Lonewolf Survival Realities Vs. The Group (and Bigger Is Better) Theory.

In the event of a long term total collapse there are going to be all sorts of problems that we saw in New Orleans. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that have no moral compass other than the fear of getting caught by the cops. The bad news is that when that threat is removed they seem to revert to an animal sort of morality. The good news is that they will kill each other and then without the cops protecting them the rest will be killed by now well armed victims.

We have allowed these people to rot the cores of our biggest cities. The rather extreme circumstances of Katrina and the political issues already existing in New Orleans gave us a little peek at what is probably coming.

 

survival is about food,water,shelter and security...in various order depending on needs at a particular time. rinse and repeat daily...how that happens has a wide array of action behind it.

to me is to be in area where resources either wild or domesticated produces serious calories.people say wild resources will run out in a shtf..they could..but they also might not..case in point a salmon run.theres a certain time period for that. going to unknown area the lack of knowledge of timing of a particular run many would just give up or worse waiting for the correct time.be a local of that area you could be off doing other chores and productive until that time.

living in fairly remote and low population area with small diversified farms and ranches are the way to go.i can or could produce a lot of calories with a little help from a couple youngsters that would follow a few directions. i .e. helping lift sacks of seed taters and cutting them and getting them ready to plant. as i prepped ground they could be finishing this and as i got to laying off rows they could be going down rows dropping potatoes for me to come back with row hipper covering up. potatoes to be considered good harvest according to a michigian university....cant recall which one...produces 1.5 pounds of tater per foot of row,last year i kept closed and detailed records and i averaged 1.8pounds a foot.one of the biggest things is holding back enough seed each year to replant. it takes way more than most realize.

yall know i am in the over 50 crowd and have limits because of injuries.last few years my younger members of family have enjoyed helping me do various tasks and they are shocked at the 'taste' of real food thats fresh.

i tend to be a loner but reality is life is easier as a tribe....but i must say if positions are over ran then its time to fall back in a groundhog hole and pull the cover over you...timing is everything.

 

I can see very quickly , you are an experienced put food on the table gardener , good post .

 

Elkhound: I agree completely with your four categories, and I have practiced that from day 1. The other I would add would be fire. You could argue priorities like politics or religion, but for me 1.) Shelter 2.) Water 3.) Fire 4.) Security 5.) Food.

 

I try to prioritize according to a threat analysis. Security comes first because if you are attacked and can't defend yourself you will be dead in seconds. You need to had some sort of weapon that will allow you to defend yourself without HAVING to go toe to toe with an attacker. You have two hands man became the king of beasts with pointed sticks, clubs and big rocks that he could throw. Don't walk around empty handed.

The next priority will be shelter because without it in either the bitter cold or the intense heat of being out in the sun in the summer will kill you fast. Nearly anything that will protect you is better than nothing. This includes clothes and knowing how to use them. That should include head covers and some sort of rain gear if possible. Man, those better quality space blankets can make such a difference. They can be used to keep heat in or heat out and reflect it to make better use of a fire.

Once you are safe and sheltered as necessary you can worry about water you have three days so it is immediate but not urgent. You need to think of water in three or four steps; Find it, Gather it, purify it and store it. Some times one or more steps are not an issue but you nonetheless need to consider each possible step.

A single quick example. You are in an arid region and just can't find any water. ??? Among your supplies you need to carry a few dehydrated sponges. They are small and weigh nothing but even in a desert you can get an amazing amount of water off of rocks and such from the morning dew. ANY amount is better than none and will extend the time you have to find a better supply of water.

Then comes your need for nourishment; it isn't nearly as urgent as people now days think. You can live for three weeks with nothing to eat but if you can manage as little as 400 calories a day eaten in many small snacks each day you can live a LOOOOONG time. When you eat in small quantities your digestive system wrings it out where if you eat it all at one time you won't get as much from the same amount of food.

The last thing you need to consider whether you are in a group or a Lone Wolf. You are going to have to find ways to nourish your humanity. Man can not live by bread alone. Your body might survive but the things that make you a "Man" rather than just another animal require some tending to. You need to stay as clean as possible and take the times to care for your appearance and mind. This is especially important if you are alone. You need to keep a journal or do something every day to mark your passage through time. You need to live in a regular manner. In other words you need to do more than just eat, drink, sleep and do it again. There must be some human pleasures as a part of every day once things settle. Think about it... There is a reason why putting a prisoner in solitary confinement is so effective. With no other source of new thoughts and experiences your system starts to shut down.

 

Water will not be a problem in most places along or within a 100 miles of the Gulf Coast. Anyplace that gets nearly 3 feet of rain a year will have plenty of water. All you need is several reliable ways to make it safe to drink. The warm water carried by the Gulf Stream keeps us pretty wet most of the time.

 

Those living in a city whose plan is to bug in , could possibly survive a few weeks if they have enough water stored . But even if they are resigned to eating rats , bugs , or cannibalism without water their days left to live will be few .

 

If you posted this as a joke let me tell you, this sort of stupidity is alive and well in America!! After Hurricane Rita I had a rash of calls from people that wanted me to fix their ACs or Refrigerators. I went to their homes and found that they had NO POWER. They had noticed that some other people, NOT NEIGHBORS, had power back on and were insistent that I FIX them up!! When some people are confronted with a new and only slightly understood problem it is amazing how they will be unable to deal with reality.

 

Which do you think people will eat first , limbs off a corpse or eat roaches ?

 

I can't reveal the details of this story. Wish I could.

A major industrial process was shut down multiple times due to the petty actions of one member of their night-time clean-up crew.

Their factory engineers couldn't figure it out what kept going wrong. (There's an issue in and of itself.) Problem boiled down to their having zero security precautions, zero power backup, zero safety, zero brains ... oh dear Lord help us all! No, I didn't say that their precautionary measures were inadequate. Yes, I said non-existent.

At first telling, I didn't believe our field engineer. I just sat there for a moment, then used the f-word.

The "sanitation engineer" wasn't even trying to use their computers.

Forget some Chi-com cyber attack. Send in the village idiot.

 

This may sound odd coming from a die-hard agnostic, but I'm extremely fortunate in that in my town of about 3800, ~75 percent of the people go to the same Church; the very same Church that about 75% of the folks in eastern Idaho and all of Utah go to. No, they don't have plural marriage; they stopped that over a century ago. But they are all preppers; it's part of the bedrock of their faith. They look out for each other -- and for their neighbors, even non-Church members like Dawn and me.

Having lived in Mesa AZ for 40 years -- a town with a high population of LDS folks -- I knew that if TSHTF, I'd be safer in Mormon country. Give you an idea; when I told the members of my band that I was moving, the mandolin player (a former bishop) called some of the Brethren in the Kimberly area to warn them of the heathen banjo-player in the neighborhood. I got there two days before my furniture arrived and the next morning eight men whom I'd never seen before just showed up and moved my stuff in for me. In the eight months I've been here, I've made friends with eight or so families who ask me to babysit their livestock when they're out of town, show up with a tractor when they know I'm about to till my garden, bring by eggs and leave with canned peaches -- and all but one family are Mormons. They have NEVER tried to convert me.

They all have their year's supply of food storage, lots of kids, are all armed, and have an instant communications network for each Stake and Ward that if something happens, they know where to go and what to do. Two weeks ago a guy called me up, said someone in his ward had mentioned me, and asked if I could help him install a Geissele two-stage in his AR. I told him to come over, and we fixed it in about a half-hour. How did that help me? It hasn't -- yet; but sooner or later it will.

Now again, I'm not into their theology, but they don't seem to mind that much. You can find your homies anywhere; they don't have to be Mormons (although it helps). But if you want straight-up people, look for the local churches, volunteer fire department, or just someone you meet who might need a little help. Word gets around, and if you play it right, you'll be a hell of a lot better off when -- and if -- the excrement impacts the air handler.

CTR, y'all!

 

...and this leads to something a bit more in line with the title of this thread. At the risk of being blunt, there are two statements I'd like to make about the "lone wolf" versus "group" thing:

1. If you try to survive as a "lone wolf", you would likely be dead within a month.
2. If you try to survive as a member of a smaller group, at least one of you will probably be dead within six months.

Now I'm not trying to denigrate anyone's capabilities here. I'm sure most of the folks here can hit a small animal at a hundred meters, or start a fire in a rainstorm simply by rubbing couple of dry clichés together. But if you're alone in a hostile environment, something is going to get you. Lack of sleep might make you stupid for just a minute; you twist your ankle; you run into Mr. Escherichia coli (who is definitely not your friend); you meet someone just a bit more wide-awake than you and he gets the drop on you; you get an abscessed tooth;... you get the picture.

So you bug out with some friends who are all campers/hikers, too. Things are better in the short run. One of you can keep watch, someone will have a bit more medical knowledge than the rest, you'll be able to hunt as a group, you'll have someone to talk to, etc.

But you won't have all the abilities and skills that modern-day people need and take for granted. And I'm not talking about how to fix your iPhone or your microwave: I'm talking about people who can perform medical and dental surgical procedures, perform a podalic version so your wife and child won't die in childbirth from a breech presentation, get your submersible pump with the broken pipe out from 150 feet below the surface -- you get the picture.

In order to survive long-term, we need to have the strengths and skills available in -- at a minimum -- of 1,500 people, which is why I chose to buy a little farm near a little town (3000) which in turn is near a bigger town (45,000).

Obviously, if there is a generalized breakdown of transportation, power, medical, and food infrastructure, Twin Falls, Idaho isn't going to go on just as before, nor will my little town, Kimberly. But there will be the same folks -- many of them farmers and dairymen, with their support structure of vets, nursery workers, doctors, dentists, a fire department, cops -- who already have their home-based infrastructure and culture in place. We're way too far from the big cities like Spokane and SLC to worry about starving desperate hordes; and I'm betting my life (literally) that we will pull through better than any 'lone wolf' or even 'tribal based' survivalist could reasonably expect.

This isn't an easy choice for anyone. We left all our friends that we made over 40 years in Arizona and we started a lifestyle for which we had absolutely no capabilities, expertise, or experience whatsoever; with weather and climate completely different from what we're used to; not knowing a single soul and how/whether we'd be accepted. If you're tied into place by family, friends, your particular job, and all the things you're comfortable with -- then the move may be too big a jump for you. But if you're really concerned about the advent of Hard Times and want you and your family and kids to have a safe haven, this might be just the ticket for you.

All I'm suggesting is that you think about it.

 

I've made my feelings on this subject absolutely plain over the years on a variety of forums, my area is populated by a pretty self sufficient group of people, most of whom I know and trust. Between us we have the resources and skills to form a workable community. There are also a few who are a total waste of skin, I know who they are as well.

 

Would not those who had been living that lifestyle for decades not fair well.