08:07 – Barbara got home around 8:15 last night. Colin and I are delighted.
Email from Jen yesterday. She and her husband spent an evening with another couple who are good friends of theirs, and the subject of prepping came up. Jen’s group is made up of her husband and her, Jen’s brother, his wife, and their two teenagers. The other couple also has six in their group; the two of them, two sons in their early 20’s who still live at home, and a third, older, son and his wife, who live nearby. The other couple lives about 30 miles from Jen, in an area equally suitable to hunkering down, and are prepared at about the same level as Jen and her family, which is to say high.
Apparently, the discussion went from the general to the specific pretty quickly. Jen’s husband mentioned that they’d considered and rejected the idea of buying a place up at the lake, just in case they needed a refuge other than their home. The other couple also intends to hunker down at home, but has concerns about what they’ll do if they do need to evacuate. They eventually came to the obvious conclusion; that each family could serve as the evacuation destination for the other. They all know and like each other, and both families have homes large enough to easily accommodate another half dozen people in an emergency.
Which raised the issue of supplies. Enough food to keep six people fed for a year is enough to keep 12 people fed for only six months. Obviously, if one or the other family needed to evacuate they’d try to haul as much of their supplies and gear along as possible, but there are no guarantees. So both families decided that it made sense to boost their long-term food storage by adding enough bulk staples to support additional people. They both have the storage space available, and the relatively small cost of a couple grand for six person-years of flour, sugar, beans, oil, etc. isn’t a big issue for either. And, as Jen said, even if neither family needs to evacuate that just means they’ll both have what they need to feed themselves for another year, which is no bad thing.
I also had an interesting conversation with Linda, whose daughter and her husband live next door. We stood there talking for half an hour or so. Linda and Danny are maybe five or eight years older than Barbara and me. They’re just regular country people who’ve worked all their lives to get by, and Linda says she’s really worried and disgusted by what’s happening. She volunteered that she and Danny own only one firearm, a .22 that she bought for Danny soon after they were married, and that she thinks they need more guns. Things have really gotten bad when there are nice 60-something church ladies like Linda contemplating shooting people to defend themselves.
11:45 – Yet another email from Jen. Her brother, Jim, and his wife Claire visit Jen frequently, and about half the time they make a Sam’s Club or Costco run on their way over. Jen says the four of them start the visit by hauling stuff from Jim and Claire’s SUV down to the basement, where they stack it to deal with it later. Jen never knows what they’ll bring along. Last time, it was a couple 50 pound bags of flour, 50 more pounds of pasta, a dozen #10 cans of assorted fruit, vegetables, and baked beans, two dozen cans of chicken, and four cases of water. Jen says quite a bit of stuff has accumulated, enough that they need to have another weekend repackaging party, but she needs to order more Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers from LDS on-line before they can do that.
Things have gotten good. Barbarians at the gate, fearing the government (aka, whatever warlord or robber claims the land where you live), and not being able to trust anyone not already known to you are the normal state of history. What’s different now is that a 60-year-old granny isn’t completely helpless.
I wonder if gun shops and ranges could get involved with some seniors’ groups, offering discounts on 20 gauges, shells, and practice time.
Some are already doing that, as well as focusing on other groups that haven’t traditionally been shooting hobbyists, AKA women.
Search for “guntry club”.
Gun stores are changing too.
My local is run by a husband and wife team. They are welcoming, friendly, and low key.
The store itself is open and comfortable with a seating area and a tv. They offer CHL classes taught by a female instructor.
What there isn’t– no camo, no army surplus, no attitude. No challenging questions, no fanboi nonsense. Also no hunting paraphernalia or trophies (although they do sell hunting rifles on consignment and online.)
Another store I stopped at is run by a father son team. The store is set up and decorated as upscale retail boutique. They have female class instructors too. And again, no camo, surplus, animal heads, macho posters, attitude, or challenges.
Neither store is about hunting, they are both about self defense. Neither is aimed at the stereotypical gun buyer. Both are intended to make women and first time buyers comfortable.
This is WAY different from a ‘traditional’ gun store.
nick
BTW, it seems to be working. They are selling a lot of guns.
Yep, there’s been a sea change in attitudes about owning firearms. Many more women are buying them, and even prog-sympathizer metrosexual guys are doing the same. And hardly any of them are buying hunting rifles. They’re all about pistols and shotguns, which they use mostly for shooting clays but are fully aware are decent weapons for defending themselves.
When the general perception is that one can’t count on the government for protection, people do what’s necessary to protect themselves.
And that drives people in the government and their fluffers insane.
Well, I’m from the South, where until recently “Your honor, he needed killing.” was a valid form of not-guilty plea. And people were often acquitted based on it.
The other couple also intends to hunker down at home, but has concerns about what they’ll do if they do need to evacuate. They eventually came to the obvious conclusion; that each family could serve as the evacuation destination for the other. They all know and like each other, and both families have homes large enough to easily accommodate another half dozen people in an emergency.
I’ve told my son, who lives closer to @nick than me (I think), that he is more than welcome here in any bad situation inside Houston. In fact, with his youth and Marine Corps expertise, he is probably a way better protector than me of his mother and sister. He has seen horrible things in his lifetime, especially on those two tours of duty in Iraq. He just has to bring all his food, guns, and ammo in his pickup.
I am presuming that he will be able to drive here through some sort of streets. If he has to walk here then that is bad news, as he will have to travel 23 miles through roughly a half million people. The drive or walk would be tough if he delayed at all.
I have been trying to get him to move out here or, even further out than us. He is just not interested due to the financial costs of selling his home and buying a new home. He lives in a neighborhood just outside of the inner loop, I-610, where he got a great deal on a new 3/2/2 home about six years ago. He has his mortgage half paid off and wants to get it paid off in the next five years. I may need to think outside the box a little on this.
Which raised the issue of supplies. Enough food to keep six people fed for a year is enough to keep 12 people fed for only six months. Obviously, if one or the other family needed to evacuate they’d try to haul as much of their supplies and gear along as possible, but there are no guarantees.
What about the fuel to cook all that food? And boil water? Do they have that also or are they expecting to cut down a lot of trees for firewood?
“He is just not interested due to the financial costs of selling his home and buying a new home.”
Few peeps wanna move, due to countless good reasons. I just hope they don’t wait until it’s too late and have to bail under major emergency/crisis conditions and fight their way out.
“Do they have that also or are they expecting to cut down a lot of trees for firewood?”
If so, it is very labor-intensive, time-consuming, and exhaustive. Especially for older people or those with any physical disabilities. You don’t see a lotta old lumberjacks out there in the woods. And guys in my age bracket who are still doing it, have been doing it all their lives and are used to it; nevertheless, they’re near the end of the line on this kinda work.
We also need to think hard on this; currently our firewood gets delivered by truck, just like the oil. If there are no more deliveries of either, what then? And if we have to go get it ourselves, load it up and bring it back, where do we get the fuel for that caper?
@nick, if you start looking for a private school for your daughters, I would like to recommend Westbury Christian School. This school has a good reputation in the Christian community and is located at Westbury Church of Christ. It may be a hike from your home though.
http://www.westburychristian.org/
@nick;
How fah R U from Houston? Here’s another nice skool:
http://www.mislamiah.com/
Good nooz from North Lost Wages:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/08/daniel-zimmerman/defensive-gun-use-of-the-day-14-year-old-chases-home-invaders-with-rifle/#more-369698
Nice job, kid. Outstanding, in fact. You can cover my back anytime.
@ofd, they’re already learning spanish, I think the madras might be taking the whole, “get to know the invaders” thing too far.
@lynn,
That is in a weird location for us. They were in day care in Bunker Hill (north of Piney Point on the schools map) and their current school is just outside 8, just north of 10. That means my wife heads out of town before heading back in to her job. It would be hard, with no good path, to get to Westbury.
nick
ADDED @OFD, and this one is much closer to home:
Masjid ElFarouq.
Mosque
Address: 1207 Conrad Sauer Dr, Houston, TX 77043
“Getting Out Of Dodge. One Couples Story.”
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/dodge-couples-story/
“What gradually became more and more unbearable, though, were the people in the area. It seemed more and more welfare squatters and members of what are dubbed the “Free S*it Army” were invading what had previously been middle and upper middle class neighborhoods. More and more buildings designed to “help” these “housing insecure” folks were coming up, with predictable results. The final straw came in early Spring of 2012. My wife, now working as an Assistant Principal at a Public Middle School, was ‘Suspended” pending an investigation into her judgment of an incident at her school.”
Unreal. Well written story and a lot of good advice. Get out before the fires start if your area of the world is turning bad. Obola and his bunch are going to do their best to make the whole country suck though.
That is in a weird location for us. They were in day care in Bunker Hill (north of Piney Point on the schools map) and their current school is just outside 8, just north of 10. That means my wife heads out of town before heading back in to her job. It would be hard, with no good path, to get to Westbury.
Too bad, good school and somewhat affordable. I have more if needful. My niece and nephews all went to Catholic schools inside I-610.
One of my partners lives in Bunker Hill when he is here in Houston. He is 78 and has homes in the boonies that he prefers now.
Apropos of nothing – dogs are crazy animals. My wife teaches man-trailing. On Friday, she had me lay a set of trails for her students. I’m walking through town, along streets, across parking lots, etc, to land at on the terrace of a local hotel. All paved, there’s a breeze, there are cars driving by to stir things up.
What makes this crazy is: the dogs weren’t supposed to follow my trail until it had aged. A day of traffic, sunshine and wind later. (Just to clarify: she drove me back to the end of the trails the next day so I could be found; this on a different route, in the car with re-circulation on and windows closed.)
Of course, the dogs had no trouble at all. In fact, some of them did a lot better than usual. Ordinary, fresh trails are easy, so they get distracted. A trail like this, they actually have to pay attention, so it’s apparently more interesting.
Setting this kind of thing up is a lot of work, even for just a few dogs. But it sure does make an impression on the students. Heck, on me to, and I’ve done this before. There’s a whole world of scent into which we measly humans have zero insight.
IIRC Jerry Pournelle believes that without dogs there would be no people.
A long time ago an alliance was made between between almost dogs and almost men. We feed and care for them and they love us and will die for us.
We gave up our sense of smell and hearing, we didn’t need it because the dogs could take care of it.
The dog’s maybe got the short end of the stick.
Oh, there’d be people. Just not many of us, and we wouldn’t have things like agriculture, civilization, and science.