by Ron Foster
Don didn’t know what might happen amongst those trailer zombies if faced with starvation within the confines of a trailer park. He figured many would choose the moment of a WROL (Without Rule of Law) situation to settle old scores, the same as the intercity and whack each other in some short-term violence. Then what? Of course they would band together under whoever had some military or gang related experience and move to a suburb to attempt to take what they needed. DISTANCE, distance was Don’s friend. The suburbs would fight some of the anarchy headed his way, the cities would spew the gang-bangers and riff-raff past many guns in other peoples hands before he had anything to worry about, he guesstimated. Total Chaos would drive many regular folks out of their homes regardless, so it was hit or miss option if they wandered his way. Don liked most people in general and could not stand for an animal or human to suffer, but he wrestled with how to turn the needs of others down if it meant his or his family’s own survival if push came to shove.
He had no problem shooting someone in defense of his or his charges survival or safety. Years of the military and street smarts had taught him a calculated callousness to it all. He would not consider shooting a man robbing his garden to feed himself or his family. But in desperate times with armed intruders everywhere, how much or how careful of a warning was wise? History tells us of eras filled with strife and yet travelers were bedded down in the barn etc. and common hospitability extended.
The morality has changed in this country though or has it? The “Gun Preppers” those young ignorant types that store only shot and shell and very little sustenance are an enormous danger that he thought about at times. Nothing wrong with being classified a gun prepper if you are just enjoying choosing and stocking a variety of weapons for different tasks. The problem is when someone becomes fixated upon having the biggest baddest gun to the detriment of their food preps and fantasizing about a video game shoot-um up version of societal collapse. Some of these young idiots go out of their way to say they are going to take the stuff from true preppers because they invested all their time and energy in negatively observing our efforts to teach the public to get prepared. Little Johnny Rambo survivalist types will be a scourge, if a community does not in some cases hunt them down and prevent them from robbing others just because they think they can.
Don had many years of experience and formal training that taught him that, generally speaking, most folks will give you the shirt off their back when a disaster occurs and work diligently and kindly to remake a community. Then you got the A-holes who have been waiting for just this kind of moment to loot a store or the sex offender that is going to take advantage of a bad situation to get his jollies. If the poo hits the fan, expect that a big sorting out of society will occur and until the bad eggs and predators are dealt with, it is not going to be safe. It might be a rude awakening for some folks who are unprepared just how nasty humanity can turn if offered the right circumstances.
Don was prepared for his own basic safety and well-being and able to fend for his close family, what was on the minds of others was what worried him, however. Cannibals, Zombies, Mutant Ninja bikers, etc. that other preppers referred to were not the cause for him to worry. It was that simple 100 yard shot that was aimed at him when he was tending his garden, because someone wanted his preps or his garden because they had not prepared for their family. He had long since put away that fear as something you could prepare for, but he was well aware of its potential threat. His personally prepared analogy of the situation was simple:
Make yourself as irreplaceable to others as you can be in the post apocalyptic community. Be ready to form a community or get together like-minded people in order to protect others and be protected by them. Don had already added to his PREPPER LIST the need to add a few dozen more 110 Conibear traps. They were a cheap and effective means to forage for sustenance. The internet survival trapping Guru Bruce “Buckshot” Hemming had always told folks it was the best ONE survival trap ever made.
Don had put the knowledge that age and experience had given him to expand on another notion for his little piece of the woods. He remembered the lessons he had learned in a book he had read called the Rural Ranger that had said similar things regarding traps and snares and had studied in detail the techniques of using this modern day steel body kill trap.
He related well with this authors disdain for the cruel and inhumane leg hold traps often used in the fur industry and never gave them a thought, except to look at their form and function should he ever run across some. What Don had come to realize regarding his neighbors was that people watched animals in their area quite frequently and learned their habits? Whoever he could outlive for a while on this little road would be to some extent extended if he gave them some hope and skills and the use of a few traps.
Trapping is an art. Its different trap set for every animal and environment. But many of his neighbors had been observing the seasons and the squirrels etc. in their own backyards for many years. A lesson or two with Don’s donated traps to the neighbors and some success on their part might just keep the wolf from his door. A sack of grain, a few traps, and a guided hunt or trap line setup run possibly and this clan of the cul-de-sac would keep a civilized mindset and the peace he hoped because everyone should be eating somewhat regular.
He had many more survival skills as well as possible preps to share with friends to insure his safety and security. It was a question of timing. Too early of a conversation and you are letting it be known you got shit they might want, too late and those so called friends are desperate and vindictive because you allowed them to get so low. This was a challenge of timing and disclosure that Don had not decided upon yet.
He had foreseen as well as noticed that when power was out for any length of time, which was when everyone usually was checking on each other or being outside more so they could be engaged in conversation with neighbors. It was the knock at the door as things became worse and the inevitable question of do you have anything to share or spare for a starving family that he dreaded.
Do you just flat out lie to those that come to you to seek your help, how much of your preps would it be advisable or prudent to share? Could you lie to a starving child? Wood smoke and food smells travel long distances. Some of this smell is distributed as a commonplace occurrence now in a circumstance where everyone relies on the same fuel sources. Otherwise, the smell of cooking is a telegraph, a dead give away, a reason you need to post a guard or have caution approaching a neighbors place. Who writes at what time of day or when someone is forced to go begging for food? Who writes the time of day when a desperate father picks up his shotgun with murder in his eye to take by force from a neighbor the food his family so desperately needs? The thread of humanity is a frayed and sometimes indiscernible attachment to morality that can break for any number of reasons.
Group speak as a concept, community, the village or whatever communication form registers in ones conscious, is the basis of civilization and the laws or morals we hold dear to reign in acts of thievery and violence. Humanity survives because we band together and use our wits and talents to overcome adversity as a group. Safety in numbers has always held true in the past as it does today. The reason for this is not physical. It is based on shared knowledge. When to plant, how to craft marketable goods, cures for ills, and sharing of domestic animals etc.: this is what insures a community’s survival. To create a world we all wish to live in is one that requires deep thoughts and open hearts by everyone in cooperating as a community.
3
A Bit Of Permaculture
When Jack and his logging crew began clearing his land, the noise of the excavator and bulldozer brought over one of his neighbors looking to get some similar work done on his own property.
Bobby was a short wiry man of about 60 who owned a couple of small fishponds right at the beginning of the road Don lived on. Bobby was one of those fellas that liked to talk a lot, but Don didn’t mind as he enjoyed finding out about the neighbor and what h
e knew about the community. It was Bobby who had pointed out the wild huckleberry bushes that grew in abundance in Don’s woods that he didn’t know he’d had before his visit. This time of the year when the leaves hadn’t come out yet on the trees and most bushes foliage made it difficult to identify things, but once Bobby pointed out the unique almost leafless green stems, Don started spotting the bushes for himself everywhere to his delight.
Bobby had said the huckleberry bushes should have had buds or flowers on them already unless perhaps the deer were eating them off. Don and he had decided though that maybe Bobby’s bushes had started to bloom early because his were in direct sunlight in his field, whereas Donald’s were in the shade of the under story of the woods. Deer certainly could be a culprit though. There were tracks and trails all over the place on Donald’s property. Don had spent the mornings of the past three days that it took the crew to clear his land looking over the fresh soil for tracks and signs before the crew showed up for work. Animal signs were everywhere, but he took particular note of the coyote tracks that sometimes followed the deer closely as they moved through the trail system.
So much for any ideas he had about raising and free- ranging some chickens in his backyard. That was okay though; he had been scouring the internet for chicken tractor plans and had about decided he would give one a try to help keep down the weeds and bugs in the orchard he was going to put in. With this many deer about though, he had better start thinking about protecting his orchard from their marauding and had come up with a neat solution. There was a company that made a single wire solar-powered electric fence that came with bait that was going to be his solution. Unlike other fencing, the fence itself does not have to provide a strong barrier. The electric shock that results from the deer touching it acts as a strong psychological barrier, not a physical barrier. Baited and Electrified fencing has been tested and recommended by major universities with a high degree of effectiveness. Deer will be effortlessly attracted to bait stations around your fence. When any deer licks the bait they will receive a mild, safe, yet startling correction that will train the deer to stay clear of that area.
The Wireless Deer Fence is an inventive variation on this type of fencing. The system doesn't use fencing as such, but uses posts that are baited with scented pellets. The deer are attracted to these posts and receive a mild shock, discouraging them from approaching the area in the future. The baited posts are positioned on deer paths, around vulnerable plants, or around special areas like gardens. The deer then avoid the area. (This device is not as effective as wire electric fencing, but it may be enough for your area).
You can buy kits or construct one yourself. The basic idea is that deer are attracted to bait stations around an electrified fence. When any deer licks the bait, they receive a shock that trains the deer to stay clear of that area. Peanut butter works well or you can use Scent caps. These are metal pop bottle caps with cotton inside them and a strand of soft wire for wrapping around the rope. Apple scent is a concentrated scented liquid inside a squeeze bottle with a lid that enables precise drop-by-drop application.
Some folks use commercial Deer repellant to try to deter deer. Some folks even mix their own formulas. High success rates have been reported using a mixture of 20% eggs and 80% water.
The single rope fence he was going to get should work, but if need be, he had another trick up his sleeve called a 3D fence. It’s two vertical fences of electrified rope set 3 ft. apart. They combine to make a barrier that has both depth and height. The rope is supported by Fiber Rods and /or insulated wood or steel posts. An energizer is connected to the rope to provide the essential pulses that instill fear in deer. Scent caps are attached to the rope at intervals to induce deer to touch the rope with their noses.
Why does a 3-D fence work? Experts tell us that deer have “landing anxiety” before they decide to jump over something. So, when facing a fence that has height, length and depth (thus 3D) deer are more tentative than with a fence that’s only “2D” (tall/wide but not deep). Why? It seems that the depth perception of species with side-of-the-head eye placement (deer, horses) is less than for species with both eyes in front (cattle, humans). That is why deer are tentative when they see a 3D fence and are likely to stop...slowly walk up to the fence...check the fence with their nose...and receive a strong electric shock. The pain encourages deer to find a less risky “restaurant,” trail or bedding ground.
For his normal garden fence he was going to save his money and just go with a 5 ft. 2”x 4” inch wire mesh. Some folks get 7 ft. deer fencing that is either poly or steel, but that was an expensive proposition he didn’t feel the need for or have the money to consider. His 30 plus years of gardening told him the deer usually stayed out of shorter fences unless they were starving. Deterrents such as a couple pie tins suspended together on a wire so they could rustle was added to this setup and worked well, too.
After the logging crew left, Don set about making a list of Lowe’s store purchases for delivery. He calculated he could fit in 13 raised bed boxes measuring 12` x 4` into the area they had cleared for his garden and he had figured out how many treated 2” x 6”s he would need. He could have used cheaper decking type boards to make his beds, but he figured that since he was going to stay here permanently, he might as well spend a bit extra and get better lumber that would last longer.
He calculated he needed 26 (4 ft) sections and decided to let Lowe’s cut 8 ft. boards down the middle for him. It only cost a quarter a cut to do this and for that price it was a big labor and time saver. Funny how an 8 ft. board is longer than 8 ft., but that’s not a problem as long as they did the cut evenly for him. He figured out what boards he needed for fencing gates and added a few more 4 ft. sections to build some small 4’ x 4’ boxes for his orchard and enclose his berry plants. Lowe’s had a ‘6 months no interest plan’ so he went for it and got all his lumber, gun safe and tiller delivered for 59 bucks. He was going to make damn sure he paid that Lowe’s bill off before the interest kicked in, too. This way he got everything he needed now, but had time to pay for it without getting sucked dry by exorbitant interest charges.
When everything got delivered the next day, he set about building his raised bed garden boxes and nailing them together with outdoor rated ring shank decking nails. He only put two nails in each corner so he could straighten the boxes later and get them more level after he filled them in with dirt. Banging against the boxes with a wheelbarrow while he was filling them was sure to cause some problems he knew, so he left the third nail for last after he completed filling them all. Even having the lumber already cut, it still took him the better part of a day to build and site the boxes in place. He used an old trusty framing hammer for ease of driving a nail and the extra reach it gave him in performing the task. He had Jack deliver him an entire dump truck load of topsoil mixed with composted horse manure for $250. Jack said he would layer it up like lasagna when loading it to help mix the dirt up. After Jack’s driver dumped it, he looked at the huge pile and all the boxes that had to be filled by hand and wished Don good luck jokingly and pulled out wondering if Donald was actually going to attempt the hard task alone.
Don had told him he had an operator’s license for the wheelbarrow, but after a couple hours of moving dirt he started thinking his had expired. It had been a long time since Don had done that much physical labor and it took its toll on him. It took Donald about two and half days to move the 5 tons or more of manure and dirt and he used every bit of it up without totally filling all his boxes. He looked over his raised garden beds with satisfaction and sore arms, but they were filled enough for a start and now ready to plant. Next on the agenda he had Jack bring him a truckload of mulch. Jack had warned him that the pine bark mulch he had was starting to breakdown and compost, but Don said it didn’t matter to him it would work for what he had in mind. He tried moving it by square point shovel at first and soon gave that up and went to the co-op to buy a pitchfork and things went much smoother after that. After mo
ving all that enriched dirt, moving a load of mulch was a dream and easy work in comparison. He put about two or three inches of mulch down between the box rows so he didn’t have to worry about mowing or weeds and was quite surprised when he got to the center of the pile of mulch that it was literally steaming in the cool air from starting to heat up and compost.
He had met an old Nam Vet neighbor named Michael and had asked him about a roll of fencing that was left over after he made a yard for his dogs and purchased it from him. Michael and he had a merry time of getting introduced to one another over a bottle of whiskey and had shared many confidences and gossip about the neighbors on this road. Don asked him if he wanted to make a few extra bucks helping to put up his fence, but both could see scheduling it might be a problem because Michael attended many different veterans’ functions nationwide. Don left the invitation loose and took stock of what fruit and nut trees he had on hand and what was still coming in the mail.
He had planted several bushes about a week ago, 5 beaked hazelnuts around the perimeter of an old Deer stand back in his woods. Often found in the forest under story and along the edges of forests, hazelnut tolerates fairly heavy shade, especially from tall, old trees. It grows best and produces more fruit in full sun. Hazelnut prefers well-drained soil, but can grow on the edges of wet sites. Beaked hazelnut is commercially grown for the edible nuts and used in wildlife habitat plantings to provide cover and nuts, which are eaten by squirrels, deer, grouse and pheasant. American Indians used the nuts picked in early autumn and then stored them until fully ripe; the nuts were then roasted or eaten raw, also the nuts were used in various recipes. They were pounded into cakes with berries, meat, or animal fat and also boiled to extract the oil, which was used as flavoring. The nut's milk was used to cure coughs and colds, to heal cuts, and as an astringent. The wood was fashioned into arrows, fishing traps, hooks, and spoons and the long, flexible shoots were twisted into rope.