TOTM October 2015 - Mutual Assistance.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by ghrit, Sep 30, 2015.


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  1. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    This month's collection of ideas wasn't too fat a harvest so I dug into my stores. The idea of topic of the month has really attracted a lot of reads and responses up 'till now, so it looks like a good idea to keep it going for another month. We might take a break closer to the end of the year.

    Anyway, this month's topic is -- Mutual Assistance

    Have you made arrangements with neighbors, friends, relatives or organizations that you belong to for assistance where you or they are deficient in preps? What do they NOT have that you can help with? What do you expect they have that you don't and might need? In other words, who is watching your six, and whose six are you covering? There's been a lot of discussions on SM about and around the tribe, or groups of like minded individuals, but who of us really has such a group, is it well organized or just discussions around the camp fire or across the bar?

    Be careful with your answers, OPSEC is on the ragged edge this month.
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2015
  2. GOG

    GOG Free American Monkey

    This is a great topic because it's exactly what we've been talking about around my place. There are five households in this little area and we're all on a few acres or more in the woods. Three of our places are also on a large year round creek.
    We're about thirteen miles and five miles from the two nearest towns. One is around 35k people and the closer one is tiny with a bunch of rebels and outcasts. The is the country and folks are pretty independent in general here.

    Of our five households, we have two vets, one with pretty recent combat experience, two nurses, a lifelong hunter and raftsman and a couple of farm girls who can outwork most normal human beings and are tough cookies too. We have nursing/first aid, horticultural/farming/gardening skills, husbandry, logging, carpentry, plumbing, welding, automotive and masonry skills. I'm the gun tinkerer by default and the go-to guy for general survival/prep knowledge. We also have one token liberal/hippie. But she's a hard worker and good people. It takes all kinds.

    We aren't officially a MAG, but we have a loose organization that we're dialing in to something more organized without going overboard. We've known each other a few years and are pretty close. We regularly spend time together and break bread together and that really makes a strong bond.
     
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  3. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    We down here naturally bond together as a way of life.
    Plenty of practice with hurricane's and flooding.
    Pretty much anything walking on 4's crawling or swimming is fair game.
    Barter is a way of life here.
     
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  4. LouDog

    LouDog Monkey

    I am having a hard time :( . Right now it's just my immediate family (brother,sister,mother,father,bro n law and sis n law) both bro and sis have small children under the age of 4. The only ones that subscribe to the idea of a SHTF scenario are my mother and father.
    Myself and brother have always been gun people, and he is slowly coming around.
    My sister and her husband though, sigh, are firm believers that nothing is going to happen bad enough that we need to prepare for.
    Trying to get them involved is like pulling teeth, having recently moved to Indiana I haven't met very many people I can call friend.
    I am trying to get them involved but I have no clue how to turn them on to the idea of prepping and how it would benefit them and their children.
     
  5. kellory

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

    Start with common problems that will make sense to them. Power, water, loss of a job, or injured on a job, and not enough money. Everyday kind of things.
     
    3M-TA3, Marck, Gator 45/70 and 2 others like this.
  6. Gopherman

    Gopherman Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back to Sleep

    I stopped trying about 6 months ago. Some people don't want to know whats coming, either out of fear or out of a feeling that they can't do anything about it.
    Its hard to be awake sometimes, every time I turn on the News I see it coming clearer and clearer, like dialing in a telescope.
    It truly will not be long before something major hits! This Syria thing with all of it's implications from Refugee Jihadi's, to Russia eventually shooting down US planes, or Iran and Saudi's using it as a battlefield to settle old scores.
    Then there's China, NATO, Ukraine, Palestinians, Greece............... If a person can't see it for themselves you sure won't convince them! My advice would be stop wasting your breath, your gonna need it to prepare, that BOB gets Heavy!
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2015
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  7. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I'd be tits up, like a bug, if I had to rely on the group. Neighbors used to help one another, at least as far as it goes, but like the gold watch, community in most areas, has ceased to exist. I have reached the point in my life, where I no longer arm-chair survive these scenarios. It is what it is and always will be.I am tough, resilient, and I have massive resources, can I keep them? Probably not but I will as long as I can.
     
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  8. stg58

    stg58 Monkey+++ Founding Member

    In terms of planning sometimes duplication of resources may not be be the best expenditure of limited $$$.
    For instance in a 6 family group do you need 6 log splitters at $1000 plus retail or would 2 or 3 cover it and the others purchase other big ticket items.
     
  9. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Inside the circle, everything is communal, there can't be your's and mine; it all has to base on what each brings to the circle in order to succeed. The alternative is a monarchy. I own everything and will allow you the benefit of use providing you meet my criteria. There really isn't any other choices in a survival community or in life. We hang together or we hang separately...sounds good in a movie but in real life, common is king. It really is, by necessity, all for one or one for all.
     
    Tully Mars, Ganado, Marck and 4 others like this.
  10. Gopherman

    Gopherman Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back to Sleep

    You can always load up and head over here Brother!!
     
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  11. T. Riley

    T. Riley Monkey+++

    I have 32 in my group, all relatives and close friends with various levels of preps. I have a Desert Storm sniper, a cage fighter, an NP, a PA and one RN. Some gardeners, several hunters, a PH.D. in education. That is if everyone makes it. 8 under the age of 6. A couple purchchased several acres next to me this summer. He is a detective and long gun trainer for a PD not far away. When they showed up to go pig hunting both caring matching camo suppressed AR's and a thermal sight I inquired about there thoughts on preps. Well armed, lots of knowledge and seemed to be good people. Unbeknow to them I have added two more one year rations to my food stores.
     
  12. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    Only one other household in our neighborhood would fall into the 'prepper' category that I know of, the rest it'd be a waste of my time trying to convince them to be prepared. And I expect to be on our own in a SHTF scenario. If possible, I would like my sister and her family to be here in times of crisis. Not just cause she's family, but also because she's a nurse and her husband has handyman and hunting experience.
     
  13. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    I count three other households in my neighborhood that would be cooperative/friendly. I count two that would be liabilities/unfriendly. The rest are unknown, but we've only been here a few months. In 4 1/2 years I plan to "exit stage left" to a more rural area within the American Redoubt. That's a monetary limitation, if not for that I'd be there now. I'm unsure if there is time left for that plan.

    I'm being VERY careful about bringing in supplies and ammo. My educated guess is that after the first week, 2/3 of my neighborhood will want what I've got for "the community", that is after they started demanding that I turn over my guns to the authorities.

    I effing HATE living in a liberal area. Only here now because I take care of my 89 year old Dad, and he refuses to leave his property.
     
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  14. Seepalaces

    Seepalaces Monkey+++

    We love our neighbors, but we either bug out or wait for them to come try to kill us for our stuff. The nicest people will kill you if their kids are hungry.
     
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  15. Gopherman

    Gopherman Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back to Sleep

    Knowing who you got in your Location is critical! You never know whats inside a fruit til you squeeze it!
    Too many Alpha Males is no good, sooner or later you will have a problem, and when the Law of the Jungle kicks in, no telling what could happen.
    We have a couple that have been freinds for a while now and they have a nice secluded rural property, roughly 20 acre in BFE.
    Were already working on the location, gonna try the perma-culture approach and plant the crap out of it.Fruit trees, grapevine, passion fruit, casting all kinds of vegetable seeds around the property and see what takes.
    I also ordered all kinds of Medicinal Herb seeds yesterday.
    The plan is to get them to bare seeds and throw them out around the perimeter. I will not plant the stinging nettles!, those suckers hurt. I will probably throw them into my Bad Neighbors front yard one night.[LMAO].
    I bought a Compressed Earthbrick Machine and will get it welded together soon, they wanted $1,000 to weld it at a shop, a buddy said he would do it for me. We are going to have a slab poured and the use it to build an earth berm structure. I will take some pics and share as things take shape.
    There is a huge house on the place in dilapidation, but enough salvageable material to last indefinitely. Probably have to take it down a section at a time very carefully. Thousands of 2x4, 6's,8'sand 12's, literally a prayer answered.
    They don't have much money but bringing all that to the game is plenty!!
    Were happy to share our good fortune financially.We Know these people well and hopefully will be able to find a few other like minded couple to join our efforts.
    We would like to start a community, Not a Commune, of off grid earth dwellings and self sustainable enviroment.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2015
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  16. chimo

    chimo the few, the proud, the jarhead monkey crowd

    We're the new family surrounded by farmers and their kin who have been living here for decades. The farmers themselves are all mid 50s to 80s and pretty self-sufficient...even down to having manual backups in case of fuel/electric shortages. The kids vary...some are jack-of-all-trades like their parents/grandparents, others are worthless as tits on a boar...consumed with keeping up with the city Joneses. I've only started getting to know them, but there is a tradition here of folks all pitching in when the going gets tough for one or the entire area...so I figure time and experience will sort out how we fit into the mix.
     
  17. T. Riley

    T. Riley Monkey+++

    Some people in your group will be less able to spend money on preps than others, that's a given. Do you demand everyone prep the same? Is a experienced nurse or sniper not worth their keep even if you have to provide for them? My contribution is shelter and substance in exchange for security and medical care for me and mine. I am now 65, and the older I get, the better that deal becomes.
     
  18. TailorMadeHell

    TailorMadeHell Lurking Shadow Creature

    I am the only family member who has an inkling. One will be my "lieutenant" should anything go wacky, though that's bluster and no preps. One has a bad ticker, gold and silver coins, a shotgun and .22 pistol, and is weak. I have one friend and he just moved away. It's just me, in an untenable situation, some preps though not nearly enough and to top it off, I have a blind roommate I'd have to either drag along or leave behind.
     
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  19. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    We keep talking about SHTF like it's a one off event. The reality is we are there now. Anyone notice the prices of food are 1/3 higher than a year ago? The price of oil is half what it was 18 months ago but the price per gallon is only down 1/3rd. The biggest reason to prep is to feed yourself now. Not just in case of a one off event. IMO we will see food riots before long as people won't be able to afford food. The American dollar is about to deflate which means higher prices.
     
  20. J_B

    J_B Monkey

    I hear u. the people who talk about preparing just wanna talk and not do anything. it's frustrating. I
    would like to find a few people who are serious about getting a small piece of land and living off grid and having a farm. i'm in nj but would relocate almost anywhere. was thinking of going near Lancaster, at least the amish have fresh food for sale. but I read the entire downtown is now under surveillance. what a surprise. any suggestions as to where would be a decent place to live near NJ or even down the coast? thanks
     
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