Circle of friends The importance of other people in our preparedness plans

Backwoods Home Magazine ^ | Dec. 17, 2009 | Claire Wolfe

[The Comedian]

Hardcore survivalists cherish what I call the "George Romero Scenario." It goes like this: The proverbial poop has hit the propeller. Cities collapse into chaos. But we, the prepared, are...well, we're prepared. We hunker in our rural bunkers, clutching our Super Whiz-Whacker 3000 combat arms, eagle-eyed and ready for any eventuality. We boldly fend off wave after ravenous wave of starving city folk who stagger at us like unstoppable zombies in a Romero horror flick. These zombies crave not our living flesh, but our six-gallon, mylar-lined superpails of dried lentils, our root cellars full of last year's carrots, and our genuine, federally issued Meals Ready to Eat.

[AD from SpringBay]

Here in NYC, if TSHTF a lot of people are gonna be screwed and defenseless and hungry and scared.

Can you imagine being trapped on the island with the people who live there - say, four days after TSHTF?

[Travis McGee]

I think "country distance" is a BIG plus. It gives you a chance. Living in a built up city becomes hellish. No power, water, stores for weeks. To get anywhere outside, you risk sniper fire. You sleep together in the basement of the big buildings with everybody else, when there is bad combat with artillery, rockets etc. It's just not safe to live exposed to fire in a building, upstairs. A country boy can survive. And fool knows that. I hear ya brother. Where I'm from, "Gang Colors" is Realtree, Advantage, and Mossy Oak. You know what I'm saying hoss. Rule .308.

(+)

[LeGrande]

When the credit cards are paid off Ill feel much freer.

Precisely. When you are in debt you are a slave.

[Travis McGee]

Cities are essentially self-filling mortuaries.

Youtube search Beirut and Sarajevo. See it in dying color.

[Armedanddangerous]

I live at my bug out site...so Im most of the way there..

And prayer is the only thing keeping me going these days.

I just want to be able to get water and have enough power to run a shower and small fridge if the electric goes out for any period of time.

In the past years, every time a deer broke wind, the power went out for 2-4 days. I discovered that the main comfort factor is being able to have a drink of water, wash your hands and go to the bathroom.

If you have that, the other things arent so daunting..

[LeGrande]

I am a cynic, and think that most people will lie down and take whatever misery is forced on them. BUT, I think more people in the United States will be willing to get creative and resist than in countries with cultures of submission. What was that quote about “a rifle behind every blade of grass.” That isn’t so in our cities, but it sure IS so in flyover country.

The point that I am trying to make is that there won't be an uprising. Who are we going to 'uprise' against? Are you going to shoot the local Sheriff? He will be in the same boat as us, no paycheck and no savings. The country will simply be bankrupt.

Secondly, a foreign source of income is likely to be less than useless in a serious meltdown. Doesn’t it make more sense to have a piece of land on which you can find, grow and hunt what you need to eat? They are available all over the country for practically nothing. I have one. Beats the heck out of a foreign source of income! LOL!

Are you going to become a farmer? Having access to a real currency could make you comparatively wealthy. I am just trying to apply lessons that people from those other collapsed countries learned the hard way.

[PinkChampagneonIce]

I discovered my priorities during an ice storm when we were without power for 8 days and couldn’t get out because the road was blocked. In this order (1) hot coffee (2) hot shower (3) everything else.

My new house is equipped to provide both without electricity. Propane tankless water heater with a gravity-fed tank when the electricity goes out to the well pump. Hand pump to replenish tank from rain-fed cistern. Works great.

Am currently all set for the up-coming winter ice-storm with a kerosene space heater, butane stove, and water tank with siphon. This won’t provide a hot shower (I’m not moved into my new house yet), but if you have all the other stuff having dirty hair isn’t that bad.

[Armedanddangerous]

our family harvested seven deer this past two weeks on this property.

three bucks, four does.

One of the relatives is even working on his skill with a bow and arrow and a muzzleloader. I could never do anything with a bow except lose expensive arrows.

I will conquer my 50 cal hawken this year..

[Lurker]

I hear what you're saying. But I figure the Sarajevo scenario is pretty unlikely where I am. They're going to have bigger problems in a major metro area to my east to deal with. That WILL be sniper ally.

As far as some out of the area militia rolling in, well we've got some contingency plans for those folks. They'll find easier pickings someplace else.

We also don't have a whole lot of 'ethnic' to 'cleanse' around here. And anybody ordering anyone to shoot a neighbor is going to find themselves on their back with a couple of smoking holes in their chest wondering what the hell just happened.

The Mrs. and I have been working on our little group for almost a decade now. I'm not dumb enough to imagine it's perfect, but it'll hold for a while. Long enough for us to get our own private Plan B into operation.

Plan B is mostly getting the hell out of Dodge. LOL So in the last 10 years or so we've put together a little cadre of 10 families all of whom have put back what we call the "Basic Load". That list is a bit long to go into here. Maybe I'll post it someday.

It seems like a lot but it's really not too difficult to put together over the span of a couple of years.

The result is that we can put 20 people on the street all with a common set of weapons, ammo, aid kits, food, fuel, comm gear, etc to last us a couple of months without too much trouble.

We're also fortunate in that we all live on the high ground overlooking the major four lanes going through the area. When we inspected our roofs we spent a little extra time glassing things out, marking routes and points on maps, that sort of thing.

If we really have to deal with Mutant Zombie Bikers we'll make 'em pay for every yard, believe me.

Like I said, it ain't perfect but it's a damn good start and we work on it.

Claires got some good advice here. Other Freepers of like mind would do well to heed it.

Best to you my friend.

L

[PinkChampagneonIce]

I see what you’re saying, but in my opinion, having everything you need for food, clothing and shelter makes you “relatively wealthy” no matter what. You don’t have to become a farmer to raise enough to eat — it doesn’t take that much time. I guess I’m just not that into being plugged into a system — I would rather just fend for myself. But I realize not everyone thinks that way.

Oh, and since you mention it, there are plenty of good ol’ boys in this area who would just LOVE an excuse to shoot the law, but I live in a fairly lawless part of the country. Again, LOL!

[PA Engineer]

For your reference:

Poor mans claymore

[ctdonath2]

If not for a resourceful neighbor who offered to trade his chainsaw and fence-repair skills for the remnants of my damaged yurt, I might still be sitting here staring stupidly at storm wreckage.

Claire lives in a yurt? Someone tell me more...

[Lurker]

One more thing if I may be so bold.

Jogging the neighborhood is good. Walking the dog and TALKING to people is better. We make a point to stop and talk to our neighbors. A friendly "Hello" and "How are things on your end of the block lately?" goes a long way, especially if you do it regularly and often.

We get some great intel that way and we learn who's worth a damn and who isn't.

We've gone from myself and Mrs. L "running" the NW of over 100 homes in the beginning to having "Captains" running the NW on their own blocks complete with a rudimentary chain of command sort of thing going on.

Most of them didn't even realize they were being trained in it. The ones that did, well they're now part of the cadre.

Is it work? Yep. Sometimes it's a real pain in the ass.

But the upside is that if, well more like when, things go to Hell our little nut is going to be pretty well prepared and a damn sight harder to crack than other parts of town.

And that's about the best we can hope for I figure. The rest of it is way above my pay grade.

[CodeToad]

I’ve thought often about the “defensible neighborhood”, the trustworthy friends and family and found...I really have none.

First, very few people are willing or able or even care to accept that something beyond their control might happen that is bad and could distrupt their lives or logistics in any way.

Second, few have the money to care. They are broke, living paycheck to paycheck and any extra cash they have is for far more important things than preparing like going out to eat, iPhones for their kids and the latest DVD players.

Third, they are reason this country has gone to hell. They are lazy and think they’ll just rely on Uncle Sugar or someone else.

Fourth, there is no fourth, people just suck. They are lazy, uneducated, lazy, careless, lazy, thoughtless, lazy, and sometimes just plain ol’ stupid.

I suspect, and this is just my jaded view, that should anything happen, only then will we find who is with us and who will perish. We know the qualities we would need to see in others in order to accept them and the qualities we must not. People will shine us on and give us the warm and fuzzies but only when tested by real world events will we see just what they are made of, what they are willing to do to get through it all. I am tired of talk. I want to see some sweat. Put out or get out.

[ctdonath2]

Bro finally looked around and said, "Hey, don't worry about it. If anything goes wrong, I'll just move in with you."

At the approach of Y2K, I had about a dozen people tell me that and pretty much mean it. I was prepared for myself and SO, not a dozen leeches.

[CodeToad]

P.S. She wrote a good, thoughtful article. It lays a good tone.

[eldoradude]

And the city folks will eat the same stuff the zombies in the movie ate...hehehe

Eat people, thousands of hungry Rwandans and zombies can't be wrong!

I understand it's a lot like pork, which probably explains why humans are referred to as 'long pig' in some places in New Guinea.

Mmmmm, yum! I smell sweet bacon.... (__8:(|)

[The Comedian]

And the city folks will eat the same stuff the zombies in the movie ate...hehehe

Food is a right, right?

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[PinkChampagneonIce]

Gee, CodeToad. Might I suggest moving? Not every place is like that. There are lots of people in my area who are very poor, but they are resourceful, self-sufficient and hard-working. And they have the means to defend themselves and to survive for quite sometime without outside assistance. They don’t look purdy or act nice, because they don’t have to. Something to think about.

[eldoradude]

Soylent Green...sounds like silent green...silence of the greens? They should be pretty much organic, right...not a whole lotta additives except for cannabis residue.