Desert flash floods.

Not much is going on with me right now. Editing, reading, taking care of my family. The usual. We are in monsoon conditions and were finally able to let the teens see why the drainage tunnels are so dangerous even though it is so dry. This pic is of a road not even 100 yards from the house. The rain had only been falling for about 20 minutes when I took this picture. I had ventured out to get Miss. Bug to school. I know the road and the depth and have a heavy 4x4 and crossed it but found immense traffic getting to the school and decided to keep her home. I saw a small mustang decide to skip the intersection pictured and go to turn around only to be hit broadside with another wave and be pushed into the rushing water. Driving in conditions like these require a knowledge of your road, a slow and steady hand, and a very heavy vehicle. Do not ever even consider crossing a road like this if you are not sure of the depth. It does not take a lot of force to lift a smaller car and float it off despite what you might think. In a SHTF situation you need to make sure the route of escape you have chosen is one you can traverse in any condition. Know the road. Drive the route even if it is out of the way so you are not forced to attack a road like this with no knowledge of it. It can and will save your life and your belongings.

We aren't alone!

Over the recent long weekend my handsome other half had a birthday and his older sister and her husband came to visit and play for the weekend. Brother-in-law J brought up the topic of TEOTWAWKI and preparations. I think he was a bit surprised to learn exactly how much we are trying to do and how much we continue to do. He also would like to join in those efforts. So our group has risen and I think their focus will be on food preps while we continue with the gun and ammo side for the moment though I am going to be broadening that. I am making lists of a lot of things as well as going to really look into areas of retreat and possibly grabbing that land we want. I think now more than ever expanding this to the rest of the siblings will be wise. The other sisters all will have need and can contribute to things so i think I am going to really formulate a plan here in the next bit to present to them as we are supposed to be together in October. Adding to the capable men is a good thing I think.

Better prepared than I thought.

Some of the recent posts on blogs I enjoy are far less hopeful than I and it got me a little worried. We are hard pressed to hole up here. If SHTF this is not the place to be and as far as preps go we are a young couple with young kids and hubby is in a career that does not lend itself to retreat building while also focusing on our idea of how we raise our kids. (I am at home so one income.) I have been focusing on these hurdles and worries and seeing the posts seemed to create the right mix for my nightmare prone brain. Last night was a doozy.

A great thing about my guy is he lets me share the dream then tells me what we would do different in life. He was at work today though. I didn't feel comfortable really sharing the dream but did share the worry about our preparedness level with my BIL. He surprised me by detailing the plan. Where we would go. How we would have food, build shelter, have water, harvest crops. The boys have it worked out and are ready. He said they are wanting a couple more shotguns and probably a .22 pistol for us.

As far as prepping the house he said they both think getting a couple 55 gallon drums for water would be smart but otherwise he isn't worried. That was very comforting to hear. So there is a plan LOL just one not shared with me very well. I think we will make that Lila box soon as well as getting a get home bag in Hubby's truck. Get the meeting place figured out for escape in a long term issue and get the local water resources better figured out for short term things. And keep letting my guy do his thing. He has it under control.

Petroglyph Exploration followed by live fire!

This morning we went on another wonderful family desert adventure. These have become common place and serve a couple purposes. In a SHTF scenario when you live like we do in a suburban area outside a pretty major U.S. city it is always very very important to explore the rural areas surrounding you. You need to know the best places to go if you need a short term place to ride out a storm (literal or figurative). It is also just plain fun. We love finding little explored areas and since this is the desert the amount of BLM land and other public land between populated areas is plentiful. We have gotten into metal detecting which adds to the awesome.

Back to today, lol. Today we took a new road (for us anyway) my BIL had discovered last week that he wanted to show to us. After some bumps and turns through the fairly level desert you hit an area of foot hill type hills and rocky outcroppings. Then you see a very rough pull out area and an interesting park visitor type fence. We got out here and walked around where we got to see some pretty beautiful rock formations and some gorgeous petroglyphs high on the cliffs. Who knows how the Indians who drew then got some of them up there but they were beyond beautiful. Of course us women folk took pictures like crazy! The trees were plentiful enough that I am also willing to be their is a spring of some sort fairly close and think the area needs more searching. If that is the case and it is still a live spring even if it is small it is a place to remember if short term running is needed. Our long term plan requires somewhere farther north with more hunting but in a pinch and to get us through something fairly short a nearby well covered, easily defensible, springed camp would be a good thing to have.

After our exploration and my husbands rather cute mad climb up a cliff after a very large lizard for our girls to see (He chased him into a hole and was only able to retrieve a tail, lol. Our girls have a lizard obsession.) we went back the way we came until we found a side road and could get adequately off the traveled path to pull out the weapons. We kept is small today as we needed to be back in town for other obligations and had in town plans for the evening. My guy had to let his visiting big sister shoot his special toy. He loves his .308 almost as much as he loves me, lol. BIL had a .22 rifle for the older female children. We also broke out the Karr .40 and my sweet SIL had the unfortunate luck to be slide-bitten. Youch. I took the time to put about 40 rounds through my 9mm. I think the empty Gatorade bottle trying to rob me was very unhappily stopped and dead. I need to keep up with practice but I think I did okay.

All in all a good morning. More exploration aka SHTF planning and some live fire practice to boot. This girl is a happy girl!!

My Mountain Man Is Planning Away!

Recently the opportunity arose for us to purchase a Weekend Warrior FT 2200 in fabulous condition and 3 Suzuki Quads. A friend hit hard times and needed money fast and we had been discussing buying at least a pair of quads and the trailer to pull them for a while so it looked to be a good thing for all. So we got our ducks in a row and made sure it fit into the current budget. We pay a lot extra on our 2 debt items: Home and Auto, so it was something we were able to do much to mine and Hubby's surprise. (We have spent so much time on the building of credit and our personal survival stuff that I guess we never actually thought about a day when the hard work would pay off.) Anyway so Hubby and BIL go to pick up the purchases and bring them home and we have encountered an unforeseen issue. When we were buying I asked BIL what he figured weight was and his estimate was well within my tow range. HAHAHAHA....... Boys were a lot low on the weight so neither Hubby or my 4x4 have the tow strength needed. BIL has the capacity and with a little suspension help will pull it with ease so we will beef up his 3/4 ton. In my logical female way I threw out the thought. Since Our plan never really called for the big trailer but merely a cargo trailer why not sell it and buy the trailer we had planned. However once Hubby saw the WW and all its trimmings he decided it was much better in a SHTF moment. Kitchen, bathroom, and enough sleeping and storage space for a small family plus the mobility to flee. So the Plan it kit out BIL for now and the new save pile will be to upgrade either his or my truck so if and when we can tow it ourselves. If the worse were to happen my rig could get it there, it would just kill my rig to do it. I see his point, lol.

So during one of my many midnight mind wanderings.....

I had a thought about essentials we will need should the worst happen and all our self-reliance skills be put to the test. I realized I hear a lot about precious metals, foods, weapons, a home with the ability to power itself. We talk of ways to can, to prep meat, to provide for our families in needful times. One necessity I have yet to get much detail on is clothing! If stores have failed or become super expensive how will we get clothes? So I have decided part of my survival storage will be a good amount of durable, easily dyable material, basic clothing patterns, and oodles of needles and thread and buttons. I really don't want to have a huge supply of ammo but have to go hunting naked because I thought nothing about providing clothing for my family. I'll let you guys know what fabrics I found that seem to suit best and are easy to sew. Luckily I have an infant so my first forays into sew from scratch can be tiny clothes!