Sufficient-Self Preparedness Library

[frustratedearthmother]

At least she's in touch now. I'm sorry that she's being tough on you...sometimes we feel that it's okay to dump on the people who we believe will understand and forgive us. And, like you said - that can be therapeutic.

But, it isn't great to be on the receiving end of that. Kudos to you for understanding and being there for her. Hope it all works itself out eventually.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Right. It seems like there is something I am expected to do by a power greater than my own. Caring for someone with mental illness is a calling...a very hard, challenging and painful calling. I hope I don't fail when I am called to the "debrief"

 

[Britesea]

I think the only way you can fail at the "debrief" is if you didn't even try. He understands.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Back on topic.
Yes, I am working to compile a library of as much "useful information" as I can accumulate.
As I see it there are three phases to the situation we will soon face.

1. As I see it, something will decimate much of the population. What exactly will happen is anyone's guess but the big cities will be involved. Right now, civil war is looming in the Ferguson, MO situation. Something like that would put everyone on their guard for a long time.
So with that said, the first phase will be from the beginning of the "sentinel event" to some time in the future when the shooting stops...or the fallout settles or the power grid begins to resume service...I don't know what to think...I am NOT narcissistic to think I can "foresee the future". but then I get feelings from time to time that make me go do something for my own survival.
2. The second phase will be a long period where folks need to learn how to do the things that support a social network such as form towns, cities or small communities again. Learning the skills and finding the materials to reconstruct the infrastructure will require learning a whole lot of things that may have been lost because the folks who knew them were lost to whatever happened. This will be the time when we will resurrect technology but not the way it is currently employed. The "stuff" that was left behind will be here. The knowledge to use it will be the issue and that is where this library comes in to play.
3. The Third phase will be when we can look back at the "dark times" and be now able to see a future for our grandchildren where they will once again be free and independent people.
Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.
Later
Trim sends

 

[Britesea]

You might be interested in this book. I am finding all kinds of fascinating information in it.... and hope for our future too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159420523X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Icu4dzs]

Well, it is certainly something we may have to consider. Everywhere I look, the world is coming unglued. It isn't just here...it appears to be everywhere. My life is certainly showing some signs of it...nothing I can't handle but this just seems like a bad time to have it happen.
The books I am collecting are mostly information on "how to ____" because that is the thing that will get us up and running if anything serious happens.
Meanwhile, I keep washing my canning jars and getting them back to the storage shed for safe keeping.

 

[tc556guy]

So lcu are you looking to collect digital or paper-based information?

 

[Icu4dzs]

Thanks for the reply. I've been so busy lately I haven't been on SSF very much.
Given the current situation, digital is the most expedient. Certainly paper is better because it won't disappear when the Internet goes down...which I believe WILL happen. But it is also nice to be able to look at the page, turn to a different page and compare the two. I was doing that just the other day with a book on building animal housing. I was making a sliding door for the shed (10 feet wide) and was comparing the different stabilization techniques. I went with the "Z" board though. Thank Goodness for that bevel guage!
Personally, I'd prefer paper but I'd do with what I get.I went back and read the entire thread. I noticed your offer to send a thumb drive with 120 gigabytes of information. Well, I'd be interested in that. Send me a PM and I'll provide snail mail instruction.
Thanks
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[tc556guy]

Thanks for the reply. I've been so busy lately I haven't been on SSF very much.
Given the current situation, digital is the most expedient. Certainly paper is better because it won't disappear when the Internet goes down...which I believe WILL happen. But it is also nice to be able to look at the page, turn to a different page and compare the two. I was doing that just the other day with a book on building animal housing. I was making a sliding door for the shed (10 feet wide) and was comparing the different stabilization techniques. I went with the "Z" board though. Thank Goodness for that bevel guage!
Personally, I'd prefer paper but I'd do with what I get.I went back and read the entire thread. I noticed your offer to send a thumb drive with 120 gigabytes of information. Well, I'd be interested in that. Send me a PM and I'll provide snail mail instruction.
Thanks
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

The collection has grown to 300 gigs since that original post
I'll send you a PM

 

[FarmerD]

take a break from all the "how-to" and cuddle up with Earth Abides, One Second After, On the Beach, Lucifer's Hammer, The Road, or any of the other classic apocalyptica....... might cure your "hope" that things will get back to "normal". if you look back through history at other civilizations that have collapsed and what happened after, it takes hundreds of years before the land and the people on it recover enough to even begin to form the starts of the next civilization. digital info, books, possibly even our language itself will most likely be lost. those future people (if any exist at all) will look upon the rusted out remains of cars and crumbling buildings and infrastructure in the way we see rocks and trees now. while it is possible for a long slow decent to preserve a lot of the information and knowledge we currently posses, the statistically more probable event will be fairly quick (plague, EMP, nuclear war, collapse of world economy, severe drought, etc). the fast plunge back into atleast the bronze age, and more likely the stone age, will result in humanity having to find a much more sustainable population. translation: about 6.5 billion of "us" will have to be composted. the idea that remaining survivors would 1. be able to find your library, 2. it remained intact and didnt get burned for heat or used for TP 3. have access to the tools and materials contained within, 4. still have the knowledge of english language to read and understand is unlikely.

having said all that..... i think its cool what you're doing. my personal library would definitely qualify as a survival gold mine should any apocalypse survivor should ever find it. its just my opinion that there isnt much hope for mankind. the world is all ready degraded to a point where long term survival for humanity will be difficult even at fraction of the pre-industrial population levels. in my opinion, after climate change wreaks more havoc on the stability of the environment that gave rise to humanity the chance that we will continue on in any fashion resembling what we are now is extremely low. now add on Fukishima and the high probability that all the remaining nuclear plants will melt down shortly after the grid collapses, the high probability of nuclear warhead exchange, highly armed and easy excitability of the US population, the dependance of food availability on cheap, available petroleum, the stability of our fragile civilization on flimsy fiat currencies, the expansion of suburbia and other development, both civilian and industrial, and its impact on farmland and wild forests and their role in our survival, the high percentage of incarcerated peoples let free to roam the wastelands of USA, and the sudden thrust of people from highly specialized societal roles into survival role slashing the education of any new generations to the bare minimum to survive thus cancelling most all accumulated knowledge from being passed down and there isnt much hope for us. this list could go on and on.

i know most on here will recoil in horror at my opinion, and thats fine. im a realist in this situation. Management, i.e. the natural world, is harsh, and without all our modern luxuries like antibiotics and such, we will become equals with all the other wildlife on the planet...... which, i might add, are going extinct at the rate of 200 species a day. i hold no illusion that ill be one of the lucky (or unlucky) ones to survive whats headed our way. im just doing all the work im currently doing to make my life as comfortable as possible while i have it. ill leave all the hope for rebuilding humanity to others.

anyway, back to the point. dont let me pee in your corn flakes....... im a doomer and have little hope for the future. more importantly, good luck with you library! ill be cleaning out some of mine when we move to the Kaczynski cabin later this year. ill shoot you a pm and see if you're interested in anything im downsizing...... lots of premium Chelsea Green stuff will be getting the axe im sure!