Prepping « Robin Writes

Yesterday, we looked at a great piece of property that we knew, ahead of time, adjoined a state prison. The one where they house death row inmates. In other words, maximum security.

Now, let’s suppose SHTF happens; every man for himself, so to speak, complete collapse, grid down, etc.

What happens at that prison? Lockdown, certainly, but perhaps a glitch of some sort that throws open the doors.

So here’s the question:

If it’s the latter, certainly we’d be well-prepared already. And I’m not afraid, for several reasons. First, crime is more concentrated in urban areas, so it stands to reason that most inmates are from those urban areas and would like seek to return there. Having been in prison, they aren’t going to be in the best shape for living in the woods, even if they were country boys to begin with. Besides, I’d have to assume they’d be in a big damn hurry to get far away from the place in which they were incarcerated.

But, what if everything shut down, locked up tight? A county jail I know of once had such an event that lasted about 12 hours. I have no idea if anyone—COs—could get out, but I know that no one could get in. It was a big security issue, obviously.

But if everything shut down, and there was no way out, then what? What would you do? What if, just across from the lake on your property, there was a huge secure building and people were stuck?

On the one hand, most of these are criminals, in it for the long haul or only able to leave when they die. Some have shorter sentences, yes, but all the prisoners have been convicted of very serious, or even capital, crimes. Some, of course, would be COs and administrative staff.

On the other hand, people on “the outside” have had the choice to prepare for SHTF; the prisoners have not. Of course, they lost many rights upon conviction and sentencing, but is automatic death included? Those who had the choice to prep and didn’t, well, I might feel sorry for them, but it’s on them—my job is take care of my own family, as is theirs, and they chose not to do so. The prisoners? I don’t know.

What would you do? Could you live with yourself knowing that people were stuck and dying, with no way to even try to help themselves?

I really did NOT think that finding the right piece of land would be this difficult!

There are three counties close to us, and obviously that’s going to increase the price—I understand that, and while I continue to check, we’re seriously looking a bit farther away. But not too far.

“The one that got away” still annoys me, even after a couple weeks. We hadn’t even seen it and it was under contract. I keeping hoping it will fall through . . .

Anyhow, last week we looked at two properties less than two hours away.

The first one was beautiful—and mostly flat! Believe me, that’s unusual around here. It was landlocked, but with a deeded easement, so no real worries there. Even had a nice, wide trail all the way to the back and electric right in the middle. No water, but still . . .

However.

To get to it, you go south on a state highway. Paved, all that, and then turn on to a gravel road. Good so far, right?

At the intersection of that gravel road is a junkyard. I think. Or a perpetual yard sale. Or, maybe, they’re getting ready to call a fleet of dump trucks and a bulldozer. One can hope.

But.

Down the gravel, passing that junkyard, were MORE places that looked darn near as bad. Since yards were covered with toys, swingsets, appliances, vehicles, etc., etc., some new, some used, I can only assume that theft is not an issue around here.

Sheesh.

So the property looked promising, from the road, but that easement I mentioned? Crossing that, we walked past a falling down building, another that appeared to have been scavenged, a pile of . . . something, and another, well, dump. Then we reached the property listed, and hey—bonus tires!

Well.

I think not.

To get to the next property, we drove down a nice gravel road and passed lots of trees—no dumps in sight! Then we turned and drove straight up—and up! We stopped at a home, also for sale with 20 acres, and walked over to the listed property.

Very nice. A lovely clearing in the middle, sporting a gigantic dead tree, two deer stands and a few game cameras, and well, not very level. Besides which, the price is steep (heh) and we’d have to build a road. Um, no thanks! Not up that hill!

Next weekend brings more possibilities to look at, but we’re kinda sorta seriously considering going back to that cave property. I want to take measurements and find the actually boundary markings, and maybe talk to the neighbors.

I’m not quite as excited about this place as my husband is, but hey—IT HAS A CAVE!