How To Prep For … Throwing In The Towel- Part 1, by DR in Tennessee

38 Comments

1. I hope this is good. It has been years of thought and checks and balances to build, overbuild a maintenance free home. The extra time and effort and money. I think is lost on most people. Rich and thorough value is a very narrow market in a instant gratification grid tie society. Sad. We knew why we built this way and it was not to sell, but it seems things don’t happen as quick as you thought or as you thought.
   Trust in Jesus and an eternal perspective and train your children and hope they will not get caught in the snare of the world. We built with the firm conviction believing God’s Word ” No man shall buy or sell save he receive a mark…” We know money will be worthless to us. We know how it will end. We just don’t know exactly how those contractions will unfold and how quickly. We just keep watching and warning with a sadness of the lack of the love of the truth of God’s Word. Don’t worry were all spiritual and we are all going to heaven. Yikes. Come quickly Lord Jesus. The suspense is grieving me. I hope our family is not found wanting. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

2. This article points out the folly of our cultural progression. If you ever watched the tv series “The Waltons”, then you know how the social system of our country was intended to work. Sadly, it is lost now, to all but a few. How many of us know of family homes where the geriatric generation live with the wage earners and their children? Our first line of prepper partnering ought to have been family, but that just isn’t realistic anymore for the vast majority of us. Just because grandpa and grandma can’t function independently anymore doesn’t mean they aren’t an asset. But instead, we decide to pay for daycare, pizza delivery, someone else to clean up the yard and mow, and lose a lot of hard earned wisdom and knowledge along the way.

   Our society is broken in many ways. This was one of the big ones.

3. We’re in our early 60’s . Already things are getting tougher to do. Bodies are falling apart. Families and neighbor laugh their heads off at our preparedness. We have no “preper community”, never will.
   We’ll go on as long as we can. There is no other choice. I wouldn’t live any other lifestyle, too boring!

   1. Know that we needed others, I spent years throwing out zingers, hoping for a bite. It finally happened. Someone in our church reached out to me in friendship. Soon, it became obvious that we had similar interests and were working toward the same goals.

      We have bought supplies together, shared lists, discussed podcasts, canned together, sewn together, gardened together, and so much more. Don’t give up on finding someone. I knew this family for years before we connected. Now, we have made plans together.

      Our place will be in a trust. One thing I learned from James Rawles is to not allow your place to be lost due to taxes. We have provided for future taxes.

      This article is very appropriate and timely. So many of us, it seems, are pushing 70. We will live in the country as long as possible, but did keep our city home.

      1. How do you provide for future taxes?

         1. You can put money in the trust to pay for the taxes

   2. You could always move to somewhere where you could have that community…As long as your still mobile you always have a choice…

4. I’m 53 and been at this since I have been on my own around 17 years old. Plans change and things change and we adapt. I’ve no issue with facing reality that my wife of 30 years will die within months without the drugs she needs for her lupus and that I will probably get killed or die doing things in the SHTF situation. Realistically I’m hoping for a year. I’m still in great shape, I lift 5 times a week and my cardio is better than most of these kids I work with, and I’ve got years of training and practice so I have that going for me.
   I keep it practical and realistic for me. My family is what I prepare for as much if not more than myself right now. I’m in a place where its easier for me to purchase and maintain things as my kids become young parents which saps the time and income.
   I believe in what the Army taught me in that every single day you work to improve your position. I may not be as fast or durable but Rome wasn’t built in a day but it was built upon every single day.

   1. MIO,

      Keep on, and God Bless,

      Great inspiration, that you have provided.

      Thank you,

5. How timely. We just went through ‘gut check time’. It came after years of hard work and sacrifice building a beautiful mountain retreat with many survival features in the Redoubt. Our children (who live in worse case survival locations) took zero action to take advantage of this potential blessing. They live for today with no ‘Plan B’. Ultimately their (or the next generation) suffering will be great.

   The reality is that rural living is hard. Without family we had little support in daily life much less SHTF. And sadly we were like sheep dogs with no sheep to protect. Before moving (back to easier suburban living) we did our best to help local families who were taking action and sacrificing to prepare. It is comforting that many children may benefit one day from our efforts. But not ours. Your results might differ.

6. As a senior prepper I am slowing down; and true, I can’t do what I used to. I don’t know how I am going to die but as a Christian, I’m not worried about it. When my husband passed I left the city life and adopted this life style for my remaining family and most of them accepted the responsibility. The property is both on grid and off grid, meaning when the power fails the off grid systems come back on. All systems are redundant including my kids. One son is with me, living the rural life style and learning to manage the property. Others have city jobs but practice urban prepping and come to help on vacations. If and when I can no longer think on my own, the trust is in place with assets committed to my care, to country prepping and survival and those who do the most work on the property. If the kids mismanage their inheritance, they suffer the consequences.

7. I will be 78 in a couple of months and sold my bug out retreat last year. I could no longer keep up with the work load and could see that the property was slowly deteriorating and survival was unlikely if needed. I was unable to get my two sons onboard for a variety or reasons and my wife and I could not defend the site alone much less do the work required. Sad but a realistic evaluation. We are located near a large city and close to an interstate in a suburban development. I have stock piled a few months food, the ability to store water, and the necessary arms and ammunition to last the initial assaults, but in reality my sole purpose will be to take out as many looters as possible before I am taken out. I was able to do the work when I was 70 but things deteriorated quickly after that. You don’t win the battle with aging.

   1. Truer words were never spoken. We are in the same boat as many. Cancer and heart problems forced us to leave the mountains of northern Arizona to move closer to our children. We are in a semi rural farming community outside a small City in Tennessee. We keep as prepared as possible but are facing an ever growing list of health issues. North of 70 is not for the faint of heart. Pun not intended.Everything is harder. We do have a small community of like minded neighbors here but I’m under no illusions of our ability to last very long when the bubble bursts.

8. Our 5 acres of woods is going into a land trust when we die for “the enjoyment of all our blood relatives.” It will not be able to be sold for 325 years, I think is the length allowed in our state. This keeps the kids from selling it. They know our plans for that and someday they just might be glad it is there.

   1. How did you arrange for it to be fairly used among your kids? Ex…what if one of them wants to move there & live in your home (if there is one) or build a home there? what happens w/ the other kids…since it can’t be sold? We are pondering all of this to make future decisions.

      1. There is only a shed with roof water collection there. I have tried to make a “food forest” the deer have enjoyed, and have some raised beds. The
         rest is forest. So even if it all went back to forest the land would still be there. The taxes will be paid by the trust. Taxes and insurance are just $150 per year at this point. Right now no one has shown any interest in living there. We have other assets that we have divided between them so this land is not the only thing. They all understand the purpose of the land.
         We spent this last year getting all our affairs in order and the lawyer we had was every helpful in getting everything explained to us about how to set things up in trusts. The lawyer is very encouraging in having your heirs in on all the planning so that they understand all the plans and why they are what they are. Our children took turns coming to the meetings and they watched videos on estate planning. I feel that we have done all we could to be responsible. Now the lawyer wasn’t free, but I feel that his services were so helpful for all of us. I have had several friends that have gone through so many troubles and hard feelings over estates so I am so glad we have this all settled. There is one family where the 3 daughters are not speaking to each other over a lamp that each declares the mother promised to them and she probably did, she was 90, so she probably forgot. Since our 5 children all know exactly who gets what and why we hope to avoid all that.

9. Just hit one of the big speed bumps of life at 70 years young. Looking forward to the next part of this article AND the equally valuable comments.

10. Wife and I are in our 60s. Back in our young 50s we recruited several young couples and there are of course our mature children, of which one is a physician. I’m encouraging the children to maintain our estate in the mountains as a ‘vacation’ home and redoubt. The wife and I are members of Air Med helicopter ambulance service. All living in remote members should join the organization https://airmed.com or even better a full blown medical expatriation service such as MedJet assist https://medjetassist.com/?utm_source=impact&utm_medium=partners&utm_campaign=
    partner%20pages or Global Rescue (best) https://medjetassist.com/?utm_source=impact&utm_medium=partners&utm_campaign=partner%20pages. This is true regardless of age or physical ability. AirMed is only $65/year – cheap indeed. Not being immune to age related decline, we are contemplating a move in the next 10 years that would put us near a major metropolitan city (for medical care) and closer to the children.
    My thoughts,
    PR

11. Excellent post. I am in the old boat too. I’m 65 on SS Disability with copd, emphysema, and bronchial spasms. Being self sufficient owning my own construction co my whole life rehabbing municipal water storage systems in the middle 17 states this is a new part of life as I am physically unable to run a small farm anymore away from medical care in short distance. I have two sons in their middle 40’s but they have family and business responsibilities. The post cites an important word probably the most important aspect of prepping imho, Community! Narrowing it down even more ” Christian Community” in the biblical example. The apostles example of community in the first 100 years was, church meant meeting house to house and everyone having everything in common with no expensive religious real estate to support or a full time pastor to support. Studies show that 85% of money used in western Christianity goes to a little used brick and mortar infrastructure and salaries for the local religious officials leaving the things most important in Christianity unsupported. The prepping lifestyle lends itself perfectly to that early model of Christianity. Also the local community of Christian survivalist are not being properly trained because the meetings are not conducive to equipping the believers to do the work of the ministry and growing in the faith but our present model of church actually stunts spiritual growth collectively. We need the whole diverse realm of gifts given to men developed fully and implemented to survive the coming Schumer hitting the proverbial fan. IT is one glaring shortcoming in the survival life. Current model of church is failing miserably in this regard of the type of community necessary to survive chaos and calamity of a failed system of living as we know it presently. IMHO.

12. It’s ironic that many preppers prep for all things SHTF, but not old age. There’s no guarantee that the SHTF will happen in your lifetime. What is guaranteed is old age. You want a true SHTF face old age with no real retirement,minimum Soc.Sec. and nothing but a Medicaid nursing home to look foward to for yourself or worse your wife/widow. Old age/retirement is a Prep not to be overlooked.

13. DR in TN and Senior-Aged Preppers,
    There is another very disturbing aspect of selling your retreat property in old-age that you all seem to be missing. Your properties are being sold to the very people that you have spent your entire life fighting politically and preparing to defend against. These people sell their cracker box home in (fill in the blank with any Northern/Liberal enclave) for enormous sums of inflated fiat and then purchase your survival properties in rural areas at bargain prices(comparatively speaking). They bring with them the same desire to control (HOA’s), the same bankrupt liberal policies, and the criminal need to enact massive tax increases that they were fleeing to begin with. As a property owner and resident of Tennessee, it hurts my soul to see almost the entire corridor from Knoxville to Chattanooga being consumed by the left as the generation of self-sufficient and God-fearing die off. A friend of mine that works for TWRA (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency) told me that hunting and fishing license sales in Eastern Tennessee have literally collapsed due to the influx of out of state residents over the age of 65 who have no desire to partake in game hunting or teach sustainable living within nature.
    If you consider selling the property that you have worked so hard for, please use a realtor such as Survival Realty on this site to list it so that it remains in the hands of like-minded individuals. You can also choose to donate it to a youth hunting program, a local gun club for a shooting range, or a local 4-H group. I have seen my hometown in Virginia and my adopted home in Tennessee taken over by people that don’t share our Faith or our beliefs. PLEASE consider this when selling the property that you love so much.

    1. Do not despair entirely. I have a friend who is over 65 from Long Island, NY, definitely not a Christian, who is moving to the corridor with her family, and is planning to raise chickens, get a goat, plant fruit and nut trees, and become sustainable as fast as she can.

       She is scared. She’s not the only one.

14. I am 57 and my husband is 59. We started prepping for our family of four about 10 years ago. Things changed. My husband developed Celiac Disease. Our kids got married and moved. We didn’t rotate our supplies like we should have and couldn’t use many of them due to the Celiac diagnosis. We decided to call it quits a few months ago. I tried selling our 25 #10 cans of unopened food that we stored inside our home. All of our supplies were stored inside our climate controlled home since we live in Florida. I couldn’t sell the #10 cans and ended up giving them away along with a good amount of the food. I had to trash a LOT of the food that had gone bad. I opened and tried cans of fruits and vegetables, containers of oil, canned meats, etc. Folks, if you don’t rotate it WILL go bad. Cans of fruit and soups that I’d had since 2012 had turned to mush. Other cans had leaked onto my shelves. Pasta and oils had turned rancid. I had seven floor to ceiling shelving units full of stuff. Along with a full closet or two. Literally hundreds of dollars down the drain. I now keep one shelf of food and supplies and ROTATE. Our dreams of moving to the country and living off the land were never very realistic. Just be very careful and research and research again before you get started. And be realistic. We are all aging. Some better than others, but still aging. I think God answered my prayers by keeping us right where we are. “Seawind” got it right…we need to prepare for old age. That is an absolute. “Doomsday” in our lifetime…not so much.

    1. I’m curious Violet was there anything among your food storage that remained good? For instance, what about whole grains? Those are reputed to last 15 or more years.

       1. The only whole grains I stored were in the #10 cans and I didn’t open those. I did have a few 5 lb. bags of regular white flour and white sugar from 2014 that I put in a plastic bag and vacuum sealed. Those were fine. I vacuum sealed individual 2-5 pound bags of beans. Those were stale. I tried cooking a couple of bags and they never cooked up. Just stayed hard. The individual bags of brown rice I vacuum sealed had turned rancid. I also stocked the Tinkyada brown rice pasta for my husband. Just kept it on the shelf in it’s original bag. They were relatively more current…2014. I tried cooking it twice. It too was rancid. Other items that held up well were jars of spaghetti sauce (2014 and later), canned beans (anything earlier than 2014 was bad), jars of peppers (2012) and boxes of kosher salt. I will say I opened one #10 can of sliced strawberries that was about 8 years old. It was almost one solid mass of strawberries that I had to chip away at. I tried reconstituting some according to the directions…they disintegrated. And they weren’t very tasty for snacking on either. They were a well known brand. Gluten-free boxed cake and cookie mixes from 2012 and later were good. I’m still working through those. The macaroni and cheese in the blue box…nope. These were pretty old…2012. The orange powdered cheese had turned brown. We cooked it and tried it…definitely a funky after taste. I wish I would have kept a more detailed report and thought to publish it here. Just to help out the other readers.

          1. Thank you. That is interesting. I wish we had some more accounts of real world experience with long term storage both the failures and successes.

             I learned one lesson early- never store food in a closet that has a wall facing the outside because you get a lot of ups and downs in temperature and also, I suspect, condensation issues.

    2. I’d like to know more-I started collecting/stocking/storing food of all types in 2008. I have only thrown out a couple cans of pears.
       I have boxed foods, 5 gallon buckets, home canned foods, commerical canned foods, and lots of food in the freezer.
       I did lose sealed pancake mix in mason jars after a few years–won’t do that again.
       Pancake mix is now in the freezer.

15. This Continuity Plan offers idea on getting kids & young adult children interested in prepping… https://survivalblog.com/continuity-plan-by-e-m/

    But at this pt, our adult children are more concerned about inheriting a house full of supplies & what they’ll do w/ everything after we pass away. SO I’m looking forward to DR’s part 2.

16. Gee, I felt a bit sad reading the posts, but then I realized how many critical thinkers are of our generation. We a halfway in between in the sense we are in a community, but 1 1/2 hours at least from a big city. We are inclined to stay here until we can’t and I will probably still stay on if my husband dies first. The kids are on board and would try to make it here. I firmly believe even the sceptical kids will head toward home and realize their parents were correct. Appreciate the advise to buy preps that you will use, at least in the food department. I think being able to make it 3-6 months would be way beyond what the Golden Horde could do. When we are out and about we always calculate how far we think folks could walk on foot. Some not through the store. Attitude is such a huge part of surviving too. Maybe canned meat instead of chickens or canning vegetables from the farmers market instead of trying to grow everything. We are big into workarounds! Also, health is everything and we stress that heavily to our family because some diseases are hard to beat back once they take hold. The Lord is in control and we play for wisdom too. Can’t wait to read more comments, ideas and suggestions.

17. Throw in the towel? Maybe adapt and change.

18. There is a strong common theme i see in a lot of the responses here- people who have put years of effort int preparing themselves and even accomplishing what most of us here dream of – setting up a decent retreat – and whose grown children dont care a whit about any of it and either let it all fall to pieces or at best sell it off to someone who hopefully appreciates it fully.. I see it in my father in law – he tried for years to help set up his sons in a more rural, independent life, but neither of them is interested. His daughter found me and i’m happy the old man and i have so much in common, but you can see his frustration that so much he worked to build up for his sons is starting to go to waste (most of it he’d already deeded to them, hard for me to stick my nose into that kind of business)
    ‘i told you so’ is a bitter feeling when TSHTF and it’s too late to prepare. This should be something for us to contemplate but not give up or lose hope.

19. throw in the towel? you have to be joking! i’ll stop when i’m dead.
    i’m 70 next year and i’m fitter and heathier than some “normal” people I know in their 40s and 50s.

20. At some point we will all throw in the towel. But don’t forget, great and deep spiritual progress can be made up until your last breathe. He who asks receives.

21. An unexpected brain surgery reassured us that we are on our own here.
    67 and 69 years old-17 days and not one inquired about us.
    I wasn’t home–Gene’s truck wasn’t home(he had accident on log yard)and my unmowed yard should have told everyone something was amiss.

22. This was a gloomy comment section, but it does bring to light what many forget, life marches on with or without us. our kids grow up and start their own families and the clock continues to tick.

    I’m still in the stage of finishing up my career (my Ipad countdown says 1,608 days); however, the goal to retire is getting closer and then moving out of the city and back to a small farm will hopefully materialize.

    The career retirement benefits and our investments will allow us to enjoy our retirement on that little farm we have always wanted to have. It will not be the 1,000 AL grain farm and 200 head farrow to finish operation I grew up on and managed for a brief period of time, but it will be ours to do as we wish.

23. Perhaps the things to do is have a realty listing that helps match older folks with younger like minded folks so you can have the generational help that you don’t always find within your own family. Many young folks in their 30s and 40s don’t have the funding to purchase the property but would love to live that lifestyle.

    1. @DAMedinNY, I definitely agree that multiple generations, whether they are kin or not, is a wonderful solution. This has been the historical solution to this problem of survival. There didn’t used to be nursing homes or social security checks, and people had large families, partly because it was the children who would provide for the older folks. It is also a wonderful solution to child care. It creates continuity in passing down wisdom and learning the old ways.

24. All excellent heartfelt comments, and generally reflective of the sentiments we hear talking with mature preppers, across their kitchen tables, about how their families are living far off, kids with zero interest in what they’ve built up or just have no relatives to share or leave the survival retreat to. It’s sad, but it’s reality. Aging retreat owners should be cautious of “advice” from younger so-called “experts” whose motives for urging them to sell out could be questionable. But sticking your head in the sand about your age-related limitations just shortens the time you have remaining to address the situation in an acceptable manner. Nobody wants the state to inherit your retreat. I echo earlier advice to list your retreat for sale on a site frequented by like-minded individuals, like SurvivalRealty, and to seek other DIY resources, like basiclifetraining.com, that can help retreat sellers prepare themselves to find a good buyer match.

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