Solutions Oriented

My favorite sports talking-head is ESPN Around The Horn's Woody Paige who likes to style himself not as a problem solver, but a "solutions-oriented person". (A difference without a distinction?) As an homage to Woodrow, in this blog I want to share the matrix, if you will, of issues which any good Plan B must resolve.

The first step toward Plan B is to evaluate where and how I now live. I live in a suburb that is consistently rated a Top 10 place to live. It's the archetype Plan A, cheap gas, high density, bedroom community. It is the logical outcome of the demographic evolution of the 20th Century. And when the grid goes down, this is going to be just as horrible a place to live as Watts, Harlem, Buckhead, or Highland Park. Once the systems that support the delivery / accessibility of utilities and food go down, life will be utterly devastated. (For a refresher course in my operational paranoia (re)read Magnum Opus (Part 1.a).) There is no aspect of my current life that would endure day two of the apocalypse. Sure, I can lay in a bunch of rice, beans, canned goods, water, cord wood for the fireplace. But if the grid goes down and/or other support systems fail, how am I going to feed, shelter, and clothe myself over the long run - not for days, for years? Plan B requires NOT living in a city / suburb.


Plan B Solution Matrix

Sustainability - I'll need live in a location / setting that truly supports sustainability. I'll have to have enough land to raise animals (unless I want to do my own labor and be a vegetarian). The land will have to have a water supply, arable land, and preferably some timber that can be cut for firewood, tools, shelter, etc. At the moment, I don't know how much land that is. Ten to twenty acres? I don't know how many of my four boys (and future wives and children) would join my wife and I. Hmmmm.

Community - As argued, Plan B can't work in a city - even a small one - and yet, it can't work in the isolated country side. I will need things. I'll need to barter for the things I can't provide for myself and I will likely need to share labor (ever heard of a "barn-raising"). I'm no strapping young man (anymore), but I reckon I have something to contibute to those in my community. Plan B will best be located near a very small town (that might not totally implode in an apocalypse scenario) and around other small farms.

Accessibility - Although I'm working on a Plan B in a rural setting, I have to be able to get to it readily. I need to develop my refuge while the grid still is up and makes it easy to build shelter and develop water supply, septic system, etc. And if I can keep my incipient paranoia under control, I'd like to be able to enjoy my Plan B compound along the way. An occasional bon fire, a shooting range, a place to shoot fireworks without hassle - all these amenties will add joy in the adventure. For all intents and purposes, a good solution would be a plot of land within an hour's drive of my present home. Something I can get to quickly, easily, and with very little left in the gas tank (3 gal max) if the need arises suddenly and no gas is available.

Defendability - I'm not sure how this is going to play out. But if I develop a retreat that meets my needs in a post-apocalypse scenario, it would also meet someone else's needs - is someone else can drive me away. I'll say more later, but suffice to say, a wise man will invest in more-than-adequate protection - and I'm not talking about smoke-detectors or life insurance.

It's hard to quantify each of these components at the moment, but I'm thinking about all of them. I'm evaluating scenarios and opportunities that meet these requirements.