Degrees of Preparedness- Level 3

We started off this topic with a discussion of how to prepare for a Level 1 situation followed by what you would need for a Level 2 event.  Today we will talk about preparing for the big daddy, TEOTWAWKI, The End Of The World As We Know It.

This is a good news/bad news scenario.........The bad news is, if a Level 3 event actually happens, our living conditions will revert back to the technology standards of 150 to 200 years ago, and will most likely stay that way for the rest of our lives.

The good news is, that the calamities necessary to cause a Level 3 event are exceedingly rare, and highly unlikely to occur during our lifetimes.  Level 3 prepping will make you and your family as ready as you can be for an event lasting in excess of three months.

First off, what unlikely events could cause such a regression in our standard of living?

Here are the threats, as I see them:

• EMP or catastrophic coronal mass ejection.  This would fry 98% of everything that has a computer chip in it, including all the equipment we have that makes the stuff with computer chips in it.  It would take several generations for us to rebuild to the level that we are at now.  All transportation and every piece of infrastructure we have would collapse.  End of game, welcome to the 1800's all over again.
• Nuclear attack.  Total collapse of society after an attack would be they easy part.  The hard part?  Years of nuclear winter & no crops.  Do the math.....
• Peak Oil.  We do not have to run out of oil to have a problem.....the situation starts going downhill when you have a 100% demand but only a 99% supply available.  Most of our oil needs cannot be easily curbed if there is a shortage.  Are you going to quit driving to work when you live 30 miles away?  You may have to once fuel hits $10 per gallon.  What do you think powers the mechanized farming that grows all of our crops?  Can farmers stop buying fuel and still grow our food?  What do you think a loaf of bread will cost when diesel fuel exceeds $10 a gallon?  Once demand outstrips supply by 10% or more, our society will collapse based on the non-affordability of fuel for our needs .
• Impact event.  If the approaching object is small enough, we may survive the initial impact, but we will have to deal with the dust cloud thrown into the atmosphere which will cause nuclear winter type symptoms.  Not only are these possible, but they have happened here before.  An asteroid or comet air-bursted over Russia in 1908 and obliterated 80 million trees in an 830 square mile area.  What if that would have happened over the city you live in?
• Volcanic Winter.  A supervolcano eruption can bring this about, and to varying degrees they have happened at least nine times during mankind's time on earth according to scientific study.

These are all horrific events that could bring about a catastrophic collapse of society and all of our modern living conditions.  The odds of any of them happening in the near future are slim, but nevertheless possible.  Will you survive if one strikes?  If you live through the initial event, your continued survival will depend upon what preparations you made ahead of time.  This is what this article pertains to.

We will start under the assumption that you managed to collect and learn how to use all of the gear and equipment that we discussed in the prior two articles.  We now need to build upon that inventory to prep for Level 3.

I will start off with weapons, since this is a gun blog after all.  Read this previous posts, "What should be in your survival arsenal" and "Edged weapons for preppers", and get everything on both lists, including ammunition.  Once you have accumulated all your weapons, you need to train with them until you are proficient and confident enough to defend your life with them.  Train your spouse and any children you have who are old enough to shoot too.  The more trained shooters you have on your team, the better your odds are of surviving.

The main items you need to augment from your Level 2 preps are your water purification chemicals and filters.  Make sure you stock large quantities of replacement filters for whatever water filter system you purchased, and keep extra bleach on hand.  Be advised, the shelf life of liquid chlorine bleach is 6 to 9 months before it starts to lose potency.  Once beyond this point, you are rolling the dice trying to purify water with it.  If this situation is better than the alternative for you, I would advise increasing the recommended concentrations to your drinking water.  Tread with caution here.

Candles are great items to provide some lighting after the sun goes down.  However many you stock up on ahead of time, you are bound to run out at some point.  Learn how to make candles at home out of paraffin and wicks.  Stock up on the bulk ingredients you need to make them, and when you eventually run out you can make more.

However much fuel you stockpile for your generator, you will run out at some point in the future.  About the best you can hope to do is keep a manual pump on hand to scavenge gasoline from abandoned targets of opportunity.  If you bought a propane generator, this option won't work for you.

If you want to increase your food stores, I won't tell you not to, but it is more important at this juncture to have a renewable food source that you can count on in the coming years when your cache runs dry.  Gardening will be your main source of nutrition, and you will need to have the following:

•  Heirloom seeds (not hybrids) for the fruits and vegetables that grow well in your region.  Heirloom plants allow you to harvest their seeds to use for the following year.  Seeds harvested from hybrid plants will not grow; they are sterile.
• Gardening tools.  All manual, of course.  Hoes, shovels, rakes, watering cans etc.
• Fencing.  If the rabbits and deer raid your garden and you lose your crop, you will die.
• Fertilizer, Miracle Grow, compost.  Whatever you normally use to fortify your soil.
• Knowledge.  Start gardening now.  Learn the skills needed to grow nice crops.  You won't have much margin for error if you are in a Level 3 situation, and have never gardened before.  

You will need to supplement your diet with protein.  Most folks believe you will be able to accomplish this by hunting.  For a time, they will be correct.  However, once the majority of the people in your area are subsistence hunting for any length of time the game animal populations will fall to near-extinction levels.  This happened to the whitetail deer population in the United States during the Great Depression, and it will happen again if we are plagued by a Level 3 survival event.  Squirrels, rabbits, birds and other animals will also be hard to find after their populations get thinned out by starving people.

How do you overcome this?  By keeping a renewable protein source at your home,  Rabbits, chickens and goats are all feeder animals that can be maintained at many homes without the need for a massive yard.  Additionally, goats can provide milk and chickens can lay eggs to further fulfill the needs for protein in your diet.  Goats' milk can be made into cheese to diversify and add options to your meal plans too.

Canning is an essential skill that enables you to preserve food for use at a later date.  This is especially important for people living in an area where winters are harsh.  You will need to have jars, lids and rings on hand along with the tools used to expedite the process.  Just as important as the tools and supplies are the skills needed to do it.  Practice canning some of your garden's harvest now to hone your skills.

Clothing is an item that is easier to stock up on now, rather than trying to fabricate them in a time of survival.  Stockpile practical clothes for all seasons, including shoes, to have ready when your existing duds wear out.

You will need to figure out how you will be washing your dirty clothes.  This will certainly be a drag, but having powdered detergent, several dedicated buckets and washboards ready ahead of time will help make this chore a little easier.  You'll also need to keep some rope around to make clotheslines for drying them out. 

Common tools, both carpentry related and mechanical types, will be invaluable during a time like this.  You will need to improvise and repair things on the fly, and your tools will allow you to do this.  Also, common supplies and building materials will be needed.  If you have the room for some 2x4's and a couple sheets of plywood, great.  If not, make sure to at least have some screws, nails, duct tape and other consumable supplies on hand to assist in your projects.

Since wood will become our primary fuel for heating and cooking, make sure you own the tools necessary to harvest firewood.  Manually operated tools, that is.  Axes, hatchets and rough cut saws will be needed to cut firewood to length, and mauls, sledgehammers and wedges will help split it up.  Once you run out of nearby trees, you'll want to have a wheelbarrow or wagon to haul your wood with.

If all of this sounds like a whole lot of work, you are damn right.  In the aftermath of a Level 3 event we won't have our day jobs any longer, but we will be busier than ever just doing the basic tasks to ensure our survival.  Do you think the members of the welfare nation are going to make it through this?  I don't.  But until the non-hackers are weeded out by Natural Selection, we will have to stay extra vigilant because they only way they will be able to survive is by taking what they need from someone else.

Learn the skills, practice, and prepare ahead of time to give you and your family the best chance of survival if our society ever regress into the distant past during a scenario of these proportions.

LWM out................