Posted on 01/28/2012 9:02:34 PM PST by Kartographer
When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon. 'In an instant, anything can happen,' she told Reuters. 'And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared.' Ms Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as 'preppers.'
Ready for anything: Chuck Izzo, a "prepper" sits in his basement where he stores wood pellets to fuel his woodstove, an alternative heat source in his home Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm. They are following in the footsteps of hippies in the 1960s who set up communes to separate themselves from what they saw as a materialistic society, and the survivalists in the 1990s who were hoping to escape the dictates of what they perceived as an increasingly secular and oppressive government.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“But aren’t you concerned about the emergence of an “eat-the-rich” mentality, in the event of a societal break-down?”
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I have less fear here then I would have in Memphis.
I have no weapons and I do not live in a gated compound.
In my three years here I have never had any fears.
We lock our front door only when going to bed, or going out of town. I do not even lock my European bicycle at night.
I am not in Manila, or any big city.
There is no “eat the rich” mentality here, not that there is not petty theft as anywhere in the world.
I go everywhere in my town by bicycle, and find nothing but friendly people.
Every spot in the Philippines has many expats from America and Europe, more Europe where I am, but I avoid many of them, except for a few that come around in the afternoon for a cold beer on the porch, and I center my life around the locals.
I do not know any place on Earth that would be 100 percent safe, certainly not in any US metro city.
...stores wood pellets to fuel his woodstove...
Lose the pellets. Get a stove that doesn’t require “processed” fuel, or electricity to stoke it...
How many did it take at Lexington or Concord?
So, have you given up that American citizenship yet? No need to keep it if you are gone for good is it? I would really have much
more respect for your convictions if you did.
I seem to recall you were living the phat life in Italy the last I heard of you. Did that not work out so well for you? It’s crazy what can happen when the government runs out of good credit no matter where you live, isn’t it?
Speaking of money, you don’t have all of your wealth in US dollars do you? That could be a problem for you in a couple of years. That cheap rent which you currently pay could get awfully expensive. Or maybe you truly believe in your heart of hearts that the debt bomb that is coming for all of us in this country will somehow not devalue “your dollars” like it will mine. Oh, wait, I began to convert mine years ago, I don’t have a lot of dollars anymore.
What I do have is a place out in the country that is completely paid for along with everything else, I owe money to no one. We have 2 horses, a milk cow, a few sheep and goats. We keep chickens and raise meat rabbits which we butcher for our own use and sell for a small flow of cash. A 5 lb. rabbit currently brings $10 live, no need to process. We sell every one we don’t use ourselves,typically around 100 to 125 per month.
I plant a half acre of garden. I keep crops growing through the fall, there are some root veggies and Brussels Sprouts that we are still harvesting now. I built a small greenhouse where we will start the plants for our gardens in a couple of weeks and yes, we plant heirloom varieties in order to save the seeds.
Other places I allocated all of those USD$ were in tools and equipment, lots of tools and equipment, and spare parts for everything. Lots of books, manuals, and instructional DVD’s (for as long as we have electricity) teaching everything from how to deliver a baby to how to repair the diesel engine in my tractor. I bought welding equipment, gas and electric ( requires gas but generates electricity) and took classes at the local community college to learn how to use it. My wife will finish her classes in nursing this summer.
I’ve been heavily investing in food storage the last 4 years and I currently have enough provisions stored, not counting what we preserve ourselves, to supply the 8 people who will shelter here 2500 calories per day for 5 years. The inventory gets increased every month, bi-annually, and annually. I have been grinding wheat for flour for 3 years now.
We have been practicing living without electricity for a couple years now. Once a month, we go for anywhere from a few days to a week without turning on anything. No TV or computer, clothes are washed in a machine that doesn’t require electric. Meals are cooked and bread is baked in a wood cookstove. We already heat a very large ( 3 stories, 5000+ sf) house and all of our hot water with an outdoor wood furnace we burn year round. It helps having a 20 acre woodlot.
So, you may well ask, how am I prepared to defend all of what I have from the hoards who currently reside in the condo canyons that surround cities such as Washington, D.C., Phila., NYC, and all the rest. Well, we have guns, lots and lots of guns. And ammo, lots of it. We have a lot of powder, ball, and cap to reload all the empty brass. I am the resident armorer and keep all of our weapons running well. There is a weapon which is appropriate for everyone in our sheltering group and I insist on monthly practice. My oldest son is currently learning the art of repairing firearms.
We started construction on some defensive fighting positions on our property as well as the property of our like minded neighbors. Each neighbor is responsible for sheltering their own group, but we will act jointly in defense of property, i.e., I won’t stand by and watch their homes be looted and burned.
All of this must sound terribly dreary to an international citizen such as yourself, after all, milking a cow and tending a garden ain’t life on the beach, but my family has come to enjoy this life very much. We have all been to the beach, it has sand and lots of salt water. One thing that we do have which you will never have though. We live on our own property, provide for ourselves by our own labor, and live unafraid in the greatest country on Earth, the United States of America. that is something by your own admission which you will never do again.
You will try and rationalize your decision, spin it like a politician, lie to all of us as well as yourself, but every morning when you look out at the ocean there is one thing that must lay in your gut like a ball of ice; you are no longer an American.
Jeremiah is a good one too. It was written by JMS of Babylon 5 fame. It was apparently abruptly ended. S2 theme is my favorite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flG7kqJWkZ4&feature=related
Kartographer, please add me to your ping list as well (good grief, Phil Sheridan?).
Thanks!
General Sheriden is said to have said “The only good Queer is a dead Queer”
Me too...and then, I read Atlas Shrugged when I was 19 in 1962.
“What’s an “imported wife”?”
Never mind that! How can I export one?!
LOL!
Prepper ping
“I have been grinding wheat for flour for 3 years now.”
Whether you live in the bush or find big city life great, I would recommend everyone to buy a wheat grinder and make your own flour. Flour you grind yourself makes the best bread you will ever eat. It is delicious, packed with nutrients and different varieties of bread can be made.
A good flour grinder will run about $200. Red wheat berries are my choice for grinding. These berries in #10 cans will last for decades.
Hippies? I - don't - think - so. I don't know preppers will be welcoming liberals with hugs and rounds of Kumbayah. Even going back to our pioneer roots of making do on our own and protecting our families from whatever's lurking at the door might not be accurate but it's closer than a bunch of long haired lazy hippies.
'suffering and being afraid' is usually at the root of this kind of thinking... Such feelings are not unnatural in a time of economic recession and concerns about a growing national debt
I have never felt truly afraid and a sense of dread during past recession. Also, 3 days of food is hardly being prepared for anything.
Haven’t seen this show, Survivors (BBC), but here’s the link to watch episodes -
http://www.tv.com/shows/survivors/
I saw a commercial last night that there’s a new preppers series soon to air on, I think, The Learning Channel. Somehow, it’s not sitting right with me. Smells of Extreme Couponing or Hoarders and such.
We just paid the property taxes and had to clean out the savings. I don't know how much longer we can keep it up. We don't owe anyone so the only problem is the skyrocketing property taxes that are 5 times what they were just 15 years ago. Makes no sense. Not rational. Totally ridiculous. My theory is all the imports from the NE and California coming in so Texas now thinks it can charge California prices.
“It is, however, not in my power to decide who the current citizens choose to be their president.
I have only one vote.”
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And you vote to do nothing!
Nothing except desert, voting with your feet to take the easy way out.
Fighting to the death does not necessarily mean with weapons or martial arts. Fighting also means working. Working, for instance, to expand your one vote by getting involved and influencing those around you - educating them, sounding the alarm, inspiring them to get on board, participating in the process.
If you had come onto this forum like a troll, trying to influence people to go ahead and vote for Romney “since it’s inevitable anyway,” you’d have been kicked off or at least shouted down. Well, troll, I AM shouting you down.
IMO, you have no business on a patriotic Conservative site like this if you just plan to come here and undermine morale. If you want to die with you flip-flops on, rather than your boots, why bother coming here to this site? You got yours, you living large in paradise - just enjoy the beach and stay out of the way of the rest of us.
Pitiful.
Not when so many mail in ballots are thrown in the garbage.
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