Crovel
Posted on 12/22/2012 1:30:44 PM PST by JoeProBono
Once a week Tim Ralston and his wife Marie take their three teenage kids to a secluded cabin in the Northern Arizona desert.
Surrounded by wildlife and the cows, sheep and chickens they raise it looks like a perfect eco-friendly family retreat.
But the Ralstons are not there for an American version of The Good Life.
On arrival Marie heads straight to the pantry to check the 15 years worth of tinned and freeze-dried food they’ve stockpiled, the kids test out their survival gear, first aid kits and water purifying tablets and Tim gets in some self-defence practice with his Crovel.
It’s a 13-tools-in-one weapon he has designed himself and, as he is more than happy to demonstrate, it can slice a pig in half with two blows.
“It’s the Swiss army knife of shovels,” explains Tim proudly.
“The spike at one end, a pry bar, a hammer... and the blade itself is so strong it’s used as an axe. It’s very hardcore.”
It’s also selling like hot cakes and has been voted the No 1 Zombie Killing Tool in the World by the more extreme members of the growing community who, like Tim, are getting ready for Doomsday.
Tim Ralston trains his children in the use of firearms so they are prepared for doomsday Planning: Tim teaching his family to use guns
For Tim and his family are Preppers, some of the tens of thousands of people worldwide preparing for Teotwawki – or The End Of The World As We Know It in their language.
The survivalism movement has been around since the 60s when Cold War fears of atomic attacks prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans into stockpiling food and weapons.
In 1999, fears of the Y2K computer bug triggered another surge in prepping, while the 9/11 attacks and terrorism alerts drove it to new highs.
Survivalists used to be dismissed as wild-bearded weirdos living in caves.
But this week the Prepper phenomenon was thrown into the spotlight by the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut.
Nancy Lanza, the mother and first victim of 20-year old shooter Adam Lanza, was a Prepper herself who stockpiled supplies at her neat suburban home and amassed a personal armoury.
Across the US, and in Europe and even the UK, apparently ordinary people are also preparing for WTSHF – prepping jargon for disaster, or when the s*** hits the fan.
They have their own organisation, the American Preppers Network, their own TV series Doomsday Preppers and Preppers UK on the National Geographic cable channel and scores of “how to prep” shows on local radio.
Mike Holland reviews his stock of dry food storage in a trailer at the Holland family property in Warrenton, North Carolina The supplies: Stockpiles of food Reuters
Then there are the websites and blogs, magazines and books like Preppers’ Home Defence, a snip at £8.35 in Walmart.
And a huge industry is cashing in on their fears with companies selling special food and equipment – such as the air-purifying SCape Mask – as well as purpose-built shelters.
In North Salt Lake, Utah, builder Paul Seyfried is doing a roaring trade in bespoke bunkers which cost from £32,000 to £40,000.
Some Preppers will have woken up this morning feeling pretty confused as, according to one doomsday prophecy based on the ancient Mayan calendar, the world should have ended yesterday.
Tim, 49, a former IT consultant, did not believe that was how the end would come, nor does he think it will be a zombie apocalypse, plague, or bio-chemical attack, as other Preppers do.
He fears an electromagnetic pulse attack, triggered by man-made sources such as a missile or small nuclear bomb, or through the sun having a solar flare.
It would cause all electrical systems to blow up rendering everyday life impossible.............
Crovel
Is this the dude that shot his thumb off?
I want a crovel.
First thing I thought when I saw the crovel.
Me, too!
“I would not have gone on that show though.”
That’s what amazes me - some of these people have great preps and ideas and seem pretty smart - but zero Op-Sec sense at all. Amazing.
This is what I don’t get. All the pluses you want to give the guy are negated by dumb stuff he’s done.
Attention whores won’t survive long.
Od course the govt has no idea whatsoever of the existence or whereabouts of all of these prepper hideouts.
That was sort of funny at the time.
Mormans prep, granny out on the farm prepped a 100 years ago, Native Americans prepped, mankind has always prepped but this author thinks it began in 1960.
It's almost like a dare to others..." You know where I'll be hiding out with my supplies, so you just try and take away my stuff!"
Something about them doesn’t make sense.
If they are only there once a week, who takes care of the cows and chickens?
How do they keep someone from breaking in to their cabin and taking all their stuff?
Timeshare.
OpSec. No one know where their cabin is . . . except for a few million viewers of the show and people who read teh article and searched land records.
And what could they do if they do know? Go door to door and gather up stuff? The government can't even get a good head count once every 10 years at census time.
/johnny
ping.
Reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode of a family bragging about their fall out shelter until the nuclear war warning sounds and the neighbors break down the door to get in.
I like the shovel.
Be nice if the handle extended to full length for easier digging.
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.