Bug-In SHTF Entertainment Ideas. What you got?
 

Remember the last time you were snowed-in? Remember how stir crazy your family went? And that was with the TV and internet working. What's it gonna be like when the kid can't text and your last radio battery dies?

There's only so many hands of funnsy poker you can play.

What ideas do you have?


One idea me and my daughter had was to make 3-string "cigar box" guitars. We aren't musically inclined, but figured if we were bugged in it would be a good time killer. Googled directions and made a couple guitars. Pretty easy, and very low cost. And there's tons of vids on youtube of simple songs. Everything from Chuck Berry to George Thorogood stuff.

You can make 1 string instruments out of stuff laying around the house. youtube search " Seasick Steve diddley bo" .

Here's a couple guitars we made and a homemade amp that runs on a 9v battery. The guitars are acoustic with a piezo pick-up for the amp.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1584/img3717e.jpg

When you are old like me, you can dose off at will. No entertainment required. :)

Find a copy of Reader's Digest "Back To Basics". There is a section on entertainment.

I like your guitars. My harmonica is lighter, takes less room. :p

Besides cards (Spades, Hearts, and Acey-Deucey) there is checkers, chess,any of the board games- and crafting- whittling, carving, braiding rugs, reloading,

And yeah, you can get a touch of cabin fever. Now, think about sitting in a 9x12 fallout shelter for 2-3 weeks. Deck of cards looks better.

Always kept a deck of cards in my pack when hiking. Get lost, sit down, deal a hand of solitaire. In minutes someone will be along to tell you to play the red 9 on the black 8.

Got two of them. Good Reading for all ages (all ages that read that is).

Books. Lots and lots of books. I have them stashed everywhere. A few in all the cars, all over the house, in the sheds. I don't care for cards or board games. last time we were snowed in it was for a couple of days in a blizzard and we were in the RV parked outside of Amarillo a couple of years ago. Books were all we had. 4 of us in a 35 foot RV and we couldn't step outside (well, every once in awhile I did when the wind was blowing 60 miles an hour just to take a picture- it looked like I took it from a car on the highway- pretty funny looking!)

I make dreamcatchers out of store bought and natural materials. Bird feathers (just got several turkey and peacock feathers from a friend's mom, I will be making a lodge one from these over the winter), beach glass, grape vines, local wood. My wife and her daughter are learnig fly tying, and her daughter knows how to plat guitar, and my old trumpet. I play 6 and 12 string guitar, trumpet, alto, tenor and soprano sax, the flute, piano, and the clarinet. All 3 of us knit and crochet, do crosstitch, are avid readers,and enjoy card and board games. I think we are pretty well set.

My wife will come looking for me?

Aren't those nifty! 'course you'd have to smoke alotta Cohibas.

I did have a hard time with free time forced upon me without power for two weeks recently. Yup, battery powered radio was important (reminded that Ray-o-Vac rechargeables do NOT live up to their claims -- buy sanyo or Duracell). Reading was important, but need light at night and now the sources for that become more important. A fairly fragile infrastructure.

As expensive and less reliant as electricity will become in Obama's America ("...electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket."), gasoline must do the same eventually, like it hasn't already! And when "it" hits the fan you will not be getting gasoline when you want it anyway... Prepare.

Board games, no batteries or electricity required.

Not to mention when the power goes out and people get bored the wife gets pregnant. In 07, a couple monthes after IKE, nearly every one of my female friends and my wifes friends and coworkers were pregnant. LOL!

Ha! I don't have television, Xbox, or any if that. I bug in every day. Now it's mostly studying, but I do make nice walking sticks, I'd probably use it to sharpen all my cooking and hunting knives, do trigger jobs, paint rifles and free float barrels.