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Can you survive? Say all transportation which brings in food was disabled. Would you know what plants to eat? Could you make a still to gather water? Would you hunt and kill animals. Can you make weapons to protect your families? Is strategy something you think about?

azzow2 9 Aug 10
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39 comments

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4

Nah. I'd be dead within a week. C'est la vie.

4

I would eat my neighbors ??

2

Id be eating lotsa fish !

Fish is good except only protein will cause you health problems.

@azzow2 acorns , hickory nuts , wild mushrooms , crawfish , wild grapes , blackberries , pawpaws ...nature is a smorgasbord.

@Scottzillyun Not sure about acorns they have toxins in them every thing else sounds good though.

@azzow2 ..
I think ya just gotta thoroughly boil the acorns ?

@Scottzillyun Not that easy they can be made edible though.

7

I’m high maintenance, dead in no time

No wallpaper soup for you then.

2

Yes, I can survive nicely. Lacking my meds would be the bad part, but I think I might be able to make it through that as well.

If you research some there are many alternatives.

@azzow2 -- I know. That's why I said I can probably survive that too. I was raised on a farm on the western face of the Cascade mountains. We supplemented our food by hunting and gathering natural flora. Lived off the land in interior Alaska for a couple of years. Military training. Accustomed to making do when necessary. No prob.

@evidentialist Nice is a good feeling to know that that conscience of survival is in your life dossier.

2

Yes, I could. I've had practical experience with it, having lived in bush Alaska.

That is one of the toughest survival situations.

2

Right now my freezer is full of deer, prawn and salmon I caught/hunted. Crab I like to eat fresh. I stopped gardening and canning and freezing due to time. So ya it would take an adjustment but I could make it here in BC. Longer winters and no ocean not so confident

We are some of the fortunate that prepare for the worst.

@azzow2 We stopped canning too. Guess we would start again!

@azzow2 living on an island you have to.

2

I doubt I’d live very long, but some younger people would. The question is for how long, and if they could raise families.

I live on a small farm, but my gardening relies on fuel and machinery. Let’s hope nothing like that ever happens.

Not many do think of the survival and would cause a lot of suffering. I agree hope it never happens.

1

Yes, I've been studying plants all my life & know the edible ones. I also have chickens & goats. Would they count? I don't eat meat so getting enough calories in the long run could be an issue. One thing I've never done is grind acorns into meal & soak the tannins out to make them edible...that was the staple of the Native Americans in my area.

Carin Level 8 Aug 10, 2018
1

I garden now and know quite a bit about edible plants. Would I kill animals, only if necessary. I eat mostly vegan now. I know a bit about animal care, I am sure I could raise and milk cows and chickens. I will eat eggs and milk products on occasion, I can also sew, make soap, i know how to dry foods and can if necessary. I know how to gather water from dew, and I know how to distill it if necessary. Being alone I'd have some problems, but I think with all my kids we may have skills to get by for a while

As I look around at society the type the you are is a unique rarity.

@azzow2 Thank you! I've always felt out of step with society, and within the last few years have really moved to embrace it. It is good to be self reliant. I dream of living off the grid, but never alone. So I do what I can to live in society with as small a carbon footprint as possible. I use reusable towels and personal wipes instead of paper towels and toilet papers. I make my own deodorant, toothpaste, and lip balm. I have a worm box in my pantry and a compost pile. When you call yourself a hippie, you can't be like everyone else.

@HippieChick58 And how!

2

Depends on why transportation was disabled. That doesn't happen on its own and more likely whatever created the transportation problems is a much larger concern. Your top three most probable large scale scenarios are nuclear fallout, biological contagion, and military occupation. Each one would alter how you'd need to react since your food sources and how you would gather food would likely be affected.

Many strategists will tell you that a perfect plan doesn't exist and a perfect execution is even less likely. The three areas you need to be concerned about are your ability to gather food/water, your health, and self defense. Food is important but it's not separate from the others in a survival scenario. Being able to adapt to the circumstances and adjust as needed is vital.

Your concerns are in order as follows:

  1. Self Defense
  2. First Aid
  3. Potable Water
  4. Gathering Food
  5. Base of Operations
  6. Fortifying your new home
  7. 3-6 month supply of 1-4
  8. Building a Community

This is correct in every way. The best at survival are flexible and try and look at least10 steps ahead.

2

I would be dead on 30 minutes from share panic.

3

I'd be dead meat. Unless I could write some software to do this.

godef Level 7 Aug 11, 2018
1

I’d be a goner once my insulin runs out. Coma. Gone. Everyone else can fight over what’s left.

Not sure how they harvest insulin. I will have to look that up.

3

Nope. I'm another one who'd end up useless sans meds and therefore dead.

4

I'm not wasting my life preparing for something that will never happen.
I'm pretty skinny though. Skinny people do better in famine situations and losing 1k of fat will statistically extend your life more than having a nuclear bunker.
I'm adaptable and optimistic too. I'll be fine.

3

I’d be alright for the most part. I’m more worried about dealing with other survivors.

As long as a synergy is agreed upon all would be good.

@azzow2 much like people in the now, everyone brings their own ego to the table along with whatever skills they may have. That synergy is a rare thing, not impossible, just rare. I suppose the mutual drive to survive may provide some glue but can just as easily provide friction.
I’d likely go it alone until I could connect with friends who I know I can trust.

@azzow2 it's probably that in the first instance that sny co-operation would be family groupings which would ultimately resolve in clan warfare, the most successful forming a feudal state and off we go again! Golding's Lord Of The Flies, a great example

@ixseil access to renewable resources is good but what about defense against malcontents?

4

I've always thought, I should have been born a couple of hundred years ago. I already do things like building my own house, and woodworking shop. I cut down trees on my property and built a barn. We garden and can vegetables. We've preserved foods by drying them. I've killed squirrels and rabbits for food. I don't doubt I could do about anything I need to do to survive. My health is good for a 61 year old southern man. With that said, I think doomsday prophesies are nuts, but anything can happen I guess.

As a realist, we know it is unlikely I like to use it as an exercise for the creative part of my brain.

2

Nope, I'm pretty much out of luck.

3

If I need to know I'll just google it. 😉

2

This discussion reminds me of two excellent books from long age: “Alas Babylon” and “Malevel”. For me it is an interesting psychological question as to why we like to speculate about such a thing, and why we enjoy reading apocalyptic novels. I even wrote an apocalyptic novel. It’s almost as though we WANT to see the end of civilization.

Of course in our minds, we are the ones who will survive and prove our strength and prowess. In an actual apocalypse we’d most likely die.

I love your assertion of our almost fetish like fascination with post apocalyptic survival. Almost as if there is a subtext that, as a Western culture, we almost crave it to abnagate any responsibility. I don't known of any Eastern cultures that have a similar outlook but I maybe wrong. It seems no matter how secular one is there is still the infection of The Revelation of St John running in the background.

3

My 18' diameter round pool has 10,000 gallons already, and I have bleach. I hear mice/rats are delicious. I am in a suburban environment, but my brother is near woods, and only a 17-mike walk away. So, live off my body fat, drink the pool water, feed the little dogs moles, then take a hike I guess.

Grass roots can also provide nourishment as well as insects.

2

Nope. I'm screwed. I would be one of the first ones to go......

Your inner survivalist could come out.

@azzow2 It probably would but it would only carry me so far. Our world would revert back to the survival of the fittest scenario and I am far from being one of the latter.

@patchoullijulie Made me think of that movie where Tom Hanks was stranded on an Island (Cast Away) You would adapt.

I'm with you?! All the looten 'n' shooten. Who could be bothered. Ultimately the secular version of living under Isis! Nah! Whisk me away to the Underworld for a long and restful sleep?

So maybe your no.1 strategy would be to find a partner that knows how to survive.

@JackPedigo Aha...I didn't think about that option..... mmmmmm 😀

3

I have some sheep I graze on my land so that would keep me going in lamb, and I would barter with my farming neighbours for other meat and milk and eggs etc, I would try to get my hands on some seeds and try to grow on my own land, some vegetables. I have a large store cupboard always full of canned and and packeted food and a freezer full (needs defrosting at the moment...thanks for the reminder), as I am on my own here I reckon I could last some years! No water, if there was a drought would be more of a problem, but living in Northern Ireland, the wettest part of UK it’s not really likely. I don’t think I would be much good as a forager, but needs must and skills could be learned if it was a matter of survival.

Your biggest problem would be poachers and looters.

@azzow2 How true, I don’t have a shotgun licence but would have to get one. I got rid of my husband’s shotguns after he died, but I could buy another one .

2

I have two fat cats and a six pack of beer, after that I'd be out of luck

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