Ironclad Amoeba - Member

Reply to: Community Discord/Slack Posted July 27, 2021

I’d love to join the Slack, as well as Discord if you ever make any.

Reply to: Keeping mentally fit while preparing and during a crisis Posted March 13, 2021

Ubique, that insomnia was purely triggered by stress and anxiety. I was in a state of hypervigilance for hours, unable to even visualize something. It usually happens when I’m anticipating something the next day. I can see that happening easily in an emergency, especially if I’m not sleeping in my own bed.

Reply to: Keeping mentally fit while preparing and during a crisis Posted March 8, 2021

Thanks for your insight Ubique. After having been through a very unusual bout of stress-related insomnia, I’ve been left wondering how to deal with such a thing in a survival situation, where every bit of rest matters. I’ve always found myself unable to nap in the afternoon or sleep in vehicles and I wonder how other people deal with it.

Reply to: What does prepping look like in your area of the world? Posted January 14, 2021

It is a big part of the country’s economy. Not in the northwest however, which is where I live relative to Paris. The local farms mostly produce corn, wheat and rapeseed, depending on the year. Grapes wouldn’t be a good source of food honestly, they don’t grow year round (harvest is at the end of the Summer/beginning of Autumn) and go bad fast. I heard an anecdote about the pear trees planted alongside the region’s roads. Allegedly, they were first planted under the monarchy to provide an emergency food source for vagrants and peasants. These pears are very tough and unsavory, but I guess they’re edible enough.

Reply to: What does prepping look like in your area of the world? Posted January 3, 2021

I grew up reading Astérix too, Uderzo had such a way to draw these boars and make them look incredibly tasty. I’ve never had boar meat but I heard it was lean, tough and with a strong taste. You can eat every part of them though, just like domestic pigs. I’ve never encountered them in a hunting context, but in general you want to stay clear of them. They’re quite big, up to 150kg (330lbs), smart and unpredictable. Sows are extremely aggressive if they feel their young are threatened. They often cross unlit roads at night too and made themselves at home in cities after only a few weeks of lockdown. Their population is only kept in check by hunters nowadays as wolves were driven out of our forests a long time ago, and they would definitely start raiding gardens if SHTF.

Reply to: What does prepping look like in your area of the world? Posted January 2, 2021

I live across the pond, in the French countryside right around Paris’ suburbs. Not many threats to think about. The weather is usually mild, with an occasional storm once in a while. Temps range between -10°C and 35°C on average (14°F to 95°F). Floods from the nearby river can be an issue, but I’m too high up on a hill to be affected. Main problem is chemical plants in my immediate area, that can force me to shelter in place or bug out if anything goes wrong. France also has a lot of nuclear power plants (about 77% of the country’s energy production), and while I’m not in any exclusion zone, fallout would affect the entire country. Paris is also an obvious nuke magnet, but I should be outside of the blast radius if it ever gets to that point. In a true SHTF scenario, there’s 12 million people living in and around Paris, and even though I live in the countryside I will probably have to bug out someplace else, I’m too close to the city for my own comfort. My main focus right now is to be able to shelter in place for some time (most probable scenario), and fleshing out my BoB on the side, to be first used as camping supplies (I know double dipping isn’t a good thing to do, but I better get some training with that gear first). Gun laws here are a bit restrictive, and I’d have to apply for a hunting license. I’m considering getting a crossbow in the meantime. The area mostly has deer and a lot of wild boars.

Reply to: What are you asking Santa for this year? Posted November 23, 2020

I am not expecting prepping-related gifts this year, so I am treating myself to a Fallkniven F1 knife and a Kelty Redwing 50 backpack, plus a few pairs of Darn Tough socks. I bought a Schrade SCHF36 to gift to a close friend that is getting into camping and prepping, however.

Reply to: Situational awareness (digital, near real time?) Posted November 23, 2020

I knew about advanced Google search statements, but I wasn’t aware Twitter supported something like that. This is really cool, thank you. I’ve never coded this kind of bot, but there are probably open source examples/attempts available for you to take a look.

Reply to: Fireproof safes Posted November 19, 2020

Very good thinking. I am definitely going to set up a NAS at some point, but as a second layer, mostly because of expense. A decent 5TB SSD and a portable fireproof safe would fetch a much lower price than my standard for a NAS (RAID 5 with good SSDs). I’m not sure I would use a level 3 comparable to yours. In the long run, I can see myself renting a complete server in a country with good data protection laws and setting up my own cloud (and VPN) that way however. I am going a bit off-topic here, but I would highly enjoy reading digital prepping articles about personal data safety, good Internet habits, VPNs (including TOR and rented servers managed by the end user) and password managers, to cite a few.

Reply to: Lockdowns, part 2 Posted November 19, 2020

I am not an American, but my country also started a second lockdown a couple weeks ago. Stores are adequately supplied, though there was panic buying at the very start making it impossible to buy toilet paper, canned food or even beer for the first couple of days. I am increasingly worried about the economy, as current policies are paving the ways for small non-essential businesses to die out in favor of malls and online sellers, that are authorized to sell the same products unhindered.

Reply to: Fireproof safes Posted November 19, 2020

My thought process started when I considered my lack of backup. I won’t lose anything too life impacting if my hard drive goes under, but it will lose the equivalent of several months of work on personal projects. I first considered setting up a NAS (file server) for high capacity storage and automated backups, but then I asked myself what I would do in case of a home fire, which led me to look into fireproof safes. Space and convenience is an issue, and theft is lower down my priority list. I just need something I can store in a cupboard and carry upstairs on my own. I would pick something sturdier to store my GHB in my car’s trunk, though I have no idea how I would go about bolting it in place.

Reply to: Fireproof safes Posted November 19, 2020

Resisting a fire is by far my main factor. When I move to a bigger place I might get a full sized safe that no individual person can carry, but for now I just want something I can carry without help, that’s small enough to fit in a cupboard or on a shelf. I would look into something sturdier for my car, to prevent opportunistic theft of my get home bag. It probably wouldn’t resist a coordinated attempt, but at this point they could just bother to take my car someplace else. I’d bolt it down into the trunk somehow, to prevent theft and to avoid having a 40+kg piece of metal shifting around at the back of my car. Car fires can burn pretty hot though, I don’t know if any compact safe can meet my expectations.

Reply to: What is the best eReaders for field use ? Posted November 9, 2020

I got a Kobo Libra H2O, mostly for its waterproofing and third party compatibility (unlike Kindle which has you going through hoops to read unprotected pdf and epub files. Plus I’m not the biggest fan of Amazon). I didn’t check if the battery can be replaced or not, though. Thanks for the subreddit, I’ll take a look. For now I only stored digital copies of survival books I already own in physical form, plus a few non-survival technical books (IT mostly).

Reply to: Car supplies Posted August 19, 2020

Thanks for the list. What do you think about keeping a lug wrench in the trunk for extra leverage ? I remember having bent a regular cheapo tire iron once trying to loosen a wheel.

Reply to: What did covid-19 expose as a weakness in your preps? Posted August 19, 2020

That is quite an extensive list, thank you. If you had to pick one from each category, what would it be ?

Reply to: What media sources do you consult? Posted August 17, 2020

When it comes to general news, I stick to medias in my first language, chiefly Le Monde, and Le Canard Enchaîné if I want more independent coverage, plus a few online pundits in both languages. My only preparedness source is The Prepared so far (plus experienced friends and acquaintances), although I’m going to check out what Chris Marz posted.

Reply to: Perpetual gear finds thread Posted August 12, 2020

Reviews of o2Canada seem to be a mixed bag. I’ll be disappointed if it turns out to be yet another good-looking scam, they’d be a good EDC mask you can wear everywhere without raising eyebrows, on paper.

Reply to: What did covid-19 expose as a weakness in your preps? Posted August 11, 2020

I heard about The Storm Gourmet but I don’t know what it’s worth.

Reply to: Visual guide to bug bites Posted July 25, 2020

Reading a bit about Lyme’s, it can take many more forms than the bullseye rash. The only common point is an expanding rash at the site of the bite. Emphasis should really be put on identifying and removing ticks as soon as possible after potential exposure.

Reply to: What did covid-19 expose as a weakness in your preps? Posted July 3, 2020

Simply put, it exposed a psychological weakness more than anything. I could have had all the gear in the world, it wouldn’t have mattered as I wasn’t willing to wear a respirator long before other people started to panic and wear masks, nor was I too happy about risking confrontation with my remote working-averse workplace to work from home full time. As I work in a major metropolis and am fully dependent on crowded public transportation for my daily commute, I think not catching the coronavirus was a matter of luck more than caution. The actions I took that mattered the most were probably taken too late. It is an aspect of prepping that isn’t discussed very often and that is vital in a scenario like a pandemic, where staying one step ahead is a matter of public behavior as much if not more as a matter of equipment.