PowerSwitch

I believe that when the crash happens it will follow two possible outcomes. One with a long crash that may take years to be fully realised, or the crash maybe extremely quick which will put extra burdens on us all. If you are like me and have to live on limited funds then I believe that we have to prepare as best we can with what resources are available to us. I have made a list of what I believe each person will need in the short term to give them the best chance of survival so that we will have a small breathing space to plan our next move. The list is in two sections, the first part includes items which can be stored in a large backpack, in the event that you need to move away from where you are now. The last part of the list refers to items that we can keep at our homes in the event of a slow crash. I know that some of you reading this will think that I am over reacting, but my thought on this is that it cannot hurt to be prepared for what ever may occur, even if it is something a small as this list. My only hope is that have the items listed below will give us a breathing space, because you will never know if the trucks will keep on turning up at Tesco?What will you do when you cannot feed yourself?

Feel free to add any items that you think I have missed out.

Peak Oil Checklist

1. Large Backpack.
2. Small Backpack.
3. Wash Bag.
4. Sleeping Bag.
5. Mosquito Net.
6. Medical Bag.
7. Tent.
8. Cooking Equipment.
9. Fishing Rod.

Medical Equipment:-

1. Plasters.
2. Bandages.
3. Safety Pins.
4. Aspirin.
5. Imodine.
6. Insect Repellent.
7. Sun Screen.
8. Lip Balm.
9. Iodine.
10. Water Purification Tablets.
11. Syringes and Needles.
12. Multivitamins.
13. Moisturiser.
14. Rubber Gloves.
15. Scalpel.
16. Medical Tape.
17. Scissors.
18. Condoms.

Clothes:-

1. Boots.
2. Trainers.
3. Jumpers x2.
4. T-Shirts x6.
5. Shorts x2.
6. Combats x2.
7. Socks x2.
8. Underwear x6.
9. Belts x2.
10. Waterproofs.
11. Jeans x2.
12. Scarf.
13. Bandana.
14. Gloves.
15. Mask/Goggles.
16. Thermals.
17. Jacket.

Cooking Equipment:-

1. Fire-lighting Kit.
2. Gas Bottle.
3. Water Bottle.
4. Rations (3 Days Supply).
5. Cutlery.
6. Sharp Knife.
7. Small Kettle.
8. Pan/Saucepan.
9. Cup.
10. Salt/Flour/Yeast/Sugar/Tea Bags/Powered Milk.

Wash Kit:-

1. Toothbrush x2.
2. Toothpaste x2
3. Soap.
4. Shampoo.
5. Razor.
6. Shaving Foam.
7. Towel.
8. Talcum Powder.
9. Tissues.

Essential Equipment:-

1. Leatherman Multi-tool.
2. Torch.
3. Lighter.
4. Matches.
5. Small Axe.
6. Knife Sharper.
7. String.
8. Diary.
9. Pencils.
10. Small Saw.
11. Weapon.
12. Cable Ties.
13. Favourite Book.
14. Maps.
15. Fishing Rod.
16. ?100 Pounds (Emergency Fund).
17. Packets Of Seeds.
18. Hammer.
19. Candles.
20. Spare Batteries.
21. Clockwork Radio.

Equipment To Store At Home:-

1. All Of The Above.
2. A month?s supply of food (Dried Food/Powered Milk/Tinned Food).
3. Water to supply you if the mains fail.
4. Jerry Can to store water or petrol.
5. ?200 hundred pounds for emergency.
6. Gardening Tools.
7. Manual Tools.
8. As many packets of seeds you can get hold of.
9. Weapons.

A great list

A few extras for the backpack.

Windup torch + small battery torch
Solar recharger (can be got for £5 from maplin).
Rechargeable batteries.

A lot more could be added to the home list. Especially if we get panic buying that empty shelves for a few months. This list is veggie.
2Lt washing up liquid
5Lt clothes washing liquid that can be used for hand washing.
A big pack of toilet paper.
6 pkt soap & 3 bottles shampoo.
Dish Cloths and scourers.

Dried & tinned food to last 3 months.
EG for 1 person;
10 Kilo grains (esp. quick cook ones eg quinoa which is high in protein or precooked grains like cous cous and polenta (dried) brown rice is very nutritious.)
10 Kilo flour to make bread etc.
5Lt Oil
48 tins of various cooked beans.
4 Kilo nuts and seeds.
Salt, seasonings and extras.
Multi vitamins & minerals.

At present I have a rolling stock of food and always have at least 1 months supplies. No good just buying it and hiding it away, it will go off! My weekly shopping is just vegetables which ideally I would be growing.


Planning for the long term.
House out of city.
A good set of Hand Tools, esp. replacements for power tools like brace and bit. Also a store of consumables like gaffa tape, nails, screws etc.
Garden with an established veg plot and hand tools to keep it going. (a store of muck or compost.)
Sewing equipment.
Larger first aid kit.
Solar water heating? tepid water is far better than cold!
Solar and wind elecy.
Guitar, even though I can't play much, my girlfriend can sing and it would be nice to accompany her.
Some gold coins
Extra seeds and tools for trading. (how long do seeds last before ceasing to germinate, anyone got a guide?)
A very large supply of condoms.
Books on everything from herbal remedies to sustainable living.
A couple of reams of paper and a lot of pens, pencils.
Extra warm clothing.
Extra pair of solid shoes/boots.

I would add more water containers, it can happen that they only supply water for one hour a day, it will be better to have some place where to store it.
Books on how to grow food / animals.
A bycicle and things to keep it running.
Tools of all kinds for recycling/dismantelling and reusing machines or other things.

Things you may want to have so you can treade them for other things (but you may feel bad about it):
Cigarretes (after the Spanish civil war my gradfather once saw a guy trading a pack of cigarretes for a cow )
Alcohol
Condoms
Anxiety/depression pills (those will be on high demand)
Amunition (depends on wich country you live)
Rolling paper.

It would be smart not to tell everyone that you are the guy who has lots of food and usefull thigs stored at your place, I mean, if you tell people now they will remember in the future.

...And a small pressure cooker for vegetables, meat etc, it cooks in 1/3 of the time, so you use 2/3 less of energy.

And a slowcooker - uses energy at the same rate as a lightbulb. Good for making really cheap cuts of meat taste delicious.
I would also put alot of emphasis on thermal underwear and fleece clothing, then you can cope better with no heating. Also extra woollen blankets and duvets.
Our neighbour has recently installed solar panels and a 10,000 litre water tank in his back garden....
Hey Ho! the end of the (cosy consumer) world is nigh so we may as well embrace it.
Rach

Only discovered the peak oil scenario/problem 3 wks ago, but have done a fair bit of reading.

Things that I've come across that don't seem to be on the list (I just skim read it tho)

If you're in a suitable house (i.e. one you'd stay in), you could maybe think of installing an extra water tank in the loft so you have bigger capacity in the short-term. Install a water butt to collect roof run-off. Make your own water still with plastic sheeting in the yard?

Store things like aluminium foil, clear plastic sheets, etc. etc. that are useful and handy to have around but that you may not be able to get hold of when everyone realises they need them.

How about a cut-throat razor? Traditional razors probably wouldn't be available in the not-too-distant future.

Thinking of investing in some solar panels, windmill, wiring and some type of storage medium because they are bound to sky-rocket and may be out of my price-range in future.

Have just cashed in an endowment mortgage and am going to cancel my pension next week. Am going to put my house on the market in autumn because apparently a massive crash is on the cards for 2006 regardless of peak oil, and I've only owned it for 8months. Will rent somewhere with a garden until prices do their adjustment. In any case don't want to owe thousands of pounds and lose my deposit if the economy goes crazy. Going to invest money in metals, which could still be traded if paper currencies went by the wayside.

If you're living somehwere without facilities for growing own food, consider getting somewhere with a back garden (so there won't be casual passers by who may be tempted by those juicy courgettes) and reading upon an agroforesty or permaculture. I'm currently loading up on books so I can read up on permaculture, diy etc...

A big can of oil for lubricating tools etc. You'll only need a few drops every now and again.

A length of rope might come in useful.

How about a trailer for the bicycle, just in case you have to move and want to take things with you. Also things like spare inner tubes (or maybe some of those solid tyres), brake pads and cogs.

Some people on another website were recommending buying air rifles and crossbows, which are cheap at present and don't require much maintenance. You never know I spose.

A cb/ham radio might come in handy, so long as you have a solar powered battery charger and ample batteries.

I haven't bought any of this stuff yet but plan to start collecting soon. Hope it's been helpful....

Incidentally there's a really good yahoo discussion group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmpty2/messages

Thanks for your thoughts grinu.

You are certainly making quick decisions having only heard of PO 3 weeks ago. If you don't mind me asking, why are you making changes so quickly and big changes at that - endowment and pension?

Hi Snow
The endowment is performing badly, there's risk of a crash in the world economy even without PO, and it's not tied to the house so it makes sense to release the money now and use it to square off debts I'm paying interest on. I asked for quotes from companies that buy endowments and they ran a mile, so that set the alarm bells ringing. Also, it was worth more last time I checked it than it was yesterday, and I've paid money in since then, so something's not right. PO was the final push.

Regarding the pension, even now pensions are becoming weaker and weaker and I can't see how, if there's a crash in the economy, I'll get out what was paid in. What I'm going to do is set aside money each month, equivalent to the pension, and invest it in things that are less likely to be affected by PO or bubbles bursting. Most of the economy at present is based on money that doesn't exist, so it's only a matter of time before everything collapses - banks are lending money that is essentially not there to lend. It's a big web of IOU's.

Haven't known about PO for long but have done a considerable amount of reading up on it lately, and figured the sooner I start making changes the better. I've always been concerned about the damage we do to our environment and have a broad knowledge of sustainable living and try to practice it as much as possible, so what I'm doing is just stepping a bit further in that direction, a bit more quickly than I'd anticipated.

Also been looking at how others are preparing and taking advice from people who have been aware of PO for years.

One of the main reasons for making quick changes is because I think there's a need to.

Gulp. Thanks for the reply grinu.

I have similar worries, but haven't quite committed to changing things yet.

To my knowledge money has always been lent that the banks don't have. But I agree that there is major risk of an economic crash even without PO.

You obviously think the SHTF very soon?

I think a crash in the economy is on the cards regardless, probably in the UK by 2006/2007, so am sorting out my financial position first.

A lot of the debt that people owe in Britain is based on the rise in property values, which are way higher than is sustainable - especially if prices for everything start gradually rising and people have less disposable income - there are a lot of people who are stretched financially.

I don't know enough to have a proper opinion on when the SHTF, think it may start fairly soon (we are seeing signs already - look at the news) but may be quite drawn out - a gradual downward slope rather than a sudden crash. As oil prices rise, economic growth might slow a bit, and oil prices may even drop, then oil prices will rise again, economic growth slow a bit more etc. etc. When you consider tho that in just over a century we've almost used up half the world's easily obtainable supply of oil, and consider the rate at which consumption has increased since it was first discovered, then doing the maths demonstrates that there can't be a great amount of years worth of oil left - I am sure that the world will run out of oil within the next 50yrs max.

However a lot of poeple don't seem to factor in their predictions the fact in that there are many other ways of producing energy, and if these can be developed sufficiently in time then it will help with things.

Then there's the other side of the coin - how do we know that governments or individuals (or even oil producers) haven't been quietly setting aside oil because they knew what was around the corner. It's mainly speculation at this stage isn't it? Nobosy is sure. I just want to be safe rather than sorry, and make sure that if things do go badly wrong then I'm in a position to help other people as well as myself - because it's pointless being selfish about something like this.

Anyway, regardless of running out of oil - there's climate change too isn't there? And most of the prep will help combat that too.

<<Anyway, regardless of running out of oil - there's climate change too isn't there? And most of the prep will help combat that too.>>

It?s going to run out one day anyway. Preparing for the worse and hoping for the best is what I try to do.

grinu wrote:
A length of rope might come in useful.

I would agree there. Lots of rope of different sizes.

I mean, you could use rope for almost anything. From tieing things to a bicycle, to making 'home improvments' ((e.g. diverting guttering to water your plants) yes....I know I have some interesting ideas ?_?), to slowly burning to keep the mozzies away...

Also a crowbar could come in handy. If you find something that's been abandoned (such as a huge truck), you could always do with jimmying useful metal off it.

I try to buy something for Peak Oil every week. I was planning to buy a Maul this weekend (large axe for splitting wooden logs). They are a bit different from the tree felling axes though.

Rather than buying 2 items, I want to get 1 that will do both? Which would you recommend?

We no longer throw any clothes out. They will always come in useful for the future. I am also collecting glass jars with good sealable lids and all plastic containers with lids (even from Chinese take-aways etc)

Can anybody think of a good use for 2 litre plastic milk containers - currently we recycle them but I would be happier to reuse them? Water storage I suppose?

What about 440ml or 500 ml Beer cans - I get through a lot of those every week!

Excellent lists! Already safely stored away in my PO folder as a Word document.

There was some discussion about pension. I posted my experience in http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=98 (that is 'How to get the cash out of your pension')

I am so glad that the lists have been so well recieved.

I have just decided to have all these things together when the day comes when I have to move on. If we cannot form a community base camp in time then I will have to become a nomad, wondering the countryside of Britain... who knows where we will be in a few years, as long as I can give myself a breathing space then I may have half a chance.

Calling all land owners... NOW WOULD BE THE TIME TO BUILD A COMMUNITY BASE CAMP! We must have somewhere to go, if we don't then what is the point about knowing about Peak Oil... I really don't want to be put in a position when peak oil hits and finally all my friends and family except the realities of PO and turn to me and say "Now what, what are we going to do?" and I reply "I have no idea! but I have plenty of books on the subject of Peak Oil".

Bring on the crash... Lets get it over with!