Scoping out the neighborhood

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Nickjlancaster, Mar 13, 2013.


  1. Nickjlancaster

    Nickjlancaster nickjlancaster.com

    An intelligent and well constructed response of the exact kind I was hoping to illicit from this group. THANK-YOU.

    I will never be a refugee or be dependent on the government or neighbors. However, knowing where there's a pile of wood or a vacant school building with solid locking doors is useful intel.

    For over twenty-five years I've been preparing for everything from being able to repair a rip in my pants at work, to being able to get my car out of the snow, to having supplies in my car if I can't get it out of the snow, to having enough food and water stored to get through four weeks comfortably with my wife and children without needing to leave the house, along with the necessary supplies to board up my house without going to Home Depot.

    I have flashlights, candles, batteries, tools, gasoline etc etc etc etc. I'm prepared and not reliant on needing to take anything from anyone else.

    Should anyone decide they want some of my stuff.... well, there's also a few thousand rounds of ammunition and the associated hardware to utilize it.

    I've had multiple classes on firearms usage and medical training.

    Despite all this I do not consider myself one hundred percent ready. I never will be.

    Prepping isn't about stuff. It's a mindset.

    My children are prepared. In 30 minutes I'm taking my six year old to his karate class, because I want him prepared.
     
    tulianr and kellory like this.
  2. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Looks like the appropriate Points have been made, any a consensus of understanding, has been arrived at.... Good enough al the way around.
     
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  3. Nickjlancaster

    Nickjlancaster nickjlancaster.com

    I like you, and I mean that in a very special human way.
     
  4. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    I remember those days, back before 9/11, and all the crap that followed it.
     
    Brokor likes this.
  5. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    Interesing thread it is, History and human nature has proven that hungry/cold people will take and use what's nessary by any mean's nessary to keep from starving to death...Or freezing.

    I'll tell you strait up, You bug out and i'm hungry..I will eat your dog.

    Some may not agree or like my view, But you know what side of the street i stand on..About as honest of an answer as i see it.

    It however does not mean i enjoyed eating your dog or malice of intent. However history of human survival has proven time and time again just how low human's will go.
    Best you bring your dog with you !
     
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  6. Nickjlancaster

    Nickjlancaster nickjlancaster.com

    I know, right? There was even a magazine in the UK, back in the late 1980s... I think it was called SWAT and it had articles on catching rabbits and finding eggs... Lofty Wiseman was on Blue Peter. You had to be there.
     
  7. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    I used to collect American Survival Guide, Soldier of Fortune, and another one that I've forgotten the name of. Then, ASG got too much into the politics and not enough into the actual preparation and after SHTF, so I stopped.
     
  8. Nickjlancaster

    Nickjlancaster nickjlancaster.com

    If she lets you catch her then you're welcome to her. She's no use to me.
     
    Gator 45/70 likes this.
  9. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Maybe you should show up on MonkeyChat sometime and we can have a chat.....
     
  10. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

    There are also a lot of public resources that would be liberated IMMEDIATELY following some kind of collapse such as all of those solar panels lining freeways and call boxes. I'm just saying, they ARE public and I do kind of consider myself one of the public. I think perhaps that kind of reconn would be very useful in certain situations. In Los Angeles they have already started doing it and the collapse isn't even under way yet...
     
  11. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Shotgun News. =)
    Remember when the "internet" was just a series of lame BBS's that took forever to load because dial-up was sooooo sad? Yeah. Back then, we could accomplish far more from a few magazines. The time for one picture of Carmen Electra to load would be about an average lunch break. I know this, trust me. *cough*

    Then, before you knew it everybody had a Geocities site or an Angelfire account. It was all down hill from that point.
     
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  12. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    Nice to have a truce. Now, not to stir the pot, I'll will suggest that paying very good heed to what is around, what other people have, etc. is important. Nick had suggested knowing where things were in case they MIGHT be a resource that could be secured with permission should the need arise. I will suggest there are other, quite possibly more important reasons for paying attention.

    Situational awareness.

    Knowing what is going on around you is vital. Take the example of the neighbor with the firewood. There are multiple reasons for taking note and monitoring their wood pile. If it is declining rapidly, it might tell you the neighbor may run out and come looking to take my wood and I could increase my vigilance. It might suggest that others are possibly taking the wood and there is possibly a conflict could errupt between them and the neighbor. So, it may be wise to avoid that area or anticipate tresspassers when a confrontation escalates. Or if the neighbor's wood is gone, mine will be more attractive to takers, react appropriately.

    If the neighbor is a problem and folks come beating on your door looking for wood, maybe you inform them of all the wood at the neighbor's and an ensuing conflict there could mitigate a number of risks or concerns for yourself.

    During the dog walks, one might glean a few bits of S-2 that help anticipate other people's level of preparedness and how that might relate to your safety. Knowing there is a warehouse that could be rather secure might represent a location the roving hoards could rally and congregate. Knowing how good of a refuge it could be for you also represents how good it could be for others who may represent a threat. You could prepare thoughts about how a profilactic strike against might be mounted.

    I think it makes very good sense to have detailed knowledge of what's around, how much, how old is it, how fast it is consumed, who owns it, etc. This can be a benefit in many ways.

    And let's face it. If a gang of thugs drove any of us out of our castle and separated us from every one of our preps, from our network and team, AND if our kids/grandkids were in grave peril and facing emminent death, I somehow doubt that a principle to never steal other's property would be the moral line that you'd never cross. So, with that really most extreme SHTF situation (admittedly a highly remote possibility), doesn't it still make some sense to know what could be requisitioned in that most dire circumstance?

    AT
     
    JABECmfg, jasonl6, CATO and 2 others like this.
  13. bfayer

    bfayer Keeper Of The Faith

    And then came AOL :)

    I started with a 300 baud acoustic coupler if anyone remembers those.
     
    VisuTrac likes this.
  14. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Oh, yeah. I used to have a BBS. Those were, well not the good old days, but in some ways better days than now.

    In Los Angeles, they're stealing copper wire from schools. Now, I know where all the street lights are around me, but I'd wait for anarchy before I thought to avail myself of them, and my first target wouldn't be a school.

    You've got me beat. I started at about 1200.
     
  15. NotSoSneaky

    NotSoSneaky former supporter

    Hey ! [eek3]
    I resemble that remark ! biglaff
     
  16. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Considering your profile pic, you certainly do! (said with affection)[imwithstupid1]
     
    NotSoSneaky likes this.
  17. Nickjlancaster

    Nickjlancaster nickjlancaster.com

    Alas the same is true in Detroit. I drive past light poles that have been stripped of their wiring and any building left vacant is quickly stripped.
     
  18. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    You are clearly not stupid, And I did read your entire post (each of them). But this was your best response though, a defusing. Your idea has merit, and we have discussed prior to meeting you, but the focus of that discussion was what could be harvested from PUBLIC buildings, billboards, solar powered street signs, not PRIVATE property. dead cars on the roadways, car batteries, and solar panels, not your neighbors houses. There lies the difference. We will not be the raiders, we need to protect ourselves from. We would band together against raiders.
    As for taking my stuff with your friends, and that being that, well,.... that could be problematic. I am a hunter first and foremost, and a prepper second, and fairly newly. i have a head start over most new preppers, because Hunting and prepping share a lot in common. I can stalk a deer to within 20yards, and have taken many with a bow. You would never know I was even there, until the muzzle flash. No one will rob me, without paying a large price in the doing. Now that we have that straight, I will help with that fire, and I should have dinner ready soon. wash up, and you can start the coffee.;)
     
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  19. bfayer

    bfayer Keeper Of The Faith

    I.
    Well then its no different than it was in 84 when I left.

    I was there in 67 for the riots. I worked my way through high school sitting in a bullet proof box at a gas station on 8 Mile. The motel I worked at on Woodward while in college had block walls riddled with bullet holes.

    From the time I was old enough to know what was what, till I moved out in 84 our house was broken into too many times to count. That was my life not some place I drove through.

    I have been deployed to Haiti and watched mobs of kids fighting over a bag of trash thrown off the side of a MSC ship. I deployed for hurricane Katrina and saw people with nothing left but a pile of rubble defend it from looters with nothing but a sharp stick. These things are not hypotheticals to me.

    You may think I'm am a little too over zealous, but I have lived through and seen what happens WOROL, and it is not pretty. That is not testosterone, that is just a cold simple fact.

    I have said it before and I will say it again any survival plan that includes "other peoples stuff" is not a plan. If you ever get to that point, your plan has already failed and you need to bend over and kiss your backside goodbye or visit your new BFF FEMA.

    You are more than welcome at my fire anytime but you should really give up calling people pilgrim, because although I am pretty easy going, the others there with me might take that as just a wee bit disrespectful.
     
    tulianr, chelloveck and kellory like this.
  20. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    Well...I can piss a 100mb stream of 1's and 0' through a wireless cheerio at 90 paces...

    Anyway....
    Kinda funny to watch these guys beat a point of view into you but they have one.
    Granted, I know where all my neighbors wood piles are, who has horses, cows, chickens, goats, guns, tractors, 4x4s etc and they all know what our family has and does for a living too. Far as I'm concerned it's just "community" but I'd take issue if my dog caught any of them in the back yard without permission. With that being said...the title of this thread memetically sucked and that's why you got cyber bullied.

    Dumbass.
    :)

    G
     
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