James:
My husband and I fell in love with a section of [what is now called] the American Redoubt long before I discovered SurvivalBlog. We dreamed of retiring in that part of the country as so many of his co-workers have done. We even went looking for property years ago in the hopes that we would have a place to go to in our old age. We couldn’t afford any at that time, but the idea stayed in the back of our minds. Our dream was put on hold when he suddenly passed away, but after he died I got my first computer, and I discovered SurvivalBlog. God put the dream back in the forefront of my mind.
Now I debated for quite some time whether or not this dream was truly from the Lord or just my wanting a change, but the more I read this blog and the more I listened to the radio and talked with my friends about the situation in America both economically and spiritually, the more that moving made sense. I resided in a very liberal state with no hope of redemption as far as I could see and I had a family to raise. But I had other family nearby – especially my In-laws, and I felt I could not abandon them so soon after their only son’s death. However, earlier this year, at the unusual suggestion of my Mother-In-law, God gave me the opportunity to actually visit the area in question and provided a sweet and knowledgeable realtor to help me begin seeing the possibilities. Once again I fell in love with the American Redoubt and felt that deep desire to leave where I had been for so long. Through some eye-opening observations I experienced after returning home, it was clear to me that God was indeed opening the doors for a move. That was Spring and after a whirlwind summer with some surprising “God moments”, I am now living in the American Redoubt.
To give some perspective on the lessons I learned, I must mention that I had almost convinced myself that moving out of my city and state would never happen. In light of that I had decided that a “bug in” position was the obvious choice for me while living in the city as I was located on high ground, had some extra space, a large yard and would probably be the only one in my family who had thought of preparing for when TSHTF. I faithfully stocked up on as many items as I thought necessary – some recommended on SurvivalBlog or by blog contributors, some ideas encouraged from other preparedness sources. I bought shelves for my kitchen pantry that allowed FIFO [rotation] for my stock of canned food; I created a second pantry in a seldom-used room and slowly filled it; I added shelves in closets and filled them. If TSHTF I thought I would be partially prepared for the family members who would land on my doorstep.
As I am still learning about preparedness, I took the easiest path to begin and gradually added. Food and toiletries came first followed by grid-down supplies. Then I bought chicks and raised them in my backyard (well aware of the vague language in the city ordinance) and when they began laying their eggs I shared them with the neighbors so as to calm any protest. I installed raised beds in my back yard and planted vegetables and herbs until I was out of room and then I slowly put raised beds in my front yard in order to increase my organic crop. My neighbors wondered why I had ripped out half of my lawn but accepted the fact that I didn’t want to mow so much grass. Around the perimeter of my yard I planted as many edible trees as my property would allow. Every inch of fence would soon be covered in vines which would also help camouflage the raised beds from the street. One could say it was bad OPSEC to have such obvious food sources, but my neighbors knew me well and welcomed the excess bounty and the conversation-piece yard. Some of them began their own gardens and we shared around the block. It was almost like hiding in plain sight. And given the fact that I lived in a walled neighborhood, banding together to block off the Golden Horde would be feasible. So staying in my area was not too bad of an option considering the close-knit neighborhood, its location, and the proximity to family, friends and church. What I didn’t realize is how all that preparing would look to those family and friends as they helped me pack and move.
When I decided to put my house on the market, my oldest son and I packed up much of the “stock” items to put in storage to prepare the house for sale. I chose to empty the second pantry first and store the Mason jars I would not be using until after the move. Since I labeled the boxes, they were innocuous enough on moving day. I did not label them “emergency supplies” or “Long-term storage”. The only problem was the volume of boxes. Being prepared means large numbers of items and there were a lot of extra boxes. I wasn’t certain they would all make the trip.
After the house sold (one of those “God moments”) and we were able to return to the north to find a new home (another God moment), we packed as much as we could in the weeks between houses. That left the last-minute items, furniture, and the storage facility. We emptied the storage facility and placed the boxes and items in the front room so as to ease the labor on the day of packing the moving truck. We scheduled the day and some family and a sweet group of friends showed up to help with the final items. That is where the OPSEC became an issue. Packing the load was a challenge with many eyes wondering at the obvious numbers. The curiosity continued with the unpacking crew.
Have you ever needed a reason to explain why you have enough toilet paper packages to cover a bedroom floor? Or why you have so many extra cans of beans or bottles of bleach? Having two pantries is one thing when you are not going anywhere, but emptying them and finding room for them in a U-Haul creates new problems. (We did learn that toilet paper works well for the nooks and crannies. Uncle W. packs a tight ship!)
Moving from a warm climate to a cold climate does allow for some explanations – especially to a “snow novice”. “Just in case we get snowed in” sounds reasonable enough for some items, but not for everything.
Explaining certain heavy containers that actually hold the nickels you don’t want discovered is a bit harder. Laughing them off as a generic coin collection seemed to pacify the curiosity. Fortunately, no one saw the shotguns and we homeschool so the numerous boxes of books and curriculum was understandable.
Having some items in five-gallon buckets raised some eyebrows but the chicken food is in buckets so I assume they thought I had a lot of chicken food. (The chickens made the trip in a trailer and laid eggs along the way!!) The large collection of Mason jars was obvious as I do canning and am learning to make jam and jelly. Most of those comments were about how much fun it will be to put up new types of fruit. I tried to camouflage as many things as possible and label generically (which is a problem when deciding where to place the boxes while unpacking) but some things can’t be packed until the last day and with all those people packing it was impossible to hide everything that needed to be kept private. I was able to quickly hide some items in the car without anyone observing and some things were wrapped in blankets and trash bags. Thankfully, I was also able to share from my bounty with the helpers and with others and hopefully bless them in a small way.. Perhaps they’ll remember me as the woman who shared her stuff. If I ever move again, I will try to do a better job of making my supplies seem less obvious or consume them before calling for help!
So now as I unpack and unpack and try to fit everything into a new configuration, I am hoping that my movers will forget the unusual supply of items they saw and lugged around. I plan to settle in before the winter and get to know my new surroundings and maybe meet some like-minded SurvivalBlog readers. The area I moved into already has some “survivalists” nearby of which I have been “forewarned”. I am truly looking forward to living the dream I shared with my husband that the Lord has graciously let my family begin experiencing. I will take a good look at the OPSEC in my new location and perhaps one day if things go downhill the Lord will allow me to use my better hidden supplies to help others. Maybe some of my “movers” themselves will begin thinking of their own future and take the necessary steps to begin their own preparations. If they inquire, I will gladly point them to SurvivalBlog. – R.G. in the Great North