That's the problem with the Southwest WATER! Even if you can make it potable you have to get to it. And water holes in a SHTF situation would quickly become like watering holes in Africa the predators favorite haunts.
Posted on 11/20/2012 7:39:58 PM PST by dynachrome
On a clear morning in May, Ron Douglas left his home in exurban Denver, eased into his Toyota pickup truck and drove to a business meeting at a Starbucks. Douglas, a bearded bear of a man, ordered a venti double-chocolate-chip Frappuccino — “the girliest drink ever,” he called it — and then sat down to discuss the future of the growing survivalist industry.
The fact that Douglas not only told me where he lives but also invited me to visit him would be considered a huge mistake by many in the prepping world. Revealing your location runs the risk of compromising your Opsec, or “operations security,” an abbreviation coined by the military and adopted by survivalists. “I don’t even mention what state I live in,” James Wesley Rawles, the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, a popular prepping Web site, told me. “All I’m at liberty to discuss, with consent of my wife, is that I live somewhere west of the Rockies.”
For Rawles and others, it’s a matter of security. Revealing your location gives the Unprepared a road map to the stockpiles of the Prepared, in the event of Teotwawki. “I don’t want to wake up and find out that I’m the go-to guy — literally,” Rawles says.
If civilization breaks down, Douglas’s house is definitely where you want to be. In his home office — the de facto headquarters for Red Shed’s six shareholders and two independent contractors — he keeps not only his iPad and his MacBook but also a ham radio and a C.B. radio. In his basement, there is roughly a year’s supply of wheat, rice and other staples. And outside, he tries to keep a year’s supply of chopped wood and, in his garage, 375 gallons of water.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping.
get out = to our rural property and structures/ infrastructures.
We plan to leave our various places and gather away from urban/suburban in a ready location. Where we are going we and those around us can live and survive.
You’re a wild dreamer!
Where would you get your trained, armed troops?
Stealth is the only answer to security. Nothing to know, no one to know it. Keep it that way.
>> “Where we are going we and those around us can live and survive” <<
.
Have that, what makes you think he doesn’t?
“In his basement, there is roughly a year’s supply of wheat, rice and other staples. And outside, he tries to keep a year’s supply of chopped wood and, in his garage, 375 gallons of water.”
“Piker.”
That’s what I thought. Many here are better than that. That’s not much water, either. He had better have a way to get more than that.
“Stealth is the only answer to security. Nothing to know, no one to know it. Keep it that way.”
Living in Suburbia I realize that my house would be an easy target for a group of folks. No assets for a bug-out place, although I have scouted for camping spots. I wonder if “camo” of sorts on my suburban home would work.
Live in the downstairs with boarded-up windows and blankets so NO light could get through. Upstairs have windows broken out, some smoke soot up the outside walls and eaves. Perhaps a bunch of crap strewn around the front yard like it as already been looted.
Some have posited the idea that after awhile the roving gangs will have killed themselves off - so their threat would be reduced after awhile. So if you can survive until then you might make it.
NOt a wild dreamer; and you don;t know me, and won;t.
Where we plan to go offers ‘stealth’. it’s very rural, way off the beaten track, offers cover and concealment, and controlled ingress routes.
WRT the people and their training. Let’s just say we have that covered. It’s not a militia thing, it’s what they/ we have done in our past, and what we are mentally (if less so physically) prepared to do. it’s more than just our nuclear family.
the net is that we are doing the right things to get away from certain death - a suburban stick-built home in a development near a major city.
I am convinced we could NOT defend in place and survive. We have FAR better chances getting away, and then regrouping.
You will feed the hive. It’s just a matter of when. If it weren’t so late, I’d refer you to some good titles on the subject.
But for now, just ping Matt Bracken on Facebook, and tell him ( a former SEAL and current FReeper) that you intend to pursue your D.I.P. strategy. You won’t like his response. He’s travis McGee on FR.
/johnny
As a serious reference and not a snarky reply, I encourage you to read this book
It, along with others, plus the direct advice of Matt Bracken, convinced me that for our family and our home, a Bug Out plan is the ONLY way.
We simply are not prepared or capable as empty nesters to defend in place.
If you think you can, more power to you. I just happen to think you are wrong, and I presume you live in suburban America, and I may presume incorrectly.
I'm single, the kids are grown, the grandkids have at least met me.
I still accidentally walk up on local cops and scare the crap out of them because I forget to make noise.
There isn't a single solution to a potential problem. Personally, I'd rather die in my bed at age 90, but if that doesn't happen, I'm ok with that.
I expect I'll be here on this ground I was born on until I die.
/johnny
WRT to your comment about hunting the ‘feral hogs’ ...
Matt Bracken writes about this in this essay — http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/bracken-when-the-music-stops-how-americas-cities-may-explode-in-violence/
he writes about “ ... neighborhood defense teams will evolve into proactive suburban armed vigilante groups (SAVs) out of a desire to preemptively take the violence to their perceived enemies, instead of passively waiting for the next home invasion or carjacking.”
Indeed. Food for thought.
you read my mind, or perhaps I read your post ;-)
See post 33/
I don't expect I'll quit confronting crap in the neighborhood anytime soon.
/johnny
Wherever you may be, at some point, some level of DIP is necessary. It needs to be as low level as possible.
Hopefully just niping the scouts off, but disposal is the real issue, and why wild lands are best if possible. Just don’t drag them down wind from you, or you will have ‘guests’ that make a gangster look friendly. (we had some after a forest fire a few years ago - not good)
We have a suburban home, and a remote ranch in the sierra. each has its drawbacks; some decision making is always going to be necessary, but if you make a big noise, you will have a big reaction on your hands.
Earlier this year, I was processing a feral hog for the kitchen (cooks can do that), and needed to remove the head. For the first time, instead of a knife and bow saw, I used the fancy battery powered reciprocating saw with the big wrecking blade.
It was very quick. Very, very quick.
I stuck the head on a sharp stick to keep it out of the dirt because I wanted to use it in the kitchen..
And then it hit me that perhaps there was a lesson there about advertisement, and disposal.
Long pig should only go to dogs.
/johnny
My Son-in-law does feral pig frequently. They live on a ranchette in outer suburbia east of the SF Bay Area, and find an amazing number of pigs roaming their area. He is an avid hunter. My daughter used to think she was a vegetarian, but found out differently after she got family-ized :o)
Both BO and DIP have there advantages and disadvantages. Much depends on the cause of the SHTF situation. In prepping there is NO one sizes fits all.
Even a BOL could come under such an attack as described. You never know what a friend of a friend of a neighbor knows.
I believe stealth is always the best plan either defensive or offensive in SHTF. Direct attack with over whelming force will always work though a determined and skilled defender could make it cost his attacker dearly, especially if he takes steps to insure that if over run nothing remains that is salvageable. A few ‘wins’ like that will soon weaken such a band to a point were it breaks up or falls prey to other bands.
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