When Push Comes to Shotgun: Survival in the Suburbs, by Michael K.

To anyone who swatches the news or opens up an internet browser from time to time, it’s exceedingly clear that the world is becoming an extremely dangerous place.  From the abstract threats such as global economic collapse or pandemic to the more concrete ideas of natural catastrophes, terrorist attacks and the like, it’s obvious that preparedness isn’t just something to think about occasionally, it’s an absolute necessity.  Yet, with our feet firmly planted in the middle class, my wife and I don’t exactly have the money to go out and build the fortified bunker of our dreams for the day when, inevitably, life as we know it here in America may take a turn for the worse.  We’ve had to adapt our game plan to match both our materials and our means.  And let me tell you, preparing for disaster smack dab in the middle of the suburban wasteland is a completely different ball game.

So, to start off, I think we should have a little history about me and my situation.  I grew up in the mountains of northeastern Tennessee, deep in the heart of Dixie.  In rural Appalachia, self-sustainable living and prepping are just normal parts of everyday life for a lot of people, and my family was no exception.  Hunting, fishing, gardening, canning food, etc. were pretty much the norm in our area, and served as a means for people in a fairly poor economic region to build both a comfortable life for themselves and a little peace of mind.  On top of that, the mountainous terrain of the southern back country offers great protection from a lot of natural disasters (tornados, flooding, etc.) and isolation from most of the rest of the American populace should widespread civil unrest occur.  In short, though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was born and raised in a prepper’s paradise.  Then, against all odds, I found a beautiful woman who loved me back and we’ve been building a life together for the last 12 years.

However, once we got married, we joined the world of corporate America in order to be able to make the kind of living that we wanted for ourselves in the “new” economy.  Unfortunately, our company underwent some “consolidation” and shut down the office in our hometown.  My wife and I (who both work for the same business) were tasked with a choice:  both face unemployment and risk becoming part of the foreclosure statistics on American home owners, or follow our jobs and move far from friends and family out into the Midwest.  It wasn’t an easy decision, but with the prospect of starting a family of our own right around the corner, there was no choice but to bite the bullet and take a chance on building a better life.  With only a three month window to find and purchase a new home, we ended up settling in a large subdivision on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area near our new place of employment.

Back in Tennessee, our home was a two story brick house with a sizable basement, snuggled into the side of a heavily wooded mountain.  However, due to the higher prices of real estate in our new area, we ended up in a single story wood-framed house built onto a concrete slab, surrounded by hundreds of nearly identical homes.  We are less than 10 miles from one of the largest cities in the continental United States, and to make matters worse, our home is actually visible from one of the major interstates that feed into the city.  In other words, like most of Middle America, my new house is a nightmare in terms of survivability should any major collapse of society occur.  Yet, for that very reason, immediately bugging out during a time of crisis is not an option, due to some of the following factors:

  • Living near a major population center means that when food/water/electricity go into short supply, everyone is going to have the same idea: get out of Dodge.
  • The major roadways around our home become near parking lots during rush hour every day as it is.  In a disaster, those traffic pileups are likely to become semi-permanent.
  • Since a lot of people in large cities don’t commute via cars, during the mass exodus to escape, those who do have working transportation will become immediate targets.
  • Furthermore, like the swarm of locusts of Biblical lore, a large group of people trying to flee an area on foot are likely to consume every resource in their path, one way or another.  While they may not have cars, it’s extremely likely that whether it’s a golf club or a Glock, some will be armed.

Therefore, for all these reasons and more, a more nuanced approach is required.  As much as we would like to, getting back to friends and family in the mountains of Tennessee just probably won’t be an option in the short term.  This means bugging in and hoping to ride out the worst of it until such a time that either:

  • We deem the situation fit to travel via the back roads and reach a more defensible location back home with our families.

Or,

  • The turmoil in our area has cooled to a point that we can start trying to become self-sustainable here in our community without fear of reprisal (openly gardening, hunting, fishing, etc.)

Either way, the name of the game becomes surviving the short term fallout that is bound to follow any collapse of basic societal structure.  Following Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it becomes pretty easy to map out the way that things will probably play out.  Our lives, like it or not, are ruled by this chart.  Surviving the “exodus” near a major city means two things:  Having the basics in the bottom row of that pyramid covered for up to a 6-month time period for you and your family and having the means to defend it from those who will want to take it from you.  However, there are unique challenges to achieving either of these goals when living in a matchstick house on a concrete block amidst hundreds of other families and within spitting distance of millions of potentially hostile people.

Let’s start with the first part, meeting your needs.  There are plenty of preparation checklists out there with great advice on every little thing that you might need to survive the apocalypse.  I’m going to assume that you know how to cover the basics of food/water/medicine storage.  However, there are a few extra things to consider when living in the suburbs.  Basic bunker mentality for bugging in during a crisis follows the “dig in and defend” model.  We’ll call this the tortoise approach.  That’s great if you have the means to make it work, however, there’s nothing particularly defensible about many people’s homes, mine included, so that mentality has to change.  For me it has become “avoid detection and deter”.  My home doesn’t have a basement, a bunker, or a safe room, so the idea of holing up in a fortified spot with enough firepower to hold off the mob just isn’t feasible.  Instead, I want to present a small target and make it as unappetizing to potential looters as possible.  Think less snapping turtle, more porcupine.

Back to Maslow’s handy dandy pyramid of preparedness priorities, we know that water is the number one driving force of human survival behavior.  Once the taps stop running and the Aquafina has flown off the shelves, it will be a matter of a few short days before people either leave their homes in search of greener pastures (lakes, rivers, etc.) or start to beg, borrow, plead, and potentially kill to take water from those who still have it.  Here are some things to remember about water storage in the ‘burbs.

  • Diversify your storage.  Like the old adage says, don’t keep all your eggs in one basket (this includes brands, types of containers, and storage locations).
  • You should try to have at least 100 potential gallons per person in your house at any given time, and stored in a variety of places around your home.
  • Keep emergency water containers clean, dry, and ready to be filled at a moment’s notice.
  • My solutions include:

It’s been said over and over, but it is the truest statement in this world: water is life.  Storing water in this way, even if a portion of my home becomes damaged or inaccessible, I’ll still have enough to survive the short term and reevaluate the situation.  Eventually, though, even the largest supplies will run dry.  In this case, you need to be able to answer these questions:

  • Where is my nearest source of clean water (stream, river, large lake, etc.)?
  • Is it easily reachable by foot, under cover of darkness?
  • If not, how likely am I to be able to reach it by car?
  • Do I have an easy way to transport it back to my home?
  • Can I protect myself during this process?
  • Do I have some way to make sure it’s safe (boiling, filters, water treatments, etc.)?

Next on the list comes food storage, and this is another topic that is covered ad nauseam in any number of preparedness web sites and books.  But the important thing to remember for our purposes is that not only do you need to have food, but you need to not draw attention to the fact that you have food.  Nothing brings uninvited guests to the party quite like the smell of fresh beef stew when they haven’t eaten a thing in weeks.  In fact, they’re likely to bring their own silverware if you catch my drift.  Here are some ways to keep that from happening:

  • Avoid storing foods that have to be cooked in an open container or that put off a strong or unique odor.
  • Avoid heating methods that produce smoke or have to be ventilated in any way.
  • Don’t store foods that require much, if any, water to prepare.  Water is going to be your number one resource; you can’t waste a drop that you don’t have to.
  • Try to cut down on trash as much as possible (i.e. large resealable containers as opposed to individually packaged and disposable containers).  Trash has to be disposed of at some point and is a clear indicator that someone is still taking the wrappers off of candy bars.
  • Keep calorie intake healthy, but to a minimum.  Being the only guy in the neighborhood who still has a double chin is another red flag.
  • Don’t use a generator for any reason, ever.  In an isolated location, with proper noise reduction and ventilation, it’s a viable choice.  But nothing says “come burn my house down and take my stuff” like being the one family that has electricity when the darkness comes.

The whole goal here is to fly under the radar as much as possible.  Shelf stable foods that don’t have to be cooked at all are ideal.  Think mixed nuts, dry cereals, beef jerky, and the like.  These types of foods are also much more convenient to transport and prepare should you have to bail out.  Self-heating MREs are also a fantastic option but do require water to prepare and are easy to get burnt out on after a while.  While it’s no fun to have very few fresh hot meals, survival in the midst of the fleeing hordes revolves around avoiding notice at all costs.  You may not be happy, but you’ll be alive.

The last piece of the puzzle is the hardest, but also the most important: defense.  A quiet, middle-class suburb is a pretty appetizing target to people in a desperate search for the basic necessities of life.  All of the supplies in the world won’t mean a thing if you can’t defend them.  However, the key is to not to attract any unnecessary notice and to make your home an inadvisable target.  Some potential tools for getting this job done include:

  • Door Crossbar Holders:  These can be installed quickly during a time of chaos with nothing but a cordless drill, some heavy duty wood screws, and some spare 2x4s.  Putting up at least two sets per door means that the old police trick of “kick and breach” won’t be quite so easy.  It also stops the more subtle “lockpick in the night” routine.  Remember, the goal here isn’t to make the entryway impregnable (which is nigh impossible in a wood and drywall home), but rather to buy some time to defend.
  • Biohazard Signs:  If pandemic is the trigger that starts the collapse, one of these signs on each door is tantamount to installing an invisible force field around your home.  Even if it’s something more plausible, like a global economic collapse, looters are much more likely to target the house that they think won’t give them cholera.
  • Window Privacy Film:  It’s ok for people to know that your home is still occupied.  In fact, an abandoned house is far more likely to be ransacked than one that is thought to still be defended.  Letting people pinpoint your exact location before an attack, however, could cost you your life.  With this upgrade (along with normal blinds/curtains) you can still use lanterns, headlamps, etc. without giving away where you’ve chosen to bed down.
  • Window Bars:  Again, the keys here are speed/ease of installation and deterrence.  You don’t need to protect your windows from a full SWAT team with breaching charges, just dehydrated, half-starved city folks looking for some free supplies.  These bars give you time to line up a clear shot from behind cover and make sure that the person trying to get in realizes the risk vs. the reward.

It’s also important to designate a small fallback area within your home and use this as the staging area for everything else you do.  This way if part of your home becomes compromised it’s not a total loss.  While your “Alamo” may not be a fortress, it should be a place with as few windows and doors as possible and a clear field of fire.   Ours is the large master bathroom with an attached walk-in closet.  The only window in the bathroom is small, octagonal, made of thick frosted glass, and about 8 feet off the ground.  Once things look to be turning south, all our supplies can be quickly moved to the closet, the bathroom door triple barred, and the window filmed over.  The two Mossberg pump action 12 Gauge shotguns with 500+ magnum slug shells that live in the closet provide the “deter” portion of the game plan.

Finally, if possible, it’s also great to have a “plan C” just in case.  If your home catches fire, is completely overrun, or for some other reason becomes uninhabitable, you may have to leave in a hurry.  Fortunately for us, there is attic access in both the walk-in closet and our garage, with only about 20 feet of crawlspace between the two.  Hiding a couple of bug-out backpacks in the crawlspace allows us a fairly covert escape route directly to the car, or at the very least, out of the house.  Planning everything needed to bail out and stay safe on the run in a completely different topic in and of itself, but just keep in mind that bug-out supplies are similar to bug-in supplies, just on a much smaller, more mobile scale.  It’s not a perfect scenario, but having a “last ditch effort” retreat solution is never a bad thing. 

At the end of the day, I think it’s very feasible to sit tight and ride out the initial panic of any major catastrophe, even in a less than fortified location.  When the lights go out and the trucks stop running, places in and around major cities are going to revert to the Wild West fairly quickly.  But it’s for that very reason that staying put is the best option.  When the world around you is chaos, there are too many things that can go wrong by stepping out into the maelstrom, even if the goal is getting to a safer location.  It’s hard to predict exactly how things will go down and Murphy’s Law will bite you on the butt any time you think you’ve got it all figured out.  In any event, by keeping a low profile, deterring looters if possible, and using force if necessary, I think that we suburbanites stand a pretty good chance of making it through the first few months of TEOTWAWKI relatively unscathed.  And that, my friends, is what it is all about.

 

Letter Re: Finding Virtue in Potatoes

Hello Mr. Rawles,
About two years ago, there were letters in SurvivalBlog discussing the virtues of wheat and the deficiencies of potatoes as survival food. The common mood was that the potatoes were too bulky and fragile food needing special conditions for storage and not allowing to keep seeds for two or more years so the single bad year will be disaster.

I live in Russia. Here, there were lots of periods of hunger during first years of Soviet power. The Ukraine, Volga region, and so on. The NKVD reported of mass executions of cannibalism, and deaths due to hunger were commonplace. But this mass starvation was not so severe in Belorussia.

Some time ago I met the explanation of this Belorussian anomaly: While the Ukraine and other hunger regions were growing wheat, Belorussians were growing potatoes. This food was too bulky and fragile and needing special conditions for storage, so it was impossible or at least too expensive for Bolsheviks to transport and store the confiscated food. It was much easier to confiscate wheat.

I believe that future governments will confiscate anything needed for their (not our) survival. Sapienti sat, – Anatoly

Letter Re: Recommendation for the Movie “For Greater Glory”

Dear Friends,
My wife and I attended the opening-day showing of the new movie For Greater Glory, about the Cristiada Rebellion at a theater in Spokane last night. It is the amazing and stirring story of the 1920s Mexican civil war fomented by a revolutionary government against Catholic churches, leaders, and worshipers.

The attendance was what you would expect with this movie competing against several summer blockbusters. The movie’s production values are not as high as the tens-of-millions-of-dollars CGI extravaganzas, but still an A-quality production. The actors are convincing, the movie engrossing, no slow or boring parts, and it tells the story clearly and forcefully without, I might add, being preachy.

I’ve read a half-dozen reviews of the movie, including one in a Christian news magazine and one in the local newspaper that were infuriatingly critical, shallow, or missed the point of the movie altogether. There is no comparison between “For Greater Glory” and “The Avengers” – that would be like comparing a pickup truck to fireworks and asking which one was better. One has a purpose and is useful, the other merely great entertainment, but empty.

“For Greater Glory” means something. It will make you think. It will move you. It will make you wonder how come we never knew about this conflict with 90,000 dead, even though the daughter of the General (who is the central figure of the movie) only passed away in 2010. Who knew?

This movie will make you appreciate the wisdom on Reverend Martin Niemoeller’s famous quote “First they came…”, how that gradual process could have happened in Mexico, and how it could happen in the United States. It will make you appreciate how destructive and awful civil war is, but that war is not the worst thing imaginable.

Most of all it will make you realize that there is a price for loving liberty, for putting God first, for choosing truth, for taking a stand for justice. And that simply because your cause is right is no guarantee that you personally will not give your life for it. This movie will help you consider what IS worth living and dying for, and to make your peace with all of the possibilities should conflict ever come to our shores.

Don’t let people tell you this movie is some kind of Catholic propaganda piece. It’s production was begun before the current controversy over ObamaCare. If anything it’s timing is providential. Along with movies like the highly-recommended Defiance, it is a powerful and moving visual antidote to the modern passivity and tolerance of growing tyranny.

Just be warned, the film has an “R” rating because of its graphic images (not gory, but definitely disturbing), and the theater chain decided it would be appropriate to show trailers for several other “R” movies that are wholly inappropriate for conservative audiences, including an upcoming movie that appears to directly trash Christianity!

I’d like to encourage everyone to sit through the main body of the credits because the movie’s close shows actual pictures from that war. To look at the faces of the actual persons whose story was told in the movie was powerful.

Hollywood production companies shunned this story. I’m hoping preppers, Christians and conservatives alike will all support this movie and ponder what it means to us in our day.

Trust God. Be Prepared. The time is now! – ShepherdFarmerGeek

Economics and Investing:

Jim W. suggested this chilling piece abut the next wave of house price declines: Keith Jurow: Prepare For The Coming Housing Collapse

Greek energy crisis could cause national power blackout in June. (Thanks to Ian R. for the link.)

PIMCO’s Gross warns of economic “breaking point”

Nobel Laureate Says Globe Headed For Financial “Breakdown” and “Radicalism”

Chris G. flagged this bad news: Time Bomb? Banks Pressured to Buy Government Debt

Items from The Economatrix:

Some derivatives news: The Second Act of the JPM CIO Fiasco Has Arrived — Mismarking Hundreds of Billions in Credit Default Swaps

Another Housing Collapse Is Coming Soon

What’s Next For Gold And Silver?

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader James C. pointed me top a massive collection (14.1 Gigabytes!) of free preparedness and self-sufficiency documents, provided Pole Shift Survival Information.

   o o o

Dena K. sent this: Novo’s Insulin Pill Quest is Holy Grail for Diabetics

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Pre-Collapse Ramp Up:  Retailers Stock Up On Shutters, Organize Security Details Ahead Of Financial Meltdown And Social Unrest.

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Reader David P. mention that an early commander of SFOD-D (and later, all of SOCOM) General W.G. “Jerry” Boykin has an interesting web site.

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More of Mayor Bloomberg’s civilian disarmament scheming: Scandal: Cities Pay Anti-Gun Lobbyists. (Our thanks to James C. for sending the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.” – Ephesians 2:4-9 (KJV)

Note from JWR:

Today we present the first entry for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 41 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

A House Purchasing Guide for Rookies

Taxes
One of the questions I was asked that prompted creating this document, was that of a comparison of tax basis for home purchase decisions. Its very hard for me to appropriately answer, as the question of comparison is largely based on the entities in the county in question. I can tell you that differences in South Western and Central Wisconsin counties are negligible (although they can vary higher in larger municipalities and vacation destinations such as Madison and Lake Geneva.) For most rural properties, its quite comparable based on zoning and use. The question I believe was prompted in a comparison of retirement/BOL spots – but the answer is actually simple to arrive at as the numbers are public and readily available – Almost all counties publish their tax rates on their public web sites. If you are concerned, it will take about four minutes to research both the specific property, as well as side by side comparisons of the various townships in the county (and often the state as a whole.)

Finance
Mortgages are available – but you have to work a bit harder these days… The last time I bought property, I think arranging financing took 25 minutes. While I don’t particularly appreciate the paperwork, I understand why the banks are doing it. I will say this; it is well worth having multiple budget conversations with your partner/spouse before you even begin this process.  Our mortgage will be at a great rate, I am happy to buy now instead of trying to “time” the market for another drop.  One other note, despite having a relationship that includes personal and business accounts that are sizeable with one of the largest banks in the world, I have chosen to place this mortgage with the small community bank in the rural city we are moving to. The rates are competitive, the service is the same to me (for most people it will be better,) but the contacts and inroads into the community are strategic and could pay off down the road.

Budget
Any real estate book or web site will tell you the following – but for the sake of you other male gorillas having the budget talk with the fairer sex, and to ensure peace in your home, let me break it down for you in the elemental terms for the sake of the aforementioned budget conversation that must take place (and preferably before anything else takes place!)

  1. Down payment – the house you can afford is a function of 20% down of the final purchase price and the 30 years of monthly payments (that should be small enough to pay off long before 30 years by making extra principal payments.) i.e. House is $100,000, you need to have $20,000 on hand in cash for closing, and be able to afford approximately $750 a month (with money you can throw on top of the $750 when you have spare cash.) By the way – do not even consider one of the slimy deals and lenders who offer home ownership with “zero down.” The bottom line is that for any number of reasons which are a finance manual, you will wind up in trouble in one of those deals. That is fact. Harsh. True.
  2. Will you be able to afford the fixer-upper things you need to do to make the home “yours” after the above mentioned down payment? Are they cosmetic and cheap? Structural and pricey? Have you added some emergency padding to this number?
  3. Do you have your current home sold (if owned) or can you afford two payments for some period of time? As we are moving, we are purchasing, with the knowledge that we can afford both payments until I find a new gig and physically move to our new home in our new city.
  4. Do you have income in your new home location? i.e. this document is being written when we are moving to a new city, meaning my move will physically be when I find a job in the new city, not when we actually buy the home in a few weeks. For those wondering, we are moving for family, lifestyle, and other reasons – but not because a job has taken us there. Luckily we have the luxury of time! And we are purchasing a home we can afford while still making payments on our other home until the actual migration. As an aside, as we can afford two locations, we can then relax a bit on the fixer-upper requirements, and go to the new place on weekends to fix it up, while living in our current home (this is obviously also a function of geography – our new home is just under 4 hours away.)
  5. Can you afford the other things your new home will need? I for example, will need to buy a tractor, or pay a landscaping service – the little push mower just isn’t going to get the job done.
  6. Have you considered the moving costs? I happen to have family both in current and destination cities that will help load and unload my truck and trailer (which I don’t have to rent.)
  7. I discussed taxes above in terms of comparison – but make sure you can pay the tax on the property, understand how it is calculated in the locations you are looking, and what you can do to mitigate some of the burden. Definitely check out the state credits for agriculture use, nature preserve lands, and particular home assessments such as bedroom count, school district, appraised value, etc. Do not be afraid to ask for a reassessment, but do not count on a reassessment to drop the tax basis at all.

Agents Brokers Realtors Used Car Salesmen
Real estate is a sales business. People are selling their home. People are selling you on the idea of buying a home. Take it all with a grain of salt – or a shaker full.
The legal structure varies by state. In Wisconsin where we are buying and moving, there are four types of legal agent relationships. Seriously, you need a law degree to understand the nuances and fiduciary relationships. It is messed up.

Let me take a step back, for complete rookies. A home is being sold for $100,000. The two agents (for buyer and seller) agree to split a 5% (for example) (in our case $5,000) commission. Think about this logically – your agent as the buyer of the property is being compensated as a percentage of the closing price. S/he is being incentivized to get you to agree to pay more money! I kid you not, that is how it traditionally works. If your agent is scum and happens to be short on cash this month, if they are great at sales and get you to pay $110,000 instead of negotiating on your behalf to $90,000, then they earn more money! I have yet to experience another business in this world that is so completely structured to fleece the client – and where the client is normally not sophisticated enough, or activist enough, to call Bravo Sierra on it. Just stop it!

I’m sure that i will get multiple hate e-mails for the preceding paragraph, but the residential real estate industry knows it is their Achilles heel, but are afraid of that gravy train disappearing. They have all sorts of arguments of the differential profit not being enough to convince them to breach their ethics (just like our politicians.) For example: That their business relies on referrals and repeat business, so they would be shortsighted to do this. And that they have a legal or fiduciary responsibility to you. Yes, I have heard them all – but the fact is your mortgage and food and boat and vacation are all being paid by my paying more for my house and having a bigger mortgage.

THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE
No matter how many different types of agent your state has, I have not heard of a state that bars the type of agent you must search for – the exclusive buyer’s agent. This agent does not sell homes. They do not have any agents or brokers in their office that do sell homes. They normally have a specific pride in the fact that they offer flat fees, and work exclusively on the buyer’s behalf – never entering a relationship, nor even trying to segment their office, into a way that could be remotely misconstrued as anything other than your strict advocate! If they aren’t working for you – they are working against you. Period.  Don’t you owe it to yourself to work with the best tools, the best people, and to secure the future of your family and budget? Why put yourself anywhere near a position to not get the best for yourself?

Criteria for House Hunting
After your budget conversation, you and the better half will most likely want to go out and find your new castle. Before you do, have a brief conversation where you develop a list of needs and wants, and then rank them.
Things to consider include, but are not limited to:
Schools (we don’t have kids, but if we did, this would rise to #1 or at least top three on our list)
Community
Spiritual community
Water (I wanted a year round stream, the better half wanted to finish the darn conversation and have bagels)
Type of home (she was okay with siding, I wanted brick, she liked bungalow, I preferred ranch)
Size of home (are you intending to grow your family, are you an empty nester, do you plan for multiple guests to have bedrooms or the couch)
Size of property (we all want bigger unless we are retiring, but it does affect taxes, time to maintain, etc, sometimes enough is enough)
HOA (I say, “Just say no” to HOAs.)
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
How much fix up are you willing to deal with

House Hunting
You must do the work, do not expect your exclusive buyers agent (you did decide to find one right?) to do it for you. Sure they will show you a couple of great properties they know of. Sure they will sign you up for automated emails that notify you of new homes that match your search criteria. However, you need to do some of the lifting. Truth be told, if your better half is anything like mine, the house hunt will be an all-consuming lunacy fever that takes hold. In this day of Trulia and Zillow, you can do it easily from the couchm, so do so. It is particularly useful for folks like us, who were less concerned about a specific locale, and more about a region – as both web sites allow you to place filters on the search, and then call up a map that is navigable with homes pinned on it that match.
Take your time.
Do not rush.
Do not be talked into rushing.
Do not take anything for granted – even questioning your advocate.

Foreclosure and Short Sale Homes
Foreclosure – bank owned, as the prior owners failed to pay their mortgage and the bank took possession.
Short Sale – the owners can no longer afford the home, and are attempting, with bank permission, to sell it to someone who can before they are tossed out.
There are an awful lot of both the above types of home on the market. It’s a sad state of affairs for all of us, even those not directly involved, as it is dragging down our entire nation (amongst many other issues.)
Do not be afraid to view and purchase either type of property, but do understand that while you can find great value in these homes, you will have to jump through a few hoops. Go ahead and ask your agent (before choosing one) how comfortable they are with that process, should you decide to attempt to purchase one. Its quite advantageous, particularly in these cases (but should be considered in all cases) to get pre-approval for a mortgage from your lender of choice. And no, you do not have to use the lending services of the bank that owns the foreclosed or short sale home.

Making an Offer
Holy cow – this one threw me for a loop. I really never even contemplated this being an issue. Silly me. This was the first major purchase the better half and I made together – her last car that we purchased was used and cheap, no haggle. My truck I purchased on my own. Our deal making styles were polar opposites. Our home is a 50.001% dictatorship, to my favor. In this rare case I put my foot down. When the lady informed me that negotiating was distasteful, I had to slam the brakes on and explain a few things. Use whatever argument you want, or precede the process with a discussion of your tactical approach to real estate – but this is the financial future of your family. Be ethical. But get yourself the best darned deal you can. Always. If neither of you are good negotiators make sure your agent is. If the agent isn’t hire a litigator, or someone else who is. But every cent you don’t spend, is a cent in your pocket. I don’t care if you don’t like negotiating. You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it – and do it well – or find someone who can.

Our Recent Home Purchase Story
We were idly thinking about moving last fall, and on a trip to visit family arranged for a showing of a home we randomly found online, and that looked reasonable. Our agent (who assisted in 3 different home purchases for family in the past two years in the area) suggested that we find 2-4 other homes in the area to look at – and to make a day of it. We were driving four hours anyhow, and since these are rural properties, it made the best use of his time to devote half a day to a client. No problem.

The first home we saw, the wife loved (notice this, it will become a theme if your better half is like mine – in our entire purchase story, she fell in love with about 12 homes, was ambivalent about three or so, and hated only one!) but I didn’t care for as it was way to much fixer upper work. I foresaw a 3-4 year project doing it ourselves nights and weekends all while living in an ongoing project, or doubling the price to pay a contractor to do it. The third and fourth homes, were okay but not great.

But that second home the first day? We both loved. It was fantastic for both of us – and we have radically different tastes. Long story short, we were outbid by another purchaser, but stuck to our guns and didn’t overpay for our budget and value estimate. (I am glossing over the emotional roller coaster, the lack of information, and the pain in the rear factor of this process.) It was a foreclosure being sold as-is, and it was a massive blessing in disguise. Being a small town, we heard the gossip a month after we lost the deal – the new owners were in, and discovered a fault in the foundation, the need for a new septic system, and a leaky roof. Estimates were $18,000-to-$40,000 in out of pocket repairs – not wrapped into a mortgage. That’s a lot of money when you just sank a massive amount of cash into a down payment.
We kept looking. We didn’t agree on anything. She had an emotional argument that demanded a new home now – she gets these notions… I had a project at work that took me international and bought me a brief respite.

We kept looking.
We saw a home that looked good online, and called our agent. Keep in mind, your agent may have slightly more information than you can see on Zillow or Trulia. The home had an accepted offer on it already that didn’t show online.
Remember that earlier I suggested you question even your advocate?
I asked that he do us a favor and make a 30 second phone call to the selling agent to confirm status.
To our agents shock, the seller’s agent said that their deal may be falling apart, and the seller would welcome us to come take a look with the understanding that we would be a secondary offer only if the other folks found themselves in breach of contract. This is rare – and the only reason we were able to find our dream home is that we kept politely questioning even the experts, and no other purchaser got past the online listing, the advice of their agents that it was under contract, the human laziness, and the norms.

We grabbed our dogs, hit the road, and went to have a look. We loved it and made a secondary offer that day.
There were back and forth counter-offers, and we were still the secondary offer.
We were again in the limbo of not knowing. We didn’t know when the primary contract would default. We didn’t know the primary offer amount. We did know were getting nothing but paper counter offers – and were not negotiating across a table with a person. For an old poker player like me, this is frustrating as the traditional advice is “play the man, not the cards.”

Finally, after about two weeks of this super frustration, and with our original offer expired; I resorted to a negotiation strategy that is not recommended other than in dire circumstances, it is a scorched earth strategy that will kill the deal, or get you an incredible value. Also keep in mind that this resulted in a crazy fight with my better half who now owes me big time having lost the bet that this would work. Remember above how I explained that she didn’t like/believe in negotiations? Imagine that mindset wrapping around the course of action I was proposing. I “Godfather Offered” them. Remember that sub-story in Godfather Part II where the Godfather offers the record label guy $100,000 to release his godson from his contract, is told no in response, and then counters his own offer by then offering $50,000? It resulted in a severed horse head in the record producer’s bed, and the godson being released anyhow.

In our case, I was sick of getting kicked around, and was willing to walk away without the house if it didn’t work – so I sent a paper offer 10% lower than our original offer, with some strong wording that we would not be coming back to the table. That’s right, I didn’t bid it up to sweeten the deal. I guessed (as it turned out, correctly) that their deal was crumbling, and that they were panicking about being stuck with the property and having their secondary ace in the hole disappear. (I did have some other hints I am not detailing here that assisted me in taking this gamble.) They sent a single counter offer offering at 5% discount, and said we would be given a final decision in one weeks’ time taking us from secondary to primary at the agreed upon 5% discount. We accepted. We close in less than a month from writing this (if all things go well.)

In Summation
Do not be afraid to think outside the box!
Fight the good fight for yourself.
Be prepared to be gentle and kind with your better half – there is one heck of a lot of emotion that this process will bring to the surface.
Get the best tools for the job.
Be realistic (well you are preppers – so I assume you are better at this than most.)
Do your pre-work, do your homework, follow up, question everything.
Be your own darned advocate, even when you have positioned yourself to have an adviser who is working nominally well on your behalf.

JWR Adds: Land and house purchases should be made dispassionately. There is a lot of psychology to the process, some of it is overt, and some subtle. For example, note that real estate agents always refer to the structure as a “house” to the seller, and as a “home” to the buyer. Be honest about the debt level that you can afford. Always do your due diligence. If in the slightest doubt, then have things inspected by experts. The costs of inspections are minimal (certainly versus the subsequent cost of repairs), and keep in mind that the inspection reports can be used as leverage when negotiating your offer. Don’t be afraid to negotiate aggressively, especially in today’s declining market. Also, shop around for both the best house and the best lender. Note that there are some great retreat properties available at our spin-off site, SurvivalRealty.com

Letter Re: Our Fragile Society: Witnessing Disruption of a Major Metropolitan Transit System

Mr. Rawles,
While traveling to work Tuesday night on the subway, the transit system got partially shut down due to a building fire next to some aboveground tracks. This caused problems and delays during the evening commute. It shows how vulnerable some systems can be to unexpected problems;
 
Tuesday afternoon started out normal enough but due to a fire would cause me some problems getting to work . I live on the North side of Chicago. I work part time at a downtown gourmet supermarket. I worked a afternoon-to-close shift Tuesday night that starts at 4 p.m.  Normally, I can get to work from home in under 30 minutes. On Tuesday it  would take a lot longer.
 
First of all, here is a link to a map of the Chicago Transit system so readers can understand the system layout.
 
I use the ‘Red’ line to get to work. This is the busiest line in the entire system, so delays on this route can really mess things up in the rest of the system quick
 
Things went well at first. I got on my downtown-bound train around 3:20 PM. At the Sheridan stop, the train sat at the station for a few minutes. I figured it was just a minor mechanical problem and we would be moving again soon. However, by 3:45 PM we were still at the Sheridan stop just sitting there. I phoned the job and told them that I might be a couple minutes late.  Then the train conductor announces that there is a emergency up ahead and he has been told to keep to train there at the station. After a couple more minutes of standing there the conductor announces that the train can proceed to the Belmont station, but it would not be proceeding any further south and all us passengers would be transferred to shuttle buses to continue the trip south. At Belmont station, I got off the train and walked to the south end of the platform. I looked and saw vast amounts of smoke obscuring the tracks and skyline to the south.
 
The cause of all the smoke was a major fire in a furniture warehouse alongside the tracks, as described by The Chicago Sun Times, and by The Chicago Tribune.
 
At Belmont station, shuttle buses were used to move us to other stops along the the subway route. I finally got on a shuttle bus that took us to the North Avenue/Clybourn station. We were told that the subway  was working normally at this station for trains going south, but I had had enough with the system by then and decided to walk the rest of the way to my job (about a mile or so) I got to work at 6PM. I wasn’t the only one late. At least one other co-worker (who also rode the system) got to the store around 6pm also.
 
There is never a ‘good’ time for a fire, but this  one  happened not only during the  beginning of evening rush hour, but a Cubs Baseball game ended at roughly the same time, so add about 20-30,000 people (with a couple of them  drunk) into the mix.  Overall, I can not find much fault with the Chicago Transit Authority’s handling of this situation. They reacted pretty well to the hand they were dealt. My one fault I would like to point out was the lack of information the shuttle bus drivers had. Originally, the shuttle plan was to move riders from the Belmont Station to the Fullerton Station (consult the above system map). This was what the driver of my bus planned to do. But, by now some of us riders were looking up information about the fire on our web-enabled cell phones.  We showed this info to the driver who decided that taking us a stop further to North Avenue/Clybourn would be smarter. Furthermore, as our shuttle bus inched south along  on Halsted Street ( lots of traffic) after leaving Belmont Station, we could all smell and see the smoke from the fire.
 
There were no casualties (thank God) but it took 160 firefighters to put out the blaze.  When my shift ended later that night, I decided to took the subway back home (some nights I walk home because it is good exercise)  as the subway went past the fire site, there was still a heavy smell of smoke in the air.
 
Bottom line: a discarded lit cigarette caused significant problems for the major backbone of the Chicago subway system.  – ChicagoDudeWhoTrades

Economics and Investing:

Friday (June 1st, 2012) was a banner day. Stocks plunged, but gold and silver rallied, hopefully signaling a change from May’s declines. With the credit market in turmoil, everyone is frantic for cash–among other things to meet CDS derivative margin calls. (I’ve been warning you about derivatives since 2006.) Hence the fire sale in stocks, metals, and even crude oil–both futures and spot markets. But the long term prospects for silver and gold look bullish. In the current era of “quantitative easing” monetization, the paper currencies are doomed to go down, and metals are the safe haven hedge. My favorite metals for investing are lead and brass. (When combined with nitrocellulose and a primer.)

California residential real estate is still in the dumpster, but not so the state’s productive farm and ranch land! Growers, ranchers holding onto their land amid high commodity prices. (Thanks to Sean B. for the link.)

Over at The Panama Perspective: Global Tax Topical Focus – FATCA Is Coming

Germany Faces A Growing Risk Of Disastrous Power Blackouts. (Since winds are generally higher at night, perhaps there might eventually be pressure to institute primarily night shifts for heavy industries in Germany that use lots of electricity.

The Causes of Inflation and a Commodity-Based Currency. (Ralph Borsodi)

Getting Out of Dodge: The online payments giant PayPal just announced that they have moved their primary data center from California to Salt Lake City, Utah. (Where they will be joining eBay’s flagship data center, as well as Overstock.com.) A large number of companies are partly or entirely bailing out of California because over-regulation, high taxes, high labor costs, and high electricity costs.

Shenandoah reports: The Prisons in Greece are Running out of Food. (Thanks to H.L. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Gold Vaults 4% for Biggest One-Day Rise in Three Years

Brent Oil Fails Below $100 a Barrel for First Time Since October

No Shelter:  2012 Gains Erased in Torrent of Selling

Jobs Report, Market Slide Raise Fear of Cruel Summer Ahead

Home Prices Fall 2.6% In May

Europe’s Deepening Crisis Drags Wall Street Lower

Odds ‘n Sods:

Jim W. suggested this Instructive video: Negligent Discharges: Holstering

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Delivery Kits for Home Birth May Increase Neonate Survival, Speaking of home birth, the same family that posts the Paratus Familia blog and makes the popular Naturally Cozy washable pads for women now makes an Emergency Birth Kit packaged an a 5 gallon plastic bucket. What a great concept!

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You Tax Dollars at Work: Dugout Dick’s central Idaho caves filled in by BLM. (A hat tip to R.B.S. for the link.)

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K.A.F. sent this news item: [Slightly] Radioactive bluefin tuna crossed the Pacific to US

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Chris M. sent this: Update: Man Says He ‘Belly-Flopped’ Plane Against Mountain

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid [them] out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.” – Psalm 82:3-8 (KJV)

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Round 40 Prize Winners — and a New Prize Announcement

And the winner is…

First Prize goes to Barefoot Yankee Gal for Kitchen Cupboard Medicine, which was posted on Tuesday, April 3, 2012. She will receive: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize goes to W.B. for Lessons from Afghanistan which was posted on Tuesday, May 29, 201. He will receive: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize goes to Marc P. goes for Change Your Mind, Save Your Life, which was posted on April 12, 2012 . He will receive: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Honorable Mention Prizes

The following 19 articles have earned their writers Honorable Mention Prizes. The writers will each receive $30 gift certificates from Amazon.com, via e-mail:

Note to Top Three Prize Winners: Please e-mail us to let us know your mailing address and UPS shipping address.)

Note to Honorable Mention Prize Winners: Please e-mail us to let us know your the e-mail address where you’d like your $30 Amazon gift certificate directed.

A New Prize!

Starting with Round 41, there will be an additional prize included in the Second Prize package: A SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. This bolt carrier assembly is a true “drop in” training device. Not only does it provide excellent responsive training, but it also temporarily renders your AR-15 or M4gery completely safe for dry practice, even if you inadvertently insert a magazine of live ammunition. This bolt carrier enables your trigger to auto-reset. It is a $150 retail value.

Round 41 ends on July 31st, so get started writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Founders Sample Chapter — In The Footsteps of Josephus

Author’s Notes: Founders is scheduled to be released in September, 2012. Please wait until the release date (“Book Bomb Day”) to order your copy. That same day, there will be simultaneous releases of the e-book and audio book editions.

The cover art was created by Tony Mauro, Jr., who also created the cover for “Survivors.” The Founders cover depicts Ken and Terry Layton on their cross-country journey.

Spoiler Alert: This chapter includes passages of the novel that you may not want to know about before reading the book from beginning to end. So skip reading this sample chapter if you are the sort that dislikes spoilers.

 

“There are certain principles that are inherent in man, that belong to man, and that were enunciated in an early day, before the United States government was formed, and they are principles that rightfully belong to all men everywhere. They are described in the Declaration of Independence as inalienable rights, one of which is that men have a right to live; another is that they have a right to pursue happiness; and another is that they have a right to be free and no man has authority to deprive them of those God-given rights, and none but tyrants would do it. “These principles, I say, are inalienable in man; they belong to him; they existed before any constitutions were framed or any laws made. Men have in various ages striven to strip their fellow-men of these rights, and dispossess them of them. And hence the wars, the bloodshed and carnage that have spread over the earth. We, therefore, are not indebted to the United States for these rights; we were free as men born into the world, having the right to do as we please, to act as we please, as long as we do not transgress constitutional law nor violate the rights of others… “Another thing God expects us to do, and that is to maintain the principle of human rights… We owe it to all liberty-loving men, to stand up for human rights and to protect human freedom, and in the name of God we will do it, and let the congregation say Amen.” – John Taylor, 1882, Journal of Discourses, Volume 23, p. 263.

Muddy Pond, Tennessee – July, The Second Year

            Life in Overton County was just starting to get back to normal when the first Provisional Government units passed though. Since the town was within the four-hour drive-time local security radius of Fort Knox, Muddy Pond was in one of the first areas to be pacified by the ProvGov.  The new administration at first seemed well intentioned and benevolent, but people soon saw its sinister side.
             The nationalization programs and the Controls began gradually.  At first, the ProvGov seized only key industries and utilities.  But later, smaller companies were taken over, some seemingly on a whim. People wondered why would a padlock manufacturing company be nationalized?  And why would a silver refinery have to be nationalized?
             Likewise, the wage, price, currency, and credit controls started small, but gradually grew to gargantuan proportions.  Just a month after the ProvGov troops arrived, there was a dusk-to-dawn curfew, with shoot-on-sight orders for violators.  But even daylight hours weren’t safe, as Ben Fielding discovered.
            Early one afternoon, all of Ben’s family except Joseph was at home listening to some Messianic music on Rebecca’s iPod dock. They often gathered in the living room to do so, on the days that the power was on. The children liked to hear the music played loudly, and they sang along, and danced.  Their fun was interrupted when they heard some long bursts of automatic weapons fire, close by their house. They looked out their living room window and saw a convoy of UNPROFOR coalition vehicles strung out for a quarter mile on the county road.  The trucks and APCs had stopped and turned out onto either side of the road in a herringbone pattern.  The wild firing continued for thirty seconds. They heard a few shots hit the roof of their house. The firing finally stopped when the convoy commander in the lead Marder APC repeatedly honked his horn.
             Ben and his family fearfully watched as men ran back and forth between the vehicles.  They expected more trouble, so Ben took the precaution of running all the pages of his address book through his crosscut paper shredder.
            Five minutes later, a UNPROFOR patrol approached the front door. A German soldier shouted with a heavy accent, “Man of the house, come out!”
            Ben walked out with his hands on top of his head, and said, “The only others here are my wife and children.  Please leave them alone.”
            The patrol leader unslung a rifle from his shoulder and held it out.  Ben recognized it as his son’s .22, now missing its bolt.  The soldat asked, “Your gun, is this?”
            “Yes, I believe that is my rifle, but I’m not certain.  If that is mine, then it is registered in my name, in full accordance with the law.  Where did you find it?”
            “It was being carried by a young, err, man, now dead.”
            Rebecca began wailing.
             “Have you any other guns in the house?”
            “No.”
             The soldiers spent an hour noisily ransacking the house, while others held Ben and his terrified family at gunpoint, outside.  Their youngest daughter, just recently out of diapers, wet herself as they waited.  One team searched the house, while another searched the barn and outbuildings.  Ben alternated between intense feelings of fear and anger at the situation. They watched helplessly as the soldiers carried off Rebecca’s jewelry box, her iPod and dock, and many other small possessions.  This included nearly 200 rounds of .22 hollowpoints that were taken as “evidence.”
            Finding nothing actionable, the soldiers left without explanation or apology.
            Ben and Rebecca went inside to find the house was a shambles.  Several stretches of sheetrock in the hall and master bedroom had been kicked in and the upholstery on their couches and two of the mattresses had been slashed open. Two cabinets had been pried completely off the walls, and were left dumped on the floor, coated in sheetrock dust.  There were shattered dishes and plates littering the kitchen and dining room floors.  A broken pipe was spraying the front bathroom cabinet with water.  Ben soon turned off the well pump and shut the valve for the service line to the house. That stopped the water from further flooding the bathroom and hall.
             After a pair of honks, the UNPROFOR convoy left in a cloud of dust and diesel smoke.
             Ben and Rebecca walked out to the north end of their property, to look for Joseph.  After ten minutes of searching, they found his body 80 yards from the county road, and about 300 yards from the house.  He had been shot six times in the back and buttocks. Two gutted quail were still in his game bag. His white t-shirt was entirely stained red with blood, and his blue jeans were stained red down to the knees.
            For a half hour, Ben sat cradling the lifeless form of his eldest son, crying and rocking. Tears ran down his face. Nearby, Rebecca and their three surviving children sat hugging each other in a huddle, crying, moaning, and praying aloud.  Finally Ben stood up.  He looked down at his son’s corpse and said, “You wait here, I’m going to get a shovel, a sheet, some water, towels, and olive oil.”
            He was back a few minutes later and almost immediately began to dig.  As Ben dug just a few feet from his son’s body, he said forthrightly, “We’ll find no remedy or recourse in the courts, Rebecca.  These are tyrants, tyrants. I need to fight them.”
            He then continued working quietly, digging into the soil and small rocks with fervor. He didn’t stop until the grave was head-height deep.  Blisters were forming on his palms, but he hardly noticed.  As Ben dug the grave, Rebecca washed her son’s body, and rubbed olive oil onto his skin.
             They gently lowered Joseph’s body into the grave and Ben folded the boy’s arms across his chest.  They shrouded the body with a sheet. Rebecca helped Ben back up out of the grave. After saying prayers, each member of the family poured in a shovelful of earth. Rebecca then did most of the shoveling as they re-filled the grave, weeping yet again.
             After the grave was re-filled and mounded, each family member selected a stone to mark the site. Ben found one beside Joseph’s favorite fishing hole.
            They recited the Kaddish, a mourning ritual in Judaism, found in the Siddur, the Jewish liturgy book read in Jewish temples on the Sabbath and High Holy Days.
            Yitgaddal veyitqaddash shmeh rabba. Be’alma di vra khir’uteh veyamlikh malkhuteh veyatzma purqaneh viqarev qetz meshiheh behayekhon uvyomekhon uvhaye dekhol bet yisrael be’agala uvizman qariv ve’imru amen. Yehe shmeh rabba mevarakh le’alam ul’alme ‘almaya Yitbarakh veyishtabbah veyitpaar veyitromam veyitnasse veyithaddar veyit?alleh veyithallal shmeh dequdsha, brikh hu. Le’ella lella mikkol min kol birkhata veshirata tushbehata venehemata daamiran be’alma ve’imru amen.
            (May His great name be exalted and sanctified is God’s great name in the world, which He created according to His will! May He establish His kingdom and may His salvation blossom and His anointed be near. During your lifetime and during your days and during the lifetimes of all the House of Israel, speedily and very soon! And say, Amen. May His great name be blessed forever, and to all eternity! Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, above and beyond all the blessings, hymns, praises and consolations that are uttered in the world! And say, Amen.)
As they walked away from the grave and back toward the house, Rebecca carried the shovel. With both sadness and anger, she spat, “Yes, go.  Fight them! You have my blessing. Don’t worry about us.  We will be safe and waiting here. The Lord will protect all of us, and provide for all of us.”
            That evening, with aching hands, Ben dug up the length of 8” diameter PVC pipe buried beneath their pair of grated trash-burning barrels.  The PVC cache tube contained Ben’s heavily-greased guns: a Galil .308 rifle, a Browning A-5 semi-auto 12 gauge shotgun, and a HK USP .45 Compact pistol. All three guns were considered contraband, so they hadn’t been registered under the recent edicts. Packed along with guns there were seven Galil magazines, three 200-round battle packs of Portuguese 7.62mm ball ammunition, and seven boxes of shotgun shells, each wrapped in separate Ziploc bags.  After he had cleaned and loaded the guns, Ben organized his backpacking gear. He put the Galil and magazines in a guitar case, padded by extra clothes.
            As Ben organized and packed his gear, Rebecca served the children some leftovers. They had to eat sitting on the couch, because the kitchen was still littered with broken glass. After they had eaten, Ben gave each of his children lengthy hugs. He told them to be brave and reverent, and to obey their mother.  He tucked them in bed and said prayers with each of them.
             Back in the living room, Ben spoke with Rebecca, who was busy sweeping up glass. “The chances that they’ll return our .22 rifle are about .001 percent, so I’ll leave you silver that you can use to buy another .22 rifle, for small game. And I’ll be leaving you the 12 gauge, for anything bigger, man or beast.  I think under the old chest freezer would be a good hiding place for it.  Did you notice that the soldiers didn’t touch that?  You can ask some of the neighbor men to help you patch up the house.”
            She set down the dustpan and came into the living room with Ben.  As he continued packing, he said, “I need to be on my way, tonight. It is easier to fight from outside of barbed wire, than from inside it. We’re lucky that I didn’t get arrested today.  I don’t want to give them another chance.  Now listen carefully: I want you to tell people that I was arrested and taken away tonight.  Otherwise, they’ll ask questions when they see that I’ve gone.  In addition to the Army, there are at least three agencies of the ProvGov and four security contracting companies that are independently arresting people and hauling them off to camps, or I suppose for immediate liquidation.  The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.  So by blaming them for my disappearance, you’ll put yourself in the clear.”
            “And also make the Hutchings government look even worse,” Rebecca added.
            Ben nodded and said, “That’s right. It’s a ‘win-win.’ They use psychological warfare on us, so it’s only fair that we return the favor.”
He let out a breath and went on, “Now I’ll be going to Nashville, to see some old friends.  Its safer for both of us if I don’t tell you exactly who.”
             “Okay.”
            Ben finished strapping his sleeping bag onto his pack. “I’m leaving you most of our silver.  I can’t be sure, but I’ll do my best to send you money from time to time.  Whenever I enclose a letter, you have to promise me that you’ll burn it, right after you read it.”
            “I promise.”
            Then he shouldered his pack and gave his wife a two-minute hug, and a kiss. Ben touched the Mezuzah on his way out the door.  On the porch he snapped closed his backpack’s bellyband clasp, and picked up his guitar case. He turned to face his wife again in the doorway.  “Trust in Adonai and May His Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) comfort you during the days you sit Shivah for Joseph.  I will remember Joseph with you and will pray the Kaddish for him every day.  I will pray every day for peace, safety and that you would be comforted by the Lord, despite my absence from your side.  Remember that Joseph is ‘asleep’. He loved the Lord Yeshua and is with Him, at this very moment.  Ani meohev otach yoter Midai!”
            “I love you without measure, as well,’ she said, as he turned, and walked out into the darkness.