The Neighborhood As A Defense

I'm new here and wanted to say how much I have enjoyed reading the many posts and suggestions. I certainly don't have the expertise to offer that more experienced people can, but do want to offer what I can.

I am prepared for a year, Food, medicine, etc., modest but adequate defense, a mini hardware store, the usual. My wife and I are pushing 70 now and bugging out isn't an option. It just isn't. Shelter in place our only option. We probably wouldn't make it long term, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try.

The only thing that truly scares me is an EMP. Short term, 30-60 days....eh....things would bounce back sort of. It is the long term that people like myself are concerned about.

Day 10-60, or what would become the starving time, and dealing with hordes of starving people is something a couple would have a hard time standing against alone. I thought about this. A lot.

The only solution I could come up with was increasing my numbers.

I live in a semi circle of 5 homes. 12 people. 3 children. Edge of a small town. Prior to last April nobody knew each other. Barely a wave. I know, who talks to the neighbors anymore? I wanted to somehow bring everyone together on a more community basis. I couldn't talk about prepping. I know the first rule, but I did find a reason for all of us to talk about a shared neighborhood concern. I started a little one page printed newsletter on the subject and took it around physically every month. In the margins talking about other things. Events in town, little things that affect us.

The results have been amazing. First I should say they are all really nice people, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to know them earlier. I see them all talking in the street now. People are watching each others houses while on vacation, their pets, picking up mail - the whole bit. It is every bit a community now, and to some degree everyone cares about their neighbors.

Human nature being what it is, I would imagine during a truly nasty experience such as a year long or more EMP, the neighborhood would turn into itself for protection. We would all need each other and now we all know each other.

I consider this effort the most important prep I have done.

I am also putting enough food away to feed them all for 90 days. Self serving? Yes, but it also serves other people. They just don't know it yet.

 

Great thinking. You'll now know who among them are wise and who are flaky. Avoid the flaky like the plague. Any ex-military who are healthy & sane? Find them in your neighborhood. Identify what they will need without letting them know what you are doing.

Put back iodine tabs for the children (protects thyroid from radioactive iodine) and young adults. Some nukes will likely go up when it hits the fan. We are old and what are we going to do, get thyroid cancer in 30 years. I'll be very very dead long before then. Actually, maybe my thyroid has already shut down; I have no metabolism.

You'll make fast friends if you can do something for their children. Kool-Aid packs allow cranky kids to drink enough water in a survival situation.

Oh, when people starve, they get weak. They'll be weak in a week. And most folk aren't brave. Folks who loot are the least brave. Shoot a few and the rest will soil their pants. Dangerous / killer crews will be rare -- i.e. it is not going to be like one sees in the movies.

One scenario I see happening is a slow breakdown in society. Things will start getting strange, then strangerer, then strangerererer, then violent, then some relief, then strange, strangerer, then the government will pull some crazy crap, ... . Me, I expect to see Rod Serling smoking a cigarette on my front porch -- shoot I'll go out and smoke one with him.

By the by, you can't save them all. Just make your peace with that right now. Some you'll have to make friends with so that you can shoot them in the back later on.

 

Yes it would be nice to be blissfully ignorant of human nature, but it is what it is and we live within a very thin veneer of civilization. From what I see, held together with checks by the government and illusion. Those of us older grew up with grandparents and parents who went through the great depression and knew how bad it could get. A lot of that was transferred to us. Honestly, I don't think anyone on my block has a thing put away. It is insane.

In the end, to me, the greatest danger in any long term situation is our fellow man. I would like to see old Rod though and you are right. To ape Carl Sagan....the universe is not only stranger than we suppose, it is stranger than we can suppose. I suspect the same will hold true into our individual neighborhoods.

 

Unfortunately, we have to find fellow humans who have a work ethic and a moral ethic. Me, I see this as a test from God. As a parent, God is tough, even mean. This world is downright horrible oftentimes. Don't go expecting any Mercy on God's part; you'll be in for a long wait.

 

Ive tried to think about this in a broader sense. I completely agree about probably the absolute safest thing you can do is live in the middle of nowhere and avoid people. I understand the argument.

But to what end? We are a social animal, to an extent. Personally I am upset that we have put in a stop light in my little town. Living in a big city.....not a chance. But that aside, is survival for itself enough? Without making an effort to rebuild society in some form, nothing has been achieved. Living out your life in the woods devoid of other people, the death of civilization and in 50 years, the species as we know it.

I could probably do it. I don't have that many good years left. Eventually, after the initial danger period and mass chaos, it is our responsibility to venture out of whatever tunnel system we have been hiding in and at least attempt something. Particularly when you consider the above average skills and knowledge about basic survival that anyone signed onto the forum possess.

As horrible as base human nature can be, their is also an opposite nature to man. Which would become dominant in whatever comes after would greatly depend on the behavior of good men doing something rather than nothing.

Is it a battle worth fighting? It will be a decision all of us may have to make at some point.

 

Completely agree. We don't have as a society the general skills to compete with the people that got off the boat at Plymouth Rock. Or the toughness. AND THEY ALMOST DIDN'T MAKE IT THROUGH THE FIRST WINTER....One look at the video out today of the people fighting in Walmart over a Chinese made TV.

Something bad is coming. There are few and far between of people like you out there that will still be standing after an initial period of chaos. What shape a following civilization will take depend on a very few number of people.

In a couple of generations we have gone from the baddest bunch of you know whats to a society of whining little babies that have to have safe spaces and think the government is there to do everything for you. It is going to be brutal when it happens. Brutal.

I imagine all of us here have food, water, seeds, little hardware stores, books, the basics. Once that is done, if it ever really is, attention to security and what comes after is, IMO, paramount. You are very correct in your comment though. From what I see of society here in the US.....I'm not sure we deserve rebuilding. If it wasn't for the little kids being born into what comes I would be with you cabin in the woods guys.

 

The SHTF events will also serve to be Darwinian-thinning events. The able are the only folk who will have a half-chance of surviving.

 

At your perimeter, hook'em between the Achilles tendon and ankle, then hoist them up onto a telephone pole's cross-beam. Swinging in the breeze they'll be a silent billboard that speaks volumes.

Lower him to draw dogs. Shoot the dogs. Vietnamese cuisine and all, don't'cha'know. Then hoist the silent mu'addhin back up for show'n'tell. God is great.