I now have two Bug-Out Bags in my Bug-Out Vehicle. I have one BOB locked up inside a fortified compartment in my van since it contains a semi-auto pistol and lots of loaded magazines. Trouble is, it would take at least a minute under best circumstances to unlock the compartment and grab its contents. You never know when you might have to flee your vehicle in six seconds, not 60.
My backup BOB sits between the driver's and passenger's seats and consists of two parts: a medium-sized knapsack and a good-sized belt pouch, both in camo. I keep them fastened together and shielded from sight with a ratty-looking rain poncho. They are also fastened through a loop of heavy tow chain to discourage a snatch & run theft. (Since I know how it's fastened it would take me just a few seconds to undo it.)
The backup BOB contains a lot less preparedness than the one that's locked up but it does contain a few first aid supplies, several days' food, a one-person tent and ground cloth, warm under-layers, insulated mittens, 2 pair socks, rain poncho, a map, cash, two LED head lamps, space blanket, fire-starter, waterproof matches, lots of 100% DEET, a knife, camo cord, knit wool cap and wide-brim cotton hat, water, and other stuff I'm not recalling just now. Oh yes, I have a couple of spray cans of 0.5% permethrin for clothing so I'm not bitten by ticks while barging through the underbrush. My #2 BOB contents will certainly change over time but it's not bad for something quickly assembled.
If it is cold weather, I presume I would have appropriate outer wear in the van to augment what's in the alternate BOB. Also, after I complete two pistol courses, I expect to begin making use of my concealed carry permit so I would be already armed if I have to flee suddenly.
I used to not worry about locking my van unless I was going into a store or otherwise leaving it unattended. Now I lock all doors while I am driving. It's not that I'm so worried now, I am simply forming good habits for later when thieves get bolder and more desperate. I can easily imagine pulling up to a stop sign, having someone yank open my rear door, grab something, and take off running. By the time I pulled out of traffic and parked they would be long gone. Worse yet would be someone yanking me out of the driver's side door and driving off with the van (unlikely because I'm good-sized, but possible certainly). I lock that door with my elbow now as soon as I shut the door. Then I unlock The Club from my steering wheel. I put this anti-theft device on the back side of the steering wheel so the key slot faces the dashboard. That way someone equipped with lock-picking or tumbler-yanking tools will have a tougher time of it.
Next: a BOB for the house. I could otherwise be awakened by the screeching tires of my own van being stolen from my driveway and be suddenly BOB-less. Of course I could find myself cut off from both van and house and have to rely on my buried caches: http://www.preparednessequipment.com
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
You can afford more survival perparations
Let's say you have little money but you anticipate a modest tax return, maybe $500, and you want to know how to spend it for survival purposes. Some will recommended a bulk food buy, others a small solar charger system, and several will insist that a gun and ammunition are the only logical choice assuming you have none of these items already.
I tend to agree with the gun advocates because you'll have a rare chunk of money that could be spent on a relatively big-ticket item. Many of your other needs can be filled with smaller purchases and we'll work on making money available for them.
Before you buy a gun check local ammunition availability. There has been a serious ammo shortage for months now and it does you no good to buy "the best gun for defense" if you can't get ammo for it. Once you select the gun you want, get as much ammo as you can afford right away so you know you've got it. Find someone who can help you learn to use your gun if you've never had one before. Firearms training courses are highly recommended.
Next is water and food storage. The water won't be difficult or costly but don't risk putting it off. For an entry-level goal, figure out what you would eat and drink in two months vs. what you have on hand, then work at making up the difference.
You may think your budget is too tight to do much but let's see if we can shake loose $20 or $50 a week. There are many ways of saving money if you put your mind to it:
Combine trips. Shop on the way home from work.
Question the necessity of every item you put in the shopping cart.
Look for store brands and other bargains.
No more Saturday/Sunday shopping trips.
The less time you have to spend money the better.
Eat a low-budget breakfast. Oatmeal is really cheap and healthy.
Make your own coffee for the day. Instant works.
(Or go off of coffee. It's a drug dependency.)
Plan dinner. Thaw, soak, pre-boil, throw in crock pot, etc. in the morning.
(No excuse for takeout or eating out later.)
Don't buy anything but gas at the gas station. Nothing!
Skip your mid-morning snack or eat an apple you brought from home.
Eat a simple lunch you made at home. No chips, no desserts.
Skip your mid-afternoon snack.
Cancel your magazine subscriptions and your cable TV.
(Get a part-time/volunteer evening job if your life seems suddenly empty.)
Lower you phone bill. Call when it's free. Don't call when it's not.
There are many things in your life I have no clue about so you need to do a faithful budget and look at each dollar you spend during a typical week or month. Do you wear clothes only once before washing? Do you take showers whether you need them or not? Do you do dry-cleaning more than twice a year? Do you have a bowling night, card night, give money to bums, kids, grand kids, did I say bums? Do you put money in the collection plate because your pastor said God demands it of you?
Do you spend money on a hobby? Is your hobby emergency preparedness? How about switching hobbies.
What do you NOT need to buy for your car? Don't buy it then. And don't wash it so often. Do you own your house? Do you hire people to do maintenance that you could do yourself? Do you spend gobs on your lawn? Look ahead to when the utilities quit working and the trash man hasn't come for three months. Is your great-looking lawn really so important to maintain? Let the lawn suffer now so you don't have to later.
Bottom line, set new priorities. Set a one-month savings goal and see if you can beat it.
Or maybe this survival thing isn't for you. I know, tough choice...
I tend to agree with the gun advocates because you'll have a rare chunk of money that could be spent on a relatively big-ticket item. Many of your other needs can be filled with smaller purchases and we'll work on making money available for them.
Before you buy a gun check local ammunition availability. There has been a serious ammo shortage for months now and it does you no good to buy "the best gun for defense" if you can't get ammo for it. Once you select the gun you want, get as much ammo as you can afford right away so you know you've got it. Find someone who can help you learn to use your gun if you've never had one before. Firearms training courses are highly recommended.
Next is water and food storage. The water won't be difficult or costly but don't risk putting it off. For an entry-level goal, figure out what you would eat and drink in two months vs. what you have on hand, then work at making up the difference.
You may think your budget is too tight to do much but let's see if we can shake loose $20 or $50 a week. There are many ways of saving money if you put your mind to it:
Combine trips. Shop on the way home from work.
Question the necessity of every item you put in the shopping cart.
Look for store brands and other bargains.
No more Saturday/Sunday shopping trips.
The less time you have to spend money the better.
Eat a low-budget breakfast. Oatmeal is really cheap and healthy.
Make your own coffee for the day. Instant works.
(Or go off of coffee. It's a drug dependency.)
Plan dinner. Thaw, soak, pre-boil, throw in crock pot, etc. in the morning.
(No excuse for takeout or eating out later.)
Don't buy anything but gas at the gas station. Nothing!
Skip your mid-morning snack or eat an apple you brought from home.
Eat a simple lunch you made at home. No chips, no desserts.
Skip your mid-afternoon snack.
Cancel your magazine subscriptions and your cable TV.
(Get a part-time/volunteer evening job if your life seems suddenly empty.)
Lower you phone bill. Call when it's free. Don't call when it's not.
There are many things in your life I have no clue about so you need to do a faithful budget and look at each dollar you spend during a typical week or month. Do you wear clothes only once before washing? Do you take showers whether you need them or not? Do you do dry-cleaning more than twice a year? Do you have a bowling night, card night, give money to bums, kids, grand kids, did I say bums? Do you put money in the collection plate because your pastor said God demands it of you?
Do you spend money on a hobby? Is your hobby emergency preparedness? How about switching hobbies.
What do you NOT need to buy for your car? Don't buy it then. And don't wash it so often. Do you own your house? Do you hire people to do maintenance that you could do yourself? Do you spend gobs on your lawn? Look ahead to when the utilities quit working and the trash man hasn't come for three months. Is your great-looking lawn really so important to maintain? Let the lawn suffer now so you don't have to later.
Bottom line, set new priorities. Set a one-month savings goal and see if you can beat it.
Or maybe this survival thing isn't for you. I know, tough choice...
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Getting past the paralysis
Let me implore some of you people once again to get the f#@k prepared!
If you think the president has patched things up and all will be fine now, I suppose there's no reaching you. It will be, "Boy, McClarin seems to be losing touch with the real world more and more lately, all caught up in this doomsday horseshit." Yup, you'd be right too.
But please consider: The jobless numbers keep going up, the Baltic Dry (shipping) Index keeps swirling in the toilet, local governments are beginning to close schools and lay off policemen as they see huge tax shortfalls, the commercial ARM's are set to collapse in just a few months, and the Fed has become the chief buyer of treasury notes. Dubai and the Saudis, Iran and the Russians, are all overextended from the days of $150/barrel oil and rioting is breaking out in more and more countries as the meltdown spreads. The devastation in Iceland will visit your neighborhood very soon.
It certainly doesn't help that we have an impostor in the White House that wants to see America punished and whose first military adventure (Afghanistan doesn't count, that was Bush's war) is likely to be the subjugation of our own country. But what can you do other than complain about it?
I do know one thing you can do, prepare for TEOTWAWKI. You don't need to thank me later, just do it. Find a place to tuck away some canned food. Keep adding to it. Get some water storage happening for when the grid goes down and the pumps quit working. Aim for the ability to barricade yourself indoors for two months (envision bird flu or other lethal pandemic, no human contact!).
OK, forget it. I can just see the authority figure coming up behind you as you adoringly squeeze the last can of Spaghetti-O's into place:
"What in the hell are you doing, hoarding? HOARDING!!?
"When on earth did this start? What the hell's gotten into you?
"All of a sudden you've turned into a creepy, stingy survival nut! I don't even know you! You should be ashamed of yourself sneaking around, hiding food just like a goddamned squirrel! That's not who we are!
"Have you got an assault rifle hidden under the bed too? God, please don't let me be living with a psycho gun nut who's planning on shooting the neighbors to protect his stash of Fritos and bean dip!
"Look, if you need help, we'll get help. The doctors can do amazing things these days with prescription drugs. Please let's get you some help and just stop this craziness! "
In other words, a true scrotum-shrinking moment. Better to risk death and starvation than face the certainty of annoyance, ridicule, or pity. And don't forget, we'll all look back on this period and laugh uproariously at how paranoid *some people* were, actually acting out their nutty survival fantasies while those of us more stable sagely held our course unruffled through the market correction and came out in fine shape. Yeah.
See, I think that's where the real sickness lies, the fear of others' reactions if we do something the least bit quirky. We run these parental or spousal tongue-lashing dialogues in our heads and are paralyzed into inaction. Then we tell ourselves we're wise to heed them.
Let me attest that preparedness action is actually psychologically rewarding because it addresses a real apprehension we have about the future, an apprehension that's been weighing on us because of our own inaction. This has an effect at once both liberating and empowering. You feel as if you own your future once more.
So get your canned food cache started: yummy yams, spiffy Spam, succulent soups, choice chilis. Let your palate be your guide. I know, it's not what the food storage experts recommend, but it's a start and it feels good.
And go at least visit a gun store so you can simper at the knuckle-dragger customers while you drink in the flavors of a bygone era when all men had testicles and guns. You'll be glad you did.
http://www.preparednessequipment.com
If you think the president has patched things up and all will be fine now, I suppose there's no reaching you. It will be, "Boy, McClarin seems to be losing touch with the real world more and more lately, all caught up in this doomsday horseshit." Yup, you'd be right too.
But please consider: The jobless numbers keep going up, the Baltic Dry (shipping) Index keeps swirling in the toilet, local governments are beginning to close schools and lay off policemen as they see huge tax shortfalls, the commercial ARM's are set to collapse in just a few months, and the Fed has become the chief buyer of treasury notes. Dubai and the Saudis, Iran and the Russians, are all overextended from the days of $150/barrel oil and rioting is breaking out in more and more countries as the meltdown spreads. The devastation in Iceland will visit your neighborhood very soon.
It certainly doesn't help that we have an impostor in the White House that wants to see America punished and whose first military adventure (Afghanistan doesn't count, that was Bush's war) is likely to be the subjugation of our own country. But what can you do other than complain about it?
I do know one thing you can do, prepare for TEOTWAWKI. You don't need to thank me later, just do it. Find a place to tuck away some canned food. Keep adding to it. Get some water storage happening for when the grid goes down and the pumps quit working. Aim for the ability to barricade yourself indoors for two months (envision bird flu or other lethal pandemic, no human contact!).
OK, forget it. I can just see the authority figure coming up behind you as you adoringly squeeze the last can of Spaghetti-O's into place:
"What in the hell are you doing, hoarding? HOARDING!!?
"When on earth did this start? What the hell's gotten into you?
"All of a sudden you've turned into a creepy, stingy survival nut! I don't even know you! You should be ashamed of yourself sneaking around, hiding food just like a goddamned squirrel! That's not who we are!
"Have you got an assault rifle hidden under the bed too? God, please don't let me be living with a psycho gun nut who's planning on shooting the neighbors to protect his stash of Fritos and bean dip!
"Look, if you need help, we'll get help. The doctors can do amazing things these days with prescription drugs. Please let's get you some help and just stop this craziness! "
In other words, a true scrotum-shrinking moment. Better to risk death and starvation than face the certainty of annoyance, ridicule, or pity. And don't forget, we'll all look back on this period and laugh uproariously at how paranoid *some people* were, actually acting out their nutty survival fantasies while those of us more stable sagely held our course unruffled through the market correction and came out in fine shape. Yeah.
See, I think that's where the real sickness lies, the fear of others' reactions if we do something the least bit quirky. We run these parental or spousal tongue-lashing dialogues in our heads and are paralyzed into inaction. Then we tell ourselves we're wise to heed them.
Let me attest that preparedness action is actually psychologically rewarding because it addresses a real apprehension we have about the future, an apprehension that's been weighing on us because of our own inaction. This has an effect at once both liberating and empowering. You feel as if you own your future once more.
So get your canned food cache started: yummy yams, spiffy Spam, succulent soups, choice chilis. Let your palate be your guide. I know, it's not what the food storage experts recommend, but it's a start and it feels good.
And go at least visit a gun store so you can simper at the knuckle-dragger customers while you drink in the flavors of a bygone era when all men had testicles and guns. You'll be glad you did.
http://www.preparednessequipment.com
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