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Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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FOLKS PLEASE - let's avoid the politics that don't directly impact our needs for preparation and sufficiency/survival. I already riled the mods and a couple of members up enough for this week, don't make 'em more mad at me.
There are multiple pictures of him wearing the EXACT same outfit in support of a BLM rally in phoenix from June this year.
Yup he was there all right. Lots of pics out there.
He's NOT a maga supporter. Just an instigator.
Paid foreign agent. I have been telling people for years that America is under attack.
I think the epidemic has driven people crazy. If you want to get through this, tune out of the politics crap and do something constructive. I feel sorry for apartment dwellers, because they will be the first ones kicked to the curb. Mostly they can't even raise a garden. On the up side, that's where all the shelters and food pantries are. Cities take care of life for people who have no skills or resources.
The rioting mob in DC are a bunch of welfare bums. They don't have jobs, or they would be at work. As always, the thing to watch out for is criminals with nothing better to do. If they get a gang together, they can do stuff that would land an individual in the slammer. America has always had a problem with booze fueled gangs, and 10 million unemployed dishwashers with a gummint check in hand have nothing to lose.
The distributed damages are way worse than what is happening in DC, but news outlets don't want to report mail theft, and treat porch bandits as a joke. Those rioters are going to go back home and back to ripping off anything that isn't nailed down. Property crimes are going through the roof. People are already booby trapping shipping boxes, though mostly with non-lethal dye and stink bombs.
MTSilvertip - yes, absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up. I was going to mention motor homes as a "bug out" option last night but it was getting late.
We used to have what I thought was an awesome "fall back" place. A friend lives in a small mountain village with one road in, about 75 miles away. Back before covid it was "sure, if the SHTF come on up! Well, the reality as we all know, was when covid hit all those little burgs closed up tighter than an oyster guarding a ten pound pearl. My good friend, "Mr. Come On Up," suddenly was like, "Oh I didn't really mean come STAY with us."
So now my grand plan is to go visit my very good internet friend on his ranch in Montana who I'm certain will be overjoyed to see us.
So what is the lesson learned folks? Don't rely on others to follow through. Have additional options.
We've been half heartedly looking for a small motor home for several years. But the holy grail of RVs never fell in our lap - a ten year old MH that some senior bought, took one trip, parked it in a garage and the heirs want to get rid of cheap. I'd love one of those overland Unimog RV's but they cost as much as my house! I want something bigger than a van and able to tow my Jeep, but small enough to boondock down a dirt road. So we've looked mostly at smaller Class C's.
With the increase in hotel prices and covid concerns probably lasting another year or two I'd like a MH just as a weekend and vacation option if nothing else. I "tent camped" enough in the Army to last a lifetime, so I want a roof and a bed, and AC. Also... there's bears!
The problem with RV's is if there is a "lock down" on travel as nearly happened last winter, it may be difficult to relocate unless you did it early. And the tendency is to "wait and see" and then it's too late and you are stuck. I've fallen into that trap myself, and I should have known better.
Since covid "everyone" wants a motor home. As the housing crisis expands many people are moving into mobile housing. Here in Arizona we already see it. The dispersed camping around Sedona and Flagstaff which has always been a popular weekend "get-a-way" for people from Phoenix are "jammed," especially on weekends. Here in the desert we've always had snowbirds who spend the winter in their $350,000 diesel pushers at the $80 a night RV parks. But this year it is mostly worn out motorhomes parked at Walmart - often occupied by older folks who's retirement isn't keeping up with inflation and cost increases.
Along with the crowding of the dispersed areas they are seeing increases in wilderness crime, mainly assault and theft. We are constantly hearing of ATV's, trailers and even MH's being stolen. I recently heard of someone's ENTIRE camp being stolen while they were gone! There are more "Breaking Bad" type motor homes from the 1970's hanging out in the boondocks now. You can see their camps driving down forest roads. They overstay the limits, then just relocate to an adjoining forest or BLM district and restart the clock until the Rangers toss them out. A big problem is the internet and instagram. All the secret spots have been exposed and the hoardes have arrived. And sadly it will only get worse if the economy doesn't improve for the average person.
We have a Jeep and a truck. If we had a motor home we could tow the jeep and bug out, IF things were such that movement on highways was possible. If things got very bad the Jeep could get us over the mountains off road - but we could carry very little. Jeeps are notorious gas hogs. Even with two jerry jugs our range is about 350 miles, less if rock crawling up some ravine.
Anyway, yes, I think a motor home is a good option. And if we ever do managed to find the perfect place to live we would still get some use out of it.
Look for a cabover truck camper. Not as roomy, but I bought a very serviceable one for $50 at an auction that I used for many years.
That way you have your shelter, and can take both your truck and jeep. Put one of those trailer hitch racks on the jeep for extra fuel and water, load the jeep full of your other supplies and it becomes a cargo trailer you can pull behind you truck.
You may have to beef up the springs on your truck, and make sure your transmission is heavy enough to handle loads like that, but I see those kinds of rigs all the time.
Looking for a good hide out in Arizona could be problematic due to population density, so you'll need to plan for getting further away. Nevada is pretty empty, but water is an issue.
If things do get bad, there will be a few friends encamped at my place, but they're bringing valuable assets like excavators, backhoe and loaders. Others have skills and we've talked about establishing a logging operation at my cabin with some working getting firewood, and running the mill making lumber. That property would also be used as summer pasture for the cattle.
At the main place there would be a farm producing eggs, chickens, beef, garden produce, barley, wheat, rye and oats as well as the winter hay.
Plus it would be the processing center for all the canned and dried foods, and meat smoking, salting and preserving.
The smithy will do all the metal work making and fixing tools. The carpentry shop will make all the pens for the animals and any furniture. A mechanics shop, and a couple good mechanics to work there with their tools.
We have equipment to make gas and diesel, and the skills to do it. Plus we have oxen for power if needed. I'm already off grid, but I could easily add some wind turbines for more power. Even without a battery bank, there would be power during the day or when there's wind, (w8nd is pretty constant here day or night).
Most of my friends have some serious skills and equipment so we would have a pretty functional village going.
Nearly all are veterans, the rest are hunters. All are well armed and are skilled using weapons so security would be good.
This is all just a contingency, I hope this crap with the politics isn't pushed into full war, but if it is, some of us are in decent shape to ride it out.
Look for a cabover truck camper. Not as roomy, but I bought a very serviceable one for $50 at an auction that I used for many years.
That way you have your shelter, and can take both your truck and jeep. Put one of those trailer hitch racks on the jeep for extra fuel and water, load the jeep full of your other supplies and it becomes a cargo trailer you can pull behind you truck.
You may have to beef up the springs on your truck, and make sure your transmission is heavy enough to handle loads like that, but I see those kinds of rigs all the time.
Looking for a good hide out in Arizona could be problematic due to population density, so you'll need to plan for getting further away. Nevada is pretty empty, but water is an issue.
If things do get bad, there will be a few friends encamped at my place, but they're bringing valuable assets like excavators, backhoe and loaders. Others have skills and we've talked about establishing a logging operation at my cabin with some working getting firewood, and running the mill making lumber. That property would also be used as summer pasture for the cattle.
At the main place there would be a farm producing eggs, chickens, beef, garden produce, barley, wheat, rye and oats as well as the winter hay.
Plus it would be the processing center for all the canned and dried foods, and meat smoking, salting and preserving.
The smithy will do all the metal work making and fixing tools. The carpentry shop will make all the pens for the animals and any furniture. A mechanics shop, and a couple good mechanics to work there with their tools.
We have equipment to make gas and diesel, and the skills to do it. Plus we have oxen for power if needed. I'm already off grid, but I could easily add some wind turbines for more power. Even without a battery bank, there would be power during the day or when there's wind, (w8nd is pretty constant here day or night).
Most of my friends have some serious skills and equipment so we would have a pretty functional village going.
Nearly all are veterans, the rest are hunters. All are well armed and are skilled using weapons so security would be good.
This is all just a contingency, I hope this crap with the politics isn't pushed into full war, but if it is, some of us are in decent shape to ride it out.
Sounds like a Hutterite Colony just without the black jackets and floor length skirts
Sounds like a Hutterite Colony just without the black jackets and floor length skirts
Had to look that one up.....looks like Friday the 13th: The Series, The Quilt of Hathor. Anyhow, another possibility of such a community are Renaissance Festival folk.........sounds like Free Credit Report dot Com....remember them?
Curious, what's your occupation, how do you generate income - or are you on fixed income/retirement?
You're self-sufficient, but still have to pay for taxes on the farm, gas, truck/tractor parts, you probably have to buy or rent machinery for your ranch once in a while and stuff needed for home maintenance and repairs. You might need to hire people sometimes.
You need to maintain health insurance to avoid being hit with enormous bills - insurance costs insane these days - unless you're a lucky one on free government-paid insurance plan. If one isn't retired with medicaid or something, one has to have quite a bit of income to maintain this lifestyle, actually. There're usually zero jobs in the boonies, unless you run your own business.
If you're in MT and don't have year-round natural spring, your well and pump for is are extemely expensive things, plus providing enough electric for such deep pump. MT wells run 1000ft easily, huh?
You're lucky to have your ranch already.
Land and houses cost astronomically right now and there's a crazy rush to buy them so pepole get outbid even on their full-price cash offers all the time.
As to the zombies...my view is that the only zombies are the government and this is where they'd be coming from, with forced Mengele injections, vaxx passports, camps, travel bans, lockdowns, etc. And they can easily reach anywhere, into the middle of nowhere no matter how far from town one is. Actually, all these crooks have to do is to raise property taxes and they can tax people out their properties.
No one is safe from the gubimint. The real zombies had already descended (zombies who wear face diapers. Luckily, I'm in rural Missouri right now, temporarily, and people don't do this stuff to themselves here). Even if one never gets out of their rural property, they have a way to get to one with requirements and increased taxes they can impose.
PS: I see that you have quite a setup with barter camping <-> equipment, fuel making, lumber mill in the plans, off-the-grid. Good for you, but still you got to be having steady income stream to survive even off grid in the States, where everything is insanely expensive. Most people who what you do are on disability/retirement. It's hard to impossible to work online without reliable fast wired internet.
I'm retired, but I work a part time job that has full medical insurance.
My taxes on the ranch are $87 per year.
I have live springs and my well is 200 feet deep, but they hit water at 34 feet.
My tractor is a 1948 International Super M. Simple to work on, reliable, and it has a belt drive to run the sawmill and feed grinders. Plus it has a farmhand for loading or digging. I'm a certified welder, machinist and blacksmith, so maintaining and fixing my equipment is just regular work. My swather and baler and other equipment is also from the 40's to the 70's manufacture, so I don't need my electronics degree to fix them.
I work by myself, except for my dogs. The wife can drive tractor when I'm picking bales. Pretty much everything is set up so I can work quite well by myself. I do have some friends that help on big jobs, but then I help them too so no money involved.
I bought my ranch 2 years ago, and there was already a solar system installed that handles the pumps and freezers and other household draws just fine. I have portable generators to run equipment.
I sell grass fed no hormone beef, I sell hay and firewood as well as poles and timber and rough cut lumber and specialty timbers. I also do custom blacksmithing and sell handmade knives, axes, and specialty tools. I custom weld and fabricate for customers, and I do custom woodworking.
So on topic for the thread: I figured a good ways back our country was on the path towards a potentially nasty civil war of some sort. So I've been focusing on getting my isolated off-grid property more livable. My house is good enough to live in now though still not finished. I put up the solar panels last spring, a new woodshed, water cistern for emergencies, other sheds, and largely finished a sugarhouse. I've been improving my gardens and orchards more earnestly. I plan to put up a greenhouse this spring as northern VT is not a good place to grow certain things like melons or tomatoes. I have some basic food items stored up. Ammo, guns, and level 4 body armor go without saying. Cameras for security, I have some razor wire on hand to discourage trespassers more aggressively if I need to. I spent last summer's "vacation" if you can call it that exploring the surrounding area even more to identify more escape routes in the unlikely event the area gets too dangerous. My last resort option is to get out of the country, Canada being 20 miles of hiking north, though I consider that unlikely to ever happen. I do have a pack and gear to handle a few days or more of walking through the woods (if it's that bad I would imagine travel would be slower than a normal backpacking trip on any of the escape routes) to do so. Don't forget in preparing more ordinary items that you may not want to run to town for too often if things are sketchy. Nails, commonly used lumber, fence posts, garden chemicals, concrete mix, etc. I would guess that outside of the cities and certain states (like CA) those in rural areas won't likely see too much "action" from whatever's coming. Life will just be more challenging financially and in terms of obtaining some supplies.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,962,966 times
Reputation: 16466
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTSilvertip
Look for a cabover truck camper. Not as roomy, but I bought a very serviceable one for $50 at an auction that I used for many years.
That way you have your shelter, and can take both your truck and jeep. Put one of those trailer hitch racks on the jeep for extra fuel and water, load the jeep full of your other supplies and it becomes a cargo trailer you can pull behind you truck.
You may have to beef up the springs on your truck, and make sure your transmission is heavy enough to handle loads like that, but I see those kinds of rigs all the time.
Looking for a good hide out in Arizona could be problematic due to population density, so you'll need to plan for getting further away. Nevada is pretty empty, but water is an issue.
If things do get bad, there will be a few friends encamped at my place, but they're bringing valuable assets like excavators, backhoe and loaders. Others have skills and we've talked about establishing a logging operation at my cabin with some working getting firewood, and running the mill making lumber. That property would also be used as summer pasture for the cattle.
At the main place there would be a farm producing eggs, chickens, beef, garden produce, barley, wheat, rye and oats as well as the winter hay.
Plus it would be the processing center for all the canned and dried foods, and meat smoking, salting and preserving.
The smithy will do all the metal work making and fixing tools. The carpentry shop will make all the pens for the animals and any furniture. A mechanics shop, and a couple good mechanics to work there with their tools.
We have equipment to make gas and diesel, and the skills to do it. Plus we have oxen for power if needed. I'm already off grid, but I could easily add some wind turbines for more power. Even without a battery bank, there would be power during the day or when there's wind, (w8nd is pretty constant here day or night).
Most of my friends have some serious skills and equipment so we would have a pretty functional village going.
Nearly all are veterans, the rest are hunters. All are well armed and are skilled using weapons so security would be good.
This is all just a contingency, I hope this crap with the politics isn't pushed into full war, but if it is, some of us are in decent shape to ride it out.
MTSilvertip - Yes, I've been keeping my eye out for a camper. Sadly the days of a $100 slide in seem to be gone, thanks internet. All I see is Lances for $34,000... Sigh. But I hold out hope!
My truck has the FX4 off road package with all the gizmos so it'll handle most anything short of rock crawling. We use the Jeep for most off-road exploring. It runs 33" KO2's on a 2 1/2 lift with lockers. We could get a roof tent but with Jeeps it's all about weight. The tent and rack weighs a couple hundred lbs and raises the center of gravity. As it is, between the spare and a couple jerry jugs we have about 200 lbs hanging on the back, and when you add all the safety stuff and tools we take off road it adds up. We could get one of those overland tent trailers, but like I said I think my tenting days passed about 20 years ago...
Thanks for your invitation to move in with you on the ranch!
I'm sure we will fit right in! I'm an army vet. I shot at a rabbit once and I have a gun and a whole box of ammo. So you can relax, your security concerns are over. Also my spouse was a swabbie in the new Navy, she can fix any nukes or drones you may come into. Did I mention I have a Jeep?
Seriously though for new readers - it is important to develop a wide skill set in today's world. And it's not just the new stuff you need to be able to use or fix. The thread "Live 1880" in this forum has lots of good info too. That's what "being prepared" is about.
Regarding hide-outs. Yeah, all the secret spots have been outted on Instagram. We have a couple old mines scoped out, but I'm sure we aren't the only ones who know and it might get a bit crowded there in an emergency. I also know a few hidden Anasazi and Sinagua ruins with water, but so do quite a few other people. Whether they can get there or not is the question.
Overall - and social media posturing aside I think yesterday's events were a wake up for a lot of folks, so I think (hope) they will all stand down now and we can concentrate on the next calamity. But there seems to be a lot of angry people and all the other various issues putting us at risk of some sort of SHTF event(s) remain unchanged. (Trying to avoid deep politics.)
Absolutely nothing. We could probably survive a month or so if everything but water is cut off. Do I want to go out in a hail of bullets while fighting off marauding armed gangs from a Mad Max movie? Probably not. If things go that bad, no food, no medical care, no power, no prescription drugs, no law, death will probably be the best option.
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all right. Lots of pics out there. 
