Nuclear Bombs, Fallout, Contamination, Survial Seeds, and Shitty Shit Hits the Fan Beer

It’s always a pleasure to approve SHTF readers’ comments. I like to know you exist, and I like to hear from you. Many of you actually seem to know what you’re talking about; others . . . not so much. 😉 Recently I’ve been getting a lot of spam comments on cr*dit c*rds. I write it like that, because maybe they’re trolling for the words – ? I don’t know.

In any case, “Tito” and “Guy” recently wrote comments on a few posts, comments worth sharing. “Tito” writes:

Mr. Beer sucks soooo much!! Taste some and you’ll see.

Please don’t buy into that crap and learn to actually homebrew.
thx

Ranger Man responds: I guess it’s a good thing no one viewing this site has bought any – lol.

“Guy” writes on my Survival Seeds post:

Vacuum packing seeds would probably degrade them, since seeds are living things and the vaccuum would likely kill them. What you probably want to do is nitrogen flush them in a sealed container and store them in a cool dark location. Note that the germination rate will fall every year in storage. You might be able to increase the germination rate by storing them in the refrigerator or freezer. I suspect the some varieties will store better in freezer/refridgerator tempertures. Some will probably survive better with temperatures near 60F.

The best approach would be to set up a garden to start a renewable seed collection instead of food production. This would at least provide you with some gardning and seed preservation experience.

On-line Seed suppliers
www.heirloomacresseeds.com
www.johnnyseeds.com
www.rhshumway.com
www.superseeds.com

Keep in mind that you will need to preserve more than one season’s worth of seeds. Its likely that you run into a bad season that kills off your crop (drought, insects, blight, etc). You need to have a back up in case you have a crop failure.

One other comment is that in a previous post, you mentioned that you thought you could plant enough food on a small plot of land. I will have to disagree. What if you have a near total crop loss for the season? You need enough land to plant multiple years worth of food so that when you have a crop failure you have sufficient food to get you trough the next season. This is especially important since you live in Maine and the weather can be unforgiving at times.

And on another post “Guy” writes:

1. Nuclear weapons delivered by air will be airburst which will limit the amount of debris. Airbusting is the most effective way to detentate Nuclear weapons.

2. I believe there was a study conducted during the late 80s or during the 90’s that disproved the Nuclear winter theory. Even if every nuke was used it would not be enough to cause a long term dip in global temperatures. Some of the recent volcano eruptions ejected more ash then a full nuclear war would. Much of the theory was created by scientist attempting to highten the fears of nuclear war (good idea in my opinion), but it lacks credibility.

However, the big danger is from radiactive fallout that would contaminate the land and the water for hundreds, if not thousands of years. This is especially true with foreign made nuclear weapons that make up for bomb yield inefficiencies by using more material. US Nuclear weapons are manufactured with a much tighter tolerancem so the amount of fallout will be considerably less than our Russian and Chinese counterparts.

You might be able to protect some of your top soil with plastic sheeting (with a thin layer of soil on top to protect it from the elements). When the air is clear of radioactivity, you could remove the plastic and plant your crops in near radiactive free soil. Another alternative would be to remove the top layer of soil, but you might end up removing all of the topsoil. One other method may be to pile a large mound of top soil and protect that with plastic sheeting. Of course after the war, you need to shove it all back onto your land. I think it will be impossible to clean up containmated soil.

Water purification is probably a lot trickier, since some radiative materials are water soluable, and a simple filter isn’t going to remove them. You would need into introduce an agent that chelates the water soluble containinates into something that isn’t water soluble and can be filtered. A water softer would help, but it wouldn’t get all of it. One of the best solutions is to use a Ozone water purify which works well on heavy metal containates. With an Ozone generator you also don’t need stock pile a large supply of chelate agent, but you would need a source of electricity to run it. I suspect that most ground water will eventually become badly containmated over time. Deeper wells will probably have less exposure, or may remain uncontained up to a decade after the war (deplending on how long it takes rain water to reach your well). Its likely that rain water may become a more reliable source of water: ie sistern. Besides clean water for drinking you want clean water to irrigate your crops for your livestock. If you provide contaminated water to your plants and livestock they will become contaminated.

One last item, is that you need to protect your home from become contaminated from airborne radiative particles. Most homes are poorly sealed. Air and pollution enters through walls, ventalation systems, Heating and cooling systems, and doors and windows. Ideally a Nuclear war survivalist will have a sealed home. where all of the vents can be shutoff. All exterior plywood is caulked. Wiring in wall through the studs are calked. There must be no opportunities for the outside air to reach indoors. Plan on living in your basement? This is probably not a good idea since foundations are almost never airtight, and there is the danger of picking up radon (from ground uranium decay, even with out a nuclear war). You will also need to set up a decontamination area outside, near your door so that you can decontainate yourself before you enter back into your home. If you need to go out, (get firewood, fix something outside, deal with nuclear zombies, etc.) you want to decontaminate yourself so you don’t track in contaminated materials into your home. One option is to use Tyvek suits that you hose off and remove before you come inside. You’ll also want to wear at all times outdoors a respirator to prevent inhalation of radiative contaminants. The radion suits you see on TV aren’t to block radiation, but to prevent radioative contaminants from clinging to your clothes and your body.

BTW: Does Ranger Man own any radiation detection equipment yet?

Ranger Man responds: no radiation detection equipment. My present survival preparation plans include better insulating the house, shaping the yard for food production, and building a pantry in the basement. These will take all my “spare” money and address more likely SHTF scenarios. That being said, having some potassium iodate on hand is an inexpensive way to at least give attention to the issue.

Thanks, Guy. Thanks, Tito.

– Ranger Man