A while back, my family and I were at a cookout at a friends house. Also attending were several couples that I’d never met before. After the festivities started to wind down, one of the new acquaintances mentioned my website, catching me off guard. I was well aware that my friends that were hosting knew of my site, and I’m fairy certain that they share many of the same beliefs and, shall we say, “past times”, but I wasn’t aware that they’d actually mentioned what I did to their friends as well.
Apparently, I swing a larger loop than I thought. Well, two people larger, at least.
The conversation quickly went from fun to serious, with topics such as systemic failure, foreign invaders, and the increasing appearance of our government preparing for a police state. I did what I could to keep everything levelheaded, basically saying that while I KNOW bad things WILL happen, the things I expect to come true are things like job loss, sickness, and other mundane, less extravagant realities.
Bad things happen every day. We all know that. But some folks take the reality of bad things WILL happen to extremes. The person speaking earnestly with me kept coming back to the same thread, “Well, whatever happens, I have guns and ammo enough to deal with it.” He then would ask me what my plans were when “things go wrong”.
I replied that we have food enough to get us through several weeks of no income, and have used it before when I’ve had a slowdown of work.
He nodded, glazing over my answers and went right back to the “End of Days” scenario.
A world Without Rule of Law.
Everyone for themselves.
Mad Max type days.
The S has hit the F.
I was a bit annoyed that he dwelled on the far less likely scenario, ignoring the reality that he himself had even admitted to have experienced several times in his life.
After several attempts at getting him to realize he needed to start small, since most “Bad Things” occur at the most local of levels, I changed tactics. I went with his storyline, breaking it down to the most simple of details. My response, taking his scenario of complete social breakdown:
Stay put. Make my place look ransacked and worthless. Stay inside. Wait. For at least a month.
He nodded, agreeing it was a good idea, then went on to ask or my reasoning.
I stated that using the Rule of 3’s, after a week or so, many will have died from dehydration. After three weeks, plus a few days, most everyone will be very close to starving to death. That’s assuming that no power, no supply trucks, no law enforcement. His baseline. My answer.
Then as I watched him nod, agreeing it was a fairly sound plan, I tried planting the seeds that failed in my first round.
“You DO have water enough for your household for at least a month, right?”, I asked.
He responded that he did not, but had always planned on at least putting in a rain barrel.
“You should do that tomorrow.”
He replied, “Oh, I can do that any time. I even have a guy that will sell me a couple food-safe barrels.”
“Do it tomorrow.”
“But I can have it ready any time I need it.”
I pulled the trigger with, “When you NEED it, it will be too late.”
He never did see my point. I hope he reads this and understands I’m trying to help him help himself.
The ULTIMATE secret to being ready tomorrow, is do something today.
That is it. If you want to be ready for tomorrow, do something to today improve your tomorrow.
Peace,
db
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I meet people with the same mentality as your friend all the time in my survival classes. Although they’ve come to me to learn basic skills like fire starting, building emergency shelters and water purification when you try to discuss survival preparedness, even small things like carrying a survival kit in your car, they don’t seem to get it. When you need it – you need it now. If and when the SHTF, and I’m in your camp on that being unlikely, what are these folks planning on doing – walking to Wally World and joining the looters to try and find what they need?
BTW – tell me about that big bass you’re holding on the SurvivalPunk post.
Yeah, its “The forest for the trees” mixed with burying your head in the sand…and while I”m just as guilty, mostly due to time constraints, I DO try to get things done every day, if only little things. Education is just as important (more so, as you’ve taught me, Hank) as equipment, so I tend to lean towards knowledge, doing things like listening to podcasts while driving, and such. There is ALWAYS time to listen to something, you just need to manage your time a little better…
Hanks is referring to this post, where James from SurvivalPunk.com interviewed me:
http://www.survivalpunk.com/episode-29-db-from-florida-hillbilly/#more-4013
As to the bass, I was helping my uncle, Jon, move fish from one of his ponds to anther, mostly targeting catfish. I was using bread dough, something Jon had been feeding the fish for two years. I would throw several pieces of bread into the water as low-grade Hillbilly chum (Jon also grew up in WV), and on my fourth or fifth cast, this bass picked up the bread ball on my hook. Apparent;y he wasn’t against a free lunch, even if it wasn’t his typical meal….
…or maybe i caught one of the elusive Florida Vegetarian Largemouth Bass….
Naw, that fish has good color tone and a full stomach…he wasn’t a vegetarian.
On that note, do you know how to tell if a person is a vegetarian?
Don’t worry, they WILL TELL YOU!
Peace,
db
Here is the fish in question:
I live up in tampa and lived several years in the Houston/Galveston, tx area. I’ve been through hurricanes a few times and my parents raised me to be a prepper. my dad lived with me and always had a BOB for when the county would come get him for evacuation to a special medical shelter. that way I could batten down the house, get the dogs and kitties and the kids and leave without worrying about him or his medical needs.
i had to give up my home when i retired and am living in a nice small apartment with plenty of storage despite its size. i have a friend who came over from cuba as a teenager but never learned about loss or doing without. she will grocery shop almost every day and there is little in her pantry to speak of. i have tried to talk to her because she knows about hurricanes both here and in cuba but she just doesn’t listen. i have basically given up because she told me she would come to my house when the time came. ha! i told her NO. i just cant see helping someone who knows the truth but wont help herself.
i am learning so much lately about all the other craziness in the world today and am expanding my own preps for when and if.
Read my article, “So if everything goes to pot, I know who to visit!””
I had a co-worker that “kinda” knows what I do and had asked me how long seeds would last if he stored them. I asked why? He said if the SHTF he would have them to plant and have food to feed his young family. I told him it takes from 3 to 4 months to plant and harvest the crops and what were they going to eat in the mean time? He looked at me for a few moments and said, I guess we’re going to starve. I said, YUP!!!
I did get him started on the BEANS & RICE storage.
I always love the doomsday question. You did the very responsible thing in that situation to try your best to help that guy out. He seems like a dick though so I would have messed with him and told him I knew stuff. I know for a fact that the gov is planning (insert some infowars bs here) and that he needs to prepare now! Basically I would try to make him pee his pants. Your response was much better.
You are an ass…glad you are on my side 🙂
Though your method MAY get him to start doing something, and other than making him think I’m wrong and/or and asshat that was messing with him, he WOULD end up in a better preparedness state…and ultimately, THAT is far more important than me making a friend…
😛
Jim, I think he was peeing his pants when I asked him what they were going to eat for 4 months.
People, get out there and plant NOW. SOMETHING. Anything, if your mowing a Lawn your doing it all WRONG. Everything you buy from the store is taxed in some form, shipping taxes, “box taxes,(Those go to ME to pay my taxes)” Port charges,
USDA inspection charges,Health care taxes for everyone that touches it,fuel taxes,farmers and stores property taxes,it all gets passed down to the consumer. YOU PAY THE MAN. Or you grow it yourself.
Growing your own food is like printing your own MONEY. 😉
Listened to the podcast db Good job. Hey, I’m from K-zoo
Was singing this while listening,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ogQ0uge06o
Where do I learn to clean a fish? My dad and I use to fish quite a bit and he always cleaned the fish we caught but I never watched him. I suppose youtube would help. I guess I will look there first. I know how to clean small game (squirrles and rabbits). Any place else I can look?
Thanks
Tim
I learned from my father…YouTube is going to be a great starting point…then find a local fisherman and ask. I have an uncle that happily invites me along on fishing trips – I don’t mind cleaning fish, and he HATES it…I always earn my spot…when we catch fish 🙂
Let me know how it goes…
YouTube has “how to” videos for almost everything…. try it out or hang out at the boat dock in the afternoon and ask to help, the experts don’t mind helping show others how it is done.