22 Comments

Very interesting and thoughtful. I'm lucky, I guess -- or maybe there's a reason I always gravitated to historic houses in moderate climates. I own a 150-year-old foursquare in a small town (~4000 population) with propane cooking and a heating oil boiler supplemented with fireplaces. The town is located on the banks of a river -- I guess in a pinch we'd figure out how to make it safe for drinking and bathing. With shorebilly ingenuity our locals could probably figure out how to run the water tower pumps with wind power given a few weeks and some beer. I'm pretty sure the municipal water infrastructure itself predates the town's electrification.

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Great article! Permaculture takes some of this into consideration with a disaster analysis. Imo, it is one of the most important sectors. And redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.

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Speaking as someone who lives in Albuquerque, I would tend to say that the largest risk in abandoning one's home would be that of squatters. It freezes in the winter, and it gets stupid hot in the summer, but environmental effects probably aren't going to kill a residence quickly. Zombies are a much larger risk. Especially these days.

Though the but about the nearest 100 year old house made me chuckle. There are not a lot of those here.

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That was great. I’m in south Florida. We’re generally prepared down here cause hurricanes. I’m more prepared than most. But after living without power for a few weeks down here a few different times in the summer I’m not sure how we’d fare for a few months. It’s just wicked hot and humid.

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Good article . I’m in western Montana, so similar environment depending where you are in Canada. House has Gas heating, fireplace (6 cords of wood), back up multi-fuel generator, well water with electric pump / solar backup, flowing stream in the backyard 9 months of the year & Royal Berkey water purification system if we need to use water from the stream. 1/8 acre fenced in garden. Most of the nearby homes/ families have backups too (not all of course).

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Wood stove, and 2 years fire wood. Water is a problem when electric goes down.

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a stocked spring fed pond, timber, and cross-ventilation

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IF this comes down, I can see a comeback of dog trot home design.

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I'd not heard of dog-trot before, just considered them breezeways, but I like the idea and

I'm starting to consider build vs buy. Here's some brain candy. https://modulars.org/designs/porch-house/

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Also, I didn’t expect prepping stuff out of you. Well done!

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Always keep your passport up to date, cash, and gold available and a crypto account. Get out early and return late.

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East Texas. Everything you wrote is righteous. This is a far cry from "10 Essential Things For Your Bugout Bag" or "Stock These Food Items for SHTF!" This is actionable intelligence for the reasonable and prudent. Well done. @Matt_Bracken said you're good. He's right.

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FELICES

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FELICES MUCHOS CON WOULD YOUR HOME SURVIVE CIVIL WAR AND

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Lol, as if any outcome would be worth surviving in. LMAO even.

When Scalps, Kulak? When are one of you NYC Art Hoe Thought Leaders going to lead a charge?

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WW2 was such an outcome, and I heard very few of the millions who survived it saying it wasn't worth making it through

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And? That's Not Good Enough. When Scalps?

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Oh boy you're in Canada? How's that all going? It's an indian nightmare is what I hear - but I know for a fact that without modern electricity and such they wouldn't even survive close to as well as true anglo canadians did. Canadians are tough motherfuckers, have to say that. I'm USA - I have a lot of respect for real Canadians. The paintings of the quebec city waterfalls frozen over, that's true canada - not modern brampton monkey driving. Godspeed man. Love your work.

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Sandbags stacked to form firing position(s) from windows or other installations. Will also prevent Molotov's and such from taking hold inside.

Fire extinguisher near each vulnerable window, especially if no sandbags employed. Antifa do love their Molotov's.

Solar system w/ batteries for deep H2O well pump, can also run off generator or use "well bucket" that rides in the pump shaft.

Well-placed observation posts to gain warning of impending danger. Sandbags are good for cover there as well.

The 3 three's:

3 minutes without O2 to the brain

3 days without H2O

3 weeks without nourishment

Obviously water is a crucial consideration. Dirty H2O kills. IV w/ fluids only way to save someone with dysentery from drinking contaminated water.

Onward, Christian soldiers!

Trip wires to flash-bangs or whatever.

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My solution, at about 45° north latitude, is a passive solar insulated concrete form home. No A/C installed or needed, wood stove on the lower level for the primary heat and propane fired hot water boiler for backup. Without diving into too many details, we close all the windows in the morning of hot summer days to keep the heat out, then open them at night when the outside temp falls below the inside temperature. This works in our area because the diurnal temperature usually swings below a comfortable level of about ~70 degrees even in July and August, and a small oscillating fan in the bedroom is all we need for staying cool while sleeping. In the winter months the passive solar heat provides about 30-40% of our heating needs and the wood stove does the rest. Wood burners are very dry heat, no mold, in fact we leave a kettle of water on the stove to put some moisture in the air.

ICF walls provide significant protection against most disasters, natural and manmade, compared to stick or brick homes. They're resistant against air infiltration, sound, heat/fire, rodents, and of course projectiles - from chemically propelled small metal objects, wind blown flying debris, and even from ramming by passenger vehicles. Once built and the siding is installed they're also indistinguishable externally from other more common construction methods because it's nobody else's business that your walls are made of 6-12" of reinforced concrete.

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