I believe those are the exceptions and not the way most are. You would have to vet the family and the key word here is family.
When suddenly you find yourself having to prep alone.
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I believe those are the exceptions and not the way most are. You would have to vet the family and the key word here is family.
Wierd people do wierd things for wierd reasons under wierd circumstances... everybody acts and re-acts under certain circumstances differently. Trust no-one with your life, your wife or your toothbrush. Live free, Gary
Amish Heart
A True Doomsday Prepper
Absolutely, not with your toothbrush. My sister found that out the hard way after she was mean to me.
On the subject of everything possibly falling apart if one of us passes or is disabled;
That's a problem I definitely don't want my wife to have to deal with on our build.
This is one of the questions I asked Dave (who traveled with us) on our hour-long trip from Ocala to their huge facility in Florida last Saturday. Dave is 70ish (so he's no spring chicken) and I asked him if he thinks his whole organization will unravel when he's gone and he explained (and later showed us) why he thinks it would do fine without him.
He pulled up the stewardship list on a 4G iPad; it's really long, but easy to navigate.
(BTW it seemed he could access/do nearly anything from that iPad!)
They have so many members (over 100 adults) and every job has multiple people who own it. It sure looks like everything runs smoothly and there is constant activity but no one is directing them.
Members (including teens) really know what they're doing and they own it. Around 20 people live at the facility full time and with kids coming after school working with their mentors, it could take a facility wrecking explosion or something else big to break their continuity of duty and even then, I think they'd rebuild.
Dave calls it buy-in when members learn about and take on responsibilities. He says most weave their responsibilities into their busy lives and ask for help if they need to back off because of life's other commitments. Everyone eventually teaches someone else what they know and everyone has multiple stewardships or is a second or third.
My impression of the teens I met were that they were really competent, smart, and socially adjusted. I'm pretty techie, but I had no idea there could be so much tuning involved with a solar array. These kids were maximizing something with the inverters and balancing loads between arrays on different buildings, the facility, the battery banks, and the power company. I got the impression that they didn't think much of the power company's expertise and they were bantering about the best way to do something when we came up. They wouldn't have said a word to us if Dillon (the facility afternoon shift manager who was helping with the tour) hadn't asked them to explain to us what they were doing. They were obviously whip-smart and good explainers, but when given the chance, they sprinted away to the firing range because we were making them late for their time slot. Dillon explained that solar array stewards get notifications on their phones when something needs tweaking. Dillon, Dave, and a dozen other people get all the notifications from systems all over the facility so nothing falls through the cracks, but only the on-duty person has to follow up. Dave says 95% of the time, he feels the vibration on his phone, but can ignore it unless he gets a couple in quick succession.
So what I got out of my tour on this subject is:
Try to involve enough members or family or friends to give your BOL continuity in the case you become disabled etc.
If you have a lot of people involved, you can do more stuff.
If you only have 2, maybe you make sure your partner can down-size to the basics in case you're gone?
That's a problem I definitely don't want my wife to have to deal with on our build.
This is one of the questions I asked Dave (who traveled with us) on our hour-long trip from Ocala to their huge facility in Florida last Saturday. Dave is 70ish (so he's no spring chicken) and I asked him if he thinks his whole organization will unravel when he's gone and he explained (and later showed us) why he thinks it would do fine without him.
He pulled up the stewardship list on a 4G iPad; it's really long, but easy to navigate.
(BTW it seemed he could access/do nearly anything from that iPad!)
They have so many members (over 100 adults) and every job has multiple people who own it. It sure looks like everything runs smoothly and there is constant activity but no one is directing them.
Members (including teens) really know what they're doing and they own it. Around 20 people live at the facility full time and with kids coming after school working with their mentors, it could take a facility wrecking explosion or something else big to break their continuity of duty and even then, I think they'd rebuild.
Dave calls it buy-in when members learn about and take on responsibilities. He says most weave their responsibilities into their busy lives and ask for help if they need to back off because of life's other commitments. Everyone eventually teaches someone else what they know and everyone has multiple stewardships or is a second or third.
My impression of the teens I met were that they were really competent, smart, and socially adjusted. I'm pretty techie, but I had no idea there could be so much tuning involved with a solar array. These kids were maximizing something with the inverters and balancing loads between arrays on different buildings, the facility, the battery banks, and the power company. I got the impression that they didn't think much of the power company's expertise and they were bantering about the best way to do something when we came up. They wouldn't have said a word to us if Dillon (the facility afternoon shift manager who was helping with the tour) hadn't asked them to explain to us what they were doing. They were obviously whip-smart and good explainers, but when given the chance, they sprinted away to the firing range because we were making them late for their time slot. Dillon explained that solar array stewards get notifications on their phones when something needs tweaking. Dillon, Dave, and a dozen other people get all the notifications from systems all over the facility so nothing falls through the cracks, but only the on-duty person has to follow up. Dave says 95% of the time, he feels the vibration on his phone, but can ignore it unless he gets a couple in quick succession.
So what I got out of my tour on this subject is:
Try to involve enough members or family or friends to give your BOL continuity in the case you become disabled etc.
If you have a lot of people involved, you can do more stuff.
If you only have 2, maybe you make sure your partner can down-size to the basics in case you're gone?
"A lot of people' just isn't an option for me, as I stated earlier in the original post. 'A few neighbors', maybe, but there are VERY few of those. These are very large parcels of land around me. I fear your last option is my only real option. I'll just have to do the best I can to defend myself and my BOL.................. until I can no longer do so.
Remember, we are not very far off.
Wow, I bet you and Dave could write a novel about that facility and it's members.
bigpaul
A True Doomsday Prepper
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I've spent a lot of my life alone so being left on my own post collapse wouldnt be too different, I've also lived off grid with very little in the way of supplies so again no problem. its other people that cause me problems and post collapse other people especially strangers will be avoided like the plague.
Keep doing what you are doing! One never knows who is going to enter your life and be there at the right time.
The main problem for all Preppers is what to prepare for. Will it just be a little chaos for a few days or a lot of chaos for many months?
This is something each family has to decide, especially if one is alone and will be alone.
No matter what that decision is, your overall plan should not be to kill al those SOBs but to dissuade them from molesting you and find an easier target.
Consider these thoughts:
Most Preppers will shelter in place in suburbia. The minimum security will require two guards on duty at all times; one outside, one inside. That requires six adults to cover three shifts. Assuming some have spouses and kids, that means you will find yourself in a brick house (more bullet proof) with ten people. You collect $?? from each of your roomies for their food and water and stockpile it now. That is their ticket in.
Daily Life: The schedule will read, “stay inside, quiet and no lights.” You will cook a soup in the room the farthest away from neighbors, around 11 PM or 4 AM so they can't smell dinner. Just at sunrise, one person will run out to empty the toilet and gather water and twigs for the stove.
Security: Purchase at least two olive green or camouflaged rain ponchos and at least two cheap GMRS radios with earphones and a spare pack of AA rechargeable batteries (Minimum link Total: $52). Inventory rail road ties for them to hide behind ($10 each). The outside guard should be able to retreat to additional fortified positions where he can continue to ambush from safely. This allows time for the residents to muster.
The likely raid will be an attempt to throw a brick through your front glass window and enter while the buddy kicks in the back door. Their plan is to kill within thirty seconds. Consider purchasing Shotgun Trip Alarms ($30 each). You can put multiple trip wires on each alarm. For alarm, point shell down, for defense, aim sideways. Make sure projectiles don't hit you too. One wire can go into the house for you to detonate. Another wire can be strung in front of the window for the intruder to volunteer to shoot himself - your choice. You can even put a safety loop in the main wire with a nail at the end of another wire to be pulled out of the safety loop before firing. We added a ¾” galvanized pipe, 2.5 inches long, to slid around the shell. Cost: $1.
This is something each family has to decide, especially if one is alone and will be alone.
No matter what that decision is, your overall plan should not be to kill al those SOBs but to dissuade them from molesting you and find an easier target.
Consider these thoughts:
Most Preppers will shelter in place in suburbia. The minimum security will require two guards on duty at all times; one outside, one inside. That requires six adults to cover three shifts. Assuming some have spouses and kids, that means you will find yourself in a brick house (more bullet proof) with ten people. You collect $?? from each of your roomies for their food and water and stockpile it now. That is their ticket in.
Daily Life: The schedule will read, “stay inside, quiet and no lights.” You will cook a soup in the room the farthest away from neighbors, around 11 PM or 4 AM so they can't smell dinner. Just at sunrise, one person will run out to empty the toilet and gather water and twigs for the stove.
Security: Purchase at least two olive green or camouflaged rain ponchos and at least two cheap GMRS radios with earphones and a spare pack of AA rechargeable batteries (Minimum link Total: $52). Inventory rail road ties for them to hide behind ($10 each). The outside guard should be able to retreat to additional fortified positions where he can continue to ambush from safely. This allows time for the residents to muster.
The likely raid will be an attempt to throw a brick through your front glass window and enter while the buddy kicks in the back door. Their plan is to kill within thirty seconds. Consider purchasing Shotgun Trip Alarms ($30 each). You can put multiple trip wires on each alarm. For alarm, point shell down, for defense, aim sideways. Make sure projectiles don't hit you too. One wire can go into the house for you to detonate. Another wire can be strung in front of the window for the intruder to volunteer to shoot himself - your choice. You can even put a safety loop in the main wire with a nail at the end of another wire to be pulled out of the safety loop before firing. We added a ¾” galvanized pipe, 2.5 inches long, to slid around the shell. Cost: $1.
I won't be sheltering in place. The premise of my first post was something might happen to my husband WHILE at our BOL. It is a very isolated, rural property cabin on 42 acres on a road with few residents for 3 miles or more. Although I'm sure the methods of attack by intruders there will be much the same as attackers' tactics in suburbia, a lone female will have trouble defending 42 acres alone. Just sayin', and that was the reason for my original post.
rainingcatzanddogs
A True Doomsday Prepper
Did I miss something here? I thought what you had to say was really cool and interesting and a novel (even if it was fictionalized to protect details for public consumption) would make for a really good read....I'm confused...
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rainingcatzanddogs
A True Doomsday Prepper
I don't know the specifics of your situation but, I can say if it was just me and the hubby, I would concentrate time and money on hiding. Maybe sheltering and primarily living underground at least for a good amount of time?
Assumption in the original post is my husband is deceased from heart attack or worse and I'm totally alone. How would I report a death with no longer functioning police when society totally broke down? We've even discussed where we'd bury the first to die when society broke down totally.
Underground isn't a possibility. Five years ago when we bought the place, we thought about excavating for a shipping container underground, but our access lane onto the property has a sharp 90º turn with trees on both sides (pretty tight lane). It doesn't afford much space for a long truck/trailer to turn/maneuver that turn with a very long load. Even large tractors and a large trailer that have come there to dig out a hole for a cement storm shelter last year was a challenge on our access lane of very sandy soil. I do have complete instructions with diagrams/pictures for building a shelter underground with sandbags (which we have a lot of).............with venting instructions. But to be honest, we're just getting too old to entertain the notion of building a shelter anymore.
There is a treed area at one end of the property, over 1000 yards away from the cabin is extremely hidden from the cabin perspective. It's surrounded by very tall, dense yaupon thickets on 3 sides with a few oak trees scattered about. You cannot see it at all from the cabin. Just looks like a thicket of dense trees. But once you WALK down there on foot, it becomes more obvious there's an open space in the middle and my hideout would be found. I could hide the SUV and myself there for awhile, but just until the intruders decided to 'explore' the property on foot. Hopefully they'd just move on quickly, taking what they could carry off until they hit the next farm on the road. I guess that would be my only option if I were literally by myself.
Underground isn't a possibility. Five years ago when we bought the place, we thought about excavating for a shipping container underground, but our access lane onto the property has a sharp 90º turn with trees on both sides (pretty tight lane). It doesn't afford much space for a long truck/trailer to turn/maneuver that turn with a very long load. Even large tractors and a large trailer that have come there to dig out a hole for a cement storm shelter last year was a challenge on our access lane of very sandy soil. I do have complete instructions with diagrams/pictures for building a shelter underground with sandbags (which we have a lot of).............with venting instructions. But to be honest, we're just getting too old to entertain the notion of building a shelter anymore.
There is a treed area at one end of the property, over 1000 yards away from the cabin is extremely hidden from the cabin perspective. It's surrounded by very tall, dense yaupon thickets on 3 sides with a few oak trees scattered about. You cannot see it at all from the cabin. Just looks like a thicket of dense trees. But once you WALK down there on foot, it becomes more obvious there's an open space in the middle and my hideout would be found. I could hide the SUV and myself there for awhile, but just until the intruders decided to 'explore' the property on foot. Hopefully they'd just move on quickly, taking what they could carry off until they hit the next farm on the road. I guess that would be my only option if I were literally by myself.
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It is good and even great that you are already thinking along these lines. Make the BOL look burned out with black paint, unhinge the door, turn over some chairs and leave some empty foodstuffs cans laying around, maybe even a cheap gun with no ammo....make it look desolate and desolated. Take a special way to your hideout which has seldom or never been used so they cannot follow your steps or tracks. Be ready to run or drive away if possibly found, be ready to shoot as many as possible and give you less enemies and more time to run, shoot their car tires or even the cooler/radiator so they cannot follow you. Have a secondary and third hiding place with a bit of food and water and spare clothes, ammo, etc. Take a camoflage net to re-hide your car and yourself...practice doing this procedure, you will not only get better and faster, you will also find weak spots in your plans and find positions to shoot from and better escape route. actually measure distances to your possible targets also. You can only do that which you have done before and over again.
PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN....good luck and have fun practicing survival, live free, Gary
MaterielGeneral
Active Member
rainingcatzanddogs
A True Doomsday Prepper
Awww...now look what you gone n' did! I am wiping spewed soda off my screen.
Some good suggestions there, Gary! We do have a camo net for the car already. Have heard of the "make it look already looted " approach and I plan to do that. around the cabin. I like your idea of making it look burned out or trashed up a bit. The cabin is completely raw, unpainted wood, so that's possible with wood ash/charcoal or paint. And undoing the screen hinge letting it hang askew would be a nice touch as well, with a window curtain pr twp torn. We do have some food & water hidden in this separate location, knowing this would be a possible hiding spot.
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Put duct tape on the inside of the windows with peepholes out. It will give the appearance of smoke damage And they can’t easily see in.
I know this doesn’t fit the theme of the thread, but my wife’s go to spot is a loft in the barn. Her protection is waiting up there for her. I have a motion detector light just inside the barn door. My spot is out in some rock outcroppings overlooking the drive. As a group of 2, we aren’t planing on the protecting the house except for the access up here.
Adapt a plan using these ideas if they fit your situation.
I know this doesn’t fit the theme of the thread, but my wife’s go to spot is a loft in the barn. Her protection is waiting up there for her. I have a motion detector light just inside the barn door. My spot is out in some rock outcroppings overlooking the drive. As a group of 2, we aren’t planing on the protecting the house except for the access up here.
Adapt a plan using these ideas if they fit your situation.
Every plan is good till it is needed. We can only plan and have many exceptions to the rule scenarios. If you watch domesticated animals while they sleep, they will lie on their backs and show their vitals. A wild animal will seldom do such, they always sleep with their nose pointed towards -the exit- so they can get away fast if surprised in their sleep. All fighting positions needs backup positions and -fast exits- so you can get away and live to fight again.
Like the barn, if cornered, how can your wife get down fast? Is there a rope tied up top that she could kick out and slide down on? What if the barn is torched? Fast getaway? Keep up the planning and survive, Gary
