Tools and Books

[Sun and Sky]

I totally agree that knowledge is power! (anyone get that ref? I hope so )

I would add a book on soapmaking. If the s*** really hits the fan and stays that way, soap and knowing how to make it would be something of much value in the long run.

 

[patandchickens]

You can sharpen blades on concrete.

Welllllll... if that's what you call sharp.

Certainly I use concrete or random stones that happen to be handy to file off a broken fingernail or put enough edge back on my barn scissors that they can once again cut baler twine...

...but it isn't going to get you a very good result in woodworking or butchering, and if you do it enough to get as sharp an edge as you can, you will be SIGNIFICANTLY shortening the lifespan of the knife/tool/whatever. Remember that sharpening means removing metal. The more you gotta remove before calling it good, the fewer sharpenings you'll get out of the item.

Clothing patterns are arguably much better made from existing garments than from paper patterns, unless yo have paper patterns you've made numerous times and thus KNOW how well they fit you. (This is especially super-duper true of pants!). And of course if you DO have existing paper patterns you've used a lot and know they fit you well, then you don't need to acquire them, prepwise, it's already part of your normal life

I think people radically overestimate how well a lot of these skills can be performed from reading it in some book, though. Some things to some degree, sure. But a lot of skills, like starting fires and root-cellaring and making clothing (especially if you are making the fabric too!) are reeeaallly not that easy, no matter how encouragingly the book is written. Obviously if you don't know how to do them, having a book is better than *not* having a book, but honestly I don't think the book gives you MUCH security at all, especially for a situation of Actual Need.


Pat

 

[meriruka]

I agree it would be much better to learn all the skills you need to survive before TSHTF. Most of my 'country' skills were learned from books and there were a bunch of screw-ups and unforseen complications along the way to get through before I got good at whatever it was.

Wouldn't it be great if local colleges taught night classes for SHTF skills? That way you could learn all the dangerous stuff with a measure of safety & supervision.

 

[Icu4dzs]

I agree it would be much better to learn all the skills you need to survive before TSHTF. Most of my 'country' skills were learned from books and there were a bunch of screw-ups and unforseen complications along the way to get through before I got good at whatever it was.

Wouldn't it be great if local colleges taught night classes for SHTF skills? That way you could learn all the dangerous stuff with a measure of safety & supervision.

ONCE AGAIN, I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS POST, BUT...

This statement hits the nail on the head. Wally's list is good. Not complete by any means, but essentially good. His "pessimism" is to some extent more than required but it emphasizes the importance of being able to "ADAPT" to the life style of a different era in our American culture.

We all seek to be self sufficient, but after collecting (probably) everything on Wally's list and then some (at farm sales, flea markets, etc. as well as some new things) I have learned at least one very valuable lesson. We all have inate skill and ability. Books can very often fill in the gaps of knowlege so we can have a "starting point" to be able to tackle some other need we might have but in the true analysis, (and I say this with tears in my eyes) we DO NEED EACH OTHER.

No one has the time to be good with all the skills even remotely discussed by the list of tools and books that folks have mentioned here. Those skills take time to perform and even MORE TIME TO LEARN and become good at them.

If we look at the culture of folks who came to this country we find that they formed towns which were small. In each of these towns folks did things for them selves and had skills which were useful to the entire town. Skills such as sewing, cooking and home arts were performed on an individual scale but things like blacksmithing, gun making, metal arts, carpentry butchering, dairy work etc. were often performed on a "community wide" scale that afforded time to do what you did at home and still be able to trade/barter/buy what you needed OUTSIDE your SKILL SET.

Here on SSF we look at ourselves as striving to be SS. What does this really mean? Are we talking about completely isolating ourselves from all other human interaction? I don't believe that. I think we are more focused on doing things for ourselves that CAN be done at home and probably finding skill sets that others can use as well. (at least that is how I look at it.)

When one looks at things from a "community" level, there are a few skills that take most of a persons time to do. I have to go to work and spend a large number of hours of a day including the night performing my duties. Others divide their time in a variety of ways but they do always have some time for their family life (and needs) as well as the community's life and needs. (Some do nothing unfortunately.)

What we don't currently see is that a number of the things that go on in the community now may NOT be what I call "ESSENTIAL NEEDS" to the community in the coming times. If you don't have horses, do you need a blacksmith? How many insurance sales personnel does any community need? Will Insurance in general survive the SHTF scenario? Who is going to want to put money into a concept that has become defunct? Will you need car mechanics and sales personnel if there is no fuel to operate the vehicle? Will we be able to "grow our own fuel and keep what we now use? What changes will we as a national "community" need to make to revert to the ESSENTIAL NEEDS of each other in order to adapt to the "FOURTH WORLD"? Will our creative/inventive genius permit us to change our paradigms and come up with new technologies that will maintain our quality of life?

Remember the original professions? Teacher, Preacher, Lawyer, Doctor, Nurse? Everything else was basically learned either at home or "on the job". When our government discusses cuts in spending, they immediately look at education rather than "entitlements" which are NOT a good investment in our future. Why?

Education is THE BEST INVESTMENT IN OUR FUTURE both indivually and as a nation, as proved by our former status in the world. We should begin to open schools for "SHTF" skills NOW. TEACH not only our children but DEMAND ATTENDANCE FROM ANYONE WHO IS GETTING ENTITLEMENT MONEY. I would be more than happy to teach numerous subjects in such a school. We have school buildings that have become run down and abandoned. They need to be rebuilt by those who have not benefitted from the free education system previously available in this country either through laziness or whatever their excuse; then make them teach those who come next.

In our communities now, everyone considers themselves "a professional" but in truth that may not be all that necessary. When the electricity goes out, (and Wally is convinced it will and so do I) then most of the things in our homes will become immediately useless. Places to buy them will become useless and folks who repair them (few that remain) will need to focus on other skills.

What we need to do other than learn to provide for ourselves for the IMMEDIATE post SHTF scenario (I predict one to two years in length) is begin to think about how to organize our communities to support each other so that life will return to some semblance of what some of us might consider "normal". Is everyone going to get a milk cow and deliver milk to their neighbors every day? I doubt it but you get the idea.

I often think about the concept of the Submarine crew when this topic comes up. Essentially, everyone on a submarine has to know not only THEIR job but be able to do EVERY OTHER JOB on the ship in the event of a casualty of any other crew member.

If we take that principle and apply it to our community, we will find that our SS attitude would do well to expand to be one where we do some things for ourselves and some things for our community so that all survive this coming storm and eventually live in peace and prosperity. I DO NOT believe we have to revert to the stone age after this occurs but I do believe we will have to shift our paradigm in order to once again function in a way that makes our lives more than just "SURVIVAL" but truly livable. That is what I SEE for our future.

We do NOT HAVE TO GIVE UP everything, but we have to learn what we need and what we don't need from the technologies that have evolved over the last 200 years of our country's life. Any of the things that we can bring with us into this new and frightening age will help us begin to live and be happy once again. Some things will by necessity be "LEFT BEHIND" in order to eliminate the parasitism that has evolved in this nation for one reason or another. Remember the old "you don't work, you don't eat" thing?

Folks are now beginning to look at having the individual states issue their own currency because of the seriously looming/impending failure of the US$ as the worlds' Reserve Currency. Folks all over the world no longer want to accept the US$ as payment for goods and services because we are so deeply in debt that we and our great grandchildren will NEVER recover from that debt regardless of how hard we try.

This means we will have to change the way we live and I am here to assure you that there are a significant number of people in the confines of the continental United States (as well as other countries) who are NOT going to be able or willing to adapt to another way of life because they either do not see it coming, do not WANT to do anything about it or believe that they will just kill those who did do something about it and take what they put away. These are the ones who have depended on the government handout for so long (I estimate 4 generations now) that they have no idea how to survive without someone giving them what they use to live...including cigarettes, alcohol, and in many cases "drugs". Hurricane Katrina certainly made this point abundantly clear to the rest of the country and the world.

What are those folks going to do when their supply of those items becomes either extinct or so expensive that they can not possibly obtain them? The answer is obviously rhetorical, but we all know what to expect which is why we are doing what we currently do.

There are of course the ones whose illnesses will NOT have the availability of the medicines with which they are kept alive. In the days of our fathers, there were no antibiotics; no insulin, no diuretics, no "heart pills" etc. Folks died of all kinds of things that they currently survive; infection being the most common. What will you do when your family's health begins to deteriorate because there just aren't any medicines to keep them alive? The answer is "we will have to learn to adapt to that change in the world".

Then there is the subset of those who are so imprisoned by their debt for their McMansion houses, expensive cars, lake/beach houses and season tickets and outrageous credit card debt that they will NOT be able to adapt because they are just barely able to make the minimum payments on the interest and not be able to get out of debt and NOT WILLING to sacrifice any of their precious material goods in order to get out of debt.

Not long ago we were the Worlds example of the most powerful and advanced nation on earth. We are falling behind and into disrepute because we have been sold out by people who have come here and drained our nations treasury, destroyed our nations economic and education system and given our technology to other countries who want only to destroy us. Does this sound like a pleasant way to spend our future? NOT TO ME!

We who believe in the SS way of life also (imho) believe in the support of our community and the other folks who are willing to change and adapt to the changes we are about to face. Those who will NOT change and adapt will consider themselves "POOR" and expect those who work to support them. I see that as the conflict that looms ahead of us. They won't work and will expect us by virtue of our "ethics" to give to the poor i.e. re-invent the welfare state. This is NOT a good idea and can only lead us back into the depths of the depression in which we find ourselves currently.

We need to elect LEADERS, not politicians who continue to appropriate money to folks who will vote for them rather than work for what they have. Currently, it is too late. The patient is dying and only after it dies will a new life arise from what it once was.

Americans, and I mean the TRUE Americans (ones who have fought and died to preserve our freedoms) are NOT going to lay down and take being walked over by parasites for much longer. We, the SS folks are those TRUE AMERICANS (and those from other countries with similar belief systems). We are, and will be PREPARED for the future and whatever it brings. We wil, like the eternal PHOENIX, arise from the ashes and adapt to and change in order to not only survive but remain free. Any other option is untenable.

Best to all,
Trim sends

 

[Boogity]

Hey Doc, that is one of the very best posts ever here on SSF! I read it through carefully. Twice. To make sure I absorbed the material. I almost posted something similar several months ago but I'm sure my post would have been anemic in comparison.

For more than a year I have pondered who and what it would take to form an "intended" community in my little area here in rural Indiana. Self sufficiency is very important but is not nearly enough to survive a total SHTF scenario in our society.

Thanks for the important post.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Boogity,
Thank you for your kind words. I notice that few bother to take the time to read long ones like this or actually respond to them in any meaningful way because they either feel somewhat threatened by the whole situation and can't imagine what it all means. Brings me back to the statement I read so long ago "Let them who have ears, Listen" Obviously, YOU DID LISTEN.

I studied this whole concept in college...American Studies Major in the late 1970s. Seems that now it all is coming to fruition just like it appeared to be back then. The senior seminar for that year was a 9 credit course on community and its importance to our way of life. Too many folks are so self-absorbed that they fail to recognize how important the folks in our community are to each and every one of us.

The time appears to be growing short. The $ is in the tank and no one is accepting it as the "world's reserve currency". The Iranians have sent a war ship through the Suez. I could go on but you get the idea. Being SS right now has NEVER been more important. The grain crops all over the world are failing at an alarming rate. Where are they going to get their food? The entire Arab world is revolting against oppression...or what has been their way for many years. You can "connect the dots" here relatively easily. "I'd rather have food in times of no money than money in times of no food"

One of the strings I have been watching is called "Unbelievable" and it deals with a gripe over some folks in California using the Trademark (legally I might add) to the term "Urban Homestead". A bunch of "wannabe's" seem to find fault with how they did it. If they did indeed do it legally, then they are entitled to whatever it brings them; good or bad. Look at the attention that string is getting...it's LUDICROUS!

As for me, I keep going to work, doing my SS thing here on the farm and making every day of my life COUNT for me. In the immortal words of a Swiss patent office clerk, " Not everything that counts can be counted" not everything that can be counted counts!

I am not getting any younger but I do KNOW STUFF. Some of it is not "nice stuff" if you know what they teach in the Marine Corps and the Special Forces (where I spent 7 years.) After 40 years in the uniform of my country, I have seen enough to know that it "has only just begun" here.

The good news is that I am happy where I am and hope that anyone who thinks they are SS without being deeply involved in their community is simply fooling themselves and destined to experience a huge and devastating shock...soon.

My yearly trips to Kutztown, PA as a boy taught me so much about "community" that it brings tears to my eyes when I think about how far we have drifted away from the ideals and beliefs that made us Americans in the first place.

The idea of "intentional community" is a wonderful and idealistic one which unfortunately fails or will fail in this country until folks realize how important it is to have loyalty to their "family"regardless of its construct. Too many "single parent households" exist. Too many folks think they don't need anyone else in order to be prepared for what we are about to face. How wrong they are.

One of the things I learned about my fellow Americans (who were US Marines in Viet Nam at that time) was that when times were good, they all sat around and complained about everything but it wasn't until "TSHTF" and they got good and mad that they pulled together as Americans and became the most fearsome warriors the world has ever known. I guess like then it is going to take a similar stimulus to get our country to get off their butts and pull together to get us out of this mess.

Few "intentional communities" have existed in this country successfully. Here in SD, the Hutterites are the only example. The Amish in Pennsylvania are successful but each of them continues to struggle with the constant conflict their young people face with the temptations of the "material world" which detracts from their ability to focus on the things that are truly important in this life. A US Navy carrier group carries about 30 fighter jets but it takes about 10000 folks to get that whole show doing things in a coordinated manner. Think that will happen here? No, not until folks "in the civilian world" begin to realize that "No man is an island unto himself..."

If you can manage to get any group of Americans to form an "Intentional Community" then my dear friend, you will have mastered the concept of "herding cats". While I still believe in my heart that we can survive what is coming and truly live through it, my prognosis for our country as a whole is quite poor as there are so FEW who are willing to compromise their crusade for material or personal comfort for the good of their "community" regardless of its size.

Being SS is truly the embodiment of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Well, if you ask me, the bridegroom is just around the corner. Let's see how many of the original wedding guests show up for the wedding feast?

Best Regards
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[AnnaRaven]

DH and I were discussing this just last night. True SS in the event of teotwawki will involved being skilled in many tasks but *also* will involve working together with others in a barter system or some way to help each other. We're humans and humans share. Humans trade. Humans specialize. Yes, we need to be jacks of all trades, but if we try to spend our time learning "everything" we need to know, we won't have time to actually get *good* at much. Yes - we could have every family plant their own gardens and build their own chicken coops and weave their own cloth, etc etc, but wouldn't it be better to have people around us who are particularly good at one or another of those skills focus on that: a better use of everyones time and energy.

Community matters. Extended families work well, tribes, villages. Small groups of people working together. So yes, self-sufficiency matters, but being able to work with others toward a common goal of survival matters too.

 

[dacjohns]

I think I need to come back and read this thread. Didn't want to forget about it.

 

[meriruka]

Here on SSF we look at ourselves as striving to be SS. What does this really mean? Are we talking about completely isolating ourselves from all other human interaction?

When I first moved out here to the middle of nowhere I believed I was doing it to get away from other humans. Now I know I was trying to get away from the people who think that the party will never end & that money is the most important thing & will get you everything in life you need.

I still keep in touch with a few of my old 'city friends'. They think I'm a crazy tinfoil hatter but when I ask them what they will do when currency fails & the lights go out, they say "I'm coming to your house". And I think, "Actually, no, you're not. I can't support someone with absolutely no useful skills."

My current circle of friends are much more SS , (I am the only one who does not heat my house with a woodstove) they all have farming, husbandry, hunting, building, etc. skills and I think if we all banded together we'd have it covered except for blacksmithing. I spend a lot of time transporting goods from one friend to another and I wish we all lived in the same place!

Just wanted to mention my Grandma was from Kutztown - I wish I had paid more attention to the things she did.

 

[Icu4dzs]

When I first moved out here to the middle of nowhere I believed I was doing it to get away from other humans. Now I know I was trying to get away from the people who think that the party will never end & that money is the most important thing & will get you everything in life you need.

I still keep in touch with a few of my old 'city friends'. They think I'm a crazy tinfoil hatter but when I ask them what they will do when currency fails & the lights go out, they say "I'm coming to your house". And I think, "Actually, no, you're not. I can't support someone with absolutely no useful skills."

My current circle of friends are much more SS , (I am the only one who does not heat my house with a woodstove) they all have farming, husbandry, hunting, building, etc. skills and I think if we all banded together we'd have it covered except for blacksmithing. I spend a lot of time transporting goods from one friend to another and I wish we all lived in the same place!

Just wanted to mention my Grandma was from Kutztown - I wish I had paid more attention to the things she did.

I went to the Kutztown folk festival every year as a child and learned how THEY did things without electricity. I learned the love of square dance clogging, and the sound of the fiddle and banjo (both of which I now play). I learned to turn wood on a lathe powered by my own foot. I loved that and am soooo glad my dad saw fit to get me to that form of education.

"By Jove, I think she's got it!" It is now quite clear to me that you "GET IT". I am so warmed by this fact. I guess this is why we are really doing it and taking the step to clear ourselves away from those who just don't get it. I often refer to the fable, "The ant and the Grasshopper" which is much older than I am (although not by much...LOL) and see those folks to whom you refer as the grasshoppers simply waiting for you to open your door and support them because it is your "ETHICAL" duty. That is the problem with the welfare system. It is the same situation.

You are doing the work to take care of yourself and contribute to your community in some meaningful way, fully expecting your community to reciprocate. This is what SS is all about. We are NOT trying to be an island of humanity that sees no one for years after the "great struggle" which we know is just around the corner. SS is PROACTIVE not reactive. We hope that by being in a situation where we can take care of ourselves that we won't be seriously inconvenienced by the "great struggle" when we see TEOTWAWKI. Certainly the Amish folks won't notice it unless the folks around them come to act as parasites and destroy their way of life.

What not one person seems to see or think is "what are all those who are NOT changing their ways going to do when this all happens? Will they be willing to work for their meals and a place to stay or do they think the world owes them a living? These are tough and real questions we may have to face as you did when you thought "no you're not" because you have no way to support anyone who can't/won't learn the skills to survive in a 19th century world.

What we are looking at is not "TEOTWAWKI" really but the end (for a while) of the life of luxury that we as Americans have come to expect because energy has been so cheap and we are earning so much. Much of what will change will be only as far back as the 19th Century, not the stone age. There will be enough people with brains to make things to adapt using what is already here. That is the key to the entire RE-adjustment of this whole thing.

Use what you have. Make do with what is available and don't expect the trucks to bring more junk to WalMart next week. Clothing is cheap now...stock up on your size long underwear, socks and coats/hats. Clothing is much cheaper than energy so why not use that first?

Even the poor in this country are (in the standards of the rest of the world) "filthy rich". They spend more money that folks in other country's only dream about. Why then are they POOR? It is because they WON'T work, not CAN'T work. So they think it is going to be easy enough...just move in with their "tin foil hatter" friend. I don't think so either. You may have to shoot a few intruders before it is all over but I would hope that is a last resort. There are other ways. Slave labor is not a good thing but someone has to decide how and what you get paid for your work. Life isn't free and the PARTY IS DEFINITELY OVER.

In fact it may be very clear that this is the case very soon as I said in the previous post.

That you long for a functional community indicates that you GET IT. We all need others. That is why I mentioned the "submarine crew" concept. Everyone is skilled in their primary skill but knows how to do other's jobs as well if the community needs it done. Everyone needs a garden and heat and a not-leaking roof and a warm bathroom (I like them) but these things do NOT come without work. The real challenge is to get folks of like mind who "get it" and are willing to compromise their individual comfort in order to help all in the community be comfortable. I am NOT advocating Communism or anything like it. I am advocating individual skills from people who have already "done the work" and are now ready to help others. It may require a "town-like" location but it can be done. Americans did it for many years before big corporations took over and convinced the world that they could do everything "cheaper and with less work". Now we see what they did was alienate us from our neighbors and make us not trust each other. O my what a mess that has become.

Of course, we have been so acclimated to the "young and the promiscuous" that we hardly think of any one living in proximity to another (who is not their spouse or family) without the "scandal" associated with the "Puritan" mindset which, I might add seems only to be some form of morality that "OTHERS SHOULD FOLLOW" but "Not ME..."
So if we can get our minds out of the crapper long enough to realize that there are skills, and abilities of many different people at different levels, we can learn to appreciate the efforts of each member of the community. Life is 98% work and 2% play. Those city friends of yours don't GET THAT.
(When I was in medical school, I reluctantly allowed my self to take Friday night off from studying for about 4 hours to go play music with some of my classmates. We all needed a break but it was hard because the work was so demanding and the competition was so stiff. A job is a vacation by comparison.)

Folks today want to remain as adolescents perpetually never facing the responsibilities of "adult life" Now we have no one to guide our way of life because so many have no idea of exactly what that truly is...what a pity!

So for now, Meriruka, you keep doing your chores, feeding your animals, chopping and splitting your own wood and learning how to start a fire without matches (just in case). Learn how to make what you want and need. Learn that you CAN eat stinging nettle, dandelions, lambs quarter and purlane. They are what may keep you alive when all around you are starving to death because they can't get a hamburger or a hair appointment before Friday! Learn to recognize flint in its natural form. Learn how to preserve seeds from the foods you eat.

Buy 50 lb. bags of wheat, rice, millet, sunflower seed, beans, peas and dried fruits and pack them all away so you have preserved foods when you are unable to go to the market because it isn't there any more. Get honey, soap, tooth paste and what ever you can now while it is cheap. Then learn how to make all that stuff.

The more weight you buy, the cheaper it will be. Go to the local elevator and let them fill your truck with wheat and barley. Pack that away too. You may get bored (unless you are very creative,) but you won't go hungry. Learn to make soap from SCRATCH. Get rolls of thread and sewing needles NOW. Put that stuff away and don't think about what it costs now because once it is gone, the cost will be unthinkable. BUY the books on anything you want to know about or may need. Others will have the time to learn those things if the information is available. Do you have the "Foxfire" series? It is quite good and deals with mostly 19th century skills and methods. There are lots of books available now, but they will be gone once things get going. Have a good library for the skills you DON'T currently have but need. It will be valuable later, believe me.

I have been looking at the concept of box beds lately as an idea for staying warm in the event of NO HEAT. It gets mighty cold up here...-30F is NOT unusual. It is 8F today and has been most of the winter.
So the bed is actually a box of sorts. It is a 4 poster but instead of curtains which only do so much, why not a box lined with polystyrene 2 inches thick to just fit around the bed? It would only require minimal energy to keep the inhabitants warm. We keep building houses that will NOT sustain our low temperatures. I can go on but you get the idea. ( I know, I am digressing here...sorry)

Here's hoping everyone on this BB will be "ready" and not even notice the "inconvenience" of the "great struggle" when it begins or while it is going on. There will be plenty to do to test your humanity, your ethics, your spirit and your sense of community to last you a lifetime.

I just hope by doing what we do here, we find out who we truly are and what we are made of so it won't be a surprise when it comes time.

Best
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