DPF Meet & Greet 2014- Intro Thread

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
LW, last year we set them up in summer and didn't have a turnout. I'm not sure if that was due to weather or not, but it is a matter of fact. I honestly think that there are more people watching us and waiting to see how turn out is for the first few before they make a long journey to end up camping alone. I understand it's late in the year to start settling details, but I have a lot up in the air, and as it seems now, we have about 5 or 6 people actively involved in this thread. That's not enough for one event, IMHO. I think that double that many for each region would be more(I think there are 11 or 12 that have posted here at all) reasonable.

SilentBob, I'm not sure if going to vendors is a good idea or not. It could be a git or a curse. If they are able to help gain exposure, then that would be great. If they are counting on us to get tons of people there to purchase their wares, we may end up burning bridges for future events. I can't help but think that we should get attendance up before we ask vendors to come out. If we have a good amount of people, they will be more attracted to the idea.

I'm also in the middle of setting up a relocation for my family. Perhaps this is the year to set up for 2015....

What do you all think about starting planning on 2015 events?

LW has a good point about how late it is to start planning for this year. I'm not likely to even attend this year due to the move and prior commitments. People need to be able to get time off and to prepare for the trip. In the meantime, people can do smaller events that will give insight and experience for future events. I for one am in for 2015. The more I think about it, this year just won't work for me.
 
Here's what I see as some possible issues: Summertime is growing/harvesting and so many of us do that ourselves so a weekend away could mean the loss of essentials to survival. My new goat has to be milked twice daily. I have plenty of people who will feed my animals while I'm gone but can't think of a single person who would milk her for me. And 2 or 3 days without milking could be enough to cause her to dry up.
In fall, winter and spring, there's school and while there are holidays, yeah, it is tough for everyone to organize together at the same time.
Which is why I suggested that those close enough to each other do an initial meeting for dinner and conversation for just a couple of hours. Once we meet a couple of others and can get comfortable with each other, I think we're more likely to plan for the further out weekends away.
I went through many of the posts for my region last night and saw several members that are 2 hours away from me or less but no way of knowing if they are still active here. Of course, I could "follow" them all and start a "conversation" with all of them to try to organize a local get-together.

Once I get myself unpacked here which should be finished today or tomorrow, I am going to have a lot of time on my hands. It only takes me about an hour twice a day to take care of my animals and water my garden. I'm not going to tell anyone how many hours I could sit at my sewing machine working on quilts because that's an OCD behavior that I have not indulged myself in for over 3 weeks now. When I get my machine set up, there's no telling when I'll walk away from it again. However, my computer sits right beside it.

My point being, give me another 2 or 3 days and I will have plenty of time to start working on organization of events. I am offering myself as a sacrifice here (lol) to carry some of the weight of this. I am very good at researching places/locations on the internet and have no qualms about contacting strangers to set things up. Even outside of my region, I could offer suggestions for locations and keep records of who is interested and when they'd be available.

At one time, I was the CEO of a non-profit that operated all over the east coast as well as a few states in the Midwest and Western states. I have been through the struggle to organize people I've never met to do things that were in their best interests. Having this site and the way it's set up could present opportunities for polling to see who would attend what type of events, when and where. Just say the word and I'll get to work.
 
LW, you are a good man. I appreciate the insight and the offer of your time and effort. I agree that more localized and regular meetings will be paramount to the success of the larger regional & national meets. I also appreciate your situation, and understand summer isn't a good time for you. I wonder if perhaps a couple polls on "When" & "Where" would help.
 
alabaster said:
LW, you are a good man. I appreciate the insight and the offer of your time and effort. I agree that more localized and regular meetings will be paramount to the success of the larger regional & national meets. I also appreciate your situation, and understand summer isn't a good time for you. I wonder if perhaps a couple polls on "When" & "Where" would help.
Click to expand...
I really better change my avatar. I'm not a man by any stretch of the imagination... lol
 
You know what? I could bring my milking goat with me so everyone could meet her, show everyone how to milk her and let everyone taste the milk. And milking is a year-round thing depending on which goat(s) is/are in milk. So sometimes it just takes some creative thinking.
And wouldn't it be something to see how much fun it is to travel with a goat in a SHTF type situation.
 
LWesterfield said:
You guys do realize that it's already Summer 2014 and no meets are scheduled? I would like to suggest something to get a ball rolling on regular meetings amongst DPF members. Start small and work your way up. To me, a meet and greet is a one-day, several hour meeting to start getting to know one another face to face. No, no one is going to drive 12 hours for dinner with strangers. Okay, I would do it, but I love to travel and I met my best friend by doing that. But we can go smaller than that. I know there are several of us here in North Carolina. For most of us, the center of the state is a 2-3 hour drive. I would be more than happy to arrange a dinner meeting for anyone willing to drive 2 to 3 hours. And the planning needs to include time and space to sit around talking for a couple of hours. And maybe that's where you start to plan the bigger event. Alabaster, I know you're most likely about 4-5 hours from me. I go to visit a friend in Maryland at least twice a year and probably go right by you, at least until you move to Florida. Brent, you're probably 7-8 hours from me. I went to Alabama in March and will probably head down there again in the next couple of months. I think we need to take advantage of opportunities to get to know each other face to face.
We all have profiles here and most of us have included our general location in our profile. Is it possible for anyone to actually access the membership list for location information? The idea being to start a Conversation with those that we believe would be within a reasonable distance of us for a meet There's also the threads for the different locations but if people aren't regularly checking for it, they won't see it.
I think it's really important that we consider these meets to be part of our prepping. Just meeting each other, any scheduled training at future events is icing. Imagine if the grid goes down. No internet, no phone. But for whatever reason we have to get out. It's important to know like-minded people and to know how to get to them or for them to get to us without any means of communication. Do we all want to become isolationists at that point or do we want to work together with people we know to form new communities. Numbers usually means the difference in many survival situations.
Click to expand...
jimLE said:
so LW when did ya become a man? LOL :p and that looks like a woman aviator to me..lol
Click to expand...


Jim, that not Amelia Earhart! lol
 
Wow. Don't I feel like a biscuit with no butter.... Please accept my deepest apologies.. :oops: Forgive me, LWesterfield. I meant no malice, honest. I'm not always the most observant person(Though that's obvious now, isn't it?). It looks like your avatar is giving me a dirty look for referring to you as a man. I really don't like having my foot in my mouth this early in the morning..

I can't say I've seen an animal milked since I was a boy. I'm adventurous with foods, so I'm definitely in on a taste test! I like goat cheese, but I really couldn't even guess what goat's milk tastes like. I would imagine traveling with the goat would be an epic road trip. I have these wild visions of travelling with a goat in the cab of a truck, riding shotgun. What a show that would be!
 
alabaster said:
Wow. Don't I feel like a biscuit with no butter.... Please accept my deepest apologies.. :oops: Forgive me, LWesterfield. I meant no malice, honest. I'm not always the most observant person(Though that's obvious now, isn't it?). It looks like your avatar is giving me a dirty look for referring to you as a man. I really don't like having my foot in my mouth this early in the morning..

I can't say I've seen an animal milked since I was a boy. I'm adventurous with foods, so I'm definitely in on a taste test! I like goat cheese, but I really couldn't even guess what goat's milk tastes like. I would imagine traveling with the goat would be an epic road trip. I have these wild visions of travelling with a goat in the cab of a truck, riding shotgun. What a show that would be!
Click to expand...
I always looked at that picture and thought she looks a little angry or disappointed at the man standing beside her. If it were me, I'd probably be looking indulgent like "sure, you can think you're the one who wears the pants around here, but look at who really does all the work."
But my opinion is based upon the fact that I have never been in a balanced relationship where both partners share in the work.
But the look she has is definitely not aimed at you, Alabaster.

We have a saying amongst my family that can and has been aimed at either male or female: "Man Up" which means quit being lazy/selfish/wimpy and do your job or quit being a scaredy cat and get on that horse/tractor or whatever you've been avoiding because you're afraid.

So I was not even the slightest bit offended by your comment. I will definitely "man up" for whatever task would be helpful to the community.
 
Nice. I hate to say it, but she actually looks a bit like an ex of mine.... LoL

Finding "balanced relationships" is tough, in my opinion. My Pastor says it's because people want 50/50, some even 100/100. He says that if we go into a relationship willing to give 100% and get 0% back, and we do it because we love the person that much, then we can't be disappointed. If they give even 1%, we are pleased and thankful for that. Personally, I think that's a bit easier said than done. My wife and I have gone through times where one was pulling and the other was pushing, and it got old. Really old, really fast. Not that we have a perfect relationship, but I think we have just settled in to our respective positions in life. Even as we constantly evolve, we are still doing so as a team. Maybe we need a "prepper dating service"!
 
alabaster said:
Nice. I hate to say it, but she actually looks a bit like an ex of mine.... LoL

Finding "balanced relationships" is tough, in my opinion. My Pastor says it's because people want 50/50, some even 100/100. He says that if we go into a relationship willing to give 100% and get 0% back, and we do it because we love the person that much, then we can't be disappointed. If they give even 1%, we are pleased and thankful for that. Personally, I think that's a bit easier said than done. My wife and I have gone through times where one was pulling and the other was pushing, and it got old. Really old, really fast. Not that we have a perfect relationship, but I think we have just settled in to our respective positions in life. Even as we constantly evolve, we are still doing so as a team. Maybe we need a "prepper dating service"!
Click to expand...
Ha! Prepper dating service: White female, 51, has 3 goats (1 pregnant, 1 in milk and 1 buck), 11 chickens, 1 year of stored food, plus seeds, antibiotics, candles, water purification, plus a movable home seeks White male with land, guns and ammo to prepare for a SHTF future together.
 
jimLE said:
picture if you can..a goat riding shotgun and be holding a map..and of course,telling ya when and where to turn..lol
Click to expand...
There's a cartoon, I think Quasimodo, Hunchback of Notre Dame, where the goat sits on the gypsy's shoulders smoking a pipe and they are both covered with a large coat to hide the gypsy girl.
 
LW, just as I was going to say that finding you a man would probably be easier than you think, our good friend JimLE steps in as the first to ask for the honor!
 
I can't go anywhere til I've harvested my current garden. Then I'll have 2 years worth of food preps. Actually, when all is said and done, I'll probably have 2 years worth of food preps for at least 2 people if I don't sell some of it out at the Farmer's Market. Speaking of which... I need to go post a question about pickled watermelon rind....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top