Over the past years preparedness has been a priority to many, including myself. What do we need? What should we buy first? How much do we need? Where is the best place to purchase? Will we bug in or bug out? Where would we go? How would we move our resources if bugging out? What are our prioritized wants and needs? How long should we plan for? How do we barter and what should we barter? What classes should we take to learn more skills? You get my point? We have never been to this place before so we have history and assumptions to use to build our plans and resources. Some of us served in the U.S. Military, as missionaries, and medical teams abroad in the past and witnessed nations collapse. I think for many who prepare, the amount of resources we secure is the safety net we need to survive and live through the natural or manmade event causing the disaster.
The goal is survival. How do we survive through the event. Very few ask the question, how do we survive post-event. I have not written on this topic previously, however I have been working on the topic behind the scenes. I have mentioned two new courses I will be teaching at Heritage Life Skills 2020. Preparedness 102 and 103. They are focused around the team and community building and responsibilities to prolong the ability to survive and build upon the established framework. The new classes came about shortly after Heritage Life Skills 2019 ended. While Ms Lucy and I packed up gear to depart the facility, a Patriot brother and sister hung around to meet and converse. The topic of post event survival surfaced and developed from that day on. My new Patriot friend said "I want to be part of the post-event rebuilding of society." I have to admit over the past ten years, I have had very few individuals state "I want to be a part of the post-event rebuilding of society." I would say less than five individuals have even brought up the topic. Now, let's caveat this with some may be confusing community building with post-event society rebuilding. There are comparisons in part but post-event society rebuilding is much more. I put some thought in to the much needed topic and then had numerous discussions with Festus on the need for more research and training on the topic. We have since developed the two new courses to share at HLS 2020.
I decided to go ahead and put this article together after another Patriot sister, who emails me frequently, emailed me out of the blue on this topic. She asked, post-event, what skills may be needed? I shared with her the upcoming new courses for HLS and how the skills she mentioned in her email are skills I have included as community skills needed. Have you ever given it thought? In community building, it is important to take in citizens who can be trusted and offers a skill to the community. But, as time moves forward and citizens move around and must earn their keep, what resources should be secured to use as future resources to start the rebuild of society? Now this list could be endless. We could ask a group of city planners, engineers, chemist, doctors, scientist, law enforcement, veterinarians.... You see, the list could be massive. But, what are some of the basics we should think about?
Hopefully your team will have taken part in a community group to survive the event. In the community you will find a community council with an elected leader, and individuals representing the following areas; security, medical, food, communications, intelligence, resource manager (food, ammo, medicine, fuel) hunting/fishing, spiritual, mechanic/maintenance, water treatment, gunsmith and so forth. These individuals will lead community teams in the general area assigned. In addition to the community, these individuals and others will work as a council to start planning for future societal growth and connecting with other communities to plan the path ahead for survival. The actual steps should not begin until the major threats are over.
Some steps that should be considered:
- The calendar must be reconstructed. Most of our days are constructed around the calendar. Planning agriculture is critical and it must be done accurately to ensure the correct seasons are used for proper planting and growth then harvesting. Understanding the northern hemisphere and summer solstice is critical because it will impact seasonal planting and growing. If you have never grown a garden this could be very difficult for you and your team. You can bet there will far more citizens who can't grow food vs the number in demand for the food. Think about that.
- What about a chemical industry? To move society forward, civilization will need more than food, basic windmills and steam engines to help remove the labor burden off the citizens. Obtaining or making crucial classes of chemicals will be a must, as it has been through our history. Things like potash (potassium carbonate) and soda (sodium carbonate), as these are needed in making glass, paper and soap. Potash can be simply extracted from the ashes of a wood fire by soaking water through them. Discard the insoluble minerals that settle on the bottom, and then recover the dissolved potash by evaporating away the water. Soda is made in the same way, from burning seaweed. But, if members of the team and/or community are unaware of this need and how to produce it, then it won't happen.
How about transportation? Walking and horse drawn buggies will only last so long and provide minimal ability to move resources. What can be established as legitimate transportation to fuel the forward movement of society. How about tree-powered cars. Once all the remaining gasoline and diesel is gone society will struggle to drill for oil and the easily-accessible reserves have already been pumped dry. So, in order to continue using automobiles and mechanization the internal combustion engine can be run on flammable gases released by the thermal-breakdown of lumber. Wood gasifier cars were common during WWII, with a tall combustion chamber strapped on the back and a pipe delivering the flammable gases into the engine cylinders. Again, if you don't have the skills to convert your transportation to using the gasifier, you won't have it.
How will you communicate between communities? Sure, you can use a human runner but that takes time and puts people at risk. You can use Walkie-Talkies as long as your line of site is flat and you have no blockers in the way. Ham Radio or Satellite phones offers another option. But you will need the skill, the ability to deploy and set up an antenna, and connect to a repeater before you can communicate. We can debate over having the license or not. If there are no functioning radios left, you can create your own receiver with surprising simplicity from scavenged materials, as was demonstrated by POW ingenuity during WWII. The key component is the rectifier that strips the sound away from the carrier wave: the contact between a pencil and rusty razor blade functions for this. A crude transmitter can be built for Morse code broadcasts using a spark generator. Being able to communicate internally for security alerts and changes to security postures and communicating with other communities for support, threats, and changes is vital to surviving. The growth of society must have the ability to communicate.
One of the things I tell every class, noted in my book, and tell every person who will listen, you need to consider starting your own library. Hard copies are not convenient but they are the best. Print "how to do" articles, shop at thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, store closures...any place you can find a hard back "how to do" book, you should buy it and store it. You may not need it today but you or someone on your team may need it tomorrow. Personally, I have numerous binders build, buy topic, with hundreds of printed articles on "how to do" stuff. Medical, electrical, communication. Water, pumps, security, weaponry, food, gardening, soil, building natural barriers, making your own bricks and blocks, ... I hope you see my point.
So, give it some thought and identify what you and your team can offer a community during a rebuild for surviving in to the future.
Blessings,
Bravo Echo Out,
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