Hiding

bonniebede

Okay. So its the end of the world. You are sorted in your rural location all ready to be self sufficient. But first you have to ride out the waves of urbanites who are coming to pick the land clean like locusts.

Do you hide or fight?

If you are hiding, where do you do it and how do you hide supplies?

Is this a step too far?

Zamboni

bonniebede wrote: »

Okay. So its the end of the world. You are sorted in your rural location all ready to be self sufficient. But first you have to ride out the waves of urbanites who are coming to pick the land clean like locusts.

Do you hide or fight?

If you are hiding, where do you do it and how do you hide supplies?

Is this a step too far?

Hide as much as possible. Best way to survive conflict is not to engage in the first place.
Also, compassion makes one weak. If you engage with some hard hit innocent locusts you may end up feeling the need to help which could put you in jeopardy.
Complete detachment suits me.

Tabnabs

Unless it's an invading army (ala WW2 or Warsaw Pact) then it's probably better to ride out the storm and resume normal services once it's gone past.

But as Ireland is a small island, I'd assume most would look to leave rather than wander the countryside. It's not a part of the equation in the US survivalist model so we probably have a more unusual set-up here.

Doc Ruby

Zamboni wrote: »

Also, compassion makes one weak. If you engage with some hard hit innocent locusts you may end up feeling the need to help which could put you in jeopardy.
Complete detachment suits me.

I'd a big discussion with grizzly45 over this which ended in him throwing his toys out of the pram and vowing never to return.

Basically the research (real scientific research) says that after a major incident, people come together to help one another, communities flourish, and compassion becomes the order of the day. They are exceptions, but these are usually in areas with pre-existing tensions. A bad area gets worse, in other words.

I would neither hide nor fight, but rather step up and help people with my skills and assets, and put down predators. We are, after all, a social species, which has historically been our greatest strength.

Zamboni

Doc Ruby wrote: »

I'd a big discussion with grizzly45 over this which ended in him throwing his toys out of the pram and vowing never to return.

Basically the research (real scientific research) says that after a major incident, people come together to help one another, communities flourish, and compassion becomes the order of the day. They are exceptions, but these are usually in areas with pre-existing tensions. A bad area gets worse, in other words.

I would neither hide nor fight, but rather step up and help people with my skills and assets, and put down predators. We are, after all, a social species, which has historically been our greatest strength.

I would believe and hope that you are right in a medium to long term timeframe post crisis.
But in the initial panic and confusion I could very vividly imagine people becoming irrational and perhaps violent in a grab for any resources.
I think I'd hide until everything calmed down a bit

Cardinal Richelieu

bonniebede wrote: »

Okay. So its the end of the world. You are sorted in your rural location all ready to be self sufficient. But first you have to ride out the waves of urbanites who are coming to pick the land clean like locusts.

Do you hide or fight?

If you are hiding, where do you do it and how do you hide supplies?

Is this a step too far?

I never get this, its the end of the world! Doesn't all life cease?

bonniebede

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

I never get this, its the end of the world! Doesn't all life cease?

usually implied teotwawki - the end of the world as we know it...not the the final end of everything.:D

For that you need a different sort of preparedness.

Doc Ruby

Zamboni wrote: »

I would believe and hope that you are right in a medium to long term timeframe post crisis.
But in the initial panic and confusion I could very vividly imagine people becoming irrational and perhaps violent in a grab for any resources.

An examination of recent emergencies reveals that the chaotic phase only lasts maybe a couple of hours past the cause of the emergency, and even then predation is normally only found among those who would have been predators anyway. Your average Joe family man isn't about to start burning down houses to smoke out people with supplies.

Now of course there are exceptions, for example famines (which oddly enough become more dangerous in the medium to long term) are unheard of in developed countries, who can say for sure what might happen there, but after my own needs are looked after I'd definetely go forth and make myself a useful part of whatever community remains.

I've deliberately (albeit somewhat incidentally in the course of bushcraft) cultivated skills and tastes that make it easy to survive in places where most urban and even rural dwellers would have a tough time of it, so I'm fairly sure I can look after myself. Anything beyond that is gravy, and I don't mind sharing the loot.

Also I recognise that if my techniques, old school hunter gatherer, were to be applied on a grand scale the entire country would be stripped bare in about a week unless the population was mostly wiped out, so its in everyone's best interests to get civilisation back on the road asap.

baords dyslexic

I have a couple of local locations scouted out for hiding. The one thing I don't do is visit the areas regularly as I don't want an obvious tack forming, but what I do have is an area of quite a few acres of dense cover near a couple of little used but navigable corridors that can let me move 5 or more miles without having to bump into or meet anyone - but not quite "Red Dawn"

bonniebede

i think I am thinking more in terms of something like a panic room, but not quite. Scenario...random groups of looters, who may or may not be violent, you wouldn't know until you confronted them, passing through the location you are buggin out at.

Seems sensible to me to have most of your storage food stashed away, not in the kitchen cupboards, maybe buried in multiple caches in the garden, and also some quickly accessible hidey hole where you and family can hunker down while they pass through.

Making sure there is not enough left lying around to tempt them to stay.

Also somewhere you can get in and out of under cover of darkness at least without being observed.

For example, if you have several raised beds, you could dig on out and put in some food storage, like a plastic trunk or old fridge or something, then plonk a raised bed liner on top of it. It wouldn't look any different from the rest of the beds and would be easily accessible. It wouldn't stand a sustained search either, but i am thinking more of groups who might be pushing through looking for easy pickings. Nor is it for long term storage, do that in proper spaces, it's just to have a cache in those emergency times.

If folks move in and take up residence, then I would be looking at something else, like the judith option.

ShadowFox

If its the end as we know it Id like to get friends and family together in an urban area near flowing water and just hide it out as it was said already most would opt to leave the country as it not that big and i think you have a better chance of guarding an urban /semi urban location than a field miles from everywhere

Cardinal Richelieu

If the ends of days continues to go on you may need new blood for your family unless your all the cousin marrying kind. I wouldn't rule out the use of slaves on that big country estate either.