No language barrier here my friend. Just a close observation of your behavior and it's inappropriateness is all. That is as far as I'm concerned. Be well.

I don't know why anyone that wants to be a prepper would want to buy a book when they can learn everything they need to know on the internet for free. Fire starter perhaps??

I grew up in a National Forest playing in the woods drinking from streams. My parents moved us to the suburbs where all my friends were smoking pot and snorting cocaine in their garages, which is something I didn't want to do with my life. So I started running away from home at age fourteen and spent many many years living in the woods with homeless people. If you want to get advice on prepping, I'd suggest you talk to them - not magicians on an internet forum. Homeless people are already surviving on nothing and know how to live in the woods.

I survived Hurricane Hugo under a tarp in the woods ... it was a direct hit with the eye over me for roughly twenty minutes or so. The sky went from pitch black and raining to the most beautiful blue sky and white clouds I have ever witnessed with I don't know how many thousands of birds chirping like crazy (they fly into the center of the storm and follow it North, survival). To this day it still feels like God was looking me directly in the eye during that storm - three days standing under a tarp with no food water or sleep ... just a fire blowing smoke in my face - and I have never not once ever complained to Him about it - I wouldn't give up that experience for anything.

Today my house is surrounded by Gardens, I have rain water collectors and an atmospheric harvester, a solar array supplies my electric, I don't use refrigerator or air conditioners, I haven't drove in years ... I do have a bike but I prefer to walk because it is easier to scavenge resources on foot - I scavenge a lot of supplies (curbside alerts, dumpster diving, etc). My first instinct is to find it for free, what I call "off the money-grid". I cook over fire using "wood gasifier" stoves I make from tin cans to reduce firewood.

Here, free survival tip: you mention scouts and military, if I am not mistaken they teach that you have to find water within three days or you will die - that is a lie. Everything in nature is roughly eighty percent water: a tomato is eighty percent water, a melon is eighty percent water, you are eighty percent water, the Earth itself is covered in roughly eighty percent water. So if you find food, you also find water. Chewing grass and spitting out the fiber is finding enough water to keep you alive - you can eat the fiber, but it is hard to digest ... juice it with your teeth, eat the seeds. Almost all grass is editable, "wheat" itself is technically a grass and probably already your primary diet.

The only time you need to find water in three days is if you are cooking food which dehydrates it, learn to eat raw. Hunting takes time, skill, gear, weapons ... finding plants is faster and easier - there are over a hundred and twenty thousand editable plants on Earth, you most likely are only familiar with a couple of dozen of them available in the grocery store. I eat a paleo-vegan diet, mostly "seed that produces fruit of it's own kind" (not hybrid or GMO).

Okay so hope that is useful.

-JoeJoe

My reason for writing the book is because while it's true that there is much information online, in a grid down situation it may be useless. Also You have to know what your looking for when searching online. There are topics cover in my book outside the normal search quarries of survival an preparedness. As to your instance that all the training about the 3 day rule of water procurement is wrong I beg to differ. Depending on the food you eat you could actually exacerbate dehydration given salt and fat content in the food. Your tip on chewing grass is not only well known but taught to many in the military. But here is an even better tip for water not often seen on the internet. Have you heard of a product called the "Shamwwow" https://www.shamwow.com/SHMWOW/6.0000/Index.dtm?otsid=9912 well this thing has so many uses we all had them in our BOB (Bug Out Bags) a grab and go bag used in an emergency filled with basic gear to help you survive. During the early morning hours just at about sun up a due can be found on most foliage in a given area. Now this will depend on many factors but when this due is present you can used the shamwow to sop up the water and drinking to you hearts content by ringing out into you mouth.

If you don't have a shamwow you can use just about any absorbent cloth material but the shamwow is really great for this and so many other uses. So to reiterate why have a physical book on survival and preparedness, when the lights go out and electricity is gone your will be glad you have something you can read by candle light and in the daytime. Oh and one more thing as I said my whole life has been centered around my skills not just scouting and military. So before you think you know me like so many on this board think, check yourself and realize that I only give away what I'm comfortable letting people know in the open forums. In private I have shared with those I trust much more of my story. This might surprise you and others that not only solidify my expertise on this and other subjects but would shock you into asking how it is I'm here and alive.

The problem made by many people on this board is that they really believe in their so called psychic ability and think they can use it to judge and attribute falsehoods to others. It's not only frustrating but quite annoying.

Lastly let me say Joe that you seem to be a real "survivalist" (by the way do your know who coined that word? I lived with him while in the states) and that's a good thing. Just remember that what works for you is not the be all end all of survival and even YOU can learn something. The day we stop learning is the day we die.

Can't you just suck the dew off of the leaves directly?

And, are you going to release the book in digital form?

Also, in the event of a societal collapse, is it your opinion that you should move away from big cities, or try to utilize the infrastructure?

Yes you can but not in as great a quantity.



No!



That's a very broad question and depends on many factors like age, home fortification, your group of lack of one, community in general, proximity to escape routes and possible ambush. I can't answer the question without more information.

I'd still be wary about using a Shamwow. That thing has to be chemically treated, and I'm a pretty organic kind of guy.

Why not release the book in digital form?
We'll still have generators/solar/wind etc, and rechargeable batteries, no?

I live in Brooklyn, a part of NYC. I could walk out to the wilderness pretty easily.

My feeling is that in such an event we would quickly revert to the rule of brute force (which would be a dammn shame), and true fortification on an individual level would be impossible. I don't think I could live with myself if I were part of a group that used the situation to justify violence; and since I have little survival training, I'd be screwed.

Brooklyn huh are you familiar with an area around Church and McDonald a bit off Ocean Parkway? I visited friends there. The little I know of Brooklyn I'm not sure how you would just walk out? Remember most major city's don't see many preppers and those who do prep are often consider "out there". More than likely the gangs will take what they want from most people going from building to building killing those that won't give it up. Even if you can avoid the gangs you will have to deal with desperate people with nothing to lose. They will take your life for a crust of bread. EVENTUALLY things will calm down and groups who band together will survive and learn to barter and trade for things they need and want but in the early stages avoidance and stealth will have to be the prescription of the time.

Violence is nothing to be afraid of. Train NOW to deal with violent encounters. Krav Mega, improvised weapons, explosives are just the beginning of what you will need in the dark days. BUT YOU MUST START NOW before the SHTF.

Btw if you thinking that Prospect Park will be safe your wrong. As Joe mentioned the homeless will have it locked up for sure. If that is your plan practice "Gray Man" tactics to blend with those indigenous to the park. Old smelly clothes, growth on your face and very little in terms of gear. Fixed blade knife for sure but little else.

My paternal grandparents house is in that area, so I know it well.

Of course my first priority would be just what it is now, which is to see to my sons well being; but if I were alone I'd start walking south, and try to get to the Carolina's or there about.
I figure it's better not to have to deal with harsh winters, but it's all academic anyway.

The freaking out/running amok scenario is as likely as any other afaic.

Let's work to make a world where none of this comes to be in our lifetimes.

I'm very familiar with the area you are talking about. There is a large cemetery not too far away, so that's convenient.

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst my friend.

There you go already failing ... there are no "products" in the wilderness ... a survivalist can walk into a national forest naked and survive indefinitely. My bug-out bag is empty, it is not for carrying store bought products ... it is for carrying the stuff I find, if you are carrying gear you can't carry food that you find.



There is no "fat" in plants. See, you think you know what you are talking about, but you don't. You have been lied to and you believe the lie, I'm just being honest with you.



That is why my bug-out bag is empty. I don't want to be killed over a shammy. See, I know what I'm doing already. When the **** hits the fan cops will be a bigger problem then gangs, it is the government that will be doing all the looting.

Gangs won't kill me ... they'd be killing themselves because I know how to find food and they don't. Your version of survival is the typical bunker down with tin cans and shot guns ... that will get you killed, if you don't share you are going to have problems.

If I encounter gangs, I'll be offering them food and instead of killing me they will protect me.



Yeah, and I also said I'd be living with them. Right there in the center surviving with them ... not trying to sell them a book. Everyone is going to be wearing old smelly clothes, growth on our faces, and very little gear. You shouldn't judge people like that, most homeless people I know are good people. When I lived on the streets, the homeless offered me food while the people with cars told me to get a haircut and job.

People are resources, you are already dividing to conquer instead of banding together ... you will become a threat to everyone around you. Your version of survival is to keep yourself alive, my version of survival is to keep everything around me alive. That includes people, plants, and animals; one of my biggest concerns is man will hunt animals to extinction because they are too stupid to know how to find food - the day is coming when Americans will be walking across a field of potatoes starving to death too stupid to know there is food under their feet.



Interesting word ... "coined" ... so you know the guy that turned survival into "money". Not going to do you much good when the **** hits the fan, I'd get away from him as fast as you can - he will get you killed. People love money so much they will kill their loved ones for it, when the **** hits the fan the absolute very last thing I would ever want in my possession is money ... that will get you killed for sure, even when it becomes worthless.

-JoeJoe

It would depend on what triggers the event ... I don't think you can "plan" for it, you either know how to survive or you don't. It is more about instincts than it is training, more of a "mindset" than a "skill".



Good plan ... I went to Florida in the winters, my logic was simple: birds fly south for the winter for a reason, so that is what I did.

And that is the key right there: Mother Nature already has all the correct answers, look at what She does and do that. You can learn more from plants and animals than you can a book.

No creature of the forest learns how to survive reading a book, not a single one ... not even man. Just look at the "uncontacted Tribes" still living in the Amazon Rain Forests, they have survived as long as we have without ever reading or writing a book. If books were required for survival, surely they would have written one by now.

-JoeJoe

Joe Joe I have to say you have changed my view on what I thought.

An empty bug out bag. Water from plants.

I never think of these things because I doubt it is happening in my lifetime. But I have to say that you seem to have it right. If the feces his the air moving device I hope I'm near you when it goes down.

No joke. You are right. People are resources.

Your way might not play well on TV, it might not make a good comic book or sell many novels. But I would bet it works!

WHen people ask me if I think this is going to happen in my lifetime, I tell them it takes a pecan tree thirty years to produce fruit ... it doesn't have to happen in my lifetime for me to prepare for it. Like I said above, it is about keeping everything around me alive - the fruit trees in my yard can feed people for hundreds of years after I'm dead.



You were a cop ... you are not afraid to walk up to a homeless man. That is what gets people killed: fear. When a man runs from a lion, he tells the lion he is food. A man that stares at the lion and growls back at him tells the lion "I am a creature of the forest and I belong here". The lion does not hunt that which does not run from him.

My cat is a hunter, it brings home birds and squirrels for me. One day I heard some bird chirping like crazy and I went to the front yard to see what was going on. It was a cardinal that lives across the street and flies into my yard to eat grass seeds. The thing kept diving bombing my cat, and my cat was actually hiding under a lawn chair from it. Amazing!

Everything in nature communicates, the bird was telling the cat "I'm not your dinner, now get out of my yard". Yeah, my neighbors think I'm crazy when I tell them I talk to trees and plants and animals ... I can't help they don't know how to listen. They probably don't even know there is a cardinal living in their tree.

-JoeJoe

Joe Joe had lived through a hurricane. I have as well, though not under a tarp and not in the scale of everything gone for days. But one in Mexico. I will tell you people in both cases tended to band together. People are not inherently bad and I'm sorry but the idea that without electricity we just lose what brings us together is the stuff for movies.

He has an interesting perspective.

Things do get better after the initial insanity. If you don't survive you won't know what might happen? But I understand. I believe there is a group in NYC that will run to midtown in the event of a nuclear attack. I think their called the "Road Runners" but I could be mistaken. The psychology is they want to be as close to ground zero as they can, to be sure they don't survive. It's a plan I guess but not one I would make. For me and mine we are going to do all we can to survive whatever the situation and if we don't OH WELL. Life has been good and we appreciate everyday and live it like it was our last anyway. No regrets. No looking back with sorrow. Just life with our belief in God and our trust in Jesus.

You said "Just life with our belief" .... perhaps you should be reading a book instead of writing one?? I'm way ahead of you here - the "Art of Peace":

He told them: "Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt" ............ then he asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" "Nothing," they answered.

Of course ... you could say they all ended up getting killed ... the Art of War says "nothing comes back from the dead". Hmmm... nothing?? Are you sure about that??

-JoeJoe

Yes, exactly. You are welcome at my camp Danny.

-JoeJoe

My neighbor just the other day said to me "you are probably the healthiest person I know" ... I smiled and said "really? I have multiple sclerosis, crohn's disease, celiac disease, I'm blind and can only see five feet in front of my face ... yet I can still walk miles to walmart and return carrying thirty some cans of cat food on my shoulder even with a bad back from scoliosis. There are kids half my age that can't keep up with me.

Say what?? Simple: I figured out a secret. You are what you eat, "life" or "death".

I don't go to the store, I make "supply runs". When I walk out the woods and get on the road to walmart it is like watching Carl or Rick walking to Atlanta on the Walking Dead. I get there and see a bunch of zombies eating dead flesh. My mindset is that you guys are all already dead zombies and just unaware of that fact.

I eat "living food", put a hamburger on the ground next to a tomato and come back later: the hamburger is still dead while the tomato is growing a new plant with dozens of tomatoes and thousands of seeds. It is not possible to count the number of tomatoes that a single tiny tomato seed has stored inside it. Wow!!

The tomato seed has genetic instructions to reproduce itself, and when you eat that seed every cell in your body gets those instructions and can then heal themselves. You are what you eat: life or death.

Survival: you should eat like your life depends on it because it does. Everything you put in your mouth is either healing you or killing you ... there is no middle ground. When I retired from magic a few years ago my hands were shaking pretty bad from the MS ... since I've changed my diet into "living food" they have since stopped doing that, I'm actually healing myself by not eating dead food.

The longer the expiration date is on that box of food you are eating, the shorter your life will be. The chemicals they used to preserve food are toxic poisons they prevent it from breaking down so it can sit on the shelf longer, which makes it harder for the body to break it down.

The food is poisoned, the water is poisoned, the air is poisoned ... the **** has already hit the fan, you guys just don't see it ... it takes a blind man to be able to see the truth.

Everyone here is already a survivalist .... you wake-up every day with a motivation to survive. In this world we live in, the easiest way to do that is with money so everyone is focused on money. I don't focus on money, I focus on food. The food you buy with money is dead, the food I grow in my garden is alive.

It is a mindset, it is not something you plan for ... it is something you live for. If you are not already a survivalist, you are a dead zombie. That is my opinion, but what do I know?? [[smiles]]

-JoeJoe

I'd hate to see what condition your neighbor is in.

I'm with you on eating things as close to their living state as possible. Everything changed for me when I cut out most processed food. 80% of the products we eat as "food" didn't exist 100 years ago.

Ironically, most obese people are actually starving. Most people don't know how malnourished they are. And don't get me started on chronic dehydration. It's sad because it's so simple; and when you really think about it, it's not so hard to understand all the mental illness that's running around.