PREPPER TIERS 2
We only got through one
tier yesterday, after all the background blather. Let’s move it along.
2) Several Hours. Oh My God, Becky, look at that power
outage. It is SO big ( Becky’s big butt,
back when rap first started and had that quaint notion, left over from, I don’t
know, war protest ballads or something, that perhaps it wasn’t the worst idea
to actually understand what a song was saying ). It could last, like, hours! This is the first phase of panic for the
prepper. It wasn’t time to crank up the
ten thousand watt generator for all the power tools, but it was getting close
to time to panic about setting up the generator.
*
This is usually the Candle
And Battery Prepper. The focus is on
having light to see. The mellow, Hippie,
female in the suburbs C&B Prepper has a bunch of candles. Enough candles to guide a ship past a rocky
shore. Stick candles and candles in
glass jars and aromatherapy candles ( less stress for when the lights go out )
and Mexican prayer candles from when they were on sale ( are Latino saints
seasonal? ) and tea candles, tea candle accessories like the ones that are a
mini lantern or a food warmer, there are simply just a crap load of candles all
over the damn place.
*
Most likely, these are the
preppers that also own a candle making business. They have a pallet of wax in the garage to
get the needed discount so as to compete with the downtown Hallmark store on
price, and they steal their kids crayons when they run out of dye. If they could buy wicks by the telephone
cable wooden spool they would. The
really dedicated hobbyists are probably out in the shed boiling beef tallow or
raising bees. And then selling those at
the Society Of Creative Anachronism fairs.
And while candles are all well and good, they are a technology ( in the
true sense of the word ) that won’t be coming around until the LED’s and small
solar battery chargers all die off.
*
This is at least a step up
from Tier One, in that there is concern about the future, and a plan even if
flawed using a romanticized notion. But
really, is it anything past the ancient fear of darkness that epitomized a
healthy concern about getting ate by something you couldn’t see? No matter, at least you are out of your
immediate time zone and into a more realistic future orientation. And you have the first pinprick view that
things might fundamentally change. It
isn’t JUST getting back on the road or getting out of the store with yet
another purchase.
*
3) Overnight. Now we are getting somewhere beyond the need
to change the batteries in the smoke detector or the tacti-cool poodle shooter
illuminator. Now it is beyond the immediate
inconvenience or the minor several hour problem. Finally we are talking civilization
disruption rather than regular grid fluctuation. Now you need to start planning for
multidimensional aspects of grid interruption.
This is similar to the next tier in that the equipment is the same, but
this is the beginning of the realization that the end of your pampered,
spoiled, luxurious life might start to look like-horrors!-being poor. Blech!
*
This is a very short lived
tier. You have faced the realization
that not all is perfect in fantasyland and you can’t stay here, nor can you go
back to just carrying a min-flashlight and a multitool on your belt. Suddenly a keychain flashlight to look for a
rapist isn’t enough and now you know you need to put the flashlight on the end
of a Glock. It is more of a transitional
phase realization rather than a destination.
This is when serious planning is needed rather than a band-aid. It is no longer about signaling to a search
plane and more about setting up a campsite.
*
4) Weekend. It is at this tier that you realize that
while with a minimum amount of prep you can last until the next morning ( a
space blanket, candle stub, PowerBar ), now crap be getting real, yo. You go from a Uber-Nerd fanny pack emergency
kit to starting to collect the tools, serious tools, to start substituting the
grid delivery systems whose disruption you’ve seen go from Irritating to
Stressful to Unwelcome Adventure to now Potentially Dangerous. You really start going from Money Solves
Everything pre-bought consumables to actually having to learn skills that go
with the crap you now understand you need a lot more of.
*
I would say that this is
the tier most preppers aspire to and stay at.
The smarter ones advance to the next tier if they ever come to the
understanding that the standard government 72 hour advice is laughingly
optimistic. But I don’t think most
preppers jump up to Tier Five. Anything
Tier Six and above you are a survivalist rather than a prepper, but we’ll cover
that later. For now, let’s talk about
why most folks stay on Tier Four. In
short, I think this tier has a comfort zone without descending into Big Bad
World Reality. You can congratulate
yourself on being Aware and Prepared, but you never, EVER, have to think about
The End Of The World As You Know It.
*
( And I Feel Fine! ). Stupid friggin song! Just as “Prepper” was originally a code word
for survivalist without the racial connotations, but then co-opted by the
pussies to wanted to do less than the minimum, that song went from a Feel Good
anthem to being co-opted by the pussies who wanted it to mean their comfort
zone wasn’t disrupted. You’ve seen the
articles. The “you” is emphasized, and
is implied to merely mean your optimal living arrangement is in danger of being
less than lavish. It is the excuse for
the locomotive size power generation ( do you guys remember that one from ’Ol
Remus? Good gravy, that was a
classic. I pity the fool who didn’t get
to read that ). The maximum size propane
tanks. The buried gasoline supply. Everything that makes a Yuppie Scum life
worth living.
*
Anyway, I got
sidetracked. As I’ve said before, if you
want your preps set to music, you want The End by the Doors. Yes, my beautiful friend. Tier Four allows you to basically stay at
Camping Level. There is no need to fight
The Wife over budgets. You both go
camping, you both go to the range. This
stays in the realm of Not Altering Your Current Lifestyle. And that is the important thing, isn’t
it? Can’t question the ’Murican Way Of
Life. I’ll also wager that this tier is
were most of the Fracking Fags are. No
compromise on our luxury!
*
Okay, I guess this isn’t
going to be a short series. Continued
tomorrow.
END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2C1MKpG )
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
Like you said tier 4 is the budget conscious and eyes closed to the permanence of the global change/collapse that is occurring around us. At this level you have people thinking either Fracking or Fusion will come along in the nick of time to save us on the energy frontier, and that WW3 will be a repeat of WW2 including the recovery afterward.
ReplyDeleteAh, fusion, the grant money that keeps on giving.
DeleteThis is the end.
ReplyDeleteCertainly appropriate for my local. Seeing how Morrison was from the Melbourne area.
Tho I might say my wife and I are beyond the #4 category...
You guys keep moving to better retreat locations. You certainly are WAY above Tier Four. Not enough coffee stockpiled, though.
DeleteHa ha, two years worth of vacuum packed which gets rotated.
DeleteThen we have buckets of beans in mylar and oxy absorbers...not a lifetimes worth , but...
Not to mention the available local plants which have caffeine...
Okay, you're excused. Without coffee, I can't imagine an apocalypse worth living. I don't rotate-but then, all the old stuff from fifteen years ago is in metal cans, not the crap cardboard. That stash is only four years old.
DeleteStuff going bad has taught us the lessons of rotation
DeleteGot tired of discovering things gone south. Coffee and freshness is important. Coffee even vacuum packed starts getting impotent right around two years. Which is why we drink two year old stuff. The unground beans supposedly are good for long term.
Like you, don't wanna go without mud of some sort.
Like a minion said, the bad taste of canned ground coffee is the same now as it is years from now. I would image the same as shortening will be.
DeleteUnless one is a bit bat-shit crazy (yes, me included) you use vacation time off to oil guns and attend to gear. Not engaging in sloth, shopping for crap on holidays-etc. One will never ascend past tier 4 to an actual half-assed survivalist with only slightly improved odds that requires much luck like combat to come out on the other side. There is going to be a required biblical level of devotion, or deep phsycosis of a true loner-hermit. That is the entry-gate fee to get in this game, not money you yuppie scums, but hardcore focus and life orientation. No soft selling reality here. Keep it up Jim!
ReplyDeleteJust being contrary. I imagine if no one else soft-sold, I would. :)
DeleteYes, unless you are playing friday night-"no lights" as training exercise, prior to spooling up to the big game( Not watching national felon league). And of also always doing McGyver things (the original series-of course) you are not, contrary to what your fat wives commend you on, not a tier 4 or by god a tier 5 SUVIVALIST. PERIOD. Flush out your helmets and seek (Wiser/not paid doctoral) help for your shortcomings and lackings. Not that this is life or death topics here, just saying.
ReplyDeleteCheap dollar store candles are a wise future investment for when the time comes that solar is no longer an option. As a one time aspiring chandelier (yes, it’s an actual occupation, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you enjoy failed business ventures) I’ve learned a few things about candle making along the way. You want to try and get all the same types of candles. For example, pillar candles use much stiffer wax than container candles, and I’d recommend making container candles. Also, when remaking candles, get jars all the same size so that you can use all the same size wick. Different size jars use different size wicks so you want to avoid that. It’s easy to recycle candle wax, as there is always left over wax after you burn up a candle. Save it all and melt it all together to make future candles.
ReplyDeleteAlternately, you could burn blubber in a tin using a simple cotton strip twisted into a wick, as did the Eskimos. I’ll bet that Crisco vegetable shortening (the white grease version of Crisco) would work like a charm as well.
Scavenge any and all bedroom set mirrors that you can. I can’t tell you how many of these mirrors we have given away over the years. One on each side of the room, with one or more candles placed in front of it, creates a good reflector, and increases your lightning to noticeable levels.
I haven't been in a Dollar Tree in two or three years, but I just watched a video on a recent trip for prep supplies ( the nurse that did the fish antibiotics warning vid ). The tall glass ones are very similar to the grocery store Latino religious candles, and at only a dollar each. If you are getting the wicks at Amazon they have a hundred feet of uncut wick and a hundred of those little metal tabs, for about $6. Reuse the tabs ( can you? ) and cut the wicks for 6 inches and you have 200 candles for $6, plus the cost of the wax. Not sure about a cheap source there.
DeleteI don’t think that you can reuse the tabs Jim, because they’re crimped well around the wick. You might have better luck using glue gun glue to glue the new wick to the side of the old tab. One little trick that learned, if you had to, was to drill or poke a hole in the candle and simply insert the wick into the hole. In other words, you could pour the candle, and insert the wick afterwards.
DeleteCandles will be the future of lighting, as flintlocks will be the future of firearms, as hot air balloons the future of aviation, as sailboats the future sea travel, etc, and so on. But no one here will likely see this in our lifetimes.
I’m of the opinion that the elites are well stocked for many generations to come in their subterranean bunkers, and might even have various factories set up, including tech, ready to go to start things off again following the die off. Not that anyone here would benefit from this.
Remember, most serious infrastructure build stopped along with the economy, even for the elite. All the funding gets drawn off for the parasite class instead ( instead of just into building ). Also, they are really short sighted. You don’t make a profit otherwise. I can’t see them planning past a year, if that.
DeleteBeen making candles for years: of course you can reuse the 'tabs,' as you call them. Just push out the crimp with anything shaped like an ice pick. Eventually they will split and be more difficult to re-use, but you can get several uses out of each. The purpose of the 'tab' is to hold the wick upright. There are other, gonzo, ways of doing that, but a few thousand 'tabs' are just a few dollars.
DeleteMaking your own wick is over at
Deletewww.endtimesreport.com
The Kerosene Survivalist Dude. Basically you soak cotton string in salt and borax-check out the illumination section. He also rated kero lamps and sells rolls of lamp wicks at about a buck a foot.
I hope you spend the bulk of the time on Tier 8-10. Talking about fun stuff like flaking broadheads out of abandoned glass bottles and stuff :-)
ReplyDeletePeace out
Did you mention that article I read on knapping glass? Seemed like a waste. A piece of sheet metal would get you a longer lived unit. Anyway, no. No time to get into top tier details. Well, no time for FUN stuff.
DeleteCandles, schmandles. Good, but go with better while you have a choice. On free-antenna t.v. the western series that are from mid-last century(50's-60's for us elders of the clan) used input from really old tymers or book smarts. They always had lanterns. Kerosene, or even modern #2 diesel in a pinch in a decent built lantern-minus wicks is forever gun stuff. Duetsch-Optik in Fernley,Nevada has the kit (fuel cans too!) Stable in a transport, long time lighting, more fire safe. (House fires out the ass in cities from STUPIDITY with candles and space heaters-duh!) AGAIN, WE WANT TO MOVE UP TO TIER 4, OR GOODY JESUS! TIER 5, GO PRO, OR STAY OFF THE NET. Thanxs again Jim, nice hair for the holidays-well done as usual.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how you could store enough kerosene for forever lighting. How many drums would you need? Not a bad idea-the quality illumination would also give some good heat, but have you done the calculations? How long does a gallon last, and how many barrels per Xyears. It would seem cheaper to buy multiple LED high lumen lanterns and lots and lots of batteries and panels. You would need extra batts for the high lumen as they draw down really fast and you go from weeks to days per charge, but it still seems far cheaper. Actually, I might do an article on that.
DeleteOkay, sorry, just saw a reference for bio-diesel. Now I get what you were saying about the Forever Light ( minus the wick ). Store two or three years of kero to factor in getting a crop started, and a lifetime worth of wick and you are good. Still thinking about an article on it.
DeleteWhile working in rural Greece about forty years ago, we burned olive oil by floating a wick in it. Worked well. Any oil-type fluid does the job, even rendered bear fat. It helps to be shown how to support the wick and how to float the wick support, but I end here.
DeleteGoodness people, show some initiative.
You are forgetting that lamp oil that is food oil will be in too short of supply to NOT eat. When calories count ( a situation that Greece was NOT seeing 40 years ago ), you don't waste them on lighting. The lamp above would be after a surplus was available again, or from stocked petrol products.
DeleteGreat leader your hair is shining today. Bees wax candles are the best and they are healthy. Typical ones in the store are a petroleum by product and the fumes from them are bad so limit their use and look for or make bees wax candles. Your hair will thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe one time aspiring chandelier from above Jim. Yes, soy is an alternative, and it’s not any more costly than paraffin the last time I checked. I often make soy candles, but it’s a little trickier with the wick selection. I know that at one time certain wicks contained traces of lead, but I don’t know if any such wicks exist anymore. I find paraffin easier to work with. I personally feel that the dangers of the petroleum based paraffin is over-hyped, but that’s just me.
DeleteI also made the comment about the Civil Defense Shelters above. My understanding is that the original intention (back when we still had a somewhat benevolent government, that actually cared about its citizens on some level) was to shelter a large percentage of Americans in the event of a nuclear strike. Obviously, it became apparent early on that this would not even be remotely possible. At that point, the elites said the hell with Joe and Susie Sixpack, and decided to keep the shelters for themselves. There was someone discussing this just recently on late night radio, and I failed to jot down the website, so unfortunately, I can’t provide a link at the moment.
It was my understanding that 1) the Interstate system was sold as a larger shelter system, a corporate ( GM, Goodyear, Seven Sisters ) welfare program, and 2) shelters were really just a "excess population out and about who couldn't get home to their primary shelter". Since there weren't the insane numbers of people paid to shop at that time, I believe the shelters were limited by intent. The civilian shelters were allowed to rust and dust after funding dried up. The Big Boy shelters were already in place prior. If I have my facts wrong my conclusions obviously suffer, but that is what I can remember from long ago study.
Delete“The Big Boy shelters were already in place prior. If I have my facts wrong my conclusions obviously suffer, but that is what I can remember from long ago study.”
DeleteThat actually sounds more logical to me. I’m going from memory, since it’s been a few months since I heard it on the radio, and I don’t have the link, so the details are sketchy to me.
If you look at the original justification/proposal, all the overpasses were supposed to be shelters. Obviously, the whole reason it was actually built was for military transportation purposes, the same reason semi's were favored over trains. More civilian trucks that could be drafted. But the huge costs were sold with the shelter excuse. Which were quietly dropped afterwards. And the costs were 16 times what was originally claimed, adjusted for inflation. So, Detroit sells it to DC as national defense, DC sells it to the taxpayers as personal protection and Detroit gives us the Edsel as a thank you.
Delete