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shadowmancer
 Welcome to the Land of Shadows. Relax, pull up a chair and have a brew. About Me This page contains some of my ideas, thoughts, plans and preparations for the End of Days. I enjoy the mental workout of planning for unpredictable events and am a tad odd. My goal is to create a multifaceted survival plan. I enjoy inventing and creating contraptions and will attempt to integrate my functional pieces into the overall plan. I am a survivalist and an inventor a scholar and a madman. I am human nothing more. When I started thinking way too much about zombies: You can never think too much. What started my zombie fixation: Classic horror movies: Night of the Living Dead Favorite zombie movie: The Walking Dead (TV I know) Favorite quote in any zombie movie: "mumble growl shuffle" Sex: Male Height: 6'2 or 188 cm. My “handle” : Shadowmancer or Shadow My location: Canada. Strange beliefs: I believe in giving credit where credit is due so if you give me an idea or suggestion or maybe I purposely steal one of your rocking idea I'll make a note of it in the text and send you a thank you. Survival skill set: Tracking Animals, Hunting, Sword Use (Fencing, Kendo, and Celtic), Firearms Use, Agriculture, Foraging, CPR, First Aid, Knapping, Bushcraft, Archery, Canoe construction, A few marital arts forms, Fishing and Food preservation. Regular skill set: Construction, Research, Fabrication, Automotive Repair, Cooking, and Cheese Making. Odd skill set: Dog breeding, Ice Carving, Trivia, Viticulture, Ballroom Dancing (oh oh don't ask please for the love of god don't ask), gymnastics (again please don't ask), knitting, crocheting, sewing. Favourite activities: Wasting time online, Writing, Reconstructing lost or abandoned tech, Smithing, Industrial art, Hunting, Canoeing, Sailing, Hiking, Playing practical jokes, Designing personal equipment and Fishing. Other interesting stuff about me: I am a proud Celtic Mutt they threw in Acadian and other stuff just for fun. I compete in the highland games. I do the Caber toss and Sword competition I've done them for so long I can no longer remember why... Ah well throwing a telephone pole is fun. I have a dog named Pax and he basically goes everywhere with me. It's quite funny having a dog at work but no one bothers me. I'm usually very easy going not much will tick me off. I have been working on various projects for personal reasons for years such as my survival binder, wood gasifier and redesigned hot air engines. I am an amateur inventor. I am constantly building into my truck, building machines, or kludging strange things. Improvisation is my specialty. I collect Enfield Rifles with some American, German and French and other designs thrown in for fun. I have an odd love of grapes. I am trying to refine the Manitoba Wild River Grape into a table grape. My Survival Plans I have refined my thinking on this site over the last year and have endeavoured to create a set of survival plans and contingencies to cover items I had not previously considered. My plans will change due to outside factors such as the time of year, the weather conditions and other mediating factors that I cannot predict before the actual event. Each of these plans is a general guideline and not an absolute set of rules. I have refined my initial comically bad mobile roving plan with a more suitable and functional plan. My preferred weapons list will remain the same but my uses of said gear will differ. Plan for Optimal Conditions: The Immediate Evacuation of all Parties Is my plan dependent on zombies in your home town, or anywhere? The Zombies can be everywhere, or the outbreak can be in the early stages. I will bug out before the **** hits the fan, to turn a phrase, the side roads won't be clogged at the first sightings. My philosophy is to keep mobile and stay alive. If the roads are blocked the battle wagon can blaze its own trail. Peoples fear will spread the infection so I will get out of the panic zone. Will I be staying in my home or headed somewhere else? I may hunker down in my home for a few days but I will be heading north to my hunting grounds. There is plenty of fish and game on site. The land has decent soil quality for agriculture and a large plethora of other resources. I know the land very well; it is far enough away from the beaten path to not be noticed. If I'm heading out, how do I plan to get there? I have several escape plans due to the fact I cannot predict what will happen. My primary mode of escape will be my hunting truck, also known as the battle wagon. If that vehicle is destroyed or stolen I have the option of taking my daily driver a Toyota Prius hybrid, it is not ideal due to the limited cargo space. If both my car and the battlewagon are not available I have two further options. The first is to load up my escape canoe and travel the river routes, this will take longer but it will be effective. The final option I have beyond hoofing it is a project I am currently working on my design of an emergency escape vehicle or EEV. The EEV is far from ideal as it has very limited cargo capacity. I will go into further detail in regards to my options for escape later in this document. Discription of my hunting Vehicle: My hunting vehicle is an upgraded 1947 Panel truck. The engine has been modified to run off gas/ethanol, propane or wood gas. The suspension has been heavily upgraded allowing for the changes in clearance in my travels. The original engine a Buick Fireball straight eight was replaced with a 350 Chevy small block. The trucks drive train has been converted into a four wheel drive system. I've added a full roll cage and rubberized the inside this was done primarily for ease of cleaning. The truck can hold several people and a large amount of supplies therefore it would be an excellent evacuation vehicle. The vehicle currently has the Mark 1 gasifier installed. This unit was meant to supplement the standard fuel supply while I hunt. There are no gas stations in the deep bush so if I had a fuel leak I would be stranded. This vehicle is primarily used when I go hunting. The truck has been modified to serve as my mobile base camp. I am a tad sentimental about this vehicle as it once belonged to my grandfather; it was quite worn when I began the modifications. The battle wagon had a good long life as a work truck. I used to play in it as a child. I trust the base design to handle my modifications. The installed Mark 1 gasifier is a copy of a Second World War era Finish design with a firebox layout taken from a late 19th century British traction engine. There is a folding bunk installed in the rear compartment allowing me a measure of comfort while I on a hunt. The vehicle has interior L.E.D lighting and is equipped with an aftermarket exterior backup camera to check for clearance in the bush. The truck has a water tank installed to hold fresh water. The vehicle has and assortment of tools required for maintenance. The seating is composed of dual captain's chairs on swivel mounts. The captain’s chairs are sourced from a RV and can be used to block the doors. The vehicle has a built in entertainment system based on my own design. The heart of the entertainment system is a dismantled Sony VAIO laptop. The core of the entertainment unit is contained within a ventilated metal box located under the dashboard. The monitor, track pad and keyboard and a USB cable have been placed in a custom made arm and case which folds inwards towards the wall of the vehicle. The audio output is controlled by a two way sector switch. The two audio sections are the laptops original speakers or a headphone jack. The small block Chevy is lighter more compact than the original straight 8. The use of a more compact engine has allowed for multiple modifications to the base vehicle. This increased room has allowed me to install a higher capacity cooling system and a more powerful electrical system and an increased oil supply. The coolant hoses and fuel and fluid lines have been replaced and armoured with more durable varieties. The engine belts have been replaced with agricultural chain to prevent a belt failure. A secondary oil tank has been installed. The oil filtration system has been replaced with a dual filter model which can be charged from the reserve tank by opening a valve. The vehicles electrical system has been heavily upgraded. The first modification to the electrical system was to add a higher output alternator and a dual battery system for the everyday function of the truck. A second beltless alternator was added in to the engine setup. This beltless alternator is an aftermarket add on which is built directly into the water pump. The use of this combination device minimises power loss due to an additional belt. The fuse panel has been replaced with NOS circuit breakers from multiple surplus military vehicles from different eras because fuses will not always be available. The new circuit breaker box is placed where the original fuse panel used to be. The electrical system for the interior can tied directly to the engine bay electrical system at the flick of a switch. This electrical system is made of salvaged components sourced from an RV, new production pieces and my own creations. This customized setup allows the electric system to tie directly into an external source such as a petrol generator. The interior system is composed of four daisy chained deep cycle batteries and an inverter. There are hard mounts to allow external devices to be powered from the vehicle itself. The interior grid can be shut down as the vehicle is in motion drawing only from the deep cycle batteries. There are contact points to allow the tie in of other batteries, a wind generator or solar cell at a later date. The exterior modifications to the truck are minimal as I like the lines of the vehicle; the major modification is in regards to the ventilation for the gasifier. I have replaced the original tube tire rims with highly durable tubeless steel rims mounting off road BF Goodrich tires. The vehicle has a high powered electric winch for all my winching needs. It has a multiple point trailer hitch and the required electrical connectors. The vehicle is painted hunter green and has a custom made brush guard with running lights. I have constructed a series of boiled leather, metal and hardwood panels to cover the glass windows at night for protection and to provide a dark environment for sleep. Got anyone I want to take with me? Currently I live only with my dog Pax he will be coming. My girlfriend will be coming but she may come along with me or make her own way with her own vehicle. How she gets to the eventual location would depend on the situation at the moment of evacuation. There is a plan in place which all people involved know about. These people include my family members, friend as well as the family members and selected friends of non-relations. I trust the judgement of my friends on the skill set of people included. I also believe if I can preserve my family to a degree I should grant my friends the same right. We all discuss adding non relations to our evacuation group. We have an estimate and an agreed upon ratio of people to supplies and food production to allow for a degree of flexibility. The people involved in this plan will make to the rally point where we will assemble and move to our final destination as a single unit. The supply list and organizational structure has been worked out in advance, we have doubled or tripled up on critical supplies to increase the plans redundancy. I will haul equipment and supplies. We will entrench ourselves on the hunting lands and begin to construct the first of our defences and structures. There are semi-permanent structures and a ruin on site these will serve as the base of the compound. This is my standard critical disaster plan. Each group member will bring what they have prepared for the common good of the whole and what we have previously agreed upon for our common survival. The previously agreed upon items will be along the lines of the now standard seed packet load from my personal seed stash. I have distributed surplus seed to ensure that this critically needed supply reaches our final destination. Since we are rendezvousing we can take stock of what supplies we have brought at the moment and make adjustments accordingly. Additional gear such as a camping trailer would be used to store important materials if they are available. I’d like to thank everyone for helping me to increase the redundancy of my plan. I would especially like to thank LJ126 for convincing me that a survival plan should be universal for a permanent evacuation rather than specific to fictional creatures. How will I communicate with the outside world, or do I plan to go the hermit route? Since I have to rendezvous with a series of people at a rally point I have a few options for communication. My truck has a C.B. radio installed. I did not intend this to be a survival tool. The C.B. was an aesthetic choice because fit in quite well with the classic lines of the vehicle. The C.B. will be used to passively scan for chatter. The communication for the intended rendezvous is based on scrambled radio sets. These will be used for inter group communication and while linking up. I have also acquired a multiple frequency radio scanner to monitor my area for trouble or other survivors. We will also be passively looking for other survivors visually on the journey to the hunting grounds. This visual search will be a way to either add to our group or to avoid potential problems. How am I planning to get food and water? Substance will be acquired through hunting wild game, foraging for wild and transplanted plants, fishing, scavenging canned goods, stockpiling canned goods and farming. I store my dog’s large bags of food in the hunting truck when it is not in use so Pax will also be amply fed. There is little concern for water as fresh potable water is common in the region I have selected. A supply of water will be taken to the evacuation area none the less to provide drinking water for the first few days of the apocalypse. Water filtration may not be a requirement but to plan for the need would be wise. I've elected for a charcoal sand filter to remove water impurities. I can regenerate these filters from easily obtainable materials sourced from the wild so there is no concern on running out said raw materials. What’s my weapon of choice? Do you need to reload that thing? Do you have a plan for that? The weapons supply of my group is diverse. Each individual with weaponry is expected to bring their arms and related ammunition with them. For my personal gear I have multiple plans therefore I have selected a plethora of pieces from my collection. A few of the listed weapons are named as it is traditional in my family. I chose to name them in either Latin or Gaelic. The names denote what they mean to me. My skill in weapon use varies depending on the type. I am an excellent shot with a bow, as it is my favorite hunting method, a good shot with a rifle and a serviceable shot with a pistol. Plan for Less than Optimal Conditions: Weather and Seasonal Related Issues We will all wait out the panic, the hoards and the weather emerging in the spring. We will all be heading out to the rally point on a specific date. Surplus starches and canned food liquids will be fermented and made into ethanol for the refueling after the vehicles are repaired. We will then load all the remaining gear and exit the area and head for the rally point on the agreed upon day. I have stockpiled sugars, yeasts and barrels to store the mixture. I have acquired the plans and built a crude copper still for fuel production. The batteries will be refreshed using solar battery chargers. Once we assemble at the rally point we will make our way to the hunting grounds and begin construction and planting. Plan for Worst Case Scenarios: Rescue Missions The thought of leaving people behind in my immediate group is not a route I would care to consider. This plan may be foolhardy and may result in serious danger for myself or even death. On the routes for my family members I have included a series of “hold up locations” a defensible position with shelter which can be used in the case of mechanical defect or blocked route. There are a set of inconspicuous signals which are prearranged akin to the Inuit Inuksuk to indicate that these safe locations are occupied. I will use the battlewagon to venture to these safe locations to retrieve people. For the radios that we all now have including concealed backups I have devised certain code words, inspired by the book Alas, Babylon indicating different scenarios or situations. A single word can now be used to determine the status of those in my group. If they use the wording indicating that they cannot leave we will take weapons and the battlewagon and retrieve the people in question. This plan is sentimental and I hope that this will never be used but as a Prepper I will plan for it. Plan for Worst Case Scenario: Solo Existence with Gear This is the simplest of my plans. If no one from my group survives and I end up at the rally point alone I will simply roam in an attempt to find or form another group for survival purposes. I will have my full load of gear, materials and resources. I will create a survival cache from my gear and stash it at the rally point. I will create a larger cache of surplus gear concealed at one of the fall back locations for my hunting grounds. I will leave instructions that my group would recognize if by some minor miracle a straggler made it to the rally point. The caches serve a triple purpose to allow any stragglers from my group to have equipment. If I choose people poorly or am raided I will not lose everything. The removal of items also will ensure that I will have room in the battlewagon for people. Once my preparations are complete I venture out in the ruined landscape searching for survivors. I will use a different pre-selected fall back point to rally my new community to. Once I am secure and trust these people we will all fall back to the large cache of gear and begin to rebuild. Plan for Worst Case Scenario: Solo Existence Without the Battlewagon and Minimal Gear It has occurred to me that I may lose the battlewagon and my car. It has occurred to me that I may end up losing all of my visible equipment. If there are other members this isn’t a problem as we have already planned for this in the rescue missions portion it simply involves a sight detour. If I am alone this presents another matter entirely, I have no one to fall back on except myself. I have been constructing and designing an EEV or Emergency Escape Vehicle and have several small gear catches hidden about these are nice backups. I do not like the idea of relying on a single piece of hardware especially one which isn’t completed. In my region there are hundreds of small lakes and rivers so I purchased a second hand aluminum canoe to modify in to a concealed survival boat. I have modified the boat by bolting on cross members and the support bracket for a sail. I have coated the entire canoe in rhino liner to prevent corrosion and created similarly coated aluminum paddle. I have filled the hollow pockets with expanding foam and bolted on several I loops for cargo lashing. The boat is well concealed as are the emergency caches. I will load all the materials I have in to the canoe and paddle off heading for one of my secondary locations. I will use this secondary location as a base to search for other survivors and resources. Plan for Worst Case Scenario: Solo Existence Lost all Gear It could be the case I am completely unlucky and lose everything including my cached and concealed gear leaving me only my typical pocket contents to survive. I will be falling back on my wood lore and survival skills to construct weapons and to acquire food. I will go into salvage mode to acquire materials and containers needed for survival. I will abandon the idea of my hunting grounds and follow the rail lines south to warmer climates. I will follow the secondary lines until I reach the US boarder and I will live in a day to day existence. I will construct a hunting bow an Egyptian stone mace and a sling and spear for gear. I always have a knife on me. I will gather any scrap, usable resource or container I run across. I never thought that I would say this but thankfully garbage is everywhere in our modern world. In this scenario I will have to find greener pastures and hope to encounter a group I could join or to reach a warmer climate before winter set in. I will be relying heavily on my ability to hunt and gather wild edibles. I will become a scavenger but I will survive. The Weapons List Since in ideal conditions I have my hunting truck I can carry multiple weapons and their required ammunition. This section will contain a selection of my available weapons. I am approaching this section to give myself the maximum flexibility in arms use. I do not like to be hemmed in any situation therefore I will present a broad range of weapons I own and am familiar with. A few of the pieces in my collection are named and some pieces are deeply sentimental items. I will only be carrying a small percentage of the listed weapons on my person. Despite my recent purchases I have elected to keep my prefered weapons option the same as it has been in the past. Ranged Weapons Hand carved hunting bow It is named Velox (Swift) English crossbow Slingshot Ranged Ammunition Handmade split Cedar Arrows 20 / 20 Ash Bolts 35 / 35 3/8 inch steel BB's 50 / 50 1/4 inch steel BB's 75 / 75 Ranged Accessories Leather arrow quiver Spare bowstring x 2 Leather Bolt quiver Spare crossbowstring x 2 Leather shot pouch Spare Slingshot band x 4 Pouch of arrow heads Fletching supply tin Firearms Lee Enfield SMLE Mk. III (ht). It is named Deis Deiridh (Last Chance) Lee Enfield SMLE Mk. III. This was my grandfathers. Lee Medford Mk. I in British .303 Springfield model 1840 rifled musket (reproduction) Pietta PPS-50, 22LR Luger P08 x 3 Walther P38 Winchester model 1912 shotgun 12 gauge Stoeger uplander side-by-side shotgun 12 gauge Firearm Ammunition .303 British rounds 4000 / 4000 .303 rounds 100 / 100 black powder .22LR 5000/ 5000 .69 round shot 30 / 30 9mm rounds 3000/ 3000 Slug 400 / 400 Buck shot 600/ 600 Bird shot 300 / 300 Flare 50 / 50 Firearm Accessories Round shot mould .69 caliber (reproduction) Bayonet (reproduction) Pattern 1907 bayonet Leather pouch with flints Pietta 30 round magazine x 6 Pietta 50 round drum x 2 P38 magazines x 3 P08 magazines x 9 Moose hyde holster x 4 12 gauge flare gun x 1 Sheepskin and leather rifle wrap Melee Weapons Scottish dirk named Anam (Soul) U.S. cavalry saber Hunting knife x 2 Handmade gun stock war club Mk. I Collapsible hunting spear named Caligo (Mist) Melee Accessories Leather claymore scabbard. Leather dirk sheath Metallic saber scabbard Leather hunting knife sheath x 2 Canvas spear sheath I trust these weapons and am very familiar with their use. It is my philosophy for survival to choose items that I am comfortable using. As I become more confident in my new acquisitions and acquire a decent stockpile of the needed ammunition, tools and parts I will add or replace Items on this list. A sub list of possible replacement weapons or supplementary weapons will be forthcoming. Pardon the mess as I am in the midst of a major update of my profile. New information and updates are coming soon please stand by. More to come including: Projects in progress, ideas, tools, stockpile, seed list, hypothetical scenarios, construction plans and more! Useful Links Gasifers http://www.fao.org/docrep/T0512E/T0512e00.htm http://driveonwood.com/learn/imbert-gasifier Fuel Still and Useful Information on Production http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/index.html http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/meCh8.html Bushcraft, Primitive Skills and Survival Data http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/ http://wildwoodsurvival.com/ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29558/29558-h/29558-h.htm Building plans and Machines http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hooker41.html http://www.vintageprojects.com/archery/cross-bow-plans.html Assorted Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVmAhwKI8h4
Latest page update: Feb 6 2013, 10:55 AM EST
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