The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Home Protection, Virgis 54

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Nicole Wallace joins the Changing Earth to discuss protecting your home as natural and social threats continue to escalate.

Welcome back to the Changing Earth Podcast with author Sarah F. Hathaway and co-host Chen Gibson. Blending survival fiction and fact to bring you entertaining education that will help you dream, survive, and thrive. And now, here's your hosts, Sarah F. Hathaway and Chen Gibson. Chapter 54. Flying across the morning sky, Cole was shocked watching the chaos unfold under him again. The quakes hit so hard that the land above the vast reservoir liquefied and dropped into the water below. Everything was swallowed into a silty grave. The water was littered with the remnants of the past. Survivors of the disaster flooded onto the land on either side of the vast lake.

Oh my God, Major. What will we do now? Johnny asked. How many more refugees did it just create? Cole asked, looking at him. Cole knew they would be assigned to round them up, and he dreaded the task. The new capital city in Kansas starkly contrasted with the destruction they had seen unfolding before their eyes. Cole sat lounging on a balcony with Johnny. The scent of flowers floated through the air as Cole stared out across the city bowl they were housed in. The buildings tapered down on all sides to a green garden space in the center. The sound of commerce in motion rang up from below,

along with the chatter of a multitude of birds as they danced through the air. along with the chatter of a multitude of birds as they danced through the air. This place is amazing, sir, Johnny chirped, as two birds spiraled up through the air in a magical celebration of life. Wow, did you see that? And how did they build the outer walls so big? And look at this place. These city bulls are massive.

How did they dig the holes so deeply? It's deeper than you think. They're all on gigantic ball bearings so the balls can move in the quakes, Cole told him A whole network of tunnels allows security to travel quickly from area to area. Plus, the tops close during the storms or tornadoes, Cole explained. Johnny's neck craned as he gazed upward, imagining gigantic lids that could cover the entire city. That's crazy, he commented, standing back up. He went to the balcony trying to see down to the road, but all he could see were the roofs of other rooms. The tunnels provide an alternate escape route? That's right, Cole answered. Will we get to see inside the stadium bowl, Johnny asked.

Not on this trip, Cole told him honestly, taking a sip of his drink. What's it look like, he wondered. You saw the glass outside that rises into the air. That bowl is not as big as the city's sectors. The walls are lined with seating and private balconies for the elites. It's where they host government meetings and community events. That's awesome, Johnny commented. It really is, but it was built on the backs of many refugees, Cole explained solemnly, thinking about the vast number of people he saw fleeing the Ogallala.

From inside the hotel room, a knocking came at the door. Cole rose from his chair heading inside to answer it. Johnny followed on his heels. As Cole approached the door, a mercenary soldier declared, sir, General McClintock will see you and his son now. Upset by the delay, Johnny commented, it's about damn time. Cole snapped him a corrective look before turning to the soldier and commanding, lead the way, soldier. They traversed the hotel section and followed the curve of the bowl around to an office building. Entering a large, busy room with mercenary forces operations,

the noise of typing, talking, and beeping filled their ears. The soldier led them to a hallway that broke off in the back. The hall opened into a small waiting room at the end, and the mercenary soldier knocked a couple of times on the door before opening it. Major Virgis and your son, sir, the soldier announced to them. General McClintock rose from his chair and approached. He shook Johnny's hand formally, greeting him. Johnny, it's so good to see you, son. Hi, dad, Johnny replied. Do you mind waiting outside until we're done? McClintock asked his son. Completely deflated by his request, Johnny mumbled, whatever, before leaving. Paying no notice to the boy's attitude, McClintock answered, thanks, son. Major Virgis, please come in and sit down. Johnny left, closing the door behind himself. Focusing on McClintock's desk, Cole noticed another man sitting there.

Major General Barnes, I wasn't expecting to see you here today. These are delicate topics we speak of here today. The entire leadership of our forces needs to agree or we are lost, Barnes replied honestly. With the collapse of the Ogallala, you're going to be a very busy man, Major, McClintock commented. As the Major General says, these are delicate matters that just got more complicated. In more ways than one, Cole explained. McClintock nodded at him. I heard that William Baker was killed.

Was it the Feds? Cole shook his head negatively. No, his death was completely accidental. He was killed by a refugee woman. How? McClintock inquired. A soldier uncovered a trap door. When he opened it, William had the drop on the soldier. The woman was part of the Federal Rescue Squad.

She grabbed the soldier's sidearm and killed William. It's a damn shame. He was starting to win a lot of cases and sway a lot of public opinions. The woman that did it is the lone survivor, the one from the story all the refugees pass around. They call her the savior of the refugees, Cole explained. Barnes smiled widely at Cole. You're not buying into that crap. It's just a story. Even if it was just a story, it's the momentum of the story we need,

now more than ever. But she is much more than a story. I've met her. She is everything the story says she is and so much more. Things are only going to get worse with the Ogallala disaster. McClintock wondered, what do you plan on doing with her? She's strong enough to rally the people, Cole explained passionately. Stirring on his words, McClintock looked confused. How can we get her voice out there without William? His supporters are already questioning their loyalty. And the majority of

them just got scattered throughout the refugee camps. There's more to the story than what you're telling us, Barnes pressed. William's daughter has been arrested. She's being held in Las Vegas, Cole informed him. I know you care for her, Virgis, but we can't do anything for her, or there will be a war for sure, McClintock warned. Las Vegas will be flooded with incoming and the processing will be chaotic. What if I could arrange to get her out without our involvement being known, Cole suggested. If you get caught, we can't go to bat for you, Barnes warned. You both know we have to make a move sooner or later. Our force is strong enough

to stand against them, Cole encouraged him. Finally, something I agree with. We should use the Ogallala's chaos to free the Appalachian area first. The feds are going to be distracted by a flood of people. Now is our time to move, Barnes stated. McClintock's face scowled. The Appalachian Islands has a line of battleships that patrol it. Only in the south, the Mississippi Sea is too shallow in the north, Barnes commented. You two are already talking about all-out war. Why not let Erica try first, Cole interjected, surprised by the direction the conversation had taken i don't want another civil war in this country mcclintock said standing from his desk and walking towards the window he paused for a moment staring out before he turned back towards the men but we all agree

something must be done at least check her out before you dismiss the idea cole suggested barnes took a deep breath, admitting, I suppose we can give it that. Let's reconvene tomorrow and we'll make the decision then. You two are dismissed, McClintock told them, sitting back down at his desk and flipping through a stack of papers. Cole strolled towards the door, letting Barnes leave before him. Hesitating at the door, Cole commented, Sir, your son is waiting. Tell him I'll be out in a moment, he declared without looking up. Knowing how disappointed Johnny would be, Cole suggested, Do you want him to come in, sir?

Perturbed by his insistence, McClintock looked up at Cole and said bluntly, I'll be there in a moment, Virgis. Yes, sir, Cole answered as he left. Johnny stood up, looking expectantly at Cole. Does he want me to go in? No, he said he'll be out in a minute, Cole answered, trying to keep his voice neutral. An angry look adorned Johnny's face and he looked to the ground, slightly shaking his head. Whatever, I'm going back to the room. Concerned, Cole suggested, just wait for him. Johnny's eyes met Cole, and he declared finitely, No, Virgis, I'm done waiting for him. Don't you understand?

That's why I left. I'm done. An awkward silence persisted for a moment as Cole chose his next course of action. Then let's go back to the room and have a beer, he suggested to the young man, putting an arm around him. Johnny grinned from ear to ear as he replied, Sounds good to me. It was the following day before General McClintock called for his son.

Johnny went to breakfast with him and Cole sat pondering the odd relationship. He felt so at peace on the hotel balcony amongst the flowers and the dancing birds. Leaning towards the adjacent lower patio, he listened to a mother scolding her son. He had left without her permission. Cole could ascertain that his father had promised him a day at the park and he had to go to work instead. His mother had to do laundry and couldn't take him, so the boy left, alone. Tears were shed, but the boy apologized for his behavior in the end, and his mother hugged him tightly.

They left to go get some feel-better ice cream. Cole reflected on the interaction. Johnny's mother had been killed in the quake. Cole had been the one to console him. Cole heard the front door and Johnny called, Major, are you out here? I sure am, Cole replied, walking back in the sliding glass door. My father is waiting in the lobby for you, he declared flatly. Did you guys have a nice breakfast, Cole wondered. It was good to spend time together, he answered. That sounds pretty lackluster, Cole noted. It was, Johnny

said with a sigh as he flopped down on the sofa. He's trying, Johnny, Cole assured him. Johnny rolled his eyes, replying, that's what you always tell me. He is, Cole assured him, straightening his uniform. I gotta go. We'll talk about this later. Whatever, Johnny mumbled as Cole left out the door. Cole found McClintock waiting for him in the lobby. Good morning, Virgis. McClintock greeted him as Cole approached. General McClintock, sir, Cole responded. Walk with me to my office, McClintock commanded.

Yes, sir, Cole responded. Walk with me to my office, McClintock commanded. Yes, sir, Cole agreed. As they walked, McClintock explained in a hushed voice. I looked into your refugee, Erica Moore. It wasn't hard to track her on the federal database. What did you find out, Cole responded quietly. Before the quake, she lived in Georgetown, California. When you cross-reference that information to the missing persons database, a couple named Earl and Kay Moore in Minnesota is looking for them. They live right by our base. Cole thought about the information and exclaimed, I know him. He's a veterinarian.

He told me about the family he lost in California. I heard so many stories of missing families at that point. I didn't put it together. That means Erica's husband is a landowner, making Erica a landowner, and their family should not have been infertilized. How does the camp director not know this, Cole wondered. Maybe they do. As long as they're in the camp director not know this, Cole wondered. Maybe they do. As long as they're in the camp, who would know? Cole shook his head in surprise. No one.

I know them both and didn't put it together. He kicked at the ground. Jeez, how could I have missed that? And I was just talking to her. I could have brought her family back then. The kids were still in Vegas, right? McClintock answered. They were, Cole responded. He paused for a moment thinking about his words.

You think the feds would hurt them? I know they would. Getting her out is going to be tricky, McClintock stated. They walked on in silence for a moment. Look, Fergus, I don't want the rest of the leadership to know this yet. It will put their lives in even greater danger if it gets out. I'm going to convince them to go with the Erica plan. If that fails, we go to war. Let's hope it works then, Cole commented, wondering how he could pull this off. What if I told you you could own land for $200 down and highly affordable monthly payments? Yourcheapland.com is your answer to bug out land, hunting, recreation, and whatever else your prep or mind can dream up.

Yourcheapland.com has properties in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona, Utah. Go to yourcheapland.com, check out the properties, use the promo code PBN, and get $100 off your purchase. Hello. Welcome to the podcast. Present your vaccine passport. Enter your social credit score and be sure you have enough remaining carbon credits to enjoy today's show. Be me and family. Your garden is the resistance. Hello and welcome back to the Changing Earth podcast. This is episode number 459, season 15, episode 45. Hey, Chin, what's up? Hey, Chin's up, y'all.

Man, just, you know, technology. I'm just beating my head against the wall today. I love new computers. Yep, gotta love them. Till you get everything dialed in again. So you get everything dialed in again. Yeah. So we've got a special guest with us today, Nicole Wallace. And Nicole, you've been on the show before. You were with the Prepper Ladies.

So why don't you go ahead and say hello. Definitely put your website out there so everybody knows right off the bat. And just give a little intro, and then we'll get into a little bit more show intro. Well hello everybody and Sarah thanks for having me back on. It was so much fun last time. I'm looking forward to this. So I own and run Wolf Fire Firearms Safety and Instruction. The website is wolf-fire.com. We've got Instagram. We've got Facebook. And so we teach anything from beginner to pretty advanced tactical firearm stuff. It's always such a good class. You do a great job.

I love being able to give women confidence for self-defense, obviously. And so that's why I really love what you do as well um great job out there thanks a little behind the scenes when i moved up to north carolina nicole was the one that got me uh certified for my console carry concealed carry my wife and i uh your console carry required yeah i was consoled. Yes. But yeah, so she's excellent. Yeah. Always a ball of fire as well. The minis, I guess, we're like the mini pack up there. We are.

Well, I'll be on my best behavior for this show. Yeah. It's too late. You can't backtrack now. It's too late. Yeah. It's already over we're already remembering things for prepper camp now all right yeah yeah all right so um just do a little catch

up i'm finishing uh episode eight right now of the Change of Earth audio drama. Should be completed with that this week, Lord willing, if everything goes correct. So we can look forward to a new block of the audio drama coming out soon. And then we'll be doing the Family Feud episode as well. And I'd love it if you'd support the show. Right now I need it more than ever if you would go over leave a review for one of my books subscribe to the podcast on YouTube just show show us show everybody how you know robust our community is that would be awesome and I'd really

really appreciate that as we already mentioned prepper Camp is approaching quickly. So I think there's still tickets available. If you don't have yours yet, you better get on it. It's going to be a ball this year. Lots and lots and lots of great people are going to be out there. So can't wait. We're going to be doing nothing but razzing each other up and teaching and learning and having a good time.

Oh, are you laughing at that one there, Chan? Not at all. I'm going to be right next to Mr. TJ Swenson all weekend, so I can only imagine the torture that I'm going to endure this time around

uh mr goose egg so yeah um let's see on our virgins episode we um he was flying out over the ogallala it was the ogallala collapse first time that i've really brought the audience in front and center on what that collapse looked like. We didn't really see it in Erica's books. We heard about it. But he got first bird's eye view of looking at the destruction there. And they end up in the capital city, quite a different place from the destruction that he saw. You know, it's this rebuilt place.

And, Nicole, you'd have to learn about it it's got the um it's like these huge bowls they built into the earth so they can rotate with the earthquakes uh pretty pretty neat little concept but um yeah you know protect and you're hoping then then the tops can close down if there's like a tornado that comes through or whatnot. Excellent. Like when can we build those things, right? Right. And then Virgis finds out that Erica is actually a landowner.

So she's been in this FEMA camp for nine years when she shouldn't have been. The age of 13, they infertilize everybody. So she has two children that have been infertilized when they shouldn't have been and so this is a pretty big scandal in the changing earth world and that kind of it's kind of what starts a lot of gears and emotion there so coming into the end of the book but today we're talking about homes we're talking about protecting your home. There's a lot of threats coming to our homes right now. I was telling you guys in the green room, there's like five houses on my road getting new roofs today from all the storms. And that's just on my road.

I can't even imagine how many homes in the state of Texas are receiving new roofs right now. Because we had like all of those huge storms that came through before the hurricane even did and then it's a mess and then we had um um come on i just wrote the change in earth news and debbie right debbie comes up the shoreline little debbie how much damage did little debbie do all along there we got wildfires burning in california you know how long can we just continue to rebuild and just pretend like nothing's going on we're not going to change anything and then there's another major threat to our homes that comes in the form of chaos so we brought nicole on the show today to talk to you a little bit about, you know,

protecting your home from both avenues. And I'm going to kind of just open it up to you, Nicole, and then pick your brain as we go. Sounds great. All right. So we are going to look at kind of the criminal element to start with here, right? So we want to know, maybe our homes are vulnerable now and maybe they're not, right? Bad guys take advantage of opportunity, right? So we've got kind of two that we're looking at, right? You've got the ones that come in the daytime, right?

They've scoped you out. They know you're not home. They know your neighbors aren't watching. They just want your stuff, right? In and out, no contact with you. Right. Right. And then we've

got the group that comes at night right and they are bold because they know your home they might know what security you have in place and they're willing to risk it for whatever it is that is inside your home that is so valuable and it might be you or your spouse or your children that they're after. But at the end of the day, we want our homes to be our safe refuge. We want to go in and close the door and come down from that state of constant alertness, right? Because we need to relax and recharge and have that peace in our homes.

You have to have that safe space to, like you say, provide that peace in our home you have to have that that safe space to like you say provide that peace of mind you can't live on that high edge all the time it'd be like we're in a war zone constantly and it doesn't do good things for a psyche yeah or our physical bodies yeah right it takes its toll so we need to come in and when we close our doors So we need to come in. And when we close our doors, right, we need to have that piece. So let's start with our doors, right, the perimeter of our home. Right. So have good locks, right? That's kind of the basics of it. deadbolts are easy to kick in some are easy to pick if you want to stick with basic keys you can get something like a double key deadbolt right it takes the key on the inside and on the outside oh uh-huh you know to lock it or unlock it don't leave the key on the inside if you have a double key deadbolt right because if you have a door that has those little windows on the side yep tank easy to break they've turned the key.

But don't hide it because if you need to get out in the middle of the night, you need to find it. We can get electronic locks for our doors, right? So many people have these smart locks and they're getting smarter and smarter. Some of them, there's a company called Blockly and there's other companies out there too.

But the keypad is electronic and it changes each time it pops up for you. So the person across the street who's watching, maybe they memorize, you know, the motion of your fingers, but it's different each time. So it prevents somebody from recording that and kind of finding out what your password is. Now be mindful, anytime we get super into technology, right, everything is hackable when we're starting to talk. That's what I was going to ask you about. I'm like, do you trust that? Do you like that? Yeah, it is an option. It is a layer of security, it can do a fingerprint, it has an actual key. Some love technology some people still want i just want my keys and my deadbolts and my chains on my door right whatever your situation is and whatever you feel the most comfortable with that is what you need to do but let's start with the

locks on our doors and make sure that we have them and that we use them. Yeah. Our doors are our most vulnerable spot, right? Followed by our windows. Okay. So easy to break through a window. So if you want to secure your windows, we are not trying to be Fort Knox, but we do want our homes to be secure. So there's a film you can get at any home, good store, Amazon amazon and it's just a film like tint you can get clear tinted you get some pretty ones you spray water on your window you put this film on there and it's just shatterproof film okay oh that's cool yeah if somebody hit it with a rock or a crowbar but that would also protect in like with hail and stuff like that because the hail has been getting more and more severe i mean i'm not going to say it's going to present you know

protect against baseball size but it's been getting very severe hail storms lately a lot in texas yeah yeah oddly large hail in texas yeah like golf ball size, not far from here. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So the glass itself will break, but it will hold. And I will tell you, if you want something tested, you find yourself a Marine and you say, hey, this is unbreakable. I love that. So that's what I did. Right.

I got some windows and I put this film on it and I said, hey, let me see if you can break through this. Right. I got some windows and I put this film on it and I said, hey, let me see if you can break through this. Right. He threw rocks at one at a separate one. He hit it with a hammer. And on a third one, he used one of the glass breaks like you would use to get out of your car. OK. Yep. Right. Glass all broke. But every one of them held together. It is not impenetrableble but it's going to take somebody some time and some effort and by that time you have a few moments to wake up and see what is going on yeah my german shepherd's on it by then right every layer of security we have gives us some extra time to wake up and be able to respond because we want to have a good clear

response to what is happening instead of a sleep induced, right? I just woke up and now I'm reacting and who knows what's going to happen. Right, right. You need some muscle memory kicking in. Right. So another layer we do, right? We've got our windows and our doors, right? Now let's get some lighting outside, right? Let's get some kind of a motion sensor where that light's going to come on. And it's just going to alert us that, hey, something has come within a particular vicinity, right? And you can put them out. You can put it on your fence. You can put it on your shed. You can put it way out at the end of your driveway. It's just an extra layer that alerts you. And maybe you get up and investigate. Maybe it's just the deer, but okay. I'd rather get up and,

and know that this little family of deer came through then know that I dismissed it. And a little group of bad guys was coming through. Right. Or like a bear or predator or something like that as well. Right. Right. People who live out in the country need to know if there's other predators

coming and they need to go out and protect their animals. Yep. So our outside lighting is just another layer. Let it come on. Making sure the outside of our homes is clean up. Right. We want we don't want to give bad guys anywhere that they can hide. OK.

So you can have shrubbery around your windows right some nice little spiky stuff that's going to deter somebody trying to crawl through that window but we don't want it so high that they could hide behind it and then slide in our door as we've left our door open because we're hauling things to and from our vehicles oh fair right so be careful in your landscaping have some good shrubbery and we want that but make sure that nobody can hide in it or behind it and then surprise us that way right good good call right so pretend you are a bad guy and do this with your neighbors walk around your houses and see how would i break in if I wanted to break into this house.

Right? And then figure out ways to secure that and make that a little bit more difficult. Right? I mean, remember, we want to be able to get out in an emergency. Right. We don't want to be trapped in our homes. So the film on the window goes on the inside. So you can just peel it off if you need to break your window and get out.

Oh, great call. Yeah. Right? But somebody from the outside is going to have a much harder time trying to get through that. Yeah. And like the locks are going to be on the inside to the windows as well. So you can always, you know, you'd be able to slide it up. Yes.

That's a good tip, though. Yes, right? So animals, you mentioned that, right? Your dogs are going to alert. Most of my dogs are. I've got a little old Yorkie who is deaf and will sleep through anything, but I do have a boxer that will wake up, and he's got a nice deep bark. You know, anything funny going around. But lots of people

have, you know, outdoor chickens, donkeys, guinea hens, you know, anything that is going to wake up and make some noise if something unusual, you know, comes through their path. And hopefully that's enough to deter somebody. But if not, it's enough to give you a few minutes to gather your thoughts and put your response into action. Right. Right? So love our animals. Now be mindful, animals can be taken out with a can of wasp spray, right? It's a neurotoxin.

So they can spray that far away, right in that that dog's face and that dog is no longer a threat to them so they are a great layer and they are going to take one in protecting us but just know that that is an easy way that somebody is going to be able to defeat our animals attacking them and that but that gives you extra time it does right and we're all about giving us extra extra seconds that we can to make sure that we are prepared and we can respond okay so and in that response right the whole family needs to know how we're responding right if suddenly somebody makes it through you know all of our outside defenses and gets in the house right do the kids in the home know how to respond do they know their part

and where they're supposed to go if you hear that door get kicked in and there's some kind of chaos right i need my kids to know yeah where they are supposed to go and go there so i can engage this threat and not have to worry about accidentally getting one of my kids in the process right no and it happens too you get you get that adrenaline pumping everything going on um i know just playing airsoft you know one of my dogs has come up on me before and i'm like oh well now you're a dead dog you know right yeah so if that's really really important point um especially where like areas converge where you would like be coming for each other you know like i'm gonna go find out is my child okay they're coming towards you those convergence areas you know gotta have code words gotta they gotta know where they hide out till

you give the all clear it's a great yes yeah they've got to know that and i've got to know that they are there because i have to focus on taking out this bad guy and i just need to know that they're in their safe place and not going to get hurt and that helps me know where i can engage this person at. Do I need to funnel them to a particular spot? Do I need to take a knee and aim up if, you know, I have a firearm, right? All of that comes into play with where is this person going to be? Right. My son's, my other son's room's on the second floor. Don't want to shoot up through the ceiling.

You know, yeah. Great point. And accidentally hit him. Yep. So we know the inside of our homes better than anybody else right you can get up in the middle of the night you can go to the kitchen and you can have that quiet snack that you've hidden somewhere all by yourself right and nobody is going to ask you for a bite of that and then you can go back to bed and nobody is the wiser,

right? You don't have to turn on any lights. You don't have to do any of that stuff. So if somebody comes in, they don't know your furniture layout. You know, they don't know if, you know, that everybody kicks that, that end table when they come in, right? That makes a lot of noise for you where they are. Right. a lot of noise. That's where they are, right? And you can arrange your furniture so that they are kind of funneled into a place where you are then going to engage them. So as we know, you know, the inside of our homes, right? That is something we need to protect.

So be very careful of who you let into your home. Yes. When someone comes up and they're like hey let me offer you this great deal let me see your windows right if you let them come into your home and chat with you they are now scoping out your floor plan the other one that i've heard too is like when they're building track homes or have like model homes they can go into like oh go in maybe somebody's home is for sale and it's the same model as you know every third house is that model then they know the layout of your house personal, you know, defense against how are they going to navigate through that in the dark, right? Because we're not going to turn on lights to figure out what's going on. We just need to know how our home is laid out and we're comfortable with that. Right.

So be careful, be careful who you let in. I agree with that. Right. So be careful, be careful who you let in. I agree with that. Right. A home security system is really an important layer in that. Right. And you can build your own these days. And of course, there's companies, we know who they are, right. And they'll either charge you a bunch for monitoring and give you a bunch of free stuff or they'll charge you for the stuff and give you a discount on the monitoring but typically there is you know one control panel and tall people out there i'm talking to you right put it down where the shorter people in your home can reach it fair enough sarah she was talking to me, not you. Yeah, yeah.

I was agreeing. I was cheering. Right? Yeah. It needs to be where anybody can push those buttons and call for help, right? Because maybe you're busy and you do not have time to call 911, but we certainly need our great law enforcement guys to come and help us out. Right.

So we're going to have all those sensors. Cameras. Cameras are a great thing, right? They let us see what's going on outside of our house. They can let you see what's going on inside your house. But again, if you can see it, it can be hacked and somebody else can see it so be very careful inside your home where you put cameras yeah we don't want we don't want somebody spying on you you don't want somebody spying on your family and finding out who's home who's not home so i'm not

a huge fan of them but you do get an insurance discount to like our insurance agent. Note, you do get a discount on your homeowner's insurance for having. But usually a closed circuit system as well as a monitored system. So you can ask your insurance person about that. Yes. Right. And so along with all of that just comes communication within our families,

with our neighbors. Right. You should have a communication system set up where say somebody's in your home and maybe your phone rings and they're like,

answer that and don't let anybody know that something is wrong. Okay. Well, maybe that's something say somebody's in your home and maybe your phone rings and they're like answer that and and don't let anybody know that something is wrong okay well maybe that person calling is you know is a friend right and you're like and you answer it in a casual way but a way that you know like we have a code word right yeah you know like my son I was like how you doing yeah yeah i'm like if you're ever in a situation you know and you're with your friends or whatever and you want out of that situation but you don't want to tell me mom i want out of this situation you say this word to me right and i'll know yep you've got to have that with your family have that with with some of your friends

and your neighbors so that way if they hear, then they can respond in a way that they know that you are in distress and they can send some help. Or maybe they're part of your response team. Right. So maybe they hear the siren go off. They know what to do. So our community is a really big part. Like survival team. We have a code word for our survival team so that if, you know, you're already on edge and somebody comes walking up who's supposed to be there, but, you know, you get on edge.

There's a code word for that as well so that, you know, they're your friend and you don't shoot them, you know. Right. Yes. So great segue into what do we do if somebody has gotten past all of our security and has entered our home, right? What are we going to then use to respond and defend ourselves, right? So in America, firearms are one of our wonderful rights that we have. Amen.

So whatever firearm you have for home defense, please make sure that everybody who might have to use it is capable of using it. If you have a big old 12-gauge shotgun and your wife is five feet tall, she might get one shot off with that. Right. Oh, come on. I could totally rack that. But firing it right. It's going to rock you back. Yep.

Your follow up shot is going to take longer. Right. Fair enough. Maybe there's a better option. Right. There are some smaller shotguns out there there's like half shells right a shotgun is a great home defense weapon but it needs to be appropriate for whoever might use it i can see that we also need to have if firearms are our

option whatever the plan right there's an intruder dad wakes up he responds to the threat mom runs and secures the children is there a form of defense wherever they are going so that way she can defend them if somebody comes in? Do we have a safe with a handgun inside, you know, the kids room in the top of the closet so that she has a way to defend the kids when they get there? Or pepper spray or something at our safe location. So that way, if something happens to dad, mom is still able to step up and offer some kind of defense, right? And we've got to practice these things. True. Right. So in firearms, right, not everybody loves the idea of potentially killing somebody. So the market has definitely had a surge of less lethal firearms, right? That you can get them as handguns,

you can get them as rifles. They shoot these pellets. So kind of like the size of a paintball pellet, right? Some are plastic, some are filled with pepper spray. Yep. They are going to hurt. Okay. They will definitely deter somebody who is not determined, but a very determined person is not going to stop with one of those less lethal pellets. Right. And if they're wearing big baggy clothes, it is probably just going to bounce off. Yeah.

So yeah. Same with a taser. Yep. Yep. So it's an option. And it just depends on on the threat that is coming through your door. Right. So with firearms, we want to make sure that we have ammunition that is not going to over penetrate, is not going to leave our home and potentially go into our neighbor's home, right? Because we are legally responsible for anything that comes out of the end of our firearm. Okay, so we've got hollow point rounds, right? Those are excellent. They dump most of their energy inside the body. There's also a round called a frangible round and it is compressed graphite it's meant as a training round for shooting steel so it breaks apart and nothing

flies back at you but it is excellent for home defense because once it enters that body and it just shatters everywhere in there it's not going anywhere yeah it's not it's not going anywhere. It's not. It's not going anywhere. So is it going to penetrate super thick like somebody had a leather jacket on? Potentially not, depending upon what caliber you have of it. But it hit like a ton of bricks. And if you can fire like three or four or five of them right then, bam. I mean, that's going to hurt. Yeah. It is.

So we need to practice practice practice if firearms are our home defense option because we need to be super competent with those so that way we can respond and not be fumbling with it and trying to figure out how to make it work that's a great point yeah i think there's a lot of people who maybe the the spouse isn't as comfortable as what like one spouse isn't as comfortable as the other spouse with firearms so i love that you made the point of like is there some way for the other person to defend themselves there at that secondary location you know that's that's a good point at all yeah yeah um and i know like you know my mom um has a firearm my my youngest son would go there with her but um not the easiest for her to

use all the time especially if she's just waking up because she has bad arthritis in her hands and stuff so that would be a great call for a different type of defensive mechanism that's easier for her to use like a bear spray or something like that that's just uh you know you can pull it easier yeah that's a great point it'll spray really far if you wear glasses make sure your glasses are by your bedside yeah so you can get up and put them on if you wear contacts have a please please have a spare pair of glasses by your bedside yeah so you can get up and put them on if you wear contacts have a please please have a spare pair of glasses by your bedside great point shoes i'm always like shoes you know um right yeah because you don't if somebody busts your window you don't want to be

walking through glass you know to defend yourself or if you had the film on there, then you wouldn't need it. But, you know, always having shoes by your bed is a great idea as well. The shoes, the glasses, and then possibly even gloves. Right. Whatever it is that you are going to have, have it there and practice. Please, practice, practice. Right. Have it there and practice, please practice, practice, right?

We want to secure as far out from our home as we can. So that way we have as much notice as possible. If somebody is approaching for us to be able to respond and hopefully deter them from actually getting inside of our home. Great points. And then, like you said, be responsible for where that bullet's going because if you're you're firing you know through a wall and you're the home that's next to you is not that far away um especially on the type of firearm that you choose how far that bullet's going to travel it's really important to realize like what you could potentially be shooting at beyond just the bad guy in front of

you yep find an instructor locally and and take some lessons and learn the limits and the capabilities whatever your home defense weapon is just so that way you're not guessing and you're not you're not wondering and then something bad doesn't happen because you didn't know that that was a possibility. Great call. Great points, too. I'm going, way to go, Chin. Way to go. Getting Nicole on for this show.

Yeah, I know. You're the man. Yeah. Lots of good material there to add to because this is a topic I study a lot, you know. So I love to hear the different points. You're never done learning in life. It it's the best most wonderful thing about being alive and men right so why don't you let everybody know where you're at again so they can come find you Nicole because um you know like I say the there's a lot of women who get intimidated sometimes I

think by like just learning firearms always from men. And maybe they don't feel like it's competent then or something. And so it's always great to have a female, honestly, that you can bounce these ideas off of. And you're just as good as they get. Well, thank you. And absolutely, we are very different than men. Our bodies move differently. We process things differently. Firearms are a tool and they don't have to be intimidating once we learn how to use them. So I teach in North Carolina. I'm just north of Charlotte. I'm just north of Charlotte. I am happy to travel within a couple hours of where I am if somebody has a place that we can use as a range.

And we can do beginner to advanced. But our website, again, is wolf-fire.com. You can find me there. Wolf.fire.firearms at gmail.com is that. And then, again again we are on instagram and facebook if you wanted to find us there and if you have any questions about anything by all means just feel free to reach out and i am happy to answer what i can perfect well we're gonna jump into some changing earth news you can stick around or you can sign off totally up to you but we're gonna go through some of the well we're gonna talk a a lot about Debbie tonight actually

so it should be fun you going to sign off or you going to stick around I will stick around and listen I'm going to go ahead and play our wonderful music courtesy of our intrepid commander

he's all ready for the changing earth news courtesy of our intrepid commander, is all ready for the Changing Earth news. Dream. Survive. Thrive. This is Changing Earth News. All right. So like I said earlier,

Debbie is kind of the big news of the week. But we've got some other really interesting things that happened as well. So on our sun this week, we had a lot of X-class flares, M-class flares, a lot of activity going on. We had a nice CME hit last night. Didn't push us up into the dangerous range but if we did see it come through my my internet was acting just crazy i was like uh-huh and then we got another cme inbound today shouldn't create much problems but we definitely have eyes on the activity has slowed down today still lots of big sun spots they're coming into view so we still do have eyes on and this sun cycle has been well above what they've estimated for this uptick so um it hasn't peaked yet and it's been a lot more intense than

what they thought it was going to be so we're're just keeping eyes on that and hoping for the best. My big news is that Thursday there was a 7.1 quake that in Japan that presented a lot of concerns for Japan. And this is the first time they've ever issued a megaquake advisory warning. Their meteorology department issued it out of Japan. The prime minister canceled all of his overseas events. And they're saying there's a potential 9.0 in Nankai trough. This would cause extreme damage, 100-foot tsunami. It is just a very big potential for the earthquakes to happen. Japan came under fire because they were like, well, you guys, we can't predict earthquakes yet.

And a lot of scientists would beg to differ at that point. There's certain atmospheric conditions and a lot of tells that actually happen before an earthquake does happen so I guess they are sensing that the the conditions are right for this to happen so we definitely have eyes on Japan they did have another earthquake after that one but still not the one they're kind of looking for this is is the big one that's supposed to happen in California happens about once every 100 or about every 300 to 400 years. We are overdue, but on the Japan side, it happens about once every 30 years or 150 years, but they're expecting it

in the next 30 years. definitely a shorter time frame and they do have a heightened alert that's the first time they did that so it just caught my attention a little bit extra there on august 5th of 2024 there was 389 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.5 earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico. Debbie was inbound at that point. AIM had her sights set on Florida. But there was a small tornado that hit Buffalo, New York on that day. It flipped cars and sent debris flying into downtown.

So just interesting little tornado just pops up in New York for no reason. Very curious weather these days. Definitely the changing earth. August 6th of 2024, there was 356 earthquakes on planet earth. There were 2.0 or bigger, the biggest of which was a 5.6 in the South Pacific Ocean near Fiji. Debbie came in, hit Florida, massive amounts of flooding. Some areas had up to six feet on the ground. Four people were dead that day from the hurricane that got downgraded to the tropical storm hitting. About 500 people had to be rescued from floodwaters. And it also obviously had a very high wind component with it, left a lot of destruction behind. high wind component with it left a lot of destruction behind. Calgary, Ontario was also dealing with a powerful thunderstorm with hail, heavy rain, powerful wind gusts. There was four

EF1 tornadoes that touched down in northeastern Ohio. Not really the place you think of when you think of tornadoes. You know, usually it was like Kansas, Nebraska. Now we're talking northeastern Ohio. Left a trail of damage, over 200,000 people without power from that event. The Edge Hill Fire in San Bernardino County burned down homes, really grew, exploded that day. The other big one is the Park Fire in Northern California. That one reached 414,000 acres, fourth largest fire in state history. On August 7th of 2024, there was 546 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger. That was a day we were

having a lot of CME activity from the sun there was a 5.2 earthquake that hit bakersfield california and there was 58 earthquakes that surrounded that 5.2 so just little tremors but 58 of them so it just really never stopped rocking and rolling uh debbie hit georgia widespread spread flooding in the um in that state the statesborough dam uh there was a risk of failure due to the heavy rains that it was receiving and just unprecedented amounts of water coming down and this is what really has me concerned about our fort peck dam up in montana this dam is just an earthen dam. It was only built for a hundred year life. And if it gets that amount of just a crazy rain situation, like we've been

seeing come through behind it, that dam goes, that is our Mississippi Valley. So whatever we can do to get them to update that dam, it really needs to go in the forefront a lot of people need to think about that dam instead of some of the other things that we're focused on in milan europe there was a high wind event destroyed homes and cars over there august 8th of 24 there was 458 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger that was the day the 7.1 earthquake hit Japan. Debbie actually went out to ocean, turned back around, made a second landfall, hitting the Carolinas, flooding the coastal communities there.

I guess the mountain communities were good because Chin was like, psh, that didn't even do nothing to me. We were the same way when we got hit with that hurricane that came through. Six confirmed tornado touchdowns, though, in North Carolina. And then we saw Fuego Volcano in Guatemala erupt on the 8th. On August 9th, there was 386 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, the biggest of which was a 5.6 in the South Pacific Ocean near near new zealand there was a 5.3 earthquake that hit tokyo japan debbie brought flooding to southern new york and there was also um flooding in juneau alaska due to a glacial lake outburst that flooded

a local community so a lot of times these glacial lakes, when they lose a piece of ice and they just let the water run down, boom, that's what happened to Juneau. They saw a lot of flooding there from that. There was an EF1 tornado that touched down in Virginia as Debbie moved through. And then on the 10th of August, there was 334 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 6.5 in the Sea of Oksha, Russia. Debbie brought flooding all the way up to Canada and into Montreal, Quebec. There was an EF1 tornado that ripped through Delaware

with peak speeds of 95 miles an hour. There was a powerful tornado that caused massive damage in Leningrad and also St. Petersburg, Russia. And in Idaho, they still have 15 fires burning across that state. On August 11th of 2024, there was 341 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was in the Philippine Sea near the North Mariana Islands. It was like a 5.3, something like that. In Pakistan, they are having heavy rainfall today, causing flooding there. Tropical storm Ernesto is brewing in the Atlantic.

Next couple of days is going to be really important as far as where that tropical system is going to go, if it's going to come up into Texas or if it's going to set its sights on Florida again or come in the midway. They are saying that the storms are just lining up out there in the Atlantic, so it's definitely going to be eyes on. And we need to make sure we're storm-proof in our houses

and ready for when those events come through. I don't know what we can do for our roofs, but, man, there's a lot of new roofs around here. Tropical storm Maria is going to impact Japan. 60 mile an hour winds going. That's just north of Tokyo. So on top of all the earthquake dilemmas that they're having, they also have that tropical storm moving in at their country as well.

It's kind of the double whammy. As far as volcanic activity on our planet, luckily there are no more volcanoes erupting than there were last week. We are still at 34, which is still the most I've ever seen since I began recording. We have two more showing minor activity, but we have two less showing unrest. So we didn't add any more to the list. We just two kicked up from unrest into minor activity, but we have two less showing unrest. So we didn't add any more to the list. We just two kicked up from unrest into minor activity. It looks like Iceland's getting ready to go again. We definitely have eyes on that. Grindavik is kind of right in the crosshairs there. So we're going to keep eyes on that this week. As far as wildfires in the United States, we are at a preparedness level of five.

We have 2,418,020 acres on fire in the United States. This has caused from three new fires and 79 large active fires. Two of those fires are contained right now. The number one state on the list is Oregon, with 22 fires burning for a total of 1,053,000 acres and none of those fires are contained. California is number two on the list with 523,032 acres. This is from nine new fires. There is one new one but none of those fires are contained either. Number three is Idaho with 240,000 acres on fire. This is coming from 14 fires, so they got one out now, but none of those 14 fires are contained.

The number four state on the list is Washington coming in with 168,000 acres on fire. This is coming from eight fires. There are no new fires and none of those fires are contained either so it's just been rough weather out there for them dry um high winds you just you they just can't get a grip on these um on the burns so not a good situation i need some rain on the west coast too much rain on the east coast not enough rain on the west coast seems to be the story of the changing earth that you have these smaller always that way right yeah like it can't be even throughout it's gonna be too much or not enough yeah same thing happened to brazil you know southern brazil was completely flooding and then on the western side all of that wetland was just

burning because they had no rain for it it's like the regions are changing so very interesting stuff all right guys well that's the changing earth podcast for today please remember go on over to the youtube channel give it a like a subscribe um support the show head on over and leave a book review all that good stuff go give nicole a like on her material visit her website check it out you will not be disappointed and uh again thanks so much for coming on nicole especially it's such short notice i was like go for it chin let's get her my pleasure always a great time perfect perfect and i can't wait to see you i know it's so close get get your prepper camp tickets they are almost sold out are they

okay they're like i was wondering because right about now is usually when they are gone so i'm still trying to talk my mom into potentially going, so we'll see if I can get her out there. It'd be fun. Alrighty, guys. Until next time, remember, dream, survive, thrive.

Thank you for joining Sarah and Chen for this episode of the Changing Earth Podcast. Don't forget to pick up your copy of Day After Disaster, Without Land, The Walls of Freedom, Battle for the South, Dark Days in Denver, and The Endless Night at www.authorSaraFHathaway.com. If you love the Changing Earth series and podcasts, become a supporter while you're there.