Planning to Assist Community

[Boyd]

This thread has me thinking of an older one possibly from another forum a long time ago.. Secret Prepper? Anyways, I've never been overly quiet about preparedness. Folks ask me questions here and there and two and two are put together. When I talk to the younger guys that work for me about packing their lunch versus ordering Jimmy Johns or getting food off the dollar menu they start to get an idea. Then they see me packing in home made, and trying out different ingredients..

Now as far as sharing within the community, I have storage food preps for my family, and that's about it. I can however provide fresh produce for quite a few people in season. How they put it up and store it is up to them. In an event where things go south, I am planning to help as many within walking distance as I can. My reasoning is a little selfish though, so don't crucify me here..

If I am the guy already setup to provide food for folks in the area (and those who have visited the farm stand already know where the food comes from) then I would barter weeding for produce for example.. Or you build 3 rabbit hutches, give me one and I give you baby rabbits to start your own operation.. that sort of thing. In providing for them, they provide for me and my family..

My thinking may be wrong as there will already be those willing to take what isn't theirs, but my main group plus the folks on our street would definitely help keep us safe because anybody who would steal from us would in effect be stealing from the entire area.

It also helps having a church literally across the street and police officers living around us.

So yes, I think our plans are to definitely to assist the community. I most definately do not have enough land to assist all, but with the means and knowledge to teach others how to come up with their own food, I do plan on helping as many as I can.

Ok, you may throw rotten fruit at me now :)

[Boyd]

sorry, i am so a thread killer..

[Gus14]

I define myself by two things, my family and my community.
I have been there for every family emergency in my little town for 10 years. I am the President of the Fire Department, Assistant Chief, and EMS Captain. My wife is an RN and she is the TO for the Rescue squad.
These people take care of my kids, my animals, and each other. We have been through floods, tornados, blizzards, ice storms, and all kinds of stuff and we went through it together.
Our town consists of a couple dozen homes, 4 large farms, a machine shop, a cement plant, a fire station, and a church. We are all very close knit. Most of the homes in our area were built in the early to mid 1800's so they are really already set up to support families without modern conveniences. They have root cellars, hand dug wells, wood stoves and fireplaces, and many have updated insulation. Three houses I know of have old iron cook stoves in them.
The farms right now are set up as commercial dairy and beef operations, one is a commercial goat and sheep meat operation. All of them are capable of being diverted to take care of the community and have already said that would be their focus in a SHTF situation. Water is plentiful, food and shelter is too. There really isnt anything we couldnt handle as long as we all stick together and since everyone has a vested interest in the community, we are pretty well set.

[Coondog]

What happens to all of us if this so called EVENT lasts much longer than our we are prepped for? What do YOU do when your preps run out and your kids get hungry? What is your plan then?

I am hopeful that my location and hunting skills will be enough to feed my family and I. I know that more is required than food only.

[MustangGal]

What happens to all of us if this so called EVENT lasts much longer than our we are prepped for? What do YOU do when your preps run out and your kids get hungry? What is your plan then?

I am hopeful that my location and hunting skills will be enough to feed my family and I. I know that more is required than food only.

That is what people are talking about when they say prepping is a lifestyle, not an event. It is my goal that my preps are reproducing and won't run out. It is why we are learning to garden, building a green house, stocking up on seeds, raising our own animals, learning what wild plants are edible, etc.

[Gus14]

+1 MustangGal.

Prepping is definately a lifestyle.
Great thing is, we have two things going for us.
1. Modern materials
2. History to learn from
With todays materials and old world knowledge one can set up the ability to live very comfortably without modern conveniences.

[Gus14]

Another consideration to think about is how much more you can accomplish if you have a community to draw from.

For example, I have animals. Primarily chickens and rabbits but I also have a couple cows and some sheep. I dont have very much cleared land, it's all woodland. So I get hay from the farm on the other side of the river in exchange for eggs, honey, a Winchester model 1300, and gunsmithing services. Another farmer exchanges use of his harvester for 1 beefer ready for slaughter from another farmer.
This same system will far outlive any money system currently in use. Furthermore, having this pool of resources to draw from allows each family in the community to enhance what they already have and prep for maintaining what each of us has to offer. In my family we concentrate on medical preparedness and security. I am an EMT (former Paramedic for 8 years), my wife is an RN, and I am currently a gunsmith.
Every home in this area has two things a shotgun and a .22LR. So, since I am the go to guy for anything firearms in my area, I have ensured there are more than an ample amount of 12Ga and .22 shells for whatever one could think of. Many of the homes are also equipped with either a .30/06, .270 bolt action or a .30-30 lever gun. So, I also keep plenty of those handy as well. My wife and I ensure we have the proper equipment needed to treat not just one patient but multiple patients with a wide variety of problems from medical to trauma. Taking in a combination of known holistic cures and modern medical treatments for our communities best shot at thriving in a post event world.
While preparing for a community, there is some risk. If you concentrate on something specific, you neglect other areas. For us that would be fresh meat procurement (outside of hunting). You have to know the people you plan on hunkering down with. In our case, we were the ones that needed to earn the trust. Many of the people here are 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th generation living here. Some of the names in town have ansestors in the local cemetary that died in 1859. They all know each other and are related, they know what they will make a stand for. My wife and I moved into the area and for the first few years were the outsiders. So, I know that if they trust me with their lives and the lives of their children, they will not crawfish on their word. We take care of medical and security, they will ensure we have plenty of meat.
We have a great community and I wouldnt trade it for my own personal underground silo loaded with a 100 years of supplies.

[Coondog]

That is what people are talking about when they say prepping is a lifestyle, not an event. It is my goal that my preps are reproducing and won't run out. It is why we are learning to garden, building a green house, stocking up on seeds, raising our own animals, learning what wild plants are edible, etc.

I understand they reproductive prepping solutions. I have all of it anyhow. More than 1 hundred head of cows, somewhere between20 to 30 chickens, about the same in goats. I have a well, hand pump(although water is 800 feet,it takes a while). A 30 x 30 underground concrete reinforced bunker with two hallways that are 30x15 for storage. And wildlife everywhere. Easy picking a deer off. In fact my fox terrier is suffering from a broken leg from being attacked by a doe just last night. I almost suffered an a$$ kicking from the same animal myself. But she finally gave up when we got about five feet from each other and cut to the left while I jumped and flew through the air to a nasty wreck in the rocks on my own. But that's another story. And
I live at 15 miles from my nearest neighbor. And that's just one older dude and a kid.

I have been through some things that would be small so called events that can clear out my preps pretty easy and have almost done so. One was weather related. We typically get to 0 degrees in the winter and that doesn't freeze water troughs all the way through. It is required we go break the top through but thats about it. Our wildlife is usually ok with the cold, although there is usually one cow or goat or something that needs assistance and we provide. A year or two ago we received record lows, like negative 15 and 20 for about 9 days straight. This our wildlife and livestock was not prepared for. Killed several animals, even though we have provided shelter and heated water and everything possible. Car batteries died, waterlines buried deeper than 3 feet did not freeze, but all other busted. Pretty sure it killed the entire fawn crop. Also killed the indigenous plants or mst of them anyhow for about a year. Alfalfa hay went sky high immediately after and did not come down for more than a year. Not because of the local market either. But because 500 miles away the same thing happened and killed winter wheat and winter grass production. I had more than 400 bales in the barn so I was good. But what I am getting at is this almost took out all of my reproductive preps in about a week. We had about twice as much as we came out the end of it with. My chances of survival had it continued would have been severely less had I not had as much as I had. I am prepped to the tee, have a 96 year old grandmother and grandfather that have taught me a lot of tricks. They actually lived through the depression years ago. My grandfather still has a 22 rifle that he could not get ammunition for and he trapped his wildlife and beat them to death with the buttstock. And he worked for the government. He had ammo in storage, but elected not the use it if he did not need it.

When asking the question in my previous post, yo gave a good answer. I am not shooting it down. But I have a first hand account on how a week long event of just weather pretty much kicking my living preps to the mud. I undestand that some places have much worse weather than what we experienced that one time. What I ask in lieu of that is what if it's much worse than usual? What do you do if the event kicks your preps down to half or less of what you think yo have? Bad events usually come in threes also. All I had was weather. Stick things together like weather, civil unrest, and disease. Maybe I am just bored or something, bu the wheels are always turning.

[MustangGal]

I don't pretend to have all the answers, nor am I comfortably prepped. But, we keep chipping away at it. The weather you are describing would be very, very unlikely in my area, but we still try to have multiple ways to heat, cook, etc.

All we can really do is keep on keeping on and do the best we can regardless of the circumstances. Does that mean we are guaranteed to be sucessful, no - but we are certainly better off than had we never tried.

[kappydell]

i intend to lay low - certainly not nag any 'honcho' about anything (unwanted attention is all it will get, mixed in with emnity) - and 'submarine' by being grey. After a while, things will sort out - unprepared will die or move on to other places in search of their 'due', and those of us who had quietly prepped and remained will emerge to use out skills to replenish our necessities (that is how we will recognize one another). Barter will naturally start, teamwork will become more obviously efficient and folks will naturally band together. Optomistic? Nope, Im a pessimist - there will be doggone few left to start over