The ultimate snark fest - Prepper Family

[teddybear]

This is the blog of a guy who took his family in the middle of winter from a nice home in Illinois, drove them down to Texas and has them living in a plywood cabin (box), no water, no electricity, not even an outhouse. They crap in a bucket and put it their compost pile. All because "god" told him to do it.

bunkerindex.blogspot.com/

First, I'll start off with a confession.

I am not a prepper nor a survivalist.

I once was, and thus my long and noisy participation in the Survival and Emergency Preparedness forum of HomesteadingToday. However, over the years, I have transitioned out of it as a mindset. I'm going to numerate some of the reasons for that now, and I hope the reader will understand my meaning.

I believe that a very large disruption in the corporate-industrial grid is coming our way and that it will permanently cast us backwards about 300 years. With that in mind, no amount of beans, bullets, and bandages is going to save your family. Thus I am adopting a simple, sustainable lifestyle in obedience to God. This will by no means preserve your life, as God does not sustain Christians simply because they are obedient. Often the saints die horribly as martyrs, and that may still be our fate.

Survival at all costs is simply not in my worldview any longer. Suffering and deprivation would not cause me to give up and die, but there are many, many situations in which I would willingly put my life between hammer and anvil for God to take as He wills. What good is the preservation of the body if you lose your soul?

I have come to see dependence upon worldly things as a lack of faith in the providence of God. Jesus felt it was so important that we understand this topic that it was mentioned multiple times by him in the New Testament. We have firmly been instructed to seek ye first the kingdom of God and let worldly wealth follow if it will. It has been promised that our necessities will be provided. History is filled with the saints being murdered horribly by unbelievers or their government, but I don't know of many cases where they starved to death.

So this being the case, why do I continue to put together the Bunker Index? First, it's part of my ministry and about the only thing on the internet I can really do to spread this understanding. But also that you may assess the real situation and the dangers and threats facing your family and consider how you may best be able to bring your own life into conformity with God's plan for you.

Readership has dropped off in the blog lately. We went from about 800 readers at first to a more casual 500 readers once the initial drama of its creation wore off. Over the hiatus in December while I built a home, more readers fell away. With the drop in readership came a corresponding drop in advertising revenue, but this is not a great concern. We are still providing enough in revenue to pay for my internet connectivity so that I may still have the means of producing this. Enough is as good as a feast.

And as a bright side, the readership has now spread out and is coming in from multiple sources now instead of simply the duality of two different forums. (The one group coming to appreciate what I say and the other group coming to scorn.) Now I have readers coming in from various other blogs out there on the internet and folks who I have not yet met. And there's also the ever-present scrutiny of the government, checking in every few weeks to download every word I post. I take this as a good sign. When I was simply an anti-government survivalist ranting into the void they paid little attention. As a Christian extolling the virtues of a simple life of humility withdrawn from the system, I suppose I represent a much greater threat to the establishment. Drinking rainwater and pooping in buckets may just become the status quo among Christians!

I thank you for your visit with me each and every day and I am always surprised that people do indeed show up to read what I have to say. Your prayers sustain us and your encouragement lightens my heart.

Your friend in the desert,

Ernie

He sees himself as a prophet, telling about the end times. In some earlier blogs he talked about having problems with being bipolar, but that he stopped taking his meds. He has a wife, several kids including a new baby. He also posts on the Homesteading Today site on their Survival and Emergency Preparedness forum. He is really nuts, but dead serious about the end times stuff.

[Helena]

Um, how is he blogging about this without electricity ?

[teddybear]

He runs his computer off of a generator and also goes into town to work.

[lilwriter85]

I feel sorry for this guy's family. Bipolar is serious and he needs to be on his meds. I think this guy and his family are probably worse that those bloggers who live in RV's with their families.

[Buzzard]

Wow... just WOW. I want to read but I'm hesitant to give him the hits!

[chemist1217]

Are you sure this guy is for real? This isn't some elaborate hoax?

[Miss M]

Are you sure this guy is for real? This isn't some elaborate hoax?

He is totally for real!

[teddybear]

I feel sorry for this guy's family. Bipolar is serious and he needs to be on his meds. I think this guy and his family are probably worse that those bloggers who live in RV's with their families.

They were living in an RV until he got the box (cabin) built. I think they still may be sleeping the RV when it gets really cold. He said he hadn't gotten his wood stove put in yet.

And he is very much for real. Check out the pictures on some of the posts. He shows them building the cabin and the desolate piece of ground he bought. He is really a sick puppy. I honestly see him doing a Jim Jones at some point.

[Discobiscuit]

With the drop in readership came a corresponding drop in advertising revenue, but this is not a great concern. We are still providing enough in revenue to pay for my internet connectivity so that I may still have the means of producing this.

Because God knows it's more important to have internet connectivity than a decent home and food for your family.

[tropaka]

where is his wife in this? I am bipolar - but that doesn't make me want to live in a plywood box (although if he did so on a whim it would make sense).

[Arielkay]

And there's also the ever-present scrutiny of the government, checking in every few weeks to download every word I post. I take this as a good sign. When I was simply an anti-government survivalist ranting into the void they paid little attention. As a Christian extolling the virtues of a simple life of humility withdrawn from the system, I suppose I represent a much greater threat to the establishment. Drinking rainwater and pooping in buckets may just become the status quo among Christians!

Uhhhh . . . does he also think the government put a chip in his brain? They're after him? Don't think so, or CPS would be taking those kids out of that environment. And how, exactly, is internet not a worldly thing? This guy needs his meds. Bipolar - meds + family + wilderness = BAD THINGS.

[Sinister Rouge]

Dude is off his meds and talking about having "waking dreams". Scary stuff.

[Witsec7]

I'm wondering if this fellow ever heard the news about the Texas drought? Ah another christian homesteading militia guy. I do hope they all move to Texas.

[Maude]

This guy sounds like he's bordering on paranoid schizophrenia, to be perfectly honest. :?

[SealFan1963]

He might as well run around yelling, "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". Seeing conspiracies and evil around every corner must be exhausting.

[valsa]

I just hope his wife gets the balls to take her kids and run before Ernie kills them all to save them from having to live through the dark times.

[VenusDaisy]

What a lunatic!

[JesusFightClub]

I am bipolar, trying to manage without meds (not brilliantly, I know) and nothing about this is good.

You rely a lot on things not sounding right to others (at least, I do) so people will say to me "JFC, you sound manic" or "JFC, you sound down" and I learned finally to trust and listen, though sometimes it takes a few people to tell me. My case is really not too bad, his sounds like he needs help! Isolation is shit for bipolar, as his family will rapidly discover.

[CC3]

I have bipolar disorder too. I am surprised his wife went along with this nutty idea. My hubby lets me know if I am a little "off." He would ask me to go to the hospital if I became as paranoid as Ernie is right now. I hate to think what is going to happen when Ernie crashes. Hopefully, they will be able to go back Illinois and resume a normal life.

[salsa]

"Drinking rainwater and pooping in buckets may just become the status quo among Christians!"

The mark of a real Christian! I'll bet he pisses against walls, too. If we'd all start doing that, Jesus would come back and take us to our eternal reward.

[salsa]

oops (embarrassed) I somehow missed the "bipolar" reference in the OP. I thought y'all were guessing that he was mentally ill. Seems he really is.

Hopefully the government really is reading his words and DFACS is notified of any neglect or abuse of the kids.

[Kaylee]

This is guy is seriously disturbing. I'm also wondering if he didn't get kicked out of a private survivalist forum I'm part if, because the story sounds awful familiar (he was going to take his family to Texas an live an an RV while they built a house- several people told the guy he needed to do more planning and have a decent place to live prepared before moving don there, then he went all whacked out and told us we were all agents of Stan trying to make him doubt God's plan).

Seriously though, and this is coming from someone who has tried to convince her husband to sell everything a move to a remote location to build an off-grid survivalist type homestead, this is scary and will probably not end well. Survivalism mixed with mental illness that leads one to make major life decisions while manic can be very dangerous, especially when you're taking your family along for the ride and the wife does not seem to have either the options or better judgement to say no or at least convince the guy to wait until it is not winter or they have a reliable heat source. Combining it with the end-times stuff and this idea of getting messages from God is obviously going to get this guy on the government radar, and I really hope for his family's sake it does not end up turning into some sort of Ruby Ridge or Waco type scenario or that he doesn't end up freezing or starving them to death out there. There are people who have done this, even for religious reasons, and live fairly well (Michael Bunker comes to mind, and the "Paratus Familia" blog), but this guy seems to have just taken a whim and went with it instead of trying to plan ahead and learn what he needs to know to survive out there. :(

[lilwriter85]

I think there are probably a few people who live near the town where this guy is and they might already have concerns for the children. I wouldn't be surprised if CPS has looked into them before.

[Koala]

I can't imagine that no one is stepping in to stop this madness. My sil is bi-polar. She has been hospitalized many times...it's a struggle. That said, everyone in our family knows what to look for. When she shows signs that she isn't doing well, we circle the wagons and see that she gets the help she needs. I can't imagine just sitting by while someone I cared about went completely off the deep end and took their kids with them.

[Miss M]

I think there are probably a few people who live near the town where this guy is and they might already have concerns for the children. I wouldn't be surprised if CPS has looked into them before.

They have only been there for like three weeks, maybe a month, they homeskool and it seems the children don't go into town just Ernie and Mrs. Ernie, I am sure they are still well under the radar!

They have family, his and hers in the area, that is where Ernie grew up, the wife's brother was helping out with the building of the plywood box, having just been released from prison and having no job he was a great free laborer!!

M.