by Ron Foster
“I told LowBuck you said I could borrow that SKS rifle.” Michael reminded Donald. “Oh sure, he wouldn’t give it to ya huh? I knew you guys were being a bit standoffish to one another about something. Bubba, you did right by refusing him when I wasn’t here, but Michael can share ammo the same as you if he needs it. By the way what did you bring with you weapon wise, just that 9mm carbine or maybe you got an AR stashed somewhere?” Donald said reasonably sure of Lowbucks answer.
“I brought the kit and caboodle, as long as they in LEO safe mode and away from the ammunition most states say you can transport.” Bubba said grinning that Donald would ask such a dumb question, or not so dumb because some states would nail your butt regardless for a trumped up gun grabber charge.
“Well, in that case, I will lend you my AR, Michael, until I get back because you are familiar with it from the military, but when I return you most likely are going to get checked out on that Romanian AK and we swap back, Ok?” Donald told Michael, reasoning that it was a logical choice under the circumstances.
“Sure, that’s fine by me. I really appreciate it, thanks.” Michael responded, shaking Donald’s hand. “We will talk later on what kind of firepower to lend Amy and how we are going to teach her to use a firearm.” Donald said not forgetting that security was about to get to be a paramount concern for everyone.
“I got that 20 gauge but I am a bit light in the shell department.” Michael mentioned. “Well, check her out on it when you get a chance. I know you would need to let her fire it to do a good job of teaching her but if you’re light on ammo you best save it. There are going to be guns going off here and there in the woods over the coming weeks and with that comes people’s curiosity of the other people’s motives for shooting. I used to have another farm where I always shot a lot of ammo out on my land and probably freaked my neighbors out. I haven’t shot anything since I been here but have heard what they got in the way of pistols and rifles. No way have I shorted on storing ammo even if I felt like shooting everything I got all day long, but I don’t think I will advertise that little fact yet. Take my 12 gauge Mossberg and teach her the fundamentals of using it. I got 12 gauge shells stocked up out the wazzoo. I want it back though, if I end up going on a deer hunt with Bubba before I take off for town, I want to play point man with it. Some Federal 3 inch shells with no 1 buck are a hell of a lawnmower for a quick shot in the jungle or these woods.” Donald said thinking about the best combination of tactics and firepower if a three man team was going to be easing around the woods together.
“I guess we just carry our regular hunting rifles for awhile out and about while in the public’s eye and tote the main battle rifles around the house for awhile.” Lowbuck stated and tried to tempt Don into having a shot of whiskey with him.
“No thanks buddy, I am sticking to beer for now. I guess we just do the watch and wait over the next few weeks before we make any neighborly contact moves. I wonder what prices are going to do in the stores that can get things to sell? Seems like they would have to have hyperinflation effects eventually but there is plenty of price gouging during a disaster legislation on the books already that has been needed in the past to discourage it. Thing is if you don’t have some cash on hand prices already, it don’t matter and I have no idea how the banks will function if at all. I guess we try to spend all the green cash we got and then it’s going to be poke and hope on exchanging anything of value for food.” Donald commented while wondering how in the hell commerce would commence again like history tells us it always does or has previously in the past.
Bubba resumed his seat on the picnic table bench and offered his assessment. “To say the least, it’s going to be a real interesting ride from now on. I guess the government will try to ration what goods they can as best they can, but this isn’t the 1930`s and I think society lacks the patience and morals to stand in a soup line without turning the gathering into a Wal-Mart riot to get something on sale. Now If the government and states can get the railroad trains running again, this country just might have a chance of surviving somewhat or else things will spin out of control all at once if we can’t move foodstuffs on a regular basis. I can’t see it immediately unraveling except probably in places like LA, no, it will be a slow decline where a little bit of food stuffs get through for not enough people and tense up from there. We got to figure out how to get the best out of that time we can before things get down to the primitive. I think that you are going to be the key to that advantage, Don, whether you want to take that job or not. If they do call you back to work, take it for awhile just so you can get some first hand knowledge of what will be going on.” Bubba said trying to help Don with his disaster reservist work decisions and improve everyone else’s chances to get some kind of inside track information on where and when help might be on the way if at all.
“Yea, I sort of agree with you there, but I think it will be sometime way in the future, if at all, they call in the disaster reserve. It will take all the logistics they got to just round up and feed the regular emergency responders. That is IF they report in, let alone worry about us. I am on it though. Consider me you all’s inside guy if it looks tempting enough to work for a response agency. I will stay in the City with my Mom and try to help rebuild, but I have no idea how or if that’s going to get done in my lifetime. It all depends on what I see going on, or want to be a part of. If they suspend the Constitution, it could well be that I will be forced to make some serious decisions as to my employability at that time and do the AWOL thing if I don’t like the options.
Well, I am hoping for the best though and will try to do my part to revitalize my country and provide for the common good, rest assured. Meantime we prep for the best and plan for the worst; it’s what we preppers do.” Donald said now resolved to work for DHS if called upon and still torn he couldn’t be at his bugout location trying to improve conditions there.
“Well guys, it will be your decision about what is fair treatment for those who did not plan for disaster or who were displaced even though they were prepared if I am not around to kick it conversationally with you. It would be nice to do some networking with the neighbors but it carries a lot of risks. We need to keep two things in mind if we decide to try the collaboration approach. When you seek collaboration through networking, don’t come emptyhanded, and especially not empty-headed. Showing our hand at this critical time is not in our best interests, but any length of time that passes before we do or don’t do something approach wise is against us.” Donald explained as he got ready to go check on how the girls were coming along with preparing dinner.
“I am starting to think that all our reserve resources must be set aside for ourselves to cover what is needed in the future for a calamity of this size. Donald, you can’t be thinking of being able to afford to give up anything at this point, we need it. Grocery stores only keep three-days worth of food in just-in-time inventory. When a disaster strikes and there is a run on supply, they can run out in a hurry as we all know by past experiences with hurricanes... When distribution is disrupted, the calamity compounds. The longer the event continues, the worse the
consequences can become as you already know.” Michael said, taking a sip of his beer before continuing.
“ Hell, I am pretty light on preps myself already and if you give any of yours away to others, we triple shorten the time when you might have to think about telling me your stretched too thin to keep sharing with me. Hard cold fact might be that we ain’t got shit to share with other folks, other than possibly some extra garden produce that might spoil before we use it maybe. We may have to just be secretive and unwilling to give but a few handouts here and there if it makes any sense because others are helping us in someway. Canned food is not barter material unless you are sitting on a warehouse full of cases and Bubba we ain’t. Now don’t get me wrong, I bet Donald would trade in a food for food situation, like I offer a fresh Deer hind quarter for some rice because he has a surplus of it, or maybe he will decide he ha
s a bigger need for meat to change up the diet so he is willing to trade something else. But he isn’t even going to trade a can of baked beans for a silver dollar unless he has somewhere to trade it and can get more food to replace it in barter situation and then what? You could be as rich as old King Midas and not have any takers for an ounce of gold against your last can of beans, or that matter your first one out of stash of a case of 6, because you know that’s the only food you have and gold loses its luster if you think about it on the dinner menu. I ain’t trying to take advantage of our mutual alliance agreement Donald but it would make sense security as well as psychologically wise to move at least my whatever allocation might be you are willing to contribute and kind enough to donate to my house. Don’t keep all them eggs in one basket, as they say.”
22
Sorting the Prep Room
Janice looked around her kitchen while deciding what she would have for dinner tonight. The problem wasn’t food, she had plenty of that. It was how to cook it and how much that was the big pain that went into the menu decision process. She was cooking for one tonight and had her choice of various single burner heating methods to consider as well as what pot or pans to use.
“Funny” she thought to herself. I got about 6 small cans of propane and a whole case of denatured alcohol Don insisted I needed and now I’m wanting to save it all for a rainy day like it was gold and rather go to the trouble cook outside because I know I won’t be able to replace it. Depends what I am having I guess to warrant burning the fuel, but sticks and twigs ain’t that abundant around here either to put in the fuel efficient Stove Tec stove.
It had been a long day for Janice. She had been rearranging her preps into suitable boxes labeled breakfast, bread making, dinner etc and had put the cast iron tortilla press, mixes and cans of taco flavored TVP etc., into mental cook book order so everything would be handy to create whole meals. Everything still looked like a big jumble and not knowing if they were going to do a “bugout” added to her frustration in trying to properly organize everything.
Donald’s Mom had made some of the chore of packing up preps look easy at her house, but his Mom didn’t even come close to dealing with a quarter of the preps she had on hand that needed to be better organized and arranged for use.
Janice was really seriously considering just staying on at her house in familiar surroundings as long as she could. Leaving her house and possessions to go live in unfamiliar surroundings didn’t appeal to her at all. Her friends and family seemed ready to try to stick the city out for better or worst. She knew she wasn’t sustainable long term in the city and any number of things could send her reeling helter skelter looking for the safe haven she hoped Donald’s farmhouse would be if the city deteriorated as bad as he predicted it might. However, neither of them had thought about a less than all or none situation they were now confronted with as to the option of staying in the cities where some goods were still coming into. Her biggest conundrum was not being able to get any news to base a decision on. Everything was a guess or a second guess at what might be happening out in the current world. Don had reminded her many times that if you get too many of them second guesses wrong; it could be fatal, so live by your first instinct before you die by your last. It was kind of like taking a test he said. Your first answer is usually right. Your first instinct when the doctor spanks your butt is to breathe and your last will be to quit breathing, If you just follow your first instinct and don’t worry too much about the in-between ones then life is simpler and often more gratifying than with wrong second guesses.
There was just no wrong or right decision to make at the moment, Janice had decided thoughtfully and tried to put away her jittery nerves about being a day late and a dollar short in the future for an event yet to happen or an unforeseen complication undoing her preps.
Janice finally chose a can of soup and decided the small amount of propane needed to heat it wasn’t going to get missed that much later and saved her the trouble of building and scrounging sticks for a wood fire in the backyard tonight.
As she waited for the soup to come to a boil she decided to take stock of some of her medical supplies she had hanging on an organizer on the back of the hall closet door. She was the practicing registered nurse in real life but it was Don who had added the vast majority of the alternative medicine disaster preps she had on hand in her Prepper Pharmacy to call upon now.
“ Curcumin? Why do I have so much curcumin herb stored in here? Janice said to herself studying the labeled bottles in the closets door organizers pockets. That’s right she thought. Don had purchased it for an outbreak of possible bird flu epidemic but he had printed off some other sheets of its many uses as well as warnings not to combine it with some other drugs.
“I had better read over this uses and cautions sheet more carefully later, she mused and glanced at the references.
Curcumin, the bioactive anti-inflammatory compound found in the Indian curry spice turmeric. The immune system is normally our natural first line of defense against illness and bad health. However, sometimes immune systems function abnormally due to deficiencies and disorders where the body either loses its natural immunity or else the immune system turns against the body
Because it’s anti-inflammatory, curcumin reduces your immune system’s workload so it can be ready to address a flu virus.
Curcumin is also a powerful antioxidant, which reduces free radicals that can make you susceptible to disease.
It’s antibacterial, too, which has obvious benefits during cold and flu season.
No going to the grocery or drug store now for asprin or any other medicines. Grocery stores usually keep about three-day worth of food in just-in-time inventory. When a disaster strikes and there is a run on supply and they sure can run out in a hurry. When distribution is disrupted, the calamity compounds. The longer the event continues, the worse the consequences can become. Janice hadn’t been to a grocery store since the geomagnetic storm hit, but she was sure that they were all empty by now if they even had opened their doors at all.
The idea that most likely the grocery stores would not have any resupply for quite some time was troubling enough, but the bits of AM emergency transmitter news she got now and then and what she could read between the lines on what she heard from the neighborhood ham operator who had shielded his radio, was that the whole world had taken a big hit from the geomagnetic storm but to varying degrees. Lots of places were harder hit than others as to the intensity of the storm and its effects.
The Carrington event of 1859 had set Telegraph offices on fire world wide in 1859 in some places similar things had happened worldwide this time, but to much more devastation than could even be imagined.
Raging uncontrolled fires were consuming whole cities as water pressure was lost from pump failures. Lack of communications hampered any relief efforts to try to contain the fires or direct evacuations out of the cities.
Disabled vehicles clogged the roads and lack of traffic signals compounded the troubles any working fire trucks had of navigating city streets. The city she lived in did well fighting the fires that sprung up haphazardly all over town at first. City and county bulldozers had displaced many people as their homes were leveled to create fire lanes in some areas to stop whole neighborhoods from going up in smoke, but the worst of that threat seemed to be over for now.
The haze and smog in the city was still noxious but a heaven sent rain had helped put the fires out and clear up the skies some.
Janice wondered should she go cover up her rain barrels, but figured it was too late now do anything about any ash contamination coming down from the sky. The food riots would start now soon she guessed. That rain brought hot sticky humidity and that always seemed to bring out the worst in people waiting in the food lines if there were any. They had the displaced people from the fires bedded down in the Coliseum so that place was most likely a ticking time bomb to be avoided.
Among the prepper population (one that is at least fo
ur times the membership of the Tea Party); there are those who are lone wolves... However, the ones that have the best chance of survival is the organized pack Donald had repeatedly pointed out. This concept was not lost on Janice. Thing is who was packing up and where and for what purpose?
Preppers" are pretty much like Tea Partiers or can be viewed as to align themselves with the goals of minimal government social intrusion into our lives, fiscal responsibility, and upholding the Constitution. They just take their own personal responsibilities to a higher level. This Prepper and Patriot fear of radical loss of
Constitutional rights under an unconstitutional Presidential Emergency Powers Directive are a legitimate concern.
They have not been preparing themselves and their families, investing in educating themselves in ways to become more self-reliant so that some Government give away part of a social welfare scheme or enforcement of some obscure hoarding law could take things from them.
The nature of a Prepper is that one must not wait to be educated; rather one must make the effort to educate oneself. Keyword here is tried to become self-reliant.
Knowing the need now to be more secretive, Janice was glad that although Donald was very open about being a Prepper he had decided not to go on a national show and advertise himself and his preps to the world.
A lot of preppers don’t like to publicize the fact that they are prepping, a whole lot of preppers try very hard to keep their prepping to themselves. Janice and Donald had often wrestled over the need to promote prepping and create more awareness in other people versus the need for secrecy and had opted for a tenuous balance of both. This created opportunities to share knowledge and network others, but it also allowed a lot opportunity to get targeted in a situation like this.