Quick Start Guide for a Hemlocks’
hard times startup
7/21/2014
Seventh Draft
1. If times
get hard suddenly, and we have to get "things" running quickly,
here's a proposed draft of how to try start it.
2. It is assumed people will come here, vice the
other way around. The Hemlocks’ place can get overwhelmed with refugees. Remember the local town of Monterey has great
capacity, too. Interstate 40 and US 70 are the obvious conduits. The working
assumption is the Hemlocks can handle 20+ adults and an equal amount of kids.
3. The priorities
are water, food, waste water and sanitation, staying out of foul weather, fire
safety, initial medical help for the ill, and “simple” security. The particular
season, like the cold season or the warm season, will dictate a lot of actions.
4. The people
priorities are Family and Friends, then refugees in general.
a)
Favored names are XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX
XXXX, and XXXX XXXX. The Hemlocks expects not all will get here, mostly due to
road blocks. Been there and done that,
too.
b)
They will have to use the two main cottages.
c) All others are refugees, including their
children. That is harsh, but this is a quick start guide. Said another way, one
still has to try survive (until times get better) as best they can.
d) The refugees will have to use all
the other many facilities, including the Cliff Field Pool area, which includes
a fishing and washing pond and an outhouse.
e) A "spare" primitive wood stove
should be moved out to the Cliff Field Shelter (3 sided) for both cooking and
heat during the cold season. A kit to exhaust the CO1 gas outside comes with
the stove if necessary. Plan B is to cook "camping style" if we have to.
Think “Dutch Oven” or Scout type cooking, for example. We can do it if we have
to.
5. Food
initially should be served "soup kitchen" style in both cottages and
the Cliff Field Shelter. Requests for
soup kitchen help from Monterey will be honored as best we can. Food for
cooking can be obtained from either cottage, and various cooking tools are all
available. Wood is the main source of cooking heat (we’ve got plenty of wood).
The Dutch Ovens (2) and large cooking pots setup will probably be used. Cups
and "sporks" and paper plates are the main eating means initially.
6. Water
comes from the local springs, and the ponds. Bathing is by water and baby wipes
if we have them (we have an initial supply of 1,100). Sanitation is by the four
toilets in the two cottages, the Cliff Field outhouse, and dug holes for urine
and feces. Going to the bathroom just anywhere is forbidden. The garbage
pits will still be used. Menstruation products will go to these pits, for
example.
7. Fire
safely is by ruthless checking and observing by all adults. We don’t want a house fire if we can avoid
it.
8. Initial Hemlocks medical help is to keep the
ill as warm and hydrated as possible. Use all the sleeping bags and sleeping
pads, too, plus local wood stove heat. Given I 40, one can expect disease to
follow any migration.
9. Initially
security is to maintain good order and discipline while setting up something
better and more long term. LED lights for after dark are available. Protecting
ourselves comes later.
10. One
person will be the overall "boss". He or she will quickly appoint
people to maintain the water, cook, maintain sanitation (mostly to avert
cholera and typhoid), appoint an initial doc, and a security chief that even
assigns where to go, like where to live. Any frictions will be sorted out by
the boss. For those that don't like this proposed setup, then they are welcome and
expected to leave, like go back to Monterey or elsewhere. Those who don't go
along can expect worse.
11.
Transition to a more detailed way to exist should begin within one week as
things settle down. Expect change during the transition. A draft detailed way
to go forward already exists at the Hemlocks.
12. Initial
heat for both cottages will be provided to the wood stoves by those living in
the cottages (i.e. they cut and gather wood for heating and cooking). Heat for
the Cliff Field Shelter (and for cooking) will be always be provided by those
living there, or living in the near vicinity. The tools to chop (and split) wood
are available. If public electricity is
on, then the electric heating bill will be paid for by those in each cottage.
Each cottage already has its own account. There is no electricity at the Cliff
Field Shelter.
13. Keep in
mind the barn and 4 smaller storage sheds are also available for initial use
(they will need better organizing than exists today, like they are messy and
could benefit by being cleaned up). None are hooked up to water. The metal shed
has some electrical hookups and a “motel type” heater and cooler. The barn does have some electrical hookups
and an electric arc welder. This barn also does have a lay down freezer with
human and animal type food in it (I figure good initial food for pets). It also
has a very minimal "puppy house" that works OK for dogs. Those with
cats will decide what to do with their pet cats, like don’t bring them to the
Hemlocks (the yard dogs will probably get them (like kill them) if they do).
The same goes for farm animals, and even guineas (a bird that tends to nest in
trees above the ground).
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