SPECIAL Prepper Camp Primer w/ Rick Austin

[00:00:03] You're listening to PBN, your path back to stability here.

[00:00:56] And they range between $250 to $800. Wow. Wow. And that $800, I know. And personally, I know Sarah Hathaway went to a school that was even more expensive than that, a three-day. And the question I have for you is, how much can I get a Prepper Camp ticket for right now for a three-day survival event? That's a good question.

[00:01:23] I think we're at like $69 or something like that. $69, ladies and gentlemen. What are you talking about? This is kind of like the – I was thinking like what's the ultimate sort of contrast and compare? And I think that's it. The three-day survival school, one instructor, you go hopefully pick up what they're putting down. But if not, see you after three days. Yeah.

[00:01:47] And compared to the three-day sort of Prepper Party that is Prepper Camp, right? It's 64 classes a day and taught by about – I think we got about 50 instructors. So all who are the premier experts in their field of expertise. So, yeah.

[00:02:12] It's – and the comparison is not just on price, although that's really interesting. I didn't realize that. But it's in quality. Oh, definitely. And the event is a quality event. And when people are posting online that have been to lots of other shows, I think Jane just told me that Joel with Fortress Canine was just talking about Prepper Camp.

[00:02:40] And he said it's the best show in the country in terms of the quality. By far. And I haven't even been to them all, but I know people who go to them. Yeah. You know, some of our hosts have gone to ones in various places. We're not going to name names, but nobody's ever come up to me and said, I think that could be the next – that's what they would say. I think this could be the next Prepper Camp. You know, nobody's ever said anything remotely like that. And that's what it is. It's just the – I mean, the locale, the people, the instructor.

[00:03:07] I don't even know where you would go to meet a guy like – what's his name? Ken from Fortress Canine? What's his name? It's Joel. Yeah. Joel, that's it. Yeah. I mean, you know, the guy sells, you know, trained protection dogs for the elite military as well as executive protection dogs for guys with lots of money.

[00:03:33] And he also trains people with their own dogs that they have right now to be more obedient, to be whatever you want that dog to be. Yeah. I got a dog from a Dutch Shepherd a couple years ago. So – and she is the best livestock guardian dog out there. And she's also got, you know, multiple tasks too.

[00:03:56] So it's – and he helped me because I think the best thing he's got going for him, which he doesn't promote nearly enough, is his year-long video school on how to take a dog from nothing or from being a bad dog to being a great dog. And it's not really that difficult. And he breaks it out step by step by step. So you do one little module that takes 20 minutes and you work on it with a dog.

[00:04:22] And then you go to the next one and the next one and the next one and everything from, you know, training the dog to crate to, you know, getting the dog to be by your side. And I'm doing advanced bite work with my dog right now. And she's – and I watch other videos out there on YouTube of these guys doing bite work. And I'm like, my dog's 10 times better than that already. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that's impressive. He also makes some of the best leashes and collars I think I've ever seen anywhere. Yeah, he does.

[00:04:50] Them collars are – you could – you could climb mountains with the collars without issue. Yeah. They're great. Yeah. And, you know, that's one example of a vendor slash instructor that shows up for three days. And, you know, the other thing also is the accessibility to these 50 instructors. I can't think of too many that you couldn't sit down with and talk to for even an extended period. You might run into them at the shows after prepper camp.

[00:05:19] You might run into them at the vendor mart. You know, all that kind of stuff. It's pretty wide open. I mean, I've had long talks with people after my own classes, guys with notebooks and, you know, sighted. Yeah, they all come prepared. Yeah, they are. You know, but it is amazing because the guys that do come, the guys that do teach, they're all coming on their own dime. They want to come because prepper camp is what prepper camp is.

[00:05:42] And last year, we talked with this guy for a while, but EJ Schneider, who's really kind of somebody in the whole – Yeah. You know. Naked and afraid or something, I think. Yeah. And he does a lot of stuff with Discovery Channel and all kinds of other stuff. And, you know, he came last year and I wasn't really sure, you know, what his personality was going to be like,

[00:06:08] but he is like one of the nicest, most giving, most – Oh, that's sweet. He's a surprisingly nice guy. Fits right in. Yeah, he's coming back this year and, you know, he said, I wouldn't miss it. I wouldn't miss it. I mean, even though we – you know, last year we had the storm and, you know, it was – Yeah. It was a different kind of event, but, you know, he loved it and he's coming back.

[00:06:32] And, in fact, he's got a brand new pickle company that he's going to bring as well to sell these super pickles. So, yeah, just another prepper thing. We'll walk away with some of those. My son loves pickles, man. Big throw. We all do, really. But, yeah, and, you know, the other thing – the private sort of three-day survival training, it's going to be you and maybe some people, maybe some people.

[00:07:00] And kind of what you miss out on by doing that is the massive amount of, you know, what is it, 2,000 to 3,000 or something people at prepper camp that – and everybody's pretty cool. I mean, it's very rare you run into people who aren't cool and really can have opportunities to commune and sit down and meet people. And, you know, that's an added benefit on top of all the classes, learning, all that. I mean, two years ago we had somebody come from –

[00:07:31] Germany, I remember, right? Well, yeah, yeah, that too. Yeah, Seattle, Washington. And, you know, she walked up to me as she got to the event and she just wanted to thank me. And I'm like, okay, that's – you're welcome. She said, when I came through the gate at prepper camp, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me. You know, because she lives in Seattle. She said, I can't talk to anybody where I am.

[00:07:59] I can't tell them how I'm feeling, how I'm thinking. I'm just – I'm surrounded by people who are just like me or think like me and have concerns like me. And I finally can talk to people, you know, with the same attitude. So, you know, that's just something I never really thought about. But it's pretty cool. Yeah. That wasn't Jasmine, was it? Do you remember? No, it wasn't Jasmine. No, it was somebody totally different. I'd never met before and, you know, just somebody who signed up for tickets. Because she's from that neck of the woods too.

[00:08:29] Yeah, she is. Yeah. I don't know if she's moved or not. I think she was moving to Kentucky or something. Well, you hope she does get out of there and it's just safer. Get to high ground. Get to higher ground, redder ground, right? Well, she – and she, Jasmine, saved my butt last year. I mean, I've always wanted somebody to be able to do, you know, all the tech stuff, the technology stuff. Because that's the bane of my existence at Prepper Camp. And we have, you know, we're an outdoor event and we have big screen TVs in tents and audio stuff.

[00:08:58] And, you know, every time I rent audio stuff, it's stuff that's seen better days and been kicked around. And, you know, at one-off sort of events like weddings and things like that. And oops, you know, knock that thing over. So, we spend too much time trying to deal with that stuff. And she just took the ball and ran with it last year. And she was – in fact, she ended up being our volunteer of the year because I didn't have to think about it. I didn't have to run around between classes. I didn't have to set up the speakers.

[00:09:27] You know, the instructors. I didn't have to put the microphone on them. You know, she took care of everything. So, it was great. She is straight-up special operations for audiovisual here at PBN. Like, she is spec ops for us, for sure. She redid a lot of Sarah's – Sarah Hathaway, another great instructor. She redid a bunch of her audio drama with sound. And, yeah. She shows up, things get better. That's definitely her deal.

[00:09:54] She also wound up putting Starlink up for the town that she was in. I don't know what town she was in. But she was in a hotel in – it had to be, like, at – what's the one that starts with an A? Ashboro? Asheville. Asheville, yeah. I guess she was there, I think. Yep. And, yeah, she had Starlink and got a bunch of people linked up to call home and say, I'm alive. I'm not floating, you know. Yep, exactly. Yeah, that's her. Oh, it is.

[00:10:24] It is. And, you know, she had it at prepper camp, too. So when communications were kind of down all around last year, you know, people could reach out and tell people they were fine and everything was good and the event was great and, you know, still having classes. So, you know, it was good. It was really good. So the odds are in favor this year that we're going to have an unbelievable year

[00:10:51] for weather because I remember 2019, I think it was, was a pretty bad weather year. And then the following year, 2020, was like, you know, it's like that with prepper camp. You get a good weather year, it's like perfect, pitch perfect. So I'm guessing based on the prepper's almanac, we're looking pretty good for weather. We're looking pretty good this year.

[00:11:17] But all that said, you know, even when it does rain and gets or even when it gets cold or whatever situation it is, again, it's one of those weird prepper camp benefits where you're there and you have to endure it and you learn from it. You know, it's like its own class. Mother Nature becomes its own course and you learn. I think our first year or second year or something like that, you know,

[00:11:45] we had a really bad storm at night and, you know, there were some people who were first time campers out there and there were people a little more experienced and, you know, they just didn't do the guy lines right. And their, their tent fell down on them in, you know, it was just a small pup tent type thing, but it was, it was in the rain and people around them got out of their nice, warm, cozy tents and help them set theirs up so they would be dry.

[00:12:15] And that's just the kind of people that, that come to the event too, you know, and nothing to do with us or my staff or anything else. It was just people, people around there just, just saw a problem and they fixed it. They lent a hand and, you know, those people were forever grateful for that. That is the weird thing about prepper camp people is we all, and you know, it likely would go this way in a large scale collapse,

[00:12:41] but we all, especially the prepping community believes that like people will become their worst selves. Probably in the longterm it's different, but definitely in the short term, in the short term, we've seen it several times at prepper camp where people really do turn it on for help. You know, they really do become helpful and go out of their way to make somebody's take, make sure somebody is taken care of, you know, but it could also be like leaning on resources and things like that. That helps. You're not desperate yet.

[00:13:09] Yeah. Yeah. Well, it, it's, uh, it's not going to be a, it's not going to be a fun time when, if we have a total grid down situation and, you know, the DOD war game this out years ago that, you know, 20 80% of the population would be dead in the first two months because of fights over resources. But you got a lot of people in urban areas that are not prepared. And, you know, when all that infrastructure goes down, you know, there's no water, there's no sewage, there's no deliveries, there's no nothing.

[00:13:37] So, uh, people, people do, do end up, uh, you know, becoming their worst selves. Cause when their kid is looking at them saying I'm hungry and they're starving, then the, you know, it resorts, reverts back to the animal instinct. So, right. What else? Yeah. What else? I remember in 2020 we had, uh, you know, like home maintenance guys

[00:14:04] out, HVAC guys out. We had a guy out doing the roof for us in 2020. And, um, I, I don't tell people exactly what I do, but I talk to people and, you know, guide them a little bit. And I, I remember getting to the point with both of them, cause it was around that time things were closing down, restriction, restricted travel, kind of opening the average guy's eyes up to like, yes, to get, this could get wonky. Yeah. And both of them said, if it gets bad enough, I'll just go take whatever

[00:14:32] I need from other people, both of them to me, a complete stranger, you know, just the guy, there's house they're working on. And that was exactly what they're, that was surprising to me. It really was. Yep. I think I'd have lied at least if I were in there. Oh no, I'll help my elderly neighbor out for sure. You know, which is why we have classes on home defense and personal defense and all that other sort of stuff. Bugging out all that stuff. Yeah. I look forward to the classes

[00:15:01] myself. It's always a good time. I always try to sneak out for at least three, try to get like one a day in at least one of my favorites was the, uh, I don't think he was there last year, but one of my favorites was when you had the North Carolina state trapper there, that guy was really great, man. He did a great class on trapping. Yeah. We're doing, we're, we're doing that again this year. So yeah, he's doing kind of a, a more advanced class too. And not that it's advanced that people

[00:15:29] can't, you know, have to have trapping, but it's going to be doing a lot more stuff. So it's, that's pretty cool. He's just, he just said, Hey, I want to add more to it. I want to do more stuff. So that's great. I mean, he, you know, if you knew nothing about it, he handed around all conibear trap, not set, but conibear traps and, you know, live traps and, uh, raccoon Paul traps, all kinds of stuff he handed through the audience so they could look at him and go like, Oh, okay. This is what I'm dealing with. And I thought that was really cool. Um, but yeah,

[00:15:59] I could see that I could definitely see him setting up some areas where, you know, forcing animals into certain areas, into traps and that kind of thing. But that was a great one. You know, Hakeem, he always does some awesome self-defense stuff. Sarah always does some awesome self-defense stuff. Yeah. Sarah is, uh, is amazing. And, and, um, anybody that has not

[00:16:22] seen, she's going to do her, um, or avoiding abduction class. Oh man. Anybody. And, and with, I did watch human trafficking the way that, that it is these days. And, and with, you know, all of the illegal aliens that we have in time, it's just, it's, it's a matter of seconds before you can be taken. And sometimes, you know, these predators are, are watching,

[00:16:49] you know, a woman get out of her car. She's by herself. She goes into the store and they'll wait. Um, and they'll even do things like, you know, put fentanyl on the door handle and, you know, the, the girl, the woman will pass out. They pull up with the, the, their van, throw her in and she's gone. And, and likely that's it. You know, they'll never hear from her again. And the statistics are amazing. Yeah. So I was listening to a, uh, one of those

[00:17:19] like criminal interview guys, you know what I mean? Where they interviewed the guy and it, and yeah, he was a guy who took little girls who like worked for one of the gangs. And that was his deal. Like he just followed families, took the little girls. And this is a message for you dudes out there to get in shape because he said, um, the single greatest deterrent for him when it came down to when he would decide I'm going for this girl, I'm not going for this little girl was the dad and the dad sort of demeanor. Like if he saw

[00:17:48] a dad that looked like he could throw down, he was like, no, not worth it. I'll wait until I run across point Dexter and deal with him because he's not going to be as much a problem. So like, like any predator, predator in the animal kingdom, you know, they're lazy and they don't want to get hurt. So if, if somebody's get teeth back, most likely a predator is going to find easier prey. Yeah, definitely. So yeah, for sure. Cause that's a, that's

[00:18:15] a dark thing and it is great. I mean, I, before I saw Sarah's class, I did, I have seen the kids getting one arm snagged while mom's had her head turned and, and that stuff happens so quick and they take off, you know, and it's, and you know, if you're a mom and you got two kids now, you quit. We're going to barrel down the street after one. Yep. Yeah. That she's got all that in video in her slides and pictures. It's a fantastic class. Yeah,

[00:18:40] it absolutely is. Yeah. You might leave after you might be compelled to get, I'm going to go get my kids straightened out or bring them with you. Well, it, and you, you know, there's some tips in there for what, how to teach your kids and, you know, things you need to look out for and, and to, you know, for women not to have their head in their phone and have their head on a swivel and be more acutely aware, you know, situational awareness of what's

[00:19:10] going on around them. Cause like I said, it's too easy. You know, most people have their head in their phone and they're walking around, not looking at their environment and they're, that's another thing that predators look forward to, you know, never, never saw the guy. Um, so. Yeah. Yeah. It's a dark one, but you know, some of them are like that. Some of the classes open your eyes to things you feel like you're getting fixed right away. Another standout one and they're there every year. I'm sure they'll be there this year was, um, when I took the class

[00:19:39] on elderberry, the mountain, what's it? Something mountain. Yeah. Yeah. They're not, they're not coming back, but I do talk about elderberries in my, in my garden class. Cause that's a huge thing. You know, the elderberry is, you can make elderberry syrup and you can buy that in a store for like 14 bucks for four ounces or something like that. And we grow it. It's like a weed almost.

[00:20:03] And, uh, you know, Jane harvest it and turns it into tinctures and syrup. And it is, um, it is an antiviral and it's better for you. It works better than Tamiflu, uh, killing viruses. So, um, you know, I like, I wandered into that one. That was one of those. And this happens all the time to people who go to Brevard camp. You wander into a class cause maybe you're one's finishing up or whatever the

[00:20:30] situation is. And, and then you're gripped and you're in there, you know what I mean? And it's like, Oh, I'm just going to stick this thing out and see what this is all about. And, uh, you know, that probably one of the most essential, I think you're not, even if you're not into fibers and creating cloth and clothing and that kind of thing, going to Jordan, the Phoenix here on PBN,

[00:20:56] going to her class is such an eyeopening thing because when you, she basically walks you from the process of fur to a beanie, you know what I mean? Like having fur and then going all the way through to turning that into a hat. And it was just one of those classes where I walked into it thinking like, this is cool. Let me go support Jordan, let her know that I'm there. And then I walked out of it going like, Oh man, I could definitely do that. That's the crazy thing about it. Like I was like,

[00:21:25] Oh, I could definitely do that if I had to, you know, had I had some of the tools and stuff to do it. It's a great one, man. Yeah. Yeah. She's great. She's great. She, um, she told me she was going to dress her, her baby son up as for Halloween as me. And I just kind of laughed about it, but she made everything out of, out of the stuff that damn sure did. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he looked great. I should have got that picture for this show. He looked great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:55] He was definitely you. It was phenomenal. Um, Dave Jones, of course, right? Yeah. Dave Jones. Yep. Yep. He's great. You know, I didn't realize till I read his bio for his book. What, uh, what, uh, how much information that guy has, you know, I'm kind of like, eh, I've known Dave for years and he just kind of laid back and lays a fair and does his little Elvis impersonation when he's tested

[00:22:23] the microphone and you know, it's like, Oh yeah, it's just Dave. But it's like, Holy crap. This guy was, this guy was like a lowly grunt and moved up and ended up being a, an officer and then ended up, you know, getting into the, into, uh, everything that controls the, the, the nukes for the country. And like, he, he knows his stuff. I mean, he, he was fantastic. Yeah. Dave's one of Dave's craziest

[00:22:54] qualities is how you can be around Dave Jones and you feel like you're with a buddy. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it doesn't matter if like me, I've never even been in the service, you know, and I've never once felt like Dave was looking at me like, damn dude, you should know that. You know what I mean? It just feels like you're with a guy, like a buddy. And, and that's what happens. And then he starts talking to you about stuff and you're like, good God, dude. He was like, uh,

[00:23:20] Alaska state trooper on top of all of that. He got called back to duty, went to Iraq, all that kind of stuff. And just, I don't know. He has an uncanny ability to wake up every day and be like, I'm not all of that cool stuff. Um, Dave Jones today. That's who I am. And he was like that or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just at his house on Monday. We were, uh, meeting me and a few of the hosts and you go in there and it's like, you know, there's food flying

[00:23:47] that you've been drinking season. Welcome to the house. You know what I mean? Yeah. Bread loaves, you're catching them like footballs. It's amazing. It's a good time, man. But, uh, yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's on nuclear, his on virus and pandemic essential. The one you guys did, I guess it would have been 2023. Yeah. The one, the one about movement, I think it was group

[00:24:12] movement or something like that. Basically. Yeah. It's kind of like patrol movement and that's something what it was. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, we've, we're doing one this year where, um, basically it's, it's how to get, get in and out of a vehicle when you're under fire. Um, you know, if we have, if we have, um, some of the crazies that are going on right now that are

[00:24:39] looking to, you know, do, do some, some terrorist type stuff that could easily happen. So, um, you know, that's, that's cool. And, you know, he, he did, uh, and this, and then this is another guy, um, who, um, yeah, it's Terry, uh, Kerry Osner. Um, he's, he, every once in a while he says, well, I can't come to prepper camp this year because I'm working for the, I'm doing something

[00:25:05] for the state department, um, overseas. Well, state department being code word for CIA, um, you know, training, training guys to, to be gorillas and, you know, fight against, uh, fight against their own governments and stuff. And so it's like, it's, he's, he's a wealth of knowledge too. And he's, he's a nicest guy and he's a great instructor, great instructor, just,

[00:25:29] you know, not, not, not a big, you know, burly, uh, giant guy that, you know, is gruff or whatever. He's just, he's just a great instructor really. Sounds like CIA. Yeah. CIA guys are always like skinny, maybe, maybe a little bit tall, but not really that tall. They're spot. He's not, he's not in the CIA, you know, no, he doesn't, he doesn't do anything for them. Yeah. Um, but yeah.

[00:25:56] Yeah. Hey, if, if you want to, if you want to go to a class and learn a lot of stuff, if you're interested in homesteading or even if you are one, um, and you want to laugh the whole time, go to, go to survivor Jane's class on homesteading reality, because she talks about stuff that we have done. My wife, survivor Jane, um, and in our homesteading journey, that should be lessons to

[00:26:25] everybody not to do. Um, most important lessons, dude. Yeah. And, and yeah, what, what it's really like in some of the stuff you have to do and some of the stuff you have to put up with. And, uh, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it for any of my past lives. And, uh, you know, I was, I was doing pretty well for myself in a 6,000 square foot house on top of a mountain while I was a television producer, but, um, you know, it's, it's, um, it's, it's just a great

[00:26:54] lifestyle. It's just a great lifestyle. I mean, I bet, I bet you get at least five or 10 more years out of your life because of what you, that's yeah. Yeah. I'm healthier than depending cause TV's tanking. Right. So you, you know, you'd have been pulling your hair out by now. Oh yeah. Yeah. But, um, yeah, that's an essential on the homesteading side of things. You know, if you go onto this thing, all you see on this thing is how great and wonderful it is to have

[00:27:21] goats and chickens and gardens, you know, pigs and the whole nine. And what you never see is, you know, going out to the chicken coop and there is body parts and wings and shit all over. Everything's been massacred. You know what I mean? They never show that stuff. Or just, you know, just some of, just some of Jane's trials and tribulations about being someone who, who never even knew how to cook before. And now she has to make cheese and ice

[00:27:51] cream and, you know, and process all the food that we have. And, uh, and, uh, because she's substantially smaller than me, she was the one that had to clean out the, um, the, uh, compost toilet. So it's just, uh, it is, um, there's some pictures. There's some pictures. Yeah. Yeah. It's phenomenal. I mean, that, that, those are the lessons that people who are thinking about

[00:28:17] making the jump need to need to learn, you know, just, but again, you know, wouldn't give it up for, for everything, you know, anything else really wouldn't. It's just, it's great being self-sufficient, great being able to know where your food actually comes from, that it doesn't have a bunch of chemicals in it and that it's, you know, it's safe to eat with what's going on today and process food. Um, you know, even when you're buying stuff that you think

[00:28:45] is okay, like eggs, um, you know, if you saw how those, and I talk about that in my livestock presentation, how, how eggs are actually raised, how chickens are, you know, the, the, the squalor that they live in, um, and that all these chickens are on a plat on our, in cages that are at an angle so that the eggs roll down to a trough and they spend their entire life that way. Um, that isn't

[00:29:15] the way nature does anything. So it's, um, it's pretty amazing when you just, you're, you're walking around and you're, you're seeing all the animals that you have and, and going, why do I have so many animals, but you know, they keep having babies for some reason. I don't know what, I don't know how that happens, but I know how it happens. Yeah. We just got, uh, I think we're up to 150 animals now.

[00:29:42] Oh my God, Rick, that isn't, well, you know, my chickens during the winter just kind of stopped laying and I'm going, okay, they're getting on in years. These girls are like close to three years old, you know, that I need to bring in some more stock, um, because it takes five and a half months to go from a chick to, you know, a laying bird. So I needed to get going on that. So I, I did, and it took two months to order the things. And in the meantime, my chickens start laying again.

[00:30:08] So, oh man, now I get, I get 30 new, 30 new chicks. Thank God for the harvest, right? Yep. Yeah. Freeze dried eggs for days. Yep. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Jane's doing, Jane's doing a lot of freeze dried eggs right now. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, that's good, man. Eggs are phenomenal. I mean, they're nature's nature's, you know, perfect food, perfect food. Every, every building block of nature

[00:30:35] is in eggs. Yeah. That the span of, um, sort of the gardening homesteading all the way to, you know, what you were talking about with car tactics is kind of what's also very unique about prepper cam too. It's not, I noticed a lot of, um, different events popping up and kind of like, and this is a real big pet peeve of mine, but the, the catering, they're trying to create an

[00:31:03] event that is less prepper because of the, uh, whatever kind of perception they think being a prepper has attached to it. So they're kind of like rounding off the edges and doing a lot of homesteading, a lot of gardening, a lot of bushcraft stuff. And what I love about prepper camp is, you know, it, that is what it is too. You know what I mean? There's all kinds of stuff that are, is dark and, and, you know, the AI class was an awesome class not long ago, all that stuff,

[00:31:32] you know, there's no, it's not like, let's make this more digestible for some group of people we think is going to show up. It's like, it's the whole gamut. Because, because we have 64 classes a day, you know, eight to nine classes an hour. It's, it's like, there's no way you can see everything. So people get to pick what they want to see and what they're interested in. And, you know,

[00:31:54] you may get a husband and wife and she wants to go see the, the, um, the class on, on herbs. And he's like, good, I'm going to go see the, the class on, on home defense, you know, during this hour. So I'll see you, I'll see you when it's over. Yeah. We call that the menu. That's the menu. Yeah. When you print the menu out, like a couple of weeks before prepper camp, you get that thing

[00:32:21] and it's like, Oh man, the menu's here. And you can figure out what you're going to go see and go do. It's fun. It's a fun part. I like that you guys hold the whole, like the finalized list till the end too. I think that's cool. Well, stuff changes and then, you know, we'd have to put stuff back up online and that sort of thing. So about two weeks before we pretty much get everything squared away. And it's, you know, I got, I get commitments from, from, uh, speakers in the past.

[00:32:46] And then, uh, dad, dad just died or he's deadly sick in Florida. So I got to go. And so then you're scrambling to try to cover somebody cover up. So yeah. And I guess it's probably worth noting because we know it, maybe you've gathered it, maybe you haven't gathered it. Um, if you're new, all the camping and, and, uh, maybe not all the camping, but there's a big chunk of camping and

[00:33:15] lodging that can be done at the campground itself. Right. So if you're thinking, all right, I'm not anywhere near Western North Carolina, or maybe I'm, you know, too much of a drive to drive there and drive back three days in a row. Like there's tons of camping. And then on top of that, there's tons of lodging in, in what is one of the coolest towns that I've ever seen, which is Saluda. So downtown Saluda. And there's, there's, we fill up all the hotels in Hendersonville and,

[00:33:41] you know, really the surrounding area. So, um, I wish I, I wish I got a piece of that action, but, uh, a little commission off of each one of those. Yeah. We fill them up all in the, in the restaurants in Saluda. They love us. They love, I didn't think people had time to leave prepper camp, but they go at night or whatever. And they'll, you know, go there. Prepper discount to surf and turf prepper deal. I don't know if they're doing any discounts or not, but, uh, you know,

[00:34:10] we got a, we got a drone class this year, um, which is how to use drones. Do you know the name of the guy off top? Uh, Mike McKinley. Um, so he's, he's doing a drone class, everything from, you know, the world goes to hell and you got to kind of protect your neighborhood. And, um, I was reading a book on, uh, SHTF, what's it called? SHTF tactical drone manual, which is really good, but it, uh, not him.

[00:34:40] Now he's, he's, but he's got a great, a great class and a great PowerPoint. And, uh, you know, and also talks about how to take drones out that are over you and, you know, different methods of doing that. So it, it has become a huge, you know, ever since this Ukraine thing, it's become a huge, um, war thing. And it's not, it's not these, you know, $2 million drones that are being put up.

[00:35:06] It's basically the DGI stuff from, from China that they're using to, uh, see what's going on. And it's, it's a great, um, situational awareness tool to see where things are. And these things have incredible cameras on them now, and you can see what's going on in your little handheld pad. And, um, you know, some of the best ones are less than a grand to be able to do that and see all

[00:35:34] that stuff. Um, it's pretty amazing. Oh, they're incredible. In 2018, a guy reached out to me in the Goochland and he put a little, like a real little, maybe five or six speaker sort of prep or show on, on his property. And I went there and it was a young kid there. I actually had him on the podcast cause he was so knowledgeable about drones, but he took a drone and this is 2018. He took a drone

[00:35:59] and put it up so high in the sky that we couldn't find it anymore and was looking right down at us. We couldn't hear it. We couldn't see it. And he had the camera looking right down at us. And I was just like, Oh my God. So, you know, that was, let's see that 18 that's, that's like, uh, seven years ago, seven years ago. Yeah. Almost a decade ago. So imagine what they're capable of now.

[00:36:24] Yep. Yeah. That'll be a great one. I get into that frequency world and I get lost. It's like the comms and the, uh, Oh, is chin doing the mesh class again this year? Yeah. He's going to do mesh, mesh tastic. Yeah. And you guys, you've got to go to it. Yep. I can't wait to go to that class. It's communication that works when there's no cell towers, when, you know, the radios aren't working.

[00:36:49] Um, it's, it's something that we, um, we've done in our area and, uh, work with the sheriff's department and, um, you know, where his radios don't work, this mesh stuff does and, uh, they can at least communicate with each other. And, you know, when you're talking about a County that's 600 square miles and you only get 70 deputy, uh, seven deputies, it's, you kind of need to know where everybody is and what they're doing, but it's a great, it's, it uses your cell phone. Um, but your

[00:37:17] cell phone is basically just a keyboard and a monitor. And, um, that little tiny box is a radio that goes out to other nodes and it's totally encrypted. So nobody can see what you're saying, uh, and communication both ways. So it's, it's a, it's an amazing, amazing device. And it's getting better every day. Check out our sponsor comms depot.com. If you want to get into the mesh tastic, man, they have all the, they have all the American guys brands at comms depot.com.

[00:37:47] It's really an awesome, these guys, these guys right here, mad, they started out making hats and shirts and now they're putting together some of the coolest mesh tastic stuff ever. I just bought the shirt because it was a really cool eight bit kind of survival guy. Actually mine is a, is a nuke going off and it says game over on it. And then he sent me the hat and they, and then they started making, you know, they're, what are the, what is the tobacco stuff? People chew now zits it

[00:38:13] or no, that's the Jewish tassel. I don't know. It's some kind of, it's some kind of tobacco thing. People chew, but he makes the little mesh tastic nodes inside of those and he's doing other stuff too, but it's great. He's a great guy. Um, so yeah, comms depot.com. He's there, a bunch of other great guys for the mesh stuff. But the cool thing is that chin has reached like peak level passion, I think for communications, which is why I know the class is going to be stellar. You know what I

[00:38:41] mean? Something about hitting a guy like when he's at the peak. Cause I get, he sends me about three radios a day through messaging. Yeah. Yeah. We, we know that you get those messages too. Yeah. It's like, you know, but at some point, at some point, you know, with, with our community, community emergency response team, um, it's kind of like, all I want to do is get in the car and I, if I turn

[00:39:08] the key, it works, you know? So just, uh, you know, the GMRS radios, I push the button. I can talk to people. That's right. Um, you know, the, the, I can, I can type something out on my phone and it goes through mesh tastic. I don't need to know about the radios. I don't need to know about the technical details. You know, I got you for that chin. You take care of that. Yeah. You know, that would make chin so valuable, man, lately as he is just all in on it. So he's going to do a phenomenal job.

[00:39:36] I'm sure I can't wait. I'll be there. I'll certainly be there for that one. Um, yeah, man, doing a crypto class this year. Oh, cool. What's the angle on that? How to buy it, where to buy it or what? Uh, really kind of the whole thing, good, bad and the ugly sort of stuff, you know, so which, which is good because I think a lot of the guys that are doing crypto, I, I, I'm not really into it. Um, but you know, it's, uh, it's something else out there and you know, people

[00:40:04] ought to know about it. Um, I'm working on, uh, on the other end of the spectrum really with, uh, some guys that are doing physical gold, um, an outfit out of, out of Texas. And, um, you know, they're talking about coming to prepper camp and teaching a class and being able to sell gold and silver, you know, and also for people, uh, again, I'm not big into, into paper, uh, gold because there's a lot more paper gold than there actually is gold. Um,

[00:40:34] the ETFs and that kind of stuff. But if you've got, um, a lot of money locked up in a, in a, um, in an IRA, it's a way to get it out of the, you know, out of the stock market and into something that's going to be safe. So gold just went absolutely berserk to 3,400 bucks an ounce or something. Yeah. I think this time last year was like 22 or something. Yep. So that's pretty,

[00:40:58] that's pretty big. Yep. Uh, it's always stable too. I'm probably 10, 12 years been watching silver and gold and golds. I don't think gold's ever really went down substantially only up. No, no. And it's, it's, it's really just a store of value. It's really just based on it's gold is not going up. The dollar is going down. That's the truth of it. You know, the truth of it is your dollar is worth less every single day, which is why gold is worth more.

[00:41:28] That's true. Yeah. Unfortunately true. The gold backs are cool. You ever saw the gold backs? They're sweet. They're cool. They're not paper gold, but they are a bill that is like, uh, I forget what the process is called, but they take gold and aerosolize it essentially and spray it out into this. Oh really? Yeah. It's weird. It's like, uh, what is it called? Laminated.

[00:41:54] And they're beautiful. The artwork is beautiful on them. Um, but the cool thing about them is they're like five bucks. It's like five bucks worth of gold. So it's, it's really cool. Yeah. And that's, and that's the hard part is, you know, these guys are breaking off tiny pieces of gold or they've got, you know, they've got the prepper bar, which has got a bunch of little pieces. Um, but it's with gold being 33, $3,400 an ounce or whatever it is right now. It's, it's hard to

[00:42:23] care. It's hard to be able to convert. Let's say we have a grid down situation. It's hard to be able to convert that. It's like, well, you know, how are you going to take a piece of it and measure it and whatever, which is why I'm kind of a, kind of a silver guy. Cause at least you can, that, that has a store value too. And, you know, and when, in, when it comes to trading, it's like, okay, I know that, you know, a silver Eagle was worth, you know, $37 when the grid went down. So

[00:42:52] at least I can, I can take $37 worth of stuff for that or whatever. Um, but, uh, it's gotta be something that, that you can trade. So, um, I always say if you have a gold coin, then everything that you want is going to cost you a gold coin. You know what I mean? Like people are going to say, Oh yeah, I've got that medicine that you need, but it's, I need that gold coin. And what are you

[00:43:18] going to do? Shave off of it, you know? And if you need it bad enough, then you're going to be out of gold coin. You know, and it's, you might be out of one ounce gold coin for $3,400 for a bottle of Tylenol or whatever. So that's, that's always been my concern with gold too. Yeah. Uh, tinfoil hat contest again, of course, this year, as long as we get your blessing, Rick, that's always a good time. Love to do it. That's always fun. Yeah. You guys pulled it off through the blood, the mud of

[00:43:44] the beer last year, I heard. Yep. I appreciate that in my absence. That's very cool. Yeah. Uh, so that's a, that's a good time guys. For those of you who are new, it is exactly what it sounds like. It's totally goofy and fun. Yep. And, uh, you can make a tinfoil hat. When you first talked about it, it was like, Hey, yeah, why not? We poke fun at ourselves, you know, the whole prepper thing. So let's, let's just do it. Let's just do it. And, and, and for those of you who've never seen or never participated, um, you're not going to twist one up like from

[00:44:13] signs and win people come to play. Yeah. They come for battle. Yeah. It's crazy. Uh, one year we had, uh, I think it was three years ago. We had, the winner had our logo fundamentally built on her head with an attached radio to the, to the antenna station. So yeah, you got, you got to think it through. But, um, how about speak? You got, I guess probably pretty little early for a

[00:44:40] speaker. Yeah. If you're talking about a keynote now it's yeah, it's, it's a little early to do that, but, um, fair enough. Yeah. We got, we got a, a, a project apple seed class and those guys teach sort of fundamentals for rifle marksmanship and that kind of thing. So chin always talks about that one. How good he is. That's a good class. Um, we got, uh, how to disappear on the internet.

[00:45:06] Oh yeah. Is that forest class? Yeah. It's forest class. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can tell you one thing, man, that's a webinar now. So he's probably super sharp because he's doing that thing a lot of times a year. Yeah. So that's probably a good one to, to go to. Uh, we got a class on, on winning elections, uh, both local and, um, and, uh, on a bigger scale because, you know,

[00:45:32] people are kind of tired of what's going on with the woke stuff and, you know, their local, their local school board. And, um, we got an election coming up in a year and people have to understand what, if they want to make changes, they're going to have to do something and put somebody up as a candidate. And how do you beat the, the libtard, um, narrative? So, you know, there's a lot of that stuff that we've got that that's going to help people because as people who

[00:46:00] are conservative, which most preppers are, um, you know, you want people in office who are going to be spending your money in a positive way. So you've got a lot of Intel on that lately. Yep. Yep. So when is the exact dates you got them in front of you? Uh, the exact dates are the last weekend of September. Um, you know, there's so much stuff going on in my brain. I don't even have

[00:46:29] that memorized, but, uh, I got it here is the 25th, 26, 20 or 26, 27, 27, 28. Yep. Yep. Yep. Of September. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh, I think we've done it, Rick. What do you think? Okay, good. So get your tickets. Yeah. And I will also say that, uh, for people who think that they have

[00:46:55] gone to the website and given me their email address and name, um, I would like you to go back and do it because apparently we had some sort of glitch. So for months we haven't been collecting the names and if people are just sitting there going, well, when am I going to get an email about the event or how to buy tickets? Um, through no fault of anybody that I know, um,

[00:47:21] um, there was some, some glitch. So you're talking about baby goats. Oh yeah. I heard them. I turned them down too. Oh, I think they're coming through the window. Uh, yeah, we got baby goats as well as baby chicks and baby turkeys. So yeah, it's a, it's, it's a, it's a nursery around here. Um, all right folks, preppercamp.com, go get the tickets. The price will increase the longer you wait. That's how it goes. And, uh, yeah, re-sign up for that email

[00:47:50] list. Get your, get your updates, right? Yep. I'll see you there. That's all I can promise you, you know? All right, folks, Rick Austin, the Godfather with us once again. Talk to you soon, my man. Thank you. Appreciate it.