Whilst searching the beloved web for stuff on urban homesteading and gardening and just simple living, I began to find lots of sites about survivalism and all that stuff. Some are very interesting and do have good information and ideas. But one thing I began to realize… I’m not a survivalist… not in any stretch of the word. I’m not even aspiring to be one! Haha… Without the internet, I’d be lost. Computers? Cameras? Cars?
I can not imagine me having to shoot my neighbor over him trying to steal my garden produce during the new dark ages of Armageddon. I can’t even imagine having to live through something so dreadful. I mean, I figure how the heck am I going to handle the whole world going into some Mad Max scenario where I have to fight some green hair Amazon chick in a tribal mosh pit to survive? Huh? Me? HAHAHA… Only think I got going for me is that I play the banjo and we know all those dark future movies teach us that hillbilies are definately going to be among those that survive and they all love banjo pickin!
I’ll just make sure if there is some sort of nuclear attack or something that I hook up with the biggest meanest looking hillbilly dude and let him know I’m dang good at pickin’ Foggy Mountain Breakdown AND I do know a little about gardening and stuff like that. Let him protect me and slaughter animals and all that stuff.
No, the things I’m doing are not to prepare for the collapse of society.
The things I am doing and learning are not so that my daughters and I can live for years in the moby when the rest of the civilized world tries and steal our contentment from us. We really wouldn’t last that long anyway, no matter how much sugar or flour or batteries we had stashed. Let’s face it, those things will eventually run out. Unless you are REALLY prepared and have land and all, you’re going to have trouble pretty quick. I mean… water is a real problem, right off the bat!
I don’t live that close to a natural water supply. No creeks, or ponds or lakes within a mile or so that I know about. So that right there makes it hard for me to stay put. We can stash some water, sure, a week? a month? But still, realistically? We’d had to leave pretty quick once we ran out of water. Even if we had some sort of roof/rain water collection system, we’d still be in trouble pretty quick.
Wildlife to hunt? Huh? Squirrels and a few birds and such. Yeah, maybe a coon or something, but gosh with the rest of the city out looking, I suspect those remaining critters are going to get pretty good at hiding fast! I don’t think I could eat a dog or a cat even to save myself. I mean, okay, so you kill and eat your cat. What does that get you? A day or two? Naw. No thanks. If my life comes down to deciding whether or not to eat my pet cat, then that’s not much of a life I don’t think.
Guns? Protecting myself? My Family? Well sure, I’d do whatever I could to protect my girls and all, but again, I’m really not ready to go out and get a gun and all that. I’m just really planning to use that banjo maneuver up top there to give me and the girls protection. I’m just not that kind of person that could easily up and kill someone to defend my Moby. It it’s that bad, then well, things are not really looking up on many fronts if you get my drift.
Now, here is what I am doing… and what I think makes a lot more sense.
Being prepared for the realistic emergencies that come along and HAVE come along!
• A Severe Winter Storm
• A tornado
• Terrorist Attack
• Some sort of weather extreme difficulty
• An earthquake
• A major strike (like public works or truckers, etc)
• A illness epidemic
• Employment Crisis
• Personal Tragedy
These things are the things that can happen, do happen and that with a little planning you can be prepared and ready and handle these things a lot better than the next person. Stuff like keeping your vehicles topped off with gas. Remember in a sudden emergency, gas pumps and ATM cards might not work. Having a vehicle or two each filled with 15-20 gallons will really help out if you need to evacuate an area.
Keeping some cash in hand. Again, ATMS need networks and electricity to work and in a bad situation, they are easily drained of cash. I don’t think you need thousands in gold coins buried in the yard, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a hundred dollars in a stash of ones somewhere!
Better yet, have enough food and water stored to get you through a good week or two. That’s not that hard to do and doesn’t make you look like some creepy militaristic survival freak because you have a few gallons of water store and canned goods to keep you. I figure if you can stay out of the way during an emergency, then you leave the government resources more power and energy to help those that truly need it. And it gives you a lot more time to play numerous rounds of Uno with your kids while you wait for civilization to get going again.
That being said, I am thinking about creating a couple handy survival packs for the house and the cars. Just a small compact box with a few necessities in there… water, storable food, matches, flash lights, emergency medical needs, Uno deck, etc. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that and in fact, anything that will keep you from being the star on one of those “I Survived” shows where the mild manner couple get stuck in a snow bank and have to survive for a week in the woods, that has to be a good thing… right?
Right?
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