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How Self Suffecient are You?

7K views 45 replies 12 participants last post by  MUSIBIKE 
#1 ·
I'd like to think that I have most of the basics covered, but realize that true "Self Suffiency" is nearly impossible. Why is that? Well, there would be so many different situations to prepare for that it would take a fortune, and all available spare time to put it together. I feel that at a minimum, most Persons/Families should stock necessities for 30 days-3 Months. That's my plan, and I would be trying to hold down the Homestead. Self Sufficiency would largely depend on the educated mind, and a willingness to live. What do you think?
 
#27 ·
Water purifiers, flint with magnesium, lots of flares, water tablets, handcrank radio, extra batteries, bottled water(about 10 flats of them), 25 gallons of gasoline(plus whats in the vehicles), small generator, extra lumber and plyboard/MDF in the garage 4, 20lb propane tanks, lots of lighters and matches and a hoarde of ammo that keeps getting bigger.
I need to get a garden started early next spring, purchase seed, figure out the water purification thingy and would like to find a better way to keep and store meds(they all have expiration dates)even aspirin.
The dog is kinda screwed tho, I only keep a spare 50 lb bag of dog food around.
My cat kills lots of shit on her own, so she, I wont be worrying about.
I wont have to rely on the government to come save my ass because I wont need saving.The sign on MY roof will say "GO AWAY".
 
#29 · (Edited)
Common Sense is a thing of the past - people just want to be told what to do & think, our
news people ( would go extinct ) if they had to fend for them selves. You can always do better by checking with the N.W.S web site. You should have a plan already for buging out, but when depends on your best judgment. How high above the water table are you, if a cat 3 or 4 hits dead on will you be under water & by how much. How many miles are you willing to travel, and do you have the provisions? Will you have to return within 48 Hrs & will the police let you back? In a civil
unrest do you want to stay or move to a better location. Have you desided what will trigger that move. What will you be willing to do to get there. If you can't get there, whats plan two. Should
you get a dirt bike for a lead car in uncharted areas. How is your comm's
 
#30 ·
If it is still HOT, the head will pop within a week. But, if it is cooler and water does not get used as fast, I would say a month is how long till the,"Lean to" type people fall buy the wayside.

Ones that have never and and can't do for themselves will go first. Those will starve off or get popped while trying to take from others like they have expected from the government all of their lives.

If a storm comes through, it is OK to help these people out. They intern may help you as well. But, the events which are evident to do with when the SHTF is a different tune.

MUSIBIKE
 
#31 ·
i also have an ivers Johnson cycles and Arms "sealed 8" .22 revolver that barely fires on all cylinders and was made in the 40's(has seen better days)
I will keep this and some .22 ammo around if things are really bad. to trade with...now you may be saying "are you crazy?!, why give somebody else a gun?!?"
first, if things are bad enough, i'll trade it in a heartbeat for necessities. secondly, and most inportantly, I ALWAYS have another working gun close to me.(especially at the bargaining table)
-fix the revolver so that it does not fire
-use the revolver as a blue chip in trading(last resort)
-make sure that the other party doesnt try to crawfish the deal
-offer to trade him parts for the revolver so that he can actually use it.(leverage)
-walk away without geting shot in the back with your own revolver
same thing with any weapon-dont hesitate to trade it for water or meds as a last resort, just take the firing pins out.
make sense? i hope so because firearms and ammo should fetch a premium price if the shtf and we are in it for the longhaul.
nowthat I reload, I will also make some dummy rounds(duds that look real)-make them so that they do not work and dip the bullet nose in blue paint so that i dont confuse it with live ammo. same for 12 ga ammo.
burning bridges is better than getting shot in the back.
 
#32 ·
Through the first month, try and just stay put. If you are gone someplace and an EMP knocks out the car, you will have to walk. One hard thing will be getting back home if the IRANIANS use an EMP in space. I will have a twelve mile walk. Lucky, my wife only has to walk 1 mile from work. That will take me four to five hours to make it home. Cars won't start after an EMP event. Gotta just leave them for the scavengers.
 
#33 ·
Bicycles come in handy there, also riding mowers and go karts. Anything with a NON ELECTRIC starter.Heck, even classic or vintage muscle cars'll work(they didnt have alternators they had Generators). All electronics will be reduce to non-functional JUNK after an EMP blast. The EMP effect can linger for days, depending on how high of an altitude the device was detonated-primarily evident in radio transmissions

Nuclear Weapon EMP Effects

My worries are not with a single device, but with MANY devices! EMP is the last thing that you should be worrying about.LOL
Get yourself some potassium Iodine.(anti-radiation meds) Keeps harmful isotopes from building up in the liver, preventing rad sickenss.
I found a bottle or two at the milsurp store a year ago(expensive tho).It DOES have an expiration date, though.
 
#34 ·
Potassium iodide prevents various radioactive Iodine isotopes from accumulating in the thyroid. The thyroid gland is the only body tissue that takes up Iodine, and accumulations of radioactive Iodine after a nuclear event can destroy the thyroid. If the thyroid is destroyed, you become hypothyroid and have to take thyroid supplements for the rest of your life.

The normal thyroid gland is stimulated by thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to produce T3 and T4, both of which set the basic metabolic rate for the body. Without the T3 and T4 you end up lethargic, gain weight, and severely depressed.

That's the medical reason for use of KI after a nuclear event. It won't help the liver, sorry. And it won't help prevent radiation sickness. The extent of any radiation sickness you experience is directly related to the external and internal doses of radioactive isotopes you receive.

After a nuclear event, keep your body and clothing clean (washing off fallout), drink plenty of uncontaminated water (internal flushing), breath through a micron filter, and make sure foods are cleaned thoroughly with uncontaminated water.

That's the best you can do, there are no simple preventative medical treatments other than for the thyroid.
 
#37 ·
The liver is the single major organ that can regenerate itself. While metastasis in the liver (secondary cancer) is very bad, primary cancer of the liver is fairly rare. Unless a focused, local radiation dose is received by the liver, if you get enough exposure to damage the liver you have received far worse damage to your intestinal tract, your bone marrow, and/or brain.

WRT radiation, the liver is only minimally affected in comparison to other body tissues/organs.

Steve (soon to be a Certified Nuclear Medicine Tech, one more semester of study and then 7 months "internship") Johnson
 
#39 ·
#40 ·
upgrayedd,

from that link, "There is no possible protection from exposure to very fine particles of depleted uranium through filtering of air."

Same goes for sub-micron isotopes created by a nuclear event. While this is bad news, the short and long-term effects of radiation have been studied (Nagasaki and Hiroshima) and are being studied (Chernobyl). While increased rates of leukemia and thyroid cancers are guaranteed, the actual number of people who survive the initial radiation sickness who actually GET some form of radiation-induced illness is very small, indeed. I don't have actual figures right now, but if 1 in 10,000 people get leukemia in "normal" conditions and a nuclear event causes a 1000% increase, that means that 10 in 10,000 get it. The odds aren't all that bad.

We were created (or have evolved) to withstand radiation. It's all around us, we bathe in it daily. Our bodies are remarkably tough and self-repairing when exposed to chemicals and/or radiation.

Keep your body and clothing clean, clean your food, wash everything you can to flush the major portions of fallout away from you. That's your biggest dose potential. Survive the initial radiation sickness and everything else becomes easy.
 
#41 ·
Nice to know. these have been issues that I've been pre-occupied with for a while(not that worrying would do any good).
I suppose that keeping water and food from being irradiated would work best by keeping these items in a basement or someplace that is mostly surrounded by dirt?
 
#42 ·
Sealed water is all you need.

"Irradiated" water and food do not themselves become radioactive. Irradiation can cause some chemical reactions, but for water they are minimal and self-restoring. For foods, some nay-sayers will tell you that "bad, stable" chemicals are formed, but IMO the health benefits of bacteria-free food outweigh the small amounts of "bad" chemicals, if any.

My suggestion? Just keep fallout from entering your food and water supplies, don't worry about any irradiation.

Quick course in radiation:

light is a form of radiation. So is heat. The radiation that causes us trouble is high-energy, higher than light or heat.

alpha radiation - a small atom nucleus, travelling at relatively low speed. Destructive capability, high, but is stopped by a sheet of paper. Only dangerous to the body when emitted inside the body.

beta radiation - an electron from an atom, travelling at high speed. Destructive capability, high, but is stopped by a sheet of plastic. Mostly only dangerous to the body when emitted inside the body.

gamma radiation (and it's kissing cousin, x-rays) - pure energy, travels at the speed of light. Stopped by thick layer(s) of lead or tungsten. Only a small percentage of gamma rays cause damage to the body, most pass through the body. Destructive capability, low but real.

This is an oversimplification, but there are courses at most science colleges if you want to take it further.

You keep food and water free of fallout so that alpha and beta emitters aren't on your skin or ingested and present in your organs when they emit the alpha or beta radiation. There's not much you can do to prevent exposure to gamma radiation, but it's the least damaging.

Worry about cleanliness to avoid the worst types of radiation, and keep as healthy as possible to reduce effects (if any) from the unavoidable gamma radiation.
 
#43 ·
1/R power decay

Doesen't Gamma ray intensity drop off as 1/r*2 from the radiation source? That is how it should behave from a point source.

What is the bandwidth of GAMMA radiation in the frequency domain? It isn't sinusoidal? If so, this energy surely must fall off as well over a short time span as it turns into heat and work.

I have not studied this type of radiation source.

MUSIBIKE
 
#44 ·
As the distance doubles, the exposure is cut to 1/4. Inverse square law.

Gamma radiation frequency is coincident with the x-ray spectrum. The main difference between the two is source: x-rays emanate from the electron shell and gamma rays from the nucleus of an atom.

wikipedia said:
Gamma rays are generally characterized as electromagnetic radiation having the highest frequency and energy, and also the shortest wavelength (below about 10 picometers), within the electromagnetic spectrum. Gamma rays consist of high energy photons with energies above about 100 keV.
Gamma ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cosmic rays are at the extreme end of the gamma spectrum. Extremely high energies (MeV) and can travel across the universe without interacting with matter.

Gamma is pure photon, the only time heat/energy conversions occur is when a gamma ray impinges on electrons or the nucleus. Since photons are so very small, gamma radiation tends to pass through most matter with little interaction.
 
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