For as long as I remember there has been mild discussion and lively debate in the survival circles between those who feel you need a lot of "stuff" to survive a disaster and those who say you need minimal stuff but will fare better with "skills". I am someone who does much better when I have time to ponder things and work out the details for myself, sans emotional rhetoric. I do this because once I reach what I feel is a well thought out conclusion, it is very hard to convince me otherwise... and I really don't like to be wrong.
Having read scores of true survival stores, dozens of "post apocalyptic" and "prepper fiction" books, and reviewing the events of a couple recent high profile disasters (Hurricane Sandy (US east coast 2012) and Typhoon Haiyan (Philippines 2013)) I have come to some conclusions about this subject. Unfortunately my conclusions don't settle the dispute for me. Let's talk about that.
The true survival stories I read and the recent disaster events I reviewed (none of which affected me, personally) are all short term, localized problems. The effects on different people ranged from some people being isolated and without power for a couple weeks to others losing their entire homes and all their possessions. If you were one who lost all of his possessions, then having "things" would not be a lick of help to you at all since all of your stuff is now destroyed, buried under a ton of mud, or floating somewhere in the ocean. If you were isolated and without power, then having a generator and stocked pantry ("things") made it so you could make it through with relative ease. Similarly, if you cannot go anywhere and are without power due to a heavy snow storm, having "stuff" will be of much more help than having "skills".
Let's switch gears from recent events to things much more widespread and theoretical: disaster fiction. A couple years ago I got on a kick of post apocalyptic fiction novels and have slowed down a bit, but am still going. The disaster initiators of these books ranges from nuclear war of the 50's (On the Beach and Alas, Babylon); massive comet strike from the 70's (Lucifer's Hammer); to modern power grid down, economic collapse, political upheaval, or even a combination (One Second After, Patriots, Lights Out, 299 Days). Now, don't discount the fiction genre as a place to learn some things. One of the reasons I started reading this type of book was because I was curious about some different possible scenarios and what others thought might occur during those scenarios.
A common theme throughout almost all of the books (certainly all of those listed above) was a sense of community. Specifically, organized communities of individuals existing to help each other instead of acting as lone survivalists. Many of the books went into detail about how the community was organized and how it was defended to keep others out who may threaten the resources of that community. As time went on several of these communities found themselves lacking in people with certain important skills. Five of the books (Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Patriots by James Wesley, Rawles, Lights Out by David Crawford, 299 Days series by Glen Tate, Deep Winter trilogy by Thomas Sherry) contain protected communities where individuals or families that are passing by and looking for a safe haven are interviewed in search of skills that will contribute to that community. Those possessing helpful or needed skills found a place to reside that offered protection from the evils and violence of the outside world.
A recent podcast: Doom and Bloom interview with Charley Hogwood author of MAGS
really helped cement the idea for me that useful skills are a necessity. Charley wrote a book about building Mutual Assistance Groups. I have not yet read his book (although I fully intend to do so very soon) but one of the ideas covered in the interview was building a group of people with complementary personalities and skills. In the book he discusses how to build groups pre-disaster and post-disaster; how to find people who will be a benefit to your group and avoid people who will merely be resource consumers.
There are a multitude of posts in the Prepper blogosphere about useful skills in addition to a website dedicated to just that: learning useful hard skills- http://www.13skills.com/
Think about it. If you have a solid community, are you going to let in a sluggard who offers nothing in return or, with your limited resources, are you going to be looking for someone with a skill that will benefit your group? If you had such a group, what kind of skills would you need? A few on my list are medical, auto repair, metal and wood worker, security expert, gardener/permaculturist, food forager, food preserver, and herbalist among others. If two people come to my group looking for a place to stay and I have the choice between a medic and someone who only knows how to cook microwave dinners but knows what happened on every episode of the MTV reality shows, which would I choose? Or a choice between an auto mechanic and someone who worked in "customer service" but never took the time to learn a solid skill? What about a lawyer or an older lady who spent years gardening and canning her surplus? Some skills may be out of reach for the average person (doctor, military trained security expert) but so many useful skills are learned by your average Joe over time.
My conclusion:
In a short term, more localized disaster, "stuff" is necessary. Choose your "stuff" carefully and always take into consideration what would happen if your "stuff" went away (burglary, house wiped out, etc).
In a long term problem, "stuff" will help you start, but you need "skills" to make it through.
So, both are necessary. Take into consideration where you reside, your bug-out location (if any) and what disasters are likely to befall you. If you haven't started prepping for survival during a disaster and don't know where to start, I'll offer some advice: pick something and do it. Yep... just choose something and get started. While you are growing your pantry or planting a garden or learning some herbal remedies read articles and blog posts from a variety of authors (don't get caught up in any given authors' biases). Maybe make it a goal to read one article or post each day to expand your view. Better yet, choose some "stuff" to gather (canned or dry food is a good place to start) and a skill to start learning. Frugal Squirrels and The Survival Podcast are both great forums to get help with skills.
Hopefully I have planted a seed in your mind about how you will make it through a disaster. Now... What Will You Do?
Showing posts with label Glen Tate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glen Tate. Show all posts
Monday, November 25, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Book Review: 299 Days:The Stronghold by Glen Tate
The Stronghold continues the 299 Days story with the development of the main town, some development of the lesser characters that are building their own extended households, and more information on the situation in the major cities without effective law enforcement.
We see the main town and some of the lesser characters' locations pull together for security in their respective locations. All of the security is done the same way, though: guard the front gate. There are a couple of other small ideas as well, that I'll leave to your discovery as you read through the books.
In The Stronghold we get another dodge of a big battle. We see some people from the main town go to the neighboring, larger town for supplies and get a good picture of how the author believes things will go in larger towns during a major, long-term breakdown.
Some of these lesser locations start to develop a bit more. We get more information on a functioning family farm with long term guests (the main character's co-workers from The Collapse). The main character's pre-collapse community falls lower as it is led by a semi-psychotic big government resident. A glimpse is presented into the state government workings from the view of a loyalty torn public information mouthpiece. A couple other locations are described along with the how those local economies function with and without government assistance.
The main town's community meetings continue and the main character continues to verbally spar with a man and his followers who disagree. It seems as if the author uses this antagonist as an outlet to explain some of the things he believes, forgoing the need for an all-knowing narrator talking to the reader. For the most part this works, with some awkward moments that don't seem like interactions real people would have.
The books, this one included, end in cliffhangers, reminiscent of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Oh, well. It doesn't hurt anything.
OK, now I wait for the next two books to be released.
The author's blog and the story homepage.
We see the main town and some of the lesser characters' locations pull together for security in their respective locations. All of the security is done the same way, though: guard the front gate. There are a couple of other small ideas as well, that I'll leave to your discovery as you read through the books.
In The Stronghold we get another dodge of a big battle. We see some people from the main town go to the neighboring, larger town for supplies and get a good picture of how the author believes things will go in larger towns during a major, long-term breakdown.
Some of these lesser locations start to develop a bit more. We get more information on a functioning family farm with long term guests (the main character's co-workers from The Collapse). The main character's pre-collapse community falls lower as it is led by a semi-psychotic big government resident. A glimpse is presented into the state government workings from the view of a loyalty torn public information mouthpiece. A couple other locations are described along with the how those local economies function with and without government assistance.
The main town's community meetings continue and the main character continues to verbally spar with a man and his followers who disagree. It seems as if the author uses this antagonist as an outlet to explain some of the things he believes, forgoing the need for an all-knowing narrator talking to the reader. For the most part this works, with some awkward moments that don't seem like interactions real people would have.
The books, this one included, end in cliffhangers, reminiscent of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Oh, well. It doesn't hurt anything.
OK, now I wait for the next two books to be released.
The author's blog and the story homepage.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Book Review: 299 Days:The Community by Glen Tate
Our story picks up, of course, where it left off in the last book, The Collapse. The family and immediate community (hence the title) start to pull together.
The author takes us through his vision of some occurrences in the local area. The main group goes to "town" and split up to gather supplies, finding most things very expensive. Fuel, groceries, household goods, are twice the normal price or more and many of the local businesses are rationing sales. We see most people not taking the collapse seriously and not even thinking about stocking up on longer term items. Lines are starting to be drawn as the larger area town divides itself into areas racially.
In The Collapse we start to see some of the minor characters that lived or worked with the main character break off into multiple smaller side-stories of the main plot. Perhaps the author will bring them back together somehow later in the story, or maybe they will remain separate and will just be used to demonstrate how other areas around our main town suffer and/or thrive in different ways.
Still no "action" in the sense of gunfights. The author continues to feint at action like a man playing in traffic; he'll stand in the lane and jump away at the last moment before being hit by a car. (There's my poor literary analogy for today, but reading the first few books it will make sense)
The main character begins his journey as a leader in the small town near his new home. He and a permanent resident of that town start to form a leadership group and plan the safety of the area.
OK, enough for now. The story is still good. I'm still reading.
299days website
The author takes us through his vision of some occurrences in the local area. The main group goes to "town" and split up to gather supplies, finding most things very expensive. Fuel, groceries, household goods, are twice the normal price or more and many of the local businesses are rationing sales. We see most people not taking the collapse seriously and not even thinking about stocking up on longer term items. Lines are starting to be drawn as the larger area town divides itself into areas racially.
In The Collapse we start to see some of the minor characters that lived or worked with the main character break off into multiple smaller side-stories of the main plot. Perhaps the author will bring them back together somehow later in the story, or maybe they will remain separate and will just be used to demonstrate how other areas around our main town suffer and/or thrive in different ways.
Still no "action" in the sense of gunfights. The author continues to feint at action like a man playing in traffic; he'll stand in the lane and jump away at the last moment before being hit by a car. (There's my poor literary analogy for today, but reading the first few books it will make sense)
The main character begins his journey as a leader in the small town near his new home. He and a permanent resident of that town start to form a leadership group and plan the safety of the area.
OK, enough for now. The story is still good. I'm still reading.
299days website
Monday, January 14, 2013
Book Review: 299 Days:The Collapse by Glen Tate
The Collapse is book two in the 299 Days series. The story continues from the first book: The Preparation.
In The Collapse we see the main character (Grant) as he watches the continues to witness the collapse of society around him. We also get snippets of local goings on from others' as we see some of the action in their third person points of view from a couple of Grant's acquaintances, including an individual who turns out to be quite disturbing. Towards the end of the book we get some action that causes our hero to flee to his BOL (Bug Out Location). He has to make a tough choice to do this, which I will not spoil for you. Grant's connections through the gun shop and shooting range prove most helpful during this time of escape.
The premise and the writing style remain the same as I wrote about in the initial book review; simple and plain but engrossing. This book, however, has less of the prepper instruction and more story building than the last.
And, again, the author's web page: 299 Days where you can again find a bonus chapter. I have been printing the bonus chapters and using them as book marks, that way I can pass them on with the books when I finish and they land on a friend's bookshelf.
This review will be short as I don't want to give too much of the story away; but I do want to continue the reviews as I am still happy with the story. At this point I am a couple chapters into book 3.
In The Collapse we see the main character (Grant) as he watches the continues to witness the collapse of society around him. We also get snippets of local goings on from others' as we see some of the action in their third person points of view from a couple of Grant's acquaintances, including an individual who turns out to be quite disturbing. Towards the end of the book we get some action that causes our hero to flee to his BOL (Bug Out Location). He has to make a tough choice to do this, which I will not spoil for you. Grant's connections through the gun shop and shooting range prove most helpful during this time of escape.
The premise and the writing style remain the same as I wrote about in the initial book review; simple and plain but engrossing. This book, however, has less of the prepper instruction and more story building than the last.
And, again, the author's web page: 299 Days where you can again find a bonus chapter. I have been printing the bonus chapters and using them as book marks, that way I can pass them on with the books when I finish and they land on a friend's bookshelf.
This review will be short as I don't want to give too much of the story away; but I do want to continue the reviews as I am still happy with the story. At this point I am a couple chapters into book 3.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Book Review: 299 Days:The Preparation by Glen Tate
The first in a ten book series being released two at a time every few months. As I write this, the first four are out there. The story's website: 299days.com has more detailed information about the author and how he came to write the story.
I have only read The Preparation so far. It is 257 pages (not including the bonus chapter (see the website for details of those gems)). The Preparation is the scene setup for the actions to come. It focuses on the political, economic, and social circumstances that exist in these United States and the author's neighborhoods. These circumstances lead to a partial collapse of the government and society in general.
The author touts his story as different because in his story there is only a "partial" collapse and not a "total" collapse as most of the other novels in this genre portray. Like the Deep Winter series, this first book is a "how to" on prepping for disaster. Time is spent explaining how to obtain and store food, how to open the "prepping/survivalist" conversation with others, how to find a group of like minded individuals, where to find information you might need, as well as other topics on the subject. It's not bad, it's just that the real-life instructions are awkwardly placed. The author pauses his story to tuck in valuable information for the reader.
The Preparation is written in third person style, but is clearly otherwise in autobiographical style with a stop at the author's childhood memories, a brief stop during his 20's, then the extended stay at current events. The writing style is quite plain; the author doesn't have or didn't use the eloquence displayed by professional authors like King or Koonts. (Not that I have that ability, either. It's just an observation.)
The Preparation doesn't contain much in the way of action, but you can tell that there will be plenty in the upcoming books. The author admits to making this first piece the back-story to the rest of the upcoming parts. Despite this, it's setting up a good enough story I think I'm in for the long haul. I see myself going all ten rounds. The message contained within is as plain as the writing style: keep an eye and ear open to what is happening, listen to that inner voice we all have, hope for the best but prep for the worst, and don't waste time... it's coming.
I have only read The Preparation so far. It is 257 pages (not including the bonus chapter (see the website for details of those gems)). The Preparation is the scene setup for the actions to come. It focuses on the political, economic, and social circumstances that exist in these United States and the author's neighborhoods. These circumstances lead to a partial collapse of the government and society in general.
The author touts his story as different because in his story there is only a "partial" collapse and not a "total" collapse as most of the other novels in this genre portray. Like the Deep Winter series, this first book is a "how to" on prepping for disaster. Time is spent explaining how to obtain and store food, how to open the "prepping/survivalist" conversation with others, how to find a group of like minded individuals, where to find information you might need, as well as other topics on the subject. It's not bad, it's just that the real-life instructions are awkwardly placed. The author pauses his story to tuck in valuable information for the reader.
The Preparation is written in third person style, but is clearly otherwise in autobiographical style with a stop at the author's childhood memories, a brief stop during his 20's, then the extended stay at current events. The writing style is quite plain; the author doesn't have or didn't use the eloquence displayed by professional authors like King or Koonts. (Not that I have that ability, either. It's just an observation.)
The Preparation doesn't contain much in the way of action, but you can tell that there will be plenty in the upcoming books. The author admits to making this first piece the back-story to the rest of the upcoming parts. Despite this, it's setting up a good enough story I think I'm in for the long haul. I see myself going all ten rounds. The message contained within is as plain as the writing style: keep an eye and ear open to what is happening, listen to that inner voice we all have, hope for the best but prep for the worst, and don't waste time... it's coming.
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