Doomsday Preppers Week 8: Of Castles and Kings
It’s also where Brent has sunk his fortune, and he’s going to have his kids duke it out to determine which — one from each failed marriage — become trustees of his castle estate.
I do question the utility of Brent’s castle construction, however. While it may be nice when finished (and I’m in love with his great room fireplace), the castle features massive open windows that will provide few places for defenders to hide. Instead of a defensive stronghold, he’s created a deathtrap. Brent may have been a soldier (and an engineer), but he rather obviously wasn’t tasked with building defensive fortifications if a liberal arts schmo like myself can find holes in his defenses you could drive a Willys Jeep through.
The worst part of the “Brent experience,” however, was watching him attempt to train his kids how to shoot. Maybe some sadists find it hilarious to give a 100-pound girl a double-barrel 12-gauge loaded with buckshot to shoot. I did not. I also did not find it amusing to have one half-assed “expert” wade into the middle of a bunch of untrained shooters with loaded weapons who seemed on the cusp of muzzling each other or themselves every single movement. We were also almost treated to an out-of-battery discharge, as one of the girls attempted to pull the trigger on a Mosin-Nagant without the bolt being properly closed.
Now, this is almost certainly biased against medieval-minded idiots, but if you have scads of money to waste, build a functional and far less ornate defensive structure (a traditional keep would function relatively well) and spend far more on amassing a common weapons cache and professional training for those whom you would presumably have saving one another, not shooting one another.
As they are all likely to be executed in the bunker, due to bad design turning his castle into a lightning rod — you’ll have to watch, I can’t bear any more — and much of their food seems to consist of expired MREs, maybe firearms training is the least of their worries.
I haven’t watched this series since I think it’s entire goal is ridicule preppers as a means of preventing too many people from taking even appropriate precautions against regular events like hurricanes, ice storms and such.
This one though was particularly bad, based on the ads for it. Building a huge castle like that with no one to defend it is asking to get rolled. It won’t matter how strongly built it is: if people see it they will think “gee, that’s a big house, let’s go loot it.” He’d have been better off building that 2,000 Sqf bunker under a 2,000 Sqf or smaller house and putting the extra money into props to make it look abandonned and picked over once the trouble starts. Money on natural defenses like thorny bush, etc. would also have helped.
Bobby traps are illegal, and have been since the days of Merry Olde England (there have been court cases forbidding nobles from erecting traps in their forests to catch poachers.)
So I think this was just a demonstration of what they could do. The cannon looks like a modern replica, which are available (just ask the Mythbusters.)
One thing that is consistent from one episode to the next, no matter what event they are prepping for, is their belief someone will try and take what they have.
“The Carrington event is the best known natural EMP,”
We can only hope God is so merciful as to hit our hemisphere with a supper massive negative charged Carrington. The national power grid would be down for years. Those big blue cities will have a massive dieoff, tens of millions of obama voters will perish. The parasite class will get what they deserve. Ah, the rioting will be epic.
It is all about water. In three days they start to die and drink those local rivers they have so polluted. Dysentery and even greater die off.
Meanwhile in Gods country, we will do ok. Small cities folks, is where you want to be. We will have our local power back up in short order, at least for basics like water distribution. Plenty of food, and plenty of needed skills.
Short term, I suggest everybody have a few of these http://www.doulton.com/gravity-filters/ on hand. Each will produce about 100 gallons a day of potable water from any non-chemically polluted source. Lakes, rivers, bar ditches. All you need is one of these, some tubing and a couple containers. You could also use a charcoal filter downstream of the ceramic to , both, make said water more palatable and remove some chemical toxins.
Correction 10 -15 gallons a day. I really need to set one up and see.
I still can’t figure out what motivates these people. Rule number one in Doomsday Prepping is too obvious: Don’t tell people what you’re doing!
Check. Check. And check again. Have they ever heard of the word — where war has been/is going — Stealth.
That’s another objection of mine to the show. Even if only neighbors and other locals figure out who these people are, they’ll be turning up at the door eventually looking for a handout, assuming they don’t mount an assault or siege. How are these people actually going to handle it when friends and neighbors show up begging for food or medicine let alone with guns in their hands to take it?
These people with the park are the only ones to actually have a good reason to tell the world about their preparations. It makes me want to go see the park, and I imagine I’m not the only one. Perhaps they’ve figured that doomsday isn’t as sure a bet as enjoying the proceeds from visitors to the park. And I think they would be right.
Well, my wife and I love the show. Sure some of these people might be wrong in their prepping but if you believe that this country is not:
1) Headed for bankruptcy
2) Facing a collapse in the dollar and the end of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency
then proceed as if everything is going to be just fine.
Yeah, look if I were these folks on TV I sure wouldn’t let people know what I am doing. Every single neighbor of these folks now knows exactly where their food and valuables are as well as how they are going to protect them. Not smart in my book. The cannon thing was ridiculous. It took them minutes to fire it 30 yards and by that time they would have been toast.
A pretty good book about a Carrington event today:
http://www.amazon.com/A-Distant-Eden-ebook/dp/B007ODDGUC/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1358185228&sr=1-2&keywords=tackitt
I like the show. But, as someone on another site noted: “Oh goody. You’re prepping yourself to die 2 weeks after everyone else”.
Pretty much agree. There is two basic survival stratagies that work long term. Live in a community with enough people to actually guard your precious short term, a year, maybe two, and then enough to grow more food. Or bug out small group and find somewhere isolated. Anything else is just prolonging the inevitable.
“Their preps pay for themselves and, most importantly, have a constantly used “normal” function — and that, dear reader, is the most responsible way to prep.”
Interesting idea to combine your prep with your small business. Even if you work for a paycheck, it seems like a good plan to prepare with normal, “under the radar”, hobby activities like camping, fishing, hunting, and gardening instead of building a fortress with a stockpile of goods. I’d rather be in the position of being the quiet guy who has survival-oriented DIY skills and a “tornado shelter” rather than being the loud guy defending a castle with a stash of valuable stuff. The gang of looters are more likely to bypass the ordinary house with edible landscaping and a rain barrel on their way to the castle with stored food ready to eat.
If people think everything is fine with this country then won’t they be in for a surprise when the financial disaster strikes. Some of these people may do extreme things on the show to get prepared, but at least they are doing something. Most people expect everyone else to take care of the problem. True preparation starts with the individual. You don’t have to build some under the ground bunker but just DO SOMETHING!
Brent looks like Pa Walton after a week-long bender.
Deadwood reminds me of Westworld…
I don’t know how patient I’d be if this were happening to me… in case you didn’t know.. Belarus devalued their currency recently… this is what hyperinflation looks like…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgAcHeL1dro
Inflation Propaganda Exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwI3Nya5L9g