There are far too many people that don’t even have the very basic amount of emergency rations ready to go. People, if the shit hits the fan, the stores at your local Costco will be empty before you can crap yourself. This is a short little post about minimalist food prep that will cover you for 90 days.
Rice and beans, people. This stuff is cheap. It’s so cheap, you really have no excuse whatsoever to not be prepared. If need be, you could live on this stuff for 90 days. Sure, you’d be malnourished and would probably never want either of the two ever again but you COULD do it. That’s the point.
General speaking, a cup of uncooked white rice is equal to just over 400 calories. A cup of cooked pinto beans provides nearly 250 calories and also some much needed protein. Combined, that’s a whopping 650 calories a day if you were to cook a cup of each every day. You could easily survive on that for 90 days with even a high level of activity and very little sleep.
What? You think I’m crazy? “No way, Survival dude (pauses XBOX). I would like totally die and stuff if I only had that much to eat.” Listen up, armchair warriors. I did exactly this for 62 days through Ranger school. Yeah, I lost 30 pounds. Yeah, a good portion of it was muscle since the fat disappear fast. You also have to consider that I got approximately an hour of sleep on average per day and was exerting myself pretty hard for half of the awake hours with only a moderate or light activity level for the other half. I also could have done it for another 30 days. In other words, you could easily survive 90 days with the provisions I list below with an activity level that would be considered ‘blistering’ by the standards of today’s hordes of spoiled pussies.
Based on the hard facts, it’s cheap and easy to prepare a minimalist store of rations that should get you through 90 days of SHTF. It works out to 36 pounds of rice and 36 pounds of beans. That’s gonna run you less than $40 at Costco. Rice is less than $9 a pound and pinto beans aren’t much more. Like I said, there are no excuses not to have this minimal amount of provisions on hand.
Folks, this a quick little post on the epic finger spoon.
So when I was getting ready for work this morning, I forgot to bring utensils or a bowl for the yogurt that I already had at work. Because of my dumb ass move, I was forced to improvise, eating the steak I had for lunch with my Becker BK11 to cut it and my fingers to stuff it in my pie hole. A couple of hours later and hungry again, I had to solve the dilemna of eating my yogurt without a utensil…
But I don’t need no stinking utensils! I have been equiped from birth with the epic finger spoon. Not only is it a makeshift spoon, but it’s also quite useful for many other tasks, some that are not appropriate to mention here.
Anyways, I solved the bowl problem by chopping an empty Rockstar can in two, making sure that it was shallow enough that even with my finger touching the bottom of the ‘rockbowl’, the edge of the can could not touch that little spot between my pointer and middle finger. No cuts for me! No thank you. After that, I cleaned my Becker and used it to scoop yogurt out of the big container and into the ‘rockbowl’. From there, I added honey, stirred with the finger (just washed), and wa-la! A tasty treat.
This thing might even work better than a real spoon.
Shit, I remember back when I was in Basic Training in the service. I wasn’t allowed to eat with any utensil other than a spoon and this was an important lesson. Why? Because that’s all you need for one. For two, “You don’t have time to enjoy your food, maggot, so shovel that shit into your suck hole so we can go do some PT!”
To end, don’t forget that not only are you equiped with many valuable tools called fingers, but you are also a versatile human that can improvise. And practice your improvisation skills not just when you have to but also when you can!
This actually happens to be one of my favorite survivalist acronyms and I’m surprised I haven’t written anything about it to date. I’ve decided to talk a little about it today because it’s fun.
WROL = Without Rule Of Law
It should be fairly clear what this means but in case the fluoridation of water in your area has damaged your brain, let me spell it out for you. It means that the laws where you live are no longer being enforced. The enforcers have likely abandonded their posts. They’ve bailed. After all, they are people just like us and when the shit hits the fan to a certain degree, they are going to bail to take care of their families and save their own asses. The unlawful events that transpired during Hurricane Katrina were a side effect of the WROL status of the city and surrounding area.
Right now, you probably live in a part of the world that allows you to benefit from ROL (rule of law). Most people aren’t extremely desperate because the rule of law makes it easy for businesses to operate, provide what you need, ship it in from out of town, store it relatively easily without large threat of theft, etc. You can go about you business in relative safety because enforcers are working around the clock to make sure that ‘bad guys’ are being good. You don’t even carry a gun to protect yourself because the illusion of protection is that strong. This could all come to a quick and painful end with no notice.
Depending on where you live, it might be anti-climactic or could be a complete disaster. I personally believe that if you live in an area with higher firearms ownership and less restrictive gun laws, you will be safer. People will be more able to defend themselves instead of depending on law enforcement to do it for them. Things may continue on like normal for the most part although there would definitely be some hiccups. In many of the larger metropolitan areas in States with restrictive gun laws (CA, NY, IL), a lot of people will be left without the means to defend themselves. Criminals would run amok and with no way to acquire a firearm, you’d be at their mercy unless you were one of the lawbreakers to begin with. It could get really bad if you lived in one of these areas. Without law enforcement or an armed populace that could organize to keep the peace, a city like that could degenerate into complete chaos. Infrastructure would likely begin to fail since people could not get to work safely or wouldn’t risk it. Home invasions, rapes, murders, robberies, and every other violent or property crime would become much more common place.
Now that you understand what a WROL situation is and understand more of what you’d be up against, it’s time to take a good hard look at where you live and try to imagine how such a situation could effect you so you can prepare for it. In the future, I’ll write additional posts about preparing for a WROL situation if you live in a less than ideal location. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best!
If you bounce your way around the internet like I do, reading about survival and every other related topic, you’ve probably seen “grey man” mentioned somewhere. I’m going to elaborate on what this means and why it’s a great approach to take in a survival situation.
The Grey Man Approach is: to remaining unseen while in plain site. The art of not attracting unwanted attention while at the same time, not presenting yourself as an easy target.
That’s about as simple a definition as I could come up for it. The entire idea behind the grey man approach is to not attract unwanted attention. Attracting unwanted attention can obviously get you into all kinds of bad situations. It could raise the unwanted suspicions of local law enforcement, make you a target for criminals, maybe even get you shot outright in the wrong situation. In theory, it’s a simple concept and it revolves around what you wear and the energy you put out.
To keep this a short and quick read, I’m going to bullet the things you should be aware of to be as grey as possible.
Make eye contact but don’t stare. Staring can bring unwanted attention to yourself. Not making eye contact can make you come off as being weak or feeling intimidated and can make you a target.
Blend in but be malleable. Neutral colors aren’t always the best call but usually are. If you were at a baseball game, you might want to just wear a ball cap for your favorite team. You could easily ditch it to blend more easily with a different crowd.
When concealing any weapons, make sure that they are very thoroughly concealed.
Be careful with your money. Don’t flash a lot of cash.
Don’t be loud. Don’t be meek. Be the one that’s there to get it done but doesn’t need to be the showstopper while doing it.
Keep your vehicle clean of bumper stickers, shiny rims, and ridiculous 4×4 modifications. I would say that there are exceptions here, but they need to fit. Having a “Keep Tahoe Blue” sticker in your rear window isn’t so bad if you live in Tahoe although it does tell any literate person that you are either from there or are currently a resident. Just the same, a mercedes isn’t so flashy in Beverly Hills and a highly modified 4×4 isn’t uncommon in tougher parts of the country.
Be more prepared. Being prepared can definitely keep you grey. Carry an extra set of clothes in your vehicle, a razor to scrape any window stickers you aren’t willing to part with now, etc.
Stay in shape but don’t be a 300 pound bodybuilder. Possessing a frame that tells people you are not out of shape could easily deter people with bad intentions and you can easily pad your frame with an extra layer or the right clothes if you needed to.
Pay attention to body language. Keep your hands at your sides and spread your weight between both feet unless you are facing an immediate threat. This stance is very neutral and non-threatening but not submissive. Stand when those around you are standing, sit when they are sitting.
Don’t be an individual, be part of the group. Not even so much literally as figuratively. You DON’T want to stand out.
You don’t need to live your life being completely grey. The colorful things in life are part of what makes life so great. But keep the grey man approach in the back of your head and be mindful of it when you should. There is a time and place for everything. Any actions you can take that will keep you from being targeted for any reason will benefit you if you are trying to be grey.
Ladies and gents, I use my things. I use them HARD. I am a firm believer in thoroughly testing all of my gear lest I be stuck in the woods, stranded, with a broken ass knife or a firesteel that’s useless because I never made sure my knife would spark it. Let the results of my latest field test be a lesson for us all.
For the last few months, I’ve been enjoying the new kukri I bought from the Kukri House in Nepal. It’s a panawal style kukri, which means it is in fact a full tang knife. I talk a lot more about it here in a previous post.
Since getting it, I’ve been out in the ‘hills’ numerous times to chop things apart with it. I’ve spent most of that time cross-cutting since it happens to be more of a test than batoning but I have batoned with it as well. It’s worked like magic, chopping through pretty much anything I’ve put it against to include hardwoods like mountain mahogany.
Well a month ago, I was in the process of filming a video for Youtube and decided to put my kukri to work on a decent sized piece of hard, dried, mountain mahogany that was approximately 4-5″ in diameter. The particular log I chose had probably been dead for 6-7 years and as it turns out, somewhat petrified.
From the very start of the cross-cutting test, I noticed that the wood was extremely hard. Instead of stopping, I decided to continue on as it would only be a more challenging test for my kukri. The kukri was chopping through the hardwood with some difficulty. I checked the blade and noticed some denting, or misalignment, on the front sweep portion of the blade. I decided to continue on and kept whacking away at the mahogany. It continued to cause damage to the edge even though the kukri did indeed progress through the log. Here is a final look at the edge damage from the test.
Side view
Front view
Part of the reason I chose this particular piece of gear was because the metal is softer than many of the other large knives made by many of the American based companies nowadays. This means it’s easier to sharpen. It also dulls quicker and obviously will be more prone to damage but it’s a trade off I was willing to accept at the time I purchased this knife. Now my opinion on that may very well change but I still find myself in a position where I need to repair damage to this blade under field-like conditions to see if this option was a viable one. In addition, I’ve contacted the manufacturer and am waiting to hear back from them about whether or not this could be a tempering issue. Photos are on my way to them now and I will report about what they have decided to do to help explain/resolve this issue. Update: The Kuhkuri House, the manufacturer of this Kukri, has informed me that they believe it was the hard wood that responsible for the damage to the blade. They are also sending me another Kukri, free of charge. I’ll be testing the new one when I receive it to see whether or not there was an issue with the tempering.
There is another explanation for the blade damage. This Kukri weighs almost 2 pounds. The blade is EXTREMELY heavy and I don’t swing it lightly. I was putting in some serious work on that log. Now you have to consider the amount of force that was being placed on the blade. When cutting hard wood with a blade like this, one that is so heavy but also made from a softer material, maybe it would have been wiser to use easier strokes. We’ll see about that when my replacement arrives…
There’s another whole side to this test that I have yet to address: How would other large knives that fall into this category fair against the same challenge? In all seriousness, the wood was so hard I might as well have been chopping a boulder. I wonder how some of the more common and well accepted large knives would do? Knives like the SP50, the Ka-Bar Bowie, the RTAK II, and the Cold Steel Trail Master. It’s impossible to measure the success or failure of this particular test without having something else to compare the results to.
At this point, I would call this test a success, even though the equipment failed. I learned what I needed to know most: the limits of this 2 pound piece of steel. There was fair damage to the cutting edge of the blade and although it still got the job done, this would easily take time away from other important tasks because time would have to be spent making field repairs to the blade. Also, seeing as Mountain Mahogany does happen to be a part of the environment I’ve chose to reside in, I need to expand my search for a blade that can do work with what I might be given.
In summary, the most important thing to learn from this post would have been the not-so-fun wake up call I would have received during a SHTF scenario had I needed to cut this log but had never taken this Kukri to the limit during testing. Imagine my surprise when I damage a blade of what is pretty much a two pound short sword on a log my first night in the woods after life in the city has gone to total chaos? The other lesson is that I should stay away from old, petrified mountain mahogany if I can.
Hey All, this is just a fun little post today that’s meant to be more entertaining than anything else. Basically, if the world came to an end as we know it today and there was no longer any need to maintain a professional, working appearance, what would you do with your hair?
I was thinking about this the other day and my fun answer would be mohawk dreadlocks. I love having a mohawk but keep it more clean looking and short than anything else. If everything went to hell in a hand basket though, I’d try to make being nasty as fun as possible and go with dreads. Haha! What about you? What would you go with?
Paratroopers with mohawks in 1944 applying war paint. Shit yeah.
Although this thread is supposed to be fun and not realistic, the hygiene issue is worth mentioning since this IS a survival site that focuses on reality in large part. Chances are, you’d want to keep your hair as short as possible. It would be easier to keep it clean so that’s what I’d most likely do. Have a clean, short mohawk. Haha!. Cleanliness is important for many reasons above and beyond how you smell to the opposite sex. Haha! For example, if you get a cut on a dirty scalp, it’s much more likely to end up infected. Also, consider lice and do a little reading on the effects of a lice infestation and natural remedies. I’m planning an article around fighting lice, fleas, and other insect-like problems with minimal means. Keep your eyes peeled for it!
Hey all, it’s getting to be that time of the year again where the roads are getting icy, it’s getting cold outside, and an inopportune breakdown in the wrong blizzard could end with you becoming a poster child for natural selection.
There are a wide range of climates across the US and the world. It would seem that the huge majority of my readers are in the US and things are getting chilly up here. For many of the states, they are already getting snow. It happens a little later where I live, usually snowing most between January and May so I’m just really starting to think about this more than usual but it’s time to make sure that I have some of the bare necessities in my vehicle since I travel a decent distance to work (52 miles one way) and inclement weather is a fact of life.
Just the other day, I caught myself thinking about how things would play out if I were to find myself stranded under white out conditions with my vehicle no longer running to keep me warm. It probably wouldn’t be such an issue if people stopped to help those in need nowadays but they don’t. I actually had some vehicular trouble months back and found that even though I was dressed professionally, no one would stop to make sure I was OK and they certainly wouldn’t stop to pick me up. You simply can’t depending on getting help from other people in most situations so it’s your responsibility to make sure you are prepared for a worst case scenario.
Let me get back on track here. Because of work, I routinely have cold weather gear that is made for snow use along with gortex lined boots in my vehicle or on me when making the drive to work. In addition, I always have a firesteel and knife on myself as part of my very minimalist EDC but also keep a firesteel in my glove box as well. I also have a 1 quart canteen in the back of my Jeep. The knife, firesteel, and water carrying container make up the three things you must have to have a good fighting chance at surviving hell on earth but the cold weather gear is a definite bonus in this weather and the even worse weather that happens to be around the corner.
This badass bison was designed to survive things like blizzards with no fire or snivel gear. You were not.
What else could I add to the vehicle that could assist me if I were to have a problem? There are a ton of things! All the contents in your standard 72 hour kit could become invaluable were you to find yourself broken down in a blizzard with no help coming for three days. The first things that come to mind and probably the most important would be some canned food and water, more cold weather gear, a couple of emergency blankets, flares, a couple of additional means of starting a fire, flashlight, and a more efficient means of cutting wood. And not necessarily in the order I listed them in. I think I’ll just throw my ax in the back of the Jeep since weight and space is not an issue. How’s about a cold weather bag in a bivy sack? Just imagine you’d be spending 3-4 days out in DEEP SNOW without another soul around and you’ll do a fairly good job of packing the right things.
Here’s another thing to think about. Are you maintaining your vehicle properly? With the exception of large repairs and I’m even starting to do those as well, I do all of the maintenance on my vehicles. Just imagine that you broke down, died, and became coyote snacks all because you had an oil leak and didn’t know it. How bad would that suck? Do you need new wiper blades? You don’t need another excuse to crash. Visibility can be bad enough with good wiper blades if enough snow is coming down.
Anyways, it’s food for thought. Be safe in the bad weather and make sure you have what you need to survive ON HAND. It’s just so happens that preparation and knowledge go hand in hand to keep your ass alive when the SHTF. Don’t forget to prep. Throw the shit you need in a bag, toss it in the trunk, and get your vehicle all up on it’s maintenance before the weather gets really shitty.
Here’s a quick little breakdown of what I believe to be the three most important rules, laws, or tenets of survivalism. Put these into practice in your normal life and if things go bad, you’ll be better prepared to deal with it.
1. “I will not quit.”
This is a state of mind that’s extremely important in any survival situation. You can be the most prepared person in every way except state of mind and this one thing can get you killed. If you quit, you will die. You must not quit. You have to keep going no matter what. No matter how cold, how hungry, how tired, or how lost you are, you cannot quit.
Simple to explain but not so simple to put to use unless you’ve practiced having a ‘failure is not an option’ mindset. How do you practice this? Simple. Stop being a quitter. If you are a lazy quitter now, that’s going to be a hard habit to break when your life depends on it. If you never practice this skill and suddenly find that you need it, have a zen moment. Close your eyes, imagine a humming noise in your head, relax for a few minutes, and get a grip.
Bodhidharma, having a Zen moment after he realized he left his Firesteel back in his hut.
2. Efficiency In The Field
You absolutely must have as little wasted movement as possible. Wasted movement means wasted calories, water, daylight, and motivation. All four of these things can kill you. Be as efficient as possible in all things. Before dedicating time to anything, think it through for 30 seconds. It’s much less draining on you to spend 30 seconds planning your actions instead of realizing later that you wasted 3 hours on a useless task.
Practice efficiency by reading a couple of books on lean methodology (The Toyota Way for example) and practicing the basics of the ideology. Waste no time. Make everything you do create something that is worth the effort. Work smart and hard.
3. Incremental Advantages
Every little advantage you have increases your chances of survival. Don’t get lost in the woods with nothing but the clothes on your back when you can get lost with a firesteel and striker.
When packing my kit or deciding what to get next, I like to play a little game in my head where I assign a point value to an advantage and count things in my favor. In the above example, getting lost in the woods with nothing but the clothes on my back would mean I really have nothing to work on but my survival knowledge. That would probably net me about 5 points total. But to be lost in the woods with the same knowledge along with a firesteel and striker, that would net me about 6 or 7 points total. Weight of items versus their usefulness is something that also has to be considered. It’s much easier to decide what to pack and what not to when you assign an imaginary point value to everything. And ask yourself this other questions. Do you really know what something is worth if you have not thoroughly tested it under realistic conditions? Probably not.
Make a game out of it and remember, skills you have learned and practiced are worth more than equipment. Equipment can be lost, broken, and used up. Knowledge and experience cannot.
There are numerous wild cards in any survival scenario but in a TEOTWAWKI or 2 week plus long SHTF scenario, the biggest wildcard of all is Joe Schmoe. He’s not only the biggest wildcard but will also be the number 1 thing most likely to cause you serious grief if things get bad enough that people start to consider eating their pets.
Who the hell is Joe Schmoe anyways? According to the 2010 US Census, there are 308 million Americans. Of these Americans, 21 million are males between the ages of 20 and 30. I’m going to say that a little less that 25% of those are likely to be squared away since as time passes, generations in America seem to become more and more worthless. That’s going to make approximately 16 million of those Joe Schmoes.
Joe is probably single but may be married with a family. He’s more likely to be struggling financially or focusing on day to day expenses while not looking to prepare himself for long term problems. He’s got at most 1 week of food in the house with the majority of those calories coming in the form of beer or distilled spirits if he’s single. Married guys tend to be a little more prepared so they may have two weeks of food, maybe a bit more. He’s probably got a firearm or two with a box of ammo for each. One was inherited and is probably either a .22 rifle or twelve gauge shotgun. The other is a modern semi-automatic pistol he bought himself. He probably goes to the range once or twice a year with friends. If he doesn’t have any firearms, he’s for sure got a bat, kitchen knife, or Shakeweight, all of which could be used as weapons. Based on the ever decreasing quality of the later generations, he’s probably had a fairly easy life. Maybe Mom and Dad paid for College and he has yet to even work a real job. I run into these types all of the time. 26, still in College, and has never even so much as taken out the garbage. Maybe he’s been going back and forth between shit jobs and unemployment, all the while complaining about how he should be making $20 an hour to play video games.
Now to be realistic, there are much more people that will fall into this Joe Schmoe category that just those within the age group I mentioned. I can’t tell you how many guys in their 40′s I’ve seen that only own a motorcycle, a knive, three changes of clothes, a crack pipe, and a case of beer. Or what about guys in their early 60′s that are back out working because the Federal Government and Banks annihilated their retirement and they know they can’t even afford shit paper on Social Security (thanks again, government)? They’ve lost their house, retirement, and are pissed off at the world and really don’t have much to lose anymore besides their bowel control and that’s coming soon. I’m going to say that would easily swell the numbers to 30 million even though it’s probably much higher in reality. That’s 10% of the US population using conservative numbers.
The big point I’m trying to make is that not only are there a ton of these guys out there, but they are also ill prepared for the shit to hit the fan. The majority of Joes have also never dealt with serious catastrophe or hard times. They are spoiled babies that make up the rank and file of the entitled masses we are producing here in the States. They don’t understand what it’s like to live hand to mouth let alone having to really sweat to feed themselves and any kind of TEOTWAWKI scenario is going to be a disturbing dose of reality for these people.
What is Joe Schmoe going to do when he runs out of food, gas, and water? First, he’s going to shit himself. Second, he’s going to decide that he needs to acquire these things. Folks, I have been starved for more than two months straight while being stressed under some pretty harsh conditions. No food, no sleep, and exertion for near 24 hours a day makes Jack a dull boy. Oh, and I lost 35 pounds in two months. I can tell you without a doubt that Joe Schmoe will FREAK after day one of having no food. Ever heard anyone say “we are 9 meals away from anarchy?” I believe 9 meals is optimistic. People will begin stealing and pillaging before it gets that far.
Some of these Joes are going to crawl up and die somewhere. They’ll be standing on street corners with their hands out, just as they’ve been taught for most of their lives. Some will try to find abandoned homes, like vacation residences, that may still have food and a less threatening environment. Others will resort to crimes like breaking and entering, trying to get at your good stuff when you aren’t home and trust me, people with nothing to do all day have more time to case your house than you have time to look out for them. Some will relocate to areas where food is grown and will either finally learn to get their hands dirty in the hope that they can feed themselves and their families or they’ll steal what they are too lazy to work for. The worst of the bunch will turn into criminals of the worst kind. They’ll form small gangs, rob people, murder, rape, and do whatever else they please. We could literally end up with gangs of skinny, half starved, gun-wielding douche nozzles, filling the streets of modern America that are either trying to eat your food or eat you. They’d look a lot like Somali gangs I imagine except that they’d probably be slightly less armed and covered in half as many flies.
At any rate, things could get really bad with all of these Joe Schmoes out there. Do the math. 308 million Americans and 30 million of them are Joe Schmoe. NOT GOOD. To put this into perspective, we are going to use the Bay Area as the site of this TEOTWAWKI scenario. There are just over 7 million people in the Bay Area. In most American cities, the number of police to citizens is about 1 to 1000. It happens to be a little higher than that in the Bay because California sucks. Yes, it sucks so we’ll say there are 1 cop for every 900 people. (I actually researched several cities in the Bay a few years back so this number is probably fairly accurate.) That would put the number of law enforcers at about 7800. The number of Joe Schmoes in the Bay Area comes in at a whopping 700000 dirtbags! You got that right. SEVEN HUNDRED FUCKING THOUSAND JOE SCHMOES. Even if every law enforcement officer stayed on duty during a jacked up crisis which they won’t, they’d be less than a speed bump to the shear horde-like numbers of useless young men that are up to no good. This is the moment where everyone in the city begins to renounce their evil ways and starts praying.
Imagine a horde of the above but hungry, dehydrated, and out of batteries for his Guitar Hero controllers.
Some of you “smart ones” that live out of town might think you won’t have to deal with this kind of problem. You could not be more wrong. A good number of these Joes will have enough sense to be tired of having other Joes shoot at them. They’ll bug out to an area that is less populated in the hopes of either finding a house that is unoccupied or whose occupants are unprepared for a hungry and desperate man that is now at a point where he would do anything to survive. You have to realize that people who are otherwise law abiding citizens will often throw the rule book out of the window when things get bad enough. People will usually do whatever it takes to survive.
Last but definitely not least, there is Jill Schmoe. There are just as many Jills as there are Joes. The difference will most likely be that Jills will team up with Joes and become another part of an element you want nothing to do with. Not as physically threatening but definitely just as dangerous, the Jills double the number of threats to you when things get ugly. Pushed to the point of taking the means of their survival into their own hands, Jill will be crafty, deceptive, and will likely try to partner herself up with stronger men, preferably those she knows, to increase her chances of survival.
All things considered, the Schmoes are much more likely to cause things to go downhill than the events that have triggered TEOTWAWKI in the first place. Keep this in mind when you are dealing with people you don’t know and even those you thought you did.
Tonight, I’ve decided I’d go ahead and define the big difference between these two terms. Although it’s going to be fun to explain the difference between the two, is also important that you be able to tell the difference when the crappy situation you’ve found yourself in finally allows you a bit of breathing room and a few minutes to think.
SHTF = Shit Hitting The Fan or when the Shit Hits The Fan.
The Shit has Hit The proverbial Fan when you find yourself in a life threatening situation, one in which any number of things are attempting to end your life. It could be that you were out hunting only to find that you have pack of wolves that have decided to make you dinner, much like these two gentlemen. It could be that you’ve just hit a concrete divider going 70 mph after falling asleep at the wheel and are now in a total word of hurt on the side of a dark highway. It could be that you’ve been kidnapped by two hillbillies with shotguns, are being held in the basement of a pawn shop with some other guy, both of you tied to chairs and ball gagged, and one hillbilly is telling the other to, “Bring out the gimp.” It’s not looking good for you at this point.
Wolves hunting tourists in Yellowstone
TEOTWAWKI = The End Of The World As We Know It
TEOTWAWKI is basically the SHTF but to a much more permanent degree. It would be SHTF scenarios over and over and over again followed by brief periods of relative quiet, despair, and starvation (Haha!). A TEOTWAWKI scenario is usually a massive event that is going to effect the lives of everyone around you, not just your own. These are events that people in the States usually scoff at, thinking America is beyond such catastrophes. Things such as:
Most importantly, you need to determine whether or not a SHTF scenario is actually a TEOTWAWKI scenario. When you have a moment to gather your thoughts, it won’t be hard to determine the difference between the two. This is important of course because if this is a TEOTWAWKI scenario, you need to continue to act very decisively and hopefully you’ve taken the necessary precautions to prepare for such a scenario.
