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Dies Irae

Active Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2019
Messages
219
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Location
Czech Republic
After a long term SHTF situation we have a good number of ppl we trust and plan to form a small colony. Surviving on your own will be pretty much impossible in my opinion.

One thing we cant fully agree on....what to do with random people/groups that will ocasionaly find us? I see only 2 options which are
1. Take them in
2. Take them out
3. Would be taking prisoners but that would be a waste of resources.

What do you think?
Considering you have a family in your camp.
What to do with a random stranger showing up asking to join your camp/colony. Taking him/her in is a big risk but if you refuse and let him wander off you risk that the person will find another group and return to raid your place.
What if its a family or a group of 10 people?

How would you determine who to take in and what would you do with the ones you dont want to join you?

Hopefully this question makes sence.
 
We have a 3rd option. If you can determine that they are truly passing through and have a destination to family or another group of people like yourself, then it's very likely they will go there. If for some reason there destination was unsafe or deserted and they return, then there very likely the type of people you want to join your group.

1 and 2 options should be considered. That's 3 main options . A 4th is send them on there way by force if they haven't retconned, seen your base camp.
 
What if its YOU who is displaced and looking to join another community, How should they treat you as outsiders and possibly disease carriers or criminals?

Certainly ALL new arrivals need to live apart in quaratine for at least 30 days, and they must have useful skills to offer not just mouths to feed. If they arrive peacefully and send a spokesman to DISCUSS possible cooperation then meet and talk terms with them. If they arrived all together and armed shoot em.

I think as someone else wrote that communities will form naturally around fledging trading posts where different groups / families go to barter and trade. Trust will be born out via mutual trade and socialisation AWAY from homesteads and familiarity flourishes. Then mutual associations and cohabiting will be far less stresssful and dangerous.
 
Great question and good discussion. A lot of people (including myself) has the idea of avoiding people but that would just be "short term". Eventually society will try to reform. There is strength in numbers.

Need to understand that most anyone who shows up (either to join or just passing thru) will be armed. I would be very suspect of anyone who is NOT armed. As a group, you should interview anyone who want to join. What skills do they have and will "bring to the table". Make it clear you don't accept "deadbeats" and everyone needs some skills. The skills could be as simple as being able to bake bread or chop wood. Even someone with physical impairments could sit guard and watch approach paths. Listen to your entire group following the interview session. Some people have great insight into others (not me) so listen to them. Especially females. If they get the "creepy" feeling, send the stranger(s) packing.

If may be advantageous to plan ahead as to what skills and/or qualifications you are will to let in.

Since you scenario is "After a long term SHTF situation", I would think that the truly dangerous and the truly weak have been thinned out. I would hope at that point, your community would be looking to build itself back up with the right skilled people. The hard part will separating the BSers from the honest folks. But, then again, that is the same challenge we face today.

Thanks for starting this discussion. You are making the work my pea-brain this morning. o_O
 
I think I would put them in "quarantine" as Bill said. Actually I don't think anyone other than relatives will ever be in the main camp. You'd have to marry your way into the inner circle, LOL. I've got plenty of useful kin already, doctor, dentist, carpenter, nurse, electrical engineer, biologist, etc. - and all of them can shoot, even the females.

I'd have a buffer camp between the main camp and the road in a more accessible spot than the main camp (which is a mile from the public road and doesn't have a road going directly to it). Let them live there and prove themselves.
 
After a long term SHTF situation we have a good number of ppl we trust and plan to form a small colony. Surviving on your own will be pretty much impossible in my opinion.

One thing we cant fully agree on....what to do with random people/groups that will ocasionaly find us? I see only 2 options which are
1. Take them in
2. Take them out
3. Would be taking prisoners but that would be a waste of resources.

What do you think?
Considering you have a family in your camp.
What to do with a random stranger showing up asking to join your camp/colony. Taking him/her in is a big risk but if you refuse and let him wander off you risk that the person will find another group and return to raid your place.
What if its a family or a group of 10 people?

How would you determine who to take in and what would you do with the ones you dont want to join you?

Hopefully this question makes sence.

The question makes a lot of sense...it's the answer that's sticky!! In the final analysis it's probably going to depend on who shows up, whether it's an individual or family, etc., and a good dose of common sense. And there is no "turning away." If you "turn them away," you are inviting disaster...those you would turn away need to become fertilizer for the garden.
 
I think that families (parents + kids) are mostly safe to take in. Kids will learn what they need in time and i guess parents will be loyal if they see that their kids have enough food and protection.

Rellgar : to be honest i didnt considered people that will just pass by to get to their relatives.Will mostly depends if they find our main camp or just some outpost. With main camp protection its always better to be safe than sorry.

BillMasen: I wouldn't expect to be treated any differently.Everyone will be scared and will expect the worst from new arivals. Would depend if my family is with me or if im alone.Honestly if i loose my kids and wife i wont care if i get shot or not.You are right .... if a group is keeping its distance and will just send one unarmed person to negotiate it will be a good sign. 10people with guns demanding to be alowed in is a no brainer.
 
JackDW : thats the case ... if people say that the someone is "creepy" and shouldn't be allowed in then its an open invitation for disaster like VenomJockey said. They can try to take revenge for being refused,come back with a group that allowed him in,try to negotiate with agresive people ( leave me alive and i will show you where the good stuff is,etc.
 
Rellgar : to be honest i didnt considered people that will just pass by to get to their relatives.Will mostly depends if they find our main camp or just some outpost. With main camp protection its always better to be safe than sorry.
Because of the location of our BOL, I seriously doubt we will ever see anyone that is just passing through. It is kind of like the opposite of the path of least resistance, LOL. Everyone will be a poacher or raider, or something in between. In 50 years I've only ever run across two people on our land who weren't supposed to be there. One was going into our woods following a turkey he had seen, and the other claimed to be just passing through from his camp (not likely since there was a gravel road to his camp he could have taken not 50 yards from where he came out of the woods). In other words two poachers in 50 years.

Peaceful foragers can turn violent if desperate enough, and violent raiders can turn peaceful if you put the Fear of God into them.
 
DrHenley : In my location is hard to stay hidden. Czech Republic is a small country filled with small towns and villages so people are and will be everywhere. The location we choose got 2 roads leading there one from East and one from West. We are not close to those roads but not that far eighter. We already decided where to place outposts but still its possible to get to the main camp by accident.we can use a trap/alarm we tryed out but that works only from spring to fall and cant be safely used near our camp.
 
DrHenley : In my location is hard to stay hidden. Czech Republic is a small country filled with small towns and villages so people are and will be everywhere.
Understood. Manys places in the US are crowded like that but that is the last place I want to be when the SHTF. We still have some wide open spaces, mostly out west but there are still some sparsely populated areas in the Southeastern US.
Just to give you an idea of how few people are near the BOL, the closest house to the BOL on the public road is 2 miles (3,2 km) away. The next closest house on the public road is over 8 miles (12,9 km) away. For the entire county outside the county seat, the population density is very low (14.3 per sq mi, or 5,3 per km2) , but our part of the county is much lower. And by Western US standards, we are crowded, LOL.
 
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Would love to have a place like that but will make the best from what i have here. In CZ you wont spend more than 10 minutes driving from village to village.If SHTF happens its gonna be pure chaos here. Defence is gonna be the 1st thing on the list when we gather at our location.

One thing made me laugh pretty good today. I was talking with a friend of mine that consider himself a prepper. He said : i dont have to make defence and such i own a farm so people wont bother me. I tryed to explain what will happen but he really thinks that after SHTF he will be safe because its his property.13 square km,one well and not event fenced house.
 
Peaceful foragers can turn violent if desperate enough, and violent raiders can turn peaceful if you put the Fear of God into them.
Been there, done that. Saw all that happen in Croatia. Mothers protecting their children, older children protecting the younger ones.
The other side is, even the oldest of the women were ready to throw a handgrenade at you if you even looked like the enemy. Our Police unit did a search and seizure in Osiek and had to shoot a 71 year old woman 3 times to finally subdue her...both legs and a shoulder. She was still screaming and fighting against all odds till they gave her morphine and carted her away to jail for smuggling guns and explosives. Fanatics cannot be dealt with or "converted" to any sort of other thoughts except what they have been taught for years of propaganda. The "Fear of God" for some, only means: introducing them to God...GP
 
This scenario started with "After a long term SHTF situation".

While I understand most people at this site want to avoid ALL contact with people. There has to be some point where you expect you (or your family) will start reaching out to others. Heck, your "offspring" cannot keep intermixing forever.

Where do you see this happening? In a year, 10 year, 50 years. Maybe you will never join society, which is reasonable, but when would you expect your offspring to rejoin? It could be you have the big group in the area, in which case, when will you start inviting others to join. If you have a smaller camp, when do you think you (or your camp) will start looking to join a larger one?

Again, no right or wrong answer. The intent of this question is to make you think, WHAT IF?

In my case, I am old enough that I may stay separated the rest of my life but somewhere, I know that my children and/or gran-children will be merging into a growing society.
 

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