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Showing posts with label planning for the collapse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning for the collapse. Show all posts

Friday, January 25, 2013

More on Survival Caches

I have been getting quite a few comments and e-mails with opinions and recommendations on caches. Survivalists would, of course, use caches for many diverse reasons.
 
  • To support Bug Out especially from an Urban area into a rural area for transit to your final Bug Out location or tentative rally point or assembly area.
  • To hide some material or equipment to safeguard it from people who want to take it away from you.
  • Cache emplaced to support an operation so travel to that operations in an area does not have to include bringing in so much material.
 
You have to have some way to record caches so over time they will not be forgotten, or you may be sending caches reports to other people for recovery.  The best way to record the cache information and location is a written record maybe backed up by a electronic file on your PDA, tablet or I phone.
 
Everyone is now thinking I am recommendating breaking OPSEC or otherwise having a record with anyone seeing it, being able to get the goods. Not so. You could use a password encypted file for your cache records and you can use a default numerical subtraction or addition code to the information vital for the actual cache location and recovery. See more of this below.
 
Here is what I think it a suitable elements of a Cache report are:
 
Cache name or designation - so you can keep track of recovery, especially if you have multiple caches in.
 
Cache contents. Be specific.
 
Other Information. How cache is emplaced. How items are weather proofed or not. Container(s) description(s) and dimension(s). How deep cache is buried if this is a burial cache (most common). What tools will be neded to recovery the cache.
 
General Area. This would be a general description of the area the cache is located. This should be a general direction, such as EAST and a distance in a common measurement,...meaning do not use leagues for a measurement unless you are a pirate.
 
Specific Area. This would be direction on how to get to the Immediate Reference Point (IRP) which is where you will usually need to measure a direction and distance from to locate the Final Reference Point (FRP) and from there the cache. The immediate reference point should be something that is not likely to move or disappear.
 
Final Reference Point (IRP). This will be a fairly easy marker like a large rock, distinct tree, bridge abutment or something along these lines where you will again measure a distance (tape measure is handy).
 
An Example Cache Report may look like this: 
 
Cache Report.
Cache B#14.
Cache Contents:
2 each Military style Green Ponchos
60 feet of tan colored 3/32 inch diameter string
2 each one gallon water containers, full, not disinfected nor treated
1 four ounce bottle of water purification drops
6 each Meals Ready to Eat,
complete 1 AR-7 surival rifle
2 each 50 round boxes of .22 LR CCI Stinger ammunition
1 each folding Buck knife with belt sheath
1 each 16 inch crosscut saw
1 each butane lighter
 
Other Information: All items wrapped in water proof plastic. All items in one wooden box, 30 inches long by 14 inches wide by 14 inches deep. Top of box buried approximately 18 inches from ground surface. Using metal prob to locate wooden box is recommended. Ground is dirt with grass, weeds and small scrubs. Cache site is visible from IRP so security upon recovery is a concern. Shovel will be necessary to recover emplaced cache.
 
 
General Area. West of Springerville, AZ. Travel 13.5 miles WEST on US Hwy 60.
 
 
Specific Area. From US 60, South on County Road 3123 for 8.2 miles to IRP.
 
Immediate Reference Point (IRP).  On WEST side of County Road 3123 there is a dirt road heading generally WEST. There is a Forest Service gate here.
 
Final Reference Point (FRP).  The FRP is located from the IRP (NORTH end of the gate) on a magentic azimith 032 degrees and at a distance of 62 feet is a large, oval granite rock approx 18 inches long and 12 inches wide. This is the FRP.
 
Cache Location. The cache is buried 18 inches below the ground from the FRP on a magnetic azimuth of 045 degrees and at a distance of 36 feet.
 
Notes on Caching.
 
When emplacing caches consider natural weather conditions such as run off or snow cover that would uncover or expose the cache or make recover difficult.  Or make location and recovery of the cache too difficult.
 
Using ponchos or tarps to separate the different layers of earth when emplacing the cache, then reversing the layers of dirt when covering the caching will greatly aid in the concealment of the cache.
 
Depicting a concealed route to the cache IRP and/or a good position from which to observe the IRP and FRP may help in the safe recovery.  
 
For additional security against the wrong person or people recovering your cache, you may have an internal procedure where you add a certain number, let's say 65 to your azimuth and distance measurements.  Therefore  the example azimuths and distances from the IRP to the FRP would be  097 degrees and 127 feet.  The cache location from the FRP would be 110 degrees and 101 feet.  Then when recovering  the cache the right recovering party would know to subtract 65 from each direction in magnetic degrees and distance in feet. 

Friday, February 25, 2011

Survival Planning - Advice from Sovereignman - Simon Black

At UrbanSurvivalSkills.com we have written many times about having multiple sources of financial and economic information in order to assess the timeline of the coming collapse and not let it hit you by surprise. One more source of information is Simon Black's Sovereignman.com


Simon's motto immediately intrigued me,....."There are two ways to sleep well at night,....be ignorant or be prepared." I think I'll choose the be prepared method.

And while Sovereignman's primary advice is unrealistic for most Americans (including me) which is to send money overseas to protected bank accounts and either re-locate now to different countries or to be prepared to on short notice, I do think Simon has other good advice and forecasts which should be considered.

One of Simon's latest posts, on February 17, 2011:

Recent headlines,......

“World Bank: Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels”

“Sysco declares force majeure, raises grocery prices”

“The J. M. Smucker Company Announces Coffee Price Increases”

“Kraft warns on price increases”

“Kellogg says it will raise prices”

“Sara Lee to raise prices again on higher commodity costs”

“Bridgestone To Raise Prices”

“Goodyear will raise tire prices up to 6%”

“Allstate rates rise; patience with execs runs thin”

“State Farm wants 28 percent rate increase in Fla.”

“Blue Shield to delay Calif. health rate hikes [for only 60 days]”

“Wellmark [Midwest division of Blue Cross] Rate Hike Approved”

“Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says retailer will have to raise prices”

“Sprint bumps up its smart-phone data plans $10 a month”

“Xcel Energy customers to see rate hikes”

And then there’s this quote to tie it all together:

“Overall inflation is still quite low and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.” — Ben Bernanke, February 9, 2011

If it wasn’t perfectly clear before, it should be now. This man (Bernanke) is either completely out of touch, or he’s a conniving liar. In either case, you should not allow him to be responsible for your well being.

Don’t let the rising stock market fool you into thinking that everything is back on track. It’s impossible to read these headlines and not see at least half of the things that you use frequently– food, coffee, electricity, mobile phone, insurance…

Here’s the bottom line– failing to properly protect your savings, seek alternate sources of income, and diversify your sovereign risk gets you a free one-way ticket on the economic Hindenburg.

Inflation begets economic trouble. Economic trouble begets social unrest. Social unrest begets political instability… and as we saw in Egypt, political instability (and social unrest) begets a police state.

If you don’t want to be around for it, I’d suggest taking action immediately. The quick start guide is this:

1) Open a foreign bank account. Even if you don’t fund it yet, at least have the means to shovel your money overseas in a hurry. UrbanMan's comment: Good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck.

2) Park at least a portion of your savings in stable, inflation-proof assets, preferably overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck. Better to get what you can in Gold and Silver.

3) Look for alternate sources of income– don’t rely on the traditional job market or wait for the government and central bank to create jobs… everyone is good at something, most likely a lot of things. Think about how you can add value, how you can solve problems. UrbanMan's comment: This is called the multiple streams of income strategy. I use it and have solid contingency plans if I lose my job as losing one stream of income won't put me on my back.

4) Look at your own personal vulnerabilities. What would happen if you lost your job? If food became extremely expensive? If gas prices made normal commuting and errands cost prohibitive? If your healthcare became unaffordable? Consider lifestyle changes to reduce these vulnerabilities. UrbanMan's comment: I have a list of savings measures to be implemented upon various layers of inflation, such as cutting my landline telephone and cutting satellite television, reducing gasoline use, etc. I am already growing my own food, not in a quantity to completely feed myself by any means, but a fairly significant amount and plan to trade or barter vegetables for material and services when the collapse is significant enough.

5) Begin researching, in earnest, places overseas where you can go and can live comfortably with the right opportunities you’re looking for. Frequently, the lifestyle changes you need to make can be easily found overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's, but what is realistic is a Bug Out Plan to a Safe location. A must have is a safe place where you have a year round water sources and ability to grow your own food.

Look, if the skies open and some white knight comes riding in to save the day and stave off any major crisis, you won’t be any worse off for increasing your self-reliance and making preparations. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being cautious.

More than likely, though, the miraculous white knight will never come, and just a few years from now, people will be wondering, ‘how the hell did we ever reach this point?’

I think at that point, a few years from now, people will look back today and wonder why they didn’t see the warning signs… in the future, when hindsight is 20/20, it will seem to have been so obvious today.

Stop listening to national leadership and start listening to your instincts. They’re telling you that something’s wrong, and the clear, obvious facts confirm those suspicions. The only people who don’t get it are the ones pulling the strings.