This article has been shared with the SHTFplan community by longtime contributor Norse Prepper.
It always frustrates me when I turn on the television, read a newspaper or any other source of main stream media that is running a story on preppers. Invariably, with any television series or special, it is promoted with pictures of people with gas masks and AK 47’s talking about how they intend to kill zombies when the golden horde arrives upon their doorsteps when the SHTF. The most popular of these shows is the “Doomsday Preppers” series that is running on the National Geographic channel. I will admit, I watch every episode because there are always things I can learn when seeing what others have done to prepare for whatever they are preparing for and find the show to be very entertaining. In my opinion however, these extreme preppers are not a good representative of the vast majority of preppers.
Depending upon what any person is prepping for, be it an EMP attack with the long term loss of the power grid, a tornado/hurricane/flood, collapse of the financial system, nuclear war or any number of potential calamities that may come your way, there are always some basics that are universal across the board. These being food, water, defense of life and home and sustainability into an unknown future that will last as long as it does. Outside of these staples of prepping, I have seen some of the extreme preppers having gas masks for the family, underground bunkers designed to ignite propane through hand rails to fry intruders in hallways leading to safe rooms and even homemade explosive devices. I can see why they do it and by having some of these things, they are probably more prepared than most. Having gas masks may be more common place in the prepping community and important for survival, but my point is that these are things that preppers typically take care of after the basics are complete.
Then there are the prepper want to be’s of the world. These are people that if National Geographic wanted to do a special on them, would show up and see them overloaded on information and lacking on results. They do research, read books on survival skills and talk a good talk about what’s coming and what they are planning on doing. It would be a very boring episode so you won’t see these people on any upcoming episodes I’m afraid. They are severely unprepared for whatever TEOTWAWKI situation arrives at their doorstep. Post collapse, they will be identified easily by listening to people in food lines and FEMA camps saying “I knew it!” and “I just didn’t have enough time to put it all together!” They may own a bunch of guns, mostly never shot more than to sight them in. They probably haven’t actually grown a garden, but have some seeds. They probably have never harvested a deer or game and prepared it for a meal. They call themselves preppers, but will have a very rude awakening when the SHTF.
That covers the 5% on either side of the bell curve of preppers, so who would be classified as the 90% and what would describe them? The answer is simple and can be answered with a single word. Grandparents. I recall a story my grandmother told me regarding arriving on a boat in North America. Her birthday was on Christmas and she recalls her and her sisters had a beet that was given to them for their Christmas meal. The moral here is that when someone tells me it could never happen here, I am reminded by this story that I am only 2 generations removed from it actually happening here in this nation. Is it ludicrous to think that these times instilled within our grandparents a sense of responsibility to prepare for leaner times? Today, many consider this extreme and would label them fringe nut cases.
When I think of the ultimate preppers, the picture in my head is of my grandparents. Growing up they were always known as “Farmer Gramma and Farmer Grampa”. They lived in a small farm house in northeast North Dakota and throughout life worked hard and played hard. They were preppers, but didn’t know it. When I was young, the farm seemed more like a playground, but in hindsight, they are what I believe all of us as preppers should aspire to become. They were hard working, self sufficient producers. The following is just a short list of things I remember that they had in place that would apply to preppers:
- Rural setting far from any major city.
- Community. Surrounding farms were either family or very close friends. They all provided for their own families and helped each other when it came to butchering, harvest or anything that would be of need. They knew everybody and were very valuable to each other’s well being.
- Farmers with farm equipment along with the means, methods and knowledge to fix anything. If it broke, grandpa could weld it. He had a pole barn for a shop and it had every tool imaginable, many of them hand tools, some electric.
- Animals…lots and lots of animals. They had cattle for dairy as well as meat, hogs, chickens, horses and other occasional animals that were used to provide food and income to the family and a barn to house each of them complete with a hay loft that had a hook on the ceiling that could be used for transporting a hay bale from one side to the other or to turn a 6 year old into superman, flying over the countryside to eventually cannonball in to a pile of hay at the end of the barn. One main stay at the farm was a golden retriever named Goldie who would always let them know if someone was approaching or if there were unwanted animals like foxes, wolves or other predators. He was a great dog.
- Fruit orchard. There were numerous apple trees and plum trees. My grandfather could actually take limbs from one species of apple trees and graft them on to a different variety of apple tree. Maybe this is something that is common, but to me it was a master at work.
- Gardens. There was a fruit garden where you would find raspberries, strawberries and watermelon. The vegetable garden had, well, everything. Corn, peas, cucumbers, radishes, beans, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, beets and I could go on forever. From the eyes of a 6 year old I would estimate the vegetable garden to be over 2,500 acres, but in actuality it was probably about a half acre.
- Food preparation. This is an overall generalization of hundreds of things that my grandparents did to preserve food for winter or leaner times ahead. All excess fruits and vegetables were sold, given away or canned. They had a cellar below the house where a room was filled with potatoes after harvest and there were hundreds of canned items lining every wall. I’m guessing my grandmother could take a railroad spike and turn it in to a loaf of moist, perfect home cooked bread. What’s a microwave?
- Water source. There were two ponds dug for cattle, the original hand pumped shallow well that provided water to the farm and later a new well was drilled with an electric pump.
- Shelter belt. There was a perimeter line of woods about 40 feet wide surrounding the house and rear yard. This provided shelter from winds and drifting snow as well as provided free heat for the house.
- The house. I spoke of the cellar which contained mostly food. It was a small, modest typical farm house that was constructed at the turn of the century. Centered in the house was a wood stove that always had a pot of hot water used for providing humidity to the house as well as warm water for dishes, bath’s and other things necessary. Directly above the stove was a grate that went through to the small upstairs which had two rooms. Heat would rise from the stove and provide a very warm and comfortable atmosphere where their 7 children who shared the two rooms slept.
- Entertainment. Let’s face it, grandpa had a radio and that was it until the television arrived. He learned to play the harmonica, piano, fiddle and guitar and was quite talented at all of them. They had a handmade wooden miniature pool table that had metal pegs sticking out of it. You would take the cue stick and hit wooden checkers along the table and each peg had behind it a hole that would represent different points.
- A gun. You read that right, he had a gun. It was a .22 long rifle that was used to take a deer every now and then with uncle Nub back when you just decided it was a hunting weekend. They would take a deer and by nightfall it would be completely butchered and processed. The .22 was used during slaughter of the hogs and cattle, protected the farm from predators, provided entertainment in the way of target practice and was the only gun I ever remember seeing. It always was above the door, loaded and ready if needed. It wasn’t ever thought of being needed to shoot people, it was a necessary tool. One of my earliest memories of the farm was grandpa would take us out to shoot barn swallows if we would hand in the plug we still had in our mouth. Today that would be considered illegal, back then it was babysitting.
- Faith. Above all else, my grandparents had faith in God. They lived a sustainable life and believed that God honored their faith and efforts by providing, and at that He did in abundance. I don’t remember the stern dad that I heard grandpa to be when mom was growing up. I remember that every meal started with a prayer and every day ended giving thanks to God for the blessings He gave our family. When grandpa was in a nursing home on his death bed he could still quote scripture word for word and his bible was littered with personal notes showing a lifelong journey walking with God.
I encourage all of you blessed enough to still have their grandparents wisdom available to talk to them of what life was like when they were young. If you are like me and they have passed away, there is probably someone in a local nursing home with a story to tell if you would be so generous enough to take some time to use their stories to further your education. Believe me, they will be doing you a favor and it would make their day that someone would care enough to listen. Just a suggestion.
I could write a novel on the other million things I remember of Farmer Gramma and Farmer Grampa and their prepping retreat we called the farm. It saddens me to no end that today, in these United States of America, the land of the free and home of the brave, that they would probably be labeled as suspected terrorists according to recent descriptions of what the government considers key indicators in a recently published document on what to look for when on the lookout for terrorists. They were hard working, God fearing patriots that loved their family and country. They were the ultimate preppers. You see, prepping wasn’t a movement at that time. It was survival. It was providing for their family the best they could with what they had. It was life on a farm.
God Bless,
Norse Prepper
Beautiful tribute to your grandparents! I really enjoyed the article, NP! 🙂
My grandparents came from Europe. They always mentioned that here in the US you could do what you wanted. Sucess was up to you. Back home you had to ask for permission and pay fees for everything making it difficult to next to impossible to suceed. America was great and people became wealthy because there was no one telling them “NO” all the time. They just did it.
But today, we seem to have all the same problems that made my grandparents leave europe.
Makes you wonder what is going to happen to us.
I hear ya Joe. I want to start my own business, but even though I have the money to do it, I’m still short about half of the cash because of all the lisenceing fees and such. Talk about asking permission and having a price tag attached to the permission. I’d put a few out of work people back to work, but unfortunately, It’ll take at least another year of saving just to get the necessary lisences (state and county). I wish I was alive in the old days when such bahloney wasn’t necessary.
OOps, spelled “license” wrong.
Entrepreneurship and Preparedness go hand in hand. It doesn’t matter how prepared you think you are… if you are Dependent you are Dependent. Our grandparents generation were coming out of a 4th Turning and knew what was required to maintain Freedom and Independence. Today we are just in the beginning of a 4th Turning and we’ve forgotten all the lessons of the last crisis era. Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.
Hello, im from europe and I think that the rules are very strict here. When we want to dig a hole in the garden bigger than a bucket, you have to go to the mayors officeand ask promission. With building anything, your about 2000 euros further (about 2200 dollars), just for registration. for things like weapons, you have to go trough an whole mental exam (for one weapon) to get it.
Amen and me too. Beautiful.
Amen, Daisy!!!!!!!!!11 The article brought back alot of wonderful memories. Had grandparents just like those in the article. Have a book, I got free from a college library in 1968, it’s called The Countryman’s year. It was written in the early 50’s. Each chapter describes an item of the farm in detail, like the rocking chair, the county store, and a farmer’s breakfast (it’s so descriptive I get hungry every time I read that chapter). Yes! our grandparents and great grand parents were the ultimate preppers and they didn’t know it. In fact, they had fun doing it aside from the work.
Excellent article NP.
My grandparents had an acre and a house on the land of the farm they worked on, not much but they rarely if ever brought veggies and soft fruits, even the hedge around their plot was producing edibles, as was the front fence which completely disappeared under fan grown apple trees. We would be pulling a few potatoes and eating them a couple of hours later, the taste and quality was something I will remember forever and the only thing that comes close is when I grow my own in an old plastic dustbin, I have no space for ground planting.
Message from Manos
Manos called yesterday afternoon, he had cast his vote and was waiting, along with everyone else to find out the results. The general mood is that the conservatives will win, but may need to form a coalition. Rumour has it Pastock will not unless Syriza are invited to join to. syriza are publicly saying they will do anything they can to change the course of things in Greece. Many are very concerned that the nazi party seem to be gaining ground with people.
He asked that you be thanked for you thoughts and prayers and said he will keep in touch. He wishes you all well and sends love from himself and his family.
Sorry for hijacking you NP but he asked that I ‘tell the others’
Take care
Hey it was all good reading and much the same as my grandparents ranch in Colorado that I was fortunate enough to grow up on. Until, that is, you came to the religious part. I grew up with a family of hard working, down home agnostics. Frankly, believing in a make believe friend in the sky is more detrimental to survival than believing in a benevolent government that would never do anything to harm us. Grow up, wake up, and give up silly phantasies.
I recognize your right to believe or “not” as you see fit, but please extend the same courtesy by not insulting those that do.
i agree, wonderful article!
…. all of my so-called prepping skills are lifelong skills learned from my grandmother and a little passed from my mother(who sadly has lost much of her drive to do these things.trying to get her to make jam with me now is like pulling teeth!). canning, foraging, gardening, sewing, knitting, building. never have i done any of this out of fear but out of a sense of that’s just how it ought to be.
was making jam with a friend who’d not done it since she was little with her grandma the other day. first we harvested wild strawberries, to which she commented,” this is the way god intended strawberry picking to be” she meant, that it took longer, not in organized rows, but scattered in the tall weeds, more time connecting with earth and fellow foragers. i recalled to her memories of spending days picking tiny wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries for grandma to make SO much jam with, hulling those tiny berries with a lemonade and a peice of toast with some freshly made still hot jam from the first batch… there’d be three more batches before dinner. and then there was the pickles, vinegar burning your eyes when you walked in from the garden with more bundles of dill. she stocked her root cellar every year. even though she’s been gone for 6 yrs she is still teaching me lessons. we ate a jar of her last pickle batch before her death at 86 three years (not recommended i guess 1 year is the official safety zone?) after it was made.. still crunchy deliciousness, and i strive to make pickles nearly as good as hers!!!!! it is an engrained knowledge from family that is being destroyed by our society. we must preserve it every way we can
they weren’t preppers, but surthrivers….
We may not know what the future brings, at least we will be ahead of the game…
If you are not prepping, you are just inepting…
Remember Pickled peaches? Chow Chow? Canned green beans from the garden? How about 3 hundred foot rows of different tomatoes? Here’s one: buttermilk with cornbread crumbled up and mixed in? Fresh brim, bass, or catfish from the pond, fried and crispy? I’m drooling for those days again.
I still make chow chow–green tomato relish;
Can green beans, beets, tomatoes, butter, and pickled squash, as most here still do and much more.
Cornbread was tonight with beef/cabbage soup; none left for buttermilk/cornbread though!!!
Regrets??? That I didn’t ask my granny, born in 1900, more.
Pretty mean of you mentioning green tomato relish without posting the receipe. I have so many green tomatoes right now it would be good to be able to use them for something besides fried green ones. Thinning helps to size up the remaining ones.
JW; Google it…
Yes, I remember such things as well as a big pot of rabbit or chicken stew and dumplings bubbling on the stove when we came in from working on the farms of various relatives. We worked long and hard, so the smells in Grams kitchen were almost overwhelming in their savory glory. The apple pie was to die for but all we had to do was a little work.
Also remember “Long Tom”, Gramps 10 ga. single shot shotgun. There were no end of game birds, rabbits, squirrels, and deer harvested with Long Tom. With his 28″ barrel, he had a reach of about 80 yards. Shells were expensive, though, so we learned quickly not to miss.
Old Mike was the family canine and he was quite a dog. Half collie and half bull dog he was their protector, best friend, and a member of the family. Mike would take on anything if it threatened a family member. That included a badger that cut him up pretty bad one night. It had got into the hen house and Gramps went out to see what was going on out there. He opened the hen house door and the badger attacked him, gashing his leg pretty bad. He yelled “Take him off, Mike!” and Mike attacked that badger. In spite of his cuts, he would not abandon Gramps or back off from the badger. About then Gram showed up with Long Tom and Gramps settled the issue. After that she washed and sewed up Gramps and Mike and it was just another day on the farm.
Attacked and overwhelmed by a ‘badger’ ha ha ha. Lucky he didn’t get attacked by a mouse or maybe a sparrow!
@ Jason S. Badgers are badass critters. They are twice the size of a racoon or more and mean as hell when cornered. I’d like to see you try and take one out bare handed. Dumbass…
Hey dip shit city boy Jason
Badgers can be fierce animals and will protect themselves and their young at all costs, and are capable of fighting off much larger animals, such as wolves and bears. Badgers can run or gallop at 25–30 km/h (16–19 mph) for short periods of time. They also are known to form clans. If it can fight off a bear or a wolf, it would take your ass to the wood shed.
Jason…a badger is the meanest rodent alive.
Oh, I so much want JasonS to meet a grumpy badger someday
🙂
This is about badgers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger
I have personally trapped raccoons that were causing problems in the neighborhood and the typical raccoon is a tough animal that can rip the head off cats and small to medium sized dogs. They were not able to get out of the metal traps I used. A badger can get out of these traps used to catch raccoons. A badger is all muscle and quite capable of taking on people. They are not as big or quite as tough as a wolverine, but pound for pound there are very few animals that can match a badger.
To further illustrate this in my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals says that a badger can grow to 34 inches long and is classified as a POWERFUL burrower. There is a badger that lives in the field within walking distance and I not dare let my dog try to go near it because I know what would happen. An animal that is so strong and almost 3 feet long is something tough enough to be a threat to any person.
Amen.
very well said
Brought a tear to my eye, since my grandparents were carbon copies.
I remember having picked 5 gallon buckets full of tomatoes, then my cousin Scott and I taking the rotten ones off the ground and throwing tomatoes at each other to the point we were just red blobs coming back to the house. Then Mawmaw, making us strip to our underwear and her spraying us down with a garden hose…
I will always treasure those days, fond memories that are always in the back of my head.
brings back fond memories of being a kid on grandma and grandpa’s farm in IL…
We need to remember those times, there is value in self reliance.
My grandfather had the same dairy style barn with the loft above. We would spend hours up there playing as kids. We owned a beef operation so no need for barns like those. Our families garden was the same. It seemed like it took forever to weed that damn thing.
My regret. I was too young to appriciate all the things my grandfather tried to teach me. Looking back at it today there was so much more knowledge I could have gotten from him if only I would have listened as a teenager.
We have a large garden on our farm and I “can” anything that grows. Right now its green beans and pickles. I also can fish, deer, duck and goose.
Remember lots of self sustaining info from older family members and wish we had paid closer attention to some of the other knowledge they had.
On weeding the garden, man I hated to do that. My pawpaw had a 18″ tool like what they call a “hoe-matic” now days. It was a spade on one side, a 3 pronged trident on the other. You would dig in with the spade and pull up the weeds, leaving them on the ground to die in the sun. I do the same now, only with wood chips already placed around the plant, you can hand pull and drop. Once the weed roots are pulled out, they will die quickly, decompose and become nitrogen for the soil afterwards. Just catch them before they seed, then you have 10 times the amount of weeds…
Quick joke before I sign off.
What is Kurt Cobain (who blew his brains out in ’94, lead singer of the alternative band, Nirvana) doing now?
Decomposing….
I know it’s bad, just a little laugh to add humor..
Want another one?
What did Pink Floyd and Dale Earnhardt have in common?
Thier last BIG hit was “THE WALL”….
I KNOW THAT THESE WERE BAD, BUT IF YOU CANNOT LAUGH AT OURSELVES, WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?????
I guess no one likes good/bad jokes?
Okay talking about bad jokes… grandpa has his city-raised grandson for the summer. Seems someone stole the garden hose, so we send junior into town to pick up a new one. After spending all day walking around town, he returns without the garden hose and short grandpa’s 20 dollars. When questioned where’s the 20 went junior tells grandpa that the only hoes you could get for 20 bucks was named lateesha. Ü
We could learn alot from the people like those. That way of life is gone I’m sorry to say. My grandparents were the same way as these. Nobody complained about how tuff it was, because everbody was alike, they were in the same boat. Just think what they went through to get us here to this point in time. Deep down inside I know they would not appove of what is going on today. But that is just me.
Live a Free life to it’s fullest
I’d be happy to live a free life…just tell me where it’s free. I was born an indentured servant with a number so I can be taxed. Tell me of such a free place and I’ll move tommorrow.
@ Grekko: Live a Free Life means to me hey do what you want to when you can. There is nothing totally free you know it and I know it. It’s not about not having to work, pay for anything it’s about life in general. The way I look at it is this way- Go to a cemetery look at any stone, there is start date and an end date in between is usually a dash this is where time matters to us. What we do during that dash in our lives, is all we have. So live a free life, love your family and your closes friends to the fullest. Again thats just me
That “-” dash means that in the short time that we are on this piece of dirt called the “Earth”, we should try to be the best “humans” that we can be, leave a legacy behind “our children” that shows we at least tried to make a difference. Sadly so, many people just try to screw over everybody to get ahead. I have been associated with way too many dirtbags that do not deserve to breath the same air. One day I hope they get what they dished out. Karma?
My karma ran over your dogma…
Problem is that most of us don’t figure that out until our expiration date is approaching. When we were young we did not listen to those older and wiser because what did an old fart know? Then later you find out they knew more than we realized.
This brought back wonderful memories of my Grandparents too…their strong faith, lifestyle and love. As a child I thought they had everything on their small farm! Some of my favorite things were the tree swings, the big garden, the blueberry / huckleberry patch, and playing board games with Grandma.
The rope swing that swung out over the pond we made…
I’d like to borrow that rope and take it to DC and meet out some justice.
Unfortunately, the EPA has ruled that use of trees in such manner is prohibited, as it endangers the rare bark beetle that can only survive in… blah blah blah.
So much for “hillbilly justice”. We’re humped!
Yep…make sure you know how to tie a hangman’s noose before you go.
they will probably complain that its not a new rope
our society is going down and its not just one group like dem/gop or the gays who have taken our norms of this country and a few feel this is the norm of us all. we have respect for each other and listen to each other like on here but this country really is more divided by wealth race you name it all for power to control large amounts of money. what else would someone want to be president to honestly help us people out. dont think so. Greed and evil have taken over and regardless what laws they pass as long as you know your doing the right things in life forget what they say you can have or cant, or what beliefs you think or do. As long as we are not hurting anyone else we should be free to do what we want and that is slowly going away. soon they will have no more laws to pass and only laws to get rid of. So let them waste their time since they dont listen to us anyway and do what you feel is right, even if its owning a certain gun or preppring how you want to. its our choice and soon as they get to a few more laws making it illegal to own something people are going to snap and thats when all of us are going to be involved in one large civil war. I dont think even with all the resources they can stop all of us. I just want to be free and left alone like most of you.
He must have been one amazing shot to take down a deer with a .22 rifle! WOW!
No doubt! I replied BULLSHIT! Wipesy ….you are the only one to see this as a fictional story. Gose to show who we are dealing with here. Preppers. Well I have news for you all. Your not knocking a deer down with a .22 long unless you bury it in his ear5 first.
as in B And S as in S. I have several neighbors who usually get their deer with a 22. They are excellent shots and shot the deer in the eye and they drop within a fer yards
A friend of mine says in Wisconsin, in the 1950s when he was a kid, he used to wait by the deer trails and when a deer came along he’d wait until it was right next to him and then shout, because it was funny as hell to see the deer jump sideways.
These folks were likely shooting their deer within 50 yards, maybe well within.
Pretty Good Ed: Some states allow .22 cal like Oregon, but nextdoor in Washington where I use to live and hunt did’nt allow .22 cal.-too small. The main concern with smaller calibers is that you run the risk of a “crippling loss.” Now a .22 magnum in the brain pan or vital organs may do the trick but most folks aren’t that good. In a survival situation you use what you have but while things remain relatively normal (No SHTF), an ethical hunter will use a slightly larger caliber to make sure he/she gets games they came for without running around the bushes until dark trying to follow a small blood trail. Why waste time hiking around the counrtyside when you could be dressing your deer and heading home.
I’m not much of a reality TV fan, but enjoy watching ‘Wild Justice’ on National Geographic. It’s kind of like ‘Cops,’ but with game wardens. Almost every episode includes a poacher and every one of them has used a 22LR. The game wardens claim they do so because it is cheap and less loud and I believe them.
Certainly, I have a high power rifle with a scope so I can take deer from far away, but I may need to use what I have learned from the poachers someday and that includes harvesting deer with a 22LR.
PP;
I grew up with some of those poachers, they would ride down the dirt roads at night, see a deer walking on the side of the road, spot light them for a brief second. The deer in the spotlights would freeze, one .22 shot in the glow of the eye would be the target. Then they would throw out a beer can on the side of the road as a marker. Two hours later when everything would settle down, they would come back and harvest an illegal deer. Do this a few times in a night, then all two or three involved had a deer. A 3-4 hour outing, and you had much food with minimum time & ammo expended. I always thought it was wrong, and never helped, just heard the stories.
eppe…you may have been riding with people I know. A white tail can easily be had with a 22.
If I tell you the truth and you don’t believe it, what does that make it?
STILL THE TRUTH….
Norse, I appreciate the article you have written, you made me realize even more that our parents, grandparents and so on are a wealth of info, and we should do everything in our power to listen, take notes, and most of all take care of those who put us here on this Earth. My parents are afraid that in a few years my 2 girls, 13 and 15 will have nothing to do with them when they start driving and dating.
I often wonder 10 years from now, what they will think of me? I have tried to be a good father, and have instilled in them knowledge that some parents will not not even attempt to try. I am brutally honest with them and often compare them with other teens we know. I am proud to say that most everyone else thinks that my wife and I have done an excellent job, and that is from the harshest critics, like my uncle who I am a carbon copy of. Sad to say, but look at the generation of teens out there now, it scares me to no end…
Great article Norse Prepper. Reminds me of my grandparents and the lives they lived! By the way, I believe all of it and most on here do too, don’t pay attention to the few smart alecks! 🙂
you call bullshit boy? i will tell you that it is not hard to take a deer down with .22! that was my first rifle,remington single shot .22lr killed my first deer in 1967 with that rifle and yes i was and still am an excellent marksmen!our job was to kill anything that came close to the chickens, yes my grandparents farm that was in southeast louisiana.I was paid a nickle for every chicken hawk! so don’t think you cant take down game like deer with .22!
Had an episode on Game wardens where a guy had shot a deer with a .22 rifle. Problem was he did not kill it just left it crippled in his garden. Wardens were not pleased as would any hunter be that he did not finish it off.
I just had an experience this morning also. I live in one of those McMansion neighborhoods, 350 homes, and got a call from the Homeowner Management Org. president. She did not know who else to call, I usually take care of things that others will not even attempt. Someone in the neighborhood called her and said that there were 20+ vultures behind her house in a retainage pond. Went and looked and a dead doe was in the last stages of decomposing. I could not move it, had yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets all inside it. Stunk to high heavens. The only thing I could do was dig in the hard clay, try to cover it up as best as possible. About had heatstroke, puked twice(EVEN WITH A BANDANA WITH AFTERSHAVE COVERING MY FACE), but threw enough dirt to cover it. Point being, what are these people going to do when the SHTF? May this generation ever wake up.
Happy Fathers Day.. Mine started off great. sarcasm!
I have first hand knowledge that you can kill a whitetail deer with a .22 long rifle. I gained this knowledge from my younger less law abiding days.
People back in those days WERE amazing shots. They had to be or else go hungry. Few things sharpen the aim better than the thought of going a few more days without anything to eat. Yeah, a .22 and a head shot will result in venison. It isn’t the ideal deer gun but it will do the job if the shooter does his and the ammo is dirt cheap.
Yep, stockpileing 30:06 is expensive. Time to buy a .22
Not a bad alternate..a .22 will do the trick if your good at shot placement.
30-06 and other large bore distance rifles can have the brass re-loaded many many times if you are set up for it..its also a great way to prep for future ammo needs for all the cal. you own.
also another benifit of re-loading, or custom loading as I call it..you build a round that you know exactly what it will do,(because you build a history of that charge and projectile type and weight) and its accuracy. always using the same projectile, same powder charge and same rifle ..leads to extreme precision, and thats a good thing for more then just food source shooting.
Re-loading is a family past time of my great grand parents and my parents , handed down thru the generations as far back as black powder, and recurve bows and arrows.
I very useful skill to have
Also you just get more shooting practice out in the country. Shooting at pests, etc., kids used to go shoot rats at the dump for fun.
My grandfather died a couple years ago and would have had his 100th birthday on June 11th. Every year on his birthday I light his carnival glass kerosine lantern before going off to bed.
He grew up on a farm during the depression. He made candles from scratch so he could see in his upstairs bedroom at night. He walked to the railroad tracks and flagged down a train to take butter and eggs to town to exchange for coffee and sugar.
Until a few years ago I lived next door to his home where he dug the basement with a mule team and had a natural gas space heater as backup for his furnace and a coal stove as backup for that. I grew up helping him pick strawberries and work in the garden, build additions to his home and rentals. He had a basement full of canned goods and two freezers full of meat.
Everyone in my family tells me I am almost exactly like him and it is the greatest compliment I can imagine.
PP;
I sure do miss those days with my grandparents too,,,
No matter how good your post, some jerk always gives you thumbs down.
The light appears less bright without the darkness.
i know there are a lot of us that wonder the same thing gov guy, im guessing its a liberal thats doing it, id like to see if someone has the guts and a adult conversation who leaves these to give the reason why. i wish mac could only allow ups or down if you have a screen name/account to acutally talk to these people to see what they are all about. doesnt bother me one bit its probably a younger person who is a nutcase
Or adult idiots who do not have a life and envy us who do.
I ignore the thumbs down, we all know the 5-6 posters who cannot contribute anything useful.
Mama always said “Stupid is as stupid does”.
Everyone wants to get back to that life. If the SHTF so bad that it shuts down international trade for good, then it might be possible for some to do that. For now though, forget about it. Trying to farm nowadays is a life of squalor and drudgery with little to show for it. It involves your kids getting teased at school for wearing the same ragged dirty clothes and socks every day. It involves a leaky roof you don’t have the time or money to fix. A tore-up smog-belching pickup that always needs to be jury-rigged because you can’t afford a mechanic. That farmhouse? It’s still there. In fact it’s the same house. But it’s drafty and full of black mold that keeps you all sick year round. And forget about seeing a doctor. You can’t afford that either. And forget about ever taking a vacation again.
The garden is kept alive with massive quantities of fertilizer from you and pesticides and herbicides blown in from your neighbors, which will eventually give you all cancer and is already producing super bugs and blight that makes gardening much harder each year, whether you practice organic gardening or not (your neighbors don’t). Orchards are nigh impossible without years and years of soil restoration. You can get cheap manure and mulch now, but not enough for a lifetime once everyone else tries doing the same thing (just like you can’t get free used fry oil anymore from the restaurants).
Farm life is not what it used to be. Global trade has ruined it. I hate to sound like cold water. But it’s going to be a nightmare for us and probably our kids. There are no jobs, especially not in the countryside. Go to any Wal Mart in any small town and you’ll find the same desperate crazy eyes trained on you that you’d find in any inner city Wal Mart. That old culture that produced our grand parents does not exist anywhere. When the SHTF they will cut your throat in rural towns just as soon as in the city. YOU might be prepared, but THEY aren’t.
Your best bet is to get skills that you can transfer to a different country if you have to. Dual citizenship helps. And in the meantime vote (for anyone other than a progressive big-government, liberal).
Vlad
Move where?
I imagine the safest place would present itself as things unfold. Then again, maybe I’m just holding onto a fantasy (like many people on here.)
Are you really a farmer or are just fantasizing? If your children are being teased then it’s hard to believe you’re living in a farming community. Sure a lot of farms today are hobby farms, but still a much better place to be than the city if their owners lose their day jobs. We have about five farmers markets in our county and farmers are selling organic produce from the backs of late-model pickups. Neither their clothes nor their children’s clothes look like a scene from The Grapes of Wrath. I doubt their homes are less well-maintained.
Why do you call yourself Govt. Guy and post here… you dont sound like a govt guy?
What does a govt. guy sound like? The front line DOD partly active duty military workforce and customers is the most normal place you can ever work.
Vlad, I live in farm country and I don’t recognize what you describe.
Our surrounding farms vary, of course. Some have large, well-built homes, some have small older structures, but we fix our roofs and inside is no different than most suburban dwellings. Drive around and you will see pools and spas, not hovels. Yes, there are some single-wides on a small patch of ground. Those are mostly rented to a hired hand or someone in the family who wants to live in them.
When everyone is a farmer, who teases whom over _that_? Our kids are as well-dressed as any and certainly only ragged because it is now a fashion statement, at least as far as jeans go. Ever seen the price tags on those jeans, BTW? You do know that the world now wears jeans of all colors everywhere, most of the time, right? Expensive trainers are on most feet. We all have washing machines, at the moment, and there are various sorts of hand washers available from camping suppliers. We are not dirty, except after a day’s work, of course. I think we must have 10 beauticians who provide fashionable hair cuts and styles, another 6-8 chiropractors and about the same number of massage therapists. Our crazy folks are most likely found in a treatment center, while the developmentally disabled who are seen in Walmart are better off than their counterparts sleeping on the streets in a city because they live in specialized facilities. The ones you see are the ones who can function in society to some degree.
We have around 20 MDs, another dozen or so APRNs, 2 mental health practices and several trained volunteer EMTs, organized by township. Even our Amish neighbors are likely to have pacemakers and if the condition warrants it, they go to specialists, usually by bus or sometimes driven by an “English” neighbor. Maybe there is mold in some places, but likely there isn’t, and if there is, there are ways to mitigate it. We have 80-year-olds who are doing just fine and who would be capable of laughing in your face if you suggested otherwise.
We take care of our vehicles. Most families own more than one and they are more likely to be paid for than not. The parking lot of our nearest Walmart is as full of late model cars and trucks as any shopping mall. If we take the pickup to town, it is probably a 3/4 ton and we are using it to haul something heavy or too bulky for the SUV or the economical commuter. If we have an old vehicle, we are bragging on the fact that is still runs well with over 250k miles on it.
Fertilizer on a farm is anhydrous ammonia, made from natural gas. Expensive, but hardly human manure. Or it is also animal manure, spread in the late winter or after harvest. People compost that manure. Pesticides are expensive. If used, it is done carefully and by someone with some training. Since it takes 250 acres or more to make a go of it, no one wastes chemicals by applying them on a windy day. That cheap composted manure and mulch you can buy is produced on places that have so much of it, it is either sell it or dump it. Soil is the basis of a farm, so farmers take very good care of it. It is the capital on which multi-million dollar businesses survive. You can get mulch for the labor involved in shoveling and hauling just from the leaf fall in the woodlot.
No jobs? We have a muffler plant with over $1M in back orders, working 3 shifts. The workers must put in regular overtime at time-and-a-half and they get benefits. We have the organic dairy co-op, several commercial dairies/cheese factories, a lot of small manufacturers, small sole proprietorships and the usual assortment of service providers.
Maybe we’re a unique place, but we have the distinction of the most organic farms in the country, both small ones that produce enough for a family and excess for the Farmer’s Markets (there are several within 20 miles) and larger ones that turn $1.5–$3M a year and offer CSAs. They compete well for the business of city restaurants, city families and a producer co-op that is the largest in the country. For those too elderly to do a huge garden, you can buy seasonal produce by the bushel or lug for the price of an hour’s employment and preserve it yourself. Most of us older folks at least grow a salad garden. Yes, some years there are one or another variety of tomato blight. Mostly, there are homemade remedies for them. We rotate our garden and farm fields, and blight is usually limited.
We have a hospital, several quality nursing homes and an amazing number of creative businesses operated by people who moved here from cities to have a better life. There are perhaps 20 churches and they are all involved in some aspect of community service.
Microbes live in the soil, everywhere. Super bugs are more likely to be bred by the factory farms or by the whiners in the ER demanding antibiotics for every sniffle and then going online to buy mass quantities of fishmox to save a few pennies. You find MRSA in large hospitals and commercial exercise facilities.
Is small family farming difficult? You betcha! Does everyone have to farm? No! Humans always produce economies, always trade, always find ways to provide a service for a commodity. Even Neolithic humans had specialized tool makers, specialized hunters, someone who spent their time gathering, someone who learned how to construct skins into body coverings, etc, etc. Robert Heinlein aside, there isn’t enough time in one life to do everything for yourself, even when you do know how. If anyone does know _how_, though, it would be a farmer. Farming communities are diverse and the diversity is always more geared to providing necessities than to shuffling paper, although, this is a modern time, so we have those, as well.
I doubt we will fall back to some 16th century lifestyle, digging with sticks and living in smoky rooms lit by tallow candles. The amount of practical knowledge and skills available and experienced practitioners means people will figure out how to git er done even if we have a solar EMP or other large scale catastrophe. Some rough bumps in the road ahead? Sure. The very fact that prepping is becoming mainstream shows that people will find ways to survive and do it well.
I’ve watched my neighbors for nearly 40 years, through all sorts of local and (now) political/economic disasters. No one has cut anyone’s throat. People pull together out here. We identify our bad ‘uns and they get taken care of, one way or another. When you live an hour and a half from even a moderate-sized urban area, you are prepared because it is just a PITA to not be. We still leave our doors unlocked, although we do lock the car if it isn’t in the driveway.
Meanwhile, man, see a professional for that depressive disorder.
Vlad: I certainly don’t live in filth and I am a small guy. There are some sacrifices but that is true in any occupation. We both work multiple jobs but I cannot think of any other life I would want to live.
And when I go to the bar after a days work for a cold beverage eveyone is wearing the same work clothes I am. I grew up this way. Never was I teased by other kids.
If this is really happening in your area I feel for you.
Vlad – Aha a breath of fresh air. Everyone (but farmers) has this bucolic view of country life, and animal, etc.
You are right about the dirty clothes etc.
Socks?
Just recently it came out that crime is down in the cities but violent crime is up in the rural areas. There have been a LOT of violent murders and crimes in my (rural) area just over the last couple of years. It’s amazing.
Meth labs and the scumbag farmers and ranchers who brought the illegal guest worker plague on us have alot to do with the rural crime surge. Califs. Central Valley is now so crime ridden that any farm left unattended for even a short time is pillaged. Pay back I say for those who brought these locusts here to exploit them for cheap wages. We all pay the difference in welfare and other costs. Privatize the profits socialize the costs.
i had grandparents who lived just like the story above…and parents who lived just like the story above..and i am still living a life like this. i live it every day- i am just a natural born prepper and i like it. there are those who call me a fool and ask me if i want more in my life than the work and survival of living on a small farm…i tell them i meet my own and my families needs and i am content with that. yes, i do have dreams, but they are not lavish dreams. they are just simple dreams of living a peaceful life with plenty to eat, warmth and shelter, clean water and clean clothing-nothing fancy. i want the governments to stay out of my life and tend to their own business.
Before you start talking shit about farmers and the farm life; remember this, “Don’t talk with your mouth full”. The day may come when there are no “Super Markets” or “Super Walmarts”, so who will you turn to for your food?
Outstanding article.
One thing I’ve learned from the current fires in Northern Colorado…. If you can burn it, it’s not a secure BOL. Seriously, I have so many friends that had “fortified” BOL locations that were right in the middle of the High Park fire. The locations are gone, or seriously damaged. In this part of the arid west, you can light almost anything on fire. So, whether it’s your house on a neighborhood street or your advanced BOL in the mountains, it can always be destroyed, easily. Note to self, next house will be all brick. Better defense against bullets too! Consider yourself lucky if you live in a wetland or area where you can’t start a fire. Around here, even in a normal precipitation year, fire is very easy to come by. Thoughts to ponder……..
One word.
Concrete
I have always wanted an underground passive solar house with water collecting cistern, photovoltaic cells for electricity. Here’s a web site that lets one do that type of structure.
http://www.terra-dome.com/
If you have a house in the woods, you need to have defensible space around it to protect it from wildfire. Do not have a shake roof, have asphalt tab or slate, anything except wood. Keep your gutters clean of leaves and needles. Keep bushes and shrubs away from the house and trim it all. Keep grass mowed for 200 feet in all directions from your house. Remove trees within 75 feet of your house, and all dead timber within 200 feet. It’s all fuel and you don’t want it near you. Install good water systems and keep plenty of hoses and nozzles. Have some handtools, shovels, pulaskis, etc. Get a forestry supply catalog and order some. Get enough for your neighbors, too, a 10-man crew can fight a fire safely where one or two people can’t. If you have lots of woods, start pruning and removing brush and limbs, they create ladder fuels that will take a ground fire into the treetops and once that happens, you’re going to lose it all.
blame the epa for alot of those fires…they wont let the forest beds be cleaned up of deadwood and such..matter of fact, they will arrest and fine folks for cleaning up woodlands around their homes… fires do happen from natural occurences like lightning…but sloppy and irresponsible care is the reason most of those fires start in the first place.
Too bad we cannot deadwood the government…
Or can we?
I have been reading this site for a while and have to say I like a lot of the articles. This is a great story! I learned a lot about gardening from my grandparents. I now use this knowledge for myself and am always able to produce more than I need which my nieghbours are always happy to take when I offer it to them.
I have to say that living in Saskatchewan Canada be challenging for gardening but I have learned what grows good here and what doesn’t.
What does grow good there? I’m planning my garden for next year and also live up North. What type of plants do you grow and do you plant from heirloom seeds from the previous year?
I grow tomatoes, green and yellow beans, beets, lettuce, potatoes, peppers – hot and bell peppers, pumpkins, and this is the first year of trying corn. I don’t use heirloom seeds, yeah I realize that is probably a disappointment for some.
I get manure from a dairy farm that is near by for free, all I have to do is go there with my old dodge and they even load it for me. I also compost a lot. I also spread the ashes from my pit fires on the garden as well. I also get leaves from neighbours for the compost, it’s amazing what doing favours for neighbours does for yourself. I rototill for neighbours and small engine repair for them as well and in return they trade stuff for the work I do, anything from free milk, eggs and booze.
Last year I grew a 120 pound pumpkin, it was impressive, this year I’m hoping to double that. I have also grown tomatoes that are over 6 feet tall with lots of fruit on them.
I live in a small town that has a very close knit community where we watch out for each other. The town I live in has even prepared by buying generators to power the town hall in the case of an extended power outage. We also have back up water wells too.
Just a suggestion, look into “Rocky Moutain corn” add a dot com to visit web site.
I planted some this year, so no results for you yet, but seems interesting. I did try some open pollinated corn from a place called green haeven (as I recall) two years ago. Fun stuff, nothing like the hybrids I have been used to. Many sizes and shapes for the eats, and ear height varied as well. Better feed value? Everyone says so, but I can not really prove that.
I live near Valley City Nd and you have got to be quick with the growing season, we plant mostly potatoes and onions so the coons dont get them .
My grandfather grew up in the depression. I remember the great stories he would tell about shooting a aquirrel or rabbit, taking meat home to the family, then trading the pelt to the store for a few more 22 shells so he could do some more hunting. He taught me so many things about hunting and gardening. In fact, I have soup beans and green beans that his family bought out of Kentucky in the 20’s. I still keep the stock alive. In fact, I think of him and his bean soup and cornbread every time I plant and harvest the seeds. I never can get the recipe just right. I think it was the whiskey I am sure he snuck into the mix as he was making it. He was a great man and I miss him to this day. In fact I get told by family members that I act just like him. What a great compliment
Didn’t get to really know my grandparents. Mom and Dad left England in 1955 for greener pastures here with a whole $79 in their pocket. I know both Grandad’s fought the Nazi’s and Grandma’s raised the family during the hard times of WWII. My folks grew up as children (10-13 years old) living in fear of nightly bombing raids, sleeping in bomb shelters nightly, invasion from Germans and shortages of just about all items needed to live a basic life. Everything was rationed so you made do with what you had or made or repaired what you needed. Responsibility was the name of the game and they made sure me and sis learned this.
Thanks Norse, brings back memories of not the Grandparents, but my parents. Now I have to go call them and thank them again!!!
Nice it reminds me of my grandparents gardening fruit trees and veggies. I remember asking my grandpa how they dug wells before they had big drills and engines and he said with a shovel and a bucket. My jaw dropped lol.
For the sake of conversation;
Would the workshop and the tools pass OSHA inspection. Surely, somewhere was a sign posted claiming “Saftey First”
Were the proper permits pulled to dig and drill those wells? Was the Water Authority alerted?
Hunt for game whenever you felt a need? Out of season? Did the DNR approve of this?
Guns in the hands of children? Need I say more?
Did they obtain the proper business licence to sell the excess veggies, and did they comply with FDA standards?
Did the dog have a licence?
Were those swallows on the endangered list?
Were building permits filed for the buildings?
No children not of age did physical labor, did they? No fibbing now.
Was the wood stove EPA compliant?
Norse Prepper, I hope this is taken in the intended context. Your folks sound like great, hardworking, non-complaining, self- sufficient people who made this Nation great.
Hopefully we will see a day when some of these values are again cherished.
Rick, so true…..and sad. We definitely live in a much different world.
Rick: There still are places in this country where most of what you questioned is allowed. My dogs dont even where collars because they have a habit of rolling in Coyote or cow shit when we are out checking fences. Most everyone will sell anything they have extra to earn a few bucks, eggs, veggies, or jerky. Children should be expected to work. That is how they learn the value of an honest days work for an honest days pay. Children should be comfortable with a gun and know that it is a dangerous if you are ignorant. That is how they don’t shoot their best friend being stupid but still can kill a rattle snake out in the field. I never leave the house without a gun whether on a horse or in the tractor. I probably should not be welding farm equipment in the proximity (about 30feet)to the diesel tanks but that is where the outlet is. Shop has a homemade barrel stove.
There still is some places in this country but you definately have to leave the cities and the subdivisions.
Must be close to my house. 😀
Thanks for all the positive feedback! It’s so easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom. Nostalgia is a great tool of mine to remove me from the drama of the day. So glad it helped some remember their days on the farm.
I remember gathering eggs barefoot. Always stepped in some chicken crap. Ooooo I hated that.
But on the other hand, that also taught you to watch where you step… handy in snake country.
That brought back memories. As a child I would spend the summer at my Aunt and Uncle’s farm in central Michigan. There was a hand well pump next to the kitchen sink and a wood cookstove.A coal furnace down in the “michigan celler”. Also down there were shelf after shelf of canned fruits, veggies and meat. They had pigs, chickens and milk cows. I drank fresh unpasturized milk with fresh apple pie. In the evening we would listen to the Lone Ranger on the huge ‘ol radio. Horses plowed the fields. To me they were as tall as a house.
I’m 70 now. My cousin, Aunt and Uncle are all gone. The memories are still vivid.
I grew up outside Merced California on a 10 acre dairy where we basically did the same things as Granpafarmer and Grandma farmer. To us it was the way things were done. We canned in the summer so we could eat well in the winter.
My father had a good job as a auto body & fender man.
We sold milk to the creamery. When we put our milk into a one gallon jar, the top third was cream. Mom also sold some “raw” milk for $0.60 a gallon. The calves we raised were used for beef for the freezer and for the market to pay the property taxes on the 10 acres.
Dad bought a chest freezer for $110.00 in 1956. I can remember my family slaughtering 100 chickens in one day. I was the poor kid that had to hold the chicken over the hot water tub while my sister plucked the chickens. To this day I hate that small. We almost filled that freezer.
Yep, we had a large garden just about grew every vegetable. Not potatoes or yellow onions because at a road side vegetable market we could buy an 80-pound toe sack (bag) for $4.80.
IU remember going over to my Uncle Jim’s place when Dad was going to help slaughter pigs. As an 8 year old I remember three old Spanish women stirring a wash tub of pig blood (for making blood sausage). I at that time had no idea why they would do that nasty job. Then in high school english class we read McBeth – remember the witches stirring saying boil, soil and trouble . . . that is what I was reminded of when I think back.
Yes we played superman jumping off the garage using an old towel as a cape – that never worked right.
Yep I remember those days, before I knew we were poor.
But now I appreciate them because the lessons of life were being taught. I listened. I’m still a prepper.
Don’t pluck them, peel the suckers, my other half is an expert, and we have converted all the neighbours. A fraction of the time, none of the mess. Only down side is none pf that juicy crispy skin on the roast chook.
Yep if you’re in a hurry peel ’em. What’s funny is, doves are really easy to pluck.
For some folks, being rich or poor has absolutely nothing to do with how much money they do or don’t have. Give me a life that is rich in the love of family, friends, community, and country over anything else. This is where the real wealth is and not in the gaudy glittering baubles that so many others waste so much time and effort seeking… and then die only to leave them behind for some other fool to do the same.
yeah I too will never forget the smell of hot wet feathers. We went without a lot of things as kids, but I remember how to make butter, cheese, sausages and still remember what real milk tasted like. Bring on SHTF, I want my kids to experience it first hand, not just read about it in books.
That was a walk down memory lane. My prepper Grandparents have been gone since the 80,s but so much was exactly the same except the farm, we lived on Rutland Rd. in Brooklyn. In the early 60’s they moved across the river to the country of Montvale.
It all seems so long ago. It’s the history of families and a very different America. I really related to the babysitting. When we came back from overseas duty, we moved in with them, I was only 8 and grandpa gave about a half hour shooting lesson, sat me on a stool and said keep the rabbits away from Grandma’s garden or we won’t have any food. I didn’t hit any rabbits that day, but none got to the garden. The next morning Grandpa got me up and sat me on the stool and handed me the rifle, I remember being so scared sitting in the dark by myself. That day I actually hit a rabbit and ran into the garden to see. I felt so bad for the rabbit I cried. Grandma came out and made everything better and grandpa put me back on the stool.
It was a very different America? In today’s world my Grandparents would have gone to jail. Thanks Norse Prepper for the memory.
Patriot One: I was about the same age the first time I killed an animal. Shot a squirrel out of a tree. I can still see it clinging to the branch with its front legs like it was yesterday. I cried too. My heart still sinks a bit to look at a deers eyes after shooting them. Animals are truly magnificant creatures and I have never taken pleasure in killing them. Even right now I have to get someone else to shoot one of the barn cats or any animal of mine that is suffering.
Saddle Up
I’m in the same boat having given up hunting 30 years ago. I’l do what I have to do but would gladly barter or buy my meat.
Don’t get me wrong folks I went on to be quite the outdoors men and hunter, but after my service it just didn’t seem sporting anymore.
Now if you really want to see a grown man cry watch me when I have to put one of my dogs down. If you didn’t feel empathy after a kill I’m not sure I would want you around if the SHTF.
Patriot..I feel for you.Much as I hate to admit it, I had to put my best friend down 3 weeks ago. I bawled like a baby the whole time I was digging the hole. It is the hardest thing I EVER had to do. Just by luck I got one of his puppy sons a week ago but it ain’t the same yet.
JRS, train him well early, dogs are like kids, train early, they never forget, and are the best friends one can have. A long time friend just lost a rabbit beagle that was only 5.5 years old, had a heart attack in his sleep.
I got misty eyed, because Rooster was an outstanding rabbiteer, and did not chase deer. If you look at “pit bulls” and the bad rap they get, look at the owners, they are the one who made them what they are. I got a friend who has a pit bull, and he will lick your face off, if given a chance. He is also great with kids too…
It is all in how they are raised and taught.
On my dads side of the family my grandprents had an epic garden and I still remember the wonderful food from it. My dads father quite often spoke of the depression and what they had to do to get through it. On my moms side, her granfather lost his profitable radio and electrical shop but he had skills to adapt. I have asked my grandfather on my moms side about the depression and he said it was a struggle but does not remember much about it as he was young (he is now 90). Doesn’t take long for the knowledge and memory of those days to disapear.
That sometimes happens. Other folks are so scarred by their depression era experiences that they can’t ever forget them. To this day, my 83 year old Mom, who is quite well off financially, is absolutely terrified at the thought of personal poverty. She knew that up close and personally in the great depression. She and her family lost everything they had but they came through those very hard years. Most of us can’t even imagine what some went through back then and hope to God that we never find out for ourselves.
Being 90 put him in the heart of it at the age of 10 in 1932. From 10 to 16 he felt the brunt of it.
I believe he cares not to remember.
5 STARS AND BUMP >>>
I’m back!!!!!!!!
Hey Rich! Did you read the part where Norse’s granpa was hunting deer with a .22….LMAO!!!!!!
Disector, do some research. The .22 has probably killed more deer than any other caliber in history. If i tell you the truth and you don’t believe it what does that make it? If you are ignorant to the fact that the .22 has been used to kill many a deer than you are just that. Ignorant. It’s great that you call out something that everyone on this forum can research as bullsh*t. It lends to your credibility and my case.
I Love Chow-Chow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me too dude, another thing that I do is take jalapenos, habaneros, tabascos, and thai peppers, any other peppers also, cloves of garlic, green tomatoes, baby okra, cut up carrots, cilantro leaves and seeds (corinader) rosemary, garlic chives, basically anything root vegetable, and cut them up to bite size pieces. Place them in a quart jars. Pour apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar in the jars and do the canning/bottling process. Seal them up and let them marinate. In 2 weeks or less, you have a HOT sauce that is great for any greens, turnip, collard, mustard etc.
I got to were I would eat them out of the jar. Love them and give them away to like minded HOT food loving junkies like myself. I pay for it the next day, but what the heck. And they can store for 3+ years or more, they might get a little mushy, but still are good.
Just another thing I learned for my grandparents who would be proud of the knowledge I retained from 30-40 years ago…
Wow, 2 hours without a thumbs down, must be a record…
Thanks for the article. My great grandparents farmed and later, when they moved into town, had a terrific garden. One of my grandfather’s gardening strategies was to bury huge carp as fertilizer. I have my own garden now, and bury northern pike in it. Works fine. I still have some of his old hand tools, and use them. Cast iron with oak handles. We have learned to can vegetables like they did. I have his old Smith and Wesson K-22 revolver that he used to hunt squirrels with. I’m not as good with it as he was, but I know I won’t part with the old gun. I only wish I had paid more attention and learned more from them when the opportunity was there. They survived very well on a tiny budget and always seemed to be happy.
Compost is the way to go, saves on landfills and produces the best black gold available, worms for fishing, and the best fertilizer available. Just do not put meat, fats, or bones in it, you can, it just takes way too long to get to the rich black dirt needed for great vegetable gardens or landscape planting.
I was never able to learn all the knowledge my grandmother had of the mountains and the food they provided.
If yours is still alive and has this knowledge. Learn now before it’s too late.
My people perish from lack of knowledge…
My grandparents worked the 160 homestead that their grandrparents claimed back in the 1870’s . I have the land grant framed and hanging on the wall. Dad and his sisters sold off the farm in the early 80’s after grandma passed. He was raised on that farm during the depression till he went of to the navy in 1943 at 17.
They did not get electricity and indoor plumbing till the mid 50’s. I think the only people that would be truly PREPPED to live with no interuption in their lives if we had a true grid down , shtf, end of the world event would be the amish, they are living it every day. And even then they might have some problems as they use gas lights and gas appliances, but they would be way more ready for it than any of use.
My Grandma and Grandpa had a Chicken ranch in La Mesa Ca. They had a big garden during the depression. I, of course, wasn’t there but have heard the stories from my Dad and Uncle. I have ten acres in northern California now and raise a greenhouse full of vegetables and a lot of blueberries. I wish my grandparents were here to teach me. I’m a grandparent now and I’m glad that my grandchild has to feed the goats every day! I like the .22 story. I guess if you place your shot carefully it’s all you may ever need. I have a couple of antique .22 rifles my dad and uncle used killing rats in the chicken coops. I think the world was better then but I don’t think you could have convinced anyone at the time of it.
joego,
It must have been quite awhile ago when LaMesa was a great place. Some parts by ElCajon Blvd. have gotten pretty shaky but out by Helix still are great. Only chicken ranch in that area I remember is the one just South of HWY94. Used to put the eggs at the top of the drive and people would pay and pick out what they wanted. the honor system and that was in the seventies.
@ Norse Prepper. You just wrote one of the nicest articles I have read in a long time. It truly shows how much everything has changed so much, for the worst. My grandparents I would have to say inspired me as a child to always have what you need available. They grew everything you can imagine within the climatic zone that would allow for it. They still had to go to the market for meats as they did not have the common farm setting that so many had decades ago. They truly were some of the earliest preppers.
What ever happened to human beings? I call it the Jetsons syndrome, you know the cartoon. In which everyone expects everything done for them. My God, people cannot even cook a meal anymore. Then these companies give these characters the illusion that they are cooks by putting together these packaged idiot proof meal “kits” that all a person has to add is a pinch of something and by gum you are a chef. I bet my grandparents that canned everything and knew how to cook good home cooked meals are rolling around in their graves at the utter stupidity of everything going on.
Everyone should understand how to cook, yet I truly believe that 20% or less of the population can even prepare something from scratch. People that cook also know very little about herbs and how wonderful the right herbs can naturally make something taste like it came from an expensive restaurant. I highly recommend to everyone to get a good herb book that shows what goes with what food. Herbs are not like MSG and other artificial flavourings, they are just like the plants that come out of the ground, they are REAL.
People should know how to prepare meats, if they eat meats, not something that comes from a package either. I think one of the best books out there for learning about true self sufficent life styles is: “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by Carla Emery. This is probably one of the best books out there for everyone to read.
I also totally agree with the way so many of these “entertainment” type shows make good people, the common prepper look like some radical red neck hillbilly type of loose cannon. This is hardly how almost all preppers are, they are people will more common sense and intelligence than 99% of the population. It is ashame that National Geographic stooped to the level of “showmanship” that so many other are at such as professional wrestling.
National Geographic use to be more of a documentary type of show that examined different points of views and cultures from a cultural anthropology point of view. Not from, look at the freaks. Let’s all laugh at the crazies. It sells air time quite well, and also takes away what National Geographic use to have, much more class and integrity.
Just the fact that Doomsday Preppers at the end of end segment the so called “experts” gave outlandish odds at most of these SHTF scenarioes ever occurring. With what I know about Earth Science and basic statistic and math at many levels, I was unbelivably insulted about the “unintelligent” assessments they gave to coddle the Non-Prepper that everything was going to be all right and you can just have a good laugh at the whack jobs and our ratings will continue to flourish. I have seen more accurate opinions in science fiction movies.
Norse Prepper, you hit a nerve with that Doomsday Preppers because they made that 1% of preppers look so bad and hurt the chance of people starting to prepare in the future. I to watch every episode and love the new ideas, but become very upset at the total bias against people that sacrifice so much to be ready for themselves and their families and friends.
Anyway, again sweet article, makes you feel good when you read it. Thank you for spending your time writing it, so many people are truly going to enjoy. 🙂 I wish there was a way of giving you multiple thumbs up.
“With what I know about Earth Science and basic statistic and math at many levels, I was unbelivably insulted about the “unintelligent” assessments they gave to coddle the Non-Prepper that everything was going to be all right and you can just have a good laugh at the whack jobs and our ratings will continue to flourish.”
Exactly so. My pet peeve is that they continue to bring in the opinions of “economists” as experts on whether or not a financial collapse is possible or even likely. Huh? Aren’t these the very same so-called experts who missed the Internet stock bubble, the housing bubble, can’t figure out where interest rates really should be, etc. etc. etc. Considering how incompetent these “experts” are, they can still be useful. If they say no, think yes. Your odds of being right will increase greatly.
@ 41MagMan. Economics was not one of my stronger points in school, but even the absurdity in Doomsday Preppers that they were talking about I could figure out was totally bogus. All they want to do is cater to the audience that wants to live in fairyland where you can build up a debt of several quadrillion dollars, have everyone with almost unlimited credit, have helicopter ben drop newly printed money to all the poor people so they can go out and purchase $400 sneakers and a $150 new banger hat to match, and have everyone else skip around with happy, happy faces and new printing presses around the country open up.
“Experts” must translate to gibbering mongoloid in the “special” new language that National Geographic appears that they have adapted. With me and economics, the simple math, and I mean simple math doesn’t add up and all. To someone “expert” that is bobs their head up and down like some lizard looking at themselves in the mirror, the economy is doing fine and accelerating towards another boom and wonderful times are on their way. After all obama BO and all the “experts” that work for him say so. To all of us in reality the economy is more than a train wreck, it is teetering by a frayed old rope over an extremely deep chasm with pointed rocks at the bottom.
National Geographic has so often portrayed preppers as something to laugh at and sneer at, yet preppers are totally aware of the perils of the world and the true risks and odds of something occurring. Who are the true experts?
We the “true” preppers are the experts.
Gun control is being able to hit your target.
“Know Thy Gun”.
Here’s what I have to say about the people who go on The National Geographic Channel to “display” their prepping: They’re idiots! The first rule of survival is anonymity. If you’re broadcasting to the entire world the supplies and everything else you have to use in a “SHTF” scenario, then…how smart are you? Not very smart. Be anonymous. Fly under the radar. Don’t attract attention. People who need to go onto TV to show off their “prepping” skills are narcissists.
While I can’t stand the way NGC portrays preppers, I don’t think of these people are idiots. I think maybe some of them give up their anonymity in order to enlighten others. The more of us there are taking responsibility for our own survival, the fewer “Zombies” there will be to defend ourselves against. If that is why these people go on the shows, then I commend them. I’m sure the money they get is attractive too. Maybe they’ll use the extra money to harden their defenses, or build a new place.
Thanks, NP, brings back memeories of my parents farm growing up. We are getting back to that, the house is nearly finished.
Really interesting article. I must say that this story is a bit different than the stories my grandparents told me. Like so many in their generation, they were impacted by World War 2. Unlike many people in this country, their stories weren’t about going to a foreign land to fight – they told me what it was like to be a young Finn during the invasion of the Soviet army.
These are my takeaways:
1) Food is a must. People put way too much emphasis on freeze dried food that is expensive to stock up on. Before even going down that road, have several hundred pounds of rice, beans, and hot sauce or dehydrated garlic and onions (flavoring). It’s cheap to stock pile, easy to store, and allows you to have something warm in your stomach;
2) Guns are fun, but medical equipment will save your life. My grandmother was a “nurse” when she was 12 and the army was always low on bandages, cloth, and other medical supplies. People faced serious sanitary issues that could kill you easier than the Red army ever could. Make sure you can care for basic infections, water borne pathogens, and cuts / broken bones;
3) Community matters. Lone wolves die alone while communities can suffer together. There was no way to downplay the starvation and misery that took place; or the fact that many people survived only because they had a healthy relationship with their community members. The idea that you could turn friends and family away or refuse them food is purely academic and doesn’t function in real life;
4) Water and heat – they matter. Make sure you can purify plenty of the former and produce enough of the latter;
5) Do not rely on the government. Even if it’s trying its best to save the citizens, external factors (i.e. environmental disasters, communists, whatever) can always frustrate even the best laid plans;
6) Hunting – it will get you killed. When food shortages happened, everyone ran into the woods with their guns. There were fights over downed animals. There was confusion as to who was a hunter and who was a Soviet scout. There were missed shots (and deliberate ones). If you need to go hunting far from your home, you’re in trouble;
7) Fishing – will save your life. My grandparents told me tons of stories where using fishing traps or leaving lines out for hours gave them a hot protein that they would not have otherwise had (BTW – fishing YoYo traps are very interesting for this use).
I’ve meant to put down some of the stories they’ve told me, maybe this article will finally get me to get around to putting ink to paper.
Everyone should know how to make Dakins solution for wounds, and a homemade re-hydrating drink. Several good ones on the internet. My grandparents were considered packrats.(Like it was a bad thing) It skipped a generation, my dad never was. I have always considered myself a packrat, but now know all these years, I have really been a prepper!
Becoming a prepper unaided is like discovering you can throw a knuckleball.
Hey Mac,
A great article about True Patriotism could be wrapped up with one of my heroes, Nile Kinnick.
Sorry. I was good until #3….. This is a fantasy. Hey I grew up on a farm and trust me when I say most people besides fam stayed seprate from each other. Oh and taking deer with a .22 long., please! What! he must have been on top of the poor thing with it buried in it’s ear. Pure fantasy my friends. Sounds good but Norse is full of it. If I wanted to read a fiction story I would have…………… OK go ahead and thumbs down if you buy into this as a real story.
Why are you having a hard time believing you can take a deer with a .22? Brady and Reagan both would have died if they wouldn’t have received medical att. and that was a .22.Humans and deer are roughly the same size and there are 100’s of deaths reported by the minuet .22 each year in the USA. Remember deer dont have er’s, it might take the deer a while to die from a .22 shot or 10 but so does an arrow shot. and you dont have a problem with bow hunters do you? I personally have not taken a deer with a .22 but I did take one with my 9mm handgun. and a .22 goes 1200fps compared to about 1100 or so for my 9mm. also have taken deer with a .410 and lots of guys think that you can not do that either.
Hell,the army uses AR15’s which are just really hot .22s. I hunt a lot and have no trouble believing he took deer with a .22lr.
Oh and to TPTB my comments in no way condone what that nut job Hinkley did, just saying he used a .22
Believe it! I’ve taken a couple of deer with a .22, though they were in under 30 yds and young does. I was after squirrel at the time and they (deer) just happened to carry more meat for my effort.
I had a neighbor, took 3 or 4 deer every year, used a .22 Marlin semiauto, the tube-fed rifle, might have cost $65 at Sears & Roebuck. He just put 10-12 rounds in the chest cavity as fast as you can shoot an autoloader, then followed it for a couple of hundred yards, it had generally died by then. Said he’d never poach a deer with anything louder than a .22 and always had meat on the back porch.
If you do not have anything “good” to say, take your feces infused cranium and blog somewhere else where your stupidity will be appreciated. Norse wrote an article that is for real, your input is crap and most all on this site know it.
I dont believe on gravity. I saw a balloon drop out of a guys hand one time and it went up. Disect that. Again, its great that in a public forum you call bs to something that is 100% researchable! HAHAHAHA!
The story is real, it was actually common to take a deer in those days with a .22.
Again, disect the story. It states that he had a .22 and he would go take a deer with Uncle Nub.
Maybe Nub had a damn Howitzer and grandpa “shoved it in his ear to finish it off” like you suggested.
If you could, please post your level of intelligence again.
PS, he was a damn good shot. For target practice they would reaease a balloon on a windy day and shoot it as it flew across the field. If you can hit a balloon in a 30mph wind, you can hit a rabbit.
a shot to the vitals is all it takes..no matter the size of the bullet.
plenty of tests done on the 22 to collaborate this story.
a 22 has shown to be able to kill out past 300 yards.
shot placement is the key to any kill
I can’t remember a time in my life when my Dad or I didn’t have a garden. He is now 80 and blind but he can still tell me all the old stories, over and over and over lol. Yesterday he helped me break and string a bushel of green beans. I think the exercise added 10 years to his life.
I have an extra pound or so of (Hercules) crowder peas if anyone would like to grow some. They are the best tasting, largest crowder peas around and they are very hard to find. Most places say they don’t have any because of crop failure. I planted early and will probably have 2 harvests again this year. Now is the time when most folks plant them. Just let me know.
I’d like some, HSL. I have some heirloom black crowders that an old friend of mine gave me this fall if you’d like to trade. I don’t have much but I’d be happy to share.
The are yours, just let me know where to send them.
I am @hotmail.com
Highspeed – I’ve got a silly question about the peas: When you are drying the seeds for use next year, do you just leave them on the vine? How do you know they are dried enough? (okay, two silly questions!)
You’re right, that is a silly question!
no its not a silly question nina
Yep, let em dry on the vine. Just to make sure I simply place them on a paper towel in my storage room for about a month and then seal them up in an airtight container. When you pick them to can or eat fresh you want the pea to be green, and brown when dried. They are also quite tasty raw.
Thanks, HSL!!!! The info is appreciated. This is my “learning curve” summer. 🙂
great thing where i live, peas grow wild. not the greatest soil for growing here (actually terrible) but alot of goodies do just grow out of the ground!
oops – eeder – I’m so sorry! I hit the thumbs down instead of the thumbs up!
I wish they grew wild here!
D
they likely do out in the country daisy.
Best way to store tomatoes is to pull the whole plant out by the roots leaving the fruit attached. The tomatoes will keep for weeks and the green ones will ripen. This would of course be before any hard freezes which luckily we do not have here are expected. Great way to free up garden space and extend the tomato season.
John W.: I do the same thing with my tomatoes. It is the best. We have been known to have snow as early as September , this year the last snow was the first week in June. Of course it didn’t stay, just never know though.
Memory Lane: What would we do without it. My gr. grandparents and grandfather landed in the U.S. from Germany in the 1880’s as homsteading wheat ranchers. I still have the ‘lap robe’ my mother and her siblings used while riding a horse drawn buckboard to school. There were eight of them. I learned to grow a garden, can, sew, mend socks (in those days you didn’t throw them away)clean ashes, gut fish, clean a chicken coop, gather eggs, and will never forget the granite round tub on the back porch filled with scalding hot water to manage the pesky job of plucking chickens….it was the same granite tub we bathed in. That big tube hung on the wall right next to the Maytag wringer washing machine.
What a wonderful tribute and story — your grandparents were not unlike my own and I also remember many tales told and wonderful times spent with them. Your story will dance in my head all day as I do the morning chores and spend most of my day in the garden.
I can only assume we must be related….. my maternal grandparents from Wyoming had the same place, did the same, lived the same, believed the same.
‘Norse Prepper’ – thank you. I’d forgotten them to some extent. May all our grandparents’ memories be recalled.
Heartless. Thank you for the kind response and comment. God bless!
I remember the trapdoor in the linoleum floor in Grandmaw’s kitchen. You could lift it up and go down the steps and see shelves upon shelves of canned veggies, fruit, stews, soups and some meat. The cured “side meat” would be hanging (all white) in netting from the floor joists above your head. Lots of love and goodness there at Grandmaw’s house.
makes me cry to think of these things remembering very similar pictures. It is truely sad where we are going as a society here in North America with all our updated electronic conveniences. The further we progress the futher we get behind on losing all of these skills. In fact reading this article became very personal for me as it helped give me some answers to my prayers. God Bless you all and it is truely wise to be prepared because rest assured the times that we are heading for are no fairy tale. Number one thing to prepare is your heart with the Lord.
Take care and God Bless
Blame alot of it on Fat Teds 1965 immigration act which for the first time gave precedence to third worlders and made it almost impossible for white Europeans to immigate into the US. I still remember being at the 1964 Worlds Fair when the population counter turned over 140 million. What is it now? 330 million with thirty million added in just the last four years all from the third world? Sure way to success, import the primitave world where they do not even know what toilet paer is and cannot support themselves. White guilt will be the death of us.
A very well put together article!! Great job!!
I was a “prepper” back in 1971. I had long hair and my anthem was “take a sister by the hand, lead her from this barren land, they don’t need us”, CSNY
So I “dropped out” and moved onto a hippy commune in Tenn. After 5 years “dropped back” in, got a haircut, got me a 40hr/wk job, and here I am 40 years later at 65, dropping out again. I was just a little early, and a little “green”, back then.
To try and recreate my Grandparents life is now impossible. Even with my construction lawyer nephew on tap, relocating to a spot of the UK where we can live the way we want to is proving hard.
So many simple activities are regulated – wanna plant a dozen fruit trees? Got a permit? Wanna keep a pig – here’s a stack of paperwork to fill in. Want a beehive – have you got insurance? Want to sell some cakes you baked – has your kitchen been inspected & do you have your food hygiene cert? The list goes on, and on and sucks the life out of you here in the UK.
It’s not the DOING that’s hard, it’s the army of petty little jobsworths whose sole mission in life is to keep you utterly locked into the wage slave matrix. (self-sufficiency is baaaad! Though none of them seem to mind putting you on government welfare dependency). They swarm all over any enterprise that shows the slightest hint of independence like locusts, gradually sapping your will to live in their wake.
My mother grew up in WW2 Britain – she still checks my kitchen cupboard when she visits to ensure there’s a spare can or two of spam in there “just in case”. She came by and picked up my son earlier as there are some berries in a local park she’s spotted and wants him to pick for her. My darning still doesn’t come up to her standards, but who do you know nowadays that can darn a sock or alter clothes for reuse?
It really saddens me to think that my son’s quality of life is likely to be lower than my Grand-parents and Great-grandparents. I’ve passed on small things they taught me like taking our whippet rabbiting when we are out of the city, but worry constantly I didn’t learn enough to pass on enough to prep him for what’s coming.
lone…get out of the city if you can. Here in the states, if you can get out into a rural county you can more or less say fuck it to the “regulators” and live a fairly independent life.
Back in the day I used to get sent to the States occasionally for work, and fell in love with parts of New Jersey (prob not the best place from a preppers perspective), my US co-workers were the salt of the earth.
I console myself with the fact that when shtf does happen the petty “regulators” will be the first to fall, as to a man they rarely have any productive skills. The UK is where I was born & bred & I’m a homebody.
Darn socks!!! That’s funny, when I was a kid, I was packed off every school holidays to my Grand Uncles farm to help him out. He used to make me darn my work socks, sew my buttons back on and even patch my trousers when I tore them. By the time I was ten, I was pretty ‘darn’ good at it (pun intended of course)
What he taught me as a kid was invaluable. From everything on the farm, to home remedies, driving a team of horses and working antique farm machinery (with tractors … AND horses) even how to shave and fit new spokes on the wheels, re-shoe horses and “old time” farming methods. Even the weird stuff like making washers from dried bacon rind and how to fleece dead sheep and even how to smoke wild bee hives for there honey comb.
@lonelonmum, I really wouldn’t worry about your sons quality of life in years to come. When you consider how humans are treated now in our ordered and government controlled system, is loosing our sterile TV orientated lifestyle going to be that bad? At least if the SHTF there is a remote possibility that the survivors can recreate a new and not so intrusive, government controlled burocracey to replace the dregs we have currently running our world.
Knowledge is power. Everyone worried about surviving, still have time to learn new skills. it’s never too late to find, research or acquire knowledge and skills. You just have to start
Man, I miss grandma’s fried chicken and gravy!!
Love ya mama!
Most of the farms in my family have been sold off by the greedy, and selfish generation, and its a shame.
The media’s view and shows like doomsday prepper is just another assault on the true american spirit of self reliance and the american family.
OK, many of us had grandparents that farmed 160 acres in the Midwest. Mine did in Iowa. That’s then, this is now. We don’t live on farms. Corporations do. And the land they farm is expensive. Try and buy 160 acres of good farmland in Iowa. Try and make a living on it.
The fact is most of us live in cities and suburbs. This notion that we will all die if we don’t live in a rural area is bunk. Read “The Fallacy of Bugging Out – Are You Prepared to Be a Refugee?” by SurvivalAcres, posted here on Apr. 19th. OK, the article focused on the insanity of bugging out into the woods versus the more common sense approach of staying put (and prepared), but the realities of becoming a farmer overnight (yeah, overnight, the “S” is very close to HTF) versus preparing to survive where you now live are the same.
Maybe your grandparents lived the idyllic rural farm life, a virtual Rockwell painting. Mine didn’t. There were tornadoes, hailstorms, dust bowls and animal diseases. If your grandparents farmed during the Great Depression, as mine did, and you don’t think they suffered its effects, then you’d better ask someone who knows better. Sure, there will be no shortages of the things you need to farm successfully…(think again).
The fact is, there is no guarantee of long term survival anywhere. All your preparations do is extend your short term survival. And in the vast majority of impending disasters, that’s enough.
Bugging out without a headstart and a place to go is suicide. Better to stay where you are especially if it is a stable area with low crime. Try bugging out from San Diego. Stuck in the Southwest corner of the country next to Mexico and two hundred miles of city to the North and hundreds of mile of desert to the East, Pacific Ocean to the West. The traffic jam would be so bad you would run out of gas in fifty miles. With warning leaving is doable but only if you have someplace to go.
There is still a possibility of avoiding disaster. It does not need many people. It does not need much money.
Introduction
A superior power is needed to finish off the current world order based on usury banking. Natural Money is money with a holding fee (scrip money) combined with a ban on charging interest. The Natural Money Bomb employs the superior efficiency of Natural Money to wreak havoc and create chaos in the financial system. It will bring down the banks and Wall Street when it is used. The core ingredient and explosive material is Natural Money. It will end the current world order and can be the basis for the future economy based on local self sufficiency. The Natural Money Bomb will finish off the usury financial system because of Gresham’s Law:
Bad [depreciating] money drives out good [stable] money. So depreciating money is a superior form of money.
Most people are afraid for change and they have good reasons for that. They want a better alternative and see it work before they accept it. This scheme has been tried before in Wörgl and Lignières-en-Berry with great success:
– for more information about Wörgl, see: http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v105/__show_article/_a000105-000002.htm
– for more information about Lignières-en-Berry, see: http://www.barataria.org/i/5/i.5.4.htm
– for an explanation why this money is more efficient, see: http://www.naturalmoney.org/introduction.html
The Wörgl experiment became explosive because many towns and villages wanted to copy it. For this reason the central bank of Austria banned it. The Lignières-en-Berry experiment was explosive because it would have replaced regular usury money within a few years. For this reason the government of France banned it. If the experiments had not been banned then everybody would use scrip money now.
The secret formula
Currently there are thousands of similar currencies and LETS systems but they did not achieve the success of Wörgl and Lignières-en-Berry. The hidden secret of success is the power that will bring down the usury financial system. In order to turn scrip money into a killer the following conditions must be met:
– The currency must be exchangeable in regular usury money but exchanging it must be less attractive than keeping it.
– At least initially the currency has to be backed with regular usury money.
– Local businesses must accept the money.
– There must be an incentive to use the money in the form of a holding fee.
– The money must be attractive.
There are two methods to produce an explosive experiment that can spread like wildfire:
– A public currency issued by a government like in Wörgl that can be used as a payment for taxes.
– A private currency issued by a community, a group of people like in Lignières-en-Berry or a corporation.
The scheme of Lignières-en-Berry is the most easy to implement because it needs only a small amount of capital and it does not need a large organisation or support of a government.
Fatal attraction
The Wörgl currency was attractive because Schillings where hard to come by. In Lignières-en-Berry a clever scheme was devised to make the money attractive. It was the following:
– People could buy the money at 95 cents to the Dollar/Euro.
– They could spend it as 1 Dollar/Euro because businesses accepted the money at that value.
– After four months they could exchange the money at 98 cents to the Dollar/Euro.
– They could instead buy a stamp of 1 cent to make the money valid for another month and spend it as 1 Dollar/Euro again.
The situation in Lignières-en-Berry soon became explosive because:
– People bought the money because they could spend it at a 5% profit or exchange it at a 3% profit after four months.
– Businesses accepted the money because it generated extra business and it could cost them no more than 2%, but if they did spend the money then there was no loss at all.
– The money circulated fast because spending was more attractive than keeping the money.
– Many people chose to buy the stamp even though they could get back 98 cents because by buying the stamp they could spend the currency unit as 1 Dollar/Euro.
If no currency is returned then the profit is the 1% holding fee per month excluding costs. If there are no costs and the profit is used to issue additional currency then 33% additional currency can be created each month. At the same time the money is sound because it is backed by regular usury money.
This money spreads fast and the experiment in Lignières-en-Berry became explosive. Many communities moved to copy the system. This alarmed the Bank of France so much that in July 1957 it sent a team of police specialists to investigate what it saw as a virus about to contaminate the whole country. It may have taken only a few years until the money had replaced usury money in France. For this reason the government of France banned it.
Capital and profit
To set up a Lignières-en-Berry currency you do not need much capital. If you intend to issue 100,000 Dollar/Euro of currency units you only need 3,000 Dollar/Euro. People will buy the currency at 95 cents so they bring in 95,000 Dollar/Euro while you need 98,000 Dollar/Euro to pay them back.
It is possible that the operation will run at a profit because people have to pay a holding fee to keep the money valid. The profit can be used to the following ends:
– To issue additional currency. In this way the scrip money will spread fast. If the market becomes saturated more people will return the money for 98 cents so the profit will disappear and the situation will stabilise.
– For the benefit of the community, for example poverty relief.
– It can be added to the value of the currency so the value of the currency will rise. This will make the money attractive for investors to invest in, for example by loaning out money at 0% interest.
– A dividend for shareholders. Many people will not prefer this solution but in a free market this type of money can exist alongside public and community currencies.
If a consortium of local business owners issues the currency then the operation can run at a loss but still be profitable to the local business owners overall because it generates more business for them. In Lignières-en-Berry salaries were exchanged into the local currency and this generated more business locally. Even though the Lignières-en-Berry scheme did not produce a loss, it probably had been profitable for the local business owners to sustain the scheme even if there was a loss.
Extra employment
The fast circulation of the scrip money generates extra employment. It can produce even more employment if employers and employees agree on using it for salary payments. This happened in Lignières-en-Berry and this was crucial in making the currency such a success that it threatened the usury financial system. Some possible schemes are the following:
– The employer pays a regular salary including taxes but the employee agrees to return a part of his or her salary to the employer in exchange for scrip money.
– The employer pays a minimum wage including taxes and an additional amount in scrip money. This scheme could cause trouble as it results in reduced tax income for the government.
– Governments may choose to accept scrip money for taxes so it will be possible to pay salaries in scrip money.
Possible adaptations in the scheme
It is possible to make some adaptations in the scheme like the following:
– The buy and sell price can be made one cent lower so it will be more attractive to buy the stamp.
– Interest rates are lower now than they were in France in 1956, so a lower return profit of 2 cents in four months (6% annually) can still be attractive.
– The money can be sold at a price of 97 cents and returned at a price of 98 cents after two months.
A successful example of a similar scheme is the Chiemgauer in Germany, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer
The Chiemgauer can become explosive as soon as the scheme is not used to promote charities but to make the money attractive. If businesses are able to pay salaries (partially) in Chiemgauer or when a local government accepts the money for taxes then it can turn into an unstoppable force that will replace usury money.
Issues
There are some issues that should be addressed:
– The government has a monopoly on issuing money so the currency may need to be named gift certificates or vouchers.
– The organisation behind the gift certificates must be trustworthy and transparent. This may require independent oversight and auditing.
– Before the experiment starts a significant number of businesses must be willing to accept the gift certificates.
– If too many gift certificates are issued the chance increases that gift certificates are returned, creating a loss of three cents per unit returned.
– People that sell gift certificates must not be able to buy new gift certificates at a lower price at the same time. This problem can be mitigated by limiting the issuance per person. Preventing over issuance will also help to alleviate this problem.
There may come a clash between banks and governments versus money reformers. Banks and governments cannot stop the spread of knowledge and the functioning of markets so their resistance will be futile. In a democratic society people should control the government and therefore the superior efficiency of Natural Money can be a power tool to enforce democratic reforms. The most important one is a referendum law that will give citizens full control over their government. This will end the rule of the elite.
no way on the .22 killing a deer. no way! ever!
When my great grandparents passed away their kids(my grandparents) fought over who got what on the farm. They finally just had an auction and sold everything! I went to the auction and bought what I could but there were people there with alot more money than me. My great aunt who ended up with the farm let her meth head son move in and now the farm is falling apart because he does nothing all day. The only thing I wanted from their place was this old piece of cut limestone that my Gramma Eve used to sit on under her shade tree while she would snap beans. My cousin cut down the old tree for firewood a couple of years ago. I asked my great aunt for it and the b…. laughed in my face. They could care less about that old rock but to me I can still see my Gramma sitting on it. I am going to go get that thing one of these nights and place it under my shade tree next to the garden.
You didn’t spell it, I will. What a BITCH!!
yeah, midnight run that sucker.
I have a simular story, looks like the ending will be the same.
Good hunting!!!
I would too.
For those who think taking a deer with a .22 rifle borders on fantasy. You are knuckleheads. It’s been done MANY, many times over the years. If the range is relatively close, preferably 50 yards or less (learn to stalk or conceal yourself, understand the wind, scents, deer’s habits, etc.), a good headshot will drop the average sized deer. It may not always kill it, but it’ll put it down to where you can bleed it out.
A close headshot with a 40gr. solid point .22 LR round will drop a 1,000 lb steer. Watch the cable series, “Swamp People”. Those guys routinely shoot BIG ‘gators in the head (A 10’+ gator is a LOT heavier than your average deer!) with their little .22 LR rifles. It has an INSTANT effect.
In tough times, people used the tools at hand and made do with what they had.
Yes, there is no doubt that deer can be hunted with a .22 long rifle. Certainly we can tell there are some people put there that do not believe this. Why? They have never tried.
I should point put that hunting deer with a .22 is not legal in my area, therefor I would NEVER do such a thing 😉
Still I will assure you they will drop. I live less then a mile from a river, and deer here are just too probmatic in so many ways. Higher power rifles draw attention, .22’s much more quiet.
Hi,
I am the casting director for Doomsday Preppers on National Geographic. We are now casting for Season 2! I came across your information and was hoping that you would be interested in participating in our Season 2 cast call. I would love to speak with you more about this process.
Please email me at [email protected]
Or Call 212 784 7740 ext 233
I look forward to hearing back from you!
Thanks so much,
Brooklyn
This may be a bit off topic but is a great idea. When we lose our electricity at home here at night I have a box of partially assembled yard solar lights that have fully charged batteries. I set a light in a quart canning jar and set it in the table. It no was gives enough light to read by but is great so I don’t stub my toe on my night time walks to the john. This way there is no burning oil lamps or candles that could cause fires. I bought a box of eight at the local China Mart for under twenty bucks. After using them I put them outside to recharge and then pull the battery till I need them again
I agree with you re: solar lights. I have a couple sets of the white lights(hanging in my trees) and some on the ground…I will be bringing them inside when the electric goes out…isn’t the sun wonderful?
Solar fairy lights (Like you’d use on an Xmas tree) are a godsend. Here in the UK the brand powerbee is pretty cheap on amazon. They are really versatile & a line can be strung anywhere handy. I’ve used them on our spiral staircase in a power cut as a way to avoid the kids and elderly coming to harm. We also use a string on our tent when camping etc to save faffing with dropped torchs & kids.
To my mind everyone should have a few solar/dynamo torches & lanterns around the house. They are a much safer option for those peeps with kids & pets in a powercut. I leave one on top of the main fuse box.
Is anyone else really disapointed with the quality of the BBC world service output nowadays? This was our go-to news channel when I was growing up.
What the hell did BBC do with Dr.Who? They make six episodes and call it a season. Not just with the Doctor but everything the present. Govt. run so no incentive to make a profit. They have some pretty good stuff too.
God bless a sane person like you.
This should put to rest the ability of a .22LR round to take down a deer (hit properly and at an acceptable range).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAkOzr6cDx0
The fog of time can do many things to a person’s memories of the past. Not saying NP’s papaw couldn’t take a deer with a 22, just that it’s most likely the gun he used the most and thus most remembered in all memories. Lighten up on the ol’ fella already 😉
Thanx, PGE. A good idea for a night light.
We have a stock of those $5 LED battery-powered camping lanterns. Take 2 double A’s, have a high and a low setting with plenty of bright white light on high and a flashing red safety setting. We stock both rechargeable and regular batteries for emergencies. Also, those 120-hour hurricane candles in the tall glass tubes.
Safe, dependable and 1-2 in each room w/a small LED flashlight for walking about and locating the lantern and we are good to go.
While we are still up, especially in winter, we use the generator and keep a store of treated gas around for it.
Longer term power outages are usually predictable, so we fill up on drinking water and thermoses of coffee as part of our immediate preparations.
It is part of the way of life in the country.
I do not care about how the government labels me. About a year ago, I saw a pamphlet, I believe it was put out by the Homies, that said: “A couple, driving down the road with two kids in back, was suspicious activity.” Don’t get me wrong, I never had much faith in the Homies anyway, but having read that, destroyed any credibility they might have earned. A whole agency of mentally challenged jerks, trying to justify a bigger budget. I’ll prep the way I want and nothing else matters.
i truely miss my grandpa and grandma and the stories they would tell me that generation 1898-1920 was one of the greatest we ever had.
NP, I want to thank you for an excellent article.
My folks were of that generation. Pop was born on a PA farm and grew up during the Depression. Momma was 1st-generation American; her people came here to escape the Bolsheviks. They’re both gone now, but they left us stories and tales of what life was like back then. I regret not listening even closer to them.
To the naysayers: if you can harvest a deer with a bow and arrow, you can harvest a deer with a .22 LR with patience and silence.
My preparations have only just begun. I am grateful to sites like this one, and folks that I have read here, for the valuable things I’ve learned.
Thanks again, NP!
Sarge Thank you for the comment. It was fun writing and sharing. I love to positivity in the discussion forum. There is so much more I could say about them. I’m sure we all have much we remember of our grandparents. It’s so great to see what others remember.
God bless
I read this article yesterday and then picked strawberries from the garden. I spent the afternoon snapping beans and canning. Both put me in the mind of my grandparents. This time of year, I was running around gobbling sun-warmed strawberries from grandpa’s patch. He knew we ate more than we picked, but he loved us enough to let us be kids. We spent many an afternoon sitting on the porch shelling crowder peas and lima beans, and snapping green beans for grandma to can. I lost my grandmother at 16; I was too young to really appreciate what I’d lost. I had Grandpa until I was 25, still too young to ask what I really needed to know out of life. I think of them every day, but summer makes me especially sad. I garden and hunt like grandpa, can and quilt like grandma, and fish like both of them. I am passing these skills to their great- granddaughter. I hope I make them proud. I miss them both. Thanks, NP for honoring the past generation. Their blood flows through us, and push come to shove I believe that we can make it like they did. If not for ourselves, then for our children.
Thanks, but don’t need it. If I’m hungry, cold, without clothes, I just go outside and shout at the top of my lungs “Yes we can” (alternatively, “Yes, we have no bananas” is just as effective). Then, magically, Obummer’s people in white coats show up and give me everything I need! Amazing
These are the folks who won’t even bat an eye when it all collapses. Good position to be in.
I hope to be one of those, it scares me how many people who have NO idea about what could happen soon.
I don’t have the farming skill set. My plan is barter. I’m exceedingly skilled with a rifle and am prepared to roll my own for many years. A few other skills & I hope to be a valuable addition to a survival community.
Deja Vu! This article is exactly the point of a tongue-in-cheek video I made for Youtube back in March:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrF0BVAFZhE
(AP) — Ron Paul has given up on becoming president, but loyal supporters are promising to promote the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman’s principles at the Republican national convention this summer…
Courtesy of KCRG.com in Cedar Rapids, IA
I called and told them he hasn’t suspended his campaign-look at his website and the lady who runs the stations website today said it comes from the AP, so she won’t look into it. I stated that KCRG is lying willingly and she hung up.
This world is evil. God Bless.
KCRG the only time you should watch that channel is if the Hawks are playing.
Best article I have read anywhere for a real long time!!!! Brings back some great memories.
Great article Norse!
And for those feeing that nostalgia, go out and do it! Grow some veggies and fruit, use the space you have to the best advantage. Who needs fertilizer, make your own compost. You can research it or just take your egg shells, coffee grounds, peelings from your potato, onion, get a pile going! Do it!
We live in a cul-de-sac. Have three raised bed gardens. My wife has been canning pickles for the past two weeks. We had one tomato plant die. It was full of green tomato.
She made pickles out of that with a fresh cayenne pepper and dill out of garden…it is delicious.
We still have a family place in the woods. We hunt, garden and make the place sustainable as best we can. It is off beaten track and plenty stocked with canned, dry goods and vacuum packed jerky of several varietys.
And for the idiots that say you cannot kill a deer with a .22 lr, well, you don’t know your ass from a hat!
It is all about bullet placement, I had to do it svereal times, long time ago because we were hungry. It took one shot per deer. One in the base of the neck, secong in the heart….if you laugh at peeps saying that, come on over and run in front of me, I’ll show you idiot city pups about placement….lol…Man, I run into your kind all the time as I work in Houston in the Corporate world, whole lot of peeps that do not know their ass froma hat. LOL One good thing, I’ll not have to mess with them after something happens, they will take care of themselves, dying somewhere they never intended to be.
I pray for y’all, but it does not much good, your hearts are hardened and you think you know it all, when you know NOTHING, if you knew you knew nothing, there might be some hope for you, but you don’t even know that.
For the rest of us, just keep living like our grandparents taught us, that is what I do. I know we have to live in our “real world”, but we can keep the old knowledge alive. I’m doing it and I’m teaching my daughter. I teach her to deer hunt, identify animal sign, grow a garden, can pickles, pressure can food. When she was 4-5 years old, she held the legs of a deer open for me as I field dressed it, the only thing she had to say was, “why is that liver thing blue”?, I said Baby, that is just the way it is.
She sees me go to work at 5am, work in Engineering and get home about 5-6 pm. We partake in Shorin Ryu Shorinkan, traditional Okinawan Karate, together twice a week for two hours each day. WE have been going to This Sensei for almost four years now. I want my daughter to be able to take care of herself in all sense of the word.
I’ll be showing her how to perform extreme marksmanship and to make her own ammo.
Here again, this is for the twits makin the smart ass comments about .22lr.
I started shooting .22 as an 8-9 year old….have shot tens of thousands of rounds, plu many other calibers. Learning to shoot with a .22 is the best as you develop less bad habits. And if you can precision shoot with you garden variety .22, imagine what you might do with a precision rifle and good/best quality handloads.
Let me see you city pups put three shots through the same hole at 100 yards with a .223. Let me see you hit a playing card at 1/4 mile 5 of 6 shots.
When you punks can do that, you might gain some respect from me. Until then keep your inane comments to yourselves, you are just proving how stupid you are.
And for tomorrow, I’ll get up and start welding on more units, Don Arkansas, I’ll be testing and shipping soon.
Mr. Bond, yours still needs tweaking and did not get it up to the country but it will be done very soon. Saltwater, Marine and the other two fellows will be falling into line and coming out soon as well, I’m taking the entire week of the 4th off and will be caught up with sometime then.
Hey, I want them out to you ASAP as I suspect we all may need them, been so busy with makin peeps, haven’t made a personal one yet, but in a pinch I’ll put the first prototype back together.
You know I have said before we are not preppers, we are prudent just like our family before us, NorsePrepper is absolutely right. For us, we like keeping the old knowledge alive, trapping, tanning fur, curing meat as well as many other skills…I also do astronomy, archaeology, paleontology, all of the above and I continue to play a classical flute…
WE can do anything we want by putting one foot in front of the other, if it is a baby step, hey, that is a start.
Have faith in God, have some faith in yourself, but like NIKE, just do it. Whatever it is, do not be complacent, get out there, go hiking, see some nature, go hunting on public land…go fishing, go shoot some .22….have fun and develop skills as you go.
But do it….don’t talk about it…you know who I’m talking to…
God Bless,
Terry W. Reed
LNL PROTEKT LLC
Excellent post, Mr. Reed…
Now if I could terminate the mockingbird singing his songs outside my window at 5:30 am, I could get back to sleep.
I am 40ish and lost my grandpop a few years ago and recently my grandmom. I am still coping with the loss of her as in my prepping journey I think of her more often than not. She and her siblings all worked as young choldren tending to a garden during the depression. They all wore hand me sowns that were to samll or to big. I believe they even wore potatoe sacks during that time. When she passed she had a Bible that she read every day and evening. She knew that book in and out. She comforted me often with scripture as I grew up. I told my mother to take the Bible as she struggles with a relationship with God and although I would have likee to have it my mom needs it. I was blessed to have my grandparents with me for so long and only wish I could remeber ALL they told me and taught me. Thank you Norse for this article and sorry for any typos I write this with blurry tear filled eyes . Thank you again and to all that have granparents still listen to them and let them know EVERY day how wonderful they are. Ask them questions so they can help you, they have true knowledge how to prep. God Bless
Stand for something or fall for anything
I read all these nostalgic times and I so much miss when people were truly people, not these androids that have morphed out of society. I live in a clean environment right now, but I can remember when farmers grew healthy food like my grandparents did and people were not being poisoned by all the toxic garbage in so many processed foods. It is so sad, I mean painfully sad to think just how much better times were just a generation or two ago.
I saw this article on Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-wuhan-city-covered-mysterious-haze-145340073.html
This is what has become of this planet, so many places are stuck in a toxic soup. I am hardly a fan of China, but people should not have to live this way anywhere on the planet. To all those doubters that call the prepper crazy and “think” that nothing will ever happen to warrant preparation should take a nice hard look at the picture and the other pictures and read the article. Mankind is killing the Earth and with every action there is an opposite equal reaction. China alone is killing humanity. Throw in India now and lack of any regulations and Fukushima may not have to go critical to bring about several Earth changes SHTF events.
If all these non-preppers don’t believe that an economic collapse is coming, and no war ever again, they should really understand that the planet WILL react to it’s climate being altered, IT HAS TO. How it will react will be awful one day. I sure would not want to be caught without supplies or any “know how” to obtain food and water like 99% of the population, WHEN they will have to.
The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us….
-Big Thunder(Bedagi)(Wabanaki Algonquin)
With the internet today, there is no reason why one can not learn step by step most anything that they want to do. I recall many years ago, a neighbor of mine wanted to grow tomatoes, he was determined to have enough tomatoes for the entire summer. His tomatoes did very well and he had more than he bargained for because he assumed that a tomato plant only produced one tomato, therefore he planted 42 tomato plants. We have come a long way indeed.
This was a wonderful article, thank you. We could do worse than follow the example of two generations before us. I’m a big city auntie lady in an apartment, but after some apprenticeship I can put up berry syrup and stews, crochet socks and lay a decent fire (alas, my sourdough is still a Quikrete clone). Those skills we learn let us choose how tech-dependent we want to be.
BTW, you can get a deer with a .22, especially if a .22 is all you have. You set your shot up beforehand; it’s not a zombie console game where one blasts the target randomly until it bleeds out. Hunting with a .22 is like starting a fire with flint and steel. Not the easiest way, but while everyone is arguing it can’t be done, some old guy will mutter a few cuss words at the tinder and settle in to drink his coffee while the naysayers are still cold and wet.
When I start a new batch of sourdough and then know I am not going to use it, I keep it in the refrigerator and then try to remember to add a tablespoon or so of flour and water at least once a week, just to keep it going and not to have to start again. Doesn’t always work, I tend to get too many irons in the fire and forget stuff.
Love the comments! Thanks for all the stories of your farmer gramma and grampas!
NP, you seem to be up late too, truly loved the article, I wish more people would post good comments instead of the drivel we read. We are all in this together, and we need to help each other out so we preppers can stand out…
Thanks Eppe!! Nice to see you without your red thumb!!
🙂
PS – I was up pretty late last night. Couldn’t sleep and was engulfed reading the posts!!
Off topic(as usual)
Here is a typical annual report from a alphabet bull$hit government agency
http://crc.nv.gov/docs/crc_afr_2011.pdf
scroll down about 10 pages(past all the pages of them congragulating each other of how much of a good job they did on the report)
IF you don’t know what an annual fiancial report is-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_annual_financial_report
(I hate using wiki, because it is a tool of the corp, but its easy)
Just like with california, “THEY” STAY in debt and accumulate assets(but do they really have meaningful assets, if they did wouldn’t they get out of debt? you and I would)). If you read CAFR(california’s annual financial report) you will see its the same deal. On paper they could pay off ALL state debt.
http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CAFR/cafr11web.pdf
ALL STATES HAVE THE SAME DEAL!!
They could ALL pay off the debts and lower taxes, but they won’t(or can’t because they are invested in the list below), the corp just wants to accumulate(tax and fee us to death).
You can bet a buffelo nickel that these states are invested in the morgage backed securities, the bundled student loan debts, the bundled credit card debts, the bundled car loans, other states bonds, muni bonds, euro debt, us treasuries, and on, and on..
We are a house of cards.
We are in deep doodoo.
By the way,(rumor has it) bank runs have started in france.(via a friend of max keiser)
http://www.silverdoctors.com/bank-holidays-begin-in-france-banque-postal-stops-wires-cash-transactions-friday/
You had me until the last item. Why must superstition and myth be brought into everything. Religion is one the most negative factors facing the world right now; be the Islamists or the religious nut zealot nut jobs that have hijacked the Republican party with the stated purpose of turing the U.S. into a Talibinespue theocracy. Do not believe me, look at some of Rick Santorum’s statements and check out Mike Huckabee’s statements about how Americans should be forced at gunpoint to listen to David Barton of Wallbuilders, whose stated aim is to turn the U.S. into a theocracy whcih would include what he calls “biblical slavery”. It seems people do not want to use logic, reason and critical thinking, but would rather rely on books of dubious origin and full of myths, fables and legends.
“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good,
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be myth-understood…”
(apologies to Nina Simone, The Animals, Santa Esmerelda and the 488 others who’ve recorded the song)
JoeinNC-
Get a grip! The Christians are not going to convert you by force. Nor will they burn you at the stake, feed you to the lions or make you watch Benny Hinn on television. Speaking on behalf of the North American Union of Plain Vanilla Christians, let me say- Really, we wouldn’t do that. Nor would we allow Huckabee or Santorum or anyone else to put you in a full-nelson and make you say ‘hallelujah.’ We don’t operate that way.
Please don’t confuse man-centered, man-made political power structures for true Christianity. And please don’t lump us all together. Lots of people throughout history have stolen the label ‘Christian’ for their political and economic power grabs, but they ARE NOT with us! They only use the term to justify their evil deeds and to try and fool the weak minded.
Also, please do more research before you dismiss as ‘myths, fables and legends’ the religious beliefs (to one degree or another) of a billion people. Not all of us bought into that on blind faith alone. There’s plenty to back up the basic tenets of the faith. In fact, more than everything on all the Roman emperors and Egyptian pharoahs COMBINED. If you dismiss the whole of Christian teaching as ‘myth,’ then you should also disregard everything you think you know about history as well.
Admittedly, we in the Christian community have plenty of knuckleheads saying crazy things. But we’re not alone there. Even the worlds leading Christian-hating atheist, Richard Dawkins, sometimes gets it wrong. On a television interview once, he mentioned the vast ignorance of so-called Christians about their own Bible. In response, the interviewer asked him for the full title of Darwin’s seminal work (what we lesser intellects call The Origin Of The Species). Dawkins couldn’t remember it! Just goes to prove- ignorance is no respecter of persons.
Besides, Norse Prepper mentioned the faith of his grandparents, not to proseletize anybody, but because it was a foundational part of their thinking, and the inspiration for all they did as preppers. I thought it was a very nice way to wrap up a great article!
“If you dismiss the whole of Christian teaching as ‘myth,’ then you should also disregard everything you think you know about history as well.”
Quite likely one of the most ridiculous statement I’ve read this week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhhZ-dex-k
JoeinNC, I agree completely.
I grew up working on a very similar farm as the one described – everything except for the sanctimonious God part. We did and had all that was mentioned above: barns, fields, woods, numerous animals, gardens, food preservation, hunting, wood heat, even gravity-fed spring water – and we were also good, honest, agnostic people.
Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to experience a profound spiritual connection and understanding without having it all explained for me in other people’s terms. I am comfortable NOT knowing exactly who or what God is, and I don’t run around pretending to know, either. All of this is possible without going to church, without constantly grasping a book, and without self-righteous, pious proselytizing.
I couldn’t agree more. What bothers me most is that “godbots” who preach about invisable friends (and I fully support their right to have one BTW), get so butt hurt when we say: “No, sorry I don’t need that whole god hypothesis to get along in life and be a good person.” If they feel they must preach about the existence and/or qualities of this being, and that we should respectfully listen to their treatise, then they should should respectfully listen to ours. And simply calling attention to the facts is not disrespectful.
22 lr still in use alot in midwest. we used birdshot daily to home in on skills with black birds and sparrows.
my brother and i still can (everything) and have small gardens that provide everything. I live in suburbs so people think im a little strange and often wonder what im doin, but no one really bothers me or makes comments either way. my mom had to get a cell phone because they only had a party line for her and before that had to go thru operator to patch thru to outside county. I think alot of people still live like you describe they just dont bother with chating online..thank goodness. good luck, we have alot of amish here and they could give a shit about the english that been making fun of them for decades, im in their boat. buy konabear traps, there a life saver/time saver. and learn about trout lines. This gonna be bad, only an honest man knows u dont get somthing for free, and we been livin on credit for a long time.
BYE BYE Fukushima!!
Google “guchol”
“super” typhoon to cross right over fukushima(if it stays its coarse)
if that typhoon brings down that spent fuel pond
more than Fukushima is going bye bye !!!
yep, you got that right.
BYE BYE Japan.
Hey, obama can bring in 149,475,664 japanese also!!
Kev you KNOW the US will take in Japanese refugees – you know it!
The thing is, I can a lot sooner understand extending charity in a situation like that than I can just allowing a massive influx of people to cross the borders because they think the US will be “better”. God forbid any of us have to be refugees in the future, but we should all understand that it could happen to any country at any time. It’s a whole different situation, in my opinion.
@daisy-Say japan had to be evacuated(for it to happen in 2 years about 200,000 people a day would have to leave)(so-WON’T HAPPEN), and every nation on the earth took in an equal amount of them, it would be about 800,000 people to each country.
Not that I am hartless, its just that there is NO WAY we(or other countries) would be able to afford to help, and absorb that many people into a society.
No nation(or the world for that matter) has the logistics and resources to move that many people.
I imagine if the worst happens, those that can afford to leave(and want to, 55+ year olds won’t want to) will leave, the poor and elderly would be stuck there to die.
No amount of charity or aid will help them(or anyone in the northern hemisphere for that matter, that includes you,me,our loved ones,countrymen, and the countries to my north and(your) south)
Moving those people from japan to north america would be like removing a roast from the oven, and putting it in a crockpot.
Hopefully the worst does not happen, but I think of sodom and gamorrah. Perhaps mankinds wickedness needs to be put in check again.(to put it in biblical terms,and I am not really religeous)
When Politics fail..you have war
politics have been failing for way way too many years in this world
time to do something different..stop funding the war machine, and the politicians.
when they can raise hundreds of millions of dollars just to “run” for a position in our government..you have to know something is wrong.when they can raise more money than they are paid in a year, you have to know their loyalties are bought…where and when is the revolution going to start? anything less is just political masterbation..and a waste of all of our time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRsf4yX13bA&feature=related
It was my Great-Gran that taught me the quote “sometimes the greatest strength is to simply to endure” when I was upset by racism as a primary school child. City racism was totally outside her country experience but she still managed to comfort me. I did my best to take her advice and so won a scholarship to an excellent private school for secondary. It was the sort of place that worked you too hard for anyone to have the energy for bullying, & I loved it!
Despite living in the back of beyond & leaving the village school at 12, she was very well informed as to world events thanks to the radio station BBC world service & could her own against the swankiest most sophisticated city folks.
I now quote the same to my son, when his disability makes life hard for him. In our battles for him to access mainstream schooling we’ve hung out our washing on the siegfried line many a time ; ) Someday I’ll have a small flock of geese in my front yard to keep out undesirable intruders just as she did.
I still roll my eyes, roll up my sleeves and put one step in front of the other when times get tough, just as she tried to teach me. I try and remember myriad tiny things, such as that windfall can make the sweetest pies (eg out of things that at first seem imperfect come the greatest pleasures).
My son’s friends adore some of her recipes – things like proper Cornish pasties, heava cake, fairy cakes, Cornish splits when they come over for tea. She’d be tickled pink to think of Russian, Portugeese, Somalian, Nigerian, Malaysian “city folk” all sitting round a table eating the foods she and my Granny taught me to prepare. Her mead and cider recipes also got passed down, though as I’ve often said my vinegar still isn’t good enough for preserving and she’d have something to say about that!
There are lots of wild food we gather here in the city every year that my friends don’t recognise as food, much less know how to prepare – damsons, crab apples, rose hips, medlars, mulberries to name just a small sample.
She’d survived two world wars, and so had a tough but very decent life, and I adored her. This article reminded me of her favourite hymn “Abide with me” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16vi5Zey1mk
We have a whippet, chosen for my son cos my Great Uncle used to breed them. She’s trained from my memories of his lessons and she’s a better hunter than any I’ve met who have been raised via “modern” methods – no clickers needed here.
She was a driving force behind my mother going to Uni, moving to the city and marrying a foreigner as ahe wanted a “better life” for those coming after. Despite my rose coloured glasses, life was VERY hard for her at times, with cold, poverty, hunger a constant risk. Many men were rejected by the army for WW1 & 2 from the village for being too unfit for ill-health reasons caused by poverty eg rickets & TB.
She lost children, friends and relatives to simple diseases we wouldn’t blink an eye at now. Both my Dad’s parents died of the flu, when he was young; and the British shot down two of his big brothers as they returned home after WW2, as they didn’t want colonists having fighter pilots that could possibly help their countries get indpendence from Britain.
Previous generations had their own SHTF times (2 world wars for a start); what they didn’t have was the insane entitlement mentality that afflicts us today. You didn’t work, you didn’t eat unless your family took you in.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
– John F. Kennedy
Can you name more than one Constitutional Republic in the history of man?
This is the only one.
It is easy to compare our situation today to past encroachments of tyranny upon other systems of government.
This isnt over yet. America and We the people who believe in this system of government ain’t done yet.
“When Democracy Becomes Tyranny…I STILL get to vote.”
“It is not our job restore the power of the Constitution. It is ours to show them the wrath of America without the protections the Constitution offers them.
Let them restore it to find refuge from us.” they are gonna need it, more than we need them
Thks for a good article NP. It’s always good to escape the drama and political BS for a trip down memory lane or a good daydream about how things should be. Reading thru the comments shows that most preppers are old enough to remember the ways and days of our grandparents. One comment about remembering how fresh cow’s milk tasted brought back that same taste to my memory. If it was fresh, ice cold, and had the right amount of cream mixed in, it was the best. Better still, was the butter that we churned up, spread on Grandma’s cat head biscuits and smothered with sorghum molasses or sourwood honey! Not too many people these days have had that taste in their mouths.
Hi,
I am the casting director for Doomsday Preppers on National Geographic. I am very interested in speaking to some of you about participating in our casting call. Please call me at 212 7847740 ext 233 or email me [email protected]
I hope to hear from you all soon!
My best,
Brooklyn
Very good article!
Brooklyn,
You may want to first talk to Alan Madison, executive producer of your show. In the past, there was an error in an article that was corrected, but since the original error occurred, he does not consider this a “Legitimate Prepper Website” and everything in that article, let alone this website has been rendered false in his opinion.
Mac corrected the previous article and apologized on that public forum and in email, however I believe he may still be puffing out his chest trying to bet people about literary typo’s so you might not be able to get much time out of him.
For my part, most people I have had the pleasure of knowing on this site are actual preppers that practice OPSEC and don’t find the need to show everyone on God’s green earth who they are, where they live and what they have to be looted or stolen when the SHTF.
After Alan came on this sites forum and ripped the website administrator a new one for an honest error and didn’t even say thank you when it was properly corrected, good luck getting any responses from us. One thing about preppers is that we tend to look after our own.
Just my 2 cents.
I’m takin’ the banjo, a jug of shine and my best coon hound and see if I can get in the casting call. We’ll show ’em what a real prepper looks like. Yee Haaaw! I’m gonna be a star!
Okie, they will have no chance!!! Won’t know what hit em!!!
I totally agree with you, we are like the farmers you mentioned, we look out for each other and we are brothers and sisters that will take bullets for each other. It is wonderful to know that there are other Christians out there that are willing to look at the reality of this country is coming to and to take a stand and be prepared when the SHTF. God bless!
This is one article that left me smiling at this site for a change. I was born in the late 60’s and had the greatest of luck to have been brought up by my Granparents who were born in 1916 and 1917 respectively. Hard working dairy farmers, who grew everything or made it from scratch. If I wasn’t with them learning and working, I was with my even older Grand Uncle who taugh me a ton of stuff not used in today’s world …. But in tomorrows world will be invaluable. He was still chugging along, farming his 65 jerseys cows and digging several chain (a chain is 66 feet or 22 yards long) of potatoes every year as his hobby. When he finally retired in the 90’s the first thing he did was hobble into the local Doctors surgery for the first time in his life and to everyone’s surprise. He explained that he’d been shot and needed someone to take out the bullet because he couldn’t bend at the hip. Pandemonium struck the Doctors office!!!! Even the Police were called. Where and when were you shot asked the astonished and panicking Doctor!!!???
Monte Cassino (Italy) in 1944 he said. Don’t worry it were 50 year ago that it happened but I know where it’s lodged. After the Doctor calmed down a bit he asked why my grt uncle didn’t have it removed earlier. He replied that “the Gemans wouldn’t do it, when they took me prisoner, so I didn’t worry about it after that”
Ahhh they built em tough back in those days. And they rarely complained either. They just got stuck in and got what ever job that needed doing, done. Can you imagine anyone from that generation buying a Tony Robbins motivational book or DVD to help them build up enough courage and motivation to get there butts outside to chop a couple corde of wood? Tony Robbins would be in tears with bleeding blistered hands in an hour flat if my Grandad or Grnd Uncle were motivating him.
The stories from the “old people” that you know are hugely important. Listen to them. They have much much more to offer you than any books and publications can provide. They also pass along stories and information that they were given to them!! as children. Some stories that you have might be several generations old. When I was 6 in 1973, one of my jobs was to carry a plate of roast dinner every Sunday, to an old man in his 90s who lived in a tiny little hut down the road from us. His stories were fascinating!! At the time I didn’t realise how important his stories were. He was one of the last Boer War (1899-1902) Vetrans left alive. Old George Bruce’s stories of horseback attacks against Boer guerilla fighters were astounding enough for a six year old, but his stories of his father fighting the Maoris in bush warfare during the 1860s were even better!!!
Everyone has their hand-me-down stories. Keep them, preserve them and keep passing them along. The important ones for me now are the ones about what we call “prepping” Or to the old people …. It was their daily, mundane, every day lives.
They didn’t have mod con bits and bobs to make there life easy. They did it with sweat and guts and normally without a machine and usually using material that they reaped, harvested, grew or felled to produce something useful to do something.
I realise that most people’s stories from the Americas, Britian or Europe are from Grandies who might be a little more modern. It’s just mine come from people who hacked a farm and a way of life from out of the bush.
When I think prepping, I tend to not think about the first few months of the SHTF after the lights go out as it were. My mind thinks along the lines of what I need to do afterwards. How do I get the old forge working again? What was it that Uncle said about driving a team of horses using certain kinds of trace and harness? How do I harvest pine tar by hand to use for caulking the old row boat, by just using raw sheep’s wool drenched in tar and a knife? or building a steamer to bend timber to build my own boat? The list is endless really. The skills are, oh so varied. But the point is, you’ve all got them. Somewhere in your DNA you know how Grt Grt Uncle Charlie drove the coach thru and over the mountain top pass in winter when the roads were out. And you know deep down why you boil the preserving jars before you bottle fruits and veggies or how to sharpen the axe and why you make the under cut last when felling a tree or why you let a sheep have a couple days quiet rest before slitting its throat before dressing and hanging it up for 24 hours. It’s in you DNA. It’s in your stories.
And if you don’t think it is, then I suggest you go to old second hand bookstores and find every book you can get on pioneering days. Cause if it’s not in your DNA, then you can rest assured that someone else’s DNA wrote a book about it.
Opps …. That should be back cut last.
I am a newcomer to the survivalist community. I’m building my info sites. Reading this blogarticle, i just had to share it; not to plagiarize, but to bring more awareness to the need for prepping.
1S1K – Plagiarize away. Happy to share and honored that you liked enough to do so!