Better safe than sorry
Today’s article is as green as it gets, because it’s about DIY-ing greenhouses. How do you build a greenhouse, you ask? The easy answer is: you build a house and you paint it green.
Ok, I am kidding, but today’s article is about the basics of DIY-ing your own-personal greenhouse, the types you can build, tips and tricks, and what to beware of. You know, the whole 9 yards in DIY for the self-conscious prepper. [Read more…]
We use cellars because they maintain a more constant temperature than structures that are built above-ground. We use greenhouses to extend the growing season because they hold in heat. Well what if you combined a greenhouse and a cellar? You’d have a greenhouse that would allow you to grow plants year-round. [Read more…]
Greenhouse Gardening [Part 1]
With skyrocketing prices at the grocery store and an unstable economy, it’s no surprise people are turning back to the ways of their grandparents and great-grandparents. Self sufficiency is needed now more than ever, and a greenhouse can provide fresh, healthy food for families virtually year round. [Read more…]
Will you survive a disaster in a city without having resources such as water, food, and safe shelter at your immediate disposal? You’re going to be facing hard times and the adversity from your fellow urbanites who aren’t survival-savvy. [Read more…]
With only two ingredients and a little time you can stockpile a survival food that’s been used for centuries. Let’s take a lesson out of the history books and learn from various soldiers, sailors, and explorers throughout time. [Read more…]
It’s a safe bet that you’ve come to the realization that dependence on a power grid is a bad thing. As much as you’d like to live entirely without it, electricity is an integral part of day to day life and, to be honest, you probably don’t WANT to live entirely without it. You need a better option.
Fortunately for you, you’ve started at a great time. There is a now huge push to live off the grid and suppliers of home generators that run on solar or biodiesel power are abundant. However, there are a few problems associated with this equipment that have led many people to learn to build their own power generators. [Read more…]
Pemmican and How To Make
When the white men set out across North America, a reliable supply of portable provisions was one of the major problems. Lacking the skills of the native hunters, it was doubtful that they could live off the
country. They knew something about preserving food, a necessity for sailing ships, but it was limited to salting and pickling. The resultant salt pork and hardtack were unappetizing fare but they kept
life in a man. [Read more…]
Shelter is widely understood as being one of the top needs for survival. More than anything, shelter provides a means of protection from adverse weather, helping us to maintain our body heat and not die of hypothermia. In addition, a shelter can help protect us from attack by enemies or those who are just careless with their guns.
There are a lot of people talking about underground shelters these days. Usually they refer to these shelters as bunkers; places of protection from attack in which a person or a family could survive a breakdown of society or other cataclysmic event. That’s not what I want to talk about in this article; what I want to talk about is emergency urban shelters.
You probably already have an urban shelter, called your home. How secure that shelter is against major weather events or attacks has a lot to do with the home’s construction. Some homes are fairly robust, being able to survive a hurricane or even a fairly determined attack by a small group of enemies.
However, no home can survive everything that can be thrown at it. In the case of a tornado or ground warfare, those homes are likely to be destroyed too.
What would you do if your home was suddenly destroyed or you were suddenly forced to abandon it? During World War II, countless millions of people were faced with that very problem. That war, which was often fought from house to house, destroyed entire cities, leaving everything in rubble. Those civilians who managed to survive were suddenly thrust into a severe survival situation.
No matter what, it’s possible to find shelter. Man is a builder and while much of what we build can be destroyed, there are often structures that will survive. More often than not, underground structures have a better chance of surviving natural or man-made destruction.
Find out more about bugging in or out in Conquering the Coming Collapse.
Even if a home or office building is totally destroyed, the basement will probably survive.
Parts of the basement may be inaccessible due to the rubble from the floors above.
But it’s actually rather common that there will be habitable areas in the basement, where there is little rubble, but there is good protection from the weather and whatever is happening at ground level.
In addition to basements, there are other underground structures that man makes, any of which can be used as an emergency shelter:
What to Look for when Hiding
There are several things to keep in mind when looking for an underground shelter. The first and probably most important is that it won’t fill up with water, drowning you in your shelter. This means that water entry must be limited. If the shelter contains any drainage, that’s even better.
You also want to avoid anyplace that is going to leave you trapped. This is the problem I have with most people’s bunkers; once inside, they’re essentially trapped. Most wild animals know enough to make sure that their underground burrows have an emergency exit.
Make sure that your emergency exit is hidden enough and far enough away that you can use it without getting killed by the same people who might be trying to get in the entrance.
Good camouflage will help. If everything is in ruins and you build a shelter in a basement that looks like a nicely built shelter in the basement, others will become suspicious. You can pretty much be sure that at least some of the curious ones would have no compunction against killing you to steal your shelter.
Your shelter will invariably need some improvements, even if you find a shelter that looks fairly good (relatively speaking). In such a case, there will probably be a lot of scrap material lying around, from homes that have been destroyed. That material is ideal; as it can be made to look like it fell there naturally, camouflaging your shelter.
The inside of your shelter can be as nice or as fancy as you can make it. There are often furnishings and even carpets which will survive a disaster and can be used in your shelter. If you are sharing the shelter with others, try and give each person some private space, by breaking up your shelter with furniture, walls or blankets acting as walls. This will help prevent conflict from the stress of being in an enclosed space together.
Keep in mind that smoke can be a huge giveaway as to your location. You’ll probably need a fire to cook and keep warm. Be careful about where you place your fire, as well as what types of wood you are burning.
Plywood will give off a lot of smoke, due to the resins that hold the layers together.Likewise, pressure treated lumber is a bad choice for the resins that it contains. Any wood that is wet will give off a lot of smoke. Be sure to use clean, dry wood, without any paint or varnish.
An old trick is to have the smoke from your fire disperse through a tree. The tree’s branches and leaves cause the smoke to break up and spread out, making it less obvious. If you don’t have a tree, you can accomplish more or less the same thing using rubble from the buildings. Have the smoke from your fire pass through rubble that will break it up and disperse it.
Other useful resources:
Survival MD (Best Post Collapse First Aid Survival Guide Ever)
Backyard Innovator (A Self Sustaining Source Of Fresh Meat,Vegetables And Clean Drinking Water)
Blackout USA (EMP survival and preparedness)
Conquering the coming collapse (Financial advice and preparedness )
Liberty Generator (Build and make your own energy source)
Backyard Liberty (Easy and cheap DIY Aquaponic system to grow your organic and living food bank)
Bullet Proof Home (A Prepper’s Guide in Safeguarding a Home )
Family Self Defense (Best Self Defense Strategies For You And Your Family)
Sold Out After Crisis (Best 37 Items To Hoard For A Long Term Crisis)
SOURCE : This article has been written by Bill White for Survivopedia.
