So, You Want to Live Past Next Tuesday

by Billy Bob Richardson

  “I won’t bore you with any more facts and figures of the ins and outs of prepping enough food or growing enough. I am going to cut to the chase to give you some perspective on the facts of having enough food. Take my word for this and you can look it up later if you have any doubts. Estimates are that there is less than three days’ worth of food on grocery shelves. Most people have less than ten days of food in their houses. The population of Denver is around six hundred and fifty thousand; the population of Colorado is five mil plus. Let’s just say you are at home in Denver and SHTF. You run down to the store, if your car is working and if you have gas in the tank. You manage to fight other people for food and you get four additional days’ worth of food for your family. That gives you fourteen days of food.

  “For the sake of this discussion we are going to say that everyone else has the same amount of food you do. You drag the food out to four weeks and then you are starving. You watch your loved ones, your wife and kids, starve in front of your eyes. You have to have food so you start stealing it from anyone you can. When that runs out, if you are smart you try to figure out where to get food long before you are down to a couple of days of food. So you realize your situation at whatever point, and what do you do?

  “You think, farms have the food, all I have to do is get to a farm and all my problems are solved. You load up the family and take off for the country, if you can. Your targets are a farm or a ranch. However, you are not the only one with the thought that a farm will save them. Let’s say only two million five hundred thousand have the desire or ability to start looking. Two million five hundred thousand sit in the cities and wait for the government, getting weaker each day.

  “This is the West, so a significant number of those millions that are about to start wandering the roads are armed. Alone you find you can’t take over a farm so you band together with others and overrun the farm. If you do that you are going to be terribly disappointed because farms don’t have huge reserves of food. It doesn’t matter if you know that fact, you have little choice. It was overrun the farm or die.

  “Tens of thousands of people are now eating everything they can lay their hands on. They follow the roads as they move away from population centers. Small towns are either out of food or close to it, but still the masses keep coming. As people get hungrier there are more of them on the road. They have no choice now, they must follow each road searching for anything edible. No matter how remote a farm might be, if there is a well-marked road to it, the thousands and thousands of hungry people are going to search along that road.”

  “How long before a few thousand people find the spread out family farms? We will dig in, and we will fight. We have some weapons like AKs, M16s, and hunting rifles but a human wave of starving people is going to be hard to kill. If you are wondering how many people might make it out to the country, consider this. There are only so many roads that lead to where there might be farms and ranches, and there are millions of people on the move. If there is no gas or working cars, they will walk, ride bikes or scooters if they have to, but come they will.”

  “OK, Madd you’ve got my attention. I have seen plenty of starving people in third world countries and know how desperate they can be. What you just said, is all too real. I have seen what mobs can do.”

  “Al, I wish I could say I felt I was overstating the danger, but if anything, I think what I just said is a best case scenario. Unfortunately it isn’t the only thing we have to prepare for.”

  “I get it, you don’t have to hit me with a brick. I am now officially frightened. What needs to be done to give us the best chance?”

  “We, Al?”

  “Yes we, no one is going to harm Rose while I live, nobody. What do we need to do?” Al was worked up and it showed.

  “We have lots of plans, we have been working on this since I was eight as best we could. We have lists of lists and backup plans and ideas by the folder full.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “The same one any average prepper runs into. Money. You can call it finances or anything you want but what it boils down to is M O N E Y.”

  “Money?”

  “As cliché as it sounds Al, money can get you almost anything, except time, of course. You need a truck load of food, large companies might not be willing to sell to you. You order 100 truckloads and you suddenly have no problem with them selling to you.”

  “Ah, got it. Money makes the world go round and money is what we need for those preps you have been telling me about. With money you can buy defenses. With it you can buy food and medicine.”

  “Exactly, Al. With money you can buy weapons and ammo to try and hold back the mobs.”

  “I thought you said you had some weapons?”

  “We do. But for what could be coming, semi auto AR15s, a few M16s, a couple of full auto ARs, some Mach11s and maybe a 50cal isn’t going to do it. Even if we had the weapons, think of the ammo we would need to stockpile. You’ve been in combat. Think of the mountain of ammo it takes to counter a serious threat. If we stockpiled 1k of ammo we could burn through that in a couple of days or less, depending on the opposition. And Al, it might not just be hungry homeowners from Denver. Think about organized Army units or the National Guard. They get hungry too. What if they have 50cals or Bradley Fighting vehicles?”

  Madd could see the sweat break out on Al’s face at the mention of heavy ordinance.

  “What’s even worse is that hungry might not be the biggest fight we face. What if the government decides to round up all civilian weapons as they did in Katrina?

  “That’s just one way things could go; there are a lot worse scenarios, Al. We can discuss them if you want, but the results are the same no matter which one we pick.”

  “I get it Madd, money. It might not save us in the long run but without it we won’t even survive to get to the long run.”

  “Yes, that is the one most essential need. That being said, any equipment, goods or long term storage food we could lay our hands on without the need for a large amount of money would shrink the amount of money needed. We have had years to make lists and refine them over and over. We know what we want, how we want to use it and where we want to use it. Over the years the family has made all kinds of connections to people who can help or can get us things we need. The only thing that keeps us from building, buying goods and stockpiling, is money. If I had enough dollars in my hand right now, orders for goods would be in by 9am tomorrow. Warehouses would be rented and starting to fill in a week. In ten days we would be breaking ground for secure living arrangements. The girls would be on the phones ordering supplies from lists just waiting to be used.”

  “I am trying to get a handle on this, but I must be missing something, Madd. Your family owns land, ranch and farm land, don’t you have money in the bank or investments?”

  Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, all Madd could say was, “I see you need a few facts to get a better idea of the financial side of ranching/farming. Big corporate farms do make money, no doubt, but small family operations don’t make you rich. I am going to give you the simple version of what it takes to run a small family operation. You can’t live off of 200 acres of corn, this is just an example to give you an idea of what it takes to farm. If you plant and harvest 200 acres of corn and the harvest was good, you sell all of it for a good price, so you have money to live on for the off season. Remember, you only make money once or possibly twice a season in our area. What about the other eight to elven months?” said Madd.

  “You buy food, tools, vehicles, and equipment repairs. Everything you need for all year is purchased with what you made at one time. One pay day and then you spend out of pocket for the next eleven plus months. If you are lucky you have enough left over to buy seed to plant your two hundred acres again. If the harvest was bad, if weather screwed you over and you only harvested one hundred acres, what do you do? You have to live, so you spend your money on food and necessities and you run out of money after six months.
What do you do? You borrow. Enough to live on and enough to plant two hundred acres of corn the next year.

  “If things went really well the next year you’d use the money and pay off your loan, but since you spent money paying off debt you don’t have as much income as you should have had. So you’re in the hole financially to some degree. If you are again screwed over by Mother Nature, you are now asking for a loan to tide you over and buy seed for the third year, and you would still need to pay off that second year. It takes hard work, and knowledgeable people to make a living out of a small farm or ranch. Many farmers have other jobs like working for the county or state because they cannot make enough on a small farm to live.

  “Here are some facts about farms/ranches: ‘The ever-encroaching crush of urbanization plays a major part in the disappearance of the family farm.’ ‘According to the Census of Agriculture, a United States Department of Agriculture report revealed, “the number of U.S. farms fell sharply until the early 1970s after peaking at 6.8 million in 1935…By 2002, about 2.1 million farms remained.”’

  “‘The American Farmland Trust estimates an acre of U.S. farmland goes into development every two minutes, while Environment Colorado estimates the state lost 1.26 million acres of agricultural land between 1997 and 2002,’ The Denver Post reported. ‘This loss averages 690 acres per day in Colorado, the third highest in the nation.’

  “If there were a lot of money in a small farm/ranches we wouldn’t be seeing those figures would we?”

  Al took a second to consider this. “No we wouldn’t, we would see people buying farms if they could get rich.”

  “Exactly. You are probably wondering how a farm/ranch is going to be of help in a SHTF situation. Couple of things would get better. No government able to collect taxes means not paying taxes. Right now a farm or ranch doesn’t try to grow enough food and or animals to feed themselves in most cases. It’s easier to specialize, grow soybeans or some cash crop. Trying to grow every food group you need is a pain in the ass.

  “Saying you are going to farm in a SHTF situation is a little misleading. What you are actually going to do is plant one or more humungous gardens. You won’t necessarily have anywhere to sell a cash crop, only harvest, so no point in trying to plant or grow one. Another thing that gets better is that you don’t need to hire anyone for money. If you’re a family everyone works in the garden or farms crops to feed your animals. If you don’t have enough family you barter for food with people to work the garden. You don’t try to run three hundred units of beef, you run thirty to get enough meat to feed the family. You don’t buy propane to heat with, you take a saw and cut wood for the wood stove. If things are bad enough, money is out the window. No need to try and make enough for that brand new shiny Ford F-250. You breed your horses and ride to where you need to go.”

  “In essence Madd, what you are saying is that we will all be back to the 1800s style of living?”

  “That depends on what SHTF scenario comes down. I am not a big advocate of Murphy’s Law, but there is some truth to the idea. To plan for anything less is counterproductive.”

  “I think I am in trouble, Madd.”

  “Why’s that, Al?”

  “What skills from 1800 do I have?”

  “I know you can ride, that’s how we got here. I know you are willing to work in the garden by hand and pull weeds and whatever else is needed. I know you are a good shot so even if you are not a hunter now you will be with the family showing you how. Don’t worry Al, I have no doubt you will be a valuable family member.”

  “You think I will make it into the family?”

  The idea that he might not worried Al a great deal.

  “I do, even if Rose won’t have you, we have a couple of cousins that are in their 60s and kind of ugly, so no problem.”

  “Thanks, you are a real comfort Madd, a real comfort.”

  “What are friends for?” said Madd, laughing.

  “Another reason a farm/ranch will work in a bad SHTF situation.”

  “Ya?”

  “Because, it’s either make it work or die, Al.”

  “I can see that, not dying is a great motivator. Speaking of not dying, isn’t it about time to cook up some fish?”

  “Excellent idea, let’s get a fire started and these suckers into a pan,” said Madd.

  Dinner was quickly started and even more quickly attacked.

  “There is one left Al, you want it?”

  “No, no, not another bite. I may split down the middle any second as it is!”

  “Nothing like a dozen fish, whole potatoes cooked in hot coals and pan bread to take the edge off a man’s appetite,” opined Madd.

  “Edge? You aren’t human, I saw what you ate. I have seen hungry lions in the zoo who couldn’t pack it away like you do.”

  “Well, when you train and eat with twenty plus hungry teenagers you learn to grab quick and eat fast; if you don’t you are out of luck.”

  “Roy told me how you guys trained, how bad was it?”

  “Not sure you could say it was bad. I know it sounds like we didn’t do anything but PT and learn to shoot and combat skills. Early on we all learned to speed read. After a while you learned to retain what you read and to actually know what was on the page. I really liked that part. It made it so I could read and study for three or four classes in the amount of time it might have taken to study one subject. It was a very interesting time in my life. I like learning and the intense atmosphere allowed me to really get my head around some interesting subjects.

  “We had some great camping/hunting trips. One weekend a month we took our younger cousins and sisters with us. We taught then to camp. Hunt and fish. I liked that part a lot, Al. I like teaching. You probably noticed, our girls are very feminine but they can do about anything outdoors as well. There aren’t many sissy girls in the family. Uncle Roy told us about this old commercial for a watch once. The tag line was, ‘It takes a licking and keeps on ticking’. That sort of sums up our girls.

  “By the time I was eight or so my mom was gone and dad worked a lot, so training and learning gave me something to hold on to. Uncle Roy says I am very good at assimilating information and extrapolating viable answers to problems. Frankly I don’t see that. I am just a farm boy and one of the guys.”

  “Does that mean you learn easy and your head is full of book learning?” said Al laughing.

  “I suppose so. It just sounds like a lot more when you say it, than it did when we did it.”

  “Roy showed me some of the subjects you have studied and the wide range of knowledge you have. You aced every college course final exam they could find to give you in a wide range of subjects. Madd, you aren’t very good at accepting that you are one of the better educated men in the family. And you are at least as sharp as any of them, probably sharper.”

  “Like I said, I am just one of the guys. Everyone makes a fuss over what we did, but it just wasn’t all that hard.”

  “My friend, you may have lived on a farm. You fit in well with your family and contemporaries. However, you are most assuredly not JUST anything.”

  He could see that the conversation was making Madd uncomfortable, so he decided to stop talking about the subject.

  “Let’s talk about something else, you have the wrong impression of me.”

  “If that’s what you want Madd. What are the plans for tomorrow?”

  “I want us to get going early, and do some hard riding. I want to show you some really beautiful country before my leave is up.”

  “I have to get going in the next week or so myself, Madd. I have already been gone too long. My employers are probably getting restless. I need to get back to my civilian contractor slash head hunter business soon.”

  The conversation turned to the sorry state of the world, then it was time to sleep. They crawled into their one man tents and the last thing Al remembered thinking was, wonder if I can actually fall asleep.

  Just enough daylight for the horses to see and n
ot step into a gopher hole and they were on the move. For the next four hours they kept the horses at a canter, which let them cover ten to fourteen miles per hour. They rode for fifty minutes, dismounted and walked the horses for ten minutes, then up in the saddle for another fifty minutes. After four hours they had covered about 42 miles. Finally slowing, Madd led them down a steep bank into what looked like an old dried up riverbed, then up the other side. On this side the ground had a gentle slope up to a large flat area with trees. They entered the trees and rode a while till they came to what looked like a graveyard of some sort. They dismounted and walked forward.

  “What’s this Madd, a cemetery?”

  “It is, but it is also something more. Walk down the center path, and look at the large stone slabs at the end.”

  “Looks like the markers are laid out in a fan shape and it is getting progressively smaller and smaller as we get to the last three headstones just before the monument,” said Al.

  “It was laid out that way on purpose, so that there would be more and more room for graves as the family grew.”

  “All these graves are your family?”

  “They are. Those who saw no reason to be buried in the family cemetery are buried where they preferred. What you see here are those who strongly believed in the family and wished to spend eternity in the company of the ones they loved so dearly.”

  “I see that there are areas that are obviously family groups, but some of the markings I see on the stones are unfamiliar; what are they?”

  “We marked them with signs that let the next generations know something about those buried here. First of all, not every headstone you see has an actual body beneath it. Those next to the monument are our ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary war and founded the family you now know. Only one of those has a body beneath it. His body was brought out years later when the ranch was established and placed there. The stones are to help us remember those members whose bodies we could not actually move here. The marks on the left top corner show that the person buried there was former military. If there is one on the right as well as the left it means they died in battle or from the effects of battle.”