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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
More role playing:
I dug my third out house now. It is not covered, so you still go where God and everybody can see you. I do keep the hole covered though. I don' want flies getting in it and then landing on my food or something. I still have plenty of toilet paper. Every place I go rummage through, I nab all the TP I can. I store the roles in my PVC pipe. The PVC keeps my roles dry. (Hey Rick will PVC work as a storage unit? I think it will keep stuff dry.)
Yes, you can use PVC pipe, sealed as a storage container, and bury it. It's actually a recommended way to do long term storage for items you want to cache away.
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I finally took the wagan into town. I was thinking that I would be able to pick up some supplies there. I hadn't been to town in over four years. I don't know how long I should stay where I am before it is safe to go out. So, I have stayed away from town thinking the virus may be active there. But I need more tools and lumber to build my bunker with.
The virus, whatever it was... killed most people. but not you? Perhaps you were immune to it? Perhaps you got it and you lived and are NOW immune to it? Perhaps you're a carrier....
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Well, the town is a ghost town and the shelves are emptied. So, I went from house to house for a while. I found some tin foil, plastic bags, trash bags, toilet paper, duct tape, wd40, books, some bandages and other first aid items, rope, chains, tools, axes, shovels, and some lumber to help build my bunker.
All good items to have. And you're at the point where you're now living. There's nothing in the way of civilization left, so you're using the materials from those long-gone to stay alive.....
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I found some clothes, sock hats, and blankets but I did not take them. I didn't know if someone had the virus and was using the blanket or clothes, if the virus would still be in the blanket. (Is this the right thing to do, or can you use these kinds of items? On a can of Lysol, it says it can be used on soft surfaces now. So, does that mean a blanket could hold a virus or germ? I don't know, and since I don't know I wouldn't gather items like clothes and blankets. I would mend my own. I think I would still use a bandage if it was wrapped in something and toilet paper and other items if it were wrapped. So, this little exercise is good because it may answer questions I have or correct me when I am wrong).
Again, you might be immune. As most of you are aware some of the first types of biological warfare was to pass smallpox infected blankets to the Indians. Before that, launching plague victims' bodies using catapults over the walls of a city.
So - yes, you can disinfect (at the risk of getting infected of course) but you could also find non-infected items in, say a store, assuming there's anything left there....
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Well, on my way back to my camp, I took a different route. I knew of some Amish in the area. I wanted to go by there and see if they made it. I found them surviving just fine. I traded some items with them. I received some preserves and other edibles. I need to make good friends with them; and maybe I can learn some things that will help make life easier. I may go rummage through town with the wagon more often. Then I can go trade with the Amish. Maybe if I become good friends with them they will help me build my bunker. If the Amish help build my bunker, it will be safe. ;-)
Two things... 1) Taking a different route back (good and bad). Good in that people aren't tracking you perhaps, bad in that if you don't know the area you might get into trouble. Then again, this is "survival mode" so you can make it through.
2) Making friends with the locals. ABSOLUTELY. Humans, ultimately are social creatures and being alone for a long time is probably not as healthy as you might think. I know spending weeks in the woods alone is not fun. I've done it before. It's... disconcerting to run across other people when you THINK you're alone and after a time you become suspicious of everything and everyone. Making friends is a GOOD thing.
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(What do you think live stock would be worth in a trade at this time? If the Amish had it, I would want some chickens, sheep, pigs, cows and bulls, actually almost anything! What do you think one would have to trade for a rooster and a hen? And would this be legal in our survival role play here and would the Amish be survivors? IMHO, I think the Amish have the best chance at survival and they are around my area. So, I would try to look them up. If they didn't make it, they may have some tools and stuff I could scrounge.)
In survival, all creatures, great and small are fair game.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Backstop
OK, so my truck in DNIF.
Seriously, I'd probably be dead within the first year.
If we get nuked AND invaded, which I believe is the correct scenario BTW, I'm packing my guns and heading for the front lines.
I know that sounds like a cop out for your thread, and sorry.
But that's exactly what I'd do.
No! Not a cop out at ALL. In fact, I'd do the same thing. Assuming of course there was an invasion.
In this scenario though - whatever ground invasion might have come, never materialized for some reason. Perhaps the virus got everyone, perhaps those still alive on ships at sea simply gave up and died? Who knows... but you never heard word that an invasion actually came....
So you might have traveled all the way to a coast in hopes of killing some of the people responsible... but, they never came....
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Good brainstorming guys.
Also, anyone that has knowledge of a subject someone has put down, it's not a problem to expound up on that information.
This is how we all learn (I like the oil well explanation, I have no idea...)
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Re: Role Playing Survival
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As most of you are aware some of the first types of biological warfare was to pass smallpox infected blankets to the Indians.
Have you researched this one? I have. Two blankets and 1 kerchief, in total is the entirety of documented smallpox blankets being given to indians. Around the same time the Injuns attacked the fort coming in direct contact with men who had smallpox. Shortly thereafter it was an epidemic for the Indians. Which do you think would be a better method for transmission?
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
Have you researched this one? I have. Two blankets and 1 kerchief, in total is the entirety of documented smallpox blankets being given to indians. Around the same time the Injuns attacked the fort coming in direct contact with men who had smallpox. Shortly thereafter it was an epidemic for the Indians. Which do you think would be a better method for transmission?
Obviously the handkerchief... assuming someone sneezed into it.
The point IS and remains, this is a true incident. Therefore it was "real biological warfare".
And in fact, it's a lesson from history. You can carry a LOT of germs to infect the population on a paper towel or in a vial. Easily hidden, easily released.
Also note that that there are (though I don't have any links at the moment) of historical references where bedding and clothing was burned after victims had suffered from certain types of epidemic diseases. Yellow Fever comes to mind, but I am not certain that's what it was. I recall reading something in several history books where a disease was referenced - a "fever" of some sort (which would likely equate to a virus) and the bedding, clothing and most items that a child might have were burned later after the victim died or became well again (to prevent the spread of the disease).
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
Being Amish isn't all about who birthed you although it goes a long way towards it. The Amish will accept Engishers into the Amish church. The issue is, it takes time and they have to get to know you. It may take many years before they'd accept you into the Amish church. Once they let you pledge however, you'd become a full member of their community and you'd be expected to act like Amish, completely. It is a difficult thing for me to think of a circumstance where I'd do such a thing, but my priorities would change drastically in a TEOTWAWKI scenario.
Cloth will still be around. One thing you do not want to do is to sleep on strange mattresses. Did you see that recent episode of Dirty Jobs? On average a 10 year old mattress weighs 20lbs more than the same mattress new. Yeech.
I used to pump those oil jacks when I lived in Ohio. They are pretty basic. Many use a single cylinder engine with a large flywheel that runs off of natural gas. The natural gas is tapped right from the wellhead casing. The motors I'm familiar with are a 110/220 Model number(unrelated to electricity) and have a single large flywheel. They are probably a modified steam design. They are easy to maintain and will continue to run even after the bearings are shot.
The one thing to keep in mind about pumping an oil well is that you can easily pump it dry, specially old wells. This is normal but it must be watched for. The main parts are the outer casing, a 12 inch or so pipe called "The casing". The inner pipe called "The tubing" and inside the tubing is connecting rods down to the bottom of the well called "sucker rods" and at the bottom is the pump. The pump is attached to the sucker rods and moves up and down inside of the tubing. The pump is just a series of rubber cups that act as 1 way values. They collapse inward when pushed down and flip outward when lifted. This lifts the oil and water from the bottom of the well.
At the well head, there is a polished rod, called "the polish rod" (That's polish as in furnature polish, not the country). The polish rod sits inside a housing with some rubber seals so that when oil and water come up from the well it doesn't squirt out right at the top. This is the silvery looking thing you see when a pump jack is going up and down. The sucker rod runs through the polish rod, down into the well. Here's what happens when you pump the well. The oil is cold as it comes up. As you're pumping the well and oil starts to come out, the polish rod gets cold. When the well has pumped off the oil for the day(or whatever period), it starts pumping water. Every oil well has salt water in it, it's an issue of how much oil to water ratio. This is super saturated salt water. If you ever get a chance, taste it. It's amazingly salty.
Once the well starts to pump water, the lubrication on the polish rod goes away and it gets warm due to friction on the bushings. If you continue to pump it, the bushings can catch fire as you can pump all the water out and the bushing will over heat. You tend to learn over time how much a well can pump. When you first start with a well, you have to check it constantly. Even old old wells can usually run for at least 24 hours but you don't know that until you know it.
I would think that you could use the saltwater from the well for something. It has a strong petro chemical smell, but there must be a way to leech out the salts for preservatives or something. If nothing else, a dusty road covered with saltwater from a well will harden like pavement for a while. Re-apply as needed.
Well, enough about that. heh. I'm not sure who has made it all the way to the bottom here, but if you have any questions about oil wells I can probably answer them.
Great stuff Mal! I am wondering if everybody here is a genius? Lots of good data from you folks. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Now, how do we refine it? :D
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rick Donaldson
Yes, you can use PVC pipe, sealed as a storage container, and bury it. It's actually a recommended way to do long term storage for items you want to cache away.
The virus, whatever it was... killed most people. but not you? Perhaps you were immune to it? Perhaps you got it and you lived and are NOW immune to it? Perhaps you're a carrier....
All good items to have. And you're at the point where you're now living. There's nothing in the way of civilization left, so you're using the materials from those long-gone to stay alive.....
Again, you might be immune. As most of you are aware some of the first types of biological warfare was to pass smallpox infected blankets to the Indians. Before that, launching plague victims' bodies using catapults over the walls of a city.
So - yes, you can disinfect (at the risk of getting infected of course) but you could also find non-infected items in, say a store, assuming there's anything left there....
Two things... 1) Taking a different route back (good and bad). Good in that people aren't tracking you perhaps, bad in that if you don't know the area you might get into trouble. Then again, this is "survival mode" so you can make it through.
2) Making friends with the locals. ABSOLUTELY. Humans, ultimately are social creatures and being alone for a long time is probably not as healthy as you might think. I know spending weeks in the woods alone is not fun. I've done it before. It's... disconcerting to run across other people when you THINK you're alone and after a time you become suspicious of everything and everyone. Making friends is a GOOD thing.
In survival, all creatures, great and small are fair game.
Thanks for the input Rick! It is a learning process. I appreciate everybody's feedback.
I thought about the different route thing. In my role play, I decided to take a different route to see if there were survivors in the Amish Community, not to protect my six. After thinking about it a bit, I think you may be right to take a route back that you would know. Expecially having a horse and wagon. To outlaws or other survivors, a horse alone would be worth killing me over. So, I would say a recon mission into town more then once and taking different routes to learn the area would be necessary (without the horse and wagon).
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
Thanks for the input Rick! It is a learning process. I appreciate everybody's feedback.
I thought about the different route thing. In my role play, I decided to take a different route to see if there were survivors in the Amish Community, not to protect my six. After thinking about it a bit, I think you may be right to take a route back that you would know. Expecially having a horse and wagon. To outlaws or other survivors, a horse alone would be worth killing me over. So, I would say a recon mission into town more then once and taking different routes to learn the area would be necessary (without the horse and wagon).
Right. I think my point would be taking a different route without KNOWING the route could be dangerous and put you someplace you don't wish to be.
In normal, everyday life, I have several routes to and from work. And I change them often. I rarely take the same route to or from work every day.
I do that NOW, on a daily basis. It's also a survival mechanism.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rick Donaldson
Right. I think my point would be taking a different route without KNOWING the route could be dangerous and put you someplace you don't wish to be.
In normal, everyday life, I have several routes to and from work. And I change them often. I rarely take the same route to or from work every day.
I do that NOW, on a daily basis. It's also a survival mechanism.
I have superstition in me. If things are going well, I dress the same way, drive the same route, pretty much stay in the same routine. Then when things start to change, I change and when things start working well again, I take up the new routine.
Strange, I know, but I am like that. I played on a baseball (I was a catcher) and we went 22-1 for the season. I wouldn't wash the winning dirt off my uniform. I hide my uniform from Mom because I knew she wouldn't understand. It was ripe, but it had all the winning dirt on it. I had a cut off shirt that I wore under my pads in Football. At one point the thing smelt like ammonia and could walk to my locker on it's own, but I still wore it. I would tell the guys on my team that the other team may tackle me once, but they wont want to tackle me twice. :D
So, I will have to lose some of them superstitions now. Not going to be easy for me. I know it is superstition and has nothing to do with the events of the day, but I still do the things I do. And the worst part is, I can not tell you why I am that way.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
And did I ever tell you guys that I was a tail back when I played football?
When I ran out on the field, the Coach would yell, 'get your tail back here'.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
I was an Assback. All they ever saw of me was my ass and back. I didn't like jocks much. To look at them would elicit this http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/9...s/threatme.wav
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
I have superstition in me. If things are going well, I dress the same way, drive the same route, pretty much stay in the same routine. Then when things start to change, I change and when things start working well again, I take up the new routine.
This is not superstition (though you might consider it superstition). Human beings, in general are resistive and some times violently reactive to change. I freely admit "I hate change" and some things I do, like take different routes to work is not something I took lightly.
Given my job/career and my years and years of experience with things that enforce change upon people (like crime, terrorism, and the military) I reluctantly chose "change" as a normal existence.
Thus - my reasoning for taking new routes is based not on a necessity - not really, but a caring for keeping my ass alive. People who are attacked by terrorists, or grabbed for information, killed in foreign countries invariably had one thing in common. They did NOT vary their lifestyle one bit.
I know of a particular incident where two individuals were targeted and subsequently murdered in a particular country. Both of them actually worked for the CIA, neither had any connection with the "intelligence" side of things, but worked on communications equipment.
Both were stalked for weeks and killed one more. Innocent guys who both left behind young wives and children. All they had to do was avoid going the same route every day and they'd likely be alive - or at least made it more difficult to get killed.
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Strange, I know, but I am like that. I played on a baseball (I was a catcher) and we went 22-1 for the season. I wouldn't wash the winning dirt off my uniform. I hide my uniform from Mom because I knew she wouldn't understand. It was ripe, but it had all the winning dirt on it. I had a cut off shirt that I wore under my pads in Football. At one point the thing smelt like ammonia and could walk to my locker on it's own, but I still wore it. I would tell the guys on my team that the other team may tackle me once, but they wont want to tackle me twice. :D
haha
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So, I will have to lose some of them superstitions now. Not going to be easy for me. I know it is superstition and has nothing to do with the events of the day, but I still do the things I do. And the worst part is, I can not tell you why I am that way.
As I said in this game it's a game. Do what you will, but always, without fail EXPECT the UNEXPECTED!
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
I can understand.
I loved to play ball. I wasn't bad at baseball. I liked catching because you were in every play. I could remember what the guy did at his last at bat and I would adjust the pitching and fielders accordingly. I was taught that the catcher is the commander on the field. You direct the players and keep their head in the game. I made All Stars two years of little league and two years of Pony League. I rarely let the ball get past me. My Dad was a catcher and he coached me well when I was little.
I did go to work the last couple of years of HS and stopped playing around. I liked making money better. I did run Cross Country and played on the Golf Team my Senior year. I played golf for fun and ran CC to get in shape for the Army. I suck at golf. I hate the sport. I have a slice I never could correct (they tell me I havea baseball swing). Well, there is a set of clubs at the bottom of a pond in Billerica, MA. They 'fell' in the pond in the late 80's sometime and I have never played since. I call myself a fisherman now.
At least I can use fishing skills in a :shtf:situation.
Enough of this babble!
:1ontopic:
Now, one thing in this scenerio that we have been talking about. I am in the woods and I have some distance between me and most of my loved ones. I would want to join the fight, but I would also want to go help my family survive. With everything down, and being out in the woods, how would you know anything at all? I have some radios, but batteries wont last forever. After the batteries go, you are not going to know if it is safe in one area or not, you are not going to know anything. So, I think if I didn't know everybody was affected, I would chance trying to go help my family. That could prove to be a wrong move though.
:shrug:
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rick Donaldson
This is not superstition (though you might consider it superstition). Human beings, in general are resistive and some times violently reactive to change. I freely admit "I hate change" and some things I do, like take different routes to work is not something I took lightly.
Given my job/career and my years and years of experience with things that enforce change upon people (like crime, terrorism, and the military) I reluctantly chose "change" as a normal existence.
Thus - my reasoning for taking new routes is based not on a necessity - not really, but a caring for keeping my ass alive. People who are attacked by terrorists, or grabbed for information, killed in foreign countries invariably had one thing in common. They did NOT vary their lifestyle one bit.
I know of a particular incident where two individuals were targeted and subsequently murdered in a particular country. Both of them actually worked for the CIA, neither had any connection with the "intelligence" side of things, but worked on communications equipment.
Both were stalked for weeks and killed one more. Innocent guys who both left behind young wives and children. All they had to do was avoid going the same route every day and they'd likely be alive - or at least made it more difficult to get killed.
haha
As I said in this game it's a game. Do what you will, but always, without fail EXPECT the UNEXPECTED!
Yea, I can understand why one would change their route and that is not superstition. Just pure survival. But not changing your route because all seems to be going well is superstition. And I do that and don't know why. :confused: And I have done these kind of things all my life. I can't say it is because I don't like change, because let the tide turn sour in my life and I start putting my right sock on first instead of my left. That is superstition and silly, but I do it.
And here is the kicker: I believe that people create their own luck in life. Someone may say you are lucky that you survived. No, I put myself in the situation a few times, taught myself the basics, and preparred my needs ahead of time. I created my own luck. I am not going to survive because I put my left sock on first. But if I am surving while I put my left sock on first, that is the way it will stay until things start to change on me. I think that is weird, but I do it anyway.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
:1ontopic:
Now, one thing in this scenerio that we have been talking about. I am in the woods and I have some distance between me and most of my loved ones. I would want to join the fight, but I would also want to go help my family survive. With everything down, and being out in the woods, how would you know anything at all? I have some radios, but batteries wont last forever. After the batteries go, you are not going to know if it is safe in one area or not, you are not going to know anything. So, I think if I didn't know everybody was affected, I would chance trying to go help my family. That could prove to be a wrong move though.
:shrug:
I got it! Problem solved for a while. I am in a campground here. Most Motor homes have a radio in them. There are RV batteries all over the campground. Each camper has at least one and there are boats everywhere too. I have four deep cell batteries in my motorhome, but I have a backup system. In anycase, you could swap out batteries for some time around here and then acquire car batteries. I don't think a car battery would last as long as a deep cell, but I think it would work for a while. No?
I have never seen a car battery in a camper. Anybody? I am pretty sure I have only seen the deep cells.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
I got it! Problem solved for a while. I am in a campground here. Most Motor homes have a radio in them. There are RV batteries all over the campground. Each camper has at least one and there are boats everywhere too. I have four deep cell batteries in my motorhome, but I have a backup system. In anycase, you could swap out batteries for some time around here and then acquire car batteries. I don't think a car battery would last as long as a deep cell, but I think it would work for a while. No?
I have never seen a car battery in a camper. Anybody? I am pretty sure I have only seen the deep cells.
Motor homes... = solar panels on many of them. Viola, charged batteries, assuming they still work.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
Yea, I can understand why one would change their route and that is not superstition. Just pure survival. But not changing your route because all seems to be going well is superstition. And I do that and don't know why. :confused: And I have done these kind of things all my life. I can't say it is because I don't like change, because let the tide turn sour in my life and I start putting my right sock on first instead of my left. That is superstition and silly, but I do it.
And here is the kicker: I believe that people create their own luck in life. Someone may say you are lucky that you survived. No, I put myself in the situation a few times, taught myself the basics, and preparred my needs ahead of time. I created my own luck. I am not going to survive because I put my left sock on first. But if I am surving while I put my left sock on first, that is the way it will stay until things start to change on me. I think that is weird, but I do it anyway.
I believe in making your own luck.
The more you practice something, the better you get at it. Luck, as in finding something to live off is one thing. KNOWING where to look for that deer, or the rifle, bullet, or how to make a bow and arrow... then you MAKE your luck.
You have a better than even chance of running across a deer in the wild. You have a better than even chance of getting that deer if you KNOW how to make a bow, shoot it and kill something.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rick Donaldson
Motor homes... = solar panels on many of them. Viola, charged batteries, assuming they still work.
Yes, I would think solar panels would work well with deep cell batteries because they are recharchable. I don't think car batteries are recharchable.
How do you make Field expediate solar panels?
I guess, what I would do in this role play scenerio, I would recon houses for the solar panels. Once I found some, I would take the wagon to the houses and aquire them and the wireing.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/...make-gasoline/
I haven't watched all the videos. It will take me all evening to download the videos because of my connection speed out here in the boondocks.
It is probably a low level explanation, but it is a start.
Hey, what are you lauging at? I plan on being a oil tycoon after the SHTF! :D
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Well fellas, I gotta go for a while. I have to go to Walmart. I hate going to Walmart too. It is 25 miles from here and it seems like you walk about 25 miles in the store too. I hate it when they move stuff on me and then I end up wondering all over looking for it. Pisses me off when that happpens. I think they do it on purpose. I need a clear shower curtain or two. I am going to hang it on the canapy of my boat to black the wind when I am cruising. It is getting cold. I need insulation for my outside water line too. I said that so I don't forget.
OH, don't make me go!
Alright, I am going now.
But for the fun of it, I am going to ask the greeter at Walmart if he/she knows if they sell boxes of grid squares; and if they fall for that one I am going to ask them if they sell PickleSniffers. I don't know if I could say PickleSniffer with a straight face though.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
Yes, I would think solar panels would work well with deep cell batteries because they are recharchable. I don't think car batteries are recharchable.
How do you make Field expediate solar panels?
I guess, what I would do in this role play scenerio, I would recon houses for the solar panels. Once I found some, I would take the wagon to the houses and aquire them and the wireing.
Car batteries will recharge just fine... IF they haven't sat there too long and the cells fail. But remember in our scenario there are cars sitting all over the place, you're likely (with some work) to find one or two good or at least decent batteries.
Remember a lot of folks have spare batteries aboard their motor homes and believe it or not, many of them will be deep cycle batteries. Another place to locate batteries (though most will be 6V instead of 12, so you might have to get some and put them in series) are golf carts. Those too, are generally deep cycle batteries.
Marinas with boats. Those should be marine/deep cycle batteries
Field expedient solar panel? You're not going to do that most likely. Find an existing solar panel and just use that to charge your batteries. Remember you will need to disconnect them at night (yes some have diodes to prevent discharge back through the panel from the battery, but don't count on that).
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
Well fellas, I gotta go for a while. I have to go to Walmart. I hate going to Walmart too. It is 25 miles from here and it seems like you walk about 25 miles in the store too. I hate it when they move stuff on me and then I end up wondering all over looking for it. Pisses me off when that happpens. I think they do it on purpose.
Exactly the reason I hate ALL those big box places. The worst in Home Depot.
Quote:
But for the fun of it, I am going to ask the greeter at Walmart if he/she knows if they sell boxes of grid squares; and if they fall for that one I am going to ask them if they sell PickleSniffers. I don't know if I could say PickleSniffer with a straight face though.
Grid squares sounds like floor tiling to me. Picklesniffers sounds like homos.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Just a note on car batteries. Automotive car batteries can work just fine, the difference is they are not designed to discharge completely. A deep cycle can be run dead, get a charge and work fine but for longest life, never completely discharge it. Try not to go below 20%. A standard car battery cannot be fully discharged more than a few times until it's shot. If you only run a car battery down to no more than 50%, it will recharge and work fine for a long time.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
Just a note on car batteries. Automotive car batteries can work just fine, the difference is they are not designed to discharge completely. A deep cycle can be run dead, get a charge and work fine but for longest life, never completely discharge it. Try not to go below 20%. A standard car battery cannot be fully discharged more than a few times until it's shot. If you only run a car battery down to no more than 50%, it will recharge and work fine for a long time.
My only concern with car batteries is something most people wouldn't consider... that the newer cars have computers that function ALL the time, there's a constant current drain on them even when the vehicle is off. That means over a couple of years that battery WILL be dead and drained completely.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Rick, that is a definite problem. My 08 Honda often sits for months with that red security light flashing all the time. I've considered adding a solar trickle charger to it.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Yep :)
It's really not something people think about. All the newer cars and trucks have computers. They pull a constant current and certainly if you stick a small solar panel, say in the window or something and run it through to the battery, that's going to keep the car battery charged.
Make sure though, that you put in a blocking diode in the circuit because you don't want the car battery to DISCHARGE through the solar panel!
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
Exactly the reason I hate ALL those big box places. The worst in Home Depot.
Grid squares sounds like floor tiling to me. Picklesniffers sounds like homos.
LOL
A grid square is on a map and I aint sure what a pickle sniffer is, but it does sound kinda funny and I don't mean ha ha. No wait, it is funny ha ha too! :)
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
Just a note on car batteries. Automotive car batteries can work just fine, the difference is they are not designed to discharge completely. A deep cycle can be run dead, get a charge and work fine but for longest life, never completely discharge it. Try not to go below 20%. A standard car battery cannot be fully discharged more than a few times until it's shot. If you only run a car battery down to no more than 50%, it will recharge and work fine for a long time.
OK, that must have been what happened to me. I put my car battery on the charger one night cause my car wouldn't start and the battery would not charge. So, it must have been shot. Well, that gave me the idear that car bateries won't charge. Good stuff to know here folks! I know I have thanked y'all before, but again I msut thank you for the data.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rick Donaldson
Car batteries will recharge just fine... IF they haven't sat there too long and the cells fail. But remember in our scenario there are cars sitting all over the place, you're likely (with some work) to find one or two good or at least decent batteries.
Remember a lot of folks have spare batteries aboard their motor homes and believe it or not, many of them will be deep cycle batteries. Another place to locate batteries (though most will be 6V instead of 12, so you might have to get some and put them in series) are golf carts. Those too, are generally deep cycle batteries.
Marinas with boats. Those should be marine/deep cycle batteries
Field expedient solar panel? You're not going to do that most likely. Find an existing solar panel and just use that to charge your batteries. Remember you will need to disconnect them at night (yes some have diodes to prevent discharge back through the panel from the battery, but don't count on that).
There are several golf carts and ATV's in the camp ground here. Lot's of folks have them here. There is also boat storage units all around the area. I would go through these storage units and get what I could use. If it wasn't four years into our scenerio, I would also gather the gas up and use it on my own boat. Come to think about it, in this scenerio, I would probably even get me a new bass boat! :) Just kiddin, because I am not a thief. But I would say in this kind of role play, you are not stealing in this situation. You are surviving. If I died before others, I would want them to use my stuff to survive.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
I'm not a thief either, but, in this scenario, I'm certainly getting me a new boat. Hell, who is gonna stop me? Or use it? Me.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rick Donaldson
I'm not a thief either, but, in this scenario, I'm certainly getting me a new boat. Hell, who is gonna stop me? Or use it? Me.
Yup, but I think when you go looking for stuff, you need to be real careful and recon the area. There may be other survivors thinking the same as you and you may want to be careful of them.
Also, I was thinking about this. Say you aquired a horse and you wanted to feed him. They have big bails of hay all over this area. The feed the horses with them. I wonder how long those things could sit before they go bad. I think the bails get moldy after a while.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
going back to what Beetle said before...
I wonder if signs will help.
http://www.minntrapprod.com/catalog/images/BearSign.jpg
With a board below it that says "They're all hidden, keep walking, you'll find 'em" in red spray paint.
Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just own some bear traps.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
going back to what Beetle said before...
I wonder if signs will help.
http://www.minntrapprod.com/catalog/images/BearSign.jpg
With a board below it that says "They're all hidden, keep walking, you'll find 'em" in red spray paint.
Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just own some bear traps.
Might want that written in Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
:victory::laugh::rofl2::lool::rotfl::lolhit::lolab ove:
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Did you draw that Mal? If so, NIIIIICE work!!!
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beetle
Did you draw that Mal? If so, NIIIIICE work!!!
Yes I did. LOL.
That is genuinely about as good as I can draw. :D
It's so bad, it looks like a 4yo did it, which is what makes it funny.
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Re: Role Playing Survival
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Malsua
Yes I did. LOL.
That is genuinely about as good as I can draw. :D
It's so bad, it looks like a 4yo did it, which is what makes it funny.
LOL It kilt me. And I had a feeling you did it too. That was :cool:
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Re: Role Playing Survival
This is a continuation of the narrative I posted at the top of Thread Page 2. Rick, if you would rather I didn't post this type of hypothetical writing here, would you let me know. This one is a bit more speculative, a bit more fantastical. I hope it lends some level of use for this thread.
____________
Briggs snapped awake. The violence of the unknown interruption erased all fatigue from his mind. He never really slept that well anyway. Something had invaded his not-so- REM-sleep, something unknown. And “unknown” immediately translated to “threat” in the extant world of death and devastation.
*Snap* He rotated to locate the noise, scanning the darkness for any sign of movement. It was dark, coal mine dark without the oil lamps. The wind was blowing, just strong enough to disrupt sensory input. He thought he could hear someone (something?) moving through the dried prairie grass. Certain not to move a muscle, he listened with the acuity of a military scout. He made out a human voice whispered to at least one other person. He now knew what he was up against.
Briggs made camp on the west-facing side of Davidson Mesa just below the ridgeline as the sunset bathed the land in its fiery light. He settled against a grouping of large sandstone boulders along a steep slope that overlooked ninety-five percent of the Boulder Valley. The city, the university and all the homes of the upper crust were obliterated, replaced with twisted black destruction.
The five-hundred kiloton nuke that visited its ruin upon Boulder, a Russian SS-27 Topol-M, originated from a mobile launch vehicle deep in the Siberian wasteland. The single warhead penetrated US airspace above Wyoming and air burst detonated a few minutes later over the Pearl Street Mall killing one hundred thousand Boulderites instantly. The hotspot at ground zero, soil, cars, building materials and groundwater activated by the initial nuclear radiation, had barely faded, even after four years. The hazardous radius around the blast point wasn’t enormous but deserved respect nonetheless. Briggs would skirt the edge of what would have been the southern limits of Boulder and head for Eldorado Canyon.
The intruders closed in on his small encampment up the slope from the west. The starlight backlit two figures long enough for Briggs to pinpoint a fix. Two people, close formation, slightly crouched and climbing toward his vantage point. He waited in hiding until they drew close, twenty feet… nowhere to run. He depressed the trigger on the pump action 870, discharging a single round of the precious double-ought buck into the ground at the feet of his adversaries. The round echoed like the concussion of a howitzer in the still of the night. Dirt and gravel flew everywhere. Both prowlers screamed in surprise and froze solid.
“You take another step and you’ll be bleeding.” Briggs circled around the far side of the largest boulder. “Turn toward me and sit cross legged with your hands in the air. If you move – I mean even the slightest twitch – you’ll be spouting holes you never had before.”
He cut two three foot lengths of rope from a coil attached to his ruck. He handed one length to intruder number-one, “Tie your friend’s hands.” The figure complied. Briggs tied up number-one and checked number-two’s rigging before forcing them apart from each other, face down in the rocky soil. He did a quick body search for concealed weapons.
“Now talk! What are you doing up here? Are you scoping the area for one of the ten factions?”
“Factions? No. My brother and I saw you from a couple miles off, earlier today. Man, we haven’t talked with anyone in months. We just wanted to talk.”
Only then did Briggs realize he was putting the screws to two kids. “You’re kids. I can’t believe this.” He helped both boys back to a sitting position. “How old are you and what are your names?”
Number-one did all the talking. His entire body shook as he tried to explain, “I’m Kevin and this is my brother Jake. He’s fourteen and I’m sixteen.”
“Have you got any weapons on you?”
“Just a hunting knife, and you found that,” Kevin said.
“You’ve been surviving since the nukes with a hunting knife? I don’t believe you,” Briggs said.
“Well not exactly,” Kevin began to elaborate. “After everything went to hell, my parents and older sister were killed by the virus. I got real sick but somehow managed to survive. Jake never picked up even one symptom. After a week, I got better. Real sudden like. It was if something in my body kicked the virus out. One day I had a 104 fever and puking everywhere, the next day, I felt a lot better.”
Briggs looked at the boys, his skeptical nature showing through. He waved his right hand in a circular motion as if to say, “Tell me more.”
“We lived with our parents up Coal Creek Canyon. After our parents died, we survived for about two months on the food and water we had stored. When the food ran out, we realized that we needed to change our plan. We took day trips from the house over that two month period, trying to find food, supplies and answers.”
“What answers,” Briggs demanded.
“Anything. What’d happened? Who was still alive? Was there any law or government left that could help us? Like that,” Kevin said.
“What’d you find?”
“Well, we quickly discovered that most of the areas close in to the cities and bigger towns were crawling with the wild people. Do you know who I mean? The wild people?”
Briggs thought back to his first encounter with the roving mobs the boys called “the wild people.” He needed supplies one summer day four weeks after the missiles came and decided to explore what remained of Fort Lupton. He avoided the individuals and small groups of people staking claims on the more valuable stores and houses in the area. He kept to the shadows and moved only when no one was looking. He gathered all he could find in a one hour period of time. Not wanting to be a victim of his own carelessness, Briggs walked quickly with his stash for the outskirts.
The sun was setting and the shadows started to play tricks on his eyes. He was only a few hundred yards from the nearest farm field when he heard what sounded like a human howl. The call was answered by yells and screams from a larger group a bit further away. He hit the dirt and crawled on his stomach to a rusted hulk that was once an old tow truck rig. Hidden in the shadows beneath the burned out truck, Briggs peered out to witness a scene that caused him great distress.
The mob had captured a man from somewhere in the business district and dragged him toward a large Quonset hut set back off the main road. The man, gaunt and malnourished, was struggling to get free but was no match for the mass of distorted humanity that held him captive. After reaching the Quonset hut, the mob turned vicious. Briggs saw only a fraction of what really happened. The captive’s screams coupled with Briggs’ imagination provided sufficient description. Rumors circulated among the rational people that the wild mobs consisted of people somehow infected with a mutated strain of the virus. They were reasonable, sensible citizens who were altered by the mutant strain just enough to distort their collective reality. Unable to think in a lucid manner, the wild people often resorted to cannibalism. They were to be avoided at all costs.
“Yeah, I know all about the mobs,” Briggs answered. “You need to stay away from them. What else did you learn on your fact finding missions?”
“We ran into groups of people patrolling the Front Range region. They appeared to be assembled under some kind of formal leadership. We were told later that these groups were known as factions. Green Faction exercises control over what remains of Boulder. Gray Faction… Longmont, I-25 and Erie.”
“Yup, that’s correct,” Briggs said. “There are at least ten factions controlling the sectors surrounding Denver. The overall leadership, if you can call it that, lies with a warlord named Kresh. No one that I’ve spoken with knows where his headquarters is. Some say he holes up in a bunker near the old airport. Others are convinced he’s in the mountains… Idaho Springs or Genesee. I’ve got my suspicions. It’s not relevant, though. Fact is, even with ongoing wars between the factions, Kresh and his Black Faction are in control. Many have died in his quest for power. Of this you can be certain.”
“Who are you?” Kevin asked. “Are you a member of a faction?”
“I’m nobody. You should learn what questions not to ask, kid.”
“I didn’t mean any harm,” Kevin said. “Jake and I have been on our own for a long time now. We were approached by members of the Blue Faction. They wanted us to join them in return for protection, shelter and regular meals.”
“Why didn’t you?” Briggs wondered aloud.
“There was something not quite right about their offer. They were hiding something. We heard enough rumors of forced servitude and slave labor within the factions to give us concern. We managed to evade Blue’s coercion and keep to ourselves ever since.”
“Why seek out other people now? What’s changed since then?” Briggs had a ray of compassion for the brothers. His constant vigilance would never subside, but as his thoughts returned to Will and Sarah, his heart melted just a little.
“Look mister, we’re lonely and barely getting by. It gets harder every day to find food. We need to be part of a family, a community. A group of people we can be dedicated to. Do you know what I mean?”
“I do.” Briggs stared off into the distance toward the brightening horizon as if trying to recollect what it was like to be a part of a family. It wasn’t clear, but the memories were there.
“I know what you’re getting at, Kevin.” Briggs said. “Part of me would like the same exact thing. I’m headed into the mountains in search of just such a community. You can come with me if you want.”
“You serious?” Kevin said. Both boys looked hopeful.
“Yeah. You can come along on one condition.”
“Name it,” Kevin said.
“You’ve got to listen to me. I’m in charge of our little group. The moment you start to freelance, I’m out of here and you guys are on your own again. You willing to make that sacrifice?”
Kevin looked at Jake. The silent conversation between them reached a conclusion. “We are.”
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Re: Role Playing Survival
MinutemanCO,
I can not encourage you enough to pursue a writing career.
Seriously.
Great stuff.