08:33 – Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month.
We’re now in wait-and-see mode on the house. On the plus side, the current owners seem to be packing up their stuff, so Paula, our buyers’ agent, is optimistic that they are in fact preparing to get out of the place. We’ll just have to hope that they do show up for the closing. If they take the wood stove it’ll piss me off, but I’m not going to let it interfere with the closing. We’ll install a propane heater, and if nothing else I’ll order one of these to keep on hand so that we can burn wood in an emergency.
With relocation stuff taking up most of my time, I didn’t have much spare time, but here’s what I did to prep this week:
- I read Theresa Shaver’s Land (Stranded Book 1), a young-adult PA EMP novel. It’s a first novel and self-published so it’s a bit rough, but I’ve read a lot worse.
- I got a 2-liter wide-mouth Thermos bottle to experiment with vacuum bottle cooking. It allegedly keeps hot stuff hot or cold stuff cold for 24 hours. We’ll see. I’ll be happy if I get 12 or even 8 hours out of it.
So, what precisely did you do to prepare this week? Tell me about it in the comments.
Well,
I got a little work in the garden, weeding (HEY, weeds are growing, I must have done something to improve the soil!) Lettuce is growing nicely, but not forming heads. Carrots and beets are coming up, I had to thin the carrots. I’m using sq ft style planting in one bed, but put several seeds in each spot, hence the need to thin. Beans and peas are slowly growing, about 6 inches high, starting to climb. I’m trying pole versions this time. The bush versions have not done especially well. (This is why you need to start growing food NOW. It takes time and practice.)
I continue organizing, but it’s very slow going. As I’m stacking cans, I have less than I thought. In cans, I probably only have a couple of months of family meals. I have some bulk to stretch that, but I thought I was farther along. My pantry of everyday items is deeper than most, as is the ‘various and sundries’ collection, but I’ve got a lot of work to do on the medium term stored food front.
I continue selling off ‘inventory’ I’ve accumulated while buying preps and other stuff. Well, trying anyway. It’s pretty piecemeal at the moment, and stuff isn’t really moving. This is a bit worrying. If ebay selling is slowing, then that’s another sign of impending doom for the economy.
My police familiarization class has finished up. They want an ongoing relationship with alumni, and are planning get-togethers to facilitate that. I’m convinced it’s important to be known to the other side of the blue line, and to bring the concerned citizen (not the typical moonbat) perspective to their attention. And the training is useful and fun.
I installed a big discone antenna for my scanners and SDR. Well, big is relative. It’s about 30inches of antenna on a 5 ft fiberglas rake handle mast, attached to my second story soffit. We had some high wind gusts and it held up well. It’s very broadband receive (typical of discones) and has decent transmit numbers if needed, up to 200 w capacity. Coverage is from CB up to WiFi.
I hope everyone took my advice and tuned around on Shortwave this week. Anyone buying a different radio as a result? Putting up a wire antenna?
In the course of buying and selling, I stocked up on watch batteries, wristbands, and pins. The self winding watches I got previously, I’ve put on sale. They were not good enough runners. I did get a couple of quality (but cheap) name brand analog quartz watches to add to my medical kits. You want a sweep second hand! With the batteries and parts, I should be able to keep them running for a while. Not a collapse solution, but good enough.
I’m putting a win7 notebook together to help out a friend. It’s been updating for 3 days. Several hundred updates so far, and more after I install the office suite. What a pain. The little atom based notebooks are not rugged but have advantages for preppers, in that they are cheap, small, and SIP power. The performance is ok if you kill all the fancy windows effects, or add memory, and don’t have a bunch of tasks running at the same time. Kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from the Toughbooks I’m building for myself, but worth thinking about for the faraday cage. I paid $20 for this one at an estate sale.
And that is depressingly little prepping for the week.
I hope some of you have done more!
nick
ps, we might be camping in our back yard this weekend. That will be an interesting test…
My concern about their taking the wood stove, is if they are going to take the wood stove, what else are they going to take? The appliances, the copper pipes, the copper wiring?
If I were you, I would be inclined to talk to my agent and decide if you want to have the agent talk to their agent about the wood stove. It could either screw up the deal, or make the sellers decide to leave the wood stove.
My suspicion at this point is they’re going to take so much stuff that would reasonably be considered to be included that you will wind up walking away from the deal after the final inspection.
Discussing emergency supplies last night with my wife. We decided to cover the non-obvious items. Everyone knows about needing food, power, etc. My wife said we need to include a collection of Sharpies (permanent markers) and big side walk chalk. The Sharpies (of all sizes) made sense but sidewalk chalk? She said it’s cheap, light, and can be used to mark houses and streets for safety, danger, directions etc. Also there is UV fluorescent chalk for surreptitious marking. I think it’s a great idea. So this weekend, we will add a variety of sharpies and chalk to our emergency kits.
HCombs,
I added sidewalk chalk to my CERT kit for marking buildings after a search (the spray painted ‘X’ of Katrina fame.)
You might want a couple of lumber crayons too. They are better at sticking than chalk, and are a little more discreet.
Survey marker tape can be good for blazing a trail, or attracting the attention of searchers. (bright colored, very lightweight, non-adhesive plastic tape)
Sharpies are always useful. Write your name and phone number on your kid, in case you get separated. Write triage info on a casualty. Leave a note on a vehicle or street sign. My co-worker was on a flight that had some serious in-flight problems, and passengers were writing goodbye notes on their bodies with sharpie. That still disturbs me and it’s been more than 13 years. Vac seal them and they should last forever.
nick
@Dave
They’re trying to blow up the deal, so they can remain in the house for the several months it would take to get them out if the bank forecloses. We’re not going to give them any excuse to get out of the deal.
Someone said that once the house closes, they become tenants. That’s not true. They become trespassers. When we drive over there after the closing, the first thing Barbara and I will carry into our new house is our riot shotguns. If they’re still there I’ll order them out. If they refuse to leave, I’ll call 911 and report a break-in at our home, with the criminals still present.
Of course, that’s presuming that they actually show up to close. We’ll get over to the house before they can, and be inside, armed and waiting, if they attempt to re-enter the home. At that point, it becomes a home invasion, and I’m sure Sparta cops and sheriff’s deputies have no more sense of humor about home invasions than any other cops do.
Speaking of which, there was a home invasion in our neighborhood recently. That’s the first one in the 25+ years we’ve lived in this neighborhood, but one is too many.
Needles and thread, assorted buttons. Takes next to no space, is very cheap, and extraordinarily useful. A pre-threaded needle, and heavy black thread is in my “everyday survival” altoids tin survival kit. It’s very handy.
Superglue in little tubes. Little tubes so once opened, you don’t lose a lot when the tube hardens.
Magnifying glass, very pointy tweezers.
nick
@nick,
You accomplished more than I did. I have decided to get into amateur radio, so I took a couple of practice tests online for the Technician exam. On the first test, I managed to get 24 questions right and leave two blank. On the second test, I answered 28 questions right, which would be good enough to pass. Next local test is Wednesday, but I think I’m going to wait and take the test in January. Trying to decide if I actually want to buy the study guides or not. The local library wasn’t much help. They have one amateur radio book, on Morse code, but none of the exams cover that any more.
@RBT,
the carolinas have been in the news a lot recently.
nick
and not in a good way…
@nick
Yeah, you really do need to improve your stored food supplies. If you’re shorter on time than money, why not head over to the LDS food storage center. Barbara and I hauled back about a one person-year supply of bulk staples, other than oil and salt, in one trip with our SUV. Something like 900,000 calories and roughly 650 pounds worth for well under $1,000. Another big Costco or Sam’s Club run for canned stuff, oil, and salt, and you should be in pretty shape. Add five or eight cases of Augason Farms stuff in #10 cans from WalMart, and you should be in very good shape.
@dave, don’t wait.
Take the online tests over and over until you can pass consistently. If you are already doing that well, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. I did it while sitting at the computer doing other stuff.
Do the general practice tests too.
After you pass your technician, you can sit the general test too. Tell the examiner that is your plan so they can have a general test ready. It doesn’t cost any more, saves you a trip, and there is no downside to trying. If you pass, you will have access to HF freqs, which is what you need grid down.
Get passed, any way you can. Get on the air with a cheap baofang, on local repeaters. Watch for a deal on an older HF radio, and spend lots of time listening.
You can actually LEARN the material after you pass. The ARRL study guides are great for that. And you will be more motivated, and it will make more sense, if you’ve already been working with the stuff.
Otherwise, there is too much incentive to put it off, delay, wait for the right moment, etc. Think of it like a panic buy. You have the stuff, and can learn to use it.
nick
ADDED: WRT study guides- the question pool is changing/has changed so some of the older study guides may not apply directly to the current question pool. They are still a great way to learn the material.
older guides are cheap on ebay.
once you pass, join the ARRL as they are great advocates, and the magazine QST is a tremendous resource of projects, helpful hints, theory, and vendor ads. always use a coupon code when joining or renewing! You should be able to get a free book or two. The antenna book, or the antennas for small spaces should be a priority!
@RBT,
Yep, the transition from prepping for local or regional disaster to more long term collapse, slow slide, or TEOTWAWKI is going a little slower than I thought. I’ve always been short on bulk, having NONE until fairly recently. Ebola changed my mind about that. Quarantine for AT LEAST 45 days, either self imposed or external became a real possibility.
I had abandoned cans, as they rust here, and we don’t eat out of cans. I have changed my mind about that, taking steps to store the cans properly, and finding ways to eat out of cans too.
I have a bunch more bulk, and canned veg, as well as protein at my secondary location, but it is uninventoried. I’m guessing a couple hundred pounds of rice, 100 pounds of flour, 25 of salt, with a couple hundred cans of veg. A lot of that was in the nature of panic buying, and just stacking. There is milk, meat, cooking supplies, oil, coffee, and sundries there too. Most of the re-bottled water I store ends up there too.
It’s on my list to get the shelves up, and organized there too.
As far as FD in cans, I got none. 70 FD meals in pouches, and 6-10 cases of Mountain House assorted with addons for about a week of meals for 6 adults, but no bulk FD. It’s a hole that needs filling for sure.
Honestly, it’s difficult to change habits, even habits of thought, and part of me is still focused on short and medium term, not long term (6 mo plus.) Part of that is because of our living situation. I think the slow collapse, or financial Armageddon/economic depression, are the only scenarios that are really survivable in a suburban home. That circumstance isn’t going to change in the next 4 years. (Although my wife is open to a more rural property as investment/retreat, she’s not open to living there.) If/when such a property becomes mine, then a lot of longer term ‘stuff’ will move there, and I can build out that part of my preps. Then it makes sense to have person years of stored food. Of course, societal developments could change her outlook.
nick
Ayup. Keeping the spouse happy or at least not unhappy is a major problem for a lot of preppers. Like Jen, I’m lucky in that respect. Barbara isn’t fully on-board for long-term prepping, but she at least understands my concerns, or at least that I *am* concerned. Once we get relocated, I go into higher gear.
We’ll be moving into an area where prepping is just normal prudent behavior, as it is in all rural mountain towns. A very high percentage of homes we’ve looked at have obviously been owned by serious preppers. Paula calls herself a prepper, as does Lou Morrison, the other agent we talked to yesterday. He introduced the subject himself. His daughter is living in NYC, and never had any interest at all in his guns. The last time she was home, she told him she wanted to learn to shoot his guns. He asked, “which ones?” and she told him, “all of them”. That’s everything from .22 pistols to tactical rifles and shotguns. Hell, even our real estate attorney is a prepper, and her husband owns a gun store.
My guess is that maybe 10% of the population up there are formal preppers, and most of the rest may not call themselves preppers, but are better-prepared than most people elsewhere who think of themselves as preppers. I think that prepping culture will rub off on Barbara, who’s becoming more and more long-term oriented as the months pass. She told Lou yesterday that she wants to learn to shoot better. Because spouses are usually a bad choice as trainers, he recommended a woman who is tactically trained, shoots all types of firearms, and trains people (particularly women) to shoot.
I am not a fan of freeze-dried foods, to say the least. They are outrageously expensive per calorie, particularly if they include real meat. In my opinion, canned and dehydrated is the way to go.
@nick,
The next exam is Monday, not Wednesday, but I may give it a shot on such short notice. In the mean time, I’m thinking about buying a BaoFeng UV5R to use as a scanner until I pass the exams. There seem to be a lot of similar models. Any suggestions on one over another. Or should I go with a different model/manufacturer?
What Dad did to prep this week is to continue to use this forum as a resource for checking and refining our prepping. There is not a week that goes by that this forum does not spark something that I have forgotten to fine tune or add to my Journal of Last Resort that documents what is what, where is where, why is why, and how is how. My Wife and Kids’ most times just appear to humor Dad’s prepping efforts, but there is not a week that goes by that my Wife does not ask me to show her something in my Journal and often has a suggestion how I can better explain something.
I have some old Lehman’s catalogs. There inventory is, IMHO, a mere reflection of what they once had. I can attribute it to intrusive Government Regulations squeezing the domestic folks who manufacture the basic/antique products (e.g. wood/coal stoves, horse drawn farm implements, lamps, tools).
Finally, my big black cat extends his greetings for a productive Friday the 13th. BTW, 13 is considered a lucky number in Italy and China.
@dave,
I have the UV5R+Plus with accessories (never used) and a modified extended battery pack. There is info online about the pack, which was for another model but fits if you dremel out a plastic boss.
It’s a great first radio. I added the nagoya NA-626 antenna, as everyone mocks the included antenna.
I think any of the baofang 5 series would be fine at about $35-$45. There is a newer series that gets good reviews, but it costs more. Minimum, get the radio, battery pack (normal or extended craft project) and antenna. Don’t worry about accessories unless you know you need them.
The programming cable will help later, but is not needed just to program a few local repeaters.
If you want a better radio, the Yaesu FT-60 is a classic, reasonably priced, and rock solid. Mine eats batteries though.
The baofang is not a good scanner. Its step speed is very slow.
The Yaesu is a better scanner as the speed is higher.
The baofang can be programmed for non-ham freqs. This is a contentious topic, and could get you in trouble. Not likely though.
I used my baofang exclusively for over a year before asking for the Yaesu as a gift. I still use it in preference when at home due to better battery life.
If you are looking for a scanner, you want one with trunk tracking, and a built in library. Digital voice may be in use in your area, in which case, you will pay a lot more for a capable scanner. Do some research on radioreference.com. Top o the line scanners are $500+. I get by with a variety of older models including non-trunk tracking, but my main use is an older grecom trunk tracking mobile. I also like my trunk tracking grecom handheld.
nick
Take the test! You can pass.
My priorities, which I think are valid for most preppers, are:
+++++ – receive local, regional, and national/international AM/FM/NOAA/SW broadcasts/
++++ – transmit/receive short range (VHF/UHF) for tactical use (e.g. FRS/GMRS HTs, Pofung UV-series HTs, etc.) The UV-5 or (better) the UV-82 series HTs are ideal for this.
+++ – receive local VHF/UHF broadcasts (police/fire, etc.) i.e. a good scanner
+ – transmit (and receive, obviously) at long range, which is the province of ham transceivers operating at 10 meter or longer wavelengths.
Flashlights! “The trees are on fire!”
http://xkcd.com/1603/
I have a bunch more bulk, and canned veg, as well as protein at my secondary location, but it is uninventoried. I’m guessing a couple hundred pounds of rice, 100 pounds of flour, 25 of salt, with a couple hundred cans of veg. A lot of that was in the nature of panic buying, and just stacking. There is milk, meat, cooking supplies, oil, coffee, and sundries there too. Most of the re-bottled water I store ends up there too.
Is it air conditioned?
So it looks like Baofeng changed its brand to Pofung in international markets, so I’m assuming the reason a Pofung UV-82 seems to cost more on Amazon is that it could be a newer version than the stuff out there still labeled Baofeng.
(Although my wife is open to a more rural property as investment/retreat, she’s not open to living there.) If/when such a property becomes mine, then a lot of longer term ‘stuff’ will move there, and I can build out that part of my preps.
@nick, the wife and I looked at this property when they had an open house two weeks ago:
http://www.har.com/10003-Modena-School-Rd/sale_91468432
Too much money, too horsey and too rural for us to live there on a daily basis. A retreat would be better in Wharton or El Campo. Unfortunately, the further west you go, the more underclass the small towns become. Not many towns like Sparta in Texas.
Oh, I don’t know. Sparta has a huge hispanic population. Something like 7%.
Nice looking place, Lynn.
I’d love plenty of space, and although I haven’t ridden a horse for 40 years I very much like them. No pool?
Oh, I don’t know. Sparta has a huge hispanic population. Something like 7%.
HA! California and Texas should be that lucky.
Yeah, I intentionally made a short lob there. 😉
And I promise you that hispanics in Sparta are more like any other Spartan than they are hispanics in cities.
I told Barbara that I’m going to start dressing like a Hoplite–spear, shield, the whole 9 yards. Except I think I’ll substitute my .45 Auto for the spear.
@Nick,
For my purposes in monitoring local communications, being able to monitor the Smallville Police Department and Smallville Fire Department may be enough. I don’t know that I need county fire/ems dispatch or county sheriff dispatch. I’m not sure that I want to listen to Smallville Hospital or the electric co-op on a routine basis. Although the electric co-op channels might be interesting listening during a power failure.
So I’m not sure I will need a scanner.
I have been using the Baofeng UV82 as a basic scanner at home. I’m very much a novice when it comes to radio tech but the chirp software and radioreference.com made things pretty easy. I disabled the transmit functions to be safe and programmed in the fire and police of my little town and the surrounding communities. Kind of addicting to listen to the petty things people call the police about.
I did learn that my local police seem like reasonable people. Last weekend there was a report of gunfire. So they sent one guy in a car over to check it out. The officers response was “no problem. They have the landowners permission and are more than 500ft from other houses.” Contrast that to last summer when a neighboring town called out the SWAT team (I’m not exaggerating) for a single shot heard by someone. Turned out to be a guy sending a groundhog to varmint heaven with a .22LR rifle.
“… a neighboring town called out the SWAT team (I’m not exaggerating) for a single shot heard by someone.”
Hey, they gotta use them or lose them; all that expensive training and gear; gotta find incidents that justify it. Single shots, overdue library books, some anti-gummint fanatic growing organic carrots in his back yard, plus gotta practice getting the address right when jumping out on supposed big-ass drug busts. Might kill somebody by mistake and get a paid day off.
Our local “police blotter” nooz page in the local rag is usually replete with the minor riff-raff crimes and misdemeanors I remember from so long ago: DUI, vandalism, petty thefts, endless traffic violations, and domestics. With the occasional knife fight, drug bust or dead body found somewhere.
Terrorist attack in Paris. 26 dead from gun attacks and or suicide bombers. News idiot says it was surprising because they have so many fewer guns there. Right. Fewer guns less defense. Too many moslims more likely.
Sooprise, sooprise. Culture clash, European guilt complex, and Moslems that don’t like them very much. What could go wrong?
These barrel stove “appliance” kits are dangerous. They burn dirty and pump a lot of crud (creosote) up the flue – which lines the stove pipe and chimney. To my mind it’s a tossup whether the stamped steel door frame warps, or you get a chimney fire first.
Once the door frame warps (even just a little) you have no way to control the fire.
Here is an excellent wood heat resource:
http://woodheat.org/
ps
Seems the Date/Time stamp in comments is still in DST.
Chaos in Paris. This page may keep you up to date: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/
It is time that ALL moslems be rounded up and air dropped into Saudia Arabia (parachutes optional).
primitive medievalism
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426975/benjamin-netanyahu-radical-islam-terrorism-medievalism
It is time that ALL moslems be rounded up and air dropped into Saudia Arabia (parachutes optional).
Nah, start rounding them up and march them south. When they get to the sea just keep pushing. They can swim to Africa.
60+ dead now, 100 hostages. Didn’t the moslems do this in Moscow a year or two ago?
French President just closed the borders.
Twenty years too late.
“Didn’t the moslems do this in Moscow a year or two ago?”
There have been several major hadji terrorist events in Russian in the last few years; the school and the incident in Moscow at a theater, IIRC. The Russians tend to respond differently than Western sissies.
It’s good, though, that Euro countries have such strict gun laws; only the cops, criminals and hadji terrorists have them. So if you’re be-bopping on down the street and hadjis start spraying lead all over the landscape and screaming the usual hosannas to their phony satanic deity, you is shit outta luck. Hope you can run fast and know the diff between cover and concealment.
DadCooks wrote:
“It is time that ALL moslems be rounded up and air dropped into Saudia Arabia (no parachutes).”
There, fixed that for you. There’s a recession on, we have to economise somewhere.
Note to self: don’t go to Paris, France again. Paris, Texas is ok.
Been trying to get the wife to go to Paris to visit the Louvre. Looks like I waited too long.
dkreck wrote:
“Nah, start rounding them up and march them south. When they get to the sea just keep pushing. They can swim to Africa.”
Ya reckon there are enough sharks in the Med to clean up the mess?
Been out and about, missed the action.
@lynn, my secondary is air-conditioned. Costs a pretty penny in the summer too, even when I only run 3 of the 8 tons.
Any property would have to be wooded. salt creek area of extreme northern harris county, hill country, bastrop, something like that. Ideally near a former county seat.
@dave, if you only need a couple of channels of listening, then an HT works fine. You might want the public works, state police, sheriffs, etc Listen around and see who gets the real calls. I don’t monitor fire or ems anymore. Too many dispatches. Depends on what you want to hear. If the crick is risin’ the public works guys are usually watching it. If it’s advancing hordes, the state boys or hyway patrol so you can hear it far away.
Gotta check on the kids in the tent, back soon.
nick
“Syria refugee crisis: U.S. opens centres to speed vetting”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/syria-refugees-u-s-centres-1.3308576
Why do we want to bring these people to the USA again?
Can they live with Obola?
“7 Shocking Facts About Islamic Immigration”
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2015/11/7-shocking-facts-about-islamic-immigration
I do not understand why the Jews in the USA are not protesting?
Trump says that he will export these people back to their countries. However, once here, the logistics of getting them out is very involved.
” However, once here, the logistics of getting them out is very involved.”
Plus, the bleeding hearts/SJWs and lawyers will have a field day.
Must. Let. In. Zillions More. Hadjis.
Gee, open borders in the EU and wicked strict gun laws sure worked out swell for them, didn’t it?
Here we are; in the FACE of the shit going on in Paris right now, our fuckhead Dear Leader and his minions and their bosses are dead set on bringing in MORE of these scum to THIS country! It almost beggars belief, had one not been watching the ongoing situation here.
keep in mind that early reports are almost always wrong.
What can we learn?
7 guys can shut down a city. 7 guys can kill over a hundred with ordinary weapons.
They reloaded 3-4 times killing hostages. No one fought back.
Think there aren’t already 7 guys here?
Anyone think this is the last?
and then flip it.
Hey 3%, this what you want? This what your jedburgs are planning? How is what you are planning different? Only gonna do cop shops and military bases? Logistics and support personnel, right?
And taking a step back WTF is wrong with politicians. One after another they can’t fall over each other fast enough making this attack bigger than it is.
Lindsey Graham said; ‘This is not just an attack on the French people, it is an attack on human decency and all things that we hold dear.”
OBammmy ” it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity”
Man, way to pat those murdering scumbags on the back. And what fucking world do these guys live in?
Bernie Sanders said in a statement; ‘We are all horrified by the cowardly attacks
Stupid and murderous, but hardly cowardly.
Obbammy- “attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.
Except for the millions that think this is good fun, well deserved, and part of a righteous holy war.
Obabababab- “we’ve always been able to count on the French people to stand with us. They have been an extraordinary counterterrorism partner,”
Except, you know, when they were busy selling sadam high tech science-y toys instead of honoring the embargo… anyone remember ‘freedom fries?’
Fuck them. They all make me angry. And Newt, even if the message is correct, can you not wait for the blood to cool on the street? Show some respect.
damn.
nick
Yup, seven hadji douchebags can shut down a large city, formerly one of the bastions of Western Christendom, and do a bang-up job of it, too, pun intended. I blame the French State and its equally douchebag political leaders for leaving their people defenseless. But the major blame goes, of course, to the “religion of peace’ and its alleged tiny minority of hadji atrocity-mongers, and yes, cowards, because they butcher unarmed civilians who can’t fight back. (of course their retort is that our bombers and jets do the same to their unarmed civvies, which is true, so why don’t we GTFO of those places once and for all and cut down drastically on these sorts of incidents?). And next time they pull of something like this, we start crucifying them by the tens of thousands on the Mordor beltway and incinerating their home countries.
“Think there aren’t already 7 guys here?”
I’ve been saying this for many years; our southern border alone has probably seen many thousands of these fuckers cross into the U.S. How many sleeper cells? What’s their next move? Will the CIA and Feebies and NSA catch them in time?
“Anyone think this is the last?”
Hell no; for Paris this is a big step up from the Hebdo massacres. The next incident in Europe is likely to be much bigger. And the next one here bigger than 9/11. My worry is the Xmas holiday/mall/shopping season, plus major sporting events, etc.
“Hey 3%, this what you want? This what your jedburgs are planning?”
A lot of those guys are gonna also be on their knees begging for the State’s cops and troops to provide law and order and security. Redoubts in the Rockies and Appalachians are all well and good but the rest of us will have to live amidst or very near the coming mayhem.
“They all make me angry.”
Politicians. Scum of the earth. It’s because of them that we have shit like this happening. Why roam the world poking hornets’ nests? Let all those bastards slaughter each other; it’s what they do best.
Toll now over 160 and climbing; like shooting fish in a barrel; in a country where only the police, criminals and terrorists have guns and everyone else is now basically a target.
Let’s also remember that two hadji punks shut down the city of Boston for a while, at far less KIA and mayhem. And citizens were reduced to prisoners in their own homes.
Husbands employer laid out some convincing arguments that Alaskas economy is going to tank in the next 2-4 years. Not unexpected. Bad times ahead unless our ineffectual legislature grows a pair and starts making multiple brutal and unpopular decisions.
I love Alaska yet don’t have too many issues pulling up roots and moving.
Prepping focus got shifted this week to researching to see what state might be less unstable economically.
Grim.
I believe most people are good or at least self absorbed and innocuous. Not so with virtually all our leaders. They are self serving selfish bastards that gleefully trade the future for today’s votes.
Where to flee. Where to flee.
“Where to flee. Where to flee.”
1.) ID your major priorities; what MUST y’all have and what can y’all do without. Schools, churches, fellow preppers, gun laws, medical facilities, crime rates, etc., etc.
2.) Avoid major metro areas entirely.
3.) Once you’ve narrowed it down, be sure to visit the area during its worst weather time of the year.
I don’t know which state/s are the most stable economically, and we’re all tied together with the Grid and an increasingly repressive Fed government. Energy and business cycles go boom and bust all the time; one look at New England or Texas shows us that much. IT has been a rollercoaster for me and two of my brothers and it gets worse by the month.
I’d look for a state with little to no gun law restrictions and a friendly attitude to small businesses along with most of the population being of my own ethno-racial-religious background and beliefs. This one meets all but one of those reqs and is tough with its taxes; also a small job market that runs with two extremes; either high-paying senior positions or pumping gas and running the cash register at some overnight convenience store, little to nothing in between. So lots of people here work two or three or four crappy jobs to pay the bills and make ends meet. I imagine this is largely true in the rest of the country now.
Best of luck finding the right location.
Some people over at Jerry Coyne’s blog are making sensible comments, for once…
Astounding.
“Two gunmen. Hundreds of hostages. Maybe the gun nuts in the US are right. We are all going to have to pack unless we are able to get these bastards under control.”
Yes, I found Newt’s comments to be spot on, although his timing is reprehensible and counterproductive.
nick
Husbands employer laid out some convincing arguments that Alaskas economy is going to tank in the next 2-4 years. Not unexpected. Bad times ahead unless our ineffectual legislature grows a pair and starts making multiple brutal and unpopular decisions.
I love Alaska yet don’t have too many issues pulling up roots and moving.
Prepping focus got shifted this week to researching to see what state might be less unstable economically.
Texas is in the same boat that Alaska is in except our crude oil production is increasing whereas Alaska’s is rapidly decreasing. We both have so much natural gas production shut in that the prices will not go up significantly in our lifetimes.
The Texas population is rapidly increasing. There are still 1,000 people per day moving here from California, New York, Michigan, etc. A lot of people were moving here to retire because our housing was cheap but I am not sure about that anymore. Gonna be tough finding a place where you can have chickens unless you are in the boonies. And the boonies are moving outwards right now at a very high speed. The wife and I live 20 miles away from downtown Houston which, 20 years ago, used to be the edge of the boonies. Now the boonies are ten miles past us.
https://www.google.com/search?q=texas+population&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Texas is not feeling the drop in crude oil prices significantly. Yet. That $25/barrel price will be here in January. Two (or more) story home sales have dropped appreciably. One story homes are still very popular and sell quickly, unless the owner is freaking crazy about their pricing. The house sales prices have plateaued and are going down now.
A move right now to an unknown place from a known place might be out of the frying pan into the fire. The other 48 states economies suck even worse, IMHO. Several of them are on life support and waiting for the feddies to pull the plug.
Please note that I am not an economist nor do I play one on the internet.
BTW, if you think that things are going downhill, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait until the automation of truck drivers hits in the next 5 to 10 years. Three million truck drivers across the USA will be thrown out of work. Those are high end blue collar jobs making $50K to $100K per year.
Hey, it’s the Brave New World Economy!
Offshore slaves in Asia and Africa and robots at home!
We won’t have to work anymore! We’ll all be on the dole! (if we mind our P’s and Q’s, that is…)
1,500 calories a day at the beginning, and probably dropping after that. Various “privileges” assigned and de-assigned at bureaucratic whims.
3,000 calories for foreign mercenary troops to hunt down dissidents and kill them.
All good thoughts. Gun laws / attitudes, economy, avoiding ‘not like us’. I don’t know that a ‘better’ place exists. We are also discussing what ‘riding it out’ could mean. What would the economy and population make up resemble when/if the economy claws its way back up? Without oil money it’s going to be ugly. Would the FSA leave? It’s a hard place to leave if you don’t have the cash/credit to get out. 1,500 air miles from the lower 48, and about double that driving (plus you need a passport to re-enter after driving thru Canada).
Could wind up with the workers bailing and FSA complaining about manna drying up.
Bah.
I think things are going to get worse before they get better all over the country. I wouldn’t look to flee Alaska, but to see if there is somewhere you can find that is more resilient than Alaska. If a non-prepper were thinking about relocating, they would look for someplace that has a better job in a better area. Traditionally, better job means higher paying and better area means better public schools. In the prepping world, those things still matter, but maybe there are things that matter more. During the Great Depression, my maternal grandfather worked as a repairman. Factory workers made more, but he never lost his job.
The best indicator of an area is how that area votes. Everybody has problems. Some of the causes of everyone’s problems are beyond their control, and some of the causes of everyone’s problems are things they can control. Some people choose to deal with the problems they can control and some people instead choose to complain about the things they can’t control. Generally speaking the people who try to change the things within their control vote Republican, and those who do nothing but complain vote Democrat. I’m not saying they people they elect are like that, I’m saying the people who do the electing are.
I’ve been insisting that both of my sons have practical skills to tide them through a bad economy. Son#1, confident that chemical engineers have essentially 0% unemployment and that this will always be so, has pretty well ignored me. Son#2 has listened and, while he’s by no means ready for a job as a plumber or auto mechanic or much of anything else, he has enough general handyman skills that he can probably find work as an assistant if everything falls through.
No, I’m not forgetting the girls. I’m encouraging them to learn every practical skill I can get them to try, but they’re only 8. Showing them how useful it is to be able to do things yourself is enough for now.
@Jenny
I think you’re wise to be concerned. Alaska is much too dependent on oil money, and that’s a bad thing to be dependent on, particularly as Alaska’s production dwindles and fracking comes into its own. The obvious problem is that the places you’d want to be are small towns in lightly-populated agricultural areas, which typically have few employment opportunities.
When Barbara and I started talking about relocating, my first choice was the border area of Alberta/Montana. Barbara was initially willing to consider that, but she decided that it was simply too far away from everything and everyone she knew. Fortunately, my second choice nationwide was the North Carolina mountains, which is where we’re getting ready to move to. But we couldn’t have made even that move if we’d needed to find work up there. There just isn’t much available. Which is why I’ve been focused for so long on making sure I/we can earn a living wherever we choose to live, via an Internet-based business. If I were you, I’d be doing the same thing. Start selling via the Internet and build your business until it can support you. Then you can choose to live anywhere there’s Internet service and a US Post Office.
Of course, the day may come when the Internet and USPS stop working. If that happens, you have to be prepared to be useful locally, which is the second thrust of my preparations. I really, really hope it never comes to that, but if it does I’ll be as ready as I can be.
If you ever do try do use one of those horrible barrel stoves be sure to run it outside until all the paint is burned off. You really don’t want it inside while that happens. I think keeping an eye out for a used stove meant for the job would be better.
Good point. Barbara is against buying a woodstove, because she thinks they’re dirty and thinks we’re too old to haul wood. I plan to build an outbuilding at some point that will have water, sewage, and power, and I’ll probably buy a real woodstove for it. I was thinking I could buy one of those barrel stove sets inexpensively and it wouldn’t take much space to store.