E-Mail ''Twas the Night After SHTF- Part 1, by H.C.' To A Friend

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24 Comments

  1. Great creativity – and a very relevant subject. Some back up locations of required supplies would be peace of mind.

    My caches contain very little food (afraid any odor that escapes may attract animals). Two of them have simple building materials for a shelter, tools for cutting wood – cooking outdoor meals. One cache does contain $$$, small bills in denominations no greater than 20’s for easy purchasing. Enough for my family of four to get out of the immediate area – all I have to remember to bring is our passports (we live near a national border in case things get THAT bad).

    But what to eat – well, I study natural foods grown in our area. How to prepare and when to harvest – that sort of thing.

  2. Yep, you are right on the mark. My wake up was yesterday when I read that Promise Keepers is seeking ham operators able to be self sufficient for 7 days to go deploy around Panama City. Compassion leads me to consider going. I have the radio (in the box), I have a 12 ft trailer, solar, a mountain of Mountain House. Lots of parts and skills but nothing cohesive. I conclude that by the time I can rally the need will be over. What does that portend for SHTF when time is of the essence. Time to get my fanny in gear.

    1. I’m from Panama City. We couldn’t speak to any of my or my wife’s parents for 3 days after the storm because there was no communications infrastructure left operational. It’s been a wakeup call for me too to pursue my ham license that I’ve been planning on obtaining for years, but never seem to get around to getting.

      1. My buddy from our first job out of college has been bugging me to do it for 35 years. I am currently reading for my General. Reading for and taking Technician made me sorely regret mumbling my way through log and scientific notation in high school.

    2. RV, one of the best actions we have taken (here in the very rural Redoubt) was forming a local AmRRON ham radio net. All of us (about 15 families) check in once a week. Communications are low-power low-tech direct person-to-person bypassing potential single point of failure repeaters. We rotate net control amongst 3-4 individuals.

      Our ham radio is on 24/7 to our AmRRON channel. Knowing that there is a local problem/threat is great. Knowing that these trusted folks are nearby and ready, willing and able to help is priceless.

      This net is our ‘tribe’ plus emergency communications. AmRRON is nationwide now. https://amrron.com/

    1. JWR recommended a book on caching written by a Marine that was good. Unfortunately, I cached it and I cannot give you ISBN. The topic ranged from the practical to the ethical issues. I though perhaps it would be hidden among the books on gardening but alas, I failed to follow a piece of advice from the book about making sure you can find the thing again. If it ended up at the office I’ll post tomorrow. Perhaps JWR or HJL recall the title and author.

  3. GOOD ARTICLE: OPTIMUM PREP HAS GOOD CHOICES FOR FULL SLEVE RIFLE STORAGE BAGS THAT CAN BE VACCUM SEALED. UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME, UNDER 5 INCHES OF TOP SOIL IS THE HARDEST HARDPAN AND CLAY UNSOIL IN THE N.W. HOW ABOUT A GOOD STORAGE LOCKER THATS CLIMATE CONTROL? THANKS JR FOR EVERYTHING!

    1. A friend from the southwest desert with a similar problem with rock hard hard pan told me how they plant trees in his town.

      With dynamite.

      They drill down, set off the dynamite, and now there is plenty of broken up hardpan so the tree can get established. Something of the sort might break up your hardpan.

  4. The ham license can be obtained by checking with your local ham radio club. They usually have classes and testing — which will be about $20 for supplies. If you go to qrz.com you can find practice tests.
    Equipment is only limited by your budget and creativity. If you check with qth.com you can usually find decent used gear for between $400 and $600. You can get a new Icom 718 for around $500 to $700. Perfect for the new ham.
    And take the time to learn how to do morse code and make an antenna. Not required but will greatly help you. In low power poor band conditions CW is your friend.
    -40 year ham

  5. Dangit….I just sit down with my coffee to do my daily morning read, and my self-delusional security bubble gets popped again.

    I must be neighbors with Jett Sledder. The neighbor’s backhoe couldn’t dig much through the clay underneath us yesterday.

  6. Awesome.

    However, depending on the situation, I think that families CAN go it alone, WITH the use of a lot of force multipliers: Early Warning Systems (Some, if not most of them lethal) such as Dakota Alerts, tripwired devices, etc. Night vision devices, ballistic fortification, good, deep infantry fighting positions (depending on the size of your land), defensive wire to block, delay and cannalize, etc

  7. Pretty picture of the retreat cabin lit up like the Fourth of July? No watch posted?

    Three days no communication after Hurricane Michael? Not bad. Almost immediate response by Fed. I remember Hurricane Andrew. Governor Chiles took THREE days to call up the National Guard. Over the years since Andrew No electricity for at LEAST one to two weeks. and NO cell service at all after most hurricanes. South Florida has two distinct groups of people. One is prepared and able to help their neighbor. The other is cluleless, unprepared, whining about “Where is my ice? Where is my water?”, less than 24 hrs after hurricane landfall. Trump certainly wasted no time getting engaged.

  8. Location, location, location. Now that might sound silly from someone who was right in the path of a Cat4 hurricane but what our location does provide is a small community that had all met up at our church 6 hours after the storm passed. We had cut ourselves out, took care of our immediate needs then got together to check on every single home in the area (about 35) the following morning when “first” responders finally rolled through we were making sure they had food and water. Our Church had MREs stored from the last event that we were passing out and were filling water containers from our well running off of one of our members “spare” generators. When the NG came by yesterday (storm +5 days) to finally drop off emergency supplies we just used the MREs they dropped off to replenish our Churches supply.

    We haven’t had any looting, if strangers do happen to make it this far out usually a few “Who are ya what do ya need” questions from obviously armed residents is enough to send the curious on their way.

    Having neighbors you know and trust is one of the biggest blessings you can have in a location.

    1. Sounds like you are truly fortunate to have located a community where your neighbors watch each others backs. We are still looking for such a place. There are a few of us, but most are Lone Rangers. No true group identity. Just a group of individuals each with their own agendas. Like herding cats.

      1. Like I said we’re blessed here. I would say that we are not a “group ” per se other than we all attended the same Church. We have my different opinions and personalities but thankfully everyone has been able to set those aside to take care of what needs done.

  9. In a real life bad guys attack your cabin, and they get the jump on you or one of your people, they will kill you. They don’t leave witnesses. If it is a few months into it, they might eat you. Don’t fool yourself bad guys kill.

  10. Let’s be crystal clear. People stealing your preps is the same as shooting you. It is a life or death situation. You can’t go down to the store and get more. Starvation is all but certain.

    If you can’t know for certain you can do what it takes, probably better not to bother prepping anyway.

    I know that if I have to choose between neighbors or family the choice will be easy.

    Also, while I do support having supplies in multiple locations (just in case). Do you think your neighbors won’t notice you digging them back up?

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