TOTM June 2023

For us, it depends on where we are when it goes sideways, an how much fuel and effort it takes to get to what we have available, and are able to protect and defend it! Between the Farms in Oregon, and the two ranches, we should be sitting pretty good, BUT, there is the whole distance issue!
Current plans are to Fly from point to point given that's the fastest method available to us, secure and load what we need, and haul it back to Colorado where it's safest! Texas is the more ideal, given the much smaller and much more rural population between point A and B, but it's the farms that we really rely on in a timely manor to maintain fresh or to can and put up for later transport! Currently working with my brothers in Oregon, they will put up everything we need and I will haul everything they need, and the cousins in between it all have pretty much the same deal, so it's also an economy of scale for us, our tribe is pretty self sufficient, and we have a good number, not too large, not too small, and all beyond trustworthy!

 

My chances...? I'm dead. Pure and simple. I accept it.

 

Knowing that everything you posted is going to be a necessity for survival ,, and me not having access to all of that ,,, I think I can honestly say that ,, for a long term survival situation ,,, I'm f'kd .

 

Well as the saying goes, "nobody gets out of here alive". Learning, Planning, and Prepping for extended troubles is why we are here at this forum. We all do the best we can with what we have and the time we have to do it. What we don't get done is left to chance circumstance, and opportunity through God's good graces. When it is my time to go; then so be it, but I'll do my best to leave this world the same way I came into it----kicking and screaming.

 

I think it depends on how bad it truly gets. Our greatest weakness is still generating enough electricity and enough fuel storage. The prices on solar is dropping every year so I think that portion of the problem will have a solution soon, at least, enough to run all the freezers and a bit of spare to charge things. The fuel storage - well - it simply isn't possible to store enough so I'm not sure what to do about that, I guess keep doing what I'm doing, a few cans, a few drums... Everything else is fairly well covered.

 

as is nearly everybody else.

Thank goodness the Elites are looking out for us, eh?

 

Consider that 1% feeds 99%. A lot of places I visited as .MIL Pro Tourist showed me how bad that Ratio can be when the 1% that rule control the 1% that produce the food. After 12 years of being Pro Tourist I came back home to the USA and for lack of better job options became a OTR truck driver for 5 years A very good job choice for someone like myself until Sat. Tracking and Mandatory Bag phones started getting mandated in the trucks. It was abundantly obvious during the driving years, just how fragile our JIT freight, warehouse and supply chain was. LOL I think I made 6 months driving after the company I leased to mandated qualcom sat units be installed on my 3 trucks in 1998. I did not need big brother noting every time I stopped to take a leak or have a meal. With a message on the qualcom from dispatch asking why I was 2 miles off route and stopped for a hour. One such message and the bag phone burning up ringing. Prompted me to tell my drivers and the company I was done and that my trucks and the lease were for sale. One of my Drivers managed to get a loan and became the proud owner of 3 shiny new Western Stars with less than 10k Miles on any of them. I had just traded in the old trucks on the new trucks and walked away from it a little better than break even.

I was raised on a small family farm and the urge and drive to return to that life was growing stronger in me with every passing year since leaving that life. The seeing how things really worked and how fragile the entire system was becoming and my general strong growing dislike for people, was major motivation to buy a place off the beaten path and become one of those sustenance type homestead guys that provided for myself and didn't have to deal with a society that was getting more sick in the head by the day even back in 1998. I didn't go far enough off the beaten path because I woke up one morning in 2007 and was surrounded by 4 sub divisions being built on every side of me. My 6 acre island in the middle of nowhere became a island in the middle of everywhere. I found this place, sold that place and was sold out before the housing bubble burst with a nice profit from the sale and avoided most of the capital gains taxes by reinvesting it all into this place...... On paper anyway. The land owner to the East Can't sellout for a long time due to a trust that will be in place long after I am dead. The owner North and South of Me just will never sell, their farm is like 175 years old and the kids that will take over are not going anywhere and can't sell anyway due to a trust. Owner to West is a bit of wild card but I got a first right of refusal at fair market value contract out of him by agreeing to a electric easement to his property on the outside of my South Fence line. Its complicated but the trust I just finished hammering out on my place will go for 250 years after I croak. Assuming there is still a constitutional legal system in place 250 years from my croaking.

If you have not noticed the USA has not gotten better since 1998 and slowly swirled around the toilet bowl until 2010ish when the swirling got faster. Between 2008 and 2010 A lot of things happened that shifted things a lot farther to left and the Marxist Mentality. So in 2010 I made my prediction about where things were heading and sooner or later we were going to start seeing all kinds of things happening in the USA that allegedly just could not happen in the USA. Anyone else remember a couple of Obama Quotes that foretold the future.... "You didn't do that! Someone else built that for you!" or "We are going to adapt to becoming a service based economy." If you had not noticed 90% of our manufacturing has been exported to China, Mexico, Vietnam, India, and Tunisia. 40% of our food comes from across the border or overseas. LOL we Export say Rice FOR CHEAP and Import Rice for Not so Cheap in these nonsensical trade deals. Our Economy and Supply chain as well as what manufacturing we have left and even agriculture is now dependent on Mainly China but several other smaller players that China has a lot of influence over. In short China could shut down exports to the USA and our entire economy would collapse, They could cash out our debt to them and our entire economy would collapse. I won't even go into how much property, ag land, and businesses China has bought and control in the USA........ the only ones close at a very distant second are the Saudi's. The Corporations have sold us out and the Government has sold us out.......... with about half the population of the USA supporting and loving the sell outs.

Then 2020 rolls in and all that shit that can't happen in the USA happened to one degree or another and set the stage for lots more future stuff that can't happen in the USA to happen. We are in big BIG trouble right now. I called it in 2010 and went into over drive preparing and securing my future. I made as much money as I could bank between 2010 and 2020. I put A LOT of that money into things of real value that gave us a strong form of financial security and provided or produced the essential of life. A lot of the big things to finish it up came after 2020 like the new house, the lake and ponds, the big solar project, and the water treatment plant. I also restructured the live stock to smaller breeds of cattle and smaller hogs that do much better foraging the woods and pastures than other breeds do, same with the poultry. I shrank the Garden back to 1.5 acres, expanded the orchard by 40 fruit trees and doubled the berries, asparagus, and Perennial food sources. LOL the Birds, Turtles and Muskrats started stocking the lake and ponds as soon as they had water in them last year with Black Crappie, Bluegill and Green Sunfish. I helped it along this spring with 800 Largemouth bass, 5,000 more bluegill and 2500 Red Ear. The bass will get the Crappie and Green Sunfish populations in check pretty quickly as they grow and multiply. The naturally stocked fish spawned this year and the bass were and are already doing their job cruising the spawn beds and eating as many of the fresh hatched fry that they can gorge themselves on. I am still waiting on a couple key parts for the water treatment plant in particular the UV chamber I want. I finally got the pump to pull the water from 20 feet under that is variable speed from 100GPM to 600GPM not a cheap unit but industrial grade and top quality. My filtration system can handle up to 300GPM but I put a 3 way split in it for irrigation on one side and livestock watering on the other with brass ball valves to turn any of the three off or on as needed. The UV Chamber I want should be here sometime in september and then then the system will be fully functional. Call me paranoid but I put a 6 stage filtration system in basically double filter the water and the UV chamber kills any bacterial or viral left overs that get through the filters. LOL and have about 2 life times worth of replacement filters in the warehouse. The Solar is half done I went with a 20kw off grid with a 20kw Kohler propane generator and 1000G set tank for it and the house gas appliances, with a 10,000AH battery bank and OutBack mil grade Charge Controller and Inverter. The Second system for the Barn lot and front of the farm goes in next year and I am going grid tied with it and a 15KW System with no battery back up but a 10kw Generac Propane generator with a 500G Set tank. Too many big power things that just don't work well with offgrid solar..... Like Welders and really anything that pulls over 30amps.

My latest business venture of sorts that is so far working out very well multiplies the security here by 6X at present by 3X. But that is another story and a post I am going to make soon.

I would say I am in reasonably good shape to not only survive but thrive in pretty much every event short of a all out Nuke War or a giant asteroid impact

 

Solar and wind could supply all of your needs, given a big enough system. For fuels, you can store some diesel, gasoline and propane, but you have to figure that in a long-term situation that you are going to eventually run out. Therefore, you need to be able to make and use your own fuels. A still can produce ethanol to replace gasoline. The same still can make methanol, which with lye (wood ash and water) and vegetable oil produces biodiesel. A methane digester/composter will produce methane gas that can replace propane, in some applications. It's a lot of work and you will not be able to live a "normal" life, but it beats the hell out of going medieval!

 

Wind is just to dicey. I think Solar is the key and the tech is just about there and improving in big leaps now. I intend to move onto solar very soon doing my garage first, which has my freezers, then the house with enough to keep the refrigerators running and a bit of spare. Of course, it would be wonderful if they made a huge tech leap and gave us a nuclear fusion powercell. LOL! just dreaming...

 

After listening to Mark Levin rant and realizing that not only him but many others are exploding - well - your planning, work and investments might pay off much, much sooner. I am sitting here at this moment deciding whether to do exactly like you, throw all to the wind, and prepare like there is no tomorrow because there might not be as I think we are finally at the crux and no one can knows or even say what will happen if a small spark is now applied. Well done, KK! You are indeed an inspiration and example that we all can and should follow. Thank you.

 

One of the talking heads today in their ramblings hit a great point. The Trump indictments and the legal proceedings that will follow are going to tear the USA apart even more so than we are now.

Lots of things wrong and very little right now days. Something that gets very little press and that is going to be a major issue soon...... the Western Wheat Crop failure.

 

Just like Obama and the Marxists have plotted....

 

Solar would provide most of the electricity, but the wind sometimes blows at night and on cloudy days. I have often heard the wind whistling around the eves of the house on cold winter nights when it was dark, and when there wasn't much sunlight during the day. I'm not talking about going into wind power in a BIG way (unless you live somewhere real windy), but it could mean the difference on short winter days. Plus, it gives you another option.

 

"....the Western Wheat Crop failure."
Oh great! Just when I thought things couldn't get worse...

 

Perhaps one should have been planning for a reset, rather than a minor blip in the system? And continuing to increase mental, physical, material and spiritual preparedness while time still permits.

 

My wife and I have both prepped for years. I don't know how we'll fare, but God is in charge.

 

Gotta start somewhere and for the little SHTFs is a good place. Preparing for TEOTWAWKI or even Major widespread events is expensive, labor intensive and time consuming. I have kept a running account of what I have into being prepared over the last 40 years. After last year I am at 1.5 million dollars into structures, land, supplies and equipment. Everything I do in one way or another makes totally or less dependent on the outside world and what I believe are solid plans and contingency plans for the most likely events short term, mid term and long term. I am also a firm believer that NO Plan remains intact after the first engagement of the enemy whether that enemy is human, circumstance or naturally occurring. I am in a very good place as far as being prepared but it did not happen over night, it happened in stages over 4 decades. Of course I am NOT a prepper and actually hate that term. I just live this way and try to be as independent of the fake world that gets more fake by the day, as I can afford to be.

Who has 1.5 million dollars to spend of being prepared all at once or even over a year? I didn't! I also every 10 years or so figure up what it would cost to be where I am now. It is a whole lot more than 1.5 million. Closer to 4.7 million in the current economy. 40 acres I bought in 2008 for $71,500 will cost you $320,000+ now. A new Compact tractor with bucked, belly mower and backhoe I bought in 2000 for $14,000 cost North of $35,000 now. Good Cattle will cost you a small fortune now. Chickens that were $1 per as chicks are close to $6 per now. The time for the average person to get prepared with things, skills, and knowledge for the long term has came and gone unless you have millions or billions laying around to spend. Even if the average person could afford all of the stuff the vast majority of people have ZERO applied skills to be able to effectively use the stuff. "I will learn as I go!" WILL NOT cut it in a crisis. Most people I see buying and customizing a AR to a $3500 gun really should be buying a $200 .22LR and getting $3300 worth of competent weapon handling and use training. I am just going to call it as I see it, within 2 years $1.15 per shot Covid 5.56 will look cheap. If I am wrong make fun of me all you want because I hope I am wrong.

As good of a place I am in, how in the hell do you even begin to prepare for a Reset or a total economic collapse or a full or even limited exchange of Nukes. 90% of the population in the latter will be refugee Zombies that will eventually wander out of their Urban zones. In the prior 90% of the population will become total dependents on whatever is being handed out. Grandpa used to say "If stay on top of all of the little things, you should be in pretty good shape when the big things happen." He was not a prepper either, he just lived this way.

If everyone just kept a few of the little things like Water, Food, and Shelter for short to mid term SHTF Oh and I forgot TOILET PAPER LOL. That would dull the blow of any crisis a bit and at least buy some time for everyone. As it is you can't convince most people to keep 20 gallons of water and a weeks worth of non perishable food stashed away. The best you can hope for is that you made the right choices and plans and Mr Murphy and his Law don't throw too many wild cards in your face. And don't forget the Gremlins they are always lurking at the edge of the shadows

 

Don't know many who will survive a complete break down, but small stuff...I got a good test in Covid. I was actually taking supplies to the local police, hospital and post office. My mail lady almost cried when I gave her gloves, hand sanitizer and masks, as she'd just had 2 grandbabies and was worried she might not get to see them ever, if she got covid. When everyone else was worried about TP and meat, we had plenty. In fact we were sending some to our kids out East. We generally try to keep a year's worth of paper supplies and at least 6 months of dried stores on hand to go with what is in the freezer. Had the PPE gear because I'd done an avian flu exercise as a FEMA instructor trainer.