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mugwump · 10-07-2009, 19:53

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.

10-07-2009, 19:53	#11
mugwump Area Commander Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,403	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. __________________ mugwump “Klaatu barada nikto”
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