This probably wont end well

I've been paying attention to what's going on in the middle east.
More fighting.

But there is more to it. But before I get to that I'm going to start here. At home.
More fighting.

Right now there are union's all across USA and Canada protesting and/or striking. Hawaii is the latest to join the craze that is taking us by storm. My job is also in peril as my co-workers have voted to strike if an agreement isn't made.
You see, the money is drying up. The US and Canadian governments gave out all that money to stimulate the economy (dumb idea) has run out so now there is no money to keep the great machine going; in fact now there is less money because we still have to pay it back with interest. So all these cities are trying to cut costs anyway they can AND trying to point the blame in another direction because they know just how screwed things really are.

So in my case, the city wants to contract out the jobs to companies that will do it for cheaper than the city worker. The actual job doesn't get cheaper - we workers get paid pretty much the same. Its the quality of the work done that is cheapened. Roads that should be 8" thick become 4" thick; instead of lasting 10 years last 1-2 years.
If your city needs $8,000,000 for road repairs but only has $2,000,000 - you're roads are going to start looking like shit.
It doesn't matter to the guys trying to cut costs because they don't want to be re-elected next term anyway. Leave the mess for someone else to clean up.

This is the crap I take OFF my burger.

Has anyone else had the joy of yellow and green tomatoes yet? Absolute garbage. But soon enough there wont even be garbage tomatoes to put on your burgers.

About the violence in the middle east. It seems like the whole area is destabilising. All these people are tired of being cheated. Their leaders have special deals with the west and little to no money ends up in the hands of the people. So the people are rioting and rebelling against it! They are forming new governments that are no friendly to the west. They are fighting and destroying oil production. That's going to push oil way up.

You hear about $100 a barrel, $104 a barrel, $117 a barrel.
A barrel has 42 gallons (159L) of oil.

But this is crude oil. Unrefined oil.
After it is refined each barrel converts to 19.15 gallons(72.5L) of oil.

These are just facts. No real point to them.

George Soros (investment banker and rich dude) says it is likely that oil will reach $200 a barrel and beyond, by summer, unless the fighting stops and pro-western governments form in the middle east.

Alright.
Best case scenario.
The fighting stops.
The leaders of these Arab countries love USA and Canada even more; they share the wealth with the people.
We all get along and oil returns to a nice low double digit number.
OH, and we discover fields of really great tomatoes. :D

Worst case...
The leaders of these troubled countries continue to fight and kill their rebelling population. The UN steps in and starts to arm and defend the people against the governments. Oil stops flowing and goes to $220 a barrel.
Gas stations in your town are either empty and closed down or they are charging 312.8L for regular or over $9 a gallon in parts of USA.
It costs a lot more money to ship food from 10,000 miles away; so your grocery bill that used to cost you $100 is now costing well over $400 and you can't even get some of the products because they are not available to you.
What makes matters worse is that the food transportation industry goes on strike when oil hits $170 a barrel. Then you can't get any food no matter how much you are willing to spend!

I don't like to plan for the worst case scenario. I don't even like to think about it. But ignoring it's potential for destruction because 'it's never happened to you' is nuts. This worst case scenario has a very real chance of happening. And when it does it will be very quick. You will probably get home from work or wake up in the morning and hear dire news warnings. By the time you know what is going on it will be too late. Because when you realise what is going on so will everyone else. Just like the  "Y2K disaster" - the day before everyone rushed out and bought all the foods they could. I was working at a grocery store and watched as people did this. Within a matter of hours after opening the store it was picked nearly bare.

I've talked about this in "12 Meals to Anarchy".
How will people react? They wake up in the morning, there is no food left, the grocery stores are empty. Do they go to work that day? Do they sit at home and watch TV while their children go hungry?
What would you do?

I have a lot of faith our ability to weather this storm. I don't think we will degrade into primitive African nation sitting around waiting for other to help them. Life will get hard for a while but we will pull though and we will do it ourselves! Our forefathers built this country from nothing and we can do it again. We aren't 'too big to fail' but we are too big to let it destroy us completely.
We have such a strong will to survive and endure, especially if we plan to endure.

So love life. Buy some 'food insurance'. Ride a bike to work if you can. Work closer to home if you can. Grow some food if you can. Do it yourself if you can.
And don't give up. Just keep going.

Water is awesome

This blog isn't really a survival blog. There are plenty of much better survival sources out there - like The Survival Podcast for one. This blog is about depending on yourself. Not expecting someone to save you but using your brain to come up with a self saving solution.

So today I wanted to address one part of "The Law of 3".
You can survive for 3 min without air.
You can survive for 3 days without water.
You can survive for 3 weeks without food.

It's not a perfect law but neither are most laws.

Water is awesome.

Water is a ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is vital for all known forms of life. - Wikipedia

When water is used to grow food there are 4 common sources.

1. Rain water - Also known as the 'gold standard' by gardening circles. It is the best for plants.
2. Pond water - If the pond is healthy. It can contain a lot of bacteria that breaks down in the soil and feeds the plants.
3. Well water - Is usually pretty good but might have mineral/bacterial imbalances.
4. Public water - Really isn't all that good. A lot of chemicals, pesticides and medical by product. You can tell the quality of your tap water by how fast it kills sensitive plants.

Real Berkey

But when it comes down to water survival - most water sources need to be made drinkable for safety. What is the point of drinking water if it gives you diarrhoea and dehydrates you to death?

Fake Berkey

The best water filters are Berkey. They cost about $200+ for the complete system or you can just buy the filters and rig it with some 5 gallon buckets. That will still cost you around $100. BUT you will have good water for a long time.
INSTRUCTIONS

Alternatively... There is another cheap way to filter water that I learned about from Potters For Peace. No Harry Potter jokes please.
These guys work in 3rd world countries where $100 filters are a little out of their price range. Instead they have designed an ingenious way for the locals to use local resources and filter their own water without having to sell their souls to the World Bank.

They are called Ceramic Water Filters or Rabbit Filters.
You take a clay pot. Put it in a plastic container. Pour water into the clay pot and it filters the water into the plastic container.

They have instructions on how to build one are here...
INSTRUCTIONS
It's an open source project.


But lets face it. If you are out and about and don't have any filter or clay pots what are you going to do? Boil it. You can use a plastic bottle to boil water that's safe from bacteria, viruses and parasites to drink.
INSTRUCTIONS
As a warning though, boiling water in a plastic bottle is not the best. This is an all-else-fails option. Boiling water releases chemicals in the bottle into the water but if it's that or diarrhoea...

A safer way is to use SODIS. It relays on sunlight and plastic bottles still. Instead of boiling the water for 5 min. You leave the water in the sunlight for 6-12 hours.
It relies on the suns UV light to kill the bacteria, parasites and viruses.
INSTRUCTIONS

Another option is to build a BioFilter using sand, gravel, charcoal and some plastic garbage buckets; filter the water then boil it. They made one on the show 'The Colony' and I found a video...

The colony is a neat show by Discovery Channel.

Sand is easier to come across naturally but Charcoal... Well if you know how it's easy to come across too.
INSTRUCTIONS

These are all just a few of the ways to primitively filter water.
If you want to know more about one of these specific ways by all means study more on it. Google has a lot of resources and detailed instructions.
There are a lot of other topics on water I'd like to talk about but this post is long enough I think. ;)

I own a MSR Miniworks EX and a filter straw. I use these when I go camping so if I ever can't get water from my well I can drink straight from the ditch.
These are great filters.

As a legal safety net (stupid legal stuff) I don't advise anything - at all. But if you don't have any other choice but to try something you read here it's at your own expense. ;)