SHELTER

Without adequate shelter, people die.  Really simple concept.  You should have adequate tools and supplies on hand to repair your home structure in an emergency.  But what happens if you have to evacuate and/or your home is destroyed?  What if there is radioactive fallout?

The government has published books on how to built a fallout shelter, but the shelters are small, not designed for prolonged use, and thus they would not work for intense radioactive fallout.  Light tertiary fallout perhaps, but not intense, downwind fallout from a nuclear bomb. And those shelters would not be adequate at all for a "dirty nuke" or Chernobyl-type event - but nothing short of evacuation from the area would work in such an event.

Look at some of the designs the government has suggested and see if you think you could live in one exclusively for two weeks.  Yes, two weeks without going outside at all.  Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them, and see if you can find adequate room for food, water and sanitation facilities.

If you live in a secure location and want a real fallout shelter, you have to start building it now, while supplies are available, and it has to be large and under at least 2 feet of dirt or concrete for adequate fallout protection.  The air intake must have a HEPA filter and a fan to bring in fresh air, plus a exhaust air system that prevents the intake of radioactive particles.  Naturally the shelter would NOT be advertised in any way to anyone, or it would not be safe when you needed it.

The government-designed shelters shown above assumes you will not have to evacuate to safety.  Any meaningful evacuation would have to be to safety - not to a government mandated location! Avoiding contact with other people would be elemental security, and that means evacuating to a forested area well away from any populated areas before a mass evacuation was ordered and Martial Law declared. 

If all you have is camping equipment, that is far better than nothing. You would need to clear a space inside a thicket, and cut grass and ferns for bedding material.  Sickles were designed for just that job!  The highly curved sickle at the bottom works best. I bought it for $3.00 at a flea market.

Camping equipment would be enough protection from an EMP attack, but would not provide protection against fallout. Essential carpentry tools and woodcutting tools should be packed and ready to go at a moment's notice if at all possible. 

The best way to evacuate is with a ready-made shelter - a motor home or travel trailer.  An old motor home such as pictured above is best, as they can also pull a trailer full of supplies and tools.

 Good, low priced motor homes like my 1977 American Clipper shown above are inexpensive these days, and can often be found with very low mileage.

A motor home or travel trailer can still cause claustrophobia, and they offer no protection against fallout.  They can serve as a means of having most of the necessary equipment all packed and ready to go, however, and beating the rush - or the government ordered route - is all important for survival.

Once in the back woods, look for a canyon that would not flood. A tunnel can often be dug into a hillside, braced with sections of logs cut from the forest, and the entrance blocked off with sandbags.  The motor home or travel trailer would have to be covered with brush, cut off small trees, camo tarps, whatever was available, to make your campsite invisible.  Remember, the idea is to get lost, not found!

If you could not return to "civilization" soon, and your radiation detection equipment showed it was safe to work outside, more permanent shelter space could be built.  Mere tarps stretched over a rope don't cut it. If you have only the tools recommended, you could build a log cabin.  It's not that hard.  My grandfather and father built the cabin pictured above during the depression with only the tools I've mentioned.  I was born there.  The photo was taken in 1962, which explains the utility pole, but that just shows how long a primitive log cabin can last!

LOG CABIN BUILDING TOOLS

Not all the tools required for building a log cabin are shown below, but these are the essentials.  Click on the photos to enlarge them, then use the "back" button on your browser to return here.

	A selection of cross cut saws, from 3 feet long on the left to a 4 foot saw on the right. The 3 foot saw is good for cutting notches in logs and cutting firewood sections from up to 12" diameter logs, while the longer saws are better for felling and also bucking larger diameter logs.
	Double bit axe on the left is good for chopping off limbs, and safer for the inexperienced to use than the double bit falling axe on the right.
	A small adze, ideal for one or two handed operation to remove high spots in logs or to cut a log flat for a door or window sill. Also used for finishing the notches at the ends of the logs so they interlock.
	A draw knife makes removing bark easy, and is very useful.
	"Single jacks" are heavy one-handed hammers that are vital for moving logs just a bit so they can be fitted precisely.  Right to left: 2 1/2 lb, 3 lb, and an 8 pounder.  The 8 pound is tough to use one handed (it can be done), but the handle is long enough for two handed use when needed..
	A froe is used with a wooden mallet to cut with the end grain - straight down - on 2 foot sections of cedar to make cedar shingles for roofing. The handle allows the froe to be twisted to "pop off" a shingle.

This is a preliminary article dated March 28, 2005.  It needs revision as well as more photographs of the tools, etc.  I'll get it done soon. OK, it wasn't soon, as this is May 15, 2005, and I just got up the photos of the log cabin tools.  I'm working on it!