Reality Struck

• Sweetie and I accepted reality this weekend. We fixed up 5 BOBs about 14 years ago. MH freeze dried food, soap, towels, extra clothes, camp stove and fire tabs, toilet paper (LOTS of TP!! LOL), camping stuff and a whole bunch of other bug-out stuff that would give us about 3 months of supplies and fairly comfy other things. We went through the packs (each one about 22 lbs), discarded some stuff, loaded some of the toiletries into a box for the local womens' shelter, and made a couple of stacks of stuff to sell off. We ended up with one bag, about 8 lbs that might be useful. We kept a bunch of #10 cans of MH freeze dried foods, but tossed some of the pouches that were 3 years past the "Best By" date. That was probably a mistake...looked up MH pouch shelf life and it's 30 years or so. Fortunately, we didn't have a bunch of them in the BOBs.
  
  I am now of retirement age and Sweetie is a few years younger. There is no practical way for us to bug out for any period of time. We are going through other prep stuff and paring down to make way for bugging in scenario only.
  
  I remember how it was 13-14 years ago....political climate was in the dumps, economy looked like it was ready to tank, racial tensions building and building, etc. Strangely enough, the S never HTF in these past years but everything else is about the same. Sweetie and I both have medical issues that require daily meds and we've stocked up on enough of those to last us a couple of months.
  
  We are no longer waiting for things to go south in the U.S. Instead, we will be focusing on a bit more personal comfort items in the near future. Like I said, reality struck this weekend.
  
  Kajun

 

Good for you @TXKajun its a tough pill to swallow sometimes. I had to do the same with my parents last year and have been working with my Dad for fortifying the house.... I just wish I could get him off the idea tht the water heater has enough water in it. THe water here is very hard and a 5 year old water heater is prolly half full of deposits

The reality for me was when I realized they won't and aren't physically capable of going anywhere. Its why I began setting up small patio garden scenario's for my mom, She does love to garden and isn't capable or doingmuch. So buckets and waist high planter boxes.

Thanks for posting this. Its not something anyone like to talk about directly and its a reality for many people.

 

We are getting to that point with my husband's mom. We are trying to convince her to live closer to either us or his brother's family. If the S did hit the F she would be alone either 10 hrs by car from us or 5 from his brother. If we can get her closer to us picking her up can be added into our plans. If somethig were to happen before then.....

 

I think with prepping sometimes we get focused on the big events that could happen. The chances are slim for a huge event happening vs. a natural disaster or short term. Most preppers do focus on the bug out bag when in reality they should be focusing on bugging in for a few weeks. I have no place to bug out to so after a year+ of worry about where would we go, I decided I needed to focus on thriving where I am. Quarantine, weather events or marshal law, those are likely to happen so I told myself to focus on those.

Sometimes I think bugging out is such a focus of preppers is because all the books, fiction and non-fiction focus on that. Our ancestors never focused on bugging out, they made their homes a place they could live in through good times and bad.

 

I reached that decision in 2007, when my wife became disabled. I have two major projects in progress for this year, getting free of the power grid and lawn mowers. I am presently taking bids on solar conversion, trying to swap my 45KW gen-set for a 12-15KW, and designing a swimming pond system to replace my lawn with water filled with fish and hydroponic growing beds. Video surveillance has been upgraded as well as motion sensors and trip flares around the property. We have a safe-room in the house, thorny things growing around the windows, three very alert puppies, a sweet well, green-house, stocks of medical needs, food, and reloading components, and reliable radio communications with the rest of the world. I don't expect to live for many more years, but I do intend to live them in as comfortable a manner as I am capable of providing.

 

Pocket knife lighter and a slingshot

 

Yeah reality does bite deeply but that is just the way it was designed, its a slap in our face to knock those blinders off of us that we've been wearing for many years.
For us, the house is about paid for in just 5 years, wife is still working and I have been slowly putting things together over the years. Have had my eye on a property that most could not see any potential so are weighing in the fact that if we did buy raw land could we afford to develop it like we want with prepping in mind, I think not.
Good Gawd, if one truly wanted an impenetrable fortress they would need the funding of a billionaire!!!
We are staying put & doing what we can to get by for awhile if & when the lights go out.....
Good luck Monkeys!!!

 

Yeah our bags are more get home bags since my hubby has a heck of a daily commute and I have to drive 10hrs once per month for reserve weekend. I just want to be able to make it home alive! The winter is the scariest time for that kindnof thing to happen. I try and keep at least a half tank of gas and my husband has an aux tank on his truck so he has a really long range. Realism is the key!

 

Yea, realities sure have a way of setting in on ya, and usually just as you are getting the last few details ironed out! For us, the first three years were a Bug Out situation, we didn't have all this property, we didn't have the home set up all that much, and the rest of our investments in prepping were just starting to take off! Both of us work still, and I can be quite a ways from home if something were to happen, and I had to shift focus to a Get Home Plan, and prep for that instead of bugging out, which when you really look at it is not a very good idea! We have fortified every thing we have, the home as as secure as we can make it, and our AO makes fighting a one way trip for those that decide to bugg out to our area! For us, the plan is to live as comfortably here and to be able to stay here safe and sound while the world does what it does!

 

I have always been a bug in guy and rooted. I gear more to getting home than abandoning home. Cold hard reality is I couldn't do at 30 what I did at 20, and at 40....... 30 sure looked good. Now pushing 50 I wonder where the strength at 40 went to. I just adapt and shift plans and what I do with what will continue to be diminishing abilities. It is nice to be older now as money is not so tight, you have a better understanding in the difference between what you want and what you need. Like the Grudge Monkey said bugging out really is not a good idea for most people. About the only situation I would consider a bug out plan is if I were living in a highly urban or inner city area, but I would never do that to start with. I am actually enjoying getting older, I got all of the big things done when I was younger and pretty much can do what I want now days. I just happen to love what I do and plan on keeping doing it until I die, just scaling it back as needed to match what I can physically do. My own take is that the SHTF a while back and a bunch of smoke, mirrors and illusions are the only thing holding things semi together at this point. Call me a bad man but what goes on outside of my little piece of the world, just does not concern me. If someone wants to bring a fight to my little piece of the world they will be met with everything I have to offer and to the death. Bugging out or Even just getting home puts a lot of unkown and uncontrolable variables into every equation. At home in your kingdom those variables are not quite so unknown.

 

Being the last one at the end of the power line sometimes really sucks

 

I'm still 20 years from retirement age (using the current system) and I'm already at that point. I want a bag for everyone that has a change of clothes and 3 days of "keep me alive" emergency food bars with water and some purification. I don't have the ability to "bug out" long term/permanently and nowhere really to go. Nearest family is a state and 250+ miles away. Not going to happen.

For "bug out" I'm thinking fire or gas leak. If the nuclear power plant goes then we'll do what we can but it depends on how it goes. If there is anything much more than that, leaving doesn't do me much good. I can die in my own bed as well as I can die in the car, the woods, a camp or whatever.

It's not prepping, it's simply having it local rather than having it remote.

 

Needs moar tactical wheelbarrel.
(inside joke)

 

And a barkless chihuahua.

 

Bam bam goes the gunkid

 

Interestingly, I seem to be going the opposite direction as I reach the late 60s.

Since I no longer have responsibility for anyone other than myself, and neither do I have any great motivation to assure my continued survival...not to mention a medication list that puts me on a pretty hard survival limit of 12-18 mos after some of the meds become no longer available...I am becoming more mobile rather than less. By the end of the year I plan to be rootless with about 6 months of food and associated supplies carried with me. If SHTF and I can get back to the "farm" fine, otherwise I do what I can do wherever I am and take it from there. Long term survival for the sake of survival is no longer on my agenda.

 

I plan to bug in, except in case of wildfire. But that's a temp BO scenario, not a permanent one. This is my home, and eff it all, I plan to die here, one way or another. I'm pushing 40, and I'm working on getting this place as self-sufficient as I can, while I can. I don't care about quantity of life, I care about quality!

 

Wow. Thank you all for the great comments. I just read them to Sweetie and all she said was "Kewl."

Kajun