A Hard Critical Look At Preps, The Simple Stuff

A Hard Critical Look At Preps, The Simple Stuff

In the past I traveled to the most northern part of the state of California and Nevada.( Good enough and close enough for this article) I was the hired gun so to speak for two separate “groups” as a consultant and observer generating a report card on the areas they wanted advice on. This worked for me as the groups are not known to each other. But are within a 100 miles of each other.

I cannot and will not give specifics. However, so many things are generic and important and are often over looked either by small family groups or larger groups who are well backed by money.

I start out meetings with groups like these pretty much the same way. I ask questions. Most of the time , over the years, the answers are “stock” and predictable. In print it might seem simple and obvious but that is not the case year after year. Many of these folks are not unaware and some are very sophisticated.

I start with a general talk, no questions really just suppositions. What happens ? Someone volunteers information. As in we have several thousand dollars hidden here in cash and gold. What? I jump to my feet and yell, “don't tell me that” , It is none of my business, I don't need to have that info, please, why would you volunteer that info”. “Now you are going to have to move it because now I know the general location. If it does a vanishing act, all fingers will point to me”. ( I make it a practice to be blind folded the last several miles to the site). They want me to find the perfect place(s) for a cache or 10 of them. ” No, I do not want to know where you hidyhole anything. I do show and give them ideas, in detail,  of what to do and how to do it, but they have to find the perfect location on their own.

I love this one and this has happened a lot since 9-11. Most do not recognize the trap. ” We are very aware of the news and we follow such and such survival guru and the other guys as well. ” Really ” sez I. ” Yep and we feel that should the flag go up, the balloon, goes up, (add all the other SHTF sayings) we are so aware, so attuned,  that we will know when to pull the plug and bug it, heading to our “place” and be already in place before the highways and freeways are all jammed”. Me, “Really?” . This is when I ask a very simple question , ” When you saw or heard about the twin towers what did you do? Sit and watch it on TV or bug out? That was your cue to get out of Dodge and even out of Squat and Dot, wherever and run as fast as you could to the hills or whatever you have planned”. Silence. ” How did you know that wasn't a large scale deal as the news kept updating. Forget what we learned afterward, we didn't know that then”. Silence. ” So all of you were potential sitting ducks and maybe dead in an hour. This could have been a first wave and happen in one city after the other. After the planes, what next?”

My other question is, ” What have you got in place and who have you got in place that is on top of the information and who  is so much smarter than everyone else, that you will have ability to move ahead of thousands of other well informed people. We all get our info from pretty much the same places. So who is the special genius in your group that has this handled? ” Now this comes off very smart ass and a bit arrogant in print but in person it really gets attention. Fast.

One of the groups had about 40 members. Many professional folks, from lawyers to doctors. Firemen, cops, and everyday working people, all with a trade of some kind. All in all a good solid mix of people. Put together very smart, covering a lot of skills. I saw supplies, from food to water ( not enough at all) and tools for the future. A lot of good planning went into this venture. They showed me how well placed the “retreat” was. Well not really because too many people below them, on the road to the retreat, would have been aware of the building site and traffic as they passed through a narrow gorge to the retreat. A lot of activity will draw attention, always. They asked about the tactical location of this place and showed me what they had in place. Not bad, not good either. No fallback. In a collapse , for the most part we can forget about airplanes. Except from the military, and there should be no reason for them to seek you out over the thousands of other retreats around the country like this one. So they did not pay attention to the “high ground” , directly behind them. We had a one of those discussions about all of these issues.

Simple stuff, for the most part but I have seen this over and over again. They failed to break down the real use of water over a real period of time. Simple answer, dig a well, they have the money.
The plan is to have enough on hand for 90 days. They have seeds etc for a garden. None of them has ever grown a garden.

90 days for the food and water preps. This came from both groups. Where did this magic number come from? This is one of my pet questions. “Where the hell did you get that number? ” So after 90 days we are suddenly back to normal? We have it all handled in 90 days no matter what the problem is/was?” Both groups had the same number, I have run into this number time and again. WE do not know or really have any idea , if the “down time” is going to be 2 weeks, 60 or 90 days, a year or 5 years. If the whole grid went down it could take 6 months, I have read, but no one really seems to know.

The other group was small in comparison, about 15 people. A very modest but very nice “campout” place with some clever use of berms hiding RVs, plantings on the berms of native plants and trees. The longer this has to work the better it will be. A few easy to put up metal buildings, solar and a few genies. Some easy to raise livestock already in place. Chickens, rabbits, goats etc. All easy to feed. Two full time families in place. They have good use on a small output of money. Much easier to feed this small group.
Did I rip this one also, yes, but I won't go into the details, but much along the same lines as the larger group.

I have left out a lot of information here on purpose . I just wanted to highlight a few things that I have seen over the last 25 years or so that I have consulted with folks, most make the same mistakes over and over. Why? mostly because it has not been tested in this country. Very hard to see a real perspective when you are in the middle of it. We tend to accept what a more emphatic member has to say on a subject, and beats the rest down. Sometimes things seem logical but in practice they are not.

One last thing, getting there. Believe me no one has a special trail, route, road , etc that 1000s of others do not know about. I have been in very remote roads like in Nevada and watched as the road backed up after an accident, with a mile of traffic. Or even road construction . Take any road, trail. You only see it in a very short time span and in very short , minutes of use. Say it has been there for 30 years. Times that by the number of folks that travel the route in a year. You are talking one hell of a of folks that know your special shortcut. A trail, doesn't that say it all? It is a trail for a damn reason , lots of people have used it for years and years.

Answers to many of these things.
The simple stuff will trip you up.
I have made a long study of these conditions, and reached many conclusions after viewing many sites over the years.

Many have to be a custom job. Most issues can be handled.

Details, the simple stuff.

By Dude McLean

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