It’s water, isn’t it? And second one is food. Well what about the third?
The stuff that it’s difficult to impossible to stock up on. Medications. There’s some of them that you can’t legally stock up on. You can’t just have a six month supply of things like adderal, opiates, benzodiazepines, and that kind of stuff. Then there’s meds that can’t be kept in home and stay at full potency for very long. That’s pretty much any meds for autoimmune disorders.
Like, my wife takes three meds that can’t be kept in storage without being useless at some point. They get shipped straight from the manufacturer and have to be kept refrigerated during shipping.
Water and shelf stable foods are easy to keep stocked up, and so are water purification items.
After meds, it’s ammo. Finite resource that requires a lot of space and tools to replenish by reloading. You can stock up on ammo, and it’ll store very well. But it’s expensive to do so, and storage space for it isn’t exactly infinite.
We’re up next to the mountains, and we get (or used to, the last few years have been milder) iced or snowed in a few times a year, so we’re used to keeping staples in stock and replacing them as they’re used. And it’s easy enough to rotate out water in storage for fresh by using the stored water for things other than cooking and drinking. Besides, there’s only so much water you can store realistically, so purification methods are a higher priority if you don’t have the kind of income/wealth to really bunker up.
We keep a week’s worth of water for the four of us. Assuming we get rain during whatever it is, it’s realistic to be able to hold out for much longer than that with the bulk staples we keep. Beans, rice, that kind of thing.
But meds? There’s only so much you can do about those.
Most meds can store for a very long time, like years if kept cool and in the dark (the US Army did a study because they need to know, I don’t have a link handy, sorry). There are some exceptions (which you noted) - like insulin. Though I think even it can be stored for quite some time if it’s kept refrigerated. Meds are definitely among the highest value because of limited storage capability.
Sure they can be stored, it’s getting them where is the problem.
Most of my meds I can only get one month supply at a time.
Most meds, yeah. Alas, for our household, there’s a total of four meds that can’t be stored. Which, it is what it is, they’re all miles ahead of the meds that came before them in efficacy.
Well, I take Adderall for my ADHD. In a pinch, I think microdosing meth might work. But if the government collapses, I have no qualms knocking over a couple pharmacies to get my subscription to a functional brain filled the hard way.
Isn’t there already a shortage in our current semi functioning society?
And pharmacies are going to be one of the first places looted, usually by drug dealers and addicts.
They might leave antibiotics and stuff, but they’d likely realize the value of that stuff.
They sure as shit aren’t leaving something that’s already a street drug.
Well, there’s no reason I can’t make my own if there’s no government.
Hold on, downloading and caching all the synthesis and patent applications for Adderall and amphetamine salts I can find.
Honestly? That’s my plan. Ignore grocery stores, if shit really does hit the fan, I go after a pharmacy. I likely won’t be the only one thinking that way, but I’m meaner ;)
I know how our closest one is laid out, and I know what stuff to grab to keep us going as a group, plus stuff for emergencies beyond our normal meds.
We do have a supply of the meds that we can legally get a stockpile of. I have one that I have a three month supply backed up after a previous supply chain issue. Talked to my provider, explained my intent, and they actually hooked me up with extras so that I could just rotate out the oldest bottles as I get new ones. We’ve done that with a few meds across the household.
Go to a vet hospital, many carry human safe (in a pinch) antibiotics, steroids, etc.
You can grow any off-the-shelf poppy (from any garden store)… They’re all opium poppies. Macerate the whole plant in any alcohol to make laudanum. Bonus round, opiates are fully safe to treat pain in dogs (and most mammals) as well.
You can save some seed and grow a new batch next season.
Marble. I really like the way it looks.
Medicine, first aid material and maybe more advanced stuff like medical tools, painkillers and so on.
The will to live
Tldr I’ll be good for a week, but after that I’ve only got about 10-15% of a viable setup for long term survival.
I have a 72 hour bag, and about 10 gallons of water in their own containers, as well as the normal household food (assuming the power goes out immediately I will be good on refrigeration for maybe 5 days, deep freezer gone in 2) and another 25 gallons in two large containers that act as reservoirs for my AC condensers, and as long as I haven’t emptied them in a few days I’ll be able to filter the water inside pretty effectively. Failing that, I have enough flammable things and a Pyro background to safely boil water over a small fire inside.
So I should be good on food and water, by myself, for maybe two weeks if I don’t really ration much and plan meals according to what goes bad first. The first two days will see the most wasted food.
I have my wife and two dogs here, so I can’t ration that long and I’m definitely going to make sure they get food and water first. I’d be good for about a week.
We’re lucky enough to not need any medication to live, just function pain and dysfunction-free (or at least diminished symptoms) so the pain meds and 3 med kits I have should be enough for small things here and there. Nothing for big stuff. I can sew up a big wound with my cosplay sewing stuff, but if my small stash of alcohol and peroxide can’t keep it infection free, someone is going to be dying slowly and painfully.
The real question is can I do anything outside? If so, then since I live next to a stream, I can pump water into the several 500 gallon tanks we’ve got leftover from the previous owner owning livestock. They’re clean and dry, so no worries about mold or mildew inside. I don’t currently have a large volume natural filtration system set up, but I have enough 5 gallon buckets, fabric, gravel, dirt, and sand laying around the property that I can make a few filters to get the big stuff, and my inline and tap filters can do the rest.
I’m fucked on food though. Nothing growing, the stream isn’t consistent enough to have fish, and the wildlife around here consists of rabbits and squirrel. I could go to a nearby lake depending on how far I can safely travel.
So yeah. Longer lasting food, and more filters.
Definitely made me realize I’m not as prepared for my dogs if anything ever happened…
Ive got the know-how and experience to make basically any melee weapon, and in a (zombie) apocalypse world where ammo is extremely finite, you need a handheld weapon, and you need one with reach to poke brainy bits from a distance.
Technically I can make firearms as well, I’ve 3d printed the majority of a couple, but without the ability to source high-pressure piping of sufficiently close diameter, barrels and firing chambers aren’t as easy.
If we NEED power hookups, I’ve got solar panels ready but not hooked up due to lack of a charge controller and battery system. So only about 20% of the way to solar power… I COULD hook it up to my dc/dc 48v-12v step down converter and hope the 40v the panels produce is close enough to keep the ONE 12v deep cycle battery I have to charge it.
Downloading all the single player games i own
Doors, b/c zombies (& people) seem to always be busting through those… (in TV shows:-).
Your mom.
Water, yes. I want to be look up at least 10 days to get throught the first big panic move of the population and the first zombie win associated. I have 10 days of food and plenty more accessible around when the first quiet time arrives.
Then I miss about everything…Wood, for building, shelter, and/or fire.
I’m currently running a zombie survival TTRPG if anyone is interested in exploring their ideas. It starts the day before apocalypse, and we’re currently on day 2.
Bread and milk.
how does one stock up on these items in particular? they go bad so fast.
UHT milk keeps around 4 months in room temperature. I always have a few jugs in rotation
thank you
Buy milking cows and a bread goat
Damn I currently only have milking goats.
• Pole saws.
For decapitation at a distance.
• Solar generator.
To charge batteries and power grow lights.
• Rechargeable batteries/packs for tools, etc.
• Sugar and yeast
To use in distillation. Make alcohol. (For first aid and fuel)
I hate to say it, but my honest answer is probably battery power. Even with the mobile grid down, I still feel like I’ve got a load of rechargeable devices that could turn quite useful in the apocalypse. Even just plain AA and AAA batteries would be more valuable than money.
A portable solar generator and batteries would be very valuable. Smartphones are immensely useful even without internet access. You could even get a meshnet going for medium-scale communication if other people in your area are similarly equipped. No power grid required.
Guitar strings.
An energy source with a way to replenish its fuel. Could be as basic as firewood, but nothing comes easy or infinitely plentiful.
