Self Sufficiency or Going Galt?

[Black Blade]

Energy survivalists prepare for crisis Too late to save the planet, they say, so they focus on saving themselves

The Associated Press updated 5:06 p.m. MT, Sat., May. 24, 2008

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/ap/6ffb862f-5fad-4f4b-a63a-b430e2a7b2ae.hmedium.jpg

Peter Laskowski stacks firewood at his remote home in Waitsfield, Vt. he's part of a movement of Americans learning to live off their land.

BUSKIRK, N.Y. - A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.

Saving themselves

These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.

Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations - afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves and their loved ones. They envision a future in which the nation's cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water.

"There's going to be things that happen when people can't get things that they need for themselves and their families," said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.

Lynn-Marie asked to be identified by her first name to protect her homestead in rural western Idaho. Many of these survivalists declined to speak to The Associated Press for similar reasons.

'Peak oil'

These survivalists believe in "peak oil," the idea that world oil production is set to hit a high point and then decline. Scientists who support the idea say the amount of oil produced in the world each year has already or will soon begin a downward slide, even amid increased demand. But many scientists say such a scenario will be avoided as other sources of energy come in to fill the void.

On the PeakOil.com Web site, where upward of 800 people gathered on recent evenings, believers engage in a debate about what kind of world awaits.

Some members argue there will be no financial crash, but a slow slide into harder times. Some believe the federal government will respond to the loss of energy security with a clampdown on personal freedoms. Others simply don't trust that the government can maintain basic services in the face of an energy crisis.

The powers that be, they've determined, will be largely powerless to stop what is to come.

Getting ready

Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system.

They've begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they've learned to slaughter them.
The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.

By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.

"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."
Prepared for insurrection

So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.

"I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that's a possibility," said the former executive recruiter.

Laskowski is taking steps similar to environmentalists: conserving fuel, consuming less, studying global warming, and relying on local produce and craftsmen.

Laskowski is powering his home with solar panels and is raising fish, geese, ducks and sheep. He has planted apple and pear trees and is growing lettuce, spinach and corn.

Whenever possible, he uses his bicycle to get into town.

"I remember the oil crisis in '73; I remember waiting in line for gas," Laskowski said. "If there is a disruption in the oil supply it will be very quickly elevated into a disaster."

Breault said she hopes to someday band together with her neighbors to form a self-sufficient community. Women will always be having babies, she notes, and she imagines her skills as a midwife will always be in demand.

For now, she is readying for the more immediate work ahead: There's a root cellar to dig, fruit trees and vegetable plots to plant. She has put a bicycle on layaway, and soon she'll be able to bike to visit her grandkids even if there is no oil at the pump.

Whatever the shape of things yet to come, she said, she's done what she can to prepare.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24808083/

[Black Blade]

Massive Economic Disaster Seems Possible -- Will Survivalists Get the Last Laugh?
By Scott Thill, AlterNet

Posted on July 26, 2008, Printed on July 26, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/92706/

They used be paranoid preparation nuts who built bomb shelters for a place to duck and cover during nuclear dustups with communist heathens, but their tangled roots go back to the Great Depression for a reason. If you want to get sociological about it, survivalism started out as a response to economic catastrophe. And now, with a cratering stock market, a housing meltdown that has devalued everything in sight, and skyrocketing prices for food, gas and pretty much everything else, survivalists are preparing for -- and are prepared for -- the rerun. In fact, they may be the only people in America feeling good about the prospects of a major crash.

And the interesting thing about the once-fringe movement at this moment in history is that survivalism has now gone green -- at least in theory.

From peak oil and food crises all the way to catastrophic payback from that bitch Mother Earth, there are more reasons to hide than ever. Conventional society as we know it is already undergoing some disastrous transformations. Ask anyone ducking fires in California, floods in the Midwest or bullets in Baghdad. Maybe it didn't make sense to run for the hills, stockpile water and food, grow your own vegetables and drugs, or unplug from consumerism back when America's budget surplus still existed, its armies weren't burning up all the nation's revenue and its infrastructure wasn't being outsourced to a globalized work force.

But those days are gone, daddy, gone.

What's coming up is weirder. Author, social critic and overall hilarious dude James Kunstler tackled that weirdness, otherwise known as an incoming post-oil dystopia, in his recent novel, World Made by Hand, which has since become one of a handful of survivalist classics. And as Kunstler sees it, whether you are talking about gun nuts or green pioneers, at least you are talking.

"At least they're aware that we've entered the early innings of what could easily become a very disruptive period of our history," the Clusterfuck Nation columnist explains. "Most of them are responding constructively rather than just defensively. They're much more interested in gardening and animal husbandry than firearms."
Not that the gun nuts have gone away. Their ranks have just diversified.

"The gun nuts have been on the scene longer than the peak oil argument has been in play," he adds. "They were initially preoccupied with Big Government and its accompanying narrative fantasy of fascist oppression, which is why they adopted a fascist tone themselves. But peak-oil survivalists are different from the Ruby Ridge generation. They don't think that a bolt-hole in the woods is a very promising strategy. We have no idea at this point what the level of social cohesion or disorder may be, but if the rural areas, especially the agricultural centers, become too lawless for farming, then we'll be in pretty severe trouble because there will be nothing for us to eat."

That's not on the to-do list of author and SurvivalBlog owner James Rawles, who has been getting asked more and more questions by a mainstream press finally waking to the consequences of disaster capitalism, climate crisis and the hyperreal dream of bottomless consumption. He has fielded questions from the New York Times, and he has taken an online beating from conscientious pubs like Grist, but he hasn't gone Hollywood. The times, which are a-changin', have caught up to him.

"There is greater interest in preparedness these days because the fragility of our economy, lengthening chains of supply and the complexity of the technological infrastructure have become apparent to a broader cross section of the populace," Rawles wrote to me via e-mail (but only after asking how many unique monthly visitors AlterNet commanded). "All parties concerned may not realize it, but the left-of-center greens calling for local economies and encouraging farmers markets have a tremendous amount in common with John Birchers decrying globalist bankers and gun owners complaining about their constitutional rights. At the core, for all of them, is the recognition that big, entrenched, centralized power structures are not the answer. They are, in fact, the problem."

Fair enough. But that broad brush fails to recognize the complexities of the very community it is purporting to try to establish. Indeed, difference is what survivalists seem to be running from, whether it is historically the difference between blacks and whites, secularists and true believers, or simply the haves and have-nots. It is that latter crowd that the survivalists seem most worried about. Their separation from society at large is arguably a retreat from community rather than a striving toward it.

"I'd say that survivalism is indeed a celebration of community," Rawles asserts. "It is the embodiment of America's traditional can-do spirit of self-reliance that settled
the frontier."

But that's also a generalization, especially when one considers that the word "settled" is a coded reduction for a "near-genocidal wipeout of the frontier's native populations," most if not all of whom were perfecting a survivalist ethic by maximizing their skill sets and living in symbiosis with the land that provided them what they needed in food, tools and medicine. In fact, those settlements would have been hard-pressed to exist without what Rawles earlier described as a "centralized power structure," known as the expansionist United States government and its military, paving the road forward. Each self-reliant mythology carries within it grains of complicity in the community at large, which is a fancy way of saying there's nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide.

This is especially true today in our hyperreal, hyperconsuming 21st century, where survivalism has become more of a gadget fantasy than an earnest grasp for community.

"It seems a natural human impulse that we are hard-wired to follow as circumstances require," Kunstler says, "although it is constrained by social and cultural conditioning. To some degree, in our consumer culture, survivalism is related to the gear fetishism you see in popular magazines that purport to be about sporting adventures, but are really about acquiring snazzy equipment.
America in 2008 has become a cartoon culture of Hollywood violence that promotes grandiose power fantasies of hyper-individualism and vigilante justice. Add guns and economic hardship, and spice it up with ethnic grievances, and the recipe is not very appetizing."

This future cultural, environmental and geopolitical miasma is where the survivalist and the mainstream converge in agreement. Both camps, pardon the pun, are convinced that we're screwed down the road.

"The next Great Depression will be a tremendous leveler," Rawles prophesies. "If anything, life in the 22nd century will more closely resemble the 19th century than the 20th century. Sadly, the 21st century will probably be remembered as the time of the Great Die-Off."

"I don't consider it a total wipeout," Kunstler counters. "It's a very big change, but people are resilient and resourceful. Look, imagine if you were a person who had survived the Second World War in Europe, and you were walking around Berlin in the spring of 1946, a year after the end of the war. A once-magnificent city has been reduced to rubble. Your culture is lying in ashes. Yet, people pick up and rebuild."

That is, if they're sticking together. If they're scattered and fending for themselves, and taking armed retreat defense tips from SurvivalBlog, that makes rebuilding a bit more complicated. Which, in the end, is where survivalism is most ambiguous. Is it a growing population of forward-looking realists who are smartly preparing for the die-off brought on by climate crisis and economic collapse, so they can pick up themselves and their people, and rebuild with that "can-do" spirit, as Rawles calls it? Or are they simply gadget-fascinated fundamentalists afraid of change and challenge, so afraid that they'd rather hide and hoard than join the fight?

The jury is still out. But, according to Rawles, it will soon have its diversity mirrored by survivalism's changing demographic.

"I think that in the next couple of decades," he explains, "we will witness the formation of some remarkable intentional communities that will feature some unlikely bedfellows: anarchists and Ayn Rand readers, Mennonites and gun enthusiasts, Luddites and techno-geeks, fundamentalist Christians and Gaia worshippers, tree huggers and horse wranglers. We welcome them all. Because the threats are clearly manifold: peak oil, derivatives meltdowns, pandemics, food shortages, market collapses, terrorism, state-sponsored global war and more. In a situation this precarious, I believe that it is remarkably naive to think that mere geographical isolation will be sufficient to shelter communities from the predation of evildoers."

Scott Thill runs the online mag Morphizm.com. His writing has appeared on Salon, XLR8R, All Music Guide, Wired and others.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/92706/massive_economic_disaster_seems_possible_--_will_survivalists_get_the_last_laugh_/

[Black Blade]

Crazy Woman Creates New Suburban Survivalist Trend

http://gawker.com/assets/images/gawker/2008/07/31disaster-500.jpg

Though I found it thorough and immensely helpful, I guess The Ultimate Zombie Survival Guide just wasn't enough. A new book called Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens has just been published that exhaustively maps out how the typical homeowner can achieve ultimate disaster preparedness. This manual wasn't written by some salty former Marine or wild Alaskan adventurer, it was written by a 56-year-old woman named Kathy Harrison from the small (and regrettably named) Western Mass town of Cummington. And she's kind of a nut!

She says of her passion for survivalism: "I don't expect someone to drop a nuke on me, but after 9/11 - and certainly after Hurricane Katrina - I realized that, holy smoke, the cavalry doesn't always charge in to rescue you." Which, OK, fine. That's sort of on the plane of reason. But then she gives a tour of her house-full of sewing kits and cans and bottles of water and six months worth of freeze dried food-and you begin to see where her edges have frayed a bit.

When asked what she would do if the family had to suddenly evacuate the house, Mrs. Harrison walked to the mudroom, where backpacks hung on pegs, one for each family member, each containing a variety of supplies like water, tinder and flashlights. If the packs are combined with another, larger pack kept in the car, they form a kind of family survival superpack.

Scanning the pegs, Mrs. Harrison's brow furrowed. "Karen, where's your pack?" she said to her daughter.

Karen looked sheepish. "Um, up in my room."

"You know your pack belongs here," Mrs. Harrison said kindly but firmly.
I mean it's one thing to keep extra batteries in your junk drawer or whatever, but Mrs. Harrison says she's spent thousands of dollars on apocalypse kits in the past couple of years. Her 5-year-old daughter, Phoebe, probably doesn't live in a constant state of terror and anxiety or anything. There's nothing to worry about, dear. Other than THE SKY FALLING AND EATING YOUR PARENTS AT ANY SECOND.

http://gawker.com/5031657/crazy-woman-creates-new-suburban-survivalist-trend

[Black Blade]

Crisis spurs spike in 'suburban survivalists'

May 25 11:44 AM US/Eastern
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Six months ago, Jim Wiseman didn't even have a spare nutrition bar in his kitchen cabinet.

Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall pile of emergency food tucked in his home in the expensive San Diego suburb of La Jolla.

Wiseman isn't alone. Emergency supply retailers and military surplus stores nationwide have seen business boom in the past few months as an increasing number of Americans spooked by the economy rush to stock up on gear that was once the domain of hardcore survivalists.

These people snapping up everything from water purification tablets to thermal blankets shatter the survivalist stereotype: they are mostly urban professionals with mortgages, SUVs, solid jobs and a twinge of embarrassment about their newfound hobby.

From teachers to real estate agents, these budding emergency gurus say the dismal economy has made them prepare for financial collapse as if it were an oncoming Category 5 hurricane. They worry about rampant inflation, runs on banks, bare grocery shelves and widespread power failures that could make taps run dry.

For Wiseman, a fire protection contractor, that's meant spending roughly $20,000 since September on survival gear-and trying to persuade others to do the same.

"The UPS guy drops things off and he sees my 4-by-8-by-6-foot pile of food and I say 'What are you doing to prepare, buddy?'" he said. "Because there won't be a thing left on any shelf of any supermarket in the country if people's confidence wavers."

The surge in interest in emergency stockpiling has been a bonanza for camping supply companies and military surplus vendors, some of whom report sales spikes of up to 50 percent. These companies usually cater to people preparing for earthquakes or hurricanes, but informal customer surveys now indicate the bump is from first-time shoppers who cite financial, not natural, disaster as their primary concern, they say.

Top sellers include 55-gallon water jugs, waterproof containers, freeze-dried foods, water filters, water purification tablets, glow sticks, lamp oil, thermal blankets, dust masks, first-aid kits and inexpensive tents.

Joe Branin, owner of the online emergency supply store Living Fresh, said he's seen a 700 percent increase in orders for water purification tablets in the past month and a similar increase in orders for sterile water pouches.

He is shipping meals ready to eat and food bars by the case to residential addresses nationwide.

"You're hearing from the people you will always hear from, who will build their own bunkers and stuff," he said. "But then you're hearing from people who usually wouldn't think about this, but now it's in their heads: 'What if something comes to the worst?'"

Online interest in survivalism has increased too. The niche Web site SurvivalBlog.com has seen its page views triple in the past 14 months to nearly 137,000 unique visitors a week. Jim Rawles, a self-described survivalist who runs the site, calls the newcomers "11th hour believers." He charges $100 an hour for phone consulting on emergency preparedness and says that business also has tripled.

"There's so many people who are concerned about the economy that there's a huge interest in preparedness, and it pretty much crosses all lines, social, economic, political and religious," he said. "There's a steep learning curve going on right now."

Art Markman, a cognitive psychologist, said he's not surprised by the reaction to the nation's financial woes-even though it may seem irrational. In an increasingly global and automated society, most people are dependent on strangers and systems they don't understand-and the human brain isn't programmed to work that way.

"We have no real causal understanding of the way our world works at all," said Markman, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. "When times are good, you trust that things are working, but when times are bad you realize you don't have a clue what you would do if the supermarket didn't have goods on the shelves and that if the banks disappear, you have no idea where your money is."

Those preparing for the worst echo those thoughts and say learning to be self sufficient makes them feel more in control amid mounting uncertainty-even if it seems crazy to their friends and families.

Chris Macera, a 29-year-old IT systems administrator, said he started buying extra food to take advantage of sales after he lost his job and he was rehired elsewhere for $30,000 less.

But Macera, who works in suburban Orange County, said that over several months his mentality began to shift from saving money to preparing for possible financial mayhem. He is motivated, too, by memories of the government paralysis that followed Hurricane Katrina.

He now buys 15 pounds of meat at a time and freezes it, and buys wheat in 50-pound bags, mills it into flour and uses it to bake bread. He checks survivalist Web sites for advice at least once a day and listens to survival podcasts.

"You kind of have to sift through the people with their hats on a little bit too tight," said Macera, who said his colleagues tease him about the grain mill. "But I see a lot of things (on the Web) and they're real common sense-type things."

"I don't want to be a slave to anybody," he said. "The more systems you're dependent on, the more likely things are going to go bad for you."

That's a philosophy shared by Vincent Springer, a newcomer to emergency preparedness from the Chicago area.

Springer, a high school social studies teacher, says he's most worried about energy shortages and an economic breakdown that could paralyze the just-in-time supply chain that grocery stores rely on.

In the past few months, Springer has stockpiled enough freeze-dried food for three months and bought 72-hour emergency supply kits for himself, his wife and two young children. The 39-year-old is also teaching himself to can food.

"I'm not looking for a retreat in northern Idaho or any of that stuff, but I think there's more people like me out there and I think those numbers are growing," he said.

[Black Blade]

Some see doomsday, not economic recovery

By Jim Stratton
Sentinel Staff Writer
June 7, 2009

The old woman walked into a Leesburg gun shop two months ago and explained her situation.

She was 80-something and wore the scars of the Great Depression. It had crippled her family, she told store owner Gordon Schorer, wiping out their savings in a bank failure. Now, near the end of her life, she worried the U.S. was headed down the same road, and she wasn't going to make that trip - not without a fight.

She had stockpiled more than a year's worth of food, put most of her money in precious metals and today was looking for a little insurance.

"She bought $8,000 of guns and ammo," Schorer said. "She's afraid of the future. Afraid she could lose everything."

As bad as the economy is, there are people who fear it is going to get worse - much, much worse.

Fueled by a potent mix of facts, fiction and hyperbole, these economic doomsday-ers envision a financial apocalypse that will render money worthless and normal commerce impossible.

So some are stocking up and making contingency plans: buying weapons, planting gardens and investing in gold and silver. Others are feeding that anxiety, warning that if society is about to go off the rails, the prudent citizen should be prepared to jump clear of the wreckage.

"There's a natural feeling that things like this can't happen in America," said Phil Russo, a Central Florida radio talk-show host who helped organize April's Tax Day protest in downtown Orlando. "But they can, and people just want to be ready for it."

Some of those people turned out for the Orlando protest and dozens like it across the country. Though billed as a rally against high taxes and wasteful spending, the events became magnets for activists of all kinds, including those who believe an economic Armageddon is brewing.

"People I know are getting out of the stock market and putting it [their money] in gold," said Bill Landes, a Haines City resident who attended the rally. "They know there's a problem coming."

The question is, "How big a problem?"

No one doubts that the recession will drag into next year. And unemployment in Florida and elsewhere will likely hit double digits. But most economists view the doomsday predictions as high drama - financial ghost stories trotted out when times get tough.

"Y2K, 9-11, swine flu, et cetera, all have been predicted to precipitate the great collapse," said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. "Sensationalism sells whether it is accurate or not."

Prophets of doom have always existed, but today their voices are easier to hear because of the Internet and talk radio. Economic survivalists, also called "preppers," can communicate instantly with like-minded individuals, and dozens of Web sites are dedicated to the coming disaster.


'Survival seeds'The Florida Preppers Network offers advice on gardening and lists the 100 items likely to go first in a panic. A few companies sell "survival seeds" to let you grow a "crisis garden" to feed your family when chaos takes hold. Their pitch is anything but subtle:

"As the meltdown progresses, one of the first things to be affected will be our nation's food supply. ... If you don't have the ability to grow your own food next year, your life may be in danger."

But for $150 (marked down from $297) you can buy enough seeds to grow an acre of 22 different vegetables to save your family. The seed sellers advertise on talk radio, popping up locally on the Glenn Beck Program. He has warned for months of a financial implosion.

In February, his TV show presented a series of worst-case scenarios, including economic collapse. One guest described heavily armed gangs roaming city streets by 2014. Anyone with money would be a target for kidnapping.

Throughout the show, Beck insisted his guests were not predicting what will happen, only what could.

"People aren't willing to look at the unspeakable," he said. "People don't understand it. This is what worries me."

That's a common trait among apocalyptic thinkers and survivalists, said Richard Mitchell, a sociologist who has studied the phenomenon for 20 years. They alone see trouble coming and put themselves at the center of the story. They alone know how to cope and build a narrative highlighting their insight.

"It's ritual drama," Mitchell said. "You control the action, and you're there to teach others how to live."

Orders 'went crazy'Drama or not, the predictions have sparked an increase in vegetable gardening, gun sales and food stockpiling.

Harry Weyandt has seen business climb as the economy sank. He runs Nitro-Pak.com, an emergency-supplies dealer selling everything from first-aid kits to $4,200 packs of freeze-dried foods.

Orders, he said, "went crazy" when Wall Street flopped and recently were running two to three times higher than normal. But though he worries about "serious inflation," Weyandt says, "I don't think there will be a problem buying food."

"Mama Bear" of the Florida Preppers Network would disagree. In March, she warned fellow Floridians that time was running out.

"I wish I could make everyone who is reading this realize how important it is to get your food and emergency supplies for your family ready," she wrote on the network's blog. "There is such a large calamity that is coming, and most people of like minds think it is going to happen soon."

Jim Stratton can be reached at jstratton@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5379 or OrlandoSentinel.com/blogonomics.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-doomsday-predictors-060609,0,6955104.story

[Black Blade]

Escape From (Fill in Your City Here)

by Bill in Chicagoland

I think as a boy my favorite stories were always about epic journeys or quests. I always saw myself as the lone hero; bravely making his way through a barren landscape overcoming impossible obstacles and having fantastic adventures along the way. As preppers I think many of us still believe that WTSHTF our trip to "Get out of Dodge" will be an adventure such as those we read in books. I'm afraid however; the reality will be much grimmer than we can imagine. I fear that it will be more like The Road by Cormac McCarthy or the recent novel One Second After by William R. Forstchen , than anything else.

I live in the Chicago metropolitan area, yes far behind enemy lines so to speak, and have been a prepper for most of the last 10 years. Like many of us I must live in a big city because of my job. I need money to survive. Living here is no big deal if you learn to ignore the local politics. My kids are grown and I have no long-term attachments here. If the world falls to pieces I always felt I could leave in an instant. I have the requisite pick-up truck, keep it full of fuel, pre-positioned much of my supplies with my son at a relatively safe location in a small town (population 5,000) about 600 miles from here. I've got my G.O.O.D. bag packed and I'm ready to go when ever things go south. Or am I ready?

Let's review my bug-out plan. Wait a second, I have no plan! This blinding flash of the obvious hit me as I was stuck in rush-hour traffic last Friday evening on my way to my son's. It took me nearly three hours to get from my apartment on the far north side of the city to I-80 on the far south side. This was the route I assumed I would take to skedaddle. Think about that; I was on Interstate highways the whole time, leaving at 8:00 PM, and it still took me nearly three hours to go less than 80 miles. What's really scary is that I was thinking all along how light the traffic was. I had no alternative routes in mind. Yikes!

Well, I've got to tell you this dear readers, that realization scared the bejeebus out of me. I was so unready to bug out. I had the stuff, the means, the mindset, etc., however, in a meltdown near-panic situation, I would've have been just one more member in a stream of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the big city. This experience got me off my duff and forced to review what I will do when the next shoe drops in our ongoing economic nightmare.

I drew up a list of what was necessary to implement an action plan to "Escape from Chicago 2009"

1. Have a bug-out kit ready at all times

a. No problem I have a bug-out bag packed and ready to go. No last minute packing required. However; I hadn't checked it in quite some time and when I did I found plenty of things to replace and replenish. Batteries lost their charge. Foods had expired. So did many of the common medications I packed. BTW, I also now have a 72 hour bag with me whenever I leave the house. You can never be sure when the worst thing you can imagine will happen.

2. Bring as much as you can with you.

a. Unlike many of you, I am not a man of any particular religious belief system. However, like most of you, I feel what makes us truly human beings is our compassion. I have to say that I don't think while bugging out, I could look a frightened hungry child in the eyes and say no - nothing for you. Bring more than you need. If you don't need to share then all the better; there's more for you when you reach your destination.

3. No stopping to buy last minute items.

a. If it's so bad you need to be bugging-out do you really think others don't know that and are at that very minute stripping the local Wal-Mart clean? During the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the grocery stores were near impossible to get to and if you could, it didn't matter; they were closed, or had been looted, and were empty. Also, shop owners, for example, may attempt to defend their stores with firearms (a la the Los Angeles Riots) and you don't want to be caught in the crossfire. I know, I know, Chicago has very strict gun laws so there won't be any shooting except by a few gun-toting NRA/survivalist types .

Finally, one interesting image comes to mind when I think of someone "liberating" goods from a Wal-Mart. During the Katrina emergency I recall seeing a video of a very obese woman wading through chest deep flood water, polluted with who knows what, holding a Dyson vacuum cleaner she had "liberated" over her head. No electricity, no home, no floor for that matter, but she had an expensive vacuum cleaner she had probably always wanted. Also, an interesting side note is the lack of bookstores looted. TA I WONDER WHY???

4. Be sure to "Right size your bug-out vehicle

a. Simply put, don't try to put a 10 gallon load in a 5 gallon bucket. Have a big enough vehicle to accommodate what you need to bring. If you have too much stuff, try to pre-position the bulkiest and heaviest items ahead of time. Be sure to leave enough room in your vehicle for people and pets. If you can't pre-position the bulkiest stuff at the far end; consider renting storage space in some small town along your intended bug-out route. If necessary, keep a small trailer at the midpoint as well. Also remember that unexpected things may/can/will happen and you will need to change your plans accordingly. Therefore, only the non-essential "nice to have things", not the essential for survival things, should be stored at waypoints along the way.

5. Don't oversize your bug-out vehicle

a. A corollary to the above is having a vehicle that is too big. Big is not always better. We've all seen in footage of the highways during the Hurricane Katrina and Rita emergencies. Massive Gridlock. If/when you need to get off the highway onto a secondary road you'll need to know if your Jumbo Superbago or SUV with the extra-long Airfoil trailer can negotiate any tight turns and/or low clearances on your Plan B, C, and D routes. I don't even want to discuss how much fuel bigger vehicles consume.

6. Expect no fuel to be available along the way

a. My Dodge pickup gets 18 mpg fully loaded and I have a 22 gal fuel tank. For those of us who are lacking the math gene; that works out to 396 miles per tank and my destination is 600 miles away. Hmmm. That means I need an additional 10 gallons or so. Three options present themselves; get a larger fuel tank, carry gas cans, preposition fuel along the way.

b. Option one is too pricey $1,000 plus in my case.

c. Option two means using three 5 gallon gas cans. The problem here is that in order to be prepared to leave at any moment; I'd need to keep them all full. My biggest problem here is where to store them. As I mentioned, I live in an apartment so that's really not an option I'd use except in the direst circumstances and I'd hate to leave them in my truck either. I'll have to figure this one out.

d. Finally, Option three requires storing them at waypoints along the route. This is a so-so solution. The primary route may change and you can't count on being able to get to it before you run out of fuel. Secondly, most storage faculties have a serious prohibition on the storage of flammable, toxic, or explosive items.

7. Enough cash or "realistic" barter goods for a few weeks

a. This is one area that I can't really give any solid advice. Who knows what'll be acceptable legal tender or barterable goods. You always read in the "Survival Canons" that certain barter goods will be useful. Honestly, I can't imagine some 7-11 or Wal-Mart clerk accepting pre-1965 silver or ammo for the loaf of bread or gallon of gas I want to buy. Not in the first few days first anyway. I'd suggest that initially, good old greenbacks will do. How many to bring is the big question ($500 $1,000? Fives, Tens, or Twenties?). I can almost bet that by the time the Schumer hits the fan, most, if not all, banks will be shuttered for a "Short term-bank holiday" and ATMs will likewise be shut down . "No checks please." Inflation may be rampant and gouging will be the name of the game. Remember Dan and TK's trip in "Patriots" ? $50 a gallon for gas may not be too farfetched.

8. Route selection

a. Take your time starting tomorrow and carefully route the best escape route you can. Note that best doesn't always equate with fastest. If the shortest route takes you through, or by, a major urban center, you're just jumping from one frying pan into another. Use your GPS en-rote to see what other routes are nearby. Use on-line mapping software, on-line (Google or MapQuest) or a PC or Mac-based routing program. Test different routes and compare times and distances. Most of better routing software also shows gas stations, food, Wal-Mart's, etc., along your route. Learn to use the software now; not when it's crunch time. Again, Dan and TKs trip in "Patriots" . Parallel routes to the Interstates perhaps?

9. Expect Societal Breakdown

a. Don't count on your neighbor's good intentions. Yep, you know which neighbors I mean. They're the ones down the block with all of the expensive toys who had nothing put aside for an emergency and now are demanding you provide them food, water, and even transportation. Be prepared for incidents of aggression, attempted assault, and theft of supplies. You may need to resort to serious means to defend yourself and your loved ones traveling with you. (I hate to keep referring to "Patriots" but the description of the Laytons' harrowing trip out of Chicago will be much truer than we care to think. )

b. Be especially wary en route. When you stop for whatever reason, you may be approached by others wanting food, or fuel, or other essentials. Help those you feel are truly desperate to the best of your ability. However, you may have to be rather aggressive to deter insistent requests by overly aggressive fellow refugees. This is a good time to be traveling with like-minded, security-conscious friends, so that all concerned can provide mutual security and back-up.

10. Trust but verify

a. I was originally going to title this section "Trust no one", however, I feel that is just a bit to cynical. There will be those you meet along the way who are true Samaritans. But, there are also those may have few if any compunction related to "liberating" a few of your items as a donation for their efforts. Or, in the worst case, there will be some full-blown predators out there masquerading as shepherds waiting for the sheep to come to them. Be wary of all help; including that from our friends in the government.

11. Be wary of Government help.

a. I don't know what will happen if I need to bug-out; but one thing I can be sure of is that if you should stop for help at any government facility; the first thing they will do is ask if you have any weapons with you. This is pretty much standard police procedure in any case. The second thing they will do is take any weapons you have from you. It's as simple as that. They will claim they are doing it for your own protection but you can be certain you will NEVER see your weapons again. Confiscating weapons was illegally done in New Orleans and few of the confiscated weapons were ever recovered. As unconstitutional as it was, they still to this day, justify taking the weapons as being in the best interest of the public. Forgetting of course that they were seizing the weapons of people least likely to use them against the forces of law and order an all the while never venturing near the danger zones in New Orleans where the actual goblins with illegal weapons resided. Additionally, you can probably also be sure that they will also take whatever food, or other goods you have that they deem necessary, to redistribute it among others who weren't quite so well prepared as you. How dare you greedy selfish people who prepared have more than others who didn't?

I hope that you will think about what I have presented here and do your best to be prepared. I hope you all make it to your destinations safe and sound.


http://www.survivalblog.com/

[Nomen luni]

Top quality stories from you as we have come to expect. You are a legend, BB!

[Book]

Maybe the Mods can sticky this excellent Black Blade thread. He rightfully owns this Prep Section now...lol.

:)

[Black Blade]

Apocalypse Later? I'm Going Local Now.

By Doug Fine

GRANT COUNTY, N.M.

I've spent the past three years trying to get petroleum out of my life and live locally. Where I differ from many locavore cruncholas is in my determination to do these things without giving up digital-age comforts -- you know, the ones that allow me to file this essay from a solar-powered ranch 23 miles from the nearest town.

I was plugging along, burning about 80 percent less oil than I did before overalls became my fashion mainstay, when the world financial system nearly collapsed. Now climate change exists again (officially), and there's talk that a green-tech economy might somehow emerge from the ashes of the one torched by derivatives.

But no one's sure. What if the Earth's supply of oil is half gone, with the masses in India and China just now latching on to the consumption teat? What if "cap and trade" and plug-in hybrids don't get here in time?

Suddenly the end of globalization and other apocalyptic visions of the planet's near future, once the purview of Idaho survivalists, are prime-time stories on CNN.

Mainstream suburban friends of mine who used to say that my experiment in neo-rugged-individualism was radically subversive have abruptly changed their minds. Now they just say it's radically unfeasible. Yet everyone seems to sense that 69-cent plastic garden buckets might one day be difficult to come by.

I have a fiancee and a son to provide for, so I decided to take a hard look at our prospects for survival if our consumer safety nets went away. For now, my green lifestyle choices at my remote 41-acre outpost in the American Southwest are optional. You know, growing lettuce instead of buying Chilean. Using organic cotton diapers instead of buying Pampers. But what if one morning in, say, 2049, I wake up to milk my goats and find out that supplies are no longer streaming in from China and California? What would I do if both big-box stores and crunchy food co-ops suddenly were no more?

In other words, I'm examining my place in a hypothetical post-oil, post-consumer society 40 years in the future.

Now, I'm not rooting for such a thing. Slave labor, forest depletion, climate change and resource wars aside, globalization has a lot going for it. I love that I can e-mail a musician in Mauritania and ask to download his latest album. And anyway, lots of people think globalization is the economic model for the foreseeable future. Still, when I was covering the former Soviet Union as a journalist in the 1990s, every single person I met told me that they'd thought pigs would fly before the Politburo crumbled.

I started my year 2049 assessment by assuming that I'll be 100 percent food-, water- and power-independent by then. An optimistic assumption, perhaps, but three years into my local-living experiment, my solar-powered fridge is filled with regional (and often home-grown) produce, and thanks to a solar-powered pump with a 30-year warranty, my water flows to a drip irrigation system that requires no electricity.

I own healthy if rambunctious goats that, despite the carnage they wreak in my rosebushes, give me more than half a gallon of milk per day, and the ranch's chickens provide so many eggs that I can practically feel my arteries clogging from all this healthy living. When I embarked on this project, I had enough food in my home for about three days, in case of a supermarket disruption. Now I have three months' worth. I need to do better than that, but I'm on my way.

With my growing brood fed, I wanted to analyze our prospects in other basic areas we often take for granted -- clothes, for example. I quickly realized that the long-term question might not be "Where will I find fair-trade organic cotton boxer briefs?" but rather, "Where will I get any underwear at all?" In post-consumer 2049, children in Bangladesh will no longer be sewing my skivvies for me. Luckily, my sweetheart has taken up knitting. And we're pricing alpacas.

First things first, though. I won't even have a place to store my underwear if I don't think about the ranch's physical security. What if my family gets its survival cards in order -- and hordes of former Wal-Mart shoppers don't? What could we do to stop them from treating my ranch like a buffet line?

"Form a small army," my friend Wiley recently suggested -- or at least a well-armed clan. That might be a good start. I've kept his suggestion under my hat until now because I recognize that, to people in the civilized world, the idea of armed ranch protection conjures images of Waco compounds. But here in rural New Mexico, folks take this kind of discussion seriously.

Security, alas, is just one of my concerns about a post-oil scenario. I have to be able to maintain a life worth securing. Here again, I found myself thinking tribally, recalling my predecessors in this valley and on my very property, the Mimbrenos.

The Mimbrenos were the indigenous folks who thrived here for 1,000 or so years in numbers greater than we have today, and without Realtors. Maybe their share-the-tasks system would work in post-consumer society. Someone else could take care of, say, the equipment maintenance work I don't know how to do. I'm talking about basic stuff -- fixing broken windmill blades and fridge motors.

That brings me to my worst fears about 2049. Having been raised in the suburbs on fast food and TV (Gilligan, though a survivor, offers few useful tips), I can barely change my truck's oil, let alone wire a solar panel. So I have to make sure that my solar electrician, a former hippie named Craig, is a high-ranking member of the tribe. You think an electrician is hard to schedule now? The best house, polygamy, whatever it takes -- Craig would get it. We can write the myths however we want.

Nascent tribalism is already appearing in my obscure valley, largely because we modern Mimbrenos are so sick of driving 46 miles to and from town every time we need a carrot. In the past two years, a food co-op, a farmer's market and a harvest festival have all started up.

Surely I'm forgetting some essential aspect of life in 2049, the way I inevitably forget at least one shopping item every time I schlep into town. Have I stockpiled enough light bulbs and seeds? What about medicine? I'm not too concerned, though. I think I have a priceless asset in my expanding herd of goats, which will make up for supply gaps. Whenever I need something I neglected to stockpile during the boom times of globalization, I'll barter off a goat kid like someone out of "The Red Tent." I don't think we'll starve.

Overall, I'm surprised to have come away from my ranch assessment feeling fairly well positioned for a post-apocalyptic 2049. Of course, the chaos that's sure to ensue if local living morphs quickly from voluntary to mandatory makes it difficult to predict exactly what life will be like. But this assessment has shown me that the only way I can become truly independent (a word I like even better is "indigenous") is through incremental steps based in a local economy. Yikes. I'd better start trying to get along with my less-friendly neighbors. Meanwhile, I'm investing in green tech.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/05/AR2009080504266.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Black Blade]

The new survivalists: Oregon 'preppers' stockpile guns and food in fear of calamity

http://blog.oregonlive.com/news_impact/2009/09/large_prepper1.sept.5.2009.JPG

by Richard Cockle, The OregonianSaturday September 05, 2009, 10:00 AM

Richard Cockle/The Oregonian

Welder and gunsmith Jim Rector, at his La Grande shop with a World War I-era shotgun, says he's prepared if Western civilization collapses, as modern survivalists fear. He has weapons and food stashed, plus a remote hideaway staked out. Veterinarian Richard Kimball of Burns has noticed a disturbing trend among some of his friends.

A Rockaway Beach couple has stockpiled food and assembled survival backpacks for their three adult children in Portland and Eugene. "If chaos arises, they can put the backpacks on so they can get home," said Kimball, 72. "There is a pistol in each of the backpacks."

Another longtime friend, a Harney County cattle rancher, recently bought an AK-47 assault rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammunition. "Does that tell you anything?" Kimball asked. "He's scared."

La Grande welder and gunsmith Jim Rector, meanwhile, said he has supplies and a jetboat at the ready to carry him and his wife to a secluded hideout along the Snake River.

They're all signs that the survivalist movement, slumbering since the Y2K scare and, before that, Jimmy Carter's bumpy presidency, has been shaken awake.

Government officials, academics, authors and others -- in addition to those doing the stockpiling -- say a growing number of people are independently building caches of food, weapons and precious metals such as gold.

As in earlier movements, survivalists are centered in conservative, rural areas such as eastern Oregon. Only this time, many prefer to be called "preppers" -- for preparedness -- and are driven by fears, stoked by Barack Obama's presidency, that economic catastrophe, sweeping technological failure and societal upheaval are just around the corner.

And though the movement intersects with a wave of weapon and ammunition hoarding among some who fear that Obama will clamp down on gun rights, there's little talk of forming militias as in past survivalist movements.

"People fear change; people get angry when they don't understand something," said La Grande City Councilman Steve Clements, 52, who teaches finance and information systems at Eastern Oregon University. "I think there is a lot of fear associated with having the first black president."

La Grande's Mike Sirrine, a Vietnam veteran and retired human resources manager who has added guns to his arsenal and is stockpiling beans and rice, said it's not that clear-cut.

The new survivalism, he said, reflects "an indistinct fear, not a very well-focused fear." He added, though, that in our 21st century culture, a collapse no worse than the Great Depression would trigger "rioting and people dying in the streets."

James Wesley Rawles, a survivalist author, lecturer and consultant who lives in Idaho, estimates that preppers make up 1 percent of the U.S. population -- but 5 percent in eastern and southwestern Oregon.

The former U.S. Army intelligence officer is author of "Patriots, A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse" and creator of SurvivalBlog.com, a 4-year-old site that has logged millions of hits. It's a big draw among preppers committed to surviving what Rawles, 48, calls TEOTWAWKI -- the end of the world as we know it.

"Get your beans, bullets and Band-Aids together," Rawles said in a telephone interview, repeating a slogan from his Web site and insisting that supermarkets in most cities stock only a three-day supply of food.

"There is no reserve; there is no back room in the grocery store anymore," he said. "If the 18-wheel trucks stop rolling for any reason, it all unravels."

Rick Gately, who owns La Grande Gold and Silver, said his sales have jumped 50 percent since the real estate bubble burst and Obama was elected.

"There is a hard-money mind-set," he said. "Gold and silver are real money. I'm seeing self-made millionaires, professionals in all fields, ranchers and dirt farmers and people working at the mills."

Though preppers tend to keep their activities "a secret thing," he said, they talk to the person who sells them gold and silver. Those he meets express anxiety about the potential for natural disaster, major terrorist attack or "a fall from within based on the lack of responsibility of the government."

Retired railroader Randy Lindsey, 57, of La Grande has stored 35,000 pounds of food, tons more unmilled wheat, and survival and ammunition-reloading gear. A lifelong Mormon, he's motivated in part by church leaders' call to store up to two years of food per person.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/news_impact/2009/09/medium_prepper2.sept.5.2009.JPG

Richard Cockle/The OregonianMike Sirrine (left) and Jim Rector discuss politics, game populations and ballistics in the gun room of Rector's La Grande welding and gunsmith shop. The men count themselves among "preppers," modern survivalists setting aside stores of weapons and food in fear of societal collapse. But he's gone a step beyond. "I've got weapons here and at a remote location," he said. "Generators, water purification -- and all the food I have is freeze-dried."

Why? A dangerous, lawless period is "inevitable," he said. "Who knows? In a few months, we could have all hell break loose because of swine flu."

Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts has also noticed elevated stockpiling in her remote county, possibly triggered by "out-of-control spending, the economy, the whole deal."

All the fuss perplexes Eastern Oregon University math professor John Knudson-Martin, who said the world is probably safer than ever. He suspects people are watching too much TV news.

"If a bomb goes off in Malaysia or halfway around the world, we hear about it, and it makes us think bombs are going off all the time," he said.

Other fears? Failure of the power grid is a common theme -- say if huge federal deficits trigger inflation and workers abandon their jobs, or if solar flares damage the grid the way they fused telegraph lines in 1859.

Others think an electromagnetic pulse -- EMP for short -- set off by a hostile nation exploding a nuclear device in space could fry computer chips -- shutting down everything from toasters and cell phones to trucks moving food, medicine and other essentials around the nation.

Gately, the metals dealer, said some of his customers "are actually making sure they have a vehicle that's not going to be impacted by an EMP."

Rural preppers also worry that economic or political instability could fuel urban riots, driving tens of thousands of city dwellers into small communities.

"What are we going to do with this mass of humanity?" asked a customer at Gately's shop, a 65-year-old La Grande retiree who didn't want his name disclosed. He began stockpiling last winter and now has enough to keep his family fed for many months, he said. He also bought four assault rifles to protect his stash from the gangs he expects to form.

Likewise, Rector has factored predatory gangs into his plans to flee to his Snake River hideout with his wife, Bettie, and their supplies.

"They are going to be dead from afar before they get to me," said Rector, 64, a longtime competitive shooter.

K.W. Royce of Wyoming, the Libertarian author of "Boston's Gun Bible" and another leading voice in the movement, has written of the potential for social upheaval and calls the veneer of civilization in America "very thin."

"Yet, it is typically the unprepared who jeer at the prepared," he said in an e-mail.
But Clements, the La Grande councilman, doesn't worry too much about social disintegration. He has faith in humanity's values, sense of responsibility and moral integrity.

It's the preppers he worries about:

"I would be afraid if they were the ones who decided they were going to take control after the collapse."

-- Richard Cockle: rcockle@oregonwireless.net

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/the_new_survivalists_oregon_pr.html


Black Blade: Some people just don't get it. It is about having "insurance" more than anything else. We have auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, medical insurance (for now) and preppers have "survivability insurance" with stored food, basic goods, firearms and ammo; and "portfolio insurance" with physical silver and gold. Should TSHTF then don't blame those who prepped while you are starving or are running from criminals. It's merely a living version of Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper".

[BabushkaLady]

Great threads BB!!

These are the exact topics I've stopped mentioning to friends and family! To hell with them, if they think I'm the crazy one!

As far as the question of Self Sufficiency or Going Galt? I believe they are go hand in hand. I've pulled back from the rat race and am more willing to be an anonymous helper. I'll give free consulting to people with a true desire to learn rather then feed the beast. Self sufficiency is all about learning!