My Home Won’t Keep Me Safe in a SHTF, by SDL

I just wanted to start by saying I’m so thankful for sites like yours and other independent media out there that have the courage to share the truth. I know we can’t ever be free until we start thinking for ourselves and caring to learn the truth. It’s amazing how many people I’ve talked to and tried to warn, but they aren’t in the least bit interested. I would say the church is less interested than the world. They don’t seem to care about anything outside of their comfort zone.

I’ve read that Americans have an eight second attention span. I truly believe it. I’ve passed on websites to warn people that no one has checked out. I have printed warnings from websites and passed them along, and no one even takes the time to read them. When society collapses this country is in serious trouble. I call America “the walking dead”. It about sums it up. America has lost its soul it seems.

I believe in God– the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit– with all my heart, and along with that comes love, respect, and fear. Not too many fear God’s power and judgment. God is true to His Word, promises, and judgment. I don’t think “but God, how come?” is going to get us very far on judgment day.

I don’t see any real sacrifice for God. I see way too much “easy believism” in churches. The God of the modern church is a pushover– a false God that has been made equal to or a little smaller than themselves. There isn’t much hope for a country when even the church becomes so self-centered. I’ve never seen so much “me” in society. Try to talk about the true God and you get persecuted by the church. Try to warn of the evils of the government and they don’t care. Tell them the reasons they’re sick is because of a horrible American diet of sugar, GMO food, processed food, and Round-Up, and they laugh at you.

It amazes me to see people self-indulge and then ask God to heal them because they’re sick or dying. If things keep going like this, the elite will have their population goal of 80% reduction met sooner than later without firing a shot.

Americans are completely serving the flesh in food choices, what they choose to obey when it comes to God, and who they vote for to keep the entitlements coming (another sad topic). I truly wish there was some way to bring together the true church– the remnant, not the 501c3 government corporation church that’s under a gag order on speaking the truth of our anti-Christ government.

This world is starting to feel pretty lonely. People are too selfish and independent to need and truly work together.

The sad part is they think they’re independent. They are, after they pay their 60% in taxes, Obama care, get their vaccines, get their poison food farmed and delivered by someone else, and get to vote between two corrupt parties that give you no freedom of choice at all.

I made plenty of bad choices myself most of my life when it came to food. My health was so bad I had to do something. I found out on my own that I had a severe wheat intolerance. Since my wife and I started homesteading and growing our own food organically, our lives have changed. Our health has never been better. Healthy eating makes the mind sharper and clearer as well. It’s been a new awakening. I think this lifestyle helps to connect us to God, also.

One thing I want to discuss about survival is that I’ve come to realize how hard it is to get survivalists to work with each other. Everyone right now seems independent and wants to protect their own castle. I feel my wife and I are alone on this one. It doesn’t help that we moved to this location only four years ago, so we will always be outsiders. I’m guessing there are a lot of others out there who are having trouble forming a group.

I also know we’re a target because of our self-sufficient lifestyle and all of our gardens. I’m afraid even today’s churches might turn violent when hungry. Do you know how easy it would be to turn everything around and say I’m the unchristian one because I have food and won’t share? It doesn’t matter that they ignored all of my warnings.

I’d like to tell everyone that I do not believe two people can defend or be safe inside a home in a societal breakdown. It’s way to easy to be ambushed. I live near a national forest, but I know all too well how dangerous it will become with people fighting for the same resources.

The only thing I’ve had peace with, and it came to me long ago, was to build a foxhole away from our house with full 360 degree visibility. I built a roof over it for protection from the elements but left the sides open for visibility. I put a military camo net cover over it, and it blends in very well. I can see through it and shoot through it.

I dug the hole 8’x8’x4′ deep. The bottom of the hole measures 6’x6′. My heavy clay soil is holding without collapsing. Sand or gravel soil will need to be sloped more or retained so the sides don’t collapse. I don’t have much roof pitch because it would make it too tall and exposed.

The roof is just over 6′ on the low side from the roof to the bottom of the hole, so I have plenty of head space. I used six pressure treated fence posts that I had for posts to support the roof. I put them into the ground using a post hole digger, down about three feet. My roof is a rectangle, because my posts had to be back from the hole for stability. The posts used were three at the upper pitch of roof and three on the lower pitched side.

I leveled the post and used logs to connect the top three and bottom three and then used logs for the rafters every two feet. I used 8″ galvanized spikes to attach it together. I pre-drilled holes to prevent splitting.

The post distances are 8 1/2 feet x 12 feet but with ample overhang. The roof finished at 11 1/2 feet x 13 1/2 feet, so the tarp I had could be attached to the sides of the roof.

Choose your own hole and roof size to meet your needs. Check your tarp dimensions first, if a tarp is the roof material you want, and build your roof to it. I put some old recycled landscape cloth I already had on the floor and covered it with rubber from an old float we had that didn’t hold air anymore. I didn’t want to stand on clay all day.

Consider drainage. I built right on top of a small hill between two other hills so ground water seepage wasn’t a problem for me. I have water that runs between the hills and around me, so I have water to meet my needs.

I also plan on running a trip wire around the perimeter hooked to something to make noise to warn us of any intruder at night. I’m using old canning lids because it’s what I had available, but any cans should do. My terrain is such that it would be very hard for someone to sneak in without being seen.

I’m in the cover of the woods but have pastures nearby in all directions, which I think will provide a diversity of food. We have access to things like plantain, dandelions, clover, blackberries (on which you can eat the leaves as well as the berries), and oaks in the woods for acorns. There is also a pond nearby for water and food. It has a good supply of cattails. You can eat just about the whole cattail plant at certain seasons.

I’m keeping some tools in the shelter, so when or if things return to normal I can start gardening again. I have seeds, a shovel, a lawn rake, garden rake, axes, and two scythes. This is probably my third year of doing a Ruth Stout style, no plow garden using hay cover to build soil and hold back weeds. I would never go back to plowing. It makes no sense to me. It’s also almost drought proof, because the hay holds moisture. With the scythe I can cut hay and with a tarp I can drag it to my garden site and by putting it thick enough I can plant without using fossil fuels.

I like pumpkins, winter squash, corn, and potatoes because they store quite awhile without processing. I grow Bloody Butcher corn that is a heirloom seed. You let it dry and then make cornmeal from it. Also, dry corn stores well.

To plant potatoes, I push my hand through a foot of hay and make an indentation in the earth and place the seed potatoes. I don’t bury them. I put just light hay over the hole I made in the hay so the potatoes can push through the foot of hay. When you harvest the potatoes, they are laying on the ground under the hay. This works great. Just grab them with your hand; there’s no digging.

For all other plants, you just push the hay back in the shape of a circle and plant your seeds in bare ground. I planted four corn plants in each circle, five feet apart, and I planted Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, one per stalk, and they climb the corn. (Just wait until two weeks after the corn is planted to plant the beans.)

I plan on storing potatoes nearby the shelter using a simple storage method. Dig a hole in the earth a couple of feet deep. Make it so it won’t fill with ground water, and then line it with hay. Put potatoes on the hay in a pile and cover with hay and soil. Some good ideas are in the book Root Cellaring – Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables. I plan on trying to stay warm using clothes and proper sleeping gear. A fire is sure to give away our position. I do have a little camp stove I bought years ago that uses wood in small amounts. We’ll use kindling size for cooking only. I’m thinking now about a rocket stove, which is clean burning, very efficient, and produces very little smoke for the coldest of weather. I’m stocking the shelter with gear and nearby buried stashes because I fear we may have to flee with little or no warning. I think about Matthew 24:17 “let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.” I have two storage boxes that are 2×3 feet each. End-to-end they make a 6′ bed, and they also store gear. I plan on one of us sleeping at a time, while the other keeps watch. All my wife needs to do is wake me if there is trouble nearby. I have a swivel stool inside for comfort and mobility to rotate. I’m thinking of putting a port-a-pot inside so we won’t expose ourselves as much leaving the shelter (if there is room for it). You definitely would be best off to have a nearby water supply. Traveling too far for water would put you at a greater risk. I think God would want us to live and die for Him above all and to not worry about the things of the world. I want to protect my soul for God and not for things of this world. Good luck, and I hope this helps. God bless.