Greetings all,
I have been studying and preparing for what I consider to be the collapse of industrial human society since the autumn of 2000.
I consider the three basic areas of preparation to be stuff, people, and place.
I consider all of the supplies and tools that must be acquired before the collapse to be the “stuff” of preparation. I have stuff.
Every serious prepper realizes that it will take a tribe to survive in a post-industrial age. I have spent the last 11+ years attempting to meet and join with like-minded folks. I began with family and friends. I have failed miserably thus far in all of my attempts. I have only the reluctant agreement to join me if the world really collapses from my son, his wife, my daughter, my granddaughter, and maybe (probably not) my daughter’s boyfriend. I have the necessary stuff for this crew. I am not satisfied with the breadth and depth of skills of these 4-5 adults but there are some nursing, military, gardening, and handyman experience – and the demographics are good [4-5 adults/1 child].
Serious preppers also know that the most important post-industrial necessity will be food production which requires “place”. There are precious few places where water, shelter, isolation, and food production can be achieved. I do not yet have what I consider to be an adequate place of retreat.
So, of what I consider to be the three principle areas of preparation, I have stuff and I have the means to get more. I am still seeking people and place.
Time is running out.
I am a 65 yo ex-jarhead – healthy and 100% industrial [Rx] medication free – still taking a shot of Idaho potato vodka occasionally & daily dose of caffeine.
Eastern Washington party of six [or 5].
dropbox: marianporter at hotmail dot com
Sounds like you have backed yourself into a corner…. The situation you present sounds fine as per you alone but the posted plan to consider the following you posted is not good at all.
“I have only the reluctant agreement to join me if the world really collapses from my son, his wife, my daughter, my granddaughter, and maybe (probably not) my daughter’s boyfriend.”
I can not imagine any good group or serious person willing to risk life, limb, property and some form of peace during a stressful crash event with folks not willing to help themselves right now. The list on the downside of what they all would bring and their attitudes is immense while the list on the positive side is well…. I am still trying to think of just the first thing they would bring which is either wanted or needed.
We have turned away many a good prepper who had in tow just one “non believer” as per the wisdom of and the desire to prep for disasters etc. Seems like you have five that will not lift a finger right now and one is a baby? Perhaps more babies and a new and different boyfriend over time as well? No offense… but I think you need to re-think your position on this if you expect to get to first base with any other serious people.
Serious preppers also need stability within the lives of the members they will be trusting not just supplies and the required prepper drive which is also needed to chip in and help with projects, train and develop relationships ahead of time.
That’s nice.
partyofsix,
Don’t give up the faith! I write on prepping, yet I have struggled convincing all family members of the wisdom of prepping! Lately, the naysayers have started to come around a bit…stubbornly, because with youth comes the need to feel as if you’re piloting your own life, not having to redirect it towards prepping.Yourfamily members are LUCKY you’ve got their back. They just don’t know it yet ( :
That said, I may have a possibility for you. Contact me here on the site. You never know…
Not everyone has their epiphany at the same moment in life. Family members, especially adult children, can be some of the toughest to reach with serious concerns about where our country is heading fast. They reach a certain age, fight to break free from authority and don’t realize until they are much older how smart we are or what knowledge parents really have to share. That doesn’t mean that they would have nothing to bring to the table or would be a useless burden after the collapse. I don’t think it is too late to build a great community. I do think that Rancher has many very wise rational and information that he is sharing with everyone on this site. You have to be smart and careful whatever you do now and it should be a group decision. However, all groups are not necessarily in the same stage of development that Rancher is fortunate enough to be in. We have a place but need more things and are still building our group. Our own kids would have to make it to us and our place if they don’t see the need to move as fast as we want them to. They make their own choices. Are you staying behind if your children won’t leave? We will stick to our plans. Ex-jarhead, it sounds like you need to make a plan for yourself because, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” At this point there are a lot of factors and even more questions with your kids. No maybe’s, no extra’s, no could be boyfriends should be messing with your plan during this time. Lay things on the line, you firmly take point and if they see that you are serious they may follow. If you won’t go forward with conviction like a Marine would, why should they take you seriously. I don’t say this to be harsh or abrasive buddy. Let’s talk. Semper Fi Wish you the best. “Oorah!!”
Hi, CougarMountain,
I’ve been out the last two months, NE WA, ridge to ridge – east to west, border to river – north to south. You may have seen me. I was the old guy ambling up and down those forest roads and living in the white Blazer. I will be out another month or so but stationary. I found something.
I saw and discovered some new stuff but my original philosophy of emulating the coyote has been only strengthened. Survival will depend on porosity, flexibility, and a willingness [w/ability] to bug out. “Do not defend real estate.” I can only chuckle anymore at the thought of all those who are smug and comfy in their overstocked hidey holes. I’m guessing that the only thing that will save a few of them will be the engineered pandemic that I believe will be initiated relatively soon.
But to get to your comments, there is no purpose in this universe for my survival save for my ability to facilitate the survival of my offspring. My job is mostly done on this earth. I’ve reproduced. The only thing left is to see that my offspring will survive. So, there will be no laying anything on the line until it’s time – it wouldn’t work on these kids. I don’t know where they get it.
But when they hear that blood curdling, “MOVE IT!” scream from me, their feet had better be six Marine feet ahead of their brains.
I live on one of those ridge’s, near the border, I don’t come down the hill often but will keep a look out for you’re white Blazer, if I see ya I’ll offer you some hot coffee & chat.
Hi PartyofSix,
Am I mistaken or were you looking for a location or group to bug out to? Your comment about the philosophy of emulating the coyote has me ??? Are you planning to be mobile for the most part or securing space for your six as part of a well oiled group in safety and security? Groups/friends is the best bet when the SHTF. Having a place and plan is survival hopefully. Aren’t you looking for a place or was I miss understanding you? Just give a chat back and we can talk.
There are several theories in this arena as any experienced prepper realizes. Each has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Each “chuckles” at the other……
Bug out road warriors on the constant move trying to avoid situations counting on last minute family believers to convert and be able to function day in and day out is one choice. Living in the past Marine thinking and world while yelling at people might work…and also works for me. Well it works for me if you do, it but not here
. Also wondering where your next meal or shelter will be is included in this option. Often a hard sell to others as I have found. By the way those pretty lush roads you are enjoying in the warm months of north WA and perhaps ID are soon to be again covered in ice and snow, blown over trees and in a crash none of them will be plowed open so you will be forced to stay put for months on end. Thus you will be stuck on some real estate and that is that. Your blazer will be useless and unless you store a lot of gas (where if you are on the run) you will also run dry and be on foot the next spring. In fact if a crisis were to happen in winter any others could well never show up due to the roads. Just a fact of life up here. But it all works fine for us whatever you do…I am simply trying to open the eyes of new readers and preppers about what else is behind the curtain 
Welcome to the region and we hope you find your place around here….
An established group of mentally driven preppers with both the means and results of good prepping also bring with them no need to yell and or hope or wish, etc that they will do everything needed and do it well. If the roads are covered in unplowed snow they can walk the rest of the way and to get here. They need not bring anything other than the needed items for a days walk or two as their stuff is already here waiting form them.
As per the term overstocked preppers…well thanks on that one. Any good prepper I have ever met always says… This mission never gets done, one never has too much stuff and lots of good food is great and even more is better!! But again to each his/her there own.
We have lone wolves in the prepper forum, group sites and places for beginners to gather around…each flame attracts it’s own moths on those subjects. I guess it boils down to what conditions are you creating for yourself if something terrible was to happen? What will you have on hand when the smoke clears to start again is another very important subject.
By the way I have no grand illusions myself of the need for my “seed” to continue in this world either. I am just another guy….. Many of our group never had children to boot. In fact if my Dad had been shot down in WW2 flying fighters I would not be here and his seed also would have stopped. I will see no shortage of humans after a crisis event as history has proven over and over. We simply do all this for us first and then when the smoke clears and it is safe to try to lend an effective hand to others climbing out of the wreckage. It is best to open and honest in all that
Best of good fortune to all you preppers…
The question that is the elephant in the room for all preppers has long been, “am I anything more than a useless eater?” Useless eaters are a soon-to-be endangered species and deservedly so… or so goes my opinion on the subject. I figure that if I’m not contributing to the survival of some little ones and future mothers, then I might just as well park my carcass along the trail and let the tribe move on without me. If I am of no “real” use, then what the hell is the point at this point – the world is getting too serious for merely self-interests.
Whatever…
Our group here is not about funding the needs of the unpreppers… “little ones or mothers”. Say What ??? Tribe??? What tribe? You best make yourself worth working with…
You want to save your children? Then buy the supplies and get the gear. Reality check 101…
Truth….They best get it together to join with this outfit or any outfit and then we/they will work with them.
Every crisis in recorded human history has never lacked the aftermath of the re-population of the world and every time with more people… so you might re-think the need to make a way for that to happen.
I have found most every real serious prepper is concerned with saving their own bacon so can we drop the wishful thinking here? I deal in real time and reality.
Just asking
Great words of wisdom Rancher. Love it. I enjoy reading your comments. Not harsh at all, just very real. Like you said, “Reality Check 101.”
Thanks cougarmountain
Time is to short for me to play games with so many of these mission impossible types.
You call yourself a prepper…show me the stuff baby show me the stuff. Prepping for years means squat as well. What counts is what you have to show for it …not your list to fill.
Going to college for years studying liberal arts or basket weaving means squat as well…. to but I guess you were in school for years…right? Big deal.
Nope location, good water, with good infrastructure to endure hard times, security, large stashes of quality food and of course number of well equipped partners helps the odds the best in my book. There is more much more but not for here. Sure we/you can fail and some will. But why plan to fail like so many here plan to?
For you blowers of your own horns [whomever you may be and I'm not naming names], allow me to educate you on what you or any of us or anybody else knows about what is coming, about what the collapse is going to look like.
NOTHING. Except for those at the very top of the food chain, nobody has a clue about how the future will look.
But your guess is as good as anyone’s and as bad as well.
So, please, quit pretending and quit posturing.
So, Cougar, all of the above. I’m looking for people and place but not a place to die for. I’m looking for people who can discern between when it’s time to fight and when it’s time to fade away. If a person chooses to stand like a pine against a tornado, he will be snapped like the twig that he is.
flexibility, humility, and pragmatism
six… there ain’t no fading away in north Idaho when it is January, 5 degrees outside, deep snow. As a matter of fact up here mobility into no mans land is a fool mission.
You sure are an expert in an area you never lived in for 40-50 years. Besides that by your own admission you are getting long in the tooth and yet still lack any roots up here. A bit late for playing in the northern Idaho game field fella. This ain’t no place for old men camping out with great expectations. Sorry ;-(
“…no fading away in north Idaho…”
Oh, yes, there is. Indeed, retreat should always be an option. If it is not built into your survival plan, it isn’t a “survival” plan.
I deal in reality…not speculation.
If things go south in the fall or winter and it is for real then no roads will be getting plowed… period.
Plowing snow consumes huge amounts of fuel and stops being effective when you stop and the rest of the roads are still not plowed. Trees snap or blow across roads every winter up here…thousands of them. Even a white Blazer will be stuck for months on end. One much like yours….. Got fuel to feed it?
Having lived here for most of my life seeing snow fall of 17-20 feet at 2,500 feet is not rare. Go higher and it grows big time. Go around a road on the north side and it will still be there and deep in May.
In other words you best be where you plan to stay for a few months to several. Have seen snow on the ground here for 165 days straight. Being snowed in is what we count on if a crisis happens. We look forward to the isolation…. Having the means and local experience (lived through a fe3w dozen winters here) helps more than speculation.
I am afraid you being a newbie to this area has led you to assume some posting here are blowhards… So be it. Don’t much care either. I post here to bring truth to people’s dream worlds in hopes they do not perish from misinformation. Not a popular role either
I have several four wheel drive rigs and other vehicles. So what? None will go across my Ranch fields in January with normal snow falls…period. None will travel down the unplowed roads either no matter what you wish to believe. You are stuck and so you best be able to exist in place. If you are attacked you best be able to defend said place to your death because leaving on foot… means no supplies, no shelter, no food and they will track you down.
Ever walk across crusted deep? The more you carry the more often you break through up to your waist. In a 1/2 mile you are soaking wet in sweat…..Snow shoes…sure. Got them. Use them. They just let you travel further before you are exhausted and die. Where are you going anyway…as you wear yourself out breaking trail for those to breeze through tracking you down. Much like chains on a 4×4, you just get stuck further out in the sticks. Besides as the sun sets the temps drop to like 15 or below that on most nights.
A good established group will examine the depth and duration of all your supplies to see if you can even feed and supply your party of six…. In a crash event six people require a huge cache of supplies to endure just several months of cold and winter. Did I miss something above and if so I am sorry about that but have you enough supplies for the six of you for that first year on hand right here in north Idaho…ready to go? I mean not just for you but for your family with women and a child?
Again it matters little as per what you want in a group as they are already in place and ready. It matters more what they want from you not having any of that in place and ready….I know for a fact one can not drag said volume of supplies around without a moving van…. Should I be watching for a white blazer with a moving van behind it? (Grin)
Just asking for more specific clarification on what you currently can bring to an established group up here. Other than opinions on an area you have not lived in and speculations on what will be. Your stack of on hand stuff for your party of 6 my friend is what separates the men from the boys.
No offense but you post here and still do not make it clear what kind of an asset you will be with a family of… six. Three women, a child and a guy and a possible boyfriend all of whom I gather are not here and not all that deep into prepping….
Reality bites when it is below zero outside and the air cracks your lungs when you breath. If you are not properly set up and tested it will become below zero inside very quickly as well. Just saying…..
I want you to succeed in you hopes and plans but so far I see little being shared about what you actually bring to the table… care to expound some?
“…care to expound some?”
NOPE. I am done – gotta get back to the hills.
And you can keep northern Idaho – wouldn’t touch it. I will never see it.
Been nice yakkin’ atcha. At least you recognize the difference between ambient cold air and mean ass cold air aggressively on the move. Do you know also the lesson taught by the turn-of-the-century pioneer cabin with no chimney?
Just joined…. I live is SE Washington and would be interested in learning more as I am just starting out. I have about 2 acres of land just outside of town in one of the “burbs”. The last of the FFA and 4-H projects have passed on and I now have room to prepare by building a greenhouse and making large coops for chickens and turkeys. We have also raised sheep and pigs. I am into hydroponics as I can build a portable garden that I don’t have to leave behind. I am also learning about alternative energy and all things prepper. I will be at the BF fair and rodeo with a hydro exhibit if you are interested.
Hi Fintucky,
I live in the TC and will be sure to visit your hydro exhibit. I just got some info on the same and am looking at what I can do where I live now. I have chooks myself – good layers. Just 2 because I’m in city limits (urban rebel)…
I’m looking to connect with other like minded folk in the area. Let me know if you are interestested.
Caspari
Caspari,
I am from the Tri-Cities as well. Drop me a line at Kareestin[AT]gmail[DOT]com if you would like to chat about preps, activities or whatever.
I’m 27/M/Kennewick. My next project this summer will be keeping bees in my back yard. I think that obtaining knowledge (just got an old encyclopedia from the 80′s) and skills (beekeeping, chicken farming, gardening) are just as important as things (beans, bullets, bandaids). I’d love to chat and would like to eventually to start a community group sometime that would meet semi regularly.
Let me know,
K