C5 on Surviving Hurricanes, Heatwaves and Wildfires

Any prepper , worth a shit, went dark about a year ago. Have you noticed the silence.

That silence was the communication.

Any prepper you have been listening to since… Is Not Worth A Shit

With your shaken but not stirred Host, Category5. I was considering, “Blown but no Happy Ending”. It seemed a bit cluncky.

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This is the Part 2 that I promised from this. https://darkgreenmountainsurvivalresearchcentre.wordpress.com/2022/10/16/yes-i-survived-hurricane-fiona/

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For those just tuning in, we got hit by hurricane Fiona… after a summer heat wave that lasted all summer. Sorry for the slow reply but that summer heatwave has continued into an October, and now November heat records are being broken. 10C degrees above normal. This has been the only time of the year I have been able to get anything done. You folks just have to wait till I finish what I am working on… and consider this post a C5 year end review. A long read… so pore a stiff drink and get comfortable.

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“Someone on R/collapse asked the question, “Why are’nt people reacting more strongly to collapse”, “Climate change and collapse-themes now occur regularly in mainstream media. Why haven’t more people reacted or taken more pro-active steps in response to the notions of collapse?”

Commenter, throwOAOA responded,

“One is societal expectations and what is often dubbed the “bystander effect.” In a 1968 study, if an individual was alone in a room that started to fill with smoke, 75% of people informed an authority figure about the smoke. However, if a person was in a room with 2 other people who ignored the smoke, only 10% of those people said anything about the smoke. If everyone else is acting normal, then there can’t really be any danger. This instinct to draw on our society/in-group for our emotional response to stimuli is incredibly powerful and difficult to overcome for such a highly sociable animal as humans.”

“Another is cognitive dissonance. Every day most of us have no other choice than to participate in some way in the vast, exploitative system that is causing the very damage that we discuss on this sub. When you take any action that does not align with your beliefs about how you ought to be acting, it creates mental conflict which psychologists have labeled cognitive dissonance. Because this conflict causes mental discomfort, and because all animals have a natural tendency to try to avoid discomfort, we humans can go to great lengths to alleviate cognitive dissonance. By far the easiest way to do so, however, is to simply refuse to take in any information that casts a negative light on the actions that you feel you must take in order to participate in society. Michael Dowd has called the conscious decision to tune out bad news “adaptive inattention.”

“Also important to consider is the concept of “risk homeostasis”. We all know that statistically speaking, driving a car is significantly more dangerous than almost anything else we do. But most of us drive so regularly without anything happening that we mentally discount that risk. It isn’t that driving is any less dangerous, but it ‘feels’ less dangerous because we have become accustomed to that level of risk exposure. The same is true of societal collapse. When every day you hear stories about how we are one week away from a cannibal holocaust, you adjust to the new baseline, and news that would have terrified you into action a few months ago is just another drop in the bucket that you hardly even notice.”

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That is a good place to start. One of the reasons I go to https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/ is not to read the articles but to read the comments. It’s the only place I am willing to do that. A higher calibre of commenters go there without all the trolls. I generally avoid comments like the plague… or Covid, as it were.

Before we talk about the photo at the top of the page, post hurricane Fiona, a lot of our forests now look like this.

Clearly, living amongst the trees is a bad idea. I know it’s tempting to have shade trees near your home to keep things cooler as the planet bakes, but no. Besides the trees blowing down on your house part, there is also the trees becoming big flaming torches part. Two years from now, once all of that knocked down forest gets dried out, it’s now going to want to be one big burn pile in search of a smouldering cigarette butt.

A house near us had hundred year old oaks surrounding the house, clearly planted generations ago to shade the house. They all came down in different directions like pick up sticks…yet all miraculously missed the house. Just a big ol’ house completely surrounded by fallen giants.

All I could say as I drove by was, “You lucky, lucky bastards”

Yah. Like that. That level of luck.

An other home of close friends that read this blog and generally put into practice many of the things I told them to… like storing food, keeping several years worth of firewood on hand and even going so far as to put in a new steel roof just this year… Well…. they now have a totally new view outside their back door. The forest of old, healthy spruce is now gone. It’s not gone really. It’s now just a daily reminder of what a post apocalyptic wasteland looks like.

So…. Today we are going to talk about Extreme Adaptations and Responses to the world that has arrived to our 2022 year and beyond. This is what has been on my mind since the heat wave started. It’s now pushing the WET BULB, human survivability temperatures. The point at which sweating no longer cools the human body because it cant evaporate. Your organs cook.

I almost broke my silence this summer to tell any preppers that are “Worth A Shit”, that it is now time for people to begin building underground. Thus the photo at the top of the page. Not that my limited number of readers would jump at my words and move underground…. but to put it out there into the general discourse. A “C5 Says, Get your ass underground” moment, were the prepper world will just forget the “C5 Says” part.. but spread it anyhow.

This all started for me because we have no basement and no easy way to go underground. If you dig a hole here, it will fill with water. Lesson learned and the the biggest FAIL here at the Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre. I tried to bury a cube van as a root cellar. Mondo Fail. It’s obvious now…. but…

Anyhooo…. Some people might be thinking, “Just get air conditioning” or “We just put in a heat pump”. I’m not opposed to ether but it doesn’t solve the long term problem. Mega Storms. Mega Fires. Mega Energy Disruptions. Mega Economic Contraction and Mega MAGA Morons. (did I mention, making homes bullet proof and artillery resistant is no longer all that extreme of thinking) (Neither is a bit of fallout resistance for that matter)

I mentioned some of this thinking to the elderly woman at the local hardware store wile picking up some bolts to make my new hurricane resistant shed build. I was expecting the usual blank stare in return. Instead, she replied, “Those are some very well thought out ideas”. The local hurricane was still fresh in her mind, as well as the all summer heatwave.

So were all the collapsed barns that no one can miss while driving to work or get groceries. Speaking of which, locally, a barn came down that killed all but three of the sheep herd corralled inside for the storm. Terrible death being crushed to death with broken bones, pinned and suffocating slowly with no way for the farmer to save them while listening to their screams. I suspect those folks wont be returning to animal farming… just as food shortages are hitting the world.

This gets to the next, radical adaptation. If you need a barn, one that’s forest fire proof, one that’s mega storm resistant, one that’s not easily destroyed by floods…. its going to cost you.

Its time to talk about the Quonset Hut.

Technically, this is not a real Quonset Hut. It’s just become the generic name for these structures.

For more history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_hut

Nothing quite says, futuristic, post apocalyptic housing than the Quonset Hut… other than the shipping container. Unfortunately, they also communicate, “Yes. I am a survivalist”. It will also make you not very attractive to women. Same with the house at the top of the page. Nothing also say’s “Honey. I want a divorce” like a Quonset hut. Sorry. I cant help you with that. You better have one big… personality. Saying on your first or third date, “Hey baby. Wanna come back to my survivalist compound and practice breeding the next generation of post apocalyptic raiders” is generally a Red Flag.

Now, all of these extreme adaptations are well outside of my pay grade.

That helps to explain my poor mans version with the hurricane resistant barn build

And its more recent, little brother build. This is why I am slow getting this post out. I built this since my last article on the hurricane, taking advantage of the unseasonable weather and post storm motivation… trying to get it done before the next storm hits.

A work in progress but I had to get to this point before I could justify taking the time to do this post. I can slow down a bit now. The only reason the original version of this shed stayed up during the storm is because its bigger buddy was breaking the wind. I saw it rocking, by flashlight, during the storm. I had to rebuild it one wall at a time to keep the heavy roof up. Time was of the essence because I speculated we might get hit a second time this year. Looks like that might come true with tropical storm Nicole. Now I have to figure out how to secure it to the ground. Screw anchors comes to mind. I have some in my recycled metal pile.

My original build was pretty naive. Yeash, That’s embarrassing. I’m more selective in my recycled building materials now.

Too many leak points for water to decompose wood and not enough structure. Paint was not enough for wood.

But I have this new technique down now, Using recycled barn metal, and huge amounts of roofing screws, learned from building its bigger buddy barn and this years shipping container upgrade

Though these may be poor mans, Quonset Hut influenced buildings, that salvaging window has pretty much closed. A shipping container now costs 3 times as much as we paid for ours. Less people can afford new sheet metal so there will be less scrap steel or building materials to recycle… though there may be some local availability from all the wrecked barns. I’m going to need some more before I can repeat that same concept, next year, on this bus, in its new location, to stabilize it by building an attached building like the one above, before the next storm tries to flip it, as happened to many fifth wheels and travel trailers… and even one mobile home near us.

This is and always has been, the poorest of poor mans Quonset Huts. Not to keep running, which is a hole in the ground to keep poring money, but a permanently placed building, up on blocks, making sure fire cant get underneath it.

Our place is looking more and more like a Fallout-4 video game background.

The Quonset Hut concept came back into my thinking, not because of the hurricane and all the wrecked barns, though that is what inspired me to talk to all you sketchy folks about. It came from a couple that wanted to buy a section of our property.

A clear warning sign that a person is “Not worth a shit” is when their first lines are,”I just want to live a simple life” or with the bonus line, “in touch with nature”

First off, There is NOTHING simple about this lifestyle. If you want to live here, besides all the skills needed and the heavy workload, it’s mainly an endurance test.

If you want a simple life, in touch with nature, live in a small apartment and take walks in the park.

Second, Nature will kill you. It doesn’t care whether you live or die… but Darwin sure does.

We’ve had people wanting to live in yurts or wall tents or thinking they can whip together log cabins from dead-fall or packed into 12ft campers. One of the reasons I built the container home was because I wanted a safe place for them to retreat to once they failed. Just enough that they wouldn’t freeze to death their first winter, once reality catches up to the off grid fantasy.

But this other couple had a plan and after hearing it, I thought “That will work”.

There first step was to put in a Quonset Hut. This got around lots of building codes. It was a farm structure, No looky Lues could see they lived there. Then they would put their moterhome inside it for a bit of homey luxury. This would also allow them to come and go. All windows pointed away from the road.

Good plan. My house within a house concept. Space insulation. Forrest fire and hurricane resistant. Ninja stealthy. Plenty of wood storage and working space.

Then they bailed on us as everyone else had. Too bad. I liked them. Maybe not like, like, but no reason to dislike them… other than wasting our time.

I’m all out of energy to put into community building. We’re done. People just aren’t there yet and with this new phenomena of “People losing their shit” and Pod People transformations turning friends into brainwashed cult members, has left us wondering who we can trust anymore.

Don’t even get me started on this new round of Gwyneth Paltrow Nazis. These are the New Agey types that went full Quisling, thinking they can beat Covid with positive thinking and the Colonels secret blend of herbs and spices… and now feel owe so persecuted, and want to flee their cities because, you know….Communists. They have been convinced, inside their heads, that they are following the science. I just don’t have the time to give these people Cult deprogramming. Firewood to cut. Storms to prepare for.

Quisling Definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling

That said, all these buildings can handle the fires and the hurricanes and the weather micro-bursts… But not the heat.

That brings us back around to this.

Basically, a properly built basement… with a steel roof in it. Add wood-stove and a well, just like this one. Done.

I guess this guy has had a house blow down before.

Ya thought the Quonset hut was going to be bad for your sex life? Well, shiver me timbers and blow the mast down.

The concept is far less radical for myself…. because I grew up on the beloved, illustrated book, The Secret Life Of Gnomes.

“Read a coffee table book, people” (Archer)

It’s also not as radical to me because that structure above the gnomes is similar to the housing the Vikings lived in when they did their short lived attempt to come to North America. These were, basically, the MAGA, Proud Boys of the ancient world and why the Nazis were enamoured by all things Nordic.

The First Nations got sick of their new neighbours theft and murder lifestyle choice and decided to kill enough of them to send them packing. It’s time for Earthy folks to grow some self preservation balls and do the same. It’s time for LGBQ folks to start saying “Pink Guns Matter”. It’s time for women to start saying, “You can pry my reproductive rights from my cold, dead fingers” and mean it.

What? Did you expect Me to fight for you?

That’s French Resistance fighter, Simone Segouin, saying “Hey. Those Nazis aren’t going to kill themselves”

I guess that’s my post Remembrance Day comment.

God didn’t make you equal. Winchester did. Equality, as a concept, only began with the English Long Bow. Now a peasant farmer could take out knights that had spent a lifetime of training and though they were your Superiors.

If guns are outlawed, only Mega MAGA Morons will have guns. A Rwandan styled genocide will follow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide

All hope is not lost though. I recall reading on r-collapse, a young lesbian woman writing, “To celebrate the final week of Pride Month, I’m purchasing a hunting rifle”. Good choice. A heavy hitter that will go through a truck engine block… or body armour. Even if their plate stops it, they will wish it hadn’t, because of the broken ribs and internal organ damage, internal bleeding and permanent spinal damage. That’s why the US military is replacing the M4/AR15 with the new MX5 and why the Canadian military never should have replaced the FN C1A1 in the first place

OK. I went off on a tangent

Back to the part about how it is now time to begin moving underground and the First Nations that eventually gave up on trying peaceful coexistence and kicked the Vikings off their side of the planet.

(And right about this point, Tropical storm Nicole came through. It had lost most of its energy by this point but still managed to take out our internet for a few more days. That and wordpress, in the face of faulty transmission, decided to take me back to a save point, erasing a couple hours of thoughtful writing. Lets see if I can still remember my thought process. One of those was that, after hurricane Fiona, I predicted we would get hit by a second hurricane this year. And here we are. Sucks to be right all the time)

It’s also not so radical of a concept to me because I have studied the First Nations pit houses. This is how they got through winter. I’ve visited this one in the Victoria BC museum several times, as well as sites in Jasper, Alberta

The Tepee was just their summer time RV when they were on the road.

The irony is not lost on me that these were intended to get thought the northern winter cold and the reason I am talking about them is to survive extreme heat, super storms and drought induced fires.

(By the way, Happy 8 billion people day. Actually, Condolences are more in order. It will only be 15 more years till we hit 9 Billion. This is also the year we learned we cant even feed the 8 billion by just removing one countries oil, gas and fertilizer from the world stage. And people are bitching about food costs now. Just wait 15 more years as crop yields continue to decline. The resource wars and mass migration are just beginning)

On one of our motorcycle trips around Cape Breton, NS, I noticed some holes in the ground. It took a few moments before I realized what I was looking at. It was the remains of 6 pit houses, all connected. Unlike the ones out west, these were on the side of a steep hill. This was for drainage. As I mentioned,if you dig a hole here, it will fill with water. They had put the entrances on the down slope so any run off or flooding would flow right out again.

I bring this up because of the flooding part of the, Floods, Fires and Fascism future. That requires living on a hill or slope and no longer choosing to live on flood plains as has seemed like a good idea in the past. A few years ago, we all had to learn about Polar Vortexes as the northern osculation began to fail. That became normal fast. Now we are having to learn about Atmospheric Rivers as the new normal. The next new normal we will all have to learn about will be Stalled Systems. I made up that term until some meteorologist discovers it has a real name. That’s when the winds stop. That’s what happened here this summer. No wind. Not until the stalled system decided to move. Then BAM.

Speaking of BAM, WordPress has just dropped another couple hours of my writing, taking me back to previous save points… so we are done. I quit. We will try this again…. as a part 2 to this part2 . Sorry for the abrupt stop.

Apocalypse Adaptation Interuptus. Sounds like A Blue Oyster Cult album name. That’s still enough to contemplate while you wait.

In the mean time….

This is the Big Bonus Read if you haven’t read it already. https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/11/07/COVID-Reinfections-And-Immunity/

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