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About Me: I have started whole new pages elsewhere on this site for my survival plans, gear and so forth. It is still under construction as yet, of course, but much of the information that is now found here will soon be moved over there. You can check them out below. Links to my Survival Plan pages: * Page One: Bugging In and Bugging Out * Page Two: Digging In for Awhile * Page Three: Living in the Aftermath Links to my Fortified BOL pages: * Page One: Fortifying The Castle * Page Two: The Curtain Wall Link to my Survival Gear page. Link to my Personnel File page. When I started thinking way too much about zombies: Right around the time I saw my first Zombie movie. What started my zombie fixation: I've always been interested in the particulars, but all in one single weekend back in June of 2010, I read Max Brooks ZSG, and watched Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Diary of the Dead plus both of the first two Resident Evil movies, so it kind of kick started my interest anew. Favorite zombie book: Zombie Survival Guide (it's the only zombie thing I have ever seen in book form) but now that I know other things are available, I'll be on the lookout for them. Favorite zombie movie: Pretty much all of them, but if pressed to narrow it down, I'd have to go with Zombieland, or any of the Resident Evil movies. At least when they go after the Zeds in those films, they go strapped. They might be doomed anyway, but at least they tried, and that's better than watching some dip$hit wandering around in the dark with nothing but a flashlight, going, "Where's all that moaning coming fr... Aaaah!" Favorite quotes in any zombie movie: "I'm quite all right Barbara, I ran it under a cold tap. We had our jabs when we went to the Isle of Wight." - Phillip, Shaun of the Dead (2004) "When Tallahassee goes Hulk on a zombie, he sets a whole new standard for 'Not To Be F_cked With'." - Columbus, Zombieland (2009) My result for The Comprehensive Zombie Survival Test: Master Survivor! You scored an 82% for Survivability, 100% for Knowledge, 74% for Preparedness and 82% for Weapon info! You have advanced knowledge of the undead. You can survive almost every situation thrown at you. No doubt that, by days end, you'll be standing on a large pile of "Meat Snacks" and "possible survivors". My Survival Plan: My “handle” should you look for you on the radio waves or web: White Knight or GallahadMy location: I live in a City in Eastern Newfoundland, Canada (Pop: Over 100,000). Is my plan dependent on zombies in your home town, or anywhere? Unfortunately, I don't have a specific plan as of yet. I'm nowhere near as prepared as I should be, but I'm using this site as my inspiration, and hope to have something in the works before too long, actual details will follow soon, after we have gotten settled into our new place. (UPDATE - As the employment that I gad previously been guaranteed fell through, turning out to be not so guaranteed after all, my family has packed up and relocated one more time. We are living in a new city, almost 900 miles away from our previous location, and this new home is in an apartment building, which has it's good points and it's bad points as far as defensibility and preparations are concerned, this will be detailed in the first part of my Survival Plan, Page 1: Bugging In. We've lived in this city once before, right on this same street in fact, and so we have a better idea of the lay of the land, which again is a positive thing about another move anyway. This is actually our fifth move in only four years, and again, it will HOPEFULLY be our last for quite some time, but then, that's what I said the last time too. Planning is rather more difficult if you don't know where you'll live from one year to the next.) PICTURES OF OUR NEW HOME WILL FOLLOW SOON Will I be staying in my home or headed somewhere else? See previous. I should like someday to have a decently fortified home somewhere just outside city limits, but near enough to a city or town where I could forage (ie - Scavenge) for supplies. I have a set of blueprints for my dream home that I designed when I was around 17 (I am 35 now) that should be rather easy to fortify. It already has no doors and windows on the ground floor, was designed to be outfitted with alternate power sources, and also has a panic room / shelter area beneath the basement (maybe even one with hidden exit tunnels for use in an emergency). I'll include drawings and plans of this dream house in my Fortifying The Castle page as soon as I can recover them off my old hard drive. If I ever get the dream house built, then I'll likely be Digging In there. Otherwise, I'll have to Bug In here until the Panic has passed, then Bug Out, as my current home could be made defensible enough to repel intruders or Zeds over the short term, but I doubt that my family could survive any drawn out siege here. As we have only recently moved to this town, we are not yet familiar with the lay of the land, and so I therefore do not have any particular BOL prepared or even planned. This will come after I get a better idea of what places are available in this area that may lend themselves to fortification. If I'm heading out, how do I plan to get there? Again, for the moment I do not have anywhere to get to. I do not currently own any vehicle, so I'll probably end up having to steal... I mean, borrow, yeah, borrow something after the fall. Probably a 4WD pickup truck or something for supply runs and so forth. Take a look at my Survival Plan page for my thoughts on a customized Bug-Out-Vehicle-from-Hell. Got anyone I want to take with me? My wife and our three children are currently the only ones who live close enough for me to be feasibly capable of bringing. I would like to include my two best friends (who unfortunately live about 700 miles away, including an eight hour ferry ride, now that we are at our new place), and also my parents, my sister and two nephews (who are now about 500 miles away, again including the ferry ride). If I can get to them (or they to me) they could be part of my group, but again, this may not be feasible due to distance. How will I communicate with the outside world, or do I plan to go the hermit route? By any form of CB, Ham, FRS and/or GMRS radio that I can get my hands on either before or after the SHTF! Cel phones and internet can also be used, at least for as long as such services still continue to work. How am I planning to get food or water? If I ever get a Fortified BOL (even if I don't for that matter), I plan to begin long term stockpiling of foodstuffs, to be supplemented with scavenging, hunting and fishing, as well as foraging for edible wild plants. If the Z-Poc lasts long enough, agricultural farming will also be undertaken. Please see my Survival Plan page for further details. Drinking Water will be stockpiled as well, but this will be supplemented by nearby local water sources and underground Rain Cisterns, fed by my forts eaves-troughs. Further details can be found, again, on my Survival Plan page. Battling the Undead (Real World): Weapons I Actually Own or Have Access To: I admit I don't own a single firearm. In a pinch, I do own two Kukris, as described hereafter, and a wakizashi that I could use to defend myself, and I also own three European hand-and-a-half swords in addition to these. The latter were only intended to be training swords, and thus are made without any sharpened edges, but being made of a good steel bar stock (one of them is made from leaf spring for strength and flexibility), they'd all make for fine blunt weapons, sort of like steel bokken. See below for why blunt weapons are probably better choices in any event. These particular swords, however, are all rather poorly balanced, thus they would be quite tiring to use for any long period of time. These would still be better than nothing, though, if push comes to shove and shove comes to bite. My father has a Lee Enfield .303 bolt action rifle, a .30-30 lever action rifle and a Ruger .22LR pistol. He also usually has a couple of other hunting rifles around that belong to out-of-province buddies who often store them at his house for use during the hunting season. He usually has about 20 rounds for the .303 Lee Enfield and 40 rounds each for the .30-30 and the Ruger, but I have no idea how much ammo is around for any of his buddies rifles. If I were able to get to them before things get too bad, I'd take those weapons as well (and my parents too while I was at it, LOL). All of these weapons are likely too far away for me to access, though, now that I have moved to the new place which is almost 500 miles away. Whether or not I can get to them will depend on how much advance warning I have before the SHTF. Battling the Undead (Wish List): What are my weapons of choice? These are my dream weapons, I freely admit that I don't own any of these, but given the opportunity (and pending Canadian legal status of the weapons that follow) these are the ones I would try to acquire. These weapons have been described in more detail, along with my reasons for choosing them, on my main Survival Gear page. Long Range: I've set my sights on the AR10 platform in .308 Win, such as the Patriot Ordnance Factory's R308-20-MRR-308 with Carbine lower receiver assembly. It has gas piston operation, rather than the direct gas impingement operation seen in many other AR platforms. The Gas Piston system is preferable, in my opinion, as it is often both easier to maintain and more reliable if used under less than ideal conditions. This LB receiver should be equipped with a long range scope (plus a BORS unit from Barrett whilst I'm dreaming) in addition to the Flip-Up Iron Sights, and should use the standard 20 round mags. Aside from a supply of .308 JHP rounds, I will also try to lay in a supply of sub-caliber .224 sabot rounds. Several other alternatives to this weapon, some chambered in 9mm, can be seen on my main Survival Gear page. Several other alternatives to this weapon, some chambered in 9mm, can be seen on my main Survival Gear page. If whatever back up pistol I end up with is small enough, as is the Mini Master, it will be kept in one of these cool spring loaded Quick Draw Rigs strapped to my right forearm like the one used by Antonio Banderas in Desperado. I want a Hollow Handle Kukri, a One-Piece model with the blade and handle milled together out of one solid billet of quality steel, thereby omitting the weak point that is traditionally found in most hollow handled knives where the two were joined. If any such a kukri also included a gut hook and saw teeth milled into the back edge, as shown above, along with a hole near the tip, for use with a wire cutter sheath like the M9 bayonet, it would kick wholesale a$$. The M40 Wilderness Survival Skills Website also shows a way to upgrade the sheath that improves on this already perfectly fine field knife. He also adds a belt-pouch sized survival kit that straps onto the sheath, described here. Additional weapons that I would like to have access to, as alternatives or backups, are discussed on my main Survival Gear page. You need to reload that thing? Got a plan for that? Should I ever get the weapons that I want (or any other firearm for that matter) I will stockpile as much ammo as I am able to acquire (as far as legal status and financial ability permit) and I will acquire and learn to use all of the equipment and supplies to reload that ammunition (again insofar as legal status and finances allow) as many times as it is safe to do so. Given that the sidearm and backup mentioned earlier both fire the .22WMR round, which is a rimfire and thus cannot be reloaded, stockpiling will be my only alternative. Fortunately, these rimfire rounds are relatively cheap. This of course assumes that I am Bugging In. If I am on the move, I will bring along as much of my ammo stockpile as I can, given the limitations of my mode of travel. Got any survival philosophies? "Nuke 'em till they glow so you can shoot 'em in the dark!" LOL. Seriously, though, I'll sum up my philosophies by quoting numbers 15 and 29 from Murphy's Laws of Combat: "Anything that you do can get you killed, including nothing" and "Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy your plan of battle." This basically means, to me at least, that no matter how well you plan something, you can't possibly account for every single variable, so you can't possibly assume that your plan is going to work every time (or even at all for that matter). Being able to plan, and think on your feet, is important, but so is being sure (or as sure as you can be, in any case) that you have the right equipment and resources available to you. That way you aren't left with nothing to fall back on if a plan comes apart at the seams. It may be surprising, given all the firepower that I want to carry, but my plan is to avoid combat as much as I can. For instance, as I will be traveling with my wife and three children, it will usually be safer to find a way around a mob of Zeds, if its feasible to do so, than it will be to engage them unnecessarily. Always remember, though, that it isn't usually necessary to go looking for trouble, because sometimes trouble comes looking for you. For the Post Z-Day survivor, combat WILL happen occasionally, no matter how far we plan to go out of our way to avoid it. Believing anything else is nothing but an exercise in wishful thinking. If we aren't prepared to fight them, then we're only prepared to feed them, and I for one don't plan to be kibble. Am I willing to hook up with other survivors? On a very tentative basis. I would be extremely wary of joining up with other folk (unless they were people I knew, or were vouched for by people I knew). I don't wanna invite someone in, just to figure out when it's too late that they only wanted to join forces so they could wait for an opportunity to steal what's mine. As long as it's people I could trust, though, then sure, there's safety in numbers and all that, right? Is my plan based off of any book/movie/blog/scientist other survivors may have heard of? What rudimentary plans I do have are largely based off of information that I have gleaned from this and other survival sites.
Latest page update: Jan 22 2012, 11:09 AM EST
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