LEAVING DODGE CITY

[jal]

LEAVING DODGE CITY

So, you know that the shit is going to hit the fan, (TSHTF).
You know that you must do something when TSHTF.
You have been doing your best to follow the news and to implement changes that will increase your chances of not being a victim of the disruption.

There is more and more talk, on the blogs, that Greece will default. Some are even expecting a surprise announcement for this weekend of 11 Feb.

Therefore, if you have been doing your preparations, the question then becomes, “Is it time to leave town?”

Are the Greeks leaving town? No.
What will force the Greeks to leave town and head for the countryside?

Cash flow. That’s right. That is when TSHTF.
In general, cash includes something/anything that you can use to trade for what you need.

That right. If they do not have any way of obtaining cash to trade for food then they will go to their extended families, country cousins, to beg, borrow, or steal, to put food in their stomach.

What about the majority the population that cannot rely on extended family for help?

What about the situation when the extended family has nothing left to offer?

What did the people do during the Arab spring with no cash flow?
What are they doing right now to survive with no cash flow?

Generally speaking, if there is cash flow then its business as usual.

Whether its deflation or inflation, what is important, is having cash to barter to put food in your stomach.

I you do not have cash then TSHTF for you.

I don’t have an answer. I have a questions?

[vangoat]

Jal

I too have a question! Where are the hosts of this site? Has the SHTF without us knowing it and they have gone to earth?

VV

[jal]

Let’s look at what needs to be taken care of after TSHTF for you. You are now destitute. There is no cash flow.

I urge you to read
https://theautomaticearth.org/Category-6/t-287.html

Save Your Water

Keep in mind that even though the cash flow has stopped, that people all over the world have solved the problems of taking care of their needs for clean water.

Look at their answers and figure out what will apply for your situation.

Every Emergency Preparedness Programs gives possible answers that might apply for your situation.
Read the sites and plan accordingly.

Do not rely on relief organizations to be able to respond to your needs.

Since this topic is about “GETTING OUT OF DODGE CITY”, I”ll address a few items for consideration.

You will be joining a mass exodus of other refugees. The exodus will happen in waves.
Since you have done your planning and some preparations, according to your abilities, you will probably be in the first waves. Yes, the first wave will consist of minor waves of prepared individuals such as …

1. You are going to be able to take your packsack and hike out of the city to your camping spot.
2. You are going to take your camping gear and drive to your camping spot.
3. You are going to load up your RV and go to your chosen location.
4. You are going to load up and go to your cottage.
5. You are going to your doomstead.

No matter where you go, you will be overrun by other waves of refugees.
The waves will consist of …

1. Totally unprepared individuals needing and wanting handouts.
2. Organized groups/gangs determined and prepared to extort and take whatever they want and need from anyone in their path.

Until a strong group/gang/gov./military can impose their version of law and order, your best defense will be to become non threatening and invisible
or
to be part of an organized community that can deal with the various waves of refugees.

~~ Make your luck ~~

[jal]

A Government warning said that anyone travelling in icy conditions should take a shovel, blankets or sleeping bag, extra clothes including hat scarf and gloves, 24 hour supply of food and drink, de-icer, rock salt, safety triangle, tow rope, gas can, 1st aid kit and jump cables.

I looked a right nerdy on the bus today.

[scandia]

@Vangoat, Our hosts haven’t gone anywhere except on tour in Australia.

[jal]

Keep in mind that our present economic, financial system has been unsustainable for 30 years, (Frog and slow boiling water analogy), due to the consequences of exponential growth and leverage.

The water will only become too hot to bear when YOUR cash flow becomes less than what you need to take care of your basic needs.
( Yep, the list is coming)
Your cash flow is in danger if you lose your job, lose your pension, lose your unemployment and lose your welfare.
Oh! You think that cash flow from savings are not going to stop.
Why, would you think that. Savings are only producing low single digit cash flow.

So, yes, you have time to plan and to get into action.
You could start small, by growing a vegetable in your flower pot.
You could take the time to plan an exit strategy and to fix a “grab bag” for a quick exit. After all, its better to have some preparation.

Keep in mind that the majority of the Greeks are still not evacuating and are not becoming refugees. Their water maybe hot but they still have enough cash flow for their basic needs. Never-the-less, aid groups are having difficulty feeding everyone. Suicide rates have gone up. Mothers are abandoning their children at orphanages. Public building are being torched in protest.
Extended families are still capable of helping out.

With all the examples of hardship, around the world, are you going to notice that things, maybe, could get worst for you? Will you be in the first wave of refugees or the last wave?

You could be living out of your packsack, as a refugees, or you could have already set up camp or a doomstead. You could even be one of those that decided to stay in “Dodge city” with all your preparations.

If you are a short term planner you could just think of it as an extended camping or tail gate party. Just remember that eventually you might run out of beer before the end of the emergency and you will need to obtain more supplies. In some areas, the reset will be so severe that it will be impossible for you to buy beer and to keep partying. Then, you will be wishing that you had not wasted all your resources on beer.

Let’s make a list of the NEEDS that EVERYONE will be facing.

Its pretty basic stuff.

Housing
Water
Sewage
Garbage
Food
Money/tokens/bartering supplies or skills
Heating/cooling
Transportation
Health
Security
Communication/social interaction

No one can do the preparation for you.
Keep reading the blogs, evaluate, prepare and hope for the best outcome.

[Swineherder]

Let me weigh in here with a little practical experience. I got out of Dodge about 6 months ago. I subsist on a small income that is not dependent on work – it will last till the system crashes.

First, downsize big time. You can’t go to a strange town in a strange environment and live like you do in a big city. The pace is different, the resources are very limited and people have been living close to the bone in these small rural communities for a long time. Be humble. They know how to survive. You know how to be a consumer.

Two, small communities pay much more attention to character than big cities. So, you have to establish your worth. Volunteer is the first and best way to start developing your character in a small community. Second, watch what others are doing and see if you can emulate some of their strategies. Forget all the things you think you know and recognize the locals have a hundred years of community living behind them while you have probably been a specialist in a consumer society. Small towns breed generalists. They can carpenter, cut firewood, plant a garden, get out of a snowstorm, know what their neighbors are good at and have relationships for advice and help. You probably have none of those things. To them – you are not only stupid but arrogant.

Three, recognize a couple of facts. Gardening gives you one crop a year – period. You need a lot of garden. Two, storing food is really labor intensive. That can of peas you buy for a dollar is a lot different than the can of peas you have jarred and put in a pantry you have never used. Four, animals take time to raise and then they have to be killed. Meat does not last long so you have to invest a lot of energy in preserving meat. All things in the country have problems. Their is mud, there is bugs, there are seasons that make easy things become hard. Heat is not a thermostat, it is a big -big wood pile that you have to create out of trees that are hard to get, hard to cut, hard to split and take a long time to dry. You have to learn to live not for next weeks cheque, but for next years needs, for everything in the country takes time to grow, mature, process and store.

If and when the shit hits the fan the learning curve will be immense and the resources will be scarce. Get used to sore backs, calloused hands, old work clothes, limited personal hygiene, stores with limited stocks often far away.

If you are rural, get used to the dark, be very cautious, injury and help are often far away or limited in response. Give to others as much as you can so that when you need others will give to you. Well, I’m not going to write a book, but I would advise you to go to the library and read old settler books and what they had to learn to survive. It’s more than a university education.

[jal]

Damm it!

I see that some of my posts have been made invisible.

Well I hope that the same thing will happen when the waves of refugees begin their march.

@ Swineherder

All good advise.

Some more wisdom to keep in mind.
All small communities have got their pecking order. There is a “king in every piss pond”.

Bloods is thicker than water and even if your spouse/partner was/is from that community … you will always be an outsider.
Accept it and deal with it.

One more thing.

Be ready to become meek.
You don’t have to eat shit.
You can operate the honey wagon and turn barren soil into gold.

[Bukko Canukko]

My wife and I got out of Dodge to dodge that draft-dodger realPresident Dick Cheney and his little dog Two. (Bush II, that is.) Then we dog-legged back across the ocean to yet another English-speaking country that’s not the United States. Thank doG I have a licence to wipe people’s butts, so we can swan around like that.

Along the way, we’ve made friends. Being friendly, entertaining people is one way my wife and I fertilize our adopted homegrounds. In the end, you are your own ambassador. Remember, in the now-forgotten (except for the title) 1958 book, “The Ugly American” was the good one, the talented engineer who won the respect of the Sarkhanese by getting down and dirty with them and devising a bicycle-powered rice-paddy irrigation pump. My goal is to be “the interesting American.” If you can spin a good yarn about the things that you’ve done and the places you’ve seen, that’s a survival skill.

We haven’t sunk roots, but we planted seeds. We learned the ways of several lands, and gained the legal right to repollenate if the wind blows us that way. The way I see it, sticking with one country is like mooring your lifeboat on dry land. I like the advice of that seasteading escapollapse artist Dmitry Orlov, who advises having a foot in more than one nation, just in case one of your choices gets mauled by pit bulls. It’s not easy to do, and your new doghouse might have fleas, but it’s a feeling of security to me to have places to flee to.

[Swineherder]

Rereading your post, I was struck by the concept of “disruption” that you mention. Personally, I don’t think this is going to end in disruption, I think it is going to end in collapse.

And in collapse, the guy who owns a pig is richer than a guy with a gold coin. For the gold coin you have that you invested in for mega dollars is heavily discounted by two things. One, the pig farmer does not need gold, he needs pig feed. Two, your family is hungry and that changes the trade equation from value exchanged to desperation to get that pig.

The closer your wealth is to basic human needs such as food, warmth, shelter, the more dependable your wealth is. Cash, gold, silver is a fiat currency against a real reality. Hunger, cold, disease, are values that you either have or not. Personally, I don’t think I don’t think your needs can be fulfilled by offering me paper for my pig. I will want something tangible that allows me to keep being productive.

So, rather than investing in gold or Treasury Bonds, I suggest that in really hard times, a gallon of gas as a tangible thing trumps all those fiat values that you hold for security.

Right now, you determine the price of my pig. And I am getting screwed for the price you offer is barely able to meet my costs. What happens when I determine the price of my pig and you are the one getting screwed. For in truth, I would rather give my pig to a bunch of mothers with kids than give it to you for your handful of paper.

So, without going through your posting line by line, my answer is to get something tangible and trust mother nature to increase your wealth rather than a banker or a dude with a Phd. In the depression of the 30’s a Dr. would treat you for a ham or a dozen eggs for that was a more valuable exchange of his skills for your problem than him doing nothing because you had no cash.

Just thinking out loud here.

[Author]

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