fundamentals-top ten items

FRIDAY FUNDAMENTALS


TOP TEN ITEMS TO BUY FOR PREPPING

Prepping for the collapse, buying for survival, stockpiling for the apocalypse. There is an unfortunate need to be an uber-consumer, unfortunate in that too much consumerism is in no small part one of the causes for our crash into the wall of resource depletion, but it isn’t like you have much choice in the matter. Acquiring food is the basic impulse behind everything else culturally. Look at any particular activity from any culture, primitive or advanced, and you can trace it back to how those folks eat. And how we eat today is through paper currency. Not farming or herding or fishing, hunting/gathering, raiding or anything else. We head to an office and shuffle paper, keeping track of how much petroleum is burned or processed, are given paper chits in return and are allowed to trade them in for mechanized food products. We have no choice but to consume. We aren’t allowed to produce our own food. On the other hand, the up side is that we can consume a lot of things cheaper than if we had been farming and made them ourselves or bartered for them. Not that this will last long, so enjoy it while you can ( if you doubt that this is a valid trend, look at how EVERYTHING is going up in cost as quality suffers. Even gasoline and diesel are being lowered in BTU ). I’m not saying it is a good trade-off, or all that advantageous, just that if you want to look at the bright side, there it is.

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You can list a hundred things you need to survive. Or even a thousand. Part of consumerism is ever increasing wants far long after needs are assured. Witness the cell phone mania. I’m only listing ten, because this is what you can survive on. I don’t care about all the others, they are toys and luxuries.



Food. Wheat kernels and whole beans and lard. You will do much better with animal protein, comfort food, and a few others, but these three will keep you alive. A pound of flour and a half pound of beans a day will give you a complete protein and a slim bit over two thousand calories a day. For sixty cents or so a day. Add about a pound of fat a week. Total cost, excluding buckets, under $300 for a years worth of food. Sprout the wheat for veggies.



A grain grinder. Boiled wheat kernels will get really old. A grinder will give you wheat flour which will give you menu variety. Spend about $75 if possible, but at least $50. A Corona brand, then a cheap China version for $25 as a back-up.



Water filter. There are a variety of ways to purify water, and you should know most of them. But it can’t hurt anyone’s budget to spend $50 for a Berky brand filter element to make your own water filter. Peace of mind, ease of use, another way to keep your water safe.



Bolt action rifle ( or a semi converted to one ). A pistol is great in town, a shotgun is great in the woods, but if you can only afford one gun a rifle will give you range and knock down power. It isn’t as effective as the other two close in, but the other two are worthless far out. You do the best you can with what you got.



Ammunition. Not included in the other point because most folks tend to be gun rich and ammo poor. You should reverse that, because in all likelihood you are buying a literal life times worth of ammo. Think thousands, not hundreds. You can have less if you make up the difference in reloading supplies.



LED lights. Lighting is not a luxury, so you can read your Penthouse collection after dark. It is a necessity enabling you to survive. Animal and man night attacks come to mind. Don’t spend a fortune on each light, you need back-ups and cheap barter units. Store the back ups in a Faraday box ( my preferred type is a Christmas cookie tin, the light still in its plastic package inside [ to be effective the item can’t touch the metal ] and the lid taped on ). Just in case of EMP natural or man made.



A solar recharger and several sets of rechargeable AA, AAA batteries ( I don’t recommend C or D using lights. They are really much more expensive than the A’s, most lights don’t use them and they take far longer to charge ). Think of these like your ammo. What you have must last you a life time. Buy accordingly.



Wool. You need wool blankets for winter with no overnight heat, the way it used to be done, and wool clothing for the cold. If it makes you itch, wear cotton under it. Wool is low tech and can be replaced, but you’ll need to stockpile it now to avoid being cold immediately. Sheep herds will take time to reestablish. And you won’t find them for sale after trouble starts. Seeing as how nobody dresses for the cold and expects the natural gas to keep them warm.



Knives. Despite our best efforts to send all our scrap to China, there will still be plenty of metal left after the collapse to make your own knives. But you don’t want to wait to be armed ( back-up weapon, plus great tool ) for when that happen. Kind of like the wool. They are dirt cheap right now, buy a few. And get a few dollar store sharpeners ( the stone in a wheel kitchen knife sharpeners ).



Shelter. Even if it is just a tarp or three with a few reflector blankets. And a magnifying glass to start fires with. Chances are you already have shelter, but if these don’t serve as a back-up, at least they have other uses such as rain catchment. Until waterproof canvas is once again for sale, these tarps are a better than nothing, cheap substitute.

Okay, the one common denominator here is “unavailable after the collapse”. Or, in the case of wool and knives and food, “no where near as cheap after the collapse, and not available immediately”. You are taking advantage of the Oil Age affordability and availability. Just don’t wait too long.

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