Scavenging

In the article entitled, “Thou Shalt Steal” I listed a number of items you will need that may be abandoned after the collapse. In this one, I’m going to leave those items out and concentrate on items that can be scavenged and where you can find them. Go to the God and Country blog to read that article if you haven’t read it yet. Some of these ideas I got from ‘The Colony’ first season, some are “scavenged” from other survivalist sites and some from my books.



1. Solar panels – Used to power traffic signs and electronic billboards these panels, and sometimes the inverters necessary to run them can be found all over your city.
2. Deep Cycle batteries – You connect the solar panels or wind turbines to a bank of deep cycle batteries. these are batteries that can take a lot of abuse. You can charge them and drain them continuously without harming the life of the battery. You can find these on golf carts (preferably an abandoned golf course) and boats, at an abandoned marina.
3. Copper – if you need metal for barter or for electrical projects like fencing or a magnetic turbine, you can find copper tubing in most A/C units, some refrigerators or you can smelt all the pre-1982 pennies you have into wire, bars or whatever form you need.
4. Silver – Find pre-1964 quarters, dimes and half-dollars, they are 95 percent silver. There is a long process of removing the silver from old X-rays that you can find at hospitals, doctor and dentist offices. The profit from it is low unless you are able to obtain the chemicals for free or have a large number of X-rays to deal with. Google it and print the instructions for use later.
5. Oil – There are about six quarts of oil housed in each electrical transformer you see. When the power grid is down indefinitely, this oil could be used to distill diesel fuel or for other machine uses. Please, the only people who could possibly survive an attempt to remove the oil while the power is still on would be a radical Islamist blessed by Allah. Please don’t try this if you are not a Jihadist. If the first guy gets electrocuted, obviously he wasn't blessed by Allah, keep trying until you find out who in your group is.
6. Gas – if the grid is down, an battery powered pump with a long hose can retrieve gas from the tanks below gas stations or abandoned cars for that matter. There may or may not be gas in them, but if you can rig the pump and a 55 gallon steel drum or two, you can get the gas before someone else does.
7. Gas Tanks – useful gases include acetylene (for welders), oxygen for medical needs, helium for signs to get peoples attention, should you want it. These items you can find in an auto workshop, car dealership, hospital, etc.
8. Chlorine tablets – for cleaning water can be found in pool supply stores, in the little utility supply rooms at hotels, theme parks and anywhere else loads of people pee in the same body of water.
9. Scrap wood – for building coops, cooking, wood gasification for energy, fortifying windows and doors can be found in discarded pallets, in the windows of abandoned houses and businesses and fencing from abandoned houses.
10. Magnesium – useful for making homemade welders and torches burns hot and bright. Old bike frames are mostly made from magnesium. Grate the frame to create magnesium flakes.