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Where is your line in the sand?

Still looking to learn more from the discussions about Venezuela and the socialist caused issues there and I was reading an article about how looters were breaking in and stealing from neighbours just to get some food and how some of these incidents led to fatalities.

I’ve thought about this type of scenario for a long time and the main part of that thought process is around stopping the looters. How far would I go to stop them? Where exactly is my line in the sand?

Under normal circumstances we wouldn’t stop then. We would call plod who would race around and arrest them taking them away for prosecution which is exactly what we pay them for. Bhawwwww. Only kidding. They would steal you blind and Plod would contact you a few days later with a crime number so you could claim from your insurance, you do have that don’t you? If you tried to stop them and were successful then the chances are you would end up charged for illegally detaining them. Long gone are they days of self defence and an Englishman’s home is their castle. While the rule of law is in place then justice is out the window and you must conform to the rules put in place by the Stasi.

If everything goes tits up then you cannot expect Plod to answer the phone, even if there are phones, and you are on your own. Even then though you need to consider that everything may go back to normal and you may have to answer for everything you have done while Plod were unavailable, with the wonderful knowledge of knowing that things are now back to normal they will state that the rule of law still applied and you will have to face justice for your crimes. The heinous crime of defending yourself. So you must take this into consideration while you are on your own.

Self defence is still a reasonable defence though, especially if there are no plod nor likely to be any around for a while, you must defend your property and your life on your own. It is your duty to do so and you and your entire families lives and freedom may depend on that. With no plod around peoples basic natures will be let loose and we have been disarmed by the Stasi, unlike a lot of criminals.

So the question is how far will you go to defend you and your families lives? It isn’t a trick question and you need to be brutally honest as it will make a big difference to your preps.

If you are willing to defend your stuff you must know how far you are willing to go. Where will you stop in a fight, will you be prepared to set traps for invaders willing to kill. Will you be able to kill someone that is a clear and present threat to you and yours?

Most of us say ‘Yes’ they would do anything for their families but in my experience many people talk a good fight but in reality they will buckle under the threat and leave themselves and their families exposed.

Thinking you can do something means you plan for that so if you fail to act then your planning is for nought. It is much better to be honest and your thoughts must be used to evaluate your preps. If you are going to just roll over and let invaders take what they want then you need to spread your preps about and hide them well. Hiding yourself and your family as well. If you are a stone killer then you can potentially defend a single cache against all but a mob.

Most of us will fit somewhere in the middle where we will have no issue with defending ourselves against a invader with wild eyes intent on killing and eating us. While most will not want to do anything against a young teenager although that person is still a threat to us. At the very least they can harm us or even worse announce our status to the world and how long do you think you will be able to keep secure then.

Try and consider several options and then ask could you stop that person with force.

  • A male armed home invader.
  • A female armed home invader.
  • A male teenager home armed invader.
  • A female teenager armed home invader.
  • A child armed home invader.
  • A male home invader.
  • A female home invader.
  • A male teenager home invader.
  • A female teenager home invader.
  • A male trying to get in.
  • A female trying to get in.
  • A male teenager trying to get in.
  • A female teenager trying to get in.
  • A child trying to get in.
  • A female with child trying to get in.
  • Several children trying to get in.
  • Someone with a police uniform on trying to get in.
  • One of your neighbours, one you know is untrustworthy, trying to get in.
  • One of your neighbours whom you like trying to get in.

This isn’t even a comprehensive list as even the least racist person person on the planet will respond in different ways if a straggly bearded man of asian descent was standing at the door or a elderly cuddly granddad type was standing there.

So spend a bit of time seriously thinking about the scenarios you could face after an event, the types of threat and where you would draw the line. Decide where your line in the sand is and then consider the probability of that happening. The information could save your life as you should stash your cache in different ways depending on the answers.

Learning from others mistakes.

As yet another socialist experiment fails with the collapse of Venezuela where a dozen eggs are selling for $150 and inflation is expected to hit 1200% we must watch and learn from what is going on there so we can adapt here.

Watching others as they deal with issues that may come our way even if we don’t end up as bad is always worthwhile.

So, inflation is through the roof, People are giving up what were good jobs and turning to crime which has increased dramatically with the black market selling vital items, including foodstuffs at 3 times the market rate. Only they actually have things to sell unlike the standard stores which have empty shelves all the time. Which means that eggs are $50 a dozen in the stores, but they don’t have any, however you can get them for $150 on the black market and people get a cut of that to live.

As 75% of the people in that country are classed as in poverty they simply can’t afford the black market prices without turning to crime and therefore the ones who stick to the laws of the land are starving, eating their pets and slaughtering zoo animals. The murder rate has skyrocketed and Venezuela is now one of the murder capitals of the world.

The governments cure is to order businesses to sell things at a cost they calculate, which means at a loss. Which isn’t really a sustainable model as business become bankrupt.

Plus the government spent and spent when the money was coming in, just like Gordo did here, so when things changed there was no money under the sofa.

All and all the typical ending of a socialist country. So no surprises there.

What we need to do though is look at what that does to the average punter.

Many are starving, it is impossible for them to get food and they are adapting to steal, barter and go outside social norms to survive. This has been going on for weeks so our plans for simply putting out heads down for a few weeks look unlikely. It is unlikely that we will go unnoticed for long enough to survive. Someone will notice that we are not starving, our kids may say or do something to their friends and we will then become the subject of unwanted visitors. Even basics like soap, toilet rolls, clothes will give us away and any animals that are not able to be hidden completely will be the subject of interest. Chickens, ducks and other small animals are not quiet animals and will be hunted down. If you have any of these animals you need to hide or relocate them the instant that you recognise what is going on.

Plus with people breaking into houses you need to ensure that anything you have is stored out of the way. Somewhere where you can get to it but it will be safe. Alternatively you need to have a permanent guard on your items and be prepared to fight for them.

I’m looking at just disappearing for a few months if anything happens but this shows that people are surviving those few months and you can’t hide forever. You either need to disappear completely and hope nobody finds you or you need to be ruthless with anyone attempting to take your stuff. Not many of us can be that ruthless. It is something to think about.

Consider your own situation.

  • Can you survive six months of little food?
  • Will your neighbours be looking at stealing from you?
  • Have you enough for your family to survive six months?
  • Can you defend your stores for months?
  • Can you hide your livestock for months?
  • Can your family keep OPSEC?

Most of us are planning to bug in. In this situation could we do that?

I don’t think most of us have considered this scenario carefully enough. We have assumed quick die off and empty streets within a few months. These people are still surviving after nearly six months with no sign of it finishing. Can you survive that?

Personally, I’m looking at my contingency plans again and changing my thoughts on how quickly our streets will be cleared. I can tell you now that it will require changes to my plans and require more hidden stores plus a complete rethink on my livestock management which will be the biggest issue for me. It also reinforces the statement that you do not want to be city based and if you are you need an exceptional Bug In plan or a valid Bug Out plan.

Time to update your contingency plans I think especially as several western countries have told their people to stock up and prepare for emergencies, not the UK of course, our government is too busy working on the sugar tax to add another stealth tax to the very long list and working out how to delay Brexit. Critical things for our wonderful leaders.

Land Update

A lot being going on over the last few weeks. Some good, some bad.

Managed to move the IBCs up, all cleaned and now being filled, slowly but over the winter they will get sorted out. Soon dotted around where needed will be 4K lt of grey water for animals or plants,

Chopped some trees down and made a pile of wood that I can’t use at the moment. It’ll take time to season so perhaps when it is ready I’ll be in a position to use it.

I’ve also sorted out the rubbish heap I found at the back. An old metal barn or something. All the panels are now in a neat pile and the posts in neat rows by the entrance. Pity there are no metal merchants floating about at the moment but when the market picks up I’ll transfer them and get them disposed of. They are out of the way.

Been looking at the pond, now named Crocodile Lake by one of the kids that sadly lacks crocodiles is still looking green and full of logs. I’ve had a look at a neighbouring pond that was worked on earlier this year. He brought in an excavator, dredged the pond, removed all the dead wood, installed plants and fish and it looked good. Now it is back in the same state as mine, obviously with less deadwood and some fish, he thinks. All that work and money wasted. I’m going to plan out what I need to do and start on my ponds next year. Got some books to read to get started.

Something that has not gone so well. My Five Rhode Island Reds have vanished. Anything could have happened really. Fox, Dog, poacher or they just wandered off. None of them make any sense though. Last time a fox got one there was blood all over the place, five have gone and no sign of blood or violence. If it was a pacher why would they leave the four big Buff Orpingtons and take five much small Rhode Island Reds. I’ve never had any birds wander away from their homes either. I’ll probably never know unless I come across carcasses in the woods but I’m going to go with a poacher.

Built a nice shed for some bits. Moving them into there for the winter.

Looking at building a lean too to put some hay and feed in. I’ll put it right where the old metal one was and it will be nicely positioned. Should be easy enough to build so need to get started before it gets into Winter.

Not much else to say. Been busy at work as well.

NW Meet Aug 2016 Report

Well a bit behind the curve here but here finally is the NW Meet Report.

We met up at our usual location, Fred’s pad, and there was plenty of tea, biscuits and cake as Fred spoilt us. Probably because he actually had a few visitors at his place and proved to the neighbours that Ole. Curmudgeon actually knew real live people that were not stuck on the internet.

Timelord gave his reloading shotgun cartridges chat and it ended up evolving into a medieval staff discussion where he again demonstrated his knowledge of old style weaponry and tactics. TL is always educational in these discussions and he is always well worth listening to.

Scythe then gave his talk and showed us how to convert an ordinary digital camera to night vision. Basically the premise is every digital camera is NV capable and a filter is inserted to stop the camera whitening out with UV radiation. Take an old camera, remove this filter and you have a NV capability for £20. Took him 10 minutes to do while showing us each step. We spent more time talking about it than it took him to do it.

We then, as we always do, moved on to more general subject in a free for all. One topic was the forum, as you know I was looking at what to do with it. People here were pretty much in alignment with the views I had already received so nothing new came out and we discussed what I was proposing to do. They seemed happy with it.

A few other minor topics were discussed and all in all it was another interesting day. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we discussed having another one towards the end of the year when more of our regulars could attend.