Retreat Owner Profile: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Editor’s Introductory Note:  We have been posting Retreat Owner Profiles since the early days of SurvivalBlog, in 2005. Although the archive of these profiles is now essentially static, we always welcome more to add. In particular, we are looking for profiles of families living outside of the United States, or families that have unusual locales or ways of living off the land. For example, we still haven’t seen a profile of someone who lives full time on a sailboat. Nor a profile of someone who has an operating mine on their property, or of a fish farmer, or someone who lives up in the Arctic or the subarctic. Keep those profiles coming! And, as usual, please be sure to edit out any details that could compromise your anonymity.

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Profile: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Present home/retreat: Rural Southern California

Ages: Retired

SOs: Daughter/son-in-law, grandson, son

Annual income: Social Security, IRA disbursements

Profession: Mr.: Retired retail sales Home Depot. Mrs.: Retired manager for pharmaceutical wholesaler

Investments: IRA, Gold, Silver dollars, junk silver coins. Hard goods including firearms.

Vehicles: 2003 Dodge 2500 4wd diesel, added 80 gal on board tank, winch, ham radio(s), 2005 Jeep Wrangler 4wd, winch, ham radio, 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4wd, M100 BOV trailer, 2 electric bicycles (one is a folding model) rear racks and bags, 2 mountain bikes, 1 folding bike, 2 child trailers, 27’ travel trailer, and 27’ equipped travel trailer for bunkhouse

Annual Property Tax: $3000. (House and all vehicles are paid off.)

Firearms Battery: To numerous to list; .308 and 6.5 Creedmoor long distance shooter almost every Monday morning, reloads numerous calibers, stored reloading components, bullet casting equipment and components, starlight scopes for two weapon platforms, head and body armor, load bearing gear and camo clothing for 6 adults.

Stored ammunition: 10,000 rounds of various calibers

Fuel storage: 250gal diesel fuel stabilized, 150 gal gasoline stabilized, 500gal propane, usually 2-4 cords wood

Home/Retreat Property: We built this off-grid house on 5 acres 15 years ago, it has a well, an 240AC well pump @40gpm, 24VDC booster pump, 10,000gal water storage, 75% gravity fed to gardens. 100×100 garden, raised bed kitchen garden, orchard, medicinal garden( for making tinctures) and a greenhouse, 5-75gal propane tanks for house, 8kw off-grid solar panels/1kw wind turbine, 4-6vdc deep cycle Rolls/Surrett batteries, 2-4000w Trace inverters, 2-80amp Outback charge controllers, 8.5kw propane genset.
One story 2200sf ICF block home, HEPA-CRBN-UV whole house filter system, CRBN clothing and gear, 2 wood stoves, Ham shack. 500sf wood, metal and electronic fabrication workshops, outside IR DVR cameras with added IR spotlights, viewable from any TV in house.
Sealable 150sf shelter with same HEPA-CRBN filter with added CO2 scrubber, AC power from house and sealed gel solar battery backup charged from solar panel, ham radio, food and water storage, bunks/storage shelving, pump up toilet, outer entrance shower/cleanup area, CRBN clothing and gear, 2m transceiver.
40’ ¾ buried CONEX container, steel and fiberglass reinforced entrance door, AC power from house and sealed gel solar battery charged from solar panel, ham radio, 60’ tower, bulk food storage 2 years for 8 adults, bunks, water, sink, stockpile of meds and supplies, porta-potties, CRBN clothing and gear.
Communications: 1 mobile all band transceiver, 1-2m and 70cm transceiver and 3 band handheld in truck, 2m/70cm in Wrangler, all band transceiver and Grecom Multi trunking scanner, 30’ tower for home shack, 3-2 band handhelds, two can be plugged into ballistic helmets. 2 FRMS radios. Wired comms to house, shop, shelter and container.

Food storage: Self canned from garden, dehydrated, freeze-dried and commercial canned goods for 10 adults for 2 years. Cases of empty canning jars and lids.

Animals: Male and female heritage hogs, chickens, bee hives, and dogs.

Retreat is for MAG members and families. Each member has at least 90 days of most needed preps here. We have regular monthly meetings, and a trigger event comm. system.

Hobbies: Shooting, reloading, Ham radio and prepping.

Background: Mr. Smith has a BA in Public Administration and a minor in Criminal Justice, born and raised in So. California, 4 year USAF flight control system specialist veteran, plans to stay put and continually prepping since the mid-1970s.