The Siege of New Hampshire

Mic, Brian, and Jeff discuss the 2014 movie Aftermath: an independent production about a group of average folks who gather in a north Texas farmhouse cellar to try to survive the radioactive fallout from a nuclear war. This is another of those Everybody Dies movies. The boys comment on what the writer did well for conveying prepper knowledge, and where he missed the boat. The biggest boat he misse...

The final installment in the backstory of Harold Perkins -- the man who had the steel casting expertise to fix that broken locomotive. In this chapter, Red has dropped them off at the woods along the border. They have to travel by night, without lights that passing drones might see. Then, hope that they've stayed on course to meet the people who think they're trading engine parts for a sack of cor...

So much Doom! With inauguration just a short while away, the boys review some of the doom we've been told will befall us all. In a more realistic vein, the threat of terrorists remains, regardless of who sits in the White House. We're told that hacker-terrorists have infiltrated many infrastructure systems. If they strike and take down infrastructure, what is a prepper to do about that? And then,...

The moment has come. Harold and his family must sneak out of their guarded townhouse and into the secret compartment in James Reddimer's truck. Red manages to involve a guard in restarting the truck as a way of proving his truck was empty. Harold worries about many things as they seem to be traveling no place in particular. The travel authorization provided by Dorn gets them through a checkpoint....

Mic, Jeff, and Brian all watched the movie Homestead over Christmas week. This is independent Angel Studios' screenplay based on the book series Black Autumn. Originally planned as a series, the first two episodes became a movie. More episodes to follow, says Angel Studios. The boys look at prepper lessons to be learned from the film and touch upon some of the thorny issues a well-equipped prepper...

Casting Dorn's part cannot be put off any longer. Red has a one-shot plan to rescue Harold and his family. While it means escaping to "lawless" New Hampshire, it is better than certain death. Their conversation over the details is masked by the roar of the furnace. Red plans to sneak them out that evening. Dorn, however, orders them to be ready to leave in a half an hour. If you are entertained by...

With renewed concerns of possible nuclear exchanges (Ukraine/Russia, Iran/Israel) Mic, Brian, and Jeff explore some of the reality behind nuclear blasts and more importantly, fallout. These were fairly topical among Americans during the Cold War, but with the fall of the Soviet Union, nuclear realities have slipped out of the mainstream American consciousness. The catalyst for this episode was a b...

While assessing their dismal prospects, (their work is doomed to fail) Harold discovers that a secret resistance organization has a couple of operatives working around the foundry. He recalls a neighbor of his down in Canton Boston telling him about the secret society. Harold confronts one of the operatives to request help. The operative makes no promises but says they will need time. Dorn, howeve...

Mic, Brian, and Jeff discuss how the holidays can be significant for preppers. Part of it is having to maintain one's situational awareness when out in crowded public places. Ne'erdowells seek out crowded places to cause trouble. A more positive holiday feature are the deep discounts. A good time for the shrewd prepper to save on preps. Links: Hot Holiday Offers https://hotholidayoffers.com/ Camel...

Harold and Mario share a lunch of Canton rations (cold mush). They want to discuss their predicament, but are aware that the foundry's office is bugged. Fry, one of the laborers assigned to the project, shares the news that they are to cast a second aluminum blade base. The first crew's casting failed. The rumor is that the first crew were taken out to sea and shot for their failure. You can show...

Mic, Brian and Jeff have a roundtable discussion keying off of Todd Sepulveda's November 10th podcast. Todd talked about some people who were prepping for post-election chaos seem to have just stopped prepping since chaos didn't happen. Was that a reasonable response? Because Trump won, will things be safe, secure, and problem free -- at least for the next four years?  The guys weigh in with their...

Harold Perkins arrives at a small abandoned foundry well outside of the protective bounds of Canton Boston. He, and another man, have been ordered to cast a new aluminum base for a wind turbine blade. The overseer of this project, a Mr. Dorn, is sternly adamant that failure is not an option. Dorn gets angry when Harold says the small foundry does not have everything they need for Dorn's project.  ...

Mic, Brian, and Jeff look at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in light of the recent hurricanes and aftermath. Did FEMA deserve the bad press it got? Is FEMA actually supposed to rescue people? Mic looks at the old Civil Defense model (pre-FEMA). Brian looks at the current Swedish version of Civil Defense -- which is strong on DIY. Below are links to things discussed in this episode. FEMA w...

Martin and his crew assemble the Ferals for the hike into Manchester. They are blocked by the stocky man and his men who insist on taking some of the Ferals as their own personal slave labor. Stocky's plan is derailed by the Overseer of the Grange. After all of that, the long march into the city begins. Once in the city, the Ferals find opportunities for work and housing. Martin is finally free to...

This week, Jeff, Brian and Mic will be discussing a 15-minute intro video by a scientist named Lewis Dartnell, who tries to sort out what humanity would have to know to rebuild civilization after an apocalypse.  Of course, you can't describe everything you'd need to do to rebuild our current civilization in just a short video. Some things he touches on are sound. Some things superfluous. The boys...

Martin and Margaret try to manage the sudden horde of Ferals that have settled around the Simmons house. While a solution is found, they put many of the Ferals to work in exchange for a meal of pine fries. A big project to keep most of them busy is digging out an area for a pond along the little stream on the Simmons' property. The work is interrupted by two men who wish to arrest one of the Feral...

In this episode, Mic, Brian, and Jeff discuss the post-apocalyptic film of 1970, No Blade Of Grass. It is called by some as the British version of the American film Panic In Year Zero. But the story is not about living in the woods, post-SHTF, but looks only at the journey from the big city to their Bug Out Location in the country. The boys try to look past the awkward artsy-ness of the director t...

Harold and his family arrive in Manchester. The casting process process begins for making a new cylinder head for the ailing locomotive. While they work, Harold shares some of what life was like in the detention camp and some of the mysterious goings on. Once the work was completed, Martin returns home to find a difficult surprise.   You can help keep the Siege stories going. Become a Patron on Pa...

A counterpoint to the dark Mad Max vision, are stories of people rebuilding after an SHTF event. Mic dips into his old-movies archives to discuss Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Mic, Jeff, and Brian then look at Kevin Costner's The Postman (1997) as a tale of SHTF survivors who grasp at hope that "America" is coming back and begin to assert control over their own lives and defy the local warlord.  ...

Martin was busy tending to his unexpected guests when an urgent radio call came in. The railroad project needed the welding repair done immediately. Martin tried to tell Charles to get his welder up to Manchester and do the welding as he had promised, but the Hendrick brothers had gone to the coast and would not return until Friday. The welder was still at the Hendricks' farm but how could he get...

Mic, Brian and Jeff discuss one of the iconic tropes in prepperdom -- the world gone "Mad Max". Formed mostly on the basis of the first two Mad Max movies (and there have been sequels afterward), the chaotic, desolate, and violent world of Mad Max serves as a sort of worst-case archetype for a post-SHTF world.  But, how likely is the world to Mad Max? Can one prep for that? Why aren't there roving...

Early one morning, the motion alarm that Martin installed in his bean field, goes off. He rushes out to find a mysterious silhouette at the edge. He chases and tackles the person. She turns out to be a member of a group of Feral women who had been hiding in the woods across the road.  Margaret coaxes them into cooperating and relocating to behind the Simmons' house so that they would be safe from...

The US Government's EMP Commission's report stated that at E.M.P. attack could take out the nation's power grid for over a year. After a year without the grid, said the report, that 60% to 90% of Americans would be dead. None of us can prevent an EMP, a CME, or a terrorist hack, but there are steps we can take to help be in the surviving 10%. Mic, Brian, and Jeff discuss grid-down media and an EMP...

Martin resumes his chores around the house and checks out Dustin's rabbit snares at the back bean field. He takes a break to help Andy move out to Mara's camp. Andy is thrilled to be rooming with his soul mate. Martin gets back home in time to attend a contentious Grange meeting. Members complain about the Ferals stealing food and spreading disease. A mood of vigilanteism sweeps the meeting.   To...

Mic gives an audio tour around the homestead as things stand at mid-summer.-- the quiet, elderberries that were only mostly-dead, what seems like slow fruiting, the chickens and the sad tale of dropping a tree on top of his low garden. Doh. All that, and news that target shooting is, apparently, a popular spectator sport for chickens. Who knew?   To see photos that go along with this audio tour, v...