I guess in SHFT scenarios, the local coal fired plant will continue to operate and provide you with power. Just as the grid did in the Texas ice storm a couple years back.
3 Likes
Coal oil or NG they will be just fine.
3 Likes
Lots of lists and ideas to get you prepared. 
Emergency Preparedness Resources â Be Prepared - Emergency Essentials
2 Likes
And they will be working and sending you a bill during a SHTF event. Magical thinking by non-preppers in my view.
1 Like
Well you view doesnât match the reality that is out there.
What happened in TX was a very short term event and not even related to this discussion.
Here in Florida after a hurricane the loss of power can be as much as four weeks and most of us get by just fine.
So donât preach prepping to me until you can demonstrate you can do it better that we can down here.
4 Likes
And after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricoâs centralized electric grid was pretty much destroyed. And after the tsunami that destroyed the Fukashima plant, itâs still not operating. I prefer solutions that provide me with power without waiting for centralized, government run or regulated power providers to figure out to become functional.
You may be willing to live without power for 4 weeks, but not me. Pumping water from a 680â well requires electric power.
1 Like
I donât live without power, I have backup generation and stored fuel, that is known as preparing.
I guess you donât get that concept.
3 Likes
Some thoughts on sharing. 
Some Ground Truthâ
The âUsâ & the âThemâ in a Societal Collapse
Originally posted at www.SurvivalBlog.com
Copyright 2012
I am a retired Army warrant officer working for the Army
teaching Electronic Warfare and Signal Intelligence. I only
started reading your blog last week. Itâs addictive, but
slightly disturbing.
Having worked for the Army for 27 years in a number of
different failed countries I may have a unique perspective
on survival that I would like to share with your readers. I
believe most of the âsurvivalist communityâ is vastly underestimating the impact that other humans are going to have
on their plans. Hunkering down and waiting for everyone
to die off is a simplistic plan and I believe has almost no
chance of working. You may be able to hide your retreat,
but you canât hide the land it sits on. That land itself may
become a scarce commodity if the US transitions to an
agrarian economy.
Food is the key resource. Most communities are at risk because they simply donât have enough calories stored to get
them through any kind of crisis. But, storage is no more
than limited capital to allow people time to grow more
food. Food production requires landâŠif your retreat is sitting on farmable land, it will be a scarce resource.
Carrying capacity of the US using non-petroleum farming
techniques is far lower than most of your readers probably
think. Also, most areas of the US, especially cities, donât
have anywhere near enough farm-able land to go back to
some kind of agrarian pattern. Without public infrastructure and modern transportation, we are going to experience a huge die-off caused mostly by starvation. In a total
collapse scenario without immediate restoration of the
economy, basically everyone who lives in a city is doomed
unless they can take over some kind of farm land.
If you live in an area without enough farm land, you will be
a âhave notâ. Period. I donât care how much food you have
stored in your basement.
Here is my key point. These teeming millions will not just
starve and go away. I believe that anyone who thinks they
can defend a working farm against raiders is deluding
themselves.
- People are dangerous. They are the most dangerous animal on earth. You can never lose sight of that! In almost
any society breakdown scenario you can think of, you will
be surrounded by starving predators that are much more
dangerous than tigers. In the USA, every one of them (or
at least the vast majority) will be armed with firearms. The
ones currently without firearms will obtain them by any
means necessary including looting government armories.
These are thinking-breathing and highly motivated enemies. - Raiders, defined as âoutlaw looting groupsâ may be a
threat for a very short period, but I really donât see groups
of more than 4-6 ever formingâŠthey will be quickly replaced by much larger groups of âcitizensâ doing essentially
the same things, but much better armed and organized.
An Example: A few hours after Albaniaâs political crisis in
1998, (which was caused by a national lottery scam), almost every adult male in the country procured an AKM
from government stocks. Armories were the first targets
looted. I flew into Tirana packing a pistol and a sack of money, naively thinking I would be able to move around the
country and defend myself. What a laugh. Everyone had
me outgunned, and the vast majority of them had military
training of some sort. I never got out of the capital city.
Every road seemed to have roadblocks every few miles,
blocked by armed local citizens. - Without central authority, people donât just starve and
go away. They form their own polities (governments).
These polities are often organized around town or city government or local churches. They may call it a city counsel or
a committee or a senate.
Some Ground Truthâ
The âUsâ & the âThemâ in a Societal Collapse
408
The bottom line is,
âWe The Peopleâ will do whatever
âWeâ have to do to survive.
And that specifically includes taking your storage goods. - When (not if) a polity forms near you, you had better
be part of that process. If not, you will be looked upon as
a âresourceâ instead of a member of the community. The
local polity will pass a resolution (or whatever) and âlegallyâ confiscate your goods. If you resist, they will crush you.
They will have the resources of a whole community to draw
upon including weapons, vehicles, manpower, electronics,
tear gas, etc. Every scrap of government owned equipment
and weaponry will be used, by someone. Anyone who
plans to hold out against that kind of threat is delusional. - The local polity that forms is almost certainly going to
make mistakes. Some of them are lethal blunders. Odds
are, the locals will probably not have given a lot of serious
thought to facing long term survival. They will squander
resources and delay implementing necessary actions (like
planting more food or working together to defend a harvest). They may even decide to take in thousands of refugees from nearby cities, thereby almost insuring their own
longer term starvation.
A much better approach is to be an integral part of the
community and use the combined resources of the community to defend all of your resources together. This would
be much easier if a high percentage of the community were
like minded folks who were committed to sharing and cooperating. Because any community with food is likely going
to have to somehow survive while facing even larger polities, like nearby cities, counties or even state governments.
Donât expect to face a walking hoard of lightly armed, starving individuals. Expect to face a professional, determined
army formed by a government of some kind.
A small farming community can probably support a few
outsiders, but not very many. The community will need to
politically deal with outside polities or they will face a war
they canât win. Hiding the fact that you are self sufficient is
going to be hard. You canât hide farm land.
Defending your resources against the nearby city will be
even harder. You may be able to save the community by
buying protection with surplus foodâŠif you have prepared
for that. You may indeed have to fight, but stalling that
event for even a year could mean the difference between
living and being overwhelmed. In any case, your community needs to go into the crisis with a plan. You may be able to
shape that plan if you become a community leader instead
of a âresourceâ. With Very Kind Regards, - R.J.
Charity in Disaster SituationsâInsuring the
Cohesion of the âWeâ
At the risk for sounding preachy, Iâd like to re-emphasize
the importance of storing extra logistics so that you can be
charitable when disaster strikes. Charity is Biblically supported, and makes common sense. (I strongly advise it,
regardless of your religious beliefs.) When the Schumer
Hits the Fan (SHTF), you will want neighbors that you can
count on, not people that you fear or distrust. By dispensing copious charity to your neighbors that did not have the
same foresight that you did, you will solidify them as strong
allies instead of envious potential enemies. In describing
communities, psychologists and sociologists often talk in
terms of the âwe/they paradigmâ. Typically, this is used in a
negative connotation, such as when they describe racism.
(And rightfully soâI loathe racism.) But I can see something
positive in building an appropriate âwe/theyâ distinction
during a societal collapseâthe distinction between your
local community and predatory outsiders. Just ask anyone
that has ever lived âinside the wireâ at a Forward Operating
Base (FOB) in Iraq. Those soldiers will tell you that they felt
a strong cohesive bond, and were absolutely determined.
to repel anyone that attempted to attack their FOB. Their
steadfast resolve can be summed up with the words: âThey
are not getting through the wire. Period.â Dispensing charity helps build a cohesive âweâ and draws into sharp contrast the âthey.â (In my view of the near future, the âtheyâ
will likely be roving bands of criminal looters. Imagine a
situation like in the movie The Road Warrior, and you are
inside the perimeter at the refinery. Can you see the appropriate âwe/theyâ?)
By logical extension, you can dispense significant charity
only if you have it to give. Clearly, you must stock up above
and beyond your own familyâs needs. So, for example, if
you calculate that you need 300 pounds of wheat for your
family, donât buy just 300 pounds. Instead, buy 600, 900,
or even 1,200 pounds. That might sound expensive, but
presently you can buy 50 pound sacks of hard red winter
wheat for around $7 to $8 each. About 45 pounds of wheat
will fit in a plastic 6 gallon food grade bucket that costs just
over $2. Or even if you pay more to buy wheat that already
packaged for long term storage in buckets (from a vendor
like Walton Feed), a 45 pound bucket of wheat still costs
just $17.15. Beans and rice are similarly priced. Consider
that extra food as a key to building a âsense of community.â Even for even those of you that are non-religious,
dispensing charity will be part of your âwe/they paradigm.â
insurance. If purchased in bulk quantities, it is also cheap
insurance. Donât neglect buying your family that insurance!
7 Likes
Love those prices! Shows just how much inflation there has been in the last 10 years.
One issue with having some extra to give to neighbors is that if you donât have enough to give all the neighbors all they need you are likely going to get a lot of knocks on the door once word gets out that you have a good enough supply of food that you are giving some away.
Many if not most of the people in my town are more prepared than most but I suspect things would get pretty dicey in an emergency lasting more than a few weeks where outside help wasnât available. The forest would run out of animals pretty quickly and a canât afford the small barn worth of grains it would take to feed everyone for an extended period of time. Even at 2012 prices.
3 Likes
@Shamrock Thanks for reading it. This describes a situation where you may have to buy your way into the new order or have it taken away. All for one and one for all.
5 Likes
Thanks for posting. I like getting different takes on various scenarios. Given the current economic and political challenges I have been doing a lot of looking into what happens when societies break down and how human psychology might play into all of that. Ideally we wonât have a full on meltdown and will just have to deal with something along the lines of a Venezuelan style economic meltdown where things are bad but survivable by most.
But looking at worst case scenario I could see some of what he describes happening in small communities with a fair amount of resources, like farming communities. The polities might be more benevolent under those circumstances though I suspect a lot of them would quickly develop hierarchies that might not be quite so one for all. There are always those that try to take advantage of situations and they often seem to find their way into positions of authority.
I do think in a serious long term breakdown in areas with less resources that the âpolitiesâ will likely take on a more warlord like appearance. These groups might start small by picking off individual households but eventually larger groups would form and challenge other groups for their resources. In that case if you donât have the strength to resist the warlord your likely choices are hoping you have something to offer so you can join them, fleeing before they knock down your door, or dying in place.
Then there is the issue of the corrupt government desperately trying to hold on to power. I could see federal, state and even some local authorities running around appropriating resources from those who were smart enough to prepare for bad times and then redistributing what they didnât keep for themselves in order to try and maintain control over what is left of the unprepared masses.
I think a lot of people would be forced to do a lot of things they would never dream of doing in a civilized world. Hope no one ever forces me to have to make those choices.
4 Likes
The LDS Prep goes into many real life scenarios when you have time to read through it.
3 Likes
My goal here is to get as many people as possible to think about preparing. I will try to post all month.
I have been prepping since 2005 after watching the gubment drop the ball during Katrina.
I started out with $50.00 in 2005 and turned it into a multi thousand $ endeavor, this is my retirement stash.
5 Likes
If you are looking for ânon GMOâ seeds I recommend. If you are in the growing belt.
Heirloom and Open Pollinated Seeds - St. Clare Heirloom Seeds - Heirloom and Open Pollinated Vegetable, Flower, and Herb Garden Seeds (stclareseeds.com)
I buy an assortment every year and vacuum seal them and store in the freezer.
4 Likes
I give up.
thank you for the link Bruce26
it is what I was looking for
1 Like
If youâre referring to Wannabe Dictator Joe - Joe Banana - youâre 100% right. Iâve gone over my preps thanks to BRUCE26 but Iâm concerned about these purported lock-downs No worries in my neck of the woods but if the wife and I were to take a drive to a blue city Iâm wondering if wearing my JP Spears freedom shirt will be allowed.
5 Likes
something to consider on the freeze dried emergency packs
try them out now to see if you can stomach them.
use to take ââcity boysââ canoeing up here in Da Yoop on a 3 day trip
had mountain house chicken terryuckie freeze dried for dinner one night
in 15 minutes they were in the woods hurling
the next year I did the menu and carried it down the river in coolers
2 Likes
If you buy seeds for the long term what I do is turn your oven to 200deg. when it is heated shut it off and spread the packets in a single layer and prop the door open and leave until the oven is cool to make sure no moisture is present
I vacuum seal them in a smaller bag and then vacuum them in a larger bag and store in the freezer with the date. When I want to plant, I use the oldest first. So far, no problems with germination.
I do the same with rice and oatmeal except in a single bag. Moisture is an enemy.
If you order from St. Clare seeds buy in the fall when they harvest to get the freshest seeds. I have four years of seed saved up and will order again soon. All these are heirloom seeds you should be able to harvest your own seeds, by letting them dry on the vine. beans, corn and peas are an example.
3 Likes
Emergency Essentials used to make a quart sized can so you could try the product without buying a #10 can, but with the buying spree after the fake pandemic they stopped making them.