As you can see we have another movie review to do today… This one will be a little different though, in that I wasn’t that impressed this time. I’ll admit to being a big fan of movies in general, them being my preferred way to waste a Saturday afternoon ever since I was kid. I don’t usually find myself paying to see one that I would really admit wasn’t worth seeing. However, this one comes close…

SPOILER ALERT – In my review of this movie today there will be details that might spoil the movie for you so read with that in mind. However, I will be doing my best to persuade you to choose another movie anyway so either way, you’ve been warned!

   When I first saw “The Grey” advertised during the previews at the theater several months back it caught my attention for a couple of reasons. First as a normal red blooded American male, I like action films and second it appeared to be a survival story… Yep, I’m a sucker for anything that looks like it might fit into my preferred genre. You know, “Waterworld”, “The Postman” and more recently, “The Road”… None of these were great but they were entertaining and worth the price of admission. I’ll even admit that “Waterworld” made it into my DVD collection and lets face it, it was a DUD!

   Now that you have a better understanding of where my survival movie tastes run, I’ll tell you exactly what I thought of “The Grey”… It sucked! You know the full 2 thumbs down kind of sucked! Mrs. Prepper went with me and she felt even stronger about its suckiness than I did…

   Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t misjudge the films potential… It just fell flat on its face! It was set in theAlaskawilderness with Liam Neeson playing a hunter/bodyguard for one of the big oil companies out ofPrudhoe Bay. His job was to keep wolves from attacking the oil workers when they were out working in the more remote areas of the already vast remoteness! Well, as the story unfolds we find our main character doing his job and successfully taking down a large wolf just a mere few feet from some distracted workers. I wish I could tell everyone what kind of gun he used but it all happened so fast that I really didn’t get a good look, sorry! The feel of the character is that of a mercenary hunter, Liam is just enough grizzled to pull the part off or could have with a better storyline to work with.

   The plot quickly turns to a group of oil workers, Liam included, getting on a plane bound for somewhere, I’m pretty sure it didn’t say but back to civilization of some sort. Well of course in a disaster movie the plane has to go down in the middle of nowhere. The short story on this is that the plane goes down in the middle of a blizzard and they mentioned the temperature at negative some such but Liam and a hand full of survivors are running around in a relatively small amount of clothing attempting to save as many folks as possible. Lots of time is wasted on such things as picking through pockets to save dead guys wallets for their families and even saying a few words over the dead… All fine and good except they would have all perished in short order from exposure, long before they had the opportunity to discuss the morality of stealing cash off of dead people, which of course happens and helped me decide how badly this film sucked!

   I can hear you all now… “Preppers just being all pissy, nitpicking the crap out of a relatively decent adventure film!” Nope, not this time it’s actually that bad. Shortly after the plane goes down the survivors discover that they aren’t the only living things in the area… What do you think they discover? I’ll give you 2 guesses – that’s right wolves! Now it isn’t that I dispute there could have been wolves out there, there probably could have been but not these wolves… These were the kind whose backs come up to a mans shoulder, you know the very realistic kind! Glowing eyes and everything, I mean come on… glowing eyes on GIANT wolves that actually are coordinating evil plots to kill the survivors. On several occasions the wolves killed the men, just to kill them, not eat them like the meat we actually are.

   I have heard the stories of wolves that will act aggressively toward men but not like this and I haven’t heard about wolves conducting pleasure killings like a pack of neighborhood dogs might but I digress! The plot follows the men as they move from one “lets break for the trees” then everyone would run through the thigh deep snow to stay ahead of the already nearly on them wolves.

   Since this is actually turning into more of rant against this movie then a fair minded critique… I’ll point out another ponderous moment. Before the men gather everything they can carry from the wrecked plane, which isn’t much, we see Liam find his hunting rifle. Of course the gun is damaged and he discards it but we see him bend down and pick up his ammunition case. That’s all fine and good but it’s clearly rifle ammunition, a short while later Liam hands out shotgun shells to make improvised weapons to use against the wolves… It’s just stuff like that that makes the movie go from just being not very good to bad and then to sucks…

   Another thing that was just over the top was the foul language. I can already hear some of you now… “Preppers a prude and is easily offended,” this however is not the case in the least. I wish I could claim to always have the cleanest mouth but fall short on many occasions in this area. This movie is about crass oil workers and I really wanted to defend the true to life portrayal of how those particular blue collar workers MIGHT actually speak but no, this movie would have even the worst of them blushing. It really was that gratuitous, not necessarily something that would push it to “sucks” category but it sure didn’t help!

   The movie is almost 2 hours long, which is normally something I like but this dark plot just didn’t need to be that long. It starts out alright but everything from character development to story line falls flat. I wish that I could find something redeeming to say about the film but in my opinion, there isn’t anything nice to say!

   I’ve tried to leave enough surprises as not to completely ruin the experience for the hopefully few of you that decide to spend your hard earn cash on this piece of cutting room floor trash. If anyone does go see this, or possibly already has seen it, I welcome your thoughts in the comments section. I doubt there will be many that will stick up for this though. All I can say is “poor Liam”, this won’t do anything to help his career!

Submitted for your consideration!

Prepper

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If the topics we cover here at PREPPERNATION are interesting to you, please take a mintue to subscribe to the email notifications. I will email you each time I add new material… I always like to hear from you, my readers, so let me also encourage you to post your comments on this or any of the other posts in the comments section!

   You approached your older boy’s bedroom door and stopped to see if you could make out what the two kids were talking about… “You have to understand, Dad is just like the general in this story, leading his soldiers against the enemy to save the city. Sometimes that’s what generals have to do, sacrifice themselves to save everyone else!”

   As you listened to your sons discussing the finer points of what could only be described as valor, your chest couldn’t help but swell with pride. Not at the thought of your own bravery but at the thought that you had a hand in raising such well educated and adjusted children!

   The boys were only 10 and 13 years old respectively but they would have to get used to this new reality just like everyone else would. If the speech you over heard was any indication of their ability to understand and cope they would deal with this far better then the neighbors had been doing. With a little training these boys could and probably would serve as your right hand… men? Is that right, men? Maybe not, at least not yet but they would be men soon enough! Lots of hard work would make them men far sooner then you would have preferred but that didn’t have to be all bad!

   You had tried to raise your boys to think for themselves and keep the sliding cultural influences to a minimum! They weren’t exactly sheltered but would seem to be compared to the kids they attended school with. Even at their ages they were surrounded by the “Thug” subculture that had become so prevalent these days. It didn’t appear that their school would be reopening anytime soon and in some ways that was probably for the best. Life had taken its toll on your time schedule and many things you would have liked to have done with your sons hadn’t reached the top of the priority list. That would have to change, that is if this current threat bearing down on all of you could be turned back, averted or at least survived!

   When you finally opened the door the boys had finished talking and were looking over some the older boy’s books. These particular books were from his collection of military manuals. They stopped what they were doing and looked up at you with a seriousness you had seldom seen on their faces… They both wore quizzical expressions and it was plain to see that they had questions they wanted to ask you but weren’t sure if they should.

   It took a small amount of encouragement but the boys eventually started in on the questions. Each had a series of things they wanted you to answer but they all really boiled down to a single theme, they were surrounding the need to know if they would all survive if the “bad guys” got to their neighborhood. While you were short on specifics, you assured them that they all would indeed live through this threat! You explained that they would all be working harder then they had ever had to work before and that from now on the boys would have to act like the men you knew they were down deep inside.

   You watched as they struggled to sort through the thoughts running around in their heads. A few more questions came but it actually looked to you like they were comforted by the idea of being called on to stand up to this threat just like the real men would be doing. You wondered if other children would welcome being called to something other then dinner served to them on a silver platter. Would this next generation be able to shake the cobwebs off their pampered hind ends?

   Life had become very decadent over the last years before this final breakdown occurred. The government’s previous emergency actions to save all of us had barely succeeded and the party continued on but alas no longer would. It wasn’t as if this eventual complete breakdown wasn’t seen coming, it was! You had seen it coming from far down the road and made preparations for what could only be a fiery crash.

   However, now that crash time had finally arrived, that smug feeling that you had almost looked forward to enjoying just wasn’t that fulfilling. Yes, you did still have food, firewood and firearms. Yes, your family was safe, if only for the moment. Still now even you were forced to look at what you had stored up and made ready, was it even enough to brag about to an envious neighbor? How could this laughingly small stockpile of items begin to provide for your family much less be used to leverage the chances of an entire neighborhood. A few firearms could swing a small fight in your favor but this would certainly not be any small fight, would it, you questioned yourself!

   Your thoughts having drifted again were brought up short when your older boy asked if he would get to help save the neighborhood. You thought you saw almost a grin on his face at the idea… He couldn’t begin to know the gravity of the situation that you could feel ever more stress creeping into your shoulders over. His desire to help was admirable and you thanked him for the strength but this job would have to left to the grown men and you explained that he and his brother would be called on to protect their Mom…

   The boy not normally one to outright back talk you to your face, demanded to be heard! “What’s your plan Dad? Do you even have one yet? You need me; I know stuff that can help!” His brother could only stare at him the same as you were. What could this KID know? Yes, yes, he had read a lot of books and liked to play army or war, whatever the kids called it these days. Even the kids had been effected by the PC bullhockey the politicians demanded. You had overheard your co-workers talk about scolding their kids about playing with toy guns. They were almost shocked that an antique store would sell a toy gun to their child? What made you the sickest was the fact that most of these families children had the latest in violent video games in their houses. How such a breach of rational thinking could take place was beyond your understanding but this was the world as you knew it far inside the socialist utopia…

   As you were struggling to dismiss your son’s ideas of helping because he had only read a few books, the realization hit you! You too had only read books! Read books and bought some equipment and spent some time at the shooting range, how many years ago had that range time been? The thoughts of what a fraud you were filled your head. Your son had been on the same camping trips and enjoyed the same outdoor experiences you had over the last decade… Could he be useful in this after all? What might he know that could help you develop a successful plan? It wouldn’t hurt to listen to what he had to say, what choice did you have? His proposed plan was far better then your, no plan at all!

   Ok son, what do you have to tell me? I think you already know that I don’t have a plan for something like this, how could I? What type of stuff do you know that could be helpful in a situation like this? The grin that you had almost seen on your sons face before now materialized, he was almost giddy at what he wanted you to see!

   His words started to flow so quickly and one idea was running into the next you couldn’t really understand what he was saying… “Slow down, slow down… You’ll need to explain these things one at a time or I’ll never understand.” The boy just shrugged his shoulders the way kids do and said “why don’t I just show you what I mean?” You quickly agreed that that would be the better option.

   The younger boy demanded that he get to come along too. This wouldn’t do, leaving his mother alone in the house was not an option. Since she had been eavesdropping in the hall way all this time, she was happy to volunteer to come see what this was all about, thus countering your objection to your younger boy… No, still no good, the time was definitely not right to be leaving the house and your meager supplies completely unattended. You had to delicately explain these facts to your wife as you knew she was already feeling left out and more then a small amount of fear…

   It was a short but hotly contested agreement that your younger boy would stay at home with his mother. The two of them would be welcome to stand vigil at an upstairs window so they could follow the you and your older sons progress as you went to see what exactly all this excitement was about.

   You noticed that your mood had shifted to one more hopeful. You didn’t really expect much from such a young man but if nothing else came of this, at least it had lift your head from the stone it seemed to be smashing against in your attempts to make sense of this day!

   You had failed to ever remove your hiking boots after returning home but the boy had to locate his and get them on before you could make your departure. While he did that, you took a moment to double check your handgun. It of course thankfully wasn’t fired but it still seemed like the right thing to do, checking its ready condition and getting it securely replaced on your belt.

   The four of you congregated at the back door. You really weren’t sure about where the boy was taking you and how long it would take, you couldn’t imagine being gone long… The feeling in the air seemed as though you were being bit farewell for a long journey rather then a walk through your own neighborhood. You rationalized that many things previously thought routine would now be taking on a new seriousness, it might as well start here and now.

   You proceeded to kiss your wife and give the younger boy a hearty hug. You promised to be back as quickly as possible and with your son leading the way left the house. Your son led you around to the side yard and then circled around behind your garden shed. Following him along the side of the small building, you watched as he disappeared around the back. You made the corner yourself but turning the corner your son was nowhere in sight?

To be continued…

Prepper

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If the topics we cover here at PREPPERNATION are interesting to you, please take a mintue to subscribe to the email notifications. I will email you each time I add new material… I always like to hear from you, my readers, so let me also encourage you to post your comments on this or any of the other posts in the comments section!

   This week we’re going to delve into what types of homes are out there and a little on what I believe we should be looking for. I’ll be sharing my ideas on what this home might look like but each of you will need to go out and see what fits for your specific situation. Some of us will want to begin our freedom journey now while the kids are still at home, “good choice”! While others are closer to retirement age and will have fewer size requirements. Each individual scenario will require thought but they will all require a home…

   Let’s get started. Most of us have seen the old house trailers that started showing up on the scene back in the 50’s, this is not what we’re looking for! At least unless one of you has some compelling reason to get something that old then I would suggest steering clear of a home this age! I have seen several of these OLD homes setup very nicely and there isn’t any reason that they couldn’t make a snug dwelling for a single individual or extremely cozy couple. They just come with their own set of challenges and I believe that there are better options available for nearly the same financial outlay.

   If we jump forward a few decades we will get past the early renditions of the “Trailer House” and into a more modern variation. Early models had a flat or slightly bowed roof line and many were sided with aluminum. Again, many nice designs could be sited in the 1960’s-1970’s homes but we get closer to the stick built construction techniques we are used to now when we enter the 80’s, especially the later 80’s. This is when the “manufactured home” industry started to more commonly use 2×6 exterior wall construction and the roof lines even on singlewide units were typically found with a peak. Yes, the pitched roof was a low one on singles but it was still better then the old bowed design when it came to shedding rain and snow.

   When I’m doing home searches for myself or for a consultation client, I’m watching for homes manufactured anywhere from the very late 80’s to present. I typically wouldn’t drive far to see any home that was earlier than a 1988 but hey that’s just me and my preferences. I know many folks that are quite happy in their singles and doubles built back in the early 70’s. Each of us will have preferences and biases of our own and many of us will have a spouse to consider in this search as well. I hope to only give a baseline for you all to work from for when we get into the posts about how and where to search out these little goldmines!

   (TIP – I would suggest that when attempting to swing a reluctant spouse over to our way of thinking, we find an over the top example of what could be possible… I’m sure that when you start to look around your area for a home you’ll find homes that are for sale that some real estate investor has completely tricked out. These homes will most likely be way over priced but would be the best candidates to show your doubting Thomas or Thomasina spouse, because sometimes seeing is believing.)

   I’ve mentioned singles (singlewide units) and doubles (doublewide units) but there are also triples (yep, you guessed it – triple wide units). Each one of these styles has their unique benefits and also drawbacks. It would seem obvious that the singlewide speaks for itself… It’s a home that is only in one section as opposed to its multi-sectioned siblings. The singles are usually found 13.5 feet wide and commonly 50-70 feet long. Doubles are often found with similar square footage to the singles but are divided into 2 sections and joined at the middle. This design has a more pleasing aesthetic to many people since it will appear as more of a rectangle then the long skinny appearance of the single. These homes will also often have more pronounced vaulted ceilings in the interior as well as slightly higher pitches to their roof line.

   The triples have grown in popularity over the last couple of decades and it’s these homes that in my opinion most closely resemble a standard stick built rambler. The square footage found in many of these units is generous to say the least. Also the floor plan layout can be adjusted almost endlessly to suit the desires of a particular purchaser, at least when the homes are purchased new. However, in almost 100% of the situations us freedom seeking preppers are looking for, the purchase of a new home wouldn’t fit our financial criteria.

   Back to the aesthetics, the homes that I find most often fitting our financial requirements are singles. For many years the single was the most common unit sold with the scale tipping toward the multi-section as the years went on. Since the single was a popular choice earlier on, we’ll see many more of these units available on the used market. Next, lets face it the singlewides are just not that attractive, resembling a long skinny cigar tube. This appearance issue has its own positives and negatives, ugly homes are cheaper… Conversely, ugly homes are ugly and when someone, whether an owner or a renter, believes they live in an ugly home, they take far less care in its upkeep and maintenance… At least that’s been my experience! I’m sure that this statement will offend someone out there living in their beautifully kept singlewide! Obviously, I’m not talking to you, I too have a singlewide and it’s well kept and I think it looks pretty good, even though it’s still a work in progress. I’m speaking more generally and we can use this generality to our advantage when negotiating a deal on a home to purchase…

   Doublewides are by far the most popular selling units on the market now and I expect to see more on the used market with each passing year. As more years go by with fewer and fewer singles being built and sold they will eventually fade into the background to a large degree. When you start to go look at the doubles, you will find a fairly traditional home layout; bedrooms at one end and the kitchen and living room at the other. These homes will also typically have a more defined dining area. This dining area is conspicuously absent in most singles. The doubles are easier to imagine living in, at least for me anyway. I’ve found that the doubles started to see improved construction methods earlier on then the singles did. It might be worth taking a little harder look at a late eighties double than you would a single of the same vintage. You’ll also often find the roof pitch on the doubles a bit steeper and more aesthetically pleasing.

   I need to clarify something on the doubles… The homes that I’m personally interested in and that I’ve been commissioned to find for others, have largely been on the smaller side. The doubles are available in lots of size and layout configurations. Some of the larger units could have 4 bedrooms and 2 or more bathrooms. It’s not unusual to see a home with both a living room and family room. The sky’s the limit with what’s actually out there and I’m quite confident that if I were looking for these larger homes, I’d find some screaming deals on these as well!

   On to the big brother of the mobile home world, the triple! As the name implies, the triple is a manufactured home that comes in 3 or more sections. Some variations of the triple we’re introduced as far back as the eighties, possibly even earlier versions were available but I haven’t ran across them yet so what was being released, if anything, would have been in more limited numbers. The triples that I’ve seen are so generous on the floor space it’s difficult to believe you’re in a mobile home! The exterior as it comes from the factory is often a dead giveaway but the interiors are usually nicely finished and lend themselves to fancy upgrades. I’ve found some of these homes so over the top with upgrades that it’s difficult to understand why the owner went the mobile route over a custom stick built home? I’ve yet to find any particularly tempting deals on this size of home; they could be out there though. It just takes the right buyer to be in the right place to score with any deal and I don’t see why this rule wouldn’t apply to this style home as much as anything else.

   Next time we discuss this topic, I’d like to go into some of the pro’s and con’s of each of these different sized homes. They all have there great attributes as well as there drawbacks… We’ll continue to explore this topic together so you’ll be the most informed and best equipt mobile home buyer out there!

To be continued…

Prepper

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If the topics we cover here at PREPPERNATION are interesting to you, please take a mintue to subscribe to the email notifications. I will email you each time I add new material… I always like to hear from you, my readers, so let me also encourage you to post your comments on this or any of the other posts in the comments section!

   Well, as you can see I’m going to talk about the best prep investment that I’ve made to date… The good old wood-stove! The picture above is the stove we installed out at the BOL. The other picture is obviously the stove the way we bought it and before we got it cleaned up and refurbished.

   I’m sure that I had mentioned in previous posts how much I thought that having a back up heat source was critical for anyone but especially for anyone that wants to call themselves a prepper! There are more then a few options when it comes to getting setup with a back up for heat but the only one that made good long term sense for us was a wood-stove. We are located on 10 acres and it’s mostly treed, this means that I have more wood to cut then I currently have time for. Importantly too is that since I have trees and thus fuel on my own land the outlying areas around us have what on them… that’s right more wood and thus an almost endless supply of wood to be cut and or gleaned off of the surrounding land. As long as everyone doesn’t start using the woods as there only heat source, we should be in good shape as our fuel source is renewing at a great rate…

   The plan had been to install a wood-stove right out of the gate but shortly after moving the house onto the property I hit my financial snag. Money was tight and even an expense like the wood-stove had to wait. During this period of time my father, old man prepper, decided to start watching craigslist for me and came up with this little gem. He found this “LOPI” brand, “PATRIOT” model stove for a few hundred bucks not to far from our city place in Seattle. Knowing that I had been holding off on the expenditure, he purchased and gifted the stove to me – “Thanks Dad!” He actually did some horse trading and came up with a long length of insulated stove pipe and cap from another source for us too! I guess I can’t say he never did anything for me anymore – my being a complete angel all those years growing up in his house I’m sure were more of a blessing to him then me… I never did get a thank you for all of the teenage enlightening I provided, hmm, he must have forgotten?

   Seriously though, When we picked up the stove it had been sitting outside in the raion and was well rusted. It had garbage inside and broken firebricks under the trash… Not exactly a charmer but it was the perfect sized unit from a mainstream manufacture. What I mean by “perfect size” is that since the mobile home is roughly a thousand square feet, a larger stove would cook us all out and not serve as well as a stove on the smaller end of the spectrum.

   So, we used the condition of the stove to get an even better bargain from the seller, got her loaded up and we were off! All that needed to be done was spend a few hours with the wire brush and a new coat of black stove paint for us to have her looking much better. While still a long way from looking show room condition the little stove came out real well! The picture above doesn’t really do it justice, I should have spent more time to be sure I had a good shot before leaving last time… Anyway, we got the unit moved over to the BOL and waited for some additional money and the dry season to roll around before cutting into the roof for the install.

   During the lag time the hearth went in. As you can see it’s a slightly raised platform and topped with ceramic tile to match the color scheme we have in the house. I think it came out really good. My wife on the other hand has determined that she is unhappy with the size. I designed the hearth to be wider then was necessary so there would be a warm spot to sit or stack a little extra firewood next to the stove. While she does like the project overall she would have preferred that I stole less floor space.

   We are now in our second winter using the stove and other then kicking the furnace on for a short time when we first arrive, this stove provides all of the heat we could need. If you’ll notice also that there’s enough of a top surface for a tea kettle or even a frying pan. The ability to serve multiple rolls is always good when it comes to prepper investments. I’m sure you noticed the glass in the door, this allows the fire to light the room to some degree in the evenings as well. It provides more then enough light to move around by but not really enough to do any reading… The ambiance it provides is really wasted on reading anyway, if catch my drift… the benefits to a wood stove are many!

   As an investment this stove shines as well. The total costs of purchasing, fixing up and installing the unit (to county code) came to less then $1500. I know that there are always better deals out there and that the right person might have done this job for as little as several hundred bucks. I believe the money spent was well worth the return we get. We now have a primary heat source, at least when we’re there, that is fueled off the land we already have. A back up cooking surface and a great place to heat water, for any number of reasons, if the need were to arise. All of these uses are things that we will need weather times get tougher or even if they end up getting better by some miracle. We are far better positioned as preppers with this stove and it will have paid for itself in only a few years of full time use in electric bill savings alone during the winter months.

Keep on prepping cause – “Prepping is the answer”

Prepper

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If the topics we cover here at PREPPERNATION are interesting to you, please take a mintue to subscribe to the email notifications. I will email you each time I add new material… I always like to hear from you, my readers, so let me also encourage you to post your comments on this or any of the other posts in the comments section!

   Just as she asked, you relayed to your family everything that had happened, just how it all happened! You intentionally left out the details of the murders at the house and how the woman wasn’t found inside… the part that had just occurred withGarywas covered only quickly since the boys had undoubtedly read their mothers body language, knowing that something terrible had nearly happened. When they were younger and you still read them bedtime stories, they would always catch you if you tried to cheat and cut the story short by skipping a section; thankfully they didn’t catch the bits of missing information and question you further this time!

   As you told the story, your sons sat with vacant looks in their eyes; probably describing it as dazed would have been more accurate. In this modern world they hadn’t had the opportunity to be faced with any real stress. Sure they had seen you and your wife go at it a couple of times, troubling to a young person but they knew you loved each other and your fights would always blow over quickly.

   If you remembered correctly your older boy had had a few school yard scuffles but nothing to serious. At 11 years old, you wouldn’t call him naive to the ways of the world but you’d done your best to control the content of television shows watched in your home and the latest violent video games didn’t make it in the door! Funny how the state was so committed to keeping guns out of the adults hands but those video games were just fine with their leftist agenda? While the boy truly loved his video games, it was books that were becoming his passion. He enjoyed history and reading about the folk heroes of the early American west! You hoped he knew how proud you were of him…

   His younger brother at 9 was a bit of a momma’s boy in your estimation. Your wife insisted on babying him beyond the point you would prefer or think necessary. He was a good boy and anyone could see that he would be a strong man someday… Built like a tank that kid was, only 9 but you could see football player written all over him! He only lacked confidence and that was largely do to the extra mothering your wife did. In this new reality it would be even more important to see that this was brought under control. With his size and a little confidence you could see that when full grown he’d be force to recon with. He loved you and wouldn’t give you to much trouble but woe to the bully that started any issues once he realized the growing power he had…

   Your thoughts had drifted naturally to the boys; it was them that would inherit this new world and all of its uncertainties! If you and these men you were being forced to throw in with failed to stop this threat in its infancy, it would never be stopped later. Time was not on your side, every down trodden loser like that mechanic, idolized these biker types for the power they were perceived to have. Given the opportunity the losers of the world would always join and share in the orgy of violence; giving the bikers and their ilk the growing numbers required to become, for lack of a better description, unstoppable!

   It appeared that a window of opportunity was going to open soon allowing this all to be nipped in the bud. If and only if your group or some other group found a way to stop them now! Your doubts were screaming in your ears – “Stop them, how could these pansies in your neighborhood stop anything? A while back a man up the street had covered a pile of boxes in his driveway with a blue tarp in violation of a neighborhood rule and they couldn’t get him to do what they wanted despite their moaning and groaning!” You had to wrestle your mind back to reality, your wife was asking questions and you could only hear a few words at a time and they all sounded as they had come from the other end of a pipe… Your head was fuzzy and you wished again that you hadn’t even gone to the meeting, information this heavy and being thrust into leadership was just too much of a mental strain…

   The boys asked if they could go up to their rooms. You quickly told them you thought that was a good idea but you would want to meet with each of them in a little while to have a private discussion on what they were just told. Each of them raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t say anything, just got up and started upstairs. Your wife looked as though she wanted to join them and stopped firing questions at you long enough to allow them to get out of direct earshot.

   “Well”, she started in, “what are you going to do”? “What’s the plan, you have to have a plan, right?”… You knew she was right; you did have to have a plan! What exactly did you have to work with, what could these neighbors of yours be counted on for? It was clear that at least the folks on your block hadn’t thought to store food but just maybe somebody had a gun stashed that their grandfather had given them… It’d be too much to dream of that there would be some other firearms hobbyist with anything like you had stored away. You doubted that when the State had made it a crime to personally own any firearm with a detachable magazine over .22 caliber that many folks took the risk of jail time and held on to the weapons. Many guys that you had known over the years refused to turn their guns over to the state agents and transferred them to relatives out of state instead. This was about the extent of the rebelliousness that you’d seen all the brave gun owners muster… They failed to comply but took the safest route possible to get the weapons out of their hands so as not to find themselves in any trouble. Big talk and not much in the way of action, not a shovel to be found with any of them…

   She continued with, “What about asking the neighbors flat out if anyone had any weapons” or “maybe just talking about that stuff will prompt them to think of something else that could be used, even if there weren’t any traditional weapons around?” She was so level headed some times that it scared you… The emotional out bursts she had shown recently were not typical and the strain of the situation was really wearing on her. She was absolutely right… if you wanted to know something and these jerks wanted you to be their leader then you should just ask! If they didn’t want to step up and do whatever it was going to take to defend themselves then why should you bother? Maybe you’d get lucky and find out there was more guns available or better yet someone that had experience in the military that would be willing to work with you. Might be that some of the other blocks have more to work with in those garages and sheds then just old lawn equipment… Just have to ask, that might work after all, could it really be that simple!

   You told her how much you loved her and that you better go have a short conversation with the boys to be sure they were able to deal with the information they heard today. It was a lot to have to process in such a short period of time, but if the adults we’re going to have to deal with this reality then the kids better get on board too! The life of plenty that the boys had always known was coming to an end and for some people life itself had ended. It was going to be a life with new rules and hard realities!

   So far the worse that had happened under your roof was a few hunger pangs. Those outside of your home but within sight of your own front door were experiencing worse! Some were beginning to feel hungry themselves, which was bad enough but others were seeing the hunger in the eyes of their children. The shortages had begun almost immediately and things that had always been easy to come by and taken for granted were now becoming scarce.

   If after only a couple weeks time, food and supply needs were going unmet, what would it be like after a month, a year? Would this society be able to hold on? So many things that you should have thought of but didn’t… How could you help your own family much less the community as a whole? Was this neighborhood worth fighting for, would the people in it do what needed to be done to secure their place in these new circumstances? Do you have what it takes to lead them? Your own self doubt was nagging at you again and you felt like a much smaller man than you had just that morning!

      In such a short time those that existed in the margins of society and as our countries lowest common denominators were rising to the top… The top of the food chain anyway! They were willing to do whatever it took to become the kings of this new land and in the absence of anything to stop them they would do exactly that – anything!

   You began your ascent of the stairs to your boy’s rooms at the top. You heard only silence as you approached the younger son’s door… As you stood in front of the door for a moment collecting your thoughts before entering, you heard the quiet sound of voices coming from the older boy’s room. You couldn’t make out what was being said but as you approached you heard the older boy explaining something to his younger brother…

To be continued -

Prepper

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