[Kopareo]

My prepping status February 2023.

Hello all
I would like to share with you my prepping status of February 2023. I'll leave out certain details, of course, but I'd love to hear feedback and suggestions for improvement if you notice anything or have any suggestions.

First things first: my prepping involves my 3 brothers and our entire family. Therefore, our prepping plan is also divided into different phases accordingly.

Phase 1 - Bug out
My family and I own very remote houses in the Swiss Alps. The nearest person lives about 8 kilometers away (which is quite far for Switzerland) and our bug out location is at 1600 meters above sea level.
The location is already currently inhabited by part of my family who run a farm there. It includes 3 houses with space for about 40 people.
So my prepping mainly includes phase 1 - Bug out. The way from my home together with my family to our safe location.
Phase 1 I split into 2 possible scenarios: By vehicle or on foot.

By foot we need about 42 hours to the bug out location. With children we therefore calculate 5 days.
The following equipment is currently available:

• Appropriate travel clothing (gloves, hats, jackets, ponchos)
• 9mm Glock (200 rounds), .308 bolt action rifle (60 rounds)
• backpacks
• Water supplies for 3 days, water filter, water purification tablets
• Food supplies for 5 days
• Flashlights with batteries, flashlights to wind up
• tent
• Material for fire making (lighters, storm matches, lighters)
• First aid material (painkillers, bandages etc.)
• Hygiene material (odorless soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes)
• Material for cooking (gas stove, camping pans etc.)
• whistle for the child
• Knife and axe for self-defense
• Map with marked routes outside highways and busy locations

This material finds place in 3 backpacks (excl. tent and weapons, which I carry additionally on me).
These 3 bug-out bags are always ready.

If the vehicle is available, two large military bags are packed in addition to the prepared Bug Out Bags. In these are food with a long shelf life (canned food, pasta, rice, etc.) for about 2 months as well as gasoline for the car to drive the distance 2 times.
I drive the route outside of highways and busy areas about 1 time per month when we all meet at our home in the mountains. I need the map when one of these routes is blocked for some reason.

In the best scenario of course, we can all just drive there and are in our save location within 4-5 hours. In the worst case, we have to travel by foot for about 5 days or the car breaks down for some reason in the middle of the journey. If that happens, we move out of the vehicle with the ready-to-use bug out bags.

Phase 2 - Bug out location.
The goal is for me and my brothers to arrive at the Bug Out Location along with my mother, who runs the farm, and our families. There we have built up an arsenal of weapons with a wide variety of calibers and a few tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Our location is already self-sufficient. Water is supplied by pressure and works without electricity. All buildings are heated by fire stoves. There is more than enough wood. With the supplies we have built up, we can guarantee the food supply with the farm in the long term. The location is well protected from various disasters (surrounded by high mountains, far away from any civilization). We have installed various solar panels that can supply us with electricity (even when not needed).

Due to the altitude and the mountains, access to our bug-out location is only possible via a very narrow road. An appropriate device to close this road is quickly made. In addition, we have a sniper nest which can be reached on foot in about 1 hour and gives a complete view of the entire accessible half of the mountain.
Our family combines a lot of skills that we need for long term survival. On the one hand with my mother who has been farming for 20 years, my 3 brothers who like me have all completed military service (and some still have specialized training such as sniper or grenadier). We are all proficient with weapons and of course know our homeland inside and out. In addition, one of my brothers is a skilled gardener, one is a skilled carpenter, and one is a skilled mechanic, which means we can build almost anything we need. Additional skills within the close family is a nurse, chemical expert that is actually working in pharma and can produce a lot of medicine based on available natural ingriedients.

If the situation makes it necessary, we can build an impassable fence around our houses with simple wooden constructions, because only a few places are really passable on foot to get to our buildings. This means that even if someone wants to walk along the closed road, we can prevent him from reaching our houses.

Now, of course, I'm curious what the community thinks about our prepping. There are certainly many points that we have not considered or that we can still improve. I am of course very curious what tips you have.

 

[Sourdough]

Very-Very well done. I applaud your family's superior level of taking "Prepping for Survival" extremely serious. You family is very rare. Good Luck.

 

[One Shot]

Sounds like you know what your doing.

 

[Trihonda]

I've spent some time in CH, and admire the preparedness spirit I've seen in many citizens there. That mindset (and the mountains of course) makes your country a very hard target for occupation and domination.

I am very impressed by your plan. However, I had a few nagging questions.

1- What are your concerns? What are you prepping for? Economic collapse, grid failure, war, etc? What would make you want to bug out? Describe the situation, and that explains a lot about what potential threats you might encounter.

2- Have you made contingencies for longer term survival (way down the road). If the crisis lasts many decades, there's not much room for family expansion, unless it's ok for cousins and such to hook up. Any plans to bring other trusted folks into the fold?

3- Expanding on #2, survival might take numbers beyond your family. And have you accounted for one of your brothers and their families not making it to your BOL? If this is a severe crisis, anything could happen (though obviously I hope it doesn't). Always plan to have more of everything than you'd need, this includes people. In small numbers, people get sick, injured, die, sometimes faster than babies can be born/raised to become new community members/helpers.

 

[Kopareo]

I've spent some time in CH, and admire the preparedness spirit I've seen in many citizens there. That mindset (and the mountains of course) makes your country a very hard target for occupation and domination.

I am very impressed by your plan. However, I had a few nagging questions.

1- What are your concerns? What are you prepping for? Economic collapse, grid failure, war, etc? What would make you want to bug out? Describe the situation, and that explains a lot about what potential threats you might encounter.

2- Have you made contingencies for longer term survival (way down the road). If the crisis lasts many decades, there's not much room for family expansion, unless it's ok for cousins and such to hook up. Any plans to bring other trusted folks into the fold?

3- Expanding on #2, survival might take numbers beyond your family. And have you accounted for one of your brothers and their families not making it to your BOL? If this is a severe crisis, anything could happen (though obviously I hope it doesn't). Always plan to have more of everything than you'd need, this includes people. In small numbers, people get sick, injured, die, sometimes faster than babies can be born/raised to become new community members/helpers.

Thank you all for your feedback. Glad to hear i'm on the right track.

Regarding your questions:

1. I am preparing for an economic crisis/blackout/electricity shortage and resulting disintegration of civilization. I fear war rather less in my region. Switzerland has so far survived all world wars unscathed. The Swiss Alps are practically also a huge battle station (I was partially stationed in bunkers in the mountains, which provided space for thousands of soldiers). Hidden air defenses inside the mountains make it virtually impossible to capture this region. Ground troops would have little access, as any passages could be closed with relatively little effort. It is not for nothing that Switzerland's strategy in WWII was to retreat to this very mountain fortress. Who is interested can read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Redoubt_(Switzerland)

2: Since we can live self-sufficiently on our farm and also have the skills to do so, our contingency plan includes expanding farm activities in addition to the usual "scavenging". Enough land which is only accessible by us exists. Due to the situation, a large part of the land around our settlement already belongs to us.

3: Yes, besides my core family (which already includes about 12 people), there are other people who have already contributed to our prepping. We pay attention to skillset (learned professions) as well as military training and trust base. As I said, we have room for about 40 people (short term) and if the crisis lasts longer, we can accommodate about 200 people (this would be if we convert certain old buildings into homes that we have, but which are currently protected due to antiquity and may not be converted. So something that will be done only when the disintegration of society is certain).

 

[Annie]

It looks pretty solid, by the grace of God. How old is the child? Hopefully if it comes to it you won't have to be walking to your location in winter.

 

[Chipper]

I would suggest getting a couple bikes to haul the load. So much easier to push a bike carrying a 100lbs then walking with it on your back.
Even a small 2 wheel cart would make it so much easier to travel.

Something like this.