New York Times in 1975. The IRS as of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 requires such exchanges to be reported on a 1099-B form.
But how does one prove such an exchange? If I give you a compound bow, 7 arrows, & 2 chickens for your weed eater & 3 tomato plants who has documentation of said exchange. The Bubba Effect is when common people seek to exclude the government (city, county, state or federal) effecting their lives. This could be in the highly dramatic example outlined by Glenn Beck or in the quieter (but still illegal) means used by other grandfather (my father's father) of making moonshine & trading it things he needed or wanted during the latter years of depression.
Barter economics is often based on the value of the individuals involved, to a starving man 3 chickens, a rooster & 5lbs sack of beans might have more value then a ounce of gold at the present exchange rate of $1,200 per oz. (as of 3/25/2015). Out here in West Virginia we call this horse trading, many times people with "extra items" will trade them to others to trade them for things they needs.
Example of the Barter Economy
Bill: Has Extra Chickens but needs a new CB radio
Bob: Has Shotgun Ammo but wants some chocolate to give his wife
John: Has Chocolate but needs someone chock his fire wood cause he's too sick to get out of bed
Dave: Has a CB radio but needs some shotgun ammo
What happens:
Dave trades his old radio to Bill for the Chickens he doesn't need. Dave can't trade the chickens to Bob for shotgun ammo but finds out Bob wants chocolate for his wife for her birthday. Dave knows John has chocolate bars stashed away. John doesn't want the chickens but needs someone to chop some wood cause he is very sick so, Dave agrees to chop some wood for 12 Hersey bars & take 8 hours out his day to split logs for John. Dave trades 5 Hersey bars to Bob for 20 shotgun shells. At the end of Dave's day he has 3 chickens, 7 Hersey Bars & 20 Shotgun Shells.
The Key to Barter Economics is trust (why it is often limited to a small group of people) and communication.
Poorman's Tip 4: Dry Beans & Potatoes
A cheaper alternative to stocking cans of beans is to store dry beans. Dry Beans are essentially seeds, that are cooked and eaten as a soup. One can buy large amounts of dry beans, that can be cooked and eaten but can also be used as part of your resupply plan by planting the beans. The resulting bean plants of course produce more beans, which can be dried and stored.
The Poorman can buy a few bags to store as prep items and plant others to grow their own, which they can dry and store with a few being replanted to resupply & build one's preps without having to buy preps or as a booster to buying more preps.
Potatoes has roots that sprout from the potato called "eyes." The Eyes can be planted to grow into new potatoes or potatoes with eyes sprouting from then can be cut into sections and planted to grow into fresh potatoes. Eyes can be dried and stored in a cool dark place and will last 3 to 5 months, which is hopefully until early spring when they can be planted.
No comments:
Post a Comment