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Post by iamnobody on Mar 9, 2021 6:45:04 GMT -6
Ed and Donna's Story
Ed and Donna are 16 year old teenagers. Both are tall, Ed being 6ft 4inches and Donna is an even 6ft. Both are skinny and have way too many pimples on their face, according to them. Nerdy is not an apt description of them, more like loners who had no common interests of other 16yr old teenagers. They went to separate schools.
They met on a Saturday morning at the city bookstore as they both reached for the last copy of “The Prepper” magazine at the same time. Ed paid for the magazine, with the promise that he would share it with her over lunch. They talked over lunch and through the afternoon. They had a common bond of prepping and found it nice to have someone to talk with about their passion. They found it hard to talk with their classmates about the latest “hot topics” it just didn't interest them. They exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch.
They did keep in touch, often talking about something they read on the prep forums. Turns out they had talked on the prep forums earlier and hadn't realized that it was each other. A friendship blossoms and soon they are doing small prepping projects together. She helped him on his first try at making jerky and he was helping her on her first Dakota fire hole. Their parents thought they had weird hobbies but they weren't getting in trouble like other teenagers, so let them be weird.
Being young they couldn't do a lot of prepping because of money, but each bought some small stuff as they could afford it. How many 16yr old get thrilled over a #10 can of Mountain House, Ed and Donna did.
By the time they graduated high school at 18yrs old, a romance had started between them. They were inseparable. They had grown. Instead of skinny, pimply teenagers, Ed was now 6'4” and 230lbs, handsome, short brown hair, blue eyes and muscular; Donna was now 6ft, 180lbs, long brown hair, brown eyes and beautiful.
By 19yrs old they were married. Ed had his own handyman business and Donna did an online business. They rented a small apartment because they were saving money for a few acres outside of town and to build a house on it.
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Post by sniper69 on Mar 9, 2021 7:28:30 GMT -6
Woohoo! Another new story!
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Post by gipsy on Mar 9, 2021 7:32:20 GMT -6
Nice idea in this day and age
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 10, 2021 7:31:46 GMT -6
Ed's business was doing good, he had work scheduled for 5 days a week with Sat and Sun off because clients were home those days and didn't want construction going on to interrupt their days off. Donna's online business was booming. Her website took orders 24/7/365 and she made sure to ship the orders promptly. They were saving money for their own place quickly. They only had 1 vehicle, Ed's pickup truck. They didn't go on expensive vacations or eat out a lot. In fact their “dates” with each other often involved a local camping trip to a local park where they practiced their survival skills.
By age 22 they had enough money saved to buy a few acres of land and get their house started. They were married at 19yrs old and had sex the 1st time on their wedding night and have been having sex often since then but Donna has not gotten pregnant. They talked it over and decided that 1 or the other of them was sterile and they wouldn't have children, so they decided to build a small house for just the 2 of them.
They found 3 acres in a rural area that was still close enough for Ed to drive for his jobs and affordable enough for their budget. They settled on a 16ft by 60ft house on a full basement. They dug the hole for the basement and began pouring concrete and laying building block. They built as they had money to do the job.
By the time they are 25 years old, the house is done, septic installed and well drilled. As a house warming gift to themselves, they bought a pair of FALs in .308 caliber, a pair of Springfield Armory 1911A1s in .45ACP, along with 20 FAL mags and 10 1911A1 mags. Also a case of 308 FMJ ammo and another case of 45 FMJ ammo. They added Old Hickory 8 inch butcher knives and a tomahawk to their outfits. This year they did treat themselves to a vacation away from home, they went to a gun course to learn how to better use their guns.
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Post by texican on Mar 10, 2021 22:57:28 GMT -6
ian,
So you went fishing with a new story and have hooked the Moar Hounds.
Thanks for the new story.
Had to go to Dallas Monday for a two building project. Was on my feet for 10 hours on Monday and laid over today and made it home earlier which has allowed me to catch up on all of the stories by the outstanding authors on proboards.
Will be busy getting the client the two reports next week.
Texican....
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 11, 2021 6:48:34 GMT -6
Ed and Donna kept their prep lifestyle up and continued doing things. They debated about canning jars vs freeze dryer and settled on the freeze dryer They actually ended up buying 2 of the dryers. They had a ½ acre garden, some fruit trees, grapevines and berry plants. Also chickens for eggs and meat and they raised 2 pigs a year. The 2nd pig they traded off to a local farmer in exchange for beef and milk. All of this kept both freeze dryers running constantly except for needed downtime for maintenance. The completed freeze dried food they put in 1 gal mylar bags with O2 absorbents, sealed and placed in 5 gal buckets.
They hoped to never have to bug out but they had plans for that. They would use the pickup truck, would place a camper shell on top of the bed and they had a covered trailer rated for 2,000lbs they could hitch to the pickup. They also had heavy duty game carts that they could pull if they had to go on foot. Once every 3 months they practiced loading their bug out supplies.
Their businesses were doing good, the economy was good. Every month they bought 1,000 rds of 308 FMJ and every 3 months 500 rds of 45ACP hardball ammo. By the time they turned 28yrs old, they were doing good on supplies. They often took courses on first aid and herb identification and usage.
This year was presidential election year and a new president was declared the winner by the TV news shows and put into the office.. His name was Chung Bidding and his VP was a woman by the name of Connie. Both of them promised a paradise for the people and free money to everyone. And most of the people loved them and their promises of paradise.
When they announced the winners, Ed and Donna looked at each other and had that deer caught in the headlights look. They started triple checking their supplies for anything they missed, bought a 3rd freeze dryer and started buying 1,000 rds of 308 every week. They figured that it wouldn't take long for the free money to run out.
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Post by texican on Mar 11, 2021 16:59:01 GMT -6
They figured that it wouldn't take long for the free money to run out.
Where we are headed. When the money runs out, the cities will be hell holes.
Thanks ian for the chapter.
Texican....
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 11, 2021 18:19:14 GMT -6
They figured that it wouldn't take long for the free money to run out.Where we are headed. When the money runs out, the cities will be hell holes. Thanks ian for the chapter. Texican.... I have this gut feeling that in the near future, a lot of PAW stories will be taking place but they won't be fiction stories.......
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Post by papaof2 on Mar 11, 2021 19:13:34 GMT -6
I keep having the thought that I should buy plywood to cover all the doors and windows, cut it to size and keep it in the garage. When the SHTF, I paint fire/smoke marks (black, brown, gray) above/around the windows/doors and screw the plywood in place. Then we just stay still and quiet for a while - no one wants to go in a burned out house if there's better pickings nearby: "Ignore that old pickup - the house next door has a Volvo and an Audi. Nice that folks opened their garage doors manually when the power went off and they're too lazy to put the doors back down. Most of them still don't lock the door from the garage to the house so it's easy entry."
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 12, 2021 6:51:17 GMT -6
Ed and Donna had 10 weeks of buying and topping off their preps, then the economy crashed just like someone threw a switch. They had some savings that they kept in cash in their basement and they were spending that as fast as they could find supplies to buy. They kept all 3 of the freeze dryers running from produce from their garden and livestock. Food in the grocery stores was getting scarce, so they made the decision to have both the pigs butchered so that temptation was not there for other people to see.
Their garden was done for the season along with the fruit trees so they decided to make their property look desolate and even trampled down a section of the fence out front to make it appear like someone had already raided their garden. They started wearing a size larger in clothing to make it look like they were losing weight. They started “complaining” to everyone about not having enough to eat and what were they going to do.
The TV news was already talking about evil hoarders hogging all the food and not sharing with others. That if people knew of those hoarders, to call the government hot line 1-800-SNITCH to report them. Ed and Donna's families were both one of the first people to call the 800 number, not because Ed and Donna hadn't been sharing with them, but because they weren't sharing with everyone else.
Word soon traveled in their area about what their families had done. Ed and Donna started carrying their weapons full time, with the weapons being loaded and safety on, along with a full magazine load out on their vests. 10 mags of 20rds of 308 ammo plus a full mag in their gun = 220rds plus the 1911A1 pistols, an Old Hickory butcher knife and a tomahawk.
A few nights later they had their first 2AM visitors. The moon was up and they could plainly see a group of 5 people coming through their fence. Ed turned on the outside microphones they had installed months ago. They could hear the people discussing about how to break in, take food and even get some “dessert” from Donna. From their firing ports in the basement, Ed and Donna didn't hesitate, they opened fire. With the FALs booming, Donna worked from the left target and Ed started on the right. 2 down on the left and 2 down on the right with a shot each and both of them shot the 5th person at the same time.
The whole thing lasted about 5 seconds. They waited about 5 minutes before moving to check them. Donna covered him while Ed did the checking, each of the 5 was clearly dead. A 308 round doesn't distinguish between man and woman, 4 were men and 1 was a woman, all people he had seen around town. He loaded the bodies in his pickup and while he went to dispose of the bodies, Donna was tidying up their yard.
A police car showed up the next afternoon asking questions about gunshots. Yes they had heard them but didn't see anything or know anything.
A few nights later another group tried attacking them. It was just 3 of them this time. Again with the microphone they could hear the voices, 1 voice sounded familiar. Like they had practiced at the gun schools, Ed and Donna shot all 3 of them. With Donna covering him, Ed checked them. 2 dead and Ed was checking the 3rd man. The man stood up with blood oozing from his side and Ed could see it was his own brother. His brother was screaming “die you evil hoarder” while raising a handgun at Ed. In reflex Ed pulled his tomahawk and whacked his brother's hand off that was holding the gun. His brother is standing there screaming while looking at his arm squirting blood from where his hand used to be. His brother turns and tries attacking him again and this time Ed uses the tomahawk to almost sever his brothers head. His brother collapses and Ed promptly pukes his guts out.
After several minutes Ed is aware of Donna calling his name, saying they needed to clean this mess up. Ed again disposed of the bodies and Donna cleaned the yard. This time no police came around to investigate.
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Post by arkansascob on Mar 12, 2021 10:48:16 GMT -6
The best and safest way to prep is to not let it be known in my opinion.
In my life I have learned that friends and family will burn you just as fast as a stranger will.
My obligation is to myself and my wife and my dogs.
All others have the same opportunity to get prepared as I did. If they chose not to then it's not my concern.
If I have to defend and protect whats mine I might feel bad afterwards but i will never feel guilty.
COB
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Post by solo on Mar 12, 2021 11:05:10 GMT -6
The best and safest way to prep is to not let it be known in my opinion. In my life I have learned that friends and family will burn you just as fast as a stranger will. My obligation is to myself and my wife and my dogs. All others have the same opportunity to get prepared as I did. If they chose not to then it's not my concern. If I have to defend and protect whats mine I might feel bad afterwards but i will never feel guilty. COB Well said. And Ditto. Cooked by blood. They are on their own. Solo
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Post by bluefox2 on Mar 12, 2021 11:22:09 GMT -6
The best and safest way to prep is to not let it be known in my opinion. In my life I have learned that friends and family will burn you just as fast as a stranger will. My obligation is to myself and my wife and my dogs. All others have the same opportunity to get prepared as I did. If they chose not to then it's not my concern. If I have to defend and protect whats mine I might feel bad afterwards but i will never feel guilty. COB Only a couple of trusted family members know what I have. ANYTHING that comes into my house is moved after the garage door is closed. That way none of my neighbors have any idea what I have.
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Post by NCWEBNUT on Mar 12, 2021 12:22:22 GMT -6
The only person I trust is my like minded 35 year old son, no one else knows what I have or don't have, if the rest of my family cant see the writing on the wall that's on them.
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 13, 2021 9:39:27 GMT -6
Ed and Donna were talking about what happened. His brother had always been very liberal, but were things that bad already to send his brother over the edge like that. His brother had lived with the 2 other men that had been with him. After his brother hadn't come home for several days, his parents had entered his brother's house with the key they had. His parents were shocked at how much food was stored in the pantry and he hadn't been sharing any with them. There was enough food in there to last a family for 6 months. ( Seems he was the typical liberal – whats yours is mine and whats mine is mine ) Ed told them he didn't want any of it, to share it with people because he didn't want any of his brothers “hoarding”. Ed told them that as a cover so he could try to be out of the picture. His brother had a large quantity of food but attacked him and called him an evil hoarder for not sharing what he had.
It was several months after the economy crashed. Ed and Donna always went about in full battle array. FEMA had been giving out food but now required people to turn in their guns to get food because of the lawlessness going on. So far there was only 1 FEMA person in town but they had a feeling that soon there would be more.
Several weeks later a traveling preacher set up a tent for preaching. Now Ed and Donna were not Christians, in fact had never set foot inside a church in their life. During the afternoons, they could hear his voice carrying on the wind. After several days they felt compelled to go see what was going on. There were about 15 people at the tent and Ed and Donna stood in the back. The preacher was preaching the gospel of Christ and he noticed them standing in the back. At the end of his preaching these 2 started walking towards him. This preacher had traveled all over the area, including the Appalachians but had never seen anyone like this man and woman. They were tall and muscular, had FALs hanging down their front, handgun on their belt, a knife, tomahawk and a bunch of gun magazines in a vest. Big beads of sweat started rolling down the preachers forehead and he was thinking his time was ending. The closer they came, the faster he was sweating. When they stood in front of him, they looked him in the eyes and said they were sinners, what must they do to be saved.
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Post by brucearmstrong65 on Mar 13, 2021 13:48:14 GMT -6
Several weeks later a traveling preacher set up a tent for preaching. Now Ed and Donna were not Christians, in fact had never set foot inside a church in their life. During the afternoons, they could hear his voice carrying on the wind. After several days they felt compelled to go see what was going on. There were about 15 people at the tent and Ed and Donna stood in the back. The preacher was preaching the gospel of Christ and he noticed them standing in the back. At the end of his preaching these 2 started walking towards him. This preacher had traveled all over the area, including the Appalachians but had never seen anyone like this man and woman. They were tall and muscular, had FALs hanging down their front, handgun on their belt, a knife, tomahawk and a bunch of gun magazines in a vest. Big beads of sweat started rolling down the preachers forehead and he was thinking his time was ending. The closer they came, the faster he was sweating. When they stood in front of him, they looked him in the eyes and said they were sinners, what must they do to be saved. Hope they have better luck with this preacher than in an earlier story...
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Post by gipsy on Mar 13, 2021 14:05:51 GMT -6
Why the sweating. What is he hiding?
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Post by sniper69 on Mar 13, 2021 16:05:44 GMT -6
Why the sweating. What is he hiding? Maybe didn't want to die that day? I wonder if this is the same travelling preacher from Mike's story? Will Ed and Donna meet Mike and Daisy?
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 14, 2021 10:26:27 GMT -6
The best and safest way to prep is to not let it be known in my opinion. In my life I have learned that friends and family will burn you just as fast as a stranger will. My obligation is to myself and my wife and my dogs. All others have the same opportunity to get prepared as I did. If they chose not to then it's not my concern. If I have to defend and protect whats mine I might feel bad afterwards but i will never feel guilty. COB I'm preaching to the choir here, we have all most likely experienced or seen these things. I knew a guy years ago that tried to get a group of the members of his church to go in together for planting and harvesting a garden. He had 2 acres that he paid to have plowed. He bought all the seed and fertilizer. All the people had to do was help plant and tend the garden and everyone would get an equal share of the produce. An older husband and wife plus a younger wife showed up a few times and then stopped. Come harvest time the guy had 2 acres of produce. Church members all thought he should share it with them. Another guy tried starting a MAG. He provided food and ammo for gatherings to break the ice and get things started. He did that several times but once he quit giving free food and ammo to shoot at the gatherings, people stopped coming. One guy coming said he had no need of shooting skills because he could already shoot a flea in the left eye at 600 yds, but he would never demonstrate his skills and he declined the offer to be a teacher of the other people on how to shoot. Another guy said his wife was a better shot than him and they always shot. His wife accidentally let it slip out that she hadn't shot in over 10 yrs. Another man was approached by an older woman about living on her land to set up things for bad times. She was 60, separated from her husband who lived many States away, her grown children were nearby. He was getting the fields in good shape after years of neglect, getting livestock set up, etc. Then she let it slip that she and her children would all be living there in her big house when SHTF and the man and his family could maybe live in a lean to and of course act as servants and do everything in exchange for their staying there. Another man wanted his family to be safe when SHTF. He had been preparing some supplies over time and showed it to them as he was trying to tell them to get ready. His own wife, children, grandchildren all said he was nuts. But all said they would come to him in the very remote possibility that SHTF and bring everyone with them. His own wife would invite her dad, mom, 2 sisters, brother with all their spouses and children. His children would bring all their families and of courses friends, and be sure to stock certain foods because they didn't eat certain things, NO BEANS AND RICE, just the better cuts of meat, of course the grandchildren would also be bringing their boyfriends and girlfriends and of course their families and whoever else they picked up along the way. Several of his family were making 3X as much money as him, but they couldn't afford to prep, they had to buy some more boats, ATV, new car and vacations. One of the children was friends with some police and even said he would bring along them and their families to be safe. The man told them, you don't prep, you don't get here. Several of his extended family are “christians” and said it was the christian thing to do by sharing. I can say that man's OPSEC is completely blown, the whole county knows his plans and also the police through his child's friendship with them. I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST LEOA man can get quite an education by sitting back and watching other people. My life's lessons about other people and about man – woman relationships at least give me material to write stories about.
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Post by papaof2 on Mar 14, 2021 14:43:45 GMT -6
I started prepping more for the short term: December snow of 7"-12" in an area that rarely sees 3" means roads marginally passable, no power = no heat for most people plus no phone, no internet, no cable TV. Once you're covered for 3 days, it's easy to add a little more, so 5 days, a week, another week, then another week that soon becomes a month, then 2 months then... We know people who were in their car to get warm during the most recent snow event because their house was 57F - plus they needed to charge their iPhones. I suggested that one of them sell the iPhone and buy a generator - never got a response on that. We don't have iPhones (just $100 smartphones from TracFone), but we have the battery-operated gas logs (remote and the gas valve) plus the small solar-charged backup system and a generator. Our phones aren't impressive, just functional, but we never got cold.
First the mindset, then the small purchases, then a little more and a little more. Having heat (kero heater) and light (6 volt lantern, oil lamps) during the multi-day power outage from an ice storm in 2000 convinced my better half that I wasn't crazy ;-) When we moved there, the neighbors were still talking about the ice storm a year or so before we moved to the area that kept power off in the city for two weeks which had convinced me it was a repeatable event - and it was.
I've suggested being at least minimally prepared to others (one with spina bifida and mostly moving by electric scooter and crutches) and I got the "I'll come to your house" response. It's too far for that scooter (6 miles with a lot of up and down) and I don't know that the scooter could make some of the hills with new batteries and a full charge - plus she'd be traveling in the road (no sidewalks) and the only house entrance she can manage on the scooter is the boat door to the basement - and the only place to sleep down there is the floor. And they weren't interested in the idea of a solar charger for the scooter... Some sheeple just refuse to see the negative possibilities. I'm sure we'd be at the top of their call list if they did experience an SHTF or near-SHTF event.
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Post by arkansascob on Mar 15, 2021 9:49:00 GMT -6
I think it was around 1994 that got me and the wife started. Major ice storm shut everything down. No power for around 3 weeks. Being out in the country we were stranded due to impassible roads. Saving grace was the house was gas. Yes you can heat a small house with the burners on a stove and the oven if you close off parts not being used. Remember walking several times about 2 miles to a little ma and pa store that the owners lived behind just to buy what ever was avail. so we could eat. We had a little TV that would run off 12 volt so I ran some old speaker wire from the car battery to the house and rigged it up along with a radio so we could watch a bit of TV or listen to weather reports.
Have never let us get in that position again. We might still get stranded due to weather but we are comfortable and well took care of.
COB
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Post by solo on Mar 15, 2021 16:37:55 GMT -6
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Post by papaof2 on Mar 15, 2021 17:15:19 GMT -6
I have your IP address - less than a minute to find your location from that.
I'll be by with the U-Haul tomorrow ;-)
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Post by freebirde on Mar 15, 2021 17:47:36 GMT -6
....And the only guns, ammo, long knives, and axes I had were lost during a deep water boating accident.
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Post by iamnobody on Mar 15, 2021 18:02:52 GMT -6
I do it easier than all of you.
I am a widower raising 3 teenagers and I do work for a large retail box store company. Barely enough money to keep the teenagers fed and clothed and bills paid. So all I can do is fantasy prep by reading you all's PAW stories.
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