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First of all, I live in the country side and intend to remain there. However......
You should try to think some more.
For example, Lets say you are out chopping your wood some nice warm summer day a few years after the collapse, you reach over and take a bite of your bobcat sandwich on your home made bread made from your home grown wheat and out pops a filling.
What are you going to do? Good chances are that within 3 weeks, you will be dead.
3 or 4 years ago, I was eating a meal of home grown bread and whatnot, and I did must a tooth. I finished my meal. I am not sure why you think that would have some risk to it.
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... What about the scurvy? Or vitamin d deficiency or all the minerals in your well water that you dont think about but that is what you will be drinking when that kidney stone stops up everything.
I get plenty Vitamin C from our garden.
Vitamin D comes from daily exposure to sunlight.
Our well has been tested, it is good water.
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... What about when your fridge springs a leak and needs a recharge
My first years living here I did not have a refrigerator. I learned that I do not need one. Though today we do have one. They are nice to have, but not a necessity.
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... or your plumbing freezes some winter and you need a fitting?
I designed and built this house. I installed the plumbing and the electrical. I have lots of spare parts.
Freezing pipes is a common problem among our neighbors. Our plumbing is all ran inside, to avoid that issue.
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... Perhaps your well pump goes out?
Guess we will have to use the hand-pump installed on the well.
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... How are you going to handle these things with no one else around?
There are many things that can go wrong and in the toolies you have no or minimal means of resupply or help.
In your life, have you ever known a career submariner? The life of a submariner is all about having backups to our backups. We tend to have primary systems and secondary systems and tertiary systems.
Where we settled is a nice small community. Our only store front business is a gunsmith. People here are used to the grid going down a week at a time. Most of our neighbors are used to hunting, fishing and trapping for the meat on their table.
to me anything over 2500 is a city, I have not lived in a place larger than 2500 in over 18 months.
Oh my! That's almost as long as the 18 years I spent growing up in a town of 2,000...that was in an entire county of less than 10,000....yeah - I left to go to college and never lived there again.
First of all, I live in the country side and intend to remain there. However......
You should try to think some more.
For example, Lets say you are out chopping your wood some nice warm summer day a few years after the collapse, you reach over and take a bite of your bobcat sandwich on your home made bread made from your home grown wheat and out pops a filling.
What are you going to do? Good chances are that within 3 weeks, you will be dead.
What about the scurvy? Or vitamin d deficiency or all the minerals in your well water that you dont think about but that is what you will be drinking when that kidney stone stops up everything.
What about when your fridge springs a leak and needs a recharge or your plumbing freezes some winter and you need a fitting? Perhaps your well pump goes out?
How are you going to handle these things with no one else around?
There are many things that can go wrong and in the toolies you have no or minimal means of resupply or help.
A potato has as much vitamin C as an orange. Any green vegetable has plenty of vitamin A and folic acid. Vitamin D comes from your skin. Sunlight converts cholesterol to vitamin D. Well water does not cause kidney stones, but lack of water does. Just chug a gallon a day and you will be fine.
People lived fine before refrigeration. If the SHTF nobody will have a refrigerator for long, no matter where you live. Learn Cajun cooking - the spices are designed to cover the taste of rotten food. If you have gravity feed water, from a spring or cistern above the level of the house, you will have running water. Design your own plumbing with PEX and freezing will not be a problem. Just wait for it to thaw. If you have obsolete metal plumbing, stock repair parts. They aren't expensive. If you have a pumped water system, forget it. You won't be able to run the pump anyway. It's all just a question of how long that 500 gallon tank of propane or the storage batteries on your solar system last, but eventually you will be back in the 1860s, cooking and heating with wood, making soap from wood ashes and lard, and making candles out of beeswax and tallow.
A potato has as much vitamin C as an orange. Any green vegetable has plenty of vitamin A and folic acid. Vitamin D comes from your skin. Sunlight converts cholesterol to vitamin D. Well water does not cause kidney stones, but lack of water does. Just chug a gallon a day and you will be fine.
People lived fine before refrigeration. If the SHTF nobody will have a refrigerator for long, no matter where you live. Learn Cajun cooking - the spices are designed to cover the taste of rotten food. If you have gravity feed water, from a spring or cistern above the level of the house, you will have running water. Design your own plumbing with PEX and freezing will not be a problem. Just wait for it to thaw. If you have obsolete metal plumbing, stock repair parts. They aren't expensive. If you have a pumped water system, forget it. You won't be able to run the pump anyway. It's all just a question of how long that 500 gallon tank of propane or the storage batteries on your solar system last, but eventually you will be back in the 1860s, cooking and heating with wood, making soap from wood ashes and lard, and making candles out of beeswax and tallow.
And many people died. Their immune systems were much stronger than ours.
All of the senerios that I pointed out I have first hand experience with someone dying of.
The tooth problem was a french Doctor in Rwanda. He died a horrible screaming death for lack of the proper antibiotics and a timely dentist.
The frozen and broken pipe fitting was my wifes uncle and aunt.
Pipe froze and burst during the winter. Dont really know how but it did. They got it fixed sort of but it leaked. Aunt walked outside, slipped on the ice and broke her neck. Uncle had heart attack.
Some friends fro Turkey came and visited. They were animal researchers and spent the majority of their lives living in remote places. They had a cabin rented for 2 months in Snowy range west of Cheyenne. They left the lights on in their car and the battery went dead about the time they were to leave. They thought they would wait a few days then walk down the mountain to a little town that is there. But it snowed, then snowed again to the point where they were completely snowed in. They made it thru the 5 month winter. There was some food there and canned stuff but they both came down with scurvy and when they returned to Turkey the husband died of anemia.
Well water is full of minerals. A neighbor of of mine came down with kidney stones from drinking well water. Would have killed her if not for medical attention.
I spent a lot of time in Africa and South America. I have a very good immune system. Many times people would come and I would show them around or show them what to do and what not to do. at least 60% of them would get sick from not following basic cleanliness rules and eating what they wanted. Mostly it was Americans. Americans are used to eating food with about as low of a bacterial count as is possible. In nature however there is lots of bacteria. All of it wanting to kill you. Just as soon as you start eating those chicken eggs or chopping that head off of the hen, all bets are off. If you didnt get used to it while you were a child, your immune system just plain wont cope with it. It not just a 3rd world problem. Its just that we over clean here but when that ability goes away all the diseases that you see in the third world will pop right up here.
Then there are the bugs. If you are old enough you will remember grandma or perhaps your mother ironing your undies and sheets and everything else they washed. especially in the winter. In the summer they would hang them out in the sunshine not only to dry but to kill the bugs.
That s because the bot flies (and other bugs)laid eggs on them then when you put the clothes on they itched and you scratched and the eggs got under your skin and hatched into maggots then proceed to eat you. One of my grand parents died of this.
Mother nature and her evil step child Murphy will kill you in an instant if you let them. They are cruel and dont really care who you are.
People lived fine before refrigeration. If the SHTF nobody will have a refrigerator for long, no matter where you live. Learn Cajun cooking - the spices are designed to cover the taste of rotten food. If you have gravity feed water, from a spring or cistern above the level of the house, you will have running water. Design your own plumbing with PEX and freezing will not be a problem. Just wait for it to thaw. If you have obsolete metal plumbing, stock repair parts. They aren't expensive. If you have a pumped water system, forget it. You won't be able to run the pump anyway. It's all just a question of how long that 500 gallon tank of propane or the storage batteries on your solar system last, but eventually you will be back in the 1860s, cooking and heating with wood, making soap from wood ashes and lard, and making candles out of beeswax and tallow.
I have a water windmill. It requires lubrication, but that's it. It has no electrical parts whatsoever. My refrigerator doesn't even require lubrication because it's an ice house. Filled during the winter there's plenty of ice for the summer.
Since I live in Wyoming, firewood is of no importance. We have coal. Drip gas works fine in a gasoline lantern. There's plenty of that as well. Years ago people stole drip gas for their cars. However, it's only 50-55 octane so it can only power a vehicle with a maximum compression ratio of 4.5:1.
However, living in the country I do not have this. But I can do without.
A century ago we did not know as much as we do today about health and disease. Today we understand a lot more.
I have a large herb garden. Many cooking herbs are loaded with assortments of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants,
antiseptics, anti-fungals, anti-parasitics, anti-biotics and anti-inflammatory components. Many of these herbs can; boost brain function, defend against cancer, relieve stress, encourage your skin to flush toxins from your body, some are good for de-worming, others treat whooping cough and emphysema. I have one herb that opens airways from asthma and another that treats malaria.
I have ginseng and ginger on my land. We have been foraging the following mushrooms in our forest: Reishi, Shiitake, Chaga, Maitake, Oyster Mushroom, Turkey Tail, Birch Bracket, ...
As long as you are well prepared, a city can be a good place to survive.
I agree. Some time ago I read a blog of a person who survived one year in a city that was surrounded and constantly shelled during the war in the balkans. In the city you have strength in numbers and better access to supplies and trading. People formed small militias to protect their neighborhoods. I think you have a better chance of survival in SHTF as an "average joe" in the big city. You really do need a lot of skills and knowledge to survive all by yourself in a rural area.
I agree. Some time ago I read a blog of a person who survived one year in a city that was surrounded and constantly shelled during the war in the balkans. In the city you have strength in numbers and better access to supplies and trading. People formed small militias to protect their neighborhoods. I think you have a better chance of survival in SHTF as an "average joe" in the big city. You really do need a lot of skills and knowledge to survive all by yourself in a rural area.
That was Selco I think.
Like I said, If you are properly prepared.
THere is lots of stuff in cities. Lots of it. The food will run out in no time and with that the people will either starve or move out but either way, they will be gone. Most at least.
There is nothing in the countryside. There will be food, but that is about it and whatever production of it will fall of rapidly.
When I was in Rwanda, the genocide didnt end by foreign intervention or troops or anything like that. It ended because everyone ran out of food. In the end, they were BBQ ing their dogs. That only took 2 months. Just remember. this is in a place where most food was produced locally. This is because as soon as the genocide started, the economy stopped. Things stopped moving. People stopped breeding their animals. Of course the cities ran out of food first. Then many left to the countryside and devoured everything there. Even today the flora and fauna hasent recovered from those 3 months. If I recall, 65% of the forests were destroyed and where wildlife was plentiful it is very rare today..
Yes, many refugees were killed but you cant stop the hoard. I watched mainly unarmed people overrun fully armed army barracks with 100's of soldiers. The soldiers didnt stand a chance.
So people who think that they are going to set up their little survival redoubt's in the hills are in for a big surprise when the cities empty out. The best thing to do is hide for at least 3 months. More likely 6. People will do all sorts of crazy things to get the next meal so until they are gone, you dont stand a chance against them.
But, if you made it past that, The cities are the place where all the resources will be. The countryside will be destroyed.
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