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Grandpappy's Survival Manual for Hard Times, Third Edition

Copyright © October 1, 2018 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.


Direct Link to Amazon Web page for Grandpappy's Survival Manual for Hard Times, Third Edition
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ISBN: 978-1-7327883-6-7
Type of Book: Paperback
Book Size: 8.5 inches by 11 inches
Number of Pages: 500
Number of Full Color Pictures: 476
Number of Black and White Pictures: 12
Number of Sketches and Illustrations: 41
Normal Price: $79.95

Note 1: Approximately 4 percent of the information in the Third Edition is unique and it has not been posted on the "grandpappy.org" website.

Note 2: This book is eligible for Free Shipping if your total Amazon order is $25.00 or more. However, you must choose the Free Shipping option that will appear on your final checkout screen before you transmit your order. If you do not click on Free Shipping then Amazon will charge you a shipping fee for this book.

Note 3: This book contains 500 pages and 476 full color pictures. The 500 pages and the 476 full color pictures are the reason the normal retail price of this storybook is $79.95 because large books with color pictures cost a lot more to print than smaller books without color pictures.


Book Description on Amazon.com

This is the Third Edition of this book and it contains all the information in the First Edition and the Second Edition plus all the hard times survival information posted on the "grandpappy.org" website since the Second Edition of this book was published. It also contains some information that has not been posted on the "grandpappy.org" website.

This book contains practical advice on how to survive an economic depression, or a natural disaster, or a manmade disaster that disrupts commerce. During these types of events there will be no welfare services because the government will be broke. And there be no charity handouts because nobody will have anything to spare. The only person you will be able to depend on will be yourself. That's the purpose of this survival manual -- to provide you with the knowledge of what to do, why to do it, and what to reasonably expect as the result.

This survival manual contains information of timeless value. It is the type of book you will pass on to your children and grandchildren. The reason is simple. This book contains detailed instructions on how to do all the following tasks if you should ever need to:
  1. How to make soap using rainwater, campfire ashes, and animal fat. The instructions in this manual are unique and the process that is described is not the method your ancestors used. It is a scientifically superior process that was developed by an engineer.
  2. How to make (cast) your own lead bullets using the wheel weights off the wheels of old cars in a junkyard.
  3. How to construct a high quality bow and arrows using a knife plus the appropriate raw materials you can find in nature.
  4. How to find water and how to make that water safe to drink in a variety of different environments.
  5. How to grow food from seed and how to grow seed from that food. Once you understand how this process works then you can provide your own food for an unlimited number of years into the future.
  6. How to preserve food for winter consumption without electricity or food canning jars using three simple old-fashioned methods.
  7. How to build a safe temporary shelter to protect your family from the weather and from predatory wild animals. This is not the type of shelter that is described in wilderness survival manuals.
  8. How to build an underground log cabin for long-term survival if the need should arise. It is easy to find information on how to build a traditional underground home but this manual explains the best way to use pine logs to build an underground "cabin cave."
  9. How to build a simple solar power generator for about $246 so you can easily recharge the batteries in your cell phone, radio, flashlight, and portable computer.
This survival manual is a true bargain at its current price.


Preface to
Grandpappy's Survival Manual for Hard Times, Third Edition

This book contains suggestions and alternatives for you to consider so you can make the best possible choices for the continued comfort and survival of your family during hard times.

The book will not tell you exactly what you should do. This book does not assume to know your family's specific circumstances, or what skills and abilities you and your family members possess, or what special needs you or your family members require. Only you know the answers to these questions and therefore only you can strategically customize a strategy that would have the maximum chance of being successful for you and for your family.

This book assumes you are an intelligent individual who is capable of making your own decisions. It assumes you simply want to know what the current options and alternatives are, along with the specific advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. Once you have all this information in your possession then you know you can make the best choice about which options would be the most logical ones for your family's long-term survival during hard times. The author of this book cannot make that decision for you. That is a decision you will need to make for your own family based on your intimate knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of your family unit.

This book presents a variety of options for you to consider in the areas of water and food procurement, gardening options, personal hygiene alternatives, practical battery operated electronic equipment, practical information on the importance of fire, a reasonable summary of the relevant issues related to firearm selection, how to make your own ammunition at home, and a common sense discussion of the pros and cons of a variety of different long-term survival strategies.

Six Shot Revolver Please let me explain why I believe I am qualified to write a book such as this one. To begin with, I am not one of those people who simply writes about hard times and who has never really experienced hard times. I spent approximately six months living deep in the backwoods of Maine with my wife and our three small preschool age children from June to November of 1975 while I was building a rustic log cabin using pine trees that grew on the 12 acres of land we had purchased. I wore a 6-shot revolver every day while I was building our cabin in that primitive wilderness environment. I hunted with a bolt-action rifle and I used steel traps to capture wild game animals. We cooked our meals over a campfire every day. After returning to "civilization" in late November of 1975 I continued to study about pioneer life and hard times survival. Since 1975 I have personally tested a wide variety of "textbook procedures" and I have discovered which ones are truly reliable, and which ones are almost completely worthless from a practical perspective. Therefore I have accumulated a tremendous amount of practical hands-on knowledge and experience on this topic. And it has all been tempered by my actual experience of living a primitive existence in the backwoods of Maine during the summer and fall of 1975.

My primary objective for the past 40 years has been to discover practical reliable methods that could be used in a long-term survival situation when a family did not have the option to conveniently replenish their supplies on a regular basis.

The chapters in this book were not simply copied from another source. Although some of the information in this book can be found elsewhere, most of the information in each of the chapters is from my own personal files and it is based on my own personal life experiences.

One of the advantages of receiving hard times survival instruction from an old man is that he no longer has the desire to prove that he can survive on a day-to-day basis with nothing more than a good knife, a good rifle, and the will to survive. An old man more fully appreciates the comforts of civilization and the advantages of modern technology. Therefore he will employ as much of that technology as is reasonably possible to make the living conditions for his family as enjoyable as possible. If this is also your objective then this book could help you achieve your goal.

Respectfully,
Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. (Grandpappy)
October 1, 2018


Table of Contents

Chapter Page
Section One: Introduction
1 A Simultaneous Worldwide Depression, and a Worldwide Famine, and World War III 1
2 A List of 20 Common Mistakes That Should Be Avoided 7
3 Sensationalism 9
Section Two: Basic Survival Strategies
4 Why Prepare for Something That May Never Happen? 16
5 Realistic Self-Sufficiency 18
6 How to Start Preparing for Hard Times 20
7 A Simple But Effective Survival Plan 29
8 Trade and Barter Items 33
Section Three: Water
9 How to Build a Very Effective Water Filter System for Approximately $75 34
10 How to Find Water and How to Make Water Safe to Drink 36
11 Pasteurization of Water 55
12 Water Filter Recommendation 56
13 Water Storage Containers 58
Section Four: Food
14 Food Acquisition and Food Storage 61
15 A 30 Day Emergency Food Supply 69
16 An Affordable One-Year Food Supply and a Really Cheap One-Year Food Supply 73
17 Freeze Dried and Dehydrated Food 77
18 Beans: An Important Survival Food for Hard Times 84
19 Wheat Berries, Corn, and Oats 96
20 How to Get the Best Value When Buying Fresh Meat 99
21 Pure Salt, Table Salt, Sea Salt, and Sea Salt Grinders 105
22 Black Pepper, Peppercorns, and Peppercorn Grinders 107
23 Coffee, Coffee Pots, and Coffee Bean Grinders 109
24 A Suitable Environment for Long-Term Food Storage 112
25 Some Practical Places Where You Can Store and Hide Your Emergency Food 118
26 Some Simple Options for Heating Canned Foods 123
27 Solar Ovens, Camp Ovens, Reflector Ovens, Dutch Ovens, and Cast Iron Cookware 125
28 Meat Grinder 132
29 Grinders for Wheat Berries, Corn, Oats, and Dry Beans 134
30 Summary of Six Shelf Life Studies on Canned Food and Dry Food 136
Section Five: Gardening Information
31 During Hard Times Should You Know Some Basic Gardening Skills? 137
32 How to Maximize Your Harvest from Your Vegetable Garden 138
33 How to Select Vegetable Seeds, How to Grow Vegetables. and How to Rotate Corps 144
34 How to Grow Your Own Vegetable Seeds 152
35 How to Harvest, Process, and Store Vegetable Seeds 160
36 How to Grow Fruits, Nuts, Grapes, and Berries 162
37 How to Grow Fruit Trees From Seed 172
38 How to Preserve Food Using Three Simple Old Fashioned Methods 175
39 How to Convert Human Waste into a Safe Garden Compost Fertilizer 179
40 The Advantages of Mulch in a Garden 183
41 Anthills: A Simple Solution 184
Section Six: Shelter
42 Use Common Sense to Compare Your Current Location to Another Location 186
43 How to Select the Optimal Retreat Location 190
44 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Recreational Vehicles and Campers 195
45 How to Build a Safe Temporary Shelter 198
46 Grandpappy's Wilderness Cabin Cave 206
Section Seven: Clothing and Shoes
47 Clothing 216
48 Shoes and Boots 222
Section Eight: Personal Hygiene
49 Personal Hygiene Items 224
50 Toilet Tissue 226
51 Regular Bowel Movements and How to Wipe When There is No Toilet Tissue 228
Section Nine: Emergency First Aid and Home Remedies
52 Emergency First Aid 229
53 How to Survive an Epidemic or a Pandemic 232
54 Aspirin 233
55 Herbal Home Remedies 236
56 Colloidal Silver 238
57 Home Remedies for Insect Stings, Ticks, Chiggers, Head Lice, and Skunk Deodorizer 239
58 Summary of Shelf Life Studies on Medicine 245
Section Ten: Technology
59 Rechargeable NiMH Batteries and a Solar Battery Charger 246
60 Flashlights 254
61 Vacuum Food Sealer 256
62 Two Way Communication: Cell Phones, Satellite Phones, Two-Way Radios 257
63 The Basics of Shortwave Radio 259
64 The Basics of Solar Power and How to Build a Portable Solar Power Generator 261
65 Alternate Energy Sources 266
66 A Simple Explanation of the GPS Coordinate System 271
Section Eleven: Basic Skills and Supplies
67 How to Build a Safe Fire and Why Fire Is So Important 273
68 How to Start an Emergency Fire Using the Gunpowder from a Bullet 277
69 Firewood, Fireplaces, and Cast Iron Stoves 278
70 The Different Types of Candles and How to Make a Candle Using Animal Fat 284
71 Grandpappy's Homemade Soap Recipe 286
72 How to Make a Primitive Clay Pot and How to Cook in a Clay Pot 297
73 How to Make Charcoal, Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar, and How to Coil a Rope 301
74 How to Build a Simple Sundial 303
Section Twelve: Extremely Useful Items
75 Practical Items for Every Day Carry (EDC) 305
76 An Emergency Backpack or Bug-Out-Bag (B.O.B.) 308
77 Bicycles for Emergency Transportation 312
78 Basic Hand Tools and a Few Other Very Useful Items 321
79 Entertainment During Hard Times 323
Section Thirteen: Financial Strategies
80 Simple Easy Strategies on How to Reduce Your Living Expenses 327
81 Investments: Cash, Silver, Gold, CDs, Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate, Precious Jewels 329
Section Fourteen: Firearms
82 Self-Defense 334
83 Should You Own a Firearm? 336
84 Should You Have a Concealed Carry Firearm License? 338
85 Firearm Safety Rules 339
86 Bolt-Action Rifle or Semi-Automatic Rifle? 340
87 How to Hit the Target Bull's-Eye 348
88 Should You Install a Laser Sight on Your Firearm? 374
89 Cost Comparison: Factory Loaded Ammunition and Home Reloaded Ammunition 379
90 How to Make Your Own Ammunition 381
91 Henry AR-7 US Survival Semi-Automatic 22LR Rifle 406
92 Pellet Rifles: 22 Caliber and 177 Caliber 408
93 Black Powder Rifles 410
94 Comparison of Handgun Calibers for Self-Defense 413
95 Firearm Recommendations 416
96 Affordable Gun Cleaning Solvent and Gun Lubricating Oil 419
Section Fifteen: Wilderness Survival
97 The Three Most Important Wilderness Survival Items 420
98 Compass Instructions and Alternatives 423
99 Homemade Bow and Arrows 427
100 How to Catch Wild Game Using Professional Quality Snares and Steel Traps 430
101 Gill Nets: The Easy, Efficient Way to Catch Fish 435
Section Sixteen: Social Breakdown
102 Hard Times and Acceptable Behavior 442
103 Are You Prepared for a Worst Case Breakdown in Society? 444
104 The Basic Rules of Survival During Hard Times 451
Section Seventeen: Community, Charity, Pets, and House Guests
105 Community Involvement and Long-Term Community Survival 459
106 Charity During Hard Times 463
107 Pets and Livestock 466
108 Practical Suggestions That Can Help Maintain Harmony with Long-Term House Guests 470
Section Eighteen: Conclusion
109 What to Do Right Now if the Hard Times Have Begun and You Are Not Prepared 478
110 The Solution to Hard Times 487
Index 489
About the Author 494

Click here and you will be taken to the Amazon web page that features this book.


Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com

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