[MyPrepperLife]

Folks have mentioned state police and county sheriff. Both the state police dept. and the county sheriff's dept.are well aware of the issues we have in our town. They do give us some attention, but not as much as we need. Both depts. tell us they are starved for resources.

Another thing is that we get coverage every other month from the state police dept, and we get coverage every other month (the alternating months) from the sheriff's dept. - so there isn't a lot of continuity with the cases they are following. I don't know who came up with that plan, or why they came up with it.

 

[GrayFoal2]

And not only is that place a drug house; it is an unauthorized junkyard, too. There are lots of crap cars and trucks sitting around on the property. The mother and her husband own an autobody shop, and we believe the junkyard is part of their autobody biz. In other words, they probably get parts from the junkyard.

Junk seems to go with the drugs. They've filled two roll-offs with the contents of the house across the street and have started on a third.

Edit: the third one is now full. I don't think I own enough stuff to even fill one roll-off!

 

[GrayFoal2]

Fourth roll-off. They must be tearing it down to the studs to remodel. That house is slightly larger than ours and Trulia has it way overpriced at $350K (it also says it was built in the 1990s, which isn't correct, either; maybe it was remodeled then, too? Everything around here was built in the 40s and 50s). It'll be interesting to see if that price estimate changes with the remodel. Yes, I'm nosy and look these things up.

 

[MyPrepperLife]

Fourth roll-off. They must be tearing it down to the studs to remodel. That house is slightly larger than ours and Trulia has it way overpriced at $350K (it also says it was built in the 1990s, which isn't correct, either; maybe it was remodeled then, too? Everything around here was built in the 40s and 50s). It'll be interesting to see if that price estimate changes with the remodel. Yes, I'm nosy and look these things up.

Good lord. $350K for a drug den? Seems inane - but then again, I live in an area where real-estate prices are modest compared to just about anywhere in the US.

 

[Lagnar]

Fourth roll-off. They must be tearing it down to the studs to remodel.

Maybe the meth has infused into the sheetrock and everything else. I'd want it stripped to the studs as well. If it was built in the 40s or 50s, now would be the time to update the electrical and plumbing systems.

 

[Bellyman]

Were you worried about the fumes from it as it burned?

Sorry for the delay in replying...

We weren't in the path of the smoke / fumes. The direction of the wind was rather odd that day, coming from a direction it doesn't usually come from, basically the southeast. And it carried the fumes away from us. That wind also seemed to be in exactly the right direction to discourage a fire from jumping into the woods behind them. It could have been worse.

The owner of the place pretty much took a bulldozer and piled it all on the edge of the property, out of our sight and farther away than the house was. It's growing up around where the house was. A pasture closeby has a barn in it that they store hay in and come and go for that. Otherwise, there is still not much going on over there and we like it that way. Wish we could buy the place but it's not for sale, probably won't be as long as the man is alive and he's not that much older than me... so... probably not gonna happen.

 

[WILL]

I have a meth property about a mile down the road from me. I've already got a solid eradication plan in place for TEOTWAWKI. It's going to be a preemptive strike pretty early on cuz I just don't want to deal with these assholes as things devolve. Hate to go medieval, but I'm very sober about the effect these people will have on the surrounding area under those circumstances.

 

[GrayFoal2]

They're still filling roll-offs. They've replaced the front door with one I'm assuming is more secure, it looks nice. The yard is still full of trash.

Where I grew up, the streets were kept in good shape and had curbs and sidewalks, and the houses had garages and green lawns, and everything was kept clean, there was no trash anywhere. If you ever found yourself in a neighborhood with no sidewalks, no garages, and chain link fences and trash, those were indications that you were in a very bad area and should leave immediately.

Those warning signs were ingrained in me as a small child. They're a survival skill from living in the most populous county in the country and they're tough to ignore. The area I live in now has all of those signs. I can't shake the intuitive danger feeling even though we've been living here for years. Every time I pull into our street the alarms go off in my head, "Ack! Bad neighborhood, turn around!" Except I'm home. Gah.

 

[Bellyman]

Hate to go medieval, but I'm very sober about the effect these people will have on the surrounding area under those circumstances.

I'm actually more concerned about these types of people than I am "roving zombie hoards from the big city". These types are scattered about the countryside and even in relatively good times can be a nuisance to those around them, often involving at least petty crimes, thefts, that kind of thing.

Just as person to person, I hope you never have to carry through with the "going medieval", Will. From your posts and the things you've put out there, you seem like a decent guy with a good heart. It's pretty easy for people to banter about "taking care of business" but for a person such as I believe you and I to be, it would tear us up inside big time to have to knowingly and purposefully take human lives. It's not like on TV or video games when it's real. And our memories would replay it, over and over and over and over again.

Sometimes, a man has to do what a man has to do, I know. Wouldn't wish it on anyone, though.

No offense intended, just sharing from the heart. Hope it came across that way.

 

[WILL]

I'm actually more concerned about these types of people than I am "roving zombie hoards from the big city". These types are scattered about the countryside and even in relatively good times can be a nuisance to those around them, often involving at least petty crimes, thefts, that kind of thing.

Just as person to person, I hope you never have to carry through with the "going medieval", Will. From your posts and the things you've put out there, you seem like a decent guy with a good heart. It's pretty easy for people to banter about "taking care of business" but for a person such as I believe you and I to be, it would tear us up inside big time to have to knowingly and purposefully take human lives. It's not like on TV or video games when it's real. And our memories would replay it, over and over and over and over again.

Sometimes, a man has to do what a man has to do, I know. Wouldn't wish it on anyone, though.

No offense intended, just sharing from the heart. Hope it came across that way.

Thank you, I appreciate the heartfelt concern. I have already taken human life, so I'm very familiar with what it entails & it sounds like you are too. The meth nest down the road for me recently had a gun battle with the local police department, so I know exactly where I stand on that situation post TSHTF.

 

[Bellyman]

I'm very familiar with what it entails & it sounds like you are too.

I'm sorry you've had to, sincerely. I have not, though I've spent a good bit of time with several veterans who have shared some of their experiences. Some cope better than others. One uncle in particular had some horrible stories that led him to Auschwitz, he was US Army. I know he had nightmares until he died. Several more relatives and friends in Vietnam, interestingly, most of them didn't want to talk about what they saw or did but sometimes let a story or two out. I play music with a helicopter pilot who spent some time over there, he's the drummer. Awesome guy, and he loves to talk about flying, but when it gets down to the actual bloodshed, it's not a conversation he has easily.

All that said, I still hope neither of us will have to face that decision in our future.

Blessings to you, sir.

 

[Avocadoman]

We figured out where all that acrid smoke in the middle of the night was coming from.

Mini shantytowns are popping up all over our neighborhood. Shantytowns are taking over the bicycle routes, too, many of which are no longer safe to ride, especially going under overpasses. I don't ride anymore.

You don't see the neighborhood shantytowns unless you walk down the alleys, which are filled with piles and piles and piles of trash. The shacks are constructed in backyards of houses that look totally normal from the front but are dilapidated in the back, missing paint and windows and doors.

Numerous shacks constructed of irrigated sheet metal and tarps dot the yards (house lots around here are ~1/4 acre with large backyards). The shacks use water and electricity from the house through the garden hose and extension cords. Some of the shacks even have A/C units. They cook (food and whatever else) in little campfires in the dirt outside their shacks. They look like third world slums - because they are. Right across the effing street from me.

I discovered the neighborhood shantytowns when I was walking the dogs. It explains the increase in crime, why cars are being stolen off the street, why our chain link fence keeps getting cut open, and why we can't keep anything in our yard without it being stolen.

We're no longer getting chickens. I don't know how we would keep them safe other than sleeping (armed) in the yard next to the coop.

That particular meth house across from us has piles of clothes and shoes in the alley behind it, making me wonder if it's being used for human trafficking, too.

Sounds like urban California.

 

[GrayFoal2]

That house is still dark and empty and possibly condemned. Things have been relatively quiet. We're rethinking our chicken coop design to be a little harder to see from the street. One of my original must-haves was a coop that I can stand up in. We're both middle aged and a lot of stooping isn't practical. However, a coop with a lower height would be much less visible from the street and (we hope) less likely to attract thieves.