A Family Conversation

First off, I need to apologize, as my cellphone died a spectacular death, and took the photos of my new rifle with it. I'll post pics of it soon - I promise.

I was surprised during dinner when my brother brought up storing food, getting his firearms license, preparing for social upheaval, etc. I was floored. My brother used to be a card carrying, banner waving liberal. My Mum wasn't too thrilled with the conversation, as she is very much anti-gun. After describing several scenarios of what is possibly on the horizon, she is now concerned that we might be facing a crisis of moderate to devastating severity in the near future.

I confessed I had nine months of food stored, and I was working to getting more. The look on Mum's face was priceless. That's when she got serious, and started asking questions. By the end of the night Mum had a better understanding of what I was doing, and why I've been buying firearms. Neither of them knows about this blog, as it's really for the readers, and not my family or friends. I get to tell them in person!

Mum summed it up when she said, "Oh my! I need to stock up on Zantac!" I was surprised I had her on board so easily. But then again, her parents were teenagers during the Great Depression, and they raised their kids poor. She raised two kids on her own with no child support and working three jobs. Over the years, her tolerance for bullshit has dropped to zero.

So now the rest of my family is on board, and have promised to start storing food and water. I warned my Mum not to go and buy too much too soon. I suggested to buy two boxes of her zantac every time she ran out of one, unless it was on sale. Then rotate her stock. My Mum has about a months food in the house outside of what's in the freezer. That's a good start. I suggested buying a few extra cans of food every trip to the supermarket.

My brother has contacts in Maine, and he's actively looking for property up there. ?He has a line on 70 acres of landlocked land, that abuts his buddies property. This fellow already agreed we could have access if we get it. The hard part is figuring out how much the landlocked land is going to go for. Most land in Maine is going for $2000 and acre. That's way too much! I'm going to be careful with any land purchase - it's all talk for the short term.

My brother is very much a noobie when it comes to planning for a crisis. He thinks we will head north in a caravan of trucks like it's Mad Max or something. I can straighten him out, but it will take some time. I did let them both know that we will meet at Mum's and we can work out where to go or what to do from there.

You can do the same thing. It's not too late for my Mum, it's not to late for you! Start now, at least if the balloon goes up next week, you have a head start. Start with water, food, medicine, shelter. Then move on to personal security and training. Work on financial security. Build a community.