countryside survivor game

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If you were given a place to live and all the basic essentials how long could you go without having to spend any money. what have you done to get around having to buy something in the past, what have you bartered for, What have you replaced with and alternative, what have you done without? And what would you see yourself having at the end of a years time that you didn't start with and how did you get it. would you bake bread or would you do without? Would you barter for eggs or would you find a way to get chickens why? What about laundry soap and gas those were the first two things that came to mind for me but I think I could trade or work for them and do with out gas as much as possible. Just wondering how you would do it, and what some of the absoulute necessities you would have to have to start. would you start with bare land or would you need a shelter and how would you procede from there. Just wondering? Ronda

-- ronda (thejohnsons@localaccess.com), March 15, 2002

Answers

Please please pick me , take me away from this insane world !!!!! Am I nuts that this sounds good to me ?

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

if you had the desire and the skills, you could be dropped into the middle of nowhere with just the clothes on your back(or no clothes if it's not freezing) and survive. Until you needed medical care that you couldn't do yourself.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

unless it was a totally barren land like the arctic circle or something, then you'd be out of luck.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

You're not nuts, Patty. I wanna go with you. Or maybe we're BOTH nuts!! :o)

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), March 15, 2002.

If you have all the basic essentials, why would you ever have to go spend money?

I guess if my neighborhood were sealed off from the rest of the world right now, it would be several years before I felt the need to go shopping.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@somewhere.com), March 15, 2002.



I wanna go!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

I wanna go too. Can I bring my family! I don't think that I could be very happy without them. I would need a few veggies seeds ,A source of water, some trees, a few farm animals(milk cow or goat,chickens), and maybe a huge cast iron skillet just to be frivolous! Sounds great!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), March 15, 2002.

Aha, now that sounds like a great vacation get away!!!!!

-- Thumper/inOKC (slrldr@yahoo.com), March 15, 2002.

Ronda, I think I've had too long of a day to come up with really good answers to your questions, but I do have an interesting game called Oregon Trail (computer game) for my kids that gives some good hints. It is a simulation of what it would have been like to travel the Oregon Trail. You have to choose the things you will need to survive the trip, although it's easier than your idea since there are trading posts along the way in Oregon Trail. It's an interesting question though. That would be a fun thing to work out on a rainy day sometime!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), March 15, 2002.

My favorite version of the survivor game was my summer "vacations" from the time I was 21 until 29. I would take a 30 day LOA from work and $1500 and go as far as $750 would take me and settle into whatever community I was at. Camp out, get a job and learn the town. Sometimes I would hang for an additional 30 leave extension if my employer was slow enough at the time to do without me, most times I came home with my road stake plus a little extra from side line jobs, lucky deals at swap meets or "lady luck" sitting with me at a card or pool table. The one thing I did change on my adventure game was after 3 years I started the "$750 trip" from the city limit of the town I had landed at the year before with anywhere I went before or 150 mile radius of home out of bounds. After doing that I knew I could survive in practically any environment, urban or country. I came to the realization self sufficiency was my essence not my entertainment. Now as I make advances here , I just consider it my Countryside version of the $750 trip, nothing is ever really too far out of reach or too far out of mind to be learned and lived. Thanks for bringing back great memories :>)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 15, 2002.


Here we go ! If I get to choose I would first like a flint and steel, my eyeglasses, and a 10 inch M1 bayonet. I can survive on those alone. If I am allowed one weapon than I choose the AK-47-30 round mag and 50 shells. Still going ? A box of hooks and 25 feet of mono filament line. One more item ? A water purifying pump. I won't need anything else but thanks for asking.

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), March 16, 2002.

this could be fun. Not to pick your choices apart Joel, but I'd trade the flint and steel(use the knife?) for a magnesium firestarter. I can't think of anything better than your knife and gun choice, though I could make a good case against gas-operated semi, even an AK and choose a rem700 instead. I'm curious though why you'd want a 30rd mag when you only have 50 shells? Less clearance in prone position. Unless you're planning to use the mag as an improvised monopod. Just curious if there was a reason. I'd rather have 25 feet of 550 paracord(7 inner strands for fishing and snares). I'd trade the pump for something else like a mess kit and boil or use a field improvised solar still for purification, or collect dew/rainwater, or drink from plants.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), March 16, 2002.

Ahhh...that would mean no electricity, phone lines, or satelitte??? Oh my gosh..that would mean NO COMPUTER!!! Sorry, but I couldn't survive!! I am such a computer junkie..LOL.

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), March 16, 2002.

Jay, your "vacation" sounds like a blast! I'm don't think I could get my husband to go along with such a plan, mainly because he has spent a lot of time getting by on the edge (one summer he couldn't find work, and so he fed his family on whatever they could forage -- berries, ferns, clams -- and to this day he says he won't eat another geoduck clam if he can help it!), and so it wouldn't seem like fun or a challenge to him. It would seem like going backwards. Me, I think just throwing money at a problem is no fun, no challenge, so that kind of "OK, what can we do within these parameters" kind of game sounds really interesting to me. I'll probably have to wait till I'm an old lady to play though.

-- snoozy (bunny@northsound.net), March 16, 2002.

snoozy,

Thats why I never spent more than half of my road stake and covered all my home expenses. If it got to tight, it was "bail and go home". It was always a drill for practice and pleasure, but the vacations did show me some of my potentials, kinda like a civilian version of summer camp training. Most summers, I would quickly seek a job as a helper in a field that I had rudementary knowledge of and then gain some profiency at it during that one or two month period.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 16, 2002.



thanks for all your answers. sometimes I think it would be very liberating to walk away from everything and start over there are many things I would do differently such as pass buy some freebies and settle somewhere else, build outbuildings differently, recognize a good offer, and not accept every free animal that comes along. When I first though about posting I was thinking along the lines of how long I could go with out spending money in my present situation ie. groceries gas etc. just trying to become more frugal and tighten the belt some.

-- ronda (thejohnsons@localaccess.com), March 16, 2002.

Well Dave, the 30 round clip is for "banking" and if I need to reload more than once than I'll only have time to load 20 before I'm dead anyway. It is the Robin Hood in me which has always led to believe that Bank Robbery is not a crime it is an occupation ! I thought they said survivor game and I intend to win ! I'll buy Boardwalk, Park Place and give me 4 Hotels on each !

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), March 17, 2002.

Don't forget to take an axe. You'll want to use it to build a nice shelter. The gun and knife are essential and so is the skillet. I'd take a Bible and possibly a dictionary. I have to have reading material. Really I'd rather have a black powder shotgun instead of the rifle. And I'd have to slip in a pound of salt. And wouldn't coffee be good?! Are we talking only a year? Chucks, I might as well take a team and wagon and I guess a milk cow with calf too. And why not a few chickens as well as some plow tools. Well, that would make room for the garden seeds already mentioned and some onion and potato settings. I believe I'll throw in a couple of pots and pans and a washpot. My Dutch oven and tripod. There might be some wild hogs where I'm going but I'll take a good bred sow just in case. A coil of rope. My straight razor...

-- Red Neck (sesech@csa.com), March 18, 2002.

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