Just a Survivalist......

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Every day on the beach is relaxing.
Every day that isn't SHTF is the ultimate day.
Ammo, Weapons, food, and water are all easy to to collect from those that haven't learned to relax on the beach. What a value.
Prepare your mind and body, everything else is dependent on circumstances if SHTF. JMHO.

 

Ammo levels are comfortable, food is on a one year rotation, so I think we have a years food supply with 20 year back-ups for a few more months, marginal solar in place, water heating coming soon, back up comms stored away, and a bunch of other small details like 144 rolls of TP in the "emergency only" stock. Like BT, we're on maintenance and sporadic upgrades here. So yeah, after 40 some years of prepping, we take (too many) "beach" days.

 

I have never been focused 24/7/365 on prepping for SHTF.

I am always preparing for whatever comes, but have also taken time and money to "sit on the beach and relax". I even have made sure I prepared for a life and retirement that did not include SHTF. I saw an internet meme the other day that said something to the effect that if you spend all of today worrying about tomorrow, it doesn't make tomorrow any better, it just makes today worse.

I want to be prepared to make post SHTF as close to now as I can as far as my life...but not by making all day every day now concerned with surviving what might get in the way later. Vacations and other non prep related family activities are at least as important as that second or third source of water in case the grid fails. I meet prep goals regularly...and then make new ones. I guess my "ultimate goal" is to be as prepared as I can be at any given time.

I have recently been told I will be very lucky to make the first of the year...I'm sure glad I took time out from a substantial amount of prepping through the past 30 some years to relax and enjoy the day to day. At the same time, I am happy to leave my kids a substantial prep base.

Again...JMO/YMMV (but I personally doubt the second part)

 

Everybody saw the daylight footage after Katrina but night-time was a different story. Bands of roving looters were drawn to lights and the sound of emergency generators like moths to a candle. I can't even begin to estimate the number of them that killed or were killed, most were listed as storm casualties. I know personally of at least three attempts at looting our camps that were halted with lethal force, nice thing about standing water is that there are no blood trails, just another statistic found floating somewhere the next day or so. We were very lucky.
I won't make any pretense in saying that I am prepared for another such event, I wasn't prepared for the harsh realities of that one. I have food reserves,medical supplies, tools, generators, fuel, weapons, just about every base that I can think of covered except the single most important one:Random chance. I have been very fortunate and lucky so far and have cheated death more times and in more ways than I would care to remember but I won't pretend that it was because of my preparedness or skill sets entirely. Sometimes it is just dumb luck.

 

I can't speak for you, Yard Dart, but what I think you might have meant was that your tribe never rests on its laurels....if it never relaxes, then it's possibly doing it wrong.

The mission is the survival of myself and my tribe in an uncertain world; working towards attaining goals and objectives are the means by which the mission is to be achieved: Goals and objectives are the way points that orient me towards mission achievement. Goals and objectives are not ends in themselves, and they have no immutable fixed nature...when the exigencies of the mission dictate that goals and objectives need to be modified...then that is what I do. All the rest is tactics, strategy and logistics. There is no end point for setting and working towards survival goals and objectives, other than surrendering that effort, or personal extinction

 

lol like I keep all the good stuff at home lol I keep a lot of stash spots

 

What some folk don't seem to understand is that one disaster can fallow another and another and all be different in nature .
In the major quakes I've been in , it was fortunate that they didn't occur in the winter months and snow had not been a part of the problem.
Homes collapsed and slid down hills and many of the fire places fell ,some chimneys fell inward and some fell out . A lot of fires resulted and roads closed by land slides the only way in an out was by air .
On top of all that, it was a week end full of visitors, many with no place to say for the week we were isolated . and the earth kept shaking to the degree that you almost missed it when it finally quit.
Immagine your on the commute ,and just happen to be in the middle of this, 40-50 miles from home .
I have always been into preparedness, these events however fixed it in stone .
Life is not fair, and those that prepare have the edge for survival.
When I watch a movie (it does not need to be a survival movie necessarily) I weigh my own abilities and what I would do regardless of how the seen plays .
Being able to take action at a moments notice takes forethought and practice and preparedness.
Do you know this moment, what to do, if a friend is experiencing an epileptic event ?
What action are our prepared to take witnessing a dog acting aggressive and foaming at the mouth ?
These indeed are rare things ,never the less ,likely to become commonplace post SHTF .
A friend of mine was attacked by his own dog (Big doberman) and had no idea what to do . If not for others stepping in, he would have been killed.
So though we play scenarios here from time to time , though they are not necessarily real ,the do offer the opportunity to develop a plan .

 

The teeth marks in my wallet ain't from the breeders dobermans that had her cornered in the kitchen. So both the epileptic event and the dobermans turning on thier master no longer make it in the just a scenario. Seem you hit some nails dead on arleigh. BZ.