spk_0:   0:00
we're standing in a swamp. It's December 31st. Northern Florida, along with four gotten coast, which is the Gulf of Mexico Coast. But on down from Panama City is quite a ways in the area that just nobody ever goes there. Standing in a swamp, we're surrounded. Bye short cypress trees. They're everywhere. It's just It's just a tangle of short cypress trees. The water rat. The moment is six inches to a foot deep. It's the middle of winter, so the mosquitoes aren't bad. But where we're standing, you can see all the grass is flattened by the alligators, which around here somewhere you don't know. Snakes don't seem to be that much of a of a problem, but as far as the eye can see from where you are standing or pine trees and there are cypress trees and there is swamped, and this is where some preppers think they're going to come to survive. This and many other places like it are the quote unquote woods. The swamp. We're standing in the moment spice. They were actually at a couple days ago, plates called Tate's hell, and it's just one of the many places the preppers think they're going to go to survive. Not all proper, certainly. But some preppers think we're going to the woods if the stuff hits the fan spice and they're here to tell you that maybe if you that's part of your plan, you might want to rethink it a bit. And we've got some got some observations about it from people who actually do go into the quote unquote Woods. Ah, lot from people who own property that is basically nothing but quote unquote the woods. A lot of people, I think, are under the misunderstanding that they could go to the woods and survive, and we're here to talk about that. A little bit obviously takes hell is the Woods. Tate's hell is the type of place that you know people people might people used to go into to survive. And frankly, I don't want to be part of that. So coming.

spk_1:   3:02
So why they call it Tate's hell salty. Well, see, there's this

spk_0:   3:07
guy named Tate. I'll let you tell a story, you know?

spk_1:   3:11
All right. So a guy named Tate who lived on the border of this territory, went out with a couple of his dogs to go hunting and tae tell because they've got bearer in there. No, that got alligator. I suspect they have, dear, because there used to be a whole lot of dear.

spk_0:   3:30
I saw deer tracks. So I'm sure they dio now whether they did then and I don't know. But I know they do now because I saw some tracks.

spk_1:   3:36
There are a whole lot of deer in that area before people started selling their buying the hides from the natives for a whole lot of money. And Florida got depopulated of deer in a very big way during the Caucasian native transition period.

spk_0:   3:52
But that's about with Tate. Was there? This is This is years ago.

spk_1:   3:55
So he may have been deer hunting. Anyway, he went out there hunting. He got lost, he and his two dogs, and he was lost for a full week. Had to drink that nasty black

spk_0:   4:08
Taman filled,

spk_1:   4:09
and it's got to be bitter from all the tannins in it. But I sure wasn't gonna taste it to find out. Uh, he got bitten by a snake. Half starved, got out of the woods week later, came upon a homestead, not his didn't know the people there introduced himself as my name's tape. And I've just come from hill as we drive north away from the coast of Florida. Here we just passed another creek and it was full of cypress swamp. And I'm a biologist, so I'm thinking Goal, Cypress Swamp. But then I noticed what the locals named it. Dismal Creek. Oh, that tells you what they thought about trying to make a living in the place.

spk_0:   5:00
And we're driving through the woods right now. We're driving through the woods, and I'm gonna tell you the woods sound really, really, really like the answer to a lot of people who don't know the first thing about living in the woods. Now, we're gonna preface this by saying something you guys are already all puffing up saying, Oh, I know what I'm doing. Well, yes, you. But I'm not doubting that you do. What I'm here to make a contention on. My contention is this. Unless going out into the woods and surviving on your own for months at a time without support is your fang right now, if it's your thing and you're already doing it, Okay, maybe you maybe this is a plan for you. Okay, if that's what you do, is that your thang? But for 99.999% of the people on this planet, it is not their fangs. And it's not gonna work because not only do you have to go out into the woods if this is what your plan is, you have to go out there and compete with all these other people who a don't know what they're doing and be likely to shoot you on sight as they're out there starving in the woods. This is not a plan. If if we have ah, you know, and we all think about the breakdown, there's no other reason Go out in the woods unless there's a There's a complete breakdown of societal of society or you're trying to get away from pandemic, which is another reason you might want to do this. But there's gonna be one readily available a large mammal for the taking out there in the woods and it ate a deer. It's on two legs. There will be a very dangerous place to meet up with people and the whole idea of going away and holding up into the woods. Just it just No, really, it's just not happening.

spk_1:   7:13
I like my chances of going out on any particular three day period on my own land Right now. I like my chances of actually being able to shoot enough meat to keep me alive or keep me in good good for a week or two on any given three day period right now. And I'm not a master hunter or anything. That's not the hard part. The hard part is the lack of shelter. The hard part is the big game that will really keep provide enough calories to keep people going for a while is going to disappear very, very fast when there's a bunch of hungry people out there who have high powered rifles and there's no longer a hunting season, dear is gonna be abundant for about two weeks,

spk_0:   8:03
and then it's gonna be gone. Now, you know, really, when you're talking about going out hunting, um, I'm just gonna be straight up and honest with you. There's one. There is 14 legged game, and and it wasn't really a game. And 14 legged animals that will be, um, available. Talk for a while because there's so many of them. Have some farmers. Cattle. Yeah, that's that's gonna be it because the deer are pretty much gonna be gone, and they're going to go to the ones that are left are going to go to ground today. We're just gonna go to ground they don't

spk_1:   8:40
get during deer season

spk_0:   8:41
someone's will by early. And it's already happens in deer season by the third day of deer season, they you will not see dear, you know, during the daylight hours. So which brings me back to one of my one of my suggestions for later on hunt at night, if you're gonna be out there, get night vision scopes or get a infrared 100 night because that's when any game that's out will be out. That's later on type thing. Now, the main point. I want to bring up about the whole concept of going out into the woods and surviving first. I couldn't do it. I could not do it. I would die. I know that, um, Spice. I couldn't do it. She would die. She would last longer than me. Uh, but she would die. And, you know, we're a lot more countries full out of people who are considering doing this. You know, we II camped a lot when I was a kid. I was a boy Scout are Fang was caving in camping. We went to the caves and did caves. That's kind of where I got the fascination for caving, and we also camped a lot like every other weekend. And we did wilderness camping. We did winter camping, so I know how to do it. And I also know how absolutely miserable it can be to be in a tent in a snowstorm. It's It could be absolutely awful time. It really can it I was like, Oh, well, heart. No, it's OK for a weekend, right? But when it's this is a plan, No,

spk_1:   10:32
When it's months till spring, it's a whole different deal

spk_0:   10:35
to key concept. We need to take away all prepping. If you are prepping for a STD Stuff hits the fan as H T F situation if you're prepping for that, and I did not come up with this, but it's true. This is somebody else's idea, but it is a true idea. The stuff hits the fan is a come as you are disaster. It's not going to wait till good weather. It's not going to wait till, uh, spring or fall. It may come in the middle of August. And if you live in the South in the middle of August, this is on issue. If you live in the North and the and the stuff hits the fan in January, right now you know my, my at my house, it's five degrees below zero. Are you on about the winter for the woods in five degrees below zero. Are you ready for that? Do you really think you have the the preparations to survive that?

spk_1:   11:44
How much firewood do you think you can collect when everything is under six inches of snow in a layer of ice? On top of that from the freezing rain that fell a few days later.

spk_0:   11:54
Additionally. And not just how much firewood can you collect, But additionally, the next question becomes, Do you really want the smoke wafting up into the sky from wet wood, which is gonna be smokier than all Get out? Is this something you're looking for? You know what your plans, but we would be using our Kelly cattle, which doesn't make much smoke, and it's very, very contained. You're not getting much warmth out of a Kelly kettle.

spk_1:   12:26
Yeah, that's fine for making some hot drinks,

spk_0:   12:30
but it's not gonna

spk_1:   12:30
be valuable for that. And you can warm up food in it, but that's what it's for. Its not gonna keep you warm,

spk_0:   12:38
so yeah, I mean,

spk_1:   12:39
you even keep a fire going with that much when all the wood is what. And it's been pouring rain for three days and it's still pouring rain. Now,

spk_0:   12:48
now, remember, we're talking about we're not talking about going out to our place. We would have shelter in place. The reason we put it up there so we'd have felt it was the first thing we did. Our cabin at this point in time, is a glorified tent, but it is a very watertight tent,

spk_1:   13:04
wind tight, watertight

spk_0:   13:05
and tight, watertight,

spk_1:   13:06
and that it's about a dry floor that's right

spk_0:   13:09
of steel, you know? So that goes a long way, man, that goes a long way. You could you could survive it minus five unheeded. In a shelter like that, we'll be comfortable

spk_1:   13:23
but strong Try. You got at least a shot at

spk_0:   13:25
it. You want you could just wall up and use your body.

spk_1:   13:30
Yeah, but if you are out in it with a tent or something like that, are you gonna be able to stay awake all night to keep the fire going? Because it when it's that cold, you can't let the fire go out. Which means you have to stay up periodically day and night. You don't have those perfectly sized big chunks of wood. What? You're mostly God is smaller stuff because trust me of tried this one. What? All you've got his hand tools. Ah, lot of what you get to burn is the smaller stuff, because that's the stuff you can reasonably grab and chop up into usable size chunks. But you have to keep eating. It works fine, But you got to keep feeding fire.

spk_0:   14:10
And here's the kicker. This is the one thing that people just do not seem to get when they're talking about living off the land again. We're talking. This is coming to our situation. You're gonna live off the land, right? Well, ol without hiking. And I did this for a week and I was fine. Oh, yeah, I went out, You know? What about those guys up in the cup of the Mount Everest and stuff like that? They camp out 30 degrees below zero with a 100 mile an hour winds. Is that you know? Yeah, they did. But they also had a complete team of Sherpas hauling that stuff that they're sleeping and up that mountain for them. Including all the food, all the water

spk_1:   14:55
to every guy's half a day to chop out a flat enough spot that they could lay down their tent, not fall off the side of a mountain.

spk_0:   15:02
You know, all of that was done for them, right? And you're camping for a week. Yeah, but did you? Did you Did you have to go hunting every day to get the food for you to eat? No. You ate the food you brought in that food you brought. It's only gonna last for a certain amount of time. And if you are wandering through the woods, you're just not carrying very much food. And you're burning it like there's no tomorrow. You are burning calories like it's going out of style. If you're out in the woods and

spk_1:   15:33
somebody is shivering hard because they're so cold. This is the deep cold. You are doing everything you can to keep your body warm. It's still working so far. So you're not, actually, you know, in danger of dying of hypothermia just yet. But you're just above that level where you are that cold and shivering that hard. You are burning calories at 70% of your maximum sprint effort rate. That is the same amount of calories it takes to ride a bicycle about 20 miles an hour along a road. And you're not just doing it for an hour or four hours or six hours, you're doing a 24 hours a day. I have calculated how much food it takes to sustain like that, and I personally cannot put that much food in my face. I can't put that much food in my face. What? I've got nice, concentrated food sources. I certainly wouldn't be able to when I had to stick in every kind of calorie I could run across because there are a lot of food sources out there. But some of them take a whole lot of preference, preparation and effort.

spk_0:   16:45
Okay, you may hear a little click here. We're gonna pot. We have to pause the quad cast for just a second because we have to go get our supplies. We'll be right back. Part of the team, as you are. Party idea that I want to talk about today. Let's say let's say the stuff. It hit the fan today we are in or Florida, right on the Georgia border. It ISS 45 degrees outside US temperature as opposed to civilized temperature with the rest of

spk_1:   17:26
uncivilized Fahrenheit. Scale

spk_0:   17:29
of these in scale. It's raining. Uh,

spk_1:   17:36
it's supposed to get down to about freezing here tonight.

spk_0:   17:40
This is Florida. It was North Florida, to be fair, but it's Florida back home, which is where we're heading. At the moment we're talking about last night it got down, Ah, eyes balmy minus 15. This is just in the Midwest. We're not talking about the great White North. We're not talking about our Canadian friends who live where it gets really cold. Okay, every podcast we get an aside. Here's Here's this podcasts aside because we just have to do it. We love Ontario, Northwest Ontario, Southern Darrow Central. We tear is a beautiful place in July.

spk_1:   18:30
Yeah, we go up there and it's so lovely and we're starting to think about, you know, by the way, Thunder

spk_0:   18:38
Thunder Bay. Okay, that whole area around Thunder Bay, you know, it's good they got the beautiful forest. They've got the fast running, hard running, clear streams.

spk_1:   18:48
So many wild flowers.

spk_0:   18:49
Oh, my gosh, White water everywhere. The Lake Superior is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. But we have to. We'll be there. We'll be looking at each other and looking around us. We're watching. We're watching a guy doing kayaks, kayaking out there on this rural mountain stream, out in the middle of nowhere

spk_1:   19:11
and wishing I had my little book.

spk_0:   19:13
She's wishing she had her little boat, even though, frankly, she could not be doing what he was doing because he was. This was we were watching and go, and we looked at each other, just turning a TTE the same time. We just had the same word July because this win weep when she, I put it. When she planted spring our first spring planting of trees last two years ago, that was the same time they were having their winter, uh, athletic events. They have this big winter athletic. Uh, it's it's, ah, event, competition, competition. Every year we were planting

spk_1:   20:02
and they had to wait for it to warm up enough to have their winter games. Yeah, yeah. So if you are thinking that making it in the woods is gonna be your thing to test this out, I recommend the first thing you do is you. You get the bag of stuff you're planning on using. You take it out there to the woods, the spot you intend to go in the least advantageous season of the year there. Before you actually go out there, you find the nearest creek. And if it's find liquid water, even if you have to, ah, break some ice to get it, Drop all your junk in it. Haul it up out of the water. Don't yourself in it. Make sure you're thoroughly what and then either go back to the car where it's nice and warm. Try it from there because your stuff's gonna get what it's gonna get tort apart by wind. In some parts of the country, you're gonna have to find ways to make sure the critters don't get into it. I'm not just talking bears. Bears are worth your attention because they'll each. But even in our part of the country, keeping supplies safe from the raccoons is quite the challenge. When camping

spk_0:   21:29
and the skunk skunk search issue in camping, You rebel who don't camp don't realize how much problem a skunk could be. I don't care.

spk_1:   21:37
What you gonna do?

spk_0:   21:38
It? You do not want to get skunked?

spk_1:   21:41
Yep, he didn't.

spk_0:   21:42
Skunk stinks literally.

spk_1:   21:44
They're lovely, gentle creatures, and they'll just wander casually into your camp. Hi. How's it going? I'm gonna walk up to your stuff. Num que. Hey, I think I'm gonna rummage through this bag here. You don't mind? Do yet? No, I didn't think you would mind. Thanks so much. Oh, Marsh Bills. My favorite. I think I'll pull out some of these. Hey, you're starting to make me nervous. My tail's going up into the air. Do we want to go here? We could do this. I I realized by the

spk_0:   22:16
smell of B. I

spk_1:   22:17
really know. Oh, you've decided it's fine that I eat these marshmallows could Then we're both in agreement.

spk_0:   22:24
Skunks really are like that. And you know, if an even worse. You know, I know so many of you have dogs.

spk_1:   22:33
Oh, this is

spk_0:   22:34
going to be a bad day. Your pooch is having a fight. Oh, is going to be smelly. Okay. Fido's gonna fight us. Go be smelling He really is because he's not gonna put up with no skunk. And he doesn't know what a skunk is. The first time after they see a skunk and get skunked, they know what a skunk is. They don't want more of that.

spk_1:   22:56
The dumb ones. You gotta get scored twice, But you can't afford to be spending your precious tomato juice washing your dog. That's a good way to get skunk oil off. By the way,

spk_0:   23:07
that's Yeah. And here's another thing. You know, you people, they love their pets. Okay. Are you really gonna take your dog to the woods with you?

spk_1:   23:20
The one you keep inside or on a leash all the time?

spk_0:   23:23
The one who you know, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Let me tell you what you're domesticated dog gets his food from his dish. That's what he knows. He doesn't go hunting for his own for a while. He might Well, yeah, and he's gonna make a heck of a lot of noise doing it unless you have a dog specifically trained for hunting. And trust me, I have many, many, many friends who are outfitters who have dogs. They literally are outfitters. They have dogs that are service dogs. They're hunting dogs, specifically bred and trained to do this, and they still don't do what they're supposed to do half the time. There's nothing more fun in my world. Been watching a good hunting dog do its thing. I love watching a retriever retrieve. I love watching a pointer point while watching a bird dog do its thing. Get those quail up. Forget that pheasant up and flying beautiful to watch. It's a lot of fun, but even still, even the best trained dogs our dogs, they have. They do dog things.

spk_1:   24:33
Squirrel world really distracted. They run off other dogs, distract him a whole lot Worse. Dogs get into a whole lot of medical emergencies when you let him run around in the woods,

spk_0:   24:44
especially if they're not use to the woods.

spk_1:   24:47
My friend Doc has a terrible time with that. She is in Arizona at the moment and she's got some lovely, well behaved dogs, and she likes to hike with him. But, man, she spends way too much time taking spines out of their paws because they just, you know, they get into stuff here. They're getting into birds. They're getting into getting their, ah, eyes scratched by running through brambles. They're tearing their feet up, running over stuff. We're getting into fights with possums and raccoons because I don't like you. Yes, some of which are Aban. Not many, but some. Frankly, your dog is going to try and take on that raccoon and a lot of time. Raccoons are not shy retiring creatures. I've seen Iraq and stand up to a car stand there in the middle of the road on its hind legs, waving its claws, baring its teeth, hissing, loudly, checking behind it, make sure that it was trying to get the kids across the road. So, you know, dead dead came first and he trundles across and he sees the car and he runs out a few feet in front of where the roll kids is crossed. Automobile. He stands up and starts threatening and hissing and clawing, and it keeps looking back over his shoulder like you cost yet. Kids, this is a big one. Hurry up, guys. This is a big one, and he's making all scary and stuff.

spk_0:   26:16
It was hilarious. We were sitting there laughing our butts off, Looking through the look of this. You were scared. I probably You work. You were scared. You got

spk_1:   26:26
it. Oh, we're going to stay in the guard here, okay? And then the instant mom hustles the last baby raccoon across the road, he darts off after him. He was just protecting him. But if that's against a car, if it's against a dog,

spk_0:   26:44
it's go time.

spk_1:   26:45
Yeah, Prettier, but yeah.

spk_0:   26:49
And you think Oh, yeah. Well, my dog. Yeah, but then she's coming to you know, they I've seen raccoons get real aggressive.

spk_1:   26:59
So you suppose your dog wins and you've got raccoon for dinner? Okay, You've also got a torn up dog, and you've got a big chance of infection and you've got some dogs that can't even some dogs will actually sunburn in strong sunlight. The light skin dogs with the short hair. Sometimes they'll have sunburn problems. There's just a lot. And who knows what they're eating. Expect digestive troubles. It's a problem, guys. It's not. They're not wolves anymore than you are. You're Paleolithic ancestors who knew how to do this stuff.

spk_0:   27:38
Yeah, that's the thing we go back to take. Take. Knew what he was doing. Tate lived in this world.

spk_1:   27:46
He went out there to hunt on purpose with his dogs,

spk_0:   27:50
who ran off. You know, that's that's what we're saying about dog and these air hunting dog. I'm sure it take knew what he was doing, and still, he got out there. He got lost and

spk_1:   28:03
couldn't find food and couldn't find decent water and got bitten by a snake.

spk_0:   28:09
The only thing I guess, good forte and it was really that good for him is that now he's got the whole region named after him. So people have heard of nobody's heard of the people of the farmers who he rescued him, who rescue. I don't know, Tate Waas. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. So all the whole point here is if you are one of these people who thinks that going to the woods is the answer to what am I going to do If I'd like you to take a real serious rethink on that. And it's not like I'm trying to say you're not. You couldn't live in the woods because, I don't know, you might be able to. I couldn't live in the woods.

spk_1:   29:14
I'd make it on my own land for a while

spk_0:   29:16
on Dwyer, not talk. Things is different. We're not talking about going to our old land where we have made preps

spk_1:   29:24
and not only where have made preps, but I know what the food sources are and where their sources are and yeah, yeah, not that we don't know where to get what

spk_0:   29:35
I'm talking about. Some people think they're going to the woods. Just the generic with woods. Okay, good. The woods somewhere. Like it's like the woods is a particular place, or even better, they've picked out a place like in a state forest. Well, I'll be the only one out there. Yeah, well, so well, about another 100,000 people, because lots of people will be going to the woods, you know? And then you've got the whole how are you going to get to the woods? And what are you going to do on the road to the woods where all these other people are going to the woods and they don't have any more plan the Adam. Okay, this is not a convention of Noah's who have already built on arc here. This is not what we're talking about.

spk_1:   30:31
That will be most of them. You know, most of Moby guys who had an old gun sitting around the house and figured they could go out and shoot something that was better than sitting at home with an empty cabinet.

spk_0:   30:43
That's not a plan. I don't know what you're playing is. But that isn't one of them.

spk_1:   30:49
Remembering you fished here and caught your own lunch once upon a time is not the same thing of having to do it for months on end.

spk_0:   30:58
Yeah, even us. We gotta stock up on right. But we could fish that pond out in a heck of a hurry. That many fish in that pond like lakes. They're not that many fishing lake. Not when people start fishing that heavily lakes will get fished out quickly.

spk_1:   31:15
Yeah, there was no deer hunting in Missouri for decades before they put in the hunting regulations. When it was free hunting. Everybody could hunt the deer on their own land whenever they felt like it. Hunted almost to extinction. Not quite to extinction, but to uselessness is a reliable food source.

spk_0:   31:32
And Missouri is such prime deer habitat that that's pretty astounding, you know? So anyway, I think will wrap this. Yeah, we said what we want to

spk_1:   31:42
say. I like the woods but me going out there with a loincloth trying to play survivalist. It's a bad plan.

spk_0:   31:52
I don't like ourselves drive

spk_1:   31:56
way. Haven't even gotten into the whole insect question here. Four people died of malaria loincloth really around a Washington D. C.

spk_0:   32:06
So that's all right. Totally distract.

spk_1:   32:08
Men are pigs. This is Yes. I'm glad I could distract you, but

spk_0:   32:12
we must. I will admit it. Men are pigs. I'm a guy. I I admit it. And sometimes maybe there's just too much dog in a man. What can you say? Anyway?

spk_1:   32:27
My dreams are not a plan. They're not a prop. Come up

spk_0:   32:31
with a better idea,

spk_1:   32:33
having some skills you can get from one place to another. That's a plan that's a prep,

spk_0:   32:37
having places that you can go pre prepared with, uh let's say, for example, you have a family you can go to where they have. Perhaps you have. Perhaps, and you can each go to each other's place in time of emergency. Bat is a plan that's a prep getting something set up in a rural community, which you could do it with a very low cost. That is a plan. And we're gonna do a podcast on that fairly soon. About be hidden super secret prepper. What's the word I'm looking for?

spk_1:   33:21
I don't know. What idea you're going for can help

spk_0:   33:23
here. No Retreat! Retreat! Does the super secret prepper retreat? There was a load of guys who were mutton. They're driving back to town Train. I just saw that. There's like a flatbed with three jeeps on it and the other late over here, just covered in mud, watching off those mutter. Okay, we're gonna wrap this up, so till next time,

spk_1:   33:56
have a good plan. Bye Bye now.