You are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper. My duct tape. The real duct tape. It fixes everything except that decision. Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. American. From border to border, coast to coast, and all ships at sea. Here is your host, Keith.
SPEAKER_01Hey all, this is Keith, and you're listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast for July the 28th, 2026. So last night I put out an episode explaining why I wanted to live up in the mountains in a cabin off-grid, semi-off-grid, in an area of 50 to 100 acres with no neighbors. And I meant that. So now I'm going to tell you why no one survives alone. So this is not necessarily a contradiction. I'm not necessarily being hypocritical. So just
stick with me. Follow me on this one. The fantasy. So let's talk about the lone wolf. It's probably the most popular fantasy in the prepper community. One person, fully self-sufficient, beholden to no one, needs no one. Sounds kind of romantic. Well, at least it does to me. And I get the appeal, I understand that. But last night I told you that I wanted to live on a plot of land 50 to 100 acres where I'm not able to see my neighbors. But here's the uncomfortable truth with that. And I went into a little bit last night about that. The lone wolf does not survive. He endures, okay, he or she, let's get the ladies, he or she endures for a while until they get sick, until they get hurt, until something breaks that I cannot fix, until I need to sleep, but there's no one else to take the watch. History is clear on this. Every survival situation, natural disaster, grid failure, societal disruption, the people who make it through are the ones who had other people, not crowds, not cities, not governments, just other people.
The difference between community and proximity. So here's where a lot of people get confused. Community does not mean everybody lives in a commune. It doesn't mean it's everybody in your subdivision. It doesn't mean HOA meetings and block parties. Community, in the context of preparedness, means a deliberately chosen network of people who bring something to the table and who've agreed before anything goes wrong to work together when it does go wrong. That's it. Very relatively simple definition. In your community, you don't have to live next door to every single person. It does not have to be every single person in your cul-de-sac. Or it doesn't have to be everybody on the right hand side of your street in your neighborhood. You need to know each other, you need to trust each other. Capital T R U S T. Trust is huge, it's paramount. And you need to have talked to everybody about their roles and what happens when the poop hits the fan. Before the poop hits the fan. Well before the poop hits the fan.
So what does a prepped community actually look like? So let me paint a picture. Just close your eyes for a second. Unless you're driving a car, please do not close your eyes. Please keep your eyes on the road and listen to me. You live on your land. Maybe it's 50 acres, maybe it's five acres, maybe it's a quarter of an acre. It doesn't matter how much land you have. Within 20 or 30 miles of you, there are four or five people, maybe more. Maybe those four or five people are closer to you than the 30 miles. Each person brings something different to the table. For example, one has medical training. They could be a nurse, a paramedic, a vet tech, someone who can stitch a wound, set a bone, or identify an infection before it turns septic. One person in your group might be a mechanical engineer. They know how to work on small engines. They know how to weld. They know how to fabricate parts. So when your generator fails or your truck throws a belt, this is the person you call. One maybe has some agricultural knowledge. They know soil. They know the seasons. They know what grows in your area and what does not. Maybe they're already growing it. One has communications equipment, a real ham radio station, the ability to reach out beyond your immediate area when cell towers are down and the internet goes kaput. And for those that are listening outside the US, your licensing system might be a little bit different, but the principle is the same. Someone in your network needs to be able to communicate when the grid is not able to communicate. One is just solid, reliable, shows up when they say they will, they don't panic, and they keep their head. None of these people live in your home, and maybe not a single one of them you deal with on a day-to-day basis. But when something goes wrong, really wrong, you know who to call and they know to answer when you call. That is a prepared community.
The trust problem. Now, here is the most difficult part. Trust me. Well, I think I just made a funny there. So trust me on this part. Very, very difficult. How do you build this trust without advertising what you have? Everybody in preparedness or every prepper knows this tension. You want to connect with like-minded people, but you also don't want to be the guy where everybody knows you've got six months of beans and rice in your basement. Because if things get bad, that knowledge makes you a target, not just a neighbor. So how do you walk that fine line? How do you thread that needle per se? Well, you do it very slowly, very deliberately. Hey, I've got a year's supply of freeze-dried food and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Do you want to be in my group? Not the way I would go about that. You start with conversations, you talk about interests, and then shared activities. So here's an example of how this might actually work. You're at a neighborhood cookout. You end up talking to a guy named Dave. He mentions he just put in a raised garden. He loves his tomatoes and his cucumbers and his peppers. You mentioned you've been thinking about doing the same. That's it. That is the first conversation. Hey, you know, Dave, I'm not very good at gardening. I would love to learn more. Or Dave, gardening is something I am really interested in learning. A month later, you run into Dave at the hardware store. He's buying hose fittings for rain barrels. You ask him about it. He tells you he's been collecting rainwater for his garden. You mentioned that you've got a few extra five-gallon buckets if he would like those, and he takes you up on that. Sure, Keith, I would love those three five-gallon buckets that you're not using. So three months later, you're trading tomatoes for peppers over your fence. You've never said the word prepper, neither has he. But you've both noticed what the other is doing. Six months in, you're having coffee in your garage, and Dave says, you know, I've been thinking that if we ever lost power for a week or two, I think between your generator and my garden, we're good to go. That's it. That's the conversation. It took six months. It may not take that long, it may take longer. No pitch, no sales job, no, here's my survival plan. How many guns do you have, Dave? Just two people who paid attention and built trust one interaction at a time. And that's how it works. Not everybody will be Dave. Most people will not be Dave, but you only need a few Dave's to get your community started. You listen, you observe, you build trust over months, maybe even years, before you have a deeper conversation. And when you do have that conversation, it's not about how much stuff you have. It's about skills, your willingness to share those skills, your reliability, and your character. I would rather have one person in my network who owns almost nothing, but shows up every single time over someone who has a warehouse full of gear who disappears the moment things start to get a little dicey. As I said a second ago, trust is the most difficult prep to acquire.
You can't buy it on Amazon, you can't store it in a tote, you have to build it. So you yourself, what do you bring to the table for the rest of the community? It's easy to think what you need from others. Oh, we need medical skills. Oh, I can't fix a generator, I can't even change the oil in my truck, I don't have any mechanical ability, I don't have any land, I don't have any equipment, but community is reciprocal. If you're asking what others can do for you, you better have a way to offer something in return. Maybe it's security experience, maybe it's communication, maybe you're the person who has the land, maybe you're the person that has the well, or the generator, or the livestock, maybe it's leadership, maybe it's organizational skills, the ability to stay calm when everybody else is losing their minds. But let me challenge you on something. People undervalue certain skills just because they don't seem tactical enough. Another example. Cooking for a group of 10. That is a tremendous skill. When people are stressed and exhausted and haven't eaten a real meal in two or three days, the person who can turn canned goods and rice into something that actually tastes like food, that person is holding the group together. I've talked about how morale is boosted with a warm meal. Child care. Here's something that is easily overlooked. If your community includes families with small children, and most will, someone needs to be able to keep the kids calm, keep them occupied, and keep them safe while the adults have to deal with the crisis, not a small job, and that's critical. Emotional steadiness, another sought-after skill. Not everyone falls apart in an emergency, but a lot of people do. And the person who can talk somebody down off the ledge who can say, hey Jimmy, here's what we're gonna do next. In a calm voice, you're the person is worth more than a closet full of gear and food. Teaching, record keeping, logistics, navigation, sewing, basic plumbing. Super, super important. And none of these will make you look cool on YouTube. All of them will matter when things go sideways. If you can't answer this question, what do I bring to the group? That's not a criticism. That is your next prep. What can you do? What skill can you develop or learn to bring to a group? Learn any skill, get a certification, build a capability that makes you valuable to others in this potential group. Not because it's transactional, not necessarily it's a one-for-one, but because community works when everyone contributes something. They're all important. Some may seem more important than others, but the real test is even the smallest skill, when that is not there, when someone does not bring that to the table, that small skill leaves a huge gap if it is not
there. So the off-grid paradox, let me circle back to something I said at the very top. Living on that hundred acres in the mountains in East Tennessee. And here I am telling you how community matters. How do those two things coexist? And they do. So follow me on this one. Remember, keep your eyes open if you're driving. The cabin is where I live. The community, for example, is who I talk to on the radio. Physical distance does not necessarily mean true isolation. I don't need someone literally 200 yards from me next door. I need someone I can reach out to. I need someone that will answer. Someone who knows that if I don't check in Tuesday morning at 0900, something might be wrong. So this is what this looks like in practice. So Tuesday evening, 1900 hours, you key up and say, this is prior to the net, any emergency traffic. Silence. Nobody says anything. Then you start to check in. So basically you're going on the net at that time saying, before we start talking, is there any emergency traffic? Because remember, everybody is there at Tuesday evening at 1900 hours if the poop hits the fan. So you key up and ask, hey everybody on the net, is there any emergency? When they don't say anything, now you do your check-ins. Station one. Station one, Dave here, all clear. Garden's looking good. Nothing to report. I'm just making up Dave's voice, but that sounds pretty cool. Station two. Station two here, Maria. Maria has a very deep voice. All clear. Had a water heater issue, but it's all been handled by Mike the plumber next door. Five minutes, maybe ten, if someone has something to discuss, everyone checks in, everyone confirms they're cool. And if someone does not check in, we're going to try again at a backup time. Maybe it's an hour later, maybe it's two and a half hours later. If they miss that secondary check-in, someone needs to go over and find out what's wrong with Luigi and why he didn't check in on the initial and the backup net. So that's it. That alleviates the distance. So there is a community, and it really doesn't matter how far apart we are as long as we answer when we're called, and as long as we call if we need something. Low effort, low intrusion, high reliability. Now, you're going to meet these people in person. You're just not going to talk to some ghost voice on the radio and take everybody's word for it. We don't need to live on top of each other, but you need a frequency to talk on and a schedule that everybody can stick to. And here's another thing: doing this every week, even with nothing is going wrong, builds that habit, builds the discipline. So when something actually does go wrong, nobody's fumbling with the radio, wondering what channel to use. The net in this case is the glue that holds this community that does not live close to each other. It's what holds it together. It holds distant people together without requiring everyone to give up their personal space or, in this case, their privacy. You can live 20 miles from the nearest community member and still be better connected than someone in an apartment building who doesn't know a single neighbor's name. Connection is not measured in feet, it's measured in reliability. So how do we get
started? If you're hearing this all for the first time, well, I don't have anyone, that's fine. Most people don't. Most preppers are doing this alone quietly without telling anyone. So here is how you start. Just like the examples earlier, find one person, just one. Someone you really trust, a family member, an old friend, a coworker, someone who's already has a preparedness mindset, even if they don't call it that. Have a conversation. Again, not a sales pitch. You're not recruiting anybody, it's just a conversation. Hey, Jimmy, have you ever thought about what you would do if the power went out and you were not going to get power back for seven to ten days? That question works in Houston, it works at Hamburg, it works in Manchester. The scenario changes. Maybe it's a cyclone, maybe it's flooding, maybe it's a severe winter storm, but the question is universal. That's it. That's the opening part of the conversation. If they engage you or it starts a conversation, potentially you have your first community member. If they look at you like you're crazy, that's fine too. We're just moving on. We're going to try to find somebody else. We're not building an army, we're building a phone tree, I guess you could call it. One person becomes two, two people become four. That was some serious thunder. I think we're going to get a storm. And four becomes a network. It doesn't happen overnight. It's not supposed to happen overnight. The online trap. One word of caution. Online communities are not preparedness communities. Let me qualify that. Forums, social media groups, Discord servers, they're fine for information. They're fine for trading information, gathering information, for learning, for getting new ideas. But these are not the people who are going to show up at your door with a medical kit when your kid breaks his arm during a power outage and emergency services is not able to get to you. Real community is local. It's people you've looked in the eye, people you know where they live, or at least a general area, people who can physically reach you when it matters. The internet is a research tool, not a survival
plan. So what happens when your community fails? And it might. This is the person who shows up at every meeting, contributes every idea, volunteers for everything, and then disappears the moment the real work starts. They love the planning phase, they love the fantasy of it. But when it's time to actually dig the garden or help so-and-so with their solar panels at six in the morning, they're nowhere to be found. Watch their hands, not their mouth. The taker. This person is interested in what the group can do for them. They want access to your supplies, your knowledge, your land. But when you ask them what they're going to contribute, it's like you're speaking to them in a foreign language. Well, you know, I'm working on it and I'm gonna get there. Six months later, they haven't bought a single can of food to the table. Like I said before, community is reciprocal. If someone is only receiving, that's not a member. In my opinion, I would say that's a liability. The security risk, very important to understand. This is the person who cannot stop talking about the group. They tell their coworkers, they post about it online, they hint about it at parties, they think it's cool or interesting conversation. Meanwhile, every single person they tell is another person who might show up at somebody's door when the poop hits the fan. Uninvited and not prepared. Loose lips sink preps. See what I did there? I'm gonna coin that one, so don't steal that. And here is the most difficult one. Sometimes the group just doesn't gel, they just don't get along. Personalities clash, priorities diverge, someone moves away, someone loses interest, life happens. It's gonna happen. No big deal. That's fine. A community that falls apart before an emergency is disappointing for sure. A community that falls apart during a crisis is dangerous. It is much better to discover some incompatibility now over coffee, over a disagreement about priorities, about supplies, about skills, than to discover it when the poop is hitting the fan and the cohesion of the group, the cohesion of the community is at risk. If a group isn't working, just step back. Try again with different people. The goal is not to find the perfect group on the first try. It may take a long time. So the lone wolf fantasy is appealing because it's simple, it's cool, it's Hollywood, you depend on no one, no one disappoints you, and no one complicates your plans. But again, it's just a fantasy. The reality is eventually something will happen that you cannot handle alone. A medical emergency, mechanical failure, a security situation that requires more than one set of eyes. When that moment comes, you'll either have people or you will not. Building a community is much more difficult than going on Amazon and buying gear. It takes a long time. It takes longer than stacking cans in a closet, stacking cans in your pantry. It requires vulnerability, trust, and patience, of which I think I have no, I don't have any of those. So moving
on. So here's a call to action. Here's my challenge for this week for everybody. Think of one person in your life who you would want beside you in an emergency. Just one person. Okay, it can't be your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband, wife, partner, sister, brother. Start a conversation with that person. You don't have to show them your preps, you don't have to divulge too much information. You really don't have to reveal anything that you're not comfortable with. Just start talking, see how it goes. You might be surprised on what happened. All right, folks, thanks again for stopping by. I really do appreciate it. Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast on the Twitters. If you have any questions, practical prep podcast at gmail.com. Thanks again for stopping by, folks. As always, I appreciate it. I know I beat that to death. Quickly, we are numbered 33 in the United States in the how-to category with this podcast. Cannot thank you enough for that. And again, if you like this podcast, please share, leave a review, like, subscribe, ring the notification bell. I don't even think I have a notification bell, but that's what everybody says on YouTube. All right, folks, be careful out there. Take care of one another, and until next time.
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