Bug In or Out?
The age old question. But my answer has always been both. Obviously there are viable options and reasons that one would be better than the other. The people who argue over this seem to mostly come from good intentions, but their error here is that they have failed to realize that the person they are arguing with may have different circumstances that drastically change the game. I lean towards bugging in. It inherits obvious advantages in long term survival, but I am not so nieve to believe that eventually, I will not have to leave, by force or any other means. As mentioned previously, it depends on your plan.
Throughout the years, I have been lucky enough to have seen some very nice self sustainable projects. For example, I have seen a man take an old washing machine, reverse engineer it to output dc voltage when spun, and drop it right in a creek to power his battery bank at his home. Coupled with solar power, he pays nothing for the electricity in his home. I have seen water reservoirs for aquaponics setups that were so well thought out that they had fish living in them for basically a perpetual fertilizer source. None of this is particularly useful if your going to be on the hoof, but hopefully my last write up made you realize that knowledge weighs nothing. Eventually, you are going to want to stop, and settle.
No matter your individual family plan, the 3 golden rules of survival still come into play. Water, shelter, fire. Everything that you base your first efforts towards should be to one or more of these things. If your bugging in, the thought of shelter materials probably wont be very high on your list. That is understandable, but you need to make a list of things to repair that shelter. At our old home, we knew we had to replace the roof when we moved in. Instead of getting it reshingled, I patched the worse places myself and we limped by for a year until we could afford a metal roof. When we left, I left the owners several bags of quick seal and screws for repair. I also had the contractor order a few extra pieces, as well as leave any scrap that was the size of a trash can lid or larger. These are all things that it pays great dividends to write down, and a lot of the reason that I am typing this instead of doing a video. Keep a notebook full of these ideas. Make a list, and every once in a while, restructure that list based on priority.
I am a lifelong outdoorsman, hunting, fishing, and camping since I was old enough to go. So prepping for bugging out kind of gets blurred with camping equipment. It is important to at least keep the two separate enough for these 2 important reasons. 1. If half of your bug out or inch bag gear is strewn around in your camper because you were too hung over to sort it when you got home Sunday night, it kind of defeats the purpose. 2. Camping is different than survival. Camping can usually support as many amenities as you are willing to accommodate. Survival however, is survival. Pack light, pack what works. Leave the battery powered fan and portable shower at home.
Once you get into gathering your list, realize that it will probably be ever changing. This is a lot of the reason that being a part of a larger groupthink is so beneficial. No one says you have to take pictures to show the world what you have. I am a member of a FB group called 21st century prepper. I cannot talk highly enough about this group. It is the best that I have found bar none. There are many knowledgable preppers on there, and they will offer their help and expertise to anyone willing to learn. Try to look for well built items that serve more than one purpose. This has been a huge help to myself, trying to cut weight down in my packs.
Another very important consideration to take into account is your local AO. If your AO is a desert, having a robust fishing kit is probably not a very good use of space and weight in your pack. If your AO is mountainous, you will need more than a pair of crocs to get around. It all has to be considered in order to succeed in your goal. The hardest thing to me about prepping especially when certain gear is needed, is the fact that you will end up needing to buy several of the same item. As an example say you have 5 family members to prep for. That’s 5 lifestraws, just for your BOBs. Plus one for each vehicle, INCH, etc. well over 100$ in water filters alone. To add to that, those shouldn’t be your only method of making potable water. This brings us to the next point.
2 is 1, 1 is none. In my opinion EVERY bag you have should include at the very minimum 3 ways to start a fire, and 3 ways to make clean water. Shelter options will vary from location to location. Shelter is simple when it is hot and dry outside. Sometimes that can be as easy as just making yourself some shade. Wet and cold is killer. It also should depend on what you can expect to be traveling in. If you are in the woods, you should commit to learning to make simple lean tos, and bedding as to not use or waste your packed shelter material. I have found that a good heavy duty, neutral or camo colored tarp is worth its weight in gold. They are pretty light, and can be deployed very quickly when you get caught in a fast rainstorm. A heavy duty bivvy sack is great to have as well. Now that we have went into the planning aspect of prepping a bit, the next write up we will begin to drag things out to discuss what each member should try to have. Carry on.