Thread: Advice from someone with real SHTF experience

My grandfather fought in the Leningrad siege (if you don’t know about it look it up on wiki) on the Russian side. Because of that experience he told me that there two important items to have if you are going be facing any kind of disaster that lasts for longer than two months.

The first one is salt. It’s cheap, doesn’t expire, you need it to cook, can be used to wash your teeth, and store meat and fish. The second one is soap, again cheap, doesn’t expire and if you don’t have access to medical help and can’t wash yourself will have a higher chance of infection.

Just thought I would share that since I haven’t seen it brought up here.

Thanks for the salt tip.

Remember, the more you know the less you need...you can make your own soap.

I buy the big bulk bags of table and rock salt at Costco.. and store it in plastic barrels and buckets

Originally Posted by Riot

Remember, the more you know the less you need...you can make your own soap.

But why make it when a $100 will buy you enough soap to last you and your family a year or more. Not to mention you can buy probiotics soap that can keep you from getting staph, and other good stuff.

Originally Posted by akula

My grandfather fought in the Leningrad siege (if you don’t know about it look it up on wiki) on the Russian side. Because of that experience he told me that there two important items to have if you are going be facing any kind of disaster that lasts for longer than two months.

The first one is salt. It’s cheap, doesn’t expire, you need it to cook, can be used to wash your teeth, and store meat and fish. The second one is soap, again cheap, doesn’t expire and if you don’t have access to medical help and can’t wash yourself will have a higher chance of infection.

Just thought I would share that since I haven’t seen it brought up here.

Thanks, and I'd like to hear about some more of his personal experiences if you are up to it.

Keith

Salt and soap are always two things I've stocked in enormous quantities, both due to their cheapness and availability.

Salt is required for more than just cooking, life doesn't exist without salt, ask any farmer... they need to provide salt licks for animals to keep them healthy. Salt maintains the isotonic balance within the body, which is why too much salt will cause hypertension, but in reasonable quantities it's something we all need. Most westerners get it from processed foods, once processed foods go away, you're going to be needing a lot more salt! There's a place in the desert near my cabin where it's not uncommon to find naturally crystalized salt in big pans, I have a few giant blocks of it, in addition to my normal supply of iodized table salt that i bought at the store.

Soap is the yardstick of civilization, and since you can typically buy 3 bars for $1 at walmart, or even the 99c store, there's no reason not to store it, we usually go through a bar a week with 3 people using the shower, so $100 in soap would be almost 3 years worth of soap.

Soap, salt and ammunition were once on my "to buy" list every time I cashed my paycheck, I would go to walmart, buy a brick of .22LR, a box of .45/.223/.308 (whatever was the best price) a 10 pack of soap, and a pound of salt. I recently stopped buying soap and salt, because I have enough to last for probably 5-6 years, and unless I start having to salt meat, I probably have enough salt to last a lifetime. Once every two weeks for five years stacks up pretty quick.

Salt is available pretty cheap when you buy in quantity. 25 or 50 pound bags, they also sell it for water softener.

HEY! Look out for that "natural" salt pan! Get it tested for composition---quite a lot of natural salt deposits have ARSENIC in it as well.........................elsullo

natural salt pans have lots of nasty stuff in it however that depends a lot on where it's from. It's not uncommon for natural salt pans in the area to have contamination from arsenic, selenium, and heavy metals. The place I go is the same place my grandpa used to work during WW2, they used to recover iodine from the salt there using an acid recrystalization process. He spent most of his life eating it, and it's known to be ok, it's just too small a pan to really be mined commercially like a lot of places are.

Originally Posted by elsullo

HEY! Look out for that "natural" salt pan! Get it tested for composition---quite a lot of natural salt deposits have ARSENIC in it as well.........................elsullo

Good call.

Thanks Akula, it's really appreciated. In fact, I don't think any of us can even conceive of how bad your grandfather had it. Amazing tales of human endurance and suffering. The only word my grandfather ever said about www1 went like this. I'd gotten out of the army and went by to visit. We were hanging out, the man is in is 90's. "Grandpa, what was WW1 like?" I ask.


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.................he continues to look out the window.......

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.....pensively thinking.......

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5 min later, neither of us has spoken a word since I asked........



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..."horrible"....he says, not looking at me......as far as I know it was the only word he ever uttered to anyone about his WW1 time and trench life......and I know your grandfather had it worse. I appreciate you sharing that.


Thank you.

Originally Posted by trainsktg

Thanks, and I'd like to hear about some more of his personal experiences if you are up to it.

Keith

Sure. He was in Soviet submariner’s academy outside of Leningrad when the war broke out. When the Germans got to within artillery range of the school the top 10% of the students were evacuated to continuing studying while the rest stayed to defend the school, they were overrun, killed or captured and sent to concentration camps. When he got to Leningrad, he was given command of a machine gun team while continuing his studies at night. After a year in Leningrad he was transferred out to the Moscow front, fought at the Battle of Kursk in 1943. He was given command of a Submarine at the age of 25; out of the 12 subs that were stationed in his naval base only two were left by the end of the war. Retired in the late 60’s at the rank of Admiral.

Akula,

Since he was at Kursk, presumably his submarine base was in Sebastopol?

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Billcoe,

Thank you for sharing that about your grandfather.

Keith

Originally Posted by trainsktg

Akula,

Since he was at Kursk, presumably his submarine base was in Sebastopol?

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Billcoe,

Thank you for sharing that about your grandfather.

Keith

He served in a temporary base in the Caucasus region before Sevastopol was librated (1944)

You people, and your relatives (Akula and Billcoe), make me proud. I don't know what I would do without a forum like this, particularly when the world seems to be going to **** in a handbasket at lightening speed. Thank you all for passing on your knowledge. Went on a preparedness spending spree tonight, but boy do I have a long way to go.

Very interesting perspective.
Also remember, like your ammo, keep your salt dry as well!
Wasnt the Seige of Lenningrad somewhat depicted by the movie 'Enemy At The Gates'?

How much salt would a person stock for two people?

Greg

Originally Posted by trainsktg

Thanks, and I'd like to hear about some more of his personal experiences if you are up to it.

Keith

I just finished a book called "City of Thieves". It was about a 5 day period in the life of a couple of Russian guys during the war. It's a great combination of history with a great fun story behind it. I highly suggest it as an Audio Book as the guy reading it did a great job with the Russian accents which brings something extra to the story. Enjoy.

Originally Posted by Riot

Remember, the more you know the less you need...you can make your own soap.

People might want to get their hands on the Foxfire Books, published in the 1970's about life in the 1800's in rural Appalachia.

The books cover a wide range of topics, many to do with crafts, tools, music and other aspects of traditional life skills and culture in Appalachia. These include making apple butter, banjos, basket weaving, beekeeping, butter churning, corn shucking, dulcimers, faith healing, Appalachian folk magic, fiddle making, haints, American ginseng cultivation, long rifle and flintlock making, hide tanning, hog dressing, hunting tales, log cabin building, moonshining, midwives, old-time burial customs, planting "by the signs", preserving foods, sassafras tea, snake handling and lore, soap making, spinning, square dancing, wagon making, weaving, wild food gathering, witches, and wood carving.