What would you do? (9/19)

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

It has been six months since the collapse of America. There is no electricity or other functioning utilities. There is no help from the government. The food distribution system shutdown months ago and grocery stores are basically empty shells. Many folks who couldn’t take care of themselves relocated to massive FEMA Family Care Centers. In the FEMA-FCC’s they provide lodging in tents and basic food to eat. But, for those benefits, you also have to work on large-scale infrastructure projects in the bigger cities scattered around the country like, New York, Los Angels, Chicago, etc.

You and your family had been preppers for the 1-1/2 years prior to the collapse. You got excited about prepping after your best friend shared AHTrimble.com with you one day. You followed the “layers” system of prepping and subsequently you were ready when everything fell apart. You have developed a pretty self-sufficient lifestyle with a close knit group of other preppers. But there is a problem…

Your nearly 1-acre garden is showing signs that someone is coming in at night and stealing some of your crops. large Vegetable Garden for food during disaster, emergency grid-downSince your garden is essential to your family’s survival you are very concerned. Your garden has just really started producing after 4 months of hard work getting it to this point.

Each morning for the last four days you have noticed about the amount of food for one person missing each morning. Nothing else is disturbed or damaged. No large amount of anything is missing just about enough of your garden for one person to eat each day.

You have been looking for tracks but they have been brushing their tracks out to cover any evidence that they have been there. But, this morning you found a single track about 12’ away from the garden…a size 6 or 7 shoe print Shoe Printthat appears to be from a tennis shoe.

What do you do next?

 

 

 

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SitRep – 9/18/2019

It was kinda strange reading the opening of my last SitRep, “Not a whole lot has changed since the last SitRep…” Man, that is not true now!

So this SitRep is going to accomplish two goals if I write it correctly. First, I will give you my opinion on what I see happening and where I see us headed. Second, it will lay the groundwork for my series of articles that should come out in October that I think you will like. Well, some of you may like. OK, maybe only one or two of you may like it. Seriously, at least I will like it…I hope 😉

 

In this SitRep I will cover the following…

  • Crisis of Trust and Confidence
  • Second Amendment
  • Politics & Politicians
  • Economy
  • Technology
  • Violence
  • Need for Change of Creature

Crisis of Trust and Confidence

I’ve been trying for a while now to really put my finger on a major issue in America right now, maybe the single most important issue facing the entire world right now. I think I have it…Trust and Confidence.

For this article I am going to use the following definitions of the words:

Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

Confidence: the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.

So what about the “crisis” part? There are multiple definitions of the term crisis. The top three are:

  1. a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined.
  2. is any event that is going (or is expected) to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society.
  3. a time of great disagreement, confusion, or suffering; an extremely difficult or dangerous point in a situation.

So for crisis feel free to put it together any way you wish…you get my point.

So yes, I think the major problem right now is a crisis of trust and confidence. Meaning, at least to me, that we can no longer trust or have confidence in the world around us. By that I mean:

  1. We no longer trust the government because we see it for what it is and what it is doing to us. And what they are doing is blatantly anti-Constitutional, moving us towards a totalitarian state. We see the government forcing our country into the financial abyss of debt that we can never recover from. And a hundred other moves that show us clearly that they do not have our (We the People) best interests at heart.
  2. We no longer trust politicians because we see them virtually immune from the laws that we are subject to. And, we see them, virtually all of them, advocating laws, policies, regulations, bills, and agendas that support anti-Constitutional ideas. Most folks who are “awake” realize that they are doing little more than strengthening the totalitarian goal.
  3. We see the Department of Justice allow those that perpetrated a treasonous coup against the President go unpunished. We see the FBI and CIA at the center of that coup against the President. We see the CIA having hired former Nazis leaders in the 40’s and enabled them to conduct horrific experiments on America Citizens for decades. The CIA was responsible for introducing LSD and other dangerous/illegal drugs into America. We see the FBI burn to death nearly 80 men, women, and children…ambush and murder a man in Oregon and then attempt to cover it up. And it goes on and on and on…
  4. Many no longer trust their churches. Many churches now promote doctrine that is false such as no longer relating the story of Adam and Eve…it is now Adam and Adam, Eve and Eve. Churches preach about Jesus, charity, love of life, but accept abortion.
  5. We watch commercials about banks and how wonderful they are to, and for, their customers. Yet, we watch them get bailed out time and time again while the average person gets hung out to dry. Many lost their homes just a decade ago while bank executives earned huge salaries and even larger bonuses.
  6. The media…well, enough said. I don’t know anyone who trusts or has confidence in the media at all. At rightfully so.

I could go on and on giving you example after example of where we have lost trust and confidence in the world around us…but you already know them and see them. Hopefully I have just brought it all together and defined those issues onto a sum total and a clearly understood term…crisis of trust and confidence.

As I think about the problems that faces America today I see all of those problems roll into that single thing…a crisis of trust and confidence. Now that I defined it, what do we do about it?

Ah yes, there is the big issue, isn’t it! And I will get to it but you have to give me a little time and a little leeway.

Second Amendment

I should have probably saved this for last. Why? Coz I am going to probably lose some of you as you read this section. Some may never come back to the website again, ever. Some folks may just get bored. But, here goes…

I was going to write a whole article about the Second Amendment but decided you probably read many articles about it already and have grown a bit tired of it all. So, no stand-alone article. But, I will write just a bit to hopefully shed some light on my view of it…and maybe a twist that you might not have considered before.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Occasionally there is confusion of why it is written the way it was. There shouldn’t be. But, it is rarely taught or explained in the context of its day, let alone in any context. So let me share a few things…

We all know that in the later part of the 1700’s the Founding Fathers saw the British government, specifically the King and Parliament, as being oppressive and tyrannical. They also saw the colonies as having virtually no ability to resist that oppression and tyranny. Why? Because the British kept a huge standing army in the colonies. And the British rulers used that army with ruthlessness to suppress any resistance to their vice-like grip on life in the colonies.

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, after defeating the British, they wanted to prevent in the future the kind of oppression and tyranny that they suffered under the hands of the British. And their number one concern…a standing army. They knew that without a strong standing army that they could prevent the enforcement of oppression at the hands of a strong federal government.

Remember this…the Founding Fathers wanted the true power and strength of the USA to reside in the states. They knew all too well what a strong central government was capable of…and they wanted to prevent that repeat of horrible history. James Madison wrote that a standing federal army could be balanced by militias controlled by the states…”a standing army would be opposed by a militia.” He went on, state militias “would be able to repel the danger” of a standing federal army, “It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops.” He went on to make clear how European governments viewed an armed populace…”afraid to trust the people with arms,” and that “the existence of subordinate governments [states] … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition” of a tyrannical federal government.

So then let’s keep going…in the early days of America (1790’s) militias laws were formally enacted…and the Army (standing federal army) seriously regulated and diminished of power and scope.  The militias were to consist of able bodied men 18 – 45 willing to serve. The federal army was only to be organized for specific reasons and then only for periods of two years. Imagine that! And its uses were only for the purpose to repel invasions and against “insurrections.” Ah, notice the very specific term insurrection? The law does not use the term “rebellion” for a reason…especially in the context of the English language in the 18th century. An insurrection is a resistance, usually violent, to established authority. A rebellion is an armed resistance to a government/ruler to replace it with a more suitable form of government.

Why is there a difference in the terminology? One needs only to read the first paragraph of a fairly important document…

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” The Declaration of Independence

The Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing, exactly the correct way to write it, and how it was to be implemented. They left the door wide open for us, as American citizens, to rebel against an oppressive central government. And they insured us a means to do so…ARMED! They clearly stated the right and insured the means to fix a broken oppressive federal government.

So, now let’s consider a very key word in the Second Amendment “arms.” What exactly did they mean?

Once again, very simple. Since militias, state level armies, were to be made up of average citizens; and those citizens were to provide their own arms. What were those arms?

The average well-turned-out militia member of the day armed himself with: a rifle, a pistol, a long knife, and occasionally a hatchet (tomahawk). Also remember, that almost always a regular, standing-army soldier would carry a musket. While a musket could be loaded a little faster than a rifle, they were much less accurate and far less range than a rifle. Most regular army soldiers also carried no pistol or long knife (but many carried a bayonet). So your average citizen soldier (militia member) had superior weapons (i.e. arms) vs. the average regular army soldier. That is an indisputable fact!

Now, about cannons…The average citizen soldier did not have a cannon hanging around the cabin. Although it would not have been illegal to have one. Cannons were considered “company level” weapons…or “crew served” weapons. When a company of militia was activated, and cannon was needed, they were provided by the company and manned by a specific crew.

Now the Second Amendment should be crystal clear…the Founding Fathers intended the wording to provide for a militia of regular citizens to be armed better than, or at least as well, the army. Why? In order to defeat the army in a violent encounter should the army be used against the citizenry. And, specifically if the citizens were rebelling against an oppressive tyrannical government. Period!

The Declaration of Independence laid the groundwork for it and the Constitution ensured it.

So why are the Democrats and Republicans so eager to restrict the Second Amendment…or eliminate it? Another simple answer…The government today, and almost all politicians, do not want the American citizens to have the ability to effectively resist an oppressive and tyrannical federal government.

Please challenge that! But, you already know the answer to that challenge.

Reviewing the gun-control advocates arguments…Look at the states and cities with the most restrictive gun laws or out-right gun bans. Then look at the time period of the “Assault Weapons Ban”. The look at the National Firearms Act of 1934. OK, done reviewing that?

1 – The cities and states with the most restrictive gun laws and bans are the most violent and have the highest number of deaths by guns. Chicago…52 people shot, 10 dead. Oh wait…that is in a single weekend in 2019. Interesting side note…every state and city where gun violence is the highest…ALL controlled by liberals/democrats/progressives.

2 – During the “Assault Weapons Ban” there was no statistical evidence to indicate any reduction in mass shootings or gun violence via the banned weapons…which was almost non-existent to begin with.

3 – Since the National Firearms Act of 1934 was enacted there has been a huge increase in gun violence and gun-related crime, most of it starting about the 1960’s. There is not a single shred of actionable evidence to indicate any positive effect to make America safer by the National Firearms Act of 1934. Criminals simply chose a different weapon. And what started happening in America society in the 1960’s? Yeah, a whole other aspect of this argument.

So what could the only real reason be for all those anti-Constitutional gun control laws? Yup! You guessed it.

OK…now, where am I headed with all of this? You should already know by now. Without any equivocation I oppose any restriction on gun ownership at all. And by guns I mean ‘arms’ exactly as worded in the Second Amendment.

Unfortunately, what I think doesn’t matter, the truth of the matter is this…we are 100% screwed. Why?

Because both Republicans and Democrats oppose the Second Amendment. What?????? Yup! Don’t doubt me on this. Even the NRA opposes the Second Amendment. Yeah, that personification of all things “liberty and freedom”, the NRA, opposes our Founding Fathers and the Constitution. Yup, that sacred organization, the NRA, supported:

  • the National Firearms Act of 1934
  • the Gun Control Act of 1938
  • the Gun Control Act of 1968
  • concealed carry legislation
  • banning of bump stocks (at the hands of an allegedly conservative Republican President Trump)

A former president of the NRA even stated that he opposed people even carrying a gun at all!

So please don’t tell me that Republicans, the NRA, or even President Trump supports the Second Amendment…they DON’T…and that is a fact! And the coming months, if not weeks, will show me to be correct again when Congress passes gun-control legislation and the President signs it.

Why is any of this important?

Listen, if you are asking that question vs. me proposing it for more opinionated fodder…then you simply don’t get it. But, let me share it with you all the same…whether you get it or you don’t.

The Second Amendment is there for us to protect ourselves from, or rebel against, an oppressive and/or tyrannical federal government. That’s it…period! That was also the whole idea of NOT having a standing army…the federal government couldn’t overpower the states…even with military power. Those are not my words…those are the words and intentions of the Founding Fathers!!!!

What does that tell you about where we are today as a country?  Again…100% screwed!

The states are mere groveling servants to the federal government with NO, ZERO power to resist them politically, financially, or forecefully. The Founding Fathers, in their divinely inspired infinite wisdom gave us one last tool to stop the federal government…the Second Amendment. And they clarified the right to rebel against the federal government…the Declaration of Independence.

So all you NRA members…thanks! All you bump stock ban supporters (or non-resistors)…thanks! All you Republicans…thanks! You, yes…YOU…are contributing directly to the destruction of the Second Amendment, the Constitution, and assisting in the installation of a totalitarian regime. And along the way…you folks are making criminals out of people that our Found Father would have called patriots and heroes.

Yeah, pretty strong words I know. Lots of folks will be very mad at me. Some will cuss me. Some will dismiss me as a nuts. Some will stop visiting the website. Yeah, I can accept all of that. But, what THEY can’t accept is the truth and the hard evidence of what I said…and their role in the destruction of the United States of America.

So if I haven’t already offended you…let me be clear, perfectly clear…

  • If you didn’t resist, or care about, the bump stock ban…you are no patriot. You are an enabler to the destruction of the Constitution. You oppose the Founding Fathers.
  • If you are an NRA member…you are the same.
  • If you back any upcoming gun legislation…you are the same.
  • If you back any previous gun-control legislation…you are the same.
  • If you back Trump’s anti-gun EO’s…you are the same.

Why am I calling out so many people and making people mad at me?

First, I am not calling you a traitor for backing Trump. I am saying if you back Trump’s bump stock ban you are an enabler to the destruction of the Constitution. But, let there be no confusion or doubt, Trump is NOT pro-Second Amendment. He has done NOTHING to prove otherwise. And no, I am not a “never Trumper”. If you think I am…you’re an idiot. And you can’t show anything of substance that shows Trump to be pro-Second Amendment.

Continuing…It is not my intention to make folks mad at me, cuss me, or anything similar. It is to wake people up to their awful state. We are seeing the wheat and chaff being separated…and many who thought they were wheat are, by definition, chaff. Some who thought they were patriots…are pawns…pawns of those that would destroy the Constitution and our country…and are enemies of our Founding Fathers. Many have lost their way…some intentionally, some through ignorance.

But, as with any person that is lost…they can find their way back! All they have to do is decide what they believe in.

  • Do you believe in and support the Declaration of Independence or not?
  • Do you believe in and support the Constitution or not?
  • Do you believe that our Founding Fathers were divinely inspired or not…and support those divinely inspired principles or not?

These are not hard questions to answer. There is no qualification or explanation needed. It is simple…you either do or do not…”yes” or “no”. If it is “no” then you are participating in the destruction of America. And America is the world’s last and only hope for us to save ourselves.

Politics & Politicians

Ah yes…politics and politicians…it all sucks! I am serious…all politics sucks now. It is all about power and money…and we are to blame. Why? Coz we keep electing the problems…politicians.

Yeah, wasn’t that an absolutely brilliant observation and deduction!!! I must be a genius.

So I will make this simple…forget ALL politics, political parties, and partisan ideology. Yup…forget 100% of it…total, complete, entirely. Replace it with principles. If a politician matches up with your principles…then support them. If a particular piece of legislation matches up with your principles…then support it. Ignore all the rest of it.

Economy

I’ve been watching this very closely the last couple of months…I mean real closely. Here are the issues:

  • Consumer debt is at an all-time historic high.

  • Corporate debt at astronomical historic levels.

  • Trump administration setting records for federal government annual operating deficits.
  • National debt is far beyond any previous historic record levels, and unrecoverable.

  • Actual GDP is 12% below where it would normally be, let alone any net growth.

  • Many foreign government sovereign debt is at 0% or below.

EVERY factual, evidence-based indicator shows we are in very serious deep trouble economically. PERIOD!

I was listening to a very well placed, knowledgeable asset manager Tuesday morning. He runs one of the world’s largest pool of assets. He said the problem we have in the USA right now is “confidence”. Confidence in our country, politicians, government, financial system, markets, companies, etc. And that is a huge concern to him. He said that our US economy is about 70% consumer driven…and consumer spending is driven by confidence. He went on that consumers just don’t have solid confidence in much of anything anymore and it is getting worse…which means we are teetering. And when asked what puts us over the edge into financial Armageddon…his answer was “something geopolitical”.

His #1 example was the inability to come to terms with China and the trade war, and our competition with China for world economic domination. Then he went on to mention Iran and their trouble-making issues in the Middle East. Yes, there were more, but you get the idea.

The reason for many industrialized nations having a 0% or a negative interest rate is not difficult to understand. But, to fully understand it correctly you have to compare it to the US t-bill rate that is still in positive territory. The majority of the world has no confidence in other, including their own, countries’ ability to recover economically. They are betting on the US economy and our financial/economic abilities to economically save the rest of the world. When viewed in light of those same countries holding US t-bills to prop up their own currency you see it clearly. They are all betting/counting on us. If we go down…the whole world collapses with us. There is no other viable and realistic scenario. And that is a gloomy one to be sure. Not a bet I would make.

Well, if you have been following my website for any length of time, especially the last 5 years, none of this is any surprise to you. I have been pointing out fact after fact after fact of what is going on. Some of the evidence I have provided has really pissed off some folks and they will no longer follow the site. Yeah, mostly the “ever-Trumpers”…those that back Trump no matter what. What really ticked some off some folks was when I pointed out the fact that the Trump stock market is trailing both Clinton and Obama stock market gains. And would have been trailing Bush #2 had it not been for 9/11. I didn’t point it out to make anyone mad…just pointing out facts. Because facts help you see clearly.

And facts are facts are facts…and they are quickly catching up to us…and it ain’t pretty.

Just yesterday (9/17) the NY Fed had to step in to the market to stabilize bank cash reserves and Federal interest rates. Bank cash reserves dropped dramatically and the Fed funds rate jumped. The NY Fed had to instantly infuse $75billion dollars to prevent a huge shortfall in cash reserves at banks. But expert financial experts stated there is still, and will be, a ripple effect to deal with. What could have been the outcome had the Fed not stepped in yesterday? A massive run on banks as people lost confidence and attempted to pull money out of their bank…only to find that banks didn’t have enough cash for people to withdraw. And this is the first time this has happened since 2008. And you know what happened in 2008/2009.

Technology

Over the last six weeks I saved a whole bunch of articles about AI and DeepFake technology. I was going to use those articles to substantiate my warnings all the way back to June, and then later in July, when I laid out the specific threats of AI and DeepFake. But…I am not going to use those articles that I saved.

Why?

I don’t need to. You read my previous SitReps, starting last June, and you know what I said. If you follow the news at all you will have read since July many independent articles confirming what I had warned you about starting the month before. Interestingly…some so-called prepper-gurus are just now getting up to speed on these problems. Pity.

As I stated previously…in the past you could trust in what you saw and heard yourself. Not so anymore. Video and audio DeepFake is to such a level now that the normal person can NOT tell what it is fake or real. And that presents a huge dilemma. And that also compounds the “crisis of trust and confidence” that I mentioned earlier in this post. It will only get worse.

So, how do you deal with it? I will get more into that that in an upcoming series of articles. But, for now:

  1. Know who you are.
  2. Have solid principles, morals, and ethics.
  3. Rely on what you know to be true, reject those things that fall outside of that.
  4. Be slow to judge.
  5. Be stalwart.

Violence

Well, well… here we go…

It is nice to see some prepper-gurus finally seeing the writing on the wall…that has been there for over two years. Recently I read an excerpt from this really well respected prepper-guru guy who many folks believe is directly connected to God himself. And interesting enough…he wrote about what might happen in the 2020 election. He was amazingly accurate!!!!  He was spot on like I can hardly imagine!!  And he wrote almost word for word what I’ve been telling you for the last 2 years. I guess he likes and trusts my stuff 😉

OK, enough of me droning on about that…

We are seeing an uptick of violence…especially once again on the left via AntiFa. It will get worse the closer we get to the election.

We are also seeing more provocation by the right. I won’t mention the groups by name because I don’t want to give them any more notoriety than they already have. But, the right is now actively trying to provoke violence as well. No, I don’t mean they are going out and burning cars and buildings. But, they are holding events that they know will bring out AntiFa and other violent Democrat Party individuals/groups. And they know once the two sides are in the same vicinity of each other there will be violence.

Don’t get sucked into it!!!!  I am strongly suggesting that you stay away from all rallies, marches, protests, etc. for now. Don’t get involved in them, stay away from them. If you find yourself inadvertently in the area…leave at once. Don’t try to stand up for a right-wing cause right now. Don’t try to protest against a left-wing cause right now. They are almost all designed to prompt violent confrontation.

60 Days prior to next year’s Presidential election be 100% prepared to deal with violence on a large scale. “Large scale” meaning city-wide scale. And “prepared” doesn’t mean body armor, 100000 rounds of ammunition, and an AR for your 3-year old. I am saying have a plan to avoid the violence, to withdraw from it, to remove a family member from it, to protect your property from it, to protect your church from it, to protect your neighborhood from it. Yup, you read that right. More about that as time goes on.

Need for Change of Creature

Kinda of a weird title for a SitRep section isn’t it? I wasn’t sure how to appropriately express what I want to say in this section. But I had one of those “Ah Ha!” moments. So here goes, I hope it works…

What would you think? What would you do?

Scenario…The grid has gone down, chaos is widespread. There has been some pretty bad looting and rioting nearby. It is not safe to be outside at night. You have done everything to prepare for “grid-down” and the family, is hunkered down in the home ready to defend it and ride out the storm. Fast forward a few days…

It is 2am and there is a knock at the front door, the alarm is raised, the guards are intensely looking for threats in their field of view. The RIT team jumps into action for their assigned positions. As head of the house, looks through the observation hole…a middle aged man is there, known but not too well, mostly just an acquaintance. He begs for the door to be opened, he is scared, he has his wife with him and three children. They have nothing but the clothes on their back, but he is carrying a double barrel shotgun. No response given to his knocking. The guards and RIT team are tense, expecting trouble…maybe a trap. There was violence a couple blocks over earlier in the evening. A fire or two is burning not too far away, obviously houses.

The man is knocking even louder, crying, begging to be let in. He sounds desperate, his family looks ragged, and their clothes are tattered and filthy. His wife is crying, the teenage daughter has the 1000-yard stare. It looks like the perfect diversion set-up for a gang to hit the house. Still no response is given to his pleas, the hope is…he will just go away.

The house and group is well-supplied with a year’s food and water but no idea how long the grid will be down. It is suspected this is the “big-one” and it could last for years. Everyone in the house feels confident that they can weather the storm, grow food as needed for the family, the well can supply water, there are plenty of guns and ammo to arm the defenders…and the defenders are all well trained.

He bangs on the door again…weaker this time. His wife has collapsed with the daughter in her arms, they’re sobbing uncontrollably, the oldest son, better view of him, now has a baseball bat in his hands, the father is crying as well.

What would you think? What would you do?

Think hard about that…really hard…think it through…get your response clearly in your head. Now that you have that in your head, read on…

You are the father or wife outside of the door. It is your daughter with the 1000-yard stare because she was raped by two gang members that raided your house earlier that night, beat your wife and you unconscious. They stole all of your food, your guns, your ammo, everything you had. Then lit your house of fire as they left. You were able to get your family out just in time. You dug up the shotgun from the backyard that you had hidden there “just in case”. Your oldest son picked up an old softball bat from the side yard as you walked away. He wanted something to help you defend the family. You walked for two hours through the night with your family terrified that another gang might catch you. You finally got to the house of a person that you met a couple of times and whom you respect…and who you thought might be the one person able to help your family in this time of crisis and extreme need. You have knocked and banged on their door three times…you’ve begged for their help…there has been no response. You don’t know what you will do now.

Now that you’ve heard the whole story… What would you think? What would you do?

I hope the spirit of the scenario that I just relayed has touched you in the way I meant it to.

Summary

I need you, I want you, to really listen…please. Listen not just with your ears/eyes but also with your heart and spirit. Listen closely…

There is a storm coming…a big one, a very bad one. As it approaches the skies will darken, it will grow cold and as inhospitable as you’ve ever known. Things will happen that you never expected…some good and some bad. Some people will become better than you ever expected, some worse. Institutions will fail, some will oppress, some will abandon you, and some will step up. Overall, it will be bad, very bad.

Now please…listen even closer…

You can overcome, you can succeed, you can beat whatever comes our way. I promise you that!

Some of what will help you to succeed and overcome you can learn from this website. Some of what will help you to succeed and overcome you can find in family, friends, church, and community. Most of what will enable you to not just succeed and overcome, but to thrive,…will come from inside of you. It will come as a result of who are have become and your ability to be the person you need to be.

And yes, for those of you who are religious, myself included, a lot of who you are inside comes from Him, His strength, His grace, His love, His sacrifice for you. Draw on that. Become who He needs you to be.

If you are not the person you need to be…well, that’s OK. Start now and become the person you need to be! Regardless of who you are, what you have done…you can be the right kind of person…the person you need to be…the person you should be. You can do that!

By now, reading this post, you either think I am crazy or something else…who knows what. But, if you are reading this and are truly hearing what I am saying…well, you know…you just know.

You know what you need to do…starting right now, you know what you need to do…who you need to be. Please…just go do it.

Be prepared for the coming storm. Your family needs you. Your church needs you. Your community needs you. He needs you. Be that person.


Personal Note:

For me this SitRep started out like so many others, then I went into the Second Amendment lecture. Yeah, painful I know…sorry (kinda of). The rest of the sections were fairly normal for me. Then came the Change of Creature and Summary. Something clicked inside of me, something strange, heartfelt. But, it was more than that…but I can’t put it into words. If you are still reading this SitRep I think you understand what I am saying.

Last night after I went to bed I laid awake thinking about this SitRep and how it would be received this morning as ya’ll read it. Honestly, I was a little concerned that some would find it demeaning or insulting…not sure why but that is what I felt. But just as quickly I felt that a good number of you would “get it” and know what I am getting at, what I am trying to say…or at least trying to get at. And for those of you that do get it…that would be all worth it.

Then I felt seriously impressed…and I mean seriously impressed that I should add a contact form for you to send me your thoughts and feelings that you receive from this SitRep. I am not 100% sure why…I think it might be different for each person that responds. But, what I want to to do is give you a chance, if you feel it appropriate and you feel prompted, to tell me what this Sitep means to you. And yes, the Change of Creature and Summary are the sections I am specifically referring to.

I would love to hear how you felt, what you feel prompted to do, any changes you feel inspired to make, and/or any actions you feel motivated to take. And yes…anything else you care to share with me.

If you want everyone to be able to read what you have to say you can use the “reply” option on the page. For the more special, intimate, spiritual, or personal stuff you can use the contact form. I look forward to hearing what you have to share. Thank you!

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What would you do? (9/17)

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

You have been a prepper for five years, you’ve lived in the same house for the last 10 years. You and your neighbor were almost best friends until you joined the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints church 7 years ago. You quit drinking and smoking, but your neighbor hasn’t. He thinks you are a goody-two-shoes now and harasses you occasionally when your are grilling outside. He only does it when he has been drinking, which is most of the time. You’ve been polite to him but you’ve had to ignore him several times when he got verbally abusive to you in front of your family.

Times are tough economically in the country, the stock market isn’t doing well, businesses are suffering. You work for a highway construction firm and they have a couple of interstate contracts lined up so your work and financial situation is pretty decent. You have been putting away FamilyBBQ-002food storage as well as other prepper items for when tough times hit. You are outside with your family on Saturday grilling and splashing around in your above ground pool that doubles as your bulk water storage. You and your family are having a great time together.

Just as you sit down to eat burgers and hotdogs your neighbor leans over the wall. He is not wearing a shirt, he has a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other hand. He yells out that he sees where NeighborFence-001your teenage daughter gets her good looks from…her mom. He laughs out loud at his own joke before he breaks into a coughing fit. You ignore him, your wife rolls her eyes, your teenage daughter looks upset…and mumbles “gross!” under her breath.

As he walks away he tells you not to worry, when you go out of town to work he will watch over your wife and daughter. Then breaks out laughing one more time before resuming another coughing fit. Your daughter runs into the house knocking over her chair and spilling her plate of food in the process.

Later that night you find out that your neighbor has made comments to your daughter for over two months now when she gets off the bus after school. She hasn’t told you because she was embarrassed. The comments aren’t threatening or lewd, just suggestive. Your daughter is scared of him…for good reason.

It is now two weeks later…the stock market and economy basically crashed about 7 days ago. It is Saturday and Stock Market Crash is a concern, threat, risk for preppers during grid-down.you made some last minute runs to Sams Club, Walmart, and the Dollar store. That afternoon you came home with a load and rather than pull into the garage and close the garage door to unload your groceries and other items, you unloaded the SUV in the driveway.

As you finish up the unloading you look over and your neighbor is drinking wine from a bottle, a cigarette in his hand, and flashes you a thumbs up. You realize that you just made a huge mistake by unloading the SUV in plain view of your neighbors. But you have no time to worry about that right now, you leave in the morning to travel to your company’s work-site 250 miles away.

Later that week on Wednesday you get a frantic phone call from your wife. She tells you about coming home with your 14-year old daughter from cheerleader practice. As she and your daughter were getting out of the SUV your neighbor and five of his buddies were drinking in his open garage. They all started yelling very obscene comments about her and your daughter. Your wife is inconsolable and very afraid for their safety. Later that night she finds your 12-yearold son loading a shotgun in his bedroom. He refused to give it to her stating that he will kill the pervert neighbor next time. Your wife begs you to come home even though you are not due home till Saturday.

The next morning (Thursday) you wake up to news reports that truckers have gone on strike nationwide and nothing is moving, no food, no fuel, Economic Warning - store shelves barenothing. There is a lot of violence on the interstates between union and nonunion truckers. Grocery stores empty their shelves by 9am. Gas stations run out of gas by noon. You talked to your boss and he tells you to get back to work, you have a job to do, and you can’t leave till Saturday.

You decide to quit and head home, its 1pm. You get into your pick-up truck just to see your fuel gauge is sitting nearly on empty. You have 250 miles to get home, but it will probably take 10 hours due to the road conditions, strikes, etc. The radio is playing and the emergency notification systems starts with a message that a nationwide curfew will go into affect starting at midnight.

You pound the steering wheel and gaze out the windshield. You are trying to figure out what to do next. As you are trying to figure that out, you find yourself staring at the company’s fuel storage tank that is nearly full.

Nine hours later you are pulling into your driveway just to see your neighbor and three of his buddies still drinking. DrunkNeighbors-001You have to park in your driveway because there is no room in your garage to park. You want to say something to your neighbor but decide the time is not right. Although he has different ideas…he starts yelling that he appreciates all the prepping you’ve done. He says he and his buddies will help themselves to anything they want that is yours…anything. And then they start cat-calling and whistling.

Just then your wife starts coming outside because she heard you drive up.

Answer the following questions:
  1. You filled your truck’s fuel tank up from the company fuel storage tank. How do you justify it and make it right?
  2. What is your most imminent risk right now at this moment as your wife is walking towards you?
  3. How do you deal with your son and the shotgun?
  4. You decide you are going to talk to your neighbor about the comments concerning your wife and daughter? When and how do you do that?
  5. What is your plan to deal with your neighbor regarding his remarks about your food storage, etc.?
  6. What actions do you take 30-days later when your neighbor is threatening to take your food because his kids are starving?

 

 

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Update – 9/16/2019

Yeah, you’ve probably been wondering what happened to me…or have you?

I prepared a whole bunch of posts ahead of time to make sure fresh content and resurrected articles kept getting posted to the website in my absence. And yes…that means I’ve been gone. I have been working on our house that I am building for our retirement…and whatever else the future holds for us. But, I got back a couple of days ago, and re-acclimated to society.

This morning I began working on the website again. First thing I did was review and pending comments and approved those that needed it so they would appear. Then I spent about 1-1/2 hours updating the Table of Contents with all the articles that have appeared in the last 7 weeks. So the Table of Contents should be very useful once again.

Yes, I know that the entries in Escape from Home stopped at the end of August. Two reasons for that; 1) I didn’t edited and schedule additional entries before I left, 2) I wanted to give the Days of September exclusive attention on the site. I really felt that it deserved it from a usefulness perspective. I hope some of you felt the same way.

So, what does the future hold?

  1. I have content scheduled through the middle of October or so. I will be adding to that as time permits before I head back to the house project in a few days.
  2. I will try and get some more Escape from Home entries scheduled as well. If you are wondering why I only have them showing up every three days…simple, to get you coming back to the website on a regular basis.
  3. I am going to be doing a SitRep…I feel it is very, very important right now. There are some very important things going on right now and I want to give you my take on them.
  4. I am also going to be looking over the hundreds of emails I received and see if I can get some responses out. So please don’t get mad if you sent me an email and you don’t hear back from me.
  5. I am working on a series of articles that I feel may be the single most important articles I will ever write. Yes, it is that important and serious. I will be working on that project for the next month. I want it to come out no later than the end of October. It is going to lay out a “road map” that I don’t think you want to miss.

Now, I want to hear from you. I want to hear exactly what you would like me to write about starting in November and on. It can be on any topic as long as it is related to preparedness. Let me know by using the form below.

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What would you do? (9/16)

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

A liberal was elected president in 2020, she took office 1/20/2021. It is now mid-summer 2018. She has been issuing one Executive Order after another covering just about anything. The Supreme Court is not overturning any EO she issues. The Republican Congressional leadership are rubber stamping anything she wants to do.

Last March she issued an EO requiring all gun owners to register their guns. Some protests broke out in more FBI-SWAT-002conservative areas. The FBI swooped in using MRAP military vehicles and their fully militarized SWAT units (called HRT) to make arrests. Over 250 people were killed while resisting arrest. In every instance the FBI said the people were reaching for weapons in their shirt pockets. 35 of those killed were under the age of 12. 87 of those killed were over the age of 75. Only the most grainy video has been released for each of the killings during the arrests. None of the videos shows any gun.

You are fearful for your family and their safety, you register each of your guns according to the EO.

On July 4th , during a Independence Day celebration, the President announces her latest Executive Order…gun confiscation. Each person will be required to turn any gun other than a single shot 20gauge shotgun or a .22cal single shot rifle. All guns must be turned in within 10 days to the local police department.SWATteam

After that 10-day period you will be considered automatically guilty of a 1stdegree felony, a warrant will be issued for your arrest, and all of your assets are forfeited under the Civil Asset Forfeiture laws. Since the FBI has a list of all guns owners, on day #11 FBI SWAT teams will begin raiding homes of suspected gun owners who have not turned in their guns. The FBI makes a statement that anyone whose home they raid will be considered highly armed and highly dangerous subject to being shot on sight.

Later that night (July 4th), your best friend comes over with someone who you have never seen before. They want you to join a local militia group that will begin ambushing police officers that next night and eventually FBI personnel. They leave without you giving them an answer. You just can’t get behind ambushing anyone. As they walk out the door, the new guy says he really hopes you won’t turn into an OpSec problem.

You have hidden several guns at your weekend cabin property. It is a 800 mile drive to get there. The guns you hid there are unregistered.

The next day another best friend who works for the local Sheriff’s department stops by, not in uniform. He tells you he can get you an AR that is not registered and not traceable. He assures you that you can get way with not complying with the new law with this AR. He tells you his buddy will give you a really good deal because he knows you are a prepper and “we will need guys like you when the bullets start flying.

So, answer the following questions:

  1. What do you tell and do with the militia folks, one of whom is a best friend?
  2. What do you tell your best friend that is also a deputy?
  3. What is your most important threat/risk right now?
  4. Who do you align your family with? Why?
  5. What are your plans with the cabin?

 

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What would you do? (9/15)

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

Today is Friday July 8th. The economy fell apart two weeks ago, the stock market crashed so low that the government closed it down until the economy stabilized.

There was talk the last week all over the media that criminals, gangs, and drug cartels are taking advantage of the situation. They are leveraging their criminal activity and their large supply of cash to become stronger and a more formidable force at citizen expense.

To combat this new problem the government has just announced that:

  1. The banks will not open on Monday as normal.What Would You Do bank holiday
  2. No debit cards will work either until further notice.
  3. Credit cards will work as normal at merchants, but not at ATMs until further notice.
  4. The US Treasurer has issued a statement that it will issue a universal debit card to access cash that is currently in your bank account. No other debit cards will be accepted at any bank or vendor.
  5. On Monday July 18th all banks will reopen. But they will only be open to issue the new US T-card issued by the US Treasury Department. To obtain the card you must turn in all other debit cards at that time.
  6. The US Treasury also states no cash will be accepted for any financial transaction until Monday July 25th. At that time the old currency will no longer be legal. A replacement currency, all paper bills, no coins, will be put into service.
  7. On Monday July 25th banks will only be open to exchange old currency and coins for new currency. The banks will only provide the exchange services for 48 hours. After which time you will no longer be allowed to swap currency, new for old. When turning in old currency and coins you must show a government issued picture ID, be finger printed, and your picture taken.

You’ve talked to your spouse about this. Your spouse thinks there is no need to worry, no reason for alarm, it all makes perfect sense. No one wants criminals to profit from hard times. On the other hand, you have been visiting AHTrimble.comfor over a year now and the SitRep postings tell you something way different than what your spouse is thinking.

You have a gut feeling that this is a move by the federal government to finally be able to track every single financial WhatWouldYouDo-002transaction and eliminate any secondary economy.

What two actions do you and your spouse now take in regards to the news regarding the upcoming Federal government move?

 

 

 

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What would you do? (9/14)

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

North Korea hit the US with an EMP strike from a satellite that they had just put into orbit a couple months ago. No one was expecting it, the strike occurred two months ago. The electric grid is down, the transportation system is all but non-functional. There is sporadic violence breaking out, even in your small town. The big cities are pretty much a mess, gangs control large portions of the cities where even cops will not longer go.

You have been faithfully following the advice on AHTrimble.com for two years prior to the strike. You feel you are 100% ready for most of what is to come. You have 3 years worth of food for your 6 person family. You have heirloom seeds for two year’s worth of 2-acrea gardening. Your family has been practicing with their weapons regularly and you actually work on tactics together as a family. You even went so far as to practice “immediate action drills.”

Your kids range in ages 13 – 19, 2 girls, 2 boys. They were on-board with the whole prepping thing since the beginning. Now that the grid actually went down and SHTF they almost worship you since it turns out you were right all along.WhatWouldYouDo-Church

Your family attends a great church around the corner, about three blocks away. You have been going there for years and you know most everyone there. Your kids love it, your wife is part of the women’s group leadership. Your two oldest children both have “special interests” at the church as well…meaning boyfriend or girlfriend.

Yesterday during the Sunday Service, the main speaker talked about how some families are really struggling and have little to no food left, their children are hungry. They reminded the congregation that the government can no longer provide food; even the basics are no longer available because that supply is drying up as well. But not to worry…the church leadership has a solution.

The concluding speaker gets up…the leader of the church. He outlines the new program:

  1. We are all Christians and we can all help each other out by working together.
  2. No one has to starve and the children don’t need to suffer.
  3. Everyone in the congregation will bring all their remaining food to the church…all of it, everyone.
  4. The food committee will then hand out the food to each family as it is needed.
  5. All the seed will also be brought to the church and another committee will be in charge of community gardens. Everyone will be expected to work in the community gardens. And the food from those gardens will be handed out by the food committee.

Your spouse thinks this is a wonderful idea, everyone works together for the common good of everyone. No one suffers, everyone benefits.

Do you participate?

  • If yes, why?
  • If no, why?

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7 Days of September – Summary

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

September has been a crazy month so far! I am talking plain ole freaking crazy! And it seems that the months just keep getting crazier and crazier as each goes by.

The world is an interesting place. There are some folks who would say the world is falling apart, I can’t really disagree. Some folks would say that “the end is near”, maybe. Some preppers are in a tizzy trying to get everything done, that’s fine and dandy. But those things are not us.

We are thoughtful, determined, and focused on what needs to be done to prepare for emergencies, disasters, and even grid-down. Whatever happens will happen regardless of what we do or when we do it. You and I have learned not to panic, not to go off the deep end, and not to become a crazy person. But, we know what needs to be done and we are doing it.

I started out at the beginning of September with one goal…for folks to be more prepared at the end of September than at the beginning. I hope you have joined, or will join, me on this mini-trip.

Out of the seven areas of threats I hope you have done something in each category. It could have been something big such as buying your first AR-15 and 5000 rounds of ammo. Maybe it was something much smaller such as a Life Straw. Maybe it was nothing no more than adding 5 pounds of salt to your pantry. Whatever it was…thank you!

So…here is your assignment: I want you to write down something you can and will do in each of the 7 areas of risks/threats. In each area I want you to identify one thing you can and will do to mitigate the associate risk/threat. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated or complicated. It doesn’t even have to be expensive…just something you can do and are willing to do it.

Together we are on this amazing journey of preparedness. We see the benefits to being able to take care of ourselves and our families. And to me, protecting and providing for our families is a requirement in life…it is not an option.

Thank you very much for going through this series of articles with me.

We will prevail, we will win!

 

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7 Days of September – Day #7: Starvation

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

What are we trying to accomplish when we talk about starvation in relationship to being prepared for emergencies, disasters, and grid-down? Simple, we don’t want to starve to death or become so weak from malnutrition that we can’t meet our responsibilities in those situations. Notice, we also have to be concerned about malnutrition as well as starving to death. Once again we can apply the “layers” theory to this area of prepping.

Overall the concept is simple, we don’t want to lack sufficient caloric intake that we are unable to do what is required of us, or worse, die. That being said, let’s apply the “layers” theory to this area of prepping.

Normal pantry food –

This is the food that you eat on a normal everyday basis.

Being the simple man that I am I want to have 90-dyas worth of food in the house at all times. I am talking about your normal, everyday, run of the mill food that you and your family eat on a regular basis.

Yes, 90 days, you heard that correctly.  What’s the problem with that?  You are going to buy the stuff anyways, just get it done and put it in the pantry.  Think of all the gas you would save only going to the store every other week rather than every other day?  Think of all the money you would save buying quantities of food items that are ON SALE!90 days of grocery store pantry food

So, oh my gosh you need 90-days worth of food in the house right now?? No, you don’t.  Calm down, relax, it will be OK.  Read on…

Don’t make this more complicated than it is.  If you like spaghetti sauce and you eat it every couple of weeks and you use 2 cans each time you fix it, then go buy 12 cans the next time it comes on sale.  Same thing for all other can goods that you use.

If your budget is tight, no problem there either.  If you watch sales closely from all the food stores then only buy items in quantities when they are on sale.  And, if you can’t afford to buy 12 cans at one time then buy 6, or whatever you can afford.  But, buy something more towards storage each time you go to the store!  Have a plan.

A couple thoughts:

  • Buy what you use, if you don’t eat canned spinach, don’t buy it no matter what the sale price is.
  • Rotate your canned food every time you bring it home, pull the old stuff to the front, and put the new stuff in the back.
  • If the dates on the can are about to expire don’t worry about it. Those dates are “best if used by” NOT “eat it and die date.”
  • If your spouse just can’t bring themselves to eat out of date canned food then ask your neighbors or friends if they would like it.  If you don’t have friends like that, get some.  If you can’t give it away, take it to the local food pantry, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter.
MRE’s –

These are military grade Meals-Ready-To-Eat with heaters.

You do need options to provide decent meals to your family during short-term emergencies.  Granted, if you have a BBQ grill that is an option.  But ask yourself…Do you know how long will your propane tank last before it needs refilled? Will you be able to get it refilled?

Have you ever seriously considered grilling in the dead of winter? Do you have a back-up propane tank (or 4) that are kept full? Do you have a natural gas stove?  What happens if the gas is disrupted?

What if you don’t want to draw attention to yourself by lighting up the grill?  Or worse yet, do you really want some big cooking fire?  Or what if you don’t want to draw attention to yourself by the aroma of hamburgers and ribs cooking on your grill?  What if you are having to relocate and can’t take a grill?  Or you’re traveling and don’t have time to fix a cooking fire, etc.?

Sorry about all the questions, but as you can tell, I am trying to stimulate you to really question your situation and your Normalcy Bias. To solve this issue I believe in short-term emergency food storage made up of MREs.FOOD - MRE

Yup, good old fashion military grade MRE’s.  You can take them anywhere, including in a backpack.  They are 100% self-contained, including the heat source.  They are nutritionally balanced, packed with calories and sometimes include treats like M&Ms and Skittles.  Very hard to beat!

But MRE’s have distinct drawback – they tend to produce constipation when eaten for any length of time.  If you are in a combat or hunting situation, that might be a bad thing when compared to the alternative.  However, under the best of normal situations constipation is probably not high on your Christmas wish list.  I have discovered a miracle cure for that unfortunate condition – granola bars.  I pack 2 granola bars with every MRE, a soft/chewy one and a crunchy/hard one.  Eating a granola bar between your breakfast/lunch and then again in the afternoon or evening will keep your system moving along.

So, you might be thinking about now how much of this food category (MREs) should you have on hand.  And that is truly a great question with no single standard answer. For my family I am thinking about 4-days worth of MREs for each person in our house.  A case of MREs contains 12, so think a case per person.  It will cost you $50 – $100 per case depending on where you buy them. I buy them at gun shows for $40 – $45 per case.

Freeze dried meal pouches –

My next layer of food storage preparations is just a little more complex but far tastier, bordering on a fancy feast – Mountain House meals in the pouches.  Why Mountain House brand?  Those are the ones I really like the best.

These are different main dishes (i.e. lasagna, beef stew, etc.) that have been freeze dried and then packaged in commercial grade packaging. Stays fresh for 10 – 25 years.Food - Mountain House pouch

Let’s get into why freeze dried pouches are my choice:

  1. Easy to store with a long shelf life.
  2. They taste great.
  3. You can eat them right out of the pouch. A little dry to be sure but you can do it.
  4. Small, you can put them in your backpack with no problems.
  5. A cup of boiling water and you have a gourmet meal.
  6. You can eat with only a spoon or better yet…a spork.
  7. Light weight.

Again, you might be thinking about now how much freeze-dried Mountain House pouch food should you have on hand.  And again, that is truly a very valid question with no single standard answer. I am thinking about 4-days worth of freeze-dried pouches for each person in your house.  Each pouch of food will cost you between $4 – $8 depending on the meal and specific food you get. Count about $6.50 per meal on average. That $78.00 per person for the 4-days worth of food.

To make this option work the best I would suggest a way to boil your water. An Emberit or Olicamp stove is a great way to do this on a personal level.

Freeze dried food in #10 cans –

These are different main dishes (i.e. spaghetti, tortellini, etc.) that have been freeze dried and then packaged in commercial grade #10 cans. Stays nutritious and edible for 15 – 25 years.

This is a kind of a tricky area for me to lay out there for you. It would be easy to just say “I recommend X” and go on. However, this is a really important part of your food storage. It is also a very expensive part of food storage. This is the part of food storage that will stave off “food fatigue.”

food fatigueFood fatigue is where you are eating a lot of the same food day after day and it is bland and boring. Like eating oat meal everyday without anything to jazz up the taste. Rice, bean, oats, and wheat will keep you alive and healthy but it is horribly bland and you will get tired of eating it. Well, that is till you get hungry again and then it will taste great!

Long-term Food Storage to prevent food fatigue, freeze dried foodSo first, how much do I recommend of long-term everyday food items? I suggest a minimum of 45 days of #10 cans full of freeze dried food, the 20-30 year shelf life stuff.

Why 45 days?  From my experience it seems to be the outside time-frame for most emergencies and disasters.  For situations such as food chain disruptions or social problems it gives you a transition period that you can use to stabilize your specific situation. For a “grid-down” event where the food chain is permanently disrupted, 45-days isn’t near long enough. However, you can use this food to “spice-up” your long-term staple foods.

Should you store more than my 45-day minimum recommendation?  Absolutely!!  More for you to eat during TEOTWAWKI (grid-down) situations. But another cool aspect to this…eat it when you retire if the world doesn’t fall apart in the meantime.  I practice what I preach! I have more, significantly more, to make sure that my long-term food staples don’t food fatigue me to death. I also look at food storage as an “edible IRA.”

I thought through different scenarios and a really good way to deal with them – an ultimate solution if you will.  Some of the scenarios I considered:

1.    Extended winter storms with grid-down.
2.    Hurricanes without any infrastructure left.
3.    Flooding with complete grid-down.
4.    And longer-term food disruptions or societal/economic issues.

emergency Preparedness layer - freeze dried foodI was looking for a category of food that would provide:

•    Tasty meals to avoid boredom and/or gastronomical revolt.
•    Nutritional to maintain high energy levels.
•    Very easy to fix with minimal preparation.
•    Redundant ways to prepare meals (cold or hot, water or no water).
•    Easily stored, transported and concealed.

The most obvious answer to me was cases of #10 cans of freeze dried meals.  They come in astounding variety, Sweet & Sour Pork, Chicken Tetrazzini, Ham & Eggs, Granola and milk. They also have standard fruit, grains, meat, vegetables, etc.

What is needed to prepare and serve this kind of food? Best case scenario, a cup or small pot, hot water and done.  Worst case scenario, just open the pouch or can and eat it.

MSR Whisperlite International StoveYou can heat the water up any way you wish, I like the small multi-fuel MSR WhisperLite stoves<click to read more> but your electric range at home is fine too (provided there is still power). Make sure you have redundant ways to provide a heat source for the boiling water needed to prepare freeze-dried food.

There are lot of brands of freeze dried food out there that make incredibly good entrees. Some of my personal favorites are Mountain House, Thrive, Saratoga Farms, and Augason Farms.

I won’t make specific recommendations on what food to purchase. What I will do is suggest you purchase the food you like that can also be put over rice and beans. Using rice and beans as “extenders” will easily extend your good tasting food by 2 – 5 times. And that is important to fighting off food fatigue but maximizing the food storage you have on-hand.

The next thing I would like to suggest is consider are fruits, in this case freeze-dried or dehydrated fruits. Fruits will contain valuable and required vitamins to your diet. LDS church apple slices They are also great to add to oatmeal to add a little zip to an otherwise bland tasting bowl of oatmeal. Dehydrated apple slices from the LDS store are a great snack and extremely affordable. That is six #10 cans of apple slices with a 30-year shelf life for under $54.00!! (Last time I priced them.)

I think later I will go over an extensive list of foods that would be good to purchase for a great diet that has flavor and nutrition. But for now, I think you have enough of an idea to get started. Here is one suggestion on what to put in those cases:

freeze dried mountain house food in #10 cans for 45-day food supplyCase #1 –

1 can of Beef Teriyaki with Rice
2 cans of Granola with Milk & Blueberries
3 cans of White Rice

Case #2 –

2 cans of Beef Stroganoff
2 cans of Scramble Eggs with Bacon
2 cans of Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Case #3 –

2 cans of Chili Mac
2 cans of Garden Peas
2 cans of Sugar Sweet Corn

Case #4 –

1 can of Hearty Beef Stew
1 can of Noodles and Chicken
2 cans of Apple Slices
2 cans of Peach Slices

All of the food mentioned above is Mountain House brand. I think Mountain House has the best quality and flavor of all the freeze dried food brands. With four cases of food you can see that your family can eat for a pretty decent length of time…and a wide variety of food tastes.

So here is a one of those “best kept secrets” that will make your food storage life a whole lots easier…LDS Home Storage Centers. Yup, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe so much in food storage that they make is very easy and very affordable to purchase properly canned (#10 cans) long-term food storage. Their on-line store is a great way the time and money you save will be amazing.

Note: Sorry, for those of you living outside the USA neither option is available to you.

LDS store to buy food storage onlineLast time I checked here is what available on-line:

Nonfat Dry Milk
Hard Red Wheat
Hard White Wheat
Regular Oats
Quick Oats
Sugar
White Flour
Spaghetti Bites
Macaroni
White Rice
Potato Flakes
Apple Slices
Pinto Beans

To purchase these items you go to the website and order just lie you would any other on-line store. The shipping is unreal low so the price doesn’t go way up to ship the food to you. Normally it is $3.00 <click here to go to the LDS on-line store>

Now, if you are near one of the LDS Home Storage Centers that are scattered around the country it gets even better. At these locations the pre-canned food available it amazing! The order form provides you the shelf-life, and the weight per can, plus obviously the price. So you know exactly what you are getting. I have bought from them before and I am telling you that the quality of the food is outstanding! I really really like the apple slices as a snack. They rock!!

LDS Home Storage Center order form listing food you can purchase

click to enlarge

You can find an LDS Home Storage Center by visiting the website locator page: <click here> We used to do a “group order” of interested folks. We would gather orders from folks and just send a couple people in a pick-up truck the 110 mile round trip to buy the cases of food. Everyone who didn’t go would chip in gas money. Then the food would be delivered to one location, someone’s garage, where everyone would pick up their order. A BBQ of hamburgers and hotdogs would always be a nice social event to top it all off.

In my perfect & ideal world I would buy these items in this order. I would buy a single case of each first. Then once I got that done, I would start over and keep buying until I felt I had a year’s supply of food in the house for the entire family. In priority order:

•   Apple Slices
•   Onions, Dry
•   Wheat, Hard Winter
•   Rice, White
•   Carrots
•   Sugar, Granulated
•   Beans, Pinto
•   Oats, Quick
•   Macaroni
•   Milk, Nonfat Dry
•   Potato Flakes
•   Four, White
•   Beans, Refried
•   Beans, Black
•   Spaghetti

Yeah, it’s going to take some money to do this. However, in my way of thinking I would rather have all this food storage and not need it, than need even some of this stored food and not have it. Remember, you can always eat the food! Even if you wait until your retirement years, you can still eat the food! That is why I call it my “edible IRA!”

The way I look at it – this is part of my IRA, 401K, pension or whatever you want to call it. It will help reduce the food bills when my wife an I are retired, if we don’t need the food before then.

Couple comments about food from the LDS Store:

  1. The apple slices are incredibly good!!!!  I can eat them right out of the can as a snack. I also put them on my cereal. You can bake them in a “bread” like banana bread.
  2. The refried beans are some of the best I have ever tasted. They are dried, and you reconstitute them with water. And man-o-man they are good!
  3. The dried onions are very flavorful. They can add a lot of flavor to otherwise drab meals.
  4. Carrots are not real flavorful but they add some color and nutrients to otherwise drab meals.
Long-term staples –

These are the basics to sustain life; wheat, rice, oats, beans, etc. The items are packaged in commercial grade #10 cans. Stays edible for 20 – 30 years.long-term staple food storage

I have mixed emotions on long-term staple food, I really do. First, you absolutely must have it. Second, it is very cost-effective to buy. Third, you really don’t need to rotate it, it will last 20 – 30 years in good storage conditions – but not in your garage! Fourth, it will provide the basic nutritional requirements to keep you and your family alive. Fifth, you will suffer from “food fatigue” very quickly. Food fatigue sucks.

Here’s the deal, I don’t see “long-term staples” as what you are going to eat for any length of time. At least not by itself. What I am getting at is this, it will be used in conjunction with other foods. Here is what I mean…

You know I suggest that you have a wide variety of foods. But let’s Campbell's Soup for emergencies and disastersjust talk about “soup” for a minute. Let’s say you have a can of soup in your pantry storage; chicken noodle or beef vegetable as examples. It is nutritious by itself but not real filling and offers little in terms of carbohydrate or protein, which your body will need during tough times. So you supplement it with your “staples.”

You cook a ½ cup of rice, a ¼ cup of pinto beans, and ¼ cup of wheat “berries.” Then you mix those ingredients together with your can of soup and BINGO! You have a great tasting meal with far more nutrition, plenty of carbs/protein, and it far more filling. Throw in some crushed red pepper flakes and you really have a very tasty dish!

This combining of staples with more palatable food will greatly improve the nutritional value of your meals and give it some Food Fatigue during emergencies and disasters food storageacceptable flavor as well. Test the idea, cook up the beans, rice, and wheat berries; mix them together in a bowl and eat. Yeah, how does that flavor work for you? Yes, it is nutritious to be sure but the lack of taste will quickly burn you out; hence, the term “food fatigue.”

Another way to leverage your long-term staples is to combine it with food you’ve hunted. In this example take a rabbit that you have snared, by itself it does provide protein and bulk. But now take the same rabbit and then cook up the same mix of rice, beans, and wheat berries. It is now far more nutritious, with way more protein and a whole lot more bulk. If you cooked the rabbit over a fire before adding it to the “mix” then it adds even more flavor as well.Stew

Throw in an onion, a leak, a carrot, beat, beans, peas, potato or anything else from the garden or from the wild and you have a very tasty stew. The key is the extra bulk, nutrition and protein coming from your stored long-term staples.

This “long-term staples” was one of the very first areas of food storage that I focused on when I started buying my food storage. Why? It’s cheap. I was able to buy large amounts of the basic staples for a much smaller amount of money than I could have for #10 cans of freeze dried meals. I could have gone with the fancy freeze dried foods but they are far more expensive than the staples I was buying.

So I bought the following in priority order…for starters:

  1. Wheat
  2. Rice
  3. Oats
  4. Pinto Beans

For my source I used The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When I purchased the majority of mine it was all LDS store to buy food storage onlinethrough their warehouse system. Now they have an on-line store now where you can purchase a wide variety of long-term staples at prices that simply can’t be beat anywhere else. Why so cheap? They want people, all people, to have food storage for when the tough times come.

<click to go to the LDS Online Food Storage Store>

The food is canned in #10 cans and packed for 20 – 30 year shelf life. Look over the portions for each and a case can be considered roughly a month’s worth of food for one person. Yes, it is the boring “food fatigue” stuff but it is food and can sustain a person for a month.There are recipes in the boxes as well on how to use the those basic four foods. It is a really good deal at only $22.00  – $40.00 per case.

If you do as I suggested above, you could eat fairly decently with just cans of soup, your long-term staples, and then thrown in a little spice here and there and you have it made. Then add a can of tuna or chicken and you are really living. Now here is a little secret to share with you, the LDS also has things like onions and carrots on-line and much more to purchase as well. Buy a case here and there of each type of food, add it to your basics and now you are really living…it’s called stew!

Seriously, look at how much food you could purchase quickly by going through the LDS church and their website. It can be an instant shot in the arm to your existing food storage, or a great way to jump start your food storage from scratch.

So here is what I would buy from the LDS website in order:

  1.  1 case of rice
  2.  1 case of wheat
  3.  1 case of onions
  4.  1 case of dehydrated apple slices.
  5.  1 case of carrots
  6.   1 case of pinto beans
  7.   1 case of black beans
  8.   1 case of onions
  9.   1 case of dehydrated apple slices.
  10.   1 case of carrots
  11.   1 case of refried beans

At this point you now have approximately a year’s supply of food for one person when added to your food pantry stuff.

Now, go look in your food pantry and freezer, see what you have in there and imagine how you would use it to combine with the long-term food outlined above.

So there you go, adding long-term staples can drastically improve your food storage situation. You can take your food storage from a month or two to well over 6 months to a year or more fairly easily and cost-effectively.

I often get asked the question, “How much long-term food should I have stored?”

Food storage shelvesThat’s a tough answer for most people. However for me it was easy to get that answer, I just kept buying food storage until I felt inspired that I had enough. I know people who have years worth of food storage; I am talking 4 – 8 years worth of food storage! Now, granted, a lot of it is long-term staples but that is OK! Food is food and when you are hungry it will taste like a feast.

Why do they have that much food storage? Well, again, the answers vary quite a bit for each prepper. A middle-aged couple have told me that they have large families, including extended family members, and they want to make sure that they can feed them all.

I also know a family or two that have purchased that much just because they felt inspired to do so. They feel they will be called upon to feed lots of folks; and that is OK too. And then there is a family or two that want to use their food storage as a bargaining/bartering chip. For me, I think I will be called upon to feed other people, so I bought food until I felt inspired I had enough.

Think about it – food becomes in short supply and people are getting hungry. You’ve stored a considerable amount of food, far more than your family needs. There’s a family in the neighborhood who your family enjoys having a BBQ with occasionally. You and your spouse have enjoyed a double-date or two with them over the years, and your kids go to the same school. The dad is a retired Army Ranger and his wife is a nurse. So, you think you might want to try and work out a little deal where you band together with them? And food storage could be your ticket!

How about the guy around the corner who is a Emergency Room Doctor?

The options and possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Yes, operational security is important, you don’t want them knowing that you are sitting on a pile of food. But being able to feed them can buy a lot of assistance and maybe even loyalty. Or, better yet, the start of a preparedness group.

Precious Metals for preppers - grid-down, emergencies and disasters - gold & silverAnd you know how I feel about precious metals if you read my article “Silver & Gold…Really?” <click to read>.  In a true “grid-down” situation I look at food as even more valuable than precious metals.  Food can be used just like precious metals to “bribe & buy” in exactly the same way. The only difference…food will become more and more valuable as times goes on.

There are a lot of reasons to have food storage, but it like any number of prepper topics, you are either sold on it or not. You either believe in it or not. But food storage in the most practical and realistic terms is a “no-branier” in virtually every way possible.

  1. In emergencies and disasters your food storage can feed your family and a few others till the food distribution chain is back up and running.
  2. If you ever become unemployed your food storage is just like a savings account and will help you get through financially.
  3. If you never eat it for any reason you will still retire at some point. Look at your food storage as part of your retirement account.
  4. Food storage makes a great investment. Have you ever heard the price of food going down?
  5. And finally, “grid-down.” You can be the hero and save your family from starving to death. And if you have stored enough food you can be…well, you can be pretty much whoever you want to be.
Snares –

This will be a short topic. I want you you to have snares on hand. The wire small game snares, big game snares if you need/want them. Snares are 24-hour a day hunters, and the don’t use up valuable ammunition, make no sound, and are inexpensive to put into action. I personally like pre-made wire snares myself.

The game you catch can supplement your food storage or be bargained away to neighbors . And that is worth a whole lot!

NOTE –

Notice that I have not included home canned items in this list. The reason is my opinion of their stability and transportability. Since 99.9% of all canning is done in glass jars I think they are not suitable to be considered as anything other than normal pantry food, I do not consider them in any other category. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with you having 1 – 2 years’ worth of normal pantry food. As I look at all those glass jars though I see a big problem trying to transport them anywhere and have them remain intact. Also, I seem them as less than desirable for rough conditions of any kind in a “grid-down” scenario. They are “glass” and are easily broken. All that being said, I love home canned fruits/jellies and they have a place in the food storage plan…under the “normal pantry food” category.

 

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See Content Use Policy for more information.

That day……9/11

note: post originally appeared in September 2013, edited in 2019

This morning while I was eating my breakfast I was watching some footage of the events on 9/11/2001; I just started crying. While I was taking my shower getting ready for work I just broke out in heaving sobs. I am holding back the tears even as I write this. It is so very very emotional for me that I still have a hard time coping with the anniversary each year. I rarely talk about it, and I normally call in sick on each anniversary; not this year.

On September 11, 2001 –

I had worked the previous day’s shift at Station #18, I had worked a shift for another of our Captains. We had run a couple calls that night and I was fairly tired, my plan was going to shower and get some sleep for a couple hours then just kick around the house a while.

I had just gotten home, thrown my station uniform into the dirty clothes hamper, turned on the news, and headed into the shower. I came out of the shower and saw a building burning on the news, I sat down on the sofa to get the details. I knew that due to the height, complexity and staffing of the building it was going to be a bad day for many people, a lot of people would not make it out alive. But I had no idea what was to come.

As I watched and listened I saw the second plane hit the other tower. Immediately I knew what was going on. Not because I am some braniac but the spirit bore witness that it was a terrorist attack. I immediately put on a fresh station uniform, then thought I better throw an extra uniform set into my bag. I headed out the door as I would head to a fire call from the station…rushing, apprehensive, worried, determined.

When I got to the station about 5 minutes later the entire on-duty crew was there watching TV of the events. The look on their faces was horrifying, mine probably looked the same. We did our customary “bro hug” and watched and listened as our nation was attacked. Over the next 20 minutes the crew that I had worked with the night before showed up for duty. Within another 20 – 30 minutes my normal crew showed up. Within an hour we had almost 3 full shifts of firefighters in the station.

Within another couple of minutes we had a call come in from HQ that we were to go into lockdown, a deputy was on the way to guard us and our area was the next target due to McDill AFB and CentCom HQ.

We immediately sent a couple FFs to the store for food, secured the property, and organized response crews, checked in our reserve engines, and set-up a sleeping schedule to ensure 100% manning of all equipment for the next week. We were doing what we were trained to do while tears were being shed, tempers were boiling, and feeling a complete lack of ability to do anything more productive.

Then the first tower collapsed. We were absolutely stunned and horrified; we knew what that meant. To us that meant that innumerable brother and sister firefighters were just killed trying to save the victims of the burning buildings. We had already seen the footage of people jumping and falling to escape the flames but this brought it close to home, too close. Somehow we just knew what was next…we started organizing our rescue equipment and other gear to head to NY. We knew it wouldn’t take us too long if we drove straight through. We knew we would be needed. We packed our gear.

Then we saw the next tower fall; more dead firefighters. I cannot tell you the emotions that were running through us knowing that hundreds of us must be dead. And worse, trapped, still alive hoping and waiting for us to come save them, to pull them out of their trap, to do our job as their brothers and sisters. But weren’t there for them, they died, trapped, alone.

We were organizing the vehicles with a couple other stations when we got the word from HQ that we were not allowed to go. Someone evidently told them we would go with or without their permission. We got word that any missing vehicle would be reported stolen and any firefighter that went would be gone from the department.

More than a few lockers and walls were punched out of frustration, anger, and utter despair.

Calls started coming in for us to respond as if it were a normal day at the fire station. Our station would normally run 4 – 12 calls per day, today was not any different to our residents and businesses, we still had a job to do. But it was different, different to us. We didn’t understand why people couldn’t understand that.

Three days passed with us holed up in our station. The deputy left the next day, it was his day-off and they wouldn’t pay overtime, not enough of a threat. I understood that…kinda.

When the estimates started coming in about how many firefighters died in the collapses we were simply in disbelief, denial, shock. How could nearly 400 of us die in one incident!! How could that many die burning to death, being crushed, being trapped, running out of air and suffocating. All of them dying alone.

We had broken hearts full of immense grief – I can’t explain it much beyond that.

9/11/2001 was the day a big part of my heart was ripped out. I nearly lost my soul during that time. I still can’t really deal with it very well, even now. I’ve never really talked about it before, not even with other firefighters to any degree. Most of us never talk about it other than acknowledging it, then changing the subject.

One day, one day – I will have the opportunity to know who did it, why and face those responsible. I have no idea what I will say or do, I hope I handle it with the love of Christ.

One day, one day – I will meet those firefighters that died on 9/11. I will beg them to forgive me for allowing them to die alone while we stood by helplessly. I will hug them and thank them for the sacrifice they made, their unselfish commitment to duty to their citizens…for their honor, courage, and bravery.

Maybe one day I will get back that piece of my heart and my soul might heal. I might be able to understand to all one day. Till then…..I will shed tears, feel guilty, have bouts of rage, beg God to help me deal with this, and try to get past it.

Thank you for listening to me. I have spent nearly 30 years fighting fires, in 4 years till I retire and I needed to tell someone about this. I am tired.

Today: 9/11/2019 – I am still crying when I go over that day. I am not over it. I’ve been retired for nearly two years and the wound is still raw, the hurt is still real. I fear it will never go away. When I wrote the original article six years ago I sobbed uncontrollably at points. Today as I read it, correct spelling/grammar, and add pictures…well, I still cry. Sometimes life isn’t fair, sometimes evil people do wicked things, and sometimes hearts don’t heal. This is one of those times. I hate it!

 

 

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No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.