Fotografía de autor
30 Obras 229 Miembros 3 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

Jay Cassell has written for Field Stream, Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, Petersen's Hunting, Time, and many other publications. He lives in Katonah, New York.

Obras de Jay Cassell

The quotable hunter (1999) 5 copias

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Género
male

Miembros

Reseñas

Though this is targeted to 'preppers,' which I'm not, there's a lot here for anyone who's interested in a more self-sufficient lifestyle, a smaller footprint, or just practical, 'old-fashioned' skills that seem less commonly practiced today.

This essentially gave me a sample platter of content and provided a little about a lot of things - how electricity works, growing seeds, canning, food storage, home security, self-defense, what to do in/after a natural disaster, etc.

I skimmed or entirely skipped over chapters I wasn't personally interested in. I don't see canning or building a backyard irrigation system in my future, nor would I presume myself knowledgeable enough to try after reading this (or any single) book.

It didn't go deep enough into any one thing (and wasn't trying to), but it teed up rabbit trails of niche interests I might delve into a little deeper someday, maybe. And even if not, it fed my brain something different from my typical reading diet.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
angiestahl | otra reseña | Nov 16, 2023 |
I originally bought this book for some amusement at the antics of those who are preparing for the end of the world...and have often wondered at the mind-set of those building underground silos with swimming pools etc., and how they think they might survive in the long term. However, I found myself increasingly appreciating the thought that has gone into this book, its breath of coverage and the fact that it does have useful information for me. It's not just about surviving nuclear armageddon but about surviving bushfires, floods, which I can reasonably expect to encounter in Australia and earthquakes and tsunami's which I can expect to encounter in Japan, where we spend a fair bit of time. Though it says quite a lot about the state of the USA when whole sections are given over to things like " Defending the Home with a Firearm"...and as he says :...
"that as many as thirty-two legal purchases of a firearm take place every minute, the possibility that a homeowner in the United States may be armed is now greater than it has been for several generations".
Nevertheless he also includes some helpful advice for treating gunshot wounds. "This is a special category where first-aid measures are primarily used to stabilize the individual. A lot of critical damage is done when a bullet strikes tissue. Getting the victim to an ambulance or helicopter with trained EMTs or paramedics is of paramount importance". All a little scary!

It's not all like that. There is some sensible advice for people living in areas prone to damaging winds or cyclones...for example:..."Before the event bolt the walls of the structure securely to the foundation. Attach wall studs to roof rafters with metal hurricane clips. Secure large appliances (especially the water heater) with flexible cable or metal stripping". Then there is the advice about what sized tent you might need if you have to live there for an extended period: ..."Family of three × 60 + 60 + 40 = 280 square feet. Do they even make tents that size? Glance through the online catalogs of your favorite budget mega-stores, you’ll see tents that are the size of a small house". Well I think this is written for an American audience.

There is some sensible advice there about knowing the evacuation plans for your building and community. and maintaining a disaster supplies kit. Include copies of all your important documents, IDs, and some cash. Discuss possible evacuation procedures with your family and coworkers so they all know what to do. Choose a destination outside the area and keep a road map and directions. Establish a check-in contact outside the area, to whom all family members can report their status. Make certain they all have the same numbers. If an evacuation seems likely, keep a full tank of gas in the car. There will be no gas available during the evacuation. The official advice in Japan with earthquakes is much the same and also for what Jay Cassell calls a bug-out bag. A bug-out bag is simply a backpack or some other type of bag that is stocked with enough emergency supplies for one person to survive for a short period of time. Most experts suggest that you should have enough supplies in your bug-out bag to survive for a minimum of seventy two hours. This is generally considered enough time for emergency services to set up temporary relief outposts that can provide food, shelter, and medical supplies to those who have been displaced by a disaster. You’re going to want to carry one that is designed to be easily carried. For most people, this will be a quality backpack. You should probably also carry copies of any important family documents that you think might be of use to you. These documents should be stored in a waterproof bag so they don’t get ruined if you find yourself having to survive in less than ideal weather conditions. Some examples of the types of documents that you might want to carry are:
1) Photo identification.
2) Important medical information, such as medical history, medical conditions, allergies, or the medications that you might take.
3) Copies of insurance policies or medical insurance cards.
4) Important contact information, including phone numbers and addresses of relatives, close friends, and family doctors.
5) Bank account information.
6) Accurate location of your strategically hidden bug-out caches as well as directions to them. This might include GPS coordinates or perhaps even maps with the location of the caches clearly marked on them.
70 Be sure and include items that will make it easy for you to start a fire. Even if you know how to make a fire with a fire bow, you’ll be glad that you thought ahead and packed items like a high-quality magnesium stick, a new butane lighter, waterproof matches, and dry tinder. Being able to start a fire—and quickly—can save your life during extreme, cold survival situations.
Whatever the case may be, it’s important that you take a few hours at least a couple of times a year and make sure that if you had to bug out, your bug-out bags are up to date and ready to go.

With a tsunami, our task is simply to stay away from the wave. Get as high as possible. This cannot be stressed enough. The moment a tsunami warning is given or sounded, you should leave whatever you are doing and make for higher ground.With a bushfire: If caught in the open the best temporary shelter is in a sparse fuel area. On a steep mountainside, the back side is safer. Avoid canyons, natural “chimneys” and saddles. And when it comes to insurance claims, take lots of photos of all damage, from as many angles as possible. An inexpensive digital camera is perfect for this because it is rare nowadays to find an insurance claims adjuster without a laptop computer.

And, of course there has to be some discussion of a nuclear disaster.....though not necessarily a war. The aftermath with all that fallout in the atmosphere, it will be very difficult to plan for the future. If you find that the reduction in radiation does not follow the rule of seven, then you are either in a hot spot or are receiving fallout from a reactor. The Rule of Seven is simple: After 7 hours, the radiation should be one tenth, and after 7 × 7 hours, it should be one hundredth, and so on. If that is not the case, you must relocate.(I guess you need to be carrying your own geiger counter!!)

There are extended sections on all sorts of thing, such as knots and splices; first aid, building shelters, hunting, eating wild plants ....though this would have benefited greatly from photographs of the various plants. There are also extended sections (almost book-length in themselves) on fire making, cooking, growing your own produce, and extended sections on building and using wind turbines and solar panels. I'm not sure if he's not crossing into the area of simply living off-grid for reasons other than calamity.
A few things I found useful:
1. You should never drink the following: Blood urine saltwater, acohol, fresh sea ice. Chlorine is an effective agent against bacteria, viruses, and, unlike iodine, cysts such as Cryptosporidium. Another advantage of using chlorine is that it leaves no aftertaste. On the downside, a significant disadvantage of using chlorine tablets is that you have to wait for four hours after adding a tablet before you can drink the water
2. Maintaining a fire is just as important as starting one. If you’re in a survival situation, you always want to save energy. Don’t spend your time chopping firewood. Instead, feed large branches and logs into the fire, and let the fire do all the work. As the logs burn, move each farther into the fire. It’s amazing how much wood you can gather when you’re not wasting time chopping or sawing.
3. cooking in the ashes. As with most primitive skills, the key is patience. The secret to cooking in the ashes is not to get in a hurry-wait for your coals to turn to white ash, or you will burn your food.
4. Making yourself a large cooking pot. One way to accomplish this is to dig a hole in the earth, line it with clay and build a fire in it to harden the pot. Once the clay is fire-hardened and cool, you can pick it up and dump out the ashes. Or, you can wait until the clay is dry, carefully remove it from the hole and “fire” it over a very hot fire.
5. Canning food. Canning salt—Also called pickling salt. It is regular table salt without the anti-caking or iodine additives. Citric acid—A form of acid that can be added to canned foods. It increases the acidity of low-acid foods and may improve their flavor. With low acid foods with pH above 4.6., the acidity is insufficient to prevent the growth of botulism bacteria. Vegetables, some varieties of tomatoes, figs, all meats, fish, seafood, and some dairy products are low-acid foods. To control all risks of botulism, jars of these foods must be either heat processed in a pressure canner or acidified to a pH of 4.6 or lower before being processed in boiling water.

Though there is also some weird stuff that makes me wonder a bit about the author. For example he praises the art of divination: "The most time-honored method for determining that is through “divination” This unexplained yet remarkably effective means of locating subterranean water was once practiced by welldiggers using a y-shaped, green “twitch,” preferably one made of willow. The physics of water-witching have frustrated scientists for more than a century, but the fact is, it works, and the technique is still used by professional well drillers today.

The section on canning is almost book-length in itself. In fact this is a very big book....over 1,300 pages. A bit repetitious.....eg with fires and cooking but overall I was quite impressed by the wealth of detail. Most of it helpful and most of it directed to the sort of situations that could arise for anybody.......especially with rapid climate change.
I originally thought I'de be rating this as a one star but having now read it, I give it four stars.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
booktsunami | Apr 5, 2023 |
Gave it a half star to show that I'd rated it, but it would be a negative number if I could do that. Bad! Really bad! And exploitive of the coming genre, it purports to cover lots of ground. Well, it does, but in such passing terms that it's quite useless.
½
 
Denunciada
2wonderY | otra reseña | Sep 9, 2014 |

También Puede Gustarte

Estadísticas

Obras
30
Miembros
229
Popularidad
#98,340
Valoración
3.1
Reseñas
3
ISBNs
60

Tablas y Gráficos