Sheep moving was a rain out today. Oh we could have done it as most of it is done inside the barn but by the time I noticed it was raining the sheep were already wet. Man handling full grown ewes into places they really don't want to go isn't all that much fun anyway, trust me it gets a lot less fun when the sheep have wet wool.
Not like an extra day is going to matter to anyone except the rams anyway.
So we got about two tenths of an inch of rain today. It came down in a steady but light pour for a few hours and then we had a heavier downpour this evening. Hopefully this will be enough to break this mini-drought we been having for the last 3 months or so.
I actually put on my mud boots to feed tonight. Something I haven't had to do in a long time.
This afternoon I had an interesting discussion with a local while I was waiting around at the gas station. The gentleman was bad mouthing survivalist commenting on how stupid they were since in his opinion once things fall apart everyone is going to turn on everyone else and it's going to be "Mad Max" for all until everyone is dead.
I really despise these types. They are more dangerous and useless than Multi-Cultist and Feminist in many ways. I can't figure out what these types actually think. I mean do they even know that human's had a history that spanned for thousands of years before the first electric line was strung and Henry Ford rolled his first car off the production line?
According to these dimwits mankind has never done anything but killed each other, only the blood thirsty survived by stealing from every peace loving producer that was around and not even immediate family is capable of working together.
It's like centuries of written history never existed to these types and nothing was ever accomplished before the internal combustion engine.
I have noticed most with this attitude are raging atheist which I am sure isn't a coincidence but not a topic I usually go into very far.
I quickly tired of his diatribe and I found a good way to cut the discussion short and leave him pondering when he made the comment that after a collapse I wouldn't even be able to repair my fences when they broke.
I asked why I would need to repair fences when folks like him had no gas to drive 50 miles over the speed limit and endanger my flock. Kinda means fences become mostly obsolete doesn't it?
At least until the range wars start back up anyway.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
Because people have never contained livestock before the advent of woven wire? I'll grant that the alternatives are more labor intensive, by comparison,
ReplyDeleteOdy - Most small ruminants wouldn't need fence at all really except for the males. My sheep barely get more than 100 yards from the barn even inside the fenced area as it is. Although youa re also correct there are other forms of fencing.
DeleteEver think that for a large portion of the thousands of years that humans spanned, a large portion of it contained no gods? Maybe the raging religious are at fault. Probably not a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteMy observations about where atheists fit into the prepper scheme doesn't match Pioneers, but the best evidence has people worshipping gods (and yes - specifically gods - not just totemic spirits or their ancestors) way prior to history. The strongest, if not the earliest evidence comes from the Indo-European language roots. They were not the original agriculturists, so the belief in gods preceeds "civilization".
DeleteThe rage-ers, I have found to come in all stripes. I have seen some amazingly angry Christians. Recall that there is a subset of Christian folks who seem to feel that in the post collapse free for all, that non-Christians can be assumed to be evil/non-cooperative and when found-out, can be summarily executed.
There is also a very strong subset of atheist that belong to the cult of the progressive. This quasi religious belief works particularly well with techno-folks because it gives them a quasi-spiritual elite place in the godless cosmos. This is somewhat similar to the secular humanist beliefs of many on the left.
3 roosters and a chick - I don't really know honestly myself. I guess what I should have said more than atheist is liberals. There is a special blend of atheist that assumes only a belief in a solid police state can control humans. They cannot accept that humans can and will work together under any condition but force. Not even all liberals fall into this category but some do and they are usually the ones who proclaim we will all just turn on eacj other.
DeleteRuss - Thanks for explaining that you always do a better job of it than I do :)
DeleteI hope these doom gloomers stay in cities and towns and kill each other off by fighting over a tin of beans, there attitude is very much there is no point in being prepared because everyone is going to be dead, they will be ones looting and rioting its the ones who prepare who will survive and be there to build up new communities
ReplyDeleteDawn - Exactly. I am far enough out that I don't have to rub elbows with these types too often but we did get a few outlying suburbs push in close before the great reset of 08 stopped the building. I believe a number of them will change attitude fast when the time comes. People have a way of getting comfortable and just ignoring problems until they simply can't anymore and will justify it anyway they can.
DeleteSounds like the guy gets most of his information from movies which kind of explains why I don't watch a lot of movies. I think areas of violence like he expects can be predicted by looking at current crime statistics. Most bad locations where crime seems to be tolerated by the courts and society will not fair well as the people are already conditioned that crime is a solution to a problem. The key is not to be located within easy travel to one of those areas.
ReplyDeleteSf - Hood point! Also in that most crime these days is under reported in those areas as well. Having a community out that will support each other would be helpful too.
DeletePurely from a historic point of view your ranter had a point. Human kind has ALWAYS been at war with the tribes/individuals around it UNLESS; A strongman/king/warlord/empire/government FORCED and enforced peace. Humans are by nature killers (Cane & Able anyone?) and there always were and will always be people willing to kill you for what you have. Do you not have horses where you live? Have you ever heard of the Tartars? How 'bout the Mongols? Fifty miles is nothing for raiders on horseback. Did you not know that the earliest towns in Europe go back 25000 years? You can tell this because someone burnt them to the ground and murdered every living thing in them. TWENTY. FIVE. TOUSAND. YEARS. of endless non stop genocidal war in Europe and Asia AND the Americas: AT MINIMUM. War and murder have been the bedrock of the human world for as long as there have been humans. The guy at the gas station was not the one with a fantasy problem. IMO IF. TEOTWAWKI ever comes to pass human kind will see an orgy of rape murder and depravity the like of which it has not seen since the fall of Rome. The FORCED and ENFORCED peace has gone on for too long for anything else to happen. "Government" is the only thing stopping it from happening now. Remove that heavy hand and let even a few weeks of starvation set in and the blood will flow in rivers.----Ray
ReplyDeleteRay - I would ask you the same question that I usually ask an intelligent person when it comes to this subject. Can you name any society that was ever completely wiped out during it's collapse? Any one that turned on itself and destroyed itself completely?
DeleteOnly possible one is Easter island that I know of.
Even in the worst case scenarios pockets always remain and there are spots that manage to either stay isolated and untouched or protect themselves.
Yet even with war and strife people survived and especially in Europe thrived and grew and eventually moved out and expanded.
I doubt there is enough horse flesh left in the US to make a dent in the great plains. Just like with looters on foot the vastness of the US would swallow em up like a sponge.
Now that being said I don't disagree that there will be pockets of the hell you proclaim. What I disagree with is that it will be everywhere and there is no escape from it. I also disagree with the concept that raiding and looting will be widespread by individual and small bands. It is not easy to travel and organize such things and anyone intelligent enough to set such a thing up is also intelligent enough to know you must leave the areas productive or you are dooming yourself.
You seem to have faith in human intelligence. How interesting. We have no evidence or written record of the tribes/nations/peoples exterminated by the Mongol invasion or the Islamic wars. The victims were all dead , and the winners didn't care . History is rife with accounts of whole genomes wiped out (punic war anyone?) and populations replaced by the winner. I think you have too much faith in human reason and "human goodness". I see no wide spread evidence for ether. I do see an abundance of evidence for a species hell bent on self destruction and lusting after evil in its every form.(people "doom themselves" EVERY DAY with utterly self destructive acts) And all you need are fifty armed men on good horses to make someone a VERY BAD day. There is more than enough horse flesh within 20-30 miles of me , right now today, to set a cavalry regiment. That's five thousand head. There are likely twenty thousand horses here in Kentucky alone, and millions more in the five surrounding states. I could walk to fifty broke horses in a mile. Europe "expanded" when starvation and endless war drove them to the new world---to make war on the natives . There has never been a time in human history without war. The fall of Rome gave us the "dark ages" where anyone with a sword could and did rape steal and murder as much as they wished. ONLY strong central governance slowed it down. It wasn't ended (or at least limited)until the 19th century. I put no faith in "the goodness of man" as a widespread or long lasting phenomenon. ---Ray
DeleteRay - The first principal we defer on would be the "Goodness of Man" I said nothing about the goodness of man nor will I. What will bring people together and in productive mutual defense is the will to survive. What will carry that over and keep meat in the grinder defending these areas is the hero effect. Some in the patriot or prepper movement like to call themselves sheepdogs.
DeleteSecondly it's pretty common knowledge which tribes were tribes were absorbed or basically sold into slavery/wiped out by the mongols and/or the screaming Muslims. It really wasn't that long ago historically speaking. In each case including the Punic wars you are talking about small tribes or at most cities. Several outlying villages of Carthage survived the Punic wars.
As for your horse flesh and Mongol idea. Unless you are going to move West I seriously doubt the mounted aspect will do you much good. Forage and fodder along with housing for the beasts would need to be figured out. After that you would need to develop a Mongol like culture that could basically live off the herds you brought with you. Having participated in several reinactments over the years involving horseflesh I can assure you unless you have one hell of a lot of money and resources backing you with a huge supply line of logistics you ain't making it very far.
I won't even mention the training of said horseflesh unless you want to operate like Dragoons and dismount using the horses only as transportation. In which case you are paying an even higher rate in resources for upkeep and getting little out of it as looter anyway.
Lastly there are plenty of periods were there were no wars going on. Oh sure you can always find some petty king invading his neighbor for a mill or what have you. Even periods of war that historians like to write about today took generations and large areas were left untouched. Saxon invasion of England for one. Golden age of Ireland for another.
I simply don't think you understand the logistics behind the claims you are making nor how without them looting hordes will fail.
Those Yay-Hoos that think there is no reason to be prepared either because they think nothing really bad will ever happen or it will all be "mad max" make me want to laugh out loud on one hand but make me want to cry on the other. Once that man realizes that robbing and stealing will get him a bullet in the head, he will be at your gate, hat in hand, asking if he can help you repair your fences with split rails, stones, or hedge brush in exchange for a meal. As an aside, I wonder if he has ever watched something like the National Geographic channel and seen the thorn brush pens the natives use to keep "Lions" away from the livestock. Even primitive peoples learn how to survive, we've been doing it for thousands of years. Sure, not all of us would survive, but some of us would.
ReplyDeleteSwamp Dog - Exactly. Producing and cooperation are simply EASIER to do in a survival situation than looting and pillaging. I am not sure why that concept is so alien to some people these days. Part of the issues with cultures that raided were that at first their victims couldn't even conceive of such violence. Once they understood it and adapted it became a different ball game BUT and this is the big BUT, no one stops to think how much was spent in resources and preparation to even become raiders. After a collapse it would take literally generations to build up the type of culture, resources and training to pull it off.
DeleteAnd, he would be the first one to try & steal from another. I'd keep my eye on him... Oh, and can you send some of that rain this way. Every time they predict we will get some, the weather wit says "oh, the front stalled" or "the front petered out" or some such crap. What they really need to say is "I didn't really know anything about the stupid weather, I just go online & pick a forcast from a 'weather model' that I think might work in our region."
ReplyDeleteDFW - LOL I ain't sending no rain anywhere right now. We got another storm last night and made it up to about an inch all told and we need every drop let me tell you. I am finally breathing a little easier about it now but we still need about another 6 inches.
Delete