Unique Trade Goods

[Illini Warrior]

While I do not rule out a mass die off, namely in the major metro areas, or areas with limited water supply (i.e. imagine how Las Vegas will fare in a grid down situation, no water), I intend to see to it that the die off in my area is limited as much as possible.

someone already asked - How?

I'll ask my usual when the subject of sharing comes up - No matter your self sufficiency possibilities - you'll have to be dipping into your stockpile (I envy the prepper with their own pharmaceutical plant) ...

Covid lasted how many months by anyone's count - 16-17-18 months? - remember the initial talk - BAD FLU SEASON

you have a personal stockpile of a year - you start sharing - it's not BS Covid and absolutely everything stops dead - suddenly the "official SHTF forecast" goes from a "couple of months max" to "no end in sight" ....

unless it's a natural disaster - with a very predictable termination >>> Share how much? - Share what? - Share with whom? - How do you stop the flow once you start? - Who's watching your back? ...

breaking your prepping OPSEC is the slipperiest slope around - doing it during a serious SHTF is probably suicide ...

 

[bigpaul]

I read a long time ago something that said if you dip into your stockpile for every waif and stray (or needy neighbour) that comes along very soon YOU will be the one starving, or something to that effect.
I do not intend to be that person.

 

[Dracos]

I will need labor to grow food. People will need food.

 

[bigpaul]

I will need labor to grow food. People will need food.

depends how many your growing for, the more people you feed the more you need to grow, the more you grow the more people you'll need for the labour to grow it.
it also depends on how many people survive, general estimates say not many.
keep it simple is my philosophy.

 

[Arcticdude]

depends how many your growing for, the more people you feed the more you need to grow, the more you grow the more people you'll need for the labour to grow it.
it also depends on how many people survive, general estimates say not many.
keep it simple is my philosophy.

I think the survival rate would differ considerably from one area to another. Big cities and especially big cities in desert areas would be low. I think the survival rate in rural areas would be very high. Almost everyone in my area raise livestock, grain, have orchards, chickens, horses, gardens and heat with wood. Many people around here already trade. A couple years ago I traded our old barn for help reparing fencing, every year I trade beef for firewood or something else I need. Much of our excess garden produce we give away as well as our excess eggs. Recently I bought some farm equipment for a young man who is starting out ranching. In return he helps me out when I need something done. Trading is already going on in many areas, always has.

 

[grayghost668]

most livestock are good escape artists especially sheep. personally I prefer game meat not farmed meat, but a few "rescued" sheep will keep the grass down when there is no fuel for motor mowers, pigs are good "tractors" and will turn the soil over for us.

within 5 miles of my house there must be at least 500 head of cattle,,,,,,,,, BEEF IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER AROUND HERE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, if it ever does go to hell

While I do not rule out a mass die off, namely in the major metro areas, or areas with limited water supply (i.e. imagine how Las Vegas will fare in a grid down situation, no water), I intend to see to it that the die off in my area is limited as much as possible.

I won't even try to help more than the immediate neighbors,, hell most are better off than I am

 

[TexasFreedom]

While I do not rule out a mass die off, namely in the major metro areas, or areas with limited water supply (i.e. imagine how Las Vegas will fare in a grid down situation, no water), I intend to see to it that the die off in my area is limited as much as possible.

I think you are looking at things backwards. A healthy 1/2 of the population will be the cause of the collapse. And you want to save them, so that they can do it again?

I'd take the opposite approach. Pass out fliers that say anyone with a democrat voters ID should show up Saturday at 1pm at a baseball park (surrounded by lots of open fields. I'll assume this is a bigger city. Let them line up, and take them all out. Methods might vary: shoot them, poison them, etc. But LOTS of problems solved in one event. I don't want to make people suffer, but I want to take the problems before they become MY problem. Sounds mean? Nope. To me this sounds like problem solving in difficult situations. Maybe call it a form of 'triage'.

 

[MOS0231]

Whoops...not like Big Paul, Like Mos

I was tracking you.

I have noticed more and more people along my road growing gardens.
One guy now has cows. How he is going to sustain them from what I can see as maybe 1/4acre of grazing space, I do not know. He might be spending a lot of money on hay.
Another home has put in a good sized fencing and has chickens.

 

[MOS0231]

I think you are looking at things backwards. A healthy 1/2 of the population will be the cause of the collapse. And you want to save them, so that they can do it again?

I'd take the opposite approach. Pass out fliers that say anyone with a democrat voters ID should show up Saturday at 1pm at a baseball park (surrounded by lots of open fields. I'll assume this is a bigger city. Let them line up, and take them all out. Methods might vary: shoot them, poison them, etc. But LOTS of problems solved in one event. I don't want to make people suffer, but I want to take the problems before they become MY problem. Sounds mean? Nope. To me this sounds like problem solving in difficult situations. Maybe call it a form of 'triage'.

My "town" if you could call it that, is just over 600 people according to the last census.
Now, counting all the Amish and their kids, might be closer to 800.
Most of us, but not all, fly the American flag out here. More than a few Trump supporters.
Does not matter their political affiliation. If anything, such a collapse might be what we need to get people to understand the importance of small government at the local level. They might have to put in a honest days work, sweat, get blisters and callouses.

I am not interested in joining the ranks of other people who committed wholesale murder based on political beliefs like Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao.

 

[MOS0231]

someone already asked - How?

I'll ask my usual when the subject of sharing comes up - No matter your self sufficiency possibilities - you'll have to be dipping into your stockpile (I envy the prepper with their own pharmaceutical plant) ...

Covid lasted how many months by anyone's count - 16-17-18 months? - remember the initial talk - BAD FLU SEASON

you have a personal stockpile of a year - you start sharing - it's not BS Covid and absolutely everything stops dead - suddenly the "official SHTF forecast" goes from a "couple of months max" to "no end in sight" ....

unless it's a natural disaster - with a very predictable termination >>> Share how much? - Share what? - Share with whom? - How do you stop the flow once you start? - Who's watching your back? ...

breaking your prepping OPSEC is the slipperiest slope around - doing it during a serious SHTF is probably suicide ...

Read Arcticdude's post #85.

Out here everything is out in the open. Nearly everyone has a garden of some kind. Lot of livestock out here. It is a given everyone has a pantry as we get winter storms where we might be snowed in for a few days. Nearly everyone heats with wood. It is a matter of getting everyone through the bottle neck, to the other side to get to a place where everyone has a big garden, trading seeds, trading surplus for other things, breeding programs, etc. to make sure no one goes hungry.
We will lose some, of course.
But I know full well my chances of making it get a whole lot better if I have like minded people, all moving toward a common goal of feeding our selves and each other than by myself.

 

[Amish Heart]

Yep! Agree with that, absolutely! Our farm neighbor owns the seed company in town, down the road from us. Every month there's a semi bringing in something that people preorder (it was cases of peaches this month), and they line up their cars and pick up cases of whatever it is. What we can't grow ourselves is arranged to come in just for our community by truck. I realize this wouldn't happen if things went south, but people here look out for the community. There's a big bin of huge zucchini marked for free outside of our one burger joint. Another neighbor grew 1/4 acre of sweet corn just for whoever to come and pick and enjoy.

 

[Arcticdude]

I like my neighbors. I would gladly help any of them in need, provided it doesn't leave me short. They would do the same for me.

 

[bigpaul]

Thats why I say things will be different in the UK to how they will be in the US.
many people who live in small towns and villages, the vast majority of such, are not agricultural workers or land holders, they commute to the cities for work sometimes many miles returning at night.
they, like the city people, have no supplies, no stockpiles, no meat animals, they still shop in supermarkets probably 3 times a week, I'm the only one here that still does a monthly big shop.
consequently the survival rate in both cities and rural will be low, very low.
trying to trade in my location will be a waste of time, low survival rate-low population now never mind post SHTF, and they wouldnt have anything to trade anyway.
like I said, Different!

 

[Schattentarn]

Mike Mah (NoStressMike.com) was an extreme combat marine in Vietnam, prepper and has posted quite a bit on SHTF. He says do not let outsiders in your community after SHTF. Set them up in a camp on the other side of a bridge or river, offer them medical assistance, and then ask them what they have to trade for life sustaining items. He is/was on the Kansas/Oklahoma border so there were few natural barriers involved in the movement of people.

 

[bigpaul]

I have never believed or given credence to the "Golden Horde" theory, not in Britain anyway, its pure fiction, once the power goes down and the filling stations are empty nobody is going anywhere and they wont even think about it before those 2 things happen, plus we have an obesity and diabetic crisis in this country 2 out of every 3 of the population has a severe medical condition.
even if they could walk out they wont get far without being prepared in advance.
once the trucks stop rolling the die off begins.
even in a country the size of Britain finding someone to trade with post SHTF is going to be a fruitless exercise and a waste of time and effort, better and more important things to do like putting food on the table.

 

[Schattentarn]

I have never believed or given credence to the "Golden Horde" theory, not in Britain anyway, its pure fiction, once the power goes down and the filling stations are empty nobody is going anywhere and they wont even think about it before those 2 things happen, plus we have an obesity and diabetic crisis in this country 2 out of every 3 of the population has a severe medical condition.
even if they could walk out they wont get far without being prepared in advance.
once the trucks stop rolling the die off begins.
even in a country the size of Britain finding someone to trade with post SHTF is going to be a fruitless exercise and a waste of time and effort, better and more important things to do like putting food on the table.

You make Britain sound like prepper paradise.

 

[Arcticdude]

Some people are looking too short term when it comes to trading. In some areas trading will begin almost immediately. Some locations trading may not start for a couple years or more after SHTF. But its guaranteed that trading will become widespread eventually. Trading could be in the form of labor, dried meat/fish, berries, fruit, ammo, fur/leather products, fish hooks, fire wood, chickens, eggs, livestock, medical and countless other things.
Society will be rebuilt. In what form? No one knows for sure.

 

[backandbeyond]

Anyone counting on an overnight collapse will probably be disappointed. Short of a carrington event the government has good control and will be able to keep the drones fed and housed. You only have to look at any nation around the third world to see that. the average worker bee will comply.

The survivalist DOOM fantasy is certainly reassuring as far as all the money we spend on preps, it's like we have a vested interest that the collapse will be over in a week lol.

 

[backandbeyond]

I'd take the opposite approach. Pass out fliers that say anyone with a democrat voters ID should show up Saturday at 1pm Let them line up, and take them all out.

That was Adolf Hitler's solution, but after all the democrats then what? Anyone with a dog under 14" high? Anyone who drinks bourbon on a Tuesday before 6pm?

 

[bigpaul]

You make Britain sound like prepper paradise.

my part of it is! cant say the same for the big cities but they are located in the East and North not the South West ,where I live is a low population agricultural area. I've already been told I live "in the middle of nowhere" .
WTSHTF it will just be a matter of time for the die off to start, days and weeks not months.
any trading or community will be many years down the line probably several decades and rebuilding society even if it is possible will come after that if it happens at all.
you see in the past when civilizations collapsed the survivors were able to access their daily needs by their own physical labour, that is no longer possible in the modern age as much of the skills and knowledge have been lost as they are considered old fashioned and no longer needed, at least over here it is. most seem to regard learning anything as stupid when you can just google the answer, they will soon learn why when the power goes down and the internet isnt working but too late for them that why the die off will be huge in the UK.