A pocket knife and a good lighter......

[Wheeler44]

Hi my name is Wheeler44 (in case you couldn't tell that's not my real name...but that is who I am..)....I joined this forum about a year ago, mostly to promote Project Appleseed...There is another thread going about that so I'll won't speak to that here..

Over the last couple of years I have had the good fortune to travel the country meeting good, like minded people and helping them learn to shoot better...I also have heard a growing concern among the shooters...Real concern for the future of our nation.....I have been lurking here and seeing the same...And it is valid to have concern for the course of our Nation......

I grew up near Portland in the 60's and spent summers on a farm in southern OR or with my aunties in central MT....

In the 70's my folks divorced and my mom married an attorney from Portland and together they decided to flee civilization, just before complete societal collapse...Remember Kent state.. Viet Nam...Watts...Watergate...Inflation ...legionnaires disease was in there I think as well...

My step dad was a great researcher and he found a city in AK in the postal code registry that he could find no other reference to at all.......and he became fascinated by it...So much so that he and my mother tried to visit that town on their honeymoon....heavy on the tried....

We went up to visit and my folks decided to move....We moved into an abandoned bunkhouse in Oct. just in front of the snow....16 level feet of accumulated snow that winter with drifts closer to 20...

I moved away from there in the '80's, bugged out from my own personal emergencies if you will...and except for a few extended stays, I usually only go back for a week or so every few years these days....

This is already to long and I haven't even begun...

I intend to start a series of discussions addressing concerns regarding preparedness in the event of an emergency.....

But I won't engage in fear mongering in any way......

Ya see, from my way of lookin' at it...ya never know when or what your next personal emergency will be.....

Weather emergencies....civil unrest...catastrophic failure of man made infrastructure...and the possibility of another terrorist attack are a given...since these events have happened with regularity throughout history it would be unreasonable to expect them to stop now..

So let's discuss how to solve life's emergencies.....

That first winter I went on an 18 mile in and out to an old cabin.....I contracted severe hypothermia as did some of the other hikers.......Later when I told my story to the fellow that would become a mentor he laughed and said....
"Wheeler, the pack that you were carryin' was too big for the hike and it almost killed ya.... all ya needed was a pocket knife and a good lighter."......

In what other ways can we live today..without carrying too big of a pack..and still be prepared for whichever emergency catches up with us tomorrow..

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[ZeroRing]

Interesting topic. I can see how some folks could take the old adage "better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it" so far that they need an small semi to haul all of their perceived "needs".

A pocket knife and a good lighter is a good start though.

 

[Wheeler44]

I can see how some folks could take the old adage "better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it" so far that they need an small semi to haul all of their perceived "needs".

Exactly....

Today my daughter made me couscous and lentils.. It was part of a project that we're working in...and lunch to boot....She explained that the lentils are an efficient source of protein and the couscous was a source of carbs for energy..or something like that.....my portion was probably about a half cup dried before cooking.....

One concern that folks have is about food in the mid and long term.

There is a grain terminal about 8 miles from my house...I know that at least one of those silos is full of lentils and another is full of wheat....

and there are grain and legume storage silos all up the Snake and the Columbia......The fruit storage facilities and processing plants in the Willamette valley, up the Gorge and in central WA..

Our region is a net exporter of food...

Stock up? yes.....but maybe seeds are better than an addition years worth of MRE's...

 

[Just Jim]

So is it better to pack water (8 pounds to the gallon) into an area where it is abundent allready or carry a small water purifier in?

jj

 

[Wheeler44]

Just Jim.....By packing in I'm assuming a "spike camp" away from the home......When we built "spike camps" for geological exploration back home one of the first things we did was identify the source of potential drinking water...Now back home the rule was; if it came straight from a snow field down the mountain it was probably good...If it meandered on the valley floor the water was suspect....There are a lot of beaver back home...but they mostly stay in the valley bottom.. Any thing that flowed from standing water was not considered for use...

So I'd say...If you have the time to make an assessment before hand..and there is abundant water...You could sure pack a lot less water if you had a purifier...Purifying water takes time.....Be sure to include that in your assessment..

Note; when I worked for the USFS in the Gifford P just prior to Mt. St. Helens erupting I was required to carry 1 gal sealed drinking water, 1 gal sterile saline..plus 2 qts. that i carried for daily use..over 20 Lbs.(with containers)of water, before the fire tent(shake and bake) radio, whistle, air horn, first aid kit, respirator,goggles....All of that before such necessities as lunch, rain gear, dry socks....let alone any tools...
They had me pretty prepared..just like the poor souls North of the mountain...I guess the two and a half gallons that they were each carryin' got turned into steam by the pyroclastic blast..

w44

 

[Wheeler44]

Our subject is Dick Declan...Heir to the Declan fortune...Unfortunately the Declan fortune is small and Dick is about to experience his next "personal emergency"....

Dick was raised by disinterested parents in the suburbs on a diet of Wonder bread, mediocre public schools and MTV...He has few "survival skills"......except..........Dick works for Whizbang inc. and to augment his meager paycheck he's participating in a DARPA funded project to transfer information without infrastructure called COMMON SENSE..

Dick can, in any and all situations call on the collective experience, education and all around wisdom of the participants and any interested onlookers.....By a quirk in the system he can even ask for research.....but the answer has to arrive in a set amount of time..glitches in the system and all...

We will determine his starting situation and "load out" by simply posting suggestions for each of the categories... each participant will then choose one category ...write all of the suggestions for that category on a slip of paper and choose it from a hat...completely random...(Note: if you choose to play God instead of allowing chance to choose...you have illustrated that by chance Dick will encounter someone that can fill that role...and the outcome is dependent on that persons mood and manner)


One more thing....Dick has an Uncle that loves him and gave to him his Great Grandfathers' Zippo lighter and the Mercator "cat" knife that Grandpa brought back from the War.....Dick will have those in every situation even death...if by an act of Providence he is revived he will still have them.......

Categories;

Location-

Load out-

Emergency

Companions

Other people near by (dependent on location to a degree)

Any other condition/s

When we have some suggestions for the categories we will divide them up and choose Dick's fate for the next stage of the game......

Please....If you get to choose and decide to influence the outcome with something like a thermo-nuclear device....don't have poor Dick be at ground zero..If you don't want to play, fine....don't take it out on Dick....

Now who wants to play?

W44

The time and season is now...the weather is what is happening at the time and place that we next advance him....

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Wheeler44 you weren't a D&D dungeon master in a previous life were you?

 

[Wheeler44]

I've never played the game......I do like chess and WWII aerial combat video games.....Especially if they have the P-47 Thunderbolt...

No, this is an exercise to see what toolset, skillset and mindset can do to determine the outcome of any given situation......

The format is the best that I could do on short notice to involve participant driven randomness...

Do you have any suggestions for poor Dick's situation?

W44

 

[Shamusaiello]

The pocket knife was an excelent sugestion from back in the day and on that thread in the 21st century I would have to say my SOG MultiTool. I have carried it everywhere with me(even snuck it onto several airplanes) and will not go anywhere without it. I do not need to go over what tools are on it but suffice to say it makes itself invaluable in any situation.

 

[Wheeler44]

So far then, if good fortune smiles on Dick, he might start rebuilding his life with a SOG multi tool......Any other suggestions???

 

[Wheeler44]

While Dick is waiting to see if good fortune supplies him with the multi-tool (it could..I've found multi-tools before) I'll tell ya about my mentor Don M...

Don was raised outside of Juneau during the Great Depression....His father was a trapper,dock worker, ship yard (such as it was) worker and all around handi-man....Don and his brothers and sister grew up in a cabin in the woods a good piece from town..they had to get up early and working by the light of a coal oil lamp get their chores done and make breakfast and the lunches that they would carry the few miles to school in pails made from tin cans...

In his later teens Don, with the help of his brothers, built a wooden fishing boat and began catching fish that would be canned locally and sent overseas to the boys fighting Tojo and Hitler.....Later he would see action in service of his country during the Korean Conflict...He was one of the best shots that I've ever known..He had a couple of model 70s a.220 swift and a .300 Win Mag..He also owned a '97 win 12 ga. dubbed "widow maker" for it's propensity to discharge while attempting to unload....

He was the father of a family that had kids my age and I spent time there with them...When his wife left taking my friends with her..I was having trouble communicating with my folks...I spent a lot of time at his place ..

Building boats went from necessity to full time employment..and when he left the boat yard in Juneau to take a state hiway job in our town, he left 5 years of orders for his boats .....He had recently purchased a '32 hand troller and was converting it from a double ender to a "square stern" (a bit of a misnomer..there wasn't a "square"piece of wood on the thing...all exact bevels and graceful curves) I got to hold the other end of the board as he "spiled" them and "bent" them on....

He had a lot to do with my career...he built buildings in town..for himself and others and all of those buildings had very steep roofs...All buildings there do...I put my first metal roof on in that town in '73......Although I have messed with different jobs, since about '84 for the most part I have been a roofer (sheet metal worker) 10 years in business for my self...the last 14 (or so) for larger regional companies...

He was serious when he made that statement; over the years that it was my pleasure know him he showed me how make do or hand make or re-manufacture every piece or part that either of us needed but couldn't obtain locally..(not many stores in a town of 85 people in the middle of nowhere)..did you know that you can "spot weld" the tab from an aluminum can on the stub of a rotor contact that has broken off for the distributor of an old "Deuce and a Half 6X6 "??

Lets check on Dicks fate....

 

[Wheeler44]

Dick is watching reruns of Survivor...

So more about Don.....

Unlike me at that time, Don didn't need to make an assessment in order to make that trip....He had mining claims in the area and was required to "Improve" them annually.....He knew the area and it's resources....he had overnighted at the cabin and had good reason to believe that he could "make do" with resources afforded there... (Apparently, with some regularity, "newcomers" would hike to the cabin like we did.... grossly overloaded with "Emergency" and contingency supplies...when they left to return to town their packs were stripped of all foodstuffs, a lot of cook ware, sometimes even the packs themselves....)

He also knew that some boat builder from Juneau moved down in the '60's and started working on introducing deer, elk and moose into the secluded valley called home......

When the State first introduced the ungulates to the area the wolves destroyed the herds....bound by the immense snow pack, the larger animals couldn't escape the wolves....More attempts were made after "thinning" the wolf pack...the out come was similar though...There is not much "browse" available with 16' snow on the ground.....An attempt was made to exterminate the wolves in the valley to give the herds a chance to gain a foothold...

Apparently hungry prospectors, loggers and fishermen are just as ruthless as a wolf pack....Nowadays any moose that wanders in from the "interior" is processed as quietly as possible...sometimes folks will even go down and buy a moose tag afterwards to keep things "legal"..

Although "thinning" the wolf pack didn't help the herds.....The ptarmigan benefited mightily.....I remember being startled on that hike several times by ptarmigan "flushing" from underfoot and flying off a short ways to "hide"....and I was never in the front of the group....

Well Dicks' unblinking stare is tiresome and there is hope for work tomorrow.....so I'm off to bed.....

W44

 

[Wheeler44]

Last night Dick's sleep was interrupted by the sound of crickets...He went outside and as he dressed he slipped the multi-tool into his pants pocket...he liked the way it balanced against the weight of the knife and lighter...as he was on the back deck listenin' to the crickets he picked up a stick and started cuttin' on it....the first attempts at whittlin' if you will........there's hope for that boy yet.....

Don M's knife was a big ol' "old timer"... 5" folded and over 9" opened....He could whittle a perfectly round wooden plug out of a branch plucked from the bay before a skiff could fill with water...if he had dropped the store bought plug overboard trying to get the darn thing to seal right.. he'd do such a nice job of it that the owner saw no need to replace the "emergency" plug with a new "Tailor made" one....other than the steady stream of cuss words and the incredible rapidity of the knife strokes..an onlooker might have though that he just casually grabbed the plug, tossed it overboard and set down to whittle a new one....all while trollin' for salmon...If you were the kid bein' told "Bail, boy...BAIL.....you'd know otherwise...

W44