Selco: How to Defend Your Home and Yourself When the SHTF

This article was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper

Editor’s Note: Have you ever wondered how to defend your home and yourself if the SHTF? In this interview, Selco provides us with information from his personal experience during the occupation of Bosnia. There are many lessons we can learn from his experience. ~ Daisy

What was the most likely crime you would encounter when the SHTF?

Where there is no regular system of law and order you have different kinds of groups who impose that “law and order.” In reality, it is lawlessness or law of whichever group is stronger.

To add to that, when there is not any kind of “law” it is then a matter of a no-rules situation.

That means all kind of violence was there.

In reality, it worked on many different levels. For example, you form an armed neighborhood watch. We did, of some 15 people, in our street. Sometimes, in the middle of the of night, we were faced with a group of 50 men demanding something from us. For example, one was a group of people in uniform who stated that they were government forces and they wanted to check our neighborhood for whatever reason.

We could obey or fight or negotiate. All combination were tested over the time, and sad truth is that when SHTF for serious there is gonna be many different groups who will “represent” government (or law, or order or you name it). But in reality, it all comes down to who will outsmart who.

The most likely crimes were connected with resources because simply in that time and city there was not enough resources.

So it was about who owned how much (resources), and ways to take those resources from other folks.

It worked on a low level. For example, a few guys could kill you in the street and take your possessions, or on a bigger level – a local gang (if strong enough) could own your part of town and terrorize you and other folks by taking your stuff with brute force.

How did you make your home less desirable to criminals?

First, it was important where your home is, even in urban settings your house can be kinda “isolated” or stand in a way that it clearly “sticks out.” That was bad, and you could not change it.

Then it was important what period of SHTF we are talking about. At the starting period of SHTF, it was bad if your house was close to some objects that were interesting for looting, like malls, gas stations, police stations, or similar.

Generally speaking, it was better if your home (we are talking about in the city) was in the area where it was more packed with houses, simply because it was easier to blend in. Also, as the situation worsened we could use close houses too as they became destroyed or abandoned, which gave us more options, especially in terms of security.

The first level of making a  home “less desirable” to criminals was simple blending in. I point it out very often as the most important thing in a home defense plan.

It may seem hard to understand why I point it out so much, but think about it this way:

In order to “pacify” and “own” a city, you need to have a huge military force, organized in a perfect way. Even then it is impossible to be safe in that city. There are many examples of that in modern history.

In my case, and in that SHTF, nobody really “owned” the city. There were many groups trying to acomplish that through different methods. But in reality and on the ground it was a situation where nothing was for sure.

As a result, most of the home invasions were a matter of opportunity. If attackers saw the opportunity they took it.

It was not a rule, but it was very often like that.

As a result, a good plan was not to be that opportunity.

In my case that meant we tried to keep our activities on a low level when it came to giving up information about resources in our home.

For example, if we needed to drag some bags of food home we did it so no one saw it. If we cooked something, sometimes even a nice smell could pose a possible danger.

In short, it was time to be quiet and look for danger.

For example, to transfer it to your world-  if something serious happens there in your city do you want to be the only guy in the neighbourhood running a generator? Or do you want to be only one who has a barbecue every night when SHTF?

In my case, sometimes people did even more drastic things, like placing dead animals somewhere so stench could fend off intruders. It was not about scaring the attacker with the stench. It was about a situation where you have 20-30 houses very close to each other, and you have 50 people going through your street, mostly armed. And they look for useful things, they are scavenging. They might take a chance and fight if they find people defending some house, or they might not, you never know.

So you make your house or your entrance and yard look abandoned, deserted destroyed, dirty…by putting some garbage, obstacles from ruins, some dead animals and you hope they will choose some other house because other houses look easier to get in and more desirable.

People do not go gladly into places where they suspect dead things are or go gladly through some obstacles that can hurt them (remember-no doctor). They will chose another target.

That is the first line of defense. The second line is you and the people inside waiting with guns.

Now, this may look stupid to you. You might say,”Oh, this is the US. It does not work like that here.” But think about principles, maybe in your case some CDC label (“infectious diseases” or “bodies inside”) works.

For example, in my case, a sign warning of “mines” would do a pretty good job but it might be good only for my region.

It is all about deterring those who are thinking about coming to your home.

How did you secure your doors and windows?

First, it was very important not to “trap yourself” in. There was no sense, if you were under attack, being so well fortified that you could not get out.

Alternate exit and entrances were very useful at that time, not only because of defense. Very often, it was good to leave and enter your home invisibly. You were never sure who monitored you and the stuff you were taking into your home.

Most of our houses are brick or stone houses, so from that point pretty good for smaller calibers. Very soon people started to reinforce doors and windows with whatever was available that offered protection.

One of the coolest was steel sewage covers. Those covers offered good protection. The favorite was dirt bags in combination with boards (planking).

Of course, we used also whatever was available, so a laundry machine, for example, was a good addition for “plugging” a hole.

Can you tell us about your home defense plan? How did you defend your home?

The house was always guarded, all the time.

Depending on the situation (or let us use the term “threat level”) it was guarded and defended in layers. The outer layer, for example, started on the street, through the neighboring abandoned house, then to the last layer – our house.

If you had to fight, it was bad if you failed to use outer levels and the fight started in your house.

If you choose to avoid fighting, then the outer levels may not be implemented at all. You could wait and hope to avoid the fight unless they attacked your home.

Another good term that comes to mind is that situation was dynamic. Based on that, we adapted.

Sometimes the situation dictated that the threat would be eliminated quickly out in the street.

No rules.

We were not soldiers, and the people who attacked us were not soldiers in most of the situations. We were closer to some kind of militia probably when it came to the rules of fighting.

Our weapons and condition was a matter of many other factors:

• how much ammo we had


• how many sick group members


• did some of us had a grenade in given moment

Then it was a question of how the attackers looked to us:

• organized or not


• what kind of weapon they had


• any visible fighting skills


• RPGs


• organized gang or bunch of desperate folks

Every situation was different.

How great was the risk of being assaulted when you were away from home?

It was a great risk because you were exposed much more to the danger then being inside your home.

It is important to understand that sooner or later you’ll be forced to go out, and in urban settings that means you meet other people.

The point of prepping is to postpone that moment (by having a lot of resources in your home) until you figure out what is going on outside.

You can try to minimize the risk of violence when you are out by carefully planning all your trips and tasks and using as much information available in that planning. But in reality, in urban settings, there are simply too many factors. You never knew what you find out outside your home while you are looking for firewood for example.

Were women victimized? How did they protect themselves?

In any societal breakdowns, women are victimized.

Also in any modern society, there are certain people who are, let’s say sick, but they are under the care of the system (or simply scared of system and punishment that the system will bring to them if they assault women.)

When society’s laws are out, that punishment is also out, so those kind of people are on the hunt.

Women’s victimization is also brought on another level. Powerful groups (gangs) had their own prisons with women inside. That was used as a kind of reward for gang members.

It was also used in a way of bringing terror to the people. For example, rape was used as a punishment in a lot of cases if people would not obey.

It was part of a special war policy if you can call it like that, to know as a fact that women from your family, for example, could end up in a private rape prison.

Fear and terror was a big part of everything.

Women protected themselves in two ways (actually just like males did):

• by belonging to some group, like family, group of friends or similar-sharing their knowledge and role in that survival group


• by joining some other group, more let us say sinister group and looking for safety there in exchange for other activities.

What were the ways people protected themselves?

The most effective way was by organizing into groups that had something in common. The more things, they had in common, the better the group was. People with things in common are more trustful.

Of course, common sense says that no matter how much a group was trustful, if they did not had enough skills and the will to use violence, chances for them were poor.

Quite opposite to some myths, violence was not a solution for everything. Very often it led to death.

The knowledge of how to use violence was very cool, but much more important was the skill to judge WHEN to use violence and when to chose some other way (run, negotiate, trade…)

What are your suggestions for ways we can prepare now to keep our homes and selves safe when the SHTF?

There are no magic solutions.

I am talking from the point of urban survival, and there are two reasons for that:

1. I experienced urban collapse so I have experience there

and

2. Most of the people live in some kind of urban settings, so chances are big you are gonna experience it too.

There is a popular myth that all of us who live in urban settings will “bug out” to our rural retreat on time (I have that plan too), but in reality lot of us who even have the good bug out places out of the urban centers will simply fail to reach it on time. This is reality.

So a few urban survival suggestions to defend your home:

1. Do not be alone when SHTF. No matter how romantic it looks to be the lone wolf, it is hard and almost impossible to survive it alone without help. You are gonna be sick, you are gonna be forced to be on guard 24 hrs a day, you are gonna have hard time looking for resources…


2. Find like minded people (preferably before SHTF). You need time to find people, and you need time to get to know that people.


3. Be ready for violence. Both physically and mentally, practice with your weapon and be very familiar with your skills and especially with your limitations. Use common sense in choosing your weapons. Check what is useful to have in your situation.(For example, in my situation it made sense to have AK, CZ and similar.)


4. Look at your home from the point of defending/attacking it. Look today how your home stands, how you can improve it, for example in “deterring” possible attackers, neighboring houses, ways of approach, possible booby traps, ways to quickly reinforce your home…

At the end, you need to get up and work pretty hard in order to be prepared for a real collapse, No internet article can teach you that. It can only give you highlights or possible direction.

******

About the Author

Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world.

You can learn more about Selco at his website, SHTFschool.com. Check out his online courses and physical courses for a reality check about SHTF scenarios.

An Urban Survival Course with Selco: Noise, Light, and Your Mind Playing Tricks

This article was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper

NOTE: If you missed the first article in the Urban Survival Course series, go here to read it. Today, we’ll continue on with Selco as he teaches us the lessons students learned in his last course in Croatia.

Urban Survival: Keeping a Low Profile

Hollywood industry, fiction survival books and our imagination over the many years kinda taught us to expect big things and to think in big terms when SHTF.

As a result, a lot of preppers forgot to use common sense in preparing and thinking. Actually, they forgot to be aware and to notice little things around them. They were expecting big things so they forgot small things and techniques that are actually important. That can eventually get you in trouble or get you killed.

To understand better how things can be hard when SHTF you need to put into perspective how noise and light work in different situations, or in other words how light and noise can be your enemy or friend depending on what situation you find yourself during SHTF.

Noise

Often you have seen in the movies or read in a book how someone sneaks up on someone or through some building.

In reality, students are shown that there are no ninja warriors. Remember we are talking about average folks here. If they are forced to survive in some dangerous situations they simply need to know:

• some basic technique of walking (sneaking)


• a lot of time and patience


• proper clothes (not noisy definitely)


• proper preparations before taking action (checking for things in pockets that make noise, etc.)


• a lot of practice

But the highlight is on time; you need time to do it the safe and secure way (even if you are highly trained). So, in reality (if it is dangerous) it may take you an hour to cover 20 meters sometimes.

Definitely, it is not like in the movies.

You can use sounds in surroundings (or background) to cover your movement (for example in this photo, it may be the sound of waves or wind through the trees) but again, you need a lot of time, and skill.

Now put that in perspective of real urban survival, and a situation where you need to check some building (for example to take shelter) that looks abandoned, with things on the ground that simply make too much sound. Sometimes it is impossible; sometimes it does not make sense to even try.

Moving in a group and staying quiet is a skill that is possible to learn, through the familiarization of group members, the use of hand signals, and proper preparing (again proper equipment, footwear, clothes). That technique makes sense to be put to the test in a hard situation like dark and bad weather (rain, wind) where you can try to use that weather and night in your favor. It’s also important to see how everything can easily go against you (conversation-signals in pitch dark, loss of orientation, losing group members.)

Light

If you tell average students group to start a fire so they can prepare a quick meal or make coffee, most of them will make a huge fire big enough to cook a boar on. If you tell them to turn on the flashlight to find something in their backpack, a  lot of them will turn on a torch that will burn the eyes of all people around them, affecting their night vision badly.

Strong torches and big fires make sense sometimes, but in urban survival prepping staying undetected is a big priority, and you need to adopt that kind of philosophy first.

Planning your movement during the day, and taking that particular route during the night, even in an urban environment in SHTF settings, can be two completely different things, even if you saw (or went through) that area during the day.

It is very easy to get disoriented in pitch dark, and known buildings are not known anymore. Distance may look completely different, and the combination of everything may be very dangerous if you are not aware of that.

In the photo above there is a camping fire (not hidden) in an abandoned building in an area where there is no other light. It is clearly visible from 200-300 meters.

Your Mind

What do you see in this photo?

The photo above is taken after midnight in an area where students did not expect people to be. (The students were driving with us in a car during one of the exercises).

Students after the encounter described the man as a “very tall” (2 meters or 6’5″) person in a full white bodysuit, probably a man with no good intention (drug dealer? body disposal?).

The encounter lasted a few seconds.

Afer that they made camp in a close vicinity to where the “man in the white bodysuit” disappeared into the bush.

And of course, their minds continued to play dark scenarios in their heads for rest of the night.

They did not have nice night because of that.

In reality, it was one of our “ghost” instructors. He wore full camo and a clown mask – both were very visible (much better than in photo) but in the given circumstances (very late and a strange person walking slowly in area where there is not supposed to be anybody) the students mind offered a solution of what man is there and his intention.

Your mind WILL play tricks on you in survival situations. If you are in an uncommon situation or you are not very experienced when you are not sure what you see or hear your mind will offer you an answer. Often, that answer may be wrong, which may lead you to make some bad decisions.

It is the reality of SHTF.

Learn to use your skills under pressure

A big part of the course is using your skills and techniques under PRESSURE when you are not sure what is what, and that is a topic for other articles.

You can avoid that by training:

• Rechecking how things work in the real world


• What is visible from what distance


• What can you hear from where


• How many details can you spot and memorize


• How good your orientation skills are

All that can be practiced in normal times, some in nature while hiking, some while drinking coffee in town by observing the people around you.

Again it is not about ninja warriors. It is about being aware of the world around you in different settings.

Learn about Selco’s live courses here and his online courses here.

An Urban Survival Course with Selco: Your Gear and How to Pack It

This article was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper

Editor’s Note: Did you ever wish you could drop everything and fly over to the Balkans to be trained in urban survival by Selco? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to pick his brain and have him beside you as you learned to deal with an SHTF scenario? Well, here’s the next best thing. Selco recently finished teaching a hardcore 5-day course in Croatia. With 6 students, they went through high-stress exercises and learned about living through an all-out disaster where danger lurks around every corner. Selco has generously agreed to write a series for us so that we can learn from him. It’s not quite like being there, but it’s the next best thing. ~ Daisy

What to Pack for a 5-Day Urban Survival Course

We have just finished our flagship Urban survival course in Croatia.

For 5 days Toby Cowern and I, as instructors, taught students skills and through the different exercises and scenarios, we stress-tested their knowledge and abilities.

For me, the most important thing was to give them a piece of the mindset needed for a real SHTF event and to give them a clear starting point from where they can build more skills, knowledge, and competence.

In some moments it was hard for them, both physically and mentally, but one of the most important points, of course, was to test them in not so perfect conditions.

The whole course cannot be transferred here for reading, but some highlights can be given in a series of articles, reflecting on the most interesting moments of each day. This time, we will start out with the gear necessary for the class.

Equipment (items that  you have with you)

I am a very big fan of carrying items that are multipurpose, and I have adopted over the time the philosophy that “less is more.” In reality,”more skills-less items” is the key to survival. That said, I am aware that we will have many items in our backpack when we talk about urban survival.

Because there is a big chance the items that you carry are gonna be used when you are in a hurry, in danger, in the dark, or simply when you are very tired, those things need to be organized in a practical way.

Add to that fact, there is a chance that sometimes you’ll be in a situation to lose (or throw away) your backpack, then it makes more sense to organize it.

The whole philosophy of having one bag (or backpack) that have “all that you need inside” is kinda wrong if ALL important items are inside.

It is essential to think about “layers” of equipment.

Everything that you carry with you must have a clear role in your survival, otherwise, it should not be in your backpack (or on you) so think about the “comfort vs. necessity” philosophy.

It is very good to have many items, but it is not so cool to go through a tough situation with 50 kg backpack on your back, so choose carefully what you gonna have.

You should organize it in layers.

Let’s take the “fire” category, for example. In the first layer you could have small fire starter around your neck, the second layer is lighters or matches in your waist bag or pocket, the third layer is fuel cubes or whatever other fire help you have in your backpack.

For the food category, you may have power bars in your pocket and then in your backpack, you may have food that is more adequate or “serious”.

It is easy to follow this logic and organize other equipment in the same way. Sometimes you do not need (or you can not have) 3 layers. Sometimes only 2 layers are possible.

It is important to understand that you need to have layers so you maximize your chances for success when you lose equipment, for example, while running away from some danger and throwing away your backpack.

First aid kits

The best example of what often goes wrong with buying, packaging and carrying items are first aid kits.

There are many reasons for that. A few are:

• People buying “pre-made” first aid kits with useless things inside


• No knowledge of how to use items in first aid kit


• No knowledge of what is really needed to have in a medical emergency and what not to have

So as a result, a lot of people have their first aid kit buried deep inside their backpack, or some of them having their first aid kit on a belt but inside they have painkillers, antidiarrheal medicines, a few plasters (band-aids) and nothing more.

I agree that plasters, antidiarrheal medicines, and painkillers may have a place in your first aid kits but use common sense and think about:

• what is really important and can make difference in seconds or minute


• what needs to be available all the time, and in an easy and fast to access way

Again, think in layers.

So, of course, you can have antidiarrheal medicines, plasters, painkillers, and hand sanitizers but in your first layer (available immediately) need to be items that can save a life in a matter of minutes, for example, shears, field dressing, bandages, tourniquets, and similar.

If you got a headache you will not die if you do not take a painkiller in a few minutes, but if you get serious wound it may be different if you do not act fast and have the means to treat it immediately.

The best way is to package your own kit, based on your circumstances and your needs. But be sure that you know about every item inside, how it works, and try to test it in the best possible way.

In the photo above, there are two bandages. Each of those bandages was packaged, and for an average man both are just bandages: they look the same and they are supposed to do the same job.

Actually, the bandage in my right hand can do the job like 3 bandages in the left hand, because of the quality, elasticity, texture, and density. Just test everything or you never know what you have until you really need it, and then it might be wrong.

If somebody told you, for example. that you need to have scissors (or shears) in your first aid kit (and he is right) then be sure to test quality of that item because you may find out that in the prepackaged kit you have something that can not do the job needed even for a sewing kit, not to mention working with heavy fabric to treat a wound.

A small difference like having paper medical tape or heavy-duty tape can mean a lot if you are doing something important like treating a wound in a rain-soaked environment.

Clothes

Over time I have started to believe that word “tactical” has become one of the worst enemies in common sense prepping/survival today.

We have tactical caps, tactical boots, pants, stickers, and whatnot.

People start to believe that by buying an item that is “tactical” (or manufacturer states it is) they are solving huge problems in their survival.

In reality, a lot of the items that are “tactical” are actually produced to look nice and cool, but have many flaws that are not so tactical.

For example, if you have tactical camo urban survival jackets that make you stick out so bad in an urban setting, there is nothing tactical about that.

Or there are survival tactical pants that have cool pockets for your stuff and look really cool. But when you walk they produce a hissing sound (because of the fabric) that on a calm night and “tactical” situation can be heard 100 meters away.

Or urban survival tactical bags and pouches with cool fluorescent emblems on it that makes you shine so cool in the dark, but also make you visible when you maybe don’t want to be seen.

Being seen and heard from a distance makes sense in some survival situations, but in others, it is completely undesirable and dangerous. Choose your clothes based on that, not based on how “tactical” they are, or how cool they look.

Stay tuned.

Be sure to watch for the next articles in which Selco “takes us with him” on his Urban Survival Course. Learn more about his online courses and his physical courses.

About the Author

Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world. Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/ And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/

World War III: Are We Being Manipulated Into a Fight We Can’t Win?

This article was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper

Everyone is talking about World War III right now, and I hate to be the one to say this, but…all I can wonder is whether we’re being manipulated into a fight we can’t win. This is probably going to make some folks mad, but there are some facts, statistics, and unanswered questions that support my premise.

Picture this.

A clean-cut athlete from a wealthy family sees a skinny, underprivileged kid. The athlete wants to blow off some steam and look cool to his prep school friends, so he punches the skinny kid right in the face.

Later, when the athlete is questioned by the school, he says that the skinny kid did something horrible, and thus, deserved the punch in the face.  Because the athlete is rich, well-connected, and the star of the football team, the administration and the cops opt to believe him because it makes it a whole lot more acceptable that he punched the skinny kid.

But when the skinny kid gets home, he talks to his big brother. His brother may not be from an elite background like the athlete, but he is just as big and just as athletic. He has grown up hard, so he is way, way more aggressive. And he has friends. Big, aggressive friends who are willing to fight viciously and who have the skills to back it up.

The big brother contacts the athlete and his prep school friends. He warns them that his skinny little brother has had enough. He is angry that they lied about his brother and that everyone pretended to believe them. He tells them that if they ever pick on his brother again, they’ll be answering to him and his badass friends.

If the athlete has any common sense, he’s going to see that he and his friends are outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched. No matter how “special” they think they are, how can they possibly win a fight against more numerous opponents that have the same skills and the same weapons, but more – many more – people to wield them?

If you were the athlete, what would you do in this situation? 

If you’ve been following the Syria situation, you probably understand who is represented in the cast of characters above.

I don’t have a background in military strategies. I’m not a politician with special clearance. This may make me seem like the wrong person to assess the looming World War III we’re about to get ourselves into. But humor me while I share some of my research and tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

This goes all the way back to President Obama.

Back in 2016, I wrote an article titled, “Why Is Obama Doing Uncomfortably War-Like Things to Syria and Russia?” In that article, I wrote:

You CANNOT just show up in another country and start calling the shots because you don’t like the way they do things.

I have questions.

• Is this just saber-rattling or does Obama really think he has the right to invade a foreign country, shoot down the aircraft of that country, and also shoot down the aircraft of an invited guest in that country?


• Does he really think he would get away with it?


• Is he deliberately trying to provoke other world leaders?


• Does Obama actually want a war? Because this is how you get a war.


• Is he totally insane?


• Does he really think Vladimir Putin will sit back and say okay, fair enough, Barack, no biggie?


• And getting into a p*ssing contest with Russia? What is he thinking?

Provoking Putin takes things to a whole new level. It puts millions more lives at risk because what is currently a civil war could easily escalate into an international conflict with two superpowers on different sides. (source)

And that was two years ago. What’s going on now is no different, except that China has Russia’s back who has Syria’s back.

Trump is doing the same stuff as Obama.

Remember how we all thought that Hillary Clinton would immediately get us into a war with Russia if she had been elected? Remember how we thought that Trump would actually be able to get along with Vladimir Putin?

I think any of us who thought that Trump might be more anti-interventionist than the presidents who preceded him or the opponent against whom he ran have to admit that we’ve all been duped. Trump is just like every warmongering president before him.

And for those who are still defending him: don’t you realize that your bias is just as bad as the one you blamed the Democrats of having when they supported Obama droning the crap out of the Middle East? Stop it. President Trump isn’t playing “4-D Chess.” He doesn’t have some wise plan to which the rest of us are not privy. He is just like the rest of them. Maybe someone else is pulling the strings, but the end result is the same.

By making these ridiculous statements and trying to find the positive in a situation that has clearly gone straight to heck, perhaps you’re really trying to justify having voted for him. My friends, a lot of people voted for him and they all feel this way, but there comes a time when you have to see that wrong is wrong and call it out.

There was no hard evidence that Assad gassed his people in 2017.

Last time the media said that President Assad gassed his own people, there was no evidence. Just heart-wrenching, horrifying videos of little children foaming at the mouth and writhing in agony. I was sickened by those videos just as much as anyone else who watched them.

But it was never proven that President Assad made the call to do this. I don’t know President Assad, but it sure doesn’t make sense that he’d gas a bunch of little kids to death, does it? I mean, what would he gain from that?

Those who weren’t convinced were called conspiracy theorists and cast into a bucket with a bunch of unsavory Alt-Right types. But even in this critical article, I ask you, where is the proof? Senator Ron Paul produced this video at the time.

As Dr. Paul said in the video, things were getting peaceful and someone didn’t like that.

So, despite this lack of proof, Trump bombed them anyway.

Then it was like deja vu all over again.

Let me provide a list of facts:

April 3: President Trump said that he was pulling American troops out of Syria.

April 8: A gruesome gas attack was allegedly executed on Syrian civilians, complete with gruesome videos of suffering toddlers. Trump decides not to pull the troops just yet.

April 9: Sen. John McCain blames Trump and says Assad was “emboldened” by his call to pull the troops. (But wait – wouldn’t Assad mind his manners until the US got out of his country? Why would he give them an excuse to stay?) In a series of tweets, Trump said:

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Trump tweeted. “Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!”

April 11: Russia warns the US against striking Syria. Moscow’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzia warned Washington that it will “bear responsibility” for any “illegal military adventure” it carries out. (source)

April 12: Sec. of Defense Mattis said there was “still no evidence” to confirm the gas attack but he believed there was one anyhow.

April 13: So, without evidence, the US military bombed Syria in retaliation for the alleged gas attack. They struck 3 different sites.

April 14: Russia was ticked and warned, “Such actions will not be without consequences.”

April 16: Russia presented “proof” that the UK actually carried out the gas attacks. But we didn’t hear much about that, did we?

Just so we’re clear, there was NO EVIDENCE that Assad gassed his own people but we bombed them anyway. In fact, we bombed them right before the investigators arrived to confirm or deny the claims that they had these chemical weapons. That’s not suspicious at all.

Here’s Ben Swann with a full rundown of the gas attack.

The US is drawing us into a massive conflict without any evidence. In fact, it seems like they may be hiding the evidence that would keep us OUT of a war.

And this is what COULD happen next.

Now, I haven’t got a crystal ball, but I have a few thoughts on what kind of Gordian knot the US government is pulling us into.

And that is World War III – a WWIII it would be very difficult for the United States to win.

I’m not being unpatriotic by saying that. We do have a very strong military, advanced technology, and billions of dollars to spend in the military-industrial complex. Heck, a lot of rich people would get a whole lot richer if a war happened.

But here’s the problem: I’m being realistic and reality isn’t always pretty.

China has said that they will be backing Russia, who will be backing Syria.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• US Military: 2,083,100 total military personnel


• Russian Military: 3,586,128 total military personnel


• Chinese Military: 2,693,000 total military personnel

These numbers don’t include people who could be drafted – just the people who are already trained and in the military.

In Global Firepower’s military strength index, which takes into account technology, watercraft, aircraft, and weapons, the United States is in first place. We have the strongest military in the world.

However, 2nd place is held by Russia and 3rd is held by China. If they combined their resources, they’re far and away ahead of the United States. Our allies, France and the UK, are a distant 5th and 6th. Israel is way down the line at #16.

I think you can see where this is going. It’s entirely possible that our government is picking a fight they can’t win. And of course, they won’t be the people sent to the front lines to defend the country, nor will their children. That will be what happens to the rest of us, who had nothing to do with bombing Syria in the first place.

Maybe losing an ill-advised war is the SHTF we need to worry about.

Maybe the real SHTF we need to worry about is getting involved in a World War III that we can’t win. That’s not on most people’s list of TEOTWAWKI possibilities. It’s pretty much unfathomable that we would lose a war – it’s never “officially” happened in our history, although there are some hushed conversations about certain conflicts in which we certainly didn’t win.

There aren’t very many scenarios we think about in which we wouldn’t eventually be the victor, and if we end up in this war, we may still “win” due to advanced technology and strategies. But the losses would be great as far as human life is concerned and things would always be different in the future.

Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail. Hopefully, the fact that more of the public is beginning to see through the machinations of those who will profit from war will slow down the wheels that are already in motion. Hopefully, we can live in peace and let others do so as well. Hopefully, we can stop intervening in other country’s civil disputes and work on cleaning up our own house.

But, historically, that seems unlikely.

The information in these articles will help you to get prepared for World War III, however it ends up happening.

• Part 1: Is World War 3 Coming? 18 Preppers Discuss Effects, Shortages, and How to Get Ready


• Part 2: How to Survive World War 3: Prepping for an Off-Shore Conflict


• Part 3: How World War 3 Will Happen: “The citizen will be the last to know.”


• Part 4: How to Survive World War 3: Prepping for a US Mainland Conflict

Pay close attention to articles by Selco, because he is one person who has lived through a nightmare like this. Stock up on emergency food, figure out what you’ll do about water, learn about nuclear survival (there’s a whole chapter in my newest book) hope for the best, and plan for the worst.

All we can do to try and prevent this nightmare is to be vocal about the fact that we DO NOT want war with Syria. Because Syria has a big brother and that big brother has big friends.

What do you think?

I would be very interested in your take on the Syria-Russia-China mess. Do you think we’re headed toward WWIII? Do you disagree or agree with the analysis here? Don’t go all Dunning-Kruger. Think critically, even if it goes against your deeply held convictions. Please keep it civil while we discuss this in the comments section.

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca</e

Selco: The Dirty Truth About Water and Sanitation When the SHTF

This article was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper

Note from Daisy Luther: The biggest concerns in any long-term emergency are water and sanitation because the lack of these things can cause serious illness or even death. Because water and sanitation aren’t nearly as glamorous as guns and gadgets, they’re often overlooked in a preparedness plan. I asked Selco some questions about these important issues in this interview. The truth about it is dirty, unpleasant, and something for which you absolutely must plan.

Once there was no more running water, how did you get drinking water?

Just like most other things (especially when it comes to non-preppers) it was a matter of levels and layers.

The tap water was going on and off for a few days before service went completely off, so people had a few bottles of drinking water stored. But of course, most of us thought everything going to be restored very soon so nobody had thought about storing big amounts of water.

When it comes to lack of water and being unprepared, the levels and layers that I am mentioning meant that you first looked and asked for tap water (clean) for drinking. Then collecting water from rooftops sounded like a good idea. Then drinking directly from the river was good if there was no other source. And then, finally, when there was no other source. you simply drink dirty water even when you were sure it is quite dirty.

It was a matter of low resources, desperation, and of course low skill levels.

Our main sources were rain and the river.

Can you tell us about your rainwater collection system?

It was not anything smart, especially in the beginning.

The gutter system normally took water from the roof through pipes into the underground collectors and sewers. When we concluded that the running water was not coming back, we simply sawed off a piece of gutter and pushed it inside the main gutter that led from the roof system (on the side of the house that looked inside the yard). Then we collected water inside a barrel.

We just used the water collectment system that was existing there already, and just cut it off at a lower point, before the water was “lost” and redirected the water into a barrel.

It is actually pretty amazing how much water you can collect from the roof during one summer storm. A lot.

When it comes to that system of water collecting our main problem was lack of containers, because even if there is a huge amount of water to “catch” from the rain, we did not have enough adequate containers for that.

Probably if we were prepared in a smart way for that, our water problems would have been easier.

How did you purify/filter water for drinking and cooking?

Two main ways: boiling and filtering.

Filtering of the water was very rudimentary. We did not use any real filters, and people did not know how to make anything too complicated.

The most complicated filter that I saw in those times was a slightly changed version of a “bottle ” filter with rocks and sand with added cloth inside.

We used cloths for filtering, or gauze. If water was visibly contaminated (particles) we would repeat the procedure until the water looked satisfying for us.

Boiling was a widespread method of making water drinkable, and often the quality of stoves and fuel for it were “measured” by the time needed for water to boil.

Were the rivers and streams contaminated? If so, how quickly after things went bad?

River and streams in cities were polluted (if we talk about drinking) before the war because poor care was taken of it, and it was mainly because of industry.

When SHTF that kind of pollution went down because of obvious reasons (everything stopped working) but other kinds of pollutants were there. City services did not work and many people lived next to that river (upstream too). So it was polluted with everything, including bodies from time to time.

We drink it, sometimes even without boiling and filtering. I survived it, but I was sick many times, probably because of that.

How did you keep yourself clean?

By the standards from before SHTF and standards today we were not clean most of the time, because most of the time we did not have enough water for that.

By the standard of that time (SHTF) we managed to use very small amounts of water to keep ourselves as clean as possible.

Most of the time it was something like sponge bathing with a bottle of water.

It was a joke at that time. Often people would say, “I just had shower using wet napkin only(from MRE)”

Years later I saw a similar scene in a movie, and it brought memories back.

And actually it is a great thing to have a huge stash of those ready for SHTF.

When it was safe, we used the river for that, or people sometimes simply get naked in their yard during the rain.

What did you do for a toilet?

Very close to our house, through the destroyed building, there was small piece of land, which was “hidden” from all sides. We used that as a simple “dig a hole” latrine. Later we built something like primitive field latrine.

It was a simple hole in the ground covered with wooden boards, with channels leading away.

It worked more or less, but we had the good luck of having that place with enough “ground” close to home where it was pretty safe for spending that time there.

Folks use toilet everywhere that was available. Inside toilets were mostly out of use mainly because of the lack of water.

Of course. it contrubituted greatly to the city being a very dirty place.

Did you see an increase in sanitation-related illnesses like typhus, cholera? How did you treat those illnesses?

Everybody was at least once really sick from diseases that probably were caused by lack of hygiene, bad water and bad food.

Diarrhea, vomiting, exhaustion…

A lot of people had a couple of times heavy episodes of that, because simply, the whole chain of hygiene was really bad and broken.

Either you had problems with waste disposal, or bad water, or bad food, or simply you lacked personal hygiene.

It was a constant problem.

Sanitation problems were solved in a way that people would just throw away garbage from their own houses, as far as possible, or burn it when it was possible.

Because the system was out (of taking out garbage from that point) the result was that city was suffocating in garbage.

Diseases were inevitable.

Just like any other diseases they treated depending on knowledge and resources. In essence, people would try to cover it with medicines if possible and available, and with natural remedies.

Also, the sick person would be separated from other folks if possible.

Often method (and pretty stupid in that time because other bad factors) was to just leave a sick man to clean on itself, without food or anything, just a really small amount of water.

Do you have suggestions for some ways we can prepare for water and sanitation needs?

People usually do not understand how much consideration they need to take into solving the problem of a working toilet.

It is partly because it is maybe not a cool topic to discuss, but also it is something that we have taken for granted for many years.

Forget about jokes like, “If the SHTF forget about the toilet, it will be all over the place.”

If you are living together with 4 members of your family and one day the SHTF and your toilet is not working anymore it is quite a big topic to think about because you suddenly realize how often you need to go to the toilet and problems that it can bring. (However that may sound funny now).

With improper toilet techniques you are at a high risk for diseases, and when the SHTF, any kind of disease or illness will cripple you because you might need to perform heavy tasks.

Not to mention that “a small cut can kill you” because most probably, you are going to be your own physician, pharmacist, nurse etc.

There is lots of advice about how to deal with human waste: portable camping toilets, digging a latrine, even using it as a fertilizer or using it as a fuel (drying it) etc.

Some of this advice is clearly from people who do not have a clue about urban SHTF. Others are cool, but they are like more advanced solution (still the basic problem exists), and some of them work only in a wilderness situation.

I like to start with a very basic solution that solves my number one problem: what to do if my toilet does not work in my house or my apartment in an urban area.

A very cool and simple solution (and no, I did not “invent” it, it was there for quite some time) is having plastic buckets (the size that a toilet lid can be installed on it) and many plastic (heavy duty) bags that can be “installed” inside that bucket.

You still need to get rid of those bags later, but it is doable.

That is your immediate urban survival latrine. You can add some ash inside to make it more usable.

Often people if you ask them “how will you use the toilet when SHTF.” they  talk about composting human waste, but your real problem is what do you do if SHTF and your toilet is not working, and you can not go out in woods (remember, you are in the city) or anywhere  because it is not safe.

People often mention the fact that your toilet might work even when SHTF, you are just gonna need water to flush it.

That is actually a problem and the reason why you need to look for alternate ways. Water is going to be a big problem, and it is gonna be hard to get for other even more important things not to mention toilet. (unless you are living right next to a river or similar).

Just try to figure out today how much water you “spend” daily for flushing the toilet and you’ll get the point.

And do not forget that there is a chance that your toilets might be flooded, depending of what kind of collapse it is and area where you live.

So the “bucket toilet” technique is a start. Everything else is an upgrade if you have the means, space, and solutions.

If you have close space to your home where it is possible to dig a hole and make outhouse it is a good solution. Again, it will work for some time.

We are talking now about urban survival, and no matter how wrong or funny it looks to you, the point is to get it done in the fastest and cleanest and simplest possible way, and in a way that is the easiest possible to get rid of that waste.

By that you are minimizing the risk of many diseases.

Go with simplest solutions first and then upgrade on that.

All of you can figure pretty easily how much water you spend every day for all of your needs.

Then use that number when you plan how much of water you need to acquire per day when SHTF (through rain, river, wells, your already “stashed” tanks of water etc.) and you’ll see that there is probably scary difference between liters (or gallons) that you are using today and what you are going to be able to get when SHTF.

That means few things.

First and actually most important that you need to understand differences between necessity and comfort, in a way that for example having hot tub is great thing, but you won’t die if you do not have it, while not drinking enough water will get you killed.

So using water when the SHTF gets a new dimension if you think in that way. Maybe you are not gonna be able to be clean all the time, but you’ll survive.

Another thing is that you need to have a stash of water. Often people forget it and concentrate on food only (not to mention weapons only).

It is really cheap and easy to store some amount of water in canisters or barrels and keep it fresh by “refreshing it”  on schedule.

There are calculations of how much time a man can live without water, but usually, there are no calculations of how much time a man can “operate” in hard conditions. You need to be able to run, hide, fight, be scared, be under stress, work hard. So, you need to have a stash of water immediatelly ready when SHTF.

Collecting water from your roof collection system and purifying it sounds cool maybe, but try being thirsty for a week looking at the sky while you are waiting for rain.

I use 50-liter barrels and 20-liter canisters for water stash, on the balcony and in the basement. And I have small bottles of water everywhere. Nothing smart or spectacular but it will do the job, at least until rain falls.

Pay attention to water containers, not only that they need to be usable for water, but also that you need to have them in big numbers and not only big barrels.

Big stuff is hard to move, and once you fill it (for example from the roof system) you may find out it is not possible to move it.

Also having too much “manipulation” with big containers means more chance that you are gonna pollute the water, so think about that too. For example, find a way how you are gonna fill your bottles from big containers and similar.

One more thing that comes to mind when it come to water collecting is tarps.

Tarps (nylon) are something that you absolutely need to have in order to help yourself during water collecting (collection and also for directing what you have collected).

Tarps have many uses in survival so you should have decent amount of them anyway.

It all comes to the levels and degree of SHTF that you might experience, but know that in some periods you’ll be forced to use a very low amount of water for hygiene.

A good method is using a sprinkler watering can and sponge for a bath.

Also, have other methods as a means of water-saving for hygiene for when times get really hard with water (like wet wipes, and hand sanitizers).

Ways to disinfect water to make it usable for drinking are numerous and all around the web. Sometimes the discussion about best method is so fierce that remind me of “best caliber for SHTF” discussion.

It is important to understand that some of the methods kill germs but do not make water completely safe for drinking.

I personally prefer a few ways for making water safe (or safer) to drink: bleach, iodine tincture, boiling ,homemade filters (sand, stone, charcoal…).

I did try few portable purifiers like steripen and hand pump filters during the physical survival courses) and they worked (I did not get sick). It would be interesting to test it in a long term situation, and yes, it is good to have them.

In the end, your plan all comes to the availability of water. For example, if you live close to a creek or river it changes your perspective completely in the long run.

About the Author

Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world. Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/ And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/

Selco: The Shocking Reality of SHTF Medicine and How to Prep for When the Medical System is GONE

This article was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper

Editor’s Note: Something difficult to plan for – or even wrap your brain around – is a world in which medical care is not available. Even though it’s outrageously expensive here in the United States, we can still access care. We may be in debt forever, but it exists.

So, what do you do in a world in which it no longer exists? A world in which there aren’t emergency rooms or doctor’s walk-in clinics? A world in which there aren’t any well-stocked pharmacies?

Today, Selco shares the brutal reality of SHTF medicine. ~Daisy

Since there were no hospitals, how did you treat people who were ill?

Organized (system) of professional medical help ceased to exist.

Hospitals, health centers, EMS, and everything similar was gone. The most advanced medical help that you could find in the hardest period was more or less primitive medical care that some military units had, such as medics and low-level trauma care. But this was not available to common folks.

People with medical knowledge became very important because of this fact, but even the most skilled people were often completely useless because all of the other help that the system offers you is simply non-existent.

One of my old colleagues told me story that could point out some things.

His friend called him to help him with his father, who had fallen from the roof. The man climbed on the roof to repair broken tiles, and he was there in the middle of the night (which was the safest way). He fell down, and his sons found him unconscious. They brought him in the house and called my ex-colleague, a nurse, for help.

When he arrived, he checked the old man, then called his sons in other room. He explained to them that their father was going to die very soon because most probably he had internal bleeding.

The sons were mad at him and they started to threaten him, asking him that he help the old man in any possible way.

My colleague told them that only way possible was to ask for help from the local paramilitary unit who had some medical stash, but even that was very questionable because man need specialized medical care, and at that moment that kind of care was not available in the whole city.

The sons took a trip that night to the headquarters of that unit, and guys there told them to visit the “hospital” which was situated in the basement of a destroyed apartment building.

They later told my colleague that the “hospital” actually was 3 basement rooms with oil lamps and a stench so bad that they both immediately vomited.

The “doctor” who listened to their story about the old man’s injuries asked the two of them ” Do you have weapons?” They answered  “Yeah, sure”.

They were surprised, and started to yell at him, then “doctor” pulled a gun and said, “Get the f…. out of here or I’ll shoot both of you. Your old man is already dead”

They went home. Their old man was not yet dead but he died in the morning.

Some things can be taken care with basic knowledge and a little bit of inventiveness, for example, taking care of a broken rib or similar, but other conditions and traumas were simply too much to take care for most of the folks.

The point of this story is not to scare you. Maybe in your case, the whole situation is going to be much better. Maybe there is going to be some organization, some kind of bigger system when SHTF. I do not know.

Usually, a person who was ill was placed in a separate room and people did as best as they could to help him.

If we managed to get real medication we did that, if not we tried natural remedies.

Honey was one ingredient that was in most of the home remedies, or at least people stated that, pine needles were sometimes there, chamomile mixture, garlic…

Where did you acquire medications? Were you able to buy things like antibiotics on the black market?

Just like all other resources, they were there ( in very low amounts, of course) to take, steal, or barter.

Antibiotics were very valuable on the black market, and usually, you could dictate the price with if you owned any.

Antibiotics were used even with expired dates, and people did not care because sometimes it was the only medicine that you could find.

Natural remedies also jumped in, and yes people who had any knowledge about herbal remedies became important. Also, there were a lot of scams. For example, you heard that some man had a good herb mixture for asthma, and if that was your only choice, of course, you would try it.

A lot of people used that and scammed people with “homemade herb mixtures”.

Sometimes you could find a man who offered you 15 pills, not packaged, not in a box, just 15 pills, which he stated were antibiotics, and you really need them, so what could you do?

Did people with chronic illnesses like diabetes die?

It was a full scale collapse. People were dying from a lot of things (even if we do not mention violent death). There were no doctors, no hospitals, no X rays no lab results.

One day you are good, next day you feel sick and you are vomiting, your skin is yellow, you have a fever…

And then a few days later, you are dead.

Maybe you died from food poisoning, maybe renal failure, maybe your blood sugar went down or up. Who knew?

Lot of ordinary folks did not know why someone died.

A lot of people with chronic illnesses died.The majority of them did not have a stash of medication needed for their condition, and when you add to that fact that overall life quality went down very sharply and very deeply, people who were chronically ill and needed medical attention had serious problems.

In some cases and for some illnesses, certain people managed to pull through with acquiring medication from the black market or using some substitutes like herbs. But for example, if you were an older man who lived with his older wife, and you had insulin-dependent diabetes, and you do not have friends or family to help, and you had no stash, your chances were really low. 

Was there an increase in mental illness?

Yes, but if we are talking about real mental illnesses, people who had serious mental problems that were under control by medication simply lost it without their meds and went completely “mad”.

You could see people hallucinating out in the street more often than in peacetime, or breaking down in their rooms. I knew cases when families locked in their loved one who had mental illness in a room, controlling him in that way because there was no other way.

A lot of those cases were connected to the people who were heavy drug users (addicts). When the SHTF some of them simply went “wild” or, even worse, some groups used those people for very dirty jobs in exchange for a drug supply. Bigger organized groups had more power and more connections, which meant they could find drugs even in those circumstances. This meant drug addicts were ready to do whatever they had to for them, and very violent things were usually what was needed for a gang to keep power. It is not too different from “peacetime” criminal organizations, but when the SHTF stakes are higher. Violence is much worse and much more frequent.

If we are talking about people who simply went crazy because the world as they knew it collapsed around them, then no, not really. Not too many people lost their minds because of the eruption of violence and collapse.

Of course there was increase in suicides and cases of people simply giving up because they thought it was not worth it to continue to live on that way, but not in numbers that people would imagine.

I think the instinct to fight for survival is stronger then we think.

People mostly pushed through, day by day. There was an increase in alcohol consumption or marijuana, sedatives were good thing to have or some herbal substitutes… but people pushed on. 

What diseases became common when the SHTF? How did you treat them? 

When the SHTF, all aspects of life changed, and that included aspects of life that you did not even think about, simply because the system had always taken care of those aspects of life.

For example how much physical work you are doing today-if you are average citizen who work as an clerk somewhere, or truck driver, or housewife or whatever, you are used to some physical activity and certain food quality and quantity.

You are used to having an operating bathroom, and to being pretty warm in your home, etc.

When the SHTF, all that changed.

Food became different. The quality and quantity of it went down. Physical activities went up very sharply. Add to that fact that one day, it was stressful not to find your favorite yogurt in few stores. Then suddenly, the next day when the SHTF, the levels of stress were about seeing people shot for fun or asking yourself whether your kid was going to survive eating plants only.

All of that contributed to people getting sick simply because people were almost always exhausted.

If we are mentioning the most common illnesses, then those were gastrointestinal illnesses connected with bad food, bad water, and low hygiene (both personally and in the home).

Second to that, a lot of problems were connected with secondary complications of a minor injury.

For example, you might get some nasty cut while you were working in some abandoned storage, trying to scavenge some useful material.

That cut looked nasty, but basically it could be taken care with iodine, peroxide, sterile dressings and antibiotic treatment. But you did not had any of those so you bandaged it with a dirty bandana. Then, a day later you got a nasty infection which was a huge problem.

A small cut could kill you.

Homemade remedies were used a lot, again with varying levels of success. Home mixtures were used for cuts and infections, and of course, people searched for antibiotics.

If someone broke his arm, for example, you could try to find someone who had a clue about setting the bones, but you can still today find people with funny looking fingers, or bit twisted arm, or not so functioning leg, simply because they splinted it alone at home during that time without any real medical help.

How can we prepare for medical issues?

We can be prepared to some extent, but it is more important to understand that very often ( in case of serious collapse) you can not do too much.

Much more important is to understand “from what end” you need to start your medical preparedness.

Most of the discussions about medical preparedness in prepping community today have few common characteristics. They are talking mainly about:

• Taking care of patients in short period of time in until advanced help arrives


• Specialized training is given by very specialized instructors (for example combat medics will train you how to take care of a wounded person until evacuation helicopter arrives)


• Students who are driven to learn things that look “cool and flashy”, for example, you’ll be given the task of stopping bleeding on mankind  (or animal meat) while instructors pointing a flashlight in your eyes or using firecrackers to simulate gunshots.

Those are only examples, or one analogy could be that medical preparedness experts teaching you how to suture wounds even if that wound can be taken care of with simple Steri strip (adhesive tape that gonna connect wound edges).

Nobody mentions the complications that can occur from the wound, prolonged care of an infected wound. This is the material and knowledge that you are gonna need.

One of the reasons is that it looks cool to suture a wound or to train how to use tourniquet untill help arrives in form of an ambulance or a helicopter. The other reason is that most of the trainings assume that help is 10 minutes or one hour away.

It may not be like that when real SHTF happens and it is completely different. Then, most probably nobody is going to arrive, and you’ll have to take care of everything.

You need to start with basics and go gradually to more complicated things.

Do not misunderstand me. I know how to suture, and I am combat medic and nurse, too, so I am not talking against that knowledge.

But before learning how to suture as a part of your medical preparedness you need to learn what to do with your waste when SHTF, how to build latrine, how much water you need, and ways to have it in order to keep a minimum of hygiene.

Before you buy 20 suturing kits you need to learn wound care in prolonged terms, including antibiotic treatment for that wound.

You need to know ways to keep yourself clean and protected in order to minimize the risk of getting injured or getting ill.

Another example would be that lot of  people are fixated with buying antibiotics without real knowledge of how antibiotics work and the differences between groups of antibiotics.

Get gloves, face masks, working gloves, hand sanitizers, and alcohol pads. Then go with antibiotics and tourniquets.

It is about preparation and common sense. So if you have, for example, a person with high blood pressure problems in your family, you need to learn all you can about that condition including proper diet, natural remedies, what to do in a possible crisis, and you need to have serious stash of medications for that condition.

Think outside of the box.

Just like with all other fields of prepping, here too, you need to think a bit outside of the box.

A lot of medical skills can be learned. Some of them are online, free to research and learn.

For example, sometimes it is simply not enough to give oral antibiotics, sometimes you’ll have to give it through an IV or intramuscular, or sometimes best choice is to rehydrate person through IV solutions.

Yes, it is probably illegal to do that if you are not a medical professional, but when the SHTF, that is gonna be not so important. On the other side, your skills are gonna be very important.

Learn skills no matter what system says about who can practice those skills. You are preparing for a time when system is gone so it makes sense.

About the Author

Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world. Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/ And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca</e

Selco: What We Ate and How We Got Food When the SHTF

This report was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper

Editor’s Note: If a disaster is bad enough and lasts long enough, it isn’t going to take long before there is no food to be had. In this interview with Selco, he shares his real-life experiences and explains how people kept from starving to death when there was no food in the stores. ~ Daisy

How do you get food when there are no stores?

At the beginning of everything, most of the people did not have any significant “stash” of food in their homes.

In other words, the majority of common folks had food a or couple of days in their pantry and that was it. There were exceptions to that because the process of collapse did not happen in a few hours (in terms of suddenly there is no food in the stores).

When the chaos started, people looted stores after a short period of everyone buying things in a panic. Still, the majority of folks did not manage to get a decent stash of food from stores. Some did not want to believe that they were gonna need a stash. Others did not want to go out and participate in looting because it was dangerous. But I think the most obvious reason was that all food from stores was taken very fast.

In beginning period of SHTF, events unfold at a very fast pace. Actually, events go one after another so fast that if you find yourself lost in one event at the end of several events, you ask yourself, “Why in the name of God I did not go out and buy a whole bunch of food while I still could do that?”

Was gardening an option? If so, how did people protect their gardens?

Yes, it was an option, but the percentage of food from a garden was low because of a few reasons.

It was a city, without enough land for significant food growing, and the second reason is that even people who had some land (small gardens near houses) needed time to grow food there.

People usually did not grow food there in normal times, flowers, tea, maybe some particular kind of tomato, salad greens, and similar.

I remember going and checking gardens for tomatoes because people had tried some new sort of tomato close to their home, not as a way to have food, but as an attempt so they could see is if it was OK to have it somewhere before they had a bigger piece of land for growing (before SHTF in a peacetime).

So yes, gardening was an option, people used every part of the available land, but that was not enough, and it was like you are checking every day how your tomato is growing and you wait for it, but then you pick it and realize you have food for only a couple of days.

We were not prepared at the time to use every piece of land for food growing. It takes time to establish that.

Still, it was precious, and it was protected of course, just like your home, in the same way.

How often did MREs get dropped?

There was no schedule for food drops, at least no real schedule because it was all based on rumors like, “Tonight they are gonna drop food from airplanes.” If you asked, “Who told you that?” the answer was “a guy who heard it from guy who heard…” So, of course, it was completely based on luck.

Sometimes, it would “fall down” every second night, or you heard it had fallen somewhere, it would be “I heard it from a guy who heard it…”

Sometimes it was 3-4 times per week. Of course, they dropped it, but that does not mean we could find any of the food. Other people would simply grab it before you.

Some folks headed for the hills every night in order to wait. People would choose one guy from family to go up every night and wait.

If those food drops had any schedule there where they loaded planes (as I understand later, the place was in an air base in Italy) it was completely lost on us down in the city in the chaos and empire of rumors.

You need to understand that in that time those planes were not the only ones to fly, so sometimes we were out waiting for food but actually other planes bombarded us.

But very early we learned to recognize the low humming sound of food planes, distant but powerful.

Now when I look back, it is weird how we trusted some of that information. For example, if we heard that food was gonna be dropped that night in some particular part of the city, some small area of some hill, people would go there.

A reasonable man would have thought, “Oh, so some poor ragged guy in the middle of civil war and information blockade suddenly has info on where several huge military airplanes are gonna do some operation?” Not to mention the fact that the whole city together with all the hills looked to those people in the airplanes like small dots.

It was nonsense. But we were hungry, scared, and in the middle of chaos without any real information, so people trusted in a lot of things, especially in good news.

Do not underestimate the power of rumors in hard times.

“Food drops” were performed for many cities in this area during the hardest part of the war. They helped on different levels.

Even today I find one of the happiest sounds to be the sound of MREs raining on a hard surface. I did not know the technical details (and still don’t) of how exactly that worked, but most of the things that were dropped would break apart in the air, so on the ground, it would “rain”.

It was like a lottery to be in the middle of that rain because the MREs were good stuff, and valuable, but some of the bigger stuff coming down could kill people. (It happened with bigger packages).

MREs were meals all in one package: food, sweet stuff, matches, even that hot sauce that was pretty handy when we want to add taste to some weird food that we ate or to mask a bad taste.

What food were you able to forage?

When it comes to foraging for plants, I know it is a popular opinion in some circles that you can survive and live by foraging.

In terms of urban survival, it is, in my opinion, overestimated if you are an average man.

Maybe it would work if you have lots of knowledge about edible plants, and maybe if you have many resources of those plants and are in the wilderness.

We were average urban folks. Our knowledge about edible plants was limited to the one or two usable plants that could be used for homemade tea.

For example yes, we used pine needles for tea. It sounds great today, it is good healthy tea with vitamins and so on, but you can not live on it, it can be in addition to your food, but not your main resource.

Older folks jumped in with their knowledge. They were folks that in those times remembered WW2 and hunger, and people usually listened to them when it came to what plant you could use for food.

Plants like nettle and dandelion were used, and in the worst periods, people simply started to use any available grass mixed with small amount of flour.

Eating plants and herbs in that time was not a case of healthy living. It was a matter of not having anything else to eat. 

Were you able to scavenge for food from deserted buildings?

Yes.

When the SHTF, especially in the beginning, some houses became empty. People left or died inside (for whatever reason, for example, shelling). Then folks would go through the empty houses and scavenge for food.

One memory from that time is the endless stench of rotten food (there was no electricity for the fridges). In the beginning, you could find food on that way.

If you were lucky sometimes you could find a bigger amount of food. Sometimes you came upon a house where the ex-occupant clearly hoarded food in the first days of rioting.

That period of time did not last for long. The stench of rotten food was pretty much substituted with another kind of stench. Soon there were more dead people then spoiled food in the city.

But even later, you would never know what you could find in destroyed and abandoned houses. Maybe few cans of food hidden or forgotten somewhere under the rubble, or in a destroyed fridge.

One thing interesting from that period (when it comes to scavenging) and also very important in prepper terms is that I witnessed and was part of something that I can call the transition of scavenging or maybe resetting the values of goods.

It goes something like this:

First people ran riot on stores and looked for valuables like gold, money, TVs, stereos, cars…then as they realized the situation, they looked for weapons, fuel, then candles, batteries, and food, then they’d dig up some gardens for few potatoes.

People needed some time to realize what was really important. It didn’t take very long but sometimes even a few days or a week is important.

I have seen people running from a mall with items that, in few days, would become most ridiculous items to possess (and to take from a burning mall) in the middle of a collapse, things like a TV or a laundry machine or a music collection of a famous band.

The majority of people could not imagine what was coming, so they could not fathom that a bag full of AA batteries was gonna worth more than 50 laundry machines.

For example, the laundry machine was usable only to plug a hole in the wall from shelling or to reinforce the door.

I am not advocating that you go out rioting and taking stuff from malls and stores when SHTF, but let’s say that if you find yourself there, think about what is useful to take in prepper terms.

Here is one example: if the SHTF again here, there is parking machine in front of my home that gives you an automatic ticket when you sin here insert coins. As soon as I see someone busting it open to take money from inside I will go and take the small solar panel from it (it is solar power operated). While other people think about money inside, I am thinking about solar power on the outside of it.

Where you able to hunt or trap anything for meat?

It was the city, so hunting or trapping anything more complicated than a pigeon was not really an option. The other reason was that it was city in the middle of a war, so real trapping had its own complications like shelling, constant noises, and similar.

If your situation is extreme, hunting or trapping can be about trapping pigeons or shooting a stray dog. 

What are some things you can eat that most people wouldn’t think of as food?

It is a matter of levels. Sometimes I get questions over mail asking if we had cases of cannibalism, and the answer is no. People need to realize that the road to that extreme is very, very long.

There are many bad things to eat before getting to that extreme (even if you are willing to go there) and people do not realize that.

I ate spoiled and old food of different kinds, expired food (cans of cookies from military storages that were expired for decades), food with worms (cooked together with those expired cans), grass that was boiled in water, leaves from trees. We ate different kind of meat, pigeon for sure, and I am quite positive cat meat once, and rat meat once probably.

How did you extend food to make it feed more people?

Over time, it gets important to have some food, or in other words to have your belly “full” of something so easiest solutions were to water food down, or to mix it with plants.

In other words, we ate a lot of “soups.” For example, if we had a small amount of meat and rice, but we have water and some plants, we would make a big pot of soup.

In some cases it looked more like tea (a lot of hot water with a small amount of food inside) but it solved the problem of how to make something big out of small amounts of something.

When a situation is hard – when it is hard and demanding on both psychological and physical way – you cannot really ration yourself. You need to eat something, because of the simple fact that you can not operate if you are not fed. So we ate a lot of very low quality food, and yes we were always more or less hungry.

How did you cook food without power?

We cooked with fire, a stove that used wood, and often an open fire in the yard. It was a constant equation of heating and cooking with low wood resources.

For example if we needed to get a fire for heating it was used at the same time for cooking. (See Selco’s article on staying warm during a long-term SHTF scenario.)

A small open fire on the yard was used in weather when there was no need for heating.

Was there a black market for food?

Of course, and it was matter that changed all the time based what was available in the city at a given moment.

For example if food drops that week were good you could find MREs cheaper. Other times, all you could find was suspicious-looking meat cans without manufacture or expiration dates on them.

Nothing was fixed and for sure on black market, not even fact that you gonna survive the trade not to mention other things. (See Selco’s article on the dangers of barter and trade)

Again, it was a matter of levels, so there were people who “owned” the black market (people with strong organizations, firepower, and connections). Sometimes they dictated the “pricing” of food in the city, and sometimes there were common folks who could offered you few cans of meat or two MREs from their stash.

Sometimes you could run into a man who was offering you “powdered eggs” but in a dark, not secure environment (you are trading with unknown armed people for example), you needed to be sure it is not some useless powder.

There were scams and you needed to be sure who you were trading with, how secure the place was, and what you were actually trading for.

How much of your time was taken up with acquiring and preparing food?

It was a matter of economic thinking. It was not about making it delicious because we had scarce resources like wood for fire. and simply because often it was impossible to make it delicious.

It was brought down to the level of getting your stomach full of something so you can continue to operate one more day.

Things to know about eating when the SHTF

There are options of foraging for edible plants and hunting or trapping some animals in the city when the SHTF, but do not count on that as the main resource for your food, not in the long run.

Acquiring food in urban settings comes down to the idea of taking food from other people – either people that are not there anymore (empty houses) or people that are still there (through the trade or attack).

All of the above options (just like lot of other prepper activities when SHTF) usually are not fancy and romantic/friendly.

When scavenging through deserted places, you can get injured and that injury can get complicated when there is no medical care. During a trade, you can get scammed, ripped off, or simply attacked and injured or killed because of the resources you possess in that moment or due to a lack of careful planning.

By attacking other people to get food (if you find yourself that desperate or if you wish to go that way) you are risking, of course, being killed.

In the end, it comes again to the idea that you need to be prepared very well for SHTF with your stash of food or your small garden where you are gonna choose what to have and how to use it in the most efficient way. You should minimize the need to go out and scavenge, at least until, you figure out some things.

About the Author

Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world. Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/ And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/

 

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca</e