Category: Property Search

Looks Like More Preppers are Moving to our Mountain

Apparently we are not the only folks who think this is a good area for prepping. Far from the cities and off the beaten track, it is attracting other preppers

We met some neighbors who recently purchased land about half a mile down the mountain from us.  They were quite excited about their plans to put in a bridge, improve their driveway, build a log cabin, get a couple of milk cows, and go “off grid.”  They were also quite upfront about being preppers and not wanting to able to self-sufficient.

As a prepper, I am always happy to have other preppers in the neighborhood.  First, it means they should be able to sustain themselves in post-SHTF situation.  The more people in the area that have the ability to provide for themselves, the better.

Second, they may be someone we can barter with.  Third, hopefully they have useful skills, and fourth, they might be willing to support a mutual aid agreement or neighborhood defense force since anyone coming up the road will have to get past them before they get to us.

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Prepper Diary November 5: Our House Sells Quickly

It took months of cleaning, painting, repairing, and getting new carpet in the basement, but our house sold within days of listing.

As I said in the November 1 post, there was immediate interest when we listed our house.  We had five showings within two days and one or two per day since.  After a short bidding war, we accepted an offer for our house that was above our asking price. I did not believe it was that hot seller’s market until I saw it first hand. People are highly motivated to move out of the city.

That’s a positive side effect of COVID-19.  Another is that it is now accepted practice to do all the signatures related to an offer and sale online via DocuSign or a similar app.  That made it easy to accept the offer from a remote location.  I doubt we will even need to go to the closing.

Assuming the level of post-election day violence remains low, we’ll be heading back soon to meet with moving companies and obtain estimates for our move.  Then, a few days later, we’ll bring another load of gear back up here.  We’ll be making a round trip every week until we officially move. If we stay on track, moving day will be before Christmas.

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Prepper Diary November 1: Bugging Out and on Being Charitable

Our old house is for sale so we’re bugging out to the mountains. Moving has encouraged us to downsize and minimize.

It took longer than I expected to get the repairs made, the painting finished, the drone photography shot, the video produced, and the appraisal done, but our house is officially on the market.

Happily, it appraised for more than I expected and the photography looks even better than the ol’ house ever did.  (I guess those stagers and designers know what they are doing.) Now we have to wait and see what it actually sells for, which may help determine if we can go solar next year. 

There are already showings scheduled, so we are loading up the truck, sticking the cat in the carrier, and bugging out to our prepper property for the pre-Election Day bug out.  We’ve left the realtor the alarm code and the keys, and we’ll let her handle everything on the showing end.

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Prepper Diary October 6: It’s Been a Week of Chores

Never a dull day at Pete’s Place as we’ve got chores to do and repairs to make as we get ready to move to our prepper property.

We enjoyed a “test burn,” using the wood stove for the first time on a chilly evening at Pete’s Prepper Property.  Happy to report the flue drew very well.  I am used to a wood stove with a glass door, and never realized what an advantage actually being able to see the flames is until I had to monitor the fire in a stove with solid doors.  I also missed the thermometer we usually have stuck to the pipe, but one is on its way to us after an online purchase.

We haven’t tested the upstairs stove, but the basement stove caused the upstairs temp to raise two degrees in just a few hours, even as outdoor temps fell into the 40s.  I expect when it is burning all day and all night it will provide even more warmth than that.

I think we are going to burn through the two cords of wood pretty quick, so I may buy a third.  Also, on our next trip, I plan to bring up my chain saws, maul, wedges and associated wood-cutting equipment, just in case I have to harvest some wood myself.  (There are enough deadfalls in the woods that I can find seasoned wood ready to burn.) I have resisted moving these up the mountain in case we get a hurricane at home and needed to cut our way out due to fallen trees, but I think the chances of a hurricane affecting the Mid-Atlantic states is low now.  I will also bring a nice home-made saw horse that holds logs so you can cut them into wood stove length. We need to empty more stuff out the garage in any case.

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Prepper Diary October 2: How to Build Your Food Storage Over Time

We have buckets of long-term storage food. We have cans of dehydrated food. But we didn’t build up this supply overnight. Live the prepper life and you can build up your supplies as well.

We just brought our fourth trailer full of long-term storage food and survival gear to our new prepper property, and it drove home how much prepping-related stuff we have. 

So far, we’ve moved one 4’x8’ U-Haul cargo trailer, two 6’x12’ U-Haul cargo trailers, and an 8’x12′ flatbed trailer, although the latter was mostly loaded with furniture.  Thanks to my friend Karl and his Ford F-250, we do have a bed, dressers, a sofa and some other furnishings at the house now, which is nice if we need to stay there before the move is fully completed.

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September 7 Prepper Diary: We Celebrate Labor Day with Chores and Gun Fire

We take an extra long weekend getaway to do chores at our prepper property, but we take time for some fun as well.

We drove out to our new prepper property mid-week for an extended Labor Day Weekend.  In addition to bringing a pick-up-truck bed full of gear, we opened a post office box in the village closest to our new prepper property.  We can now start changing our mailing address.  With our new address and local phone number in hand, we also visited a local bank and opened accounts there. 

After we officially move, we’ll worry about switching over our driver’s licenses and concealed carry permits.

Chores

We are still in the clean-up, fix-up, and prepare mode, but we now have a bed so we no longer have to sleep on an inflatable mattress.  This trip, we brought up bedside tables because you don’t realize how convenient they are until you have to go without one.  We even brought a small sofa.  This means we have somewhere to eat, somewhere to sleep, and something more comfortable than a camp chair to sit on.

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August 27 Diary – Our Move Grows A Step Closer

We are getting closer to moving to our perfect prepper home by upgrading it and making cosmetic improvements to our existing home prior to selling it.

We’re taking steps towards putting our current house on the market by doing small things like installing new carpet in the basement (in actuality, turning what was our prep storage room into a game room) and power washing the exterior.  I may have to do some interior painting in the basement as well.  These are largely primarily cosmetic changes that may not boost the price but will give the buyer one less thing to complain about. 

We expect to start meeting with realtors after Labor Day to see who we want to represent us as a seller agent.

Our hopes of being fully moved into our perfect prepper property by the election day are closer to being realized.  Even if we don’t make it, in two months we’ll be in a position where we can bug out to the new house and comfortably spend weeks or months there.  I intend to vote early and then get out of town a few days before the election. I see the election as a potential flash point, so this is just a precaution.

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August 26: Our Prepper Property Upgrades

We make a work trip to our Prepper Property to improve the kitchen, install new lighting, build shelving and move some more gear.

My buddy Karl and I just made a trip to the new house, and because he has a Ford F250 Super Duty with a diesel engine, we rented the biggest trailer U-Haul has, which is a 6’x12’ enclosed cargo trailer.  That’s about twice the cubic feet of the trailer I rented for my last trip, plus it has two axles and hydraulic brakes.

We found out that the trailer has can take a max load of only 2,480 pounds after we had already loaded it with more than 3,500 pounds of gear.  Here’s some of what was in it:

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August 8 Diary and Update: Firewood Follies

This weekend, we focused on how to obtain firewood at our new prepper property. We need the wood to heat the house and keep our electric bill low.

We are at the new house in the mountains for the weekend.  Our cable is now up and running so I added an old WiFi router, and I am now able to post without having to drive into town and to find a signal.  I am posting this from our kitchen counter because we do not have any other furniture yet.

I tracked down some pallets and have arranged them on the ground to stack firewood and keep it off the dirt and prevent it from rotting. Being here 2 days every two weeks, I do not have time to harvest my own week, so we are looking into purchasing it.

Firewood Follies

I’ve been talking to a number of locals, done some research, and made some calls to determined that there are four ways to get firewood:

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August 3: Our First Step Towards Moving

We kicked off our move by renting a U-Haul and loading it with food and ammo. Dragging it up, over and around the mountains was a chore.

For our second trip to our new home, we rented a 4’x8’ cargo trailer from U-Haul.  I found their trailers to be surprisingly reasonably priced, even once I added the insurance. 

I scheduled the trailer pick up for late afternoon, giving us the rest of the evening to pack it.  Then we left the next morning, drove most of the day, unloaded that night and the next morning, and then returned the trailer to our nearest U-Haul dealer – which was 30 minutes away.

Loading the trailer was far more time consuming than unloading because of the need to carefully fit everything in to maximize space and to load balance.  You want about 60 percent of the weight in front of the trailer and 40 percent on the back half.

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