Urban Survival!

 
No mater how much I bitch and moan, some of you just don’t listen, letting my advice go in one ear out the other. I tell you to get out of the major population areas, but you refuse, thinking you will pack up your bug out bag and head for the hills moments before the first flames light the night and the mushroom cloud hovers overhead.     
Even if you are fortunate enough to have a retreat out in the country getting to your safe haven maybe impossible during upheaval. Roads blocked by wrecked and fuelless vehicles will stop most bugouters in their tracks. Maybe you were born lucky and can make it out safely before the balloon bursts, then what?     
People in rural areas, will start shooting if threatened by mobs of refugees fleeing the city. Don’t expect to be welcomed with arms outstretched. Most country folks don’t trust outsiders; you will likely be greeted with a load of buckshot and not the cup of fresh coffee and meaningful conversation you hoped for.     
After the cities are in ruins, criminal gangs will start to migrate to the country where they will continue their business of stealing and terrorizing in more fruitful territory. If you can stay hidden and survive the first weeks after a collapse you may at some point have the entire city pretty much to yourself. If you can’t or won’t get out NOW at least start making plans to survive where you are.

Don't Just Store, Be Prepared!

Many people are setting themselves up for failure, because they are storing items that they wont be able to prepare and eat. Say that you store 200 pounds of wheat and had to get it out and use it tonight, would you know what to do? A lot of people would have no idea how to even get started. You may know how to make bread, but you may not have stored all the ingredients to produce it. You may not have realized that you would need yeast, salt, honey, etc. Even if a person had all the necessary items to make bread, they still will be ill prepared, if they did not have a grinder to make the flour. A person, who stores rice, has to cook the rice in water, but have they stored water or do they have the resources to purify water found locally? What about seasoning, herbs, spices, soups, or other items to mix with the rice? A person can only eat so many bowls of unflavored rice!