The Indian way

[SB1027]

How about alot of rabbit stew, they breed like cats, roughly 20 per year (according a site I looked at) so if you raise 18 rabbits on whatever you
can round up to feed them, thats almost enough to have 1 rabbit to eat every day of the year, they can have all the lettuce I can find if I get meat!!
Ok I'm sure there are variables here I did'nt take into account, but it's a thought to consider. The funny thing is I've never even had rabbit!!

 

[drew]

How about alot of rabbit stew, they breed like cats, roughly 20 per year (according a site I looked at) so if you raise 18 rabbits on whatever you
can round up to feed them, thats almost enough to have 1 rabbit to eat every day of the year, they can have all the lettuce I can find if I get meat!!
Ok I'm sure there are variables here I did'nt take into account, but it's a thought to consider. The funny thing is I've never even had rabbit!!

Rabbits are notoriously prolific breeders. They breed like rabbits. That phrase is typically used as an idiom.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabbit&mobileaction=view_normal_site#Reproduction

Domestic rabbits are good eating with a flavor (or lack there of) similar to chicken.

 

[Gunner3456]

The Indians had a hard life and ultimately lost to the white man who was better equipped. But, there are some things we can learn from them.

For instance, they built tepees designed to draft, and then built and maintained fires in them. They cooked on those fires. They (some tribes) knew to build fires in pits to get a better draft and cleaner burn with less wood. Also, if they built a fire in the open it was really hard to see, but easy to cook on and keep warm by. Have we ever posted a vid of a Dakota fire pit here before?

Pretty cool. It's a rocket stove easily dug out of the earth:

Dakota Fire Pit - YouTube

 

[Sabertooth]

The Indians had a hard life and ultimately lost to the white man who was better equipped. But, there are some things we can learn from them.

For instance, they built tepees designed to draft, and then built and maintained fires in them. They cooked on those fires. They (some tribes) knew to build fires in pits to get a better draft and cleaner burn with less wood. Also, if they built a fire in the open it was really hard to see, but easy to cook on and keep warm by. Have we ever posted a vid of a Dakota fire pit here before?

Pretty cool. It's a rocket stove easily dug out of the earth:

Dakota Fire Pit - YouTube

Learned about it in the Boy Scouts. Works good.

 

[2506]

The Indians had a hard life and ultimately lost to the white man who was better equipped. But, there are some things we can learn from them.

For instance, they built tepees designed to draft, and then built and maintained fires in them. They cooked on those fires. They (some tribes) knew to build fires in pits to get a better draft and cleaner burn with less wood. Also, if they built a fire in the open it was really hard to see, but easy to cook on and keep warm by. Have we ever posted a vid of a Dakota fire pit here before?

Pretty cool. It's a rocket stove easily dug out of the earth:

Dakota Fire Pit - YouTube

The English, the Spanish, and their American successors pursuing a policy of extermination that had continued unabated for four centuries. That and no natural defenses to new and more deadly forms of smallpox and other diseases that had arisen in Europe, subsequently passed on to those the Europeans met. Diseases helped Europeans conquer the Americas.

 

[BigCat]

In warfare, the natives were highly successful.

 

[Sabertooth]

The cause of dimise of the Native American culture is a whole other subject. Better left to college course work, or a whole lotta reading before speaking.
Lets stay with how they lived and what they lived on for many generations.
Many plants in the PNW have medicinal preposes, what plants can you eat and what types of shelters they had.
Also their warfare tactics. Good call BigCat.

 

[Thebastidge]

My point about primitive skills is that they are for stop-gapping an emergency, not for a way of life. Even primitive peoples needed more than they could carry. You can survive, even for a considerable time, on what you can carry, but there's no quality of life there, and if there are children or elderly people in the mix, it simply doesn't work.

There's no need for people to revert to stone age tech even in the event of a massive EMP/societal breakdown. The vast majority of human wealth is knowledge. Without grid power, many modern conveniences become impractical, but there's no reason for complete, uniform reversion. Technology and civilization won't revert in all aspects evenly. Look at the way that previous civilizational reversions occured. When the Roman Empire pulled out of Britain, enclaves with higher standard of living existed for a long time. There was no real reason for that reversion anyway- it's tough to maintain a very high level of technology with a narrow base, but mainly it's a matter of attitude when you're talking about maintaining technology at a mechanical advantage level, rather than a truly high tech level.

Your best bet for really robust standard of living is to investigate point sources of power for a bug-out/bug-in location: electrical generation, fuels production, and mechanical sources. these things won't be economical in competition with grid power in most cases, but they are not replacements, they are insurance (I think one exception to this general statement is passive solar heating for your home, especially if you can design it in and build it from scratch). You can maintain a pretty high standard, there is cost involved, and sacrifices of some convenience, but the basics of heat/cooking, light, refrigeration and sanitation can be met fairly well. Even to labour-saving enough to maintain education as a priority.

VERY simple heat pumps can be built to maintain refrigeration (even using water for a conductor), and right there is one of the major hurdles to overcome- long term storage of food, enough to get through til the harvest season. Primitive peoples could starve to death because the weather was actually too warm in winter time to keep their stored food frozen.

I agree: your best investment is in knowledge, in almost any circumstance. Someone who understands basic physical principles and some engineering can rebuild society from scratch, if necessary, but it does need a broad base to build to the heights.

 

[Gunner3456]

Cooling used to be done with evaporation. I can recall homes that had evaporators rather than air conditioners. They were way cheaper to run but they caused a lot of humidity so they fell out of favor. They worked though.

I've already posted that I can siphon from our well down to a lower garden area if necessary. I already have the parts to trickle water over some corrugated sheet metal, using plastic pipe with holes drilled in it to cover the sheet metal, and create a sort of refrigerator down there.

I realize the Indians didn't do that and it's off topic in a way, but it shows that there are primitive ideas which still work.

 

[Sabertooth]

What we need and what we think we need.
Our house in another state did not get electricity until 1955 or 56. A windmill pumped the water from a hand dug well to a tank under the kitchen, hand pump from there to the kitchen sink. Bathroom? Outhouse. Heat was wood, cook stove wood fired. Average winter snow depth 4 feet and yes I did walk two miles to school. One room school house, 1st thru 8th grade. Still got a picture of my class. I was in 2nd grade in the picture.
Then we moved to Oregon and got real uppity and civilized. Hot and cold running water, indoor bathroom, TV with 2 channels, an electric cook stove and got to ride a school bus to school. Bout drove my folks nuts with my two sister, and little brother flushing the toilet just to watch the water swirl around and disappear. And we still lived out in the boonies.
And no we did not get every trinket and toy on the store shelf.
Complain? Never! Best years of my life.
But after other people telling me that we where poor I started to believe it.
Took me a year in South America and a year in Nam to figure out that I did not grow up poor. Poor is a state of mind.
Hard work? Please define.
When I was in South America I lived with native tribes in the area that I was assigned. Time would be from a week to several weeks. No, they do not speak Spanish. I traveled with an interpreter. No, I did not carry much, I lived with the tribe. Couple hours of hunting and or fishing in the morning and we where set for the day. The women got the veggie's. The rest of the day was spent talking, playing games, making bows, arrows, spears, fishing equipment, etc. Never saw a frown and no complaining about what they did not have.
Total annual income "money" 0. Total outside help or assistance needed? 0. Medical? Very little needed.
Hard life???? According to who?
Get along with all your neighbors in harmony and peace. Well, most of the time. Piss off the neighbors and you got a problem, and it could be fatal. The rules are plain and simple and everyone in the area knows them so you have to reason to violate the rules.

 

[Sling Blade]

The Indians had a hard life and ultimately lost to the white man who was better equipped. But, there are some things we can learn from them.

For instance, they built tepees designed to draft, and then built and maintained fires in them. They cooked on those fires. They (some tribes) knew to build fires in pits to get a better draft and cleaner burn with less wood. Also, if they built a fire in the open it was really hard to see, but easy to cook on and keep warm by. Have we ever posted a vid of a Dakota fire pit here before?

Pretty cool. It's a rocket stove easily dug out of the earth:

Dakota Fire Pit - YouTube

How cool is that? Thanks!

 

[plumberfishes]

I saw 3 or 4 really good bits in this thread
1 learn all of the edible plants near you
2 have "some" supplys ready for back up
3 if you think the entire population is going to survive "shtf" your overestimating the human intelligence/underestimating the human self destruction capeability
4 most of what we have today is going to be usless after the "shtf"

 

[Thebastidge]

3 if you think the entire population is going to survive "shtf" your overestimating the human intelligence/underestimating the human self destruction capeability
4 most of what we have today is going to be usless after the "shtf"

Only if "TSHTF"= major apocalyptic Mad Max scenario.

The by far most likely SHTF scenario in my mind is a fairly rapid decline to 3rd world status. I've spent a LOT of time in 3rd world environments now, and most of my "stuff" is pretty usable even in that scenario. Power tools, even more frivolous stuff like my entertainment equipment doesn't devolve into uselessness, except as far as people who live their entire lives vicariously through television. The major difference between our society and 3rd wolrd countries is security: we take a certain level of safety, robustness and redundancy in society for granted, but there is no law of physics or nature that it should be so.

Moist things that would change for me post "SHTF" would be a matter of emphasis, not major change. Would I care about my lawn ina SHTF scenario? No.

I would get more use out of my truck than my car, but it doesn't make my car useless.

I might have to make my living with more manual labour and less desk work. The skills that are useful to me currently would prpbably stay useful to me tho. Knowing how to fix a computer, how electronics work doesn't become useless in a 3rd world scenario. Knowing how to do more with less is valuable at any time.

I don't plan or prep for a single apocalyptic "event". I prep for emergencies and for trends.

 

[greycobra_03]

The basic prepper plan usually runs along the lines of prepping enough food and supplies to last until you can develop your supply chain/source. I personally am preparing 3 years. I should have running greenhouse and livestock by that point.... Regardless of what happens.

If you plan to eat rabbits, prep with vitamins. You can die from eating only rabbits.

 

[Gunner3456]

Personally, I'm prepping to go on the Purina Dog Food diet. It's complete nutrition and requires no refrigeration.

Basically, you fill your pockets with the nuggets and when you feel hungry you eat a few.

I already tried it and wound up in intensive care though. I stepped off a curb to sniff a poodle's butt and got hit by a car.
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(Yes, that came as an email, LOL.)

 

[Gunner3456]

-snip-
4 most of what we have today is going to be usless after the "shtf"

And, this is an excellent reason to look all over the house and garage and decide what's there that we don't use now anyway. Have a garage sale and/or use Craigslist or ebay and raise money for preps or gold/silver or whatever one's idea of prepping is.

 

[aslinged]

Quail and rabbits are the most efficient livestock in regard to input/output caloric value.

If you learned this one skill, how to care for and breed them, you're putting yourself light years ahead.

 

[plumberfishes]

i would not count the U.S. slipping to thrid world status as a SHTF thing... we are almost there, thats just life a this point, depressing as it is , thank your local politicain!

 

[aslinged]

Our local politicians are certainly dirtbags by and large. However if you want a clearer image of who to blame watch this, it's free: urokomovie.com

 

[plumberfishes]

lets take a look at that... cars or trucks... still useful, unless they have issues you cannot fix, or there is a gas shortage...
computers, televisions, microwaves,,,,, hmm if you have a generator and gas , then yes the nuke might be useful..... the others , i think you would rapidly find you have no time for...
so... for me that leaves my guns and my tackle, ... i can hand cast my slugs for my #1 gun..... and reload for my other 3 calibers... not sure what i will do when I run out of primers and powder!!
power tools??? hmmm yes i have a few.. but they will be the first things i will sell trade! a hammer and hand saw never need gas!
but what about all of the things we do not think of.... did you ever hear ofan indian going to buy a new bowstring???

or going to home depot for a 2x4???


the things we have now may not all be uselss.. but i have never seen an indian with a skillsaw, or framing nailer
my point being, i think guys who are concerned about it( and we all should be) will/would be better off with less power/high tech than with good old fashion gear....I can read a map and use a compass I hate my gps, and only use it when my son is with me.... i will always grab my dads old hand saw before the sawzall.... I think alot of guys would be bettr off .. if they knew how do somthings without the use of power tools.

sorry I may have strayed off track there.