chasfm11 wrote:I find the story of the tornado shelter from a previous post interesting. Having read "Last Light" and "One Second After", I have a real dilemma about how to deal with a sudden group of "friends".....
I'll have to read "Last Light." Another novel which briefly touches on the Christian way of handling these things is "
PATRIOTS, a novel of surviving in the coming collapse."
Regarding sudden "friends," I get the following from people who, knowing about my gun collection, will say something along the lines of "I'm coming over to
your house when the manure hits the fan!" I first heard it from my neighbor across the street. And more recently, I've started hearing it from friends at church. I used to just grin and shrug it off. But more recently, I've started having a more visceral reaction. I've told them, "no, it is not
my responsibility to be
your armory. If you think you're going to possibly need to protect yourself in the future, then you need to take actions to do so
now, while you can." I actually get a little angry at it—the presumption by some that they don't need to prepare for whatever because they know that others
have.
I
want to tell them, "if you enter in under my protection, then you will be my unquestioning slave, because I can't protect you
and work on my own survival. Therefore, you will work for both of our survivals, while I work on our protection. You will take your orders from me, and you will obey them without question. This won't be a democracy. If you don't like that, it's my way or the highway. On the other hand, if you act today, while you can, to ensure your own protection, then we can be allies instead of master/overseer, and you can retain some sovereignty over your lives. Now, wouldn't that be the better alternative?" My neighbor has even expressed the desire to have just one pistol in his home (his wife has an irrational fear), and I have offered to help him shop for one and pick out whatever gun will best serve his interest. But he continues to say—as if this is OK with
me—that he'll just come over and borrow one if he needs one..........like I would actually
loan him one.
I have found that preparation for surviving
whatever is coming (tornado, Ragnarok, zombie apocalypse, hurricane) is fairly expensive, particularly if you are living on a somewhat limited budget like I am currently, and it requires a specific and dedicated commitment to actually
implementing it. It is also difficult to make wise decisions, as there are differing schools of thought on how to prioritize. In fact, threads like this are very helpful because they help people like me to learn from the actual experiences of other people.
And here is something else: preparing means having plans in place with other like-minded people for mutual support. A group of families can actually work better, smarter, and more efficiently to survive than a single family can. One of my regrets so far is that, even though I've lived here in Texas for 5-1/2 years now, I actually still don't know very many people with whom I am also close. My own family consists of my wife, my son, and me. Just the three of us. My
extended family consists of my son's fiancé's family, whom we're just beginning to get to know. However, we know them well enough to know that they are nascent preppers. I have a few friends from church. I
know a lot of people. I'm friends with only a few.
My
real extended family all live back in California, and they are a write-off when it comes to survival—a thing which saddens me. I love my brothers, and I wish they gave due consideration to these things. They don't. My mother is 87 years old, and despite having survived great deprivation during the Nazi occupation as a young woman, she gives no thought to what she would have to do to survive again. She is a believer in a nanny state, and she is quite comfortable. In fact, I suspect that (like a lot of very elderly people who have lived through what she lived through) she would actually welcome death.
Personally, prepping is a struggle for me. There are the financial considerations, but there are also the considerations of limited energy to devote to it, and a sense that in some ways doing this now, at my current age and station in life, is almost more than I can handle. I
really wish that I had started all of this at a younger age, and my advice to others is to do this while you are young enough to A) have the energy for it; and B) have the optimism for it. In other thread, someone quoted Dave Ramsey, saying "live like nobody else today so that you
can live like nobody else tomorrow," or words to that effect. The fable of the ant and the grasshopper is quite valid. It takes some sacrifice to prepare well, and that sacrifice is easier to make when you are younger and more energetic than it is later in life when you are more infirm.
And speaking of infirm, in the event of a
complete and long term social collapse, there are a lot of people like me who are going to probably die much younger than we would otherwise simply because we are dependent upon medications to sustain life. Diabetics are an obvious example. In my own case, there are five medications on which I depend. Two of those can be probably dispensed with as my weight comes down and my diet changes, those are blood pressure meds. One of the meds can probably be dispensed with by replacing it with something naturally grown, and that is pain control because of my back. But, the other two are a real problem. I no longer have a functioning thyroid gland, and I am dependent upon a daily thyroid supplement (which contributes to the difficulty of weight loss). There is no homeopathic alternative of which I am aware. Without a thyroid supplement, I will get sicker and sicker, and I will die much sooner, likely of heart disease. The other medication is intended to prevent an enlarged prostate. Without it, I am subject to crippling urinary tract infections, which in turn require pretty stiff doses of Cipro to knock them down. In fact, without antibiotic treatment, a UTI can easily become systemic and degenerate into sepsis, which is almost universally and rapidly fatal. Consequently, much of my preparation mindset is to ensure the survival of my loved ones, because I take it as a given that people like me will die off much sooner. I'm OK with my own demise because I know my King, but
would like to see my loved ones' survival ensured before I pass, and so my long term strategy is being structured in that way.
My mother's health is beginning to fail now, and she has a pretty substantial estate. I love her and want her to live as long as possible, but she's 87 now and her physical capacities are diminishing at an accelerating rate. I would be surprised if she is still alive 5 years from now. When she passes, I will be using my share of her estate to buy a sufficiently large enough piece of property on which to survive.
I'll be looking for a piece of piece of property in the 100-200 acre range, geographical area still to be determined, but within a short day's drive of the DFW metroplex, with an existing home and barn in decent condition, and either a water supply flowing through it, or a well, or preferably both. I will install a windmill and power storage system. I want to be able to disconnect from the grid when necessary, and sell power back to the grid while a grid still exists. I want a smallish portion of the acreage to be arable and capable of growing a variety of produce, in enough volume to contribute to the support of my immediate family and perhaps a few other people. Any interim surplus would be sold back to the local community in farmers' markets. I want a portion of the acreage devoted to pasture, and we have been talking about raising goats—both as a source of meat and dairy, not to mention wool. I would like a small orchard, perhaps pecans or some other useful type of nut. I want the lay of the land to be naturally defensible if at all possible. If that is not possible, then I would like the larger community to be geographically defensible. There are other things on the wish list, but that gives an idea. Basically, I want to become
mostly self-sufficient, but I also I want to become cooperatively plugged into a local rural community to obtain that which I cannot provide for myself by bartering my surplus. And I want that community to have a mindset of mutual support. I personally believe that in the event of a complete collapse, this is the model that will best ensure survival, both for my wife and me, and for my son and his family (when that happens).
It's a large order to fill, and it is mostly a pipe-dream at the moment, entirely dependent on funds that I do not currently have. God willing, I'll be able to successfully complete it, and if I can complete it, I will retire to this property so that I won't have to try to
escape to it. I will keep my house in the city in Grapevine and either rent it out as an income property or give it to my son's family to live in until it's time to go. If necessary, I'll sell it to help fund my plans. If I can get my goals accomplished, then I can die satisfied that I have done the best I can for my family. Also, god-willing, none of these preparations will ever become necessary for survival. Even if they don't become necessary, I believe that I will have given my family a gift by completely changing their future into one of greater independence, closer community, and room to breath.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
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