Posted on 06/03/2016 7:38:13 AM PDT by TMSuchman
Thank you! Much appreciated.
If you have chickens don’t forget to stock up on laying mash and scratch.
If you have chickens don’t forget to stock up on laying mash and scratch.
I've got 40 chickens out back and 20 more under the lamp in the basement of my 100-year-old rural "mansion". My front yard is in the city, and my back yard is outside the city limits. As many people on my street have chickens as not, and my neighbors have sheep.
It's taken a lot of getting used to, but it's not a bad life.
Depends on where along the river you’re talking. Don’t forget there’s a major fault line around New Madrid, MO. And I think it’s been about 200 years since its last quake.
I think you’re more likely to find large pieces of rural land for a reasonable price the further north you go.....Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, etc. But then you have to deal with winter-no fun as you get older.
Me personally, I’m looking at getting a house with anywhere from 1/2 to 2 acres in or around a small town and stealth prepping. Lots of small towns around here (Middle TN) have gardens, farmers markets, people hunt & fish, etc. Prepping wouldn’t look out of place. No, wouldn’t have cows, pigs, etc., but I’m just one person. A well-filled pantry and means to grow more, maybe a couple of chickens, a little bit of solar to supplement the grid electric...that would be enough for me.
Unfortunately, I share your opinion of “Mr. EIB.” He has really disappointed me of late.
I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Jones is as you describe. I only listen to him occasionally. Lately, he has gained some credibility with me. While he does have a very high energy presentation, of which a little goes a long way, nonetheless he does at times have good guests on. He even interviewed Donald Trump recently, which is why I decided to listen to some of the other shows lately. I have not met him, so cannot judge as you did whether he is hate-filled or not. So far, what I’ve heard, he does not seem to be. To each his own. I will certainly keep your assessment of him in mind.
Skousen is quite interesting. We purchased his book, “Strategic Relocation,” some time ago, and it is very well done. Perhaps it can be obtained elsewhere. It is still a very outstanding resource book IMHO, Alex Jones notwithstanding. Skousen’s book is his own, and does NOT contain an agenda and “preaching.” He gives pure data on how states stack up on such things as water resources, population densities, firearm laws, and geographical kinds of consideration.
Cresson Kearny, as far as I know, has no direct association with Alex Jones. As far as I can tell, he has no agenda other than to help people survive a nuclear event. We first obtained this book in the mid-90’s. His work can be found many places, but I listed the Amazon entry in my post.
I’m glad you have a good library. I wasn’t suggesting that yours was insufficient. I was simply responding to your post, and providing some sources for people to consider according to the topic you introduced of relocation and disaster prep which we have found useful.
BTW - FWIW - I don’t have an agenda either, other than to be helpful.
I second that motion. Paragraphs are reader friendly. LOL
Thanks for the ping.
Well, as you know, Missouri is The Promised Land. LOL I love my state except for the winters, and lack of Texans.
I guess I’d say I am not really a prepper. We just grew up living the way prepper’s do - a way of life. Since storms and electrical outages happen quite often, we always had what we needed to get by. Oil Lamps, Coleman Lanterns, flashlights etc.
Dad, like many liked to hunt and fish. So we had a lot of camping gear, guns, and ammo, etc. Plenty of deer, fishing, squirrels rabbits etc. around here and many people depend already on wild game to supplement their groceries.
Growing up, I spent many days on my Grandparents small 20 acre farm. No indoor plumbing till I was an adult, and then it was only cold water to the kitchen. So we pumped water from the well by hand and hauled it to the house in metal buckets. Used metal dipper to put water into a glass.
Used metal wash basin, tub, or shower can for bathing. Chamber pot at night. Out house during the day. They had a small dairy herd. I learned to milk a cow by hand.
Used to help feed the chickens and gather eggs. Once got flogged by a mean ole rooster. They raised hogs to sell and butchered one for their own use. We drank raw milk fresh from the morning’s milking kept enough for a day or two.
The rest was sold to local dairy. It was placed in clean metal cans with a tight seal. They were on a cart. We pumped water on to burlap bags so they were dripping wet and wrapped them around the cans. The evaporation had a cooling effect. The cart was at the end of the driveway close to the road so the dairy could pick them up, and leave clean empty cans for the next milking.
I stock up more than we used to. I stock up on stuff we eat all the time, and when we use something, replace it when it goes on sale. Winter time is the time to can extra meat that is on sale. That way the kitchen doesn’t get so hot in the summer time.
We have a corner of the basement that could be converted to nuke shelter. Never got around to it. Have some books on such and SAS survival guides. Herbal medicine books etc. So I do some reading on types of disaster and what to do.
If I find an idea that is useful, and I have the money, I do it. Otherwise it goes on a wish list and we save for it. People have budgets. We are prepared for the most frequent and likely events.
We live close to the New Madrid Fault zone. I didn’t know it at the time, or would have modified our home plans. Still we are far enough away, that the house should be fine as is. We began planting fruit trees, berries, etc.-stuff to eat that we don’t have to plant every year.
We have our garden and I can or freeze fruits and veggies. Some things get dehydrated. Refreshing old skills, and learning new ones. Have several months of the LDS food that is in #10 cans good for 20-30 years.
Having a good food supply is important, but so is replacement ability. So we have been learning to grow many new things, and have a list of what we would need to grow to provide a balanced diet, and the heirloom seeds to do it.
We have our own well, and not dependent on city for sewer system. We collect rainwater in barrels and above ground swimming pool to water our garden.
We have portable generators which we have often used during power outages. Enough to run the freezers, refrigerators, tvs, oxygen compressor, and window air conditioners, which we have left over from when the central air went down, and repair man was delayed.
Two fireplaces and enough wood to heat the upstairs all winter. Kerosene heaters for the outdoors area. Sleeping Bags, plenty of blankets. Down stairs doesn’t need more than a couple of electric heaters, and the generators can handle that.
We are saving to get an automatic standby generator, since we are getting older, and it’s less hassle to get stuff going. Also saving and trying to decide on fuel for generators. Reading a lot of info on how to make your own fuel, ethanol converter for gasoline generators.
The way I look at it, beyond 6-12 months storage, best to figure out a way to make it yourself ie replacement options that make you self sufficient. Not dependent on the main supply sources. This may mean going back to real basics, and we have those books, and much of the stuff to do it too.
I surely hope we never have to live in a teepee on our 20 acres north of town. But there’s plenty of trees, and a big creek. There’s an old foundation from a cabin that was there 100 years ago. We have been scouting it for the wild edibles of our region. Will likely plant some more-maybe some paw paw trees to go with the persimmons and walnuts.
There’s an old saying along the lines of the battle plans don’t survive the first round, so to me, planning is good, but being able to change and develop options is good too. So I do what if scenarios, and think about what we have and how it could be used differently to fit the scenario, and if there’s something else needed that we don’t have.
I have also been working on getting more physically fit, but I’m no spring chicken, so I’ll never be as fit and able as a twenty year old. LOL
A ping list! Who knew? Too bad I’m not on it.
You are on my ping list now.
Thank you, Tilted Irish Kilt!
I pray there is no TEOTWAWKI event. Should there be, I pray to be able to bug in. Two other choices: Travel to Spfld vacation home or if sold stay with sister’s kids, or go North about 15 miles and live off the land by the creek.
We have pickup and van usually full tank to bug out. Used to have a trailer, but sold it.
Bug out option is not good. Better to stay where we have food growing, trees for fuel, and good shelter. Even if house is storm damaged. Can camp in back yard, and salvage stuff maybe, at least we have lots of fruit and nut trees, and plenty of wood stacked for fire pit.
I’m making a note of that. I have a couple of back to basic type books that describe early 20th century ways from back when everyone had gardens and some farms had water power and windmills etc.
I have one booklet called bicycle power or some such. All interesting, and potentially useful if an unfortunate event should happen, or maybe even a hobby should I ever have spare time. LOL
Up around St. Louis is just almost as bad as being in New Madrid - something to do with the subsoil etc. All the banks in St. Louis had to get ready for the big one back in late 80s by order of bank regulators.
Had to have back up site close enough to the area to relocate within 24 hours. Essential personnel identified and notification tree, transportation etc. Had to have emergency rations for Employees in case of stay in place orders.
All computer data back up to two other remote locations in other states well away from impact zone, such as Virginia etc. daily. Desk tops backed up daily and disks stored on site in thick metal safe. Duplicate backup each week stored in vaults offsite. etc.
Manual procedures for all processes including clearing checks. Practiced quarterly without notice. Manager would just come in and announce this is a disaster drill, you are now manual, and everyone had to quit using the technology and shift to old fashioned way to do stuff.
We are to the west and North of New Madrid, but not close enough to be in the predicted devastated area of a big one.
Still had a bit of quiver last time there was one approximately 4 on the R. Scale. It was over before I figured out what it was. We sometimes have airforce flyovers and rescue copters that give the same impression. Except the copters have the engine noise.
I hear you. We have two little streams coming through our property, as well as a small pond close by. No vacation home, at least not yet, and no relatives close by. We have almost 5 acres of land and acres of land in front and back of us. We are at least a hundred yards off of the street, but visible in winter.
Vacation home was inherited. Now that we are retired, and kids grown, no need for it - just a drain on time and resources. Need to get some repair work done and put on market. Over due for sale as a matter of fact.
If it’s in a good location, fixing it up and renting it might be an option.
Been there done that. Never again. We are too far away. And didn’t like collection effort for some of the renters. Good renters are hard to find. Maintenance work for emergency repairs are an even bigger pain than usual due to distance.
Just gonna do the absolute must do, plus some cheap cosmetic things, like paint a couple of rooms. Lucky to find time to do that.
I’ve never done it and I’ve heard some horror stories about it. I wish that we could afford a small cabin someone remote, but that isn’t possible now.
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