Reality of a bug out bag, #2

When discussing bugging out we need to stay clear of thinking we have the knowledge, tools or physically ability to stroll out into the woods and make a new world. We also need to think in terms of reality. Reality is the world does not become a Mad Max wasteland instantly. For most of us the need to bug out comes from a local emergency such as a tornado, flood, storm or wild fire. Even if one region is involved in the emergency other areas will be unaffected.

Yet even a situation like these might lead us to circumstances where we have to abandon our vehicle or do not have time to pack everything we can. Maybe the situation has come upon us so quickly we can only grab a few items and run. Flood waters rising, chemical cloud drifting toward you or a wildfire is advancing toward your home. What can we do ahead of time to assist our family in the moments or days ahead?

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Before we grab what we can and load up we need to figure out one very important thing, the most important thing. Where are you going?

Without a destination you cannot prepare. We have to know the goal, we have to give ourselves a destination and we cannot simply pack our car up to drive in some random direction. This is for obvious reasons, one not really thought about is a destination gives you a goal, gives you an ending to the journey and gives you something to focus on when confronted with despair or obstacles. If the group you are with or if you find yourself alone a goal, destination, will allow you to focus your efforts. This focus could mean the difference between life and death for you and your family.

Having a destination allows us to plan on how much we have to pack. We need to have a destination outside of the affected area. This might be Grandma’s house or a friend in another city, this location needs to be far enough away to actually be somewhere we can find refuge from the emergency. Odds are this means the worst case is we walk for a day or more? What do we really NEED to make this journey?

Imagine grabbing what you need in less than five minutes, putting it on your back and walking toward your safe location. Put your children into the scenario, your ailing parents………….

We need a bag we sling onto our backs as a last resort! Having a bag and nothing more needs to be our last resort. Even if we are fleeing with only a few minutes notice we need give ourselves tools to survive.

The first of these tools is identification. We need to be able to prove who we are. Even if we end up in a refugee camp having identification will allow us prove who we are and allow us to enter faster than those who have none. Our bag needs to pre-packed with copies of identification. This can be a copy of your current driver’s licenses with maybe an old one. Copies of birth certificates, passports or any other valid form of identification but please DO NOT keep the originals in a bag!! Keep them locked up!!

Water, we need a way to carry it and a way to purify any we find. There is no way we can carry in a bag enough water for a walk of several days. One gallon of water weights seven pounds!!! A suggestion would be a light weight hiking filter system.

Food, for simplicity one MRE has enough calories to keep you alive for one day. There are other options but these come pre-packaged with everything, including a spoon.

Shelter, pack at least one set of clothes. Complete with underwear and socks. If you are able and have the room in the bag pack more than one pair of socks. There is nothing better than putting on a clean pair of socks after hiking all day. Add a jacket and a hat to the bag. Our basic shelter comes from utilizing layering to keep us warm. Put an emergency blanket into the bag, the silver reflexing type. These are good no matter what, in most cases you get what you pay for and a good suggestion is to spend more than a dollar or two on these if you can. The higher priced ones are usually made to be used more than once. A tarp or even garbage bags can be used to make shelter and are excellent at just putting something between yourself and the rain. All of the items you pack for shelter need to be appropriate to the climate you live in. If you live in Minnesota your shelter needs are going to be different than someone who lives in Arizona.

Hygiene, pack a toothbrush and other items, do you absolutely need them? No, but it really helps with morale. You can go much longer without a shower or even brushing your teeth than most think they can. TOILET PAPER, is an absolute must!!!! You have to pack at least one roll per person!!! Ladies or fellas packing for ladies, pack items for that time of the month. Because odds are something bad will happen during that time period!!! You can pick up a lot of these items at the dollar store or any of the big box type stores for cheap. Pick up foot powder, fresh socks and foot powder will make you feel human again after walking all day!!!!

Tools, this is an issue of weight. A knife, good solid tang construction, nothing too fancy and something you won’t feel bad hitting with a hammer is the first thing you should pack for this category. With a good knife you can solve many of life’s issues. Fire starting kit with at least three different ways of starting a fire is a good suggestion. Again, with fire you can solve many of life’s issues!! Para-cord, with this you can build shelter, secure equipment and a host of other things. Just do not try and take a tool for everything you think might come up. Keep tools to multi use items, a multi-tool would fit this bill.

Medication or other special needs have to be planned for and packed for. If someone is allergic to bees they need to pre-pack a bee sting kit or medication they will need. This way they do not end up in a situation without what they need. Same goes for any other person requiring medication on a daily basis or with any issue which might require medication. If you have asthma ensure you pack an inhaler!!! Someone needs catheters; make sure they have some pre-packed. Everyone’s situation is different and you need to take your special needs into account.

A bug out bag should remain your last option! This last option should only be put into play once all your other options have been exhausted or cannot be used. This should be incorporated into your planning and thought of as part of a complete plan and not just your “plan”!!! Sure we could add to this bag, remember this is our last ditch item, we need to move and we need to pack only what we can carry.

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Reality of a bug out bag

The reality of the famous “BUG OUT BAG”!!!! The internet, books and the guy your friend knows, who is a ‘prepper’ will tell you the absolute need you have for a…….. wait for it…….. “BUUUUUG OUT BAAAAAG”!!!!!!!

Let’s start with what the purpose of the bag is. This bag is designed to be carried when you have to walk away from everything, your house, your car, your bicycle or anything else which would be better than carrying everything in a bag. You have to be in a situation where you are leaving it all behind and surviving off of what you can carry on your back!!!

Can there be a situation in which you have to pack a bag and run into the hills? Yes, civil war, electric magnetic pulse, nuclear war and a host of other issues at the far end of the spectrum of possibilities. This means we should plan for the possibility because there is a chance of any one of these situations happening and each of them could happen……. Now!

What we want to do is realize in reality most of us are not physically able to carry everything we would need on our backs to survive FOREVER in the frozen, apocalyptic, zombie ruled wasteland! A pack to even think about doing this with is going to weight far more than most of us can carry, say 100 pounds easily. Think about it, you would have to carry water, food, shelter, clothing, fire starter equipment, cooking equipment, lights, medical supplies, communication equipment, batteries for the equipment, cutting tools, firearms, ammunition, fishing equipment, snares and, and, and…………..

The weight quickly adds up and every bit of the weight makes a difference. More stuff equals more weight, more weight causes less speed and takes a toll of your body quickly. Our own personal physical fitness needs to be taken into account during our planning. If you have not seen your feet in over a year, you are not going to go very far with a 100 pound pack!!! Period, end of story and I do not want to hear about how you’re sure you can really do it!!!!! Even if you are the palates doing, vegan who runs marathons twice a year, you are not ready to physically carry the weight you would need to carry in an all-inclusive bug out to the hills for the duration bug out bag! Should you doubt this, put a couple sandbags, full of sand, in a pack and go for a ten mile hike.

Having a bag with items to help you make it 72 to 96 hours is a good idea. These can be stashed in the closet or garage and pulled out when a storm is coming or a wild fire threatens your home. These types of bags should work with other items and not be the sole item or plan you have for evacuation. Think of these bags as more of a step up from your Get Home Bag. Combined with your Every Day Carry items, maybe a Bail Out Bag and your Get Home Bag this type of bag allows you to survive a few more days. Instead of packing a backpack to carry everything you need we need to see what we have on hand which would assist us if we did have a situation where we had to leave our home or bug out.

First let’s think about our cars. Most situations we face the odds are we will be able to use our vehicles to move equipment and people. Major storm heading your way, forest fire or maybe a chemical spill are situations where we would have to ‘Bug Out’. In each of these situations we have to take everything we need to set up housekeeping somewhere else as we live like a refugee for an unknown period of time. The vehicle or vehicles allow us to pack more than we could ever strap to our backs and walk with. Of course we have to only take what we “need” when we pack out.

If you have never had decide what goes and what stays this can be an almost paralyzing decision. This type of situation, bugging out, is where prior planning is the key. You need to have items pre-packed or have the ability to quickly pack them. Items such as your identification, insurance papers, and other items to prove who you are and contact information for family and friends. Clothing, bedding and toys for the kids if you have children in your household. You need food with a way to transport it, a cooler or a couple of ice chest. Any medications you or someone in the house needs. All of these things come first before you even start to worry about pictures, your favorite plant or Aunt Betty’s diary from the 1800’s.

Vehicles should be our first choice to move or ‘Bug out’ with. Next you should think about other means of transporting you and the family. If you have them for the family bicycles are better than walking! Of course you cannot haul as much stuff on bicycles as you can in a car but you can move faster than walking. Adding trailers to the bikes slows you down but allows you to take more with you.

Strollers, wagons, gardening carts and even grocery carts need to be utilized before we resort to carrying everything on our backs. If you have children than you have strollers, when we purchase items such as strollers or wagons in the back of our minds we should be taking into account if we could use these items in an emergency. There is a slim chance we would yet buying the right item could help us greatly later! If you do not have children in your household you could still buy a gardening cart and the right one could come in handy during an emergency. Grandchildren give us a reason to have a stroller or a wagon sitting in the garage.

Thinking of bugging out should not revolve around a backpack with hundreds of dollars’ worth of equipment packed into the bag. “Bugging Out” should be thought of as a worst case scenario and planned with reality at the forefront. Should you have to leave; realistically plan by incorporating everything at your disposal, cars, bicycles, wagons, strollers and even a few liberated shopping carts if need be in to the plan. The last thing you want to do is plan for the fantasy of putting packs on to your family and strolling away from the area only to find out your children can not carry their share, your better half is on crutches that month and you really are not in the physical shape you lied and told yourself you were in……………………

With this in mind, take a moment and consider what you would have to do if you did have to leave your home in the next hour! What would you take? How would you transport it? What is a priority? Where would you go? Then make a list! Make a list of everything you would need, locate these items to make sure you know where they are and over the next few days see what you can preposition or prepack in case you did have to go. Do these things now when there is no pressure instead of adding to the stress of making these decisions when the clock is ticking!!!!! Prior Planning, Prevents Poor Performance.

As Always,

Stay Safe

Get Home Bag

Our first priority when something happens is to get out of immediate danger. Right after that, get back to our loved ones. Maybe this means we get ahold of them on the phone and we know everyone is safe and sound? This should be enough for most situations and what we carry on us every day can handle these situations. For those situations when this might not be enough we should have a plan and some resources to accomplish our mission; get ‘in home.

The subject of this post is building a Get Home Bag, the third ‘tier’ or link in our emergency planning. As stated before each bag or set of equipment you put together needs to be tailored to the task and purpose built. Not everyone is in the same situation or faces the same issues. Each of us has to tailor our equipment to our own needs and abilities. If you have a medical condition this needs to be taken into account when putting items together. Of great importance is your physical condition.

You can have the most complete, everything you could ever want included and expensive pack ever made……………… but if you cannot carry the pack a hundred yards you have collected a lot of equipment for someone else to use!!!!

The bag in the photos is the one keep stashed in my truck. It is purpose built to my needs and abilities. For me the average distance I might have to walk home, in worst case scenario, is 66.1 or 66.7 miles depending on which mapping system I use to check the distance. First thing you might notice is my bag does not have everything you could possible need in it and you would be right! My bag has room to add things and somethings I might take out if I felt no need for them. The point is I have the items on hand to use should something come up. I also plan on incorporating my Every Day Carry (EDC), Bail Out Bag (BOB), other items in my truck and anything around me to help me get home. For me the odds of driving through the Sahara Desert, Alaskan tundra, Detroit or some other area void of resources is slim. Again bags need to be tailored to the environment you most likely will find yourself in.

Not everything I plan on using lives inside the bag. There is just not enough room inside the bag. This is how the items live in the turck. I do not want someone to look into the truck and see a fully packed bag with pouches and attachments all over the place. Instead this stuff looks like a bunch of "stuff" just sitting in the back.

Remember worst case you have to walk home during an emergency. A pair of broken in boots is the best choice for footwear. Keeping them on the outside yet attached to the bag saves space on the inside of the bag for other items and makes sure they are there if you pull the bag out!The waterproof bag contains extra clothing and items to use if the weather is cold. Remember the bag is tailored to the area, heavy winter items are not usually needed to deal with the weather here. The rolled up bedroll can easily be strapped to the bag and also works to cover up young ones when they fall asleep in the truck on long drives. Adding this to a “ranger roll” is living the high life for an old grunt!

These next items cover emergency medical issues, water filtration, fire starting, knowledge and you can never have enough hand sanitizer!! The medical kit would be strapped on to the outside of the bag and can handle simple cuts to gunshot wounds. There is a water filter straw, with the directions attached and some iodine, with directions written on it. I try to leave directions with items because you never know who you might be with during an emergency. Sure you know how to use the equipment but does your better half or the girl from the office you are walking home with? The SAS survival book is also included because there really is no way to know everything unless all you do is training for emergencies and survival every day!!!

The next group of items covers medication, sanitation, extra lighting and some food issues. Hard candy is a great thing to have with you. It gives you the sugar rush and can calm upset children. A can opener is a must! Last thing you want is to have a can of food and no way to open it!!!

Next come another medical bag which contains items for blisters, sprains and other injuries like these. Not life threatening but things you need to address to keep moving. A pair of binoculars, something not everyone needs, this is a item I choose to carry. Cooking gear; small stove which does not require gas, some pots, inside of which is some food items. The last item is a pack cover/rain cover I can put over the entire pack. Why? Because if it is raining I want my stuff to stay dry and I also want to conceal the ‘military’ look of the bag if need be.

I choice this bag for the way it can open up and lay flat as you can see by this photo. Very easy to get to what you want when a bag opens like this. Included in this picture is a pair of gloves and a N-95 mask. Essential if you are in an emergency with rubble and dust. The mask is also good for biological, flu, situations. There is also a plastic water bottle with duct tape and para cord wrapped around the bottle. Neat trick I picked up and not my own idea!!! You can also see several MRE's, poncho and poncho liner.

Last picture shows several water purification systems, roll of duct tape and some garbage bags. I do not plan on carrying a lot of water on me so I have to be able to make what I find safe to drink. Again this is fitting the bag to you!

The key to this bag is to have resources on hand I can use should something happen. Do not over load yourself! I plan on moving quickly and a heavy bag filled with everything for any situation would just slow me down. Once you pack a bag take a walk with it. Try walking two or more miles with all your equipment. Be honest with yourself and see if you could really carry what you have packed. If you can not........ adjust the gear and/or work on your physical abilities. Remember the bag is to help you get home not run into the woods and live for the next twenty years!!!

As Always,

Be Safe!!!

Use of force, in a crisis

If we are being realistic in our planning we cannot shy away from the unpleasant idea we might have to use force during a situation. This can be as simple as threatening to use force all the way to really having to hurt someone. Although most of us do not want to spend time thinking about what kind of other people live out there the reality is we need to think about how far we are willing to go and to give ourselves mental boundaries now so we do not have to try and decide later under pressure.

A good rule of thumb to follow in these situations is;

"ONLY USE THE AMOUNT OF FORCE NECCASARY TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE SITUATION."

This means once the threat is neutralized you stop using force. Why would you want to continue beyond this point? There really is no reason to hurt or harm someone when they are not a threat to you or your loved ones. If you do then you blur the line between the GOOD GUY (you) and the Bad Guy (them). Why would you stoop to the level of a bad guy? Think long term on the actions you take. Could you live with yourself if you beat someone who was not a threat to you? Could you live with yourself if you needlessly took a life? Hopefully, the answer is "no".

"What would you fight for?"

This is a very important question to ask yourself and be honest with yourself when you answer. You do not have to tell the answer to anyone beside yourself so be brutality honest with yourself. Would you fight for your own life? Sounds like an easy question but really how far are you willing to go? Would you punch someone in the face? Would you kick someone in the groin? Would you pound someone’s head into the cement beneath your feet? Would you drive a piece of metal into their body? Would you shoot them in the head at point blank range? This is not a question directed at how macho you are or meant as statement of bravado.

Would you fight for your family? Would you fight to defend your children? Would you fight to protect your parents? Would you fight to protect your extended family, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.? How far would you be willing to go to defend your family? Could you hit someone in the back of the head with a shovel if they were hurting that one family member you cannot stand? What if they were harming one of that family member’s children? Where do you draw the line with your family?

Your neighbors, would you fight to defend one of your neighbors? Would you assist them if they were attacked during a crisis? How far would you be willing to go to defend your neighbors? Would you run over someone attacking your neighbor with your car? Could you watch your neighbors being attacked and do nothing? Under what circumstances would you do nothing? When would you go to their aid?

The question just goes further out from there. Would you fight for your church group? Would you fight for the waitress at your favorite restaurant? Would you fight to defend your child's school? Would you fight to defend your city?
What would you fight for?

You can feel it when you hit someone, you can hear them when they scream out in pain and it is something you will remember. The use of force is not simply just something you do then go have a ham sandwich. Using force has lasting repercussions for everyone involved; be it physical, emotional or legal, everyone is affected.

Most of us are prewired to not hurt another person. Most of us are brought up to not harm others. Most of us have no desire to hurt or even slightly harm another person. Some people out there want to hurt others. They have no problem hurting you and some of them feel absolutely nothing when they do hurt another person. Then during a crisis people might do things they would not normally do. They might feel pressed into committing acts of violence they would never commit on an average day.

Understanding your personal limits on what you are willing to do is very important. Before you can even discuss using force you have to come to grips with what you would be willing to do. We can discuss the legal issues or how to apply force and that is all good BUT none of it matters if you do not realistically understand what using force in the real world means!

When faced with a situation you have to solve with force you should always try to use the less amount of force to gain control of the situation. This might mean just yelling for someone to stop. Maybe you just step between two people and make it obvious the situation could lead to violence if one or the other does not stop what they are doing. Maybe you threaten to call the police and the threat of what might happen is enough to stop the situation? We should always attempt to stop a situation by not even having to touch the other person! This ensures everyone goes home in one piece and without long term repercussions.

If a situation gets to the point where you have to physically touch another person be cautious of how you touch them, where you touch them and how hard you touch them. Maybe all you need to do is touch someone to gentle guide them away from the situation. You would not want to walk up to someone, punch them in the face and break their nose if you could simply guide them away by placing an open hand on their shoulder!

At the same time if you are in a situation where the other person is throwing punches at you or someone else, going up to them and gently placing a hand on their shoulder is probably not the right answer to the situation. Odds are they are just going to punch you in the head. You have to at the very less met the level of force the other person is using with equal force. At times it could be better to answer the force you are fighting with force a step up. A person pulls a knife, you pull out a broadsword! Ok a gun might be a better idea, just wanted to see if you were still paying attention!!!

Say you are confronted by a person who wants your emergency supplies. You tell them 'No' and attempt to close your front door. They stop the door from closing with their arm. You tell them to remove their hand and get off your property. They shove the door toward you, you of course shove back. They manage to shove the door open and now brandish a knife to threaten you. You yell for them to stay out and order your loved ones to retreat to the furthest room from the front door. This person enters your home threatening you with the knife and tells you they are going to hurt you if you do not surrender what meager supplies you have to keep your family alive. You draw your firearm out from under your shirt and order the person to leave your home. They lunge toward you, you step back and fire, hitting the person in the chest. They look at the wound, look at you, turn and run out of your home. From inside of your home you can see them run away from your home and fall on to the street outside.

You can see they are obviously hurt. You can clearly see their knife is lying just outside your door. You watch as a neighbor runs up to the injured person, lift them to their lap and begin to cry. You can see the person you shoot is limp in the neighbor’s arms. Putting your firearm away, you walk up to the two of them and visually check the assailant and neighbor to determine if they are a threat to you or your loved ones any more. The attacker is obviously not a threat to you as they are gasping for breath. The neighbor is a complete emotional wreak seeing their loved one shot. You might even at this point offer to render medical attention to the assailant? Why not, they are not a threat to you anymore? Remember think long term here.

Sure some of you out there might be saying you would never react to a situation in this manner. You would have started punching the other person as soon as they showed up at your door!!! Once they tried to force their way in you would have drawn your weapon and shot them dead in the doorway! Once you pulled the trigger you would have kept going until the magazine ran dry!

I call bullshit right now if those were your thoughts or answer to the situation! Most of us have never seen what happens to the human body when metal starts to pass through it. Most have never heard a weapon fired in a confined space. Most have never heard the sounds of someone dying. And if you think you are one of those macho, super tactical, spit fire and drink gasoline type of tough guys let me ask you; why did you empty your magazine into one guy? What if bad guy number 2, 3 and 4 were just outside the door? So again check that entire macho BS at the door and honestly think about this subject for a minute or two………………

Why would I help the person I just shot? Because you are a better person and sometimes people make mistakes! What if their family was starving and coming to your house was the act of a desperate person? Wouldn’t you do anything you could to feed your family? Do you have to help them? No, this was just an example of how the use of force scale is a sliding scale. At one end you are taking lives, at the other you are saving lives.

Can we post a listing of all the responses and ways to use force in an emergency situation? No there to many variables in any situation, the idea here is to get you thinking about things now, while life is safe and you have a clear head. Set your boundaries now and work through the ‘what if’s’ now while you are not under any pressure. Take the time to learn the law, ignorance of the law is not a defense in court and the laws are different in different areas. Again a good rule of thumb;

Use only that force necessary to gain control of the situation.

As Always,

Stay Safe

Bail Out Bag (BOB)

“Bail Out Bag, what in the world is that?” I can hear the question being asked as you read the title of the post, this is term most folks might have never heard of before. In a nut shell this is what you grab if you have to get out of your vehicle quickly and might not be able to immediately return to the vehicle. Ideally this bag would have inside of it items to support yourself for a short amount of time if you suddenly had to bail out of your vehicle.

For all of the ladies out there you have a giant head start on the men. Almost everything you would need in a BOB you carry in your purse. Well if you carry one of those big purses. Men this is stuff we might have in the car or truck but odds are it is spread out throughout the vehicle and there is no way for us to gather all of these items and bail out quickly. We want to be able to grab the bag and maybe one or two other items very quickly and leave the vehicle.

Bailing out of the truck or other vehicle is something I have had to do a few times. Most of these incidents were after car wrecks on the freeway. Think of what you would need if your car broke down in the middle of the road and you needed to get away from it with no ability to us any items or supplies you might have in the vehicle. Any bag you put together needs to be customized to you, your surroundings and give you flexibility to deal with fluid situations. The bag in this blog is customized to me and my daily situation. Does it cover every situation you could face? No and it is not designed or meant to do this. This bag gives me tools to work with when something happens and operates as my EVERYDAY BAG.

Just a plain bag, nothing which scream 'TACTICAL' or 'ZOMBIE HUNTER'. The idea is to just blend in when the need to arises which means having a bag you can go anywhere with without drawing to much attention. I live near the coast and the bag is a 'surfer' bag. Nothing which looks out of place in my area I spend most of my time. (By the way, I cannot surf to save my life!) Also from a distance the bag looks just like any other book bag and I try to keep it this way. This allows me to bring the bag with me everywhere I go and not attract unwanted attention. If I covered the bag with motivation patches or stickers I would stick out like a sore thumb. I also fly with this bag and only have to alter what the bag is carrying slightly to make it through security at the airport. Remember customize the bag to your environment, needs and the task at hand.

In one of the outside pockets I carry my wallet when it is not on my person. This way it is not sitting in the center console when I have to get out of the truck. Along with the wallet is another form of Identification and a few other items of I.D. I do not want pictures of on the internet, work stuff. Inside the ziplock is address and directions to the in-laws house and a few others items.

Next pocket holds some emergency medical stuff and a spare knife incase I do not have my normal EDC knife on me at the time. The knife in the photo used to be the my everyday knife.

The upper outside pocket, which is lined with fleece, holds my sunglasses. Also inside the pocket are a paracord bracelet and some extra money. A lighter also lives in the ziplock.

Several of the other outside pockets are empty but a GPS and a way to power my electronic devices live in two of the pockets.

A solar charging system (which I highly recommend) and a few extra items live in one inner pocket.

The main compartment holds items I use all the time and some which are kept there just for emergencies.Rain gear and gear to stay warm take up the most room. The weather out here rarely gets colder than what I handle with a jacket, gloves and a watch cap. Some of the other items are medicine tailored to me, rain pants, hat, back up flashlight, cordage and a Life Straw. My favorite nut mix and some dried fruit is hiding in the bag somewhere also. There are a few other items which come and go depending on what I have planned that day.

I live in an urban/suburban area and my bag reflexes this. There is no need for me to carry fishing gear, hunting gear or a complete armory. Short of the apocalypse there are stores, hotels and restaurants all along the routes I travel on a regular basis. Also I need to keep the bag light, to combine with and enhance my everyday carry items I keep on me. There are other versions or concepts of Bail Out Bags, each designed to the situation those folks are faced with.

As Always,

Stay Safe!!!!