I have spent most of my adult like lifting off the grid and pretty much under the radar and made a conscious decision to return to the surface for a number of reasons. I realize this is somewhat 180 degrees from where most of us are coming from but let me ramble a bit. From 1976-1982, I was living in a home-made cabin in a wilderness region, diving for mussel shells for a lively-hood, growing a garden, wood heat, battery's charged by a water-wheel from my creek. I killed wild game for meat unless it came from a can or a BBQ pit or Hershal Cooley's grogery down the road towards Eva Creek. I seldom went into the nearest town for any reason, unless I needed a part to keep my diving equipment, boat, or truck running. I was sort of a hermit, though I had a girlfriend that came and went, usually when she got tired of eating catfish, sweet potatoes, and squirrels. I came back onto the grid when I finally dumped her and started a company in east Tennessee salvaging logs from rivers that had been cut while virgin. This brought me back into the mainstream because of the necessities of business. Ultimately, I was able to ditch the radar once more by moving onto a shanty-boat on the St. Johns River in Florida. We had satellite internet and comms there to facilitate my employment over-seas in marine salvage. I traveled a lot and when not working, lived with a marina post office box as an address and no other tie to the system. most of the folks here that I have met, was during that period of my life, now I am back in the system but it is once more by choice. I am using the system again, to further my assets. We have a 48' ketch that is our emergency plan but one day, I hope to let someone else have it. We have assets to survive a short term duration off-grid and no resupply and could mount an adequate defense of life and property, if needed, but that isn't the prime motive any more, at least not from my perspective. I do not mind being visible. I am not a bad person. I am not hiding anything from anyone and I'll share what I need to share during a crisis. I do not have any visions of long term survival in a post SHTF world. I am 62 years old and will go down fighting, if needed but really would rather just play my guitar. This is a scary time that we live in. It is a good thing to prepare and plan for contingencies but the narrow "nut-case Survivalist" attitude will get you in more trouble than it will solve. It is going to take community to make any real advances. I don't think we'll ever escape the chains of technology, but we can redefine freedom to operate within, if we only create a sense of family. My family has no racial, political, or ethnic barriers, only a common need. That allows me to retain misanthropic racist, biasist, anti-social, whatever you want to label them, sentiments outside my immediate circle of influence with no impact on those that are actually a part of my day to day world. One day soon, I'll disappear again and probably for the last time but my friends and family will be there, a part of a community and I don't care who watches.
Seacowboy, totally agree with you and as as you get older, I will be 80 and the wife is 77, you have no choice but to live in the company of others. There are many things that I just can't do anymore. I no longer have the strength, flexibility or balance to work on roofs, climb trees, etc and trying to do so will get me injured or killed. On grid, off grid, self sufficient, medical care, gardening, wood cutting, etc, all change as we age. If I do survive in a long term SHTF situation it is going to be possible if I have the resources, friends, and skills to make it worth their while to help us and keep us alive. My limited take on survival is that is probably better to have family or be a member of a good church with some close friends as members that you have known for 20 years in a survival situation than to have 2 extra AR 15's and no one to fire them.
.The older you get, the less further ahead you have to look for yourself, the less stores you have to have laid back. How much you do, or can do, for your progeny is a different question entirely ---
That's interesting, Deorge. I want for my kids and their children but I truly wonder what kind of life I can leave them. I am trying to share the things that I value most in life with them; skills, music, communication, pretty much in that order. I can't leave them with much of sustained intrinsic value but I can give them the gift of self sufficiency and awareness of both the danger and beauty around them.
Probably the most valuable gift you can give them in these trying times, the ability/means to survive!!!
