WNTBTTA 12

WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 12

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note: I was pleased to see that someone had reprinted "The Gun Fag Manifesto", a hilarious 'zine from the mid 1990's.  Pure entertainment, not any education.  A bit on the pricey side, but not too much considering what it used to cost and inflation since then.  Of course I got a copy, and I was pleased to see this compilation was an exact reprint ( with old addresses marked out ) with, for nostalgias sake and further validation I'm always searching for, the advertisement for my old original newsletter.  Snap!, bitches.  And remember, one of my articles from said publication was also included in the Loompanics catalog reprint ( the "Las Vegas" one ).
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12) the next thing you needn’t bring to the apocalypse, there being more than plenty lying around due to the relatively rapid die-off coupled with the fact that these materials simply are not anywhere near important enough during a famine and desperate warfare, is scrap metal.  Whatever you envisioned doing with it, constructing a rain catchment system, using sheet metal as an additional layer for your underground lairs roof or walls, blacksmithing, creating arrowheads, whatever, there will be salvage material out the wazoo all over the place.  Take the lowly unnoticed Stop sign.  Heavy weather resistant sheet metal, and one sign can make how many spear or arrowheads?  The poles can make handy supports for soil retention walls.  Every car has plenty of sheet metal ( with leaf springs, axles, engine blocks and goodness knows how many other projects.  Other than lead, which is cheap enough now and is important for reloading, you should be able to scrounge all other metal you need ( which needn’t even be smeltered ).  And you can even scrounge lead, even if it is a bit dangerous, from all those auto batteries that quickly go bad from being used in alternate energy systems.

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13) books will be in good supply.  Oh, not reference books holding vital information, but entertainment books.  Once everyone has passed around the next Harlequin Romance, it can be relegated to the burn or ass wipe pile, or hoarded for future barter.  Because it will be some time before paper is manufactured again, unless marijuana plantations become feasible ( perhaps on marginal land such as atop old mines still leaching toxins-then the ground and water isn’t good for much else ) along with trade.  You know my take on that-not for some time.  Not that anyone can tell, but trade requires a monopoly on violence and that needs a surplus of energy.  Good luck with those.

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14) clothing will be scarce enough soon enough, prior to the trades relearned and material procured, but during the collapse few will pay it much mind outside winter items.  It is everywhere in great profusion.

15) shoes will be far worse than clothes as far as future supply, but most likely won’t be a priority item at first.  People don’t think much about them, and if they do because of size issues won’t necessarily grab ones you can use.  With clothes, there are other uses for them ( diapers, for instance ), plus they are easier to carry than shoes ( being more bulky and incapable of compressing ).  Shoes should, in theory, be even more available than clothes.  At first.

16) bedding and blankets are going to be a grab bag of availability.  If winter hits during the die-off, blankets might be in demand, but one assumes those trying to keep warm will end up dying anyway so their pilfered blankets once again become available.  Sheets shouldn’t be so widely coveted ( mostly due to people dying in bed, on them ).  Now, all these three items, clothes and shoes and bedding, do assume you personally have a bare minimum for immediate survival.  Their inclusion on the list was meant to say, hey, no need to stockpile an extra bunch of them.  More will become available for future acquisition.  You still need some, just as you need some firearms already, regardless of your plans on getting others from the dead ( remember, stock ammo, not just guns.  A stock of ammunition in  a caliber you don’t own isn’t a bad idea.  For instance, I dislike the .223.  But there will be so many AR’s around, mostly without ammunition, if I had more investment funds I would be buying cases of the ammo.  I’d pick up the guns later ).

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16) water and food containers.  You need water containers, obviously, and food containers will be nice in the absence of all natural ones.  Plastic sucks as far as self-sufficiency but is great compared to fragile pottery or crappy reed bowls, or whatever.  For some time, there should be way more than you need.  Plastic is everywhere, and it will be some time before you need to mine the landfills.  Just going around town picking through the last uncollected trash will yield dozens or scores of plastic bottles alone.

18) household chemicals.  A great deal was made of using household chemicals for homemade explosives, and one assumes that knowledge is widely available.  Yet, most of those chemicals will be scarce.  All others, such as bleach or ammonia ( or even vinegar ) should be widespread.  Why stock your own bleach if it just goes bad with age?  Just use salvaged bleach, for the same dismal results. 

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19) car batteries.  If you spend thousands of dollars buying purpose made ( for alternate energy ) deep cycle batteries, you should get a good ten years out of them ( with dropping performance at the end, of course ).  If you can only afford marine batteries, the life drops to five.  I of course discount the Edison batteries.  Even if they last thirty years, who can afford $2k a pop?  Now, if you already had the battery when the collapse comes, you’ve already shortened the life ( this is why I recommend AA batteries with a solar charger, and hand held lights, rather than wired 12v.  You can buy cheap rechargeable batteries that stay good until you start using them.  With larger batteries you get better performance but they have definite shelf life issues ) of them.  Considering how little life you have left in them, and how much they cost, it might be that your only choice will be, rather than stocking more of the same ( I know they sell dry batteries-but I believe there is the issue of initially charging them that takes more than the usual DC power trickle ), just settling for regular auto batteries ( that do NOT perform as well as deep cells and can be damaged easily with too much discharging ).  There will be tons of auto batteries lying around, and once you screw them up on your alternate energy system you can salvage lead out of them ( remember, you must completely drain the acid from them first, then dispose of it somehow ).

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20) wood stoves.  As per our last animated and rowdy discussion on chainsaws, consider the Rocket Stove for your cooking and heating needs to severely cut down on the amount of wood you must harvest.  That said, if you must have a giant cast iron conventional woodstove, for whatever reason, there should be plenty left to pick from.  All those folks that kept warm over the winter still starved to death or were butchered by raiders who obviously left the stove behind.

21) medications and first aid supplies.  Obviously, some meds will disappear, as in a flu epidemic.  Most antibiotics.  ALL narcotics.  But there will be plenty, not then relevant to survival, that are left and later abundant.  That leaves you guessing as to what will be left, but one assumes there will be constants such as burn cream, hemorrhoid cream, Epson salts, that sort of thing.

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One more extra long article and we are finished-a bit ahead of my earlier projection, this series has gone on long enough. 

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