Posted on 07/14/2011 9:06:55 PM PDT by Kartographer
Even if you are fortunate enough to have a retreat out in the country getting to your safe haven maybe impossible during upheaval. Roads blocked by wrecked and fuelless vehicles will stop most bugouters in their tracks. Maybe you were born lucky and can make it out safely before the balloon bursts, then what? People in rural areas, will start shooting if threatened by mobs of refugees fleeing the city. Don’t expect to be welcomed with arms outstretched. Most country folks don’t trust outsiders; you will likely be greeted with a load of buckshot and not the cup of fresh coffee and meaningful conversation you hoped for.
(Excerpt) Read more at survive2thrive.net ...
“I agree with him that a cohesive subdivision is more defensible than spread out multi-acre or larger parcels. One family CANNOT defend one property in the open country from patient attack or sneak attack. The bad guys will also have scoped deer rifles.”
That is probably the most common mistake I hear people talk about: They want “land” but isolated. Big mistake.
You are so right but with a little planning and preparation you can actually have everything except AC. Thats what I will miss the most. Even a homemade 12 volt solar system will run the lights and well pump and give you hot water. We are setting up an alternative electrical system that will run everything except AC. Plus a solar oven for sunny day cooking. We are installing 2 woodstoves for heat in the winter. Our plan is to be able to live in a similar but scaled down fashion to our normal life. After much reflection we decided that you have to be born to washing clothes in a boiling pot in the front yard and all the other crummy parts of living in pre electrical times.
BFL...
I wish there were still coffee sold in the old fashioned cans , without the peel off seal. Even the store brands (eg Great Value) are using the pull off inner seals. Maybe it doesn't make any real difference, but I can't help but feel that cans that require a can opener will keep stuff fresher and longer than the kind with an attached means of opening.
Ashes work if you run out of lime.
Five or more years of stored food would not be too much.
Of course, if you’re not looking like an Auschwitz survivor with the bones sticking out, your neighbors are going to wonder. And starving people can get pretty crazy.
I’m with you. In Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista, Cessnas, Pipers and Maules were used to good effect.
And a tail dragger with fat tires doesn’t even need a (paved) road. A fairly flat field will do.
Unless they are totally hidden, with fake tree stump hatches ala Hogan’s Heroes.
I don’t expect the radical SHTF scenario, BTW, although default is likely. Remember cultural differences between the USA and less developed countries along with the fact that some of the events reported by Fernando were sporadic ones, mentioned in anecdotes about locations distant from his.
Others have mentioned experiences in Iraq, including one gentleman who described himself as a combat specialty veteran (said he was infantry, but who knows). The USA is not likely to have an ethnic civil war soon. Ethnic civil wars are far worse than other civil wars. Economic poorness alone is far less worse than either.
And you (all) may or may not have experience with having spent much time in a poor area of a poor country. Whole different scenario there. Generally peaceful but potentially frustrating and depressing. The technically inclined w/ rough, tough work ethics tend to do relatively well in those places and times.
I’m a warm-weather-wussy, so there is little risk of seeing me there.
We lived a few years on 12v power on sailboats. Like you said, AC is out. Everything else is in. As far as laundry, I like to stay in the tropics. A bathing suit is pretty easy to wash!
Interesting to study the freshness between coffee in all-steel cans and the plastic tubs with mylar/plastic seals. I’d bet on the steel, but I might be surprised.
In general, I don’t want to wind up in a Waco/Alamo/Ruby Ridge standoff.
Make mine mobile.
I think our tri-racial cities are going to go Rwanda on steroids when the power goes out.
If the power is out more than a week, ALL bets are OFF.
On short takeoff and landing, have either of you two seen a Helio? Those planes are interesting—used a lot way down south. It would also be possible to fix an old one up, for one who has enough industrial technical experience. Remember, though, that the tubing used in those is not straight steel (requires very special welding experience), and custom machining and metallurgy experience needs to be exceptional.
There ya go. No laundry problems. LOL! No heating worries either.
Leave the heads on stakes as a message. The bodies can feed the dogs, so that the rest of the food is available for humans. Dogs like meat, and aren't that picky about where it came from.
I much prefer composting toilets as ashes and lime in pit outhouses keep the smell down, but don’t help compost the excrement. Sawdust from non-kiln dried lumber, chipper shredded stuff, leaf mould, dirt, etc all work well. The crap composts within a few months or less and the entire sysmtem is normally without any odor at all. All you need are a number of five gallon buckets and the composting materials, and a place to dump the buckets to compost completely. When we did it we had about 8 buckets and they partially composted in them before being dumped. It was quite non-offensive, relatively speaking, and much less offensive that a regular pit outhouse.
Link to Humanure online:
Instructions:
http://humanurehandbook.com/instructions.html
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