Still a Suburban Survivalist

Although my family and I escaped the DC area and are now located somewhere in middle-America (the fly over states!), turns out I’m still a suburban survivalist. I’d dreamed of getting a few acres off the beaten path, but reality struck. While we’re now far from the eastern hordes and well west of the Mississippi, my job is still tied to an area with a fairly good-sized metropolitan area.

In my current situation, I believe the lessons of Fer Fal (Surviving in Argentina) fully apply. In a nutshell, Fer Fal has demonstrated that rural areas near cities = worst place to be during collapse, even the partial one that Argentina went through. Where I grew up in truly rural Nebraska, not so much; America is a big place, “rural” areas are not equal, and Fer Fal’s observations/generalizations just won’t apply in remote rural areas that are less accessible.

I won’t get into specific details for OPSEC reasons, but the greater metro area I’m now in is many hundreds of thousand of folks. Even though I work on the fringes of that, 20-30 minutes further out just isn’t going to be safe if times go from the current hard to harder.

Anecdotal stories from some of my new co-workers living in nearby rural areas confirm frequent trespassing even now (usually city types trying their hand at hunting, but sometimes other idiots). If times get really bad it would be hard to defend, and impossible to watch over my family while at work. I could find a place an hour or more out that would be more remote and safer, but commuting that much is not something I’m willing to do.

So we’ve settled into a large, newer suburban home with much more than enough space for our three kids and plenty of storage for current and future preps, and very affordable relative to the east coast. It takes 20 minutes from door to desk. The yard is big enough for a large garden for experimenting with heritage seeds. If/when TSHTF we’ll be bugging out the MUCH shorter distance to my parents’ place in rural Nebraska. If we had to go on food, no need to worry about going through areas of dense population. Conversely, if that area is hit by some localized disaster, we’ll have enough space, food, etc. to welcome all of them here.

Living in the suburbs is not how I grew up and now how I imagined this move would go. But it’s not the end of the world and there are a few benefits.

I’ll keep posting here (another coming soon), but much less than before. Getting into a new home, a new job, and with the kids getting older just takes up more time. If I have to choose between doing and writing, do will win just about every time.

Suburban Survivalist Finally Moving West!

That’s right, after several years of looking for the right job east of the Mississippi; I’ve finally found it and am moving from the DC area! We are moving at the beginning of May and if I never see DC again that’d be just fine.

Two major things will be accomplished with this move. First, the probably impossible plan of bugging out 1,300 miles or more won’t be necessary WTSHTF because we’ll be well within a tank of gas of my parent’s farm in Nebraska (which is our family “retreat”). Even if we had to go on foot, the population where we’ll be is a small fraction of what we’d have on the east coast, and the terrain is much less challenging. Second, although we won’t actually be in Nebraska, we’ll be close enough to get home much more often to work on survival projects, go shooting, etc, so I’ll move from theory to practice in many areas.

Getting ready to move is why I haven’t been able to blog as much.

I’ve moved overseas and cross-country many times in my career and such moves often are an opportunity to make a fresh start. For example:

• While in the DC area I probably spoke survivalism/preparedness to one or two people I shouldn’t have, and aside from that am known in my office as a “gun nut.” So one goal is to seriously tighten up my operational security, or OPSEC. I probably will not discuss preparedness co-workers once I move, and will discuss firearms little if at all.
• Related to OPSEC, in the past two years I’ve purchased a substantial amount of survival items including all types of ammunition and firearms supplies, miscellaneous gear, storage food, silver, etc. Most of it was purchased online, leaving an easy to read trail of what caliber of weapons I have and in many cases what type (revealed by items purchases, like a Mini-14 scope mount). The UPS delivery man who goes to my parent’s house even commented on all the ammo he delivered in a short period of time last year. In the future I’ll try to make bulk ammo/gear purchases with cash at gun shows, or little by little at local shops, also with cash. Can’t do anything about the trail I’ve already left, but I can stop highlighting it.
• Following the move I’m not sure how much or even if I will continue to blog. My guess is that blogs like mine are not monitored now, or only loosely. That could change in the future and I may not want to have my thoughts and plans so nicely cataloged for those who might later be more interested. This includes big brother, or even if someone were to discover who or where I am. I’m on the fence abut this for now.

But for now it’s back to getting ready to move this family of five half way across the country! Moving is a always a hassle in general, moving three young children only compounds that, especially with the drive, but knowing we’ll no longer be trapped on the east coast if/when a major problem arises is priceless.

Common Courtesy and Honesty

I really don’t mind if ideas are taken from here – please just include a simple linkback. I’m referring to a recent example where I posted on a topic that I tried to verify has not been brought up in survivalist blogs (Where Military Surplus Comes From).

Today I found a post on the same topic at SHTF Plan via a submission. That author posted on the same topic at their own blog within 24 hours of my post. It’s a truly amazing coincidence (they claim it is “pure coincidence”) that the probably previously unreported site among survival blogs (I checked before posting, in order to add linkbacks as needed, nothing showed in several searches) was mentioned twice in two days. In fact it’s an unbelievable coincidence. I really dislike dishonest folks. Things are the same as ever.