The urban survival Category
Fruit trees and the urban survivalist
Fruit trees are the friend of the urban survivalist. Unlike a garden, you do not have to replant the fruit tree every year, during the spring your neighbors will be jealous of the beautiful blooms, dwarf fruit trees can be planted just about anywhere, and some types of fruit trees are high producers. Meaning, that with just 1 or 2 trees, your family should be able to put up plenty of preserves.
Some types of dwarfs may not get 8 feet tall and might be something good to plant in the corners of your fence. If you have a fence in your backyard, what do you have planted in the corners right now anyway? Planting the fruit tree across the back fence might provide it with more sun light, as compared to planting it between the houses.
Over the past few years I have made it a point to plant some fruit trees. Some of the types I have planted include peach, plum, apple, and a fig tree.
When picking the different types of trees that you want to plant, take into consideration when the fruit is ready to be picked. I like to plant different types of trees so that the fruit ripens at different times. One might ripen in July, another might ripen in August, and another might ripen in September. This gives me time to preserve the fruit. Even if I do not preserve the fruit, having the fruit ripen at different times spreads out my food supply.
While planting the peach trees, I used miracle grow organic potting soil and some miracle grow plant food. The plant food said it was 10-10-10 with a little extra sulfur mixed in.
I thought about throwing some nuts, bolts or nails in the hole before the tree is set in. That way the tree has a source of trace minerals will will take a long time to break down. This was not done during the 2007, 2008 0r 2009 planting season, but I might do it this year. There are some 3/4 inch round bar rods at the camp. I though about cutting some pieces off of those bars – say about 2 – 3 inches long – and putting the bar under the tree. It might take those bars decades to break down all the way where there is nothing left
In 2008 I spread some 13-13-13 fertilizer around a peach tree in the spring. We were “supposed” to get some rain to help was the fertilizer in. We did not get the rain and the tree died. I think I put too much fertilizer around the tree. So in the spring of 2010, I’am going easy with the fertilizer.
Post your comments in this forum thread about fruit trees.
Floods from nautral disasters
This is the intersection of HWY 87 and chemical road, which is between Orange and Bridge City, Texas. 2 major intersections which were blocked by debris and water from Hurricane Ike. Keep in mind, this intersection is about 20 inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
As far as anyone could remember, this part of Orange County, Texas had never flooded – at least not this bad anyway. When Hurricane Ike pushed the storm surge into the communities of Southeast Texas, a lot of people were caught unprepared. An unknown number of people did not have flood insurance, mainly because the area where they live had never flooded.
Some of the lessons learned:
You can not protect your house against something like a hurricane. What you do, is make sure you have plenty of insurance, both flood and home owners.
My mom and dad will be ok. They have home owners and flood insurance. For the most part they will recover.
My brother had flood insurance, but nothing on the contents. Meaning he lost everything in his house with 4 – 5 feet of water.
My buddy did not have any flood insurance. He got about 2 feet of water in his house and has lost almost everything.
To protect your family and your property, have a fall back position. My family used my house as such a location. They had a safe place to stay, instead of sleeping in hotels and spending a small fortune on rooms and food.
When the local authorities call for an evacuation, heed those warnings, pack up your stuff and leave. Property can be replaced, lives can not.
Fuel storage
Here is what I store most of my fuel in. These drums hold 16 gallons each, but I only fill them with 15 gallons of fuel.
The first thing people usually say – your not supposed to store fuel in plastic. Ok, then what about the plastic 5 gallon gas cans from the local hardware store? Those are made out of plastic.
Currently I have about 8 – 10 gallons of kerosene, and about 20 gallons of gasoline stored up.
In 2008 I went down and bought 15 gallons of kerosene, this drum was perfect for storing that amount of fuel. The drum weighed about 100 pounds, so it was still movable, but required a little force.
Another consideration – how much fuel do you really need? My truck as a 20 gallon gas tank, each of those blue drums holds 16 gallons. So when my truck reaches less then a 1/4 tank, its time to pull over an fill back up.
To pump the fuel from the drum to my truck I have a plastic hand operated, squeeze bulb pump. My truck will go about 400 miles on a tank of gas, so with 2 of these blue drums, I will have about a 1100 – 1200 mile range. That mileage does not count sitting in line trying to get out of an area. During the evacuation of Houston for hurricane Rita, people went through 2 tanks of gas just sitting in line.
For my generator, I get about 9 hours of run time on a full tank of gas, which is about 5 – 6 gallons (I do not remember). So I should be able to get 5 days (?) of run time for my freezer, running one hour out of every 3 or 4 hours? I have not done the exact math – that is what the (?) is for because I am not 100% sure.
Post your comments in this forum thread about fuel storage.
Move on you have enough gas
This is a real story, as it was told to me. As far as I know it based on actual events.
Location – Lufkin, Texas
Date – a couple of days after Hurricane Rita passed through.
The story – this guy was at a gas station filling up several 55 gallon drums. Gasoline was already in short supply. Before Hurricane Rita made landfall, Houston, Texas had evacuated. As the people from Houston passed through the small towns of East Texas, they were like locust, cleaning out the resources of the small towns – such as food, hotel rooms, bottled water and gasoline.
Someone walks over to the guy, pulls out a pistol, points it at him, and says “you have enough gas, move on.”
Who is in the right and who is in the wrong?
Was the guy hogging more then his fair share of fuel?
Did he need that much fuel?
Was he bringing the gasoline to people further south in the Hurricane affected areas?
Did he have a special needs person and needed the fueul for a generator?
Was the guy with the gun in the wrong for forcing the other person to move on?
Some of the gas stations in Lufkin started rationing fuel – cars were only allowed to get 45 dollars worth of fuel and then they had to move on. At time, gas cost 2.99 a gallon, so $45 of gas at the time was not much. Some of the gas stations had police officers at them to ensure peace and order.
Post your comments in this thread at the Hurricane Survival Forums.
Some bug out plans
Bugging out of a major city sounds a lot easier then it actually is. Chances are the gas stations are going to be empty, and the roads are going to be packed. One of the keys to getting out a city safely, is to either leave early or leave late. But either way, try to get ahead of, or behind the mad rush.
Fuel/Gasoline – having enough fuel to get out will be the first problem. At the first sign of trouble, people are going to make a mad rush to the gas stations and fill up not only their cars and trucks, but every gas can they have. As a hurricane is approaching the Gulf Coast, its not uncommon to see people filling up 55 gallon drums of gasoline.
Maps – the stores will be sold out before you get there. Next time you see a road map of your area go ahead and pick a couple up. Keep a couple of different maps in each car/truck that you own.
Food and water along the bug out route – a lot of people pack clothes, toys, DVD players, even TV’s and other non survival items instead of food and water. Have enough food and water for everyone for at least 4 days. Go ahead and invest some money into some good quality ice chest, like some 5 day extreme Igloo ice chest.
Having a place to go – Most people leave, and have no clue where they are going. Most find themselves out of money and sleeping in their cars rather quickly. Months after the disaster is over, people will still be paying off the credit cards from the hotels and buying food.
Bring tents, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows – If you and your family are unable to find a hotel/motel then maybe you can camp in a state / national park – hey its better then nothing. Sometimes churches outside the affected areas will setup shelters. To make things feel more at home, bring your own blankets and pillows. Shelters may not have enough blankets for everyone, so its good to have your own.
Have a way to cook – bring a portable grill. Even if you have to use twigs and sticks from a road side park, its still a way to cook. A portable grill and the hot meals it provides can be a real morale booster. A single burner stove does not take up a lot of room, and it can provide a good hot meal.
Keep a couple of frozen one gallon bottles of water in the deep freezer. These can take a day or two to thaw out and will keep your food cold longer then a bag of ice. Plus you can drink the water once it thaws. Having your own ice will be nice when the stores are sold out.
Hand sanitizer and toilet paper – bring plenty of both. Chances are the rest areas along the route will be out of toilet paper and soap.
Post your comments in this thread about evacuation strategies in the forum.
MRE shelf life
There are several questions that are repeated on the forums, one of them being about MRE shelf life. On the bottom of the case of MREs, there should be a red sticker – with a 2 red circles inside of a red square.
Both of these two red circles should be a different shade of red, the closer the two reds are, the sooner you need to open one MRE out of that case and see if its still good.
On the bottom of the case, there should be two dates – a manufacture date and a test date. However, some cases will use a different form such as “1068″. In this case, the first number “1″ stands for the year (2001) and the next three numbers indicate which day of the year (365 days in a year) it was packed. So “068″ would be day 68 of the year 2001…or March 9, 2001.
MRE‘s are VERY sensitive to temperature. One day over 100 degrees takes about one month off the shelf life. Store the MRE’s in the coolest part of your house, maybe a closet or a basement.
Freezer contents
This article is being posted as a topic for discussion, more then anything else. In the freezer we have:
Top shelf:
Seed storage box
Deer sausage
Deer hamburger
Beans – frozen to kill weevils
Rice
2nd shelf:
long package on the top is 3 racks of baby back ribs.
Pork chops
Deer hamburger
Door:
frozen coke bottle has catfish in it
Red bag in front of coke bottle has wild berry seeds in it.
more deer sausage
Not in the picture:
Bottom shelf full of deer meat – hamburger and sausage, more beans and rice.
The seed storage box in the top right hand corner is full of squash, corn, beans, peas, okra, radishes, watermelons,,, and all kinds of other types of seeds.
The beans are rice are being frozen for at least 2 weeks to kill any weevils. From the freezer the bags are spread out on the kitchen table, allowed to thaw, and then moved into storage boxes.
When the power goes off, we cook the meat first. When the meat runs out, then we will start cooking the beans are rice.
Post your comments in the freezer picture thread of the forum.
Contact list and communications
If your family has to evacuate – who is your common contact person? In other words, if your brothers family, your mom and dad, and your family has to evacuate, who is outside the affected area that can relay messages?
There is no use in everyone calling everyone else and telling them where they are at. Call one person, update your situation and location. Then, that one person can relay everyone else’s messages. Then, if someone wants to get the updates, they can call that one person to check in.
One thing to consider is that during a disaster (such as a hurricane), phone lines will be overloaded. The fewer phone calls you have to make, the better.
Besides phone calls, other forms of communications are text messages, emails, instant messenger programs, and social networking sites.
Maybe create your family a community page on a social networking site – then share the username and password with the other family members. Instead of having to call several family units, post an update to your social networking page. This can give the families a central point to share information. Most modern cell phones are built in browsers. As long as the cell phone can connect to the internet, hopefully everyone can post situation updates.
My family has 3 different people in 3 different areas of the nation we can use. These three people live in Washington state, California and Georgia. We also have our personal pages on facebook and myspace.
Please post your comments in the contact list and communications thread of the forum.
Generator Security
After hurricane Rita passed through, there were stories going around of peoples generators going off in the middle of the night, by the time they got outside all they saw was the tail lights of the truck leaving with their genny in the bed.
Do not let this happen to you.
When you buy your genny, also buy about 20 feet of chain and two locks. My genny was chained to an oak tree about 3 feet in diameter.
Then my truck was backed up to the genny so no one could see it from the road. Use your trucks or cars to block the view of people passing by.
Take the wheels off your genny. Do not make it any easier for the thieves.
Keep your genny in the back yard, or where ever you might have a fence up.
If you have a fenced back yard, put locks on the gate.
Do not keep your genny in the garage while running – fumes will still get into the house.
I built a portable shed about 4 feet tall, 4 feet wide and about 3 feet deep out of debris from the hurricane – three sides were closed, one side was open. This helped keep the genny out of thew weather and helped dampen the sound of the motor running. Now that the genny in stored in the shed, I turned that portable three sided shed into a wood shed for my bar-be-que pit.
Something you should not do – do not keep your generator in your house, do not keep it in your garage,,, of anywhere else that it can not vent the exhaust fumes.
After Hurricane Rita, there was a story going around of a family that was running the generator in their apartment. Out of 5 family members, only one was not killed by the exhaust fumes. Do not become a victim by your own hands.
Post your comments in the generator security thread of the forums.
Food as a comfort blanket
During a stressful situation, food could be used as a comfort blanket.
After hurricane Rita blew through 4 1/2 years ago, we returned home from the shelter only to find the yard covered with tree limbs. One tree in the back yard had blown down, but landed away from my house. Some of our group started cleaning up the yard, and piling the limbs up. While this cleaning up was going on I started cooking. The pit was fired up, some sausage and steaks were cooked and we all had a feast right before dark.
It was of great comfort to have a good hot meal after a stressful event. The night before, it sounded like we had a train sitting on top of us for about 8 hours. The next morning everyone was stressed out, and edgy, but the hot meal was like a turning point for that day.
After a stressful event, plan on the group using a feast to comfort and reassure them that life will return back to normal. Then is not the time for powered eggs and freeze dried foods. Pull the steaks or ribs out of the freezer and cook them up.
The food in the freezer should be eaten before the packaged stuff anyway. So its a win win situation. The group gets a good hot meal and the perishable foods are eaten before they spoil.
Never underestimate the power of a good hot meal. It can really help with the moral of the group.
Post your comments in the a good hot meal after a disaster thread of the forums.