Hi guys, I'm a Ukrainian, and right now I'm around an hour's drive from Kyiv, I won't disclose the exact location, but it's west of Kyiv by the Dnieper river. If additional proof is required I can provide it to a mod. The purpose of this is to show a real life imperfect example of what happens in a SHTF situation.
I'll start from the beginning, as far as relevant, and try to catch up to today.
For years now, I've been reading zombie/emp/etc apocalypse books, many focusing on preparedness. I wanted to be prepared. Mostly this was general preparedness as well as being prepared to face Ukraine's unstable economy. Most people keep their savings in Dollars/Euros and only keep a bit in Hryvnias, since the currency has the tendency to randomly devalue once every few years to due one crisis or another. Around two years ago me and my wife decided it would be good to live outside the city in the countryside, next to nature and be as self-sustaining as practical - not 100% off the grid, but rather "the best of both worlds" - So we built a small, single floor 70 square meter house on a 15 sotka ( 1500 square meter) property I was able to purchase cheaply for 3.5k usd plus lawyers fees. Around two years later ( around a week ago) , after lots of frustrating delays, we were finally able to move in. Moving in was hard, even though the house was not too far off the main road, the road leading up to it turned into mush after the snow melted, so it couldn't be approached by vehicles. In fact, the moving van got stuck trying to get out so me, and the several neighbors on that street ( it's not a "full" street, rather a sparse street with houses here and there), were able to push it out after much effort.
This is a few days before the full-scale war began. I have to back up a little to get you into the minds of most Ukrainians: we've been bombarded with the "Putin will attack any day now" for the last 8 years or so, combined with a soldier dying every few days or so on the front lines of Donetsk/Luhansk - after 8 years, most people tune it out, like one does with Peter Shiff or Alex Jones saying how everything will collapse tomorrow or at the latest the day after ( btw, I'm probably like in the 0.001% of Ukrainians who knows who those people are) . Most, like me, just lived day to day. If you've watched Johnny FD's videos/streams where he talked about how "he isn't worried"/"it's just all overhyped by the media", then know he wasn't a loner, most Ukrainans thought the same and I was of the exact same opinion as him.
Back to a few days before SHTF, me and my wife finally moved in. The house didn't have any furniture yet, except for a couch we brought, and so all the stuff we brought was just in boxes and bags on the floor ( spoiler: right now, it's still the same, just slightly more organized).
We have running water from a water pump ( not the hand pump but rather the electronic kind with a compressor that feeds water to the house) installed on the property, as well as electricity and wired internet ( 1 gigabit optical in the countryside for around 15$ monthly- Ukraine is advanced in this!!) The water pump is the first thing I did when buying the property, as without water this whole endeavor would be useless.
In The middle of the house sits the crown jewel, the brick furnace. Most Of the house is wooden with the thermal insulation stuff, though the frame itself is metal. The only brickwork is for the furnace and two walls inside right next to it. The way the furnace is positioned is to heat both the kitchen it's in and the two adjoining rooms.
We arrived a year later than we wanted two - ideally, we'd already be living here if it weren't for the construction company. **** them. But, One has to work with what one has. We didn't know we were on such a tight deadline. As of right now, a single local was and still is working for menial stuff around the property, including creating a wood storage shack ( done!), lighting rod ( done as of today!), and creating a cement border around the foundation of the house ( no idea what that's called in English - still in progress).
Me and my wife were tired from the move, but happy- a new beginning. The next tasks were installing the water purification filters for the house next to the pump ( not the tiny ones next to a sink, but rather, the large barrel-sized ones that feed the entire house ) - we brought them with the other things as we moved. Quick sidenote: I don't own a car.
For this, the pump had to be disassembled and additional parts purchased to connect it all. The pump WAS disassembled.. then the next morning SHTF.
I woke up as normal, lit a fire in the woodburning stove, made myself some coffee, and before I had the chance to sit behind my PC I received a call from my mother in Kyiv that war had begun...
[ I'll continue this post tomorrow ]
I'll start from the beginning, as far as relevant, and try to catch up to today.
For years now, I've been reading zombie/emp/etc apocalypse books, many focusing on preparedness. I wanted to be prepared. Mostly this was general preparedness as well as being prepared to face Ukraine's unstable economy. Most people keep their savings in Dollars/Euros and only keep a bit in Hryvnias, since the currency has the tendency to randomly devalue once every few years to due one crisis or another. Around two years ago me and my wife decided it would be good to live outside the city in the countryside, next to nature and be as self-sustaining as practical - not 100% off the grid, but rather "the best of both worlds" - So we built a small, single floor 70 square meter house on a 15 sotka ( 1500 square meter) property I was able to purchase cheaply for 3.5k usd plus lawyers fees. Around two years later ( around a week ago) , after lots of frustrating delays, we were finally able to move in. Moving in was hard, even though the house was not too far off the main road, the road leading up to it turned into mush after the snow melted, so it couldn't be approached by vehicles. In fact, the moving van got stuck trying to get out so me, and the several neighbors on that street ( it's not a "full" street, rather a sparse street with houses here and there), were able to push it out after much effort.
This is a few days before the full-scale war began. I have to back up a little to get you into the minds of most Ukrainians: we've been bombarded with the "Putin will attack any day now" for the last 8 years or so, combined with a soldier dying every few days or so on the front lines of Donetsk/Luhansk - after 8 years, most people tune it out, like one does with Peter Shiff or Alex Jones saying how everything will collapse tomorrow or at the latest the day after ( btw, I'm probably like in the 0.001% of Ukrainians who knows who those people are) . Most, like me, just lived day to day. If you've watched Johnny FD's videos/streams where he talked about how "he isn't worried"/"it's just all overhyped by the media", then know he wasn't a loner, most Ukrainans thought the same and I was of the exact same opinion as him.
Back to a few days before SHTF, me and my wife finally moved in. The house didn't have any furniture yet, except for a couch we brought, and so all the stuff we brought was just in boxes and bags on the floor ( spoiler: right now, it's still the same, just slightly more organized).
We have running water from a water pump ( not the hand pump but rather the electronic kind with a compressor that feeds water to the house) installed on the property, as well as electricity and wired internet ( 1 gigabit optical in the countryside for around 15$ monthly- Ukraine is advanced in this!!) The water pump is the first thing I did when buying the property, as without water this whole endeavor would be useless.
In The middle of the house sits the crown jewel, the brick furnace. Most Of the house is wooden with the thermal insulation stuff, though the frame itself is metal. The only brickwork is for the furnace and two walls inside right next to it. The way the furnace is positioned is to heat both the kitchen it's in and the two adjoining rooms.
We arrived a year later than we wanted two - ideally, we'd already be living here if it weren't for the construction company. **** them. But, One has to work with what one has. We didn't know we were on such a tight deadline. As of right now, a single local was and still is working for menial stuff around the property, including creating a wood storage shack ( done!), lighting rod ( done as of today!), and creating a cement border around the foundation of the house ( no idea what that's called in English - still in progress).
Me and my wife were tired from the move, but happy- a new beginning. The next tasks were installing the water purification filters for the house next to the pump ( not the tiny ones next to a sink, but rather, the large barrel-sized ones that feed the entire house ) - we brought them with the other things as we moved. Quick sidenote: I don't own a car.
For this, the pump had to be disassembled and additional parts purchased to connect it all. The pump WAS disassembled.. then the next morning SHTF.
I woke up as normal, lit a fire in the woodburning stove, made myself some coffee, and before I had the chance to sit behind my PC I received a call from my mother in Kyiv that war had begun...
[ I'll continue this post tomorrow ]
