The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Training Situational Awareness, Virgis 48

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

How to make yourself more situationally aware and train others to do the same.

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 48. As evening fell, the feds arrived. Cole was more than happy to hand the operation over to them. It gave him a moment to collect his thoughts, check his gear, and clean his rifle. The battle in Oregon had left it soiled, and he wanted to check the trigger assembly. Disassembling the weapon, he rubbed the metal clean with solvent and carefully oiled all the parts. Satisfied with the condition of the gun, he began reassembling

it. Noticing a shadow approaching the tent, he looked up. Good evening, Major, Johnny greeted him. Private McClintock, you have the night off. What brings you by? Cole wondered what was on the young man's mind. I wanted to see if you wanted to get some food and catch up. I acted like an ass when I first got to Reno, and I'm sorry. That's big of you to say, Johnny. Let's go grab some chow, Cole agreed, as he finished reassembling his weapon. Leaving with Johnny, they went towards the large chow tent the feds had set up. Just have a seat anywhere, fellas, a woman greeted them as

they entered. Thank you, ma'am, Cole told her. He scanned the interior. "'There's a table towards the back where you can watch the door,' Johnny commented. Cole smirked a little, looking at Johnny curiously. "'You remember?' "'Yeah, I do. "'Always sit in the back so you can see the door and the whole room,' he recited to Cole as they went to the table. As Cole sat down, Johnny stood for a moment declaring I love you Virgis. It broke my heart when you left. He sat down surprised he had made such

an impact on the young man Cole stammered for a minute. I'm sorry Johnny I had my reasons. The woman from the door approached asking would you like a beer major? The woman from the door approached, asking, Would you like a beer, Major? Yes, for the private as well, Cole told her. Coming up, she said, leaving to get the drinks. What reasons, Johnny wondered. Cole sighed deeply, explaining,

When I was fighting overseas, I was helping others survive tyrannical dictators. I had to turn against my fellow countrymen when all this went down. My government started to become that authoritarian dictatorship. I was confused. I had to leave. But you came back? I did, Cole answered simply. Why? Johnny prodded. In my town, disaster after disaster kept happening. Then a group of refugees came. We helped them, but they still stole from us. The town was left without resources. Everyone became refugees and were put in the camp in Vegas. The state should have been resupplied, but the feds deemed the area west of the Rockies useless. They cut the resources. My dad was pissed.

You sound like someone else I know, Cole said dreamily. That woman? Cassidy? Johnny wondered. Cole looked offended. What do you know about it? Chappie told me she comes to Dolores's. She looked important to those militia men, Johnny commented. Quietly, Cole replied, her father leads them. How do you know that? Because I do, Cole told him, scanning the room. They had come late in the night, and the emptiness of the place was comforting. Because you're working with them? Johnny asked quietly. Private Jessup told me about the fighters that should have gone to Vegas.

What did he say? He said you're an excellent leader and he would trust you with his life. He didn't tell anyone else, did he? Cole remembered Jessup asking questions about some of their activities. No, he doesn't like doing collections either. His family is in the Minneapolis camp, Johnny explained. Service for freedom, Cole suggested as the waitress approached. Sorry about the wait, sir. Here are your beers. Do you want chicken or a burger? Burger, Cole replied. Sounds good to me, Johnny agreed.

I'll go grab them, sir, the woman assured them before she left. How do they get beef out here, Johnny wondered. It's more like mystery meat, but it's usually good, Cole told him. Oh, he paused for a moment. Cole waited patiently for the young man to sort out his thoughts. So he began clumsily. Cassidy is pretty hot. She is, but she's wild, Cole warned. Even better, Johnny commented dreamily. She's old enough to be your mom, Cole said, dismissing him. Experienced, he commented, rubbing his hands together. Still works for me. She's mine, Cole stated flatly. Johnny laughed at him, nodding his

head. That's what I thought, Johnny admitted. Johnny, you can't tell this to anyone, Cole told him. Johnny's expression turned solemn. Virgis, my dad, he... Well, it was rough after you left. He started questioning his motives as well. You know our relationship hasn't been the best since mom died and he wasn't there. Anyway, he's coordinating with the southern militias. Cole leaned in closer to him wondering

quietly, how do you know? I heard him talking with a man. Dixon was his name. He agreed with you and said the Merc should be a check to the federal power, a voice for the people. Why didn't he tell me, Cole asked, shocked by the news? He knew you had to find your own path. He didn't want you putting your conscience on the line out of loyalty to him. The women approached with two plates of food. Here you go, fellas, two burgers with Jerusalem artichoke fries. Johnny looked at her curiously. Are they good? They're unique. Let me know if you need anything, sir, she said before leaving them. What does that mean, Johnny asked. Try them and find out, Cole declared, picking up one of the fries and dipping it in ketchup. Johnny did the same.

up one of the fries and dipping it in ketchup. Johnny did the same. Chewing the fry around in his mouth, he commented, not bad, but not great either. Unique. Yep, Cole replied, taking a bite from his burger. Anyway, that's why Pops is spending so much time in the Capitol. He's keeping his eyes on the federal operation, Johnny told him. Swallowing the bite, Cole put his burger down and looked at Johnny sternly. "'Johnny, do me a favor.' "'What's that?' Johnny wondered. "'Don't call him Pops,' Cole commented. Chuckling at Cole, Johnny assured him. "'I'm just kidding around, Virgis.

"'From now on, I won't call him Pops.' He paused, eating some of the food on his plate. A tiny bit of mayonnaise stuck to his face as he looked up and asked, what are we going to do? Cole threw a napkin at him, declaring, we are not going to do anything. You will follow my lead and keep your head down so I can bring you back to your father safely. What are you going to do, Johnny wondered. We need someone with a story that will captivate the people. We need them to see how far things have gone and why this needs to end. I think I may have found one. Time will tell, but until then this stays between you and me. I understand, he agreed, shoving the rest of the burger into his mouth.

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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 448, season 15, episode 48. Hey, Chim, what's up? What's up, y'all? Yeah, Chim came sliding in, road tripping.

I had my orange Dodge dodge charger going full tilt yep good sliding like bo duke um a little bit of news uh before we start it up uh second week of june season four is beginning so woot uh head on over to youtube check out the new video it's really cool um meet tj swenson video so you know i gotta tell you um that video is much darker right um got like as many clicks in one night as I have on like one of Erica's videos. I was like, what? Come on, DJ. Yeah. Second week of June, June 9th.

We're not going to have a show. It'll be, we'll do a rerun show or something like that, but we'll not have a live show that night um i'm going to be getting in uh from doing some little fishing vacay and there's actually going on a boat i'm going on a boat in the ocean well in the gulf but it's salt water which is and i'm staying on an island so yeah i'm stepping outside my comfort zone good for you yeah i just know that's when like the pole shift's gonna happen and i'll just be like woo riding the wave baby yeah is there a three-hour tour? It's three hours out to go fishing for five hours, to come back for three hours.

So it kind of is a three-hour tour. Yeah. Gilkin, I said hi. And then we have prep camp coming up in September. It's kind of the halfway mark. So, right? No,'s kind of the halfway mark. So, right? No, we're past the halfway mark. So, if you guys don't have your tickets yet, get them.

Get them. We'd like to see you there. It's always a good time. It never disappoints. Never. I mean, you're there, I'm there. What could go wrong? Come heck or high water. That's right. That's right. there, I'm there. What could go wrong? Come heck or high water.

That's right. That's right. So, yep, rubber camp. So, second week of June, we got season four beginning. Special treat for my members who are subscribers. You guys will get to have the first episode of season four before I leave on vacation. So, that's going to happen next week or this coming week. I'll have that up for you guys.

So you get the special two-week sneak peek on the first episode of season four. Then, like I said, June 9th, no live show. And then we got Prepper Camp coming up. All right. So in Virgis, this is classic. This is classic situational awareness week. They walk into the restaurant. What does Johnny say?

There's a table in the back, Virgis. Table for two. You remember? Oh, yeah. You like to sit in the back so you can watch the whole restaurant. If you're not in the habit of doing that by this point get in the habit of doing that um once you are in the habit of really being aware of what's going on around you you will not want to sit anywhere else and it'll drive you

absolutely bonkers when you have to you ever like run like you have a bunch of people and they all want that one seat with their back against the wall looking yes yeah you're over in that group oh yeah because i've taught my boys now right so yeah fletcher always wants to sit the same way and uh a couple there and they're and and they get there first and i'm like damn yeah I had that happen with like a work party. And everybody was there before me. I had to sit with my back to like an aisle of like people walking up and down this like row in between the tables. Like right behind. I was just, my boss was like, are you okay?

I'm like, not really, actually, at this moment. I cannot see. I know there's a ton of activity going on behind me, and I do not like that. Right. Mm-hmm. So other big happenings that happen. You know, this is basically when Johnny has, you know, the heart-to-heart with Virgis, and Virgis tells him about Cassidy. Johnny tells him about that his dad's hooked up with the militias.

Cassidy. Johnny tells him about that his dad's hooked up with the militias. Interesting stuff in this conversation. A really big turning point for these two. When they kind of solidify that they're back together.

The crew. The crew. The crew. We have done a ton of episodes on situational awareness and you're going to be like Sarah what more can we say you can really never say enough because situational awareness

is the most important part of survival it is the most important part of surviving any self-defense situation. If you were just so focused on that one person that walked up to you that you never saw that there was five more coming around you, you're in big trouble. You know, so you just can't, you can't say enough. You can't sharpen your skills enough.

We're all in those moments when we get in like our own head and we're like whoa how did I ever drive this far or you know how did all of these people come around me and I and I didn't realize what was going on it's one of the most important things and it's just something that can slip in everybody just when you get in your own head with your own thoughts or anything like that. So you really can't say enough about it. I found a killer article. I'm going to throw it up in the chat for everybody who's found along in the chat. I would highly suggest going and reading that article. We're going to go over it a little bit today, but because they have some great exercises that I had never seen before for sharpening those situational awareness skills. So that's what we're going to focus on really.

You know, if you're in a typical self-defense situation, it's going to really take you like two to five seconds to realize like, oh my goodness, I'm in danger danger and your perpetrator is absolutely relying on that factor that it takes you that time to realize it because in that time that's when they gain the upper hand over you so we don't want to have that happen that would be um that guy's scary right um ooda loop is always important we got to remember ooda loop always so ooda loop is observe orient decide act observe orient decide act ooda while we're speaking of remember james has his ebook on sale this weekend. I got the paperback. I mean, the paperback's like 11 bucks.

I know. Well, you should have both. And then you go on and give them a good review. Yeah, that's true. But Uda, his main character. Yep, Uda. I know. My kids were like, wow. A little creepy.

But they liked it overall. They really liked it. Yeah, it's a good book. Yeah, so go check that out. I can't remember the exact name of it. I'm so bad. The World of... World of One.

Yep. Yep. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. I just remember Uda. Uda. When you said it, now all I think about is this little character. Right? Yeah. Observe, orient, decide, act. Observe, orient, decide, act. So that's pretty helpful.

Keeps you from paralysis, right? Yes, exactly. Because you're constantly going back through that cycle. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And observing and orienting are really important pieces of that. Like, don't just focus on the decide-act part. Because any bad... Like you were saying, you might see just one person, and there could be three or four.

Right. Or a crowd of bad guys. Exactly. Bad people. Yeah. And if you're just focused in, and there could be three or four. Right. Or a crowd of bad guys. Exactly. Bad people. Yeah. Yeah. And if you're just focused in, I mean, it doesn't. Or, like, somebody's approaching your car.

Maybe there's somebody else, too. Yeah. Yeah. So observing and orientating is the best idea because you need to get yourself in a position where you are at the back of that restaurant. You can see everything that's going on around you especially in a self-defense situation it's one of the reasons why i'm not like overly as crazy about just training jujitsu because you go to the ground with somebody there could be three other people standing above you and

and you're done okay so one of the other things that i picked out of this article that i really liked was um developing that baseline it seems really basic uh that you need to develop a baseline but i've never like just really thought about it right like what is normal here right yeah right it's just kind of assumed and but i've never really focused on the details of what's normal like noise level smells lighting those kinds of things you know what yeah i saw that list right yeah i really liked that as well um how people are moving and how they're acting just the overall energy of the place like did that energy just change there could be a problem also the um what warrants a second look so uncomfortable behavior was like number one

if somebody's like acting uncomfortable they are uncomfortable about something there's some reason why because that's not our natural state to be in well for most people some people you know but most people you're not like being uncomfortable is not your natural state so if that's happening that warrants a second look. Unusual action, observing their hands, right? Any kind of nefarious activity or if they have a weapon or something like that, they're going to be reaching like to guard over that object, you know, pretty constantly. I wear my knife at my side and I play with it a lot, right? I know, I know. Because because it clicks click in and out of

the it's like a pen right clicky clicky clicky it's got a hard yeah the hard it's a hard uh fixed blade with a hard sheet right yeah fixed blade with the hard sheet and uh I was walking through prepper camp one time keep popping it open and close yeah exactly click click click click click so i'm walking through prepper camp and natives like hand off the weapon ma'am i'm like no you have a tail i know he was looking right he knew exactly right where my hands were I know. He was looking, right?

He knew exactly right where my hands were. And so I tend to do that as well because when I'm wearing my knife in a crowd, I don't want somebody to be able to just walk up and take it from me. I know, but you're – it's like another thing with, like, concealed firearms. Especially a new carrier is always like adjusting, right? Oh, huh. And you're away. Right.

It's like, oh, I've got something. I've got something. Yeah. Aggressive, erratic behavior, of course, but then, like you said, bulges in the clothing, you know? Mm-hmm. Out here in Texas, like I seen a dude riding on a motorcycle

and his shirt was blowing his pistols, just like right there, tucked in the back of his pants. I'm like, amen. God bless Texas. So how do we improve?

Like I'm always looking for ways to improve situational awareness. I snuck up on Brock the other day. I was like standing behind him for like three minutes before I scared the crud out of him. And he's like, dude, I'm slacking. I'm like, yeah, you are. You know, just because you're in your own house doesn't mean you should be comfortable. Gosh, silly guy. So lots of things like when we're driving around we tend to like pick a color car then we're always looking for those cars that will definitely stop you from ever getting someplace and going how did i get here right right that's the worst i'm so mad at myself whenever that happens. So have you ever played the game?

They call it Kim's, Kim's game, Kim's exercise or something like that in the military. And it's where you have like 10 to 15 items that you look at it for a minute and then they take it away or cover it up. And then you have to remember what was there. It's like there's that card game like that too. Right. Yeah. I played a ton of memory when i was a kid i love that yeah oh yeah garden girl just was chatting up on the chat that the tornado touched down just a few miles from the in-laws texas got destroyed it got really hit last night we'll talk about that later but yeah wow so anyway um this is an easy one 10 to 15 items play with the kids the kids love these kind of games like memory yeah and then you know you and your spouse can practice these things make sure it's

random items you get you have to do random items. I like this one, too. Eyewitness description. So this could be fun at, like, a party-type scenario. Or even at prepper camp. You know, we could take up around a picture of, like, a random person and just show it to everybody. And, like, this is the subject. And then, like, come back later and be like, write down what that person looked like. Yeah, let them look at it for a fixed amount of time yeah get 15 seconds or 30 seconds and then right but then they can't write it down till later see i'd be like cheating i'd be like

as soon as you walk away i I'd start writing it down, you know. But no, you got to wait until later. If you have a pad and a writing utensil with you. I typically do. I know. You're a writer. You write. I'm a writer.

I write. I have lots of pens. Not everybody does so. It's amazing. People don't have a writing implement. Oh, but everybody's got their cell phone, and they have the notepad in there. I know, but it's not the same. No, it's not. Nobody uses it either.

It's cumbersome. And the stylus, I don't know. They didn't really take off very well. I actually like stylus. They didn't really take off very well. I actually like style. Like I bought a tablet that has a stylus because I just like writing. I like using my thumb and my first finger is thumbs.

Yeah. I've been doing so much audio building. I have like a twitch in my arm right now. I was like doing my mouse work the other night from all the fine stuff that I do, right? It's like twitch, twitch. I'm like, no, no, I don't want it over there. Is that what you did down at the dojo where you did my mouse work? Yeah, yeah. That definitely happens at the gym.

No, but I have gotten my butt my butt back into class so i am training with all them 20 year olds again feeling pretty good um expand your peripheral vision this is great eye exercises are always awesome literally you can like do eye exercises for your eyes like they're in a little gym and it helps you keep your vision better, longer, keeps your eyes stronger. Glasses are great. I wear them every day, but they also help weaken your eyes more. So anything you can do to help strengthen your eye muscles is really good. And if it can be part of situational awareness boom so um what he was saying to do is you know develop a habit of scanning everything i mean whenever we're outside of a vehicle first thing i'm going to tell my kids is head on a swivel yep put your head on a swivel put your

head on a swivel so this is actually scanning your environment without moving your head. And you do the area directly in front of you first, and then you keep going, looking further and further and further out. And so once you get good at it, then you try to describe things that are in your peripheral vision without turning your head to look at them. Are you doing it right now? You're doing it right now, aren't you? No, I'm swiveling.

I got aviator glasses on. Oh, you're looking cool. You're Maverick up in there. Like, yeah, what's up? So that's a good one. And it's good for your eyes and it's good for your situational awareness. That's something I'll definitely do.

When you see me looking all bug-eyed and weird you'll know why um the observation scavenger hunt so this was kind of cool um jordan the other day was talking on our um host group you know i got my kids coming out for a trip what uh what's like a cheap way to have fun right and i used to always take my kids to the museums and like the little local zoo zoo that's cheaper and stuff like that um just you know take them to the to the nature preserve and things like that just because it's a inexpensive way to have fun and enjoy each other's company. So what you can do is if you've been there, especially, you can come up with a list of items. And so when they come in, you can have them look at the list, find the items, and then when you're all done, they have to go and write out as many of the items as they can remember from the list.

So again, it's like a memory exercise, but I thought it would be fun. Like that'd be cool to do with the kids in a museum. Same thing with the exit interview. so if you leave some place you can do this with your spouse your kids or whatever quiz each other how many employees did you see um my characters actually do this a lot in the books you know how many guards do you see um erica's doing it with the kids all the time go figure right so how many employees did you see what did the people at the table next to you eat like typically i can't answer that question so i had to ding myself on that one oh did i lose you chint did not okay just making me hungry talking about watching people eat oh yeah it's dinner time you haven't even got your dinner yet um how many exits that should be something that's not just part of the game you should be doing that all the time

yeah where are the exits you know that's that's got to be second nature for you um what kind of decorations were there how many tables were there so those did you see that i sent you uh it was uh yeah i did watch talking about what this one guy did with his kids what direction when you get out of that emergency exit to get back to your car that's a good one for the kids to see if they're paying attention to, like, when they get turned around in a building. The orientation. I thought that was a good question. Yeah, if we go out this way, where's our car? Right, right. That is a good idea.

That guy was cool, too. I liked him. I was like, I do that same thing! I do that same thing! Hey, same thing like hey that's cool that's new yeah yep out on a swivel i'm like oh i don't even know where i got that from well i've been saying it to the kids forever because like you know when they're literal running through a parking lot or whatever. It's like, dude, you gotta look. Find the difference exercises. This is literally like when we were younger and they had those highlight magazines. Do you remember those?

They had like find the hidden things or find the differences between the two pictures. Yeah, I like those puzzles. Me too. There's some cool game apps that still do it so you can definitely do brain training this way um and then how many can you find so this is again how many blue cars how many beetles how many stop signs did we pass what how many people were wearing this color how many people were wearing that color? How many people were wearing that color? Right? So you just got to pick one objective when you walk out the door and then you

start counting those items and you'll be so surprised at what you just start noticing because you're looking for one thing. Whereas before it would probably be all just a blur. Like, Oh, there were some people there, you know, I noticed a bit,

like I say, cause it was really ticking me off when I just space out when I'm driving because I know that's not good. Right. So I start, I count blue cars typically. It's like you got into, it's like, oh, what are I going to do when I get home? Or, oh, that was a good song, right? It didn't all of a sudden. Yeah.

Or just singing along. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And then I'm like, oh my gosh, I got home and I don't even remember driving through this part and that part and this part. But when I'm counting blue cars, I always remember like, oh yeah, I saw a blue car there. So really good stuff for situational awareness and taking it down to people. Then once you get out of the car, oh, he's wearing blue. They're wearing blue.

And you know what else is not happening you're not looking at your cell phone that's the worst yep that like anybody in the audience who's looking at your cell phone in a parking lot shame on you stop it please for your own sake and then teach your kids not to do that to you like we we used to have answering machines. So even if it rings, guess what? They can leave a message. You can call back. But you're going to be safe. Not a prey.

They don't want you to look them in the eyes. They don't want you to know who they are. They don't want you to be able to do a description of who they were after the fact. So if you're heads up and doing that now you're no longer the prey um this one was weird i don't really go to the mall or like i don't know if i'm in a store i'm usually like after certain things it's like people in those stores are usually after, but the who's really shopping game at the mall to like, yeah. Who's really shopping.

Like who's actually there buying stuff or are they just walking around? But I did like the one before that. Like if you're at a park, you have one minute to try and what are they doing? You have one minute to get your best guess of what this person is doing at the park, right? So, like, obviously, it's obvious if they're playing football or something like that. But if they're just standing by the post, then that's a little bit different. Like, what are they doing?

So, basic people watching. If you're doing it with a fiction author, though, you would make up anything. Oh, man. You'd be like, brand story going on. And I'm like, the guy's just leaning against a light post. They're the next savior of the universe. He is working on mentally developing his super powers. Yep.

super powers yep he knows the secret code to the safe that is located underneath the pole that he's leaning against no you're right but i come on you gotta be practical too um and even if you are making up a story you're there and noticing the people and what they're doing. It'd be a good game to play with the kids. See how many items they can pick out of the scene to make a story. Oh, yeah. So, like, the lady has an umbrella. The guy has whatever. He's wearing sneakers and shorts.

I mean, whatever. Yeah, that's true. has an umbrella, the guy has whatever, is wearing sneakers and shorts. Whatever, you know. Yeah, that's true. Now she's turned into Mary Poppins and he's actually the chimney guy, right? You know, list 20 items or 10 items and then make a story out of it. Uh-huh. That'd be like a fun summer thing to

keep the kids busy during the summer. Yep. Garden Girl's probably over there taking notes. Oh, yeah, that's a great idea. Them little whippersnappers be situationally aware. Nice deal. This goes right along those lines. Describe the area you've just been through.

So it's got to be unexpected and random because you can't just let them like start memorizing as they go in but i mean with little kids cool with adults though like spring it at them and just be like hey we just walked through there what's like four things you noticed in there right yep with kids you can prime them they can you know and then just pick out a few things that you'd expect them to see or you can have them describe like one thing that was in there in detail and that way people start paying attention to oh when i'm coming through this area i need to pay attention to you know what everything was um i don't do public um commuting i don't do commuting at all actually right now so like public transportation yeah public transportation or even when you're driving like the same route every day you start to notice certain cars that are always like on the road with

you i used to notice that when i was leaving cool headed for Auburn. You know, there's certain cars that are leaving at the same time as you. And so like pay attention to who those people are. When do they join you? When do they leave? This is just to keep your brain sharp. It's not that you're like monitoring them.

But then you can really start to see like, oh wow, there's a heavy traffic today of like different drivers that aren't usually here or different passengers that aren't usually here. What is what's the difference today? You know, so that's kind of cool. If you're in a like more of an urban urban area or your community or whatever. Where can the gun men hide? I love this one.

I do it all the time. When I'm out walking or whatever, I'm like, oh, sniper point, sniper point. Oh, hit it in the third layer. You can be hit. Third layer has to do with like camouflage when you're in the woods. There's a first layer, the second layer, third layer. It's really difficult to see people in the third layer. So this is always a fun exercise i'm always thinking of like where people could jump out to like ambush you and

stuff like that um probably that's that fictional writer thing going on but um good practice for everyone and then you can add different limitations like where could you hide to get cover and not just concealment. Get them started thinking about that. And then the last one was kind of creepy. What's different on your street? Take pictures of your neighborhood and store them. I'm thinking it would be a little creepy just walking down the street like I'm taking my normal walk and I'm just taking pictures of all my neighbor's houses. Sure, easily enough done.

Well, yeah. You could talk on the phone or something right that's true I could just like be talking on the phone and like video it all the way down but anyway so he's like take pictures in the neighborhood and then study

them carefully study the neighborhood carefully put the pictures away store them away and then study the neighborhood carefully I do this especially because I love to garden and when we pictures away store them away and then study the neighborhood carefully i do this um especially because i love to garden and when we moved to texas we're in a different zone right so in order for me to know how to garden down here my biggest learning tool was watching the people who garden down here right when are they tilling their soil when are they planting when are you know and

that's what really got me on track for my garden and so i really did study them carefully and i was looking at oh my gosh that dirt's been disrupted i know they've planted so i've got to get mine planted right this year i was actually early and it's the best yet so um i was in earlier than the the one local that i look at one of the locals was already in one wasn't so i decided it was good time split the difference yeah yeah so then once you have the pictures and you've been watching your neighborhood and stuff like that um try to list out the things that you think are different than before. Like my neighbor had some roof damage. That was a change that I noticed. One of my neighbors, their lawnmower wasn't working.

So now their grass is super long, right? And so I've been noticing just changes like that. But then you can take out the pictures and compare it to your list and see what differences are actually there. So cool exercise but i was like god that's kind of creeper to just like yeah you have to be careful right i don't want my neighbors to think i'm like a wackadoodle because i'm taking pictures of their house so but i got pretty nice neighbors we want to keep it that way.

Yep. One nice thing about Texas. But practicing situational awareness, guys, I can't overemphasize the importance of, you know, doing this daily. Whenever you're out in some place public whenever whenever um somebody pulls up at your house you know if you have a dog and it's barking like you can't just ignore the dog you have to actually go look at like oh what's the dog barking at you know um if you got a little yapper that barks at everything still you've got to go look because Miss Amber Poo might have actually spotted something, you know? No, she really is a good alert dog.

Right? Yeah, I mean, usually the yappers, that's what they're best at, is really alerting you to what's going on. So, you know, Shadow, my black lab, she'll just be like sleeping right through it. She wouldn't care. But, um, so yeah, every day, every day, situationally aware, it's gonna be the best for you. Because if you aren't aware that somebody just pulled up in your driveway, now they're at the door before you were aware of it. Now they're through the door before you were aware of it. And we all slack. We all get in our own brains. We all get complacent. And it's just something we have to stay vigilant on. So there you go. Like a new list of some cool things to do. I'm going

to do them as well. We'll have to do like a report back on how things went because I needed some new exercises myself. I've been counting blue cars for a long time. You guys got anything like that that you guys do to stay sharp in your travels? You're like, no. No blue cars cars head on a swivel just all the cars that drive by yeah that's just the biggest thing when we're out traveling you know i've really got to watch the people because it's just sketchy situations can happen a lot faster than you would imagine

and with christian you Christian still being little. We both pay attention when we're out. Like at malls. We've literally walked out of Walmart because we've heard an argument starting to bubble over. Right. Now we're out. We can come back later. Any fight you're not in is one you're going to survive.

It's one you're going to win. Yep, exactly. Because honestly, like once a situation begins, it doesn't matter if you technically win or lose, you're still going to lose. There's still an element of you can be injured even though you won. So. all right. Hopefully that gave you guys some new tools. I wanted them. So I thought it'd be fun to share them tonight. All right. Let's go ahead and get into some changing earth news. It's been wild

on our planet, guys. Wild. So, whoo, the insurance market's going to be so interesting. But here we go. Changing Earth News. Dream. Survive. Thrive. This

is Changing Earth News. survive thrive this is changing earth news so i said that the insurance marketplace is going to be wild because as a cog in that engine i really have no idea how our insurance as we currently know it is going to survive the amount of disasters that are just unfolding it just honest a lot of the conversations around my extended family have been our policy went up yeah you know yeah the rates have gone the rates are good have you like we're all everybody's like who are you with what do you you know we're trying to find a better rate. Yeah, it's not going to happen. They're going to keep going up. Like, you know, $2 billion worth of hail damage to Austin last year.

I mean, there's all your auto. You know how many, like, used car parking lots and everything were just splattered with hail? And then all of these storms are coming through. All these tornadoes are coming through. It is just, I don't know how it survives. You can't, if you look at the numbers, somebody's been paying like $1,500 a year for 30 years. It was like $45,000, right? Their house goes down and we're rebuilding at, you know,

300,000 to 500,000 or upwards. Those numbers don't jive. Like they just don't work for, for the companies to keep expending that premium over and over and over and over and over again. So, uh, yeah, like I say say as somebody who's a cog in the engine i don't know it's gonna be real interesting is all i could say okay so change in earth news may 26 2024 the solar our our sun is quiet for a moment. It's like the calm before the storm on the sun. The sunspot that gave us all the problems in the beginning of May is coming back around and she's about to show her ugly little head again. And so it's been a little bit calmer right now. There's a lot of movement happening within the sunspot. And if it keeps that up, we're going to be looking at the same

type of situation we were dealing with the beginning of may so we have to keep our eyes on this um because it could be a big problem really fast um and then other than that there was some like big filaments on the south an eruption would not be good for planet earth if those went off um but all in all a general quiet uh kind of going on like i say a calm a calm before the storm and hopefully it doesn't happen while i'm out on a boat in the ocean oh i'm gonna need prayers guys lots of prayers I know it should be like awesome fun trip but man I'm just I know I'm growing more gray right now as I speak okay May 20th 369 earthquakes are 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.1 in Peru there was a 4.1 in San Diego There was actually tons and tons and tons of earthquakes

over there. And like I said last week, sometimes good to see the little ones because that can be pressure release without a big one. So we just don't know. Historic flooding in Brazil continues. Areas have been just absolutely decimated. The water is now getting up so high that even like some of the high ground is becoming just non, you just can't be there anymore. So really crazy situation going on there. And they're definitely not going to get those fields planted in time for a harvest this year. A freak storm left Poland blanketed in hail. Oh, and boots on the ground. Yes.

Yeah, I got to say what was in our chat room here from our buddy over there in Portugal. Normally Portugal, 35 to 40 degrees celsius snowed again in two parts in the big mountains so of course up in the mountains but still this time of year crazy sauce so um i the sierra nevadas haven't been doing anything they're kind of when we looked at it i think it was like same longitudinal of over there so um arizona tanto national forest 5 000 acres burning kenya was bracing for more rain as um cyclone ayala hit kansas they had a huge uh dust storm just huge haboob they're called haboobs i know everybody who's immature like me yeah in kansas um in central kansas can now can now laugh um but yeah

huge dust storm residents there saying they've never seen anything like it. Just went straight to black, black skies. May 21st, 387 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 5.7 in Papua New Guinea. Oklahoma was hit by multiple tornadoes. Omaha, Nebraska was getting flooded. Eastern Colorado hit by golf ball size hail event. The Netherlands hit by extreme flooding event. Also other areas of Europe flooding.

Also Russia, southern China, record rainfalls in a lot of those areas over there. So this is not just the United States going crazy. This is the whole world going crazy um southern china is also experiencing record heat so i feel them like that's what we've got going on in texas right now it's may and it feels like it's dang near middle of august it's just the worst because we just had so much rain and the storms when the hot runs into the cold that's what's creating all this craziness so um oklahoma was also hit by a dust storm oh now i know i lost you no no okay it did a beep beep beep beep beep. May 22nd, 348 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger,

biggest of which was a 5.6 in the Molucco Sea in Indonesia. Naples, Italy. So this is right near Campi Flagri, the volcano there, the super volcano. They were literally evacuating on May 22nd. They had a 4.4 biggest earthquake in 40 years. The inmates of the nearby prison were being evacuated. So Campy Flagre has not calmed down at all. It is still making a lot of noise. Iowa was hit by tornadoes, lots of tornadoes, just ripping through the middle of our country.

Arizona wildfires were up to 14,000 acres. Central Illinois, I-55 closed due to a dust storm. So we have these dust storms on top of the other storms. It's going to be like this, guys. It's just the atmosphere becoming super charged super high super low so um that's why we're gonna have just more insane weather and that's why i'm worried about like how the insurance industry is gonna actually handle all this um may 23rd there was 363 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger the biggest of which was a 5.6 in the southwest indian ridge

oklahoma was hit by a series of tornadoes i've been lucky enough where we're at um they've skirted to the east or to the west and pretty much missed our area completely so it's kind of crazy to wake up some mornings and find out that just down the road somebody else got screwed over that night um may 24th there was 377 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.4 in peru in new jersey there was another 2.9 earthquake parts of iowa and illinois destroyed by tornadoes that night. Just relentless activity. Multiple people died in those events. And the wind turbines got destroyed. I bet you that also happened up where it was hitting in northern Texas

because I know that area is all wind turbines up in there as well. Prayers out to everybody that's been affected by these tornadoes. We are talking about a lot of devastation and really that's what the changing earth series is all about is infrastructure being destroyed but not so much like a mass casualty of people and so how do you handle that when your infrastructure is being ripped out from underneath you? And you still have all these people that relied on that infrastructure. So that's what's going to give you more climate refugees and things like that.

May 25th, there's 383 earthquakes or 2.0 or bigger. The biggest of which was a 6.3 in Venatu. was a 6.3 in Venatu. Northern Texas, that was this morning or yesterday, five people died up there in the tornadoes that came through. I've heard five to 11. Many more people were injured. It really hit Collin, Denton, and Cook counties.

So big, big disaster in those areas. Again, just say your prayers for those people. If you weren't involved, thank the Lord first and then pray for the people that were. In the Philippines, Moban Kweizong was hit by typhoon, it's A-G-H-O-N, Achnan, and caused a major flooding event over there. There was also a huge landslide that happened over there.

So those people are definitely going to need our prayers. The island folks are just getting hit. Montana declared a disaster due to flooding. New Mexico wildfire they have started was up to 1500 acres that is the blue two fire and a lightning strike started a fire near the uh nasa kennedy space center in florida so we had eyes on that one may 26th there was 394 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 6.3 in Venatu, another one. So not the same one that hit the day before.

And when energy comes in there, it's like the punch point for our planet, and that feeds out around the Ring of Fire. So we always have to keep our eye on that because um that can be bad things in the coming week for the ring of fire especially two of them back to back like that rogers arkansas was hit by a tornado ohio when i was doing my research they were on a tornado watch right now for a potential tornado outbreak with the storm that's moving through there right now. Cyclone Ramal is making landfall in Bangladesh right now today.

That was live action. And then the extreme heat in Texas is the big story. A lot of people are still out of power in Houston. Now they're getting this extreme heat. So not a good situation there. As far as erupting volcanoes, we have 31 volcanoes erupting. That's the same as last week. We have 25 showing minor activity.

That's up two from last week. And we have 26 showing unrest. That's down two from last week. So we have the same number of tornadoes or volcanoes. I've been talking too much about tornadoes today all right same number of volcanoes on the list um but two more moved up into minor unrest as opposed to just being in the unrest category uh for wildfires we're at a preparedness level of two so everybody got to start perking up about those wildfire risks. There are seven large active wildfires in the United States right now for a total of 32,671 acres on fire. Two of those fires are contained. Arizona's number one on the list with one huge fire, 14,402 acres.

No new fires. Two of the other big ones are contained at this time. Oregon's number two on the list with one large active fire, 6,340 acres. That is not contained at this time. Colorado is number three on the list with one large active fire, 5,699 acres. That is not contained at this time. And Alaska is number four on the list, one fire 3 954 acres and that one is also not contained but a lot of canada's burning up on that side so i wasn't really surprised to see

alaska um up on the list so yeah i mean i guess uh we need some i was gonna make like a wizard of oz joke like you know with all the tornadoes going on, but I don't know if that's really appropriate today. It was a really rough night for a lot of people last night. So just send more prayers out to them. There's been like 15 to 20 tornadoes or something that's hit Pennsylvania this year. It's just whack.

Right? That's weird. Weird weather everywhere. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And with that big sunspot turning back around, I don't know. They were comparing numbers to, like, this last big CME that we had compared to like big ones we've had in the

past and where the Aurora traveled to as far as like way more intense flares than that one we had and the Aurora didn't go that far. So you know the Earth's shielding is not doing well even though that's something that nobody in the mainstream media wants to talk about. And we just don't know what kind of effects that's going to have as this transition happens on our planet. I mean, we don't have records from 12,000 years ago besides what we can find in the dirt and the trees and whatnot. Yeah, they all want to use that tag word climate change,

but they don't want to go too far beyond SUVs. Right. Exactly. There's another like huge piece of ice breaking off of the the ice sheet. And so, of course, they're going to blame that on climate change. course they're going to blame that on um climate change but that's actually like mother nature's um natural way of cooling the planet so that happening would actually like trigger in the next ice age because that would bring less salinity to the water and it shuts down that um the flow and the arctic the current just just like the movie Day After Tomorrow, literally.

Just like that movie. It was like a movie to... That's the one where New York froze over? Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, we have mammoths that were froze while eating. I mean, that's

a quick freeze. We've never really seen anything like that happen on our planet. So how does that happen? Right? It was like a big harvest, right? A big harvest, right? Freeze-dried machine. Fair enough. Yeah.

Yeah, you can still eat it and everything. Yeah, people do. Yeah. It's crazy. Alright crazy all right guys well until next time stay safe um i hate really i hate to stay to say stay safe um i'd rather stay say stay free right but right now with the crazy weather like make sure you got that situational awareness going in more ways than one. Those people that just got hit in Texas, one of the biggest things they were saying was we just never saw it coming. Like it happened that fast.

There's a lot of times that I'm like, yeah, yeah, warning, whatever, you know. So just don't be that person. All righty, guys. Check out the video over on YouTube. Give it a like. Give it a share. It is in a short. It is in a long video.

Whichever way you prefer, go check that out. Subscribe to the channel. Always appreciate that. 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.authorSaraFHathaway.com. If you love the Changing Earth series and podcast, become a supporter while you're there.