(Kiri has some advice about the storage of various staples and how best to travel in all kinds of conditions. We plan for forming a community to combine efforts towards survival which reminds us of a famous story of some pioneers caught in the mountains of Tahoe during winter.) 

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Russ: okay, we got our shelving, we got our room, now let’s work on supplies okay?

Kiri: okay.

Russ: now starting off, we’ll have gardening supplies out here in the garden….

Kiri: yeah.

Russ: should we have backups upstairs then?

Kiri: oh things like shovels and rakes and forks and….

Russ: it's just brand-new ones sitting up for when they’re needed?

Kiri: yeah.

John: how about our seed supplies? Is that critical for both vegetables, fruits and herbs?

Kiri: yeah, I should say getting fresh ones every two years.

John: fresh seeds every two years?

Kiri: yes.

John: so, say we're in scenario case A and the situation doesn’t escalate into B and we should just go ahead and utilize that seeds and replenish our whole….

Kiri: yeah, in any situation that’s what you should do is replenish and reuse.

John: two years for seeds?

Kiri: yeah two years, yeah.

John: and how about with dried beans and rice and other food staples?

Kiri: two years for that, with that as well, two years.

John: okay.

Kiri: and also I have a translation from Tia’s last statement in cat.

Russ: which is?

Kiri: and it is, "I humbly beg forgiveness, I kiss your butt……"

(laughter breaks out at that)

Kiri: "but I will have food for you soon".

Russ: no wonder it took so long to tell. Is that Calvin?

(one of the house cats at the time)

Kiri: that’s why Tia’s in hysterics at the moment.

Russ: now then we've got the……..what about the water stuff? Is that going to take a lot of weight and the problems with the storage of it up there?

Kiri: that’s why we designed it the way we designed it, they go on the ground shelf but they have to be sealed tight, tight.

Amber: uh-huh.

John: have you ever done any backpacking?

Amber: not really.

John: serious backpacking?

Amber: uh-huh.

John: where you take everything you need to live and put on your back and go for a walk, a long walk?

Russ: we need to practice this this summer Johnny.

John: we need to.

Russ: real bad, let's do some Desolation stuff.

John: would you be interested in going backpacking this summer in Desolation Wilderness?

Amber: yeah I would be very interested in that. I need to start learning these things, these skills. Plus, if I could do that, even if…..

John: well you’re a natural, you’re a natural for it you know what I mean? You can do so much book learning but hands-on experience in that type of situation is invaluable. Because I’ve been in the woods all alone and almost frozen to death…..

Amber: well there’s only so much book learning you can do when dealing with mother nature.

John: now as long as we’re on the subject, what about mountain bikes, cross-country skis……

Kiri: yeah, they’ll come in handy.

John: for a more viable means of transportation then our conventional gasoline engines?

Russ: I think the cross-country skis are a good idea you're thinking of.

Kiri: yeah.

Russ: I got to learn how to do that.

John: well it’s easy, you’d catch it right away.

Russ: yeah shouldn't be too tough, I can do it already on regular skis.

John: yeah, you'd get it right away.

Kiri: yeah, uh-huh.

John: how about horses and livestock? Should we……?

Kiri: you don’t have a place but you should know where you can get a hold of them.

Russ: or how to take care of them.

Kiri: yeah, well Mark can take care of horses.

John: and I’m not just asking questions for Russ and our household here but there's other peoples that I’m associated with that need this information and it’s invaluable.

Kiri: yes, horses.

Russ: on another thought here, we are going to be working with others as a community…

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: I mean it’s not just going to be whoever happens to be here in the house and our supplies it's going to be all dependent on, we’re talking about a basic core group of people……

Kiri: yeah.

Russ: living in many different houses depending on each other for the same stuff no matter what scenario we're talking about here.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: so therefore some of these skills that we're looking at that we need to learn, are stuff that we can pass on to others who have not the necessary knowledge or abilities.

Kiri: uh-huh, yes certainly.

Russ: so anything we can learn is not going to be useless….

Amber: uh-huh.

Russ: because we can always pass it on to somebody who can use it even better than we could possibly.

Kiri: uh-huh.

John: on a more serious note, I’d eat the bark off a tree.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: scenario C.

Kiri: yes.

Russ: bark off a tree, scenario C, you got it yeah.

Amber: now I was once told that every single part of a pine tree is edible…

Kiri: uh-huh.

Amber: is that true?

Kiri: pretty much so yeah.

Amber: you’d never really starve to death up here.

Kiri: well that’s a funny thing about a disaster that happened in 1848, well winter of 1848, 1847 is that they resorted to the worst form of survival but yet food was all around them.

Russ: you mean the Donner party?

Kiri: well it’s not a party I was invited to and it's not a party I would’ve gone to. Well I think we do have…

John: Mark and I have observed the outdoor cats eating pine nuts.

Kiri: uh-huh.

John: do the felines here actually eat pine nuts and is that one of their survival staples?

Kiri: very high in protein, yes.

John: so they weren't just playing with them, they were actually eating them and ingesting them?

Kiri: Tia says yes.

John: supplementing their diet?

Russ: that’s something we can stock up on too.

Kiri: Tia’s saying yes.

John: why not? You can do all kinds of stuff with them.

Kiri: and Russ, I think we have an answer to a long-time problem.

Russ: what?

Kiri: you know the project whatever it is?

Russ: yeah right.

Kiri: yeah I think we have an answer to it.

Russ: oh good.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: okay, whatever works.

John: all right let’s get serious.

Kiri: okay I’ll let you talk among yourselves whilst you discuss things. I’m going to go and cause trouble.

Russ: too much tea?

Kiri: uh-uh.

John: don’t you go driving Mark’s car now.

Russ: okay, now another thing we need to stock up on is to use some of that storage space up there as a library.

John: yes.

Russ: and pick up books on survival skills, basic engineering skills, healing skills….

John: topo maps would be handy, yeah, a regular library.

Russ: yeah, a regular library.........I'll be right back, hold on.

John: okay, you got it.

Russ: well if there's trouble, maybe I can't wait for that.

John: yeah, rather figure........

Russ: you want to pause the tape real quick Johnny?

John: yeah, yeah, you got it.

Russ: thanks dude..........

(John pauses the tape for a bit and then hits unpause)

Russ: we're back on live.

Kiri: okay, we’re back on live huh?

Russ: yeah.

Kiri: last but not least……

Russ: oh by the way wait, before you go darling….

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: Johnny and I were discussing the possibility of putting a nice library in.

Kiri: hmm yes, survival books and so on, yes.

Russ: the whole nine yards, engineering skills which I would like you to possibly recommend to us at some point in the future here…..

Kiri: okay.....oooh.

Russ: or give us the okay on.

Kiri: okay.

Russ: oooh what?

Kiri: got to go, I'm being paged.

John: later.

Russ: okay, farewell.