A while back, while reading one of my daily economics blogs, I read an article on the top 25 things to have on hand in case the SHTF tomorrow.
It was quickly apparent the author was an armchair prepper at best. Many of the non-negotiable items were overlooked, some items would be good for wilderness survival but not post-SHTF survival, and others were common everyday things we already own such as warm socks. Some of the items were unnecessary gadgets.
Out of curiosity I did a search for other top-10 lists. The ones I found had the same issues. The worst one was a shameless list of the top-75 items every prepper needs which was nothing more than a collection of Amazon links the author would make money on. I saw more than one of those kinds of lists. Many things on the list clearly had nothing to do with survival of any kind other than the financial survival of the author.
Most top-10 lists have water filters or purification tablets listed without ever mentioning how and where to get water in the first place; ferro rods but no mention of how to use one to heat the home; clothes but no way to wash them; and the list goes on. Every list has food as the number one item, lots of beans, rice, and freeze-dried stroganoff, but the rest of the list was clearly for a short-term event such as a hurricane. For short-term events, we should be stocking up on more of whatever it is we normally eat, not beans and rice. Many lists have the same 5-gallon buckets of beans and rice, along with hatchets, lean-to tarps, sleeping bags, and edible-plant books, with no mention of how they’re going to be hauling all those buckets of food to wherever it is they’re going with all that wilderness-survival gear. And why do the lists always have a tarp instead of an actual shelter from the elements, perhaps a tent?
Prepping and wilderness survival are unrelated topics. Only a fraction of 1% of people could survive long in the wilds no matter how much gear they had and how good it was. Having spent my teenage years trying to learn the skills presented in Bradford Angier’s How to Stay Alive in the Woods and Larry Dean Olsen’s Outdoor Survival Skills, I can personally testify that the knowledge to survive in the wilds isn’t learned by reading books or watching a few YouTubes, they can only be learned hands on and mastered over a period of years. I’m certain the majority of people wanting to learn these survival skills would give up in pretty short order.
Many of the top-10 lists had terms like “apocalyptic,” “doomsday,” and “collapse of society” in the titles indicating they were for a long-term situation, but the lists turned out to be only adequate for a week-long event. I mention all of these things to warn readers of what to beware of when reading top-10 prepping lists. I quickly came to the conclusion that for the most part, the authors were regurgitating the same poorly thought-out lists of others. It didn’t take long to figure out if a top-10 list included a multi-tool, the author should find something better to do with their spare time than putting together top-10 TEOTWAWKI lists.
WE SHOULD BE PREPARING FOR THE NEW NORMAL
I thought maybe it was time to share my own viewpoint of what’s truly necessary for a doomsday apocalyptic collapse-of-society top-10 list, to take a whole different approach on how to put one together, and to explain what the ultimate goal should be.
This list is based on the following premises:
1. This is a TEOTWAWKI list
2. TEOTWAWKI is a long-term grid-down event, not a short-term natural or man-made disaster
3. It doesn’t include items we should already have on hand for everyday life
4. The federal government (military) won’t be coming to the rescue. Per the DOD’s own reports, without electricity they’ll be just as far up the creek as the rest of us
5. TEOTWAWKI survival is not wilderness survival
This article takes into account the need for long-term sustainable ways to live the best lifestyle possible once we get to the New Normal stage, not just the short-term emergency phase or the maximum 6-month-long roving-hordes stages.
Much of this list won’t apply to urban and suburban preppers since they’ll have virtually no chance of surviving in place. The #1 item on their list should be either acquiring real estate in a rural area (yes, it’s not cheap but as mentioned, this is a TEOTWAWKI prepping list), or for those unable to do so, having a bug-out location on a family or friend’s acreage in a rural area.
One of the first things you’ll notice on most top-10 lists is once they get past the basics of food and water the lists tend to get very gadget-oriented instead of addressing basic needs. This list contains no gadgets, and those gadgets which are worthwhile should be further down a top-100 list.
HOW THIS LIST WAS PUT TOGETHER
Of course, we’ll need far more than ten items to survive TEOTWAWKI. The purpose of this list is to keep our minds focused on the most critical needs which must be taken care of in order to increase our chances of surviving whatever the SHTF event turns out to be. If the grid goes down in December, heat is such a do-or-die necessity that in most parts of the country our water will freeze and we’ll die of dehydration or hypothermia before we even finish that first #10 can of freeze-dried beef stroganoff. And yet as important as heat is, the majority of top-10 lists forget it altogether or plan on using a space heater and a 20-lb propane tank, or worse yet, a candle underneath a terracotta pot like the one we made in Cub Scouts and Brownies.
Okay, let’s jump in.
THE LIST, IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE
1. Water and a practical long-term way to obtain it
2. Food
3. Woodstove
4. Guns and ammo, plus tactical and firearms training
5. Toilet
6. Cooking stove
7. Portable power station w/solar panel
8. SurvivalBlog Archive Stick
9. Clothes and a way to wash them
10. Gasoline-powered generator
1. WATER SOURCE AND A WAY TO GET IT
Water is the single-most important thing to have so don’t get too carried away with food and ignore water. If I had to guess, I’d say water is what most people will run out of first. We can live a lot longer without food than we can without water so it’s number one on the list. Having totes of water stacked in the basement works for a short-term event but not for TEOTWAWKI. We can’t wait for Day One and then try to figure out how to get water. We need to have a plan in place as far as how we’re going to acquire it and transport it to where we’ll need it. Testing this prep over a long enough time period is crucial. The last thing we’ll need during Week 1 is finding out our inadequate water plan is going to leave us high and dry.
I stress “and a way to get it” because most prepper discussions about water fail to take into account all of the necessary variables. For those bringing water from the lake or creek, can you get to it and back home again safely without running into anyone who wants your food, supplies, and women? How far away is the water? How are you going to haul it? How easily will your system work in freezing weather? How drought-tolerant is your water source? Will it still be the best choice for supplying water to your homestead once the New Normal settles in?
Many people with their own wells feel confident they’ll have water if the SHTF, but without electricity what’s the plan to get it out of the ground? A hand pump (pitcher pump) won’t work very effectively beyond 25’ (at sea level) but most wells are much deeper than that. Some hand pumps which work by a different principle can pump from a depth of 100’ or so but they can be pricey. Do those with their own wells know how to pull the well pump so they can use a specialized well bucket to get water? Do they have a well bucket or know how to jury rig one? Do they even know what a well bucket is?
If we have a generator to run our well pump, how long until our fuel supply runs out? Do those planning on using a generator understand how a home plumbing system works, with a pressure tank and a well pump which is constantly turning on and off any time water is running in the house or through a hose? A generator can’t work efficiently with a well pump unless the water’s being pumped into a storage tank. Those without a tank will have to fill the bathtub, stock tank, or a pond and retrieve their water from there. If they prepare ahead of time, preppers with their own wells and a water-storage tank can keep their plumbing system operating as it is now with no noticeable difference. The only way to accomplish it is by installing a water-storage tank (500-gallon minimum, $500) and installing (as one example) something like a 12-volt RV water pump ($60). This article gives more details on one way to get water from the storage tank to our plumbing faucets.
For deep wells, a DC electric water pump that runs directly off a solar panel, or a solar panel coupled with deep-cycle batteries, is a good option and the least expensive. But it too, requires a storage tank.
While making our water plans for after the SHTF, we’ll need to take into account all the water we’ll require in addition to drinking water. Bathing, clothes washing, cooking and canning, animals, garden watering, emergency fire fighting, etc.
For those planning on harvesting rainwater, do you already have a system in operation or done enough research to have adequate materials on hand to construct one after the SHTF? Just catching water off our roofs in a rain barrel under the gutters won’t do it. Annual rainfall amounts and the lengths of time between rains must be considered when sizing holding tanks. Rainfall averages aren’t adequate, worst-case scenarios must be considered. As with many other preps, it’s best to have this sort of a system up and running to get the bugs worked out before the SHTF. The SB archive stick has dozens of articles covering everything there is to know about the subject.
The bottom line on water is, whatever vague ideas we have on obtaining it after the SHTF should move from the “thinking about it” stage to the “well thought out and tested” stage. Haul water from the creek for a week in all kinds of weather and see if that’s really a good idea. See if that solar still is going to produce enough to survive on or just enough to brew up some coffee. Water is going to be our most important resource in Teotwawkiville so have a realistic, fully-tested plan in place. Water is the most important necessity for survival and yet for nearly everyone, this will be one of the most difficult things to adequately prepare for.
2. FOOD
There are thousands of articles on this topic and so I’ll leave it at that. The sooner we get started the better.
One of the memorable parts of the novel Alas, Babylon was when the protagonist Randy discovered a forgotten package of goodies he’d packed away six months previously. Make up a surprise package consisting of things like chocolate bars, Thin Mints, etc. Six months or so after everyone has settled in to the New Normal, bring it out and pass it around. It will be a huge psychological uplift. The other members of the household will hoist you onto their shoulders and parade you around the yard for ten minutes offering to do all your chores for a week. On their deathbeds they’ll be reminiscing, “Do you remember the time…”
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 2.)
Read the full article here