Prepare to Thrive, Not Just Survive
“Survivalism” is big news these days, and the hottest novel on the market is Patriot. It contains extremely detailed discussions of everything a group of college students who banded together in 2000 bought for or did at their Idaho retreat to prepare for TEOTWATKI, which occurs in 2009. Consider it a reference work, not light bedtime reading, because it reads far more like 4,000 pages than 400. Their preparations are a first class hedge fund against the breakdowns of society and commerce and having to live in ditches and under hedges.
Ten presumably bright (and obviously wealthy) young people put together and stock a hideout over the course of nine years before “the Change.” The ‘net is full of lively “survival” blogs, including, very likely, Mr. Rawles’ own, that will tell you what you need to know but it will be efficient to read considerably more than the basics in one spot. Patriot demonstrates what the ultimate hedge fund is: having what it takes to survive in a world gone mad.
There are rousing action scenes and a couple of scenarios which will have you whimpering for a nice safe cave and a 155 mm howitzer of your own. Towns overrun by biker gangs and houses attacked by four to four dozen vehicles full of bandits who still have fuel are enough to make moving to Argentina sound like a good choice, and the saga of two members who left it too late getting out of Chicago and had to hike all the way to Idaho…no. I don’t want to go to Idaho that badly, not even if that were where the Cocoa Puffs and my sleeper-footed jammies were stored. I particularly disliked the chapter that ended baldly, “That winter they ate the dogs.” (Others, not the lead characters.)
No. We aren’t going to eat the dogs. We aren’t going to eat our friends or even enemies; we’re going to plan ahead.
Read the first half to get a good grasp of the scope of serious preparations that could keep you safe and will make you wealthy IF you are positioned to emerge from chaos and open the first trading post in your state and learn from The Group’s mistakes. Ignore the half about fighting a civil war against totalitarians unless you think there is a need to know eventually.
Patriot delineates clearly the difference between being a “survivalist” and attempting to become as self-sufficient as possible. I had been using the term”survivalist” as convenient shorthand, but Mr. Rawles showed me the error of my ways: we want to be prepared to thrive, not just to survive. We’re capitalists here in the Bar and we want a better ROI than just living through the breakdown of commerce and law and order. We can foresee what will constitute wealth in the aftermath of widespread destruction and our emergency precautions should take that into consideration. You can always eat tradegoods other than silver coins and bullets.
Therein lies the big flaw in Patriot; The Group is quite prepared to defend themselves, wage war, and survive, but that is basically all they do. MY goal is to see that those I love are warm, dry, safe, and well-fed every day except possibly those we have to fend off cannibalistic looters or UN “peacekeeping” forces, and on those a roast or a big pot of thick vegetable beef soup can simmer on the wood-burning stove. My definition of the new luxury remains, “sustainable supplies of food and fuel that you can protect.” Sustainable and/or renewable resources. Those who survive a major disruption with their trade goods intact and the ability to raise excess food will be poised to become very wealthy, indeed. You can’t eat gold, and you can’t eat houses or land, but you can certainly swap for them if your food production shows consistent surpluses and/or you start making biodiesel or even alcohol, which are certainly feasible.
I’m the one who wrote, “I may have to live through wars in ‘injun territory,’ but I refuse to do so without ample supplies of whipping cream, fresh porto bello mushrooms, and a lifetime supply of OPI nail polish.” Two years into the bad times our heroes have fended off assorted attackers and formed a Dudly Do Right squad to patrol a big chunk of territory assisting those they think worthy of it. Their standard breakfast is dried wheat softened with heated water. Lunch is a big pot of steaming rice. Period. Dinner is the elk or venison du jour when hunting is good and more rice. Dehydrated peanut butter or jerky if it weren’t. Yeech. The calorie count is a bit higher, but other than that we’re talking Gulag food. On special occasions they have a tasty MRE.
The leaders have lived on the place for several years, guarding the supplies various members have “pre-positioned.” They have done great things covering doors and windows with five thicknesses of mild steel and securing the water supply…but some dull evening don’t you think Pa might have asked, “Y’know, Ma, now that we have taught the dog to chase off bears but not game and dug defensive positions, what would you think if we got a couple of head of beef cattle? They won’t be much trouble, and when the power goes out permanently it sure would be nice to have a steak occasionally.” (They didn’t even bother to buy a dehydrator! I know four good ways that don’t require a machine, but I worry about people who don’t take food seriously.) Ma might have mused, “Pa, I ought to have a little butter and egg money, the way we buy .223 by the hundred-case lot, so let’s buy a milk goat and a few chickens?”
What was the plan? To eat MRE’s and rice until they were all gone, or the ammo was? This appears to have dawned on Mr. Rawles about half way through, so he sticks in a hasty sentence that the tiny orchard had been upgraded with some fruit and nut saplings (at least 7-10 years to bearing, but better late than never), and mentions a tractor no one has ever used for anything; he reveals belatedly that Mrs. Leader has been building up her supply of medicinal and culinary herbs. Call me effete, but I’d have turned some of the ingredients into elk-fried rice and told those men that they had enough trenches, go hunting and don’t come back without something that can be milked, and I don’t care if it is domestic or a mountain goat. One of you other idlers go find a bee hive.
Three years into their communal survival experiment they still haven’t planted a garden! They keep wonderful around the clock lookouts, of course. They make terrific IED. Nothing was more important than a garden, and couldn’t someone not on duty have built a still? They couldn’t even have made soap out of ashes for lack of sufficient spare fats.
Comes the first local “barter fair,” a while later, and they concoct a shopping list that includes cows, goats, and chickens, and actually find a few goats, which is good, because 40 acres in Idaho isn’t likely to support much and in times of famine those who have them are going to prize their goats more than Afghanis do. What has The Group got to swap? Ammunition! They have produced nothing. I consider that appalling. Certainly ammo is a first-class trade good and 25,000 rounds of .22 would be a thoughtful Christmas gift, but no one ever got rich without producing something. I am offended to my depths.
Get a grip, Group, the first thing you do once you have your land and some way to live on it (such as the old motor homes I nag you frequently to buy as “bug out vehicles”), is learn how to keep chickens and tomatoes alive and read a couple of books from Rodale Press or ancient copies of The Mother Earth News. (Water the tomatoes and protect the chickens from skunks, raccoons, hawks, owls, and two-legged predators. If necessary, keep them in the house until you build a secure place just for fowl, because those girls will lay an egg every 26-hours each, you’ll like scrambled eggs a lot better than wheat berries, and they are a renewable resource.) Expand gently from there by getting a pair of companionable dairy goats (who will eat every last green shoot in your garden if you aren’t very careful.) It takes five months to parturition, so if the girls are bred alternately in Spring and Fall, there will never be a time when you don’t have at least a gallon of rich, creamy milk that can be turned into great cheese for the very slight effort of heating it to 180 degrees F and dumping in a measured portion of ordinary vinegar. Lovely. If you save what is left over when the white cheese rises to the top you can make mozzerella out of the whey. A goat can give milk about ten months out of the year, and a cow can be milked 300 days, too.
Given nine years of accumulating rations, one is at a loss to understand how the survivors managed to run out of coffee in three months. Surely they knew how much coffee they each drank and that coffee, tea, hot cocoa, sugar, and even vienna sausages are right up there with beans and bullets for trade goods? A hundred cans of coffee would be a magnificent way to diversify your survival portfolio. In a world where paper money is no good, Maxwell House and Spam will certainly be very valuable–more practical than glittering St. Gaudens’ because they are far easier to divide up. Get a good scale and lots of small ziplocks. I admit freely that the group never runs out of dynamite or the materials to make thermite grenades, none of which I have. Rawles gives you a safer, more efficient way to make a Molotov Cocktail, but no, he can’t have the Mason jars and their precious lids for this project. That’s why we save spaghetti sauce and jelly jars and their lids for all non-canning purposes. Seal them with the paraffin for those candles you never made.
I guess the Group wouldn’t have liked me, but that’s okay because even if they had a couple of million dollars’ worth of supplies they didn’t have any talent for being happy. I can handle my stint in the LP/OP (Listening Post/Observation Post, as Mr. Rawles reminds you frequently) regularly, but not if all we have for lunch is rice. To be charitable, they started as college kids and got tied up in preparing for the breakdown of society and perhaps there are those who think monotany is just fine so long as they eat. They have no genuine entrepreneurial experience and not much more in keeping house.
Patriot is certainly a monumental work and Mr. Rawles really knows his armament and a fair amount about tactics, and any number of you might enjoy the book enormously if you didn’t gulp it down in two sittings. My pleasure-reading pace is held to a hundred pages an hour, and I assure you that few will be able to get through Patriot in four hours. I didn’t, and neither did MDC, who rarely fails to finish at least one book a day. The information is too dense. Patriot isn’t “The Berenstein Bears Go Survivalist.”
Mr. Rawles knows an enormous amount and conveys information clearly but the Northwest Militia, originally known as “The Group,” isn’t where I would choose to spend a period of anarchy and social disruption. Let’s get our priorities straight around here. Skimp a little on the several cases of olive drab Duct tape, pick up our BDU’s (Battle Dress Utility) at Good Will, and be certain that there are at least two quart tubs of Mae Ploy Thai Green Curry Chili paste and two dozen pounds of pepper corns.
Delighted gurgle of laughter. One of my first preparations for the collapse of society was a ten-year supply of high thread-count sheets!
The first was four dairy goats.
Regards,
Linda Brady Traynham
December 14, 2009
Linda Brady Traynham
Linda Brady Traynham is a former editor and analytical project report writer and is now a Whiskey & Gunpowder field correspondent on a ranch in the Republic of Texas. She studied Counseling at Boston University and got her Masters degree in Philosophy from the University of Hawaii.
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You are one of my favorite writers. I love everything you post. I’m reading this while eating some fresh, not even sweetened, whipped cream on Mississippi Mud cake that is left over from my butter making this morning. The cream is from our Jersey, Lucy, and I feel ONE HUNDRED times more ready for “whatever’s next” than if I did not have her. As Joann Grohman says, “a cow is wealth.” In Mr. Rawles’ defense, his is my favorite website.
I agree with Jennifer B but take it a step further,you ARE my favorite writer at the Bar.I have not read Mr. Rawles book Patriot{but read many reviews on it} but i would also like to make a good ROI during TEOTWATKI!
I guess i will read the book. {lol]
Dear Jennifer: I love writing for you and I particularly love responses. The only thing wrong with our sweet, wonderful Gertrude, the Guernsey, is lack of a dairy maid to spend hours every day making butter and cheese! My, can our golden lady produce. As for Marguerite, the Jersey, black-hearted black wretch that she is, she is hiding out somewhere amongst the squatty Black Dexter babes raising her calf happily and laughing at the humans because on the rare occasions when we captured her she always managed to escape before we got even a cup of milk out of her.
My very great apologies to the knowledgeable Mr. Rawles who writes well and has produced a very useful epic–even if he doesn’t have any knack for planning menus. I blush to admit that I had never heard of him until a friend brought me the book a few days ago. Typical gurgle of laughter…y’all know me! I see a problem and I start to solve it. In almost all cases I begin by reading thirty or forty thousand pages, but a little over three years ago when the possibility slammed me in the face it was obvious the best approach was “do any part of the problem you do understand.” Start accumulating beans, bandaids, books, bullets, bees’ wax, and bicarbonate of soda. Uh-oh…better submit or I’ll get filtered out!
“A cow is wealth.” How very true. Thus it has always been, and so it shall always be. Large populations depend upon surrogate cows…which depend upon “just in time” inventory. Even more important than “location, location, location” is “logistics, logistics, logistics.” Sparse populations in harsh lands eke out existences through thin and thinner, but industrialized nations are far more fragile and vulnerable. The dropping numbers of workers/taxpayers supporting the elderly and the parasitic is a serious matter, but the plummeting number of family-owned farms and ranches–under vicious attack from the Food “Safety” Act wending through Congress–is far more serious.
How I wish you were close enough to share a sliver of sinful cake and a mound of the whipped cream and your companionship with me. Write again, please, and let’s remember that it is quite possible to be nourished fully on nothing more than milk. Those of us with the foresight to get a cow usually have a few chickens and gardens, too. Big hug, Linda
Darling Tennessee James: Occasionally I feel as though I live in a vacuum! Or at least in my own tiny, precious, protected world. Which I do. What an idiot I sound saying, “Uh…I had never even heard of Mr. Rawles or his work a week ago!” S’okay, I did pretty well making up rules as I went along, and it was a pleasure to see that he has published a work that is surely an instant classic. I just don’t see any need to be grim about it, although The Group did pop real popcorn occasionally…but who wants it not slathered in real, fresh butter?! (The prices of canned butter and cheese are staggering.) Hmmm…butter will keep indefinately if frozen, and just about that long if kept at fifty or sixty degrees, so what if we wrapped it well and kept it in the root cellar we keep meaning to dig? Why couldn’t it be buried? The ultimate survival tool and skill are our minds–and our experiences. Do you who respond know how you help me? Your encouragement and appreciation delight me, but you make me THINK, too. The first year of my preparations someone asked me, “Did you ever think of buying anything you don’t like to eat yourself?!” Well…uh…no, not really, other than some things my crew likes. The expansion of that is my musing on butter. I had already solved MY problem, but it is sloppy intellectually and unkind not to work out alternate solutions. I read this to MDC who said gently, “You could make ghee.” Well, of COURSE you could! That–clarified butter, basically–can be canned and has been used forever in India. Just softening butter and washing it thoroughly in cold water to get out all the whey now left behind will help, and cookies made with it will turn out right again. The extra milk solids sold at butter prices now are why the texture of baked goods is wrong. “Heavy” whipping cream is now 1% above “light” whipping cream, rather than 6%, which is why recipes calling for it don’t taste right. What do YOU do, Tennessee James, when you aren’t leading ladies off into speculating on butter? Chuckle…butter could be a good speculation; ask anyone who lived through rationing in WWII! Hugs, Linda
Darling Tennesse James: You, too, got a two-part response, but apparently roused the suspicions of the spam filter, a surly beast at the best of times. Always good to hear from you. What do you do when you aren’t reading W&G? Hugs, Linda
Miss T, Great points in your essay. All that time and all that preparation, and they could produce nothing?! Having been in the army for 20 years, I can say that MREs are over-rated. After a couple days (due to the lack of real veggies), you feel like you’re passing bricks when you take a dump. Start a garden – today! Live in a neighborhood where having a garden is a no-no? Move! Miss T, do you really have 4 dairy goats? Tell us more about them, and of your other preparations. Thanks.
I especially liked your suggestion a few months ago about ceasing to be a taxable revenue creator. Even though I still am feeding the hungry government beast, my husband is farming mostly full time now but as opposed to a decrease in lifestyle, we ironically have increased our standard of living, i.e. fresh, sweet milk every day. Amazing. It was a pleasure to read your article today and you bet, I will be squirrelling away a few nuts, (and raisins, and applesauce, and butternuts, and nutmeg, and ….)
Dear Jennifer: Thank you very much for the encouragement, and I’m glad you are enjoying your retreat from wage slavery. You have more time together, don’t you? What is the value of THAT?! MDC and I are very fond of our fireplace. Very frequently one of us will remark happily, “How wonderful it is to see OUR wood grown on OUR land burning in OUR fireplace!” I always look at my dinner plate and well…gloat is the best word…over what is there because WE grew it or raised it. I continue, “And next year, if we keep working, the potatoes will be ours, and we will have made the sausage and grown the lima beans…” I take enormous pride and pleasure in even simple biscuits made with OUR buttermilk and OUR sweet butter, courtesy of Gertrude who feels that sweet feed twice a day and lush pastures are ample compensation. In the bitter cold today there is life, warmth, hope, and joy in 17 little balls of fluff murmuring “peep-peep-peep” contentedly in a box, not just because they are new life and the source of further eggs and chickens in the future but because they were hatched from OUR eggs. Happy sigh…that will either resonate with others, or it won’t, but I loved the way you put it. You are eating the very finest, building the future together, and being a living example of the benefit of becoming more self-sufficient. Happiness and luxury are very individual definitions, but for me a good example is having that beloved man around all the time and scrambled eggs our own happy chickens produced in return for being allowed to dine on disgusting things that hop, jump, creep, and wriggle and a little pure grain–that we will produce next year! Sure, there is more to life than food, but “Guests rarely complain of a dull time when they have dined well!” I hope you, too, have chickens. If not, they would make a wonderful Christmas present! Thank you again–all of you, actually. Your kindness in writing brings me great happiness. Linda
A lady always apologizes when she thinks it even possible that she has given offense, and I wish to state firmly and publicly that I had no intent to denigrate Mr. Rawles or his stunning PATRIOT. I feel like Cindy Lou Who explaining that (cringe) I hadn’t the least notion who he is, and I only knew he had a blog because it says so someplace on the cover. I know now that Mr. Rawles is a very big WHO, and I continue to insist PATRIOT is an incredibly detailed overview of how to go about setting up survival areas and the perfect way for newcomers to learn because pretty much it is ALL in there. This will be much more efficient than reading piecemeal on the ‘net. I hope there is a copy of PATRIOT under every “Red Zone” Christmas tree in America.
I won’t recant that livestock is essential and that our groups should produce something with trade value, and I think every lady should have a weapon that suits her, no matter what the caliber, but me ‘at’s off to th’ Duke. He’ll probably get tired of me logging on so frequently, now that I know where to find more of his detailed information.
Sincerely and contritely,
Linda Brady Traynham
And now the laugh on ME. My British engineer friend dropped over tonight and saw the book. It turns out he checks http://www.survivalblog.com daily!
“Why didn’t you TELL me about it?!”
He smiled charmingly and replied indulgently in his impeccable BBC accent, “You were having such a grand time reinventing the wheel, my deah, and doing a raaaathuh good job of it!”
For three solid years Pita and I have been preparing, in our diverse ways, and the wretch let me go it alone when he had help?! Is THAT an example to set colonials?! He’s a darling, of course. Our disagreement is over how small a group is viable. He says airily, “I’m not trying to raise an army!” I reply, “Neither am I, but not even YOU can raise all the food four people need to supplement stored supplies and stand guard duty 24-hours-a-day.” If anyone could, it would be Pita. LBT
Just a quick note- excellent article (again!). I’ve read the novel a couple of times and hit JWR’s site daily, however that’s the thing that got me… lack of renewable food sources. That should be the first consideration. I guess that’s why I’ve read the book twice.. trying to come up to speed on arms and tactics (at least to establish a baseline). The second part reads more like a movie script.
Anywho, thanks for the review and your thoughts. Now where is that 5 gallon bucket of rice????
Dear Skot: As I sort of explained, I worked this all out–literally–by myself, with occasional conversations with Pita for a year and a half and then with the enthusiastic help of MDC when he came into my life 18 wonderful months ago. Somewhere along the line I bought 90 enormous grey tubs with lids for $4.50. Only problem…they can’t be stacked when heavy because the lids droop. We just got big barrels, but we haven’t gotten rice decanted into them yet. It’s still in 20 to 50# bags, depending on kind. (use dry ice OR pop in a handful of chinaberries wrapped in net; that kills weevils, too.) I wandered around JWR’s site today and he DOES urge renewable food sources; he just didn’t have the kids do it in the book. As for armament… well…sure, it is very appealing logistically for everyone to use .223 and .45 for interchangeable parts and ammo but I think I took that dispute out of the final draft. A .45 is simply too big for most ladies to fire, and a mini-14 doesn’t always snug into our shoulders so that we can reach the trigger well! EYE think the best gun for the job is one that suits your gal’s hand that she can hit a target with–and if she’s a good shot, a .22 is fine. MDC bought me a teen rifle! JWR used his gals as regular troops; I hope it will never come to anything worse than having to hold off a few raiders and looters; I sure don’t plan on patroling Texas! I’ve got a ranch to run, after all. A man I admire greatly said, “I’m not going to start this war, but if it comes I know which side I’m going to be on.” I do not foment revolution. I don’t want to be the law East of the Brazos. I just want all concerned to behave themselves and leave me in peace to take care of cows, goats, hogs, chickens, horses, gardens, and hay fields. I really can’t see myself constructing home-made claymores! JWR gave his characters an enormous advantage by having so many start the group; I see that as the biggest problem for those with land: how do you find others you can rely on to be honorable, decent, and willing to do their share? Oh, there are plenty who want to talk about how tough they are, but they don’t seem to have made any preparations at all and think simple ranch work is beneath them! I can’t afford to feed a private army, but it would really be wonderful to find a few of the right sort who would be pleased to bring their own supplies, live in one of the motor homes we collected at $50-$100/running foot, and help with the ranch work and mutual defense as needed, in return for a “safe” area and sharing what we raise. I’ve got a tactician and a strategist and I’m good with logistics, and that should be ample if we don’t get into running firefights or take on punitive actions. Wail! I’m not Rambette, and God willing, defensive preparations will be enough. Why not start with your STRENGTHS? You are unlikely to need to shoot a mile! It could be anybody out there. Any reasonable rifle and handgun in common calibers and a shot gun should do fine. What have you got to offer a group? What sort of person would think you a great tradeoff for what you can do? Some people ARE worth feeding…a vet, for example! Animal doctor, that is. I’d love to find myself a congenial gunny or a smadge who grew up on a farm, a still strong Viet Nam vet who would discuss military history with my guys and can ride, anyone responsible and reliable–and that is a LOT harder than it sounds. What cracks me up is that other than seasonal tasks (putting in a garden, harvesting, “working” cattle), day in and day out outside chores only take a couple of hours…but the talk tough guys recoil in horror with, “I don’t want to be a farmer!” Well, in that case go buy yourself about a ton of food and sit waiting for targets. SOME of us want to continue to enjoy life and eat well if the food distribution network and power go down, and be positioned for a good ROI on all our work afterwards. That means we have to prepare as best we can, accept that what we have and can grow may be all there ever is, never argue over anything, guard the lake to protect the catfish and bass, and accept that in every area SOMEONE is in charge. Me? I’m the rationing officer and my word will be LAW on generator and fuel usage. Wasting anything will be an epic sin. It won’t be a democracy–another mistake The Group makes. It can’t be a dictatorship, but there are things that simply are not suitable for a group vote. What’s for dinner? Sure, vote away, subject to the list of supplies in the commissary and “The Colonel’s Snickers Bites are the Colonel’s Snickers Bites.” We all have things we really love that others think are fine, but not special. Asia gets all the turnip greens (ugh), but nobody touches the real maple syrup except me! Most people prefer Mrs. Butterworth’s anyway. Should we attack Laredo? Not unless MDC says so! Why would we? It’s over 300 miles away! Here is a very fine old cavalry maxim: “Get over the rough ground as light as you can.” Everybody is good at something, we will have to work together as a team, and at some point everyone will be peon labor. Anybody can pick tomatoes, but not everyone can trim the goats’ hooves. We each do what we can, we pull our own weight, and we don’t get jealous or bicker. I’m the best writer in the group–which makes me a prime candidate to hand men tools and lemonade when they’re repairing a tractor. I am the Supreme Potentate about whether or not we can “afford” to run the AC, but I’m never going to argue with a man working out the pitch of a new roof. We can all just sit on our egos and dignity when they need it. “Every day in the Navy is like Sunday on the farm” MEANS that EVERY day the chores must be done, emergencies must be handled, and projects get worked on as appropriate, but other than that our time is our own. We live incredibly leisured lives by most standards. Gertrude doesn’t care WHEN she gets milked, so long as it is once sometime in the morning and more or less around sundown. If “it” comes, there will have to be sentry duty and we’ll work a bit more gardening, but compared to the lives of most ours will be roses and velvet so long as we can keep predators at bay. Like a successful boxer, I hope it will come down to avoiding being hit more than being aggressive. Hope those thoughts help, Skot. Keep looking for answers and thinking, and share if you come up with any great ideas, please. Linda
Dear Skot: Expect a lengthy answer…when someone frees it from the spam filter! Short form–JWR’s site DOES stress renewable food sources I found out tonight; he just doesn’t have the kids do it in Patriot. Best short answer on arms? Go with whatever you’ve got in common calibers that you shoot well with. God assisting (willing might not be enough), we’ll never need anything worse than defensive preparations. A chuckle on the rice bucket: if you don’t know where it is, you might as well not have it! Linda
It looked to me as though Mr. Rawles focussed on surviving the “Rodney King riots on steroids” more than he did such issues as future trade and wealth accumulation. But he did indeed cover a helluva lot of pertinent issues, and congratulations to him.
I’m a Certified Olde Phart. As a kid during WW II, I learned that when you’re plowing behind a horse, the view never improves. I learned that cowboying bareback in short pants is not the best way to chouse cows out of mesquite thickets. And, later, I learned that nuclear radiation is a Good Thing when the boffins figured out how to get rid of the screw-worm fly.
So I guess I’d have added to Mr. Rawles’ preps: Some fenced pasture for livestock, some fenced field for farming, and a good fenced area for a garden at the house. And, of course, all the various accoutrements needed for farming and ranching.
The drawback to agriculture in such desperate times, however, is that the nomadic barbarians have a lot of advantage as to when they decide to interfere with the harvest. Seems to me that this is the arena for a lot of local cooperation. It all works better after things settle down a bit.
But I’ve lived longer than a lot of folks, and sorta “accidentaled” into various areas of learning. Nobody knows everything about everything…
‘Rat
For fine pieces of history that give a good idea, look at the gold rushes. Sure some folks struck it rich finding gold. But most of the folks that did well went into trading and producing things to trade for the gold others found.
Linda,
Great writing but dont you think you were a little tough on Mr. Rawles? I mean the fact that Patriots is so very plausible is the reason it seems to reasonate with so many, including prople who dont fit within the Bubba catagory. I have read it and have integrated many of his ideas into my own preperations, and while its easy to dismiss I wonder if in time history will recognise Rawles as a modern day Noah.
Love your commentary and wit,
Dave C
Dear Dave: I apologized, right here, as sweetly as only a South’n lady can! (Comment # 8.) I even started my article with something I had intuited–that the book had to be very hot on the market–the moment I got into it even though I had never heard of it! Or him. Hey, I live in my own little fairy tale kingdom with a small, beautiful mental ivory tower, ruminating on the good old days in 1423 and 1810. My life revolves around my land, my prince consort, my first knight, assorted mammals with names, ancient luxury vehicles, the joy of W&G, and rare indulgences such as cooking and reading SciFi. I don’t surf the ‘net or watch TV and am dragged beyond the boundaries of my world as seldom as possible. Handing me a cell ‘phone earns a disapproving look. In general my “sacrifices” buffer me from the frustrations and angst of the modern world; occasionally they leave me looking like an idiot because I never heard of the extraordinary, such as Mr. Rawles. (Not knowing how many mistresses Tiger Woods is alleged to have or who won the Super Bowl in 2008 are a pretty big consolation even for that.) I think Mr. Rawles is so terrific I bounded out on a limb with him in my jaws and dropped him into the pit (little stock market joke, there) where fortunes are made. What bigger compliment could I pay the larger than life Mr. Rawles?! Goodness, he made what even my doting family regards as Mummy’s Secret Shame respectable! He just didn’t see it as a money-maker.
ALWAYS, always, dear friends, hear the gentle laughter–always at myself–in my voice. I even spent two hours last night wandering around a site about half the size of the Library of Congress attempting to find an address to apologize in person, but the best I came up with was an offer to consult for a hundred dollars an hour, half hour minimum. I decided I had not offended that egregiously–if, indeed, I have offended at all–and that my very pretty apology on the site where offense may have been committed is sufficient. Should Mr. Rawles feel otherwise (most unlikely), he has the right of challenge, giving me choice of weapons. I will choose a three-part trial by combat: the Miller Analogy Test, making Toll House Cookies from scratch without a recipe, and designing and embroidering a miter. Gracious, the man would annihilate me with guns, fans, or IED! I pointed out, in a comment not yet posted, that his work DOES emphasize renewable food resources, he just didn’t have his characters do so. Neither he nor you would respect me if I recanted my faith so I STILL say armies fight occasionally but they eat every day, there is no point in going through a war if you don’t come out better than you went in and enjoy yourself as frequently as possible, and that the correct weapon for a little lady is one that fits her hand that she can hit targets with no matter what the caliber is. I don’t plan on being a soldier; I intend to defend hearth and home only if others insist. I say again that PATRIOT is surely the definitive basic work on preparation. It took me three years to come up with most of what is in there (and some that isn’t) and normal busy people will do far better to read the book and take such precautions as make sense to them. There. Hope I’m forgiven! Linda
Kevin…great point! In an upcoming article I pointed out that in Alaska the price of an egg was a day’s wages in the lower 48…and that mine will be for sale for about a third of an ounce of silver, take it or leave it, the hogs, dogs, and chickens will be glad to eat them. The same will be true of “excess” milk. It will be the seller’s market of all times for those who have food. Your point is even better taken: after–and there will be an “after”–astounding fortunes will go to those who produce food, transportation, external-combustion engine-powered looms, mills, and sewing machines, and lumber from their small sawmills. How absurd that the “emerging technologies” which intrigue me most are pre-industrial revolution! Linda
Dear Desertrat: Ain’t it jest th’ truth?! We oldtimers have picked up a a great many bits of practical knowledge, seen a lot of improvisations, and done without a lot of things that hadn’t been invented or weren’t available. We know the world doesn’t owe us a living, that sometimes you tighten your belt and pull on your own bootstraps…
Crew…there is a lot of wisdom in what Desert Rat has to say, and I’d like to hear more of it. (Please do not describe yourself in such terms again? Thank you.)
In particular he’s right about the need not just to prepare but to set up mutual assistance pacts if possible. That’s the one way I think Patriot “cheats;” finding others who see the problem and are willing to work towards the solution is the hardest part. How do landowners find those honest, honorable people who have prepared and will work for their mutual good and a share of what is grown? How do those who take this as seriously as Y2K find those with land they will share because there is a point below which self-defense would be very difficult? I don’t know. I’ll think about it! Regards, Linda
Dear friends: Honest and true, every single post gets a gen-u-wine, individualized, personalized, hand-crafted response, but the W&G spam filter has apparently developed a taste for my work. I have yowled for help releasing those being held captive addressed to (in reverse order) Dave, Skot, and Tennessee James. BAD filter machine! LBT
Thanks Linda- looks like the spam filter has had a talking too. I agree with your comment- lots of folks don’t want do work “below” them.
We moved from the suburbs 1.5 years ago to line in the “country” on a few acres in an old farmhouse. Benefits- well, septic tank, barn and stable, fenced chicken coop, fenced pasture, wood heat, large garden plot, multiple pole barns, etc. Oh, yeah, inground swimming pool. And an awesome community that has embraced our family- helps when you immerse yourselves in the church and buy the one of oldest homes in the area (everyone has been in this house- I meet people 40 miles away who tell me they trick or treated here 20 years ago).
My colleagues at work are amazed what I do before and after work- the usual stuff running a hobby farm (chickens, goats, mini-horse) that we think, “what did we do while living in the suburbs?”. We’ve got one tv for movies and have never watched television, though we read a lot. These same people just yesterday told me to never type xxxxxx into google, because the gov’t will put you on a list. These are educated people. When I touch ever so lightly about what’s really going on, and what they really should be doing.. I get looked at like I’m crazy: “That crazy guy who lives in the boonies with farm animals.”
Guns aren’t our thing (don’t take it as we don’t have any). We look at it like you- we don’t want to be the “defenders”of the area, we want to ensure we can defend ourselves. If we need to be “defenders”, sign us up with the community- it’s part and parcel of living well with others.
So that’s my answer (which you have stated before). Find a good place and just as importantly, find a good community and then invest in both. I’ll also say find a good church. We support our friends and their families by giving time and using our resources (baking a cake, splitting wood for others, going to watch their kids in a play, help with construction, being youth leaders, etc). And we have received more in return. It’s true, rural folks (who have lived in the same area all their lives) are different, and God blessed us by presenting this opportunity. I’m sure breaking into a community can be a challenge- but unless you try, you’ll never know.
Thanks for the reply. I did find that rice by the way.. just where I left it.
Thriving right? I have to say for me, it’s about understanding and embracing different people processes. Food, Shelter, Clothing, Community (protection, support) which will required different resources to aid the new processes. We can take some of what our brave new techie society taught us, and re-apply back to living closer to the earth. IMO one can’t just throw money and supplies at the “elephant”, or do one’s own long running survivor show, one has to rethink the basic blueprint for living, before jumping into the “new house”, a metaphor.
Rawles contributions are he has worked through a lot of the physical details of his approach. For me, by the time you get to owning a cow, one should have a community with a vet that isn’t dependent on supplies being flown in just in time. Or, a vet that is plugged into a “jungle drum” network of like minded vets. (I know for a fact where one already exists). So I’d like to see a book by Skot above, as I think it would be useful as the nine men grappling with the elephant of survivalism as they got to define and script it. Equally important, by the time you get to having that “house on the prairie”, you should have by yourself set your kid’s thighbone fracture, or know someone who can. So it is about community, not isolation of a few lucky ones.
“Community” has to hang together, it’s becomes quickly a “cultural” thing. There are beliefs and values etc. While it is wonderful to do a dry run in good times, in my opinion that glue could fall apart when the reality of a breakdown hits. Better to learn and adapt and team up to what works during the breakdown, because there is one and only one truism in a real emergency that breaks through and runs the show. So, I believe one should not be too cemented about what it should be. After breakdown, tribalism tends to glue a community. As it always has. Whatever groups pull that off after the breakdown will survive and thrive. Won’t survival then always be about “lots of people”: communication skills, trading skills, with other such groups – and yes, power at the end of a gun. Now, doesn’t that smacks of capitalism – yup the more things change the more things stay the same.
Annie,
You are correct… not only is community important, but skills. How many folks have moved to their ‘retreat’ and have a mountain of the latest gadgets (or even old gadgets) yet cannot fathom how to dig a french drain, sharpen a saw, filter water or hang an axe handle. We’re a bit behind the curve on some things (medical), but we’re gaining ground. Sure helps when this is a true working farm community and we are active listeners.
Community does become a cultural thing- something we noticed moving from a “diversified” city to the country- people will tend to group with their kind. Once ‘the balloon goes up’ I’m sure people will take care of their families first and the “natural” pecking order may be re-arranged in a short order. There are many vets (some still active in the reserves) locally and their experience will be beneficial (depending on which side of the barrel I’m on).
Being team oriented and carrying a positive attitude goes a long way- especially with folks who can offer support (and food, protection). Showing you can contribute can make the difference between “thriving” and being hungry.
Once of the better books (and there are hundreds) that we’ve found is the “Encyclopedia of Country Living”- just a wealth of all around, good practical knowledge. We’ve got others to supplement, including a couple of Mr. Rawle’s.
And the ability to adapt as you mention cannot be discounted. In the next few years, this trait alone will make or break many people. Adapting before the curve is beneficial, adapting during and after is critical.
Dear, dear Skot and Annie:
A major reason I spend incredible amounts of time writing and–in very happy particular–answering the wonderful responses I get is finding people like you two. How I would love to hear that you live close to me in Central Texas, but that’s the one drawback of an international audience. You almost certainly do not.
Skot, I not only second Annie’s suggestion enthusiastically, but I had already formed the intention of asking you to submit an article for the Texas Ring as a starter. (www.thetexasring.com) Annie, dear, you, too, have a lot to contribute, although I am a little concerned that relying on community is only possible in a very restricted environment. It sounds as though both of you were able to locate property in wonderful areas. It is very important to form alliances where we can, but recognize that we may be very alone when the troubles begin.
Soft chuckle…I wonder sometimes if the very special individuals who respond here truly believe me when I tell you how much your mail means to me and what joy I take in answering it. In general the headliners on W&G put out specialty advisory letters that run between five hundred and five thousand dollars a year or more, and it simply must be that they cannot come up with the time to answer commenters. (How truly dreadful. I refuse to be that busy, no matter how little sleep I get.) How else could they bear not to?!
Rejoice with me, please! Today we agreed that someone’s lifestyle, preparations, abilities, and character impress our cadre of three so much that to John’s stunned delight (people can be so modest) we voted him ON the island, to join us when the time is right! He’s all but bouncing with excitement, bless him, and bubbling over with ideas and how closely our preparations match the dream he has been working on alone for quite a while. His stock of personal supplies may not be as great as Rawles would prefer, but they are ample, and what he offers is quite adequate in return for being able to run his livestock here and us reserving one of the motor homes/travel trailers MDC and I had purchased for precisely such a purpose. In a single stroke we solved his two biggest lacks easily, just as we can cover the third thing he thought most important. Ah, but what we’re getting in return! Well, well worth a capital investment of about $2500–made long since, and protecting current value because it is tied up in tangibles. At that “price” he’s a real bargain. AND we retain title to the, um, “signing bonus.” HE, in turn, can provide something tangible and imperative I had yet to find and afford to do so because we’ve erased his worries. Big hurrahs all around!
Please…any of you who conclude, based on what you read, that I have a very nice wheel here, and who live within reasonable difference, .and that you would be an asset in return for what we have to trade, write and tell me your philosophy, your goals, and how you have been preparing. It could well be that among you are others who are the “colonists” I have searched for fruitlessly for three years. No guarantees, of course, and you already know what sort of eccentric lives we live! If you have matching character, personality, and skills and have made enough preparations to show you’re serious, and if your ideas of FUN include gardens whose harvest will provide produce for all of us and helping take care of the livestock that will put meat on our table, tell me about yourself. Let’s start with those who live within 35 miles of Bryan-College Station, because that distance includes wonderful Madisonville, Navasota, Hearne, and Caldwell. The idea isn’t to come live here immediately, but to be within pretty safe and easy distances when the time comes to hunker down. We can always increase the area if necessary. Perfect candidates are in the W&G family. I know you are! Regards, Linda.
S&A…A couple of corrections…those who live within reasonable “distances,” of course, and when I wrote “our” table I meant the communal table, not that John will be laboring for the Lord of the Manor. All of us need mutual assistance pacts and to be willing to work out our own “gold standard” of what constitutes beneficial trade-offs between tangible and non-tangible assets. There is enormous value in those who see what needs to be done and do it BECAUSE it needs to be done and they’re right there. An easy example is glancing at the dogs’ water bowl every time you go by; another is loading/unloading dishwashers. I pointed out our Berkey water filter- and John smiled and said, “I saw it and filled it earlier.” THERE is a man worth rubies! He knew what it was and why it is important and that it doesn’t fill itself. Attention to detail. Rule: If you do what anyone can do that frees time for me to do what only I can do, and we are all both “you” and “I” in that sense. There will be times when I am “She Who Must Be Obeyed” and far many more when I am what we call a “warm body” in the Navy–someone who can peel potatoes, be on fire watch when you’re welding, or soothe an animal while someone stronger trims her hooves. Asia keeps the laundry up! (Utter luxury is always having clean sheets I didn’t change and never having to hunt a clean velvet jogging outfit.) Asia patrols to keep varmints down. He gets pampered with surprises of books and special viands. Asia KNOWS his Samurai Princess would never let him run out of kim chee! Taking care of each other in ways both large and small…
Linda,
What I worry about more than biker gangs or bandits are NWO troops sent out to get independent groups to knuckle under to global authority. I can’t say if society will break down due to economic causes or a revolution
by citizens fed up with our current non-representitave government. You can bet the first thing officals will do is to call out the troops to seize control (and power). The current bunch in Washington would surley call on
the UN in desperation. Has anyone thought of this as a possibilty? Would it be possible to form across the country alliances to deal with such a situation?
Dear Steady Steve:
With you, buddy! I expect society to break down from economic causes, exacerbated by those who think any excuse for a riot is a good one, and led as opportunity arises by ethnic, socio-economic, and political and professional groups, where “professional” may be defined as unions, the welfare classes, La Raza, the Crips and the Bloods, and similar ideological zealots. The first step is preparing as individuals, then joining as small groups that live in proximity during the worst times, seguing to building communities as land becomes available, then forming larger groups that ripple outwards to rebuild our original American dream.
I certainly expect martial law if/when the government becomes desperate enough, but the Red Dawn business is something we can only hope holds off as long as possible. Valentine’s Day a year ago Dubya and the Canadian Prime Minister agreed to provide each other with troops in cases of “civil unrest.” I fear Executive Order 11921, which allows the government to confiscate individuals’ “excess” anything the thug in charge of a SWAT team takes a fancy to.
The simplest way to begin a private correspondence with me, if you would like to, is comment over on http://www.thetexasring.com, because that sends me–and ONLY me–a private e-mail address. I am surely not the only one trying to find suitable colleagues and colonists. Those in cities who have made good preparations need to be looking for those who have land and are preparing; we who have land and livestock need additional personal with similar, different, and overlapping skills who are able to feed themselves until we all get the hang of farming. There are a VERY few individuals who are worth what it costs to feed them in return for their skills and willingness to help with other tasks; I would be delighted to have a congenial, intelligent retired veterinarian or a former corpsman who acted as sub doctor. An old dentist would be a luxury! My mind is always drawn to engineers, and I’m partial to a good gunny or smadge, the kind of old Centurion who will keep his men safe. I’m not going to fight any wars not forced on me but we can’t just roll over as they did in ’17 in Russia. You do not HAVE to be older, but age is no barrier so long as the group will be stronger with you than without you. What we keep finding from the first colonist we just voted on the island is that over and over he says casually, “I have a…” and it is something that was on my URGENT list! He didn’t KNOW the value of what he had to us because he was so concerned about not being able to get the top four priorities he was worried about–all of them things I have in abundance. HE just revealed today that he has a real four-horse trailer and a vehicle set up to pull goose-necked rigs! Those are big-ticket items we didn’t have yet but wanted badly. Ideal candidates have no small children or useless, spoiled teens, but it still depends upon character traits, personality, being able to demonstrate grace under pressure, and specialized skills or equipment vital to a group’s survival. Top points would be given a bulldozer operator with his own rig, or someone with a gunnite machine he is skilled in using.
So…what can you do, where do you live, what do you have, and what do you want? I doubt that 1% of the citizenry can come up with good answers. What would make you worth providing a motor home or travel trailer to live in here and access to our preparations, skills, and planning? I’m a classic Ayn Rand trader!
Linda