Any interest in a co-op?

[Patmark]

Ok everyone I really must apologize for my first post. I'm far from a paranoid person it's just that I have found out the hard way that while the internet is a wonderful tool and gives us all access to information and people that we would not ordinarily have access to it can also be a dangerous place. Since I consider the people that I know from here as my friends I just wanted to remind them about being careful.

Ok now, the reason for this post: I'm wondering if there is any interest from amongst you in joining with me here in RL in creating a very specific place for us to go to survive whatever may come our way in the future.

I have a very specific set of ideas on how to do this and I have a very specific vision of what it is that I am trying to create here. HMMMM..... how best to explain?

I have learned that approximately 1/4 acre of the right land if used in harmony with the natural world can sustain approximately 1 to 2 people and give them all that they require to be productive happy human beings for a lifetime. Not only this but I have learned that this can be done in such a way as to no longer be reliant on the grid that we have all become so very dependent on for our comforts. What I am in the process of trying to put together is a homestead that will provide all the necessities that we and our loved ones will require to survive in the event of any kind of crisis that may come our way. That said, Not only do I intend to create this place here in Florida, but I also want to create this place in other states as well and interconnect them.

The way in which I intend to implement these plans are to find a number of like minded people from different states and pool our resources. By banding together in this way I truly believe that this goal is entirely obtainable and realistic. However, you must realize that anything in life that is worth doing will require some hard work and sacrifice to achieve it. Anyhow everyone, I do in fact have a plan to accomplish this and I do realize that it is a very large project, but once in place these places will give those who choose to be a part of their creation many benefits.

There are a whole lot of people out there that think for some strange reason that if and when tshtf that they are just going to go into the woods some place and everything will just magically be ok there. I don't know about you all but I just don't agree with that at all. I feel that if I and my love ones are going to make it to the other side of the coming crisis, whatever it may involve, then we have to bring places like this into reality, get them up and functioning, and have plans and routes in place to get to them safely. I know people that have storage sheds full of supplies, weapons, ect but no concept of what to do with them in the event that they will need them. :confused: I wonder if they plan on locking themselves and their loved ones in the storage shed with all the supplies. ;):)

So if this sounds in line with your idea of how to get through to the other side of the crisis that we all know is coming please let me know who you are and what state you are in and I will make a list and see if there are enough people interested to make this happen. I will check this thread daily for the next couple of weeks so that everyone that is interested in learning more about this idea or has decided that they want to be a part of this, the time to post a response.

Take care everyone and I will talk to you all soon.

PM :cool:

Look at the picture on the top of this page. This will give a general idea of what I have in mind.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/self-sufficient-homestead-zm0z11zkon.aspx

[Stormfeather]

Always interested in hearing about it. Have a few plans in place already, but theres nothing wrong with having multiple tiers or options available, right?

[Patmark]

That's it exactly SF. That way if you and yours have to hightail it this way because Wisconsin has somehow gone to hell, you will have a safe place here waiting for you and other safe places along the route that you will be able to use to get to whichever safe place that you want to settle at. And it will be the same for me in reverse. As these places are built up and running we can man them with the people that own the particular land that we decide to use, and this will give us a place to safely store supplies as well as get things going that will take a lot of time to do, (The garden for instance, getting the livestock in place). We can put communications in place so that we will be able to communicate between these places and we can do all this while we still have the grid, wal-mart, Home Depot, and the grocery store available if we hurry a little. If nothing happens then we will all have places to retire to or vacation at.

Look the way I see it is that noone will make it through whats coming alone, not unless your rambo, ( Now I know that many of you out there may think that you are, but trust me your not LOL LOL Rambo was a movie character. What I'm talking about here is real life, not a video game or a movie.) There is a very real possibility that a solar flare or cme could take out the power grid, or all of the communication satellites putting society as we know it into complete chaos all of the sudden and that is just one of the things that are very very real. I know, I know, I'm preaching to the choir here but give it some thought.

Since there is absolutely no way of knowing what the future will bring, there is no other way that I can think of that will protect us better against whatever may come our way. The other benefit that I see that will result from putting all of this together is that after tshtf I truly believe that society as we know it will no longer exist. Will it be the end of the world? I sincerely doubt it, but that doesn't mean that after everything settles down that the govt. will step in and make everything all better. At this point we will have to ban together and help ourselves just as our ancestors did. We are going to have to learn to live locally again, grow and raise our own food, learn how to barter and trade, learn how to build things that we need with what we have available to us. Now I don't know about you all but I'm thinking that it sure will be a whole lot easier to put all of this together now then it will be then. Now to make this happen we are going to need some dedicated people in some different states, I have some land in the mountains of Tennessee, it's not a lot of land but it's very very isolated. I am also looking into some land in the Ocala national forest area, (for those of you not from here that is here in Florida). Now not everyone will have land of course but we are going to need labor, security, supplies, ect, ect. So don't think just because you might not have a ton of resources already that this wouldn't be for you. We all have something to contribute no matter our age or our physical capabilities.

Anyhow, I'm sorry there Stormfeather I kind of got off track this morning. This started out to be a post to say thanks for taking the time to post a reply. :D

PM :cool:

[LUNCHBOX]

P, I have noticed there are a few members located in Fl. If it was me, I would link up with some local ants first. You could then be linked to many other directions. Example....I have a few like minded friends here, we intend to head south to a fellow ants location. Of course, I have invited other ants north to link up here prior to our departure. I say this because I trust the members I invited and will in turn trust who he/she brings. You have to also think about that. Your plan is sound...the only way to make it is in numbers.

[ladyhk13]

PM I really do not want to sound rude or uninviting or in any way against anything you say because I agree with what you say so please do not take this the wrong way ok? You have been here for a very short period of time and have formed no bonds with anyone except Taz Baby. I understand you want to jump right in and implement all of your wonderful ideas and share but I think that maybe you should slow down just a bit and take the time to get to know our members and pick and choose who your "friends" are going to be. Who do you want in your MAG, who do you want to know your private information, where you live, what you have, what your future plans are and such. As you know from prior experience not everyone is who they say they are. Our members here are wonderful but I caution you to remember that even here on this site there are people who happen to stumble upon the site and are only guests and lurk so they are not members....we do not know who they are. I say these things for your own safety. As you learn who our members are and who you want on your "friends" list you can always pm them with specific info and details.
We have one of the best sites I have ever seen and our members are awesome but that doesn't mean it is perfect. RJ works tirelessly to keep spammers and trolls off of the site but that doesn't mean someone who means us harm couldn't get through. Just a thought. Good luck and welcome again. I personally look forward to talking to you here!

[Patmark]

Thank you Lunchbox and lady for taking the time to read and respond to this thread, it means a great deal to me to know that there are others out there that are like minded. Lady I totally agree with you about slowing down a bit and I sincerely appreciate the advice. Rest assured I appreciate constructive criticism and always strive to learn from it.

I guess I'm so wound up because the mag that I put so much time and effort in creating didn't work out too well because I was so secretive about what my plans and intentions were that the people that joined the group just ended up not being compatible. Not because they weren't nice people or serious but because their idea of prepping and my idea of prepping turned out to be totally different.

That said, this time around I want to make sure that I state my intentions clearly enough so that I can be sure that the people that decide to join up with me are on the same page and are thinking in the same general way. This way I won't waste anyone's time. Thank you again you two for taking the time to read and respond, and I look forward to getting to know you guys better. I will talk to you all soon gotta go help the wife with dinner.

PM :cool:

[Stormfeather]

PM I really do not want to sound rude or uninviting or in any way against anything you say because I agree with what you say so please do not take this the wrong way ok? You have been here for a very short period of time and have formed no bonds with anyone except Taz Baby. I understand you want to jump right in and implement all of your wonderful ideas and share but I think that maybe you should slow down just a bit and take the time to get to know our members and pick and choose who your "friends" are going to be. Who do you want in your MAG, who do you want to know your private information, where you live, what you have, what your future plans are and such. As you know from prior experience not everyone is who they say they are. Our members here are wonderful but I caution you to remember that even here on this site there are people who happen to stumble upon the site and are only guests and lurk so they are not members....we do not know who they are. I say these things for your own safety. As you learn who our members are and who you want on your "friends" list you can always pm them with specific info and details.
We have one of the best sites I have ever seen and our members are awesome but that doesn't mean it is perfect. RJ works tirelessly to keep spammers and trolls off of the site but that doesn't mean someone who means us harm couldn't get through. Just a thought. Good luck and welcome again. I personally look forward to talking to you here!

LHK, I can see where hes coming from though, I came here with the both barrels from the hip blasting and jumping right in, nothing wrong with a little initiative and being proactive in my mind. Having left a fully set up MAG in california, I was definitely looking for a group of likeminded folks like the one I left behind. Theres something to be said about the desire to get set back up especially if youve already been set up once only to have to start all over again. Im just saying. . . I understand where hes coming from.

[Stormfeather]

That's it exactly SF. That way if you and yours have to hightail it this way because Wisconsin has somehow gone to hell, you will have a safe place here waiting for you and other safe places along the route that you will be able to use to get to whichever safe place that you want to settle at. And it will be the same for me in reverse. As these places are built up and running we can man them with the people that own the particular land that we decide to use, and this will give us a place to safely store supplies as well as get things going that will take a lot of time to do, (The garden for instance, getting the livestock in place). We can put communications in place so that we will be able to communicate between these places and we can do all this while we still have the grid, wal-mart, Home Depot, and the grocery store available if we hurry a little. If nothing happens then we will all have places to retire to or vacation at.

Look the way I see it is that noone will make it through whats coming alone, not unless your rambo, ( Now I know that many of you out there may think that you are, but trust me your not LOL LOL Rambo was a movie character. What I'm talking about here is real life, not a video game or a movie.) There is a very real possibility that a solar flare or cme could take out the power grid, or all of the communication satellites putting society as we know it into complete chaos all of the sudden and that is just one of the things that are very very real. I know, I know, I'm preaching to the choir here but give it some thought.

Since there is absolutely no way of knowing what the future will bring, there is no other way that I can think of that will protect us better against whatever may come our way. The other benefit that I see that will result from putting all of this together is that after tshtf I truly believe that society as we know it will no longer exist. Will it be the end of the world? I sincerely doubt it, but that doesn't mean that after everything settles down that the govt. will step in and make everything all better. At this point we will have to ban together and help ourselves just as our ancestors did. We are going to have to learn to live locally again, grow and raise our own food, learn how to barter and trade, learn how to build things that we need with what we have available to us. Now I don't know about you all but I'm thinking that it sure will be a whole lot easier to put all of this together now then it will be then. Now to make this happen we are going to need some dedicated people in some different states, I have some land in the mountains of Tennessee, it's not a lot of land but it's very very isolated. I am also looking into some land in the Ocala national forest area, (for those of you not from here that is here in Florida). Now not everyone will have land of course but we are going to need labor, security, supplies, ect, ect. So don't think just because you might not have a ton of resources already that this wouldn't be for you. We all have something to contribute no matter our age or our physical capabilities.

Anyhow, I'm sorry there Stormfeather I kind of got off track this morning. This started out to be a post to say thanks for taking the time to post a reply. :D

PM :cool:

You are very welcome, and I thank you for the explanation. Im very curious on if you plan on being the person spearheading this endeavor. Being as how you already have had experience setting one up, Im just curious of what pitfalls you ran into along the way. And if I may be so bold as to enquire, what went wrong with the one you set up before?

[The Stig]

Groups are funny things.

Most are formed by circumstance. Family, work, church groups, neighborhoods....all are assembled hodgepodges of people that are typically thrust into circumstances together. You try to find a way to make them work...sometimes it's productive, other times not so much.

It seems to me the groups that work the best are the organic ones. The ones where person A and person B spend time together, get to know each other, and then discover they can work well together. One persons strengths offsets the other persons weakness and vice-versa.

I agree totally that lone-wolf/rambo is not a viable model. It will "take a village" to pull through a tough time.

You are wise to state your intentions clearly. You are also wise for working to establish a group now instead of waiting until the poop hits the fan.

Not sure if any of this is what you had in mind but I like this thread and look forward to seeing how it develops.

If I haven't said it already, welcome aboard.

[Patmark]

Well Stormfeather, it's like this my friend. I have been a student of Ancient civilizations for many many years, they have always fascinated me and I have always known that there was a whole lot more to their warnings then people were seeing. In the middle of 2008 I started to notice some things going on in the derivatives markets that were very alarming, (At the time I was trading the precious metals market and so I was watching daily what was going on not only here in the USA but in the world in general), in December of that year the housing crisis happened and I was starting to see more and more strife going on around the world and some of the dominoes that I was watching start to fall. By the middle of 2009 I could see that some very big changes were coming our way and started to formulate what I think is the best way to get through the inevitable panic, death, and down right stupidity that will be brought about by a series of major crisis's that are coming our way in the very near future. Now back when I started to think seriously about this and how best to prepare so that myself and my loved ones could survive it I wasn't really able to tell anyone how I was feeling because there weren't many people at that time that felt the same way. Most people would have thought me an alarmist or just a downright nut so I just kept it to myself.

At the beginning of last year I stumbled across a website that was being frequented by people that it appeared, were thinking as I was and I was quite excited by this. As I started to read through the threads there, I found some people that it seemed were thinking along the same lines as I was in regards to prepping so I decided that these were the right people to form a Mutual assistance group with as these folks were here in my neck of the woods. I wrote a charter that defined the goals, by-laws, ect. for the group I was wanting to create and sent it to each of them privately and set up a meeting to discuss the details and get an idea of the assets each of us had to contribute to the group as a whole. These meetings seemed to go well but I noticed right away that some of the others, (how to say this best), weren't quite as prepared as they were saying they were and were not necessarily ready to get beyond the talking stage if you know what I mean. However, I was so damn happy to have some others that at least had an inkling of what was coming that I overlooked a lot of this stuff and as I have always tended to do, went at it full steam ahead. Now weather it was because I expected too much of these people or I wasn't clear enough about the plans and goals that I was trying to accomplish, when it came down to actually getting things done, all of the sudden, people started having other things to do that were more important, we couldn't do this to this piece of property or we couldn't do that to it, that sort of thing, so I spent 9 months working my ass off for nothing.

The other big problem that I ran into was that I could never get them to understand that for this to work we had to become a family, hell closer than a family. I don't give my friendship all that easily, not that I'm anti-social or unfriendly, but true friendship is something that I take very very seriously. If and when I do offer someone my friendship I am a very caring and loyal friend and I expect the same from the other person, do you know where I'm coming from? I found that except in the case of one of the people they just couldn't get to that point. Now I don't know about you all but in a worst case scenario I strongly believe that we will have to be able to count on each other with our lives. After 9 months except in the case of the person that I mentioned I just didn't feel like that was going to be the case.

So one of the reasons that I seem to be in such a hurry now is because now that I have wasted a whole year on this last group I feel like I am rapidly running out of time. The reason that I felt comfortable enough to start this thread and give so much detail in it is because my good friend Tazzy told me about this site and brought me here. Although I have not met Tazzy in person yet I trust her implicitly as we have spent quite a lot of time talking. That said, she explained to me that the people, or at least the regulars on this site, were trustworthy and true and so her word was good enough for me to take the risk. I am hoping to find the right kind of people here to organize and put together the support structure that I posted about in my first couple of posts, in place, by the end of this year. Now if this doesn't happen exactly the way I posted it, it is going to happen in one form or the other, I can only hope that some of you will see the potential in a Country wide co-op and will decide to join me in this endevour. My Daddy always taught me nothing ventured nothing gained. I have also learned during the time I have been on this earth that I can turn my thoughts into my reality with proper thinking and hard work, I hope this post will help to clarify things a bit for you guys. I sent a PM to Izzy the other day to let him him know that I will be taking a trip to his neck of the woods in April, at least that is the plan at the moment, and would love to meet him in person and compare notes while I am there. This goes for any others from the great state of Tennessee as well. I'm thinking about maybe just a lunch or dinner someplace while I am there. If anyone from that neck of the woods would like to take part in that please send me a PM and I will send you back a bit more detail about it as the time draws near. Ok everyone I gotta run for now I will be talking to you all soon. I hope this post finds you all well, take care all my new friends.

PM :cool: