For whatever reason you have chosen a place , did you plant anything that provides food over the long term ? Trees , shrubs , vines , flowers or weeds ??
Just curious here is all .
Jack
For whatever reason you have chosen a place , did you plant anything that provides food over the long term ? Trees , shrubs , vines , flowers or weeds ??
Just curious here is all .
Jack
Buy it cheap and stack it deep , you may need it !
Black Rifles Matter
50lb Bags of sunflower seeds. You can make sprouts without dirt just need water. Did not plant but do have ready if need some greens no mater the time of year inside.
Last edited by Outer Rondacker; 03-10-2018 at 07:46 PM.
I always get a kick out some of these types of deals
If those seeds were not planted last year, the crop harvested and preserved, a guy might find himself fairly hungry before anything grows to the point of being edible, That is if the shtf the fan in the right time of year to plant. lol
Hey starmac hehe you got me to go edit my post. 50 bags was sposta say 50 pound bag. For years I though what your saying was true. Seeds had to be used within a year or two. Then I got chickens. Got a good deal on a bunch of seeds. I am on my last four year old bag of sunflower seeds. As long as it is 45-50 degrees they grow fine. The colder the slower. Sunflower sprouts take only 5-7 days to be ready to eat for people. No dirt needed. 2 cups make an 11x13 pan full. If you are bored search sunflower spouts without dirt on youtube. Its kinda neat. Lets face it after a few days if all is not fixed we are all screwed anyway. LOL
Its not really long term just an idea on how to get some greens if you are trapped hunkered down during the winter months.
Wild Plum, 2 apple trees, I had apricots but they were on the boulevard and the city chopped and chipped them last year. Chokecherry which makes great jelly but needs lots of sugar, wild grapes.
I don't plan to bug out. Even if timing was perfect. To clear 1-2 acres for garden, put up a defensible log cabin, get the garden planted and maintained, cabin built, and fuel supply for the next winter cut is more than 1 guy can do. Not to mention watching for bad guys.
Think about it.
It is going to take many hands working together, sharing defense, crop raising, watch duty's.
Not enough hours in the day and who watch's while you sleep???
I think a block could do it, if you could get half the people in your block headed in the same direction. But I don't think you could do it democratically. Decisions too often have to be made on the spot. No time for committee meetings when the bad guys are walking down the street stripping houses and taking slaves.
Think the early days of settling Kentucky. Your going to need Stockades, living space that can be heated, food production, security. And a LARGE variety of skills.
Choose your neighbors well guys.
Not yet but I have a stockpile of potting soil from clearing out around my pond. Previous owner planted some peach, fig and apple trees. I hope to get some pecans in this year. This is in the Texas Hill country, been really dry of late. We do have a deep well for irrigation but it depends on electricity.
Bugging in....and for the most part ready. We have a steady supply of water, a good garden year to year, good deer population, squirrels a plenty as well as rabbits, and a decent plot of land basically invisible as we're at the end of a dead end road. I like where we live.
"Do not follow where the path might lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" Ralph Waldo Emerson
Alfalfa sprouts do the same. Bean sprouts, etc.
QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES?
Check your library for books on Permaculture. Plant native fruits and complimentary nuts. PawPaws take a long time to grow and produce usable fruits. Many nut trees are shrubs or small trees.
Seeding plums, peaches, apples, cherries, is as simple at putting pits in the ground. If there are squirrels, use a pick to make a hole in a vegetable can, to put upside down over the pits. That will allow the pit to sprout. My ancestors planted their peach and plum pits from lunch into the wind break rows on their Kansas farms.
When you see me eatin sprouts, be it bean, alfalfa, sun flower, etc etc, You will know the SHTF for sure. lol
Someone mentioned chokecherry, my wife always made choke cherry jelly, and believe it or not she has located chokecherry up here in Alaska. lol
I am not much of a wine person, and it tasted terrible to me, but a lot of folks make wine out of chokecherries too.
It just seemed to make sense having a reasonably steady supply of food that you don't have to "garden" . And the less labor intensive the better .
Jack
Buy it cheap and stack it deep , you may need it !
Black Rifles Matter
No way I am growing food.
First, It takes too long. Second it is too much work. There are plenty of farmers here and I will barter with them as needed.
Most of my food preps are in canned goods, grains, sugar, flour, and freeze dried stuff. They will keep us going for months. In those first few months, the issue is dealing with people who have no preps or escaping cities.
BTW...bugging in. But that is not much of an option for city dwellers. For those people, if it gets really bad, most will die in place, die getting out, or die when they try to take stuff from those in the country. I doubt one in twenty families think about that. The good news is that most will die quickly as water is the most important item to have and it is not easy to carry enough to travel far. The bad news is those who do make it out will be smart and tough to deal with.
Don Verna
The problem with preps is once they are gone growing really is your only option.
Unless you can trade a skill, knowledge, other materials for food, which I'm all in favor of.
Just remember if you bug out, either alone or with a very small group. Everyone has to sleep.
If you are alone there is nothing to prevent someone from walking up on you while you sleep and either killing you in your sleep or capturing you to be their slave.
If you have a family, what are you going to do if you are neck yoked, chained, watching someone rape your children's mother in front of them? What "CAN" you do?
Community is the clear winner in most of these scenarios. If you really think them through.
And the things that can not be taken from you by force is knowledge, skill, experience.
The more you know, the more you can do, have practiced, have refined skills and knowledge the stronger you are.
If you do need to move, stay off the roads. Every freeway overpass becomes a choke point where gangs can setup a camp. Stop everyone that comes through, take what you want, including the women, slaves, food, tools, weapons.
Consider the rivers. Harder to block, harder to patrol, especially at night.
Sleep during the day laid up in a thicket, no fire. Travel at night, Big breakfast in the morning as it starts to get light. Make your fire small, and under a spreading tree to break up the smoke column.
Hat size, I mean baseball cap. No more is needed. Dry wood, dead, but from a tree, not the ground. Charcoal is even better, less smoke, lots of heat. You can make that too.
There have been times in my life when my K9 partner was better than any human partner. The above would be a good time to do your traveling with a K9 partner.If you are alone there is nothing to prevent someone from walking up on you while you sleep and either killing you in your sleep or capturing you to be their slave.
Another good partner can be a horse or even better, a mule. Go where there's no roads. Hard for anybody or anything to sneak up on you, plus, they can carry grain you'll need for them and your food and supplies too.
If you have any common sense and some bush-craft knowledge, your chances are probably better in the back-country than amongst people.
Almost forgot, I'm too fat and old to bug out. I'd be bugging in.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms *shall not be infringed*.
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution."
- Thomas Jefferson
"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny."
- Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789
I'd bug in. My neighbors are a biker gang and from the amount they shoot on the weekends, they are practically their own militia (and they like me ). I'd just stay here and join up with them. They are also on a farm and have cattle and land. I could be the old guy who is their camp cook. lol
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
GhostHawk made some great points. One of the reasons I will bug in is because of the people I know in the area. We will quickly form a Mutual Aid group to protect and help each other and manage taking of game/fish in the area. Most are hunters/fishermen, most have two way radios, and we already get together to help each other out as needed. Community is extremely important!! As are skill sets.
A few have seen my reloading set up and know I have value in that area. Two 1050's, two 550's, RC, Co-Ax, Spolar with three gauge heads, PW800+ with Autodrive, and two PW 375's. A Master Caster, Lyman furnace and Lee pot for casting bullets, slugs and buckshot. 15k .22 LR, 150 lbs of powder, 150k primers, and thousands of hulls and cases. They also know I have shot competitively in all three disciplines.
I have a full woodworking shop and a metal lathe so I can make things as well. And to power them, three generators (I like spares LOL) with a 300 gal fuel tank.
Bugging out is an act of desperation. You will leave the area you know and your preps. You cannot carry enough to live very long. And most will need to kill others and/or steal to survive. It will be tough enough if you are alone, and worse with wife and kids or grandkids. If you must bug out, it must be as a group to have any chance.
It will not take long to deplete game and fish along the escape routes. Then there are the idiot city preppers buying air rifles to shoot squirrels for meat. Not a tree rat will be left after a week. There will a lot of dogs and cats in the stew pot in short order. If you do not know people raising livestock now, make some new friends.
Don Verna
Unless you have a prepared place to go and a plan in place WITH PLENTY OF FUEL, bugging out is stupidity defined.
I find it laughable that people think they’ll head for the woods.
What woods!!!?
You needn’t think you’ll just walk in a place foreign to you and live. Fact, you’ll probably meet the people that already live there and don’t want you there.
Wisest course of action will always be bug in. Have the supplies to stay put and head down for a month minimum. Let the fools thin themselves before poking your head up.
If I ever have to leave where I am and I am set up not bad. But if I ever need to leave I would take some of my traps with me beside my coydog.He will catch on to what is around and hear what I miss. also take what looks to work at the time also,Otherwise stay put.
Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA
If you're "going" and have a place already secured , Think paid for or "community" . It seems like having trees vines and what not would be a good idea . If things are really ugly for quite a time I'd think having something you don't have to work on a lot would be a benefit .
Of course if the plan is just run for the woods , you're going to need the dietary knowledge of Eual Gibbons ( sp? ) If that's not bad enough somebody else might already have claimed that woods and not want you there .
Jack
Buy it cheap and stack it deep , you may need it !
Black Rifles Matter
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |