Wednesday, June 8, 2016

nary a drop to drink 1 of 3


NARY A DROP TO DRINK

When people hear the word “desert”, most immediately drop into panic mode, rush to the nearest faucet and drink rapidly, then go take a twenty minute shower, then, purged of the filth they have heard, go re-read a book, any book, by northern Idahoan survivalists writers who advocate that all right thinking preppers simply MUST grow their own food or they will die off rapidly, poor, and in disfavor of their god.  And you know what?  I’m glad.  I’m happy to be one of a minority, those happy to be in the desert waiting for the apocalypse.  Today I’d like to cover a bit of ground brought up by a Yankee living in lush fully hydrated surroundings.  He brought up many good points, mainly getting folks to think about whether committing to a pro-Western prepping course was a good idea.  And he is right to caution you.  The Un-Named Survivalist Guru who encourages a new nation of Catholic soldiers clustering in the central northwest is asking his minions to embrace semi-arid living, yet most of his followers are Yuppie Scum who would shrivel and die without gardens and McMansions and semi-auto’s and SUV’s.  They won’t last in the desert.

*

If you live in some parts of eastern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana and Wyoming, then you can successfully grow your own vittles, in relative isolation, with adequate rainfall.  This is a small-ish ( for the West ) oasis.  The rest of the West, with cheaper land and/or actual jobs to be had, is in extreme water deficit.  In my location in eastern Nevada the rainfall is better than in a lot of other desert locations but the soil is utterly worthless and would only feed a few small families IF you ranged far and wide every year bringing back organic matter to continually feed the dirt.  For almost all of the West, which definitely includes all of southern California and some of its center, the dry desert is the norm.  And beautiful country, spoiled only by the multitudes of worthless and weak oxygen wasters who can’t handle cold weather ( which is pretty funny to witness, as most fools who move here to the northern parts think desert means Mohave rather than Mongolia ).  But farming country?  Not on your life.  The parts that farm, aside from the rainfall blessed portions mentioned above, are just throwing artificial fertilizer and deep irrigated water ( now that the New Normal is the New Thousand Year Drought, irrigation sometimes goes so deep that the aquifer won’t replenish for centuries if not longer-it is a one off drawdown and nobody admits to that idiocy ) into infertile soil and calling the extra sunshine the new way to farm.  Morons.

*

When you strip the soil of nutrients, you are not farming but mining.  All civilizations eventually are guilty of this.  What we did in the West was the same, in a few areas, but mostly we just factory farmed which doesn’t work outside the Oil Age.  Add in the fact the life of most dams situated west of the Rockies ( and before the lush strip of coast from ‘Frisco on up ) has surpassed the original silt-up estimations to the millennial drought to the need for petroleum and you face farm failure on a widespread basis.  Yet we still think we can keep packing more people into the desert, the East since long ago overpopulated.  Growth Uber Alles.  And the Yuppie Survivalists who flee the duel coasts implosion are still looking at the miracle of watermelons from Phoenix or Bakersfield and thinking they can also meet the Farmer John The Survivalist stereotype all sad and pathetic New York publishers hype with the Guru Of The Decade preparedness cash-in.  Traditional publishers are worse than Hollywood, a perpetual sequel machine so afraid of financial risk that nothing new may be introduced.  Same tired advice since the 1970’s.

*

Newsflash, sports fans-most of the Earths surface is NOT suitable for farming.  The parts that are is what have been fought after for the last seven thousands years, give or take.  You can actually live without farming, and you can actually live with very little water.  The Great Basin, which is mostly comprised of the state of Nevada ( not including Las Vegas, a location I despise for giving this great State a befouled name-not because of gambling or other “sins” but for its population of imported useless eaters which somehow believes they own the rest of the place but do nothing for it.  Those monkey molesters inhabit another geographical formation ), is full of snow melt that goes nowhere.  At the termination points there is marshland in a retarded form, where most Indigs eked out a sad and pathetic living.  In the eastern part of the state the rainfall was sufficient for grassland to support nomadic raiders.  One of the worst climate locations in the US STILL supported populations of limited size that did NOT farm.  And who survived with little water ( and witness the Apaches who lived on far less than even that ).  Farming for survival can actually be a determent rather than an intelligent strategy.  But it does take a TRUE desert dweller, rather than Yuppie Scum fantasy followers.  More tomorrow.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

20 comments:

  1. Yes indeed the native peoples were travelers, hunting and gathering in large vast circles.
    When first coming of age and thinking for myself. I became addicted to the pursuit of survival and self sufficiency.
    Many of my ancestors are some of the original white pioneers to settle Idaho. Most of my relatives died at very young ages too. From mostly the elements, starvation or thirst !
    Only after making peace with the natives which have been thriving there for thousands of years, did my ancestors succeed.
    Today's average yuppie scum ,middle class citizen ain't got a chance in hell of survival long term. Those which don't kill each other off, will die from the elements, without oil.
    Hell I owned an acreage with wood heated house and my well at only thirty feet. The well casing was 8 inches to allow easy non electric water access too.
    All paid for free and clear.
    I walked away, after realizing the futility of survival without oil.
    Better to live where foraging is easy, and water plentiful.
    Of course those type places also are heavily populated on the fringes. Key is that ,where I'm currently situated. 99% of the people are terrified to encroach out where the coating and easy water is. Why it's chock full of bugs, snakes and gators ! Only five miles from my house, I can be in that virtual wilderness.

    Like I've said before, we all gonna die. Most of y'all before me... hopefully :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just remember that Aussie dude that died on the set doing underwater filming. The ancients were right to fear sea monsters! Screw the jungle! I'll stay in the cold and dry. More power to you personally of course.

      Delete
    2. Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter.

      Delete
  2. Yes, in arid climates gardening is to provide minimal nutrients ONLY - as, like you state, there is NOT enough water to provide 100% of your calories. Ranching and hunting can make up the deficit though. Just look at history. Mongolian steppes, Great Plains, etc., etc., anywhere there was an arid area or actual desert livestock becomes the primary source of foods.
    Doesn't mean you have to be a rancher now though- It is far too expensive to have as much land as a successful rancher needs now anyways. Most cattle ranchers around here (that has a lot better water situation than the great basin and lusher forage) say it takes @40 acres per animal unit (mother plus calf). Instead you should just have a little experience/knowledge about how to care for and make use of the best livestock for the area - preferably with only the local and holistic resources not all the petroleum inputs most ranchers use. Then stock up on provisions to survive the die off and make friends with the ranchers around who might pull through the die-off/contraction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Desert/arid=BBQ. Farm=turnips.

      Delete
    2. I choose the border line area - too arid for corn or large irrigated farms, lush enough for dry land farming of grains beans and decent ranching. As climate change comes in to effect the mix of food production can change to match. And still rural enough to not worry about more than a couple of dozen gang bangers at most.
      We actually probably have more to worry about from the Indian tribes a couple hours away by car, but they have better land there than we have here (surprising I know but it is true).

      Delete
    3. We left them some good land? I need my Congressman to notify the BIA immediately!

      Delete
  3. Welp, this coming Sat I'm going to become a yuppie scum. I'd be foolish to do otherwise. My neighbor is going to sell me a Palmetto Arms AR for $400. I know it's good because I've put a 1000 rds thru it the past coupla years. The best part? It's not registered to me!

    Next up? A Remington 700 in .308, maybe by end of summer.
    Oh yeah, 5000 rds for each too. And my own loading equip.

    If I can talk the ol' lady into going in halfs we'll get a $9000 pond. Then I'll start to feel a little more secure about our future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If someone offered me a $4oo AR I'd probably turn Scum myself. Probably.

      Delete
    2. I paid $360 for my last AR (20" HB -A2 clone with good parts built by an Army Armorer MOS - a little heavy, but lighter than a FAL), and $250 in silver (130 silver dimes at the time) for the one before that. Magazines are really reasonable right now, as well as M855 at $0.30 in 1000's. All of these things are useful toys, self-defense, or almost-money (when got at a great price for currency you don't need and can't get >0% interest on). Remember, 5.56x45 is "inhumane" for harvesting 150# deer (load "hunting" bullet cartridge, get close, headshot like with .22lr), but just right for taking care of sub-80# unarmored critters at inside of 400M, or doing a certain kind of Big Army mass-fire warfare.
      The value of an AR-15 is not mostly in the thing itself. Uncle Sam has externalized the value of the AR-platform in uniformity, training, parts-availability, to compensate for the cleaning/parts-hunger of a small-caliber high-pressure auto-loader. A side-effect of the maintenance requirement is that once the supply pipeline is cut off, and skilled armorers dry-up, the number of functional (jam-free, self-loading, not just bang-once-jam-SPORTS-repeat "working" Apocalyse-16) weapons decreases rapidly (like F-16's in the Iranian AF). This is less the case with .30+ AK/SKS/Uzi/WWI-boltie.

      Yuppie scum have valid credit cards. Never forget it.

      pdxr13

      Delete
    3. I paid for a rental of an M-16 with three years of servitude. Then the bastards took it away and gave me an even worse M60.

      Delete
    4. I cans hav M-60? or FN-MAG? No.
      Both are excellent when loved more than Army standard.

      Delete
    5. I believe the M60 is a giant hunk of crap, incapable of reliability. If given a preference, I choose any better tool. Yes, just like the M16, you can do after market add-ons to improve it. If I can't trust it out of the box I call it Pure D Crap.

      Delete
  4. I can see it now Fremen wandering the west surviving eating Maudib,s BBQed of course. I prefer having to wade creeks and walk around ponds and lakes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. “And beautiful country, spoiled only by the multitudes of worthless and weak oxygen wasters who can’t handle cold weather ( which is pretty funny to witness, as most fools who move here to the northern parts think desert means Mohave rather than Mongolia ).”


    Yeah, it always sort of cracks me up when you mention desert, and a good many people don't seem to have any idea that there is such a thing as high desert with frigid Arctic like conditions.

    I think that the desert has a lot going for it if you're willing to go into it acknowledging its shortcomings. Most people won't consider it, and that's its big plus. Learn the few wild edibles that grow in your desert region as a backup should your food stores fall short, as well as all water sources in the area. You will need a good topographical map.

    In a collapse scenario, I don't see many people saying to themselves “Hey, let's burn all of our precious limited fuel by heading out to the desert and seeing if we can find anything good”?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the only danger in my location is from LasVegas residents having very few places to go to other than points north-but hopefully 99% of those are trapped first, and the 1% getting through are trapped on the south side of the wicked steep passes it would be very easy for residents to block. I don't think they much like Vegas residents either, for stealing all the water.

      Delete
    2. Most would head to the coast. The rest through Ely. Lot of sagebrush between you and Lost Vegas.

      Delete
    3. God, would they be stupid enough to return to L.A.? One hopes.

      Delete
    4. As a former Vegas resident, the plan was east to Utah or south to lake mead and the Colorado river (then east), but most others would have gone straight to LA if they thought about it at all.

      Delete
    5. LA, where dreams still come true for the Moronic Majority.

      Delete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED