Intro Thread

[tacker62]

Hi all o have been listining since epispde 70 or so. I finely joined this forum see what i have to say i gess. Im in minnesota been around the world thanks to the military, now doing the food storage have been for a year live on a farm have chickens, ducks,rabits and a goat along with the dogs. getting my garden in now. Thats about it other then my wife the 13 yo boy adult step.daughter her son an husban all in the same house with only me working its all good.

[gpturner]

New to forum, outdoorsman from Oregon who grew up in Idaho.

[Calichusetts]

Hiya doin?

Names's Adam, Massachusetts native, California captive. 
Stuck out here in the same underwater mortgage pickle as everyone else, but working towards getting back home.  Nothing bad against CA, just not home...ya know?.  Besides, no-one here would have anything bad to say about CA or MA, right?  ...Actually considering joining the free-state movement and going to NH. 

Anyway, I'm rolling up on 40, and I'm an airport  facility service manager.  New to the prepper community, never knew it existed until recently, but very glad I found it.  Came upon you all after reading a couple works of fiction...Survivors/Rawles, and One second After/Forstchen.  For years I've felt like the writing is on the wall, but lately, the tipping point seems to be getting closer and closer.  I don't fear a  TEOTWAWKI event though, and I'm not planning on stashing a bug-out ultralight in my garage.   Although I do feel strongly that a fundemental societal shift is inevitable, I don't see it going down with a flip of a switch like that. 
I sampled quite a few tin-hatter podcast before finding Jack somewhere around episode 820-ish.  I was like, nope, nope, uh-uh, hey...wait a minute!   Working my way backwards now, currently at 740.
I have a 200 mile round trip commute every day in order to keep my very modest suburban home in a city of 70,000.  If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't have turned on to TSP, and so it's not all bad!

Let's see...What have I done since tuning in last November?

Became a handgun owner, and now spend time at the range at least once every couple weeks
Took an interest in backyard food production...built a sub irrigated raised wicking vermiculture enhanced garden bed...built a couple dozen global bucket style self watering containers. 
Started a compost bin
Began experimenting with food preservation and storage, canning, pickeling, fermenting
Started brewing my own beer
Fired my cable TV provider.  Now using only streaming services.

Glad I found you!

[Red Foot]

Hey all! My name's Red Foot. I am a new listener to Jack. I'm also new to prepping in general.  I'm loving the show so far!  My good friend Xavier Hawk turned me onto it. I've never really used a forum before, but I'm looking forward to getting to know you all.  I am an 8th grade language arts teacher.  I have also been teaching primitive living skills to kids for the past 5 years.  My family and I have just started really trying to prep. It has not been easy.  She is a massage therapist, and since I am a public school teacher, we do not make a lot of money.  But we are building slowly but surely!  Anyways, I'm looking forward to finding out more about the forum! 
--- Red

[monkeyboyf]

Welcome to all the new folks! So glad you found us. 

[Niccolum]

Hello all! "Niccolum" here. I'm new to the forums and relatively new to TSP as well. I live somewhere in the western half of Pennsylvania in what I like to call "rural-ish suburbia" and am married with one child. I've been into prepping for about two years. I stumbled across TSP a few months ago while searching for some information on the Internet and have been hooked since. I'm not much of a forum poster - much more of a lurker and reader.

My current prep projects include starting to square-foot gardening with rainwater catchment, a generator, and cost-effective ammo reloading for practice/training and stockpiling.

[SimpleLivingPrepper]

Hi, my name is Billy. I started on this mission about 31/2 years ago. I stopped spending and started paying off all my debts except my mortgage. I am almost there with a remaining 8,000 on a car loan and 178,000.00 on a mortgage. We are selling the house in the next couple of months and have stopped making extra payments on the car loan and started putting it away in savings.

In my current position as a Corrections Sgt I have the option of early retirement. I am taking that option and we are heading out from New Jersey to Bend Oregon. We will be renting a small apartment while we take our time and find the right property to purchase. My wife Sharon is a Nurse Practitioner and will have no problem finding employment. My intentions are to go back to school to get certified in Network Security. Although I have a great deal of options open to me I believe that it is important to find the thing that you love to do and make it happen. I have been working with computers for over 15 years but learned everything from buying books. With the certification the sky is the limit.

I grew up in the city so never had the chance to learn many of the basic survival skills needed to survive like hunting and fishing. I will be taking advantage of that too in Oregon where I will be surrounded by natural rivers and forest area 4000 feet in the mountains. Being in law enforcement for the last 22 years I have become quite good with a handgun, rifle and shotgun. I am in the market for a compound bow right now and will be looking at a used one tomorrow that a friend has to sell. I will have to find a good shop to help me learn and sight it in and have access to a target range within a few miles of my house.

I have been following minimalism for about a year now. The best things in life aren't things. We will be attending Church in Bend as we are both Christian and live our lives in accordance with scripture.

We both believe that when the shit hits the fan we do not want to be here in this densely populated area of the country. I believe that there is going to be a financial collapse of the financial system in the US and we are preparing for it. I believe that the key to survival will be community effort. No on can do it alone and that is one of the reasons that I listen to the Survival Podcast and want to become part of the online community. I may be quiet on the forum for a while. I want to spend a great deal of time reading the posts. I just joined the support brigade. Many thanks to Jack for taking the leap of faith and putting this all together. Billy

[Mister Dark]

Hi guys, Dave here. Been into preparing for several years, stumbled across the podcast a few weeks ago and thought it would be nice to drop in to the forum and see what everyone is up to.  I have been on several other forums for years, figured it was time to spead out just a little.

See ya around.

[inconel710]

Morning all,

I found TSP while looking for gun related podcasts on iTunes - so much more than what I was expecting!  I've been libertarian minded for about a decade now, so I'm understand Jack's political stance.  As you can tell from my avatar, I'm a submarine guy.  I've got alot of engineering training, but I feel I need more practical skills than operating a nuclear reactor!  I was already prepping before I found TSP - living in Colorado, you have to be prepared for winter storms so I had the several days worth of water and canned food situation under control.  Now to move on to having the 30 day supply Jack recommends and building my skills.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning a lot here.

[ShannonB]

Welcome to all the new folks!

[superwolfmans]

Greetings! I am the Super Wolfmans and I have been listening to TSP for a couple years but have just now decided to join the forum. I am an avid supporter of the Cascadian Independence Movement: the proposition for an independent nation consisting of what is currently Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and southern Alaska (some ideas also include parts of Idaho, northern California, Yukon, and even parts of Montana).

Apart from that, I am now getting into urban homesteading, mostly with gardening. I am planning on getting a few chickens as well. I look forward to finally being a part of this great community!

[FletchBZMMT]

Greetings All,

I'm a prepper from SW Montana. I'm open to meeting new preppers in my area etc... Been "officially" prepping for a couple of years now, so I've got some systems together etc, but like most I have some holes still. My expertise is more in the line of  firearms, tactics, and emergency first aid. I have previously been in military and civilian law enforcement, S.W.A.T., and a First Responder.

We live on some acreage, have chickens, garden etc and are working towards a self sustaining life style.

I also have a You Tube channel where I post vids about prepping. I mainly deal with weapons and tactical gear, but I've also done some baking, and long term food storage vids as well. My channel link is in my signature.

I go by Fletch, and it's nice to meet you all.

[rjfortuna]

Hi there. Name is R.J. Neat site, thanks for having me.

Currently am living on 166 acres in east Texas. Experienced outdoors man and hunter. Have 2 dogs 1 lab, one German short hair, one horse, one mule (both ride, mule pulls as well).

I am currently living on site in an Avion 26' trailer (think airstream) that I hooked to a 14x22' metal storage building (like a little metal barn) with a roll up door. I built a 12' addition off the front of that and hooked it to the RV. I had the metal building moved here and where I wanted for $500. Its pretty much finished out inside using scrap fence material. I put a harbor freight Ben franklin stove in it for heat and winter cooking. Have power and satalite internet, which is how I am conversing with you and how I work from here.

I'm going to build one of THESE: http://simondale.net/house/ it works GREAT in hot summer cold winter areas. I like the look of it as well. Like it grew out of the ground...most of the materials needed are found on site. I have a bunch of red cedar and some hickory that are straight as an arrow so the Cedar will be logged on site (started) and will be used for the footer poles. The super strong and straight hickory will be the "rafters" I'm going to use "durascrim" for my plastic layer. Its about 14mm thick so it will never leak... its a thermal mass house so it should hold about the temp of an underground house (about 55 degrees) which means you only have to heat or cool it from that temp. Durascrim is Used for oil pond liners... Wood stove and a window unit will work fine. I figure I can rough it out for about $5000 to 6000 depending on the cost of the straw bales. I figure it will end up about 1000 to 1100 sf. I have an old Massey Ferguson skid loader (think bobcat) that I can use to bury it.

I purchased a wrecked 18 wheeler box for $250 for dry storage and thats working great.

I really like the "Hobbit House". I'm going to raise the floor up about 3' and put a real floor down. I'm going to dig a "root/storm shelter/bunker 1st under it.

My land has a seasonal creek that runs through it...I have my Craw Fish traps out now and catching 3-4 lbs a week. Lots of deer hogs and critters of all sorts. 4 ponds. one stocked with black bass and channel cat fish... LOTS of trees. All wooded...Most is flood plane but who cares: You can use it 350 days out of the year, and it has amazing hunting on it. Deer and Hogs=food!... and it was all pretty cheap (mostly cheap its all relative) I have about 20 acres thats not flood plane.

I just got my HUGE air compressor hooked up. It puts out 19.1 scfm at 175 psi. Why do I need this? Because I'm using air to drill my own well. http://howtodrillawell.com/ I got down 35' with 5 air compressors hooked together, hit water and it collapsed on me last year so I'm going to hit it hard again when I know the water levels are low enough to confirm I will have water all season long. It isnt real fast in all the clay we have here...I have a 600 gallon cistern I haul water in with now which is a pain, but will be very useful once I get the well in. After I finish the well I will use the air compressor to pump water. Backup will be a hand pump.

After the well project, the garden goes in, along with the rabbit hutches. 1st. I like to eat rabbit. 2nd. one buck and doe will yield 80lbs of rabbit meat a year. So I figure 2 bucks and 6 does as stock.

I am an experienced outdoors man and hunter. 40 years old. Have 2 dogs 1 lab, one German short hair, one horse, one mule and no woman LOL. Lots of guns. Lots of ammo. Be prepared I say. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it (see guns, ammo, horse, mule).

Well I guess that about all I can think of to tell you now. Sorry to run on....

Anyway. Take care. HOWDY!!! R.J.

[Archer]

Welcome to the new comers!

[SheepdogSurvival]

Hello guys! I'm new to the forum and new MSB member. I've been listening to Jack for about 6months and TSP has been a huge positive influence on my life and I think I should start to build some community and get to know you guys.

I'm a prior Marine, and currently active duty Coast Guard in my early 30's, married, 2 kids (boy and girl 2/0yrs old). I'm stationed near Ft Lauderdale FL, and I'm big into firearms specifically the defensive and tactical stuff. I used to be pretty active and read alot on the Saiga-12 forum's (username KromTEA) but I quit really keeping track of it the last couple of years. I'm a pretty new prepper and have only been serious about things beyond guns/ammo/tools the last year or so. Since listening to TSP I've eliminated my CC debt, started a garden, gotten into silver, and become much more rational and intelligent about prepping.

[ditchdigger]

new member....perpetual screw up.....been working on prepping though for....years really...just got into gardening last year though with some success....trying new things out this year and i'll see where it takes us....wife and kids slowly getting into it but it's an up hill battle....

btw i make a lot of fight club references, please don't take it the wrong way (yes i realize that the explosive portion is just metaphorical imagery for a catalyst showing the change in society to a more fulfilling lifestyle....which is what i believe is what all you are hoping for as well).

call myself ditchdigger because i shovel for a living.....which i'm told builds character.....guess i gotta lot of that.

[ktmae1229]

Hey y'all, I'm Katie. My architect husband & I, both in our early 30's, live in the sprawl of Atlanta on a whopping .3 acres with our five young kids. (Yes, we're Catholic ) I was raised in rural PA and learned many of the traditional skills that are nearly lost on my generation but I'm particularly interested in increasing my knowledge of gardening, herbals, and cooking healthier foods to decrease our dependency on modern medicine.

Presently we're stuck living here until home prices recover enough to allow us to get out of our mortgage & move to a more rural location, ideally about 5-10acres located a bit farther north & closer to mountains. We're a little bit prepared in a lot of areas and always working to grow our stores and expand our skills. I also homeschool our children and we're becoming less & less "suburban" in our thinking every day, much to our delight & our friends' confusion. I should add that my husband and I are on the same page AFA prepping is concerned although we sometimes have different priorities in our plans & that's a great opportunity to talk about what we're preparing for & how our money is best spent to accomplish our goals.

In recent news, we bought our first firearm a few months ago (a Mossberg shotgun) & I just finished planting our four 4x4 SFG's yesterday (our first garden!) I think we're living the definition of "baby steps"

[bluebeast]

Hello from west central AR . Stumbled upon Jack's podcasts a month or so back . Have learned some things and hope to learn more .
Been working on my bushcraft and wildcrafting skills .
The work situation has me held back at the moment but am dreaming of eventually finding myself a parsel of land to call my own and build a home on it and make that into a homestead .

[MisterV]

Hi All,
The wife and I have been long-time lurkers on TSP forum.  Moreover, I have listened to more hours of TSP than I care to admit.  We have gotten so much out of TSP over the years that it hurts to think of where we would be in our lives had we not started to transition to our new lifestyle.  I used to work at the HQ of a three letter agency in Washington DC, and while I believe I did do a great deal of good there for the preparedness of our nation, it took a toll on our family's health and well being.  We presently live a much more relaxed lifestyle, and are so much more prepared at the same time... 

A relaxed, confident prepper, imagine that. 

My first real life experience with SHTF was in the gulf coast during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where I worked as a member of an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) task force.  It was an eye opening experience to say the least.  In fact, it was so eye opening, that I wrote an Amazon Kindle book about the experience that you can find by checking the link in my profile.  I hope that by educating people, we can prevent disasters such as this from impacting as many people as severely in the future. 

Looking forward to many posts and contributions to the forum. 
Mister and Mrs V

[steveo]

Hello from sunny marion ohio! New to these forums so hello everyone. Anyone near me?

[Tracker15]

G'day everyone from Australia, been listening for a bit now and FRIGGN LOVE IT, started prepping and gardening and learning new skills that will help me be better prepared.
thanks heaps Jack for what you do
Thurston

[Nicodemus]

Welcome to the TSP forums everyone! We're glad you made it!

[Little Giant]

Greetings to All:

Fairly new to listening to the TSP, perhaps approaching 2 years at this point.

Grew up in, and currently living in Canada, although I did spend about 10 years studying and working in primarily the Eastern USA.

The prepping lifestyle was never a goal in our lives, either growing up or until quite recently.  But we were always involved with gardening, freezing, canning and drying food.  For no other reason than its fun and it tastes good.  At this point in our lives, we are beginning to add a few things to our larder/stores, mostly in the form of increasing independence and storing some water.  Here in our location in Canada, our garden alone holds enough snow 6 months of the year to provide our needs for  water storage.  Not very convenient, but it is well refrigerated.

Background is as an educator and biologist that has worked with individuals from kindergarden to the university level.  What finally brought me towards the prepping movement was a lifelong personal and professional interest in indigenous skills, wilderness skills, and what some might call survival or emergency skills.  Began to realize that my focus on survival in the wilderness, or emergency settings, was a little lop-sided and needed to reflect where I, and my students, spend most of our lives. 

The summer will find our family involved in multi-week canoe trips in northern Canada, gardening, spending time together and enjoying the bounty of long warm days.

All the best to everyone.

[MattR]

Hello,

We live about 50 miles west of St. Louis Missouri.  I've been listening to TSP for 18 months and a new MSB member.  My wife, son (21) and I downsized and moved to a nice 1500sq ft mobile home on 22 acres last year that was in foreclosure.  We had a small garden before and a good size pantry.  After a number of job losses in the family and listening to the podcast, I realized that just saving in my retirement wasn't going to be enough.  We had to do something to take care of ourselves because no one else was going to.  I have never hunted, but need and are willing to learn.  Fortunately my 21 year old has.  Yes, you can learn from your kids.  My goal is to grow 50% of my own food.  I'd like to raise rabbits and possibly cattle.  If anyone is from the Washington, Union or St. Clair area, I'd love to hear from you.  It's great to be part of a group that has similar interests. I have learned so much in the past 18 months, thanks Jack for starting the Survival Podcast.  You've changed all of us forever.

[Texas Sawduster]

HOWDY ALL FROM TEXAS !!!

If you have not figured it out as of yet and were pondering my "Handle" it is a reference to making sawdust.
Living in Texas. Anywhere in Texas is good right now. 

Not really new to prepping but have been stocking up on food stuffs for a few months.

Interested in HAM. Want to get one and get licensed. I have looked at the HAM board today and I am gratefull for all the info there.
Any suggestions in this area will be welcome.

Thanks for having me and hope to be of help to someone else.

God Bless Texas !!!! and the United States of America !!!!!

[Doomtrooper]

Hello all! Go by the name Doomtrooper, bit of background on me I have been actively preparing for all types of situations for about six years now. What really got me started was a four year service in the State Defense Forces where I was deployed on several occasions to disaster affected areas in my state,an where I plan on returning at the start of next year back to my old unit.  I look forward to leaning many things from all of you!

[longhair prepper]

Hey all, I'm "longhair prepper" A little new to the survival podcast and new here. I live in S.E. Michigan Been prepping without knowing it for years. Anyone here around my area? Would love to know. Just wanted to stop and introduce myself

Marty

[Preps4Zombies]

Hey everybody, my name is Dan and am from SW Michigan, prior service Army ground pounder. My wife and I have been preping for a couple of years now. I'd like to say that we are ready for anything that comes our way, but I don't ever think that is possible, so the goal is to just be as ready as we can be. Right now our main interests are being able to have power and clean water when the SHTF.  Look forward to sharing knowledge with other preppers.

[paprepper]

I have been listening to the podcasts and reading  the forum for about a year, and really love them! Figured I should finally join the Forum.
Am kinda stuck in Eastern PA (near Allentown), so for the moment buggin' in is all I can plan for if SHTF. Been a fan of self reliance for longer than I've been prepping (just 2 years), but Jack's community and advice is a breath of fresh air compared to the darker, more paranoid and political SHTF radio persons I was previously exposed to.  Much more reasonable balance here! I choose to prep not out of fear, but out of love and joy. I love to garden on my 1/3 acre, I love my wife, and I love to learn from the TSP podcasts and forum.

[BerserkerPrime]

Looks like we have a lot of new talent aboard!  Welcome all!

BP