# Our little rural "Planned Community"



## Dr. Prepper (Dec 20, 2012)

I have been asked by several folks here to tell something about our small, three family, Planned Community (PC). PC! Oh, I hate that political correctness bull crap. But it wouldn't be right to abbreviate "Planned Community" with RZ or QK would it? Oh well, PC it is :?

About four years ago we had a tornado rip through here one fine spring day. We had much storm damage and our power was off for three days. That was kind of like a vaccination shot for the three families here. You know, like an injection of a mild case of the disease you want to protect yourself from. The mild case will trigger your body to build up defenses against that disease for next time while not causing an outbreak of the disease in your body.

Immediately after the storm we all chipped in to repair and rebuild the damaged houses, barns, and fences. One of our neighbors kitchen was completely blown away and we took turns preparing meals for them for five weeks until we had a completely new kitchen built for them. Next we replaced my small barn, tool shed, and about 2,000 ft. of fencing as well as cleared tons of trees, branches, and debris. The third family did not have much structural damage but lots of downed trees and debris.

This situation quickly made us realize just how much more self sufficient we could be as a group or community as opposed to individual family units. So all of the following summer we had little picnic meetings to discuss how we would help each other in other types of emergencies. We decided to focus on weather related emergencies at first but as we got deeper into our plans we realized that prepping for a major power failure would easily dovetail into our overall plans. Over the past 12 months we have decided to include into our prepping plans the possibility of a major civil uprising and collapse of our society. This includes a threat from our own federal government which, we feel, has become a serious threat to our nation. The USA has proven, over the past 100 years that we are terrible at selecting our legislators and government officials. I could rant all day on this topic but I won't bore you with stuff you already know.

So far our little planned community has been working very well and we all agree that we could not have hand picked any better and more compatable group. We have a written statement of purpose that we read aloud at every get-together, we have a big chart of individual responsibilities in times of emergency, we have a another chart of individual responsibilities in our daily routines for maintenance of community readiness, and we have a list of needs and wants for improvement to our community readiness.

I have already told you guys more than I planned to reveal so I'll get out of here and get to work - I have some cows to move today and they don't like to cooperate when it's only 19°F and blowing snow. Brrrrr!

Later . . .


----------



## Verteidiger (Nov 16, 2012)

What you are describing is exactly what people should be looking for in a community to live in. This country was built by people who helped their neighbors, and by those neighbors returning the favor - the good old fashioned barn raising spirit. Perhaps what is happening is driving us back to the ways we should have been honoring and adhering to all along.


----------



## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Sounds great I hope your successful community reaches out to other neighborhoods.


----------



## Anthony (Dec 27, 2012)

Good idea, i always thought since i have no kids id run for the hills.
-Anthony


----------



## Dr. Prepper (Dec 20, 2012)

We sorta fell into this arrangement due to our farms layout. I have 89 acres that faces along route 700. My two closest neighbors have side-by-side farms (one is 56 acres and one is 290 acres). Both face route 800 and the boundary line between those two farms runs right into the back of my property. Kind of making our homes into a triangle layout. We have well worn dirt "roads" that go through the woods and link all three homes together. It's hard to explain but there is a well hidden dirt road that ties all of our back yards together. We run back and forth on our tractors, ATVs, and golf carts all the time. Our houses are about 1200 ft. apart and when there are leaves on the trees and brush we can't see each other at all. My wife and I retired to this place from our medical careers about 10 years ago.

We have been very close friends with our neighbors since we got here. At one of our summer picnics we all started talking about preppers and prepping in general. As luck would have it we all seemed to be at exactly the same stage in our thoughts about getting ready for some tragedy but we did not not know what that tragedy could be. At that time we all vowed to assist each other as much as possible in any emergency event.

Sure enough, about 18 months later we had a tornado rip through our farms and immediately we all jumped in to assist each other. We are in a very rural area and there was nobody else out here to help for 12 days. For the next 8 months we really bonded with each other and decided to get much more serious about forming a planned community with just the three families here.

Neighbor Tom (290 acres) has a very nice pond that is about 6 acres but it's not close to the dwellings. I have a one acre pond that is situated in the middle of the triangle of homes and it is spring fed. The water flows all year 'round and is a perfect water source for all three families in a crisis. Neighbor Harrold (56 acres) has three small, unused, concrete block out-buildings. One is set up for our community storage of food because it is an old 16 ft. diameter round cold cellar and is almost completely under ground. One of the buildings is set up for an emergency medical facility/bunkhouse/chowhall. And one is set up for a lookout post and kind of a makeshift armory. This is an old milking building and there is a 40 ft. silo at one end. Just last year we built stairs and landings to the top of the silo and a comfortable "room" at the top. We also have a lookout slot 360° around the top at eye level. Firearms could be used from there also. We have already used our "crow's nest" for a deer hunting blind. At 40 ft. we can see a long distance all around the three properties.

I gotta go . . . momma's waiting out in the car.


----------

