The Man from Argentina ..part 3

The "Man from Argentina" part 3 offers us some thoughts from his country several years ago. Mountain man

"SERVICES

What ever sort of scenario you are dealing with, services are more than likely to either suffer in quality or disappear all together. Think ahead of time; analyze possible tough times scenarios and which service should be affected by it in your area. Think about the most likely scenario ,but also think outside the box. What?s more likely? A tornado, an earthquake ? But a terrorist attack isn?t as crazy as you thought it would be a few years ago, isn?t it?
Also analyze the consequences of those services going down. If there is no power, then you need to do something about all that meat you have in the fridge, you can dry it or can it. Think about the supplies you would need for these tasks before you actually need them. You have a complete guide on how to prepare the meat on you computer? how will you get it out of there if there is no power? Print everything that you consider important.

WATER

No one can last too long without water. The urban survivalist may find that the water is of poor quality, in which case he can make good use of a water filter, or that there is no water available at all. When this happens, a large city where millions live ,will run out of bottled water within minutes. In my case, tap water isn?t very good. I can see black little particles and some other stuff that looks like dead algae. Taste isn?t that bad. Not good but I know that there are parts of the country where it is much worse. To be honest, a high percentage of the country has no potable water at all.

If you can build a well, do so, set it as your top of the list priority as a survivalist.
Water comes before firearms, medicines and even food. Save as much water as you can. Use plastic bottles, refill soda bottles and place them in a cool place, preferably inside a black garbage bag to protect it from sun light. The water will pick some plastic taste after a few months, but water that tastes a little like plastic is far way better than no water at all. What ever the kind of tough times scenario you are dealing with, water will suffer. In my case the Economic Crash with the banks closing for a few days and then hyper inflation created problems with the water company, that reduces the maintenance and quality in order to reduce costs and keep their income in spite of the high prices they have to pay for supplies and equipment, most of which comes from abroad, and after the 2001 crash, costs 3 times more. We were only allowed to draw a very small amount of our money out of the banks per month , while it was devalued almost daily. As always, the little guy gets to pay for it. Same would go for floods or chemical or biological attacks. Water requires delicate care and it will suffer when tough times come in one way or another. In this case, when you still have tap water, a quality filter is in order, as well as a pump if you can have one. A manual pump would be ideal as well if possible. Estimate that you need a approximately a gallon per person per day. Try to have at least two-four weeks worth of water. More would be preferable.

POWER

I spent WAY too much time without power for my own taste. Power has always been a problem in my country, even before the 2001 crisis. The real problem starts when you spend more than just a few hours without light. Just after the Economic Crash and bank closings in 2001, half the country went without power for 3 days. Buenos Aires was one big dark grave. People got caught on elevators, food rots; hospitals that only had a few hours worth of fuel for their generators ran out of power. Without power, days get to be a lot shorter. Once the sun sets there is not much you can do. I read under candle light and flashlight light and your head starts to hurt after a while. You can work around the house a little bit but only as long as you don?t need power tools.Crime also increases once the lights go out, so whenever you have to go somewhere in a black out, carry the flashlight on one hand and a handgun on the other.

Summarizing, being in a city without lights becomes depressing after a while. I spent my share of nights, alone, listening to the radio, eating canned food and cleaning my guns under the light of my LED head lamp.

A note on flashlights. Have two or three head LED lights. They are not expensive and are worth their weight in gold. A powerful flashlight is necessary, something like a big Maglite or better yet a SureFire, especially when you have to check your property for intruders. But for more mundane stuff like preparing food, going to the toilet or doing stuff around the house, the LED headlamp is priceless. Try washing the dishes on the dark while holding a 60 lumen flashlight on one hand and you?ll know what I mean. LEDs also have the advantage of lasting for almost an entire week of continuous use and the light bulb lasts forever. Rechargeable batteries are a must or else you?ll end up broke if lights go out often. Have a healthy amount of spare quality batteries and try to standardize as much as you can..for the headlamps.



After all these years of problems with power, what two items I would love to have?

1) The obvious. A generator. I carried my fridge food to my parents house way to many times on the past. Too bad I can?t afford one right now.

2) A battery charger that has both solar panel and a small crank. They are not available here. I saw that they are relatively inexpensive in USA. Do yourself a favor and get one or two of these. Even if they don?t charge as well as regular ones, I?m sure it will put out enough power to charge batteries for LED lamps at least.

GAS

Gasoline has decreased in quality as well, there is little gasoline. Try to have an electric oven in case you have to do without it. If both electricity and gas go down, one of those camping stoves can work as well, if you keep a good supply of propone cans. The ones that work with liquid fuel seem to be better on the long run, since they can use different types of fuel.
You can only store a limited amount of compressed gas and once you ran out of it, you are on your own if stores are closed of they sold them out. Anyway, a city that goes without gas and light for more than two weeks is a death trap, get out of there before it?s too late.

A DIFFERENT MENTALITY.

Once the tough times arrive , money is no longer measured in money, but you start seeing it as the necessary goods it can buy. Stuff like food, medicine, gas, or the private medical service bill.

Once you experience the lack of stuff you took for granted, like food , medicines, your set of priorities change all of a sudden. For example, I had two wisdom teeth removed last year. On both occasions I was prescribed with antibiotics and strong Ibuprofen for the pain. I took the antibiotics( though I did buy two boxes with the same prescription just to keep one box just in case) but I didn?t use the Ibuprofen, I added it to my pile of medicines. Why? because medicines are not always available, and I?m not sure if they will be available in the future. Sure, it hurt like hell, but pain alone isn?t going to kill you, so I sucked it up. Good for building up character if you ask me .

Make sacrifices so as to ensure a better future, that?s the mentality you should have if you want to be prepared. There?s stuff that is ?nice to have? that has to be sacrificed to get the indispensable stuff. There?s stuff that is not ?basic need stuff?, but it?s also important in one way or another. "