Brand new and want to know where to start

[nepreneaux]

New to the site, my real name is Mike. I looked at several and settled on this one because the posts are not from 2006. So this is my current situation. 4 bedroom 2600 sq ft house on 35 acre farm. We bought it in April, the old couple had it up for sale for a year. They sold off all the livestock, but I got a 1 acre pre plowed garden. Large barn, completely fenced, land is located across the street from powerplant lake on one side, and a city lake on the other. I have both community water and a well. A stocked one acre tank, that's pond to anyone outside Texas. 80 hp IH tractor with a few implements. I am a cop with about 4 years to retirement, so got weapons, and the old lady is a nurse about 10 years away from retirement. Got horses, goats, chickens, heirloom seeds, 2 trucks, 1 car, 1 harley, 1 boat, did I mention lakes?, and a Polaris Ranger 4x4. I have completely lost faith in the people running shit. What is my next move? Oh and thanks in advance for the help.

[RedJohn]

First welcome here and second stop making me drool. Your setting sounds like a dream come true.

[Fatty]

Mike, how dare you come on this sight and instantly create this level of jealousy!

Btw, welcome and happy to have you!

Since it sounds like you have all the expensive stuff sorted... All you have to really worry about is more beans, bullets, and batteries. Maybe an assortment of medications? :)

[RedJohn]

I think you need to make a list. What do I have. What do I need. And look at the difference. You seem like you have a lot already. A lot of ground covered.

Without out going to dig too far right now, unless you want to work the farm (tough job) you need to complete you non-meat preps (you seem to have the meat already, think about rabbit and chickens). You already have the guns and ammo for protection and hunting.

Also, and the most important for me is power. You need a plant for no electricity. Wood stove, wood heater, etc. How would you par if the power goes down tomorrow?

I think that this is a good start, well for you, because you're ahead of most of us.

[Gunfixr]

Sounds like you got the hardest part done. The location in which to stay safe is usually the single hardest piece. How safe you are will be largely determined by just how far you are from any serious civilization. I don't want or need to know, just something for you to think about.
That said, it's all needs, and then wants. Sold off the livestock? Not sure, but might have been good to have some pigs and/or cows, if you guys are up to it. However, looks like you'll have meats with what you got now. I'd get the garden started, since they take time to get really running. I got a friend similar minded who's taken up serious survival gardening, and it's been a learning experience for them. You'd want to get into canning as well. You have water, you want to have a way to get the water from the well without electricity, or at least a self-renewable electrical source, like batteries and solar, or wind, etc.
Set your priorities. Stock up on food, ammo, clothing, personal items like soap, tp, tools, etc. If you use it now, will you use it then? Get some extras, 2 is 1 and 1 is none. Medications, as mentioned. It wouldn't bad if your wife doesn't already know, is to expand her knowledge past just nursing, like emergency surgery. It would also be good for her to tech you some of this knowledge, as if she gets hurt, you can help her. If she can't shoot, she should learn. Look into maybe off-grid power, or living comfortably without power. Ideally, you want to be able to live without power, because even if you are charging batteries with wind or solar, the batteries will eventually go bad.
The main thing is sit down, the both of you, and list what you need, on a day-to-day as well as weekly, monthly, etc. basis. Then, establish how you get these things now, and how would you or could you get them post-shtf, or could you substitute or do without. Once the list has been weeded down, you know what you need, you can then figure out the priorities of the list. Then fill it. Unless you won the lottery, you can't fill it in one swoop, just get a little at a time.
Hope this helps.

[GunnerMax]

You say you have a stocked 1 acre pond, but think about food, anti-fungas/growth chemicals, extra nets/fishing gear, and the like for your pond.

[bacpacker]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you all are off to a good start with property and other things.

The first thing i would suggest would be to sit down and make out some lists. 1st one would be for possible senarios in your area ( hurricane, earthquake, rail lines/derailment, nuc plant emergency, economic collapse). This will aid you in deciding what to plan for.

2nd list would be a inventory broken down by catagory (food, equipment, weapons, medical). That will give you an idea of where you need to be spending on.

[nepreneaux]

I was thinking of making some needed stuff. Cordura interests me as I have had Kydex crumble in use once on a holster when a kid tried to take my gun and once on a knife sheath while camping. Kydex is a great liner for sheaths enclosed by 1000d. I am thinking sewing machine. Would love underground safe room away from the house but that is in the planning stage. BTW do any of you know anything about hiding a fire at night like a camp fire that does not give you away? My fear is roving bands of assholes who want the easy way out by taking yours when they did not prepare, because Grand Theft Auto 4 was on sale. I am about 15 miles out from Waco toward Mart, so I am out in the woods enough.

[GunnerMax]

About cordua, I am going to work with it in about 6 months. I hope to have good savings making molle gear vs buying it. Some of the guys on here are pretty good at making kydex. Maybe you were flawed in making it? I cannot be sure, because I don't have any kydex gear

[Dropy]

Hi, welcome.

[Stormfeather]

Mike, Welcome to the greatest forum on prepping Ive been able to find!
Dont mind the craziness, its fun, and it makes this forum fun!

As far as prepping, sounds like you are doing great so far. Several things I saw stand out right from get go.

1- You need a power source besides current electricity. . . Solar? Wind? You have a pond, any way to do hydro?
2- How about fuel? Does the farm have a gas tank storage thats usable? You have enough property to do one if not, Consider burying one.
3- Farm animals? besides horses you have small ones, but have enough property to host larger ones. Consider the easiest ones to have with the minimal amount of work. Sheep or goats maybe? start small and work your way up!
4- While having a perfect base to start out on, do you have a network of people to help you keep your house and area safe if/when the time comes? Start polling your friends discretely, find out which ones are likeminded and work your way up from there. Perfect way to do this is. . ."hey, have any of you done any canning/made beef jerkey/reloading? Im/Wife is getting into it, and I wanted some advice. . " Perfectly innocent question that can lead to so much more.
5- Start making lists. . . prep supplies. medical supplies. (im sure the wife can help with this part!) Long Term Survival (LTS) supplies, and see where you are deficient, then work your way up from there!

Anyways, sounds like you are off to an excellent start! Feel free to ask any questions you may have, as the way I look at it, the only dumb question is the one that doesnt get asked! welcome to the club!

Stay Frosty!

Bill

[Evolver]

Welcome aboard Mike from central east coast Florida, My Parents, brother, two sisters and ex-wifes are/were professional sewers and mainly work with Cordura and ballistic nylon. Between them they have use/tried about every industrial sewing machine brand out there and have all ended up using Juki. You need a good industrial walking foot single needle machine when sewing multipliable thicknesses of Cordura and webbing (Nylon strapping) together. A good new Juki goes for around $900 but you can find used ones out there for half that. Yeah I miss having one around to play with and I sure would like to have one again just for the mods that can be done to equipment to make more suited to my needs and too make my own stuff like I use to be able to. I moved 3000 mi away from the accessibility to there machines and shops.

[realist]

Welcome to the site. Sounds like you have a nice set up. Livestock can be good but take a lot of time. Since you have horses you already know about this. When we had horses we took care of them with out any outside help unless they had a major injury. We would shoe and vaccinate them at home. They do make a good form of transportation. The nice thing about having land is they can graze in the pasture. I would stay with smaller animals they are easier to deal with as you have found with the goats and chickens. I'm not sure if you are from the general area that you live so you will need to experiment with what will grow in your garden. Talk to neighbors or the local Farm Bureau and they should be able to help.

Sounds like you have a lot of water. You would be amazed at how much fish you can raise if you want to farm them.

I retired two years ago from the same line of business and it is better then the brochure. My wife will be working for the next three years so we are kind of in the same boat. It has been really good time so far and we are pretty well set for retirement. Since you have four years that is what you want to concentrate on. I am one of those training guys. There will be a lot of things that will close when you retire. I keep my certs up by working part-time so if you can do that you might consider it. Look at what training will assist you in retirement. If you are into teaching take a look at getting your foot in that door now. Since you will be able to make more money now than in retirement you have to set your priorities for your larger purchases. One thing that we have been doing is paying off everything that we can. I have a car payment and a small mortgage that will be paid off by the time my wife retires. Our biggest problem is paying for college for my two kids, but dad does not mortgage the house for the kids to go to college, no loans...

One thing that I have found with these forum is that it is easy to get into information overload. I am one of those early risers and usually read about three hours a day on various subjects. I am also a book guy so I have a great library.

RedJohn is correct you need to start a list and prioritize the items. I have lists of lists..... I project out what I will need next year, five years and ten years out. Take a real close look at health and be conservative in that area. We were suppose to have health care coverage in retirement but they canceled it the year I retired. This was a pretty big financial hit that we had to deal with. Your wife being a nurse should have that area covered but you will want to plan accordingly. My mom was a doctor and we always had medical supplies when she was around. I tended to be complacent in that area and it wasn't until she passed away that I realized how lacking I was in medical supplies. The one thing that I will say is you can only be sure about what you have.

I would suggest that you prepare for natural disasters first that could occur in your area. We have earthquakes in our area so that is what I first looked at along with fire. Once I had those areas covered I moved on to other things that were of interest to me. If I was in tornado country I would certainly have a large nice cellar away from the house. Anything that I would build or remodel in the future I would keep nature in mind.

One thing that you will find it that there is a wealth of experience on these forums. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, if you have a question ask. Let me know if I can be of assistance.

[nepreneaux]

I do have a generator, Honda 3000 something or other, still has the tags on it. I only assume that since it is new, it works so pretty stupid on my part. I would really like to do a shelter. I soooo need a backhoe.

[Gunfixr]

You need to run that generator, they do have a "break in" period, and you are better off if you run that out without a large load on it.
Besides, as you admit, you are assuming it runs. If the guy who built it didn't have a hangover that day, or it wasn't the last day before Christmas or something.
Be sure, check for yourself. Also, trying it out is like training, you'll know exactly what to do when you really need it.

As for a hiding a fire, the best way is not to have one. But, IIRC, there are some woods that, when fully dried, will smoke almost none. But, I think they only grow in the west or southwest. Even then, if you build it under taller trees, the limbs will disseminate the smoke, making it less visible. You cannot hide the glare. Even in a hole, some is evident, and can be seen for great distances.

[ladyhk13]

Hi there and happy late welcome! Just reading about your 'sewing' and wanted to say that my DH (dear husband) has a Treadle Singer sewing machine. It's an industrial one designed for leather use. VERY heavy duty and since it's a treadle ya never have to worry if the power goes out. What is really cool about it is that you move the needle direction and not the piece. BTW we have a Ladies Forum here so I would like to invite your wife to sign up if she is interested. Our gals are great here!