Bugging Out - Ounces Equal Pounds, Pounds Equal PAIN!

Ounces = Pounds = PAIN!
This is a saying some of us might have heard before. Anyone who has spent some time living out of a backpack will know the truth behind this. Add in a long walk, couple of hills and the sun following you, you might even take this to the level of misery.

Before we move further along let's clarify the situation we are discussing here. We are not planning for "The End Of The World As We Know It" instead we are planning on having to leave our home to a place not affected by the situation.This means we do not have to pack the start of a new civilization on our backs!! The reason to leave can be anything from natural to man made. We just need to get out of the situation we are presently in.

Weight can be a surprising thing in the way it quickly will add up on you. Small items add up and everyday items are shockingly heavy if you have to move them any great distance. A good example of this is water. Something most of us use and carry around everyday without giving it much thought.

For this post let's say you and the immediate family need to change your position or "Bug Out". You want to take water of course, you give everyone four, one liter bottles to take with them for personal use. These they drop into their packs. Of course your trip might take two days and the daily recommended amount of water per person is one gallon........ you do some quick math...... 3.7 and some change makes one gallon, four liters of water per person covers one day with a little extra. Now you pass out another four liters of water, everyone is set for two days of travel and you are a genius!!

Of course you just added 16 pounds of weight to what your five year old is expected to carry. Each gallon of water weighs 8 pounds....... 4 one liter bottles of water weigh 8 pounds. Add into the pack clothing, food, shelter and everything else you want to take with you and the pounds sneak up quickly.

You might be able to haul this pack around....... me, not so much any more and my little ones are not going to be able to. The SMOKING HOT, SUPER INTELLIGENT, ALLURING AND DOWN RIGHT SEXY women who graces me with her presence in my life, well......... she ain't getting any younger, only better and I know she has never tried to live out of a backpack...... So when most of use think of bugging out we should think first of using a vehicle.

"Of course! Duh, we can carry everything we want in the car! You're an idiot and the problem is solved!"

Yeah you might have a solution there...... The weight of everything and everyone you are taking will suddenly go away..... Oh dang it, gravity still works on your car..... For those of us who commute or drive trucks or spend a lot of time on the road odds are we know how much gas it takes to get us where we want to go. Now add in the weight of the family and all their stuff. Your gas milage will decrease the more you are hauling around. Maybe you plan on hauling gas also? The gas has weight...

Alright, we load up the car, we head out and suddenly we find ourselves in gridlock. Everyone else had the same idea. Of course someone ahead of you did not plan correctly and their car is sitting in the middle of traffic out of gas and now you sit, burning the gas in your car at an idle. Maybe the road is blocked? Mother nature has decided you can not use the road or your car simply breaks down? You need to plan for worst case situations and what if's. You decide you will just take the bags you packed for everyone and get to walking!

Of course some of you might look more like this..........

I really would like to know how far he walked with all of that on him? If you have to go and you have another means of carry your stuff utilize it. Maybe the car is not an option? Having someone else carry your gear would be great!

Remember to make horse sounds as you skip along. Of course using a real horse might be a better option.

Take a moment and look how he has the gear spread out between the two horses. You can tell he has spread the weight out. Without even opening the bags you can bet money he has the items situated to allow him to get at things he would need most often first. More on packing later. The point here is to be able to improvise a means of moving you and your gear outside of what you might think of as 'normal'.

You gotta go, you pack the car and go! You get stuck, you start reshuffling gear to address the new reality of the situation.

Reality comes a knocking and does not go along with your plans. Otherwise known as Mr. Murphy showing up. You have to change plans and you can only use what is available to you.

Take a moment and look how these real life refugees are dealing with the situation. The man with the child seems to have the best chance of hauling his stuff. The rolling bag will work great on cement or asphalt, of course how well made the bag is will come into play. To his left, the couple with the child.... I hope they are not going far! The baby is going to get heavy and they do not appear to have enough to sustain themselves through the next few hours. To the man with the rolling bags right, notice the man with the yellow shirt and the two women with him? They have already appeared to have had to take a break. Notice the two bags sitting on the ground next to them?

Here is a different group of people who needed to change locations. Notice the repurposing of the bicycles by the man in the middle of the photo? Take a look at the children, they are not carrying anything. Kids get tired quickly, they are little, and tired kids will slow you down.

Take a look at how this man has improvised a way to keep moving. For those of use in the big cities shopping carts are everywhere! Ever notice how much stuff the homeless move around with a cart or two? Let's take a look at a few more photos of people who have been faced real life situations and what they did......

Did you notice they are not carrying a lot? They are not weighed down by 50, 60 or a 100 pounds of gear. Why? Because this is reality! These people are moving by foot where every pound counts. Their possessions are decided by necessity. The ladies in the center photo are dressed differently than the folks in the other photos, the things they are carrying seem to be driven by the environment they are moving through. Sure they might want to be carry tents, stoves and a case of MREs but reality tells them to bring blankets, warm clothes and you move faster carrying the little ones instead of more gear. The people in the bottom picture. Seems the ones old enough to be expected to carry something are carrying a small back pack. Why? Because the reality of the situation dictate they can not carry more on the small boats they are using to change positions.

We could bet some of these people started out with cars, maybe riding a train or a bus. Somewhere along the line they had to change their plans and put one foot in front of the other...........

Knowing how to pack a bag is very important. Packing properly makes the weight ride right and cuts down on the pain the pounds bring. Carrying extra clothes in properly packed bag beats the hell out of carrying extra clothes in a plastic bag! Taking a properly packed bag and putting it in a shopping cart on on a horse's back makes it even easier to carry!

This cart can be useful when you start to pack. Gives you an idea of how much weight you should stuff into the pack. But this cart is only useful if you let reality come into the equation. Looking at the chart you see your body weight is somewhere in the middle, let's say 175. Now you have to be honest, is the 175 pounds you carry around everyday useful weight or just more weight you have to carry around? Are you 175 pounds of 20 year old muscle or are you 175 pounds of 50 year old couch potato? Remember we have to tailor our plans to the reality we live in.

You may think you can step out of the house and hike fifty miles to your brother's house geared up like this and maybe you can. Can the wife? Can the grand kids who were visiting you? What happens if you have to cross a border or check point?

In reality this might be the better way to travel. Light, faster and with less pain per pound!

Your planning will be situational drivin. You can do a few things to help you prepare for having to relocate. Pack a bag and take a nature hike. Pack enough for a picnic, gather up the family and walk a mile or two to a place to have a picnic. Let a reality come into your prior planning. If the time comes you have to go, the roads are out and you have to walk is not the time to realize you packed to much and to high expectations of yourself. Remember improvise, adapt and be ready to dump what you do not NEED to make it to your destination!!!!

As Always,

Stay Safe.

Corsair Trainers

Brussels Bombing

Woke up this morning to the news of a terrorist attack in Brussels...... As I watched the news coverage there were some things I noticed. Situations which seem to repeat themselves every time there is news coverage of an incident. We won't be discussing the reasons for the incident. They are irrelevant to what we are talking about.

Explosions go off, chaos consumes the moment and afterwards you realize you are still alive! What comes next? Your prior planning.............

We talk about having situational awareness, looking for the exits when you enter an area is part of this. Now is the time you can put this to use. Maybe you can lead others to the exit? Maybe everyone is stampeding toward the obvious exit and you can go out a different way? For the photo above, taken in the subway system after today's attack, knowing where the exit is important. If this is your daily commute odds are you know which exit is closer. Is it faster to walk toward the station you just left or head down the tracks to the next one?

Here is also where your Every Day Carry comes into use. Do you carry a flashlight? A lighter? These things might seem like a nuisance until the day you NEED them......... During almost any emergency there is going to be a time period you are on your own. How long this goes on depends on the situation. Your prior planning is all you will have to rely on during this time frame......

Prior planning also includes prior skills building. Skills building includes thinking through "what if's". You're in the situation the lady in the above photo is caught in..... What do you do? What if that was you with your child? Would you seek a position of cover? Would you try to exit the area? Would your next priority be to check yourself and child for injuries? What if this was you or your loved ones? Would they or you have prepared to have options in this case? Thinking through situations gives you starting point, a mental checklist, to start at when things go bad. You already have given yourself a framework from which to operate from and this decreases your time to reaction.

Everyone reading this needs to learn basic first aid!!!! No exceptions and no excuses!!! Everyone in your family should understand basic first aid and I challenge each of you to take a class THIS MONTH! Not next month or maybe when you have more time. Set the goal, within the next thirty days you will take a first aid class. Having this skill allows you to take care of yourself during those moments you are on your own. If you can help yourself medical responders can focus on those who are more injured. If you can tend to yourself and become mobile you can exit the area.

This fundamental knowledge of first aid also allows you to help others if the situation allows it. If the situation is; you are uninjured, there is no immediate threat to your safety, you can put this knowledge to work and help others to survive.

Multiple people with basic first aid skills can greatly increase the number of injured people who survive their injuries. Simply knowing how to secure a tourniquet or apply direct pressure to a wound could be the difference between someone dying or living to see their loved ones again. You can help others and yourself make it home with some fundamental knowledge!

Having skills and supplies could make the difference. If you carry a bag every day some simple medical supplies can be tossed in. These items and skill set could save your life during those moments you are on your own during an emergency.

Time and again during these incidents you can see people without any idea what to do. People waiting for others to do things they themselves could or should be able to do. People being overwhelmed by the situation. People who are becoming part of the problem instead of helping. People becoming victims of the situation, be it from lack of physical skills, mental skills or having never gone through 'what if's'. Bad things happen, the question is what have you done prior to and during the event to help you make it through the bad day. What can you do to help others make it through the bad day?

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Planning - #4.2 Special Needs Sanitation

Going back down the rabbit hole for awhile. We need to spend a bit more time on the overlooked subject of sanitation. Why? Because poor sanitation KILLS people, makes them unable to help themselves or others and can be avoided even during an emergency.

This subjects affects all of us during a time of crisis. No matter the crisis you might face if you have people you are caring for or are a person with special needs this affects you. As you read this you should realize everyone is affected by the special needs of people. If you are not, well you need to get some more people into your life........

If one of your family members is reliant on medical aids to make it through another day this ought to strike close to the heart. Should one of your family members need items such as catheters or colostomy bags to survive on a daily basis what are you going to do when the doctors office is closed or it has been washed away with the pharmacy?

Do you have extra? Remember we are not trying to store enough for a year or even a month at this point. Do you have enough of these items you or the person who needs these can take a bus ride for two or three days out of the effected area? Do you have all of the supplies they or you need to properly take care of themselves during the emergency? The last thing we want to deal with is surviving an emergency or to have complications afterward due to the lack of proper supplies for our special needs. 

Are these supplies portable? Can you or your loved one travel with these supplies? Do they have enough to simply stay home during the issue? Odds are if you ask your doctor and be honest with them, let them know you are trying to put together an emergency kit, they will try to work with you to secure extra supplies. 

  
Babies fall into this special needs group also. Nothing is worst as a parent than not being to care for your children. During an emergency you do not want to be searching for diapers for your baby! You want a happy baby, a happy baby with a dry butt takes stress away from you during an emergency and allows you to focus on other issues. 

Having a few extra packages of diapers around the house is always a good idea!!! Heck ask folks for diapers as a birthday gift, the little one is not going to remember grandma gave them diapers for their first birthday!!!

Another option or alternative to have around the house is cloth diapers. Yes they are harder to use! Yes they need to be washed out! Yes you have to wash them out! Yes you have to get a bit more personal with the stuff BUT having a few in the closet could be a god send if you find yourself in an emergency. Having something to use could allow you to stay home instead of going out into a dangerous situation because you need to get supplies. (hint: you have to learn how to fold them properly!!)

Ladies, no laughing at this next part! Fellas, pull up a chair and let's have a conversation. The ladies in your life, mom, wife, daughters all fall into this special needs category..... Nobody cares if you have three months of MREs, the best bear trap and enough guns along with ammo to hold off a battalion of Chinese. If you do not have tampons and sanitary napkins in your supplies you are an idiot!!!

Why are you an idiot? Because you have not looked seriously at your planning and tried to cover as many situations as you could with what you have. Ladies...... if you have allowed your fella to store supplies and make plans without you insisting he address this subject you also are an idiot!!

If you're at a stage in life where these are not an issue for you still should have a few around. Even if you are single guy planning to run to the hills you should have a few of these around. WHY? Because they make great items to barter with during an emergency or maybe even allow you to show some charity to your fellow man.

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Looking at these subjects now and doing what you can with what you got now. Can go along ways to helping you or a loved one later. The 'you then' will like the 'you now' a whole lot more when a situation comes up and there is an answer or at least something to work with!!

As Always,

Stay Safe

Recommended - Dave Ramsey

Being prepared for emergencies can be costly. Which makes money an item we need to discuss. If you have money it is easier to deal with situations. Car breaks down, get it fixed. Lose your job, live off of your savings until you find a new one. Money takes some of the worry out of life. I've used some of these guys ideas and have seen them work for others. If you need to get your money squared away I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's idea of how to do it.

Having listened to his radio show for awhile I really like the way the way the guy explains things in words everyone can understand. He does not try to "wow" the audience with his use of big words and seems to really try and help folks when they call in. He will call people out on their BS when they call in to the show and try to say they can't get a handle on things. I also have a couple of his books and the ideas of his I have put into use work!!! No I do not do everything he says........

Here's a link to his website
http://www.daveramsey.com/store/index.ep
I also found his books at Barnes and Noble if you prefer to shop in a store.

Having your finances in order is a big step in helping yourself to prepare for a bad day. having money also helps with the day to day of living!!! You do not think of having to choose between paying the rent and buying a needed jacket for the little one once you have things in order. You can do both!

 When we are talking about food storage or other items you should build up you can go from a box of top ramen noodles to filling a pantry. 

Heck if you really get your act together you might be able to do things you never thought possible. Maybe you can decrease the amount and types of emergencies you need to think about all together? You might be able to go from living in some really bad area, where you have to think of dealing with all of the crime, lack of opportunities, etc etc etc. 

To living somewhere your kids can play outside, you rarely hear a siren and you wondering if your plants are getting enough water.......................

Or you can reach whatever your perfect living condition could be. Seems as if a lot of this ability starts with making a budget, living within your means and planning for the future instead of living for today. 

If you have time, take a look at some of Dave Ramsey's stuff. Maybe an idea or two could help you out and better your position. Something we all should be trying to do everyday..........

As Always,

Stay Safe.

Habits and Addictions - during a bad day....

The other day, while surfing the net, there was an article discussion the impact of addictions on people during a bad day. The article focused on drug addictions and the evils of smoking. From the writer's perspective these seemed to be the only two issue someone could have which would affect them negatively during an emergency. There was an emphasis placed on how people who smoke are doomed in emergencies, even more so than say a heroin addict from the way the article was written......... (here is my disclaimer; I smoke)  

I was at work when I read the article and started looking around at the people. Got my mind thinking about how the people around me might respond or how what they do now might effect their decisions during an emergency. Smoking seemed to be the least of the issues I could see around me. 

During an emergency people's habits, personalities have a way of being amplified. In some cases they might just shut down but for the most part however they interact with the world on a regular day is amplified. People tend to stick to what they know. This is especially true if the situation has a low level of law enforcement involvement. When people think they can get away with something the "real them" tends to come out. 

The easiest example of this is during civil disturbance situations. People will claim they are "standing up to the man" or taking part in some other noble cause. As soon as a storefront window is broken they seem to lose focus on the original cause they were there for. 

Being overtaken by greed or being in envy of what others have could cause you to be in a position where you are injured trying to steal or maybe even assaulted by other people. Not to mention you run the risk of having the police show up to your door after order has been restored and the video has been reviewed! 

We are using the seven deadly sins here just a framework to hang your thoughts on. You personally might have a different list of concepts you work with in your life, cool. from this list the worst of these concepts, for us here, seems to be SLOTH.....

    

Not doing anything. Not putting a little something away. Not taking the time to learn something. Not bothering to talk to your family about what to do. Seems this one might a big cause of some of the others. If you do not plan and your neighbor did......... 

We all have something we do which might not be the best idea for us in the long or short term. Some of us gamble every weekend. Some of us put things off till later. Some of us are envious of others. Some of us eat to much. Some of us get to little exercise. None of us go through life without having some bad habit....... If you do go through life without committing a sin...... lying is a sin!!!!! 

Broaden your thoughts when you are planning or thinking about emergencies. Sure your Uncle Fred might smoke a pack a day but he has skills, tools and supplies. You drink a bottle of wine a night, drop two sleeping pills and can barely get the garbage out on garbage day. Who is going to be a liability to who? 

Do what you can now to put yourself and your family in a position where you do not have to suffer from any of these issues. Understand what a need and a want is. Have your families needs covered. If you or a family member have a bad habit or addiction see what you can do to change the issue. Do not be so narrow minded as to think addictions and habits which will affect you are limited to smoking, drinking or drugs. Greed, envy and lust will most likely be an issue before Uncle Fred starts freaking out because he doesn't have a smoke! Plus Uncle Fred probably has a pack or two stashed somewhere.................

As Always,

Stay Safe.

Go or stay?

No matter the emergency you really only have these two choices. The internet is full of theories of when you should do each if the end of the world is at hand. Everyday people face situations where they have to make this decision. The same thought process applies to dealing with a fire in the kitchen, mugger in a dark alley, flat tire or any other situation. In our everyday life we do not have to settle on one answer so why would we force ourselves to during any emergency?

You have two choices. Deal with the situation where you are at or move to a position which gives you an advantage. Major storm coming your way? You either ride it out or move away from it. Flat tire on the road? You either stay and deal with it or move to a better position. Gunman shooting at you? You either deal with it where you are or move to a better position. Power out at the house? You either stay or go to somewhere with power. We make these decisions all the time with little thought. We know what we need to do for a given situation.

Planning for emergencies is no different. Somehow if you read the multitude of postings on the internet or look through all the books on Amazon there seems to be two completely different strategies and you seemed to have to choose one or the other. Why? The train of thought from these sources and others seems to be the situations you are preparing for are all going to be such you have to pick one option or the other. Of course there could be situations when you can clearly see one of the options is the best and you go for the best option. What if the option you HAVE to take is not the option you planned for?

You are cooking, your phone rings, you are distracted and the pan has a grease fire growing in it the next time you look back at it. Choosing the "Go" option of planning you never used an of your resources to put any "Stay" options in the home. No thought or money was put into a fire extinguisher but money was put into the biggest pack you could find....... You are driving late at night, your tired, your phone rings, you are distracted and do not notice the road turns and the next thing you know you went off the road, flipped your car. Of course your phone is lost, you have high heels on, storms had been reported coming and you can see the nearest town has to be five miles away. You always figured you would just "Stay" if something happened. You have the best hydroponic set up in your greenhouse but never put together a bag for the car. (side note: unless your in certain states you should only use hydroponics to grow vegetables! just seeing who is paying attention)

When we start this adventure in planning for emergencies we need to focus on giving ourselves options. Now you might need to focus on something right off the top. Is your top concern having to walk home at some point? Do you need to install a shelter for tornados? We all have different "first things" we want to address. If you're first thing is a doomsday compound, complete with a Mad Max caravan prepositioned, you might want to scale this down a bit. What we do not want to do is prescribe to only one way of responding to situations.

After you prepare for the first thing then move to cover as many things as you can. Always trying to give you and your family as many options as possible. The pails you bought to store food in your garage. Are they to heavy for other members of your family or you to move if the plan changed from staying home to getting out of dodge? Here is a good example of the idea we are talking about.

You purchased several prepackaged five gallon pails stuffed full of emergency food. You have focused on 'staying' if faced with a situation. Weather services has reported the biggest storm in history is going to rip right through your neighborhood. Authorities have ordered the evacuation of the area. Do you just leave all the food there? Do you travel without any food, having to rely on the charity of others? Do you arrive at a friend or family members home empty handed and expect them to meet all your needs? Maybe you did stay? Now your home is unlivable and you can not stay there. You and your family try to take the food buckets with you but quickly find out they are heavy and not really made to be carried long distances.

Making a purchase like these food buckets can be a good idea. (see other postings on buying this kind of stuff) You have food on hand if you need it and you can transport the food easily in a vehicle. You might have to repackage some of the food if you or noone else in your family can lift them. You might be a professional body builder and can easily move the buckets around, can your ninety pound, super model wife? How about your children who are members of MENSA and aspiring actors? This is where we keep saying we have to tailor our plans to our situation and there are no one size fits all answers to planning.

Do you have a backpack you can dump those buckets into to make the food more portable? (no stuffing the buckets into a pack is not a good idea. to much unused space in the bag if you do) If you are going to put you, your supermodel husband, two-point-three kids and the dogs into the Mini Cooper do you have some way of strapping the buckets on to the roof?

typical husband of readers of this blog!

Simultaneous planning for both options is feasible. We just have to put a little forethought into what we are doing. When you store the food in the house for 'stay' do you use containers to hold the food which could be moved to the truck if the plan changed to 'go'? Those extra cans of food you pick up on sale and stash away for an emergency, when kept in a plastic bin are now ready for both situations. A cheap surplus army bag (seabag) you use to keep extra blankets in can quickly be repurposed to hold all those MREs you have stashed in the garage. Makes it a lot easier to carry them because those boxes they come in are not made to be carried very far. They're great for throwing in the car but really suck if you have hand carry them!

Be realistic when you are planning. I had a conversation with a fella the other day about buying these prepackaged buckets. As we talked he told me his plan if he and the wife had to leave was to carry a couple of these buckets and a backpack a piece. He figured if they had to "hoof it" this system would work. Knowing the situation a little, I tried to gently point out he was not physically ready to carry the amount of weight he thought he could in the way he was planning. I also know from previous conversations his wife is supposed to be in no physical condition, due to medical issues, to carry just about anything. He just figured purchasing some prepackaged, dehydrated buckets of food, and a couple of backpacks would cover his needs. If the Big One came and the two of them had to walk away from their home he figured they were set.

This is a great example of the one size fits all planning I see people do! He looked for what was to him the easiest answer. Of course some company had a product they claimed would fit his needs and he was ready to go with what they offered. Planning for an emergency done, now he could watch the Lakers game. Short version of the conversation and focusing on this post.

We discussed how far he thought in a worst case scenario they would have to walk. We discussed and went through the contents of the bags and buckets he wanted to buy. We agreed purchasing the stuff was a good starting point and from there the items could be modified. The best part to me was when I think I was able to have him understand the need to purchase a basket, wagon or some other means to haul what he had bought. Without having to just come right out and say "Dude, when was the last time you walked that far carrying that much? Your mind might say you can do it but trust me you are no where in the shape you think you are!" I am starting to digress from the point here.

Why pick one option when you do not have to? A little prior planning can give you multiple options when emergencies arise. We should try to build our planning on a firm base of multiple options and having the ability to be flexible in our response to situations. We may not be able to plan for everything, we can plan to give ourselves the ability to respond to anything!!

As Always,

Stay Safe