Anyone had group of 100+ for more than 10 years?

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I need to understand quote method
Now I see if you click the REPLY it does the QUOTE but Post Reply is no quote
I have tried to “have it all” living in the "real world" but also seriously prepping. By making our retreat essentially in town, close to everything, by involving and sharing the financial load with like minded people, by not isolating and having everyone keep a foot in the real world, we have so far for the last 31 years kept our jobs, had normal families, lived in normal communities, taken family vacations, and still had the option to bug out in serious style if things get bad.
Sorry I will stop now and do it correct
 
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Clair, sorry for confusing you with the private message. I realize that the point of this forum is sharing and I am eager to learn about your project. So here is my response again.

As far as how we fit training and planning in with our jobs, we have high speed internet on site and are fortunate to have 14 members living there full time. Most are programmers, one is a retired University professor who works on event planning and the curriculum for the kids. All 14 share in the duties of maintenance and security and all are required to spend time "outside" occasionally. I pop in from the grocery store multiple times a day and others on the leadership team do the same. Planning weekend events and the one week summer camp/vacation takes a ton of work and weekly communication with members.

if you can, tell me about the forms that you used to pump the concrete into...were they metal or wood and also what was the strength of the concrete? I imagine you would need 15,000 PSI for a vertical job!
 
Dave, I thank you for your patience. I do not know the 15,000 PSI concrete but I know we used the 150 MPa on the deep part and some 100 MPa on the top building. Yes metal forms are borrowed and used many many times.

Amazing, 14 live under all the time? I would be crazy now! Do people have some movies to watch on computers? How can these people do the vacation and how do you get inside and nobody see you?? That seems to be the big risk.
 
Clair, the easy answer is to traverse through the grocery basement connection. Besides the forklift sized opening, (normally sealed off) there is a door-sized panel lockable from inside the facility. You are correct, security is very important and motion sensitive cams are monitored by on-duty staff and mounted both in the basement and in the parking deck. Any grocery employee will think cams are to make sure they don't steal and under the parking decks
customers and employees will think the cams are to prevent their cars from being broken into.

As far as movies go, we have a ridiculous DVD library that we're considering ditching (Thousands and thousands!) because the guys set up PLEX so we have about 10,000 movies and TV shows that we can watch from any computer or TV on our network. The nice thing is, they figured out how to make it function with or without the Internet so it's pretty awesome. We also keep a current copy of Wikipedia (downloadable but HUGE!) for anything we need to look up if the real Internet goes dark. I mentioned the kid's curriculum earlier, for that we use our state's complete curriculum and we supplement it with kolibri. Kolibri : A Free, Open Source Education for All | Learning Equality It's sort of Khan Academy on steroids and INCLUDES Khan Academy! Our teachers use it to supplement their lessons. Teachers check in with their students weekly to maintain lesson continuity.

Let me know if I am boring you with too much detail as you may be more interested in group organization than training etc. I can opine on that as well.
 
early communist red guard in the Sovjet revolution, where a leader was "elected" in a shouting election..
I know how reply works now.
Yes, we have no elections. Leaders are the first ones that think of ideas but we add engineer to position because he is very smart and save us a lot of money and time. Concrete guy in group also because he knows a lot of important information. When I read about the Dave group I can see we can do much better. I can see the electricity and internet are very important for having a guy work in hole for his job. We have many such people in our group who can do the computer program if they have the internet. Good ideas! Please tell me more everyone. What is important and the mistakes you are having? Thank you!
 
The Kansas super bunker has about 60 residents I think but they dont all live their permanently, same as the Xpoint in south Dakota .
WOW,WOW! Bill those are amazing! That Kansas place is like a fancy hotel or more! We can never do that good! 15 floors - that is maybe 45 m deep? Wow! And I wonder if people who also have big place can go visit that place or do you have to pay the money to see it?
Bill, all of my people have know me my entire life. So we are all neighbor except engineer and concrete guy. Only maybe 15 people do everything and the rest are family and want food if everything gets bad. I am sometimes afraid down there because I think with all those people it will drive me crazy if I am stuck down there for a long time. We need a lot more of the lights and the electricity but the generator is very loud and makes the air bad. We can do the solar in the field but then all people will know we are there and if they take the solar while we are in the hole, I think it could kill us so we need a better plan. Do you know some way to make the electricity that can not be seen?
 
Let me know if I am boring you with too much detail as you may be more interested in group organization than training etc. I can opine on that as well.
Dave, I know you are probably already sleep but I stay up all night because no work tomorrow!
I am sorry I did not reply quick because I am a little bit embarrassed when I see all those places like the Kansas deep place and your group and the Xplace. The Xplace looked nice, but I think it is maybe just digital concept or maybe no one lives there yet to take the photos? I would like to trade my sinkhole for the Kansas place now - wow!
When you did the message to me you asked me about surface - Top of sinkhole is back to the little lake about 0.5 m deep. 2 entrances other locations so no problems with water. When we found sinkhole, it was already the little lake and we used pump for many days. Lake makes sinkhole invisible so that is why we have the electricity problem because we need safe place for solar and trees are very difficult for mounting and field is not safe from stealing. Do that make sense?
And I am sorry that we do not live near the food store so we can do your idea to keep food good. I think now we will be safe for about a week and then everyone will have to leave. I know we will never be able to do the 5 year cruise idea but I think 4 weeks may be a goal for us to achieve!

I am sure I am making many mistakes tonight because I am very tired and the Google Translate helps me say good sentences but it is harder when I get tired! So I will sleep anyway!
 
Dave, I know you are probably already sleep but I stay up all night because no work tomorrow!
I am sorry I did not reply quick because I am a little bit embarrassed when I see all those places like the Kansas deep place and your group and the Xplace. The Xplace looked nice, but I think it is maybe just digital concept or maybe no one lives there yet to take the photos? I would like to trade my sinkhole for the Kansas place now - wow!
When you did the message to me you asked me about surface - Top of sinkhole is back to the little lake about 0.5 m deep. 2 entrances other locations so no problems with water. When we found sinkhole, it was already the little lake and we used pump for many days. Lake makes sinkhole invisible so that is why we have the electricity problem because we need safe place for solar and trees are very difficult for mounting and field is not safe from stealing. Do that make sense?
And I am sorry that we do not live near the food store so we can do your idea to keep food good. I think now we will be safe for about a week and then everyone will have to leave. I know we will never be able to do the 5 year cruise idea but I think 4 weeks may be a goal for us to achieve!

I am sure I am making many mistakes tonight because I am very tired and the Google Translate helps me say good sentences but it is harder when I get tired! So I will sleep anyway!
never feel ashamed of what you and your group built, it's something you all did, with the resources available.
when you accomplish something like that, take pride in it!
about food, cans and dry stuff will add many weeks before you might be forced to leave. sure it can be monotonous,if it's only rice,pasta and tomato in cans,but you get my point I'm sure.
 
When you did the message to me you asked me about surface - Top of sinkhole is back to the little lake about 0.5 m deep. 2 entrances other locations so no problems with water. When we found sinkhole, it was already the little lake and we used pump for many days. Lake makes sinkhole invisible so that is why we have the electricity problem because we need safe place for solar and trees are very difficult for mounting and field is not safe from stealing. Do that make sense?
Get out of town! That's awesome!
So you
  • found a lake,
  • drained it,
  • discovered it was REALLY deep and was a sinkhole,
  • came up with a plan
  • engineered a kick-### retreat
  • organized all those people to work together
  • found the resources to build your kick-### retreat
  • and MADE IT SO!
....and you feel like you haven't accomplished much???
My friend, you are a leader whether you know it or not...and a good one I'd say!

As for your solar problem, we have an electrical engineer who does our solar array and I will ask him. I know he has been working with a couple of other groups on underwater solar cells. I obviously wasn't paying attention, but I know he was excited about a particular type that he said worked quite well. Cost and availability may be an issue, but maybe you can experiment with one and go from there?

Your "replacing a lake with a lake" idea gives you fantastic camouflage!
I know you said your engineer is very good, so I expect your structure can handle that load.
Very creative!
 
Fake island in the middle of your lake. Anchor the fake island in the middle of the lake. Create tall fake brush on the perimeter of the fake island. Install hidden solar panels behind the fake brush / big rocks. Run power cables under the water down into your compound. Save the generator to run back up batteries, when the weather does not cooperate. You can even have a fake looking windmill (real working windmill) in the middle of the island. Nothing to draw enough curiosity, that would invite a closer look. Lots of options, look outside the box.
 
As for your solar problem, we have an electrical engineer who does our solar array and I will ask him. I know he has been working with a couple of other groups on underwater solar cells. I obviously wasn't paying attention, but I know he was excited about a particular type that he said worked quite well. Cost and availability may be an issue, but maybe you can experiment with one and go from there?

Your "replacing a lake with a lake" idea gives you fantastic camouflage!
I know you said your engineer is very good, so I expect your structure can handle that load.
Very creative!
Thank you so much!
Yes please give me information on these solar cells - it is good idea.
Yes we had many meeting on structural capacity and weight distribution - it is all good!
 
Concealled (under water) hydro electric micro turbines, Pressurised geothermal ?? Hydrogen fuel cell. liquid cooled, insulated and cased diesel genny exhausting into a stream or river???
Bill, no water moving near lake. I like very much the hydrogen idea but a little worried about temperature of the water because government use FLIR on helicopters for drug and other things. I wish we could do the geothermal because that would fix all problems. Not possible I think. There is the electricity in house only one kilometer away, but it will be a very long wire, but maybe we can do that for when not SHTF. Good idea to exhaust generator into lake from bottom - we can do that for sure! Thank you!
 
Fake island in the middle of your lake. Anchor the fake island in the middle of the lake. Create tall fake brush on the perimeter of the fake island. Install hidden solar panels behind the fake brush / big rocks. Run power cables under the water down into your compound. Save the generator to run back up batteries, when the weather does not cooperate. You can even have a fake looking windmill (real working windmill) in the middle of the island. Nothing to draw enough curiosity, that would invite a closer look. Lots of options, look outside the box.
TMT, we have a problem with the kids that like to fish in lake. If island they WILL walk or swim to get to island for SURE! Maybe some reed plants would do same with no island?
If we could get wire with the electricity and the Internet, computer guy could live there and keep kids away all the time but now we cannot be there all the time to protect lake. You are making me think, thank you!
 
It has been decided. We will meet every week to communicate the new ideas! I have a good feeling that we can do better plan!

And I have another question to all the people - I did search for SHTF and I think I see connection to bad event when I imagine SHTF but I think I may miss something in history or is it just things get messy? To me it is big bio event or Russia EMP but maybe it has different meaning for everybody?

What does SHTF mean for you? Is it life change event where life will not go back to before or like one week when there is no food or something. Say what you think when you say SHTF?
 
What's the male/female ratio in your groups?
Helen,
Good question - it has made me count and change my answer! Dave counts the kids so if I count them all I get different number! It is scary to know I did not count these mouths to feed?! So we have 17 mens and 9 womens and 13 boys and 22 girls! So ratio is 30/31. That is a lot more that I was counting but I can not ignore that we need to feed more. Wow, we have 61 people! We have more kids than we have of adults so we need to plan even better to do something with kids if it is to be a long time. This is a big deal. Thank you for the question.
 
I’m the leader. Everyone who signs on knows this. If an alpha isn’t pre-established the pack will fall apart eventually. My location is the bug out location. We have a large number of people who all have worked with me in one concern or another. However I don’t rule with an iron fist. I listen to all before decisions are made and finalized. Ps growing children can require more food. Be prepared.
 

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