Saturday, January 24, 2015

Concrete Culvert Bunkers

A good friend recently asked what I thought about Concrete Culverts for use as a bunker. Therefore, I wanted to share some thoughts on the subject.

Concrete lasts longer than metal, especially under ground. However, in high moisture or heavy clay area’s it may need to be sealed and/or have gravel around it to act as a French drain. It should not be a problem in sand.

I’ve envisioned doing a concrete bunker myself, starting with a small culvert opening for crawl in access and opening up to a much larger one as an interior room. The round shape is structurally very strong and there are all types of “fittings” like 90-degree turns that add creativity.

The problem is they are expensive and very heavy and require heavy equipment to handle. More people are burying the shipping containers, which they can buy used for a few grand, and they work well and should last for 10 to 20 years.

A lower cost concrete alternative might be to pour a concrete bunker in place. There are molds you can buy, OR, a wild idea would be to dig a deep ditch to use dirt as the forms. Make the ditch a square, and pour the outer walls with provisions for a door. Then dig the center out about 18" deep and pour a 6″ thick roof with a thicker beam at the center (depending on bunker size). Then cover the roof with dirt and plant grass on it. Now tunnel down to the door and dig the dirt on the inside out. This is the hard part. A small crawl in culvert with a 90-degree turn here might be a good entrance. Then pour a floor sloped to the center with a drain made with post hole diggers and field line pipe. This will drain any condensation in to the ground and serve as a place to dispose of a hand grenade if necessary.  Below are some pictures.



 For step by step plans, e-mail us at PrepperHandbook2014@gmail.com

An idea for finishing the interior of a round culvert shelter should include storage under the floor. Here is a link to some additional ideas for a bunker and much more.

http://www.radshelters4u.com/index3.htm

For additional information see the following links:


Beginners:
The Rule of 3 (set priorities by this)
Why we are ALL Preppers (for skeptics)


Food and water:


Edible Wild Plants:

Natural Disaster Preparations

Firearms and security:
Investing for Preppers (Financial Security)


Shelter:

Wilderness Survival:
Survival Pack (Security Patrol or Bug Out pack)

Edible wild foods - Hackberries & Chickweed

Our post today is by a guest writer who is a skilled survival enthusiast. He is a hunter, gatherer, Prepper and Expert Martial Arts instructor among other things. 

Hackberries.
By S R

Many folks think they will live in the wild surviving on small game and fish.  Great theory, but if any of you fish or hunt, you know the reality is there's usually only short windows when the hunting/fishing is good. Many days you come home empty handed, especially with limited tech/gear. It can be weeks or months between kills/catches. During these times, in wilderness survival, you forage for food.  But you can’t call yourself an outdoorsman/survivalist/prepper if you don't know what a Hackberry is...just sayin'.

We are going to talk about some little known, potentially life saving foods. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to tell you about all the sweet berries and other commonly known wild edibles.

What I've done is narrowed down to few little known, highly nutritious wild edibles that are abundant and easily identified and can be found most of the year.
  
First up, is the hackberry tree. http://www.foragingtexas.com/2007/07/hackberry.html

I've heard that hackberries very well could be responsible for the survival of the human race throughout times of global despair (ice age, huge volcanic ash clouds, meteors).  Hackberries can provide many nutrients, as one would expect from any berry. Hackberry also contains all three macro-nutrients, protein/amino-acids, fats/lipids and carbohydrates/glucose(sugars). Hackberries can be found in the wild in most areas.

There is no mistaking a hackberry tree; they can be identified by their very distinct bark. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/16402403@N00/5604421681/ ). Hackberries are small fruits about the size of a pea. Much of their size is made up of a very hard seed, which contains much of their nutritional value. Crushing them into a paste and drying, cooking or simply eating the paste will work. Its ill advised to try to crush the seeds with your teeth. Hackberries do not taste bad at all. When you are starving they're amazing. 

Chickweed is another good one. It is a small plant that has the smallest little 10 petaled flowers.  http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/chickweed.html

Actually, it has five petals but each are split in half and it looks like 10. Chickweed is some of the most nutrient packed native edibles in America, if not the most! It is packed with more vitamins than spinach. The big plus is that chickweed actually tastes great, even alone as a salad


Introduction

As a teenage Boy Scout, I took the “Be Prepared” motto seriously and kept a survival pack ready to bug out to the woods at any time.  Later I returned to Scouts as an adult to teach wilderness survival among other basic skills.

Keeping notes over the years, starting long before prepping was popular; I developed a comprehensive Disaster Preparedness Plan.  

As a part of this, I developed the Stealth Prepping chapter outlined in the “Prepper Handbook.” This comes in handy when you do not have the support of your family. You can preview this chapter and much more free on Amazon. It talks about gifts to help your loved ones be prepared for a disaster with out them even realizing they are prepping.
In 2012, I decided to share this plan along with all of my accumulated public domain reference materials and started working to organize it for publishing in October 2014. Unfortunately, it was too large for a paperback book so a Kindle e-book was the only alternative. To ensure readers can read their Kindle, even during a power outage; the Author covers how to get a starter solar system beginning with a 12 VDC to 120 VAC inverter to run things from your car battery.

To help others, the book provides a massive free preview including this discussion on the starter solar system. Each person reading this should look at the free preview of the “Prepper Handbook by JR Ray” that can be found on Amazon.

For additional information see: