STRESS TEST - A SURVIVALIST'S STANDBY

I just got done reading an article on Duane S. Crowther's website on how he was asked by an inspired bishopric to see how well he could do living on his preparations for one month.  I have also attempted to do this very thing - but failed miserably.

Stress tests are imperative if you expect to survive what is coming.  Living without electricity or other modern conveniences is tough. I used to be a flight test engineer - and we tested for every possible scenario, so that the flying public did not have to experience an unexpected failure - and then end up getting stress tested in a 30 second inverted dive down to their deaths.....  NO FUN!

One of my preparations is a 1996 4x4 Dodge pickup with Cummins diesel.  Direct injection, etc for EMP robustness.  I have an extra starter and alternator in a metal garbage can as a means of getting it going in case the OT scripture of the "chariots" suddenly not working comes to fruition.  See my previous blog post on the Shahab III missile air bursts the Iranians are testing.  That along with their nearly-completed nukes and their recent statements that they are going to begin to field a navy outside our territorial waters, gives me pause - and makes me wonder if we should not be looking towards a precision strike of the Iranian facilities, as Romney wants..... 

Well, after taking a look around a Dodge Cummins forum, I found out that this particular Dodge does have a low pressure electrical fuel pump that delivers the fuel to the engine where the high pressure mechanical pump does the rest.  I went to my local regional library in Seattle, checked out the factory manual and indeed that little detail was correct.  It also has a crank angle sensor on the vibration dampener (front of the engine) that would easily go out in an EMP event.  So, my great little plan was fraught with problems which I am working to resolve.  Only a stress test would uncover some of these issues - unplugging the body computer and seeing if the old girl would still run normally - or at least in limp mode so I could charge the battery bank and run my 6000 Watt inverter from them for emergency power.

Here is something I HEARTILY RECOMMEND that each person does in order to see where they are at is where they need to be:

http://www.duanescrowther.com/PDF/Food%20Storage%20Experiment.pdf

If you are a patriarch or a matriarch, you need to be sure that your children can also pass the stress test.  It can be a fun supplementation of the FHE where you simply let them show that they know how to master the making the bread with little or no input, etc.

Of course, the most important thing you can do is make sure you are spiritually ready for what comes.  Only a fraction will physically make it through.  It is far more important that you come through spiritually than physically.  My motivation is my children - and those who are striving.  I care little for myself (do not fear for my own life or well-being) other than to be there for the leadership portion of the exercise.