Could not have said it better myself

Last week WF and I went on much needed trip to the Ozarks. We had a threefold reason, one was to relax, two was to meet up with some family members, and three was to look at some property.

We looked at 4 different pieces of land all pretty varied in terrain. Some of the properties we visited were fairly flat, rolling to hanging off the side of a mountain. Where am I going with this thread? well, On one piece of property I hiked up a pretty steep incline to check out the view. I kind of jogged up the incline in boots to the top, then that’s when it hit me! I felt like a fish laying on the bank sucking air. WF and my brother were at the bottom of the hill watching me so I walked over the ridge and out of view. I put my hands on my knees and started gulping air. I was not going to let the flat landers below see me suffering. I am not in bad shape for my age, but man that was a rude awakening. So below is a video from Southernprepper1. Time to up the intensity of my workouts.

My new bug out vehicle

Please don’t take this as a boastful article in the context of Oooh look at what I got! I just want to share what I have been doing prep wise and offer up ideas for thought.

I personally just had enough, the Yukon XL was nickel and diming me to death. The defining moment was $1000 dollars for a break job for all four corners. The brake roters were shot. Towed a trailer once.  I could see the brakes crapping out in daily city driving, but we don’t live in a city. Not had good luck with GM vehicles over the years.

There were other issues that cropped up with the vehicle over the past couple of years, burned a quart of oil every 2000 miles (seriously! GM even says its normal for that engine), interior pieces rattling and squeaking, the interior door handles had a recall because the plastic chrome was sharp enough to cut your hand if you did not open the door carefully. Leaned against the back tail light assembly one afternoon and the whole thing came off in my hand! Plastic had dry rotted around the screws holding the light assembly to the body. Found out after we bought the vehicle that the CarFax did not report a accident, spent $800 getting the front fender fixed and repainted.  Just could not justify spending anymore on keeping a fairly new vehicle running. Love the way it rode, lots of room, we could spread out and the dogs loved it.

I take care of my vehicles, and don’t run the crap out of them but there is a point where you have to cut your losses. Consumer Reports did not rate the Yukon very well either for that year, I knew that when we bought it. But enough GM bashing. After all they are a federal government agency now, you can’t expect great things from a bureaucracy.

Enter the Tundra (Cue dramatic music)

Ok, its not mine. GF bought it and we are rid of the Yukon. I won’t bore you with all the specs, other than it is a 4×4 and can burn E85 if needed.  It really towed a space shuttle too!  How can you argue with that?

The truck will still carry what we need it to in the event of having to move to a safer place, and I know in the event of a EMP it is going to be a 3 ton pile of metal slag sitting in front of the house. But until that time? We are just going to have to deal with it! We have only put a couple hundred miles on the vehicle so far. Since I don’t get to drive it to much I don’t have and gripes.

Here is a pretty cool BOV based on a 2010 Tundra. Exterior is completly sprayed with Line X Xtra.

Dirt Bags

This thought has been running through my brain for a few months now. I am not a big TV watcher but when I want some white noise, I usually always end up watching COPS or some other show of that genre. These type of shows are really a good primer on the criminal elements psychology.  I have laughed pretty hard at some of the stupid stuff that our countries criminal element does and get documented on TV for our viewing pleasure. Its truly mind boggling at the level of stupidity.

I refer to this sort of human ilk as bottom feeders. Most spend a disproportionate amount of their lives trying to hustle someone or something in order to get ahead. Some are very intelligent,  most are not.

[Before I get a ton of comments, save your time and not write me. I don’t care. I do not believe in rehabilitation and our system is designed to get them in and out quickly. On my tax dime. Most citizens convicted of a crime have had better healthcare, access to reference materials, free food, clothes, medication, and free heating and air-conditioning. I have to work for my luxuries]

Mildly put, they will lie about anything to get out any situation they might have been caught in doing or to get over on someone. Cheat anyone they can gain confidence with, steal from someone deemed weaker, kill to for any petty reason.

I believe the kill for any reason goes back to that entitlement attitude that is becoming more pervasive in our country.

Case in point: The show The First 48 had an episode about a victim that was killed for $200. To condense the story, 2 women and 2 men killed the victim and netted $50 each when they divvied up the money. Under interrogation one of the female suspects said the money was “mines” (or in English it was her money) and she needed $40 of it to pay her cell phone bill.  Back to my entitlement statement.

I think as preppers, we as a group need to think very hard about the type of people that will be trolling around after a SHTF event. Lets be perfectly honest with ourselves and each other. If a criminal feels that he or she will not be caught at perpetrating a crime, they will? commit a crime. If there is no rule of law, either civil or military, a criminal will take, or con, or kill for what they want. Don’t believe me?

Lets do a small background search on our collective recent memories. Bosnia, and Kosovo come to mind for the 90’s time period. Or within the last decade, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These 5 countries are perfect examples of how society degenerated into total chaos after the rule of law faded into dust. Somalia is still a basket case with tribal conflict, war lords and mass starvation. Iraq lasted about 6 mos. after our government sent all the police and military forces home. It took us how long to rebuild Iraq? Afghanistan? well I could write a dissertation on that subject .

We have all read in our post apocalyptic fiction books about the zombie biker gangs, the rouge National Guard unit, or the city gangs pillaging the country side for whatever. But have we sat and really thought about the possible confrontations? or the outcomes? Do you hide? Do you confront? Do you share? Do you bug out?

What about the friendly neighbor that lives down the street, you casually said hi to now and again, waved as they drove by your house, etc, etc.

6 months ago  he owned a small business, successful by today’s standards. 2 kids and a wife. Now they have nothing (you can put whatever scenario you want in here for the societal downfall) what would you do if you caught them picking through your property looking for scraps?
In all honesty really, what would you do?

You have a neighbor that talks the talk about prepping, have been shooting a number of times together at the range. Is he going to be the first to blow in the back door  to steal your blankets in the winter months? Maybe try to con you into his good graces for a free lunch? How about just rape your wife or daughter?

How many orphans do you take in?

If you have not seen the movie Lord of the Flies (or the book) by William Golding, I suggest you do. Watch it more than once. It is about human nature and the devolution of such. The story is a perfect 10,000 ft view of the 5 basket case countries I talked about a few paragraphs above. There will be a devolution in our society and the bottom feeders are going to prey on the weaker of us first. After that they will be forced into confronting harder targets or those that are better prepared.

I am not pigeon holing any prepper here at all, it is not my intention. It seems most of us are merely prepping for a short term event with the hopes that things will get better and life will return to “normal” such as what happened after Katrina. I base my statement on a lot of what I have read and most preppers say I am bugging out! It maybe OPSEC that they don’t speak much beyond that initial statement of I’m bugging out, I understand that. But I find it thought provoking none the less that we do not talk about the mental preparation end of business. We have the guns, the ammo, the food, the water, and on and on and on. You just cannot bug out and drive or walk down the interstate and not have a confrontation, walk the railroad tracks and run into the desperate former business owner and his family that I talked about above or the myriad of other displaced persons (UN speak) that you may just bump into without taking the time to think about the scammers and con-artists or the outright killers that just want what you have and they don’t.

Here is a bit more on the subject from thelizardfarmer blog. The article there got me motivated to write about some of these not to often discussed subjects.

I truly am open to any well thought out comments on this subject and am interested in if anyone has spent some time pondering this subject at any length.