Welcome to 2012, I trust everyone celebrated in a safe and sane manner? Hmm, I didn’t think so… Safe and sane isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I ponder all us doomers and an excuse to shoot guns in the middle of the night!

   I was finally able to get over to the BOL for the long weekend. It’d been over a month since our last trip, December was busy at our house as I’m sure it was at most of yours. It was a weekend filled with exactly what I needed, a whole lot of nothing… I spent the better part of the time sitting next to the fire and just keep everything mellow. Smoked a few nice cigars and welcomed in a New Year, another year that promises to be interesting!

   One of the neighbors at the BOL had alerted us to the sale of a singlewide mobile home in the area and we went to take a look at that. The purchase price was $19,900, while not a bad price, not the price point that us at preppernation.com are looking for… It’s a model year 2000 Guerdon 14×63, 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. This unit would work for our second house out at the BOL but it’s way over priced and we’ll have to see how motivated the seller actually is! The biggest selling point this home has going for it and makes it a potential deal in my mind is that it’s in the town nearest to our place. This would really reduce the moving expenses but we’ll have to see? 

   I’m excited to see what we’ll get from 2012, maybe nothing much more then more of the same but then again? Who knows maybe the Mayan’s were right and the world as we know it will come to an end? I seriously doubt it but like every other year of my life, I’ll be paying attention! With another presidential election on the horizon, I guess I’ll be forced to listen to all the politics with both ears again too. With the current line up of political hopefuls, I’m NOT hopeful of any major changes coming down the pike ant time soon… We will soon see!

Well hold on folks we’re about to go around one more time… Happy New Year!

Prepper

Entry Point

   Well, I’m very sad to report that it finally happened… Our BOL (Bug out location) was burgled! I’ve spent nearly 18 years building and improving bug out preps in this same area and have had zero issues when it came to security. Never even had an indication that anyone had been poking around my place. I guess that had lulled me into a bit of complacency about adding much in the way of security features to our property.

   Let me lay this out for you… Mrs. Prepper and I had taken off early on Friday, which allowed to get to the property at about 6:30pm rather than our more typical arrival time of 10:30pm-12:00am. Good thing as it would have been much more of a violation to find the place breached after it was already dark out. Throughout life I’ve only very rarely had anything like this happen, a couple of car prowls but never a burglary. You always hear how it makes you feel violated… It does! It’s a weird feeling to be in your own home, even if it’s just the BOL, after some low down skunk has rummaged through your belongings! Yes, I’m keeping the language on the clean side, actual quotes from the discovery will be kept between the Mrs. and myself.

   Anyway, we arrive on the scene and of course everything looks just as we left it… or does it? I pull in and get positioned so we can begin unloading the car for our weekend in paradise… I make a habit out of heading straight into the house as I’m usually under a barrage of bathroom requests. So, I stand at the door and fish out the door key… Key in lock and turn – hmm? Deadbolt spins as if already unlocked??? Key in door handle and handle spins? This is where your mind does the “This does not compute” thing… See I’m anal about the doors being locked and frequently make a second trip through the house before departure to double-double check that all windows are closed and locked. It is inconceivable that I inadvertently left the door unlocked – NO WAY, NO HOW – it just would never happen… So, my mind is racing and I push the door open… “*&^*&$^%, we’ve been broken into”!

   I waltz right on in as if I owned the place, no thought to the fact my sidearm is sitting in the console of the Jeep? You know, its not as if I’m going to need the gun just going from the car to the house – WRONG! It didn’t even dawn on me that I had dropped the security ball on this end as well… Proceeding into the crime scene without even a thought to the SOB still being there?

   That’s when I saw him! Sitting on my couch, eating my food and drinking my beer! As I stand there in MY doorway trying to make sense of the scene before me, Mrs. Prepper pushes right past me… I barely even noticed that she had my Glock in her hand, leveled in his direction! I’ve always heard that when your in a high stress situation like this your adrenaline is pumping and you won’t even hear the gun go off when it’s fired! Well, I can testify I never heard a shot. I was shocked in disbelief as I watched her fire continuously until the slide eventually caught after the 15th round. When my mind was able to refocus I swear she was screaming at pulp boy about not taking off his freaking shoes in her house!

   OK OK, you’re right – this isn’t how it happened at all! For one thing I don’t drink and therefore he wouldn’t be drinking my beer. Secondly, Mrs. Prepper wouldn’t shoot someone 15 times for a shoe violation but after she got done moaning and groaning  at him about her new carpet, he might wish she had! Sadly though the part about me walking in completely unarmed is true! What the heck was I thinking? I have done the right thing in the past and answered an attempted home invasion at a relatives house – gun in hand – but not this time? For shame!

   So, I walk on in and find stuff strewn about, cabinets all open and contents rummaged. Thankfully the PERP was already gone. I’m fully aware that most of you reading this would have preferred he was there and given you the chance to practice your Dirty Harry voice – “Do you feel lucky – Punk?”  That was my first inclination too after my sanity was regained, as well as my pistol! A disappointment all the way around!

   This appeared to be nothing more than a typical home burglary. TV gone, ripped right off the wall. Small electronics were selectively taken, some food and soda’s, a few kitchen items, 2 pairs of women’s hiking boots and the strangest thing was MY underwear? While the underwear in question was clean and on the new side, still? Oh yeah, the sucker took the better part of a Costco sized package of TP? I was tempted to go looking for any neighbors that might have gotten TP’d in the last few days…

   The entry was made via the back bedroom window. This would be on the far side of the house and furthest from the driveway… This part makes sense as the chances of discovery would be a neighbor happening by on a walk or random inspection as a courtesy to us. However, the burglar had to jump a bit to get in that window and there were several items within easy reach he could have used to boost himself up but didn’t? Also strange were the items not taken from the house… A pair of Kenwood MURS radios, complete with chargers sitting on the kitchen counter? An 18volt DeWalt Flashlight right inside the back door? Binoculars, a LARGE Maglight beside the bed? In my opinion this is strange, he takes my clean but used underwear and not these other items? Strange?

   Anyway, we made the standard police report but figured that it wasn’t enough value to bother the insurance company over! The cop confirmed what I already thought from my personal experience, we weren’t in a high crime area. The officer said he couldn’t remember the last time there was a burglery out in my area of the county…? That was good news, I guess! A trip to the hardware store for some additional beefing up of the window security was about all we could do? Most of the truly valuable items were stored inside the cargo containers, thankfully the locks didn’t show any signs of attempted forcing.

   I guess we were pretty lucky that the scum didn’t break any windows or take a dump in the middle of the kitchen floor! All the stolen items are replaceable but the nagging feeling that will accompany our arrivals for the for-seeable future will linger on! All the stuff I’ve read on the various blogs and forums I haunt always warn about the security of the rural retreat, well take it from me the stories are true… Don’t get  complacent about your security and if you begin a new retreat or BOL project, keep the security end game in mind as you go! Things are easily fixed today but in the near future, who knows? That TP the guy stole might end up being worth its weight in gold?

Submitted for your consideration,

Prepper

   I realize that since there has been a significant break in my posting activity, it will take some time to get myself and everyone else back in the swing of things. I appreciate all of the supportive emails I received inquiring as to my state of being. Yes, there was even the one checking to make sure the black helicopters hadn’t “PAID ME A VISIT”? While I’m no fan of mine or any other current government, I walk a pretty straight line when it comes to saying anything overtly inflammatory! What I was leading up to was that I recently asked for you guys to start sending in your questions and topic suggestions again. These are coming in slow but I do have one for today…

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Question -     “You’ve been planting fruit trees at the BOL, exactly what varieties and why?”

   Well, yes I have been ramping up my orchard… The term ramping up would be seen as very subjective as many “preppers” have actual orchards full of trees which would make my holding almost insignificant. To add a little encouragement to this post I need to explain that it has taken me the better part of 15 years to actually start this orchard. I originally purchased BOL property with my good friend back in the early 90′s when I was in my 20′s and largely financially challenged. It had been my dream to have those fruit and nut trees that we all have read about in the descriptions of a real BOL! Unfortunately, fruit trees require water and ideally irrigation to grow. In my area of the state, water wells are deep and expensive (see my post about the experience I had putting our current well in - The Deep Dark Hole). Needless to say, I wish I had started this project at a much earlier date but the cost of the required water was prohibitive, especially for a young man just starting out in life… I thought I had done well to just secure a piece of land!

   Anyway, let me get back on track… It wasn’t until last summer that I finally started the tree planting and now I just can’t stop… Originally, last summer, I planted 3 apple, 3 cherry and 2 pear trees. These all made it through the winter and seemed to be healthy in the spring. With the new expansion to my irrigation setup, I planted those 8 additional trees a couple weeks ago – 2 apricot, 2 plum, 2 peach and 2 nectarine. Well, like I said this is getting to be addictive… Last weekend we went over again and I couldn’t help myself, 2 more apple and 2 more cherry trees went in the ground.

   If you remember my last BOL update, I mentioned that my brother had brought me a nice blueberry bush as a gift, well I added 4 more last weekend as well! Oh yeah, last summer I planted 2 experimental raspberry bushes. These were both doing exceptionally well, so I added 2 more last trip too! This brings us to 5 blueberry and 4 raspberries bushes total. Now all of these plants might sound like I have a small fortune in the ground? Quite the contrary, while I have seen people post about getting trees for VERY cheap or even free, I paid between $1.99 and $23.99 per plant and most of them were on the lower end of the spectrum… I think that a close guesstimate on total out of pocket for 20 fruit trees and 9 berry bushes comes in less than $450 dollars, that is full price (not discounting expense for the several that were gifts!).

   Yes, some money had to be invested and $450 isn’t chump change to my family right now but that’s the nature of an investment… I expect my ROI (return on investment) to be in the area of incalculable! We purchase quite a bit of fruit at our house and do watch for bargains but the cost of fruit is significantly higher than junk food items. These trees will payoff the first year of true production, if not before!

   Alright, the varieties I planted were from the recommendations of a local nurseryman. I purchased most of the trees from him so that they would have been raised in and appropriate for the area that I was replanting them. The recommendations he made were for the hardiness and pollination requirements. Since I wasn’t going to be planting every variety of tree he carried, it was important that all of the particular types of trees would pollinate the others in their respective category. The following is a list of the specifics as best as I can recall –

Apples –

   Honey Crisp (2)

   Winter Banana (1-pollinator)

   Yellow Delicious (1)

   4-way tree (1- gravel stein, gala, yellow transparent and yellow delicious)

Cherries –

   Bing (1)

   Rainier (2)

   Montmorency cherry (1)

   Stella (1)

Pear –

   Auju (1)

   Bartlett (1)

Nectarine - (2)   I can’t recall these specifics

Peach – (2) I can’t recall these specifics

Apricot –

   Tomcot (1)

   Harglow (1)

Plum –

   Shiro (1)

   Santa Rosa (1)

Blueberry –

   Bluejay – (2)

   Bluecrop (2)

   Olympia (1)

Raspberry –

   Red (2)

   Black (2)

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   I know, I know – You all were starting to think that I had shut up once and for all… No such luck! I will begin my semi regular posts again and I have several committed guest writers that have promised content as well. I want to encourage everyone to start up the “Readers Questions” emails again. I have a bunch of older ones that I will answer if some new ones don’t come in but I would rather get a fresh start. Everyone is welcome to send their question a second time and then I’ll know that it should be moved up the priority list to getting an answer out to you!

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Back from the BOL

 

     So, I finally was able to make a trip to the BOL over the long weekend. Unfortunately, I had been restricted over the last couple months and was unable to make my typical bi-monthly visits. With much trouble and schedule coordinating, we (The Preppers) had determined that the stars would align and Memorial Day would work for all of us to make the trip. Needless to say, that plan didn’t survive contact with the enemy and I ended up making the trip by myself or I should say without my wife and daughter. My very good friend and nearly life long partner in mischief agreed to ride shotgun at the last minute.

 

   Good times! What could be better than just getting to the BOL…? Getting there with a good friend, meeting my brother there to help with a project, bringing a newly acquired firearm to test out and oh yeah – 3 freekin days off work!! Let’s just say, it was a much needed breath of fresh air and I actually got a lot done to boot!

 

   Besides the catalyst of a rare three day weekend, the main purpose of the trip was to drop off a lot of business materials that are currently going to be stored on the property. Mrs Prepper and I have made a few changes in our business and once again made a further downsizing to attempt to stay competitive in this tough Real Estate market. This left me with less office space to store old files and a whole bunch of various file cabinets that weren’t going to be needed any longer. Initially I was going to run an ad to try to sell the used cabinets but then it dawned on me that these could be used at the BOL inside the cargo containers to organize my ever growing piles of supplies. I took a few photos but they didn’t come out real well? The idea was to make a MAN sized version of those plastic organizer drawer units that many of us use to store nuts and bolts, etc. in, I think the fuzzy picture will at least give you the idea of what I’m trying for… I didn’t end up having time to do any real work in getting stuff organized this trip but I can see that once complete this will be a big help!

 

   Now for the real achievement though… I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a brother that owns a landscape irrigation company? Anyway, he generously installed the first stage of our irrigation system a year ago, so we could get those first fruit trees planted last summer. We had been planning on him making a second trip over to finish laying out the infrastructure for a much larger area. Well, this weekend happened to work in his schedule as well and I now have a 10 zone irrigation system that will cover us for nearly any future expansion we might conclude to be necessary. As usual when you bring in a professional they can make short work of a big project. Fully automated irrigation for at minimum several of our 10 acres, big improvement! We could even realistically keep a garden going all through the summer, as long as we can stay on track to be on site every other weekend.

 

   The irrigation system was the BIG project for the weekend but the thing I’m the most excited about is the addition of 8 more fruit trees. This brings us to 16, along with a couple of raspberry bushes and a blueberry bush. As if the family rate on the irrigation work wasn’t gift enough, the bro shows up with the blueberry bush as a late birthday present? If you can’t tell, I have a GREAT brother! Truth is I have been excessively blessed in the family department! Just for clarification the family rate is usually something close to a loss for the giver as they tend to not want anything in return for their generosity? Crazy people – if your reading this, thanks again brother!

 

   I feel like a first grader coming back from summer break and giving the “What I did on my vacation” speech… With the single exception of not having the family with me, this was an exceptional holiday weekend. A great way to kick off the summer projects that have to be done at the BOL, actually a big jump ahead on a couple! Lot’s more to do and you guessed it, I will be reporting on all progress. No, not to brag but hopefully to get a dose of motivation into some reader that has been putting off their own projects. A freedom lifestyle is available to all of us, if we are willing to take the steps to provide it to ourselves. Get off the couch and get moving, don’t forget to take a few pictures while your at it… Then just fire off your own motivational “Guest Article” and you too can become a highly paid internet writer… Just teasin but do consider documenting the stuff you’re working on, I know we all would like to see your projects and progress!

 

 

Prepper

  

 

 

   As you know I get all kinds of emails and I can’t seem to keep up with getting back to people the same day or even the very next day, I apologize but I will get back to you ASAP.

   One of the popular email questions is about what’s happening over at the BOL, plans for spring, upcoming projects, etc. – I’m going to do a quick update today that will bring everyone up to speed on what I’ve been doing and plan to get done this spring and summer…

   This past weekend we had the opportunity to get over and spend a couple of days. The weekends are getting filled quicker and quicker as my daughter gets older. We’d been able to go over just about every other weekend but once the weather got bad we cut back to about once a month. It’s nice to just go and relax but there are so many things that need to be done that I always feel guilty just kicking back.

   The winter months have seen slow progress as far as the projects. Last Fall we added the second shipping container. Over the winter I made several trips with the truck and trailer to move alot of business related files to be stored. Unfortunately the business related materials have all but filled the thing and so I’m still limited to the first container for workshop and preps related activities. The 40 foot by 8 foot containers look big and do hold a lot but fill up quickly so do be deceived in their holding capacity.

   We have been getting prepared to install a woodstove and have nearly all the needed parts to get the install complete. The stove and hearth are at the BOL waiting and I mainly need to decide if I will do the labor or hire it out to a professional to save the $500… What to do, what to do? I’ll probably do the work myself as fund-age is hard to come by right now.

   We did make it through the winter without any issues coming up with the old roof still on the place. This is good news but I don’t really want to push my luck so I’ll go ahead and get the roofing material purchased and have it waiting for the right weekend to get started. I know I can do this myself and kind of look forward to the job – call me crazy… I had jokingly asked for volunteers to help with the labor and still have only received the offer of guard duty from Ranger. Thanks again Ranger but I’m hoping to get the job done before the world ends and your skills will be a required element of most outside activities.

   It appears that the 8 fruit trees that we put in last spring have made it through their first year. I plan to add at least another 12 in the next month or so. Yes, I know that some of the readers here have literally 100′s of fruit and nut trees but I’m just glad to get these. I’ll try to add more of everything as the time and money allow. I have the trees ringed in wire fencing, secured to t-posts but another project for this summer is to get a 6 foot high deer fence all the way around the tree area. Yes, I also am aware that many deer can jump a 6 foot fence, I’m going to do my best to discourage them and then add another layer of defence if they become to much of a nuisance.

   All of the trees need to be watered over the hot months and I have a small irrigation system in now but will be adding to this at the end of April. My brother is a landscape and irrigation guy by trade, so I’ll get him to bring his equipment up. With a little horse trading between bro’s, he’ll get me all squared away and hopefully expand the system to be ready to put in a garden area this year too! We’ll see how that weekend goes, the trees will be the priority but an easily watered garden would be a nice addition.

   So, what does this all add up to… A new roof, woodstove installation, plant more fruit trees, erect a deer fence and expand the irrigation… Not enough? How about we install railings on the decks and stairs to the front one. The county is after me to get my “Project” through the final inspection process. We’re almost done with their punch list but just need to wrap the thing up and be done with them once and for all.

   Since all of these jobs will need to be completed on weekends, this will be more than enough to keep me busy. We’ll talk again at the end of the summer and see how much we actually are able to get done!

   I mentioned that I had spoken to some of the neighbors and got brought up to speed on the latest. Thankfully there wasn’t to much for them to report… The most exciting story I got was in regards to a cougar that was spotted crossing my land. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in another post as I got the first part of this story a few weeks back from the neighbor on one side of me. It seems that he, the first neighbor, had been out doing what he does best… helping other neighbors with their chores. See in this neck of the country, the neighbors are great! Anyway, he was going down the road between his place and mine, when a cougar comes running out in front of him. He was riding his 4×4 quad at the time and the cougar must have been spooked when he came down the road? The cat stops and stares at him but runs off as soon as he yelled at it. Since he has animals and small dogs, grandchildren, etc. he felt that if he could find it that he would remove it from the area… wink, wink! So anyhow, he goes for a rifle and then spends a half hour looking for it but eventually gives up and just wanted to warn me that he had confirmed what we all had suspected… Several cows and other animals had been killed in the area over the last couple years.

   Well, this trip I get another recounting of the activities of the same afternoon the first neighbor had told me about. This time it’s from the neighbors on the other side of me, who interestingly enough, don’t get along very good with the first neighbor? I stopped in to buy some of their free range eggs that they sell as a way to off set the small amount of cost that the birds do incur them. They proceeded to tell me about this wonderful encounter with a cougar that they had… bing, bing, bing – the sirens are going off in my head at this point! When did you see this cougar I asked? Oh, it has been a few weeks… Alright, where did you see it? Oh, it came right up to our back door and meowed at us to let it in, how cool is that… Well, I would have liked to see that myself, I have yet to see a cougar in the wild! They said that the cat stuck around for a while and then they decided to see what it was going to do if they did open the door… Thankfully, it did run off when the man went out side. They were completely thrilled to have the cat in the neighborhood, even as owners of a large flock of chickens? I relayed the story the other neighbor had told me and as it turns out they had heard someone riding around on a 4-wheeler at that same time??? I told them that the cat was going to end up getting shot and being the good hippies they are, they were appalled. I did my best to explain that if the thing didn’t fear humans than it was only a matter of time before someone was going to get hurt. Since my daughter likes to go and sit on her favorite stump to work on her homework when we’re there, I kind of like the idea of it going away…

   Who knows, maybe the first neighbor is over reacting but I guess I’d rather error on the side of caution myself. Oh well, that was the news for this trip. Spring has begun but the ground is still freezing over night a lot of the time. This gives me a bit more time to get the area I want to plant the trees in ready but the season promises to be a whirlwind of activities. I’ll be able to start taking more pictures and hope to have more interesting posts again about what’s getting marked off the list. That’s all for today, see ya tomorrow!

Prepper