TOTM February 2015- Bugging In

To get back on topic………..

Bugging In

First off we are planning on bugging in but if needed we do have provisions or a plan if we need to leave our home. First off in my head is food. People planning to bug in should have food. Buy what you eat. IMO all those books that say buy whole oats and all these grains because they are high in nutrition are incorrect…. That is my opinion. If S never HTF then you have wasted money on stuff most people would not voluntarily eat. I am serious. In my head the way food storage for bugging in and how you should eat them while bugging in is as follows:

Refrigerator- Lights out/STHF the items in here should be the first to be eaten. The stuff that will spoil should be eaten first. After a few days do not eat it!

The freezer- The stuff that will melt and go bad is to be eaten along with the stuff in the refrigerator. Also- if you have the know-how you can turn some of the meat into jerky and dehydrate any frozen veggies. This can be done if it is summer or if you have a dehydrator.

Bottom-line on the above is to try to eat and not to let any of this food go to waste.

Canned and dried foods: You should have one year in storage. Once you build it up to this point, every time you go shopping you are buying next year’s food, stock rotation. Tonight you should be eating what you put away last year. Make sense? Takes a while but currently stores are having some good sales, utilize them and use coupons. Yes, coupons. If you can save $20 then that is $20 to put towards other things that will be needed.

Your food storage and dehydrated plus canned/dried foods- these will be what you are eating but they will also be supplemented with vegetables that you are growing. If you do not have a garden area now then you will need to prep one as soon as SHTF. This is something that needs to happen because you need to have the nutrition that fresh vegetables offer.

That is all for now. Back with other steps that need to be taken when working towards bugging in and when bugging in happens.

 

The first thing if you live in the suburbs is to go outside and dig a hole for the outhouse...If you are connected to a sewage system it will not take long for it to back up!! All of the piles of food that are stored in your Bug in location are going to turn into the same size pile of poop and its gotta go somewhere.......Oh btw you need a way to seal off the sewer system from your BIH(bug in home).

 

Not a lot really changes for us. we would still heat with wood, get our water from the well and harvest the garden, the lake and the land around us. The difference would be we would start eating away the the long term staples. W e would also start acting in a defensive posture. Coffee would be rationed as would sugar and the gasoline would be used for chainsaws and the tractor only.

 

BUT MOM! I like oatmeal...

Seriously, does anybody out there believe in growing grains any more?

I am currently looking at bulking up in the gardening department. I have some things, like sugar, that will grow in my AO, and I see no need to do without them if I don't have to. It is actually pretty daunting, looking at it, but I wanting to slowly ramp things up over the next couple of years.

 

Given that my mother is disabled and I have my own health problems, bugging in is our plan. I however do have contingency plans that will only be enacted in severe crises. And I am not TELLING anyone what they are, even my mother. My ultimate goal is survival of my household, and I'm not going to risk them by having the plans ruined by others.

 

Not very many changes would be taking place here. The biggest changes would be having more time to work in the garden during daylight hours and remembering to wind all of the clocks weekly. Might even have a chance to work on the honey-do list.
Granted, not everyone has the levels of material and skill needed to do this, but we've been working toward this for decades.

 

Stumbled upon and picked up some seeds this evening. Pretty happy with the haul. More expensive than in a catalog, but I ended up paying less on 16 varieties than the shipping for same...

 

Good luck with #6 there.

 

@ssonb how does one seal off a commode? Concrete?

 

I have to think about Europe and the Vikings. The major lords and barrons sprung up as defenders of the people. People choose to rally around the leaders that can protect them from the Vikings, mobs, or whatever you want to call them. A single person or cell of 5-10 people is not going to be able to stop an armed mob of people who will kill you just to steal your stuff, and have no morals at all. There are some major ideas of defense that need to be considered if bugging in is your plan.

 

Remove it and block the flammable sewer gases. As the water evaporates; the same applies to any septic or sewer connection.

@Crazy
The best defense is being not easy to find. There are advantages to living where the gain is little.

Although dogs give warning; break wire establishes from what direction. NV to see at night. Add Punji traps, dead falls, Tannerite etc. There are all kinds of nasty things; just be sure to remember where they are located.

 

You would be real surprised to see how many regular people one good 5 man unit that has trained for this can take out. We carry full battle packs of 210 rounds each with Ar-15 rifles , 30 round mags and we have the Knowledge of the land. W e choose the ground not the intruders. Most would not even know enough to spread out or probe with a small fire team. Tactics are key. I would be happy to take on a mob of starving , no morals city dwellers bent on taking my supplies. Our little lake association may only have 26 armed defenders but can and will repel as many as we have ammuniton for . Having a bug in plan is having a defensive plan . The only thing we would have trouble with is attack from the air or by a heavy armored vehicle with tracks like a tank or a Bradly type. A real good military team of a dozen or so men could take us out if they had time to scout us . No position is fool proof and any castle can be breached . Our defense is as good as civilians can muster. And again tactics are key and tactics take training.

 

Yep, strategy is extremely important. We also have the advantage of a good location on quite a few counts. But like you said, any place can be 'breached', hence me making contingency plans. An air strike is not something I'm too worried about though, not because we're in a forested area, but because if they did hit our location, we'd probably all be dead anyway.

 

We chose our house and bugged out there in 2008. High ground lots of swamps and marsh protect us from easy access. In short they have to use the road in and that funnels them. I was taught this is called a choke point. My nephew who did 4 tours in the army looked at my plan and said excellent , all you need now is a 50 cal to stop trucks and cars. So we got one. Not a semi auto but a nice bolt action Serbu. Serbu Firearms My neighbor bought it. Its a single shot rifle but one round will destroy an engine right now. But an armored vehicle like a Bradly or a tank would deflect a .50 CAL ROUND. We dont worry about air strikes either or tanks and armored troop carriers either as we dont plan on taking on any Military. And if we did? it would not be at home I would BE with thousands of other Americans pushing U.N. or Russian/Chinese troops back into the sea.

 

Thundering cusswords I wish I lived closer to you some times kf.

 

I think it would be interesting to meet many of you in person. Pick a neutral site like a federal or state campground and meet up for some survival stuff.

 

This was a interesting read. Having a water source would be a number one priority or you won't last very long. (Well with a hand pump) Having a garden and a supply of seeds on hand. Solar power is also another option instead of being without all comforts. Wood burning stove is a good option for cooking and warmth but also could give a heads up to others by the scent in the air. If you're bugging in you should have a bug out on your property should you ever need to hide until the coast is clear. A unkempt frontage is good idea, let everything grow wild. Having farm animals such as chickens (roosters are loud) maybe a goat or two or perhaps a milk cow if you have the property. My plan is to be self sufficient now. If your electric goes off I can use solar. The one most people will not think about is medications. Try and find a resource where you can get these things. Sometime things can be controlled with herbs and diet control. Research your elements now and see if there is alternative solutions. Hunting for food with a bow. As the song plays ~ Silence is Golden~

 

And remember the Norse rule: Don't go looking for trouble, but keep your ax strapped to the plow.