A survival scenario: What do you do?

[nmap]

Let us consider a scenario - a survival scenario.

Starting point:

You are the proud owner (no mortgage!) of a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath house on 32 acres of good farmland. You're right next to a stream that has good water flow and has never gone dry. In addition, you get electricity from the grid, and have sewer and water connections to a small town with a population of about 250. The area is in the temperate zone of the U.S. and has 4 seasons. The area is fertile, rural, and many of the people have small numbers of livestock. A considerable number grow hay, and many have vegetable gardens.

In addition, you are well supplied. You have an extensive number of firearms of high quality, abundant ammunition, and some (2 gen +) night vision capability. You have one automatic weapon of your choice, fully (and lawfully) registered under the NFA. You have one year of freeze-dried and MRE food for yourself and your family. You also have all medications you and your family need. Your store of gold and silver will cover any normal bills you might have. Choose other supplies at your discretion.

Crisis:

For some reason, a crisis occurs - one which causes the normal functioning of the society to cease. This means that the delivery system that supplies the stores no longer works. Government and corporate checks are no longer delivered. Hospitals and the medical system in general cease to do their work.

Katrina was a short term example of this. One Second After, a novel about an EMP attack, considers a 1 year scenario. Some peak oil theorists suggest that such breakdown might result due to declines in oil availability. But whatever the reason, the web of trade and exchange has been disrupted.

Some Challenges:

As pointed out by The Reaper:

90% of the nice Americans are about 72 hours from reverting to savages.

Take away electricity, clean water, flush toilets, comms, wheels, a full cupboard, a universally accepted currency, and stores full of things to buy and watch what happens within days.

See Katrina for examples.

TR

Your neighbors in the small community are not as wise as you and have only limited supplies. Fortunately, you've been as gray as a person can be, so they don't know about what you have. You are within 150 miles of a number of cities of 100,000 population, and 1 city that has 250,000 people. They will have reverted, and they will be hungry. Your community (and you) are close to a major highway. You should expect large numbers of people to come through your area - at first by car, and later on foot. Many of them will be armed.

The grid and infrastructure may last for some time, but as society becomes unraveled, they will be less dependable and will ultimately fail. So the freezer won't be effective after about a month. Neither will the rest of the systems we have come to depend upon.

ROE

The normal standards of law and order have been relaxed. Calls to 911 produce no help. You can defend yourself and your property without adverse consequences. More aggressive postures entail the substantial risk of future legal problems.

Question: So - what do you do to get through 2 years? (Note that you only have stored food for one year) Simply hiding probably won't work, since the other people in the area will start to wonder about you. And they will notice that you don't look as if you've lost a lot of weight. Hunting may work for a while, but others will hunt too - so game availability will decline to a low level. Farming is fine, but you don't have any seeds stored. And although this is a rural area, many of the seeds available may be hybrids that don't reproduce.

Bonus Question: A stream of hungry, desperate refugees stream by on the roads. One of them that pushes all your emotional buttons seeks your assistance. An example might be a young mother with an infant in her arms. If you help one like this, others will come. This will continue until your safe-haven is overwhelmed or you turn them away. What do you do, and when?

[afchic]

Nmap - interesting scenario that I will have to ponder over tonight before I give a full accounting of how I would handle the situation.

But I can tell you for darn sure the first thing I am going to do is make sure the highway running past my neck of the woods is impassable starting about 50 miles from me in both directions, and working incrementally in from there. The longer I can keep the masses from the nearby metropolitan areas at bay, the better off me and my family will be.

[caveman]

Originally Posted by nmap

You are the proud owner (no mortgage!) of a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath house on 32 acres of good farmland. You're right next to a stream that has good water flow and has never gone dry. In addition, you get electricity from the grid, and have sewer and water connections to a small town with a population of about 250. The area is in the temperate zone of the U.S. and has 4 seasons. The area is fertile, rural, and many of the people have small numbers of livestock. A considerable number grow hay, and many have vegetable gardens.

In addition, you are well supplied. You have an extensive number of firearms of high quality, abundant ammunition, and some (2 gen +) night vision capability. You have one automatic weapon of your choice, fully (and lawfully) registered under the NFA. You have one year of freeze-dried and MRE food for yourself and your family. You also have all medications you and your family need. Your store of gold and silver will cover any normal bills you might have. Choose other supplies at your discretion.

At the very least, once society has righted itself, nobody can accuse us of being ill-prepared.

This should be an interesting dialogue.

[PSM]

Sounds like Jericho to me.

What are the property taxes on a town of 250 to provide sewer and water to a farm?

Pat

[The Reaper]

I see you have been reading.

Good questions.

The book was excellent, but very depressing.

First, buy topo maps of your area, from 1:25,000 to the 1:500,000 or so which includes the cities you mentioned in the area. Do an area study. Take up walking. Hike every piece of terrain you can find, first on your property, then everything within a one-mile radius. The analyze the threat. Where are people coming from and what routes are they likely to take? How close can they get to your home without being spotted? Where can they hide? Know how to get into your property, and out of your property, on foot and in vehicles, without being easily seen.

Are there any natural barriers between your property, and the high speed avenue of approach? If not, consider creating one of natural or manmade types. Rerouting a stream parallel to the road, creating an abatis, chain link, barbed wire, etc. Clear fields of fire. Limit cover/concealment within 100 meters of your home, if possible. Harden your structure. Work to reduce the hazard of fire, either accidental, or arson. Consider having the capability to close the road or drive to your house. Either demo or heavy equipment will work. Frankly, you do not want to be visible from the road. I would want to be as far from it and natural lines of drift as possible within your boundaries and tactical considerations. Keep a very low profile. Learn if any neighbors might be reliable in an emergency, and work out a generic mutual aid agreement. Also figure out which ones you cannot trust.

Ensure that you have multiple sources of potable water for an extended duration. If you have a spring or a well, get a couple of hand pumps. Try to get a source near your house and cooking/cleaning sites.You need a tank or a cistern, and possibly a windmill pump to fill it. You should probably convert to at least one diesel vehicle and get an underground tank of several hundred gallons, lots of spare parts or maybe a donor vehicle.

You need non-hybrid seeds, small farming equipment, protection for the crop, small livestock (chickens, goats, maybe a few pigs), and feed. Lay up food for your cats and dogs till they adjust to hunting. They are food sources as well, if you are short and they are not productive. I would consider getting a horse, mule, or small diesel tractor, with assorted implements for small farming/large gardening and spare parts. Seeds are cheap (as are chickens and goats). You live on a farm, start acting like it. I would skip some of the MREs for longer life, more variety, less expensive grains and legumes, supplemented by powdered milk, sugar, etc. Get a small grain mill. That could take you up to two years of supply right there. Get the largest underground propane tank you can afford (1000 gallons, if you can) and a small, quiet LP powered generator. Keep the tank topped off regularly. Get gas appliances, to include a gas powered fridge, or at least an adaptor to run your grill from the propane tank. Either an LP furnace, or a couple of fireplaces. The diesel will burn in a kerosene stove, if necessary. Think about buying enough deep cycle batteries and an inverter for a battery bank to run small appliances and lights throughout the day. Charge batteries and run large appliances with the genset once or twice per day, less if you can get away with it. Keep visible outside lights off at night. You might board or at least shutter your windows.

Lay in extra medical supplies, both routine and trauma. At least a year of essential medical supplies. Learn to treat trauma injuries and ensure everyone is CPR qualified. Get several large bottles of vitamins and some analgesics like aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, etc. as well.

Stay in shape. Take care of your health. Try to learn to cook and eat the food you have stored.

Cross-train members of the family so that no one person is key or essential. Everyone should be able to shoot, provide first aid, operate commo gear, cook, garden, etc.

Develop a local commo plan, consider PACE. I would keep spare electronics wrapped in heavy aluminum foil and sealed in ammo cans. Get several good handheld two-way radios, shortwaves, a scanner, etc. Use rechargeable batteries, try to standardize on AAs, if possible. Have several chargers, AC/DC, solar, etc. If you have a bicycle (or a small gasoline engine, if you have the gasoline), a good battery (preferably deep cycle, like golf carts and trolling motors use), and an alternator, a couple of pulleys, and a belt, you can make your own small generator and charge batteries, power small lights, like taillight bulbs, nightlights etc. Quiet and low profile. Good exercise, as well.

Learn to trap, lay in the gear, and make sure that the area supports game. Plant supporting crops and trees, especially nuts and fruit.

Stock up on barter items that you can also use, if necessary. Nothing too bulky. Coffee, TP, whiskey, rimfire ammo, fishing tackle, needles, etc.

Hygiene is an issue. Get some washtubs, pots, kettles, washboards, brushes, clothesline, soaps, toilet paper, etc. Think about waste disposal. A septic tank might work for a few years, if you maintain it and do not overload it with too many people making waste. Think about where you would put an outhouse. Keep the materials, and some quicklime on hand. Also consider where you will bury the dead, and how.

Have plenty of tools, both powered and hand, and know how to use them. A torch or a welder could be handy, especially if you have some stock material on hand. Keep plenty of plywood, 2x4s, 2x6s, sheet steel, angle iron, etc. on hand.

Lay in several times more ammo than you think you will need. If you anticipate a big threat, you might want to consider putting in some fighting positions. You never know what a slit trench could come in handy for. Quick to dig with a backhoe, line with concrete pipe, cover, and maybe even put some sod on top. Construct at least one covered and concealed route of escape from your house. If you have a barn, take care of it. You might wind up living in it if your home is destroyed or burned. Cache some supplies around the property and ensure that the others know how to access them.

You will need at least four people to run round the clock security and to tend to chores. Six older teens or adults would be better. Avoid contact with outsiders. Allow no one else to know of your preparations. Admit no one to your retreat who cannot add to your odds of survival. That means they have to have skills. No mercy, except for family. Your job is to ensure the survival of your family, not to take in the unprepared. if you have a 12 month supply for four people, and you take one additional person in, everyone just lost two months of their food supply. Two people means you ony have an eight month supply. Four and you cut it in half. How guilty should you feel saving strangers and sacrificing your family? I don't plan on trusting strangers in my house with my family in that situation while I sleep. That young mother with an infant could have a bunch of unpleasant friends waiting for her signal when you go to bed. Your call though.

If you are being pestered by refugees, you have not hardened the site or gone to a low enough profile. Most starving people will not negotiate several obstacles and travel hundreds of yards off the road out of idle curiosity. Put up a tall barbed wire fence reinforced with hog wire or chain link, and plant some vicious, fast-growing thorny bushes directly in front of them along the right of way frontage, and fertilize them. Close the driveway after the trigger event, and make it impassable. Consider dropping any small bridges that allow easy access that you will not need. If the neighboring properties allow access to yours, close them off as well. leave yourself a few exits, but camouflage and monitor them. Consider some perimeter warning devices and surveillance equipment. Obviously, you have to decide how serious to get with this. Your solution lies between no preparation beyond what you have already, and what I have offered.

Personally, I would not want to live that close to that many people, if I had a choice.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

TR

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

I see you have been reading.

Good questions.

The book was excellent, but very depressing.

Are there any natural barriers between your property, and the high speed avenue of approach? If not, consider creating one of natural or manmade types. Rerouting a stream parallel to the road, creating an abatis, chain link, barbed wire, etc. Clear fields of fire. Harden your structure. Work to reduce the hazard of fire, either accidental, or arson. Consider having the capability to close the road or drive to your house. Either demo or heavy equipment will work. Frankly, you do not want to be visible from the road. I would want to be as far from it and natural lines of drift as possible. Keep a very low profile. Learn if any neighbors might be reliable in an emergency, and work out a generic mutual aid agreement. Also figure out which ones you cannot trust.

Ensure that you have multiple sources of potable water for an extended duration. If you have a spring or a well, get a couple of hand pumps. You should probably convert to at least one diesel vehicle and get an underground tank of several hundred gallons.

You need non-hybrid seeds, small farming equipment, protection for the crop, small livestock (chickens, goats, maybe a few pigs), and feed. Lay up food for your cats and dogs till they adjust to hunting. They are food sources as well, if you are short and they are not productive. I would consider getting a horse, mule, or small diesel tractor, with assorted implements for small farming/large gardening and spare parts. Seeds are cheap (as are chickens and goats). You live on a farm, start acting like it. I would skip some of the MREs for longer life, more variety, less expensive grains and legumes, supplemented by powdered milk, sugar, etc. Get a small grain mill. That could take you up to two years of supply right there. Get the largest underground propane tank you can afford and a small, quiet LP powered generator. Keep it topped off regularly. Get gas appliances, to include a gas powered fridge, or at least an adaptor to run your grill from the propane tank. Either an LP furnace, or a couple of fireplaces. The diesel will burn in a kerosense stove, if necessary. Think about buying enough deep cycle batteries and an inverter for a battery bank to run small appliances and lights throughout the day. Charge/run large appliances with the genset once or twice per day. Keep visible outside lights off at night. You might board or at least shutter your windows.

Lay in extra medical supplies, both routine and trauma. At least a year of essential medical supplies. Learn to treat trauma injuries and ensure everyone is CPR qualified.

Stay in shape. Take care of your health. Try to learn to cook and eat the food you have stored.

Cross-train members of the family so that no one person is key or essential. Everyone should be able to shoot, provide first aid, operate commo gear, cook, garden, etc.

Develop a local commo plan, consider PACE. I would keep spare electronics wrapped in heavy aluminum foil and sealed in ammo cans.

Learn to trap, lay in the gear, and make sure that the area supports game. Plant supporting crops and trees.

Stock up on barter items that you can also use, if necessary.

Hygiene is an issue. Get some washtubs, pots, kettles, washboards, brushes, clothesline, soaps, toilet paper, etc. Think about waste disposal. A septic tank might work for a few years, if you maintain it and do not overload it with too many people making waste. Think about where you would put an outhouse. Keep the materials, and some quicklime on hand. Also consider where you will bury the dead, and how.

Have plenty of tools, both powered and hand, and know how to use them. A torch or a welder could be handy, especially if you have some stock material on hand. Keep plenty of plywood, 2x4s, 2x6s, sheet steel, angle iron, etc. on hand.

Lay in several times more ammo than you think you will need. If you anticipate a big threat, you might want to consider putting in some fighting positions. Quick to dig with a backhoe, line with concrete pipe, cover, and maybe even put some sod on top. Construct at least one covered and concealed route of escape from your house. If you have a barn, take care of it. You might wind up living in it if your home is destroyed or burned. Cache some supplies around the property and ensure that the others know how to access them.

You will need at least four people to run round the clock security and to tend to chores. Six teens or older would be better. Avoid contact with outsiders. Allow no one else to know of your preparations. Admit no one to your retreat who cannot add to your odds of survival. That means they have to have skills. No mercy, except for family. Your job is to ensure the survival of your family, not to take in the unprepared. if you have a 12 month supply for four people, and you take one additional person in, everyone just lost two months of their food supply. Two people means you ony have an eight month supply. How guilty should you feel saving strangers and sacrificing your family? Your call.

If you are being pestered by refugees, you have not hardened the site or gone to a low enough profile. Most starving people will not negotiate several obstacles and travel hundreds of yards off the road out of idle curiosity. Put up a tall barbed wire fence reinforced with hog wire or chain link, and plant some vicious, fast-growing thorny bushes directly in front of them along the right of way frontage, and fertilize them. Close the driveway after the trigger event, and make it impassable. Consider dropping any small bridges that allow easy access that you will not need. If the neighboring properties allow access to yours, close them off as well. leave yourself a few exits, but camouflage and monitor them. Consider some perimeter warning devices and surveillance equipment. Obviously, you have to decide how serious to get with this. Your solution lies between no preparation beyond what you have already, and what I have offered.

Personally, I would not want to live that close to that many people, if I had a choice.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

TR

TR,

WOW,when the $h*t goes down would it be alright if I moved next door to you and be your generic mutual aid agreement neighbor ?

Big Teddy

[Stras]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

I see you have been reading.

Good questions.

The book was excellent, but very depressing.

Are there any natural barriers between your property, and the high speed avenue of approach? If not, consider creating one of natural or manmade types. Rerouting a stream parallel to the road, creating an abatis, chain link, barbed wire, etc. Clear fields of fire. Limit cover/concealment within 100 meters of your home, if possible. Harden your structure. Work to reduce the hazard of fire, either accidental, or arson. Consider having the capability to close the road or drive to your house. Either demo or heavy equipment will work. Frankly, you do not want to be visible from the road. I would want to be as far from it and natural lines of drift as possible within your boundaries and tactical considerations. Keep a very low profile. Learn if any neighbors might be reliable in an emergency, and work out a generic mutual aid agreement. Also figure out which ones you cannot trust.

Ensure that you have multiple sources of potable water for an extended duration. If you have a spring or a well, get a couple of hand pumps. You should probably convert to at least one diesel vehicle and get an underground tank of several hundred gallons.

You need non-hybrid seeds, small farming equipment, protection for the crop, small livestock (chickens, goats, maybe a few pigs), and feed. Lay up food for your cats and dogs till they adjust to hunting. They are food sources as well, if you are short and they are not productive. I would consider getting a horse, mule, or small diesel tractor, with assorted implements for small farming/large gardening and spare parts. Seeds are cheap (as are chickens and goats). You live on a farm, start acting like it. I would skip some of the MREs for longer life, more variety, less expensive grains and legumes, supplemented by powdered milk, sugar, etc. Get a small grain mill. That could take you up to two years of supply right there. Get the largest underground propane tank you can afford and a small, quiet LP powered generator. Keep it topped off regularly. Get gas appliances, to include a gas powered fridge, or at least an adaptor to run your grill from the propane tank. Either an LP furnace, or a couple of fireplaces. The diesel will burn in a kerosense stove, if necessary. Think about buying enough deep cycle batteries and an inverter for a battery bank to run small appliances and lights throughout the day. Charge/run large appliances with the genset once or twice per day. Keep visible outside lights off at night. You might board or at least shutter your windows.

Lay in extra medical supplies, both routine and trauma. At least a year of essential medical supplies. Learn to treat trauma injuries and ensure everyone is CPR qualified.

Stay in shape. Take care of your health. Try to learn to cook and eat the food you have stored.

Cross-train members of the family so that no one person is key or essential. Everyone should be able to shoot, provide first aid, operate commo gear, cook, garden, etc.

Develop a local commo plan, consider PACE. I would keep spare electronics wrapped in heavy aluminum foil and sealed in ammo cans.

Learn to trap, lay in the gear, and make sure that the area supports game. Plant supporting crops and trees.

Stock up on barter items that you can also use, if necessary.

Hygiene is an issue. Get some washtubs, pots, kettles, washboards, brushes, clothesline, soaps, toilet paper, etc. Think about waste disposal. A septic tank might work for a few years, if you maintain it and do not overload it with too many people making waste. Think about where you would put an outhouse. Keep the materials, and some quicklime on hand. Also consider where you will bury the dead, and how.

Have plenty of tools, both powered and hand, and know how to use them. A torch or a welder could be handy, especially if you have some stock material on hand. Keep plenty of plywood, 2x4s, 2x6s, sheet steel, angle iron, etc. on hand.

Lay in several times more ammo than you think you will need. If you anticipate a big threat, you might want to consider putting in some fighting positions. Quick to dig with a backhoe, line with concrete pipe, cover, and maybe even put some sod on top. Construct at least one covered and concealed route of escape from your house. If you have a barn, take care of it. You might wind up living in it if your home is destroyed or burned. Cache some supplies around the property and ensure that the others know how to access them.

You will need at least four people to run round the clock security and to tend to chores. Six teens or older would be better. Avoid contact with outsiders. Allow no one else to know of your preparations. Admit no one to your retreat who cannot add to your odds of survival. That means they have to have skills. No mercy, except for family. Your job is to ensure the survival of your family, not to take in the unprepared. if you have a 12 month supply for four people, and you take one additional person in, everyone just lost two months of their food supply. Two people means you ony have an eight month supply. How guilty should you feel saving strangers and sacrificing your family? Your call.

If you are being pestered by refugees, you have not hardened the site or gone to a low enough profile. Most starving people will not negotiate several obstacles and travel hundreds of yards off the road out of idle curiosity. Put up a tall barbed wire fence reinforced with hog wire or chain link, and plant some vicious, fast-growing thorny bushes directly in front of them along the right of way frontage, and fertilize them. Close the driveway after the trigger event, and make it impassable. Consider dropping any small bridges that allow easy access that you will not need. If the neighboring properties allow access to yours, close them off as well. leave yourself a few exits, but camouflage and monitor them. Consider some perimeter warning devices and surveillance equipment. Obviously, you have to decide how serious to get with this. Your solution lies between no preparation beyond what you have already, and what I have offered.

Personally, I would not want to live that close to that many people, if I had a choice.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

TR

Prep your house so it looks abandoned and run down. therefore dissuading people from prying. Tiger traps, and punjis will also help keep the riff raff away as well as double as a food source with wild game.

stock up on reloading supplies and weapons maintenance items. never know just how long you'll be in the s**t.

camoflage your generator and put a silencer on it.

nice that you have an automatic weapon of choice, but you need something for the dead space. augment with a M79.

learn how to sew, for the clothes repairs. Yon's sew shop probably won't make house calls during the crisis. have a lot of work clothes in varying sizes to compensate for your waist size. Depending on how you're heating your house, this could be known as the layer system.

Don't remember a survival radio in the list. they have the ones now that you can wind up and charges a battery.

board games to play with your family.

a large tool box capable of sustaining major home repairs and or appliances.

Plan a fall back position on the property preferably on high ground, yet still with access to primary or secondary water source.

Have a PACE plan and rehearse it with your family. Execute it to find the bugs in the plan.

Range cards for your property from the different fighting positions.

cohesive interlocking fields of fire with your neighbor.

recognition signals for you and your neighbor.

[albeham]

After reading this one.. I'll need to move the whole family from where I live.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by albeham

After reading this one.. I'll need to move the whole family from where I live.

Only if you are worried about it.

You could also try to leave your current home if things start going badly, and go somewhere else, especially if you have friends or family there. I would make arrangements ahead of time, and wouldn't wait till the last minute to leave though.

TR

[HOLLiS]

Find a house off of the beaten trail.

[mugwump]

You sir, are stuffed, but you'll be relatively comfortable until someone with with a Ted Williams 30-06 takes you out. You don't have enough personnel to push your perimeter out past a relatively easy shot with a scoped deer rifle. Three guys and a little patience should do it.

I worked a three-acre truck farm one summer (tip - make sure you have a lot of work gloves until your hands callous up). You and yours will be spending a lot of time out in open fields, turning, planting, hoeing with slung rifles, if you expect to have food that second year. ("I'll shoot the daughter in the leg first, that should anchor Dad and big brother and you two can take them out.") And that's assuming you take TR's advice and start now. Trying to turn fallow pasture into productive acreage in one season is a pipe dream. Land has to be learned.

Game out this counter-scenario: You and your buddies like guns. Until ammo got so expensive you shot a coupla hundred rounds every other weekend and you are all fairly proficient. Like many armchair survivalists you have enough firearms and ammo to kit out a squad but only enough food and water for a couple weeks, at most. The water is down and the food's gone and Uncle Sugar is nowhere to be found. Joe and Gus were riflemen in the Marines. You all have kids and you won't watch them starve without a fight. Time to head out into the country and see what you can find.

Or imagine you've been hunting all your life, or gangbanging since you were 12, or served 20 years in the infantry, or you are a local sheriff's deputy with a family and no plan. There are an awful lot of complacent people, but an empty belly focuses the mind. I can't be the only one who has a good state atlas (with little blue squiggles on it), a fine rifle, and a brain.

You are describing a total breakdown in social order. At the minimum you'll need 3? or 4? farms like yours, supporting each other in close cooperation. Look at the Rhodesian experience...and they had radios, FALs and Land Rovers.

The good news is that you're covered for anything up to, but not including, the scenario you've laid out. Now if you move to the farm now and start to work it, cleave to the community, coach Little League, go to church, offer to help your neighbor pull that dang stump, cautiously feel out and identify like-minded others, etc. then you have more options, in my opinion.

I've decided to prepare enough to avoid standing in line for handouts during a 12 month hiccup. Preparing for total societal breakdown, zombie attacks, >20% CFR pandemics, etc. require levels of commitment and paranoia I have yet to attain.

[albeham]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Only if you are worried about it.

You could also try to leave your current home if things start going badly, and go somewhere else, especially if you have friends or family there. I would make arrangements ahead of time, and wouldn't wait till the last minute to leave though.

TR

Nope.. I have a plan... I come with gear and ammo... and a willingness to pull security .

AL

Originally Posted by HOLLiS

Find a house off of the beaten trail.

Build a house off the beaten trail yrs before this scenario hopefully never happens in my lifetime.

IF it does.

I am not so sure I would have an obvious fence with barbed wire. Humans have an inate sense of curiousity about what might be behind it that is so worth all that barbed wire. They would not, however, notice blackberry hedges that are thick and encircle the property that apears to be thick woods. The house, sitting up off the ground by 12 feet on piers with stairs that are retracted when not in use or when needed to be up in defense. NO generators... go Luddite..
http://www.lehmans.com/store/catalog?Args=
These guys once shipped me a wood cooking stove and a propane powered freezer, we converted to methane.

Until the 20th century, most people did not have multi sets of clothing. Clothes were let out or taken in according to the individuals size. Clothes were handed down from one to the other and remade or refitted. The buckskinning series of books offers up simple patterns that can be turned into clothes by any novice, with a needle and a bedsheet. Most older, all metal insides, sewing machines can be turned into a handcrank machine or run via a foot treadle.

Not one box of tools, several for each system, electrical, plumbing, general tools.

skils and goods for barter. It is done all the time in the offishore cruising community.

About those in need. I dunno... the child's story "Stone Soup" made a huge impact on me as a kid, that is still with me as an adult.

Jericho was so unrealistic it was laughable. But I enjoyed it anyway.
AM.

[iamwill]

Edit

[HOLLiS]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

Build a house off the beaten trail yrs before this scenario hopefully never happens in my lifetime.

Yep, best defense is being invisible. People will go to place that are near the beaten trail, places that draws their attentions that might fulfill their needs.