Prepping for small town city slickers

[lonewolf]

city slickers live in a city, not a small town.
this place is so small we know most people by sight, a lot by name and we know where most live, even where some work.
crime is next to non existent, mostly domestics and the odd anti social behavior. there is no Police presence, nearest manned Police station is 25-30 miles away and thats nearly an hours drive on our roads, similar for emergency hospital and the supermarket is 20 miles away which is a 3 hour trip there-shop-and back once a month.
this is an agricultural area not a tourist one, mainly sheep rearing.

 

[Randolph]

I'm definitely staying here, been told by health care professional that its "the middle of nowhere" and thats seems to be the attitude of most non preppers.

I was being facetious. Best to stay where you have a network of family and friends.

I haven't had that in decades.

Right now I am in the best situation in twelve years. Being the best neighbor I can. A few days ago fixed a flat tire for a poor person who's only transportation is her bike. Building goodwill. Unlike most others, I know all to well how life will pull the rug underneath you, and you will have to start all over with nothing again.

The vast majority of "preppers" have never really faced real adversity in their lives. They are just trying to avoid it.

No love lost on my part. As far as I am concerned, more people prepping the merrier. Better opportunities to scavenge the homes of those who really do not know how to survive.

Survival is 90% mentality.

 

[Randolph]

"City slickers live in a city, not a small town."

LOL!

I know that. Including the phrase "city slickers" was just a catch to bring interest into this thread. I think it worked, don't you?

Small towns along traditional trade routes will play an important role after the SHTF.

 

[lonewolf]

all my family is dead apart from the odd cousin and a half sister, I dont see much of either, Wife's family are all sheeple and dont communicate much.
I left all my friends back in the city when I moved out 20 odd years ago.
I've had to start again twice in my life-divorce and I've never had that much money. I've lived off grid for over a decade in the past and will again WTSHTF.

 

[Randolph]

all my family is dead apart from the odd cousin and a half sister, I dont see much of either, Wife's family are all sheeple and dont communicate much.
I left all my friends back in the city when I moved out 20 odd years ago.
I've had to start again twice in my life-divorce and I've never had that much money. I've lived off grid for over a decade in the past and will again WTSHTF.

Known several in your same situation from NE Tennessee to SW Missouri.

Back in the late 1970s my great grandparents were featured in a four page article in the county paper. Their marriage covered America from the dawn of the automotive age to the space age.

Great grandpa was asked what was the one change in America he regretted.

Great-grandpa said it was neighbors no longer knowing neighbors.

And some forty years later, I am still trying to get people to understand this.

 

[lonewolf]

I think the neighbour not knowing neighbour is a city thing, some communities in the city I lived in it wasnt wise to get to know too much about the neighbours, some others places had a very mobile population.
where I live I know all my neighbours, many have been here 30, 40 years, one neighbour now deceased came to live in this area during WW2 and never left, some others are farmers widows.

 

[Randolph]

I think the neighbour not knowing neighbour is a city thing, some communities in the city I lived in it wasnt wise to get to know too much about the neighbours, some others places had a very mobile population.
where I live I know all my neighbours, many have been here 30, 40 years, one neighbour now deceased came to live in this area during WW2 and never left, some others are farmers widows.

My Great-grandpa lived in the countryside.

Many areas across America lost its cohesiveness back in the late 70s and early 80s.

About that time mega Corps started offering products and services "cheaper" than local.

Problem was, modern accountancy had no way to value what really mattered.

 

[lonewolf]

Globalisation has a lot to answer for.
when I was a kid growing up over here we ate what was "in season" and if it wasnt in season we didnt have it to eat, now its shipped in from the other side of the world and people dont know what being in season means.
I didnt see my first supermarket until the early 1970s by which time I was married and paying a mortgage.
didnt see a mobile phone until the mid 1980s and didnt see a computer until 2000.

 

[DrHenley]

There is nowhere left in America that is hidden from the locals.

There are places left in America where there aren't any locals.

 

[lonewolf]

I could take you to isolated places now where they dont see anyone but the mailman for many months and strangers get stared at.

 

[MOS0231]

What consumer goods? Have look around your house. I didn't say "NEW" consumer goods, I said "The scavengings of the last 100+ years" What do you think is going to happen in a house where the broom wears out, they will look for a new broom and I have 4 here that I hardly use. That will be the basis for trade to begin with no doubt, filling Bic lighters from propane bottles, fixing steel drums that leak, replacing handles on shovels and garden forks.

I'm genuinely tired of this concept that we will all go back to wearing bearskins and living in isolated cabins straight after a collapse, it's ludicrous. 95% of the population will probably die and that will leave a lot of room for the other 5% who will be survivors by nature. The more remote small towns will likely become hubs as they were hundreds of years ago, places where people cluster for security and mutual benefit. If you think you will be living all alone growing all your own needs and never interacting with another soul then plan to never break an arm or a leg, or need rudimentary dental repair. Only a few people do that now and they turn up in the paper from time to time, usually in a shootout with law enforcement.

Why would I hump it 15miles for a "new" broom when I can just make one myself?

I do not think anyone here thinks they are going back to bearskins and isolated living.
As I posted earlier, we plan on establishing our own market locally within our immediate community.
Not traveling 10 or more miles to town.

Spend a year in Afghanistan and that will give you some insight to what post-SHTF world will look like.

 

[lonewolf]

depends how many are left alive whether a market is feasible or not, I'm not expecting any number of survivors is my neck of the woods.

 

[backandbeyond]

Yes there are levels of interaction, small markets over the back fence, larger ones between several neighbors, that sounds like what you expect MOS. I'm a total loaner but I still crave human interaction once or twice a week. One of the highlights of the fortnight for me is a country market here in town where farmers and beekeepers locally bring in their produce. There are some from further afield but they never come if it's a rainy day, then it's just the locals.

I never try to 'bargain' with them because their prices are fair, I like to think I am making contacts for the future in case I need them. People deal with people they know in desperate times. They might not accept currency way off then but I'm sure the wives will be happy to trade for bars of soap and cotton buds. I have a lot of those items stored, a hell of a lot. I researched what was in demand in Europe in the year or so after WWII when there was anarchy in many areas and no stable currency, no luxury goods coming in. Soap was top of the list along with coffee, chocolate, sugar and nylons lol. In in war torn Germany women wanted to look nice.

 

[Amish Heart]

On my way to the little farmer's mkt where I live in a few minutes. Open Fridays 2-6, 5 picnic tables set up with amish housewives selling produce and baked goods.
We do so many neighbor trades around here. Yesterday was 2 buckets of green beans my neighbor had and I gave her cherry tomatoes. Another neighbor needed eggs and brought me sweet corn, and I also gat her button squash because I have it coming out of my ears and she's never had it before.

 

[lonewolf]

there is a weekly market here every tuesday, its nice to go and see what there is but it probably wont exist post SHTF because I really dont expect the survival rate to be that large, and any that do will be well spread out over the county and indeed the whole country.
trading/bartering is something that just wont be feasible or even safe after TSHTF and its not part of my post collapse life.

 

[Amish Heart]

There's enough of us spread out here, that unless there's a direct hit by something, I think trade will be on. It already is. And our people overproduce what they produce because there's a small tourist trade here and it supports that. So without the tourists, I do believe we'd continue trading with each other. At the moment it's produce trade, since that's what's happening. I support our little farmer's mkt by buying bread and some cookies there, not because I don't make them at home, but because I want to support them so that they will continue to sell. They had alot of customers yesterday...saw about 7 tourist cars just when I stopped. People around here tend to do what they do every day. They didn't wear masks, didn't close our little stores, didn't do anything different. Funerals and weddings here draw about 3 to 500 people, and I do admit, I went to a three day funeral that lasted most all day each day last November for a favorite cousin. We were elbow to elbow. No masks. That being said, I had covid right before Christmas, and most everyone here has had it. So now we are done with it. People need to live, plant, grow, socialize, respect each other, learn, worship...all these things. Not sit in their house because some smart phone app tells them to. How stupid do the governments think people are?

 

[lonewolf]

maybe there it will continue, cant see it happening in the UK, most people ONLY shop in supermarkets and many places dont have markets or farm shops just supermarkets, once that goes they will be lost.

 

[Amish Heart]

Yep. That's a bummer. Can't turn every country into the agrarian societies we once had.

 

[lonewolf]

we can WTSHTF. it may be the only way to survive over here, cant eat computer chips!!

 

[DrHenley]

You might be surprised to know that some of the most heavily populated countries on earth are still agrarian to the extent that they are self sufficient in food production.

 

[lonewolf]

not many countries are self sufficient in food these days, most of the African countries are reliant on food aid.