Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Well, after reading all of SM Stirling's Dies the Fire Series....I realized that it combined my two favorite genres: Post-Apoc and Tolkien-esque fantasy.

I went with it. My new "persona" is based upon my bushcraft skills and what I have been using all along minus anything like radios or modern firearms.

That being said, I still carry my longbow.....and my parang and bushcraft blade....WORKS awesome in KY!

It allows me to work on my bushcraft skills without anything modern....A simple pair of wool pants.....knee high mocs......plain button up shirts.....in a Post Change world the foot pedal sewing machine will still allow you to make many modern style clothes...and they are all over my local area in antique shops.

What is very nice is that it allows you to gradually get the gear you need....an early Post changer would be in his or her goretex boots and BDUs.....in 10 years that same person would be in much simpler clothing.....and adpated his gear to what works.....

While I LOVE Tolkien......Stirling lets me blend my perfectly! You will probably see my posts all in this section from now on.....what is nice, is that all of my pots, backpack, arrows etc.....fit in perfectly with this direction!

Indeed. I've worked in this vein for a while now...as well as doing purely Tolkien stuff.

I've a lovely Hoyt compound bow adjustable from 45 to 65 pounds of draw along with my own field cable tool for replacing the shooting cable or any other work I need to do on it. It has sights, counterbalance, silencers, and I use a quick release with it. I have my K-Bar combat knives, my lensatic compass with tritium, a host of other items, and of course there's my walking foot cobbler's treadle machine not to mention the other three Singer treadle machines. I also have black powder weapons among other things.

Never bothered to say much about it but I'm a thoughtful Marine when it comes to preparation for pretty much anything...anything that can possibly be survived anyway. LOL

Eledhwen

Many years ago I got stuck in a snowstorm for 9 hours. I was on foot, wearing a pair of jeans, holey sneakers, a tee shirt and one of light blue denim jackets. I left the car and started walking to keep warm. Inactivity in the car wasn't cutting it.

It smartened me up and from then on always carry (in the car) at least: 1 blanket, oversized sweatpants, a hoodie, an insultaed vest, thinsulite gloves and heavier gloves or mittins, watchcap, wool socks, a folding and an sheath knife, canteen, water purification tablets, snow goggles or amber vision sportshades, a hacket, a shovel, dried or packaged foods, fire starting equipment, tinder or duraflame logs, mess kit flashlights and glowsticks, a lenstatic compass, mirror, soap and a first aid kit and a backpack incase I have to leave on foot

I'm sure there's more stuff in there.

I have smaller kits for my wife and daughter's cars but the main components are all there.

In the house everything is duplicated and the first aid kil has everything to complete minor surgery.

Of other weapons, food, and equipment, well, there's a bit.

As Eledhwen said, it's a matter of being prepared.

I am getting more and more prepared everyday. I am going to start putting our car bags together in the next few paychecks, and the house medical kit grows every time I'm in a dollar store or walmart.

I have the whole family sorted; my lass and my sons. Bug-out bags, other kit, organized and organizing various classes for them, etc. We hike the Appalachian Trail, among others, use snowshoes, skis, pulks, and all sorts of gear. This is one reason hunting, primitive skills, and wild edibles are such a huge part of my activities..preparedness.

I've been doing this for years now. Seems more like ordinary living than being prepared these days. It started as a reaction to certain...ah, occasions...while I was in the Corps. Expanded from there...and being as I'm a lesbian and a pagan, I understood there would be different challenges than just the usual ones too. Nothing like noting the thin veneer of civilization to get one going. LOL

Eledhwen

I had at one time when I was young and then later on when my family was new, been in a similar state of preparedness.
I even had our sailboat packed and ready to bug out with everything we could have needed to live independently from society. Alas after my divorce and several years of bad health, the day to day reality of survival apart from catastrophe was enough to keep me busy! I must say that though the skills are in place the planning and preparations have gone terribly by the wayside.

I used to muse upon the post appocalyptic or even cataclysmic world and how I would survive and protect my family. Now with the harsh realities of even the political world in upheaval, not to mention the way our earth seems to be dying before our very eyes, I had become quite depressed at such startelingly possible fantasy. As a result my tastes in books and movies tended to shy away from that genre, to more escapist subject matter.

Your conversations have lead me back to a rememberance of such things and the need to take my head out of the sand and get back to that place of preparedness and not be willing to go quietly into the dark night.

Eledwen, I understand your heart in feeling the need to safeguard your family in such a narrowminded, shallow world. You are wise, and your many posts have been informative and inspiring to me. Thank you.

I think as a new years resolution, I will try to work on this and use the wisdom and foresight you friends exibit. I will be watching and listening for any information that may come through the forum and I hope you won't mind some questions directed at you folks where I fall short.

Yep, gotta be prepared...zombies are coming. Less than 1 year til the end of the world.

That being said, the skills I am working on will keep me and the family alive through many natural disasters. We have the ability to handle much of our own issues and build what we need. Need to put some fine tuning on the gear though.

Our 18th century living history group which is mostly made up of Rangers, has a forum, & on that forum we have a sub forum called "The survival Connection". I realised a long time ago after researching the 17th & 18th century settlement of the New World, that what happened there was pretty close to what could happen here if TSHTF. I firmly believe that people using all modern survival gear will aventually be thrown back into the stone age as items fail & things run out. Those that choose a period from the 14th century to the early/mid 18th century will maintain that quality of life.
My 18th century knapsack & gear is my bug out kit. I can survive a lifetime with the gear & skills I have.

I just started reading the series again and it has me wanting to really work on my kit again. Its been a bit since I have made or worked on anything.

Apologies for the thread necromancy
I have devoured the entire series of Emberverse after a friend recommended the first book, re read the series each time i bought a new one.
For me the joy of this is as mentioned it allows me to use my current equipment bar anything electrical (only torches really i will still have my mobile phone as i consider it a safety item there is a difference between acting out an idea and putting yourself in real danger)
i can also slowly mdify my equipment should i wish to travel further into the Post Change timeline
almost all my current bushcraft/woodsman equipment is relevant and useable now which will also save me a significant amount of Cash
look forward to sharing my adventures in here
MOT