A Gulch and The Walking Dead
I had an excellent lunch last Saturday with an Objectivist, and one of the things we talked about was skills we have to offer to a Gulch. In that vain, I have developed a scenario to hopefully stimulate thought and discussion on this topic.
It's my post, so my rules. Here is the scenario:
It is a post apocalyptic world, either natural or man-made that resembles the 1815's in technology. There will be walking dead. They may not be zombies, but they are out to kill you and take your resources. There is no power sources anywhere in the world other than solar, wind and horse power.
A few fellow Objectivists and I have found and established an invitation only Gulch with all the natural resources we can use. We will send a few people out to recruit new residents, much like Francisco and John were doing.
There are 2 inviolate requirements and rules for Gulchers and prospective invitee Gulchers:
1: All people 16 years and older MUST be willing to truly and honestly, of their own free will, take The Oath. This may require a potential invitee to make a hard choice as there will be no exceptions.
2: The existence and the location of this Gulch MUST be kept secret and it will be defended.
What skills and/or resources can you bring to this Gulch? Why would we recruit you?
It's my post, so my rules. Here is the scenario:
It is a post apocalyptic world, either natural or man-made that resembles the 1815's in technology. There will be walking dead. They may not be zombies, but they are out to kill you and take your resources. There is no power sources anywhere in the world other than solar, wind and horse power.
A few fellow Objectivists and I have found and established an invitation only Gulch with all the natural resources we can use. We will send a few people out to recruit new residents, much like Francisco and John were doing.
There are 2 inviolate requirements and rules for Gulchers and prospective invitee Gulchers:
1: All people 16 years and older MUST be willing to truly and honestly, of their own free will, take The Oath. This may require a potential invitee to make a hard choice as there will be no exceptions.
2: The existence and the location of this Gulch MUST be kept secret and it will be defended.
What skills and/or resources can you bring to this Gulch? Why would we recruit you?
I am over 65 and not as spry as I used to be but here goes with a skills list.
I built my own home which included carpentry, mason, plumber, electrician, designer, draftsman.
I have extensive project planning and management experience. I am a certified forms and process/procedure analyst and documenter.
I am skilled with firearms and reloading as well as having all the manual equipment and supplies. I know how to and have made Black Powder. I know how to cast bullets and shot. I am a pretty good shot and know how to process meat. I am an expert canner and a very good gardener.
I have a vast array of hand tools for many different things, like auto repair, wood and metal working. I never learned how to weld though it is on my bucket list.
I am an experienced woodsman. I cut, split and stacked over 100 face cords one fall.
I have a pretty good library and have studied the founders and resultant documents extensively.
I can Program in several languages, and know how to repair older computer,so if one of you really smart folks can produce electricity then perhaps we can get some computing power going.
I am a notary public, don't know if that is valuable or not.
I have blacksmith tools and am currently learning how to use them.
I am an Eagle Scout and have a lot of First Aid knowledge and supplies/
Oh and I love dogs....
Nice skill set!
I used to do blacksmithery - set up basic forges in a couple of places (not difficult to do). I had to quit as it was too hard on my hands, but I would be glad to work with you to build a forge (and maybe dink around a bit). The most important item to have in a primitive forge is a source of 'wind': bellows or hand-crank air supply (because blow dryers are not likely to work too well without the electricity).
Jan, loves dogs too
I also forgot to mention that I am a licensed HAM radio operator. I sure hope the Gulch is not too far from my current location, because I will have to have a big truck to transport all my "stuff".
Thank you for your reply.
I want to also say that I took the Oath a long time ago.
Jan
My hobby is also primitive and wilderness survival skills. Shelter, fire making, some tool making (the rudiments for example of forging metal), some herbs and edible plants, etc.
Former infantry officer and West Point grad - military tactics, fortifications, training, etc.
And I'm just handsome as hell so I'll definitely be needed to repopulate the world. :)
Jan
*(I was in high school before I figured out that that was not actually a single word.)
Jan
(Old USAF family...as you might have guessed.)
I'm a graduate Electrical Engineer with experience in design, project management, construction techniques and management, and applications of heavy industry- water, wind, and gas fired power generation in underground and surface mining, metals refining and production, and processing, oil and gas production from near surface and underground shale and refining, paper (including toilet) and cardboard production. I've developed and taught Electrical Journeyman training programs and taught at Technical and Community College levels as well as supervised others in the same. I've directly managed budgeting, planning, and implementation of all work at remote site construction and mining projects with manpower up to 1300 men, equipment, and materials procurement in mountainous (9,500ft) and desert areas.
I'm a fair technical writer, analytical while tempered with common sense, experienced in contracts, dispute resolution, and negotiations. I do well with people that are motivated, intelligent, and learning driven.
And I'm a self developed, life long Objectivist, and as a direct descendant of Daniel Boone, I've often felt that I was born a couple of hundred years too late. Many that have met and worked with me have described me as a 'Renaissance Man'.
But I'm kind of a shy and humble man. I also have a pretty good voice, according to some. Lol
If you could cook you would be a turnkey project!
Impressive credentials.
Jan
I'm also a top-licensed (Amateur Extra) amateur radio operator (with gear that runs off deep-cycle batteries that can run off a trickle-charge from a solar cell). Oh, and I'm also on the local FEMA communications team known as ARES, so I can double as a spy on government if you like. ;)
As for defense, I should hope that we won't need to construct nuclear weapons, but if necessary, I was one of the last of the Cold Warrior weapons construction experts. It is a job that I am no longer proud of, but ...
I haven't 3D printed a gun yet, but I know I could make a plastic one.
When no longer able to do any of those things, I will be capably handled in the care of my wife/nurse, who is coming along with me. And Khalling, I have since asked my wife about The Oath. She will take The Oath.
Oh, and BTW, aren't we in a society with walking dead already? ;)
Maybe I better start working on the flux capacitor so that I can time travel to now to get all of the cool stuff to take back to our 1815 era. ;)
The object to be achieved was the idea and the theory of practice or implementation or operation that comes with an invention, when you already have that, it's not difficult to scrounge some ways to reproduce it.
The soul exception would be silicon or optical-based computer systems, that would be impossible to build by hand I would think.
Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Extensive database on cooking, gunsmithy, beer making, library of books on liberty. Ability to read and follow directions (but not necessarily without discussion depending on circumstances), experience in vegetable gardening/composting, experience designing software (and logic might have some application even without electronic devices), experience reloading and beer brewing (not simultaneously) and basic knowledge of liquor distilling, lost wax casting, teaching mathematics, writing contracts.
Jan
I have been a rock musician since my teens and still play (the bass guitar) and sing.
I was licensed as a massage therapist in Utah in 2008. I'm into alternative therapies and use colloidal silver regularly. I buy the best (MesoSilver), I don't try to make it.
I saw the writing on the wall when I got laid off from a job as an IT nerd and having my vehicle repossessed in '08 due to the "downturn" in the economy. As a result of suddenly having lots of time on my hands and no personal vehicle other than a bicycle, I spent a lot of time on the internet. It was during that time that I learned of the impending demise of the dollar, the 9-11 hoax and more. I have always been interested in growing my own food, so I looked for self-sufficient groups to join; "intentional communities" as I learned they were called. After a year or so in homeless shelters in Arizona I discovered WWOOFing. (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) through which I volunteered my labor in exchange for learning best practices, a place to sleep and wholesome, organic food.
I'm currently working in retirement on my passion: an experimental VTOL aircraft concept of my own design and am learning CAD-CAM skills. I make my own grain-free granola and bake a pretty good chicken with cornbread dressing.
i do not panic.
I can live hard.
I have done some tough shit.
I can manipulate water and shelter.
We have to keep healthy - i have dug poo pits and made soap.
I confidently navigate across a range of altitudes and terrains.
I can manage horses.
I can run, or at least walk, all day regardless of terrain and weather.
I can switch between leading and following.
But i cannot abide fools.
I will eat anything. I mean, anything. I won't stop at dead horses. Which make more than soap.
And still I do not panic.
If I can bring my weapons and ammo, the hardware part of the Gulch's security will be solved! As an engineer, I think that I have a few more good years left of making something useful; and my wife is a baker - and everyone loves bread. I have also spent over two decades working for the government, so I inherently know and can foresee the devious actions coming from the government. If there's any communication with the outside world, including protecting ourselves from it, this may be an invaluable resource.
I own all my own tools, am a very solid auto and diesel mechanic, and I am also a Private Pilot with single, Multi and Instrument ratings.
I have no fear of using a shovel, rake and loot to level ground in preparation for building, and have also spent time operating heavy equipment, like CAT 963 track loaders, D9 Bulldozers, Backhoes and Forklifts. I also have spent a couple years as a Real Estate Agent and an Over the Road Truck driver hauling everything from "fingerprint loads" to 127' beams for bridges. I think I could easily fit into the Gulch and offer significant value.
I can shoot straight but age, arthritis and expertise would make me be more suitable as an instructor/inspector of Gulch security.
I could write memos on security problems and develop written standard operation procedures for various security posts.
Hopefully, there would not be criminals among Gulchers in need of incarceration. If so, I'm your old dino.
We may need to take prisoners when outsiders trespass or attempt to do so. Those we don't shoot? (What to do with intruders can be a whole topic in itself for discussion).
I am a fan of The Walking Dead. I don't believe in predatory zombies (totally dreamed up for the first "Night of the Living Dead" creature feature) but I noticed that in the post apocalyptic setting of The Walking Dead the most dangerous creatures are humans who become organized cannibals and/or murderous looters.
Yeah. there's plenty of work for old dino in a post apocalyptic Gulch.
But gold does not occur everywhere. If we want real currency, the geology has gotta be there.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fort...
Too bad my cheap Spanish-made $100 cap n' ball .44 Navy Colt has a defunct hammer I can't pull back.
At least I got to fire it for about a year before it became a non-firing conversation piece. Oh, well, you get what you pay for.
That Civil War pistol is too advanced anyway. Recall reading that the Forty-Niners used assorted pepperboxes for handguns.
And the old codger on the web page with the beard and the gold pan? That's me. Scroll down a little.
I knew an underground mining contractor from the Silverton area that put himself through college for his Mining Engineering degree by going up and working a vein on summer weekends. And that was with a gold price back in the early 70's.
I worked with him back in '84 on an underground vein deposit in Arizona. A number of his miners came from the Silverton area and had "lunch bucket" obtained samples from the Standard Mine. They would sit on the porch of a cabin in the evening and just put a blow torch to the samples, and the gold and silver came pouring out.
I'm currently working on gardening and after I master that, canning.
Can I put dibs on living next to Zen??
Puppies, though...
Jan, wilts over puppies
Right now I have 6 chickens, a sheep, a horse, 3 dogs a cat...and a bunch of feral cats who look to me for breakfast. I have trained many horses for various purposes, but never from the ground up.
Jan, watched too many Disney movies
Note that people living at a subsistence level often have higher birthrates than more sophisticated societies.
Jan
Both my husband and I have home building/remodeling skills including plumbing and wiring.
I sew just about anything. He hunts.
We see the potential of things to be more than just what they are...but what they can be.
Resourcefulness will be of the utmost necessity.
The fellow who can work with chemicals should be able to make gunpowder that could be used for mining and weapons.
It's also not just about the skills you possess that will get you invited, it's also about your philosophy. Skills alone aren't the ticket.
Expand the walls on your boxes people.
Jan
Jan
All of this can be done with 19th century tech.
Jan
One of my contentions is that there is a vast resource of knowledge about things that work. This will greatly speed up the process of reacquiring modern technology. For example in 1815 there was virtually no use of electricity, although you mention solar as one of the resources. Knowing the importance of electricity to future development, how tubes can be built, how transistors work and that integrated circuits are even better will vastly improve the speed of reinventing these things.
You say there are no other power sources. Does that just mean in existence or is something preventing their creation (as in "Dies the Fire").
I suppose you could imagine an emp that munched the chips, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.
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