[nadja]

Lets give some thought to those of us who will be bugging in. I know a lot of people say they will bug out, but when push comes to shove, most will not, unless forced to, fire, flood, earthquake etc. So, for all of us planning on bugging in lets decide what we need to do in order to survive the long haul.

Water. Water will be THEE most important thing that should be on your list. If you have a well, do you have the means to power it without benifit of the grid ? If not, do you have the means to acquire it whenever needed ? If so, do you have the means to purify it in order to make it safe to drink and cook with ?

Food. We all like to eat right ? Ok, so how many of you stock or at least try to stock what you already like and eat ? What are your plans for re-stock when there no more stores to go buy it at, or your money runs out and you cannot buy a loaf of bread because of lack of money ?

Lets just suppose that it is a world or at least a nation wide event. That would make your present abode most likely safe from eviction or foreclosure right, so what can you do to make it safer ?

Can you grow enough veggies etc to sustain you over the long winter months ?

Will you have a sure method of cooking any said food , all year long?

How will you or do you plan on securing your abode from bad people ? Remember this, bullets travel through walls with ease. I built a log home for a good friend about 16 years ago. He was of the opinion that the logs (8") thick would stop bullets. I assured him they would not. Since most of the new log homes are made out of pine, they have no stoping power whatsoever. After I finally convinced him to obtain a scrap of the logs his house was built from for a test, he was amazed at the varity of bullets and calibers passed right through them. He now prepares a little differently then before.

This is an area that most people tend to overlook . So, lets all put our thinking caps on and see what we come up with.

 

[Medelwr]

I would love to bug in since it would generally be a lot more comfortable to do so but anyone who lives in large city centers are going to have a really hard time doing this. Right now, if the BIG ONE hits this area as we are being warned it might, we will have 3 million individuals who are going to be gunning for the same essentials, so we are probably going to have most of those people either dying fast (or picking off of the less fortunate) or abandoning the city and trying to eke out an existence either north in the mountains or east towards the farm lands and more mountains. They wont be able to go south because we'll be running up against the US border and I think that might be a bad idea. I would just like a week notice like the hurricane but that is a no-can-do for earthquakes.

 

[AquaHull]

I'm sure my aluminum sided home with 3" exterior walls wouldn't stop my pellet gun

 

[Medelwr]

No but it would be one hell of a Faraday cage.

 

[AquaHull]

My cell doesn't work unless I have it near a window

 

[Lucky Jim]

Nice little fortress for any survival group out away from the nasty city-

 

[nadja]

This is the reason England lost the war. You guys always seem to think a bunch of wood sticks will protect you ! I match and 5 gal of gas and Burn baby Burn !

 

[WoadWarrior]

That would make your present abode most likely safe from eviction or foreclosure right

Nadja... I only partially agree with this. In the beginning yes... but what happens after things start to settle down and a new gov't reforms and they decide to start rebuilding? They will have limited control and will therefore want to consolidate the masses (i.e., their new labor force) and could start relocating people to established cities or farming or manufacturing hubs. If that happens, you'd have to bug out, at least temporarily, and return once the gov't was done rounding up your neighbors. The down side is that you can't bug out with all of your animals and they, and any supplies you leave behind, will most likely be gone when you return. So... I'd suggest those bugging in need to consider working a solution to avoid relocation and a means of securing or hiding whatever they can in the event a situation like this becomes reality.

 

[Denton]

It's really easy to toss around specific scenarios and tell a certain group of people are ill-prepared. I don't really see the point, though.

I'm pretty sure each and every one of us would love to be sitting on 500 acres of land shared by ten other families who are like-minded, well armed and prepared, all with awesome gardening skills and all holding animal husbandry degrees from Auburn. Fact is, people are where they are and, if they are here at this site, are preparing as best as they can while maintaining a mentally healthy day-to-day life.

I am well aware of the shortcomings of being anywhere near other people when the lights go out, and I know it is pretty important to have water and food. If a semi-literate, middle-aged cracker-head from southern Alabama can figure out the basics without being told by someone else, I'm pretty sure most everyone else at a survival board can figure that out, too.

 

[WoadWarrior]

Denton... I'm not sure which comment in this thread pissed you off... but the purpose of this forum is to exchange ideas so we can learn from each other. If we are going with the "... can figure out the basics without being told by someone else, I'm pretty sure most everyone else at a survival board can figure that out" attitude... then there is absolutely no reason for this forum.

It might help if you told us what pissed you off and why. Nobody is accusing anyone else of being ill-prepared. We are exchanging what-if scenarios that other can think about and try to be prepared for as much as possible.

 

[WoadWarrior]

Or... maybe I'm wrong. If so... then I apologize.

 

[randy grider]

Sad part is the city dwellers will move out into the country, looking for the things they need. This is where ample firearms and a huge stash of ammo comes in handy. They will strip my lovely farm of everything, and leave you with nothing. You most likely will have to kill to survive, or at least impress them that you will. You have to sleep sometime though...., Better teach the whole family how to handle a gun.

 

[Medelwr]

That is the sad part Randy. Whereas you probably know how to live off the land to some degree, I know that the majority of people in the city can maybe fight and live off food brought in on container vessels. Bugging in when it comes to the city is only a temporary solution at best really because you have to compete with probably hundreds of thousands of unprepared, desperate people. Bugging out isn't just for a better place to ride out THEOTWAWKI but also to separate ourselves from the hungry masses who can't find their Twinkies anymore.

 

[Lucky Jim]

The BIG BIG problem with discussing prepping/survival in a general sort of way is that there are so many variables involved, such as specifically what kind of emergency we're talking about, and whether we'll have a family to support, and whether we live in a city or in the country etc etc.
To illustrate, let me wheel out my 'Emergency List' again to illustrate the things that might hit us-

1- Chernobyl-type nuclear plant accident, but on a much bigger scale, poisoning an area as big as the USA or the whole of Europe and Asia.
2- Massive meteor or asteroid strike wiping out millions with blast and tsunami, and kicking up enough dust to black out the sun for years like what wiped out the dinosaurs.
3- World War 3 exchange of nuclear weapons poisoning virtually the entire planet.
4- A plague wiping out most humans on earth after accidental release from a bio research lab, or a deliberate release by terrorists to wipe out the population of a specific country, or perhaps a virus naturally evolves that has no cure.
5- EC Event (Economic Collapse) triggering total breakdown of law and order resulting in looting gangs etc.
6- EM pulse (from a solar flare or nuclear bomb) blows out the electricity grid and electronics, it'll be bad but hopefully the govt will have contingency plans to get relief food and medicine convoys up and running.
7- Mega-earthquake bigger than anything the earth has experienced before, demolishing a whole bunch of cities across countries and continents.
8- Mega-tsunami triggered by gigantic quake at sea, wiping out coastal areas for a hundred miles or more inland.
9- Runaway volcano that carries on spewing out dust and ash for months, throwing a grey wind-carried shroud around the planet blocking out sunlight and triggering subzero temperature drops.
10- Haywire weather (nonstop storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, floods etc) caused by global warming, pollution, ozone depletion etc

 

[Lucky Jim]

This is the reason England lost the war. You guys always seem to think a bunch of wood sticks will protect you ! I match and 5 gal of gas and Burn baby Burn !

If we hadn't gone over and civilised the place you'd all still be living in wigwams..
GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY: The first British colonists arrive in the New World

 

[nadja]

Actually Lucky Jim. In my case anyway you might be right. You see, my mom was 1/2 cherokee, while my grandfather was 1/2 commanche. It makes me only 3/8 Indian but I assure you, we would have been a blood thirsty lot as I believe you would say it ! LOL But, I learned to wear shoes and drive a car at some point in my life, and No, I don't drink or do any other weird stuff as so many of us are famous for. Nadja.

P.s. We would not be all that worse off for living in Wig Wams so to speak, as they could actually be nice and comphy. It is hard to put a nail in the wall to hang up pictures though !

 

[AquaHull]

If we hadn't gone over and civilised the place you'd all still be living in wigwams..
GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY: The first British colonists arrive in the New World

I not like "nadja" in the fact that I do partake in the firewater, and I'm only a 1/8 Cherokee and 1/8 Sioux/Lakota, and I'm well aware of what the colonists did that made us a bloodthirty lot. You drew First Blood.

Us ****** have guns, you limeys or whatever you're called have only sticks and stones and knives , spears . How do you like having the tables turned on you? I don't think the outcome would be the same today.

 

[Denton]

It's really easy to toss around specific scenarios and tell a certain group of people are ill-prepared. I don't really see the point, though.

I'm pretty sure each and every one of us would love to be sitting on 500 acres of land shared by ten other families who are like-minded, well armed and prepared, all with awesome gardening skills and all holding animal husbandry degrees from Auburn. Fact is, people are where they are and, if they are here at this site, are preparing as best as they can while maintaining a mentally healthy day-to-day life.

I am well aware of the shortcomings of being anywhere near other people when the lights go out, and I know it is pretty important to have water and food. If a semi-literate, middle-aged cracker-head from southern Alabama can figure out the basics without being told by someone else, I'm pretty sure most everyone else at a survival board can figure that out, too.

I'm not pissed off!
I think maybe I should start doing podcasts. My writing seems to not come across as I mean it to do.
After reading what I wrote, I see why you asked that. :-D

Still, sentence by sentence, I was correct, just sounds mean.

Sorry to all for the crossness.

Now, as far as what we can do about bugging-in, there are no secrets. Everything is dependent upon your location and your wallet. If you are on a typical budget and live in a neighborhood in the city jurisdiction, you probably aren't allowed to drill a well in the back yard and your neighbors will probably hold an intervention for you if you start layering your house with steel plating and Kevlar. :grin:

On the outside, the only thing you'll see that would indicate I might be ready for bad times is the covered generator on the carport. Inside is a different story. A lot of stores, there. Son came home (from college) for guard drill, walked in the house, saw the additions since last month and was surprised. :-D Containers of water are included. A Pro-Pur filtration system is enroute. That will get the bad stuff (including cysts) out of the water. That water will come from nearby streams. I hope you have a couple near you. If you don't, That's a bummer. Obviously, rain collection barrels will collect water for you when and if it rains. I hope you have a way of concealing them, if you use them.

Every place is unique. Nobody on the internet can tell you what to do. Only you know the particulars of your situation. If you don't know you need food, water and shelter, you are probably already too dead to be reading this. If you live in the burbs or in the city, I really hope you are doing as I am doing - looking for a way out. I hope you are not like me, with a tighter than you'd like budget. Hard to in-place prep while spending money for a plot of land. Knowing that there is no mortgage on this place, but there would be if I bought a place in the woods, gives reason to pause. The central banks are preparing for a large real-estate grab. The Open-Ended QE is allowing the Fed to buy up mortgages. You should see where that is going.

Variables and uncertainties, combined with the uniqueness of each situation.

 

[Lucky Jim]

..my mom was 1/2 cherokee, while my grandfather was 1/2 commanche. It makes me only 3/8 Indian..

I'm only a 1/8 Cherokee and 1/8 Sioux/Lakota.

Wow the zombs better not mess with you guys..
Me, I was born and bred in the English midlands city of Leicester (pronounced Lester), King Lears old home town, (Lear-cester, gettit?) and our family go back generations in the area, my surname goes back unchanged to before 1066.
Over its 2000+ years history, Leicester has been occupied in turn by the Iron Age Coritanian Tribe, the Romans, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, and there may be some of all of them in my DNA somewhere, so i don't know if i'm duty-bound to worship primitive tribal gods, or Odin, Apollo or whoever..
(The Roman 14th Legion was stationed in Leicester for a while, maybe a distant ancestor of mine was a Centurion badass which would explain my awesome dominance of the PC wargaming scene, ha ha)

 

[Medelwr]

Lucky Jim i hear you, I was born and raised in Wales and possession got passed around a bit way back when. Might be considered Welsh now but if you go back far enough I bet my genetic scenery is ballsed up all over Europe.