The Prepper Broadcasting Network - SHTF Bartering, Have you thought this through, Virgis Ch 40

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

After Virgis strikes a deal, we discuss aspects of bartering you may not have considered before.

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 40. The birds chirped peacefully in the tree outside as the first rays of sunshine blasted through the room. Cole's outstretched arm was wrapped around Cassidy. He pulled her into himself, snuggling with her tightly. Her beautiful brown eyes looked into his, smiling softly at him. Kissing him, she declared, thank you for the wonderful evening, Major Virgis. She rolled out of his arms and stood up,

grabbing her camouflage pants. But I'm afraid I must press on. Cole watched her dress, pants, but I'm afraid I must press on. Cole watched her dress, admiring her beautiful form. Where are you headed? He inquired. Back to check on my dad. He's supposed to be leaving to plead a case in front of the federal governing board, she replied, pulling her shirt over her head. Cole rose from the bed, donning his uniform. Landowner dispute? She snatched her hair up, tying it back in a ponytail as she answered, they want to build the western wall across his property and make the landowner a refugee in the process. That's messed up. Exactly the kind of BS my dad is trying to set straight, she preached as she looked at her face in the mirror. Cole smiled widely at her. He was still in awe of her passion. Good luck, he told her as she approached.

He opened the door for her, and they went into his office. Take care, Major Verges, she declared, kissing him one more time before leaving out the door. Chuckling to himself, Cole went to his desk to review today's schedule. He could hear Cassidy lingering outside the door, engaged in conversation with Chappie. Within moments, the doorknob turned and Chappie entered. She sure is pretty in the morning sunlight. Looking at his paperwork, Cole smiled slyly, replying, and still just a zonery. What do you got for me, Chappie?

The community leader from Empire is here to see you. Cole looked up, surprised by the visit. The Freetown in the north, he wondered. That would be the one, sir, Chappie concurred. Show him in, Cole said, rising from the chair and heading to the door to greet the man. Chappie opened the door. Right in here, sir.

Good morning. I'm Major Cole Verges, Cole greeted the man. Chappy opened the door. Right in here, sir. Good morning. I'm Major Cole Virgis. Cole greeted the man as he entered. Shaking hands with Cole, the man responded, Ace Douglas, thank you for seeing me. Thank you for coming down. I wasn't sure if you could make the trip, but we have our hands full with the West right now. Ace's brown hair hung below his ears, and his eyes were as dark as his hair. His skin was a darker olive color, and Cole had difficulty placing his heritage. Is it true that radiation has hit the coastline? Ace wondered as he entered.

Before answering his question, Cole instructed, Please, have a seat. Ace sat on the edge of his chair. Cole thought he didn't look like a man who often sat still long. It's true, Cole told him, answering his question. We have to get these people clear or they'll die. We've lost too many already. Tough situation, Major. Ace agreed with a sad look. He perked up, declaring, let me assure you that our community is holding tight. We have adequate defenses, a makeshift hospital, our school's going, and an orphanage for all the parentless children. Very impressive. I understand

the town of Gerlach is very close to Empire, Cole commented, remembering the large amounts of machine shops he had seen there. It is, sir. The two towns have pooled our resources and almost all of our citizens are occupying Empire now, Ace informed him. How does your food supply look, Cole probed. We're doing our best to self-sustain, but I'd be a liar if I told you that we didn't need some staples, like sugar and salt. Cole sat thinking about what could be done with these people. The refugee camp down south is crowded. I'm willing to give your community a chance to continue to stay free and survive independently. I was hoping you might feel that way, Ace declared, breathing a sigh of relief. I can't guarantee a timeline on the supplies, but it would be helpful if you had something we could use, Cole replied.

Our rations are obviously pretty tight, Ace commented, doing a mental supply check in his head. "'You got a lot of trucks around here. "'How's your mechanic crew looking?' "'Thin. We need all the people we have to compose our squads,' Cole replied. "'We have a large group of mechanics and ample warehouse space. "'We could set it up to service your vehicles,' Ace suggested. "'Best offer I've had in a while. "'It's a bit of a trek to get up there. How many mechanics do you have, Cole said with a smile. I can count 20 amongst my

people right now and we could train more. I need an on-site emergency crew of five. You can rotate them out on a monthly schedule. The vehicles can go up to Empire for routine maintenance, Cole stated. I think I can get my people to agree upon those terms, Ace confirmed. I'll supply the materials for the vehicles, a trainer for your fighters, and try to get some of those extra supplies you requested, Cole assured him. Sounds like you got yourself a maintenance facility, Ace declared, standing up to shake Cole's hand. On another note, you said you have an orphanage, Cole questioned.

I did. You got room for one more, Cole wondered. We do. You got someone in mind? We rescued a little girl a few days ago. Come on, Cole told him, rounding his desk and heading out the door. Cole led Ace across his base towards Dolores' place. Although he tried to hide it,

a scowl curiously adorned Asa's face as they entered the club. The music played loudly, and a scantily clad woman adorned the stage. Cole walked towards the back where the music quieted. Jennifer Jansen, a beautiful woman in a red dress lined with black, approached with a small smile. Her haughty attitude attracted Cole. Her position as Dolores's first lady attracted him as well. She chose her partners and no one else. What brings you by today? Her voice floated on the air like the perfume that she wore. Where's the little girl we brought by? Cole inquired. You mean Alexis, Jennifer asked shortly. Cole looked at her curiously. She spoke? Only to Dolores, Jennifer declared sassily. Not going to be made a fool of

in front of Ace, Cole snapped. Where is she? Jennifer lifted her eyebrows at Cole's response, quickly replying, in the back with Dolores. Who's this fine gentleman? You would need us some entertainment? Jennifer looked at Cole as she advanced towards Ace. Ace laughed quickly, suppressing her advances. He teased, I would be if my Jamie wasn't such a jealous woman. Luckily, my woman isn't jealous, Jennifer responded, leading the men down the hall. Dolores knows her business too well. She opened the door to Dolores's office. And that's how you write your name. A-L-E-X-I-S. Alexis. Dolores finished the lesson with Alexis as they entered. They sat at Dolores's desk with a box of colored pencils and a pile of paper. Cole felt ashamed for interrupting, but if Ace could make sure she was taken care of,

maybe that was the best choice for this child. He blurted out, good afternoon, Dolores. Major Virgis, what brings you by? And who's this? Dolores asked politely. This is Ace Douglas. He's the leader of the Empire community. They'll remain a free town and take charge of our vehicle maintenance. They have an orphanage there, Cole stated, looking at Alexis. And you want to take Alexis there, Dolores asked. It's a good opportunity for the girl to have a home and go to school, Cole said optimistically. Dolores's face looked cheerful

and she agreed. Sounds like an excellent opportunity in a free town. What do you think, Alexis? I don't want to go. I want to stay here with you, Dolores, Alexis said, panicking. Cole lowered himself to the girl's eye level and spoke softly to her. There would be other children for you to play with. Alexis looked to Dolores, reaching towards the woman. She pleaded, Dolores, please don't let them take me. Dolores's eyes met Virgis's. She replied flatly. You heard the girl, Major. She wants to stay. Ace rolled his eyes at the interaction, interjecting. Are you sure a brothel is the best place to raise a young lady?

Deeply offended, Dolores rose from her chair, snapping back, Mr. Douglas, I can assure you that my business is much more than a brothel and all my girls are impeccably cared for. Immediately backpedaling, Ace retorted, I didn't mean any offense, ma'am. I just meant that there are probably not many children around here, and she could be raised. He paused, searching his mind for an appropriate word. Differently. Don't assume what you don't know, sir, Dolores insisted. You can take your offer and shove it.

It is out of my respect for Major Virgis that I don't throw you out of here right now. Dolores's guard that stood outside the door had already opened it, and Ace was inching his way towards it. Cole stood up fast, declaring, I respect your decision, Dolores, and it's obvious what the child wants. Please forgive our intrusion. We'll go now. I think that would be best, Dolores agreed. The two men exited Dolores's place, walking back towards the base. If the girl ever changes her mind, let me know, Ace told Cole. Dolores is a strong leader. The girl will be well cared for, Cole assured him. On the brink of blackouts again, as power demand reached an all-time record high overnight,

On the brink of blackouts again, as power demand reached an all-time record high overnight, slivers of the Golden State plunged into darkness. The storm says it expects to continue with Stage 6, running blackouts for the rest of the week. A scheduled outage on Thursday, but the one that happened Sunday, it wasn't scheduled, it was unexpected, and it lasted longer than a day. Point Zero Energy has given me the American-tested, American-assembled, reliable solar backup that I've been looking for. Their Titan solar generator is American ingenuity at its finest. With a removable, expandable lithium-ion battery, 2,000 watt-hour, 3,000 watt high-efficiency inverter. So what does all that mean to you?

It means the Titan can charge your smartphone for 88 hours, your laptop for 35 hours, a CPAP for 108 hours, your refrigerator for 26.8 hours. Get to pointzeroenergy.com today for the all-American solution to backup power. You're listening to PBN. Your path back to the Changing Earth podcast. This is episode number 439, season 15, episode 40. Hey Chin, what's up?, Chin, what's up? Hey, Chin's up, y'all.

Chapter 40 of Virgis. Jeez. I know. That's 60 chapters long, this book. I had a lot of content. You're a writer. I write. That's what I do.

It was actually interesting turning um because this is all material based with some additions you know to expand the story from the audio drama so it was an interesting exercise to turn the script into a novel so i think that's why it has so many chapters because it's like scene scene scene all right so i've been doing uh dabbling with some youtube shorts over there on the youtube channel that's going pretty cool i love those little shorts so if you guys have short ideas go ahead and let them let me have them. I have some clips of me teaching self-defense at Prepper Camp. So I just could fog people out of the background.

Because I don't want to share anybody that was at Prepper Camp, you know. So I could just fog people out of the background and then put those up. But yeah, suggestions welcome. I did a scene one. It's pretty cool. But it was a lot of work for a minute long so i'm like i don't know how much that i'm trying to like streamline the workload here because the audio drama uh season four is just gonna be epic and um speaking of season uh episode 14 of season 3 is up and the end of this season is just incredible so i can't wait to hear you guys's feedback on it you got to check it out

uh episode 15 is up for subscribers um to the podcast they get the one week before pre-screening i guess and it's a commercial-free version. So become a subscriber. You get hooked up with that. And then also head on over to my YouTube channel, give it a like, give it a subscribe, and hit that notification bell. And that way you can see when all the new,

both of my podcasts come up there. And I love listening to the audio drama there because it literally saves like where you are in in the episode so you can just like come in and out listening to it so much easier than any other platform that I've had it on so I'm really happy about that I actually linked my site over there now so if you go to my website and click on the episode it's going to take you right over to youtube thanks yeah it was really cool and they got a good system going there so uh doug designed the cover for season four of the audio drama so you never guess who's front and center on that one i had an idea he's like yeah we could

use that or or like uh-huh so no that he always does great artwork so yeah we'll introduce that soon um let's see and uh the virgis story he came home with alexis they found her out down in southern california he wakes up all snuggie with casty that that birds were chirping yes sunshine oh my goodness it's a good morning for bird jess it's a good one sounds like a commercial right and then um ace douglas comes and there's all these free towns that still exist out in the badlands so i wanted to craft you know what what kind of the story was behind what's going on with those towns so everybody kind of has something of value that they're trading so that they can get supplies and whatnot and so he fits into that that picture um that's going to bring us into our topic today which is bartering so and i know we've done this

before i've watched so much information on bartering and and whatnot and uh i stumbled upon a cool article today at tactical.com backslash bartering guide that sent my brain just like in a totally different direction than what they have and then i've really thought of before. So that's why I'm so excited today. I'm so excited to talk about bartering, which is like we were talking about it in the green room. Kind of, in my opinion, like, how did you put it? You put it so eloquently. Never.

Yeah, like a fantasy, a prepper fantasy type thing romanticizing yeah romantic yeah romanticizing the barter i totally agree um for one thing okay well we'll get into it so first thing that they mentioned at the tactical.com is like doing your research. What do you know about the other group's needs? What are they looking for? And that made me really think about, okay, every time we're in a situation, I've been trained to go into the most, which is your mission, your operations, strategy, tactics, tools, and techniques. And you can find that on my website in the, go to the learning guide and go to survival basics. And then I have the acronyms there and it defines out like a lot of the specifics about the most. I've talked about

it before, not going to go into it today, but it's basically a walkthrough of like who what where when why how when it comes to survival and so at the same time as you're thinking about your strategy you got to be playing chess right and thinking about their strategy which was really cool to me um especially as like a fighter, you know, because you're always doing the counterplay, counter rolls, attack, defend, right? So how does that work? And if you're not thinking about that, you're probably not even going to get the best deal. Because maybe you have something that you don't even see as that much value. But once you analyze their situation, you're like, You don't even see as that much value.

But once you analyze their situation, you're like, oh, this is what they really need. And you're going to have to stay like alert and pick up on it. It's not going to like you can like Google this other person or this other family or this other town. Right. Or, you know, read the news clips or anything. Right. You know, or, you know, read the news clips or anything. You're going to have to pay attention when people are talking, passing through, or when you're in town buying supplies or getting supplies or, you know, you're going to have to listen. Yes.

That's one of the things, like, so important. Don't just, like, discredit their babbling at you, you know? Right, because you might pick up little nuggets. Yes. Like you were saying, they might be having problems with water, and you might have a whole bunch of empty watered milk jugs, which that might be the container that they need. But if you weren't paying attention, you might never use those milk jugs as a bartering item.

Exactly. You'd be thinking of something maybe of yours that's more value or something. Yeah, right? Yeah. So, you know, I got a camelback thing. Well, keep that for yourself and give them the milk jugs. Right. No, it's true.

And you might think of, you know, you're like, this is something that's really valuable to me um that i need from them so i'm going to give them something valuable of mine which which you perceive to be valuable to you but if you're not analyzing their situation they might not even need that thing and it's not a value to them so then you're going to get worked over on your deal. Right. Mm-hmm. The next thing they talked about was clear expectations. So visualize the encounter first. Like, think through. Like, when athletes do that, right?

Before I go into a fight or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking about, like, this is their style. This is how they move. This is what I'm going do now is that gonna happen you don't know but um you gotta have that that moment of visualization first all the good runners racers nascar drivers

when i'm on lap 100 million um and then they were talking about listening, you know, making sure you're listening. Don't be dishonorable. You'll never make it to that second trade. Right? You have no idea how they could, like, you know, bring retribution back on you. So be upstanding and don't try and be the shiesty one

um and then being sold here yes right no um and then set guidelines and deadlines so having deadlines make sure that people are gonna come through with their end and then clear agreements, right? You got to try to avoid any kind of, you said this, I said that, have witnesses, you know, signed agreements. I don't know about all that in an SHTF situation, but witnesses work well well that's why they used to talk about like two witnesses always in the bible because that was the best you had so um and then they start talking about the items of value and and what you could trade so i'm just going to caveat this because to me, having skills and knowledge is way more important than having any kind of stuff, including stuff to trade. You had a great late bulb moment for me in the green room when you talked about honey. Yes.

Because if you have all these bottles of honey on the shelf to trade great somebody's take your honey from you but if you are the beekeeper with the hive who knows how to process and get more honey now you are the important individual right you're actually the commodity yourself which keeps you and your family a lot safer right because i'm always thinking about okay you know somebody there's the law of large numbers so if you're a group approaches you and they have that many more people. A large number makes the law. Right? Yeah. I mean, unless you have like really superior firepower and defensive capabilities. But even still,

the law of large numbers can outrun that. So you better make sure that you're valuable to them. Or else they'll just take your stuff and make yourself valuable in ways that aren't gross so all right so food was the number one barter item they talked about was food and well i agree i totally agree because food power. Look what's happening with all the farm buy-ups and things. Corporate power. Start your cricket farms up now.

Yes. Start your cricket farms. And then roach milk. Disgusting. But if you have food, you're also the highest value target around. Like if there is a group of people doing bad stuff in the area, guess who's going to be on their number one hit list. Like you don't want to be out there being like,

I got food to trade. Let's trade some food. No, like that's bad idea in my book. And that was really the epiphany. Was like, okay, great. You might have the best bartering item there is. But how attractive does that make you to the bad guys? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And I never really thought about, like, in that aspect before. It's mostly because of this food stuff. You know what honestly with the corporatization of the farmland you can just see everybody always says the money and the power the power and the money right it's really the power and the food the food and the power well Well, what is money? What is the item that's of value? Right. I mean.

Yeah. The food could be the item of value, the money, quote unquote. I agree. And I think when it comes down to like nuts and bolts, if money wasn't, you know, even of value anymore, because it's a collapse type scenario, then the food's going to be more important. So hide the food. Don't let them know that you have it.

I wouldn't. Okay, number two on their list was about fire starters. And honestly, I think they had the fire starters there more as just like a commercial for the fire starter that they're promoting, which is fine. Everybody's got to get their income. But what about Bic lighters? Like just stocking the hell out of Bic lighters. They're so cheap and they would be so useful. And we've talked about the Bic lighter's good

with gas. The flint. It runs out of gas. You still have the flint and the striker, so you can still use it beyond that. That flint will power a Zippo. So, like, I'm not so sure about having the Firestarters, but Bic lighters. And, like, is a gang gonna come and attack you for your stash of Bic lighters?

Right. If they're addicted to smoking. It's more likely it's a good bonus, right? Like a bonus to whatever they were doing in the first place. But like, if you have food, they're going to come after you. If you have Bic lighters, probably not going to be that attractive to like a gang, but also still a very good barter item.

That's just ease of life at that point. I really like the personal care supplies. Also because high, it's an item that people are going to need, right? It's kind of a high value item, but not a high target item. So, learning to make soap. If you know how to make your own soap, you're all set. Everybody needs soap.

And you can have. Don't lie. Yeah. Yeah. everybody needs soap and you can have yeah yeah um who's the guy that does the soap class at prepper camp fletcher loved it his class he was all about it fletcher only liked it because it was his boss in the parking lot he was brown nosing brown nosing yeah um but i was thinking like the tiny toothpaste i always save all my little tiny toothpaste yeah i got like a huge bin of those and that would be a great little barter item but i don't think i'm gonna get mugged for my tiny toothpaste you know. But great little barter item.

I mean, being able to give somebody a little dental kit. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because people talk about like my survival instruction, like, oh, you can use this stick with this and that. And I'm like, what? Dude. Yeah, I could.

Or I could just put a toothbrush in my bag. So, yeah. There's all kinds of great stuff there, though. But that was another one I thought was a really great item. Not a very high. Okay. The other one is condoms. So, I don't think we really need to go into why but again like i don't think you're gonna get like hey man i heard that you know hathaways have a stash over there you know so well you know the ladies might want to make sure

i know yeah the female gang will be after you. Your feminine hygiene products. Oh, that one as well. Feminine hygiene products and the condoms. They're like, yeah, we're after that. Feminine hygiene products, though, are obviously awesome to stock for multiple reasons because they have multiple uses. awesome to stock for multiple reasons because they have multiple uses even if you're a dude and they're also going to be sought after as supplies and like i said maybe a gang of girls is going to come after you they're like we can have we can be set for those like

movies yeah yeah we could write that movie yeah it's all the chicks they were all in a town i heard you have some tampons in this town yeah oh my goodness okay um next two I'm just going to... Sorry, James. Next one, I'm going to kind of group in because it's like one and the same. Blankets and clothing. So both highly, highly useful for obvious reasons. You can stock clothing like we always save instead of just giving it to goodwill we have like boxes old clothes and stuff for specifically for that reason but um

uh if you know how to make it like miss jordan or something like to be a warlord. Exactly. With her talents and weaving stuff and knitting, whatever she does, the magic. So again, this is a stuff versus capability issue. If you know how to produce clothing, you as an individual are more important than just a clothing stash that you have stashed up. Yeah. than just a clothing stash that you have stashed up. Yeah. Again, not something that I would like, you know, maybe the gang needs some new clothes.

I mean, maybe. But I can guarantee they're going to want your food. Yeah. I can guarantee they're going to want the information. They might rifle through a pile of blankets, you know, to get to the Cheerios. Right. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

So, I don't even have ammunition on the list, actually, you know. Uh-uh. Because, first of all. What a chance. Yeah. Well, all mine fell, you know, off the boat, so. Right. That was a horrible accident.

I know. Did you see the map of all the boating accidents that have happened it's just crazy telling you um tea and coffee so i don't know a person who's going to barter away their coffee, first of all. Like I'm keeping that. That disaster coffee is too valuable. Right? I am keeping that.

So obviously a great reason to have it, however, to barter with. However, like if you don't drink it all first, I'm thinking that people might get desperate enough to come after you for your coffee. I'm thinking that people might get desperate enough to come after you for your coffee. It's one of those items that like, I put it up there almost with food, like right underneath food. Oh, they had talked about water filters as well. I didn't even put that on my list because there's so many ways to teach somebody how to filter water without having a water filter water filters are great you're going to make the job so much easier but there's

a lot of ways to get that done without having a water filter and again i would rather possession knowledge over stuff so like but you couldn't make water filters yeah yes them as a tricking item exactly and it's more likely that they're not going to want to eliminate you because you know how to make those water filters and give clean water to the group so that again is raising the value of you um alcohol again you're gonna stock alcohol the barter as soon as people find out where your stash is you are gone but if they know how to if you know how to make the alcohol. You know, life of the party. The game just changed. Now you're like one of the most important people in that group, besides somebody who can feed them, you know, and heal them. So yeah, I was thinking instead of like stocking alcohol, if you know how to make alcohol and you have the um parts to build other

distillers just you know distillation you have the yeast that kind of thing you can sell the price you could get for aspirin right right but order again the alcohol yeah But again, you got to make yourself value at the same time. You have to be the doctor with the aspirin. Or else, why wouldn't they just eliminate you and take your aspirin? Because they're drunk and hungover. They're not going to be a good shot. I mean, that was my realization during all this. I'm like, okay, that gives me a totally different outlook on bartering.

Yeah. It really does. Duct tape. Again, so useful, but like we're going to come take you out, give us all your duct tape. Zip ties too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, zip ties. I like that one yeah yeah okay medical we just kind of talked on it right yeah learn the medical yourself

don't just have the supplies um there's lots of resources so baby supplies was one they had on the list. And I was like, yeah, but are you going to be steadfast enough to be trading baby supplies to a mom who like, maybe you're trading food for or they're giving you food for diapers. And, you know, there's so many ethical involvements in the baby supplies that I was like, you know, that's probably one I don't want to touch. Because I'll be too soft. Yeah, for bartering. Right. I don't want to like stock baby supplies in hopes of trading with people who have little kids in an shtf situation you know unless i like i have family needs for that um but i think just ethically that would be challenging

i'd rather stay away from it pet. They had pet supplies on the list. Okay. I absolutely love my dogs. I know you love your dog. Okay. But like, if you're watching your spouse or your family or your loved ones starve, are you really going to care about trading for pet supplies? Unless it's dog food?

You know? I don't know. I think the pets are not going to be as a priority. We'll put it that way. They'll have to get their own food. Right. Suck it up or, you know, you become food. I mean, sorry, but it's real you know we're we're although if

you have a working dog yeah but still you got not a lap dog but like a working either you know for herding or guarding yeah i, the dog could have value. I know. But like when it comes to bartering away essential stuff of yours for pet supplies, so that fluffy can have a new teddy bear or something. I'm not talking about fluffy. I'm talking about,

you know, you're, you're taking a little siesta and the dog's on duty, right? Yeah. I get that part of it. I'm just saying I don't think they'll be as high priority at that point. It'll be more like a pack type.

Okay, radios. Radios was on their list. I was like, I don't know. I don't want to barter a radio. Why am I so shocked? Why am I? I was being silent here. I know, but wouldn't you want your group

to have the radios? Well, you might want to disperse radios around more than just your group. That's different than just bartering with radios. Right. Well, if you played the game good, you're bartering and you're gaining.

True. But if you have extra radios, then you have extra parts for your radios too. I mean, do you want to trade all your parts away? But if you have radios spread out across the valley, then you have a longer reach on your network of communications.

It's true. That's true. And that's a different aspect. But I was like, I don't know about that one. And you'll be able to the family on the other side of the valley. What about that one? And you'll be able to, the family on the other side of the valley. What about flashlights? What about them?

Same kind of deal to me as the radios. Get those stupid little cheap ones at Harbor Freight that they give away. With the little click back on them? Yeah, have like a hundred of those and then you can use those as your bartering that's true you can buy them super cheap when i did that birthday party and i did like edc kits as their their goodie bag for the kids no entertainment again something I was like yeah you know

cards right it would be nice maybe people would trade who's going to want to trade for that really I thought it would be a good item to sweeten the deal.

Right? Like, oh, well, you're feeling a little cheated. I'll throw in a deck of cards. I'll throw in a Bic lighter. Right? Throw in a flashlight. Right. But I don't think people are going to come and mug you for your your your card stash well you know they're starting the post-apocalyptic casino or something

okay and then the they they did mention you know safety first at the end of this article they talk about safety first and i just have to wonder how feasible all of this is if we're in like a straight up uh stuff just went really bad scenario so don't do business with folks you don't know okay well how many of us know like a vast amount of people in our community right you know so you might need something and you're gonna have to try and figure that out with that group you know um i've heard talk that like trying to get a community trading post set up is a way to go instead of doing one-on-one trades having like a place to trade at yeah schools um would be good right um that was johnny in uh johnny jacks's book um so yeah do the and then do the exchange in public so that's exactly what you're talking about you know some ways away from your residence wherever your supplies are preferably you know i even i had a honda silver

wing when i sold it like i went out to the shopping center complex you know so yeah like craigslist and stuff whenever we do that we're always like yeah the wall aren't working out or something right just just say for that way. You don't want people coming to your house that you don't know. And that's now. That's the technology. Right. When Brock picked me up hitchhiking, I made him

drop me off at the entrance of the subdivision when we first met so that he didn't know where I lived. So, just smart practice. Oh, you know what I forgot? Happy St. Paddy's Day, everybody.

Right? Yeah. I just smelled the corned beef wafting through my office. I was like, oh, St. Paddy's Day. I make a Reuben casserole. Oh, man. Mm-hmm. Okay, make sure no one follows you home and keep that stockpile secret

which is yeah definitely a challenge yeah it's a challenge right because hey that's the person who always brings that honey into town yeah after a couple weeks of good trading uh-huh they might be like... That person comes in and they always have extra feminine products. And it might not be the person that you're bartering with. It might be somebody that's just scoping the bartering trading post out. They could be watching to see who's bringing what. For sure.

And that'd be part of the trading. That sounds like a western movie at the old trading post nah but i i've never really like thought about bartering on that level before so um hopefully you guys got the same value out of today's research that i did because i was like oh the green room i know i was like i was learning today i love learning and that was just epic so because i was like ah bartering yeah yeah and then i was like wait a minute if you have really good stuff to barter to barter then you have a big, huge target right on you.

Yep. So you better have, like, defensive set up if you're going to decide to barter in something like food or alcohol. So... The Western suit. Right?

Yeah. The showdown at the Trading Post. All right. So I got a treat for you today. James, the Intrepid Commander, made me a new Changing Earth News intro. That's all I'm going to say. We'll get your feedback after. Okay, here we go.

Changing Earth News. We'll get your feedback after. Okay, here we go. Changing Earth News. Dream. Survive. Thrive. This is Changing Earth News.

All right. How did you like the new Changing Earth News intro? I'll talk in a scary voice. It's not like the news isn't scary enough, right? Boop, boop, boop. Yeah, that's what James always says. Okay, today is March 17th of 2024. we had a plasma release this morning should be coming in earthbound about tuesday to wednesday just gonna be a glancing blow uh garden girl's like very spooky i'm like yeah that's what i kind of thought he was gonna try to cheer one up for me a little bit. We had a couple M-class flares and a couple C-class flares.

But the one video that I want to comment on, Ben at Suspicious Observers, he's been doing a lot of videos on the effects of the increased energy on our planet from the increase in plasma particles that we're getting bombarded with. And what this does is it will make both the high pressure and the low pressure of our weather patterns more extreme. And we're definitely seeing that on our planet right now. If you follow along with my change in earth news at all, you know that there's a lot of times we talk about, for example, in Oman, there was, you know, drought going on,

super high pressure system just sitting in there, while the other half, super small country, while the other half of the country is just flooded with rain from this low pressure system laying over it. So we've seen these really big extremes in the small geographical area. And it was just kind of cool to see his videos on how that all links together. Because I kept saying, wow, that's so interesting how like it's such a small area, but one side of it is just getting hammered with this weather. And the other side is just getting hammered with that weather. They're so extreme. And it just connected all those little dots together. So if you're into all that science

information, there's some great videos he just put out on that. okay on march 10th we had 900 900 i'm sorry no we had 393 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.2 in the salman sea um indonesia had that really bad flooding system come in we were talking about it last Sunday with a landslide, about 21 people unfortunately lost their lives in that event. Dubai just got their booties kicked with flooding over there in the United Arab immigrants. From what I've seen some article on, there was some cloud seeding that was going on with that as well. So, you know, I don't know that we really need to be playing with the systems that are rapidly changing right now. So they had some significant flooding there in the city from that rain event. Long Beach, there was massive waves that hit the

coastal towns there. The coasts are just being rowdy, rowdy, rowdy all over the place. In New Finland, they were buried under 700 or they were buried under 75 centimeters of snow, which was a major snow event for them. And then in Malaysia, in the town of Sabah, a wildfire broke out. So that was a significant wildfire event going on there. On March 11th of 2024, there was 353 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 5.0 that was in the North Pacific Ocean, right off the coast of Costa Rica. Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, they had the high tides come in, caused coastal flooding,

a lot of flooding going on there, a lot of damage. The coast of Maine also got hit by those high tides. And in Oman, they had a massive flooding event there. That's why it was on my brain when I was going through the intro. And New Zealand saw um strong storm strong winds come in did some property damage there because of that wind event march 12th of 2024 there was 381 earthquakes or 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.5 in the sea of octosh um i have no idea how to actually say that. So probably anyone who's Russian would correct me, but it is in Eastern Russia. France, they had several people die. They had some violent storms and this bridge was washed out.

And unfortunately, a lot of people lost their lives when that bridge went. That system was also accompanied by a massive snow event that stranded commuters. In Indonesia and Sumatra, 650 homes were destroyed in another flooding event there. And then the Texas panhandle with the wildfires going on, they're starting to have reports

of lost livestock numbers up in the thousands. So that doesn't do well for beef prices and the beef industry that's already on a string because of the corporatization that's going on there as well. In Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg had two massive fires in Gulf industrial sites. There's word that it could have been a Ukrainian attack,

but it just was pretty odd to have two of their industrial complexes go up in a huge ball of flames on the same day. So we've seen things like the food processing factories and whatnot have freak accidents. So now all of a sudden it's happening there in russia as well on march 13th of 2024 there was 379 earthquakes are 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 6.2 in the malacca sea in indonesia there was a 3.6 earthquake in israel that day there was flooding in western austral. The road to Perth was closed and livestock lands were underwater. These are a lot of sheep pastures and whatnot that went underwater. So we'll have to wait for numbers on how those flocks survived. In Ibri, Oman,

there was another storm causing flooding, winds up to 175 kilometers per hour. up to 175 kilometers per hour. And then on the 14th, there was 421 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 6.0 right smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. So it's not unusual to have them out there. It was just a rather large one. In Mozambique, they got hit with cyclone Filippo.

Winds up to 155 kilometers per hour and destructible coast of waves hit along with that storm system. Brazil and Roriyama State, they were engulfed by wildfires. They're having one of the worst droughts they've seen in 75 years. And this is another example because in Brazil, we're always talking about flooding in like central and southern Brazil. And you have the two extremes sitting right there. Brazil is a rather large country. So of course, you're going to see differences in the climate there.

But it just shows you how like one area can be having a severe um x factor and one side of the country can be having a severe y factor on march 15th there was 360 earthquakes or 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.6 in the Philippine Sea near Japan. On the 15th, the United States had a massive storm system come through. There was tornado touchdowns from Kansas to Indiana, Ohio. 14 tornadoes touched down in total. That storm system stretched through to the 16th. At the end of that storm, it left three people dead and at least 14 tornadoes that they saw touched down. There was a large hailstorm in Missouri accompanied with it.

Tornadoes touching down in Kentucky. It did some really big damage. Randolph, Delaware, they saw 50% of their structures in Selma were reported damaged. Southern California also took wind event that same day. And whenever you see the really massive trees coming down, you know it's a big unusual system because it's taking out some old growth material. This was one of those systems and really California didn't need any more storm systems coming through. Colorado got hit with a wallop of snow landing on them. It was several feet of snow that came down in that system. And so it really was just a big

smack. And you know, whenever I'm seeing things like this, and there's so much destruction happening from these storm systems, you know, it's a combination of, um, there's way more built now on the face of the United States, but also these storms are getting so much more intense. And from an insurance standpoint, which is what I do to actually make money, there's no way that you can sustain the amount of storms, damage, destruction, just turn around and rebuild it, new cars, all this stuff, and sustain that in any way into the future. So it's a little bit spooky watching what's happening with the

insurance industries and how they're attempting to cope not only with the inflation, but with the amount of storm systems and whatnot. And I think California is just ground zero for this activity just because of how much political BS they have going on with the massive increase in prices and then the massive upsurge of catastrophic events. It's going to be a very interesting industry to watch as the change in earth continues to unfold on us. In Chile, they had a series of wildfires

around Valparaiso. On the 16th, there was 390 earthquakes, or 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 5.7 in the Macri Island regions. There was a 4.6 in New Zealand. Iceland started erupting again. They have a new lava flow going towards Grindavik. Dallas saw a tornado touchdown as well on the 16th. Lots of hail damage in that area.

And then Cochia, Mexico, they had an unprecedented hailstorm, just something on like they've never even seen before. So, um, and that hail, it's just, it's just a game changer. Um, I just didn't think it would be so prevalent as we come into this period on the earth. Uh, March 17th of 2024, that is today, there was 398 earthquakes, a 2.0 or greater so far today. The biggest one so far was a 5.6 in the North Pacific region near Nicaragua. Buenos Aires, Argentina got hit with heavy rains and a lot of flooding already today. So hopefully everybody's okay there. We'll have to see how that event unfolds.

As far as volcanoes, we have 28 volcanoes actively erupting on our planet. That's up one from last week. We are continuing to trend up by one each week. There's 19 showing minor activity. That's exactly the same as it was last week. There's 30 showing unrest. That is down one from last week. And that is also showing the same trend.

So we're seeing the same amount on the list, but more moving up into the erupting category. 28 is a high number. I think 32 was the highest we've ever seen since we started recording with the Change in Earth News. As far as wildfires, there were 14 new wildfires in the United States. Nine of them are active large fires and 19 of those total fires are contained at this time. The numbers of actively burning acres are way down. We're down to 147,000 from the 1.2 million, I think we were at last week. Texas has no new fires this week. There's only one fire burning for a total of 144,000 acres. There's Oklahoma's up number two.

There's nine fires actively burning in Oklahoma. Six fires total. Ten of those fires are contained for a total of 2,720 acres. Wyoming is number three on the list. They have one new fire, one fire burning that is 0% contained. It's 207 acres. And then just because they were up on the list as well, Kentucky's up up there they have three new fires um one of those is a large burning fire it's 143 acres and two of those fires are contained at this time so i'm gonna say that's from the storm damage uh that they had come through it probably was electrical fires and things like that or lightning strikes of something of that nature so it was rocking and rolling in the U.S. this week. So prayers to everybody who's been affected by these storms. Prayers for a speedy recovery.

May God watch over you and your family. We didn't have it very bad. Like where we're at in Texas, it was just like we had some rain you know not a big deal we're always at like the tail end of these huge storms so it's kind of a nice place to be right yeah yeah it's a sweet good to do all righty guys well that is the changing earth for today Please head over to my YouTube channel, Sarah F. Hathaway, or look for at Changing Earth series. You're going to find it. Give a like, give a subscribe, hit the bell. I really appreciate that. I'm trying to get to 500 subscribers so I can get my merchandise up over there. So every bit you can do really helps out. So please go over there,

give it a like and a subscribe. And 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.authorSaraFFathaway.com. If you love the Changing Earth series and podcasts, become a supporter while you're there.