TOTM February 2015- Bugging In

One of our new member’s opening post mentioned that he was planning on Bugging In. How many conversations have we had about Bug out bags, Bug out location, Bug out vehicle but what about 100% focusing on bugging in? I think most here are planning on Bugging In. We plan on holding our own for as long as we can. So what do you do first post The End of the World As We Know It?

Things you can do without immediately
Things you can do without but would take you 1-3 months to prepare for or ease into
Things you can do without but would take longer than 3 months to prepare for or ease into

What is the most useful knowledge for bugging in? Look at your life now. Breakdown happens. You will not have your old life but what is your first focus because you are bugging in? Do you set up security first or a system so you can take a shower? Build a cooking pit or can that wait? Do not forget your neighbors and the people around you will be noticing what you do. They will be watching. How much do you advise them in a bug in situation? When will you decided to work together as a neighborhood and community vs. be alone? Giving information, sharing knowledge or dispensing supplies, where does one draw the line? You know your neighbors’ children are hungry and you have 100 pounds of rice, how do you cope with turning your back on them?

What are the things that you would do as a prepper that would bring attention to you & your home that you should avoid? Will you ever try to form a group in the neighborhood or will you avoid and close the blinds?

 

Interesting topic Motomom. I think we are looking to bug in, at least initially but then be ready to bug out if the situation deteriorates. I guess the main issue is knowing when to stay and when to go. I think there are a few things that I need to change about my house to improve the odds if we bug in. The biggest one right now being heating in the winter. Not having any type of wood heat makes it difficult to survive in a northern environment. We want to address the situation but that is something 3+ months in the future. As of right jow we cannot change our location. It is a bit too close to population centers but hopefully isolated enough to give us a little time to think about security before the zombies show up. I am not sure about our neighbors. We have some like minded friends that we have invited over in case of emergency to improve our security situation and we have made arrangements for them. As far as extreme long term planning (over 2 years) i am afraid we are quite lacking in that. Right now we are looking at surviving the first couple years and making sure we can do that. Some of our skill sets and preps we are working on will help with the longer term but right now I really can't see that far into the the future.

 

One of anything is really none. ie: I have three sources of water here at home, water stored and water filters of various types and sizes.
Buy quality stuff, you won't regret it.
Check secondhand stores for camping gear and other items.
Ask questions.

 

Without having to worry about making money, I would simply throw myself into living. As a living historian, living for extended periods of time without electricity has taught me a lot about what I can do, and what I can and can't do without. Gonna be hard.
People take for granted how much community matters. Not just stuff in the warehouse, but surviving even small hickups, and moving forward...

 

I'm planning on moving camp, setting up workshops; one for carpentry, one for a forge, and one for whatever the old lady to do here things. My resupply plan is to turn what I find into "sophisticated primitive" tech.

 

???

 

Bugging In is an often-overlooked topic because it isn't nearly as much fun to read about as a survival-adventure novel, and it's too scary for most people to actually dwell on.

We live in a society where personal freedoms are tightly regulated (in part) by the rationing of necessities, usually through economic means. In an average family both adults have to work 40+ hours a week just to make enough money to barely make ends meet.

The minimum-wage is intended to ensure that everyone makes the minimum amount of money necessary to survive--just barely--forever.

Mr. & Mrs. Average have to struggle to afford one car, one roof, three factory-food meals a day, and a Wal-Mart wardrobe made from the cheapest cloth money can buy.

There Shall Be No Increasing Prosperity: Peons are required and we have all been elected to wear the chains of paper.

The average family does not have a BOL because they can't afford one. We'd all have one if we could, and we'd call it our vacation retreat. But that would be two residences, which are not allowed and are therefore unaffordable within the Great American Economic Enslavement Program.

So Joe & Suzy Average and their 2.24 Little Averages will have exactly three choices when TEOTWAWKI starts banging on their rented door:
1) They can die swiftly when the water stops running, the electricity goes out, the leftovers in the fridge spoil, and the front door gets kicked in.
2) They can flee without having a safe place to flee to, or the resources to safely get there. (Tough choice: Refugees seldom prosper.)
3.) They can bug in--with the necessary supplies and the weapons to endure the worst that an unkind Fate can throw at them.

Within the limits of available resources, the third choice is by far the best. But it takes time and money to prepare--and that usually means finding an extra source of income or embracing an even more meager life-style in order to slowly put away a few pounds of beans & rice, acquire a last-resort firearm, and maybe (just maybe) connect with others who would prefer to survive and are willing to cooperate to do so.

For most Americans bugging in will be the mandatory option. We just don't have any other real-world choices.

So NOW is the time to bite the bullet, chuck that job that requires you to live in a place that cannot support you in the face of the looming disaster, and move to place that can. NOW is the time to rip up your roots, take the huge losses that walking away will incur, and start a new life in Small Town, USA--where bugging-In will be a much more survivable option.

If you don't do it now, you probably never will.

If you're already doing it, or have already done it, you have probably saved the lives of yourself and your loved ones.

And, for that, I think a huge party would not be inappropriate.

I can bring some booze...


PS: Survival Question du Jour
Do you know why they call them highways instead of roads?

Because, in a disaster, both side get piled high--first with the things people couldn't carry, and eventually with most of the people that couldn't carry them.

No. Really. I looked it up.

 

I really think people need to plan on bugging in because more and more we are seeing officials shutting down cities after events. Shelter in place is a norm now and even with snow storms we see mayors declaring no travels or you will be fined. If you wait too long, one may not be able to travel to a camp or retreat without running the risk of being arrested or shot by officials. With snow storms they will ticket or detain you but in a SHTF scenario how far will they go to keep people from traveling?

I know if things start shutting down, the way of life as we know it grinds to a halt, I would be one to walk around and chat with neighbors. I would not close the door and keep to ourselves. I personally would want to "take the temperature" of those around me. Are they rational, lala land or just get a sense of what they are thinking. Some of the neighbors would be talking to each other so I would be walking the dog and seeing what people are saying. There are certain people I would focus on talking to vs. others.
Even though I maybe talking to people, it does not mean my door is open and I would be letting people know that I am more prepared then them.

IMO one would not have to even think of security for the first week. Not 100% because people are going to be stunned and trying to figure out what to do. I know that the dangers will come in waves. I have not worked those out as to what level of threats.

 

Minimum wage is not designed to hold you down to peon level. It is to train you into becoming a productive member of society. Most minimum wage earners I know, aren't worth what they are paid. It is a training wage while you learn how to earn more. It is not, and never was intended to be a living level wage.

 

How soon do you think "Uncle Sugar" could get a FEMA camp up and running?

 

We'd probably stay here. We live in a forest, with a garden and a spring. Not a populated area; the nearest town has less than 1000 people. As the "pickings" would be very slim here; I doubt we'd see parasites.
Although everyone here owns acreage; we are a close knit little community.

If things really got bad; we'd go to the campsite in the NE Georgia mountains.

 

It is and we love Sako/Tikka here. Sub MOA is the norm.

I'm sure it was a sweet stick. Sako and the less expensive Tikka rifles are seriously accurate rifles. Very few guarantee .5 MOA with certain (their choice) ammunition.
I have a .308 Tikka M595 Master Sporter that shoots under an inch at 200m using Federal BR. It would be better with a tailored reload. A good friend in Finland said in Europe. we call it a poor man's TRG.

Yes, I'm an accuracy addict.

 

And where will FEMA get all the "stuff" to set up camps to house and feed millions? It certainly does not exist now. FEMA might be able to feed everyone one meal. It would take months to accomplish and by then, most of America will be dead. No one is coming, much less FEMA. You do it yourself or you die.

 

I respect kellory's opinion on the Minimum Wage, but my personal experience and a lot of serious study has led me to the conclusion that the Minimum Wage exists so that trained people can be forced to work for the same pay as untrained people.

The threat of replacing the trained person with a Minimum Wage "untrained" employee is usually sufficient to shut up the man that wants a higher wage. That "untrained" Minimum Wage worker may, in fact, be a fully trained person who got fired for wanting higher pay and is desperate for a jab. ANY job, at any wage.

I've been there. I've seen it happen.

People who work other people pay the smallest amount of money possible, because there is a far greater profit to be made in sweating their workers (cutting costs) than in increasing product sales (capturing market share).

Anyone who does not believe me in this is invited to speak confidentially with any blue-collar Chinese worker. They have no illusions about reality, and much experience.

With the advent of the Minimum Wage, the erosion of the American Work Ethic began. If a man can no longer expect a raise through excellent work, then he'll do the smallest amount of work for the smallest pay and curse the man who employs him.

I've seen that, too.

Or perhaps he'll do what I did one day and say "Screw that!", quit cold, and start a business of his own.

 

Yard Dart, you really gave me the willies with that one. That's about on par with planning to sell the baby's eyes, kidneys, liver & heart "just to get by" for a few days.

I actually consider the FEMA option to be too scary to just casually mention.

I am aware that FEMA can set up and fill a refugee camp in 24 hours--and have it ready to be inhabited within a year.

 

My experience with minimum wage, as a young man, is that I will never be able to earn more money. There is no pay scale in my AO, and your only chances are of getting lucky, or knowing someone, and quitting to move to a new job that pays more...usually something dealing with petroleum in another state.

 

"The threat of replacing the trained person with a Minimum Wage "untrained" employee is usually sufficient to shut up the man that wants a higher wage. That "untrained" Minimum Wage worker may, in fact, be a fully trained person who got fired for wanting higher pay and is desperate for a jab. ANY job, at any wage."
The boss would be cutting his own throat to do that. I'm skilled labor in quite a few fields. I, and a few others, are why he has a company at all. (And that fact is not lost on him). Before the recession hit, I was headhunted at least 3-4 times per year, every year. He knows I can move to any of his compeditors and be working tomorrow, I have a standing offer from one of them now. I'm good at what I do. We do hire minimum wage sometimes, to sweep floors and clean toilets, empty trash cans, but that's no different than what we all do when slow. But if he sent Mr. Minimum wage to do my job, he would get hurt or dead, and the company would get sued.
There have been a couple of times I know of when the field techs told the boss straight out "no, I'm not doing that. That ain't a safe way to do it. This is what I need to do it." Or refuse a job completely as too dangerous. My greatest stock in trade is between my ears, and minimum wage guy doesn't have it. Knowledge is power.
It is not just brass balls. A lot of what we do is intricate, and expensive. Make a mistake, and it not only doesn't work, but you have shut down the customer. (That ain't good) I remember one piece of special glass that cost the company $9000.00 by the time it was done. It was broken by someone who missed a small detail, like the maximum travel allowed in a part and why.
Mr minimum wage, doesn't stand a chance against skilled labor, and the boss who forgets that is a fool, and penniless.