This random thought about my Grandma popped into my head the other day...she used to keep a man's hat in the back window of her car.

When I was young, this confused me, and so I asked my Mom "why?" Mom said that it was so a would-be bad guy who was looking for an easy target would think twice, because there might be a man coming back to the car. You see, Grandma lived in a big city (big for this state) and at that time was a widow.

So she kept that hat there all the time, and had no issues with BGs.

Then I remember when I was a wee lad. Mom and Dad and Grandma and I were eating at our favorite pizza place. A tornado passed within a couple of miles of where we were and the power went out. My grandma was the only one who had a flashlight...kept it in her purse, and she gave it to me to hold! I remember they started bringing taper candles around to the tables, but I felt better because of that flashlight.

Until recently, I never would have thought of things like this as "being prepared". But it seems that I might have some preparedness in my genes. So, my hat is off to Grandma...for the example she probably didn't know she was setting for me.

Dad of course stocked what he considered important items...mostly toilet paper. After he passed, I don't think my wife and I had to buy any for two months!

It's funny, what we consider "equipping", previous generations considered "common sense".

And there has been a huge disconnect in the last 50 years.

My grand parents had a cellar full of canned goods, a couple cord of wood always cut, almost everyone carried a pocket knife, the list goes on & on.

Technology has severly limited the last two generations of how to be prepared to take care of themselves.

I'm not saying that I want to go back to their world, but we should know how to do this stuff in case we had to for a couple weeks, months or even years while the U.S. tries to recover from the next terriorist attack.

Or we can sit around & whine until FEMA shows up.

I figure one great ETS Grandma story deserevs another, so here goes:
MInd you, this all falls under the rubric of "Family history" so very little of it can be proven with surviving records, but still, it's what I grew up with.

My mom's family (specifially, my mom's mom's family) were classic White Russians: well to do middle class ukranians who supported the Czar and spoke French at home because Russian was considered to vulgar a language to use around polite company. But this was before WW I.

After 1917, things changed. Subtly at first, as many of the men had been drafted to fight the Germans and Austro-Hungarians (which is where my Dad's family comes from but that's for another time). But as the Revolution got into full swing, things started falling apart socially: Bolshiveks would roam the streets, sacking houses at random for food, fuel, blankets to keep warm, whatever. Anyone who resisted was "treated poorly" in her own words. They weren't friendly folk, anyway.

My great grandfather was in denial: "The Czar will last forever" was his all-purpose comfort phrase. He believed in the paper rubles he'd kept in three suitcases under the bed.

His wife (my great grandmother Katarina) saw the writing on the wall, however, and figured out a dual plan of action. In the short term: the Bolshiveks had to be dealt with, but since there were no weapons in the house (the Czar frowned on Jews--or anyone else--owning guns) she had to be more subtle. She saw what was happening to her neighbors and did the opposite. On the few occasions the Bolshiveks came to her house, she invited them in and treated them like they were her guests. She fed them, gave them what should could spare for clothing and blankets, and they invariably thanked her and left without a fuss.

The longer term was trickier--get out of the country, which they did in 1926. Her husband refused to accept the fact that rubels were losing their value by the day even in Russia to say nothing of the outside world, but she managed to sneak a big chunk of cash out of the house as fast as it came it and bought gold, jewelry, gems, silver coins, whatever could be taken across the border to be used to grease the wheels of bureaucracy to her family.

As a result, when the family arrived at Ellis Island, my great grandmother had all the family valuables (and a family who'd gotten through the revolution unscathed) while my great grandfather had brought he three big suitcases filled with pretty but worthless paper.

I've no clue how true the story is but it's what I keep in mind as I do my own ETS planning.

That's becuase our grandparents and greatgrandparents could remember things.

WWII. Rationing. The Dustbowl. The Depression. The first time they saw an airplane. The first time they saw a car. The 1918 flu. Learning to ride becuase it was horseshoes or thier shoes, and money was tight. Radio's being the big media. Getting a refridgerator. Getting electricity. Getting an icebox. Getting the phone. Getting hot water. Getting piped water, if they were terrifically rural. Coaler-fired boilers on steamers.

We've lost too much. If it all broke today, we'd be scavanging the carcass of our modern era until there was nothing, and we had slipped back. Where would we stop sliding? 1400? 1600? 1800? We'd hang onto the ability to make gun powder, but someone would have to reinvent the matchlock probably or there would have to be a lot people who could find flints within a few years; that's assuming we can get the niter and sulfer. We'd hang onto distillation, assuming we could get the grain. But medicine, we'd be back to the dark ages except for the knowledge of sterile = good. Most of would find our educations worthless.

I should have studied something useful. Like exploritory history, the kind when you learn how to weave and smith and ride and everything else that a proper Renissance man would have known.

All of these posts have gotten me to thinking. Common sense isn't so common any more. It is too many times seen as something extraordinary, because it is seen as revolutionary or innovative thinking. Technology is great, but it's true...most of us are too dependent on it and have lost some skills that used to be basic. I am guilty of it as much as anyone. I've had our A/C cranked every day of this hot and humid weather in my part of the country. Saying a prayer of thanks every time it clicks on. Could I go out and kill an animal, and prepare it to feed my family? No way...no clue. Because I choose to prepare myself and my equipment to the best of my ability, I'm better off than most people in this country, who choose to depend enitirely on modern technology and take little or no responsibility for their own well being. In an episode of Star Trek TNG, the medical equipment wasn't working and all the doctors and nurses threw up their hands. Crusher wisely knew how to immoblize a broken leg with a splint...but she was the only one.

There was a story game several years ago called "Soft Kill". The plot was that the Japanese figured out a way to wipe out the US computer network...everything in the country. Power plants, sewage treatment, banks, everything was crippled.

Maybe ironraven is right...a few riding lessons might not be such a bad idea.

And let's all hope that none of us have to come up with two plans of how we're going to survive a political situation.

Time to study some old school?

And morse code, and leadership, and horse handling, and how to make a grist mill, heck, how to make a mill stone.


Probably better than learning to ride, just becuase of how few horses there are in the country (and if it hits the fan, I imagine messing with Chris' horses would be an up close and personal introduction to a semi-exotic cartridge :P ), is learning how to smith. Almost all of us have a ton of metal to our names, give or take a bit. I know that in theory, you can make a crossbow out of a leaf spring, but I wouldn't recognize a leaf spring is you dropped it on my foot. But all the wonderful, beautiful, high quality metal, and without smiths, it will just go to waste.

And of course, before you smith, you need to have the tools, which mostly can be improvised. And a forge, so masonry is involved. And fuel, so you have to have a source of wood, a way to cut it, and if you want to do it right, you have to be able to make charcoal. And how to do molds would be a good thing. And maybe plans for a water powered grinding wheel, lathe and drill, so barrels can be turned and blades ground....

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's too hot to think like this. But it's too late not to.

You know who is going to be your "Best buddy" in that type of Long Term survival stuff (where this thread should really go)

That strange guy down the block - who builds strange things - I'm what is known as a Home Shop Machinist - yeah, I have a manual machine shop (and some CNC) in the basement. Can I build a crossbow? Yeah - and have, when I was like 10.. Even designed my own release. Never made a high powered one from a leafspring, but no big deal. Can I build a boiler? Yeah, as long as I can get the raw materials (don't want to trust making tubing myself) - machine a steam engine? I've made small ones, - big ones are just bigger. Build a small to mid sized foundry? In theory, and I've helped, but not actually done it - neighbors would get a tad annoyed. Morse code? Yep Electronics? - well, if I can scrape 15-20 years of rust off my skills, I did it for a living. Iron and Steelworking? That's waht I did during college for my money. Butcher a steer/hog? I guess, as they are not that different than a deer. I'd figure it out. Medicine. Now that would be tough.

Want some tricky onces, that very few people know?

With NO other reference, make a truely flat surface - say, 2ft square, to within .0001"

Generate a reference thread - we all know "20 thread/inch" or whatever, on screws. MAKE a machine to do that - you need to make a threaded rod that is more accurate than the final product - do it - from scratch

Make a right angle

These are all skills that are needed to build a machine society from NOTHING, and all skills that I know folks who can do, starting with no more than your basic hand tools (knife, hammer, saw etc)

BTW learning HOW to do these things is actually fun, and so is actually DOING them

How does a thread that began as me reminiscing about my grandma belong in LTS?? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I was more thinking about Ironraven and my subposts - about having to make things from scratch - and the like - definately LTS - I'm not going to have to worry about butchering animals, shoeing horses, making crossbows, etc except in a VERY long term situation

I don't think we will ever lose all this knowledge altogether. Just that certain parts of the world might be rough for awhile. But I am planning on heading to the easier areas if mine goes belly up due to Nukes. The only thing that worried me about Y2K was accidents, because the people with the skills would still be here to fix it even if Y2K had brought down certain systems. The good thing about picking up as much knowledge & tools as possible that are constantly discussed here is you could ride out a lost in the woods or another Katrina situation with very little pain. Folks at this site would have been on the highway before the levies broke and if that was impossible they would have plenty of water jugs filled up, etc.

Your 1st post wasn't the problem it was people like me that took it down the LTS with the comments about canning, etc.

But regardless if our grandparents were able to do it I don't have any doubt that we could pick up what we needed to as long as we can survive the shortterm needs.

My Grandfather was absolutely never without his pocket knife or wallet. He kept both in his pants with the belt on, ready to go in the morning. When he passed his wallet contained several nice things, like a stashed emergency 50, a couple of bandaids (he was on blood thinner and a small nick, which he got often as a truck driver, would bleed forever), and a few other tidbits. He very often had other tools stashed about himself, such as pliers and screwdrivers.

My Grandmother was never without a mini-flashlight in her purse, usually the handheld size you sqeezed to activate the circuit, but sometimes a bigger model with a switch. She always had candy (diabetic) and nail clippers, and extra cash.

Both, having grown up in the depression, always had lots of food, canned some of their own food from their very large garden, and had many other ETS style backups. When we cleaned up after my Grandma passed we found no less than 12 paper grocery sacks full of canned goods.

Whenever I hear it about spending a little extra for some backups, I just mention my Grandparents and how they would never leave themselves without at least a years worth of supplies.


The square can be made using several methods, but water and a plumb bob will get you a right angle pretty fast. I'm not sure on the flat surface, but since they use molten tin to shape glass, I assume water or some other still liquid surface is involved. But it can't be that simple... I know blown glass was hammered to a semi-flat surface for ages before we came up with flat glass. So I'm curious. Only Idea on thread is to setup a block with a cutter set at an angle with the block set level so the barstock spins flat into the angled cutter. Would be easy enough to do in wood, but metal could be done if you used the right materials.

I'm really curious about the answers now! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If your curious - get a book called "the foundations of Mechanical Accuracy" - tells you exactly how to do it - and the problem with molten tin etc is the actually have things like a meniscus etc - they will gave you a starting point - ditto water and a plumb bob

The short answer is that by taking THREE squares that are basically flat, and touching one to the other, a to b, b to c, c to a and removing the high spots on each in order, rotating 90 degs between sets (the above was one set) will allow you to make a set of plates that is arbitrally flat

The thread is basically - gouge out the best thread you can - say on a wood lathe - but on a metal rod. Cast a lap around part of the rod, say, 1/8th of the rod - lap the whole rod in - it evens the errors out. Now use your rod to create a NEW rod, the way a metal lathe does (rotation of the work also turns the screw, which drives the cutter). repeat this process of averaging the errors by using long laps and cutting new threads. When your done, you will have a threaded rod that is NOT the original spec'd thread, but some multiple of it. Repeat, but with the gear train adjusted to give you the treads/inch you originally wanted...

Being equipped to survive mentally, having common sense, and long-term survival are all intermeshed. Attitude, knowledge and equipment are all important. Missing one can make the others difficult.

Sue

In my defense, there was scotch involved in those posts. I guess I really do get maudlin after only a few ounces. (When I used to get drunk, I'd make Marvin the Robot look like Peewee Herman on speed.) I guess I kinda dragged this over to the LTS side of things.

Micah, I don't know if you realise how sensative the current state of the art is. You mentioned Y2K- I worked the great uncrisis as part of the state team for VT. One of my duties was examination of the degree of interconnectivity, which mostly ment reading stuff from the DoT and the like. Then I was asked to look for a historical paradigm, which leads to such wonderful things as the Black Death, panics and riots in the US and Europe over the past 150 years, the fall of major cities due to invasion, theories about why all the pre-Greek Agean cultures kinda went away at about he same time, ad nasaum. The parallels are there, the equation works in every case, you just have to know the variables.

It's a spiderweb- pluck one string, and it is felt every where, it ripples. No one has days and days of stocked supplies in the retail stream. Two or three, tops. That's assuming normal consumption levels, that's why the shelves go bare when there is a hurricane. What stocks there are are located in urban and suburban areas, they'll be seized by local or state government or by "committees of the concerned" within a few days. Given a week to ten days, without outside aid, and it will be looking very Mad Max for most of us.

But then again, I'm also the guy who has a small wager with someone that our next major conflict will be with Mexico over water. Even sober, I'm depressing. :P

Electronics? Ok, I give you a challange.

Make me a vacume tube. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I can't do it, and don't have to dust off 15 years. :P I know the theories, but thats it. Electronics are pretty far down the line of stuff to worry about, though. I'm more interested in knowing if there is a house for sale in your neighborhood. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Because I was stupid. I drank and posted.

My fault, and I assume full responsability.

Houses for sale? Yep, 2 on my block. Got about 650-700K depending on the house?