The Prepper Thread

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Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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rare skill that will prove immediately valuable

At risk of not being a total isolationist, I'm learning to make wooden furniture with hand tools. I guess if I were really trying to apocalypse-proof myself I'd want to take up smelting and smithing. Someone's got to make the tools and keep us all from dropping back into the stone age.

In the same vein, I imagine you'd want a digital horde of STEM books and a way to read them.
 
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Screamfeeder

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Seven figures? That seems insane. I mean, assuming you have access to a NG line, like that runs along public roads or in small towns, the equipment needed to setup a generator is less than 10K (installed) I think.
This is without an existing line. Having access to NG is like me having access to a class V rapid water line. It's contingent on whats already there. So without either of those, why dismiss solar or wind? Both can be used to at least SOME degree no matter where you live in the United States (except northern Alaska and fuck those weirdos).

So, if you don't have a line to serve your property because it's too remote, that means you need a tank setup that you need to fill on occasion. A 500 Gallon propane tank is somewhere like 1-2K. I believe propane tanks work for NG with some different fittings on them, it's the same principals and pressures involved. There's also larger propane tanks available, and companies are around who can deliver gas to you, even though it will be more expensive than a gas line it IS doable for places that are more remote/offgrid.
Then I must be VERY out of date because the conversion of a propane tank to use NG was not only super complicated, but also in the "out of the realm of most Americans" budget range. This is including things like fault tolerance for blowouts, leak detection and just general electrical maintenance. Propane (which you need a supplier for unless you are somehow compressing your own gas) is a delivered service. Not sustainable.

And if you want to talk valuable skills once the zombies attack, how about 'distiller of spirits'? What's more valuable than knowing how to get your whole commune shitfaced?
My father was an Irish Jew raised in Mississippi.

We learned how to make a still or even toilet wine while most of you were jacking off over Gadget on Rescue Rangers.
 

TheBeagle

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What people always overlook is that there are SO many resources and gear already sitting around all over north America. If a catastrophe took out 20% or more of the population all that stuff will be readily available to the survivors. If you make it through to the other side then you won't need special skills to make stuff, you will just need to go raid a few empty garages.

The only things that will be scarce will be petroleum/fuel and people that can fix you if you get an appendicitis.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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What people always overlook is that there are SO many resources and gear already sitting around all over north America. If a catastrophe took out 20% or more of the population all that stuff will be readily available to the survivors. If you make it through to the other side then you won't need special skills to make stuff, you will just need to go raid a few empty garages.
I'm so fucking confused.

Isn't this post the exact opposite of Beagling?
 
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Oldbased

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What people always overlook is that there are SO many resources and gear already sitting around all over north America. If a catastrophe took out 20% or more of the population all that stuff will be readily available to the survivors. If you make it through to the other side then you won't need special skills to make stuff, you will just need to go raid a few empty garages.

The only things that will be scarce will be petroleum/fuel and people that can fix you if you get an appendicitis.
Which is why I revised all my stuff to be more QoL friendly and focus on the short term survival. As I said if you can live a few months you can just use other people's shit. I also already know how to produce fuel as I have done it. I might not have bankrolled it but I built it and maintained it and we ran several hundred gallons of it through 2 fords back in the Obama fuel scare days because the guy wanted to prepare and well just had fuck you money and wanted to learn the process.

I am much more worried about my medical health and surviving those first few months when people are unprepared, scared and willing to do anything for a meal. Having plenty of firepower does you no good if you catch a bullet to the head or are overran. That is why I invested in low power security cams and networked in such a way battery packs can power them and the alerts. All that does is warn me of people though. The risk is still high to hunker down in even a small city but I have to work with what I have and can afford. If I can survive that, I have no doubt I'd be able to team up with a group utilizing my knowledge to survive.
 
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TheBeagle

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Which is why I revised all my stuff to be more QoL friendly and focus on the short term survival. As I said if you can live a few months you can just use other people's shit. I also already know how to produce fuel as I have done it. I might not have bankrolled it but I built it and maintained it and we ran several hundred gallons of it through 2 fords back in the Obama fuel scare days because the guy wanted to prepare and well just had fuck you money and wanted to learn the process.

I am much more worried about my medical health and surviving those first few months when people are unprepared, scared and willing to do anything for a meal. Having plenty of firepower does you no good if you catch a bullet to the head or are overran. That is why I invested in low power security cams and networked in such a way battery packs can power them and the alerts. All that does is warn me of people though. The risk is still high to hunker down in even a small city but I have to work with what I have and can afford. If I can survive that, I have no doubt I'd be able to team up with a group utilizing my knowledge to survive.
If you can reliably do fuel from corn you would be king shit once people start coming out of their caves.
 
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Oldbased

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If you can reliably do fuel from corn you would be king shit once people start coming out of their caves.
Biggest issue by far is having enough corn and sugar. Sugar beets is probably the best option but you'd need acres both both planted, maintained and harvested along with some other crops just to reliably fuel one vehicle that can go out and forage for other things like medical supplies, survival items and provide security. While it would also provide some medial use and so forth as well you are now talking about dozens of people. It's a never ending cycle. The more "life" you want the more people you need which is more mouths to take care of and feed.

Going the loner route is simpler but as soon as you become injured or sick or have a bad event happen( someone steals your shit ), you are screwed. The beauty of the group thing after 6 months is the weak, the unwilling and the crybabies will mostly be all gone already.
 

TheBeagle

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I know where all the old science periodicals are kept at my alma mater going all the way back to 50's. This is basically a hard copy of all the important physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering research advancements of the modern era. You would be amazed at what you can find in the Proceedings of the American Chemical Society 1962 Volumes I - X.
 

Oldbased

> Than U
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I know where all the old science periodicals are kept at my alma mater going all the way back to 50's. This is basically a hard copy of all the important physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering research advancements of the modern era. You would be amazed at what you can find in the Proceedings of the American Chemical Society 1962 Volumes I - X.
Stuff like that would be very valuable. I know a body shop guy that is a blacksmith as his off hours hobby. He makes decent swords and armors and shit. He used to do it for SCA now it is just a hobby. Another guy I know loads all this ammo and works with brass and metals. I never done that, but much like after a month of making ethanol these are things everyone around you would learn quickly and it no longer is a useful advantage knowledge wise as everyone would possess those skills. You need to be a decent human as well and offer talents in addition to skills to survive. Some know it all better than you attitude wouldn't survive long at all, no matter how great they think they are. Having skills and talents are nice, survival not guaranteed. Loud mouth egomanics will be recycled into a usable byproduct and fertilizer.
 

Oldbased

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Apple products? I'm hurt
It's not important what we do with your things in death, but how you slept in life.
I am totally a 9 and 17.
1579826732042.png
 
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Il_Duce Lightning Lord Rule

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This is without an existing line. Having access to NG is like me having access to a class V rapid water line. It's contingent on whats already there. So without either of those, why dismiss solar or wind? Both can be used to at least SOME degree no matter where you live in the United States (except northern Alaska and fuck those weirdos).

Then I must be VERY out of date because the conversion of a propane tank to use NG was not only super complicated, but also in the "out of the realm of most Americans" budget range. This is including things like fault tolerance for blowouts, leak detection and just general electrical maintenance. Propane (which you need a supplier for unless you are somehow compressing your own gas) is a delivered service. Not sustainable.

Huh, I was going off of what I was told, but I guess it pays to look it up. You're right that the pressures are all wrong to be compatible. Apparently NG is always in a gaseous state in the lines but needs to be liquified to be storable in useful amounts and the pressures needed to to hold LNG are several times the pressures needed for propane. So yup, I bet making your own LNG compression plant and storage facility is a billionaire prepper's hobby. In my defense, when I looked this stuff up I was looking at it from a perspective of eliminating electric bills and not going completely off-grid, so storage didn't enter into it.

BUT! What you could do is run NG from a normal pipeline, then have a large propane tank as your backup for when shit goes bad. There're generators that can run on both propane and NG. As for the remote setup, you're right that it's not sustainable since it's a deliverable service, but it depends on the situation you're preparing for. If you're preparing to be without the deliverable service for 2 weeks - 1 month, it's probably fine for disaster type situations. If your nearest city gets hit by a meteor then it's probably not going to do the trick and you might want some wind or solar as a backup. Or live close to a creek and set up a water wheel? lul
 

Kirun

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I get basic preparedness for a major catastrophe that might last up to a month or so, but I can never understand why anyone would want to live in a "doomsday" scenario. Lack of access to all basic amenities, no running water, constant need to be alert for people looking to harm, steal, etc. No fucking thanks. I'd probably spend my final days searching for a few fuckers to clap and THICC bitches to rape, but after that? I'd just put one in my domepiece. Fuck living a life like that for potentially years, while society rebuilds itself - if you even make it that long before succumbing to raiders, disease, etc.
 

Oldbased

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Huh, I was going off of what I was told, but I guess it pays to look it up. You're right that the pressures are all wrong to be compatible. Apparently NG is always in a gaseous state in the lines but needs to be liquified to be storable in useful amounts and the pressures needed to to hold LNG are several times the pressures needed for propane. So yup, I bet making your own LNG compression plant and storage facility is a billionaire prepper's hobby. In my defense, when I looked this stuff up I was looking at it from a perspective of eliminating electric bills and not going completely off-grid, so storage didn't enter into it.

BUT! What you could do is run NG from a normal pipeline, then have a large propane tank as your backup for when shit goes bad. There're generators that can run on both propane and NG. As for the remote setup, you're right that it's not sustainable since it's a deliverable service, but it depends on the situation you're preparing for. If you're preparing to be without the deliverable service for 2 weeks - 1 month, it's probably fine for disaster type situations. If your nearest city gets hit by a meteor then it's probably not going to do the trick and you might want some wind or solar as a backup. Or live close to a creek and set up a water wheel? lul
I'd totally do the water wheel if I had a good river and land. You'd want to divert and dam with a runoff so you could handle high water conditions and have some leeway on low water conditions and you'd have endless generators with all the parked alternators everywhere no longer in use. Up and running in a day with almost no cost! Plus you could use the divert pond for trout and skinny dipping with the mangled ladies wandering up looking for grub.
 
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Oldbased

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I get basic preparedness for a major catastrophe that might last up to a month or so, but I can never understand why anyone would want to live in a "doomsday" scenario. Lack of access to all basic amenities, no running water, constant need to be alert for people looking to harm, steal, etc. No fucking thanks. I'd probably spend my final days searching for a few fuckers to clap and THICC bitches to rape, but after that? I'd just put one in my domepiece. Fuck living a life like that for potentially years, while society rebuilds itself - if you even make it that long before succumbing to raiders, disease, etc.
Don't prepare for doomsday. Too many variables and too much cost. Prep for disaster/short term and if it is a doomsday, you are well on your way. Don't be the guy with a full underground bunker and 15 years of food and water that gets hit with the nuke in the first 5 minutes.
 
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Gavinmad

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Don't be the guy with a full underground bunker and 15 years of food and water that gets hit with the nuke in the first 5 minutes.

Or gets murdered by me in the first 5 minutes. Cause that's my plan if I decide I want to try and survive a doomsday scenario, is to murder as many preppers as I can.
 

Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I get basic preparedness for a major catastrophe that might last up to a month or so, but I can never understand why anyone would want to live in a "doomsday" scenario. Lack of access to all basic amenities, no running water, constant need to be alert for people looking to harm, steal, etc. No fucking thanks. I'd probably spend my final days searching for a few fuckers to clap and THICC bitches to rape, but after that? I'd just put one in my domepiece. Fuck living a life like that for potentially years, while society rebuilds itself - if you even make it that long before succumbing to raiders, disease, etc.



I never really thought of the fact that I might just need to outlast the bad guys. If they're all going to off themselves after they're done raping a few fatties, I'll just make a halfassed basement bunker with the complete Friends DVD box set and wait for all the dickheads to Hillary themselves.
 

TheBeagle

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I'd totally do the water wheel if I had a good river and land. You'd want to divert and dam with a runoff so you could handle high water conditions and have some leeway on low water conditions and you'd have endless generators with all the parked alternators everywhere no longer in use. Up and running in a day with almost no cost! Plus you could use the divert pond for trout and skinny dipping with the mangled ladies wandering up looking for grub.
Raid your state's Fish and Game yards for screw traps. Portable, easy in and out, catches fish, and would be fairly trivial to American Inventor rig it to an alternator.
rotary-screw-trap4-450x337.jpg
 
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