When we launched our crowdfunding project for "Two Bites" the healthy eating game for kids, on Kickstarter.com, it really started to irritate this itch I've had for years to teach my kids about being self-sustaining and about survival.
Barring a cataclysmic event oft apocolyptic proportions, financial survival will be covered. As long as there's an internet, our income and finances will survive any natural disasters like hurricanes, (this one's pretty much a given considering we live in Florida and have survived enough of them), but of course, all the self-sustaining income and food gardens in the world won't mean a thing to us if there is a world wide event like the predictions in 2012, or The Day After Tomorrow, The Core, or any of the 'end of the world movies'... none of our self-sustaining activities will mean much of anything. Unless we learn how to survive them.
So while we can, we'll work on being self-sustaining, and prepare for the time when survival will precede that.
List of things we need to do to be self-sustaining:
Create income- done
Grow our own food- ongoing project, pictures and updates to come
Desalinate water- since we live near the Gulf of Mexico, DIY desalination can help us irrigate our garden, provide drinking water, and in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster that might contaminate or wipe out water and power supplies, water to bathe and wash with.
Purify water-* see above
Harness solar and wind power- *see above
Build a boat bike- this will serve us no matter where we live. It can provide food from the sea from our family, and give us some great physical, recreational fun too! We've seen a lot of different kinds of boat bikes, but have yet to decide on a plan for our own. Here are some examples of boat bikes...
Obviously, we need to modify these plans and designs to be able to carry the 4 people in our family and for our survival plans, but these are great for getting out to fish, and to have some physical family recreational fun too.
Build a sailboat- ok so the boat bike will cover the inshore fish supplies, but the sailboat can get us further out into the gulf, and possibly outside of the U.S. should the day ever come that we need to get out, and I daresay that I see that happening in my very own lifetime. This article is filled with all kinds of information and ideas on how to build boats, houses, even your own submarine in case the events of the movie 2012 actually do come to pass.
Build a portable shelter, powered with wind and solar energy- we've both actually faced the prospect of homelessness and though it never came to that, it came incredibly close... living in a house that was in foreclosure, with no heat and no water. When I saw these eco-friendly outdoor cottages, I wanted one just for my back yard, but I wanted it to be portable to put on a 'floating' barge and take with me if I'm forced to pick up and move for some reason. We haven't decided how to make them portable yet, but it's on the list of things to do.
List of things we need to do to survive the apocalypse- or any cataclysmic event.
Build a bicycle plane- just in case we want to jet to the Bahamas, or get off a collapsing 'ground' (again the events of the movie 2012 haunt me) a flying machine that can be powered by human pedaling, or a small engine, and can land on the water and float is a good thing to have. Again, all of these ideas would have to be modified to carry our family of 4, at least until our kids are old enough to operate one of their own.
A hot air balloon is also another option.
And, last but not least, an underground shelter, as deep as we can find, fully stocked with all the supplies we'd need to ride out any tidal waves, or solar heat blasts. This storage facility needs to be water tight, house soil and seed, fresh water, a hand held GPS scuba diving equipment... (maybe one of those DIY submarines) and a small inflatable boat. Once the 'surge' is over, we should be able to use our scuba gear to rise to the surface, with our inflatable boat and supplies in tow in watertight cases. At the surface, we can inflate the boat, climb in, power up the GPS and head back toward the last known 'land' until we find it again.
Ok so that last one is a little bit far fetched, but...
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