So, you’re setting up a lifeboat community. You’ve got a group of “like-minded” people, a handful of acres, maybe a house or two, and plans to ride out TEOTWAWKI. But do you really know who you’ve signed on with?
by Jennie Erwin, contributing writer
I’ll be talking today about my personal group, and I’ll change names to protect the innocent, but maybe you’ll recognize some of this crazy in your own group. Feel free to chime in if you’ve got insight on any of this to share.
The Crazy Guy
We’ll call him Chris, Crazy Chris. He doesn’t date much, and is a little socially awkward. He’s intelligent enough, and a really nice guy, so joining up with him didn’t seem like that big a deal. He even has experience with organic farms, through the WWOOFing group. Sounds great! Until the crazy starts coming out. He left a good job to come back to the doomstead a few years ago, (a bit premature, but sure, okay). Then we realize his entire plan is to set up in a tee-pee. In Iowa. All year. *sigh*
At that point in doomstead construction, we had a shed, and half a house. No utilities, no food production, just construction. Weeks of gentle, reality-oriented discussions failed to persuade him, and he showed up, with a teepee. He didn’t help with planting or house building. He just set up the tee-pee, moved buckets of dried beans in and left.
We found out weeks later he was living in his parents basement an hour away. He drifts in and out for the next year. His tee-pee falls down at some point. We hear he’s looking for work, but he seems unable to find any. We get occasional emails talking about the “chem trails” and free junk he has found in the area and wants to move to the property. Then comes silence for a few months. Through his cousin we learn he’s in jail. He was living with another crazy person, growing illegal substances and they both got busted and thrown in jail. So, now we’re down one Crazy Chris, and still wondering what we’ll do with the tee-pee.
Will we let him back after he’s released? I don’t know. We have our own semi-legal/illegal schemes we’re considering, (did you know outhouses are illegal in most of Iowa?) We don’t need someone bringing the cops around. His plans are always more fantasy based than reality based. Perhaps he could come back on a probationary term, only if he does x amount of actual work to further our actual group goals.
The Handy Guy Who Can’t Commit
We’ll call him Bob. Oh Bob. He is SO handy. He’s a woodworker, an electrician and a fix-it-man all rolled into one. He loves to tinker, he loves to fix stuff. He made a miniature model of some wind turbines after we had a discussion about them. Just to see if the blade concept would work. When we entered unexplored territory with the buried house, he spent hours running weight calculations trying to help figure out the support structure needs for pouring a concrete roof.
He’s way better at peppin than I am, he can get pepper seedlings with 5x less death than what I manage. But, he’s got this wife. She’s a sweetheart, I love her to death, but she refuses to have anything to do with our “dirt farming.” She’s been clear about that from the get go, so there’s no hurt feelings or anything. We just know that our handy Bob may not join us in the end.
So, we make use of him when we can, and we keep both of them included in our lives, not just the doomstead stuff, but the normal stuff too. We’re always hoping that he’ll convince his wife that the doomstead is a valid back up plan. We’re hoping that once we get the basic infrastructure squared away we can put in something like a pottery kiln that will make use of her amazing creative skills. She would be just as much of an asset to the group as Bob, I’ve seen her create everything from a period dress costume to a dog jacket for an injured pet. Plus, she has some medical training from her day job.
We’re not leaving space for them on the property, not to live anyway. We are planning some space for their creative enterprises, Bob needs more space to cure local wood, his wife might be tempted by the kiln. I figure that if we can get them involved with the doomstead, even on a partial basis, it is better than nothing at all.
Security Crazy Guy
Security Steve, it doesn’t matter what the discussion starts out as, he’ll steer it towards security at the first chance. We run the group using consensus, so I’ve sat through more than my fair share of security wet dreams. At one point I had to be polite while he hashed out the security potentials of cougars. Not, “how do we keep them out,” but “I think we could use cougars as guards.” *sigh*
He lives off of wealthy parents, but has dreams of grandeur, in a fantasy world where he’s a great warrior and can spend his days productively keeping our doomstead safe. Presumably he would not still be living off his parents money, but like I said, fantasy world. He gallops off on Quixotic quests. Right now he’s living in a different state, chasing his current windmill, and dodging the police. Group consensus has him removed from the board, connected only as a friend and potential volunteer, but no longer able to vote.
Will we let him back, if the SHTF? Probably not. There’s probably not going to be any need for that level of security. We’ll train some dogs (read U.S. Military Dog Training), grow some well placed thorny vines, and put some barbed wire up. No need for cougars or a crazy person.
The Gal Who Will Work to Death
We’ll call her Rose. Rose tries to do EVERYTHING. Her and her husband are the landowners. They live in the underground bermed concrete house, with their 4 year old, that we built by ourselves. To say their life is crazy, is an understatement.
This summer we’re helping them move out of the doomstead, into a shed, so that we can rip up the flooring and dry out the subflooring from a drainage issue last fall. She works a couple of jobs, her husband works a couple of jobs, and slowly a homestead is emerging around them.
The biggest problem we have with her is she will literally work herself till she’s sick. She takes on too much and has trouble saying no. Her husband and I often have to work together to get her to rest and eat properly. We couldn’t do it without her of course. Everything would take twice as long without her. But, we constantly have to pull her back from the brink of burn out.
What Kind of Crazy am I?
Well, like every good crazy person, I think I’m fairly sane. This isn’t true of course, I’m probably pretty crazy. We all are. It helps to be honest about the crazy, and treat it like the reality it is. There are types of crazy you can live with and types you can’t. Figuring it out sooner rather than later, is probably preferable.
47 comments
A thought provoking post.
I don’t see anybody on my team (neighbors) as being crazy.. I guess that’s because we all think the same way LOL.
It’s good that we’re very compatible with each other, there has never been a major disagreement.. On the other hand, this could also be our downfall. With no “crazy” person to offer us a different perspective, there is nobody to hit the brakes if we make the wrong decision and decide to steer toward the cliff.
During emergancies or times of excess stress, people will react irrationaly. Basicly, someone who lacks skill, confidenc and insight into the situations unfold will often focus on one aspect that concerns them the most or one aspect that is perhaps a weakness and thier over concern in that area will give tale-tale signals about thier overall state of mind. People who are inadiquate in combat proficiancies may dwell excessively on perimeter security to mitigat the chance that they will have to stand ground and defend. OR they may dwell on weapons and the like as a pretence to protection without engaging(not realizing that fighting with a gun or weapon still requires the ability to fight) Others may revert to a playful insanity like state, this one os the most dangerous because they are highly unpredictable and very dangerous. They function at a low sort of thoughtless level without forethought or regard for others safety. Then there is the state of dis-sociation in which they go into a catatonic like state where they will not do anything to even help themselves. The Psychology of survival is different than anyother situational stresses we see from day to day due to the fact that they are hard to duplicate in a believable way. Induced stress is never as real as real stress because if there is any hint that the situation is not what it appears to be, the stress is lessened, and the situation does not bear out what it normaly would people dont react the same if they KNOW that life is not on the line. Nor will they react the same if they know that when its over everything goes back to some symbalance of normal. Sometimes the crazy can be to your benifit because it will some people act in a deliberate fashion that they normally would be apprehensive about. In operations where precision and deliberate action are required this a good thing so long as the individual is not unhinged(controlable). Knowing the signs of these reactions and inactions and individual changes in people under the worst case scenarios and heavy stress are very important survival skills in thier own right.
“I think we could use cougars as guards.”
Best. Sentence. Ever. 🙂
I mean, awesome prose. Awesomely funny. Most importantly, an awesome way to describe a lot of the SHTF types that I do come across out here, locally. Any discussion of continuity, or food production, etc. with these guys? Nope… it all devolves to a rousing discussion of how to keep the impending “golden horde” away, or even better, how to avoid being dragged off to a “FEMA camp”. The type who are more 70000% interested in playing with their gun collections* than keeping an inventory on what food/tools/etc they have.
* nope, I don’t mean marksmanship training… I mean literally playing with the damned things.
Personally, I fully expect to have to help neighbors along (whoever they are) a bit when I do finally get my patch o’ land (note: it’ll have a house on it when I buy it, or I’ll have one built on-site).
That said, I fully intend to 1) continue working my day job (it pays too damned well), and 2) only moving in among folks who are not only friendly, but also have a bit of self-reliance. You see, when I do my land-hunting, I do something most folks likely don’t… I actually go out to the neighbors and introduce myself, so I can gauge first-hand who it is I may be living next door to *before* I (eventually) commit to buying something.
Fortunately, once I get out of the ‘burbs, folks tend to be a bit more serious (and a bit more kind.)
Prepared N.D. has a good point though – differing viewpoints are an awesome asset in times of decision. As long as you do not fall prey to ‘paralysis by analysis’, it’s a good thing to have folks who can see a situation from different angles.
I disagree with the part of the post that thinks we are crazy. In fact, it is the sheeple who are crazy. They cant se the forrest for the trees. IF you see a train coming at you dow nthe railroad tracks what do you do? GET OFF THE TRACKS STUPID!! In fact, we are more sane than most of the mainstream because we are able to see the difference between the political puppet show that entertains people and keeps them at bay and what is really going on which a horriable state of affiars coming down the tracks at us. I say that the prepping community is far more sane than the sheeple. We see danger and are taking appropriate actions, they just sit around and BAHHHH, BAHHHHH, OBAMMMMMAAA.
If someone’s too crazy to live next door when everything’s perfectly fine, they’re sure as hell too crazy to be on my liferaft. Call me crazy, but if my neighbors have guard cougars or big piles of weed hanging around, I call the police.
Agreed on the cougar bit.
The Marijuana bit? I’ve no use for it (and haven’t touched the stuff in over two decades), but I live in Oregon… many folks out here have a license to grow it – this means that generally you just leave ’em be if that’s the only thing they’re doing that seems ‘off’ to you.
(Besides, I figure that the stuff can be useful post-SHTF as a pain-killer and as a source of rope fibers, so I’m not too quick to dismiss it offhand. Now if they were cooking meth, then yeah, the cops are definitely going to get involved.)
When properly dosed and taken orally, it’s a heck of a lot safer than lortabs and other narcotic pain relievers. It could also be used in -tiny- doses for people who are having PTSD and anxiety attacks or having trouble sleeping.
I can’t think of any more uses for it medicinally, unless you want to stimulate someone’s appetite for whatever reason 🙂
The other legal alternative is Everclear or some other high proof alcohol.
i was always told that if you look around the room and don’t see the crazy one, its you:)
Fair enough. When I lived in the country I never worried about that sort of thing either. Now I live in the city, and the pile of weed means something quite different here. The stuff may cure the hell out of a headache, but it can turn a neighborhood into a ghetto in about 6 weeks too. I’ve seen that happen.
My point, of course, wasn’t that marijuana isn’t useful, but that people who have poor judgment today are not likely to improve in a crisis.
Exactly! Steve and Chris seemed incapable of good judgment in “normal” times. They will be large walking piles of poor judgment should the SHTF.
A meth lab is a toxic waste dump, and there’s nothing like twacked-out incompetence in a survival situation. There’s just no defending it, practically speaking.
Agreed on the meth labs.
Oh yea, crazy steve was too crazy, and we were glad to see him go. Cougars are not community friendly, and we’d like to be friendly with the neighbors.
I’m of the opinion that plants shouldn’t be illegal, so “piles of weed” wouldn’t have been a problem in my book. Increased police attention because of it, *is* a problem.
If you want to grow and smoke marijuana, I could care less.
Where I live, marijuana requires a distribution network. That network is comprised of armed, urban gang-members.
I don’t like armed, urban gang-members hanging around outside.
And I do recall two sepcific cases in which people were shot by members of their distribution networks in the small, rural town in which I used to live. Being in the country won’t save you.
The plant itself isn’t that important. Its attendant social problems should not be ignored.
very true.
Now this I can agree with. I can also agree with anything that isn’t legal in your area… and if it were illegal here, then yeah, I’d want ’em gone as well.
it seems like you need to put most of your planning energy into:
“plan B”. (does your group have a written agreement ?)
“Steve” and “Chris” don’t bring much, but liability with them, whereas, “Rose” will work herself to death before SHTF even gets here. “Steve” and “Chris” know the location of the “doomstead”. your OPSEC is horribly compromised. WALK AWAY. keep “Rose” in your prayers. (stay in touch, help her and her husband secretly)
mr. and mrs. “Bob”, “Chris” and “Steve” are to be told that Calamity, & Co. have quit the group and hooked up with some “preppers” in
“new england” somewhere… be vague.
(you do need to get out of rented housing, and get a bunker of your own)
as for myself, you’ve convinced me that a “rural community” is a better choice for myself, than a “doomstead” would be.
We do have a written agreement, about land use and the 5 year plan and board organization and voting and disaster plans.
I would argue OPSEC is still fine. Yes, Chris is a problem, but he’s just a guy with poor decision making skills. We know how to deal with him. Steve is so far in his fantasy world, I doubt he could even find the property anymore. Plus, he’s hundreds of miles away and jobless/carless.
Nope, not walking away from Rose, and Bob may yet come around.
This has been years in the making. Rose and I expected a certain % of people who wouldn’t stick around to completion. We started out with a core group of 7 adults, and even with Steve and Chris gone, we have 6 adults and 2 children still in the group. In the real world you can’t just hit redo when a member or two has to part ways. We have to accept that we’re better off without them and manage the fallout from that decision. I’m comfortable with that.
as long as you’re sure…
if “Rose” is like kin to you, your bond is strong enough, go ahead with your plan. if “Chris” and “Steve” can be “managed”, plus anyone they may have told, go ahead with your plan.
Great article! Gives you something to think about. My question is how did you get started on talking and finding like minded people? l go to 5-10 houses a day, with my job, all over the area and have yet found anyone even close. Once in a while l will find someone with a garden and can talk about that, but go any further into conversation about other ideas for preparing for whatever and then the eyes glaze over and they start to back away like you just grew a 3rd head.
They might agree that things are getting crazy with the economy or whatever, but start discussing putting a few extra can goods back for in case and it’s over. Sometimes l wish we had a universal symbol or secret handshake or something. Sure would make it easier. Even my own family just “humors” me. Wonder where l fall on the “crazy” scale. 🙂
Well, Gat, I don’t think you are too crazy. Sadly, I don’t have any great answers for you. We were all friends, we went to parties, and hung out, (we were all still in college.) Then, one day the conversation just sort of happened. We realized we were all interested in some sort of backup plan. We thought we could build an underground bermed home, we thought we could start a CSA to offset costs and help the community, and we thought we could work together to do it. That was 7 years ago. We’ve made contacts with others nearby who are doing similar sorts of things, but only marriages and births have brought new members to the core group.
I guess what I am saying, is start with family and friends and go from there.
Hey CJ just a side note, l found this video the other day and l immediately thought of you. This would be a perfect item for your doomstead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B2DGXPOk4Q
I plan on making one of these myself for my house.
One of my former neighbors, who allegedly has medical training, told me I am a paroniod skitzofrenic for my beliefs. We have moved since and now am extremely careful who I discuss those beliefs with. It does appear in retrospect that he is actually a couple of bubbles off center, violent and totally unstable.
We moved so my wife could be much closer to her medical support for her VERY serious medical condition. She is stable now and we are closer to her sister, brother and relatives. There is one or more of the types of individuals described in the article in this extened family. Some of whom live in town with us (9100 pop), some of whom are 10 miles away, and some who are more than 30 miles. I have made a list of all the parents, adult(over 18) and regular kids. It is a suprisingly large number. At a recent party for the 4th of July, I made mental notes of who can be considered for survival and who are sheeple. I will not discuss anything wth any of them yet. BUT I am figuring out how I can have extra supplies for those I ( with wifes input) feel I would like around for thier skills and compatability. It is truely a daunting task. But extra supplies will be put up.
Good post CJ! I’m with OQ on the cougar. That’s some pretty funny stuff… until you figure he was actually going to be part of your doomstead. (Great name for a BOL by the way.)
Sad to say but everyone, no exceptions, comes with baggage. Just the act of living accumulates junk that you put in your bags. The difficult bit is ferreting out the people with steamer trunks full of baggage vs the people with just normal backpacks. The people with huge steamer trunks of baggage are usually adept at hiding their junk so they can get by in day to day life. (Ever seen the show “Horders”) House looks fine on the outside but is a disaster on the inside.
Exactly so. It is reality, but everyone likes to think that if they can just find like-minded people everything will work out. But, even among the like-minded there be crazy that you just can’t deal with.
Say it isn’t so! Disparate individuals thrown together with loose rules and almost non-existent enforcement or leadership and the group is falling apart! Who could have seen this coming?
Many years ago NASA did a study to determine the ideal team for a long interplanetary mission. The results showed that two people was the ideal team size and that three or more people always ended up with two or more teaming up against the other(s). And that is with screened trained people with discipline and strong leadership. It can only be worse with self selected total strangers.
Your survival community is your family, and your friends. Whatever anyone might say about the value of “like-minded” preppers, the only ones I will care about tomorrow are the ones I care about today.
I guess that’s what I found troubling about this whole thread.
For once, I’m left speechless. If you actually have to question these “choices”, all is lost before one starts.
Some imagine the SH’sTF & there’s hoards of people wandering the planet looking for weak spots – if once cannot discern what is truly in one’s best interest prior to that event, it will only be a matter of (short) time before that party will be wearing a dirt blanket.
Jason, sorry you lost me. Who’s choices are you talking about?
As for your last point, I’m not convinced we’ll see hoards of people wandering around rural Iowa looking for food. That’s just the reality of where I live. There aren’t many people here now, and there aren’t many people living in big cities nearby. The vast majority of land here is sown in feed corn and soybeans, not exactly edible food to tempt a wandering hoard.
Paragraph 1 – Sorry for the confusion , I used generalities so as not to offend but since you asked – your choices.
A soon to be ex convict, a non committal handyman & a wife who is against dirt farming – you know the old saying … unhappy wife, a lifetime of strife. Then you have the silver spooned security lune & the underground bunker parents of a 4 year old. Personally, I would bow out rather quickly from this group.
Paragraph 2 – Again, using generalities that I know some subscribe to here about the zombie hoards of the hungry – case in point TJ Jackson & his sniper desires of a week ago, I combined what I felt was a lack of discernment in this post & projected it to those in that zombie belief.
Personally, I don’t think there will be wondering hoards anywhere nor will there be an economic or governmental induced SHTF condition.
To me it’s more of a sensationalized, fear driven distraction to keep many from thinking. That’s my opinion.
Thanks for the clarification. I’m thick skinned, no need to skirt around. 🙂
Well, in my defense, the ones who have run afoul of the law, had not done so when we started this project 7 years ago. They have very little contact with the group any more. Chris we may see again, as his family lives in the area, but I’d be shocked if we ever see Steve again.
Bob doesn’t have an unhappy wife, because he has no plans to move to the doomstead. She’s fine with us as friends, we hang out all the time. She’s not a prepper, and not interested in farming, and we respect that so that we can maintain the friendship. So, no strife. Would we like him as a doomstead inhabitant, heck yea! But we can manage without him.
The underground bunker parents, well, they are living in the house that we built. It’s not completely underground, there are windows and it’s more house than bunker. Why would I leave them when we’re finally making progress? Their son is the coolest little kid. He had a safe place to live during construction, and really likes the underground house his mommy and daddy and auntie built. We really like the underground house too! It’s cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and can withstand tornadoes, not bad for a DIY.
I do understand your frustration with the zombie hordes mentality. It’s not a scenario I spend much time contemplating.
Part of my weed-out process is to invite friends along for a camping trip. A TOUGH camping trip with less-than-ideal weather, cold food, long hikes, sleeping on the ground, etc.
It’s amazing how some barroom tough guy will whine when has to make do with dried apples and jerky for breakfast . It’s also surprising how the guy/gal you didn’t have much hope for will display the resilience of a veteran commando.
It’s not a fail-safe method. But if someone can’t keep their spirits up for a three-day jaunt, they surely won’t be much use when they have to face a situtation of indefinite duration.
Great post, Calamity.
Yukon
LOL! That reminds me of my very first Elk hunt.
We all paired off, and I got this grizzled-looking gent who spent most of the morning talking about how life was for him “in the ‘nam”.
Then we bagged a cow elk. I set about to gutting it (as the younger and more dextrous of us… then I heard a quickly mumbled “…ohgodi’msorryohshi…!” followed by the sound of a grizzled ‘nam vet puking his guts out behind a bush. I proceeded to laugh so hard that I accidentally punctured one of the &*@#! stomachs with my knife. I was half choking, half gutting, he puked even more violently, and I had to stop and walk away for a moment just to avoid cutting myself until I stopped laughing.
I’m in on the cougar plan, plan to surround myself with them WTSHTF … though I’m probably getting too old to be considered a “cub” any more. Sigh.
LOL. I get the humor. I think you’d still be considered a cub, but it is relative to the cougar. Not so sure that you wanted that image though.
This posts reminds me why I don’t have a doomstead. I’ll keep my life private, thank you very much.
If things do completely blow up I’ve got an open invite to live on a friends farm as a hired hand. Big place out in the middle of no where, they’ve lived there all their lives and it’s well kept and turns a profit, so I’ll be working for folks that know what they’re doing.
I disagree with Steve; I think panthers are more trustworthy! At least they have some firearms experiance! The only cougar that will take care of you – long term – is an ugly one! (Maybe he meant in a slang way?)
I think hemp dries out nerve endings and therefore, actually increases pain. (I tried it, but I didn’t inhale!) Besides, when food is low who wants the munchies? (Unless, it’s wheaty-beans…) But, it’s handy for fibers/clothing/TP/etc, seeds for food, and as a (dangerous) trade item… Potheads are MUCH nicer than drunks! Yet most are pretty dang lazy…
Irishdutchuncle brings up a good point, them nutters know where you are, and know your preps! Heck, I worry about the marginal nuts (and zombie neighbors), but real nuts are a real danger. Perhaps putting them down – if they show up with a crowd – would be a kindness to them. Perhaps some, “special cookies” would be a good idea… But your right, it’s hard to jump and move away at the drop of a hat. Besides, your time/investment/love in the place makes it “yours…”
I’ve often thought of joining with my nearest prepper-group, but seeing (via a simple websearch)their lack of OPSEC (Pics of people and places), scared me off real fast! Less than 10mi away, and yet I don’t dare contact them, they’re just too damn stupid! You could say they’re a bit suicidal! I would rather take my chances with my (zombie?) neighbors than those public preppers.
Living in the rural south, most of my well-armed neighbors have at least a garden, and some have livestock, so, even though they’re not “obvious” preppers, they at least have basic survival skills. Sure, I think I can do better, and find some “smarter” people, but things won’t be as bad as they could be post-shtf.
I guess I have it better than most folks. But sometimes it sure doesn’t seem like it!
I guess I don’t really get the “Doomstead” thing. If you want to live on a farm, move to a farm. Rather than surrounding yourself with doomers, surround yourself with people that want to live on farms. If you don’t want to live on a farm, then don’t.
I do have an invite to go live on a farm, but that’s an open invite from friends that have a cattle ranch thats been in their family for a few generations. And I help out at the ranch for a week every summer. I do it because I love the work, the place, and the people and they’d take me in and find work for me to do regardless of what’s going on in the world.
When disasters happen neighbors look out for neighbors, even when they didn’t know them before the disaster. Look at the stories that came out of Joplin, people took care of each other (there was a pretty fantastic EMS response as well). A handful of people showed up to loot and were shown the door.
Whatever it is that you like to do, do that. Meet other people that do that as well and when anything bad happens in your neck of the woods those people will be there. Unless you’re an ass-hat, then the probably wont.
Be nice to people.
But, I would keep thinking about how what you’re doing now will play out in the future. I know the yoga that I do and enjoy will come in handy for stress relief and help keep me injury free if things really do go south. I love to cook from scratch. I try new recipes all the time and I’m a bit of a nutrition Nazi. All those things will come in handy if things go south. I went on a 50 mile bike ride today. I’m the post TEOTWAWKI mail man!
As to the original post. I’d break up the band. Pay back Tee-pee man and Security Steve anything that they might be owed and send them on there way (if possible). Sounds like the handy man that can’t commit has committed himself fairly well and to the degree that he’s comfortable to the cause. If something really bad happens, he’ll be there for ya. Sounds like he’s what’s known as a friend (I know that sounds snarky, it isn’t meant to be, but that’s the only way I can say it).
On paper, the “doomstead” is an organic CSA. And that’s what it will remain (for the most part) until some SHTF event. Those of us that are still involved are the ones who do like the farming aspect. It’s just part of the package. Yea we have some storage food, but we know no matter what happens, we’re all going to want to eat, past the few months of food that we have stored. And the best way to ensure that is with food production onsite. AKA farming. 😀 Farming with a concrete house to sleep in. 😀
Steve was sent packing, he wasn’t owed anything because he never contributed. 😛
Friend is EXACTLY what I’d call Bob and his wife. We’re so happy to have them involved in our lives, and they bring a lot of great ideas and innovative solutions when we have problems. (I almost didn’t include them in this list, but I think his wife is still a little crazy…) 😀
Ah – should clarify one bit – the gent in question was actually a quartermaster in the Army at the time, but came off as if he were some sort of badass, hence the massive laughter. 🙂
Nice guy still, and he pretty much dropped the tough guy act after that (at least around me).
Similar experience with the last guy I took camping. He’s a good guy, with a tremendous set of practical skills that could one day come in really handy. And he’s done plenty of camping out. Trouble was, most of his camping took place at or near sea level. I dragged him up to eight-thousand feet in March out in New Mexico, and it almost killed him. He’ll probably do better back at my place in the Ozarks.
By the way, Odd, if you ever move back, we’re up to a whopping 500 Elk in Arkansas. LOL. But there were 750,00 whitetail at last count, and you can still legally take five or six per season. My friends in Idaho have a hard time believing that.
Err, you do realize that not all cougars look like the ladies in ‘Sex and The City’, right?
Ooookay… you were doing pretty well, up until the “galactic superwave” and 2012 claptrap came up.
Good point about the online search for preppers.
As far as finding kindred souls? Personally, I don’t look for preppers per se. I look for folks who have an independent and self-reliant streak in them, but at the same time are sociable and kind. The more of them you find in a neighborhood, the better.
A good small rural community full of them would be the perfect scenario, and it’s one that I’m shooting for. They’ll likely have extra food, tools, and etc, but nothing that could be tied directly to full-on doomsday prepping.
Sounds like you need a new group .
Let’s not forget the truly crazy people who could become a big problem post SHTF:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrfL1UKp3QU