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Thursday, October 22, 2009

What are you preparing for?



(side note: I saw a few more reviews on my book in Amazon, all 5 starts. Thanks a lot guys, means a lot and the comments are just humbling. I’m so glad that people are finding my book useful. It saddens me to see America go through this, but it feels great to know I’m in some way helping people. Again, thanks)


What are you preparing for?
This is of course the “alpha” question for anyone considering survival and preparedness.
One of the things I mention in my book is making a list. Simply make a list of what’s most likely to happen happens to you, your most likely and most dangerous threats(risk assesment).
Health is always around the top of the list for all of us. We’re all human after all. First of all, your body, how fit are you. Your weight is under control?

I ‘m just back from the cardiologist. Everything ok. I’m 30, don’t smoke, don’t drink, go to the gym,(eat healthy too, little salt, try not to eat too much bread) but its still good to keep track of that. What kind of medical coverage do you have? I pay for one that is kind of expensive but covers everything my family will ever need, no limit. We also have EU citizenship, which means we can go to Spain in a worst case scenario and have full medical cover there as well.
No matter what, your family’s health is top priority.

Don’t plan accordingly and bad things happen: An accident happens, you get sick, and you don’t have means to deal with that because while you planned for a meteor crash you didn’t plan for xxxx disease (pick the one that worries you the most) . Sucks man, really does, but which one is more likely?
There has to be a logic behind your prepping.
OK, so you take care of your body, plan to have a good health care service, you get insurance in case something happens to you, your family needs the money to get by. The basics. Air, shelter, food and water. Filters and face masks, camping gear, sleeping bags, stored water, water filters and other ways of purifying water, canned food, and other staples with a long term shelf life. Money. Money makes the world go around. Always has always will in one way or another. What if you don’t have a job any more? What if you lose your source of income? The basics keep you going here as well. You save money, you look into starting a side gig. Working from home part time. While skills are nice, don’t plan on being the post nuke town’s black smith. Get real, and remember that as honorable as hard work is, it usually has little to do with making money. Making money is all about being smart at running a business. Getting fired, rampant inflation, needing money one way or another is a reality many survivalists are now suffering and hadn’t planned for it before. Money was supposed to be poor tinder and worse toilet paper… WSHTF…
Then you have natural an man made disasters, and depending on your area these may be closer or further away from the top of your list. Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, being close to nuclear power stations or chemical industries.
Be methodical but above all be realistic about your preparedness. The mindset is still there, getting rid of the sheeply mentality, but still be rational.

“Oh, but I prepare for the worst case scenario! Therefore I prepare for everything! “
No dude, that’s not how it works. Worst case scenario? End of the world, what are you really preparing for?
If you want to prepare for nukes falling, I’m with you man, I’ll even help you dig the fallout shelter if we’re neighbors.

“No you don’t get it FerFAL, I’m preparing for the TEOTWAWKI!”
Oh, what is the end of the world as we know it? Remember, try keeping it real. Is it MadMax, is it something you saw on videogames, exactly what is it? Because if you’re worrying about a total economic collapse, that’s not the end of the world. Check our history and find many examples.
If you’re preparing for another world war, I’m still with you: It has happened before and may happen again. What do you need to prepare for that? M&Ms. Not the chocolate but mobility and money ( Hey I liked that M&M=mobility and money FerFAL© :-) ) You need to have the means to move to a distant country and stay there for as long as you need, probably the rest of your life. While a second location nearby to bug out to works for a flood or fire, for something of that caliber you need to move out of the country, even out of the continent maybe if it threat to go nuclear.
A farm will do you no good, no matter how well set it is, or how awesome you solar powered setup is.

“No FerFAL , I’m talking of something else! The kind you prepare for by having a fully equipped retreat where you fight the hoards from. You know, that kind of thing”
…Ok… but exactly what are you preparing for?
You want to grow your own food? At least some of it? Great idea, its healthy for you and a great hobby, by all means do it. It’s of course not the best way to go economically speaking, ask any farmer if they are getting rich if you don’t trust me, but an orchard and some veggies sound great. Two thumbs up.
Backup generator and battery bank? Solar panels? Yes of course. And an energy efficient house saves money and makes things easier during a crisis. 100% self sufficient isn’t going to happen. No matter what, you always needs supplies, etc, but it doesn’t hurt to work to be as self sufficient as possible.

Moving to the middle of nowhere and spending 500.000 USD on stuff would rock. Bill Gates probably has several such retreats, I know Ted Turner and other guys have several in Patagonia.
If you want to do it give me a call, I’d love to help you spend money and buying stuff.
Now, can you do it? Even if you can, can you maintain that situation, living a gas tank away from serious job opportunities? Maybe you can.
Now don’t kid yourself. As fun and as great as it would be, what are you really preparing for?
“No, but..”
I’ve got news for you: The world as you knew it already ended. You just don’t know it yet. Crime will sooner or later be like nothing you’ve ever seen before. You’ll feel a real, urgent need to increase your security habits and find means of self defense. You don’t do stupid mistakes anymore, you'll see you can't afford those anymore. People will be job hunting for months, even years. Competing for a job will become an art form of its own.
Politically speaking, the governmnet will take the opportunity to spread its web, controling everything they can... for your own good of course...because of the crisis, you know.
Young adults will be moving back with mom and dad and living in the basement if necessary, even if they already have families of their own. No more spending money needlessly, vacations are something precious and few will be able to afford them. Even when you can, leaving the house empty for long periods of time? You'll know better than that, and take several precautions when doing so.

Tough times folks, but not the kind of end of the world many were expecting, is it?
If you’re worried about long term social unrest check out how that has worked out in the past. Can it even be done? Can you fight off the hoards for YEARS from your retreat? Check the white farmers in Rhodesia. Learn from people being exterminated for religious or ethnic reasons in various wars. How many stayed and fought the hoards?… They died like flies people. Run and live another day. Stay in your foxhole and sooner or later they’ll get to you. Do not kid yourself. If that’s what you really are preparing for, as unlikely as it may be, don’t fool yourself.
More examples? Check the American colonial period. The farmers and settlers living in the border, fighting the natives. How often did they win when attacked, even when armed better than the attackers.
Learn from the conquistadors, how often did they have their settlements whipped out completely biy people that didn’t even master the technology of steel?
It wasn’t long ago, here in the south America, a couple hundred years ago when the natives still controlled much of the Patagonia. You didn’t bug in against the raiders. You had an escape tunnel. Even for rich folks, money and resources were spent on building a tunnel, some that even went for miles, so as to escape to safety.
As nice as it is to live in the woods or some of the wonderful places in contact with nature, don’t fool yourself.
Live wherever you want, life is too short to do otherwise, but don’t fool yourself and be realistic about your survival and preparedness planning.


Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ferfal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc3vTq0vx48

From inflation.us. This man, a simple butcher, has a wife and two kids to support, a mortgage, cars, Xbox and teen kids demanding new games, AND his hours have been cut back so dramatically that he can't afford any of it. So he's begging for money at a gas station. SHTF? Yep. For him anyway. He's talking about moving to Texas, well so is everybody else, so what will Texas be like with thousands of new residents like him competing with locals for jobs?

Earlier this year there was a rumor on the net that jobs were plentiful in a Nevada town called Elko. So Elko was flooded with people, and suddenly there were dozens of applicants for every job, and people were sleeping in their cars in the desert because they had nowhere to live. So yeah, it's a real SHTF here now, but nobody is prepared. They have some unmilled wheat in the garage and that's about it.

Just A Guy said...

This is why I enjoy your blog, it is more "practical". I lived in the mountains of Colorado when I was younger and you are right, no jobs, no education and there were still problems just different ones that you find in closer to population centers. The references to Zimbabwe are very applicable.
thanks again,
buenas noches

Anonymous said...

If I knew exactly what to prepare for there wouldn’t be any questions. Where are you going to go? The EU seems like an unwelcome place to us gun owners, and I don‘t think North Americans would fit in well. NATO being absorbed by Russia doesn't seem like it would make the EU a nice place. Didn't Spain have just as bad of a housing bubble and price crash as California did with more to come? That doesn't speak well for Spain's future. The EU never came across as an area plentiful with jobs either. Where do you run to avoid a worldwide hyperinflationary depression?

Life here in the Midwest U.S. has not really changed one bit yet, except for the CCTV everywhere and not quite as many jobs, there are still jobs to be had. I guess most who prep, do so for things like expected and threatened quarantine lock downs, farmers revolts and strikes due to the up coming animal ID program, national revolution and martial law or succession and nullification, or $50 per gallon gas prices and or hyperinflation - all stopping the trucks from rolling in and filling the store shelves, and worse case scenario, everything happens at once.

When Argentina collapsed the world was at the peak of good times and “wealth” was easily had by quite a number, now the whole world faces economic depression, things may work out just a little different. It seems as if much of the world will have no wealthy customers to draw from like Argentina did in 2001-2007.

Health wise, just eat right, be in shape and perhaps save some money so healthcare isn’t needed. For thousands of years people got along just fine without health insurance. Works for some, it’s not perfect, and if everyone paid cash for doctors visits, things might be cheaper like they were in the days before Medicare and such drove prices higher. Many doctors are doing cash only business even now with lower prices being the result. Become, or marry, a nurse or doctor would be a nice move too I think.

Teotwawki - not the end of the world, just the end of the world “as we know it” - I like how you say it’s already happened we just don’t know it yet, like the bullet has left the barrel, it just hasn’t gone to the bone yet. The economic worldwide depression and US economic fiat Dollar collapse is already baked into the cake.

Me, I’m not exactly preparing for any one single thing, I’m just trying to be prepared to overcome most anything that comes my way (all without being MacGyver or obsessively irrational) to me, in this area, that’s a normal way of living, it’s why I keep a spare tire and a toolbox in the trunk of the car, some people don‘t do so or even know how to change a flat. Like the colonist on the frontier who managed to survive in spite of hoard attacks, not everyone was killed off or run off, but yes, some were wiped out. Like the early pioneers on the covered wagon trails who pushed on and did so without any modern conveniences, some survived. To be able to do so, not necessarily to actually do so, just to be able to if it‘s required. I’m not rich enough to be able to do much else, I know no one in the EU, and Argentina and the southern cone *was* supposed to be a place to run and hide at, but your dispelling that myth pretty quick. It sort of seems like there is no where to go, no far blue mountains to escape to, so it may be that the only option left is to take a stand where you’re at, and whatever happens, happens.

With a list like above and tornadoes, floods, severe winter snow or ice storms with dangerous temperatures, short term power failure, nuclear power plant and industrial and military chemical plants and railways nearby, and earthquake possibility it’s pretty hard to choose one or be prepared for all of them. I never wrote it down before, it looks like I live in a dangerous place, but - nothing has happened to me so far. Infamous last words eh?

“Have limited M&M’s, will travel.”