Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[SuburbanFarmer]

You can see where he wrote the main character trapping that cannibal army and lighting them on fire about half way through this:




It's actually a perfect spot for it.

what in the FUCK is that music?

[Speaker to Animals]

I was talking about Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Nebraska might be okay.

You don't want to be too close to the missile fields or downwind of them.

Yeah, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are F'd. Not to the extent of Northeast Corridor from Richmond, VA to Agusta, Maine. That corridor would be a 200 mile swath of death and chaos. But the Rust Belt Cities would be just about as bad.

Well, in a surface-burst exchange, we're all fucked, no matter where we live. Just playing with the EMP idea, for the moment.

Without any fallout concerns, it's just a matter of food and defense. If there's enough food to go around, then defense takes a backseat. I think full breakdown would be a far smaller risk in an area like this, as there's certainly no shortage of food. There's also a strong tradition of homesteading, hunting, and preparedness. I like my chances here, better than anywhere, actually. Just need to get further out in the sticks, for isolation.

That's just it.. I think most of us would fair better with just a straight nuclear exchange. The upper Midwest would be hooped, obviously. Most of the Eastern and Western coastlines. But LOTS of the interior of CONUS has no primary, secondary, or tertiary targets anywhere nearby. Everything south of the Jet Stream isn't gong to get blanketed by the fallout from what is left of the missile fields in the upper states.

A CONUS-wide EMP would fuck us all right in the ass.

As far as food.. I don't think you grasp the gravity of the problem. Most of the food your region produces (which I admit is great in good times) cannot be repeated. That is, your professional farmers can't just harvest the food, collect the new seeds, and replant. They have to go to Monsanto every year to purchase new seeds. Nor does the organization of those huge farms really work without power. You are not going to be able to harvest giant fields without tractors, or water then without water pumps, etc.

All that bread belt stuff means jack after EMP. What matters is whether small communities can make use of the land in their immediate vicinity in time. That totally depends upon the timing of the attack.

[Speaker to Animals]

You can see where he wrote the main character trapping that cannibal army and lighting them on fire about half way through this:




It's actually a perfect spot for it.

what in the FUCK is that music?

[Speaker to Animals]

Eh.. maybe it's not that song. It sounds familiar to me, but I can't think of any of the lyrics. I am not going to try to wrap my mind around this mystery before bed, though.

[C-Mag]

A CONUS-wide EMP would fuck us all right in the ass.

As far as food.. I don't think you grasp the gravity of the problem. Most of the food your region produces (which I admit is great in good times) cannot be repeated. That is, your professional farmers can't just harvest the food, collect the new seeds, and replant. They have to go to Monsanto every year to purchase new seeds. Nor does the organization of those huge farms really work without power. You are not going to be able to harvest giant fields without tractors, or water then without water pumps, etc.

All that bread belt stuff means jack after EMP. What matters is whether small communities can make use of the land in their immediate vicinity in time. That totally depends upon the timing of the attack.

You're are right that a supply of Food and Clean water is going to be the biggest problem. Our food production is far too centralized and factory run as we all know.

In Americas bread basket on the farms and ranches most places have reserves of grain, not to prep, but mostly speculating on the market, trying to get the best price, some for seed. While Monsanto has taken over a lot of seed production, they haven't all yet. These stockpiles on an average moderate sized farm are easily in the thousands of bushels. More than enough for their families and communities, it will become barter goods. Barter goods without a transport system to market. That grain will supply them for years, but they will have to figure out how to farm without a lot of tractors. Though old tractor restoration for farmers has gotten as big as classic cars for others. With regular shows of restored antique tractors.
http://antiquetractorblog.com/calendar-2/

These farm communities will have a real chance and a pretty good life. But they won't go unscathed.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Eh.. maybe it's not that song. It sounds familiar to me, but I can't think of any of the lyrics. I am not going to try to wrap my mind around this mystery before bed, though.

I mean, I know the song.



It just sounds like somebody's cat is trying to play it

[SuburbanFarmer]

A CONUS-wide EMP would fuck us all right in the ass.

As far as food.. I don't think you grasp the gravity of the problem. Most of the food your region produces (which I admit is great in good times) cannot be repeated. That is, your professional farmers can't just harvest the food, collect the new seeds, and replant. They have to go to Monsanto every year to purchase new seeds. Nor does the organization of those huge farms really work without power. You are not going to be able to harvest giant fields without tractors, or water then without water pumps, etc.

All that bread belt stuff means jack after EMP. What matters is whether small communities can make use of the land in their immediate vicinity in time. That totally depends upon the timing of the attack.

You're are right that a supply of Food and Clean water is going to be the biggest problem. Our food production is far too centralized and factory run as we all know.

In Americas bread basket on the farms and ranches most places have reserves of grain, not to prep, but mostly speculating on the market, trying to get the best price, some for seed. While Monsanto has taken over a lot of seed production, they haven't all yet. These stockpiles on an average moderate sized farm are easily in the thousands of bushels. More than enough for their families and communities, it will become barter goods. Barter goods without a transport system to market. That grain will supply them for years, but they will have to figure out how to farm without a lot of tractors. Though old tractor restoration for farmers has gotten as big as classic cars for others. With regular shows of restored antique tractors.
http://antiquetractorblog.com/calendar-2/

These farm communities will have a real chance and a pretty good life. But they won't go unscathed.

Monsanto doesn't control everything, and there are other seed companies around, plus a massive supply in every store around here. Hell, you could probably feed your town from the Walmart garden center, if you wanted to.

[C-Mag]

Monsanto doesn't control everything, and there are other seed companies around, plus a massive supply in every store around here. Hell, you could probably feed your town from the Walmart garden center, if you wanted to.

Yeah, you could if people were thinking long term. But in this scenario you take people with the greatest abundance seen in human history and force them into a subsistence diet, few would be able to parlay the Walmart Garden center into long term production. Forstchen dealt with that pretty well.

[Speaker to Animals]

One toke over the line is a much better song.

[Speaker to Animals]

The pygmies launched another ICBM over Japan.

orth Korea’s increasingly sophisticated missile and nuclear tests are leaving the United States and international community scrambling for a plan to stop leader Kim Jong Un’s seeming unrelenting march to becoming a nuclear power.

Friday’s test launch, the second to fly over Japan, clearly proves the U.S. territory of Guam is within North Korea’s striking distance, experts said.

It followed this month’s nuclear test, which U.S. officials have publicly all but confirmed was a hydrogen bomb far more powerful than the atomic bombs it previously tested.

“I‘m assuming it was a hydrogen bomb,” Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told reporters Thursday during Defense Secretary James Mattis’s visit to his base.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/35094 ... r-ambition