Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted
Remember just a year ago when everyone was pumped about an exciting new decade? It was 2020 and just the sound of it was futuristic and hopeful.
“This is going to be my year!” people said.
Unfortunately, I don’t think 2020 was anybody’s year unless your last name starts with B and rhymes with Sneez-os. While you’ll see lots of folks out there blithely saying, “Thank goodness 2020 is over!” I’ve got to say, 2021 isn’t looking great either.
With the economic disaster that is sweeping the country, more lockdown mandates, a new government that is likely to crack down even more, rapidly approved vaccinations we’ll be “strongly encouraged” to receive, and who knows what else in store, if you are a New Year’s resolution type, it’s important to keep these things in mind and set more realistic goals for the year ahead.
A lot of the old tips for prepping and stockpiling are no longer really workable for many of us. This is true for a multitude of reasons – money is tight, supplies are less abundant and more expensive, and it’s more difficult to access businesses and in-person education.
That has a lot of people feeling overwhelmed and even helpless. My inbox is filled with messages from those who want to prepare but feel like there’s just no hope.
I’m here to tell you that there is hope. We may be down right now, but we aren’t out. We’re only truly defeated if our attitude allows us to stay in that state of mind. When you think you’ve irrevocably lost, you stop looking for wins. And goes against what prepping is all about. I’ve always said that prepping is the ultimate act of optimism. This is a time that will test our resilience and show us what we’re really made of. (Spoiler – we’re made of strong stuff.)
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. The clock isn’t going to strike midnight leaving us all to sigh in relief and say, “Thank goodness! It’s finally over! GoodBYE 2020!” This isn’t Cinderalla and there are no fairy godmothers or spells to be lifted. 2021 is going to be a challenge in much of the same way 2020 was and probably in ways we haven’t even imagined yet. (I mean, who really expected murder hornets and cannibalistic monkeys?)
But none of this means that you can’t keep prepping in the year ahead. It just means you may need to be more strategic and prepare in different ways. So do you want to become more prepared in 2021? Are you with me?
Here are some realistic goals you can set for the year ahead.
Become more fit.
Fitness doesn’t have to mean a gym membership or exercise class. In fact, those are both darned near impossible these days. However, there are still ways you can work on your fitness levels that will pay off big if you find yourself in a survival situation.
- Walking: This is my favorite exercise by far and one I indulge in every single day. It’s accessible to almost everyone and you don’t have to buy any fancy equipment. Here are some tips to help you start a walking program. Don’t want to walk because it’s cold weather or rainy? What kind of weather do you expect when you bug out? Chances are, it will be less than ideal. Here are some of the benefits of training in bad weather.
- Add some weight: If you already walk a lot or if you need an additional challenge, add a loaded backpack to your daily stroll. You can just keep on adding weight to help yourself become stronger and more fit.
- Bodyweight exercises: Check out YouTube to find exercises you can do at home using only your own body weight for resistance.
- Yoga: Also visit YouTube to find yoga videos. A friend of mine swears by a very inexpensive program called DDPYoga, which has workouts for everyone, including those who are bedridden or in a wheelchair.
- Calisthenics: Go old-school and do some calisthenics like push-ups, jumping jacks, and lunges.
It really doesn’t matter what form of exercise you choose to do – just do something on a regular basis and continue to push yourself to become more fit.
Learn skills.
The sky is really the limit when it comes to learning skills. Many of us find we have a lot more time at home now. Why not put that to good use learning skills that will serve you well in both everyday life and survival situations. YouTube and online courses can be great ways to add to your skillset.
Here are a few areas in which you could find things you might want to learn:
- Food preservation
- Gardening
- Marksmanship
- Making ammo
- Woodworking
- Sewing/clothesmaking
- Mending
- Knitting
- Fletching
- Leatherwork
- Herbalism
- Foraging
- Hunting
- First Aid
- Medical skills
- Foreign languages
- Ham radio
- Bushcrafting
Those are just a few ideas to get you started – basically, any skill that helps you defend yourself, produce something, communicate, or preserve something is worth learning.
Produce more.
I’ve written time and time again about how we’ve become a nation of consumers instead of a nation of producers. If that hasn’t convinced you, then the empty shelves in stores across the country should reinforce the fact that we are far better off when we can produce the things we require to meet our needs.
Many of these things will cross over with the skills mentioned above. Being able to produce the food you eat from farm to pantry to table is more important than ever. Being able to acquire our food through hunting or foraging can help those who may not have the space or the security to grow their own.
Look at the things that you use every day and think about what you can produce yourself. Look at those things and think about how you could repair the items you use now if they were to break. Do you need any special spare parts or tools? If so, order them now because people are waiting months for certain automotive and computer parts. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg if we continue on our current path.
Not only can producing directly help your family, but it can also put you in a position to barter with others who may be able to produce things you cannot.
Focus on your small circle.
It’s easy to be focused on the major events in the news, like the election, the pandemic, what’s happening in the UK, the vaccine, or episodes of civil unrest. I believe it’s extremely important for preppers to keep up with current events. Those of us who suspected early on that there was going to be a lockdown were able to get our supplies well before the rest of the public realized that bad things were headed our way and stripped the shelves bare. But when there’s such a barrage of bad news coming at you constantly it can be easy to lose your way and get lost in the big picture.
While we want to know what’s going on in the world, we also need to recognize the things we can act upon and control and the things we can’t. We need, as Selco advises so often, to focus on our small circles as things become more difficult. We can teach our family members skills, we can prepare a garden, we can increase the security of our homes, and we can tighten our bonds with our communities, but we can’t necessarily change government mandates or makeover the economy.
When things feel too big to handle, go small and you will always find some action that you can take.
Look for happiness.
This may sound out of place, especially right now when times seem so very dark. But there is always light. There’s always a flower, a snowflake, the laugh of a child, the voice of the person you love, or the dog curled up at your feet. There’s a book you haven’t yet gotten to read or an old favorite you can enjoy again.
Some days it may be harder to find those moments of happiness than others and that’s perfectly normal in times like these. This is a season of introspection and of deciding what – and who – really matters in our lives.
Many writers this year, myself included, have written that things will never be the same as they were before the Covid pandemic was used to limit our worlds. I know that my life changed dramatically and did not go in the direction I had planned. I know the same is true for family members and people I love. It’s enough to make you feel like we have nothing ahead but despair. It’s a fact that mental health issues have been on the uptick as the lockdowns keep us isolated from friends, family, and humanity in general.
But there is always a glimmer of hope and no matter what, I sincerely believe that the human spirit will prevail. We will always find reasons to laugh (hey, dark humor is still humor, we will find people we love and care for if we are willing to be open to that, and we can always find beauty in the mundane if we know how to seek it.
Despite the distance this year has put between many of us and the people we love, at least the internet, for all its flaws, helps us to keep in touch and stay just a little bit closer to them. In fact, a neighbor here told me that her family did a Zoom for Christmas and because it was all online, even though they could not be together in person, they got to see cousins and relatives from far away that they hadn’t seen in many years. I believe there’s some grace to be found in that.
So make one of your goals to seek happiness anywhere you can find it. Because your spirit matters just as much as your physical preparations do. Being with the ones you care for is important, no matter how you do it. Finding a reason to smile will always make any situation more tolerable.
How will you prep for 2021?
Have you thought about prepping for 2021? Do you have any predictions about what the year ahead will bring? What is your advice to those who want to become better prepared? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
We here at The Organic Prepper thank you for being a part of our lives in 2020. Let’s tackle 2021 with new confidence and a sense of community. Working together and learning from one another, we can achieve great things.
I am a minimalist. I keep my physical “preps” to a minimum.
What I mainly focus on, is Mental preparedness, education and physical conditioning.
Mental Heath should be the backbone of Prepping. Without a good mental attitude in trying times or times of stress, you will have a gigantic problem when SHTF.
Faith and hope (a positive Attitude) are what gets you through trying times. So cultivate them now. These are Coping skills, ones that so many people today, lack. Which is why so many people are depressed and on depression meds.
Education is a high priority because I am more of a Survivalist, than some Preppers. I know how to build all kinds of shelters and true survival stuff but also how to construct wooden wind mills, small scale hydro electric plants or water mills, privative house building, basic blacksmithing, etc.
Even if you are planning on bugging in, if your preps fail, you might need to build this kind of stuff to generate some electricity or pump water or even for the use of a larger community. knowledge is a useful skill. Use this time to expand your knowledge base.
As for physical conditioning, focus on things that do not require a gym.
You may not have one( even a home gym, if you are forced to bug out) available after SHTF. So you better know how to keep in shape with out using them.
Well said! I am becoming a minimalist, too. Honestly, if we have to bug out, how much can we really carry?
Also, letting “stuff” go now is much easier than losing it (by catastrophe or robbery/vandalism) later, and maybe you can even get a few bucks for it.
I envy your knowledge and endeavor to learn what you and Daisy both have suggested.
Just wanted to say thanks for posting. Great points.
layers of prep!
i have a small stash of dehydrated foods. i have a medium stash of frozen foods. i have a large stash of mostly home-canned foods. i have a garden. i have sunny window sills full of edible and/or beautiful plants.i have seeds saved and purchased. i make compost. i have stable foods stored in my car. i have stable goods stored with a friend. i have a library of food related books. i have multiple ways to cook and preserve food. i teach friends to garden, cook and preserve food.
i have sewing machines. i have fabric, tools, and notions. i have fabric. i have skill. i have a library of sewing books. i carry a sewing kit in my bag. i teach friends and others to sew.
We’ve been selling things in order to pay off hubby’s truck loan. Which we just did today(!). That is the last loan we had so we’re out of that debt. We still have credit cards but we pay those off every month.
I’ve been learning how to do hydroponic gardening using the Kratky Method ( no electricity). Started saving seeds from the veggies and herbs I grew this past summer.
Hubby is a Master Carpenter and can build just about anything.
I crochet and have a lap loom for knitting and also a larger one for making blankets and such
Been collecting and trying out recipes that are dairy and egg free.
I’ve been watching video documentaries about the Great Depression and trying to learn how to manage in that atmosphere if it comes to that.
We’re trying to be as well off as possible in case biden is actually put in the WH. Because we think things will go down hill early and keep going.
I only have to go outside my place and look at the mountain and the meadows to handle any “burn out” or depression I feel coming on.
Down time doing something you like ( reading for me) is a must.
Congratulations on becoming debt-free!
@Genevieve,
Good for you! That is awesome!
I live in a camper that is only 35×14 and there is simply NO ROOM for storage, so I have what I have and that is it. It would be great to have even a spare bedroom or it would be nice to have a shed or a garage (ANYTHING) for goodness sakes but NO in a camper. It’s just not happening. When I bought it in 2011 I didn’t realize what the future would be (things were going good back then) but NOT I realize but can’t build on to it so until my Prince Charming comes along and buys me a house this is “home”…The dog is happy so I might as well be a happy camper myself so I don’t make her sad haha.
As for debt I have ONLY my car payment for one 11 more mos. and I’m done. Everything else is paid for and I don’t have ANY credit cards at all and haven’t for years, therefore NO credit cards to pay every month. I pay for what I buy and sleep well at night. Congratulations on paying off anything and doing what you do, I know if makes you feel good to do things and be productive. HAPPY NEW YEAR for whatever that is worth…Blessings and be safe!
There is space under your trailer. Not a lot and not very high but space.
We had an “Apple door” where we stored fruit, a tool door where we kept tools and one other door for miscellaneous stuff.
We had 4” of styrofoam on the inside of the skirting.
And it kept apples cool and not frozen and kept the “house” warmer in winter
Most skirting is just solid all the way around but we put in hinges etc on three pieces of skirting to make doors and increase our storage.
Just to give you some thoughts: in 2008, this country went into a real tailspin. I had many friends who were service techs, outside cable, or some such get fired from AT&T. Jobs that paid $100,000+ a year, with overtime, were gone. AT&T just overloaded the remaining folks, or sent it out to companies who paid poverty wages for the same job. One tech in particular, had only been working about 8 months-so no seniority, hence, no security. His wife was pregnant, they had 3 other kids, and 3 large dogs. A nightmare scenerio if you are renting. He purchased a large 5th wheel with money that they had saved, and was able to keep the family together by renting monthly at a KOA. Fast forward…..it helped them save enough money to buy some property and move onto it. Not fancy property, with utilities in-just some land. He is looking into solar, a septic, and if no well-then a water storage. Once that is up and running, he can look into building a house or putting in a modular. You might check into doing the same. Prepping is always one widget at a time.
You may be overlooking the crawl space underneath your 490′ trailer. I know, maybe hard to access, but get creative with sliding rails or something that means you don’t have to belly crawl. Make sure the space is concealed with old looking lumber and only use metal containers and plenty of rodent poison. Not preaching, just a thought.
Your doing a great job….maybe guns and gumbo…..
About this time of year, I do what I call an objective self-assessment.
I look back over last year and see what worked, what did not, and why.
Granted there are some thing that are totally out of ones control, like droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes etc. Cannot really say the garden failing due to getting brunt to a crisp by a wildfire, or the garden and house getting swept away to OZ (no, not New Zealand).
Then, look forward to the coming year, what to do to improve on, and plan accordingly.
Could be anything, just look at Daisy’s list from above.
But dont just stick to what you are comfortable with. Try something new, or outside of your comfort zone.
While 2020 was definitely one of the most “interesting” to say the least for most of us in our lifetimes, 2021 could be just as challenging. Like to think we will all rise to the occasion, improve our personal situations from the small accomplishments to the big ones.
Here is to rising to the challenge of 2021 (lifts glass of wine to all those reading this).
Spending less, saving more. Picking up skills that I have either wanted to do or have done in the past and not picked up in a while.
I expect 2021 to be a lot like 2020, only with more economic downturns.
While the pandemic was not a surprise to me, and I have been ready for a pandemic for over 35-years, and the realities of the actual pandemic have not had nearly as much impact on me as it has the rest of my family and many of the people I know, I will have to say that one element of it did catch me by surprise.
Fortunately, I was also prepared for this aspect of it, as well. And that is the fact that the pandemic almost immediately became a socio-political event that has caused far more problems for people than the actual Covid-19 illness.
Of course, for those that contracted the virus, or had family and friends that did, the virus was the major effect. However, for many other people, the socio-political effects triggered by the presence of the virus, the way it came about, and the way it spread became more invasive and caused more problems for more people than the actual virus.
We can protect ourselves against the virus to a high degree. There is very little to be done about the socio-political aspects, other than being prepared, or getting prepared, to deal with them. Which is one of the primary reasons to prepare anyway.
Social unrest, violence, political shenanigans, food shortages, service shortages, infrastructure failures, and the rest of that long list of things that many of us have been preparing for since each one of us started prepping.
So, again, I had my preps in place to deal with that part of the situation. Some aggravations, for sure, some disappointments, and a few adjustments. Those were always part of what would happen in a case like this, even if it was pandemic related.
Having a source that just happened to be in Wuhan at the time of the release of the virus, I was able to start monitoring the situation in early January. Though he was picked up by the security police, he managed to get out and was smuggled out of China before anything worse happened to him. While he was free, before being picked up, he was feeding us some valuable information about what was not being reported by the MSM or admitted to by our government, and many more.
The point is, I was lucky in this instance, in having someone I know right in the middle of things, that knew how to get information out. So, in 2021 I intend to upgrade my shortwave monitoring system, starting with a couple of antennas I intend to build. And, instead of having all of my current receivers packed away in Faraday cages, I will be setting one up for constant monitoring the same way I do with one of my weather alert radios and VHF/UHF scanning receiver.
While the MSM all around the world cannot be trusted, there are other sources on the air in various places that do broadcast the facts. Without all the interpretation and instruction on how to react to the news.
One aspect that I intend to follow up with that was in the plan for 2020 is to get a garden spot prepared, the preps done to install a greenhouse, and to position the elements of some basic housing at two of the locations I have available to me that I can relocate to if I have to leave the city for an extended time and cannot get to my primary long-term location for a while. (It is over 200-miles away, through some rough country, and only a couple of roads. Which are subject to minus thirty-degree temperatures in the winter with 80mph winds and multiple feet of snow in some places on the routes. And with summertime temperatures of one-hundred-ten degrees, with no breezes in many cases, no clouds, and almost no water available as this is the high desert.)
Another goal is similar to some of those listed in the article. I want (need, really) to get a much better handle on my health. It is really limiting what I can do now, and I have not done what I should be doing to bring it back under control.
I still believe we are past the point of no return to get back any semblance of the lives we once led, fora variety of reasons, with the virus being only one of them. So, I will continue to prep, given the limits of finances and health.
Just my opinion.
Thanks for the info. It is good if you can have that international level of contacts and intelligence. A doctor friend in Eastern Europe told me China bought almost all ventilators from government hospitals in November 2019, so something was afoot earlier than media reports.
My informants are saying that the disease cycle is increasing with significantly worse diseases by 2022 leading into a war cycle with possible WW3 by 2026. This may correspond with civil unrest bringing about the UNTIED States of America and a power vacuum in the world. We can only be aware and prepare for the worst, pray for the best.
Yes something was afoot and too bad in August 2020 our incompetent “leader” pulled out the resource we had in China that could have been a huge asset. Well, an asset IF the banana republic leader and his “staff” decided to listen to her.
Yes we are a consumer nation because what has been passing for the republican party was hell bent on busting unions and allowing big business to not pair their fair share of taxes. The US was “the” dominant country and economy after WWII. Then Nixon got in office (I give him a bit of credit for the EPA) but that started the racial divide. Reagan upped the game and now we’re left to deal with the mess/disaster trump has left.
It is going to be a long slog and quite painful for most of those in the US. The US is now weak and thankfully, a seasoned administration will soon take over.
Selena,
I sincerely hope that you will make some notes throughout 2021 and report back to us on 12/31/2021 all of the good things that the Biden/Harris duo will accomplish that will better America. And I just as sincerely hope that you will keep doing that for the next four years. While you’re at it keep an objective set of notes of what you are unhappy with and address their short comings as well.
@Tom,
Well said.
I for one fully expect for more of our Constitutional rights to be violated by the Biden/Harris admin.
Based off what we have seen from draconian governor and mayor edicts, for more small businesses to fail and those governor and mayors to profit off those big businesses by campaign contributions.
If you want to be under the thumb of big government or big corporate interest, and lack choice . . . look who MSM promotes their narrative.
I always love reading your stories, Jerry D. Young. Thank you for them.
I have always liked your ideas.
Hi Daisy,
I enjoyed your first article of the year. May everyone appreciate the blessings they receive with every new day and celebrate family and friends that God has placed in your life.
For those that have faith can I just encourage you with Jesus words when he prayed, ‘your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…’ Every thing will come to pass and so will this evil in the world, we just have to remain true and good to the best of our ability as we look forward to his return.
One thought that may help – Mental Health has been quickly and greatly enhanced by breathing techniques, particularly by the Wim Hof Method. A free app is available to help practice.
I think it’s premature to plan on relying on the ”traditional” prepper topics while a Trump government continues to struggle against the left wingers’ long march advance, or whether the same communist designed and controlled voting system that’s kept socialist dictators in power in Venezuela since at least 2010 will be allowed to pull off the greatest election theft in world history in this USA. If the latter prevails we can anticipate all the ugliness of forcible gun control, barbaric restrictions on your right to travel, to school your kids, to engage in commerce in general, etc should you be reluctant to allow your DNA to be modified by vaccines that can’t possibly undergo the 5-10 years of safety testing that legitimate vaccines should. Such vaccines would be in gross violation of the “informed consent” principle, the violation of which we imprisoned and sometimes executed Nazi medics after the Nuremberg trials. Such “emergency” vaccines may well contain the embedded tracking chip to not only control your access to the economy as described but may well also provide the control mechanism to guarantee that you can only do commerce via a digital cashless economy that is iron-clad controlled by the government and central bankers. Those are HUGE IFs for which the prepper topics of past decades do not address.
Whether such controls might block your access to medical tourism (to prevent you from being bankrupted by the highest medical costs in the world) by shutting down your right to travel and use of a US passport is a related HUGE IF.
I had distant relatives (long before I was born) who were living in 1933 Ukraine at the time that Stalin deemed them to be kulaks (independent farmers) and therefore must be starved by the millions by confiscating their crops. Many of those who could not flee the country died and their bodies were literally left on the streets for months. Stalin’s thugs even went door to door confiscating pots and pans while explaining “you won’t need these.” Explain to me any difference between a government that blocks your access to the economy if you refuse to submit to its grossly unconstitutional diktats … and government mandates that only a bloody Bolshevik would cheer.
That’s why this New Year’s resolutions are scheduled weeks way too early to know whether we have the remnants of a constitution left or whether it has been added to the classic dustbin of forgotten history.
–Lewis
@Lewis,
First, that was one heck of a first sentence.
Second, good points.
Third, the only way Stalin was successful was in 1918 the NKDV initiated a gun confiscation from the citizens, as the Bolsheviks at the time knew well armed citizens would pose a challenge to their power.
I remember when I first saw the virus on the news when it was initially getting going in China. I said to my husband “this is going to be bad”. I didn’t know then just how it was going to fall apart, but I just had a gut feeling that this was going to impact the US. Luckily, I’m always on top of our food supply and had plenty of everything. My husband at first scoffed at it, but as the media ramped us their panic mania, he became a little more concerned and encouraged me to fill in the gaps in our pantry supplies. Also, we invested in a back up water system (city water doesn’t maintain itself) and stocked up on first aid and medicines.
Where we are, we never completely locked down, but things did tighten up quite a bit. Restaurants……well, I just can’t imagine this ultimate damage done to all of them. Expect that about 50% will never reopen.
I still wonder every time the government makes another statement whether this is all just a control experiment. We heard, don’t travel for Thanksgiving, but in our area, no post-Thanksgiving surge happened. Now, since the holiday surge scare doesn’t seem to be working – we have a new mutated “70% more transmissible” version of the virus to scare us into hiding at home and staying away from family and society at large. Isolation is a know psychological weapon. Fear is excellent for making all of us more amenable to a savior, in this case, tyrannical government.
I’m a great believer in the concept of subsidiarity – every thing should be managed at the lowest level of government or organization and the most basic organic organization is the family. It all starts there. Manage at home everything that can be managed there and keep the government out of your life as much as possible.
Our plan for 2021 is to just stay low on the radar, wait and see what happens with the vaccine for six months or more, and continue to be frugal and thoughtful with our preps. We also are constantly learning new skills.
I personally think 2020 will be a cake walk compared to what is in store in 2021. I ain’t lookin’ forward to it! I am having an off grid well drilled (hopefully this coming week weather permitting). Got some raised beds put in late fall so will be planning for a better garden this year. If JB is coronated on 20 January, I will be having a flag pole installed in my yard and flying the American flag upside down (flag flown this way represents distress). Spent today organizing canned goods. I was able to develop a relatively cheap can organizer by thinking out of the box. Lowe’s sells wire shelving Style Selections. This is a link but they have these in various sizes and either stainless steel or black:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Style-Selections-18-in-D-x-47-7-in-W-x-72-in-H-6-Tier-Steel-Freestanding-Shelving-Unit/999990412.
While these may not be super cheap, they are cheap compared to the can racks and a lot more sturdy. You can arrange the height between shelves anyway you want. I actually arrange mine for canned good so that there are 4 notches between each shelf. This arrangement allows me to lay the cans horizontally and stack them 2 high and 6 deep for the size unit I purchased using the standard size can. I was able to stack about 300 cans on 4 shelves. I purchased two units to make one shelving unit as the individual extra shelves cost more than just buying an additional unit. Also buying two or more units you can do some creative set ups as well. The lip on either side of the shelves are sufficient enough to hold the cans so they don’t roll off. Hope this idea helps somebody in getting organized.
Great ideas for storage! Thank you for sharing!
UPDATE – I actually got about 520 cans on 4 shelves. Still have room to add about 3 more shelves which could take about 300+ more cans. Total cost for 2 units combined roughly $240.
I love these suggestions – and not just because I’m doing a bunch of them. I really like your reminder that physical fitness is an excellent prep and there are about a million ways to get fitter for free. I also love the suggestions about finding beauty and happiness. That’s incredibly important!
Happy New Year to you and yours!
Happy New Year everyone!
Well, for us, 2021 will be much of the same, flying under the radar best we can, adding to our stores as we can. While we would like to move further out (and we will keep looking) I have a well established garden plot I can expand. I’ve put off putting in berries or fruit trees, knowing we’d like to move, it’s on the list for this year. Skill wise, I am working to expand my knowledge of herbs and foraging. I think this is particularly important as access to health care becomes more difficult (likely to get worse).
We are in for some difficult times ahead. Being prepared mentally and spiritually are going to be of utmost importance IMHO.
Beat a quarter into an arrow head [copper work hardens] and fletch the arrow with a dollar bill.
nonsense,that crap wont work,unless you build a bunker to hid it inside,instead form your own attack teams to loot and pillage,the bigger the better,look to south africa as your guide.
tanks,artillary and nuclear h-bombs are go preppeing.
Right on!
I got a bunker built into the hill side behind the house that would make the North Koreans green with envy!
A squadron of F-22s, a stealth converted B-1B, and a still experimental (REDACTED).
Three platoons of Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Terminators, all armed with Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.
The lab grown, mutant 300lbs attack dogs with lasers mounted on their heads. They are trained to hunt down children (shout out to Arizona).
And then there is the fast attack submarine. Everyone should have one.
per Carol:
“I’m a great believer in the concept of subsidiarity – every thing should be managed at the lowest level of government or organization and the most basic organic organization is the family.”
Thank you very much. I did not know that word subsidiarity but have a lifelong affection for the Jeffersonian perspective that encapsulates!
per lstMarineJarHead:
“… the only way Stalin was successful was in 1918 the NKDV initiated a gun confiscation from the citizens, as the Bolsheviks at the time knew well armed citizens would pose a challenge to their power.”
The Bolsheviks were not the only gun confiscators. The US army pulled the same atrocity in 1890 when they demanded the Lakota Indians hand over their weapons at Wounded Knee. Once that was complete the army opened fire with four Hotchkiss machine guns and massacred the nearly 300 hundred defenseless Indians — for which the US government awarded some 20 Medals of Honor. The full gut-wrenching story is here:
https://ammo.com/articles/wounded-knee-massacre-native-american-gun-confiscation-forgotten-history
The US army had also confiscated even civilian weapons in Texas after the unCivil War. The result was that outlaws hiding out in pre-state Oklahoma territory would swoop down across the Red River and rob Texans repeatedly.
I think the lesson is that no matter where in the world your right to defend yourself is threatened … you’re not going to like the real intentions behind it.
–Lewis
@Lewis,
Well said.
My point was to highlight the fact of gun confiscation in history, to which you expanded on, thank you.
The responses so far are so positive, upbeat. My expectations are much darker.
There’s a very good chance that we’ll see World War III.
First I expect civil war. If Trump wins, or takes out Biden through other legal means, the left will explode. If Biden is installed, Trump supporters will go on the march. While the U.S. is rent apart by internal division, Russia will attack with nukes (they don’t believe in MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction). Then China will invade. Many millions will die. A glimmer of hope is that combat veterans in the U.S. outnumber any number of green Chinese army that they can bring in.
China is getting desperate. They had massive floods in their rice growing areas, so bad that the floods almost took out the Three Gorges Dam. They wiped out much of their rice for the year. Then there was drought in their wheat growing areas. To top it off, there were locust swarms that attacked much of what was left. China is running out of food. Because of droughts, storms, political interference and freezes, many of the places from where China has imported food, are themselves running low on food. Taking over the U.S. is becoming the only source left.
(How many of you have seen the film, The Seven Samurai? There’s the scene where the people of the village realize that the gang trying to take over their village is starving, and it has no other options. Likewise, the U.S. is the only option to a starving enemy.)
Through their own foolishness, they stopped importing Australian coal for their power plants, now power blackouts are happening.
A desperate enemy may do foolish things. I’d not be surprised if World War III happens this summer.
For the war, being able to shoot and being in good physical shape may be most important. I expect World War III to last only a few months, if even that long.
The skill sets mentioned in the article are what are needed to start rebuilding after the war. I personally have several of them, as well as tools. However, here is not a food growing area, so unless water remains available for irrigation, we’ll have to leave. Hundreds of miles. We will need to produce as much locally as we can, or go without. That will start the rebuilding of our industrial base that was exported to China. Almost everything that we need, if not everything, can be produced by small factories here in the States.
@R.O.
You make some good points, but I just dont see a nuke exchange happening.
Everyone knows a nuclear winter would be very bad and not just for one year.
Asymmetrical warfare (cyber, proxy wars, economic etc.) I think would be more likely.
Recently I have seen more than a few articles discussing the lead up to the Revolutionary War against the British, and how there was a lead up to the actual kinetic fighting (my wife is currently watching Ken Burns Civil War series, and noted the same happened then). People still loyal to the crown were terrorized by the American patriots. I think we are working up to that point in regards to a civil war. It used to be two political ideologies against each other and still is to a degree.
But there is also a class war developing with regards to the lockdowns and the shift of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 10%. There are a lot of small business owners who are really pissed at those who have enforced the most draconian lockdowns, while the big box stores still open and even see substantial profits Y-to-Y.
A lot of those small businesses are NOT Trump supporters.
And they are pissed.
Granted, I could be wrong, Magic 8-ball says “Future uncertain.”
It could go kinetic 21JAN2021 for all I know.
1stMarineJarHead: Not only don’t the Russians believe in MAD, they also don’t believe in nuclear winter. Thus they are willing to deploy their nukes. The basic idea of nuclear winter is that the nukes will kick up so much dust that it will block out the sun. The way to maximize dust production is to blow up a nuke on the surface of the earth. But nukes produce their greatest damage when exploded a certain distance up in the air, which greatly reduces dust production.
As for the possibility of a civil war. I hear you when you think it will be more of a class war than an ideological one. But I see the elites as mostly socialists, followers of Karl Marx. In the same way that Hitler was a socialist and a follower of Karl Marx. Just as Hitler had his shock troops in the Brownshirts, so the elites have their shock troops in BLM and Antifa.
The issue is no longer Trump vs. Biden, but slavery vs. freedom, amorality vs. morality, dictatorship vs. government of the people. I’d like to say socialism vs. capitalism, however socialism in the name of crony-capitalism has already taken over much of our economy and these shut-downs have destroyed much of what remains of capitalism. If Trump meekly hands over the keys of the White House to Joe Biden, he will be history because he would be seen as someone who betrayed the American people..
Oh, btw, for a American reference, The Magnificent Seven (1960) was basically the same movie/plot: the marauding bandits who prey on farmers, they were starving.
I saw both films. They were almost identical.
Akira Kurosawa loved American westerns, thus The Seven Samurai was basically an American western wrapped in a kimono. Then The Magnificent Seven used almost the identical plot for the border region between U.S. and Mexico. It was interesting to see the many parallels between the two movies.
But,,… But….Wait, The Government is coming to our rescue with a Whole $600 just in time to save the day, right? Only 7% of the entire $2+ Trillion Congressional Covid package goes to help Americans. Remember that statistic come next election how your representative voted on your behalf for you. The foreign money paid out just gets laundered and kicked back to the Congress persons who dolled it out to them. See how this works. Its a big club and we are not part of it.
And that right there is why I am thinking of real class warfare might be a more likely outcome than a civil war.
Fantastic article. You are absolutely right. We must never give up hope.
per 1stMarineJarHead:
“…my wife is currently watching Ken Burns Civil War series…”
Be really careful with anything coming from Ken Burns. I gave up on him long before he endorsed Obama for president in that first campaign. A more useful characterization of Burns is this 2016 article:
About Ken Burns — student of history… or left-wing gasbag?
https://rightsidenews.com/life-and-science/health-and-education/ken-burns-student-of-history-or-left-wing-gasbag/
I can safely guess that there’s no way Ken Burns in his Civil War series would ever disclose that Lincoln authorized his negotiators in Feb 1865 at Hampton Roads, Virginia to offer the South an opportunity to return peacefully to the Union and KEEP THEIR SLAVES if they would simply pay the exorbitant tariff/taxes the war was all about. The South turned down that offer. When Lincoln was shot he was still in written communication with England about seeing some country to deport any “freed” slaves to.
Burns in simply a cheap HINO … a historian in name only.
Another good thing to prep for is: get repairs done that need to be done. Dripping faucet? Leaky window? Septic system need cleaning? Get those things done that you can’t do and which require trained assistance (plumbing, electrical, yard, etc.). And get them done now before something occurs that would hinder a rapid response from the hired help. Watch the workmen and learn how they do the task at hand. This is great training for you, even if you never have to do the task yourself. Note what materials they use, which tools, and why certain things are done a certain way. You can always use this knowledge to determine whether the workman knows his stuff or not.