Posted on 04/14/2020 2:35:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
On a remote property near Terlingua, a prepper community is thriving.
Ten years ago, my wife and I started a disaster preparation service, also called a mutual assistance group, out on our land in West Texas. Word got out about us on Yahoo chat groups and Texas preparedness groups. I got on there and started talking.
Then, once we started getting interest, we vetted members: If you’re a loose cannon with a big gun and lots of money, I don’t want to have anything to do with you. If you have something to contribute, for the good of all, you’re welcome. So to vet them, my wife and I would sit with them and drink coffee. Interested parties would camp in our camper, and if they decided to join the group they had to build a spot on the compound and store enough shit for a year.
I won’t give you an exact number, but quite a good number of people have joined our organization. Virtually all our people have advanced degrees. A bunch have come out since this virus started. Right now, I’ve got two people in the 27-day quarantine we require before they can join us; they’ve got 12 days left. I just got a call from another member; they know the routine.
My wife and I used to work for the government and we saw that stuff just isn’t right. We moved to this remote property sixteen or seventeen years ago. We built a main house, gardens, barns, storage facilities. We’re self-sustaining. I have orchards and vineyards and gardens and greenhouses. We imagined everything from pandemics to the zombie apocalypse. Civil unrest. We have a lot of ex-military in our group who foresee the shit hitting the fan, loss of law and order, uprising and violence. We’re prepared for just about anything that comes.
We’ve been preparing for a disaster like this for a long time. We have our own radio system out here, so everybody can communicate. Also: Do you know what an EMP is? It’s an electromagnetic pulse. Let’s say someone wanted to bomb Fort Bliss; they would send an EMP and all of our trucks’ computers would stop running—anything with a computer would stop. So we buy dead microwaves and reinforce them with a metal screen and line the inside. Those are called Faraday cages. They stop any EMP from getting to the electronics. We have microwaves around the ranch with radios and communication equipment and computers. That’s not on our minds a lot; it’s just one of the bases we cover. The main thing is: have enough preparedness supplies until the dogs get tired of eating zombies. (We keep a sense of humor. We’re not over-the-top preppers.)
We can live out here indefinitely. I make my own wine. In wine there is joy; in beer there is happiness; in water there is bacteria.
There’s nothing I can say if you’re not already prepared. You’re in the city? The city will eat itself. When truckers stop trucking, you better head your ass right here. But we don’t have space for anyone else out here. The time to join has come and gone.
Without a doubt, more people are going to be prepared after this. Just like you—I’m sure you’ve got more than one bottle of water or one package of mac and cheese. You’re going to have something next time. My mother-in-law came out of the Depression; those folks saved everything. What are you going to do when your toilet paper runs out? Call Ghostbusters?
How about the Spanish Inquisition? I didn’t think so.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
meteor
yellowstone caldera
meteor hitting yellowstone caldera
People only need to just do what people in the past did, and just put extra away and learn some garden and old school canning skills.
I got sick of the “lifestyle preppers” 10 years ago, because a lot of them are a bit off their meds. You learn a lot more without the high-octane, tinfoil people.
Rule One of prepping.....never brag about your preps.
Well that was pretty useless....”We’re prepared. You’re not.”
We’d love to have a cup of coffee with this guy.
L
> Virtually all our people have advanced degrees. <
Interesting article. But what’s the point of saying the above statement? Is it to impress us for some reason?
Because I’d rather have a good carpenter on my team than some guy with a PhD in English poetry. Skills, not degrees.
Stupid people are the most difficult element to prepare for. So unpredictable and irrational.
What a great idea.
Hunker down, be a prepper.
Then publish your location in Texas Monthly.
How about a clown car that never finishes emptying out? Bet he didn’t plan for that.
If you can even find water around Terlingua the well would be 300-500 ft deep. Nothing out there but a bunch of old drunks playing cowboy. Grew up with a spoiled rich kid and last I heard he was a "cowboy poet" right down the road in La Hitas. This sure sounds like one of his brilliant ideas.
Stuff of nightmares.
> What a great idea. Hunker down, be a prepper. Then publish your location in Texas Monthly. <
Kind of reminds me of those folks who talk about survival gardens. Nothing wrong with a survival garden, of course. But if your neighbor knows where your garden is - and he’s good with a rifle - maybe your garden will become his garden.
I don’t know, maybe someone can help me:
You put your electronics in a Faraday Cage to protect them against an EMP, and then ‘boom’, you get the EMP. You pull out your radios, find they’re working, and then start listening and squawking.
...and just then, BOOM!, EMP #2 hits. Methinks you lose.
Absolutely. Nice to have a visible compound that's proof against the occasional interloper. The organized ones, not so much.
The time to join has come and gone.
The time to shut the hell up is upon us.
I have enough food to last me for the rest of my life. As long as I don’t, you know, eat anything.
They are prepared for anything!
Are they prepared for the Day of the LORD?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.